{"id":75,"date":"2010-08-27T04:51:39","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T04:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2010\/08\/seven-directions.html"},"modified":"2010-08-27T04:51:39","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T04:51:39","slug":"seven-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/08\/seven-directions.html","title":{"rendered":"Seven generations, seven directions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/dream_gates\/Pinus_strobus_trees.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pinus_strobus_trees.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/80\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/08\/Pinus_strobus_trees-thumb-350x408-17551.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"408\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span>Why seven? I&#8217;ve been asked this question about the ancient Iroquois precept that we must be mindful of the consequences of our actions down to the seventh generation beyond ourselves. I don&#8217;t recall ever hearing an explanation from my friends of the Six Nations, or seeing one amongst the earliest records of the traditions of the Confederacy.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But when I picture in my mind the Tree of Peace, the Great White Pine that stands at the center of all in the imagination of the Onkwehonwe (&#8220;the People&#8221;), the deep meaning of the number seven comes to clarity in my mind and my heart.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The roots of the great tree spread out in the four cardinal directions, inviting all peoples to find peace and shelter. They extend to east and west north and south. They go down deep, into the mystery of the Great Below. The tree rises skyward, towards the Great Above, and high in its canopy perches the eagle that can see many looks away. In the heartwood of the tree, we can find our center, our True North.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the retreat I am leading this week, with joined hands, we sang to the seven directions. We turned first to the East, singing<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit of the Wind, carry me<br \/>Spiritt of the Wind carry me home<br \/>Spirit of the Wind, carry me home to my soul<\/i><\/div>\n<div><i><br \/><\/i><\/div>\n<div>Turning to the South, we sang<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit of the Fire, carry me<\/i><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Turning to the West, we sang<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit of the Sea, carry me<\/i><\/div>\n<div><i><br \/><\/i><\/div>\n<div>Turning to the North, we sang<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit of the Earth, carry me<\/i><\/div>\n<div><i><br \/><\/i><\/div>\n<div>Then we faced the Great Below and sang<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit if the Deep, carry me<\/i><\/div>\n<div><i><br \/><\/i><\/div>\n<div>We turned our faces to the Great Above and sang with the sun in our eyes<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit of the Sky, carry me<\/i><\/div>\n<div><i><br \/><\/i><\/div>\n<div>Then we faced each other. The light of our heart intentions streamed towards the center of our circle. We were conscious of becoming a sphere of energy, a little world within the world. We sang<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Spirit of the heart, carry me<br \/>Spirit of the heart, carry me home<br \/>Spirit of the heart, carry me home to my soul<\/i><\/div>\n<div><i><br \/><\/i><\/div>\n<div>These, for me, are the seven directions. The words of the song are not Iroquois. The first verse is borrowed from a grand old source, Anonymous. The other verses are my own. As another Native people of the Americas, the Inuit, instruct, we must come up with &#8220;fresh words&#8221; to entertain the spirits. But I think the spirit of our song is in harmony with the ancient ones of the Northeast. Certainly we sensed their benign presence. I will honor them again today with a pinch of tobacco, and by giving thanks for the gifts of life, which is the way of prayer of the First Peoples. And I will remember those who are coming, seven generations beyond me, and those, seven generations back, on whose shoulders I stand.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why seven? I&#8217;ve been asked this question about the ancient Iroquois precept that we must be mindful of the consequences of our actions down to the seventh generation beyond ourselves. I don&#8217;t recall ever hearing an explanation from my friends of the Six Nations, or seeing one amongst the earliest records of the traditions of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conscious-liviing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seven generations, seven directions - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seven generations, seven directions - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why seven? I&#8217;ve been asked this question about the ancient Iroquois precept that we must be mindful of the consequences of our actions down to the seventh generation beyond ourselves. 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I&#8217;ve been asked this question about the ancient Iroquois precept that we must be mindful of the consequences of our actions down to the seventh generation beyond ourselves. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}