a sub-web of Spirit Mythos
a sub-web of Spirit Mythos
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Tribal Consciousness
April 28, 2002
When I began the Rite of Avalon, it was for the purpose of evolving the Tribal Consciousness–both in MYSELF and offering it as a conduit for the planetary evolution. What do I mean when I say "Tribal Consciousness?" In this discourse, I share my Thothian perspective on it.
There are three forms I am addressing here: "Ancient Tribal," "New Tribal," and "Universal Tribal."
Ancient Tribal
Ties through bloodlines which creates a strong generational consciousness. These ties can be further strengthened through the buying, trading or conquering of land and possessions, inclusive of women, who bring new blood strains to strengthen the Patriarchal linage, and yet are usurped into that Patriarchal family. In rare instances, such as with the Amazon women, the dominant family was Matriarchal, but the premise of accumulating possessions and "new blood" was essentially the same. In the Ancient Tribal, the ends often justifies the means; although if one goes far enough back into time, with the Lemurians and Atlanteans, for instance, there were strains of tribes who did not embrace that motto. However, even then, many did live by it. Those most ancient of days were not ideal. Both Lemuria and Atlantis were violently disposed by the laws of cause and effect because they were not as a whole, aligned to universal principle.
It was the impulses of the Ancient Tribal that dragged the Priestesses from the temples of Lemuria and then Atlantis and replaced them with puppets of the newly established Patriarchy. It was also the Ancient Tribal in the form of the Matriarchy that took revenge on the masculine element however and whenever they could.
New Tribal
The "New Tribal" can be most emphasized in our culture by the Hippies of the 1960's. What they attempted in excess, really contains the elements of the New Tribal consciousness. To be communal, to love the act of living and the natural expressions of the flesh. While to celebrate life is the basic theme of the New Tribal, whether it be through Hippie-type indulgences or more 21st century gatherings of spirit, there is a sense of exclusivity in the same breath with a declaration of equality. "We are all equal" yet we are separate from and beyond those who do not have the range of vision which we (perceive) we have." This translates into: "Among US (the tribe) we are all equal, but we are more evolved that the other tribes."
The New Tribal has evolved from the more ancient, and holds dear certain human rights and individuality that the Ancient Tribal did / does not. When I speak of "evolution" in this sense, I am not attempting to devalue individual human beings. I am looking at the whole cloth of the planetary consciousness of which each and every living thing on the planet is a part of and cannot, in the primary sense, be separate from. In this context, even Mother Theresa, the Pope and the Dali Lama have strains of both Ancient and New Tribal consciousness within them.
Another major difference between Ancient and New Tribal (and this is an important one) is that Ancient Tribal was about bloodlines above anything else. A great deal of energy was / is spent in keeping the bloodlines "pure," mixing them with forethought and expediency for the tribe, and if necessary, killing off any within that bloodline who would not cooperate with the program established by the hierarchy of the greater Family. The "renegades" of the tribe could not be permitted to create their own strains to perpetuate the bloodline. Blood to the Ancient Tribal mind is seen as magical and powerful. The gods speak and empower through it, therefore whomever controls the linage, controls not only the tribe, but has power over a kingdom of tribes whose bloodlines have become subordinate to them.
New Tribal has dispensed with the importance of bloodlines in the Old Word sense. In fact, the genetic family unit is often openly ridiculed among the New Tribal people. Families in the New Tribal tend to be viewed as one's nemesis rather than their power structure. The "bloodline" has changed its outer skin. Instead of actual genetic blood, the tribal system has developed a "synthetic blood" of shared ideologies and spiritual beliefs. It is now the tribal Baptists, Catholics, Jews or Muslims...or even the Yankees fans. There is of course, an overlap at points in the human condition, where bits of both Ancient and New Tribal come together.
The finest qualities of the New Tribal is the turning toward spiritual thought beyond religious boundaries. This is to be found in increasing numbers of "pockets" within the New Tribal. Yet even these "New Tribal Spiritualites" find themselves attempting to link together through "etheric bloodlines" of the incarnational past or ultra-dimensions. There is nothing wrong with this. It is simply a step in moving more and more into the "Universal Tribal" consciousness.
The Rite of Avalon itself I would place within the New Tribal Spiritual matrix...reaching out and attempting to expand into the Universal Tribal.
Universal Tribal
I cannot fully elaborate on this consciousness as I am in the process of moving toward it, so my perspective, even with Thothian insight, will speak through the lens of my journey. From this view, the Universal Tribal consciousness appears to me as a balancing of the heart and mind within the crucible of awareness that all "tribes" are notes within the same symphony. Each holds and vibrates their individual "note," just as within each tribe, the individual member becomes a vibrational note that is unique and yet resonate with the entire song. This is a thought most people in the New Tribal consciousness readily adhere to in principle. Yet few of us LIVE it in each and every moment and in each emotional and mental stroke we create on the tablet of time in our daily realities. To fully exist within the Universal Tribal means that a person must do just that...they must live and breath the feeling at a cellular level that their "tribe" is merely a note within a larger gathering of tribes; and that no tribes are separate from their own. The tribal pathing of the most horrendous murder is not separate from your own in the larger, universal sense. For the "tribe" is really not an outer reality, but an inner one. YOU are a tribe who is resonate with other "tribes" of thought and feeling, thus becoming a part of that larger "tribal matrix."
In the Rite of Avalon we will follow a path to move our own individual tribes and the one we share as Sisters of the Avalon Shield, into resonance with the Universal Tribal. We do this for our own evolution and to act as a conduit for the planetary evolution as well. All aspects of the "Rite" in which we engage, such as "Sacred Ground," is intended for this purpose.
From "The Coming of the Feminine Christ" by Niamh Clune, chapter 8 - "Entrance to the Underworld":
"Only the descent into the darkness of unconsciousness can release you from ancestral thought forms that keep you in bondage. Then must you descend into the greater darkness, into the purgatory of all souls and atone for them, who descended into darkness, with their lives unresolved. Free your ancestors from their suffering, those abandoned souls, crying out for recognition and for redemption. Our destiny is to heal the bloodline.... the chalice is within. The chalice contains the blood of Christ. The bloodline of Christ shall heal the world."
Maia Christianne