Native American Cosmology and Shamanism

[Shatteredzen]

Hello all, I'd like to share some observations of the topic I am currently researching, that being the cosmology and magical practices of the Native Americans. Specifically, I am studying the Miwok,Yokut and Pomo tribes shamanism because thats the groups who historically lived near my home and they have a shared cultural history in the California central valley and foothills of the Sierras, down to the coast in the San Francisco bay. I have a blog which I will write a more thorough analysis in (and link here thereafter if there is interest) and I would welcome anyones opinions or thoughts who has expertise in this area. What strikes me as notable is that many of the First Nations share a similar cosmology, creation account, flood tradition and dualistic creator that is seperate from "God" viewing their other divine entities as either ancestors, forerunners or some kind of "other" that is divine yet seperate from the actual Godhead. There are many correlations to Gnostic thought and I have found many of their practices to be the same as western ceremonial magic, often for similar reasons, albeit their presentation is different as it relies more on dance and storytelling to convey the oral tradition.

The beliefs of the Miwok, Yokut and Pomo peoples center around the Kuksu faith. In the beginning, there was no planet, only empty space, filled with water, and a raft with Peheipe, the father of the secret society and Anosma (turtle). The creator (seperate from God, known as the Earth Initiate or) descended from the sky on a rope of feathers called pokelma, his face was covered and never seen but his body shone like the sun. Turtle asked him "where do you come from" and the Earth initiate replied "I come from above". Turtle then asked Earth initiate, "brother, could you make me some dry land so I may come up out of the water sometimes"? After requesting dry land, turtle was told to find earth and he tied himself to pokelma and dove into the waters and surfaced after several years with some earth under his fingernails which the Earth initiate rolled in his hands until it became larger and took the shape of the world which was round. The raft came aground at Tadoiko, the three stepped off the boat and Turtle asked Earth Initiate for light.

Earth Initiate called to his sister the sun and told her to begin with rising in the east and setting in the west each day and then called to his brother the moon to light the night sky because Turtle became scared the first night and then he called to each of the stars by name and they came out.

Next, Earth Initiate called up an enormous tree at Tadoiko, the tree called Hukimtsa, which grew twelve different kinds of Acorns. Turtle and Peheipe sat beneath its shade for two days and then went to see the world that Earth Initiate had created, when they came back, they found Coyote and his dog Rattlesnake had come up out of the earth at Tadoiko. Coyote could see Earth Initiates face, but the others could not.

The Earth initiate built himself a hut at Tadoiko and the others with him also built huts there, but no one was allowed to enter the Earth Initiates hut. Earth initiate called the birds to the sky and formed each of the animals from clay, starting with the deer. One day, Earth initiate announced he would make people, he gathered red earth and formed it into the image of a man and a woman, he layed them next to him, layed next to them and sweated all day until they came to life. The man was known as Kuksu and the woman was known as La Idambulum Kule, the morningstar woman.

When Coyote saw this, he tried to do it himself, but made a mistake and could not properly make people. When Earth Initiate asked him if he had made his attempt in the same way as Earth Initiate had shown him, he said that he did but he had not and this was the first lie.
Earth initiate made life easy for people, they did not have to work, food was easy to obtain and no one got sick or died. People became numerous and one day Earth Initiate came to Kuksu and told him to go to a lake in the morning and to bring all the people with him, he wold be made old on the way there but not to worry. The next day, Kuksu gathered the people and brought them to the lake, aging until he was very old. Kuksu stepped into the waters of the lake and fell in, there was a great rumbling like thunder, the waves of the lake struck the shore and Kuksu re-emerged young again.

Earth Initiate came to the people and told them "if you do as I say everything will be well and when you get old come to this lake as Kuksu has done and you will be made young again". Then Earth Initiate left the people and went up above in the night.

Later, Coyote came by and asked everyone how they were, they told him that life was easy and they only had to eat and sleep. Coyote told them he knew a better way, he told them that he had talked to Earth Initiate before the creation of man and had thought it would be better to make men mortal. Coyote told the people he would teach them a better way to live and he taught them to play games and hold festivals based on the position of the moon. Coyote told them to start the games with a foot race and his son entered the first race to compete against the people. Seeing how Coyote led the people astray from the wishes of Earth Initiate, he ran and told Kuksu and asked him what should be done, Kuksu did not answer and remained in his hut, sad for what was to come. Rattlesnake ran off and hid in a hole on the path of the foot race. When Coyotes son passed the hole during the race, ahead of the other runners, rattlesnake lept out of the hole and bit him in the ankle and he fell to the ground, dead. Coyote went to him and the others laughed as they thought he was shamed from losing but Coyote cried that he was not shamed but dead. Coyote picked up his son and carried him to Kuksu, crying and wailing and now the other people wept also. Coyote begged Kuksu to restore him to life but Kuksu refused and dug a pit, wrapping the boy in a bearskin and burying him. Kuksu told the people that now they must die and bury the dead.

One night, all the people began to speak differently from each other, each man and his wife and children could speak to each other, but no family to the other. Kuksu came to them that evening and could speak all the different languages, he taught them each to speak and hunt and told them to leave Tadoiko and where they would go and live. In the morning, the people left to their different lands and only Coyote and Kuksu remained at Tadoiko. Coyote came to Kuksu's hut and saw his son eating there, sitting with Kuksu. Coyote asked to come inside and have some food, Kuksu stood and told Coyote "No, your son eats the Kukinim Pe, it is spirit food, only for the dead, you cannot eat it, now go, you have seen that your son still lives and is not gone". Coyote left and despaired, he climbed to a tall cliff and jumped off, killing himself so that he could return as a spirit but when he came back to Kuksu's hut they were gone, both his son and Kuksu had gone up above and Coyote was alone.