The Wolf (wa-hya or wa-ya)

To Native Americans, the wolf is a powerful spiritual symbol. They are considered to be teachers or pathfinders. The wolf star was red, an esteemed colour, associated with the wolf by all tribes. Also known as Sirius, it is the brightest star in the Northern Sky. The milky way was the wolf's trail-the route to heaven. In time, the wolf also became associated among the four seasons with summer, among the trees with the willow, and among the great natural forces with the clouds.

The Indians respected the wolf's prowess as a hunter, his stamina, and the way he moved silently across the landscape. They were moved by his howling, which they sometimes regarded as talking with the spirit world. The wolf appears in many legends as a messenger, great long distancetraveller and a guide for anyone seeking the spirit world. He was the forerunner of new ideas who returned to the clan to teach and share medicine.

Wolf is the Grand teacher. Wolf is the sage, who after many winters upon the sacred path and seeking the ways of wisdom, returns to share new knowledge with the tribe. Wolf is both the radical and the traditional in the same breath. When the Wolf walks by you - you will remember. The old ones tell us stories about our beginnings and of a time when human kind first came to live upon this Earth.

It was Wolf who taught Humans the ways of living in harmony. It was Wolf who taught us how to form community upon this Earth, for Wolves have an intuitive knowledge of order through chaos and they possess the ability to survive change, intact. Wolf medicine is very ancient and born of living experience. Wolf will look deep into your heartand share the greatest of knowledge, but will demand full participation, and absolute sincerity.

When Wolf has walked by you, the very presence of the wolf will rekindle old memories within your soul. Through the friction of experience you rekindle the emotional fires of the inner soul and question the manifestations of your own consciousness. You can own a thing only when you have come to own the emotional experience of it, and realize the responsibility for its creation. Then you are free to continue. Wolf medicine can make you whole. You will return to Wolf many times in your life as you complete and begin your cycles of experience and seek the inner truth. (users.ap.net/~chenae)