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WILLEE::FRETTS "Noting with my Higher Self"          49 lines  15-DEC-1988 12:36
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	[Moontime...continued]

	Within this lodge, keep a large and lovely book for recording
	your visions, dreams, imaginings and intuitive flashes.  Also,
	make possible a simple art expression for another kind of record.
	These expressions will unify the information and make it avail-
	able to all who come there.  In the Moon Lodge you remember your
	vow to use this transparent veil in calling vision for your people,
	praying "Not for myself alone, Great Spirit, do I ask this vision,
	but that all the peoples may live".  The dream will begin to unveil
	itself through strands woven from many womens' dreams.  The weaving
	created through gathering to share in the New and Full Moons and
	from the records kept will create a fuller tapesty, more easily
	understood and made real in the ordinary affairs of life.  This is
	the ultimate action: making the dream of peace real in our everyday
	lives.

	During the days following the first flood of clearing blood whose
	potential we give back to Mother, the flow gentles, waines, slows
	and completes itself; we integrate the vision within ourselves and
	ready ourselves to come forth.  The veil thickens as we turn away
	from it, and we step into the present.  We make ourselves solid,
	flex our lean bellies, and come forth.  Grandmother's cycle and
	Mother's mind within us assist us with the task of coming again
	fully present into the world.  At the Full Moon we are at our most
	powerfully attentive and aware and present for action in the world.
	From the womb of Buffalo Woman, we carry new creations to join with
	the light, and birth takes place.  The dream is made real in the 
	beauty of Mother's Earth.

	This call is for honoring the deep function of Mother's gift of 
	life blood within un - to bring forth vision and make it real
	for our families at a time when vision is so important for us
	and for the healing of Mother.  Honoring this cycle within you
	will be more than empty form and words; it will be given new
	life by men and women alike.  And wonderfully, we will notice
	healthier, more comfortable menstrual cycles and birthing.

	These are simple, ancient ideas, powerfully useful when put
	into practice.  Your feeling may be one of not knowing what to
	do; the line of feminine teachings may have been lost to you.
	And I say "Mother's truth is always within us - be willing to
	discover it within yourself".  Reach back across the gap.  Be
	willing to not know, to reach in the unknown, the Great Mystery.
	Then you and we are following the model Buffalo Woman gifted to
	us; we are carrying the water of Spirit to the people.  We are
	nurturing and renewing at the most profound level.

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WILLEE::FRETTS "Noting with my Higher Self"          60 lines  15-DEC-1988 12:43
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	This article is a continuation to the Moontime article - it is
	entitled Sacred Time, Sacred Way - by Brooke Medicine Eagle and
	appeared in the Summer 1986 issue of Shaman's Drum.  It is 
	reprinted here without permission.



	Sacred Time, Sacred Way - Brooke Medicine Eagle

	Too many people - both women and men - have forgotten to honor
	the time of women's blood.  Much is suffered from incomplete 
	knowledge of this blood and its meaning.  The time has come for
	us to awaken and again find the depth of meaning that Mother
	Earth and Father Spirit gave to us through it.  In the Spring
	issue of Shaman's Drun, I gave a call for powerful use of the
	energy and spiritual changes of the moon cycle.  Now I shall 
	explore further how to honor this sacred time.

	Through adoption of European puritanical ethics and through our
	human forgetfulness, we have ceased acknowledging the deep sig-
	nificance of womens' wombs and their blood - which make possible
	creation of the human race.  Many see womens' blood as bad, 
	negative or unclean, and feel that women should hide themselves 
	and be ashamed during this specialt ime.  Even some who understand
	differently create this feeling in the way they handle women on
	their moon time around ceremonies and special functions; women are
	quite often asked to leave the circle without adequate explanation
	of the reasons.  Thus the women feel banished and unclean.

	This has come about as male medicine teachers and sweat lodge 
	leaders have come out among the people without their female
	counterparts.  In the tribes with which I am familiar, the
	medicine man did not formerly act alone or have to handle 
	everything; with him was his wife or female helper, always there
	to help him and handle any issues relating to women.  Many who
	lead ceremonies today either do not have the knowledge or the
	time to instruct women who come on their moon time.  Yet this
	is something that must be done so learning can take place and
	the dishonoring can end.

	The time has come for anyone who does ceremony and excludes
	women to take the responsibility of honoring those on their
	moon time before they leave the group, by giving them adequate
	(even if brief) guidelines of how their energy can best be used,
	reminding them of the great power of this experience they are
	having.  Since moon time is the most receptive time of the whole
	two-legged experience, women can be instructed simply to find a
	peaceful place nearby, go into quiet meditation, look through the
	now transparent veil in the Great Mystery, and call forth vision
	for themselves and their people.  A special time can be set aside
	after the ceremony for these women to bring back to the community
	whatever thoughts, intuitions, visions or dreams have come to them
	as they sat apart.  In this way, even as they sit apart, the women
	sit in an honored place.  Something this simple would completely
	change the complexion of moon-time womens' experience around
	ceremonial functions, and would benefit everyone.

