Feather & Stone Bringing balance and health to the body through the modalities of;
~ Reiki
~ Sound Attunement and
~ Vibrational Healing
Feather & Stone is located in Richmond, Vermont
For directions, information or to schedule an appointment
Email Joanne
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Native Americans lived in a different world before Europeans crossed the ocean. They perceive the world as completely sacred. They respected all life, living and acting in the harmony with their environment. They followed the laws of nature and understood that by violating these laws, they would cause unnecessary pain and suffering.
When asked about their “religion” White Eagle replied, “In contrast to the modern Europeans, they (Native Americans) did not ‘imprison’ themselves in stone houses, were not ‘shackled’ by dogmas about the structure of the world. Indians felt that they were an integral part of nature; their home was the boundless forest, rocky mountains, blue lakes, waterfalls. The state of mergence with nature was very natural”.
Native Americans, do not regard their spiritual beliefs and practices as a “religion”. Their beliefs and practices form a integral and seamless part of their lives. Land and earth and animals, rocks and trees, are all held sacred as creations of the one “Great Creator”.
Then foreigners arrived, some simply to gain riches but many were fleeing religious or political oppression. Unfortunately the persecuted brought their ideals with them…and they brought their fear of what they didn’t understand. Whether through piety, fear or greed, tragedy resulted. Native Americans were deemed heathens and dangerous and Europeans put into practice the oppressive practices from which they fled. Through greed others saw the open land, of which the natives had been stewards, as something to be seized, owned and exploited for personal gain. The atrocities began.
There were whose who tried to bridge the cultures. A minister named Samuel Worchester was arrested by the State of Georgia for treading on Cherokee land. He responded by filing a law suit against Georgia. He lost. The resulting court decision was devastating, cancelling all laws stating that Native Americans were sovereign nations. Andrew Jackson sent U.S. troops into Cherokee land and forced them onto “Indian reservations”.
Jackson had a rationale for this forced movement. In a State of the Union address, he says: “The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the Westward; and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of the South and West, by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to a land where their existence may be prolonged, and perhaps made perpetual…”
This action thus began the famous and painful Cherokee Trail of Tears and eventually placed all Native Americans on reservations. It ended the fighting, but it ruined a culture. Since then they have largely been treated as second class citizens in the land that they had first nurtured. The Native American today is struggling to hang onto his culture in a world that has become foreign.
“When the white man first came to this land, we had the land and they had the bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them again, we had the bible and the white man had the land.” As Christian Americans we have a tragic history with Native Americans. It is a history that can not be undone yet must be acknowledged and not repeated.
Addendum: During the journey, it is said that the people would sing “Amazing Grace”, using its inspiration to improve morale. The traditional Christian hymn had previously been translated into Cherokee by the missionary Samuel Worcester with Cherokee assistance. The song has since become a sort of anthem for the Cherokee people.
So today the earth tilts toward the sun
though the shift is imperceptible.
I reflect.
Revolve through natural cycles.
Evolve.
Change with the seasons.
Life,
Death,
Rebirth.
Travel the great spiral.
From Autumn Equinox
to Winter Solstice
we enter the darkness.
It’s the time to go within,
to find our light.
Today the sun is reborn.
Days become longer
and nights become shorter.
We enter “the plasma of possibilities”.
We are reborn into the cycle of the seasons.
No one tortures you except your own nature. Make your nature sweet and love-able; then win the love of all. -Brahma Kumaris
Is this true?
Is it true for those captured and tortured against their free will?
Is it true for those who live with an abuser who in their turn lived with abuse?
Is it true for those who have lost everything through natural disaster or corporate greed?
There must be more to this quote. Facebook abounds with philosophical one liners devoid of context. It is too easy these days, to send along tidbits when the world we live in is predominantly created by our own minds and egos…where ugliness and tragedy have only touch us via the media. It is true that a positive, uplifting nature helps people endure physical and emotional pain but these one liners are dismissive of the damage that cruelty and tragedy inflict.
Facebook “one liners” are like tossing a bill to a panhandler. It may alleviate thirst or hunger for an hour but it has done nothing to solve the underlying problem. We have just lulled ourselves into thinking we have done something “good” when, in fact we have not.
