That night Coyote dreamed of his homeland. In that dream, he was sitting before a fire. Across from that fire sat Chief Buffalo.
Coyote poured out his heart to Chief Buffalo. He apologized for his many pranks. He told Chief Buffalo the story of Coyote Woman, and how she had tricked him and betrayed him. He told his Chief exactly how he had felt being a victim of a prank so much like the ones he had pulled so many times on so many of his People. He begged for forgiveness from Chief Buffalo. He promised that he would never play another prank as long as he lived, so long as Chief Buffalo would accept him back into the tribe.
When Coyote had finished his tale, Chief Buffalo sat in silence for a long time before speaking.
“It is good that you know now how your actions have affected others,” he said, “And that you are truly sorry for what you have done in the past. In the name of all the People, I forgive you. But I do not ask you to change. You cannot promise that you will never again play tricks on the People. You are a Trickster. That is your nature. That is what you are. Asking you to cease your pranks forever would be like asking Sister Salmon not to swim, or Brother Eagle not to fly.”
“No, you cannot stop being a Trickster, for that would be death to you and to your spirit. To live in such a way would be to deny your own true nature. What I would ask of you instead is this: When you jest with others, your tricks must have a teaching purpose. You must use your trickster’s art to make others look inside themselves and face the reality of what they are. Your tricks must reveal their true nature to them. If you can promise me that you can do this, then we will accept your gift of fire and you will be welcomed back into the tribe as a brother.”
Coyote
thought that this was a fair bargain indeed! Not only would he be welcomed back
into the tribe, but he would still get to play the Trickster, as long as his
tricks could accomplish some teaching purpose. In this way, he could still be
himself, and at the same time serve a useful purpose among the People.
9.0 Injuries from the Father
“Our story…says that where a man’s wound is, that is where his genius will be. Wherever the wound appears in our psyches, whether from alcoholic father, shaming mother, shaming father, abusing mother, whether it stems from isolation, disability, or disease, that is precisely the place for which we will give our major gift to the community.”
― Robert Bly, Iron John: A Book about Men
The poet Robert Bly, in his book, Iron John, talks about the son receiving an injury from the father. Often it is this injury that sets the son off on a journey of self-discovery in the first place. In primal cultures this injury is sometimes ritualized. In some African cultures, the father knocks out one of the son’s teeth in a rite of passage ritual. In some Native American cultures, the son receives some other form of injury, such as in the ritual tearing of the pectoral muscles practiced during the Sun Dance of the Lakotas. In other cultures it may manifest in other ways.
This dark aspect of fatherhood is reflected in the idea of the Shadow we previously discussed. Carl Jung believed that all human beings have the potential for all behaviors. The most moral among us have the potential to become evil, and the most immoral among us have the potential to redeem themselves and become saints. Since, according to Jung, all humans have the potential for all behaviors, the behaviors we choose not to express are suppressed. To recap, the unconscious part of the psyche in which these behaviors are repressed is what Jung called the Shadow. The behaviors we choose to express, the mask we wear in our daily lives, is what Jung called the Persona.
The Atonement with the Father in ecospirituality is the successful integration of the Shadow with the Persona. Although the Shadow is where our dark, “evil” impulses lie, it is also where our creativity lies. Without it, we can have no imagination, and no creativity. In order to tap into this creative power of the Shadow, we must integrate it into the Persona so that we may use its energy for positive and creative functions while avoiding or rechanneling its destructive aspects. So Atonement at this phase of the journey is literally “at-ONE-ment,” meaning that the Shadow and the Persona become one. This does not mean that we consciously choose to act on those evil impulses from the Shadow. It means that by acknowledging their existence in the first place, we can move towards mastering them. When they are mastered, we can achieve the apotheosis that comes on the next leg of the journey.
In our Coyote story, Coyote incorrectly believed that Chief Buffalo was asking him to cast aside his true nature as a Trickster in order to be welcomed again by the tribe. Instead, what Chief Buffalo was asking was for Coyote to embrace his true nature and to use it for teaching rather than for pranks. By encouraging Coyote to embrace his true nature for creative purposes, Chief Buffalo was offering him an opportunity to achieve atonement by integrating his Shadow with his Persona.
Out own time in the ashes involves looking back on our lives up until this point and figuring out what to carry forward, and what to burn in the ashes. It’s a time of casting off old, unproductive behaviors and a time for discovering who we really are. It is a time of fearless soul searching and brutal honesty with ourselves. In order to atone with the Father, we must be willing to own even the unpleasant parts of ourselves, because that’s the only way we can change them and turn them towards the better.
