Blog for FB's Pagans, Witches, Warlocks, Shamans and Sages. Listen to the songs and wisdom of the earth. Embrace the magic in all life. Find your place in the universe and your path.
“To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence.
Let there be a calming of the clamoring,
a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you,
that have made their home in you,
that go with you even to the holy places but will not let you rest,
will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you cease.
Let what divides you cease.
Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans,
and let depart all that keeps you in its cage.
Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos,
where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.”
—John O’Donohue, from “To Bless the Space Between Us”
The “Cherokee legend of the two wolves, myth or fact? The possible damage from FB and other media sources not checking out their information or quotes…
FB memes, blogs and more quotes… without researching on knowing already, being on a meme, FB or on a blog, does that make it true? Does it take away from the story ideal they are trying to share? Not really, but it depends on the meme or source and agenda. Can or do these types of Memes and constantly reinforce ignorance by passing on unsubstantiated “bits of wisdom” ( often taking it for themselves, marking it and never giving credit to the original artist even) cause any harm or damage? In some ways, yes. We look stupid every time we believe something like this. I recently saw a really funny meme on FB that used Einstein as a quote source… .the meme was funny, point made..but Einstein never said that.
This is a humorous but also serious blog from a Native American (labeling him and his people in this way as if they are an object to be idealized and I do think he addresses that point) http://apihtawikosisan.com/2012/02/check-the-tag-on-that-indian-story/
“Wow, I’m just shivering with all that good Indian wisdom flowing through me now. Give me a moment.
Okay. I’m better now.”
..and I laughed here and at the dialogue between the two wolves he has uploaded from this blog.
He also goes on to share this regarding all cultures being both appreciated, idealized and objectified:
“This kind of thing is harmful
These misattributed stories aren’t going to pick us up and throw us down a flight of stairs, but they do perpetuate ignorance about our cultures. Cultures. Plural.
Not only do they confuse non-natives about our beliefs and our actual oral traditions, they confuse some natives too. There are many disconnected native peoples who, for a variety of reasons, have not been raised in their cultures. It is not an easy task to reconnect, and a lot of people start by trying to find as much information as they can about the nation they come from.
It can be exciting and empowering at first to encounter a story like this, if it’s supposedly from your (generalized) nation. But I could analyse this story all day to point out how Christian and western influences run all the way through it, and how these principles contradict and overshadow indigenous ways of knowing. Let’s just sum it up more quickly though, and call it what it is: colonialism.
And please. It does not matter if this sort of thing is done to or by other cultures too. The “they did it first” argument doesn’t get my kids anywhere either.
The replacement of real indigenous stories with Christian-influenced, western moral tales is colonialism, no matter how you dress it up in feathers and moccasins. It silences the real voices of native peoples by presenting listeners and readers with something safe and familiar. And because of the wider access non-natives have to sources of media, these kinds of fake stories are literally drowning us out.”
So, all in all… Wisdom, yes… Native American? Nope…no matter what FB and other blogs says. It’s actually a Christian-style/derived parable from Minister and Evangilist Billy Graham in 1978. (info also from http://apihtawikosisan.com/2012/02/check-the-tag-on-that-indian-story/ )
The various forms this story takes all over the internet from random sources that popped up during my general google search and all said it was “Cherokee proverb/wisdom/legend”:
(See the link at the end of this blog entry for the rest)
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.”It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”
You might heard the story ends like this: The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
In the Cherokee world, however, the story ends this way:
The old Cherokee simply replied, “If you feed them right, they both win.” and the story goes on:…”
“One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all”
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed“.
I happen to know the artist that creates these images and she kindly lets all people have access and use to her works, which she must have done here but is originally from “Mystic Magic” on FB by Dreamweaver.
