#native traditions

[lokisbeautifulangel]

*Not Loki related but you know ya girl 🖤🥰*

“The Apache boogeyman, is actually a woman, most tribes know her as the Basket Woman, Apaches call her bu'chi'sáán, her name means Old Owl Woman a story told by grandmothers and mothers to get their children to behave, she is described as an old woman carrying a big burden basket that lives in a cave up in the mountains, every night she comes down from the mountain and steals all the naughty children from the tribe, she carries them in her burden basket back to her cave where she cooks and eats them”

Credits & Source: Tia M. Carroll

Facebook: Tia M. Carroll

[lioninsunheart]

Happy-Sacred Summer Solstice Weekend Tumblrs!

“Perhaps our dreams are there to be broken, and our plans are there to crumble, and our tomorrows are there to dissolve into todays, and perhaps all of this is all a giant invitation to wake up from the dream of separation, to awaken from the mirage of control, and embrace whole-heartedly what is present. Perhaps it is all a call to compassion, to a deep embrace of this universe in all its bliss and pain and bitter-sweet glory. Perhaps we were never really in control of our lives, and perhaps we are constantly invited to remember this, since we constantly forget it. Perhaps suffering is not the enemy at all, and at its core, there is a first-hand, real-time lesson we must all learn, if we are to be truly human, and truly divine. Perhaps breakdown always contains breakthrough. Perhaps suffering is simply a right of passage, not a test or a punishment, nor a signpost to something in the future or past, but a direct pointer to the mystery of existence itself, here and now. Perhaps life cannot go 'wrong' at all.” ― Jeff Foster

“AN INVITATION

I don’t want to hear what you believe I’m not at all interested in your certainty I couldn’t care less about your unexcelled perfection Share with me your doubts

Open up your tender heart

Let me in to your struggles I’ll meet you in that place Where your spiritual conclusions Are starting to crack open That’s where the creativity lies That’s where the newness shines

That’s where we can truly meet: Beyond the image

Your imperfections Are so perfect In this light I don’t want you to be perfect I want you to be real”

-Jeff Foster-

“TO YOUR KNEES

Life will eventually bring you to your knees. Either you’ll be on your knees cursing the universe and begging for a different life, or you’ll be brought to your knees by gratitude and awe, deeply embracing the life that you have, too overwhelmed by the beauty of it all to stand or even speak. Either way, they’re the same knees.”

-Margot Anand-'Art of Everyday Ecstacy'

[parabola-magazine]

"From the earliest times, it was understood that the visible world implied the existence of an invisible world, where everything was infused with the supernatural and the felt sense of the sacred. Thomas Yellowtail expressed: 'A man’s attitude toward the nature around him, and the animals in nature, is of special importance, because as we respect our created world, so also do we show respect for the real world that we cannot see.' Through the traditional wisdom of American Indians we learn that there are ways of knowing that are obtained through the earth that allow human beings to listen and learn directly from the Great Spirit."

—Samuel Bendeck Sotillos in our Fall 2017 Issue: "The Sacred,” available in bookstores and online.

Pictured: Edward Curtis, Homeward, 1898

[jbfly46]

Honor the dead by burning as much fossil fuels as possible. 🫡

[parabola-magazine]

"The Native American notion of All My Relations views all of reality and life as related and interconnected. Every aspect of life is seen as part of one intrinsic family. In the Blackfoot tribe, when people meet, they don’t say 'How are you' but 'Tza Nee Da Bee Wah?' which means, 'How are the connections?' If the connections are in place, we must be all right. If the connections are not in place, then we need to tend them first. Inherent in the Native American view is that our well-being is based on how everything goes together. There can be no lasting individual health unless there is a working harmony among all living things. The practice that grows from this worldview is the need to discover, name, and repair the connections that exist between all things. This is considered sacred and necessary work."

—Mark Nepo on eight traditional ways to wholeheartedness and authenticity from our Winter Issue: HOPE.

Read it here.

Pictured: Arthur Rafton-Canning (1864-1952), Blackfoot Teepees, Glacier National Park, 1933

[parabola-magazine]

"Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one." 

—From "The Thanksgiving Prayer," adapted from the Mohawk by John Stokes and David Kanawahienton Benedict. Reprinted in PARABOLA, Volume 24, No. 2, Summer 1999: Prayer and Meditation.

Illustration by John Kahionhes Fadden

[mediaconsortium-blog]

The Secret Strength of Standing Rock

Natives and non-Native water protectors have found room in this movement for their passions, from traditional wisdom to direct action against fossil fuels.

As the camp began growing in August, there has been an influx of herbalists. Many of the water protectors have an interest in reconnecting with this traditional knowledge...

“for a lot of people in the camps, that information was stolen from them through the boarding school system.” 

The experience of being at Standing Rock with Native people from around the country has created an opportunity for Black Elk and other herbalists to assume the role of educator.

[nietofineart]

Raritan Native American pow wow looks to educate people on culture and tradition.