Star Stories, part 33: When Waakwi Aki Dances Backward in the Sky

 

"When Waakwi Aki Dances Backward in the Sky"

Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon) (August 28, 2023)

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"Dancing with Misaabe"

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Boozhoo, aaniin!

Welcome to part 33 of a blog series titled "Star Stories," in which I connect my and kindred artists' storytelling art – in the form of rings, jewelry, and graphic art – with anang akiiwan (the star world) as perceived by our Peoples who since time immemorial inhabit the northern regions of Turtle Island – nowadays called Canada and the United States.

Today's post tells the story of the retrograde motion of the planet that most people in the Western world know by its Latin name, Uranus. The name that our People, the Ojibwe Anishinaabeg of Turtle Island's Great Lakes area gave to this planet is Waakwi Aki.
Waakwiing, "In the Land of the Deceased," is the realm beyond the giizhig (sky vault). "Waakwi Aki" is our name for Uranus (planet 7) as well as for the star that the Arabs named Alnilam. Waakwi, the Land of the Deceased, has been associated by Anishinaabeg Peoples with a far-away place where all life began. Some call this land Gaagige-minawaanigoziwining: "The Land of Everlasting Happiness."

The Waakwi retrograde cycle happens every year for about five moons. This year, Waakwi is retrograde from today to Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024 through a zodiac sign called Taurus by Western astrologists and Misaabe ("The Giant") by our People. Misaabe is a star constellation of the zodiac, which means the sun, moon and planets travel through it regularly.

On a terrestrial level, Misaabe (also called Gichi-misaabe) is a giant from the forest who teaches the us to be honest with ourselves. The Misaabe embodies the virtue of Gwayakwaadiziwin, meaning Honesty or Righteousness, which is the fifth of the Grandfather Teachings of the Ojibwe Anishinaabeg Peoples. Our ancestors looked at the giant named Gichi-misaabe for the one who models this Teaching. Gichi-misaabe, a friendly, four-legged giant from the forests who, when he is among humans, walks on two legs, reminds us to be honest to the Great Mystery of Life and to ourselves and not to be someone we are not. An honest person is said to walk tall like him...Misaabe is also often visualized in the night sky as Gaa-biboonikaan, the Winter Bringer constellation (Orion).

So, from today, Monday August 28, Waakwi Aki (Planet Uranus) will be in a period of retrograde motion while in the Misaabe constellation — meaning it appears to go backward in the sky. How dies this happen? Mother Earth orbits Father Sun much faster than the outer planets, so she occasionally overtakes them. These planets then appear to be moving backward for a while. Since Waakwi Aki takes 84 years to orbit Grandfather Sun, its “backward” phase appears to last for about 5 moons.

Ma’iingan Miikana is an Ojibwe term used to describe the phenomenon of the retrograde motion of planets. Retrograde, in this context, means that a planet appears to go backward in its orbit, as viewed from Earth.

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Waakwi Aki ("Uranus") travels through the Gichi-misaabe star constellation (a giant depicted with outstretched arms), as it follows a retrograde trail, depicted here as a Sky Wolf hunting a moose.  

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To our ancestors, seasonal changes on earth corresponded with the movement of stellar constellations, which, in turn, were reflected in their storytelling and ceremonies. They observed a circular movement of the sky throughout the year; this phenomenon they called Gizhibaa Giizhig ("the Revolving Sky"). Gizhibaa ("circle") referred to a circular, east-to-west movement of the sun, moon, stars and seasons in Waawiyekamig, the "round lodge" – the Universe/cosmos. It was also observed that a few times a year certain akiwag (planets) – such as Waakwi Aki (Uranus), Waaseyasiged Azhebaashkaabizod Aki (Venus) and Oshkaabewis (Mercury) – traveled retrograde (westward in relation to the stars). This phenomenon was called Ma'iingan Giizhig Miikana, the Wolf Sky Trail. Why the Wolf Trail? As keen observers of nature, the ancestors noticed that, although ma'iinganag (wolves) usually travel in packs, sometimes a lone wolf rebelliously sets off in a different direction for a while to hunt for moozoog (moose) before eventually rejoining the pack. This is why they saw Ma’iingan’s presence on earth mirrored in the night sky as Azhe'ose: a moose-hunting Contrary walking the backward path as it is disobeying the rules of the other Sky Beings. This phenomen, of aadawaa'amoog ogimaag azhe'osewag (planets seemingly traveling the opposite path), is also known as Ode' Miikana: "Pathway of the Heart."

