CHAPTER 1
Myths: Past, Present and Future
What is a myth? A myth is an ancient traditional story, or a series of stories, usually about heroes and supernatural beings. These stories often attempt to explain the origins of natural phenomena or aspects of human behavior.
Myths are often told as attempts to explain the origins of human behavior, a culture's world view which includes spirituality, natural phenomena, cosmology, aspects of healing and the very meaning of life and human existence. Myths are not just entertaining fables or children's stories told to pass the time. Myths represent a blueprint to the psychology of a people, their understanding of themselves as a group and their view of the world and the universe. Myths therefore, reveal a personal and collective perspective regarding the evolution of history and culture. Our history is mixed with our culture, tangled in our spirituality and is lived in and as our present experience of life.
Who you are is made up of the stories you heard about your family, your background, your culture, your religion, your gender, and the stories of your very existence. This interchange and exchange of concepts and traditions produces a psychology that is truly unique in its simplicity and its universality. This psychology offers a native perspective of wellness which emphasizes, not the importance of the self or individual experience, but rather, collective contributions which now seek expression and recognition in and through your embodiment. In other words, myths offer an explanation for who you are in connection to the universe you inhabit. They explain the reasons why "you" have been created and they also teach about all the previous "others" that it took to make "you".
Myths are so deeply engrained in the human psyche that when tampered with, or right out deleted, they can alter human behavior and the view of life. By integrating a false story that changes the meaning of who you are and what you are worth, you can come to believe that you are unworthy. This is a total distortion from mythical origin tales which express the collective truth of your birth as a direct descendent of the Creator.
Another definition of myths includes the representation of something that is fictitious or non-existent, but whose existence is widely believed by a group to be the truth. As an example, historically Jesus was not born on December 25th as is the commonly celebrated myth. Look up birth of Jesus in any encyclopedia or in any scholarly book on theology or even an internet search and you will read that Jesus was born sometime in September or October. We all celebrate his birth in December, but that is a myth. This celebration in December became popular as a result of the increasing dominance of Christianity over the old Roman religion. Romans celebrated the birth of the Sun gods on December 25th. To most people, it doesn't really matter when Jesus was born as much as it matters that he existed and had a message. Pagan cultures, which were overcome by Judeo-Christian tradition, celebrated the winter equinox and the start of a new year. A December birth combines Judeo-Christian tradition with ancient pagan rituals and creates a new standard practice. The conquered people find themselves celebrating new traditions superimposed on ancient, buried traditions which today have lost or distorted the original meaning.
Another example of an altered myth includes the concept and image of God which was superimposed on native people when the Conquistadores (Spanish conquerors) arrived in the New World. The new arrivals felt better about their actions when they were able to convince themselves that the natives they encountered were somehow less human. Because natives were considered savages, the Conquistadores felt they could "save their souls" by destroying the ancient concepts of the Creator. The native gods, rituals and celebrations were considered "idolatry," an offense against the ONE true religion and thus punishable by death. It is much easier to kill, enslave, colonize and oppress others if you don't have to think of them as human. The problem of identification with oppression does not disappear with time. Today, many descendents of natives from the Americas, from Asia and Africa, still internalize these myths of oppression and consider themselves inferior, largely based on the mythical concepts they have adopted from a dominant culture. How many times have you looked at someone (including yourself) and judged according to color of skin, texture of hair or any concept of beauty based on a Western ideal? Where do you think these thoughts of inferiority come from?
History is written by the power holders and the dominant. That version of history produces one superior myth, one version of reality which is sold to everyone as the ultimate truth. In that process and in that story, the popular view of history typically dehumanizes and minimizes the contributions and moral character of those conquered along the way.
It is no wonder that the children of the Fifth Sun might think there is little value in knowing the myths and stories of their ancestors. Myths of ancestors can be thought to be "superstitious" or "primitive". We might believe that the natives were nothing but savages who had little appreciation for human life, civilization, culture and progress. As the stories of our past disappear, so do the important lessons, the teachings which stress the need for living a harmonious life and living by the principles the ancestors taught to thrive and survive. If we learn to read the stories of the past and recognize their significance in our present lives, we will be able to decipher the messages that are imbedded in the myths and creation stories which have been told for thousands of years.
