The Man's Reply

The Man's Reply

I would do so, my Good Folk

But there is no toadstool ring
Only a asphalt lot in front of Walmart

There is no Clootie's Croft
Only a monocrop of GMO corn

There are no standing stones
Only a subdivision of McMansions

The Oak is cut for flooring
The Elm cut for imagined disease
The Hill sliced open for an interstate

My song dried in my throat for shame
Because I do not sound like Beyonce
My spells left to the Internet's cold light

I have no fields, just a cul-de-sac, one of thousands
I have no herds, just a package of coldcuts
I offer only Pizza Hut and Captain Crunch

I do not forget you my Good Friends
I see the world wither and curl
The veil hard and cruel
I do invite thee
But my voice is dry from shame

My loins are empty, spent
The land is eaten by cold greed
I cannot see any children
They promise helix promises
of designer genes

I call thee back, Good Friends
Save us from the madness
Save us from the barrenness

But how can you save us
If we do not raise our own sword
And erect our own Wicker Man
Let us raise our blades as one
And burn the Man to ashes

And call thee back
The life of the land
and the hearts of our children
To arms, Good Folk!

Gods and Goddesses

I believe in God. I do, but I am not dogmatic about things. I believe in God the way most people meant in the old days when they said "I believe in God." That (God =the Creator) doesn't cause any friction between my Ioway beliefs (God = Ma'un = Earthmaker) and my Catholic beliefs (God = the Father, Son and Holy Ghost). It doesn't, not for people from the older generation I was brought up around. You believe in God, do your best, avoid doing bad things, treat people the way you want to be treated. That's how you live.

When I was little, I fell in love with Greek mythology. The first thing I ever remember drawing was a Cyclops, from the Ulysses movie starring Kirk Douglas ("More wine! hahaha!"). The book I remember is D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths; it formed my mental pictures of the Greek Gods and it still does. The Greek Gods were as real to me as a little child as Gumby and Pokey, and God, and my stuffed animals that also were alive, and the clouds that sent down lightning. And the dark things under the bed and in the closet that moved around at night and caused nightmares. The knotholes in the walls' wood paneling were the eyes of trees that had been killed, accusing one of the crime.

It was only as I grew older, that I learned that I was to believe only in some of these things as "real." And older than that, I learned that I couldn't believe in both the Greek Gods AND God with a capital G. And then when I went to Catholic school, things got even more complicated. I had known about God for a long long time ("Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep...") but now there was Jesus, and the Holy Ghost, and Mary. And I took it all in stride and believed in them as well. And I wasn't allowed to believe in anything other than these new additions to my understanding.

But there were problems. They said only humans had souls. But that was untrue, as I knew my dogs also had souls...I could see it in their eyes, their souls. And the idea of hell. I didn't like it. It made me even more scared, adding hell to those dark things that roamed around at night. I knew EVERYBODY I knew was going to heaven when they died ("If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take" wasn't a lie was it?).

So what about the Greek Gods and Goddesses, and the souls of my dogs, and the eyes of the murdered trees in the planks, and the plants that grew and could even grow vines to strangle you at night? And the wind that spoke and rain that seemed to say something to me? Many years passed, and I still wondered about these things. While in Church I prayed to God, and took communion, and wondered about the dark feelings in the Church's basement and the carvings of staring faces on the cathedral's stonework: who were they?

I learned about the theories of anthropology in college, about the development of witchcraft and religion. I learned...

Most of the Gods and Goddesses of Classical Paganism can shown to be, in their essence/origins:

I. Universal Major Elements/Forces
1. Sky Father
2. Mother Earth
3. Winds
4. Storms/Thunder/Lightning
5. Ocean
6. Underworld
7. Ice, Fire, etc.

II. Human Ancestors who went through Apotheosis
1. Fathers and Mothers of an Ethnic Group
2. Direct Ancestors
3. Ancestors who were expert craftspeople or practitioners
4. Ghosts, Egregores, Tulpa, etc. formed by emotions, rituals, memories in the land placed there by ancestors

III. Local Anima Loci "Spirits of Place"/landvaettir
1. Mountains, Volcanoes, Cliffs, and Hills
2. Plants, Groves and Forests
3. Caves
4. Unusual Features (rock spires, etc.)
5. Watercourses: Rivers, streams, springs, ponds, lakes, waterfalls
6. Others..

