The Sacred Pipe

Reprinted by Permission of Black Bear

For more on The Sacred Pipe, see:

A wonderful interview with Looking Back Woman about The Sacred Pipe in Heyoka Magazine:

http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.6.FEATURES.%20LBW.PART.1.htm

John Fire Lame Deer said: "Besides the Ptechincala Huhu Canunpa this family also kept a second, very sacred tribal pipe, one among the first made from red pipe stone. The way the white buffalo woman had taught the people. This old pipe served as a model for after which all the other pipes are made. It has the feather of a red eagle tied to its handle. This brings to mind the eagle who rescued the only survivor from the flood, who gave birth to twins who, in turn, grew into the Sioux nation. It also reminds us, the eagle of is a symbol of wisdom, almost as important to us as the Buffalo. Therefore many of our medicine men therefore have a eagle feather tied to their pipes."

Also, see the pdf version of a book, "Quest for the Pipe of the Sioux," detailing the lineage of the Pipe: http://lookingbackwoman.com/Wilbur001.pdf

Read more at: www.lookingbackwoman.com
-- PathFinder


Hello and welcome back everyone

and welcome to the new members.

I hope you find this both interesting and informative.

BlackBear







BlackBear1@eastlink.ca


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Twilight Camp


THE TRUE MEANING OF THE PIPE AND
THE WHITE BUFFALO CALF PROPHESY

Part 1 of 2

Any mother who has ever held a baby will know the beauty, meaning and the prophesy of the White Buffalo Calf Woman. It is this woman who was a mother who walked the land of the Sioux so long ago. She was a mother whose heart cried out with the love, protection and caring of all children.

In her time as she walked Mother Earth, the Sioux were one great Nation. It was a time before the legend of the Seven Campfires. We were all one people. As a young girl she did a brave and noble thing for which the people of the Sioux honored her with the name, Mother of Life.

In that day and age when a young person was becoming an adult the name they were most generally given would help them to direct their path in life, and so it was for Mother of Life through out her existence on Mother Earth. She devoted her life in the physical plane to the caring and the extension of love for all children she came in contact with.

Mother of Life spent a lifetime caring as a mother for her people and she grew to be respected as an elder woman.

There came a day when an opposing people attacked her village. Sweeping into the camp the enemy struck down those who were before them. Mother of Life was a part of this scene and she saw the blow to a child of two years who was mortally wounded. She rushed to the child and cradled this little one in her arms. She watched as the child's life essence slipped away and she felt this small one die in her arms.

When it's spirit started the journey home her heart cried out in an appeal to the Great Spirit, "Why must the People only settle their differences with the anger of the animal? When will they realize that the children are the future of the people?"

No sooner had these words left her body than an enemy spear pierced her heart. She slumped over to forever cradle a dead child. Mother of Life followed that child's spirit as it started it's journey home. She knew the little one walked on ahead of her and she hastened her steps so as that child crossed over it would cross over with the protection and love that dwelt in the heart of a true mother.

This is only a glimpse of who this woman was. For to tell a story of one's life requires more time and space than will allow here so we will talk more of her life within the main body of the story.

Before the legend of the Seven Campfires in a time when the people were one great nation there were many things that plagued the mind of a great warrior. He had seen and known of many years of the taking of human life destroying and bringing hardships to the Circle around him. The warrior knew that the people would be divided as the Nation was too great to be controlled by one man. He wondered how the people would be held together with honor and dignity. He wondered if they would all become warriors and step outside the circle of life to settle their differences. Would they become like the animal determined to win at any cost destroying the children of their future and therefore destroying the children that make up the People? Without the children the culture and religious beliefs would die. This beautiful way of life would be viewed by only an animal who would see it without meaning.

This warrior went to his wife and said, "I am a warrior and have earned many honors in battle but yet I am a father who has received a child that has left the safety and caring of a mother's womb. I have seen our children grow and produce their own children. So in my heart I know the joy, the honor, the pride and the suffering that I have denied other fathers in the heat of battle. I have seen with my eyes the love of a brother and sister for each other and I have killed a brother."

The warrior sat and talked to his wife. He let his heart flow out to her with all the things inside that were troubling him. They embraced with his words and they cried. They knew that the singing of his heart was true. The warrior's wife broke from his embrace and went to the place in the tipi where he hung his spiritual and religious items.

She picked out a single eagle feather and returned kneeling beside her husband she said, "You are a good father who lives with the suffering of a warrior in your heart. Take this eagle feather and seek the vision. Hold this feather high and sing out your heart's thoughts to brother eagle. Ask him to carry your heart's thoughts to all the mothers who journey to the great spirit. Tell them you seek the vision of a mother's heart for the love of her children."

The warrior left the teepee and journeyed into the Paha Sapa.

We all know what happened next for the vision of the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared to him with an instrument to bring peace and harmony but also a prophesy to end the wars and suffering of all children.

In the warrior's vision the woman called Mother of Life in the physical plane became known in the spirit world as the White Buffalo Calf Woman. She appeared with this pipe cradled in her arms with the same love and caring she had leaving this world while cradling a dying child.

Acoma Pottery
Very unusual, heart-shaped, Acoma pottery wall hanging with figures of two birds - very rare! 7" X 7"
1930

When she appeared to the warrior seeking the vision of peace she said, "It is an honor to present you with this pipe for in you lives the understanding of all mothers whose love and protection of the child is sacred and you are one who knows the sacredness of the child. So take this pipe and present it to others."

The woman told the warrior, "The pipe has no honor, but when the one who holds it learns the love for all children as a mother does then the pipe becomes sacred. When you put the pipe forward with that understanding and with the desire for peace within your heart, then the pipe will become sacred."

This is the caring that must live in the heart of a man but you must also protect the pipe. A man who places himself above a woman has no right to hold the pipe, for he can never understand the caring for a child as he cannot understand the caring that a mother holds within her heart.

There may be a woman who abandons her child and she must earn the respect of a mother before she is allowed to hold the pipe. Know by this that all people who have made mistakes can always find their way back into the circle when they earn the honor again.

When one offers the pipe in peace and another accepts, it is time to talk of what truly lives within the heart. To accept the pipe means one must speak of what truly lives in one's heart. Hearing the truth will entice anger in some but the ones who feel that anger must understand that by the acceptance of the pipe you agree to hear the truth. He who hears the truth must address it with honor and integrity so that peace will come about.

If you become angry and you walk away from understanding the heart of another you may take a path away from the peaceful. You may take a path that leads to war and you will have insulted a gift from the hearts of every mother who has lived through out time. You will come eventually to take the journey home and meet those mothers. It is then you will hang your head in shame for then you will truly know that you cared not for your mother's heart but turned away from them.

