Seer Report 05: The River
This one I forgot to type up last year.
Messages from surrounding spirits are relatively common in my dreams. This case began as recurring dreams about river floods and failing levees from the spirit of the Mississippi. It became frustrating, and mildly traumatizing, to watch the different disastrous events on repeat in my sleep. The frequency of the nightmares increased until I had it. Out loud, I announced that if the horrific weather omens continued, I would begin ignoring my dreams for the sake of my well-being. The very next day, a fellow seer and witch gave me a call. She had a dream where she was with me in my living room, interpreting a tarot reading and then watching us both live through another one of the flood omens I had been getting from the river. I told her about my problems with the dreams and their relevance to her dream reading. Before she suggested anything about it, I hadn’t thought to talk directly to the river and ask what I could do. I didn’t think there was any kind of thing that I could do. But, Mississippi seemed to think otherwise.
So I spoke with the river and she clarified her messages to me. The levees could not hold her, and she is a powerful force. Her neglect would inevitably mean lots of death, and she didn’t seem to want that for us. I took a water map of the United States and followed the river up to all the areas that fed her runoff. Every single one of those areas had been getting heavier and heavier rain. The river by me was already reaching the tops of the levees. After divining into potential efforts, it became apparent I would not be able to pull off what I wanted at a distance. So I targeted the largest single source of water flow into the Mississippi that I could travel to: the Arkansas River. It was interesting convincing my partner he had to drive me to Arkansas to keep us all from drowning. If I could speak with the river there, I could coax it to draw flood waters West to dry regions instead of East where we were already full up.
As soon as we entered the state of Arkansas, it started pouring. I felt the waters rise up to greet me, as though my arrival was anticipated. The rain continued, flooding streets and almost getting us stranded. Little Rock must have been the right choice of place to meet the Arkansas River. The spirit in all of the land there remembers it’s ways with the native people, and acknowledged my trip as a kind of custom. The rain finally stopped the next morning so I could walk from my bridge I could reach the water by. Little tides drew up toward my feet while I climbed down piles of imported rocks and shells. I reached my hand down into the rising water as a greeting. The conversation was brief. I gave the river respects, and gifts I thought she might like from me. She took what information I could give her (showing directions to a river is a little different than to a person). Although her personality differed from that of the Mississippi, she agreed to direct what she could to help keep my home from being destroyed.
In the following floods across the North East that year, I received messages from friends confirming the water’s intentions to move Westward, hopefully to be carried away from Louisiana by the Arkansas River. The levees won’t hold forever, and the people here have worked against the ways of nature for so long that we are working against ourselves. But, the spirits have not given up on us. They still seek us out that they may help us avoid ruin. We are still here.