Myths: The Lessons
Myths teach us a great deal about people and their beliefs. They tell us how people view themselves and the world they inhabit. Myths give us an understanding of a group's aspiration towards fulfillment. The teachings imbedded in these myths show the values and ideals that are crucial in the preservation of a way of life. Myths can provide us with stories to relate to and provide relevant messages to guide our lives. Most of us have heard the myth about Oedipus, the king who married his mother and killed his father. This myth has permeated history and psychology, giving us a theory of understanding (however controversial) about the manner in which boys in Western cultures relate to their mothers and fathers.
At times, I have felt like Sisyphus, a Greek mythological character, who was condemned to roll the same rock up and down the same hill for eternity. Other times I have felt like another Greek mythological character, Icarus, a son of a god, who flew too close to the sun only to come down to earth in a burning blaze. These myths teach me about my thirst for union with the Creator and the catastrophe that can occur when flying too close to the sun. I learn from myths that I have not been the only one in creation to ever feel this way. I learn that the moral teachings of yesteryear are valuable lessons today. As an example, from the story of Sisyphus, we can learn to step back and observe patterns of behavior that can trap us forever in a "hell" like environment. From the story of Icarus, we learn that pride and arrogance can quickly become our downfall. The fact that you are more likely to know these myths than the myths of your ancestors indicates how your morality and personal stories were formed. If you adopt a script not intended with you in mind, you can believe in an identity that distorts your true worth and significance.
Our lives and our culture have been shaped by these myths. From the legends of King Arthur to the stories of the Gods of Olympus, myths have become a part of the collective story we tell of ourselves and others. Myths inform our aspirations, fears and cultural norms. They give us insight into our hang-ups and fears. Yet, for those of us that are descendents of the ancient native tribes, the traditional myths from Europe do not fully reflect our reality. When people are unable to see themselves reflected in the majority culture, there is a sense of being discounted, invisible and unworthy. Others might see you as different and you learn to base your sense of personal worth on the majority's view. Seeing yourself through the legends and teachings of your own ancestors gives you a more valid and accurate view of your place in the universe. The lessons in the stories of our elders can empower us all with unimaginable wealth, wisdom, joy and health.
Our Stories
Myths contain the lessons of the past which still have their present teaching and significance. These lessons are a collective inheritance of past successes and failures found throughout human existence. Our own individual existence is not separate from the history of our people or the history of the entire world. There is an intuitive and physical body of knowledge that has been inherent to us by the collective and the individual lives of all those that have walked this journey before. All your past relatives have contributed and given of their lives to form the person you are today. For generations upon generations, the hopes and aspirations of our ancestors have resulted in the embodiment of our individual lives. We are the life and love, the hope and aspirations that the elders projected into the future. There are unimaginable riches left behind for us, accumulated by the nobility and passed on by the royalty of our ancestors.
The importance of living a balanced and harmonious life is a teaching which survives in the stories and in the healing rituals of the old curanderos (healers). Our ancestors, while they were building great pyramids and studying the movement of the planets with mathematical perfection, were also engrossed in the study of human life - our lives on earth and beyond. They charted the unexplored regions of the mind and the body, and left you and me the wealth of their accumulated knowledge. They took clues for living and for survival from their observations of earth's and the universe's rhythms. They praised the earth in recognition of the forces of nature that governed their lives. Their life's work informs us of our place within the cosmos. This knowledge was intended to be passed on to the children of the Fifth Sun so that we could utilize these universal principles to our greater benefit and to secure our happiness and ultimate fulfillment.
Our ancestors were powerful healers who understood there is no separation between wellness of the body and wellness of the mind. They understood that our health and wellbeing depends on the balance of our physical, psychological and spiritual nature. The path of life for our ancestors was simple, although not necessarily easy to follow. Our elders recognized the importance of living close to the earth and they were protected by a canopy of celestial bodies. They knew that a personal and social balance with all universal and natural forces was critical for fulfillment. Living in harmony with animal and plant spirits held the key to wellness and was intricately related to the preservation of that balance and harmony. The dance of harmony assures the continuation of all life.
Our elders believed that we are trapped by the illusion of change and separation. In a world where everything changes and nothing stays constant, the human race began to hunger for permanence, including a permanence of the self. Such permanence is an illusion whenever it is anchored to the material world. The more we attempt to hold on to a sense of permanence, the more frustrated and disappointed we become. Try trapping a river with a bucket. You might be able to hold a bucket of river-water as a constant, but what you have is only water and not the river.
