The 12 Day Ceremony
How I will be celebrating December 21, 2012. Ironically, December 21 is my birthday too! Very excited and looking forward to counting down and what I will be doing each day til then!
The following links will give an idea of what I will be doing to bring in the 21st!
The 12 Day Festivities: Celebration of Life
https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=456C56B61C769206&resid=456C56B61C769206%21191&authkey=AIcLc3PukInKhMM&em=2"
Agenda
https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=456C56B61C769206&resid=456C56B61C769206%21193&authkey=AEPz5WvavS4yzR4&em=2"
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Monday, 3 December 2012
18 Days to December 21, 2012
Greetings!!
Very excited that the 12 Day Festivities will begin in a weeks time! The last day of the 12 Day Festivities will also fall December 21, 2012! Very excited and very pleased that I will be celebrating this very special day in our history, all of creation and human life via this ceremony of my ancestors, the Anishnaabe. The 12 Day Festivities is a special event that my ancestors did every four years that also marks the leap year. This ceremony was a time to observe, honour, and commemorate all of the gifts that creation has given to us, the original human beings. This ceremony has many important functions that this event served: review our scrolls and teachings, celebrate creation, and our existence, review our prophecies and visions, feast creator, creation, and the spirits, fast and take the time to sit and gain new knowledge and relations, acknowledge the passing of responsibilities between students and teachers, the awakening of new pipes, drums, and our other tools, naming ceremonies, and re-enacting our creation story. I am grateful that I am able to see this day so close upon us. As my teacher used to say to me, "you will live in such an exciting time. You get the chance to change history and share the knowledge of ancestors with all of our brothers and sisters from the four directions."
I believe, that I am only a keeper of knowledge in the same tradition as those before me with the exception of no longer operating secrecy. It has taken me the better part of the last 21 years to share what I know because, I used to fear many things. However, I have found the courage to move past my fears. Many of my ancestors worked hard to preserve this knowledge and they went through a great deal of suffering to ensure that I may have this opportunity to share. I do not want to forget or not acknowledge their suffering but to know for me that their suffering was a sacrifice to some degree but a choice to ensure the future and continue the legacy of sharing our knowledge and the journey each of has with Mother Earth. My aunt Nellie used to say to me that she and her elders knowingly made and were willing to endure whatever consequences came with their choices to preserve and pass on the knowledge they carried. The choice was always clear, to ensure that those seven generations ahead will know who they are as Anishnaabek peoples and that the knowledge of the ancients, our ancestors will live on. I say this with conviction that the 12 Day Festivities is the reflection of many of our traditions and representative of the very core of our Traditional Anishnaabe Knowledge. It has been my life's work to bring all the pieces of my learning together. In the next week, I will be preparing to share the knowledge of so many and share the very best of my peoples traditions and knowledge. It seems ironic that so many are calling for the end of the world on December 21st, 2012, when in reference to our scrolls, calendars, and the 3 regional times scales , namely, The 10 Figure Thunderbird of the Bear Nation- The Anishnaabe, The 100 Sun's Ages of the Jaguar Nation- The Maya, and The Fifth Sun Stone of the Eagle Nation - The Aztec, that no such catastrophic event is foretold. Rather, our scrolls point to the unification of all members of the human family and the beginning of change. What I have come to learn has always seemed more like a challenge from the ancients - how will we, the new nations, live together with our Mother the Earth for the next few hundred million years? I'd give an exact number but I like to see who is paying attention! I look forward to next week and what will come!
Pitchi aka Robin
Very excited that the 12 Day Festivities will begin in a weeks time! The last day of the 12 Day Festivities will also fall December 21, 2012! Very excited and very pleased that I will be celebrating this very special day in our history, all of creation and human life via this ceremony of my ancestors, the Anishnaabe. The 12 Day Festivities is a special event that my ancestors did every four years that also marks the leap year. This ceremony was a time to observe, honour, and commemorate all of the gifts that creation has given to us, the original human beings. This ceremony has many important functions that this event served: review our scrolls and teachings, celebrate creation, and our existence, review our prophecies and visions, feast creator, creation, and the spirits, fast and take the time to sit and gain new knowledge and relations, acknowledge the passing of responsibilities between students and teachers, the awakening of new pipes, drums, and our other tools, naming ceremonies, and re-enacting our creation story. I am grateful that I am able to see this day so close upon us. As my teacher used to say to me, "you will live in such an exciting time. You get the chance to change history and share the knowledge of ancestors with all of our brothers and sisters from the four directions."
I believe, that I am only a keeper of knowledge in the same tradition as those before me with the exception of no longer operating secrecy. It has taken me the better part of the last 21 years to share what I know because, I used to fear many things. However, I have found the courage to move past my fears. Many of my ancestors worked hard to preserve this knowledge and they went through a great deal of suffering to ensure that I may have this opportunity to share. I do not want to forget or not acknowledge their suffering but to know for me that their suffering was a sacrifice to some degree but a choice to ensure the future and continue the legacy of sharing our knowledge and the journey each of has with Mother Earth. My aunt Nellie used to say to me that she and her elders knowingly made and were willing to endure whatever consequences came with their choices to preserve and pass on the knowledge they carried. The choice was always clear, to ensure that those seven generations ahead will know who they are as Anishnaabek peoples and that the knowledge of the ancients, our ancestors will live on. I say this with conviction that the 12 Day Festivities is the reflection of many of our traditions and representative of the very core of our Traditional Anishnaabe Knowledge. It has been my life's work to bring all the pieces of my learning together. In the next week, I will be preparing to share the knowledge of so many and share the very best of my peoples traditions and knowledge. It seems ironic that so many are calling for the end of the world on December 21st, 2012, when in reference to our scrolls, calendars, and the 3 regional times scales , namely, The 10 Figure Thunderbird of the Bear Nation- The Anishnaabe, The 100 Sun's Ages of the Jaguar Nation- The Maya, and The Fifth Sun Stone of the Eagle Nation - The Aztec, that no such catastrophic event is foretold. Rather, our scrolls point to the unification of all members of the human family and the beginning of change. What I have come to learn has always seemed more like a challenge from the ancients - how will we, the new nations, live together with our Mother the Earth for the next few hundred million years? I'd give an exact number but I like to see who is paying attention! I look forward to next week and what will come!
Pitchi aka Robin
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