November: Native AMERICAN HERITAGE Month

  Welcome to November: National Native American Heritage Month

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.

Beginning tomorrow, and weekly thereafter throughout the month, my Diverse Advisory Council member, Song Bird Grand Mother, will be guest posting in regard to the beliefs, practices, and sacred rituals of our Native American Ancestors and current brother and sister descendants.

20% of all proceeds for the month of November will be donated to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved. Their mission: Crossing Worlds Hopi Projects supports Hopi sustainability and self-empowerment and provides cross-cultural learning opportunities for all peoples.

Song Bird Grand Mother is a Modern-Day Medicine Woman and Shamanic Teacher. Born with an antenna tuned into the spiritual world and follows the ways of her ancestors who were Korean, Dine, and Toltec.

Having the great privilege to study with great teachers and masters of her lineages, she is a bridge between East and West; Spirit and Material; ancient and modern. She facilitates private and group healing ceremonies to help alleviate suffering, find solutions to problems, cultivate kindness & compassion, clear negative forces, and gain more wisdom.

Her specialties include Ancestral Healing, Business Consultation, Relationship Counseling, Career growth, Psychic Mediumship, & Expansion.

Song Bird is also a scholar and has a BA in Psychology, and a Masters of Humanities in Ancient Philosophy and Religion.

With over 20 years in the healing arts, she has traveled the world sharing sacred messages and transformational healing.

You can find Song Bird Grand Mother at the following links:

songbirdgrandmother.com
https://beacons.ai/songbirdgrandmother

Please help me welcome her aboard the council in deep gratitude and appreciation for her service.
 

  Remember that 20% of your purchase goes toward Crossing Worlds Hopi Project this month. This organization provides year-round support for Hopi families. We also encourage you to donate directly, and close to the area, become personally involved. 

Remember, your preserving ancient traditions and knowledge of our First Nations People. 

Hopi Holiday Project since 1999

This Hopi Holiday Project gifting is from a place of respect and thanks acknowledging the challenges of living on an Indian reservation in remote Northeastern Arizona far from the economic resources of urban America. Hopi people sincerely carry on a tradition with roots going back thousands of years that is of importance to all the world and is dedicated to all peoples with Mother Earth.

• In support of ceremonies: cases of produce, bowls, dishes, tables, chairs

• Donations, drive your truck to haul supplies, come provide your construction skills for repairs to homes and construction of traditional bread ovens, piki houses, etc.

• Food–we focus on staple, nutritious supplies such as beans, nuts, fresh produce, eggs, meat, cheese

• Toiletries of all kinds especially toothbrushes and toothpaste; also: shampoo, conditioners, combs, and other hygiene supplies.

• Children’s gifts:

sport items such as basketballs, soccer balls, baseballs, Frisbee, kites; art (acrylic paints and brushes, crayons, colored pencils, drawing pads, color books) and school supplies, sports items, hair ties, learning games

• Household items:

sets of mixing bowls, covered containers, pots, pans, dish towels, bath towels and wash clothes, single and double bed sheets, blankets, aprons

• New Clothing:

kids' socks, sweatshirts and pants, sweaters, shirts, etc.– all sizes

adults' sweatshirts, jackets, sweatpants, etc.

Thank you for making a difference and enabling this business to contribute through your support. 

 Thank you for supporting our efforts to bring education and awareness to Native American Heritage Month. The United States of America is a country that needs to heal her past in order to move more productively and favorably into her future. 

Such healing needs to begin with an act of asking forgiveness from the ancestors of the remaining Native American tribes of this nation. And while there are many tribes who suffered the extinction of genocide, may their memory if not their name be inclusive in the energy of that request. 

I extend a heartfelt gesture of gratitude to Song Bird Grand Mother for serving on my Diverse Advisory Council as a Native American Shaman. She provided invaluable information regarding the cultural practices, beliefs, and ideas of our native brothers, sisters, and ancestors throughout this month. 

Song Bird is a Modern Day Medicine Woman, Shaman, & Teacher of Ancient Healing, Shamanism, Mediumship, Psychic Development, and Intuitive Development. She teaches on healing childhood trauma, ancestral healing, spiritual awakening, meditation, and hosts private healing sessions, medium psychic readings, and ceremonies. 

Her specialties include: Business development, Love & Relationship, Ancestral Healing, Health and Wellness, and Indigenous Spirituality. 

