Three Little Winters of Spring - an earth wisdom story ...

From April 4, 2020:

Bozho! Greetings all, from the Spirit Horse Ranch!

Smiling talks: let us gather together and think on a medicine wheel tale.

It is a windy day, here on the land ... which recalls an earth wisdom story told to me many years ago. It is the story of the three little winters of spring. Now, even though stories are traditionally told in the winter when we are are spending more time inside by the fire, our time now, seems to describe now. In many ways this is truly a little winter with accompanying vision quest qualities. Our collective retreats at this time bring opportunities of deep rest and healing. The spring medicine wheel season continues to radiate rays of inspiration and illumination which can and will penetrate and permeate all historic, tender and even hardened layers of memory and condition, all the while delivering the benison of light and love, capable of stimulating mental processes for future plans (and present), and able to plow the deepest furrows of every fertile and fallow field, be it of day or night, dream or vision.

The Winds
These are some of the gifts of spring. Ordinarily, there is more outward movement but spring this year, seems to be temporarily holding onto the hands of winter for a few more weeks ... at least the hands of: the little winters of spring. Let us give them our full attention, sit with them and allow the strong winds of spring to reach back, on and into aspects our innermost being, loosening and tearing away those limbs of our sacred flowering trees that may be dead, dying or diseased; no longer wanted or needed, winds which are scattering green winds of pollen, and driving southern rain clouds to the fields, forests, ponds and gardens.

RedBud Winter
This one comes first, when the redbud trees bloom ... when spring has truly seated sometime in the third week of January. Then a warm spell.

Dogwood Winter
The second little winter comes when the dogwood trees bloom. Then a warm spell.

Blackberry Winter
The third and last winter comes when the blackberries bushes bloom. It can seem to be the coldest and most unnecessary of the little winters ... but it is the last.

The Rains
The cold, hard, male rains come ... drumming the Mother alive and calling upon the return of her heartbeat to bring send sap rising, invite sprout and shoot, unfurling bud and leaf..softening, melting ice, moistening and warming the world once more..and so, the world is renewed once again and life begins anew with us in the northern hemisphere and reversed, down under.

Provisions and activities for personal ceremony come forward as we visit the shelving of memory and practice, selecting this or that according to interest or need, that we fashioned through decision and discipline for just such times as these. Provisions and activities, sacred all, fashioned in solitude or circle...to bring solace, lift the heart and lighten the mind, are our proven and worthy tools. We will sit in circle once again. Review these things and add to them ... there will be new stories to tell ... reach out to our brothers and sisters ... and in these times of relative inactivity for some of us, remember: BEING IS A DOING. Prayers and blessings to all who are or have ‘walked on’, to the caretakers and ones most heavily burdened, may they and we know good health and the restoration of balance and harmony, all ways, all days, now and forever more.

Migwech
That’s the way it is with me.

Curiosity, restlessness, patience
Inventiveness, endurance and bravery
Remembering, being breathed alive and a sun ceremony
Water song, traveling song..silent prayer songs and groans of the heart are all heard.
The drum..redbud singers and dewebenkwe rock!
A purification fire, inside on a cookie sheet or outside, w/ sema offering
Smudging and fanning off, self, others and the room, remembering to open a window
Basketry
Sage, ginger and sassafras teas..green tea, chaga thunder, miso
Wild onions and eggs, dandelion greens in salads, corn soup,  fry bread ‘n salt pork
Moon time
Collecting and drinking clean rain water
‘Putting Down’ some sema, tobacco ... tobacco down-prayers up
Offering plates
Being breathed alive
And always, the inner vision quest of:
Gratitude

Migwech, Mamogosnon, prime Creator for ALL of the gifts.

Dawn Woman

Winter Vision Quest Cave

In this season, many inner compasses will begin turning toward seeking, creating and crawling into the blessed peace of the seasonal vision quest cave.

Inside, a deep breast of the resting Mother Earth, is where the Medicine Wheel slowly turns in an earthly circumambulation of all seed dreams, penetrated by fiery shafts of our Father Sky Sun into the mind, heart, body and Spirit of individual inner pools of quiet.

Here, one's bones can and may be deeply CLEANED: healed and loosened from the labors, challenges, cares, aspirations and fulfillments of the previous season, then slowly put back together as an honoring dream dance echo of all the ancestral journeys made before ours and those yet to come. The womb quest awaits. Draw aside a veil of the great mystery, breathe your name, make an offering and ask permission to replicate and renew the journey that all beings have made, do make and will make ... from earth to sky ... breath into clay ... so we are made and so we reenact the sacred moves, as we see them.

For, we are the new myth makers. Many dreams and messages have been brought forward, by ourselves and others … accept these offerings, feast upon the tears of bitterness and gratitude from which they were born and prepare to embark upon making the new myths and creation stories … OUR new myths drawn from a place where our sacred beingness meets with and is fused with mysterious elements emanating from an indivisible and indestructible connection with divine consciousness and personal discernment.

This is how we stay alive and keep the world alive. This then, is our Sacred Charge. Where we will feel most alive and know who we are.

Many are the ways of personal, creative ceremony ... Now, it is time to smudge off, pray for the highest good for all concerned and ask that bravery, wisdom, willingness and endurance walk with us.

Know that one may emerge, or come and go, from the cave at any time and trust that commitments and responsibilities in the outside world reside on physical and mental arms of the Medicine Wheel and will not suffer from ‘medicine’ attention directed elsewhere.

When ones visit to the cave is accomplished there will be a natural and unremarkable reunification of elements. The shifts and gifts will be ours for life. Do not speak of these things too soon but hold them close to mature and unfold. Journaling is a creative thing to do as many of the realizations, visitations or visions will be of an ephemeral nature. Do not censor or process the writing, that can be done later.

