Hi everyone,
Welcome to another week in the Cycle of Time, this ongoing project where dive deep into ancient stories about the changing seasons as the earth revolves around the sun (and, likewise, as the sun revolves around the Zodiac). On this week’s episode, we are celebrating Indigenous People’s Day here in the US on Monday, the sun’s transit through Human Design Gate 32, the Gate of Continuity, and a full super-moon in Aries on Thursday, located across the sky from the sun in the Gate of Growth .
U.S. Indigenous Peoples' Day is celebrated on the second Monday of October, on October 14 this year, to honor the cultures and histories of people indigenous to Turtle Island. Like Earth Day and Mother’s Day, I believe every day should be recognized as Indigenous People’s day, but it is truly so important to shift the cultural narrative on the day that I grew up getting school off for Christopher Columbus Day.
All of the Cycles of Time that I study and follow for this project are stories of indigenous wisdom traditions, from the North American and Siberian Medicine Wheel to the Taoist Wuxing Cycle to the Babylonian and Greek Zodiac to the Chinese I’Ching. I’ve loved doing this podcast because it has allowed me to open up to receiving these stories from around the world. These are all stories that tell the tales of the changing seasons and give deep insights on how to adapt and co-evolve with the natural world around us.
For the past few weeks, I’ve had some catchy pop-tune jingles from a kid’s TV show stuck in my head. This is normally not such a good thing- it can be the most annoying thing, actually- but I feel lucky because my 5 year old daughter’s favorite show currently is Spirit Rangers, and the songs have such powerful and endearing lyrics.
Spirit Rangers is an Emmy-nominated animated Netflix kid’s TV show created by Karissa Valencia, a member of the Santa Ynez Band of the Chumash Nation. Valencia created the show of her dreams, the show that she wanted as a child longing for representation. The series was originally released on October 10, 2022, right before Indigenous Peoples' Day. The show centers on Chumash and Cowlitz siblings Kodi, Summer and Eddy Skycedar, who have the power to teleport into a magical spirit dimension in their Californian national park. In the spirit realm, Kodi transforms into a grizzly bear cub or stingray, Summer a red-tailed hawk or an octopus, and Eddy a turtle or orca. Their Mom can transform into a bear and their Dad can transform into a tree. (Wikipedia)
My kiddo learned about super heroes at school, and begged to watch Marvel, Spidey and PJ Masks, but we found Spirit Rangers instead… and for that I am so grateful!
Production of the series featured a writer's room that was staffed entirely by Indigenous Americans. Valencia also consulted Chumash and Cowlitz tribes around content. Each show is directed by an Indigenous American, and the voice actors for all of the characters are also indigenous. The episodes are funny, action-packed, and also have incredible lessons about learning from our elders, respecting our interconnection with nature, and cooperating instead of competing.
My favorite song from season 3 is “We are One (Only Take What You Need)”, which is perfect for this Week of Continuity and Indigenous People’s Day. It’s sung by Mother Bear to a troublemaking trickster trio (raccoon, rabbit & raven) who are taking more than they need from the earth, and it goes like this:
We are one with the Earth around
If we show her love she will treat us well
‘Cause plants are relatives, respect the medicine
And only take what you need
Our Cousins are the sage and the trees
If we show them love, they can heal a bear sneeze
‘Cause plants are relatives, respect the medicine
And only take what you need
Listen to the song here! <3
Now, onto the forecast…..
