Third day of posting on Chapter 7 how I learned to love & respect myself, women and the earth from a Native Elder.
Chapter 7 Mother Earth ~ Goddess Gaia-
Connect to Your Inner Core with Yoga for Golf and so much more!
This Chapter is one aspect of the so much more…written from my journals of my experiences with Native Spirituality.
I have worked with Native Elder Dave Courchene Jr. off and on since 1995.
Chapter 7 Mother Earth ~ a Greek Goddess Gaia
Gaia is a known as earth or mother earth. The Greek common noun for “land” is GE or GA
Saturday, July 29, 1995
I awoke crying and did not want to go to the morning ceremony and cry all the way through it, so I went into the forest beside my tent instead. Later that morning I began menstruating. I was very upset, I thought, of be careful what you pray for you just might get it. I prayed to be able to cry and it was only by getting my menstrual flow that I could release tears.
Speaking with Dave, he explains about the Moon Time.
“I began by sharing how I just got my moon cycle and it wasn’t supposed to come until next week” He said, ”It is just more proof how unbalanced Mother Earth is right now with something as dependable as a women’s cycle which is to take place every 28 days: It is not so dependable anymore. He went on to say; “Women are very sacred because they are the givers of life. Women are to be honored. He said our moon time is a very powerful time for a woman. It affects the energy around her and of others. When women live together nature brings their cycles at the same time, or if you were to live in a tribal community where ceremonies are done frequently as in the old ways. All women would be together and have their own ceremonies. A group of women on their cycle would overpower. David has seen dancers collapse from the energy being taken from them when there were women on their cycle in the same group. The vision quest ceremony is a very positive one, the sacred fire is positive, the sweat lodges are positive. What is discharging out of a woman’s body on her cycle may be viewed as negative in the sense it is all the old waste. That is why I need to sit surrounded by cedar as it holds in that energy.
These are the laws of nature, man did not write the law. It was set in place since the beginning of time. Women are blessed in the sense, as it is a cleansing of their bodies. Women are lucky they go through a cleansing every month. It is something that should be rejoiced about. And all humans should respect that. If men want to cleanse their bodies they have to do a piercing. Do not look upon it as a burden. Look upon your cycle as a time for giving life and a cleansing of the body. And remember how much closer woman is to mother earth in the sense that they are both givers of life and nurturers.” He then directed me, that I had to go get cedar and put it all around my tent.
When I picked the cedar I was to sprinkle tobacco on the tree and to tell the spirit of the tree why I needed it. The spirit of the tree will be happy to give me what I need. He told me I could only leave my tent to go to the bathroom and I could only go back to the fire for the last feast because the ceremony would be over then. He told me I was blessed to be able to go to the sweat lodge last night.
- I learned how to eventually love and have respect my flow….What I also learned about the Native Culture and I ask you to ponder this…How would modern women (and the world) be altered if we carried their ancient practices..of going into a moon lodge with other women the whole time we had our menstrual flow and others took care of us while we were there! Could you see a more powerful future as we women connect deeper to our intuition, Visions and Dreams in this Sacred Space?
Luckily this is last night I was able to attend and we were finally having a meal after fasting for days. The first plateful of food was given to the fire as an offering. It was very hard to wait while all food was being brought out and then a plate made up for the fire, were all so hungry, but what a great feast we had and how thankful we were for it. After we ate David stood up to talk.
Dave told us: “We should give another prayer of thanks to the Great Spirit, Mother Earth and all the spirits that helped lend their strength to us these past few days, in order to be able to find spirit ourselves. When we have found spirit we have to keep working at holding onto it. It is a feeling within us of love and warmth. Someone told me that they tingled all over and that is the spirit with them. People will try to take your spirit away from you. When you go home, that will be the real test, but try not to give in, pray everyday. Pray for strength, pray for other people who want to kill the spirit within you, ask that they be shown how to find their own spirit. It is especially hard in the city to remain peaceful and loving. Pray more. People will try to take the sparkle from your eyes. Try not to give into anger or to the darkness.
The creator made four different colors of people. Each race has a certain gift that the creator gave to them. The white race has the gift of fire. That can easily be seen by all our inventions. The lights, t.v., phone, oven, computer etc. We have everything we need to survive. Mother Earth offers us the essentials. All our inventions are to make life easier, to have more time to pursue spirit. But when are we going to stop our inventions. We don’t need anymore then we have now. But the people in the cities just keep coming up with bigger and better things. But at what cost to the Earth, and bigger and better for whose well-being. It is a destructive path we are on with only a few people getting the message out that we are in serious need to stop destroying the planet. David tells us how he’s been to the rainforest and how sad it is to see it disappearing. For we know what trees do for us, they give us oxygen to breathe.
The government in this country is just as bad if not worse by looking down at other countries for destroying the forests but we do it all the time. He tells us a story that in Manitoba there is a mill. There is a type of tree they use but it had some kind of disease attacking these trees. With the government’s approval they close off part of the forest and spray chemicals. Then they post a sign saying the forest has been sprayed, contaminated for a week. DO NOT ENTER. But meanwhile they’ve killed all the other plant life in that forest; the insects, the animals and birds that eat them. David says an elder came up to him and asked; “When did the bears learn to read?”, as they would be eating the berries from the forest. This was all done in the name of progress. Humans have no care when they are on the road to progress. It doesn’t matter what’s in their path, be it mountain, river, animals or other humans.
All our lives we are conditioned to think about the progress we must make now and in the future. We have to recondition our thinking to realize that everything we need to survive is provided to us by mother earth. We have to relax and enjoy each day at a time; stop rushing around and stop trying to fulfill the useless saying; “He who has the most wins” What do you win? You can’t take it with you when your time has come.
Then he tells us; “I don’t want you to quit your jobs and go live off the land or anything drastic. We all need money; it can be used for good. If we didn’t have money this weekend couldn’t have taken place. We all needed transportation to get here. It’s just a shame humans can’t say okay, we have enough. Let’s just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor and start to recognize other humans again. Recognize the spirit in people, in animals and start sharing the earth with everything that has a purpose for being here.”
One more day of teachings still to share from this ceremony I did in 1995.
Dave Courchene Jr. his native name is, Nii Gaani Aki Inini, in English it translates to ‘Leading Earth Man” Creator of “The Turtle Lodge” A place for all races to heal and connect back to Mother Earth through Ancient Native Teachings.
http://www.theturtlelodge.org/daveCourchene.html’
Its interesting look back now that while I did this Ceremony in /95 while at the same time that year I was taking a Yoga Teacher Training Course and bartending at a golf course….hmmmm the Goddess knew what she was creating before the idea of the book was even a seed thought.
To All my Relations,
Margarit Brigham
Book on Amazon-
Random comment about menstruation- I always find the parallel between Old Testament Jewish law and Anishnawbe teachings on menstruation interesting. Both teach that women are free from their obligations during that time…for example, Jewish women would not go to temple and people would prepare their food for them. Although it is termed ‘unclean’ in the Bible, it was not something to be ashamed of rather God was teaching the value of blood shed in preparation for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In either culture, I think it is an honour and a mercy given to women. How often would I have liked to take advantage of the rest time…
I hear you about the rest time…thanks for your thoughts.
Did you read the Red Tent?
Reblogged this on Spiritual Guide for Golf, Girls and curious Guys and commented:
It is just more proof how unbalanced Mother Earth is right now with something as dependable as a women’s cycle which is to take place every 28 days: It is not so dependable anymore. He went on to say; “Women are very sacred because they are the givers of life. Women are to be honored. He said our moon time is a very powerful time for a woman. It affects the energy around her and of others.