Shamanism and Native Spirituality

Native American

“For me, the essence of a medicine man’s life is to be humble, to have great patience, to be close to the Earth, to live as simply as possible, and to never stop learning.”
~Archie Fire Lame Deer, Lakota

The Medicine people focus on their Being, not their doing. After all, we are human beings not human doings. The Medicine people are very patient and consciously trying to live a life of humility. Medicine people are servant leaders. Their main purpose is to serve the needs of others. By this service attitude, they become the leaders people listen to and the leaders the people want to follow.

The Medicine people say everyone is their teacher. Maybe we should try to live this way ourselves; humble, patient, honoring the Earth and listening to our teachers.

Grandfather, today, let me know all people are my teachers and I am the student.

“A long time ago, there lived a human being who always went out of his way to help the people of his village.

“When the elders could no longer hunt for themselves, he would bring them food.

“A young couple getting married could count on him to help make their tipi poles and gather the hides needed to cover their lodge.

“If a child’s family was killed, he would take that child in and raise it as his own.

“And there were many more good deeds he performed that no one knew of, because he never sought praise or attention for his actions. Every day he remained alert to what he could do to help his tribe, and he did so with good humor and enthusiasm.

“Many years went by in this way and all the while the Creator watched this man and took note of his virtues.

“At long last, when the man’s hair had turned to snow, and the days ahead were becoming fewer, the Creator thought, ‘All these years I’ve watched him help my people. I could use someone like him to be helping out all the time. I’m going to immortalize him.’

“So the Creator turned the man into a cedar tree.”

Bear Heart continued:

“There are many uses for cedar — it stays green year round, so it can be gathered and dried at any time. Burning dried cedar on coals creates smoke and we can pray with that smoke — it carries our prayers up to the Heavens.

“When children are restless in a home, burning cedar calms them down.

“When you just don’t feel too good for hardly any reason at all, you can burn cedar in your home and you’ll feel better. The cedar already knows what’s needed to bring harmony because he was a man who knew how to help people.

“So that’s the story of cedar. He was a man once.”

Source: MollyLarkin

Long ago, the Great Bear wandered freely throughout the sky. His massive paws took him far across the boundless ceiling of the world. He hunted and fished, feeding there in the rivers of the sky. All throughout the first spring he did this, until his belly was full and he was happy.

Little did he know that three braves had discovered him feeding that spring and they sought his meat and pelt to feed their families in the long winter that they knew was coming.

Without warning, the braves ran out after the bear. The Great Bear took off running, trying to escape from the hunters. All through the long summer he ran, trying to get away. The braves, however, were very cunning and strong. It was in the first autumn when their arrows pierced the Great Bear and he died.

The blood of the bear spilled out of the sky and tinged all of the leaves with red and orange. The trees then dropped all of their leaves in mourning for their friend.

The Great Bear was reborn the following spring as is the way of bears, and the braves set out after him again. They do this each year. If you look into the sky and watch, you can see the three braves trailing behind the Great Bear as he runs from them towards the horizon, only to do it again with the coming of spring.

An Iroquois Legend
Adapted by Harriet Maxwell Converse

There was a time, says the Iroquois grandmother, when it was not needful to plant the corn- seed nor to hoe the fields, for the corn sprang up of itself, and filled the broad meadows. Its stalks grew strong and tall, and were covered with leaves like waving banners, and filled with ears of pearly grain wrapped in silken green husks.

In those days Onatah, the Spirit of the Corn, walked upon the earth. The sun lovingly touched her dusky face with the blush of the morning, and her eyes grew soft as the gleam of the stars on dark streams. Her night-black hair was spread before the breeze like a wind-driven cloud.

As she walked through the fields, the corn, the Indian maize, sprang up of itself from the earth and filled the air with its fringed tassels and whispering leaves. With Onatah walked her two sisters, the Spirits of the Squash and the Bean. As they passed by, squash-vines and bean-plants grew from the corn-hills.

One day Onatah wandered away alone in search of early dew. Then the Evil One of the earth, Hahgwehdaetgah, followed swiftly after. He grasped her by the hair and dragged her beneath the ground down to his gloomy cave. Then, sending out his fire-breathing monsters, he blighted Onatah’s grain. And when her sisters, the Spirits of the Squash and the Bean, saw the flame- monsters raging through the fields, they flew far away in terror.

