Bat Medicine and the Coronavirus

I am not a medical professional or an expert on epidemics. I leave the critical information in those important fields for the experts who have the appropriate training to help us get through the coronavirus pandemic. Even though I do not possess medical knowledge, as a shamanic practitioner, I believe I can try to humbly offer some insight into the spiritual significance of the pandemic that is spreading rapidly through much of the world. We are all navigating challenges as a result of COVID-19. Whether those issues are health related, economically related, or otherwise, we are being given an opportunity for growth.

Scientists say that the bat is the likely origin of the coronavirus near Wuhan, China, but humans are to blame for the spread of the disease. In the shaman's world everything happens for a reason -- there are no accidents. Furthermore, everything that happens in the physical world has its ultimate cause in the spirit world. So, what is the spiritual significance of the bat coronavirus? Bat represents rebirth, transition, and intuition. Bats often represent death in the sense of letting go of the old, and bringing in the new. They are symbols of transition, of initiation, and the start of a new beginning.

The word "medicine" in shamanic practice refers to the healing aspects that a particular animal brings to our consciousness. When bat medicine appears in our life, it is a call for the end of a way of life and the new beginning of another. This transition can be very frightening for many. But we will not grow spiritually until we let go of those old parts of us that are no longer needed. Success depends on our willingness to plow old habits into the soil in order to cultivate new patterns that enhance our natural growth. By facing the darkness before us, we will find the light of rebirth.

The bat is a symbol of death and rebirth because it is an animal that lives in the dark underworld of the Earth. From caves in the Earth Mother's womb, it emerges every evening at twilight. Thus, from the womb it is symbolically reborn every evening. Bat medicine embraces the idea of symbolic death in which the personal ego identity and the old ways of life give way to the new.

The Dismemberment Journey

In shamanism, there is an archetypal visionary experience known as the dismemberment journey. The student or practitioner of shamanism recognizes an illusion or fear that impedes the expansion of their soul. The practitioner prays for this flaw to be healed and, in doing so, surrenders to the wisdom of the higher powers of the universe to remove the impediment. In a classic dismemberment journey, the petitioner witnesses their own body being torn apart and perhaps completely destroyed. The individual dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life, whole and empowered, the fear or illusion vanquished.

From a shamanic perspective, the global coronavirus pandemic represents a mass shamanic dismemberment -- the experience of being taken apart, devoured, or torn to pieces on a global scale, allowing for a shift of awareness and transformation of collective consciousness. At its deepest level, the dismemberment experience dismantles our old identity. It is a powerful death-and-rebirth process. The experience of being stripped, layer by layer, down to bare bones forces us to examine the bare essence of what we truly are.

The viewpoint emerging from the shamanic community suggests the times we live in have a theme of planetary and cosmological initiation. Shamanic initiation is most often precipitated by physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual events that force the ego into submission. Who we believe ourselves to be is not who we truly are. No matter how many years one has been developing their consciousness, no one is exempt from this shamanic death-and-rebirth. This is a shamanic initiation on the grandest cosmological scale.

The times we find ourselves in are like a great river in flood. We can try to hold on to the shore to save ourselves from being swept along with the current. But this is a futile effort, for nothing can resist the great tide of change that is sweeping through and forever altering life as we have known it for millennia. Instead, we are being challenged to let go and go with the flow. We are being given the opportunity to surrender to the current of change so that new dreams and visions can emerge.

As humans, we are being asked to go within and search our hearts in order to change those patterns of thought and behavior that work against us. It is necessary to still the mind and quiet the emotions so that inner knowing and intuition can emerge into our consciousness. Personal isolation and contemplation help us gain deeper insight and clarity of mind. Bat medicine gives us the wisdom required to make the appropriate changes for the birthing of our new identity.

Coronavirus Moves Powwows Online

The names pop up quickly on Whitney Rencountre's computer screen, and he greets them as he would in person.

He spots someone from the Menominee Nation, a Wisconsin tribe that hosts competitive dancers, singers and drummers in traditional regalia in late summer.

"Beautiful powwow there," he says.

The emcee from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota typically is on the powwow circuit in the spring, joining thousands of others in colorful displays of culture and tradition that are at their essence meant to uplift people during difficult times. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the gatherings are taking on a new form online.

"Sometimes we have this illusion that we're in total control, but it takes times like this of uncertainty and the challenges of the possibility of death to help us step back and reevaluate," said Rencountre, a co-organizer of the Facebook group Social Distance Powwow, which sprung up about a month ago as more states and tribes advised people to stay home.

