For Kirin Out Loud

                             

It started a few days ago, though I'm not sure how it exactly began. Being endlessly fascinated by words and puns, I suddenly found myself pondering what a Shroud of Kirin (instead of the famous Shroud of Turin) would look like. I mentally wrapped my hypothetical Kirin, a very dragon-like Japanese unicorn, with a death shroud in various ways, contemplating different positions for my beast and how its image would impress itself upon the white cloth.

To aid me in my research, I found some images online from which to draw, in order to familiarize myself with the basics of the Kirin form. One particular drawing of a roaring, gaping-jawed head would not release me from its hypnotic gaze, and that evening when I attended a meditation group, each time I closed my eyes I saw the liquid form of the Kirin undulating before me, it's fearsome face close to my own. Then, in half-remembered dream-like flashes, it was joined by companions who swooped and twisted and swirled gracefully about each other as if in an underwater ballet, their manes and whiskers flowing about them like muppet hair. 

And that wasn't the end of it. The next day I had to get a new phone, and as I was talking to the store worker, I noticed something...

"Is that a Kirin tattoo on your arm?"

"Yes it is! I'm surprised you knew that. Most people don't"

...Yeah. When a Power Animal wants to be noticed, they know how to get my attention.

So I read a little about them, finding out the basics, but feeling I needed to know more, particularly because I had decided to feature Kirin in my weekly "Totem Tuesday" post on my Perching Wolf Studios page on Facebook, I realized I needed to talk to Kirin in person. So I journeyed. 

The rattle had hardly commenced its rhythmic beat, with which my brain had just barely begun to shift into entrainment, when suddenly a huge Kirin face loomed, almost nose to nose with me. I was startled at the size of the head as well as its abrupt appearance before me, and simultaneously I felt engulfed in that sense of awe which accompanies being in the presence of royalty. 

...No. Not royalty. The presence of a god. 

I bowed before him (I think I called him "Your Excellency") and said what an honor it was to stand before him. He replied by telling me I need not bow and that he was here for me, at which he closed his eyes and lowered his great head over an extended cloven hoof. As I watched this display of humility, I just could not get over his size. I guessed he would be a relatively large animal, having read comparisons to deer or oxen, but he was HUGE. He reminded me of the Luck Dragon from the movie,  Neverending Story. He also reminded me very much of the Chinese Dragon dance costumes I'd seen, in size, appearance, and in the way he moved.

He rose upright again, towering over me, and though he stood in one place, he seemed to be in constant motion. His massive head bobbed and swayed back and forth, and looking at his body was like watching a single point in a river with its surface riding the tireless rise and fall of its waves. Perhaps it was the distortion of the air from the heat of his body. Is that why they are often depicted surrounded by flames? His energy was much more dynamic than the stable, earthy energy of Amaranth, my Western Unicorn spirit guide. 

Finally, my sense of awe having receded just enough for me to form cohesive thoughts again, I asked him what his medicine was. Why was he here? 

"As I said, I am here for you. I am the guardian of thresholds, appearing when one has crossed a particular initiatory point and stepped into authority. I close the door behind you to the old paths you needn't experience again. I am the harbinger of the arrival of a new dawn, ripe with endless possibilities."

I knew from my reading that Kirins only ever really appeared at the birth or establishment of a wise sage or a benevolent ruler. I don't know that I'm either of those things, but apparently I had leveled up. This made me wonder -- if he were here for me, now that his message had been delivered would he be off to Kirin-land, or was he going to be around for awhile?

"I'm here to see you through the establishment of this new chapter. I will be your guardian and protector."

"Cool! So you'll be here a while. I should probably know you're name then."

"Zobastenay."

"...How bout I call you Zoe?"