“Her Last Spring—May 2024” photograph by Cindy Campbell
HER BEING, HER ABSENCE
SPECIAL NOTE: Thank you, Cindy Campbell and Doug Monson, for the gift of your art for this post. The three of us collaborateted ten years ago on a card Cindy designed honoring the passing of 760, grandson of 399. It is a gift to connect in this moment again.
On the morning I learned of 399’s passing, I drove the lands where she had roamed for 28 years. She was hit by a car around 10:30 pm on October 22 2024 in the Snake River Canyon, heading downstream, in fact further downriver than she had ever been known to travel. As I left the town of Jackson and headed north, I felt a palpable emptiness on the land and even in the heavens, a strange stillness, a void filled with loss and longing. To absorb we will never again experience 399’s physical majesty is heart-breaking and unfathomable.
Many of us feel there has never been a Bear like 399. She is sui generis, in a league of her own. To me she embodies the archetypal Bear Mother I first dreamt about in 1983. The Bear in that dream was over twenty-feet tall and intuitively spoke to me offering guidance on what was to come. Perhaps 399 is like a divine avatar or holy being who only incarnates every few centuries and arrives when we humans are in need of special help and direction on our evolutionary path. Her passing marks the end of an era, an era we never wanted to end.
As I entered Grand Teton National Park, 399’s primary residence, I felt the land itself mourning the passing of this Great Bear. Her endless movements and migrations—circumnavigating from the north end of the Park to far south of the town of Jackson—brought so much life and vitality to the paths she walked upon, and also to our human community who awaited her next visitation. I am forlorn knowing the possibility of having a sudden, magical encounter or fleeting sighting of her and her various broods will never happen again. It was always a wonder and surprise how she would bless us with her audience—truly posing to give those who loved her a chance for the photograph of a lifetime—than disappear again to her hidden wilds, secret trails of passage, especially the Snake River water corridor. How she spent most of her days and years was mostly hidden from us. But when she reappeared, 399 was an endless source of wisdom, guidance, animal joy, connection, and we followed her with a hunger for what is most real, wild, authentic and true in this world.
Now we must lean into and learn to live in a new reality—The Land Without 399. We must metabolize her being into our beings, the many gifts and lessons experienced as we move through our depth of shared grief. And we also celebrate with immense gratitude the fact that we knew her when she walked the Earth.
Many of us this summer sensed in a more poignant way the possibility that 399’s sacred assignment might be coming to an end. We hoped and prayed her transition, when it was meant to be, would be one of ease and grace.
THE STARMAP OF HER PASSING
An aspect of my livelihood is as a sidereal astrologer. I offer Natal Maps for when a person enters this Earthly dimension and I offer Passing Maps when a soul exits. I use the time they transitioned to create this Map. It offers clues about how a being lived their life and provides insight into what they may choose in a future incarnation.
As I study this StarMap of her passing, several things are startling and astounding. Around the time she was hit by the car—she most likely died instantly—the Last Quarter Moon, symbolic of transitions and sometimes trauma, was beginning to form. Most importantly she was hit just as the Moon in Gemini was about to rise in the east which is called the Ascendent, a point of rebirth in an astrological map. She and the cub would not have seen the moonlight as it was still below the canyon walls and thus it would have been very dark with the constellation of warrior Orion and bright Jupiter, the beneficent teacher, watching over them.
To be born—or reborn as 399 was returning to the spirit lands—with Moon in communicative Gemini on the Ascendent is a sign of someone who was infinitely curious, a teacher, a guide, a traveler, a trickster, a storyteller. Sound like our Queen? Gemini is a sign whose higher purpose is to bridge dualities and differing points of view and to find common ground and acceptance of others. Gemini is about healing shadow issues within ourselves, not projecting them onto others but to work on healing one’s own wounds of origin. And Moon on the Ascendent is often a sign of fame and renown both in this life, and the next.
Gemini symbolizes cars and vehicles. That our beloved 399 was killed by a collision with a car and happened right as the Moon was rising over the eastern horizon is a stunning confirmation to me on some level this was her choice, her moment to exit and she took it.
It is not surprising to note that Jupiter—the beneficent and joyful Teacher—in astronomical Taurus—ruler of the Earth—was in the twelfth astrological house which rules spiritual guides and inner wisdom. Remarkable and fitting for our Grizzly Matriarch who raised, taught and fledged generations of cubs in this magical land of the Tetons. Not to mention how she shifted human consciousness just be being the Being she was.
The last poignant aspect of that night was the Sun—her shining light—was in the fourth house of home, going home. And the annual Sun/Pluto Last Quarter Square was forming, also an aspect of turning the corner, rounding the bend, heading in a new direction. Pluto is the guardian of the underworld and aids in the processes of birth and death, helping a being cross over from one dimension to the next. I cry as I write these words.
HER WISDOM, HER LEGACY
Some of you may not know that 399 was an orphaned cub. Blessed Ranger Chris Flaherty, who retired from the Park years ago, was her human guardian and kept her protected from harm as she was a maturing cub. We are forever grateful to Chris.
As I relived many memories on my drive-about of honoring her the day after she passed, I am most grateful for the myriad moments I had with her since I first started following her in 2007. She was both a fierce mother bear imparting life-giving lessons to her cubs and also played with them in joy and tenderness. I consider her to be one of my greatest mentors. I believe she knew she was a teacher to all of us. She chose to interact with us. She chose to guide us in how to live respectfully alongside wild ones. She became the wisest of elders as she gracefully and youthfully aged.
Along with being remembered by we humans who loved her, 399’s legacy now is all of her cubs with their various personalities and missions. When I first saw her last cub soon after the two of them appeared at Pilgrim Creek in 2023, I immediately dubbed him the Little King. Even at his first introduction to the human world, this wee cub had a powerful stance and presence. He wore the white collar of fur around his neck like a robe of royalty. Now he, called Spirit by many, carries forth the legacy of his lineage—determined to fulfill his mission—as the last born cub of the Queen of the Tetons.
The whole world literally celebrated her life and now we all grieve together. Now we will share her unique story and generous wisdom—each via our own creativity and actions—by passing it forward to those who never knew her physically but can tap into her spiritually from wherever they live.
I prayed in honor and reverence for her that day in the Park amidst tears of release. I asked 399 for her guidance. These words tumbled into my mind as a powerful breath of wind cascaded down Mount Teewinot:
“Claim your gifts, and share them further and farther.”
I don’t know if these words came just for me or if she was offering advice to a humanity in need. Perhaps they resonate with you.
Claim your gifts, and share them further and farther.
Beloved Grizzly Mother, 399, for now you reside in the heavens, in the breathing winds and the flowing waters, and live on in our hearts. We can connect with you there. We love you. We thank you. Fare-thee-well.
