INDIGENOUS GRAVITY
Promoting the regenerative authority of Indigenous Star Knowledge, power and control, can become a proven supplement and cure to the harmful ideologies that hold up the structures of illness that perpetuate societal, mental, and environmental devastation, as they are about archetypes that lived with the land and still do. A war between tribes is on a much smaller scale than between countries or religions, be-cause when we localize and become present in the here and now, we reduce the worry- the warry, of the future and intead learn from the revenge of the past.
Native American Flag ~ Painting by Coyote Mcdonald in Albuquerque/Apache/Tewa/Hopi, NM
As a socially constructed “white” person, commanded by language tactics connected to a toxic legacy of thievery and gaslighting, having mostly Euro DNA and a privileged upbringing, I cannot identify as a First Nations person of this country, and in the past I thought I could call myself race-nonconforming- but I had to reconstruct my ideals in order to realize why it’s better to conform to the human race, and acknowledge my toxic privileged status among it, due to epidermal & ethnic racism. Skin color is directly targeted in a sickened by supremacist society, and skin color is more noticeable than gender, so one cannot “un-conform” to what color they are unless they change their skin color. Gender-Nonconforming is more accepted, such as being androgynous, because it’s less noticeable than skin color. Sometimes, you simply cannot tell if somebody is female or male, as much as you can tell what color they are, so to non-conform to my racial skin color is mostly impossible unless I want to spend a bunch of money trying to change what I look like, which others have done (fake transracial, different than “mixed race”) -and I don’t feel like doing that.
I try my best not appropriate as much as possible, although a lot of white culture is stolen from BIPOC history and regurgitated, so I try to make my culture a reimagining of what white is, surrendering to the truth of history, and what it means to be responsible for an ancestral legacy, instead of being ignorant of it. There are so many different kinds of Indigenous Aboriginal Star Knowledges, just as there are different kinds of astrology in general- and having to construct my sentence that way shows a main point in critical race theory: the main, or regular astrology or culture is based on the white-constructed themes (Greek/Roman/Christian Mythos), and everything else is other, and considered different than the normal culture that we are all used to. The fact the starting point or blank slate comes from a colonized, white-dominant center, instead of one that is indigenous to the land we are on, shows that we are living in a construct founded in genocide, ethnic cleansing and indoctrination.
Instead of respecting the space that was already occupied, and building relationships over time, Europeans were convinced that killing, poisoning, and renovating what did not need to be renovated, was the only way for them to feel powerful and meaningful in the world. The quote “kill the Indian, save the man” also meant “kill the lifeforms, save the materials”- as if they were two different things that could live without the other! Now the whole world suffers because if you kill the life, the land dies too- the connection to ways of maintaining a healthy land, having honor and mercy, was removed- the pollution of death, and the plastic of pain, became the demon polarity equal to the gods of industry and profit. However, they are not Indians, they never were- that’s a mistake made by the Europeans whom thought they were from Asia- when their DNA has actually been proven to be unique to this land, as their ancestors did not ONLY cross the Bering Strait, as some studies have recently found proof of their history here before that theory was proven, as the population of this country has gone through a series of migration cycles.
Tactics of domination included language change as a major aspect- language is like land-gauge, how we gauge what to do upon the land with symbols and sounds. Just as the wind creates canyons, our language creates the paths of society in the physical world- the connection from the minds of thinking, to the bodies of doing, the stories, the holidays, and the structure of “employee” and “boss” are all constructs of language design meant to command influence the cognitive behavior that eventually commands the physical. The ancient or indigenous languages used more muscles of the throat, lungs, mouth and vocal cords, so they could make animal noises and engage in mental states with forms of tone chanting and vocal-listening as an internal focus, and telepathic art, and we are losing this ability by using technology to voice us instead.
Engaging ourselves with the indigenous practices of the culture we come from is the best way to connect back to our roots and to help guide our intuition with our ancestral accuracy. The following refers to the Indigenous people of what’s called “America,” but was not always called that, and by studying their ways with the intent of repairing, rather than gaslighting their experiences, we will aid in the reconciliation of a “United States” that is controlled by the people at home to it, rather than by those controlling it from far away, which has been America’s standard for far too long.
