Well, it will be interesting but not the end. Empires will fall and others will rise and we will be very different 100 years from now than we can even begin to imagine. Right now the seeds of fate for the next 2000 years are being sown. We are all here for a reason and it is important (more than anything else) that we find our mission and follow it. That we live by the golden rule and learn to cherish all creatures and people for their gifts and the special lessons they teach. The more we go toward the rational (ironic coming from someone like me I know) and toward trusting our own intuition and knowledge, allowing our freak flags to fly, encouraging our individuality in the context of the ever-expanding multi-verse the closer we will get to putting humanity on the right course.

Every human being is equal in the eyes of the Creator and equal in reality, that does not mean we are all the same – in fact we are all different and that is the beauty, the dichotomy the two opposing ideas that we must learn to balance in our minds in this new era. We all deserve to be the captains of our own lives, to weave our own fate and we have no right to judge others for really anything as the truth is complex and often beyond our ability to understand it in the sound bite fashion we are used to digesting information.

My advice to all is to carve your pathway to the Great Spirit through meditation and or prayer and trust your own way – don’t allow anyone (including me) to usurp your own heart’s connection. A good teacher will always encourage you to follow your path no matter how far off the ordinary trail it is. A dictator will impose their will on you and unfortunately there are people operating as “spiritual leaders” who fall under this category – more of them than there are good teachers. But most importantly the best teacher is that little voice inside your head or heart that tells you the truth – follow it for it is the way to the Creator.

Many blessings and Happy Lunar/Chinese New Year,

Denise

I had wanted to give readings for people on the site, but my life became very hectic, as I dealt with many friend’s crisis’ as well as trying to work and raise a toddler. So I will do this instead. I can offer this gift. It is the gift of spiritual protection. Anyone who needs it can contact me via this website through a comment or through the e-mail: astrologyandpsychicpredictions@gmail.com. I know it sounds strange but there are many weird things to come and if you give me your name, birth date (time would be good as well as where you are born so I can locate you on the Auric plane) I will put protection around you. My only caveat is that if you ask me to do this I will get information about you and if I can’t protect you I will let you know the reason – for example if you are sick and are ready to cross over I can not protect you from that or if you have done heinous things I can not protect you from your own karma. If this occurs I will contact you via this site in a post stating your initials and place of birth and ask you to e-mail me so I can let you know why the protection did not work – if of course you contacted me for help in post form if not I will just e-mail you back from the astrologyandpsychicpredictions@gmail.com.

This is a crucial time in human history. It is not the end but it does have the potential to be the end of many things which could lead to major re-adjustments. If you want spiritual protection during this time of transition please do not hesitate. I will make a nightly list and do the ritual for you. This is the most I can offer at this time but in my opinion it is much more powerful and helpful than simply “knowing” what you will live through in the next year.

Please read this very interesting article that I reprinted which was sent to me by my husband due to my connection with the Thunderbird spirits and heyoka. Interestingly my husband is of Native American ancestry (I mean he’s nearly half and a registered member of a tribe – a direct ancestor of those that walked the trail of tears) as far as I know I’m not, (I’m almost entirely Eastern European w/some Scottish/Irish on my mother’s side, but I know nothing about my mother’s father (the Scottish/Irish side) so perhaps I have some Native American roots I am unaware of. Either way all humans are related and all racial memory becomes universal human consciousness that we can tap into.  Also on a side note the angel was from the old testament (which I don’t know very well since I was raised Catholic after my Jewish father’s death – despite being raised culturally Jewish – crazy, huh? I guess that’s why I figure all religions are fine as long as they make sense to the person who belongs to them – different strokes and all. Whatever gets you close to the Great Spirit/God-Goddess is great.)

Many blessings to all of you – make everyday count – let the Great Spirit whisper to you through your heart and your life will be complete,

Denise

by Steve Mizrach

http://www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/thunderbird-and-trickster.html

Thunderbird and Trickster

Introduction

The Thunderbird is one of the few cross-cultural elements of Native North American mythology. He is found not just among Plains Indians, but also among Pacific Northwest and Northeastern tribes. He has also become quite a bit of an icon for non-Indians, since he has also had the honor of having automobiles, liquors, and even a United States Air Force squadron named after him. Totems bearing his representation can be found all over the continent. There have been a number of curious theories about the origins of the Thunderbird myth – ones which I will show are probably wrongheaded.

In this paper, moreover, I want to examine how the myths and legends of the Thunderbird tie into the sacred clowning/trickster ritual complex of Plains tribes such as the Lakota. I will show how the Thunderbird is intimately connected to this complex, and attempt to explain why. It is the intimate association between these two traditions that may help explain some features of Plains culture and folklore. Aspects of the Thunderbird myth only make sense in light of these associations.

