Oh my indigenous brothers and sisters,
hold your heads up high.
You were not sprung from your mothers' wombs
to make your oppressors comfortable.
You were not put upon this earth,
to accomodate
the disconnected, diseased panderers of hate,
and shame, and spiritual abrogation.
You were not given awareness
so that you could pour out offerings
to the God of your conquorers
and cannibalize your own children.
No. Seek your own ways,
and the ways of your dead.
They were wise and highly evolved.

Pour out offerings to the Gods of your people,
who followed you into slavery,
who stood by you through genocide,
who stood between you
and the spiritual penury
of monotheism,
Who sacrificed Themselves,
rather than see Their children perish.
Hold your heads up high
and know these things:

Your ancestors know your name.
You have a place.
You do not come from weak people.
You do not stand alone.
You, in your human skin,
whatever it may look like,
from wherever your lines might hail,
are magnificent.
You are your ancestral line walking.

So hold your head up high and proud,
and let no one, disconnected from their roots,
hold you down.
Do not accept the mental and spiritual chains.
Your ancestors worked too hard to free you from the same.
Praise them.
and walk with dignity and the strength
of thousands and thousands of men, women, and children,
bound to you by blood and spirit,
at your back.


 
By Manaya Aracoel

Colonialism is a system that requires collaborators in order to perpetuate itself. This fact has become increasingly apparent in recent days. While major news corporations would cover the smallest Tea Party get together, Occupy Wall Street was ignored by the Media until the level of collaboration with corporate interests became so ridiculously obvious as the scope of the movement spread that they were forced to acknowledge the its existence. Every colonized people has had a select few handpicked for slightly better treatment as long as they worked to advance the interests of the empowered and try to stifle the voices of dissent.

I have seen a lot of feedback about indigeny and the forging of alliances and the awakening of a pan-indigenous consciousness…and much of it centers on a fear of being perceived as radical or of alienating the dominant group. This begs the question: why are we so concerned with appeasing Christians when they are praying for our disempowerment and destroying our sacred items? Why are we so afraid to appear upset about the disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples? Which side are we on? And can it even be called equality if we achieve it by silencing our own voices and stifling our narratives as the price for inclusion?

There is plenty of lip service given in the larger neo-pagan community about wanting to be inclusive and wanting to connect and be friendly with indigenous polytheists practicing their ancestral ways. I’ve heard some bemoan the fact that the indigenous people are standoffish or suspicious of neo-pagan motives. Well, here’s an excellent reason why: as we speak there is at least one pagan news source that will rush to cover almost any pagan event no matter how small scale…and they have outright refused to cover the Turtle Island 42 initiative and I have to wonder why that is. It certainly sends the message that indigeny isn’t important for Pagans, which might come as a surprise to some of those self-same Pagans. So, if, at the end of the day, indigenous peoples do not trust the larger neo-pagan community, perhaps it is because we fear that they may be too attached to their white privilege to risk pissing off The Man. Perhaps too many of us with tans have had our conversations about race and conquest shut down by people who were concerned that we were “living in the past” or “angry” or “militant” or somehow oppressing white Christians by our failure to ignore our pasts and our present realities in order to accommodate their sensibilities. We may have been told that talking about conquest, genocide and slavery (particularly in interfaith settings) upsets the descendants of our conquerors. The message is that it is more important to pander to the dominant group than it is to be true to ourselves. Yet one cannot and should not talk about reclaiming indigeny without also talking about why it was lost in the first place, no matter how uncomfortable it might be.

Diversity is not about people of all colors and ethnicities being tolerated as long as they look, think and act assimilated. True diversity respects the multitude of experiences and faith and cultures being expressed to their fullest potential and celebrates the existence of difference even while asserting our common humanity. This is what the DC-40ers don’t get. And those who would ignore or silence the segments of the pagan or polytheist or indigenous population because “they might make us look bad to the Christians” are collaborators. And if they think the likes of the DC-40 are going to accept them, no matter how nice they play, they are also deluded.

