Once upon a time the people knew they lived in a sacred world, surrounded by love and plenty. No matter where they went, they seldom felt unprotected or afraid to be lost. Some walked the land in the footprints of the ancestors and some roamed the oceans following the cycles of the planets, the wings of birds and the lay of the land. Others thought of an empty stretch of spinifex*1 as if it were a sacred icon, felt about mountains as they felt about their maternal grandmothers and read a vast amount of intelligence and purpose in the topography of the terrain or the constellation of the stars.
Embedded in the environment and firm in tribal identity, the people felt secure in survival and joyous about life. They knew that the Earth is paradise, now and always, that man belongs to Earth and Earth does not belong to man, that Earth is a living entity and common mother, never to be wounded, and that man is the helper of the Sun, the giver of life, and the Great Creator.
“Grandfather Sun’s mission was to give warmth, light, and love to all Creation unconditionally. He was to be the constant reminder to all of the children of the life force that each of them carried a part of the Eternal Flame of Great Mystery’s love and that none of them were excluded from the source of light.” *2
The people made mistakes, lost patience, struggled with superstition and fought passionately, yet they understood the interdependence of everything alive. They did not need the
addictive quest for pure gold or perfection. They were merely fueled by a need to restore imbalance or undo desecration and damage and they were so responsible that they considered the impact of their decisions on the wellbeing of the seventh generation to follow their needs.*3
These ancients were artists in living and giving thanks and their lives were vision quests. Whether they walked the songlines of the great Aboriginal island, inhabited peninsulas in Artic Oceans and Irish or Baltic Seas, commuted with a lush and volatile nature across Pacific archipelagos, enjoyed palatial splendor and swank on a Cretan atoll of matriarchy or danced on the roof of the world out west on Turtle Island, their experience was shared and good enough for all people.
And thus they lived spirit and forever resurrected Creation.
Born in the womb of mother, family, tribe, land, Mother Earth, Father Sky and the Universe |  |
Then came the tyrants…
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*1 Spinifex is a genus of grass, indigenous to the coastal areas of Australia and Indonesia.
*2 Jamie Sams and Twylab Nitsch in Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours, 11
*3 The Great Law of Peace of the Hotinonsionne, The League of Six Nations.