Tuesday, October 31, 2017

THE SASSAGIS (A parable-Where evil, mean people come from)

Author’s Note:  This was written in 2003 and published in my book, Into the Waves-Poems and Other Writings by Petrabooks www.petrabooks.ca .  Considering what is happening in the world perhaps it is carries a message for those awakening.  The word Sassagis is Ojibway and means evil mean ones.  Enjoy!


Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, things were much different on Mother Earth than they are today.  Back then, there were no planes, trains or cars.  There were no factories or stores.  No electricity buzzing through wires.  No computers or video games.  No pizza delivery.  No ATM bank machines.  No one had to carry money or credit cards.  There were no banks.  There was only a community of spirits who saw no diversity and who understood the ancient laws of the Universe.  During those days, Mother Earth was filled with tranquility.  There was never any fighting and there were no bullies.  All the inhabitants of Mother Earth saw each other as a spark of the Great Spirit in physical form; and it was in their best interests to get along with each other.

Since the spirits of yesteryear understood the ancient laws, they knew the importance of using their emotions as a personal guidance system.  If something didn’t feel right or good, they knew they were not aligned with the Great Spirit’s energy.  If something felt good they were aligned with the Great Spirit’s energy.  There was connection.  Since everyone lived by the same law, life on Mother Earth was spent enjoying existence.  Everyone looked for the best in everything and that which they focused upon came to them.  Of course this was a long, long time ago.

They say that back then, Mother Earth was really stunning.  She had the most lush, green forests which housed the unicorns, elves, fairies, pixies, wolves, birds and other spirits.  The air was always clear.  The sweet smell of flowers filled the air, and sometimes the wonderful fragrance cast an unending spell of happiness on everyone on the land.  Everyone played and worked together in complete joy and everywhere you looked, everyone was smiling because the more you smiled, the happier you became. 

Not only was the land filled with an abundance of happiness.  Long ago, there flowed a great network of crystal clear streams, rivers and lakes across the body of Mother Earth.  These waters bustled with life, and flowed into oceans filled with mermaids, seahorses and dolphins who would always make their way to the shore to play with their friends who lived on the land amongst the tree spirits. 

During that time Mother Earth was considered the most beautiful planet in the whole of the universe.  She radiated so much loving light that many space travelers used her light to navigate the galaxies.  It had also been said, that the reason she had so much beauty was in the legend about her creation.  Many of the old Elders had said the Great Spirit had created Mother Earth as a gift for the Mother of all Creation.  For the Great Spirit knew, without the Mother of all Creation he could never have created the universe.  So in a gesture of thanks, he filled the planet Earth with all that was beautiful, and created a place where only love was to abide and bloom.  Grandfather Sun’s light provided warmth and protection for all of Mother Earth’s children, and at night Grandma Moon would guide her oceans, and the Star People would shine their loving energy upon her to ensure the spirits inhabiting Mother Earth would always live in harmony.  It was really a paradise back then.  So after he created Earth, the Great Spirit gifted it to the Mother of Creation.  Of course the Mother of Creation was overcome with emotion and she cried happy tears.  He then dedicated Earth to the Mother of Creation by calling it Mother Earth. 

Life on Mother Earth from that point onwards was about having fun.  For all Mother Earth’s children, everyday seemed like a vacation.  That is not to say they did not work.  They had a lot of things to attend to, however because they were passionate about what they contributed, they never considered it work.  They considered it to be just like playing.  Wake-up, pursue your passions and do what needs to be done.  Everyone had a role.  There were no worries or fears.  No one worried about not being liked.  Everyone considered everyone else as being incomparably unique.  For on Mother Earth everyone knew they looked different but it did not matter.  No one cared.  For each of them knew, they were all family.  Everyone knew they were a spark of the Great Spirit, and everything they needed would always be provided for them.  Provided of course, if what they wanted harmed no one or thing.  All they had to do was ask and trust that sometimes what they wanted would come through pathways they had not considered.  They also knew that they could not force the manifestation of their desires.  For under the Law of Allowing they understood that when they focused too hard on what they wanted they pushed it away.  So sometimes it was best to ask and then detach from their request. 

