Today is about Snake Medicine and learning to balance it within our lives. So what does that mean to us as human? Well for today to speaks to making our way through the day by depending on all our senses and understanding that this movement is part of our human experience. To make sure we use our time wisely and not waste it on frivolous negativity. Things happen for a reason and it is up to each of us to decide how it impacts and imprints on our lives. So will you be bale to make lemonade out of lemons today, or instead will you taste the bitterness from it and allow it to sour your day? (Sorry no puns intended, lol don’t shoot the messenger. Spirit says what Spirit says) It is up to each of us to decide. Personally I prefer a good cold glass of lemonade… Cheers!
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
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.
“I am Dedicated to Educating and sharing culture with the World. It is not enough merely to teach the ways of our Elders. We must honor those traditions by sharing and educating the World. Inspiring others …Inspiring our Youth. Through the Music… the Arts…the stories…” Mitakuye O’yasin ~bear Medicinewalker
“Wake the Dragon” Dragon Ritual Drummers available at I tunes
Looking back on what was written last year …I felt the message should once again be put forth …so with you all I share…
I sat wrote on this Memorial Day Weekend 2015, I was guided to write something a little different from the norm. First however I will begin with the traditional and share what Memorial Day is and how it all began.
Originally called Decoration Day and the idea was established in 1868 and born due to the horrific death tolls resulting from the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead.
“The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” ~ General John Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it was NOT an anniversary of any particular battle.
So it became a day of observance for those who lost their lives here in a country that lay divided and torn from a war, a war that pitted family against family, a war that drenched the soil with the blood of many.
Today it is observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May ensuring a three day weekend for Federal holidays, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19th in Texas; April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10th in South Carolina; and June 3rd (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee, the stain remaining in a split that remains still, North and South, the United States.
I honor all those that have fought for this country and what it is supposed to stand for, Freedom and Honor, Unity and Grace. But I take it a step further and honor those that walked before us and fought many battles on the soil we all now stand on, build our homes, our lives and communities, our Ancestors from all nations that helped to build this country. Ancestors that without their sacrifices we would not be here today.
I honor the immigrants that came through Ellis Island bringing with them the skills that built our country. Brick layers, wood carvers, creative people, the thinkers, the entrepreneurs, the men, women and children that did the hard work, work that most of us today would not even dream of having to do. That fought battles of violence every day just to survive. The Irish, the Polish, The Italian, the German and oh so many more, leaving their own families and homelands due to discrimination and war, to the many that were killed, the fact you were treated less than human, I remember and honor them all.
I honor my Ancestors, the Original People, the Native People that honored our lands and lived in balance until they too were ravaged by wars and violence. To the many that were killed, the fact they were treated less than human, I remember and honor them all. I honor them more for pushing us to be better in the world today, to honor where we came from and to never forget the people that are one with the Great Mother Earth, their teachings and keeping that as the foundation for life.
I honor the Chinese mine workers who came and worked the mines out in the western states and became a forgotten story in history. The violence they endured because they did not speak English, because their skin was a different color, their sacrifice in order to help forge this country into its future. To the many that were killed, the fact they were treated less than human, I remember and honor them all
I honor the Africans that were taken from their homelands and their families brought to this soil as slaves and also to be treated less than human. Many names lost in history their lives unable to be recognized individually, to the many that were killed, the fact they were treated less than human, I remember and honor them all.
I honor the Japanese Americans that were outcast during the war and sent to camps, their lives torn apart and destroyed. All because they came to America to build a better life for themselves and their families, to the many that were killed, the fact you were treated less than human, I remember and honor them all.
To all the People that have come here and sacrificed to build this country in order to make a better life , to the many that were killed, the fact they too were treated less than human, I remember and honor them all.
So today, I ask that you all take a moment from your day as you remember loved ones that have fallen in conflict, that you take another moment to add to it all the countless other people that have done the same here on our own lands, in our own country. While you are doing that add prayer that we all learn from what history shows us all…that no matter what color our skin is, it took Warriors of the Rainbow to get us to this place we stand today in our own lives, countless sacrifices that go far back in this country’s history.
