Wolf Moon is coming January 28, which is a very auspicious day for me. There are things to prepare for this moon, for me, especially. First of all, “I am the wolf” because I was adopted by those with that last name. It adopted me, as well. I wear the traditional tattoo (one that has to be approved by a Medicine person so that I can still attend the most sacred ceremonies, unmarked.)
The Pawnee Nation has its name come from pa’ni, meaning ’wolf’. There story goes that Creator had the wolf spirit in charge of watching over the evening star. Each star constellation, the bear, the mountain lion, the wild cat were each guardians it was them that sent spirits down on earth to live. The wolf spirit was closely tied to guarding the moon. When the wolf sings his song to the first moon of the year, deep in winter, and still guards the moon and lets her know he is guarding her.
Because of its symbolism and characteristics, this is the time for community to work towards solutions for problems, and indeed, we do have problems in our communities right now. January is often a hard hard time of the year and it behooves us, as the wolf moon rises, to br grateful for making it midway through winter. Today, you will be required to think outside the box for solutions to a problem.
I lived way up North in a semi-isolated (winter road only, for a couple of months), I lived along the banks of wolf creek and the wolves traveled down the creek bed to the lake. I always left my window open a crack, even in winter, because I absolutely loved to hear the wolves howl at night. There is nothing more that causes one to be awestruck than the loud sound of a nearby wolf howling. Once when break-up came to the Mighty Peace River, we were going down through the night to check on the ice breaking up and the rise of the river when the river jambed at a U-turn. Beneath the full moon, we saw two wolved riding a great shard of ice riding down the river towards the jamb. It was the most beautiful but disturbing site and has stuck with me over the decades since.
As I find this the most difficult time of the year, because of the cold, the dark, and tire of being ‘in’, I decided to take a walk, yesterday, and try my knee and hips out for a one km walk. It was cold. Oh, and I did not walk in the dark, either. I fear lots of things in the dark, animals being the least of it all. I am going to build a fire on the full moon and do my own honoring of the Wolf Moon.
If you are attached to the wolf, you make very strong emotional attachments. Although most think of the wolf as savage and vicious, wolves are not and will do much to avoid confrontation. There is actually a tenderness of wolves with their clan. But, do not think that any animal will not defend what needs defense. The trick for wolf people is that they need to curb their defensiveness. Oh, so me and something I am working hard on this year. Wolf people are very community minded, very much caretakers. Again, it is easy for a wolf person to get enmeshed so we have to be careful and guard ourselves with good boundaries. Most true wolf-totem people become teachers. We crave intimacy but have a difficult time not following the true spirit of being a loner. Most wolf people will seldom share their deepest dreams, hopes and longings because they tend to crawl off into the forest to heal themselves rather than go to groups or to helpers to find healing. They go to Medicine people whom they trust, intimately. It is not easy being a wolf person. We always have the opposite to our gifts and must work, diligently, on curbing our devotions in order to keep ourselves from being hurt. We withdraw easily.
So, on the night of the Wolf Moon, I will build my solitary fire and spend some time outside giving guardianship to this Moon.
©Carol Desjarlais 24.1.21
A Nordic wolf song, of course, to honor my paternal ancestry.
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