We Indians love to come into sympathy and spiritual communion with our brother and sisters of the animal Kingdom, whose inarticulate souls hold for us something of the sinless purity that we attribute to the innocent and irresponsible child.
We have a faith in their instincts, as in a mysterious wisdom given from above; and while we humbly accept the sacrifice of their bodies to preserve our own, we pay homage to their spirits in prescribed prayers and offerings.
Wisdom of the Native Americans
Let's hope the one thing we learn is to observe the creatures that the Great One has sent here, so we can learn to survive as a tribe...maybe, as the Cherokee and the Hopi believe, we are the people of the stars and the Sun...maybe our destiny is short here on Mother Earth as we learn to adapt to another world.
Surely, our future depends on our acceptance of the Old Wisdom in learning to live in harmony and balance, in the way of the Sun and Moon.
Meditations with the Cherokee
Often I went to the mountains; there My loneliness did not depress me.
There I felt freedom. There I was not alone. There were the mountains, and they "understood" me, and I knew their harks customs and their great beauty. All who lived in the mountains knew the "rules of the Spirit" and respected Him.
They respected also plants growing over precipices, birds hatching their young, animals hunting there.
I too respected all of them, respected their freedom, their right to life, and even the right of a puma, for example, to try to take my life.
And they also respected me...~?
~Native American Spirituality~
Linda Barrios, Sky Apache
"This is the time to relearn how to live with the Earth. It is a time to honor Spirit.
It is a time to listen to the Mother.
It is a time to reawaken our feminine emotional awareness so we can communicate with the higher octaves of reality, as we did once long ago when we were all living free upon this sacred egg we call Earth.
It is time once again to feel the wind upon your face, to smell the Earth after the newly fallen rain, to learn the power of living in the cold without freezing, because what you think with your body is what you create."
~Last Cry, Native American Prophecies
Go to where the trees are very old. They are the lungs of this Earth and they purify the air. Go to where these standing people take the poisons fro the breath of the Dragon. They can change it by breathing, and they give the clean sir back to you, so that you may live.
Last Cry, Native American Prophecies
The lands of the planet call to humankind for redemption. But it is a redemption of sanity, not a supernatural reclamation project at the end of history.
The planet itself calls to the other species for relief. Religion cannot be kept within the bounds of sermons and scriptures.
It is a force in and of itself and calls for the integration of lands and people in harmonious unity.
The land waits for those who can discern their rhythms. The peculiar genius of each continent each river valley, the rugged mountains, the placid lakes all call for relief from the constant burden of exploration.
Vine Deloria Jr. Lakota, 1973
A spirit of the deity of the Lakota Tribe, Wohpe is also known as "White Buffalo Calf Woman". Her myth tells us she was the daughter of the sky, and her role was to meditate between mankind and the spirit world.
She entered the material world as a falling star; once landed, she appeared to other human beings as a beautiful woman, and met with "Tate" who was wind personified. His sons were winds, too, but it was Wohpe who organized them and accorded them their directions.
Every Step is a Prayer
One of our old, old holy men said, "Every step you take upon the earth should be a prayer. The power of a pure and good soul is planted as a seed in every person's heart, and will grow as you walk in a sacred manner." And if every step you take is a prayer, then you will always be walking in a ...sacred manner.
Sacred Texts: Native American Wisdom, Charmaine White Face, 1993
We recognized the spirit in all creation, and believe that we draw spiritual power from it.
Our respect for the mortal parts of our brothers and sisters, the animals, often leads us so far to lay out the body of any game we catch and decorate the head with symbolic paint or feathers.
We then stand before it in an attitude of prayer, holding up the pipe that contains our sacred tobacco, as a gesture that we have freed with honor the spirit of our brother or sister, whose body we were compelled to take to sustain our own life.
The Soul of the Indian
The Indian's symbol is the circle, the hoop. Nature wants things to be round.
The bodies of human beings and animals have no corners. With us the circle stands for the togetherness of people who sit with one another around the campfire, relatives and friends united in peace, while the Pipe passes from hand to hand.
The camp in which every tipi had its place was also in a ring.
The tipi was a ring in which people sat in a circle, and all the families in the village were in turn circles, within a larger circle. Part of the larger hoop which was the seven campfires of the Sioux, representing one Nation.
The Nation was only part of the Universe, in itself circular and made of the earth, which is round, of the stars, which are round...the moon. the horizon, the rainbow circles within circles, with no beginning...and no end.