While aboriginal cultures ritualize the injury from the father in coming of age rites of passage, in modern society the injuries we receive from our fathers may not be so obvious. They may be hidden within our psyches. Sometimes these deep emotional injuries prevent us from moving forward by choosing a path of our own. When this happens we may hear the Tempter’s voice telling us that living according to our own true nature will disappoint the Father. Note again that Campbell’s phases of the Hero’s Journey are based on mostly male characters, so the “father” at the stage of Atonement with the Father doesn’t necessarily have to be male. It could be a mother, or a grandparent, or a spouse, or a cherished family member, or any other mentor or teacher we may have encountered in our lives. The voice of the Father at this phase of the quest is any voice inside our heads other than our own; especially if that voice is trying to tell us who we are. In other words, Atonement with the Father means honestly asking ourselves what our true nature is, then asking if this is really our own true nature, or if it is the voice of another demanding that we live up to their expectations of who we are and what we should be. Atonement with the Father is the process of teasing out our own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about the nature of our True Selves, away from the expectations of others.
Once we’ve discovered our own True Selves through this process of soul-searching, and weeding out demands placed on us by the Father (or the Mother, or the Grandmother, or the Grandfather, or whoever placed those expectations on us), we will have achieved Atonement with the Father.
9.1 Sacred Space
The original meaning of the word “sacred” was “set apart.” A sacred thing is a thing that is set apart from ordinary everyday living. It is a place for quiet contemplation and meditation. Many aboriginal people believed that time and space are not separate things. This was and is especially true of sacred spaces. The stone circles in Europe were aligned to mark the passage of time. For the early Europeans time was measured in sacred places. The perception of time in sacred sites is therefore linked to space.
In the observation of many tribal rituals throughout the world, people believed that to enter sacred space was to step outside of time. This is the essence of living in the now. It is the ability to leave the time stream for a moment. Once inside sacred space, we may embrace the timelessness of simply being in the moment.
From a psychological perspective, setting aside a sacred space allows you to enter that space, step outside of time, and do your own work of contemplating the essence of being yourself. If you have a special place set aside for this activity, and only for this activity, then entering it puts you in a special state of mind. Psychologists call this situation-specific learning. If your sacred space becomes associated in your mind with relaxation, meditation and contemplation, then after a while simply entering your sacred space will put you into a meditative state.
9.2 Creating Sacred Space
If you are fortunate enough to have access to a natural place that calls to you, you may make it your own and yours alone by placing symbols and signs there that mean something to you. My own sacred space is marked by statuary and wind chimes. The gentle music of the chimes lends itself well to contemplation. When I am at home with the windows open, sometimes the wind blows through the trees, stirring the chimes. When this happens I am instantly reminded of my sacred space and the peace I find there. Even if I am busy working at the computer, the music of the chimes reminds me for a moment of the happy times I have spent in my sacred space in meditation.
If you don’t have access to an outdoor place to create your own sacred space, you can create one indoors. Set up a small table somewhere in a corner of your home. Cover it with things that help you to achieve a meditative state. You may use candles, incense, house plants, or pictures of nature scenes or loved ones. You can use anything that might help you to connect with your True Self.
You may also find sacred spots on a hike. If you’re out walking in the woods, you may come upon a place that calls to you. Stop there and meditate for a while. If this place is particularly meaningful for you, you may mark it for others by making a small pile of stones. This has been a tradition of mine for decades now, and when we do ecospirituality workshops, my students often do this. Coming upon a small pile of stones left by another can be a powerful way to connect yourself to others who have walked the path before you and enjoyed its peace and tranquility.
Whether your sacred space is indoors or outdoors, it can be a useful place for finding your center and connecting with your True Self.
9.3 Atonement with the Father through Sacred Space
Creating Sacred Space allows us to do deep inner contemplative work in a place that energizes us. This place belongs only to you, and you alone. This doesn’t mean that others aren’t allowed into your sacred space. It just means that it is a place that holds special spiritual significance to you, apart from the influences of others. Your own personal private Sacred Space should be an outer manifestation of your own inner journey. It should reflect who you are as a person, and who you are in the process of becoming.
The true way to be yourself by setting aside the voices of the Father and listening to your own inner voice is to return to a primal state in a natural environment. When you are able to cast off the trinkets and the baubles of material existence and get back to nature, you will create space that is much more conducive to hearing your own inner voice. You will know you have arrived at this moment and at this place when you can stand naked and alone in the wilderness, at peace with yourself and with the world.
As Robert Bly reminds us, the true source of our inner strength is the very wound that defines us. When striving for Atonement with the Father, look for those areas of your life where the voice of the Father has caused you the most pain. Where are those injuries you received from the Father? How do those injuries reveal your own hidden strengths, lurking there in your Shadow? What has the voice of the Father tried to get you to suppress about yourself?
