Last night the full moon was brilliant. I ventured out to a meadow to feel for the right spot to start a Water Ceremony. Photo: Duck pond in Congress Park.
The meadow is next to the Saratoga Springs Community Garden and the wetlands at Wesley Retirement Community. There are 36 acres here of wetlands, woodlands and extensive landscaped sitting areas within shaded green spaces along with solid footpaths for easy walking. It is truly a lovely natural setting that I can explore and enjoy by myself. I feel safe here. Flowers are blooming everyswhere throughout the property. At night the grasshoppers are singing and darling small tree frogs keep my heart happy as they chant with me. Before I do Ceremony, I take the time to do Tai chi and Yoga to work out any stress that is being held in the body. Once I have cleared my own outer body auro of clogged energy, I am ready to begin.
First I lit a small dried branch of White Sage from California and purified with the smudge. Then I offered smudging to the seven directions. After this clearing, I put down sacred Assema that has been used in daily morning offerings. All gifts are returned to the earth. I had my birch bark clapping sticks and proceded to do the Nibi Wabo Ceremony. It is important to remember that as women we are the protectors of water. As more and more of the world becomes dried up, water is disappearing. In poor countries, the water situation is even more critical. When I think of a woman having to walk several miles a day just to obtain one vessel of water that she carries on her head back to the village, I think about the inner body that is mostly water. How are these people surviving with a critical shortage of water? This is a human tragedy story.
Water is not a commodity and yet profiteering companies go to poor countries and sell water to poor people. Whoever heard that one needed to buy water in a bottle?. Water is being treated as a commodity. This is a social justice issue. Water is a gift from the Creator. Water is for all species on the planet, not just humans and crops. The birds, butterflies, moths, large animals and fish, let alone all the Green Nation, must have water to survive. How can a planet full of people not realize that by emitting carbon dioide into the atmosphere, for money, people are doing so without paying attention to the consequences. We are depleting air and water around the world. The climate is at a dangerous level now because of Climate Change. We are living in perilous times for air and water. This is why we must offer water our love and respect. We need to remember her and celebrate her everyday of our lives. Just by focusing on one issue, one can change the world, at leaset in our own corner of the world.
There is a small water font near my front door. This allows me to rememeber water as I come and go throughout the day. I am centering my thoughts around water so that I am more intuned to the living presence of water. This is similar to a meditation. How could I ever forget thinking of the Beloved who gives me life?
Doing a chant with my clapping sticks in the seven directions all around me, above me, below me and within me, I am honoring water as a living Being. May we remember. It is in forgetting that the natural world is taking abuse beyond what anything should suffer. Let us rejoice that we are abundantly blessed and offer Ceremony for the gifts that we recieve. Starting with becoming conscious of water and remembering her as a conscous effort. Let us walk forward to becoming conscious everyday of our lives and not just on the appointed time set aside for Water Ceremony, on the Full Moon.
To women everywhere, I bless you and myself with an offering to Nibi Wabo.
Memengwaaikwe
Butterfly Woman
Photo: of full moon rising over the trees as it comes into full view in the meadow.
In two days it will be Thanksgiving. The day after it will be the New Moon and time for the Water Ceremony in Northwest Wisconsin. The last two months in September and October for one reason or another women needed to cancel due to illness, work or travel.
As a council guide, I am recommending that we meet again when it is spring and the rebirth of the world is upon us. In the dark snowy nights of winter I suggest that we keep to the same schedule and each participant do ceremony at home. This is the time of deer crossings and difficult to drive at night in Northwest Wisconsin. The deer doesn’t realize that a road runs through their country. It becomes dangerous to them and humans to be out in the night.
Grandmother Tonya Whitedeer suggested, “Once a ceremony is set into action….and a person says they will be there….that is like an Oath to the Creator as this is all Sacred … When they call to say they cannot make it….as a Grandmother we must tell them to apologize to the Creator and all the Spirits of the Heavens that they cannot seem to keep their vow to them….for they have put a break in the circle of trust and commitement….I know that it sounds harsh…but after all this is the Truth.”
This is sage advice. Vows should not be taken lightly.
