Family

[Inyan]

http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm35/su...gsparadis4e.jpg

http://www.myspace.com/lilcrowdog

http://www.youtube.com/user/sunkakangi

 

This is some of my family. Just thought I would share their web sites with you. We share kinship, not necessarily views and not necessarily excluding views. We are each our own person. Respect that. Now, I chose to share these things here as I'm proud of my cousins. In a world torn by racism, we are a family that excludes no race as the members of our family are by blood, all races. It is time we come to realize that family is family and the red road is a path like any other. Our hearts all bleed the same color. Ego, ethnocentrism, arrogance, all of these things must go and in their place let their be respect, love, humility, equality, and a common bond of unconditional acceptance of each other for none of us are without fault. Family has many connotations, both blood and otherwise, and no family is perfect just as no human is perfect. This is a bit of how I perceive the world. Wrong or right, I'm sharing a bit of who I am with you guys here. And yes, I realize I look like hell, but you might too if you just came down from a vision quest. That picture is an old one of me some 15+ years ago.

Edited January 4, 2009 by Inyan

[Chiral]

Thanks for sharing.

H.

[Inyan]

Hunab Ku, we often are so afraid of sharing a bit of who we are with others, but I feel it is only by sharing and allowing others to peek at a small bit of ourselves that we can begin to open up and share a small bit back. It also opens you up to ridicule as well which makes you more vulnerable potentially, but I'm the kind of person that tries, note the operative word "tries", to take a bit of ignorance and or just different opinion with a grain of salt. Perhaps we learn something about ourselves in the process of sharing.

[chilli]

That picture is an old one of me some 15+ years ago.

But which one is you?

[Inyan]

Sublime Crime,

I'm the one in the pretty red skirt ;)

[JDanger]

Those sneakers are dope.

[Chiral]

Hunab Ku, we often are so afraid of sharing a bit of who we are with others, but I feel it is only by sharing and allowing others to peek at a small bit of ourselves that we can begin to open up and share a small bit back. It also opens you up to ridicule as well which makes you more vulnerable potentially, but I'm the kind of person that tries, note the operative word "tries", to take a bit of ignorance and or just different opinion with a grain of salt. Perhaps we learn something about ourselves in the process of sharing.

Hey I agree man..you have some balls for postin a pic of your self..specially in a red skirt and sneakers..not many people here would even contemplate posting their ugly mugs on a forum like this.

So what was the vision quest..you have my attention with that part..sounds kinda interesting..was it a San Pedro ceremony...?

H.

[Auxin]

It looks a bit more involved Hunab, I'll put in my guess too It looks to me like a lakota ceremony, I see sage tied on the wrists, a red kilt, the sacred colors of the lakotas on a willow (?) stick and you look like youve been awake for days... a sun dance perhaps. Am I close?

Edit: Just saw a clue.. my guess seems to have been wrong or at least incomplete. I bet it was an interesting experience!

Edited January 5, 2009 by Auxin

[Inyan]

Auxin,

You hit it on the nail actually. This particular photo was taken after a traditional Lakota vision quest. However, that same exact garb was also worn to a sundance later. Yeah, I believe in recycling.

Now, as for the pedro comment, I didn't have any pejuta (peyote) on this particular vision quest, but I have partaken of pejuta on other vision quests. You really don't need pejuta to vision as the experience is strong enough by itself for you to vision, but I won't say that it doesn't help either as it can definitely add a synergism to the experience that is quite profound. I'd recommend from my own personal experiences that if you try a vision quest that you do so without pejuta the first time. After that, if you chose to use pejuta or not, I'd recommend that you wait till the 3rd or 4th day of your vision quest before you partake of any medicines. For me, it was good to have the varied experiences that each of these methods gave and I'd recommend it to anyone who had a serious desire to research it further before blindly saying I'd like to try that. Its one of the hardest things I've ever done. I'd say it was one of the hardest ceremonies I've ever done, but if you don't have a strong background in the Lakota path you wouldn't have anything to compare it to. Now, as for the shoes, I wish I was allowed to wear those while I was actually questing as the fire ants were a bit annoying. Unfortunately, your not allowed to kill anything while your questing, so you just brush them off with your sage if you get really annoyed with the biting. Most will typically stand for their first vision quest without food, water, or sleep for anywhere between 2-4 days. The most typical vision quest lasts 4 days and after completing a 4 day vision quest you can generally opt for other harder methods of questing. Some people go on multiple vision quests and some go on very extended vision quests as they progress. The longest I remember anyone going on a vision quest was for 30 days, if memory serves me that person was Luciano yuwipi medicine man who was taught by Leonard Crowdog. Any quest longer than 4 days though and they let you drink sage tea or pejuta tea on a pretty regular basis to keep you hydrated.

