Earth medicine, p.10
Earth Medicine, page 10
Of course, since the information given in each section will apply equally to all people born within its time-period of approximately thirty days, these can be only broad and general indications, but none the less they should prove helpful enough. Of course, not everyone born in the same section of time will have identical personalities and see things in exactly the same way. Every individual is different. Indeed, every individual is unique and developing in their own way. But people who are born in the same Earth Influence period share certain broad characteristics and attitudes just as people born in a particular region of a country share its local dialect.
We are all citizens of the world, but we are not all alike. There are pronounced differences, like the colour of skin, and racial and cultural attitudes. Further distinctions are determined by the country of our birth. For instance, a person born in the United Kingdom and a person born in the United States will both speak English, but there will be differences in the way the language is spoken, and certain words will not even have the same meaning. Each will approach life from different social and cultural backgrounds which will influence the way they interpret life.
Even when people have similar character traits and qualities, they may express them differently, but none the less there will be a broad but distinctive behaviour pattern and it is this that each birth totem section will indicate.
As in Nature, the energies we are examining here are not static and fixed. They are flowing and in constant motion. American Indians likened this flow to the tides of the Moon. The Moon’s energies build up as the surface of its reflected light increases and reach their peak at the Full Moon. Then they diminish as the Moon wanes and less of the surface is lit. So with humans there are similar modes of expression of the character traits and qualities and these will be examined.
A further factor is that energies can be projected either positively or negatively. Every character trait has a positive polarity – a constructive aspect – and a negative polarity, or adverse aspect, and each contains the seed of its own opposite in accordance with the law of duality, yang and yin. So the person who is domineering and dictatorial is expressing the negative aspects of the protective and nurturing. Someone who is manipulative and underhand is expressing the negative polarity of the helpful and unassuming. Similarly, a person who is indecisive and selfish is displaying the negative aspects of one who is dependable and caring.
The sections in Part Two are also of especial help in understanding other people – your loved ones, members of your family, friends, colleagues and associates.
Naturally, most readers will want to read the section concerning themselves and those of their loved ones first, but in order to obtain the maximum benefit the whole of Part Two should be read thoroughly because each section contains not only a penetrating insight into the different streams of personality, but also important elements of the ‘hidden’ teachings of American Indians and these apply to everyone and not just those whose birthdays occur during the time being dealt with.
Part Three suggests how you can achieve a finer tuning of the system through practical application of the principles of Earth Medicine. It also shows how to move around the Web gathering qualities you need and correcting your own recognized imbalances. And it includes methods of obtaining intuitive knowledge, knowledge that is personal to you, and relevant to the circumstances of your life.
Of course, the ultimate value of any self-help, self-development system, comes from its personal application. In Earth Medicine that comes from putting your totems to work for you.
So far you have been introduced to three personal totems. You have a birth or animal totem – Falcon, Beaver, Deer, Woodpecker, Salmon, Brown Bear, Crow, Snake, Owl, Goose, Otter or Wolf, depending on the time of the year of your birthday – a directional totem (either Eagle, Mouse, Grizzly or Buffalo) and an elemental totem (Hawk, Frog, Turtle or Butterfly).
In working through your section you will acquire other totems. Remember, these totems are symbolic representations of intangible forces and qualities, and therefore helpful mental tools and memory aids to enable you to systematize information and to associate ideas. But they can become much more than that if you want Earth Medicine to really work for you.
Your totems can become active helpers in the development of your intuitive senses for they can act as connectors to the different levels with which they are associated. To use an analogy, they are like the functional keys of a personal computer which can key you in to a whole range of information and also provide you with access to the performance of certain tasks. The information thus obtained is intuitive knowledge because it comes not from a book or a computer program but from within the self. It is an insight – an inner ‘see-ing’ – that goes beyond the process of reasoning things out. It is illumination that lies beyond the intellect and once obtained becomes truth that is personal to you.
Each section in Part Two is really a charting device. Its purpose is to enable you to see yourself more clearly and to recognize how you are affected by the energies manifesting in your life. You will then be better able to work with them and to live up to your full potential.
Each section is arranged in the following sequence:
1. Birth month: This gives the starting and ending dates of the approximate thirty-day time-period.
2. Earth influence: The prime influence that affects the time-period is indicated succinctly in the way Nature usually expresses itself during that part of the yearly cycle, e.g. the Awakening Time (21 March – 19 April), when Nature appears to awaken from its winter rest and springs into new life: the Growing Time (20 April – 20 May), when vegetation puts down roots and shows rapid growth above the surface of the soil; and Long Days Time (21 June – 21 July), the period of long days and short nights, and the Blustery Winds Time (19 February – 20 March), the period of strong winds and gales. What is being examined, though, is not the effect of physical forces but of the non-physical essences that activate and ensoul all material manifestation. The Earth influence encapsulates those essences and forces.
