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Back to Wesoomi's Archives The Legend of Wesoomi: Twenty: Spirit Guides First Ministry: July 15, 2002: After his time with Crazy Wolf and Little Warrior, Spirit Guide left the village of the Bandar. He began his journey over Fertileland seeking counsel with the people of the nation. His goal was to learn what the people knew of the Great Spirit and of their own origin. To begin his journey of learning, he chose to travel south along the shore of the Big Water. He was ever affected by the size and majesty of it. As Little Warrior had said, it had many moods. In truth, Spirit Guide found it was never the same on any two days. It was a continuing adventure to watch the changes. He was profoundly impressed by its angry moods. It gave Spirit Guide pause to realize how little of the Great Spirit's world he knew. There was much to see and learn. One day in his travels he came upon a village on a meadow above the shore. The people called themselves the Fishermen. They had heard the songs and stories of Spirit Guide and they welcomed him. They offered him food and a lodge and entreated him to stay a while. Spirit Guide had been traveling many days, and was happy to agree. These people had made logs into floating containers and they traveled the Big Water in them. They called them boats. In them, they went out on the Big Water to harvest the huge fish they found there. Spirit Guide was fascinated by the boats and a young man took him out on the Big Water in one. Later, Spirit Guide sat and spoke with Swift Hand, the elder of the village. "Do you come to teach us of the Great Spirit?" asked Swift Hand. "Nay, Elder. I come not to teach, but to learn." "The songs and tales tell of you to be the Chief of the Nation of People. How come you to learn? Be the tales untrue?" "I know not of the tales, Swift Hand. The Great Spirit has charged me to be a teacher of his wisdom. This I so believe. I know nothing of these stories. I have no wish to be a chief. The great Spirit has not so charged me." "We must honor the wishes of the Great Spirit," agreed Swift Hand, "but how come you to learn if you be charged to teach?" "The learning be but the first part. You see I am young and have much to learn." "I see you are young," smiled Swift Hand. "What have you to learn from us?" "I must needs ask, what be your knowledge of the Great Spirit? How honor you him?" "We know of him from the songs and tales of old. We honor him, as do all, in the ceremonies of harvest, joining, partaking, and the like. We speak the words and sing the songs as were taught us from the traditions of our ancestors." "Aye, but what mean the words to you, Swift Hand?" "They are the words we know. They are words of praise and plea as we always knew them. They mean as they say." "Aye, but what feel you in your heart as you speak them?" "I feel I be honoring the Great Spirit as I have learned. Be I in error?" "Nay, Elder. It be no error to honor the Great Spirit?" "It be what we have always done, what our fathers before us have done." "You do so in your love of the Great Spirit?" "We do so in our duty. We honor the Great Spirit and his works. Love be not a word to use of one so powerful and great." Spirit Guide saw that it was as his mother had said. These people knew the words and the ceremonies, but not in their hearts. They performed them as rituals out of tradition. There was no feeling in it. He stayed several days in the village to be sure. In that time, he talked to many of the fishermen, their women, and their cubs. It was the cubs who surprised him with their innocent wisdom. He spoke a bit with one called Long Fish. "Do you go into the Forest," he asked the Cub. "Aye. It be a quiet place of peace." "Fear you not the beasts?" "Nay, Spirit Guide. The beasts fear me. I need only not startle them. Startled, they attack without thought." "That be wise, Long Fish, but what of the evil spirits? Think you not of them? Fear you them?" "I think of them? The evil spirits of the forest, I fear not. The one I fear is the one inside me. He visits my thought and urges me to evil." "You resist his council?" "Aye Spirit Guide. I know it be evil council." "You are wise indeed, Long Fish. What of the Great Spirit?" "The Great Spirit be the Great Spirit. He be the father of all." "Love you the Great Spirit?" "Aye. I love him as I love my father and mother. He be the father of all. He gives all to those who honor him and do their duty." "You offer him love. Fear you not that he would take away your love of your father and mother?" "Nay, Spirit Guide," laughed Long Fish. "Love be not a thing. It be a feeling. It cannot be taken away." Spirit Guide laughed along with Long Fish. "Thank you Long Fish," he said. "I have learned from you." "I am pleased to teach you, Spirit Guide," replied Long Fish in totally honest innocence. Spirit Guide laughed again with delight. He knew then where he must seek to learn of the hearts of the people. The cubs were still of innocence and freedom of heart. There was no guile in them. There was the wisdom of the Great Spirit, unimpaired by the trials of living. He noticed it as he spoke with them and again as he observed the ceremonies. While the older ones performed the rituals by rote, the cubs were the true participants. They said the word and sang the songs with feeling. Spirit Guide traveled far over Fertileland and he visited many villages. He found many good people. He found a few angry and mean people, but none so caught in evil as the Bandar. He spoke with everyone he found. He learned of the wisdom of the Great Spirit. He was no longer surprised that the truest teachings came from the cubs. He simply accepted what the Great Spirit showed him. In every village he visited, one thing remained true. The people performed the ceremonies with great attention to the details, but they were mere rituals. There was no heart of feeling in them except by the cubs. It was the same everywhere. What he learned, he learned from the cubs. He learned that justice is not our affair. That is in the domain of the Great Spirit. He will see to it. Your duty is to see to yourself. He learned that life is change. The opposite to change is not peace, it is death. He learned with humor that most good people get dirt on their hands. Most bad people do not. He learned that pain and suffering visits the poor and the powerful with an even hand. He learned that beauty is not about the condition of your skin. It is about the condition of your heart. He learned with surprise that if you think someone is lying to you, look at their eyes. Everyone can lie with words but hardly anyone can lie with their eyes. He learned with a smile that everyone talks. Some people listen. Nobody hears. He learned that Life without friends is not enough. He learned those and many other things as he traveled for two summers and two winters over the land. He was a man of sixteen summers when he came upon the village of the Husbandmen. Back to Wesoomi's Archives
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