Ant can carry a leaf over hundreds of miles just to get it back to the anthill. Ants in Africa will strip a forest bare when food is scarce, if it takes them a year. Ant’s medicine is the strategy of patience. Ant is a builder like Beaver, is aggressive like Badger, has stamina like Elk, scrutiny like Mouse, and give-away like Turkey.


Every Ant in an anthill is part of the Ant “group mind,” as all the Ants work for the Queen Ant and the colony. Self-sacrifice is part of Ant medicine. Greater than Ant’s other medicines, however, is patience.
Ant people are active, community-minded folks who see the greater future needs of their town. Ant people are planners, like Squirrel, and are content to see their dreams being built a little at a time. In today’s society this is a rare quality. In the desert, one type of Ant will burrow a conical hole with its apex at the bottom. The Ant will cover itself and patiently wait for some unsuspecting insect to fall in. As the sand crumbles, the prey eventually falls to the bottom, only to find Ant’s open jaws.


Patience does have its rewards! Ant people have a knowing about the sweet victory at the end of the line. There is never a concern about “going without” if they are late for the opening of a sale. If what they want is sold out, they are sure that something equal or better is available.




Watch out! Here comes the sting! If you are in a hurry, you may fall prey to those who are not working for the good of the whole of humanity. Those individuals who make greed a way of life prey on the fear and urgency of those who have forgotten natural and tribal law. It’s easy money! If this warning applies to you, become aware of users and con artists. In the contrary position, Ant also teaches you to trust natural law. If you do, harmony always follows. Your silly impatience will bring Coyote to aid you in sabotaging your plans for the future if you allow your panic to outweigh your rational sensibilities. The key here is to honor the will of the Great Spirit, so that mountains are not made out of anthills.


Excerpt from “Medicine Cards” by Jamie Sams & David Carson