A person who cannot care for the heart of a warrior and cannot feel the pain the warrior feels must never hold the pipe. When one holds the pipe one must understand the conflict that will exist in a warrior's heart after the heat of a battle is done. When a warrior returns back to his Circle of Life and again steps into his role of the father, he will always live with the monstrosities committed by the warrior that lives within him.

Each time he holds his child near he will think of the child that he has denied that embrace to. When he holds his wife in the tender moments of the night in loving embrace he will remember how another woman lays alone in the night crying because her husband has fallen in battle. One must know of a warrior's heart so that peace is a true quest. That is the only way that the children may survive.

The Woman spoke, "Hear me children. See this beautiful White Buffalo Calf. Know that the Buffalo is the most important thing to our people as it gives us plenty. But yet as you look at this White Buffalo Calf you understand that it has a special birth that only happens once in a millennium. It is sacred to our people because of it's uniqueness. Hear my prophesy and hear the easiest way to fulfill it. Teach the children as they hold the babies of the animals that inhabit the Mother Earth, for a baby is always accepted in the hearts of people. Teach the children to love and cradle the little ones in a caring way. They grow and they will learn to love and cradle the other babies of the world. Keep this caring in mind and watch the White Buffalo Calf.

The Woman said, "If you teach all the children to love all the white races of Mother Earth with the same caring that you love the baby animals then you will have found the spiritual path of the Sioux." As the warrior father watched the White Buffalo Calf turned from white to yellow.

The Woman said, "If you love all the children of the yellow races as you love your newborn child then harmony will exist in your heart for those people as well."

He watched, as the calf turned from yellow to red. "If in your heart you look at all the children of the red races and follow the teachings of the medicine wheel explaining we are all related, then you will know the true meaning of family."

The many shades of black began to flow within the red Calf and it changed to blacks. The Woman spoke to him again. "When you have learned to cherish the black children of Mother Earth you will find that there is peace within your heart to dream the dreams of love and honor and to hope for a unique future.

The reason the White Buffalo Calf has appeared with the Woman in the vision is so that the people will hav a prophesy that can be fulfilled. The Calf will appear in the distant future in that future it will change to the four colors of the medicine wheel. If we as a people are to walk among the stars in unity love and harmony, insuring a place for the generations of all children to grow, then tell the people this story so that it will grow in their hearts. They will be able to help the prophesy become a reality for the children.

Today's Guest Ezine

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CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

This is our circle. Our circle of friends.
A circle that has no beginning, A friendship that has no end.
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Our circle keeps growing As new friends come along,
But that doesn't make it weaker, It only serves To make us strong.
Our friendship will go on, Like the circle to which We all belong.
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Together forever, In friendship we will stand
Together in our circle, Together hand in hand.
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Wasco Bag
Very large, twined "Sally" bag with red and black quail top knot design. 14-1/2" X 9"
1890


Every Day Is Earth Day

HONOR ALL CREATURES
AS YOUR SISTERS AND YOUR BROTHERS,
FOR ALL ARE SACRED PARTS
IN THE BODY OF THE GREAT SPIRIT.

EACH ONE IS HOLY.
LIVE YOUR LIFE IN HARMONY
WITH THE WAY OF BALANCE
AND YOU WILL KNOW
PEACE AND JOY.

It is said …

The people saw her walking off in the same direction from whence she had come, outlined against the red ball of the setting sun. As she went, she stopped and rolled over four times. The first time, she turned into a black buffalo; the second into a brown one; the third into a red one; and finally, the fourth time she rolled over, she turned into a white buffalo calf and galloped away.

White Buffalo Calf Woman promised to return at the dawning of a new age ... and the white buffalo calf Miracle, born in August of 1994, has gradually changed color from snowy white to yellow to reddish brown, and to the almost black of her mother. According to legend, when all races are unified and peace returns to the earth, this buffalo will once again turn white. The Yellow, Red, Black and White race each were given a gift and a direction to work with. The four races need to come together for us to heal as a people.

ON SEPT. 16TH AT 4:PM PACIFIC TIME.....ALL PEOPLES WILL BE ASKED TO DRUM...SING AND PRAY..TO SAVE OUR MOTHER EARTH..FOR AN HOUR OR TWO...TO GIVE OF YOUR PRAYERS ,SONGS AND DRUMMING...FOR THIS PURPOSE.....!!!

now a letter from Willy Whitefeather....to everyone....

Osiyo Everyone!...and Dohiyi...Peace...
Please drum and Pray for our Mother Earth! Put the life back into our beloved Mother.....for the Drum is Her heartbeat....the Drum beat IS the life beat of Mother Earth...
When you write Heart in a circle...it spells Earth....
So let the drum beat circle the Earth With Love....
ps...When this was done last year....50,000 Drums were sounded...it was felt ...even in planes in flight....the people felt the drum beats....
Many Wados.....Blessings....Willy Whitefeather

Plateau Bag
Harness leather belt pouch with rounded bottom and full floral beaded flap. 4-1/2" X 4"
1930


The White Buffalo

The Sioux are a warrior tribe, and one of their proverbs says, "Woman shall not walk before man. " Yet White Buffalo Woman is the dominant figure of their most important legend. The medicine man Crow Dog explains, "This holy woman brought the sacred buffalo calf pipe to the Sioux. There could be no Indians without it. Before she came, people didn't know how to live. They knew nothing. The Buffalo Woman put her sacred mind into their minds. " At the ritual of the sun dance one woman, usually a mature and universally respected member of the tribe, is given the honor of representing Buffalo Woman.

Though she first appeared to the Sioux in human form, White Buffalo Woman was also a buffalo­ the Indians' brother, who gave its flesh so that the people might live. Albino buffalo were sacred to all Plains tribes; a white buffalo hide was a sacred talisman, a possession beyond price. One summer so long ago that nobody knows how long, the Oceti­Shakowin, the seven sacred council fires of the Lakota Oyate, the nation, came together and camped. The sun shone all the time, but there was no game and the people were starving. Every day they sent scouts to look for game, but the scouts found nothing.

Among the bands assembled were the Itazipcho, the Without­Bows, who had their own camp circle under their chief, Standing Hollow Horn. Early one morning the chief sent two of his young men to hunt for game. They went on foot, because at that time the Sioux didn't yet have horses. They searched everywhere but could find nothing. Seeing a high hill, they decided to climb it in order to look over the whole country. Halfway up, they saw something coming toward them from far off, but the figure was floating instead of walking. From this they knew that the person was waken , holy.

