North American Indian Gods/Goddesses for Samhain There are more than 700 distinct American Indian tribes within North America alone, marked by unique religious and spiritual traditions, mythos, and language. It is important to recognize that much of the information on actual spiritual practices and divinity structures of a majority of American Indian tribes is very difficult to come by and often inaccurate. Much of this is due to the treatment American Indians have experienced at the hands of Westerners, which has prompted seclusion both to preserve their traditions from outside influence as well as to maintain ownership of their cultural traditions and beliefs from Westerners; while at the same time scholars have often approached American Indian culture with a great deal of bias and imposition of Western European value systems. With that said, should you utilize a divinity of a American Indian culture in your Samhain ritual, it's good practice to first ask permission and give thanks. This honors the unique living spiritual traditions of many people living within both South and North America who have been excluding from many of the rights and benefits most Westerners have. Additionally, as we move to Samhain, which is an ideal time of reflection and honoring of ancestors, as Wiccans, many of us have experienced direct and historical usurpation of our indigenous religious and spiritual practices, which we as contemporary practitioners are seeking to reclaim. By incorporating American Indian divinities, it is also about honoring a larger group of individuals who have been displaced and many times silenced. I write this as both a Mohawk American Indian and a practicing Wiccan who honors her great-grandmother during Samhain (my screen name here is Mohawk for "Turtle Moon"). A friend of mine told me of her great-grandmother and her family that were forced onto a reservation in Canada and she was sent to attend an Indian School. There she was asked to give up her traditional beliefs, cut her hair, and adopt a Catholic doctrine. Interestingly, her instincts toward a Nature religion manifested in her adoption of wiccan practices, which she perceived as more accepted than her American Indian identity. It is with her in mind that I write the following:
An Overview of American Indian Spirituality
It is impossible to summarize the complexity and diversity that comprises American Indian religious life. Each tribe has developed their own unique vision of the world and their own connections with the divine. However, some themes are widespread with American Indian religion. A large number of American Indian cultures value the relationship between the Sky and the Earth.
These directions (North and South) represent the creative power of life, the driving force that sustains us and the interrelationship between life and the divine. Additionally, the directions of East and West play important roles in secondary divinities and are typically represented as wind directions. Specific wind directions were seen as evidence of the divine and were deeply connected to the surviving of the community. In addition to the importance of the Four Direction Wheel (similar to Wiccan traditions), many tribes also find elements in Nature, both place and non-human animals, that represent renewing sources of power that sustain and teach the community. Additionally, many tribes believe in a overarching Great Spirit that represents the energy of creation and is not typically humanized. Spiritual beliefs typically emerge through everyday activities, with prayers and songs associated with functions such as sleeping, dressing, eating, hunting, etc., with more ceremonialized rituals for broad community actions such as coming of age, death, marriages, and harvesting/hunting, as well as war (although this is no longer an issue for tribes and currently manifests in legal battles with the United States, Canadian, and state governments). ManyAmerican Indian tribes believe that the action of one person will influence the outcome for the entire tribe whether in bringing about an extremely cold winter or a bountiful harvest. Finally, one universal aspect to all American Indian cultures is Storytelling. Storytelling, the power of words and story, was and is the main strategy for conveying spiritual and cultural information. Stories are sources of great spiritual knowledge, similar to how parables were utilized in monotheistic religions.
Specific Divinities that Dovetail with Samhain
(It is impossible to consolidate all possible divinities, so I have chosen some salient ones from one region should you wish to invoke along the lines of culturally similar beings; and then provides some information on other dieties and stories)
Arctic Tribes
Arctic tribes are marked by mythos and Divinities that represent the harsh realities of lives lived in one of the most inhospitable climates.
Sedna (Arnarquagsaq, Nerivik [Inuit])
In Eskimo traditions, the Goddess of the Sea, Sedna, is said to shelter and purify the soulds who have passed before their journey to the Land of the Moon.
In the creation myth of Sedna, she was the ravenous daughter of giants, an original earth mother who fed on members of the tribe in ancient times. The warriors followed her out to see where they cut off her fingers and cast her into the depths so that she would no longer hunt their people. In so doing, her fingers became the nourishing life of their sea-faring culture giving birth to walruses, whales, seals, and fish. In the depths called Adlivun (the underworld), she bacame a life-sustaining goddess for the tribes of the North and Northwest.
