NORTH

Sunday, September 28, 2025 01:44PM

Reading Notes from:

"Honoring the Medicine" by Kenneth Cohen, 2003,

A One World Book, First Edition, United States of America.

July 20, 2025, 12:46 AM

From page 64:

The North: Where the cold wind blows

"The North is the most mysterious and challenging direction. North "represents austerity, hardship, and the strength, fortitude, and wisdom we gain by meeting and overcoming adversity." It is also "the direction of our personal difficulties and spiritual tests."

"The North symbolizes balance, moderation, and the importance of connecting with our wise and tranquil depths no matter what the surface disturbance."

From page 65:

"The North is the resting place between West and East, the setting and rising sun, the fall and spring."

"The strength of the North is represented by the Buffalo, particularly the White Buffalo, a symbol of spiritual renewal."

"The North is also the land of the ancestors and those who have passed into Spirit."

It is the "accumulation of wisdom that makes one an Elder."

From page 66:

"The intellect is our curse and our blessing."

"Western society's reliance on intellect and technology has led to people's alienation from nature and created a wall between the mind and the heart."

"The North can also be a source of mental clarity."

"The North can teach us to use the mind wisely."

"Among the many gifts of the North Wind are"

memory,

the capacity to understand and organize,

concern for freedom and justice and

finding detachment from

anger,

fear,

jealousy,

and other negative emotional states.

The ability to reason and calmly think things through is essential for peace."

From page 67:

"Many Native American Elders feel that today the Earth and its people are in the North, the Place of purification."

"Like an organism that has been invaded by viruses and toxic chemicals, the Earth has been ASSAULTED. SHE is fast approaching critical mass at which the only recourse may be a radical purge of the antigens. The purification may lead to a cataclysmic destruction of life as we know it through earthquakes, floods, massive fires, and hurricane-force winds, or it may be a spiritual cleansing, a return to balanced behavior facilitated by AWARENESS. I have heard Native Elders express both the pessimistic and optimistic viewpoints. They ALL agree, however, that whatever occurs will be a result of our own actions; mankind will reap what it sows."

`