Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Free Reiki Introduction

Free Reiki Introduction
July 30,
2:00
        Come and experience Reiki Healing for an afternoon at the Singing Nettles Herbal Clinic
        Reiki is a laying on of hands healing technique
   started in the early 1900s in Japan By Mikao Usui.
       
Tashi Treechild is a Reiki Master in the direct
       lineage. She will be available to give sessions and answer questions.
       
With 4 simple attunements, anyone can become a Reiki channel, a class will follow August 12-14

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Reiki Healing

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many,
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teacchers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.
Gaurama Buddha




Reiki is a system of hands on healing based on the teachings that were started in the early 1900s by Mikao Usui in Japan.  Reiki is continually changing. It has been adapted to suit the people who have practiced it and the places and times they inhabit. The change that is taking place now is that practitioners are returning to its origins. There are many diversions that have taken place over the last century.

Reiki means spiritual energy, it also represents the system of Usui's teachings in their modern form.  Reiki  is Energy of the universe, Earth and Heaven, ying and yang, the soul connection, spiritual healing energy. Reiki is far greater than us as individuals. Our desires and needs pale when faced with Reiki-our intent opens us up to accept Rieki through us. It washes us, and others, clear. No life force is unaffected by Reiki. We practice so that we can heal inside and out, let go and be One wih the universe, reconnect with the path of our enlightenment and help others.

We all take the energy into our lives with the intention of evolving and healing. Reiki offers us strength, calm and light. We must receive it with gratitude and work on ourselves, knowing we can, we are empowered and the world can become a more beautiful place through this knowledge and practice. This versatile, free flowing method is great for our time, it is totally simple. Children can do Reiki, it is swtiched on with a thought, and it can be done anywhere, anytime, by anyone. It is accessible to our busy lifestyles that don't have time for spirituality.  The challenge is to let go and see what we discover. We need to resist controlling ourselves, our situations and others, then we may find a peaceful beauty of happiness in our lives, which may result in world peace.




 Respect must be remembered and practiced by all when dealing with such a pure and beautiful energy. The taechings are sacred. The methods often involve the student completing certain energetic levels before being handed specific information.

Reiki is not a religion, massage process, or dangerous. It is a method of working with energy that allows the body to clear itself, leaving one feeling lighter, healthier and happier.

Reiki is the name of the system and the spriritual energy.
The 2 Japaenese kanji  mean Universal Energy or Universal Life Force Energy.  Ki i s the energy of everything including heaven and earth; the whole universe.


 There is a lot of translated English material from China that relates to traditional energetic practices. The two kanji that represent the word Reiki originated in China. Their Chinese counterparts are called Ling Chi

The Ancient Book of Lu states: 'even a blade of grass or clump of dirt contains Lingh Qi.' Ling Qi is the spriritual energy that envelops and forms all things. In order to connect with and perceive the Ling Qi contained within the environment, an individual must first cultivate his or her own personal Ling Qi.
Excerpt from Chinese Medical Qijong Therapy Volume 1


This understanding of Ling Chi relates directly to the Japanese word Reiki as spiritual energy. Reiki is the energy or spirit or essence of everything. There are no different types of Reiki-but different thoughts, practices and intentions. The system teaches that when humans work consciously with Reiki they begin to evolve and strengthen their connection with the universe.



Ki is the basic unit of the universe.
It is the infinite gathering of infinitely small particles.
Everything is ultimately composed of Ki.
If you pursue this concept to the depth of human
consciousness, you will understand the universal mind which
governs all creation, loving and protecting all life...
Everything originates from the Ki of the universe.
Excerpt from the Book of Ki

Ki is the basis of all energy work including the popular aspect of the system of Reiki, the treatment.


Treatments could be seen as a by product of the system. Prior to a treatment, a student has studied the system with a teacher and worked through a  number of practices to develop skill, knowledge and experience. Then the practitioner can practice on friends and family and eventually as a professional for clients.Once you learn Reiki, you can treat yourself.


 Practitioners should have a developed personal self healing regime the allows them to work effectively as knowledgeable, experienced and energetically clear practitioners.



The Procedure

During  a treatment the client lies or sits and the practitioners' hands are placed on, or just above, the body, or it is done by distance. The client is quiet and comfortable. The practitioner reaches a meditative state quickly and the client eventually lets go of the busy mind and tension. The relaxation is a healing state. It is likened to being in the womb. There is consciounsess,. but the client feels enclosed and safe from outside influences. The client may obtain spiritual guidance. Reiki is not manipulative. Energy follows its true path, Reiki is the same as one's energy, there is no line or disconnect, existence is a continous flow of energy without start of finish.

A cleint draws on more of the same energy, building personal resources and clearing energy-balancing the body at all levels. The practitioner offers energy to the client which moves through the hands and into the clients' body, supporting the healing process. The hands are a vessel for Reiki to flow through. Hand positions can be held from one minute to half an hour or longer depending on what the practitioner senses in the body.
As long as the practitioner can sense something like a cool breeze, vibrating, moving, heating up, tingling or whatever the energetic sensation is, then she remains in that position. The Client may also sense the movement of energy in their body.

These sensations are side effects of energy clearing in the body. They may be twitching or involuntary movement, seeing colors or a visual journey with eyes closes, gaining intuitive knowledge or understanding. These sensations are side effects and not the healing itself, if something is sensed or not, the treatment is effective.



Reiki's Path
A Reiki treatment realigns one with one's true path, source and spirit.
There is an unlimited amount of energy, everything has energy or ki. It is all encompassing. It makes species and planets function, it is the fuel and gives ultimate structure and purpose in life. Worries, fear and anger can block energy, which accumulates. The Reiki energy is a pure flow of energy, realigns with the body in a treatment. It washes down obstructions, clearing obstructions and strengthening the flow of energy. This makes a connection to one's purpose on Earth and the easiest, most successful way to achieve it.


The base of Reiki is intent. Practitioners and clients can support their treatment by working with intent. It is the initial, directed thought that goes through the mind, often before there is a conscious awareness that the thinking process has begun.


The directed thought sets a process in motion, it stimulates energy to trigger an action. The base of the energy needs to be clear. The base of the energy is intent, once intent is clear, energy moves freely through the body. Healing intentions are most effective when there are no limitations and one gives over to the flow of the universe. In this state the unlimited power of the universe can enter one's mind and affect change. During a treatment, practitioners and clients must let go of any judging sensations and let go of focus on outcomes. Attachment to any outcome leaves practitioners to desire specific results from a treatment.


Clients can support the healing process by consciously setting their intent to be open and without attachment. They can be as open as they can to healing.  To support their Reiki treatment, a client can hold this intent 'I am open to receive whatever it is that I need at this time.' The client is in control of what happens with the energy, one's own nature does the healind and does not harm. It is only when humanity tries to contol nature and place rules that work against its flow that harm occurs. Any fear that is introduced into Reiki is a human design. By letting go of making conscious decisions the rpessure to perform is removed, the ego is sent away and practitioner and client can work on that which is integral to one's well being. The energy supports the natural healing process and the benefits become clear.


Benfits of Treatment

The purpose of the treatment is to support healing. To heal means to make whole. This is the foundation of Reiki. Becoming whole entails drawing varied aspects of the self together, allowing them to collaborate with each other, helping the whole function to its best ability. That is the benefit of receiving Reiki. The outcome depends on each person's current situation and life experience. They draw on the energy that they require at that time. A practitioner must work intuitively, sensing where and when to move the hands during treatment. The hands listen to the client's body as it determines what it needs to become whole. This includes all aspects of self, physical and non physical. Every Reiki experience is different. All illness can be addressed with Reiki, although it is impossible to predict outcomes. The Reiki will work on wherever the body draws it. It could be physical, emotional, mental or a sense of lack of connection to life. Reiki supports each person in healing themselves.