We are at war. It is not a war we asked for or wanted. Indigenous people have been on the frontlines for centuries. It isn’t a war for commodities or for money, but for cultural spiritual (and often physical) survival against a colonial machine that would eradicate us. The DC-40 has openly declared spiritual warfare on everything and everyone who does not conform to their Dominionist Christian worldview. The time has come to awake, rise up and choose a side.

 
We are in a world that requires revolution.  We are in a world where religious fanatics seek domination of our minds, hearts, and most of all our spirits. We are in a world where 1% of the privileged few feed on the blood of the poor and the sweat of the strong. We live in a world whose lifeblood is being crushed by the claw of monotheism and its children: greed, the corporatocracy, misogyny, racism, prejudice, callousness, and hate. We live in a world that is crying out for help; most of all, we live in a world where everyone is called to make a choice and make a stand.

What *do* you stand for? Which side of the equation do you support and favor? I hear many Pagans and even Heathens talking about peace. Peace does not come through non-involvement. Peace does not come through closing one’s eyes and accommodating the status quo. Peace does not come from swallowing injustice after injustice. Peace is the outgrowth of engagement. It rises up from the hearts of men and women deeply, compassionately, fiercely engaged with the pain and suffering of their world. It rises up from the efforts of those engaged to change their world for the better. Peace is the child of those who stand up and say ‘no more. No more.” It is not complaisance. It is not ennui. It is not un-involvement.

In this world, the very act of reconnecting with our ancestors is a vital and revolutionary one. We are in a war and it will be won not with bombs and guns and armaments but with the force of thousands and thousands of minds, hearts, and spirits turning back to the nourishment of their ancestors, reclaiming the filter of their own inherent indigeny, and casting off the mental and spiritual chains of monotheism and conquest. Those chains run deep. They hold us tightly. They have wound their way through every aspect of our modern world. They are imbued with the poison that threatens even the process of reconnection. Let us be its antidote. Let each one of us, supported by our dead, in line with our Gods, be the antidote to two thousand years of spiritual oppression. Do not compromise. There is no room for compromise here. Do not sell yourselves into mental slavery. Do not collaborate with those who would and who do.

That is precisely what people like the DC40 group, the New Apostolic Reform movement, and many members of our Republican controlled congress (who, as of this writing, have just passed the ‘let women die’ bill, because obviously in their dominionist inspired world, women don’t really count) are doing: they are enslaving us, chipping away at our rights and freedoms little by little. We have all, as Americans, been sold the idea of freedom. We’ve never been taught, however, or encouraged to ask what that really means, and what safeguarding it on a personal level entails. While our government is sending us overseas in defense of “liberty,” we’re losing what few liberties we have right here at home. We are being kept so numb and dumb that far too many of us don’t even know when the chains are tightening about our spirits, our minds, our civil liberties. We do not realize that we are slaves to the machine. We do not realize that we have no more liberty than a cow being led to the slaughterhouse.

I end many of my emails with a quote from the great abolitionist Frederick Douglas: "Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without planting up the ground. They want the rain without thunder or lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

He was right. We are living in exactly that kind of struggle. We must be harsh. We must be uncompromising. We must never, ever, ever stop speaking truth to power. Most of all, we must never retreat, not a single inch, not a millimeter in this fight because no matter how hopeless a fight it seems, not a single one of us is in this alone. Our ancestors are gathered behind us urging us on; the spirits of all those who will come after us are desperately begging us to never give up, and across this sad and sorry world, more and more people are waking up.  Resistance is our hope. It is the gift we give to the future.

We live in a world that requires revolution. Resistance starts by the willingness to examine one’s filter. How have you been taught to see and engage with the world? What have you been taught to value? To whom have you been taught to pray? Why? Resistance begins by tearing down the mental bricks and mortar of that filter and seeing the world clearly. Reject the filter of conquest, most especially your own. THIS is why connecting to one’s ancestors is crucial: they can and will help each and every one of us do just this thing. They are aching for the opportunity because we were not meant to be slaves.