Normally this time of year, a string of powwows hosted by Native American tribes and universities would be underway across the U.S., with tribal members honoring and showcasing their cultures -- and socializing, like family reunions. The powwows represent an evolution of songs and dances from when tribal traditions were forced underground during European settlement, Rencountre said.

The pandemic has canceled or postponed virtually all of them, including two of the largest in the U.S. -- the Denver March Powwow and the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, held in April.

Social Distance Powwow has helped fill the void, quickly growing to more than 125,000 members.

Members from different tribal nations post photos and videos of themselves and loved ones dancing, often in their regalia. The page has become a daily dose of prayer, songs, dances, well wishes, humor and happy birthdays.

In one video, Jordan Kor sits in his vehicle after a shift at a San Jose, California, hospital emergency department. An old Dakota war song he learned as a child that can be a rallying cry was bouncing around his head. He pulls off his mask and cap and sings, slapping a beat on the steering wheel.

"The biggest ones, social distance, keep working in whatever it is that brings you joy and helps you keep connected," said Kor, who is Tarahumara and Wapetonwon Lakota. "And wash your hands!"

The page also hosts a weekly, live powwow with the organizers -- Rencountre, Stephanie Hebert and Dan Simonds -- assembling a lineup of volunteer drum groups, singers and dancers for the hours-long event. This past weekend, Rencountre patched people in from across the country on the live feed.

A marketplace on the site lets vendors showcase their paintings, beadwork, jewelry, basketry and clothing.

An online powwow lacks some of the grandeur of being in person and seeing hundreds of performers fill an arena for the grand entry. It doesn't have a roll call of tribal royalty, singers and champion dancers. And it doesn't have categories for competitive dancing.

But it offers a way to keep people connected.

"When we dance, we are dancing for prayer and protection," said member Mable Moses of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina. "No matter what we do, may the Lord always protect us whether we're living or dying."

Moses learned to dance later in life and now competes in the "golden age" category at powwows. In a video of her Southern Traditional dance, she moves around a dogwood tree in her yard slowly but with high energy.

"Even though I'm 72, I'm like 29," she said.

Moses said the dance meant to calm people helps her cope with the fear surrounding the coronavirus, and the difficulty of staying away from others.

Tribal members also are posting elsewhere on social media, including youth hoop dancers from Pojoaque Pueblo in New Mexico.

For those viewing for the first time, Rencountre encourages an open mind.

"We ask them to break down the wall, to feel the dances, to feel the songs, as you're watching," he said. "Don't think about it from a technical point of view. Understand the creation of these songs and dances comes from a place of uplifting."

Leiha Peters grew up doing jingle dress dance meant for healing. The dress is characterized by cone-shaped jingles typically made from the lids of tobacco cans. Now, she does beadwork for her children's outfits and is a Seneca language teacher.

She recently posted a video of two of her children and their cousins doing smoke dance in the living room of her home on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation northeast of Buffalo, New York. Its origins are mixed as a dance for men to bless themselves before they went to battle and a way to clear smoke from traditional homes called longhouses, she said.

Her children grow up knowing the respect and the protocol that accompany the dance and its songs. They also have fun with it, sometimes competing in the family's backyard to win cups of Kool-Aid or bags of candy, Peters said.

"For them, dancing is medicine on its own. It's everything to us," she said. "It's energy, it's athleticism, it's staying healthy and living a better life with food choices. It's not easy doing what they do."

Stand with the Lakota on Giving Tuesday

Though we're separated by circumstance, we can still stand together in spirit. As the novel coronavirus dominates our focus and draws us apart, it also unites us as relatives. That's why I want to invite you to join the Lakota People's Law Project for Giving Tuesday Now, a global fundraising event scheduled for this Tuesday, May 5.

Dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture, the Lakota People's Law Project partners with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite indigenous families, and much more.

Beginning today, everyone who donates to their #GivingTuesdayNow campaign will receive an invite to join Chase Iron Eyes and Lakota People's Law Project chief counsel Daniel Sheehan for a live, interactive online talk on Saturday, May 9 at 5 p.m. PDT!

Right now, your love and support mean more than ever. Only by working together during these uncertain times can we win justice for the Lakota People. Use this link to donate. After you contribute, you'll get the details for the online chat with Daniel and Chase. Thank you for standing with the Lakota!