Each of us has his or her own natural pharmacopoeia-the very finest drugstore available at the cheapest cost-to produce all the drugs we ever need to run our bodymind precisely the way it was designed to run over centuries of evolution. Research needs to focus on understanding the workings of these natural resources-our own endogenous drugs-so that we can create the conditions that will enable them to do what they do best.

Molecules of Emotion: The Science of Mind -Body Medicine, Candace Pert



Benefits can include mental clarity and pain relief, feeling relaxed and more deeply connected to one's spiritual nature. It can help deal with acute of chronic illnesses. Depression, insomnia and fear based illnesses and other non physical illnesses can also benefit. Reiki can work with injuries and acute problems, as a first aid tool it offers pain relief while trying to retun the body to its more natural state. Stress weakens the immune system, leaving humans prone to ill health. Reiki brings calm and deals with stress. It helps clarity of thought and ease of decision making. It supports self healing, and enhances health, it brings everything back to a  natural, balanced state.


Experiencing clearing
Reiki clears and enhances energy according to the needs of the body. It is non invasive and non diagnostic. To start to bring the body back into balance the journey towards becoming whole is all that can occur and this cannot be harmful. Listening to the body is the most sensible thing anyone can do for optimum health and Reiki is founded on this.

After a treatment, drink lots of water to continue the clearing that was started.
Clients should be aware that  Reiki is also an excellent tool for relaxation and can be experienced like a massage, for enjoyment. Reiki will always work on rebalance even if the client is not aware of it.

Animals, plants and anything can draw on Reiki; everything is made of energy, even thought forms and objects. When Reiki is drawn on, it clears and enhances the existing energy, bringing it back into balance. This benefits all living and inanimate things. For animlas, a treatment is done much the same as on people. I would physically approach the animal and offer my energetic services. Hands can be placed on or near the animal depending on the response.

The animal will signal if she does or does not want Reiki. They are usually attracted to energy and will get into the postition best to draw maximum benefit from the Reiki.

Plants flourish with Reiki. Treating seeds is the first step. As it grows, hands are placed above the leaves or wrapped around the pot. Frist use it on the bucket of water, this can be used to water the plants.

Food and drink can be energetically enhanced. Heightened food immediately tastes better. It is a heightened vibration through the energetic balancing that is supported and any elements that may be less than fresh or have stayed too long on a shelf or in a freezer may improve.

The same can be done on drugs and herbs. By elevating the vibration level of drugs into a more balanced state, clients claim that side effects have less impact. Herbal remedies draw on Reiki to become more effective. Stones, crystals and other natural elements draw great amounts of energy, Reiki does not remove their natural abilities, but enhances them. You can use Reiki on computers, batteries, wallets and more.



The process of healing a personal illness is, in fact, a rite of passage, designed b yourself as one of the greatest learning tools you will ever encounter. -Light Emerging


Treating the self is the most important aspect of Mikao Usui's teachings. Learning to treat the self is actively taking your health into your own hands. The fearless act of self responsibility changes how a life situation is experienced. Once you learn Reiki, you no longer need to be a victim of your cicrumstance but can choose to live optimally at every level. Life becomes easier as stress dissolves and perception changes. The immune system strengthens and illness is decreased. The connection to one's true spiritual nature is re-established.

Feeling strong in the self gives one the ability to help others. A Reiki course teaaches not only how to heal yourself, but how to support the healing process of others as well.

After practicing for a while, if we feel discouraged or tired because of how far we are from the goal of our spiritual journey, we should look back at our life in the days before we started training and celebrate any progress we have made.-The Healing power of the mind



The Five Elements of Reiki
There are five major elements that a practitioner will learn, practice and experience.

They are:

the spiritual and mental connection using the five precepts
hands on healing for self and others
techniques
mantras and symbols
attunement

Each of these elements work torgether with the others to create a whole system for spiritual development and healing that is unique. There are many other factors in Reiki depending on the teacher and branch, but these are consistent through all Reiki courses whether from Japan or if they evolved further elsewhere.

The Five Precepts
for todaly only:
do not anger
do not worry
be humble
be honest in your work

be compassionate to yourself and others

They are universal teachings introduced by Mikao Usui.

These precepts should be kept in mind throughout every day. This is the student's spiritual journey.




Hand Positions

Everyone needs to be touched, stroked, cuddled, fondles, and held. Without this tactile stimulation, children and adults do not grow in a healthy way. Their emotional selves grow gnarled, crooked, bent, and deformed. They can be smoothed, straightened and supported by touch. -Time in: a handbook for child and youth care professionals


Hand positions are specific places on the body where students are taught to place the hands. This assists the energy to move through the body, clearing and strengthening one's spiritual and energetic connection.

The practitioner places hands on or near the body. The energy moves through the practitioner and is drwan by the client into the body. This is the same as when practiced on oneself.

Techniques employ four qualities that reflect the nature of our world. Depending on the circumstance, you should be: hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water, or as empty as space. -from The Art of Peace


Traditionally, the Japanese used the hara centre as a method to stimulate and balance energy in the body, not the chakra system, which is commonly used today. It lies in the bottom of the stomach about 2 inches below the naval

Techniques strengthen the connection to the energy, build one's own energy, create focus, and support a spiritual journey.

Reiki meditation lets the true energy come out from within.



Attunements are integral to Usui's teachingc. To practice, a student must receive attunements. The purpose is to strengthen the students' connection with spiritual energy and raise their personal energy levels. It is where a teacher completes a physical ritual around a seated student.


They provide:
a sense of reconnection to one's true self
a clearing of the meridians allowing the student to channel more energy through the body
a method a teacher uses in order to communicate with students on an energetic level

Everything is made of energy and everyone has an innate ability to heal themselves and others.

Each attunement received takes the sutdent a step further to realigning oneself with the natural functioning of the body.

Attunements are beneficial and integral to the system of Reiki but it is the personal practice that rains blessings down upon the student.

Attunement is just a beginning and the real ability is to develop on your own with personal practice.
-Modern Reiki Method for Healing



Post Course Experiences

As with a treatment, there is also a clearing by students after completing a course. Life is one great cleaning process. We are continually working though things, whether a tiny insight about an issue or a huge change that throws life into chaos. These are clearings where the old moves out and the new comes in. Reiki aids the process, but the concept of clearing is not unique to it. This is a natural way for the body to heal and become whole.



Usui's 21 day meditation was one of many parts of a practice.

Working with Reiki does increase the effect of the cleansing process and often students will have immediate results a day or two after starting their practice. Keep practicing, allowing energy to keep moving.  Human nature takes 21 days to break a habit and to make a habit, after practicing Reiki for three weeks students do not want to stop-it feels too good!


Becoming One with Reiki
During a students' practice with Reiki, different personal stages are discovered, A path is revealed and those who conscientiously practice the five elements gradually see where it is heading. To tap into this spiritual energy, in its completion, is to have arrived at the advanced stages of one's personal spiritual practice. The experience of receiving the full effect actually means to acheive satori (enlightenment).

At this stage all ordinary perceptions are transformed and there is a realization of one's true potenial as a person. Attaining this state of mind and becoming pure light is the ultimate goal of a Reiki practice. This is reflected by the mantra and symbol from Japan of great bright light.So the goal is to become this great bright light by achieveing a state of nonduality or satori.