The Saxon polytheist who laid down his life rather than convert, the European Pagan tortured to death rather than abandon his ancestral ways, the Taino woman who took up arms to protect her people, the Apache man who fought the white soldiers to keep his people free, the African woman ripped away from her people and forced into the terror of the middle passage who kept alive the sacred stories of her tribal Gods, and thousands and thousands of men, women, and even children just like them did not sacrifice and suffer so that we could go to our deaths not knowing who we are and where we come from. We not only owe them better than this; we owe it to ourselves too.

Because persecution of indigeny did not stop with modernity. It is not a thing of the past. We are not only still reaping its consequences but it continues today more hidden perhaps, but on no less detrimental a scale. How many evangelists went to Haiti after the recent earthquake, bullying survivors into accepting their God? How many times have tele-evangelists referred to indigenous peoples as ‘savage’ and in need of being ‘conquered for Christ’? How many Pagans have had their children taken away in custody cases for no other reason than that they were Pagan? These are religions struggling to reconnect with their indigenous traditions. They may not be *there* yet, but they’re trying and in many cases experiencing a backlash. I could fill pages with contemporary examples.

The only requirement to change this is courage and a willingness to act. Look upon the world we have inherited as it is without flinching, and decide for yourselves if it is the kind of world you wish to leave your children.

 
Writer and Ancestor worker Laura Patsouris was recently interviewed about ancestors, ancestor work, and indigeny. This is a wonderful and informative interview and I encourage people to set aside time to listen to it. Toward the end, Laura talks about indigeny and how, if you go back far enough, all of us come from indigenous cultures. She talks about the effects of conquest and how the ancestors can help every single person overcome.

The interview is here: http://lamyka.libsyn.com/weaving-ancestor-worship-with-laura-patsouris
You have to scroll down a bit to get to it, but it's well worth it.

If you're looking for a way to get started in  honoring your ancestors, if you're looking for a way to strike the first blow against the effects of conquest: here it is.

Heroes

10/17/2011

0 Comments

 
By Laura Patsouris

Today I want to honor all those heroes whose struggles for freedom, justice and equality have given us the tools to carry our own struggles forward. Their bravery and eloquence lights the way:


"I think that an objective analysis of events that are taking place on this earth today points towards some type of ultimate showdown. You can call it political showdown, or even a showdown between the economic systems that exist on this earth which almost boil down along racial lines. I do believe that there will be a clash between East and West. I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation."

"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary."

"We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."

-Malcolm X


"I'm just a human being trying to make it
in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being human."


-John Trudell


“Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to.”

-Mumia Abu Jamal


“The life of a single human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man on earth.” 

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.”

-Che Guevara


“The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.”

-Wilma Mankiller


We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.

-Wangari Maathai


“We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be
respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism. 

-Rigoberta Menchu


As our conquerors pray to exert religious dominion over us, let us not forget that, despite 500+ years of oppression and slavery, the indigenous mind continues to think and plan, the indigenous heart continues to heal and to love and the indigenous spirit may be bloodied but it is unbowed. Though they would like to take my freedoms and my choices away, today I choose NOT to yield to their pressure and manipulation. Today I choose to honor the faith and the strength of my ancestors and their sacred ways. Today I will NOT pray to the God of my enslavement.

Today I will honor my dead and I will honor the spirits of the land I walk on. I will honor my sacred stories, sing the songs of my grandmothers and pray to my Gods for the strength and the will to walk on this Earth with integrity, respecting the rights of all the inhabitants of Turtle Island. Today I will pray for the healing of Turtle Island herself…she has been brutalized and exploited and abused.

Today I will tear away the filter of Conquest and stop seeing myself as my oppressors would define me, but rather I will know myself as the walking embodiment of all the power of my ancestral lines. The time for silence is past. We owe it to ourselves, to the ancestors who gave us this life and to the next seven generations to stop this political and spiritual juggernaut of Biblical fascism that threatens all freedom loving people on this hemisphere.

