The Native American heritage
Native Americans carry a culture that goes back thousands of years, where their traditions teach us that each of us carries within them an ancestral blessing, the memory of a spiritual clan that connects them to life on Earth in a deep and inescapable way.
It could look like a religion, but it is more a philosophy, a way of perceiving the world. Of living according to the seasons, the migrations and the winds. "a harsh paradise, certainly, but one offering a grandiose atmosphere to this sacred character.
Native American philosophy is mainly characterised by a circular mode of thought, that is to say that this philosophy intends to recognise the relations between all beings. Let us also add that there is no separation between the sacred and the profane, nor any elements allowing the domination of the species by one of them that would be superior to the others to be legitimised.
Circular thought offers the individual the capacity to enter into communication with animals or plants even if they appear mysterious to us at first sight. Whereas, for other traditions, the idea of seeing oneself as the equal of animals, of plants or of stones seems humiliating, for the thinkers of the Circle it is a reassuring idea that brings peace.
This veneration of freedom is explained in part by the presence of the wide open spaces. They make it possible to explore a certain solitude unknown to Europeans, who live on a continent entirely occupied by man. Euro-Americans, just like Native Americans, need space, silence. It is extremely important for them to know that there exists, somewhere, a place where they can withdraw far from the scrutinising eyes of the system.
The preservation of this balance is vital for them, because there is no human law separate from the law of nature. As the Kogi Indians of Colombia magnificently put it, “nature is written in the trees”. Mother Earth is not only a “sacred deposit” for which we would be responsible or an object of study whose laws we can know, she is what we are made of, she is the matrix of every thing since the origin of time.
And what if the spirituality of the Native Americans of North America could help us to overcome our difficulties? Centred on a cosmic god that deeply resembles the cosmos that scientists have been describing to us since Einstein, this spirituality is inseparable from a deep concern for nature, for the earth, for the beauty of the world.
It offers fruitful avenues for responding to the current ecological crisis. Because we are not only facing a crisis in the management of our resources, but a lack of harmony within us, others and the world
If Western thought has provided certain individuals with the justifications needed to legitimise their own authority, Western thought has also given birth to so-called “progressive” tendencies that dream of a better world, but that in reality make it a hell.
“Let us connect to our deep source. Everything is connected. Unity is the key.”
- Army of nature