A practitioner must become strong enough to allow pure spiritual energy through. Perserverence and the understanding of how to work with the elements in order to reach or become One with the Great bright light of the Reiki.



Like stars mists and candle flames
mirages, dewdrops and water bubbles
like dreams, lightning and clouds.
In that way I will view all existence. -the notebook of Mikao Usui, 1923


Now and again, it is neccessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life. Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of universe; breath out and bring the cosmos back inside. Next, breathe up all the fecundity and vibrancy of the earth. Finally, blend the breath of heaven and the breath of earth with that of your own, becoming the Breath of Life itself. -The Art of Peace



One day, Mikao Usui climbed kurama yama and after 21 days of a severe discipline without eating, he suddenly felt One Great Reiki over his head and attained enlightenment and he obtained Reiki Ryoho. Then he tried on himself and experimented on his family members, the efficacy was immediate.

Sensei thought that it would be far better to offer it widely to the general public and share its benefits than just to improve the well being of his own family members.

Quotes about Mikao Usui




These are truly great teachings for cultivating and discipline. that agree with those great teachings of the ancient sages. Sensei named these teachings The Secret Method to Invite Happiness and Miraculous Medicine to Cure all Disease; notice the outstanding features of the teachings. Furthermore, when it comes to teaching, it should be as easy and common as possible, nothing lofty. Another feature is that during sitting in silent meditiation with Gassho and reciting the five precepts mornings and evening, healthy minds can be cultivated and put into practice in one's daily routine. This is the reason why Reiho is easily obtained by anyone. -Mikao Usui memorial stone

The Secret of Inviting Happiness Through Many Blessings
The Spiritual Medicine for All Illness

for today only:
do not anger
do not worry
be humble
be honest in your work
be compassionate to yourself and others

do gassho every morning and evening
keep in your mind and recite
improve your mind and body.

Mikao Usui



Spirituality is a tool for good health. After many years of personal practice and the practitioner becomes One with the universe. She will be showered with the blessings that the universe has to offer when practicing the teachings.

'For today only' is a practical phrase to keep the mind on the now., typical of Buddhism. By focusing on tomorrow, tomorrow never comes. Each moment of life is now. These precepts are practiced now and they are being practiced each moment of the practioner's life.



Do not anger is a basic Buddhist principle, anger hurts those in the vicinity and the person herself. It is the antithesis of balance. Once you are no longer a victim of the sense of anger,  then you can energetically be placed on the spiritual path.


Sometimes people feel that anger is useful because it brings extra energy and boldness. When we encounter difficulties, we may see anger as a protector. But though anger brings us more energy, that energy is essentially a blind one. There is no guarantee that that energy will not become destructive to our own interest. Therefore, hatred an anger are not at all useful. -Power of Compassion by The Dalai Lama


Do not worry as this causes stress at all levels, stress lowers the immune system, opening you up to disease. To worry is a lack of faith. Fearfulness is a reaction that does not trust the universe to provide what is best for you.


Sahntideva says:
If you can solve your problem,
then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it,
then what is the use of worrying?

-The Healing Power of the Mind




Be humble and you will find the humbleness and thankfulness permeating every aspect of our life. Thoughts will be of a life of abundance rather than want. The material things will no longer be the measurement of existence.

True happiness is related more to the mind and heart. Happiness that depends mainly on physical pleasures in unstable; one day it's there, the next day it may not be...The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama



Enlightenment requires being truthfully dedicated to spiritual progress by not becoming a spiritual materialist.


Understanding the energy consequences of our thoughts and beliefs, as well as our actions, may force us to become honest to a new degree. Lying, either to others or to ourselves, should be out of the question. Genuine, complete healing requires honesty with oneself. An inability to be honest obstructs healing as seriously as the inability to forgive. Honesty and forgiveness retrieve our energy-our spirits-from the energy dimension of 'the past'. -Anatomy of the Spirit

Be compassionate to yourself and others and then you will remember the connection of all things in the universe.

Mindfulness brings peace in life. This thought reminds human nature that it is compassionate and to comprehend and experience interconnectedness. Oneness can be experienced through working with the respect-they are the basis of all the teachings They are the foundations of a successful working relationship with each of the other four elements of Reiki. If the practitioner can follow these precepts, the system becomes complete.

Gassho is the placing of  both palms together in front of the chest, it is a sign of respect of oneself, the action and the energy. This simple act balances both mind and body.

Keep these precepts in the mind through the day. They are for reading and living.

Improve your mind and body.




Reiki puts special emphasis not just on curing diseases but also on enjoying well being within life with correcting the mind and making the body healthy with the use of an innate healing ability. -Mikao Usui memorial stone


Progress comes to those who train and train; reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere.-The Art of Peace



Purification in shintoism is called seimei seichoku.  Choku means straight, which illustrates the idea of honesty. This reflects on the precepts where the practitioner is required to be honest in her work.

Seichku means right action or behavior as well as the social aspect of being right, that is, not committing any sin, crime, or offence and behaving with honesty, openness, and frankness towards others.  This is the essence of shinto.

Mikao Usui is quoted as saying that the mind and body are one. Recent studies are finally starting to understand this. Brainwaves and body pulses and their roles in stimulating healing are being researched now, allowing the concept of Reiki, as healing energy, to be more widely understood by the medical community.

The Brownes Cancer support centre in Western Australia in 2004 did a patient care report which concluded that there was an overall improvemnt in both qualiy of life and symptom distress for patients who received Reiki. There was also an improvement in these areas over the course of the sessions from 6 treatments.

In 2003 a randomized trial using healing touch with cancer patients showed that a relaxed state was created, with lower respiratory and heart rates and blood pressure, reduced short term pain, mood disturbances and fatigue.
Dodgy, Reiki Master


Reiki is being accepted in hospitals and hospices around the world. Patients can often bring their practitioner with them or it is made available to them.

In 1988, patients were allowed to have a 15 minute pre and post op Reiki. More than 870 took part and as a result there was less use of pain medication, shorter hospital stays and increased patient satisfaction. Patients who had had transplants and open hear surgery, 11 non had the usual post operative depression, the  bypass patients had no post op pain or leg weakness and the transplant patients had no organ rejections. 


The foundation of Reiki is compassion and Oneness and not harming anyone or anything.




Here is a site which discusses the benefits of Reiki for people and animals

http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Group Living, Origins and History of the Domestic Cat



Domestic cats were evolved from the African wildcat Felis silvestirs libyca. The earliest domestication of cats was in  Egypt 4000 yrs ago.

From its sacred origin in ancient Egypt, the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus, has spread over the globe as a household companion. When cats revert to the wild they are ubiquitous. The domestic cat has brought joyous companionship to people.  Cat populations can be female groups, at least loosely resembling those of lions, Panther leo, and those in which they live solitarily, generally in a territorial pattern typical of most wild felids. They have a capacity to live under constantly changing environments.


Recent genetic studies on cats throughout Italy strongly suggests that the domestic cat, European wildcat and African wildcat belong to the same polytypic species, felis silvestris. The European, felis s. silvestris and African, Felis s libyca, wildcats likely diverged from a common ancestor about 20000 years ago. The domestication of the African wildcat likely began about 40000 years ago in Egypt. Social organization in African wildcats is similar to Scottish wildcats. African wildcats had access to human refuse around which feral domestic cats gathered in colones, yet the wildcats appeared not to form colonies. It is possibly that a capacity to form large groups may have been produced by domestication. No behavior pattern has been recorded among free ranging domestic cats which has not also been reported in other felids, although association with people has made common resources such as shelter and clumped, predictable and abundant food.



