 |
SPIRIT
LODGE
LIBRARY
Myth
& Lore
Page
33
|
(Main
Links of the site are right at the bottom of the page)
Some of the 86 pages in this Myth & Lore section are below.
The rest will be found HERE
Mother Earth
By CinnamonMoon
We are born of the Great Ones, Spirit
and Mother Earth, precious children one and all…We Are
All Related. Mother Earth or Gaia as some commonly call her
(she has a thousand names) is the essence of the feminine spirit
and she is stirring these days to reclaim her rightful place
in our lives. Neglected for a long time, she's calling to her
children and we are responding. So I thought it important to
bring some attention to her and the ways we perceive her presence.
So, the earth is our Mother…what
does that mean, what is her energy like, how do we connect with
her, why do we connect with her, what is she like? We wonder,
why does she set elemental forces into destructive mode and
claim sacrifices of those who walk or swim or fly within her
being? Mother Earth gives birth to manifest form, and with that
comes labor pains, she is alive and this planet is not going
to cease its existence simply because we inhabit it. We must
learn about her spirit and her nature so that we can co-exist
in the best possible ways and so that we can honor the source
of our nurturing sustenance.
Mother Earth provides for her children,
her energy is both primal and sacred. Honoring her is done through
ceremony and there are different aspects to it. Indigenous teachings
bring together the elements necessary to give back using our
voices in song, our connection to the heartbeat of the universe
when we drum, entering the Silence between the beats, between
the breaths, between the words. When we dance we summon her
energy up through our footfalls, and down from the universe
as our voices rise up and summon this attention to us. In this
way we unite the Mother and Father through our efforts taking
that energy into our bodies and then projecting it out into
the world for others to share.
Prayer in our hearts opens the door,
the portal of connection through the heartbeat of the universe
and the heartbeat of our bodies. We partake and invite All Our
Relations in all their diversity and co-existence and in this
way we are blessed and we bless each other through that interconnectedness.
It brings great pleasure to the Earth Mother to see her children
celebrate life, honoring her and loving one another in these
ways. Through ceremony (large or small or independently carried
out) we come to a combined state of union that brings forth
the honoring. The energy of Mother Earth teaches us about the
nurturing feminine essence found within each of us as well as
in life. It teaches the balance of receptivity needed to come
into harmony with the aggressive masculine forces that bring
action to life. She is the womb from which all life manifests,
and to which we return to be reborn.
In the Medicine teachings I've received
I've found many similarities to what the authors comments (I'll
share shortly) have to reveal. In my own experiences she has
come to me at times related to shamanic death. I have been taken
into the womb of Mother Earth and held there to be reborn as
well as during times of retrievals (another form of rebirth).
I've heard her voice speaking to me and comforting my fears
and worries. She has taught me much, shown me many things about
the role of woman, my role as a woman, as a mother, as a grandmother,
as an elder, and one who walks one of the paths to serve Spirit.
She has shown me that I am indeed one of her Daughters, and
taught me the way of All My Relations…what it really means,
not just what it sounds like.
The Earth Mother has sent her spirit
daughters to me, the Ancient Elders that taught me ritual, ceremony,
song, and various aspects of my path. These spirit women took
me into Circle and taught me many things that would let me serve
those who are Dropping their Robes. I understood the ceremonies
and rituals, but not the taboos I was shown. They tested me,
they tried my spirit, they placed me in situations where ethical
choices and intent were in question and watched to see how I
responded. They sent me from their teachings with many answers
and many questions to seek answers for. In this I journeyed
for two years before I was finished gathering the knowledge
I needed just to complete the teachings with those who are Dropping
their Robes. Some aspects of their teachings took me decades
to understand and complete, but that is part of the journey
too. I had to experience things to know them at times, and at
other times I needed only to witness to understand, and sometimes
it was a matter of re-membering…of recalling my Old Medicine,
the Medicine of my Inner Spirit that I brought with me this
lifetime…things I already knew.
In these journeys I've taken to re-member
I found that the Old Medicines were things very familiar to
me, aspects of my nature and the abilities I was manifesting
that needed to be re-membered stood out along the way and as
I recognized them they began to unfold and expand and I understood
the power/essence they contained…and why I carried them.