 
Yesterday, Montana had the dubious fortune of being the focus of the DC40 campaign and today it's South Dakota. Pour out an offering to the Gods and ask that such spiritual poison gain no foothold and no purchase in the hearts of those who dwell in those states. Be strong, Montana. Be strong, South Dakota. You're not alone. Resist. Resist. Resist.

This campaign goes well beyond simple proselytizing. It is blatant attack on spiritual freedom. It is the use of spirituality as a weapon. I read a story today in the news about Air Force Cadets who feel so pressured by fundamentalist Christians that they are forced to hide their faith and pretend to be Christian. You can read that story here: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/10/13/111125/16.

Reading this made me sick to my stomach. This, dear Readers, is terrorism pure and simple. It is spiritual terrorism. This is the type of thing that we are committed to fighting and this is precisely the type of thing that you would never find within an indigenous world-view.

We are charged, each and every one of us, with reclaiming the filter of our indigeny. What does that mean exactly? Well, for starters, American "secularism" isn't. It's a very Protestant Christian Weltanschauung and over the past decade has grown more and more reactionary and fundamentalist. The filter of monotheism, rooted as it is in that reality, is far older. The filter of monotheism has its roots in colonialism and conquest. it is a lens through which our every interaction in the world is filtered. It colors everything. It breeds intolerance, fear, hatred, and poverty--physical and spiritual (the first corporation, as I was recently reminded by one of my students, was, after all, the Church).

The filter of indigeny is different. It is rooted in a glorious multiplicity of ancestors and Holy Powers, of an awareness of the sacredness of the land and our interconnected relationship with all life. It is rooted in responsibility and respect. You may see conquest within indigenous cultures, but you'll not see the type of religious totalitarianism that you find with the history of monotheism; and everyone has indigenous roots. Every single person born on this earth, if they go back far enough comes from an indigenous culture. He or she has a tribe. Those of us coming from European descent have just forgotten that.

I maintain that the genocide and conquest of the Americas could never, ever have happened if Europe hadn't first been overrun by monotheism. The spread of monotheism across Europe brought with it a cultural and religious destruction. It destroyed our native traditions and then, in some sort of cultural Stockholm Syndrome, we fell into line and came across the ocean and did the same thing to others. It's time to wake up and realize what we lost the moment we laid down the threads of responsibility, obligation and connection to the ways of our ancestors. It's time to reclaim our traditions.

This is a frightening thing. It means first becoming aware of the filter so many of us wear. It means confronting privilege (white, Christian privilege), it means being willing to tear that filter off and step away from that and look at the world in a whole new way. It means questioning everything. But you know what? It needs to be done. Our ancestors are crying out. our world is suffering. The alternative is the poison of spirit, heart, and mind proferred by the DC40 and folks like them.

Our ancestors did not suffer, they did not fight and die, and sacrifice and hope and dream and work hard to see us walk willingly into spiritual slavery. THAT is not the legacy they left for us. Fight that filter, even when it's difficult--most especially when it's difficult. In this we must all be warriors.
 
I (Galina) recently learned from one of my students that there is a push in some circles to rename Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This apparently (and unbeknownst to me) began in Geneva, Switzerland  in 1977 at a UN conference on exploitation and oppression of indigenous peoples in the Americans. I’m very grateful to my student for alerting me to this. A name change is a start. Granted, it’s nowhere near enough. It’s not enough to pay lip service to the idea of indigenous rights. There must, in some way, be apology and reparation. Moreover, the continued oppression of indigeny must be stopped.

The story of the ‘discovery’ of America is a story of greed, religious fanaticism, and conquest. This type of conquest began with the destruction of European indigenous traditions. First, monotheism in the form of Christianity spread from the Mediterranean into Europe. It fostered the forced eradication of indigenous religions and spiritual traditions. It brutally changed the cultural paradigm and destroyed and then replaced the dominant operating “filter.” Then, having succumbed and in some cases learned to collaborate in the destruction of their own ways, Europeans, in some weird cultural Stockholm syndrome, came across the ocean and did exactly the same thing to the Native nations here. Like any cycle of abuse, it just kept on going.

