Where do these Teachings come from?

The Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, established in the Americas in 1250 AD, is a path of knowledge preserved and guided by men and women of the Twisted Hairs Metis Medicine Societies Council of Elders of Turtle Island.  The Sweet Medicine SunDance Teachings were opened in 1975 to help heal the worlds of Grandmother Earth (mineral, plant, animal, human and spirit). Their goal is to re-awaken people's connection and alignment with the earth, re-establish the balance of female and male power, and eliminate dogma and ignorance that keep people in patterns of struggle and disempowerment. The Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society was founded by Harley SwiftDeer (Nagual, Twisted Hair Elder) and his partner, Dianne Nightbird.

The teaching shields used in the Red Lodge Longhouse program are only one portion of the many Wheels and Keys of knowledge that are available on this Path. They are brought to the people to restore the naturalness and wholesomeness of life.

What is the DeerTribe Metis Medicine Society?

 With the beginning of the New Age many people worldwide are searching for fulfillment in their lives—seeking knowledge that works, looking for ways to connect with oneself, with others and the life force within nature and spirit. Some of the Eight Great Powers have begun to open their esoteric teachings to the public. Traditionally these were only available within Secret Wisdom Schools.

Today, DTMMS offers a program that cannot be found anywhere else. Rooted in the ancient wisdom and beauty of the Southwest Power of Turtle Island, DTMMS provides a time proven step-by-step process of education and integration. This 'Gateway' process is the underlying structure of self-development within all of the Eight Great Powers.

  DTMMS is a non-profit spiritual and educational foundation authorized under the 501C3 designation of the Internal Revenue Service.

Vision statement of DTMMS

We are an international organization that preserves and provides access to the Twisted Hairs Lineage of the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path through leadership in well-managed programs, products and outreach.

Our vision is to foster the well-being of the Four Colts of the Gold Horse - the flourishing of Beauty, Power, Knowledge and Freedom for all.

Our Mission as Rainbow SunDance Warriors is to fight against the enemies of ignorance, slavery, bigotry, racism, war, disease, dogma and superstition using the Wheel and Keys of the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path to seed the future generations with Beauty, Power, Knowledge and Freedom.

Introduction to the Red Lodge Longhouse

The Red Lodge Longhouse is an invitation to explore the last real frontier - our inner world. The Longhouse program gives the prerequisite knowledge, the blueprints and road maps for an individual's journey into new dimensional levels of existence. The Longhouse program guides individuals on this journey in a safe and impeccable way using the ceremonies of the Gateway Path and the knowledge of the Wheels and Keys of the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path.

Lineage Story of Longhouses within the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path

The dictionary refers to lineage as a lineal descent from a common progenitor. A progenitor is a direct ancestor or forefather/mother. Lineal refers to a direct line of ancestry. Lineage also involves heredity. If something is hereditary it is genetically derived from one's ancestors. Thus a lineage is passed down from one descendant to another.

Each person who steps onto the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path steps into a lineage of those who have gone before.  This lineage is carried in the stories and legends of ancient story-tellers called the Twisted Hairs. These were medicine men and women who were not content to accept the limitations of their tribal ways and chose instead to travel. They wandered as warriors from tribe to tribe in search of all knowledge that worked and they shared stories of what they learned.

Their stories begin at the very beginning -- the Story of Creation.  They continue with the story of Twelve Planets containing human life and the legend of the Giant Ones, the Star Nation People who came to our Grandmother Earth to share knowledge, awaken the people and foster their evolution. Our lineage is contained within these stories. Since always and for always they have empowered people to find their individual autonomous freedom.

 The SunDance Story of Creation

Every culture, every people have always had their myths, stories and legends of how life began. This is the Twisted Hairs story.

In the beginning, the Everything was created from within the void. In this void, a pure energy was present called Chuluaqui.  The Chuluaqui energy expresses itself as a pure orgastic, harmonic and balancing vibration within the Everything. It prompts life to take on the specific forms of many things. It is the Great Mystery, the Breath of Life.

