A pure white cougar played an important role in the
conclusion of the ritual held in the Creation Lodge of the Medicine Rite, a rite
devoted to the resurrection of its members into a future life. TheIsland Weight of the South instaurated this
cougar out of the east, where solar time begins. The cougar's limbs each
contained the power to establish one of the seasons of the year, the right limbs
inaugerating the seasons of snow that belong to Hare, and the left limbs the
seasons absent snow that belong to Grandmother Earth. Just as the snow is from
above and the earth is inherently below, so an aura of Light and Life was placed
above the head of the cougar and below its feet. Such is the nature
of the cougar that its arboreal capacities give it a dual nature as a creature
of the above as well as of the earth below.
)