Willie Whitefeather Wisdom
"Look down! You are standing on your medicine."
The sun comes at dawn . . . and it knocks the darkness from the sky. It doesn't make a sound. And that is how spiritual awareness happens, that is how the Great Spirit works.
—Willy Whitefeather
Cherokee Medicine Man and Tribal Elder Willie Whitefeather arrived at my desert home and retreat center one summer day before the monsoons came. The heat was brutal. Even the cactus trees were looking for shade, but not Willie. A bear of a man with long white hair and a beard, he exited a small truck to stand before me in the glaring sun.
“Look down!” He said, pointing towards the ground, catching me by surprise. I expected to see a rattlesnake but saw only dirt and weeds. He paused long enough for me to examine the earth beneath my feet. Then he said with great authority and shining blue eyes, “You are standing on your medicine!”
While it is true that many medicinal plants are mistaken for weeds, I had never heard it put that way before. Willie, who has a way with words, had come to give a workshop on Native American Medicine at my retreat center in the Sonoran Desert in 1989. One of the medicinal plants he introduced me to is Larrea tridentate, aka chaparral, greasewood, or creosote bush. His knowledge of this plant helped to explain why he didn’t cower from the sun. Chaparral is an herbal medicine used for centuries to treat skin cancers.
Willie Whitefeather is a light-skinned, blue-eyed mixed blood known by some as the “Purple People.” This combination resulted from the intermarriage of Cherokee Indians with the Europeans when they first arrived on the eastern shores of North America. Cherokee (North American) on his father’s side and Argentinian (South American) on his mother’s, Willie embodies the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, which states that when the Eagle of the north flies with the Condor of the south, the earth will awaken.
Willie is also an artist, philosopher, author, musician, and storyteller. When he gets ready to tell a medicine story with Native flute in hand, he points out that “believe” contains the word “lie” in the middle. For that reason, he says, “I don’t want to lie to you, and so I just tell a story. Don’t believe it – because everybody knows everything already. Just add it to your own knowledge and this way I don’t control you.” This is a valuable post-modern teaching as we lose our inner navigation system. Mainstream narratives and political orthodoxies, promulgated by captured legacy media, brainwash the masses into believing their lies for power and control.
One earth awakening story that Willie tells is the Turtle Shell story. Turtle shells have thirteen plates representing a thirteen lunar month cycle. The twelve-month Gregorian calendar broke the link between humans and the sun, moon, and stars, serving as a gigantic clock. The Native Americans call North America “Turtle Island,” with the heart of the Turtle being the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Willie shakes the turtle shell rattle and reminds us that Mother Earth will shake people awake and bring us together. “Doors are opening,” he says.
Willie brings us another teaching about silver and gold. Silver is a Native American metal. I have been fortunate to meet various silversmiths throughout the Southwest. One in particular mined his silver from the New Mexico mountains for his widely collected pieces. Silver is the tears of the moon. Gold is the sweat of the sun. Silver is the female metal. Willie recommends putting a silver quarter in your water bottle. Poor people were dying in the thousands during the 14th-century Bubonic plague. The wealthy were eating with a silver spoon and not dying. Silver kills bacteria instantly. He learned this from his abuela, who put a silver dollar in the milk, cream, and cottage cheese to keep it from spoiling. Willie reminds soldiers who carry a canteen that the opening is only the size of a silver dime.
A river keeper who guided people down the Colorado River screaming and yelling, Willie is an outdoor survivalist. He knows that you can’t harm the environment and expect to survive. He taught two army battalions survival and has received two medals. Willie cares a lot about kids and the next seven generations and wrote the book Willie Whitefeather’s Outdoor Survival Handbook for Kids and Willie Whitefeather’s River Book for Kids.
When mentioning war, Willie explains how world leaders consider kids expendable and teach grownups to fear the enemy more than they love their kids. “They are training our children to be killing machines today through video games,” he says and asks the question, “What kind of world are we creating for our children?”
Ultimately, the only thing that will save our country and our children is if choose to love our kids more than we hate each other. —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Willie tells a story about the salmon who swim upstream against the current. “They just keep going,” he says. Some will get taken out or eaten, but they make it above the falls to lay their eggs. With the memory of how to make a future world for their offspring, the baby salmon go down with the current and back to the ocean. We, too, must be persistent in clearing the way for future generations.
During the workshop conducted mostly outdoors that summer day at my home, Willie gave me another teaching. This time, instead of pointing down at the ground, he pointed at the sky and the half-moon rising. He says that we think the full moon and new moon are powerful but we need to pay attention to the half-moon. What happens on the half-moon is the “cause” (ovulation) and the full-moon is the “effect” (menstruation). The cause is only half the story. The full moon is when you see the effect as it comes back around.
Willie is a master of interpreting symbolism. He knows how to read the signs of co-incidence or what some might call synchronicity. The ability to decode symbolic language and imbue it with meaning is a function of the nervous system. Trauma impairs this ability. Much of what we are witnessing in the way of anxiety disorders is a heart-mind disconnect. Willie seeks to reconnect us to the elements, nature, and ourselves. He comes from a Matriarchal society, an earth-based culture. He watches to see what’s happening.
I, too, have learned to read the signs. It takes practice. It’s a way of life. I am grateful to the medicine men and women who have helped me along the path. I watched as Willie packed his supplies and prepared to leave. I walked him to his truck in the still blazing hot sun. Then he gives me one last nugget. “Be a Jedi,” he says. “Just-Everyday-Do-It.”
No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try —Master Yoda, from Star Wars
In memory of Willie Whitefeather who passed on November 28th, 2018.
We were born in America, that makes us all Native Americans. Learn this land. You have the DNA = Divine Native American blood. —Willie Whitefeather
Listen to Willie Whitefeather in a 5 part series 90-minute interview filmed in 2009.
Learn more about the nervous system and how to heal the heart-mind disconnect in Thea’s work at your own pace online course: Nervous System Health & the Fire Element at Wise Woman School.
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When the Moon is Full, unreleased. Listen to this song by Thea with her granddaughters and Chuck Willhide backing. Lyrics included (a sing-a-long song!)
Two Roads/Two Worlds, from My Mother’s Garden CD by Thea featuring 2x Native American Grammy Winner, Mary Youngblood and Chuck Willhide. Lyrics included. Willie speaks of two worlds. He knows, because he came from two worlds…
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