At first they could make out only a small moving speck and had to squint to see that it was a human form. But as it came nearer, they realized that it was a beautiful young woman, more beautiful than any they had ever seen, with two round, red dots of face paint on her cheeks. She wore a wonderful white buckskin outfit, tanned until it shone a long way in the sun. It was embroidered with sacred and marvelous designs of porcupine quill, in radiant colors no ordinary woman could have made. This wakan stranger was Ptesan­Wi, White Buffalo Woman. In her hands she carried a large bundle and a fan of sage leaves. She wore her blue­black hair loose except for a strand at the left side, which was tied up with buffalo fur. Her eyes shone dark and sparkling, with great power in them.

The two young men looked at her open­mouthed. One was overawed, but the other desired her body and stretched his hand out to touch her. This woman was lila waken, very sacred, and could not be treated with disrespect. Lightning instantly struck the brash young man and burned him up, so that only a small heap of blackened bones was left. Or as some say that he was suddenly covered by a cloud, and within it he was eaten up by snakes that left only his skeleton, just as a man can be eaten up by lust.

To the other scout who had behaved rightly, the White Buffalo Woman said: "Good things I am bringing, something holy to your nation. A message I carry for your people from the buffalo nation. Go back to the camp and tell the people to prepare for my arrival. Tell your chief to put up a medicine lodge with twenty­four poles. Let it be made holy for my coming."

This young hunter returned to the camp. He told the chief, he told the people, what the sacred woman had commanded. The chief told the eyapaha, the crier, and the crier went through the camp circle calling: "Someone sacred is coming. A holy woman approaches. Make all things ready for her." So the people put up the big medicine tipi and waited. After four days they saw the White Buffalo Woman approaching, carrying her bundle before her. Her wonderful white buckskin dress shone from afar. The chief, Standing Hollow Horn, invited her to enter the medicine lodge. She went in and circled the interior sunwise. The chief addressed her respectfully, saying: "Sister, we are glad you have come to instruct us."

She told him what she wanted done. In the center of the tipi they were to put up an owanka wakan, a sacred altar, made of red earth, with a buffalo skull and a three­stick rack for a holy thing she was bringing. They did what she directed, and she traced a design with her finger on the smoothed earth of the altar. She showed them how to do all this, then circled the lodge again sunwise. Halting before the chief, she now opened the bundle. the holy thing it contained was the chanunpa, the sacred pipe. She held it out to the people and let them look at it. She was grasping the stem with her right hand and the bowl with her left, and thus the pipe has been held ever since.

Again the chief spoke, saying: "Sister, we are glad. We have had no meat for some time. All we can give you is water." They dipped some wacanga, sweet grass, into a skin bag of water and gave it to her, and to this day the people dip sweet grass or an eagle wing in water and sprinkle it on a person to be purified.

The White Buffalo Woman showed the people how to use the pipe. She filled it with chan­shasha, red willow­bark tobacco. She walked around the lodge four times after the manner of Anpetu­Wi, the great sun. This represented the circle without end, the sacred hoop, the road of life. The woman placed a dry buffalo chip on the fire and lit the pipe with it. This was peta­owihankeshini , the fire without end, the flame to be passed on from generation to generation. She told them that the smoke rising from the bowl was Tunkashila's breath, the living breath of the great Grandfather Mystery.

The White Buffalo Woman showed the people the right way to pray, the right words and the right gestures. She taught them how to sing the pipe­filling song and how to lift the pipe up to the sky, toward Grandfather, and down toward Grandmother Earth, to Unci, and then to the four directions of the universe.


Seneca Cradle
Rare doll cradleboard with sun shade and old muslin - complete with new doll. 19-1/2" X 8-1/2" X 7-1/2"
1900


"With this holy pipe," she said, "you will walk like a living prayer. With your feet resting upon the earth and the pipestem reaching into the sky, your body forms a living bridge between the Sacred Beneath and the Sacred Above. Wakan Tanka smiles upon us, because now we are as one: earth, sky, all living things, the two legged, the four­legged, the winged ones, the trees, the grasses. Together with the people, they are all related, one family. The pipe holds them all together."

"Look at this bowl," said the White Buffalo Woman. "Its stone represents the buffalo, but also the flesh and blood of the red man. The buffalo represents the universe and the four directions, because he stands on four legs, for the four ages of man. The buffalo was put in the west by Wakan Tanka at the making of the world, to hold back the waters. Every year he loses one hair, and in every one of the four ages he loses a leg. The Sacred Hoop will end when all the hair and legs of the great buffalo are gone, and the water comes back to cover the Earth.

The wooden stem of this chanunpa stands for all that grows on the earth. Twelve feathers hanging from where the stem­ the backbone­ joins the bowl­ the skull­ are from Wanblee Galeshka, the spotted eagle, the very sacred who is the Great Spirit's messenger and the wisest of all cry out to Tunkashila . Look at the bowl: engraved in it are seven circles of various sizes. They stand for the seven ceremonies you will practice with this pipe, and for the Ocheti Shakowin , the seven sacred campfires of our Lakota nation."

The White Buffalo Woman then spoke to the women, telling them that it was the work of their hands and the fruit of their bodies which kept the people alive. "You are from the mother earth," she told them. "What you are doing is as great as what warriors do."

And therefore the sacred pipe is also something that binds men and women together in a circle of love. It is the one holy object in the making of which both men and women have a hand. The men carve the bowl and make the stem; the women decorate it with bands of colored porcupine quills. When a man takes a wife, they both hold the pipe at the same time and red cloth is wound around their hands, thus tying them together for life.

The White Buffalo Woman had many things for her Lakota sisters in her sacred womb bag; corn, wasna (pemmican), wild turnip. She taught how to make the hearth fire. She filled a buffalo paunch with cold water and dropped a red­hot stone into it. "This way you shall cook the corn and the meat," she told them.

The White Buffalo Woman also talked to the children, because they have an understanding beyond their years. She told them that what their fathers and mothers did was for them, that their parents could remember being little once, and that they, the children, would grow up to have little ones of their own. She told them: "You are the coming generation, that's why you are the most important and precious ones. Some day you will hold this pipe and smoke it. Some day you will pray with it."

She spoke once more to all the people: "The pipe is alive; it is a red being showing you a red life and a red road. And this is the first ceremony for which you will use the pipe. You will use it to Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery Spirit. The day a human dies is always a sacred day. The day when the soul is released to the Great Spirit is another. Four women will become sacred on such a day. They will be the ones to cut the sacred tree, the can­wakan, for the sun dance."

She told the Lakota that they were the purest among the tribes, and for that reason Tunkashila had bestowed upon them the holy chanunpa. They had been chosen to take care of it for all the Indian people on this turtle continent.