It was the women's ways that brought this understanding to me
as gently as possible, and when it hit hard at times it needed
to….I had to be shocked to that awareness, it had to awaken
in me, so they would shake me sometimes. A lot like the voices
of the ThunderBeings shake the earth, or rattle our windows,
and we feel them pass through us to warn of the storm that's
coming…strong, angry, nurturing, healing, loving, there
are many tones to the voice of the Earth Mother, as with any
mother's voice. She's able to coo to us, whisper and laugh or
shout if need be.
She is Nature in all its glory and
splendor, and in all its fury and rage, and she will destroy
what she must to remake it and give it new life and when we
honor her we understand this. She gives us life and she takes
us when that time is spent, back into her womb to be reborn
again. Mother Earth's daughters gifted me with many things to
assist those who are Dropping their Robes. I have received spirit
tools to work with, and have gathered the physical parts to
make my own. I have learned much of the rituals and ceremonies
involved in this manner and it is a growing part of my pathwork
today. This is also a direction I would never have taken otherwise.
Never. It was the last thing I would consider I would be doing
but today Spirit crosses my path with those who need my help
along these lines all the same, and I take them to the Earth
Mother who receives them.
At first I tried to deny the path
I was already walking any room for this aspect, I tried to refuse
people feeling I had more to learn. Mother said no to that though.
She insisted and sent them back to me, made me use my knowledge
this way, pushed me into things, told me 'you can do it' and
I did and my confidence grew and today I am comfortable sharing
whatever I can with people. I see the Medicine weave itself
each time, unique to each situation, but the weaving and patterns
are the same. So I walk this portion of my path with conviction
and am honored to serve wherever it is called for. And as the
years unfold the path grows wider and I'm shown the coming capacity
I need to pace myself for, prepare for, and give service to.
I have had Mother Earth come to
me in times of crisis, when in prayer and weeping for those
prayers to be answered. She's brought forth her voice then too,
filling the air in the room, permeating it and me. Her voice…so
gentle, so comforting, so loving, its essence and energy healing
in and of itself. She's tended me during severe illness and
shown me that I would survive the pneumonia that threatened
to take my life…assured me that I had purpose and was needed
still. She's lent me her strength, taught me her ways, and shown
me her beauty countless times.
Do I fear her? No. She is Mother
and Grandmother in one. I do not fear her, I am one of her daughters.
Do I fear her time of awakening now, the devastation brought
about by Nature's acts as she shifts and stirs, no…though
it does make my heart and spirit sad to see the suffering that
comes of these things I have been shown a larger picture and
understand they must happen to bring forth the balance, and
I know that those taken and lost to those who remain are taken
into the most gentle arms they could be cradled in. I've been
held in those same arms myself. I know they are loved, their
pain no more, and they live in a new place where they are needed.
Do I fear the cycle of life, death,
and rebirth? No. I never did hold that fear, not for myself,
or those who moved beyond our mundane world, the fears I knew
around death were for those left behind, their pain, their needs,
their loss. And she showed me that was a foolish fear as well,
their paths would be what they would be regardless of my fears,
they had their own journeys and experiences and I did not need
to worry for them. I needed only to care about them…that
was so easy to do once I understood more of this cycle. What
I would say I would fear would be the course of events that
followed her wrath. She has a temper too, and I know I would
do nothing to intentionally evoke that from her. I know that
I have no desire to bring that upon myself and those I love.
I know that it is there, that it can arise, and I take care
to walk honorably so that doesn't happen where I'm concerned,
I choose to be a good daughter.
She has shown me paths walked in
past lives, interconnections to my spirit group and those individuals
in my life today. She's shown me how some have shared many lifetimes
with me and that there will be union again and again and again.
We walk between the worlds in the cycle of rebirth, going from
the physical experience of life, to the spiritual experience
in death, and the rebirthing of these experiences which is the
journey the Inner Spirit is taking, we (as human beings) are
host, witness. The sensory aspects allow the spirit to experience
and communicate with us so that its journey can be made more
efficiently…if we open to connect.
So many lessons have been brought
to me through the Earth Mother, through Gaia, and through Grandmother
Moon. The feminine is Above us as it is Below us, the masculine
as well. It is within the keeping of the Earth Mother that we
are nurtured, experience our lessons, attain our blessings,
and share them, to bring forth as women the manifest form. All
things are born of woman, she is the vessel that contains and
pours out her blessings to the world. What is to fear?
