I didn’t ask to become a bear.
Always thought I was a wolf, yet the Spirits let me know beyond a doubt that I have been wrong about that these past 35 years.
Maybe it was because my first spiritual teacher was herself a wolf, and I wanted to be like her.
Ie. It imprinted on me?
Regardless, it wasn’t the wolf that I attracted but the coyote.
And only now as I know that I am a bear did the Coyote Spirit share with me WHY I became a coyote in the first place.
It was because I was trying to be a wolf when I was not a wolf.
I was generating a false image and seeking to transform into one, which attracted the coyote to me … a trickster who had the power to shapeshift.
Coyote allowed me to run with their pack until such time as I found my way onto the right path … that of Bear medicine.
And I’m not sure what finally cemented the bear into my spirit to where I finally realized and accepted it, yet looking back I find the clues are all there.
I remember a time I was able to hold baby bear cubs at the Wildlife Center of Virginia when working on a story one time … and the jolt of lightening that passed through me as I held him.
Then there was the bear that paced me, walking parallel through the wilderness as I hiked back to my car after photographing the then governor of Virginia who was climbing a cliff face in a National Park to promote the natural recreational resources within our state.
Another instance which was among the most powerful was when I leveled my camera to photograph a yearling bear in an enclosure who was among other orphaned bears that one day would be returned to the wild.
He was going for an apple when his eyes locked with mine. … Something passing between us that goes beyond words.
Another instance had a bear running from out of the bamboo that grew at the top of the hill in our small grove that was behind the house where we once lived.
I still cannot explain how that bear got that.
Nor the vision of the bear that came to me. when I returned home one afternoon.
I stepped from my car and came face to face with the spirit of the Great Bear as it stood on too feet eying me in a non-threatening manner.
You would think I would have gotten the hint long before now.
But after I accepted this, the name “Arthyr” … came to me with me instantly knowing it to be my Spirit name.
A name that resonates deep within me and one that draws me through the Earth and to Yggdrasil itself.
So it is … I accept the fact that I am Arthyr … Arthyr Pathfinder.
Both names represent a promise.
Arthyr is a promise to myself, my path and the Spirits, gods and Great Spirit as I walk this path that stretched out before me.
Pathfinder is my promise to the Spirit of the Pipe, my ancestors, Spirits, gods and Great Spirit that I will do as the sacred Pipe, the People, Mother Earth, gods and Great Spirit need me to do.