Event #286: Saturday, December 31, 2011

If my mother were still alive, today would have been her 81st birthday. She passed away in early 2008 of a sudden, unexpected illness. Upon being diagnosed, she was gone within the short space of about 6 weeks. It was all very sudden and traumatizing for all of us who were close to her, but here it is going on 4 years ago, and I believe we have all come to terms with it, even my Dad, who is still with us. The reason I bring this up today, her birthday, is because Bob and I decided about a week or so ago that we would take this day and go visit her grave site. I’m not sure why, really, for one thing, I’ve not done that yet (only on the anniversary of her death, March 24) and I just thought it appropriate on her birthday. So that is what we did Saturday, New Year’s Eve Day. Her burial site is far from us, a good one-hour + away in the deep, southern-most part of our county. It is actually near where she was born, just outside of Philadelphia. I had gathered some greens from our yard; holly, berries, pine, long fronds of Christmas ferns, and bunched up a bouquet of evergreens to place in front of her tomb-stone. Her grave is next to my maternal grandparents and a brother that pre-deceased her. We arrived close to dark, about 4:30 pm. We did not stay long, just long enough to pay our respects, reflect on a memory of her, say a prayer, place the bouquet. It was not a sad event, it was really more spirit-lifting than depressing.

After visiting her gravesite on her birthday, my mother's Lenape character appears on my bedside table

Afterwards, we planned a toast in her honor at a place near her hometown, but inexplicably, in spite of it being New Year’s Eve, it was closed for the evening. We did not “party-it-up” as it were for New Year’s and after having dinner out, were home before 10 PM.  We both noticed the sound of the drums when coming into the house. I checked the characters in my office first, there were no changes on my desk. I went upstairs to the table of characters in the bedroom, and studied it for a moment. It was hard to discern at first what was missing in the dim bedroom light, but then I realized that it was my Mother’s character, gone from the table where Bob and the wolves and pups still stood. Mom has figured into this timeline since Bob had that dream about her, that’s why I gave her a character. She is dressed like an elder Lenape woman. And where was she? Was she even still in the room? I glanced over at my bedside table, and there she stood. I went over to inspect closer and that was the only change, just Mom on my table. When I told Bob about this, he said that he thought there might be something different, as he had strongly felt the presence of Nuttah while I’d been upstairs. Also, he’d gone out with the dogs, and had stood on the deck looking across the creek. He described 4 male, Lenape silhouettes moving amongst the trees. Later, we were both hearing the drums while we fell asleep.

Events #283-5: Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A 2nd bouquet of clover appears today on my keyboard

It is late December, and today I walked in for the 2nd time this month to a bouquet of fresh purple clover on my keyboard. I have a picture included here. She brings the clover from her world, her time, but Bob says that it is the same time as here. If it’s winter here, it’s winter “there”. They grow vegetables on the same cycle we do. So where is this clover coming from on December 28th? Were (are) they in a warming cycle? Could it be from a micro-climate environment, such as sometimes happens on south-facing slopes exposed to sun all day? The clover is as big a mystery as her presence itself. This is not the only thing that has happened recently, this is just something that happened today. And this morning I awoke to the sound of beating drums in my ear. After hearing that upstairs, I came downstairs to find this email from Bob:

Got up and heard drums and flute in a muffled tone, came downstairs and thought you left a TV or radio playing it was so loud, but you hadn’t. I put wood on fire, even though it was 70 degrees, felt a clear multiple presence, Nuttah and others, almost felt I could touch the presence, felt very “thick”, maybe because it is so humid, who knows. I thought to check if Stewie was still there, he was. Couldn’t hang out and “chat”, had to be on my way. Loudest and clearest I have heard yet. No idea what the hell it is about.

My email back to Bob: Stewie is gone now. Not sure what made you check to see if he was still here, but now he’s gone. Don’t know where. Next time he comes home, he’ll probably come out. I hear the drums too, woke up twice and heard them this morning, they are still there now.

