It’s a beautiful and rare gift to meet a man who has the purity of spirit to speak messages to you from the heart of Mother Earth.
“Mother Earth… misses you.” These were the first words Tiokasin Ghosthorse spoke to us some years ago at an interspiritual and interfaith gathering in London.
This message, received directly from the soul of one whose ancestors have lived an unbroken sacred relationship with Nature since the beginning, have had a real catalysing impact in my being.
Tiokasin Ghosthose is an Elder of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, and a long-term peace and indigenous rights activist.
He speaks frequently at interfaith events around the world, and at Yale University’s School of Divinity, Ecology and Forestry where he focuses on cosmology, diversity, and relational/egalitarian ways of thinking.
Tiokasin is a survivor of the “Reign of Terror” from 1972 to 1976 on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Rosebud Lakota Reservations in South Dakota and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding and church missionary school systems which he describes were designed to “kill the Indian and save the man.”
Irish people are native to Ireland. We are a people who are familiar with the inter-generational trauma inflicted by colonisation and domination, and many of us feel a real solidarity with indigenous peoples around the world.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Tiokasin Ghosthorse a few times in recent years. On one occasion he gave me very helpful guidance relating to a longing I was holding in my heart to conserve the endangered Ash Tree, a symbol of Ireland’s culture. Following a subsequent meeting, I initiated a mens circle gathering with him in London.
I’ve been involved in interfaith work for many years. My spiritual roots are in Celtic Christianity, which holds great reverence for the transcendent unknowable aspect of the Divine, and the immanent Divine dance of creation manifest in the world around us, in every taste, touch, sight, and sound.
I have a deep appreciation for my ancestors, and I greatly respect the rich spirituality that was present in this land and people for thousands of years prior to the arrival of those who first came to share the Christ light here.
When the early Christians started to arrive around the 4th century, they met an Irish people who revered the Divine presence in all living beings – in the rivers, trees, mountains and human beings.
When I initiated a Celtic Christian spirituality meditation circle last August I wanted to ensure that we’re standing in full solidarity with and for first nations people’s dignity and rights. I felt an inner call and responsibility to invite the voice of Indigenous Peoples to come and speak their heart with us.
A patriarchal worldview of separation is at the root of the climate and social crisis present in the world today. The world’s blessed religious traditions have played a part in contributing to this worldview of separation through solely emphasising the transcendent aspect of the Divine, while denying/forgetting the Divine presence within and encompassing all of life.
The church has recently started to take responsibility for our colonial history, and for some of our church ancestors part in the genocide, abuse, and oppression of indigenous people around the world. There are some pioneering church leaders in Canada and the USA who are standing in solidarity with First Nations Peoples.
A woman from our meditation circle is a member of an Episcopal church community there who have spent the last year studying the history of colonisation and slavery. She told me “I have learned for my own heart and for us as a country, that until we are willing to own our actions (and those of our ancestors) there can never be reconciliation or healing.”
Pope Francis recent heartfelt apologies to the indigenous people of Bolivia and Canada is a real good starting point for the institution of the Catholic church to start to make amends for our part. However, an apology is not enough. Indigenous people, and survivors of church abuse around the world, have specific dignified calls to action that need to be met for peace, reconciliation, and integrity to flow.
Through a heart sore with compassion. I gently advocate for Earth rights and First Nation’s Peoples rights inside and outside of faith circles.
In service to Pope Francis, I’ve compassionately written to him to humbly request him to respond to first nations peoples and survivors calls to action. I’ve also been communicating with our church leaders here in Ireland about our need to get close-up and listen to survivors of church abuse, inviting our leaders to take full ownership, and make acts of reconciliation, financial redress amends, and reparation.
It is with this alignment of heart that I invited Tiokasin Ghosthorse to dialogue with us, and I was very touched by the tremendous generosity, beauty and compassion of his spirit to share some of the messages of his elders with us.
Tiokasin spoke with our circle, and friends from other spiritual, faith, and secular backgrounds who gathered online with us. He shared a real reverence towards Divine in everyone and everything. He also shared some of the sacred origins and ways of his people.
I was moved to hear of the beauty of a Lakota people who have no word in their language for “domination” or “war”. Theirs is an Earth language which is encompassed in verbs and motion. It’s intelligence is intended to inter-relate, rather than divide or exclude.
Tiokasin spoke with real honesty, respect, restraint, and non judgement about some of the brutal oppression his people were forced to bear at the hands of the church.
Listening to him bear the grief of his people with such dignity deeply impacted me. I opened myself up to truly receive and hear Tiokasins’ truth.
In doing so, I experienced aspects of my concepts, defences and identity being blown away by the sheer primal power of the words of light spoken from his soul. It brought me to an inner place of the Real, and I still feel transformed by this experience.
Tiokasin also shared with us that he and other indigenous peoples from around the world were invited to France last month, where there had been the worst drought on record for the country.
During the First Nation’s people gathering there, they each took it in turn to speak their native indigenous languages to the heart of Mother Earth. After they did so, the rain started to pour down.
I was reminded of Carl Jung’s story of the rainmaker, when on the ancient Chinese province of Kiaochou there was a drought so severe that many people and animals were dying. In despair, the citizens called for an old rainmaker who lived in the mountains nearby. This man asked to be left alone outside the town in a little hut, and after three days it rained.
The old man was asked him how he made the rain. He said that when he arrived the people were distressed and out of harmony with themselves and with the land. His retreat into silence had the effect of bringing himself first, and then the land, into harmony.
There happened to be an organic farmer present at our gathering who lives in France. She and her farm animals, vegetables and plants had experienced first hand the effects of the drought over the last few months, along with the tremendous relief when the rains finally came down.
A participant at the gathering shared some of the real present day challenges of Ireland’s indigenous ethnic minority people, the Travelling Community. This mans words emerged from the heart of his people, and deeply impacted us.
The morning after the gathering, I sat with the ocean and my heart hurt once again as I thought of all who have suffered at the hands of some people in the institution of our church. I continue to pray that real recognition, amends, justice, and reconciliation will be granted to all survivors at home and abroad.
I believe in the essential goodness of all living beings, and I have hope in peace and restorative justice because I remember that this is a multi-generational work that more and more of us are engaging with.
When I arrived home from the beach, I was delighted to receive a message from Tiokasin. He thanked us for our patience, for hearing him, and said it felt easy to be with us all. He also shared an article he wrote on the theme of water as a living being, and a unifying being, which I share with you here below. Thank you to all who joined us for a powerful, honest, and peace filled evening.
Le grá
Lynda
Tiokasin’s article is here:
Living With Relativity
A Compassionate Solidarity Petition created by Lynda is here:
In 2021, I created and launched a compassionate and loving petition in solidarity with First Nation’s people worldwide offering a request to Pope Francis to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery. If you feel moved to sign and/or share it, feel welcome to do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/pope-francis-call-on-pope-francis-to-rescind-the-doctrine-of-discovery?recruiter=85165344&recruited_by_id=767d97f8-6dcd-45d5-b32a-f39951050b36&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_content=fht-29725453-en-gb%3A6ve