Elk Visits People

These pictures came from a friend who thought these pictures were from Canmore, Alberta.  It is not every day that one gets an elk in their front yard!  As I looked at the pictures, I realized that these elk were supporting a theme amongst the animals that I commented upon in other blogs. That theme is that the animals are no longer keeping their distance from man – they are coming into the man space, and making themselves comfortable.  Many believe that Elk are majestic. I call them spirit animals.

Our Ancestors believed that when the animals started acting atypical that great changes were upon them.  Generally, the changes were physical ones such as earthquakes, deviant weather, or both.  The animals would move out of the wilderness to be near to people and to have a sense of calmness.  As protectors of mankind, they also want to be near people to give them a warning if something big is going to happen.

Elk says, “Humankind puts order to their world – the trimmed lawns, the sculpted trees, and the abundance of flowers.  This is a contrast to the wildness of the forest that we live in.  We wonder why the grass is cut when so many of us need to eat much grass to keep our life force flowing.  We are grateful, too, that we no longer need to offer ourselves for food, as we did many lifetimes ago.  The Shaman would call to us to let us know that The People were hungry.  We responded.  Now, it is time for you to feed us.  This is the circle of life!

Blessings,

Judy

My Connection to Polar Bear

                         Picture is from Wikipedia - Polar Bear in the Arctic

While writing this, I was listening to "Unto The Burning Circle" by Andreas Vollenweider

Polar Bear north of Churchill from https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/polar-bear

  In my blogs, I talk about about many topics connected to spirituality. Each topic reflects something that is going on in my life.  Therefore, I truly enjoy writing about animals since the ANIMALS are such a large part of my life. 

The Polar Bear has been receiving a lot of attention recently.  Polar Bear, however, has been a part of my life since 1972.  That is the year that I went to work with Hudson Bay Northern Stores.  The clerical work that I did was for the Northern Stores in Churchill, Lynn Lake and north in Manitoba, Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario. 

In the winter, the Store Managers, Trainees, and sometimes District Managers from our office in Winnipeg travelled back and forth.  Many of the residents from the north would come and visit at my desk.  They always had great stories of encounters with polar bears, arctic wolves, arctic foxes, and whales and seals and walruses.  As they realized that I really loved to hear stories of polar bears, they began to snap pictures of the animals and send them off to me in the next batch of books to be analysed.  I began to get several pictures a month during the winter. I kept some of the pictures, however, the earlier photographic paper does yellow over time, and does not stand up to much handling.  

Pictures like this one, of a mother and cubs were common.  This picture comes from www.nwf.org.  

The point of the story is that when an animal shows up over and over in your life, especially from an early age, a Shaman says that this is one of Power Animals.  A Power Animal both shows an aspect of your self as well as showing an external source of power that is always available to you.

At the time that I was meeting Polar Bear for the first time, I did not realize the implications of the true power of this Bear.  Polar Bear is truly a specialist in the North - the colour, the ability to hunt all prey in such a camouflaged way as to be invisible, and the great speed - send a message that I did not "get" until a couple of years ago. I think that I am still learning some of it.

What Polar Bear did for me during the time that I worked at Northern Stores was create a love for all things Northern, and a great sadness that the company that I worked for was sponsoring hunters to kill the animals of the North for their fur.  I realized that I did not want to be part of that culture and within the year of starting my job, I began taking night classes at University to become something else.  

One of the messages that I received from Polar Bear, in a retrospective look at my life, was to move away from being somebody without a goal or a specific purpose.  Polar Bear was a BIG motivating factor in moving into Education and then into Accounting, and finally specializing in Accounting Software.  

The other thing that Polar Bear did was make sure that I was with the perfect mate.  When I met the guy that is now my husband, one of the things that impressed me was that he had a picture of two Polar Bears playing.  That picture hung in our bedroom for many years.  It is now in our guest room.

I wish you happiness and days of playing!

Blessings,

Judy

Camel is a Spirit Animal

 

                                                 Picture of Camel from Snap-shot.com 

 

When we talk about going into the desert, the first animal that springs to mind is the Camel. The desert means that the climate is hot and dry, and perhaps with out food or water for several days. How is it that Camel survived her fifty million years without going the way of extinction? Why do the Bedouins call her “Allah’s Gift”?

Camel has some physical properties that human kind would love to have. She is able to eat anything – even thorns. Excess food is stored in the humps as fat, and, as she requires water, she metabolizes the fat into water. The longest Camel has been known to go without water is two months. Her dry dung gives the Bedouins their fuel for fires. Her milk and meat and hair provide food and clothing. She carries great burdens for the nomadic tribes, and even provides entertainment in the form of camel racing. She is truly a gift!