Stewie's character had appeared on my desk while he was home for the Christmas holiday

The references above to Stewie still being here, and then gone… what we’re referring to is the appearance of his character again right after he arrived home for Christmas. Christmas Day I walked into the office, and there beside my character and Nuttah’s, was Stewie, missing since he was last home at Thanksgiving. I put a Stewie “S” on his shirt to differentiate him from Bob, since they are the same doll. Even though Stewie left on Monday, his character remained standing on my desk until today. I do not know where he goes.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Just to clarify, this post is part of one of my “catch-up” posts, about events that occurred earlier:

One of the 2 days before or after Christmas, Bob related to me something that had happened to him the previous evening. We sat in front of the wood stove having our morning coffee, and, as Bob related the story, I scribbled notes in pink highlighter, the first pen I could grab, onto a scrap of paper.

Bob said, “I took a trip last night:

This drum, a picture from the internet, is similar to what Bob sees them using

There was a lot of drum-playing going on; it was a ceremony of some sort. It was inside the sweat-lodge. The newly-married husbands, who are really just teens, were having some kind of ritual. Maybe it was something that takes place a certain amount of months after the marriage ceremonies.”

Bob then described how the young men repeatedly went into the sweat-lodge, where the ceremony was being facilitated by the elders. After the sweat-lodge, they would come out and immerse themselves in the freezing cold water of the creek. For each participant, this ritual took place at least 2 to 3 times, maybe more, according to what Bob was witnessing.

From "real-dream-catchers.com": Construction and Symbolism of the Sweat Lodge -- one of the sites I found that night of searching

They were in the sweat lodge warming (or cleansing?) for a good 20 min. to 1/2 hour. They would then dunk themselves in the creek. Throughout the ceremony, 10 to 12 of the older men were playing drums of all different sizes. The men were covered in animal skins, but rather than buckskin,  the skins still had the hair of the animal on them. I asked Bob what he thought the skins might be from, he said most were deer skin, but some were darker/hairier and could have been bear. They were outside of the sweat lodge, in a semi-circle around a central fire on the ground. Of the drums they were playing, they were all different shapes and sizes, and played in different ways.

Another internet picture of "Lenape" style drums, by Bob's report

They ranged from a hollowed out log, to logs with skins taut over the tops, and sometimes logs with skins on the sides, like a 2-sided horizontal drum, played on both sides. One type of drum was played with a stone, as opposed to more traditional drumsticks, similar to those pictured here. Bob was standing at a distance watching the ceremony with the women, including Nuttah, who was standing with Bob. They stood like an audience watching the ritual. Bob felt that he was there observing for a total of about an hour.

Then on Christmas Day, December 25, 2011, I woke up after Bob and he told me to go look at an email he had sent me earlier. Bob’s email related a long, continuous Christmas dream, where he awoke and returned to the dream several times.  In the dream, Bob spent hours with Dukey/Tëme and Pink (Pink was a dog we lost in 2008 who’d been with us since about 1995). Bob said he played in the woods by the creek with them, and sat by the water and was able to hold them. “Nuttah just left me with them, [she] stood to the side and watched. What an unbelievable experience”.

Event #282? – Thursday, December 22, 2011

The "impression" I had of a Lenape canoe

This morning, I was doing my usual jog along the towpath with my little “wobbler”. I had a little extra time, so decided to do some extra walking for a few minutes beyond where I usually stop. The view of the river there is wide open, and the path hugs right along the side of it. I’ve already finished my main exercise, and I’m pretty relaxed, and running early, because it is a work day. Right at this point, an image came into my mind, hard to describe, more like an “impression”. This idea had not been in my head, it just popped in, almost as if I was really “seeing” it. It was of a canoe with Indians in it, paddling intently toward the river bank, right where I was at that moment. They appeared to be kneeling in the canoe, a somewhat rough-hewn one, similar to this one I found a picture of on the internet. There were 3 of them, also just like in this picture, wearing buckskin. It was a very brief impression, almost like I was “seeing” a scene from a time long-past. I stopped and stared for awhile to see if the impression would turn into something else. It did not, and was lost. However, I continued on, northward. The river has a sharp curve here and I glanced upriver. Now I had the impression of a battery of multiple Lenape canoes, about a dozen or more of them coming around the curve. I could see this in silhouette. However, it’s not really there. I don’t know what this is, or if I really “saw” anything… but when I related this incident to Bob, he said to me, “That happens to me all the time”. We were outside on our deck, looking across the creek. “What do you mean?”, I asked.
“Well, for instance”, Bob continued, “Over there, up on the hillside across the creek, I see braves all the time, they’re hunting.”
“Are there any there now?”, I wondered.
“No. But I’ve seen this frequently.” Bob said.
“You never mentioned it.” I mused.
“I know, this stuff always just gets weirder and weirder to me, I can’t mention all of it, because sometimes it just seems so crazy.”
My guess is that it took me saying that I was seeing something for Bob to admit that he too, was seeing silhouettes of Lenape just going about their business. Since then, every time I step outside, I glance across the creek to see what I might see. Winter affords a better view of everything – no underbrush to block my view — if a squirrel was over there, I would see it. But nothing — and the canoes on the river event has not happened again either.

