By Kandace Keithley
Sacred Crow (with the help of trickster Coyote) teaches us about understanding trauma and healing with grace and humor and Grandfather Buffalo teaches us about strength, Tunksasila (The Great Spirit) and survival in the most horrible times.
Many people don’t understand the eternal nature of our Spirit selves, our true being, so are afraid when Crow comes to visit and can sometimes become discouraged and weary on the journey – and this is when we need Grandfather Buffalo.
Those who have made the sacred commitment to walk the healing path of the Red Road understand that Crow also offers these moments of great heartbreak and loss to allow us to pause and focus on healing ourselves and our own bloodlines. We learn to call in all the totems and helpers we have asked to help us on this path.
Those who have chosen the Sacred path of Grandfather Buffalo will require courage and stamina for “to use Buffalo medicine is to smoke the pipe in a sacred manner, and to give praise for the richness of life to be shared with all races, all creatures, all nations, and all life. It means smoking for others so that their needs are met, praying for the good of all things in harmony, and accepting the Great Mystery as part of that harmony.” – Jamie Sams and David Carson
This is a path of leadership.
We have all agreed to come here at this sacred time of transformation known as the 8th Fire by our Anishnaabe relatives,
whose land we are blessed to be sharing at this time. We will love it as the Ancestors have taught us. Chi Miigwetch. A’ho.
The 8th Fire is the time of the Great Awakening – an evolution of consciousness that is increasing the vibrational frequency of Mother Earth and all her creatures. This is why so many people are healing themselves and their families and communities by following the Ancient ways that emphasize spiritual practice, healing, and service.
Grandfather Buffalo gives us the courage and the stamina to walk away from that darkness and, by helping us get to the root of our woundedness, leads us to the healers we need – gives us the strength and teachers we need – to begin the long walk to Spiritual alignment and balance.
This situation we are all facing together is caused by trauma. We are all survivors of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so it’s very important for healers and all people to understand PTSD and how much constant work it takes to recover. I am sharing screenshots of a recent Twitter thread I wrote on this topic. The original thread was lost when Twitter suspended my account in its attack against truth.
Those who have chosen leadership positions here have walked through many human traumas and have made use of them to heal themselves and their perception of life. They have grappled with their own shadows and done the painful and lifelong work of healing their pain and the pain of their own Ancestors – thus the pain of humanity. This work teaches us the life-death-rebirth cycle of Crow and Coyote Medicine.
The reason the Spiritual leader and teacher’s paths are so difficult is that we cannot truly teach what we don’t understand. If we are here to be witnesses to the pain of others and teachers of a better way, then we must live the experience.
Surprise!
This means everyone walking the true healing path will be a survivor and in active recovery from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The healing work is never finished because life comes at us fast and we will encounter pain and suffering even as we heal ourselves.
We will encounter the same situation and types of characters again and again to allow us to make the choices that will lead to our healing: Do we react with fear and get drunk all day again, do we hide under the covers, or do we go for a Medicine Walk and talk to the Great Spirit and the Ancestors? Do we continue to dance a sick and manipulative dance with people who don’t have our best interests in mind, who don’t respect us or do we walk away and find people who love and support us?
As we heal, we begin to understand that the “punishment” that comes from making an unhealthy choice is something we bring upon ourselves – i.e. the hangover or the constant conflict and hurt feelings. Many people understand this as Karma.
Even if we’re far along the healing path, when we’re triggered by trauma after we’ve already been repeatedly traumatized, we are given the chance to revisit every aspect of those old wounds and to process them, heal them, and offer them to the Great Spirit to be transformed into something life giving.
When we have been walking the Red Road and other healing paths, as we go around the Sacred Hoop, each time our trauma is triggered we begin to realize what is happening in our spirits, hearts, minds, and bodies. And we know the medicine we need to get us through the cycle in the pace our soul needs to process the healing and integrate the new understanding of itself.
The great blessing of walking the healing Red Road is that when we have learned to walk in alignment with the Great Spirit – in our Good Minds, as my Mohawk teacher and Medicine Woman Geraldine Standup at Anishnawbe Health Toronto says – these traumas don’t affect us for as long as they once did, and we know which medicine we need to get us through the dark part of the Medicine Wheel.
I’m having a “hunker down” moment myself. How are you doing?
The Ancestors have told us that we are walking through a time of Seven Crows – which to me, indicates seven years of chaos and darkness that began in 2016. We are in August of 2020, so that means we are past the bottom point of the V – the 3.5 year mark. This chaos is affecting the entire planet and her people, as millions are only now beginning to wake up to the truth of their own enslavement and participation in a very dark system.
We have an entire generation of young people who have been individually and collectively brainwashed and traumatized by the progressive policies of the Woodstock generation, which are clearly leading us straight into the path of Communism and enslavement.
Here, Matt Walsh talks about the impact of “progress” on Gen Z and Millennials.
As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done to help our young people walk out of the maze of anti-life ideologies and activities they’ve been assaulted with since the day they were born.
We will need all hands on deck to create different opportunities for connection, communication, and support in the days ahead and I think most of us are prepared.
Many Light workers started going through crazy life upheavals around 2016 as this was a time that many were beginning to wake up to the terrible truths of this world and take our Ascension seriously. These way showers are now far enough ahead of the mass awakening that they are able to decide if they would like to continue red-pilling and truth-telling or to start building their vision of service to community in the New Earth.
For those on the healing and teaching path, this time out of time offers a great opportunity to go deep and do some more healing, self-care, planning for the future, and connecting with loved ones. Healing is of the essence at this time.
For this woman who Sits With Crows, I am using this day to take care of some old emotional loose ends and work on forgiving people who have betrayed, manipulated, and hurt me. It is a tough process to let go of toxic people but is only through choosing a new path (and learning it well) that we can return to balance and the innocence we need to bring our dreams and visions into reality.
I am at the beginning of a new cycle in life – beginning the path of the Grandmothers, and will be working hard to ensure that I leave a good legacy for my children and their children down through the coming generations. That means letting go of the past, working the medicine and planning for the future.
For those who are walking this Elder path with me, I wish you love and strength…
And the stamina, strength, and abundance of Grandfather Buffalo.
. . . join me.
It is my honour to be your messenger.
Bird Clan Messenger 