I'll be tallying up the proceeds from orders for the month of November and posting that donation amount sometime in December. Accompanying the donation will be the individual names of those who booked services this month ( unless you do not want your name listed ). 

However these donations may serve others, you can rest assured it will be a ripple effect throughout time, one your generosity contributed to, and made a difference for. 

To each of YOU, I extend my utmost gratitude and desire blessing tenfold upon your heart. 

Namo Buddhaya 

Songbirdgrandmother.com

In Spiritual Service with Tammy Cantrell is donating 20% of all proceeds for the month of November to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved. 

Humility is often seen as putting yourself lower than others, and a minimization of your worth and self-importance. However, in the Indigenous cosmology, humility is seen as a trait of leadership. It is one of the most profound and foundational teachings, for without humility one cannot lead anyone or anything. Leadership requires humility, for when we are humble, we are are able to balance our own needs, with the needs of others, and the Great Spirit. We can assess what needs to be done, without self-importance, or arrogance. 

When we walk with humility we honor all life, all creation, all stages of the medicine wheel, and the deeper understanding that we are here to be of assistance to one another. It is the knowing that in life we will have the opportunity to be young, middle age, and elderly; we will have, times of good health and bad health. We never know how the Great Mystery will weave our fate, so we must be humble, and open so that we may hear the messages for our lives and others. With humility we never put ourselves above or below, but rather, we focus on centeredness and harmony. 

In this modern age, there is a misinterpretation that humility means you are lower than everyone else, take scraps that others offer, or hold yourself down, because you are to be “humble,” and not self-serving. However, in leadership, one must take care of themselves, they must hold themselves with honor and respect, and by doing so, they will know their worth, and those who really know themselves, have no reason to boast or gloat. The person with the most wisdom, the most strength, and the most kindness, never has to go around telling others about these traits, because they are obvious. They shine like the sun. There is an energy, a presence, a feeling that others feel when they are in this energy. 

When we are insecure or trying to hide or mask, we feel we are superior or inferior to others. But, when we are humble, we are natural, authentic, connected, and grounded. Humility hold the space for the individual and the collective. It is the internal knowing of who we are, where our blessings come from, and the deep respect for all the natural rhythms of life. 

When we are humble, we are honored to be here, to serve, to assist, and to lead. We hold our heads up strong, and we take on responsibilities because we know we can respond to whatever life gives us. 

When we are humble, we can honor our own accomplishments, and the accomplishments of others equally. For in our connectedness we know that when someone else wins, we win, when someone does good, we all do good. We understand that there is no “competition,” because we are all connected, we are all related, we are all here to do something great for the whole. 

For Native Americans, the worst thing we can be is “selfish,” all of our practices, rituals, and ceremonies are to cultivate giving. We give to our families, we give to our communities, we give to each other, we give to the Spirit World, we give to Mother Earth, we give, because we know that in the giving we receive the great blessings. We receive the greatest gift there is, which is the gift of an open heart. 

This I believe is the foundation of Native American Culture, and as we wrap up Native American Heritage month, and go into the season of “giving” may we remember that to be humble is to be giving, to be giving is to be honored, and it is only through giving can we receive the great blessings of what it is to be a part of this sacred hoop of life. 

Those who give, also receive. There has to be balance, but instead of giving to “get,” the purpose of giving is to help, to serve, to lead, and most importantly to open our hearts to giving love. 

Songbirdgrandmother.com

In Spiritual Service with Tammy Cantrell is donating 20% of all proceeds for the month of November to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved. 

   When we go into sweat lodge, we are entering into the womb of Mother Earth. We are returning back to the essence of creation, of our first home, and the place where anything and everything can be known. In the sweat lodge, we are forced to face the places and spaces within us that are uncomfortable. We are forced to look at what makes us vulnerable, and we are then able to connect with the Spirit World. We are given the opportunity to purify and sweat out the toxins that have accumulated and release the pains and sorrows that weigh heavy in our hearts.

In the sweat lodge, we are free to say what is in our hearts, we can pray to the Great Spirit with our whole heart, and we can heal the traumas and wounds that hold us back. The sweat lodge is one of the most profound places of healing that the Indigenous community can go to for healing, prayer, and reconnection. This is our “church,” and our place of refuge and safety. 

