At the Pow Wow

Posted by Barbara (Florida, United States) on 17 November 2007 in Lifestyle & Culture and Portfolio.

My spirit name is Chi-Badz-Wa, in Ojibwe it means Water Running Under Logs. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Michigan's Northern Peninsula, USA.
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The colors of the four directions.
NORTH/White: is the time of our elders, our old people. It is a time of wisdom, so much like the answers found in our dreams. it represents the night, as a time called midnight, and a time called winter when things are as unpredictable as our dreams. North is representative of those things that are positive, a time of snow and purity.

EAST/Yellow: The direction of the rising sun, is thought of as a Grandfather personifying the winds and natural phenomena of that direction. East is the direction of the physical body. It symbolizes all that is new in the creation, like all newborn creatures, including man. Like the rising sun, a new day is brought to light. So it is with all things. Knowledge is brought to consciousness and like the circling of the sun, the seasons change. East is the time of change. It is the spring, the time of change from blackness to beauty. It is the sun breaking over the horizon.

SOUTH/Red: a continuation of our circle of life, is the direction of maturing life, like young men and women. It is the time of year we call summer, the time we call mid-day, and the time of day the eagle soars. South is the direction of full understanding.

WEST/Black: the direction of the setting sun, is the time of gradual change as from daylight to darkness, from life to death. It is evening, the change of life in midagedness. It is change like the leaves or the hair on our heads from natural colors to the likes of natural frost. West is the time of full maturity. It is the time of insight. West is the direction of the emotional part of ourselves.

Next to the 4 colors is a braid of sweetgrass. Sweetgrass is often burned at the beginning of a prayer or ceremony to attract positive energies. There are many other uses for sweetgrass among the Ojibwe or Chippewa people. It is a sacred plant.