Post by Okwes on Jan 31, 2007 10:38:10 GMT -5
Sacred Counts of the Life Makers
Patzin: Nahuatl for respect worthy medicine, a monthly feature on
Indigenous medicine
Column of the Americas (c) Dec. 4, 2006
by Patrisia Gonzales
We count the days with mecate, sacred ties with prayers in 20 counts.
Time to offer water and ancestor prayers to the tree of life, purify,
offer bundles of ocote and cotton for the Weaver. Grandmother turns
inward and with the first snows come the stories. We must be in a
proper state to hear the medicine in the breadth. In between the
lines, the ancestors are speaking � Life Givers, Life Formers, Life
Makers.
My Apache brother Gregory Gomez recommends a bath of cedar. These
evergreens are like the maguey, great protectors. Time by the
Christian calendar may schedule life -- but the natural laws have
their own times, ritual time, natural time. Those who follow
Indigenous ways live by multiple times. Across the Americas, the
teachers measured time and alignment of what is above. During this
time known as the last month of 2006, my Native and Buddhist
understandings of time converge in prayer and determination. Where
does time go for the parts of life that sleep and hibernate, waiting
to return? Do the evergreens ever rest?
Reports that many species of fish could be gone in 50 years, that the
Earth's magnetic field is rapidly diminishing, that ice becomes ocean,
always makes me wonder what I am learning that will be useful in 2012.
Still no declaration for Indigenous rights because nations fear the
idea of Indigenous "peoples" -- to be united and autonomous is so
powerful. In a year when politicians justified pedophilia, condoned
rape as part of interrogation, while any international traveler is
marked with a secret terrorist ranking, I search the skies for moral
time. Do�a Rosario Ibarra de Piedra of the mothers of the disappeared
in Mexico has admonished people: do not let vile government
"assassinate hope."
My Native teachings remind me that I can't force natural time to
change. My Buddhist teachings hold we can effect moral time in a
series of causes and effects. To act with strength and courage is to
truly live. It requires a struggle with our own illusions and doubts.
Why would we pray for our children if we didn't think we could change
their times? We move in revolutions, like the earth around the sun, to
beget a better way to live. Cycles end and begin, again, again.
A Buddhist elder once told me that time is the distance between the
present condition and the effect we are seeking. So on the last month
of each year counted by the Gregorian calendar, I deepen my prayers to
see change before this cycle is up. Until the last moment of this time
we keep, I determine to not give up on prayers, dreams, or the human
potential for good. From each moment on, I pray, I will not give up on
Life, or my own life. I challenge my spirit to stand up in self
determination. I face all that is around me, above and below and
refuse to accept less or so little belief. With the sounds of the
universe, I proclaim, my soul shall not be slayed. I have made these
prayers until the stroke of midnight. For several years as a young
woman, I vowed and re-determined I would find a love that would create
history. And a few minutes after midnight in 1992, Roberto proposed
that we walk side by side toward impossible dreams for ourselves and
our peoples.
And with our sacred Native keeping of the days, I make good on my
responsibilities to all that gives life. I tie prayers, and sing them.
Somewhere there is creation and the appearance of things. The life
force is limitless.
The earth is too hard right now to dig my hands in her. Natural law
holds that winter always turns to spring; our human lives also follow
this law. Then, I can turn the earth over and help that which will be
born and that which will return. Moon time, Morning Star and the Sun
lead the ways. The Weaver drapes cotton on the Milky Way. From the
four corners of the cosmic milpa of above, we create life. With sacred
accounting, we will track the days of the Life Makers' cornfield.
(c) Patrisia Gonzales, Column of the Americas 2006
Gonzales can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com or 608-238-3161. The
last two years of Column of the Americas is archived at:
hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/
Patzin: Nahuatl for respect worthy medicine, a monthly feature on
Indigenous medicine
Column of the Americas (c) Dec. 4, 2006
by Patrisia Gonzales
We count the days with mecate, sacred ties with prayers in 20 counts.
Time to offer water and ancestor prayers to the tree of life, purify,
offer bundles of ocote and cotton for the Weaver. Grandmother turns
inward and with the first snows come the stories. We must be in a
proper state to hear the medicine in the breadth. In between the
lines, the ancestors are speaking � Life Givers, Life Formers, Life
Makers.
My Apache brother Gregory Gomez recommends a bath of cedar. These
evergreens are like the maguey, great protectors. Time by the
Christian calendar may schedule life -- but the natural laws have
their own times, ritual time, natural time. Those who follow
Indigenous ways live by multiple times. Across the Americas, the
teachers measured time and alignment of what is above. During this
time known as the last month of 2006, my Native and Buddhist
understandings of time converge in prayer and determination. Where
does time go for the parts of life that sleep and hibernate, waiting
to return? Do the evergreens ever rest?
Reports that many species of fish could be gone in 50 years, that the
Earth's magnetic field is rapidly diminishing, that ice becomes ocean,
always makes me wonder what I am learning that will be useful in 2012.
Still no declaration for Indigenous rights because nations fear the
idea of Indigenous "peoples" -- to be united and autonomous is so
powerful. In a year when politicians justified pedophilia, condoned
rape as part of interrogation, while any international traveler is
marked with a secret terrorist ranking, I search the skies for moral
time. Do�a Rosario Ibarra de Piedra of the mothers of the disappeared
in Mexico has admonished people: do not let vile government
"assassinate hope."
My Native teachings remind me that I can't force natural time to
change. My Buddhist teachings hold we can effect moral time in a
series of causes and effects. To act with strength and courage is to
truly live. It requires a struggle with our own illusions and doubts.
Why would we pray for our children if we didn't think we could change
their times? We move in revolutions, like the earth around the sun, to
beget a better way to live. Cycles end and begin, again, again.
A Buddhist elder once told me that time is the distance between the
present condition and the effect we are seeking. So on the last month
of each year counted by the Gregorian calendar, I deepen my prayers to
see change before this cycle is up. Until the last moment of this time
we keep, I determine to not give up on prayers, dreams, or the human
potential for good. From each moment on, I pray, I will not give up on
Life, or my own life. I challenge my spirit to stand up in self
determination. I face all that is around me, above and below and
refuse to accept less or so little belief. With the sounds of the
universe, I proclaim, my soul shall not be slayed. I have made these
prayers until the stroke of midnight. For several years as a young
woman, I vowed and re-determined I would find a love that would create
history. And a few minutes after midnight in 1992, Roberto proposed
that we walk side by side toward impossible dreams for ourselves and
our peoples.
And with our sacred Native keeping of the days, I make good on my
responsibilities to all that gives life. I tie prayers, and sing them.
Somewhere there is creation and the appearance of things. The life
force is limitless.
The earth is too hard right now to dig my hands in her. Natural law
holds that winter always turns to spring; our human lives also follow
this law. Then, I can turn the earth over and help that which will be
born and that which will return. Moon time, Morning Star and the Sun
lead the ways. The Weaver drapes cotton on the Milky Way. From the
four corners of the cosmic milpa of above, we create life. With sacred
accounting, we will track the days of the Life Makers' cornfield.
(c) Patrisia Gonzales, Column of the Americas 2006
Gonzales can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com or 608-238-3161. The
last two years of Column of the Americas is archived at:
hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/