The Indigenous Beliefs, Our Planet, and Our Future

Gaia, our Planet, is a living, breathing organism. She is a conscious, living being. She is our home. She is meant to sustain us. To nurture us. She gives to us freely and asks for nothing in return.

However, most of us in the industrialized world have somehow forgotten the importance of our connection to her.

Both Physical and Emotional Abuses Affect Our Planet

Although some of the changes our Planet is going through are simply part of her evolutionary process, many are because of our greed, ignorance, and modernization – what we have physically done to her by defiling her land, polluting her air and water, damming up her waterways, and raping her natural resources.

Our Planet has also been affected by the emotional abuses we have put upon her. Humanity’s hate, greed, killing, judgment, and control over each other have also affected her energetic body.

Just as mistreatment of our physical and emotional bodies affects all aspects of our well-being, it is the same with our beautiful Planet.

In attempting to rebalance herself, Gaia’s energy flow has shifted and swayed, often causing violent weather patterns.

Humanity once lived in harmony with nature and lived sustainably with the Planet’s natural elements. The further we fell into duality the more we aligned with attitudes of lack and greed.

Our lives became based on acquiring, amassing, and trotting over whomever and whatever to get what we wanted, or thought we needed to survive. Thom Hartmann expresses this beautifully in The Last Hours of the Ancient Sunlight.

Modern civilizations have come to truly

believe that the paths to a better life are 

consumerism and to use our cleverness to

manipulate the “machine of nature”

to our advantage. (1)

For the most part, the Indigenous peoples around the world have maintained a connection with Mother Nature – they still hold a close, reciprocal relationship with her.

Maintaining harmony and a connection to nature was actually a conscious decision Indigenous people made as a group, eons ago, so that when we lost this connection they could show us the way back.

This article/blog post is based on concepts in my book Your Journey to Peace, Bridging the Gap Between Religion, Spirituality, Psychology, and Science. Book Synopsis is found here).

This article/blog post is based on concepts in my book Your Journey to Peace, Bridging the Gap Between Religion, Spirituality, Psychology, and Science. Book Synopsis is found here).

Archetypes Act As Conduits to Help Us, and to Strengthen Latent Qualities Within Us

Indigenous People’s Roadmap to Harmonious Living

The Indigenous peoples’ gentle nature and connection to the earth are linked to the healing of Humanity.

In his article “The Three Seeds,” Charles Eisenstein tells us that thousands of years ago when we chose to play the game of “separation” with nature, the prophets at that time suspected we would lose our way and left “three seeds” to help us find our way back. (2)

The first seed was the “wisdom lineages.” These preserved and protected the essential knowledge, and became the mystical branches of the religions or belief systems: the Zen masters / gurus in the Eastern religions; Hasidism / the Kabbalah in Judaism; Sufism in Islam; the mystical branches of Christianity. The sages and holy men within these spiritual branches upheld the humility and mystical, experiential aspects of their faiths. (3)

The second seed was the “sacred stories: myths, legends, scriptures, fairy tales and folklore.” These tales, crouched in imagery and allegory, transcend the conscious mind, as they are supernatural conduits that convey the hidden knowledge of the ages. They infuse us with awe, wonder, and hope, so that however far we wandered into the “Labyrinth of Separation,” we always had a lifeline to find our way back. (4)

The third seed was the “indigenous tribes” who consciously chose to forgo the journey of separation with Gaia and growth into a technological society that destroyed nature. They instead continued to live close to the land and in harmony with nature so they could eventually provide us with a roadmap back to living in accordance with the “laws of nature.” The various tribes hold different aspects of the knowledge we have lost, such as how to commune reciprocally with nature and the animal kingdoms; read and understand dreams; raise our children; and see beyond our limited third-dimensional idea of time. (5)

Traditional teachings among most native people worldwide reveal their understanding of the concept of enough.

  • Those who live off the land, free of material obsessions, believe the earth will provide them with basic necessities;
  • They understand our deep connection to it;
  • They appreciate that the earth nourishes us with water, air, and food and understand that maintaining the purity of these is crucial;
  • They recognize Mother Earth as a gift from our Creator and that every molecule on it lives and breathes.