	

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WILLEE::FRETTS "Noting with my Higher Self"          80 lines  15-DEC-1988 12:47
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	[Sacred Time....continued]

	
	It can also be explained to all present that because the feminine
	comes first in all things and thus holds great power, much energy
	is whirling about each woman in her most feminine time, whether
	or not she can perceive it and guide it.  (Most who are responsible
	for talking with women about it either do not perceive it or cannot
	find adequate words to express and explain.)  Just as with all our
	energy, this whirling energy affects everything and everyone 
	around, and in a more profound way because of its great power.
	Thus it can indeed change the direction or movement of a ceremony.
	As we all become more sensitive to subtler energies, we will have a
	deeper understanding within ourselves of how this energy affects
	events and people, and how best to use it and ourselves during this
	time.  If we perceie it ourselves, then no one has to tell us what
	is happening - we will know very deeply ourselves.

	The connection between moon-time women and the sweat lodge also
	neds attention.  My sister, Norma Cordell, Nez Perce-trained
	teacher, reminds us that the first sweat is within the mother's
	womb as we are being birthed.  The sweat lodge thus comes from
	a woman's body, in a sense.  Should purification lodges for
	women be held in this time of personal purification?  Are they
	necessary or useful?  How do they affect women's health?  All
	these questions and more are still to be answered satisfactorily.

	There is a sacred rite among the Lakota people given them in 
	vision to Slow Buffalo by White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman a long,
	long time ago.  In his vision, Slow Buffalo saw a great people 
	bringing a girl child to a sacred center place, a buffalo wallow.
	These people all turned into buffalo, and the girl into a buffalo
	calf; a large bull came and purified this buffalo calf with red
	powder, then all came and licked her.  He understood this to mean
	that this young one would then "go forth and bear fruit in a
	sacred manner, traveling to the end o the four ages.  She would
	teach her children, too, to walk the path of life in a sacred
	manner." (Vera Louise Drysdale and John Eppes Brown, The Gift of
	Sacred Pipe, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, P. 88).
	
	This rite is performed when a young girl becomes a woman, when
	her first moon-time blood appears.  The purpose of the rite is to
	purify her, honor her and help her realize that "the change taking
	place in her is a sacred thing...for now she will be as Mother
	Earth and will be able to bear children."  (Drysdale & Brown, p.84)
	Among the Lakota people, after the rite is performed, all the
	people come and touch the young woman, for now she has much holy
	power.

	Several years ago, a vision came to me which I am just beginning
	to understand.  It seems connected to this honoring that is
	awakening again in our young women.  I looked into the future
	and saw a buffalo cow standing facing me, her head near an
	oblong white object several feet long that she began to lick.
	At first, the object seemed to be a natural salt rock; it 
	became a newborn white calf which the cow licked into aliveness.
	The baby eventually came to her feet and suckled, full of life.
	For me what I saw represents the rebirth of something sacred, of
	reawakening to the specialness of the feminine and of womens'
	moon-time blood, and can serve to remind us of our responsibility
	as adults for bringing these ways to life once more.

	It is important that we begin to honor the first blood and visions
	of our young women.  The Lakota rites, call Her Alone They Sing 
	Over, is very beautiful and contains the important elements of
	purification, honor and realization of the sacred.  Certainly not
	all our readers are Lakota or red people, yet other cultures from
	all over the world practice similar ceremonies.  All of us must
	awaken to the urgency of these kind of rites for the honoring and
	instruction of our young women.  More spiritual education and
	honoring of this special gift of creation might help young women
	cherish this gift and not squander their capacity for creation
	unwisely and prematurely.

	Now I ask you to reawaken your own traditions in some way, to
	create the basic elements of such a rite of passage for your
	daughters.  Call upon White Buffalo Woman.  It is time.

    RE: last few
    
    Wow.
    
    What a wonderful mind-set to see, for someone (me) who was brought
    up to call it "The Curse".
    
    Maybe we really *will* move into the times when the feminine will
    ascend to it's rightful place in man's mind.
    
    --DE
    

    I wish I had read this before lunch... then I could have thanked
    Carole Fretts in person._:-)  Thanks Carole and thanks to Bonnie
    for highlighting it.
    
