David Carson’s Notes from Turtle Island  are a series of blog posts introducing the north American continent as it was known by the ancient indigenous people who lived there.

As an introduction to visioning, the sacred tobacco plant should be mentioned. Tobacco has intelligence. It was and is used by medicine men and women to scan the body, the organs, and the energetic envelope containing the body. Hence the saying, ‘I have smoked you’.

The saying means I understand you on multiple levels.

Tobacco is a unique power plant and it is given as an offering to holy people and to the spirits. On Turtle Island, the North American continent, tobacco was used to some degree in most indigenous ceremonies. Tobacco has played a part in the unfolding of spiritual consciousness. Prayer and tobacco are synonymous. And today, not just in Native America, but shaman all over the world use tobacco as an integral part of their rites.

Many roads lead to vision. The best known perhaps is the vision quest. It has a long history on Turtle Island and no one knows how old the actual practice is. No one knows all its forms. Today the vision quest has emerged in various permutations in pop culture. But for the more or less traditional version of vision quest, seekers make a spiritual contract which usually lasts for one year.  This contract, once made, should not be violated.

One must find someone they trust, an elder or holy person to oversee the year-long process—a person of knowledge, an expert intercessor in the multiverse. The commitment of actual time spent in the vision quest circle can be from one to four days, usually without food or water. During the year preceding the vision quest a person spends time alone in stillness. They may attend ceremonies such as prayer meetings, sweat lodges or other rites.  With the assistance of a vision-quest leader the mind moves more and more toward spirituality and humility. The person who has pledged to do a vision quest will begin to simplify, eliminate distractions, distance from chaos and get closer to the earth.

Then one begins to collect supplies for their time in the wilderness, items such as sleeping gear, personal items and various spiritual objects. The materials taken are sparse, the things needed for survival and connection to spirit. Mole dirt is used to construct an altar and chokecherry sticks to make a pipe rack. The customary altar includes a sacred pipe, pipe tobacco and a lighter, and a so-called ‘spirit knife’ (some people use a flint knife or a home-made knife). Sage bundles, broadleaf cedar and braids of sweetgrass are burnt often during a vision quest. Chokecherry wands for yellow, red, black and white flags are positioned in the four directions. On a serious vision quest danger is an issue. A person must stay grounded in prayer. They are isolated in a circle for a period of time of up to four days. In the event of a personal threat of any nature the shrill sound of an eagle bone whistle is the signal for help to the individuals camped nearby.

A vision quest was once supported by the people and was considered to be a part of the fabric of tribal life. Four days before the vision quest a base camp is pitched and a fire keeper keeps a fire alive those days until the vision quest ceremony is over. Each morning there is a sweat lodge. For those four days before the vision quest, the vision seeker is moving out of the consensuses world and minimally engaged in ordinary reality—they are considered by everyone to be the property of the Holy Mystery—the Great Spirit.  Once the seeker leaves the last sweat lodge on the fourth day to go to their prepared vision circle, they are considered to be dead, meaning not of this earth. Upon their return to the camp, there is another sweat lodge ceremony. Leaving this lodge the visionary is said to be reborn into a new consciousness.

The vision space, the inner circle, belongs to the person seeking a vision. No one else comes into it. It is encircled by 405 different coloured tobacco prayer ties, signifying all plant spirits. The tobacco ties create a line which no one crosses. There is prayer for the length of time of the commitment. A transfiguring vision is the goal – a reclamation of the true self. It is an implosion of consciousness infusing life with meaning and purpose. One might find a guide, a guardian spirit or an animal or plant ally in a vision – in short, power.

The ceremony requires a great deal of effort. A person who pledges a vision quest has the responsibility for firewood, food and all the necessities of camp life. Not only that, but when the vision quest is completed a giveaway ceremony is held – a gifting to the vision-quest leader and all the helpers – the fire-keeper, cooks and so on. Gifts such as tobacco, blankets, coffee and various other utilitarian items are given. Once this is done there is rejoicing and a sumptuous celebratory feast.

Successful vision quests can change person’s life forever. If one simply goes into the wilderness alone for several days, this experience may alter their life. Add to this prayer, spiritual intent, fasting and synergy with a spiritual vision-quest leader and other vision-quest helpers, chances are a major breakthroughs will transpire.