Plains Indians myth and folklore

In order to understand Plains Indians folklore, we have to realize that their myths were not just “just-so” stories to entertain, divert, or make inadequate efforts at naturalistic explanation. Rather, Indian myth functioned in religious, pedagogical, and initiatory ways, to help socialize young people and illuminate the various religious and other roles in society. Indian myth was always fluid, and grounded in the present, which is what might be expected of societies which largely lacked static, written traditions. Storytelling was an art which was maintained by the medicine people with great fidelity, because it was used to explain the development of certain rituals and elements of society. (Hines 1992)

Some have looked at the Thunderbird myths through the same lens of understanding applied to European mythology. The Thunderbird is like the Indo-European dragon or ogre or Leviathan, a huge monster who kidnaps virginal maidens, and who must be slain by the brave hero. Or the Thunderbird is simply treated as some kind of fantastic oddity, like the mythical unicorn or mermaid – an impossible construction borne from the extremes of the imagination. Both these attempts at explaining myth lose the important point of seeing Thunderbird as a personification of energies in nature – those found in violent thunderstorms and such – and his crucial dual nature.

Still, the Indians were not merely “mythmaking” in the pejorative sense. They no more literally believed in a giant bird generating storms through the beating of its wings, then Christians today literally believe in their divine being as an old man with a beard sitting on a marble throne. Thunderbird is an allegory; his conflicts with other forces in nature are then an attempt to allegorize relationships observed in the natural order, such as the changing of the weather. Like other Thunder Beings, he is essentially an attempt to represent the patterns of activity of a powerful, mysterious force in a way that can be understood simply and easily – sort of the way in which a weather map functions today. (Edmonds and Clark 1989)

The Plains Indians believed that everything that was found in nature had a human representative in microcosm. Everything in nature often contained its own opposite polarity, hence the expected existence of beings such as contraries, women warriors, and berdaches. Because the Thunderbird in particular represented this mysterious dual aspect of nature, manifest through the primordial power of thunderstorms, it is not surprising that his representatives were the heyoka or sacred clowns, who displayed wisdom through seemingly foolhardy action. Western thinking has prevented us from seeing the reasons why Indians perceived this connection. Few anthropologists have sought to locate how Thunderbird may have been mythologically linked to Trickster.

The Nature of Thunderbird

In Plains tribes, the Thunderbird is sometimes known as Wakinyan, from the Dakota word kinyan meaning “winged.” Others suggest the word links the Thunderbird to wakan, or sacred power. In many stories, the Thunderbird is thought of as a great Eagle, who produces thunder from the beating of his wings and flashes lightning from his eyes. (Descriptions are vague because it is thought Thunderbird is always surrounded by thick, rolling clouds which prevent him from being seen.) Further, there were a variety of beliefs about Thunderbird, which suggest a somewhat complicated picture. Usually, his role is to challenge some other great power and protect the Indians – such as White Owl Woman, the bringer of winter storms; the malevolent Unktehi, or water oxen who plague mankind; the horned serpents; Wochowsen, the enemy bird; or Waziya, the killing North Wind. But in some other legends (not so much in the Plains), Thunderbird is himself malevolent, carrying off people (or reindeer or whales) to their doom, or slaying people who seek to cross his sacred mountain. (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984)

Many Plains Indians claim there are in fact four colors (varieties) of Thunderbirds (the blue ones are said, strangely, to have no ears or eyes), sometimes associated with the four cardinal directions, but also sometimes only with the west and the western wind. (According to the medicine man Lame Deer, there were four, one at each compass point, but the western one was the Greatest and most senior.) (Fire and Erdoes 1972) The fact that they are sometimes known as “grandfathers” suggest they are held in considerable reverence and awe. It is supposed to be very dangerous to approach a Thunderbird nest, and many are supposed to have died in the attempt, swept away by ferocious storms. The symbol of Thunderbird is the red zig-zag, lightning-bolt design, which some people mistakenly think represents a stairway. Most tribes feel he and the other Thunder beings were the first to appear in the Creation, and that they have an especially close connection to wakan tanka, the Great Mysterious. (Gill and Sullivan 1992)

The fact that Thunderbird sometimes appears as something that terrorizes and plagues Indians, and sometimes as their protector and liberator (in some myths, he was once an Indian himself) is said to reflect the way thunderstorms and violent weather are seen by Plains people. On the one hand, they bring life-giving rain (Thunderbird is said to be the creator of ‘wild rice’ and other Plains Indians crops); on the other hand, they bring hail, flood, and lightning and fire. It is not clear where with them worship and awe end, and fear and terror begin. Some Indians claim that there are good and bad Thunderbirds, and that these beings are at war with each other. Others claim that the large predatory birds which are said to kidnap hunters and livestock are not Thunderbirds at all. Largely, I suspect that this dual nature of the Thunderbird ties it to the Trickster figure in Indian belief: like the Trickster, the harm the Thunderbird causes is mostly because it is so large and powerful and primeval.

