lainelawless

Noble Savages*

Traveling through Indian Country in NM, AZ and CO, I try to take every opportunity to look at petroglyphs. I am obsessed with them, and I find them to be an amazing record of native shamanism, magic, astronomy and a unique worldview. They are a window into a murky and unknown past. But alas, it is not MY past.

Supposedly the people who made them were ancestors of the current Indian tribes, although it seems that archaeologists cannot quite make up their minds on this, depending upon what year it is, and what is considered politically correct. While the stereotype I see on TV shows Indians as wise, good trackers and very spiritual (not a bad stereotype, is it?), I wonder if most of them fit that description.

One thing I have become aware of traveling in both the winter and the summer is how much early humans were affected by the seasons, as I have spent much more time outside and been affected by the weather and the seasons. Yes, winter is pretty depressing when it gets dark at 5pm, and I can certainly do without the cold as well! I too, would have prayed for the light and warmth to come back. I have prayed for cooler climates during the heat of the summer, and partially found that in the Rocky Mountains.

I know large numbers of New Agers have turned to Indian religions as a way to connect with the earth, but I’m not sure if the Indians are thrilled about this. There are aspects of any religion which are sacred, and unlike Christianity, some are secret and are not supposed to be shared with those outside the tribe. I do find it curious for people to turn to religions of others rather than first seeking out their own heritage. Some use the justification that they have crossed over based on who they were in a past life! And on the other hand, I have seen many people struggle with the religion of their parents, and try to fit into it, when what they should be doing is to find a spiritual path which suits their needs. So, it’s not for me to judge. Find a spirituality which suits your needs, and allow it to fill you, I say!

What excites me as a neopagan about any other pagan people who are actually living their earth-based religion is the possibility that I might learn from them. You see, I’m not entirely certain that Wicca was not invented by Gerald Gardner in England in the 20th century, and as a White Bread American, I’m not really sure how close I am to my roots. Of course, not all Indians practice the religion of their ancestors; many were converted by missionaries and have stayed Christian. But enough of them are living their religion to inspire me.

I get excited about all small-scale societies where the people have a spiritual history spanning hundreds, if not thousands of years, because if I am fortunate enough to be invited to any of their ceremonies, I will be able to observe a natural worship which I believe is akin to what my ancestors practiced. Being a part of any modern pagan practice sure beats monotheism! A Navajo Ranger told me that their society is matriarchal, which made me much more interested in studying it. I figure if it’s functional, it might be worth more than just a shot, as we in America are saddled with a patriarchal society which is largely non-functional. Now you can speculate about WHY it’s non-functional: materialism, industrialization, the White Man in charge, or whatever, but I think it has a lot to do with the spiritual paucity of Christianity. There’s just no there there, as Gertrude Stein would say.

Being a former urban dweller of an industrialized society with a typically analytical Aquarian mind is not the best formula for tuning in to the spirits and doing shamanic journeying. I guess if you are a bad shaman, then you get no journey!? (Just a joke from a weekend workshop I went to...) I think now a little LSD would help, but it seems I took that when all I wanted to do was get high, and I learned nothing from the little squiggly things I observed when I was very much younger. Would I do it again? In a New York minute! The problem is, it seems all entheogens that are being used now either make you barf, have the runs, or both. Being high as a kite and hurling doesn’t appeal to me any more than fasting or going without sleep.

So because of the excessive development of my intellect, I find that I have to release a lot of that learning, and to learn to just BE, and to listen to the voice within. I really wish I were better at it. Gotta find some LSD...

Anyway, back to paganism. I find it a special thrill to attend any modern pagan gathering, especially if I know the people have customs dating back thousands of years. For example, I once attended a Candomble ceremony in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil which was a ceremony for Shango, the male god of thunder and lightening. I was there with a group of all white tourists; all the people in the ceremony who were dancing and playing drums, with one exception, were black. It was held in someone’s house in a black neighborhood, and the ceiling was illuminated by a sting of bare light bulbs across the room. People asked me what I felt; I didn’t feel anything, as I am not a worshipper of the male deities. It was summer in Brazil, and I was extremely hot and sweaty. I learned quite a lot about Candomble from my guide who knew the participants, and I enjoyed the colorful costumes. We white tourists were quite a curiosity to the celebrants. I later learned that one of the owners of the B&B where I was staying had a father who was a Santeria priest, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stay to attend a Santeria ceremony, as that would have been fascinating. I am very much drawn to the Afro-Brazilian rhythms that comprise samba and bossa nova. I’m not sure why. I think every time I hear a lot of percussion, I imagine my ancestors sitting in a circle around a fire in the forest beating drums and worshipping their deities.

