Archives for category: Plains Culture

Natural Selection for Autistic Traits

June 11, 2020 //

Unpublished draft manuscript. This draft chapter for inclusion in ‘A Tribal Perspective Pre-Columbian Concept Translated to Modern: Radical Ethnographic Contrasts & Related Politics of Collusion’ (a nearly completed work in progress) may be reproduced for educational & research purposes. For profit & mass paper media redistribution prohibited. Send inquiries, questions & private comments to:

penucquemspeaks@googlemail.com

“For the Western world, the Schumann resonance represents the frequency of the Earth’s electromagnetic field. It has always concentrated at 7.83 Hz, with few variations since 1952, but in June 2014 there was a change. This when the Russian Space Observatory System showed a sudden increase in activity with a varied elongation from 8.5 Hz to 16.5 Hz.

“The researchers were amazed at these values, something that had never been recorded that way. More recently, other peaks have been detected, increasing the planet’s frequency to more than 30 Hz. It is concluded that these changes clearly show that the planet is changing. Some scholars also believe that humans, when acting on a “collective consciousness” level, can affect the structure of the magnetic field.

“This speculation is based on the fact that Schumann’s frequency is “in tune” with the human brain states alpha and theta. These increasing resonances correspond, of course, to the activity of human brain waves, which means that the Earth would be adjusting its frequency of vibration”

The scientific observation taken together with the proposed conclusion…

“Some scholars also believe that humans, when acting on a “collective consciousness” level, can affect the structure of the magnetic field”

…poses problems at several levels, mostly with undesirable outcome.

Undesirable, that is, if you are a stakeholder in the future of humanity. This is because, when humanity has become a cancer upon the cosmos, humanity will be written off by the cosmos like the Western science writes off and discards a failed laboratory experiment. You don’t believe this? That’s fine, the Cartesian-Platonic mentality may then approach the larger points in what follows as a social science fiction, in which the ‘brighter’ minds of Western culture might find some real entertainment value.

To begin, “… scholars also believe that humans, when acting on a “collective consciousness” level, can affect the structure…” or physical characteristics and behavior of the planet itself but this information is isolated or ‘exiled’ from mainstream, recalling theoretical physicist d’Espagnat’s largely (one is tempted to say ‘entirely’) ignored…

“The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment”

…pointing directly to the lived unreality of Western science; where its own quantum mechanics has directly established the foundation of Western science itself (objectivity) is patently mistaken. Yet these scientists go on ‘building’ on the now proven to be false assumption of ‘objectivity’ while behaving as though in polite company one dare not mention the aroma of a particularly pungent fart. In short, the most ‘primal & salient’ fact is ignored.

What to do with a culture that is capable of tattooing a swastika on its forehead and denying there could be any perceptual problem with it?

Now, we will have a brief look at some comparative oddities in relation to the ‘other’ intelligence, the so-called ‘primitive’ or pre-Western (pre-Indo-European, pre-civilized) environment giving rise to indigenous thought.

“Both solitary mammals and autistic individuals are low on measures of gregariousness, socialization, direct gazing, eye contact, facial expression, facial recognition, emotional engagement, affiliative need and other social behaviors. The evolution of the neurological tendencies in solitary species that predispose them toward being introverted and reclusive may hold important clues for the evolution of the autism spectrum and the natural selection of autism genes”

What is interesting in this preceding quote from ‘Conceptualizing the Autism Spectrum in Terms of Natural Selection and Behavioral Ecology: The Solitary Forager Hypothesis’ is the fact it simply and accurately describes the behavior of any individual with intact pre-Columbian mental structure removed from their cosmos or social foundation. You can still see this behavior today; take just about any one of the more culturally intact Native American Indians described in the chapter ‘Stick Game (The Witches)’ out of that highly vibrant, community social interaction, and place them, for instance, in any Western setting of personal ego projection such as a large party, and the Indian’s behavior would present just as described in autism.

This phenomenon of two entirely different Indians in one person is reflected in the American frontier stereotype of the ‘taciturn’ Indian where the one side only had been observed; that stone-faced (expressionless) ‘savage’ that did not look at you, rather past or through you and has nothing to say.

Relevant to the preceding is the experience of the modern American lawyer, when laws had changed allowing these non-tribal law advocates to practice in today’s tribal (imposed Western) courts. “You can’t read them” was the initial reaction of the White lawyers during the procedure of jury selection; where the opposing sides are entitled to question and move to dismiss prospective jurors. This recalls the expressionless (stone) faces of the players hiding the bones at the Stick Game while ‘looking through’ the game pointer in the midst of a social event that otherwise exhibits anything except symptoms of autism; vibrant, alive, affiliative, in every sense social.

This brings up a question; how is it people who are perfectly, normally functional in their own social setting actually appear to manifest classic symptoms of autism in certain circumstance and generally elsewhere?

One factor is training. Generation upon generation of training that is finally become millennia of socialization that is uniquely different to Western; simply described as ‘there is no pretense to understand and know what is unknown.’ “I don’t know you” explains it all. There is no posturing, no social niceties involving deceits or hypocrisy concealing environmental ignorance.

Here it could be noted there had been no lie involved in the indigenous ‘mating game’ when contrasted to Western culture where one or both parties ‘put on’ their ‘best face’ (lie) in a courtship that too often sees the liar relax into their actual (inferior) selves once the ‘hook has been set’ and the romance morphs into a typical dysfunctional nightmare of ‘marriage.’ In the Native way, mating was established via consistently growing a mutually respectful friendship that is honest from the outset; in a culture where millennia of developing truthful reporting had been paramount to survival.

Related to the preceding is the fact facial recognition comes second to knowledge; knowledge of kinship in the first instance, that is to say immersion in one’s community (cosmos) determines whether you are recognized or able to recognize others; a survival ‘technique’ evolved to weed out danger that perfectly mimics autism. Without an established sense of kinship, when dislocated from one’s community, facial recognition is shut down by the brain where other, more important factors take over, threat assessment is paramount. Facial recognition, finally, is assigned to persons with certain qualities in an environment one knows & understands.

At least, that is the end result. But there is more (there is always more but this book will conclude soon, everything must end someday, somewhere.)

“Infrasound frequencies can .. enter the brain without passing through the hearing organ, entraining the brainwave rhythm into an Alpha-Theta state”

This preceding quote, from the study ‘Fireplace and Holy Altar in Curiceta at Apuan Alps, Italy’, demonstrates ‘pre-civilized’ peoples separated by vast distances were aware of the alpha-theta states’ relationship to physical reality in a macro-cosmic sense. The so-called (by the Western culture) ‘altered’ states of consciousness had been an integral part and parcel of cognitive human intelligence development since the dawn of time; and only recently became finally subverted since Plato’s misapprehension of reality (objectivity via Western science) had overtaken the world. What is this modern mentality missing, where is the organic deficit to be identified?

“Their ability to keep time gives them an intuitive understanding of the rhythmic patterns they perceive all around them”

Or so it is asserted by the article ‘The Neuro-Science of Drumming’ which goes on to note:

“…drumming ultimately has therapeutic value, providing the emotional and physical benefits collectively known as “drummer’s high,” an endorphin rush that can only be stimulated by playing music, not simply listening to it. In addition to increasing people’s pain thresholds, Oxford psychologists found, the endorphin-filled act of drumming increases positive emotions and leads people to work together in a more cooperative fashion”

Do the Western cultures ‘collectively’ drum? Other than some minority (very small) movements of ‘feminized’ Western masculine mentalities, along the lines of the phony anthropology movement generated by Robert Bly, not really. Besides, what would the split psyche of the Indo-European do with the so-called ‘shamanic’ (New Age, actually) drumming into the theta state? Insofar as a practical matter, the Western shaped individual ego drumming into altered state doesn’t come any closer to reality than an adolescent boy masturbating to pornography; the endorphin rush is a fleeting high and that’s the all of it. They experience orgasm and it’s done, the story’s end.

The misassumptions are astounding wherein another article’s title asserts ‘Experiment Proves Why Staying In Tune With The Earth’s Pulse Is Key To Our Well Being’ whilst noting:

“the frequency of the earth was an exact match with the frequency of the human brain”

The automatic assumption is the Earth is providing the pulse, not the reverse, but in fact the collective drive of human consciousness is perfectly (or imperfectly, as the case may be) capable of establishing (or corrupting, as the case may be) the Earth’s frequency and this brings us to ‘Native’ drumming and how it differs from that of the Western assumptions. Rather the article’s title might have been ‘keeping ourselves tuned to a healthy pulse is key to the Earth’s wellbeing’ or highlighting that pesky problem Western culture has with assuming responsibility where all is not forgiven.

Excepting certain forms of Stick Game, e.g. a form historically related to training for manhunting in inter-tribal combats (devolved into gambling), altogether differing from other forms such as intra-tribal dispute resolution, an indigenous COLLECTIVE mentality drums into a single COLLECTIVE conscious state where it is perfectly understood by this COLLECTIVE intelligence that this is NOT an ‘altered’ state (Western concept) but an enhanced state of creating reality that is typical of everyday life. Most indigenous ceremony, with its attending drumming, is as simple as recalibration, or fine tuning to the concept of life itself, in all of its larger complexity, to what is invariably demanded to be sensible outcome for the whole of the cosmos. Robert Bly’s Jungian ‘wild man’ notwithstanding, there is precisely zero individual imperative can become part of this.

In the fall of 1983, I was listening to a couple of four year old Indian kids who were Blackfeet Head Start Program (preschool) classmates. They were ‘arguing’ (if it can be called that) over a girl at school. The one kid finally said “There’s nothing can be done about it, she chose me.” The other boy’s reply was “I’d punch you out, but you’re my best friend.”

It was a recent communication with one of those kids, these days a ‘light skinned Indian’ immersed in the dominant culture where people automatically assume he is ‘white’, recalled the conversation.

This acquaintance had now related to me his cross-cultural experience of discovering the well adapted psychopath is the sanest person one could know in the Western culture, nearly everyone else, at some level, seems to be loud, space invading aliens, or worse, energy draining ‘emo traps’ in close relationships of most sort, whether at work, in so-called ’friendships’ or otherwise. The socially well adapted psychopaths weren’t trapped in affective empathy or its’ close relative, sympathy. This tripped some sort of switch in my head and I started looking more closely at an inter-cultural cultural phenomenon that is a radical contrast I’ve yet to see written about anywhere: Why is it Native American Indians grieve from the belly as opposed to ‘white people’ (Western mentalities generally) grieve from the heart? Moreover, the Indians seldom grieve but when they do, it makes the Westerner’s grieving look like ‘mourning lite.’ Meanwhile, the stereotype is the primitive, ‘stoic Indian’ versus ‘civilized humanity.’

Now, back to the kids. That very short conversation, of which I’ve only given the last two sentences before the subject was dropped and the kids’ play moved on to other subject, points to a process in cultural shaping that more resembles training to be well adjusted, culturally integrated psychopaths than anything else (from Western psychology point of view.) In the Indians, LOYALTY TO YOUR FRIENDSHIPS (a clone of the socially well adjusted psychopath’s unwavering-unforgiving loyalty demand in close association) in community is paramount and supersedes all else in governing oneself in relation to everything in one’s human social surroundings. “There’s nothing to be done about it, she chose me” is the end of the story, no broken heart is experienced by the second kid, there is no ‘affective’ anything, no real anger, no self-pity. Preserving the loyalty and respect entailed in authentic friendship (indistinguishable from kinship) is paramount.

What’s more is, practical friendship (experienced as a principled, hyper-respectful and ethics driven loyalty in the Indian social experience) governs conjugal relationships as well, Western romance is an alien and strange concept that finds no traction in the culturally intact native community.

The ancient indigenous culture provides ZERO space for self pity or any emotion that is supportive of sympathy in a Western sense. In the true native pidgin English, the word ‘pity’ is purely and only pejorative. In a cultural philosophy of what works versus what doesn’t work (as opposed the moralizing ‘right & wrong’) feeling sorry for people is a non-starter.

No excuses! Does this mean the ‘stoic Indian’ doesn’t mature into a being experiencing emotion? Well, yes and no, let’s say (if only to be brief in this moment) they’re wired differently and emotion is triggered differently, experienced differently and utilized differently.

As it happened, when this line of thinking took off in my head, I had been pondering how it is autism, in some of it’s forms, are pretty much non-events insofar as areas of concern in Indian country but rather reflect predilection to a certain intelligence that is useful. In fact, it should be said the culturally intact Native American is shaped, through socialization & training, to SELECT FOR autism, albeit a high functioning autism.

In Western culture, on the other hand, body language and facial expression often (very often) do not line up with spoken language in environment where actions very frequently do not match words. This pervasive deceit triggers paramount survival instinct in the Indian, mimicking autistic traits.

Because the ancient indigenous psychology cannot reconcile the Western ‘split’ (does not possess the same mental structure & constructs stemming from the Indo-European psychology of ‘duality’), there is vocal and other communications shut-down when exposed to (sometimes in casual interactions with, and especially immersion in) the Western culture that does not occur within the culturally intact indigenous social context.

Historically, from the outside (Western) view, this is the origin of the ‘Taciturn Indian’ stereotype. This raises questions in my thinking:

Is Asperger’s actually ‘genetic’ or is it simply an inter-generational phenomenon that might have genetic predisposition and socialization elements that could derive solely from either depending on circumstance?

Would the otherwise healthy but triggered ’taciturn’ native phenomenon be diagnosed as a form of autism from a clinical Western perspective if subjected to alien cultural immersion that ‘blinds’ the Western researcher?

Would there be other identifiable markers, such as the indigenous community phenomenon of families and extended families (clans) countless generations cultivating a peculiar (to that clan) intelligence that can be related to a more classical observation of Asperger’s repetitive behaviors & interests? Recalling the Western perception of hunter-gatherers they clearly do not understand when making comparisons…

…this IS really interesting but more than 1/2 wrong, due to missing information from the (non-existent) inter-cultural transmission of understanding or social organization in the hunter-gathering context.

Gregariousness and socialization should register as normal if the subject is not separated from the indigenous context, which is, of course, different. Direct gazing (staring eye contact as opposed to eye contact that is not ‘locked on’) is construed as aggressive (literally predatory) behavior as would be experienced between predators of different species (especially) or enemy (territorial competition) groups. Aversion of eye contact is a behavior meant to deescalate tension. There is no point in taking on a panther if it is in any way unnecessary, example given. Also avoidance of eye contact is a form of submission and respect, such as when a young man would seek & listen to the advice of a matriarch (grandmother) where he would put his head down to demonstrate he is intently listening.

The eye contact and facial expression within the social group is there but qualified; this hunter-gatherer DOES NOT SMILE SHOWING TEETH.

Facial recognition is misconstrued by the Western anthropological researcher, wherein this aspect of the indigenous requires understanding of relationships (kinship) to receive, and then must be in a socially intelligent way, for instance at the Stick Game the stone faces presented to the opposing players within the larger context of the easily expressed joy of community entertainment; with lots of eye contact and facial recognition surrounding the stone-faced (expressionless) ‘combatants.’ In this context, the onlookers emotional engagement (joking, laughing) is quite free and uninhibited in HAPPINESS (grief is expressed in entirely different context, of course.) Any anger arising from the game play (misunderstanding and/or cheating) is immediately diffused by those present recognized as qualified judges (I held this social rank of a judge at stick game, requiring not only master level understanding of the game, but also indelible good character.)

It follows, the ‘affiliative need’ of the ancient hunter-gatherer when assessing for traits would be entirely missed in any assessment when studied from outside the indigenous social context. Perhaps related to this, in the more unassimilated (culturally intact) families, to recent times there had been literal ‘grooming’ in the anthropological sense, fairly identical to other ‘higher primates.’ This would never be observed by any outsider due to the automatic tension (however subtle) present in unaffiliated persons presence (no recognizable kinship.) This ‘grooming’ phenomenon was prevalent with/between the women, a very interesting cultural marker perhaps reinforcing a principle within the nuclear family units of an ancient culture originating within the devolved hierarchal principles of matriarchy.

“As a result of their special interests, strong focus, hyperfocus, and perseverance, people with ASD [autism spectrum disorder] can have encyclopedic knowledge in a particular area, and tend to be autodidacts with a lot of self-acquired skills. Their particular—often novel—way of thinking combined with their fixations result in many people with ASD being considered experts in very particular subjects”

This preceding quote from the Forbes article ‘Research Shows That People With Autism Have A Stronger Aptitude For Focusing On Tasks’

Autodidact is practically a pillar of Native American education; where people are trained from the youngest age to pursue independent problem solving; in circumstance of children given the tools to understand (opportunity to observe complex process) and expected to initiate correct solutions of their own accord. Upon millennia continuity, one might expect genetic predisposition should play in this socially shaped characterization.

In short, the evolutionary selection for a community that actually cannot be penetrated in any effective sense of study by a Western culture that factually shuts off access for the fact of triggering threat assessment mechanisms that are as old as the evolution of intelligence itself, points to the native view of the Western peoples as devoid of fundamental tools of survival at the meta level; in short, as dumbed down as the domesticated animals they have bred to point of helpless without hands on caregivers.

In a system where the ‘un-split’ brain is organized into the androgynous intelligence of integration to the larger sentient awareness of its surroundings, it should make sense Indian people would be aware of the danger inherent in mistaken ‘collective’ thinking and the consequences.

it would also make sense that simply encountering such people as the Westerners would trigger a HEALTHY state of threat assessment.

The foundation for the preceding paragraph had been laid throughout the text of this work; where from a tribal perspective it should be easy to see evidence all around us, example given, the creation of an artificial ‘super-consciousness’ determines the collective belief of fundamental Western monotheism is marching the world to Armageddon. But this is a minor example of possibilities where it is also realistic to expect in the absence of a proper & healthy pulse, the planet itself will convulse in such a way as to absolutely cleanse itself and begin again. Or perhaps be pronounced dead.

A former Sergeant of Operations and Intelligence for Special Forces, Ronald Thomas West is a retired investigator (living in exile) whose work focus had been anti-corruption. Ronald had lived over thirty years in close association with Blackfeet Indians (those who still speak their language), and is published in international law as a layman: The Right of Self- Determination of Peoples and It’s Application to Indigenous People in The USA or The Mueller-Wilson Report, co-authored with Dr Mark D Cole. Ronald has been adjunct professor of American Constitutional Law at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (for English credit, summer semester 2008.) Ronald’s formal educational background (no degree) is social psychology. His therapeutic device is satire.

Contact: penucquemspeaks@googlemail.com

Tags anthropology, autism, culture, drumming, ethnography, natural selection, Robert Bly, Schumann resonance

Categories archetype, culture, intelligence, matriarchy, philosophy, Plains Culture, social responsibility, survival, Uncategorized

The Trickster in Equilibrium

October 8, 2019 //

The Trickster in Equilibrium

Pre-Columbian Concept Translated to Modern

By Ronald Thomas West

Unpublished draft manuscript. This work may be reproduced for educational & research purposes. For profit & mass paper media redistribution prohibited.

“This idea that everything in the universe is alive, and that the universe itself is alive, is knowledge as useful as anything that Western science has discovered or hypothesized. When understood and made operative by serious and sensitive individuals, it is as reliable a means of making predictions as anything suggested by mathematical formulas or projected by computer programs. There are, however, substantial differences in the manner in which predictions are made. Because the universe is alive, there is a choice for all things and the future is always indeterminate.

“Consequently, predictions are based on the knowledge of the “character” of an entity. Statements about how an entity will behave have almost the same probabilities as the educated speculations made at the subatomic level in physics.

“Here the Indian knowledge has an edge over the Western scientific knowledge. A truly wise and gifted individual can appear to “cause” things to happen because that person can participate in the emerging event in a way that rarely occurs in Western science. Thus it is that people are said to have “powers,” which is another way of saying that their understanding of natural process and their ability to enter into events are highly developed and sophisticated.” -Vine Deloria Jr, Spirit and Reason

What is critically missing from Vine Deloria’s otherwise incomparably excellent intellectual grasp of contrasting systems of thought, and resultant reporting, is the role ‘individuation’ (separation, actually) plays in the Western psyche. When Deloria goes on to claim a strong individual identity is required to access the old indigenous knowledge, he entirely misses this phenomenal difference of individuation versus integration:

“The [Native American philosophy of a] living universe requires mutual respect among its members, and this suggests that a strong sense of individual identity and self is a dominant characteristic of the world as we know it”

This is a serious error. In the pre-Columbian (pre-Western educated) indigenous psyche, there is no split or creation of an individual awareness separate from the actual consciousness of the surrounding environment, consistent with Quantum theorist Bernard d’Espagnant’s observation opposed to Plato:

It is this single misapprehension of Western individuation of the psyche or psychological process (separation, actually) that prevents the modern mentality achieving the otherwise astute observation of Deloria concerning the ancient ability:

“A truly wise and gifted individual can appear to “cause” things to happen because that person can participate in the emerging event in a way that rarely occurs in Western science. Thus it is that people are said to have “powers,” which is another way of saying that their understanding of natural process and their ability to enter into events are highly developed and sophisticated”

In fact it should be mentioned here this ability is a much sought after knowledge by the several intelligence agencies that have sunk many millions of dollars into entirely futile efforts.