May we be eternally rich in Spirit, have good minds and strong bodies. May we know no fear and may we have hearts filled with love ... now and forever more.

AHO!

Dawn Woman

The All-Important Craft Table!

I feel this message (below) is a creative and valuable one for each of us as we pray for endurance in these challenging times of remembering ourselves and at the same time, forging new heart pathways forward. 

Good morning, Jaguar Woman!

Here I am, taking a break to watch Saturday morning cooking shows but I want to share the making of a lightening color theme tobacco bag. 

The northeast woodland traditional overlay applique technique is used ... a cross body shoulder strap with lightening color satin ribbon tassels will go on next. The design is a stylized flower and leaf in the northeast woodland motif.

It is constructed of cotton, lined, light weight and meant to hug the body, while at the ready to make a muluc offering while on a walk, morning sun ceremony, or making a faerie garden sit. Could be almost anything inside. The Traditional name for these are ‘possibles bags’. Don’t you love it? The larger bag, carried by both men and women is called a bandolier.

At the top right is a pile of self-dyed indigo silk and cotton. I had thought to use this, and shall, when the vision becomes more clear.

You are SO right when you say,”Do something creative ... and it almost doesn’t matter what it is.” And so, by these ways do we find and see the beauty of ourselves while carrying all manner of known and unknown possible magic at hand.

Migwech for your work, today's and every day's inspirational message. They make my heart feel good.

Dawn Woman

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 …

From 'The Eagle Dance' by Woody Crumbo:

The Eagle Dance, like most American Indian dances, was inspired and conceived by one person through a dream or vision. Such a spiritual manifestation was considered a sacred gift of the gods. The blessed recipient of the dream would call about him his fraternal brothers or clan -- in some cases the entire tribe -- and demonstrate the dance while relating the significance as revealed to him by the "spirit world" ... in this, the Pottawatomi Eagle Dance, the ceremonial significance is to depict certain actions and evolutions the American Eagle. It was first revealed in a dream which came to one Kiowa, a Pottawatomi brave. 

Title: Eagle Dance

Artist: Woody Crumbo

Culture: Native American; Citizen Potawatomi

Date: mid-20th-Century

To the Stars Through Art: A History of Art Collecting in Kansas Public Schools, 1900-1950

Art Bytes: 'Moccasin Makers' by Archie Blackowl (MKBMA)

Best Practices for the Care of Art in Schools (MKBMA)

SJC Educators Conference (MKBMA)

Voices of the West pgs. 46-49 (MKBMA)

Woody Crumbo (MKBMA)

Meaningful Teachings of the Drum

Let us sit beside our inner fires, warm ourselves and listen to the heartbeat 

and song of Sekmekwe - Heart Beat of the Mother Earth.

-- Dawn Woman

Meaningful Teachings of the Drum

As First Nation’s People, we have always been told that the first drum beat we hear, is when we are inside our mother. That drumbeat we hear is known as the heart of our mom. In cultures all over the world, there is known to be a drum that is significant to them.

Drums have always been a part of human life since the beginning and have great importance in First Nation culture. There are many stories as to how the drum came to be but for now, we will focus on just a few for today.

Drum Teachings with Howard Walker:

Cree Elder Howard Walker Speaks About The Drum.

To read entire article: Meaningful Teachings of the Drum (Powwow Times)

Winter Medicine Wheel

Gaa Biboon Ked

Winter Medicine Wheel

The winter maker approaches ...

It’s sitting by the fireand story telling time. 

Winter Vision Quest Cave

In this season, many inner compasses will begin turning toward seeking, creating and crawling into the blessed peace of the seasonal vision quest cave.

Inside, a deep breast of the resting Mother Earth, is where the Medicine Wheel slowly turns in an earthly circumambulation of all seed dreams, penetrated by fiery shafts of our Father Sky Sun into the mind, heart, body and Spirit of individual inner pools of quiet.

Here, one's bones can and may be deeply CLEANED: healed and loosened from the labors, challenges, cares, aspirations and fulfillments of the previous season, then slowly put back together as an honoring dream dance echo of all the ancestral journeys made before ours and those yet to come. The womb quest awaits. Draw aside a veil of the great mystery, breathe your name, make an offering and ask permission to replicate and renew the journey that all beings have made, do make and will make ... from earth to sky ... breath into clay ... so we are made and so we reenact the sacred moves, as we see them.

For, we are the new myth makers. Many dreams and messages have been brought forward, by ourselves and others … accept these offerings, feast upon the tears of bitterness and gratitude from which they were born and prepare to embark upon making the new myths and creation stories … OUR new myths drawn from a place where our sacred beingness meets with and is fused with mysterious elements emanating from an indivisible and indestructible connection with divine consciousness and personal discernment.

This is how we stay alive and keep the world alive. This then, is our Sacred Charge. Where we will feel most alive and know who we are.

Many are the ways of personal, creative ceremony ... Now, it is time to smudge off, pray for the highest good for all concerned and ask that bravery, wisdom, willingness and endurance walk with us.

Know that one may emerge, or come and go, from the cave at any time and trust that commitments and responsibilities in the outside world reside on physical and mental arms of the Medicine Wheel and will not suffer from ‘medicine’ attention directed elsewhere.

When ones visit to the cave is accomplished there will be a natural and unremarkable reunification of elements. The shifts and gifts will be ours for life. Do not speak of these things too soon but hold them close to mature and unfold. Journaling is a creative thing to do as many of the realizations, visitations or visions will be of an ephemeral nature. Do not censor or process the writing, that can be done later.

May we be eternally rich in Spirit, have good minds and strong bodies. May we know no fear and may we have hearts filled with love ... now and forever more.

AHO!

Dawn Woman