The sweat lodge is a sacred and transformational place where we can truly connect within, and in that space, we feel the connection between each other and the Spirit World. We feel the other’s pain, as we are confined into this small uncomfortable space. We feel the power of the Spirit World, as they say this is the place where the umbilical cord of the Universe is. In this umbilical cord, we reconnect to Mother Earth and the cosmos. 

We invite the power of Spirit to join us, and we remember who we are, and why we came. The sweat lodge invites us to sit in humility, grace, faith, and trust. It brings us back to sit on the Mother Earth and feel her love for us.

In our modern world, there are few places that offer this kind of healing and connection. While most people will never have the opportunity to attend a sweat lodge, they can still create this energy by connecting to the power of the darkness. 

Darkness is almost taboo in our culture. When people think of the “darkness,” they think of evil, dark magic, sorcery, and a whole host of other things. We as a society have lost the basic and foundational knowing that the darkness is powerful, it is the place of silence, of creation, and connection. 

Just like the seed goes into the dark Earth to grow, and the caterpillar goes into the cocoon, we too must allow ourselves to go into the darkness to heal, to grow, to get quiet, and expand. For it is in the darkness, we find the truth. When we get quiet, we connect to our hearts, we quiet our minds, and we release the pains and sadness that keep us stuck. 

Instead of running from the darkness, we need to embrace it, go into it, and allow the darkness to show us where we are stuck, where we are hurting, where we are not growing, and allow the Great Mystery who lives in the darkness to speak to us. 

The darkness is a place where we can deeply connect within. It is a place that will show us if we are talking too much, if we are closed, if we are open. The darkness is a place where the truth shines and points us into the directions that we have been avoiding, and the places where we are in fact shining. This is a powerful place, that once we invite into our life, will transform us from the inside—out. 

I invite you all to embrace the darkness, to sit in the silence every day, and ask the Great Mystery to show you this power. It is truly life changing when we can sit in the quietness of our lives and connect to the Universal forces that govern our lives. When we can sit upon the Mother Earth with pure love, we will feel the profound love that the Earth has for us.

This and this alone has the power to change and heal our world. The invitation now is to take time, to cultivate, and to make sitting in the darkness a priority. I guarantee it is a life changing, life transforming practice. It is what the ancestors have given us, and if we honor this practice, and invite our friends, family, and communities to join us, we will see life changing results. 

Songbirdgrandmother.com

In Spiritual Service with Tammy Cantrell is donating 20% of all proceeds for the month of November to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved. 

  Pray with the Sunrise by Song Bird Grand Mother, Diverse Advisory Council Member, Native American Shaman, In Spiritual Service. 

The power of prayer is something universal to all Spirituality. In almost every spiritual practice, you will see the emphasis on prayer.

There are many ways to pray from kneeling, to candles, to offerings. Prayer is our way of asking the Universal forces to help us on our journey. In the Indigenous ways, prayer is how we are taught to start our day. As the sunrises, we too rise, and offer our sacred prayers. In the Indigenous ways, prayer is an offering. We can offer a sacred herb such as tobacco or corn pollen, we offer songs and prayer ties. 

Prayers are not an asking or manifestation, but rather a sacred communion of gratitude and thanks. For no matter what struggle we are going through, no matter the obstacle, prayer is a thank you to the universal forces that have given us and continue to give us life. 

Prayer is a giving rather than a taking, and it’s a reminder that this life is sacred. When we wake with the sunrise, we are honoring a new day, we are giving back to the Creator, we are supporting the sun as it gives us life, and we are taking time out of our day to honor the Spirit World. Prayer is a staple to our lives. Just as we feed our bodies food, we feed our spirit prayer. 

The difference between going to a church and hearing a sermon and praying in the Indigenous manner is prayer is not about worshipping, but rather connecting and giving thanks. It is not about “obtaining,” but rather honoring. In prayer we give our hearts and minds, we sort out feelings and emotions, and we acknowledge the new day.

Prayer is sacred, intimate, and give us connection and power to nature and all her creation. When we sing an ancestral song, we are connecting to the ancestors who have walked this path before us and have paved the road with all their prayers. When we gift the sacred herbs, we are giving back that medicine to the Earth, and also connecting to all the ancestors before us who also offered their sacred medicine. When we rise with the sun, we are disciplining ourselves, and focusing our energies on the good work we are doing that day. 

