22 - Beaver - Builder is joined by 14 - Dog - Loyalty and 43 - Spider - Weaving

 

22

Beaver

Builder

Beaver . . .
      Teach me to build my dreams,
            Including others too.

One mind,
       One thought,
            Heart as one,
                  Lessons learned from you.

Beaver is the doer in the animal kingdom. 

Beaver medicine is akin to water and earth energy, and incorporates a strong sense of family and home. 

If you were to look at the dams that block woodland streams, you would find several entrances and exits. 

In buildings its home, Beaver always leaves itself many alternative escape routes. 

This practice is a lesson to all of us not to paint ourselves into corners. 

If we eliminate our alternatives, we dam the flow

of experience in our lives. 

A doer is characterized by industriousness, and Beaver knows that limitation cancels productivity.

Beaver is armed with very sharp teeth that are capable of felling whole trees. 

Imagine what those teeth could do to the limbs of predators. 

From the rear, Beaver is armed with a paddle-like tail that aids in swimming as well as in guarding its behind. 

This tiny mammal is well equipped to protect its creation.

To understand Beaver medicine, you might take a look at the power of working and attaining a sense of achievement. 

In building a dream, teamwork is necessary. 

To accomplish a goal with others involves working with the group mind. 

Group mind constitutes harmony of the highest order, without individual egos getting in the way. 

Each partner in the project honours the talents and abilities of the others, and knows how to complete the piece of the puzzle that belongs to them. 

In working well with others, a sense of community is achieved and unity ensues.

If Beaver has appeared in your spread, it may be time to put your ideas into action or to complete some project that has been neglected. 

The Beaver card could also be asking you to

settle differences with fellow workers or friends. 

Beaver tells you to look for alternative solutions to life's challenges and to protect the creations which you put your love and energy into.

Sometimes Beaver brings you a warning to watch your back. If this is your message, you will know it by the position in which the card falls in your spread. 

If the card falls in the South position, it is to remind your child-self that trusting is okay but caution is necessary.

Use discernment and all will be fine.

Contrary:

If Beaver has dunked its head under water and is contrary, you are being asked to open new doors to opportunity and to stay aware. 

This could also usher in a time of laziness or

apathy. 

Find what is damming the flow, and remove the impasse. The questions that may arise when Beaver is contrary are: 

(1) Have I forgotten to allow room in my life for new experiences? 

(2) Am I willing to work with others? 

(3) Am I resentful of having to work?

(4) Do I express my creativity by doing, or just be dreaming about it? 

(5) Has my mind created so many obstacles to productivity that I feel like a failure before I begin?

Meditate upon Beaver's determination and willingness to work. 

Visualize the goal you wish to accomplish, and be willing to work with others to achieve that end.

Overview:

Beaver is the construction worker of the animal world and its dam-building methods characterize its industriousness and productivity. 

As a power animal, Beaver stresses the power of work, and especially of teamwork, to accomplish what is necessary and obtain a sense of achievement.

Beaver as a power animal can help you to develop more harmonious relationships with others, and acquire a sense of involvement in any project.

Beaver's practice of providing alternative ways of entering and leaving its home is a reminder that there is more that one way of solving your problems. 

Beaver is also cautioning you to protect what you have achieved or acquired through your own efforts.

If you are currently engaged in any creative endeavour, Beaver is encouraging you to put

your ideas in practice. 

It is not enough to be a dreamer: you need to be a doer if you want your dreams to become practical realities.

Be constructive in all your endeavours and look for ways of providing alternatives.

Work at it.

Make today count. 

Build toward manifesting your dreams and goals.

14

Dog

Loyalty

Dog . . .

     You are noble,
     Until the bitter end,
     Your medicine is the teaching,
      Of true and loyal friends.


These noble animals would often give warning signals of approaching danger.

They helped in the hunt and were a great source of warmth on long winter nights. 

Since the canine tribe has many breeds, early Indian Dogs were usually half- wild. 

This wildness, however, never divested the owners of their Dog's innate loyalty.

Dog has been considered the servant of humanity throughout history. 

If a person carries Dog medicine, he or she is usually serving others or humanity in some way. 

Here you will find the charity worker, the philanthropist, the nurse, the counsellor, the minister, and the soldier.

Dog was the servant-soldier that guarded the tribe's lodges from surprise attack.

Dog is a medicine that embodies the loving gentleness of best friend and the half-wild

protector energy of territorial imperative. 

Like Anubis, the jackal dog protector of Egypt,

Dog is a guardian. 

Throughout history, Dog has been the guardian of hell, as well as of ancient secrets, hidden treasures, and babies - while mothers were cooking or in the fields. 

Dog honours its gifts and is loyal to the trust placed in its care.

In examining Dog medicine, you might find that you have fond personal memories of owning and loving Dog as a pet. 

The message that Dogs are trying to give you is that you must delve deeply into your sense of service to others. 

Canines are genuinely service-oriented animals, and are devoted to their owners with a sense of

loyalty that supersedes how they are treated.

If Dog has been yelled at or paddled, it still returns love to the person who was the source of its bad treatment. 

This does not come from stupidity, but rather from a deep and compassionate understanding of human shortcomings. 

It is as if a tolerant spirit dwells in the heart of every canine that asks only to be of service.

You can also see Dogs that have had the loyalty beaten out of them. 

They cower and cry at the slightest look of disapproval, but this is not their normal nature. 

Some varieties of Dogs have even been trained against their natures to be brutal and vicious.

