Revisiting the White Buffalo Calf Woman

Mind-body connection and honoring Mother Earth
Psycho-spiritual and socio-political interpretations


A friend called me the other night and asked me if I was going to the Peace Pipe ceremony. I asked her what was the Peace Pipe? She said it is a native American ceremony. "You'll like it," she said.
It is amazing how your friends know what you will or will not like.


I was alone in this evening, so I decided to attend the Peace Pipe ceremony.

A large buffalo skin that served as an altar covered the center of the meeting space along with four bundles of native cloth for each of the pipe carriers present. I did not know what was in the bundles.

Star of David, a college professor and shaman who had toured Europe to lead workshops led the meeting. The only person I had met before attending the meeting was Sun Woman. Yet as I entered the room, I felt as if I already knew all the participants.

"It seems I've seen you before but I don't know where" was a comment I heard from almost all of the other participants. Most of them were involved in healing or counseling work.

After the drumming and singing, Star of David and those who had their own pipes told their stories. Venus retold the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.


Once upon a time, there was a famine, and the native people who lived in the plains sent two of their young warriors to hunt for buffalo. The two young men saw a moving object that they thought was a buffalo. As it came closer, they discovered that it was not an animal at all. Rather, the most beautiful young woman you can imagine was coming closer to them, hair tied with buffalo fur, dressed in white buckskin with porcupine quills, a huge bundle in one hand, and a fan made of sage leaves in the other.

"Oh my God, what a beautiful creature!" the first warrior said.
"You're right. This is the most beautiful woman God created," the other said.
"Can't pass up this one."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm going to have sex with her," the first warrior said.
"Are you nuts, Dude?" the second warrior asked.
"Just can't resist this baby." The first warrior replied.

Suddenly, the beautiful young woman stretched her arms. In the heat of desire the first warrior embraced her. The two were wrapped in a whirlwind. Clouds covered the sky. When it was all over, only his decaying body and bones remained.

The beautiful young woman turned to the surviving warrior. She told him that she was the goddess come to end the famine. She told him to go back home and let the people prepare to receive her.

Four days later she appeared to the people as she had promised. She taught many things. She showed them how to use their sexual energy to create. She left them the sacred pipe. This was to remind them that their breath was holy--that the pipe can guide and console them. She taught them to honor the earth along with everyone and everything in it. She taught them to pray. She said that the sacred pipe was a symbol of peace and harmony for their interpersonal relationships. It would bring understanding between husband and wife. It would unite the community in peace and love.

She taught the women, then the children, then the young men and then the elders. After that, she left them the sacred pipe. Saying "I will come back again," White Buffalo Calf Woman went away.

This is what this story speaks to me. I have identified two layers of meaning.. I see it as psycho-spiritual metaphor and also as socio-political call to reason.

As a psycho-spiritual metaphor, the two warriors and the White Buffalo Calf woman are three aspects of me. I see the story as symbol that shows how the different parts of me mind, body and superconscious interact. The part of me that is primal, irrational, dominated by my senses is the first warrior. The White Buffalo Calf Woman is my superconscious, the spirit of God within me. She indulges me in my intense desires without judging me. She leaves me to experience the consequences of my actions. The surviving warrior is the cautious and discerning part of me. It sees beyond appearances, honoring the mystery of my true self. This recognition and honoring of the mysterious power of my higher self empowers me. When I discover this most beautiful power within me, instead of keeping it a secret to myself I tell others about it. I am sent back to my people to save them from their famine. The connection of the discerning self with the pure self is a transformative process in which the discerning self becomes an agent and emissary of the Higher Self. This partnership manifests as power that the community cannot but obey.

As a socio-political call to reason, the two warriors represent two attitudes towards human inventions and technological breakthroughs. White Buffalo Calf Woman is our technological advances. We can use these technological advances and scientific discoveries to rape Mother Earth. We can also use them to honor and respect all that is. Our choices lead to life or death.

The White Buffalo Calf Woman story is a hopeful one. If we choose to use our technologies in a way harmful to the Earth, the Great Mother will give us our wish. We will self-destruct. But the whole Earth will not be destroyed. There is always a second warrior, that One who will save the world, that one who will leave the legacies of our discoveries for posterity, the community of the future dying of hunger that sent us ahead to go hunting on their behalf.

Thank you, Sun woman, for inviting me. Thank you, Star of David, for leading the group. Thank you, Venus, for telling the story. Thank you, lady with Palm Fronds. Thank you, Louisa May Alcott. Thank you, all visible and invisible ones who were present at this Sacred Pipe ceremony.