A familiar refrain reminds us that there’s love in the air. And where there is love, there is magic. This is no more true that here in the Pacific Northwest. The legacy of spirit, community, love, power and giving (Potlatch) is embedded within the mountains and the sea of this most pristine, primal corner of the world. The love of the land and the sea is woven throughout the myths and the legends of the First Nations People that lived and communed throughout and with this most sacred part of paradise. Their songs are still alive today held within the essence of the bubbling of a stream, in the whisper of the wind or in the cry of an eagle. One may hear and know if one listens with the heart.

Many today are searching and seeking for some type of spiritual roots that will ground them and nourish them in these very troubled, materialistic and transformational times. Thus it is that we have a potpourri of mind focus that mixes and chooses spiritual practices without sometimes an understanding of the cultural and environmental roots of the various traditions that we are following. There is good reason and wisdom why purification by bathing in streams was and is done in the Pacific Northwest as opposed to the purification rites of the Stone Peoples Lodge as it was and is conducted by the Plains First Peoples. And it is not about one tradition or practice being better than the other, all are equal, but it is about environmental and cultural reality. When you go bathing, upon entering the stream, you are symbolically entering the womb of the Great Mother—Earth, while to the Plains people the Stone Peoples Lodge is the womb of the earth. Both are the same representation of a spiritual truth but are dictated in form by environmental and sociological factors and spiritual forces.

A spiritual tradition is birthed within the souls of the visionaries but it is then given life by the external land, possible sea and sky that surrounds and embraces the community at large. We do not live within the green lushness of the Amazonian rainforest nor do we wander the plains of the Serengeti or scale the heights of the Andes. But we do live within the magic and the power of a spiritual tradition that goes back in time for Millennia. And we do live and play within the mountains and sea that gave birth to this great Northwest Coast Spiritual Tradition.  

It may always appear to us that the “grass is greener” over there. Many never seem to consider the immediate space or time because it is, the immediate space and time, and how, in our mundane existence, could there ever be profound truth, power and knowledge. Over there is always exotic and foreign, while here, where we live, constantly seems to be mundane and known.

Take a moment, look around and feel, the love and power that is right here in our own backyard of the Great Pacific Northwest. The earliest Northwest Coast myths tell of a time “long ago” and portray the transformational power of the Original People. Not creation type powers in the way of the Great Mystery of Creation but transformational in style and essence. There was only one creation in all of its varied dimensions and mysterious forms that lie beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Since that moment, in space, time and other factors unknown to humanity, of sound, light and vibration, there has only been transformation not creation. We are transformers, not co-creators, in an eternal mystery of love and light.