And if we do nothing else today… honor that … think of that…and be thankful for what it has allowed us to be, have and live today. Then take it a step further and realize that each of us has the ability to bring about change… to set aside hate, bigotry, racial discrimination, and judgment. To become better people, better humans, to honor what has been provided to us by our Ancestors. Make their sacrifices count… for if they were alive today, I feel many would shed tears that many things still have not changed.
“I am Dedicated to Educating and sharing the Native culture with the World. It is not enough merely to teach the ways of our Elders. We must honor those traditions by sharing and educating the World. Inspiring others …Inspiring our Youth. Through the Music… the Arts…the stories…” Mitakuye O’yasin ~bear Medicinewalker
“Join Me as I continue the Sacred Hoop Project into this Year 2016…the year of Truths!”
James Horner and the Boys choir of Harlem Closing song from “Glory” available on Itunes
Today some very strong medicine jumps out at us… the Medicine Wheel speaks to us about the keeping and care of the Sacred Hoop. Both our personal one and the one of the World that surrounds us all. It is a universal symbol, that shares with us the natural order of things, not only the cycles that we travel through as we walk the human, but the way all things change and evolve along side us.
Whether it be the Winged Ones, the Four Leggeds, the Plant People, the Crystal and Rock Keepers, the Swimmers or Creepers we all evolve together in the harmony that we were born to. The four lines in the Wheel speak to us of the four directions, the four colors to the cultures and the four parts of our human, the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual being. To understand the Medicine Wheel is to understand self.
This is what we need to understand, that the strengths, the creative, the spiritual, the faults, the imperfections all lie with in each of us. They are all part of who we are, constantly evolving. As a wheel is circular and continues in a constant state of birth to death constantly moving through change, so are we. To understand that about ourselves is how we are to attain balance.
To understand that we are All Connected, that we All Imprint on the world, the energy that we exist in is to understand the nature of how things co-exist. That there has to be opposites for balance…light and dark. rain and heat, night and day, birth and death… All a intricate part of the Human experience.
Ask yourself what is it that you need to day to add to the positives in your own life, what is it you need in order to set your mind to in order to keep the negative at bay? So today, look to yourself and think about how each word, each action, each breath you take is part of a bigger Hoop, then think what it is You need to do to put your own Sacred Hoop into a place of balance with all that is Sacred honoring who you are meant to be.
“I am Dedicated to Educating and sharing Culture with the World. It is not enough merely to teach the ways of our Elders. We must honor those traditions by sharing and educating the World. Inspiring others …Inspiring our Youth. Through the Music… the Arts…the stories…” Blessings ~bear Medicinewalker
“Join Me as I continue the Sacred Hoop Project into this Year 2016…the year of Truths!”
Most of the Peoples Nations have stories about the ‘Sacred Pipe’, many of you may think of it as a Peace Pipe. Hollywood has glamorized the pipe through old western movies, yet those stories told an outside culture could not be farther from the truth. The Sacred Pipe is to the Native American People as the cross would be to Christian cultures.
The pipe, in varied forms is often prevalent in most tribal cultures all around the world. All Nations have used the pipe in some form of ritual and have passed the stories of where the pipe came from. One of the more well known Native American lore is the Lakota story of the White Buffalo Woman bringing and sharing the pipe and wisdom’s to them.
There are a lot of stories on just how the pipe first arrived, and who it was brought to first, yet what is most important is that the pipe is revered as a sacred item and was a gift handed to us by The Creator. The Sacred Pipe was brought to all people of this world, for we all must share this world, as one race …the Human race This story is the story I was told and it tells of the importance of the Pipe as means to Prayer, Balance and Heal. The following is a story that was shared with me, and of course it has a bear, “Yona” in it so it has always been remembered with fondness…
At a time when the world was new, a tribe of red skinned people came to live on the lands around The Blue Smoke Mountains. This is a time animals of the world still spoke to all of us teaching us how to live and care for the land. These people were called “Ani Yun Wiya” or the One True People. In this tribe lived a brave warrior woman.
