Parallel Universe, southwest style

We did a great disservice to the peoples who lived here before we came. We took that we their lands and drove the survivors of our genocide onto reservations. In exchange, we granted them those parcels of land, usually undesirable to the settlers, as sovereign nations. The United States Congress signed treaties and promised to honor them.

Yeah, right.

On December 4, the house of representatives passed the Defense appropriations bill, and thanks to John McCain, there is a little piece tacked onto it that neatly gives 2400 acres of San Carlos Apache sacred tribal lands to an Australian/English copper mining company. That piece of land will be sealed off to tribal use. 

Here is what the tribal chairman has to say about it: 

“Since time immemorial people have gone there. That’s part of our ancestral homeland. We’ve had dancers in that area forever – sunrise dancers – and coming-of-age ceremonies for our young girls that become women. They’ll seal that off. They’ll seal us off from the acorn grounds, and the medicinal plants in the area, and our prayer areas.”

~ Terry Rambler, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe

Imagine that was your church property, only this is more so because the entire area is considered holy. The land itself holy and the tribe's spirituality derives from the land. Imagine the government coming in and taking a chunk of your ability to worship God, or pray, or do the rituals of your faith. Not only that, to take away access to your sources of healing, your herbs and medicines. Imagine the government doing that in order to give it to a foreign company who was only interested in destroying it for profit. Wrecking the ecology. Stripping the sacred mountains, laying them flat. Imagine how that feels to a people who cherish the land and find it holy, who find God to inhabit it. 

Imagine that, then go sign this petition to the government. Please. 

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-apache-land-grab/rnMfH0WL

photo: the San Carlos reservation

Sitting like a Mountain

I have been taking an online class at T. Thorn Coyle's Morningstar Mystery School, re-learning the discipline of daily meditation and spiritual practice. I used to be a whiz at this, but have neglected it for a time, or become hap-hazard with it. It really helps to sit every morning with a prescribed routine and do it every day, as unfailingly as possible. Good things happen, both mentally and physically, when you do that. 

 T. Thorn Coyle is a really fine teacher who pays close attention to physical as well as spiritual and psychological exercise. I have been reading her books for years and the chance to study with her is something I never expected to be able to do. We have worked up from candle-gazing and written conversation with our internal Seekers (what are we seeking in doing this exercise) and Resistors (what within us is trying to resist our doing so, and why) to sitting meditation and some dancing/yoga/exercise added into the quiet stuff. We always begin by centering and aligning, balancing our souls or psyches or whatever you would call it, through breath work. This is something I have been doing for a long time, even when I have neglected the rest of it. Back in the days when I was a Franciscan, we prayed the daily office, which did not suit me and always rankled. We also did daily self-examen of our consciences and attitudes and inner workings, which I found a really important tool for spiritual growth. This class is very much about learning about yourself and involves a lot of that.

And then there is the sitting meditation. From long habit, I used to be able to fall in and out of a deep meditative state at the blink of an eye, but have lost that skill through disuse.  Thorn gave us three suggestions about how to get into it and of these, I found the Sitting Like a Mountain meditation really worked for me. In it, using a guided meditation narrative, we become a mountain which nurtures and supports a variety of life on the surface and has a cavern inside with a deep pool at the bottom of it.  I enter the deep, still pool and stay there in silence with myself for 10 minutes. It is very peaceful in there. I am gradually learning to go deeper and deeper, as I used to do. 

The Jewish image of God has neither form nor gender. According to Torah, God's name is "I am what I will be" which is basically translated from a Hebrew word meaning existence. The word itself is so holy that no one ever speaks it, and it has been unspoken for so long that no one really knows how anymore. With this as background, here is the fruit of my mediation from a few days ago when I was Sitting Like a Mountain.

I am life itself.
I am the beating heart of the rain
I am a stone at the bottom of a pool
I am the moon, the wind and the sighing of the sea, the crash and bang of thunder
I am mountains, rivers, all
I am dancing
I am love
Where I am is all the earth the stars the universe and space beyond it all
I am life itself
I am.

Photo credit: Houston.com, with thanks to Lady Moonraven for sharing it.