You feel her under your feet.
You enter her realm through the roots
of the tree that knows you.
She is endlessly nurturing, fertile and abundant.
She will nurse you and heal you as she cares for her cubs.
You can call on her blessing at any time,
once you have found the courage to enter her embrace.
You enter her realm through the roots
of the tree that knows you.
She is endlessly nurturing, fertile and abundant.
She will nurse you and heal you as she cares for her cubs.
You can call on her blessing at any time,
once you have found the courage to enter her embrace.
She calms the mad warrior in men.
She strips the berserkers of old skins.
Serve her, and you join the army of the Great Mother
whose purpose is to protect, not destroy.
She will defend you, even from yourself.
When you call back your lost children,
she will hold you together in her vast embrace
until you are one, and whole.
When you reach across the jagged rifts in your family
to forgive and make well, you feel her rolling pleasure.
Art by Tracy Cunningham. In author's collection.
8 comments:
Your poem brings me to tears as I think about all of the meaning it holds for me. I've had recurring dreams where I am fearful of a bear or bears that appear in them. In a dream I had in June 2016, I was sitting high up in a tree trying to hide from a bear down below. I was full of fear and was hoping it would go away. It eventually walked away though I still didn't feel safe. Then, all of a sudden, the bear was sniffing the bottom of one of my shoes that was dangling from the tree. I freaked out and climbed even higher in the tree. I wondered how I would ever get down and if I would die from jumping out of the tree or by being killed by the bear. I know that this dream holds profound messages for me that I continue to ponder.
I would like to share that in life, I actually have a profound connection to a place in nature in my hometown of Sioux Falls, SD that is called Great Bear. It's a snow skiing resort, but it also is a place that has beautiful hiking trails which just so happen to be named after my grandparents. Only a few years ago, I learned (by way of synchronicity) that my Grandpa Ralph had donated money to Great Bear to help preserve these nature trails. I was blown away to learn this. I had no idea because nobody in my family talked about these nature trails. It felt like discovering treasure. Also, I was not aware of the power of the symbolism and meaning of the Great Bear until reading your blog a couple years ago, Robert. I'm overwhelmed by the gifts in all of this. I know that my spirit is need of a lot of healing and I'm grateful that synchronicity led me to discover shamanism so that I may learn how to heal my heart and spirit. I have healed some but I know that I have so much more to heal inside myself. Obviously, I need to stop running away from the bears that appear to me in my dreams. Interestingly, I actually begin my "journeys" by sitting on a bench at Great Bear, and then I walk on a trail, across a bridge, to a tree where I enter the Lower World. I feel incredibly lucky to have this connection to Great Bear and I'm looking forward to deepening my connection even more.
Dear Sarah, I'm moved by your beautiful message. Wonderful that you have that special family place in nature with the perfect name.
I've come to know Bear as a great healer and protector for myself and others. In order to claim those gifts, I had to step through my own fear after a giant Bear appeared again and again in my space in dreams. When I found the courage to go back inside one of those dreams, in conscious dream reentry (one of the core techniques I teach) Bear showed me that we are joined at the heart and promised that he would show me what is needed for healing myself and others - a promise that has been kept over many years.
You may want to consider joining us for my new seven-week online course for The Shift Network, titled "Dancing with the Bear: Discover Mind-Body-Spirit Healing through Dreaming and Imagination." Classes start March 7 and there is a free intro call on Feb 25.
I'm not sure where to begin -- thirty years ago, newly married, we moved from the LA area to our own raw land in the forest in northeastern Washington State. The first night we visited our land to make sure we wanted to finalize the purchase, over a year before we moved here, we put a chicken to roast in the camper oven and went for a walk. When we returned, the camper was circled by many bear tracks, but nothing had been harmed. We ate dinner with our pistols on the table next to the forks. That night we named our new paradise "Bear Meadows Farm," a name that has lasted and eventually became our legal address. Little did we know then.
Now, all these years later, I cherish the black bears that lived here long before us, swimming back and forth across the river between us and what is now the Spokane Indian Reservation. Mother Bear has a large cave at the base of the volcanic rock hills at our north end, where she nurtures her newborns during our long winters. She often has twins. We live together on this land in peace, and only twice have the bears felt the need to find food from our dumpster. There is usually plenty to eat here, on our fifty acres that we have kept mostly pristine. Years ago I had a close encounter with a young male on our porch, and chased him off before I realized he wasn't the big black neighbor dog.
