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Waeccan Means to "Wake Up"

8/10/2020

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What inner promptings or outer circumstances guide us along the path of ancestral connection?  In my own case as a life-long animist, at times I had felt drawn to practices in the New Age world, due to the plethora of books and products in metaphysical bookstores and fairs, and also for the social life and connection offered by local community.  For many years I was non-judgmental on the more bizarre manifestations in modern spirituality going on around me, i.e. cult-like hierarchies, the guru complex, "ascension," fake shamans and healing circles led by abusive and harmful people. But eventually it dawned on me that the New Age practice of constantly picking up new books and modalities was not sustainable, and was deeply hypocritical by being connected to the consumer shopping addiction.

When the absurdities, contradictions and outright lies in my local New Age community finally became clear to me, I had to turn my back forever. And at the exact same moment in time the beauty and wonder of my own roots, and the hard work of the Celtic Reconstructionists before me, came quickly into view. Why hadn't I seen it before? Beguiled by the "next shiny thing" and the aggressive marketing of quick fixes, finding that my own heritage was the "soft landing place" and source of connection I was seeking, was deeply and truly empowering.  Here is a poem that I wrote from that time:
“I leave behind the person I once was, who cared so deeply for so many
wonderful people, places and things, finding it was all dust.
 
Then, moving down the trail I am met by everyday magic,
as I stir my solitary dust into the sacred cauldron we call life.
Newly awakened, or waeccan, to my Celtic roots,
kissed by the sun and blessed by the moon,
I am infused with an inexplicable desire to SPEAK OUT
 ~ on behalf of our Mother the Earth,
and all those who would live in harmony with Her.” 
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A deep love for our Sacred Earth is contiguous with Druidry and Celtic Spirituality - no wonder that my heritage brings me such joy!  What have been your own experiences of disillusionment with the world of New Age Spirituality?  And what has prompted your own return to your Ancestors?  I  would love to hear your stories!

                                             BACKSTORY
My own spiritual journey was deeply informed by Indigenous Knowledge, and this process is fully described in Chapter 2 "I Am Interloper" in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community.

                                               WAECCAN
“Waeccan” or “to be awake” in Old English simply means to be in tune with the presence of the mystery in nature, and I use it to align with my earth-wise Ancestors. When we are waeccan, our heart, mind and soul are open to the beauty in ourselves and all of creation.   The term “waeccan” may be the root for “wicca” or “witch,” but  I do  not  practice  wicca  or  witchcraft.   Drifting  far  from  respectable  roots  in  Old  English  and Germanic paganism, the etymology of “wicca,” “wiccan” and “witch” became progressively dire as a result of Christian oppression. Today, the brave tradition established by feminist foremothers Starhawk, Z Budapest and others to reclaim and embody the term “witch” as a valid, empowering and positive contemporary identity is admirable, and many have been able to disconnect the identity markers “wicca,” “wiccan” and “witch” from their negative associations.

                             FEMINIST GODDESS SPIRITUALITY
Many aspects of Feminist Goddess Spirituality have been entwined with New Age, but I continue to embrace Matriarchal Studies as a deeply honorable direction for cultural transformation.

                                             RESOURCES
A curated collection of resources for those awakening to their Celtic Heritage can be found here: www.stonecirclepress.com/celtic-reconstruction.html
                           
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon.
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Initiation Now: Rethinking the World as Alive

7/6/2020

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PEGI EYERS

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"Piel de la Tierra" © Gabriela Campos
For every age and demographic today, our lives are keeping pace with climate disaster events, in an unprecedented era of massive change.  Culminating in a perfect storm of toxic technologies and tropes such as the endless growth paradigm, ecosystems and human structures worldwide are beginning to crumble. Warming temperatures are unleashing fires, floods, hurricanes and rising oceans as never before, and late-stage capitalism is also a time of eroding (if not disappearing) social programs that used to serve the common good. But we are not going silent into that dark night. Resistance to Empire has been mounting for decades, and new initiatives today hold hope, largely due to the protests of young people as led by Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier, Isra Hirsi, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez and many others, and “on-point” movements such as Extinction Rebellion.  As Greta Thunberg is telling us, “This is a crisis. We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is.”  Young people from Standing Rock, Houston, Flint, Mauna Kea and countless other places are declaring an urgent, major crisis, and they are right.  Following their lead, and in collective response to the emergency, radically different modes of engagement are needed to contend with the existential, spiritual, political and civilizational crises of our time. 

Understanding root causes, or the “cause and effect” for any scenario is always a good idea. Today’s crisis is the result of the rise of capitalism and imperialism, the hegemony of land ownership, and a long-held worldview that separates us from nature. And yet, Euro-colonization is NOT inevitable, or part of human nature – it’s a set of very specific decisions that led to the way technologies and worldviews were forced on lands and peoples.  Knowing the full backstory may empower our perception to shift from fear and uncertainly (although that is certainly present) to wonder and awe, as we ask ourselves why we were born to "be witness to" such a momentous era. Times of collapse and extinction are impossible for anyone to comprehend, and yet facing reality is our best response.  The youth of today are not turning away, but are creating their own “rites of passage” though rigorous activism in anti-gun legislation, climate change action, lawsuits filed against governments and corporations, and other creative forms of resistance.  Momentum is building, and young people are fully prepared to achieve their goals, such as winning lawsuits that require an immediate shift to the divestment from fossil fuels.
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© Morgan Wade Photography
In dire times of shifting foundations, asking “what are we initiating into?” is a valid question to be sure.  As guardians, teachers and mentors, we need to seek new possibilities, instead of replicating colonial (or western) thinking. Solutions and actions can be sourced from praxis as old as time, such as forming healthy group culture modeled after ancestral wisdom and Indigenous Knowledge (IK).  Under the layers of modernity, our Earth is still a primal planet, every natural process is still part of an ancient tradition, and we can still live for the wild, revere the land, and discover that the other-than-human is not quite as “other” as we had once believed.  "Rethinking the world as alive" is the fierce promise we make when we spend more time in nature, bond with the earth, discover what our local bioregion has to offer, and find new skills and community supports in the process.  For initiation ceremonies and rites of passage we offer or participate in, we are all on a journey to decolonize ourselves, as we partner with the other-than-human, re-frame our identities, and re-imagine our place in the world.

For a powerful example of a living worldview embedded in the land we can look to the great Okanagan storyteller and orator Harry Robinson, who was wholly immersed in the natural world in every waking moment. During the transcribing of his priceless story-cycles, scholar Wendy Wickwire tells us that “Harry traveled to Vancouver to undergo medical treatment under the care of an elderly Chinese herbalist. Only then did the depth of Harry’s mythological world become truly apparent. As we passed through downtown Vancouver on his visits to the doctor, I realized that all the traffic lights and cars meant nothing to Harry.  They were almost an abstraction, an interesting but fleeting diversion from the timeless real world of Coyote, Fox and Owl.”[1]   In our own work to reject the failed experiment of industrial civilization and connect deeply with the land, can we also have no doubt that entering urban space is an illusion and an aberration, an insult to ourselves and Earth Community? Can we too walk among the ruins of Empire and see it as an abstraction, a fleeting diversion that for a long and merciless time tried to demonize Gaia and separate us from our one true home?

