A Shamanic Practitioner’s Teachings from Spirit
Buffalo Winds & Mother Earth’s Teaching
~Gwendolyn C. Natusch, B.S.Ed., M.Ed., MSW
Journey Date June 2016
As is the way in the Buffalo Winds I journey in my sacred way, the way that my heart has evolved within me that honors those who lead the way in the spirit realm and who have so generously and lovingly taught me and guided me for almost 3 decades now. Chief Wind in His Shoes appeared to me a year ago in a spontaneous journey that came at the sound of a Native American flute being played. I was actually in the middle of teaching a class on a shamanic divination technique. It was a simple and quick journey, but a journey that opened a door to a fruitful and loving relationship and message. The message travels on the Buffalo Winds which are the teachings from our ancestors who knew the ways to be in tune and at one with nature and the whole. Chief Wind in His Shoes comes to welcome us home again and invites us to step onto the web of life again with full understanding of what this means for us personally, for man as a species and for the teachings we need to be in proper relationship with nature, plants, animals and Mother Earth herself. This is his intention and this is his prayer for us now at this time. The ancients looked forward and man in modernity looks backwards and in this stance we are gazing at each other and we have much to share.
The journey begins and I move back in time, over the same familiar path to Chief that I have traveled to hear the teachings offered in order to practice myself and to share with others. I find Chief in the crevice of the butte, high on the side of the red rock in Sedona, AZ. We sit by the fire and our faces are drenched with fire light and the night sky is wide and full of stars around us. I watch his face and I see his eyes flicker and look at something behind me. I turn, and there behind me I see Mother Earth. This beautiful being is comprised of earth toned gown, roughly honed leather shoes and beads made of shells and stones and sticks. She is so very unassuming and so grounded and earthy. I turned to her and look into her deep, dark brown eyes. She speaks to me as a daughter and responds to the intention in my heart and my query of how I can assist in bringing the Buffalo Winds to the world. She tells me that I must go into nature and find organic materials there; something that has fallen from a tree or lays on the ground. Something that will not be destroyed by the removal of it. If you pick up a stone, ask permission of the stone for their contribution. If you choose a fallen branch or stick, ask permission of the tree for the contribution. For each item you pick up give thanks for its beauty, its purpose, and respect the essence that lives within each object. This is what Mother Earth invites from us. To know and to now experience the vital essence in everything we encounter in the natural world and to begin to interact with this essence. This is the way of stepping into the web of life. To begin to be in relationship with nature and to begin to dispel the idea and belief that we are separate for we are not separate we have simply forgotten. It is now time to remember and to begin to walk in awareness and experience all of the spirit essence that is everywhere around us.
Mother Earth asks me to bring the objects home and to create something with these organic items. This creative endeavor will result in a created object that will connect you with the natural world. Mother Earth asks you to be creative, contemplative and connected by making something and displaying it in your home or on your sacred table top or alter. This object will contain the energy of your experience with the voices of the earth. The voice and essence of the tree whose broken branch was given to you as a contribution, the voice and essence of the rock who agreed to contribute to your intention and the shell whose voice assured you that it too agrees to work with you in this creation and intention of experiencing the connection between you and the living essences all around you.
To display the item you make in your home is to give honor, love and recognition of Mother Earth’s role in your life, in your physical nourishment, and her contribution to your physical wellbeing.
This is the whole of the experience. A gentle teaching message from Mother Earth as an invitation to commune with nature in these small and specific ways and to apply creative effort into making something uniquely yours that contains memories of these dialogues with the living energies found everywhere in Mother Earth.
Ideas for your creation
- You might want to write in your journal about the listening and hearing from the tree or the stone or the water or the clouds or whatever energy or vital essence you were in dialogue with on your trip(s) in nature to find your items to create something unique with. You might even be inspired from this or these experiences to write a poem or song or quote to include on, in or next to your art as a part of the piece.
- Some pictures of organic craft ideas to inspire you: