The Art of Story Telling

 

Telling a good story is an art.  Being able to make up a good story on the fly is even a bolder art.  When I was in High School I participated as a member of the Speech and Debate team.  My chosen competitive subject was Impromptu Speaking of which I excelled.  

Competitive Impromptu speaking  involves taking a short article, a photo, an item, or any combination of  and in 3 minutes put together a short story, news article, or informational speech about the subject given.  After the 3 minutes are up you are asked to stand in front of a panel of judges and deliver a 5 minute speech based on the notes you threw together in the initial 3 minutes.  This process can be harrowing and drain your emotional fortitude.  At the state competition level the competitor is given 5 minutes to throw together a speech, and 10 minutes to deliver said speech.  

My Dad was the coach of the Speech and Debate team of the High School I attended so I was under a certain amount of pressure to perform.  Fortunately when I was growing from a youngun to a High School sized person my Grandma Gibson was teaching me the art of telling the story.  She taught me some of the verbal tales, mythology, and history of the reservation she was living and teaching on in Montana.  I learned some of the coolest mythology from the Plains Indians through my Grandma, and she taught me how to deliver those stories to whom ever would listen to me, and I told as many people as I could, I've even written a few down.   The neat thing about telling old stories that are meant to be shared is that you have the liberty of changing them to fit your needs.  I tell stories as a healing technique for people who may or may not be suffering from some sort of physical or emotional malady.  And they work.

Telling stories can also be a form of entertainment.  Watch any stand up comic perform and you will see the Art of Story Telling at different levels of development.  Each story teller has their own ways of delivering, and processing the information into a funny and cohesive set of words that makes the listener's ears perk up and grabs their attentions.  When you have the listener's attention and focus you have them and can manipulate them with the information you are delivering.  This is when I tell you that telling a good story is a super power, and not to use your super power for evil intentions.  Doing so is an act of bad Karma and we all know how that usually turns out.  

The acts of Good Karma however can assist you in developing a good method for your delivery and creation of a good healthy story.  A healthy story doesn't not have to be a truthful story.  It is a story that is intended to entertain, grab the attention, and pass information in ways that the uninitiated may not recognize.  Sort of like passing notes when we were kids.  

As a teaching tool the Art of Story Telling is unmatched in passing on this, "Secret" information.  That's what I tell people, "These stories hold secrets to some of the oldest knowledge known to man, learning them is a responsibility."  Now, I have the attention of the listener.  After all everyone likes a good secret, right?

So, Today the Art of Story Telling has taken place of my Impromptu speaking from my High School days.  I tell old stories, I make up new ones, I mix them together, I make up lies mixed with subtle truths, and I always try to stay positive, informative, and Healthy.  Healing comes one story at a time.

Peace and Balance,

John

Happy Dead Bird Day

 

Tomorrow is the national Holiday that we give thanks to the Dead Bird.  The Dead Bird is a large indigenous creature that was grown and fostered on this continent many moons ago by rather large forces from the nether realms of Lunch Box.  Lunch Box is a secret plain where all holiday food is stored by the government until it can be released to the general public through the attribution and price fixing of the Walmart Giant.  Only those with the Top Ultra Magnetic Security Clearances have access to such knowledge. 

Lunch Box includes Large Dead Bird, Mashed and Smashed Potatoes, usually delegated to the space program, Yams, the code name of the other Potato, Corn, an ancient fuel source, a Frothy Adult Beverage, this keeps Uncle Lenny at Bay, and the pride of the day, Pumpkin Pie, just because topped with an adulterous amount of whipped cream.

Lunch Box has been used to monitor the Holiday in our neighbor Canada as a cultural exchange and a First Nations Power Up.  So far the First Nations have held back the urge to take over Canada, but have decided that the gig is pretty ok up there.  Then there's the rumor about the United States, shhhh.

Dead Bird Day began as Thanksgiving, but the name was unofficially changed by those that realize that being thankful for 500 years of occupation is a waste of time and energies, there is always that Canadian rumor.  You never know. 

So, until then when we can truly Say Happy Thanksgiving, I say to you, Have a Swell Dead Bird Day, and don't over indulge in Pumpkin Pie, the power can be explosive.

Peace and Balance,

John

The Re-explanation.

 If you read the last post you will notice that it reads much like a dusty dry textbook.  That's what happens when I write about things using my logical mind, (Gnos) I get dusty.  So, I will attempt to explain that mundane tired explanation of natural forces using words that I can understand myself.  If I understand a thing, chances are you're going to understand a thing.  

