There is a great deal of lore surrounding the Ladybird. There are over 5,000 species of the Ladybird worldwide and everywhere they are viewed as harbingers of good luck and good fortune (not to mention being one of the best friends a gardener can have!)
It is said that during the Middle ages pests were destroying acres upon acres of crops and in desperation, the farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. Numerous Ladybirds shortly appeared thereafter, destroying the pests and saving the crops. Thereafter, this lovely little insect has been known as the Ladybird in honour of the Virgin Mary. This too is an indication that when working with Ladybird medicine to remember to ask for help through prayer and to be open to help in what ever form it may arrive in. Too often it seems people pray for help and then feel rather disappointed when something "small" appears rather than the large and showy miracle they may have been hoping for. Ladybird reminds us that even something that seems quite small and unable to do much can be a true powerhouse in disguise! In the 1880's here in California a scale insect was destroying the citrus trees of Oranges and Lemons. Farmers brought in thousands of Ladybirds and within 2 years they had eradicated the scale insect and the trees began to bear fruit again. So have patience and trust that what has appeared for you is truly the help and support you have prayed for.
As with all predators, there is always someone higher up the food chain that wants to eat them. The Ladybird gets round this by emitting a chemical through its legs that smells and tastes horrid, which soon puts the potential predator off the idea of a nice Ladybird meal! So too can Ladybird medicine teach us how to emit our own "foul scent" or energy that warns others off who do not have our best interests at heart. For people who feel they are "victims" in life, Ladybird can help them to understand how they are creating being a "victim" through their unwillingness to assert by letting others know in no uncertain terms that they are not willing to be taken advantage of! The legs represent the ability to stand one's ground or make a stand, as well as carrying us forward in life and so too does anyone working with Ladybird medicine soon realise that they may well have areas in life where they know they need to make a stand and yet have felt unable to do so for any number of reasons. Ladybird can help show these folks how they CAN take a stand and thus improve those areas of their lives. If someone feels their life has been stuck in a rut, Ladybird medicine can also help them understand where they may have been tripping themselves up so they can take appropriate action to correct their own behaviour. Remember, if something is not working in your life, it is YOU that needs to make internal changes, not someone or something else.
The eggs of the Ladybird are a bright Yellow colour and are laid on the underside of leaves. This colour is symbolic of the Third Chakra, feelings of self-esteem and of self-worth. Those who have difficulty in feeling good about themselves and what they have to offer the world can learn how to develop these feelings through working with Ladybird. The Larvae have no doubts of their right to be here in the world when they hatch and set right to work doing what all Ladybirds do best, eradicating garden pests who would otherwise eradicate the garden! The colour Yellow is also associated with gold and prosperity, teaching us that we have the right to attract what we need in life to not just survive but to thrive! Yet in order to thrive we must also work to eradicate the "garden pests of the mind", those thoughts and beliefs that say to use we do not deserve to prosper and do well in life. One simple technique of doing this can be to visualise that one has a Ladybird within that is delighted to go after those limiting and damaging thoughts and beliefs. As you note a belief or thought that tells you that you can't have, don't deserve, aren't good enough, just imagine the Ladybird gobbling it up. Here again, it takes persistence and time so don't just try this a few times and then think it isn't working. Chances are like many people you have quite a number of these sorts of "pests" that you have not been aware of and they have been growing and multiplying for quite some time. Of course you can bring in a whole battlian of Ladybirds if needed!
Most, but not all, Ladybirds have spots on their backs. When having an encounter with a Ladybird, counting the number of spots can give you a great deal of information in regards to both time frame and what the good fortune may be about. For example, 7 spots can indicate some happy event will occur within 7 hours, 7 days or even up to 7 weeks (though this from my own experience and those I have spoken with is unusual. Normally the event happens much sooner.) Numerology can also be helpful here as the number of spots may well relate to the symbology associated with that specific number. Again using the number 7, the good fortune may come through a spiritual or magical sort of event or you may have spiritual insight or sudden spiritual growth that leads to greater good in your life or through the study of magic good frotune will come (the number 7 is often associated with mysticism or magic). However, it may also indicate that time spent in self-reflection, going within is the key to attracting good luck and good fortune in your life which is also associated with the number 7. Working with the Tarot can also be very useful here as well. Try meditating on the major arcana card that relates to the number of spots as well as the minor arcana cards. It can be very enlightening to try working this way with several decks if you have them available, as the different representations from the varied decks can help to trigger a much larger perspective than working with one deck alone though of course if you have a deck that you especially favour working with it alone is fine as well. As an additional note, while 7 spots is the average for many species of female Ladybirds, this is not always true so do be sure to count the spots carefully if at all possible.
Likewise, the colour of the Ladybird is of significance as well. Many Ladybirds are Red with the distinctive black spots but they may be all Black or Yellow as well. The symbolism of the colours can be very helpful in determining what the message is that Ladybird is trying to convey to you at this time. For example, the more usual Red colour often indicates that there are Root chakra issues that you may be needing to address and yet tackling them now will prove to be much easier and more fruitful than you might expect. Yellow may indicate that you need to be working on issues associated with the Third chakra and so forth.
