Lighting the Seventh Fire

Marty for August

2010-08-04T17:52:00.000-05:00

The Talking Stick

2009-09-14T19:01:00.005-05:00

In recent headlines there’s been a momentary round of hysteria about the congressman who inadvertently (or perhaps with denied intention) blurted out the words “You lie!” in the midst of a Presidential speech. Although this incident was sized upon by media and fellow members of the political establishment (with a desired resultant “shaming” of the “socially challenged” politician)... the sad fact is, institutions of government across this land have a longstanding and tawdry history of similar incidents beginning with the inception of America.

For the people of the First Nation, spirituality was inclusive of all levels of life, including the governing of the interests of the “People”. The council fires were believed to be a part of the grand design that Creator was unfolding on behalf of the nations in their coming together to establish rules and agreements. One senses this pervasiveness, by innuendo, in a statement by Dave Chief, Grandfather of Red Dog. He observed; "Respect means listening until everyone has been heard and understood. Only then is there a possibility of "Balance and Harmony"... the goal of Indian spirituality." The aforementioned “spirituality” incorporated every stratum of tribal life.

Many American Indian tribes made use of the talking stick or, alternately, the talking feather (an eagle feather), the Pwagen (the pipe), a wampum belt, the sacred shell or other instrument, as a means of just and impartial dialogue. This device was commonly used in council circles to designate who had the right to speak, especially when matters of great concern came before the convention.

The leading elder would hold the talking stick and begin the discussion... and as he finished speaking, he would hold out the totem, allowing whoever wished to speak after him to take it. An act of decorum and civility, the stick was passed from one individual to another until all who wished to speak had done so. The stick was then passed back to the leading elder for safekeeping. Even today within the Nations this icon is a symbol of respect for free-speech, assuring the speaker he has the freedom and power to say what is in his heart without fear of reprisal or humiliation.

Whoever holds the talking stick has within his hand the sacred power of words, the centerpiece of oral-tradition societies. The speaker is conscious that one should not forget he carries within himself a sacred spark of the Great Mystery, with the subsequent understanding that he, himself, is also sacred. Should he feel he cannot honor the talking stick with his words, he will refrain from speaking so as not dishonor himself. When he reclaims control of his words, the stick will be returned to him.

It naturally follows that the American Indian is alert to meter and rhyme, context and innuendo, in the speaking of words. He embraces silence until something worthy of sharing comes into his mind naturally, like the filling of an empty cup. Within the ever-present void, he maintains in his awareness the flow of life and whatever is in his surroundings. His breathing is a metronome, the very pulse of Universal life that he places his attention on while considering and forming his homily.

It is words, and the placement of words in forming patterns, that Indians identify as “Powers”... and this brings us to A Course in Miracles.

During my initial reading of the text I noted that vast portions of the Course were written in iambic pentameter, a writing device used by poets and playwrights to enfold the listener. In this type of verse, each line has five "feet" of two syllables each, and in each "foot" the second syllable is stressed, resulting in lines of ten syllables with every other syllable stressed. When you read the Course, you will notice that the iambic pentameter lends a melodic rhythm to the material, and because every other syllable is stressed, it feels as if there’s a heart beating within each line. The use of iambic pentameter goes on unbroken for hundreds of pages in the Course. A universal pulse.

As an example: T-24.V.1. The Christ in you is very still. 2 He looks on what He loves, and knows it as Himself. 3 And thus does He rejoice at what He sees, because He knows that it is one with Him and with His Father. 4 Specialness, too, takes joy in what it sees, although it is not true. 5 Yet what you seek for is a source of joy as you conceive it. 6 What you wish is true for you. 7 Nor is it possible that you can wish for something and lack faith that it is so. 8 Wishing makes real, as surely as does will create. 9 The power of a wish upholds illusions as strongly as does love extend itself. 10 Except that one deludes; the other heals.

Breaking the text into verse we see it paced thusly:

T-24.V.1. The Christ in you is very still.
2 He looks on what He loves, and knows it as Himself.
3 And thus does He rejoice at what He sees,
because He knows that it is one with Him
and with His Father.
4 Specialness, too, takes joy in what it sees,
although it is not true.
5 Yet what you seek for is a source of joy
as you conceive it. 6 What you wish is true for you.
7 Nor is it possible that you can wish for something
and lack faith that it is so.
8 Wishing makes real, as surely as does will create.
9 The power of a wish upholds illusions
as strongly as does love extend itself.
10 Except that one deludes;
the other heals.

