Celebration Park
Marsing, Idaho

Preparation: Day began at 6 AM so that we could arrive at 8:30. Celebration Park is 45 minutes from Boise. We parked next to the museum and waited for others to arrive. John Ausberger and I had scouted the place and I showed Blue Thunder the only place I knew of any petroglyphs. We wandered a bit, then  Blue Thunder, as if having something brought to memory, said " the wolf will lead you"...then he asked my white wolf to show us the place of ceremony.

Now my white wolf Dagnee is a 10 year old domestocate. He prefers sleeping on the couch to sleeping even on the carpeted floor. I wondered how much "wolf" was still in him. However on occasion, I had seen an exquisite understanding that is more present in a person than a wolf.  One morning, I did ceremony at home. I went out in the morning at daybreak, built a sacred fire and began. When I was finished with my tobacco prayers and went to put these prayers into the fire, I hear one of those long authentic howls that sends chills up your spine. Dagen was laying 100 feet away. One howl .That was it with perfect timing as I finished the ceremony.

Another time, we visited a Brazilian temple in California at my good friends, Andree Morgana. During a healing ceremony, he was asked to join, so he got up from his laying in the corner and joined the circle. He came into the woman encircled and sneezed on her three times. Seems in that tradition that to get rid of negative energy, one sneezes three times.. They thought him magnificent. When the ceremony was over he left the circle of his own accord and laid down in his own spot. Several women said they saw an Eagle bonnet of feathers on him. Amazing I thought. I participated in 3 ceremonies at the Temple. Each time Dagen was asked to join, he did so. Each time he did something just like he was some ancient Shaman.

Dagen is a pup birthed by my mated set of Otiunie (Wolf) and Gigagho (Ancient One) both of whom are running free in the Happy Hunting Ground. His name means second in Oneida. When he was 3 months old, my husband ran over him with the Lincoln Continental. The pup was lodged between the oil pan and a lump in the driveway. I had to crawl under the car and grab a foot and pull his lifeless body out.  I cradled him in my arms and sobbed. and sobbed... then I got a little wet kiss. .... Later, my husband made me give him away. After three days of me crying, he told me to get the pup.... and so Dagen has been with me ever since.

He is the care taker, the protector. He loves babies. When his mate died with 3 day old pups. we took the sickly pups in the house. He shoved through the door to get to his pups. When he had inspected each one, he laid down beside them and took care of them. He and his half sister Teakanea (Heart Stealer) saved those cubs.

In 2003, he and our new female wolf, Honey Moon, gave birth to pups. Honey was new to this and tho she produced and fed fat healthy pups but she was too young to be a mother. Dagen took care of the pups. He was there at birthing, and he stayed with them when Honey was not which was most of the time. Even when his mother birthed pups, most of the photos I have are with Dagen and the latest batch of pups. He is the Peacemaker. He is the Beta.

So when Blue Thunder asks him to find our ceremony spot, I have no idea if Dagen has any clue. But he stood for a few minutes.... perhaps to hear the wind tell him where..... perhaps wondering "Who me?"..... I don't know which but then he headed down the trail, went a few yards, stopped and turned around to see if we were following, those yellow gold eyes piercing at 100 yards. Then when he was assured we were following, he trotted on, only after some distance, stopping and looking at us with those incredible eyes. Again assured we were following, he trotted on.  This happened probably 6 times. I was beginning to think we were just playing follow the leader when Blue Thunder noticed we had entered a circle of rocks with petroglyphs. Blue Thunder began to read the drawings and in a short time, had deciphered many symbols that talked of vortexes and ceremony under a moon just like the one in the sky last night.  This is the place.  I looked to see what Dagen was doing, and he had lost interest in our following him and was out watering the sagebrush.

Part of my contribution was to add to the four directions, the five leaved pieces from the Great White Pine, the symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy, where the Peacemaker uproot the tree, and had all the war instruments tainted with the blood of mankind buried there. This five leaved pine with a white stripe down each represented the five fingered in Peace. This also brought the Eastern peoples to join with the Western in this ceremony. 

Kernals of  corn were added to the four directions, so the corn spirit of abundance would be present, representing the Corn Clan Mother of Peace. My Iroquoian Bear, Mad Bear was present, as the Eagle and the Hawk, representing the same gifts from the Creator but different views, like two sides of the same coin. The White Buffalo and White Buffalo Calf Woman was represented in the north and  the Whirling Rainbow of Peace in the south. A crystal was set to gather the energies of that day so later, it might send into motion these energies when placed in a serpent (kundalini/vortex) staff for a dream I had.

As he began the ceremony, I offered up a silent prayer to be a hollow bone, a conduit, a magnet, to take the pain, anguish and darkness of the place to the Creator for the spirits there. We sang, we danced, we offered prayers.

At the end of the ceremony Blue Thunder asked what we saw. Each began to describe the spiritual things they detected. Each described Ancients, the Old Ones, the Native spirits joining with us in dance. All saw the same thing. For me, having prepared to possible weep and who knows just what, saw the spirits coming for distances to see what was going on. Some on horse but in multitudes. They stood around us a bit, as if discerning what we were doing and why and then they joined in dance around us and the feeling of not sadness but incredible joy that this day had come. Whooping and lulu's, and such joy.

After this sharing, we removed the ceremony artifacts, Blue Thunder giving each one a rose quartz that had been part of the ceremony and now carried the energy of Peace and healing.  Blue Thunder scooped up the soil that was in the wheel, and we took it to the water where all three of us women threw the blessings, the purifying energy into the water to clear all evil serpents of darkness. Then we set about feasting on a pot luck lunch. Dagen laid beside the table watching a chipmonk play a foot away from his nose. A couple of hours later, each departed. Three men and three women... balance. And a white wolf.

did not see us. The park is not that big, and for the first hour, we were in front of the little museum. I want to thank them for coming to join. Their intent is duly noted and added to the energy of that day. I pray the Great Creator will bless them the same as if they had participated in the ceremony which I am sure they did at some level of their beingness.

In the evening, Blue Thunder and I joined Little Cloud at his sweat. It is the first time I had done a sweat of this nature. Here we joked between rounds, the guys taking great pleasure in my being the only female in attendance, (means I caught all the razzing). We sat in the lodge  amid hot rocks, steam, and prayers. We were privilege to receive teachings from Blue Thunder to consider.

 Little Cloud told us of a dream he had. And he told us of a healing that came to him.  I was carried away in some thought of my own. In all, it was a great sweat. Little Cloud is a funny man and between him and Blue Thunder we laughed a great deal. Laughter is a good medicine and we surely had that. At midnight, we left the sweat. Blue Thunder returned to his hotel, and I collapsed in bed.