Event #281: Saturday, December 17, 2011

Bob described to me an adventure that he took during the night between Friday night to Saturday morning. After he finished, I suddenly realized that for the first time in awhile, I’d forgotten to check the table of characters after I woke up. I ran upstairs to look, and it was, in fact, quite different. Lots of movement. Here, I will insert the picture I took and then below that, go over the most obvious changes. I don’t get their meaning, but there most likely is one:

The objects on the table the morning after Bob's "excursion"

The bark hut was moved to the back right. The Duke/Tëme pair were placed behind the hut, and my Mother’s character behind it with them. I’m a little concerned about that placement, behind the hut, and we do know that Duke/Tëme are no longer with us. There does appear to be some movement with the 3 wolf-puppies there on the left. Bob is still where he was, his special stone in front of him, and the corn/pewter turtle have not moved.

A closeup of the December clover

Until there were no more flowers outside,I was bringing in a sprig of whatever still grew, and that is the dried arrangement that can be seen to the left of the bark hut. Speaking of which, I had placed the clover Nuttah left me on my keyboard in some water. I took a close-up of one of the giant floral heads of it. Since then, 2 little buds of clover that were apparently in the mix, are also starting to blossom. It is so odd to have live clover sitting here on my desk a few days before Christmas. To describe Bob’s adventure, I need his permission, so maybe in the next post.

Event #280: Monday night, December 12, 2011

Tonight, Bob & I spoke on the phone while I was at work. He said that while he was reloading the wood stove for the evening, there was a lot of “activity” in the room. “Multiple presences”, was how he described it. But this time no communication. There has been, at times, some information conveyed while Bob works at the stove. The fire does seem to be a direct conduit to their world. I don’t see it, but it works with Bob. There are enough times when I have put logs in that it could have happened, but doesn’t. Then again, only once or twice have I actually built the fire from scratch, and that seems to be when the communication happens. Such as in my last post, the conveyance of a message to Bob about a fire-starter. We should figure out how to make one.

There was something though, about what Bob said, or the way that he said it, that made me think we’d be in for a change. It’s been awhile, and I didn’t really know why. Even the buzz in my ear had died down. It was really strong there for a number of days, especially after I first brought it up that it was happening again, and then maybe for the last week or so, it was just gone. And no changes with the characters. So all the way home I thought about it. I had asked Bob to check the table for me while we were still talking on the phone, but there’s too much going on there for him to discern any changes. So up to the bedroom I went when I first got home. I stared at the table with the light from the TV. There was something different. More than one thing… a couple things missing… no Nuttah… and no ME! And a heart missing too. Where were we? I had a sneaking suspicion that we might be in the office. But what I found there surprised me even more. Here’s the picture of what I walked in to, all laid out on my keyboard:

On my keyboard tonight - 4 sprigs of clover and a heart

Behind the keyboard are my character and Nuttah, staring at me right now as I type here. The fresh, live clover is most surprising. I’ve had my eye out every day when I walk for anything that might still be alive, and there is nothing. We’ve had 2 nights in the 20’s, and even the diehard plants are done. Where did she come up with these? Well, obviously, in their time, it’s not that cold yet. I’m reminded all of a sudden, that this happened last year too. Right around this time. It was December, and she came up with a plant that was dead here, but still alive “there”. I just looked it up. This happened last year on Dec. 1, and it was an Evening Primrose plant. The clover on the keyboard was amazingly fresh. Not just in the fact that it was fresh and alive, like it’s the beginning of spring, but it looked like it had more or less just arrived. I think that this might have been the “action” that was going on when Bob was starting the fire. She was here then, and she was bringing the flowers in. I have them now in water, and they look like they were just picked. Thank you, Nuttah! xèli wanìshi. I’m happy to see flowers after so much time.