She spoke one last time to Standing Hollow Horn, the chief, saying, "Remember: this pipe is very sacred. Respect it and it will take you to the end of the road. The four ages of creation are in me; I am the four ages. I will come to see you in every generation cycle. I shall come back to you." The sacred woman then took leave of the people, saying: " Toksha ake wacinyanitin ktelo, I shall see you again."

The people saw her walking off in the same direction from which she had come, outlined against the red ball of the setting sun. As she went, she stopped and rolled over four times. The first time, she turned into a black buffalo; the second into a brown one; the third into a red one; and finally, the fourth time she rolled over, she turned into a white female buffalo calf. A white buffalo is the most sacred living thing you could ever encounter.

The White Buffalo Woman disappeared over the Horizon. Sometime she might come back. As soon as she had vanished, buffalo in great herds appeared, allowing themselves to be killed so the people might survive. And from that day on, our relations, the buffalo, furnished the people with everything they needed, meat for their food, skins for their clothes and tipis, bones for their many tools.

Mystic Visions


Note from Blackbear

The pictures from this and all future issues will be uploaded to Yahoo..
This is mainly for those who get the digest version which doesn't have any pictures.

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/TA_DreamCatcher/photos


http://www.iwchildren.org/Story/trio.htm


White Buffalo Calf Woman Promised to Return
by Bette Stockbauer
Grey Horn Butte (Devil's Tower), in the Black Hills of Wyoming, is of special significance to the Lakota Sioux people because near it they received the rituals of their religion. Their legend concerns a Messiah figure who came at a time when the people were in great suffering. She is called the White Buffalo Calf Woman, and when she came she brought a pipe made of the leg bone of a buffalo calf. When she gave the pipe to the people, she said that it would be their way to pray to God, to ask for help when in trouble, to give thanks and praise. She taught them seven rituals which are still in practice today. So began for them a new relationship with the world of spirit.

Legend says that, before she left, the wakan (holy) woman promised to return. As she walked away she turned into a buffalo that changed into four different colors ó red, black, yellow, and white -- colors which represent the races of humanity. The birth of four white buffalo calves in our own era symbolizes for the Native Americans the return of the White Buffalo Calf Woman (see accompanying text box). They say she has come to unify the races and help in the healing of the earth.

Over the generations the original pipe has been given into the keeping of one worthy person. Arvol Looking Horse, a Lakota Sioux spiritual leader, is the 19th Generation Keeper of the Pipe. In this function it is his task to be a caretaker of the Mother Earth, to bring her honor and respect by continuing the ceremonial traditions of his ancestors.

On 21 June l996, 3,000 people gathered at Grey Horn Butte to pray for global unity and the healing of the earth. This World Peace and Prayer Day was inspired by the vision of Arvol Looking Horse. In preparation for the day he contacted world leaders and indigenous groups on all continents, asking them to pray, at the same time, in their own sacred centers.

Looking Horse said: "According to spiritual leaders and Elders ... the "signs" of indigenous people's prophecies have shown themselves. The prophecies tell us it is time to begin mending the Sacred Hoop and begin global healing by working towards world peace and harmony.... The birth of the White Buffalo Calf lets us know that we are at a crossroads ó either return to balance or face global disaster. It is our duty to return back to the sacred places and pray for world peace. If we don't do this our children will suffer."

For some of those gathered on the summer solstice, the journey to Grey Horn Butte had begun on 3 May in Wahpeton, Saskatchewan, Canada, where 80 trail riders had begun a 1,200 kilometer journey to Wyoming called the Unity Ride. Its purpose was to unify tribes which had been torn apart by artificial boundaries, cultural destruction, and internal disharmony.

Some who made the ride were the Bundle Keepers, those given the responsibility of care for the sacred objects of their religion. Ceremonies were held at sacred sites along the way.



Kiowa-Style Doll
Fantastic buckskin doll in full costume, note says "1870 - 1890" but it is not that old - 19-1/2" X 8-1/2" X 7-1/2"
Age Unknown


The Ceremony

On the day of the ceremony people from many cultures and nations gathered in a circle around the sacred bundles. Arvol Looking Horse led the trail riders in a preliminary rite, the White Buffalo Dance.
A tribal Elder with a shaggy buffalo mask entered first to bless the sacred ground. The ceremonial pipe, the chanunpa, was offered to Tunkashila, the Father Spirit. There were prayers to the four directions, to the earth and to the sky. Long chants became hypnotic, the words circling around to the trilling refrain of the Indian women. From Tibet, the Noble Princess of Kartze Ozang recited a prayer to the Wind Horse. She mingled the Tibetan names of Padmasambhava and Avalokitesvara with those of the native deities. One could hear, from time to time, the piercing cry of a hawk, or see an eagle ride the wind. In the end all were invited to offer their individual prayer bundles, their private petitions to the spirit world. After the ritual, the microphone was available for two more hours for anyone to share a song, a thought, or a prayer.
Arvol Looking Horse, in deep reverence on this day, came briefly to the microphone and addressed the gathering: "Today we have come together, not to talk, but to pray. This gathering is for global healing, because no one person can do it. Today it doesn't matter what you believe or where you come from ó but the prayers must come together. We need each other.

"Today the message of peace must be delivered. I have prayed with many world leaders for peace on Mother Earth and I know that a lot of good people are coming here today, people with good hearts and good minds.

"Today we are coming together in awareness and knowledge of our sacred sites. When people have been praying at these sacred places for many generations, we know that the sacred energy is there. Today there are a lot more people who have been feeling that energy. If we pray from our heart in a respectful manner, that's where the healing begins -- it's called natural law, the gift of life the Great Spirit has shown us; it's going to bring balance in its own way.

"We remember the stories foretold by our ancestors ó these are going to carry our children into the generations that are coming. It is up to us today to carry this message. We have a lot of prophesies from 100 years ago that are happening today. That is why we made this journey, because we know the power of prophesies. Crazy Horse predicted that in the seventh generation many horses of different colors would gather at a sacred place. Black Elk said that in the seventh generation the mending of the sacred hoop would happen.

"We are trying to get this knowledge of our ancestors back to the people because we are in the seventh generation today, when once again we turn a page in history. Already we have signs that show us ó the birth of the white buffalo calf. Today people are caught up in anger, hatred, jealousy and confusion. They carry so much pain that they are striking out. But ceremonies like the one we will do here will heal that pain and show us how to find inner peace.