This week’s highlights:
Monday, Oct 14: Indigenous People’s Day
Thurs, Oct 17: Full Moon in Aries in HD Gate 42, the Gate of Growth
Human Design/I’Ching:
Mon-Sat: Gate 32, the Gate of Continuity
This week’s themes:
Balancing continuity and perseverance with growth and forward movement
Veneration for the ancestors who came before us
Our Place in the Wheel of the Year
Medicine Wheel Direction: WEST (Water, Adulthood)
Wuxing Cycle Element: Metal
Pagan Season: Mabon
Zodiac Season: Libra (September 22-October 22)
Moon Phase: Full Moon in Aries
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design: Gate 32(Mon-Sat), Gate 50 (Sun)
32: Thunder over Wind ( “Permanence”) or the Gate of CONTINUITY
50: Fire over Wind (“The Cauldron”) or the Gate of VALUES
Mon-Sat: Indigenous Wisdom and the Gate of Continuity (32)
Today, I’m going to be attending a Pow-wow on the Santa Fe Plaza to pay respect to the many tribal nations that originally inhabited this place currently known as New Mexico, including the Tiwa, Dine, Ute and Pueblos people. I’m heartened by the fact that there seem to be many more official celebrations of this day than when I was growing up, as we have so much to learn from people native to the lands we currently reside on, who have maintained a connection with their indigenous roots.
(Here’s a video on etiquette for attending a Powwow that’s pretty funny and accurate…)
Indigenous People’s Day was instituted in 1992 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas on October 12, 1492. In 2014, many other cities and states adopted the holiday, but it wasn’t until 2021 that the holiday was formally commemorated with a presidential proclamation, by Joe Biden.
He little history of the holiday from Wikipedia that I found fascinating:
In 1977, the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, sponsored by the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, began to discuss replacing Columbus Day in the Americas with a celebration to be known as Indigenous Peoples Day. Similarly, Native American groups staged a sort of protest in Boston instead of Thanksgiving, which has been celebrated there to mark collaboration between Massachusetts colonists and Native Americans in the first years. In July 1990, at the First Continental Conference on 500 Years of Indian Resistance in Quito, Ecuador, representatives of indigenous people throughout the Americas agreed that they would mark 1992, the 500th anniversary of the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, as a year to promote "continental unity" and "liberation".
After the conference, attendees from Northern California organized protests against the "Quincentennial Jubilee" that had been organized by the United States Congress for the San Francisco Bay Area on Columbus Day in 1992. It was to include replicas of Columbus's ships sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge and reenacting their "discovery" of America. The delegates formed the Bay Area Indian Alliance and in turn, the "Resistance 500" task force. It promoted the idea that Columbus's "discovery" of inhabited lands and the subsequent European colonization of them had resulted in the genocide of thousands of indigenous peoples because of the decisions which were made by colonial and national governments.
In 1992, the group convinced the city council of Berkeley, California, to declare October 12 as a "Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People" and 1992 as the "Year of Indigenous People". The city implemented related programs in schools, libraries, and museums. The city symbolically renamed Columbus Day as "Indigenous Peoples Day" beginning in 1992 to protest the historical conquest of North America by Europeans, and to call attention to the losses suffered by the Native American peoples and their cultures through diseases, warfare, massacres, and forced assimilation. Get Lost (Again) Columbus, an opera by a Native American composer, White Cloud Wolfhawk, was produced that day. Berkeley has celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day ever since. Beginning in 1993, Berkeley has also held an annual pow wow and festival on Indigenous Peoples Day.
In the years following Berkeley's action, other local governments and institutions have either renamed or canceled Columbus Day, either to celebrate Native American history and cultures, to avoid celebrating Columbus and the European colonization of the Americas, or due to raised controversy over the legacy of Columbus. Several other California cities, now celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day and encourage people to donate to a neighboring tribe and recognize the trauma and pain indigenous peoples have been subjected to by colonizers.
If you’d like to find out the indigenous land that you currently reside within, you can type in your address at https://native-land.ca. This organization’s mission is to “improve the relationship of people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, with the land around them and with the real history and sacredness of that land. This involves acknowledging and righting the wrongs of history, and also involves a personal journey through the importance of connecting with the earth, its creatures, and its teachings”
The Gate of Continuity: Ancestral Reverence
As far as the Cycles of Time go, I find it super fascinating that Indigenous People’s Day falls when the sun is transiting through the Gate of Continuity (32)! It’s such perfect synchronicity, as in the Gene Keys book, Key 32 is referenced as “Ancestral Reverence”.
