As a Nemenhah Medicine Man, I am often called upon to assist those who are afflicted with Depression and I have found that there is very often a great deal we can learn from our animal Relations.

Orb Weavers rebuild their webs every night, often using the very same anchor threads from the night before. No matter the cost, the strife, the conflict, the resources spent in the process, this eight-legged Relation of ours shows just one of many paths to enlightenment.

Night-Spider’s Advice
“Build a frame
and stick to it, I always say.
Life’s a circle.
Just keep going around.
Do your work, then
sit back and see
what falls in your lap.
Eat your triumphs,
eat your mistakes:
that way your belly will always be full.
Use what you have.
Rest when you need to.
Dawn will come soon enough.
Someone has to remake
the world each night.
It might as well be you.”
Dark Emperor – J. Sidman, 2010

By systematically raising the instruments of ethics, peace, and Wyaykihn, and subjecting those instruments to the ritualistic scrutiny of introspection and study, tearing down pre-conceived notions and bias, and then rebuilding the web that forms the foundation of our beliefs, we do something similar to our little arachnid Sister. When the day comes in our personal lives that the sturdy, well fashioned and perfect matrix of our spiritual devotion is torn down by hurt, sorrow, anger, stress, logic, fear, and- most especially- depression, we will have the core memory (and ability) to begin building again. Sometimes even when the world itself seems to be unraveling before our eyes. Slowly, with determination concealed by the night’s lonely shroud, we will scurry invisibly within the shadows until the sun rises upon the rainbow-gilt brilliance of a miraculous work.

If, at times, it feels as though one’s destiny is to continuously look into the deepest shadows of pain, loss, and fear, never truly surfacing enough to free oneself from the next plunge, think of this little Elder (and take heart), whose very creation demands the nightly destruction of one of the costliest and most spectacular feats known in the animal kingdom. So much beauty lost every night! Such sacrifice! Such resilience!

Oh Wyaykihn, Solihtstaynah! May we learn to Look Within and see the good, pure, intelligent, mighty, powerful, spiritual beings that we are! May we also see what might be improved, strengthened, restored, and then seek the guidance and courage to make changes for the better! Like our eight-legged cousin, may we learn to build in the shadows and rest in the light, ready to rebuild when darkness falls again!

As we say in Nemenhah Itsipi: All My Relations! Thank you for being here today… It is Good for Us to be Here!

Jonathan “Wellamotkin” Landis

Elected Principle Medicine Chief – Nemenhah ITO

Certified Minister and Medicine Man