Indigenous Connections
It has been my privilege to sit with teachers from different spiritual traditions. The indigenous healers, who entrusted me with wisdom handed down from generation to generation by oral tradition, deeply influenced my worldview. Their reverence for the spiritual intelligence of nature, and their belief that the physical and spiritual worlds coexist, have strengthened me and given me hope in times of acute stress.
Although indigenous peoples make up less than five percent of the world’s current population, there are, 5,400 Indigenous languages of approximately 7,000 languages spoken according to Tiokasin Ghosthorse, host of “First Voices Radio” who prefers “Original Peoples” to “Indigenous.” Despite
their differences in culture and language, the original peoples’ message has been consistent across the board, transcending geographic boundaries and distances.
In Stone Age Wisdom: The Healing Principles of Shamanism, Tom Crockett writes, “When we are out of balance with the unseen world of spirit, energy and life force, we cannot be in balance in the physical and material world.”
The indigenous healers I met in both hemispheres consistently reiterated that, “you people from the north, your relationship with nature is out of balance.” Whether or not you believe in the science of climate change,
people who live close to nature believe that in refusing to accept that every one of us has a soul connection to nature, we show disrespect to the spirit of the earth, the sea, and the forest.
“Mother Earth is always giving,
even if it’s a lesson. She is always giving,”
says Ghosthorse.
“Now that we are running out of food in the fridge and there is no water, we need to invite the indigenous peoples. We are the older brothers and sisters and parents to this land.”
In his eyes, “the majority of Americans have never come out of their adolescent state. You see children in grown-up bodies running around reacting to everything. They are still looking for a nurse, for a mother than
has more milk.”
Our collective anxiety, doubt, guilt, inferiority and confusion will continue to increase until we address our root spiritual crisis.
“We are stressed and suffer from PTSD, just as Mother Earth suffers from PTSD,” he says. “Mother Earth needs to create a good catastrophe to wake us out of our zombie state.”
At an interfaith retreat years ago at Auschwitz, Ghosthorse asked a Lakota elder whether the Lakota have a word for “domination.” He was told, “If you have language that is in relationship with everything, there is no need to dominate. Therefore, there is no concept, and no word.”
A Culture of Interconnection
When a Hopi cultivates plants, he believes he works in harmony with the sun and the rain, the wind, soil, insects and birds. There is no separation.
In the same vein, the Apache language has no “I,” only “I am,” as in the statement “I am connected to everything.”
“There are four words in the English language that separate you from everyone,”says an Apache shaman, based in southern New Mexico.
“Those four words are I, me, my, and mine. Try going four days without saying I, me, my, and mine. It will change your life.”