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Waakwi Aki is one of the outer akiwag (planets), along with Gichigami Aki (Planet of the Great Sea; called Neptune by Western astronomers) and Awasinake Aki (Planet Beyond; called Pluto in Western astronomy). Its following the Wolf trail in the sky affects all of us here on earth. Waakwi Aki spends seven years in each sign. Currently, it's in the zodiac sign of Misaabe, turning our attention to the virtue of being honest with ourselves and the importance of self-care.

It is believed that when Waakwi Aki follows the Wolf Trail through the Misaabe, its energy is particularly potent, in a sense that its forces are slowed - which in itself can be more powerful than going (too) fast. When this happens, the areas of our lives that the planet's energy affects may feel a little backward. This will enable us to make changes at a slower pace, which can be a healthy thing to do in these fast times in which we easily get lost. Going backward instead of forward requires self-reflection and different ways of doing things. Speaking of self-care!

When the planets follow the Moose-hunting Wolf Trail by moving backward they tell us to wake up to a new reality, to embrace our unique qualities, and release anything that may no longer be supportive in our lives...So, let us walk with the Giant Misaabe and run with the Wolf and dance backward with Waakwi Aki, all the way toward the far-away place where all life began and where healing is to be found...

Illustrations, from top to bottom:

Anishinaabe Bear Healer Dancing with Misaabe ©2023 Zhaawano Giizhik. Visit the webshop to order a print of the painting.

Anishinaabe Bear Healer Dancing with Misaabe - detail ©2023 Zhaawano Giizhik

Anishinaabe Sky Dancer ©2023 Zhaawano Giizhik.

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About the author/artist and his inspiration

Zhaawano Giizhik , an American currently living in the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in North Carolina, USA. Zhaawano has Anishinaabe blood running through his veins; the doodem of his ancestors from Baawitigong (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) is Waabizheshi, Marten. As a writer and a (non-commercial) artist and  jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. For this he calls on his manidoo-minjimandamowin, or 'Spirit Memory'; which means he tries to remember the knowledge and the lessons of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.

To Zhaawano's ancestors the MAZINAAJIMOWIN or ‘pictorial spirit writings’ - which are rich with symbolism and have been painted throughout history on rocks and etched on other sacred items such as copper and slate, birch bark and animal hide - were a form of spiritual as well as educational communication that gave structure and meaning to the cosmos that they felt they were an integral part of. 

Many of these sacred pictographs or petroforms – some of which are many, many  generations old - hide in sacred locations where the manidoog (spirits) reside, particularly in those mystic places near the lake's coastlines where the sky, the earth, the water, the underground and the underwater meet.

The way Zhaawano understands it, it is in these sacred places invisible to the ordinary, waking eye that his design and storyteller's inspiration originate from.

 

Teachings from the Tree of Life, part 2: "The Hawk and the Owls: A Vision of Healing"

Originally published: Onaabani-giizis (Crusty Snow Moon; March 31, 2017)

Republished: Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon) (August 26, 2023)

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The Tree of Life and how to Find the Branch Toward Self-discovery

"Our spiritual path was designed way before we were born on Mother Earth; many times you'll be tested and many times you'll fail. "Spiritual Paths" or "The Tree Of Life" is a simple teaching to understand and all you need to do is to take a good look at yourself and see what you truly need. When we try to get things that our neighbors have, this is where our Spiritual Path and design gets confused and ultimately fail. This is where people get confused and create problems in their life.  When confusion sets into your life, you have the ability to choose another branch from the tree of life and follow that branch toward discovery. When you stand back and take a good look, you have so many branches to choose from....During our life here on earth we must, again and again, return to the tree trunk and choose another branch to follow. We must continue doing that until we get to the top of the tree. Once there, when we become grandparents, we must share the lessons and teachings learned - and share them to others around us. Eventually, we will become a teacher ourselves..."*

- (Slightly adapted) quotes by Wikwemikong Anishinaabe Medicine Painter James Mishibinijima.

