Inner Compass Continues, North,

 

Reconnecting

12 x 12 

Collage on Watercolor paper. 

North on the Medicine Wheel, Monkey Mind and Bison Spirit

Can our teachers and mentors be essences of animals and their spirits? I believe so. I also believe the energies of our elders, those still living and those that have passed can be source of good teachings.

Being led by example, without realizing it we can look upon our relations and learn from how they live or have lived.  Motivating us through experience, education, and knowledge.

Monkey Mind can engulf us during all cycles of life and seasons.  Though the Winter Blues or Cabin Fever have been more associated with the Wintertime or North Direction because of the time spent with oneself during the long cold, gray days of winter.   Knowing that others before us have had this experience and weather through it is a comfort on so many levels but with the world situation and the tail whip of the pandemic now upon us, we are all experiencing the flip flopping and jumping around, call it Monkey mind. 

Where can you turn to? A therapist, elders, gathering circles, spiritual director, friends, and family, 12 step groups etc.

I read this quote this morning, synchronicity answers when seeking and they pop up.

“The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half,” Fyodor Dostoevsky

I’m not suggesting we need to change our habits but if there is a repeated recurrence of behavior you are seeing from ourselves this is a wonderful time to go a bit deeper with it.  Calling upon the Bison/buffalo for spiritual guidance might be something to looking into.  What I mean by this is how does this animal live, what has this animal endured through its life.

How can you use this behavior and spirit in your life with greater meaning?

With a monkey mind we might be feeling discourage and fatigued. The monkey mind might be trying to pull us back into past patterns that are not working but at the time of this monkey mind moment we are in an area that we know but that doesn’t work for us anymore. Keep showing up for yourself, keep doing our inner works, looking at ourselves and growing spiritually we can be shown the path to change in many ways.   Now monkeys are wonderful creatures, but we don’t need the mental movement like they have constantly playing in our heads, do we?

As Mahatma Gandhi shared.  If you want to change the world you have to be the change.  And our wonderful 12 step groups share, “Let it begin with Me.”  All tall orders to practice and follow but it is where it begins.

North, Bison, winter, white, Elder, Earth, and in some areas the plant medicine of tobacco is used for prayer. A sacred pipe is smoked in ceremonies as a visual prayer. The pipe stem represents the male, and it enters the female, pipe bowl, the seeding of life. Together a divine energy of the Great Spirit. The tobacco represents every family in nature, invited in and shares its medicine as prayer and praise to the heavens. The visual prayer of the smoke is very sacred and cleansing.

Over the past years the appearance of White Bison/Buffalo have been born and the sign of prayers are being heard, honored and the promises of the prophecy are being fulfilled.  The wisdom of ceremonies and the knowledge are kept strong spreading worldwide for us all to honor the Earth and all the relations.

 The Bison/Buffalo are being restored to their natural habit all over which is restoring the earth in many ways.  The Bison/Buffalo gift us their meat for food, hides for clothes, warm and soft buffalo robes for the long winters and hooves for glue. In times past all part of this creature were used, honored, and not wasted.  Prayer and gratitude are the medicine the Bison/Buffalo share with us. They are known for abundance and all relations are honored as sacred and gratitude is expressed to every living part of creation.

 Within our Wintertime the Direction of North and the Bison/Buffalo are calling and asking us to use our energy in prayer. You may also be called upon to be an instrument of someone else’s answer to a prayer. Recognizing the sacredness of every walk of life, albeit different from your own.

 

Honoring another path, even though it brings sadness is the part of the message the bison brings. It’s a time to reconnect to the meaning of life and the value of peace with you. It is a time to bring serenity amidst the chaos. Give praise for the gift you already have, pray for enlightenment and the power of calmness.

 Wintertime is a time to become humble and ask for help and be grateful for what you receive.

 

Journal prompts and discussion questions:

 

• Might you have forgotten to ask for help when it has been needed?
• Have I forgotten my eternal partner, The Great Spirit, Universe, God, something bigger than yourself.  
• Am I pushing myself to fast in the physical world and keeping myself from seeing the importance of reunion with the Source of all Life?
• Have I forgotten to honor the ways of others and to afford them the same respect that I wish to receive myself?
• Am I feeling like my life is being used for the highest good at this time?
• Have I forgotten to be grateful for my life, my possessions, my talents, my abilities, my health, my family, or my friends?
• Is it time to make peace with another, or to make peace with some inner conflict I have so that I may walk in balance again? 

Become the Bison/Buffalo. Feel the smoke of prayer and praise the change of your Buffalo robe to white so that you may be an answer to the prayers of the world. Be the stillness, Be the calm, Be the simplicity in life it is time to be gentle with in as you humble yourself to grow spiritually.

 

Honoring our elders of the past, both male and female, our fathers for the wisdom and the mothers for the feelings it will help us grow in balance. The north is a direction and Winter is a good season to focus on this. Honor both sides within ourselves. We can pray for guidance and the experience of balance.

 

 North on the Medicine Wheel, Monkey Mind and Bison Spirit