Origins of the Thunderbird Myth

Cryptozoologists like Mark A. Hall, having studied the Thunderbird myths of numerous tribes, and compared them to (mostly folkloric) accounts of unusually large birds in modern times, as well as large birds (like the Roc) in other mythic traditions, suggest that there may well be a surviving species of large avians in America – big enough, apparently, to fly off carrying small animals or children, as has been claimed in some accounts. (Hall suggests the wingspan of such a species would be several feet longer than any known birds – certainly bigger than that of the turkey vulture or other identifiable North American species.) (Hall 1988) Such researchers feel the Thunderbird myth may have originated from sightings of a real-life flesh-and-blood avian which might be an atavism from earlier epochs (a quasi-pterodactyl or teratorn, perhaps.)

However, the big problem with this theory is that most ornithologists consider it to be quite farfetched. If such a species existed (a situation akin to the folkloric Sasquatch), it would be amazing that to this point it has remained unidentified and uncatalogued. A species of birds that big, unless it consisted of an extremely small number of members, would find it hard to avoid detection for long. Hall does suggest the possibility that maybe, like the mastodon, these large birds were hunted to extinction prior to the arrival of Europeans on the North American continent. Still, the other problem with his theory is that it ignores what Indians themselves have to say about the Thunderbird.

They describe the Thunderbird as a spiritual, not just physical, being. It is not seen as just a large, fearsome predatory bird that people tell stories about. Rather, it’s an integral part of Plains Indians religion and ritual. Only by ignoring this fact could we put our Western ethnocentric biases into effect, and reduce it to a zoological curiosity. The Thunderbird is much more than that; the Indian attitude toward it comes from more than just the mere fact that it is supposed to be really big. To understand the origins of Thunderbird myths, it’s necessary to see how they connect with other elements of Indian belief and ceremony – especially the Trickster complex – and see how they fit into the structure of Plains Indian myth as a whole.

Clowning around in Plains Indian culture

Clowning, like the icon of the Thunderbird, could be found in almost every North American Indian society. In every case, it involved ridiculous behavior, but on the Plains it especially exhibited inversion and reversal as elements of satire. There were four types of clown societies on the Plains – age-graded societies, military societies, the northern plains type, and the heyoka shamanistic societies. The behaviors of all sorts of clowns revolved around a few basic themes or attributes: burlesque, mocking the sacred, playing pranks or practical jokes, making obscene jokes or gestures, caricature of others, exhibiting gross gluttony or extreme appetite, strange acts of self-mortification or self-deprecation, and taunting of enemies or strangers. (Steward 1991)

The age-graded clown societies primarily consisted of older people who had been inducted into their ranks – groups such as the Gros Ventre Crazy Lodge or the Hidatsa Dog Society. These clowns were assumed to simply be playing a role appropriate to their sodality, rather than receiving some sort of supernatural inspiration. They carried out certain expected ritual performances on proscribed days, such as the Crazy Dance or the imitation of animals. In contrast, the military clown societies such as the Cheyenne Inverted Bow String Warriors, often carried comical or ridiculous weapons, but were also expected to show absurd bravery in battle, provoking the enemy into giving up its discipline and cohesion with taunts and insults. Not surprisingly, they sometimes rode their horses backwards into battle.

The northern plains clowns, found among tribes such as the Ojibway, wore masks which made them appear to be two-faced, and costumes of rags which made them appear comical. All of these three types of clown societies practiced a sort of conventionalized or patterned sort of anti-natural behavior. That is, they might do something which seemed strange or contrary, but under somewhat regular conditions. You knew when they might do something weird – and there were times when they were forbidden to perform their antics. Further, they might often “give up” the clowning way of life, and return to a non-contrary state by marrying and engaging in a more normal mode of existence.

The heyoka were different in three primary ways from the other sorts of clowns. They were truly unpredictable, and could do the unexpected or tasteless even during the most solemn of occasions. Moreso than other clowns, they really seemed to be insane. Also, they were thought to be more inspired by trans-human supernatural forces (as individuals driven by spirits rather than group conventions), and to have a closer link to wakan  or power than other clowns. And lastly, they kept their role for life – it was a sacred calling which could not be given up without performing an agonizing ritual of expiation. Not surprisingly, these unique differences were seen as the result of their having visions of Thunderbird, a unique and transforming experience.

Testimony of Black Elk: the heyoka and lightning

The Oglala Indian Black Elk had some interesting things to say about the heyoka ceremony, which he himself participated in. Black Elk describes the “dog in boiling water” ceremony in some detail. He also describes the bizarre items he had to carry as a heyoka, and the crazy antics he had to perform with his companions. He also attempts to explain the link between the contrary trickster nature of heyokas with that of Thunderbird.