The Great Mystery desired to know itself and inhaled.  This great implosive force became the egg of all creation.  Known as Wahkawhuan, it is the creative-receptive force of all creation, our Great Grandmother. The Great Mystery desired to know more and exhaled. This great explosive force, this second expression of the breath of life, became the seed of all creation.  Known as Sskawhuan, it is the active-conceptive force of all creation, our Great Grandfather.

The first of the four sacred elements created was air -- the breath of Great Spirit. The second element was fire -- the passion of the Great Mystery to know itself.  Wahkawhuan and Sskawhuan came together in a whirlwind serpent fire of total love. The two Chuluaqui energies formed an energy that was greater than the sum of the two parts and birthed the third element of water -- the heart of Wakan Tanka. The fourth element -- earth  -- became the physical manifestation of that love energy.  Seeking to know itself again and again, Wahkawhuan and Sskawhuan made love and created all forms of all things. The elements have been, since the beginning, the four cornerstones of life, the basic alchemical ingredients of all creation. All forms of all things within the Everything were birthed out of the Chuluaqui through these four elements. The purpose of creation is seen in this act of orgastic pleasure and the relentless desire to gain self-knowledge. It was so in the beginning and is so even now.

 The Twisted Hairs Legend

The legend is told that the Ancient Ones from the Twelve Worlds gathered together their collective knowledge, their views on the meaning and purpose of existence, their greatest spiritual teachings for individual self-growth and development, their discoveries of the sacred laws of the universe.  They programmed this knowledge into holographic images in magnificent crystal skulls and created the Ark of the Singing Skulls.  This Ark consisted of twelve full-size talking crystal skulls and a configuration of obelisks and other crystals.  The Ark was used to preserve and transmit this knowledge over time.  It was also used to transport these ancient beings onto our planet known as Eheytomah, the Children's Planet.

These Ancient Ones, known as the Giant Ones from the Stars, came to our planet in four waves.  Once here, these luminous beings discovered the pleasure of being within physical form so alluring that many entered into the reincarnation cycles of human existence. In doing so, they lost the memory of where they had come from and why they were here.  Yet these beings also knew that they did not belong on this planet and that there was something more to reach for. The fourth wave that came were known as the "buffalo people". They retained an insatiable thirst for knowledge, a hunger for wisdom and an ache to re-unite once again with their soul family.  As they "roamed from sunset to sunrise", sharing stories of experience, knowledge and wisdom, these Ancient Ones began to recognize each other and gather together. 

The initial commitment of these Ancient Ones has been maintained and sustained over time.  It is a dedication to the pursuit of knowledge, a return of memory and a gathering together of Rainbow Light Warriors from all directions, all colors and all ways.  It is knowing the sacredness of the physical through mastery of this form in order to return once again to the luminous, eternal form. 

Over time and through the shifting of the worlds and the spins of civilizations, these Ancient Beings persisted in their search. The Great Civilizations rose and fell. The Eight Great Powers emerged. Each sustained mystery schools where the magick and mystery of true knowledge were preserved and the journey was continued. You can read more about this in the Course of Study, Series B, Module 1. 

The lineage of Sweet Medicine SunDance flows within the stream of the Southwest Power, one of these Eight Great Powers. The Twisted Hairs Metis Medicine Societies Council of Elders is the body that has guided and governed this Path since 1254 A.D.  Its purpose is to protect the knowledge, guard the Ark, and preserve this lineage for future generations. Each of the Eight Great Powers is assigned four Wheels of Power and given specific tasks within this mandate of preservation.

Harley SwiftDeer Reagan, Medicine Chief of the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society, is a Twisted Hairs Elder, seated as the youngest member of the Council and the first Elder to be of mixed blood.