Almost a quarter of the Text is written in this form of verse (beginning in Chapter 24), as well as two thirds of the Workbook (beginning in Lesson 98), and key portions of the Manual for Teachers. It’s noteworthy that the Course started coming through in this way for an extended period of time before Helen and Bill even noticed.

Iambic pentameter is the rhythm of the English language in addition to being the cycle of the pulse that sustains our bodies... a line of poetry that aligns with the very measure of our heartbeat and fills the human lung perfectly, becoming the natural cadence of our speech. More to the point, it attunes us to ourselves and the Universal heartbeat of the Cosmos.

Art, both visual as well as spoken word, connects us to the abstract, experiential vibration of the Divine, above and beyond the boundaries of rational, analytical thinking. Native American speech and the Course both use a procedure of “art” because they share the aims of art. The reason for art is to stimulate us emotionally in order to shepherd us to a new way of perceiving... and that’s the intention of the Course as well. It gently summons us to awaken from a state of dreaming... wherein we have allowed ourselves to enact the descent into madness in mindless repetition since time began.

The Indian elder herein offers a suggestion: Read the Course aloud, speak and share it as spoken word. Observe what happens... it’s my belief that you’ll experience the Course as you’ve never done by simply reading it. It will infuse you with the vibration of the “Word” that Creation is.

The Book

2009-09-10T00:57:00.000-05:00

Sacred Dance

2009-09-02T15:44:00.011-05:00

E’camotmowat
Sanctuary

The power of the dance is universal, both in time and place. It is confined to no one nation, no period of ancient or modern history, and no strata of human culture. When combined with the sacred sound, a vibration of thought that’s realized and expressed as the “Song of Creation,” it becomes something of a paradox... an oppositional force that straightforwardly expresses its own inherent nature. It opposes nothing, yet all that would resist it is rendered ineffectual… simply because It is. Like the patience and calm of water, the divine force collects itself together until all that would defy it is embraced, overwhelmed, and assimilated. It is Divine Love in motion; God in expression.

Clouds have been gathering around the top of the mountain, obscuring the dome of the mighty peak as the two medicine men unite their consciousness and lift up their Spirit. Soft, yellow sunlight filters through the mist; dimensional shifts cause white flashes — sparks that mark the opening and closing of portals. The shamans begin to leap through thresholds between universes in rhythm to the tempo of a celestial drummer, the universal heartbeat of Life, on a journey toward the center of the cosmos.

Now grass dancers on celestial plains and prairies, spinning and weaving through star fields and nebulas, they are freed of physical limitation. They whirl and leap using hoops of blue-white lightening. They lean close to the edge of Infinity, sly like coyote… nimble as deer… soaring like eagle. Each of them embraces the universal power of the dance, and as it courses through their being, a radiant wave of illumination engulfs the smallest blade of grass, permeates every leaf and branch, embraces fish and fowl and all manor and form of beast and man, expanding to envelope life in all its diversity. Reaffirming “Being” throughout eternity, it becomes a celestial dance expressing the infinitude of the Divine.

For centuries to come, storytellers and vision seekers will look to the night sky and point out the trail left in the heavens called “jiibekana wan” or “binesiwi-mikana”... the Milky Way. The mythology that the two of them are genesis to will inspire countless numbers of the Washa to strive to follow the path that Petaske’ Kno and Nagos Bmose’ blaze this day.
From the book; “The Story: A Song of Silver Crow”

In the act of tribal/spiritual/trance dancing there’s a state of surrender to movement that, when achieved, liberates the individual from the “little self” and transports one to a celestial realm, a selfless region of consciousness allowing the dancer entrance to a type of Higher Consciousness... an alignment with Infinite Mind. In the Course we find reference to this enlightened place arrived at designated the “Holy Instant”... the place where At-One-Ment is achieved. It is in this state of Grace that one becomes redefined and the identity of smallness that we’ve created for our self is surrendered to God’s definition of who we really are; His/Her perfect expression of Love.

Spiritually directed dance and other ecstatic experiences are ones in which we become engaged in joyful endeavor, or as we said in the 60s, “blissed out”. Yet occasions arise when we’re invested in the moment in the most mundane way and slide unawares into this same state of disassociation with personal self, and it is in this “forgetting” that healing or enlightenment frequently occurs. The Holy Spirit, Buddha-mind or Christ Consciousness... is the active essence of Creator, ever ready to use the momentary lapse of ego to embrace and uplift our spirit and restore our true disposition to us. To remind us of what we forgot about our Divine Parent and place of origin.

