Coyote's Wish.

The story of how Coyote is competing with wolf for a sacred space.

Several years ago when I wrote the song Coyote's Wish on my first Native American style flute, Wolf was the center of my life. Brother Wolf had come to me in many ways to teach the lessons that only this animal can. Among these lessons was the lost connections, especially my connection to our Earth Mother. Wolf re-connected with the ways of the NA people, not just their ways, but also their spirituality,and more than that, their ancestors. Wolf is a huge part of my everyday life, but this blog is not about Brother Wolf.

In the past several months I have been seeing more and more of Coyote. I know him as “The Trickster” of legend, the one who is always making mischief and leading us astray. I have a feeling however that this connection holds much deeper meanings. I feel that I will never completely understand why a certain animal will cross our life path and make themselves known but there is always a reason for everything. Coyote has chosen this time and place, this point in my life to make himself known.

Walking home from the local garage on a very quiet rural Vermont road I had my latest encounters. I have lived in this area for most of my life and other than an occasional earful, I have not run across Coyote until recently. As of late however, it seems that I cannot avoid them, or him as I believe it is the same individual I keep bumping into. When I say crossed my path, I can say it in the literal sense because that is exactly what has happened. Several feet in front of me on a moonlit night, on several different nights, in several different places. Each time I startled this creature, and he startled me.

Last night for the first time I can remember, I saw him in a dream. He seemed to be playfully tossing a mouse or other small rodent into the air and catching it again. He did this many times before turning to look at me and swallowing his catch down whole. As the dream progressed he called me several times with Yips and Yelps, asking me to follow him as if he had something for me. After a rather long hike through the woods, at dusk, I found myself staring at Coyote once again. He was standing in the very spot where I had first began to follow him, we had gone in a very large circle.

My logical mind saw this as a waste of time of course, but the spiritual side of me saw many lessons and predictions in the dreams interpretation. I will leave these up to the reader though.

So then, why has Coyote come to me now? In real life, Wolf and Coyote do not see eye to eye at all. Wolf sees him as an opportunist, one who takes advantage of others good fortune. Coyote sees wolf as a bully who is not willing to share. They act as if they do not know they are cousins, more closely related genetically than many other species in the animal kingdom. Rivals in many ways, they compete for much of the same resources. Why then do they choose to meet on either side of me?

I look forward to these lessons, the ones each will reveal to me in the coming months. Both carry powerful medicine, both have important visionary aspects and lessons, and both represent unique lore and legend, one of my favorite parts of the lessons. It would be nice though if I could sit them both down and ask them face to face the questions I have for them. But then again, where is the fun in that?

Mitakuye Oyasin

CloudWalker Wolf

2008

Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Game Commission