Today, remnants of these ancient myths are found in popular culture. Messages and guideposts from our ancestors are also imbedded in the melodies of old songs that speak of morality, our resilience, and the heroes that have given their lives to secure our survival. Great examples of these songs are Mexican rancheras, a genre of the traditional music and corridos, a popular narrative story sung in poetic rhyme. Rancheras are more than song and poetry. They represent the oral history and tradition that the children of the Fifth Sun continue to utilize to preserve a way of life. Rancheras are the Univision and Telemundo of the past. They are the poor person's version of the daily journal that tells about the news and scandals that occurred nationally and regionally. Not only was information disseminated through these songs, they also expressed values, ideals, dreams and aspirations of past generations. The Mariachis express the angst and the striving experienced as Native and European cultures mix and seek expression in our lives. At times, we live as Jose Alfredo's "El Rey". We may not have a throne or a queen but we are still the king! Other times, the same Jose Alfredo declares that "life is worth nothing." It begins with tears and ends with tears. The highs and lows that describe Mexican and Mexican-American existence have never been better captured by any other cultural icon than Don Jose Alfredo.
We learn about past laws and the harsh, punitive stands taken. From the song "La Martina", we learn that infidelity was punishable by death, particularly if you were a female who just "completed her sixteenth birthday". The song "El Hijo Desobediente" teaches that disobeying your parents can condemn you for eternity. These songs attempted to teach natives the ways and laws of the Western conquerors. The songs tell the stories and experiences of individuals as they attempt to integrate new, strange and oppressive practices into their existence. Soon, the children of the Fifth Sun began to forget their connection to the ancestral past. Continuing to read and write within the native tradition became acts punishable by death. That is why those ancient traditions and teachings are all but physically extinct. Yet their message, their intention, their purpose and meaning are not lost. These are spiritual principles that operate beyond the limitations of the material world.
There are clues that point the way to the liberation of your own oppression. These clues are hidden, but they can still be found when you learn to tap into the ancestral and intuitive field of knowledge. Such knowing is charted in the path of the stars pointing to the ancestors' discovery of the stairways to heaven. To unlock the ancient secrets we need only remember that the clues are hidden within the center of our own knowing. In silent meditation, you can still hear these messages whispering in your ear. These clues help us understand how to avoid the holes in the ground that can drag us to our own personal hell. More importantly, these clues tell us how to climb to the highest point of self realization so that we may think and act from that perspective.
The ancient myths are also hidden in stories told repeatedly by your grandparents and mine. As they surround themselves with numerous children, the rich and vivid details in their story telling illustrate and celebrate the tales of our origins, back when the world was still young. The messages imbedded in these myths and legends reveal the secrets necessary to find the true story of "who we are". In the appreciation of the legacy of our ancestry, we will find the lessons necessary to avoid pain and suffering. As we rediscover the transformative messages, we will personally feel the ancestral pull that unites us to the source of all power and creation. These are the stories that tell of our place in this universe and the purpose of our life. The messages will unlock the code to our happiness and allow us to claim our rightful inheritance.
Your life sets the decisive tone and theme of an ancient story written exclusively in anticipation of your arrival. The past has been lived as a gift to you, so that you can select and interpret reality based on the lessons you've inherited. If you are disconnected from the myths of your past, you are likely to feel as an illegitimate child, unaware and unclear of how to act and behave. You are more vulnerable to material influences which tend to discount the rich ancestral heritage. This heritage contains great wisdom and the secrets to fulfillment of your most cherished desires. This heritage represents an unbroken chain of love and affection that reaches from the beginning of time right down to your individual manifestation.
You are the legacy of the past and the creator of the future. You were intended to be free, to live in joy and prosperity. Five hundred years of oppression and colonization have left certain scars, but these scars have not touched the essence of who you are. At the core, you are as complete today as you were the day you were born. You have everything you need to live beyond fear and limitations. The journey to the promised lands of Aztlan, to the realm of unlimited possibilities, can be realized by breaking the chains of self imposed suffering and oppression. Come along, let us take this journey together and discover the significance of the promise of light and liberation entrusted to you.
