THUNDERBIRDS

so i had a dream earlier when may was about to spring that i built a totem pole with a thunderbird on it. i was making it out of a composite wood laminate that a friend in the dream, stephan, was telling me about (in the dream). a big part of the dream was preparing the totem pole and doing a series of laminated pieces with glues and clamps and such. really meditative inner dream times. how weird i dreamt of a totem and of a thunderbird it seems they are pretty common on totems. i should say that i did take this weird homeopathic remedy that night that nicole gave me and its common knowledge that she is a witch! sigh... what i do to heal myself....

the dream was as i am sure you can imagine one of those whole universe of living dreams that really lasted say 30 or 40 minutes, always a mindboggler for me. so i got up ran to the keyboard and looked up the thunderbird. im note sure if my inner guide spirit animal was trying to tell me something but in the meantime i got mega mega mega consumed and mesmerized by northwestern native american art and pattern making. will post more as it unfolds itself. i wanna try and make a textile based on some of their techniques i think and duh of course i gotta build a totem pole. when and where is the question...


for those of you feeling the thunder here are some stories about the bird and i how i was feeling about the dream, maybe you'll see him in your dreams too:

the thunderbird is supposed to represent the trickster and the transformer

'It was believed among the Lakota and other tribes that if you had a dream or vision of birds, you were destined to be a medicine man; but if you had a vision of the Thunderbird, it was your destiny to become something else;'

great so i am destined to be 'something else'
as if i didn't know that already

While all things in nature move clockwise, Thunderbird is said to move counterclockwise. Thunderbird is said to have sharp teeth, but no mouth; sharp claws, but no limbs; huge wings, but no body. All of these things suggest Thunderbird (and the heyoka) have a curious, paradoxical, contrary nature. You could become heyoka through a vision of the Thunderbird, or just of lightning or a formidable winged being of power.
im gonna go for winged being of power.

what a heyoka is a sacred clown

does this mean im funny
but in a sacred way?

the heyoka, or sacred clowns, were usually few in number, but were found in almost every clan. Heyoka were contraries, often speaking and walking backwards. They acted in ridiculous, obscene, and comical ways, especially during sacred ceremonies. They were thought to be fearless and painless, able to seize a piece of meat out of a pot of boiling water. They often dressed in a bizarre and ludicrous manner, wearing conical hats, red paint, a bladder over the head (to simulate baldness), and bark earrings. The heyoka was thought to usually carry various sacred items - a deer hoof rattle, a colored bow, a flute, or drum. His "anti-natural" nature was thought to be shamanistic in origin -- and as a contrary, he was expected to act silly and foolhardy during battle (although this was found more among warrior clown societies such as the Cheyenne Inverted Warriors.)

geez this dream was deeper than i thought

i should mention that i day i had this dream i purposely went down the stairs backwards and said '0lleh' to the bodega dude...

o i like this part:
Heyoka were freed from all the ordinary constraints of life, and thus were usually not expected to marry, have children, or participate in the work of the tribe. Despite their bizarre acts (such as dressing in warm clothes during summer or wearing things inside out), they were trusted as healers, interpreters of dreams, and people of great medicine. Whenever they interrupted the solemnity of a ceremony, people took it as an admonition to see beyond the literalness of the ritual and into the deeper mysteries of the sacred. Like the flash of lightning, the heyoka's sudden outbursts and disturbances were thought to be the keys to enlightenment - much like the absurd acts of Zen masters in Japan.

the Trickster as an archetypal part of the collective unconscious; and his "crazy wisdom" as emblematic of humankind's earlier, undivided, unindividuated consciousness. tricksters seem to be at the constant mercy of their desires; yet their blind luck always seems to protect them from the consequences of their missteps. others proclaim him the representative of untamed, unpredictably wild nature, within the confines of culture.

whoa

go thunderbirds!