(For more information on this notion of enough see here for my article/blog post “The Concept of Enough.”)

The Indigenous Beliefs, Our Planet, and Our Future

Embedded in their histories is the belief that we are all our Planet’s stewards.

We would do well to listen to the Indigenous peoples and their concerns about maintaining fresh air, clean water, and healthy land. To carefully study and reflect on their approaches to nature.

We must do this for them so that they can maintain their connections to the land and cultures, and therefore their sense of empowerment, but we also must do it for all people.

As a collective society, it is the Indigenous people who have maintained the knowledge of how to keep our Planet healthy. Their beliefs about it are our roadmap to achieving a good and healthy future for our children and our survival as a whole – just as they intended eons ago.

We Disempowered Many Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous people all over the world tap into and sustain their empowerment through their connection to the land and cultural traditions.

Wherever we have overtaken their lands and/or forced our ways upon them we disempowered them, to say the least. The effects of centuries of abuse, misuse, control, and marginalization has done extensive damage that echoes through their generations.

It is imperative that we partner with the descendants of the Indigenous peoples throughout the world so their healing from the effects of how we treated them in the past may begin.

We must work acknowledging the accumulative effects of past abuses, with compassion for the plights they now suffer, with fairness in mind, and a goal towards equal rights.

The Indigenous Beliefs, Our Planet, and Our Future

  • We must ensure that future projects for profit (or those in the name of progress we want to promote) no longer infringe on rural, native, or Indigenous peoples’ health, culture, community, or way of life;
  • we must also acknowledge what we are still doing to undermine them, or their healing. Their welfare must be kept at the forefront of any decision-making that impacts the environment as a whole, their health, general welfare, cultural traditions, and their lands
  • we must do this so that Indigenous peoples can regain and maintain their connection to the land, which is essential to their sense of empowerment. This is what will allow them to thrive again;
  • we need to create partnerships with the Indigenous groups within our countries and work together to create a harmonious future that will benefit us all, and our future generations, on the lands we now share.

Programs and Movements Are Being Created Around the World

We are starting to address Indigenous peoples concerns: for the repercussions Indigenous peoples suffered at our hands, as well as to support their struggles against further encroachment on their heritage lands for greed and profit.

In 2012, a movement called Idle No More, was started in Canada countering a specific bill that would directly affect the First Nations concerns.

It spread to the United States, where it grew into one of the largest protests ever regarding Native American issues, and various other protests arose in solidarity around the world.

Many who were not of Indigenous heritage joined the Idle No More protests – some to show support for the native peoples’ concerns and others because of general environmental issues that affect all of us and our future.

In 2015 Canada set up a commission to bring to light and address the abuse and other ill effects for First Nations children that resulted from the Indian Residential School system that was set up by Government and Church over 150 years ago, with the last school closing only in the mid 1990’s.

These schools were aimed to alienate the First Nations children from their families and undermine their culture. The children who were forced to leave their reserves and attend these schools (where they were also badly treated) were heavily affected.

So were their descendants: the repercussions from alienating these children from their families and culture caused far-reaching negative effects.

In India, and after years of struggle, in 2010 the Dongria Kondh tribe won their battle against a resources company to prevent a planned bauxite mine that would have had a huge impact on their land and way of life.

They received support from various sources, one of them being Survival International, who helped create a documentary film “Mine: Story of a Sacred Mountain,” about the tribe’s life and this struggle. Survival brought in well-known British stars Joanna Lumley to narrate the film and Michael Palin help promote their cause. (6)

The film shows that the Dongria Kondh people are autonomous and actually thrive in the area their people have occupied for centuries, contrary to the popular belief that rural tribes and those living isolated from civilization are all characterized by hardship. The proposal to go ahead with the mining project was denied.

This denial has set a precedent and now has an international impact for future companies whose intention is to encroach on tribal lands for profit.

The extensive research that was done throughout the tribe’s struggle brought to light the necessity of fully investigating the effects projects of large corporations have on tribal and native peoples and their way life.

