The Two Brothers
The old woman took the tablet of instructions wrapped in a worn cloth and broke them in two pieces. The tablet was given to her by Creator and would serve as the guide for developments in this new world which was just opening. She gave half to her younger son. He was instructed to go to the West and keep the natural balance; to keep the living breathing Earth properly functioning; to harmonize with the natural laws of the sky and the heavens. This would keep the Earth in balance and provide a stable place for all of creation.
To her older son, she gave the second half of the tablet and instructed him to go to the East. He was to develop ideas that would help people grow through their experiences and become wise. These ideas would lead to inventions. Inventions that would make life easier so that more time could be spent in contemplation of the mysteries of life. Both brothers would need to remain humble. The old woman told them that humbleness would allow them to keep focus on their instructions.
As the brothers parted she said to them that towards the end of this worldly cycle the brother in the East should return to his brother in the West. Together they should put the pieces of the original tablet back together to signal the completion of the instructions. It would be long and difficult for both. Times would challenge them and so much time would pass that much could be forgotten. So much that they might not remember the original instructions. The older brother could lose his way because ideas could easily be thought of as one’s own; a danger to staying humble. In case this happened, the old woman gave the younger brother a sign that would signify his older brother had forgotten to stay humble. If he returned carrying the sign of the four directions of the Earth without the circle of the Creator, the younger brother would know that his brother had forgotten Creator’s way.
In 1492 a people from across the great water came to the West. Leading the way was a cross. To the native people of the West this represented the four directions. It was not encompassed in a circle; a circle that signified everything is contained within the great cycle of creation.
In the 1980’s I traveled and worked with various leaders of North American Indian tribes. By campfires, on mountaintops and on windswept plains I would listen to the elders as they recounted stories of life in their societies. I had found a place that felt like home. A far-off place. A feeling really. These amazing people had kept their understanding of the duties of life all this time. This vision that they humbly offered remained intact even after 500 years of discovery. Life’s duties still remained as respect for the old ones; protection and first-hand instruction for the youth; leaders who saw themselves as servants for the betterment of the whole tribe; connection to all the relatives of the Earth; and always a sacred duty to the Earth herself. Over time I began to ask myself the question “What had happened to the people I descended from. The people who came across the water?” Surely, they had been indigenous to somewhere at one time; a tribal people.
The 1960’s and 70’s had brought many non-Indian people to the doorstep of the native people. Yet, even with the knowledge and understanding that something was wrong with dominant American society, they couldn’t bridge their own culture to come humbly and to seek answers. Instead of being an ally, they wanted to be like the Indians; no really to BE the Native Americans; wanting to capture their essence. These times would leave the Indian people all the more impoverished and trying to keep their ceremonial and spiritual practices from becoming a commodity.
As a parent and a “child” of this civilization, I fervently felt that we were killing our natural world in our ignorance and with our compulsive behaviors. We were not native to this land and we had no real understanding of it; an understanding that could lead to a real relationship with it. It was so apparent that we needed this grounding. Without it there was little hope of a collective future for our children. It seemed the necessary course of action was to begin helping our brothers and sisters of this Turtle Island to live and to prosper. And in doing so we might find our way back to our own roots; back to a knowledge that once sustained us as a people.
There is a progression, an evolution at play here. We may not be conscious of what we have lost, but the tasks and the development of these progressive stages of the “original tablet instructions” remain the same. It is the development of consciousness. A development of consciousness that is aware of itself, of the collective, and its place within the collective. We have been moving through three distinct phases. The first of which was sub-conscious unity. The place we all started from. This was the phase where all conscious identity was in the group or tribe. Every individual took their identity from the tribe. The potential was that tribal identity, because offered to each individual, would lead to a soul that valued every person. A soul who valued the whole enough to ensure group survival and by doing so, ensure that every individual had what they needed. Failure to realize this potential would lead to groups and tribes seeing others as outside of themselves and consequently the enemy.
The second phase was conscious individualism. Here the identity was separated from the group and developed into each individual’s own personality; the wondrous gifts given each person on this planet. The goal was to develop a personal awareness; to separate each piece of the whole to learn about it’s uniqueness. Ultimately this could lead to the renouncing of attachment to the self. However, the problem of over or under development could lead to selfishness and the complete absorption with the self.
The development of these two phases of consciousness would lead to the third, conscious unity; a state where the individual recognizes their identity as one with divinity and offers it to the community, group or collective. The collective in turn provides and sustains the individual. The “tribe” and the “individual” merge. As the collective consciousness expands it realizes it is a part of the whole of creation where each person recognizes their place the whole of the Earth, much like cells to the whole of the body.
The story of the two brothers can be likened to our situation here in this western land of America. As the political system polarizes and begins to melt, the beginnings of our society become all the more important. What great lesson are we missing? What was its original intention? I believe that America was an IDEA meant to expand our understanding. But it is lost without grounding to the natural world. Look what our failure to reach out to honor and respect our brothers and sisters of this indigenous world has done to this land and life. We stifle our own development as well by limiting the birth of ideas. Ideas and concepts that are abstracts to nature; that coupled with the concreteness of the natural world complete the picture of the power of creation. We have lost our way. We have forgotten our original instructions. What world would we now enjoy had we met our obligations and greeted our brothers and sisters here on this large island with respect and anticipation? Anticipation of a great sharing of ceremony and ideas …. And yet Creator gives us a new day each day. A day closer to creating a conscious unity on this earth and bringing the two halves of that ancient tablet together once again.