Well as you can see, in those days, life on Mother Earth was quite first-class.  Happiness filled the air.  Everyone was accepted as they were which meant that there was never any fighting on Mother Earth.  In fact, the word fighting did not even exist.  If there ever was a problem, and they always looked at problems as challenges, the solution was always for the good of the whole.  Love had the final say.  They would actually ask, ‘What would love do?’ In asking this one question, they always discovered the answer. 

It came to pass that things changed with the arrival of the evil ones, known in Ojibway as the Sassagis, to Mother Earth.  With the Sassagis love would not be considered.  The Sassagis were known throughout the Universe as the evil mean-ones, and the night they arrived, well let us just say, Mother Earth lost a lot of her light.  Things would never be the same.  The old ancient laws got forgotten.  The Spirits of Mother Earth forgot who they were and started believing the propaganda and stories of the Sassagis. 
It all started one fateful night long ago.  You see the Sassagis lived out on the outskirts of the Universe and had been put there because they were a part of the Great Spirit that he had not been too thrilled about.  He actually created their own planet, and because of their propensity to unscrupulous living they had caused much damage to their own planet.  Anyway the Sassagis had heard about Mother Earth and being the greedy spirits that they were, made their way to reap some of the benefits of the most beautiful planet in the universe.  So on that fateful night a long, long time ago, the Sassagis landed on Mother Earth.  It had been a long and difficult journey for the Sassagis, but they were a very determined bunch, and somehow, no one will ever understand how, they arrived on Mother Earth. 

Since they had been traveling a long, long time, and had stopped in at a few other planets on their way, they had gotten in the custom of arriving in the darkness of the night.  They certainly caused a great uproar on Mother Earth with their night time arrival.  The people on Mother Earth had never felt anything like it.  It was worse than an earthquake.  The clamor of the Sassagis’ club-like feet pounding on Mother Earth shook the ones who lived on land from their beds, and it rippled out to the oceans creating a tsunami that whipped the mermaids, seahorses and dolphins out of their beds.  It was the first time the people on Mother Earth had ever felt fear, and it would not be the last. 

Now, let me tell you a little bit about the Sassagis.  They were ghastly looking ogres with personalities that matched their looks.  They had two stubby horns that stuck out of their heads, and a black eye sat in the middle of their forehead.  It would eerily roam from side to side.  Their noses were smudged into their faces, and they had a permanent snarl painted across their lips.  Even if they tried they would never be able to smile.  Their bodies were covered with long strands of dirty, black hair, and little bugs shaped like dollar signs flittered about them.  They were not very graceful.  You certainly would not see them in dance class.  Their monstrous hairy club feet lumbered out in front of them as they marched along snorting and spitting green pools of slime.  It was said, ‘Where the Sassagis goes, nothing grows’.  It was true.  Many of the planets they visited on their journey to Mother Earth had suffered irreparable damage, and now all that was beautiful on Mother Earth was threatened.  Where the Sassagis went everything was flattened and trampled, and sealed with green slime which hardened and blackened with time.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

The Screen of the Mind


When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.-Viktor Frankl

With all the techniques that I have learned over the years, there are still experiences that throw me off balance.  These are the times when I fall into the sleep of the illusion.  I allow the pendulum of duality to swing to the negative and permit my thoughts to start snowballing about the injustices and stupidities of life and the world.  I lose control of my imagination and ultimately my state of being.  I engage in a monologue with an imaginary scenario playing out a drama on the stage of my mind.  All the time I am forgetting that I have the power to change the story. 

Instead, I cruise along thinking I have control of the situation by playing out this imaginary play in my mind.  It’s a horrid little drama filled with worst case scenarios, unsavoury characters and the dominant underlying emotions are fear, anger and worry.  The worst part of this is that when I catch myself I know I am using my imagination to create more of that which I say I do not want.  Yet, somehow I remain unconscious and fall back into old patterns of reiteration.  I forget about the power of now. I lose the gratitude of the moment and get lost in past happenings, old moments influencing the present, clouding my judgement and projecting a future filled with a drama I do not want.