Two days ago I read a statement by Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Sioux Nation that mixed with other recent events and themes, and caused the tumblers in my brain to spin and whir, then click into place in a delightful jackpot of a new configuration. Allow me to share it with you; you may need a feel-good diary as much as I do.
Revolutionary themes are in the current zeitgeist, in part because of Russell Brand, but also because of the Indigenous movements that have taken quite a lead on the ground, from Canada to the Zapatistas in Mexico, to Peru, Brazil and beyond.
First read a few snippets from Russell Brand on revolution: ‘We no longer have the luxury of tradition’:
‘Throughout paganism one finds stories that integrate our species with our environment to the benefit of both. The function and benefits of these belief matrixes have been lost, with good reason. They were socialist, egalitarian and integrated. If like the Celtic people we revered the rivers we would prioritise this sacred knowledge and curtail the attempts of any that sought to pollute the rivers. If like the Nordic people we believed the souls of our ancestors lived in the trees, this connection would make mass deforestation anathema. If like the native people of America we believed God was in the soil what would our intuitive response be to the implementation of fracking?’
‘We require a change that is beyond the narrow, prescriptive parameters of the current debate, outside the fortress of our current system. We no longer have the luxury of tradition.
‘We have to be inclusive of everyone, to recognise our similarities are more important than our differences and that we have an immediate ecological imperative.
‘We are mammals on a planet, who now face a struggle for survival if our species is to avoid expiry.’
‘Time may only be a human concept and therefore ultimately unreal, but what is irrefutably real is that this is the time for us to wake up.
The revolution of consciousness is a decision, decisions take a moment. In my mind the revolution has already begun.’
I’d respectfully disagree that a sea-change in consciousness is simply a decision; I believe it can be catching when it’s in the air. But yes; it’s begun, and revolutio still endures in the Occupy Movement, and is embodied in Idle No More and Indigenous movements all over Turtle Island and beyond. More on that later, but keep Brand’s words in mind as you read the following:
From Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, Spiritual Leader of The Great Sioux Nation and a few other Indigenous leaders: ‘Indigenous Elders and Medicine Peoples Council Statement on Fukushima’, some excerpts:
‘The Creator created the People of the Earth into the Land at the beginning of
Creation and gave us a way of life. This way of life has been passed down
generation-to-generation since the beginning. We have not honored this way of
life through our own actions and we must live these original instructions in order
to restore universal balance and harmony. We are a part of Creation; thus, if we break the Laws of Creation, we destroy ourselves. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold
the Original Instructions, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our
umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a
resource to be exploited.
We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. We warned that one day you would not be able to control what you have created. That day is here.
Not heeding warnings from both Nature and the People of the Earth keeps us on the path of self destruction. This self destructive path has led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Gulf oil spill, tar sands devastation, pipeline failures, impacts of carbon dioxide emissions and the destruction of ground water through hydraulic fracking, just to name a few. In addition, these activities and development continue to cause the deterioration and destruction of sacred places and sacred waters that are vital for Life. Powerful technologies are out of control and are threatening the future of all life.
The Fukushima nuclear crisis alone is a threat to the future of humanity. Yet, our concern goes far beyond this single threat. Our concern is with the cumulative and
compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of human beings around
the world. The compounding of bad decisions and their corresponding actions are extremely short-sighted. They do not consider the future generations and they do not respect or honor the Creator’s Natural Law.
‘In 1994 the sacred white buffalo, the giver of the sacred pipe, returned to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people bringing forth the sacred message that the winds of change are here. Since that time many more messengers in the form of white animals have come, telling us to wake up my children. It is time. So listen for the sacred instruction.
All Life is sacred. We come into Life as sacred beings. When we abuse the
sacredness of Life we affect all Creation.
We urge all Nations and human beings around the world to work with us, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, to restore the Original Instructions and uphold the Creator’s Natural Law as a foundation for all decision making, from this point forward.
We will avert this potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster by coming together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths.