As stated, there are many roads to vision. The use of plants such as psychoactive peyote, ayahuasca, san pedro cactus, amanita muscaria, sylvia, also known as ‘diviner’s sage’, tobacco and countless other power plants may be ingested to induce a visionary state. Yoga, combined with ancient breathing techniques can facilitate vision. Fasting, chanting, singing sacred songs, rocking, spinning, dancing – every form of ceremony can lift a person to vision.  A spiritual vision can come to you when you least expect it. And remember, a great vision is a great responsibility.

David Carson was raised in Oklahoma Indian Country and is of Choctaw descent. He is the author of How to find your spirit Animal, Crossing into Medicine Country: A Journey into Native American Healing and is co-creator of the bestselling Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power through the Ways of the Animals, which explains how to receive guidance from animals. See David Carson interview.

You can contact David Carson via e-mail at makingmedicine@gmail.com.

The medicine wheel and its teachings date back many thousands of years into prehistoric times. In tribal oral history there are myths and legends of the great wheel and the wheels within wheels. There are even stories of flying wheels – perhaps inner-dimensional – tales of otherworldly beings seeding Mother Earth. These beings can be clearly seen depicted in various ancient petroglyphs found throughout Turtle Island, the North American continent.

The medicine wheel consists of four points on a wheel, the four directions east, south, west and north. Each direction has many lessons. Some people have called the medicine wheel the ‘feng shui’ of Turtle Island. There is much taught today in both tribal and the prevailing cultures pertaining to the medicine wheel.

One way to look at the medicine wheel is as a progression of time, a day, a week, and a year. Everything is considered to be alive on the medicine wheel – mountains, rivers, the sun, the air, a rock. A thing seen inside the medicine wheel is seen from infinite perspectives. We ourselves and all of life are living medicine wheels.

Dawn breaks in the east and a new day is born. East then is the entrance to the sacred medicine wheel or medicine circle in many Native American cultures. East is the place of illumination. One can think of the east as the direction of the spouting of seeds, of springtime, of new life and promise. In human terms, east is the place of the infant. The usual emblematic colour of the east is yellow. The eagle, an emblem of spirituality, is often the totem of the east. Eagles fly in wide circles and so should we.

Going sunwise to the south, we find the place of innocence and trust on the sacred wheel. The south has been called a very ‘touchy-feely’ place. It is a place of green and growing things. It is the summertime of life, a place of the child. And the child must learn to fight their different battles so the south also holds warrior energy and medicine. The south is a place of substance, a place many people consider to be the ‘real’ world.  The usual colour of the south is red.  A mouse, touching everything with its whiskers, is most often the totem of the south. The mouse tells us to pay attention to little things – details.

Following the sacred wheel to the west, we find the place of introspection, a looks-within direction, a place of dreams and visions, a place of long shadows and nightfall. It is a place to seek your deepest truth, the place of the vision quest, of sacred dances, of sweat lodge and so on – technologies that free us from our artificial selves and bring us to the harmonies of the universe. And we are, after all, mirrors of each other. Black is the usual emblematic colour of the west. Hibernating animals such as snake and bear are seen to be the totem of the west. The bear and snake teach us about the great silence and the dreamtime.

Lastly, the north. In the north is the place of the elder, the man or woman of wisdom, having had a long life – people who have seen and dealt with most every kind of scenario, a person of deep understanding and spirituality. North is associated with the colour white and wintertime. It is also a place of cold and cutting intellect. Since an elder carries aspects of the entire medicine wheel, it is likely that unfeeling intellect is mitigated by compassion. Buffalo, sometimes a white buffalo, is thought to be the totem of the north on most medicine wheels. The buffalo teaches us about abundant living and gratitude.

Medicine wheels are cosmic in nature and pay attention to the celestial motions of the sun, moon and stars and other heavenly phenomena. When we follow the sunwise path around the medicine wheel we are following a natural progression of energy. When we go contrary around the medicine wheel, counter-clockwise, we go against a subtle current. Initiates, great magicians and energy jugglers—the great illuminated ones, so to speak, are spiritual masters who use these two energies to destroy our illusions, jar our harmonies and take us to new spiritual insights and understanding.

Elders teach there is a road going from the south to the north. This is the red road of spirit. They also teach there is a road going from the east to the west. This, they say, is the black road of decline and decay. Accordingly, we must stay on the good red road. These two roads, the black and the red, intersect where we are in each moment, in the centre of the wheel and we always have a choice as to which road we will take.

And as they say, ‘What goes around comes around’.

