The February Moon is known as Mukwa Geezis, or Bear Moon, for the Anishnabe people. A sky filled with stars, and the bear moon are depicted in this collage of four pieces each with their own symbolism.

Looking closely at the arm and within the bear, there are groupings of lines:  2, 3, 4 and 7 are seen in each piece.  The 2 lines are for sun and moon, mother and father, earth and sky, etc.  The 3 lines are for the sweetgrass teaching, body, mind and spirit.  The 4 lines are for the four directions, the medicine wheel and gosh there are a great many teachings that go in with that one.  7 lines are for the 7 grandfather teachings, one of the most important ones being humility. There are 6 lines on the arm of the bear which is for the sweetgrass teaching:  3 lines for Body, Mind, Spirit, but they’re in there twice as some folks need to be reminded often as to how important it is to know this teaching.  

In one of the paintings you’ll see the yellow moon:  that is Nokomis, or Grandmother, the wise teacher who is quickly regaining her rightful place in the modern Anishnabe community.  

And with the pink sky painting, it is a reminder of the cycles of nature in the land where we come from: a pink sky might appear to be the signs of spring.