*What follows is from my resource
notes*
SunBear, in his book ‘Dancing
With The Wheel’ presented a song to honor Mother Earth
and the direction of the North. It wasn’t his creation,
there are variations of it and different sources that are given
credit but this is his version of it, what he calls the “healed
version”. (It is traditional in many tribal cultures to
repeat the verses twice.) I thought I’d share it here in
case anyone is interested in putting the song to use.
The Earth is our Mother We’re
taking care of her
The Earth is our Mother We’re taking care of her
Hey younga, ho younga, hey young young
Hey younga, ho younga, hey young young
Her sacred ground we walk upon With every step we take
Her sacred ground we walk upon With every step we take
Hey younga, ho younga, hey young young
Hey younga, ho younga, hey young young
The totems of the Earth Mother are clay, corn, beans and squash;
her color is forest green, and her element is that of the Earth.
It is to Her we turn when we need comfort to heal anguish or
deep sadness and it is Her voice that brings that comfort forth
when we open to her. You can hear her speak, she has spoken
to me on many occasions, and her voice is pure love. She teaches
the nurturing role of the parent be we just beginning to step
into that position or if we are there and seasoned, anytime
we are troubled or need guidance she will show the way.
Clay as a mineral totem of the Earth
Mother has been used for centuries to fashion objects and healing
vessels such as bricks, pottery, bowls for pipes, fetishes and
iconic figures. Among the pieces of pottery there are often
specific jars used for initiation, fire, weather or hunting.
Clay comes from the earth and it connects us to the Earth Mother,
and that which is by its nature, Red Clay, is considered very
sacred for it contains her blood, infusing it with special powers
that heal or bring insight to understand the mysteries of life.
This sacred clay is used to draw out infections, disease, or
toxic aspects of illness from the body in the form of poultices
and even as ceremonial face paint or masks. It addresses the
body of the Earth Mother, her form and her blood, her flesh
and bone that is both cleansing and malleable.
Corn, beans, and squash are the staple
foods of many Native tribes and will often be known as the Three
Sisters…they grow together in gardens and help one another
thrive, they are used in ceremony as offerings to the Earth
Mother or in Medicine Bags as containers. Whole kernels of corn
or cornmeal are used to form boundaries in ceremony either as
the line defining the Medicine Circle or Wheel, or as boundaries
around homes for protection, or before doorways warning others
not to enter for ceremony is taking place. When used as a door
marking it is swept clear afterward so people know it is again
permitted to knock and enter.
Turtle is another symbol of the Earth
Mother and its lore can be found in our Totem Library if you
wish to study that. Encompassing the lessons of grace, patience,
experience and endurance found in the Earth Mother herself.
It is through this totem that the lessons of unity by which
we live are taught so we can avoid the harsher lessons of jealousy,
greed, and hatred. Working with this totem we come to the lessons
of the ancient wisdoms, sacrifice that is willingly made, the
joy of serving others, and being true to one’s self/nature.
Patience, endurance, stability, dependability that leads to
the value of experience are among this creature’s many
lessons as well.
The forest green color attributed
to Mother Earth represents the lush vibrancy of all green-growing
things so full of life, energy, warmth, growth and healing that
they bring to us. The nurturing, bonding, and stability of manifesting
abundance and the bounty of the harvest.
*Barbara Walker, in her book: ‘The
Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets’ did
an excellent expose’ on Mother Earth. I’d like to
share that in this article. In her words:
Herodotus said, “Three different
names have been given to the earth, which is but one, and those
derived from the names of women.” Herodotus miscounted.
Thousands of feminine names have been given to the earth. Continents
– Asia, Africa, Europe – were named after manifestations
of the Goddess. Countries bore the names of female ancestors
or of other manifestations of the Goddess: Libya, Lydia, Russia,
Anatolia, Latium, Holland, China, Ionia, Akkad, Chaldea, Scotland
(Scotia), Ireland (Eriu, Hera) were but a few. Every nation
gave its own territory the name of its own Mother Earth. Mother
Earth received universal worship because she was the universal
parent. American Indians still relate how all peoples and animals
in the beginning emerged from Earth’s yonic hole, and “it
was just like a child being born from its mother. The place
of emergence is the womb of the earth.”