John Lame Deer
Red is the east; it is where the daybreak star, the star of knowledge appears. Red is the rising sun, bringing us a new day, new experiences, we thank you, Great Spirit, for each new day that we are allowed to live upon Our Mother Earth.
From knowledge springs wisdom and goodness, and we are thankful, oh Wakan Tanka. For the morning star that rises in the east. Knowledge shall become the beginning, for ultimate peace throughout this world.
Indian Prayer for the East
We must learn the lessons of life through all things and then pass the gifts of life to those that follow in our footsteps...for they will need them even more, as Mother Earth and and Father Sky continue to be darkened by the progress of the Nothing...so goes the Circle of life, and in its simplicity, contains all the vastness of the Universe....Oneia..(Forever)
Chief Dan George
If you ask, "What are the fruits of silence?" we will answer, "They are self control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence...silence is the cornerstone of character."
"Guard your tongue in youth," said the old chief, Wabasha, "and in age you may mature a thought that will be of service to your people.".
The Soul of an Indian
The Power Of Silence
We first Americans mingle with our pride an exceptional humility. Spiritual arrogance is foreign to our nature and teaching.
We believe profoundly in silence. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. Those who can preserve their self hood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence. Not a leaf, as it were, astir on a tree.
Not a ripple upon the shining pool. Those, in the mind of the person of nature, possess the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
If you ask us, "What is silence?" we will answer, "It is the Great Mystery, the holy silence is...God's voice."
The Soul of an Indian
Native Americans understood the critical balance of the Universal Circle with Mother Earth, the animals, fish, birds, plants, insects, and trees, and the ecosystem itself.
All living things were considered interdependent within the Universal Circle.
There was a true appreciation and respect for the interdependence for life as everything existing in harmony and balance.
As an Elder said "We are kin to all things, and all things are kin to us...that's why we are the keepers of Mother Earth and protectors of all living things."
Medicine of the Cherokee
"Most people do not remember this, but there was a test of endurance and vision, said the Elder...the plants and animals were given a chance to test their endurance in staying awake while praying to the Great One during the long evenings.
All the animals fell asleep, with the exception of the owl and the panther.
So, they were given the power to see in the dark and to continue their prayers so others could sleep at night.
Of the plants, only the nightshade plants and the trees of cedar, pine, holly, and laurel were still awake...so, they were given the special color to always be green and have powerful medicine.
"Miantonomi....brothers, we must be one as the English are, or we will be destroyed. You know our fathers had plenty of deer and skins and our plains were full of game and turkeys, and our coves and rivers were full of fish.
But, brothers, since these Englishmen have seized our country, they have cut down the grass with scythes, and trees with axes.
Their cows and horses eat up the grass, and their hogs spoil our bed of clams; and finally we shall starve to death; therefore, I ask you, resolve and act like me."
Native American Customs
Will you ever begin to understand the meaning of the very soil beneath your feet?
From a grain of sand to a great mountain, all is sacred. Yesterday and tomorrow exist eternally upon this continent.
We natives are guardians of this sacred place.
Peter Blue Cloud
"May serenity circle on silent wings, and catch the whisper of the wind."
Cheewa James"
The generations unborn, our heirs, will curse our generation, if we do not seriously heed these first rumbling, ominous warnings.
Regardless of philosophical, religious, or theological persuasion, we must begin immediately to meet on some common ground to slow down and eventually halt the polluting and unbalancing causes.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
"We sing our songs, say our prayers, because they have been transmitted to us by our ancestors, and they knew more than we what is good."
Secret Native American Pathways
The Ways Of The Spirit
We do not chart and measure the vast field of nature or express her wonders in the terms of science; on the contrary...we see miracles on every hand.
The miracle of life in seed and egg, the miracle of death in a lightning flash, and in the swelling deep.
Ohiyesa
The Soul of an Indian
Again and again we have proved our worth as citizens of this country by our consistency in the face of hardship and death.
Prejudice and racial injustice have been no excuse for our breaking our word. this simplicity and fairness has cost us dear...it has cost us our land, and our freedom, and even the extinction of our race as a separate and unique people.
As an ideal, we live and will live, not only in the splendor of our past, the poetry of our legends and art, not only in the infusion of our blood with yours, and in faithful adherence to the ideals of American citizenship, but in the living heart of a nation.
The Soul of an Indian, Charles Eastman, Ohiyesa, 1915
The Soul of an Indian
"Indeed, our contribution to our nation and the world is not to be measured in the material realm.
Our greatest contribution has been spiritual and philosophical. Silently, by example only, we have held stoutly to our native vision of personal faithfulness to duty and devotion to a trust.