Out of a sense of service, these breeds have adopted the attack-oriented desires of their

owners. 

They carry an altered genetic memory of what service means if they are to be approved of by their masters.

Dog medicine asks you to look at how readily your sense of loyalty is countermanded by your need for approval. 

If you have pulled the Dog card, there are several questions you need to consider, depending on the situation about which you are asking. 

(1) Have I recently forgotten that I owe my allegiance to my personal truth in life? 

(2) Is it possible that gossip or the opinions of others have jaded my loyalty to a certain friend or group? 

(3) Have I denied or ignored someone who is trying to be my loyal friend? 

(4) Have I been loyal and true to my goals?

Overview:

Be loyal to yourself. 

Be true to others. 

Bolster your integrity.

Contrary:

In the contrary position, Dog may be telling you that you have become critical or mean due to the company you are keeping. 

The reversal of this medicine could also imply that it is time to stop cowering with fear, and time to begin to tackle the adversaries of your confidence. 

The key is to realize that these are not external enemies, but thought-forms in your own mind which tell you that you are not worthy of loyalty -

either to yourself or to others. 

You may want to examine the patterns of disloyalty in your life. 

Do you, for example, pass on gossip, or not speak up when someone else is rumour-mongering? 

Do you make jokes that belittle others? Do you refuse to return kindness? 

These are characteristics of fear, and particularly of a fear that is common to the human, two-legged family: the fear of not belonging or of not being approved of.

Reclaim the power of loyalty to self and self truths. 

Become like Dog - your own best friend.

43

Spider

Weaving

Spider . . .

weaving webs of delight,

     Weave me a peaceful world.

         
 Carrying creation in your web,

                   Waiting to be unfurled!

Spider wove the web that brought humans the first picture of the alphabet. 

The letters were part of the angles of her web.

Deer asked Spider what she was weaving and why all the lines looked like symbols. 

Spider replied, 

"Why Deer, it is time for Earth's children to learn to make records of their progress in their Earth Walk." 

Deer answered Spider, 

"But they already have pictures that show through symbols the stories of their experiences." 

"Yes," 

Spider said, 

"But Earth's children are growing more complex, and their future generations will need to know more. 

The ones to come won't remember how to read the petroglyphs."

So it was that Spider wove the first primordial alphabet, as she had woven the dream of the world that had become manifest. 

Spider's dream of the physical world had come to fruition millions of years before.

Spider's body is made like the number eight, consisting of two lobe-like parts connected at the waist, and eight legs. 

Spider is the symbol for the infinite possibilities of creation. 

Her eight legs represent the four winds of change and the four directions of the medicine wheel.

Spider weaves the webs of fate for those who get caught in her web and become her diner. 

This is similar to humans who get caught in the web of illusion in the physical world, and never see beyond the horizon into the other dimensions.

The web of fate also represents a wheel of life, which does not include any alternatives or solutions. 

It is typically human to get caught in the polarity of good or bad fortune without realizing that we can change it at any time. 

If we are not decisive enough about changing our lots in life, we may end up being consumed by our fears and limitations.

Spider is the female energy of the creative force that weaves the beautiful deigns of life. 

Her web has hundreds of intricate patterns which catch the morning dew.

If Spider has dropped from her web into your cards today, she may be telling you to create, create, create! 

Look for new alternatives to your present impasse. 

She can also be warning you that you are coming too close to an entangling situation. 

Spider could be asking you to use a journal to write out and review your progress. 

If you do this, you will not forget how you are creating a new of different phase in your life.

Spider brings a message of a different kind when she sees you becoming a bit too involved in the weaving of your life plans to notice opportunity at the outskirts of your web. 

If this is the case, Spider gets your attention so that you notice that something you have woven has borne fruit. 

Congratulations! 

Spider caught you just in time, before you missed the opportunity on the edge of your web of reality.

The most important message from Spider is that you are an infinite being who will continue to weave the patterns of life and living throughout time. 

Do not fail to see the expansiveness of the eternal plan.

Contrary:

The contrary aspect of Spider is akin to the negative side of woman. 

Spider will eat her mate if she gets too caught up in herself to see the validity of honouring male

energy. 

The warrior at her side is a strong balancing force. 

If you have become disdainful of your mate (male or female) and have felt very superior recently, you are not honouring either your male or female side.

If you are not presently in a relationship, you may have chosen a member of your family or a workmate to harass. 

This type of negative criticism only breaks down relations, and is a reflection of something you hate about yourself. 

If you are trying to feed your ego in this manner, you have lost the game. 

You are entangled in the web of your own illusion about who you really are. 

It may be time to look at why you are being critical and why you are feeling so weak that you must attack others.

If this does not apply to your situation, take a look at another message that contrary Spider medicine brings: lack of creativity. if you fail to use your talents to get the web spinning, your lack of creativity can change into destructiveness. 

If you are feeling stagnant and unable to move in a positive direction, you may come to resent others who are doing well. 

This resentment will become a Black Widow Spider and eat you up, and the only one to mourn your demise will be you. 

Get moving, find joy and new ideas in the accomplishments of others, and use them to propel you into a new phase of creative spinning on your own web of delight. 

Observe Spider's web and find pleasure in the ideas you receive from her universal language.

Overview:

Dance your dreams alive. 

Create from your heart’s bliss. 

Weave the web you want to live.

Source: 

Sams, Jamie and Carson, David. 
Medicine Cards 

Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988