As for poor Onatah, she lay a trembling captive in the dark prison-cave of the Evil One. She mourned the blight of her cornfields, and sorrowed over her runaway sisters.

“O warm, bright sun!” she cried, “if I may walk once more upon the earth, never again will I leave my corn!”

And the little birds of the air heard her cry, and winging their way upward they carried her vow and gave it to the sun as he wandered through the blue heavens.

The sun, who loved Onatah, sent out many searching beams of light. They pierced through the damp earth, and entering the prison-cave, guided her back again to her fields.

And ever after that she watched her fields alone, for no more did her sisters, the Spirits of the Squash and Bean, watch with her. If her fields thirsted, no longer could she seek the early dew. If the flame-monsters burned her corn, she could not search the skies for cooling winds. And when the great rains fell and injured her harvest, her voice grew so faint that the friendly sun could not hear it.

But ever Onatah tenderly watched her fields and the little birds of the air flocked to her service. They followed her through the rows of corn, and made war on the tiny enemies that gnawed at the roots of the grain.

And at harvest-time the grateful Onatah scattered the first gathered corn over her broad lands, and the little birds, fluttering and singing, joyfully partook of the feast spread for them on the meadow-ground.

Hear me, four quarters of the world– a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth. Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only, can I face the winds.

Great Spirit…all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up out of the ground. Look upon these faces of children without number and with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

This is my prayer ~ hear me!

~Black Elk, Sioux Indian

Message of Purification from the Yukon Territory January 23, 2007

“Hothooka Caunotka “Sign Of Purification”

Saugh-he, a sign of purification has been sent to the people, that
The Morning Star will start to be seen right before the night and
Light dances together. This is clear to the people of understanding
And balance. This message of purification from Creator is speaking
That end times are near, as people know it.

In the days that follow, people will look at the sky nation and
Witness and feel the return of two brothers that helped create Earth
Mother in the birthing time.

One brother who has the care of the top of Earth Mother and his
Brother who has the care for the bottom of Earth Mother. In these
Days the Morning Star will come and be with the two brothers and they
Will start to return Earth Mother to her natural rotation.

This has been shown for ages in many Petroglyphs within the Mayan and
Egyptian pyramids and the carving and inscription on many rocks and Bones.

Earth Mother has been manipulated and characterized throughout the
Ages by people that are not so suggestive of doing good for Earth
Mother and Creators creations.

The two brothers will work and walk with the Hothooka. The Hothooka
Caunotka as my ancestors spoke of them, will dance with the wind and
Find the ones that remember the original teachings of the old ways.
The Hothooka Caunotka walks strong with Earth Mother’s purification Dance.

The return of the Morning Star and Hothooka Caunotka, is a message to
All that a new day and new way of life on Earth Mother is here and
The purification has started.

Some changes will begin when the feeling of fire burn within the
People. Their fires will burn with desires and conflicts if they
Don’t remember the original old ways of teachings.

With this time of purification on Earth Mother, all life as humans
Have known will be changed. There will be messages and messengers
That will precede the Morning Star dance. These feelings and messages
Are for those on Earth Mother who understand the old ways and the
Teachings of Creator and Earth Mother.

The feelings and messages will be found in the rocks within their
Sacred grains and the waters. Creator will issue a great light with
The Hothooka Caunotka dance. Things will change in their manner of
Being. Every living thing will be offered the opportunity to change
From the largest to the smallest of creation.

Those that have returned to the old ways that understand the original
Teachings, they live and walk in a natural way; will not be harmed by
The coming of the Morning Star and Hothooka Caunotka dance. They will
Survive and work together to purify and help each other re-build
Earth Mother. In the ancient teachings of the old ways will they have
The ability to understand these messages to be given from Creator and Earth Mother.

It is important to understand that these messages will be found in
And on every living thing, all will carry these messages.

All life forms receives these feelings and messages from the Creator
And Hothooka Caunotka; those that walk, fly, swim, crawl or stand.

The appearance of the Hothooka Caunotka will be the opportunity for
All to change their ways; everything that will be experience will be
A matter of their choice.