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"Soul Encounter" © Doug Van Houten
The land is both archive and ally, and the source for both our resiliency and our roots. It’s time to turn to the Ancestors, dust off the old texts, find the enchantment that lives in the dark, and “go underground” again to feel the messages of the land. What are the trees asking of us?  What does the salmon and cougar want us to do?  What are the lessons we are learning from our ancient elder the snapping turtle? Remembering our interdependence and recovering deep listening skills, enhances our adaptability and resilience, and revives our love for self, others and the land.  Having somatic body experiences in the wild, and creative expressions such as singing, dancing, drumming, painting, storytelling and ceremonial art, allows us to work through our fear, anger, grief, yearning, guilt and tenderness, in response to massive change and climate disaster.  And to arrive full circle, embodying our eco-self and holding the land in our bones, leads us to participate on the front lines, and ongoing activism on behalf of Earth Community. 

The ability to listen to nature’s promptings cannot be overstated. Many are already suffering from the catastrophic effects of climate change such as fires, hurricanes and floods, and are experiencing displacement and/or the loss of hearth and home, and having to start again.  Perhaps the lesson is to live minimally with few possessions, as many of today’s youth are already doing. Rejecting the values of the dominant society, “going feral” and shifting to holistic solutions is the best way forward in times of massive change and climate disaster.  Extreme social dysfunction, mental suffering and a sense of powerlessness have been generated by Empire, but we can temper these dire realities by acknowledging that human beings are not in charge. Mother Earth holds us all in her embrace, and as we  trust in Her antediluvian forces we give way to the wisdom of the land. Going forth into an uncertain future, we already have everything we need in the regeneration of our hope and  resilience. The eternal power of the "green fuse" continues to spark the growth of new life, and the love at the heart of the interconnected web empowers us. Be ready, be flexible, guide each other, and prepare each generation to live sustainably on our beautiful planet!

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© Sacred Feminine Art

NOTES
[1] Harry Robinson and Wendy Wickwire (editor), Write it on Your Heart: The Epic World of an Okanagan Storyteller, Talonbooks, 1989.  From the first of three volumes, the stories of Harry Robinson (Interior Salish, Lower Similkameen/Smelqmix, B.C.) as collected by Wendy Wickwire.

RESOURCES
Pegi Eyers, Chapter 6 “We All Have IK,” Chapter 27 “Entwining Heart and Mind,” Chapter 28 “Ancient Spirit, Modern Voice,” Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots and Restoring Earth Community, Stone Circle Press
"Initiation Now: Rethinking the World as Alive" was written for the Youth Passageways project LAND {CULTURE} CLIMATE in 2019.
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon 
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Dangerous Women

6/23/2020

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Author Spotlight ~ Pegi Eyers

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Interview by Abrisham Ahmadzadeh
Re-Print from Unbound ~ October 11, 2019

This week, we chatted with Pegi Eyers, a Dangerous Women author who is a devotee of nature-based culture and all that is sacred to the Earth.  She lives in the countryside near Nogojiwanong in Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg territory (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) on a hilltop with views reaching for miles in all directions. Her piece targets the passive white woman in the struggle for intersectional feminism. I’ve asked Pegi three questions, in an attempt to see the book through her perspective.

Abrisham >> What is your writing process/routine?

Pegi >> Whether I am writing a book, paper, article or blog, I’ve become accustomed to the discipline of spending at least 5-6 hours a day developing research and capturing different themes in new stories and non-fiction.  I love both the writing and editing process, so that makes my daily process a joy instead of a duty or a task! That’s not to say I don’t have uninspired days, but there is always so much to do in terms of responding to correspondence, planning for conferences, general promotion or graphic design my schedule never gets boring.  Some of my best ideas arrive full-fledged in the liminal time between sleep and waking, so it’s imperative to have writing materials at hand.

Abrisham >> What did the Dangerous Women Project mean to you?

Pegi >> The Dangerous Women Project has been an integral force in furthering women’s voices and perspectives into all sectors of society.  Leading the way in supporting the freedom of expression that is due all women, the DWP has provided an amazing platform for our objections as we continue to rage against the injustices of a male-dominated world.   Let us hope that as our collective defiance gives rise to a new era of empowerment for ourselves, our communities and the wider world, we stay focused on positive social, economic and political change for the greater good of all.  Such is our power!

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Image © Leah Tinari
Who is your favourite woman from history and why?

Pegi >> My favourite woman from history is Lozen, a Chihenne Chiricahua Apache oracle, healer, warrior and resistance strategist who lived during the 19th century. Beyond what the western lens considers suitable gender roles for women, Lozen was highly skilled in skirmish and evasion tactics in response to the European takeover of the Americas.  Born during the 1840s on the borderlands of what is now New Mexico and Arizona, her leadership was considered equal to other freedom fighters like Geronimo, and her brother, the famous Apache chief Victorio. 

Focused on the protection and well-being of every member of her matrilineal tribe, she inspired, encouraged and guided her people through the most dangerous situations imaginable.   In addition to skills with battle strategy and weapons, Lozen was a fierce and unrelenting warrior on horseback, and also possessed remarkable spiritual powers in service to the struggle.  Through chant, prayer, visions, remote viewing and prophecies, she provided direction by consistently identifying the location of the enemy (the American military) over great distances and diverse terrain.  According to Alexander B. Adams in his book Geronimo, "she would stand with her arms outstretched, chant a prayer to Ussen the Creator, or Giver of Life, and slowly turn around."  Lozen's prayer (below) is translated in Eve Ball's book In the Days of Victorio.
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Image ©Rori Comics



Upon this earth
On which we live
Ussen has Power
This Power is mine
For locating the enemy.
I search for that Enemy
Which only Ussen the Great
Can show to me.
As the unrelenting juggernaut of Settler-Colonialism advanced over the homelands of the Apache, Lozen never capitulated to oppressive forces, but maintained her integrity and honor to the very end.  Without romanticizing, whitewashing, or performing a "Settler Sidestep", I continue to be forever haunted and heartbroken by the multiple layers of meaning in Lozen’s story, and at the deepest level, the full implications of the genocide that occurred in the Americas. 

The stories of all those who lost their lives to colonial violence continues to remind me of my own responsibility to make reparations, and restitution for the unforgivable racism of my ancestors.  Instead of peaceful co-existence, or being good guests on lands already inhabited by a myriad of civilizations, the imperialist powers are still focused on control, religious conversion and white supremacy, and the same patriarchal domination of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous lands continues today.  Instead of cultural amnesia or normalizing Empire, my hope is that Dangerous Women everywhere will continue to embrace the critically important work of social justice and challenging the patriarchy.

Abrisham >> Thank you Pegi! The conversations that have stemmed from the making of this book so far, are what the book is all about.  The sheer volume of voices coming together for Dangerous Women is the most exciting part, and being able to bring so many powerful women together.

Who is your dangerous woman from history?  
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Dangerous Women: Fifty Reflections on Women, Power and Identity is due for publication in 2021 ~ watch this space for announcements and ordering information ~!!

By Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson and Abrisham Ahmadzadeh
                                            DANGEROUS WOMEN
But what does it mean for a woman to be dangerous? Who, or what, does she present a danger to? Who gets to say she’s dangerous? Why do they want to say it? Does she consider herself dangerous? Is feminism dangerous? And what do the answers to those questions tell us about societies past and present? About our social and political structures, about our everyday lives, our attitudes and our very identities? Dangerous Women gives fifty wide-ranging perspectives on these questions.

We have welcomed poets, playwrights, artists, academics, journalists, historians, performers and opinion-formers, and indeed anyone with an angle on the theme, to reflect on the danger of females. Speaking from a variety of ages, ethnicities and cultures, we have come together from all over the world to give agency to any woman dismissed for her power, talent or success, trivialised as a threat or condemned for challenging the status quo. We are here to celebrate these women and applaud them for their strength.