Siberian reindeer hunters say the
human race emerged from a Goddess, whose carved figurines protect
the hunter’s hut, when given offerings and prayers: “Help
us to keep healthy! Help us to kill much game!”
The central doctrine of Amerindian
religion was reincarnation in a new body from Earth Mother’s
womb, the ancient meaning of “born again.”
A chief named Smohalla spoke of
his moral obligations formed by this doctrine: “It is a
sin to wound or cut, to tear or scratch our common mother by
working at agriculture. You ask me to dig in the earth? Am I
to take a knife and plunge it into the breast of my mother?
But then, when I die, she will not gather me again to her bosom.
You tell me to dig up and take away the stones. Must I mutilate
her flesh so as to get at her bones? Then I can never again
enter into her body and be born again.” Oriental Indians
had much the same idea about entering the earth. Hindu priests
told a dead man: “Go, seek the earth, that wise and kind
mother of all. O Earth, rise up and do not hurt his bones; be
kind and gentle to him. O Earth, cover him as a mother covers
her infant with the skirts of her garment.”
Ancient Roman philosophers had the
same idea too. “The Earth Mother is the mysterious power
that awakes everything to life….All comes from the earth
and all ends in the earth…the earth produces all things
and then enfolds them again…the Goddess is the beginning
and end of all life.” A Roman writer of the 3rd century
A.D. prayed to “Holy Goddess Earth, Nature’s mother,
who bringeth all to life, and revives all from day to day. The
food of life Thou grantest in eternal fidelity. And when the
soul hath retired we take refuge in Thee. All that Thou grantest
falls back somewhere into Thy womb.:
Patriarchal Christians might have
been expected to speak of Father Heaven rather than Mother Earth,
yet they found it impossible to give up the older deity. The
epitaph of Pope Gregory the Great said: “Suscipe Terra
Tuo de corpore sumptum: “Receive O Earth, what was taken
from thy body.” Even up to the 20th century, tombstones
of German Christians bore the formula: Hier ruht im Mutterschoss
der Erde…., “Here rests in Earth’s maternal womb…”
In Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale an old man pleaded with
the Goddess: “…I walk alone and wait About the earth,
which is my mother’s gate, Knock-knocking with my staff
from night to noon And crying, “Mother, open to me soon!
Look at me, Mother, won’t you let me in? See how I wither,
flesh and bones and skin! Alas! When will these bones be laid
to rest?”
This was more than a poetic metaphor.
As late as the 12th century, many Europeans still recognized
Mother Earth as a Goddess, perhaps their only supreme divinity.
She was described in an English herbal of the period with no
mention of God at all: “Earth, divine goddess, Mother Nature,
who doest generate all things and bringest forth ever anew the
sun which thou hast given to the nations; Guardian of sky and
sea and of all Gods and powers; through thy influence all nature
is hushed and sinks to sleep…Again, when it pleases thee,
thou sendest forth the glad daylight and nurturest life with
thine eternal surety; and when the spirit of man passes, to
thee it returns. Thou are indeed rightly named Great Mother
of the Gods; Victory is thy divine name. Thou art the source
of the strength of peoples and gods; without thee nothing can
either be born or made perfect; thou are mighty, Queen of the
Gods. Goddess, I adore thee as divine, I invoke thy name; vouchsafe
to grant that which I ask of thee, so shall I return thanks
to thy godhead.”
Up to the Renaissance, English farmers
continued to call upon Erce, eorthan modor (Earth, mother of
earth) when planting. Similarly, up to the 20th century, Russian
farmers continued to call upon Mati-Syra-Zemlya (Moist Mother
Earth) for almost everything. Instead of touching a Bible when
taking an oath, a Russian peasant would put a clod of earth
on his forehead, invoking the Mother’s curse if he broke
his word. This perpetuated an ancient Greek habit. Even the
patriarchal Olympian gods swore their binding oaths by Mother
Earth: Gaea, or Rhea, called Universal Mother, Deep-Breasted
One, firmly founded, oldest of divinities. Hesiod admitted that
she ruled Olympus before the coming of the Hellenic deities.
She ruled Russia too. The country bore her ancient name, Rha
(Rhea), the Red One, mother of the Volga and all its tribes.
