In Honour of Ee’ren Ödürek, the Siberian Spirit that created the Land

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Every Medicine Tool has its own story:

Maybe you remember the post from about a year ago,  when I found the frozen little Green Winged Teal / small female Duck and promised her, to use her beautiful wings well, to make a smudging fan to honour her life.

Well, here is the oooold blog post:

Bird Food

And here is, what I created from the little wings:

Prayer and Smudge Fan Female Green Winged Teal

In Honour of Ee’ren Ödürek, the Siberian Spirit
that created the Land
Yes, there was the “Big Flood” Water was EVERYWHERE – and the animals had nowhere to go and were in danger of drowning. Here in North America it is the Muskrat, that dives down to the primordial bottom to bring back up a small piece of mud that then was spread over the back of Mother Earth the Mighty Turtle. Among my Siberian ancestors and for my Family Clan this important job was accomplished by a small Duck, that then subsequently was allowed to reside in the Sky World and was forthwith known as Ee;ren Ödürek. Since then Duck feathers are highly regarded as preventing misfortune and calamities.
So it stands to reason, that, after I discovered this sad little Green Winged Teal, my Heart cried and I had to honour its life in a meaningful way……

Materials used:
Deer Leather: Ghülbüz lives in the dawn of the East, greeting the Sun every morning.
Fur of Sha-qua sho, the Mink, messenger and go=between the Land and the Water Spirits
Bone carving of Butterfly for transcendence and transformation
Moss Agate carving of Thunderbird, who’s rock art/ markings in Siberia are identical to those here in North America, proving, that the Native People came from my Ancestral home Lands
Sterling Silver button with Ee’ren Adik, the Bear, Keeper of the Eastern Gate and protector from Albis and other evil and illness inducing boogs and other “nastys”

Other Feathers:
Peacock – the all seeing eye of the Spirit
Pheasant: Pride in one’s own heritage
Mallard – family values
Heron – leadership and chieftainship, wise council

I am very pleased, that the general shape of the wings suggested a Butterfly, as they are seen as Spirits of transformation and beauty. A little searching on the net led me to a blog post from Robert Moss:

quoteing Robert Moss:

MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
If it looks like a duck,
it could be a Celtic goddess

At the shrine of Sequana, at the source of the River Seine in the Dijon area of France, ancient Celts came to seek healing dreams in the sacred night. Cloaked pilgrims journeyed with their offerings, which included models of the organs that needed healing, carved from oak or stone. They bathed in the sacred spring, prayed to the goddess, and placed their offerings beside a sacred pool. They entered a long portico or dormitory, hoping that in the night – during sleep or in the twilight state between sleeping and waking that the ancients knew is especially propitious for contact with the more-than-human – the goddess Sequana or her emissary would appear to them.
No magical power, other than simple cleansing, was attributed to the spring itself, but the waters were regarded as a source of creative flow, and as a portal to the Otherworld and its powers.
We know the name Sequana from nine inscriptions found in the area. It has been suggested that it means “The Fast-Flowing One”. Sequana is the goddess of the River Seine, which flows through Paris, and (according to Strabo) was the patron of the Sequanae, a Gaulish tribe in this region. Her special companion animal is the duck, and in a statue now in the Musée archéologique de Dijon, a crowned Sequana is depicted riding in a duck-headed boat.
Only the foundations of the healing shrine of Sequana at her spring, the Fontes Sequanae, survive, but we can glean a great deal about the ancient practice of dream incubation for healing from the contents of two pottery vessels discovered at the site. One contains more than a hundred carved effigies of eyes, breasts, limbs, heads and internal organs. A second vessel contained more than 800 similar carvings.
Pilgrims who needed healing for the parts represented ascended a series of terraces, pausing perhaps to drink from streams and cisterns containing the sacred waters, before reaching the main sanctuary and being admitted to the place of sacred sleep. Grateful travelers paid for inscriptions at the site thanking Sequana for gifts of healing, evidence that we have here a Celtic parallel to the practice of Asklepian dream healing in the ancient Mediterranean.
What happened to this great precinct of dream healing in the realm of the Goddess when the Church arrived? One guess. The site was appropriated by the Church and re-dedicated to an invented male, saint, St Sequanus.
In reviving the memory of the “Fast-Flowing” Goddess, we take another step towards cultural soul recovery – and remember a healing practice that can transform our lives.