When we moved out of our trailer into the new house we were finally able to build, many years later, the contractor was putting in the trench for the state-of-the-art septic system, a long path to the north. As soon as he had finished, but before the pipes had been laid and the trench filled in, we found huge bear tracks the entire length of the excavation, going in both directions, and felt that the father bear had blessed our new home.
I believe I am blessed and chosen by the bears -- almost fifty years ago, I drove alone into the back country of the High Sierra gold country in my four-wheel drive, and ate my picnic lunch in the midst of a wonderful wildflower meadow which contained many deposits of what I then believed were cow plops. Only when I returned to my parents' home and described where I had been did they start to laugh and tell me that no, not cow plops, bear plops, and probably Grizzlies, you silly girl. I suppose I'm lucky to be alive, but I think they protected me and were happy to share their meadow that beautiful afternoon.
I wake each morning to my cherished plush bears looking down from their place on my bookshelves, and bears populate my dreams in many ways, always beneficial. In other words, I am a true believer. Thank you for your beautiful poem. I would attach a bear photo from our back yard, but cannot in this format. Oh, well.
Robert,
Thank you for responding to my comment. I do feel the Great Bear's presence in my life and dreams as an invitation and gift that I would like to now accept more fully. I do plan to join your Dancing with the Bear online class. It sounds perfect for where I'm at in my life and in myself at this time. I feel poised for healing and feel more ready to brave up than I have in awhile. The synchronicities I've been experiencing lately have been so magical and they have been sparked by your books and other sources of wisdom that I have exposed myself too recently. I'm grateful to you for revealing more doorways to magic.
Judy,
You are so lucky to share your home with bears. Can't even imagine! I imagine the land to be so beautiful. It definitely sounds like you are in a beautiful relationship with them. What a gift!
SarahMay -- Thank you for your sweet response. I sense that you are young, and wish you all the best in your quest for expanded consciousness. Be very careful to whom you listen, and always believe your inner voice. No one is in the same place as you are, and no one can know the best for you -- you must decide that for yourself.
We live here not only with our bears, but with mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, moose, cougars, bobcats, coyotes, eagles, owls, vultures, miniature rabbits (endangered), small green boa constrictors (endangered), rattle snakes (tiny compared to what we were used to in So. Calif.), and an entire huge murder of crows/ravens. Not to mention our pets -- two horses who were born here, our dog, and two outdoor mouse-hunting cats. Every spring, the swallows come back to have their babies here and teach them to fly back south in the Fall, and the hummingbirds show up as soon as it begins to get warm around April, have their babies (and cost us a lot of money in sugar all summer filling the feeders), then return south when it gets cold. It is paradise (if you don't mind twelve feet of snow for awhile), and constantly feeds my soul and fills my dreams.
Sweet dreams,
Judy
Judy,
I do feel quite young though I have revolved around the sun 36 times already. Though I have experienced a lot spiritually, I know I still have a lot of growing up to do. The land you call home sounds like total paradise compared to where I live. I live very close to an airport, so it's not very peaceful. However, overall I love where I live because there are a lot of nature areas where I can walk. I only wish I could see as many animals as you have on your land. I'm hoping to see a hummingbird this summer. I saw my first coyote last January at a park where I was walking just outside of town and we wound up both running away from each other. Quite humorous!! I didn't know what it was at first. All I knew is that it was a wild animal that kind of looked like a dog and a wolf. I think my encounter with Coyote was sending me a message that I would be in for a wild ride in 2017. And oh yes, it certainly was a wild roller coaster ride! Thankfully, my humor is still intact. I'm grateful for my sense of humor because it helps me with discernment. I try to be like the tarot Fool and not a bloody fool.
I am glad I found you and I am so very excited to read everything I can from you. I have had hundreds and hundreds of dreams of being chased by a bear. Mostly indoors where we go through doors, rooms, almost everywhere. I have googled for some meaning to this to no avail. Looking forward to learning from you!
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