It’s about time we as a people and a nation take a good long look at where that cycle has brought us, because we can change it and it begins with little steps, sometimes seemingly insignificant ones. It begins with examining our own filters and being willing to admit our privilege. That’s no small thing but it is an essential starting point.

This is one of the reasons that ancestor work, honoring our dead, is such a vital step right now. They can help. We all have ancestors who lived through these times of conquest. We all have ancestors who lived organically those traditions that were destroyed. Even those ancestors who knew only monotheism can help us, for often with death and contact with elder kin, greater understanding and awareness is gained. They can help us all remove the destructive filter that has become our baseline operating system. We need only honor them and ask. There is a Lithuanian proverb: “the souls of the dead are the guardians of the living” and that is so very, very true. Especially here. Especially now. We cannot afford to forget that. The tremendous lack of balance in our world is going to take both sides living and dead working in tandem to correct. The souls of the dead truly are the guardians of the living. Honor them.

In the meantime, think about what you can do to honor your own indigenous roots, to honor the Native cultures of this land, and to begin to enter into this fight, which is, as a colleague of mine recently called it, a fight for the soul of this nation. It doesn’t matter how small the action. Something is always better than nothing and we all have to start somewhere. Here are a few simple ideas:

Nine things that you can do instead of celebrating Criminal Columbus Day:

1.       Hold a ritual honoring the land, Turtle Island, her spirit, and the ancestors of this place. Pour or lay out offerings.

2.       This one is just for the DC40 folks, who are horrified by the idea of Goddesses who hold the title “The Queen of Heaven.” Hold a ritual honoring one of those Goddesses. Set up a small shrine and maintain a regular devotional practice. (More on the current attack on the “Queen of Heaven” in a day or so. It is going hand in hand with these predators’ attack on religious freedom, human intelligence, and Turtle Island) and it’s a part of many ancient traditions, a part that was early, often, and vociferously attacked. Let’s take it back.

3.       This was another suggestion that I got from my student: several states (New Mexico, South Dakota, Alabama and Hawaii) have renamed Columbus Day. Do some research and find out if there has been any movement to do so in your state. If not, start one.

4.       Go visit a local Native American museum (like the Museum of the American Indian in NYC). Educate yourself about First Nations’ peoples and cultures. If you have children, take them along.

5.       Push for and/or organize a presentation in your local school touching on indigenous cultures and the real story of Columbus. Bring in Native presenters (because their story is not anyone else’s narrative to tell).

6.       Take this a step further and (again a suggestion from my student) push to find out what children are learning about in school about Columbus and the Conquest of the Americas. This book can provide useful resources: http://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Columbus-Next-500-Years/dp/094296120X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318217963&sr=8-1

7.       Have a movie night and discussion with friends and acquaintances. Choose something like “Rabbit Proof Fence,” (not American, but a story of horrors perpetrated against Australian aborigine tribes. They got the idea from the Americas).  “Incident at Oglala,” “Columbus Day Legacy,” or, if you want to talk about the destruction of European traditions, ‘Agora.” There are many good and pointed films on the market, these were just a few that came immediately to mind that might prove somewhat salient on the topic of destruction of indigeny.

8.       If you haven’t begun honoring your ancestors regularly, now is a good time and excuse to begin. There are several good articles here: Http://krasskova.weebly.com/blog/html under the tag ‘ancestors’ that can get you started.

9.       Donate to Cultural Survival at http://www.culturalsurvival.org. This organization’s specific goal is the protection, preservation, and growth of indigenous cultures as well as fighting for their rights.

  A big thank you to C.A. for some of the above suggestions and many blessings to you all.

 
As part of the DC40 campaign, individual states are being targetted throughout the forty day period. As each state becomes the focus of their prayer war, NAR members bombard them if not in person, then with prayers and malignant energy work. That IS the nature of what they are doing: it's malignant energy work. i.e. black magic. They wouldn't classify it as such, of course, but by definition, they are attempting to non-consensually coerce a group of people into doing their will. THAT, my friends, is black magic. It's also disgusting and a violation their own humanity.

