Seeking and Finding Wholeness

This is part 4 of the series of articles entitled “The People of the Seven Council Fires – Documentary Summary“. Find part one here, part two here, part three here.

This article is about Family and the new way of life the Oyate were forced into.

Relationships are very important to the Oyate. If you were an Oyate you can make new relatives, by adopting someone as a relative, as a mother, son, sister or brother.

Social structure

The social structure is one of an extended family.

The men assume the role of the protector, provider and leadership.

Women

Women maintain the household. Women are viewed as nurturers & educators.

Women educate the children until a certain age, when boys go with men mentors and women stay under the womens’ mentorship

Grandmothers are usually the educators of the young

Women owned the house and tipi

Ethnic Cleansing

The Lakota were men of peace, lived in balance with creation and addressed all creation as relatives, they were relatives with the white buffalo

The Lakota was the last of tribes to resit the US military, odds and numbers were against them and eventually they worse faced with a new way of life.

Treaties were made and broken. Land was taken. People were forced into farming, and into boarding schools that were basically functioning in a Catholic school system. Further, families broken apart and separated, men and women and children separated.

Their roles were taken away. The women could no longer teach and nurture their children who were taken away from them; the men had no buffalo to hunt and mentoring to give.

The rationale for the boarding schools was, as Carlisle founder Richard Henry Pratt often said, to “kill the Indian and save the man.” But the actual reason was economic: By taking away the children, the U.S. government was able to take away and maintain control of the Indian land base.

Alcohol & drugs came into their lives when reservations started; the buffalo was replaced by rations as part of a government ration system.

The Oral tradition ended; now Cathlic nuns taught children and provided the children protection, someone else was providing for the children.

It was against the law to be Lakota from 1880 to 1978 !!!

In the 1950’s 100% of the Lakota denied their indiannes and they did not speak in Lakota.

Read more…

28 support poles around the sundance arbor

This is part 3 of the series of articles entitled “The People of the Seven Council Fires – Documentary Summary“. Find part one here, part two here.

This article talks about numbers. Numbers are sacred to the Oyate people.

The Number Seven

The numbers 7 and 4 are sacred thus are integrated in everything.

Seven (7) is used for social units or the structures of things
Four (4) is used in ritual
4 multiplied by 7 = 28.

The number twenty Eight (28) combines both ritual and social. The Oyate have 28 sundance lodges (or 28 support poles around the sundance arbor – sorry I’m a little confused about this particular one), 28 divisions in circle, and the months have 28 days (since they are lunar months)

The number 7 can be broken into 1, 2 and 4 , giving each of these numbers some significance.

Stay tuned for part 4 which will talk about Family

This series of articles are categories under “Religion / Atheism” and are tagged with “Ancient”.

End of part 3

Note: These articles were written in recognition and in high respect to those who inhabited these lands before me, to those who coexisted and protect the land, and to their spirituality, culture and legacy. My small contribution to bringing the truth out about what happened to the original inhabitants of North America.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
American Civil Rights Leader

What’s Life All About?

A simple question that is possibly the only question worth asking! Yet many of us avoid an answer. For those of you who have thought about this question, here’s a chance to share your answer with the world.

I just want to know your opinion. If someone asked you “What’s life all about?” what would you say?

I am in favor of the idea of having an Ethical Code of Practice for scientists, similar to the Hippocratic Oath used in the medical profession.

No one can make anyone be an ‘ethical’ person, however having an oath brings the topic up and forces scientists to think it through, it also shows that ethics are worthy enough in the eyes of the scientific community to be considered and respected via an oath.

The idea was first suggested by Sir Joseph Rotblat, a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, during his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

Following that, in 2001, in the scientific journal The Biochemical Journal, Nobel laureate Sir John Sulston proposed an oath so that scientists could declare their intention “to cause no harm and to be wholly truthful in their public pronouncements, and also to protect them from discrimination by employers who might prefer them to be economical with the truth.”

Many disagree and believe that oaths do not promote advancement.

Existing Oaths:

Sir David King

The UK government has adopted a ‘universal code of ethics’ that was proposed by Sir David King in 2007. This code included seven (7) principles. These principles are guiding principles to scientists. Here they are:

* Act with skill and care in all scientific work. Maintain up to date skills and assist their development in others.

* Take steps to prevent corrupt practices and professional misconduct. Declare conflicts of interest.

* Be alert to the ways in which research derives from and affects the work of other people, and respect the rights and reputations of others.

* Ensure that your work is lawful and justified.