Females of all feline species are group-living. Independent adults do not form permanent groups. In mammalian societeis, food and shelter are likely to be the limiting resources for females, while females are generally the limiting resource for males.  The probability that adult female felids will meet and stay together is strongly related to the likelihood of sharing food resources, commonly a kill.   When a rich food source is available, it is more than enough to feed several domestic cats.  Domestic Cats choose to sit together, and each individual favours the company of some over others. These associations are largely determined by the age, sex, social status and blood ties of the individuals involved.  Where once the image of the domestic cat was as one who walks alone, farm cats have complex social relationships. A female may lie in her nest of straw to birth kittens, then in close proximity of time, another cat may come to the nest, greet her and give birth, while the first cat serves as midwife, licks the new kittens, chews the membranes and bites through the umbilicus; they stroke and nurse each others' kittens and continue over several days. Communal breeding is common among farm cats.

Adult females associate with lineages which are the building blocks of feline societies. Large colonies embrace several lineages, each of which consists of related adult females and successive generations of their offspring. Females often interact within their lineage, and to a much lesser extent outside it. The overall parrtern within a lineage of cats is of a well integrated, amiable group. This is in marked contrast to the hostility with which members of such lineages generaly treat outsiders. Bigger lineages tend to occupy the best central area around the resource centre. Smaller lineages are spatially peripheral but have access to the central area to feed. Adult males do not seem to be socially tied to any lineage, but can be around the central resource centre, and those who are not., roam widely. Juveniles and kittens automatically belong socially to their mother's lineages. Offspring of central lineages access the resource centre easily and share lower mortality than those of peripheral lineages.



Domestic cats living on wild prey tend to be solitary and do not form groups, despite substantial home range overlap. In contrast, domestic cats with access to clumped food resources live in groups




Cats and People


Domestication and history of the cat

Origins of the cat
The family Felidea is of relatively recent evolutionary origins. Tee oldest fossil records of modern felids are only 3-5 million years old and molecular evidence suggests that all modern forms shared a common ancestor some 10-15 million years ago. Morphological and molecular studies of phylogenetic relationships among living felids show that the 38 extant species can be divided into 8 major phylogenetic lineages: th ocealot lineage, pantherine, caracal, puma, Asian leopard cat, bay cat, lynx, and domestic cat. Consisting of six species of small cats originating in the Mediterranean regions, it is thought to have diverged from the others around 8-10 million years ago.

It is difficualt to determine whether the domestic cat evolved from the silvestir or libycan line. Gene flow exists between domestic, feral and wild populations.

Bones or teeth provide archeological evidence which indicated a north African or western Aisan F. catus. European wildcats are extremely fierce and timid of people. African wildcats are docile, live and forage near human villages and settlement, capture rats and can adapt to huts. The etymological reason that the cat is likely from north Africa or western Asian origin is that the English word cat, the French chat, the German Katze, the Spanish gato and the fourth century Latin cattus, and the modern Arabic quttah all derive from the Nubian word kadiz, meaning a ca. The English diminutives puss and pussy and the Romanian word for cat pissica are thought to come from pasht, another name for Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess. The tabby is named afer a special watered silk fabric, once manufactured in a quarter of Bahdad known as Attabiy.



Domestication is a gradual process, it is impossible to claim the exact time and place of cat domestication.  The cat was only fully domesticated during the last 150 years, but it is likely more accurate to view Felis catus as a species that has drifted unpredictably in and out of various states of domestication, semi domestication and feralness according to the ecological and cultural condition prevailing at different times and locations. Archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus may provide a clue, where excavations of the earliest human settlement on Cuyory date from 6000 BCE. The remains of a cat's jawbone were found, the size of libyca species. No fossils of wildcats were found on the island before dating this, the only explanation is that cats arrived through human colonists, who captured and tamed wildcats long before the speciesawas domesticated.  There are known cat remains from Mostagedda in Egypt, dating from before 4000 BCE were with the bones in the grave of a man.

Since cats caught vermin, people would have encouraged cats to be around their home and granaries, establishing populations of urban cats that relied increasingly on humans for food and shelter. Humans may have been more active in domestication, carrying cats on ocean voyages. Petkeeping is widspread among subsistence gathering and hunting people throughout the world.  They would capture and take home wild animals, adopted by women. They are fed and care for, mourned when they die. The margay, ocelot and jaguar are species that they domesticate.


Predators, like wildcats, would forage the neighbourhood. Some would have nested and reared their young close to this supply of food, then the kittens would have been adopted.



The cat in Egypt
The first fully domesticated cat was in ancient Egypt. Small Egyptian amulets representing cats may be from 2300 BCE, the oldest pictorial representation in domestic context was in a 1950 BCE tomb of Baket III at Beni Hasa. In a pyramidal tomb of similar age, is a chapel containing bones of 17 cats with a row of little pots that may once have contained offerings of milk. From 1450 BCE onwards, images of cats in domestic settings became increasingly common in Theban tombs, it is likely that these were fully domesticated. They are shown eating fish, gnawing bones, playing with other animals.  Theban tombs of Nebamun 1450 BCE shows the cat helping the tomb owner and his family to hunt birds in marshes,  which shows that the Egyptians throught that an outing was incomplete without the participation of the family cat.

Cat domestication proceeded further in Egypt than elsewhere in the ancient world. Egyptians had an unusual affinity for animals in general. From the earliest dynasties onwards, animals played a particular role in their social and religious life.  A diversity of wild animals, including baboons, jackals, heron, ibises and cats were seen as the earthly representatives of gods and goddesses and many were the subjects of organised religious cults. This often involved keeping and caring for substantial captive populations in and around temples dedicated to the workshop of the deities. Species such as cats, who responded well to this treatment, bred in captivity and gave rise over many generations, to a  domestic strain more docile, sociable and tolerant of living at high densities. Their use as rodent catchers made them more valuable, though they would have been kept as cult subjects and household companions regardless of any practical or economic benefits.


Many gods and goddesses were part human, part animal  Most of these and their animal representatives originated in pre Dynastic times as tribal emblems or totems which were then integrated under the Egyptian State, to a complex pantheon along the lines of those in ancient Greece and Rome. Until the end of the third millenium BCE, Felis libyca appears to have had little to no reiligous significance to the ancient Egyptians. From 2000 to 1500 BCE, cats were represented on magic knives, incised ivory blades intended to avert bad luck, including nightmares, threat of poisonous snakes and scorpions. At the same time, the male cat began to be represented as one of the forms or manifestations of the sun god, Ra, and it was in the guise of  a tom cat that he was said to battle a monstrous serpent each night. The Egyptians were familiar with the sight of cats killing snakes, and they assumed that Ra would adopt the form of this animal when requiried to do likewise. The earliest representation of Ra in cat form, depicted animals that more resemble servals than cats, and it is likely that this coincided with the increasing familiarity as a domestic companion. One of the cat forms of Ra known as Miuty continued to be painted on the inside of coffins until the mid eighth century BCE, as a protective image.

During the New Kingdom 1540-1196 BCE cats also began to be associated with the goddess Hathor, and especially one of her manifestations known as Nebethetepet whose most  prominent characteristic was sexual energy. The natural sexual promiscuity of female cats was maybe linked to this. The well known association of domestic cats with the goddess Bastet did not become established until later, around the start of the first millenium BCE.