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Boozhoo, aaniin!

Welcome to part 2 of my blog series titled Teachings from the Tree of Life, in which I connect the storytelling art of myself and kindred artists with an old Teaching based on the ancient Anishinaabe spiritual/philosophical principle of mino-bimaadiziwin that countless generations of ancestors handed down to us from the time they still lived in the old homeland along the Atlantic coast. The story that I tell today features artwork by the late Miskwaabik Animikii, the Father of the Native Woodland Art and myself.

Today's Teaching focuses on a lesson inspired by a vision that a friend of mine, whose family is originally from Gete-gitigaaning (Lac Vieux Desert Indian Reservation), recently shared with me. Like all Tree of Life Teachings, the healing message that lies hidden in my friend's vision is in itself easy to understand - that is, if we choose to open up to it. The hard part, however, is to follow it...

Last night, in the early morning around 3 am a good and trusted friend (I call her Misaabe) woke up as she heard her grandchild cry! She went in his room, held him, and rocked him. Then laid him back down and as she was walking away she heard wings. My friend looked outside and there, in the tree in the front of her house, was a hawk sitting on a branch flanked by two owls. (It was the same hawk that my friend had seen many times in her dreams and she has always associated me with it.) The owls were looking right at her; as she said to them "talk to me," she heard many different languages that she could not understand. My friend told me about this vision and asked me what I make of it.

The following is about healing from having been treated badly by someone of our People who is damaged and needs healing herself. What my friend saw last night makes visible what i saw in my head and felt in my heart earlier on tonight. This is about healing from the way some of our loved ones, who belong to our own People, treat us. There is a very strong healing message in what my friend saw last night. This is how I see it.

I have heard that Gekek, the hawk and Gookooko'oo the owl both offer a window onto the old, old Ojibwe Anishinaabe world in terms of cyclic and cosmic relationships. To our ancestors, Gekek with his sharp vision was an epitome of the virtues of deliberation and foresight. Gookooko'oo, the owl, and the magic sounds (s)he makes at night, have always presented a double mirror to us. Owl displays the forces of both life and death. As a being who mediates between the domains of giizhig (sky), aki (earth) and nibi (the water) and their respective underworlds, (s)he symbolizes light and dark, the natural and the supernatural. (S)he stands for mental therapy and wholeness. (S)he heralds spring season and along with it, regeneration and new life. 

So the way I see it, just like the seeds in the rattle of the Midewiwin healer that, when shaken, acoustically ward off evil spirits, the two Gookooko'oog that my friend saw dispel the evil spirit that others project on my friend and me. Like the sound of the rattle, the presence and the voice of Gookooko'oo dispel sickness and the evil spirits that cause mental suffering. My friend's family members, what they did and still are doing to her. What someone, someone of our People whom I loved and trusted and whom I thought was my soulmate for life did and still tries to do to me. The hawk, my friend and I both know what his role is; Gekek has visited her repeatedly in her dreams and we know that he is a messenger from the spirit world who relates stories and messages to us about past lives and our role and position in our present lives here on aki. The owls flanking Gekek the hawk, they bring insight and healing.

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Tonight, minutes before my friend related to me her vision of the hawk and the owls, I happened to see very clearly the manipulative game the person who for the past seven years was, or pretended to be, my friend and life partner has been playing, and is still playing, with me. The owls that appeared in my friend's vision show me the contradictions in this person's nature and behavior - which, I have no doubt, are caused by the traumas the Europeans and their "educative" system inflicted on many generations of our People. At the same time, the owls bring us clarity and, in the long run, healing. I see it clearly now: the person who betrayed me meant the world to me for seven years; I still care for her and I know it will take me another 7 years to get over the loss of this once so beautiful friendship. 

