Salamander: A Second Life
"Salamander - A Second Life" oil on canvas by Pamela Sukhum
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- “Salamander – A Second Life” oil on canvas by Pamela Sukhum
Do you ever feel like you are leaving one life behind and starting a new one?
I have been feeling this way for the past several months.
I found the salamander pictured to the side in Northern Minnesota this past fall season. I hadn’t held one of these since I was a kid. It was perfect timing to encounter him at this time for what he represented.
Like frogs, salamanders are amphibians, which in Latin means “double life.” Salamanders are born in water, and in their “second life” live on land. Though Salamander is primarily a creature of water, in magical traditions it relates to the element of fire, an agent of transformation.
When I feel the uncertainty and grit of making a new life for myself, I am helped by this creature — if he can make it into a second life, so can I.
MY SECRET BELOVED
sent me a secret message
“give me your soul
give me your life
wander like a drifter
go on a journey
walk into this fire with grace
be like a salamander
come into our source of flame
fire transmutes to a rose garden
don’t you know that my thorn
is better than the queen of roses
don’t you know my heresy
is the essence of spirituality
then surrender your spirit
surrender your life”
oh God i know
a garden is better than a cage
i know a palace
is better than a ruin
but i’m that owl in this world
who loves to live in the ruins of love
i may be that poor wandering soul
but watch all the aspiration and light
watch the glow of God
reflecting from my face
-Hafiz
