The "Mystical" Mittens Gateways of the Gods

 

Lately I have been researching the possibility that gateway, stargate, and wormhole symbolism is perceivably being downloaded into the consciousness of humanity via public events, mass media, and especially art and architecture.  For more information on gateway symbolism emerging in our art and architecture please visit my previous posts or my website www.chadstuemke.com .  That being said I have been delving into some of the stargate and gateway imagery here in my home state of Michigan and in particular  Detroit.  While previously I have been focusing on the modern symbolism emerging in Michigan, today I would like to focus on some ancient myth and lore from the great lakes containing representations of "the Gateways of the Gods"!

Arch Rock (Mackinaw Island Michigan)

The first legend we will take a look at comes from northern Michigan's Mackinaw Island.  It is an Ojibwa myth in regards to the islands sacred Arch Rock.  Two thing that come to mind when viewing Arch Rock. The first is Utah's sacred Rainbow Bridge! The second is St. Louis's Gateway Arch.  Both of which contain "Rainbow Bridge" symbolism.  (for a brief explanation on the Gateway Arch  Rainbow Bridge symbolism please see my previous post - Urban Portals, Gateways in Our Cities.  http://divineportal.blogspot.com/2009/08/urban-portals-gateways-in-our-cities.html .  In myth and lore from around the world the arch and the "rainbow bridge" are seen symbolically as intermediaries between the earthly realms and the heavenly realms.  In investigative mythologist William Henry's book (Ark of the Christos) he points out that symbolically speaking the arch or bow can be seen as representative of the "Gate of Heaven"!  Now lets take a look at the Ojibwa myth surrounding Arch Rock.

 

Utah's Rainbow Bridge

St. Louis's Gateway Arch

Arch Rock & The Sky Dweller 

(from the book Indian Legends Of American Scenes, Marion Gridly, 1939

The bark lodges of an Ojibwa village clustered along the northern rim of Lake Huron.  Here dwelt the tribal chief and his daughter, Red Wing.  She was one of the loveliest of the ojibwa maidens and as good as she was beautiful. Her fingers were skillful at tanning skins into velvety softness.  The quills of the porcupine she could weave into colorful designs.  Baskets, too, she made, and she brought the rush leaves from the lake and wove them into mats.  She gathered and dried the Indian corn and cooked it into savory dishes.  The roots and seeds of the water lilly she prepared for eating.  Much she knew about the lore of plants- what was good for food and what was good for medicine.

     The young men of the tribe were all in love with her and brought many presents to the door of her father.  And though the chief looked with favor on several of the young braves, Red Wing kept her eyes to the ground and paid no heed to their soft words or glances.  For, unknown to her father, Red Wing was already betrothed!

    One sundown, as she guided her canoe homeward from wild rice gathering, a handsome brave, enveloped in a glowing light, appeared before her.  His voice was gentle as he said: 

"My dear one, have no fear of me, though I come from another world.   In my home land, I am the son of a chief-the son of the Evening Star.  Often have I watched you at your labors, or as you laughed with the other maidens.  From the very first I have loved you and have longed to tell you of my love.  But this could not be, for I am a Sky Dweller, and you are of the Earth World.  Then I saw the young men coming to the door of your lodge, and knew that you were the cause of their coming.  My heart grew very heavy.  I lay upon my couch, sad and bitter, until my father saw my trouble and understood.  He has said that I might come to you and tell you of my desire for you.  Red Wing, do not marry one of the Ojibwa braves.  Marry no one until you can join me in my Sky Home!"

      "I will marry none but you," Red Wing promised.  "Of late I have thought it strange that I seemed apart from all others.  Now I know this was meant to be and I, too, love you dearly."

    So it came about that Red Wing gave no answer to the young men.  Often she saw her Star Lover as she paddled on the lake, and the deeper grew their feeling for each other.

    At last the father of Red Wing grew impatient that his daughter had no husband.  "My child," he said,"many of our bravest youths come to my door.  They do not come to see me, but to ask your hand in marriage.  And you do not notice them.  You sit with downcast eyes and give no word of greeting.  You serve them food, but do not smile upon them.  A daughter can not dwell for always in her father's lodge.  Can you not choose one from among them?"