Male Ladybirds tend to be smaller than the females which is true of many species in the world. What this can indicate is that it is very important to pay attention to the Intuitive BEFORE one takes action in the physical world. Too often people tend to focus on how much they think they need to accomplish each day rather than taking a few moments to stop and ask themselves if the action they are about to take is even needed or even appropriate. Ladybird can teach us to ask ourselves the right questions first; "Is this action really what is needed at this time? Is there someone who is better suited to taking this action that I can call upon to help me with this? If I take this action because I believe that "something needs to be done" will I actually be causing more harm than good? How do I really feel about taking this action anyway? Is it something that is really going to improve my life or a time waster?" It takes time and practice yet if we spend time going within and asking for guidance, paying attention to how we really feel about things (for our emotions and feelings are highly accurate guides to what our own intuition is trying to tell us) then we find that many of the actions we had considered taking were not what was truly needed at the time. If an action truly is appropriate, then we will also find there is great support from the Universe for following through on it.
Because the Ladybird serves to protect plants that aphids and other pests would harm, it also indicates that it's medicine also carries a highly protective element to it. If there is a wish or a goal that one is working towards, calling upon Ladybird medicine can help to insure its survival. If there are people round you who would chip away at your self-esteem, then calling upon Ladybird can help to keep those folks at bay (though of course you will still need to let these folks know that you have no further interest in being exposed to their damaging behaviour). Ladybird medicine can also help you to better understand where you may be sabotaging your own best efforts. Nothing escapes this keen predator's awareness and so too can you use this to your advantage to better understand your own over-all behaviour patterns, both the positive and the negative. The key here is to pay attention! Often times problems that are now huge in one's life started off as a rather minor thing that one ignored and thus it was allowed to grow until it seems so big that there doesn't seem to be any possible way to sort it out quickly or easily. Ladybird reminds one that if one is persistent at "eating away at it" a bit at a time that it will soon diminish and disappear.
Ladybird people often do find themselves being asked to protect and support other people from negative energies on all levels, from the psychic to the most mundane. These folks often do take great delight acting for the good on behalf of others and yet they cannot be expected to hang about one person or area for any great length of time. Once the intial problem or challenge has been sorted, these folks often do feel the need to move on to the next pesky situation. It is important for Ladybird people to let others know that they should not come to depend on them to resolve their life problems for them. Instead, the Ladybird person needs to try and teach others how they too can access this medicine for use on their own behalf. As has been said many times, give someone a fish and they shall eat for a day. Teach them how to fish and they shall eat for a lifetime. The same is true of problems in life. If someone always has someone else to sort things out for them, then that person never learns how to resolve their own issues and thus re-creates the same types of problems over and over again. The Ladybird person needs to be able to say "see, this is how it is done. pay attention and then you shall have all the resources you need to tackle anything in life" and this does in fact become true for the other person, if they are willing to accept the teaching.
Just as Ladybirds bring us all good luck, so too do Ladybird people bring much good luck and good fortune in their wake! This is another reason why it is so important that these people not allow themselves to get bogged down in one place or trying to resolve the same problems for the same people over and over again. Their energies are needed in many different places so that all of us can accept and learn to trust in the goodness of life.
Ladybird people will also do well to make sure they have time for what ever spiritual practices most appeal to them. There are strong associations between the Ladybird and The Divine, and thus these folks need to allow themselves the time and space that is required to affirm their connection with The Universe. It really is true that the more one focuses on the spiritual, the better every area of life tends to flow. We cannot immerse ourselves in the spiritual without elevating our vibrations and as that happens, so too does life become more easy, joyful and positive.
Some things to watch for when Ladybird appears:
It is important to ask yourself if there are pests in your own life that need to be dealt with now before the damage that may be happening becomes too extensive to be repaired easily, if at all. Ladybird kept popping up for me during a time when I knew I was pushing myself much too hard doing things I knew were not really in my best interests. Unfortunately I chose to ignore the message and ended up doing physical damage to myself that took some time to heal.
Now is a good time to examine your own beliefs in regards to Good Luck and Good Fortune. British psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman has written a brilliant book called The Luck Factor which explains how people really can and do create their own luck and how even people who feel they are unlucky can alter this and experience good luck as well.
Its time to "Let Go and Let God". If you have been trying to manifest something and nothing much is happening with it, it may well be that its time to simply turn it over to the Universe. Here again, its a matter of knowing what action to take and when, and that sometimes just being in the present moment and finding joy there can be the best sort of action to take of all.
When Ladybird appears there is often an increase in prosperity and abundance. Money and other resources tend to flow more easily at this time and the amount of flow truly is often dependant on what you really feel you are worthy of and are able to allow yourself to accept. It may also be that you need to be more protective of your resources at this time, to pay closer attention to where your money is going and if these things are truly enhancing your life.
We have a Ladybird essence available for those wanting to connect even more deeply with Ladybird.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the enormous amount of email I receive each week I cannot go over specific totems with people on an individual basis, but I am happy to include on these pages as much information as I can about working with and understanding totem energies. I wish I could answer questions I receive but time and energy wise it is truly impossible! Also, I have no easy answers for anyone on what a totem encounter might possibly mean for them. Trying to sort something like that can mean many hours of effort on my part and frankly that is time I need to spend on earning a living and supporting my children. If you would like more information, please read the Totem Faq page as well as the Morningstar Totem Pages Faq page (scroll down to the bottom of this page). There are also numerous sites on the net that you may also find very helpful. Thanks for your understanding!