    Mary

    
    
    You are welcome :-).  I had the pleasure of spending some time
    at a retreat with Brooke Medicine Eagle, and her presence of
    self and respect for all of life and its processes was inspiring,
    to say the least.  I felt that the least I could do for myself
    and for my sisters was to share this vision of respect and 
    valuing of ourselves.  Only in this way can we begin the process
    of changing the perceptions of the world.
    
    Carole

	This is an article that speaks of women who have reached menopause
	and beyond, by Brooke Medicine Eagle from the Spring 1986 issue of
	Shaman's Drum (again disclaimer re: permission).



	Grandmother Lodge - Brooke Medicine Eagle

	I come speaking to you as Buffalo Woman of the North - your Elder
	Sister.  I am Earth Woman, deep rooted in the land; and I am Spirit
	Woman, carrier of the Great Mystery.  Today I come speaking of the
	Grandmother Lodge to the women within it, and to all those who would
	know about their function.  Women, awaken and see, for you approach
	this lodge.  Men, awaken and listen, for these are your elders, the
	keepers of the Highest Law.

	This Grandmother Lodge is the lodge of the white-haired (wisdom)
	women - those who have gone beyond the time of giving away the
	power of their blood, and now hold it for energy to uphold the 
	Law.  When we chose to wrap ourselves in the robe of an Earthly
	body, we also accept a charge, a responsibility, a gift which is
	to be shared.  As we choose a woman-body, the charge we accept 
	is the nurturing and renewing of all things.  And the tool we
	are given is Creator's one law, "You shall be in good relation-
	ship with all things and all beings in the great hoop of life" -
	The Law of Good Relationship.  Creator's gift to us as women
	is an inborn knowing with regard to all the aspects of relation-
	ship.  This is awakened, developed and deepened through contact
	with those in our society who model this aspect.  Then our duty
	is to share these deep understandings with our brothers and our
	families, that harmony and peacefulness might reign among us.

	And when our elders step across the threshold of the Grandmother
	Lodge they become the Keepers of the Law.  No longer is their
	attention consumed with the creation and rearing of their own
	family.  In this sense, they have no children, and in our ways
	those who are not parent to any specific child are parent to
	ALL CHILDREN.  Thus their attention turns to the children of
	All Our Relations - their own children, the children of their
	friends, their clan or tribe, and the children of all the hoops:
	the Two-Leggeds, the Four-Leggeds, the Wingeds, the Finned, the
	Green-Growing Ones, and all others.  Our relationship with this
	great circle of Life rests ultimately in their hands.  They must
	give-away this responsibility by modeling, teaching, and sharing
	the living of this law in everyday life - to men, women, children -
	that all might come into balance in this way.

	What this means for women, in very practical terms, is this:  When
	you pass beyond menopause, you have the opportunity for a renewed
	and deeply powerful experience of yourself.  As you drop away from
	the silliness and fear that has been generated by the "over the
	hill" cultural trance, and open yourself to the truth that lives
	within you, you will find an incredible challenge for which you
	are better equipped than any other two-legged.  You have the
	opportunity to sit in council, and using the power of the blood
	held among you, create a harmonious world around you.

	Let me speak for a moment of women's moon-time (menstrual) blood
	and its power.  This blood has been shown to be among the most
	nurturing, bio-energizing substances on Earth.  When placed upon
	plants, they are deeply nourished.  In our native ways, during
	our ceremonies of planting and nurturing our crops, we had women
	in the moon-time move among the plants and give-away their blood.
	Always, our women gave away this wonderful blood in an honoring
	way.  They sat upon the ground and gave-away directly, or bled
	upon moss and later placed it upon the Earth to nurture and renew.
	This is a song which can be sung at these times:
	
	"I give away this blood of life to All My Relations, and I open
	my womb to the Light.  I give away this blood of life to All My
	Relations, and I open my womb to the Light.  Give away, give
	away, give away, give away; I open my womb to the Light."

	[Grandmother Lodge....continued]

	
	Vicki Noble reminds us that this blood was the first blood 
	offered on the altar - a most blessed gift.  Then when women
	were no longer honored and the power of their life-giving
	blood was ignored, animal and human sacrifice was used to
	give blood on the altar.

	This is the blood, then, that you hold among you when you no
	longer bleed in the moon-cycle; you have passed your moontime.
	Elders, perhaps you have not been aware of the profound
	responsibility you are now to assume; if you had known you
	would have had the conscious opportunity to learn and deepen
	yourself in good relationship through your lifetime, that you
	might serve your people, that you might use yourself well in
	these years.  Younger women, you who read this now, are 
	conscious and can choose to learn and grow in this way, that 
	you might feel ready when you, too, step into the Grandmother
	Lodge.