In the original I’Ching, hexagram 32 is Thunder over Wind, also known in various sources as “Permanence”, “Duration”, “Holding Firm” and “Constancy”. Embodied in 32 is the idea that although things come to a conclusion there remains a quality that is enduring. Thunder and Wind are the forces which contribute to the continual movement and renewal of nature. A torrential storm can pass through a landscape, but what is firm will not only remain, it will be strengthened. These forces are connected to the movement of the heavens and the turning of the seasons.
From Cafe Au Soul, a great resource on the I’Ching:
Commitment gives durability to the changes. Nature is composed of phenomenon that arises from the unseen or hidden movement of something deeper. Thunder is the explosive sound of expanding air when heated by lightning. Wind is the movement of air when hot and cold pressure systems collide. Although you cannot see the greater force, you can observe its effects in what unfolds. This is how a commitment or trust in the way gives durability to that which is to come.
The image that I drew from the Gene Keys reading for Gate 32 is the grafting of a new plant onto an old root- a fresh vital shoot is grafted onto an old strong mature root. This is the essence of preservation, as well as veneration- paying respect to the old so that you can create the new. These are the gift and siddhi of the Gene Keys, as well.
Jesse Chestnut of Keys of the I’Ching writes: “The old root runs deep and is well established, and the fresh shoot brings new vigor and life to equation. The root is a metaphor of the old ways, indigenous wisdom, the mystery traditions, ancestral strength, and ancient myths. The new shoot is of the now as it grows into the future. By connecting these two forces in the present we may preserve the power and rootedness of the old and add new life so that it may grow strong into the future.
This gift knows what to prune, what to weed out completely, and what to nurture and cultivate. This key is expressed beautifully by the image of grafting. Old rootstock with a new shoot. Ancient roots and traditions that draw strength and nutrient grafted onto the present fresh vitality of a new shoot. We have such an opportunity to ground our modern technology into the ancient ways which have almost been lost to time and persecution. It is up to us to graft the ancient past into the distant future in the present moment. In this way we Preserve the divine and natural beauty which will return the Earth to Eden.”
32 in the Gene Keys: Failure > Preservation > Veneration
The shadow of 32 is Failure, so this week could be a time when fear and uncertainty about the future can feel paralyzing. This feels pretty spot on this week, and is similar splenic energy as to last week’s Gate of Intuition. The Gift of 32 is Preservation, where we learns to honor the wisdom of the past and the resilience within. This journey culminates in the Siddhi of Veneration, where deep respect for all life and the interconnectedness of existence is realized.
The gene keys references the fact that “failure”, in ancient times, referred to a lack of connection to our people, our communities, our tribes, as this meant certain death when we were living in small groups and not insulated from the rawness of nature. In modern times, “Failure” is most often associated with a lack of success, which is measured by a lack of money. By achieving a lot of monetary success, we can insulate ourselves for a short while from the pains of feeling disconnected from our past and from our tribe, but it is just an insulation; it is short lived.
On a deeper level, failure continues to be measured by our ability to connect with our people throughout time, to feel a sense of continuity over the course of many cycles. This shadow of failure can only be healed by flipping the script and putting energy toward the preservation and veneration of the lessons passed along from our ancestors who were deeply connected to the earth, to their past, and also to their future.
Another favorite song of mine from the Spirit Rangers show goes like this:
You gotta respect the traditions that we’re told
If you don’t understand, ask an elder you know
It’s a beautiful thing, to share the wisdom our culture brings
And learn what the traditions mean
Just like a dance or your favorite song
It was taught, learned and passed on
It’s a beautiful thing, to share the wisdom our culture brings
Like I mentioned earlier, all of the systems within the Cycles of Time can be traced back to indigenous peoples, as stories of their interconnections connections with the seasons, the planets, and the natural world. I truly appreciate that there are an increasing number of beautiful offerings these days that help all of us connect to our ancestry. Many so-called white people, especially in the United States, do not have a connection to their indigeneity, their ancestors, their roots, and so often seek out these things from other cultures and peoples, often taking the form of cultural appropriation.
Indigenous is defined as:
Originating, growing, or produced in a certain place or region. synonym: native.
and we all have indigeneity; many of us are just so cut off from our native roots that we don’t know where to begin to reconnect with them. But none of us are “white”, in truth, we all have regions and places where our ancestors grew out of and originated from.