Deloria’s mistake is perfectly understandable as he had been educated in the Western system and it’s [his pre-law degree] theological seminary, his psyche, however opposed to attitudes of science, nevertheless had been shaped to a serious degree of Western; reflected in his seduction by Plato’s “Moral Universe” sans grasp of the deep problems with Plato’s “objectivity.”

Native survival habits, for instance the hunt and more, could easily misconstrued as ‘objective’ in a Western sense but this is actually something else. Follows are some illustrations:

The ancient native concept translated as ‘shadow’ is the ‘dynamic’ portal from which you are observed by the world of ‘spirit’ (nature’s omnipresent awareness or consciousness), in a case where self-recognition is not ego-based but environmentally substantiated within a greater context; where all surroundings are social. How you could experience this from this side (in non-individuated sense, as part of process), example given, where there is a wild plum tree in full blossom alive with honey bees; you don’t see or differentiate the bees or parts of the tree (blossoms) separately but rather first instinct understands the tree as alive with the sound of the bees, all as integrated single organism. This is information delivered via the ‘portal.’

You also instinctively know this is a shifting phenomenon of process that is constantly in motion and you are in a place of moving process. In other words, your shadow is a shifting or mutating awareness attending oneself or one’s presence, constantly feeding one information. How you would know you are seen from the ‘other side’ (in same non-individuated sense or as integrated to process), example given, let’s say you are hunting and as a hunter you understand it is what will be offered to you is what you are allowed to take; also it is spring and you shouldn’t take the doe carrying a young one. The mule deer herd senses your presence and begins to move away but a large doe stands still and offers herself. You take her because you understand she has offered herself; and discover she is barren. This is knowing both; how to read and how to write. It is a form of literacy, sans pen & paper. The doe knew the herd’s best outcome was giving herself up, you read that, and taking her, you wrote the best outcome for all concerned; your people are fed and the mule deer community kept it’s future in a higher state than if you’d taken any of the other deer.

Then, stepping up a level, let’s say because you are of the old indigenous mental construction and you know how to pray through the trees, while traveling, you come to a Y in the road. To now, you only know there is a way through the forest you are traversing, but you have no map and no detailed instruction. Because you know how to pray through the trees, the environment (which is sentient, intelligent, and social) recognizes, respects, and anticipates your thought when you send it out – “which way” – and a large bird of prey drops out of a tree and flies down right fork in the road, your questions are responsibly answered along this and other lines, with 100% accuracy, throughout the trip. This is because indigenous mentality can repeat this read of the environment with fluency and confidence, whether it is a bird calls in the precise moment, or noticing a feature resembling a face in a rock outcropping (psychosis to the Platonic mentality), even a puff of breeze moving leaves on an otherwise still day and more, all matched to a passive (receptive) thought process open to understanding the environment speaks to you. Western thought, on the other hand, is stuck in ‘objective’ interpretations; it is ‘illiterate’ and cannot read this environment.

How is it this ‘portal’ of understanding translates as your shadow?

This interactive understanding is an awareness that moves with you, coordinated with your thought process in receptive mode, except in case where you’ve been knocked out of alignment with your ‘portal’, in which case it can be said you’ve ‘lost your shadow’, a serious and even life threatening circumstance; with your loss of ability to ‘read’ surrounding environment. This ‘portal’ that follows (or precedes or surrounds) oneself is a critical component of essence or being in context of survival.

If you cannot ‘read’, you cannot take what is offered, as you cannot take what you cannot see and you’ve become out-of-sync. As well, because your surrounding environment is sentient and aware, you may easily become the environment’s ‘offering’ for lack of this ability to read; this loss of yourself is recognized by the greater social awareness (consciousness in your natural surroundings.) In this case, you easily become the surprised kill. This last is akin to the wolf identifying and taking the weak of the herd. They ‘know’ because they have ‘shadow’ or portal of understanding as well. When the environment, which is sentient, aware and social, knows you are out-of-sync, it’s only a matter of time and you will be taken.

This is not a “Moral Universe” in any sense of Western. It is unforgiving and this unforgiving core principle is understood in the indigenous instruction “You have to correct your mistakes.” From a Western, moral standpoint, it would have been construed to be inhumane; for instance one wonders how Deloria and the “Moral Universe” would have handled the philosophical dilemma that would arise from the Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) oral history where a small band leader was caught in circumstance of having to conceal his group from a much larger, hostile party. There was a restless infant. To prevent the child’s cries giving up their location, the chief took the infant and smothered it with his hand over face; acting responsibly without hesitation, there was no fear, guilt or shame in the act – only the mistake of having been caught in a group endangering circumstance. This is not a ‘right versus wrong’ mindset, rather it is a ‘what works versus what does not work’ mentality. There is no moral judgement involved. Is that to say the band chief didn’t feel remorse? No, he probably, when privacy allowed, grieved from the belly with howls the Western people not only do not experience, but flee from when it might (the rare occasion) be encountered.

How this system of awareness came to be related to early ‘frontier’ photography and the concept of ‘shadow stealing’ is actually quite simple; this was era entire native nations had been knocked out of alignment with their natural social environment (interactive nature.) With the Europeans came a severe damage to this world of perception, with severe disease related losses, ecological damage and the disappearing of wildlife, together with attending psychological impact, almost nothing worked as it had.

The static ‘capture’ of image (photography) easily fit the concept of lost shadow, as it must have looked as one would imagine nature were to perceive the self, where previous to western culture, one might only behold in reflective water. However reflection in the water did not threaten; because it did not seize and keep the image. In a world without concept of coincidence, it could not be construed as anything other than, with the whites’ arrival, and the near simultaneous loss of the interactive ‘literacy’ of living integrated to nature, portrait photography came to represent the ultimate theft of this unique awareness.

This contrast between cultures is not nearly so accommodating as that of Deloria, and recalls a satire of growing up like a football thrown from end zone to end zone between the cruelties of a hardcore Puritan stepfather in greater Los Angeles (with beatings and attending psychological cruelty analogous to the boarding schools) and that of a very native Montana environment of Indians but mostly mixed bloods, West of the Blackfeet reservation, a community that has since ceased to exist as it had been:

“Napi Mephisto inherited his surname from the Jesuits who knew his ancestor, did not like him, and assigned this shaman’s denigrating sobriquet to his progeny in perpetuity: when called upon by the government to create an official membership enrollment list as the several conquered tribes were reorganized into legal entities.

“The Mephisto line then fell to the policy foisted upon Indians by the government that a minimum ¼ of his tribes established bloodline would be required to have membership and lacking that, the Mephistos were native blood of several tribes without ¼ blood of any, this native family was persistently persecuted or harassed and jailed by the Indian Police, for being Indians without membership on the reservation.

“Banished by Native America, they settled in an area adjacent to, but off of the reservation. Now persistently persecuted for fact of being Indian off the reservation, they were still frequently arrested and jailed despite the fact there WAS no reservation that would take in the Mephistos.

“Fate further assimilated each subsequent generation into the White blood surrounding them, and finally the Mephisto line had settled down to become what at least appeared to be White

“With this ancestral history behind him, Napi Mephisto grew up Indian, nonetheless. How could this happen? Habit.

“Napi, as his father and forefathers before him, was raised to be open to the mysteries of the natural world and it’s manifestations, to be sensitive, aware of the manifold possibilities of seeing the world, to be free and unhampered in one’s thinking, to be generous and kind in regard to others, to let everything have it’s own voice.

“In effect, a perfect absurdity to the Whiteman. To Napi, accordingly, as well as to the many other now invisible Indians grown up in the surrounding forest with near identical backgrounds, this surrounding world of Whites, which actually seemed to believe he was one of them, was actually beheld as absurd in turn.

“Rather than open to the mysteries of the natural world surrounding them, these real Whites beat the shit of the environment, just like they beat their kids, desensitizing them, beat them for freethinking, were selfish as hell in regards to their children by banishing them from their presence to do ‘adult’ things and constantly made promises that were broken almost as quickly as stated, and by god as for the everything having it’s own voice thing, these people would cut off your head if you lifted it up to speak as quick as they were to smack a child’s fingers with a ruler.

“In this off the reservation White world, it was the kids who were the Indians. And the amazing thing was the Whites not realizing what the kids know. Because the kids fear the adults, they conceal their world from the adults. That is exactly why the Shaman learned to conceal his world from the Christian. Aversion to these peoples violence” -A Native Mephistopheles, from Napi Mephisto by Ronald Thomas West

A follow-on, short satirical observation, would be this modified excerpt, from an obscene essay the reader is spared of any reference to:

“Truly honky folk, real White people, that behave in all sorts of self- repressed ways and repress their own kids because of their staunch Puritan belief in H.L. Menecken’s maximum that ‘proper’ Puritans must preoccupy themselves with the horrifying thought “Someone, somewhere, might be happy”, for inexplicable reasons, are compelled to maintain some pretense of civility. So they learned to follow Jesus command to ‘love’ by ‘loving’ to hate. Because of the ‘love’ factor in ‘loving’ to hate themselves, their kids and their fellow man, making ‘love’ is as often a rape as not, ‘loving’ their brothers and sisters is ‘loving’ to tell other people how to live their lives, and ‘loving’ security is to create an insecure society so they can ‘love’ the idea of a police state”

Lampoons in the immediate, preceding light, could never be applied to the ancient native world; where hypocrisy and lies were practically unknown.

In the 1930s, noted linguist Benjamin Whorf postulated language shapes reality (and that Natives know a reality the westerners cannot see), following his learning and subsequent study of Hopi Language. His work on this observed a different concept of time and ultimately led to his (argued over by academics ever since) conclusion there is a distinct similarity in Hopi language to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Hence Whorf’s theory or variant of ‘linguistic relativity’ came into being.

Following Whorf’s pioneering (and much disputed) work, noted ‘action anthropologist’ Karl Schlesier, observed in his book ‘The Wolves of Heaven’ (on Cheyenne shamanism) the resemblance of Cheyenne world view to famed Einstein associate and theoretical physicist David Boehm’s theories.

Relevant to this, Native American languages are relatively ‘noun free’ languages, where everything is described in terms of process, and process is a moving thing, hence the Native differing concept of ‘time.’ The present is never static, it is always perceived as moving and you are moving with it. Past and future, both, have a present tense. Our world is perceived as a living clock of sorts, the clock is time in motion and we all are part and parcel of this clock. So, it is easy to see how the western mentality is not equipped to fathom native thought and its attending abilities and how enforced western educations in Cartesian based or Platonic philosophies and concepts of time would destroy the abilities of the present native generations through the deprivation of their language and its attending intelligence. Simply put, western education, from a native based perception of reality, dumbs people down, severely.

How is the ancient native mind shaped? From infancy, the child is included in nearly everything. An infant sleeps with their parents until they wean themselves, that could be to age three or four, even five. A baby that does not wish to be held, must not be held. A toddler is distracted and enticed away from hazards rather than shouted at. Behavior is explained through example set, never demanded. The children are NEVER lied to. Teaching the child is primarily via example setting highest ethical bar for oneself. The same respect accorded the child is accorded all living things, to include trees and even stones. The is no ‘adult’ world versus a child’s world.

The result of this upbringing is the child learning to ‘see’ the world they live in, the ‘living clock’, as a state of self-integrated/ongoing process. The ‘product’ of this process is people who cannot be told what to do (external to their cultural context) except that they should decide for themselves what is in their best interest (seek the intelligent solution, most often represented in returning to the indigenous community.)

Enforced Western education, of course, kills this process, and development in the ancient native mentality is arrested. However in case of allowed this road free of the constraints of western culture and education, the ‘sight’ only grows, for the entirety of one’s life. Cartesian/Platonic shaped mentalities can never fully know this, or that is to say ‘science’ and mentalities trained in western thought. The Cartesian/Platonic disciplined mentality is ‘masculinized’ out of the ability to ‘see’ from infancy. And though it may be possible for the western mentality to intellectually grasp this, it would be nearly impossible, for the males particularly, to overcome how their minds have been shaped and actually ‘know’ these phenomena, except they were able to authentically reject everything they have learned, a highly unlikely prospect, and begin from scratch.

Ready to throw away that PhD, as well everything you’ve learned since in the womb, and begin all over again at age 30-50? They can’t do it. Even were there necessarily qualified native teachers remaining who would agree to share their knowledge, this is something a properly trained ‘seer’ should NEVER do for any Western exposé of their knowledge, because it would take them out of alignment and consequently out the window would go their gift of sight. Why? Simply recall d’Espagnat stating human consciousness cannot be arbitrarily separated from environment, which is what Cartesian-Platonic shaped Western science sets out to do.

When contrasted to the ‘living clock’ Native understanding of reality, the Native could be said to be allergic to the western concept of reality, which is almost certainly why the gifted native cosmologist, Leon Secatero, became ill and died, following his immersion in Western culture. Leon had tried to bring related ideas from Native Quantum reality across, to among others, Seed Open University, in that organization’s attempts to ‘feminize’ the masculine western reality, but the fact remains the result is not Native reality, but instead a ‘feminized’ western masculine reality. There cannot be any honest integration of the western duality to the ‘living clock’, because the androgynous nature of intention in the living nature aspect we are all meant to be integrated to, cannot know separation from the self. This requirement of Cartesian/Platonic philosophy shapes the western culture’s mentalities which only know intention as manipulations exterior to the integrated to nature experience. Nature hates you and you will die.

A short manner of restating all of this preceding is, if “the kingdom of heaven is within”, and “you must be like the little children” to get there, a Western culture subsequently shaped by the worship of a sadistic political murder of those very ideas, any “moral universe” notwithstanding, can never know the experience.

But because the native world entertains paradox, and had been based in subtle principles of matriarchy with incorporated androgynous thought, an experiment was devised, based in native principles, to test an emerging thesis the Western women might be able to make the bridge out of objectivity. Here is how the experiment was employed to determine this.

When you walk in nature, allow your thoughts to be free, to roam where they will with no concentration to control. A little bit like daydream but no specified subject. If it happens there is a bird calls at that very moment a point is made, seen or discovered in your wandering thoughts, a sort of conclusion, this bird has just spoken to you (in the mind, not only the ear.)

The birds are the messengers, who can pass understanding of events to you (among other things), to know if a thought is correct.

To learn to accomplish this in practical reality would be difficult for many within the modern mindset. Men, particularly, would experience difficulty with this exercise in ‘female intelligence.’ The reason is, Plato’s objectivity welded to Judeo-Christian cultural shaping, resultant mental strictures and taboo on the exercise of a feminine understanding of reality in Western Civilization (which has taken over the world.) In order for there to be a ‘rise’ of civilization, people had to come under the control of male dominated intelligence or a vertical ‘hierarchy.’

Mosaic law is one example, where there is prohibition of sorcerers and necromancers, a crude demonizing of female intelligence to preserve the male hierarchy. Examples related to this sort of control would be (about equally) Saudi Arabia executing women as witches and western science panning any understanding of female intelligence that cannot be achieved via the academically incestuous, constricted logic of empirical method; both science and religion are firmly rooted in a cultural system that fears and condemns or persecutes anything which threatens the ascendancy of male thought (and hence male hierarchy.) Civilization and ‘civilized man’ are both determined this understanding of the female ‘nature’ is not to be acknowledged in coherent form because it is a threat to male dominance. In the greater male hierarchy’s endeavor to suppress the feminine, the gynophobic Plato and the God of Abraham are peers, little different to the misogyny of Confucius, which serves this same purpose.

The result of this experiment, over several years of walks in the forest, was men simply never could get it. But nearly half the women did, particularly those women with less male shaped mentalities, women less educated in the ‘hard’ sciences and least indoctrinated in religion, had better outcomes in overcoming the modern mentality obstructions, and attained some practical grasp and understanding of this natural phenomena, some in a matter of a few hours. This indicates the women who advance in the Western world’s hierarchy aren’t really women but something else. The MOSSAD trained woman who lobbied to go on one of these walks was so strictured in her thinking, it made no sense to take her (not because of her connection to MOSSAD, rather the typical intelligence agency intensive training in LYING is an absolute obstacle that could not be surmounted.)

Another mistake is to expect you can discover something you wish to know with this. This is a mistake because it is not about what we think is important to know, but rather what nature (the spirit) thinks is important for us to know. This is again, a western culture’s male ego issue, unknown in the native past and is why the point is made to NOT control the direction of thinking, for the process to fluently, dependably work.

A person who can master the birds can go on to master the techniques mentioned earlier, the caveat being, overcoming the false ego-voice is of paramount importance; because individuation (separation, the cause of the ego-voice) is a lie in and of itself. It follows, Deloria’s presumption Western science can be somewhat rehabilitated or moved towards a correct direction is a misapprehension of the reality, especially when referencing the oxymoron of Native Studies in the Western university format. In this regard, it should be pointed out that a western concept of…

“Separation-individuation is a fundamental organizing principle of human growth that has implications for adaptive functioning across the lifespan. In its most general sense individuation refers to a process “by which a person becomes increasingly differentiated from a past or present relational context” (Karpel, 1976, p. 66) -from Separation-Individuation, Daniel K. Lapsley and Paul Stey, University of Notre Dame

…perfectly describes the modern collateral damage to the ancient indigenous relationship with omnipresent spirit (integration to the greater aware state or consciousness embodied in nature.)

It cannot hurt to recall here, the modern ego construct or individuated mentality, considered normal in western culture, is a mental construct which had been diagnosed and treated as a psychological disorder in the ancient Plains culture. Contemporary Indians who most suffer from the modern mentality are least aware they suffer a diseased mentality and this is an ultimate irony because it is those Indians who most loudly strut the proposed idea they are ‘traditional’ are those who suffer the disorder.

This brings us to Deloria’s struggle with a concept (one hates to say non-comprehension) of the trickster. After having correctly dispensed with any ‘Promethean’ (Western) interpretations of the Native American trickster, Deloria struggles to understand the tricksters role in tool making, creation stories and finally settles more comfortably into the humor element:

[This] “category of Trickster functions is that of the Trickster himself—the worldly being of uncertain origin who lives by his wits and who is often embarrassed. This version is one with which I am more familiar as the Sioux Iktomi stories deal quite heavily with the Spider who seeks shortcuts and almost always becomes the butt of laughter, human, plant, and animal. I suggest that this aspect of Trickster tales is designed to demonstrate the inevitability of cosmic law and teach humility and other virtues by showing the consequences of attempting to be what one is not supposed to be”

Here, Deloria has ‘objectified’ the trickster or separated a principle of maintaining equilibrium into categories. His “I suggest” is a tacit admission he really does not know but given his wide authority attained in the (native, particularly) academic world, he should have disclaimed with ‘I don’t know.’

The (sometimes trickster) Blackfoot Napi is many things. Napi is a teacher, Blackfoot ancestor and much more. Napi is like Jesus or a holy man. Napi is the devil, Napi is the first real human being, Napi is a friend, a fool & the trickster- Old Man Coyote. Napi is all of the possibilities embodied in any Blackfoot MALE. But what is essential to understanding Napi in a macro-cosmic sense is equilibrium. Herein is a thread that ties all together; Napi the creator is at the birth of a new world out of whatever world preceded this one, following on Napi’s voyage (the so-called ‘raft’ story representing prototype Blackfeet arrival in the Americas by sea.) The Napi who taught the people to make stone knives represents meeting and merging with another group when settling into new territory and associated technology transfer. What lumps these ‘metadata’ Napi stories into a greater context of equilibrium inclusive of Napi the fool, is the order of priorities. Napi in the creation story is acknowledging relationships or contextualizing the equilibrium necessary to the cosmos.

To know this living cosmos requires a unique relationship to environment, commonly misconceived as a relationship solely to the land. It’s actually much bigger than this. To have some beginning idea of this cosmos, one must surrender any thought of ‘I’ and ‘me’ because ‘you’ cannot exist in this cosmos as an individual entity. Without the cosmos, you don’t exist. Within the cosmos, you cannot exist as an individual. This is because all of the cosmos is integrated, or restated, the original indigenous tradition demonstrates an aware, seeing, sentient, greater being or ‘cosmos’ and requires this cosmos permission to accept those who would inhabit it; to accomplish this integration had little to with exploiting environment and everything to do with finding a niche contributing to the cosmos health that must entertain a principle of equilibrium, to sustain.

Where the environment is seen as social and all is demanding equilibrium, permission is required to pursue not only specific activities within this community, but even to exist. Because this environment is seen as socially aware, there is a greater understanding of impacts directly relevant to undertaking responsibility; this is an environment with the ability to identify specific actions and react accordingly. From this aspect is drawn the native value of self-restraint; for not only does any nation hosted within this environment possess no right whatsoever to aggressively exploit, the demand of equilibrium by the environment is invested with the power to expel any nation inimical to its health.