It is going to be a slow process. I know now I must not rush it. The owls my good friend saw on the tree branch and who spoke to her in a strange language (I figure it must have been a forgotten language that our ancestors' ancestors spoke): they try to tell us something. The message is this: it is of no use to try to heal the wounds that others, the damaged ones, have caused us, and the hurt and pain they inflict on us, in a speedy way. It doesn't work that way. We will have to mourn and mend our wounds in our own pace. The damage caused by the breakdown of the intimate relationship we used to have with the wrongdoer is internal and goes deep; it goes to the heart of who we are. We will have to find back our worth for ourselves, within ourselves and focus on filling our own void and replacing our anger without hanging on to a past friendship that proved to be an illusion anyway. We must ban anger from our hearts, and replace it for positive values like self-respect, compassion, and generosity. We must learn to listen to the wounded person inside us. We must find the root of the plant of negativity and evil that the other person planted in us, and only when we find it and recognize and understand someone else planted it there and it doesn't belong in the soil of our soul, the suffering will lessen. 

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This is the hardest part and cannot be done overnight. We must, metaphorically speaking, return to the tree trunk and choose another branch to follow. The hawk will fly again but the owls tell her to take time to heal. 

Giiwenh. This is how i interpret the vision that my friend had last night. Her ancestors spoke to her, trough the owls.

Miigwech gibizindaw noongom mii dash gidaadizookoon. Thank you for listening to my story today. Giga-waabamin wayiiba, I hope to see you again soon.

*Excerpt from Mishmountains Blogspot, "Teachings to the Tree Of Life."

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Illustrations: 

Bawaaganag ("The Dream Visitors"). Pastel panting by Zhaawano Giizhik © 2023 Zhaawano Giizhik. 

Gekek Izhinamowin ("Vision of the Hawk") © 2023 Zhaawano Giizhik. 

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About the author/artist and his inspiration

Zhaawano Giizhik , an American currently living in the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in North Carolina, USA. Zhaawano has Anishinaabe blood running through his veins; the doodem of his ancestors from Baawitigong (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) is Waabizheshi, Marten. As a writer and a (non-commercial) artist and  jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. For this he calls on his manidoo-minjimandamowin, or 'Spirit Memory'; which means he tries to remember the knowledge and the lessons of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.

To Zhaawano's ancestors the MAZINAAJIMOWIN or ‘pictorial spirit writings’ - which are rich with symbolism and have been painted throughout history on rocks and etched on other sacred items such as copper and slate, birch bark and animal hide - were a form of spiritual as well as educational communication that gave structure and meaning to the cosmos that they felt they were an integral part of. 

Many of these sacred pictographs or petroforms – some of which are many, many  generations old - hide in sacred locations where the manidoog (spirits) reside, particularly in those mystic places near the lake's coastlines where the sky, the earth, the water, the underground and the underwater meet.

The way Zhaawano understands it, it is in these sacred places invisible to the ordinary, waking eye that his design and storyteller's inspiration originate from.

Teachings from the Tree of Life: Why the Owl Brings Healing

 

Teachings from the Tree of Life, part 30: "Why Owls Bring Healing"

Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon) (August 25, 2023)

Updated: Zaagibagaa-giizis (Budding Moon) (May 30, 2025)

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Finding the Tree Branch Toward Discovery

"Our spiritual path was designed way before we were born on Mother Earth; many times you'll be tested and many times you'll fail. 'Spiritual Paths' or 'The Tree Of Life' is a simple teaching to understand and all you need to do is to take a good look at yourself and see what you truly need. Everyone in life begins from the bottom of the tree and the branches of the tree represent discoveries we make in our lives. When confusion sets into our lives, we have the ability to return to the trunk and choose another branch from the tree of life and follow that branch toward discovery. When we stand back and take a good look, we have so many branches to choose from."*

- Free after Wikwemikong Anishinaabe Medicine Painter James Mishibinijima.

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Boozhoo miinawaa, biindigen! Hello again, and welcome to part 30 of my blog series titled Teachings from the Tree of Life, in which I relate a teaching that has been passed down to us by countless generations of ancestors, from the time my ancestors still lived in the old Dawn Land along the borders of the Atlantic Ocean. Central to the teaching is Gookooko'oo, or Oo'oo, the Owl, a grandfather or grandmother whose images and voices have always offered an important, multi-faceted window onto the traditional world of the Ojibwe Anishinaabeg Peoples. We will consider the positive and negative connotations that Owl holds in the human eye and conclude that it is up to us to choose a branch; in other words, ask ourselves, which side of Owl we will allow in our own life?