Many of us also know this one, which has been all over FB for a long time now:
A there is a youtube video on it even:
Shared by Moro
The opening artwork is stunning, despite it too buys into the falsehood of the source: Art title ” Two Wolves Saying’ by artist: IrvingGFM @http://irvinggfm.deviantart.com/art/Two-Wolves-Saying-330891051
by Judy Tatum aka Xia @ http://www.templeofthegoddess.org/FromTheDirector/Separating_Spirit_from_Matter_Mother.htm (The site where I found this a year ago is completely down, thus can not reblog it. I do love this article by her and feel inspired to share it but I take no credit in writing this and it is copyrighted. I mean no disrespect but I dearly want others to have a chance to see this article and somehow be able to look up more of her works.) “As the centuries passed, the once-supreme creative matrix lost more and more of her place in our lives. As the people who worshiped her were conquered and forced to adopt (or adapt to) the religious beliefs of their conquerors (much like the indigenous people of the Americas), the “Goddess became almost exclusively associated with ‘Nature’ as the chaotic force to be mastered, and the God took the role of conquering or ordering nature from his counterpole of ‘Spirit.'”[1]
This split in consciousness, which contains the mythological roots of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam–the three major patriarchal religions of the world today–can be traced to a popular Babylonian epic known throughout the ancient world as Enuma Elish (ca. 2000 B.C.E.). The story of Enuma Elish recounts the defeat of the original mother goddess, Tiamat, by her great-great-great-grandson, Marduk. Tiamat, the Babylonian creation goddess, was seen as the primordial ocean womb whose fertile depths birthed every living thing–including a younger generation of gods who then sought to overthrow the older generation. In this epic, Tiamat is portrayed as a great serpent or dragon (both ancient images of the feminine).
After the conquest and murder of Tiamat, the life-giving nature deity who created him, Marduk uses her body to form creation:
He split her like a shellfish into two parts:
Half of her he set up and ceiled it as sky . . .
He heaped up a mountain over Tiamat’s head,
pierced her eyes to form the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates,
and heaped similar mountains over her dugs,
which he pierced to make the rivers
from the eastern mountains that flow into the Tigris.
Her tail he bent up into the sky to make the Milky Way,
and her crotch he used to support the sky.[2]
The original myth, which portrayed the Creatrix birthing everything from herself, so that she was part of and one with all of creation, was thus transformed into a myth that suggests that “the lord” makes creation (and from her body no less). For the first time, “the god becomes the maker of heaven and earth whereas the goddess was heaven and earth. The concept of ‘making’ is radically different from ‘being,’ in the sense that what is made is not necessarily of the same substance as its maker, and may be conceived as inferior to him; while what emerges from the mother is necessarily part of her and she of it.”[3]
With the acceptance and perpetuation of the Marduk myth, a new order of creation was initiated whereby the feminine, symbolized as the Goddess, became synonymous with the realm of nature as something wild, dark, mysterious, chaotic, and dangerous. Marduk then represented the new “spiritual” order of male deities whose religious imperative was to conquer and order nature. This concept created a split that still affects society today. This creation myth, which became doctrine, is an early example of “priestly politics, whereby the mythology of an earlier age and culture is completely inverted, so that the divinities of an earlier era are named demons and the divinities of the new order are exalted to a position of supremacy.”[4]
While much of the symbology in the Judeo-Christian belief system is based on ancient, sacred Goddess mythology (including the Garden, the snake, the tree), our Western paradigm (by which I mean Judeo-Christian beliefs) is descended from this Babylonian creation myth, which places strong emphasis on the opposition between spirit and nature (implying explicitly that nature is not alive and contains no spirit). This symbology has left us a heritage of thinking in duality and oppositions. “We find this . . . in the common assumption that the spiritual and the physical worlds are different in kind, an assumption that . . . separates mind from matter, soul from body, thinking from feeling, intellect from intuition and reason from instinct . . . in addition, the `spiritual’ pole of these dualisms is valued as `higher’ than the `physical’ pole.”[5]”
[1]. Baring and Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess, p. xii.
[2]. Ibid., p. 278.
[3]. Ibid., p. 274.
[4]. Ibid., p. 280.
[5]. Ibid., p. xii.
Again, only shared by Moro. I had no part in any writing of this article. I am unable to share this by reblogging because the site is down and I found it over a year ago.
Notes from the artist: “I had so much inner pleasure working on this theme : GREED in human conscience. I approached here a personal view regarding this “infection of the human mind”. Having its little seed deep in our ancestral instinct, GREED reached a state of art aside human intelligence.
As a twin of Egoism , GREED dooms humanity to a life FAR beyond any humanist believes, towards a world of “profit at all costs”, which is simply grotesque. The INNOCENCE of BECOMING in many potent noble souls is killed or simply transformed into mind slavery as only tiny, obedient, dispensable “tools”…
I believe that Greed alike as many other “sins” that en-shame Human Conscience will be conquered and subdued in the far future to the potent majesty of an evolving Humanity. An evolving Humanity to look upon itself as whole, unique and aware of itself Organism, choosing Compassion , Understanding and a better way of valuing each one as the main ways of evolving.
S H O R T D E S C R I P T I O N :
—————————————–
Greed is symbolized by a hand grasping the Earth and the merciless eye – symbol of mind flooded with goals of “profit at all costs”.
The Earth globe got broken in the greedy egoistically grasp and it is morphed into gold – the eternal symbol of material value.