Many spiritual leaders – prophets and shaman – pilgrimage in the desert because it is believed to be a magical place that can shift out of time to different worlds and dimensions. Camel then, is one who can walk between worlds, or walk out of time. Some believe that she can go so long without water because she slips between dimensions and never changes.

Camel’s great, large, two toed feet keep her firmly grounded on the top of the sand and in contact with Mother Earth. She “hears” from the Earth where water is available. Her colour is great camouflage for blending into the shifting dunes, or even into the dry mountain tops where she may make her home. The white shading, sometimes on the muzzle and above the feet indicate that Camel is enlightened.

When Camel looks at you directly in dream time or in the physical, know that she is telling you that a journey is in store. The journey may be physical travel as well as a quest or pilgrimage of the spiritual kind. Know too that Camel, who travels out of the ordinary, is preparing you for a time where you leave behind all that you know. The constant is the great Unknown. Camel says – do not fear. Great Spirit always provides, and if called upon, Camel will show you how bountiful Great Spirit is in the unknown times.

May you carry all that you need with you, and may you travel lightly!

Blessings,

Judy

Themes of Humanity

A while ago, I was reading the fascinating book "MYSTICAL TRAVELER: How to Advance to a Higher Level of Spirituality" by Sylvia Browne.  In it she discusses that there are forty-seven themes that classify the human  experience experience.  Themes, remember from high school English, are the major topics or qualities or characteristics of a story.  With that in mind, think of each human then, as a "story", and you will see why this intrigues me.

Shaman are teachers and we teach our protégées that when a person comes to us with a story, and wanting our sympathy and support, that we, the Shaman, should ask the question, "What is really going on here, and what is the story behind the story?"  It seems that the story behind the story is actually another story that that human came to Earth to experience.  We need to look at the “theme” of the individual and reason for coming to Earth.

Ms. Browne has presented the themes in alphabetical order. I am presenting a broad over view of the information. Her first several themes include:

1.  Activator - focuses on achieving a goal that others ahead of her have not completed...

2.  Aesthetic Pursuits - driven by an innate talent, the individual is a slave to the passion that drives them.  An example of an individual that seemed to exemplify this theme would be Beethoven. 

3.  Analyzers - those that pay very close attention to all detail, and need to know why something works the way it does.  Scientists fall under this category.

I could go on about each theme...however, that would spoil the read for you.  

Just to satisfy your curiosity, give the book a read!

Blessings,

Judy

Caring For Our Own

 Picture of illness from Microsoft Clip Art

In our Ancestors’ days, when someone became ill, the family cared for that person.  Usually, there were several families, (mother, father, children) living under the same roof, with grandparents or elderly aunts and uncles.  That meant that there would usually be someone available to do some healing and caretaking.  As well, someone in the family, or someone within walking distance, had a knowledge of herbs and would probably know the herbs required to speed up the healing.

The person with the healing knowledge was usually considered a shaman, medicine man or women, healer, or witch man or woman.  Note that in Roman and Celtic languages, the old meaning of witch was “one who knew of the earth”, or someone who knew about what grew and what was helpful.

In extreme cases of illness, families might pilgrimage, with the sick one, to a well known healer, or to a sacred shrine, to ask for healing from a particular god or goddess or saint or from Christ.  Now things have changed.  The healer that we go to is a doctor and the pilgrimage is to a hospital.  Seldom do we care for our own – we are all busy, with jobs, and cannot care for someone on a 24 x 7 schedule.  We trust others to care for them, and then are outraged when abuses take place, for example, as in abuse of the elderly in care homes.  

Instead of natural herbs being cooked and made into teas or salves or poultices, our ill are given synthetic products, in large quantities. The drugs react to each other, in many cases, and possibly are toxic to each other.  Unlike the healer/herbalist, the doctors getting samples and products from the drug companies may not know what the ingredients and the side effects are.

