25 JULY 2014: Sacred New Moon Circle ~ Cocoa Beach, FL
(Journey lead by Shaman, Mary Ruggerio)
With our eyes closed, we listened to the beat of the drum, a
heartbeat. I began to feel the rhythm of
the drum in my Heart center. As I moved
into my Heart center, I saw a flame.
Soon, the flame became a fire, and I could see myself in my Heart center
dancing around the fire. As I observed
myself dancing around the fire, we moved out of my Heart space and into the
center of a clearing in a forest. The
clearing was round and surrounded by the forest. I was aware that I was barefooted and that I
was wearing leather arm bands that attached over my middle fingers and wrapped
around my forearms with fringe hanging down from my arm bands. As I danced around the fire, I had my arms
straight out to both sides. I was aware
that there were eyes in the forest watching me.
Black bear approached me from the North.
Grizzly bear approached me from the East. Polar bear approached me from the South. Panda bear approached me from the West. Black bear gifted me a bear claw. Grizzly bear gifted me a bear tooth. Polar bear gifted me a bear tail. Panda bear gifted me a bear pelt. I continued dancing around the fire with my
arms straight out, similar to an airplane motion. The fire grew higher and higher. As the fire was growing higher and higher,
Eagle came to me and landed on my left forearm, and Golden Hawk came to me and
landed on my right forearm. I continued
to dance around the fire with Eagle and Golden Hawk on my forearms, and the
fire grew higher and higher. After
awhile, the fire started to go down again.
As the fire came down, I was aware that the entire perimeter of the
clearing had lit torches, and all of the animals from the forest had joined the
circle with the bears. The fire settled
into burning embers, and smoke began to rise from the embers. In the smoke, an Elder woman appeared. At first I thought it might be the Spirit of
Mother Earth, and then I knew it was not.
The Elder woman said to me, “Now, it is your turn to take the responsibility
for Her (meaning Mother Earth). Take
good care of Her and protect Her.” As
the Elder woman dissipated, Eagle and Golden Hawk flew away, each leaving me
one of their feathers. All of a sudden,
the rain came. I was soaking wet, and the
ground beneath my feet became mud. I
picked up the mud and rubbed it all over my body. By the time I was covered in mud, all of the
animals had returned to the forest. I lay
down on the ground and allowed the rain to wash all of the mud off of me.