* Minimise and justify any adverse effect your work may have on people, animals and the natural environment.

* Seek to discuss the issues that science raises for society. Listen to the aspirations and concerns of others.

* Do not knowingly mislead, or allow others to be misled, about scientific matters. Present and review scientific evidence, theory or interpretation honestly and accurately.

University of Toronto, Canada
In June 2008, Biomedical Scientists graduating at the University of Toronto, Canada, pledged to honor a scientific oath

This was their oath:

“I have entered the serious pursuit of new knowledge as a member of the community of graduate students at the University of Toronto. I declare the following:

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I am proposing renaming Christmas and calling it Shopathon because that is all what people do in preparation for xmas, they shop. Everybody agrees that Christmas has been highly commercialized in the U.S. Many say that it has lost its true meaning of celebrating Jesus’ birthday. I agree than Christmas has lost its meaning, the lost meaning is what I will debate here.

Christmas in the US and most the western Christian tradition does not fall on the correct date of Jesus’ birthday, so what are WE really celebrating? Are we celebrating a lie?

The fact is, no one knows for sure when Jesus was born. So where did Christmas come from? It is believed Jesus was born in the Spring, then why is Christmas in the Winter season?

Winter Celebrations

Why then does Christmas fall on Dec 25? Well, when Christianity spread in lands that practiced paganism, naturally pagan practices and traditions were not appreciated by christian leaders. Winter celebrations were major traditions that pagans would not abandon. They had to be re-named and adopted by the, then new religion, Christianity.

Winter Solstice falls on Dec 25th and was one major pagan holiday celebration.

Dies Natalis Solis Invicti means “the birthday of the unconquered Sun.” The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian; and Mithras, a soldiers’ god of Persian origin. Emperor Elagabalus introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday. This day had held no significance in the Roman festive calendar until it was introduced in the third century.

The festival was placed on the date of the solstice because this was on this day that the Sun reversed its southward retreat and proved itself to be “unconquered.” Several early Christian writers connected the rebirth of the sun to the birth of Jesus. “O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born

From Wikipedia

You are probably seeing where this is going now. Rather than abolish these traditions they were allowed to remain only after re-purposing and re-branding them into a Christian tradition.

Winter festivals were common in ancient times due to less agricultural work, expectations of better weather in the summer and the celebration of the rebirth of the sun as the sun lasted longer in the sky (a countdown to summer).

The Roman Pagans

Roman pagans celebrated the holiday of Saturnalia. This was a week-long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the week-long celebration. This holiday featured some ‘bad’ behavior to say the least like drinking to get drunk, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (later morphing into the modern caroling).

In what seems to be even more horrible, each Roman community selected a victim. This person was forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. On December 25th (the festival’s last day), this person was brutally murdered. Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by doing so.

Saturnalia festival was a major festival that pagans would not abandon. In order to convert pagans to Christianity it was decided to adopt the Sturnalia festival. As a result a large numbers of pagans became Christian after being promised to be allowed to continue celebrating the Saturnalia festival.

Since there was no significance to that date of the year, Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday replacing the original festival’s concluding day

The Scandinavian Pagans

Pagan Scandinavians celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. As Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, its pagan traditions had a major influence on Christmas. Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul. In English, the word Yule is synonymous with Christmas.

You see? We are not celebrating the real Christmas (Jesus’ b’day) on Dec 25.

Winter Festivals were very common! Here are but a few examples:

Brazilians

Brazilian archeologists have found an assembly of 127 granite blocks arranged equidistant from each other. They apparently form an ancient astronomical observatory. One of the stones marked the position of the sun at the time of the winter solstice and were probably used in religious rituals.

Egyptians

The god-man/savior Osiris died and was entombed on DEC-21. “At midnight, the priests emerged from an inner shrine crying ‘The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing” and showing the image of a baby to the worshipers.”

Greek

The winter solstice ritual was called Lenaea, the Festival of the Wild Women. In very ancient times, a man representing the harvest god Dionysos was torn to pieces and eaten by a gang of women on this day. Later in the ritual, Dionysos would be reborn as a baby. By classical times, the human sacrifice had been replaced by the killing of a goat. The women’s role had changed to that of funeral mourners and observers of the birth.

Read more…

Have you ever realized that every person is annoying to someone? You may have many people that love the dirt that you walk on and hold you in high regard, but it also follows that there are people out there that find you annoying, and thus dislike you.

To all of you who loose sleep over being popular or being liked by others, I say Quit It!  Just be who you are because there is no point in trying to be liked by everyone, it is simply impossible.

