Bear Medicine
Facing The Fear
Clay speaks through Renya’s hands. She is a clay artist who molds the universal language of symbolism and archetypes into divinely inspired pieces of wearable art. So who better than Renya to approach me with her hazel eyes, declaring, “You have Bear Medicine!”? We had only recently met.
In that moment, I felt a mix of emotions. At first, a little defensive—how could she know this about me? Yet, Renya’s intuition was strong, and it was evident that she trusted it. Her forwardness caught me off guard, and something tugged at my solar plexus. I felt a pang of recognition, followed by a rush of fear at the thought of carrying a Medicine that big. What truth did Renya see in me that I had not yet discovered within myself?
Native American animal medicines have spiritually guided me throughout my life, especially those of Wolf, Raven, and Deer. In this context, “Medicine” refers to anything that enhances our connection to the divine and fosters a deeper understanding of what it means to walk in harmony with the Universe. These are profound Medicines that we may be called to honor and carry on the Great Medicine Wheel of life. Sometimes we choose them, and sometimes they choose us.
I would like to share a few of these Medicines with you, along with my process of discovering Bear Medicine, in the hopes that you will journey well with your own Medicines. They are much needed in these challenging times.
Wolf Medicine first came to me forty years ago, and I am a woman who has long run with the wolves. Wolf is a pathfinder and visionary teacher. I have lived with wolf-hybrids and with Medicine teachers in a wolf clan community founded by my friend, the late Brad Collins, and his then-wife, Linda Star Wolf, in the Cherokee Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina (Qualla is a Cherokee word that means “old woman”). My “Wolf Tales” essay detailing the experience of owning and breeding wolf hybrids is published in the beautiful coffee-table book “Spirit of the Wolf: Channeling the Transformative Power of Lupine Energy”
The symbiotic relationship between wolves and ravens has always fascinated me. Raven is the bringer and carrier of ceremonial magic, and I have written many stories about them. It was Raven who called me back from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Southwest and greeted me when I first arrived in New Mexico two years ago. I was standing in my newly acquired magical garden when a raven landed at the edge of the neighbor’s roof and called out, tilting his head as ravens do and eyeing me curiously. My Corvid friend hasn’t done that since, but he often flies over, seemingly calling to me, and I echo back his name: “Raven!” Ravens can imitate human language, and this one has come to recognize the simple name I have given him and his friends. He has become familiar with my voice.
Deer Medicine, with which I also dance, has led me down some interesting paths through the woods, both literally and metaphorically. Deer represents the Medicine of gentleness, teaching us a great lesson about fear:
On her way to Great Spirit at the top of Sacred Mountain, Fawn encountered a big, scary monster that guarded the way to Great Spirit’s lodge. The demon thrived on instilling fear in people and preventing them from connecting with the Great Spirit. He believed that it made him powerful. However, when Fawn came upon the archetype of all the ugly monsters that have ever been, she was not frightened. Instead of dying in fright, she gently asked permission to pass. Her love and gentleness penetrated the demon’s hardened, ugly heart, causing it to soften and melt in the presence of her lack of fear, and the path was made clear.
Gifted with the name Summer Deer, I am still learning how to honor and carry Deer Medicine. This becomes especially challenging when a stag from the neighborhood herd breaches my garden fence to eat my vegetables, or when I find a dozen deer fertilizing my front yard and leaving droppings on the front porch steps. I have given up trying to fight them, feeling as though I was resisting an aspect of myself that needed to be accepted. So, I reinforced the garden fence, raked the droppings, and swept the porch. Now, I admire the deer rather than yelling and waving my arms to chase them away. Earlier this fall, I came upon two spotted fawns leaping through the forest like characters from a Disney movie, and it truly melted my heart. I couldn’t help but surrender to their beauty. Like the dappling of their skin, both the light and the dark may be embraced as we learn how to love ourselves and others as they are.
Recently, I received a beautiful gift of Bear Medicine from Renya, a soul sister whose vision illuminates the path for the awakening New Earth. She gifted me with one of her clay bear pendants this week. For the past two years, Renya has reminded me that I carry Bear Medicine. The pendant is carefully crafted from micaceous clay, a traditional material used in New Mexican Pueblo pottery. To me, the Bear symbolizes a powerful spiritual force.
On the Great Medicine Wheel of life, Bear Medicine resides in the West, where she dreams within her cave. I have prayed with tobacco to Bear in the West during many ceremonies when making prayers to each of the seven directions. It feels synchronistic that this Medicine would arrive in my life after moving back to the Southwest, as the West is my spiritual home.
In reality, Bear has been a part of my life for a long time. Years ago, while living in the Appalachian Mountains, I wrote a song called “Silence of the Bears.” This song is about the grief and anger I felt when bear hunters hunted in the woods behind my farmhouse. I heard the bear dogs and the sound of the guns as they took out two bears. I am not against hunting, but that hit too close to home.
