I remember words to songs, but not lines to movies. In my years with this column I have oft written of songs that have impacted me, but not of any movies or shows. That changes today. Native America is a four-part PBS series that challenges everything we thought we knew about the Americas before and since contact with Europe. It travels through 15,000-years to showcase massive cities, unique systems of science, art, and writing and 100 million people connected by social networks and spiritual beliefs spanning two continents. The series reveals some of the most advanced cultures in human history and the Native American people who created them and whose legacy continues. It is wonderfully presented and enthusiastically endorsed. [CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING]
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I have always been respectful of the legendary environmental wisdom and spirituality of the historic Native American people. They were very observant of things happening in their surroundings. So tied to nature were they that their cultural and spiritual beliefs and traditions were deeply rooted in nature and celestial events – things they could see or sense, changes in nature that they could feel in their bodies, things they believed impacted them and their environment. They showed a healthy and an unbending respect for it. They knew they were connected to it. One such occurrence that is particularly meaningful to them is the Winter Solstice. It is the year’s day of least sunlight, when the sun takes its lowest, shortest path across the sky. In their best traditions, Native Americans celebrated Winter Solstice as a time of change and renewal, the return of the sun to the sky, the beginning of the new year. It signified rebirth. In many tribes, children who had been born throughout the year were given their names on this day. The Winter Solstice represents the return of the Light which cleanses the soul and helps nourish it for the new year. The Winter Solstice is an opportune time to bring completion to what has gone before and to go within ourselves to sort out the intentions of what we want to bring forward to continue our pursuit of perfecting our souls. The north winds encourage patience and inward growth, a renewal of the soul together with the current body it wears and mind it interacts with. Whatever holiday you may choose to follow at this time of year, whether it’s on the Solstice or the traditional Gregorian New Year’s Day, the “ceremony” is likely to include an act of prayer, the consciously bringing together of the Human and the Divine, the expression of gratitude and the statement of intentions. That space we find where the mind and soul can be quietly one. These ceremonies can be a way for us to sift through our thoughts and feelings and, hopefully, to see more clearly our intentions in new Light. On this night, some Native Americans slept early to dream, believing that Mother Night reigns the earth and walks through our dreams sending messages. At dawn, the members gathered around the light of a fire to share these messages. The Winter Solstice, the new year, is that pause between the exhale and inhale of a full breath. Out with the old, in with the new. As we exhale that full breath we too are in a sacred place to begin to dream about the coming year and what we would like to create. Happy New Year. |