“When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the West, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greener and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm… you have noticed that truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better. And so I think this is what the heyoka ceremony is for … the dog had to be killed quickly and without making any scar, as lightning kills, for it is the power of lightning that heyokas have.” (quoted in Neihardt 1959: 160)
Today, of course, Western physicists describe the dual nature of electricity. An object can carry a positive or negative electric charge. The electron is simultaneously a wave and a particle. Electricity and magnetism are thought to be aspects of the same force, and as is well know with magnetism, it comes in polarities, with opposite poles (north and south) attracting. Though the Indians did not have access to our modern scientific instruments, they are likely to have observed some of the same properties in lightning. Thus it would have been intuitive to link the dual spiritual nature of the heyoka (tragicomedy – solemn joking – joy united with pain) with the dual nature of electricity.

Thunderbird and Heyoka, the Sacred Clown

It was believed among the Lakota and other tribes that if you had a dream or vision of birds, you were destined to be a medicine man; but if you had a vision of Thunderbird, it was your destiny to become something else; heyoka, or sacred clown. Like Thunderbird, the heyoka were at once feared and held in reverence. They were supposed to startle easily at the first sound of thunder or first sight of lightning. Thunderbird supposedly inspired the “contrariness” of the heyoka through his own contrary nature. He alternates strong winds with calm ones. While all things in nature move clockwise, Thunderbird is said to move counterclockwise. Thunderbird is said to have sharp teeth, but no mouth; sharp claws, but no limbs; huge wings, but no body. All of these things suggest Thunderbird (and the heyoka) have a curious, paradoxical, contrary nature. You could become heyoka through a vision of the Thunderbird, or just of lightning or a formidable winged being of power. (Steiger 1974)

While clown societies were found throughout the Plains, the heyoka, or sacred clowns, were usually few in number, but were found in almost every clan. Heyoka were contraries, often speaking and walking backwards. They acted in ridiculous, obscene, and comical ways, especially during sacred ceremonies. They were thought to be fearless and painless, able to seize a piece of meat out of a pot of boiling water. They often dressed in a bizarre and ludicrous manner, wearing conical hats, red paint, a bladder over the head (to simulate baldness), and bark earrings. The heyoka was thought to usually carry various sacred items – a deer hoof rattle, a colored bow, a flute, or drum. His “anti-natural” nature was thought to be shamanistic in origin — and as a contrary, he was expected to act silly and foolhardy during battle (although this was found more among warrior clown societies such as the Cheyenne Inverted Warriors.)

However insulting or sacrilegious heyoka actions might be, they were tolerated, since it was assumed they were acting on the higher and more inscrutable imperatives of the Great Mystery. Heyoka were freed from all the ordinary constraints of life, and thus were usually not expected to marry, have children, or participate in the work of the tribe. Despite their bizarre acts (such as dressing in warm clothes during summer or wearing things inside out), they were trusted as healers, interpreters of dreams, and people of great medicine. Whenever they interrupted the solemnity of a ceremony, people took it as an admonition to see beyond the literalness of the ritual and into the deeper mysteries of the sacred. Like the flash of lightning, the heyoka’s sudden outbursts and disturbances were thought to be the keys to enlightenment – much like the absurd acts of Zen masters in Japan. (Hultkrantz 1987)

Thunderbird and Trickster

Part of the link between heyoka and Thunderbird comes from Iktomi, the Trickster figure. Iktomi is said to be heyoka because he has seen and talked with Thunderbird. Iktomi is the first-born son of Inyan (rock), and is said to speak with rocks and stones. Like Coyote and other Trickster figures, Iktomi likes to pull pranks on people, but is just as often the victim of tricks and misfortunes. This makes him at once a culture hero, and a figure to be feared and avoided. Iktomi was thought to be a hypersexual predator, one who frequently pursued winchinchalas (young virgins) who bathed in streams, through various methods of deceit. Yet his pursuits and antics often wound up with him inadvertently getting hurt or winding up in trouble.

Paul Radin suggests that Iktomi and other Trickster figures are akin to the Great Fool or Wild Man of European folklore, who often shows up in the Feast of Fools and other ceremonies where the social order is turned topsy-turvy. (Radin 1956) Jung, following his lead, claims the Trickster as an archetypal part of the collective unconscious; and his “crazy wisdom” as emblematic of humankind’s earlier, undivided, unindividuated consciousness. Iktomi and other tricksters seem to be at the constant mercy of their desires; yet their blind luck always seems to protect them from the consequences of their missteps. He is dangerous primarily because he is so powerful, yet so rarely has the forethought or good judgment to use his power wisely. Radin and others proclaim him the representative of untamed, unpredictably wild nature, within the confines of culture.

