Native American Beliefs About Time and Death
Native Americans look at life as circular
(Credit: crystalinks.com)
In the Western world, most people perceive time as a linear thing. Milestones are anticipated, passed, and once they are passed, they are finished. We are born, we live and we die. In that order. And once we die, we are gone. But not all cultures agree. Many Native American cultures perceive time as being circular, rather than linear. There are no definite beginnings or endings, only what is, what always has been, and what always will be.
What if death isn’t the end, but simply another milestone on the timeline of life? Rather than imagining life as a line, what if we imagined it as a spiral? Many Native American tribes do not see death as an absolute, but instead they see life as an infinite journey where death is not the end. Death is appreciated as a passage to the next world: the next step in life.
Healing through time and death
(Credit: invinciblemusic.com)
Although there are several hundred different Native American tribes, many of which have different beliefs, almost all tribes hold this perception of time as being circular. Many tribes believe in reincarnation, and that the soul is an eternal presence that moves from body to body without ever leaving the world. Others believe that when a loved one dies, their soul is transported to the next world where they join their ancestors who passed before them. This different perspective allows the Native American people to view death not with grief, but with acceptance and happiness. Moving from this world to the next is not something to be mourned, but rather it is something to be celebrated. Death is nothing more than a stepping stone to the next life.
“Making Mobiles” by Karolina Merska
“Hands Up to the Sky” by Michael Franti & Spearhead
Coping With Election Grief
i read your article and i thank you for it. I believe in objective science only. Bio chemistry, genes, psychology. i do believe that it has health benefits to those who believe. if a shaman does it in the right place , right time, it is supposed to work. if he does it at the wrong place and wrong time it doesn’t work. meta magic is just that. leaving you with best of health wishes and good luck going around.
thanks
Maurice
Report this comment
Nature goes in curves and circles
Report this comment
Thank you for this lovely discussion. I agree that belief is the key here. belief in science is also belief. I believe the cosmos expresses and we as part of it we express through belief. Belief being the story we find congruence through. The cosmos is not nodes in a grid – we know this and it is always emerging. it is becoming hence we express it’s becoming in the stories we believe in. Native Americans invest in story as life which I find more scientifically accurate than the idea that there mind is not a part of the cosmos (this being the concept that allows scientific analysis to operate). All done by kindness Mikey
Report this comment
I enjoyed reading this! Thank you, Britny Benson for sharing it. It really touched my heart.
Report this comment
Thank you for your feedback, Rhonda!
Report this comment
There are many other cultures who also believe that life exists in a circle through reincarnation and I believe we belong to groups of souls who work in concert to attain knowledge and perfection. The hereafter is the planning arena and living as a human allows us to put that plan into action but since we have free will, we always don’t make the right choices which affects our advancement on the other side. I watched Morgan Freeman’s Search for God which took him to many different regions of the world that provided insight into other religions and I was amazed at how many share the same basic belief but just have a different way of attaining their goal.
Report this comment
Everything is circular… we live on a round planet rotating in a circular motion, revolving in a circular pattern around a very bright circular sun. All of which are revolving in circular patterns in circular galaxies, universes, etc. It makes perfect sense that life is also circular and therefore infinite. Birth, life, death, maybe something else, then birth again… all circular.
Report this comment
This concept of time helps explain why that Native Americans perceive injustices as occurring as if they occurs yesterday.
Report this comment