I Am a North Woman, Part One

In Which I Begin Explaining What That Declaration Means

The first few posts I’ll be sharing with you are meant to serve as an introduction, so that as things move forward, you’ll have a context for relating to them. Towards that end, the next thing I think you should know is that from a feminist shamanic psychological perspective, I am a North Woman, something that bears a degree of explanation, since so far I’ve been speaking to you about thing I experienced and learned in the shamanic West. So…

Although I'm called Slow Thunder, and am a Feminist Bear Shaman, and both Thunder and Bear are found in the shamanic West, the shamanic direction though which I, like all called shamans, was initiated, I am nevertheless a North Woman.

Let me explain. We are all born with the gift of being closely aligned with and most at home in one of the four directional landscapes found in shamanic reality, which mirror those in physical reality. I can't tell you everything I know about each direction at this point, or the many ways in which they influence the personality and life walks of those who are born into them, because some of that information is meant for inclusion in a book, not a newsletter, and much of it can only be shared with qualified apprentices. But I can tell you this much:

The North Woman emanates a kind of innate personal authority that is best not challenged, while at the same time possessing an enormous nurturing, mothering capacity, as does the feminine archetype associated with the shamanic North, She Who Nurtures and Protects. The North woman will be the one who knows in every cell of her body that true authority lies with the feminine, and will challenge any attempts by patriarchal authority figures to exert any power or control over her or anyone for whom she is responsible, and will take the lead when such challenges arise. She is entirely at home in the shamanic North, the place of the Midnight Moon.

The East Woman exudes charm and beauty, while at the same time possessing the awesome power to free herself and others from internalized patriarchal religious beliefs, as does the feminine archetype associated with the shamanic East, She Who Walks in Beauty. The East woman also has the capacity to guide us toward ultimately achieving feminine spiritual illumination. She is entirely at home in the shamanic East, the place of the Rising Sun.

The South Woman is earthy, sensual, and completely at home with all the natural processes of female bodily functions and the feminine capacity to create new life, and instinctively understands and is comfortable with the terrible knowledge that all that is birthed by woman will one day die, as is the feminine archetype associated with the shamanic South, She Who Gives and Takes Life. She is entirely at home in the shamanic South, the place of the Noonday Sun.

The West Woman can be wildly emotional, to the point of seemingly being out of control at times, as she seeks to find clarity by creating chaos, and yet it is she who has the capacity to free herself and others from internalized patriarchal beliefs about feminine emotions, sexuality and societal prohibitions against expressing the full range of feminine experience. This is a woman who can't be tamed, so don't try. She will always find ways to express the powerful emotions that flow through her like the tides, as does the feminine archetype associated with the shamanic West, She Who Dances with Power. She is entirely at home in the shamanic West, the place of the Setting Sun.

Later on, I'll tell you more about these other shamanic personality types, but for now, because it's winter, the time of the shamanic North, let me tell you a story about one of the ways in which the shamanic North manifests as a teacher for me, a North Woman.

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Many years ago now, arriving home well after dark on a cold winter night, I got out of my car and was startled—and yes, I'll admit it, more than a little frightened—by the footfalls and loud bellowing of a very large animal not more than a few feet into the frozen forest to my north. After hesitating for a few minutes as the bellowing continued, I decided that with the car between me and whatever the creature was, I could probably make it safely to the house. When all finally became quiet outside, I investigated with a flashlight, and found track made by a moose. That night I had a remarkably numinous dream that led me to undertake a journey into the shamanic North.

In the dream, I'm walking through a snowy winter forest in which everything is coated with ice. Everything in the forest is sparkling and reflecting light, so brightly lit is it by the full moon that seems to fill most of the midnight sky above it. It's very cold, and with each soft breeze that moves through the trees, the air is filled with the tinkling sounds of ice shards falling from fir and pine needles.

I come to a stream over which is a very old log bridge. I know this stream, for it's on my property. As I'm about to cross the bridge, a female moose emerges from it and begins walking beside me, pressing her body against mine, not in a threatening way, but in a friendly manner. We walk on like this for some time, before she returns to the forest.

Because these two events were so unusual, and because I know that Moose is a North animal, I decide to undertake a journey into the shamanic North to discover their meaning. Now, the way in which I'm going to undertake this journey is not one that the uninitiated, or those not trained in feminist shamanic journey methods should attempt, because it involves entering into shamanic reality while simultaneously remaining in physical reality, but I'll trust that none of you will be so rash as to try and do anything like this, and share the journey with you nevertheless.

I drum myself into shamanic trance, and my dream body (the part of our psyche that journeys) leaves my physical body behind and walks slowly into the midnight forest outside, to the medicine wheel from which I'll begin the journey. As I approach the medicine wheel, a very young moose appears and approaches me.

“I am Wee-nah-ah-hah-way,” it says, “but you can call me Little Moose. I was often around you when you were a teenager, trying to get your attention, but you were unaware of me then. After all this time, I have returned to continue your awakening process, because you now have means by which you can see and hear me. I'm here now to facilitate a special kind of soul retrieval for you, the need for which has become apparent, given the direction your shamanic work is taking. You need me. You need my energy. I am the power that will open the North for you as a teacher. I will accompany you on this journey.”

(Now, I should probably say here that of course Little Moose wasn't speaking to me in my language, but was transmitting those words to me in the way of all animal spirits, directly from its consciousness to mine, as we gazed at one another. Mysteriously, Little Moose spoke in her language and I understood her in mine.)

I welcome Little Moose, who is not much taller than I am at the shoulder, and she nuzzles me. We walk together into the medicine wheel, but instead of beginning the journey by climbing up onto the Turtle Stone at its center as I would normally do, Little Moose says we should begin from the white quartz stone that marks the North position. We walk clockwise around the medicine wheel together, stopping at each directional stone while I make offerings of sacred herbs, finally arriving at the North stone. The entire forest is covered with a sheen of ice that glistens in the moonlight, and all the bushy plants and birches are bent over to the ground. I feel a kind of sadness at the weight they're bending beneath.

Apparently sensing my sadness, Little Moose says, “Remember this. Because you carry grizzly medicine, your first instinct when challenged or thwarted in any way is to fight, but there are times when it’s best to bend to fate, to simply bear things, to carry the weight for a time until the atmosphere shifts, and you can stand tall again.”

I sense grizzly growling at this advice, but note it anyway. As we stand there looking North, I can see a passage into the forest. Little Moose says, “For this teaching, you must go out onto the land, for the moose who bellowed at you lives there, way up by the marsh.”

I don’t know how I’m going to get through the forest, given all the snow and ice, but then Little Moose kneels down and offers me her back. I get up onto it, and she begins to pick her way north through the frozen forest, following the old logging roads that will take us to the marsh. On our way, we walk through the Place of the Springs, where she pauses so that we can listen to the song of the springs as they overflow and their pure, fresh water travels beneath the earth’s frozen surface; beneath the roots of the cedars that inhabit the springs, heading for the bay far below us. A light snow begins to fall, but Little Moose continues on, delicately picking her way through the icy, uneven terrain.

» Stay tuned for Part Two, which I'll publish on February 6! «

In the meantime, to learn more about Feminist Shamanism, click here!