university of survival

i mentioned in my last post that i had a counseling session with corbie milteid, during which she opened my akashic records.  during this reading, i was able to glimpse four of my past lifetimes.  i had experienced other past lifetimes before, through guided meditations: one as a poor but happy chinese woman in years before jesus, one as a caucasian twin sister to my present husband's ex-wife, and one as a young black male civil rights activist who wore flip-flops and was shot in the chest by a white man, i believe in the 1960s.  saw the killer's mug shot and everything.  wild.  

when corbie accessed my records, i really had no idea what to expect.  but i was shocked when she told that my other lifetimes have been overriding male.  (i absolutely love being a woman in this lifetime and the idea of all that maleness totally threw me for a loop!)  i felt especially connected to the first personality she introduced me to, a huron medicine man in the mid seventeenth century.  chills and tears, chills and tears.  i felt such compassion for this man, this part of my soul's journey.  there were other stories of other men i learned that day, none of whom had easy lives (or deaths), all of whom fought for what they knew in their hearts was right.  this reading provided me with a wonderful shift in consciousness.  i spent quite a bit of time thinking about what she told me and found a deeper understanding of myself, my motivations, my demons and my potential.  magic.

i decided to investigate these guys online, starting with the one i felt most drawn to, the huron.  but, surprisingly, my search led me to one of the other native american lifetimes my soul endured.  i found a guy named canassatego - he stood out to me b/c our names are so similar - vANeSSA linsEY GObes.  his photograph resonated with me, as well as some other tidbits about his life.  now, i'm not sure if this is my guy or not.  he very well may not be.  but while digging around for info on him, i found these words he uttered in response to english colonists asking to enroll a dozen of his men in university so they could be properly educated:

"We know you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in these colleges. And the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would very expensive to you. We're convinced, therefore, that you mean to do us good by your proposal, and we thank you heartily. But you who are so wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things. And you will not, therefore, take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happens not to be the same with yours.

"We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up in the colleges of the northern province. They were instructed in all your sciences. But when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, and therefore were neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor councilors. They were totally good for nothing.

"We are, however, not the less obliged for your kind offer, though we decline accepting. To show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them."

love it!!!!!  i got such a kick out of his "thanks but no thanks" reply.  as steven tyler would say on idol, "man, you nailed it."  he questioned the importance of book learning, wondering aloud how university improves the life of a man if it distracts him from learning the art of survival?  think about the way our children are today, the way we ourselves were raised.  we couldn't survive in the woods for a day!  we are so removed from our source and our basic human needs that if it weren't for whole foods and banana republic we wouldn't be able to feed or clothe ourselves.  


seriously, i don't know how to build a fire or root for wild veggies, i have no idea which berries will kill me or how i would stay dry in the rain.  i am completely dependent on others to provide for me.  another reminder of the humanness that unifies us all.  under the expensive business suits, behind the guarded walls, between the commercials and above those hardened egos, we are human.  most unable to provide for ourselves and our families at the root level.  


i guess this is what most would call progress...  modern man...  civility...  a charmed existence.  but what's so charming about dependency?  we are all dependent.  on our farmers, truckers and grocers to feed us.  on our pastors and teachers and politicians to tell us what's right and wrong.  on our TVs and computers to entertain us.  on our doctors to diagnose and heal us...  but it the truth is, we have everything we need to survive and THRIVE in this great little package called "the human body".  we are designed to live independently.  i think the reason that we, as a species, cannot do that anymore is that we have spent centuries slowly disconnecting from source and spirit.  we are so distracted by progress that we can no longer feed ourselves, discipline ourselves, entertain ourselves or heal ourselves.  


but back to the point - the value of a good education.  we place so much emphasis on the importance of grades, of competition, of society, of money...  ...  and for what?  so they can make more money and buy more housewares?  it's crazy, right?  our society is so intellectual - brilliant even - but we don't know how to grow a carrot?  milk a cow?  hunt a deer?  treat an illness?

we are who we are.  i understand that.  and i am that modern person, too.  so this is not a holier-than thou-tirade, but a genuine exploration of life-as-it-is...  or could-be.  what if we could become something better?  a people more balanced?  what can we do to connect better to our humanness?  to our basic functions?  can we learn how to REALLY take care of ourselves?  is there a university of mother earth somewhere out there?

hmmmmm...

i'm looking into this one.  i'll tell you what i find.  

peace, love gratitude,

v

p.s.  here's a pic of this guy canassatego.  what do you think?  is he me???  :-)  the more i've learned about him the more humbled i am to even think that i could share a soul with this dude.  and in my humility, i've become unsure of the connection.  i meditated on him last night and could not come up with a vision of him.  i was, however, covered in chills from head to toe throughout the meditation and had this CRAZY STRONG sensation that a pair of dark native eyes (maybe his?) were in my eye sockets.  we'll see.  weird.  i'll keep you posted.  ;-)  regardless, his messages gave me tons to think about and tons to grow upon.  maybe for you, too?  xoxox