Sharing Spirit

Connecting ourselves with our ancient ancestors and the land.
By Sunbird

Wherever humans have settles, we have been sharing energy with that place in many ways. We become filled with the land and one day the land becomes filled with us. We also become filled with a deep love of it, the very rocks and roots of the earth are in our blood, the air we breathe is full of magic, the spirits speak audibly through the rustling of leaves and the deep howl of the wind, through the waterfalls and the silence. Our ancestors were in love with those lands.

Deep in the soil lie the bones of our ancestors, from the first people to settle in that place often to those that have recently passed over into the lands of the spirits. Deep in the soil lie the bones of the ancestors, founders and members of the tribes and cultures that have dwelled in the land. Their bodies have gone into the soil and now supply nutrients to the food we eat, add share their energy with the plants, trees, water and rocks, animals and soil. They are part of the land, so when we speak of the land, we speak of our ancestors too.

The land provides us with food, water, clothing, shelter and life. The energy of the land is in every grain of wheat, barley or oats, in every boar, deer, cow, pig or sheep. As a plant grows it soaks up the water from the land and the rain, it feeds from the animals, plants, leaves and people that have gone before (died). Their Spirits go into the wild, their bodies go into the ground. As the plant grows it feeds from the light of the sun. The land is our provider and we are made of the land, so the land is our mother.

When we breathe we share breath and spirit with the land. When we live we share our energy with the land and when we die we share our energy in a different way. When future generations live on the land, they share their energy with us and with the land. We will become part of the land, and when our descendants speak of the land, they will speak of us too.

The sacred cycle of life and death ensures that we have food, that we have bodies, fertile soil, animals, plants, trees, air and water. In truth, Humans share whether we like it or not, we are made from the land and from our ancestors. When we invite people to come from other lands, we share our food and our breath with them and by doing this we share our land and our ancestors with them too.

Our Mothers carry us in their wombs and eat food from the land. In turn this food gets turned into the things that build our bodies, our hearts, blood, brain and affect our spirits. We truly are made of the land, we truly are one with the land. So when we speak of the land, we speak also of ourselves.

We can connect with the land simply by listening to our own hearts, for the muscle that the heart is made of is made out of energy from the land, the blood that it pumps carries more energy from the land. All we have to do is listen.

We can receive extra energy from the land and those that have gone before when we eat, drink or breath or if we ask for it. As the land is connected to us, as we share everything we are with it and She shares everything with us, we are one, She knows how we feel, She knows what we think. If we pray, we pray to the land, if we ask for guidance, we ask for it from the land.

The land adds power to our prayers and ceremonies, just as the ancestors, the animals, the trees, the air, the water all add power to our work for we are all part of the land, we are all related and all share breath with each other.

When we wash the land washes us clean with her water, when we tattoo ourselves we do so with the symbols we are guided to use by the land and those that have gone before and we also tattoo ourselves with the land.

When we pray the land hears us, when we sing or dance the land hears and feels us, and she will respond, if we pray for food, and we give something of ourselves, she will give something of herself, she will give us food. Whatever we pray for the land will answer in some way, but we must give something of ourselves first.

If we want to make a special connection with the land we go out upon her and we pray, we make ceremony, we fast, we have vigil. We can go into the Earth by going to Earth wombs such as sweat lodges, kivas or burial chambers and lie on them, or in them and ask for connection to the land. In these places we are often surrounded by the bodies of our ancestors, we can connect with them there and ask for guidance. We can go into the forest and share breath with the trees and ask them for guidance, strength and energy or into the desert and ask for silence, peace and clarity. We can ask for connection with the animals when we share breath with them or when we take their lives for food and hide. Our Drums are made of the animals and the animals help us to journey and heal, they are connected with us. We can go out on the land in the daytime and ask to be connected with our father the sun, with our brothers and sisters the stars and with the wise old grandmother, the old silver haired one, the moon.

Every time we connect with the land, the animals, trees, sun, moon, stars or ancestors, we are sharing with them, and we can share in different ways. We can share by honouring them, we can share by shape shifting and letting them use our bodies, we can give offerings of food, of our own hair, our spittle, urine and our breath. When we pray, we share energy by putting our trust in them.

Whatever we do to the land we do to ourselves and to everyone around us, and to the future generations. If we treat the land badly we will suffer and so will the people around us and those that are yet to come. We will anger the land and those that have gone before, they will cease to work with us, to share with us and we will die. If we treat the animals badly and kill them without care they will not return here, their spirits will go into the wild and tell the other animals not to come here. If we cease to share with the land, the land will cease to share with us. So for everything we take, we give something in return.

This is the sacred cycle of death and rebirth. When need to give before we can receive. We need to keep the balance by replacing what we take with something of ourselves. In this way our bellies are always full, our thirsts quenched, our homes are made warm and our spirits are kept alive by the sacred connection.

This is being Human.

Whenever we go to another country we eat the food of that land and we share breath with that land, we take our ancestors and our land with us, and in this way can stay connected with them, but in this new land we can connect with it and with the ancestors there to, just as our land makes a connection with it in the mixing of our breath with the air, of our urine with the water.

This is being a Guest.

If we choose to go to another country and not connect with the land and ancestors, but instead spread our own ways as truth, this is simply wrong.