Many will appear to have lost their souls in these times. So intense
Will the nature of the changes be that those who are weak in
Spiritual understanding will not maintain their balance of thinking,
For their walk was nothing without faith.

People will disappear, for they were only hollow vessels for the
Darkness to use. Things will be so dark and out of balance in the
Cities, that many will choose to leave.

Only those who return to the values of the teachings of the old ways
Will be able to find peace of mind and balance during this Purification.

It will be a hard time for people with children; they will be avoided
Deliberately and in some manner treated with force. Many of the
Children in these times will act and be un-natural. Some will be from
The star nation. Some from past worlds, some will be created by
People, in an un-natural manner and will have no soul.

Many of people in this time will be empty in faith, they will have no
Life force in their eyes or balance or their actions.

As the time gets closer to the purification, there will be those who
Walk as ghosts through the cities and canyons they have constructed
In their self-made mountains.

Those that walk through these places will be very heavy in their
Walk; it will appear almost painful as they take each step. These are
Disconnected souls from their faith, Creator and Earth Mother’s Understanding.

After the arrival of the Hothooka Caunotka, they will begin to vanish
before your eyes like smoke from the coals of a fire. Others will
have great deformities, both in the mind and on their bodies; because
the fake gateways that protected these people will be opened, there
will be much confusion between sexes and children and the adults.

Life will get and be very perverted and there will be little social
order in these times. Many will ask for their misery to end and still
others will appear as if untouched by what is occurring. The ones who
remember the old ways of teachings and reconnected their souls and
faith are those who remember who their mother and father are.

The Hothooka Caunotka will show people many signs in the sky nation.
In this way people will know that Creator is not a dream. Even the
people who do not feel their connection to faith will see the faces
of the Grandfather across the sky nation.

Many things will begin to occur with people that will not make sense,
for reality will be shifting in and out of their dream time. There
will be many paths to the lower world that will open at this time.
Things long forgotten will come back to remind people of the past
creations. All living and forgotten things want to be present for the
great day of purification when the forever cycle of Earth Mother starts.

The People will receive many warnings allowing them to change their
paths from below the Earth Mother as well as above. Then one morning
in a moment, the purification will awaken. Many things will then
begin to happen that people want to be sure of their exact nature;
for much of what reality was, will not be seen in the now, it will be gone.

There will be many different animals on Earth Mother in these days of
the Hothooka Caunotka dance, some that have never been seen before.
The nature of humans will appear strange in these times. The people
will walk between worlds and they will house many spirits even within
their bodies. After a time people will walk with the Hothooka
Caunotka from the top and bottom of Earth Mother and start to
rebuild, but not until the Hothooka Caunotka has left their mark on Earth Mother.

Nothing living will go untouched. The way through this time can be
found in your heart and reuniting with your soul. Getting simple and
returning to living with and on Earth Mother in harmony with all
creations. Remember, people are the caretakers of Earth Mother and
the fire keepers of our own faith and soul.

Our Ancestors that walk with Hothooka Caunotka are coming home to see
how their Ancestors have fared on their journey, walk with peace.

~Creator as Chief, Grayeagle

The taking of life brings serious thoughts.

We have come thus far, my brothers. We have already laid our plans. With magic power the trail is made easy, bordered with flowers, grass, and trees.

The enemy saw the apparent bounty of nature and assembled, laughing, to gather the seeds and plants. It was the power of the distant magician which made the enemy enjoy his fancied prosperity.

In the center of our council ground the fire burned and, lighting a cigarette, I puffed smoke toward the east. Slowly a vision arose before me …

On the mountain tops was a yellow-spider magician, upon where I called for help. He went to the enemy, darkened their hearts, tied their hands and their bows, and made them grow weak as women.

Then he pushed us on to destroy the enemy. We rushed upon the Apaches and killed them without difficulty.

With gladness in my heart I gathered the evidences of my victory and turned toward home.

You may think this over, my relatives. The taking of life brings serious thoughts of the waste; the celebration of victory may become riotous.

~A Pima Poem

Moon Tracker
Truth
"Take your false face off. There is no need to throw your hands up in despair!"
Be Merry


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