Teaching 3
The spirit realms intersect this world most apparently in dreams and trance states. Not all dreams connect us to the mysterious, but we do know it when they do (such as when we journey to a future time and foresee the events there). No one needs to convince us that this dimension exists when we’ve sojourned there, and witnessed unusual events personally. In many indigenous cultures, dreams are utilized as vehicles to carry out medicine work. Native doctors can heal persons that they have never before met whilst in a dream; only to meet them afterwards. They can even journey into the past or future to do doctoring. The spirit world is not very familiar to most of us. It works according to very strange rules. Nonetheless we are affected by it because it is one of the 4 aspects of what we are.
I will share two things that help us to develop this aspect.. They are both very powerful. Although they are concepts to meditate on, don’t let that fool you because they help us to traverse a lot of ground spiritually if practiced. The first is to focus on our death. Should we keep our death in mind we will grow immensely in our mystical capacity.
Death is a secret of life; it is bound up within it and part of life. Life and death are really two aspects of the same thing; exactly what that ‘thing’ is, is a mystery. But less to one who has known death. In some indigenous cultures only a person who has died is able to pursue the profession of a shaman or oodagonka (female shaman). Once one has entered death and returned, the knows both sides of what we might call a hidden reality, and can through training learn to regain access to the mystical realm adequately to access its forces. In many powerful medicine societies of Shamans and Oodagonka, this ‘mediator of worlds’ is at risk of death or insanity every time that they shamanize. Of course, they are unable ‘not to’ shamanize; else they will grow sick and die.
They are, therefore, forever caught between the two worlds or sides of reality. In a sense we are too; in a very real sense that is, for our situation only appears different out of deliberate denial. This denial arises out of fear. Indigenous cultures do not teach fear concerning death. We need to prepare wisely for it. To do that we must remember it; we must remember that that is where we are going; it is our goal.
It is our final awakening; our second, most important birth. We finally become real when we die. Our soul was given individuality here at first birth; it joins the eternal ocean of life at second birth. We are born out of darkness from the Earth’s womb into the light of Reality; our spirit merges with Nature’s spirit and we can relate to Her like a growing child does its mother. We must be born to do that; that means we must die. We must awake from the womb and open our eyes.
They say, if we have lived right, we face death blissfully. Those who lived evil lives consumed in selfishness, like the dark witches, die paralyzed in terror. That’s how we know who they were; their face, gripped with horror does show it. We don’t want to live that way. We must consider eternality with every choice we make. What we make here in this Earth, lives here and hereafter. If we can die in clean conscience our spirit will know bliss. Yet being imperfect; we are only expected to do our best in good faith; only our own hearts can guide us. Our conscience is the light that connects us to the Giver of Life.
My first mentor and teacher, Grandfather David Monongye, was a very saintly person. He loved to kid and laugh a lot. He always had the sweetest demeanor. He could be serious, and was often meditative, but he seemed mostly preoccupied with making people feel happy and enjoying them, and thus his life. He had been a long distance runner through his youth and adult life. On occasion, at the age of 115, he’d lean over and say, in a lively tone, “I’d like to have a foot race with you. How far should we go?” “Maybe we should run to Moenkopi. Then we could plant your garden there again.”, I’d chime in. “I’d like that”, he’d reply, “You know that’s a long way to Moenkopi; 40 some miles or more.” “ I used to run that once or twice a week when I was young.”. On mentioning that, you could see him begin to walk thoughtfully and pleasantly through memory lane.
One evening while talking with him, I noticed that he was starting to drift off. There were long pauses in our conversation. I was getting very tired as well. The next thing I knew, I had fallen asleep too; he in his chair, and I on the floor beside it.
In my dream I saw the two of us there as we were; in our same places. My mind filled the room. I watched over myself, there asleep on the floor; where I had lain outstretched listening to him as I dozed off.
