Importance Of Sacred Circles And How To Conduct Them

Cindy,

It is amazing to be sharing space with you again,

And I appreciate being able to discuss this because,

Frankly,

I have been part of a sacred circle that you have facilitated for almost a year,

And it has changed my life.

And I think that more people want to share that.

You feel that.

So I'm going to start at the very beginning.

What is a sacred circle?

Yeah,

That's a really big question.

I don't know,

As a human being,

If I can give it justice.

It's one of those things,

I think,

That you need to experience and be a part of,

To truly understand or begin to have an understanding of what a sacred circle is.

I guess in my limited wisdom as this human person right now,

I would say that it's about feeling that you are home,

Feeling that you belong,

Feeling that you're part of the bigger,

The really big picture.

You're part of the everything,

As Isaac Murdoch says,

That you are loved unconditionally.

You're accepted unconditionally.

And those words,

You know,

You may hear those words from time to time,

But to actually experience those words is something else again.

To be in a place,

A physical place,

But also a spiritual space,

Where you are not being judged,

Which totally is opposite of what we have experienced so far in our human lives.

At least for myself,

That was always the case.

I think part of it is the conditioning you receive as a child going through school,

You know,

This competition stuff,

This being marked,

You know,

Did you write a good story?

It's my story.

It shouldn't be marked.

It's my story.

So the things that happened to us as a child,

I know that the religion that I was raised with being a Catholic or a Christian person,

This idea that there's a right and a wrong,

A good and a bad,

That really messed with me.

And so yeah,

There's all these filters,

Right,

That we experience as humans.

When we're in a job,

There's the boss,

We're the employee,

And then maybe there's other employees underneath us.

All those levels,

Those things that create barriers and,

Yeah,

Take us away from being with each other equally,

That's the,

I would say that would be the,

Again,

It's really hard to explain,

I think,

In words,

But I'll leave it there for now.

I think that that's amazing,

Like an amazing description,

And removing hierarchy,

Removing systems that we have become accustomed to living under,

Oppressive systems like capitalism,

Colonialism,

Patriarchy,

All of those things that have shaped our experience on an earthly plane have,

Like you said,

Disconnected us by design.

And so what is a sacred circle mean?

What is the physical part of it?

I imagine,

So this is,

No,

I'm going to say,

I imagine it to be an Indigenous tradition sitting around a fire.

What is the reality of a sacred circle,

Though?

So yeah,

I like that.

I like that analogy.

I think it goes back even further.

I think it was the way our villages were.

I think it's the way that our,

You know,

Today we use the word community.

But what I believe is that all of the two-leggeds,

The human beings on this planet,

All come from the same place.

Now some of us maybe have come from different planets.

I'm pretty sure I have.

I'm pretty sure I've come from a blue planet.

Some of us,

Yeah,

May have come from the earth,

The actual earth.

But regardless,

My belief is that we all come from the same place.

We're all one tribe.

We all belong to the same group,

If you will.

So yes,

Sitting around in a circle,

Sitting around a fire,

Right,

That would be absolutely sort of the first instances of these circles because fire has always been the way to keep people together.

It's the community,

It's,

You know,

It's a way to cook your food.

It's a way for there to be light.

It's a way to manage the forest.

I mean,

The fire was used for so many things.

So yes,

I think those would be some of the initial ways.

So again,

Because we all come from the same tribe,

If you will,

I'll use that word.

Because we all come from the same tribe.

So again,

My belief is we are all Indigenous to this planet,

To this land.

We're all Indigenous.

We all come from this planet.

So yeah,

I think that that's a great way to look at it is that's how it began.

And of course,

It's evolved.

You know,

We're coming into what would be considered normally story time.

We just got a little bit of snow this morning.

This is December 31st.

And normally we would have very cold weather and snow,

But it just snowed this morning.

Yeah,

This would be story time.

So again,

We'd be sitting around the fire,

We'd be sharing stories.

And that's how the traditions were passed down was through that time.

So of course,

You know,

There would be communication,

Discussions happening amongst the people in the village.

And the way that I see it,

Although there's many historians that would disagree with me,

The way that I see it is that everyone was equal in the village.

Whether it was a young girl doing the cooking or the tanning of the hides or the,

You know,

The main hunter or the leaders.