Prayer is the foundation of how we start and end our days, and in the old ways, prayer was done throughout the day. Offerings of tobacco or sacred herbs were given to the trees we passed; prayers were offered to the people we encountered. Prayer in the old ways wasn’t just a once-a-week practice, but an everyday, every breath practice. 

Instead of being a plea, a hope, a manifestation, or a routine, prayer in the Indigenous cosmology is a sacred connection to the Great Spirit, ancestors, and spirit world. It empowers our mind, body, and heart. It renews our strength, it reminds us that prayer is not just words, but action. It humbles us to ask for help, and it is the foundation of survival. Our Grandmother’s prayers are still working in our lives. This is how strong prayer is.

When the Grandmother’s make the corn meal for the prayer offerings, they say the prayers of whoever will use that corn meal is already in that corn meal. The Grandmother’s grow the corn from ancient corn used for thousands of years, they do the break backing work to harvest, and then grind the corn in the traditional ways, and they distribute that corn meal to all those who they are guided to use that corn meal. The corn meal is sacred and filled with all the ancestors' prayers, the Grandmother’s prayers, and the Great Spirit’s love is placed into that corn.

Prayer is a reminder that whatever we are to do in this life requires hard work, sacrifice, and generosity. That Corn Meal made with so much love, tenderness, hard work, and sacrifice is a reminder that in the end, it is to be given away, and it is to be shared ,so that other’s may use it to pray and give of themselves, in the sacred and beautiful ways of the ancestors, prayer is a daily practice reminding us to stay focused on our path, and that there are many unseen forces here guiding us, protecting us, and helping us, all we have to do is connect. 

Songbirdgrandmother.com

In Spiritual Service with Tammy Cantrell is donating 20% of all proceeds for the month of November to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved. 

 The Medicine Wheel by Song Bird Grand Mother, In Spiritual Service Diverse Advisory Council member, Native American Shaman.

Perhaps one of the most profound teachings in Native American culture is the teaching of the Medicine Wheel. For this article, I am not going to go into the directions and meanings, but rather the overall cosmology and gifts that the Medicine Wheel offers us. For without understanding the beauty, depth, and wisdom of this sacred circle, we cannot understand or truly appreciate this profound gift the ancestors gave us. 

The Medicine Wheel is a simple, but profound teacher, philosophy, view of cosmology, and sacred healing tool that is endless with depth and wisdom. It is an ancient portal into the depth of humanity, the human experience, the different directions we must traverse, and the sacred connection we have to all living things seen and unseen. It is a powerful healing tool for all life, and it is said that wherever there is a Medicine Wheel it is a connected to all Medicine Wheels, especially the “Grand Mother Medicine Wheel” in Big Horn, Wyoming, which is the biggest and oldest Medicine Wheel in the world. 

The Big Horn Medicine Wheel connects to all the “ley” lines and power spots across the globe, and the mystery is no one knows who built the Medicine Wheel. All tribes know of this sacred Medicine Wheel, but no tribe claims to have built it.

There is no end to the vast teachings and uses that the Medicine Wheel can be used in. It can fit into any institution from health care, education, spirituality, and law. 

The Medicine Wheel appears to be a circle within a circle. The outer circle represents the circle of life, this sacred hoop that we are living in and within. There are the four sacred directions of East, South, West, and North, and within that sacred circle is the inner circle that represents the space within us. We as humans are always trying to balance and harmonize the sacred directions of our lives, and there are outer forces that attempt to take us out of the center and polarize us into one direction more than the others. When we go deeper into the teachings, we discover there are half turns to these directions. Directions such as South-East, and North-East. The directions that provide us those transitions needed to make it to the full directions. 

Each direction gifts us an opportunity to look at ourselves, to transform, to learn, to grow, and most of all to balance our physical health, emotional well-being, our knowledge, and our spiritual growth.

The Medicine Wheel is always balanced. However, to be balanced in our “medicine,” we must stay in harmony, in our truth, in our authenticity. We must always remember to honor all the directions of our life. This includes our past, our present, and our future. 