We have not advertised our faithfulness nor made capital of our honor."
The Soul of an Indian, by Charles Eastman
I am an Indian; and while I have learned much from civilization, I have never lost my Indian sense of right justice.
Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our Mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor?
Where the good things of Earth were not ours to hold against our brothers and sisters, but were ours to use and enjoy together with them, and with whom it was our privilege to share.
The Soul of the Indian
Growth comes with the increasing awareness of and respect for the Great Mystery in all people and things, with an awareness that this force of mystery is at work in all events.
Growth comes through tolerance for the infinite variety of ways in which the Great Spirit, the Infinite, may express itself in this universe.
Rainbow Tribe
As we sat in a circle together at the Indian Friendship Centre', the thunder and darkness seemed to set the scene, the grief center had heard this story all to often, but each time it touched the heart even more.
As the two sisters shared their story of how their brother took his own life because of not knowing how to cope with life, the tears and fears swelled in their eyes an trembling in their words of the uncertain future, which might reach them, and their children.
They asked for a traditional healing so that their walk in life would be easier and be able to let the spiritual memories of their brother be released into the spirit world and not in the dreams as nightmares.
As I shared what Grandfather Spirit had said many years before " that life has its experiences and the brothers and sisters we meet along the way must be cherished, because every moment is part of the spiritual journey the Great Spirit gives us as a present for one another to help those in need.
Grieving is the gift a fallen spirit has left behind, and sometimes who hurts more, the person who takes their own life, or the people who are left along this tragic act of emotional pain. The lesson sometimes takes a long time to deal, and to heal from".
Lifting the rattle and calling the ancestors to aid in the release of the fallen brother's spirit and bidding it travel from the sister's and unto the spirit world for reunion with the ancestors...a wind spirit flowed into the room from the open window, gently touching the suffering sisters, lifting the fallen brother's spirit from their hearts and carried him outward to join the ancestors, as silence settled into the room..., turning one last time from a mountain trail giving them one last wave as he disappeared into the mist.
Each part of a "Drum" is symbolic of the living spirits that come together from the spirit world...Grandfather spirit shares why the drum has such powerful medicine.
The Wood from Grandmother tree unites Mother Earth and Father Sky, pointing the way to our ultimate destiny after our lessons are learned.
The frame of wood teaches about the stability we need to stand with pride to face challenges in life.
The Animal hide gave it's life so the drum could carry messages from the ancestors.
In respect for the animal spirits we must always respect and honor the environment where the animal spirits live on this earth.
The animal spirits teach us how precious and fragile the gift of life is and how we need to take care of that gift.
The lacing binds together the missing parts of life that seem incomplete like family union, community togetherness and separation of the Nations of Mother Earth.
By bringing back to us teachings of the ancestors through the songs that travel on the drums, the lifeline is held together and everything in creation is reunited and brought together in harmony like in the great traditions of our ancestors.
This symbolizes holding onto the experiences and the memories. These are the teachings that the soul learns during this lifetime and that we take with us when we travel into the afterlife.
The bones teach us lessons from the ancestors of all the cultures who share Mother Earth along with the traditional stories and teachings that have carved the way for who we are today.
Color brings a special sense of accomplishment to the painter.
When a drum is painted it is given a personal signature, and the artist who paints the drum shares his spirit with the nations and joins in the songs.
When the first drum is made it is tradition to give it away as a gift to someone that has had an important influence in our life.
This is because the gift of drum making can never be taken from the spirit.
There is a special magic and holiness about the girl and woman. They are the bringers of life to the people and the teachers of little children.
Sweet Medicine, Cheyenne
If Fox is your power animal...
the slyness that was born as a way of surviving significant trauma in your earliest years has evolved into a wily instinctual intelligence and very sharpened senses that work in your favor, giving you great confidence in dealing with worldly affairs.
Although your already a night person, you'll likely become even more nocturnal.
You're an astute observer, undetected by others, who hears whats being said, and see what isn't being seen. This gift allows you to be one step ahead of everyone else.
Not only do you blend in with your environment to the point of being invisible, but you can also shape-shift into different identities by adjusting your body language and vocal characteristics so that even people that know you at not recognize you at first.
Power Animals
Heal the Women...
then they can heal themselves.
"Once the women have been healed, then they can heal the men.
With strong hearts they can help heal the fear that has consumed men, which is what happens when you lose contact with your spirit.
When the men are healed, then we can dream the new dream for this Earth and use the Ghost Dance Medicine that Mahto has given us.
