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The Story Behind the Story

4/21/2017

4 Comments

 
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PEGI EYERS

Nature Spirituality is essential to my life journey, and the teachings of First Nations Elders and community peoples have played an important role in my learning and personal transformation.  In 2012 at an Elders Gathering hosted at Trent University, I heard revered Wisdom Keeper and Professor James Dumont (Anishnaabe) say that “everyone needs to get back to their own Indigenous Knowledge.” Like a lightning bolt from the blue, this simple statement activated a monumental set of questions about my own life, and issues in the wider society. 

I found the implications of this statement fascinating, and began a research process that spanned three years of inquiry, writing and great discovery. Why was my white cohort creating "fake" native identities? What were some of the more obvious delusions in New Age Spirituality? What were the patterns of white privilege? How was cultural appropriation a continuation of Settler-Colonialism? What were healthy alternatives for the non-native spiritual seeker? Where was our own European Indigenous Knowledge located? Why were Americans and Canadians so disconnected from their Ancestors? How were Indigenous epistomologies superior to western ways of thinking? What could we do as social justice activists, and is reconciliation with First Nations even possible? What does it mean to step back from the trajectory of Empire, and to find sustainable solutions both for ourselves, our communities, and Mother Earth?

When James Dumont said that “everyone needs to get back to their own Indigenous Knowledge,"
he was, of course, making a statement on the appropriation of First Nations cultural and spiritual property by white people, but at the same time he was giving us a great blessing, by implying that it is possible for all people to access Indigenous Knowledge from their own traditions. In my writing I was driven to explore these important, timely, and often controversial themes, and to advance my own personal knowledge in the process.  I will be forever indebted to James Dumont for inspiring me to write Ancient Spirit Rising and offer it to the world.


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For those of us of European descent, core questions continue to arise on locating authentic wisdom traditions and reclaiming our roots in Earth Community, and the themes in Ancient Spirit Rising are an attempt to further this critical conversation. For the first time in human history with travel, the internet and other resources, we have full access to the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) of any culture, including our own. Then why must we take bits and pieces from the First Nations of Turtle Island, when we have our own ancestral belief systems, sacred objects and ceremonies that are bursting with earth-connected wisdom, beauty and power? In these times of massive change, the reclaiming of our own ancestral traditions can provide us with spiritual and material tools for re-landing in our local ecosystems, challenging the toxic effects of capitalism, and creating a sustainable future.
 

As I was writing Ancient Spirit Rising I realized that having a spiritual focus in life includes both social and environmental justice, and if we do not engage in activism on behalf of oppressed peoples and the other-than-human world, we may fall short of our full potential.  In the rich environment of cultural pluralism that exists in the Americas today, taking responsibility for our privilege and the history of Settler-Colonialism will go far in establishing mutual respect and peaceful co-existence between all peoples. To increase our solidarity and allyship with Turtle Island First Nations (our “co-existence in co-resistance”) Ancient Spirit Rising offers diverse strategies for healing the historic divide between colonizer and colonized.  

Discovering alternatives to common misconceptions, reversing the racism of cultural appropriation, and developing skills for intercultural competency are all positive and empowering practices.  Working for peace and justice is essential to personal and planetary healing, as is the directive to re-enchant and rebalance the world with a massive dose of holistic principles promoting biophilia and spiritual ecology.  Essential to re-rooting ourselves as ecocentric beings is to fall in love with the Earth again, and to revere the elements, manifestations and creatures in the natural world as sacred. 

               
“You cannot destroy that which you love.”
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The “Great Turning” to ecological civilization is happening in all sectors of society, and the various knowledge systems and movements are doing a wonderful job! Countless folks are finding the value in embracing ethics and lifestyles that reflect our connectivity to the new “Earth Story.” But what is often missing in these practices is the spiritual expression that arises from a strong, grounded connection to the land, from the recovery of our own ancestral traditions, and from “getting back to our own Indigenous Knowledge.”  
 

As we take on our cultural recovery project, there is a diversity of earth-connected spiritual traditions already in place that revive the European Old Ways.  Although I advocate in Ancient Spirit Rising for specific ethnocultural paths such as Gaelic Traditionalism, Old Norse Traditions, Hellenic Polytheism, Religio Romana (ancient Rome), or Baltic/Romuva Spirituality (for example), the renaissance of other reconstructionist paths such as Druidry, the Avalon Tradition and Matriarchal Studies is good news indeed. Also, contemporary nature-based spiritualities such as Animism and Ecomysticism hold elements of both ancient and modern practice. 