The nation, to incorporate to the environment, must integrate to the intelligence of the cosmos. This integration required merging two kinds of consciousness; female and male. The result had been androgynous thought reflected in the many genders in the language; where these many gender actually reflect the many varying degrees of androgyny in the observed processes of nature from whence the ancient ways of knowledge had been derived. This salient fact is what altogether set the ancient intelligence apart from the modern. Awake time has its’ consistent dream element and sleep time is consistently informed with lucid dreaming. Never was a strict line drawn between, or boundary established, between the two. One reality is as valid as the other. Or, perhaps better said, these were never considered to be distinctly separate reality or experience. This unique (by comparison to the modern) integration is what enabled sight capable of ‘reading’ the language of other creatures, inclusive of trees, even stones. Within this integrated framework exists a ‘greater’ intelligence where time could be perceived in motion; a living clock could be its’ description. A nation’s collective ability to ‘read’ this clock is a utilitarian principle allowing for the nation to function as an organism within the environment hosted within the cosmos. Everything remains attuned within this clock, of which the nation was a functional part (of the clock’s many parts, inclusive of ‘other nations’ such as the elk, antelope and bison.)

In a mechanistic sense, an indigenous nation’s large ceremony (e.g. the so-called Sundance) should be seen as recalibration within this cosmos.

The point of devolved and closely interwoven (consensus) leadership had been to gain as clear a view possible of the cosmos; pertaining to any direction taken within the nation. The maintenance of the cosmos health, and the necessary conforming of the nation to these demands of the cosmos, was primary, all else came after. With many eyes and ears attuned to the environment within the cosmos, what was imperatively sought after, was sustained equilibrium. Prior to the enforced Western education’s ‘split’ of Native American consciousness, these many eyes & ears gave truthful, intelligently informed, consistent and wide view of all the elements necessary to receive direction as determined by the cosmos; stemming from an interactive relationship nature with sight unknown in the modern world. This equilibrium had environmentally sustained for millennia.

This preceding demands an integrated approach that precludes ego in the western sense; it was never about ‘me’ but about sustaining a system of perpetual motion which depended on all; right down to awareness of impact to the single blade of grass and the correct action or ‘lived awareness’ going to the fact all matter making up experience exterior to the self is equally entitled to exist. Necessarily, development of the self is integrated to the whole of it all, precluding any practical separation. It is now, we can speak of the lessons of the trickster as an idiot in relation to equilibrium.

Everyone learned from Napi (his stories) in Blackfoot culture, and the idea behind Napi is to foster what is sane and healthy in men and put strict controls on what is not. It is that simple, the lessons were aimed at maintaining personal equilibrium within a system where all is balanced.

Follows, is an excellent example of a Blackfoot Napi (coyote) story (stolen from the Crees) illustrating the preceding. There were many stories of Napi holding philosophical conversations with his rectum, and this is where typically the Napi stories become really dangerous. It is about a man that does not learn from his mistakes. It is about a man that does not put two and two together concerning the consequences of his actions. It is about a man that does not understand his relationship to essential functions in nature necessary to his survival. It is about a man that does not pay attention or listen. It is about a narcissistic man so full of himself, he lies to himself about others good intentions. It is a story about how not to live your life. Perhaps most of all, it is a warning about recycling old and failed ideas. The name Penucquem in the following story is the proper, formal, Blackfoot word for rectum.

“Napi Eats His Butt.”

“Napi had been to a great feast with his brothers. He returned to his camp very full of food and tired. Napi curled up to sleep by his fire, and you know where a dog’s nose is when he curls up to sleep!

“Spuurrpp! Napi farted and it woke him up, his eyes were watering. Napi said aloud ‘Well, that was really rude’ and curled back to sleep…

“Spuurrpp! Napi’s head popped up again, irritated, Napi shouted at his rectum: ‘Penucquem! If you won’t let me sleep, I am going to teach you a lesson!’ Napi curled up again.

“Spuurrpp! That really did it. Jumping up, Napi grabbed up Tail, out of harms way, and sat on his campfire to get even with Penucquem. “Yii! Yii!” Napi really took off, like only a hurt dog does, and this started him on his travels.

“Napi moved for a long time, he was thinking of how Penucquem had bit him really hard when he had tried to punish him, he didn’t understand how his rectum could do that to him while pushed down on the fire. It was Penucquem that should have cried out and ran away.

“So Napi kept moving and thinking, he was traveling a long time in a big circle…

“Napi walked and thought about it for so long that finally the large scab fell off of his rectum and still walking in a circle, he came across the scab and said “What do you know! Dry Meat!” Napi was getting hungry again about this time and he was happy to have found the dried meat some Indian had lost.

“The Magpies shouted out to him “Napi! Don’t eat that! It fell off of your rectum!” Napi shouted back to the Magpies “You’re not fooling me, you just want this dry meat for yourselves!”

“And then very delicately because there was not much of it, and with a lot of savor because he was hungry, and very deliberately, so the Magpies would envy him while watching, nip by nip, Napi ate his butt.”

A related modern, short, rude, ego-killing rendition, or a joke Indian story contrasting the Western coopted Native American mentality:

“Two Medicine Men, both teachers, visited the big city and took in a service at the cathedral. Returning home, they took their Indian students on a journey of ‘Discovery.’ First, they killed the nicest kid in the group and told the rest it was their fault for being born. But now, if they would eat the nice kid and drink his blood, calling it communion, they would not be held responsible for anything, ever. And this conferred upon them the right to tell other people how to live their lives- what they can and cannot do” –from Penucquem’s Journal

This immediate preceding could be called the ‘Father DeSmet’ perversion, referencing this incredibly ignorant quote:

“They [the Blackfeet] are plunged in coarse superstitions which brutalize their souls, they worship the sun and the moon and offer them sacrifices and propitiation and thanksgiving” -Pierre Jean DeSmet, Society of Jesus (Jesuit)

In fact the ancient Plains Indians didn’t worship the sun and moon but simply acknowledged these celestial bodies place in cosmos via ceremony.

It follows, only ego-centric (individuated, separated) people can kill the collective consciousness of our surroundings, including the awareness embodied in the rock, being blown up for cyanide heap leach gold extraction, that is part and parcel of our own awareness. Each of those dynamite explosions is exploding part of a process of sentient, aware intelligence. Deloria astutely references Red Tomahawk expressing an ages old, functional grasp of something western science is beginning to glimpse but falls short in his understanding of the greater implications:

“The knowledge and use of any or all the powers of the objects on Earth around us, is as liable to lead a man wrong as to lead him right, because it is merely power, with no way of knowing how to use it correctly- except that spirit is with a man’s spirit for the light” -Red Tomahawk, Sioux, from Deloria’s Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths

Deloria, referencing statements similar to Red Tomahawk’s, holds the ancient Indian philosophy has a ‘modern ring’ in relation to advances in Western science but there is really more to it than that. When Red Tomahawk says ‘spirit is with a man’s spirit’ (for the light), he is speaking of collective creation, and ourselves as part & parcel of intelligent expression, integrated to spirit & nature, or one might say integrated to a sentient, omnipresent consciousness. Moreover, Red Tomahawk is discriminating between a sole, intimate knowledge of any single object’s raw power, and an understanding of the larger purpose concerning the nature of that very object, pointing out these are distinct things.

It follows, the pre-Columbian indigenous perception would be, with killing off of our surrounding intelligence, the Earth is, accordingly, becoming severely dumbed down. The analogy would be, with the increasing loss of integration to intelligent expression, our planet is becoming, in a practical sense, a brain damaged spastic. It can’t even coordinate its weather anymore. There is no escaping consequence, we all are a part of all of it.

Then, western perception of this exploitation, or as Red Tomahawk put it “the knowledge and use of any or all the powers of the objects on Earth around us”, to a point of destroying our life-giving environment, or a sentient nature, is ‘progress’ because building civilization in the process enables so-called ‘intelligent’ demonstrations of what ultimately amounts to grandiose acts of ego: “We put men in space.”

Well, you can proceed to destroy the planet by building civilization to a point you can send a shipload of colonists to Mars (to certainly die there) and no doubt this will titillate the collective ego of that very civilization, but how intelligent is it to sacrifice the underlying support mechanism, that is life sustaining nature, in the process? How is it western mentality (and the civilization it rules) cannot grasp this single, simple equation in an applied, practical sense? The individuated ego is, a literally blind, destructive thing.

Whatever might be intelligently salvaged from the upcoming, certain ruin of Western civilization (the ‘rise & fall’ phenomenon), the individuated ego and attending “scientific attitude” can be no part of moving forward.

To begin to grasp Native mentality, westerners, including many (most, actually) of today’s Indians, would have to take a mortal hit to ego, that’s the first step, and accept at the core of one’s being, you are a member of a class that are the most aggressive, dumbest entities to grace this planet with bipedalism since T Rex went extinct 66 or so million years ago, only less intelligent. T Rex didn’t deliberately blow his world up, only western civilization would do that.

The critical thing to look at is, the contrast between one of the great (and perhaps only universal) ‘gods’ (misnomer = small g) of the Native world(s), that is ‘the trickster’, and the construct of the mentality according to western psychology. These are mutually exclusive approach to life; the western way is all about process shaping the ego as an adaptive tool engaging one’s surroundings, the native way had been to pre-empt the emergence of ego in any form, and this had been the role of the trickster, who could quite accurately be described as the ego destroyer; in the several cultures where ego had been diagnosed and treated as an anti-social mental disorder.

Going to that thought, try solving this next problem or even grasping the magnitude of the proposed thesis:

A: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” -Alfred North Whitehead

B: ”The [Plato’s] doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment” -theoretical physicist Bernard d’Espagnat

C: “nouns or millennia destructive process ‘objectifying’ language, projecting individual identity onto pieces of one’s surroundings, or dis-integrating environment; a result of the isolated projection of self or (ego) individuation by Western humanity exclusive of integration to a sentient, aware surrounding, where all environment had been/should be, social” -Ronald Thomas West

3 October 2019

Tags consciousness, cosmos, David Boehm, Einstein, Indian, Indian Humor, individuation, Karl Schlesier, Leon Secatero, Napi, Native American, Native American Humor, Old Man, Old Man Coyote, physics, quantum mechanics, quantum physics, trickster, Vine Deloria Jr

Categories CIA, Morons, MOSSAD, Plains Culture, psychology, religion, shamanism, social responsibility, survival, transcendent warfare, Uncategorized

Stargate Project (3)

May 15, 2019 //

The introduction to this series, for those who’d not read it or would wish to review it, may be found HERE. It is recommended the introduction be read prior to delving into any of the articles in this series.

Stargate Project Part Three

This series began with referencing a story of contemporary Russian military ‘combat’ parapsychology efforts discussing the American Defense Intelligence Agency’s ‘former’ research into the paranormal phenomenon called “remote Viewing” (the real focus of the Zerohedge story, for lack of information on the Russian side.) This author has taken the story forward to develop its’ implications for what is named “Transcendent Warfare” in a paper for the Marine Corps War College discussing the ‘discontinued’ Stargate Program.

Part three explores the actual possibilities available to the modern mentality; or so-called ‘civilized’ states’ pursuit of Stargate type programs exploring a ‘transcendent warfare’ understanding, within the severely constricted Cartesian-Platonic cultural paradigm.

they would ‘literally’ see you coming

Ceremonial ‘remote viewing’ translates to English across the several Northern plains tribes as the ‘telescope lodge.’ This had been an authentic practice deriving from ancient times. In the modern era it is problematic for a few reasons, not least because it has become a widely faked practice. [1]

Setting aside the out & out fakes, there should be those natives assimilated to Western culture to some degree (one hates to say ‘damaged’) who retain a higher than average (compared to Western psychics) ability to ‘see’, if for no other reason than there had not yet been enough generations of these linages stamped out by Christianity. If these parties had access to the original laws (oral tradition, sans training) concerning this ‘sight’, they should know the rule: each time this sight is used frivolously, one day is subtracted from your life expectancy.

Then, there are those surviving bonafide practitioners, properly trained in the tradition of sight, aware of the web’s energy strings and possessed of the ability to see the ‘energies.’ The implications for the Western investigator seeking this knowledge, if they only knew the actual score, would be something larger than profound; for the fact these indigenous high practitioners actually do exist but for the Western world, they might as well not exist, because you could not ‘see’ them. This paradox of invisibility I am pointing to is, these particular people would literally ‘see’ you coming, not merely as some individual but with all of your attending ‘energies.’ This fact would automatically shut off all transfer of information to anyone associated with ‘error recordings’ in a macro-cosmic sense. Let me explain:

Accumulated small ‘error recordings’, although nearly unknown in the past, are common today because Western culture has determined ‘selection pressure’ for intelligence is no longer applied to the community in either; the social-cultural context (leadership), or its’ closely associated natural context (survival exterior to the village.) The rude (honest) manner of stating this phenomenon of the current era would be ‘morons abound.’ We’re used to seeing this in the modern times, very few individuals remain in a state of integrity providing a clean (error free) light. Altogether different to this ‘dull’ light is another error recording reflected (one could say) in intense light; there is no escape when your mistake is large, it cannot be concealed. Anyone associated with a project like Stargate, or other project, seeking method that short-cuts or otherwise ‘cheats’ (records errors into their light concerning) those avenues the living macrocosmic system actually offers, should discover their pilgrimage into the actuality of the ancient world’s learning continue to vanish before their eyes; like a mirage. None of the practitioners still fluent in the truly ancient ways would wish to ‘dirty’ their own light by opening to anyone with severe, recorded mistakes. Just exposing themselves can damage their abilities. Cultural anthropology could never ‘find’ these people (they could not authentically open), it simply never worked. With the real priests of the knowledge ruled out, what you’re left with in any search for keys to transcendent warfare (exploitation) is the intermediate level practitioners (between the fakes and the real) or what Floyd HeavyRunner (High Priest of Okan) called “The Witches.”

forbidden practices

Mel Gibson’s Catholic hypocrisy concerning Meso-American civilizations (noting the Christian civilization’s ritual cannibalism called “Communion”) should not be construed to extend ‘savagery’ to those native nations who’d not strayed from the lessons of the ‘living clock’ briefly encapsulated in the preceding pages. In fact, the Blackfoot prohibition on cannibalism is *at minimum* 12,000 years old, dating to the story of the cannibal witch ai-ta-pyooyi and her attempted escape from justice by crossing a river while riding on the back of a mammoth (the mammoth submerged and she was swept away by the current and drowned.) [2], [3]

It follows, we should look at the Ancient system in a light of ethics outside of stereotype, including stereotype produced by Western anthropology.

The fact of a knowledge of ‘sorcery’ (a superstitious misnomer, authentic practices would be based in easily understood principles of Western science if there were no Cartesian-Platonic misconception called ‘objectivity’) is inescapable in the journey of learning in the ancient way. For many millennia, social ethics practice prohibited its’ employ. These prohibitions had been based in a superior understanding of consequence due to ‘error recordings’ connected to ‘energy strings’ where deliberate machinations (as well, lesser mistakes) exterior to ‘permissions’ (permitted avenues) should invariably lead to disaster. This recalls the anecdote where a ‘whiteman’ (a light-skinned Indian misidentified as such) had been insulted at ceremony by a racist Native American. The ‘offended party’ actually took no offense but was well aware of the higher order of rules; remaining calm and ‘perfectly’ not reacting (not recording the mistake into himself), it was a few hours only and the the offender was notified his mother had, just a few hours before, suddenly and unexpectedly died.

Because ‘the energy string’ could not ‘attach’ to the target of the insult, it rebounded to the source the problem; in a culture (matriarchy) where women are the disciplinarians, in this particular instance the energy ‘dead-ended’ at its’ source or in the party who’d failed to adequately instill proper behaviors in the offender. Ceremony transcending the space-time continuum accentuated this (made it immediate.) In the ancient way, insults are considered to be a form of petty sorcery (referencing the English term ‘curse’), and because of the phenomenon of energy strings, sorcery in an indigenous context is a dangerous business, recalling the old West frontier wisdom ‘it would be smarter to outright kill an Indian, than to insult him.’

In light of this (immediate preceding) bit touching on the intelligence agencies’ exploring the possibilities of “transcendent warfare”, while seeking to circumvent the space-time continuum via the so-called “hemi-sync” device, it will do to give a first hand example of indigenous ceremony relevant to this.

There is an (largely unknown to the anthropologists) ancient (by oral history account 900 or more years) antecedent to the ‘Ghost Dance’ of Wovoka, to which this reporter (yours truly) was apprenticed to a priest for eleven years (Fall of 1981 through 1992.) During one of these events on upper Cut Bank Creek above Starr School on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, USA, there was a knock on the door of the ceremonial house which was unusual because during ceremony the rule is an open door, no knocking. Sitting closest to the door, I opened it to a young woman asking for help, there had been an automobile wreck and people were hurt. The main room this door opened to was crowded, with many ceremonial attendees, and as I turned to ask who would be able to assist, people were already moving towards the door to go out and help, everyone had seen and heard the person at the door. But no one was there. The young woman had vanished from plain sight in open terrain. Her description fit one of the victims of a car accident two years previously, only a short distance from the house. These are (or had been) frequent occurrences in the pre-Western indigenous experiential context.

The qualitative difference between the artificial lab experiments or “hemi-sync” and the ceremony is quite large; when the entire group is in the channel opened in the space-time continuum, without ‘projection’ or motivation to investigate and/or manipulate, there is little danger posed to those who keep within the ceremonial rules where the window is opened and closed. On the other hand, one can only speculate (in case of classified records) whether some of the ‘hemi-sync’ experiments resulted in ‘lost’ mentalities where there had been projection of the person’s awareness to place unknown where they became trapped in out-of-body experience (couldn’t find their way back), perhaps had their awareness dismantled or destroyed, or at the other end, became opened to what only could be called ‘possession’ in the Western religious sense. Because the Western lab begins from the premise…

“a training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence to the amplitude and frequency of brainwave output between the left and right hemispheres so as to alter consciousness, moving it outside the physical sphere so as to ultimately escape even the restrictions of time and space. The participant then gains access to the various levels of intuitive knowledge which the universe offers”

…but there is clearly no foundational or working understanding of just what it is ‘the universe offers’ in a program that recklessly risks the unknown, seeking to exploit reality parameters for the purposes of espionage and “transcendent warfare.” This approach would be best abandoned for a limited understanding of the energy strings exploited by common sorcery.

Sorcery in the modern world is a much degenerated practice when juxtaposed to that prohibited by the ancients. In this respect, an understanding of sorcery should be framed in such a way as to circumvent the modern (church invented) stereotype blaming pagan practices which were likely something altogether different than the charges promulgated by their accusers. Authentic pre-Christian ceremony and sorcery in the indigenous American hunter-gatherer sense had been mutually exclusive concepts, any bonafide sorcerer would steer clear of authentic ceremony and the priests of the indigenous philosophies disallowed the practice. [4]

Reframing the concept returns us to the most ancient stories of a time when the women’s law (matriarchy) came into being and the capital punishment for a woman (a law made by women, for women) was the cutting off of the nose to make the living person resemble a skull. This terrible act is as old as the stories of a time when women were possessed of a power that could kill with simple focus and projected thought: “I put my finger through that person.”

On the other hand, men required more effort to perform a fatal act of sorcery, they needed to draw the attention of the victim in some way as to generate fear, setting up an energy string for exploitation. One method to do this would be to poke a sharp stick into a man’s footprint in circumstance where the intended victim should notice and discover one of his arrows had been stolen, modified & used against him. The arrowhead might have been removed and used on another arrow to superficially wound, not fatally, a dangerous animal, perhaps a bear. The intended victim would not explicitly know this second part of the act of sorcery but would *sense* a crime committed that should trigger fear in future encounter. Exploiting the principles of ‘energy strings’ (spinning an unnatural line in the web) this way, the criminal actor exploits fear; and depending on the level of ‘error recordings’ in the victim, (the knowledge of the victim he has uncorrected mistakes), this sequence of events could easily lead to death, whether by an actual bear in surprise encounter via the artificial energy channel tied to any bear encountered sensing this person as a threat, to the fear concept’s methylation of the victim’s DNA causing a cancer, or the associated mental distress and preoccupation causing a loss of ‘sight’ and consequent inattention in circumstance leading to a fatal outcome. On the other hand, if the intended victim was possessed of ‘clean light’ (no, or minimal & faint, error recordings), the act of sorcery should backfire and dead end with (terminate) the initiator. Sorcery was (and is) a dangerous business. [5]

Were the preceding to be experimented with, example given, by the micro-organism sized, ethical personalities running DARPA, one should expect a lab fire of unprecedented scale. It is small wonder ‘civilization’ appears suicidal.

a re-posit of sod’s or murphy’s law

Briefly returning to the ‘remote viewing’ phenomenon, juxtaposed to the idea of ‘energy strings’ and sorcery, it should be stated in introduction to this last section of part three they are both; channels and strings that open like channels and vibrate like strings. I would use the metaphor of light is both a particle and a wave. Remote viewing (and more radically, ‘hemi-sync’) & ceremony employs this phenomenon as a channel, sorcery employs these ‘avenues’ as strings. [6]

When ceremony ‘opens a window’, this is not projective, but specific to invitation created for visitors called (in the common vernacular) ‘spirits.’ In other words, a ceremonial ‘safe space’ is created where our ancestors mingle with the ‘present’ people and (if there is a future) the ‘future’ people (for whom we are the ancestors.) The ‘qualified’ equivalent of ‘hemi-sync’ we create as ceremonial people is a synchronizing of the GROUP via ceremonial behaviors inclusive of several acts related to relics & taboos. We know who we are dealing with via the relics, and the taboos keep unwanted lanes shut. We know how it is to be done. All of this is, in a sense, passive. Invitations only are broadcast, and only down known lanes.