3. Solar influence: This indicates the seasonal character of the solar energies, whether they are waxing or waning, and how they affect the human condition. The related Sun sign in Sun astrology is indicated so that you may refer to correlated information in this area of the ancient sciences.
4. Influencing wind: The appropriate directional power is identified and its fundamental and possible effect examined.
5. Influencing elements: The elemental forces influencing the personality are examined in both their directional and cyclical modes, and the possible effect on the personality is discussed.
6. Elemental clan: The Elemental Clan – Earth, Water, Air, Fire – to which the individual is related through birth in a particular time-period is examined and its implications discussed.
7-10. Totems: The birth totem (animal), and plant, mineral and polarity totems are identified and their purpose, meaning and value in interpreting tendencies are discussed in detail.
11. Personality expression: This is a detailed analysis of how people born under a particular Earth influence express themselves to others, and of core characteristics and likely tendencies. It indicates how the personality is likely to express itself it childhood, and as an adult, and as a parent. The potentialities and possible talents are also given, together with an indication of the vocational areas in which job satisfaction is likely to be found.
12. Romance and sex: The probable romantic outlook is assessed, together with the possible sexual attitude. The most likely compatibilities between the sexes are also given.
13. Health: A summary of likely health tendencies and possible problem areas.
14. Affinity colour: The affinity colour of the birth totem is given and its significance explained. This information provides a useful introduction to the subject of colour harmonics and colour therapy.
15. Advantageous times: The month, day and times in the day when the cosmic energies harmonize to provide the most likely advantageous period for personal development.
16. Outward aim and inner desire: The outward (conscious) aim is the direction that life appears to be headed in and the impression that is being given to others; the inner (subconscious) desire is the ‘hidden’ tendency. Both are analysed.
17. Spiritual alchemy: An assessment of the extrovert (masculine) and introvert (feminine) tendencies within the fundamental personality of the relevant Earth influence and where to look to balance the inner dynamics.
18. Life challenges: Experiences that are likely to be encountered frequently, and the lessons they are there to teach. They are the opportunities to strengthen character through karmic programming.
19. Life-path and primary function: Where to find the true purpose of your life.
20. Influencing I Ching trigram: The relevant I Ching trigram in accordance with the energies flowing in the Earth Influence period. Knowledge of this is helpful in developing an extension into mystical counselling.
21. How to cope with people of this birth totem: If you are studying a section in order to understand more about someone you know, this gives a brief outline on how best to deal with them.
Note Each subsection is prefixed with the section number followed by the subsection number; e.g. 1.6 is section 1 (Awakening Time, Falcon) subsection 6 (elemental clan); 8.4 is section 8 (Frost Time, Snake) subsection 4 (influencing wind). This is to make cross-referencing and comparisons quick and easy.
Figure 38(b). The Earth Medicine Web for the Southern hemisphere
Figure 39. The Earth Medicine Web for the Northern hemisphere
2.1
Falcon
SUMMARY
1. Falcon
1.1 BIRTH MONTH: 21 March – 19 April
1.2 EARTH INFLUENCE: The Awakening Time
The Awakening Time is the first of the three cycles of spring and begins the growth-and-illumination cycle of the East at the Spring Equinox on 21 March.
People born between 21 March and 19 April enter Earth life at the time of the yearly cycle when that which has been lying dormant and within the darkness of the Earth during winter is waking into new life. Those born at this time express the newness of the life-energy that requires the patient nurturing of loving care to being it into full blossom.
These human ‘buddings’ are like the seeds that push up their first shoots out of the soil in springtime, and the buds that burst into life on trees and plants – full of exuberant energy, but not yet fully aware of the world beyond themselves.
They are being driven by an urge to demonstrate their existence as individuals. What they will need to come to recognize is that they are not alone, and that the ideas that seem to spring so readily from their minds contain only potential and require the help and co-operation of others to bring them to the maturity of practical reality.
The Awakening Time brings energy for speedy growth and for change, for this is one of the most rapid periods of growth in the Earth’s yearly cycle. So those born in the Awakening Time are here to develop rapidly and in so doing learn the lesson of all growing things – adaptability. For part of their life’s purpose is the learning of patience and persistence, and especially adaptability, without compromising on ideals and principles.
The Awakening Time begins at the Spring Equinox, which marks the arrival of spring when the Earth Mother brings forth new life that has lain within her womb during the winter. It is the time of the promised rebirth which was implicit in death. It is the resurrection into new life of that which appeared to be dead and to have vanished for ever into invisibility. Its message is evident everywhere around – in the blush of green leaves on the trees, in the springiness of the grass beneath the feet, in the budding plants, and in the blossoming of the spring flowers that open their hearts to shout their message of joy and wonder.
