This beautiful creation of Mother Earth and Father Sky-Sun offers each of us an opportunity to walk, always, in balance and harmony by remembering them as our elemental parents. We remember … we have access to an orderly and supportive life view within the context of the Sun, Moon, seasons, the natural world, and the elementals of wind, earth, fire, water and the directions of the Medicine Wheel … Universally, the traditional view of life is one of a sacred nature. Myriad helpers and companions accompany each person, and these helpers may be recognized through vision, dream, inspiration, or experience. Vision, dream, and inspiration are personal and vital connections to enhanced understanding, experience and attunement with the Spirit World. In this way, we honor ourselves as Sacred Beings and begin, or continue, to participate as co-creators in a living world. And so, we move in wholeness and beauty.
May we have a strong body
May we have a good mind
May we have a heart full of love
And know no fear.
Aho!
-- Minisa Crumbo
Of all the paths and choices and histories, the energetic pathways of the directions and elementals are the most real and vital … I think they are only found by mind-oriented persons who comprehend the true energetic, light components of the Medicine Wheel … fuse, merge, again and again with the strips, rays, fibers, and channels of light … Find places of being that are lighter and broader … just make sure that once the light paths open up, and you know it, that some mental program stores it 24-7, making awareness and experience of the light never far from surface consciousness, making the full experience known, close and available, as soon as possible. Form new habits of association … linking the moments like beads on a string until they can be slipped over the head and worn … Our thoughts are our reality. We must think better, smarter, longer, and deeper about ourselves, our world, and what we really want that to look, feel, and be like. Be it. Do it. Don’t let up.
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.
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!
Winter Solstice: By the calendar of the natural world, the winter solstice marks the ingress into the profound precincts of the deep Mother Earth Womb, the original confirmation point of all seed soul, sprout, and rootlet growth. The days and nights of silent contemplation and Quiet Time observances have served to quiet the mind and prepare the body, much as the field is prepared to receive the new seed. Winter means that much of the northern hemi-turtle shell of this hemisphere is blanketed by the purifying powers of Snow Woman’s gifts and freezes … We live always within the Sacred Rainbow Hoop. This hoop of life is a threshold of all the moments of the eternal present. The eternal present we now find ourselves within and contemplating is the first of the White Plains of Spirit, others will follow in succeeding seasons, each with basically the same purifying intent. The winter solstice, embedded within the purifying power of the cold, cloaked with the white plain of purity, located in and upon the wisdom body of the original gift, represents the core wisdom quality of winter … Conscious arrival and acquaintance with the Winter threshold of the Sacred Medicine Wheel Hoop of Life is a primal renewal experience, made ceremony. If this is a new concept to you, trust that you have entered into one of the most beautiful and comprehensive systems in this galaxy and beyond for containing, supporting, and interpreting life in a sacred way. Best wishes upon this journey. The winter solstice is a naturally occurring station within the year and, as such, has accrued a long history. The holy days, holidays, are usually grounded in natural phenomena that grew out of the Creative Mind and manifested in the first, most beautiful and enduring gifts of our Mother Earth, our Father Sky-Sun and the myriad of clustering entities we call the powers and fixtures of the natural world … This then, is the sacred charge: to bring oneself forward in all possible wholeness, mindfulness, and beauty, and to conceive of and design ceremonies of personal meaning, fulfilling the sacred charge to be happy and enjoy life. This winter solstice is our time to unite with the natural world. Take these long nights to rest, tell stories, celebrate, and dream deeply of life before the stronger suns call us forward once again to grow and to labor. But for now, enter into and be one with the conceptual Return of the Light.
Bozho and Greetings, Dreamers and Vision Questers,
In four days one's life can be changed through a personal, dedicated Vision Quest Ceremony.
Water was one of the first elements that the Creator 'breathed life' into what would become the first, most beautiful and enduring of Mother Earth's gifts, followed by light and fire. These gifts became the cultural foundations of many creation stories and the framework of the medicine wheel. Earth, air, fire and water emanating from an enduringly vital center point ... with which we are all invited to discover and perhaps to occupy ... a point which some would view as a 'sacred flowering tree'.
As in so many internal 'creation stories', there may be an unpredictable combination of past, present and future ... gently known as the 'eternal present'. These elements may appear in the personal gardens we then plant, tend, water, weed and harvest as 'farmers of our lives'. A good vision quest can have a long life. Perhaps as long as the four seasons it takes our mother earth to cycle through ... then again as short as 24 hours or ... four days.
We are the 'vision quest farmers' of our lives. We water the inner gardens and fields with our sacred blood, sweat and tears. Ahh.
Harvest is both a new beginning and renewal. This or any season's seed harvest carries both an ancient provenance and an unpredictable performance for which we must be prepared, for the vision quest is a mystery tour with we see or must be prepared to see 'something that is not yet known'. The Seeds of new life for the plant beings also follow their original instructions and move with 'choice as a sacred choice'.
