HUMAN SHAKING BEARS HAND CODE

(.) A lot of people of the Ojibway tribe used this conjuring tent to conjure people but a lot also used it to cure people, to find lost things, to defend the people from evil sorВcerers, or bad medicine-men, and to know about the future.'Д«inesiwag, the Thunderbirds, are said to be related to the wendaanimag noodinoon, the Winds that blow from the four corners of the Earth.

Each speaks in his own lanВguage but we have an interpreter whom we call Mikkinnuk (Mikinaak) (.) who interprets for all these beings. What come into the wigwam to sing or talk are the water god Misshipeshu (Mishibizhiw) and other spirits of bears, serpents and animals, thunderbirds, the evil Windigo (Wiindigo), the morning star, the sky, water, earth, sun and moon, also female and male sex organs.

All the dogs tied close by began to yelp and were afraid but the people were not, for it does not affect human beings.

The Ojibway believe a medicine wind blows from heaven in the tent and that is how it shakes. As the conjurer crawled inside, the tent itself began to shake and the rattles were heard. He would not speak but would have one Indian, or all, start asking questions, whatever each one wished to know. The conjurer would disrobe, have his hands tied up and crawl inside the wigwam (jiisakaan). Miskwaabik Animikii once said the following about the Shaking Tent practice: 'All the Ojibway would gather and sit in a circle facing the shaking tent. Miskwaabik Animikii, the late Ojibwe artist who dubbed himself 'The Grand Ojibway Shaman Artist' and became widely known by his European name Norval Morrisseau, was raised on the Gull Bay shore of Lake Nipigon by his maternal grandfather who himself was a jaasakiid. Those who seek help are bound to speak the truth inside the jiisakaan, and those who have been initiated through a jiisakaan ceremony swear they will never disclose anything that happens inside the jiisakaan and will be subject to judgement if they break their vow. Besides curing illnesses, the spirits that are being invited to enter are sometimes also addressed in an effort to tell the future, or seek spiritual help against wrongdoing by outsiders. People who turn to a jaasakiid are usually in great need of help. It is with the aid of these spirit helpers from the waters, the winds, and the earth ( mikinaak the snapping turtle being the most prominent intermediator) that jaasakiidjig pass on their spiritual medicine power to their patients or apprentices. This is done between sundown and sunrise. A special category of jaasakiidjig has the power to make a tent and everything thatвЂ™s in it shake (hence the name, shaking tent) by inviting a myriad of beings from various spirit worlds, including the turtle, thunderbirds, and the bear. Others have claimed they draw spirit power from the water, or from the wind, or the earth.

Some jaasakiidjig receive their power from the Thunderbirds. Only an herbalist gifted with and keeping up a high standard of inner power could expect the plant being to reveal his own healing power only then the plant would allow the herbalist to confer his (or her) inner curative power upon the plant itself. So, what counted for an herbalist was not only knowledge of plant and self, but also the ability to bring together the healing capacities of both plant and self. OdeвЂ™imin explained to the ancestors that the physical side of life and the physical strength of a human being and that of his community should always be in perfect balance with the spiritual side of life and being, and that a healer could only reach the highest possible order of healing powers through a high ethical standard, and not by knowledge alone. He taught the People the properties and the curative powers of all beings of the plant world and conferred to them the philosophy of Bimaadiziwin, which would forever be propagated through the ceremonies of the Midewiwin.

HUMAN SHAKING BEARS HAND CODE

Under the skilful tutelage of his supernatural teacher Wiinabozho, who taught him to study the nature of plants from the conduct of animals, OdeвЂ™imin forever institutionalized the knowledge of curing and Bimaadiziwin, or the Code for Long Life and Upright Living. Midewiwin вЂ“ some claim the word partially derives from the Anishinaabe word MINODEвЂ™ which means Good Heart, others suggest it derives from MADWEWE which means Sound Resonance, as in the echoing of the Mide waterdrum whose omnipresent sound represents the EarthвЂ™s heartbeat and that of the Great Mystery of Life вЂ“ is said to have been founded many strings of life ago by the first herbalist/medicine man of his People, who went by the legendary name of OdeвЂ™imin (Heart-shaped Berry or strawberry).

Human shaking bears hand