In doing so, we have reclaimed the right to be dangerous, and highlighted the power of otherwise dismissed female figures. If you lack female idols, this book is for you. If you want to challenge the narrative that a powerful woman is a threat, this inclusive and diverse book is for you. Dangerous Women is for anyone and everyone who questions how to be dangerous, and indeed what that means.  Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson and Abrisham Ahmadzadeh
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency,  uncolonization, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon 
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Ancient Covenant

6/7/2020

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PEGI EYERS

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What [most] modern human beings don't seem to realize is that each blade of grass, flower, tree, plant, element and creature in Earth Community is offering us unconditional love, to nurture us, sustain us, and empower our joy and deep connection. This love is at the center of our miraculous relationships with the other-than-human world, and Earth Community provides us with all the grace and beauty our souls will ever need. 

Precious ecosystems continue to offer the living world nourishment; shade; sanctuary for countless organisms, birds, insects and other creatures; cool respite in the heat of the summer; and a wellspring of ancient myth and knowledge. There is no other force on the planet that can weave the timeless elements of earth, water, air and fire together, for the benefit of Earth Community and all life.

All that is asked of us in return, is that we extend the same deep love, care and respect back to Earth Community. To take more than what is freely offered is an act of contempt bordering on criminality, and severs our Ancient Covenant with the land. Acts of murder, terror and ecocide are unforgivable, and the Great Spirits of the earth and the human allies who love and protect will never forget how the Original Instructions were defiled.  We all belong in the Sacred Circle, and our automatic return, or access to this blessed existence, is dependent on only one thing - humility, remaining in balance and living within natural law.
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REMEMBER
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

Joy Harjo

"Remember" © Joy Harjo from She Had Some Horses, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1983

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Sacred Circle space delineated in the Canadian Shield near the Haliburton Highlands in Ontario ~ ready to be activated by quiet contemplation, Earth Blessing, grief ritual, edgewalking with the spirits of place, community ceremony and song.
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency,  uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. 
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"Earthing" in the Garden

6/6/2020

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PEGI EYERS

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We are Children of the Earth. Yet we have been hoisted away from Her by the hypertrophy of the rational intellect, and we have strayed far from our own sensate groundedness and presence. To come fully to rest on the ordinary Earth is to rest in the present moment. The tyranny of time dissipates, and we find that we are simply here, belonging to the place our senses have newly discovered. [1]
 
As children, we instinctually know that physically connecting our body to the Earth, stretching out under the trees on a hot summer day, rolling in the grass, or thrusting our hands into the soil of the garden makes us feel wonderful, alive and free. Called “earthing” and touted as a new discovery in recent times, our pre-colonial ancestors embodied this miraculous energy and well-being, gained from physical contact to the land. Spending time in the garden gives us the perfect opportunity to merge with these healing and energizing properties, which have been identified by modern science as the transfer of electrons (the earth’s natural, subtle energy) into our bodies. Without a doubt, our immersion in the green space of the garden, and our bodily contact with the Earth, promotes tranquility, reflection, and restoration for the human spirit!
 
And yet, the philosophy and material culture of our high-tech post-industrial society conspire to keep us from connecting to green spaces, and their boundless storehouse of healing and energizing electrons. Walking on concrete with rubber or plastic-soled shoes, living indoors buttressed with insulative materials, travelling by  vehicle from place to place, working under artificial lights, and spending hours on electronic gadgets all take their toll on our physical health and spiritual well-being. Studies that reference the disruptive and negative effects of synthetic environments on human vitality such as “sick building syndrome” point to this malaise, and an overall reduction in well-being.
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As long as I remember, I have wanted to be in natural spaces. I instinctually began an “earthing” practice for solace and healing many years ago, spending hours whenever I could stretched out in the forest or the garden,  gazing at the blue sky, interlace of branches, flowing green leaves, small plants, shrubbery and flowers, breathing in the scents and sounds of nature’s perfection in harmony with the “ground” of my being.  By staying in one place and just be-ing, I discovered the holistic benefits of bodily contact to the Earth on the emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual levels of existence simultaneously. Even if the effects were not immediately apparent, after a “timeless time” I was firing on all cylinders, and ready to face the man-made world again. The most amazing thing about the soothing, strengthening, grounding and cleansing practice of “earthing” is the simplicity and access – our backyard gardens are perfect, and parks and green space are all nearby.
 
Revisiting our reciprocity with the land requires the ethics of genuine care, and as every good gardener knows, the soil itself needs to be nurtured and tended. Age-old practices in subsistence communities honour the Earth under our feet as alive and divine, a sacred and life-giving force that can be enhanced and nourished for greater yields, and for the vitality of all beings. Indigenous societies know the soil to “have human form, and we hint at the same spiritual insight when we speak of rich soil as humus – a word having the same etymological root as human – for when we care for the soil we care for ourselves.”[2]  Composting methods, vermiculture, and transferring lawn clippings back to the Earth instead of sending them to the landfill, are all soil-building practices we can adopt today.
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Part of the “New  Story” for our transitional society, are the many prayers that express reciprocity for the infinity of gifts we receive from the garden, the ground of our being. Gratitude rituals can also be personalized, to express our human niche in connection to the ever-welcoming embrace of the land. It has become my practice to place special containers of sacred soil or sand on my household altars and decorative spaces, to honour the centrality and importance of the Earth from birth to our final resting place. From the special magic of the Scottish Highlands to Port Dover to El Santuario de Chimayó, these small glass bottles are among my most precious treasures.

The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.[3]  
 
The more we engage with re-connecting to our essential eco-selves, the more apparent it becomes that the Earth is the ultimate source of all wellness and invigoration!  In our time and place, the flow of healing and energizing power from the soil that interacts with the intricate mechanisms of our physical body is another major reason for spending time in the garden. Being outside, absorbing nature’s limitless conducive energy systems and “getting grounded” can reverse chronic health conditions, enhance our immune system and keep us young. And gardening is the perfect way to refocus our thoughts, uplift our spirit, open our intuitive channels, enhance our physical endurance, and revive our connectivity to the rhythm and energy of the land.  In addition to enhanced health and wellbeing, our sensate animal body experiences a pure joy and happiness when we are physically connected to the Earth, and we can access this miracle at any time!
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NOTES
[1]  Philip Shepherd, New Self New World: Recovering Our Senses in the 21st Century, North Atlantic Books, 2010
[2]  Patricia Monaghan, Magical Gardens: Cultivating Soil and Spirit, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012
[3]  Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, Sierra Club Books, 1996

"Earthing in the Garden" by Pegi Eyers was originally published in One Thousand Trees Magazine, May 2020.
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon  
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The Promise of Ecopsychology

