On the Medicine….
Water is one of the greatest things in any ceremony, especially the Medicine Dance. As the Creator made us of this earth itself he dipped his finger into water and placed it in our mouths. Water is life. It always moves. It is the same as the blood in our bodies. It is life. Our hearts are only wind and water moving. We breathe air, we are made of earth, and we are given life by water. Water, earth, and wind are what we are made of. The moving ocean is the beating of the earth’s heart. The wind is its breath. Thus started the Medicine Lodge from the Creator and all ceremonies.
The original medicine was very sacred like the original water. It became polluted after the coming of the Europeans in this hemisphere, as they did not know how to live with it. It was also told they did not know how to live in communion with the green, the rock, and the air. The Neshnabek actually communed with all of these things, believing them to be alive and able to bless them, thus they were to be in co existence with all of life, which is what all of this was to them; the two leggeds, the four leggeds, the creeping crawling things, the winged ones, the rock, the water, the green and the air.
The European did not believe any of this was alive and treated it with disdain, not giving any of these things their proper place within his world or their’s. To think that one must make a formal request of a plant, or a four legged, or water, or any of these created beings, was totally out of his line of reasoning. The European sought to control nature thusly, and became enslaved to it, as a recompense. The old people used to tell us this is why the Euroamericans fear nature now; weather, creeping crawling things, the green, even the rock when it moves about, as it should to accommodate Mother Earth and all of Creation. When one respects these things and communes with them, treats them as living things, seeks to be in harmony with them, and generally acts like life is in all things, as well as himself, this person is said to be in harmony.
We have always been part of the water, the green, the air, and created from the rock itself, thus we are family. All living things are then related to us as well. We treat them as relatives by saying this, gdenwemagnedok…….all of our relations.
Whenever I think for any length of time on the stuff my elders used to talk about when I was a kid, it amazes me how much they knew and understood themselves, the earth, and other created things in this world. They didn’t have all the fancy titles and knowledge people boast of today, but they knew the secret and sacred stuff…..the hidden stuff, the magical stuff, for that is what all that knowledge is. It makes me feel all safe and warm just being able to remember what some of those elders used to tell me when I was just a kid. I still want to be just a kid and never stop believing that plants can think and talk, that water will listen and speak to you, that four leggeds can communicate with you if you take the time to care and talk with them.
So I’ll go on talking to plants when I need their help, and speaking to the water before I drink it, sit and talk with a four legged if I feel like it, and go on believeing the clouds and wind can hear me, talk with me, and play with me. I’ll talk to my food and speak for it when asked to at ceremonies, believing it is still alive, full of life, and that is why we eat it, to gain its strength, its wisdom, its essence and become one with it again.I won’t stop believing all of life is sacred and very much alive, just like me…….
Oh and by the way, thank you for listening too……
Nin se Neaseno.
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