4.11.1.5 Freeze Up Moon: Snake (Sun Bear MWEA 108-116)

• October 24 to November 21
• Copper and malachite as mineral totems
• Thistle as plant totem
• Snake as animal totem
• Color is orange
• Members of Frog elemental clan
• 4.11.1.5.1 Mineral Kingdom: Copper and Malachite
  • Copper is found all over the world
    • Since earliest times when people learned how to work it
      • It has been used for implements of all kinds
      • And for ornamentation
      • In the earliest periods, it was usually pounded into shape
      • Later smelted and formed
    • Copper is attributed with a wide variety of special powers
      • Basically thought to help with purification of the spirit and the blood
      • For untold years, those with problems with arthritis or rheumatism
        • Or any diseases that cause stiffening of the joints
        • Bracelets or anklets of copper used for bringing relief
      • Artists often wear bracelets of copper to keep arms from stiffening
      • Warriors have used bracelets or armbands of copper to strengthen their arms
    • Copper conducts electricity better than most minerals
      • Used almost always in wiring for this energy
    • Copper also causes heat to spread evenly over a surface
      • Used in copper and copper-bottomed cooking vessels
    • Copper was also considered a conductor for other types of energy
      • Frequently used with crystals with the power to focus energies
  • Malachite is the gemstone for the Snake people
    • It is a copper carbonate, foudn where copper mining takes place
    • Bright green in color; luster can range from glossy to dull or silky
    • Clear specimens have been used as gems
      • Also carved into vases, ornaments and statues
    • Like copper, malachite is found in most areas of this country
    • Malachite is thought to have particular spiritual powers
      • Most important, it is said to raise a person's sensitivity to the voice of the spirit
      • It is considered a stone that increases your receptivity to all forms of subtle energy
        • Also increases your psychic powers
  • From their stones, Snake people can learn of their own abilities
    • To transmute the things with which they come in contact
    • Like copper, Snake people have the ability to bring change to any of the things with which they are involved
    • While usually not very malleable themselves
      • Can adapt situations around them into whatever shape they desire
    • They have a high energy running through them at most times
      • They have many new ideas about ways in which any situation can be improved
    • When in good balance, most or their ideas will be sound ones
      • Ideas they are fully capable of implementing
    • Because they are generally attuned to the higher energies around them
      • Once they have purified their own spirits capable of helping others do so
    • Many are natural healers
      • Can help people purify their bodies and blood
  • Like Copper, Snake People help to keep stiffness or weakness away
    • From those they associate with by the strength and power of their own energy
    • They are very capable of conducting the higher energies that surround all of us
    • They have a grasp of other realms that are spiritual as well as material
    • They have an inquisitive, investigative nature
      • Able to bring the knowledge of these realms into a form easily understood by others
    • They also have the ability to spread heat evenly
      • Be it heat of their newest ideas
      • Or heat of their wrath when things are going in a manner they find displeasing
  • Like Malachite, Snake people do have particular spiritual powers
    • When in balance, they are sensitive to the voice of the spirit
      • Able to receive many kinds of subtle energies
    • They are gifted in the psychic realms
      • Regardless of their state of development
      • This gift can be eitehr a blessing
      • Or very detrimental to them if they have not developed themeselves to use these gifts
      • Such gifts should be sued for the good of humankind, not for personal gain
      • Snake people who do use these powers for their own purposescan be very successful at doing so
        • They can sway large numbers of people to their way of thinking
        • Ultimately, they will undo themselves when they get a clear look at what they are really doing
        • And, as closely related to spirit as they are, such a look will inevitably come to them

