I have seen fullbloods who have virtually no idea of the great legacy entrusted to their care. Yet, I have seen people with as little as 1/500th blood quantum who inspire the spirits of their ancestors because they make being Cherokee a proud part of a their everyday life. Jim Pell, Principal Chief of the North Alabama Cherokee Tribe
When I was about ten years old, this song reached the core of my soul.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Bringing Back the Interior Warriors
The Warriors Inside
The warriors inside American men have become weak in recent years, and their weakness contributes to a lack of boundaries..., a naïveté. A grown man six feet tall will allow another person to cross his boundaries..., verbally abuse him, carry away his treasures, and slam the door behind; the invaded man will stant there with an ingratiationg, confused smile on his face...
When a boy grows up in a disfunctional family (perhaps there is no other kind of family), his interior warriors will be killed off early. Warriors, mythologically, lift their swords to defend the King. The King in a child stand for and stands up for the child's mood. But when we are children our mood gets easily overrun and swept ove ina messed-up family by the more powerful, more dominant, more terrifying mood of the parent. We can say that when the warriors inside cannot protect our mood from being disintegrated, or defend our body from invasion, the warriors collapse, go into a trance, or die.
The interior warriors I speak of do not cross the boundary aggressively; they exist to defend the boundary. The Fianna, the famous band of warriors who defended Ireland's borders, would be a model. The Fianna stayed out all spring and summer watching the boundaries, and during the winter came in.
But a typical child has no such protection. If a grown-up moves to hit a child, or stuff food into a child's mouth, ther is no defense-it happens... Most parents invade the child's territory whenever they wish...
Each child lives deep inside his or her own... soul castle, and the child deserves the right to sovereignty inside that house. Whenever a parent ignores the child's sovereignty, and invades, the child feels not only anger, but shame. The child concludes that if it has no sovereignty, it must be worthless. Shame is the name given to the sense that we are unworthy and inadequate as human beings...
When our parents *(our pastors, bosses, government) do not respect our territory at all, their disrespect seems overwhelming proof of our inadequacy. A slap across the face pierces deeply, for the face is the actually boundary of our soul, and we have been penetrated. If a grown-up decides to cross our sexual boundaries and touch us, there is nothing that we as children can do about it. Our warriors die. The child, so full of expectation of blessing whenever he or she is around an adult, stiffens with shock, and falls into the timeless fossilized confusion of shame. What is worse, one sexual invasion, or one beating, usually leads to another, and the warriors, if revived, usually die again.
Want to read more? This is from Robert Bly's book, Iron John.
Upcoming scheduled appearances of Robert Bly here.
The warriors inside American men have become weak in recent years, and their weakness contributes to a lack of boundaries..., a naïveté. A grown man six feet tall will allow another person to cross his boundaries..., verbally abuse him, carry away his treasures, and slam the door behind; the invaded man will stant there with an ingratiationg, confused smile on his face...
When a boy grows up in a disfunctional family (perhaps there is no other kind of family), his interior warriors will be killed off early. Warriors, mythologically, lift their swords to defend the King. The King in a child stand for and stands up for the child's mood. But when we are children our mood gets easily overrun and swept ove ina messed-up family by the more powerful, more dominant, more terrifying mood of the parent. We can say that when the warriors inside cannot protect our mood from being disintegrated, or defend our body from invasion, the warriors collapse, go into a trance, or die.
The interior warriors I speak of do not cross the boundary aggressively; they exist to defend the boundary. The Fianna, the famous band of warriors who defended Ireland's borders, would be a model. The Fianna stayed out all spring and summer watching the boundaries, and during the winter came in.
But a typical child has no such protection. If a grown-up moves to hit a child, or stuff food into a child's mouth, ther is no defense-it happens... Most parents invade the child's territory whenever they wish...
Each child lives deep inside his or her own... soul castle, and the child deserves the right to sovereignty inside that house. Whenever a parent ignores the child's sovereignty, and invades, the child feels not only anger, but shame. The child concludes that if it has no sovereignty, it must be worthless. Shame is the name given to the sense that we are unworthy and inadequate as human beings...
When our parents *(our pastors, bosses, government) do not respect our territory at all, their disrespect seems overwhelming proof of our inadequacy. A slap across the face pierces deeply, for the face is the actually boundary of our soul, and we have been penetrated. If a grown-up decides to cross our sexual boundaries and touch us, there is nothing that we as children can do about it. Our warriors die. The child, so full of expectation of blessing whenever he or she is around an adult, stiffens with shock, and falls into the timeless fossilized confusion of shame. What is worse, one sexual invasion, or one beating, usually leads to another, and the warriors, if revived, usually die again.
Want to read more? This is from Robert Bly's book, Iron John.
Upcoming scheduled appearances of Robert Bly here.
Indian Nation video
(Watch the video below) The song, "Indian Reservation" (The Lament Of The Cherokee) was written by John D. Loudermilk. It was first recorded in 1959 by Marvin Rainwater. The first hit version was in 1968 by Don Fardon, a former member of The Sorrows. In 1971 Paul Revere & the Raiders recorded it and it became #1 on the U.S. charts. The song was later further covered by the Orlando Riva Sound.
In 1838 the U.S. Government did not back up a Supreme Court ruling and consequently the U.S. army in the dead of winter forced the people of the Cherokee nation from their homelands westward to so-called Indian Territory.
In 1838 the U.S. Government did not back up a Supreme Court ruling and consequently the U.S. army in the dead of winter forced the people of the Cherokee nation from their homelands westward to so-called Indian Territory.
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