dear friends: as interesting as these disscussions on religions are i will be giving up my memnbership of what i thought was going to be something completly different shortly/ take care health and happiness al
-------Original Message------- From: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, May 11, 2002 14:36:33 To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: Gaia - was Religion On Sat, May 11, 2002 at 05:17:19PM +0900, Keith Addison wrote: > > > > Her, please, the mother -- or as many Native Americans call her, > >Grandmother. > > Which Native Americans, Harmon? Not arguing - but usually settled > farming peoples have an Earth Mother and nomadic herders something > fiercer, more male. > Well, at least in North America, the vast majority of Native Americans were farmers, and even those who became nomadic, essentially only on the Plains -- such as Lakota, only became so after the introduction of the horse. Quite recent, that is. Well, of course, all were nomadic hunter/gatherers further back as were all humans before they developed agriculture. And while all were hunter/gathers, most were agricultural, none were herders -- had nothing to herd until the introduction of horses and sheep in 1500 or so. Even those who became herders of horses and nomadic, on the Great Plains, seem to have primarily feminine spirit figures -- Grandmother, White Buffalo Maiden, etc. although there is always a dual recognition in prayers of "Mother Earth-Father Sky". The SouthWestern tribes like the Apache, Navajo, Hopi, and various Pueblo tribes were very agricultural, became herders of sheep later, but weren't nomadic at all, and very matrilineal, matrilocal, with many feminine spirit figures like Corn Woman, Spider Woman, etc. Now, when you get down into Mesoamerica, things change a lot, much more agricultural, and over a longer period -- maize cultivation developed there, along with squash and beans and most other food crops of this hemisphere. But the really interesting aspect of their relgious makeup is the extreme diversity of dieties. Aztecs and Mayas, for instance, had over 400 dieties (kami if you will) each overseeing a different hallucinogen or other intoxicating plant. South America is much the same with the exception, of course, of the Amazon peoples who remained pretty much total hunter/gathers, but who also, as we know, have many plant spirit allies. The major ones, like ayahuasca, sacred mushrooms, and Ska Pastora, the Shepherdess, seem very much feminine in nature, very nurturing, and very much oriented and affirming of the Life Force, or Gaia, if you will. To get back to what you were saying about the herder cultures with a fierce patriarchial god, this seems to be characteristic of European/North Asian (the Steppes of Russia), and North African culture. And the interesting difference is that along with their patriarchial gods and patrilineal culture is their use of alcohol rather than entheogenic plants. And dominator cultures and religion rather than cooperative, partnership cultures and religions. > > > As the "mother" that "created Man". > > > > Not just man, all life, Gaia is the essence of the Life Force. > > > > > > The "Gaia" you guys talk about is DIFFERENT then the > > > one on the news right????? :) > > > > Well, just like with most things, what you get on the evening news is a far > >cry from the truth. > > "People get the government they deserve" - we used to say they also > get the newspapers they deserve, but these days I don't think either > of those statements is quite fair. They get what they're spun, but > it's never a total job. You have to know how to read it, and I'm sure > you do. How about this for upholding the values of the free world? > > http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5542 > When American-Style Journalism Comes To Town > Pakistani Reporters Become Disillusioned > ... One senior journalist from Peshawar said he no longer believed > the Western or American media is really free. "[Western or American > journalists] are not professional," Sohail Qalandar, former president > of Peshawar Press Club, told Medias. "They were found toeing their > governments' line all the time. I would not call them professionals > nor their media free." > > Here's another one - though rather less is made of it than of the > dreadful fate of Daniel Pearl: > > http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5488 > TOMPAINE.com - > Parachute Journalists > Jumping In To Cover A Story, Then Getting Out > > And another: > > http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12731 > 37 Reporters Killed, and Counting > > Best > > Keith > > >-- > >Harmon Seaver > >CyberShamanix > >http://www.cybershamanix.com > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Biofuels list archives: > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > > Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com ------------------------ Yahoo! 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