Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem – A deeper connection to the spiritual reasons for your actions is being asked for at this time.
What is the difference between religion and spirituality? How do you spend the majority of your time each day? Do you watch the clock and wait to be released from a job you tolerate? Or do the hours fly by and find you ready for more the next day? Motivations for work come from a connection with our personal gifts and our personal gifts come from our higher self. If you are going through the motions of a job you don’t like, it is time to reconnect with your life purpose. How do you find clarity on such an elusive notion? Especially when we are often good at a variety of things… How do we figure out what we are “supposed” to be doing. Call on the Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem to find out. Enter a sacred, silent space and connect with your greater spirit.
There is nothing we are supposed to be doing in life in particular except following what brings us joy. There is no other reason to be alive than to pursue that which brings joy. So if you have found months or years have gone by without substantial enjoyment in your day to day life… it is time to shift and open. Your purpose is no single task or action. It is an inner state of experience. You are not here to work in any particular profession for the profession itself. The world does not need another doctor, lawyer, writer, etc. The world needs you- present and powerful. We use professions- not to define who we are- but to achieve a state of peace and joy in life. If you are not happy with your current job- Buffalo says- leave it! There is no time to waste on anything that does not increase our enjoyment of life. You are not in service to your chosen life tasks. Let your chosen task be in service to you and how you explore the world.
The essence of what you really are is spiritual, metaphysical, and sensational. Connecting your day to day activities with your greater spiritual reality will bring lasting motivation and pleasure to what you do for a living. But how do you connect to your spiritual dimension?
Buffalo says, “Ceremony.”
Ceremony is an action performed which connects your day to day personality with the larger metaphysical self. The source of your physical existence is non-physical. Buffalo medicine reminds us to always keep our tasks and goals in perspective and in connection with the energetic effects they will have on the world.
Does the word spirituality make you fidget? Does it smack of some sort of religious manipulation? Buffalo medicine seeks to clear the psychological confusion surrounding spirituality and religion.
Religion is a financial institution build on control which has specific requirements of conduct and belief. You must act a certain way and contribute very specifically to religious institutions to be allowed to stay a member of the group.
Spirituality is free, silent, creative, and personal. Many people today have lost connection with the inherent mystical nature of life because they were spiritually abused as children. Spiritual abuse takes the form of repeated obligations to attend church or other similar gatherings against ones will. Attendance is often weekly, if not more frequent and involves exposure to an often violent and hostile sermon from an angry and frightening minister. Spiritual abuse terrifies children into believing that they are constantly being watched and judged for their minute by minute worth and value. Children grow up to feel that the smallest acts of contrition (even if only a thought) will result in punishment. Separating a child from their own inner stillness is spiritual abuse. Spirituality has nothing to do with pain, fear, judgment, or dogmatic repetitive actions such as counting mala beads, reciting scripture, taking communion, confessing in a booth, or singing hymns. All of those actions could very well be performed spiritually. But when they are made compulsory and are forced onto young people against their will they are tactics of abuse.
Buffalo Medicine is an invitation to heal any damage done by irresponsible religious figures. It is a time to take back your spiritual rights from those who have imposed on your natural thought processes and to reconnect with the joy of life’s mysteries. How do we do that? What do we do? Buffalo suggests you create a ceremony! How do you do that? No one but you can tell you how to find your own conversation with the Great Mystery. It is your birthright to discover your own sacred way. Buffalo invites you to use your imagination to create your own ceremonies. Legalize your right to be your own authority. Gathering the four elements together is a good start. Lighting a candle, burning sage or sweetgrass, and do something that brings you peace.
Since the Christianization of North America began as early as the 1400’s with the Jesuit priests penetrating into tribal life to teach the bible, it is not possible to know for certain what the indigenous spiritual life was like for ancient native cultures. After 500 years of assimilation, many people, (both native and otherwise) do not fully grasp the extent of the Western religious influences that have occurred in these past centuries. And it is important to keep in mind when participating in Native gatherings that most ‘traditional’ native ceremonies have an inescapable Christian influence, even communities that consciously oppose Christian ways. For example, in the Sweat Lodge ceremonies today it is common to hear people begin their verbal prayers with the phrase, “Great Spirit, Grandfather, please help me with…”
“Great Spirit…
Grandfather”???
The Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem asks us to take a closer look at that phrase.
Before western contact, native cultures did not have a word for God. The closest translations from their languages are “The Great Mystery” “The Great Spirit.” In these phrases, Native language recognizes that spiritual energies have no gender. Only with the persistent influence of Christian priests teaching about “God, the father” would such phrases as, “Great Spirit, Grandfather” be active in the minds of native people today. Great Spirit is not a Grandfather, or a father, or a male at all. Great Spirit is a Mystery… a Great one. The native languages do not personify such a magnificent event as God. And when engaging in Native ceremonies, it is important to be conscious of Christian influences and clarify for yourself what you feel is in line with your spiritual intuition, and what feels like an imposed influence from a dogmatic belief system. Dogma is found in all spiritual efforts, from yoga to sweat lodges. Dogma is a compulsive desire to find some kind of certainty in life. It is difficult to live in a perpetual Mystery and it is tempting to just settle on some belief and put down the effort of questions. Buffalo teaches us how to avoid dogmas in any environment and how to take what is true and useful from a situation and leave what is not useful behind. There is no need to argue the philosophical point of what is and is not useful.
The Buffalo Spirit Animal Totem is the guardian totem spirit of all Native ceremonies and is the medicine of connecting to the joy of the Great Mystery. You might find it strange that bones would be used in activities for finding joy. But bones are record keepers and healing gateways into the metaphysical realm. Bones are not a symbol of death. They are a symbol of astounding creative design. And even if bones were symbols of death, Buffalo Medicine teaches that there is nothing to fear in that transition. We are a continuum of eternal energy ever changing into a deeper enjoyment of Creation.
The Buffalo is one of the worlds most durable animals and her teachings speak of the capacity to weather the storm. If Buffalo Medicine has come into your day, matters of spirituality are needing to be addressed. You are being called to redefine your spiritual ways. Enter the silence and find your sense of peace and order. Peace is a choice we must willingly invite into our lives. Take charge of your spiritual health and root out the old thought patterns of guilt and shame brought by misguided Western religions. Separate from the conventions of control which Western religions brought the world. Deepen your hearts communication with dimensions beyond your five senses. It is your birthright to commune with the wonders of the world. Develop your unique way of affirming the joy of life.
To read more about Buffalo Medicine visit my older post.
About the author
Jess Hagan offers life guidance in person and remotely from Los Angeles. To learn more visit Urban Healers Of LA