Medicine Card: Firefly

Firefly:

Firefly teaches us to bring things into focus and to lighten the path that is hidden in order to understand our life force. He gives the spark of divine insight and inspiration. Firefly aids in illuminating what is hidden, understands what is confusing, brings wonder and awe in the darkness. He will teach strength to replace fear in the midst of the darkness; spiritual or emotional. Sometimes the faintest the light will see you through. Allow firefly to guide you - in the moment, through the forest of life and to navigate what you are unable to perceive or understanding. It is the light that should be your focus, not the dark. Firefly will show you how, so watch carefully!

Medicine card: Ant

My Birthday was yesterday. I have a theory about birthdays, perhaps one day I will share it. I have also been pondering collective energy transference. Kind of like, positive thoughts create positivity. All kind of a moot point.

I have been looking up and considering walking the Lewis and Clark Discovery Trail. Again, all depends on where I will be and what I will be doing and when I will be doing these things that I am doing. (??) Most of the time, I am not even sure where I will be in a week. That is to far in the future for me to figure out. I don't particularly like feelings of uncertainty, I would think by now, after so long atime of living in uncertainty, that I would be used to it.

New Medicine Card: ANT (patience, teamwork) - It is time to plan, build, and serve the community. Know that what is yours will come to you through consistent effort and willingness to work for the long term good of all involved. Practice diligence and patience. Industriousness will pay off in the long term.

Medicine Card: ANT

Peace, Be Safe
Bright Blessings
~ Skooky Tramp

New Medicine Cards, Container garden Update, Earth Lodges

I've gotten a bit behind on making my deck of medicine cards. I don't intend on catching up, they will get made as they see fit to being made. Here are 2 that I have made Salmon and Wolf.

SALMON (wisdom, inner knowing, determination) - Salmon has the wisdom of instinct in finding its way back to
source. Outer world circumstances cannot deter salmon from completing the great circle of like. Salmon is
determined to move towards its goal regardless of worldly obstacles. Reclaim your inner knowledge. It is time to
look within to find your direction, then let no obstacle get in your way on your journey.

Medicine Card Salmon

WOLF (teacher) - Time to share the medicine of new ideas. A pathfinder. Have a
sense of both family and individuality. Balance aloneness and community. Expand your
view. Open to new ways. Teaches understanding. Teacher of Truth.

Medicine card Wolf

CONTAINER GARDENING:

     It's coming along. I talk to them several times a day. I am so proud of them. While, it may not look like much, I am doing the best I can with what I have on hand. I am hardly in a position to be able to go out and spend money on this project. I have bought a bag of starting soil and a few packets of seeds. Most of the seeds I am using were left overs from last years feeble attempt at outdoor gardening. While overall it went well I would hardly call it a success. The only thing that grew well were cucumbers. 

   I frequently debate the wisdom or choice in even bothering trying to grow vegetables and herbs. I enjoy it and find it relaxing. However, I don't know where I'll even be, or if I will still be around to continue growing a garden. Or how long I will be around and I do know that I will not be able to take them with me. So, sometimes I feel like I am wasting time, resources and energy on something that will not bear fruit. (or vegetables. aha !) Here's a few pictures of what I have going and what has begun to sprout. It has only been a week since I have begun this project. 

So far I have started (on  1-17-12):

Mixed blend of lettuce - Sprouted and growing

Chives - just now (1-23-12) sprouting

Dill - no progress

Peas - sprouted 1-22-12

Pole Beans - sprouted 1-22-12

Red or Green Bell Peppers (from seed I saved last summer) - no progress

Unknown green fruit thingy (from seed I saved from found fruit)- no progress

Tomato (endless summer) - planted seed (1-23-12)

Potatos - (started from saved potatos that started sprouting.)- planted (1-22-12)

and a few pictures to show my work:

Peas

Lettuce

Pole Beans

My Garden ! aha !

It may not look like much at the moment, but I will move peas and beans to separate containers once they get a little bigger.The lettuce will get thinned out, etc. etc.

So, that's pretty much my update.


I have been researching and reading about Mandan/Hidatsa earth Lodges. More than likely will be my chosen, first choice of housing to build on some land, once I get some land. My original thought was to go with Long House, but I feel that an earth lodge is a very spiritual home/way to live. It's more practical, will be warmer and cooler, better and easier to insulate. Its round, like a medicine wheel. If you get a chance there is a very interesting book by Gilbert Wilson called buffalo Bird Womans Garden its a very interesting and informative book on the wisdom of native American gardening and Agriculture.

Mandan earth Lodge

 That pretty much sums up things for now.

Lost and Confused as Usual.
Peace
Bright Blessings
~~ Skooky Tramp

Medicine Card : Bear (introspection, within, protector)

Day 4 Medicine Card : Bear (Introspection, Within, Protector) As leader of the animal kingdom you must think things through clearly in order to make wise decisions. Be willing to go into the darkness to face your fears with the calm, gentle strength of Bear to emerge again into life. Show feelings through action, not empty words. Discrimination and Justice. Pull within for a vision.

Medicine Card: Bear

OTHER NEWS

If I had a place to put this to live in  it while it was being fixed up. I would so have called Dibs on this :
Alas, I don't currently have a place to park it. IT WAS FREE !!!

MORE OTHER NEWS

Working on more container planting. planted some sugar peas today. Working on setting up Composting. and other such gardening things.

