Turtle teaches us that we need to remember to walk our paths slow and steady with determination, for if we do our goals will surely be met. They remind us that sometimes it is best to walk on solid ground strong and precise with each step, and at other times it is better to dive into the waters and swim with the current allowing life to assist us in that forward motion.
Turtle helps us to ground reminding us that slowing down and pacing each step will help us build confidence for as we walk at this pace, we will see more of what is being shared with us by the world around us… knowledge of the “Old Ones”. Slowing our pace, calming our breath, listening to our heartbeat, centering our spirit so that we are in balance and sync with the rest of our world.
Turtles remind us that what we need is provided for us, that we need to remember the beginning, the simple and honor all that is Sacred, for it is part of who we all are. Be humble, grateful and make the most of what we have and what we are offered.
Snake Is a difficult teacher at times, and one that is not easy to master. Lessons that Snake brings with it are of life cycles and change, remembering as we grow we shed and transform into new energies and new experiences. Snake also teaches us about poison and that we need to be able to rid ourselves of the toxins can be placed within our Sacred Hoops. Don’t let the poisons kill us or dim our light that resides within. At times the poison and toxins can play games with our thoughts if we allow them to, so mastering what is real and what is illusion can often contribute to negativity and clouding of ones judgement. Make sure to take a breath, a beat… before stepping into a place of no return. Keep it all in perspective and balance. Once you can accomplish this, balance will return and be maintained.
Snake can be a hard teacher. His lessons involve a transmutation of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Snake symbolizes this cycle with the shedding of his skin. We learn to the whole energy of life, the cosmic consciousness and have the willingness to experience anything without resistance. It is also about the poisons that we might take in. Those poisons can be eaten or ingested in some way but they also may be integrated into our lives. The goal is to not let the poisons taint our body or spirit.
Since Snakescan shed they teach us about the levels of our human, of our spirituality, our experiences. It is time to seek our inner knowledge before moving ahead with decisions. It is time to coil and go within to make sure we are well prepared before we strike out.
Snake also reminds us as it makes its way across the Great Mother Earth, to ground ourselves, to use our energy wisely and not to rely on primal instincts of lashing out. For at times it is more empowering to hold back and use that knowledge that energy in wise ways. At other times it is best to strike and seize the moment with a precision and quickness. Snakes often retreat long before biting defensively because they sense that it may cause consequences/damage to others and drain you of healing energy.
Snakeis also very old and powerful healing medicine. Once harnessed, Snake will help you to position yourself carefully so that you will trust your gut when making important decisions.
Before people were on the Earth, the Chief of the Great Sky Spirits grew tired of his home in the Above World because it was always cold. So he made a hole in the sky by turning a stone around and around. Through the hole he pushed snow and ice until he made a big mound. This mound was Mount Shasta.
Then Sky Spirit stepped from the sky to the mountain and walked down. When he got about halfway down, he thought: “On this mountain there should be trees.” So he put his finger down and everywhere he touched, up sprang trees. Everywhere he stepped, the snow melted and became rivers.
The Sky Spirit broke off the end of his big walking stick he had carried from the sky and threw the pieces in the water. The long pieces became Beaver and Otter. The smaller pieces became fish. From the other end of his stick he made the animals.
Biggest of all was Grizzly Bear. They were covered with fur and had sharp claws just like today, but they could walk on their hind feet and talk. They were so fierce looking that the Sky Spirit sent them to live at the bottom of the mountain. When the leaves fell from the trees, Sky Spirit blew on them and made the birds.
Then Sky Spirit decided to stay on the Earth and sent for his family. Mount Shasta became their lodge. He made a BIG fire in the middle of the mountain and a hole in the top for the smoke and sparks. Every time he threw a really big log on the fire, the Earth would tremble and sparks would fly from the top of the mountain.
Late one spring, Wind Spirit was blowing so hard that it blew the smoke back down the hole and burned the eyes of Sky Spirit’s family. Sky Spirit told his youngest daughter to go tell Wind Spirit not to blow so hard.
Sky Spirit warned his daughter: “When you get to the top, don’t poke your head out. The wind might catch your hair and pull you out. Just put your arm through and make a sign and then speak to Wind Spirit.”
The little girl hurried to the top of the mountain and spoke to Wind Spirit. As she started back down, she remembered that her father had told her that the ocean could be seen from the top of the mountain. He had made the ocean since moving his family to the mountain and his daughter had never seen it.
She put her head out of the hole and looked to the west. The Wind Spirit caught her hair and pulled her out of the mountain. She flew over the ice and snow and landed in the scrubby fir trees at the timberline, her long red hair flowing over the snow.
There Grizzly Bear found her. He carried the little girl home with him wondering who she was. Mother Grizzly Bear took care of her and brought her up with her cubs. The little girl and the cubs grew up together. When she became a young woman, she and the eldest son of Grizzly Bear were married. In the years that followed they had many children. The children didn’t look like their father or their mother.
All the grizzly bears throughout the forest were proud of these new creatures. They were so pleased, they made a new lodge for the red-haired mother and her strange looking children. They called the Lodge – Little Mount Shasta.
After many years had passed, Mother Grizzly Bear knew that she would soon die. Fearing that she had done wrong in keeping the little girl, she felt she should send word to the Chief of the Sky Spirits and ask his forgiveness. So she gathered all the grizzlies at Little Mount Shasta and sent her oldest grandson to the top of Mount Shasta, in a cloud, to tell the Spirit Chief where he could find his daughter.
The father was very glad. He came down the mountain in great strides. He hurried so fast the snow melted. His tracks can be seen to this day. As he neared the lodge, he called out for his daughter.
He expected to see a little girl exactly as he saw her last. When he saw the strange creatures his daughter was taking care of, he was surprised to learn that they were his grandchildren and he was very angry. He looked so sternly at the old grandmother that she died at once. Then he cursed all the grizzlies.
“Get down on your hands and knees. From this moment on all grizzlies shall walk on four feet. And you shall never talk again. You have wronged me.”
He drove his grandchildren out of the lodge, threw his daughter over his shoulder and climbed back up the mountain. Never again did he come to the forest. Some say he put out the fire in the center of his lodge and returned to the sky with his daughter. Those strange grandchildren scattered and wandered over the earth. They were the first Indians, the ancestors of all the Indian Tribes.
That is why the Indians living around Mount Shasta never kill Grizzly Bear. Whenever one of them was killed by a grizzly bear, his body was burned on the spot. And for many years all who passed that way cast a stone there until a great pile of stones marked the place of his death.
Snake Is a difficult teacher at times, and one that is not easy to master. Lessons that Snake brings with it are of life cycles and change, remembering as we grow we shed and transform into new energies and new experiences. Snake also teaches us about poison and that we need to be able to rid ourselves of the toxins can be placed within our Sacred Hoops. Don’t let the poisons kill us or dim our light that resides within. At times the poison and toxins can play games with our thoughts if we allow them to, so mastering what is real and what is illusion can often contribute to negativity and clouding of ones judgement. Make sure to take a breath, a beat… before stepping into a place of no return. Keep it all in perspective and balance. Once you can accomplish this, balance will return and be maintained.
Snake can be a hard teacher. His lessons involve a transmutation of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Snake symbolizes this cycle with the shedding of his skin. We learn to the whole energy of life, the cosmic consciousness and have the willingness to experience anything without resistance. It is also about the poisons that we might take in. Those poisons can be eaten or ingested in some way but they also may be integrated into our lives. The goal is to not let the poisons taint our body or spirit.
Since Snakes can shed they teach us about the levels of our human, of our spirituality, our experiences. It is time to seek our inner knowledge before moving ahead with decisions. It is time to coil and go within to make sure we are well prepared before we strike out.