6/4/2020

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PEGI EYERS

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It is Theodore Rosack who emphasized that we are on the verge of discovering that the deep unconscious is not sexual (Freud), or spiritual (Jung), but related to the ecosystem in which we live. And in that regard we must understand how Western people have diverged very far indeed from their unconscious in a destructive way. The destruction of the environment goes hand in hand with the destruction of our relationship to the unconscious, which is at its very depth our natural habitat and ancestral culture. [1]  Helene E. Hagan
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As the urbanization of the world continues to interfere with our awareness of nature, we are being denied our connection to the Earth as our primary source of healing, growth and mystic inspiration. Removing humankind from the sacred crucible of the natural environment has had devastating consequences, some masked by denial and societal distractions, and others highly obvious in the manifestation of psychopathic behavior. Industrial and urban spaces affect us physically, mentally and spiritually, and modern ills such as environmental sensitivities or allergies, frenzied highs and lethargic lows, delusions, and the lack of focus, purpose or spiritual meaning are all endemic of a disconnect from the natural world.  In response to the modern dysfunction of “nature deficit disorder”[2] as fully examined by Richard Louv and others, the mainstream promotion of spending more time in nature for mood enhancement, health benefits, better concentration and an overall re-enchantment with life is on the rise.  As part of the re-balancing that is occurring in western society, the new field of ecopsychology (alternatively framed as “terrapsychology,” “ecotherapy,” “Gaia psychology” or “nature relatedness”) focuses on methods for breaking the stranglehold of industrial society. A blend of ecology, sociology, philosophy and environmental science, ecopsychology explores the psychological benefits associated with nature, as well as introducing practices that ultimately reconnect us to our “ecological unconscious.” Compared to the eons that human beings  have spent embedded  in the  primal matrix and in close kinship with the other-than-human world, our current malaise of modernity is the result of quite recent domestication, and ecopsychology reminds us of familiar strategies for overcoming the emotional trauma of our alienation from the Earth.
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“This was a great joy – to be out in the air….a pure and intense joy, a blessing, to feel the sun on my face and the wind in my hair, to hear birds, to see, touch and fondle the living plants. Some essential connection and communion with nature was re-established after the horrible isolation and alienation I had known.  Some part of me came alive when I was taken into the garden.”[3]  (Oliver Sacks)
Being drawn to places that enliven us, appreciating the beauty of green space, interacting with animals and participating in nature firsthand are fundamental human needs that ecopsychology addresses. For decades now scholars, social and natural scientists, humanists, practitioners and eco-therapists have advanced the practice and theory of ecopsychology into the public sphere. Ecotherapy rituals and exercises bring us into direct contact with the knowledge that our lives are deeply entwined with the natural world, and deepen our spiritual experience of the timeless human/nature/cosmos relationship. Cultivating awe and wonder in the face of the Earth Mysteries, developing conscious intention, using guided imagery, and re-centering ourselves in the grounding of our own sensate bodies are all ways to promote the healing of self, family and community.  A wide range of natural places like our own backyards, wildlife preserves, urban parks, or remote wilderness places can speak to us of our membership in biotic community, and offer us the benefits of enhanced mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.   
 
As dreams are the healing songs
from the wilderness
of our unconscious --
So wild animals, wild plants, wild landscapes
are the healing dreams
from the deep singing mind of the earth.[4]   (Dale Pendell)
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It terms of western scientific studies, data has shown that the brain-wave patterns of those in urbanized, busy areas are frustrated and aroused, while the brain-wave readings of those in woodlands and parks tend to be meditative and focused.  Studies have shown time after time that people prefer green space over cities and urban sprawl - which is not surprising, since human beings  are hardwired to position our relationship to nature at the core of our psychology.  The sights and sensations of a vast expanse of water, green landscapes and panoramic views are a basic human necessity.  It is also our eternal nature to interpret the connections between phenomena in the natural world and ourselves in a holistic loop, or back-and-forth dynamic.  Our minds possess an amazing ability to translate outer events into inner ones through symbols and motifs that heal and inspire us, and make us happy and productive. A flowering shrub can easily become a metaphor for our own blossoming, a tree in winter translates into a symbol for strength and resilience, a turtle outlines our own steadfastness and self-protection, and an otter becomes a representation of playfulness and spontaneity. For millennia human beings have acknowledged the land, elements and creatures as living beings deeply implicated in our psychological life, and we know that encounters in nature are healing both to the psyche and the body.  The practices of ecopsychology today are intent on reclaiming this enchantment with the world, returning to the wild for our “ensouling,” uncovering authentic truths and ancient origins, and re-establishing the connection to nature that is so vital to our well-being.
“Humans have long recognized the healing power of nature, the peace of wild places, and the more than physical craving for clean water and space, all of which are no more than a recognition of the human need to be in harmony with the natural world.”[5]   (Ian Mills)
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To enhance our biophilia and self-realization through “re-earthing” we need to go wild (!) by walking in the woods, hiking, canoeing, camping, wilderness trekking, survival training, climbing trees, wildcrafting, bird watching, going on retreat, meditating in nature, journaling, or having a beacon bonfire - all activities that put us in “the flow” and generate  vitality  and  happiness.  Other direct  pathways to  “re-inhabiting what was taken away – our spirituality, our imaginative resources and our unity with nature”[6] (Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera) are found through ritual dance and primordial movement, or by exploring the powerful tools of imagery and eco-art therapy for self-discovery and healing.   The sights and scents of the green world uplift, de-stress and open our hearts, and we can find healing in the garden too, as our mental well-being is definitely enhanced by “horticultural therapy.” Being near the calm profound life of trees in the forest (and tree hugging!) has been scientifically validated to improve many  health  issues  such   as  attention  deficit hyperactivity  disorder  (ADHD),  concentration levels,reaction times, depression, and illnesses such as headaches and arthritis. The vibrational properties of trees, plants, and green space can slow us down, quiet our nervous system, release endorphins, lower blood pressure, restore our ability to concentrate, and generate feelings of calm, tranquility and transcendence. The contemporary practice of “forest bathing” (“shinrin-yoki” in Japan) allows us to soak up the scents, sights, sounds and atmosphere of the forest for protective and healthful effects on the human body, mind and heart. Walking or spending time in the forest boosts immunity, relieves stress and promotes energy, and studies have found a high level of anti-cancer cells in blood samples after forest bathing. Similar to the benefits of aromatherapy, the natural essential oils of the forest that we breathe in have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial effects, and enhance our overall mood and outlook on life. Without question, our capacity for healing, happiness, insight, emotional catharsis and ecomystic experience blossom with our immersion in deep forests and wilderness places.   
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“Primal natural forests are temples of magnificent peace.
Saturated in Earth’s ancient stillness,
sanctuary for the human soul.
Focusing our profound affinity with Nature.
In deep, sleeping dreamtime, as in a trance,
we rediscover lost, forgotten dreams,
recharging passion and following our hearts
to health and harmony.”[7]     (Mark Berry)

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Experiencing the “earth matrix”[8] firsthand is especially important for children and youth, who may be deprived of meaningful nature connection in this extreme era of monolithic technology, artificial environments,  über-consumerism and eco-fascism. Instead of the “nature deficit disorder” that results from the emphasis on human-centric activities in simulated spaces, children and youth who are offered opportunities to interact with the natural world exhibit heightened creativity, enhanced cognitive abilities, emotional mastery, and improved health and well-being. Nothing  could be more important  than to teach  the adults of tomorrow the spiritual, emotional, physical and mental benefits of interacting with nature, not to mention that bonding deeply to place encourages the love of the land that can lead to activism and environmental protection. Placing our relationship with nature as central to our existence reconnects us to our own personal mythology, the timeless realm of spirit, the eternal cycles, and the ongoing progression of life itself.  The more deeply we embrace nature as a healing force, the more balanced we will become as true human beings. Overall, adopting the theory and practice of ecopsychology reminds us of our value as essential to the whole, and gives our lives deeper meaning and sacred purpose. 
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NOTES