The next time we forward on a philosophical tidbit, stop and think about it. Ask ourselves what we have done personally, to make the world a better place. Are we living our own lives as we are asking others to live theirs?
The year has turned its circle.
We celebrate our friends & family.
We celebrate the harvest.
Are we aware of the hypocrisy,
that this holiday is based on warped truths,
that it glosses over genocide?
Are we aware that the recipients of indigenous generosity
would become the agents of their destruction?
Oh but it’s a bitter irony that, in the midst of this day of plenty,
Indigenous people across this continent from Southern Mexico to Northern Canada
still face racism, poverty, and abuse.
But year has turned its circle and
we once again, spread the tablecloths over our blemished history.
One more time, we give thanks for all that we have
and we feast.
But there, at the end of the day
we are left holding the paradox.
We have swallowed the untruth yet again.
“Listening entails vulnerability. Listening requires a willingness, even a longing, to understand another.”
~Krista Tippit
What happens the day after peace is reached?
Violence is a tragedy for everyone.
No one wins.
Face it, violence is failure.
It is failure to communicate.
Failure to connect.
It is not being willing to loose the small fight for the sake of the bigger peace.
Ego has run amuck.
The antidote to violence is conversation.
The antidote to violence is empathy.
The antidote is letting go of grievances.
For if we carry a grievance we become victim of the past.
Feeling the other persons pain begins the path to reconciliation.
It begins with releasing grievance.
The bigger the challenge the stronger we grow.
The more we grow the free-er we become.
For true freedom needs no violence.
True freedom is peace.
Have we forgotten our erotic connection to the earth?
The connection that binds us with the pulse of nature.
The connection of nurturing and being nurtured.
Have we ceased to notice the world around us?
Has she been reduced to supply house and sewer?
We forget that earth is our larger body.
We digest the grains that grow in her.
We breathe the air that is her spirit.
We drink the water that is the blood of her being.
We are earth.
We are air.
We are sea.
Earth has endured
- the weapons we have built
- the pesticides and fertilizers we have spread
- the mining that eviscerates her being.
And now she is saying, “No More.”
She is erupting, and flooding, and spinning great funnel clouds.
She is demanding our attention.
Are we listening?
The earth is changing as she must:
Adjusting
Adapting
As She has always done.
Change is movement.
Change is growth.
Change is life.
Without growth, there is only death.
Yes, species will change or become extinct.
They always have.
Yes, volcanoes will blow up mountains.
They always have.
Tidal waves will surge from the shifting ocean floor.
They always have.
But we have to ask the question:
Are these the growing pains of evolution or the death pains of destruction?
Yes, even if we did everything right the earth would still change.
But, just maybe, we are not doing everything right.
We may be bound by our past but
we are not bound to it.
We can redesign the landscapes of our minds to live consciously.
Dipped in the beauty of the universe
sink back into the source.
Listen.
Feel.
We are ripening and so is She.
The universe is sacred
Is Earth singing a Magnificat or a Requiem?
We are earth.
We are air.
We are sea.
As we live, the universe will live.
May the sun bring you energy by day.
May the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries.
May the breeze blow new strength into your being.
May you walk gently through the world and
know it’s beauty all the days of your life.
Body flowing out of spirit
Spirit flowing out of body
The destination is the journey itself.
Separation, a force to keep going
The longing is redemptive
Not knowing is the learning
Hope brings energy
Life is in constant movement.
Learn the language of companionship
The language of the heart
And don’t be corrupted by misinterpretations of the words
Stay centered
Always be in love
With yourself
With what you do
With who you are with
Give birth to God within.
“O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
…By William Butler Yeats
Part of “Consciousness” is observing closely our own reactions to just and unjust situations. When we consciously observe ramifications and outcomes of actions, ours and others, we have the opportunity to make adjustments in how we move through the world.
This is part of the intermediary “chrysalis” stage we are obliged to pass through on our journey into ourselves.
Though we may make mistakes and we may suffer the mis-steps of others, only we can take responsibility our lives. We can breathe into new opportunities/energies. We breath out the negative energies. We become liberated. We learn, we move on, some move with us, some hold onto old stuff, and so it goes.
Sometime the greatest gift is to be separated from the insufferably arrogant.
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New Album: The Spiral Dance
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