“Whiteness” itself is a failure of continuity and connection
By realizing that “whiteness” does not exist, and is actually a made-up concept that has resulted in many societal privileges (as well as, inherently, many pains and losses through the disconnection from ancestry, history, and meaning), we can reconnect with our roots in a more authentic way, which is incredibly necessary for personal and collective healing.
James Baldwin (1924-1987), the greatest expert on white conscious-ness in the twentieth century United States, states that “ No one was white before he/she came to America. It took generations, and a vast amount of coercion, before this became a white country. In his essay “On Being White and Other Lies”, Baldwin writes that European immigrants had the choice to become white when they reached American shores- before that, they were known by their nationality or ethnic group, not by their whiteness. “America became white-the people who, as they claim, "settled" the country became white-because of the necessity of denying the black presence, and justifying the black subjugation.”
“Whiteness is a dangerous concept, he writes” It is not about skin color. It is not even about race. It is about the willful blindness used to justify white supremacy. It is about using moral rhetoric to defend exploitation, racism, mass murder, reigns of terror and the crimes of empire.
“The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world’s most direct and virile, that American women are pure,” Baldwin wrote. “Negroes know far more about white Americans than that; it can almost be said, in fact, that they know about white Americans what parents—or, anyway, mothers—know about their children, and that they very often regard white Americans that way. And perhaps this attitude, held in spite of what they know and have endured, helps to explain why Negroes, on the whole, and until lately, have allowed themselves to feel so little hatred. The tendency has really been, insofar as this was possible, to dismiss white people as the slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing.”
America was founded on the genocidal slaughter of indigenous people and the holocaust of slavery. It was also founded on an imagined moral superiority and purity. The fact that dominance of others came, and still comes, from unrestrained acts of violence is washed out of the national narrative.
The steadfast failure to face the truth, Baldwin warned, perpetuates a kind of collective psychosis. Unable to face the truth, white Americans stunt and destroy their capacity for self-reflection and self-criticism. They construct a world of dangerous, self-serving fantasy. Those who imbibe the myth of whiteness externalize evil—their own evil—onto their victims. Racism, Baldwin understood, is driven by moral bankruptcy, narcissism, an inner loneliness and latent guilt.
In his essays, Baldwin hits on the societal failure by those who make the choice to replace their ancestral connection, their continuity with the past, with a label like “white” that inherently puts them outside of history and falsely above others. I see the Gate of Continuity deeply evoked by this, as it contrasts the deep power and beauty of cultural preservation, veneration, and interconnection with the short-sighted failure to continue our lineages through time, simply by deciding to embrace the false dichotomy of “white vs. black”.
At this point in American history, this collective failure of facing the truth that perpetuated itself since the early days of this nation is having a bright spotlight shined upon it, right in line with the Pluto Return that I talked a little about last week.
On this Indigenous People’s Day, I am personally vowing to first, pay reverence and spend time venerating the people who are indigenous to the land I call home. And second, I am vowing to reconnect with my own indigeneity- my ancestors, the lands they came from, the recipes they cooked with, the plants and animals they had relationships with, the way they viewed the stars and the seasons and the cycles of time.
If you’d like to dive into this work as well, there are a couple of wonderful offerings for deepening into this investigation that I’ll post in the show notes: two great ones are White Awake’s courses and my friend Rachel Simon Stark’s Cultivating Culture: a 9-week online course on ancestral repair, reclamation & renewal (which just started yesterday, check it out for future reference or inquire about any open spots).
The Cultivating Culture intensive has such a beautiful description, that I’d just like to read it to you because it hits on a lot of the things I’ve been talking about today, and it’s just really well written. (If you’re reading this Rachel, thank you so so much for putting this together!)
Rachel writes:
What does it mean to be human?
To spring forth from ancient and enduring lineages, known and unknown?
What does it mean to know that this breath, yes, this one (pause… notice your inhale… let it deepen into a long, s l o w exhale…) is an outcome of countless beings that conspired for your survival and arrival to this precise moment. Here and now. As these words meet your eyes and digest through the miraculous mechanisms of your mind, settling into your tissues and bones.