[1] Helene E. Hagan, “The Plastic Medicine People Circle,” Institute of Archetypal Ethnology Newsletter, September, l992
[2] Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005.  Nature deficit disorder (NDD) is defined as living in an urban environment without contact to nature, with a wide range of symptoms and physical or emotional illnesses appearing as mood disorders, childhood obesity, diminished use of the senses, myopia and attention difficulties.
[3] Oliver Sacks, A Leg to Stand On,   Touchstone, 1998
[4] Dale Pendell, Living With Barbarians: A Few Plant Poems, Wild Ginger Press, 1999
[5] Ian Mills (editor),  A Sound of Thunder: A Green Anthology, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1993
[6] Permaculture educator, gardener and eco-creativity guide Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera is the founder of the Living Centre and Living Arts Institute in London, Ontario, and she offers open circles, ritual dance, primordial movement and workshops such as “Reclaiming Ourselves in the Age of Nature,” “WomanEarth: Living in the Heart of Gaia” and “Spiritual Ecology”  www.thelivingcentre.com
[7] Poetry by Mark Berry, Gaia: Journey into Vanishing Worlds, by Paige Deponte, Global Art in Action, 1999
[8] Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores social justice, nature spirituality, the ancestral arts, and resilience in times of massive change.  Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon
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Kinomagewapkong ~ The Teaching Rocks

5/17/2020

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PEGI EYERS

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Painting © Andres Paabo
Many diverse peoples now share Turtle Island, and as much as we have roots in Canadian soil, our connection to the land will always be preceded by the much deeper attachments of the original First Nations. Their cultures flourished in a reciprocal relationship with nature for millennia, long before the arrival of Euro-Empire, and evidence of their reverence for the land, both historic and contemporary, continues to surround us today.

The Peterborough Petroglyphs, a sacred site of global importance, is the largest known concentration of Indigenous rock carvings in Canada.  Over a thousand years ago Algonquian-speaking societies that travelled widely throughout the Canadian Shield established this holy place, Kinomagewapkong (The Teaching Rocks) on a worldwide meridian of earth energy, or ley line. 

With the creation of a vast visual library, animals, human figures, spirit beings, shapeshifters and other symbols rich with meaning were depicted on a monumental ridge of crystalline limestone. Red ochre was applied to the carvings, an ancient igneous pigment used for illustration purposes and to consecrate sacred space throughout the Americas.  It is thought that the visual literacy encoded in the carvings communicated tribal myth and memory, individual dreams and visions, cultural teachings and guidance to the First Nations who traversed great distances to this pristine and magical wilderness place.
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Kinomagewapkong (The Teaching Rocks)
It was also a sacred site for ceremonies, petition, prayer and healing, as confirmed by the present-day First Nations who claim cultural meaning and stewardship of the Peterborough Petroglyphs site, now an important location for their spiritual resurgence and cultural reclamation. Ceremonies, vision quests, and other events are held regularly at the site, which continues to be a place of pilgrimage for Indigenous and earth-connected peoples from all over the world.

On the north shore of Stoney Lake, accessible from Peterborough or Havelock, Petroglyphs Provincial Park is open from mid-May to October for day use only. In addition to viewing the petroglyphs and touring the Visitor Centre, there is much to do and explore for the outdoor and nature enthusiast. Hiking trails meander through the surrounding forests, wetlands and rocky ridges, biking is allowed on the park roads, and there are beautiful woodland spaces for picnics and relaxing. Home to many rare species, sightings of different kinds of wildlife and birds are common in this pristine and magical wilderness.

“The Learning Place," the interpretive and educational centre, is an amazing storehouse of videos, information, hands-on activities and exhibits based on Anishnaabe history and culture. You can browse the Park Store, which offers nature-themed gifts, and books on rock art and First Nations culture. A 20-minute film “The Teaching Rocks” is shown daily upon request, and visitors are encouraged to see the film before visiting the petroglyphs site.
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"Messages by Moonlight" mixed-media by Pegi Eyers with permission
One of the few rock art sites in Canada to be designated a National Historic Site, the Indigenous cosmological worldview and spiritual belief system is depicted with images of turtles, birds, snakes, plant life, items of material culture such as tools and boats, both men’s and women’s fertility, sacred geometry and characters important to the oral tradition.

The audible flow of water under the sloping rock indicates this outcropping to be the home of animate earth and water spirits in-situ, and the naturally-occurring fissures in the rock are thought to have been revered as the entrance to these underground springs and lower worlds. Many of these fissures have been enhanced with petroglyph carving and red ochre, such as that of a woman’s womb, breasts and body.  To the ancient ones it was obvious that women, with their regenerative cycles, performed the same functions as the earth, which was the source of all nourishment, protection and procreative power.
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Muzzu-Kummik-Quae
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The large figures on the rock that depict kinship, clans or human/animal fusion, the recurring themes of turtle and snake, the importance of the fertility symbols and the relationship of the images to each other, truly come alive through interpretations and narratives by First Nations elders, scholars and wisdom keepers.  

Stunning in their immediacy and evocative expression, these petroglyph masterworks speak directly to us across time and space. Kinomagewapkong is a mystical place that has deep significance to us today as we renew our connection to the Earth, and as allies to First Nations, recognize their foundational claims to the land. 

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For Petroglyph Provincial Park hours, facilities, directions and other information see >Ontario Parks<

RESOURCE LINK - Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg: This is Our Territory by Gidigaa Migizi (Doug Williams)

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The Teaching Rocks tell us to care for Mother Earth.  They teach of coexistence, of harmony.  The messages are for all.

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The land is filled with places where the Spirit is present. A presence that exists beyond our everyday world.  A presence that is sensed as a feeling or atmosphere. Such a place is Kinoomaagewaabkon. The Teaching Rocks are alive.  They tell us about ourselves.

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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon   
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The Ecomystic Experience

1/28/2020

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PEGI EYERS ~ Ancient Spirit Rising

If we have had an extraordinary experience, or an event we cannot explain, it is reassuring to know that other people have had the same encounter. Such was the case during the research and writing of my book Ancient Spirit Rising. While delving into all the different ways and means to practice nature spirituality, I came upon evidence for the ecomystic experience common to all people, from different eras and walks of life.  Instead of thinking I was just a freaky little kid, I had been blessed with a transformational awakening, just like the great mystics and literary figures of our time!

I’ll return to that childhood day in a moment, but first, a look at ecomysticism, and how it has blossomed into a wonderful earth-connected spiritual path practiced all over the world.  Ecomysticism is the reclaiming of wild nature as central to our appreciation of the Divine, or however we describe the Great Mystery, and is embodied in our reverence and love for the Earth.     

By experiencing the “wild within” of our own ecology and that of Earth Community, we find that we need no intermediaries, special philosophies or religions to know that the Earth is sacred.  By seeing the wonders of nature up close and having primal experiences in the wild, we develop a spiritual bond to the plants, elements and creatures, and realize a powerful kinship with all life. For millennia, it can be said that ecomysticism was the governing force in Indigenous earth-emergent cultures, that lived in balance and harmony with the land.
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When we are in the wild, we are affected by the blessings of nature whether we are aware of it or not. Our senses are heightened, we find ourselves more focused  and in tune  with our bodies, and are more at peace - happy, blissful even.  Mystical experiences in connection with nature usually occur in solitude, far away from the technology and distractions of modern life.