"We need to get the message of respect and honor to all nations upon the earth -- to carry that message of peace and non-violence. Our families are suffering, our children are suffering, but prayers of peace can reach all nations. Today we pray so that people all over the world can have the balance of life. From this day we hope to see some changes throughout the world." (from Share International, September 1996 )

----- Original Message -----
From: BlackBear
To: Post
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 10:36 AM
Subject: The Asylum Dream Catcher for Sept 07, 2006

Hello and welcome back everyone

and welcome to the new members.

I hope you find this both interesting and informative.

BlackBear








BlackBear1@eastlink.ca


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Friendly Game


WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN
Brings The First Pipe

As told by: Joseph Chasing Horse

Part 2 of 2

We Lakota people have a prophecy about the white buffalo calf. How that prophecy originated was that we have a sacred bundle, a sacred peace pipe, that was brought to us about 2,000 years ago by what we know as the White Buffalo Calf Woman.

The story goes that she appeared to two warriors at that time. These two warriors were out hunting buffalo, hunting for food in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, and they saw a big body coming toward them. And they saw that it was a white buffalo calf. As it came closer to them, it turned into a beautiful young Indian girl.

That time one of the warriors thought bad in his mind, and so the young girl told him to step forward. And when he did step forward, a black cloud came over his body, and when the black cloud disappeared, the warrior who had bad thoughts was left with no flesh or blood on his bones. The other warrior kneeled and began to pray.

And when he prayed, the white buffalo calf who was now an Indian girl told him to go back to his people and warn them that in four days she was going to bring a sacred bundle.

So the warrior did as he was told. He went back to his people and he gathered all the elders and all the leaders and all the people in a circle and told them what she had instructed him to do. And sure enough, just as she said she would, on the fourth day she came.

They say a cloud came down from the sky, and off of the cloud stepped the white buffalo calf. As it rolled onto the earth, the calf stood up and became this beautiful young woman who was carrying the sacred bundle in her hand.

As she entered into the circle of the nation, she sang a sacred song and took the sacred bundle to the people who were there to take of her. She spent four days among our people and taught them about the sacred bundle, the meaning of it.

She taught them seven sacred ceremonies.

One of them was the sweat lodge, or the purification ceremony. One of them was the naming ceremony, child naming. The third was the healing ceremony. The fourth one was the making of relatives or the adoption ceremony. The fifth one was the marriage ceremony. The sixth was the vision quest. And the seventh was the sundance ceremony, the people's ceremony for all of the nation.

She brought us these seven sacred ceremonies and taught our people the songs and the traditional ways. And she instructed our people that as long as we performed these ceremonies we would always remain caretakers and guardians of sacred land. She told us that as long as we took care of it and respected it that our people would never die and would always live.

When she was done teaching all our people, she left the way she came. She went out of the circle, and as she was leaving she turned and told our people that she would return one day for the sacred bundle. And she left the sacred bundle, which we still have to this very day.

The sacred bundle is known as the White Buffalo Calf Pipe because it was brought by the White Buffalo Calf Woman. It is kept in a sacred place (Green Grass) on the Cheyenne River Indian reservation in South Dakota. it's kept by a man who is known as the keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, Arvol Looking Horse.

When White Buffalo Calf Woman promised to return again, she made some prophecies at that time

One of those prophesies was that the birth of a white buffalo calf would be a sign that it would be near the time when she would return again to purify the world. What she meant by that was that she would bring back harmony again and balance, spiritually.

No matter what happens to Miracle in the coming months and years, Joseph Chasing Horse says the birth is a sign from the Great Spirit and the ensuing age of harmony and balance it represents cannot be revoked. That doesn't mean, of course, that the severe trials Native Americans have endured since the arrival of Europeans on these shores are over. Indeed, the Lakota nation mounted the longest court case in U.S. history in an unsuccessful effort to regain control of the Black Hills, the sacred land on which the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared 2,000 years ago.

Still, despite their ongoing struggles, Native Americans are heartened by the appearance of a white buffalo in Janesville, and have hope for a harmonious and prosperous future.

"Mention that we are praying, many of the medicine people, the spiritual leaders, the elders, are praying for the world," says Joseph Chasing Horse. "We are praying that mankind does wake up and think about the future, for we haven't just inherited this earth from our ancestors, but we are borrowing it from our unborn children."

Crow Tepee Bag
Fantastic beaded "possible" bag with line design on buffalo - restored to original condition. 19" X 12"
1890

White Buffalo Calf Woman

The White Buffalo Calf Woman, in Lakota mythology, is a sacred woman of supernatural origin who gave the Lakota their "Seven Sacred Rituals".

The traditional story is that, long ago there was a time of famine. The chief of the Lakotas sent out two scouts to hunt for food. As the scouts travelled they saw a figure in the distance. As they approached they saw that it was a beautiful young woman in white clothing.

One of the scouts was filled with desire for the woman. He approached her, telling his companion he would attempt to embrace the woman, and if he found her pleasing, he would claim her as a wife.

His companion warned him that she appeared to be a sacred women, and to do anything sacrilegious would be folly. The scout ignored his advice.The companion watched as the scout approached and embraced the woman, during which time a white cloud enveloped the pair. After a while, the cloud disappeared and only the mysterious woman remained.

The remaining scout was frightened, and began to draw his bow, but the woman beckoned him forward, telling him that no harm would come to him.

As the woman was fluent in Lakota, the young man decided she was one of his tribe, and came forward. When he arrived, she pointed to a spot on the ground where the other scout's bare bones lay. She explained that the Crazy Buffalo had compelled the man to desire her, and she had annihilated him.

The scout became even more frightened and again menaced her with his bow.At this time, the woman explained that she was Wakan and his weapons could not harm her. She further explained that if he did as she instructed, no harm would befall him and that his tribe would become more prosperous.

The scout promised to do what she instructed, and was told to return to his encampment, call the Council and prepare a feast for her arrival.The woman's name was Ptesan Wi which translated White Buffalo Calf Woman. She taught the Lakotas many sacred rituals and gave then the chununpa or sacred pipe which is the holiest of all worship symbols. After teaching the people and giving them her gifts, PtesanWi left them promising to return.

Later, the story became attributed to the goddess Wohpe, also know as Whope, or Wope.

When Roman Catholic missionaries first came among the Lakota, their stories of the Virgin Mary and Jesus became associated with the legend of White Buffalo Calf Woman. The syncretic practice of identifying Mary with PtesanWi and Jesus with the chununpa continues among Lakota Christians to this day.

The story of PtesanWi is associated with the white buffalo.