Your own Sacred Space can help you to more readily identify the voices of the Father by placing you in an environment free of the distractions of the modern world. By escaping from man-made environments and seeking sanctuary in the natural world, all of the associations we make with those man-made environments disappear as the natural world of our Sacred Space seeps into our consciousness. When we leave our houses behind, we are not reminded of mortgage payments, utility bills, and household maintenance chores. When we leave our cars behind, we are not reminded that the car needs an oil change and the car payment is due. When we enter our Sacred Space, the natural world reminds us that we are children of nature, and we are therefore sacred by our very nature. In such a mindset and head space, Atonement with the Father becomes easy because we are in a place that makes it possible to cast aside those voices of the Father and to focus on our own true inner nature. Sacred space allows our own inner voices to speak.
To explore how Sacred Space can help you to achieve Atonement with the Father, try the Sacred Space Meditation.
9.4 Sacred Space Meditation
Prior to performing the Sacred Space meditation, you must first have your own Sacred Space. This should be a place that is fairly easy to access for you. It should be as free of man-made artifice as possible. This means that it should not be a place of manicured lawns and trimmed hedges if at all possible. It should be a pristine place, undisturbed by modifications dues to humankind. Of course, this is the ideal, and you may not have such a space readily available to you. If not, that’s okay. Just try to get as close to a wild, untamed environment as you can. For the purposes of this meditation, the fewer reminders you have of the modern world, the more successful your meditation will be.
Once you have found your Sacred Space, make sure that you will be undisturbed her for the duration of the exercise. When you are ready to begin, follow the steps below. It may help to record these steps so that you may play them back to listen to as you engage in the Sacred Space Meditation.
- Ground yourself by standing in your Sacred Space with your feet about shoulder-width apart, parallel to each other. Relax your shoulders while keeping your spine erect. Imagine a string going through the top of your head and holding you up, and adjust your spine accordingly.
- Center yourself by first taking three deep breaths and then by letting go of any thoughts about the past or the future. You are bringing your awareness fully into the moment while focusing on the information your senses are giving you about this place. What do you see here? What do you smell here? What can you tell about this place by the sensations you feel on your skin? What sounds do you hear? Can you taste the air on your tongue as you inhale and exhale?
- Now gradually become aware of your body. Feel the weight of your body distributed evenly on your feet. Notice any areas of tension or stress in your body, and will yourself to release them.
- If you are experiencing any pain or tension in a particular part of your body, ask that part of your body what message it may have for you. Is tension manifesting anywhere in your body as you contemplate seeking Atonement with the Father by releasing the voices that tell you not to live according to your own true nature?
- When your body feels at peace with itself, begin to walk by slowly raising your right foot and taking one step forward. Feel each muscle in your leg and your foot as you do so.
- When your right foot touches the ground, notice which part of it first makes contact. Now notice the next, and the next, until your foot is completely at rest on the ground. Feel the weight shift as your foot comes to rest.
- Now shift your attention to your left foot and do the same, noticing all the physical sensations your body is giving you as your shift your weight in preparation of taking a step with your left foot.
- Continue to walk in this manner, placing one foot in front of the other. Focus your attention on the sensations of walking.
- Now shift your attention to the rest of your senses. What do you see in this place? What do you smell? What do you hear? Move out of thinking mode and into sensing mode, allowing the environment of your Sacred Space to envelope you and to embrace you.
- Continue to walk in this manner until you find something in the environment that calls out for your attention. It could be a plant, or an interesting rock, or a particular patch of ground, or even an animal. When you have found this thing, stop walking and direct your attention to it.
- Explore the object with all of your senses. Observe it and describe it with your eyes. Now with your ears. Is it making any sound? Do you detect any aroma from it? If it is a safe object to touch, what is its texture? Be in the moment with your object.
- Now expand your attention to your immediate surroundings. Observe and describe it to yourself in deep detail. Imagine you are a painter and you are about to paint the scene you see before you.
- If there is a comfortable place to sit, do so now, and just spend a few moments at peace with your surroundings here in your Sacred Space.
- Notice anything about your Sacred Space that might help you to connect to your True Self the next time you return here.
- Now think about the voices of the Father and how they manifest in your mind and in your soul. What injuries have these voices given you?
- How might the pain subside if you could let those voices of the Father go?
- How might the nature of your injuries change if you could hear and acknowledge those voices of the Father without having to believe that what they tell you is true?
- How might the strength and energy you find from your Sacred Space lead you to achieve Atonement with the Father by allowing you to focus on your own inner voice?
- Contemplate these questions for as long as you need to.
- When you are ready, conclude the meditation, remembering what you have experienced here.
Now that you have completed the Sacred Space meditation, download and fill out the worksheet below.
