THE BUFFALO – TOTEM ANIMAL

The key word in buffalo medicine is abundance.

The bison is associated with abundance because it formed the essence of life for the Central Plains nations of America. The buffalo gave everything to the people. Its fur and hide were used to make homes and clothing, as well as shields of war and peace. Its meat was plentiful and could feed the whole community, and a single hunt could feed the whole community for a long period of time, as the meat was dried and made into pemmican by mixing it with fat and dried berries. This very nourishing food could be preserved for a very long time. The bones were used to make utensils for cooking and other tasks, healing tools, and flutes. The skull was the center of the medicine wheel, the hooves were used to make glue, the sinews were used to make the strings for bows.

There is a celestial envoy associated with the buffalo: the White Buffalo Calf Woman. She is said to be the daughter of Great Spirit and comes when the people need guidance. She brought the sacred pipe to the Lakota people, which then spread to all nations.

During a famine, before the horse arrived in North America, a small band of Lakota people were visited by the White Buffalo Calf Woman. She came in a sacred way with many magical signs and brought with her the first sacred pipe. She taught them how to pray with the pipe in order to thank the Creator for all the abundance of creation. Since then we know how to give thanks for the abundance that surrounds us, and the wheel of reciprocity it turns and turns. As She was leaving the people after four days of sharing and teaching, she took on the shape of a white buffalo calf. Soon after a herd of buffalo appeared, and that community was no longer hungry.

The great white buffalo, is also an immense and ethereal being, one of the four faces of the thunderbird. It generates the telluric electromagnetic energy that springs from the North Pole and circulates all around the earth to enter the South Pole, like a ring of Torus, a vortex of perpetual energy. It is therefore the source, the battery responsible for the electromagnetic energy and etheric web that sustains planet earth.

The appearance of a white buffalo among the bison is a sign of renewal. It indicates that the prayers of the people have been heard and that the promises of prophecy will be fulfilled.

Those who have the medicine of the buffalo know how to pray for the people and thus keep them on the path of abundance. Thanks to the people of the buffalo, we never lack anything. They know how to connect with Great Spirit. They know how to recognize that they are nothing by themselves, but that they are powerful when they connect and communicate with Great Spirit for the good of the nation. They are people who are very gregarious and comfortable in crowds. If they work for the good of others their energy is almost inexhaustible.

There is little difference between men and women in the expression of the buffalo medicine.