In the everyday world, I go by Alan Tripp, but in the spirit … it’s Pathfinder … or Pathfinder Hauk … that identifies me these days.
Let me begin by repeating a quote I heard in a video yesterday that perfectly speaks what it is I feel when it comes to names.
“Why do you change your name?” begins James Tree-Gilmore.
“It’s because it brings new power to you to become something different than you are. And the name describes what you are to become.”
It’s from a video he posted that explores the power and purpose of a spiritual name.
In my life, I’ve had a variety of names beyond my birth name.
The first spirit name was “Standing Wolf” — which helped me learn to stand on my own two feet and speak with my own inner strength.
This name saw me through some of the most difficult times in my life, helped teach me to believe in myself and to stand up for myself.
The name helped give me strength … or spiritual medicine … to do this.
I could not help others stand without first learning to myself stand.
The next name to come to me was “Pathfinder” … given to me by the first Druid of Turtle Island.
It was given because I was trying to find my way through the proverbial spiritual wilderness.
This name helped me over many years to find my way through teachings shared with me via elders from various tribes — teachings that taught me how to pray and work with a sacred Pipe.
But as one of my original teachers, Ken Marsh of the Bear Tribe Medicine Society, taught me … “Make the prayers your own.”
The druid I mentioned taught me that I could find similar spiritual pathways through my own European ancestry.
The lessons came because I was having a hard time because although I’d had the lessons of the Pipe shared with me from tribal elders / teachers who chose to share that wisdom with me when I asked respectfully … I was always worried I was taking advantage of the First Peoples cultures of this land and their ancestors.
So, he named me Pathfinder because I was seeking to forge a new path for myself.
Which I did, and even after I found my way to Norse and Gaelic pathways and gave up the pipe, I STILL continued to find and create new paths for myself as it was when I’d given up working with Pipes that the Malstrom Pipe (carved of black Pipestone) started entering my dreams and chose me to carry it.
Another name came to me about this same time … Hauk.
Now this name was the name of a Klingon warrior who was torn between service to Starfleet and that of the Klingon Empire and his hereditary House therein.
I have spent 30 years writing that character to where it seemed as alive as I am.
And then when the MMO Star Trek Online launched, I created the character within the game where he represented me within the game and vice-versa.
So when I had the chance to portray him as my character in a radio drama-style Klingon audio podcast, I jumped at the chance.
It was from there that Hauk and I seemed to merge and become one and the same.
This name taught me to walk with honor, to embrace the path of a warrior but to also walk with the heart of a Starfleet officer … and to lead like a Starfleet captain.
Now we fast forward to present day when the new Sunstone Pipe has been forged and will be handed to me within the next couple of days.
My path and journey evolve again and so my name evolves with it.
I’ve gone from being a photojournalist and sports photographer to being a direct care staff member on a unit at the local mental hospital.
So, my path has shifted from being a “hunter of stories” to being one who helps provide a safe space where those recovering from and / or learning to deal with their illnesses can do so.
I tap all the skills life’s journey has given me in this new endeavor, right down to those skills given me as a pathfinder.
It’s where I’ve been learning to embrace both the spirit of the Great Bear *and* the Great Wolf while using the share vision of the hawk that is within me.
And with this path change and with the coming of this new Pipe … my name again evolves and changes.
But even though the meaning shifts and changes, it’s …. “The Pathfinder” …. or “The Pathfinder Hauk” which translates to “The Hawk Pathfinder.”
In the past, Pathfinder was about me finding my own path.
Now that I’ve found that path, it’s about helping others with finding their own paths through the wilderness.
And the spirit within me is a sea hawk … an Osprey.
More of my name will likely be revealed to me in a couple weeks when I participate in a walk-through nature, seeking spiritual answers and visions as I carry the Sunstone Pipe to a sacred place where it will be smoked for the first time officially, and its spirit awakened.
This new meaning of my name comes to me as I continue to forge a new path as I walk one of Norse-Gaelic ancestry as a Druid of Turtle Island while walking with a Pipe that chooses to help me do so.
As well as as I learn to help others as a pathfinder, helping them find their own paths … their own ways of moving forward through their lives.
~ The Pathfinder