When space-time is ‘transcended’ *exterior to* certain principles recognized and practiced in the preceding, that is to say in the Cartesian-Platonic lab, Richard Dawkins denial notwithstanding, it is an invitation to Murphy as the Whiteman’s god of havoc. These people simply put, will have no idea whatsoever which and/or what sort of energies will have found their way into our space-time continuum. How it all plays out is anyone’s guess. [7]

return to the women

Noting it was a Russian politician divulged the existence of paranormal battle formations and a Russian general denied this, I would side with the politician as it is entirely possible remote viewing channels were employed and *expanded* to suggest certain actions, concealed as intuitive thought, while, example given, directing a certain NATO frigate into the inexplicable (other than attributable to Murphy’s Law) collision that sank it. This proposed scenario should require close, coordinated attention to detail provided in real time through highly gifted (probably female) mediums, and it would be complex and rely on a convergence of circumstance to succeed. Did it happen? If it did, we’ll likely never know. [8]

Another means of defining ‘sorcery’ in the ancient indigenous sense would be to identify those individuals who step outside of the group (social) taboo parameters or separate (isolate) themselves while retaining a high understanding of the use of channels and strings. It was known to happen.

The qualitative difference from ancient to today, concerning the preceding, is stark; the indigenous cultures (everywhere) are in a constant state of drift out of alignment (synchronization with) the natural order and (at best) into a locked down imbalance of logos (Jungian sense), no matter if ‘liberal’, nonetheless representing the Western ‘split & separation’ of the psyche. From the Western (mistaken) view, this could be seen as a sort of self-healing herniation, with the (now autonomous) female intelligence in ever shrinking state. Within the resultant male hierarchical order, the most effective talent pool for manipulation of the energy strings should be found in those organically intelligent women least educated in Cartesian-Platonic methodology and had avoided intense indoctrination into monotheism (the two ‘offenders’ representing a kind of psychologically malignant, male-narcissist, homosexual coupling.) In other words, those women (of good character) least shaped into the collective Western male psychology. An intuitive sense of kinship with nature would be important.

Drawing from this talent pool, going on to manipulate the Cartesian-Platonic ‘god of havoc’ (Murphy), there subsequently could be an effective, collective sorcery method employing the web as strings (as opposed to channels) that could be devastating in the employ of war.

The method would be to ‘spoof’ (mimic) the principle of ‘error recording’ where, example given, one’s enemy force concealed a ‘rape culture’ in a literal-factual sense (not unusual in the Western civilization’s history of military.) Also, that force represented an empirically demonstrable, covetous nature and threat, opposed to one’s own community well-being (interpreted by these women as a threat to the feminine nature.)

The caveat-obstacle to this next would be, your own force would have to be nearly lily-white (clean) and free of hypocrisy in regards to the preceding (rape culture absolutely NOT tolerated) for this next to be effective.

It could be so simple as to have these ‘good character’ female ‘brigades’ retreat to their most comfortable locations in nature, with bare feet on the ground (or otherwise somehow integrated with touch), and meditate with a visceral hate towards their perceived enemies, emphasizing chaos, thereby activating an ‘error recording’ principle or greater selection pressure onto the opposing force. In circumstance where there is clear delineations (without or minimal hypocrisy), counter-attacks should be automatically repelled and returned via the strings resulting in ‘termination’ events (failed to penetrate the ‘clean light’ or good character element of the error recording principle.)

Foreword the A + B = C misapprehension of reality

Stargate Project (0) series introduction

Stargate Project (1) down the rabbit hole

Stargate Project (2) the nazi meme

Stargate Project (3) transcendent warfare < you are here

Stargate Project 0.0 epilogue

[1] Discussed in Penucquem Speaks https://www.scribd.com/document/49628160/Penucquem-Speaks

[2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/europes-hypocritical-history-of-cannibalism-42642371/

[3] Tribes other than the Blackfeet also have ‘mammoth traditions’ https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/aa.1934.36.1.02a00060

[4] The modern exception to the prohibition on sorcery is the stick game, where the now prohibited man-hunting sport in inter-tribal warfare (a sort of ongoing inter-tribal Olympics) has found a new home via sorcery in the ‘money games’ perversion of what had originally been an oracle based on the ‘energy strings’ permeating all that is. See the chapter on stick game from Penuquem Speaks for a detailed use of this knowledge in the game context: https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/04/02/the-stick-game/

[5] https://moffittcaspi.trinity.duke.edu/sites/moffittcaspi.trinity.duke.edu/files/G_Mill_Childhood_violence_ex_changes_April_2012.pdf

[6] https://global.canon/en/technology/s_labo/light/001/11.html

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law#In_reality

[8] https://gcaptain.com/norway-releases-preliminary-report-on-frigate-collision/

A former Sergeant of Operations and Intelligence for Special Forces, Ronald Thomas West is a retired investigator (living in exile) whose work focus had been anti-corruption. Ronald is published in International Law as a layman (The Mueller-Wilson Report, co-authored with Dr Mark D Cole) and has been adjunct professor of American Constitutional Law at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (for English credit, summer semester 2008.) Ronald’s formal educational background (no degree) is social psychology. His therapeutic device is satire.

Contact: penucquemspeaks@googlemail.com

Tags anthropology, Defense Intelligence Agency, Gateway Experience, hemi-sync, Stargate Project

Categories CIA, counter intelligence, male hierarchy, matriarchy, Plains Culture, psychology, religion, science, shamanism, transcendent warfare

Reality Check

January 30, 2019 //

In our rapidly disintegrating world, it seems apropos to touch on the work of theoretical physicist David Bohm and the implications of a gross misapprehension of reality pointed to apocalyptic collapse (or worse.) If Bohm is correct in his ‘implicate order’ of things, we don’t have long to reverse and straighten out the damage of Cartesian-Platonic philosophy underwriting modern science and our social paradigm. The revised-expanded essay “Reality Check” (with references)

Apocalyptic essay on cross-cultural observations

I know most of my readers are into the ‘intelligence’ stuff, nonetheless I lose some readers and gain others depending on the political moment. When the sublime criminal Obama left office and I turned my guns on the morons surrounding Trump, there was (to some extent) a change in my audience’s political demographic. My satire has no doubt also ‘expelled’ certain people who otherwise might have continued reading at this site. None of the preceding has ever effected the material I produce, I call things as I see it in the geopolitical moment and poke at our would be ‘leaders’ with a sharp stick of ridicule if only because the court jester tradition is in danger of dying in the era of political correctness. My native sense of responsibility rebels at the thought.

For those who had been unaware of a certain biographical fact in this reporter’s shaping and evolution, it just so happens my mentality’s most stringent beliefs are derived from many years immersion in a pocket or remnant of Native American language community where pre-Columbian thought was still within reach. These ideas are as different to Western thought as the Earth is to Mars. More importantly is, when fluency in this sort of thinking is attained, one is never tempted to return to Western.

It’s not easy to translate this sort of thinking to Western language, in fact outside of one Native teacher (of mine, personal ), [1] I grade most (nearly all) attempts I have seen to translate high concept a rank fail. Maybe I will fail too, but here goes with trying to bring a greater perception across.

“Hopi and other Native Brothers [nations] were warned no man should bring anything down to Earth from the moon. It would imbalance natural and universal laws and create more severe earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, hail storms, season changes and famines. This is now happening. Most men have strayed from their life plan shown to them by Massau’u [a native concept of messiah, different to Western.] These signs tell us we are nearing the end of our life patterns. We are coming to the time of the Purifiers, the high kachinas commissioned by the Great Spirit to stop man’s destruction of self and nature” -Thomas Banyaca [2]

First, these sort of ideas don’t literally translate if one considers in Native American language generally, and Blackfoot language more specifically (example given), mostly it is the verbs carry the important information (do the heavy lifting), whereas nouns are few(er) and less important, in circumstance of perception which is largely based on, and conversation reflects, process. As example, with the process of heat, the important information is the degree of intensity, or one could say the state of its activity across a spectrum, while the vessels containing it, for instance the nouns kettle or stove, would be a detail and in most instance altogether unnecessary to the sentence structure (a case of the obvious.)

Interestingly, these languages (as opposed to Western) do not appear to struggle much with some of the more paradoxical questions raised by quantum mechanics, particularly noting the work of theoretical physicist David Bohm attempting to replicate a language of process based on his awareness of the Hopi (and other languages.)

“We’re not used to thinking about process. We communicate with an object-based language. David [Bohm] invented a thing called “rheomode“–language in which we speak to each other in a flowing mode. There are some ancient languages which do this–Hopi Indian and some others. In his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order, you’ll find a chapter on language, in which he discusses this rheomode. It didn’t work, because we were still thinking of objects” -theoretical physicist Basil Hiley [3]

From the Native side, it was an action anthropologist, Dr Karl Schlesier, in his ‘The Wolves of Heaven’ based on many years fieldwork, drew the conclusion Cheyenne Shamanism not only confirmed Bohm’s theory, but surpassed his elementary understanding of the implicate order. [4] [5]

Despite that relatively few grasp this, there must be a reason behind the convergence, it can’t just be some freak occurrence. With the preceding in mind, I’ll attempt to expand on the Hopi Thomas Banyaca’s words.

What the ancients (as proposed by Banyaca) were referring to is very likely string theory [6], a concept in its’ infancy in the Western understanding. The indigenous understanding is everything is interconnected by a vibrational web with phenomenal properties that can be established via a careful, focused, long-time intensive training in observation.

In this view, when you bring a moon rock back to earth, it recalls not an isolated history of the Moon created by an early, large asteroid impact with Earth (Western science view) but awakens (shakes awake or invigorates a previously sleeping or dormant, not dead) PROCESS. In short, this act is like sending a message inviting a large asteroid impact (or similar effect) because all is inter-connected process without static element but multiple living elements (cells) of a greater organism (cosmos) in various states of activity (process), whether asleep, awake or somewhere between (‘between’ misconstrued as the many ‘gender’ of the native languages as interpreted by Westerners.)

The ‘earth shaking’ is the web awakening awareness (not merely ‘memory’ which is but one element) of a time of great flux and it is that consciousness-awareness is in state of re-initiating process. What had been a long time calmed down or still ‘string’ has been ‘vibrated’ into action similar to web delivering information alerting or awakening a spider but this is alert of waking process coordinated in multiple phenomena.

These interconnected process(es) can be interpreted as varying states of graduating androgyny, over a spectrum of acceleration-de-acceleration in relation to time, with male representing acceleration and female de-acceleration (of time.) The male principle (common sense-action) when over-emphasized (or separated, cold rational) becomes destructive, whereas the female principle (serene-determined) over-emphasized (or separated) will morph into chaos. Either and/or both in extreme state of agitation point to process that will ultimately result in decay. This violence leading to decay will not only reflect in a form of A to B sequence but also can be observed as simultaneous phenomena even while observable in linear form where male initiation works out as destruction = chaos = decay, and female initiation reflects as chaos = destruction = decay, with either followed by birth that is not necessarily ‘rebirth.’

Whenever one manifests in exaggerated form, awakened process will seek correction as a matter of immutable law, whether expressed on the small or grand scale of events. In the case of a grand scale destruction-chaos event, what follows decay will be a new expression, or a birth which is not a rebirth, but imperatively a new birth (new form.)

That said, an extraordinary case of acceleration-de-acceleration pulling in opposite direction risks tearing the fabric of time (ripping apart the web.)

The parallel universe(s) ‘inferred’ by quantum mechanics (Western science almost certainly won’t survive to understand due to causing implosion) could be seen in the light of the preceding with the following metaphor:

Presume for just a moment our brains (we each have a pair) are self-expressed models of parallel universe in mirror image (facing each other.) Each of these universe has a character, principle and laws expressed as female and male, respectively. To sustain in orderly fashion there must be kept a close balance, and so we must keep a center of consciousness (self-aware state of equilibrium) to accomplish this, and further, suppose we are ‘the gods’ (per Jesus ‘don’t you know you are gods’) charged with keeping the balance in good order. As ‘custodians’ of our small cosmos (Earth), whether in the individual, the community, the nation or our collective cosmos (because we are possessed of creative consciousness that can and does initiate process via ‘the web’), it is critically imperative to locate aware-action in, and restrict these actions to, a space where balance is maintained and that requires a rigorous self-discipline and self-restraint where disturbance is kept in a minimal state.

Destruction and renewal are easily consequence of disturbance of ‘the web’ that were unnecessary, and a fact brought on by simply not paying attention can initiate these things, on the small or grand scale. The metaphor of the “Purifiers“ or “high kachinas” speaks to the grand scale.

This goes to the crux of theoretical physicist d’Espagnat’s observation concerning consciousness and the fact human awareness cannot be ‘disconnected’ from the awareness of ‘objects’, despite this ‘disconnect’ has become the innate cultural belief of Platonic thinking (modern psychology.)

Here we arrive at:

A: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” -Alfred North Whitehead [7]

B: ”The [Plato’s] doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment”   -Bernard d’Espagnat [8]

C: nouns or millennia destructive process ‘objectifying’ language, projecting individual identity onto pieces of one’s surroundings, or dis-integrating environment; a result of the isolated projection of self or (ego) individuation by Western humanity exclusive of integration to a sentient, aware surrounding, where all environment had been/should be, social. [RTW]

The result of this ‘separation’ (delusion of independence) is, Western science blind to the obvious staring them in the face. In the absence of experiencing clear observations, they are constrained to ‘inferring’ aspects (what they cannot see) concerning the nature of reality, piecemeal, as opposed to integrated, native view. Because they are nevertheless part and parcel of what they must sense but cannot see, understand or experience holistically, the Western mentality is condemned to ‘experiment’ in a state of thirst ‘to know’ that can never be quenched. This is a radical state of disturbance (blowing things up, smashing things apart) with consequence that cannot be shunted aside but must be accommodated, even to collapse and perhaps humanity gone out of existence. Some (ancients in the native traditions) say ‘there are always a few’ (survive), others (ancients in the native traditions) say ‘there is no promise’ (of survival.)

As a matter of fact, we have been here before. The oral histories point to a range of events that should be consistent with man abusing his powers in the past. The Hopi record multiple ‘renewal’ events, the Navajo have their stories and others, inclusive of the Plains Ojibwa & Blackfeet (my primary understanding.) These stories should be consistent with certain evidence ‘high’ civilization had been erased or otherwise brought up short and curtailed in their behaviors in other areas of the world, for instance records laid down in Hindu civilization:

“Vishnu incarnated as the Brahman Parashurama in this era because there were too many warlike Kshatriyas plaguing the Earth, and he therefore had to wipe out most of the world’s warriors. However, some of the Kshatriyas survived or more were created, and their population grew again” [9]

Finally, whether you believe Man went to the Moon, or when he will arrive, is unimportant; the Hopi warning is relevant in other (and many) respects.

As I write this, an American space vehicle is orbiting an asteroid to study & determine whether (and if so, when) that particularly large space rock will collide with our planet. There is integrated to this ‘mission’ the intent to return a sample of that very asteroid to Earth, which in native view would be like giving that particular space body a scent to follow with purpose.

Relevant to this, the dinosaur extinction impact site, or Chicxulub crater, has been drilled several times over these past decades, most recently in 2016. [10] As well, archaeology is recalling (literally) past civilizational collapse inclusive of epidemics & the attending violence or social upheaval.

In the current era, the mind as shaped by Plato fences out self-sight, sense of place and understanding of the cosmos. What the Native side has failed to understand is, the modern mentality (taken collectively) is actually incapable of possessing the psychological tools necessary to grasp reality and the implications of the things they do. What the Native side DOES understand is, this erasure could be big, very big, along the lines of the dinosaurs erasure occurring 66 million years ago:

If this seems far-fetched, consider Western science is derived from a culture where two billion+ people ostensibly believe in “Virgin Birth.” In the case of Western ‘scientific atheism’, it is as simple as a matter of a delusional culture’s mentality swapping one misapprehension for another.

Updated 6 February 2019

Notes:

[1] Floyd ‘Tinyman’ HeavyRunner, Priest of Okan, Keeper of the Law of the Black Stone & Oral Historian (member of the Amskapi Pikuni or Montana branch of the Blackfeet Indians), my close acquaintance of over 30 years.

[2] http://banyacya.indigenousnative.org/un76.html

[3] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/critical-opalescence/the-wholeness-of-quantum-reality-an-interview-with-physicist-basil-hiley/

[4] https://www.bookdepository.com/Wolves-Heaven-Prof-Karl-H-Schlesier/9781492334217

[5] Karl Schlesier was my personal acquaintance when I’d resided outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the early to mid 2000s. Over our extended conversation it was very clear he had a fluid grasp of Native American thought and agile understanding of their world view & perception of reality. His descriptions of Cheyenne phenomenal laws were outstanding and closely matched those of the Amskapi Pikuni (Montana Blackfeet.)

[6] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16950-string-theory-a-beginners-guide/

[7] https://classroom.synonym.com/did-plato-contribute-philosophy-21831.html

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_d%27Espagnat

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treta_Yuga#Parashurama

[10] http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/updated-drilling-dinosaur-killing-impact-crater-explains-buried-circular-hills

Tags cosmos, reality

Categories archetype, culture, Morons, Plains Culture, psychology, science, survival, transcendent warfare, Uncategorized

Lost Shadow

April 6, 2018 //

^ the author’s pre-exile summer life

My essay ‘Modern Indian Society‘ from the book ‘Penucquem Speaks’ (published 2006) has received considerable attention over recent months; and judging by the associated search terms, this has to do with the indigenous concept of shadow or, more precisely, ‘lost shadow.’ Consequently, I decided to expand on the concept that had been only briefly mentioned in the book. This is the result.

The ancient native concept translated as ‘shadow’ is the ‘dynamic’ portal from which you are observed by the world of ‘spirit’ (nature), perhaps best represented in English with this definition…

dynamic |dīˈnamik|
adjective
1 Linguistics (of a verb) expressing a process

…in a case where self-recognition is not ego-based but environmentally substantiated within a context of nature; where all surroundings are social. How you could experience this from this side (in non-egoic sense as part of process), example given, where there is a wild plum tree in full blossom alive with honey bees; you don’t see or differentiate the bees or parts of the tree (blossoms) separately but rather first instinct understands the tree as alive with the sound of the bees, all as integrated single organism. This is information delivered via the ‘portal.’

You also instinctively know this is a shifting phenomenon of process that is constantly in motion and your’s is in a place of moving process. In other words, your shadow is a shifting or mutating awareness attending oneself or one’s presence, constantly feeding one information. How you would know you are seen from the ‘other side’ (in same non-egoic sense or as integrated to process), example given, let’s say you are hunting and as a hunter you understand it is what will be offered to you is what you are allowed to take; also it is spring and you shouldn’t take the doe carrying a young one. The Mule Deer herd senses your presence and begins to move away but a large doe stands still and offers herself. You take her because you understand she has offered herself; and discover she is barren. This is knowing both; how to read and how to write. It is a form of literacy, sans pen & paper. The doe knew the herd’s best outcome was giving herself up, you read that, and taking her, you wrote the best outcome for all concerned; your people are fed and the mule deer community kept it’s future in a higher state than if you’d taken any of the other deer.

Or, as I had previously written:

Let’s say because you are of the old indigenous mental construction and you know *how* to pray *through* the trees, while traveling, you come to a Y in the road. To now, you only know there is a way through the forest you are traversing, but you have no map and no detailed instruction. Because you know *how* to pray *through* the trees, the environment (which is sentient, intelligent, and social) recognizes, respects, and even *anticipates* your thought when you send it out – “which way” – and a large bird of prey drops out of a tree and flies down right fork in the road, your questions are responsibly answered along this and other lines, with 100% accuracy, throughout the trip … because this indigenous mentality can repeat this *read* of the environment with fluency and confidence, whether it is a bird calls in the precise moment, or noticing a feature resembling a face in a rock outcropping (psychosis to the Platonic mentality), even a puff of breeze moving leaves on an otherwise still day and more.

How is it this ‘portal’ of understanding translates as your shadow?

This interactive understanding is an awareness that moves with you, coordinated with your thought process in *receptive* mode, except in case where you’ve been knocked out of alignment with your ‘portal’, in which case it can be said you’ve ‘lost your shadow’, a serious and even life threatening circumstance; with your loss of ability to ‘read’ surrounding environment. This ‘portal’ that follows (or precedes or surrounds) oneself is a critical component of essence or being in context of survival.