In the beginning of all things that is an energy.  This energy goes through a process of change before we get to a point that can classically be called the Beginning.  The energy changes from Nothingness, to somethingness with a period of utter Chaos in the middle.  This chaos it the nothingness collecting into the Somethingness.  The Chaos swirls, explodes, expands and contracts, blows in and out greater than any hurricane, then finely compacts and quiets into the Something.  That is the beginning, before that we don't count because, just because.  

This something compacts smaller and smaller until it is at the point of a microcosm.  Then there is a short burst of energy.  This energy became self aware, and at the point of self awareness knew all things that was to know and expanded instantly to the rest of the universe.  We'll call this the Big Boom.  I'd call it the Big Bang, but some of you might take that wrong and I'd be stuck explaining the nature of things and we haven't gotten to birds  and bees yet.  

Anywho, the Big Boom happened and all of creation was born in a relative instant.  That was between 13 trillion and 16 trillion years ago on our mundane calendar.  After all there really is no time.  

Ok, I'm going to skip ahead a few trillion years to the birth of humankind.  As we developed the original process of the I Am, that's the self aware thing waking up, took shape into a dusty critter we will call people.  And in this critter a thought was formed with an intention, we will call this the mind, or (Gnos). Greek for Mind.  Gnostic means, the study of the Mind.  Get it?  

Our minds started exploring and we personified all of the creation around us.  We gave human attributes to the forces of nature, our first angels.  We gave human thought to the animals around us.  The Sephia or Animal mind. Sephia can also be translated as Sophia the spirit.  We split our thoughts between our imagination and physical reality.  The God, and Goddess were born and from them all other things are created.  Because this is how we related to our universal creation, now we're back the the birds and bees.  They do exist at this point, but I'm not going to explain things to you that you'll eventually figure out on your own.  

Because we think complicated things, our God families get very complicated.  However, let's backtrack to the beginning.  We all, everything that exists comes from the Aeon (the One)  That is We are all, God.

Peace and Balance,

John

The Book of The Hopi

 

In 1963, Frank Waters wrote a book of prophesy and history called, "The Book Of The Hopi."  The book eludes to the rise and fall of past times when men had control of technologies that we haven't grasped yet today.  It leads the reader down a complex abstract narrative that the uninitiated could perceive as being mythological in nature, but then reveals that the information within the book was held as a sacred secret by the Hopi Elders until the proper time comes about to reveal the message to the world.  Apparently the early sixties was the right time.

Tokpela: The First World.  Speaks of He the Infinite creating Sotukang, the nine universal kingdoms.  The Infinite, Taiowa the Creator, and the seven realms for life to come. Now here's where is get's a little funky. It talks of seven vibratory axis around the Earth's center pole to pole all resounding, or sounding at once.  The major Ley lines of the Earth all vibrating at the same time.  

This is when Spider Woman gathered the four colors from the earth and began creating humankind.  She made them in the image of Sotukang, and created four female partners for four male beings.  Who understood the Earth as a living entity just like themselves.  

The Nature of Man:  Of the first Man it was spoken, "Although he had human parents, his first parents are the universal Entities that created him through them from his mother the Earth, and his father the Sun." A solar god that gives all life to the universe.  Ok, we're not talking about  the sun in the sky, but the center of our universe, the center of the Galaxy.  So our mother the Earth is not the consort of our sun, but the consort of the Greater Sun in the Center of all Things. hmmm. Then there was one created apart from the rest, a Man of Knowledge who would be the first Medicine man. 

Tuwaqachi: The Fourth World.  We've skipped ahead a couple worlds, but from out of the third world came a man who made claims to the fourth world, "I am the caretaker, the guardian and protector of this land." The people recognized him as Masaw the appointed caretaker of the third world who was cast out due to his lack of humility and his apparent self importance.  Sound like a familiar story?  

The Legends:  The first of these legends is the Path of the Heart, also called the Road of Life, or the Red Road.  This is the road we follow seeking good in life, and work on becoming a better being.  To know thyself. 

Second Legend: The planting of the magic jar which brings waters to the desert.  This is the story about the Water Witches, or Dowsers of common legend.  The people who find the water and other things needed by the people. 

Third Legend: Transference of Power.  "Old Wu'ya was a man of pure heart.  His time was spent in healing the people, taking care of the children, and teaching warriors how to be men. Upon his death in the place he was buried, a great spruce grew from which the people used his wood in their ceremonies and to make the sacred pipe."