Why did we get to this place of not being able to care for our own? There are five reasons:

1. as the practice of medicine developed, people were taught that only doctors knew enough about the body to treat the body, and that people who used natural remedies were con artists.
2. as the industrial society required more people to work in factories or in other labour positions, people were taken out of their homes on a daily basis, and there was no one at home to care for others.
3. this problem of being out of the home increased through World War I and II, and because so many young men (and women) were killed in the wars, created a gap where there were not any children left to care for elderly parents. This created small nursing homes to care for injured and elderly people, left without family.
4. in the rebuilding of countries, through the fifties, sixties, and seventies, all able bodied people were needed to be in the work force.  Corporations were replacing “mom and pop” shops. Women were increasingly taking on what were deemed "male” jobs. Soon babysitters were required for children, and day-cares became the norm.
5. entrepreneurs, always watching for a service niche, realized that there was a market opportunity to care for children, the ill, and the elderly.  Hospitals with a dollar agenda became big business, as did personal care homes, and education.  Pharmaceutical companies grew up around the “illness” industry, for there is not the same amount of money or annuity in the “wellness” industry.

No, this does not make us bad people.  It does show how we have been manipulated by circumstances and by those looking to profit from those circumstances.  Perhaps it is time to take our power back!

Blessings,

Judy 

Nature’s Camouflage

This picture comes from an email entitled “Nature’s Camouflage” 

Spirit animals send us many messages as they cross our path.  The same animal may appear to three people at the same time, and give each of them a different message.  In this instance, a message about “blending in” is foremost.  Often, as powerful as we are, we do more good, or have a greater effect, if we simply blend in so that others do not see us and take exception to us or avoid us.  Sometimes, simply by being present in a locale, we can influence others with the energy that surrounds us.  

The other message from camouflage is that in hiding in plain sight, we are often safer than if we try to hide off the beaten track.  By hiding, we often think that we are reclusive.  What may really happen is that we do end up drawing attention to ourselves because of our “abnormal” behaviour.  Our Ancestors saw wizards and wisdom keepers (reference Munay-Ki) as specialists who could be consulted when the local Shaman did not have a solution for the problem confronting the tribe.  The wisdom keeper lived in isolation and was obligated to help when the situation seemed without solution. The very fact that the wisdom keeper lived apart and seemed hidden made them more mysterious and more sought after.

As a helpful hint, there is a cougar lying on a rock towards the bottom of the picture above.

May you find ways to hide in plain sight.

Many blessings,

Judy

Apple Cider Vinegar as Medicine

Picture is from Insider.com

When I was growing up, apple cider vinegar was in a bottle in the cupboard in the kitchen.  It was used from everything like baking to bathing cuts on piglets, or putting on chicks that were getting picked on by other chicks.  I actually did not know how it was created, so I looked it up.

From altmedicine.about.com -- Apple cider vinegar is a type of vinegar made by the fermentation of apple cider. During this process, sugar in the apple cider is broken down by bacteria and yeast into alcohol and then into vinegar. Apple cider vinegar contains acetic acid (like other types of vinegar) and some lactic, citric and malic acids.

Why am I so interested in apple cider vinegar?  I was in the grocery store the other day and was buying apple cider vinegar to add to my bath water to draw out toxins.  One of the Shaman Teachers that I had years ago told us that to clear toxins out of our body to use a Sweat (Lodge) or a wood sauna.  Failing that, he said, have a very hot bath with a cup of apple cider vinegar in it.  It seems to work!

While I was getting my apple cider vinegar, two ladies were discussing how apple cider vinegar took the planter warts off feet.  One lady explained to the other how she had plantar warts for years, and paid lots for medication prescribed by her doctor.  Finally, she read an article about dipping cotton balls into apple cider vinegar and taping them – she used duct tape – to her feet all night.  She said that it took about four nights of this, when she noticed that the warts were drying up.  Now, she walks pain free and once a week she puts apple cider vinegar on socks and wears them to bed to ensure that the warts do not return.

Apples are said to be the perfect medicine. Johnny Appleseed knew what he was doing when he spread them across America.

Many Blessings,

Judy

Which is the Dream?

I am fascinated by dreaming!  I have now taken several courses on dreaming and I have read about forty books on dreaming.  Shaman and medicine men/women believe that this world that we walk in is the dream, and that what we see in dream time is the reality.  Some of them base this belief on the fact that when several of us are in the same situation, for example, a conversation or argument, each of us will have a different view and memory of the incident.  However, if two of us have the same dream, and if we are both in it, our memories of the dream are usually the same.

The following story is quite thought provoking.  What do you think this story says?

 

This beautiful picture of dreaming is from creoleindc.typepad.com

Dreaming

The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

Happy dreaming!