	Among many of the tribes the primacy of the Law of Good 
	Relationship was remembered and the Grandmother Lodges, or
	the societies within it, were known to hold the highest
	command.  If a peace chief was not leading his people across
	the land in a way that all people and animals had good food,
	clear water, and sheltering valleys in the time of cold winds,
	then the Grandmothers asked for someone new to lead; they called
	someone to step forth from the people who had the probability
	of doing a better job in his active work to nurture and renew
	the people.  If a war chief was creating such animosity among
	surrounding tribes that frequent attacks disrupted the life
	and well-being of the people, he was asked to find productive 
	rather than destructive use for this energy.  Such was their
	power; they took seriously the charge to nurture and renew the 
	people, and took action in line with it.

	So we too, in this present day, are being asked by Buffalo
	Woman to again step into this role which has obviously been
	left vacant.  When I look about the world around me, I see that
	*every* critical issue facing us as Two-Leggeds is an issue of
	relationship - whether it is with the trees in the tropical
	rainforests, with the Russian people, within our too-often
	dysfunctional family systems, or whether it is our alienation
	from each other and from nature, or our awakening willingness
	to relate to ourselves as co-creators with All That Is.  These
	are the matters we are being asked to address and to take 
	spiritual action within.

	The Grandmother Lodge was the lodge of all post-menopausal
	women.  Within that, smaller groups formed around their various
	functions.  For some women, it might be the keeping of a sacred
	basket, for others a certain kind of healing, and for yet others
	the maintaining of a beauty way (art) among the people.  A 
	basket weaver might belong to a basket-makers' society and also
	to a society that maintained a sacred bundle (these latter 
 	often came through family lineages).  A woman might belong to
	a ceremonial Sun Dance society, and as well to a society of
	herbalists.

	As you begin gathering with others now, you will likely have
	a small and mixed group, and need to determine the common
	interests, skills, and goals among you.  Some of your time
	together may well be used to increase your own learning and
	understanding - meetings to share skills with each other, to
	meditate and learn to listen to the Great Voices Within,
	gatherings to hike upon the Earth or to strengthen and tone
	your bodies.

	Something I am often asked is about those of you who have
	experienced amenoria, early menopause, or hysterectomies.
	Where do you fit?  Although I cannot say I know the exact
	answers, this is what makes sense to me through my own
	experience.  The first thought I have is that you will very
	likely want to get a sense of the rhythm of activity/
	receptivity - worldly action/great Mystery - that is your 
	natural cycle in synchrony with Grandmother Moon, for this
	cycle still echoes through the waters of your body even 
	though external bleeding does not accompany it.  Deepen your
	experience of the moon's cycle within you, for it is very 
	powerful and useful for you and All Your Relations to reach
	through the veil into the Great Mystery during your bleeding 
	and bring back vision for your people.  Secondly, many of us who
	are younger and don't yet experience ourselves as elders are
	being called into the Grandmother Lodge because there is an
	urgent need for the awakening of this function among women.
	Because of the crushing of the native cultures and the loss
	of the women's ways, there are few who sit in these Lodges
	and uphold the nurturing and renewing of the people.  So 
	younger, awakened ones of us are being called into the Lodge
	through many different means.  Accept it as an honor.

	The final aspect of the Grandmother Lodge I will address is the
	rite of passage into it.  Those of you surrounding a woman who
	is crossing this threshold will want to honor this special woman
	and to let her know of your support of her in this time of her
	great responsibility.  There are many ways this can be done and I 
	will suggest only a few: ritual bathing and anointing by her
	closest friend, then being dressed in a white gown (for wisdom)
	and a red sash (sac"red" to represent the "blood" or life force
	in All Our Relations and the dedication to them) for a circle 
	dance and feasting; an honoring of her by each woman gathered
	expressing her appreciation for this woman; a special dedication
	from the honored one can be given (such as "I dedicate this 
	portion of my life to the children of all generations," etc.)
	Certainly an invocation of the Goddess, of White Buffalo Woman,
	or the Wise Crone can be done - perhaps in the form of a guided
	meditation for the elder one to deepen her contact with this
	source of strength and wisdom.  You who know her well know those
	aspects which have special meaning for her.  Always when I do such
	a ritual, I include as part of the rite, the charging of this
	woman with the primary responsibility of the nurturing and renewing
	of All Her Relations and remind her of Creator's Law of Good
	Relationship.  Among you, one already in her Grandmother Lodge 
	might perform this function.

	And so I give-away these thoughts to you, knowing that through
	your own experience you will deepen your knowing about them much
	beyond what I have spoken.  Remember - Mother Earth, Grandmother
	Moon and Father Spirit live within you.  Reach deep within your
	true nature and bring forth beauty!