David Carson was raised in Oklahoma Indian Country and is of Choctaw descent. He is the author of How to find your spirit Animal, Crossing into Medicine Country: A Journey into Native American Healing and is co-creator of the bestselling Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power through the Ways of the Animals, which explains how to receive guidance from animals. See David Carson interview.

You can contact David Carson via e-mail at makingmedicine@gmail.com.

Somewhile after the Fourth World was created, the Creator and Creatrix told our earth to awaken. The animals, the people and the spirits emerged from where they had been living deep in the hollow inner earth. They came up through a hole in the ground. Unfortunately, the skeleton man and woman, the vengeful spirits of death, sneaked through hidden among all other creatures.

The Spirit Chiefs then set to work and gave every animal and human an inner drum, a powerful heartbeat within them. It is said that because of the heart there is no alienation, we are as one with no separation in this pulsating cosmos. The Great Chiefs were happy with their labours. They blew their breath and countless songs were carried inside the wind. It is often said that when the wind is up, if you listen very carefully you will hear spirit flutes playing.

The wolf packs were the first to hear the music. They began to emulate what they heard from the heart of the whistling wind. The wolves barked, yapped and yodeled. They howled with such deep emotion music was born. Ever after the wolves have gathered together on hillsides and on the prairies singing their mournful love songs to the luminous moon. Wolves are still heard singing in every season and clime.

Wolves were loudly singing that one night so long ago when the dance began. Various buffalo foraging about on the prairie turned their heads in the direction of the wolf serenade and begin to slowly approach the sound. One buffalo began to shiver, to twist a shoulder, just a little bit. Other buffalo did similar – not so much but a little bit this way and a little bit that way – the music moving through their great bodies caused this.

Wolves brought the first songs and buffalo brought the first dance. A certain buffalo put a hoof forward, digging it into the ground, a stomp, a clomp, a tap, each movement syncopated to the wolfsong melodies. Many buffalo joined in, moving a hoof forward, bringing it back—forward, bringing it back. The prairie teemed with dancing buffalo. They danced to the power songs, the medicine songs, the heart songs of the wolves. And so it began.

Not long afterward, all the animals began to dance and even insects, butterfly and ant. Then the human imitating the animals began to dance. Unfortunately, for one reason and another, the animals soon lost their trust in humans and today keep their dances a secret. The elders say that our attuned spiritual vision allows us a glimpse of their ceremonial magic. That is why elders are always saying, ‘Look. Open your eyes. Pay attention’.

Today, the lively buffalo dances continue to be danced by many plains tribes and by various pueblo dancers – usually with fewer than ten dance participants. Women wear dresses and men wear a kilt-like garment. Some dancers have a buffalo head covering or buffalo horns attached to a fur cap. Dancers typically shake a stiff leather-bulb rattle with their right hand and hold a long cane or a bow with arrows in their left hand.  During the buffalo dance there is drumming and traditional buffalo dance songs are sung. Buffalo were once critical to survival and are a spiritual icon. Generally speaking, the dance is danced for tribal prosperity.

Here are a couple of other important Native American dances. The Hopi do a snake dance in order to keep a good balance in nature so that crops will grow and there will be tribal harmony. They dance with live rattlesnakes and other snakes which are handled generously and without restraint during the celebration. The dances are no longer open to the public. Only tribal members can attend.

The sundance has had a great resurgence. There are many variations of the sundance in differing tribal cultures but certain elements are consistent. Typically, a dance arbour is built and a holy cottonwood tree is put up in the center of the dance circle. There can be any number of dancers, both men and women. It is a four day dance which begins each day at sunrise and lasts until sundown. There is little or no food and little or no water allowed. The dance is gruelling, a sacrifice. Usually men pierce and pull away from the tree. Women often give flesh or have eagle quill-feathers inserted in the flesh of their arms to be pulled out days later by an elder. The sun dance has various components but its essence is renewal, a restoration of the creative powers of the universe. The dance becomes a prayer so that life can continue and the people can live.

There are too many dances in Native America to name: jingle dances, gourd dances, stomp dances, war dances, medicine dances, hoop dances, feather dances, rain dances, grass dances, fancy dancing and numerous others. Additionally, a whole host of animal dances are held each year such as eagle dances, bear dances, deer dances to name a few of the prominent ones. Much is understandably still hidden but much is also open to the public. Even ghost dances are held but they are extremely controversial. The U.S. Government was afraid of the power of this dance with terrible consequences to Native America, there was cultural suppression and religious dancing was technically outlawed until the 1960s.