Snake also reminds us as it makes its way across the Great Mother Earth, to ground ourselves, to use our energy wisely and not to rely on primal instincts of lashing out. For at times it is more empowering to hold back and use that knowledge that energy in wise ways. At other times it is best to strike and seize the moment with a precision and quickness. Snakes often retreat long before biting defensively because they sense that it may cause consequences/damage to others and drain you of healing energy.
Snake is also very old and powerful healing medicine. Once harnessed, Snake will help you to position yourself carefully so that you will trust your gut when making important decisions.
Walks with Bearsbrings in strong Sacred Insight for us All today… Speaking to All Humankind that we all must understand we are but guests on this journey we walk. We must bring about the changes needed within ourselves to set examples for others to follow.
They ask us … do any of you understand that we are also a gift upon this planet. We have been given the duty from birth to care foe not only each other but the Creatures large and small, the plants, waters, earth as well. We must not forget this as it will effect everything, it is truly a life cycle all dependent on another. This is how it is meant to be.
So help it to survive by taking a hard look at yourselves and seeing what we can do better, should do better, will do better as we walk side by side with each other. Walks With Bears is the symbol of Hope for around the world. They are a symbol of strength, nurturing, adaptation and being. They help cycles finish and begin anew. They add insight ad strength by showing us that Bears are mighty yet so are the Bee’s. All part of the same story, but each having a different purpose. A lesson we all can learn from. So Open to new possibilities that have been set in motion from the time you were conceived. Be part of showing that we can all coexist on a planet that has wonderous and amazing things. Be part of THAT cycle, journey, purpose and help to balance again.
Sometimes it is said that When Angels speak the World listens. However, we are on the precipice of a new order of being. So, with that in mind, the Divine Realm asks us to be aware of our part in it all. Change is always constant from the moment of conception. We cannot stop it, but we can choose the path that is right for us as we walk the human.
To still the chaos that spins out of control in our world, we must make time to listen. Adjust our thought patterns to be able to receive the Unconditional knowledge from before time and beyond. When we do, we will have a clearer image of what each of our roles will be in the upcoming future. For when we allow this to occur, we will tune into the Divine messages our Souls have been waiting for.
We are told not to underestimate the roles we will play. We will greet the new ways one of two ways… We will understand because we listened, and we will attain balance, or we will have rejected the messages and we will fail which will lead to becoming chaos. It is our right as we are given free will and choice so choose wisely. It will not be others responsibility to reach out to those who disregard what their Souls have been trying to tell them, but rather it will be up to those to understand those personal responsibilities that they omitted as the Winds of Change spoke and catch up unsupported. That journey will be even more difficult as we move through these days and recognize the negatives that lie before us.
The Winds of Change are a constant, but it comes now to awaken each and every Soul to their true potential of being. Still your thoughts and behold the Divine messages from a place of humble beginnings.
Blessings
~ bear Medicinewalker
*Wings of Change Oil on Gesso Board by bear Medicinewalker
I was thinking today of “Mama Moon” to me, Deb New Moon Rising, and her wonderful Husband Ken Quiet Hawk. Or as we at the Wolf and the bear Network fondly called Him Papa. She is missed, but I know that she and the Wolf are about instigating something or another. So Listen to one of our Favorite stories, “the Snow Moon”. She recorded this for their show on the Network, the Story Tellers… and because we giggled and laughed together about this story. She is greatly missed… but I know she is smiling as I share this one more time. Miss yah Mama.
Long ago and far to the north, winter nights were very long, dark and bitter cold. Nights were so long, dark and cold that all the Four Leggeds and their friends could barely gather enough food to survive the season. No matter how quickly they tried to gather nuts and seeds, the darkness covered them and stopped all their efforts. On such a day Squirrel decided that something had to be done. Her first stop would be a visit to her friends the field mice.
“Oh, we do not know what to do,” said Father Mouse. “We have so many children to feed, and the winter nights are so long and dark.”