She was called ‘Arrow Woman’. As a young woman she was taught to use the bow, the spear and the knife. Even though it was a man’s job to hunt and fight, Arrow Woman could shoot straighter with the bow than any man. She could throw the knife so as split a branch no bigger than your thumb and she could throw the spear into eye of a hawk in flight. Because of all this, no one would tell her to act like a woman should within the tribe.
One day while on a hunt, Arrow Woman came upon the tracks of “Yona” the bear. She saw blood on the ground and knew him to be wounded, so she followed his tracks high into the mountains. Soon she came to a place that she did not know. It was at this place, a place known only to the animals that she finally saw “Yona” the bear. He had a deep gash in his side. As she watched him, he bowed down in prayer. She saw him bowing toward a large field of tall grass and speaking words that she had not heard before. Suddenly, the grass shimmered and became a lake. Arrow Woman saw “Yona” the bear, dive into the water. After a time he emerged from the water, his side was completely healed.
“Yona” the bear looked up and saw Arrow Woman walking towards her he spoke, “This is the sacred lake of the animals. It is called, ‘Atagahi’ and it’s location is known only to the animals. It is where we come for healing and strength. You are the first human to see the Sacred Lake. You must never tell your kind of it’s location for it is the home of ‘The Great Uktena’. After speaking to her “Yona” the Bear turned and walked into the woods and disappeared.
Arrow Woman sat and contemplated all that had occurred. Yet she was tired from following “Yona” the Bear all day and needed to rest a while. So she built a small fire next to the lake, and sitting down she began to prepare a meal that she had brought with her. She reached over and took a drink of the water from the lake as she did Arrow Woman felt instantly refreshed. Amazed, she felt strong as Yan’si the Buffalo, and as if she could run faster than Coga the Raven could fly. The woods were quiet, the Sacred Winds where sleeping, Father Sun was shining bright, the surface upon the lake was completely calm, Arrow Woman began to get sleepy.
It was at this time that ‘Uktena’ appeared to her. As a child she had been told of him yet no one in her tribe ever claimed to have seen him. High above the water he raised his great serpent’s head, the jewel in his forehead glistening. He began to move toward her. Arrow Woman grabbed up her spear and stood up to face the great creature coming to her, standing proud, showing no fear, the way any warrior should. She raised her spear and prepared to strike the huge beast.
Uktena stopped a short distance from her. He smiled at her, showing his fierce rows of teeth he began speaking to the brave woman on the bank of his lake, “Put down your weapons for I mean you no harm. I come only to teach.” Arrow Woman laid down her spear and began to relax, somehow knowing Uktena spoke truly.
Uktena told her to sit and to listen. He then dipped his head below the surface and came back up a moment later. In his mouth he had a strangely crooked stick and a leather pouch. These things he laid on the ground in front of Arrow Woman. Then the teaching began.
“This that I have laid before you is the Sacred Pipe of The Creator. Pick up the pipe. The bowl is of the same red clay The Creator used to make your kind. The red clay is Woman kind and is from the Earth. Just as a woman bears the children and brings forth life, the bowl bears the sacred tobacco and brings forth smoke. The stem is Man. Rigid and strong the stem is from the plant kingdom and like a man it supports the bowl just as man supports his family.”
He then showed Arrow Woman how to join the bowl to the stem saying, ” Just as a man and a woman remain separate until joined in marriage so too are the bowl and stem separate. Never to be joined unless the pipe is used.” Uktena then showed her how place the sacred tobacco into the pipe and with an ember from the fire lit it so it burned slightly. He then spoke these words, “The smoke is the breath of The Creator, When you draw the smoke into your body, you will be cleansed and made whole. When the smoke leaves your mouth, it will rise to The Creator. Your prayers, your dreams, your hopes and desires will be taken to Him in the smoke. Also the truth in your soul will be shown to Him when you smoke the pipe. If you are not true, do not smoke the pipe. If your spirit is bad and you seek to deceive, do not smoke the pipe.”