When my son was going through puberty, I took him to see David, also known as the “Bear Man.” David lived on top of Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains, which rise 9,000 feet above Tucson. I asked him if he would mentor my fourteen-year-old son, and he agreed. David then gifted him with a piece of black bear fur, along with a lesson about Ursus americanus. As a visiting lecturer in public schools, David educated students about the bears that inhabit the isolated mountain ranges of the Southwest, known as Sky Islands. I stitched that piece of bear fur onto my son’s puberty rites shield, which I made by stretching and stitching a piece of buckskin over a round hoop.
Traditionally, Native women crafted these symbolic shields for men to carry into battle, not only to protect them from enemies, but more importantly, from their own egos. I learned about this practice from a Ute Medicine Man and shield maker in Arizona, who guided me in creating my son’s shield, symbolizing his journey through puberty and into manhood. The Bear Man also gifted me a piece of black bear fur for my own shield and a blue suitcase with brass hardware for my music gear. Inside the lid of the suitcase, there’s a bumper sticker that reads, “Support Your Local Bear,” featuring Smokey the Bear. I still use that suitcase to this day. They don’t make them like that anymore.
The synchronicity of Bear in my life has been remarkable. I once lived on Honey Bear Mountain, then I moved to Bear Mountain Road, and now I work at Bear Creek Cabins in Pinos Altos, New Mexico. My daughter lives on Bear Creek Road, and recently, a bear visited my car, leaving paw prints on my window after I accidentally left an empty sandwich bag on the floor behind the front seat. So what is this Bear Medicine that I carry? Why has it taken me so long to acknowledge it, and why is it important for these times?
As I gather the medicine of Osha root (Ligusticum porteri), which can be found in parts of northern New Mexico, I am reminded of Beverly Laughing Eagle, a medicine woman with whom I worked for over twenty years until her passing. She taught me by example to keep Osha, also known as Bear Root, in a medicine pouch around my neck. She said this would “provide spiritual protection.” Beverly also instructed me to chew on a piece of it if I wasn’t feeling well—and it really works!
The word “Osha” is of Native origin and means “bear.” It’s referred to as “bear medicine” because Native Americans have observed that bears eat it when they are sick. Osha is a powerful medicine that contains a small amount of oxytocin, which fosters feelings of love, trust, and cooperation. I would never want to be without Osha root tincture in my apothecary. It has both antimicrobial and antiviral actions, and is used to treat chronic and acute respiratory infections, coughs, and sore throats. Every medicine woman knows that to get to the root of a problem, you must seek the medicine of roots.
Medicine women are the keepers of the roots, and Bear symbolizes the spiritual strength needed to follow a Medicine path. Bear Medicine is a looks-within medicine, inviting us into the cave of introspection and self-reflection where our answers reside. When Winter’s death blankets the earth, Bear retreats into the silence of her womb-like cave to hibernate, dream, and process past experiences. The Dream Lodge serves as a space for intuitive inner knowing and female receptive energy, where visionaries, mystics, and shamans dream the future into form.
This is a crucial teaching for our times, as we have forgotten how to enter the silence in search of answers to our current dilemmas, and how to trust our inner wisdom. It is why “Do Nothing” is the first step in the six- stages of healing in the Wise Woman Tradition (Susun Weed).
Step 0 - Do Nothing (sleep, meditate, unplug)
Step 1 - Collect Information (research, support groups, divination)
Step 2 - Engage the Energy (prayer, self-reflection, ceremony, affirmations)
Step 3 - Nourish and Tonify (nourishing food and tonic herbs)
Step 4 - Stimulate & Sedate (activator herbs)
Step 5 - Use Drugs (pharmaceuticals)
Step 6 - Break & Enter (surgery)
West is also the direction we turn to face our fears. Standing at the entrance to the cave, we must gather the courage to enter the unknown. We pray to Bear, who resides in the West, for assistance in making this journey without being consumed by our fears.
Because you are with me continually, I don’t have to be intimidated by fear. Though it stalks me, I know it can’t harm me as long as I cling to Your hand. Instead of being fearful, I want to walk trustingly with You along my pathway, enjoying Peace in Your Presence. —Jesus Listens, by Sarah Young
In today’s world, we face mounting fears—fear of speaking our truth and of discerning the truth beyond the illusion of AI-generated images, fear of death and loss of bodily autonomy due to mandated vaccinations, fear of real or imagined tyrants, fear of monster storms, collapsing systems, and burning bridges—leading us into an unprecedented unknown. Yet amidst this chaos, there remains a constant: a set of original instructions that is holy and unwavering. This wisdom is always within reach; it is we who often stray from it. It is as constant as the cycles of the seasons, bringing us back to stand in awe of the Great Mystery, trusting in the re-emergence of spring.
One of my biggest fears is feeling unworthy of carrying such a big Medicine. What did I do to deserve this incredible life that I have been given? Unworthiness is an old pattern of belief that I continually work on.
While death is inevitable, I will embrace that adventure when the time comes. Still, I dream of having certain things: a dream kitchen, an adobe home with a kiva fireplace, and a deck that faces West. These are the dreams waiting for their dreamer. Although the future is not yet in form, I know that my future self envisioned this day when I would be an old woman sharing these stories with you.
