Suzanne’s interpretation of North, Winter cross-culturally

SUZANNE LEWIS, NORTH/WINTER CROSS-CULTURAL VIEW

Cross culturally North on the medicinal wheel, winter, is connected with one’s spiritual essence and is often symbolized by mountains, being a warrior/ess, or wise elder. In our changing times as we move into this Beginning of the golden age, young and old are looking for wonderful heroes and heroines to model a good, beautiful way of living with self and others. The deep call is for each of us to authentically walk on the altar of our life, in good relations with all. Anytime one finds themselves breaking their code of ethics or being subjugated to collaborate in wrong doings fear and shame riddles the health of self and community.
Oriental thinking, as it related to the five element theory, states that the water element ie. the kidneys and bladder rules this winter season. In all health issues one is taught to begin with the state of one’s waters to mend and balance any disorder in our total system. Curiously, the kidney when out of balance brings forth the emotion of fear and the bladder is directly connected to the senses in the face and the range of emotions triggered by those senses. During the last moon cycle in 2016 from December 13th to January 12th, called the 13th lunar month, we are petitioned to examine the flows of the following rivers:
the river of challenge
the river of love
the river of inspiration
the river of magic and wonder
(Female lineage stands to our left and male ancestors stand to our right. Four tracking systems to look at our interior and exterior to tell that we were still alive. She called these the four rivers.
River of Inspiration it’s uplifting and expansive.
River of Challenge, it’s where we’re being tested and how we’re meeting them. She also said if we refuse to meet our challenges to walk our process we would be considered a living dead. Difficult people who challenge us ultimately strength us to find our own values knowing that the surprises would take us back to fresh beginnings and the River of Love, what deeply touches you would work on the river of love.
River of Surprise where we are still alive if we can still be delighted, the magic kingdom, the divine child. We were to ask ourselves what still gives us giggles and brings us to wonder.
Fourth River of Love, what touches us, moves us, what people in our life that we feel loved. Attitude always reveals self esteem.
Two primal fears—entrapment and abandonment.
Angeles spoke of the dragons, rubbing their hands together. They have a white pearl of spirit, a pink one for the heart and a blue one for wisdom, the silent place. The pearl of great prize was all three colors. Angeles suggested that w bring a practice of total silence into our lives—where we cut the chit chat, the monkey mind.
Reflection, contemplation, remembering, the regathering of ourselves from wherever we have spread ourselves. It is spinning and weaving stories, the remembering stories. Spring is the healing time of self. The most potent time of the year is Dec.13th through Jan. 12th, the twilight month of the year. It’s the crack between the two worlds, a sneak preview of the work for this year. The opportunities, the talent, the blessing way. The warrior challenge test definition of nature. The Oceanic people would call it the bamboo reed, a firm yet yielding, taking a look again at the nature of our house. Angels come in many disguises and give loving guidance.
In the African and Central America it is spoken of the ancestral lodges and in the winter time story telling occurred where hard tests are remembered and redefined. The tests that are of nature that are strong, soft, and subtle. It is said that your house has five poles and the winter time is the time to renovate these poles, get them ready for the next season. The center pole is the sacred pole, it deals with the mystery and the ancestral. The north is the body, the Father’s guide, the winged ones, the four winds, the warriors. It’s about love, sensuality, sexuality and it must be felt in our bodies. The martial arts, the dance it’s a way that we can show up in our body. It’s also the time of the four intelligence, the mind, life spirit, the heart and the body.
The south pole deals with healing and relationship and heart. To the degree we take care of our body is to the degree that we take care of our relations, the North/south balance. The east is the place of self-esteem, self worth. WE were to ask, is my self-worth as strong as my self-critic. Each morning we were to ask this question. In the east before I enter this day am I in my medicine? I must be able to answer yes. The ancestors are always trying for the good true and beautiful. To be as strong as the demons and monsters. It deals with being authentic and honest and filled with integrity.
The west is the right attitude pole, the teacher. Attitude is being connected to four bones. Consciously we are to register events and circumstances that play out during this time period with the deep wisdom that it may predict situations that will unfold during the next year of one’s life. As one observes the interplays in these rivers we are to be in our witness state of awareness. Deleting any judgment, comparison and understanding, just being watchful to notice if one of the rivers dominate the way we exchange with life. Especially alert if one of the rivers has no activity, we can affirm in the months to follow to create and bring into our life more love, inspiration, and childlike wonder.
Meanwhile many Indigenous people recognize the North as the home of the warrior/ess, a place where one must align with the highest good, to glean their truths/values and virtues. This direction is about waking up being conscious of one’s deepest moral code. The most dangerous state is to step into apathy, going consciously unconscious. The choice to be radically alive rather than a ‘living dead’ is essential. It is a crime against one’s deepest nature to be aware of truth, equanimity and then align with an injustice that injures self and community.
The darkest of all the seasons, winter, demands that each being must face their greatest fear—which for most is death. Until we confront this transition, it will continue to haunt us and our families. We as human beings are to learn that we are like trees and we bridge heaven and earth. Heaven being symbolized by above, the sky, the light the masculine and earth connected with below, the physical, the dark, the feminine. Deepak Chopra states “The relationship between disease and health is like the relationship between darkness and light. Health is not the absence of disease; disease is the absence of health.”
Each of us are feminine and masculine and until we learn to surrender to the mystery and the spirituality of both, judgment and shame color one’s personality. It is the time for heroes, the heroine, the warriors, the elder’s to show up for as the saying goes ‘If the elders will speak, the young will listen.’ We often hear it takes a community to raise a child, I feel it takes the community to raise and nurture each of us.
We must choose to not go back to sleep (living dead), abstain from going unconscious. Wake up, wake up the call is out for wise, integrity-filled and courageous people to model their truths for the sake of the children and the future. We must say what we mean and do what we say. Vietnamese poet, Thich Nhat Hahn stated, “Our greatest spiritual challenge of these times is the confidence to be ourselves.”
“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!” – Rumi