Soul Theory and the Spirit Flight, Native American Mythology

The following is from the book Mother Earth, Father Sky, which is on loan to me right now by a good friend who just joined our site. In any case, I find this theory interesting.

Within the Native American cosmos there is no seperation between the spiritual
world and material, between the natural and the human, between life and death,
or between body and soul. Any single body is likely to house a variety of
spirits or souls - one that emerges during dreams or sickness, one that dies
with the body, one that joins the afterlife, and one that manifests itself as a
delinquent ghost.

There was a debate that I was active in once upon a time in which the topic was Soul vs. Spirit and the difference. I unbelievable got lost in the concept because I have not studied in depth reincarnation and the different stages. I know the basics but the soul vs. spirit topic was among one of the more difficult topics for me to embrace. If I had to guess, I think the point was that the soul was the wondering ghost and the spirit moved on. Although, in my mind I cannot separate them and I'm not sure I buy this theory.



In any case, as such in the Native American beliefs was that the cosmos contained many souls - benign and malignant. Shamans were skilled individual who could direct the flow of souls and in some case tame them. Of course, this was limited to a more experienced Shaman or 'Soul Doctor'. An apprentice Shaman would have to retreat to a quiet and lonely area in which fasting would take the Shaman on a journey of psychic battles with more aggressive, invasive souls. Once the shaman was practiced enough in battling these souls, they could then take flight to other regions of earth or even the moon.



A shaman was also responsible for retrieving lost souls. Individuals who were attacked by mental illness where thought to have been possessed by a malignant spirit and were diagnosed with 'soul loss' (which is a bit different in Celtic mythology and Shamanism). The shaman would then have to journey to where the lost soul resided and battle the malignant spirit guarding it. If the shaman won the battle, he then brought the lost soul home.

Decluttering and The Mist-Filled Path

I started a book called The Mist-Filled Path, Celtic Wisdom For Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers by Frank MacEowen about a year ago. I was trying to share the book with my mom, which never works because she doesn't share well , when I finally had to go get my own copy. In any case, in the beginning of the book MacEowen brings up a very important point that I would like to discuss. He begins by discussing the 'sleep walkers' who are people who walk from day to day without substance. Night fades into day, day into night becoming a large blur. Sleep walkers are people who aren't 'alive' in the sense of living life with a purpose. Sleep walkers feed on 30 second soundbites and quicksilver images that promise them a much better and fulfilled life if we just had a Slider Station or some other 'convience' contraption. We slowly fill our homes and our sacred spaces up with these devices until we drown in our own clutter. Eventually, the clutter is cleared out and placed in yard sales, taken to the dump, or to Goodwill - giving the person a good feeling and a few moments of peace from all the clutter. But its quickly replaced with more clutter, more technology to make life easier because after all that's the 'good life' right? In the end all it is, is clutter. All these 'conviences' and must haves are not life. They don't deepen our existence, purpose, or wonderment. These objects weigh us down, forcing us out of our homes, our sanctuaries, to seek areas that are more simplistic in nature - a vacation from all the clutter.

Of course, I'm not stating that a person should live in an empty home. Some objects are objects of comfort such as a bookshelf, plant stand, an antique desk, our favorite coffee mug, etc... But one must realize the difference between objects of beauty that make us comfortable and objects we think deepen our lives but only add to clutter. A person can go out and buy themselves a meditation pillow and the CD's to go with it but if that's as far as they go to deepen themselves, then in actuality all they have done is to create clutter. It then becomes something else to throw in a closet, under a bed, or into the trash.

Its odd how an introduction to a book can really make you think. I've always been a woman of simplisty. In fact, most ever corner in every room of my house is clean because I've always felt clutter begins in the corners. But then again my family lives on a fixed budget and I have not been able to buy modern gadgets and 'as seen on tv' products. After some pondering on the intro to this book, I am more cautious what I bring in the house. My home is my sanctuary and as such my goal is to make sure clutter does not rule it. And of course, another goal is to make sure that objects don't become an obsession or social status in my life.