At that point I saw the most wondrous thing. Grandfather was glowing and his spirit shimmered all about his body. He became more and more brilliant and began to rise up slightly. I was struck with the most beautiful feeling as I observed all of this. He then lifted his spirit arms up, his open hands high toward the heavens, and began to draw upwards. He appeared as a god at that point. This great love saturated the room like distilled perfume of rose. I could not understand what he meant to do, but I knew it was wonderful, whatever it was. His soul expressed a reverent longing for something; and he reached up through the rooftop into the heavens in a beautiful, faithful worship. That’s all I knew. I woke up and turned to look over at him where he slept. He had a slight, soft smile on his face as if he were dreaming alongside me. I wondered.
I left midday of the following day, after eating nukweevee (hominy and mutton stew), which Mina had prepared. After that, whenever I would think of him, I remembered that strange dream. Again, I that most wonderful feeling would return to me.
Once or twice a week, I would get in my car and head out to go see him. The queerest thing kept happening; I could not reach his house. The most disturbing, troubled feeling would overcome me and I’d just turn back. One time I fought hard to get there despite this perplexing dilemma, only to find I had in the end, in some unimaginable way, circled through the reservation and was heading back home again. I had traveled for more than three hours, without even realizing that I was backtracking. I was beside myself. I gave up and decided to go home.
As it turned out, that was the last I was able to visit with grandfather David. He had passed away three days after I’d left Hotevilla, where he lived. Although I would forever miss him dearly, I understood, looking back on it, what he was sought while I dreamt with him that last evening. He was reaching into the life hereafter. It was the most wonderful way of approaching the heavenly world that I can imagine; he was connecting with that place in a state of mindful, rapturous worship. I guess this is the way we should each look forward to being made ‘Real’; it is our ‘true birth’, the birth of our spirit; it is in that realm that we fully, and finally awaken.
Although we do not befriend death, nor frequent its door as Shamans do, we are hemmed in exactly as deeply and tightly as they are--for we shall die too. While we neglect it, it surrounds and permeates life; it is the meaning of life; for it gives life purpose. The intensity of shamanic flight, reveals the ecstasy of a mysterious predicament; the eclipse of life and death. In the shamanic cultures of Siberia, the shaman is intertwined within his/her host community; if a shaman or oodagonka dies, disappears, or looses sanity, the entire village or villages fall into an agitated, frenzied fit. This debilitating nervous spell will grip the people of the area until another shaman can be found.
Death is not viewed negatively in the indigenous world. It is a power within this world; all power must be dealt with consciously and carefully. Medicine persons and shamans have mastered the sense, placement, shape and movement, of energies that interplay between life and death. They help direct and redirect these energies in order to maintain harmony. It is not death, but creating acts of disharmony that need be feared. We need to fear not living rightly. Death has an important place in life. We avoid it coming prematurely, because harmony leads to long life. And long life allows us to serve our Creator by serving our relatives; and that is what the Great Life Giver told us to do. We are meant to live to old age and then we are meant to enter the spirit world; that is the full circle of life. Everything enters the rhythms of life and death; they are both holy emanations of a single Reality. Death when seen correctly, enriches life with beauty and holiness. It bestows great value on life; even as life grants death its meaningfulness.
Death is change or transformation. It is rebirth. It is regeneration. Death furnishes all with life. It is the blood of the deer that nourishes our bodies. It is the seed that we crush between our teeth that confers life onto us. That is how close life and death are in this world. One thing, or many, must die so that another may live. Death follows life and feeds it; without it life would seize to exist; life feeds on life. All of this present generation must disappear so that the cycle of generations may continue. Death is the requirement for Life to proceed. Neither life nor death can exist without the other.