If you cannot ‘read’, you cannot take what is offered, as you cannot take what you cannot see and you’ve become out-of-sync. As well, because your surrounding environment is sentient and aware, you may easily become the environment’s ‘offering’ for lack of this ability to read; this loss of yourself is recognized by the greater social awareness (your natural surroundings.) In this case, you could easily become the surprised kill. This last is akin to the wolf identifying and taking the weak of the herd. They ‘know’ because they have ‘shadow’ or portal of understanding as well. When the environment, which is sentient, aware and social, knows you are out-of-sync, it’s only a matter of time and you will be taken.

How this system of awareness came to be related to early ‘frontier’ photography and the concept of ‘shadow stealing’ is actually quite simple; this was era entire native nations had been knocked out of alignment with their natural social environment (interactive nature.) With the Whites came a severe damage to this world of perception, with severe disease related losses, ecological damage and the disappearing of wildlife, together with attending psychological impact, almost nothing worked as it had.

The static ‘capture’ of image (photography) easily fit the concept of lost shadow, as it must have looked as one would imagine nature were to perceive the self, where previous to western culture, one might only behold in reflective water. However reflection in the water did not threaten; because it did not seize and keep the image. In a world without concept of coincidence, it could not be construed as anything other than, with the Whites’ arrival, and the near simultaneous loss of the interactive ‘literacy’ of living integrated to nature, portrait photography came to represent the ultimate theft of this unique awareness.

^ The author’s ‘shadow’ classroom

30+ years life in Indian country

Contact: penucquemspeaks@googlemail.com

“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with the good” -Mahatma Ghandi

All original work and art © copyright by Ronald Thomas West; for profit and mass paper media redistribution prohibited

Tags Indian, indigenous, lost shadow, lost your shadow, naaks, Native American, shadow

Categories culture, matriarchy, Plains Culture, psychology, survival, Uncategorized

The Archives

March 19, 2016 //

As I bail out of the game, here is the gift of all (or nearly all) of the ronaldthomaswest.com articles in a single page of links; beginning with stories of travels through India, then, my personal life adventures largely centered in Native America, if only because I believe this is my most under-appreciated work and deserves greater exposure. Following these accounts are things I personally find interesting, next are external links to books authored by myself and then my satire. Lastly, scroll down to find that work I most detest, the work which had inspired the satire (a sort of therapy) – to discover the real evils of geopolitics.

My Madcap Adventure (tales of a journey to India)

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 1 From Indian country to India

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 2 New Delhi, round one

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 3 On character

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 4 Into the Himalayan foothills

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 5 Sanarth & the Buddha

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 6 Varanasi part one

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 7 Varanasi part two

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 8 Varanasi part three

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 9 Katmandu

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 10 Trisuli River

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 11 Chitwan National Park

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 12 Katmandu reprise

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 13 Back to Hotel Imperial

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 14 The riots begin

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 15 To the Taj Palace Hotel

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 16 Out of Delhi!

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 17 Cairo-London-New York

My Madcap Adventure, Episode 18 Aftermath

My Madcap Adventure, Epilogue (Notes) corrections/disclaimers

Life in Indian Country:

Life in Blackfoot Country Learning to go hungry

Keeping a Pipe On forgotten knowledge

Pipe Maker A story with a moral

The Novice A story with a moral

The Stick Game Native quantum mechanics (the witches)

The Legend of the Blackfoot Titan Mik-api

Happy the Indian Guide Indian stereotypes

Raven and Thunder Blackfoot Law of Matriarchy

Strawberry Medicine Men and a Stellar Jay

Napi in the New Age A ‘red apple’ story (satire)

Essay on Native American Humor Why I’m not politically correct

Junípero Serra On house breaking dogs (Catholic style)

The DIA and Shamanism Failed exploitation of indigenous knowledge

Native Americans and Race Race is BS to authentic Indians

Michele Bachmann & Wild Indians Satire

Apple Indians & Anthropology Anthropology as a faith-based initiative

Modern Indian Society A short history of cultural transition

Losers A Native perspective of Plato & western science

The Legacy of Russell Means ‘think twice’

New Age Homicide for $MONEY$ ‘think thrice’

Just stuff:

Nixtamal

Condensed for the Absolutely & Truly Dense

Thomas Paine

French Peacekeepers

Raphael’s Paradox

Brownie, a Weimaraner A folk story

Original Sin is a Hate Crime Abuse of women & nature

The Gospel According to Ronald On the historical Jesus

To Forgive is a Crime To excuse the inexcusable

Ron’s Conspiracy Theory Cosmology is the conspiracy

You’ve Got Apes! European cultural mentality

A Spy in the House of the Unloved Refuting Anias Nin

A Coward Called Machismo Observations on Machismo

How I rose from the dead (40 years after)

The More Important Blessing Quotes

Mr Chan A true story of real charity

Bruno the Bear Animal stereotypes

Recreating a Hot Spring in Your Bathtub A memory of Yellowstone

My Books (external links)

Penucquem Speaks 30 years life with Blackfeet Indians

Napi Mephisto on cross-cultural encounters

Queer Chicken Dinner refuting Jack Kerouac

Cosmos & Consciousness on reality

The Satires

March of the Tickle Dicks pictorial

The Logic Behind The American Vote thumbnail satire

Moot Court The Donald vs Ted Cruz

Whereas the Enemy of Your Friend is Your Favorite F**K

Urolagnetics On Scientology

Junípero Serra On house breaking dogs (Catholic style)

MERGE On Chomsky’s theory

People Who Behave As Stupid As They Look Uh-huh

Who Punked the Cardinal? On Vatican Fashion

Opus Dei creavit monitor lacertae Charlie Hebdo & satire

Alfreda Bikowski & the Definition of Stupid Only at the CIA

Obama’s Speech at Queensland Parody

Liberals On multiculturalism

Obama’s Speech to Skull & Bones A parody of his UN address

Teleprompter Forget it, you don’t want to go there

Thuck Norris Rated ‘S’ for SICK (parental advisory)

Democracy Now! State secrets & the war in Liberacestan

Michele Bachmann & Wild Indians Kerouac in drag

Dick Cheney’s Rottweiler Dog butt-sniffing rituals

Maison de l’Histoire de France Fellatio, Sarkozy & French history

The Great Phuc Uuus Massacre Propaganda trained CIA lizards

Bozo’s Handcock U Speech George Bush & Tony Blair in love

My Life as a Joke Personal Ad (women only please)

The Pachuco Stare Decisis SCOTUS = SCROTUM

The Moron Bernard-Henry Lévy He truly is a moron

How Jesus Gets Kicked Out Of Heaven Naughty George Carlin

NOT My Last Tango in Paris The NSA & cyanide suppositories

Demons Anonymous Addiction to destructive fantasies

Saint Chester Prince of the Church & patron saint of boys

A Conversation With Jon Stewart Barack Obama is a White man!

Scooby Doo is Lyndon LaDouche ‘Rut a retard’

Saki & Barf: killer women of the State Department Just rude

Salinas vs Texas U.S. Supreme Court self inflicted lawyer joke

Life’s Little Surprises A devil teaches law

Happy the Indian Guide On stereotypes

Napi in the New Age A ‘red apple’ Indian story

Mother’s Day and Male Dopes Moms & cannabis

Breakfast at a Pizzaria The German ‘I hate my life’ philosophy

Our Gang rascals too big for their breeches

World Cup Scribbles Rabies & dog muzzles

English Football International competition

Sardonism Adults Playing Cowboys and Indians

The Gospel According to Ronald On the historical Jesus

The Islamic State for Dummies The K.I.S.S. principle

NATO’s Three Chihuahuas Small dog syndrome

Essay On Native American Humor ‘Napi Eats His Butt’ (Best satire)

Perverts of Western Philosophy Locke to de Sade (and more)

A Cheesey Detective Story (the short lived series)

Episode 1

Episode 2

Guest Satire:

Raghead Political satire by Bill Purkayastha

Admiral John Kirby Comedy straight out of the Pentagon

About Clowns DJ Rankin

The NAZI Meme

Hillary Clinton in Four Short Paragraphs

Intelligence Agencies & Wikipedia

The CIA And Nonviolent Resistance

God’s Chosen is a Dumb Idea

The Secret Team is The Family

Profits of War

Fear of Minor Debris

The Alpha Chronology

The CIA and a Liar’s Fastrack

Reorganizing Murder Incorporated

Square Pegs in Round Holes:

“We Tortured Some Folks”

Fear of Minor Debris

Intelligence Agencies & Wikipedia

Laura Poitras’ Myopia

Death of a MOSSAD Agent

On Ukraine:

Denial

Stratfor Chief

Winning Ugly

Reuters & A Fixed Verdict

Kiev’s Nazis

Black Boxes, Dark Arts & Geopolitics

If Russia Were To Back Down on MH 17 ?

Elliot Higgins on MH 17

Poison Fruit Encore 1

Obama’s Ukraine

The New Great Game

USAID & Chevron

Victoria Nuland’s Wedding

Germany’s Martyrs of the Maidan

John Kerry’s neo-nazi snipers

The CIA and a Liar’s Fastrack

Dominionism’s Fingers in Kiev

The Washington Post & Double Think

The Disinformation Nation

The Ascension of The Morons

Poison Fruit Encore 2

People Who Behave As Stupid As They Look

Admiral John Kirby

Mutti, Piggies and the Minsk Peace Accord

The Intercept Takes A Dive

The Intercept Takes A Dive Episode 2

Related stuff:

What Do Putin’s Adviser’s Know? You can listen right here

Sergei Lavrov’s UN Speech Russia’s Foreign Minister on 27 Sept 2014

Putin’s Speech of 24 October 2014 Sane by comparison with NATO

Tactical Nuclear Weapons for Dummies Pentagon fantasies

Arab Spring:

The Islamic State for Dummies

NATO, God & Military Mafia

Western Democracies, Salafist Militia & Syria

Litmus Test

Lies by Omission

Friday the 13th in Paris

The Real Intelligence on Our Leaders

Whereas the Enemy of Your Friend is Your Favorite F**K

Letter to Doctors Without Borders

NATO’s Most Censored Story

Other stuff:

Parting Shot On media

Throwing Stones From Glass Houses Social-political commentary

Vice and MI6

Seymour Hersh & Mythology

Machine Pistol

Fletcher Prouty and the Secret Team (Today)

Defense One Zero Hedge Drinks The Kool Aid

Médecins Sans Frontiéres

USAID in Central Africa

Reuters & A Fixed Verdict

Truth Jockeys

Why NSA Wants Your Metadata

Farewell to the Black White-Man

Boris Nemtsov

Chevron & USAID

Alfreda Bikowski & the Definition of Stupid

Paranoia of Dianne Feinstein

In the Shoes of an Insurgent

Square Pegs in Round Holes

Metadata & Panorama

Reorganizing Murder Incorporated

Votes and Vanishing Acts

Poison Fruit

The Left’s Anti-Federalist Urban Legend

CIA vs JFK

The Navy Yard Reporting Smells Wrong

MOSSAD and Jews for Jesus

“We Tortured Some Folks”

Hillary Clinton in Four Short Paragraphs

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Mojahedin-e-Khalq

Military Sock Puppets, NSA Trolls & CIA Shills

CIA & The Media

WikiLeaks & Spy Agencies

Noteworthy Information Operations

More stuff:

Throwing Stones From Glass Houses

Why the FBI Will Never Investigate the Biggest Criminals

CIA and Public Relations

How To Make Powerful Enemies In Four Short Paragraphs

People Too Stupid to Understand They’re Stupid

Holocaust & Narrative Perversion

See’s Sampler

Stupid is as Stupid Does

NATO’s Three Chihuahuas

Evil Cynics, Stooges & Dupes

Empire & Blow-back

Erik Prince & Pedophile Priests

The NSA’s Egregious Liar

Robert Seldon Lady, CIA Slime-Bag

Cheap Tricks for Jesus

The Economics of Moonshine Whiskey

Celebrating the Anti-Christ

Enlightenment: The Automated Death Machine

Napi Mephisto

Snowden & Snooping

Uncle Sam, Dominionist Puppet

Of Nukes, Courage and Cowards

Outline of a Snowden Legal Defense

Color of Law, Star Chamber, FISA & PRISM

The Greatest Criminal Endeavor

Our Vital National Interests

How to Make Powerful Enemies in Three Short Paragraphs

How to Make Powerful Enemies In a Few Paragraphs

If The Left Are Sheep, The Right Are Fish

The (No) ‘Establishment’ Clause

North Carolina’s 2nd Secession From the Union

Post Modern Teutonic Vision

The USA vs The Teutons

A little more about books:

GLADIO

Profits of War

Invective

David Ignatius’ Body of Lies

John Le Carre’s A Delicate Truth

Robert Littell’s The Company

No Snowflake in an Avalanche

Dirty Wars

Should I be a Spy Novelist?

To The Far Right Christian Hater

A Report to an Academy

My blog had begun attracting readers in mid 2014, when I’d been giving it real attention for several months. This upcoming week of 21 March 2016, coinciding with withdrawing from giving ronaldthomaswest.com sustained attention, it will pass the 100,000 hits mark (it stands at 99,685 as I write this.)

Hardly some mega-phenomena but not bad either. Now, it’s just another internet archive –

Tags archives, ronaldthomaswest.com

Categories AIPAC, archetype, assassinations, Author, CIA, comedy, corruption, counter intelligence, crime, culture, Espionage, false flag, Folk Stories, information operations, intelligence, international law, Israel, Law, male hierarchy, matriarchy, Morons, MOSSAD, Mother's Day, narcotics trafficking, parapsychology, personals, philosophy, Plains Culture, Poems, politics, propaganda, psychology, religion, Saints, satire, science, SCOTUS, shamanism, social responsibility, survival, transcendent warfare, Travel, treason, Uncategorized, war crimes

Revised, Expanded Cosmos & Consciousness

October 14, 2015 //

For those looking for geopolitical intrigue, sorry but I must confess I’m presently burnt out concerning the subject. Consequently, I’ve been giving attention to my 30+ years learning with some of the last masters of Northern Plains culture. The most recent endeavor is a revised/expanded ‘Cosmos & Consciousness’ you may download at at this link . Alternatively, for a free pdf copy (you’re free to share with anyone) send a request to: pencuquemspeaks@googlemail.com

Tags Blackfeet, Blackfoot, consciousness, cosmos, intelligence, Native American

Categories culture, matriarchy, philosophy, Plains Culture, shamanism

Cosmos & Consciousness

September 23, 2015 //

Anyone wishing to receive a free pdf file of this work (you are free to share with anyone) may send a request to: penucquemspeaks@googlemail.com

Introduction

This primer was originally constructed for the purpose of explaining to the indigenous Americans how far removed from reality they’d become; on account of a mandatory Western education and the direct imposition of Platonic-Cartesian philosophy having shaped their mentality in this modern day.

But now, it occurs to me it might be even more useful to pop the fantasy reality bubble of those people expecting they can adapt Native American spiritual practices to their Western lifestyle and somehow expect this is valid. Even if you have a bonafide Native American elder teaching you, chances are 99.999% you will simply have deceived yourself and it is how your mentality had been culturally shaped prior to encountering Native American ways, determines this.

Then, there is the problem of MOST Native Americans, even those (or especially those) who believe they can teach you, are dead wrong. If they are Western educated, they have a useless intellectual grasp of their own ways and if they are NOT Western educated, they will have no real grasp of how your mentality had been shaped in such a way as to make the bridge of understanding impossible.

Now, with that said, there is an ancient Native American rule of paradox allows for the possibility there are Western women will be able to fathom what Western men cannot; the ancient principles of matriarchy which, integrated to nature as a lived philosophy, allow for an evolutionary understanding of our existence.

And as for the Western males (includes most Native American males in this modern day) wishing to grasp these principles as a valid, lived, philosophical system, you’re just out of luck unless you can accept there are areas of knowledge will be denied to you and that is immutable law. The key here is MATRIARCHY and that word is supposed to denote something specific: A women’s rule of law based in female intelligence form with elements of the male intelligence (female intelligence based, psychological androgyny.)

Male hierarchy has no place in this system and that fact excludes Judeo-Christian monotheism. It also excludes Plato and everything based in ‘objectivity.’ No matter were you practicing anything else, the very fact you’d been shaped (as a man or in the case of some women ‘into’ a man) by the civilization based in male hierarchy determines; even if you can wrap your head around what follows with ‘intellectual grasp’ .. as a man you will never be a real part of it except as the women’s servant.

In the pages that follow, first a bit of history in cultural context and then, the principle lessons –

Tobacco

“The ones who complain and talk the most about giving away Medicine Secrets, are always those who know the least” -Frank Fools Crow, Lakota

I’m glad Frank stated this, because I am going to give away some ‘medicine secrets’ in this essay of what is intended to become a series (in which I will be giving away more so-called ‘medicine secrets’)

First off, there were no ‘secrets’, only a reluctance to share knowledge with people who live stupidly. In today’s world, where the majority of MANKIND is living stupidly, including many so-called ‘traditional Indians’, the native principle of paradox comes into play. That is to say, when an old habit has come to be counter-productive, the old habit must be turned on its head.

The old native world was never ‘traditional’ in present day context or in the way people seem to think this definition applies, because the native reality was fluid, dynamic, evolving, the dream changes. New dreams revealed themselves and life adjusted accordingly. Within this context, there were some immutable rules, including exceptions to immutable rules! The rules of ‘tobacco’ were not an exception except in the case of a law-breaker chief, an accepted (but rare) phenomena. So, turning this all on its head (again) I will point out the rules of tobacco should be kept in the old way, mostly without exception. And these rules are not what many people might think.

The ‘Sacred’ is Sensual

So, tobacco goes into a pipe, correct? Well, not in every case. But in the same moment, yes, it all does, or should, sooner or later. Am I speaking in metaphor? Maybe, it all depends on how far ‘tobacco’ has taken you in understanding or negotiating reality, which is multi-layered, multi-faceted.

300 years Jesuit poisoning of Native American mentality might jolt some of you (Indians particularly) when I point out the stone appendage jutting out from beneath the bowl of the MAN pipe is your boner (that’s right, a man’s erection.) A woman’s pipe does not ‘sport’ this. So right off, sex is integral to the ‘sacred’, which has absolutely nothing to do with those modern cretans or so-called Medicine Men or Holy Men who use the power of their position to gratify themselves sexually, by preying on their female students. In fact, ‘traditionally speaking’ men did not have female students until a woman had reached menopause, and then only if a woman wished to exercise her ABSOLUTE right to enter into the male knowledge. Men did not, DID NOT, on the other hand, have any ‘right’ to enter into the women’s knowledge but only arrived there by invitation of the elder women and this invitation only extended to man reaching the women’s knowledge in a limited way and was highly restricted. Got that? The point is, this was matriarchy (which is different to matrilineal, don’t confuse these two.) The main point of these initial paragraphs are to point out the rules of tobacco originated with the women, and the man’s pipe (ancient tribal law for men) originated with women. A woman might exercise her right to smoke a man’s pipe but a man had no right to smoke a woman’s pipe. A woman smoking a man’s pipe is not recommended in these modern times because most women would not know (have the cultural teaching) how to properly do this (something where even the men often come up short, regarding the present times.)

Recalling an old Indian healer stating “the only worthless person is someone who cannot appreciate a good joke”, I’ll close these initial thoughts with a real life joke I pulled on a ceremonial leader; he is gay, no big deal, celibate gays were among our tribes most effective shamans, historically. This guy was sitting outside his sweat lodge, cleaning his man’s pipe. When he began to suck on the opening where the stem goes, to clear it, I told him, “No, the other end” and he snorted his laugh through his nose.

If you are a so-called ‘traditional’ Indian and you have a problem with these preceding paragraphs, well, indeed you do have a problem, it is called a Christian cultural mentality, pointing to the Jesuit poisoning of your cultural understanding.

The Rules of Tobacco

The ancient native world was separated into what I will call the ‘heavy’ (when the women sent their men to learn, to be healed, to war, the hunt, to council and to perform ceremony) and the ‘serene’ (which is supposed to be everything else.) Tobacco is central to the ‘heavy.’

Modern people seem to think they can own a native person of knowledge (get what they want) by giving tobacco when in fact in the old way, the person you give tobacco to, actually owns you. Lets’ do a hypothetical circumstance with healing, learning or ceremony employing the old rules, as I have both witnessed or participated in, many times, here is example of seeking a healer:

In the old way, when approaching a person of knowledge/healer (man or woman, if a woman is the healer you employ a woman’s pipe you will not smoke with her if you are a man, this is set in stone, if a woman recruiting a male, the reverse is generally but not always true), you bring certain gifts, typically ‘smudge’, a blanket, prints (uncut cloth) of specified color(s) and you have to ‘catch’ them. If you can catch them (find them, if they know you are coming, it is perfectly permissible to hide from you), they will sit and you must kneel and plead your case. To initiate the relationship of healing, ceremony or learning, et cetera, the prints are to acknowledge ‘spirit’ and the blanket is about ceremonial respect for the earth, or ‘sitting on the ground.’ This must be acknowledged with gifts. The tobacco itself is communion and the ‘smudge’ (typically sweetgrass, proper cedar or a special pine) is communicating through spirit.