Rather than living your life trying to be liked by others how about stopping for a sec to ask yourself if YOU like yourself? Are you annoyed by who you are, who you’ve become, who others want you to be?

Yes you are annoying to others, and there is nothing you can do to change that. As long as you are not annoying to people that you deeply care for / live with you and as long as you are not harming others, you should be just fine

Ultimately, as long as you are happy with who you are, that is all that matters. You get closer to being whole when you are well and when you are aware of and understand who you are. With this awareness you also see how seeking others’ approval and admiration is absolutely a waste of energy and time and is not the way to live your life.

not in wf

CSA is a socio-economic model of food production, sales, and distribution aimed at both increasing the quality of food and the quality of care given the land, plants and animals – while substantially reducing potential food losses and financial risks for the producers. It is also a method for small-scale commercial farmers and gardeners to have a successful, small-scale closed market. CSA’s focus is usually on a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables, sometimes also flowers, fruits, herbs and even milk or meat products in some cases. A variety of production and economic sub-systems are in use worldwide.

How The CSA System Works

CSA generally is the practice of focusing on the production of high quality foods using ecological, organic or biodynamic farming methods. This kind of farming operates with a much greater-than-usual degree of involvement of consumers and other stakeholders—resulting in a stronger than usual consumer-producer relationship. The core design includes developing a cohesive consumer group that is willing to fund a whole season’s budget in order to get quality foods. The system has many variations on how the farm budget is supported by the consumers and how the producers then deliver the foods. By CSA theory, the more a farm embraces whole-farm, whole-budget support, the more it can focus on quality and reduce the risk of food waste or financial loss.

In its most formal and structured European and North American form, CSAs focus on having:

• A transparent, whole season budget for producing a specified wide array of products for a set number of weeks a year;
• A common-pricing system where producers and consumers discuss and democratically agree to pricing based on the acceptance of the budget; and
• A ‘shared risk and reward’ agreement, i.e. that the consumers eat what the farmers grow even with the vagaries of seasonal growing.

Individuals, families or groups do not pay for x pounds or kilograms of produce, but rather support the budget of the whole farm and receive weekly what is seasonally ripe. This approach eliminates the marketing risks and costs for the producer and an enormous amount of time, often manpower too, and allows producers to focus on quality care of soils, crops, animals, co-workers—and on serving the customers. There is little to no loss (i.e. waste) in this system, since the producers know in advance who they are growing for and how much to grow, etc.

Some confusion about the CSA system has arisen as some CSAs are less whole-budget, whole-farm oriented and have more the character of subscription farming. This kind of arrangement is also referred to as crop-sharing or box schemes. In such cases, farmers often simply set the weekly prices and retain a high level of risk, marketing costs and so on. Thus there is an important distinction between the producers (farmers, gardeners, etc.) selling shares in the upcoming season’s harvest or selling a weekly subscription that includes x, y, z amounts of produce. In all cases, participants contribute a pre-agreed amount (sometimes an equal amount, sometimes variable) and in return receive a weekly harvest.

Some farms are dedicated entirely to CSA, while others also sell through on-farm stands, farmers’ markets, and other channels. Most CSAs are owned by the farmers, while some offer shares in the farm as well as the harvest. Consumers have organized their own CSA projects, going as far as renting land and hiring farmers.

Typically, CSA farms are small, independent, labor-intensive, family farms. Many CSAs practice ecological, organic or biodynamic agriculture, avoiding pesticides and inorganic fertilizers.

Read more…

Disaster and Disease are similar. There are only a few places on Earth that are not prone to natural disasters, this will get worse as global warming intensifies. People face disaster and disease on regular basis. When disaster or disease hits and a person becomes weakened and vulnerable, shouldn’t this person be helped by the government (i.e. others who are healthy)?

I beleive that we need to design our social and economical systems, our infrastructure, and our lives to coexist with Earth. We should build buildings that can withstand all extremes of Earth based on the region, as well as homes that enhance nature (blend in, add aesthetic value, be green, energy efficient, etc..) that ultimately do no harm to Earth.

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What is Social Wellness? Social wellness refers to having and receiving a socially friendly attitude from people and a respectful attitude from the state. It refers to external safety. Social wellness means being aware of, participating in, and feeling connected to your community. It means developing healthy relationships with those around you. Social Wellness encourages contribution to the welfare of the community.

Social Wellness is also known as Interpersonal Wellness or as Multicultural Wellness. Below you will find a list defining Social Wellness; this list contains the most commonly agreed upon items.

Social wellness means:

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