Listening Woman: The Clan Mother Of The Fifth Moon Cycle

Echoes of the Ancestors ride The Winds of Change, voices of the Creatures calling out my name. Singing spirits on the breeze, the crashing of waves to shore, the pounding of Earth Mother's heart teach me what to listen for. In stillness, before dusk and dawn, hidden messages are set free. Like the chants of my people, their rhythms speak to me. My ears can hear this music, and my heart can understand. Clan Mother of Tiyoweh, I am yours to command. I listen for your whispers on a course you will chart, searching for the still voice that lives within my heart. 

LISTENING WOMAN is the Clan Mother of Tiyoweh, the Stillness, whose moon cycle falls in the month of May. The color connected to her moon is black and represents seeking an answer. Her Cycle of Truth is “HEARING THE TRUTH.” This Clan Mother teaches us how to enter the Silence and how to listen to the ever-present messages of nature, our hearts, the Spirit World,  the view points of other humans, the Creature-teachers, and Father. In Seneca Tradition, Entering the Silence is called Tiyoweh (Tie-yo-whey), which is translated as the Stillness. Once a person can access the Stillness and can hear the small, still voice within, that person has the potential to realize personal wholeness because she has accessed the voice of inner truth. 

Listening Woman teaches us to listen to all of the viewpoints represented in our world in order to learn the harmony that can be found through allowing each life form to have its Sacred Point of View. This Clan Mother teaches us that we will never learn or expand if we do not listen to what is being said. She shows us the crooked trail of having to talk all the time; when we are talking, we are not listening. When we ignore or cut off the voice of another person who is telling us something we don't want to hear, we may be stopping our own growth. Many wounded people in our world do not want to hear the truth because they feel that it hurts them. The willingness to listen to the truth about oneself when it is delivered with loving compassion is a great talent and can heal old wounds. 

Listening Woman has the ability to hear more than the words of her human children, even when they are afraid to speak the truth of how they feel. This Clan Mother listens to others with her heart, as well as with her ears. She can hear the unspoken heart's desires of her human children, as well as their unspoken fears. She can hear the nonverbal languages of the animals, plants, and stones as well as the voices of the Ancestors, coming from the Spirit World. Her talents are derived from her ability to be totally still, to take in all the impressions she can gather, and then to formulate a concept of the whole. 

Listening Woman teaches us how to discern whether people are speaking the truth by listening to the inflections and feelings contained in their words. She shows us that many humans do not know how to express their personal truths because they deny their true feelings. Some humans may lie to cover their fear of retribution or punishment, some people tell lies to feel included or important. But all people who speak untruths are detectable if we develop the art of listening. Showing compassion for those who feel they must lie is a sign of spiritual maturity. The person who lies is wounded. The untruthful people of our world are only lying to themselves, because they have not heard the voice of their Orendas or Spiritual Essences. To live in total truth is to know the light of the Eternal Flame of Love.

Listening Woman hears every thought, senses every feeling, and receives every impression in Tiyoweh, the Stillness. She uses her gift of prophecy based on the information she collects. The Clan Mother of Tiyoweh can foretell the probable future, showing us our potential to follow the Beauty Way or the crooked trail. She sends us warnings when we are off balance and encouragement when we are walking with grace. The omens, portents, signs, and guideposts of life come to us because Listening Woman has heard our hearts, our spoken intent, our unspoken desires, or our needs. The messengers she sends our way are the Allies of Nature, the Ancestor Spirits, the Creature-teachers, and/or the voices of our Orendas.