One explanation for the association between cats and the heavenly bodies involves the widely-believed legend that a cat's eye changes in shape and luminescence according to both the height of the sun in the sky, and the waxing and waning of the moon. The  Egyptian author, Horapollon, writing in the fourth century, noted that the pupils of the cat's eye changed according to the course of the sun and the time of day. The Roman writer, Plutarch, also mentioned the phenomenon, as did the English naturalist Edward Topsell, in his Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes (1607):

'The Egyptians have oberved in the eyes of a Cat, the encrease of the Moonlight, for with the Moone, they shine more fully with the ful, and more dimly in the change and wain, and the male Cat doth also vary his eyes with the sunne; for when the sunne ariseth, the apple (pupil) of his eye is long; towards noone it is round, and at evening it cannot be seene at all, but the whol eye shewth alike.'

Nineteenth century Chinese peasants shared this belief, and used cats' eyes as a means of telling time. The eye shine produced by cats' eyes at night intrigued many early writes. Many believed that cats could generate this light by storing light collected during the day. Many found it disconcerting. The glittering eyes of cats, when seen suddenly at night, 'can hardly be endured, for their flaming aspect'. -Topsell



The cult of Bastete

From the earliest period of Egyptian history, Bastet was the main deity of the city of Bubastis (now Tell Basta) in the southeastern part of the Nile Delta. She was a goddess without a real name, since Bastete means She of the City of Bast. The earliest portraits of Bastet, from 2800 BCE, depict her as a woman with the head of a lioness. On her forehead she bears the uraeus serpent symbol, and carries a long sceptre in one hand and the ankh sign in the other, Her attributes were sexual energy, fertility and childbearing and nurturing. She was associated with other local deiiteis, Memphis, Heliopols and Heracleopolis. She was associated en route, and through a process of local assimilation, with other important female deities, Mut, Pakhet and Sekhmet, goddesses who are often represented as lioness headed,  as well as Hathor, Neith and Isis. Bastet and Sekhmet were paired as complimentary opposites from 1850 BCE,  and eventually came to be regarded as different aspects of the same goddess. Bastet represented the protective, nurturing side, and Sekhmet the dangerous and threatening one. Hathor, Mut, Isis and Bastet were referred to as daughter or eye of Ra.

It is unknown when domestic cats were first were regarded as manifesttions of Bastet, but it is likely during the Twenty second Dynasty 945-715 BCE. Information about the cult of Bastet and her temple is gathered from the writing of the Greek historian, Herodotus, who visited Bubastis aorund 450 BC during the height of the cult. He equated her with the Greek goddess, Artemis, and described her temple.  It is likely that a sacred cattery or breeding colony of cats adjoined the temple. The job of cat  keeper was an hereditary position and stict rules governed the care and feeding of the captive manifestations of the deity.  The annual festival of Bastet, during April and May, was the largest in Egypt, with ovr 700000 people attending, having performed a a pilgrimage by water along the Nile. The licentious atmosphere was likely what made it so popular; people would play rattles, flutes, sing, clap, dance and drink a lot of wine.


 He was the first to record the now well known phenomenon of male infanticide in cats, in order to make the female prepared to mate  The status of cats during this period was roughly that of cows in present day India. Many people had house cats,  and the death of one had the family mourning, shaving their eyebrows as a mark of respect. Those who could afford to had their cats embalmed and buried in special cat cemeteries, vast underground chambers containing the mummified or cremated remains of hundreds of thousands of them. Cat cemeteries have been unearthed at Bubastis, Beni Hasan and Saqqara, a clean indication of the spread of the cult of Bastet. Large numbers of small bronze statuettes of cats were deposited in the sacred burial ground.  The act of dedicating one of the votive statuettes to the temple assured the giver a permanent place beside the goddess. One cemetery contained the remains of 80,000 cats.  Cats were a protected species, causing the death of one, even by accient, was a capital offense, thus anyone encountering a dead cat fled immediately,  Radiographic analysis of cat mummies has revealed that most of them were killed by strangulation before 2 years of age, in order to feed the demand for dead cats to mummify as votive offerings.




From Africa
The Egyptians generally restricted the spread of cats to other countries by making their export illegal. They even sent special agents out to neighbouring parts of the Mediteranean to buy the cats that had been illegally smuggled abroad. Cats eventually spread to other areas although, initially progress was slow. The Indus valley Harppan civilization 2100-2500 BCE provides early evidence of urban cats. Bone remains and the pawprint of a cat being chased by a dog are preserved in mud brick . It is unknown if these were from Egypt or the results of local domestication. An ivory statuette of a cat, 1700 BCE, was found in Palestine. It is likely that Egyptian merchants lived there and brought their cats. A fresco and a terracotta head of a cat from 1500-1100 BCE are from late Minoan Crete, another area which likely traded with Egypt. It does not appear to have reached Greece until later. The earliest representation of the animals from Greece is on a marble block from 500 BCE. Cats were not common at this time and were kept as curiosities rather than for any practical purpose. To get rid of rodents, Greeks and Romans used domestic polecats or ferrets in preference to cats. During the fifth century BCE, the Gerreks introduced cats to southern Italy. The cat does not appear to have been popular, except as an unusual and exotic pet. Neopolitan mosaics from the first century BCE, show a cat catching a bird, but there are few literary or artistic depicitions of cats. The Romans didn't understand the cat's vermin killing abilities unitl the fourth century when Palladium recommended the use of cats, rather than the traditional ferret, for curbing moles in artichoke beds. Cats were slow to reach the Far East. They arrived in China sometime after 200 BCE.
All of the early cats had the wild type, striped or spotted tabby coat, and many feral cats around the Mediterranean retain this ancestral libyca appearance.



The Romans likely introduced cats to northern Europe and other outposts of their Empre. They were already present in Britain by the mid fourth century and their remains have been found in numerous Roman villas and settlements in southern England. In Silchester, an important Roman site, archeologists found a set of clay tiles bearing the impression of cat pawprints. By the tenth century, they appear to have been widespread, if not common, throughout most of Europe and Asia. The sex linked orange color ginger, ginger and white, calico and tortoiseshell appear to have originated in Asia Minor, and to have been transported, possibly in Viking longships, to Brittany,  all over Britain and parts of Scandinavia. The English blotched tabby seems to have spread from a corridor through France along the valley of the rivers Seine and Rhone. For centuries these rivers have formed part of an important inland barge route between the Channel Ports and the Mediterranaean.


Changes in attitude
The gradual eradication of the pagan gods and goddesses, and the rise and spread of Christianity, produced a dramatic change in attitudes to cats throughout Europe. From being benevolent symbols of female fertility, sexuality and motherhood, they became, instead, the antithesis: evil demons, agents of the devil, and the  companions of witches.

It is unclear what caused this change in the perception, although political forces played a role. In order to consolidate its power, the medievel Church showed extreme ruthlessness in repressing unorthodox beliefs, and ridding all traces of earlier pre-Christian religion. Its symbolic links with earlier fertility cults, the cat was caught up in the wave of religious persecution.


Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, nearly all the major heretical sects-Templar, Walendian, Cathars-were accused of worshipping the Devil in the form of a large black cat. Many modern accounts described how their rituals involved acts of ceremonial gratitude toward huge cats which where supossedly kissed on the anus. Alan of Lille even claimed to derive the term Cathar from the Old Latin word for cat, cattus, which was untrue. Under Christianity, cats also come to be clsoely associated with witchcraft, although the nature of this varied from place to place.  Like their heretical predecessors, witches were said to fly to their gatherings or sabbats sometimes on the back of demons disguised as giant cats. The devil also displayed a strong preference for appearing to his disciples in the form of a monstrous cat, supposedly. At the level of popular or folk culture, it was more common, in northern Europe, for people to view cats and hares as the preferred forms adopted by witches when engaging in acts of malice. In 1211, Gervase of Tiklbury attested from experience to the existence of women 'prowling about at night in the form of cats' who, when wounded, 'bear on their bodies in the numerical place the wounds inflicted upon the cat, and if a limb has been lopped off the animal, they have lost a corresponding member'. In 1424 a shapeshifting witch named Finicella was burned in Rome for allegedly trying to kill a child when she visited in the form of a cat. The child's father drove the cat away, wounding it with a knife. Later she was found to have a similar wounds on the same part of her body. Stories of this type were very widespead in medieval and post medieval witchcraft folklore, and they provide an interesting connection with another well known diabolical role of the cat, that of the archetypal witch's familiar.

