Saturday, June 13, 2020

Yesterday we celebrated my daughter’s 33rd birthday. Due to Covid distancing, we sat on folding chairs on Hermosa Beach with Michael, her fiance. We ate take-out salads while the sun set and talked about her birth and the Black Lives Matter movement.

It was the co-occurence of my pregnancy with a major health crisis that led me to Native American Shamanism.

At age 31, due to the trauma and depression from being diagnosed with metastatic melanoma while pregnant, I began sessions with a therapist from the Church of Religious Science. The father of Maria, my therapist, was a Plains Indian. She combined psychotherapy with Native American healing practices. She explained to me that in times of crisis, a power animal may appear to the person needing help.

One of the Native American methods for discovering one’s power animal is Shamanic Journeying. The Native Americans believe that animals from the spirit realm, similar to Roman Catholic saints, can be accessed for healing energy. The Shaman practitioner leads the seeker in a hypnotic trance through a combination of drumming, rattling, and guided imagery to a place in the upper, lower, or middle worlds. This is where the power animal appears. The lower world is within the earth, the upper world is in the sky and beyond, and the middle world is a plane where the two coincide and may be avoided during journeying due to negative energetic beings that exist on that plane.

Even before Maria directed me in a lower world journey, my power animal appeared to me. The following is what I wrote many years ago about that event:

“Driving alone on the highway one night, I heard a loud thud. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, I realized that something had hit the car. Shaken, I turned off the road to the next exit. As I opened the car door and stepped outside, I notice that feathers were twisted around the car handle, what appeared to be owl feathers. With a shudder, I knew that this was no accident. Something else lingered in my mind. Upon arrival home, I sought a book I recently consulted and looked under the index for “owl”. It read: The nocturnal owl suggests the wisdom of the dream world and the collective unconscious. It symbolizes healing power as well as the ability to fight for one’s life when necessary.

Four days later, it was determined that the malignant melanoma diagnosed with pregnancy had spread to a lymph node in my neck.

My Native American therapist advised me to “Go back and see if I could find the owl, sprinkle it with salt and bury the feathers.”

Not much remained of the owl but my husband and I buried it. I kept seven of the tattered feathers and tucked them away in a wooden box, wrapped in a purple cloth. This is what I wrote years after the experience: “The weeks and months that followed were the most difficult of my life. I wavered between fear and depression. One day, while meditating, I saw myself in my mind’s eye, wearing a purple silk cloak and traveling at dusk to a mountain top with an owl resting on my shoulder. I leapt from the cliff, and, in so doing, became one with the owl, soaring to the ocean and desert. A feeling of peace enveloped me.”

I continued therapy with Maria for several years and she instructed me in other shamanic practices. During the course of several weeks, she assisted me in constructing a Medicine Shield. The deer skin she chose was the color of the sun when it sets. On the face of the shield, I painted an owl, its wings outstretched, crowned by seven phases of the moon. The seven tattered owl feathers hung from the base of the Plains Indian hoop. It emanated a sense of power.

My daughter was seven months old when the owl came to me. I often worried if the trauma of the circumstances during my pregnancy and with the recurrence of the melanona effected her emotionally. Today is her birthday and I reflect that in her role as a Pediatrician, she is helping other parents and children adjust to challenging health situations. Perhaps this is what the Owl intended.

Now, more than ever, we need power animals to guide us toward the right action in this time of racial upheaval. I urge consideration, if circumstances permit, to consider journeying for a power animal to help in achieving a peaceful balance.

For additional information contact Donna Graves at thedifferentdrummerblog@gmail.com