Turtle and Moon

A friend asked about Moontime the other day.

On the way to my friend's cabin in the hills of southern Ohio, very near Serpent Mound, I nearly ran over a turtle sunning at the side of the road. I am reminded that turtles have been here well over 200 million years old, older than lizards and snakes! Many turtle species--particularly those widespread in North America--are walking Thirteen Moons calendars, with their carapaces of 13 platelets, from which so many Indigenous etiology tales have been spun.

There is a wondrous labyrinth/maze in Inniswood Garden near where I live that recalls one of the common Native American (Iroquois/Haudenosaunee) creation myths about Sky Woman, in which turtle plays his traditional role as Turtle Island. The maze/labyrinth is created by carved flat stones set in the ground, each containing a bit of the tale, until you eventually end up at a magnificent statue of Sky Woman. It's deeply moving to "walk" this tale. I've pasted it below; you'll note that the myth continues on with Sky Woman bearing two children (origin of good/evil).

But Turtle is at the root of it all. Thus, all is embedded in Moon Time.

Before our world came into being, human beings lived in the SkyWorld. Below the SkyWorld was a dark watery world with birds and animals swimming around. In the SkyWorld was the Celestial Tree from which all kinds of fruits and flowers grew. Today, the Shad tree is known as the Celestial Tree because it is the first flowering tree in the northeast in the springtime.

The wife of the Chief of the SkyWorld was called Skywoman. One night, Skywoman who was expecting a baby, had a dream in which the Celestial Tree was uprooted. When she told her husband the dream he realized that it was a very powerful message and that the people of the SkyWorld needed to do everything they could to make it come to pass.

Many of the young men in the SkyWorld tried with all their might to uproot the tree, but failed. Finally the Chief of the SkyWorld wrapped his arms around the tree and with one great effort he uprooted it. This left a great hole in the crust of the SkyWorld. Skywoman leaned over to look into the hole, lost her balance and fell into the hole. As she slipped she was able to grasp a handful of seeds from the branches of the Celestial Tree.

As Skywoman fell, the birds and animals in the water below saw her and decided that she would need help so that she would not be harmed. Geese flew up and caught her between their wings and began to lower her down toward the water. The animals saw that Skywoman was not like them and would not be able to survive in the water.

Each of the animals dove into the water trying to bring up earth from the bottom for Skywoman to land on. Many animals tried and failed. When it seemed like all had tried and failed, tiny muskrat vowed to bring up earth or die trying. She went down, deep, deep, deep, until she was almost unconscious, but was able to reach out with one small paw and grasped some earth before floating back to the top. When muskrat appeared with the Earth, the Great Turtle said it could be placed on his back. When the tiny bit of earth was placed on Turtle's back, it began to grow larger and larger until it became the whole world.

The geese gently set Skywoman on the earth and she opened her hands to let the seeds fall on the soil. From the seeds grew the trees and grass and life on Earth had begun.

In time, Skywoman gave birth to a daughter, Tekawerahkwa, who grew to be a lovely young woman. A powerful being called West Wind fell in love with Tekawerahkwa and took her as his bride. In time she became pregnant with twin sons. Tekawerahkwa's sons were very different; one (Bad Mind) had skin as hard as flint and was argumentative and the other (Good Mind) was soft skinned and patient. Flint was impatient to be born and decided to use his sharp flint-like head to cut his way out of his mother's body. While his gentle brother was being born the natural way, Bad Mind was forcing his way through his mother's armpit which killed her. When Skywoman saw the lifeless body of her beautiful daughter she was terribly angry. She asked her grandsons who had done this awful thing and Bad Mind lied and placed the blame on his good brother, Good Mind. Skywoman believed him and banished Good Mind. Fortunately, Grandfather was watching Good Mind and came to his aid. Grandfather taught Good Mind all he needed to know about surviving on the earth and set him to work making the land beautiful.


Skywoman placed the head of her daughter in the night sky where she became Grandmother Moon and was given power over the waters. From her body grew our Three Sisters, corn, beans, and squash.

Good Mind made all the beauty on our earth - he created the rivers , the mountains, the trees. He taught the birds to sing and the water animals to dance. He made rainbows and soft rains. Bad Mind watched his brother creating beauty and was envious. He set out to create the opposite of all the good his brother had made. He put dangerous rapids in the rivers, created destructive hurricanes and powerful tornadoes. When Good Mind planted medicinal plants, Bad Mind planted poisonous roots and deadly berries.

One day, while Good Mind was away creating more things of beauty, Bad Mind stole all the animals and hid them in a big cave. When Good Mind returned to find that all of his creatures were gone he was very sad. A tiny mouse told him what his brother had done, so Good Mind went to the cave and caused the mountain to shake until it split so that the animals could emerge. Good Mind was very angry with his brother and they fought. Bad Mind used an arrow and Good Mind used a deer antler as weapons. When Good Mind struck Bad Mind with the deer antler it caused flint chips to fall from his body. Their battle raged for many days and finally Good Mind won. He banished Bad Mind to live in caves beneath the earth where he waits to return to the surface.

I never tire of celebrating synchronicities. This morning, after composing my message last night about Turtle and Moon, I was reading in Louise Erdrich's Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. You may well be familiar with Louise Erdrich as an Ojibwe/German writer. I have eaten up her novels, the most recent (2008) being The Plague of Doves. This book, Books and Islands, is a narrative of her wanderings through Ojibwe country in northern Minnesota/southern Ontario, around the Lake of the Woods.

The synchronicity involves a major rock there, bearing petroglyphs a thousand years or more in age, showing history, culture, instructions (on how to travel from this world to the next, for instance), and myths of the early Ojibwe. Prominent among the painted images (they used paint made from Earth elements--it lasts!) is that of Mikinaak (Turtle). She declares, "The rock paintings are alive." Having climbed to the paintings, and leaving handfuls of tobacco, she writes:

"The mikinaak has immense significance in Ojibwe life. As there are thirteen plates in its back, it is associated with the thirteen moons in the yearly cycle, and also with women. It was women...who were responsible for beginning Ojibwe mathematical calculations. They began because they had to be concerned with their own cycles, had to count the days so that they would know when they would be fertile. They had to keep close track of the moon, and had to relate it to their bodies in order to predict the births of their children. And they had to be accurate, so that they could adequately prepare. In a harsh Ojibwe winter, giving birth in an unprotected spot could be lethal. Women had to prepare to be near relatives and other knowledgeable women. Mathematics wasn't abstract. It was intimate. Dividing and multiplying and factoring were concerns of the body, and of survival."

Aho.

This, from a 49-year old woman, traversing the lake country by canoe and small boat, with a still-nursing 18-month old daughter at her breast. Concerning which, she writes:

"Sometimes I look at men, at the way most of them move so freely in the world, without a baby attached, and it seems to me very strange. Sometimes it is enviable. Mostly, it is not. For at night, as she curls up or sprawls next to me and as I fall asleep, I hold onto her foot. This is as much for my comfort as to make sure that she doesn't fall off the bed. As I'm drifting away, I feel sorry for anyone else who is not falling asleep this way, holding onto her baby's foot. The world is calm and clear. I wish for nothing. I am not nervous about the future. Her toes curl around my fingers. I could even stop writing books."

I'll stop now, before I start quoting prodigious amounts of her writing!

Blessings on this day, in the Maya calendar, of Uc Kan (7 Seed). A day carrying the vibrational energy of Seven (harmony, resonance, mystical seer into other dimensions), and of Seed (connection with outdoors and nature, gatherer of abundance).