Yet dances are magical. Dance grounds are a sacred space, portals into numinous states of being. Dances can heal, shift energies and put one in touch with undying love from the universe, a transcendent bliss. Sacred dances have been held on Turtle Island for untold centuries. Dances are celebrations, prayer and sacrifice offered for the benefit of suffering humanity and future generations. There is so much that could be said about the dances on Turtle Island but in the end the significance of the dances rests with individual dancers. Dances are as much internal as external. Dancing is act of personal power.

David Carson’s Notes from Turtle Island  are a series of blog posts introducing the north American continent as it was known by the ancient indigenous people who lived there.

The pop artist Andy Warhol once said he was lost and didn’t know what to paint. He asked a friend who told him to paint what he loved. Warhol painted money.

I personally love food so that’s what I am going to write about -namely the food of Turtle Island, the North American continent as it was called by the first people who lived here. Many foods unknown in Europe were brought there from Turtle Island also called the New World. On Turtle Island there was a great abundance of wild animals. The turkey was domesticated here and the prairies teemed with buffalo (bison) in the millions. The rivers and lakes swarmed with fish. The indigenous people of the Americus far outnumbered the population of Europe at the time of the arrival of Columbus.

The three main agricultural crops on Turtle Island were known as the three sisters because they were usually found growing together. These three sisters are maize (corn), beans and squash and they were the best known of the cultivated staples.  They were planted in such a way that they provided synergistic protection and support for one another. The bean runners climbed up the tall maize stalks while the squash spread out on the ground near the stalks. The inseparable three sisters thrived in this inter-planting practice of the ancestors for thousands of years and are still grown by native peoples in this ancient traditional way.  When served together they are a nutritional tour de force.

Maize was much different than that offered by today’s agribusiness.  Fortunately, foods were not genetically altered until fairly recent historical times.  The maize grew in many colors—blue, yellow, white, red and even in a checkerboard of the basic colors.  Maize was easy to dry and store for the cold winter months.  The kernels could be ground into flour and made into a variety of cornbreads.  Soaking dried maize in lime water produced hominy. Even today there are many maize ceremonies centered on the sacredness of this plant—the green corn festivals. The use of sacred pollen for blessing is not unusual.

To name some of the indigenous foods found on Turtle Island, there was wild Indian rice, potato, maize, blueberries, cranberries, squash, beans, pumpkin, bell pepper, vanilla, pecan, peanut, cashew, pineapple, sunflower, tomato, avocado and other foods which were native. These food crops were taken to other parts of the world by travelers, explorers and conquerors.

For instance, the tomato. Where would the cuisine of Italy and Spain be without the tomato? Tomato was also known as the love apple because it was thought to spike the libido. Many other people thought the tomato was poisonous.  Tomatoes didn’t catch on in Europe until the early 1800s.  Now the tomato is popular the world over–bon appetite.

Here’s another, the potato. Potatoes, the world’s fourth largest food crop, originated in the Andes Mountains of South America. The Inca Indians first cultivated potatoes around 7,000 BC. Spanish and English explorers brought potatoes to Europe from the New World. Potatoes were soon grown in Ireland and Scotland. From there, the potato was introduced to various other countries.  Next time you eat your crisps or sip from your bowl of potage, take a moment to reflect upon the humble planters of the Americus who gave this gift to the world. Besides the potato, the native crop plants amaranth, quinoa and maize add substance to soup.

For desert, maple syrup, maple sugar and tapioca came from the New World. A steaming bowl of hot chocolate (cacao) spiked with a smidgeon of red chili pepper was a not-unheard-of treat.  After supper you could retire into the study and fire up a big cigar. Tobacco originated here too.

Eating practices and cooking methods varied greatly on Turtle Island and there were wholly distinct tribal cuisines. Food was and is sacred in Native America. Food is the alchemy connecting us to the earth, air, fire and water—to our physicality and wholeness. The necessity of food is something we share with all sentient life.

During a typical feast in Native America, a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving is said and our many blessings are acknowledged: the mountains, the prairies, the trees, rivers, seas, all the animals, individuals, family, clans, nations, the entire planet and even the stars above us are remembered in prayer. We are the locus of a cosmos, each one of us.  Before we begin eating, food is set aside for the spirits.  A demi-meal, called a spirit plate is taken outside and left on an altar or near a tree, an offering to the good medicine spirits existing in etheric planes.