Paradoxically, I have already reached a point in my life where I have everything I need in this moment, and I give thanks for that blessing. I will continue to confront my fears as I sink into the thick, warm, black fur of Bear, whose beating heart guides me in the Dreamtime, allowing me to seek a vision and receive answers to questions I am afraid to even ask.
Sun Bear, Medicine Chief of the Bear Tribe for decades, passed away in 1992. Still, his teachings continue to assist many, including myself. According to Sun Bear’s Earth Astrology, I was born under the sign of the Flicker. Flicker people tend to be dreamers. When Flicker individuals develop their mystical inclinations and ground their sensitivity by connecting with devas and positive spiritual forces, they can become vehicles for universal love, possessing an ability that serves as a healing balm for others. When I reflect on how my musical duo, Thea & the GreenMan, touches people’s hearts through our music, and how many have been reached and helped by my book, “Wisdom of the Plant Devas”, I take a deep breath of gratitude and affirm my self-worth. We are worthy of the best that life and love have to offer.
What is Sun Bear’s suggestion for Flickers to awaken their magical nature? I was surprised to learn that it is to wear a pendant aligned with your personal medicine, helping to keep your heart attuned to its highest vibration of love, and to repeat affirmations such as:
- I am worthy of expressing myself with joy, love, and success now.
- I am worthy of succeeding in my own intuitive way.
- I don’t depend on people or situations for my good; this certainty empowers me to release people and situations that are not in line with my highest vision now.
Rigidly logical/rational people sometimes consider Flickers to be irrational or careless due to their intuitive way of reasoning. They need to sing their own song, whatever that may be. —Sun Bear
Renya’s intuition is strong, and I am grateful to her for the reminders to embrace the unknown and be willing to walk through my fears. Fear can be paralyzing, and many have become trapped in a nightmare by their own choosing. As I wear the bear pendant around my neck alongside my medicine pouch, I pray that humanity can once again learn to trust intuitive guidance. May fear give way to humility as we stand before the guardian of the West and rediscover ourselves as the medicine men and women we were destined to be. Aho.
A Song…
Shaman I Am
by Chuck Willhide featuring Thea and the late Gary Stamper on background vocals—available as a single release. Purchase and download the extended version at Thea & the GreenMan.
A Poem…
Silent Virgin Forest
by Thea Summer Deer
The silent forest, virgin,
mossy tendril roots spread wide,
all she ever wanted was for the Earth to be her lover,
and to drink of her sky father’s tears,
the hardest part was now behind them,
after millennia of destruction,
the forest-silent-virgin.
Reclaiming her birth right,
returning to the sun’s light
through misty shadows where weary saviors tread,
parting curtains of fog in the craggy bottoms of their fiddle heads,
where a voice, now, barely heard in the distance; singing,
is carried in the silent Virgin forest of our being.
This returning is never easy,
it has always been a death,
the test of winter in the darkness of our depths.
We descend as we’re declining
upon this circle we call time,
rooted to the inner space of the sublime.
Space, the Virgin Mother
of a shining Virgin daughter,
shining in the heavens as a billion brilliant suns,
births a son, a savior,
from the darkness of her void,
and feeds him on her mossy breast,
drunk on his Father’s tears,
he falls to Earth where he recovers
the essence of our fears.
And so begins the journey
through the parting of the mists,
until he hears the singing
of the Virgin in our midst,
and takes her as his lover
So he may once again restore
The silence in the forest
The silent singing forest
The silent Virgin forest
Now, and forever more.
References:
Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams & David Carson
Dreaming With the Wheel: How to Interpret Your Dreams Using the Medicine Wheel by Sun Bear & Wabun Wind, Touchstone 1994
The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology by Sun Bear & Wabun Wind, Atria Books 1980
The Path of Power by Sun Bear & Wabun Wind, Touchstone 1992
Sign of the Flicker by Crystal Pomeroy
Resources:
Renya Creations - Please visit my friend Renya’s website to learn more about her Pendants, Ceremonial Art, & Home Accents.
For the Wild & Feral - Please visit my friend Jamie’s website to learn more about her amazing herbal products including Dream Elixer.
Sun Bear - Please visit my friend Wind Daughter to learn more about Sun Bear who led the Bear Tribe Medicine Society from 1971 until his death in 1992. Wabun Wind worked as Medicine Chief until 1996, when other responsibilities called her away. The chieftainship was then passed to Wind Daughter in 1996 who still leads the Bear Tribe today as Medicine Chief. In 2006, Wind Daughter moved The Bear Tribe into a new era to join her own Panther Lodge Medicine Society. In 2019 both have amalgamated together as the new Panther Bear Tribe Medicine Society. Its new Ceremonial Home of West Winds is in Mobile, Alabama.
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Silence of the Bears - by Thea, performed live in Highlands, NC with Thea & the GreenMan (unreleased ) Free mp3 Download!
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