
       
I thought I would start off the Ancient Religion pages with a look into my own ancient past, North American Natives. I am proud to say that most of my life was spent with a great friend who is a descendent of the Mi'kmaq tribe. And as I have researched into my own past, I too am a descendent.
I hope you enjoy these pages as much as I do. I thank my daughter Jessica for putting together all the info, backgrounds and art work.

Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions.
Let us greet the dawn of a new day
when all can live as one with nature
and peace reigns everywhere.
Oh Great Spirit, bring to our brothers
the wisdom of Nature and the knowledge
that if her laws are obeyed
this land will again flourish
and grasses and trees will grow as before.
Guide those that through their councils
seek to spread the wisdom of their leaders to all people.
Heal the raw wounds of the earth
and restore to our soul the richness
which strengthens men's bodies
and makes them wise in their councils.
Bring to all the knowledge that great cities
live only through the bounty
of the good earth beyond their paved streets
and towers of stone and steel.
~Native American Prayer~

Forgotten History

Before Europeans began migrating to North America, it was inhabited by an estimated 10 to 16 million Americans. Contrary to present beliefs, most Europeans referred to the Natives of this country as simply Americans prior to the War of 1812.
The Europeans brought with them all the of sicknesses and diseases associated with living in dirty cities with open sewage running in the streets. To make matters worse, they rarely bathed & almost never had all of their clothes off at the same time. Upon meeting "the White Man", the natives thought they were unclean & tried to teach them to bathe, but were unsuccessful, as "the Whites" found it immodest!
Tragically, the Natives had never been in contact with these illnesses & were ravaged by them. The bubonic plague, small pocks & even influenza killed them on contact. It killed between 90- 95% of them! (by comparison, The Great Plague in Europe during the Dark Ages killed about 30%) The remaining fled to other towns & villages, which caused the sickness to spread like a red carpet before the Europeans.
Can you imagine the breakdown that would occur to our culture if 90% of us got violently ill and died, just as an unknown culture arrived on our shores? The Europeans felt it was God's will, and even called it God's plague. Understandably many natives lost their will to achieve long term goals, such as planting for the next season etc. They were in disarray.
When the Pilgrim's landed at Plymouth Rock, they found cleared farmland, recently planted corn, with a "brook of fresh water", in a perfect location to start a town. The fact is that it was a town! The plague had actually cleared the natives out for the Pilgrims arrival! Such was the pattern throughout New England.
The Europeans did not "settle" in Africa or Asia because there were already a lot of people living there. The same was true for America, until The Plagues. Without them, the natives may or may not have been economically dominated, as parts of Africa and Asia were, but certainly not driven off the continent to reservations.
By the time the Plagues had run their course in the east & the tribes had summoned at least a portion of their strength and organization, the Europeans where firmly entrenched in the native's own towns.

15 Things that The Great Spirit Won't Ask

1. Great Spirit won't ask what kind of car you drove, but will ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.
2. Great Spirit won't ask the square footage of your house, but will ask how many people you welcomed into your house.
3. Great Spirit won't ask about the fancy clothes you had in your closet, but will ask how many of those clothes helped the needy.
4. Great Spirit won't ask about your social status, but will ask what kind of class you displayed.
5. Great Spirit won't ask how many material possessions you had, but will ask if they dictated your life.
6. Great Spirit won't ask what your highest salary was, but will ask if you compromised your character to obtain that salary.
7. Great Spirit won't ask how much overtime you worked, but will ask if you worked overtime for your family and loved ones.
8. Great Spirit won't ask how many promotions you received, but will ask how you promoted others.
9. Great Spirit won't ask what your job title was, but will ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.
10. Great Spirit won't ask what you did to help yourself, but will ask what you did to help others.
11. Great Spirit won't ask how many friends you had, but will ask how many people to whom you were a true friend.
12. Great Spirit won't ask what you did to protect your rights, but will ask what you did to protect the rights of others.
13. Great Spirit won't ask in what neighborhood you lived, but will ask how you treated your neighbors.
14. Great Spirit won't ask about the color of your skin, but will ask about the content of your character.
15. Great Spirit won't ask how many times your deeds matched your words, but will ask how many times they didn't.

The Concept of Democracy Was Learned From the Natives

The ideals of democracy & equality are ideals that the colonies saw in action in the Native towns and villages. The Colonists had lived all their history under the rule of Monarchies & even habitually referred to Native village leaders as Kings. When in fact many members of the tribe had a say in the tribe's decisions, including both men and women. There is strong historical support that the Declaration of Independence was based on, or at the very least, inspired by The League of Iroquois!
info by: http://hoffmanshome.com/native/

"Remember: If the Creator put it there, it is in the right place. The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears."
~Indian cheif 1876~

The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us....Big Thunder (Bedagi) - Wabanaki Alonquin


"The culture, values and traditions of native people amount to more than crafts and carvings. Their respect for the wisdom of their elders, their concept of family responsibilities extending beyond the nuclear family to embrace a whole village, their respect for the environment, their willingness to share - all of these values persist within their own culture even though they have been under unremitting pressure to abandon them." Mr. Justice Thomas Berger, Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, (aka the Berger Inquiry).
"Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge; rather than accepting bread and toast [sic] from the Holy Priest, I smoke a ceremonial pipe to come into Communion with the Great Spirit; and rather than kneeling with my hands placed together in prayer, I let sweetgrass be feathered over my entire being for spiritual cleansing and allow the smoke to carry my prayers into the heavens. I am a Mi'kmaq, and this is how we pray." Noah Augustine, from his article "Grandfather was a knowing Christian," Toronto Star, Toronto ON Canada, 2000-AUG-9.
"If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind." Statement by an anonymous Native woman.