EVERY God or Goddess I can think of, when you look at the origin myths, has an origin in one of the above categories, even if it was later amalgamated with another category.

Examples:

Odin: Originated as a Germanic ancestor, added features of Sky Father, and craft of magic and cunning.

Shango: Originated as a great West African chief, added feature of amalgamation with thunder and fire.

But many of the polytheistic pagan faiths also had a distant "Creator" god that made all things but didn't get much involved in human affairs. For my tribe, we believed in Earthmaker (Ma'un), but when you went out to get a vision or made sacrifices, it was to one of the Persons created by Ma'un...it was THESE Persons (Thunder, Bear, etc.) who became one's Helper in a Vision Quest.

So whatever path we take for ourselves, it is okay to believe in "God" (however one wants to think about "God", as an old white-bearded man, Zeus/Deus, or "the Force" or whatever) but the day-to-day business of living is tied to one's local natural forces and places, animals and plants, as Persons, and also to one's Ancestors and the ancestral practitioners of one's craft/way of making a living.

And so, I still struggle to make sense of all this.

I have never had God tell me anything. Nor Jesus, nor Odin, nor Mary, nor Apollo. Not so I can tell without second-guessing myself. A couple of times I have had dreams in which it seemed angels talked to me. But those were only dreams. That came true, even if it was decades later.

But I have seen the souls of dogs in their eyes, and the hair rise on my neck in a dark place in the woods where I know I am not wanted, and the lick of a butterfly that landed on my hand, and the blessing of a cold drink of water. I know these exist. I KNOW... I don't have to believe.

Ends

I see people as driving around in little cars known as "bodies." When the car is new, they get around, can wave through the window or roll it down and say hello. When one hits a bad bump, or gets into a fender bender, or the car gets rusty, you can't get around anymore, maybe you can't roll the windows down and chat, or the windows fog up and you can't really see each other clearly. But the driver is still in there. Until the car just won't start-up anymore.

I have been thinking about loss of knowledge when societies come to an end. My tribe faced that, and now all we have are scraps of info collected by an ethnographer and artifact collector, collected after the society had already lost most of its ancient ways.

When I worked in Hawai'i, people were always interested in offering their mana'o. The office and its staff were always saying, "we would like your mana'o" on such a matter. There were flurries, blizzards, of mana'o. I used to think mana'o meant "insight," but then realized all it meant in reality was "opinion." But what I needed was not mana'o in most cases, but 'ike, "knowledge." Everyone would offer their mana'o, but when I asked for 'ike, all fell silent, but for the VERY few who knew what they were talking about...and had the experience to prove it. Of course some poor folks inevitably confused their mana'o as being 'ike.

Too much mana'o, not enough 'ike. Sounds like a Hawaiian proverb almost!

Archaeologists, living history folks and re-enactors are always researching lost knowledge. Stuff you can't even imagine that was once commonplace, but that now we don't even suspect existed. The Hawaiian renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s revived much of a culture which was almost gone. The Hawaiians showed the rest of us what was possible: traditional navigation, canoe construction, healing, agriculture, fish pond restoration, language revival, and more. 'Ike kahiko -- the knowledge of old.

Some people say, big deal, things change. Get over it. What if you didn't have the money for a dentist and you had a toothache? Lots of people have lost their jobs this last year. No money for such things. Teeth rot and fall out-- and the pain and suffering is horrible. What is worse, rotten teeth affects the rest of your health, and can even kill some folks with existing heart conditions or other ailments. What if not only could you not afford a dentist-- there weren't any more dentists, period? Would you know what plants to apply for pain and swelling? How to properly pull an infected tooth? How to care for the bleeding gum afterward to ward of infection and provide for proper healing? Neither would I.

Our culture is soaked by hubris today. The idea that we know it all, and our knowledge and civilization will continue forever.

The Romans thought the same thing, and we still had a thousand years to get through the Dark Ages before we began to recover much of their knowledge. The Library of Alexandria was burned to the ground. People could not read the Egyptian hieroglyphs until the last century and only within the last decades are people really beginning to understand the Mayan glyphs. There is so much knowledge lost-- we don't even know about all the things archaeologists find in medieval contexts. So much of our own society's knowledge is based on digital media (and we can't even read some of that from the Apollo space program!) or pulp paper that rots very quickly (unlike vellum, parchment, clay tablets, etc.).

