In this excerpt from Sea of Miracles, I reflect on the quiet but unmistakable ways the angels speak. Their signs arrive not only through feelings and synchronicities, but through the natural world—through animals, birds, feathers, and dreams. This chapter offers a glimpse into that pattern language, that shared symbolic grammar between soul and world. May it open your heart to the possibility that guidance is already flowing toward you.
This post is part of my book, Sea of Miracles: An Invitation from the Angels. In this series, I’m revisiting the book—reflecting on it, fifteen years later—with fresh eyes and deeper understanding. You’ll find all the chapters and reflections gathered here.
Patterns of Guidance Ask the angels,
Please send me clear signs that illuminate my personal symbols. Help me to see and to understand them.
There is great potential in the signs the angels send. But only if we are open to receive them: we can receive signs with a detached, “well, isn’t that something?” or we can allow them to penetrate us, to spark us, to make us think, and to open our hearts.
Signs can remind us that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves — something that is calling us back to our own true nature as spiritual and physical beings, divinely woven into the web of creation. Even now, as I write these words, a bird swoops, back and forth, outside my window, confirming — again — my connection to all that is.
This section will help you to recognize the many kinds of signs the angels send and to trust the signs you receive.
The angels showed me:
We often send messages through the animals, birds and insects of your world. Any creature can be a Divine messenger.
Chapter Twelve: Animal Guidance
Animals are included as symbolic messengers in the sacred texts (and daily lives) of many ancient cultures including the Celts, Native Americans, Middle Eastern and Asian people. Lions, lambs, eagles, doves (and other animals) are referenced repeatedly in the Old Testament, New Testament, the Koran — even the Chinese Horoscope.
When animals appear in a dream or waking experience, draw upon the cumulative wisdom of these traditions to interpret its meaning. Here are some examples:
The animal’s name: We might simply look at the name of the animal. For example, a deer may represent a “dear one.” A bee could be a message to “Just Be.”
The animal’s qualities: We may look to an animal sign for its qualities, in which case the appearance of a dream deer might represent shyness, gentleness or trust. A snake might be a symbol of transformation. A wolf might represent an invitation to explore our wildness.
The animal’s symbolic meaning: We may tap into the collective pool of imagery with a quick search of the internet. There, we’ll find references to deer in myth, fairy tale and film. As we read through the references that come up, we feel for resonance, for meaningful connections.
The animal’s role in a meaningful story: When I had several dreams of deer and hearts, I learned, from the internet, that deer were often referred to as ‘harts’ and that in the mythology of many cultures the deer is considered a messenger or representative of the divine. Of course, dreaming of deer and hearts could also bear the simpler message: “dear hearts.”
The animal’s personal association to you: A deer may indicate a “dear” one. A butterfly may be a sign indicating heightened intuition, a visitation from a lost loved one or a message telling you: focus, right now!
Your intuitive knowing: If you receive a sign from the animal kingdom, trust your intuition. What thoughts flashed through your mind when the sign arrived? These flashes of insight are guidance.
Animal guidance isn’t just symbolic; it can be practical — even life-saving!
Some animals truly are angels on Earth. I’ve read countless stories of people being led to safety or to the aid of another person by animal guides. A dog may lead us back onto a forest trail; a cat may scratch at the door, warning of smoke.
Any animal can help us — and I’ve heard stories about rabbits, deer, egrets, foxes, wolves, even bears, serving, in one way or another, as spiritual guides for people.
Winged Messengers
As my sensitivity to guidance increased, I experienced many encounters with winged messengers: the hummingbird that hung in front of my face in the garden one morning, staring into the center of my forehead in front of my astonished husband; the birds that swooped in front of the car as a warning to slow down.
There were also the feathers...
Ever since I was a young girl, my mother had collected feathers — bluebird feathers in the backyard, stiff speckled feathers on the beach. So many that she’d started working them into the collages and paintings she made.
When I started to work with the angels, I found feathers in the most remarkable places — in public bathrooms, on the floors of the cafés where I write, inexplicably clinging to my clothing, on the passenger seat of my car.
One day, I went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and returned to find a large, stiff white feather on my keyboard. If my husband or one of the children had been home, I could have shrugged it off as a sweet gesture from them. But I was alone in the house, working on an angel story.
The people I work with find feathers, too. “Watch for your feather!” I warn them when we begin a project together — for a feather always comes. When I told a new editor this, she fell silent for a moment. “Amy,” she said, “it happened already. Today, when my son stepped off the kindergarten bus, he handed me a feather. ‘I got this for you, Mommy,’ he said.”
Feathers are a kind of shorthand that the angels often use to quickly communicate, “Good job!” or “We are with you,” or to affirm a choice we feel uncertain of, with a resounding, feathered, “Yes!”
If you visited my home, you’d find feathers sticking out of the edges of mirrors and photo frames. There are so many — found in the most unusual places — that I started piling them in bowls at the entrance of our home.
These feathers are a symbol of the many stories I’ve read. Like the stories, each feather is uniquely beautiful, each a reminder of the way the angels cross between the physical and non-physical world.
Thank you for reading this passage from Sea of Miracles. May it remind you that you are surrounded by a living, responsive world—one that is always speaking, always reaching, always offering signs of love. If a feather finds you today, may you take it as a sign: you are not alone. You are being guided.
Blessings and love, Amy xxoo
Aliveness (Becoming Real) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I was just thinking about this earlier this week. I am volunteering in Costa Rica at wildlife rehabilitation and breeding center for parrots.
I'm the only guy doing this so I have a room in on of the houses where I have the whole thing to myself. The common area is without walls.
At night Giant hop in an stare at me. Sometimes tarantulas come and just there.
I wondered if any of them could be deseased family members checking up on me.