The Healing Shrine
The Story of My Drum.....
Lynn /Lati Noel
Kansas 1999
From my mother I came
On the ancient lands I grew....
A seed cast on the wind source to meet mother earth.
As I reached out of my shell I touched mother earth... the attraction was instant...
Calling forth my growth.... mother earth open up and accepted my roots and my yearning to join her and all the life she holds within her.... mother earth.
I could not resist our joining.
Plunging my roots deeply within her soils I grew.. a year, five, ten, a hundred, a thousand and more. I became a great home to myself and to all of the creatures of the land and sky. They come to me for food, protection, shade, shelter from the rains and sun.
They climb within my branches, fly and perch on the heights of my highest limbs to rest, gather strength and to know the safety of my home. Here within my home we tell stories of the natural, nature and the wilderness. Stories of all the children Our family of life.
As I grew older, I learned to stand tall within my home reaching for the sky and sun.... though sometimes bending and swaying within the space where earth and sky meet.
One day a great wind blew across the plains.
It was the mountains heart wind down from the north... Honoring the eagles mate....
My trunk has faced east towards her heart for many lifetimes now. I look into the sunrise of her smile with the beginning of each new day blessed by her love and the new life given to us all this new day.
It was during the Hot Sun Moon that a williwa wind blew out of the north... it felt cool on my skin in the heat of summer.... I danced wildly with the north winds.... my leaves flew about with the great winged ones. On the winds we danced....
I reached out one of my limbs to touch the sky...
To short were they.... to high the sky.
So I cast off one of my limbs to the sky. Breaking open and exposing my inner self,
my soul to all..
As the branch fell from the sky earth bound I felt the loss of my limb touch the earth... mother earth again accepted my gift ... my giving of myself to her.
She gave back to me mother earth... healing my opened soul my broken branch cast off
as I danced with the northern winds.
I grew in silence for many years after... reaching for the sky.... the stub that was my branch weathered, decaying began to hollow. It became the claw of the eagle reaching out to capture the sun in the sky as it flew by.
A man came on the north windsource one day. Like an eagle he perched within my highest branches. Looking within my tree he saw my decaying limbs and in seeing them cut them from me. Blessing and healing my wounds. The man then climbed down out of my branches onto my trunk. He jumped into the air as if to fly. Falling gracefully to the earth his feet came to rest on mother earth with mine.
We stood there together the man and I. Tall in the north winds as they gently touched the ancient lands with the coolness of the north, bending, dancing, and silent.
The man laid his hands on me and offered this prayer. Bless you my brother, my sister, the fallen one. Earth, sky and sun set your spirit free to fly with me.
He blessed the north winds, the earth, sky, the sun with his offerings of smoke and prayers in a mindful way. He then told me he was leaving but would soon return to sing the song of your giving and of your gift....
of your life, dying and rebirth.
He left on the east wind carrying with him my scared remains. His touch remains soft on my skin... my bark. I feel his coming and heís not yet out of sight... I watched him fly higher and higher circling above me till his wings touched the sky...
His mate came on the wing.... on the east wind to join him...
they locked talons and tumbled down from the sky separating just above me I could feel the windsource on their wings gently touching my leaves with life....
The two flew off in separate directions the female back to the east and the male to the north. I watched them fly till night fell in pink, purple and sliver. The wolf came with the moon rising across the southern sky... she told me about the eagle she saw flying with my limbs northward.
She also knew this eagle and told me stories about him. He lives in the land of the north slopes near the sea. Between the endless horizons of the sea and mountains. His home is on the Lowe River between Makai and Shauntee Mountains in the range of the Chugach Mountains. From his home he can see from the mountains to the sea... from the horizons of the sun ... of the moon...
There are two rivers flowing through the land below. The Lowe and Valdez. From the mountain tops where the eagle lives their waters were born... together they meet in the valley of the Makai... the wolf. and of the Shauntee... the lynx.... meeting in the valley they flow together within one water across the earth meeting and joining the sea.
The river flows free, running wild and full, from the mountains to the sea... the river is free. The eagle knows the river. The rapids, the canyons, the valleys, eddies, the ëvísí of the correct path on the river... The deep fast moving channels of life which hold us all with the waters to meet the sea.
The Makai told me more about the land of the north... of the endless summer sun of the long days and of the long nights the endless darkness. Of the mysteries of the Northern lights which dance in the sky within the northern land.... of the wilderness nature and the natural ways in which all things there live... The land of seasons of extreme.
...... Silently they sat together the Makai and the tree.... Looking at the moon.. a pair of owls came from within the mystic light... bringing with them the more news of the eagle. One owl spoke her name ìlady of the lakeî and the other was windsource.
The Lady of the Lake spoke of the eagle and how she saw the eagle give your branches to the bear. The bear took the great branch and tore it in two pieces giving them back to the eagle. The eagle carried them to the banks of the river Lowe.... Like eating a salmon the eagle gripped the log in his claws he tore out the interior decaying wood from within the branch with his powerful beak.
The river began to flow red and many creatures came to feed on your remains tossed out of you by the eagle. It was a great gathering of the clan of the north. The eagle stopped his work and spoke to the clan of the north..... the dying, the decay is cleansed and the wood of the cotton wood tree is healed.
Offer your prayers to her ëthe treeí for her giving to us all of herself. In sharing her life, dying, renewal and rebirth. Come now to the valley of the Makai of the Shauntee and sit with me and tell me your stories under the northern lights and the moon.
