Late beautiful fall morning. You and Carol
had your walk in the park and are presently sitting at McD’s near King’s
Island. Carol is reading the morning paper but did bring a new book for reading
as she has finished the earlier.
1138
hours. I cannot remember what Grandma 3 is about, but I will look it over.
That didn’t do you much good. Go back over
your notes. – Amorella
You
found interesting and psychologically usable material from Great Lakes Ancient
Indian Spiritualism in Wikipedia. Drop in what you placed in bold. – Amorella
** **
Traditional Native American religions exhibit much diversity,
largely due to the relative isolation of the different tribes that were spread
out across the entire breadth of the North American continent for thousands of
years . . . there are many different Native American religious practices,
most address the following areas of supernatural concern: an omnipresent, invisible
universal force, pertaining to the "three 'life crises' of birth, puberty,
and death", spirits, visions, the shaman and communal ceremony.
Native American spirituality is often
characterized by animism or panentheism, with a strong emphasis on the importance
of personal spirituality and its inter-connectivity with one's own daily life,
and a deep connection between the natural and spiritual 'worlds'.
Native American religions tend to be carried
out mainly in a family or tribal location first and are better explained as
more of a process or journey than a religion. It is a relationship experienced
between Creator and created. For Native Americans, religion is never separated
from one's daily life unlike Western cultures where religion is experienced privately
and gradually integrated into one's public life. Conversation about theology
and religion, even within their society, is extremely limited but to live and
breathe is to worship. For Native Americans, a relationship with God is
experienced as a relationship with all of creation, which interestingly, is
ever present and does not require an institution or building. All of creation
has life. Rocks, trees, mountains, and everything that is visible lives and is
part of creation and therefore has life which must be respected. . . . God is
known indirectly through an awareness of the relationships or links between
various aspects of both the physical and supernatural realms. Spirituality of
the Native Americans makes no distinction between these realms; the living and
dead, visible and invisible, past and present, and heaven and earth.
Most adherents to traditional American Indian ways
do not see their spiritual beliefs and practices as a "religion";
rather, they see their whole culture and social structure as infused with
'spirituality' - an integral part of their lives and culture.
***
Midewiwin
The Midewiwin (also spelled Midewin
and Medewiwin) or the Grand
Medicine Society is a secretive religion of the aboriginal groups of the
Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its
practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin
referred to as Mide. Occasionally, male Midew are called Midewinini,
which sometimes is translated into English as "medicine man ".
Name
The preverb mide
can be translated as "mystery," "mysterious,"
"spiritual," "sanctimonious," "sacred," or
"ceremonial", depending on the context of its use.
Associations
Tribal groups who have such societies include
the Abenaki, Quiripi, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Anishinaabe (Algonquin,
Ojibwa/Chippewa, Odawa/Ottawa and Potawatomi) Abenaki, Miami, Fox, Sac, Sioux
and the Winnebago. These indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America)
known either as First Nations or as Native Americans passed along birch bark
scrolls, teachings, and have degrees of initiations and ceremonies. They are
often associated with the Seven Fires Society, and other aboriginal groups or
organizations. The Miigis shell, or cowrie shell, is used in some ceremonies,
along with bundles, sacred items, etc. There are many oral teachings, symbols,
stories, history, and wisdom passed along and preserved from one generation to
the next by these groups.
Whiteshell Provincial Park
is named after the white shell (cowrie) used in Midewiwin ceremonies. This park
contains some petroforms that are over 1000 years old, or possibly older, and
therefore may predate some aboriginal groups that came later to the area. . . .
.
"The Teachings of the Midewiwin were
scratched on birch bark scrolls and were shown to the young men upon entrance
into the society. Although these were crude pictographs representing the
ceremonies, they show us that the Ojibwa were advanced in the development of
picture "writing." Some of them were painted on bark. One large birch
bark roll was "known to have been used in the Midewiwin at Mille Lacs for
five generations and perhaps many generations before", and two others,
found in a seemingly deliberate hiding place in the Head-of-the-Lakes region of
Ontario, were carbon-dated to about 1560 CE +/-70. The author of the original
report on these hidden scrolls advised: "Indians of this region
occasionally deposited such artifacts in out-of-the-way places in the woods,
either by burying them or by secreting them in caves. The period or periods at
which this was done is far from clear. But in any event, archaeologists should
be aware of the custom and not overlook the possibility of their
discovery."