So generally speaking, what is an ecomystic experience?  There is no simple definition, but when we are in the natural world spontaneous experiences or feelings can happen that leave us speechless and awed, knowing that an exalted power has shaped our lives. Touched by a great vision, awakening, manifestation of divinity,  or epiphany similar to the “kundalini rising” experience in Eastern wisdom traditions, it can be described as the expansion experience well-known to many mystics. The ecomystic experience can lead to great feats of physical endurance,  amazing creativity in works  of art,  unforgettable  memories,  and even  a complete change in one’s own life.   As scholars over the years continue to look at the phenomena, they have found that the initial ecomystic experience most often occurs in childhood, and that is exactly what happened to me. 
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One beautiful autumn day when I was about eight years old, I was standing in my backyard on Mary Street in Orillia, Ontario when everything in that beautiful green space - the plants, flowers, birds, insects, gentle breeze and bright sun - all of a sudden became hyper-alive, glowing and luminous. Vibrating with an immense joy that filled my being with a multi-faceted peace and light, it felt like I was part of the divine radiance of the cosmos. This exalted sensation of being part of the fabric of creation lasted for about three radiant hours, before fading blissfully away. Even today this glowing encounter is hard to describe in words, yet I do know that what I saw, felt and experienced that day connected me to the Great Mystery for all time. It also started a pattern in my life, whereby I have experienced countless times of incredible happiness in the deep forest, walking along the river, ambling beside the farmer’s fields, floating in the lake or hiking the trails. So my own definition of transcendence, the heart of my own spiritual journey and contemporary practice, has always originated from, and led back to, the natural world.
 
There are countless examples of those having transcendent experiences in nature both at the formative time of childhood or later in life. These ecstatic moments of rapture remain deeply embedded in our psyches, and can inform our experiences, creativity and goals as we mature and grow.  In the western tradition, the well-known ecomystic Henry David Thoreau embraced wildness with his whole being, and became a “transcendentalist of simplicity and roughness.”  

The Irish writer, mystic and clairvoyant George Russell received dazzling insights into the “memory of the Earth” which he tuned into at will on hillsides outside of Dublin, and at sand dunes by the sea.  At these liminal sites, revelations of the "ancient places and peoples"  were made known to him.
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Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore also believed in the earth-based unity of spiritual truth, and spent his life observing the human experience and its relation to the Divine. His explorations and spiritual enlightenment began in childhood when he entered a realm of cosmic consciousness in close proximity to the natural fairyland of trees and gardens in his own backyard. He tells us that he  “had been blessed with that sense of wonder which gives a child his right to enter the treasure-house of mystery in the heart of existence.”

British Druid Emma Restall Orr attributes the early beginnings of her life-long spiritual quest to the transcendence of a childhood awakening, also at age eight, to divinity, wholeness and peace. She tells us that she “was lying on a warm stone in rural Spanish sunshine, that  time did not exist, and that everything around me was the wholeness of all that had ever happened in that ancient valley. At eight years old, it was an experience of being completely held in peace and security, to the extent that I recognize my spiritual journey to be a seeking to re-create  that exceptional feeling.”  

As we can see from these narratives, nature spirituality can give us ecstatic experiences, and the ability to see into the heart of things that really matter. We form a deeper understanding of ourselves, our purpose and our connection to the Great Mystery. Reclaiming nature as a mystical mirror of ourselves, and allowing ourselves to have adventures in green spaces are the blessings of ecomystic practice that can assist us in the rewilding of our souls.  Our connection to nature has withered over the generations, but there is an ancestral memory in all of us that, if given the opportunity, can renew our kinship to the Circle of All Life. And, as a powerful expression of sacred balance, Ecomysticism can renew humanity’s spiritual connection to nature and evoke true environmental healing.
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ECOMYSTICISM ~ RESOURCES
Carl von Essen, Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide, Bear & Company, 2010
 
Emerson on Thoreau quoted in Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide, by Carl von Essen, Bear & Company, 2010
 
George William Russell, The Candle of Vision, New Hyde Park,
University Books, 1965
 
Amiya Chakravarty (editor), A Tagore Reader, Macmillan Company, 1961
 
Emma Restall Orr, “Pagan Ecology: On Our Perception of Nature, Ancestry, and Home,” The Wanton Green: Contemporary Pagan Writings on Place, Mandrake, 2012
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon
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Controversies in the Ancestral Arts

1/4/2020

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PEGI EYERS ~ Ancient Spirit Rising

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image © Meryl McMaster
Exciting new movements to recover ancestral wisdom are happening today, with rejuvenated paths reaching back in time, or forward into the realm of new creations and collaborations. Accessing our direct Ancestors is one option, and yet strict adherence to ethnicity can be challenging, if not impossible, in today’s polyglot world. Historically, humans evolved in closely-connected societies that allowed intermingling with other groups, or adaptations to new and different groups, with the boundaries of the “tribe” being somewhat permeable, and focused on kinship and loyalty rather than skin color or other variations. Today, it may be impossible to re-create one’s own ancestral wisdom in pure form, as our genealogy is a weaving of diversity, and our bloodlines far too mixed. Therefore it cannot be suggested or implied that ethnicity is the complete determining factor for one’s spiritual practice or re-indigenization, in some weird new form of spiritual racial profiling, eugenics, or “biological determinism!”
 
Multicultural family lines are far more common than not, and it is more about being in alignment with self, making conscious choices, and perhaps factoring in the physical make-up of our being and the building blocks of our family tree, that may point to the treasures of an Indigenous Knowledge/European Indigenous Knowledge system (IK/EIK) just waiting to be discovered. Becoming part of a specific ancestral group can give us a firm foundation, and a place to turn to for spiritual guidance, cultural values and familial connection.  If we can pinpoint a path of specific ancestral connection, why not embrace the opportunity? If we are blessed with knowing the details of our heritage, how beautiful and how honoring of ourselves and our Ancestors to re-create our specific traditional roots to the best of our ability!

Cultural diversity is an honorable goal, and to move away from the commodified Pagan and New Age expressions that are not connected to any specific IK/EIK or spiritual tradition. Spirituality with a moral code means restraint and discernment, and the integrity of focus. Since the beginning, Pagan and New Age texts have offered Ancient Ways cobbled together from diverse cultural traditions, and describe practices that are mostly Celtic in origin without identifying the specific source.  Both the assumed default of "Celtic Studies for everyone" and the datamining of the “exotic other” (cultural appropriation) are offensive approaches, when authenticity is so close to hand.  Also, claiming Ancestors from any culture worldwide is problematic, as past-life regressions, experiences and visions may be valid, but appear indulgent as unverified personal gnosis (UPG).  For example, if you have heard the ancestors of the Lakota “calling you,” and consider yourself one of the  Lakota “people,”  you really  have to  wonder  if  the same  ancestors also  informed  the  Lakota  that you are part of their culture? (LOL) Or if you are convinced that your past life as Egyptian, Cherokee, Huichol or Vodun give you special insights, or the entitlement to claim ancestors from those traditions, do you really need to “go public?”  Perhaps it is a private matter best understood over time, as you continue to explore the continuum of your personal mythology. 
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In a sad state of affairs, many contemporary Pagans, Neo-Pagans, Druids, Reconstructionists, Ásatrú and Heathens have conflated ancestral alignment and the preservation of cultural values with isolationism, ethnic nationalism, genealogical extremism,  “religious apartheid,”  “racialist affiliation”  and/or the perpetuation  of racism. However, beyond the white supremacists who continue with their criminal xenophobia and are easily spotted, the modern movement to retrieve and practice specific ancestral traditions makes absolutely no claim to an ethnic hierarchy, separatism, or superiority over others, but rather promotes tolerance, peaceful co-existence and cultural recovery for all peoples. This particular conversation would not even be happening if white Pagans (the descendants of the Settler Society) found the value in restoring what Empire has taken away, or had unbroken connectivity with their ancestors from living in an animist universe, but our identities have been normalized as nationalistic, über-rational, hypermodern and consumer-driven pastiches.

