GrayBear Tracks

I see myself as a mediator or a scout, a tracker, rather than a healer. Simply because ‘healing’; out growing dis-ease, is a very personal matter, no one can do it for you, nor can you do it to or for someone else. I simply know some pathways, where some tracks are, I know the terrain, I can share my experience and skills that have worked, the rest requires your own personal investment.

In this way I feel the “charges” or ‘cost’ not only enables me to be available, and provide the environment, it is a gift to me for sharing the work I have done, but it is more importantly your investment in yourself.

I apprenticed for 10 years with a Mi’kmaq Medicine Man, though he ever only called himself a “Pipecarrier”. I learned the ceremonies and methods from him by simple repetition, and in that way building integrity and personal power. It is through him I received my instructions

* One of those ceremonies is what my benefactor called simply “Fasting”. “Fasting is a ceremony that you may have heard called a ‘vision quest’ and it is in its way a quest for vision. It is, like all things of true value, very simple. It is not easy, but it is very simple. There are daily practices prior to arriving at the “fasting grounds”. Three sweats at the ‘fasting grounds’ then the “Fast” begins. There is a sweat to end the “Fast”. A Fast is 4 days and 4 nights, in a small lodge, with no food and no water, alone with your creator and your environment. Simple, but not easy.Sometimes you receive a message at the time, sometimes you do not receive it for many years. But you do receive a message, weather is it a vision or an awakening or a simple faith in yourself.

*One of those ceremonies is a “sweat lodge”. A sweat lodge has some of the attributes of sauna but it is defiantly not a sauna. It is a healing, cleansing ceremony, and serves many purposes.

*One of those ceremonies is a “medicine wheel”. The ‘medicine wheel’ is an analogy for the circles of the universe to help us en-vision our place within it. All things are born knowing their place within the universe except humans. We alone must seek that awareness. Just a note here; this is something that he and I discussed at great length because he knew little about it. It was not a part of the teachings he learned from his teachers. However he loved the analogy of it as do I.

*One of those ceremonies is “talking circle”. A talking circle is a method of building communication, it has some of the attributes of a support group, but it is much more. It is a place made safe to teach the art of exposing our true self by speaking what we truly feel and think. In this way it teaches about true equality and how to resolve difficult issues in a fair and open method, or to simply develop a better relationship with each other.

*One of the ‘messages’ I received has come be the practice of Reiki. One day in the afterglow of one of my fast as I sat enjoying a cup of tea looking out over the Bay of Chaleur I had an odd sensation in my hands. Idly I began to play with it. I saw a rainbow light emanating from both my hands. I simply knew I could sweep away any blocks/darkness/illness from myself and anyone else. I was amazed. However as the everyday world grew more solid I eventually forgot about it. Then 12 or 13 years later a friend introduced me to Reiki. I was pretty sceptical to be honest thinking is was just some new age fluff, so I started doing some research. I read the story of Dr. Mikao Usui, (several in fact), I was impressed when I learned it had come to him by fasting. Strangely it took me some while to remember the experience I had after my ‘fast’ years earlier. Still it remained an amazing coincidence. About that same time period I was in the process of buying a house and therefore moving. In sorting though some old papers I came across the business card of a woman I had met in the family waiting room of a hospital in Phoenix Az. when my mother had open heart surgery. She was a Reiki Master! I phoned her. Against all odds, (it had been 10years), she answered. We talked for a long time and made arrangements to begin my Attunements. Much to my chagrin, that was 10 years ago. In that time I have come to recognise once again a pervious lession; that Raiki in itself does not heal, it simply creates a flow of energy, or speeds up a flow of energy that makes the changes that “healing” requires possable. Any way you look at it, ‘healing’ is hard work.

To be quite honest it is hard to say how much of any of this is exclusively Native American, for they too are struggling with the rediscovery of themselves. I cannot in any capacity address the wrongs of the past or the present, I can only humbly offer my deepest gratitude for the gifts of love and friendship and spiritual guidance given to me. Therefore out of respect for their losses and magic of rediscovery , I am naming my ceremonies Celtic. For 10 odd years I have explored the European/ Scottish linage of my mother, which lead me to researching the pre-Christian pagan/shamanistic practices of Britain. I have found a great deal of similarities, ‘pagan practices/shamanism’ are all closely parallel. So, while it still remains a far cry from tracing actual bloodlines, my mother’s maiden name was Bruce, so I figure it is close enough and vague enough to claim the title Celtic. It is after all the sincerity and the practice rather than the name that interest the higher power. The All One is what it is no mater the name. It is with great honour I offer to non-native seekers Christian, or pagan, or other what small skills I have acquired. As an old saying goes: "the proof is in the pudding"

In Gratitude and Faith I introduce;

Teighe Allius aka sweat lodge,

The Wreath of Kinship aka talking circle

The Wheel of Life ‘aka’ medicine wheel

And The Sacred Spiral aka “Fasting”