Emergency Advisory: Mi’kmaq say, “We are still here, and SWN will not be allowed to frack.” Sacred Fire blockade to begin at noon on Nov. 4”
‘ELSIPOGTOG — The Elsipogtog community and the people of the Mi’kmaq nation are responding to SWN’s stated intention to resume shale gas exploration in New Brunswick. Community members and traditional people will come together to light a Sacred Fire to stop SWN from passing, in order to ensure that the company cannot resume work to extract shale gas via fracking. The Sacred Fire will last a minimum of four days and is supported by the Mi’kmaq people and the community of Elsipogtog. This comes as part of a larger campaign that reunites Indigenous, Acadian & Anglo people.
This is also an act of reclamation, as Mi’kmaq people are using the land in a traditional way, and are exercising their treaty rights, which includes ceremonial practices. The Mi’kmaq people have not been sufficiently consulted over shale gas exploitation and do not support SWN working on their territory. (read more here)
This link will take you to an open letter by Amnesty International that says that the brutal response by the RCMP and other hirelings brought down on anti-fracking protests at the Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq Nation was the fault of the Canadian government.
In another delightful burst of synchronicity, a hat tip to mafr:
‘”A special issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Climatic Change has taken this up a notch in a tacit admission: Common sense demands that governments bring tribes to the table as full participants in a discussion of how to deal with the challenges that climate change presents and that they treat indigenous viewpoints not as quaint supplements to Western science but as equally valid explanations of how the world works—that such observations, taken as they are over millennia, are a science in their own right.’
The current Popular Resistance newsletter is up: ‘Revolution of the Mind is Underway’, and contains loads of emerging resistance actions, philosophical underpinnings, and examples of calumny and oppression, including ‘Creating A Strategic Core That Builds A Mass Movement’; excerpts from a book by J.M. Smucker, and ‘Our Invisible Revolution’ by Chris Hedges.
What are you hearing?
*Karine Polwart, the King of Birds video
(cross-posted at My.fdl.com)
anonymous wrens:
And from Censored News: Livestreaming of anon marching on the White House a bit early; still photos, too.
café babylon 
beautifully said.
strange, this hopefulness is spreading. This is the third such article I have read, in the last day or so.
I remember a program about a scientist researching the history of the state of lands and waters in Florida, he looked to Indian knowledge (told to him by Florida Indians), concerning these things. All that he was told was passéd down aurally. (orally?) and all that he was told from the traditional knowledge was consistent with what he had through science, found.
no idea where or when I saw that, but it certainly surprised me.
Thanks very much.
yes, the old ways of sustainable agriculture are indeed being given respect again. modern techniques are failing, posioning acquivers, depleting the soil of beneficial micro-organisms, and the killer pesticides and herbicides, including roundup, and killing the insect life beneficial to pollinization. forget all the hideous effects of gmo crops…i learned a lot from my posts on the global Indigenous. in fact, they were where i began to understand what capitalism, green capitalism, and neoLiberalism really meant to the 99% and the planet.
but how nice that you have further evidence, and thank you for the link, mark (formerly known as mafr).
(not ready for prime-time players version)
__________
finger stuck to
staunch the flow
another cleansing
breath filters
madness wrought
and brought
before we
joyfully tune
our single string
pluck the eternal
note
our mother chords
symphonic reverberation
build and carry
sounding
no comma pause
no period ends
this continuation
______________
first draft, last draft, next draught, some more coffee.
Thank you for this. I DO get so pessimistic reading of the destruction of the earth online, and then seeing EVERY one of my friends, family and acquaintances going through their days seemingly oblivious to it, having numerous babies, raving about football scores. It gets so depressing.
I think it would be very cool if the first of the genocide victims in this country could be the folks who help inspire and lead us on a path to survival.
i love it, nonquixote. the single string plucks chords, if i grok this. it also reminded me of ee cummings “and death is no parenthesis”. thank you, and do correct my misapprehension if it’s needed.
Nice Poem!
I wonder about people having babies.
I have a friend who has very young children. I don’t say anything to him.
I don’t know if people really understand what is ahead.