The Trees are My Grandparents

The Amazon rainforest has been home to the Achuar people of Ecuador for thousands of years. Skilled hunters and fishermen, they have a spiritual connection with nature and consider themselves the forest's greatest protectors.

Life is governed by their ancestors, with family history passed down orally from generation to generation. Yet traditions are being undermined as the young are tempted away by modernity, while their fragile ecosystem faces man-made destruction.

But now, the same technological developments so often deemed a threat to traditional ways of life, have offered the Achuar people, and other remote tribal people, the opportunity to preserve their legacy and fight back against the eradication of their histories.

A team from the global genealogy website MyHeritage has been spending time with groups like the Achuar in an attempt to preserve their family heritage.

Entsakua Yunkar, shaman of the Achuar Sharamentsa community in Ecuador, said the project was helping to ease his fears that "history can disappear" very quickly.

"I feel like the father of this community," Yunkar said. "If I don't exist here, this community can't have power and be successful. I feel that I give positive energy to the communities and families here.

"The big trees are my grandparents. They speak to me. I feel very sad when I think about what will happen in a long time. The world is changing. Our goal is to protect this area and our culture so it will be alive for many years."

The very existence of tribal communities around the world is threatened by a whole host of factors. Imported diseases, such as influenza, measles and chickenpox, can prove deadly when tribes people have not had the chance to develop any immunity, according to Survival International, the global charity for tribal people's rights.

Deforestation and climate change are also huge threats, while technology and modernity risk destroying communities by luring younger members away to urban regions.

The genealogy project is the brainchild of Golan Levi, a qualified architect who earlier in his career spent years creating giant sculptures with tribes around the world.

"I heard fascinating stories [during his time as an architect]," he said. "They had a history of oral tradition, but they didn't have a means to preserve their heritage.

"The oral tradition keeps the essence of their communities but they're losing the pieces. They might know the meaning behind a ceremony but they wouldn't be able to tell you the name of their great great grandparents.

"When I started working at MyHeritage I realized it was the perfect fit to document those stories."

The group's first project was with the Himba people of Namibia in 2015, with subsequent delegations visiting the Nenets in Siberia, the Emberá, Ngäbe, Naso and Guna in Panama, and several tribes in Papua New Guinea.

"Everything varies from tribe to tribe … but family and how they collaborate with each other is key," said Levi.

He explains the groups have initially been met with skepticism, but their willingness to muck in breaks down barriers with the tribes people, who eventually agree to be photographed, filmed and interviewed. "It takes time to build trust," he adds. "We live as they live in order to understand how they view the world and this is something they greatly appreciate."

Franklin Wasump, an Achuar who hails from the Wayusentsa community, echoed Entsakua Yunkar's concerns about his culture disappearing.

"In many years the Achuar culture may disappear, as happened with other nationalities, because there are many young people that don't want to preserve the culture," he said. "I am sad because although today it is still preserved, in the future it might not.

"It is the responsibility of the father to teach, to talk to the young children in order not to lose the culture."

Yampia Santi, an Achuar leader from the Wayusentsa community, said he hoped the project would raise awareness. "The Achuar tribe will be around for many more generations, which is why we ask you tell your friends about the rainforest and the Achuar people who live there."

This story originally appeared in The Guardian (April 2020).

Divination and Adapting to an Evolutionary Pandemic

Divination is the art of gaining insight into a question or situation by the interpretation of signs or omens. The goal of shamanic divination is to encourage well-being by helping a person live in harmony with the universe around them. One of the best known systems of divination is the I Ching, or Book of Changes. For some 3,000 years, people have turned to the I Ching to help them uncover the meaning of their experience and to bring their actions into harmony with their underlying purpose. Consulting the I Ching is one of the best ways I know of to restore harmony wherever there is disharmony.

I consulted the I Ching today in order to gain some insight into the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading rapidly through much of the world. When I consulted the I Ching regarding the hexagram that best describes the pandemic, I received Hexagram 51, "The Arousing (Quickening, Shock, Thunder)." This hexagram consists of a doubling of the trigram Chen (the Arousing Thunder). Thunder rolls over Thunder, forming a state of Quickening. This hexagram symbolizes the unsettling events of fate that arouse us when we cling to belief or behavioral patterns that no longer support our growth. According to the I Ching, "Thunder repeated is the image of Shock. Thus in fear and trembling, the superior man sets his life in order and examines himself." The first thunder denotes fear and trembling, the second denotes shaping and exploring.

