Bear people are warriors, medicine people, and leaders of strength courage, and tenacity. They can be quiet for long periods of time. They are curious, slow and deliberate, good-natured, cheerful, gentle, confident, and introspective. Bear women are affectionate but strict as parents. The bear is a psychic force, a historian and a seer of the future.

I am the Bear, the mother spiritwoman, the strong motherforce. I have a bear look as well as the spirit and the nature of a bear. Physically strong and solid, I am fiercely protective of my home and of those I love.

Strong willed, I ignore all opposition. Although I seem aloof, I am gentle, giving, and compassionate. I see directly to the root of a matter, and I speak directly or else remain silent. I am introspective and,like the bear, I may withdraw for long periods of time. To some I may seem elusive and secretive; to others gregarious and open.

Because I am the bear--shaman, storyteller, romantic--I will read your future or your mind. Dance with me by the fire under the clear night sky, around and around under the moon, spinning and singing until the red dawn breaks and we and the stars fall exhausted into the dusty day. Lie with me on my Navaho blanket. Tangled up in each other like tumbleweeds we will breathe each others souls and taste each others sweat. Last life we loved and ran together in sweet grass. This time we could sit by the fire and I would tell you stories of the dreamtime. I would touch your skin lightly an set off sparks. We would dance in the full moonlight, spinning like fireflies. We would lie looking up into the starbright night, and, as cool breezes carressed our skin, we would share the secrets of the Earth Magic.

The word ursula is a feminization of the word ursine meaning “of or pertaining to a bear, resembling a bear,”. Most lesbian bears are butch, fat or stockily built and sometimes taller than average. Like their gay male counterparts who tend to be hairy, female bears often resist shaving their legs and underarms, while coveting any facial hair that appears. Ursulas are down-to-earth and are usually found in jeans or leather. They have the usual bear traits: easygoing, sincere, down-to-earth, comfortably dressed, expressing a sort of earthy masculinity, sort of a secure, quiet sense of power.