Then we will be dance with Sitting Bull and the Porcupine once again...then we will return to the ways of the "Great Peace", Kia neri Kowa.
then they can heal themselves.
"Once the women have been healed, then they can heal the men.
With strong hearts they can help heal the fear that has consumed men, which is what happens when you lose contact with your spirit.
When the men are healed, then we can dream the new dream for this Earth and use the Ghost Dance Medicine that Mahto has given us.
Then we will be dance with Sitting Bull and the Porcupine once again...then we will return to the ways of the "Great Peace", Kia neri Kowa.
Last Cry, Native American Prophecies
The Morning Water Woman
The Morning Water Woman takes the same place as Mother Earth in the traditional Lakota Spirituality. She has an emotional appeal and touches the hearts of all those who have gone through a long night of praying and singing.
Meditations with The Lakota
From birth to death we Indians are enfolded in symbols, as in a blanket.
An infant's cradle board is covered in designs, to ensure a happy, healthy life for the child.
The moccasins of the dead have their soles beaded in a certain way to ease their journey to the hereafter.
For the same reason most of us have tattoos on our wrists ~ just a name, a few letters, a design.
The Owl Woman who guards the road to the spirit lodges look at these tattoos and lets us pass...they are like a passport.
Some Indians believe that if you don't have these signs of your body, Ghost Woman will throw you over a cliff, and you will have to roam the earth endlessly...as a ghost
An infant's cradle board is covered in designs, to ensure a happy, healthy life for the child.
The moccasins of the dead have their soles beaded in a certain way to ease their journey to the hereafter.
For the same reason most of us have tattoos on our wrists ~ just a name, a few letters, a design.
The Owl Woman who guards the road to the spirit lodges look at these tattoos and lets us pass...they are like a passport.
Some Indians believe that if you don't have these signs of your body, Ghost Woman will throw you over a cliff, and you will have to roam the earth endlessly...as a ghost
John Lame Deer, of Meditations with The Lakota
The Butterfly
The Butterfly is a very spiritual bug and represents the presence of good spirits. Butterflies signal change, metamorphosis, balance, harmony, grace, peace, beauty, and spirituality...they are a good sing.
Butterfly's Message To You
Everyone of us emerges from the darkness and gestation, in which we enter as one self and come out as another.
Throughout each stage of this transformation process, I remain aware and fully present, so must you. When you spread your wings and float into your new life, know that you are safe and that this is part of a natural movement
You may not know exactly what's going on at any particular stage, but have faith.
After a period of exertion your soul will find it's way through the darkness, count on it, then you will emerge into the next expression of "you".
Throughout these cycles, faith, share the love, and set crystal clear intentions...you have absolutely nothing to fear.
Sacred Messengers
"Behold my brothers, the spring has come. The earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love. Every seed is awakened and has all animal life, it is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves...to inhabit this land."
Sitting Bull, Tatanka Yotanka, Hunkpapa Sioux
Sitting Bull, war chief and holy man was born in 1831, and assassinated on December 1890...he made this speech at a Powder River council in 1877
The highest form of respect for another person is respecting their right to be self-determining.
This means not interfering with another person's ability to choose.
Every experience holds a valuable lesson - even in death...there is a valuable learning that the spirit carries forth.
Noninterference means caring in a respectful way of "right relationship".
Each person living being on Mother Earth, has their own Medicine that should not be disrupted or changed without that person choosing it. This is part of the learning what moves the Circle is choice, and what keeps the circle is kindness and respect for the natural flow of life-energies.
Medicine of the Cherokee
If someone dreams of a feather, it could be associated to a spirit.
Feathers can be a symbol of that which carries us into the imaginal world, of the spiritual world.
They can be a means of finding one's fantasies. They can be a sign of that which is created "out of the blue", whereby an idea is given a form, a symbol.
The ancient Egyptians had a belief that, at the moment of death, the soul was weighed on a balance scale with a feather on the other side, the feather representing truth.
Sacred Messengers
Throughout history, feathers have symbolized different things in different cultures...many feather colors have been seen to have near-universal meanings.
Red Feathers bring vitality and health, red was the preferred color of tribal royalty.
Blue Feathers bring peace, protection, a sense of well being...blue jay feathers can also bring warnings of trouble ahead.
Yellow Feathers symbolize cheerfulness, mental alertness, and prosperity.
Green Feathers are a symbol of renewal, new directions and new growth.
Brown with black strips or bars symbolize balance between the physical and spiritual.