Today, New Mexico was targeted.
Tomorrow, that campaign turns its attentions to Oklahoma.

Here is what you can do: pray for the people in those states. Pray that they are not influenced by the malignancy, hatred, and narrow mindedness of the DC40 people. Pray that each state is protected from their poison. Pray that the Gods and ancestors, and Turtle Island herself, extend a shield over this land. Pray that she drive out that poison and allow it no purchase in the minds, hearts, and spirits of the people who dwell here.

Then call upon the ancestors of that state, those Native men and women who fought hard and fast for their freedom, who stood guard over the land, and did what they could to ensure the survival of their people. Beg for their help, because in the end, the poison that the DC40 group preaches is not native to these shores. It is not indigenous to America. It did not arise from the soil of this land. It can be pushed back and if we are very determined, driven out. So pray and may the Gods and ancestors hear our prayers.

 
In Heathenry, the Earth Goddess is known as Jord or Erda (depending of one is coming from a Norse or Anglo-Saxon perspective). We have surviving fragments of rituals wherein She was offered milk and bread as a blessing on the land in springtime, to ready the soil for planting. She is ancient, mighty, and very wise and even Odin at one point, sought Her out.

Heathenry doesn’t generally classify itself as an ‘earth-centered’ religion and I think perhaps our ancestors might not have done so either. In many ways, given that the majority of them lived off the land, it went without saying. Of course one honored the land and this Goddess. Of course one laid out offerings to the vaettir (spirits) of the land. How else to ensure its bounty? Pierre Bourdieu, a very well known anthropologist wrote once that culture ‘goes without saying because it comes without saying;’ in other words, it’s unremarkable because it is what everyone simply does. It would be more unremarkable to not honor the land in such settings. Needless to say, we’ve lost that sensibility. Not only is it that we no longer live consciously dependent on the soil and climate, but many of us are city dwellers who have the luxury of buying our produce and meat at the local supermarket. We don’t have to think too hard about where it all comes from, though we should.

I remember when I was doing my undergrad work I had to take a class on nutrition. I don’t recall if I read this in one of our books, or saw it in a documentary, but Jamie Oliver, a well-known chef who goes into schools to try to teach about proper nutrition commented once that when he holds up a carrot, or celery, or a potato, many students don’t know what they are. Some don’t realize that hamburgers come from cows. Yet they all recognize the big M of McDonalds. We are terribly disconnected from Erda and Her blessings. This is just one sign of that.

Still, even for us city dwellers, there are ways to reconnect. There are some very simple ways to begin honoring the Earth, and rooting ourselves in that sacred connection.