“I will help you my little friends,” Squirrel replied.
Next Squirrel went to see Porcupine to ask him if he too had been having trouble finding food during the long dark winter.
“Oh, yes,” said Porcupine,“ nothing can be done it has always been this way.”
“I don’t believe that,” said Squirrel. “There must be something that can be done.”
“It’s best to leave things as they are for you never know what could happen if you try and change things,” said Porcupine. With a bristle of quills, he scurried off through wintery wind and snow.
Squirrel sat and thought for a bit and then decided to seek out Owl. Owl rested by day and flew the woods at night, with eyes bigger than all the other animals. Perhaps Owl would know a way to bring light to the winter forest.
Squirrel climbed high in Owl’s maple tree and waited for Owl to wake.
“What brings you to me Squirrel?” asked Owl.
“All of the small woodland animals need to hunt by darkness as well as day. The northern winter nights are far too dark for us. If we could only find a little light to help us see we could gather our food with ease”
Owl agreed to ponder on this problem. He lifted his feathery head and then buried it into his shoulders to think. He thought all day long, while Squirrel shivered on the windy branch. Finally, he startled with thought, “I will talk to the Sky Father and see if he can bring the stars closer to us during the winter time.”
Squirrel flicked her tail in excitement and hope as she raced down the tree to her spot in the woods. A few days went by and then Owl flew in and landed at Squirrel’s burrow.
“Tell our small friends that the Sky Father has decided he will bring the stars closer to us at night. But first, he must clear all the clouds from the sky. We must all prepare for a strong and terrible blizzard.” With that said, Owl flew off to his tree.
All the animals worked as quickly as they could to forage all the nuts, berries and seeds that they found. Then they gathered and huddled in a hollow log and watched as the huge storm clouds gathered in the sky above.
For three days the Sky Father gathered the storm clouds in the sky, stacking them in huge towers. The animals shivered below, waiting. On the third day, the storm arrived. The blizzard howled through the woods. The animals were frightened, all except Squirrel for she believed in what Owl had promised.
When the storm died away, a huge snowdrift had blocked the hollow log so that the animals could see nothing but the wall of snow and the darkness from inside the hollow space. They were scared and disappointed, thinking that only hunger and darkness awaited them.
Brave Little Squirrel made her way through all her friends and turned to them, “Wait here, I will tunnel out and see if the stars are closer as the Great Sky Father promised.”
Squirrel dug and dug, pushing through the cold and wet snow finally reaching the top. When her head popped out through the snow, she gasped in surprise. The winter stars hung so low in the evening sky, it seemed that she could almost touch them.
A large, antlered moose stepped forward and bowed his head, “I have been sent to help you, if you little animals can gather all the snow you can and push it into a giant snowball, I will then carry it cradled in my antlers across the highest mountain ridges, where it will shed light on even the darkest winter nights.”
So they all worked together with the help of the moose and the Sky Father to create the first Snow Moon. Now despite the cold and the long nights of darkness, all are happy in the winter when the stars come close and the moon shines bright like great snowball in the sky.
Blessings to All
~ bear Medicinewalker
Simply click on the player to hear Deborah New Moon Rising tell the story! “The Snow Moon” Deborah New Moon Rising & Ken Quiet Hawk
Deborah New Moon Rising and Ken Quiet Hawk are of Abenaki descent. Deborah is known as an award-winning artist of realistic wildlife paintings on wild turkey feathers. Her birch bark rattles and crafts adorn the regalia of many from coast to coast. Together with her husband Ken Quiet Hawk they have gathered stories and life’s lessons to share as storytellers at Pow Wows and Native gatherings. Performing at concerts and schools throughout New England, as well as traveling the entire East coast to share the teachings of the native peoples.
Both Quiet Hawk and New Moon Rising believe that storytelling should be more than just entertainment, “Storytelling should be a means of teaching, teaching us all how to be better people.”
