The Seven Sacred Teachings with Carolyn Landry

Welcome to the 7 sacred teachings where ancient wisdom meets modern living. Join us as we journey through the timeless teachings of truth, courage, respect, honesty, wisdom, love, and humility, guided by the wisdom of indigenous ancestors and the sacred connection to the land. Every story shared, every lesson learned, is a step towards harmony, sustainability, and the deepening of our spiritual paths. Now, let's walk the red road together with your host, Carolyn Landry.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to my podcast. Thank you all for tuning in. Thank you to the ancestors for your continued guidance. Thank you to creator for this beautiful life. Thank you.

Today, I'm gonna talk about the sacred animals and their symbolism to the teachings. This is an opportunity to research each animal through book, social media, and in person if at all possible. We can't watch them first hand like our ancestors did, but we can learn the animals behaviors through experts in the field. Understanding the behaviors of sacred animals allows us to see how we are like those animals and why they are chosen as the sacred animals. I've been researching these animals for many years now and I still continue to research.

And in my quest for truth, I always find new behaviors that I may have overlooked before. It's very exciting work. I call it work because I don't know another word to describe it, but it's effortless work. So do the research and look for truth in how each sacred animal shows us our sacredness, our direct, connection to spirit, and ultimately knowing that we are spirit. We are humans, yes, in physical form, but we're spirit first.

And if we are open minded and open hearted, we will be able to see and experience the teachings, the gifts that the sacred animals give us. The bear teaches us to recognize courage within. Bear shows us how to face fear, even embrace it, and eventually overcome it. When we overcome it, it is no longer present, and courage now is present and ready to show us how to make decisions based on courage and not fear. The bear's first instinct is fear.

Without courage, it will perish like us humans. When we're in a state of courage, we are clear. When we are in fear, we are confused. The beaver teaches us how to make fair judgment. The beaver is the architect in the forest and waters where they make their homes.

One beaver can chew down a large tree in under half an hour and it's a high percentage that when the tree falls, it does not get caught up on another tree. That always amazes me every time I say it, but at the same time, it resonates within me. The beaver knows instinctively without doting themselves. They just do it following their wisdom and the ability to make a fair judgment. The moose, deer, caribou, or buffalo teaches us respect.

They are all adaptable animals to the environment around them, and their bodies will change in structure depending on where they live. Moose have a unique feeding behavior known as browsing where they selectively choose specific plants and parts of the plants to eat. This behavior allows them to maximize their nutrient intake and adapt to the changing availability of food throughout the seasons. If you ever have the opportunity to watch them in nature firsthand, you may notice that they pause with their heads down to the ground before they begin eating. That behavior displays respect.

Just simply taking a moment to honor the food in front of them about to be eaten. Also, when these large animals are traditionally hunted, we do not trick them or hide from them to take them by surprise. We wait patiently to give them the opportunity to give themselves to us, and in turn, we use every part of the sacred animal and do ceremony to honor its life and its sacrifice. The eagle teaches us love. The eagle is at the top of the food chain, and that in itself is a major teaching.

If we, as caretakers of the environment, stay true to the principles of Nedugulillim, not taking any more than we need and maintaining the balance of the land, the eagle will stay. When we see eagle we know we are doing the right thing on earth connecting to our first mother, protecting our first mother, Mother Earth. The little people or conscience teaches us honesty. The little people show up when we have deceived ourselves to the point of distraction, the point of confusion, and the point of suffering. When we are in that state of deception, we don't know what the truth is anymore, and soon deception becomes our reality, or I should say our illusion of reality.

We make poor judgments. We seem to forget things. We put ourselves down. We believe thoughts that aren't true, lose sleep, and so on. These things are the gifts of the little people to shake us and wake us up to honesty.

The turtle teaches us truth. The turtle, when it reaches maturity, does not appear to change. If it lives in a healthy environment, it will usually outlive us. We notice that it doesn't change and the marking the markings, on its shell reminds us of the cycle of life. That too is unchanging.

It has the ability to go inside itself for protection, and we have the same ability to go within and notice the part of ourselves that is unchanging, the truth, the place of freedom. The wolf teaches us humility, The ability to be selfless. The wolf pack they join together as 1. A collective. Naturally, that's what the human beings do.

In our ancient civilizations, that's how we lived. United, collective, family oriented, people depending upon people, blood related or not. When we act selfish in any form whatsoever, we suffer. It goes against everything in our true nature. We temporarily step into greed, jealousy, envy, wanting, all those things that keep us separated from self and others.

The wolf shows us humility in its behavior to have a collective family, each one depending on the other for sake of survival. The leader may hunt and perhaps carry a dead animal in its mouth for miles without stopping to eat it even though he he may not have eaten in a day or more. And it will take the prey to the other members of the pack and drop it to let them eat first, and then he will eat what's left when the others are done. There is so much more about the sacred animals that connect us to spirit to open our hearts. 7 sacred teachings are not rules or laws, rather they are gifts that guide us to being the best human we can be for today.

It's a work in progress. It's a practice. And remember, every journey begins with a single step. So join me in this sacred journey. Umsu'nogamun, Walalio, Gesolula, Moltosa, all my relations.

Thank you all. I love you all, and until next time.