middleblog-a suburban babble brook book

Indian Spirits and Kitty Cats

I watched a great show I just discovered the other night, 'Paranormal State', that was focused on a malevolent Native American entity bestowing unwanted attention on a Maine family.  When a kitty was shown walking across the dark yard during the investigation (but no part of it, just a kitty-interest shot), it set me to musing on my forest kitty.  My fiancee's daughter says that he's evil-he stares at you, without blinking.  I dismissed her reaction, as I don't believe animals are ever anything more negative than dangerously stupid.  Besides, cats are reknowned for piercing gazing-it's one of the reasons they are revered AND loathed.  But after watching this show, I got me to thinking.  I am convinced that our forest is haunted-not necessarily by negative entities (although, as in any population, it is possible the odd nasty may be found out back), but definitely by the natural energies to be found in great, ancient trees and essentially undisturbed, primeval land. Wild animals, feral domestic animals, birds chirping of a sunny day...all have their own energies, too.  Since Native American day-to-day life was so practical, it's reasonable to assume their spiritual beliefs also contains a grain of truth, as most religion does.

So my latest thought on my Wendigo, and my forest kitty, is that the two are one.  I think that perhaps my forest entity that so disturbed me of a starry night (it's been mostly absent, lately) could have been a spirit, jaded and cynical of these white skins who seem to have no concept of how things are, who was checking us out.  I compost, which means throwing kitchen scraps out into a pile on the ground behind the house for the time being, which will of course attract opportunistic feeders.  Especially tasty bits (spoiled dinners, etc), and moldy bread I launch as far into the forest as I can, with the conscious thought that they're for the Wild Things.    The forest kitty surfaced at the midden, and I began feeding him.  But could he have been an incarnation of the manitou who I sensed in the forest?  He disappeared during the winter, which broke my heart because I was sure he had run afoul of something; why else would he stop surfacing for handouts during the worst season?  But one day, two weeks after he disappeared, I was throwing out some chicken for the Wild Things, and there he sat, regarding me wisely from the leaves.  He munched some chicken, and I haven't seen him since...but I'm not worried about him anymore. 

This one time resurfacing could be the action of a Great Spirit, a just entity that wouldn't want a basically well-meaning creature to suffer unnecessarily.  Such an entity would perhaps reappear to the mushy mortal waxing mournful over the disappearance of a common domestic feral cat.  I feed the Wild Things, and I have also burnt incense to the forest spirits, (in the forest), left small offerings of cigarettes and incense on the rock outcropping, and consciously smoked cigarettes with the thought of sharing with the spirits. Native American tradition believes that the Great Spirit, after creating all the animals with their gifts, had no gift for Man, and so gave him tobacco.  Spirits linger, hoping to catch a drag from Man's butt....wow, that's bad, but I'm gonna leave that stinker here for a while!

Mainstream folks would likely regard such behaviour as latent insanity.  But I feel we have strayed too far, too quickly from our roots.  All good things still come from the land and sea, but today's consumer rarely takes that into account.  Our Gods are distant beings accessible only through a fervent whisper.  I prefer to hug a tree, and feed the Wild Things.