• 4.11.1.5.2 Plant Kingdom: Thistle
  • Sharp-spined plant; grows most places, city or country
    • Three to ten feet high
    • Thick taproot resembles a carrot
    • First year, leaves grow in a rosette
    • Second year, flowering stem rises from rosette
    • Flower heads are loose clusters
    • Flowers red, purple or white
    • Leaves and flowers covered with very sharp, prickly hairs
    • Bristly down covers ever part of the plant
  • Young stem can be peeled and eaten raw; so can root
    • Young leaves harvested for use as a tea
    • Fruitlike seeds eaten raw or roasted
    • All parts of thistle rich in minerals
  • Native healers used thistle for weakend stomach, digestive problems
    • For reducing fevers; for expelling worms
    • For increasing milk in nursing mothers
  • Thistle once considered an all-purpose herb cabaple of curing most maladies
    • Particularly those of the brain
    • Alleged to strengthen all internal body organs
    • Alleged to help cure all sorts of aches and pains
    • Some species called holy thistle or blessed thistle
      • Healing properties attributed to them
  • Snake people, like Thistle, can mentally and emotionally grow to great or small height
    • Depends on willingness to properly cultivate and use talents and abilities within
  • Snake people can learn from Thistle
    • Importance of their having strong and deep root into earth
      • They need help of the earth to learn to properly channel their energies
    • All Snake pople have ability to be very helpful to the world around them
      • Some lose this opportunity by covering themselves with prickly spines
      • Few people able to get close enough to see the good things beneath this coating
      • Even well-harmonized Snake people usually have a little of this prickly coating
        • It will stick to anyone they feel has injured them or those they love
  • If you succeed in getting past the outer coating of a Snake person
    • You'll find that what lies within is as multipurpose and valuable as the Thistle
    • Snake people can help to cleanse and heal their own body
    • Or those of others through their powers to discern what the malady really is
      • Then they can direct their healing abilities toward it
      • May be scientific or nature
  • Snake people can use their plant to help keep al of their internal organs in order
    • They are prone to problems with their blood system
    • As well as all it touches when they are not in a good balance
    • During such times they will also be prone to all the varying types or nervous maladies
      • Ranges from ulcers to fits of depression
    • When in a weakend or confused condition
      • Need to first bring their own energies into balance
      • Only then any other type of treatment can be totally effective
    • Since they are regenerators, they are quite capable of doing so
      • Once they determine that they want to
      • If they will not make this decision, it is difficult for anyone else to help them
    • It is Snake people in a confused condition who are the sharpest and thorniest of this totem
      • They are quite capable of being stubborn, critical, jealous, deceitful
        • And given to times of furious anger
        • Often cutting directly toward thsoe who are closest to them
      • Important for Snake people in this condition
        • To remember that they have all the power they need to re-balance themselves
        • To bring their energies into a more helpful, pleasant, clear and serving place