I noticed something else tonight. The “buzz” has returned. Only tonight, it sounded less like a “buzz” and more like a rhythm. As in drums. The beat was more defined, like I really was hearing drums. Not one drum, several, or many. The sound is really hard to describe. It was eery, especially considering the implications of what I heard. Gave me chills.

Event #277: Friday, December 2, 2011

I see the ears of corn on the table in the "triangle" shape

Bob got home unusually early from work Friday, and since we had a pretty big night ahead of us, I encouraged him to take a nap. But first he was working on the wood stove, and described to me an event that happened to him while he built a fire. This is the first “communication” he has had in awhile. He said it came through to him in “symbols”, in picture form, not language. And it was not just Nuttah in the room, there were others involved. Bob asked me not to convey everything that was communicated that day, but one particular symbol that came through, he tried to describe to me. He held up two fingers in a “V” shape, and then with the index finger of his other hand, he put it across the “top” of the “V”, so, we are basically looking at a triangle shape. He said that this is not the first time this symbol has been portrayed to him, and that it is an important symbol. At this point, since we were up in the bedroom, I wondered if there was “physical” evidence of the visit today while Bob worked at the stove, and I glanced down at the table with the characters as Bob spoke. I was listening to him and looking at how he held up his hands, then asked, “Oh, so you mean sort of like how the ears of corn are arranged here?”

Bob glanced over. “I can’t really see it”, he said.

“The corn, it’s exactly like the symbol you just described”, I exclaimed at the same time realizing that this was now a new change on the table.
Bob leaned over to see, and finally declared, “Yeah, just like that. And now, I have to take a nap.”

I flipped the corn picture over, and voila - inverted the triangle

I ran down for the camera and snapped a picture first, lest there be another change before I did. Notice also that the pewter turtle is part of the arrangement.

Then later, it occurred to me that it had been awhile since I’d researched anything remotely close to “Lenape Symbols”. So I plugged that in as a search term, just to see if I’d get any clues, and imagine my surprise when the first thing that came up was the seal of the Lenape (Delaware Nation) Flag. There are numerous things going on here in the seal, one of which happens to be the triangle symbol! I found the following description of the different elements of the seal: (link to the website)

The Lenni Lenape  flag is white and bears the tribal seal in the center. Centered on the seal is a traditional Delaware mask. The mask on the Lenni Lenape flag is divided vertically into black and red halves. The mask, represents Mesingw, the “Masked Spirit” of traditional Lenape legend. Mesingw is the guardian of the creatures of the forest.

Lenape Flag Logo from the website: http://www.delawaretribe.org

These creatures were of vital importance to all eastern tribes, they were the main source of food, much as the buffalo served the nations of the Plains. Each of the creatures was imbued with certain traits or attributes and the various clans of Woodland Indians. The Lenni Lenape tribes associated themselves with a particular animal as a clan totem or symbol. In front of the mask of Mesingw appears a peace pipe and fire starter. The peace pipe is a widely used symbol on many Indian tribal flags since it was the ultimate greeting and bonding mechanism of tribal life in most northern cultures. Surrounding these central devices, one each at a prime direction of the compass are symbols relevant to the Lenni Lenape people. To the north is a Christian cross, representing the history of the Christian faith within the people. To the east is a turkey claw, symbol of the Unalactigo; one of the three main divisions of the Delaware nation. To the south is a turtle for the Unami division and to the west lies a wolf paw print for the Wolf clan. Separating these emblems are a series of bars or sticks bearing various designs. These sticks represent the prayer sticks from the Big House Church:

http://www.delawarein.webs.com/lenapesymbolflag.htm

The shape the corn was left in clearly echoes both the symbol on the seal, and the “communicated” symbol by Nuttah. It’s a fire starter. And it makes sense that this was communicated while Bob worked at the wood stove, starting the fire.