I mean,

It was the women that were the leaders.

They were all equal.

They were all perceived as being equal.

So I don't know if I've answered your question.

Yes,

Yes.

And so you and I have worked together,

You have mentored me so much.

I have learned so much and I've healed so much.

And one thing that you said to me that I didn't quite understand until really recently was the adopting part,

Was,

You know,

Everyone is the same from the same tribe and I'm adopting you.

And I was recently reading,

Listening to the book by Howard R.

Johnson,

Also an elder,

Who talked about when Canada was,

Quote,

Discovered and Indigenous people adopted the white people,

Fed them,

Shared ceremony with them,

And shared the land with them.

And it was the white people who unfortunately didn't understand that connection,

Didn't understand the graciousness and the honour that Indigenous people were bestowing on white people.

But initially,

It was an adoption.

And to me,

That seems so beautiful,

And yet a point of so much healing that all of us need to do,

Because obviously,

White people took advantage of that,

And didn't understand the connection,

And caused the disconnection.

And so,

We're in a time when,

Yeah,

We're in a time where we desperately need to understand circles and how they heal.

And so,

How do you conduct circles?

I'm going to ask that question.

But also,

Does it have to be an elder,

An Indigenous person?

How does one host a circle,

If you will?

I don't think it necessarily needs to be an Indigenous person,

An elder,

Because we are surrounded by amazing knowledge keepers,

Young knowledge keepers,

Older knowledge keepers.

You and I have a good friend,

Janet Froude,

Who has adopted this practice into her professional work,

And I think she does an amazing job.

Does she have Indigenous ancestry?

Not that I know of.

Is she considered an elder?

I would consider her a crone,

Only because her and I have talked about that,

But I wouldn't say that I would say she's an elder,

Per se.

Definitely,

I would see her as a lodgekeeper,

Which we'll probably get into a little bit more later.

I think that if it's in the person's heart and spirit to be open and receptive,

To be able to see everyone in that circle as being equal,

If they can do that in their mind,

In their heart,

If that's a natural perception they have,

Then I think they can do a really good job of conducting circles.

I think that,

Well,

I know that spirit works through us,

And does that work.

So if we're open and receptive to that,

It becomes supernatural,

And you're not actually conscious of when,

You know,

Is there a distinction between when I'm talking and when spirit is talking?

Most of the time for me,

I don't notice it,

I don't know.

Is there a distinction?

I mean,

There's definitely times when I know I'm being my human self,

If I'm having a temper tantrum or something,

You know,

That's definitely not spirit channeling through me.

But yeah,

I think everyone has the ability to conduct circle,

Again,

If they're open.

If they can open themselves up to being that conduit,

To being that channel.

But the basics is,

Yes,

They need to be able to see that everyone in that circle that they're in,

Whether it's virtual or in person,

Is absolutely equal,

And that we need to ensure that everyone has their time,

Their voice.

And you know,

There's other guidelines,

Like making sure that nobody's interrupted,

That nobody's commenting on what someone else has said,

That nobody's offering assistance.

That's not our place.

Our place is to sit,

Be an observer,

Be a witness.

And again,

Open up our hearts and our minds,

Because there's usually a message in there for us,

If we're willing to receive it.

So no,

I don't think you need to have,

I don't think it needs to be an Indigenous person per se.

Of course,

Not everybody's going to agree with me on that.

And that's fine.

These are my own beliefs and,

And comments.

So yeah,

So I'm not sure if I answered both those questions.

But yeah,

You did,

Definitely.

So what is,

You did,

I think so.

I'm going to ask though,

What,

What is a knowledge keeper?

And what is a lodge keeper?

Okay,

That'll be fun to answer.

All right.

So lodge keeper,

To me,

Is someone that has been gifted with the ability to hold spiritual space for other beings.

The seen and the unseen.

You so,

So some of your listeners may be familiar with,

Maybe they've heard about a sweat lodge.

That would be one example of a lodge keeper.

So the lodge keeper that is conducting that sweat lodge,

Has a very important responsibility to ensure that not only is everyone being heard in the lodge,

But that everyone is safe in the lodge.

And if there's any,

Some people would refer to it as doctoring,

If there's any healing things that need to happen during that,

During that ceremony.