Our Countries’ Harmonies Are Linked to Indigenous Peoples’ Healing

In North America, most of us were not taught and therefore have not been aware of the extent and repercussions of the abuses the Indigenous peoples suffered when colonists came from Europe in search of a better life and took over their land.

The settler’s conquests paved the way for comfortable lives for themselves, and now ours. To ensure we create a good and safe future for all of us it is important to acknowledge and address what our ancestors did as they settled.

It is arrogant, even ignorant of us to complain about immigration and how those seeking a better life are changing the cultural landscape while we have not righted the wrongs made when our ancestors not only changed the Indigenous peoples’ cultural landscape, but in many cases eradicated some tribes completely.

If we want a harmonious future with those who are now immigrating into our countries as well as ensuring that our laws and the spirit of them are upheld, we must connect the dots between how we acted in the past towards the Indigenous people we usurped, the karma this was created, and what we want for our future.

Past karma can be overcome – when we choose to hold to positive attitudes around similar concepts and if we address the repercussions of past negative attitudes and their actions.

The Indigenous Beliefs, Our Planet, and Our Future

We Must Be Wise, Hopeful, and Open to Alternatives

Most of us understand that we have to change our ways to protect our environment and we do what we can, but fully embracing sustainable living while at the same time keeping our mouths fed and our houses heated and/or cooled is a complicated issue; it will not happen overnight. In the meantime,

  • we can educate ourselves;
  • we can start making wiser decisions;
  • we can support others in their quests for environmentally safer choices;
  • we also have to believe in the possibility of creating a cleaner and safer world for our children and their children;
  • while at the same time face the fact that some of what is familiar to us may disappear;
  • and we do this by being open to alternatives.

For example, we can exchange our lush green lawns and properties that require much watering to those characterized by various decorative alternatives to grass and plants.

Kelowna, B.C. (a dry, arid area in the Okanagan valley) has some beautiful properties that use a combination of different colored pebbles, small rocks, mulch, and small flowering and cactus-like plants and shrubs to create beautiful gardens. I’m sure other dry arid places have adopted similar practices.

With a little foresight and imagination there are many alternatives we can implement that are better for the Planet and that will also satisfy us – we just have to be a little flexible and open to new ideas.

Ideas and insights like this will start to be birthed in us once we make the decision to do what we can for our home. Gaia wants to survive – to thrive.

The energy of the planetary evolution we are in is inspiring us to reach for viable alternatives.

There is enough of what we need for all of us to go around, we just have to use what our Planet has bequeathed to us wisely – as the Indigenous peoples are asking us to do. (See here for link to article on our Planetary Evolution)

Eisenstein also tells us that the Indigenous mission has not been to change the world, but to act as a signpost showing us the way.

And although many tribes have disappeared, and most of them and many of us are saddened by this, their assignment was only to continue to exist long enough to show us how we as humans can live in reciprocity with nature and Gaia.

He says that as a whole, they have no awareness of this, but they do feel and have felt sorrow and the unfairness of what we have put upon them and the Planet.

As we all should! Not to focus on past mistakes based in ignorance but using newfound knowledge and understanding to look to creating a better future for all of us.

~ Rosemary McCarthy© April, 2018.

(See bottom of page for endnotes)

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ENDNOTES:

(1)Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation (Northfield, VT: Mythical Books, 1998), 191.

(2)Charles Eisenstein, “The Three Seeds,” Golden Age of Gaia, June 9, 2012, www.the2012scenario.com/2012/06/charles-eisenstein-the-three-seeds.

(3)Ibid.      (4)Ibid.    (5)Ibid.

(6)Mine, Story of a Sacred Mountain, narrated by Joanna Lumley, (Survival International) http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/mine

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Copyright © 2018 by Rosemary McCarthy. All rights Reserved. To copy, share, or distribute this post simply ensure the content is copied in its entirety, is unaltered, and is distributed freely and for no monetary or personal gain, and that this copyright notice and the link for the article and the website www.yourjourneytopeace.com are included. You can contact me at: rosemary@yourjourneytopeace.comBlessings and thank you kindly. Rosemary.

