Allegiance

Bear Medicine is a large part of my life.

There is a place here we call The Heart of the Bear.  I have stood at the doorway of the den, and listened to them sleeping from above.  I welcome them into my dreams, and feel them when they are near.  I hear them dreaming of the mounting snows, I make offerings of milk and honey, and celebrate their marks on trees.  I find their nests in pines, and their signs of climbing.  I follow their tunnels through blackberry brambles, grow blueberries for them every year.  I play my flute and sing to them from mountain sides.

Bears enter a deep sleep in the earth, their mystery time, the time of introspection and incubation.  In turn, their cubs are born into that darkness, emerging into the light in spring.

When we re-sided our barn, we painted it black, the color of the Mystery.  Then one rainy night, a Black Bear came around, stood up before it and left his prints on the North face for all to see.

They remain to this day, a notice to all who enter;

Here is a retreat, a safe haven, a place of introspection, and self-knowledge.  A refuge of rebirth.  A Power Place of healing.