Ralph P. Brown is a Mohawk indian, self-taught artist, writer and among many talents, he raises awareness about the power of the medicine wheel. My own experience creating a medicine wheel as guided by the Sisterhood of the Shields enables me to connect with him on different planes. I am pleased to be reviewing his new book, Awakening the Eagle: A Guide to the Medicine Wheel. He shares meaningful teachings and I am grateful he is available for this interview.
First of all I want to say that I have always enjoyed our exchanges. Anita and I love what you are doing with Dreambuilders Australia and I was excited for the opportunity to be a part of it.
As you reflect on core identity, what makes you who you are?
What makes me who I am is my love for life, my awareness of my duty, my responsibility to the Sacred Hood (life) and my ability to perceive both the seen and unseen.
My culture (Mohawk Indian), my life’s experiences and my beliefs about the world and our role in it contribute to who I am… because we act according to our beliefs.
Describing who and what I am is a little like describing a painting before it is painted. I’m a work in progress; a student of life; a servant to the people and Creator. That’s me in a nutshell.
What is your higher calling and how did you grow aware of it?
When I was young I had an astrological natal chart done. The woman who did it said that my destiny would be reached by one of two paths. The things she told me made me pay attention and I filed the information away in the back of my mind.
One day I was invited to a ceremony that was conducted by a Medicine Man whom I had never met, Danny SeaBoy. In the darkness of the sweat lodge he began to pray. I was shocked into rapt attention when in his prayer he said, “Tunkasila (Grandfather), I want to thank you for showing me the man in my dreams who is Mohawk”. I sat through the rest of the ceremony curiously blown away because not only had I never met Danny prior to this ceremony, I never told him that I was Mohawk. After the ceremony I asked him if he could share his dream with me? He told me how I would serve the people if I chose this path. Not long after this, another Medicine Man, Earl Swift Hawk, made me a pipe carrier and confirmed all that Danny SeaBoy had said.
When we are given our Indian name it is given according to what the giver “sees” in us. My God Mother, Elaine Cook, gave me my name Tawennihake (pronounced DAW-ONE-KNEE-HAH-GAY) which in our language means “Making Path”. The Wisdom Keepers and Medicine people have shared generously with me of their vast knowledge and I knew it was for me to give to others – this is my path.
Why write your new book, Awakening the Eagle: A Guide to the Medicine Wheel?
One day I saw an Eagle’s perspective of the world. I saw the people as if they were ants running here and there doing this and that. It seemed as if they were on auto-pilot or living by rote. They were like sleepwalkers unaware of who they really were and oblivious to the “voice” that was speaking to them. Seeing what they were and knowing what they could be, I knew that their spirit needed to be awakened. Thus the title of my book “Awakening the Eagle”.
There is a plethora of self-help, motivational and inspirational material out there but people don’t always resonate with the same thing. Sometimes you need only hear it in a different way to have it make sense to you. “Awakening the Eagle” comes from a different perspective in hopes that something in it will awaken that spirit and cause the reader to walk in a new awareness.
Once people know that they are in control and life is not the whim of outside occurrences, they become empowered. Learning such control can be life-changing. And when enough people learn this they can change the world.
How can Native Indian stories and experiences assist people? How do they help you?
I think Native Americans have a more wholistic view of the world because we recognize that health and wellness comes when there is a balance of physical, spiritual, mental and emotional bodies. Indian stories incorporate this thinking in their telling and are used to not just entertain but to teach as well. The stories are simple in their telling but deep in their meaning.
We each “hear” and “see” things when we are ready t see and hear – depending on where we are in our growth. I learn from these stories every time I hear or tell one. Because of their neutrality they allow the listener to insert himself in the story in his own way and in his own time. They also allow him or her to listen in a way that is non-threatening. A defensive listener is a closed one and this is not conducive to learning.
Another thing about stories is they challenge your imagination and dare you to see other possibilities. It’s okay to be the Buffalo pawing at the fresh grasses on the plain. You are allowed to be the Eagle soaring above the earth – when we stretch our thinking in this way, we grow.
Many people struggle during a search for self or identity. What advice do you offer?
Before answering this question, let me share a quote with you from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“The moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you’ve been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.”
Self image, in spite of what the world “self” implies, comes from the outside. It is what we have been taught to believe through family, friends, culture and society. Self-esteem is how we feel – it comes from the inside and is reflective of our beliefs about self.
We all originate from the Source, the Great Mystery or whatever you choose to call God. We are created not only by God, but from God. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Our attention to this form is often at the sacrifice of the spirit. We forget that we are divine creatures with a sacred duty. The further we get away from the Source, the further away we get from our true selves - our God selves. We come into this world with this “knowing” and then we are taught to believe different.
If you accept the fact that we come from and are a part of God, you can add this: Every person is a leader, teacher or healer. They can be one or all of these but once you understand this, your identity becomes clearer. Each person brings a unique talent, quality, skill or gift that aids him or her in fulfilling this earthy mission.
It is not always easy for people to accept or believe that they are, like God, a creator and that what they do with this life matters to more than just their immediate family and circle of friends.
The advice I would offer? Know Thyself! This knowing begins with where you come from.
Tell us about your different choices of creative expression and how this enables deeper introspection.
There are several ways I have of expressing creativity. Art, writing and music get the most attention. I write and draw and this is creativity with a mission because I use them to teach and share what I have. The music I do for the sheer joy of playing.