  1. Pour out an offering to Her. Go outside and touch the ground. Feel its steadiness, its strength, its support. Put your hands on the grass or rock or soil and say thank you. Then pour out good clean water, perhaps a little alcohol, lay out cornmeal or tobacco, or a bit of the food that you are eating. Give something back, even if only symbolically, for all that we receive in return. Such reciprocity is a good way to begin fostering that mindful awareness.
  2. Make it a point to learn something of the history, geography, and folklore of the town or city in which you live. Who lived there before you? What are its sacred stories? Its weird stories? What is the current cultural demographic? What things of interest happened? What people of note walked its streets? There are sacred places everywhere we look. We don’t have to pick up and travel to some distant land. The earth right where you stand is holy, and its story can be fascinating. Take the time to explore and maybe to find your own sacred places.
  3. Then, if you feel so moved, reach out to the city spirit. Every town, every village, every city has a spirit. The name of the spirit is the name of the town, village, etc. It is alive and aware and we are part of it, as its awareness structures our daily living. We live on it and in it and it sustains us. Say thank you. Make an offering. Acknowledge it in some way that feels right to you.
  4. Buy local and buy organic. I realize that organic produce and meat is much more expensive than its non-organic counterpart. Not everyone may be able to afford to shop 100% organic, particularly in these horrid economic times. That’s ok. If you cannot afford to do this, pick one or two items and buy those things organic. I began by just buying organic strawberries, eggs, and milk. When I could, I’d buy vegetables at the local farmer’s market. Do what you can, even if it is something small. There really is no step too small to make a difference here.
  5. Start a victory garden. If you live in the city, either consider joining a community garden, or have a pot or two of herbs on your windowsill. Patiently tending a growing plant, one that will eventually nourish you in some way,  experiencing the agricultural cycle in miniature can be very, very beneficial in really connecting to the land and its wisdom. It’s one way of healing the drastic disconnection that so many of us live with as our ‘normal.’ If you can have a full garden, a victory garden that supplies the majority of your produce, that is even better. If you are new to gardening and live in an apartment and have no idea what to plant, I suggest basil. It grows even when you don’t want it too and is very useful for cooking. Grow basil, make pesto and experience the pleasure of eating something that you have tended with your own hands. It’s a start at any rate.
  6. Consider composting. I really resisted this, even after my ancestors began to push for it. I’d only heard of composting that involved worms and I do not like bugs. Later I learned that it’s possible to do it without any bugs at all and finally I broke down and began. It’s cut my garbage in half and I’m much more aware of what I eat now. Most surprising of all for me, it really isn’t that difficult. There are plenty of websites and books on composting, so I won’t go into the details here, save only to say that even if you live in an apartment, it’s possible, with a little work, to do this. If you do live in an apartment and don’t feel you can compost, be stringent with your recycling. Every little bit that we do helps the earth.
  7. Commit one hour a week or month and go to the park or beach and pick up trash. Do this specifically as an offering to Erda or Jord.
  8. Look into ways to save energy in your home. This is a good site with which to begin: http://www.savewithces.com/365in2008.html. This benefits you and the earth.
  9. Plant a tree.
  10. Consider donating to an organization like The Big Sur Land Trust (http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org) or Scenic Hudson (http://www.scenichudson.org) or the Sierra Club (http://www.sierraclub.org), organizations that protect the environment and our coastlines.
If anyone else has any suggestions on things that the average person can do, without too much fuss, to help and honor the land, please feel free to post them here. Despite what our own cultural mores want to tell us, this is really not rocket science and it really is quite fundamental.

Hail Erda,

Hail Jord,

Hail to our mighty and fecund Earth.

May Your blessings flow;

and may You be nourished,

as You always have nourished us.

 
...and then it is not the beginning, but a sacred, intensely political and powerfully Ancestral continuation of something that has been here since time immemorial - the sacred relationship of humans to the earth, to nature, to each other and to Spirit.  This is the validation of the indigenous soul as spoken of by authors and spiritual workers Nancy Jane, Martin Prechtel and Malidoma Some'.  It is the primary, most fundamental and harmonious state of humanity throughout all of human history.  It is the acknowledgement that we live in a polytheistic world, a world alive with energetic intelligence and human divinity.  This is not a world of fantastic perfection, but one of integral harmonious functional empowerment, a world of the consciousness of the oneness of all things, true unity consciousness and behavior.

And even though what we consider christianity is a dominant phenomenon in the world, it does not mean that it is not inherently aberrant and transgressive.  In the coming days, we will take continued opportunity to consider the power and grounded genius of the indigenous human imperative, particularly with relationship to the negative effects and nature of predatory christianity, the Doctrine of Discovery, manifest destiny and the fear-based threads of neo-manifest destiny missiology that the DC40 process represents.

I greet my Ancestors here and at my altar and in the sacred crucible of nature in which they developed our traditions.  Asante sana to my Ancestralized, empowererd Dead, to the wakale (Ancestors) of the Middle Passage and of Turtle Island and those that died on the Trail of Tears, on the battlefield of Wounded Knee and on the shores and hills of Guanahani, of Bohio at the hands and orders of Criminal Columbus.  I call upon these Ancestors to guide us in our work, in this continuing process of defining and refining our sacred and grounded relationship with All That Is.  May we continue the struggle, the intelligence, the love  and compassion and bravery of our Ancestors as we step forward into history.