Black Feathers are a symbol of mystical wisdom from spiritual initiation; also seen as a warning sign of ill health or impending death, physical, spiritual, or emotional, or of an important transition immediately ahead.
Iridescent (flashes of shiny color) signs of mystical insight, wholeness, spiritual transcendence; peacock feathers can also be a warning against false pride...
White Feathers are a symbol of purification, love, innocence, and new life.
Sacred Messengers
As I held the large black feather, a sense of joy and gratitude filled me.
This beautiful black messenger from the sky had answered my black thoughts about being in an empty universe.
Feathers are a sign of mystical wisdom received from spiritual initiations.
Such feathers, from Crows, Raves, or Starlings, are often worn by shaman figures.
From the moment I received my first feather they have become signs of reassurance for me, knowing that, indeed, I am not alone, that my spirit guides, messengers, and allies in the unseen realms of reality to know that the love of a bountiful universe is available.
Each time I hold the feather, its powerful message comes through, telling me, "You are not alone...we are with you; all of life is part of you...fly with the wind.
Sacred Messengers
Traditional teachings relate to us how important it is that we move through our lives with courage, humility, respect, and kindness in our heart...all these things signify a deep respect for the gift that we have been given...in the breath of life, as well as a respect for all life..."All that moves is sacred, only by understanding this can you realize the rhythm of the Earth, and thereby know how to place your feet.
Medicine of the Cherokee
Spirits, ghosts, and interaction with them are seen by the Indian people as a normal part of life on this earth.
All things, living or not, have a spirit that may manifest itself in the living, including insects, deer, eagles, even rock spirits.
Helper spirits often manifest themselves in an object.
To the Lakota, small, round rocks may be charged with great power and attach themselves to a living person, returning to them even when discarded.
These rocks belong to a class of spirits known as the "rock nation".
It is the little pebbles found on anthills that aid the Yuwi'pi practitioners in their ceremony.
Walking in the Sacred Manner
Dreams form a large intellectual and spiritual complex and are looked to for important insights about oneself and other living people, often relatives.
They are also seen as a source of contact and communication for those relatives now in the spirit world, who may have help or advice, or warning to impart to the living.
Dreams may then provide motivation for changing one's life.
Any dream that lingers upon waking is worth considering, pondering over, because to Indian people, that dream is a means of the most essential communication...that with the spirit world.
Walking in the Sacred Manner
In the ideal outcome, the spirit travels on a long path, taking it over the "Wana'gi Ta'canku", which is literally "spirit road" but refers to the Milky Way.
In one Lakota version, the soul is met by an old woman who looks to see if the soul has a blue dot, or tattoo, identifying it as one of The People. If not, the soul may be pushed off the road~Sent back.
If the soul passes inspection it is sent on an even longer journey, but how long that "Wana' giya', or spirit journey may take is unknown...because it is in spirit time.
At the end of the journey the spirit sees a tipi, in the tipi is an old man (Wakan Tanka) who will ask "How was your journey?", meaning the journey through life.
If the soul answers properly it will receive safe passage and go on forever in the happy mirror world of this one, the "Wana'gitomakoce (World of Spirits).
If not, if it complains about its recent life, it may be sent back to live on earth again...to learn more.
Walking in the Sacred Manner
Ozuya Cikala (Little Warrior) had been one of the last living survivors of the Little Big Horn Battle. In his adult years he had been one of the most powerful medicine men of the reservation. He successfully treated Black Elk for a stroke.
Little Warrior died in the mid 1950's..this is a story told by his great granddaughter "Tilda" and her memories of "when"...
...a relative had told us that when Little Warrior was living, he would invite people over to feast, and to dance.
We loved going over to his house. He was kind and generous and loved to laugh. People would come from all over and camp for a few days.
We all lived in one room. Around the walls were a dresser, bed, dresser, bed...there were ten of us, including Grandma. I remember the summer heat, when we would eat our evening meals outside where Grandma would place a piece of canvas there for all us to sit on.
In the summers she baked bread outside over an open fire, she would cook the soup indoors over a propane stove that sat next to our wood stove.
When all was ready we would sit and eat "Indian style". This was a happy time of day when people would talk and laugh and catch up on the news of the day. The conversations were always in Lakota.
At night, especially in the long howling darkness of a plains winter, there were stories to be told as wood crackled in the wood stove and shadows danced in the lamplight...a time of reflection...a time of truth.
~Walking in the Sacred Manner
Bears message to you
"Be Strong. Know what and where your boundaries are.
