Usually, the moon is personified in myths as a female deity, but it is also known in some cultures as a male figure. Lunar symbolism brings together powers associated with the cyclical patterns in nature: the tide, the fertility cycle of a woman, the shedding of the snake’s skin. All of these repetitive modes of change, death and rebirth, are associated in lunar symbolism. The moon represents a force that expresses itself indirectly and through endurance rather than through direct aggression and oppression. It is the power of water to wear away the stone, the survival of the snake that disappears into the earth as it flees the hungry eagle, and the power of healing that comes through a connection with deep, vegetative forces in the psyche. The medicine shield of Chief Arapoosh of the Crow Indians offered physical and spiritual protection through the powers of the Moon, who is portrayed as he appeared to the chief during a vision quest. A deer tail and eagle feathers wrapped in red trade-cloth are fastened at one side of the shield. The head and neck of a crane are tied to the opposite side, together with crow or raven feathers, a length