• 4.11.1.5.3 Animal Kingdom: Snake
  • Animal totem for people born during the Freeze Up Moon
    • Old, mysterious, maligned and misunderstood member of the Vertebrata family
    • Also known as a serpent
    • A limbless reptile with expandable jaws
    • Slender, inwardly-sloping teet set towards back of mouth
    • No ear openings or movable eyelids
    • Its back contains many vertebrae, sometimes up to three hundred
    • Ribs loosely attached to vertebrae
      • Allow snake to loop itself around; part of the way it moves
    • Large row of belly scales, called scutes
      • Each overlaps the one behind it; free edge pointing backward
      • Snake reaches forward with each scute; pressing backward allows it to glide
    • Forked tongue is a very delicate instrument
      • Gives ability to taste and smell
      • What tongue picks up is analyze by special organ on roof of mouth
    • Snakes have excellent sense of smell and, generally, of sight
      • Exception is in the period before shedding of old skin
      • Eyes seem dull and cloudy; skin over them is part of what is shed
      Skin shed about three times a year
      • They fasten onto something about chin level and glide out of old skin
      • This is the time when rattlesnakes add a new rattle to their tail
  • Close to 2,500 species of snakes throughout the world
    • One hundred fourteen in the United States
    • Snakes have existed sicne the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs were ready to leave
    • During many of these years, hunted by man out of misunderstanding and unnecessary fear
  • Snakes are carnivorous, mainly eating small animals like rats and frogs
    • Also will eat insects, like flies and mosquitoes
    • Diet preferences make the snake an essential part of the balance of nature
    • Where man has wantonly murdered snakes, he is often overrun by mice and rats
      • Snakes used as mousetraps in ancient Greece and Rome
    • Snakes digest slowly and may be sugglish for a week after eating
    • Meals can exceed fifty percent of their body weight
  • Snakes are very adaptable to their environment
    • They are exquisitly sensitive to touch and vibrations
      • Partly due to their coldbloodedness and dependent upon envorinment for warmth
    • They change colorations to blend with land that surrounds they
    • They have no voice, but some can hiss
    • Rattlesnakes can buzz their rattles
  • Despite coldblooded reputation, courtship is a very warm affair
    • Females secrete a particularly musky scent to attract a male
    • He approaches her body slowly and rubs his nose all over her body
    • When she responds, they throw casual loops over each other
    • They mate when they are so entwined they are almost indistinguishable
  • Females are both live-bearing and egg-laying
    • Most young snakes born during the warm summer months
    • Many never have contact with parents
    • Snakes do hibernate during winter
  • Most feared are the pit vipers
    • Those who have a pit between their nostrils
      • Pit enables them to pick up the warmth of any animal they are tracking
    • They also have a special gland attached to their eyeteeth
      • It is through this gland they shoot their venom
      • Usually used on small animals intended for a meal
  • Most snakes, even poisonous varieties, avoid contact with humans
    • Will strike only in self-defense
    • If you find yourself in a snake's territory
      • Best to calmly and quickly move out of it
  • Many European myths put snake in a rather unpopular position
    • Snake respected in most Native cultures
    • The feathered serpent was foremost symbol of ancient Mayan and Aztec empires
      • Represented the transformation powers their religions gave them
    • Hopi people feel that the snake is a messenger from other realms
      • Has capacity to bring the life-giving rains
    • Ojibway people feel that the snake represents patience
      • Snake is slow to anger
      • Snake clan one of their medicine clans
    • Most other tribes also attribute special powers to the snake
      • Many have Snake clans that perform special functions
  • Like their totem, poeple of the Freeze Up Moon also tend to be mysterious, secretive
    • It takes them quite some time to open to other people
    • Even then, they are frquently reluctant to reveal the secrets of their innermost being
    • Because of this and their tough, prickly outer coating
      • These folks are sometimes misunderstood, even maligned
    • They have so much vital energy flowing through them
      • Other people sometimes can't understand the depths of their being
    • Like the Snake, they also have delicate instruments for sensing
      • Tasting and smelling out the truth about people and situations
    • Keen eyes enable them to see through to the depths of the soul
      • Whether their own or that of another
      • Exception is in times when they feel confusion
        • And they don't allow their force to flow smoothly through them
    • Snake people are useful in maintaining the balance of nature
      • Or the balance of any situation
      • When they themselves feel a good harmony within
    • They are adaptable people
      • Have ability to shed their old skin of ideas, environment or feelings
      • When time to transofrm into a new phase of being
      • Change doesn't always come easily
        • When it does, it is permanent until time for something new
    • Not cold-blooded when it comes to relationships
      • Because of all the vital force flowing through them
      • Tendency to be highly sexual beings
      • When in balance, can utilize their sexual energy in good, loving ways
      • Out of balance, this energy may become the controlling force of their lives
        • They have great difficulty in rechanneling it
      • Whatever their state, they are reputed to be intense and exciting lovers
    • As parents, they are sometimes too cold-blooded toward their children
      • They will let their children take over the reins of their lives
        • Before they have the wisdom and experience to do so
      • They are so involved with their own lives
        • Don't want to stop their own transformation to give their children the emotional things they need
      • At other times, they are very warm to their children
        • Giving them all they can of their time and energy
      • This gliding from one position to another is confusing to their offspring
        • Some Snake people adopt one or the other positin, don't vacillate from it
    • Snake children are interesting and intelligent
      • Sometimes difficult to handle
      • Seem to have a wisdom beyond their years
      • Tend to be secretive and sometimes cold
      • Don't show affection people expect from youngsters
      • If they are not show how to begin channeling their energy
        • They will get into phases of furious temper
        • Very hard to control
    • Native American view of snake more relevant to people of this totem than European
      • Snake people are worthy of respect
        • Because of their power to transform
        • They can be messengers, bringing messages we all need to hear
          • If we learn to get close enough that we can hear them
        • They also demonstrate remarkable patience in their teaching of others
          • If they have learned to keep their own energies in balance
  • When people of other totems travel through this position in the wheel
    • They can learn of their own power to transform their innermost beings
      • Bringing all lessons learned in other positions into harmony
    • Learn of their own adaptability, patience, tenacity, ambition and power
  • People from the Snake totem or passing through it
    • Often capable of performing heroic deeds to help their fellow children of our common Earth Mother