In other cultural traditions, thunder and lightning are connected with the unexpected. We talk about a “bolt out of the blue.” In American folk culture, there are a host of legendary stories of mysterious cures or transformations wrought by someone being struck by lightning. It’s at once dangerous, and a symbol of sudden, shocking revelation and inspiration. It’s also the primary weapon in most pantheons of the chief sky god (such as Zeus in Greek mythology.) For the Plains Indians, thunder and lightning symbolized the vast, uncontrollable energy of nature. It’s not surprising, then, that the Thunderbird is connected with the strange, uncontrollable force of the Trickster figure, and his avatar, the heyoka.

Significance of the Trickster Figure and “Contrariness” in Plains Society

Psychological anthropologists, especially those oriented toward psychoanalytic theory and depth psychology, point to the Trickster figure as a sort of important cultural “release valve.” He represents the “return of the repressed,” the Dionysian aspects of life only temporarily held in abeyance by the Apollonian forces of civilization. The carnivals and feasts held in honor of fools in Europe, suggest some anthropologists, are “outlets,” allowing people to invert the social order temporarily as a way of promoting its continuity in the long run (avoiding its ultimate collapse.) The ruler is dressed in peasants’ clothes, and some ignorant serf is crowned king. Symbols of authority normally held in extreme reverence are mocked and desecrated.

Clowns and contraries in Plains societies do not just come out once a year, however. They are permanent parts of the society, and are seen as continual reminders of the contingency and arbitrariness of the social order. Long before French theorists came on the scene, the heyoka was reminding his own people about the social construction of reality. By doing everything backwards, the heyoka in a way is carrying out a constant experiment in ethnomethodology, showing people how their own expectations limit their behavior. Like a good performance artist, the shocking behavior of the heyoka is supposed to confront people and make them reconsider what they may have arbitrarily accepted as normal. It’s to “jolt” them out of their ordinary frames of mind. (Steward 1991)

More importantly, as a representative of Thunderbird and Trickster, the heyoka reminds his people that the primordial energy of nature is beyond good and evil. It doesn’t correspond to human categories of right and wrong. It doesn’t always follow our preconceptions of what is expected and proper. It doesn’t really care about our human woes and concerns. Like electricity, it can be deadly dangerous, or harnessed for great uses. If we’re too narrow or parochial in trying to understand it, it will zap us in the middle of the night. Like any good trickster, the heyoka plays pranks on others in his culture not to make them feel embarrassed and stupid, but to show them ways they could start being more smart.

The Account of John (Fire) Lame Deer: Heyoka and ASC

Lame Deer calls the heyoka the “upside-down, forward-backward, icy-hot contrary.” He describes in detail one particular heyoka trick which may give some clues to the nature of their antics. Apparently, they would grab pieces of dog meat out of a pot of boiling water, and fling them at a crowd of people, without being burned or harmed in any way. (Why dog meat? Lame Deer gives a clue when he says, “For the heyoka, he says god when he means dog, and dog when he means god.”) Lame Deer suggests before doing this they chewed a grayish moss called tapejuta. I suspect that heyoka were able to perform this feat through going into trance, an altered state of consciousness, by utilizing this and other psychotropic plants on occasion.

More importantly, I think they induced trance in others through their contrary behavior. Psychologists have noted that trance does not always occur through rhythmic repetition. Another way in which it occurs (the “paradoxical state”) is through a sudden shock to the nervous system. Ethnomethodologists have often noted the blank, glassy stares and strange states produced by violating peoples’ expectations – by, for example, getting into an elevator and facing the other people in it. It’s in such “paradoxical states” that people often may assimilate new information quickly, without filtering. They also may be able to “abreact” psychological trauma. For these reasons, the heyoka may have been seen as a source of wisdom and healing.

Lame Deer seems to suggest the power of trance is connected to the power of Thunderbird. As a paradoxical state of consciousness, it ties into the paradoxical energy of thunder and lightning. The crash of thunder can startle us and wake us up out of dreaming sleep. The trance of the heyoka comes from sacred power. He ties it all together in a way that’s fairly succinct:

” These Thunderbirds are part of the Great Spirit. Theirs is about the greatest power in the whole universe. It is the power of the hot and the cold clashing above the clouds. It is blue lightning from the sun. It is like atomic power. The thunder power protects and destroys. It is good and bad; the great winged power. We draw the lightning as a forked zigzag, because lightning branches out into a good and bad part… In our Indian belief, the clown has a power which comes from the thunder beings, not from the animals or the Earth. He has more power than the atom bomb, he could blow off the dome of the Capitol. Being a clown gives you honor, but also shame. It brings you power, but you have to pay for it.” (quoted in Erdoes 1972: 251)

Conclusion

The Thunderbird’s association with heyoka clowns is not simply serendipitous. The fact that the Thunderbird displays many paradoxical and contradictory attributes links it to Trickster figures and to the contraries of Plains  Indians culture. This culture complex probably resulted from Indian beliefs about nature and the ways in which thunder and lightning exemplified the manners in which it could be at once capricious, beneficent, and destructive. The Thunderbird’s own link to the original Great Mystery suggests that the role of the sacred clown was seen as one of the highest in Plains society – like wandering fools in Europe, they were thought to be touched by the Divine power itself. Like Thunderbird himself, the heyoka was thought to be a conduit to forces that defied comprehension, and by his absurd, backwards behavior he was merely showing the ironic, mysterious dualities that existed within the universe itself.

