The Two Wolves Within: A Cherokee Legend

(source)

So I recently stumbled upon the following short Cherokee wisdom story, and found it quite powerful, so figured I'd share it here. Hope you enjoy, and find it to be useful or inspiring.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. ‘A fight is going on inside of me,’ he said to the boy. ‘It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.’

He continued, ‘The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.’

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf will win?’ The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.'” (source)

(A slightly longer variant of the same story can also be found at the link above where this on is sourced from; feel free to check it out.)

The very same wisdom is found in the ancient eastern traditions symbolized by the two coiled serpents representing the 'kundalini' energy, that is the divine energy flowing through us giving us life; but when this inner energy is misused by indulging the ego and desire, the energy coils downwards instead of upwards - the lower animal desires overcoming the higher divine potential. See also this link for much in-depth discussion on this age-old topic.

This same symbolism can also be found in the Jewish scriptures, in the story of Moses raising up the bronze serpent in the wilderness; in order that whoever among the children of Israel - who were at the time being bitten by a plague of poisonous serpents which were killing them - that whoever looked up to this bronze snake would be saved. (Numbers 21) We see here again one snake representing good (the raised up bronze snake saving mankind) and one representing evil (poisonous snake crawling on the ground killing mankind), just as two wolves were used by the Cherokees to represent the exact same battle raging within us all.

Further, in the Christian Bible Jesus identified himself as representing the higher or awakened 'serpent' who must be raised up in order to save himself and the world (representing the kundalini energy being raised up in man rather than being ignored or misused and abused as the common practice has been for the majority of humanity for thousands of years).

"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up," Jesus is recorded as saying in John 3:14. This can easily be seen as representing a rise in consciousness in mankind necessary for enlightenment and the manifesting of a New Age of peace (also described as heaven on earth); for the term "son of man" always referred to humanity as a whole in Hebrew scriptures, as well as representing the ideal perfect man when used as a title for Jesus - who represents mankind's highest potential and capacity for love, peace and ability to fully embrace the brotherhood of mankind over and above the fear, anger and division which has the power to destroy us all. Additionally, the context of this saying is Jesus speaking on ascending into "heaven," which could easily be seen as an ascension into higher levels of consciousness (and ultimately the highest level of 'Christ Consciousness') in the here and now which are necessary for creating heaven on earth (ushering in the new age of peace), as well as the ascension of our soul/spirit into higher spiritual realms when we physically die.

In Christianity, this inner battle is traditionally represented in terms of the 'holy spirit' versus the 'devil'. In Gnostic and mystic traditions, also found scattered throughout nearly all religious traditions, it is represented in terms of the cosmic battle between light and darkness. But whatever one calls it, and whatever symbols used to represent it, it is the same battle which has been raging within humanity since time immemorial. And though it is quite simple to choose light over darkness (in a nutshell love over fear), it is most certainly not always easy; which is why the world is in the sad state of affairs it continues to find itself in.

No matter what beliefs you hold, it seems that at the end of the day, all of life and human existence can pretty much be boiled down down to one simple question: Which wolf do you feed?