I remember when we lived in homes with soft curves and animal skins.
I remember a time when there were hundreds of tribes upon our planet with each tribe having different values and unique ways of seeing the world. It was a time when dancer tribes made dances, worshiping tribes carved monuments, and explorer tribes wrote maps of the land. Some tribes went to war while others told stories, and still others did both. Each group lived, worked, played, and died together as their wisdom was passed from elder to child, season after season.
My tribe was different from all of the other tribes look at here now. Our focus was on the web of life. Where the other tribes were concerned with the visible and known world, we concerned ourselves with all that lay beyond. We could sense what was in the realm of the invisible, and because of this, we understood the patterns that connected all ways of being. We called ourselves, The Wanderers.
Our purpose was to learn about all aspects of being alive on our planet. In order to do this, each Wanderer would chose to become a part of another tribe’s ways and leave our home to join another, at least for some time. As a Wanderer, I would attempt to blend in and become part of their ways. I would dress as the other tribe members, learn to speak as they spoke, and think as they thought. Over time I became one of them. In the light of fires and the warmth of shelters I connected to these people, while outside nature threatened to kill us with her cold breath and bare teeth. I learned from the elders side by side with my new kit, until their skin felt like my own, until I almost forgot who I really was. After I truly mastered the ways of that tribe, I began to feel restless. Only then would I recall my greater purpose. It was then time to say good bye. It was time to return home to be with my own people and share the knowledge I gained and awaited the next time I would venture out once again.
Together in this manner we collected great wisdom about the nature of humanity, animals, plants and the earth. We held this wisdom as sacred. We used our gifts to understand, via the realm of the invisible, that which connects all things, living and otherwise. It was said that when we were united as a tribe, we possessed additional gifts including those of foresight and prophecy. Our tribe united all of the other tribes and maintained balance in the world by holding the value of each perspective.
Although at times, some of the tribes had battles and waged war, no tribe’s ways ever dominated over other tribes. The balance was held by the Wanderers, our role, and our wisdom. This balancing of all of the tribes produced a time of great abundance on the earth and humanity thrived.
And with this time of balance and abundance, the tribes began to appreciate the differences of the other tribe’s ways of thinking, moving, and being. The tribes began to mix, and then mate. This was a time of great joy for all of us, until it became clear that our children were not certain to which tribe they belonged. It was decided that each child would decide which tribe to join. They would seek out their own place in the world according to their interests. And when a child was ready, they would choose their own tribe.
Most children were adept at finding this tribe of choice. After all, the tribes’ values were easy to grasp as they were in the realm of visibility. Many tribes produced things, and it was clear what they valued by the symbols, clothing, and activities of the group. Most children found their tribe quickly, and settled in to be taught that tribe’s ways by elders.
But the path became murky for those children whose destiny it was to be a Wanderer because of our chameleon nature. By using our gifts of intuition and empathy, we quickly blended in as member of any group. We excelled quickly at their ways and felt certain we had found a home. But eventually we would find that the complexity of our nature made it difficult to stay with only one tribe’s ways of being in the world. Part of us longed for more, as the way of one tribe was too small for our soul. Sensing something was incomplete, we would question the elders, and even ourselves. Inevitably we would decide to leave the first tribe of our choosing to begin the search once again.
Being adrift like this, and not understanding why or who we were meant to be, often led us to experience great loneliness and confusion. We had little choice, but to continue our quest, as this is part of our deepest nature: to seek wisdom and an understanding of all ways of being.
The Wanderer’s children’s children became lost in a search of futility, eventually forgetting who they are. Those who did best were those who happened to find other Wanderers, but many became restless and disheartened. And those that did the worst, grew very, very ill. They could not thrive without their tribe.
And neither could the world.
As the years passed, the they forgot who they were. Unable to connect to the elders of the Wanderer’s tribe and learn about their gifts, they and the wisdom of the Wanderers became lost.
Without this, the balance between the tribes disappeared, and eventually One Tribe’s values grew to dominate all others.
That One Tribe discouraged the ways of other tribes. People who thought or valued something different from their ways were converted or ostracized. Difference was criticized. Various practices and ways of thinking or being were outlawed by penalty of death, but mostly difference was silenced through fear. Those who were different were treated as moody, crazy, stupid, and even evil.
Eventually, only what was visible was considered true and the realm of the invisible was denied completely. Emotions and the ways of the intuitive mind were feared. The power to know ourselves and to understand and empathize with others via the realm of the invisible, all but disappeared. And in that, the wisdom of the earth and many of the ways to heal were lost.
Prophecy says that the balance will not return, nor peace be restored, until the ways of the Intuitive Mind and the realm of the invisible are honored; until the tribe of the Wanderers is reunited once again.
It is time to wake up. It is time to remember.
The Wanderers agreed to participate in this time of darkness. Yes, as incredible as that sounds, we agreed to forget who we really are, to forego wisdom and even some of our abilities. We agreed to be lost, forgotten and invalidated.
You see, our greatest desire is to understand the whole of creation and the experience of life in all of its various and complex forms. In the past, we had learned a great deal about the light.
But, what we longed to learn about was the darkness. We wanted to really know fear and suffering. As long as we could return home, as long as we were connected to our shared and collected wisdom, then we could not truly understand the darkest of experiences. If I remembered that bodies could heal, I would know illness.
My ancestors knew that wisdom would come out of these dark and hopeless experiences. As long as healing and wisdom existed, as long as we knew that death does not end consciousness, our experience of the darkness would be limited and our ability to understand these other aspects of creation would remain tempered.
So the Wanderers agreed to forget. I chose to forget and you chose to forget. We chose to forget who we are and all that our spirit knows about in order to fully experience this time of darkness along with the other Wanderers.
And now as the the time of darkness is reversing, the Wanderers are awakening and remembering.
It is time to wake up. It is time to remember.
The challenges have been great. There is much now to understand and learn about the dark time as it passes and peace is regained. Our time has come to awaken.
Come join us and the prophecy will be fulfilled.
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Copyright 2013
img src:Forrest H. Dutlinger Natural Area by Nicholas A. Tonelli
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