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NEW STORIES Why were we created?
THE FIVE FINGERED ONES
By Marshall Jack
The journey we have been given begins with our birth. As we develop awareness we begin to understand a journey that begins to confuse us. Many people have asked the question, “WHY?” Many of us travel to those who may help us understand the answer to this question. I have journeyed many paths to understand my, “why.” I have listened to many honorable people who have given many options to consider. Some were helpful, some were not so helpful. I started a sacred journey many years ago to find the answers. I would like to share with you another option to consider.
During a sacred journey into the spirit world, I was given the opportunity to ask my questions. Who am I, What am I, Why am I. Why was I given life? What am I do to with this life?
During my younger years I was given some very important teachings from the Elders I lived with. The most beneficial teachings they gave me was, to look for the beginning spirit of all things then you will know how to heal all things. They instructed me to do a ceremony for those things I needed an understanding for.
I remember the first ceremony I did alone. I was 6 years old, I have seen the elders conduct ceremonies so I thought I would give it a try. Ha ha. I asked my grandmother to help me do a ceremony for the ants. I needed to learn why were the ants created. She gave me the instructions for a sacred sunrise ceremony.
Early in the morning hours I woke with excitement. I gathered the items needed for the sunrise ceremony. I laugh now because back then I didn’t have much to work with as a little guy. Nonetheless I gathered a small amount of water from a spring, a cigarette from my dad’s pack of Lucky Strikes and a used smudge stick my Grandmother had given me. The journey into the spirit world had started. I went to the area where the ant kingdom lives. I made a place for the Creator to work. I lit the smudge stick and smoked down the anthill. I broke the cig in half and gave a tobacco offering to the ants. I placed the water the base of the ant mound.
All this was done just prior to sunrise. No ants were visible at that time. Then I decided to sing a sunrise song for the ants to wake them up. I thought maybe they were the ones who taught us about Indian time. I didn’t know any songs at that time, so at the moment the sun shone upon my face I began a chant. I felt very powerful. I asked the Creator of all things to allow me to understand why the ants were created. One tiny ant had emerged from its dwelling. I felt this was the one the Creator had sent and it was up to me to follow its journey. From sunrise to sunset I followed this tiny friend. The ant in its way taught me why they were created. The ants were given many teachings oft how we all could live together sharing our gifts with one another. The ant nation is very powerful, indeed. Other things about how to heal were shared with me. We won’t go into that right now.
My second ceremony I conducted was for the trees in our homeland. I was so excited about the first ceremony that I felt an urgent need to do the next ceremony as soon as possible. Two weeks had passed, I talked more with the elders. They encouraged me to do as many ceremonies as I could to find the beginning spirit of all things.
As my life progressed I continued the ceremonies by myself to learn about the beginning spirit of all things. When I was young I was very shy around other people. The only people I was comfortable with were the elders. They seemed to know all things. Duh! When I was seven years old my Grandmother took me to my first sweat lodge ceremony. This ceremony taught me how to pray. That’s the only way you will survive a sweat lodge.
I write about the past to show you how I came to this understanding of why we were created. We are “The Five Fingered Ones”
When I was around 48 years old I conducted a ceremony for myself. The ceremony was done more elaborately then the ceremony that I did wnen I was six. I had learned many songs and had been given many gifts since then. I had acquired eagle feathers, my first pipe, drums, etc.
I went to the mountains, a place called Mono Pass, which is east of Yosemite. I went to where the bears and eagles are. Yes, I have done a ceremony for each of these and many other creatures and plants.
During this lengthy ceremony I was given the insight to who I am, what I am, and most importantly why I am.
As I asked the questions of the Creator of all things, I was taken on a journey into the past. The following is what was shown.
I was taken to the first of our kind. The first human that was shown was a duality form, both male and female. It could reproduce itself in either form, male or female. It was shown the first “Five Fingered One” reproduced 24 males and 24 females. The male and female offspring were coupled together. My understanding of this is that we all have a direct connection with one of these 24 parents. These first parents were given the sacred gifts through covenants with the Almighty, the Creator of all things. Each parent was instructed to give sacred life to the newborns, to teach the young about the sacred gifts and how to carry the gifts on.
The beginning gifts that were given were the gifts to balance and heal all things that had been created. Healing gifts for the plant nations, animal nations, water nations, earth nations, and mineral nations were given. Everything that I could imagine or more were gifts. Gifts were also given to heal the star nations. All the gifts for all that have been created were given. It was also shown that we were not from this planet. We emerged from another solar system. This was absolutely amazing to me. I will share at another time a journey to the beginning spirit of all things, where all things came from. For now I will continue and try to explain what information was given to explain why I was given life.
