Lakota Wisdom

Honorable Harvest

Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.

Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.

Ask permission before taking.

Abide by the answer.

Never take the first.

Never take the last.

Take only what you need.

Take only that which is given.

Never take more than half.

Leave some for others.

Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.

Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.

Share.

Give thanks for what you have been given.

Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.

Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.

Loss of ritual

Excerpt from King Warrior Magician Lover by Robert Moore

"First, we need to take very seriously the disappearance of ritual processes for initiating boys into manhood. Almost all these ritual processes have been abandoned or have been diverted into narrower and less energized channels—into phenomena we can call pseudo-initiations.

Once ritual as a sacred and transforming process has been discredited, what we are left with is what Victor Turner has called “mere ceremonial,” which does not have the power necessary to achieve genuine transformation of consciousness. By disconnecting from ritual we have done away with the processes by which both men and women achieved their gender identity in a deep, mature, and life-enhancing way.

We get the dominance of Boy psychology if the ritual processes by which these identities are formed become discredited

Boy psychology is everywhere around us, and its marks are easy to see. Among them are abusive and violent acting-out behaviors against others, both men and women; passivity and weakness, the inability to act effectively and creatively in one’s own life and to engender life and creativity in others (both men and women); and, often, an oscillation between the two—abuse/weakness, abuse/weakness."

Animism

The worldview that all things are infused with the vital force, thereby implying the interconnectedness of all things. 

Some things have a higher concentration of vital force, for example, the difference between a blueberry picked in the wild, and a blueberry grown in a greenhouse, using synthetic fertilizers. Generally, things with a higher concentration of vital force are preferred, because they cause less harm, both to nature and to the body, while contributing to heightened vitality. 

When an item is mass produced, it’s vital force is also less than if it was made by hand. This is why some people prefer handmade ceramic cup over a plastic cup. 

This usually also leads to a higher quality of life, but not necessarily. The important thing is the perspective of choosing something which is more holistically beneficial, and causes less harm to nature.