 

I also discovered this beautiful Etruscan Duck vessel:

Fly well, Little Duck and Blessings to your species!

A lady’s calling card:

Within the last 48 hours the temperature had risen from -28 centigrade with howling winds and deep snowdrifts to + 9, with freezing rain, that transformed the landscape into an endless, dull, foggy skating ring.

On this rain-soaked morning I was listlessly putting on my way too tight woollen socks and while I pulled hard I was glancing out the rain-spattered living room window and saw her:

On the other side of the creek, trotting quickly from puddle to puddle over the still frozen ice.

A Wolf!

Large, a bit skinny, probably due more to the wet fur than malnutrition. She rolled in one of the last patches of snow – She-Wolves do that, when they are in heat – leaving scent marks, invitations – tantalizing…..

Then she jumped up and ran over to a Muskrat pile that is now protruding through the ice. She squatted, peed on it, to make sure, everyone got the message…..

Off to the old abandoned Beaver lodge – repeat task, then loop on – down the creek and into the rolling fog…….

May she be well.

May she connect…..

May there be pups in the rendezvous site come autumn!

 

Smudging fans:

This time of year, late February, we should be having beautiful cooooold winter weather, but instead of that it is raining into our formerly 4 feet of snow that now is quickly melting away, especially because it also is +11 degree centigrade. 😦

All our outside chores like going out into the bush and getting our wood are on hold.

So I am sitting in front of a pile of feathers, furs and recycled leather and give new life and meaning to a few of the wild Bird wings I accumulated over the last few years.

Remember this post – about how to pin and dry Bird wings?

A box with wings:

Here now is a nice Merlin Wing Smudging fan, just finished 🙂

 Another wing pinned in the box in the above mentioned post is this following Sharp Shinned Hawk wing.Now it too is dressed up and ready to find an owner 🙂

 

 

 

 

And as always, to maybe go with these 2 treasures there are 2 Sweetgrass baskets dressed up and filled with Sage, Cedar, Juniper, some incense, some crystals and 2 different large shells suitable for smudging.

One of them is a LARGE clam shell found at the beach of Kouchibouguac NP in New Brunswick. The local Micmac people consider shells from there as powerful “Gebmeg” = good Medicine.

 

Feather Work:

This post is just a couple of pictures about what is now happening to my feathers:

Here is the latest crop of Feather Earrings:

Normally I make some quite involved Prayer Feathers like these:

But for these I just wanted to keep it simple. They just have to find someone who loves and uses them.

The Large one is from “Vulture Woman”

Then there is a Raven. Of course it is dressed in white Deer leather, because of the Siberian story, that in the Beginning the Raven was white….

Have I told that legend?

The Owl feathers and the Hawk are some of the ones I brought back – see last post….

 

We are in the midst of the Market and Craft Show season and we both are trying to keep up with making Jewellery for our booth and of course I am having some of my Shaman Art there as well. 

Here are 2 Rattles .

They are painted rawhide and Deer leather  and of course some feathers:

Mathilda Mustelide

It is that time of year again. Mathilda is pregnant – and hungry.

 

So she takes the trek across the frozen Beaver dam and along the well established wildlife path through bushes and dead falls up the slope and over, to our house.

At dusk she digs in the packed snow beneath the Bird feeders for the old lost sunflower seed – and for the Voles, that dare to come up once it is dark. It must be worth her while, because she is there for hours. I leave a light on, next to the living room window and then I can watch her. At first, when she hears me moving in the house, she runs away, back down the path, but soon she gets used to the sounds of movement in the house. She also can hear my voice. Once she gets used to that, I can go out onto the deck, call her – and toss her a turkey sausage.