For the Lakota, what is known as the Aries constellation, in line with a few other stars, is also known as the Dried Willow constellation. The Lakota people have around 7 different words relating to “Willow” because it is such a sacred tree, as they use it for medicine, bows and arrows, and mix the inside powder of the bark with smoking tobacco. There is also a Lakota Animal constellation that includes various star lines, including the Taurus constellation. The constellation called Great Circle-Black Hills, consists of Pleiades, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Castor-Pollux, and Capella stars, which have Lakota names too. 8 out of the 12 stars of the Gemini constellation make the constellation Mahto Tipila (Bear’s Lodge), or colonially, the “Devil’s Tower” (which tribes find to be a very disrespectful name), because it correlates to an actual sacred place on Earth/Makȟówaŋča. Many people believe that Mahto Tipila was once a giant tree, and now an ancient tree-stump- or is a reminder of such.
“The Wyoming State Parks Department were conducting photographic seismic readings below the tower, when they discovered an incredibly large petrified root system below the tower." It does not explicitly make the claim that the popular, mystic rock structure was a giant tree at one point; it leaves it up to readers to make the extrapolation.” (USA Today Fact Check)
For the Mayans, there are several calendars used for their tracking systems. The planet Venus was especially important for indicating lucid dreaming cycles in connection to the timing of warfare- when to merge the seemingly opposing orders. Venus is also popularly known as a planet of partnership, beauty, values, balance, aesthetic, money making or trade, and art making- and it orbits in a fractal design relating the “Golden Mean,” “Pentacle” symbol, and a rose, further explaining why it tends to represent trade, balance, beauty and love. However this gets conflated with the overproduction of aesthetic principles, rather than the healthy balance that the actual vibration geometrically formulates. Many astrologers refer to Venus as a “money indicator,” but due to massive economic inequality, that can be a classist perspective, especially when looking to Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn as the energies that control how Venus realm allocates. Other cultural star gravities allocate differently due to their average faith and reliance on their environment’s natural surroundings, being connected to the sky. The Mayans simultaneously use their Tzolkin Calendar (260 days- a bit more than the 24 hour Venus cycle), together with their Haab Sun Calendar (360 days- a bit less than the 24 hour Sun calendar) to track the correlation plans for a balanced society.
There are different versions of Mayan astrology that people can refer to, just as there are different versions astrology in general. Jose Argüelles was known to have taken ancient Mayan astrology and recreated it into a new model, and that information can be found at The Foundation for The Law of Time. Various Indigenous Mayans believe that Argüelles appropriated their cultural into some kind of neoliberal pyramid scheme that people buy information from. Personally, I don’t think Argüelles meant to appropriate Mayan traditions with his research specifically with the intention to make a buck, but he did reorganize them, and the people whom inherited it after his death are profiting from it- and I don’t find that justified to the actual Mayan people in full. I have found my sign from Argüelles Starroot calculator, and its description from Astro-Dream-Advisor, to have helped myself and others get further context of self- but it truly does ignore the reality of appropriation and who is making the most out of the organization. Part of the toxicity in our society is the massive amount of cognitive dissonance from being forced into certain regimes that provide an over-consumptive paralyzation of “choice,” due to the overwhelming privleges some have that others work so hard to achieve or die for.
Similar to Argüelles, there are others that have studied “traditional” Mayan astrology, such as Vajra Fatih Keçelioglu, born and raised in Turkey but studied with the Maya, and runs the website MyMayanSign.com and YouTube channel, where descriptions are explained by Fatih. Kenneth Johnson from California was initiated as a Mayan “aj q’ij ~ daykeeper” in November of 2017, and explains the Mayan signs and teachings he learned on his website Jaguar Wisdom. Not all nations of the Mayan people would agree with such efforts, since non-Mayan people are profiting from the information they’ve learned from Mayans with their site readings and teachings (including from me since I have paid for a reading by them)- but a percentage of Fatih’s profits actually do go to real Mayan communities, as he donates to the Meso Foundation, and Kenneth Johnson has a deep connection to Mayan communities as well, since he was actually initiated as a daykeeper by them. I refuse to go to such lengths before I seek to change the way my toxic privilege affects the indigenous world view. I’d rather be a listener via indigenous wisdom, and cognize how it fits into to what my ancestry has imparted upon me over time, so I can inspire to change the design of future legacies raised in such privilege.
This site, sacredroad.org, is the Saq’be (which translates as “the road”), an Organization for Mayan and Indigenous Spiritual Studies, and has been the closest Mayan Astrology source I’ve found in English, that is visibly most connected to the actual Mayan peoples in it’s presentation, as it is an actual non-profit meant to support them- so I donated there too. Their site also categorizes me as the Knife sign (Tijax/Etz’nab). There are various other sites that would tell you your Mayan astrology sign with explanation, but a solidarity traded reading from a Mayan member, or actually studying with the Mayan people, is an even better way. However, they are forced to fight the toxicolonial lumberjacks destroying their rainforest, while murdering, raping, and trafficking their people- so learning with them is also about learning what toxic-privilege systems have put them through.
