June 1999
Spiritual Life Close to Nature
by Jonn Salovaara
There are books that may be summarized and there are books you just have to read for yourself. Tamarack Song’s Journey to the Ancestral Self is one of the latter.
Song’s ancestors were native to Europe, not America. Yet he resonates with the old ways practiced by indigenous North Americans. He comes to learn that there is really nothing too surprising or contradictory about this.
"...My ancestors, the Native People of Europe, Walked the Old Way just as did the Native People of America. In the same ways they hunted and foraged, sought Vision, entered the Sweat Lodge, and lived in Clan-Circles around the Drum and Moon. One not specializing in their study would be hard-pressed to distinguish their wigwams, arrowheads, and clothing one from the other. The lifeways of both were crushed by the Civilized Conquerors; both were forced/coerced to take new ways and shun their own as being of the Devil.
"The Drums of both were destroyed, shearing their connectedness with the Earth and each other, robbing their collective source of Power. The voices went on to say that the only significant difference between me and my regional Native neighbors is the number of generations we are removed from our Earth/Clan roots." (p.37)
The problem with city-based cultures, says Song, is that they lose touch with our furred, winged, and clawed fellow creatures, from whom Native people learn much essential wisdom. Our own civilization has also lost touch with the cycles of the moon — our calendar no longer corresponds to lunar months. According to Song, this fact has a great impact on many aspects of our lives. It should be noted that Song makes a distinction between Indians who live in close contact with animals and those who, like the Aztecs and Incas, developed extended civilizations.
The return to the "Old Way" described in this book is achieved through working with a suitable guide, whether a human from local people living in the Old Way, or one of our furred, winged, and clawed brothers and sisters. Song points out that no one can know the essence of a land like those whose ancestors have lived on it, and with it, for centuries. Song’s own guides are the Raven and a woman named She Who Talks With Loons.
The book is divided into four sections: Finding the Trail, The Old Way Culture, People of the Old Way, and Attunement — Stepping Out of Time.
Through it all, Song promotes awareness of life’s circularity: "Any approach to the Old Way begins with this awareness of the Circular view of life, which is shared by all Native People." For your own experience of American Indian spirituality, this may be the best place to start.
Journey to the Ancestral Self: The Native Lifeway Guide to Living in Harmony with Earth Mother, by Tamarack Song, 1994, Station Hill Press: Barrytown, NY, 214 pages, $14.95 paper.
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