 

 

The Importance of Connecting to Mother Nature – April 2018 Newsletter

At this Time of the Year as Nature Comes Alive let’s All Resolve to Embrace the Healing Power of Connecting to Mother Nature.

 

Below is a Bit More of What I Discuss. 

Click here to access this month’s newsletter. You can sign up by emailing me at rosemary@yourjourneytopeace.com.

At this Time of the Year as Nature Comes Alive let’s All Resolve to Embrace the Healing Power of Connecting to Mother Nature.

All spiritual practices I have encountered encourage us to connect to nature in one way or another – that we can benefit from the connection just by being near it, around it, or immersed in it. Lucky are those whose work allows them to be surrounded by nature everyday!

I have even heard ministers finish off their sermons by suggesting we go sit by the lake and take in its peace and beauty. This is an encouragement to connect to our divinity – our true self, through nature – God’s canvas.

Connecting to our true self is vital for our happiness.

It is where joy abides. Where wisdom speaks to us. Where inspiration comes from.
Connecting to nature energizes us.

Blessings,

Rosemary

 

 

 

The Secret of Enough

Even though there is still much need and poverty in the world, there is enough for all of us – to survive, to live with dignity, and even to thrive. We just have to use what our Planet has bequeathed to us wisely.

Our ancient societies lived balanced lives. Our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives were in balance. And we understood the concept of enough.

Most native people worldwide today still understand this concept of enough. Those who live off the land, free of material obsessions, believe the earth will provide them with basic necessities. They take only what they really need.

They love and revere the Planet and understand our deep connection to it. They appreciate that it nourishes us with water, air, and food: it supports us, and they understand that maintaining the purity of these is crucial.

The Indigenous people around the world recognize the Planet as a gift from our Creator and that every molecule on it lives and breathes. Embedded in their histories is the belief that we are all its stewards.

Throughout the world, most native peoples understand and maintain a reciprocal connection with Gaia. This connection is their spirituality.

This article/blog post is based on concepts in my book Your Journey to Peace, Bridging the Gap Between Religion, Spirituality, Psychology, and Science. Book Synopsis is found here).

Archetypes Act As Conduits to Help Us, and to Strengthen Latent Qualities Within Us

Today, much of Western society is focused on acquiring far more than what we really need. This focus causes us to rarely move beyond physical concerns into the emotional or spiritual needs, which are necessary to keep us balanced.

Appreciating what we have ensures its continuation. If we could appreciate all that Mother Earth offers us – clean water, fresh air, and bountiful land we would make wise decisions so that they continue to support us.

Communing more often with nature we would be less inclined to focus on the material aspects of life. Her energy connects us to our hearts and true self. It holds a healing quality that helps us settle our emotional worlds. When are emotional worlds are settled and we are connected to our true self we are less inclined to focus on unnecessarily acquiring. We are more inclined to embrace the concept of enough.

What is enough? Enough is different for everyone. Most of us in the Western world do want some luxuries and modern commodities and some of it can be supported by Mother Nature (if we are wise about it), but many of us have gone overboard.

In The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight Thom Hartmann reminds us that our current society lives under the myth that “some stuff will make you happy, then twice as much stuff will make you twice as happy, and ten times as much will make you ten times as happy, and so on, into infinity.” (1)

And although greed has been around for eons, it has only recently extended to such abusive actions towards our Planet as to threaten her (and thereby our) very survival. Where did this current greed come from?

In his essay, “The World of Wonder” in Spiritual Ecology, Thomas Berry explains that in North America this attitude of acquiring grew as a result of our lack of embracing or understanding the concept of “Earth-based spirituality” when we first came here from Europe.