We cannot sustain hubris. Knowledge of the most common things is lost all the time. Including the most taken-for-granted knowledge of today.

That's because societies and empires collapse-- without exception. Including our own. The Native Americans are often quoted as saying, "Only the Earth and Sky last forever." And the geologists and cosmologists dispute that as well!

What knowledge, skill, art, would YOU conserve? One place to begin thinking about such things is the Cultural Conservers group, and there are others who smell the winds of change and who are beginning to prepare in their own ways, so that all will not be lost.

Extinction Ethics

"For those who do not resort to a vicarious extension to their own existence, near-term extinction is not different from ultimate extinction. Such persons can base their actions on rational anticipation rather than on expectations. In the absence of both elation and dejection there is true hopelessness which has nothing to do with thwarted expectations. It includes kindness and compassion to all, which in its perfection includes no others, since then there are no “others”. Some may manifest such characteristics even in a Mad Max scenario. Let’s hope that each of us is one of them." http://guymcpherson.com/2014/06/extinction-ethics/

Chiwere (Otoe and Missouria) Worldview

North of the Big Nemaha was the territory of the Otoe tribe, sister-brother tribe of the Ioway and the Missouria (who were across the Missouri River, in Missouri). All spoke Chiwere and had the same basic worldview.

“Fundamental to the Otoe and Missouri world view was Wakanda (wakhánda ‘sacred power’), which permeated all nature and was manifested through dreams, visions, and supernatural encounters. This power was symbolized by the circle with its center and the four directions. East was associated with birth, sunrise, the east wind, and the source of life for people, plants, and animals. South was associated with adolescence, summer, and the south wind. After death the body was laid with the head to the north, enabling the individual to see both the sunrise and sunset. South was also linked to the seven stars of the Pleiades, which represented each of the seven clan chiefs. West was associated with middle age, autumn, danger, storms, the west wind, and the spirit world of the dead. North had associations with old age, winter, good, pleasure, cold, and the snow and moisture brought by the north wind. Associated with the center of the circle was the cottonwood tree and water. The sacred circle in the four directions were expressed in the culture through a grouping of the seasons into spring-summer and fall-winter and the association of each division with different clans. The significance of the number four was expressed in other ways such as in “the four stages of life,” the four subdivisions of each clan, performing tasks four times, and praying to the four directions.” –Marjorie Schweitzer, “Otoe and Missouria,” p. 450, Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 13: Plains, Part I, Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 2001.

Speculation and Science

Human beings are human beings. Always have been, always will be, both the good and the bad. There were always believers and doubters, mystics and pragmatists, heroes and murderers. Sometimes the same person is both.

This also goes for ancient human beings of whatever ethnicity or race. There is always a mythology of a golden age, in every culture I know of. Even us Indians can get our past wrong. But we can get it right too. We are neither savages nor romantic ideals. We are human beings, with all the baggage. Indians could use every part of the buffalo, or they could run dozens off a buffalo jump and let some go to waste. Human beings have codes but we don't always follow them, thus the old legends  about people and betrayal and on and on. Ethnographic analogy has its limits too though. The past is a foreign country and all that.

IF one wishes to do science, then there is a methodology which must be followed or it is not science. Not that science is the ONLY way to understand our world, but it has a pretty dang good track record compared to many others, at least in terms of the MATERIAL world. Hypothesis and null hypothesis, testing, rejection of the incorrect hypothesis or further testing, etc.

Nothing wrong with speculation, as the FIRST step to a search for the truth, but it cannot end there if one really wants to find the truth. The point being is that interpretation of evidence has its limits too. There is nothing wrong with speculation, but speculation cannot equate to fact.

Bioregional Animism on the Nemaha

In my old blog, I often talked about a spiritual path that was not religious (or could be combined with your OWN religion): Bioregional Animism. This path was really about learning about the natural spiritual ecosystem where YOU actually live, and how to work with it instead of against it. You don't have to give up your religion, but you may need to work through some things to your own satisfaction. It may be any religion, because bioregional animism isn't a religion, it's a way of seeing the world. You don't need to have any religion at all. It's just a matter of recognizing the world and everything in it is alive, and if you really get it, your actions will follow that recognition.

bio (life) + region = every region has its own distinct qualities of the environment, the land, what plants and animals live there...

