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Touching Roots
http://www.blog4change.org/articles/1304/1/Touching-Roots/Page1.html
By SISU Saarinen
Published on 12/21/2009
 
Totem Poles are Alive!

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Funny how our ROOTS rise up to meet us. Our mother once yelled at me:"You are not an INDIAN!" as I was asking that White Pine tree trunk 6 feet high be preserved for a future carving into a totem pole. Yet it is her lineage that contains the Saame genes of the Reindeer peoples of the Far North. It had been her passion for country refuge from our home town of Sault Ste Marie in Northern Ontario, that had brought us to this sense of sacred space. In childhood, I had seen with softened eyes, the ethereal landscape of Chippewa tipis and once, the veils parted, revealed the spirit bags, like cocoons, hung upon the branches of the Old Red Oak. I grew like those Great White Pines , strong Red Oaks, both vertically and horizontally, stretched upwards to the Sky Father , downwards to the Earth Mother, and sideways to touch many sentient beings. Providing refuge for others was a natural extension of all that our parents offered us through WHISPERING PINES, a family resort, a Friendly Place at the mouth of the Chippewa RIver, midpoint of TransCanada Highway. And yet, there was a subtle and overt denial of the First Peoples, cultures and claims to the land and to our shared Natural Resources. I prayed that this conflict be resolved within my soul! It was a Grandmother who awoke in my soul this deeper communion, seeded ,cultivated by our parents. A communion with the land, its elementals, and the peoples who had inhabited it. We, our family as well as our guests, were all touched by this ethereal revelation, some consciously, others subtley. So I come by this naturally. This ability to be touched and to touch at the etheric levels, the realms of the Indivisible Intelligence that creates ALL. We are guided by this Intelligence of One. I am inspired to act from this. So I see that one of my Spirit Brothers is sitting there on concrete curb, leaning up against the outside wall of the Bellingham Wa. Food Coop, his posture softened, as though he were leaning up against a Great White Pine. His ankles are crossed , his costume a one piece workman suit. A cardboard is writ:"Help homeless VET." He has been gifted with cup of coffee. There is no anxiety around him. I have become accustomed to this auric field of calm abiding, a witnessing of others' responses to his circumstance. No neediness or desperation. More a curiousity. I bend down , we shake hands. He is Fred to our white culture but Great Hunter in his peoples' ways, from North Carolina. His mother tongue softens my brain. My heart rests in this knowing, that he has come all that way to be here, a Living Ancestor! My path widens when I enter the Coop automatically going into Ceremony in one of the aisles: I envision Eagle Feather and Call to The Directions, placing my Spirit Brother in the Council, asking with him, that he be found ,that HOME be gifted. The smudging ceremonies are syncronized with so many Ancient Ones also doing ceremony. One is resonant with All. There is Oneness, a Unified Field of Nurturance , Honouring of our Elements and Directions as well as of The Elders and Ancestors who are One with Great Hunter. All prayers are listened to. All are answered. Buffalo jerky, soap bar and palma christi oil is added to my bag. For he is one of my Elders and revered in his abilities to hunt. His Teachings are part of that White Pine Totem Pole I had envisioned so long ago, way up north. My father was also hunter, provider of moose ,venison, wild goose, partridge and Christmas trees from the bush at this time of year. Fred has that field and feel in and around him. He has provided for his family. He has lived that clarity, that way. Finishing in the store, I leave, sit with him on his piece of land, the concrete curb, yet we are also in the forest, as he smokes his handrolled cigarette. There is generosity in his spirit as I gift him with the jerky, soap and oil. These are practical gifts, greeted with a sense of "of course" and "thanks". It is custom to do this, not just at this time of year, but any time, when we are in Presence of Old Ones with these Teachings. A custom that many have forgotten. Signals energetically pass between us: we know that we know that we ALL know. Aho. The next day at the Unitarian Church, I sense the energetic field of Great Hunter and see it circling around a group of beings to the front of me.... There is a measure of calm abiding that here are the folks who will at some point, meet this Great Hunter and offer him HOME in some form. My heart feels the truth of these Ancient Ceremonies when we become the servants of the prayers of others, the connections through which answers are to be manifested. My heart is at peace, letting go, knowing what will come fourth is now in The Field of All these Prayers and Answers. That is The Sacred Dream of Abundance and it is vitally alive. For All Our Relations.