The familiar or imp was a demonic companion who the witch dispatched to carry out her evil deeds in return for protection and food. One child claimed his mother was a witch, citing Tyttnety, a little grey cat and Jacke,  black like a cat, as her helpers. People claimed that witches turned into cats to make them and their children ill. Cats predominated in the role of witch's familiar. They continued to do so throughout the entire period of witch trials in England, and have since become the ubiquitous Hallowe'en icon.

As demons incarnate, these animal familiars had a degree of autonomy. The cat familar and cat as transformed witch were basically the same, in several cases, witches were reported to suffer parallel injuries when their familiars were wounded, and sometimes the prosecution witnesses believed that the familiar was the witch transmogrified,  witnesses attested to being visited and tormented by the cats, one had the face of the witch.



Some of the hostility toward cats that emerged during this period may have had a medical basis. Witchcraft folklore is rich with tales of witches taking on the form of cats in order to sneak into people's houses to smother them in their sleep. In one of the earliest references to allergic asthma, Topsell, in 1607, stated: 'thebreath and favour of Cats consume the radical humours and destroy the lungs, and therefore they which keep their Cats with them in their beds have the air corrupted, and fall into several Hecticks and consumptions.' As recently as the 1920's local superstitions held that it was unsafe for a cat to sleep in a child's cot or bed due to the danger of suffocation, and a recent survey in the US found that respiratory allergies are one of the most common reasons given by people for giving cats but not dogs, to animal shelters.
With such a wealth of negaive associations, it is not surprising that cats became objects of widespread persecution throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

By associating cats with the devil and misfortune, the mediveal Church seems to have provided the superstitious masses of Europe with a universal scapegoat, something to blame and punish for all of life's numerous dangers and hardships.

A stong element of misogyny also underpinned this intense hatred toward cats. Medieval and early modern Christianity was dominated by an all powerful male priesthood who held very ambivalent attitudes toward women. Medieval clerics accepted Aristotle's evaluation of the female cat as a particularly lecherous animal that actively manipulated males on to sexual congress. Thus a strong metaphorical connection was established between cats and the more threatening aspects of female sexuality.  The natural behavior of cats reinforced the association. Female cats, especially in oestrus, solicit physical contact and enjoy being stroked and caressed but they are also notoriously coy and unpredictable, demanding affection at one moment, scratching or running away the next. Sexually, the female cat is very promiscuous, unashamedly invinting attentions of several males. She is also a back biter, often turning around and attacking her partner right after mating.

For the ancient Egyptians, these normal feline atributes, with maternal devotion, were admired and celebrated. For the sexually suppressed cleric of medieval and early modern Europe, however, they seem to have inspired  horror and disgust.



Europe was not the only region to draw negative links between cats and women. Malevolent, spectral cats were a common element of Oriental folklore, and in Japan popular legends were of monstrous vampire cats who assume the form of women in order to suck the blood and vitality from unsuspecting men. The Japanese applied the work cat to Geishas on the ground that both possessed the ability to bewitch men with their charms. According to superstition, the tail was the source of the cat's supernatural powers. This belief may also explain the origin of the genetically unique, bob tailed cats of Japan.

The cat's ambivalent relationship with humans is another possible clue to its victimization. The dog and cat are two of the few domestic species that do not need to be caged, fenced in or tethered  in order to maintain its links with humans. Cats tend to display a degree of independence which is unlike dogs, and which makes them inclined to wander at will and indulge in noisy sexual forays, especially during darkness. Cats lead a double life-half domestic, half wild, part culture, part nature, and maybe this non-conforming to human (male) standard of proper conduct is part of what led to their subsequent harassment.





By exploiting the comfort of domestic life while simultaneously enjoying the pleasue of a wild night, the cat became the object of official condemnation and persecution, by challenging the convenient dualistic world view.  The cat was a symbol of humanity's baser qualities. The image of the cat remains damaged, by its older unruly reputation.  In the majority of Islamic countries, attributes of dogs and cats are reversed; cats are tolerated and to some extent, admired.


The domestic cat has now spread to virtually every part of the inhabited world. Across most of Europe and North America it has now overtaken the dog as the most popular companion animal. Very recently, the cat was despised and distrusted for its lack of deference and its failure to acknowledge human domination and superiority. It has been negatively portrayed as the chosen ally of womankind.  In nineteenth century Pais and elsewhere in Europe, cats were associated with artisans and intellectuals, by virtue of their independence, and lack of adherence and obedience to social rule and conventions. This represented a marked turning point in attitudes toward cats, and proceeded their widepread adoption into bourgeous society as fashionable middle class companions.  Many people still regard the sudden appearance of a cat as a sign of bad luck, and others fear or dislike them, perceiving them as avoidant and untrustworthy,. The cat's long standing association with women and female sexuality is still implied by the slang, 'cat house', 'pussy'. Hopefully the legacy of negative attitudes toward cats will continue to disappear, as people learn to accept the benefits of living with this clean, affectionate and very companionable species. 




Cats have been valued since ancient times for their rodent catching abilites, and they have acquired religious and symbolic importance in many societies. Attitudes toward them as symbols, have ranged from reverence to abhorrence. In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped and protected as representatives of Bastet,  goddess of fertility and motherhood. In medieval and early modern Europe, on the contrary, they were a metaphor for female sexual depravity and social unruliness and were persecuted and despised.  In symbolic terms, cats still appear to evoke a certain ambivalence of feeling in many Western countries, though, within the last 10-20 years, they have finally surpassed the dog as the world's most popular companion animal.



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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Mythology and Healing Powers of Dogs

Dogs have been with us a long time, estimates are as long ago as tems of thousands of years. They have provided protections of flocks, babysitting (pit bulls fulfilled this role only last century), saviors, healers, companions and many, many other roles. Dogs can provide care for people with epilepsy, by warning the person of an impending attack and guiding him/her to a safe place where he/she will not be hurt during a seizure. They have been aiding the blind for decades, as well as others with a plethora of special needs. They can pick up and bring a phone, open and close doors, turn lights off and on, guide a person to their destination, and do just about anything their person requires of them. 

Every year, millions upon millions of adoptable animals are euthanized, while many others require the patience, care and training to be rehabilitated and re-homed. So please, if you are considering a canid companion for yourself and your family, rescue an animal from a shelter. Mixed breed dogs are less prone to genetic health and structural problems, and provide companionship that is equal to that of purebred dogs.


 Basset Hounds

Basset hounds have a great sense of humourthey appear to like and sometimes give a good practical joke. This can be tripping on their own ears to get a laugh, dancing on clackety-claws across a floor, or chasing cows, which they do not actually disliike or like.
Truly, laughter is the best medicine.

 There is a myth that good hounds, or heavenly ones, may provide their person with the power to heal (not heel!).