Many native cultures prepare for death spiritually and physically. Some people keep a song and choose the day that they die; then they sing this song and they die. it is wise to be ready for any journey when it comes time to make it. Once we can grasp how near death is to us, we begin to see things in a clearer way spiritually. I heard it said that, “We came into this life with nothing, we leave with nothing, and it is better to have little while we are here.” we linger but a short time between the here and the there. We want to take account for our days to be sure we stay on track.My dad uses a crescent shaped moon altar for certain ceremonies. The moon is flat on top because that is the ‘road of life’. The moon is short because our life on earth here is short. Truly, it will pass in the twinkling of a eye; old age catches up on us quickly; and before we had much time to consider it, we are at the end of our road. that is why it is really good to take time to pray about this. Bring it to mind and meditate on it often; it empowers us by solidifying the sense of who we are to ourselves. Death makes us matter spiritually; within our own hearts. We want to make sure that we are going to where we want to be getting to, in our lives, and making our hearts come out the way we want them to when we pass through the door and are completed in life.
The last thing to meditate on is this, which has no answer but the one that you give it. In fact, there are many powerful answers within it just like there are within the medicine wheel teachings. It is something my dad shares with people occasionally. I then saw it, or something very similar to it in a college book and got very surprised. These questions you must answer: “Where did you come from? Why are you here? and Where are you going?” Take your time to consider how you want to answer them first, because they are very important to everyone here on earth, living beside yourself. No matter what how you interpret it, if you give that answer a little thought your answer will help you find something spiritual and meaningful.
Each of these aspects is interwoven into the others. Mystical awakenings often involve nature and the physical world. The Earth and all living things have a spirit. When a person’s mystical faculty awakens they often commune with the mind or presence of nature, or perhaps with a bird or tree; the sensation of communication causes that person to know (often for the first time if they are not from an indigenous culture) that nature and all things within the Earth are alive. This is a wonderful and surprising truth to many people; it usually leaves a permanent impression on how they view things.
A short story will help convey this concept of the relationship between humans and the earth. It so happened some years ago, that an environmental group called upon several Native Americans to come to a public gathering and speak. When they arrived they told all of the people gathered there to, “Go ahead, throw your trash on the ground, dump your oil, throw chemicals in the creek. Do whatever you want to. When we clean up our hearts then the earth will be clean too.”
This story is similar in spirit to another one that I want to tell you. Another man who works with Indian medicines told it to me. This man is has a very beautiful heart. I was happy to find that he had a wife and child to share his heart living in his home beside him. This is his story, at least one of them: There was a woman who knew many Indian people. Traditional Indians leave their homes open since they don’t believe in possession of anything. Your home is your church and you don’t shut anyone out of your church. One medicine man says it like this, “How can I tell someone they can’t come in here and pray? That could be God Himself. I could be saying that to God!” That is the way our old traditionalists think of other people.
So here’s what happened: This woman had found out about how traditional Indians live and was taking advantage of it. She was going from house to house and living there for how long she wanted. She knew how the ‘old way’ Indians don’t believe we possess our homes and that they are more like churches and she was enjoying herself being around them. The only thing is, this woman was stealing things. She was having a bit of a free for all and she liked all the beautiful beaded things and colorful blankets and good things, hard goods, and soft goods. She was just helping herself to all these things and she was enjoying herself more than she should have. She forgot to think of others. She forgot to consider the families, and even the children of these homes, and how hard it can be for Indian families to make ends meet. So, of course it got noticed what was happening and a lot of people were talking about how they were missing things. Where could certain things be? They are always kept in a certain place, but we can’t find them anymore. So everyone figured out what was going on.
One day the woman knocked on the door of this Indian traditionalist who I’ll call Paul Goodheart. He could see what she intended, that she was looking to stay in his home. She sensed how people were closing her off and being careful around her. Goodheart told her, “Come on in, make yourself comfortable. Sit down.” She told him how she was wondering if she could stay there for a while. Right there he told her, “you can stay here with my family how long you need to, but I want to say something first. Look around. Do you see all these good things we have? You can see a lot of beautiful things in our home. In fact we have so many good things, we can’t use them all.”
