This journey was created for my  Shamanism 101 class on Power Animals. I offer it here for your review, and information. The class that includes this journey is available as a individual podcast.

To purchase the podcast of the complete class, click here.

Along the rugged, remote coast of British Columbia lives a population of American black bears that produces pure white bears at a remarkable frequency. These white bears are not the result of albinism, but of a unique recessive gene that produces white hair instead of black. The government has long recognized these unusual bruins, and they are protected by law from hunting. While the range of these bears is extensive, Spirit Bear park is where white bears occur with the highest frequency.

Here one out of ten bears is white! This remarkable population of black bears lives in one of the world's last pristine areas: an intact temperate rainforest that is the source of rich salmon streams.

Moksgm'ol, meaning white bear, is the Tsimshian word for the Kermode black bear (Ursus Americanus Kermodei). The Pristine Habitat of this rare bear and an incredible diversity of life make this a popular charter destination. This is one of the richest parts of the world's largest intact temperate rainforest.

The central coast of British Columbia is home to a very rare bear. The scientific name is Ursus Americanus Kermodei, or Kermode Bear, after past director of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Frank Kermode. The museum had in its possession during his directorship a white black bear; it was considered "a curiosity." A Kermode bear is a typical American black bear, except it has a white coat. This is not a population of white bears, but a population of black bears in which a high frequency of white members exist. The pure white bears are not albinos, they are the product of a double recessive gene combination selecting for white hair instead of black. Infrequent glimpses have resulted in the terms "ghost bear" and "spirit bear." Thought to be the effect of a genetic shift in an isolated population of black bears during the last ice age, this unique double-recessive gene combination has survived over thousands of years.

Kitasoo legend says that Raven, the Creator, went among the bears and turned every tenth bear white to serve as a reminder of a time when the Earth's great glaciers covered the landscape. These glaciers have been gone for ten thousand years. Today, logging threatens this population of bears.  Right now, an excellent opportunity exists to view one of the world's most pristine temperate rainforest and marine ecosystems, the core habitat of the Kermode bear.

Living in a pristine temperate rainforest, completely isolated from the forces of progress, the white bears have for thousands of years lived in peace. Places like Princess Royal Island are where white bears occur most frequently within the greater black bear population. One in every ten of the black bears on this island is white. The habitat of Princess Royal and the adjacent mainland is phenomenal, moving from the ocean, up the rivers, to 5000+ foot mountaintops, supporting over 60 classified salmon streams, an annual run of steelhead trout, wolves, grizzly bears, bald and golden eagles, orca whales, dall porpoise, and rare elephant seals and marbled murrelets.

There is also an excellent book with many pictures called “White Spirit Bears” by Grandma Tess.

Shamanic Journey.

Close your eyes, and allow yourself to relax.  Know that you are in a place that is close to the ocean. You may smell the tang of salt in the air.  You may feel the droplets of moisture on your face.  You come down a path to the edge of the water.  There is a canoe waiting for you at the edge of the water.   The paddlers are waiting to take you to the island which you can barely see through the fog and mist across the water.  The island is beautiful and green and shows no sign of human habitation.  The air is heavy with mist, almost rain, very cool and soft on your face.

As you get nearer the island, you can smell the cedars and pines growing there.  The canoe bumps softly on the pebbled shore, and you hear the rocks scrape across the bottom of the dugout canoe.

You go over the bow of the boat, stepping onto the shore.  You know that what you seek lives in the dark woods ahead of you and you walk towards an opening in the underbrush that grows all along the shore.

As he sings the story of white ghost bears, you see a bear at the edge of the clearing.  A beautiful white bear.  She is waiting for you.  You follow her.

She is heading for a large tree.  The tree is her den.  She disappears into the den.  Then she sticks her head back out and looks at you, as though to say, “What are you waiting for? Come on in.”  You enter the den.  The bear is laying on pine boughs from which she has made a bed.  She holds up her paw, so that you can snuggle in close to her to be warm.  As you lay there, warm and close, you realize you are no longer beside the bear, but in the bear.

You are an embryo, a baby bear.  And still the bear sleeps, and dreams, and you grow and grow.  Bear is dreaming you into being, you hear her humming a song of creation as she sleeps and dreams.

Finally, when the space is all gone, you are born of the sleeping bear, and right behind you, is born your brother bear.

You are very small, only 2 or 3 pounds, but you snuggle close to your mother with your brother and suckle at her breast the warm rich milk she has for you.  And still she sleeps and dreams, humming a song.  This is a song of spring, of growth and soft green sprouts, rich feasts of succulent flowers.

You eat and sleep, and eat and wake, and eat, and play and EAT.  You grow and grow in your bears body.  Your brother grows with you.

At last, your mother stirs, and smells the air.  She has done this several times during the last month or two, but this time, she smells the spring air she was waiting for.

You and your brother are round and fat with your mother’s milk, but your mother is lean and hungry.  She pulls the branches that have kept the den warm and goes out to forage.

At first, she leaves you and your sibling behind, but soon, she begins to take you with her so you can learn where to find the tenderest greens, the best flowers, the best foods.

You grow and grow. You play with your sibling, and learn how to be a bear.  You eat where your mother eats, you sit and stay near her as you grow.  She teaches you how to fish, and as the salmon returns, she shows you how to get the best fish.

As fall approaches once more, your mother looks at you sadly, and leads you deep into the forest.  You go up and up until you reach a great clearing that is surrounded by giant trees.  These are the oldest trees in the forest, so old, there is no undergrowth around them, so tall you can’t see but the forest branches high over your head.  In the middle of the clearing, the white raven sits.  He sings a song of welcome, and then as he sings, your mother bear begins to sing with him.  They sing of all the plants, the trees, the animals in the forest, and as they sing, the clearing begins to fill with bears, black and white, brown and gray, cinnamon and piebald.  As the bears come, they join in the song.

They sing of times past, and of times yet to come.  They sing of you and your role in times to come.  They sing to you and of you.

A new voice is heard, and White Buffalo comes into the circle.  The song changes once more, as a woman’s voice is heard, and White Buffalo Calf Woman comes into the center of circle where you sit.  Suddenly, the song is finished.

You hear the wind in the trees, but all other sounds stop. 

Then, the bears come to you, and tell you what they want of you…Raven tells you what he wants you to do……Buffalo has a message for you…Then White Buffalo Calf Woman comes toward you.  She has a present for you in her hands that will be your reward for doing all you are asked.  She has a message for you as well….

You realize as you talk to her that you are no longer a bear. You stand, once more human with hands, and feet , and go to your mother bear.  She leads you away, back down to the shore.  You say good-bye to her, and your brother.  Tears run down their faces as they watch you go back to the canoe that brought you so long ago.  You look up, and Raven flies over head , and when you look down again, the bears are gone.

You get into the canoe, and your paddlers bring you back to this time and place.

(Yes, the photo is of a REAL white raven, not an albino. Notice the blue eyes!)