An Open Letter to Pope Francis
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An Open Letter to Pope Francis
...Sitting on his front porch recently, a friend of mine noticed an eagle wheeling over the house across the street.
Here in Minneapolis, we're nowhere very far from the Mississippi Valley, and we're blessed with a healthy urban eagle population. Still, it's not exactly common to see them in this neighborhood, where there's not a lot to draw them.
A few days later, my friend saw the eagle—or an eagle, at least—again, over the same house.
A day or two after that, he saw it a third time.
When next he talked with his neighbor, he mentioned seeing the eagle over her house.
His neighbor is Dakota. She hadn't seen the eagle herself, but she didn't seem surprised to hear about it. She asked him what time of day he had seen it.
“Was it around the time when the Sun's highest in the Sky?” she asked.
“As a matter of fact, it was,” he said, “all three times.”
She nodded.
"Let's not forget our Taíno culture, " Abuela Antonia said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Guabancex gets angry when we forget our Taíno ancient ways. You don't want to provoke Guabancex," Abuela said in a strident voice.
I swallowed hard. My six-year old brain did not understand. "Who is Guabancex?"
Indigenous peoples get representation at this year's PantheaCon. A black Pagan outlines her path for resistance. And another Pagan blogger writes about maintaining spiritual discipline in times of extreme trial and stress. It's Watery Wednesday, our segment about news within the Pagan community here and around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Sky Woman (Haudenosaunee). Spider Woman (Pueblo). Copper Woman (Pacific Northwestern nations). Selu (Cherokee). To nearly all Indigenous nations of Turtle Island (most of the Americas), the ancient creators of the Earth, her inhabitants and humanity are Women who are complemented by a male either through Her offspring or a partner.
Indigenous Women Creators made life from their bodily fluids, from their thoughts, from their words and actions. Because of Their creative powers, these very things became holy in human women forever after: our menstrual and childbirth blood, our thoughts, our words, and our actions are holy. We are holy. Traditional Indigenous peoples know this, practice this, and to this very day keep the rituals and laws that demonstrate that belief.
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