cicada summer: lessons in emergence, transformation, and collective power

Cicada Return of Brood XIX

Last week, I received an extraordinary birthday gift from my husband—a vibrant, captivating painting of a cicada. Sunni, my exquisitely creative friend, rendered several of these pieces in honor and respect for the summer of cicadas 2024. At first glance, a painting of a cicada might seem like an unusual or even unsettling choice of art, especially considering that many people are uneasy around these seemingly creepy creatures. But for me, this gift carries a depth of spiritual meaning.

My connection with the message of cicadas began years ago during a transformative experience in a Lakota sweat lodge. It was the third round of sweating, and I was lying on the cooler ground, in the pitch darkness, with only the glow of the cinders providing faint light. Suddenly, something unidentifiable fell from the blankets overhead, landing on my lips and jolting me out of my meditative state. In that moment, I made a conscious decision not to freak out, despite my instinctive urge to do so. Instead, I calmly removed the object and placed it beside me. When the doors of the lodge were opened and light filtered in, I realized it was the shell of a cicada. On my lips. Whoa. No. and Ick. (my friend Lindsay can attest)

That experience felt like a prescient message, a lesson from the cicada itself. These remarkable creatures spend the majority of their lives underground, waiting for the right time to emerge. When they finally do, they shed their old shells and step into the world, radiant, sonically powerful, and unapologetically themselves. The cicada’s Plutoesque life cycle is a powerful metaphor for our own journeys of transformation—burrowing deep within, waiting for the right moment to emerge, shedding the old, and stepping into our full, shining selves. And not going back.

I’ve thought a good deal about the communal nature of cicadas. One cicada is busy and loud, but a tree full is deafening—a chorus that rises and falls, activated by vibrations and the energy of the earth. There’s something profoundly spiritual about the way they come together in overwhelming numbers, creating a symphony that demands to be heard. It’s a reminder of the power we hold when we come together, raising our voices in unison. Like the cicadas, we can be part of something greater than our solitary selves, a collective energy that resonates far beyond what any of us could achieve alone. Once again, hopeful.

---

Cicada Return of Brood XIX -

https://sunnimockingbird.com