Home and Mother were literally identical
to people who combined both in their image of the earth-goddess.
Many believed they must be buried in the same soil that supported
them in childhood. Threatened by invaders, the matriarchal Cimmerians
could have saved themselves by moving away from their homeland;
but they chose to face superior numbers of enemies, and die
where they were, believing their lives valueless if they couldn’t
re-unite with the same Earth that gave them birth. The Egyptian
traveler Sinuhe felt the approach of death and hurried home
to his motherland “to follow the Lady of All,” hoping
that she would “spend eternity by my side.”
Post-mortem reunion with the Mother
always overlapped with the idea of marrying her. Man seldom
distinguished clearly between his three roles as the Goddess’s
child, corpse, and bridegroom. Balkan peasants still view death
as a sacred marriage, and dress corpses as for a wedding. Formal
dirges say: “The black earth for my wife I took.”
Ancient Greek epitaphs similarly proclaimed the dead man “admitted
to the bridal chamber of Persephone.” Artemidorus wrote:
“All the accompaniments of marriage are exactly the same
as those of death.”
The archetypal image of the marriage-with-Earth
had a curious revival in the special mid-Victorian pornography
known as porntopia, in which the female body was a landscape,
and man correspondingly reduced in fantasy about the size of
a fly: “In the middle distance there looms a large irregular
shape. On the horizon swell two immense snowy white hillocks;
these are capped by great, pink, and as it were prehensile peaks
or tips—as if the rosy-fingered dawn itself were playing
just behind them. The landscape undulates gently down to a broad,
smooth, swelling plain, its soft rolling curves broken only
in the lower center by a small volcanic crater or omphalos.
Farther down, the scene narrows and changes in perspective.
Off to the right and left jut two snowy ridges. Between them,
at their point of juncture, is a dark wood…sometimes it
is called a thicket…triangular in shape. It is also like
a cedarn cover, and in its midst is a dark romantic chasm. In
this chasm the wonders of nature abound. From its top there
depends a large, pink stalactite, which changes shape, size
and color in accord with the movement of tides below and within.
Within the chasm—which is roughly pear-shaped—there
are caverns measureless to man, grottoes, hermits’ caves,
underground streams—a whole internal and subterranean landscape.
The climate is warm but wet. Thunderstorms are frequent in this
region, as are tremors and quakings of the earth. The walls
of the cavern often heave and contract in rhythmic violence,
and when they do the salty streams that run through it double
their flow. The whole place is dark yet visible. This is the
center of the earth and the home of man.”
Marcus attributes these images of
pronotopia to a spiritual loss, possibly related in a direct
way to contemporary denial of the earth-mother figure in a religious
symbolism, as well as Victorian society’s suppression of
sexuality: “One gets the distinct impression, after reading
a good deal of this literature, that it could only have been
written by men who at some point in their lives had been starved…Inside
of every pornographer there is an infant screaming for the breast
from which he has been torn. Pornography represents an endless
and infinitely repeated effort to recapture that breast, and
the bliss it offered.”
Acquisitiveness seems to have been
another manifestation of the hidden psychic hunger for possession
of Mother Earth. Her European names Urth, Hertha, Eortha, Erda,
Hretha, etc. stemmed from Sanskrit Artha, “mater-ial wealth.”
Among the Hindu-rooted gypsies, “earth” meant good
luck, fortune, money. Latin Mater (Mother) became English “matter,”
of which Plutarch said, “Matter hath the function of mother
and nurse…and containeth the elements from which everything
is produced.” Tibetans still say the elements are produced
by the Old Mother. The material body has the special name of
Nanna-Maya, variations of which appeared everywhere in the ancient
Mediterranean world as names of the Great Goddess. The “soul
manifested in matter” is defined as the Anna-Maya self.
The sages say, “mind and matter are at base one as modes
of the same Power…Mind is the subjective and Matter the
objective aspect of the one polarized Consciousness.”
Western theology split this former
unity into duality, regarding matter (or flesh) and mind (or
spirit) as intrinsically different from, and opposed to, one
another. Thus, says Jung, “the word ‘matter’
remains a dry, inhuman, and purely intellectual concept, without
any psychic significance for us. How different was the former
image of matter—the Great Mother—that could encompass
and express the profound emotional meaning of Mother Earth.