You can love others, still disagree with their opinions, and say no to their requests.
You don't have to justify your refusals.
My power is unparalleled, and you must also stand up for what you believe in and who you are.
Treat others with respect, and demand the same from them.
Trust your creative hunches - those urges to make music, write poetry, sculpt, or engage in any other forms of creative expressions.
Turn inward to the loving darkness of your soul's den to find the inspiration to birth such projects. Let them blossom in the cave of your creative mind and manifest to your heart's desire.
Power Animals
If you remember on waking that you have dreamed about things from a great distance...it is because your eyes have actually been there while you were asleep...Inuit.
Earth Spirits, Native American
We cannot be a prejudiced people. All men and women are brothers and sisters and because we all have the same mother-Mother Earth.
One who is prejudices, who hates another because of that person's color, hates what the Great Spirit has put here.
Such a one hates that which is holy and will be punished, even during this lifetime, as humanity will be punished for violating Mother Earth.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
Source: Be Inspired
From the north will come the white winter snow that will cleanse Mother Earth and put her to sleep, so that she may rest and store up energy to provide the beauty and bounty of springtime.
We will prepare for aging by learning to create, through our arts and crafts, during the long winter season.
Truth, honesty, strength, endurance, and courage also represented by the white of the north...truth and honesty in our relationships bring forth harmony.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
We, the American Indian, had a way of living that enabled us to live within the great, complete beauty that only the natural environment can provide.
The Indian tribes had a commonality of religion, without religious animosity, that preserved that great beauty that the two-leggeds definitely need.
Our four commandments from the Great Spirit are:
1~ respect for Mother Earth
2~ respect for the Great Spirit
3~ respect for our fellow man and woman
4~ respect for individual freedom (provided that individual freedom does not threaten the tribe, or the people or Mother Earth).
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
Today the buffalo is gone...you say "ecology"...we think the words "Mother Earth" have a deeper meaning.
If we wish to survive, we must respect her.
It is very late, but there is still time to revive and discover the old American Indian value of respect for Mother Earth.
She is very beautiful, and already she is showing signs that she may punish us for not respecting her.
Also, we must remember she has been placed in this universe by the one who is the All Powerful, the Great Spirit Above, or Wakan Tanka - God.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
~This morning at breakfast we took from Mother Earth to live, as we have done every day of our lives...but did we thank her for giving us the means to live?
The old Indian did. When he drove his horse close to a buffalo running at full speed across the prairie, he drew his bowstring back and said as he did so,
"Forgive me, brother, but my people must live."
After he butchered the buffalo, he took the skull and faced it toward the setting sun as a thanksgiving and an acknowledgement that all things come from Mother Earth.
He brought the meat back to camp, and gave it first to the old, the widowed...and the weak.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
The Butterfly is a very spiritual bug and represents the presence of good spirits. Butterflies signal change, metamorphosis, balance, harmony, grace, peace, beauty, and spirituality...they are a good sing.
Butterfly's Message To You
Everyone of us emerges from the darkness and gestation, in which we enter as one self and come out as another.
Throughout each stage of this transformation process, I remain aware and fully present, so must you. When you spread your wings and float into your new life, know that you are safe and that this is part of a natural movement
You may not know exactly what's going on at any particular stage, but have faith.
After a period of exertion your soul will find it's way through the darkness, count on it, then you will emerge into the next expression of "you".
Throughout these cycles, faith, share the love, and set crystal clear intentions...you have absolutely nothing to fear.
Sacred Messengers
"Behold my brothers, the spring has come. The earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love. Every seed is awakened and has all animal life, it is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves...to inhabit this land."
Sitting Bull, Tatanka Yotanka, Hunkpapa Sioux
Sitting Bull, war chief and holy man was born in 1831, and assassinated on December 1890...he made this speech at a Powder River council in 1877
The highest form of respect for another person is respecting their right to be self-determining.
This means not interfering with another person's ability to choose.
Every experience holds a valuable lesson - even in death...there is a valuable learning that the spirit carries forth.
Noninterference means caring in a respectful way of "right relationship".
Each person living being on Mother Earth, has their own Medicine that should not be disrupted or changed without that person choosing it. This is part of the learning what moves the Circle is choice, and what keeps the circle is kindness and respect for the natural flow of life-energies.
Medicine of the Cherokee
If someone dreams of a feather, it could be associated to a spirit.
Feathers can be a symbol of that which carries us into the imaginal world, of the spiritual world.
They can be a means of finding one's fantasies. They can be a sign of that which is created "out of the blue", whereby an idea is given a form, a symbol.