Becoming part of a specific ancestral group can give us a firm foundation, and a place to turn for spiritual guidance, cultural values and familial connection.  If we are able to seek out the details of our heritage, how honoring to our Ancestors to re-create our traditions, to the best of our ability!

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Wild nature is calling us all back home, and Ancient Spirit Rising offers diverse paths to reclaiming our essential bio-lineage, such as earthing, rewilding, ecopsychology, and visiting sacred sites. This recovery process requires the  re-inhabitation of place, or getting to know the unique features of our home landscape.  And we also have a responsibility to embrace green sanctuary work and geo-justice, and to do the hard work of caring for and protecting the land. We all have a part to play in the paradigm shift, and Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community offers exciting guideposts for the journey of transformation.  We are all People of the Earth, and I invite you to join me on this exciting path of personal and collective revitalization!


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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.
Amazon.com 
Stone Circle Press
 


4 Comments
Allison Peacock
7/10/2017 12:13:53 pm

This book looks like it would be both an amazing addition to my personal library and a catalyst for many conversations in my work as a sacred activist. It's unfortunate that it's not available as an eBook. Is there a compelling reason why I must kill a tree in order to read it?

Reply
Pegi Eyers link
7/10/2017 06:03:26 pm

Great points Allison! There is a PDF copy of "Ancient Spirit Rising" available which is quite popular right now. It's great because it has full-color illustrations and live links that the printed book does not have. Thank you for your kind words!
http://www.stonecirclepress.com/asr-9658-order.html

Reply
Pegi Eyers link
7/10/2017 06:06:11 pm

Sorry, the link is not live, which is weird. It's the 4th tab down at the top left on this webpage "ASR - Order." Thanks!

Allison Peacock
7/11/2017 11:27:54 am

Thanks so much for the prompt answer to my comment. Since I do all my purchasing through Amazon I didn't notice this PDF link. This topic is so exceptional I'll gladly buy the PDF through the site! Bravo for tackling such a tough and timely subject.

Reply



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    ~ BLOG ~
    Ancient
    Spirit
    ​Rising

    Pegi Eyers

    Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community


    ஜ
    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.





    Ancient Spirit Rising
    is the recipient of a
    2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award
    in the Current Events/ Social Change category!
     

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    ARCHIVES

    Between Worlds
    ​

    ​Holders of Staff and Bone

    ​Passage to Dartmoor

    ​Oceans Divide Us

    ​Ancestral Motherline ~ Guided Meditation

    ​The Life Force: Restoring Sacred Myth
    ​

    Eco-Soul

    Shifting Borderlands of Tame and Wild

    ​Ancient Spirit Rising is Recommended Reading-!
    ​

    ​Earth First 

    The World of Small

    Resilience, Renewal and Love

    European Roots ~ A Call for Leadership

    Settler Re-landing: Reclaiming Patterns of Connection

    Waeccan Means to "Wake Up"

    Initiation Now: Rethinking the World as Alive

    Dangerous Women

    Ancient Covenant

    "Earthing" in the Garden

    The Promise of Ecopsychology

    Kinomagewapkong ~ The Teaching Rocks

    The Ecomystic Experience

    Controversies in the Ancestral Arts

    The Sacred Balance

    Uncolonizing the “Bounty of the Land” Narratives

    We Live in a Death Culture

    Customary Law

    Earth Love


    The Green Burial Movement: In Conversation With Emma Restall Orr

    Letters to the Earth

    I Walked and Walked

    Sacred Tears

    Taking Issue With "We Are All One"

    Dear Greenmantle ~ Review Rebuttal

    Finding Our Long-Lost Ancestral Traditions

    Ancestor Quilt

    Our Struggles Are Not the Same

    Ally Mistakes - Oops ~!

    Love from the Earth

    The Problem with Far-Away Ecotherapy and Nature Connection Retreats

    Earth-Emergent in the City

    Voices of Earth ~ Archaic Whispers

    Good Allies 
     

    Song of the Ancestors

    Decolonization ~ Meaning What Exactly?

    Animism Unbound

    More Settler-Colonialism: Boomers and the Rez (True Story)

    What is Cultural Appropriation?

    The Story Behind the Story

    Cultural Appropriation in Goddess Spirituality and Matriarchal Studies

    Climate Disaster & Massive Change 

    We Are the Ancestors of the Future

    Earth Mother Magic

    True Reconciliation Requires Restitution 

    Are White People Indigenous?

    Full Disclosure/My Positionality on New Age!

    Allyship and Solidarity with First Nations

    First Nations on Ancestral Connection

    Pagan Values - "Know Thyself" 

    Welcome to Stone Circle Press!

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