“I try to help out my relatives however I can, and they bring me things because that’s how they can think to thank me for it. That shows how they think of us, so it makes us feel good. They put a lot of prayers into these things that they make for us, or bring here. So we have beautiful things, like prayers, hanging on our walls; and we have more than we need.”
“If you find something you like, go ahead and have it. You don’t even need to ask. Just take it.”The funny thing is, this woman, who stayed with them for some time, never took anything at all. If fact she brought him all kind of gifts. She brought him more than he needed; especially because he already had so much more than he needed to start with. Now Paul Goodheart is not a wealthy man be the white standard. A lot of people would even say he was poor. Nevertheless, our true traditional people are the richest people on Earth.
There is a Sufi mystic story that points out about the truth of wealth, and how it is to be ‘truly rich’. This middle Eastern story comes from Iran or Pakistan, or Afghanistan or Iraq, or somewhere like that where these Sufis live. It talks of Jesus.
They say that Jesus kept nothing with Him except a cup, a comb, and the coarse robe He used to clothe Himself. His cup was the hands that he used to drink from, and His comb was the fingers he used to keep his long, flowing hair from tangling. At dawn-tide, after drinking and washing His face in the river, He would stand up and pray. Facing the sun, He would call out, “Who on Earth is richer than I, Lord?” Jesus, and our traditional Indian people, are the richest people on Earth; truly.
Since the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro things have taken a spin for the worse. Conference after conference has followed that Conference. The United Nations and world scientists have come to realize the inestimable value of indigenous people in the preservation of wildlife and indeed the survival of the planet. Paper after scientific paper is published highlighting new discoveries attesting that the survival of Native cultures is synonymous with the survival of all humankind. And yet, since that day, the facts have become more and more depressing, more hopeless. The extinction of the rainforests have almost doubled in intensity, the loss of native languages and tribes is proceeding with every increasing, lightning swiftness. Until humanity has a change of heart, no small tokens of ‘goodness’, no proper conduct, not politically correct phrases or opinions are going to make any ANY difference at all. It is all a matter of the heart. We are in the midst of the fastest mass extinction of the planet in history, in prehistory. This is the Mirror of God showing us our state of mind, the condition of our heart. We are on a great and entertaining death course. We are making a good salary digging our own graves. We are sick and believe we are extraordinary. When we become healthy we will know we are ordinary, yet sacred creatures, simple beings imbued with love. We don’t need to be any more than that. And love is an everlasting entertainment, love for each other, love for the Earth and nature. About the frivolous, poisonous business that the world is bewitched in pursuing, it is but sociological sorcery, psychological sorcery, a spell of illusions; such delusion is killing the Earth world-wide. God doesn’t poison the Earth, God doesn’t make trash, we do it. And we suffer our own consequences by poisoning our own sacred bodies and minds. Nature is holy indeed; she is the life giver; the provider of food for the children. That makes her holier than anything us humans can achieve. We merely plant the seeds; she is within them; inside them as DNA. Seeds are machines with a spirit. They are more complicated than the greatest scientific works are capable of describing. They unfold the pattern written within them are enfold that pattern back into an enormous collection of new seeds. They hold the beginning in the end. They recreate themselves. They regenerate. And they regenerate us; therefore they, the creation of nature, are holy.
We have many ceremonies about that. They say we worship nature. We love nature because we see the spirit within nature and the spirit shows us ourselves in nature and we come to know the spirit in a very personal way in these ceremonies. These ceremonies use elements of the earth and nature so that we can talk with God and God can heal us through the earth in this way. It is not child’s play although some serious ceremonies have a very playful nature and it is not sorcery although terminal illnesses and even insanity are routinely cured through them or the future seen into. What they are is our love of God, and ourselves and nature. We learn God in these ways, we learn ourselves in these ways. They are hard but they are beautiful. But then nothing free is worth anything anyway. Even if a thing is good, you cannot appreciate something you have not earned. Neither can you be worth of it because you will not understand it.
