Celebrating May and the Month of the Bear
SHE is back. The Great Bear-Woman is awakening everything in the world around her, and the constellations above her.
She is geo-mancing our renewed awareness and requests for guidance on our paths. She is geo-ecstatically inviting us to seek and feed everything real and instinctually Wise within.
She says: "Fierce hunger and the search for sustenance, solace and spaciousness is what we are all about on this Beltaine, May Day Celebration." She will forage the early spring forests and wetlands to find the roots to soothe her newly-awakened, savage, physical hunger. We, like her, are blessed if we find the "radical" (from radix or root) sources to feed our hungry souls.
After 5 months away--I am back, too. On December 18, after an amazing midnight fall over my cat LePanto, and crashing face-first into the arm of a large wicker chair—I fractured most of the bones on the left side of my face. This included jaw, eye-socket, zygomatic arch, cheekbone, nose and the floor of my eye. After initial reconstruction surgery, made possible by loving community fundraisers, friends and family donations, prayer and endless energy and support from many of you, I am healing, as the docs say, “miraculously.” Hopefully, in the fall I will finish with a triple-surgery-in-one, which should make it possible for me to breathe through my nose, chew Real food and see without double-vision. And, much like Mama Bear, I am coming out of a cave-like period of traumatic brain injury, post-concussion syndrome and blood/oxygen saturation concerns.
So lovely, at last, to see the light and the hope of renewal, Easter, May Day and the ultimate celebration of sight, sense of smell, taste and returning memory.
The profound sensory deprivation of this winter's accident and discontent is suddenly being replaced by fresh scents of spruce and aspen on the wild wind, more ability to taste subtleties like flecks of real vanilla in ice cream and nutmeg in carrot soup.
I have certainly felt grouchy, grumbling and gruff. But today's first true step out into the sweet, earth and rain-chilled breeze seems to have blown the doldrums and dust of healing away! I'm back! Back to essays and communications with you, and back to the world of earth-love and seasonal observations and celebrations!
In May, the Ute Indian Bear Dances begin in the sacred, secret circles of Colorado and Utah. In this ancient Native American tradition the women dance facing the men of the community. If a woman chooses, she throws one leg over a man's shoulder, claiming him as her "Mate of Spring." When Mother Bear awakens, she brings with her the snow-melt from the high mountains and the promise of blessed water, wildflowers and moist, fecund Spring.
The Celtic, Scandinavian and Teutonic May Pole and Beltaine Celebrations honor a similar rite by welcoming the return of the Sacred Green Masculine. This rite literally creates the oomphalus or joining of the winding womb-ribbons and the phallus of the May Pole.
"Dancing Round the Ring" honors the May Day balance of Masculine and Feminine, Summer and Winter, Younger and Elder.
In the ancient tradition, a woman of any age may select a young man to "tutor" in the Great Rite of Spring, Sensuality and Fertility.
Here is where a wise man learns wisdom with a wise woman!
She prepares him for the Vision Quest and Coming of Age which begins on the Summer Solstice and continues through All Hallows' Eve. He "marries" her teachings, and carries this earth-based healing awareness into his own Hero's Journey. Through these Matri-Linear mysteries, the masculine is enhanced, informed and protected.
Thus, in the North and West of the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia, the welcoming of the Sacred Masculine is heralded by the rather grumpy, and awakening, Wise Bear-Woman.
She can be a Bitch--and a blessing!
Keep Watch! She is stretching, growling, growing stronger and stronger! She can be a symbol and guide for our own thawing and arousal from the sleepy, inward-turning Winter of our Inner Wilderness. Now is the time to be beckoned into the adventure of the Outer Wilderness.
Be Wild! Be Hairy! Be Ravenous!
Please Note: The wonderful, multi-media “BIG MEDICINE DREAM-BEAR” illustration by my friend, Hayley Hara. More of her work and arts education info can be found at www.hayleyhara.com.
