No Roads Lead To Nome

I have had some time to reflect about the Nome Alaska trip. As I have mentioned before I went to Nome to teach native Alaskans group therapy, which I did. What I didn’t realize would happen is that I got inoculated with a many new ideas as they did. In other words I went to teach and I got taught. Some of the things I’ve been thinking about are how close to the land these folk have lived for ten thousand years. And it has only been three generations that the white man has brought his germs and religion to these folks. This means that the old stories have not completely sunken out of their unconscious. Many native folks are afraid of the shamanic ways of their ancestors. They have been raised by parents who were taught by white missionaries and have become devout believers themselves. But the old stories they were told as children also live inside them yet. What I experienced in the workshop was that some folks seemed stretched between current history and the hidden past.

The shamanic way has as it central theme nature and the need for human beings to have the highest spiritual reverence for it, all of this is driven by survival, will we eat, will we be warm, will be survive the storm. What is becoming apparent is our modern culture has lost this wisdom we worry very little about our basic needs. Although what keep hearing in the news is issues about global warming, drought, food shortages, and war, all which threaten our survival.

As our environment deteriorates and food and clean water become less available the need for reverence needs to return to us at a soul level. As we look into our world for those who hold this wisdom, those stewards in this forgotten realm, it is obvious that the native peoples are closest to this understanding. The very people we deem as primitive. If you’re thinking it’s the skills we need, you’re off base; we can easily recapture the skill and even improve on them. It’s the spiritual way of being they still have access to, the ability to honor nature and not be as ego driven as we are. This is what the native people still have a faint hold on.