We pray for our walks to be fused with bravery, courage, forgiveness, loyalty, love and endurance ... for these walks and powers to be with us ... on each, every and all of these, our most sacred and precious life journeys ... nourished by these teachings of the Seven Grandfathers which have guided, encouraged and taught us the 'good ways' to live, from a long time back ... now and forever more, all ways, all days ... Creator, Grandmother, Grandfather and all of the others, named and unnamed, known and unknown ... we offer gratitude for all of the gifts. Chi migwech, wewene chi migwech. Thank you.
AHO! Bama mine, Dawn Woman Citizen Potawatomi Nation
This season of Biboon brings the gathering and harvesting season, which invites us to celebrate the harvest and the preceding year’s labors and gifts with remembrance, gratitude and honoring words. This season seats but one of the times within which we may individually or collectively consider setting aside four days of ceremony…for we would remember that if one can take one’s life into four days of dedicated, personal ceremony, we can change it. How? For moving into a dedicated structure of this kind. These days can and will lead us, through feasting, speaking, dance and song, onto a renewed path connecting us with the mind of Giche Manidoo and the original dream of life that opened a vital chord for us to travel to this Sacred Land.
It is for these things that we make the gratitude and recognition prayers. These two beings were the first of the physical celestial beings which journeyed from their constellations and their star bodies are among those that announce the changing of the seasons. Jijak, known as the Summer Cross, and Maak, known as the North Star. Other winter constellations are Ajik Negos, known as Fisher, or Ursa Major, and Majo Negos (moose), known as Pegasus.
Ponde’se’ Negos
WINTER MAKER OR THE CONSTELLATION OF ORION
It is Winter Maker, with the three sacred center stars known as the Belt of Orion, that positions itself to be easily seen in the early night sky, riding above the southeastern horizon. This constellation unmistakably announces to all that winter has arrived.
The winter migrations are complete. Mko the bear has made the fat and sought the winter dream time hibernation deep within the resting body of Sekmekwe.
There are many, many Creation Stories, blessed and given by the Creator to the myriad individuals, tribes and cultures upon Sekmekwe mine Gizes, for which the various peoples may live and grow in peace, truth and beauty, now and forever more. For these things we are grateful and raise voices of praise and connection with you, of which many are the names by which you are known, Creator.
The Seven Grandfather Teachings
These teachings and the story are inextricably intertwined in beauty for all wisdom and knowledge are encoded in the heavens, earth and being of every being.
Note: Minisa wishes to thank Justin Neely, CPN Language Department and staff for all ongoing and outreach programs; Dolores and Don Neaseno Perrot; and Kyle Malott, Pokagon Band Language Department, for his Bode’wadmi Nengo^sek Star Chart and gracious support.
This beautiful creation of Mother Earth and Father Sky-Sun offers each of us an opportunity to walk, always, in balance and harmony by remembering them as our elemental parents. We remember … we have access to an orderly and supportive life view within the context of the Sun, Moon, seasons, the natural world, and the elementals of wind, earth, fire, water and the directions of the Medicine Wheel … Universally, the traditional view of life is one of a sacred nature. Myriad helpers and companions accompany each person, and these helpers may be recognized through vision, dream, inspiration, or experience. Vision, dream, and inspiration are personal and vital connections to enhanced understanding, experience and attunement with the Spirit World. In this way, we honor ourselves as Sacred Beings and begin, or continue, to participate as co-creators in a living world. And so, we move in wholeness and beauty.
May we have a strong body
May we have a good mind
May we have a heart full of love
And know no fear.
Aho!
-- Minisa Crumbo
Of all the paths and choices and histories, the energetic pathways of the directions and elementals are the most real and vital … I think they are only found by mind-oriented persons who comprehend the true energetic, light components of the Medicine Wheel … fuse, merge, again and again with the strips, rays, fibers, and channels of light … Find places of being that are lighter and broader … just make sure that once the light paths open up, and you know it, that some mental program stores it 24-7, making awareness and experience of the light never far from surface consciousness, making the full experience known, close and available, as soon as possible. Form new habits of association … linking the moments like beads on a string until they can be slipped over the head and worn … Our thoughts are our reality. We must think better, smarter, longer, and deeper about ourselves, our world, and what we really want that to look, feel, and be like. Be it. Do it. Don’t let up.
Of all the paths and choices and histories, the energetic pathways of the directions and elementals are the most real and vital … I think they are only found by mind-oriented persons who comprehend the true energetic, light components of the Medicine Wheel … fuse, merge, again and again with the strips, rays, fibers, and channels of light … Find places of being that are lighter and broader … just make sure that once the light paths open up, and you know it, that some mental program stores it 24-7, making awareness and experience of the light never far from surface consciousness, making the full experience known, close and available, as soon as possible. Form new habits of association … linking the moments like beads on a string until they can be slipped over the head and worn … Our thoughts are our reality. We must think better, smarter, longer, and deeper about ourselves, our world, and what we really want that to look, feel, and be like. Be it. Do it. Don’t let up.