Many blessings,

Judy

Turtle In Dream Time

            Picture is of a turtle at Saskatoon Farm and taken by Judy in 2022
 

Shaman say that Grandmother Turtle is a good spirit guide, and she can be a Spirit Animal for some.  She is about steadiness and longevity.  She has walked for two hundred and fifty million years on this Earth.  She teaches us lessons about looking at time differently.  As Turtle is long lived, she may have given the same messages to our Ancestors, and now she gives them to us.  She is one of Nature’s wonders – her home is on her back, she is comfortable in the water and on land, and her young are born on land to return to the water.  Additionally, all she needs, her house, is always with her. She represents life and being at Oneness with Creation.

Last night, I dreamt of turtles. I had three of them in a zoo like environment, without any of the fences.  They seemed content, and they constantly looked at me.  If I walked around to a different angle, they all turned to look at me.  They were three different sizes – small, saucer sized,  and two larger or plate sized. They seemed quite healthy and happy, and appeared to have lots to eat.  

Because Turtle appeared in a dream, I felt she was trying to express that time is having less and less meaning.  Since we are still in a snowy frozen state in Calgary, I would not see her until later in the Spring.  Yet, her she was, wanting to talk to me.  

The other message seemed to be about patience and abundance.  The sense was that all that I need would come to me, and that I simply need to carry on with what I am doing.   Too, because Turtle is so primal and old, there also seemed to be a sense that I needed to go back to my primal essence of who I was as energy, and remember what I was here, on Earth, to do.  Turtle is here to be Turtle.  Judy is here to be her essential light.

May you find your Turtle message on your journey.

Many blessings,

Judy

Spirit Speaks - The Energy of Change December 2022

If you are one of the people that felt incredible energy shifts that have been happening to us on Earth since the Full Moon on December 7 2022, then know that you are not alone.  Many that feel the change talk about being tired all the time.  Others speak of feeling small aches in their bodies that sap the energy from them.  These small aches are changes happening at a cellular level in real time.

Astrologers and mystics are writing about the change that is needed to bring humans and the Earth or Mother Nature back into balance.  Shaman talk about the energy required to shift humans from being apathetic and from being narcissists to becoming spiritual beings.  The process is about changing the concept of "taking because 'I' deserve it" to one of "what is in the best interest of all of us as a group".  The change is hard.  

Some of the changes that need to happen on an individual basis include:

• walking away from consumerism as it only supports the greed of shareholders and fills the landfills.
• extending kindness to self and others without harming people along the way
• finding natural ways to walk softly on the Earth such as growing our own food 
• spending time in Nature in contemplation or meditation and healing

For some, these changes will not happen and they will not be able to contend with the growing vibration of goodness and rightness and integrity.  When they cannot shed core beliefs, they will fall to terminal illnesses.

Those that do shift will experience peace, steadfastness, quiet joy, and an expansion of vision - seeing what needs to be done. The stress lifts.  A new connection with animals emerges. 

It is all good.

Many blessings,

Judy

Healing Grief - A Process That is Different For Each Of Us

 

                                               - Picture by Judy Hirst along Highway 40 

 Generally, we associate grief with the death of a loved person or pet.  For some reason, and it is different for each of us, we feel angry that the person/pet had to die at this time.  At some point, many of us are angry at God for allowing the disease or illness or even age to take the object of our grief.  And with our grief, we internalize it, until, one day, it simply needs to come out.  The release happens by way of tears.

I was at a funeral recently where this poem was in the program, and I found that these words helped me heal some grief that I felt.  For some reason, thinking that the person would become an active part of nature gave me solace. Our Ancestors have known this for centuries.

NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER

I give you this one thought to keep --I am with you still – I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not think of me as gone – I am with you still – in each new dawn.
——Author Unknown

Sometimes, we just need to sit in a quiet place and let the grief come out of us.  What if, however, the grief is for a different reason than loss of life?  What if it is a personal grief over the loss of a job, or lover or whatever?  Grief is a mental or mind activity.  In the book, “The Buddha and The Way To Happiness” by Tien Cong Tran, Ph.D., one finds the Buddhist definition for grief on Page 44.  It reads, “GRIEF: “And what, bhikkhus, is grief? Whatever mental painful feeling, mental unpleasant feeling, painful or unpleasant sensation results from mental contact, – that is called grief.””

The meaning of this passage, seems to me to say that grief is what we make it.  The opposite than is that we can unmake grief. While that may be true, it is very much an individual action.  Just as each of us will heal a cut on our body in different ways and times, each of us will heal our grief differently.

I know that I am still grieving – it just does not hurt quite so much. 

Blessings,

Judy