I’d use these resources out of curiosity, but only with the discernment between appropriation and reparation. To take the information for yourself without at least thanking or supporting the Mayan community in spirit or materially, is inevitably appropriation- and if you plan to use that information to help bring liberation to the actual Mayan people, then be sure to make that a part of your way of life, to be ethical in your acknowledgement. Identifying as a White Rhythmic Dog through the Argüelles version of Mayan astrology has helped me heal, probably because I allowed my subconscious to put full faith in that description of me, as a placebo effect, while I’ve also experienced the humiliation of having found their way to be more fulfilling than the legacy passed down by more recent ancestors; trying to find the balance in the spiritual emotional satisfaction and the societal rejection in revealing those emotions in certain ways.
In my personal experience, I’ve truly had memorable dreams and spiritual life events line up with the days of my personal Tzolkin calendar. All on the same day, I watched an anime called Children Who Chase Lost Voices- (which features a journey to find something like Quetzalcoatl), kicked out an abusive alcoholic roommate, and found a wandering Husky dog named Sunka (Shoon-Ka) which translates to “Dog” in Lakota (who coincidentally belonged to somebody I knew and looked up to). It wasn’t till later on that day, after all that had happened, that I found out it was my Tzolkin birthday. Another time, I had a very memorable dream that also taught me a lesson about life and death, strategy and acceptance, as two giant figures made out of light pink came out of two obelisk, pinkish-grey stones, and taught me symbolic ideas- then I looked out the window in my dream, and noticed a Deer outside. After I had woken up and checked the calendar, I saw it was the time of the Mayan Deer Trecana. That dream sadly ended as a nightmare showing me my fears- but it gave me a warning about somebody close to me.
I was told that we are all “indigenous” to Earth, but some of us create reality away from Earth due to fear and desire to rule over the future. Studying an indigenous worldview has helped me find myself as a person, because it led me to my root causes. In other Mayan astro calculations, my adult day sign is the Obsidian point or Knife, which is ironically a deep black color (like the pupil of an eye), in contrast to being in the “White” direction (polarity), from my other Mayan sign- like a Yin-Yang. I’ve used the tone of “Rhythmic” to further solidify being a spoken-word artist, singer and dancer. I laugh at the spelling of “Dog” backwards and being named after a goddess at birth, and further I ponder how different the meaning of “White” is when comparing the indigenous version to the toxicolonial script: “white” representing the direction of the “North” in Mayan astrology, and in the privilege of toxicolonial society, I am also a “white persin” via toxic standards of “race.” While I support the human race, our creation of the epidermal-ethnic “races” destroyed our species kinship and has sparked the inflammation of a collective auto-immune disease.
Indigenous astrology has helped me with my mental health issues as I learn to understand notions of “truth” more completely. Indigenous cultures see mental health as a shamanic issue, aiding people with ceremonial plant medicines, enchantments and ritual instructions, as well a collective perspective of their place in community, a practice of intervention- compared to colonial society’s “give em’ a pill and some therapy” type chronic industrial complex that does not intervene on disease root causes, and does not dive deep enough into the roots of a person’s soul on Earth. The caduceus was stolen and turned into a dollar sign ($), unless we use our actions to turn wealth into health.
Astrology in general can have a healing effect, but it can also have a harmful effect- and I’ve experienced both. Faith is an art of mastering your own sense of power, self-consciousness, and that of others, while learning from past and present experiences. Seeking to understand and heal what was once Indigenous within me is the point of learning about Indigenous astrology, while also dedicating myself to the liberation of Indigenous people, through my harm-reduction legacy work, and to reveal how my ancestors’ designs of toxicolonialism has harmed many other generations, and that it needs to be reformed, resigned, and reunited with an indigenous world view.
The truth proves that the Indigenous plight has become a hard path, because of toxicolonialism and (mostly white) supremacies. The Earth has been dying from pollution, extinction, and disease, because of the illnesses of greed, narcissism, and the chronic dissatisfaction and ignorance those diseases breed. That is why I also find that using faith within Indigenous Economics, Language, Governance and Star Knowledge systems, will help us heal the pain caused by intergenerational systems of slavery, trafficking and unhealthy habits- because it helps us recognize the root-causes of issues and their pathology by resurrecting ruins, researching sustainability, and clarifying the sanity of our relations.
