The Magic Words
In the very earliest time
when both people and animals lived on earth
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes animals
and there was no difference
all spoke the same language...
That's the way it was.
-Inuit Poem
Two Worlds, Three Paths
'And the whole Earth was of one language, and of one speech.'
-Genesis 11:1
At some point in the distant past, known as the Deep Time, Man was not Man, and Nature was not Nature. The two were indistinguishable. They walked together and spoke the same words, delighted in the same stars, drank the same water, and understood the same silence. All were Earthspeakers, and the stones sang. The wind told tales and the water laughed.
None can remember when it happened, but in some distant past, Man became afraid of Nature, and Nature became afraid of Man. Suddenly they ran from one another and hid in the vastness of their young world. Man dispersed into the meadows and trees, and Nature departed into the gorges and mountains. It is said that this moment in time is where the Ambassadors truly began. They stood in the place where Nature and Man had once been, and they were part of both. Looking at one another, they were undecided. They considered their hands and their languages, and what they could do with them to help Man. They considered their feathers, their scales, their shells and their antennae, and how they could live within Nature and help it as well.
Together, they decided that they should do both. They declared themselves the Ambassadors, The Bridge Between, and vowed to reach into both worlds to heal them. Thus, they quietly dispersed into all lands, and the three paths were born; the Path of Men, of Nature, and of the Ambassadors. The legend of the Leaf of Ages has since been told and retold, describing the three divergent paths of the Ambassadors. Read more about the tale, and other legends,here.
The Disconnections and Destructions
The Ambassadors and Earthspeakers have long upheld, practiced and taught
the Three-fold Harmony, a simple precept, which is:
Connection to Earth
Connection to Others
and Connection to Self
If such connections are maintained and nurtured, the balance of the world will remain. If these connections fall from common practice, the beings of Earth will likewise fall from harmony. The Three Disconnections are:
Disconnection from Earth
Disconnection from Others
Disconnection from Self
These Disconnections, once set in motion, soon
lead to the Three Destructions:
Destruction of Earth
Destruction of Others
Destruction of Self
Most Earthspeakers and Ambassadors have stood beside Man since the Deep Time. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Man not only diminished his role in the Natural realm - he attempted to beat Nature into submission, and in religious doctrines, mindsets and daily life he abruptly declared himself lord over it. The natural realms were no longer the sacred places where the gods lived - Man became God.
Men pressed eagerly into remote and unexplored regions of the world, and obliterated uncountable cultures of his own kind - regal people who had called Nature home since the time of *Chimaquatka. The invading force of Man denounced the Earthly religions and sought to 'reform' them. He brought illness, leveled and defaced whole regions with axes and machetes, polluted with smoke and coal and oil, and then demanded huge yields of crops from the soil, giving no thought to the consequences.
Since that time, Man has drawn further away from Nature than ever been before, and those who uphold Earth and harmony are appalled, disturbed, disgusted and alarmed - the Disconnections are apparent; the Destructions are eminent - the world had been starkly divided. The common origin, and the common destiny, shared by the beings of a fragile world, hangs in the balance.
Iridia
As Men continued to pillage, damage and pollute, and as he built walls that kept Nature out, the Ambassadors watched and listened, and it seemed to them that Men had become sick in a strange way. Men wanted all the time, and seemed to need to possess everything - land, material wealth, and something they had created called 'money', which they believed gave them control of the earth and of others. The desire for control and power led to weapons, and war, and horrific suffering. The symbiotic ways seemed to leave most in the world of Men; those among them who made their lives in the ways of Nature were decimated, brought down by the invader's diseases, forced onto reservations or systematically exterminated. Thus, Nature gave the lands of Men the name 'Ir Idia' which means
the 'More Sickness', or 'Those Who Wither'. Men of these realms became known as 'Iridians'.
Mirico
Mihr ikho' can take on several meanings in the Earth speech- among them 'That which is open', 'The Pure' and 'The Green Mother'. Once the world of Men had been given a distinction, Nature began to distinguish itself in other ways, and the Lands of 'Mirico' were born. It was into these places that the protectors of Nature withdrew, and it was in these places that the Ambassadors came to make their world, hoping that Men would not later invade the hidden lands.
N'Miridin
It was only after Iridia and Mirico had been established that a realization came - something whole had been split apart, perhaps forever; for how could Man, seeing himself as something 'apart' from Nature, ever be 'a part' of it again? Some looked back into antiquity, and came to call the time before the breaking of the world 'N'Miridin'. Some believed that if Man's fear of Nature and Nature's fear of Man could be forgotten, perhaps the worlds of Iridia and Mirico could cease to exist, and N'Miridin could be restored.
*Chimaquatka, meaning 'Isle of Life' or 'Universal Mother' is often depicted as a massive cosmic Tortoise swimming through the young vastness of space.