After the image of Mother Earth
as birth-giver, perhaps that of Mother Earth as receiver of
the dead aroused the most profound
emotional responses. When death was viewed as a return to the
infantile state of sleep in the Mother’s bosom, it seemed
less terrifying. The Rig Veda says, “Crawl into your Mother
Earth. She will save you from the void.” In medieval ballads,
the hero’s lady-love sometimes impersonated Mother Earth
by covering her lover with her green mantle, to put him “out
of sight” as if buried. Greek peasants thought the worst
kind of curse on an enemy was to wish Mother Earth would not
accept him: “May the earth not digest thee! May the black
earth spew thee up! May the ground not consume thee!” Such
a one rejected by the earth would be a revernant or a restless
ghost.
In France during the 12th century,
a sect of heretics were sent to the stake by the Archbishop
of Reims, apparently for worshipping Mother Earth, among other
offenses. Led to execution, one of them “cried again and
again, ‘O Earth, cleave asunder!’” His hearers
thought he was trying to get the earth to swallow his enemies,
but he may have believed the earth could open and swallow him
to save him from the stake. Like the original death aspect of
Rhea or Cerridwen, Mother Earth was still supposed to devour
her children.
*Sioux terms:
Ina: mother
Inipi: a sweat bath
Is’nati (ishnati) to menstruate, dwelling apart
Isna Ti Ca Lowan First Menses, or Ceremony of Isolation wherein
the “new woman” is instructed as to her responsibilities
to her family and creation. The help of the White Buffalo Calf
Maiden is called upon, including her legacy of wisdom, to ensure
that this girl will be able to live up to these standards. This
ceremony is so strongly related to Whope’ (the falling
star) that it is also known as the White Buffalo Ceremony. In
the old days the material used to absorb menstrual blood was
wrapped up and placed in the branches of a plum tree to keep
it from the schemes of Iktomi, the trickster.
Maka: the earth
*Walking In The Sacred Manner by Mark St. Pierre and
Tilda Long Soldier:
The most powerful story in Lakota
life is that of White Buffalo Calf Woman. The Sacred Maiden
brought, or altered, all the rituals that took the Lakota on
the passages through life. All religions must do that—create
meaningful passage through ritual, from one stage of life to
another. For Lakota women, these stages correspond to those
of Mother Earth herself: the rock age, the bow age, the fire
age, and the pipe age. These four stages for humans are childhood,
adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
Reincarnation is one possibility
for the Lakota after death, so it might be said that this cycle
could “end” in rebirth, or that it never ends. It
is her sacred character that Lakota women are to emulate if
they are to live a good and respected life. Whereas all agree
that she exists, not all Lakota agree on who this person was.
Some say she is a reincarnation of Whope’ (the falling
star), the beautiful one. In an earlier epic legend central
to concepts of Lakota life, she was sent by Mahpiyata, the Sky,
to live with Tate’, the Wind, and his five sons. When asked
by Tate’ who she was she said, “The Sun is my father,
the Moon is my mother, and the stars are my people.” Eventually
she came to marry Itokaga, the South Wind. In the lengthy stories
about her stay with Tate’, she in turn tests each
of the males in the household as they try to win her hand in
marriage. Yummi, the childlike Whirlwind, loves Whope’
as a child loves a mother.
The Role of Women:
In Lakota society, the spiritual and economic powers of women
were not only acknowledged but well respected. When a man took
a wife, he lived in her camp. When the Lakota traced their ancestry,
while acknowledging and respecting their father’s relatives,
most took the band name of their mothers. These patterns still
exist. Because Lakota society is more balanced with regard to
the male and female forces than other societies, it is little
wonder that there are two commonly told legends about the end
of the world—one female-based, the other male. Here is
a female version told to me by the late Lucy Swan, a respected
Lakota elder, in the mid-1970’s.
“There is a very old woman who
sits on the edge of a tall bluff. She is quilling a beautiful
design on a buffalo robe. The woman is very old, so she tires
easily. Beside her sits an ancient dog. He is so old that he
has very few teeth. Even though he is old, he is still playful.
Every day the woman quills that buffalo robe. Soon she is tired
and falls asleep. When she rests at night, the dog unravels
all that she did the day before. If that dog forgets to unravel
those quills, or gets too old, the old woman will finish the
robe. That will be the end of the world.”