Double rainbow over Minong - Storm image. After every storm there is a rainbow even if we can't see it.
August 29 – Northwest Wisconsin Water Sisters held a Water Ceremony in Minong, WI. This is a monthly gathering where we join our spirits with other Water Sisters around the world and pray for sacredness, honor, purity and abundance of water for all living species and for future generations. We sing the Nibi Wabo water chant, speak water reflections, water prayers and dance with drum, birch bark clapping sticks and gourd rattles around a sacred circle. In warm season we hold ceremony in a sand dunes and go barefoot as we dance. Beautiful soft sand molding our steps and touching us back with gladness.
Afterwards we have a community meal of organic and local foods prepared individually by Water Sisters. This time is an opportunity to share ourselves, our joys and concerns. Everyone leaves feeling stronger than when they arrived. It is as if a healing blanket is embracing us.
If you would like to join us by intention or directly let us know. When we give our Intentions to the water in Ceremony ,we will call your names off if you are joining us from afar. This month we remembered Worth Cooley-Prost, Alexandria, VA; Ginger Wilcox, Springbrook, WI and Water Sisters everywhere. We remembered Akasa WolfSong, Ann Dunn, Jackie’s Remlinger’s mother and all mothers around the world.
Next New Moon Water Ceremony is September 27 at 6 p.m.
Source: Mary Ellen Ryall, Council Guide, Sisterhood of the Planetary Water Rites.
Saturday, July 30- There were thunderstorms surrounding the valley in late afternoon. Water sisters arrived at the Hospitality House in Minong. We began by dressing up in skirts. Sandy Stein mentioned that when women wear a shawl and skirt it represents mountains and being close to Mother Earth. A skirt worn in ceremony is respectful and helps women remember that we are feminine energy and connected to Mother Earth. We put our sacred items together to carry them out to the sand dunes. I had on my glass water pendent that Worth Cooley-Prost had made for me. Sandy wore her medicine bag. It is good for women to have their very own medicine bag. We have several small beaded butterfly medicine bags made by an elder Marilyn Vig, Rice Lake, WI. I will exhibit and offer them for sale in September at our online store at http://stores.ebay.com/happytonics
Rainbow after storm
While still at the house we witnessed a rainbow. This was a beautiful sign.
Then it started to lightly rain again as we walked to the sand dunes. Sandy Stein said, “Rain is good.” I responded, “After all we are praying for the water.” We felt blessed as we entered Sacred Space and the rain began to lighten up and then stop.
Sandy, Deborah and Godavari met the sweet fern for the first time that is now growing over the dune and into the site. I love this fern, years ago I put my intentions on the fern and wished that the fern would climb the dunes from the other side. Each of them smelled the plant and were joyous when they smelled the sweet fragrance having never smelled anything like it before. I reminded water sisters that we needed to be silent as we entered Sacred Space.
Sweet fern.
We put our individual sacred items on the blanket alter in the sand. Before we began the Nibi Wabo (Water Song) each of us added our pure water to the water bowl to marry the waters. We tried to smudge but couldn’t get a match to light the sacred sage; it was too damp. We each took a pinch of tobacco in our left hand. In turn each spoke their intentions of remembrance before beginning ceremony and added a pinch of tobacco to the basswood Two Headed Bear Dream Bowl handmade by Frank Galli. The bowl was made especially for Water Ceremony offerings. Then I gave a short talk on the observations of water to the sisters.