T-28.I.11. The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still. 2 It reaches gently from that quiet time, and from the mind it healed in quiet then, to other minds to share its quietness. 3 And they will join in doing nothing to prevent its radiant extension back into the Mind which caused all minds to be. 4 Born out of sharing, there can be no pause in time to cause the miracle delay in hastening to all unquiet minds, and bringing them an instant's stillness, when the memory of God returns to them. 5 Their own remembering is quiet now, and what has come to take its place will not be wholly unremembered afterwards.

The Course repeatedly encourages us to discipline our mind so that we become able to access this place of serenity at will, offering us a series of lessons and exercises that will assist us in reclaiming our inner peace long enough to slip into right-mindedness... to experience Kensho, a brief glimpse of Heaven... atonement.

W-pI.123.4. Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. 2 We sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him.

Regardless of time or cultural identity, mankind has the constant companionship and assurances of support from Source, embracing us in our personal dance through the realm of corporeal life, a sublime moment of illumination that champions us on the journey home.

The BlessingWay

2009-08-29T19:32:00.005-05:00

In the beautiful language of the Diné, “Hózhó jí” means “The Blessingway”. There are a multitude of chants that the People use for a variety of functions, but the most common and universal chant ritual sung over a person or location is the Hózhó jí... the call for blessings, the call “for good hope”.

The Blessingway is the most esteemed of Navajo practices (taking precedent over all of the other chants) because it was given to the People shortly after their emergence into the realm of the Earth Surface People. It contains the most complete account of the Navajo origin myth, including the origin of the ceremony itself.

The original blessing ceremony was held by the dinyn diné (the Holy People) when they created mankind, wherein they taught man both ritual and skills. At that time, “Changing Woman” (Asdz nádleehé) gave the Navajo her holy songs and subsequently Blessingway became closely connected with Asdz nádleehé, being the only ceremony where she is depicted in drypaintings ('iikááh).

The rites and prayers are concerned with healing, creation, harmony and peace. And, although the name of the tradition, Hózhó jí, is translated Blessingway, a more encompassing translation would be much more broad. In Navajo, the term incorporates everything that’s interpreted as being good for man... the antithesis to evil. It evokes words for beauty, harmony, success, perfection, well-being, having order and being ideal. The intent of this rite is to ensure a good result at any stage of life, hence the translation: Blessingway.
~
In the words of the Blessingway singer, Frank Mitchell: “So for each verse in the song, you say, ‘Sa’ah naaghéi, Bik’eh hózh ó.’ The phrase (itself) is a holy being. You see, these songs, when they were turned over to the Earth People, were to be used in a certain way. If you leave out those words, then the holy beings feel slighted. They know you are singing, they are aware of it. But if you omit those words, then they feel it and they are displeased. Then, even though you are singing, whatever you are doing over the one-sung-over has no effect.

If you forget to mention those holy words in one song, and in the next song you think of it, then you will mention them. That makes up, somewhat, for their having been left out before. That is the reason that at the conclusion of your songs, you will say a prayer in your own words. You ask the holy beings to help you and to go through these songs with you; that also helps to make up for what you may have left out.”
~
Many of the rituals of the nations of Turtle Island are extremely sensitive to usage; the enactment of the sacrament becomes the determiner of outcome. Additionally, a lot of tribes-people are very guarded and secretive about their practices... since their experience with outsiders has been one of exploitation.

The beauty of the culture and the preservation of the intention and integrity of the American Indian’s way of life is important for all future generations of the tribes of mankind. It is a rung on the ladder of evolution... a trail of our shared experience in the journey along the “Good Red Road”. But, as we awaken to our spiritual identity and our journey on the “Good Blue Road” is revealed, we also become more needful of personal ritual, personal habits that speed us forward on the path. Formal procedure and repeated litany becomes a barrier to enlightenment because one pays attention to the routine and forgets the destination; the unification with Holiness, the actual “Blessing” itself.

Without doubt we should maintain respect for the ceremony of Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and the countless other paths but, ceremony and form is enacted for the edification of the body, the ego’s identity. As the Course states, T-19.I.13. Grace is not given to a body, but to a mind. 2 And the mind that receives it looks instantly beyond the body, and sees the holy place where it was healed. 3 There is the altar where the grace was given, in which it stands. 4 Do you, then, offer grace and blessing to your brother, for you stand at the same altar where grace was laid for both of you. 5 And be you healed by grace together, that you may heal through faith.