Only seven true, genetically pure white bison exist, and they are all residents of Spirit Mountain Ranch in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Today's Guest Ezine

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North Cheyenne Dress
Choice girl's beaded buckskin dress with geometric beaded yoke and skirt and fringe. 30" X 41"
1910

THE RETURN OF OUR ANCESTORS

WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN

2,000 years ago a beautiful young woman
appeared to the Lakota Sioux. She gave the
people a sacred pipe and taught them how
to use it to pray. Before she left them,
she said she would return

She was known as
White Buffalo Calf Woman
~
In 1875, Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull),
was participating in the annual Sun Dance
powwow at Standing Rock, Dakota Territory

All at once, he collapsed into a trance

In his vision, he found himself
400 miles to the west, in the hilly
coulee country of eastern Montana

There, Sitting Bull met
WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN,
guardian spirit of the Lakota People.
She told him that in one year's time
a big battle will be fought there

The Lakotas will be victorious,
she said, but victory will bring hardship

However, White Buffalo Calf Woman
told Sitting Bull that the Lakota people
will experience a GREAT REVIVAL
IN A FEW GENERATIONS
[One year later, on the 25th June, 1876, the
Battle of the Little Big Horn took place]

~
In 1998, Floyd Hand, 19th holder of
White Buffalo Calf Woman's sacred medicine
pipe, had a vivid dream of a beautiful woman in a
rainbow-coloured dress who said she would bring
a message of unity and peace to mankind.
Very soon
~
A nation is coming

A nation is coming

The whole world is coming

Over the whole earth they
are coming

A Nation is coming

The Eagle has brought
the message to the tribe
SIOUX MILLENNIUM VISION

ON SEPT. 16TH AT 4:PM PACIFIC TIME.....ALL PEOPLES WILL BE ASKED TO DRUM...SING AND PRAY..TO SAVE OUR MOTHER EARTH..FOR AN HOUR OR TWO...TO GIVE OF YOUR PRAYERS ,SONGS AND DRUMMING...FOR THIS PURPOSE.....!!!

now a letter from Willy Whitefeather....to everyone....

Osiyo Everyone!...and Dohiyi...Peace...
Please drum and Pray for our Mother Earth! Put the life back into our beloved Mother.....for the Drum is Her heartbeat....the Drum beat IS the life beat of Mother Earth...
When you write Heart in a circle...it spells Earth....
So let the drum beat circle the Earth With Love....
ps...When this was done last year....50,000 Drums were sounded...it was felt ...even in planes in flight....the people felt the drum beats....
Many Wados.....Blessings....Willy Whitefeather

Blackfoot Rattle
Rare, old, hide covered medicine rattle with paintings of tepees on each side. 17" X 6"
1880


Individual White Buffalo

*
In 1833, a white bison was killed by the Cheyenne. The skin of this bison is hanging on the wall of Bent's Old Fort in Colorado. The Cheyenne killed this white bison during the Leonid Meteor Shower(The Night the Stars Fell) and scribed a peace and trade treaty on its skin. This event was documented by historian Josiah Gregg and other travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.

*
A female named Miracle (not to be confused with Miracle Moon), was born at the family farm of Dave, Valerie, and Corey Heider near Janesville, Wisconsin on August 20, 1994. Her fur fully transitioned to brown as she matured, and she gave birth to four calves of her own before dying of natural causes on September 19, 2004. Sioux tribal members had continually visited their farm since the birth of Miracle.

*
Spirit Mountain Ranch, in Flagstaff Arizona has successfully bred two generations of white buffalo starting from a single white female, all with brown fathers. Their herd includes seven animals as of May 2005:
o
Miracle Moon (female, born April 30, 1997)
o
Rainbow Spirit (female, born June 8, 2000, calf of Miracle Moon)
o
Mandela Peace Pilgrim (female, born July 18, 2001, calf of Miracle Moon)
o
Arizona Spirit (male, born July 1, 2002, calf of Miracle Moon)
o
Sunrise Spirit (female, born May 22, 2004, calf of Mandela Peace Pilgrim)
o
Spirit Thunder (male, born May 27, 2004, calf of Rainbow Spirit)
o
Chief Hiawatha (male, born May 16, 2005, calf of Miracle Moon)

*
Ma0hi-ya-sqa ("White Cloud") is an albino White Buffalo born July 10, 1996. She has resided since 1997 at the National Buffalo Museum and Cultural Center in Jamestown, North Dakota. Ma-hi-ya-sqa has been certified by the National Bison Association as an albino white bison; she is deaf and has impaired vision. She has had two calves, both brown.

*
Tupelo Buffalo Parl and Zoo in Tupelo, MS owns a white buffalo bull named Tukota.

*
A male white buffalo named Spirit of Peace was born on April 17, 2005, on the Blatz Bison Ranch in Fort St. John, British Columbia. Unfortunately, Spirit of Peace died on June 1 of the same year, probably as a result of his premature birth.

*
Buffalo Crossing in Shelbyville, KY owns a female white buffalo named Medicine Heart, born June 3, 2005.

*
A male named Blizzard was born in March 2006 on the farm of an anonymous rancher, who arranged to have the calf transported to Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba in recognition of his spiritual significance to aboriginal people.

Apache War Shirt
Very rare, old, Apache war shirt with classic cut-outs and red ochre - the rarest Apache shirt we have had!! 29" X 56"
1870

"The White Buffalo Woman"

The Sioux are a warrior tribe, and one of their proverbs says, "Woman shall not walk before man." Yet White Buffalo Woman is the dominant figure of their most important legend. The medicine man Crow Dog explains, "This holy woman brought the sacred buffalo calf pipe to the Sioux. There could be no Indians without it. Before she came, people didnt know how to live. They knew nothing. The Buffalo Woman put her sacred mind into their minds." At the ritual of the sun dance one woman, usally a mature and universally respected member of the tribe, is given the honor of respresenting Buffalo Woman.

Though she first appeared to the Sioux in human form, White Buffalo Woman was also a buffalo---the Indians' brother, who gave its flesh so that the people might live. Albino buffalo were sacred to all Plains tribes; a white buffalo hide was a sacred talisman, a possession beyond price.