These ceremonies are the artwork of ourselves offered up as a gift to the spirit, the spirit then dances us, the ancestors place their robe about us, and we watch what the spirit will show us through it all. The spirit gives us the gift of ourselves back to us and we find out who we are that way. Sicknesses are often cured in the process and purity returns to our injured hearts and we are made whole for a time as a result. The spirit of God lives within nature; we, us humans, are nature like a tree is nature or a bear or an elk is nature. or as a flower or a songbird is nature. They sometimes say that, “our religion is the same as the religion of the birds.” That is because it is a joyful way of life.
We sing when we gather berries or hunt. There are songs that go along with the things that we do in the course of life that are needed for living. We sing when we bath in a sweat lodge. We sing doctoring songs when we doctor a patient. Native religion is a religion of appreciation and thanksgiving for life. There are sunrise and sunset songs; all of life has its own song. Everywhere, the songs are sung in innumerable languages by the indigenous nations of the Earth. there are songs being sung right now; the songs never end. With the Earth, the people of the Earth sing. They give thanks; they harmonize with its rhythms; they find oneness in the natural rhythms of what brings life.
The whole earth sings; it vibrates spiritually. She has her hidden song; it is the song of all existing beings. The souls of all things sing; man merely imitates it. The breath vibrates when we talk or sing. The souls of the entire creation sing their essence; together they emanate the spiritual voice of Nature. It is the song of the earth. It is life indeed.
When the spirit entered us it left swirls and spirals in our hands and the bottoms of our feet. You can see the spiral of where the spirit sang into an infant on the top of its head or in the swirls of little hairs on its belly. We swirl like the galaxies, we swirl like whirl pools, black holes swirls and whirlwinds. we are movement, our spirit is a movement that moves out of the timeless reaches of eternity. When powerful medicine persons connect with the spirit they often move back and forth between the Mystical realms and this ordinary sacred world. They suddenly look like a hummingbird fluttering although their movement is more of a pulsing cadence. They work medicine from this place. It is called dancing hands or sacred movement or dream time by different people. There are many strange and beautiful things that native people around the world are used to or have grown accustomed to culturally. These things keep us mindful of the presence of God or the Spirit. It is hard not to believe in our spirituality when it is all around us on the earth that we live within. It is hard not to believe when you see such things on a periodic basis. Unfortunately it is dying out now. We are loosing our connection; to each other, to the Spirit, and to the Earth. You might say that the Earth is dying because our bodies no longer sense her. We no longer sense each other. We have lost where we are each at, and don’t know each other; we are little better in touch with reality than a schizophrenic: We have stopped communicating and have started assuming and anticipating; we are deciding how our relatives think, rather than letting them speak for themselves. Everything is getting fragmented, falling apart; this deterioration is a sign of death. We need to start asking each other how we feel and what we want and what we would like and appreciate of each other; not to please, but to know. Then when we feel like giving we will know what to give.
Death is rebirth. These things always go together. Where we see one we find the other. Something is changing in the earth, and we can only pray that it goes in a good way. this change is the result of the reckless irresponsibility of humans which is fueled by greed. An Indian prayer man once said, “Every problem in the world is from two things. Greed, and not taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions”. If we can come together in the midst of this storm we can probably decide the right things. The good thing of it is when we realize what the Earth is going through and how serious it is, we will probably be able to throw out a lot of the distractions that don’t mean anything and choose the things that really do matter. So, if we can all come together and work together agreement will be easier and for the first time humanity may be able to unite. We can probably do a lot of good if we put our hearts and minds together and look toward a good world for the children. We might find unimagined blessings within in us, if we can only do this.
