Black Elk was a ‘wichasa wakhan’ — medicine or holy man — of the Oglala Lakota, born in late 1863 on the Little Powder River in Wyoming. He had been taken ill at age nine, unresponsive and lying in a coma for several days. During that… Read More »
Black Elk was a ‘wichasa wakhan’ — medicine or holy man — of the Oglala Lakota, born in late 1863 on the Little Powder River in Wyoming. He had been taken ill at age nine, unresponsive and lying in a coma for several days. During that… Read More »
Hearing each day about wildfires raging across the West, I thought to share this piece… written on a vision quest while a fire raged on a mesa above us…
It’s a new beginning, a new day. A barrel cactus blooms, an eruption of vermilion splashed on the sage-green palette of this desert… gentle, subtle, and quiet in its beauty. Sunlight dances on spider webs, and a prickly pear raises its… Read More »
I’ve studied myths and loved mythology for a long time. The stories themselves are wonderful as well as archetypal… outer representations of deep patterns and energies that make up the human psyche. As such, they’re maps that signify and point to core issues within our inner landscapes that must be explored, accepted, and moved through for us to have meaningful and fulfilling lives.
A theme that appears in many stories… Read More »
In my last post – Medicine – Part I – I wanted to provide a foundation and framework in which to speak about “medicine” – as in plant medicine, medicine journeys, etc. I defined “medicine” as anything that brings us closer to wholeness – physical, emotional, energetic, etc., and I included the image of the whole self (reproduced here), where, the horizontal line marks the division between what is… Read More »
I’ve been talking about “medicine” for decades. I’ve offered workshops on Medicine Wheel teachings, traveled to the Amazon to explore medicine plants, and taught about medicine names, songs, and encounters with medicine animals. Now, with the upsurge of interest in “medicine plants,” I want to share some thoughts about what the word “Medicine” means.
