The Grouse medicine teaching and message is all about getting dizzy without getting dizzy. This little bird is going to give you a whirl! Spirals are found and revered all over nature, myth and culture for some pretty obvious reasons. I used to spin around in the kitchen when I was little. It was so much fun! Sometimes just letting yourself spin around and get dizzy can be a great way to realease and laugh.
You can even take a more focus approached to this dance as so many others have been doing for so long
Spirals also seem a theme for me in learning life lessons. I'll come to the same lesson, question, or answer over and over. Sometimes I'll kick myself for it, but the reality is I'm always learning a little more each time. It's not quite that I'm going in circles, I'm just gradually growing! The lesson has a new angle or twist, the question gets a little broader, the answer gets a little more in depth. Something like that.
Here's some information about what Grouse meant to some of our Native Tribes.
'Grouse once flocked in abundance throughout North America, but now, even on the plains, where these birds were so plentiful, there is an absence of them. Many Plains Indian tribes dance the Grouse Dance to honor these birds. The movement of the dance follows a spiral, which is the ancient symbol of birth and rebirth, the ribbed tunnel of eternal return.' - Sams, Jamie and Carson, David. Medicine Cards (Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988).
'Grouse are rarely referred to directly in older recordings of Native American legends. This is probably because the English and early American people who translated their words became confused and identified the birds as "partridge" instead. Partridge are not native to North America and were not introduced here until the early 1900's, so it's likely that most of these stories were in fact referring to grouse or quail, types of birds which are common in North America. In particular, one of our Mi'kmaq volunteers identified the Mi'kmaq hero Pulowech (usually translated as "Partridge") as actually being a ruffed grouse, and the name of the Passamaquoddy character Mitchihess (also called a "partridge") probably comes from the Passamaquoddy word for "grouse," Mochiyehs. Grouse are also used as clan animals in some Native American cultures. Tribes with Grouse Clans include the Chippewa tribe (whose Grouse Clan and its totem are called Aagask) and the Prairie Chicken clans of the Mandan and Hidatsa. Grouse is used as a clan crest in some Northwest Coast tribes, such as the Tsimshian, and can occasionally be found carved on totem poles.'. - http://www.native-languages.org/legends-grouse.htm
Overwhelmed or confused or just mentally/emotionally dizzy. Taking a minute to spin around or dance really helps find your center again! We're all doing a spiral dance anyway in this milky way @
Thanks for reading!
(I hope Nick Saunders doesn't mind I used his photo from this cool website http://birdnote.org/show/sharp-tailed-grouse-dance)