It is in our personal advance toward the Divine that the world is healed and transformed; our personal BlessingWay of forgiveness extended to one another... a deeper and more profound way of sanction that lifts us equally to a higher way of life. M-1.3. There is a course for every teacher of God. 2 The form of the course varies greatly. 3 So do the particular teaching aids involved. 4 But the content of the course never changes. 5 Its central theme is always, "God's Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation." 6 It can be taught by actions or thoughts; in words or soundlessly; in any language or in no language; in any place or time or manner. 7 It does not matter who the teacher was before he heard the Call. 8 He has become a savior by his answering. 9 He has seen someone else as himself. 10 He has therefore found his own salvation and the salvation of the world. 11 In his rebirth is the world reborn.

Late summer is unfolding and the time of harvest draws near. As we implement the rituals of thanksgiving, sharing and appreciation, we have opportunity to incorporate our personal BlessingWay of tolerance and forgiveness, acceptance and love for one another, into the processes we engage in with family and society at large. This is the highest we can attain in life, to invoke our BlessingWay and extend it to all of our brothers and sisters across the cosmos. It is this Elder’s desired expectation that we all become a blessing and a BlessingWay unto one another.

Megwich
Bama pi....

Traditional Navajo singer Radmilla Cody

New Moon: E'mnokmukkisis, Moon of the Middle of the Summer

2009-08-20T02:39:00.008-05:00

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves"
Shakespeare

The oft repeated line from the play “Julius Caesar” has long been a point of contemplation for the Indian Elder.

Living in Wisconsin on a lake in woods that undoubtedly were inhabited by my Potawatomi ancestors 450 or more years ago, I often find myself looking up with wonderment into the heavens at night. Out here night is still somewhat unblemished by the claustrophobic conditions of metropolitan America. The sky is indigo/noir, a velvet blanket dusted with stars, planets and the various phases of the moon. Apart from the occasional howl of coyote or call of a night-bird, a profound stillness maintains the nightscape; silent guardian of the spectacular array of constellations and the Milky-Way that draws me up and out into the ever unfolding cosmic dance. I have known those brief moments where, as Mary Baker Eddy once ruminated, man will cease to look up at the stars and begin to look out upon the stars.

The 1st Nation peoples, as with all aboriginal and tribes-people, often looked heavenward seeking insight and understanding, looking for meaning that they imagined was secreted away in the night sky. Puzzling out the conditions of their lives, storytellers generated a mythology and connected celestial dots, twinkling lights in the darkness that guided and inspired their days on earth.

The Shoshone Tribe of Wyoming and Southern Idaho tell the legend of Grizzly Bear, a delightful explanation of how the Milky Way came into being. A grizzly bear (the star Cygnus) grew hungry so he climbed up the highest mountain on Turtle Island intending to go hunting in the sky. As he trudged heavenward, snow and ice clung to the fur of his feet and legs and eventually, when he ascended into the sky, the ice crystals trailed behind him... forming the Milky Way.

The Pawnee Tribe of the Great Plains, Kansas and Nebraska, have a creation myth of how Morning Star Wins Evening Star: In the beginning there was only Tirawahat, which is the Universe and everything within it. Morning Star (Venus) and the Sun and the other men-folk in sky grew lonely and wished to create a home, making a place to inhabit... but Evening Star (Venus) and the Moon and the other women resisted. In order to win the debate it was clear that Morning Star must win the heart of Evening Star. Many had tried and failed, for she was guarded by her protectors, Wolf (Sirius), Cougar (Auriga), Bear (Sagittarius), Bobcat (Procyon), and worst of all, Snake (Scorpius). Morning Star ultimately defeated them one by one and won the hand of Evening Star. And so the world was created.

For thousands of years we have evolved myth and legend, ascribing personalities and powers to imagined “beings” that inhabit celestial realms, perfecting a starscape and planetary cosmology (astrology) designed to place our power apart from and outside of us. We, who were given dominion over all creation, surrender that authority to the movement of the planets and moods of the moon. Odd, how we wish to diminish ourselves...

Human nature is a strange game of hide and seek, avoidance of the idea of ownership for the universe we’ve created, denying responsibility for having made a place where darkness prevails over light. We've designed a place to come to where small dots glowing in the endless night struggle to shine and then surrender to oblivion.

