First I would like to acknowledge my Teachers and the First Peoples who walked my Sacred Homelands before me. A shout out to the Karankawa and the Esto’k Gna (Carrizo Comecrudo) Sovereign Nations, the original caretakers of the Lands where I was raised and evolving to know, that include the Gulf Coast and Texas Hill Country. As a 5th generation descendent of the Adelsverein, a German Company formed to direct the German colonization of the Republic of Texas, and the stealing of Karankawa, Esto’k Gna, Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, and Comanche Homelands, I offer my most sincere apology and pledge to decolonize and continue my work to correct this huge injustice.
On this difficult decolonizing journey, I am finding that riding my Sacred Body is the best way to reconnect, remember, and return to precolonial Earth wisdom. Something that we all have access to with to Earth receptors on our bare feet. Science is just beginning to tell us what our Indigenous Elders have always inherently known and lived, the Earth is yin, the Sun is yang and we serve as energy conductors in-between.
“What I view life like is about energy. Everything is about energy – everything. We physically are little units of electrical energy, and we vibrate and project electromagnetic thought.” –John Trudell
Susanna (Apolonia) Santos (Warm Springs Nation) wrote me, “When I get off balance, I go lay on the Earth because of her natural magnetic pull that moves our bodies energies, i.e., the earth is negative and our bodies are positive. Just try laying on the earth, especially near a river, lake, or beach. That ought to help naturally purify your body and mind and spirit. It always works for me to help free especially my mind from too much thinking.”
Uncle Harold Belmont, Suquamish Nation Elder, often told me, “Keep the Life Lines Open! Because we all need each other, and we don’t even know how much we need each other.”
Dr. Jingyu Gu showed me the ancient Taoist arts of Qigong, including Taiji’s energy conducting and cultivation movements. Hua-Ching Ni (link), and Mantak Chia’s books and videos verified and expanded Jingyu’s teachings.
Dr. Reverend Robert Jeffrey, Sr. continues to serve as the inspiration to know that no matter what it may look like from a white observer who often can choose between peace and justice, that World Peace can never be attained as long as there is No Justice.
The writings and life work of Riane Eisler, European Holocaust survivor and Human and Critter Rights activist, who so vividly and accurately describes the old ways of living in Loving Peace and Partnership together. Reminding us that restoring a Partnership Society is just an everyday choice of living in Divine Respect.
My Tree teachers wake me up, and remind me over and over again of my co-dependent family relations with Plant Nation. Infusing my body with fibrous diversity, and grounding me with a solid and deep root of Plant-based medicines.
And finally of course, the rest of the Freedom Fighters who continue to teach me from the other side. Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Audre Lorde, Petra Kelly, Goyahkla, Crazy Horse, Mangas Coloradas, and Chochise, to name only a few. And our amazing musicians still reminding us of our collective Power of the People with their soulful movement songs of World Peace and Non-Cooperative Satyagraha Love Force–Miriam Makeba, Johnny Clegg and Jaluka/Savuka, John Lennon, Tony Allen, Id Adewale, and Hugh Masekela. And keeping alive the Spirit of Fela Kuti and Bob Marley’s Movement of the People (M.O.P), including the American Indian Movement, Reverend Dr. William Barber’s War on Poverty, Dr. Cornell West, Juan Mancias, and the Original Peoples of Somi Se’k. And last but not least, my parents, Thomas H. and Carolyn Royder, who introduced me to movement work when they fought to desegregate my school in the early 1960s.
So for me, over the last 30 years, all these teachings have evolved into an Earth grounding practice that reminds me of my personal connection to Mother Earth, Father Sun and All of Our Relations. And with that, a personal sensual realization of my body’s miraculous energy-moving meridian network, held within my fascia and connective tissues that makes up my body’s largest sensory organ. The personal realization that this energy network is not just within me, but also expands to connect us all Celestially! Therefore, we (human and non-human) are related by these Sacred Lands to one another, and thus, we are all connected to this Cosmic Universal Energy Plank Field.
This wisdom is nothing new. It is, in fact, very old.
The Esto’k Gna teach (in their way of everyday living) their children from Day 1 that they are intertwined in the Nature of this Sacred Place, their homelands, Somi Se’k. They are the Land! They are Somi Se’k! This Natural Way they remember and know who they are. A connection to their Homelands so strong that it serves as a Sacred Foundation that carries the highest levels of Respect and Love, so well deserved by all of our Divine Relatives. As we know the Truth of Nature to be:
We are all Divine Beings!
All of Our Relations!
This place is that Sacred. So Sacred that here, the Great Lie…. that any one of us is any less than Divine, cannot exist. This is the Truth that the Esto’k Gna, and other First Nations Peoples carry that we do not often hear, because we are so addicted to the lies of inequality, competition, domination, “ownership,” and unnatural energy sources. Energy hoarders have gone to extreme efforts to uphold and maintain this Great Lie, in order to continue “profiting” from their immoral plundering of Mother Earth. In order to kill off this Truth, energy hoarders attempted to commit genocide toward those, like the Esto’k Gna and Karankawa, who know, and live, and teach this Truth Of Nature, everyday, all the time.
There are so many ways we have been taught to separate from the Truth of Nature, from Plant Nation, from our natural energy sources, from our own bare feet! We have been taught to forget that we are still Living on Stolen Lands. We were taught that we “own,” possess, and control Nature. We were taught to wear thick-soled rubber shoes to protect ourselves from our Mother. And often times we don’t even realize that drinking alcohol often separates us from the original peoples who carry these vital ancient teachings.
There are many personal teachings available to receive if we just step outside of time, stop and listen long enough to remove ourselves from the artificial and toxic energy grid, and follow the Sun back to the rhythms of the Earth and dance there a while. Because, you will find that you have reached the Peace of RioJah, and there is no need to turn around.
This is a way we can Ground in Nature. This is a way to explore our personal connections to the Peace Pathway.
The highest levels of respect and gratitude to my teachers for having the patience and taking the time to pass along this Sacred Earth Wisdom with the faith that I will in time, find a good way to pass along these teachings in serving the True Majority, –the 7th Generations of All Our Relations to come.