Journey To The Ancestral Self

The Native Lifeway Guide to 

Living In Harmony with Earth Mother

PART I. Finding the Trail

         Introduction to Part I

         These Books. . .

         . . .and How to Use Them

         Seeking Wisdom: The Guide as Raven

                  Our Dilemma

                  The Way of the Raven

                  The Guide

                  Giving is Receiving

                  The Seeker

                  An Empty Cup

                  The Only Step

                  Honor for Another's Path

PART II. The Old Way Culture

         Introduction to Part II 

         Who Are We?

         . . .in Relation to Native People?

         The Old Way and Civilization

                  A Comparison

                  Where They Diverged

                  Old Way Primitive

         The Sacred Circle

         Tradition as a River

                  The Awareness

                  The River

         Time and Moons

                  Moon as Sister

                  Moon as Time

                  Moons Cycle

                  Our Moon Cycle 

                  The Moment

                  Time

                  Speed

                  Deep Time

         Earth Language

                  Living Tongues

                  The Other Voice of Language

                  Speaking Life

PART III. People of the Old Way

         Introduction to Part III

                  Clans and Conquerors

                  Tribal Wars

                  Survival

                  Equality and Justice

                  Seeds for the Garden

                  Hoop of Life

                  Hoop of Relations

                  Life Energy

                  Love and Mating

         Sisters of the Moon

                  Honor Her Culture

                  Moontime Power and Spirit

                  Quest for Balance

         The Way of the Warrior

                  Warrior as Guardian

                  The Calling

                  The Apprenticeship

                  Respect

                  From React to Act

                  Leaving Habit, Living Awareness

                  Brotherhood

                  Honor in Conflict

         Children - Our Guardianship

                  In Family

                  Caretaking

                  Walking the Hoop

                  Walking Back in Childhood

         Elders - Keepers of the Ancestral Voice

                  The Grandfather and the Canoe
                  The Beloved Ones

PART IV. Attunement - Stepping out of Time

         Introduction to Part IV

         Sensory Attunement

                            Intuition

                                    Intuition Exercises

                  The Primary Senses

                            Touch

                                    Touch Exercises

                            Shadowing

                                    Shadowing Exercises

                            Balance

                                    Balance Exercises

                  The Secondary Senses

                            Smell

                                    Smell Exercises

                            Hearing

                                    Hearing Exercises

                            Sight

                                    Sight Exercises

                  Our Senses in Old Way Perspective

                                    Envisioning

                                    Ridicule

         Mental Attunement

                  Mental Exercises

         Spiritual Attunement

                  Religion and Spirituality

                  Natural and Supernatural

                  Belief and Debwewin 

                                    Spiritual Exercises

         Circle Attunement

                  Harmony in Discord

                  Coming to Oneness

         Continuing the Journey

         Index

These Books...

         . . . are a Journey. Deep within each of us is a person who dances to the Drum around the ritual Fire, a person who knows healing lore from times when plants spoke, a person who yearns for the peace and Blessings of walking again in the Balance of Our Earth - Our Mother.

         This Journey will bring us to the Voice of our own blood Ancestors from the time before time was kept. It will give us invisibility; it will give the grace of a ballerina to our walk and the fleetness of Dolphin to our swim; it will give us the Personal Power we now have but cant use. It will give us back our home, and reintroduce us to Our Mother.

         These books have no beginning. They are a glance at the flow and rhythm that brings past to future by being in the fullness of the moment. In the same way these books have no end. The ends of the sentences are not for us, nor are the ends of the chapters or the ends of the books. In the hollows of these words and the times after these periods, the Song of our Ancestors will be heard. When it happens, put the books down and listen. It is precious time with the Elders, time we have been too long without. It is our birthright. It is also our sacred duty, as heir to our family's Memories. The books will be there when we return; don't let them get in the way of their reason for being before us.

         There is nothing new in these books. Many things may at first sound new to us, but we will soon discover that we already know them, or that we can read them on pages ever before us. They are locked in our Ancestral Memory; they are on the tip of Squirrels tongue outside our window they are being whispered for us to hear right at this moment. These books are a collection of keys that will unlock those sources for us. Once the keys become part of us, we won't need these (or any other) books anymore.

         In this book there are exercises to help us grow in awareness and attune our senses and intuitions. They lead to skills in the following books that will allow us to partake in the Blessings of Walking the Old Way - the lifeway common to the natural realm. We'll learn how to draw the spirit of Fire from wood, how to befriend Mosquitos, how to touch a Deer, how to speak the language that travels beneath words. We'll learn these things not as isolated skills, but as incidentals to the Path of Balance.

         My first inclination is to ask you not to read these books. Knowledge is well conveyed by books, but wisdom shies from words not filled with the breath of life. Printed words risk being static and are prone to misinterpretation. They are woefully inadequate in sharing that which is not bounded by time and space. And I am bound by trust and greater wisdom to share some things only in their own time, only in a sacred manner, and only as people are prepared for them. So there will be times when you need wizened guidance, and these books will fail you.

         If you can, take this Journey with the assistance of a Guide. Seek out the Elders in your area; you'll recognize them as the ones who live what they believe, and who guide you to seek your own Voice and Vision rather than having you adopt theirs. Empty your cup before you go (as a full one has no room), and a true Elder will likely not refuse you.

