Sherri Mitchell:

Understanding who we are from the core of our existence beyond physicality, the core of our existence in connection with the very force of life, the core of our existence in an undefined spiritual state that contains all possibility. All of the things that help us to govern our time here in this physical life are sacred instructions.

Karen Michel:

Sacred Instructions. That's the title of Sherri Mitchell's book and workshop at Omega Institute. Sherri is from an island in Maine, is a lawyer by training, and delves deeply into the traditions of her Wabanaki Native American heritage, working to bring those teachings into the present. This is Dropping In from Omega Institute, a podcast that explores the many ways to awaken the best in the human spirit. I'm Karen Michel.

Karen Michel:

The subtitle of Sherri Mitchell's book is, Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change. Now, barely in her 50s, and both a mother and grandmother, she explained to those gathered in a semicircle in front of her how she became a bearer of that wisdom.

Sherri Mitchell:

I have this incredible blessing of a cultural frame of reference that's very strong, and I come from a very, very strong family that really encouraged from a young age, the emergence of my being. And I also feel incredibly blessed to have had this group of elders, because of the type of community that I grew up in where there was this real respect for and honoring of those who had lived the longest, that they took on their responsibility of watching me grow, of looking for the things that they saw within me, trying to amplify those things, helping to reflect back to me the gifts that they saw within me.

Sherri Mitchell:

And so, when I was born, my great-grandmother gave me a name, Ali Wassis Possesom. And so, I had carried that name until I became an adult. And then when I got to a certain place in my life, the elders who had been watching me grow called me in and they said, "We've been watching you and we would like to offer you a name." And so, it's a serious business when you get offered a name, and I had to decide. I had to decide, was I willing to take on that name? Was I willing to take responsibility for what that name carried? Was I willing to continue to honor the obligations attached to that name for the remainder of my life? And what I realized in this gifting of this name was that it encompassed my medicine.

Sherri Mitchell:

And so, my name, Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset, is one of the depictions in our mythology of one of our female deities, the White Feathered Serpent. And so, it's a full emergence of myself in this process of discovering that the name that had been chosen for me was actually a depiction of who I had become. And so, what Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset does is she goes down below the surface and brings hidden truths up to the light. The literal translation of the name is she who brings the light. We are the people of that first light as Wabanaki or Wabanaki people. And so, she chases the sun down into the darkness and back into the sky at dawn, so she brings new beginnings.

Sherri Mitchell:

And so, when I thought about who I was and what I have been doing with my time here on earth, it has been bringing things that have been hidden into the light. And she also carries specific women's teachings that I am now responsible for teaching the young women in my community. And so, about honoring the sacred feminine, about recognizing the gifts that the mother brings to the world, about recognizing the value and the benefit of nurturing, cultivating, and protecting life.

Karen Michel:

Think about your name, its meaning, and history, those who've had it before you, and those who gave it to you in this life. Does it reflect your medicine, or rather, do you reflect it? As Sherri Mitchell says, there are a number of things that we are called to do, and those are the things that are connected to our medicine, whatever that creation song is, that we carry. As it is with Sherri Mitchell's people, so it is for many cultures that a name confirms and predicts who that person truly is and who they will become. And as it was with Sherri Mitchell, often a name changes over time, whether given by others, or taken by oneself. When she and I talked, we spent some time discussing her name and the tattoos that cover her forearms, depicting other elements of her heritage.

Sherri Mitchell:

Well, on my left hand side, I have a depiction of my name and my language, and the openings in that tattoo are aiming up toward the line that goes to my heart. And so, that feminine aspect is the intuitive knowing that's guided by the history of wisdom of that feminine line, also the wisdom of the sacred feminine. And so, when I had these tattoos put on me, it was done in ceremony, and it was done with an acknowledgement of my readiness to be an embodiment of what they symbolized. And so, it was a deeper level of commitment even to my name. A deeper...

Karen Michel:

How old were you when that happened?

Sherri Mitchell:

This has just happened recently. So I waited, I didn't have any tattoos or any piercings other than my ears, and I decided that when I got to a place in my life where I felt that I was ready to have an embodiment of my own truth on my skin as a reflection of who I am, then I would do that. And so, these were both done in honor of my 50th year.

Sherri Mitchell:

And then on my right hand side, which is my masculine side, the opening is going out into the world. And that is my patrilineal line, which is Bear Clan. And so, that Bear Clan strength and guidance and protection helps to govern my action out in the world.

Karen Michel:

For many years, Sherri Mitchell's actions have been focused on healing the earth, feeling and respecting its vibrations. She sees herself as a warrior.

Sherri Mitchell:

For us, there is no word in our language within our warrior philosophy that has anything to do with violence or fighting. And so, a warrior is one who serves and protects. And we have words for that service and that protection within our language, but none of that is connected to violence or to fighting. And so, even the word warrior itself, which comes from the terminology, "of war," is flawed in that sense, but we use what we have. And so, what we really need now is the cultivation of spiritual warriors. And so, those are individuals who are dedicating their lives to the service and protection of life.

