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Gaia Angel 
She who Dreams with Dolphins
Posts: 334
(12/15/03 6:50 am)
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A very generalized look at native spirituality
How do traditional Native Americans seek closeness/union with Spirit?
For traditional Native Americans, there is no separation between the sacred and the ordinary. Every act, every thought, walks hand-in-hand with Spirit. The hunting of a beast for food is a dialogue between the hunter and the spirit of the animal. Agriculture is an honoring of the spirits of the plants and the fruitfulness of the earth. Human sexuality mirrors and participates in the masculine and feminine forces present in all the earth and the skies beyond. For traditional Native American religion, almost every act could be considered ritual, since each act is consciously tied to Spirit.
How can this be? For Native Americans (like primal or earth-based religions all around the world) the world of spirit and the world of physical appearances lie close together, intersecting at innumerable points, neither distinct from the other. Actions in the everyday world impact the spirit world -- things done in the spirit world impact this world. At the Niman Kachina rituals of the Hopi, men put on wooden likenesses of the spirit-kachinas and enact their return to their homeland, where the kachinas watch over the Hopi, bringing rain and good fortune until their reappearance among the people several months later. Do these costumed dancers believe the masks possess them so that they become the kachinas? Or are they acting "as if" this were so? The answer is both and neither: Such an either-or does not exist in Native American thought. To participate in ritual dance is to walk in both worlds simultaneously.
Yet what is true of dance is also true of daily life: Everything has the same sacred over/underlay. Religion and life are one thing. The Woodlands hunter who whispers ritual apologies and blessings to the spirit of the dying deer walks in this space. The Lakota who pierces his flesh, attaching himself physically to the spirit-symbol of the sundance pole, dances in two worlds. Southeastern peoples "going to water" are opening doors between the two worlds as widely as they can so that the focused rituals that follow will have their intended effect. All across Native America, sweat lodges bring participants into the womb of earth to be cleansed, reborn, reconnected with the web of life afresh. Any action in life can begin a kind of spirit dance between a person and the object acted upon: All of nature has the same capacity for relationship with a person that a dance partner has. All is relationship, all is alive, and care must be taken so that each action has positive effects.
In academic terms, Native American spirituality may be described as panentheism (deity/spirit present in, as well as beyond, everything). Such a worldview assumes the existence of Spirit beyond the visible world, but also dwelling in all that is. Words like animism (belief in spirits in natural phenomena, such as trees, rocks, animals, fire) are commonly used to describe Native American religion, but when one neglects to include the broader presence of Spirit beyond physical nature, this explanation is incomplete. The Lakota concept of Wakan Tanka (most frequently translated as Great Spirit) illustrates panentheism well: Wakan Tanka is the Spirit over, under, and throughout all of the physical world, its guiding principle, present in individual phenomena yet not confined to it, not strictly singular nor plural, neither truly personal nor impersonal. Manitou/manitos of the Algonkians is a similar concept.
Hey, I said it was very general As always feel free to add and enlighten my ignorance
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shammala
New Student/Teachers Apprentice
Posts: 6
(3/30/04 9:26 am)
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Re: A very generalized look at native spirituality
Very,Very Well said my friend!!!!The length of this even is appropriate,Clear,to the point,honest and full of integrity!!!
Shammala
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wolfscout1 
New Student/Teachers Apprentice
Posts: 17
(8/13/04 4:03 am)
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Re: A very generalized look at native spirituality
it may be generalized but it puts the basics into words.
nicely done.
~~~
OWP
Larry's Place
The Path I Walk.
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Sugar Mtn Honeybee
New Student/Teachers Apprentice
Posts: 9
(9/11/04 2:11 pm)
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Re: A very generalized look at native spirituality
Excellent! Very well said.
Sugar Mountain /
The Dance |
1hillclimber
Global User
Posts: 310
(9/30/04 7:54 pm)
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Re: A very generalized look at native spirituality
That was great, just the way you said it, G-Angel. Sorry it took me so long to see it.
HC
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