Looking to the Course one is edified to discover that, in actuality, the exact opposite is what the truth of our being really is: M-20.6: 10 This is your heritage. 11 The universe beyond the sun and stars, and all the thoughts of which you can conceive, belong to you. 12 God's peace is the condition for His Will. 13 Attain His peace, and you remember Him.

Reading further... T-21.I.8. Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. 2 And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. 3 The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. 4 The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. 5 Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. 6 Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not. T-21.I.9. This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well. 2 Here is the sight of him who knows his Father. 3 Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in you.

This night, especially dark and silent with the awakening of the new moon, is inspiration for the adjustment of the Injun Elder’s proclivity toward acceptance of the fate mankind pens upon the angles and degrees of interplanetary relationship. The seed within the newness of Sister Moon’s advance toward fullness good cause to deepen the commitment I've made to awaken from an identity created for the purpose of dependency and disempowerment...

How long, I wonder, will it be before we all reclaim our eternal Light?

Frog Medicine At the Ranch...

2009-08-17T13:04:00.007-05:00

One of the perks of living in a rural area is the immediacy of nature and the astonishing unfolding of it all. The Sacred Wheel of Life is more easily recognized and embraced when viewed from the perspective of being at the center of this unfolding miracle: Life. In many ways, we are all living expressions of the Great Mystery, each one of us personally being the hub of all of Creation... we are the place where Life (Father Creator) is expressing Him/Her/Itself.

Lakes, ponds, marshes, streams, creeks, rivers and seas are, in the material world, the place where this pouring forth of all living “beingness” emanates... the origin point and the nucleus of the wheel.

This Injun Elder’s personal "pouring forth" is in the attendance of my humble pond, a small water-garden implemented in my back yard next to the patio. A place where I’m able to set in serenity and observe the sun’s passage toward the other side of the planet ~ the meditative niche I’ve created for ruminations, contemplations and meditations... my personal satori.

To my delight the 100 gallon water repository (complete with a small waterfall) has become an oasis for birds, squirrels, bunnies and all form and fashion of wildlife, occasionally inclusive of a neighbor’s stray critter.

One of the more engaging families that has set up residency at the waterhole is a small and demure colony of frogs... gentle little creatures who busy themselves with sunning on lily pads all day and occasionally having a nosh on the banks of the pond, snatched morsels made up of inattentive insects and newly emerging plant sprouts.

Frog Medicine is strongly associated with transformation. Beginning life as an egg, it becomes a polliwog, then a frog. It is thus a reminder that life for us here in the corporeal world is a miracle of change and transformation. Those of the Clan of the Frog who elect to operate from the higher octave of their element, water (Spirit), will spend their life in constant transformation and growth, ever seeking knowledge and wisdom... seeking enlightenment.

Interestingly, frogs have a keen sense of hearing, unique to their species, so they hear octaves and pitch that other aquatic animals do not. The song of Frog often foretells of the imminence of rain... a symbolic forgiveness: cleansing. Frog Medicine can bring rains for every purpose ~ to cleanse, to heal, to help things grow. In my mind, Brother and Sister Frog are strong reminders that the only thing we need do is seek our Celestial Source ~ the rest will work itself out in Divine order.

To the Chinese, the frog is percieved to be a divine creature that protects against misfortune and brings wealth and good health to the family (a suggestion of at-one-ment with God).

In American Indian culture, Frog Medicine is a significant totem. It is said to teach insight and depth of perception... sensitivity for the needs of others, the recognition that, as the Master said, “For I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in”.

The frog represents new life and spiritual cleansing, assisting people into their next stage of life and providing opportunity for transformation to unfold. Yet, truth be told, it is not in change or transformation of ourselves that a new life is realized, but in changing our mind and remembering what is actually real... what the Oneness is that enfolds us all. Who we are as children of the Divine.

A Course in Miracles states, “T-30.III.8. The Thoughts of God are far beyond all change, and shine forever. 2 They await not birth. 3 They wait for welcome and remembering. 4 The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. 5 So high in Heaven is it set that those outside of Heaven know not it is there. 6 Yet still and white and lovely will it shine through all eternity. 7 There was no time it was not there; no instant when its light grew dimmer or less perfect ever was.”

