EAGLE + MEDICINE + POEM

DETAILS: The Bald Eagle feather is fastened with a bone and a clasp, with length of 21 cm. The hand painted, storage box size is 20,5 x 5 x 4 cm with total weight of about 60 gr. The box is inlayed with faux fur and it was polished with pine tar and anointed with holy oil.

 

“The whole wide ether is the eagle’s way: The whole earth is a brave man’s fatherland.” – Euripedes

HOLY BIRDS

1. Eagle, falcon and condor.

Falcon, inherited from his grandfather Kronos / Ra, subspecies Falcon Subbuteo (Falco Subbuteo) – in black and white plumage. Eagle – [H] or-El, or “God Chorus”. Condor – Ka-On-D-Or, reads “God [H] or, son of the sun”. These royal birds have adorned and adorn the coats of arms of noble families, but also the coats of arms and flags of some countries.

In the double temple of Seth and Horus in Kom Ombo, Egypt, Horus is called Heru. This is no coincidence: in the mysteries conducted here, Heru is “the one who lives above” and the crocodile Sobek (Seth) is “the one who lives below”. / El. Alexandrova-Zangelmi. Seikim – ancient Egyptian system for harmonization and healing of body and soul.

We note that in the Old Bulgarian language there is the word gerak, which means “falcon” – one of the sacred and royal birds of Dionysus / Chorus. The word is identical in the Thracian-Greek language: γερακι (geraki) – “falcon”. Derivatives are: γερμα (germa) with the meanings “tilting”, “bending”, “sunset”; γεραςο (geraso) – “getting old”; γεραιος (geraios) – “old”, “honorable”, “respected”; γεραματα (gerama) – “antiquities”; γεροντας (gerontas) – “old”; γερουςια (gerusia) – “council of elders”; γερος (hero) – “healthy”, “strong”.

The Egyptian Heru and Seth are antipode gods in antipode kingdoms: Upper and Lower Egypt. In the war between them, Chorus defeats Seth and becomes Heru, Heros, Hero, Heracles. According to Herodotus in Egypt, the anthroponym Heracles – “the first Heracles” – was a nickname of the god Horus (see below). Let us also remember the Thracian hero – the symbolic image of the god Dionysus.

NATIVE AMERICAN BIRD MEDICINE

Traditional Native Americans have considered birds their allies for at least ten thousand years. Birds bring many blessings and play many roles in the life of indigenous people. They are messengers, healers, communicators, guardians, life changers, teachers, meteorologists, musicians, storytellers, role models, and more.

Bird Medicine is a worldwide tradition that finds its most beautiful and sincere expression in Native American culture. Still free of formalism and formulas, without pomp or platitudes, this tradition continues today within Native American culture as a joyous, spontaneous exploration of the bond connecting what we call nature, what we call God, and what we call ourselves. In fact it is the place where the three merge and become one force, one spirit. It is one area of earthly physical reality that is still completely untamed and unharnessed and blissfully unfathomable to the human mind.

As long as we don’t kill the messengers by destroying their habitats, we should be able to rely on receiving these messages from beyond the blue horizon for eons to come. But perhaps that is asking for a miracle beyond what even birds can offer.

THE BIRDS OF THE FOUR DIRECTIONS

In the larger Medicine Wheel of all the animals, all the birds are in the South, presided over by a grandfather and grandmother eagle. They are associated in that wheel with the element of air and the quality of wisdom, or “thinking big thoughts” (un-kee-das-see-wach’n in Mi’kmaq), which they and their feathers embody. Fire is to the East, water to the West, and earth to the North. But air is to the South of that wheel. The air element is associated not only with wisdom, but with thought, speech, and communication in general. Birds embody these powers. It is the direction of messengers, and to the Mi’kmaq, most birds arrive from the South in the springtime, bringing messages for the coming year. So there are wheels in each of the four directions of the larger one, and perhaps others we don’t know about.

According to Robert Young Eagle, an elder member of the Setalcott Nation of Setauket, New York, one of the thirteen Matouac nations of Long Island, there are four sacred birds that are associated among his people with the four cardinal directions of the Medicine Wheel. These are eagle, hawk, crow, and owl. The eagle is in the North, the hawk is in the East, the raven (or crow) is in the South, and the owl is in the West. According to this teaching, these four powerful gatekeepers look after the other birds.¹ The four gatekeepers, the eagle, hawk, raven, and owl, are not the only birds to which Natives look for signs by any means, but they are all strong birds and can be our protectors in various ways.

E N E R G E T I C S

☾ Eagle feather symbolism ( A Lumbee Story )

The creature most loved by the Great Spirit was the eagle, for he tells the story of life. The Eagle, as you know, has only two eggs, and all living things in the world are divided into two. Here is man and woman, male and female and this is true with animals, birds, trees, flowers and so on. All things have children of two kinds so that life may continue. Man has two eyes, two hands, two feet and he has a body and soul, substance and shadow.

Through his eyes, he sees pleasant and unpleasant scenes, through his nostrils he smells good and bad odors, with his ears he hears joyful news and words that make him sad. His mind is divided between good and evil. His right hand he may often use for evil, such as war or striking a person in anger. But his left hand, which is near his heart, is always full of kindness. His right foot may lead him in the wrong path, but his left foot always leads him the right way, and so it goes; he has daylight and darkness, summer and winter, peace and war, and life and death.

