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The Myths of Native North
America
Hello Blogosphere!
I’m
Dave Alber, the guest blogger for September on Stephanie Pope’s mythopoetry.com
blog.
In previous blogs… I introduced the core grammar
of myth, described the alchemical nature of myth, as well as the ecological
vision of polytheistic myth. Now lets take a look at one geographical region
and see how these attributes of myth apply.
In
The
Heart of Myth: Wisdom Stories from Endangered People, we explore the
myths of six geographic regions (North America, Arctic, Central and South
America, Africa, Asia, and Oceana.) Let’s begin with North America.
[The following is from The Heart Of Myth]
[The following is from The Heart Of Myth]
Section
1: North America
Hear me, four quarters of the world—a relative I am!
Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me
the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With
your power only can I face the winds.[1]
We
start our journey in the spiritual landscape of North America, where every
Native American ceremony gives evidence to the spiritual recognition of
balance—for each Native American ceremony
begins with a salutation to the four directions. No less than the Ancient
Greeks’ centering themselves within cardinal virtues, the Native American
salutation is a totalizing invocation of harmony. Hartley Burr Alexander writes
of Native American mandalas, artistic
representations of visualization practices that express the cosmos invoked in
their salutary prayers:
As the colours, so the elements are related to the
Quarters: to the North belongs the air, element of wind and breath, from it
come the strong winter winds; the West is characterized by water, for in the
Pueblo land rains sweep in from the Pacific; fire is of the South; while the
earth and the seeds of life which fructify the earth are of the East.[2]
The polytheistic worldview of Native Americans harmoniously integrates the paradoxes of simultaneous material and spiritual realities as well as an Ultimate Reality (referred to as Wakan-Tanka, Awoawilonas, Tirawa, May Wah-Kon-Tah, Tatanga Mani, Usen, a’nehimu, the Great Spirit, Grandfather, or the Creator)[3] that expresses itself through diverse manifestations. Indeed, Native Americans are exemplary as a devotional people who accept life’s universal paradoxes by rising above all apparent conflicts of duality. Sympathetic awareness, the recognition of the heart is, for Native Americans, the guide to this devotional worldview. For example, “Zuni prayers to the directions begin and end with reverence given to the ‘Middle Place’ which is also related to the ‘heart or navel of the world.’”[4] The elaborate mandalas of the Zuni and Hopi that develop their social planning must be understood as projections through this “Middle Place” of the Eternal powers of the mythological dimension.[5] Humanities role, therefore, is seen as that of a mediator of these raw universal energies into the world. Likewise, a sacred circle of the Sioux is divided into the elemental powers of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, and an Omaha creation story similarly relates, “Suddenly from the midst of the water uprose a great rock. It burst into flames and the waters floated into the air in clouds.”[6] From a materialistic observation, the elemental myth merely describes cosmological phenomena, yet, like any elemental myth in the Native American tradition, it presents a map for alchemical transformations of consciousness.
As a
mediator of universal energies, every human being is a transforming agent. The
impacts on our environment tell us as much. However, the act of transformation
begins with the spiritual practitioner’s own consciousness. Native American
spirituality is rich with the alchemical recognition of the mutability of
consciousness. As the Zuni myth The
Beginning of Newness relates:
Now like all the surpassing beings the Earth-mother
and the Sky-father were changeable, even as smoke in the wind; transmutable at
thought, manifesting themselves in any form at will, like as dancers may by mask-making.
In
the Omaha ceremonial myth of the sacred pole, during a time of community
conflict, a glowing tree is discovered in the forest. “The Thunder birds come
and go upon this tree, making a trail of fire that leaves four paths on the
burnt grass that stretch toward the four Winds.”[7]
Furthermore, in the myth, the Omaha called the tree “a human being, and
fastened a scalp lock to it for hair.”[8] The
alchemical potential of human beings (whether individually or culturally realized
and expressed) only makes itself known when the center is recognized—when
balance is achieved. In the Native American mythological worldview this is
achieved through maintaining awareness of one’s physical, emotional, and mental
experiences in relation to the windy drag of the four cardinal powers.
Thus,
the spiritual worldview of Native Americans has its feet planted firmly on the
ground. And what is the ground of existence but something that is vigorously
alive? Many of North America’s indigenous peoples still call the land Turtle Island. The myth The Woman Who Fell From the Sky tells
why this is so. The myth also relates the creation of the landscape and its
animals from the efforts of two brothers of differing temperament. Mudjikiwis is another story of brothers,
one of which encounters four spiritual guides on his journey to the home of his
lost wife—a being of transformative power—a Thunder bird.
The diversity of Energy’s manifestation in
Native American mythology is consistently recognized as something to be
celebrated. And what opens the heart and unites all people in the recognition
of our ultimate sameness—our one heart—more so than laughter? Horned Toad Meets the Giants invites us
to participate in the mythological world, not from the forced habit of the
solemn misperception of separateness, but rather from the joyous commonality of
recognition and celebration in life’s hilarious absurdity.
notes
[1]
Neihardt, John G. and Nicolas Black Elk. Black
Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.
Lincoln: U. of Nebraska P., 2000. p. 4.
[2]
Alexander, Hartley Burr, Ph.D.. The
Mythology of All Races: North America. New York: Cooper Square Pub., 1964.
p. 186.
[3]
Smith, Huston. A Seat at the Table:
Huston Smith In Conversation With Native Americans on Religious Freedom.
Ed. Phil Cousineau. Berkeley: U. of California P., 2006. p. xix.
[4]
Alexander. p. 187.
[5]
Ibid. pp. 185–7.
[6]
Ibid. p. 98.
[7]
Ibid. p. 100.
[8]
Ibid. p. 100.
COMING THIS FRIDAY BLOG 6 of 6
In the next blog… we examine one group of polytheistic people from the Native American tradition — the Crow (Apsaalooke) people — exploring their culture and living myths.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Alber is the author of To the Dawn, Myth & Medium, and Alien Sex in Silicon Valley. His book The Heart of Myth is a global anthology of living myth that unpacks the grammar of world mythology. His website is DaveAlber.com and his English learning products are at EasyAmericanAccent.com.
DAVE ALBER SEPTEMBER GUEST BLOGS
Blog1
What Is Myth For You?
Blog 2
What Is The Core Grammar of Mythology?
Blog 3
What Is The Alchemy Of Myth?
Blog 4
What Is The Ecological Vision Of Myth?
Blog 5
The Myths Of Native North America
Blog 6
The Myths Of The Crow (Apsaalooke) People
Posts
