AWOL From The Blog

I apologize to people who have browsed by and noticed the long lapse between posts.

Last school semester (fall 2007) was hectic. I didn't log in to post too often and then late in November, unfortunately, I fell ill.

Or, perhaps, the illness has been a fortunate turn, whichever way a person wants to look at things.

The way I'm beginning to see it, "FORTUNA" has been a Lady lurking persistently nearby, for she whispered in my ear, saying "The books, the books...no, silly - those OTHER books..."

The break from formal studies at University has given me some time to delve deeper into some 'legend' books and stories, some recorded tales intended for oral telling - that I didn't have time for before.

Fortuna also rendered me quite literally speechless, that powerful gal - so I had to sh-up for a bit and just reflect, read, reflect some more. Sometimes it was just reflecting - on days that I couldn't read, either, so Lo' and Behold, I also found some audios on-hand for when my eyes were poor!

Quick recent background blurb:

After engaging in a Folk and Fairy Tale class last spring, I had just gotten a better glimpse of how important oral tales are, but the 'student' situation I used to have prevented me from reflecting much or enjoying what I had learned from that class - while I launched into the next semester.

End of quick recent background blurb:

Lady Fortuna, Coyote, hmmm - perhaps Psychopomp (on my scariest low-health days), these 'critchers' came out of nowhere recently, to teach me some stuff, I guess, that I hadn't been learning in school.

...some stuff I hadn't been aware of or learning in life...

To reflect.

To let 'stuff' sink in so that it means something...

To search for the old stories and ignore the present for a little while - devour the stories, the less favoured tales, digging 'em up out of folders in boxes, corners of shelves, and to check out the yellowed pages, dog-eared and wrinkled, too!

Not just the $138 clean, crisp, white texts, brand new from the University bookstore.

On my lowest days since November (the worst days immediately following Christmas day 2007), I couldn't even understand how to operate my cassette player, so I had trouble with Fortuna's directions and couldn't even play my "story-tapes." Instead, I listened to my voice-digi-recorder from the last semester, returning to the STORIES that one of my professors told in class.

I noticed, while I was growing stronger and regaining some health, that the most important messages were in the professors, stories - NOT in the 'lecture' part of the oration. Listening to the stories sparked some recognition of 'how things work,' while my brain was still having problems telling me which was the left side of me and which was the right side.



("We" - docs and I - are still trying to determine if I had a series of mini-strokes or some really whammo, wacky A-typical migraines or just what - should know sometime in April)...so if this post is a little topsy-turvy and non-linear (*laffs hard*), forgive me.

I remembered about my blog a while back, but wasn't able to post anything coherent. I re-read some of my posts and got more interested in "Coyote" again. Not too far back in the posts, I was going to dig up some Coyote stuff, so I dug out those old books that Lady Fortuna whispered in my ears about, and I'll get some tales to you soon.



Just wanted to explain what happened and why I was AWOL for a while...

Native Mythology - Coyote

Most cultures have a 'trickster' fashioned within mythological accounts of 'how things are in life.' Natives have COYOTE.



Crow, fox, coyote...there are many forms that 'trickster' takes, and these characters have complex, multiple-uses in Native mythology.

Coyote is with Creator at the beginning of time and interferes with the creation of mankind in many myths of Native culture. In this, some of mankind's IMPERFECTION is explained. Mankind cannot be perfect, because COYOTE prevented 'perfection' in the beginning when he toyed with Creator's creation process.

Coyote is often a 'bad guy' (or is he, really?) who does things that are opposite to what Creator wants. Coyote will help makind BREAK Creator's rules sometimes. In this, results are not always negative. For instance, if Creator has made a rule about not eating a certain sacred bird, Coyote may appear on the scene to coax a man or woman to go ahead and eat that very kind of sacred bird. (Remind you of another well-known story - from the Bible??). A Man or Woman might NOT listen to Coyote and the story will have had a positive effect of mankind making a 'right choice.'

A different version of the same story can make different results, too:

Coyote coaxes a man to eat a sacred bird. The man does so and Creator gets angry...

In Native myth, what follows for a similar story of Adam and Eve, may not and probably will not follow suit in some versions.

Example: Adam and Eve were punished by God for eating fruits from a sacred tree in the Garden of Eden - when plainly, God told them this was not allowed. The Serpent (Coyote role) coaxed and managed to get Adam and Eve to disobey God.

A similar situation in a Coyote story might turn out like this:

Coyote coaxes a man and woman to eat a sacred type of bird that Creator told them they weren't allowed to eat. Creator finds out and is angry. Coyote intervenes and argues with Creator. Coyote manages to explain to Creator that the people are HUNGRY and need to eat. Creator loves his people and doesn't want them to be hungry, so Creator listens to Coyote. In the end, Creator allows people to eat a sacred kind of bird and selects a different kind of bird to put as a 'sacred' object that people should honour.

In the above version - NO negative or bad things occur from Coyote's 'trickster' antics.