Boston Terrier

There is a myth of psychic power that seems to have developed around the Boston terrier. Jospeh W. Wylder, in Psychic Pets, has  written of a remarkable terrier named Missie, "...one of the widest known and best documented psychic pets of recent times."  The London Daily Mail accliamed Missie as one of our generation's most prominent prophets. What did she do to earn this reputation? She developed a system where she could give numerical information to people that was inevitably correct. She is said to have been able to tell how many coins someone carried in a purse, and she would give this information by an appropriate number of barks. Her real genius, though, was for prediction, which she did by anwering questions of a numerical kind by barking her answer. Many skeptics tried to denounce her pronouncemnts, but no one could prove her wrong. She even knew the time of her own death, and she announced it before she died. Often people with these dogs will report they have a special grasp of numbers, times, and schedules. While all dogs can be said to have this gift, this breed may have more of it than any other.



King Charles Spaniel
The King Charles spaniel remains outside classification by having a selfless temperament, an ego less disposition,a fervent desire to aid the afflictions of people, and a cuteness all his own.  A comforter of women, lapdog, cozier and comforter, another practical purpose they have is drawing fleas and other tiny vermin away from their people. They hid under petticoats, to lie silky-eared and soulful on the laps of the aristocracy.

A prescription once recommended that the queen of England keep a Comforte Dog on her lap to treat a cold. In the days of drafty castles and chilly carriages, and through the uncertainty of the plague years, the cavalier was the lap watcher of monarch and lady. Pythagoras once explained that small dogs of the spaniel type were able to store the breath of a dying person and carry it with them, keeping the spirit alive. They also offered lick therapy, the tongue being a medicine. The French believed that a dog's wet tongue could cure ulcers. The Greeks thought that the dog could protect them not only from terrestiral enemies, but from evil spirits as well. If a person felt the onset of these spirits, he carried a dog with him at all times. The belief that a dog's presence would keep evil at bay is with us today, as dogs are often used in care centres of all kinds, especially with the elderly and children.

Small dogs, due to their portability, were granted much more than medicinal powers. They became spiritual advisers, silent travel companions  resting in the crook of an arm, the curve of a lap, and beside their beloved's head, on the dent of a pillow. Thus to have a dog beside you if you were feeling unwell was to have  a talisman against harm, a physician/shaman/priest/best friend who would never leave your side, no matter the condition-finanical or physical-you were in.  When Charlie snuggles, so does the heart. It is an old medicine for melancholy, but it still seems to work.  The curative powers of this small dog have been known for a long time.


The chuhuahua is used as a hot water bottle.


Daschund

In keeping with their ancient tradition, they are excellent trackers, diggers, night watchers and nurses, devoted to people.  Recently, a daschund helped a lost ten year old  with Down's syndrome return home. The boy was playing in his yard when he saw two stray dogs, one of them a daschund and the other a heeler, trot past him. He followed them deep into a forest, where, as temperatures dropped into single digits, the two dogs stayed by the boy's side, sheltering him from the wind. For three days they kept him  alive, but it was the dachsy's resonant bark that led a man on horseback to the kid, whose only injury was frost bitten toes. The dogs were called 'God's angels' by the mother, who has rewarded the dachsund with a permanent home.

Dalmation
 The Dalmation was a sentinel in war, a draft dog, shepherd, ratter, firehouse mascot, retriever, pointer, rescue dog.  The dal appears in Tuscany on a triptych showing St Domino blessing a chalice. The dog indicated the saint's power over the disease of hydrophobia, or rabies. This is associated with the mythology of dogs' breath being sacred and dog saliva being curative.  The dalmation has dashed in to flames, the firefighter's savior.


Dingo

Aboriginal people in the American West have a special fondness for dingoes, even letting them sleep with their children and act as their guardians.  Developing countries have alliances between women and dogs.

Terriers
Each hamlet in the British Isles during the eighteenth century had a favorite terrier to kill rodents and burrowing animals of the community.

German Shepherd
 As one German Shepherd police dog trainer said, "He wants to experience life.... he wants to know the thing itself. The dog is much superior to the person." German shepherds are intelligent, resourceful and have made remarkable contributions as guard dogs, sheep dogs, companions, family dogs, guide dogs, rescue dogs, and army,  fire and police dogs.



Dog Myths

Dog myths delve into the realm of animal intelligence in comic and serious ways, but alwyas, they assume that all people know that dogs began on earth by having a close relationship with the elements, the deities of wind, fire and water, while people were just coming to know them. Myths tell us that Dog had teeth before people. They explain that Dog knew Fire, but person hasn't been blessed with knowledge of it yet. More importantly, the old myths imply that Dog's knowledge of God preceded person's. There are many truths taught by the cultural myths of indigenous people around the world. Dog is a ranked citizen on the plane of existence, he is often a  representative of First person. Dogs greatly surpass humans in the area of telepathy, or body reading, and can read us like an open book,  though we have a harder time reading dogs. You can't lie to an animal, they instantly break down the barriers and facades, and see how we truly feel, who we really are.


Dogs, kindly characters that they are, usually have the grace to keep silent about what they know, while clearly humans are incapable of such. They can see how they stand in relation to us, and we to them, as their pack leader.  They know us as we do not know them.


Golden Retriever
 The golden retrieber is one of the most popular dogs in guiding the blind and helping the physically challenged.  They have a preference for good deeds, problem solving. They love offering someone a helping paw, even if it causes a distressing moment for themselves. They are unselfish and unrestrained in their love of companionship and their offering of guidance.  They will go out of their way to aid a human in distress. There are myths of ghost dogs coming back to save loved ones from burning bulldings and the like, some of which star goldens.



Dog Star, Dog Days
To a traveler upon the trail, the Dog Star was a lantern, a beacon against the darkness that surrounded them. Mohammed called God the Lord of the Dog Star. Some ancient civilizations-Greek and Roman, for example-saw the coming of the star as the onset of madness, the dawning of dog days, a term we still use today. What this meant was that the Dog Star, which came during the hot months of July and August, was bound to bring more heat. This, of course, could be destructive to crops. The Dog Star is a myth, giving a heavenly spirit to the earthy body. Within each of the heros and prophets, there resides a dog, who, whether heavenly or hellish, kindly or crazy, keeps an eye out for humanity.


Lhasa apso

The Lhasa apso is often identified with Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. They may have followed the old rounds of the Buddhist monks, following the Bodhidharma, the Patriarch who brought holiness out of a cave in India and it to the world. In the myth of the dog, they watched over an emperor or a Lama. In Peking, there were the Pekingese; in mountains of Tibet, Lhasa apso. Males were given as gifts by the Dalai Lama; sacred animals had a spiritual identity with the lion of the sakyas, or the Buddha himself. They are trained to turn the prayer wheel for the Lamas. They are known as Prayer Dogs. Chysanthemum Dog is another nickname. Apso seng kye, means barking lion sentinel dog. In England, he was known as the Talisman Dog, in view of his brining of good luck to any and all who may come to have him. in their home. Some Tibetans beleive him to be a reincarnated lama, who has not yet ascended to heaven. Thus, a spiritually potent being, and a lucky dog.

She is at home in the monasteries in the remotest mountain retreats of Tibet with lamas.  Dogs in the old Buddhist tales are in a constant state of satory, or watchfulness; humans can attain this themselves, but it is difficult and not an easy path for the average person. A dog is a guide to satory, with their eyes and ears, he is in a constant awakened attention to those around him; he is what the Buddhists sometimes call a realized being. Lhasa were used to guard the inner court of the Dalai Lama. When he looks at a person, he immediately knows whether he looking at a friend or a foe. They have acute hearing, quick reflexes.


Maltese
The name comforter derives from the dog's use as a hot water bottle and as an extractor of pain and illness drawn out of and away from the stomach.



