Indigenous Religions

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Indigenous Religions
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Everything is alive

• Indigenous
• descendants of original inhabitants of lands now
  controlled by political systems in which they
  have little or no control
• The ways of the elders
• Original WAYS to live
• paths
• rules

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What happened to them?

• Colonization
• Imperialism
• Conversions
• Spreading the Gospel by the sword
• Materialism
• Reservation lifestyle
• Destruction of Natural Environments
• Rainforests or golf courses?

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The TRUE great divide

• Understanding
• Cultural demise
• loss of language
• suppression
• the great melting pot
• cultural mental block.
• Western versus local worldview

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What are Indigenous religions REALLY about?
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Its about RELATIONSHIPS

• Community
• Humanity
• Whole Earth
• Supreme Being

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Community

• The area where you live
• The backyard Bar B Que and the Cherokees
• Your Tribe.
• similar
• beliefs
• geographic origin
• ethnicity

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Community Materialism vs. Non-Materialism

• Hunter - Gatherer survival techniques
• Western concepts of owning and having
• more stuff, more power, more influence, more
  MEANING
• Indigenous concepts of owning and having
• if it can be easily built or gathered at the next
  camp, why keep it?
• Poverty Spirituality?

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An Aborigine Cosmogony

• COSMOGONY
• an encompassing theory of ALL existence
• Origins and beginnings of the universe
• Origins and purpose and place of humanity
• how the two then combine to determine our
  responsibility for our local area
• stewardship requirements
• living harmoniously
• teaching the following generations

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Indigenous Flexibility

• Traditional enclaves
• City Dwellers who regularly return to participate
  in the Old Ways.
• Often incorporate these ways into the urbane life
  of the city, creating change
• most ancient global religions have been impacted
  by Indigenous ways in this fashion
• Hybridization
• Voodoo
• vitality is brought to BOTH religious systems

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Everything is Related

• UNITY
• for some, stifling and restrictive
• The cycle of life
• birth, life, death
• A natural shape
• corners in nature?

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Life among Humanity

• Why are we here?
• Do we have a role?

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Being a Brothers and Sisters Keeper

• Primary purpose is to help ALL living things on
  their journey
• people
• animals
• planet
• 3 ways to accomplish this
• healing
• teaching
• praying

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Third Rock From the Sun

• Helping the Earth
• Caretakers or dominators?
• The spirit of the Earth
• Everything is alive?
• Is that rock a god? How do you know?
• Climbing mountains and asking permission...
• Trees, plants, animals
• scientific research
• Respect for ALL creation

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The SUPREME Being

• How close can we be to El Supremo?
• The great unseen but all present power
• Great Spirit
• All Powerful, Creator, The One who exists by
  himself
• moyo
• Takes various forms
• sky
• mountain
• winds
• storms

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Saint Whose?

• The need for Ancestor Worship
• not really Worship...
• Indigenous saints
• a culture that relies TOTALLY on Oral Tradition
• Those elders who have passed over can still
  provide and communicate wisdom

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MANA

• Spirit power
• can be concentrated at specific sites
• Chartes Cathedral
• Stonehenge
• Black Hills
• Can be experiential
• Can be intuitive

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Gender Symmetry

• The Indian Peace Pipe
• stem is male
• bowl is female
• the two joined together make 1 pipe
• from which the smoke is made reaching the Great
  Spirit in the sky

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The Purpose of Power

• Good and Bad
• Good
• power assists one in their journey as well as all
  around them
• Bad
• power misused can turn on one
• one must CONSTANTLY purify oneself to remain out
  of danger
• Power is not and end to itself, rather it is a
  tool

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Who will talk to the Spirits for us?

• Anyone can access the spiritual
• VERY dangerous to the unknowing and uninitiated
• Specific Roles for a specialist
• storytelling
• oral tradition
• teaching
• secret societies

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Shamans

• The Shaman
• intermediary between the physical and spiritual
  world
• Healers
• Advice
• Warnings
• Divination
  
  
  
  

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Cosmological Harmony

• Ritual Observances
• maintains the circle/cycle
• correct times for
• actions
• stories
• dress
• Community oriented
• rites of passage
• continuity
• Each person experiences the spirits personally

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Returning to the ancient ways

• NOT about converts
• A journey with a purpose...
• There must be a respect for ALL life to ensure
  universal harmony