“Only when we accept the fact that the world is never exactly as we see it through our individual lens of perception will we be able to accept ourselves or the mystery that is life itself.”
― Hal Zina Bennett, The Lens of Perception: A User's Guide to Higher Consciousness
September 2021 story
July and August are the months, where I enjoy being outdoors, enjoy the garden and do the things, that help me charge my battery for the colder months ahead.
This year I decided to clear my computer of old stuff and found a lot of documents, still of interest to me today, a.o. my homework for the SNU course, then called S5, a very interesting course on World religions.
I can advise all of you, if you have the opportunity, to start studying the SNU courses. They offer such fine learnings and to me they meant bliss. I was able to devote myself to spiritual subjects, to ponder, to open my mind and to find answers I had been looking for, for so long. Of course we can do all that without courses, but for me the discipline offered by a course works fine :0).
I decided to take an excerpt from the final part for the September story.
Shamanism
The religion I chose to write a bit more at the end of the course was Shamanism.
“I have enjoyed doing this course, it gave me lots of information, insight and the knowledge of how much there is out there that I still don’t know and can only guess at. One thing I have discovered, though.
All the religions I fleetingly studied aim at understanding what life is all about. All of them have one big question, as to who or what it is, that leads us, tempts us, and gives us the curiosity to find out about what we call life.
All of them have a vision of the answer. In all cases it has to do with something or someone powerful and strong.
Shamanism, said to be the oldest of all religions works with acceptance of the forces of nature all around us, with the magic that is life.”
I found, that my feelings were beautifully verbalised in the next prayer.
Prayer/contemplation
An Indian Prayer
My grandfather is the fire
My grandmother is the wind
The Earth is my mother
The Great Spirit is my father
The World stopped at my birth
and laid itself at my feet
And I shall swallow the Earth whole
when I die
and the Earth and I will be one
Hail The Great Spirit, my father
without him no one could exist
because there would be no will to live
Hail The Earth, my mother
without which no food could be grown
and so cause the will to live to starve
Hail the wind, my grandmother
for she brings loving, life giving rain
nourishing us as she nourishes our crops
Hail the fire, my grandfather
for the light, the warmth, the comfort he brings
without which we be animals, not men
Hail my parent and grandparents
without which
not I
nor you
nor anyone else
could have existed
Life gives life
which gives unto itself
a promise of new life
Hail the Great Spirit, The Earth, the wind, the fire
praise my parents loudly
for they are your parents, too
Oh, Great Spirit, giver of my life
please accept this humble offering of prayer
this offering of praise
this honest reverence of my love for you.
H. Kent Craig
With love,
Juliet Joan