As the clan spoke their names and their stories the great eagle took his claws and carved their story in the flesh of the logs.... The land of the north of the natural, nature and wilderness.. the clan brought gifts to the eagle... feathers, moss, northern woods and rock, fur, and hides.
The eagle took the gifts placing some within the log resembling his claw reaching out for the sun. This is our heart he said to the clan.... Held within with beauty, mystery, and knowing what we know... what we are sure of... our life knowledge.
He held up the other log... carved in itís skin was a picture of the eagle and of our land... the northern land of two rivers, of the Makai and the Shauntee.. It tells the story of the red road the right path....
The bear gave the eagle two elk hides which he had torn and some shredded lacing ...
the eagle capped the logs on one end tying the heads securely with the lacing to the log.... The bear told the eagle to let the hides dry until the sun rises in the east and await the magic to come.
Another Owl Windsourse is her name.... she came from the east. With her came a hawk,
a raven and a bear known as lazy J. They came from the plains where the cottonwood tree grew. Windsource thanked me for helping to heal her tree. She and the others told their story of the ancient mountains heart of the plains.
Of the ancient lands and peoples, of the great mountains now sand dunes across the plains. It was the story of their lives and of the natural, nature and wilderness within us all. Though in this world. We are not of it... they spoke of the elders knowledge.
Lazy J the bear spoke his story of his life. I am the keeper of the drum... the bear he began. As we listened to the bears story.... We knew we were also the keepers of the drum.. the story tellers of our life, our lives, our nature, natural and wilderness. The protectors of the ancient ways.
Lazy J the bear took up the log from the cotton wood tree on the plains and held
it towards the rising sun. You are the drum he said... meet grandfather sun, and to
the drum he said... this is your brother the eagle... your keeper... the keeper of the drum.
He will keep you in this land of the northern sky so that the stories we have told of our lives will live within his hands and yours. Take your hands from your hearts.... and touch this drum. Tracing the circle of life on itís skin.... take your hand back to your heart and trace the circle of life within your heart.
Begin your drumming following the beat within our hearts... Begin on the edges of the drum again tracing the circle of life, gently waking the spirits within the drum... began moving softly towards the center of the drum with each beat of your heart... softly then loudly as you move to the center of the drum...
When the center of is reached.... beat loudly when you feel our hearts meeting....
we meet within one heart beat. We are the drum The keepers of the drum... The story tellers...
The Owl Winsource spoke again... It is time for the eagle to return with us to the cotton wood on the plains... To bring the gift of rebirth to the land.... the river long to dry is free flowing, wildly from the mountains across the plains to the sea the river is free.
They took flight in the morning sun.... flying into the rising colors of day.
The windsource, lady of the lake, the raven following the beat of the mountains
heart home to the plains to the ancient ones.
As they had left they returned from within the sun they brought the gift of rebirth
to the land the drum to the tree. The eagle told the story of the northland journey,
the story of the drum, the great gathering of the clan and the stories of their life of their hearts... The tree wept with joy seeing her child the drum within the claws of the eagle. Her childís heart beat loudly.
Windsource and the Raven invited the eagle into the medicine wheel on the plain...
the wheel of life. There the eagle blessed the drum and the sacred life of the land of his sisters and brothers of his father and mother, grandfather and grandmother and of all families within the circle of life.
The eagle vowed he would keep the sacred life alive and tell the story of life.
Windsource and Raven shared many gifts with the eagle... the greatest gift was
the meeting of their children.
Strong youthful hearts beating loudly, clearly... We are your children hear our
hearts beating as one with the natural, nature of wilderness. We are youthful and
you our elders must teach us to be mindful of our hearts, of the path on the red road, of the drum, of the circle of life... we are your future. The keepers of the drum.... the story tellers.
Protect us said the children to the eagle... from those which would do us harm...
we are your children... nurture us well with beauty, inspire us with the story of
the sacred life and set us free... Flying beyond your years our story to tell of the
ancient oneís gone before, of the keepers of the drum, of our hearts beating as one.... the children spoke to the eagle.... to me.
The eagle heart was touched by the children.... youthfulness and awe filled the
eagles spirit lifting him higher and higher above the circle of life... the medicine
wheel on the plains... above the children...
The raven joined the eagle in the sun and spoke these works to the eagle....
This eagle your lightning chant... your power and ours. Learn it... know it in
your heart, speak it from your heart.
Know and speak of our hearts beating as one... the ancient ones, fathers,
mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, the children... our family. All within the sacred life we are alive.
The Lightning Chant
Light of power. Lance of light.
Touch this crystal stone
send its life in arrows through my sacred ground within.
Send the light, send the power...
Touch this crystal stone...
Touch this body. Touch this spirit
Keep the sacred life alive. From the Raven-Sissy. 7-99
The eagle flew into the sun.... His shadow nearly covered the earth....
his wing tips shot lightning out filling the sky. Calling out to the mountains
heart his soul mate to join him. She came on the east wind to join with him.
Talons locking together they blocked out the sun... a moment of darkness ...
the mystery of life took the children home.
Tumbling earthbound... the sun broke from within their spirits filling the sky
with color..... the sky heavy with light with color poured down upon the earth
upon the sacred life alive.
The pair separated to the east and west circling to the north they met at the river long to dry... which now flowed wild and free from the mountains to the plains, from the plains to the sea... the river of life is free. The circle of life is again complete.
The pair of eagles honored their love for each other there beside the river..
Vowing not to forget their love, their friendship, the gifts they received and gave... They vowed to keep the sacred life alive... I also took that vow!
lati-lynn
Kinsley Ks.99
Drum with me....
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