Shamanism: Amsgar, St. Ansgar and the Trickster?

The woven spider web outside my kitchen window and the tree

I was cooking breakfast the other day while listening to a podcast on shamanism where Damon and Joe were talking about tree hugging, more or less, and I was looking out my kitchen window at a tree I have to have removed from my property, because its roots are threatening to get into my drain pipes, block my toilet, wreak my fence and retaining wall and is probably pissing off my neighbours, as well.
Episode 22 – Shamanic Technique and getting creative – A closer look at what underlies stage 2 of learning Shamanism

As I go to throw some rubbish into the bin, I notice what looked like a mouse poo near the bin and I was surprised to think I might have a mouse in the house which I didn't know about.
As I'm looking at what I thought could be a mouse poo Damon says the following words in the podcast and putting a big smile on my WTF(?) looking face -

"It's just like you are lookin' without thinking at something...an animal doing stuff...you didn't know the animal existed, you didn't know the animal did that stuff, you had no idea the thing existed in the world, it's just like you are looking at that and you are looking at yourself in the same way and what's going on within yourself.

It's sort of a mirror that extends out of your body, it's a kind of weird analogy for a mirror ..."

What?

I'm nothing but a little s#it?-)

I looked up on the net to see what a mouse meant in spirit animal terms and found this explanation -

If Mouse has scurried across your path

"The message is to see what is right before your eyes and to take action accordingly.
It may also be reminding you not to neglect the trivial but necessary things in life.

Have you become to focused on one or two activities and neglecting the opportunities that surround you or are you trying to do too many things at the same time?
Know that to attain the big things in life you sometimes have to stay focused on the little things and stay connected in the moment."

If Mouse is your Animal Totem;
"You have a gift for paying attention to the minutest of details in everything your do.

You can easily discern which details are the important ones and which one do not need your attention.

Your heightened awareness of your surroundings allows you to spot danger long before others around you.

You also tend to be rather timid or shy in time of stress.

Your temerity does not go unrecognized by yourself however and is often compensated for by your adaptability and determination."

Hmm ... I guess that tree has to go soon, and I had better do something about it before the roots of that tree do block my toilet pipes and I end up with more than mouse crap over my kitchen floor;-)

I then listened to the following podcasts after podcast #22 -

Episode 23 – What Stage 2 (Amsgar) Does for us and for Others [Using Shamanic Technique for Real]

Episode 24 – Myths, Legends, Esotericism and what they ALL have in common

My movie ticket for 'Swinging Safari'
on January 23rd, 2018

This all happened on the morning of the 23rd of January, 2018 and I was looking through the paper and read a movie review about a movie filmed on the Gold Coast that looked interesting to me and since it was budget Tuesday at the cinema I decided to go off to the cinema and see the movie.

When I was crossing the road to the cinema, I heard a crow call out and to me crows and magpies are my spirit animal.

I looked up to see that this crow had built its nest on the building right next to a drainpipe, which is the first time I had ever seen a crow's nest built on a building, even though I had read stories about it before.

A crow outside the building the cinema
was in about to send me a message;-)

Queensland Torresian crows form new nesting habits in major evolutionary change, scientists say

I decided to get a few pictures of the crow's nest, since it was a rather rare sight and as I'm standing under the crow, I notice something falling towards me.

Whether the crow was aiming for me, or not, it had decided to go to the toilet with me underneath it trying to get a good picture of its home.

I thought this was a rather Tricksterish way of the bird telling me that I had better get moving and remove that tree before I really do get into some financial and real s#it by having to remove the tree and fix my drainpipes.

In the movie there is also a scene where the school kids are wearing ice-cream containers on their heads as they go to school to avoid being pecked by magpies.

I tried to Google the word "amsgar", but the only thing that came up that was interesting was a saint by the name of St. Ansgar.

A saint I had never heard of before.

Turns out that there is even a crater on the moon named after St. Ansgar.

"Saint Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar or Saint Anschar, was an Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen – a northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks.

The See of Hamburg was designated a mission to bring Christianity to Northern Europe, and Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North"."

"Ansgar wore a rough hair shirt, lived on bread and water, and showed great charity to the poor. Being the first missionary in Sweden and the organiser of the hierarchy in the Nordic countries, he was declared Patron of Scandinavia.

Ansgar was buried in Bremen in 865."

I've got to say that if this guy isn't the patron saint of shamanism ... oxymoronically enough ... I don't know who would be.

Interestingly too was today when I was using Bing to look for images for this post there was this picture below on Bing's home page.

"Though called "the Apostle of the North" and the first Christian missionary in Scandinavia, the whole area lapsed into paganism again after his death at Bremen on February 3rd.

His name is also spelled Anskar."

I guess even the Trickster can show you some wisdom as long as the joke doesn't go over your head, or give you the s#its:-)
And I guess it's hard to be a saint, or shaman in the city ... or the country?

St. Ansgar