It is time to stop looking around for examples of how to be and stand in your own eccentric goofiness.
It is time to stop looking around for examples of how to be and stand in your own eccentric goofiness.
This master sculptor teaches that personal preferences need no explanation. Moose in his woods references no other creature in his unique artistry. With his long, silly grin, he wants to assure you that you are most certainly odd. And that is good. Our differences decorate the world and this medicine teaches us how to stand in our wackiness with unshakable confidence. When doubt or hesitation creep up, call on the eccentric power of Moose to help you return to your own unique, unusual truth. It is like no one else’s truth and should never be denied. Moose does not compromise his size or shape to try to fit in. He knows that whatever he becomes will find its place in the world. There is room enough for all styles.
The process of growing antlers is a heavy, itchy, awkward event. And the same is true for your own acts of self expression. Moose says be gentle in the growing times. The fuzzy velvet coat that covers young antlers is quite sensitive until it matures into hardened bone. A week before the rutting season, male moose begin to rub their antlers on the trees, and with it they also rub a strong musk to attract any women near by. Women who are ready to mate call for their men with deep throaty ancient voices and the men begin to spar for their attention. It takes a male moose a full year to grow the stunning abstract sculpture on his head only to shed them after mating season and begin all over again. Enduring the discomfort of his signature fashion, Moose brings his masterpiece into battle. Like a football player, he charges his opponent head to head to win rights in the mating game. But like boxing, the sparing events are not to the death. In the weeks leading up to mating season, the males begin to spar less vigorously in order to assess who is qualifies as a heavy weight and who qualifies as a light weight champion. This qualification time insure the fights are fair and that injury is not fatal. In this way, Moose medicine speaks of healthy competition. When mating season has ended, male moose returns to living in peaceful brotherhood with their temporary rivals, all grudges and hard feelings are shed and forgotten. Moose medicine has two opposing aspects. Most of the time it indicates a bond of friendship without sexual tension. But if the medicine is in it’s rut phase, you may be dealing with matters of sexual competition and super charged chemistry. If so, keep the fight clean and in a spirit of fairness.
In matters of health, Moose speaks of hormones and how their cycles affect our outlook on life. Hormones are regulated by the pituitary gland, a pea sized organ located at the base of the brain. Coffee and sugar have compromising effects on the pituitary gland and if you find you are suffering extreem hormonal shifts in mood, reducing your consumption of these substances could help. But extreem hormonal shifts are a regular monthly occurrence for women and this masculine energy seeks to deepen men’s understanding of the disruptive internal event that their female companions undergo every month. As progesterone suddenly plummets in a woman’s body, focus, memory, and concentration are all challenged, making it difficult for women to maintain consistant emotional equilibrium during menstruation. This hormonal high tide event can wreak havoc on a woman’s peace of mind for no ‘apparent’ reason. Western culture has belittled and dismissed the rather intense challenges of female menstruation and has lost the sacred ceremony within that powerful time. But Moose reminds us that both male and female energies have cycles. Where a woman’s cycle is more tactile and more frequent, a mans hormonal cycle is less frequent and more subtle. But it is there and must be honored.
Moose medicine, with her ancient mating call, asks that both men and women reconnect to the magic of the reproductive cycle. In native cultures the world over, a woman’s moon time is a sacred ceremony of private, intuitive growth. It is during her moon time that the woman opens to cosmic knowledge and pulls down wisdom from the stars. As Sobonfu Some explains, in the tribes of Africa, the men of the village become a menstruating woman’s servant during her moon time, fetching her food and fire wood and tending to her needs. All in the village know that their life came from the body of a woman and respect for her shows gratitude for their own origins. If you are a woman, Moose advises that you stop working and create a ceremony for yourself in your home. Creating a ceremony could range from lighting a candle, to drawing a picture, to lying in the dark and listening to music that moves you. Be with your body and let yourself be tired. If you are a man, Moose advises that you pause to remember that the women you interact with are keeping up with the modern world with an added physical task that you do not experience. When a woman in your life is in moon time take her to dinner (and no texting), draw her a bath, buy her flowers. Honor the female process.
The Moose totem also advises that we cultivate a wide range of relationships and not demand too much from our partners and friends. Even though they may be amazing, one person can not possibly satisfy all your curiosities in life. We are designed to live in communities. Successful relationships (romantic or otherwise) make room for privacy and diversity alike. Moose medicine asks you to take a look at how much you’ve been expecting from your mate lately. It may be time to find other resources if you are feeling frustrated with their limitations. Rather than spend energy blaming them for not being enough, use that same energy to find a new way of exploring what you are after. All relationships are ways of experiencing our own self. How you interact with the one you love is a mirror showing you how you interact with your self. When Moose medicine is in balance masculine camaraderie is at work and all feel accepted in the group.
Aside from his spectacular rack, it is hard not to notice the rather thin legs holding up the massive bulk of Moose. Moose has learned how to distribute his weight and he teaches us to do the same. As the modern dancer Martha Graham discovered, all things have a center of balance but that center of balance may not necessarily be in the center of the object. We can fling ourselves in any which way and find the poise of the gesture. When moose medicine is in balance, symmetry is not required. Foundations may seem fragile but the core structure of the issue is sound. With his massive body and royal crown, it is hard for moose to look back behind him. His medicine teaches us to only focus on what is in front of us and not bother with the infinity of lost options. Deal with information as it arrives into your line of sight. The more we focus on the realities of what is in front of us the more intuitive we become with what might be emerging from the periphery.