         These books are best utilized as adjuncts to having a Guide, so Part I of these books are devoted to the Guide-Seeker relationship. Even so, I know that many of you are isolated, and will still walk alone with these words. For you I wish to say that these words will sometimes become transparent, and what you need may appear through them.

         I have written these books in part because the Journey to self-discovery and Vision is a Path that is shrouded in the shame and denial of the dominant culture. Vestiges of the Old Way that survive in that culture are either shallowed by tinsel or dangled before us as a mythic reward. "Know thyself" is the directive given by People of Spirit in every age and tradition. When we know who we are - when these books becomes a cliche to our existence - we'll reapproach that culture with a temperance and a benevolence that will speak to others, whether that be our conscious intent or not. Just by being ourselves - our intrinsic selves - we'll ease for others the Journey to self.

         Some of us have already reached a place where the placebos of the culture have lost their magic and the Voices shout from deep within to be heard. For those amongst us I have especially written these books.

         I know of too few books and too few teachers who are applying the wisdoms of the Old Way to today. Some advocate the return of yesterday, and many, emerging from generations of cultural stew, unwittingly share their hybrid traditions as the Old Way. Some give us the allegorical jingles and feathers to dance in; few give us the marrow and guts we need Walk with.

         In these final days, Our Mother asks us to return to Her, to respect and care for Her, in the way that gives Her Honor. We've tried many other "new, improved," ways, which invariably devour each other or choke on their own corpulence. I'm walking beside you in these pages as we relearn the Way that transcends the vagaries of time and notion.

         For the Deer and the Grasses I have written these books, so that we can again be At One with them. As importantly, I wish these books to help us be At One with our own species. As Deer lick each others' coats and Grasses sway together in the breezes, so also do we need to learn again how to trust and cherish and nurture those of our own Blood. By finding ourselves, we also find the self in others; by touching the Power and beauty in others, we also touch the Power and beauty in ourselves. We all dance and cry and thirst the same things; it is the Song of our species. We are but fingers on the same hand, as the same Blood, the same Memory, the same Spirit flows in all of us. In our neighbor is our heart, our eyes; in her steps we also Walk, in her breath we also find life. In the quest of self we find the Path of our species.

         My dilemma in writing of matters sacred has been to give it a life that will bridge our lack of common cultural soil and shared spiritual Blood. I cover some things that would not be discussed amongst Native Peoples, either because they are already understood as part of the cultural context, or because they are considered unmentionable. Talk of an individual's spiritual realm would be embarrassing and disrespectful, as well as an infringement - and possibly a negation - of that person's Power.

         In sharing some of my own spiritual experiences, I break with that tradition. The Spirit-realm does not exist in a general or abstract form; it exists for each of us only as we give it breath. So I have chosen to root my sharing in the tracks of my own Path. This is the only way I can give you living words.

         We are each given Gifts and Powers that are intended only for us. In speaking them we risk losing them by giving them away. So I have been cautious to relate my Dreams and Visions in a way that will not release their Gifts. They are like good wine that will keep indefinitely in a cool dark cellar, but will deteriorate quickly when brought up to the warmth and light. I am trustful that what I have given here of my Spirit-Way will be given back to me.

         There is little ceremony or ritual in these books, as they are about those things from which ceremonies flow. The outward expression of spirit is personal to each of us, and can sometimes be shared when people of like spirit come together. Spontaneous or ritualized ceremony gives Honor to The Mother and Power to the participants, because it draws its breath from within each person participating. Ceremony which is imposed or followed without heart is hollow and debilitating.

         One of the incentives for this book was my experience with hollow rituals and traditions gone stale. Many times have I been expected to participate in a ceremony in body without concern for my involvement in spirit. And many times have I been left feeling like a spoke in a wheel that doesn't know why it is turning.

         Our culture did not grace us with ceremonies, because it shares no spirit to ceremonialize; it gave us only relic traditions because living traditions interfere with expediency and its pragmatic ways. So our thirst drives us to adopt tradition for the sake of tradition, to dogmatically practice a prescribed ritual in hopes that it will spark an upwelling of the sacred within us.

         I own nothing and will receive no recompense for these books. If their breath fans the ember of our smouldering spirit to visibly glow in its expression of Blessings and Balance, I will be honored enough for having written them.

         Because of the great diversity of Native Lifeways, I run the risk of overgeneralizing when I speak of the Old Way as common to all Native Peoples. For example, the Native North Americans cannot be said to share a spirituality, because there are as many differences amongst them as there are amongst the major religions of the world. My focus in these texts is not on the peculiarities which distinguish people, but on the underlying threads which show them as kin.

         You and I would describe the same Tree differently if we came upon it from different directions, at different times, in different seasons. In the same way these will be books of fact for you only in that area where my reality meshes with yours. For me, these are entirely books of fact, because they are a reflection of my personal reality. Your eyes, your heart, are not mine, so I do not ask you to, nor will I be offended when you do not, accept all of my reality as yours.

         I regret that Im not able to share with each of you personally, individually, as there are many things that can only be shared on a one-to-one basis. However, my regret is not for loss to you, because I know these things are available to you elsewhere, and will come to you as you seek and need them on your Journey.

         These books will only open doors; it is for each of us to walk beyond the doors. They are like a roadsign, like a directional arrow; they are not a Path themselves, not your Path or my Path. If we grasp the spirit of these books, we will leave them with more questions than answers; if they grasp our spirit, they will leave us with the tools to find those answers.

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