But we are concerned because most of our traditionalist are dying out. No one has listened to them. Seeing that, the newer generations stopped listening to them also. The fact is, they still have the answer that our people have had since the begining. If they are all gone, and most are in their final years now, it will have finally ‘ended for us’. For all of us. We don’t say they have every answer but they have a good way. Maybe they have half of the answer. That’s a lot to loose. I don’t know if it will work out if we only have half, and the other half is gone; if it does it won’t be easy. No one will feel too good about. It will be pretty hard. A lot of suffering. That’s when everyone will agree that we should have saved the other half. We should have listened while we still could. A mistake will be admitted and we will all have to pay for it. So that’s why we pray and try to do what we can so that that doesn’t happen. There is still some twilight left. The sun hasn’t quite set yet. I have faith that there is still a enough time to get on track if enough people wake up and we don’t get distracted but use hope to back us, and keep ‘our agreement’ strong.
They say that the holy road, the good red road, is like an eagle feather. At first, upon entering it, the way is wide; there is room for mistakes. The further you travel along it, the narrower it becomes, until in old age you need be clear in your heart and strong in your spirit lest you loose sight of it. The down plumes at the base are the beauty that captivates one who newly enters it. The spirits are very close to one whose life is spiritually resurrected; holiness enters them and lingers all around them like that soft down. They have no firmness or strength which comes from wisdom. The plume does not allow an eagle to fly. The middle of the feather hold the long quills. These give the eagle strong flight. The end and tip of the feather help to guide that flight; they are as our elders. The shaft is the center and stability; there is nothing without it. We must stay in the center; that is the holy road. If we follow that shaft it thins to become like a razors edge; our attention must be steady to remain on course. They quills branch off and confuse the path if we are not attentive. They are distractions or they are beauty; depending on our clarity of purpose. If we stay on the holy road they give us flight. If we loose direction and digress, if we fall from the path we entangle the feather and loose balance; we begin to fall. We can hurt ourselves and others severely, depending on the height of our fall. The more powerful our flight, the greater the spiritual damage we are capable of inflicting on our souls. Love keeps us moving and respect for the Spirit of All Things keeps us healthy, centered, and humble.
I heard it said, “We are not only first nations people, we are all people.” We live within the medicine wheel and the medicine wheel exists within us; we are a mirror reflection of it. There are four colors; there are four races represented within the medicine wheel: White, black, red and yellow. Yellow is the first color and is related to the East. White is situated in the North, red in the south, and black in the west. A red man sits in the south, but within him are all of the colors. The entire medicine wheel is within his spirit and soul. His physical being corresponds to his color in the world. The spirit and soul are transcendent, having all the powers within them. And these powers must be balanced if we are to be holy person. Few ever reach that perfect harmony; they are powerful like the angels.
The message of Indigenous America is connection, relationship, and unity. All people are one. One of the direct, living descendants of Chief Joseph says, “We have no qualms about color. It has no meaning. It doesn’t mean anything.” “When we are together we are one. Nothing can break it.” This is the same message Chief Sitting Bull conveyed when he said, “The heart knows not the color of the skin.” This is an ancient traditional teaching. It still lives among our true traditionalists everywhere. The lineage of the ancient ones has not yet been broken. this lineage has born the test of much suffering, even two hundred years of genocide, and cultural erasure. The power of forgiveness is greater than hate; love vanquishes condescension and discrimination. That is the power our elders, our true traditionalist hold. They are treasures; they are the most beautiful people on Earth.
Nonetheless, the pain has been almost unbearable. It is like a canoe in a tsunami. Few are as strong as our traditionalists; and so you see, they are living miracles. They are the angels of humanity. They can save our planet; if only we give them our support. There is enough space on our planet for our world and theirs. It isn’t right for one people to take up all the room; all to themselves. Leave a little bit, give something back, live and let live. They are being forced out of existence; many have no support, no hope; yet they persist. And they will, except that just after them the generational chain has been broken in the majority of cases.