So that would be one example of a lodge keeper.

When I was introduced as being a lodge keeper by Albert Mandamin in the beginning of 2007,

He told me that I was carrying a teaching lodge.

I was responsible for a teaching lodge.

So a teaching lodge is,

Is a much bigger physical structure,

But I believe it's primarily the same purpose and the same,

I think the same flow of energy happens in the lodge.

So I've,

I've met,

Because we attract like-minded people to ourselves,

I've met so many lodge keepers and yeah,

I mean,

It is a very specific gift,

But again,

It's a natural gift.

There's no effort with it.

It's,

It just flows easily.

So that would be a lodge keeper.

A knowledge keeper is perhaps all of that,

What I've just shared,

Plus,

Plus more.

A knowledge keeper to me is an individual,

Whether they are a child,

A youth,

A young adult,

An older adult,

An elder,

They carry wisdom that they are,

They feel,

What's the word?

Not obligated,

But they are compelled to share that wisdom with others.

And they do it with humility.

Most of the time you could be being mentored by a knowledge keeper and you're not even aware of it.

That has been my experience over the years.

I look back now and I go,

Oh my God,

You know,

That person was my mentor and I didn't even pick up on it.

You know,

I realized that years later,

Maybe that's only my experience.

Maybe I'm a little more naive than the next person.

So yeah,

Knowledge keeper,

I think is a much bigger,

To me specifically,

If we're thinking about this,

This time that we're in,

This time of transition and change and this era,

I believe it reflects back on the Lakota prophecy of White Buffalo Calf Woman,

And that we have heralded in the rainbow children,

If you will.

And it is the rainbow children that are teaching all of us that everyone is equal and everyone belongs,

Everyone carries gifts.

And they are teaching us with such humility.

And unfortunately,

They're not being acknowledged.

In many cases,

They're being targeted and abused.

That needs to change dramatically and quickly.

And certainly that is one of my purposes right now,

Is to share that guidance so that people will realize that,

You know,

You're not any better or any less than anyone else or equal.

That's a lot and I'm so happy you shared all of that.

So important.

I think about rural and remote communities.

And the question I had was,

Can knowledge keepers and lodge keepers be White people?

Can they be Black people?

Can they be other than Indigenous?

So behind me,

Way in the background,

You can barely make out a painting there of a turtle.

That painting was actually commissioned for me.

It's called Grandmother Teachings.

And it's really hard to see,

But there are four grandmothers sitting around the sacred fire inside the circle.

And they're represented by the four colors.

These four colors have been carrying me for quite some time.

And I'm sure that they will carry me for the rest of this life that I have.

But what those four colors represent to me are the four main,

Let's say the four main tribes of the Earth.

I don't see any distinction between one color or another.

So the White in the North would be the Caucasian people,

The Black would be the Black people,

The Red would be the Indigenous people,

And the Yellow would be the Asian people.

Very simply.

And of course,

We have all kinds of levels in between that.

Because again,

We're in this age of the rainbow children.

So we are of mixed heritage,

Mixed blood.

And to me,

Again,

This is my own understanding,

My own beliefs.

Not everyone would agree with this.

I believe,

Because we are all part of the same circle,

Because Creator gave us these different colors,

I believe we all carry different gifts.

And so when you bring all those different gifts into the circle,

You amplify the power of the circle.

So as an example,

Yesterday morning,

I was so grateful.

I received a video call from a gentleman in Africa who's working with orphaned children.

And he was so excited.

He wanted to show me that they had started to build the foundation of their new school.

Imagine receiving a call like that.

Imagine feeling the excitement of these children.

And there was one young boy in particular,

You could see he was being very serious about his role.

And,

You know,

He was working hard,

And he might have been nine or 10,

Maybe.

So I asked him,

I said,

Are you working hard?

Yes,

He says,

You know,

He was very,

Very serious about that.

Now how can we say or deny anyone to be part of this circle?

It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.

So no,

I think that that young man,

You know,

As young as he is,

He is already a young knowledge keeper.

Look at what he's doing for his people,

His community,

Himself,

His family.

They lost their parents because of Ebola.

And there he is,

As young as he is creating,

Literally creating the foundation for his future.

