Customer Reviews

Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book was originally published in 1987, just to let you know how old it is.

I don't feel the gist of this book is to prove the authors Indian-ness, or Cherokee-ness.
None of us grew-up with her, and so, we don't know what her elders truly taught her.
What she presents can't be proven, or disproven in that particular sense.

I also agree with another reader, on here, who wrote that there are very esoteric teachings
amongst some families that are not shared with outsiders, and thus, not even people of
that particular culture will know about them. This has happened more than once amongst the
european countries, too, during their long histories.

Instead, I think this book was written to simply awaken, and motivate those that it speaks to.
And, it does speak very deeply if you are in any way attuned to the subject matter.
To those it doesn't speak to, this book will pass them by, and sound like so much garbage.

If you have been studying/practicing mysticism, or the occult, or neo-paganism for some time, I think
you will find this book a wonderful read.....whether its authentic Cherokee, or not.
It's loaded with deep, interesting esoteric topics, and useful exercises.
Enjoy...

I was having some very hard times and this book found it's way to me. It held some great wisdom, and provided me with some spiritual healing, a strength and answers that I despirately needed. I have read it several times and have kept it as my "bible" of life. I have recommended it to others. I would like to thank the author.

I only bought this book because it was listed in the readinglist of two Cherokee books I respect.

"Medicine of theCherokee" J.T. & Michael Garrett

"Walking on the wind" Michael Garrett.

This book is not Cherokee teachings. It is New Age Pap. I was not able to finish it.

Here are some of the things I have problems with in this book.

Page 7: "The New cycle of thirteen heavens began August 30, 1987" Looking at the misery from the first 13 years of the First heaven, I doesn't look like heaven to me.

Page 9: "Tsalagi Elo-our philosophy, our oral tradition - tells how the Principle People, the Ani Yun Wiwa, originated in the star system known as the Pleiades"

Page 16: "The last dragon was seen in the Smoky Mountains in the 1700s"

Page 17: "The Native people, particularly the Tsalagi, had a philosophy and a written language probably before the people of Europe were emerging from their caves" I find this extremely offensive. It is is revisionist history at best. The Cherokee did not have a written language until it was invented by Sequoyah.

Page 25: "My grandmother Nellie Ywahoo was a priestess trained by her father. She lit up the world and now she is a planet; she is an island for those in need."

Page 25: "The fire is the strength of the people, a symbol of the wisdom fire carried here from from the Pleiades." Here she is referring to the two sacred fires of the Cherokee that burn in North Carolina, and Oklahoma.

Page 120: "Just as life's energy moves through holy riverways, the meridians of our bodies" Meridians and Ch'i (QI) is Chinese philosophy not Cherokee.

Page 130: "The wind currents are disturbed by removal of uranium and coal"

Page 142: "The uranium is more beneficialy energetic in the Earth, drawing rains to refill the aquifers."

If you want to spend money on drivel like this; be my guest.

Wah doh Ogedoda

Siyo/Hello!

All I have to say is that while Dhyani Ywahoo may be from one of the various Cherokee bands, she does not represent the Cherokee people in any shape or form. Sure, there are a few grains of traditional Cherokee teachings in her book, but it is not her right to show them off as "traditional/kituwa" teachings. This book is an expression of her own belief system and NOT THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE. There are already too many misconceptions floating around about "authentic" Cherokee culture/religion; this book just adds to the confusion. If you are interested in learning about Cherokee culture, frequent the pow wow's or stomp dances in your area. I hope this discourages anyone from making the same mistake I did.

Wado/Thank you, and Happy New Year 2000!

Once again, we have a situation where a white person is claiming to be something she is not. Ms. Ywahoo is *not* on the Dawes rolls, and is not a member of any recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans. Her teachings do NOT meld with any of the antiquities which have survived over the years from Cherokee ancestry - crystals and flame medidations of the type she describes are NOT part of essential Cherokee spirituality.

In a recent discussion I had with Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee Nation, she mentioned that Ms. Ywahoo has been "a thorn in the side of the Nation for many years now." While some of the new-age concepts Ms. Ywahoo puts forth are interesting, peaceful, and appealing for their purity of thought, this book is NOT A REPRESENTATION OF TRADITIONAL CHEROKEE BELIEFS. For more information on the true spiritual history of the Cherokees, I highly recommend the Mooney books written at the turn of the 20th century.

The invasion of the Western Hemisphere in the 16th century is for many the beginning of history here as well - history is written by the victor and this is the most readily accessible knowledge in our society. So the first benefit of reading this book is its eye-opening presentation of views rooted in another history - the one that was already well under way in 1492 and which is kept alive in songs, habits and traditions handed down though the years of genocide to this day.

Ywahoo & Du Bois have provided a treasure - a book capable of aiding the off-axis "Western" mind in the journey back from a hell created by the "White" or Western world view which views nature and the material world as abstractions to be owned, used and disposed of. What we have forgotten is what the First Nations have always known.

The book is medicine against the malaise of debilitating falsehoods that arise in the historic conflict between Western and Native peoples. People, of whatever "race", have the choice to make a life that resonates in harmony with nature - or to identify easily and without reflection with the world of the conquerors (i.e. "the world has always been like this..." -- "Progress is Good, Growth is Good, Man is Destined to Rule the Earth"). But this choice is not "racial" at all -

the book drew me away from "us and them" conundrums that confuse through false divisions of race, ethnicity etc. The identity of a person is determined partly by circumstance but ultimately the truth is that the world is literally what we imagine it to be - in the case of "White" culture, a world of scarcity, competition and souless "inanimate raw materials" to be endlessly hunted down and exploited for their "value". The point is that with information such as is found in 'Voices of Our Ancestors' one can further the process of finding within one's self the root identity beneath the victor's false veneer of "historic" identity. One can struggle to remove the blinds and refuse to be identified by one's masters (the victors definately won something) as "White", "Black", "Red", "Brown". This is the path away from the precipice, the collapse of the web of life which is the legacy of a culture whose dreams are lies and in whose thrall I find myself less and less thanks to books like 'Voices of Our Ancestors'

P.S. - I have lent two copies which have not returned... if you who reads this find an extra, send it my way :-)

From the beginning, this book is misleading. Ms. Yahoo claims to represent something called the Etowah Band of Eastern Cherokees, which simply doesn't exist. Etowah is not even a Cherokee word. Etowah is a Muskogean place name. Her book is a mismash of New Age stuff, misunderstood Mayan cosmology, and even some Hinduism thrown in for good measure. The only authentic Cherokee lore in here is largely cribbed from Mooney's landmark "Myths of the Cherokee", because she follows Mooney's errors. Another poor example of cultural imperialism by a "wannabe" Indian.