Peace and Bright Blessings ~ Skooky Tramp

Medicine Card : Duck, and other things !

DAY 2 : Medicine card - DUCK: (Emotional Calmness, Protection, Family.) Water: Feminine. Duck teaches getting in touch with your deepest emotions in order to reach a calmer state. Duck is family oriented and enjoys companionship. When Duck appears it is time to return to your roots and spend time with your clan, tribe, family. They serve to you how to maneuver through various waters of life calmly and serenely.

OTHER THINGS:

I traded in some old gaming books (D&D and such) at the local Book Store, which is one of my favorite places to go. As I continue culling my collection and continue to work on building a well rounded library for research purposes and information that will be handy on starting a homestead and other esoteric information. I picked up:

The Complete Book Of Herbs by Lesley Bremness

Readers Digesr Family Guide to Natural Medicine

A Witches Book of Divination by Callia Underhill

A Cherokee Feast of Days - Daily Meditations by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Kids Places to Play - actually a book on building play houses and such for kids but has nice plans for small buildings to be used for bunk house, coops, sheds, etc. some pretty creative ideas that may be useful.

I made one of the recipes out of the Herb Book, Sweet Rosemary Bread: delicious !!!!!

 Simple, easy, readily available ingredients, nothing fancy but is definitely a recipe to make again, and again, and again. yum!!

Rosemary Sweet Bread !

Peace, Be Safe, Bright Blessings ~ Jeff

Animal Totems. Guides.Medicine Cards.Shaman-ism

Ism = Love of
Osophy = Belief or Doctrine, Study of

At least that is what I learned in college. I majored in Fine Arts (painting) but actually was more like a degree of Isms and Osophies, aka The Humanities. I pretty much took every Humanities class I could, and even tried some Independent Studies that weren't offered. Knowledge is Power!

So, lately I have been working on some new projects and research on all kinds of things. My latest project is once again more research and learning of Animal Totems, Guides, Spirits, etc. I have been reading CIRCLE OF SHAMAN by Karen Berggmen. Which has led me to an understanding of sorts of the way and why things have happened to me (in the past) that at the time I truly didn't understand. The signs and signals that were there that I totally failed to see or didn't realize what they were or why they were and what they were trying to teach me. It allowed me an opportunity to re examine my Self, these events and my actions, reactions to life at those points in time. Hopefully allowing me to learn from those experiences.

So I have been looking, researching all sorts of things related to animal totems and such. I have had a copy of ANIMAL SPEAK by Ted Andrews for a number of years now, it's top notch and anyone remotely interested in animal totems, guides etc. should definitely check it out.

In addition, he has written several other books, NATURE SPEAK, ANIMAL WISE, etc. do a search and you can find pretty much everything he has written about. TED ANDREWS

So reading this book I again came across the mention of MEDICINE CARDS, sort of a tarot deck but dealing with animal totems and guides. It comes with a book explaining all such things that might need to be known, the meanings of the cards, different types of reading spreads, medicine wheel information etc. etc. 

It is definetly worth looking into if you have a more serious interest in Animal Totems and Guides. I believe the newer edition comes with a set of 52 animal totem cards, where as the original came with 44 and 8 blank cards. Correct me if I am wrong on this. I am going on the information I found on the internet and we all know how reliable that can be. - not.

So, all this leads to a new project, I have decided to make my own set of medicine cards. Its a combination of information from the books mentioned. Handmade is always best, least for me anyways. They are basically playing card sized. So far I have a list of 60 some made up and as usual, there will always be room for more. Being where I am in North America, I'm not so sure I'll have a Koala Bear totem show up, or a dolphin or whale, but then again stranger things have happened. So starting today I have the artwork done for the first card I have drawn. Every day before sleep I plan on drawing a card to meditate on so that I can better learn the meanings of the animals and what they represent and how how I can apply this lesson to my life. The one key thing to remember:

"Important messages are often revealed over time"

 - Circle Of Shaman

So daily I will be drawing a single card to contemplate. I will also be drawing a weekly card to see how this affects my week. So most of my cards are blank, having only the name and brief meaning on the front and a detailed description written on the reverse side. I have them in card sleeves (the kind made for gaming cards) so they can be slid out and the back side read. 

Day 1: Vulture (Air) (Turkey Buzzard, Buzzard) - Elimination, Release. "Vulture teaches us to eliminate the things in our lives that are no longer productive or that do not promote our Highest good, or potential. (people, possessions, old hurts, out dated values, unproductive behavior). Vulture represents Purification, Death and Rebirth, New Vision. Vulture soars above the mundane(profane) into the spiritual (sacred)."

I don't have access to a scanner, so here is a picture I have taken of the first card, I will try to take pictures of the Totem Cards as I make them, draw them, use them, etc. I also have a pretty cool idea for making a medicine wheel board to do card readings on. More on this as it develops.

Peace, Be Safe, and Bright Blessings.

New Rune Sets, Projects and Updates

Some new bone Rune Sets coming soon. Deer Toe Necklaces, Hemp Bracelets, and Dream Catchers also in the works. Messing around with the idea of creating a Rune Set based on Sun Bears Medicine Wheel. Using the Animal Totems instead of the typical Futhark Runes. I believe it has potential.

   Still on the search for potential land sites. I have found a couple that have a lot of potential and are (relatively) affordable. Donations are now up to $20+. One day at a time. Slow and steady. All the money I make from the sale of artwork, paintings, things I make are going towards this project.

Peace