Teaching stones
Teaching stones
known in the Anishinaabe language
as either Gikinoo'amaagewaabik or Gikinoo'amaage-asin can be
either petroglyphs
or petroform.
Three creational ages
Ancient
The three creational ages begin with the Ancient age where humanity and
animal-life are undifferentiated.
Golden
In the Golden age animals are still humans, but quantitatively different.
Present
With the Present age, animals and humanity are totally differentiated.
Seven prophetical ages
Seven fires prophecy
is a prophecy originally taught among the practitioners of Midewiwin.
Each fire represents a prophetical age, marking phases, or epochs, in the life
of the people on Turtle Island (North America). The Seven fires prophecy
represent key spiritual teachings for North America, and suggest that the
different colors and traditions of the human beings can come together on a
basis of respect. The Algonquins are the keepers of the seven fires prophecy
wampum.
Wikipedia Offline
** **
Origins of Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism was in many aspects the
first notable American intellectual movement. It certainly was the first to
inspire succeeding generations of American intellectuals, as well as a number
of literary monuments. Rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant
(and of German Idealism more generally), it developed as a reaction against
18th Century rationalism, John Locke’s philosophy of Sensualism, and the
manifest destiny of New England Calvinism. Its fundamental belief was in the unity
and immanence of God in the world. The Transcendentalists found inspiration for
their philosophy in a variety of diverse sources such as: Vedic thought,
various religions, and German Idealism.
The transcendentalists desired to ground
their religion and philosophy in transcendental principles: principles not
based on, or falsifiable by, sensuous experience, but deriving from the inner
spiritual or mental essence of the human. Immanuel Kant had called "all
knowledge transcendental which is concerned not with objects but with our mode
of knowing objects." . . . Thoreau in Walden
spoke of the Transcendentalists' debt to Vedic thought directly.
Influence on other
movements
Transcendentalists were strong believers in
the power of the individual and divine messages. Their beliefs are closely
linked with those of the Romantics.
The movement directly influenced the growing
movement of "Mental Sciences" of the mid-19th century, which would
later become known as the New Thought movement. New Thought draws directly from
the transcendentalists, particularly Emerson. New Thought considers Emerson its
intellectual father. . . .
Other meanings of transcendentalism
Transcendental idealism
The term transcendentalism
sometimes serves as shorthand for "transcendental idealism", which is
the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and later Kantian and German Idealist
philosophers.
Transcendental theology
Another alternative meaning for transcendentalism is the classical
philosophy that God transcends the manifest world. As John Scotus Erigena put
it to Frankish king Charles the Bald in the year 840 AD, "We know not what
God is. God himself doesn't know what He is because He is not anything.
Literally God is not, because He transcends being."
Selected and edited from Wikipedia Offline
** **
You
are taken back by John Scotus’ quotation because this quite concretely fits
with your own personal definition, as it were, of G---D and it is one of the
main reasons you add the three dashes to the two capital letters. – Amorella
I
have never seen a better definition of what I ‘sense’ heartansoulanmind. I
learn something new most every day. Wow. I would add: “SheanHe”; however, that’s being
fussy when: “G---D is not, because SheanHe transcends being.”
To each their own, boy. Post when you return
home. – Amorella
1309
hours. I wonder if I can work this quote into a thought of Qwinta?
We can work this out. Time for lunch. –
Amorella
Heartansoulanmind as a whole do not consider 'ranking importance' as a value. G---D and kind and friendly former students can sit in the same construction. You need to consider this when someone might ask you to list your values and importances in life. The concept of ranking in such a conditional aspect of being is akin to defining what G---D is. You got that, boy? - Amorella
Yes, I do. This is quite interesting to think on in terms of both philosophy and spiritual values.
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