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Archive for the ‘Indigenous Culture’ Category

Biko | Peter Gabriel | Playing For Change | Song Around The World | Playing for Change & YouTube

Posted in Consciousness, Death & Dying, Indigenous Culture, Music, Wisdom on February 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Source: YouTube & Playing for Change

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The Truth About Hair and Why Indians Would Keep Their Hair Long | SOTT

Posted in Indigenous Culture, Insights on September 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

YoungBlackElkThis information about hair has been hidden from the public since the Viet Nam War .

Our culture leads people to believe that hair style is a matter of personal preference, that hair style is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the Vietnam war however, an entirely different picture emerged, one that has been carefully covered up and hidden from public view.

In the early nineties, Sally [name changed to protect privacy] was married to a licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with combat veterans with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Most of them had served in Vietnam.

Sally said, “I remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on Doctor’s Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff followed his example.

As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Vietnam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.

With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.

Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.

When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer ‘sense’ the enemy, they could no longer access a ‘sixth sense’, their ‘intuition’ no longer was reliable, they couldn’t ‘read’ subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.

So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.

Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores. Read more…

Source: SOTT

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Mayan Shamanism: A Spiritual Pilgrimmage | Spirit Journey

Posted in Indigenous Culture, Revelation, Shamanism on June 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

BY MAKENA GREEN

On the journey through the evolution of life, I have found myself to be in the midst of mysterious awe. I am so blessed to have been guided to be a part of Earth Peoples United, the non-profit organization- but also in the greater sense of realizing our inherent Unity.

It feels like I am continually being offered opportunity to become One with the essence of All. In finding ways to be of service to our relations, we are able to have the honor of strengthening the whole circle. I am growing in understanding as I wake each day to a new way, building upon the foundation of my consciousness and exploring the realms of possibility.

In our spiritual pilgrimage to Patziapa, a Ceremonial and Healing Retreat Center on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala- we encountered many amazing moments. It was a divinely aligned experience, as each one is and offered each individual present, the opportunity to learn and grow immensely in a short period of time. We had a cosmic and connected group of people whose paths were destined to weave together, co-creating in the formation of something very beautiful and sacred.

To have the opportunity to Be in Ceremony and stay at an ancient, sacred site of a civilization such as the Maya, is not something we have everyday. To those of us who were lucky enough to manifest this in our lives, we have been very blessed to glimpse an opening to this door in our consciousness that was activated during our retreat.

I feel it was an incredible Blessing to re-connect with all of my soul family present, and especially to feed the fire of our connection to the Spiritual and multidimensional worlds- through the ceremonies and offerings of prayers, gifts and silent acts of reverence.

It was a great honor to have been blessed with the presence of local, indigenous Mayan Spiritual Leaders, Healers and Wisdom Keepers at Patziapa. Tata Pedro Cruz Garcia, from the Atitlan Council of Mayan Elders has a beautiful message to share with humanity at this time of Great Transformation: the Unification of Ancestral Wisdom.

It is necessary that we unite our ancestral wisdom, that lives within each of our hearts and find the source that connects us all, in order for us to evolve toward a common vision. “Oh Corazon del Cielo, Corazon de la Tierra, Corazon del Agua y Corazon del Fuego…los cuatros vientos que respiramos, es la Corazon de Nuestra Vida.”

This is a quote from Tata Pedro that I’ve heard many times in the invocation of, praying and singing to the elementals that guide our lives. It translates as follows: “Oh, heart of the Sky, heart of the Earth, Heart of the Water and Heart of the Fire…the four winds that we breathe, is the Heart of Our Life.” Read more…

Source: Spirit Journey

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Full Moon Names for 2008

Posted in Ceremony, Indigenous Culture, tagged , on April 1, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Full Moon Names for 2008

By Joe Rao
SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
posted: 18 January 2008
06:23 am ET

Full moon names were bestowed by the Native Americans of what is now the northern and eastern United States. A few hundred years ago, those tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

There were some variations in the moon names, but in general the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England on west to Lake Superior. European settlers followed their own customs and created some of their own names. Since the lunar (“synodic”) month is roughly 29.5 days in length on average, the dates of the full moon shift from year to year.

Here is a listing of all the full moon names, as well as the dates and times for 2008. Unless otherwise noted, all times are for the Eastern Time Zone.

Jan. 22, 8:35 a.m. EST — Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. It was also known as the Old Moon or the moon after Yule. In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next moon.

Feb. 20, 10:30 p.m. EST — Full Snow Moon. Usually the heaviest snows fall in this month. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some tribes this was the Full Hunger Moon. This is also the night of a Total Lunar Eclipse. North and South Americans will have a ringside seat for this event and will take place during convenient evening hours. Observers in western Europe and western Africa will see this eclipse from start to finish during the morning hours of February 21.

Mar. 21, 2:40 p.m. EDT — Full Worm Moon. In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter, or the Full Crust Moon because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. This is also the Paschal Full Moon; the first full moon of the spring season. The first Sunday following the Paschal Moon is Easter Sunday, which indeed will be observed two days later on Sunday, March 23. This will, in fact, be the earliest Easter since 1913.

Apr. 20, 6:25 a.m. EDT — Full Pink Moon. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and — among coastal tribes — the Full Fish Moon, when the shad came upstream to spawn.

May 19, 9:11 p.m. EDT — Full Flower Moon. Flowers are abundant everywhere. It was also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon. Since the moon arrives at apogee less than 12 hours later, this will also be the smallest full moon of 2008. In terms of apparent size, it will appear 12.3 percent smaller than the full moon of Dec. 12.

Jun. 18, 1:30 p.m. EDT — Full Strawberry Moon. Known to every Algonquin tribe. Europeans called it the Rose Moon.

Jul. 18, 3:59 a.m. EDT — Full Buck Moon, when the new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, thunderstorms being now most frequent. Sometimes also called the Full Hay Moon.

Aug. 16, 5:16 p.m. EDT — Full Sturgeon Moon, when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because the moon rises looking reddish through sultry haze, or the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon. There will be a Partial Lunar Eclipse that will be visible from Europe, Africa and the western two-thirds of Asia with this full moon. At its maximum 81 percent of the moon’s diameter will become immersed in the Earth’s dark umbral shadow.

Sep. 15, 5:13 a.m. EDT — Full Harvest Moon. Traditionally, this designation goes to the full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal (fall) Equinox. The Harvest Moon usually comes in September, but (on average) about every three or four years it will fall in early October. At the peak of the harvest, farmers can work into the night by the light of this moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice — the chief Indian staples — are now ready for gathering.

Oct. 14, 4:02 p.m. EDT — Full Hunters’ Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can more easily see the fox, along with other animals, which have come out to glean and can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest.

Nov. 13, 1:17 a.m. EST — Full Beaver Moon. Time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Full Moon come from the fact that the beavers are now active in their preparation for winter. Also called the Frosty Moon.

Dec. 12, 11:37 a.m. EST — Full Cold Moon; among some tribes, the Full Long Nights Moon. In this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and the nights are at their longest and darkest. Also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long and the moon is above the horizon a long time. The midwinter full moon takes a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite to the low Sun. The moon will also be at perigee later this day, at 5:00 p.m. EST, at a distance of 221,560 mi. (356,566 km.) from Earth. Very high ocean tides can be expected from the coincidence of perigee with full moon.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

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