The Medicine Wheel speaks of the Cosmic forces that are above us, the Elemental forces that are below us. It teaches us that in order to overcome the winds of change we must embrace the lessons that can lead to blessings. The hardest aspect of this teaching is that we must not prefer to only have blessings over lessons. In life we will have both lessons and blessings. We cannot choose one over the other. Of course, we love the blessings, but how can we truly love and appreciate our blessings, without experiencing the lessons that gifted us those blessings?

In another way of understanding the Medicine Wheel, it represents all the seasons of life that we will experience from childhood to adolescence, to adulthood, to becoming an elder, and finally our transition into the world of the ancestors. When we understand the Medicine Wheel, we understand that every stage and chapter of our life has meaning, profound opportunity, healing, and sacredness. We understand that we are meant to start off young, and get old, and finally transcend this life. There is a place and time for everything, and we cannot “hold on” to the past, but instead embrace the cycles of change. 

The Medicine Wheel gives a time and space for all the cycles of our lives, and organizes these different seasons with the cycles of nature. 

For in the Indigenous ways, we are not separate from the Earth, but rather we are the Earth. We are born out of the Wombs of our Mothers, who was born through the Womb of her Mother, and so on and so forth. But, the ultimate womb we are born in and through is the womb of our Grand Mother Earth. The Earth who loves us, who teaches us, who nurtures us, and provides for us. In essence, we are the sacred Medicine Wheel, and in order to “walk in beauty,” we must remember that every stage is sacred, every breath is a gift, and that we walk together in this great circle of life.

Songbirdgrandmother.com

In Spiritual Service with Tammy Cantrell is donating 20% of all proceeds for the month of November to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved. 

“The earth is sacred because the sap that courses through the trees are the experiences and memories of the red man, the water that moves in the streams is the blood of the ancestors.” -

Chief Seattle, Suquamish Nation

As we begin this month of Native American history month, I’d like to begin with the teaching that is foundational to every Indigenous person, and this is that we are here to take care of the Earth. To all Native people, this is our foundation. The deeply rooted knowing that the Earth is our Grand Mother, she is our home, she is our mother, she is our provider, and she must be honored and cared for. 

We all have a sacred responsibility to care for her, to preserve her, and cherish her and to leave her as pristine as possible for the next seven generations and beyond. In Native American philosophy and culture, there is a deep connection to our sacred Grand Mother. Her water is the blood of our ancestors, her trees are the oxygen that we breathe, her dirt sacred and healing. We find our reverence and connection to the Great Spirit through our connection with the Earth. 

To the First Nations, Grand Mother Earth is our sacred home, and it is our sacred obligation to take care of her, to only take what we need, to preserve her as she is, and to honor all that she gifts us. For without her grace, her beauty, and her deep love for us, we would not be here.

It is a sacred knowing that it is a great honor to live on this Earth. We are only given a short time to walk upon this sacred Earth, and we must do our best while we are here. We must be kind, and generous to the Earth, and we must honor all the ancestors who came before us, who laid the path for us to remember the sacred original teachings given to us. 

In this time of change and transition, we must go back to the foundation, that the Earth is our Mother, she is here as a gentle loving gift, and she loves us so very much. When we step out of the endless thoughts of our head, and walk upon the Earth, no cell phones, no distractions, we can see and feel this great love and beauty. Our Grand Mother Earth wants nothing from us. She gives and gives, but in our modern world we just take and take. In Native culture, it is the person who gives the most that is most honored. There is an inherent knowing and practice that we must give back. It is better to give than to take. The worst thing to be in Native culture is “selfish,” and yet in our modern world, the most revered people are the ones who take the most and give the least.

This is completely opposite to Native American culture, for it is the person who gives the most that is revered the most. These are the chiefs and medicine people, they give of themselves, to heal and lead expecting nothing back. However, there must be sacred reciprocity. When we take, we must give.

For this month, I invite you to examine this principle in your own life and think about the ways you can give back to Mother Earth and your community. 

In this time of transition and change, it is important that we all return to this foundation of giving more than we take from the Earth; and when we take, we must only take what we need. This is how we return to balance, this is how we return to peace, and this is how we preserve our Earth for the next seven generations and beyond. 

~ Song Bird Grand Mother, ISS Diverse Advisory Council, Native American Shaman

Songbirdgrandmother.com

20% of all proceeds for the month of November will be donated to https://crossingworlds.org/ — in support of Hopi and other northern Arizona traditional cultures and cross-cultural education: service projects, articles, photos, ways to get involved.