To be alive is to be a vessel for infinite wisdom and intelligence encoded into your DNA through the many lifetimes lived before you.
You.
Singular.
Sacred.
Integral thread in the fabric of human existence.
What does it mean to forget ourselves?
To become lost to – or severed from – the magic and medicine of our ancestry as something both past and still living?
What does it mean to be separated from the grand story humanity is writing?
The cacophonous and all-consuming forces of systemic and structural oppression drown out the whispers of our unique cultural inheritances that knew how to live in solidarity and cherish diversity. These forces break the sacred, inherent bonds woven between all beings and deny the truth that our wellbeing, our freedom, and our thrival is bound up with each others’.
The art of finding and remembering ourselves, is a vital component of reclaiming ourselves as active participants in the shaping of more possible collective futures. As we position ourselves in the truth of our stories we come closer to our common humanity — a critical step toward dismantling all that aims to divide and oppress. Through this work, we responsibly release systems of separation and rebuild broken solidarity to nourish the seeds of collective liberation
She also has a few great quotes regarding Indigenaity on her website, that I wanted to share with you here.
First, I was moved to see James Baldwin,
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
– James Baldwin
Second, the wonderful poet and activist Lyla June, who is of both Indigenous and European descent:
“I want to acknowledge that some of the first Indigenous People’s that were forced into hiding were the medicine women of Old Europe. Let us reclaim our Earth Selves no matter what ‘race’ you are and do it soon! The earth may depend on it.”
— Lyla June
And finally, Albert Einstein:
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
Thursday: A Full Moon in Aries, in the Gate of Growth/Increase (42)
Across the sky from the Sun in Gate 32, this Thursday we’ll experience the 3rd of 4 consecutive super-moons in a row, the Aries full moon in the Gate of Growth (42). It is the closest full moon of 2024, making it the largest, and thus, the super-est.
Traditionally, people in the Northern Hemisphere spent October preparing for the coming winter by hunting, slaughtering, and preserving meats, giving this moon its Anglo-Saxon name Hunter’s Moon. Different indigenous groups named this Full Moon after fall, including Drying Rice Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, and Freezing Moon. The Celts used Seed Fall Moon to describe it.
Full moons are like mirrors, reflecting back opposite energies from our current solar season. Surrounded by the crunchy falling leaves and dying plants of late Libra season, the Aries full moon each year reminds us of the time in late march/early April when freshly sprouted seeds are pushing out of the earth, awakening to a new day.
This polarity reminds me of what we’ve been talking about with the Gate of Continuity, Thunder over Wind, the grafting of a new sprout onto an old root. In fall, trees and plants are not spending energy on new upward growth, but instead are conserving and sending energy down toward the roots, preserving and venerating what is down below, what has come before.
Conversely, the moon is in the gate of Growth, Wind over Thunder, which evokes Aries season sprouting energy. Gate 42 believes that the future is bright with possibilities and uses that belief as fuel for bringing projects, dreams, and goals into their full potential.
This is our first lunation officially out of eclipse season (hooray!), and it is a beautiful reflection indeed. After an intense season of darkened moons, this bright full moon will reveal to us the beauty that lies in connecting our old roots to our new sprouts, the depth of ancestral wisdom with the spark of life for future potentials. On this full moon, meditate on this:
We will not only thrive by recognizing our interdependence with other beings in this current moment, but also by actively recognizing our deep interdependence with the passage of time, the past and the future.
Sunday into Next week: The Gate of Values
And with that, have a gorgeous week ahead, beautiful people. Next week we’ll dive into the start of Scorpio season and Gate 50, the Gate of Values, appropriately known in the I’Ching as ‘The Cauldron’. It’s the gate that covers the cusp between Libra & Scorpio- my Pluto gate… stay tuned for some spooky underworldly deep dives!
Thanks for subscribing, sharing, commenting, and being here!
<3
Alison
Indigenous Veneration & A Growth-Filled Aries Full Moon