The earth and rocks are part of the
living Mother Earth (her ‘skeleton’) and thus are
the oldest part of creation .These things are used in helping
the living, because they have power. This quality can be added
or enhanced, as when a holy man or woman makes a wasicun (medicine,
a talisman) that will protect or benefit the “patient.”
Along with her sacred songs and spirit helpers, these medicine
objects are the literal tools of the holy woman’s trade.
The bear is a very special animal,
thought to resemble humans in many ways, including its ability
to walk on two legs. It roots out herbs and thus has a knowledge,
like badger and skunk, of those plants that live both above
and below the earth. The bear is the one animal who chooses
to share his sacred wisdom directly with humanity, forming a
unique alliance. Because the bear is ruler of the underworld
creatures, it is closely aligned with the powers of Mother Earth
and is also considered chief of all the animals when it comes
to knowledge of herbal medicine. The female bear is said to
represent Lakota attitudes toward bravery, especially in defending
one’s family. Men and women who dreamed of the bear (bear
dreamers) were often the ones who became physicians and pharmacists.
A number of women we have met have been Mato Ihan’bla,
or bear dreamers.
The spider, although not a true four
legged, has a sacred number of legs – eight – and
is associated with things that crawl. It was the spider that
led the first humans to the surface world, and it is the inspiration
for human technology. Since the trap-door spider on the prairie
was seen to borrow and seek the shelter of the rocks and earth,
it is also closely associated with the powers of Mother Earth
and is a particularly useful ally in doctoring the sick, and
in various incarnations is a common helper of healers.
The turtle is probably the most prominent
of the water animals. The Lakota believe that the earth was
built on the back of a turtle. Therefore the turtle is synonymous
with Mother Earth, the female procreative power. Beaded or quilled
Cekpapi (charms) fashioned in the shape of a turtle are
made for newborn girls. Lizard-shaped effigies are made for
baby boys. In this umbilical bundle is placed the dried umbilical
plug from the newborn child. The turtle symbolizes the care
of Mother Earth and evokes the protection of the turtle’s
famous shell, just as the lizard symbolizes a sturdy constitution
and good health: “The symbolic basis for the representation
of the turtle…is found in the belief that the turtle has
power over the functional diseases peculiar to women, and also
over conception, birth, and the period of infancy. The eating
of the living heart of the turtle is regarded as a positive
cure for menstrual disorders and barrenness.”
The following passage, from Belle
Starboy, speaks about a ‘turtle woman’: “I am
from Oak Creek Community [Rosebud Reservation]. I remember when
I was a little girl, maybe about nine, a woman came to my house.
She asked me about how I was doing in school—just sort
of visited. She took out a turtle to show me. It was green or
dark on top, but I remember its underside was many colors of
red and orange.
She visited with my mom and dad
from time to time, because she was related to them, I guess.
This woman’s name was Elsie Flood, and she was an old full-blood
woman. She was never married and didn’t have any children.
Grandma Flood always used to carry at least one live turtle
with her. Sometimes she would give them to people. I remember
that sometimes she would be sitting by the side of the road
out in the middle of nowhere, and we’d stop to ask her
if she needed a ride. She would usually say, “No, I must
sit with my turtle friend a little longer.”
Grandma Flood was well respected
by the older people. She used to wear turtle things on her person,
like a turtle-print dress or a little turtle pin. My older sister
remembers that she came shortly before my younger sister was
born; I wonder if that had something to do with it. I was born
nine years after my sister.”
Mary Crow Dog, a Lakota writer from
near Mission, on the Rosebud Reservation, remembered Mrs. Flood
as well: “I loved to visit Aunt Elise Flood to listen to
her stories. With her high cheekbones, she looked like Grandma.
She had a voice like water bubbling, talking with a deep, throaty
sound. And she talked fast, mixing Indian and English together.
I had to pay strict attention if I wanted to understand what
she told me. She always paid her bills, earning a living by
her arts and crafts, her beautiful work with beads and porcupine
quills….
She was also a medicine woman. She
was an old-time woman, carrying her pack [medicine bundle] on
her back. She would not let a man or younger woman carry her
burden. She carried it herself, being proud of her turtle medicine.