Message: Grandmother Tonya Whitedeer is one of the Ambassadors of the White Buffalo Family in Oregon. She is with them now and doing ceremony as we stand in circle. Worth Cooley-Prost is traveling from Arlington, VA to the Carolinas. Worth is standing with us in ceremony at the same hour where ever she is. I remembered Shelley Ruth Wyndham, Cape Town, South Africa, who asked that she be remembered each time we stand in Water Ceremony. She is with us in ceremony. Mother Earth is going through a Great Cleansing and weather is and will become more violent. We are to stand firmly grounded to the earth and hold any fear in our feet which is solidly planted in communication with Mother Earth. We are not to let fear rise up through our bodies. We are not to be afraid when great and turbulent changes occur around us. We are to know that Mother Earth is protecting us. We are the Water Walkers, water sisters and water teachers.As women we are called to protect water. We are not alone. We are here to grow in healing energy work as we band together all over the world. Each of us in our own environment is here to teach others not to be afraid and to help people cross over the rainbow road after a storm. We are here at this moment to personally adapt to Climate Change and its consequences. We need to learn what our agricultural plant growing zone is and may be in the predicted future. We need to plant appropriately while we look towards the future. Current plant zoning is changing. In Northwest Wisconsin instead of planting the same species of downed trees ( Birch, Red Pine and Jack Pine) of the last storm in Minong on July 1, we need to look at a zone or two further south and plant accordingly. We need to personally adapt and teach others to adapt. There is no sense in old programming of being alarmed when our immediate world is changing and negatively lamenting the changes. If we survive I believe this is sufficient enough to be grateful. The solution: Think positive because we are still here doing our work. Adapt! This is the message.
Then we sang to the four direction, using our birch bark clapping sticks. The clouds were getting black and thunder clouds came closer. After concluding the Water Song we ended ceremony sooner, packed up our ceremonial objects and headed back to the Hospitality House. Before we left the sand dunes, Sandy put down the sacred items she brought to the ceremony. These were a shell and rock. I left a tear drop shell in a special place also which was significant because we were blessed by rain during ceremony.
Parched sand dunes from drought.
One of the observations I have noticed since I started working on water issues and Water Ceremony, with the Sisterhood of the Planetary Water Rites, is that I am forever thirsty. Northwest Wisconsin experienced a seven-year drought . I am conscious of having a dry mouth and wanting to drink water.
NOTE: Parts of this state’s North Woods and the adjacent Upper Peninsula of Michigan are the only areas in the continental USA experiencing “extreme” drought. It’s the region’s most severe drought since the 1930s and its longest dry period since the 1950s, says Roy Eckberg, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Green Bay, Wis. Learn more at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/drought/2010-06-24-drought_N.htm
Artesian well with spout and cup
I am grateful for all the rain in 2011 even though we have had to deal with strange, unpredictable and more frequent violent storms. Even the clouds have changed to forms I have never seen before. Now I keep a weather radio on.
I am secure in knowing that there is pure water at the artesian well in the woods where sweet water flows to the surface from deep within Mother Earth. What a happy woodlands it is that surrounds the artesian well. Even though the trip is long and I need to drive 60 miles round trip from Minong to Shell Lake and back, I am happiest when I am drinking this precious pure water.
After the Water Ceremony Godavari wrote, “Thanks so much, so very much, for having us at your place, especially right after the trauma of the storms, when it must have been hard for you to get ready. I like that it rained on our ceremony. In Siddha Yoga rain is auspicious (highly beneficial, a good omen) because it is a blessing upon the earth and its people. As you said, it is life itself. After our ceremony, I began drinking water with much gratitude, knowing we are blessed to have clean water on this part of the earth. And inside, I feel a purification beginning, which the water ceremony seemed to launch. Purifying me of anger and resentment, making space for greater love. So in a personal way too, I am grateful to you for leading us in honoring water, in honoring Mother Earth.
Note: Godavari means goddess of a holy river, and there is a River Godavari, as they call it there, near the Siddha Yoga ashram in India.
Worth Cooley-Prost says, “My part of Water Ceremony was brief and on the move, but held my Heart and I hope added something Good to the whole. My old (85 now!) friend Dot, who co-founded the Light Group in Kinston NC in the early 1970s, brought me a little container of water from there. (It used to be artesian well water, now it’s a mix of that and water from the Neuse River… anyway, Water from close-to-me Ancestors’ home since 1841 or so.) And our car smelled so wonderful with sage lit!
Tonya Whitedeer Cargill is a Clan Mother of the Bear Clan of Medicine Creek Metis in Laytonville, CA. She holds women’s circles and Grandmother Net of Light Ceremonies. She is one of the Ambassadors’ for the Sacred White Buffalo Family in Northern Oregon. She is currently working on a novel that is coming to her through Spirit. Tonya works with endangered species Medicines of the Green Nation and maintains a Medicine Walk open to the public to educate all those that come to her land named through Spirit as Medicine Creek. Visit the Sisterhood of the Planetary Water Rites at http://waterblessings.org/
Mary Ellen Ryall is a Council Guide of the Sisterhood of the Planetary Water Rites and Executive Director of Happy Tonics, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) environmental education organization and public charity. Ryall is the author of My Name is Butterfly published in 2011 by Salt of the Earth Press. The book will be available on Amazon shortly.