In 1972, the Elders of all the Eight Great Powers made a momentous decision.  Given their prophetic seeing, they determined that the time had come to open the Shields of Knowledge which had for centuries been guarded within secret chambers.  SwiftDeer was mandated to begin teaching the Wheels and Keys publicly. 

The Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society was founded as the home for these Sweet Medicine SunDance Teachings.  One of the greatest gifts that SwiftDeer has given to the people is the translation of many Wheels and Keys into English and the compilation of many more teachings he received from his teachers into a comprehensive body of knowledge.

When we now speak of "lineage preservation and support", we are speaking of a vast body of knowledge and a rich inheritance. The following list gives you a taste of what these words contain:

Over 250,000 years of recorded knowledge of magick, medicine, sorcery and evolutionary excellence.

• An oral tradition in story and song that comes from more than 700 tribes of the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (that is, North, South and Central America and including Australia and New Zealand).
• The nagual discoveries of the Ancient Ones about enlightenment, creation and our place within the Twelve Magickal Worlds of the Great Spirit's Child Substance Shield.
• An ancestral inheritance hidden in more than twenty two sacred Power Spots on Turtle Island.
• Thousands of Sweet Medicine SunDance Wheels and Keys open to the public.
• 300 Gateway and Personal Ceremonies with innumerable personal ceremonies and tasks sculpted for personal self-growth and excellence.
• Over 1700 Sorcery Passes for accessing nagual realities.
• Over 1700 Hand Ties for metabolic and electromagnetic alignment of our luminosity.
• 144 Warrior Techniques of Discipline for physical mastery and attaining health, hope, happiness, harmony and humor.
• The opportunity to walk this Path through the Ceremonial Gateway Process.
• A direct and personal connecting link of intent with the Great Mystery through our personal individual, autonomous freedom.
• The invitation to be an active participant in the unfolding of history, of prophecy and evolution – the gathering together of the 144,000 Rainbow Light Warriors.

This is the legend, the story, the lineage of the Twisted Hairs as it is passed down within the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path and held by the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society. For all Sweet Medicine SunDance apprentices this is your spiritual lineage – the story of those who have walked before you.

Awanestika!

Intent of Red Lodge Longhouse

The Red Lodge Longhouse program is designed to directly address the needs of the wave of seekers and searchers now waking up in the collective of humans on the planet. These 'seekers' are looking for ways to connect with themselves, others and the life force within nature and spirit. The Red Lodge Longhouse program offers the knowledge, tools, ceremony  and experience to guide these individuals into greater balance and connection with spirit. Curriculum outlines for each year are located at the end of this section.

A Prophecy

A Planetary Horse Race and You

Throughout the ages humanity has sought out the prophecies of the spiritually gifted, the visionaries to provide insight into the future, to provide hope and a vision of things to come. Many prophecies come to us foretelling of disaster, hopelessness and the annihilation of mankind. Others create a vision of joyful transformation through quantum leaps into love and light. Prophecies of power and vision reveal the potential for both the best in us and the worst in us.

The Rainbow Bridge Prophecies of Turtle Island are visions of power foretold over 2,000 years ago with startling accuracy. They reveal the probability of occurrence of certain events through time. Most importantly, however, they challenge us to wake up, claim the best of ourselves and carry that excellence as the banner for peace, harmony and individual autonomous freedom for all life on this planet. The flip side of that is not a pretty picture.

These Prophecies are a part of the lineage and heritage of knowledge medicine, magick and beauty that is the Sweet Medicine SunDance Way. In 1254 B.C. in Oaxaca, Mexico, these Prophecies were recorded by a Council of 144 enlightened Elders of Turtle Island (North, South, and Central America) and 12 Elders from each of the other seven Great Powers on the planet. The Elders of Turtle Island were powerful "Seer-Naquals", shamans and magicians, both men and women, from over 375 tribes. Earlier they had formalized their knowledge in a system of teachings they called the Sacred Shields of Dreaming of the Rattlesnake School of Knowledge. It was later renamed the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path of the Twisted Hairs.