He reminds us that not only did the Indigenous people understand the relationship between heaven, earth, and its people, evidenced by their rituals and ceremonies to evoke the powers of the Universe, most ancient cultures did as well. He tells us that the pillars in India, China, Greece, Egypt and Rome “were established to delineate a sacred center which provided a point of reference for human affairs and bound Heaven and Earth together.” (2)

The Secret of Enough

Barry explains that we came to America from Europe believing we were religious, educated, scientifically advanced, and able to create our own political organizations. We “saw ourselves as a divine blessing on this continent. In reality we were a predator people on an innocent continent.”

We saw a land that could allow us to break away from the “monarchical governments … and their world of royalty and subservience,” but rather than be in awe of the grandness and beauty of this land, we saw it as a “continent available for exploitation.” Although we were searching for new values, our attitudes of greed and control did not really change; nor did they reflect the values of the native people already here. (3)

In large part, except for the few who have rejected commercialism, such as the Mennonites, Indigenous peoples, and certain rural tribes, having lost the connection to the concept of enough and respect for our Planet, most societies have fallen under the spell of acquiring and greed.

Our Planet is meant to support us. If we return to a reciprocal relationship with Mother Earth we will all have access to its life-affirming energy: we will all have enough. Returning to the wisdom of nature at this juncture in our evolution and with our growing population is vital!

As I was exploring various subjects when researching for my book Your Journey to Peace …, (whose concepts this article is based on) a notion was growing in me that the Indigenous peoples’ gentle nature and connection to the earth were somehow connected to the healing of Humanity. I was directed to various answers.

More of what I discovered is further explored in my next article/ blog post, “The Indigenous Beliefs and Our Planet’s Healing.” I will explain how eons ago the Indigenous peoples around the world actually made a conscious decision to forego industrialization so that they could show us the roadmap back when we had lost our way – when we had forgotten about the secret of enough and the importance of our connection to Mother Earth and of our reciprocal relationship with her.

Following Journey’s … Facebook page (link below) will give you access to this article as soon as it is posted.

Notations

(1) Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation (Northfield, VT: Mythical Books, 1998), 235.

(2) Thomas Berry, “The World of Wonder” in Spiritual Ecology, The Cry of the Earth, a collection of essays edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, (Pointe Reyes, CA: The Golden Sufi Center), 15-17.

(3)  Ibid.

~ Rosemary McCarthy© April, 2018, updated May 2018

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Available in print and e-book format

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Copyright © 2018 by Rosemary McCarthy. All rights Reserved. To copy, share, or distribute this post simply ensure the content is copied in its entirety, is unaltered, and is distributed freely and for no monetary or personal gain, and that this copyright notice and the link for the article and the website www.yourjourneytopeace.com are included. You can contact me at: rosemary@yourjourneytopeace.comBlessings and thank you kindly. Rosemary.

 

What Is Held in Our Minds Is Reflected onto the World Stage

What is held in our minds and the attitudes that stem from this is reflected in society. When our minds are calm and peaceful and our attitudes express love’s qualities as we go about our day we invite more of the same into our lives, and also into our world.

When we come from a place of fear, blame, judgment, revenge or any thoughts or attitudes based in me-against-you instead of me-and-you, we not only invite divisive and disempowering attitudes back to us, we call them forth into our world.

All aspects of the universe exist under universal laws – including us. The well-known Law of Attraction translates our thoughts and attitudes as how we want things to be: it is as if we are promoting these attitudes.

We are actually inviting in more of the same – for us and around us. And so whatever attitudes individuals hold toward situations or one another play out in society. (See below for link to my post on universal laws).

This Is a Time of Huge Evolutionary Change

At this point in our evolution we are encouraged to face ourselves.

  • Who we are.
  • How we think.
  • Our attitudes.
  • What we do.
  • To shift expressions not of love to those that are of love.
  • To embrace fairness, acceptance, understanding, compromise, mediation, and to look for win-win situations.
  • We are to seek empowerment for ourselves – and for others. This Shift we are in is allowing what is not of love to rise to the surface – for healing.

(This article/blog post is based on concepts in my book Your Journey to Peace, Bridging the Gap Between Religion, Spirituality, Psychology, and Science. Book Synopsis is found here).

