Mother Earth Consciousness
Story by Danny Beaton (Turtle Clan Mohawk)
In Memory of Alicja Rozanska
Harold, Ann, and Danny
Everything is quiet but everything is alive in the bush. Once you have planted a garden, you know what is inside Mother Earth’s body: the frogs, the snakes, the salamanders, the creeping and the crawling move around in a mysterious and magical way right before our eyes. Once we start working with Mother Earth, we humans are digging and planting, but we have to be human enough to see all these life species moving around, trying to be happy and feed their babies, too! The beauty of Mother Earth opens our mind and spirit to the life that surrounds us humans; the beauty and spirit of life itself opens our minds to justice and the protection of Mother Earth’s beautiful body! In the forest, in the garden Mother Earth can talk to us in a mysterious, spiritual way; the energy of the plants move us in a peaceful, calming way of becoming one with the stillness and beauty of a healing harmony like a profound meditation, simply because of the arrangement of plant life existence! Without this natural life, concrete cities become isolating and noisy to our energy, holding us in a congestive life of wheels, horns and fumes weighing on our spirits and soul!
Our old elders always said our plant life are talking to each other below the surface, below the earth our plant life have a sophisticated correspondence with each other, like they have their own computers in their biological makeup, like telecommunication or telepathy sending friendly messages when they are thirsty or hungry or in need of regenerating support. In the old days our old elders had a way of communicating, too, with plant life, sky water and Mother Earth by sacred ceremonies, prayer, dance and songs. This was to talk, communicate and respect all of the natural world above and below and all around us human beings. All natural life are communicating in a harmonious way of life. They have always been following natural life in a natural way. Pine trees talk to Pine trees and Cedar trees talk to Cedar trees, but all trees talk to each other for equality and survival. All trees have to eat and drink the same water to survive on Sacred Mother Earth. All Berries must talk to each other. Strawberries talk to Blueberries and Berries talk to Trees sometimes if it is necessary. Humans know this, because sometimes we need to talk to each other, no matter where we are from, just to survive. Only human beings are builders and plants do not need to build. Our old elders told us, when we were young, the tall trees are a hundred feet high in the upper earth, while their roots reach far below and give the tree the ability to know what is happening in two places. That helps all life: life below, fungi everywhere, nurturing above and below.
The Three Sisters are the most sacred of all vegetables and they are respected highly because of their strength to grow in tough places and complement each other with a diverse ability to give a holistic diet and sustain the Iroquois Nation in agriculture and sustenance. The old elders teach us that the three sisters rely on communicating in order to survive and nurture the indigenous nations throughout the Americas. In the natural world there is a natural balance. All indigenous people believe plant life have spirits. They are alive and so we always talk to plant life, so they know we humans respect them and we give them thanksgiving throughout our lifetime on Mother Earth. The forests, the gardens and all plant life gave indigenous people of Canada and the USA an agricultural life in order to sustain a healing way of life, and indigenous people learned to be Human Beings by acknowledging all life and species through their Thanksgiving Address. We understand the power of the strongest trees in the Americas. The Maple Tree is our leader, but we give thanks to the Birch, which is possibly the second leader of all trees here in Canada. The Great White Pine became our Sacred Symbol and we buried our weapons of war under the great white roots of peace.
After all these years of living as one with all of Creation and always working with the four sacred medicines of Mother Earth, our Sacred Tobacco, Sage, Cedar and Sweet Grass, we became a ceremonial society. The Haudenosaunee Iroquois Six Nations Confederacy, our people, became one of the founders of peace, power, righteousness, equality and unity. Like all nations and tribes we all believed Mother Earth is a Sacred Woman. Today many people have lost the foundation and thinking of The Good Mind, as there is no respect for life in many minds and all species. Without the consciousness for the rights of life and species, there is a rapid consciousness of exploiting forest and waters, now, for minerals like gold and diamonds, fracking for oil and gas without consideration for aquifers, underground rivers, springs and rivers of fresh clean pure water. In today’s modern world, stockbrokers, lawyers, developers and corporations are making proposals to exploit the north, where many indigenous people still live off the land in a healing and respectful way. This is a crime against Indigenous People. It is our thinking and simple way of life that we had in the old days that brought humans into nature to work with nature in order to build a home and garden, to raise a family with indigenous people. Only the basic reality of respect could bring peace and harmony. Wherever we go with respect, life is in balance! All creation is moving in a sacred way of life on Mother Earth, even mushrooms contribute to creation, and the forests of the world, the Amazon, the Boreal, the Black Forest, Redwoods, West Coast Old Growth Forest, Savannah Forest, Carolinian Forest: we are in a balance of Coniferous trees that give us clean fresh oxygen, not to mention the algae and plankton of the oceans.
Today’s fast pace and fantasy world has turned humans into a hyper frenzy, a conscienceless mentality for ownership and profit, no matter what is destroyed or hurt. We need to ask ourselves: “Are we still Human Beings? Why have we lost our connection to the Natural World? Why have we become so negative and false?” It seems many in Western Ideology have lost a Basic Consciousness, their ability to use common sense after years and years. Yet the old Indigenous Elders are still sharing their culture, values and wisdom for Healing for Mother Earth. All of Creation’s life is not the same now, but we can become a healing force if we try! In the old days we Gathered Up for Sacred Ceremonies and to give Thanksgiving and restore our culture for all of life. We are still living this way of life, but it needs to grow stronger, so life will nurture and life can grow! In the old days we learned to talk to the Wolf, the Bear, the Turtle, the Deer. We even talked to the plants, the medicines, the Berries, because we worked with them and they healed us and we knew they had a Spirit and we still maintain this way of life. Once we all learn to work with The Three Sisters, Corn, Beans and Squash, we can cook a healing soup for our family and celebrate all the Gifts Mother Earth shares from her Sacred Body. If our children are to have a future and their children’s children, then we must stop destroying Mother Earth for short term profits such as the Tar Sands and Ring of Fire Mining, which create Climate Change, Turbulent Weather and contaminate ground water all the way to our oceans.
Tom Porter Speaks
Danny Beaton and Tom Porter
The Creator gave us an understanding of our duties, how we’re supposed to live on our Mother Earth, how we’re supposed to behave, how we’re supposed to talk to our Mother, the Earth. How we’re supposed to relate to all the living entities. The water is a spirit – it’s got a soul just like humans do. The trees are growing – that make the forest of the world – and it takes two trees to get together to make a little baby tree, just the same as it does for Mohawks or Irish or Polish people. And so I understand from our teaching that all the people had that same understanding one time when the world was new. And so in that way, all humans are equal – all humans are the same in that way.
I guess you could compare it just like flowers in the world, in the garden, there’s roses, there’s morning glories, there’s tulips, there’s daisies, all kinds of flowers. Some are tall, some are short, some are blue, some are red or orange, but they are all flowers. And when you do put them together in an arrangement it makes a very beautiful bouquet. And so I guess that’s what our job is, us humans, is to arrange ourselves in such a way that we also become like a bouquet of flowers that is beautiful in the world.
In order to do that there has to be an elimination of war tools, bombs and things. And it has to even go beyond the absence of war and that there shall be peace and respect amongst all races of people. We have to learn again that the Earth is our Mother.