Coyote Medicine

In my tradition, the Coyote is the spirit keeper of the South. It is his time of year on the Medicine Wheel. The Coyote is the one who shows you the things that you do not want to look at. In this way, he is the true healer. He is the trickster in that he often tricks you to see the things you do not want to look at. He makes you think you are moving toward one thing and then you end up with something totally

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different.

Coyote Medicine is often feared because people often preconceive that he is going to show them something terrible and dark about themselves. And while the Coyote does sometimes show you some things that are not pleasant, I noticed a totally different tendency at our Summer Solstice Ceremonies this year.

Ann Coughlin was offering a prayer to the South (and the Coyote) during a Medicine Wheel that she conducted. She articulated the new tendency I had been noticing about Coyote Medicine very clearly. She asked the Coyote to “show us our beauty and personal power- for these are the things that are most difficult for us to accept about ourselves.”

So maybe the Coyote is trying to show us how beautiful we are. And how powerful. And what a large effect we have on people and things. And here we thought he was going to show us how icky and terrible we are. Perhaps the good stuff about ourselves are the most difficult things of all to look at.

So what are the beautiful and powerful parts of yourself have you been avoiding looking at? How much beauty can you stand?