One summer so long ago that nobody knows how long, the Oceti-Shakowin, the seven sacred council fires of the Lakota Oyate, the nation, came together and camped. The sun shone all the time, but there was no game and the people were starving. Every day they sent scouts to look for game, but the scouts found nothing.
Among the bands assembled were the Itazipcho, the Without-Bows, who had their own camp circle under their chief, Standing Hollow Horn. Early one morning the chief sent two of his young men to hunt for game. They went on foot, because at that time the Sioux didnt yet have horses. They searched everywhere but could find nothing. Seeing a high hill, they decided to climb it in order to look over the whole country. Halfway up, they saw something coming toward them from far off, but the figure was floating instead of walking. From this they knew that the person was waken, holy.
At first they could make out only a small moving speck and had to squint to see that it was a human form. But as it came nearer, they realized that it was a beautiful young woman, more beautiful than any they had ever seen, with two round, red dots of face paint on her cheeks. She wore a wonderful white buckskin outfit, tanned until it shone a long way in the sun. It was embroidered with sacred and marvellous designs of porcupine quill, in radiant colors no ordinary woman could have made. This wakan stranger was Ptesan-Wi, White Buffalo Woman. In her hands she carried a large bundle and a fan of sage leaves. She wore her blue-black hair loose except for a strand at the left side, which was tied up with buffalo fur. Her eyes shone dark and sparkling, with great power in them.
The two young men looked at her open-mouthed. One was overawed, but the other desired her body and stretched his hand out to touch her. This woman was lila wakan, very sacred, and could not be treated with disrespect. Lightning instantly struck the brash young man and burned him up, so that only a small heap of blackened bones was left. Or as some say that he was suddenly covered by a cloud, and within it he was eaten up by snakes that left only his skeleton, just as a man can be eaten up by lust.
To the other scout who had behaved rightly, the White Buffalo Woman said: "Good things I am brining, something holy to your nation. A message I carry for your people from the buffalo nation. Go back to the camp and tell the people to prepare for my arrival. Tell your chief to put up a medicine lodge with twenty-four poles. Let it be made holy for my coming."
This young hunter returned to the camp. He told the chief, he told the people, what the sacred woman had commanded. The chief told the eyapaha, the crier, and the crier went through the camp circle calling: "Someone sacred is coming. A holy woman approaches. Make all things ready for her." So the people put up the big medicine tipi and waited. After four days they saw the White Buffalo Woman approaching, carrying her bundle before her. Her wonderful white buckskin dress shone from afar. The chief, Standing Hollow Horn, invited her to enter the medicine lodge. She went in and circled the interior sunwise. The chief addressed her respectfully, saying: "Sister, we are glad you have come to instruct us."
She told him what she wanted done. In the center of the tipi they were to put up an owanka wakan, a sacred altar, made of red earth, with a buffalo skull and a three-stick rack for a holy thing she was bringing. They did what she directed, and she traced a design with her finger on the smoothed earth of the altar. She show them how to do all this, then circled the lodge again sunwise. Halting before the chief, she now opened the bundle. the holy thing it contained was the chanunpa, the sacred pipe. She held it out to the people and let them look at it. She was grasping the stem with her right hand and the bowl with her left, and thus the pipe has been held ever since.
Again the chief spoke, saying: "Sister, we are glad. We have had no meat for some time. All we can give you is water." They dpped some wacanga, sweet grass, into a skin bag of water and gave it to her, and to this day the people dip sweet grass or an eagle wing in water and sprinkle it on a person to be purified.
The White Buffalo Woman showed the people how to use the pipe. She filled it with chan-shasha, red willow-bark tobacco. She walked around the lodge four times after the manner of Anpetu-Wi, the great sun. This represented the circle without end, the sacred hoop, the road of life. The woman placed a dry buffalo chip on the fire and lit the pipe with it. This was peta-owihankeshini, the fire without end, the flame to be passed on from generation to generation. She told them that the smoke rising from the bowl was Tunkashila's breath, the living breath of the great Grandfather Mystery.
The White Buffalo Woman showed the people the right way to pray, the right words and the right gestures. She taught them how to sing the pipe-filling song and how to lift the pipe up to the sky, toward Grandfather, and down toward Grandmother Earth, to Unci, and then to the four directions of the universe.
"With this holy pipe," she said, "you will walk like a living prayer. With your feet resting upon the earth and the pipestem reaching into the sky, your body froms a living bridge between the Sacred Beneath and the Sacred Above. Wakan Tanka smiles upons us, because now we are as one: earth, sky, all living things, the two-legged, the four-legged, the winged ones, the trees, the grasses. Together with the people, they are all related, one family. The pipe holds them all together."
"Look at this bowl," said the White Buffalo Woman. "Its stone represents the buffalo, but also the flesh and blood of the red man. The buffalo represents the universe and the four directions, because he stands on four legs, for the four ages of man. The buffalo was put in the west by Wakan Tanka at the making of the world, to hold back the waters. Every year he loses one hair, and in every one of the four ages he loses a leg. The Sacred Hoop will end when all the hair and legs of the great buffalo are gone, and the water comes back to cover the Earth.
The wooden stem of this chanunpa stands for all that grows on the earth. Twelve feathers hanging from where the stem- the backbone- joins the bowl- the skull- are from Wanblee Galeshka, the spotted eagle, the very sacred who is the Great Spirit's messenger and the wisest of all cry out to Tunkashila. Look at the bowl: engraved in it are seven circles of various sizes. They stand for the seven ceremonies you will pratice with this pipe, and for the Ocheti Shakowin, the seven sacred campfires of our Lakota nation."
The White Buffalo Woman then spoke to the women, telling them that it was the work of their hands and the fruit of their bodies which kept the people alive. "You are from the mother earth," she told them. "What you are doing is as great as what warriors do."
And therefore the sacred pipe is also something that binds men and women together in a circle of love. It is the one holy object in the making of which both men and women have a hand. The men carve the bowl and make the stem; the women decorate it with bands of colored porcupine quills. When a man takes a wife, they both hold the pipe at the same time and red cloth is wound around their hands, thus tying them together for life.
The White Buffalo Woman had many things for her Lakota sisters in her sacred womb bag; corn, wasna (pemmican), wild turnip. She taught how to make the hearth fire. She filled a buffalo paunch with cold water and droped a red-hot stone into it. "This way you shall cook the corn and the meat," she told them.
The White Buffalo Woman also talked to the children, because they have an understanding beyond their years. She told them that what their fathers and mothers did was for them, that their parents could remember being little once, and that they, the children, would grow up to have little ones of their own. She told them: "You are the coming generation, that's why you are the most important and precious ones. Some day you will hold this pipe and smoke it. Some day you will pray with it."
She spoke once more to all the people: "The pipe is alive; it is a red being showing you a red life and a red road. And this is the first ceremony for which you will use the pipe. You will use it to Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery Spirit. The day a human dies is always a sacred day. The day when the soul is released to the Great Spirit is another. Four women will become sacred on such a day. They will be the ones to cut the sacred tree, the can-wakan, for the sun dance."
She told the Lakota that they were the purest among the tribes, and for that reason Tunkashila had bestowed upon them the holy chanunpa. They had been chosen to take care of it for all the Indian people on this turtle continent.
She spoke one last time to Standing Hollow Horn, the chief, saying, "Remember: this pipe is very sacred. Respect it and it will take you to the end of the road. The four ages of creation are in me; I am the four ages. I will come to see you in every generation cycle. I shall come back to you."
The sacred woman then took leave of the people, saying: "Toksha ake wacinyanktin ktelo, I shall see you again."
The people saw her walking off in the same direction from which she had come, outlined againest the red ball of the setting sun. As she went, she stopped and rolled over four times. The first time, she turned into a black buffalo; the second into a brown one; the third into a red one; and finally, the fouth time she rolled over, she turned into a white female buffalo calf. A white buffalo is the most sacred living thing you could ever encounter.
The White Buffalo Woman disappeared over the Horizon. Sometime she might come back. As soon as she had vanished, buffalo in great herds appeared, allowing themselves to be killed so tha the people might survive. And from that day on, our relations, the buffalo, furnished the people with everthing they needed, meat for their food, skins for their clothes and tipis, bones for their many tools.