Newfoundlander
They have been doing sea rescues, horse guarding and have been ships' dogs and heroes for centuries.  A famous Newf, during a raging winter storm, saved one hundred people off the coast of Newfoundland. He braved the white capped waves and blizzardlike winds to fetch a lifeline back to shore so that the ship could be stabilized.


Pekingese
There is a myth that the Pekingese were at Buddha's heels. In Japan, the mythhs of the Buddha were further refined. The Lion of Buddha became the Dog of Fo. In native art, this dog was represented as a Pekingese. An eleventh-century Japanese painting shows the entry of Buddha into Nrivana. Beside his praying discipeles, there is a sacred Lion Dog. He is shown lying on his back, feet in air-the familiar pose of the Pekingese.  Kubla Khan, grandson of the greatest warrior monarch of all time, Genghis Kahn, knew the symbolism of the Lion Dog. His thirteenth-century court, heavily influenced by Lamaist Buddhism, contained both lions and dogs. The lions, apparently lay in attitudes of courtly feline apprehension, while thee tiny companions, the little Lion Dog Pekingese, played fearlessly around their curved claws.

In 1861 during the invasion of Pekings, British and French officers came upon the body of the imperial princess, who had gathered about her five sacred lion dogs before her death. These ancestral guardians, whose distant relatives had once guarded her ancestors, were so small and yet so noble as they kept their loyal, circular watch.


Spitz Dogs
Spitz dogs were part of the religions in the North. In the North American indigenous tradition,women treat pups the same as their own children, suckling them. This was not unusual to Northern people; in Italy it was common in the eighteenth century for women to suckle fox kits.

The early settlers in Canada were greeted by Spitz dogs who had a large amount of wolf blood. Such pack animals were described as pointed faced dogs and were considered fox dogs, though it was clear they were really domesticated wolves. They howled like wolves and were unable to bark. They were treated as family members and often seen walking into tents at night and eating out of the peoples' porridge bowls, as if used to eating like people.



Lapplanders and Dogs
The Native Laplanders are the Reindeer people, Europeans considered them to be wizards and sages, whose shamanic power came from the spirit of the dog. A household spririt always watched over the hearth of the Russion Lapp families, they offered her food at each meal. Lapp dogs guarded house, family and reindeer herds. They have musical signals, melodies for their dogs. Fox-dog myths are as numerous as the customs which accompany them. The Lapps believe that they were descendents of the dog clan, each individual of the clan had his/her own dog spirit.


Toy Poodles
 Toy poodles are delicate diggers of truffles in the damp, fragrant forests of France.


Pugs
   Pugs were most skilled in the healing arts, skilled at pulling out fevers, relieving headaches and drawing off serious illnesses, atrracting the sickness unto themselves. Today, experts agree that the medicinal aspect of these dogs has something to do with the common comfort and empathy they offer, but it's also been shown that they can reduce the symptoms of high blood pressure and stress, as can any dog, just being there.


Finely bred pugs were suckled and treated and mothered as finely bred children.

It's the medicine we seem to need, if nothing else pleases, at least we, as frustrated humans, can be pleased by a dog. Since the earliest times, the pug and all dogs have always tried to please us.


Rhodesian Ridgeback

They are excellent watchdogs, especially on the prowl at night. They were on African farms to protect the farmer's sleeping animals. The love of dogs stands above parental care among the Zulus of South Africa.


Rottweiler

She is a companion whose passion is to protect the property and person of her person. An outstanding recent example of the rotty's dedication as a guardian appeared in the Associated Press news story of the dog called Samantha. This legendary rotty saved the life of three year old Blake Weaver by remaining at his side for twenty hours. Barefoot, wearing only shorts and a T shirt, Blake had strayed off into the deep woods of the Ocala National Forest of Central Florida. During the cold January night, Samantha, the family rotty, stayed close and kept him warm. Through the night, as a wind chill factor brought a 30 degree temperature, she stayed on guard and blanketed the boy. The next day, Samantha led Blake to the dirt road where four hundred searchers were plying the woods, searching for him. He was found unharmed, owing, the physcians claimed, to the dog's care. Today, Samantha the rotty is an honorary County Deputy.


St. Bernard

St. Bernard: guardian, companion and search and rescue dog. Right from the start, she naturally took to the snows and demonstrated a desire to seek out avalanche victims. Case histories from the earliest times show that this amazing dog, with little or no training, went to her work with professional ease and rugged determination. The result, is 300 years of rescue services in the Alpine mountains, and elsewhere, saving thousands of human lives.

The St. Bernard's capacity for adoration is even larger than the dog herself.


Saluki
In Mohammedanism it is believed that a mysterious power inhabits certain beings and things, this gentle force that flows from the natural world is present within the silky saluki, and is known as baraka. The swift el hor, saluki. The dog's telescopic sight is the gift of Allah, and so is his fleetness of foot. Both are said to have baraka. He can outrun an Arabian gazelle, one of the fastest creatures on earth;  he is driven by the force of baraka.  One of the myths around the dog is that he/she is the emissary between the world of life and death.  Mataphorically, to be eaten by one so holy as a bleesed dog is to be reborn, to enter the force of baraka, to be one with Allah.



Samoyed
This dog shepherds reindeer and guards herds against wild animals in Europe, Asia and Siberia. What the Natives of the Siberian steppes have always known is that this dog is very loving and considerate of humans. European dog myths include the white dog of death-the sight preceded the death of a family member.  In some parts of Wales the vision of  a white dog means that a dying person or someone soon to die unexpectedly, will be saved from hell and will go to heaven.



Schnauzer
The giant schnauzer is a cattle driver, household guardian, police dog, companion dog in Europe and America. All three types of schnauzer make excellent watchdogs and ratters.

Shar-pei
  Chinese provinces still celebrate the old myth of Pan Hu, a Shar-pei god. He is worshiped as an ancestral being at the New Year and at other sacred seasons.

Brittany, A beautiful rescued Nova Scotia ducktoller

Dogs and Rescue
Dogs have inner alarms which go off, saving their families before they are aware of fires.  We have all heard stories of dogs who have saved people from fires. Once bred to ward off evil spirits with a bark, smoke in many Chinese myths was not only associated with fire, but the familar of dangerous ghosts.

Rescued dogs at CAPS, above, a mixed breed, below, a husky who I walked.


Huskies
The most famous race of 1910 was the Serum Run, in which huskies carried life saving serum through minus 50 degree gales to where there was a dyptheria epidemic.  The most common myth of the North is that of the Dog Ancestor. The Siberian Mongols believe that their ancestor was a dog, or was nourished by one, and this corresponds to the fact that some Inuit women suckle puppies as if they were their own. The Bruiats, another Siberian people, claim that long ago all men were born as dogs,  while all females were born as women.  Just as life came from dogs, it also is said that 'life went to the dogs' meaning that these wonderful creatures were credited with the gift of life and death.


The Yenisei Ostiaks of Siberia tell how they found their first 'dead' and when the Creator heard the peoples' wail, he sent Dog to comfort them and show them how to turn death into life. In many such tales, though, Dog is proven to be quite forgetful, and in their care he didn't remember his real purpose. Instead of teaching resurrection, he taught the art of earth burial, giving death a ceremonial existence and rationale.

A Siberian Shamans' song celebrates Dog's funny memory,. Here is a great animals who cannot forget what he once did, or what he is, or what life and death really mean. The Shaman, seeing Dog look upon the grave of a man, sings out 'Oh, look at this dog. He stands crosswise and looks back.' So do we, regarding our long and prosperous history and mythology of the Dog.

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