Eagle Feathers

Eagle feathers are considered infinitely sacred to traditional Native American people who make use of the feathers for a variety of purposes, including ceremonial healing and purification. Eagle medicine represents a state of presence achieved through diligence, understanding, awareness, and completion of "test of initiation" such as the vision quest or other demanding life experiences.  Elder status is associated with “Eagle Medicine” and the power of connectedness and truth. It is through the wisdom of experience that this Medicine is earned.

The Eagle feather, which represents duality, tells the story of life. It tells of the many duality's that exist in life, such as light and dark, male and female, substance and shadow, summer and winter, peace and war, life and death. It reminds us of the teachings that opposites are extensions of themselves like two opposing hands of the same body.  Native American traditionalists look upon the Eagle feather as a sacred symbol of the balance necessary for the "Circle of Life" to continue. J. T. Garrett, as a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, describes how: “The Eagle feather teaches us about the Rule of Opposites, about everything being divided into two ways.  The more one is caught up in the physical, or the West, then the more one has to go in the opposite direction, the East, or the spiritual, to get balance.  It works the other way too you cannot just focus on the spiritual to the exclusion of the physical, you need harmony in all Four Directions.”

The lesson of “opposites” is that of choice.  Any two opposites are often part of the same truth.  If we consider the Eagle Feather with its light and dark colours, we could argue that the dark colours are far more beautiful and, therefore, naturally more valuable, or vice versa.  Regardless of which colours are said to be more beautiful, or necessary, or valuable, the truth is both colours come from the same feather, both are true, they are connected, and it takes both for a bird to fly.

The balance, of which the traditional way speaks, is not recognition of two separate phenomena, or a decision as to which is best and which is worst. The balance of which the traditional way speaks is recognition of the "oneness" of two differing phenomena, and a decision to honour both through harmony and balance. Traditionally, a person earns the Eagle Feather through enormous acts of courage, understanding, or generosity. Very often, it is through such acts that this recognition "oneness" occurs it is here that universal learning takes place.

29th September 2008