Bibliography

Edmonds, Margot, and Clark, Ella E., Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends, Facts on File, New York, 1989.
Erdoes, Richard, and Ortiz, Alfonso, eds., American Indian Myths and Legends, Pantheon Books, New York, 1984.
Fire, John, and Erdoes, Richard, Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions, Washington Square Press, New York, 1972.
Gill, Sam D., and Sullivan, Irene F., Dictionary of Native American Mythology, ABC-CLIO Inc., Santa Barbara, 1992.
Hall, Mark A., Thunderbirds: The Living Legend of Giant Birds, Fortean Publications, Minneapolis, 1988.
Hines, Donald M., Ghost Voices: Indian Myths, Legends, Humor, and Hunting Stories, Great Eagle Publishing, Issaquah, 1992.
Hultkrantz, Ake, Native Religions of North America, Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1987.
Neihardt, John G., Black Elk Speaks, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1959.
Radin, Paul, The Trickster: a Study in American Indian Mythology, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1956.
Steiger, Brad, Medicine Power, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1974.
Steward, Julian Haynes, The Clown in Native North America, Garland Publishing, New York, 1991.
Return to CyberAnthropology

I BELIEVE MOST OR ALL OF YOU WOULD AGREE WITH BUFFET’s IDEAS HERE. WHAT’S GOOD FOR US HAS TO BE FOR THE FOLKS IN WASHINGTON!!!  THESE TYPES OF CHANGE WILL HELP REDUCE OUR DEBTS OVERALL. LETS KEEP THIS IDEA MOVING ACROSS THE LAND.

Winds of Change….

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed
around.

_*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*_

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will
only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive
the message. Don’t you think it’s time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.
You are one of my 20+ – Please keep it going, and thanks.

October 1, 2011:

Been having a very bad feeling about the world for a while. Beyond the financial crisis we have been facing. It’s been scary, as in I shouldn’t talk about it scary or even look at it scary. For a long time I couldn’t exactly put my finger on what this intense underlying negativity was related to – it felt originally like it was related to finances then politics and a general underlying tone. But in recent months I’ve decided to focus more on myself because this thing felt too big for me to look at and I felt I needed to get my own stuff in order. However lately a few things have been happening. I no longer feel invisible – I feel like I’m being watched by some sort of an institution, and this institution is not only extremely interested in my premonitions but also I feel if I put them out there it’s likely to be seen by people I don’t want it to be seen by.*

I was told by spirit tonight that it is the Iranian president Ackmadenejad? Don’t know how to spell it. That there would be an uprising in Iran and his power would be threatened so much so he would feel he was going to be deposed and in true psychopathic fashion he will lob whatever lame nuclear missiles he has at the east coast – trying to kill as many Americans as possible knowing full well we will retaliate with full force and obliterate Iran with Nukes. This will start a terrible war – a third world war. This is his equivalent of being the crazy gun man who rushes into a restaurant or school and starts shooting whoever he can and then turns the gun on himself. He knows the annihalation of his region will be the end result which is what he wants because he will be angered by the Iranian desire to become more westernized. Unfortunately, the whole region could suffer if we do this and wars will break out all over the place as a result. It will be the beginning of a long cycle of horrible war if it is not stopped before it happens.

*I know it seems a bit paranoid but this is why I stopped putting out predictive things because I didn’t what it meant to have this feeling that something was monitoring these predictions beyond just regular people.

Since this premonition I didn’t really now how to address this issue as I don’t want to alarm anyone or put anything out there that might tip the balance toward the negative in any way. I want to warn the people of the middle east and our government not to engage with the Iranian leader. Everyone talks of the “Anti-Christ” but he is actually the closest thing to someone who has the power to do tremendous damage all for the sake of a bruised ego and a power trip. It’s very frightening. The thing is our country will be goaded into a war, but it will be the middle east that again suffers most. We must not underestimate the mental illness of this man Ahmadinejad. Anyone in a position there to put a stop to his plans I urge you to try because it (ultimately) means the annihilation of your people. I guarantee you that Ahmadinejad does not care in the least for human life, even his own family’s. He is a pure psychopath without the ability to feel higher functioning emotions like love and compassion. I warn you now so that we may avert WWIII which is eminent if people in the region remain passive. Yet of course this must come from those in power because protests (which have worked in other countries) would not work in Iran. He would squash the people like bugs and commit wholesale murder and then start WWIII. It must come from those who know his weaknesses and can stop him, those he trusts.