     " No, my father," answered Red Wing.  "There is only one young man that I look upon with favor, and he is not of this Earth.  He is the son of the Evening Star.  He has come before me in the woods at night, and when I have paddled upon the lake.  We have told each other of our love.  I can marry no man of the Ojibwa, for I am his."

   The father of Red Wing was very angry.  He spoke harshly to her and commanded that she forget about the son of the Evening Star.  There could be no marriage between Spirit One and one who dwelt on Earth.  Red Wing declared that she would not marry until the time came for her no longer to live on the Lake Huron shores.

     Her father then commanded that she follow him.  Getting into his canoe he paddled across the blue water.  He sent the canoe forward with swift strokes until they reached an island where towered a great rock.  He carried Red Wing in his arms to the crest of the stone and there bound her with rawhide ropes, so that she could not see the star where her lover dwelt.  "Here you will stay," he said, "until you can forget him."  

      Red Wing made no answer.  But as she lay upon the rock she mourned for her Star Brave and cried because she could not see the light from his home.  Four suns she lay upon the rock and wept,  and her tears flowed down over the side.  Many, many tears, and little by little they crumpled the rock away until an arch was carved.  Through the arch shown the Evening Star at last, and down it's rays came the handsome Star Youth.  He Gathered Red Wing in his arms and took her away to dwell in peace with him in the heavens.

  

photos from  Mt. Pleasent's Ziibiwing Interpretive Center

The next piece of myth and lore we will explore comes from region most Michiganders refer to as the "Thumb".  This area encompasses Bay City, Saginaw, and the surrounding vicinity.

THE SKY WALKER OF HURON

Here is the myth of Endymion and Diana, as told on the shores of Saginaw Bay, in Michigan, by Indians who never heard of Greeks. Cloud Catcher, a handsome youth of the Ojibways, offended his family by refusing to fast during the ceremony of his coming of age, and was put out of the paternal wigwam. It was so fine a night that the sky served him as well as a roof, and he had a boy's confidence in his ability to make a living, and something of fame and fortune, maybe. He dropped upon a tuft of moss to plan for his future, and drowsily noted the rising of the moon, in which he seemed to see a face. On awaking he found that it was not day, yet the darkness was half dispelled by light that rayed from a figure near him—the form of a lovely woman.

"Cloud Catcher, I have come for you," she said. And as she turned away he felt impelled to rise and follow. But, instead of walking, she began to move into the air with the flight of an eagle, and, endowed with a new power, he too ascended beside her. The earth was dim and vast below, stars blazed as they drew near them, yet the radiance of the woman seemed to dull their glory. Presently they passed through a gate of clouds and stood on a beautiful plain, with crystal ponds and brooks watering noble trees and leagues of flowery meadow; birds of brightest colors darted here and there, singing like flutes; the very stones were agate, jasper, and chalcedony. An immense lodge stood on the plain, and within were embroideries and ornaments, couches of rich furs, pipes and arms cut from jasper and tipped with silver. While the young man was gazing around him with delight, the brother of his guide appeared and reproved her, advising her to send the young man back to earth at once, but, as she flatly refused to do so, he gave a pipe and bow and arrows to Cloud Catcher, as a token of his consent to their marriage, and wished them happiness, which, in fact, they had.

This brother, who was commanding, tall, and so dazzling in his gold and silver ornaments that one could hardly look upon him, was abroad all day, while his sister was absent for a part of the night. He permitted Cloud Catcher to go with him on one of his daily walks, and as they crossed the lovely Sky Land they glanced down through open valley bottoms on the green earth below. The rapid pace they struck gave to Cloud Catcher an appetite and he asked if there were no game. "Patience," counselled his companion. On arriving at a spot where a large hole had been broken through the sky they reclined on mats, and the tall man loosing one of his silver ornaments flung it into a group of children playing before a lodge. One of the little ones fell and was carried within, amid lamentations. Then the villagers left their sports and labors and looked up at the sky. The tall man cried, in a voice of thunder, "Offer a sacrifice and the child shall be well again." A white dog was killed, roasted, and in a twinkling it shot up to the feet of Cloud Catcher, who, being empty, attacked it voraciously.

