Ken “Bear Hawk” Cohen (sacred earth circle)  is an internationally renowned educator, author, and traditional healer. Of Russian Jewish ancestry, he has followed the path of indigenous wisdom, his calling and his gift, for more than 40 years. He was an apprentice to noted North American Indian medicine people, and also worked closely with elder healers among the Chinese, African Zulu, and Nigerian Igbo peoples. An initiate of of Si.Si.Wiss and other medicine societies, he maintains close ties with his adoptive Cree Indian family from Canada. Ken’s lectures and keynotes have been sponsored by universities, clinics, and conferences, including the Mayo Clinic, the Canadian Ministry of Health, and the Menninger Institute. He is the author of Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing (Ballantine Books) and more than 200 journal articles on spirituality and health. In 2003 Ken won the leading international award in energy medicine, the Alyce and Elmer Green Award for Innovation and Lifetime Achievement.

Poem about Water from Ken “Bear Hawk” Cohen

I am one with water

(And so are you)

As much in my veins

As in streams and rivers.

 

Moist skin, moist lips,

Wet in hidden valleys

Or on the mountain top:

Water means fertility,

Ripening us as it

Ripens the apple.

 

The balance of water

Refreshed is fresh water,

Nutrients in, waste out.

No wonder Chinese Geomancy

Is called Feng-Shui, “Wind Water.”

 

Snow, ice, liquid, vapor

Arctic snow and hot springs.

Dew on the grass,

Clouds in the sky,

Rain doesn’t discriminate,

Falling on quiet ponds

And stormy seas.

 

Responding to the slightest breeze

Gentle: pond rippling;

Strong: waves and tsunamis.

Transforming, dissolving,

Reforming, the shoreline

Never the same:

Water is a good reminder.

 

Expanding and contracting.

Fog breath on a cool morning,

Too cold and blood turns to ice.

Too hot, I evaporate,

Dry up and die.

 

Nuu-chal-nuth bathe and pray

For power in ocean lagoons;

Polynesians offer sea water

As a blessing purification

Of space and self.

Cherokee go to the

Edge of water to

Cleanse mind and spirit.

African Igbo shamans

Offer water to earth,

Praising Agbara Miri,

The Deity of Water,

For healing and sustenance.

We are born in water;

Christians are reborn in it.

 

Live the continuity:

Drink the same water

As Jesus and Geronimo,

They are me.

Drink the same water

As Cortez and Hitler,

They are me, too.

Water is indeed

A good reminder.

 

Aqua begins with the first letter

Because she is first,

The primal sea of life.

Cherokee call her Ama,

No coincidence it sounds like Mother.

Other side of Turtle Island

Salish chant “Koss” Sacred Water,

To the sound of whispering tides,

And dance counter-clockwise,

Moonwise to honor her.