For three years prior to 1254 B.C., they dreamed and worked together with the Ark of the Singing Skulls to "see" the potential and probable paths of evolution for humanity and planetary destiny. Their collective vision, recounted by a trained orator, is twenty-four hours in the telling.

The Prophecies are told as a metaphor of a horse race with eight horses of different colors representing mankind's different choices at critical turning points in our interaction with each other, with nature, and with life in general. In the original speaking of the Prophecies, the Sweet Medicine animals were seen as dogs for the dog is the "keeper" of the belief systems of a people. As a result of the impact of Spanish destruction and conquest and the introduction of the horse to this continent, the Elders saw that the "medicine" or alchemy of the race would change. The medicine of the horse is that it is the "carrier" of the belief systems of a people; thus it became a Race of Horses.

Of the eight horses in the Race, four represent the four directions of the Wheel of Life and they hold the balance in the Race. The Red Horse carries the earth changes. Earthquakes, floods droughts, reactivated volcanoes, critical changes in weather patterns –– all these are the earth's way of rebalancing and purifying herself. These have escalated in recent years both in frequency and in intensity as she deals with the destruction and imbalance humans continue to perpetuate.

The White Horse carries the impact of economic, industrial, technological and scientific forces on peoples and countries. The sacrifice of nature and people's freedoms and inalienable rights worldwide on the altar of profit and power are the legacy of this horse, and it feeds directly into the impact of the Dark Horse.

The Dark Black Horse carries the dark shadow energy of mankind. Quite simply, it carries the worst in us.

The Gold Horse carries Beauty, Power, Individual Autonomy and Freedom in Peace. It also carries humans living in harmony with each other caring for and protecting the Earth and the life she gives to us. It carries a world without ignorance, war and tyranny, poverty, pestilence and famine. The Gold Horse carries the best in us –– our shining, our potential for greatness as enlightened humans, as Rainbow Warriors.

The Prophecies speak of the need for the collective presence and intent of 144,000 Rainbow Light Warriors, i.e., awakened humans, fighting for peace, harmony and individual autonomous freedom to bring the Gold Horse to victory.

According to the Prophecies, the Dark Horse is leading the race at this time and lunging forward farther and farther ahead of the Gold Horse. What does this have to do with you and me, really?

The overwhelming challenges that confront us worlwide from ecological disaster to war to famine and disease to technological suicide to drastic earth changes appear to have no easy or immediate solutions. Yet many of us yearn for the flip side of those scenarios and constantly look for ways to contribute to making our dreams of harmony, balance, brotherhood/sisterhood and beauty a reality. We are inspired by our own dreams and a vision of a fuller life and a better world. Unfortunately, many of us assume that someone else will do it for us, or we are overcome by the enormity of the task and throw up our hands in frustration.

The task of meeting these "external" challenges, however, must start with the Great Work of our own inner awakening.  In our efforts to do good we often miss the mark because we are looking for solutions outside ourselves. We may choose to contribute time, energy or money to our favorite cause or charity, for example. This is a good thing, but the degree of impact we make will only be in direct proportion to the degree of awakening inside ourselves. Let's suppose you make a donation to your favorite ecology charity to support their direct intervention to stop destruction of the rain forests. The effectiveness of your contribution will be successful only to the extent that at the same time you are cleaning up your own personal ecology. In order to effect change in our "battle between the sexes" we must better understand and come into alignment with our own inner masculine and feminine energies. We contribute to organizations that fight disease –– heart disease, cancer, AIDS, etc., yet we create those same diseases in our own bodies through stress and a loss of our innate naturalness. I could go on endlessly.

What this means is that we cannot create significant change on any level, particularly a planetary level, if we are not willing or able to make significant changes in ourselves. It is out of this individual stretch for excellence and self healing that the 144,000 Rainbow Light Warriors can emerge as a collective rallying force for the Gold Horse.