The Bearwalker: Spirit on Two Legs

As it was told to me, in the old days, before the talking wires and the world forgot how to listen, there were those who walked between the worlds. They did not move like other men. Their steps were heavy with medicine, their eyes full of shadow. Some called them Bearwalkers.

To the unknowing, the Bearwalker inspired fear. Whispers passed between lodge walls and under blankets late at night, stories of men turning to beasts, of great black bears walking upright beneath a moonless sky. Tracks in the snow that began as paw prints and ended as human feet or the other way around. Strange lights in the trees. A presence watching, just beyond the firelight.

These were not mere tales to frighten children. They were teachings wrapped in caution, wrapped again in mystery.

But not all teachings are rooted in fear.

Among the Anishinaabeg, it is said that the Bearwalker is not a creature of malice but a spirit, Makwa bimose the Bear Walker, who moves between this world and the next. Once human, now more than human, the Bearwalker returns not to haunt but to guide.

When a Bearwalker is seen standing upright in the form of a bear or sometimes appearing as a fireball, or as an orb in a photograph, it is a sign. A sign that the spirit world has heard your call. Such appearances are rare and not for everyone. Only those with open hearts and clear vision will perceive them.

The old ones remind us…It is not the Bearwalker who brings fear, but the fear in our own hearts. As with the bear itself, both healer and predator, so too is the Bearwalkers’ medicine powerful. It can clarify or confuse, depending on the spirit of the one who receives it.

Those who walk with good intentions have nothing to fear.

Among many nations, the bear is honored as a healer and protector. The Bear Clan held the medicine bundles. Their dreams were full of knowledge. The bear walks alone, just as the one who seeks vision must walk alone into the forest. To follow the bear’s path is to undergo transformation, not to wield power over others, but to awaken power within oneself.

In walking the bear’s path, we remember what modern life asks us to forget, that we are still wild, still dreaming, still connected to something deeper than the surface of things.

There are stories still being told around campfires, deep in the forest, away from the sounds of civilization.

In one telling, a young man grieving his grandmother’s death wandered into the forest, praying for a sign. For three nights, he fasted beneath cedar boughs. On the third night, a shadow moved toward him, tall, upright, furred. His heart did not panic. He remembered his grandmother’s words, “Do not run from what you do not understand. Listen first”.

The shadow came close, then knelt beside him. In the morning, he woke to find bear tracks around his camp, and an eagle feather lay gently on his chest. That man became a healer, guided by dreams and helped by unseen hands.

Another tells a story of a grandmother who saw a fireball outside her window. She knew it wasn’t lightning or mischief. It was her long-passed husband’s spirit bringing a message. The next day, she visited a feverish child in the village. She brewed willow bark and bear root, the medicine her husband once taught her, and the child quickly recovered.

The Bearwalker had walked again, not to harm but to help.

For those who remember, the Bearwalker is not a monster of horror stories, but a bridge. A reminder that the veil between worlds is thin, and our ancestors are close. That help is already on the way, if we know how to ask.

They say the Bearwalker appears in many forms: a ripple in the shadows, a song that plays at just the right time, a chill down the spine, a hum in the ears. A presence felt, not feared.

These are not signs of danger but of presence.

So, if you are walking alone and feel the hair rise on the back of your neck, do not run. If you dream of a bear standing upright or see something glimmer in the corner of your eye, take heart. Someone is with you, Someone from your bloodline, Someone who remembers the old ways.

They have not left you.

They are Bearwalkers now.

And maybe they remind us of the Bearwalker inside us, the wild part still watching from the woods of our soul, waiting to be remembered.

Authors Note

Stories like the Bearwalker invite us to see beyond fear and into the mystery of what it means to be human, and more than human. In many traditions, the bear is a symbol of healing, solitude, instinct, and power rooted in the Earth. Perhaps, the Bearwalker is not only a spirit that visits from the Other Side, but also a part of ourselves: the wild part that must be forgotten, even buried, to survive in the modern world.

But what if it's not gone?

What if the Bearwalker is a call, not just from our ancestors, but from the part of us that still remembers? The part that listens. That dreams. That walks alone in the woods without needing to be told what is sacred.

Have you felt the Bearwalker in your life?

What part of your wild self have you had to forget?

And what might happen if you remembered?