She soon gets the hang of that!

I should “hate “ her, but I do not.

See, she is a Fisher. Many Canadians hate fishers and blame them for killing their Cats and small Dogs. Fishers also kill and eat Raccoons.

Our Raccoons, the kids from Cassey and her sisters, that, come spring, we treat to a morsel of Cat food…… ( see: https://shamanicdrumm.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/cassey-writes-to-lynn-and-john/

Yes, Fishers are considered a vermin, but in the end, they are a part of Nature and the food chain.

So, no, I do not “hate” Mathilda at al l- or any other Being for that matter…..

To the contrary, when I bring our garbage and recycling to the dump containers this Sunday, I pick up a nice Chicken for her.

Yes, the weekend cottagers here are extremely wasteful.

-Imagine that Chicken. Its life in a confined mass farming place, never being outside to scratch in the Earth, its death, the processing, and then – been tossed in the garbage 3 days after being bought – Yes, the receipt was still in the paper bag….

Well, some of the cottagers are considerate enough to put such morsels behind the garbage bins – for the Foxes and Coyotes. There is still LOTS of things there….. So this chicken can be missed.

I put it beneath the Bird feeder.

Then I cook my own Chicken – that one from our grocer in town…. (just in case you asked…)

Around 8.30 pm, when I remember to check, the Chicken is gone.

There are fresh Fisher tracks in the snow.

Mathilda is having a feast today.

 

To find our more about Mathilda and her kind:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal)

Bird Food

Every 2 weeks the large wast containers at the crossroads down by Kawpakwakog river are getting emptied. During the winter months all the locals bring their garbage there. The Ravens know that. They are lurking around, high on top of the surrounding trees, hoping for a spilled morsel. So when I went there last Sunday to bring our recycles and other stuff, I was not surprised to see them. When they see me, they caw a ruckus and come down to the lowest branches. They know me well and know, that ifff there by chance is a morsel in easy reach, I will feed them.

 

They were VERY agitated , so I in turn knew, that there was something, that they could smell and they WANTED IT!

Oh, right! Yet again we had lost the “hydro” = electricity a few days ago, due to a snow storm. This is a sad, but rather regular occurrence here. The overland line neeeeeds to get fixed, but the city does not want to spend the money….

When we loose power, all the cottagers usually throw out, whatever was in their fridges and freezers.

No wonder, the Ravens were going “nuts”

Yes, there was a whole chicken, a leg of lamb, still sealed in cellophane, best before date march 2017 and lots of other goodies. I got a knife, opened some stuff and tossed it into the bush behind the large containers. The Ravens descended onto their feast…..

You are welcome, guys! What you can not drag away, the Foxes will get and that in turn will save the lives of a few Snowshoe Hares and a dozen Mice. Mice however are food for Owls and as you all know…. me and Owls…..

OK, back home – But wait!??

Why is this there plastic bag “shimmering and glimmering” in this all soooo very familiar shaman sight way?

What is inside?

More Raven food?

Oh! yes and NO!

Inside the wall mart bag is a little lost Soul.

A local one.

A little Green Winged Teal.

Shot right through the chest.

Stuffed into the bag – for what?

And now- thrown away.

Still beautiful in its very own sad way.

 

“Poor little Duck” I said. “Maybe I should take you home. Thaw you out, take your wings and make something beautiful, then put your body outside for Dilgi, our local Fox….

I did.

A day later a Spirit Release ceremony took place in our kitchen.

Then I took the wings, stretched them out and mounted them on a piece of Styrofoam to dry them.

It will take at least 6 months, until I can get to work on them.

I will report back, when that time comes.

For now,fly well little Green Duck! ♥

Medicine Pieces In January:

Yes, it is January.