Instead of celebrating our ethnocultural roots, the separatist notion of “racial pride” has become so warped by Eurocentric white supremacy in recent times, that many modern white folks now consider cultural or ethnic integrity to be taboo (for white folks, anyway).  In a new twist deriving from the toxicity of racism, we now have white people attacking other white people (the oppressor) without any people of color (the oppressed) even entering the conversation!
 
Meanwhile the fear is very real that the perverse “racial purity” agenda of the white nationalists, white supremacists, eugenicists and nazi cults could rise again, and we have to be on guard, but ethnicity aligned with cultural traditions is the way humanity has been self-organized for millennia all over the world, long before the fabrications of German occultism, “racial science,” or the invention of white superiority.  When we look to the colonizer/colonized power imbalance that is our legacy, and the reality in the Americas today, racist or anti-racist white folks who are in no danger of dying out from genocidal attack simply sound ludicrous when making the rules for cultural preservation. The psychoses of Eurocentrism, White Superiority and Ethnic Hierarchy (“racial” stratification) are the only issues that need to be called out and addressed, not the reclaiming, celebrating or practicing of a specific pre-colonial earth-rooted ethnoculture by any individual or community.
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image © Meryl McMaster
The same policies of the patriarchal Eurocentric elite who created Empire continue to practice “epistemicide”[1] all over the world, and to destroy ethnic and cultural cohesion in favor of the default of global capitalism. Harmonizing with our own unique earth-rooted ancestors and ancestral group, and recovering a wide variety of human societies in the process, is a blow against this hegemony.  Cultural diversity is natural to the planet, not homogeneity, and you are deluding yourself if you think you can have it both ways, to be a “universalist” while at the same time bemoaning the worldwide loss of human biodiversity  and IK/EIK systems.

In marked contrast to other cultures worldwide, it is only western society that is in complete denial that spiritual practice is usually determined by ethnicity.  Displaced Europeans and colonized diasporans who have had their traditions stripped from them now consider homogeneity to be the “norm,” and have forgotten what it is like to have one’s ethnicity entwined with cultural practice and spiritual expression. Localized ethnic or kinship groups have lost their value, and the white privilege of historical amnesia has given rise to the notion that it is only the exotic “other” who indulges in these kind of antiquations.

Additional factors that have led to the fallacy that alignment with ancestry equals “ethnic racism” or “spiritual apartheid,” is the prevalence of the generic monomyth principle;  the many popularized versions of the "rainbow nation," "one tribe" and universalist we are all one memes; and conflating the newly-found pan-human 99% identical genome with the idea that cultural diversity is outdated  and  irrelevant. And yet the cursory  New Age understanding of  “One Tribe” is not  true IK  or EIK, no matter how much we pretend the traditions are our own, and when we look to Indigenous nations worldwide, we see that their identity is linked to place and kinship group, and Indigenous people know exactly who they are.  It is only members of the entitled white majority who have unlimited choices in superficial lifestyle and spiritual practice from any IK/EIK or ancestors we desire from any tradition, who actually reinforce the goal of Empire, which is to normalize “multicultural” globalization with white homogeneity as the default.

Those in Pagan, Neo-Pagan, New Age, Reconstructionist, Ásatrú and Heathen circles who critique the practices of cultural recovery as aligned with ancestry should be more concerned with those in their own eclectic communities who openly claim a imaginary or UPG-derived “soul connection” to ancestors in a cultural group or ethnicity not their own, as this unsubstantiated behavior can be interpreted in many cases to be racism perpetuated by an oblivious member of the dominant society.  And all the time spent perpetuating false views of what racism “is and is not” should be resolved, and instead of ridiculous debates involving “white on white” racism, white spiritual seekers should invest in the actual pro-active deconstruction of white superiority, and dismantling the roots of the genuine racism that continues to be directed at BIPOC in the Americas today. 
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"Caitlin" photography by Raina Kirn
“The world is populated with people who have lost their seeds.  They are not bad or useless people, but they are not real until they refind their seeds……in some small, never-looked-at-place in the forgotten wilderness of their souls, their Indigenous seeds of culture and lifeways live.”[2]

White privilege has given us automatic access to the intellectual and spiritual property of any culture we choose, but instead of empowering us, I would argue that in the ignorance of our own cultural practices and the assumption of the “other” we are the most bereft of all. The ethics of reclaiming genuine EIK from our own ancestral tradition(s) will automatically gain respect from those already rooted in ancient earth-honoring culture(s), forming both an actual and metaphysical membership in the Sacred Circle of worldwide indigeneity.  Even if you know of only one ethnic group in your composition, you can express elements of that with authentic passion. For those who are aware of their family tree it is incredibly exciting to delve into ancient tribal connections, and unique combinations are going to look quite normal, for instance a mix of Irish and Hawaiian EIK/IK!

Ultimately, knowledge is always shifting and changing, but each human being worldwide has one or more root culture(s) with earth-connected aspects that can be embraced. Working on your bond with nature in the landscape where you are living will validate your IK or EIK, and more importantly, evoke your eco-activism and the protection of the land.  As the ravages of Empire play out, cultural recovery may become our goal again in the future (!) - and we may find ourselves by choice or necessity living in small localized kinship groups once again, looking to our own ancestral traditions for a template to survival.  If nothing else, listening to what the Earth is telling us in our ethnocultural practice, plus embodying the elements of the ancestral traditions that sing to our soul, is to experience the joy that comes from authentic living.

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​Taking flight across the centuries by visiting the homelands of your ancestors may spark more of a deep connection to place and the flourishing of your eco-identity than you ever imagined. When you are rapt with wonder  as  you  view  the  mountains on your  way  to  the  Isle of  Skye and never want to  leave that  place[3]  or when  you thrill to  the  sight of  upright  stone circles, or find you are spellbound by the music of the harp, pipes or bodhrán, or have a sense of being “at home” when you study Welsh or Irish mythological cycles, or have been compelled to create a Green Man mask without quite knowing why, then you have found your place in creation. When you are touched by the truth of your ancestral soul, you will know!
NOTES
[1] Colonial dispossession is known as “epistemicide,” or the killing of knowledge systems (epistemologies).
[2] Martin Pretchel, The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants, Keeping the Seeds Alive,  North Atlantic Books, 2012
[3] This was the exact experience of John McLeod, who travelled from his home in America to Scotland, and later found out he had deep ancestral connections to the Isle of Skye. James Hunter, Scottish Exodus: Travels Among a Worldwide Clan, Mainstream Publishing, 2007
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
​Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon
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The Sacred Balance

11/22/2019

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PEGI EYERS

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Moving into Elderhood can be an exciting time.  I’m finding that volumes of learning, research and life experience (all those decades~!) are fitting together with a clarity that evaded me before.  Each stage of life brings extraordinary gifts, but pausing at the plateau of “growing old” can be rich with appreciation. (Breathe~!  Stay humble, and don’t forget to stretch.) Cutting through the distractions and materialism of modern life, I’ve been blessed with direct transmissions from the land, in forms that fit into categories of enchantivism (weaving together our personal mythologies with the magic of the wild), animism, ecopsychology, ancient knowing and plant spirit medicine. Next to the land itself, teachings from Indigenous Elders, knowledge holders, Wise Souls and activists have been my greatest mentors and mentors.
 
