The Time Has Come—The Prophecy of the White Buffalo Calf Woman
Métis-Japanese-Canadian Artist @miaohki
THE PROPHECY OF THE WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN AND THE WHIRLING RAINBOW
By Courtney Aura Freeman
What follows is the legend of White Buffalo Calf Woman as I know it. This is a story that I’ve pieced together—elements of which originate from different tribes here in the States. I first learned of this legend from my mother of Cherokee ancestry. The story of the White Buffalo is the inspiration for our forty-year-old family-owned rolling paper company’s namesake and trademark with the hope to honor this ideology and to bring awareness to environmental concerns.
In learning of this historical record, and in sharing it with you, I feel that I am supporting the prophecy in bringing the sacred teachings to light. Thank you to our ancestors for passing down these teachings through the years and for protecting these lessons.
I write with the intention that his message will be carried by the four winds far and wide and be heard by those who will be the leaders of a more beautiful tomorrow. And So It Is.
An Introduction to White Buffalo Calf Woman
According to the prophecy, as the Navajo-Hopi tell it, “There will come a time when the Earth being ravaged and polluted, mankind as we know it will all but cease to exist.” The Lakota-Sioux add that when we need her most, the deity White Buffalo Calf Woman will return to Earth to heal the planet to usher in a time of unity for humankind.
Tribes spanning the entirety of North America tell their children of the prophecy of White Buffalo Calf Woman including M.tis, Lakota, Sioux, Dakota, Cherokee, Cheyenne, and others. To our indigenous ancestors in this region, the white calf born of a buffalo is considered to be the most sacred animal on Earth.
Cows and buffalo are revered the world over; they serve an important role in nourishing the soil, a substantial constituent in the circle of life. For those who lived on the Great Plains prior to 1850, buffalo herds sustained human survival and were an important part of the ecosystem. These animals were used in their entirety to meet the needs of the tribe whether for food, warmth or to string a bow. Gratitude was given to Great Spirit for providing nourishment and to the buffalo for the giving of its life.
“Tribes spanning the entirety of North America tell their children of the prophecy of White Buffalo Calf Woman”
In the mid-nineteenth century, US military leaders conspired to kill the buffaloes in an effort to starve the people indigenous to North America into submission. Once numbering in the range of 100 million, by the end of the Buffalo Holocaust around 1890, less than 100 buffalo remained alive in the wild and have been on the brink of extinction ever since. Fortunately, due to conservation efforts, the number of buffalo under protection are currently on the rise at about 19,000 and continue to climb to the hundreds of thousands overall.
In contrast to the more common brown buffalo, those cream in color, are considered to be a rare and mythical being. The odds of an ivory calf being born are one in six billion. Indigenous buffalo with this type of recessive genetic rarity, are not albinos, they have white fur. Sometimes they are born silver and later turn darker as they age. Medicine elders have been known to interpret these color changes in connection with the prophecy.
Of even more significance, and in keeping with the prophecy, we’ve seen an increase in the number of white buffalo born in the last twenty-five years. Big Medicine was born in 1933, Miracle in 1994, and by 2015, the White Bison Association was raising a herd. Given the odds of this happening at all, the proliferation of these genetic anomalies are astounding. I estimate that the count of white buffalo currently inhabiting our physical realm is somewhere between fifty and one hundred in herds located around the Great Plains. There is also one in Europe.
The recent birth of Dusanka in Belgrade Serbia, a white-furred buffalo, made headline news internationally. Dusanka, born May 28, 2018 of American parents, is the first of her pearl-shaded kind ever to be born on the European continent.
With that historical perspective, I can now tell you the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman and the prophecy of the Whirling Rainbow.
WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN HAS RETURNED.
During a difficult famine, over 500 (or maybe as many as 5,000) years ago, in the region of what is now called Black Hills, South Dakota, known to some as the heart of planet Earth, the Lakota came together in council to pray and discover solutions. They decided to send out two scouts in search of food.
