THE FORCE OF THE PRIMAL

WHAT SOUTHERN AFRICAN WISDOMS HAVE TO OFFER THE WEST #2

“People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind – imagination and intuition.” W.B. Yeats

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” A. Einstein

“Ask of the wild animals and they shall teach you and the birds of the sky shall tell it to you or speak to the earth for she shall guide you and the fishes of the sea will declare it to you.” Job

IN EACH GENERATION THERE IS AN ONGOING DILUTION OF INDIGENOUS WISDOM AND TRUTH

The San Bushmen, hunter-gatherers especially could access "non-local information" with their out of body, spirit flight, trance dance as well as in dreams and with divination. They could connect not only with the cosmic, but also the terrestrial and water spirits. Some were able to shape shift and many were animal whisperers which was essential for skillful hunting. They loved the Wild Beings and had gratitude for what they gave that enabled them to survive. They relied on plants for sustenance and for healing. They had abilities beyond the five senses otherwise it would have been difficult for them to hunt successfully with primitive weapons. They could see what seeing eyes could not and hear what hearing ears could not.

The force of the primal-Self manifested as love is the glory of God. 
Those who awaken it in others and nurture the nurturers glorify the Creator.

The Ancestors, I believe in this teaching, are stressing that because of the West's primary focus on cognitive, left brain activities we have somewhat lost the way. 

San healers say that to be a good healer we must love everyone no matter what we think of them. This is not necessarily an emotion or a sentiment but a commitment. Many members of the clan seemed to embrace this tenet.

When Jesus taught - "The meek will inherit the earth" - maybe he was saying the same thing. We may be masters of technology but the San were masters of the Garden of Eden archetype and many of her secrets which gave them access to the Field, the Creator and their spirit guides.

"Out there beyond ideas of wrongdoing and righting-doing, there is a Field. I'll meet you there." Rumi

"Whatever being comes to be, be it motionless or moving, derives it's being from Field and Knower of the Field. Know this!" Bhagavad Gita

The times I spent with the San Bushmen - especially in 1987 when some were living in the old way - felt like I had dropped into an advanced spiritual community. They had an unconditional positive regard for each other, and an unconditional love for the children. They seemed to lack judgmental attitudes and were extremely humble in the light of their amazing wilderness and spiritual skills. It was all for one and one for all among their small clans. They had no chief, everything was done by consensus and the women had an equal say.

Many other indigenous tribes, also fit this description especially the few that  have remained hunter-gatherers. This purity arising out of nature enabled their high levels of spiritual sophistication. Magical abilities were gleaned from the wild and the power resident in their unique habitats. Their God – the Great Spirit – not the bottom line. They were nature bound, living in the "Garden" before we arrived and made them eat the fruit of ego and acquisitiveness. They too now will have to eventually find their way back to a new type of Eden, as many of us are doing. 

 

The saddest and most impoverishing notion human beings cling to is that we are limited by laws of the natural world.
There is a crucial difference between being subject to, and being constrained by.

 

“Miracles happen not in opposition to nature but in opposition to what we know of nature.” Augustine of Hippo

 

Miracles do occur within the natural world but are outside our meagre understanding of its workings and so we discount, trivialize, rationalize or forget them. We are not restricted by the laws of nature, only to those laws we ourselves have contrived as to how nature works. Those laws are limited. The hunter-gatherer mind was not subject to information and knowledge acquired through education or captivated by technological wonders. Hence, they could access information not confined to the space-time continuum which escapes most of us Western beings. During sleep they received vital information in scripted dreams which assisted them.

"There are two ways to live your life. One is that everything is a miracle and the other, that nothing is." A.Einstein

“A human being is like two doves 

sitting in a tree. 

One bird is eating the fruit 

while the other silently looks on.” Upanishads

The one "bird" cannot see the spiritual fruits that the other bird is enjoying because that bird is confined to the five senes alone and has no idea there are also intuitive senses.

When we observe the intuitive abilities of primal peoples we see magic. When they look at our technology they see magic. We need both. How to integrate them is a challenge. The Bantu peoples of Southern Africa have similar abilities as do other indigenous tribes. This blog is about their wisdom and this magic.

 

“The consciousness of the seer is a greater power of knowledge than the consciousness of the thinker. The perceptual power of inner sight is greater and more direct than the perceptual power of thought.”

Sri Aurobindo

 

The primal mind was able to commune intimately with nature as well as obtain non-local information from the Field of spirit. These primal medicine men and women and their shamans were the original seers. Genomic studies have shown that the San Bushmen were the first people. Humans first arose out of Africa. There is rock art in the Apollo cave in Namibia going back 25,000 years showing evidence of shape shifting (therianthropes, human figures - part animal part human) which occurred during trance dancing. We were able to attain advanced states of consciousness millennia ago not easily achieved today. 

 

"It was only when the white man came that wilderness existed."  

Luther Standing Bear

 

When we go out into wild places we make elaborate preparations and use technology for our comfort as well as to make up for our lack of wilderness skills. When we return we are thankful to come back to the comforts of civilization.

The San Bushmen could walk out into the wilderness with all the things in a small skin bag that they needed for survival; a digging stick, a bow, poisoned arrows, a quiver, a fire stick, and a sipping straw to suck water out of hollow tree reservoirs or from sip wells in the desert sand. The women provided the bulk of the food and medicine with their amazing plant knowledge. Their purity in nature enabled a profound spiritual expertise. They could not have survived easily without access to non-local information.

 

"Wilderness is an area where earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man; where man himself  is a visitor who does not remain.”

 

Our approach, at best, is well defined by the Wilderness Act of North America which intention was to protect certain wild areas that should remain wild. At the same time the act confirmed the power of this Sacred Space where as "civilized" people - few could or would want to remain. For indigenous peoples it was their home.

 We were all once nature bound people and we can regain these abilities.

The indigenous mind can be closer to the real Self. There is less "stuff" and cognition in the way. The primal Self has the potential to be closer to the Creator. Re-encountering our original, indigenous or primal self apart from our religion, culture, education, and conditioning - this “self” can be closer to the real Self, the Higher Self, the Soul. The solution is to expose ourselves more to pristine nature, as well as preserve what still remains of the Creator's masterpiece. 

"Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness…” Isaiah