If the healer accepts (they are not required to) the pipe you have pointed at them, wedged into the blanket and prints, they OWN YOUR LIFE. You have already failed in your own knowledge to solve the problem by this time and this is why you seek out the healer. The healer will perhaps give physical remedies (especially if a medicine woman, less typically a man), and look at your life, make some changes and return it to you with a new rule or set of rules (the anthropologists might call these ‘taboos’ but they really don’t have a clue.) And you MUST live this, to honor what you have set out to do. This same ceremonial surrender is required to initiate finding a teacher, a trained ceremonial sponsor or person (for the duration of the ceremony beginning with the ‘acceptance’) and much more.

What you see today, simply handing tobacco to someone, to get what you want, is patent bs. How this came about is likely mixing up the ‘giving tobacco’ ceremony (utilizing the pipe) with the sincere native ‘thank you’ gift of tobacco to someone you felt grateful to for some reason.

All that said, if you had example of someone come in looking for an elder, perhaps to ask advice, you might see something like this: an old woman in a room apart, talking one on one, alone except for the one other person. A new arrival might ask ‘are they smoking’ which is an inquiry into whether they are in deep discussion or ‘council.’ It is a figure of speech alluding to more formal proceeding on a larger scale of ceremony. If the answer is ‘yes’, they will not invade. Maybe that person only brought tobacco. This would be like ‘thanks in advance’ and is only permissible within extended family or intimate associations with close relationship of longstanding and does not apply to interaction as pertains to formal learning, ceremony and healing. And there is so much more… things are not as they were and ‘traditional’ in the modern day is a complete misapprehension of reality in too many cases to count. If by chance you know how to submit yourself to women and are culturally in contact with some strict old ladies who are willing to kick your butt until you can get it right, count your blessings… because you might become a real Indian in authentic sense of ‘traditional’

War

The sa-ar-si (Sarsi, Sarcee) people don’t like their Blackfoot name. It means something like ‘doesn’t listen’ or ‘stubborn’ in a sense a native grandmother would be irritated with an out of control child. It never bodes well to irritate the women.

There is one clan of ‘Sa-ar-si’ that claims no Blackfoot descent (due to their pure luck of absence from the area during a particular incident) in the history of the tribes the outsiders never hear about because “Us Indians don’t air our dirty laundry in public” as one Blackfoot had put it to me. So these people stereotyped as ‘noble red savages’ are burdened with more typical human frailties despite the romantic view. Maybe certain Indians are not proud of everything that has happened, as in in the case of the Sa-ar-si, and perhaps they just don’t care to share history the outsiders would not understand, in the case of the Blackfoot.

Related to this ‘suppressed’ history and attending underlying behaviors, there is an incident of a grandmother’s discipline of a male Pikuni (southern Blackfeet or Piegan) child that stands out in my memory. Indians allow children to learn from making mistakes, and one of the biggest mistakes you can make, is to piss off the women. This little kid (by his own admission, when relating the story to me as an adult) was a real terror who simply would not listen. After the ‘fourth’ warning from an old lady (his grandmother), she suddenly grabbed this four year old by his ear and pulling him to his toes with iron grip, she shoved her large buckskin stitching needle through his outstretched ear and kept him like that for a long moment while she explained to him the practical function of learning to listen.

Sort of like the Cheyenne women who guarded and refused to allow Custer’s body to be mutilated, but put their buckskin sewing awls through Custer’s ears, so he would ‘learn to listen in the afterworld’ (to his own words, Custer was related to these women by a child he’d had with a woman of the Cheyenne southern branch and had promised he would never make war on his relations, the Cheyenne.)

When the Sa-ar-si people encroached on Blackfoot territory, they not only refused to listen, they were misbehaved. The record of this is sketchy but a few things are known. The Sa-ar-si broke away from their main group in the north because they had no choice in the matter. A small tribe cast adrift in hostile territory which does not belong to them, is invariably a group of miscreant exiles. They had been expelled.

Reinforcing this is, when they necessarily entered into a hostile relationship with the Blackfeet subsequently, the main group in the north did not come to their aid. The Blackfeet finally, after the ‘fourth’ warning, killed every Sa-ar-si male from puberty and up, every one of them (except for an extended family group that happened to be absent.) After, the Sa-ar-si women were given Blackfoot husbands, Blackfoot Sundance (Okan) and were told ‘now you can stay.’

When the one small group of Sa-ar-si who’d been absent showed up and discovered what had happened, they had no choice but to adopt the Blackfoot cosmos, with a decision taken ‘I guess we had better behave, we see what happens to people who don’t listen.’ For whatever reason, this entire event had been engineered at the insistence of (ordered by) the Blackfeet women, the Sa-ar-si must have done something that really made the Blackfeet women angry.

Pointing to the practical aspect of matriarchy, the Sa-ar-si, although now entered into the Blackfoot cosmos via Okan and Blackfoot tipi designs reflecting this, a requirement of residing in Blackfoot territory, they did not adopt Blackfoot language because it is the women educate all the children to the age of puberty, at which time the male children are exiled to male society. Thus, the Sa-ar-si kept their distinct identity but now as a related people and hybrid cultural entity.

Previous to this, there was a near identical reverse circumstance relating to the Blackfeet and Crow. The ‘Small Robes’ were an expatriate Blackfoot speaking band, belonging to the Crow tribe. They had no choice but to adopt the Crow cosmos to occupy Crow territory, excepting language. Because they had been rehabilitated as Crow Indians and because of the indisputable rights of women in matriarchy determining they would keep Blackfeet language, the relationship to the greater Crow tribe in relation to the greater Blackfeet tribe, was one of circumspect enemies with a great deal of respect. They recognized they were related. It was the women of both tribes, determined this relationship. In the present day, if you go to a meeting of the Crow council, it is yet clear who runs the show and it’s not the men. These people had been allowed to keep a more traditional form of government (likely their reward for being ‘army scouts’)

If it was the women who sent the plains nations to war, and it certainly at times was, no Blackfoot man wished to endure the public shaming they would receive from the women if they did not do so, so far as the women would, in extreme case of male reluctance, sometimes threaten to make up their own war parties and the men knew this would be followed through. It was also the women made these men humble themselves in a case of a (senseless) war gone wrong, such as when the Amskapi Pikuni (South Piegan branch of the Blackfeet) became embroiled in a hard hitting war with the Atsina (Gros Ventres, Arapaho speaking former allies.)

This war had begun with a patent male stupidity, some members of the old Mutsaix (previous incarnation of the Crazy Dogs, the old Brave Dogs warrior society) had made fun of an Atsina warrior ritual and this caused a war of male pride. When the Blackfeet women had become utterly exasperated with it, as a war that simply went on and did not wind down, they intervened and the Blackfoot males were forced to adopt the ritual they’d made fun of, as an honorable gesture to bring peace with the Atsina. This is the ritual dance you see to this day, at the Blackfeet Crazy Dogs society events.

The Women Warriors

“Always when there is a woman in the charge, it causes the warriors to vie with one another in displaying their valor” -Rain in the Face, Lakota

Moving Robe was a Lakota woman who was a leader of the initial counter-attack against Custer’s surprise of the Sioux and Cheyenne camps at Little Big Horn.

Consistent with the statement of Rain in the Face, it is clear this was not a unique event but had been repeated throughout Lakota history; because a woman’s leadership in war is long known in the Plains tradition of warfare:

“Moving Robe: One of the best-known battles in the annals of Indian-American warfare is the 1876 Battle of the Greasy Grass in Montana where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was defeated. One of those who lead the counterattack against the cavalry was the woman Tashenamani (Moving Robe)”

Next, note the Crow chief and warrior Fallen Leaf, a person of great recognition, was married to two women and this is not in any sense considered unusual:

“Fallen Leaf: While Fallen Leaf was a Crow warrior, she was actually born to the Gros Ventre nation and was captured by the Crow when she was 12. After she had counted coup four times in the prescribed Crow tradition, she was considered a chief and sat in the council of chiefs. In addition to being a war leader, she was also a good hunter and had two wives”

And we have two Cheyenne woman warriors, absolute peers to any male. The first, Buffalo Calf Robe is accorded recognition for high valor in combat, equal to any man:

“Buffalo Calf Robe: In the 1876 battle of the Rosebud in Montana, American troops under the leadership of General Crook along with their Crow and Shoshone allies fought against the Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux. The Shoshone and Crow shot the horse of Cheyenne Chief Comes in Sight out from under him. As the warriors were closing in to finish him off, Buffalo Calf Robe (aka Calf Trail Woman), the sister of Comes in Sight, rode into the middle of the warriors and saved the life of her brother. This was considered to be one of the greatest acts of valor in the battle”

When I move on to Pita-makan, our famous Blackfoot war chief, there is a special noteworthiness in the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Haired Woman, per the notation of her membership in a closed (to men) women’s society:

“Ehyophsta (Yellow-Haired Woman) was a Cheyenne woman. She was the daughter of Stands-in-the-Timber. She fought in the Battle of Beecher Island in 1868, and also fought the Shoshone that same year, where she counted coup against one enemy and killed another. She fought the Shoshone again in 1869. She was also a member of a secret society composed exclusively of Cheyenne women”

With its many differing superficial details between tribes, original Plains culture (matriarchy) is remarkably consistent nevertheless:

Pita-makan was the last great awau-katsik-saki (Blackfoot woman war chief). Her story as commonly known in the literature is difficult to accept for the fact of male reporting on her history, particularly the reporting of James Willard Shulz. Shulz was a self aggrandizing liar who romanticized his life among a Christianized band of Pikuni (southern Blackfoot.) His reports were from an European male perspective, for articles he sold to eastern publications. Another complication would be any native narrative solely from the man perspective, there were distinct oral histories, the woman’s and the men’s. These histories would not differ so much in metadata content, but in the nuance of the telling and the men refraining from telling women’s aspect of the history, which is the province of women. Nearly the entirety of history reported from the Blackfeet nation has been from western cultural perspective, essentially male oriented anthropological reporting and almost all of this reporting is unreliable.

What we can reliably know is, Peta-makan was a war chief of many years. She was successful in war leadership against the Crow and Salish on multiple occasions. When she was killed during a raid, she was a war leader of the ‘Braves Society.’ Her authority as a war chief was never questioned by anyone. She never married and when at war, was considered in the eyes of the Nitsiitapi (Blackfoot law of citizenship or the wider Blackfoot community) as equal to any man. Pita-makan was highly respected by male Blackfoot society as the absolute equal of, and even superior to, many competent male warriors in combat.

What has been unknown in the literature to now but we can also reliably know is, Peta-makan would have been determined as suitable for leadership in war by the women who educated all Blackfoot children to puberty. This would have happened when the ‘Motokis’ leadership of the Pikuni tribe, made this determination. The Motokis were the Blackfoot nation’s sole (and secret) women’s society that all Blackfeet women (and only women) belonged to.

Consequently Pita-maken would have been sent with the young Blackfoot males about her age to become a ‘Moskito’ when she entered higher education at early puberty. Pita-makan’s peer group, when entering the male Moskitos society, would have averaged 9 to 12 years age and they would be a band of ‘brothers’ kept intact by tribal custom, throughout their lives. Blackfoot law would determine Peta-makan advance through subsequent Blackfoot age-determined male warrior societies, together with her peers throughout her war career. Subsequently we can know as a member of the ‘Braves’ society, she had advanced as a war leader to about age 40-44, when she had been killed in combat by the Salish.

In her personal life, Peta-makan would have had a choice of whether to live as a man or woman (she chose to be a woman and accordingly did not take a wife or wives but also did not marry any man.)

It is worth mentioning here, the women had their own warrior tradition altogether distinct from that of the men, as defenders of the camp. When the men were largely absent on the hunt or at war, the women were organized as a military force and would engage any attempted predations by enemy tribes.

The Plains women were absolutely entitled to exercise male rights and authority. When I’d initially asked Floyd HeavyRunner about a Blackfoot woman’s chief authority, whether their rank put them a par with men, his answer was the women chiefs were “a little bit higher”

Conflict

Lying was not a common phenomena in the ancient Native American world. Likely this stems from the fact a high value was placed on interpretation of reality as accurately, factually as possible. Not only would this factual perception of reality through reliable reporting lend itself to survival in an existence fraught with danger, it would lead to a tendency to develop a high state of personal evolution.

There is a story of occasion where the Salish had captured a Blackfoot warrior, I do not recall his name, and tied him to a post at the center of their camp. The community then had gathered to witness his death by torture. The point of the torture was to see if this warrior could be made to cry, as he was slowly cut to bits. If this could be accomplished, it could then be reported back to the Blackfeet people how their warrior was weak when faced with death. It would never occur to the Salish to send a false report of the man’s behavior when meeting his end.

As it happened, this warrior fully being cognizant of the purpose of his death ritual, devised a strategy to circumvent the intended outcome. When the Salish man with first right to begin slicing him with a knife had approached and proceeded to cut and taunt the Blackfoot, the Blackfoot had kept his cool and returned insults as to be so vile, the Salish lost his temper and swiftly killed the Blackfoot in a rage. And this fact of circumstance of death is what was reported to the Blackfeet people.

The arrival of the Jesuits changed all this. If the destruction of the Buffalo had destroyed the Blackfoot nation physically, it was the Jesuits broke the spiritual back of the community. The Jesuits destroyed the lived truth of these people, destroyed the equilibrium between the sexes, destroyed the respect they had enjoyed in relation to each other as a whole and destroyed their spiritual relationship with nearly everything under the Sun. Here is how it happened:

It was inconceivable to the Indians a lie would be told by holy people. As Floyd HeavyRunner had precisely, correctly stated, this phenomena was exploited by the Jesuits, when using the Blackfeet women to make their inroad into the spiritual life of the community. It was the tempting (and subversive) idea if the Blackfeet community would embrace the Jesuit philosophy of only ONE man had to die, to correct everything in the afterlife, these women would be reunited with the many fine men they had lost to the extreme peril of historical Blackfoot existence, an existence that claimed a disproportionate number of men. The woman allowed the Jesuit Nicolas Point (sent among the Blackfeet by ‘Father’ DeSmet) to arrange the education of a number of children and in a single year’s time, with children taught Original Sin caused all of our world’s ills and this is the fault of WOMAN who is cursed, and that because ONE man died, you may be excused from taking responsibility for your own actions in this life, the damage was done. By the time these woman realized a great mistake had been made, it was too late. If these children had been killed outright per the native philosophy of eliminating any ugly life aberration, the Blackfeet would have been better off per their own cultural view, but the law of Blackfeet citizenship these new aberrations violated, in a paradox, prevented this. Nor would the consequence of not killing these children be seen immediately, it had to wait for them to grow up and see the infection mature.

The result had been, in a single generation, fratricide, it came to this; certain men had begun abusing women and became rapists, nearly unknown social phenomena in previous times. Subsequently, the worst of these among the Pikuni became exiles, they were pushed out and formed a distinct breakaway tribal entity. This in turn saw the group’s Pikuni men experience their women turning on them and become killers of their husbands, when the Blackfoot women’s warrior tradition in egalitarianism became socially inverted (these Blackfeet families know who they are, it’s not important to identify them by name here.)

This preceding is but early example of what occurred on a society-wide scale, with the badly damaged larger Blackfoot nation forced onto reservations and the subsequent kidnapping of entire generations of children into missions for education. Life became a lie and the law of Niitsitapi as had been known and practiced for countless generations, had become largely dead.

It was the great priest of Okan, Brings Down the Sun, made it his life mission to correct these mistakes in the Pikuni people. Recognizing the new Christian way could not be rolled back, one compromise he tried to make was to advise women to begin to submit to their husbands, but this was not easily swallowed by the women. What finally happened was, a compromise of Okan and other Blackfoot practices pursued distinctly and altogether separately from the Christianity forced onto these people, one might belong to both but they were carefully separated, never mixed. But these were never again Indian people in any sense close to what had been, lying and abuse of women has become a way of life in the case of by far too many Indians to count. And since the forced mission education days, the added curse of inter-generational pedophilia has gained a foothold as well. Of course the Jesuits will NEVER take responsibility for having wreaked this havoc, they can always arrange to be ‘forgiven’

“Christians are the meanest people on Earth” -Pat Kennedy, Blackfoot elder & Plains Ojibwe Peace Chief

All that said, my experience has been, because of the unique traditions which had survived in small pockets, I discovered some of the finest, most brave, generous, kind and ethical people in this world, whilst living among the modern Blackfeet.

Birds

I had stated I would be giving away ‘medicine secrets’ in this series initial essay. Here is something almost no one knows or understands anymore.

The bird you have affinity with is the one that ‘talks to you.’ You can make a small experiment to determine this. When you walk in nature, allow your thoughts to be free, to roam where they will with no concentration to control. A little bit like daydream but no specified subject. If it happens there is a bird calls at that very moment a point is made, seen or discovered in your wandering thoughts, a sort of conclusion, this bird has just spoken to you (in the mind, not only the ear.)

The birds are the messengers who can pass understanding of events to you, to (among other things) know if a thought is correct.

If you can learn to do this in such a competence as to become ‘easy’ or ‘natural’ with the experience, it is the bird most often speaks to you, is your affinity. There you have it, how people were integrated to nature in times past. This is example of what had been ‘normal.’

To learn to accomplish this in practical reality would be difficult for many within the modern mindset. Men, particularly, would experience difficulty with this exercise in ‘female intelligence.’ The reason is, Judeo-Christian cultural shaping, mental stricture and taboo on the exercise of a feminine understanding of reality in Western Civilization (which has taken over the world.) In order for there to be a ‘rise’ of civilization, people had to come under the control of male dominated thinking or ‘hierarchy.’

Mosaic law is one example, where there is prohibition of sorcerers and necromancers, a crude demonizing of female intelligence to preserve the male hierarchy. Examples related to this sort of control would be (about equally) Saudi Arabia executing women as witches and western science panning any understanding of female intelligence that cannot be achieved via the constricted logic of empirical method; both science and religion are firmly rooted in a cultural system that fears and condemns or persecutes anything which threatens the ascendancy of male thought (and hence male hierarchy.) Civilization and ‘civilized man’ are both determined this understanding of the female ‘Nature’ is not to be acknowledged because it is a threat to male dominance. In the greater male hierarchy’s endeavor to suppress the feminine, the gynophobic Plato and the God of Abraham are peers, little different to the misogynist Confucius who serves this same purpose.

So, to understand the birds is tricky, it is important not to fool oneself, with how this works. The most common mistake (in the modern mentality) is when the bird makes its call, this can evoke another thought instantly from the self (not the bird) and you miss what the bird said, the thought the bird has brought has already been pushed aside by your thought and the real information is missed. This mistake is consequence of male oriented culture shaping the modern mind (regardless of skin color, we’re nearly all ‘apple indians’ these days.) Simply put, the alien (to original native thought process) ego won’t shut up and will be in your way. Why thank you, Jesuits and the boarding schools, for making the males, nearly all of us Native males, into modern whore-boys who, when we’re not busy chasing skirts while trying to get our dicks wet, only know how to run our mouths and cannot know how to listen. The consequence likely will be males who think they actually get this, are only hearing what their subliminal ego entity wishes them to hear. Those women with less male shaped mentalities, particularly those women less educated in science and least indoctrinated in religion, will have better outcome in overcoming the modern mentality obstruction, and more likely achieve understanding of this natural phenomena.

It cannot hurt to recall here, the modern ego construct mentality, considered normal in western culture, is a construct which had been diagnosed and treated as a mental disorder in the ancient Plains culture. Modern Indians who most suffer from the modern mentality are least aware they suffer the problem and this is ultimate irony because it is those Indians who most loudly strut the proposed idea they are ‘traditional’ are those who most suffer from the modern mental disorder (and you can forget about the western anthropology program euphemistically named ‘native studies’ altogether.)

Another mistake is to expect you can discover something you wish to know with this. This second one is a mistake because it is not about what we think is important to know, but rather what nature (the spirit) thinks is important for us to know. This is again, the western culture’s male ego issue, unknown in the native past. This is why the point is made to NOT control the direction of thinking, for the process to actually work.

As for broadcasting versus receiving (the modern mind is stuck in broadcast mode and mostly cannot receive) et cetera, there is much, much more to know, but I expect this is challenge enough and will end it here, renamed ‘Birds 101’

Cosmos & Cosmology

The order of priority in the ancient native way had been:

1) The great community or cosmos (interpreted as territory)
2) The environment (within the cosmos)
3) The nation (within the environment)
4) The clan/band (within the nation)
5) The family (within the band)
6) The self (within the family)

This essay will point to the considerable difficulties inherent in maintaining the elements necessary to any authentic Native American spiritual awareness in relation to one’s surroundings and oneself.

