The Story of the Seahorse Drawing

When you ask for learning and deeper insights, your wish may be granted in unexpected ways. Last year I began to paint and draw again. Out of the blue. I had loved painting and drawing as a child, I had even specialized in arts for a short while in high school, until I asked for permission to change departments and started studying the jazz guitar. I did not know, why I was called to painting again, but I kept painting nonetheless and whenever I see a spirit animal in front of my mind’s eye now, I paint it. Why I paint a certain guide, is usually answered a short while after I have finished the painting. 
 
When I am working in Vienna, I am being called to draw and paint spirit guides quite often now. During one of my visits to Vienna last year I was called to draw a very specific animal spirit. On the first day, when I was sitting in a café, I felt a seahorse spirit in my energy field. I painted it, but did not think of it again for a while. 

A few days later, I got on the subway and there were no empty seats except three around a man whose energy screamed “Go away!” Me being me, I sat down opposite of him. I saw the seahorse again and was faced with a decision. Speak and be myself, risk to be hurt or keep my mouth shut and never open it again. 
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Seahorse knows that it is vulnerable, but it knows its vulnerabilities, acknowledges them and teaches us that recognizing our vulnerabilities is a way to empower and protect us and others. 

​He was completely startled and surprised by the fact, that someone would talk to him instead of running away. The energy he had been in had felt like anger at first, but in truth it was fear of getting hurt. At first, he did not want to look at the drawing, but then he did and fell in love with it. He told me his story. He was an artist, fighting depression. He was fighting to get back to living his life again.

​When we were about to say our goodbyes, he told me that he was embarrassed, because he had not been able to give me anything in return. But he had. A smile. His whole energy changed after I had told him that. He added, that he was not used to having good things happen to him in his life. I simply said, that something good had just happened. Just like that, no strings attached. Then we parted ways. 

​I asked myself, why I had seen a seahorse and why I had been called to give him seahorse medicine in form of a drawing and the answer came a while later. 

"White Seahorse" being drawn in a café in Vienna.

"White Seahorse", white pastels, Kristin Raphaela Otti (2023)

Life in itself is a teacher and mentor, when you take the time to anchor yourself for a while and try not to rush through.

 
Seahorse medicine is incredibly strong. Seahorses have three hearts beating simultaneously, so if one heart gets tired, the others keep the seahorse strong until it is fully recovered. ​They show us, that we have many resources within us and that when the heart that has been wounded in the past is tired, the one being in the here and now and the one dreaming our highest good into being, our future, will be able to keep us whole until the wounded one is mended.  

​Seahorses are poor swimmers, yet they are able to rest even in the roughest of seas with their tails wound around a stationary object. They swim along their path, one stroke after the other, resting and securing themselves when needed and continue on their path, when they have regained their balance, showing us how to navigate the stormiest of emotions and situations.
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Their eyes move independently, they can see what lies behind them in the past, their present state and even glimpse into the future and see what lies in front of them at the same time. All while being able to anchor themselves to any object, while being completely at peace within themselves, finding their balance again if needed. 
 
Seahorse knows that it is vulnerable, but it knows its vulnerabilities, acknowledges them and teaches us that recognizing our vulnerabilities is a way to empower and protect us and others. Instead of lamenting over the fact, that it is a poor swimmer and thus not able to speed along its path, it uses the time needed to anchor itself to reflect and rebalance, thus gaining insights and wisdom, learning. 
 
Meeting the artist on the subway was a gift in many ways. I was granted the gift of facing my own fears and my own vulnerability again. Life in itself is a teacher and mentor, when you take the time to anchor yourself for a while and try not to rush through.
 
It takes courage to speak to a complete stranger, see him or her for who he or she truly is. We tend to rush through our days, not looking left or right. To be seen and recognized is healing.

​Smile. In my eyes, a smile from the heart is the most precious gift of them all.