America Needs A Grandmother Lodge

by Sadaka Tehuti-Ma'at

Long ago in the North East of this land, the Iroquois (known amongst themselves
as the Haudenosaunee), under the direction of a great peacekeeper, built a strong
confederacy for the mutual good of their member nations. Not only did the five
nations of the Mohawk, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the
Seneca benefit from this structure, but also the 13 English colonies which later
became the United States of America – because it modeled the government of the
Haudenosaunee.
Although Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were wise enough to utilize
some of the unifying principles of the Haudenosaunee, they overlooked one the
major ingredients which held the Native American commonwealth together and
balanced it in peace. And this was the role and importance of the Clan Mother.
Each clan of the various nations had designated an elder wise woman of the
Grandmother Lodge to serve as Clan Mother, who embodied the law and spirit of
the clan. It was through her that the clan chiefs were designated, counseled, and
disciplined. If, after several warnings, his actions threatened or disrupted the
tranquility of the clan, the Clan Mother could impeach him and select another to
serve in his place.
Such was the established and maintained balance between masculine and
feminine energy which promoted peace. Jefferson and Franklin missed it! America
has no Grandmother Lodge, Clan Mother, nor any embodiment of feminine energy
that checks and challenges unbridled masculine power.
Just think what would happen if designated Clan Mothers of the world nations
would come together for peace and understanding? Would we have war as we do
today?
I Think Not!

“When our elders step across the threshold of the Grandmother Lodge, leaving
their bleeding behind them, they become the Keepers of the Law. No longer is
their attention consumed with the creation and rearing of their own family…
Thus their attention turns to the children of all Our Relations: not just their
own children, or the children of their friends, their clan or tribe, but the
children of all the hoops: the Two-Leggeds, the Four-Leggeds, the Wingeds, the
Finned, the Green-Growing Ones, and all others. Our relationship with this
great circle of Life rests ultimately in their hands. They must give away this
responsibility by modeling, teaching, and sharing the living of this law — in
everyday life — to men, women, children — that all might come into balance.”

– Brooke Medicine Eagle, Women Of The 14th Moon

In the Spirit of

Deganawidah
The Great Peacekeeper!
.
.
Note: The above photo is a meeting of the International Council 13 Indigenous
Grandmothers with the Dalai Lama. The Council was founded and sponsored by
a non-profit organisation, The Center for Sacred Studies, under the guidance of
the Center’s Spiritual Director Jyoti. The Grandmothers Council initially met,
for 7 days, on 11 October 2004 at the Dalai Lama’s Menla Retreat Center on
Panther Mountain in Phoenicia, New York, declaring themselves as a council at
that meeting. The choice of the location for the meeting, the land of the
Iroquois, was fitting as the Iroquois nation always consulted their own Council
of Grandmothers before any decision was made – this included the decision of
whether to go to war.

- – - taken from Wikipedia