Many blessings – may God guide all of us especially those in the Middle East and our leaders at this time,

Denise

I do want to say that my feelings about this have become more balanced and I think there is a very good chance this will be averted with people in power knowing in advance and doing the right things to stop it before it spirals out of control. I feel more confident in those in the Iranian military and people in our government that something smart will be effected to bring this to a much less dramatic end then where it could ultimately go. At least for now. But I am posting this to affirm that something must be done, action that is non-violent toward the people in that region and something that is perhaps covert must be done in order to stop this. I will only post this prediction for a week. After that I will take this down because I don’t want it seen by everyone. Those who need to see it will.

According to the tarot he has died. And while officials are hiding this, behind the scenes there is major turmoil. At first he may have gone into hiding like cats do when they’re sick, but he’s ultimately crossed over and forces are at work to start a new regime. Chances are it will be better in the long run, but for now there is competition for power and confusion about how to transition the North Korean government.

It looks like those who were closest to Kim Jong Il are of 2 minds, those who want to wait it out and see what happens (figure out where the tide of the country is) these people feel lost and confused. The other camp are vying for power, planning and formulating how to take power. Among the 2nd group there is tremendous competition to take the reigns of power and there is no clear stand out for who should take over.

There is a general consensus that if news got out about the “dear leader,” chaos, fear and confusion would break out in the country and perhaps a revolution would take place which is why there has been such a stalemate about how to proceed. And obviously why the government has been hiding his death.

—————–

*the above was a reprint of a post from 9/2008. You can go into the finder on the blog and type in Kim Jong Il and it will come up and you can see this is indeed the original post.

—————-

My current comment on the 9/08 post:

It could also be that the son wasn’t felt to be ready at that time or they may have been taking their time to groom the son for the job after a loss of what to do. If he had died 2 and a half years ago then the son would have been 23 or 24 perhaps seen as too young to be reliable. It could have been felt that the son needed to be made more visible for the people to accept him for fear there would be a backlash. My feeling about the son is he doesn’t have the same vibe as the dad at all. In fact I don’t feel he wants the position of being leader which will probably make him a much better leader than either of his ancestors. We will probably see North Korea open up (if the son stays true to his personality) as he gains support from his people. I really don’t feel anyone expected Kim Jong Il to die at that time, he would have been pretty young. His body preserved in an airtight casket to give the appearance of recent death. Strange as that sounds the only other thing that is possible is he was in the process of dying and during periods of health they paraded him around but he and his staff but his fate had been sealed and it was just a matter of time before he would die which is why the cards came up that he was already dead – dead man walking?

I’m going to look at Iran next which I had a very disturbing and overwhelming feeling that something was stirring there a while back. I will find that post and elaborate and also do some new analysis and future predictions.

Happy New Year and many blessings for the New Year to all! Try not to freak out. Yes things are getting crazy, but remember all of these things will force us to come to balance with the world and eventually things will be better for it.

Many blessings,

Denise

But I was just told by spirit that Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee for the Republican party. Go figure. I wouldn’t have guessed that Newt being the big toad he is and a #1 in the polls and yes you read that right, I called him a #1 – potty humor. I’m resorting to that because let’s face it he stinks. I’m sort of relieved as all the other candidates seem evil or insane, at least Romney just seems like a greasy used car salesman who sold his soul to the devil for a full head of hair.

Anyway, no worries. Say bye-bye to all the Republicans whose seats are up and expect a strangely tight race between Romney and Obama but still Obama wins. It will be a much closer call then it should be. But for Obama – the moderator – who was given the job of Janitorial President I don’t think the Republicans really want his job, after all that would mean they would actually have to do something. Unlike what they are doing now which is just blocking Obama’s every move to try and straighten up the mess left by Bushy Jr.

Many blessings,

Denise

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/some-occupy-protesters-allege-violence.html

This scene unfolding right now is getting crazy. And already is getting violent and frightening.

May the Great Spirit show the evils of our system and protect the innocent,

Denise

BTW is it a coincidence that the cops “break-up” these encampments in the middle of the night when people are sleeping and it’s very difficult for the media and us to see what is really going on? Hmm, don’t think so.

I can feel police batons cracking against my head, blood rushing down my face. I feel like I’m going to vomit watching this. I hope I am wrong about the turn toward violence that I can feel brewing in the air. I’m sure there will be good cops who will be respectful and I’m also sure their will be power crazed psychopaths who wear uniforms and they will do serious damage to this non-violent crowd. My fear is this will break out into something much darker. I fear we are at a turning point where this goes from a “movement” to an all out revolution. I have been praying for the past two hours for the people who are there and for the police to show restraint. Please do the same.

