A Tale for Summer Solstice: The Old Woman and The Black Dog
Grandmother Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook
Oglala Sioux
Turtle Island
(USA)
Lakota story told by Jenny Leading Cloud (1969 White River, Rosebud reservation, SD) and retold by mythologist Micheal Meade on the Living Myth Podcast (episode 280).
Somewhere at a place where the prairie and the Badlands meet, there is a hidden cave. Not for a long, long time has anyone been able to find it. Even now, with so many highways, cars and tourists, no one has discovered this cave.
Inside the cave, there lives an old woman who remains unaffected by the rush of time. She spends most of her time weaving in the cave where the light and shadows play.
She is weaving the most beautiful garment in the whole world. She’s been at this weaving project for a long time and has reached the point of making a fringe for the edge. She wants that fringe to be special, so she weaves it with porcupine quills. In order to use the porcupine quills, she must flatten each one with her teeth. After years of biting hard on the quills, her teeth have become worn down to nubs that barely rise above her gums. Still, the old woman keeps biting down and weaving on.
Resting beside her, licking his paws, and watching her all the time is Shunka Sapa, a huge black dog. His eyes never wander from the old woman and her work.
The only time the old woman interrupts her weaving is when she goes to stir the soup that simmers in a great earthen cauldron at the back of the cave. The cauldron hangs over a fire that began a long time ago. The old woman cannot recall anything older than that fire; it just might be the oldest thing there is in this world.
Occasionally, she does recall that she must stir the soup that simmers over those flames. For that simmering stew contains all the seeds and roots that become the grains and plants and herbs that sprout up all over the surface of the earth. If the old woman fails to stir the ancient stew, the fire will scorch the ingredients and there is no telling what troubles might result.
So the old woman divides her efforts between weaving and stirring the elemental soup. She senses when the time has come to let the weaving go and stir things up again.
At that point, she leaves the weaving on the floor and moves slowly over to the cauldron.
As the old woman shuffles across the floor and makes her way to the back of the ancient cave Shunka Sapa, the black dog, watches her every move.
Once she begins stirring the soup in order to sustain the seeds, the black dog moves to where the weaving lies on the floor of the cave.
The dog picks up a loose thread in his teeth and begins pulling on it.
As the black dog pulls on the loose thread, the beautiful robe begins to unravel. Since each thread has been woven to another, pulling upon one begins to undo them all. As the great stew is being stirred up, the beautiful weaving is unraveled into a mess on the floor.
When the old woman returns to take up her handiwork again, she finds nothing but chaos where there had been a garment of great elegance and beauty. The robe she has woven with great care has been pulled apart, the fringe all undone; the effort of creation has been turned to naught.
The old woman looks silently upon the remnants of her once-beautiful design. She ignores the presence of the black dog and stares intently at the tangle of undone threads and distorted patterns.
After a while, she bends down, and picks up a loose thread. As she pulls thread after thread from the chaotic mess, she has a vision of an even more beautiful robe.
She sits down to weave and new visions and designs begin to appear, her old hands knowingly giving them shape. Soon she has forgotten all about what she was weaving before and concentrates on capturing the new most beautiful robe in the whole world.
This is a creation story with a twist.
It suggests that the world was not simply created once and then allowed to run according the laws of God or chance. Rather, the process the world is a cycle of constant change. The weaving symbolizes new creation, the stew symbolizes sustaining- or nurturing- the present, and dog represents a force of chaos that unravels the known world so that things can begin again.
Before you get mad at the dog
When I first heard this story I was like- “Lady, you need to get rid of that dog!” But here is the moral of the tale.
If the black dog did not unravel the old woman’s weaving, then the robe would be finished - and the process of creation (i.e. the world) would end.
The energy of chaos-dark matter- the undoing- the unknown subconscious self- is necessary to stimulate growth and change and evolution.
It’s just as necessary as sustaining life by getting up to stir the pot.
Right now in the world we can see ourselves in the stages of unraveling. The dog is up and pulling at threads of our known reality. The climate crisis, global pandemic, wars, economic upheavals and rise of racist attacks are unraveling the stability of the world and putting our lives at risk.
But the dog’s role in the story implies that the current system unraveling is fuel for the the creation of a better future.
Pain and loss, even death, are part of the process. We resent this, of course, but just like the old woman- we can’t blame the dog for doing his part. We can only look at the unraveled mess around us and see the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Then get to the work of creating it!
On a personal level I realize I have an inner black dog. The part of me that wants to rip up what came before and start over. Change businesses and change locations, change everything. Tear up old gardens and plant new ones. I would hear my inner critic chastising me for this. “you need to focus” - “you need to stay the course”- “you can’t be constantly changing it up” but after reading this myth I felt the black dog in me finally has a name. And yes- it does create more work to start over and try something new but that’s how we grow and learn and evolve as humans. So I encourage you to make friends with your doggo of destruction. He can be a pain the ass but ultimately he’s the best friend of your creative visionary self.
Happy Summer Solstice!
It’s a great time of the year to reflect on our lives and world around us.
What do you think about this story?
Here’s some journal prompts for you to play with:
Have you ever considered the weaving, stirring and unraveling components of your own life?
Does a creation tale like this give you a different thread to hold onto when you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed?
What if our overall wellness is more about embracing our health and lives as a constant state of change instead of some goal we are trying to finish or reach?
How would the world look different if we saw it through this indigenous lens and perspective?
Leave me a comment below on what came up for you on reading this!
xoxo
Ginger
