Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire [Paperback]

Dhyani Ywahoo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 1987

Dhyani Ywahoo is a member of the traditional Etowah Band of the Eastern Tsalagi (Cherokee) Nation. Trained by her grandparents, she is the twenty-seventh generation to carry the ancestral wisdom of the Ywahoo lineage. Charged with the duty to rekindle the fire of clear mind and right relationship in these changing times, she is a guide to all who walk the Beauty Road. In her first book she shares with readers these precious oral teachings of her people.

Voices of Our Ancestors teaches practical ways of transforming obstacles to happiness and good relationships, fulfilling one's life purpose, manifesting peace and abundance, and renewing the planet. It includes meditations; healing rituals; instructions for working with crystals; and teachings on how to practice generosity and harmony.

According to the ancient Native American calendar, we have recently entered a new cycle of Thirteen Heavens, a new age in which we have the opportunity to let go of aggression and fear and begin to live a life of enlightened consciousness. With a voice that is powerful, prophetic, and compassionate, Dhyani Ywahoo calls on us to become "Peacekeepers" in our hearts and in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her first book, Ywahoo seeks to show that her native Cherokee tradition of respect for the Earth, for human beings and for a Great Spirit can help modern America find strength during a time when many fear nuclear war, crime, pollution, loneliness and disease. She points out universal elements in Cherokee customs. Cherokee mythology, for example, includes a creation story, 12 tribes, a virgin birth and a divine trinity. Moreover, the Cherokees practiced meditation and used crystals for healing and guidance. Unfortunately, Ywahoo has not found an appealing voiceher writing often lapses into New Age jargon, political rhetoric or dry academic prose ("Desire to manifest Peacekeeping Mind sets one on a course of conflict resolution"). It leaves one wondering how much of the material is Cherokee and how much is California.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Teaches practical ways of transforming obstacles to happiness and good relationships, fulfilling one's life pupose, manifesting peace and abundance and renewing the planet. Wisdom of the Ywahoo lineage.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1 edition (November 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877734100
• ISBN-13: 978-0877734109
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Tribal & Ethnic
  • #33 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Native American
  • #33 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Shamanism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars roots and runners..., June 22, 2000

By 

Zane Ivy (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire (Paperback)

Pleidians! Actually not as "wierd" as this may seem to some, there ARE traditional teachings within the Tsalagi world view suggesting this stellar point of origin.

I see the book has been criticized because it is not a "traditional Cherokee point of view" and it doesn't represent any currently recognized Cherokee "tribe." I have also heard of Dhyani Ywahoo described being described by one of the former "Chiefs" of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma as "a thorn in the side of the Nation."

Well, can we really expect that all medicine people in the various Native American traditional streams to be museum pieces who never learn anything new or who have very narrow parameters which within they work? In an age where medicine people from different tribes learn from each other and share information and practices (and my intuition says this has always been the case, even if to a lesser extent in the past) isn't it almost inevitable that things will sometimes appear very differently than the practices of the past, even for those working within a tradition? That Ywahoo is not an Oklahoma Cherokee (and never claims to be in the book) is more of an issue of US/Tsalagi Ayeli politics more than anything else.

The book does not purport to be a teaching of any particular tribe as much as a continuation, a building upon, what Ywahoo claims was taught to her within her family tradition...and that family tradition (which is the Cherokee traditional way of looking at things by the way) identifies itself as Tsalagi...that is good enough for me.

The book presents Dhyani Ywahoos way of understanding the traditions she was taught. I have no way of "checking out" the veracity of those claims. There are a lot of helpful teachings in here though, and certainly it is "one way" of understanding some of the Tsalagi traditional teachings.

If you are hoping to work within the traditions of Tsalagi medicine teachings, this is certainly a helpful book in instruction on her perspectives of that tradition. There are definite exersizes she presents in the book that one can "work" with. If you're looking for a more "canonical" approach to Tsalagi tradition, this might not be the best place to look.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most powerful, life-changing book; Full of Native wisdom;, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire (Paperback)

By learning to apply the Teachings contained in this book, I have learned how to be a happy human being. I have also learned that I have many relations, and that I can make a choice to be in harmony with them. To those of us who have forgotten our original instructions, the Teachings contained in this book show us the way back home to our hearts. I give thanks to the wise Elders who have given their permission for these Teachings to be shared in this time of great planetary transformation. These Teachings on right relationship are so needed in the world today.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge full of Wisdom for ALL Peacekeepers of Earth..., July 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire (Paperback)

In the union of Mother Earth and Father Sky (the Cosmic Creator, Father in Heaven), man was given a gift - the gift of light, the soul, the breathe... Believe in the unity of our human relations, beyond religious dogma, political institutions and race. Your opennesss of the mind and heart will tune into the teachings of many - through Dhyani Ywahoo as she weaves the teachings of Cherokee, Buddhism and our cosmic relatives. It is vain to think we are the only creations of God in this infinite universe. So isn't it nice to know we have good relations beyond Earth? Through wisdom knowledge and practices of meditation given in this book, the Sacred fire in each of us will truly spark as she sings these words into your heart, mind and spirit - For all of us can learn the mindful ways of the Peacekeeper of good relations - for our home is the Earth and the Stars beyond.