May the Great Spirit Guide watch over this situation.

Blessed be,

Denise

As I said a while back financial markets would spiral down in a roller coaster-like manner. But my warning right now is really about something much more disturbing and related to the other warning that we are living in the age of revolutions.

To those in power I beg you not to proceed violently against the non-violent protestors. There is a stew brewing, one in which the consequences will be deadly and lead to another revolution here on American soil. I can tell you as well that the people will be victorious and those in the 1% take heed to start doing the right thing and correct the wrongs and injustices or take a lesson from the French Revolution.

I don’t want to get into too much detail except to say that I have never really (logically) believed people here in the US would be desperate and hopeless enough to put their life on the lines as their forefathers had, but now I know this to be untrue.  And as the middle-class and all the progress that was made to equalize our society has gone backward we will see a new caste of warriors – some cracked by the wars overseas meant to protect the interest of the 1% – and some perfectly well only to come home to a nation without hope, jobs, freedom or really any of the things our warriors felt they were going to protect.

There is always hope that things can turn around but there are three things required for this to be so: 1) The political system must change to reflect the will and needs of the people. 2) The financial market must be radically renovated and regulated – no more theoretical math to squeeze money out of thin air. 3) Total and complete freedom for regular people to protest, and participate in the political system without any negative recourse or violence perpetrated against them.

At this point I see no way for any of the current line-up of Republicans to win the next election. Obama will be forced to take a more hard line approach to the violence happening toward protestors and the financial free fall will force him to take a stand against the wealthy 1%. The only chance of Obama not being re-elected comes from the possibility of a third party emerging out of the 99% movement (which will eventually happen but further in the future) and it is only this possibility that stands a shadow of a chance and this chance is microscopic at this point if possible at all. It would take something short of a miracle for this to occur.

The other set of disturbing revelations are about the earth itself. I was shown 7 places all over the globe that would have extreme geological activity starting with the second tip of Spain, the Lapland boarder region, an area that is between China/Russia and Mongolia, The boarder between the Dakotas, the northern most tip of Australia, the Poles (north and south). I wrote down what I was shown and in order but the paper mysteriously disappeared the next day never to be found. I was told the area near the second tip of Spain (near the Mediterranean sea, just a skip across to Morocco) would be a major earthquake, the area up in the Lapland/Scandinavian area would be a volcano (I thought but wasn’t sure), the area in China/Russia/Mongolia would be severe flooding, the Dakotas I think again are earthquake.

I was told that the increase in earthquakes will only keep increasing as the polar ice caps will break off and for a little while large pieces of the polar ice caps (glaciers) would make their way around the world and be seen in the ocean in strange unexpected places. Most importantly that the earth was sick and that what She was experiencing was akin to seizures, small ones that would lead up to a major world shaking like a horrible grand mal seizure felt around the world. The period of time given for this was starting in 2012 and would happen over a period from then for 5-7 years. After which a cycle of renewal would begin. Unfortunately, there would be horrible damage done and a lot of people exiting this world. However it isn’t the end of the world, just a change, simultaneously our political system will change dramatically and power will once again reside in the people. The meek will indeed inherit the earth again. Those who align themselves with the needy, weak and helpless will be pivotal and saved – this will not be like the 1960s. This will ultimately lead to a violent uprising if things continue as they are.

This is something I’ve known since I was 12 and spent 7 months alone, on my back in my sick bed (literally true). I had visions of this period. I had hoped this period would never happen. I had several dreams along the way and signs that we were traveling on this dark road but believed we would correct it. I have been given confirmation by a terrible dream recently that there is now very little chance of changing this future which in hindsight seemed inevitable.

I have struggled with informing people about this as I have seen all the signs and been given confirmation through various spiritual sources that this would be. I wasn’t sure if telling people would help or hurt. But I have no other alternative now except to hope those in power will heed this warning to restrain the police and take control of the violence against the innocent or this will go from a movement into a civil war and no one wants to see or live through the horrors of war on our soil.

Many blessings,
Denise

PS. I’m sorry I will go through individual requests soon. What has come upon me in the past couple of months has been large and oppressive and the tip of this iceberg has already turned so many people’s lives upside down – I have been trying to help put out fires among those in my sphere. A lot of people are depressed now which is why I was afraid to post this information but again the positive thing to take from all of this is the people will ultimately win as they have in the past. And the changes in the earth will eventually calm.

For those who are depressed try to realize you are here, now for a reason. You are meant to do your part to move the earth and people to a new consciousness and what was once a simple prescribed path will be replaced by one full of novelty and change in which your decisions will have impact on the whole of history if you so choose.