The ancient Egyptians had a belief that, at the moment of death, the soul was weighed on a balance scale with a feather on the other side, the feather representing truth.
Sacred Messengers
Throughout history, feathers have symbolized different things in different cultures...many feather colors have been seen to have near-universal meanings.
Red Feathers bring vitality and health, red was the preferred color of tribal royalty.
Blue Feathers bring peace, protection, a sense of well being...blue jay feathers can also bring warnings of trouble ahead.
Yellow Feathers symbolize cheerfulness, mental alertness, and prosperity.
Green Feathers are a symbol of renewal, new directions and new growth.
Brown with black strips or bars symbolize balance between the physical and spiritual.
Black Feathers are a symbol of mystical wisdom from spiritual initiation; also seen as a warning sign of ill health or impending death, physical, spiritual, or emotional, or of an important transition immediately ahead.
Iridescent (flashes of shiny color) signs of mystical insight, wholeness, spiritual transcendence; peacock feathers can also be a warning against false pride...
White Feathers are a symbol of purification, love, innocence, and new life.
Sacred Messengers
As I held the large black feather, a sense of joy and gratitude filled me.
This beautiful black messenger from the sky had answered my black thoughts about being in an empty universe.
Feathers are a sign of mystical wisdom received from spiritual initiations.
Such feathers, from Crows, Raves, or Starlings, are often worn by shaman figures.
From the moment I received my first feather they have become signs of reassurance for me, knowing that, indeed, I am not alone, that my spirit guides, messengers, and allies in the unseen realms of reality to know that the love of a bountiful universe is available.
Each time I hold the feather, its powerful message comes through, telling me, "You are not alone...we are with you; all of life is part of you...fly with the wind.
Sacred Messengers
Medicine of the Cherokee
Spirits, ghosts, and interaction with them are seen by the Indian people as a normal part of life on this earth.
All things, living or not, have a spirit that may manifest itself in the living, including insects, deer, eagles, even rock spirits.
Helper spirits often manifest themselves in an object.
To the Lakota, small, round rocks may be charged with great power and attach themselves to a living person, returning to them even when discarded.
These rocks belong to a class of spirits known as the "rock nation".
It is the little pebbles found on anthills that aid the Yuwi'pi practitioners in their ceremony.
Walking in the Sacred Manner
Dreams form a large intellectual and spiritual complex and are looked to for important insights about oneself and other living people, often relatives.
They are also seen as a source of contact and communication for those relatives now in the spirit world, who may have help or advice, or warning to impart to the living.
Dreams may then provide motivation for changing one's life.
Any dream that lingers upon waking is worth considering, pondering over, because to Indian people, that dream is a means of the most essential communication...that with the spirit world.
Walking in the Sacred Manner
In the ideal outcome, the spirit travels on a long path, taking it over the "Wana'gi Ta'canku", which is literally "spirit road" but refers to the Milky Way.
In one Lakota version, the soul is met by an old woman who looks to see if the soul has a blue dot, or tattoo, identifying it as one of The People. If not, the soul may be pushed off the road~Sent back.
If the soul passes inspection it is sent on an even longer journey, but how long that "Wana' giya', or spirit journey may take is unknown...because it is in spirit time.
At the end of the journey the spirit sees a tipi, in the tipi is an old man (Wakan Tanka) who will ask "How was your journey?", meaning the journey through life.
If the soul answers properly it will receive safe passage and go on forever in the happy mirror world of this one, the "Wana'gitomakoce (World of Spirits).
If not, if it complains about its recent life, it may be sent back to live on earth again...to learn more.
Walking in the Sacred Manner
Ozuya Cikala (Little Warrior) had been one of the last living survivors of the Little Big Horn Battle. In his adult years he had been one of the most powerful medicine men of the reservation. He successfully treated Black Elk for a stroke.
Little Warrior died in the mid 1950's..this is a story told by his great granddaughter "Tilda" and her memories of "when"...
...a relative had told us that when Little Warrior was living, he would invite people over to feast, and to dance.
We loved going over to his house. He was kind and generous and loved to laugh. People would come from all over and camp for a few days.
We all lived in one room. Around the walls were a dresser, bed, dresser, bed...there were ten of us, including Grandma. I remember the summer heat, when we would eat our evening meals outside where Grandma would place a piece of canvas there for all us to sit on.
In the summers she baked bread outside over an open fire, she would cook the soup indoors over a propane stove that sat next to our wood stove.