There are numerous bioregions throughout the U.S. (and the world of course), such as the Rocky Mountains or the Plains, and these are broken down into smaller areas of various scales, focusing on the geology, soils, climate, natural forces, habitats, plants and animals of the areas. And animism is simply recognizing that everything is alive, has agency and presence, is a Being to be interacted with, not just human beings or even animals, but also plants, stones, mountains, rivers, springs, winds, storms, and so on. They have their own ways, and we are all related. There are consequences to one's actions in interacting with nature.

What I like is that it can bridge both spirit and science, and it doesn't depend on some human "authority" telling you what to believe or not believe. No putting up with someone trying to get power over you or your money or playing social games. It's up to you. It is a creative unfolding of connecting with nature and your fellow beings (human and other) through your own life experience as lived by you in a particular PLACE. You, in your own time and place. It is compatible with science and rationalism, of you do the soul searching. It is compatible with religion, if you do the soul searching.

It has the potential to change the world, because such change has to begin with each person.

The first thing you do, if you are interested in bioregional animism, is to learn what bioregion you live in. Just Google "bioregion" and then do the research. It's really pretty easy. The EPA is another place to start. You have to start with the real world, nature as it really is. If something is true, it will not be contradictory with truth, by definition. Truth abides with truth.

So I'll give you another example (I gave my first example, when I lived in Montana, in my old blog here) of how this is done.

The Iowa Reservation, where I live, straddles the border of Kansas and Nebraska and abuts the Missouri River. The following ecological information is compiled from Ecoregions of Kansas and Nebraska:
Map: ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/ks/ksne_eco_pg.pdf.
Poster: http://www.kdheks.gov/befs/download/bibliography/ksne_ecoregions.pdf

Portion relating to reservation.

The larger Ecoregion the reservation is located within is (47) the Western Corn Belt Plains. The larger lighter colored area (47i) is the Loess and Glacial Drift hills ecoregion. The darker brown area (Falls City is located in it) is the Nebraska/Loess Hills area (47h).The area along the Missouri is the Missouri Alluvial Plain (47d).

"Once covered with tallgrass praire, over 90 percent of the Western Corn Belt Plains ecoregion is now used for cropland agriculture and much of the remainder is in forage for livestock. A combination of nearly level to gently rolling glaciated till plains and hilly loess plains, ample precipitation mainly in the growing season; and fertile, warm, moist soils make this one of the most productive areas of corn and soybeans in the world. Agricultural practices have contributed to environmental  concerns, including surface and ground water contamination from soil erosion, fertilizer and pesticide applications, as well as livestock concentrations."

The northern boundary of the reservation is the Big Nemaha River (historically also called the Great Nemaha River). It feeds into the Missouri River, which forms the northeast and eastern boundary of the Iowa reservation.

47d The Missouri Alluvial Plain ecoregion is part of the large, wide, alluvial valley also found in neighboring Iowa and Missouri. The generally level alluvial plain is distinct from the more irregular topography of adjacent regions 47h and 47k (ne Nebraska loess hills). Soils are deep, silty, clayey, and sandy alluvium. They support extensive cropland, some of it irrigated. Historically the river was meandering, free flowing, and spread across the floodplain. Dams, levees, and stream channelization have profoundly altered the structure and characteristics of the river valley.
Physiography: Glaciated. Level floodplain alluvium. Riparian wetlands largely drained.
Elevation: 800-1200; Local relief: 2-50’.
Geology: Surficial Material and Bedrock: Alluvial deposits over Cretaceous sandstone and shale (Carlile shale through Dakota sandstone) in the north, and Pennsylvanianshale, sandstone, and limestone to the south.
Soil Order (Great Group): Entisols (Fluvaquents, Udifluvents, Udipsamments). Common Soil Series: Albaton, Haynie, Sarpy, Onawa.
Climate: Temperature/Moisture Regimes: Mesic/Aquic. Precipitation, Mean annual (inches): 23-35. Frost Free, mean annual (days): 135-180. Mean temperature: January min. 15/ max. 35, July min. 66/ max. 91.
Potential natural vegetation: Northern floodplain forest: cottonwood, green ash, boxelder, and elm, with lowland tallgrass prairie: big bluestem, prairie cordgrass, switchgrass, and sedges.
Land Use and Land Cover (current): Intensively farmed for corn and soybeans. Transportation corridor with most areas drained by surface ditches, land grading, or protected by dams or levees.