Whether our primary work is in social justice, direct action, spiritual growth, wilderness quests, ceremony, rites of passage or connecting to the Ancestors, the threads of right relationship can be woven into everything we do.  Starting with our own minds and hearts, our mission is to unpack what doesn’t really belong to us, which are those thoughts and behaviors we have accumulated from exposure to Euro-Empire. Establishing right relationship with ourselves and healing our inner process (our “neurodecolonization”) can be an incredible challenge, when we are still navigating through the white hetero-patriarchal capitalist overculture.  We have been separated from the external world, there are strict boundaries around the way we think, feel and sense, and with the emphasis on the “head” rather than the heart, our knowledge is supposed to come from intellectual prowess and cognitive ability.  Too much thinking!  We have been taught to ignore our intuition, and the incredible amount of wisdom we receive from our own bodies.

To aid us with our inner transformation, Indigenous Knowledge (IK) from diverse sources teach us other important ways of knowing that have been left out of the equation. The Anlo-Ewe of Africa hold a concept of seselelame,[1] or wisdom “perceived through the sensations of the body.”   A wide range of psychic, intuitive, kinesthetic, sexual and emotional sensations & feelings are all examples of seselelame.  So much of what we know about the world can be felt in the inner realms, and understood by internal knowing~!  There are no boundaries between the self and nature in Indigenous and pre-colonial worldviews, and this vital intra-connection is on the rise again today.   We are channels for energy, and we have always been in the flow!
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As informed by the timeless and multicultural model of the “medicine wheel,” I have noticed that we move through the roles of Warrior, Visionary, Healer and Teacher on a regular basis.[2] In the north, the warrior is the leader, where we take a stand and engage with the issues that matter; in the east, we live in our authenticity and express our truth as visionaries and seers;  in the south we pay attention to the knowledge of our heart for the benefit of all beings;  and finally in the west, we are open to both spontaneity and wisdom, and pass these teachings and epiphanies on to others. Each direction has a special energy that is integral to the whole, and as we move through the cycle we continue to refine the aspects of each role. 
 
Also sourced from the “medicine wheel” or “four directions” framework found in both ancient and modern societies, assigning aspects of the human experience to the four quarters, or quadrants, is an important foundation we can embrace as a life-long practice.  Watching the youth of today struggle, and folks of all ages and demographics experience trauma, distress and alienation, it is empowering to know that balance, or right relationship, can be achieved by understanding the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual aspects of self.   

Shifting or weaving through the four quadrants is not an exact discipline - sometimes circumstances are beyond our control - and yet it is comforting to know that other potentials and possibilities exist.  When we find ourselves dwelling too long in emotional territory, we can try to use our critical thinking skills and sort out the variables, and when we are over-intellectualizing, we can pause for bodily regimes and pleasures.  With time and skill, we may find that some of our thoughts or feelings may not be mental or emotional disturbances at all, but prompts from our own inner mystic, or the innate spiritual potential for myth, magic and meaning we all hold.  Our “higher selves” guide our heart, our heart is informed by our mind and vice versa, and the natural sensate wisdom of our bodies is our unfailing guide.  
 
As we look beyond our own empowerment and healing, we can focus on moving from the “Me” to the “We” - and look to right relationship and sacred balance with our kinship groups and the Ancestors. We have ancient models to follow, and yet it is simplistic to suggest we can renounce ourselves completely as modern people~! We are moving both forward and back, and as we consider the beauty and timelessness of pre-colonial worldviews, many themes and lifeways[3] can be encouraged and embraced, both for ourselves and Earth Community. 
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The Earth Our Mother
The world is a place of sacred mystery, and our relationship with the world is rooted in a profound respect for the land and all life.  Humans are not above creation but part of it, and we flourish within the boundaries of the Sacred Circle. We are informed by the land and our bonds to a particular landscape, and in this animist universe we are connected to the plants, creatures, elements and earth spirits that dwell there.  The love of the land and our community is the only true wealth we have - we are part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us.
 
Patterns of Ancestral Mind
By reclaiming our place within (not above) Earth Community we organically find ourselves practicing a cyclical thinking that is based on spirit connectivity, natural processes, creativity and peace, rather than singularity, ownership or dominance. When we are physically grounded and embodied our restless mind fades, and we find ourselves vibrant and present in a field of mindfulness and awareness.  We perceive time as a spiral, and are more connected and empathic with others. Our learning is experiential, as we are empowered to acquire knowledge at our own pace in our own way, and our overall self-identity is based on experience and self-reflection. Belonging to earth-emergent community allows us to hold an “everyday” sense of mystery, wonder and awe, and our intelligences are combined to fulfill our holistic potential as a “true human being.”  With ancestral or ecocentric mind as the foundation, both the individual and the collective is able to integrate self-discovery, wisdom and responsibility.
 
Reciprocity with the Land and Each Other
Our existence is sustained by expressions of gratitude such as ceremony and prayer, as we unconditionally give thanks for all life and the elements that make life possible.  We are in a symbiotic relationship with the Earth, as everything we need to live a good life comes from the land, and our activities are intertwined with the seasons and cycles of nature. When we embody these principles and have respect for all beings through ceremony and prayer, the cosmic balance is upheld and restored, and the survival of the community ongoing. The reciprocity of maintaining good relationships with each other and all beings is a shared collective value, and our Elders and mentors teach us and model to us the virtues of wisdom, bravery, generosity and selflessness that guide us in these interactions.  It is our responsibility to hold the role of our teachers in the highest regard, and to ensure that the generations following us also become Wise Elders, and continue to pass on their values and wisdom.
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Reclaiming and practicing ancient ways of knowing hold great promise for navigating our most difficult passages and life transitions, either alone or with guides and mentors. Surrounded by narcissism and other forms of infantalization, trained to compete and embrace the “cult of the individual” over the needs of the collective, we continue to be impacted by Empire.  And yet, as modernists, let’s not be too hard on ourselves~!  Learning to relinquish our western thinking and put the “we” ahead of “me” that is at the heart of decolonization is an ongoing (and life-long) process.  By reclaiming the inner life, the wisdom of the body, the magical and the mysterious, ancestor veneration and the cycles of life, we are finding holistic patterns, and building earth-rooted identity.  And cultivating right relationship with ourselves and others allows us to join the worldwide circle of ecocentric knowledge traditions, through our “Unity in Diversity.”   In the end, these are the ethics that will translate into sustainable societies and well-being for all, as we maintain the sacred balance of Earth Community for generations yet to come.

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NOTES
[1] Kathryn Linn Geurts, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community, University of California Press, 2002
[2] Angeles Arrien, The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary,  HarperOne, 1993
[3] Pegi Eyers, Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, Stone Circle Press, 2016
This essay originally appeared in "Right Relations" ~ Confluence Journal  Volume III, Issue 4, Winter 2018 published by Youth Passageways.
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.    
​Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon
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    ~ BLOG ~
    Ancient
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    Pegi Eyers

    Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community

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    The recovery of our ancestral roots, and the promotion of social justice & environmental activism as interwoven with our spiritual life. Engaging with the interface between Turtle Island First Nations and the Settler Society, rejecting Empire and embodying the paradigm shift to ecocentric society.




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    Ancestral Motherline ~ Guided Meditation

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    Resilience, Renewal and Love

    European Roots ~ A Call for Leadership

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    We Live in a Death Culture

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    Dear Greenmantle ~ Review Rebuttal

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    Our Struggles Are Not the Same

    Ally Mistakes - Oops ~!

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    Song of the Ancestors

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    True Reconciliation Requires Restitution 

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