HAWK WOMAN DANCING WITH THE MOON by Tela Starhawk Lake. 1996 / 256 pages
Tela Starhawk lake,
who calls herself an endangered species, is the last
remaining hereditary descendent of a long line of Native
healers, seers, ceremonial leaders and ritual performers,
all documented in classic anthropological writings. Born
in an outhouse in 1959, she was raised in a large
dysfunctional family, despite the fact that the elders in
her tribe knew from their visions, dreams and prophecies,
that Tela was to become a powerful Medicine Woman. She
and her husband, Medicine Grizzly Bear, were trained,
mostly in secret to protect themselves and their mentors,
by relatives and medicine men and women from all tribes.
Their training was arduous - traditional vision quest
trails had been disrupted by highways and loggers, new
ways of performing spiritual ceremonies had to be
incorporated with the old, sacred sites had been
destroyed. This book tells of her experience with ghosts,
spiritual battles, vision quests and doctoring people
from various races and cultures. She explains much of
Native belief and practices and focuses primarily on
women's medicine. She includes prayers, healing
ceremonies women can perform, herbs to use for healing
and dream analysis. She gives practical advice on what to
do about everything from environmental pollution to
childbirth. Tela is a Medicine Woman who uses the forces
of nature - both physical and spiritual - to effect
cures. She teaches and lectures widely in both Indian and
non-Native circles and lives on a tribal reservation.