To call upon Sedna during Samhain, consider utilizing a sea animal statue to represent her and utilize ice water with salt to represent the cold, ice encased landscape of the North and Northwest. Utilize the ice water to purify your soul for the coming year and if you have objects or photos from loved ones who have passed, consider sprinkling this water on them. Utilize a short prayer that may be recited rhythmically like cresting ocean waves to further your knowledge of her and connection.
To invoke her consider the following song:
Come with me, Come with me
to the land of the birds
where there never is hunger,
you shall rest on soft bearskins.
Comewith me, Come with me
to my beautiful tent,
my fellow birds will bring you
all your heart desires.
Come with me, Come with me
and our feathers will clothe you,
your lamp will be filled with oil
your pot will be filled me meat.
Source: Native American Stories, by Bruchac
(Be sure to add... after you have asked for help and blessings):
May Aja, your father, bring you back home.
Pana
Pana is viewed as the divine being that cares for all souls that cross into Adlivun before they were reincarnated into a new form. His name translates into "snow knife" and also as "bow and arrow," both of which represented valuable and important tools for survival.
To call upon Pana during Samhain, consider utlizing your knife and dip into a bowl of ice salt water. Cast an encasing circle around articles or photos of your ancestors that have passed on and ask for Pana to care for them and help them and prepare for rebirth.
Pinga
Translates to "the one who is up on high" was seen as an important goddess of fertility, healing, and the hunt. She is also associated with being the guide that brings those who have recently passed to Pana and Nerivik (Sedna).
To call upon Pinga to help a recently deceased companion (human and nonhumans, Arctic tribes valued all life equally) in her guiding aspect, consider utlizing some form of light source to represent her, such as lighing a candle near a picture or article of a loved one and ask her to guide them to Adlivun, for shelter.
Negafook
If you are looking at Samhain as the precursor to winter and would like to utilize the time to perform weather magick, you may wish to invoke Negafook. His is the god of weather and particularly associated with winter.
Silap Inua (Sila)
As with many other views of the Goddess, the Inuit also had a triple goddess in charge of human destiny. Silap Inua is often viewed as the breath that sustains all life. Many belived She was actually three sisters and wasthe driving force that controlled life. Her Breath created change in an indivudal and moved an individual in various directions. She knows all that will happen in a person's life.
Samhain is a time to engage in divination and to explore one's destiny, consider connecting with Sila to provide a glimpse of what will come or to assist in accepting what has occurred, what changes have happened in the recent year. Utilize your breathing as your primary means to connect with her, and if it's a particularly windy Samhain night, throw open the windows to listen to her.
Tornarsuk & Tornat
Tornarsuk is considered a God of Protection and directs the minor gods, the Tornat, to provide protection to invokers. He was also viewed as a god of Adlivun.
If your re working in Samhain to bring about blessings for the new year and good things to come, consider invoking Tornarsuk and the Tornat to help ensure a positive year. This may be particularly good to set up energy if you or a loved one is facing known changes or ill-health.
The Story of Winter
(Gau-wi-di-ne, Iroquois)
Many American Indian tribes did not look at 4 seasons as Western culture, but rather saw two seasons, the growing winter season and the growing spring season. Spring culminated in the harvest and the final hunts, while Winter began when the leaves changed and then fell. The following is a story that may be read or acted during Samhain, which is adapted from a Seneca story!
Long ago, when the world was just born, an elder man with long white hair wandered the land looking for a place to build his lodge to rest. Wherever he walked the ground grew hard, becoming like snow. When he breathed, icy cold froze the rivers and the lakes. The leaves shriveled and fell at his feet, drying up in the cold. Flowers and other growing things dried up. Animals hid before him, feeling to secret shelters. After much wandering, he soon found a place suitable to build his lodge. He crafted walls of thick ice and then covered it all with feets of snow. He sat before a fire that did not burn with his companion, the North Wind. They smoked their pipes and regaled in all of their activities that brought cold to the world. So when the leaves begin to turn and fall, the Old Man has returned to walk the land, but he will not stay. The Young Man and Fawn, the South Wind, will return and meet the Old Man in his lodge, stirring the fire with a fresh green stick, melting the frost and snow.
The Story of the Origin of Death
Samhain is a time of endings and new beginnings and a time when we honor our ancestors. The following is a story adapted from the Siksika (known as the Blackfeet) tribe of Montana and Alberta of how death began. Consider reading this tale during your Samhain night...