Every year, after Peter’s birthday we slooooowly and reluctantly start up working again, on/ for Bearpaw Jewellery, our business.

Actually, with both of us in our 60ties now, we could afford to – just stop.

But how does one “put to sleep” a successful and thriving business? We can not sell it, because its value ins not in the large workshop with all our tools and materials, it is our ideas, our designs and our creativity, that makes up the value.

Just stop everything, stuff it into boxes and bury it in the basement?

We can not really bury our creative drive either.

So for now, we decided, Bearpaw will transform from our “must do” to become more of our hobby and passion.

For me, my shamanic artwork is also a responsibility.

A promise I made. One, that I HAVE to keep, to the best of my ability.

See, there are all the hundreds of furs – all recycled form discarded coats, to be sure, but still….

Many of these Animals were bred and raised in deplorable conditions, just to be killed for their fur. Then, quickly and with the rapidly changing social consciousness, it became “inappropriate” to wear fur and so the beautiful pelts ended either in the trash bin – or the 2^nd hand shop – or people brought them to me, traded them in, for a piece of jewellery, knowing, that I would make meaningful artwork from the pelts.

I promised to do that. Not so much to the people bringing the fur, but to the Animal Spirits still alive within…….

For a shaman EVERYTHING is ALIVE! ALWAYS!

Now however, I have about 10 large bins full of fur. Toooo much to ever be able to use it and work it all. So, I will share with the Native crafters living in the area…….

Then, there are all the beautiful Bird Wings, waiting to be re-awakened to a new life. – Just remember this post, where I found several Hawks dead on the road on Manitoulin island on the busiest weekend of the year:

https://shamanicdrumm.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/a-box-with-wings/

Now these are cured and ready to work with.

But before it is their turn, I have to work on the 2 Wings that came before them.

This one is yet another Sharp Shinned Hawk. I mounted it onto a piece of Cactus root.

Then, remember this post?

https://shamanicdrumm.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/medicine-pieces/

Now the 2^nd  Northern Harrier wing is ready to take flight. – get “adopted”.

 

It is a truly LARGE piece with a Quartz Crystal and a Heron feather at the top and a silver feather on the sturdy handle. The handle is also a functional rattle, being filled with Turquoise pebbles.

This Female Northern Harrier Wing Fan is my Medicine Piece in honour of Full Moon In January.

Night of the Domovoi

Today is January 6. an important date for many Siberian households, as  tonight all the Domovois and Baniks = the house and bath Spirits are celebrating!

Domovoi

They are dancing around the X-mas Tree, or Xmas decorations, that then can be taken down either tomorrow or the next following New Moon, if that is close.

For the Domovois and Baniks

Banik

one puts out treats = sweets and fat, that they like = puts it under or next to the decorations. They take all of it, especially, if they felt neglected throughout the year – or just the Spiritual essence, iffff they were looked after….

Whatever is left, will be put into the fire or outside for the Birds the next morning.

Also all the Animals, the pets and the ones in stables and fields get a special treat for tonight. Many people say, that on this night they too are celebrating and one can see them dancing.

Blessings!

 Mi-Shell

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also check:

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/domovoi.html

All the Siberian “Santas”!

 

 Today, after a patient left , I had some time to catch up on my reading list. 🙂 

 This article in the Siberian Times put a BIG smile on my face!

All the different “Grandfather Frost” Spirits  from different parts of Siberia are not only described but come with gorgeous pictures!

Enjoy! 

Blessings for your holidays!

http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/f0196-merry-western-christmas-from-siberia-where-santa-is-not-always-red/

 

November 17th

Cold winds are blowing

away

my dreams of autumn sun

sitting with books, Birds

        and Bramble-berries.

 

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Sleep well, my Turtle home!

Dream of trips to trails along beaches

sleep with Mice in your belly

and fresh snow on your brow…

.

Spring will come

a cold aeon from now.

The Turtle, our new motor home