So yeah,

That is a young knowledge keeper.

And I am so grateful to be able to witness that,

Observe that,

Acknowledge that young knowledge keeper,

Honour them,

Respect them,

And help in any way that I can.

So yes,

I believe that you do not necessarily need to be one colour or another to be part of the circle,

To lead a circle,

To guide a circle,

To foster a circle.

I think it takes all of us because again,

If you look at that picture,

We need all the colours in the circle to bring all those gifts to amplify the power of the circle.

It's very important.

That's beautiful.

And I think with rural and remote communities,

So much healing needs to happen.

And people don't know where to begin.

Many,

Many rural communities are primarily white.

And we know change needs to happen.

We know healing needs to happen because of the divisiveness,

The individuality,

The disconnectedness,

The inauthentic way people communicate,

The way we value things and accomplishments over people.

So how do we begin to encourage people to start their own circles in these communities,

Circles of healing?

How do we do that?

Wow,

That's a really good question.

I think reflecting back and reflecting on where my life is right now,

I believe that a lot of it comes from our own healing,

Our own spiritual growth.

So we need to focus on our own healing and our own growth.

And then that ripples out to everyone around us.

You know,

There was a movie,

I've forgotten who the actor is now,

But you know that saying about when a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the globe,

It impacts what's happening on the other side of the globe.

And I absolutely believe that immensely because if we choose love,

If we choose love over fear,

To me,

Fear is an absence of love.

Fear is part of the conditioning that we have received throughout our lives.

Fear is someone telling you,

Someone cautioning you,

Oh,

You shouldn't share so much about yourself or you shouldn't be so honest or things like that.

That's fear talking.

That's not love talking.

So I think focusing on ourselves,

Focusing on loving ourselves,

Forgiving ourselves,

I think that's a great way to start because when we love ourselves,

When we're caring for ourselves,

Again,

We're attracting like-minded people to us.

You know,

Some people call it the law of attraction,

Whatever you want to call it.

It's a natural progression.

So you start to find the other people that have similar beliefs and then you could be working with them or helping them or supporting them with any sort of community-minded activities that could help with bringing that circle healing into the community.

Yeah,

There's still reservations,

I think,

About,

Excuse me,

I was going to say,

I feel like the smaller communities,

The rural communities have a stronger connection with each other because,

I don't know,

In the city,

When I was living in the city,

I had a neighbour three feet from one side of my house and six feet on the other side of my house.

I didn't know them.

I didn't know them.

I was there 13 and a half years.

Out here,

You know your neighbours and it's very different.

So we need to get back to that small community thinking of working together,

You know,

Working together for a common goal.

I'm always amazed by communities like the,

Let's see if I can get this right,

Let's say the Mennonite community as an example,

Where they decide that they're going to build one of their community members' barns.

This group comes together,

Everybody brings food,

Everybody has their tools with them and before long,

This barn is up,

You know,

Quite magically.

I feel the same kind of perspective within our Anishinaabe communities.

So when we come together to build a lodge,

We are honouring the land,

We're offering gifts to the land,

To the creator for the saplings that we're cutting down,

We're offering water and sema to the postholes where the saplings are going to go into and that continues throughout the whole process.

There's something very beautiful about that connection and how it helps people to feel united.

So that's where I think we need to go and I don't really have an idea of how to start that,

But I think the best way is to start with ourselves.

I think that's fantastic advice.

When I think about what you were talking about with barn raising,

That folks still do.

Yes,

They do.

In those communities.

I think that it resembles Indigenous ceremony.

So powwows,

Birth ceremonies,

Traveling song ceremonies,

Sweat lodge,

Circles,

Storytelling.

I mean,

There's so many.

And so,

Where can people begin?

Is the best place to heal in circle,

Witnessed by others?

I don't know if it's the best place.

Certainly for myself,

It's definitely been,

I'll say,

An easy flow for me because I feel comfortable in a circle.

I think it's important for the individual to be in an atmosphere,

An environment that they feel comfortable in.

So if they're in a circle and they feel awkward in there,

Then that may not be the best place for them.

The healing that I've gone through recently over the last year and a half,

I very intentionally ensured that it was holistic healing.