The fully illustrated children’s book gives testimony of why native plants are important for pollinators. The charming book teaches about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly and its only host plant milkweed. Over the last eight years Ryall has planted milkweed at the sand dunes. Monarch butterflies flitted about the day of the Water Ceremony. This is another good sign that the monarch butterfly abounds in Minong in and near the sand dunes.
Don’t know how this will help, but feel led to offer, one of the music cd’s I produced called “Immaculate Waters”, that was produced in 2002 is specific for healing using prayers for forgiveness, and cleansing. There is a lot of water sounds and nature sounds throughout.
The music was made when I went through a healing and spirit helped me through the death process and crossed that threshold and now am on the 9th music cd still alive and more focused on the real work/purpose for even being on this planet. Each music cd produced between the years of 1998-2009 is for some aspect of healing and balancing the chakras and masculine/feminine energies.
I was a former “grandmother speaks” host for 3 years and held groups at a sacred site and gave empowerments for the grandmother’s work, so through that opening was connected with you all. I’d like to donate 100 of these music CDs to support the work. You can use these for fund raising.
To let you know, these music CDs are recorded with the 528 hz, which is harmonious to the system, and is converted back into analogue another helpful tool to balance the chakras. Each song on each album individually is helpful to balance the chakra, and then when the whole music cd is listened to with intent for deep meditation is for even another level of balancing the chakra system. There are prayers of different sacred languages. Please think about it, and let me know if it can help. Much love and many blessings, Anyah
Grandmother Whitedeer says, “We have these along with several others now to distribute for our Fundraising Venture for our cause……E-mail Grandmother Tonya Whitedeer at whitebuffalowoman@msn.com
Check out our Store…we have added some great items on our on-line outlet at www.waterblessings.org
We’re grateful for you. Without your help, we could not bring life’s most basic necessities to those in Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Honduras, Bangladesh, India, and Haiti. This year, we reached more than 238,000 people with sustainable access to safe water and sanitation. Next year, we are striving to reach even more people and a total of one million people during our 21 year history.
Thank you for working with us to achieve universal access to clean water and the dignity of a toilet!
February 2 – The Grandmothers from Quebec who brought forth the 10th Nibi Wabo Water Ceremony.
They will stand in tradition on the Ice… Please stand with them in your area and Circles for prayers and blessings for the Winter Waters. Support this Ancient Water Blessing that came to them through the Grandmothers. Bring your Birch Bark Clappers!
Let Us Stand Together….March 22, 2011
Those who spoke before are speaking again in one voice. This is the time of power and transition.
This is the Time to gather as one Voice, one Heart, one Mind. Many compassionate hearts are already dedicating intention, prayer, meditation, service, Mass, circle, dance, chant and song.
In harmony all can come together in one universal Wave.
Grandmother Whitedeer, The Sisterhood of the Planetary Water Rites Email: Waterblessings@msn.com
Feel thanks, touch the snow, spread the blessings.
Oregon – Different Cultures in Common Prayer for our Common Ground ~ Mother Earth
on Sunday April 10, 2011
On Saturday, September 11, a participant and I gathered up our ceremonial materials and walked to the sand dunes near my home in Minong, Wisconsin.
Jackie arrived about 6:30 p.m. and we shortly found our way to the sacred sands. We put a cloth down large enough to make an altar. I brought flowers and the vessel to carry the artesian water. Beforehand I went to the woods between Shell Lake and Spooner where the water flows free of contaminants and chemicals. Mother Earth’s blood (which is water) just bubbles up to the surface in this enchanted forest. I always thank the water before taking any.