Fourth Legend:  The birth of the Katchina, from which the people learned to read the Omens, and signs of things to come from the spirits of the Earth by offering tokens and gifts to show respect to the Earth our Mother and our Elders who have come before us.  

Fifth Legend: Talking Deer the Sacred Clown was given to the people to teach us of our own folly and to learn the lessons of the self so that we may grow beyond ourselves. 

The Mystery Plays On:  These are the actions of the Sorcerers, the Seers, the Men of Knowledge.  This is the time of great shock, from the beginning to beyond. The first world to the fourth world and beyond. The Sorcerers are those who play out what will come and what has been.  "As it was in the beginning so it shall be at the end."  HO.

Peace and Balance,

John

Bull Hook Bottoms, Iktomi, and The Jump.

 

I grew up in the Great Northern Desert.  Or, Northern Montana if you will.  Havre is a small town on the Northern Highline of Montana directly south of an area that was once called the Bull's Hook.  It is a bend in the Milk River that travels south abit then north again before heading towards the Missouri river.  

Originally called Bull Hook Bottoms, Havre is home to the nations largest Buffalo Jump.  As the story goes, Iktomi the spider tried to trick a man into running at the lead Buffalo of a heard and provoke him into a rage.  Iktomi made up a story about the Buffalo to make the man angry and run at the herd.  Great Spirit was listening to the conversation and whispered into Buffalo's ear, "Sacrifice for man and feed his people, feed his family."  

Buffalo ran at the man and the herd followed, but instead of running over Man they ran around him and over the Jump sacrificing themselves for the tribe of Man.  Man's tribe had food for the winter and skins for their tipis.  They had bone for knives, and sinew for sewing.  Man had all he needed for his people.  It was good, HO.  

For his deceit, Iktomi was made to serve Man and his tribe by creating the Great Travois with which man uses to carry his belongings and give rest to his Elders.  The Travois is pulled behind Man's best Dog, Tashunka Wakan, the Horse.  Iktomi was again made the fool.  

Bull Hook Bottoms was renamed Havre after Le Havre France, by an eccentric wealthy entrepreneur sometime during the 1800's.   The time before either versions of the town is where the Assiniboine made their home, when the Jump was used, the Buffalo sacrificed, and Iktomi tried to lead Man astray only to serve Man in the Heyoka way.

Peace and Balance,

John   

Wi and Han Wi

 A long time ago the warrior Anpao was in love with the maiden Wi.  He tried many things to gain her attention and favor.  Anpao would hunt and bring her the finest deer hides.  He would create the most elaborate tipi's with the best buffalo hides.  He would bring her the finest horses.  Anpao did everything he could think of to get her attention.  

Wi had eyes for another.  She was always looking out for Anpetu, the sun warrior.  She would watch for his arrival and on his approach would run and hide.  Wi was afraid of Anpetu's brightness. His glare blinded her.  

Anpao was jealous and created a terrible idea.  He traveled to Anpetu's tipi to do battle with what he thought were the Gnasty's that lived there.  Anpao found himself in a perpetual battle with the monsters from the sun.  

Each morning Anpetu would make his approach, and Wi would run and hide.  And every night Anpetu would sleep and Wi would gaze upon him as he slept.  But, when the warrior Anpao made is presence known thru Anpetu, Wi found herself gazing out at a reflection waiting for Anpetu.  What came instead was the conflict Between Anpetu and Anpao.  The monsters of the sun were dancing.  Because of this conflict once every month Wi can gaze upon Anpetu and Anpetu can share space with Wi.  Anpao sleeps. 

During this time Wi and Han Wi share the skies.  The sun and the moon can be seen dancing together while the Darkness and the Light battle for conquest of the monsters of the sun.  Who never appear.  

Peace and Balance,

John

Toltec

 

Originally the Toltec were a pre Columbian/ Mesoamerican culture that ruled an area centered in Tula, Hidalgo, and Mexico during pre classic and post classic  period of Central American Culture from about 950 to 1150 BCE.  The Toltec spoke an ancient form of the Nahuatl language that was in a period of changing at the time.  Influences of other peoples moving into the regions were changing and altering the language of the Toltec.  At the same time the Toltec were influencing and changing the cultures of the immigrants to their lands. 