Many such walks and feasts came after, and the sights of earth and taste of meat filled the mortal with a longing to see his people again. He told his wife that he wanted to go back. She consented, after a time, saying, "Since you are better pleased with the cares, the ills, the labor, and the poverty of the world than with the comfort and abundance of Sky Land, you may return; but remember you are still my husband, and beware how you venture to take an earthly maiden for a wife."

She arose lightly, clasped Cloud Catcher by the wrist, and began to move with him through the air. The motion lulled him and he fell asleep, waking at the door of his father's lodge. His relatives gathered and gave him welcome, and he learned that he had been in the sky for a year. He took the privations of a hunter's and warrior's life less kindly than he thought to, and after a time he enlivened its monotony by taking to wife a bright-eyed girl of his tribe. In four days she was dead. The lesson was unheeded and he married again. Shortly after, he stepped from his lodge one evening and never came back. The woods were filled with a strange radiance on that night, and it is asserted that Cloud Catcher was taken back to the lodge of the Sun and Moon, and is now content to live in heaven.

The Belle Isle Snake Goddess & Gate Keeper

The next story comes from Belle Isle in Detroit Michigan.

Ottawa Indian lore tells of the beautiful daughter of chief Sleeping Bear. Her beauty was so stunning that the Chief kept her hidden from the eyes of young suitors by hiding her in a covered boat on the Detroit River. One day when bringing her some food, the winds, awed by her beauty, blew the covers off of the boat and it floated down the river. as it floated past the lodge of the keeper of the water gates, he also was stunned by her beauty and retrieved to boat and brought the young beauty into his tent, this enraged the winds who fell upon him, and buffeted him wildly about until he finally died from the beating. The winds, sorry for uncovering her beauty, returned her back to her father, Chief Sleeping Bear and begged the chief not to hide her from them again, but to let them enjoy her beauty. 

To protect her the chief, fearful that other men would follow, placed the princess on an island in the Detroit River and sought the aid of the Great Spirits to protect his beloved daughter by surrounding the island with snakes to protect her from intruders. 

There she could run free with the winds around her, The spirits immortalized her by transforming her into a white doe and letting her live out eternity on the island. When the first white men appeared in the area they originally named the island Isle Ste. Clair. but once they became familiar with the island, they renamed it Rattlesnake Island. It was not much later that it became known as Belle Isle. To this day, the maiden's spirit can be seen from time to time dancing in the wind on the island and most unsuspecting picnickers don't realize that the lovely girl in Native costume is not a modern miss dressed for a pageant, but is in reality the Goddess of Belle Isle. also know as the Snake Goddess of Belle Isle. 

There she runs free through the woods with the gentle winds and wildlife as her companions. Legend has it that the beautiful Indian maiden still roams the woods often mistaken by picnickers as a deer. 

The water-gate keeper, who was killed by the angry winds was buried on Isle au Peche (Peach Island), where his spirit remained for many generations. Native American braves often sought out this spirit for counsel before going to war. 

His voice was heard through the wind in the trees and could be understood only by those who had prepared themselves through fasting and meditation. Even Chief Pontiac, before planning his war against the English, spent a week on Isle au Peche, fasting in order to clear his mind, and to seek the wisdom of the water gate keepers spirit.²¹   

      Imagine my surprise when I visited  Belle Isle in 2009 only to see the white female doe!!  The park just opened a new exhibit called ‘The Deer Experience’. The focal point of this experience is a family of white deer!!

Belle Isle is approximately one mile east of Hart Plaza (Stargate Detroit). To conclude, according to ancient lore symbolically speaking there is a Gate keeper who may hold the keys to unlocking the secrets of Stargate Detroit!   For more information on the emergence of Gateway symbolism within the art and sculpture at Hart PLaza please visit my web site www.chadstuemke.com