When all was ready we would sit and eat "Indian style". This was a happy time of day when people would talk and laugh and catch up on the news of the day. The conversations were always in Lakota.
At night, especially in the long howling darkness of a plains winter, there were stories to be told as wood crackled in the wood stove and shadows danced in the lamplight...a time of reflection...a time of truth.
~Walking in the Sacred Manner
Bears message to you
"Be Strong. Know what and where your boundaries are.
You can love others, still disagree with their opinions, and say no to their requests.
You don't have to justify your refusals.
My power is unparalleled, and you must also stand up for what you believe in and who you are.
Treat others with respect, and demand the same from them.
Trust your creative hunches - those urges to make music, write poetry, sculpt, or engage in any other forms of creative expressions.
Turn inward to the loving darkness of your soul's den to find the inspiration to birth such projects. Let them blossom in the cave of your creative mind and manifest to your heart's desire.
Power Animals
If you remember on waking that you have dreamed about things from a great distance...it is because your eyes have actually been there while you were asleep...Inuit.
Earth Spirits, Native American
We cannot be a prejudiced people. All men and women are brothers and sisters and because we all have the same mother-Mother Earth.
One who is prejudices, who hates another because of that person's color, hates what the Great Spirit has put here.
Such a one hates that which is holy and will be punished, even during this lifetime, as humanity will be punished for violating Mother Earth.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
Source: Be Inspired
From the north will come the white winter snow that will cleanse Mother Earth and put her to sleep, so that she may rest and store up energy to provide the beauty and bounty of springtime.
We will prepare for aging by learning to create, through our arts and crafts, during the long winter season.
Truth, honesty, strength, endurance, and courage also represented by the white of the north...truth and honesty in our relationships bring forth harmony.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
We, the American Indian, had a way of living that enabled us to live within the great, complete beauty that only the natural environment can provide.
The Indian tribes had a commonality of religion, without religious animosity, that preserved that great beauty that the two-leggeds definitely need.
Our four commandments from the Great Spirit are:
1~ respect for Mother Earth
2~ respect for the Great Spirit
3~ respect for our fellow man and woman
4~ respect for individual freedom (provided that individual freedom does not threaten the tribe, or the people or Mother Earth).
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
Today the buffalo is gone...you say "ecology"...we think the words "Mother Earth" have a deeper meaning.
If we wish to survive, we must respect her.
It is very late, but there is still time to revive and discover the old American Indian value of respect for Mother Earth.
She is very beautiful, and already she is showing signs that she may punish us for not respecting her.
Also, we must remember she has been placed in this universe by the one who is the All Powerful, the Great Spirit Above, or Wakan Tanka - God.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
~This morning at breakfast we took from Mother Earth to live, as we have done every day of our lives...but did we thank her for giving us the means to live?
The old Indian did. When he drove his horse close to a buffalo running at full speed across the prairie, he drew his bowstring back and said as he did so,
"Forgive me, brother, but my people must live."
After he butchered the buffalo, he took the skull and faced it toward the setting sun as a thanksgiving and an acknowledgement that all things come from Mother Earth.
He brought the meat back to camp, and gave it first to the old, the widowed...and the weak.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
Mitakuye Oyasin: We are all related.
The plight of the non-Indian world is that it has lost respect for Mother Earth, from whom and where we all come.
We start out in this world as tiny seed - no different from our animal brothers and sisters, the deer, the bear, the buffalo, or the trees, the flowers, the winged people.
Mother Earth is our real mother, because every bit of us truly comes from her, and daily she takes care of us.
The tiny seed takes on the minerals and the waters of Mother Earth...it is fueled by "Wiyo", the sun, and given a spirit by Wakan Tanka.
Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American
The deer is considered sacred by the Cherokee. Its skin is used to wrap sacred objects, such as the crystal that is kept for seeing ahead and for protecting us from other energies and influences.
The deer was a favorite meal of the Cherokee.
Dear hunters knew how to properly offer prayers and make preparations before hunting the deer.
Sacred ceremonies followed the killing of a deer, in which the hunters gave thanks and asked for "clearing" or forgiveness.
Meditations with the Cherokee
Even the spirit, which belongs to the Great Mystery, returns to its source.
Some of our people say this journey takes place on a path of stars. Others describe the spirit's return to the Great Mystery as a drop of water falling into the ocean.
It becomes a part of everything again as the light of a candle becomes one with the fire of the sun.
That's why we can sometimes feel our loved ones in the warm air, or hear them in a bird's song...or even sense them in the...wind.
The Native American Book of Wisdom
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