As to the nature of the visions, there exists many books on that subject, but I'll explain it as best I can. The visions vary. You may experience a completely different world/reality with no connection to this one, you may experience a hodgepodge of this reality and other realities in which you can not tell which is which in all cases. For instance, you may see a wolf. You may think that as everything else appears "normal" that this wolf exists in our world or plane of existence. However, that wolfs eye when it blinks turns into a butterfly and well... then you know that perhaps it is a butterfly... perhaps not, but what's fairly clear at this point is that the wolf is not part of our normal waking world. Perhaps you see a building suddenly appear in the woods... complete in every detail that you would expect to see if you were walking down any street... yet you know that you would have noticed if there was a huge building near your quest when you first went up... such a thing would not be done in the first place if it could be avoided. You may see and feel yourself as if you were flying... all of these things and many more are possibilities when you go up on a vision quest.

I'll tell you a small bit about one experience of mine while I was visioning.

It was dark and I cold not see anything. I could hear though and I heard the sounds of trees crashing as the wind blew. I thought, man... this is how I'm going to die. Crushed by a tree in the middle of a forest. I knew though that as long as I stayed in my altar and did not move from it that I was supposed to be safe. Operative phrase here... "supposed to be safe"... still, I didn't move as I thought I had just as much chance to die from a fallen tree if I moved. I stood their listening the the branches and the trees creak and fall. I was scared and to be honest, I think I made it that first night as I was too afraid to move or go down. Simply standing in one spot for 8+ hours was too much for me... yet I stayed as I was afraid I would be killed if I moved by some falling tree. I was ready for dairy queen by morning. Yet, I must regress a bit... as the wind died down I heard a rattling sound near my feet. Now I though, this is the end. There is a rattle snake at my feet and if I so much as move one inch he is going to sense me and strike. I literally froze in place for the rest of that night. Afraid to even move my head to attempt to see the rattle snake. I thought, "Perhaps, if I move my head slow like the hand of a clock that tells the hour... moving in miniscule increments that I'll be able to eventually gain a look at this snake and ascertain my next course of action." I decided against this for the time. As the sun broke through the sky and I began to see the world again... I started to move my head, ever so slowly over what I guesstimate to be several hours time, and finally... I caught a glimpse of the rattle snake... It was a moth on the pipe stem you see in the picture above. It was beating its wings fiercely as it struggled with an ant for its life. Man, I was nearly in tears as I thought, "How could I have wanted to go down... how could this be too much or too hard for me... After all, I'm just standing. This moth has been fighting for its life for half the night and continues to do so without missing a beat. This ant who fights back simply for a meal... Dairy queen seemed a bit trivial in my mind at this point. I was enveloped in a feeling of awe and respect for these creatures, for nature, and I thanked them both for helping me to get through the night as I knew without them and without the wind I would not have made it that first night. The ant eventually one the battle and dragged his prey out of my altar. I'll leave that story there with the added bit of information... after the quest was over.... I found several trees that had actually fallen in the night... so that part again appears to have existed in this plane of existence.

[Micromegas]

Thanks for sharing that Inyan. The man I worked with in Peru was a student of Leonard Crow-dog in his youth, before moving to Peru to work with san pedro and the mesa tradition there. I'm not sure if he ever did a vision quest such as you describe though.

I find the parallels between your story and the books of carlos castaneda intriguing, tho you may not appreciate that comparison

Edited January 8, 2009 by Micromegas

[Inyan]

Micromegas,

You say just enough to get my interest and leave me hanging. Please, continue.

[Micromegas]

Haha, ok. This is going to test my memory of those books

Well firstly just what you are saying about the mixing of the planes of reality is a frequent theme in the books; not knowing where the distinction between ordinary and a separate reality may lie, or if indeed there is one. The freeing up of perception to experience things that are not amenable to explanation by normal standards.

But even in the particulars. In the second book (A Separate Reality) Carlos goes to a mountaintop in search of some powerful entities and hears cracking branches all around him etc. etc. and is scared half to death lays down on the ground and doesn't move for an entire night...

In the fourth book (I think) moths are the messengers of the spirit world (allies?) and bring messages to carlos by flapping their wings...

And what you are saying about the insects and realising your own essence and humility, your equality with living creatures and the fact that they too are locked in the titanic stuggle for existence that all organisms engage in, your 'awe and respect' for those small creatures is very similar to an experience carlos has at the end of the third book (Journey to Ixtlan) where he goes into the mountains to learn how to see and while staring at a beetle pushing a pebble along the ground realise that all things are in fact equal, loses his 'self-importance' and 'sees' the world etc.

Those are just particulars of course it was more the general theme of what you were saying the made me think of castaneda... in the sense that your experience challenged your views of what is real and that the perception is capable of terrific feats that, once experienced, cast doubt on the validity on the 'reality' of our daily perceptions. That as don Juan say the job of man is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds...

I especially appreciate the effort to understand that world by doing a 'vision quest' that involves the body/mind's own reaction to a self-imposed and sacred physical ordeal. It just reminded me of the ability of don Juan to suspend his normal assemblage of reality in favour of one that is not as fixed but nevertheless operates with its own set of rules.

