Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk':

 

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk':

Let us now assemble the honoring gifts once again, the high and personal inner gifts of qualities which only we can know, and the gifts of the known and understood common tradition such as tobacco, water or candles; chocolate … fruits … flowers; special drinks or nectars; ritual paintings, foods, cornmeal … and gifts of inspiration and the moment … 

Notice, attention, and gratitude for ‘being breathed’; 

Gratitude to the Father Sky-Sun for return at sunrise and sunset;  

Mindful Gratitude to the water beings as we drink, see, remember or feel them … 

Mindful Gratitude to the Fire Beings … 

Speak in a friendly way to the Wind Beings … 

Talk to a stone and a tree, a shrub, and the hill in the distance … 

Open the soles of your feet and invite them to ‘pick up on’ the Mother Earth as she vibrates and breathes through our bodies and connects with the upward solar rays of her lover. They are our elemental parents. 

Go outside and lie first facedown, then turn onto your back … Draw an arm’s-length circle with a stick around you, think a little introductory offering … and sit there as unmoving as possible, except for the eyes, for at least twenty minutes … Notice and follow the breath until something else engages your attention. The natural world soon comes to accept our presence … It is best if no food/water/phone enters the circle or is in sight/smell/earshot … and the sitting is best done in complete solitude … Then, when you are ready, stand up, or crawl out, noticing which direction you entered, faced, and departed. Try to make them the same. Then, make grateful farewells, and go.

Sacred Berries Ceremony

From May 15, 2020:

Bozho and a very good Rainy morning to all, from the Bodewadmin Longhouse... an early summer, ancient and current women's teaching that can all be active within ... providing valuable focus in and on the women's seat of the soul, the woman place. A proven and worthy tool by which to live in harmony with the Creator and the natural world.

 

Migwech!

My love,

Minisa


Yes, Jaguar Woman, there IS a strawberry-demen teaching and yearlong right of passage ceremony for the young girl becoming woman. The sacred berry is representative and guardian of the life carrying qualities of the womb and the potential of 'new life coming' medicine. 
 
The other berries, which follow later in the season, represent the certain cellular division 'medicines' of the 'new life coming' and as a metaphor of the young girl becoming woman capable of 'Carrying Life and the Waters of Life'.
 
In the demen-spring or early summer ceremony she and a circle of women will pray and prepare to seek, greet, offer thanks for the gift, gather and invite the 'medicine' to join in and with, the girl's body through the coming 13 moons, at which time the demen give-away ceremony will be seated and complete, with a feast prepared for all participants.
 
Through this time, the 'young woman becoming', will observe a 13 Moon strawberry fast. She will then be offered the demen and other traditional foods, at the conclusion feast to FEED and NOURISH her life and herself, the life of the circle, her people, and ALL life, 'in a good way'.
From this time onward she will be woman, having merged with this beautiful and powerful 'medicine', assisting her transition into the beauty and responsibility of an adult woman.

Migwech Creator, Sekmekwe, Gizes and all of the Demen for these and all of the gifts, known and unknown, spoken and unspoken ... mine (and) breathed alive.

Respectfully retold, in the appropriate season.
Dawn Woman 1IK

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk':

This day we will consider visiting the natural world of the Mother Earth and the Father Sky-Sun … we 2-leggeds are walking erect color-beings … In the old honoring language … it is good to make an honoring prayer from the ‘grateful place’ … blow into an offering of tobacco 4 times, and then ‘put down’ the gift of the tobacco being, Se’-Ma’, onto the Mother Earth. Now offer honoring tobacco to the Father Sky-Sun in the same way … if it rains, consider collecting some of the ‘new water’, dip a finger into it and touch the top of your head 4 times, as the personal unification Water Beings blessing … If there is enough water, many things may be done with it, like ritually bathing the head, hair, face, body, eyes, wrists … If the wild green onions are up, make a tobacco offering from the grateful place: say your name and ask permission, and then you may take up a sharp stone for cutting or use your fingernail for gathering. Use no metal. Both the top and root bulb may be cleaned and eaten. 

Getegemen - Garden

Potawatomi ‘Garden’ Vocabulary:

Basket = gokbenaben
Bees = amoyuk

Beans = koje'suk

Bloom = jijen

Butterfly = memiki

Cabbage = e'shobuk

Cherries = siwswe'mnen

Circle = waye'yak

Cloud = ngwankot

Corn = ndamen

Cucumber = kokobe'

Dance = nimedi

Drum = de'we'gIn

Earth = sugmuk

Feast = wewesnakewin

Fire = shkote'

Flint Hill Grounds = shokinkik

Flower = washkone'to

Food = wisnawen

Fruit = washkbak
Full Moon = nibakises

Garden = Getegemen

Good Rain = mnogmowIn

Gourd = shishigwIn

Grapes = siwnwen

Grass = mIshkos

Honey = amo

Hot Peppers = wasgagIn

Indian Tobacco = nInse’ma

July/Month of Young Corn = We'shkitdaminkesis

Lightning = sawasmo

Milkweed = nInwezhe’k

Moon = tpukises

Mother Earth = Kumde’kwe’