• 4.11.1.5.4 Color: Orange
  • The color of the people of the Snake is orange
    • The special clear orange that is occasionally seen in the sunset sky
  • A color that symbolizes on who is vital, intellectual
    • Capable of applying knowledge gleaned from life or study
  • A color that shows the person can understand
    • Mind, body, and spirit
    • Can use hisher highest understanding to control his/her lower ones
  • A color that signifies an ambitious person
    • One who takes pride in the work he/she does
  • All these qualities are exhibited by those of the Snake totem
    • They are intellectual, or capable of being so
    • Able to observe life keenly and the lessons it gives them
    • Able to apply these lessons to their own lives and lives of others
    • Have intense self-control, if they choose to use it
    • Ambitious and proud of all they accomplish

• 4.11.1.5.5 Moon: Freeze Up Moon
  • Born during the second moon of Mudjekeewis to the West
  • Of the Frog Clan, clan of water
    • Association gives them a warning about what can happen
      • If their energies are allowed to run undirected
      • Doing so will literally cause them to freeze up
    • Also tells them it is sometimes necessary
      • To freeze their energy purposely for a time
      • Until they feel clear enough to deal with it
  • Mudjekeewis brings gifts of introspection and strength
    • Very appropriate Spirit Keeper for these folks
    • He has ability to help them expand their strength and self-searching
  • Frog clan tends to soften the Snake people
    • Allows then to experience emotions their intellecuality would otherwise try to deny them
    • While of water, they are of clear, deep lakes
      • Rather than wildly running streams or rivers
      • They are not as easily changeable as their other relations in this clan

• 4.11.1.5.6 Elemental Clan: Frog
  • Snake people are compatible with their fellow Frog clan members
    • Cougar and Flicker
  • Also with those of the Turtle clan
    • Snow Goose, Beaver, and Brown Bear people
  • They particularly complement those of the Beaver clan

Introduction: Page One ~ | ~ Page Two ~ | ~ Page Three ~ | ~ Page Four ~ | ~ Page Five ~ | ~
~ | ~ Sacred Altar ~ | ~ East ~ | ~ South ~ | ~ West ~ | ~ North ~ | ~
Inner Circle: Owl ~ | ~ Cougar ~ | ~ Hawk ~ | ~ Coyote ~ | ~ Wolf ~ | ~ Bear ~ | ~ Raven ~ | ~
Outer Circle: Snow Goose ~ | ~ Otter ~ | ~ Cougar ~ | ~ Hawk ~ | ~ Beaver ~ | ~ Deer ~ | ~
~ | ~ Flicker ~ | ~ Sturgeon ~ | ~ Bear ~ | ~ Raven ~ | ~ Snake ~ | ~ Elk ~ | ~ Blue ~ | ~

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