This Injun’s suggestion for mindful living is to welcome Frog Medicine into your life and see what happens... see what you can remember about the Divine Creation that you actually are. Be still and know...

http://www.songofsilvercrow.com/

The Sacred Hoop

2009-08-14T08:56:00.006-05:00

Back in the 60s Donovan had a song about happiness, and he observed that; "Happiness runs in a circular motion, everybody is a part of everything..." Native American, African and Eastern philosophers & spiritual masters had long recognized the circle of life, and perceived it as the same circular motion... a circle of joy, a circle of happiness. Only western man, the Europeans, were given to linear thought... and because of their failure to realize the interconnectedness of all things, imagined themselves to be apart from the the world surrounding them and the effects of their actions.

The results of this sort of "unNATURAL" thinking engulfs us now. We exist in a world disconnected, broken apart and corrupted. A world that is crisscrossed with lines that fence everything off from everything else. We have allowed ourselves to be "boxed in" and at the same time, "left without..."

A Course in Miracles states: T-14.VII.1. What do you want? 2 Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance are yours, but not both. 3 Opposites must be brought together, not kept apart. 4 For their separation is only in your mind, and they are reconciled by union, as you are. 5 In union, everything that is not real must disappear, for truth is union. 6 As darkness disappears in light, so ignorance fades away when knowledge dawns.

This Indian Elder would suggest that perhaps it would be timely for all of the residents of Turtle Island to begin building Medicine Wheels, Sacred Hoops... in our homes and yards and in places where we come together to celebrate Life. It would please the Grandfathers of the world and Creator if we would begin doing this as a way of remembering the circle that surrounds and incorporates humankind with all Creation.

It would edify and bring inner harmony to us, and give meaning to our passage through this world. A way of honoring and sharing with our future ancestors, our progeny.

A thought shared on a Friday morning during the "Moon of Mid-summer", (E'mnokmukkesis as my people say).

Megwich (Thank you for hearing me)

The Awakening?

2009-08-12T20:21:00.018-05:00

It is my belief that something within the consciousness of humankind is awakening...

Metaphorically speaking, in Native American terms, the lighting of the 7th Fire has begun. The distinct and unique sensibilities of the native peoples of the Americas has gained a foothold within the prevailing culture, and is about to initiate the beginnings of social transformation. Not as a retrograde back to past processes and ideology, but as the spark that ignites a new flame of insight and understanding.

As I visit new sites and interact with social groups on the web, I've observed a growing discomfort with the prevailing paradigms for government and commerce as well as spirituality... an unfolding sense of angst and discomfort with the direction society is heading. What was begun in the 1960s has grown and now seeks a new form of expression. The chasm between factions of the political right and left have become more aggressive and divisive, more frustrated with outworn methodology and repeated failure... more angry. Those who would cling to the past are finding themselves dogged by fear and paranoia, resulting in ruin in many areas of their lives. Not just in the material sense, but in the bigger sense of identity, in self.

Paradoxically, history seems to validate the process of a collapse of any current structure before change may occur. It is only in our polarity that we can begin to recognize our differences and also our commonality. I'm becoming more optimistic that, after a period of extreme disharmony, common ground will be found. Central to this process, the opposing factions of linear and circular thinking will unite and move toward the next evolutionary rung on the ladder, in whatever way that might appear.

“Historically, the minds of the American Indian and the Euro-American are very different due to their evolution in two separate parts of the world. Developing in opposite hemispheres, the American Indian mind and the Euro-American mind are naturally set and steeped in in congruent values that distinguish their separateness….the Indian mind and the Euro-American minds are polar opposites, and that, due to cultural developments in different parts of the world, the two races advanced their thinking by developing separate sets of values that remain in congruent in the context of historical Indian-White relations. Geographic distance assisted in creating the polarity of these two opposites. The great length of time before their contact with each other had also caused such a separate development of mind sets……As a result of different hemispheric orientation of the thinking mind, and primarily due to cultural influences and fundamental needs, the brain of the American Indian developed with an orientation to “circular thought” and the brain of the Euro-American developed with an orientation to “linear thought.” (Donald Fixico, The American Indian Mind in a Linear World, 2003).

A growing struggle to understand what life is has resulted in exhuming lore and mythology by individuals, groups and, in some way, entire nations. Growing obsession about the "shift" coming in 2012, global conspiracies and contact with superior "beings" from the stars or other dimensions has exploded within the imaginings of people around the planet, a vision of hope against unsure or desperate times.

This beginning of some form of identifiable break from the past, the desire being seeded in man's collective consciousness, is the spark ignited by the members of the Seventh Fire... and central to the discussions, observations and ruminations I hope to explore in the blogs posted herein.