47h The greater relief and deep loess hills of the Nebraska/Kansas Loess Hills are markedly different from the flat alluvial valley of neighboring 47d. Dissected hills with deep, silty, well drained soils supported a potential natural vegetation of tallgrass prairie with scattered oal hickory foress along stream valleys. Cropland agriculture is now common and ample precipitation in the growing season supports dryland agriculture, with only a few areas requiring irrigation.
Physiography: Glaciated. Deep, rolling loess-covered hills. Perennial streams.
Elevation: 1000-1500; local relief 100-300’.
Geology: Loess mantle with underlying calcareous glacial till on Pennsylvanian shale, sandstone and limestone.
Soils: Order (Great Group): Mollisols (Argiudolls, Argiabolls, Hapludolls), Entisols (Udorthents); Common Soil Series: Fillmore, Marshall, Ponca, Monona, Ida, Askarben; Temperature/Moisture Regimes: Mesic/Aquic
Climate: Precipitation in mean annual inches: 26-34; Frost Free in mean annual days: 150-190; Mean temperature: January min 16/max 38, July 66/92.
Potential vegetation: Tallgrass prairie: big bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass, and little bluestem. Scattered oak-hickory forests and some floodplain woodlands along rivers and streams: bur oak, basswood, black walnut, green ash, plains cottonwood, willows.
Current vegetation: Principally in cropland except in the steep slopes, which are in trees and pasture. Corn, beans, soybeans, small grains, alfalfa are typical crops.

47i “Low, rolling loess-covered hills with areas of exposed glacial till are characteristic of the Loess and Glacial Drift Hills. Loess deposits are generally thinner than those in 47h, and historically there was less oak-hickory forest and more extensive tallgrass prairie than found in 47h. The flatter loess hills have a silty, clay loam soil that supports cropland, while rangeland is somewhat more extensive on the deep clay loams formed in glacial till soils.”
Physiography: Glaciated. Rolling low hills. Perennial streams.
Elevation: 1000-1600; local relief 100-300.
Geology: Loess and clay loam calcareous glacial till. Loess is variable. Generally loess depth decreases with distance from source rivers. Pennsylvanian shale, sandstone, and limestone and Permian shale and limestone.
Soils: Order (Great Group): Mollisols (Argiudolls), Entisols (Udorthents); Common Soil Series: Wymore, Pawnee, Burchard, Askarben, Steinauer, Morrel; Temperature/Moisture Regimes: Mesic/Udic
Climate: Precipitation in mean annual inches: 27-35; Frost Free in mean annual days: 150-190; Mean temperature: January min 14/max 34, July 66/92.
Potential vegetation: Tallgrass prairie with cottonwood-dominated forests along floodplains and oak-hickory forests on bluffs.
Current vegetation: Predominately cropland on the flatter loess hils with main crops of wheat and corn, and some areas in grain sorghum, soybeans, and alfalfa. Pasture land is more extensive on till soils.

So after you figure out the facts of your own bioregion, you will have a framework of how nature works where you are, and what you will find out there, on the land, and what might find you.


The next thing to do is to look up all the unfamiliar terms, and learn what they mean. Even if you are somewhat familiar, you might need to refresh your memory so you really understand them! So far one might have these, for example:

loess: wind-blown silt that can build hills

glacial drift: materials left behind by glaciers; there are different kinds of drift, such as unsorted drift (till) and sorted/stratified drift

glacial till: the kind of glacial drift that has unsorted/unstratified sediments of varying sizes and types

various soils and soil types: mollisol, argiudolls, udorthents, etc.

calcareous: appearing to be a chalky or limey substance, which is made of calcium carbonate

alluvial/alluvium - sediments eroded and then redeposited by freshwater like streams or rivers (not rain erosion/deposition which is colluvial/colluvium)

This is all to give you a framework to begin with. Next, you look for the major plant-animal community types or associations within the ecoregions…