Tag: Native American

• Vernal Equinox

  

  Today marks the vernal equinox. Vernal is a lovely word, meaning pertaining to spring. Spring derives from the Old Norse and means to jump or rise. It seems appropriate that we spring forward into the season, a time in which new life appears to literally spring into being. Among my favorite places to visit as…

  Michael Watson PhD

  March 20, 2016

  Ecopsychology, Nature, Shamanism

  equinox, Native American, seasons, Shamanism

• The Medicine Wheel: Learning to Walk

  

  The fog is burning off. Being March, it is warm one day and cold another; rain, sun, and snow take turns moving across the landscape. Sunday marks the Vernal Equinox, a time for remembering to walk in balance. Of course, this walking is no easy task. When we watch children learn to walk, we notice…

  Michael Watson PhD

  March 17, 2016

  Healing, native american, Shamanism, Stories, Teaching

  equinox, healing, Medicine Wheel, Native American, Shamanism, stories

• Food for the Soul

  I’ve been thinking about food. Seems to me food, place, story, and language are crucial ingredients of family and culture. Each provides a marker for the construction of self, and aids us in the great task of understanding our place in the ongoing history of a people. My mom could not cook. Actually, that is…

  Michael Watson PhD

  February 28, 2016

  native american, Stories

  family, food, Native American

• Binaries and the Shaman’s Dreaming

  

  My mom identified as settler while my dad identified as Native. It seemed that mom had room in her sense of identity for only one part of her heritage. Dad took a more nuanced view of things, making room for his European ancestors while primarily understanding himself as Native. Because of this, there was, in…

  Michael Watson PhD

  February 24, 2016

  native american, Shamanism

  Dreaming, Native American, Race, Shamanism