Jackie brought a photo picture of her guru. I brought gourd rattles. One gourd is from the gourds I found growing in a dirt pile last year and the other gourd was from New Mexico. It is a peyote medicine rattle. I brought my birch bark clapping sticks and drum which was given to me by an elder who made me promise I would use it only to pray for water. I never dreamed a few years ago when Frank gave it to me that someday I would be a Council Guide. I am honored to say I am now with the Sisterhood of Indigenous Water Rites. I feel very honored by both blessings.
I can’t really tell you what took place at the ceremony. Perhaps someday if you are a woman you will come and share this sacred ceremony with us. I can say that we prayed for the Net of Light workshop in Ireland who were connected with us through mutual intentions and ceremony. I can say that we thanked the water and each in turn talked to the water and told her we loved her. I did say I knew that mankind often did not respect her, contaminated and polluted her. I asked for forgiveness of these unconscious and sometimes cruel acts. I acknowledged that we are made up of mostly water and we need fresh water around the world for humanity and for seven generations out.
Both Jackie and I performed the Nibi Wabo water ceremony. We also danced around the altar and sang. I did notice the tiniest of little miniature flowers on sliver stalks. I wonder if anyone on Earth saw such sweet flowers that we were careful not to step on as we danced. As we bid goodbye to the ceremony, we saw the new moon on the third day as a sliver of light, first star and the sunset all at the same time.
Smoke signal
It was glorious how the clouds turned pink to the east as we looked over the horizon and saw the valley hills around us.
We took the blessed water afterwards and gave some to Mother Earth at certain spots. One was at the sweet fern that I prayed for several years ago. I wanted her to come up the hill from the other side and adorn the sand dunes. Then we carried some to the fir trees that are starting by succession to come into the sand dunes. Then we blessed milkweed and sacred prairie sage that I planted in 2008. I have been seeding this site for years in the hopes of making a sanctuary for the monarch butterfly. It is working, butterflies do flutter here in season.
We need to respect water. Please visit and learn that not all people are as fortunate as we are in the USA. Many people and countries need water. Can you imagine being thirsty? Have a heart and open your eyes to others in need at http://twitter.com/charitywater
Remember: Water is not a resource to be squandered. Water is the source of life for all living beings. Say a prayer of thanksgiving when you lift the water of life to your lips and be grateful.
Washington, Aug 7 – “Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today announced H.R. 6006, which closes a loophole that allows the bottled water industry to divert or export an unlimited amount of water from the Great Lakes. The bill was introduced along with cosponsors Bart Stupak (MI), Marcy Kaptur (OH) and Betty McCollum (MN).”
Source: Congressman Dennis Kuchiich’s Web site.
Be happy insectamonarca friends where ever you are.
August 12 – Stonelake Garden Club came for a tour of the habitat. There were 33 women from the garden club and they enjoyed learning about forbs and grasses. The tall bluestem grass is over 6 feet tall and it is like walking through a tunnel in some areas where the rain drenched earth produced tall stands in the wettest part of the sandy prairie.
The week of August 9 – 14 so very hot that we didn’t work in the habitat. The temperature is supposed to cool next week. Looking forward to placing the sculpture art in the habitat.
August 18 – The sculpture art is still not in. It has been raining quite steadily for at least two weeks now. I don’t mind. Matter of fact, I do a Nibi Wabo Water Ceremony to bless the tears of the sky. The habitat is happy with singing crickets. I believe I heard a frog out there this early evening as I walked through area two.
I was happy to see monarch caterpillars on several milkweeds throughout the habitat today. I feel we have an incubator this year because the adult females have found that the habitat is for them. I love to see the waving and pollinating grasses dressed in dripping gold and yellows dangling from the flower heads waving in the breeze. There is nothing quite like it as I pause to gaze at ground covering purple Prairie dropseed, what might be a little bluestem and one beauty I still haven’t identified.
The plant ID plaques are nearly all in place. The hand-made large standing bird house is looking good in area three. Brennan Harrington placed a wooded stand under it so it now stands a little taller than the split rail fence.
