05/21/15

Before the Medicine Man passed away, he divided his prayerful things into three groups and bestowed them upon a persons in South Dakota, New Mexico and Tennessee.  These are Caucasian folks who have been studying and training in the Lakota ways for twenty years with him and are to carry on the traditions in the way that they were taught.  They are to share with others as was the medicine man’s vision.  At each Sun Dance, they are all together in  support for the  very sacred event.

When I returned home from the first Sun Dance and my cousin said the butterflies meant something but left it at that statement without direction, I decided to do some research. I didn’t tell anyone else about the butterfly phenomenon as they were likely to ask the same questions I had and I didn’t want anyone putting ideas in my head one way or the other.  Also, if it happened to me and I didn’t know what to think, how would I expect anyone else to comprehend?  I also didn’t want to say aloud that the smaller ones that I encountered while driving were all black in color.  Such an ominous color is black.

In many cultures, the butterfly is a symbol of change.  Was my life to be changing?  Well that is always happening. I wondered if the black meant death as when I took the photo of the one in the car and found it on the web, I learned it is called a Mourning Cloak. As in the coat you wear to a funeral.

Fear and Faith are the same thing, the only difference is that fear is faith in the wrong direction.

To say that it didn’t make me wonder  – the visit of a Mourning Cloak butterfly on going there and then thousands upon thousands of black butterflies when leaving would not be truthful as it was too coincidental.  Was I worried?  Not especially.  I have always felt without question that events happen in my life for a reason and while I don’t always know what that reason is, it will at some point be revealed.

Was I totally comfortable with the events?  Obviously not, since I did not tell anyone besides my cousin.

Then one day maybe 9 months later or so, when there was a really powerful thunderstorm, a very clear thought came into my head.  The thunder had all of a sudden reminded me of the Medicine Man as that was his spirit or something like that. (You couldn’t expect me to learn everything in 5 days) The thought was that the Mourning Cloak  was to signify that it was okay for me to be at the Dance and Funeral for the Medicine Man that previous summer.  I then thought to myself that all that was great, but why didn’t I find out sooner.  To which the other half of my brain replied that it was because I never asked.  Fair enough.

So then the first butterfly is explained but I cannot resolve that the black flocks of them afterward are for the same thing.  So I continue to say nothing and go about my business.

Summer moves along and I am notified of the upcoming Sun Dance for 2014 and would I come to support again?  It was being held in New Mexico this time as it had already been through the 4 year cycle in South Dakota.

Knowing this time around that my only time with my cousin would be before and after the Dance, I shared with him early on the thought that came to me about the Mourning Cloak butterfly.  He thought that was great and probably correct and I’m not sure if we discussed the flocks I had seen afterward.

More on the other butterflies tomorrow.

Love Sally