Uktena continued his lesson well into the night teaching Arrow Woman all of the prayers used with the pipe and all of the reasons for using the pipe. He finished just as the moon was beginning her nightly journey across the sky in search of her true love. He told Arrow Woman to wrap the pipe in cloth, keeping the parts separate. With this done He told her that she would never again be able to find this place but to remember all that she had learned. Uktena then returned to depths of the lake. Arrow Woman saw the water shimmer and become again the field of grass. She left, taking with her the pipe and her lessons and a wondrous tale. Ever since that time, The Peoples have used the sacred pipe and never again has any man seen the sacred lake of Uktena.
The Sacred Pipe is not a symbol of things that are sacred, but it is the Pipe itself that is sacred. Not everyone is called upon to be a pipe bearer. The person who carries the pipe and practices the pipe ceremonies and traditions has a great responsibility to his brothers and sisters, his land and country and to the Great Earth Mother. They, the pipe bearer, does not ‘own’ the pipe that they carry. They simply carry the pipe until the time comes for them to pass it to the next bearer. The pipe bearer is given certain powers of sight from the pipe as well as an ability to heal and purify. Should the bearer fall from grace and become a liar, thief, neglected their duties when asked, or become deceitful, the pipe will repossess these gifts and then the possibility of misfortune for the former bearer may exist.
One should be ready to accept the responsibility of the pipe for it may make demands upon you. It will become your teacher and guide. It can also be your worst enemy if used wrongly. It is an honor for the person to be chosen as a Pipe Holder…it is to be respected and revered. If you are not called to be a Pipe Carrier, the pipe remains sacred, and for many of us we still use it on ceremony and prayer…Honoring those Sacred Traditions.
“I am Dedicated to Educating and sharing the Native culture with the World. It is not enough merely to teach the ways of our Elders. We must honor those traditions by sharing and educating the World. Inspiring others …Inspiring our Youth. Through the Music… the Arts…the stories…” Mitakuye O’yasin ~bear Medicinewalker
“Join Me as I continue the Sacred Hoop Project into this Year 2016…the year of Truths!”
So schooled again by Spirit and the Ancestors while in Dreamwalk last evening! And yes even a bear can be schooled. Over the past week the Eagle has been physically and in reality near me. Whether stopping in to sit on a tree limb while I am taping Sunday Morning Ramblings with a bear…or flying overhead while I am driving, or over the lake, they have been telling …no screaming at me to wake up and open to what they were trying to tell me. but make no never mind about it… my Guides and Ancestors made sure I got the message loud and clear last evening! Telling me loud that I have to listen, have to share what is heard and said…
Today the Eagle brings us questions… Are We Honoring Our Spiritual…Our Sacredness…Our Ritual… our Ceremony? Apparently not as we need to be! We are setting it aside to feed ourselves with the negatives that are easily around us in our days. We need to stop and breathe in what it is we need to be and do in order to walk as better humans, better soul beings. When I sit at my lakes edge and watch the Eagle soar out above me…the beauty of that moment and message is simple, we have everything we need to survive and be in this world, but it is up to each of us to determine how we do that. Negatives are easy, for we are surrounded by them constantly. Yet if we disregard them and look at the opposite view of things we can bring change and positive growth to not only ourselves but to those around us.
Eagle speaks to us of our spiritual paths. I have been taught that the Eagle can fly to the heavens, that its wings can be touched by God Creator. When in it’s presence I feel the Grace of the Creator and All that is Sacred. The Eagle humbles me.
Teaching us to reflect and pause, to rejoice and reconnect to our spirits. To honor our paths, the ethics we have been taught. To Pray, to honor to live in a sacred manner. To listen to our Ancestors that have walked before us and in doing so listen to the wisdoms that have been shared so that we can walk more positive paths. Eagles the symbol of Courage and strength, to do … to walk… the right manner. To take that courage and step into what you re meant to step to in a positive way, and allowing our spirits to soar to the heights to share in God Creator’s extended grace.
Eagles with their sharp eyesight take us to the heights to observe situations in a manner that is more beneficial for us to make clear decisions. To become that visionary and push ourselves to discover and accept self, to accept truths, adapting , changing and growing along the way.
The medicine Eagle shares is, the ability to connect to the Divine, a power of God Creator. Being able to place one foot into the spirit realm and yet remain connected and balanced with Mother Earth.
So Honor your Spirit today and everyday by connecting with the Sacredness around you!