I’m finding that as I get older, I want to get more and more back to my roots, which means studying prehistoric Northern European myths and folklore. The more I go to pre-Columbian Indian ruins of the Anasazi, ec., the more I want to know about MY ancestors, and I wonder if there are as many petroglyphs in Europe as there are out West? I know there are a number of ancient caves with pictographs (paintings) in them and there are similarities to the petroglyphs of the American West. (See the book The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves by Clottes and Lewis-Williams.)

So the more I visit the Indian ruins, the more I think, “These people are not my ancestors!” As humans, we are all the same under the skin, but still I want to know what MY ANCESTORS did. I found that for years I studied Mediterranean deities since there was a wealth of information on them and I could pronounce their names, but then one day I realized I was not related to anything Mediterranean, and I began my quest to find the authentic, natural deities who were worshipped by my ancestors.

Much has been said of how poor and downtrodden the Indian is. It is not easy being a conquered people, and being dependent upon the government is never helpful (see Uncle Sam’s Plantation by Star Parker). However, I think it’s time to set the record straight about all “indigenous” people. ALL of us have lost a good portion of our unique racial and natural ethnic, cultural heritage. What happened to the Indians was just more recent in history and more glaring. I think it was a crime for the European conquerors, including the Catholic Church, to force Indians to be their slaves in Missions, it was a crime to commit the wholesale genocide of the native people of America, and it was a crime for the Christian zealots to rip children away from their families, just so they could send them to school and train them to be proper Christians and to keep the Indians from being “heathens.” On the whole, it was a massive crime to try to make the Indians act and think “white” and to keep them from their cultural and spiritual heritage.

As someone once said, land is always purchased with blood, and it seems the history of mankind is littered with dead bodies created by wars over land. Turning the pages of history WAY BACK, we find that the European peoples were conquered by the invading pagan Romans, and then again by the Christian Romans. Since the ancient Europeans had no written language at the time the Holy Roman Empire and Church conquered Europe, we have no written record of how they lived, what they thought, how they worshipped their deities, etc. The only descriptions we have of our “barbarian” ancestors were written by the victors, Christian monks, who hardly constitute unbiased, culturally-competent historians! We do have an archaeological record, which is actually less than what American Indians have today. To some degree, they at least have oral histories passed down through the generations, as well as a native language still spoken by elders, and which they are trying to teach to their younger members in order to preserve their unique culture.

Are Indians truly Native Americans? I wonder, do they think of themselves as “natives?” That word is not always used in a kind way. I think it can be argued that I am “native” to America because I was born here and so were several generations of my ancestors. In fact, Indian people came to America from Asia! Yes, perhaps they were here for thousands of years before Europeans came, but does that mean they are “native” and we are not? The only thing that separates their migration from ours is TIME. Perhaps the only NATIVE people are the first homo sapiens who emerged from Africa (so we are told) and then migrated to other continents and grew to become what we now know as the various races of humans. It seems the story of humanity is one of migration; the Jews left Israel and Judah (and then returned), the Europeans left Europe and migrated to North and South America and the Caribbean, the English migrated to Africa, the Africans migrated (unwillingly) to North and South America, the Japanese overtook much of Asia through conquest, the USSR absorbed many Eastern European and Asian countries, the Moors invaded Spain, etc. Just who is NATIVE at this point? Oh, and let’s not forget the Mexican illegal aliens who are “migrating” to the United States!

You see, I take the point of view that as conquest has occurred, whole groups of conquered peoples have had their cultures annihilated. Yes, I certainly do feel for the Indians of the United States, but they are not the only group to have their culture and their numbers decimated. Remember the Turkish massacre of Armenians in 1915 and the Iraqi massacre of the Kurds in the 1980’s?

I mourn for my lost ancestry, my heritage, the culture and spirituality of my ancestors. I am going to do what I can to find out how they worshipped and how they lived. I may not like what I find, but at least I will know the truth, and I will have some basis for knowing who and what I really am, and where I came from.

*The title Noble Savages refers to a stereotype of small-scale societies, and the people in them. In this group my sense of irony demands that I include ALL pagans of every ethnic background, including Caucasians. (Just a note so the PC crowd doesn't have a leg to stand on when they have a hissy fit.)

posted by lainelawless @ 12:53 PM