The great sea
Has sent me adrift,
It moves me as the weed in a great river,
Earth and the great weather move me,
Have carried me away,
And move my inward parts with joy.
~ From an Inuit Shaman Woman
What used to belong to the mystic, to the shaman, to the priest, to the midwife of the sacred – those inward journeys, the unusual and rare experiences - have become available for everyone as part of the necessary and available potential inherent in each of us. So continues our next understanding of the Natives of the North, their inner journeys and outward expressions, and their inspiration for us as Social Artists.
So much of the spiritual aspect of these people has to do with helping spirits; with being able to enter and to call spiritual reality in to help to disperse the shadows; to bring the larger worlds of what “could be” and what “is” together. These spirits can be the spirit that you have within you that continues as a spirit when you die and reincarnate. It is also the naming spirit, the associate spirit. And there are levels and levels of spirit. But all are ultimately out of the matrix of the Great One: the Haida believe in a supreme being of the ocean; among Tlingit and Tsimshian, this being is called Shagoonwith a complex meaning that includes ancestors, heritage, origin, destiny, and supreme deity; and for the Inuit it is Sedna, the legendary goddess of the sea.
With so many of their images of the Great One being literally one with the oceans and seas, it is no wonder that the nature of spirituality among the Natives of the North is akin to communion with the cosmic sea. To be aware of a thing, an animal, a person, is to keep its spirit alive. Spirits that are not held in consciousness go out of existence. The ones who hold the consciousness of the tribe are the elderly women, who remember the names of the spirits of those who have gone before. And, by holding the name and memory of the spirit that is departed, they assure its reincarnation in a new body.
If we hold all this as a mirror of how we might act in our own difficult times, we see a challenging and inspiring reflection.
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