In the course of their journey, the scouts encountered a beautiful woman in their path carrying a bundle on her back. She was adorned in gleaming white buckskin, with beads that decorated her garments in the colors of the rainbow. One of the men was lascivious and without restraint, he lunged at the woman. A cloud of smoke swirled around the woman obscuring her from view, then as soon as it had arrived, the smoke lifted. In a pile before her, was all that remained of the offender—his bones. The woman then told the other still-living scout, “You may call me Ptesan-Wi,” which translates to White Buffalo Calf Woman. She asked him to return to his people and to notify them to prepare for her arrival. “I have come to Turtle Island [North America] to share the sacred teachings with you,” she explained. The man acquiesced and followed her instruction, returning to his camp with the message.
After four days, Ptesan-Wi arrived at the camp. Once she settled in, she pulled out from her bundle, the chanupa or sacred pipe. As she pointed to the pipe, the woman taught the Lakota of the significance of each part. The red bowl of the pipe is made from earth, the wooden stem represents the plant kingdom, the carving of a white buffalo calf represents animals who roam the plains, and finally, the spotted eagle feathers signify the winged-creatures who soar. She then proclaimed, ”When you come together, smoke from this peace pipe; It will serve as a reminder that we are all one family and children of Mother Earth.”
Over the coming weeks, their divine guest taught them of the seven sacred rites symbolized by circles engraved in the bowl of the pipe. Each rite is a step on the path to commune with Spirit and to build a strong community. [The three most widely-known rites are the sweat, vision quest, and Sun Dance.]
After teaching the seven rites, Ptesan-Wi announced that she would leave. To the astonishment of all, the camp was then surrounded by a huge herd of buffalo. “I will return to Earth one day to bring once again a new dawn of abundance,” she said. “You will know that the time has come with the birth of an ivory calf.”
The woman turned to leave and while departing, turned into a brilliant white buffalo calf. The buffalo then rolled over four times, and with each turn, the color of the calf changed to a hue of the medicine wheel symbolizing all races of humankind becoming one. The next part of the story varies by region, told by the Cree of the North and then other indigenous peoples of the South.
Leading up to the time of Buffalo Calf Woman’s return, those of the white skin will grow their hair long, paint their faces, wear beads and feathers. These pale-skinned people will speak words of love and understanding, and they will seek the wisdom of their elders. Many consider these to be the Flower Children of the sixties.
“When you come together, smoke from this peace pipe; It will serve as a reminder that we are all one family and children of Mother Earth.”
In the years following, the descendants of the Flower Children, the Rainbow Warriors will incarnate to bring humanity together in a joint effort to restore vitality to the planet. Those who harm Earth for personal gain and take actions to divide humanity through religious and racial tensions will see an end to their reign. We will know that time is upon us when the white bison calf is born to Earth and the whirling rainbow appears in the sky.
A sun dog also called a sunbow or whirling rainbow, is a natural phenomenon of light created by the reflection of sunlight on crystals in the atmosphere. In some instances, it looks like a halo around the sun while it may also be visible as a swirling rainbow on the horizon. The whirling rainbow is considered by indigenous cultures of the West and by Jamie Sams author of the Sacred Path cards, to be “the sky-language sign that the secret teachings are to be shared with all races.” Only then will the prophecy be fulfilled.
In April of this year, my mother called me to tell me that she had seen a whirling rainbow in the sky. We had never heard of this and had no idea of its existence. She recounted that a woman standing next to her said, “It is an omen of a great prophecy.” After a quick internet search, my mother sent me an article illuminating the significance of the whirling rainbow prophesied as a sign of White Buffalo Calf Woman’s return.
The sacred pipe and bundle of White Buffalo Calf Woman has been handed down through the generations. Today, Chief Arvol Looking Horse is a 19th generation keeper of the White Buffalo Pipe.
Courtney Aura Freeman is a writer and consultant in the cannabis industry. She specializes in product development, marketing, and compliant packaging design. Her company White Buffalo produces PEACE CBD MassagePrimer, crystal grid kits, and cannabis-inspired products.
Websites:WhiteBuffaloCannabis.com, WhiteBuffaloSpirit.org, CourtneyAura.com
Facebook: WhiteBuffaloHeritage
Instagram & Twitter: @White_Buflo
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