Reviving Our Indigenous Souls: How to Practice the Ancient to Bring in the New

Reviving Our Indigenous Souls: How to Practice the Ancient to Bring in the New

Indigenous is neither a culture nor a people. It’s a way. The indigenous way is the embodied ancient memory of how to be fully human, and it’s encoded in your soul, no matter who your ancestors are. Hidden deep and dormant within your indigenous soul is your identity and your life’s purpose, longing for you to remember them and put them into action. Reviving Our Indigenous Souls: How to Practice the Ancient to Bring in the New can help you do both, as you – learn the origin, meaning, and application of 31 common verbs that collectively capture what it means to be fully human; – visualize via illustrated appendices the interplay of the physical and spiritual aspects of your indigenous soul at work; – discover how ancient wisdom and timeless practices have already defined and shaped you and will forever do so; – follow the cues for reflection to discern the meaning that each chapter brings to your own life; and – engage in recommended practices to achieve success in reviving your own indigenous soul. At this unprecedented time in planetary and cosmic history, you are needed. You are whole and sufficient, gifted and powerful. You are enough, and you are called to go out into the world and be enough. Let Reviving Our Indigenous Souls remind you of the former and guide you through the latter. Rev. Dr. Cathie Stivers is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, and a former pediatric hospital chaplain. She was a 3-year scholar at Stephen Jenkinsons Orphan Wisdom School, where her own indigenous soul remembering began in 2011. She lives in Richmond, VA where she continues to minister, teach, write, and remember. www.indigenoussoulrevival.com Reviving Our Indigenous Souls How to Practice the Ancient to Bring in the New By Cathie G. Stivers Balboa Press Copyright © 2018 Cathie G. Stivers All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5043-9445-1 Contents Acknowledgements, IX, Preface, XI, Chapter 1 Word, 1, Chapter 2 Breathe, 9, Chapter 3 Be Fed, 13, Chapter 4 Inter-Depend, 17, Chapter 5 Belong, 22, Chapter 6 Learn, 27, Chapter 7 Remember, 31, Chapter 8 Intuit/Dream, 38, Chapter 9 Plant, 45, Chapter 10 Bury, 50, Chapter 11 Feel, 54, Chapter 12 Wild, 60, Chapter 13 Shed, 68, Chapter 14 Forgive, 76, Chapter 15 Yield, 80, Chapter 16 Love, 87, Chapter 17 Respond, 93, Chapter 18 Feed, 101, Chapter 19 Story, 105, Chapter 20 Beautify, 112, Chapter 21 Bless, 118, Chapter 22 Simplify, 125, Chapter 23 Balance, 131, Chapter 24 Pray, 138, Chapter 25 Thank, 144, Chapter 26 Gift, 147, Chapter 27 Carry, 152, Chapter 28 Honor, 156, Chapter 29 Rite, 162, Chapter 30 Elder, 169, Chapter 31 Die, 174, Chapter 32 Coordinate, 182, Appendix A Maya Coordinates, 193, Appendix B Dimensions, 197, Appendix C Chakras, Subtle Bodies, and Auras, 201, Appendix D Ascension Trajectory, 205, References, 209, Endnotes, 217, CHAPTER 1 WORD Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more. –Confucius I once had a dream about the force of words. It happened during my seminary years, as I was learning how to read, translate, and interpret Biblical Greek and Hebrew as part of my academic studies. In my dream, I was doing my homework — reading an Old Testament passage in Hebrew and deciphering its meaning. With deep concentration, I stared at the lines of the text, and then suddenly the letters began to dance. They did their own version of the Rockettes performing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. At first I was in disbelief, and thought I was imagining things. But then I laughed out loud with glee as I thought, "My classmates will never believe this!" "You're having fun?" the letters asked me. "Oh, yes!" I giggled. "Well, if you think this is amazing, come closer and look behind us. You'll really be blown away." The dream ended before I got the full, behind-the-scenes view. But I was changed forever by the truth these dancing letters demonstrated: Words are alive. More than a decade later, I was mentored by a teacher who encourages his students to look up the original root and meaning of a word — its etymology — in order to benefit from its history and full expression. His recommendation has become a cornerstone of my continuing education, and is credited for the format of this book. Throughout the book, I used an online etymological dictionary to identify the original root of a word, and roughly trace some of its history. The oldest written account of these roots dates back to the 4th millennium BC, or even earlier. This account is associated with "the prehistoric people of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction." These ancient Eurasians are our ancestors, and their words resonate more or less in our 21st-century written and spoken languages. For some of the words explored in this book, little has changed in their meanings over thousands of years. For others, significant changes