When the world was new, Old Man and Old Woman set about to decide how life would work. The Old Man decided that since it was he who suggested this, he should have the first say of how things should be. His wife, the Old Woman, agreed, under the condition that she would have the last say. And so it was. The Old Man first suggested that men were to be hunters and that whenever they wish to hunt, they would only need to call the animal and it would come. The Old Woman felt that hunting was important, but she disagreed that the animals would come so readily. She felt that the animals should run when they saw people and be hard to kill, adding that this would help make people smarter and stronger. The Old Man agreed. He then suggested how people should like with ten fingers on each hand, eyes on one side of their face and a mouth on the other. The Old Woman agreed that people should have hands and fingers, mouth and eyes, but felt that too many fingers would make them clumsy and eyes on the side of one face would not help them, nor a mouth on the other. So she suggested that people would have two eyes at the top and a mouth below and only five fingers on each hand. The Old Man aggreed, she did have the last word. As they walked through the land, they came to a river. He brought up the issue of life and death. He picked up a Buffalo chip and stated, "I will throw this chip in the water, if it floats than people will return to life 4 days after death and live forever." He threw the chip and it floated. Old Woman stated to him, "I think we do need to decide about life and death, but I think a stone should be used. And if it floats than people will return after 4 days and live forever, but if it sinks, then they will not return." She cast the stone into the river and it sunk. She added, pleased with what happened, "This is as it should be. If people came back to life and lived forever there would be no food, shelter, or water for all of them, there would be too many. Now all will experience loss and the world will be filled with sympathy and understanding for each other. And it will be good." The Old Man aggreed, she had the last word.
Time passed and Old Woman and Old Man had a child. The child became sick and soon died. Old Woman wished to rethink the issue of death, but Old Man stated, "You had the last word."
And so all people would face death and those who remained behind would experience sympathy toward each other for the common bond.
Songs
In addition to stories, songs acted as powerful prayers to invoke the divine presence of the Great Spirit and bring prosperity to one's community. As we celebrate Samhain we are deeply aware of our personal communities and in honoring the cycles of Nature and Life, or parting and meeting, of change and new beginnings. I've included three songs (see The Portable North American Indian Reader, by F. Turner for more).
"Magic Song to Make Peace with Enemies" (orig: Navaho Nation)
Put your feet down with pollen.
Put your hands down with pollen.
Put your head down with pollen.
Then your feet are pollen;
Your hands are pollen;
Your body is pollen;
Your voice is pollen.
The trail is beautiful.
Be Still.
Consider buying fresh flowers; pollen is a symbol of new growth, possibility, and change. In this way, if your goal for the new year is to bring greater peace or acceptance between you and others, consider utilizing this song.
"Offering" (orig. Zuni Nation)
That our earth mother may wrap herself
in a fourfold robe of white meal;
That she may be covered with frost flowers;
That yonder on all the mossy mountains
The forests may huddle together with the cold;
that their arms may be broken by the snow,
In order that the land may be thus,
I have made my prayer sticks into living beings.
A song for winter and the optimism of life that will be renewed.
The Trickster Figure
(known by Coyote, Old Man, Inktomi, Nanabojo, Wanabojo, Wisagatcak, Amaguq [Inuit])
The Trickster figure is nearly a universal figure in all North American Indian tribal myths. The Trickster is perhaps one of the most important figures in the process of life to tribes. He is both a teacher of important moral lessons, as well as a critical figure in creation and sustaining of life. He often is in the form of a dog, wolf, or coyote, but is known as a shape shifter and may change into various animals. He is often the figure that appears in one's life to test an individual, sometimes for his own needs (such as in European tales of the Wolf in Little Red Ridinghood), sometimes with an ambiguous moral reason that teaches as well as serves his own needs (again see Red Ridinghood or The Three Little Pigs), and other times to test one's moral fiber (European tales of the Mother Goddess appearing as an old woman are parallel stories). He reminds us that what we see may not always be the reality. During Samhain, the veils that create our waking reality lift and we become aware of the real spirit of the Trickster, so to speak. Additionally, he is known to create chaos if he is not honored (similar to the Trick of the Trick or Treat of Halloween). The Trickster is not to be invoked, but rather to be recognized in one's life, to take accounting of the tests one has experienced during the past year and to gain an appreciation of how these challenges and tests have served to create our lives.
Some additional reading sources: -
Native American Stories, by Joseph Bruchac -
The Portable North American Reader, edited by Frederick Turner -
The Lakota Way, by Joseph Marshall, III |
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