Many followers of Native American Spirituality, do not regard their spiritual beliefs and practices as a "religion" in the way in which many Christians do. Their beliefs and practices form a integral and seamless part of their very being.


Natives culture and religion should be valued. They have made many contributions to North American society:
* awareness of concern for the environment
* the design of the kayak, toboggan and snowshoe
* cotton
* over 200 drugs, derived from native remedies
* food staples such as corn,beans,squash, potatoes
* the original oral contraceptive

It is ironic that the wine that is the Christians' most sacred substance, used in the Mass to represent the blood of their God, has caused such a trail of devastation within Native populations. And the Natives' most sacred substance, tobacco, has caused major health problems for so many Christians.

Obligations of True Path Walkers
To bring back the natural harmony that humans once enjoyed.
To save the planet from present practices of destruction.
To find and re-employ real truth.
To promote true balance between both genders.
To share and be less materialistic.
To become rid of prejudice.
To learn to be related.
To be kind to animals and take no more than we need.
To play with one's children and love each equally and fairly.
To be brave and courageous, enough so,
To take a stand and make a commitment.
To understand what Generations Unborn really means.
To accept the Great Mystery
in order to end foolish argument over religion

Hear me, oh Red man, if you want to save your hide,
Because here you surely can't abide.
Take your pagan customs with you, please do,
Get off the planet, I would if I were you.
Don't cherish the land in which you were born,
We already have your tobacco and corn.
Without your help we couldn't have survived,
But now that civilization has been revived.
A payment is due, we'll pay you in lead,
We won't sleep a moment, until your all dead.
An enemy like you we can't understand,
We take and you give, and you hold out your hand.
A handshake with you makes my stomach turn,
How come your so stupid, how come you don't learn?
I believe in the saying that somebody said,
The only good Indian is one that is dead.
Our God hates a heathen, now this we all know,
If he doesn't change his ways to hell he must go.
So, we help out our God in all the ways we can,
We kill all the pagans and take over their land.
The deseases we've fed them are working too slow,
They don't hurt enough, not near enough woe.
We'll make them all starve, show them how low we can go,
So, we killed and we killed to the last Buffalo.
Bison don't fight back so we made a great show,
We cut out their tongues and we ripped off their skins.
But God will forgive us for all our sins.
If we pray every morning and also at night,
Our sins are forgiven, everything is alright.
So, the survivers were put on a reservation,
The last lost people of a proud nation.
People shouldn't go down with the setting sun,
America what in god's name have you done?
America the beautiful, America the free,
You've lost something essential as it could be.
From your highest mountain to your shinning sea,
There should be a part of what use to be.
Not the clutter of mankind everywhere you look,
Why not give back a little of what you took.
Native Americans are still here today,
But no body listens to what they have to say.
They said it before and they say it again,
You can't own the land, you don't own the rain.
So, why can't we learn from people who know,
They have only been here twenty thousand years or so.
Could it be that they know this immense and great land,
Like you know your children or the back of your hand.
Why haven't we learned from people so great,
We are here today, we leave what we create.
Be it jungles of garbage or polluted water,
The land still owns you, your only a
squatter...
Poem by, Beckie Clymo & Dean Trudell


The Legend of the Dream Catcher

Long ago when the world was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language that only the spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand. As he spoke Iktomi, the spider, took the elder's willow hoop which had feathers, horse hair, beads and offerings on it and began to spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life...and how we begin our lives as infants and we move on to childhood, and then to adulthood. Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle. "But," Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, "in each time of life there are many forces -- some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But if you listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer you in the wrong direction." He continued, "There are many forces and different directions that can help or interfere with the harmony of nature, and also with the great spirit and all of his wonderful teachings." All the while the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web starting from the outside and working towards the center. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the Lakota elder the web and said...."See, the web is a perfect circle but there is a hole in the center of the circle." He said, "Use the web to help yourself and your people to reach your goals and make use of your people's ideas, dreams and visions. "If you believe in the great spirit, the web will catch your good ideas -- and the bad ones will go through the hole." The Lakota elder passed on his vision to his people and now the Sioux Indians use the dream catcher as the web of their life. It is hung above their beds or in their home to sift their dreams and visions. The good in their dreams are captured in the web of life and carried with them...but the evil in their dreams escapes through the hole in the center of the web and are no longer a part of them. They believe that the dream catcher holds the destiny of their future.


The Dream Catcher
An ancient Chippewa tradition
The dream net has been made
For many generations
Where spirit dreams have played.
Hung above the cradle board,
Or in the lodge up high,
The dream net catches bad dreams,
While good dreams slip on by.
Bad dreams become entangled
Among the sinew thread.
Good dreams slip through the center hole,
While you dream upon your bed.
This is an ancient legend,
Since dreams will never cease,
Hang this dream net above your bed,
Dream on, and be at peace.
info by: http://www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm


Glitter pics from

Glitter Background from

Wooden Background from

All others pics are found readily available online |