Today, I read somewhere on Facebook a statement by an Ojibwe person, saying that in Ojibwe culture, seeing an Owl or hearing an Owl at night is a bad omen. His silent nature and predatory behavior, she said, associates him with dying, and dreaming of an owl or hearing an owl’s hoot foreshadows a certain death.

It reminded me that this is a view that is pretty widespread across Anishinaabe Aki. Owls, the hooting and barking sounds they make at night, their ability to turn their head in an (almost) full circle, their penetrating eyes shining like yellow glass and piercing the darkness and the depths of our very soul, geget, even the dull flapping of their wings in shadowy tree branches, are enough to make our hair stand on end. Who has not listened with horror, and a sickened heart, to the accounts of these feathered harbingers of sickness, grief, and death?

Right?

Why people insist in maintaining the superstition of the "bad-omen bringing owl spirit," I do not know. Perhaps the influence of Christianity has something to do with that? (I say this because the occupiers' religion has instilled many fears in our hearts and minds, clouding our once keen vision on nature in ways that are almost beyond repair...) It is not how gete-ayaa'ag, the old ones who walked the land prior to contact with the Europeans, saw the owl!

Geget, many (post contact) accounts narrate of owls presented as evil spirits, used by Ojibwe adults as a means of making children "be good" - as a threat to keep them quiet, or close to the wiigiwaam or the camp at night. "If you go to the sugar bush at night, Gookooko'oo will come and carry you away in his ear," used to be a standard warning. (But then, didn't parents also use the Wiindigoo (Winter Spirit), the Bwaanag (Dakota), and the Wemitigoozhiwag (Frenchmen) to frighten their children with?)

But all in all, our ancestors, despite their seemingly ambivalent nature, saw owls in a different, much less negative light than most of us see him today.

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Gimishoomisinaan/Gookomisinaan Gookooko'oo, our Grandfather/Grandmother the Owl, offers a window onto the old, old Anishinaabe world in terms of cyclic and cosmic relationships. To the gete-ayaa'ag, Kookooko'oo and the magic sounds they make at night, have always presented a double mirror with light and life on one side, and darkness and death on the other.

To them, Grandfather/Grandmother Owl, whom they associated with giizhig (sky) aki (earth), and nibi (the water) as well as with their respective underworlds, displayed contrasting spiritual powers that were nonetheless closely interrelated. Gookooko'oo symbolized and mediated between light and dark, the natural and the supernatural, and, ultimately between life and death. Despite (or rather, because) of their mesmerizing eyes and sinister, eerie-sounding calls at night, Owls were regarded as helpers, or guides, along the path of Souls toward the Setting Sun, providing for a safe passage of the ancestors who had passed to the spirit world, loaning them their eyes so they could see where they walked; as such they were looked upon as protectors of the dead. But at the same time, they stood for mental therapy and wholeness of those who still live their lives on earth. The sounds of Owl's voice and the gaze of its eyes, as they could penetrate even the darkest places, represented light, insight and innervision, and healing. Several stories tell of owls providing kindness or even shelter to neglected and abused children. Also, they were seen as guides of the four directions and the south wind, and their presence and the sound of their loud hoots at the rapids in springtime (which seem to be competitive with, and even blend into, the loud roaring of the water they sit close by) heralded the end of winter and the beginning of the growing season, and along with it, regeneration, and new life. Owls circling during the day, to our ancestors, were not necessarily an omen of bad news or bad luck, but often a symbol of protection and new life (and long lives) instead.

So, the way I see it, just like the seeds in the rattles of our Midewiwin healers that, when shaken, acoustically ward off evil spirits, the Gookooko'oog showing themselves to us and whose call we hear at night dispel any evil that malicious spirits (or ill-willing people!) may project on us. Like the sound of the rattle, the presence and the voice of Gookooko'oo and its eyes that seem to penetrate us do not necessarily herald misfortune and sickness or even death: it scares it off instead. It keeps the bad spirits at bay. 