When we look down at the food on our own plate we recognize the sacrifice of life giving to life. We thank the plants and animals for their sacred give-away to us. Food becomes a celebration of life and who we are as a people. The grandmother and grandfather of all spirits are surely with us in our gratitude and conscious eating. Appreciation and awareness are the essence of every established harvest ceremony and the true meaning of thanksgiving.

Mealtime Prayer

Oh Great and Mysterious Power

Mindful of the give-away

Of wondrous creatures,

The fish, the birds, the animals

The nourishing plant beings

We thank this good medicine food

For giving us life.

Let our food create within us

A wholeness and a fullness of spirit

So that we see and walk our pathway.

Holding to life and goodness

We are yours.  Ah ho.

 

The North American continent was known as the Great Turtle Island by the ancient indigenous people who lived here. All the land, the mountains, the rivers—the beauty, was carried on the back of Mother Turtle.  And so are we, her children, all the animals, the flyers, the fish, the four-legged and the two-legged and we are all here together.  We are all related.

The Native storytellers tell this tale. First, the world was dark water and it swirled around and around.  Then there were people.  They lived in the sky world assisted by the bird tribes who held them up.  In this high-up world a young woman became sick.  The doctor, the shaman, could do nothing to help her.  That night the shaman had a mysterious dream and he related it to all the people who lived in the sky world.  They put the young woman next to the sacred tree which was the source of all life.  Following the instructions of the dream, the tree was dug up and it quickly dried up and died.

A warrior saw what had been done to the sacred tree.  He became very angry.  He said, “You fools, you have destroyed the source of our blessings.  You have done an injustice to us all.” The warrior kicked the sick woman through the hole where they had dug up the tree. The woman plummeted downward, tumbling this way and that–over and over again. Birds from the eagle tribe saw her falling and came to her rescue.  Swooping underneath her, many eagles caught her easily. But she was heavy. The birds soon tired.  The eagles made a cry, “Who will care for this poor woman?” Turtle answered that she would.  And she did but she soon got tired of the job too. She cried out, “What can be done for this poor woman?”
The creatures that lived in and on the water heard the turtle and hatched a plan to save her.  Mud was brought up from the bottom of the ocean and placed on the turtle’s back and spread out and around.  The sea creatures worked hard until there was a large enough area for the woman to live upon. Slowly, she healed. She built a house, planted a garden and raised a large family. The enthusiastic water creatures continued to bring up earth.  Soon there was enough and a great island emerged from the depths. This was Turtle Island.

Turtle Island was a good medicine place. But the humans did not know yet how to live.  The animals came to teach them and show them a worthwhile way of life.  Each animal shared talents and skills. People followed different animals. The animal clans were born. Every animal had a clan, for instance, the wolf clan. With the wolf, the teaching lodges were built and the memories, traditions and ceremonies were passed to succeeding generations.  The wolf taught medicine songs, warrior and hunting skills, power dances and loyalty to the pack. Then there were the buffalo clans.  The buffalo taught a new spiritual way, a way of selflessness, a way of reverence, prayer and plenty. The bear clans were the dreaming clans. They taught about personal empowerment and were visionaries. Bear clan people were great trackers, warriors, shaman and healers.

There were soon families, clans, nations.  Of course the first clans were the turtle clans and they taught about respecting and protecting the sacred earth and all of life. The turtle goes one step at a time.  Slow and steady the turtle works for the environment.  They instill an appreciation for all the gifts of our mother planet.  They appreciate the simple splendor of plants, rocks and springs. The turtle path, they say, is the way to true peace and prosperity.  It is often said that following turtle teachings will lead us out of divisiveness and into a new world of loving concord.  Turtles, they say, hold the responsibility for our future.
Turtle Island has been renamed and cut up into parcels with set boundaries and our Mother has been desecrated in many ways. According to Native American stories the weight on Mother Turtle’s back is getting heavier and heavier and the people are starting to become unbalanced, falling from our mother and perishing. Turtle teaches us that we are here as caretakers of the sacred earth and we must learn to live in harmony with all that is.  We must tread lightly upon Mother Turtle’s back—so it is said.

David Carson was raised in Oklahoma Indian Country and is of Choctaw descent. He is the author of How to find your spirit Animal, Crossing into Medicine Country: A Journey into Native American Healing and is co-creator of the bestselling Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power through the Ways of the Animals, which explains how to receive guidance from animals.