WEST
Let us bring our minds together as one”*
A place of communal healing…
introspection, reflection, and purification…
to understand our common values, and goals,
to find the strength to make shared decisions for social change…
Who are we? How do we see our place in the world?
How do we wish to relate to others?
What is our individual and collective purpose?
Why do we purify ourselves for the gift of dreams and visions for our life,
the life of our families, and our communities?
What transformations are we interested in creating in this Life?
What questions do we wish to ask from the Universe?
In what ways can we share the gifts we carry,
with our community where we live?
Reflection
“At the heart of the divisions in society today is a crisis of identity….The crisis of identity is directly related to the spread of prejudice.”**
Before the gathering, we can reflect and ask the Creator for guidance on how we should prepare ourselves. We trust that our common understandings gained through our time together, will bring greater spiritual empowerment and the ability to advocate on behalf of all people, creatures, plants and the Land for a better world.
Our founding grandmothers asked us to address the seven prejudices around the sacred fire:
– How do we transcend the seven prejudices (or hierarchies) identified by our founding grandmothers, and dismantle their effects in our world?
- Age
- Economics
- Education
- Gender
- Politics
- Race
- Religion
– What is our true identity? Who am I? Who are we?
– How do we create a greater awareness of how to build a better existence through understanding our essential oneness and interconnected relationships to the Land, all plants, and creatures?
– How can we find new ways to raise up our communities together?
*beginning of the Haudenosauneee Thanksgiving Prayer
**Universal House of Justice Letter, 1 November 2022, to the DRC