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Banishment: A Path from Self to Circle
In order to maintain emotional stability and soundness of mind, most social animals need touch. Humans, too, are interdependent, social beings. Even with a reduced amount of social contact, we begin to exhibit abnormal behavior. In non-clan societies, these seemingly negative behaviors are punished using various means from warnings and fines up to exile or even execution. This booklet discusses the importance of Banishment in clan-based societies as a supportive, loving, and healing journey from an ego-centered self back to living in harmony with the clan — back to the Circle Way.
Born to Wander
This is an investigation into our natural nomadic tendencies — all of our pre-agricultural ancestors were nomads — and how we have moved farther and farther away from them in contemporary life. And yet we still yearn to fulfill our wanderlust, which is why so many of us long to travel or create the illusion of travel with luxuries from far-off lands such as exotic plants and animals and foreign architectural styles. Born to Wander is a first step in reconnecting with the wanderer who still exists inside us all.
Death: The Song of Passing
Death is Life, because without Death there would be no Life. The Hoop of Life continually rotates through Death to Birth, and on through life to Death, then again to Birth. Our families and Clans are strong when the Hoop gives them People who are from all places on the rotation. There would be those coming from the Womb and those returning to the Womb–Babes and Children, Parents and Grandparents–all lending their Gifts and Serving to create Balance in the Hoop.
Fat Moons, Hunger Moons
Grandmother Moon, known to the Northwoods Natives as Nokomis Giizis, is the focal point of their way of life, the Gifting Way. By consciously living in relationship with Nokomis, Natives grow in awareness of their kinship with all other creatures. It is thus that they live in Balance — in sync with seasonal rhythms by being semi-nomadic and continually adapting their gathering and hunting strategies. The booklet goes into detail on how the gifts of each Moon fulfill the needs of Natives in all ways: sustenance, shelter, cultural, and spiritual.
Finding a Guide and the Role of the Seeker
Our Spirit Fire burns brightest when it has cultural context. Is an Ant, an Ant, when he is all alone? In order to survive and function, an Ant needs his colony, his culture. We too are social beings. We are Human when we are with our Kind; the longer we are separated from them, the more we become just nondescript flesh. We need to see our reflection in another, in order to keep in touch with ourselves; we need to connect with others’ thoughts and feelings in order to ground our own. Especially for this Journey through the major Passages of Life, we need to keep grounded and see our reflection clearly.
Growing Up Native
!Kung children have no schools. There is no doubt in the parents’ minds that as children grow up they will learn to act with sense, with or without deliberate training, simply as a result of maturation, social pressure, and the desire to conform to group values.
Indian children don’t have to go to school. Yet they grow up to be responsible, contributing members of their communities. Their learning does not have to take place in school. [They] wake up every morning in a classroom–their home. They go outdoors to another classroom–the world around them. Learning and playing are the same thing. Children move freely around their villages, exploring and experimenting on their own. They are given guidance and help only when needed.
Matedness: Two Hearts, One Fire
After Questing for our LifeDream, the next significant Rite of Passage for most of us is the Seeking of our Mate. This Special Person has been Intended for us since Birth, and has been preparing for our arrival. Our task is to prepare ourself for him/her, and then to awaken to his/her presence.
Medicine Plant, Medicine Animal: Ancestral Healer
Civilized People are accustomed to having fellow Humans practice in the Healing professions. Natives, who view the Winged and Legged and Rooted Relations also as fellow People, have cultivated Healing relationships with some of them. I call these special non-Human Healers, Medicine Plants and Medicine Animals. Other common terms are Medicine Companion, Medicine Helper, Plant or Animal Ally, and Healing Partner.
Native Lifeway: The Circle Way
The rituals and relationships we are about to immerse ourselves in, spring from a way of living with Earth Mother and Sky Father that is quite different from that of the Civilized Lifeway. Perhaps it would be easier see the difference if we were to think of Civilized Lifeway as a lens through which we have been taught to view The Mother and The Father. Many of us are not aware that the lens exists. If we cannot recognize it, we cannot look around it. It then keeps us blind to the intense beauty and profound teachings of our Intrinsic Lifeway.
Sacred Speech – The Way of Truthspeaking
In Sacred Speech: The Way of Truthspeaking you will learn how to hear the truth in lies and how to unmask anger to reveal the feelings that caused it. You will be shown how to see cursing and swearing as the externalizing and judging they actually are. You will find out why gossiping depletes personal power. These skills make it easier for someone to hear what you have to say?not just your words, but the thoughts and feelings behind them.
The Sweat Lodge: A Return to the Womb
The Creation Stories of virtually all cultures reflect the universal Human awareness that we are Born from the Womb of The Great Earth Mother. Common to these cultures are ways to Return to that Womb in order to be Reborn — to be refreshed and begin life anew. The Sweat Lodge Ceremony is one such way.
The Visions Quest: A Script for Life
There comes a time in a young Person’s life when the security and direction of Youth give way to the nebulous stirrings and expansiveness of Adulthood. Childhood roles and relationships within family and community are rather clearly defined; guidance, shelter, and protection are assuredly provided. The metamorphosis of puberty changes that. The waning Child is driven by growing feelings of incompetence, inadequacy, and emptiness. He feels powerless, without worthwhile skill or talent. He no longer has a relevant identity. New, previously unknown feelings and energies seek expression. They demand a Path of their own.
Your Animal Guide: Your Life Companion
Many of us feel a deep hunger that is hard to identify, so it is hard to fulfill. It isn’t a craving for food or love or personal fulfillment, and yet it feels a bit like each of them. There is a feeling of incompleteness about ourselves, along with a sense of lostness. It is as though there is some basic guidance or companionship that is missing from our lives.
Your Sacred Name: The Native Within
Receiving a Name often marks a Rite of Passage — the ritual commemoration and empowering of major transitions on one’s personal Hoop of Life. This may occur at Birth, Dreamquest, Marriage, becoming a Guide or Elder, or occasionally even at one’s Passing Over (Death). A Native may have several different Names in the span of her life, each of which reflect the transformations undergone while walking the Hoop.