And I also think that what we think is a possible future, is the present for billions of people.
welcome, sharonMI, and nice to have you back again. i agree with you about the glorious, if ironic, that those who were the objects of america’s original sin/s might lead us into the light. it’s long been my contentions that third world *women* especially have been doing that for a a decade or two now, and on turtle island, the first nations ones.
so many tribes were totally eradicated, and california is the poster child for that. but pbs did a series not long ago, and the episodes utah pbs aired on the four corners states tribes were really very good. youtube has a lot of them, and this is the opening one for ‘we shall remain’. so resolute, so valiant, against the odds, even now, when native sovereign rights have been shredded even further.
good morning Ms Apprehension, ;^)
ee cummings, eeyore, I suppose nothing too determinant but merely suggestive to evoke any reader’s picture as to their own meaning is intended. eeternal umbilical connections, tuning in our own essence as a place to join together in strength of symphonic proportions……… rambling now, glad you liked it.
aside note: FDL wordpress slow down with messages, trying to comment at the diner has me wondering if they FDL, cut the number of servers for cost savings, or new NSA fingers into wordpress to disrupt “non-patriotic,” communication is already shifting into higher gear faster as their masters double down.
no wind and sunny, chores calling, thanks again.
“What if we had taken a different course of action in dealing with these people?” I wish Congress and the prez would ask themselves that question when they see homeless, unemployed, the elderly and sick in stark contrast to those other psychopathic “people” better known as corporations. Congress and the prez, and the supreme court are obviously socio/psychopathic too.
that’s ‘miz apprehension’, all right. ah, i’ve heard plenty of tech experts offer to give the site help for free, which to me translated into: your tech help ain’t what it might be. that said, it’s plagued by redirects and slow loading of comments. and there are so few people there, except over easy, that it’s as though the place has bored itself to death. expiry, i meant to say.
have a great day, monsiuer garlique.
to mark and sharonMI: having babies is a bit of an ‘arrggh’ subject for me; our son and his wife are trying. she had a teen and a tween when he married her, but they want…well, a babe of their own. can’t even afford to bring up any counterarguments since our relationship has deteriorated as of late.
sadly, sharonMI, the rabble class they consider expendable, but that viewpoint is very short-sighted. totalitarianism always precedes the fall, if i understand what those who teach us history online correctly. the mental disorders they exhibit the navajo label as being ‘out of harmony’, and they treat is as…a sickness to be cured.
Probably one of the first times I realized that the really rich think so differently (and cruelly) from the rest of us was while watching Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me”: at a party in a a country club, live human statues decorated the place. How humiliating to stand so still to be background “art” while others drank champagne and ate finger foods. Such was the employment opportunities in Flint MI at the time.
not unlike chinese emperors using slaves as chess pieces, eh? jayzus. how far would one have to blank out one’s mind? i used to try to jettison my ego and personality when i was around my mother-in-law just to survive. it’s doable, but only for short durations. i never saw that movie. are you near flint? the photos i’ve seen are ghost-townish. detroit? glen ford says ‘detroit will be democracy’s decisive battle’. whoosh; ’emergency austerity managers’. and again: it didn’t have to be this way.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/detroit-will-be-democracys-decisive-battle
oh, and i haven’t found any reports yet on the mi’kmaq sacred fire blockade yesterday. but eco warriors shut down the port of vanouver in solidarity with the ilwu, who for legal reasons, would have been severely punished had they been there. (some ilwu port history here; odd i only saved this one)
I grew up in the city of Detroit but am in SW MI right now, hopefully to get back to Lansing in the near future.
I say, “as goes Detroit, so goes the nation.”