Muddy = winkiwIn

Onion = shakwesh

Outside = sagec

Peace = e’tokmite’k

Plenty Potatoes = topeka

Plum = pokma

Potatoes = pInyak

Prairie = mskoda

Pumpkin = wapkon

Purple = we'je'pwate'k

Rain = kmowen

Sage = wabshkukbyag

Spider = aspeke' e'e'buk

Stars = nagosuk

Strawberries = demen

Summer = E'mnokmuk

Sun = kises

Sunset = e'pkishmok
Sweat Lodge = mdodmogumuk

Sweet Corn = wishpumnuk

Sweetgrass = wiingaashk

Sweet Potato = wishpupnyak

Thunderbirds = cigwe’k

Toad = mamkeci

Tobacco = se’ma

Trees = mtugwe'nIn

Turtle = mshike’

Very Dark (Outside) = gispuknya

Very Light (Bright Sunshine) = waseya

Warm Wind = shawnash

Water = mbish

Watermelon = ashktamo

Well-Being = matsowIn

Whole Kernel Cooked Corn = pakswayuk

Wild = pkoc

Wild Rice = pkocnomin

Wind = notin

World = otake’

Worm = mose

Excerpts from 'Spirit Talk': Spirit Plate

The Spirit plate makes out recognition and gratitude visible to the beings who are making a gift of their seed history, and when properly addressed they can become actively involved in an ongoing life path through other agents, namely ourselves. Their seed histories, with cultural family trees grounded in the natural world that make contributions of inestimable value and tensile strength to the DNA of any bonding entity, are at least as hugely long and venerable as ours.

Most of these connections and contributions are beyond our ken, but heartfelt gestures of gratitude and respect for these living things are ours to express through remembering our connections to the best of our abilities—where and when they lived and grew, who harvested them, how they were handled and for what purpose and by whom. The questions are always, what do we have to do that these things will live?

The Spirit plate is prepared by selecting very small and representative pieces of each feast food on the table ... mindfully collected with the left, offering hand, taken outside, and offered with a prayer of recognition and gratitude ... I like to raise the plate and turn it to the seven directions, lastly approaching the Mother Earth four times before lowering the plate to the earth ... Shewen dagzewin! A blessing is visited upon us this day!

Let us celebrate being 'breathed alive'!

Come! Let us celebrate being ‘breathed alive in the natural world’. Let us make gratitude talks, sing, drum, dance, feast, and make offerings to our beautiful Mother Earth, Father Sky/Sun ... first, most beautiful, and enduring of gifts from the Creator ... we say, Mamogosnan, in the Bodewadmin tongue. Come and speak praises, ‘raise a voice’ ... to the Creator in the tongue of your tradition or choice, be it spoken or silent and unnamed.

Let the wisdom of the people and the land come together ‘in a good way’ that life may go on in a ‘good way’ as well.

We pray, Mamogosnan, that our minds, hearts, bodies and spirits might truly come into conscious Spirit Talks with the Plant Beings, and those of all of Creation come together, for without these talks, we are lost. Let us come together to share our wisdom and make prayers as a people … from our vast hearts … that strong ties to the Creator, ourselves and our relatives … might be renewed and celebrated.

Sacred Berries Ceremony

From May 15, 2020:

Bozho and a very good Rainy morning to all, from the Bodewadmin Longhouse... an early summer, ancient and current women's teaching that can all be active within ... providing valuable focus in and on the women's seat of the soul, the woman place. A proven and worthy tool by which to live in harmony with the Creator and the natural world.

 

Migwech!

My love,

Minisa


Yes, Jaguar Woman, there IS a strawberry-demen teaching and yearlong right of passage ceremony for the young girl becoming woman. The sacred berry is representative and guardian of the life carrying qualities of the womb and the potential of 'new life coming' medicine. 
 
The other berries, which follow later in the season, represent the certain cellular division 'medicines' of the 'new life coming' and as a metaphor of the young girl becoming woman capable of 'Carrying Life and the Waters of Life'.
 
In the demen-spring or early summer ceremony she and a circle of women will pray and prepare to seek, greet, offer thanks for the gift, gather and invite the 'medicine' to join in and with, the girl's body through the coming 13 moons, at which time the demen give-away ceremony will be seated and complete, with a feast prepared for all participants.
 
Through this time, the 'young woman becoming', will observe a 13 Moon strawberry fast. She will then be offered the demen and other traditional foods, at the conclusion feast to FEED and NOURISH her life and herself, the life of the circle, her people, and ALL life, 'in a good way'.
From this time onward she will be woman, having merged with this beautiful and powerful 'medicine', assisting her transition into the beauty and responsibility of an adult woman.

Migwech Creator, Sekmekwe, Gizes and all of the Demen for these and all of the gifts, known and unknown, spoken and unspoken ... mine (and) breathed alive.

Respectfully retold, in the appropriate season.
Dawn Woman 1IK