Wayback Wednesday - Dragonfly posing in our yard, July 18th, 2017

I had high hopes of putting together a Witchy Wednesday post for today, especially after complaining recently that NaBloPoMo/HiveBloPoMo is almost over and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I planned to post! However, after unexpectedly being away from my keyboard for the better part of the day yesterday, and having many interruptions today, I found myself with only a few hours to go before my posting deadline, and decided instead of a revamped Beltane post, I’d do a Wayback Wednesday photo post instead, featuring a dragonfly posing in our yard back on July 18th, 2017.

But to add a little witchy flavor to it, I figured I’d share part of the magical symbolism of when a dragonfly crosses your path, from a book that’s been on my bookshelf for the better part of three decades, Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small by Ted Andrews

If a dragonfly has shown up in your life, you may need some fresh air in regard to something emotional. You may need to gain a new perspective or make a change. It may even indicate that you are neglecting your emotions. Are you being too rational about everything? Are you not keeping the color of emotions alive?

Dragonflies are very territorial. They will lay their eggs within their territory near the water. The egg eventually develops into the nymph stage of metamorphosis in this insect, and remains as a nymph for almost two years before it transforms into an adult dragonfly or damselfly. This can reflect a number of possibilities for those with this totem. It can indicate that an approximate two-year period of change is about to reach its culmination. It may reflect that you are coming into a two-year period of transformation. It may even reflect a need to institute changes that may culminate in the colorful transformations you desire within a two-year period. Only by examining your life and activities will you begin to understand its specific role

Just as light can bend and shift and be adapted in a variety of ways, so can the archetypal forces associated with the dragonfly. It is one of the most adaptable of insects. It is why it has been able to survive for so long. Dragonflies have two pairs of wings, but if need be, they can fly with one. Their eyes are kept clean with special combs on their legs and by washing the eyes with water drops collected in the mouth…

The dragonfly and damselfly reflect and work with the sun and light. The light changes throughout the day. The dragonfly and damselfly undergo their own transformations. If they have shown up, look for change to occur. Are you resisting change when you shouldn’t? Dragonflies remind us that we are light and can reflect the light in powerful ways if we choose to do so. “Let there be light” is the divine prompting to use the creative imagination as a force within your life. This is part of what dragonflies and damselflies teach us.

Life is never quite the way it appears, but it is always filled with light and color. Dragonfly can help you to see through your illusions and thus allow your own light to shine forth. Dragonfly brings the brightness of transformation and the wonder of colorful new vision.

Now to be fair, after I got this post set up and went through to edit the photos, I realized this might actually be a couple different dragonflies who spent some time perching in various places in our yard, but ~~I was too lazy to change everything from “dragonfly” to “dragonflies”~~ it got too late to make the changes. And it could be the same fella, as I remember a number of times stalking the same guy across the yard over the course of an hour or so, while he or she kindly obliged to pose for me. I’ve also shared other shots from this day in various posts over the past five or six years (and put some on greeting cards and pillows), but even after sharing these 7 photos, I still have about a dozen more left in that particular folder, as well as many others from other times I chased dragonflies through our yard with my camera.

In any case, I do know for sure these were all taken with my my Nikon affixed to my tripod), in my Durham New Hampshire yard, then resized & cleaned up a bit via PicMonkey.