Gookooko'oo in short, brings us good medicine. (S)he is a spirit that we must not fear, but one whom we, especially in the darkest of our nights, must listen to, intently, with trust, and with an open mind. Gookooko'oo is a fortune teller and a benign mentor and therapist sent to us from the spirit world. Gookooko'oo's call in the dead of night means we are safe from harm and ready to walk toward the light of dawn.

When Gookooko'oo calls, we know we are ready to walk the healing path.

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A list of owl species known to the Ojibwe Anishinaabeg (note that the names vary according to regional dialects):

Beshkwe, plural beshkweg - scar-head owl

Binewi-gookooko'oo, plural binewi-gookooko'oog - partridge-eating owl

Boodawidoombe, plural boodawidoombeg - northern hawk owl, barn owl

Gaakaabisheh, plural gaakaabishehyag - screech owl, ominous news bringing owl

Gaakaabishiinh, plural gaakaabishiinhyag - burrowing owl (shoco), ground owl, screech owl, deaf owl

Gaakaabishii, plural gaakaabishiig - small owl (Northwestern Ontario dialect)

Gookooko'oo, plural gookooko'og - owl, barred owl

Gookooko'ooh, plural gookooko'oohyag - horned owl

Mawinaans, plural mawinaansag - screech owl (Odaawaa/Southeastern Ojibwe dialects)

Niningi-bine, plural niningi-binewag - large horned owl

Niningibin'wenh, plural niningibin'wenhyag - screech owl (Odaawaa/Southeastern Ojibwe dialects)

Oo'oo, plural oo'oog - owl

Oo'oomish, plural oo'oomishiig - great horned owl

Oo'oomis, plural oo'oomisiig - great horned owl

Otawage-gookooko'oo, plural otawage-gookooko'oog - great horned owl (Minnesota dialect)

Waagibin'wenh, plural waagibin'wenhyag - screech owl (Odaawaa/Southeastern Ojibwe dialects)

Waabi-gookoko'oo, plural waabi-gookoko'oog - white owl, snowy owl (Minnesota dialect)

Wawenjiganoo, plural wawenjiganoog - large horned owl (Manitoulin Island dialect)

Wenda-gookooko'oo, plural wenda-gookooko'oog - great horned owl (Minnesota dialect)

Wenjiganoozhiinh, plural wenda-gookooko'ooyag - gray owl, great horned owl

Wewenjiganoo, plural wewenjiganoog - gray screech owl, horned owl, long-eared owl

Wewenjiganooh, plural wewenjiganoohyag - hoot owl (Wisconsin, Lower Michigan dialects)

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*Excerpt from Mishmountains Blogspot, "Teachings to the Tree Of Life."

Illustration: Mishi-gookooko'ooh Omiigiwewin ("Gift of the Great Horned Owl") ©2023 Zhaawano Giizhik 

About the author/artist and his inspiration

Zhaawano Giizhik , an American currently living in the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in North Carolina, USA. Zhaawano has Anishinaabe blood running through his veins; the doodem of his ancestors from Baawitigong (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) is Waabizheshi, Marten. As a writer and a (non-commercial) artist and  jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. For this he calls on his manidoo-minjimandamowin, or 'Spirit Memory'; which means he tries to remember the knowledge and the lessons of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.

To Zhaawano's ancestors the MAZINAAJIMOWIN or ‘pictorial spirit writings’ - which are rich with symbolism and have been painted throughout history on rocks and etched on other sacred items such as copper and slate, birch bark and animal hide - were a form of spiritual as well as educational communication that gave structure and meaning to the cosmos that they felt they were an integral part of. 

Many of these sacred pictographs or petroforms – some of which are many, many  generations old - hide in sacred locations where the manidoog (spirits) reside, particularly in those mystic places near the lake's coastlines where the sky, the earth, the water, the underground and the underwater meet.

The way Zhaawano understands it, it is in these sacred places invisible to the ordinary, waking eye that his design and storyteller's inspiration originate from.