Blessings, Marcie
Image credit: "Big Medicine Bear Dreams" by Haley Hara
She is geo-mancing our renewed awareness and requests for guidance on our paths. She is geo-ecstatically inviting us to seek and feed everything real and instinctually Wise within.
She says: "Fierce hunger and the search for sustenance, solace and spaciousness is what we are all about on this Beltaine, May Day Celebration." She will forage the early spring forests and wetlands to find the roots to soothe her newly-awakened, savage, physical hunger. We, like her, are blessed if we find the "radical" (from radix or root) sources to feed our hungry souls.
After 5 months away--I am back, too. On December 18, after an amazing midnight fall over my cat LePanto, and crashing face-first into the arm of a large wicker chair—I fractured most of the bones on the left side of my face. This included jaw, eye-socket, zygomatic arch, cheekbone, nose and the floor of my eye. After initial reconstruction surgery, made possible by loving community fundraisers, friends and family donations, prayer and endless energy and support from many of you, I am healing, as the docs say, “miraculously.” Hopefully, in the fall I will finish with a triple-surgery-in-one, which should make it possible for me to breathe through my nose, chew Real food and see without double-vision. And, much like Mama Bear, I am coming out of a cave-like period of traumatic brain injury, post-concussion syndrome and blood/oxygen saturation concerns.
So lovely, at last, to see the light and the hope of renewal, Easter, May Day and the ultimate celebration of sight, sense of smell, taste and returning memory.
The profound sensory deprivation of this winter's accident and discontent is suddenly being replaced by fresh scents of spruce and aspen on the wild wind, more ability to taste subtleties like flecks of real vanilla in ice cream and nutmeg in carrot soup.
I have certainly felt grouchy, grumbling and gruff. But today's first true step out into the sweet, earth and rain-chilled breeze seems to have blown the doldrums and dust of healing away! I'm back! Back to essays and communications with you, and back to the world of earth-love and seasonal observations and celebrations!
In May, the Ute Indian Bear Dances begin in the sacred, secret circles of Colorado and Utah. In this ancient Native American tradition the women dance facing the men of the community. If a woman chooses, she throws one leg over a man's shoulder, claiming him as her "Mate of Spring." When Mother Bear awakens, she brings with her the snow-melt from the high mountains and the promise of blessed water, wildflowers and moist, fecund Spring.
The Celtic, Scandinavian and Teutonic May Pole and Beltaine Celebrations honor a similar rite by welcoming the return of the Sacred Green Masculine. This rite literally creates the oomphalus or joining of the winding womb-ribbons and the phallus of the May Pole.
"Dancing Round the Ring" honors the May Day balance of Masculine and Feminine, Summer and Winter, Younger and Elder.
In the ancient tradition, a woman of any age may select a young man to "tutor" in the Great Rite of Spring, Sensuality and Fertility.
Here is where a wise man learns wisdom with a wise woman!
She prepares him for the Vision Quest and Coming of Age which begins on the Summer Solstice and continues through All Hallows' Eve. He "marries" her teachings, and carries this earth-based healing awareness into his own Hero's Journey. Through these Matri-Linear mysteries, the masculine is enhanced, informed and protected.
Thus, in the North and West of the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia, the welcoming of the Sacred Masculine is heralded by the rather grumpy, and awakening, Wise Bear-Woman.
She can be a Bitch--and a blessing!
Keep Watch! She is stretching, growling, growing stronger and stronger! She can be a symbol and guide for our own thawing and arousal from the sleepy, inward-turning Winter of our Inner Wilderness. Now is the time to be beckoned into the adventure of the Outer Wilderness.
Be Wild! Be Hairy! Be Ravenous!
Please Note: The wonderful, multi-media “BIG MEDICINE DREAM-BEAR” illustration by my friend, Hayley Hara. More of her work and arts education info can be found at www.hayleyhara.com.
Blessings, Marcie
Image credit: "Big Medicine Bear Dreams" by Haley Hara