When I read that in the 20’s, Detroit was known as “Paris of the West” and in the war years, “the arsenal of democracy” I want to weep. I think the US is so bereft of culture, that Europe would never have let this happen, but racism is embedded here and that was a huge part of it. Ugh
whooosh; yes, auto workers were suppose to kiss the ring of the Sociopath-in-chief for saving their jobs, but the fine print was egregious to their futures, wasn’t it? did they ever sell the artwork in the museums, speaking of a dearth of culture? i did visit detroit as a child. isn’t marcy wheeler in lansing? seem to remember so… oh, and check out the update if you have a moment. ;~)
But for the keening natural world, The
easily one of my favorites, bruce. yes, it is keening, weeping in displeasure at our cavalier destruction and poisoning of it. it would be its right to shrug us off into space in one fell swoop, i think.
you remind me, though, that i’d considered doing another ‘seven o’clock news, silent night’ post, but the news is far too grim. and yet, if i hear the siren cry…who knows? we still must bear witness to all of the darkness, that we might bring light. thank you.
Well, carramba! Seems I was overlooking a new request in the comment block – had to click on the liddle icon “W” – I can do that! (Sigh of deep relief.) But I digress.
It disheartens me to travel south to Albuquerque these days as I do remember living on the outskirts of Chicago and entering that city in the ’60’s would be physically weakening after an hour or so. Now Albuquerque has the same effect, pollutionwise. (The disheartening is because two of my girls are raising children there.) We toured that Cleveland river right before it actually caught fire back in the same era.
It’s sometimes hard to hear the trilling of the wren, until you think of efforts that have been made, like those wonderful women planting trees in Africa – I sure hope they are still doing so. But now, being no longer anonymous – I go to fiddle upon my own roof!
& PM and All’s ILL. The Obamassissin as a serial Speck in NerObama garlands!I’d post along with his ” ‘good’ at killing” boast and subtexted by:
http://earthens.net/
‘when all else fails, read the instructions’, lol. good to have you kiwied, darlin’. that river was the cuyahoga, iirc. i was born in cleveland, a good place to be from…if ya never go back, by my reckoning. it was a steel town, and the filth on the buildings and in the air always made me wonder how people could hang out their laundry on their clotheslines. this i would see speeding by the inner city in a car or on a train. when i came to colorado, i knew i required blue sky.
only watched two, lol. do you think he really said as per halperin and heilemann’s book? it’s hard to believe any click-bait stuff. but yeah, that jonas brothers joke was sick shit.
wow, that is something. that Obama drone cartoon.
I finally read Glen Ford. All I can say is “yep.”
I believe Marcy lives in Grand Rapids now.
i dunno, if ya stir in arne duncan’s ‘race to the bottom’ (should be an obomba sobriquet, if trined), all the ‘failing the test’ schools = charter privatized, or temporary grants that allow ‘businessmen’ on the school boards, it’s all so very disheartening. education for automatons, and at a price.
chicago, or rahmville, has closed so many schools, but as in so many states similarly, replace them with aca prisons. and out-of-the-ballpark college costs and loan rates: elites will attend college! think there’s a theme?
Jai Uttal
Of course he said it (and probably much worse, every Tuesday) when he is serious; gaging by what he’ll JOKE About!
holy ecstasy, mafr. a boy from new york city? what a path he walked (da wiki). a sarod. sounds a bit like the one string that causes the many strings to vibrate. we’re still listening, but i told mr. wd that it could help me get down the stairs and out to the night sky…to fall into them once again. find not only perspective, but…wonder…at the vastness, sure, but the laws of physics being trumped by new speculate theoretical physics. devotee of nova here, and i keep hoping if i watch some of them enough times that i might catch on. i never will, of course, but trying is ever so much fun.
thank you for this; wish my realplayer could download stuff now. has me hypnotized and enchanted, holy crow-a-rooney.
to bruce: i know his drill, but they said ‘anonymous aides said..’ i don’t doubt for a nano-second that he believes it, but saying it out loud is a whole ‘nother degree of sociopathy, imo. that was all.
Thought you might, and I’m glad you got something out of it; I like the way you put it into words…..
I was trying to find something to put with your essay; It made me think of this music, which my friend sent to me some time ago.
Wendy my friend- Could you do me a favor? Could you go to metamars article about proggies and Tea Party folks working together story? Just tell him that someone is trying to get a hold of him? E mail is openprogressivemichael@gmail.com
If he responds- I will take it from there- thanks.
