As we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, we have an opportunity to recognize the immense sacrifice that has been made by Indigenous Peoples around the world to retain their identity, sacred places, languages, knowledge and wisdom.  Here we will focus for a moment on the wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, and its immense importance at this time.

True knowledge and wisdom can not be bought, nor can it be sold.  It can not be owned or patented, it is a gift of the creator that comes to us, lives within us, passes through us.  But it can be respected an honored.  To do this, we can honor the source of this wisdom, and the lives it has traveled through to reach us.  We must care for it, take responsibility to do the best we can with it, to make the lives of those around us better by fulfilling our purpose in this life.  With this, we can not look to extract knowledge and wisdom from a people the same way we have extracted land, resources and lives from them.  We can not take the gifts we have received and look to sell them for profit, as it will turn this gift of wisdom into dust.

Today, let us remember the sacred knowledge, the wisdom that has been bestowed upon us, and be grateful for what we have received.  Let us honor the path this knowledge has taken, and those that have sacrificed to keep the lineages alive.  Let us remember that not long ago, we all lived as Indigenous people in all parts of the world, and by supporting the Indigenous people of today’s world to remain vital in their lands, with their languages, cultures, knowledge, and wisdom we help to keep alive hope for our collective future.

Please take a moment to read this excellent piece by Naomi Klein interviewing Leanne Simpson in YES! Magazine:
Dancing the World into Being: A Conversation with Idle No More’s Leanne Simpson

The existing paradigm of development, particularly for “underdeveloped” nations, continues to fall apart as it fails to create a fundamental shift in conditions that foster the well-being and evolutionary development of both people and place and instead breeds cycles of materialism, dependency and extractivism.  We must challenge assumptions and change the way we view the world to change the future we are creating. Here is an article by Charles Eisenstein in Kosmos Journal discussing the failure of existing development frameworks, and pointing towards Indigenous cultures and living lineages to guide us going forward.

If we were to reframe our development goals as seeking to integrate more deeply with a natural order to support the co-evolution of people and the living, natural world around us, how different would things look?  Where do the opportunities lie for us to embrace the wisdom of living lineages, as they reflect the natural wisdom of our planet and universe, and to integrate that wisdom into how we organize our human activities and systems?  What are the numerous examples of where this has happened in our collective history, and where it continues to occur in our present time?

Thanks to Sonja for sharing this article with us:
Development in the Ecological Age

So, this Monday morning rant features an article that leads me to think about the need to restore the continuum in our stories of human experience.

Often, archaeology, as a result of the modern cosmologies within which it operates, creates a narrative that disconnects the current human experience from the richness of our collective history.  Ancestral people, like the Maya, are said to have “disappeared” and to have had little to no connection to civilizations of the past, let alone hold the keys for recognizing the developments they have brought to the planet that remain unseen.  Disconnecting a people from their own history helps to create the conditions that enable their exploitation.

There is great value in understanding the narratives of our human history, even as told through archaeological or anthropological lenses.  This shifting context of discovery can change the way we think about how we have arrived in the present moment, as well as the potential that we can realize in the future.

Our history is continuous, and the more we can realize this the greater our sense of purpose can be heading into the future.  This article is a great example of the transformation that is possible, even within archaeological perspectives, that begin to recognize the unbroken connection between peoples and their ancestors.  Although this example is specific to Indigenous people of the Americas, there are stories of our ancestral experience upon this planet being told around the world, and we can each recognize our place on a deeper continuum of life in this universe.

New Discovery Confirms Native American Views on Their Ancestry

SacredRoad Runner, September 2014 is here!  We just sent out our latest newsletter, full of information about what is happening in the world of Saq’ Be’, including information on stories, the Cholq’ij calendar and ongoing/ upcoming efforts to keep living lineages vital.  You can sign up to receive the newsletter on our site.  You can also view it online (below).  Here’s the intro:

You’ll want to read this!

SacredRoad Runner – September, 2014

Mayan Ajq’ij Gerardo Barrios discussed prophecy, the Mayan calendars, cosmology and more with interesting insights into the Maya cosmovision.  This article is based upon an interview with him in 1998.  Gerardo is the brother of Lina and Carlos, and sadly, passed away a few years ago.  We are glad that some of his knowledge was passed on in the contents of this interview.  Good Friday reading!

The Elders Wisdom Page

Saq’ Be’ works to support the movement of living lineages into modern times.  Many may wonder what “lineages” mean exactly, and why they are relevant?  We view this as the transmission of knowledge and wisdom, over time and generations (and often place) from one set of keepers of a tradition to a next generation.  It is essential that these lineages trace back to their origin.  We consider the lineages themselves to be alive, representing the present manifestation that contains the cosmology, ontology, knowledge, wisdom and energy of ancient traditions, that have evolved into their current form, serving to guide the evolutionary path of humanity within the cosmos.

If all this sounds confusing, don’t worry.  It’s an attempt to explain something simple and somewhat intangible through intellectual means.  The beauty of these lineages lies in their wisdom of simplicity.

For those of you who may be technically inclined, here is an amazing example of tracing lineages over time.  The Tibetan Buddhist Resources Center collects and digitizes Tibetan Buddhist texts from around the world to preserve and further the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.  They have discovered a clear record in those texts that delineates the lineages of the tradition.  Have a  look, and let us know what you think about living lineages in the comments here and on social media.

The Lineage Transmission Knowledge Model

Here are some images from Lina and Denise’s July, 2014 visit to Santa Fe, NM.  As the fire ceremony ended, thunders came and the sky opened up on us, ending the ceremony with a bang!