☾ Medicine Wheel

The ancestors of the Plains Indians left behind hundreds of stone circles, often laid out like the spokes of a wheel around a central cairn, or pile of rocks, and with other cairns placed at intervals around them. Archaeologists now believe that these medicine wheels, as they are called, helped Native Americans follow the progress of the year by charting the movement of the Sun and stars. Medicine wheels are associated with spirit forces, and the land on which they lie is sacred. Sacrifices and sacred items were often left within them.

☾ Sky Spirits

Many people shared the belief that the Milky Way, the broad band of faint light that can be seen in the night sky, was a“path of souls” to which people went after death. The Luiseño of California explain that the First People went to the sky when their work on Earth was done, taking their families with them and becoming star people. The Navajo think of stars as “friendly beings” because they lighten the night sky and also because the stars help them tell time and mark the seasons. According to Pawnee creation stories, their tribe is descended from the Morning Star. The Pawnee settled on the banks of the Loup, Platte, and Republican Rivers in Nebraska. In their tales Morning Star overcame the others and directed them to stand in their appointed places. Morning Star wed Evening Star, and their daughter traveled to Earth, where she married the child of the Sun and the Moon. From this union came the Pawnee people.

Everything in the world is inhabited by spirits, which can be grouped into several different kinds: The sky beings, such as star gods, the Sun, and the Moon. Spirits of the atmosphere, such as the four winds, whirlwinds, rain, and Thunder bird, a huge bird—perhaps like an eagle—whose flapping wings create thunder and whose flashing eyes create lightning. The rulers of animals and plants, such as Buffalo Spirit or Corn Spirit; also those connected with natural places such as mountains, waterfalls, and the sea. The powers of the underworld, such as Mother or Grandmother Earth, snakes and cougars, and the ruler of the dead. But birds an essential part of Native American spirituality.

Eugene Blackbear Sr., a noted Cheyenne arrow priest, says that many birds are sacred, including geese. “We respect our birds!” he says and adds, “People should respect nature, themselves, and their children.” He confirmed emphatically that living birds were sacred to the Cheyenne and that eagle feathers play a role in the restoring arrow ceremonies. He said that different nations from the East, West, and Great Plains have different traditions, but they respect each other, including each other’s bird traditions. According to Etaoqua, a Mohican woman, the Mohicans tend not to attribute as much special significance to the eagle as do most other nations but have an affinity to the hawk, which in a way serves to confirm what Blackbear has said: You can’t lump all Indians together.

☾ Birds and Burial Rites

We find that early human burials in the Levant (today’s Israel, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon), Cyprus, and in an early North American burial in Texas are united by a focus on birds that is strange to us, but logical given their close proximity to human activity and the sense of awe and wonder they still inspire.

The inhabitants of the West Indies in the Caribbean are quite familiar with the idea of spiritual flight and go to great lengths to make the human-avian connection. Eliade writes, “For instance, Laborde reported that the masters ‘also rub his (the neophyte’s) body with gum and cover it with feathers to make him able to fly and go to the house of the zemeen (spirits).’” Eliade notes that the birdlike costume and other symbols of magical flight are an integral part of Siberian, North American, and Indonesian shamanism.

As many societies believe the soul leaves through the mouth, it can be rightfully suggested that these ancient burials with a bird propped in the mouth of the deceased (or bird bones in mouth bones as we see now) were meant to ritually amplify the prayer that the person’s soul would not be trapped on Earth but would transcend to the highest realms.

It is a natural comparison; a belief in winged angels dates back beyond the earliest known cuneiform writings from Sumeria, and wings are a feature that is exclusive to birds, bats, and insects—not humans. Over time, most societies became earthbound and materialistic and turned away from bird spirituality, with exceptions like St. Francis of Assisi and Leonard da Vinci, who, like the legendary Icarus, wanted wings to fly like a bird. But countless traditional Native Americans I have spoken to, and most modern medicine man.

WORDS OF THE EAGLE.

Greeting, my child! Thanks, my child! Your younger brother down you did not throw, Donikí.

SONG OF THE EAGLES.—A SONG OF THE BEAD CHANT.

I.
Kinnakíye
there he sits,
When he rises,
there he sits,
We shall see,
there he sits,
He will flap,
there he sits.
an an.

Kinnakíye = Kinníki

Prayer from the “Seven Fires Prayers” (Commanda spoke at The Cry of the Earth conference at the United Nations in 1993)

☾ To Save All Bird Life (Large and Small)

We pray that our birds may still survive, for they too are suffering due to air pollution and earth damages of wood, berries, and other food supplies that they rely on to survive. The water pollution does not help matters any for our bird relations. They are being poisoned by these types of harm. We as people believe that when our bird relations are extinct, that all life will cease to exist.

EXPAND. FORESEE. CREATE.

🦋 Onça’s aim is to revive this sacred tradition, with symbolism for revival and regeneration, instead of judgment and punishment. The understanding of the cyclical power of Life and to show gratitude towards it, because without the seasons, our Earth would have been a very different place. Thanks to this story of transformation struggle, which blooms into fruitful harvest, we humans have existed. The wisdom here is to never forget how important for us is this balance of light and dark, summer and winter, sweet and sour.

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+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Jarow for OnçaRitualOfferings series are reclaimed, recycled and repurposed.