So I made sure that I was taking care of my physical side,

My emotional side,

My intellectual side and my spiritual side.

It was really important that if I was going to give myself a chance to heal and grow through the journey that I was on,

I needed to do that in a holistic way.

So I would encourage anyone that is approaching a situation like that.

So it could be that you have a physical ailment.

I would still suggest approaching it holistically.

Maybe you have a mental health situation.

I would still suggest to approach that holistically and so on.

I think that is the very best way to heal.

So for myself,

The emotional support that I received in the circle was life-changing.

And yeah,

Like you can't,

I don't even know if I could explain it.

I mean,

It's so big,

But yeah,

If an individual was,

You know,

Kind of approaching things on a new sort of,

You know,

Like they're on this step,

They're ready to take this step,

But they're not quite sure what direction to go in.

So I would suggest that the first thing to do is to say a prayer or provide an offering for whoever it is they believe in or whatever they believe in.

We say the everything,

Sorry,

This is Gracie.

She's looking for some love.

Hello,

Sweetie.

Okay,

Down you go,

Thank you.

I think that would be a good beginning because yeah,

We have free will.

And there's been so many times when I've been waiting for the angels or whoever,

Ancestors to help me.

And then I have to remind myself,

Oh yeah,

I need to ask.

I need to ask for that help.

So there's a humility piece to that,

Right,

That you are realizing that you need help outside of yourself.

So that's,

I think that's the very first step.

And then you follow the breadcrumbs as they come to you,

All the little messages that come to you in different ways.

For me,

It's through animals and the earth.

It could be other ways for you,

But quite literally follow those breadcrumbs and do it without reservation,

Without fear,

Without,

You know,

Don't judge it.

Don't judge the experience.

Have the experience.

Live it fully.

That I think will change your life.

It's beautiful.

So what do you think the future holds?

We are beginning a new 2024.

You and I actually,

You started a new season of the podcast and we were talking previously about politics,

But what about community?

I'm going to use that word as I think it relates to circle.

So what do you see or hope or forecast,

Perhaps,

Feel in your heart will be unfolding for 2024 in community?

So Spirit is asking me to mention to all of you,

Spend less time watching the news.

Spend less time scrolling.

Spend more time listening to yourself,

Being connected to the earth,

Reaching out to people that you trust.

People that you know will lift you up,

Not someone that's going to judge you.

Spend more time focusing on love.

Ask yourself when you're in a situation,

Is this message from fear or is this message from love?

And check on that when you're using your discernment.

If you're not sure,

Again,

Check in with someone that you love.

Have that debrief with that person or have that brainstorming session with someone to get the message that you're looking for.

I feel that if we all focus more of our time and attention on love,

This world will continue to unfold in a very beautiful way.

Someone commented the other day on one of my posts on Facebook,

Something like the earth is broken.

And I went,

Wow.

I don't agree with that whatsoever.

The earth,

This being knows exactly what she is doing.

And she's tolerating this behavior at this moment in time for some reason.

Perhaps she's giving us more chances to realize that we need to be connected to her.

What does that mean?

That means being in communication with her.

That means loving her.

That means being in awe of what we witness and see on the earth.

Release those fears.

They're not doing us any good.

Release the fear.

Welcome in the love.

Love the earth and receive the love back from the earth.

I think that will help the overall.

I heard on the radio the other day,

Apparently we're going to be 8 billion people within a short time on the earth.

And I thought,

Well,

That's a lot of people.

However,

There are no limits when it comes to creation.

That scarcity mentality,

That comes from fear.

That doesn't come from love.

If we were all working together,

There would be no issues.

We wouldn't have to be worrying that the earth is broken.

The earth is not broken.

What's happening,

What's unfolding is exactly what she wants.

So forecasting,

I would like to be the glass is half full person and say,

I believe more people will wake up from this zombie state that they've been in their whole lives.

If you want to,

You can see the apocalypse any time you go into an urban setting,

Or we can choose love and we can see something different.

We can see that there are people helping people.

So I believe it's all up to us.

We have the choice.

We can use our lens,

Our eyes,

Our mindset to see what we choose to see.

And I choose love.

I don't even know what to say except that I choose love also.

And I feel so grateful to be a vessel for your words.

Thank you so much.

Miigwetch.