Archetypes Act As Conduits to Help Us, and to Strengthen Latent Qualities Within Us

This Shift’s energy is flushing out all divisive attitudes and actions, and they will be exposed for what they are. If in our approach we judge others and focus on peoples’ differences, we create conflict.

If we do not change our methods there will be fallout, because when we create conflict it always reverberates back to us sooner or later. It also invites more conflict and divisive attitudes into the world.

We may not be able to connect the dots between what we put out there and what is happening in our lives, communities, or in the world, but if we are experiencing conflict in our lives or are upset by what is happening around us or in the world, we need first examine our attitudes. They may need an adjustment.

The issues negative attitudes bring about may not exactly reflect what was put out there, but the themes and impact will be similar. The motives at play influence what negative attitudes bring about and the mechanisms at work reflect them back in comparable ways.

Until individuals drop their propensity to judge, to blame, we relinquish our tendencies toward greed and unfairness, and shift to coming from a place of hope instead of fear, the world will not change.

As more of us drop negative, divisive, and disempowering attitudes and exchange these for expressing love’s qualities out into the world we will all start to reap the benefits.

This Shift Is Guiding Us to be Gentle and Non-combative

This Shift is guiding us to make our points to bring about equality and fairness, but in gentle non-combative ways. When we push too hard to make a point, or push against something, the Universe will push back. There will be repercussions for us individually, and for the world.

We can adopt Mother Teresa’s attitude of marching for peace, not against war – to give energy to what we want, instead of pushing against what we do not want. Although she didn’t name it, Mother Teresa lived by the Law of Attraction. All the peacemakers of the world have – in their own way.

What Is Held in Our Minds Is Reflected onto the World Stage

Having ideals and beliefs to live by can be very valuable. They give us a life framework to live by and support systems to help us. And when promoting them we are doing what we think is helpful or right.

However, sometimes we can be erroneous in our interpretation of them or misguided in our approach. Ideals from the past can also be outdated – in need of an upgrade.

In our sincere efforts to guide others to where we think our world needs to be going, we need to keep our focus on promoting what we believe and the benefits of what we are doing and why – calmly and with integrity, instead of focusing on what we think others are doing wrong or should be doing.

Even when we are sincere, doing so only endorses divisiveness: it does not promote unity or God’s love. It does not create the vibrations needed to bring about the world we all want.

So, even when we feel very passionate about something we must ensure we are presenting our point of view with compassion.

Most of us are contributing in any one of the numerous ways to bring about a fairer and more egalitarian world – some in practical ways that are outwardly visible, but many by just being loving to those around them: they are creating the positive vibrations needed to help bring it about.

Even though most of us won’t be able to make major changes in the world, we can all change our thoughts, shift our attitudes, and make small choices that are better for everyone.

We can learn to connect the dots between our actions and their consequences and thereby affect the quality of life of those around us.

Even small shifts in attitudes affect those around us, and they then affect those around them. This will then affect the generations to come.

~ Rosemary McCarthy©, April 2018.

Click here for link to information on Universal Laws.

Following the book’s Facebook page ensures you receive new articles/posts as soon they are posted. The link is at the bottom of this page.

Click here for my blog page with many articles on our personal, collective, and planetary journeys to peace.

Available in print and e-book formats click here to be directed to links to various booksellers, like Amazon, Chapters (Canada) erc.

To sign up for my newsletter email me at: rosemary@yourjourneytopeaee.com 

Click here to read the January issue.

Click here to read the February issue.

Click here for the March issue.

If you appreciate this article, I invite you to leave a review on the Book’s Website found here or on its Face Book page found here 

You can share this article as long as you include the full copyright message below. If you share through Facebook (a link is below), the message will automatically copy.

—————

Copyright © 2018 by Rosemary McCarthy. All rights Reserved. To copy, share, or distribute this post simply ensure the content is copied in its entirety, is unaltered, and is distributed freely and for no monetary or personal gain, and that this copyright notice and the link for the article and the website www.yourjourneytopeace.com are included. You can contact me at: rosemary@yourjourneytopeace.comBlessings and thank you kindly. Rosemary.