The Toltec greatly influenced the cultures of both the Aztec and Mayan societies.  The Toltec militarily absorbed the Maya and in doing so created the great city of Chichen Itza, with architectural design that even today modern man has difficulties fathoming.  The Maya looked upon the Toltec with great reverence and respect.  In the language that developed from a Blend of Maya and Hahuatl the word Toltec became the word Mayan culture used for Sorcerer.  As time progressed the Great Aztec Empire evolved from the Toltec, Mayan, and Aztec cultures that all seemed to blend together and became known by the name of the majority, the Aztecas.   In the Aztec language that evolved from a blending of the other two plus the Aztecan speech, the word Toltec became the word Aztec would use for Artisan, or Creator.  

As time progressed and the Central American Culture became predominantly known as the Aztec Empire, the Toltec became part of the mythology of Central America.  The Toltec had become the Sorcerers, the Seers, those that spoke to the gods, the Wazi, Great Wizards.  Aztec priests became known as Toltec.  

This absorption into Culture by the Toltec could be due to their abilities to predict or foresee what was becoming of their own peoples.  Their populations was diminishing and in order to maintain ancient technologies and secret knowing's a decision was made, "If you can't beat them, join them." So they shared their knowledge with each following culture that would absorb or be absorbed by them.  This is the question, who did the absorbing?  

In the modern world there are many societies that lay claim to the title, "Toltec."  Brought into popularity in the late 60's and early 70's by the author, Carlos Castaneda, Toltec became a term for, "A man of Knowledge."  Almost a direct reflection of the blended Mayan and Aztecan languages.  

What then is, "A Man of Knowledge?"  We could be literal with with the words and take it as read, a person that knows stuff.  But, that sort of goes, Nowhere quick.  "A Man of Knowledge," then becomes someone who walks outside the standard path of normal society.  He/she is a person who gains their living information through the observation of things most can not see.  Reflecting on the relationship to that knowledge with the majority vs. the minority.  After much watching, listening, and reflecting the knowledge comes to the observer who can then decide to share or not the knowledge observed or experienced.  In that way the Toltec are indeed the Sorcerers, the seers of modern society.

To become, "A Man of Knowledge" is to take a step away from the fears that bind us to the normal and the restrains of the majority.  We separate ourselves from the easily traveled path to the difficult path of enlightenment and awaken the Us inside the We.  We experience the Death of Ego and free from Karma, to borrow a term from the Hindu.  We become the Shaman.

Peace and Balance,

John

The Potato

The potato is one of the main staples in the United States.  It is a root that is native to the Americas and the secret additional part of the Three Sisters plus one,  maize, beans, squash, and potatoes.  Generally when you think of Native American food you think of the Three Sisters, Maize, (Corn), Beans, and Squash of all kinds, but what is left out that actually occupies a greater portion of the pot is the potato.  

The potato wasn't actually a staple in Ireland until the English brought it back from the Americas.  The English couldn't figure the potato out and gave it to the Irish in hopes of getting rid of a problem, the potato.  The Irish figured it out and the rest is legend.  Ireland became so enthralled with the potato that several excellent dishes were developed and the potato for many generations became the main crop of the Misty Isle.  This is one of the main causes of the potato blight.  Over planting, and poor farming technique.  Pretty soon, no potatoes which cost many lives and started a migration that eventually lead to the fact that there are more Irish folks in the United States than there are in Ireland.  Followed the potato home.

Potatoes are fun food.  You can do so much with a potato, and create many wonderful dishes of goodness.  One of my favorites is a potato hash that I've mastered through practice and taste testing.  Take 6 or 7 potatoes, peel them and chop them into bite sized chunks and place in a preheated frying pan with good slab of butter.  Add a few dashes of Garlic salt, Basil, Kosher salt, and Black Pepper, and let begin to brown.  Chop up a couple of large white or yellow onions and add to the potatoes.  Let cook together.  When the spuds start to brown add a chopped up Kielbasa, of your own choice and cover.  This takes about 45 minutes to cook.  The last few minutes uncover to let brown more and release the steam.  Serve with salsa or ketchup or whatever catches your fancy.  Eatem up yum.  

Potatoes are also very good for you.  The Starch in a potato helps to regulate cholesterol levels, it helps maintain proper sugar absorption, and helps keep caloric regulation normal.  However, that's not an excuse to over indulge in the potato because to much of a good thing is no longer a good thing, ya know Vern.  

So to you I say during the Native American Heritage Month, enjoy your potatoes, with a good helping of the Three Sisters, Maize, Beans, and Squash, your health and your bod will appreciate you.

Peace and Balance,

John