Just as the deep, reverberating sound of rolling thunder jolts the senses, so the universe may use a shocking turn of events to arouse us when we have gone astray. To weather the storm, we must retain our inner balance and utilize available energy in a sincere effort to set our life in order. Success depends on our willingness to plow old habits into the soil in order to cultivate new patterns that enhance our natural growth. If we disregard this imperative and persist in outmoded ways, we will experience repeated shock. Innovative change, on the other hand, will revitalize our life and precipitate renewed growth and creativity.

The process of adapting to COVID-19 is just beginning. Over time, the impact of the novel coronavirus may be so sweeping that it alters human rituals and behaviors that have evolved over millennia. This could change everything from the way we conduct our economy to our greeting and grieving rituals. Our earthly reality is in a state of Quickening that demands that the human species build our evolutionary powers of adapting on a scale equal to the magnitude we've seen in the coronavirus pandemic. As humans, we are being asked to go within and search our hearts in order to change those patterns of thought and behavior that work against us. It is necessary to still the mind and quiet the emotions so that inner knowing and intuition can emerge into our consciousness. Personal isolation and contemplation help us gain deeper insight and clarity of mind.

The shock waves that we are feeling indicate that usable energy is now available to change those patterns that inhibit our growth and create disharmony. When mankind chooses to live out of harmony with nature, nature too becomes inharmonious. That is what has happened in this case, and when this lack of harmony takes place, everything falls out of balance. This virus is the most recent example of this lack of balance. Global upheaval occurs when imbalances need to be corrected.

A global crisis often spawns innovation and cooperation. One of the wonderful things that happens during a natural disaster is that people cooperate with each other. That's how humans have always evolved in harsh conditions. This is a moment for us to prove our humanity, not run away from it. So, let us open our hearts to one another and let this be our finest hour. This turning point in human evolution still has much more to come. To gain insight into your path ahead, consult the I Ching.

Stand With the Mashpee Wampanoag

A Message from Chase Iron Eyes, Lead Counsel, The Lakota People's Law Project

Anpetu Waste (Good day)! I hope you are staying well, and I want you to know that we're praying for all our relations impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. One benefit of sheltering in place is that we're able to keep our eyes peeled for important news. In case you missed it, I wanted to highlight a recent attack on Indigenous sovereignty and ask for your solidarity for our Mashpee relatives.

At the end of last month, the Department of Interior announced that 321 acres of land will be taken out of trust, effectively revoking the reservation status of the Mashpee Wampanoag people of Massachusetts. For those who learned the Thanksgiving story in elementary school, the Wampanoag people broke bread with the Pilgrims in Plymouth colony, and it was Wampanoag land that the Pilgrims took. And now, in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic, President Trump's cabinet is moving to rescind the sovereign status of these people.

President Obama placed the land in question into trust in 2015, but that decision has been reversed under Trump. A reinterpretation by our executive branch of a 2009 Supreme Court decision now only grants trust status to tribes recognized before 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act was signed. Because the Mashpee weren't federally recognized until 2007, they've now lost their status. As Jessie Little Doe Baird, vice chair of the tribe, said "they came for our children and took them to Carlisle because we were 'too Indian.' Today, they tell us we are not Indian enough."

The Mashpee, who have lived in the Massachusetts area for over 12,000 years, are being denied their right to autonomy. With federal trust status comes the right to manage, develop, and tax a parcel of land. This "disestablishment" of the Mashpee reservation will likely force the closure of the tribal court and police department; it will cost Native people their livelihoods in an already barren economic landscape.

This blatant land-grab isn't even court-ordered -- the directive came from Trump's Department of the Interior. Now, the Mashpee have asked a D.C. court to issue an emergency restraining order to prevent the dissolution of trust status, and Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have vowed to combat this assault on the tribe's self-determination, saying "We will not allow the Mashpee Wampanoag to lose their homeland."

We Native people have struggled to retain less than 2.5 percent of our lands since European contact. The Indian Wars, in essence, have never truly ended. The United States' long history of systemically suppressing Native rights continues, and in 2020, land trust removal is the latest iteration of that same legacy of colonialism. We are disheartened, but as Indigenous people and allies, we have each others' backs in the face of adversity. You can stand for sovereignty by standing with the Mashpee people in their time of need.

Wopila -- thank you. Solidarity forever,

Chase Iron Eyes
Lead Counsel
The Lakota People's Law Project