“I am Dedicated to Educating and sharing the Native culture with the World. It is not enough merely to teach the ways of our Elders. We must honor those traditions by sharing and educating the World. Inspiring others …Inspiring our Youth. Through the Music… the Arts…the stories…” Mitakuye O’yasin ~bear Medicinewalker
“Join Me as I continue the Sacred Hoop Project into this Year 2016…the year of Truths!”
As we go through our days, and people and activity rush by us, we sometimes loose perspective on what is important, what matters or better yet what should matter. It is often at those moments that I myself am taken back to some simple teachings that I have been shared by my own teachers, and it is part of how I walk.
My mother always loved them, and she actually at some point had a copy of them hanging on her kitchen wall. I remember as I grew up, always seeing that weathered piece of paper taped near the wall phone…and gently rubbing my fingers over it as I spoke to someone on the other end of that phone. (Yeah remember that…wall phones, the kind we used to stretch the chords out so far we would be sitting on the floor in a corner of the next room so our parents couldn’t hear us talking.)
Well although the walls have long since been abandoned, and the little paper with its tape marks longs since disappeared, the words that were written have been saved in my mind, my thoughts and with echoes of my Mothers voice reading them to me in my ears forever etching them on my soul…
What words are these you ask? Well they are as follows;
Treat the Great Mother Earth and all that share it with us Respectfully.
Keep Creator close to you and talk with him often.
Respect others, respect all life as Sacred.
Work together in order to benefit of all people no matter what race, where they call home, or what religion or gender they are.
Assist others with kindness wherever, whenever it is called for.
Follow your heart and do what is right, what is called for the highest good and outcome.
Remember to take care of self so that Mind, Body and Spiritual remain balanced.
Be truthful and honest with yourself and others always.
Stand up and take full responsibility for your choices, your actions.
And the most important of all is to love. Love Yourself, Love others and remember to tell yourself and others often.
…and after all the years that have passed, this is still a wonderful code to walk our lives with. It is still something to this day I tell people on the other end of the phone, always shared with Love.
So this is what I share with you all today… Live your life well, Laugh and share with the world your positive spirit, your soul’s song…
for we are here to walk the great human journey not alone, but together with all that is Sacred.
Mitakuye O’yasin
~ bear Medicinewalker
Vanilla Skies by Jonny Lipford and available on I tunes and www.Jonnylipford.com
Sweetgrass….ahhhhh that glorious fresh scent that brings a multitude of memories to me instantly. It is the lustrous grass that my horses found one spring as soon as we let them into the pasture that contained it, we went to investigate and they almost had it all mowed down. We all laughed; for even the four leggeds understand how good it is.
It’s associated with the element of Air. The botanical name is Heirochloe odorata, currently growing mainly in the plains across the United States and on up into Canada. The plant can induce a soporific effect and have been used in meditation and shamanistic rituals with the belief that it has some mild psychotropic properties.
Native People believe that Sweet grass is the first plant that covered the Great Mother Earth. It is viewed as Sacred; we often use this plant for religious purposes such as making incense and calling spirits as well as to aid us during fasting. Drawing in positive vibrational energy along with purification it drives away the negative spirits and energies while the sweetness draws in the positive energies and spirits to assist us and guide us in the right ways.
When we use Sweetgrass for smudging drawing in positive energies it changes the energy of one’s space and being. Traditionally you will see the Sweetgrass twisted into braids and sometimes in smudge packages…I have braids in the rooms of my home and among my sacred objects. I often add clippings into my own smudge mixture with the White Sage, for it adds purification to the intention and space.
Sweetgrass can instantly change the energy surrounding one’s physical body and environment while improving our emotional state, bringing it to a renewed perspective. It draws the feelings of abundance and uplifts our spirits as it invades our senses. It also provides a positive energy to our auric fields and is useful as we perform energy work or healing practices.
Used when you need to balance or are in need of comfort, it will bring calmness and peace to your thoughts. I have found it to immediately give me a sense of empowerment, of clarity, and the ability to refocus my thoughts in order to gain a better perspective from a more positive place.
Here’s to all of you, Blessings for today and beyond