It is a message not just of awakening, but of reawakening, for it is the time of re-becoming.
With it come the fresh spring winds that enrich the air with new oxygen and blow into our lives giving us the vigour to clear out the clutter of debris that has accumulated over the winter. It is the time for a new spring outfit of clothes to brighten us and to help us to sense our renewal.
1.3 SOLAR INFLUENCES
This is the beginning of the spring season when the Solar energies are waxing and gaining strength and bringing new life into manifestation. So people of this month will want to project themselves into the world of practical experience with enthusiasm and to look for opportunities to display their creativity. They will seek mental exploration and consideration of moral issues.
The temperament might be described as warming. There may be an almost shy uncertainty that might be mistaken for aloofness and even indifference. But behind it, at the core, is deep affection which comes forth only through gentle arousal.
The related Sun sign is Aries.
1.4 INFLUENCING WIND: The East Winds
DIRECTION: North-East
Since the East Winds of Spring tempt people out into the open after their long periods spent indoors during winter, a quality associated with the East winds is open-mindedness. So the need for open-mindedness is likely to be evident in the lives of those born in the Awakening Time. When they maintain an open mind towards a situation with which they are confronted, they will be in harmony with the energies that influence them, but should they adopt a stubborn or dogmatic attitude and close their minds, the flow of energies will be blocked and create obstructions and difficulties for them.
As the East winds come from the direction of the dawn and the rising sun, they are also associated with awakening, of coming into a new awareness as illumination begins to reveal that which was once hidden or obscured. People of this time will feel the urge for illumination in all areas of their life; the need to see things more clearly, why they are as they are, and how things work out.
People born in the Awakening Time are affected by the directional power of the East – one might describe it as the spirit or intelligence of the East – whose energies stimulate the desire to start new projects, to be involved in new challenges, and to make fresh beginnings.
A totem that helped the Indians to relate more readily to such an intangible spiritual force, and the totem that was used by many tribes as a meaningful symbol of the East, was the eagle.
Characteristic of the eagle is its ability to see great distances, and far-sightedness was considered an important quality of the East. It is of particular relevance to people born in the Awakening Time for it stresses the importance of not being hurried into a situation because of any apparent immediate advantages and the need to look ahead and to consider the long-term consequences of any proposed action.
Since the power of the East influence is primarily with the spirit, Awakening Time folk are likely to be attracted to interests which emphasize spiritual considerations or moral or ethical issues. They will be drawn into experiences which are intended to bring their attention to the relevance of principles.
1.5 INFLUENCING ELEMENT: Fire
Elemental Fire is associated with the spiritual plane of existence which is sensed not with the eyes or the ears, nor by touch, but with the heart. It is experienced through love – not the love of self-indulgence, but the love that is a giving of oneself. This is one of the great realizations for Awakening Time people to come to experience in their lives.
Awakening Time folk are influenced by the power of elemental Fire, and it is this energy that is evident in their burning enthusiasm for the things that attract them, and – if they do not learn to control it – the energy behind their impulsiveness and fiery temperament when provoked.
People of this time seem full of energy and always on the go, and it is elemental Fire that is their energizer and driving power. In addition, they will be creative, enthusiastic, versatile and extroverted, all of which are expressions of the qualities of elemental Fire.
1.6 ELEMENTAL CLAN: Hawk Clan
The hawk is a large and magnificent bird of prey which is spectacular in its flight. The red hawk was venerated by many Indian tribes and its feathers were treasured and used in ceremonials, especially for healing. It was often associated with the phoenix, the mythical firebird which arose out of its own burning ashes and was symbolic of radiant energy, the blazing of new trails, the flash of intuition, and the thunder of sudden change.
The elemental clan gives an indication of the principal function of those who belong to it – the fundamental contribution of the people who comprise it to the rest of the tribe or community. The Hawk Clan can be considered the thinkers, inspirers and leaders. Those born in the Awakening Time are the ‘starters’ – the pioneers who lead the way ahead for others. They are the ones who start new activity and set it in motion from the heat of their own inner fire.
Awakening Time people look around for new things to be involved in, and begin new projects for others to build on. They light new fires for others to keep alight. They have an intuitive sense which, like lightning, comes in sudden flashes of illumination, but they need to look for guidance from people of other Times in the Clan on how to develop this intuitive sense, for it can often provide the insight they need when faced with important decisions.
Since elemental Fire is exerting its influence both directionally and cyclically, they must guard against becoming too intense about the way they express their energies and live their lives, otherwise they run the risk of burning themselves out eventually.