Iterestingly, in Peru I also met a man who had apprenticed with the Lakota and done a vision quest tho he did his sitting down. He had this magnificent 'star-quilt' he had received, made by the elders, that he had to sit on for four days and could not leave and received as a gift afterward. I found him challenging to be around because his spirituality was so informed by this heritage and we were in Peru doing something quite different. In the end I learnt alot from him regarding my own in-built prejudice and I remember him singing quite a beutiful lakota song after one ceremony.

Hope you're not hanging anymore

Edited January 9, 2009 by Micromegas

[Inyan]

Micromegas,

Funny, I've read those books many times myself years ago and never made those same connections. Very insightful. As for our perceptions and how we perceive reality... we are taught how to perceive reality, ourselves, etc. This is a fundamental truth that doesn't require any insight to understand. One person's culture teaches him to perceive his role as a male in society as this. Another has different rules. Its very simple. What is funny is that you can intellectually understand this and have it never sink in. Either you trivialize it and you miss the point or you make it seem more than it is and miss the point. This understanding of how your perception of reality is shaped and of yourself often begins to become unglued in in a way that you are not aware that your perception has been altered and your old perceptions co-mingle back and forth so that neither is who you are or what you perceive all the time. These are the subtle shifts that go unnoticed by many. Then of course you have the shifts that are perceived as much larger as generally these shifts are more at odds with your old way of perceiving. As you allow your perception to be molded to a different culture or way then there comes a time when these larger shifts are felt and you realize that perception includes feeling, thought, being, etc. Its hard to put into words, but its ridiculously simple and profound at the same time. A vision quest, as it was explained to me, works by tiring the mind and body. You become so tired of listening to your own internal dialogue that is your reality and at the same time you are fighting with this you that wants to come down, relax, eat some ice-cream, etc. All of this tires and literally bores you to the point that your internal dialogue shuts down for large spells of time and you simply see, feel, hear, are.... you simply exist and take it all in without your own thoughts and feelings that are attached to these thoughts, etc. muddling what is really there. This is often when you experience a vision. You feel these shifts in perception on many levels. The other aspect of how a vision quest works, again as explained to me, is that your body utilizes energy to eat, digest, talk, etc. Your mind utilizes energy when it seeks associations that has been taught to it and that are regurgitated when a stimulus that is associated with that teaching comes to bear on your perception. When you stop eating, drinking, thinking, etc... your create a surplus of energy as that energy is not being wasted on those mundane activities of keeping your illusions intact as well as your body... there is a bit more to it, but I won't bore you with the theory behind it. What is important to me is that it is a tool that works.

As for sitting for four days, I have heard of this as well, although generally this is only done if one is going to quest in a sweat lodge or one has some other physical condition that would preclude one from questing in the normal manner. At least this is generally true for ones first vision quest. That is not to say that exceptions are not made. I'm personally a firm believe that its not the strict adherence to a set of rules that is important, but rather the understanding of those rules and how they can best be bent to get the results a person needs in a way that is accessible to them at the time. Whether those limits are set by our mind or our body that preclude us from utilizing a particular tool in a particular way... If the mechanics are understood then the experience will be just as valid for that individual and what that individual needs at that time. There are of course die hard traditionalists or purists... choose your pick... I am not one of them, although I have fallen into that trap in the past.

I will go into just a bit more though...

The 606 prayer ties that one makes that then becomes the outer portion of your altar symbolize your mind as they are your thoughts, the 6 directions, spirit helpers, gifts, etc... There are many levels to truth and I will not go into all of them or claim to know all of the many things each represent. As the prayer ties are unstrung to encircle and become the boundaries of your altar this symbolizes your mind becoming clear and focused as they are no longer a jumble. Each though, perception, thing, etc. produces a connection in our spirit, mind, body, etc. The longer you are in contact with a particular thought, feeling, animal, person, etc. the stronger of an impression or connection one can make and these connections affect us on every level of our being. They can have a positive, negative, neutral influence... You can think of it as a stamp that is imprinted on your soul or mind if you will each time you come in contact with something. This stamp is affected by how that something perceives you as well as how you see it and this is a circle that can be overcome via intent. I'll stop rambling for now, but intent and perception are the keys to many things in my book. The rest can be what it is so long as intent is pure and focused you are less likely to react and instead be able to act. Still, many will argue that the best intentions.... are not always what's best. This is why right perception is so important and the understanding that as long as you are not a tree that has never been human then you can never understand the tree in the same way as it may perceive you if it has never been human. I'm getting into deep waters here and while my analogy may not be the best, if you can see it for what it is... then you will get out of it what you need. Even if that is simply to say that this is all BS. Respect for another's perception, being, etc. and their own need to see how they see as they know no other way. The known, unknown, and unknowable..... Okay, I really am starting to ramble now. What was I talking about? LOL, its all good.

Edited January 9, 2009 by Inyan