Once I collected my thoughts, I asked, “Where do I fit in with all these ancestors?” This is the answer that was given. To know who you are, you must ask our own ancestors. SO, through the memory of DNA in your blood, you were given the gift to journey back to the beginning spirit of your own ancestors. Amazing! All the ancestors that created me had a purpose for my life. It was shown several hundreds of years ago that our ancestors had prayed for the generations to be born. This way the gifts could move forward in time. I was born as I believed all of us were, to ask our own ancestors the questions of, “Who am I?” I could elaborate more but I believe you get what it is that I do.
I have asked my ancestors for many things and they have given me the correct answers. I am carrying on the gifts of my own ancestors. I have been given so much in this life. I am truly blessed. I end this story with this. Every morning when I wake I ask my ancestors to be with me this day. I ask the Creator and the Sacred Mother Earth, “What is it that you need me to do for you this day?”
This day started with that prayer.
I was asked to write this for all our ancestors
| Horny Toad Story
When we were living on the res, every fall, around September, the elders would come down from all over the area, from Fallon, Schurze Bishop, Yerington, Coleville, Lee Vining, and Carson City. Tthey would all come to Bridgeport. When they arrived, they would tell us young guys to go out to the sagebrush and get all the horny-toads we can find. So we wouldget gunny sacks and we would run all over the place.
It was fun for us because the elders would give us some candy or something. We were running around all over the place, grabbing those horny toads and throwing them into the gunnysacks. They got pretty heavy. If they got too heavy, you would have to drag them back. You would give them to the elders. We did this every year and they would have a ceremony with those horny toads. It might be two or three hours and then they would call us and say, “Ok, you guys need to take these horny toads back out there and take them right back to where you found them.”
“Yeah, right”, we thought.
Then we would get our gunnysacks and look at those horny toads and ask, “Where did you come from?”
We would take the horny toads back out to the sagebrush and stuff, back to the mountains and release them.
Well, every year we did that that.
One year, when I was about nine or ten years old, I asked my Grandma, “What do you guys do with those horny toads??
She Says, “Well, that is our medicine.”
“What do you mean/”
She says, “You don’t know about the horny toad medicine?”
“Well, no. No one tells us anything.”
“Oh, that is our medicine”
She continued to tell of the ceremony.
The elders would go inside the house and they would take all the horny toads and ask a blessing for all the horny toads. The old man would give each one of the elders their own bag of these horny toads. This old man named Sim had these medicine songs. They sang the songs, blessed them down. There was a song for the medicine, the horny toad medicine. When they sang the song, they would go into their little bag, and they would get a horny toad and put it on their hand. They would look at it and talk to it. They would ask it for its medicine. The old man would sing his song. As they were singing the song, they slowly turned their hand upside down. When the horny toads were upside down, there was right on the tips of the spines of the horny toad was this milky green substance that came out of their spine. The elders would take this horny toad and poke this spines into their skin wher ever they had rheumatism or arthritis to get the medicine into the skin. Sometimes they would put the horny toad spines on their neck and back. The horny toad only had so much medicine and they would get another horny toad out of the bag and apply the new horny toad to their skin. Then the milky medicine would start again and they would apply it to their skin.
When they used the medicine up, the elders would sing more songs. They would sing blessing and healing songs for the horny toads. Then they would put them back in the sacks and we would take them back to the places they were found.
It was the same every year we would do that. It was usually at the beginning of winter. The medicine would last all winter long. They never had any problem with arthritis or rheumatism all winter.
| BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU WHO READ THESE STORIES. OVER THE YEARS, SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE ASKED US TO RIGHT A BOOK. MY USUAL RESPONSE IS, "BUT NOBODY WOULD BELIEVE IT." THESE STORIES ARE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES THAT HAVE TAUGHT ME TO BE WHO I AM. I FEEL HONORED TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THESE STORIES WITH YOU. IN THE FUTURE, MANY OF THESE STORIES COULD BE INCLUDED IN A BOOK OF TEACHINGS. FOR NOW, I WILL SHARE IN INCREMENTS THE STORIES AS THEY COME. I GIVE THESE WRITINGS AND TEACHINGS TO YOU AT NO COST. THEY ARE YOURS TO SHARE. DONATIONS ARE ACCEPTED. THERE IS A DONATION BUTTON ON THE ABOUT US PAGE. BLESSINGS. AHO. |
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