She used turtles for her protection. Wherever she went, she
always had some little live turtles with her, and all kinds
of things made out of tortoiseshell, little charms and boxes….
The turtle woman was afraid of nothing.
She was always hitchhiking, constantly on the road, thumbing
her way from one place to the other. She was a mystery to some.
The Indians held her in great respect, saying that she was “waken,”
that she was some sort of holy person to whom turtles had given
their powers.”
It is possible that these turtle
women had power over infertility. Given the Lakota attitude
toward “new generations,” a turtle dreamer would have
been held in high regard. It is in a beaded or quilled turtle
amulet that the dried umbilical cord of a baby girl is placed.
There is an old Lakota song that
believed to be very powerful. In this cryptic poem, spirits
are called upon in order, by name, and with great reverence.
The rocks referred to are small, round rocks that come to the
holy person and aid him or her. Each of the four directions,
or winds, is separately called upon, invoking the powers and
color of that direction and the specific kinds of help associated
with it. Mother Earth is honored and called upon as well, the
spider representing one of her most powerful spirit helpers,
the legendary Iktomi. The spotted eagle is also called upon,
to help communicate with Father Sky.
Friend, I will send a voice, so
hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
In the west I call a black stone
friend.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
In the north I call a red stone friend.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
In the east I call a yellow stone
friend.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
In the south I call a white stone
friend.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
On earth, I will call a spider friend.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Above, I call a spotted eagle friend.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
Friend, I will send a voice, so hear me.
-- Lakota Yuwipi song
Wallace Black Elk and William S.
Lyon in their book “Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a
Lakota” address Mother Earth’s nature.
….”And the rocks, the rocks have songs. Like the rock
I wear around my neck, it has a song. All the stones that are
around here, each one has a language of its own. Even the Earth
has a song. We call it Mother Earth. We call her Grandmother
and she has a song.”
“Grandmother the Earth is asleep.
At the same time she knows—she smells, tastes, feels, sees,
and hears everything. The whole
world is her eyes. The whole world is her ears, sense of smell,
taste, and feeling. But at this time she’s asleep. So we
Earth People have to poke a little hole (build a stone-people-lodge)
in the Earth so she could breathe and communicate with us. Then
we put the fire (hot rocks) back in there. Put those stone-people
in there. Then we offer a little green (burn cedar on the hot
stones), and we offer a little water (pour water on the hot
stones). We always remember Tunkashila first. We always honor
Tunkashila the Creator, because Grandmother and Tunkashila are
one.
So I learned from the old people
that those spirits that come are my relatives. They learned
that from the spirit. The spirit told them,
“This Chanupa is your relative.
The powers of the Four Winds are your relatives.
Pray to them.
Talk to them.
They are your relatives.
Send a voice out there.
These are your relatives.
Look that way.
These are your relatives.
Look to the North,
the Buffalo Nation,
the White Buffalo Calf Maiden,
the Chanupa,
these are your relatives.
To the East,
the Elk Nation,
Black Elk,
and the Elk Nation Woman that brings joy and happiness,
these are your relatives.
To the South,
the Swan,
the two-legged spirits that bring joy and happiness,
the medicine people that bring health come from there.
These are your relatives.
Above you is the Eagle Nation.
They watch, control, govern.
They control the weather.
They are the true meteorologists.
These are your relatives.
Down to the Earth, the stone-people are your relatives.
So when you go back,
tell your people that these are all your relatives.”
That’s what the voice said.”
“
Then we built a lodge up there, and
it’s time to go to the altar. There we offer a little green—cedar,
sage, and sweetgrass. Then we talk about Mother Earth, and I
tell him how this sweetgrass is Mother Earth’s hair. It
is a perfume. When my grandma’s spirit comes she carries
that smell, that perfume, and you can smell it. That’s
why we use the sweetgrass as a prayer at the altar.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Libraries
are on this row
|
|
|
INDEX
Page 3
(Main Section, Medicine Wheel, Native Languages &
Nations, Symbology)
|
|
INDEX
Page 5
(Sacred Feminine & Masculine, Stones & Minerals)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
©
Copyright: Cinnamon Moon & River WildFire Moon (Founders.)
2000-date
All rights reserved.
Site
constructed by Dragonfly
Dezignz 1998-date
|
|
