When I saw the Coyote, I was full of anxiety because my mother was still recovering from a fractured hip. Fortunately, I was moving very slowly. He crossed the street in front of me from east to west. The whole thing was surreal. He came out of the woods by the road. Sunbeams were coming through the heavy leafy canopy and hitting the Coyote and the road. The Coyote moved in a loping sort of trot. He was beautiful—healthy golden coat—and there was no doubt in my mind the moment I saw him that this was a Coyote. His ears were really big. He was about 15-20 feet in front of my car and he never looked at me. I saw him in profile. Once he crossed the road, he strode into a house's garden, seemingly headed to the woods behind the house. After seeing the Coyote, as I drove on, I felt that I'd been granted a gift. I felt joy. It was magic.
I read a story titled One Odd Shoe by Pat Murphy. It's included in the anthology titled THE COYOTE ROAD: TRICKSTER TALES, edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. In the story, the narrator states: The professor knew some true things about Coyote. He told the students about what he called a Navajo folk belief: If a coyote crosses your path, you'd best turn back. That's true enough, but I wouldn't call it a folk belief. I'd call it just plain common sense. This got me worried because on the day that I saw the beautiful Coyote, he (or she) crossed my path. I did some research, and found the following (Source: Navajo Traditions http://ggsc.wnmu.edu/netc/traditions/05.html):
The Coyote
Belief: Avoid having a coyote crossing your path ahead of you in the east direction. Also avoid having a coyote howling at you or near you where you can see the coyote facing toward you while it is howling.
Rationale: There's a disagreement on the reason for this belief. One belief is that the coyote represents a bad spirit that can only bring evil things on you or on your family. The second belief is that the coyote only foretells an unfortunate event or thing in your path or in the near future. So to deal with this belief, a Navajo tries not to let the coyote cross his path in the east directions. If the coyote does cross his path in the east direction, the Navajo can either use corn pollen and pray on the coyote footprints and go on ahead across the coyote's path or he can turn around and go home and not cross the coyote's path until the next day. The Navajo can also go ahead and cross the coyote's path without praying and take a chance on bad luck up ahead. In this case, whether bad luck occurs or not, when the Navajo gets home he gets a medicine man to pray for him and this costs more.
If the coyote crosses the path in any other direction than East, it is foretelling good luck. In this case, the Navajo prays with joy for the forthcoming good luck. The coyote I saw crossed my path from east to west so I am grateful for forthcoming blessings.
Source: SHAMANISM: WORKING WITH ANIMAL SPIRITS (www.animalspirits.com)
Coyote's Wisdom Includes:
Understanding that all things are sacred—yet nothing is sacred
Teaching that only when all masks have fallen will we connect with the Source
Intelligence
Singing humans into being
Childhood trust in truth
Teaching us how to rear our young
Brings rain
Ability to laugh at one’s own mistakes
Placing the North Star
Shape-shifting
Teaching balance between risk and safety
Illumination
Stealth
I recently saw a National Geographic documentary titled Killed by Coyotes? that relates the tragic events of a young woman who was killed by coyotes in a park in Canada. Apparently, wildlife biologists have always held that coyotes avoid contact with humans, therefore, this horrible incident was thoroughly investigated. Authorities and a wildlife biologist who is an expert on coyotes came to the conclusion that the young woman was attacked by three Eastern coyotes. Eastern coyotes have wolf DNA; they are larger than Western coyotes and, it seems, far more aggressive. The victim ran from the coyotes and that encouraged them to chase her down.
Have you had an encounter with coyotes? If so, please tell me about it.