The medicine wheel is many things. It is birth, youth, maturity, and old age and death. The East is birth, south is youth, north is maturity and the west is old age. Some say our spirits travel toward the south where youth and fresh growth live. At its center it is holy; this is the heart of the good red road; it is balance and understanding of life. Our children who are our purpose and priority are there. We cannot forget them; we must look to them first. Our elders who are our most important people, our guidance and wisdom; the keepers of our dreams, are there in it too. All things are within the medicine wheel. It is our life, our careers, our talents and gifts, our spirituality, our whole beings. Religion and Earthly life join to be one with ourselves, our families and our relations. Everything we need is there. The way to live in balance and according to the sacred order of things is all there. We need nothing more. We need to learn it and how it works, and that is where our elders come in.
In Native gatherings, the medicine wheel is present. The way things are done socially and communally, is seen, noticed, known, and experienced. It feeds us, it is our medicine. We feed each other. It is greater than us, than any of each of us are; that is what our elders know. They make it work, come about, be real to us. By medicine I mean spiritual life; I mean contentment and happiness; I mean true life. Our heart is the keeper of those things. We live through love and trust, through expression in an open and respectful way. We live to be heard, to be included. We need each other to survive, to hear each other, each piece of the puzzle or medicine wheel. And everyone, hearing each other, knows, knows itself, know themselves, knows each other. That is spiritual beauty and power and love. That is belonging and happiness and assurance. That is finding the sacred creation within yourself, from those who live it, and are it themselves. No one can be any greater than any other; yet there is respect for the order of things. The women are worshiped as life givers whom without, we would have no medicine people, no leaders, no craftsmen, no hunters, no warriors. They men were given the ceremonies to remember this. The women gave them to the men so that they could remember. The men need help. The women are already in synch with the rhythms of nature through their wombs. They men are honored by honoring the women. The men therefore, conduct the ceremonies.
The medicine wheel varies in its arrangement from tribe to tribe. The meaning regardless, is the same. For example the Lakota nation places white in the south and red in the north. the variation is only a thing of variety. I heard the story of a half Indian and half Saami man who visited the Saami in the Netherlands. When he stood up to tell a story, he was told to sit down so as not to be above the people. He understood what they were saying even though his other relations did things differently. The meaning was well known to him; it was another way of communicating that ‘we are indigenous’. We live according to community and respect of one another. No one is higher or greater than any other. We are one; we are the same. The variations in the medicine wheel are no more than that. The Saami are bleach blonde and pink skinned. They have nearly albino coloration. His other side was red brown from America. The colorations are only colorations. The garden is the more beautiful for its variety; the forms and colors captivate us with the life that creates them. We are of God’s garden. We are of the Spirit of the Holy Wilderness of Mystery.
This message has affected the world. Before Europeans left Europe, no one dared enter into that country. The last indigenous people were being martyred. The Basque and many other indigenous nations were under genocide. Any outsiders were imprisoned and tortured. They were captured and abused. They were owned and killed at will. They were Asian and African. They were middle Eastern. They were non-Europeans who had no rights; no right to even exist. No right to claim a soul even, for themselves. This how bad it was. That land of Europe was feared like a headhunting territory by the entire world.
After Europeans landed in America, things began to change. Women eventually were considered to have souls like men. They could leave their homes, and even develop a career. They eventually gain rights to their own children and could not be killed with legal impunity any longer. They live the other colors of humanity, began to be considered ‘human’. It all began on paper, with the constitution. A collaborative work between the founding fathers and the Hode no Shawnee or Iroquois confederacy and republic. It took almost two hundred years for that document to begin to resemble an actual system of rights. Native people have been fighting for its implementation for the duration of that time; many times dying for it. Now things have changed, Native people became American citizens in 1921 and gained religious freedom in 1978. Women are nearly considered equal in status to men. Native people here, are still working hard to complete the maturity of that document. Only now it can be accomplished through penmanship and legal education, and public awareness campaigns. Had people only listened to the voices that the founding fathers heard; Or the Chiefs that Matilda Cage, mentor of Susan B. Anthony, visited; much suffering could have been avoided. These traditionalists deserve a lot of recognition for what they and their ancestors have accomplished and fought for. they fight not only for the land but for the spirit as well. They know this land. They are this land. It lives as long as they do.