August 23 – I agree with Corey Bradshaw, Conservation Biologist in Australia. Limited monitoring of species does not give the big picture to show any pattern of species biodiversity, one needs to look at the long and broad view. Please read his article at http://conservationbytes.com/2010/08/24/long-deep-broad/
None the less, we are making minute monitoring observations at least. I felt it was important to document what we are seeing as an environmental education organization. I wanted to show and tell what is happening to biodiversity of animals and plant species in the Restored Remnant Tallgrass Prairie which is a Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake, Wisconsin, USA.
RAIN OR SHINE
{{look for drummers in the section of the beach near the park entrance}}
Come to Golden Gardens RAIN OR SHINE with your noise makers and ecstatic bodies to send loving energy to the oceans and all our sisters and brothers that live there.
We will form a circle at 6PM and drum at length until we feel done. We could be there into the night. The more people that come, the larger the circle and power of healing there will be. YOU ARE THE CIRCLE. Please come if you can!
THOUGH OUR EXPRESSION IS UNGUIDED OUR FOCUS AND INTENT WILL BE ONE:
– Healing for the Ocean People
– Acknowledgment of our Human selves in part responsibility for the Oil Spills in the Gulf of Mexico
– Acknowledgment and reinforcement of our own Divinity in our place of the great web.
This is a devotional activity. This is a healing circle of giving as well as receiving for it is in both gratitude and love that the healing energies can flow. Feel free to hold your own meditations with your friends at your end of the circle. All expressions: joy, grief, sorrow, love, determination, welcome.
Please join us in our efforts to unify en masse to help our precious waters through prayer and ceremony. Let us know how you would like to help. No matter how small of a circle or community, any effort will make a difference when we all work together! The Circles of Empowerment will be actively participating in this event. We are tasked with developing ceremonies in all of our Central Coast Communities. So if you would like to represent your community’s beach, lake, creek … gather together your circles for a prayer ceremony on the shore. Our goal is to have as many Blessing Ceremonies [Nibi Wabo] as possible in our area from Cambria to Santa Barbara.
Join us. Gather a vessel of water in a sacred place in your home and pray with it, put crystals in it, give it good intentions. Bring it to the ceremony and we will marry all our waters and pour it into the Grandmother Ocean! Feel free to contact Grandmother T. Water Sister Tonya on representing your area at waterblessings@msn.com
Time and Place:
We will be gathering from noon to 1 pm at the end of Grand Ave. in Grover Beach [CA], just off the parking lot on the right. Adjust your time accordingly by your time zone.
Memengwaa Ikway suggests that you carry your home water to a free flowing water source near you be it creek, stream, pond, bay, lake or ocean. We are all uniting our love and respect for Mother water.
Be happy insectamonarca friends where ever you live, Memengwaa Ikway (Butterfly Woman)
Tonya Whitedeer of the Sisters of the Planetary Water Rites in California sent the following excerpted email:
Pure Shell Lake in Shell Lake, Wisconsin
I wish I was not writing to tell you that the Gulf of Mexico is experiencing an epic oil spill. I wish we were not witnessing what may become the largest oil spill in US history. I am asking for your help. I am calling for a group meditation on Sunday evening. (Of course…any time you love water…whether today or tomorrow or Sunday…it will make a difference…so join when you can.)
I am calling for a miracle. Let’s join in a meditation to cap the oil leak Sunday night at 5:00 p.m. Pacific & AZ time. I feel that this oil spill has served to wake us up. Maybe this will allow us to refocus, and find a better solution to meet our energy needs. For that awakening, we give thanks. Our hearts open to the families who have experienced loss, and trauma. Our hearts embrace all life in the area affected; people, wildlife, flora and water.
Shell Lake and diminishing water table due in part to Climate Change
Grandmother and water sister Tonya Whitedeer says, “Invite the Spirit of Water to be fully present and enlivened and one with the Spirit of the Gulf of Mexico.” Turn your thoughts and prayers towards purity of water and to cap the oil leak Sunday evening 5 p.m. Pacific & AZ time, 6 p.m. Mountain time, Central standard time 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern standard time. Let’s stand in solidarity and prayer for five minutes and give our healing energy to water. Tell the water that you love her and are doing your part to protect her insectamonarca friends where ever you live.
right spot to start a Water Ceremony. Photo: Duck pond in Congress Park.
Insectamonarca's Blog 