To begin, there requires an intimate understanding of a living cosmos. To know a living cosmos requires a unique relationship to environment, commonly misconceived as a relationship solely to the land. It’s actually much bigger than this. To have some beginning idea of this cosmos, one must surrender any thought of ‘I’ and ‘me’ because ‘you’ cannot exist in this cosmos as an individual entity. Without the cosmos, you don’t exist. Within the cosmos, you cannot exist as an individual. This is because all of the cosmos is integrated. In the ancient Native American way, your cosmos is reflected (interpreted) as a territory where all is a single organism made up of inter-dependent parts, including every individual, and not only persons but every individual of every species, and what’s more, every stone and tree, down to each individual blade of grass.

The Blackfeet had their cosmos. The Blackfeet neighbors, whether Cree, Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne, Salish, or Shoshone, had their cosmos, each its’ own functioning universe with unique cosmology, within this concept. This had been the template on which Native American spiritual understanding had functioned; at the macro-level. To have a relationship to, and within, this cosmos, required a functional understanding of attending cosmology, that can be interpreted as laws immutably tied to the physical environment sustained within this cosmos. MOST IMPORTANTLY, this cosmos is its’ own self-conceptualizing, aware, seeing entity, a feeling or sentient being; in and of itself. “YOU” are ultimately unimportant to this cosmos -except- you were to know your place within this cosmos and that is the point of the cosmology.

Per example of this, I will point to the work of Karl Schlesier where he noted the Chiricahua Apache precursor people had “asked the spirit of the land to accept them” when migrating into those lands they were subsequently ‘discovered’ to inhabit; by encroaching European culture.

The original indigenous tradition required an aware, seeing, sentient being or ‘cosmos’ accept those who would inhabit it; and to accomplish this integration had little to with exploiting environment and everything to do with finding a niche contributing to the cosmos health. Finding this ‘place’ for an entire people determines whether you have a successful spiritual life and we are still a long ways from discussing the spiritual life of any individual person, or the bottom of the hierarchy.

Already, the implications are quite profound; not only would those of European cultural heritage be far removed from authentic Native American spiritual experience, but so would many who actually believe they are Native American .. because cosmology had been embedded in the native languages and those languages’ stories. It would be the case in every instance where a tribal people had lost their language, they had also lost their cosmology and authentic relationship to their cosmos.

Moreover, every tribal council applying the Western culture’s economic principles of exploiting resources is removed from their own cosmos and cosmology. It’s not just ‘White people’ these days. How it came to this is not the subject of these essays; the point is to go to the facts on the ground in the present. In the next essay we will go to the environment and the fact from an ancient indigenous perspective, a cosmos doesn’t care whether your skin is Red or White. The road to health in any living cosmos would be equally challenging for both.

Cosmos & Environment

I’ve given a LOT of thought, over time, to try and bring across some semblance of intelligent description to Western terminology; of how a concept of deity is grasped within the environment – recalling the Native hierarchy:

Our existence is Macro-Gaia (in the big picture) or all is [inter] related, from sub-atomic particle to planetary structures, with an element of Vitalism (the ‘great mystery’), taken together presenting as quasi or mimic intelligent design. The intelligent design would be ‘quasi’ because the native take on this aspect would be better described as intelligent expression, ‘design’ implies an egoic projection or attribution, whereas ‘expression’ should not. This thought goes to the native persona of humility: There are some things one simply cannot know.

Within the environment, which is perceived as social rather than physical, all surrounding natural phenomena is perceived as intelligent expression. ALL. There is no western concept of ‘God’ within this expression, and what might translate as ‘gods’ and ‘heroes’ from the cosmology, are the lessons drawn from historical markers integrated to natural events, whether celestial, earthly or in some combination.

When the environment is seen as social, permission is required to pursue not only specific activities within this community, but even to exist. Because the environment is seen as not only aware, but socially aware, there is an greater understanding of impacts directly relevant to undertaking responsibility; this is an environment with the ability to identify specific actions and react accordingly. From this aspect is drawn the native value of self-restraint; not only does any nation hosted within an environment possess no right whatsoever to aggressively exploit, the environment has the power to expel any nation inimical to its health.

Noting the horns sprouting on my forehead, it occurs to myself to mention in relation to the immediate preceding; if any indigenous person who perchance did not speak their language but in the English of the Europeans having read here and thought to themselves “But I knew that!” .. this would only go to demonstrate any Whiteman could know the same.

It should be noted this aware social environment required a different development of intelligence; where there is a necessary system of practical communication. Herein lies the difference between the isolated and remote from reality ‘dreams’ of the Western culture and the larger sense of ‘dreaming’ of the ancient Native American. Where everything in one’s surrounding is awake and aware puts focus on developing intelligence external to the narrow confines of any individual self; in the words of Karl Schlesier:

“to be open to the mysteries of the natural world and it’s manifestations, to be sensitive, aware of the manifold possibilities of seeing the world, to be free and unhampered in one’s thinking, to be generous and kind in regard to others, to let everything have it’s own voice”

To ‘let everything have its own voice’ is inclusive of all of those things the Platonic-Cartesian of the Western world has denied as a matter of static perception in the pursuit of knowledge focusing on the human species presumably the sole species capable of conscious awareness; but this lens had been a trap. As the Western culture has made its ‘advances’ within a framework of quite literal subjective damage while dismantling its surroundings in a thirst to ‘know’ (individual ego & related greed, actually), it had been inevitable the blind futility of this approach should manifest; as when theoretical physicist Bernard d’Espagnat can state:

In which case the Native American dream awareness has been quite consistent; as we see creatures going away due to our denying them the right to exist, we see our own right to exist vanishing as well. One only must consider the amount of damage to reality (our surroundings) required to develop Western Civilization to a point of building laboratory models leading to atom smashers necessary to arrive at what had already been known. As things stand today, our cosmos are well underway in the process of expelling our nations .. in that we’re surrendering our right to exist, a subject to explore in the following essay.

Cosmos & The Nation

The Nation, to incorporate to the environment, had to integrate to the intelligence of the cosmos. This integration required merging two kinds of consciousness; female and male. The result had been androgynous thought reflected in the many genders in the language; where these many gender actually reflect the many varying degrees of androgyny in the observed processes of nature from whence the ancient ways of knowledge had been derived. This salient fact is what altogether set the ancient intelligence apart from the modern. The parallel I would draw is this: the two human brains, right & left, female & male, were not split as is reflected in modern experience. Awake time had its’ consistent dream element and sleep time was consistently informed with lucid dreaming. Never was a strict line drawn between, or boundary established, between the two. One reality was as valid as the other. Or, perhaps better said, they were never considered to be distinctly separate reality or experience. This integrated intelligence is what had made it possible for the Nation to exist within the social context of nature (or environment) within the cosmos. This unique (by comparison to the modern) integration is what enabled sight capable of ‘reading’ the language of other creatures, inclusive of trees, even stones. Also, within this integrated framework existed a ‘greater’ intelligence where time could be perceived in motion; a living clock could be its’ description. A Nation’s collective ability to ‘read’ this clock was an utilitarian principle allowing for the Nation to function as an organism within the environment hosted within the cosmos. Everything remained attuned within this clock, of which the Nation was a functional part (of the clock’s many parts, inclusive of ‘other nations’ such as the elk, antelope and bison.)

How delicate cultures can be is reflected in how the nations became dismembered. Already under pressures on account of European expansion and technology exerting forces preceding the actual Whites arrival, for example the necessity to acquire guns to compete with tribes being pushed into their territories, the Pikuni nation (a Blackfoot branch) was in a high state of male mortality. This was to have unforeseen consequence where the nation’s disintegration actually began before any organized attempt to bring these people to heel by government. The disintegration began with the poisoning of the nation by the Jesuits.

It was a mistake made by the women. The Small Robes band of Pikuni Blackfoot, also some other Pikuni aligned with them, invited the Jesuit DeSmet into their band, when they met him on a visit to the Salish. DeSmet learned their stories and subverted them (the stories) to Christian ideology. He accomplished this with convincing the women only one man had to die and if they celebrated that one death, they would be reunited with all the men they’d lost; in a paradise of immortals.

This deeply appealing (to the women) idea set loose in a world where lies were an almost inconceivable phenomena and lies about matters of spirit were beyond comprehension, turned Blackfoot society on its head in a single generation. DeSmet assigned two priests to followup on his stay with the Blackfeet and they were allowed (by the women) to educate a group of children. That fact destroyed the fabric of Blackfoot society, upending the principles of matriarchy. This infection of the Blackfoot mentality was the cause of future generations of women taught to submit to men and all balance was lost. This in turn made the men weak.

Over a longer period, this infection of Western thinking caused all of the males to become weak and ignorant by comparison to the ancients; because they lost their integrated intelligence or androgynous conceptual thought beginning with the Jesuit poisoning of Blackfoot understanding.

Illustrating this, there is an interesting piece of Blackfoot oral history that is a revisionism, related to McClintock in his ‘The Old North Trail.’ Here you see a modern ‘original sin’ story where the Blackfoot male at fault is named “Motokis.” This is interesting for two facts; it was Blackfeet men who’d capitulated to Christianity informed McClintock in oral history and the fact the story’s male protagonist name is Motokis, the name of the universal society of Blackfeet women who’d been the source of matriarchal intelligence. The cynicism of the Jesuits is stark, to use this name in a story manufactured to educate future generations of Blackfoot children to the idea of women’s intelligence being a source of bad luck.

The main group of the Small Robes associated with DeSmet suffered a terrible fate; when their men were wiped out by the Crow and the survivors became a Blackfeet speaking satellite band of the Crow nation. The other Pikuni group, those who did not suffer the Small Robes fate, were subsequently expelled by the larger Pikuni nation because the children educated by the Jesuits matured into pedophiles and rapists.

It happened that fast. The surrender (or poisoning) of native intelligence fractured the nation within the environment, and for all practical purposes, the environment integrated, ‘living entity’ had ceased to exist.

Cosmos & The Clan

Within the circumstance of the nation’s beginning disintegration (dismemberment) there were the several aspects of a web that could be described as a tapestry. This aspect of reality were a weave of tensile strength made up of several societies, clans and bands determining all of a greater Blackfoot society of nations, of which there were ultimately five, Siksika, Kainah, Amskapi Pikuni, Skinee Pikuni (derogatory) or Aputosi Pikuni, and the Sarci (who are a Dené amalgamated or half sibling nation.) The Atsina were associated but not related in a siblings sense. Taken together, these were the so-called ‘Blackfoot Confederacy’ which is a Whiteman’s label that is inaccurate. Excepting the Atsina, this was not a political association, rather instead were a larger alignment of closely related peoples or nations with a common concept of citizenship called Niitsitapi. Recalling…

…this citizenship was interwoven throughout the nations but more specifically per nation in several ways. In some respect the several Blackfoot nations were consider to be clans of the Niitsitapi or overall recognition of a relationship between what are more properly nations in their own right. In this respect we could define the several Blackfoot divisions as ‘nation-clans.’ Within any single nation, for instance the Amskapi Pikuni where I am related most closely, we have (speaking only of the males) patrilineal descent within what had been a system of matriarchy. Of my Pikuni ‘parents’ (by native kinship law), my father was a Black Door and my mother belonged to the ‘Worm Clan.’ This determines I am a Black Door. Now, had I been of the ancient times, in simplified terms it would have gone something like this:

As a male I would have been a lifetime member of the ‘all friends’ which makes a brother of every Blackfoot male throughout the several nations in a warrior tradition. As a Black Door, I would be the relative (brother) of every male or daughter of that clan, no matter which nation and affiliated band, as well as, a member of my nation and band. All of these interwoven relationships are pointed to integrated social fabric where we had consensus (elected) band chiefs, hereditary chiefs, society chiefs and chiefs as determined by the Motokis who had a large say (in former times, close to absolute authority) in affairs of the nation. None of these chiefs were an authority in their own right within the community with the exception of those drawing their authority from the Motokis (and this authority was specific to certain matters) and very term ‘chief’ should not be looked at in terms of the western culture’s hierarchy. In almost all cases, each were a spokesperson for the several societies, families, clans and or bands. A spokesperson. Nothing more.

The point of this devolved and interwoven leadership had been to gain as clear a view possible of the cosmos; pertaining to any direction taken within the nation. The needs of the cosmos, the maintenance of the cosmos health, and the conforming of the nation to demands of the cosmos, was primary, all else came after. With many eyes and ears attuned to the environment within the cosmos, what was looked for in the nation, in a foundation of government established at the band level, was consistency of perception. Prior to the ‘split’ of Native American consciousness, these many eyes & ears gave intelligently informed, consistent and wide view of all elements necessary to receive direction as determined by the cosmos .. stemming from interpretation of Nature with sight unknown in the modern world. Essentially there was a well founded, unmitigated trust in this greater collective view of reality. This system had allowed for sensible living for millennia; that is until the Europeans had arrived.

The infection of (an eventually enforced) Christian mentality and thinking upended all of it. This alien concept of a primal male ego, that is ‘God’, and the fact any self-centered act, no matter how damaging to the cosmos and all life therein, could be ‘forgiven’, became the great destroyer of the Native nations with the destruction of intelligent sight. It is an European death cult had destroyed Pikuni life within the cosmos

Cosmos & The Family

The females were all educated by the Motokis society, to which no male ever belonged or was admitted to. This secret tradition is therefore a matter on which I cannot comment except to say anything which has been written about the Motokis in modern times is almost certainly perverted-poisoned by Christian influences and consequent male view.

In the male educational tradition, if the band were largely an extended family made up of mostly cousins (1st cousin & brother are the same word, likewise uncle & father and so forth) as a matter of cultural habit, the nuclear families within the band were those several parts making up a clan’s patrilineal education system. Similar, but not precisely identical, to government, the male education reflected both consistency and diversity. In this case, had I been a male of former times, chances are most of those surrounding me would be Black Doors and this tradition would be the bands primary education model at the nuclear family level. Additional (compulsory) education would be the province of the warrior societies and elective education could be found in the ‘medicine societies.’

Throughout one’s life, defying the western stereotype of ‘shiftless, lazy Indians’, so-called ‘leisure time’ was much preoccupied with education.

When necessity of acquiring western technology (firearms) preceded the actual arrival of the Whites, this new pressure had already begun breaking this system down, through the erosion of values. To acquire guns required violating the most basic tenets and associated values of one’s education to sustain life within the cosmos. This requirement was reflected in the so-called ‘fur trade’ where the ‘Beaver Nation’ (mostly) was assaulted and nearly driven to extinction. With the new steel traps, the Pikuni (and nearly every other native human nation) set out to alter the cosmos as the skins of their sacred companions were harvested en mass, setting into motion a chain of events; whiskey came with the steel traps & firearms they traded the beaver pelts for and the rank and deep fear (a new concept) of what they were doing within the cosmos, created the opening for alcohol to make deep inroads into Pikuni society.

This knocking the cosmos out of balance had been deceptive in the perception of one’s surrounding in the environment. Already dealt a death-blow, the dying cosmos appeared to live on; very much like the individual cells of a complex organism die over time following a mortal blow and cessation of brain function. There could be breath went on for awhile but then this ceases as well. At the end, a corpse’s hair and nails continue to grow for a bit longer. This may sound harsh but is an accurate reflection of what had happened since; within the families who’d kept their traditions more intact, in vicinity of vestiges of undisturbed nature, the original knowledge continued (in ever diminishing form.)

Contrast this to the modern tribal council and its western economic development model and here I will note a few salient examples of how we, as native peoples, have embraced a lie; the native corporation throughout Canada and Alaska, the Navaho tribal council forcing through gambling after it’d been twice rejected by tribal referendum, the Navaho tribal council forcing electricity (with attending television) on all rural or remote households against the will of those wishing to keep to tradition (and off the grid), the Shoshone-Arapaho of Wyoming chasing the antelope to extinction on their reservation with all terrain vehicles, the Blackfeet of Montana aspiring to get a family member into tribal council so “it will be our turn” to loot that nation’s resources, such as clear cutting the Hudson Divide of premium house logs, sold to sawmills off the reservation – while the Amskapi Pikuni throughout have suffered chronic-critical housing shortage. And those many tribal members employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs who’ve made a career of bringing the nations into the ‘modern concept’ (while stealing the people blind), those several nations where one faction gained control over another faction and expelled their own people with dis-enrollment (such as the Cree had done to many of the Chippewa at Rocky Boy) and it just goes on. Tell me; just who among these can claim to be Indian?

Cosmos & The Self

Finally, we have reached that space where it becomes clear what had been expected of every individual at the level of microcosm. Essentially there was an expected practical behavior; under pinned in approach to life along these lines:

The ancient Blackfoot approached life like this … every impact, down to so much as a bruised blade of grass, in the course of going about anything, whether daily sustenance or whatever, generated awareness of impact. This in turn demands a life of ‘right action’ in relation to all things, as one’s life foundation, to live in the balance. It is within the cosmos’ ‘living clock’ this principle was observed and followed in such a way as to discover what would be ‘gifted’ to sustain the people. In the western culture Jung observed this principle as synchronicity but I will the note the Pikuni knew how to read the clock, it wasn’t ‘coincidence.’

This preceding demanded an integrated approach that precluded ego in the western sense .. it was never about ‘me’ but about sustaining a system of perpetual motion which depended on all; right down to awareness of impact to the single blade of grass and the correct action or ‘lived awareness’ demanded of that fact. Development of the individual was integrated to the whole of it all, precluding any practical separation. As this system of perpetual motion moved through the seasons, this living clock was acknowledged with ceremony. Everyone in the ancient way could read this movement until the Europeans arrived. And we should all know the consequence of this ‘new’ education.

Now, when we flip a light switch, everything it had meant to honor life within the cosmos is dishonored in a practical sense for the sake of ‘convenience.’ Think about it. Whether solar, wind generator, hydro-electric, gas-fired, strip-mined coal or nuclear generated; you just contributed to death within the cosmos with so small an act as the flip of a switch. Each of these systems required dealing death within the cosmos, to construct a grid that is putting the planet to death. This gives me a cynical laugh when considering the circumstance of people paying for plane tickets to attend workshops on what it means (or meant) to be Native American. Whether these are new age self-delusional souls seeking meaning or modern tribal mentalities meeting to consult on issues of ‘culture’, one is no different to the other, each has just contributed to death within the cosmos. And the cosmos doesn’t care whether your skin is Red or White. Quoting Karl Schlesier, a son, brother and father to three generations of Cheyenne Arrow Keepers:

“In the long and disturbing history of Indian-White relations in North America there have been other Whites, men and women, who became full fledged members and shared the fate of the tribes in the struggle for survival. These, often, had been taken as prisoners when young, and they grew up with new siblings and new parents and a new, wide range of relationships. They were not discriminated against because in the old world of the tribes skin color never mattered; what mattered were the expressions of one’s spirit and the voice of the heart. But adoption by a human alone was not enough. The adoptee had to open himself/herself to the spirit world of the specific tribe and had to be embraced by it. Thus, adoption was made final or was denied on the highest spiritual level beyond a first move made by adoptive elders”

What Karl is referring to, is whether to environment within the cosmos had embraced the concerned individual; as would have been recognized in the long ago ‘lived philosophy’ or the foundation all had been based on, in the living clock .. recalling the order of priority in caring for things:

What chance do you suppose ‘the spirit’ will recognize ANYONE in a so-called ‘native studies’ program, where light switches are flipped everyday; to study in the western culture’s classroom at the same university hosting departments teaching the European civilization’s philosophy and technology? This, contrasted to; in the ancients’ days, one would not so much as consider any association with any entity at odds with living intelligently in the cosmos. Forget romantic love; if your interest did not bring harmony into the family at the nuclear level, the relationship would never develop. This is because you have no right to disturb the peace of any other, and on realizing that person or institution interested in associating with you would be in conflict with the values upholding your family, within the band, within the nation, within the environment, within the cosmos, is antithetical to the greater social health; you would, at the individual level, deny any possibility of a relationship developing. Already, if we have ‘elders’ approve sending us to university, we can see how lost our peoples have become.

Cosmos & Consciousness

Of course it is unrealistic to expect we can live again as had been in the past; in modern times where our nations’ cosmos as we’d known them, no longer exist. The first step to experience any event other than altogether completed extinction, is to recognize our nations previous circumstance cannot be recovered. Any pretense to the contrary is a self-deceit. That was then, this is now and everything is changed. As the living clock moves to erase humanity as we know ourselves in the present, one should look at where might any possible remedy be within reach. To discover such an avenue would require the great mystery again recognize our value as a species.

That most changed has been our mentality, and certainly not for the better. Related to this, the European mentality which has overtaken us will end in one of three ways, in this order of possibility; 1) we will see this culture blow itself to bits, together with all the rest of humanity 2) social-environmental collapse will bring everyone down, no matter their role or possible intention or 3) self-dismantlement. Our duty is to work for this third, most remote possibility. To accomplish this, the first priority is to point as many people as possible (no matter the color of their skin) to disconnect from the grid. To disconnect absolutely will require recovering from the poison of the Western culture’s thinking.

