I learned recently that the braids of Native Americans symbolize connections to the Earth Mother and All Our Relations. Wearing one's hair loosely is supposed to connect one's Spiritual Essence with the Wind Spirits. I never knew the significance of the braids and I don't even know how true it is. Not everything we read on the internet is true! When my hair was longer, I would sometimes braid it, mostly just to get it out of my way, but being a child of the Woodstock generation, naturally I preferred to wear it loosely flowing. Now its too short to be braided but still long enough to flow blissfully.
Do we need to have braids to connect us with our Earth Mother and All Our Relations? No, but to some it may serve as a symbol of that link.
As an animist who professes to live as a part of a family that embraces stones and plants, all creatures of nature, humans of all races and creeds, and honors the ties that bind it all, I am pledged to respect each one's role in the play of Life, and honor their right to live and create in their own ways. This is not as easy as it sounds, nor is it always bright and beautiful. I find it very liberating, though, in many ways.
I grew up with racial prejudice and ethnic jokes as the norm. My mother was born and raised in South Carolina. She had a black "mammy". Need I say more? My dad is probably the most prejudiced person I know. He hates anyone who is not exactly like him. He is constantly drawing lines between Us and Them. I think most of it comes from fear, although neither of them would never admit that. Every door in their house has not one, not two, not three, but four locks which are locked at all times, as if at any moment one of Them will burst in and beat them up and rob my parents, just because they are Them. By the way, they live in one of the lowest crime neighborhoods in the tri-state area. How different things would be if my parents suddenly realized we are all the same, or even opened slightly to that concept.
Less fear in my life is one huge benefit of being an animist. My sister instantly locks her car doors if she is caught at a red light and there happens to be a black man walking nearby. Recently while I was walking my dog in the park, I encountered what appeared to be a homeless man, walking the other way, mumbling to himself. When I mentioned it to her, she insisted that I call the police if I saw him again. Why? He wasn't doing any harm. I just avoided him, stepping a little to the side and giving him his own space. He had as much right to be in the park as I did. Why should I make more trouble for him than he already had, which was obviously quite a bit? More than once in my life I've been homeless too.
Not that I deny there is danger in life. Respecting and honoring the truth and reality of each part of creation includes recognizing the reality of potential dangers. Sure, any man could be a rapist, no matter what color their skin. And any storm could strike you dead with its lightening. I recognize these truths but I don't let them get in my way. I try to be careful but I don't let fear keep me from enjoying the day. Life flows much more easily when energy isn't wasted on fear and pointless hate.
The wind in my hair that I enjoy as an animist makes me feel so free sometimes that I start to feeling superior, especially when I think about people like my parents and sister. Feeling superior isn't right. I should feel humble instead. I suppose their fears and loathings have a place in the world too but am I supposed to respect that? It's hard to respect and honor everything and everyone sometimes.
Take crows, for instance, a bird I admire for their intelligence and cunning. Recently I witnessed a crow take a baby house finch from the nest I'd watched its parents build on the eaves of my porch. Every day I watched the nest take shape, then the eggs came, and just the day before the crow came, I saw one of the nestlings flap its wings for the first time and it was such a hopeful, happy sight. The crow, after several days of surveillance, studied the situation as crows do and figured out a way to get to them. It was heartbreaking to see the tiny baby bird carried off while its parents did their best to fight off the crow, to no avail. Afterwards a very strange thing occurred. From out of nowhere, an entire clan of house finches suddenly appeared and gathered around my porch, singing and flapping around and generally acting as if they were at a wake. No crows attended. I can't hate the crows for being crows. I still love them, but with a slightly different kind of respect.
Being an animist often makes me feel quite ecstatic, almost high or stoned on feeling "the connexion". It's a big rush to open your heart this way. Yet there are always challenges, like the crow incident, that make me pause and sigh. The ecstasy I feel doesn't make me feel superior, just very much alive. I wonder if that's one of the purposes of religion/life-views, though, to make us feel superior (rightly or wrongly). It doesn't feel right, especially when animism is supposed to be based on respect for everyone's and everything's place in life, no one person or thing more precious, important, beloved, or better than another. I shouldn't put myself above any other person, let alone a pebble or a strand of grass.
I believe my path is beautifully summed up in the Thelemic "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will." It is not permission to do whatever you want. It bestows the obligation to find your true role in life and pursue it with all you've got, while respecting (loving) all others' places and roles, trusting that there is a plan to the universe and a holy order where everyone and everything is a star in its own orbit - even, to an animist, the rocks and trees, the wind and the rain. The challenge is to not only recognize these connexions and relations, but to find ways to live in harmony with them without putting yourself above anything. Maybe this is not meant to be over-analyzed or worked at too hard. It might be just enough to enjoy the rush of those freedom winds in your hair and keep your heart open while letting the path take you where it will.