Art is about my connection with the spirit of the things I draw. Art is my ideas, perceptions and thoughts made visible. Art is a window into my world. Because I am aware of the spirit and energy I pass along to the people who purchase and take these pieces to their homes, I take pause to look at what is coming from inside of me when I create.
I do this even more so when I write. When I draw I can take artistic liberties and even if they don’t “get” the intended message, they can appreciate the artwork. When I write, I want people to get it. As I look for the best way to explain abstractions and allegory it causes me to look at these from as many views as possible. Introspection is the inevitable result.
I have been given wonderful gifts and I am blessed to be able to share them in this way.
Human perception is grounded in the physical senses. How has this effected your belief in and knowledge of ‘the unseen?’
Spirit moves unseen like the wind but we see nature dance in its wake. People who are aware “know” the cause. They recognize the Source because they are aware of their connection to it.
Spirit “speaks” to us in signs and symbols that we understand. What is always fun to see is when Spirit uses people, circumstances or events to teach or show me something. I don’t have to see it to know that it is coming from the Source.
People don’t see the undersea earthquakes that cause tsunamis but they see the effect. When I pray I feel the universe respond and watch for the effect – I know the wave is coming.
What have you learned from experiences with native tribes and medicine men? Why is this meaningful?
Indian people and their Medicine People have given me much. They have taught me how to “talk” to the things of the earth. They have taught me how to heal and how to serve the people. It is meaningful because these things reach beyond the tribal and cultural context and can benefit the world.
There is an increasing awareness of the twentieth century thinking of excessive consumerism. This bigger-is-better attitude has not served the earth or its people and there is a search for a new paradigm. Indians have always known how to live in harmony with the earth and its creatures. Change may not be easy but it is better to work towards change now than to wait until the problems are so huge that the task becomes panic management on top of everything else. Things don’t have to be out of control before we act.
How does one come to master the physical world?
By mastering the self.
When one truly knows the self there is an awareness of how we relate to all other things. When that learned balance is found, we begin walking in a good way.
The more we learn about the self, the more we learn about our interconnectedness to all things. Life is about relationships. How one thing relates to another and how they relate to everything else. The old ones tell us that what you do to the strand, you do to the whole web. Everything is related to everything else… but because man is the only creature who is out of balance with the other forms in nature, it is with the self that we begin. Bring harmony and balance to your physical, spiritual, mental and emotional self and you bring balance to the whole.
Share 2 experiences that completely alter you self-view and understanding of reality.
The first would be the ceremony I mentioned earlier with Danny SeaBoy. This really caused me to look at what was inside of me and the journey I was on.
My understanding of reality was completely changed when I attended a Yuwipi ceremony with Medicine Man Earl Swift Hawk. In the complete darkness of the room where the ceremony was held I saw spirits in their light form. They flew by the hundreds, light beings that cast no light nor created any shadows. They whispered in one voice creating a sound like white noise as they moved around the room helping the people in attendance. The experience did more than change my understanding of reality, it changed my whole life. A very powerful ceremony.
In your view, what is the “truth” and how can other people come into their own?
In my view, truth is universal.
My litmus test for truth is that it can’t be culturally, gender or racially specific. It has to work for everyone or it isn’t universal.
The truth is seeking you just as you are seeking it. There are a couple of things that can inhibit our search for the truth. One is a preconceived notion of what truth is or isn’t. The other is the tendency to rush to judgment before enough information is given. How can Spirit show us the answer when we already think we have it?
Our search for truth can take us down many paths but… there are many paths to the top of the mountain! How you get there is a personal journey – one that will reward you with many gifts along the way.
One other thing I want to say about truth. Truth and belief are often confused with one another. When you hold an idea up to the light and it casts a shadow it is more than likely a belief. Truth is light and no shadow can be where there is light.
How does dreaming influence your spiritual journey?
From what I can tell, I have three different kinds of dreams:
- non-sensical flashes here and there
- cleansing dreams where I process fears, apprehensions insecurities and so on
- spirit dreams where I know to pay attention. In spirit dreams I am hyper-aware and I clearly see numbers, writing, colors, signs and symbols or animals.
Spirit dreams guide me and teach me. An example of this is found in what I call the Eagle Dream. In Indian tradition it is an honour to receive an Eagle feather. The feather means many things but to receive one means you have done something brave or extraordinary in the eyes of the people. I had a dream that I share in my book “Awakening the Eagle”. I spot an Eagle and I fly up behind him with the intention of “taking” a feather from him. He looked back and gave me a look that said, “Yes, you could take this feather but is that what you really want to do?”
Deciding it wasn’t, I folded his wings with the idea that I would “trade” him his ability to fly for a feather. Again he looked back at me with that same look and I knew it was wrong. So I set him on the ground with the idea of following him until he dropped a feather. Of course this was not the way either. The dream taught me that you can’t get good things in wrong ways. The things that are meaningful are not those that are forced, tricked or stolen. I could have gotten a feather but it would not have held the same value as one that is given in the proper way.
Dreams are a powerful tool because we get our logical and limited thinking out of the way and free the way for what is rather than what we think should be.
Ralph, your creative art and writing encourages human beings to explore the root causes of their beliefs and begin to recognize the meaning of their own delusions. I encourage visitors here to check out your work at www.mirroredwindows.com
Liara, Again I want to thank you for this chance to share my culture and my perspective with you and your readers. May the threads of our connectedness always be visible.