The avatar of GREED steals every thing for him, from Earth to Sun and also the future Vitality in others to follow, leaving only painful barriers .
The innocent face is half leached of vitality (leaving behind a cold marble sculpture) by the Greedy grasp, stealing the FUTURE, the INNOCENCE of BECOMING… leaving only the ordeal of consuming life only for “hunting the living to the next day”, instead of a full beautiful potential to manifest. The feeble glowing candle symbolize the fragility in victims of GREED.”
“If you will think of ourselves as coming out of the earth, rather than having been thrown in here from somewhere else, you see that we are the earth, we are the consciousness of the earth. These are the eyes of the Earth. And this is the voice of the earth.”
Joseph Campbell
Art title: ‘Element: Earth‘ by artust: melanneart @ http://melanneart.deviantart.com/art/Element-Earth-356114977
Today the sunset offered a bright blue sky painted with gentle, flowing, soft clouds. When I looked up, I it felt like I could see eternity if I looked long enough and hard enough. The wind blew cool and clean against me. My husband and I walked through the neighborhood and I repeatedly looked back onto the forest covered ridge that runs parallel to our main road. Between us and them, there was picturesque, open fields and a sense of purity in all things. My spirit felt so free in this beautiful country. We walked into a local EU football field and there we found the bright green grass perfectly maintained, like from a painting, yet no one was there. Standing upon what looked like a green tapestried spring mound, overlooking the field was a tree, which we promptly and with out ceremony sat under, both watching and hearing the wind bristling and moving the leaves and branches. Looking around, the tender, carefully cut grass was covered in daisies… daisies I remember from my childhood. Perfect little things that spread their petals wide, inviting the sun and all that would walk by, “Look at me!”. I did. I picked one, thanking the earth and knowing how hard that plant had worked to make that one tiny daisy and twirled it in my fingers. Before I knew it, I was remembering my children when they were so young and how good life was then. I remembered why I loved being a pantheist and pagan. I remember rediscovering the world through their eyes and how beautiful and epic every small thing was. “Look at this rock mommy!” and I would and we would talk about it.
“The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. What is grievance?
The baggage of old thought and emotion.”
― Lao Tzu
Art title: ” A Path Divided” by artist: Emerald-Depths @ http://emerald-depths.deviantart.com/art/A-Path-Divided-281916466
“I’m so glad you asked. The basic rule is: Do as you will, as long as it harms no one.
Sound simple? Not entirely. There are certainly self-centered reasons to go along with “harm none” – as witches, we believe that our actions will come back to us. If you put a curse on someone, you are likely to face some negative consequences down the road. Beyond the effects of individual karma, we also believe in the interconnectedness of all beings, in which harm done to one is harm done to all.
At the same time, it is impossible to live without harming anyone. For one thing, we all eat beings (plants or animals) that had to die in order to feed us. For another, sometimes doing magick to help yourself (e.g. get a job) will inadvertently harm someone else (who therefore doesn’t get the job). We cannot avoid these contradictions; we have to face them squarely and accept the consequences of our actions.
Essentially, magickal ethics are no different than regular ethics. Would you beat someone up if they made you angry? No? Then don’t curse them to make them suffer pain. Would you try to bribe a prospective employer to get a job? No? Then don’t work magick on someone else to make them hire you. Would you try to make yourself look more attractive to an employer by wearing appropriate clothing to the interview and acting the way you think they want to see you? Sure you would. So there’s no reason not to work magick on yourself to attract a job….”
The following set of thirteen principles was adopted by the Council of American Witches, in April, 1974.
— We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters.
— We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with Nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.
— We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called supernatural, but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all.
— We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity ~ as masculine and feminine ~ and that this same Creative Power lies in all people, and functions through the interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each to be supportive to each other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energies used in magickal practice and religious worship.
— We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, Inner Planes, etc. ~ and we see in the interaction of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.
— We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership.
— We see religion, magick, and wisdom in living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it ~a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft.
— Calling oneself “Witch” does not make a Witch – but neither does heredity itself, not the collecting of titles, degrees, and initiations. A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and well without harm to others and in harmony with Nature.
— We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it.
— Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be “the only way”, and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.
— As American {Or World-Wide!} Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our present and our future.
— We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as Satan or the Devil, as defined by the Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the sufferings of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.
— We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being….”
(I did not write this article in any way. I simply enjoy sharing pearls of wisdom and beauty from different sources into one source for many to enjoy. If inspired to from there, go to the original sources to discover more!)
Shamanic Dreams of a Pagan Earth 