White Buffalo Calf Woman


Note from Blackbear

The pictures from this and all future issues will be uploaded to Yahoo..
This is mainly for those who get the digest version which doesn't have any pictures.

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/TA_DreamCatcher/photos


http://www.kstrom.net/isk/arvol/buffpipe.html


White Buffalo Calf Woman

and the Mother of Life

White Buffalo Calf Woman's legend is ancient, arising about 2000 years ago, and is central to the spiritual practices of numerous Native American nations. Various, but similar, versions of the legend of White Buffalo Calf Woman are told.

The brief story presented here is based primarily on the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman at various websites as told by Joseph Chasing Horse, Traditional Leader of the Lakota Nation.

“It was told that next time there is chaos and disparity, she would return again. She said she would return as a White Buffalo Calf. Some believe she already has.”

Words of Chief Arvol Looking Horse,
19th Generation Keeper of the
Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
of the Lakota Nation

While two warriors were out hunting buffalo, a white buffalo calf appeared. As she approached them she changed into a beautiful young woman . . . which is how she came to be called the White Buffalo Calf Woman.

One of the young warriors offended her with his lustful thoughts, and White Buffalo Calf Woman asked him to approach. As he stepped forward, a black cloud descended over him and when it dissipated all that was left of him was his bones.

The other warrior fell to his knees and began to pray. The White Buffalo Calf Woman told him to return to his people, telling them she would appear to them in four days, bringing with her a sacred bundle.

And this she did, appearing to them as a white buffalo calf descending on a cloud. Stepping down, she rolled over on the ground, changing from white to black, then yellow, then red.

When White Buffalo Calf Woman arose she was once again the beautiful woman, cradling the sacred bundle in her arms.

Spending four days with the people, White Buffalo Calf Woman taught them sacred songs, dances, and ceremonies as well as the traditional ways.

White Buffalo Calf Woman instructed them to be responsible caretakers of the land and to be always mindful that the children are the future of the people.

On the fourth day White Buffalo Calf Woman left in the same manner she had arrived, telling the people she was leaving the sacred bundle, the White Buffalo Calf Woman pipe, in their care. She promised to one day return for it and to bring harmony and spiritual balance to the world.

White Buffalo Calf Woman prophesied that the birth of a white buffalo calf would be a sign that it was near the time of her return.

A beautiful, and different, telling of the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman is provided by Matthew Richter in American Comments, a web magazine fighting racial hatred and discrimination. This version tells the story of how a woman called the Mother of Life came to become the White Buffalo Calf Woman and discusses the meaning of the pipe and the prophesy.

According to this legend a young woman, during an enemy attack on her village, saw a toddler injured and ran to cradle him in her arms and comfort him as death approached. Soon, she too was mortally wounded, and her young body crumpled with the young child still cradled in her arms.

Her spirit hurried to catch up with the child's so that she would be there to care for him when they crossed over. To honor her noble act, the Sioux gave her the name Mother of Life.

Later she appeared as White Buffalo Calf Woman to a young warrior whose troubled heart yearned for a good future for the children, a future without the prospect of continual war and divisiveness, a future of peace. White Buffalo Calf Woman advised him "to seek the vision of a mother's heart for the love of her children".

White Buffalo Calf Woman gave the pipe into his care, detailing the ways in which the people could learn to grow into responsible keepers of the pipe, cultivating peace and understanding.

One of her gifts was the suggestion that all children be taught to hold baby animals with love and caring, so that as they grow they will learn to love all the other babies of the world.

As she gave her instructions, the white buffalo calf that accompanied the woman rolled over four times, each time changing colors . . . once for each race, first white, then yellow, then red, the black, signifying that we are all members of the same family.

Laurie Sue Brockway highlights the importance of the White Buffalo Calf Woman in her delightful book, A Goddess is a Girl's Best Friend:

Now, more than any time in history, we need the sacred feminine to balance our lives and to balance our world. We must be spiritual warriors…culling the profound and important aspects of the power of feminine wisdom and directing them toward peace within, as without, and utilizing the energies of the goddess and all mythical women and spiritual heroines to help direct the course of history.”

*In 1994, a white buffalo calf was born on a farm in Wisconsin. . . the first white buffalo born in decades.

Some believe she was the fulfillment of the prophecy that the return of the White Buffalo Calf Woman will herald the advent of an age of peace and harmony.



Southern Plains Moccasins
Choice high top hide moccasins with geometric beadwork and red ochre - blue hide top flaps appear to have been added later. 10" X 4" X 13"
1910

Goddess Symbols
and Sacred Objects
of White Buffalo Calf Woman

Goddess symbols, individualized for each goddess, were incorporated into the worship of the ancient goddesses, were often worn as jewelry, and also used in the household decor as talismans to seek the goddesses special gifts, blessings, or protection. A large number of goddess symbols have survived in statuary and other works of art.

Many of the goddess symbols come from the legends surrounding a specific goddess and were "characters" in her story. Other goddess symbols were derived from the rituals used in the ancient rites of worship of these pagan goddesses.

White Buffalo Calf Woman is often represented by symbols associated with her personality traits and her contribution to her people. It is not surprizing that many of our ikons representing Native American civilization and spirituality are derived from the ancient goddess symbols of the goddess White Buffalo Calf Woman.

General:

White buffalo, peace-pipe, circle (hoop), and the numbers 4 and 7

Animals:
Buffalo and bison, eagle, and hawk

Plants:
Buttercup, pulsatilla (Pasque flower), and spruce

Perfumes/Scents:
Sage, wisteria, tangerine, and rose geranium

Gems and Metals:
Agate, rose quartz, gold , silver, and red clay

Colors:
White, yellow, red, and black

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of Dream Catcher

Be safe and I'll see you next time

Your editor

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Dream Catcher Issue #538

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