Awakening Our Powers

We all have incredible powers. But most people don't understand that. They accept whatever is done to them in the name of God - powerless they think to change anything. But "God", as most understand "him", doesn't have much to do with anything.

As we enter into this new era, which the Cherokee, as well as other cultures, refer to as the 4th World, more and more People are "waking up." And with this awakening comes a thirst for knowledge. It is out there, but more importantly, True Knowledge comes from within since we have had it safely stored inside of us since the beginning of time.

It is said that when a student is ready, a Teacher will appear. Look for your own Teacher. Prepare the soil of your Spirit, plant seeds of Intent and watch.......

Druid Thoughts

In the dead of winter the work of the druids continues. While our people shelter in warm lodges, we whisper to the seedlings in the frozen earth. We light the fires that will guide the reluctant Sun back from the realms of frost. We supervise birth and burial, keeping the living and the dead in harmony with the Earth and the Otherworld. Druids, by Morgan Llwelyn

The True Story Behind Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving time again. Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusettes Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language.

He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags. But as
word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots, called Puritans, began arriving by the boatload. Findng no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest.

But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought. In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusettes Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.
Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with as many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible. Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls.
Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.
The killings became more and more frenzied,with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.
This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated.
This Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families in peace.
They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.
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We come on the ship they call the Mayflower.
We come on a ship that sailed the moon.
We come in the ages most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune.
But it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed.
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest.
That's all. I'm trying to get some rest.
-------"An American Tune" by Paul Simon

Dire Predictions

Two days left until the Presidential election. All the visions I've had this past week have been dark ones. If Obama wins, here will be rioting in major metropolitan areas. If he loses, there will be rioting in major metropolitan areas...... The Spirits at the Bounding Bush were in mourning for us...... They have already gone through their own holocausts and know we are facing our own.
It is too late to do much preparing now. Either we're ready or we're not..... The government is prepared for what is to happen. Several of us feel very strongly that martial law will be imposed....... All the elements arein place for a "Perfect Storm" and it has been prophysied for years..... We are the ones who will see it. But I'd rather it be our generation to fight this battle that our grandchildren.

Many of the prophesies say that December 21, 2012 will be the beginning of the New World. That means we have 4 years of upheavel to go through. Let's get her done!

The Bounding Bush Ceremony

It's a beautiful October 31st here in my valley. This is the weekend of our Bounding Bush Ceremony which is sort of a Cherokee Memorial Day. Chickamauga Peoples from all over the country will begin arriving here today. Even with the high gas prices, those who are dedicated to honoring the Sacred Ceremonies make the effort and pay the price to gather here.

The Bounding Bush Ceremony is one of my favorite of the Seven. It is a very healing ceremony, especially if you have recently lost a loved one. Each person invites the spirit of a loved one to be here. A special Fire is built by an arbor and one by one we each enter the arbor after offering our loved one a plate of his special foods. And the spirit of the one who has passed meets with us in the arbor. At that time we can say all the things we didn't get a chance to say before parting. Often the spirit of our ancestors will give us advice or warning. At the very least we leave the arbor with a knowing that they are not gone - they are with us if we will only take the time to connect with them.

On Sunday morning we have the Race Of The Dead where we ceremonially walk the spirits of our loved ones back toward the West. Every year a sign is given so that we know they indeed were with us. Several times it has been the Hawk who flew ahead of us while we were walking them westward. When we had gone as far as we could go the hawk peeled off and glided silently westward. One year thousands of Dragonflies surrounded us and carressed us with their wings.

As Autumn turns into Winter, we contemplate our own winter ahead. Knowing our loved ones are here with us makes it easier to let go. Death is not the end - only a change of scenery. Love never dies.

The Return Of Racism

For 14 years I wrote a weekly newspaper for The Hill and Holler Review. The following is a reprint of a column I wrote a year or two ago, but it is relevent today.

The Return Of Racism
Acts of racism have been much in the news lately. Crosses have been burned, nooses hung in trees and swastikas carved into doors to instill fear into minority Peoples.
One might have thought those dark days were behind us, but it seems they have only been lying in wait like the monster who lives in the closet.
Also this week, Dog the Bounty Hunter made news because of a private (he thought) phone call he made to his son in which he used the N word (and others) to convey his disapproval of his son's current girlfriend. Since his private opinions go against today's "group think" philosophies, he has pretty much flushed his television series down the toilet.
What is happening here?
Native Peoples valued and still value individualism. Everyone is given respect, or at least allowed to live, even though they might think and act in different ways. As long as one didn't violate clan laws and taboos, he was considered an important member of the group.
With these rights come responsibility. What is best for all is usually the underlying thought of indigenous Peoples.
Europeans have a different concept of "Individualism." The core belief that man has dominion over everything has allowed him to flourish no matter the cost to others as well as Mother Earth.
While tribal societies operate on a clan system and consensus thinking, white society allows the few to govern the many. This has allowed the destruction of whole tribes of man and much of Mother Earth in the name of greed. Today, most of the wealth is concentrated in a small segment of white society.
Yet when the whites first came here, they found just the opposite. Chiefs lived in the same kind of homes that the rest of the People lived in. In the event of hard times, food and other resources were shared by all. Everyone had a voice in the decision making.
But European greed couldn't allow that kind of thinking to continue.
The belief that one must "conform" to "popular ideology" in thought, word and deed is crucial to the success of today's society. The philosophy of indoctrination, not education has helped lead us to this time in history.
Have you ever wondered why so many of our children go through school and can't read past the third grade level, or write a decent paragraph, or count change? But they all know that smoking causes cancer, abortion is wrong and Muslims are "evil"......
This is indoctrination - a far cry from the reading, writing and arithmetic that used to be taught in public schools.
And now we are witnessing the results of that forced thinking. Maybe mankind should be more evolved, but we aren't. Whenever you forcibly mix people of different cultures together and try to pretend that this is the "Great Melting Pot," all cultures are devalued. Only those at the top benefit.
Now, as times get hard again and the fear of not having enough grows, so to will the ugliness and violence which has it's roots deep in that fear.
And I'm afraid that no amount of 'forced thinking" is going to stop it this time.

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd."
----Bertrand Russell

Autumn in the Ozarks

It's cold here in my valley. It has frosted 3 times already. The wild cherry trees have lost their beautiful red leaves while the walnuts are bright yellow in the sun. When their nuts hit my metal roof, it sounds like an explosion.
I finally got my book, The Rag Picker's Christmas" released. While I am pleased with how good it came out, I am disappointed at the price my publisher put on it. It is inconceivable to me that a woman who lives in a 2 room cabin below the poverty line and has written a book about an incident that occurred during the Great Depression would see it priced so high that no one will be able to buy it!
Would any of you who have had similar experiences with publishers, please let me know how you handled it?