Sherri Mitchell:

And I think that it's about connecting with courage, it's connecting with commitment, it's connecting with our sense of responsibility for the preservation and perpetuation of life, that we have an obligation to the force that has given us life to help perpetuate that life into the future because if we learn to listen, if we're quiet, if we really connect, we can hear the voices of the future generations beckoning to be born. We can hear them calling to us, asking for this incredible privilege of life to be granted to them. And for us to preserve that gift for them is a call from behind and a call from in front of us.

Sherri Mitchell:

So, one of the most beautiful realizations I ever had was an understanding that I am standing in the place where I exist, living conduit to all life, that I am connected to the very source of life that goes all the way back to the hand of the creator, that I carry the blood of my ancestors in my veins and the seeds of future generations in my body. And so, I'm holding this space between the past and the future as a conduit for life between those two poles, and it's such a beautiful and powerful image, but it's also such an incredible responsibility. I'm not a placeholder in time. I have a specific purpose while standing in this space, to ensure that the wisdom of the past is carried forward, but also that the perpetuation of life continues through me so that those who are beckoning to be born have that same opportunity and same gift of life that I've been given. What a beautiful and powerful thing that is.

Karen Michel:

We'll be back with the story of the cannibal giant, more of Sherri Mitchell's Sacred Instructions. First, a word about Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. For more than 40 years, Omega has been hosting workshops, retreats on yoga, mindfulness, art, sustainability, women's leadership, health. It's a rich mix. And with this podcast, I'm introducing you to some of the remarkable teachers exploring Omega's mission to awaken the best in the human spirit. To learn more about Omega, visit eomega.org. That's E-O-M-E-G-A.O-R-G. Better yet, make this podcast your entry into all things Omega. Subscribe to Dropping In, leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and tell a friend.

Karen Michel:

Most of us grew up hearing stories, legends, tales passed down through oral tradition or the written word, and many of these stories are cautionary, whether it's entering another unfamiliar world, transforming into a different entity, the consequences of unkind actions. In the more than a dozen years that I lived in Alaska, several of them were in indigenous villages, where tales were told into the winter nights. In the Koyukon Athabascan community of Nulato on the Yukon River, the conclusion was always the same, "There, now I've chewed off part of the winter." Some were true stories of hunting adventures with unexpected results, others of beings with special powers. Sherri Mitchell told workshop participants about a being called the cannibal giant, and how he is still among us.

Sherri Mitchell:

The challenge is that we have become enmeshed and entranced by what we call the cannibal giant, Giwakwa. And so, the story of Giwakwa, the cannibal giant, is that he is a protector of Mother Earth, right? Because we've been here four times, remember? So we know about Giwakwa. And Giwakwa's role specifically, is to protect Mother Earth when human beings start consuming faster than she can produce, and harming her faster than she can heal. That's when Giwakwa wakes up. And so, what our spiritual elders tell us right now is that we are in the midst of the dance of the cannibal giant. That it is active and at play right now.

Sherri Mitchell:

And what Giwakwa's job is, which sounds counterintuitive, is to bring the people into this entranced state where they're not really fully recognizing what they're doing anymore. They're blind and numb to the harm that they're causing. And dancing them faster and faster, things are quickening in this frenzy dance of consumption until they consume themselves into extinction. And then when that happens, mother earth can heal herself and restore herself. So the job of the cannibal giant is essentially to dance us off the planet because we haven't learned how to live in harmony with life, and the only way for us to stop this dance of the cannibal giant is for us to wake up. That's the only way he goes back to sleep is when we wake up. And so we have a responsibility right now to wake up. And so we need to wake up to the consumptive aspects of our societies.

Karen Michel:

Wake up indeed. Many spiritual traditions teach about the need to wake up. I have friends who keep a Buddhist saying right where they'll see it first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It's above the toilet. In beautiful calligraphy, it reads, "Awake, awake, do not squander your life." An admonition, perhaps more pertinent than ever in light of a global pandemic relevant too, given Sherri Mitchell's wake up regarding consumption, overconsumption. She tells us that we need to wake up to do the work ahead to awaken from the daydream of complacency that insulates us from being alert, aware, a warrior who protects not destroys.

Sherri Mitchell:

We have the responsibility to dream our future generations into being. And so the process that we're going to go through is going to be an unraveling a tiny thread of what does that process look like? How do we engage active creation based on all of the things that we have been taught? All of the wisdom that's within our teachings? To be true conscious co-creators of the future that our future generations are going to step into, we're the ones that are carrying the capacity to do that. And so when we start understanding what our capabilities are as co-creators of the reality that we're living in, when we start understanding that the common experiences that we're having collectively are actually framing the reality that we're creating for those who are going to come after us, we can't help, but be more responsible about our choices. We can't help, but be more responsible about the way that we walk. We are the positive possibility. Us, waking up from the dance of the cannibal giant.

Karen Michel:

Dropping In is a presentation of Omega Institute, dedicated to awakening the best in the human spirit. If you like what you hear, tell your friends and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps new ears find us. And to learn more about Omega, visit our website at eomega.org. I'm Karen Michel. That is, that's the name I was given at birth. Perhaps I should say I'm Karma Sherap Wangmo, or lady of wisdom, a name I was given as an adult. May this podcast be one small way of sharing the wisdom of others with you.

Karen Michel:

Dropping In is written and produced by me. The editor is Catherine Stifter, the music and mix are by Scott Mueller, and Cali Alpert is the executive producer. Thanks for Dropping In.