@ mafr: well, i thank you profusely. can’t say more than that. oh, and our pbs station is running a hendrix special; might be way good…
@ michael cavlan: done, though his current post was about motus pimping the tpp laughing at us, lol.
first tune:
Colorado will always be blue sky and stars for me, wendye – coming up into the corner of it from a long spell in the Chicago area – the stars! What a lovely presentation, Mark – the colors on the piece are so beautiful, what I need in my painting, and the sonorosity (should be a word if it isn’t) – reminds me of choral singing where you hear the cathedral in the background.
Wendye, your juxtaposition of Russell Brand with earth cultures reminds me that is what I’ve loved about the Russians – they took Orthodoxy from the Greeks (who also gave them a written language,) but kept their native forest-oriented earthlove – it’s what Alyosha tells his brother Ivan when he realizes he doesn’t believe in God – “Love the earth!” Dostoievski had this experience in the gulag – alienated from fellow prisoners because of his upper class background he was having a terrible time until he remembered a compassionate peasant from his childhood, that the truth lay within that memory.
Icons, wooden construction, have an earthly identity to Russians more than to the Greeks, who built mostly from stone.
ah! i remember your giving us that quote before now; yes, how apropos here. as though the medium for the ‘godliness’ within reverence for the earth and her mysteries, perhaps, can reach a divine level, or something.
i know i shouldn’t have taken the time to explore, but mr. wd brought me home a movie in which richard gere is an instructor in kabballah. he had just spoken in a different way than i’d ever heard about the concept of tikkun olam, which has a definite beauty to me, of course. i read that it’s come to be a contentious subject, understandably, between those who reckon it underpins social justice activism, and those who believe that only god can decide what ‘repairing the world’ should consist of. anyway, there’s a post in here somewhere. this part i clipped somewhere as a modern kabbalistic explanation of the its origins:
“Lurianic Kabbalah has also been used to explain the role of prayer and ritual action in tikkun olam. According to this vision of the world, God contracted part ofGod’s self into vessels of light to create the world. These vessels shattered and their shards became sparks of light trapped within the material of creation. Prayer, especially contemplation of various aspects of the divinity (sephirot), releases these sparks and allows them to reunite with God’s essence, bringing them closer to a fixed world. According to Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the physical world is connected to spiritual realms above that influence the physical world. In his view, as developed in his Derech Hashem, Jews have the ability, through physical deeds and free will, to direct and control these spiritual forces. God’s desire in creation is that God’s creations ultimately will recognize God’s unity and overcome evil; this will constitute the perfection (tikkun) of creation. While the Jews have the Torah now and are aware of God’s unity, some believe that when all of humanity recognizes this fact, the rectification will be complete.”
But in terms of healing this ravaged planet by directed thought and prayer, it provides another theory that we might be able to collectively help. as in the post i did that contained: ‘HIDDEN MESSAGES IN WATER ‘
Added: oh, and i left a link for you in the Updated links entry, not that you’ll like it one bit.
and yes, the colors in mafr’s video image are reminiscent of your icons. it caused me to wonder if you’d like to link to them. wasn’t the store ‘the monks’ corner’? i remember i had to search for them, as they weren’t in the Icons portion, but i just looked again, and couldn’t find them.
Reblogged this on spiritandanimal.wordpress.com.
why thank you, curi56. it’s an honor. i’ll come and read when i have time. great avatar; i love pigs; so smart.
looks like your post was accurate.
well, this time i don’t think it was due to any prescience, mafr. but i do remember that walkingstick reminded me that i’d posted this one just as those pesky kids occupied zucotti park. or at least it was before any of us knew about it. that official date is considered to be september 17. but i did feel strongly about this one. the song lyrics are so bloody perfect it’s hard to imagine… givin’ me a shiver now as i listen.
in fact, i was thinking of using it for a ‘how to make a revolution post’ soon. the tinder is piling deeper and deeper, now even obomba care fails are making it worse and more noticeable by more USians.
http://my.firedoglake.com/wendydavis/2011/09/20/the-sounds-of-a-silence-a-hushed-america-seems-to-bewaiting/