The essential beginning would be renewed practical thinking that can be recognized as healthy by the cosmos. Without this, there is no future for any of the human species. In fact, without enough of this, there is no human future, no matter had some small communities accomplished a recovery or preserved some understanding of what it meant to ‘live in the clock’ where all had been balanced. This would require a lot of people. And you don’t get a lot of people with prejudices of whether someone is ‘White’ or ‘Cree.’ You arrive in that space by shutting out stupid people and opening to intelligent people, no matter their relationship to you, tribal affiliation or color of skin. Recreating a healthy cosmos would require solely people who understand how not to step on other beings lives. And that fact excludes many tribal people and includes people with no tribal affiliation. If there is any future people, it is those who can put European cultural mentality out of their lives, no matter their origins. What would be the test? For those raised primarily in European culture, this will be a more difficult road; except for those in the native world who’d sold out altogether or have become too stupid to understand they’re stupid (perhaps the harshest reality.) The Europeans because they do not know how to be silent and listen (to nature.) And those natives who believe a Red skin makes them Indian (as opposed to the fact they are e.g. culturally Blackfoot-Americans little different to Irish-Americans.)

So, who among us native peoples will put television entirely out of our lives and the lives of our children? Who with more money will, instead of buying a new car, rather pay a native language granny to teach our pre-school children and the children of our neighbor without funds to do the same? Who will have the courage to stand up to the band councils and tell them ‘it’s going to be this way and now get out of our business’?

What Europeans would have the courage to pool their resources to buy land or other means to pull up fences and turn land back to the cosmos to mend, declaring it belongs to none other than life? And fight for the right to hand the land back, as well refuse their children educations intended to prop up a state that exploits with endless development? To be willing to have their children taught an alien language incorporating values far removed from Western Civilization and its historical ideals?

Who, between the two communities preceding, would have the courage to care for and depend on each other in a growing environment of trust where the White child is educated no differently to the Red; where the only idea worthy of spiritual reverence is the idea this world is not ours, it belongs to all life, where we have clearly demonstrated to step out of place is to step out of everything it could possibly mean to live in any positive way. And tell everyone else ‘there is no place here for stupid’

Even with all of this accomplished, it falls short, if you cannot clearly grasp your life is no more important than a beaver your ancestor either trapped or traded for. There are no innocent parties. So, what is consciousness? Certainly it is not the ‘self-aware’ preoccupied ego (‘it’s all about me’) of European concept. Consciousness is the gift of the cosmos to an entity that is an organism of many parts .. in which humans have become a cancer. Consciousness is nothing more and nothing less.

The Condensed Lesson

At a certain level, it’s pretty funny Plato had it wrong and Indians running around in breech-cloths had it right. Here’s one to print out and give to people to think about, recalling the theoretical physicist Bernard d’Espagnat states:

Consider that and then have a look at how it is Indians were thinking:

“In 1918 Christian missionary A. McG. Beede took Yale graduate Harry Boise to the Standing Rock Sioux and Turtle Mountain Chippewa reservations on separate occasions, where Boise explained scientific ideas to tribal leaders. Beede wrote in his report that both groups immediately understood the concepts without difficulty, saying: “There is no difficulty in leading an old Teton Sioux Indian to understand the ‘scientific attitude’ that the processes that give rise to phenomena may be more and more known by man and may be, to some extent, controlled by man, and that in this way the forces of nature may become a mainspring of progress in the individual and in the human race. The idea of atoms and electrons is easy and pleasing to an old Indian, and he grasps the idea of chemistry.” -Vine Deloria, Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths

The two tribal groups spokesmen replied to Harry Boise, following discussion among themselves:

”The ’scientific view’ is inadequate to explain … how man is to find and know a road along which he wishes and chooses to make this said progress, unless Manitoo by his spirit, guides the mind of man, keeping human beings just and generous and hospitable” -Rising Sun, Chippewa

When Rising Sun says ‘Manitou by his spirit’ he is speaking of collective creation, our very surroundings are intelligence integrated to nature. When Red Tomahawk says ‘spirit is with a man’s spirit’, he is saying the same thing, both these men, at the end of their cultures’ many millennia era of knowledge, are looking at what d’Espangnat stumbles upon nearly 100 years later; recognizing consciousness embodied in our surroundings plays in everything we experience.

Moreover, Red Tomahawk is discriminating between intimate knowledge of any object’s raw power, and an understanding of the nature of something, recognizing these are distinct things. His understanding (different to the European concept) opens to the possibility of allowing for the trees, stones, or for that matter, everything surrounding us, to possess consciousness and to ‘know’ purpose exterior to our (western) self-centered cultural shaping. And it is only when this door of understanding is opened, we can know how to listen, know the ‘timing’ (the knowledge of creation as synchronized, to grasp nature as a living clock), and to ‘see’ our way through, as the nearly extinct Native thought embodied in now past elders so often attempted to point out to us, when pointing to ‘it’s all related.’

Now days, when modern Indians hear, say or think the words ‘Our Creator’ .. they think along the lines of ‘god.’ Well, they missed it. When the old people of past times stated ‘Our Creator’, they were looking at our surroundings (creation), at the very expressions nature has given birth to, at a process which nurtures and sustains us. These days, truth be told, Native peoples have become as dumb as the Whiteman. Who’d have expected stupidity could be a contagious disease (looking around you, anyone?)

Post script would be, it wouldn’t matter if you had all the technical ceremonial knowledge on earth memorized, if you don’t grasp the preceding in a practical approach to life, you’re just dumb.

On Keeping a Pipe

Wooden_Indian.jpg - 1

Not ‘just anybody’ would keep a pipe.

We’ll begin with what is required to keep a pipe in the context of the old Plains Cultures, which, with their many superficial differences, were nevertheless essentially identical in core principles.

The classic Plains T pipe represents the Law of Matriarchy to which every man is bound. Everyone who partakes of this pipe in ceremony is expected to understand (have been taught the core principles) what this law demands of the community. Essentially, this law requires setting the self aside with a demand the greater good is to be found in prioritizing devotion to the whole.

To ‘keep’ a pipe is to bind oneself to this primary core principle at a high level; with a self discipline that may not be set aside. This cannot emphasized too strongly. You must discipline your mind to a degree the modern world nearly does not know. There is practically no move you can make, no task you may engage which is not self aware and thought out, even as one performs. Life itself is lived as practical ceremony where all thought is prayer. You may not engage in petty, vindictive or vain gossip, neither with another person nor within the self. You may not associate with persons who live carelessly or thoughtlessly, you must avoid them. There is no concept of forgiveness, your mistakes must be corrected with practical steps taken.

The effect or litmus test of this self disciplined life *MUST* be what a son, brother and father of three generations of Cheyenne Arrow Keepers has stated should be the consistent, demonstrable outcome:

To be open to the mysteries of the natural world and it’s manifestations, to be sensitive, aware of the manifold possibilities of seeing the world, to be free and unhampered in one’s thinking, to be generous and kind in regard to others, to let everything have it’s own voice.

There is precisely ZERO space for the typical blinding personal arrogance of self, or ego, to achieve the preceding. A result of actually attaining this level of practical intelligence is reflected in the Native American proverb:

The spirit puts into the mind of a man, to know what to do.

This is practical result of the first rule of keeping a pipe. In other words, you can be depended upon to be a wise counselor.

The second general rule of keeping a pipe would seem even more difficult to modern peoples, the practical living in balance requires one cannot be wealth focused; having secured what is required to live MODESTLY, one cannot accrue wealth beyond this, it is affront to the living spirit, nature, whose rule dictates we ‘humans’ have no more inherent right to life than any other living thing. ANYTHING that burdens nature more than necessary to our living modestly, is a violation of the Plains Law of Matriarchy. How is that? The female principle that rules us, our creation or nature, represented in our community of women, is greater than any individual and this demands the individual be sacrificed to the good of the greater living whole. Individual wealth does not, cannot, will not find a place in this scheme. By modern standard, it is a self imposed ‘life of austerity.’

The third general rule of keeping a pipe would be you had already had disciplined oneself to the preceding rules prior to ‘receiving’ a pipe. The community leadership will have recognized one’s devotion, potential for achievement and consistent exemplary life prior to being entrusted with a pipe to be used in open ceremony. Relatively few people kept pipes because of the high expectations demanded of the ‘keepers.’

The fourth general rule of keeping a pipe is, this was no absolute right. If our leaders were chosen to keep a pipe for purpose of public ceremony, they also could have a right to use a pipe in public ceremony taken away. The authority in the original Plains Culture was never absolute in those chosen to lead the people. There was oversight. If ever the leadership became inflated with their own sense of importance, this was grounds for demotion. Leaders who refused to be disciplined were invariably shunned, leading to being effectively exiled, together with any supporters, on account of energy transfers. This underlying principle is key to part 2:

Not ‘just any pipe’ would be kept.

Acquiring a useful pipe is not nearly so simple as making one, having one made, buying one or having one given to you by just anyone or even having an established one transferred to you. Energy transfers is paramount to understanding how a pipe originates and whether the pipe is ‘settled.’ This can take two directions; an old pipe or a new pipe.

First the old pipe. This is a pipe that is ‘transferred.’ It has a history of use and possibly attending items constituting a so-called ‘bundle.’ This pipe already has a working history and, if kept properly, an intense consciousness imbued in it. This is in line with modern discovery in quantum mechanics and the consequent statement of theoretical physicist Bernard d’Espagnat:

The history of the ‘old pipe’ will give it a form or intensity of consciousness that would give anyone but the rigorously self-disciplined, problems. And in the hands of the wrong persons, this pipe can cause extensive ‘bad luck’ in those connected with whoever might be ‘holding’ it. What’s going on here is, a pipe rebelling against the inferior energy of those persons it might have been transferred to. The pipe is demanding a certain quality of energy and when that energy is not forthcoming, the pipe, as a consciousness imbued object, pushes back against the energy it detests. This is where many pipes and bundles have been failed by their modern keepers, people without the necessary self-discipline required of the ancient native consciousness. Invariably any poor ‘keepers’ will see havoc created in their surroundings, they’ve effectively become a curse of bad luck through their blind arrogance of believing they are worthy when in fact they are not. Pat Kennedy himself told me his bundles and pipes should be ‘put out’ or retired for the fact there was no longer any assurance these items could be competently and safely kept. I don’t know if it happened but in some cases I expect not.

Now, the ‘new pipe’ is a tricky proposition as well. Here it is critical the person building it, giving it shape or form, is living the requirements set out in part one. Again, this is because energy transfers as consciousness and this will determine the personality of the new pipe. If the pipe maker is living a high form of the old native consciousness, and makes no mental mistake when working the stone, the person receiving this pipe could easily experience the same problems associated with being transferred an old pipe. On the other hand, if it is a careless person, or any person with an agenda, poor personal history or inferior habits, these all transfer into the personality of the new pipe and that will be the new pipe’s consciousness. Receiving a pipe with unknown or misrepresented history is a bit like manifesting roulette, you easily could be robbed (or shot dead.)

An ignorant person would create an ignorant pipe, a dishonest person would create a dishonest pipe, a deceived person would create a deceived pipe, a dangerous person would create a dangerous pipe, a vindictive person would create a vindictive pipe… you should get the picture. You don’t want ‘just any pipe’ and you certainly would not want a pipe without an intimate awareness of its source. Not just anyone should make pipes. In elder times, not ‘just anyone’ would dare to make a pipe.

And finally, it must be said the modern people do not possess the proper mentality to claim any right to say ‘this is Cree’ way or ‘this is Blackfoot’ way because they are not in fact living that old cultural awareness. That ancient mentality and today’s mentality are so different as Venus to Earth or Earth to Mars.

With enforced western educations having extinguished the oral histories together with the language, and as well, reshaped the indigenous mentality, and with western cultural anthropology in the guise of ‘Native Studies’ euphemism having displaced the advanced indigenous learning format, the preceding principles are presented as superior to nearly anything you will find nearly anywhere in academia in a sense of the authentic demands of the original traditions.

With this said, what Pat Kennedy attempted to pass to us can be seen as little more than remote opportunity to explore what it means to ‘live in a beautiful way.’

To live in a beautiful way in the ancient sense understood by Pat and his peers is to know how to set aside personal arrogance that seems normal, habitual, in the modern people; to practice a humility requiring you cannot set the requirements for personal ceremony aside in relation to one’s surroundings for so much as a moment. This is because energy transfers and each of us is responsible for ourselves as a source of the energy that makes up any given community or gathering. Don’t be deceived with any thought these requirements can be in any way set aside, even for a moment, ever, at all.

Retiring a pipe

A suspect or troublesome pipe or any pipe in unqualified hands should be ‘put out’ or that is properly retired. This is the simple act of abandoning the pipe in a remote, clean place in nature, together with offerings to honor the law the very fact of any pipe’s existence is meant to signify in the sense of original intent. There is no failure symbolized in this act; it is rectifying a mistake or preventing future mistakes being made. Did you wish to follow the way of the pipe and didn’t know, weren’t aware of the dangers involved with a pipe’s pre-set state of imbued consciousness? Retiring a pipe could be a wise re-beginning while seeing if one is able to live the rules in a real and practical way. Having disciplined the self to a very high standard of consciousness, one could then set out to re-acquire a pipe, but in this case from a trustworthy source. Or in case of having discovered living the actual rules of keeping a pipe were impractical or too burdensome, retiring a pipe would be an absolutely intelligent thing to do.

Addendum.

In today’s world there is a false, self-deceived spirit has taken over many people’s experience in relation to ceremony. It might be manifest in keeping ceremony no one knows how to explain anymore; in other words a rote memory of things which have become completely false or hypocritical because to perform ceremony is to understand not only the how, but even more importantly, to intimately understand the why. Without the why, the how is meaningless. Or to take a place of leadership in ceremony without having subjected the self to the required advanced learning, and keeping, the rules demanded of the position. And especially to have elevated others to a role of pipe keepers, handlers or other ceremonial tasks and not having acquired critical knowledge to have trained them properly in the required elements of living the role, the prayers of these people are actually doing more harm than good, no intelligent Indian would want these people praying for them. And if informed, neither would you.

Note: This author had divested himself of his pipe over a decade ago; for the reason of personal circumstance tending to cynicism and satire, or in other words, immersion in geopolitical intrigue –

Cosmos & Consciousness (Notes)

Relating to the original perception-philosophy of North America as known by just a few Blackfoot into modern times, it was Floyd HeavyRunner had stated to me on more than one occasion his opinion “the Aztecs got the Spaniards because they had strayed furthest from the true way.” Not that he thought the Blackfeet were in any respect lucky.

Another observation of Floyd’s was to relate a story of an anthropologist who’d visited one of his elder cousins to understand matters the old people by now realized the Europeans had no capacity to grasp. When inquiring of phenomena along the lines of what the Niitsitapi had known as ‘naaks’ (the consciousness possessed by ones surroundings in nature), Floyd’s ‘uncle’ had finally stated to the anthropologist “I could explain it to you until we’re both blue in the face and you’d never get it!” Now it’s my turn to try:

There is a theory had been postulated by Princeton Professor Julian Jaynes on ancient consciousness he labelled the ‘bi-carmel mind.’ He came close to the ancient mentality I have attempted to explain but he wasn’t spot on. He expected there was no sense of ‘I’ in the ancients. In a way this is correct but his first mistake was the assumption of no self-awareness. His second mistake was of audio and visual hallucinations which must be obeyed. It doesn’t work like that. I can understand the typical western mentality could struggle with the idea one could possess self awareness without ego, but in fact this is possible. The point of explaining about the ‘living clock’ had been to illustrate one can see oneself as integrated to a larger consciousness or as a cell in a greater organism attuned to purpose stemming from a mystery one can function within but never issue dictum. Here is examples of how it practically functions:

Your mind can search but none of this is necessarily meaningful or possessed of element of reality until the ‘clock’ confirms what it is you need to know, from one event to the next. Suppose you came to a fork in the trail in unfamiliar territory; your mind puts out a question .. ‘which path?’ A large bird of prey suddenly (in that precise moment of asking) drops out of a tree and flies down one of the forks and your direction is known. This (or similar experience) will be the consistent, accurate, observable phenomena for those who keep tuned to or live within the ‘timing.’

And yes, you could hear voices but unlike the western schizophrenic, there is no imperative other than a rational trust. For instance, in a potentially lethal circumstance you might have to make a split-second decision that would determine life or death when faced with a choice; and a ‘voice’ you both know and trust states clearly what you must do and it will have been precisely the correct decision to save one’s life.

These preceding are but two examples of the ancient mentality’s capability which also included long distance sight in real time (‘remote viewing’) with phenomenal accuracy and more. I’ve lived in this world, in community which experienced these things and I know it works.

Now, if the ancient model of understanding is correct; that is our ‘cosmos’ is possessed of its own unique awareness, is a sentient being in its own right, is possessed with powers of volition altogether independent of European cultural mentality concept; and this sentient awareness cares more for the whole of everything than any individual or individual species; then it stands to reason every manipulation attempted by modern civilization to prolong itself against the will of our cosmos will be frustrated; no clever trick will suffice, no computer model sustain, no remedy be adequate: to pursue any future that does not fall into line with our cosmos determination of the direction to be taken. In which case, we’ll be increasingly ‘erased’ until humanity decides to back off and quit piling on the pressure the current model or ‘sustained development’ demands of our environment.

I’m not going into the ancient concept of ‘linear time’ for the simple reason it just seems like too much to try and explain. I’ll simply note it would be really smart to stop digging things up, whether hydrocarbons or archaeology.

Fear and survival instinct are distinct things, fear attends only the western ego ‘I’ which senses it is not real. Got a heavy perspiration-body odor problem that isn’t physical labor related? You’ve got fear. This can be shut down with reorganizing the mind on ancient model.

It was likely the common cold had depopulated the native nations first, followed by measles and small pox. These initial depopulation events had preceded Coronado from the south and had run their course before New England was colonized. The legacy of this is the tipi rings anthropologists generally (mistakenly) believe are much older. Prior to adopting wooden stakes from the early trans-Appalachia traders tents, it had been the habit of the Plains Indians to stack the stones used to secure their tipis, when breaking camp. In cases where the stones had not been stacked, leaving tipi rings, it indicates de facto burial sites where the occupants had died. I chuckle at the anthropologists scratching their heads over clusters of cairns to which purpose they’ve no idea to assign, and subject to endless speculations; failing to understand it is little more than a case of ‘good housekeeping’ where the stones were neatly stacked when the tipis had been taken down and camp moved.

Most of Big Lake’s band of Small Robes had been destroyed by the Crow .. where a large remnant of surviving women and children were the base from which a Blackfoot speaking band of Crow Indians had sprung. After this event, Big Lake’s people, the Small Robes, vanish as a proper entity from the Blackfoot oral history. There were a few scattered Small Robes remnants assimilated by the other bands.

It was the Aputosi Pikuni were expelled for criminal behaviors following the Jesuits making inroads into that group. This fact earned them the sobriquet ‘Ski-ni’ Pikuni which is hard for me to translate but means something along the lines of ‘poor’ in a sense of who they’d become.

I have to shut this off somewhere and because we should never altogether exclude humor, I’ll close with this anecdote. It was Mike Little Dog had related a story to me of stark contrast of between the ancient man and the modern. According to Mike, when he’d returned from the Korean War, there was opportunity to make money as extras in a film. This was a generation of Blackfeet who knew hard physical work, and it was the strong young men of his generation were cast as warriors. To add authenticity, real bows belonging to their ancestors were brought out of a collection .. and the bows of their grandfathers were so strong .. they couldn’t pull them!

This work is based on 30+ years immersion in Native America, primarily in the culture of the Northern Plains Indians, those who still speak their language. Attributable quotes are in italics, even those I’ve not attributed, no matter the source, on account of some quotes had been based in information taken from the several oral histories which belong to no one person.

Tags Blackfeet, Blackfoot, matriarchy, shamanism, transcendent warfare

Categories Plains Culture

Keeping a Pipe

September 16, 2015 //

On Wooden Indians…

Part 1) Not ‘just anybody’ would keep a pipe.

To ‘keep’ a pipe is to bind oneself to this primary core principle at a high level; with a self discipline that may not be set aside. This cannot emphasized too strongly. You must discipline your mind to a degree the modern world nearly does not know. There is practically no move you can make, no task you may engage which is not self aware and thought out, even as one performs. Life itself is lived as practical ceremony. You may not engage in petty, vindictive or vain gossip, neither with another person nor within the self. You may not associate with persons who live carelessly or thoughtlessly, you must avoid them. There is no concept of forgiveness, your mistakes must be corrected with practical steps taken.

The spirit puts into the mind of a man, to know what to do.

This is practical result of the first rule of keeping a pipe. In other words, you can be depended upon to be a wise counselor.

Part 2) Not ‘just any pipe’ would be kept.

With this said, what Pat Kennedy attempted to pass to us can be seen as little more than remote opportunity to explore what it means to ‘live in a beautiful way.’

Part 3) Retiring a pipe.

Part 4) Addendum.

…and Wannabee Indians

Note: This author had divested himself of his pipe over a decade ago; for the reason of personal circumstance tending to cynicism and satire, or in other words, immersion in geopolitical intrigue –

Tags matriarchy, Pipe, pipes, sacred pipe

Categories Plains Culture

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: