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| | From:  sageawk57 (Original Message) | Sent: 9/9/2004 1:03 PM |
Strong Sun Moon (Flicker) June 21-July22 Those born under the Strong Sun Moon, between June 21 and July 22, have the carnelian agate as their totem in the mineral kingdom, the wild rose as their totem in the plant kingdom and the flicker as their totem in the animal kingdom. Their color is the pink of the rose and the flicker, and they are of the Frog elemental clan. Their mineral, like the moss agate, is a chalcedony, a cryptocrystalline variety of quartz. Carnelian is a clear chalcedony, which ranges in color from pink to red to yellow. The yellow variety is usually referred to as sard. In proper usage the term "carnelian" is only applied to translucent stone. The opaque form of these stones is jasper. Carnelianhas been widely used from early times for jewelry and other ornaments. It may be the first hard stone that was engraved in ancient times. Because of its color, the carnelian has been associated with blood. It was considered to be an emergency stone useful in healing people who had been accidently injured and was said to have the property of stopping the flow of blood from wounds. In emergencies it was suspended from a string or thong and used, pendulum style, over the wound. Its circular movement was believed to stop bleeding and start the healing process. Because of its color and properties, carnelian is also associated with the heart. A gift of carnelian was a gift of the heart, and so the stone was also given to represent a pledge of love. In older times people believed that carrying the carnelian would help to keep the heart healthy and open to all the emotions that center in it. Mothers would often carry carnelian to make sure that their hearts remained open to the needs of their children. Like their stone, people of the Flicker are often associated with the idea of ornamentation, especially of the home, because having a comfortable and beautiful dwelling is very important to them. Flicker people are very home-oriented, and they function best when their home, be it physical, mental or emotional, is in proper order and an attractive place to be. Like their stone, Flicker people are easily engraved with new thoughts and feelings, and once this engraving has beendone, they are very solid in their belief in whatever new concepts have been put upon them. However, before they allow any new things to come into their lives, they will take quite some time to analyze and weigh what they are and how they will fit with the other concepts that govern their lives. Flicker people , like carnelian, are associated with the blood, both literally and figuratively. People of this totem have a special connection with the spleen, the blood reservoir of the body, as well as with the breast and stomach. They have the ability to flow freely with life, much as the blood flows freely through a healthy body. Flicker people, like their stone, are useful to have around in an emergency, as their intuitive powers can help them to see what the nature of the emergency really is, and their concern can help the injured person to feel that they are being cared for in the best possible way. Flicker folks are people who are really sensitive to their own hearts and the messages that it can give to them. If a Flicker person decides that he or she loves you, this is a love that you can count upon being solid and stable, short of treachery on your part. When they are in good balance, people of this totem are very open to their fellow humans and very loving. Their hearts are capable of overflowing with love for all those around them, in the mineral, plant and animal as well as human kingdoms. Flicker people usually make very loving parents, willing to sacrifice much for their happiness of their children, and they often have a very open defination of who their children are. They are often the folks who will have a house full of children, their own mixed in with all of the other kids in the neighborhood who feel the need for a little extra love and attention. And Flicker folks will give this love abundantly. |
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The plant for people of this totem is the wild rose, that beautiful bush that has inspired reams of poetry and untold stanzas of song. The wild rose is an erect shrub with thorny stems and compound leaves that have five-to seven- toothed leaflets. They are similar to domesticated rose leaves but smaller. The flowers have five petals arranged around a large yellow center. They can range from pale to bright pink. After the flowers disappear, the rose begin to form their fruit, called hips, which are orange and look like berries. Many hips have a fleshy outer rind and small white seeds in the center; but others are seedless. While many herbalists classify the rind as being bland tasting, others feel it has a subtle spicy, quite distinct flavor. Rose hips are one of the richest sources of vitamin C. The roses bloom from May until July, deliciously scenting all of the land around them, and then the hips are ready to harvest in the fall. You can eat the hips raw all fall and winter, as the Native people did in the areas where wild roses grew, or you can dry them, make them into tea, grind them for meal or flour, or use them in jams and soups. It is said that boiling them extracts about 40 percent of the vitamin C, and drying extracts about 65 percent. You can find recipes in older cookbooks if they aren't available in your modern ones. Rose hips, because of their vitamin C contents, are excellent remedies for colds, sore throats and flu. Rose petals, steeped in boiling water, make a delicate tea which is said to have a slight astringent and tonic effect on the body. The twigs and roots can also be peeled and boiled to make tea, and this is reputed to be helpful for colds. Years ago rose hip tea was used to dissolve and remove gallstones and kidney stones and to cleanse the bloodstream of people who had blood or liver problems. At those times the distilled water of the leaves and flowers was also used to strengthen the heart, refresh the spirits and help with problems of the body that required a gentle cooling effect. Native people used rose hips, along with mint and raspberry, to make a tea for children as well as adults that helped to keep them happy and healthy. According to a Mohawk herbalist, there is an Indian prophecy that says that after the Europeans came to this continent there would be a great need for a cure for malignancies that would otherwise cause the downfall of their civilization. This cure for cancer would come, says the prophecy, from a hybrid rose developed by a person of Indian descent. Rose water, made from the flowers, was frequently used in older times in eye lotions and to give relief from eye discomfort caused by hayfever. The rose was also used by herbalists to cover the smell of less pleasantly scented herbs that had to be ingested. Rose petals are made into an oil which is used for a perfume or hair rinse, and the dried petals are one of the main components of sachets, used to scent clothes, drawers and closets. From their plant, Flicker people can learn of the wide variety of abilities that are available to them when they are properly flowing with the energy of life. Like the rose, they can be truely beautiful people, capable of inspiring others with both their beauty and their usefulness. Flicker people, like their plant, have a wild quality about them and a special attractiveness when they are in a natural setting. When their lives are in flower, they bring hapiness to all who behold them, and when the flowers of one stage wither, they are replaced with the hips of the wisdom that that stage has produced. Like the rose hip, Flicker people are most often sought out for their outer rinds, the visible attributes that they abundantly have, whether physical or emotional. Yet, insideof these people are deeper knowledges that are just as useful as the visible ones, if people take the time to dig through to them. |
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Flicker peopl who are not in balance may appear bland like some say the rose hip is. In this state they can even be slothful and more involved in undeveloped emotions than in anything more real and lasting. When out of balance, Flicker folks seem like they are not capable of independent thought and action and stable emotional relationships. However, when they are balanced, Flicker people are extremely sensitive and able both to absorb and to reflect the things that are around them. They are quite capable of making a decision, whether of the mind or emotions, and of sticking to it. Rose hip or rose petal tea can be useful to people of this totem to keep their blood in a clean and pure state and to help with any colds or flu so that these disorders will not spread and attack the stomach, liver or other sensitive internal organs. These teas also help to strengthen the hearts of Flicker people, as their sometimes indiscriminate outpouring of love can leave them feeling weak. The well-balanced Flicker person will usually be in very good health and can just enjoy the flowers and fruit of their plant as a tasty, delightfully scented beverage that can keep them happy and healthy. The color of Flicker people is pink, which can either be the pink of immaturity or of universal, all-healing love, depending upon the individual growth of the person involved. Flicker people who have not yet found their balance will often find themselves consumed by the raging sea of their own emotions, and this will keep them from coming to a place of harmony and balance. However, those who have found their direction in life will be able to channel their own emotions and sensitivity in such a way that it will help all those that they touch. The shifting emotional nature of the Flicker people is, of course, intensified because they are of the Frog clan. Members of this clan often find themselves carried along by the force of their own feelings, flowing strongly but in no set direction. As the first of the peoples goverened by Shawnodese, Spirit Keeper of the South, Flicker folks have their natural inclinations strengthened even more because Shawnodese governs the time of rapid growth and the quality of trust. This pushes Flicker people to experience their emotions even more intensely so that they have the ability to grow in their lives as much as they can and to grow with trust. Their moon, that of the Strong Sun, does give them some stability and slows them down a bit, as the time of the strong sun is the season when we must grow quickly, but only in the proper direction, as the sun saps our strength for tangential activities at the same time it helps us to grow in our proper course. This is the moon of the summer solstice, the time when all things of the earth must begin their journey toward flowering and bearing fruit. |
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The animal totem for those born during the Strong Sun Moon is the flicker, that most numerous and mystical member of the woodpecker family. The American name for the woodpecker is derived from that of the Latin god Picus, with whom Circe fell in love. When she asked him to accept the sun as a father-in-law, he refused and was turned into a woodpecker. There are two kinds of flickers in the United States. The yellow-shafted flicker, named because ofhis yellow underwings, is usually found east of the Great Plains, while the red-shafted flicker, named because his red, almost coral, underwings, lives west of the Great Plains. Both flickers are grayish brown, with a white rump, red crescent on nape, black crescent on breast and black spots below. Both types of flickers are found in a variety of places: woods, farms and even suburbs. Unlike other woodpeckers, they spend quite a bit of time on the ground and will perch upright on limbs as songbirds do. They are drummers, playing their song on dead limbs, tin roofs and wooden houses, sometimes to extract insects and sometimes for the sheer joy of playing. During mating they put on an especially magnificent display of their musical talents. Flickers eat insects and wild seeds and berries, with an occasional addition of grain or corn. They have several varieties of song. One sounds like yuk-yuk-yuk; another, wicker-wicker-wicker; another, "wake up, wake up," sometimes interpreted "cheer up, cheer up"; yet another is cook-cook-cook-cook. The flicker's flight is strong and direct, once it takes off with a series of wavelike leaps upward and downward. Like other woodpeckers, the flicker has a stout, sharp bill, a long tongue and two toes in front and two behind with sharp, curved claws to allow it to cling to trees while it digs for larvae. The flicker digs a gourd-shaped hole in a tree trunk for its nest, and this is often used later by other birds. These nests are usually eight to twenty-five feet high, and the openings to them are two inches in diameter. Flickers can have from six to twenty-five eggs, with eight being the median number. Like most birds, flickers are good and caring parents, taking proper care of their young until it is time to cast them out ofthe nest and allow them to fly on their own. The flicker is a special bird to many of the Native people in this country. He is considered to be a courageous bird. Legend says he has red wings because he went too close to a fire set by the Earthquake Spirit to try to put it out, and the flames from it colored his wings and tail red. Flickers are especially valued because of their drumming. Their drumbeat, like the beat of any drum, represents the beat of the heart and the beat of the earth. Because of their song, they are considered special birds, and their feathers are used in many religious articles and ceremonies. Because their feathers are red, they are associated with blood and are often presented to war spirits. Red feathers on prayer sticks are considered war offerings, against either human or spiritual enemies. Flicker feathers worn in the hair designate the wearer as a member of a medicine society. |
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From the Flicker, folks of this moon can learn of their latent mystical talents, which only come out when they are balanced in very harmonious surroundings. Flicker people do have the ability to pierce through this level of reality and see things in different ways. Because of this, they are very intuitive, and the perceptions that come to them in this manner are the things that most help them to decide upon their proper direction in life. Many Flicker folks don't realize what guides them and find it difficult to explain to others how they make their decisions. More logical people often feel that Flicker folks are sloppy, irrational thinkers because they heavily rely on their intuitions without even realizing what they are doing. Like their totem, people of this moon need to be able to drum and sing their song in life, whatever they perceive that song to be. But, before they feel balanced enough to do that singing, they must first have a comfortable nest. Home is very important to Flicker people. More than most people they have a true love of home, and they are not happy if they don't have a comfortable and harmonious homeplace to return to after any flights that they take. Part of that harmonious home must be people with whom they feel a true oneness. Flicker people, like their bird, make good nests to be used by them and by others. Like the Flicker, folks with this totem are good parents, ones who give their children lavish amounts of love and deep feelings of security. Unlike the bird, they sometimes have a difficult time letting their little ones go when it is time for them to leave the nest. Being able to show their love in this way is one of the hardest tests for Flicker people to pass. Flicker children tend to be somewhat demanding. They need to be given as much love as they will give in turn when they mature. They need frequent reassurances that they are loved, and they have a strong need for a secure homelife. In return, they will give those around them all of the love and attention they are capable of summoning. If they receive what they need when they are young, it is much easier for them to reach a good balance as they grow older. Once Flicker people of any age have happy and secure homes, they will turn their nuturing instincts to larger targets. Flicker folks will love their extended family, then everyone in their neighborhood, then their country. But this loving fraternity is not enough, as they are sufficiently intuitive to know that their love cannot be absorbed by large and arbitrary groups. This is the point at which it is essential for Flicker people to go within to hear the songs of their own hearts and learn who the proper targets for their love and devotion should be. Usually they will find groups with which they can harmonize, and they will learn to sing their song in the chorus that is the proper one for them. This could be a charitable or fraternal organization, but will more frequently be one with more religious or mystical learnings, as the mystical nature of Flicker people needs to be fullfilled once they have found material security and well-being. Once Flicker people find a group that shares their direction, they will be very devoted to it and they will usually find great happiness at being able to channel all the loving energy that can flow through them. Flicker people do need something to serve that is larger than themselves and their families. If they cannot find the material peace that enables them to continue their quest, they will often be very unhappy people, spending most of their time wallowing in the negative emotions that can flow through them. During such periods they will be prone to a variety of internal disorders that stem from energy and blood not flowing in their correct channels. At such times Flicker people need to find reassurance on both the material and spiritual levels in order to effect a total cure. When people from other totems find themselves in this place on the Medicine Wheel, they will be able to learn about their own needs for giving and receiving love and for following their own perceptions and intuitions. They will also learn about their own sense of security and their personal need to find a spiritual direction that helps them to channel the life energy that always flows through all of us. Flicker people are compatible with their fellow members of the Frog clan, those of the Cougar and the Snake, and with those of the Turtle clan, the Brown Bear, Beaver and Snow Goose people. They especially complement those of the Snow Goose. |
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