15-04-2014, 12:05 PM
From Facebook, on Michael's wall today - original poster Keith Markley. Emphasis in bold, added.
Quote:A personal email exchange between Michael and myself some months back:
On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 4:38 PM, Mike Ruppert <stgeorge119@gmail.com> wrote:
You know, when I was in High School I was a member of DeMolay, the Junior Masons. I was raised around the military and I became a cop. With each initiation there was planning, training and full knowledge of what you were being initiated into. There were ritual books, or training and you knew exactly what you were entering and what your obligations and duties were, and what the protocols were.
Not so with Indians. In all of my contact with first peoples I usually don't even know I'm being initiated, let alone into what, or what the protocols are. Looking back I can see that Skip Mahawk, aside from paying me a great honor, initiated me into the indigenous native path in 2001. Tom Brown was another one. So now I guess it was no accident that Crow Feather, a Lipan, was there when my tobacco went onto the altar in my first peyote tipi this summer in Crestone. That was a real ass-kicking. They worked on me all night: electric current, speaking in tongues, seizures, pain that made me cry like a baby... for hours, until the start of the fourth round when I was able to pull out and muster the will to sing and smile. Crow Feather saved my ass when no other medicine people could.
When it was over Chris long, a Yuwipi Man, my shaman who was holding the ceremony, said, "Don't worry. They get easier."
I have been a scout so long, alone and so far behind the lines, that I do not even fully know the ways of my own tribe.
I am tired now. And what I have seen is that I might be losing my edge as a scout. Crow Feather told me that it was time to put that down and be an elder, teach, laugh, and make children happy. It was time to lead. But I am unable to stop being what I have been, doing what I have done. I still see things that others cannot.
And there are times when I ask if it is permissible for a scout to end his own walk because sometimes the pain is more than I can bear. All that I have seen my whole life is coming to pass and it is so hard to watch the two-leggeds, Mother Earth, and all my relations suffer, even as I see the two-leggeds begin to awaken.
Forgive me if I insult you. I do not mean it. You referred to a prayer you sent me. I am not sure which one it was. Did it end with something like, "through your walk in this life and the one beyond"? If so, would you send it again please. Sometimes it is very hard to keep track, even of such wonderful prayers.
I do know that I am loved and a member of something very, very special. Honors are nice but my craving has always been to know where I belong and be there with my people.
Do scouts have to die alone, as they have walked?
--Tracker of Truth Michael C. Ruppert
On Dec 4, 2013 7:59 PM, "Keith M" < thebattlecreektracker@gmail.com> wrote:
Honestly Mike, it's pretty tough to insult me with a sincere embrace. I too was raised in what amounted to be warriorship, if you break it down to the psychology of primal human instinct. My father was a Cold War vet with a big Irish mouth when he had a few. His pride and shame for his service often fought to eclipse one another. This among many other themes left an imperceptible pull in me toward service of intangible virtue. This, by our cultural upbringing, naturally didn't sit well with me. I was always compelled to ferret out what eludes my awareness. My cultural and spiritual exploration began with martial arts at the age of 6. (I am now 35). I learned to quest for purity. A truth that was pure and simple. True everywhere, not just among those who wanted to believe in it. My instincts began awakening exponentially with this quest. An inner knowing that I was on the right track. I have transcended many teachers. As I climbed this mountain, I began to notice these teachers becoming rarer and fewer. Then finally one day a synchronicity that refused to be ignored pulled me onto my path with a drive and momentum that goes deeper and beyond me. It was my initiation into Grandfather's wisdom and Tom Brown, Jr.'s Tracker School. I read every one of his books. Such was my inner calling that I had almost all of them memorized my first time through. Grandfather transcended everything. He was more than Apache. More than an Elder Shaman, Master Scout or medicine man. He followed this path of purity to completion. He lived his life purpose, his Vision. And passed it on to us through Tom. during the years reading the books, before I started taking classes, I would bring other traditions in to compare, and nothing could even compete. It was too pure. Too real. Too simple... And that is the kicker. We love to complicate the shit out of everything. To shape it to fit our shortcomings. As a martial artist and primitive skills practitioner, I developed an instinct of knowing when a tradition must be adapted to the individual, and when the individual needs to strive to adapt and grow to the challenges of the tradition. You see, without the initiation experience, people fail to have any momentum to grow. The fad of mixed martial arts is an example of this. Lazy students mixing and matching traditions to meet their shortcomings. The initiation experience drives one into their very core in their spirit in the moment. Showing us who we truly need to be in the now. Finding Tom as a teacher is no accident. It was the only answer I had left and the only one that worked.
I grew up as an only child. So solitary quests were my forte.
I hope I don't insult you either here, but I think a lot of confusion is found in interpretation when thinking with awareness rooted in the physical mind over the spirit. It leads us to a lot of what Grandfather termed "Spiritual Masturbation". He spent 60 years wandering the Americas learning all spiritual traditions and earth skills to the point of mastering them in his quest for pure truth. Even though he couldn't read or write, he had for instance, the Bible and the Tao Te Ching memorized word for word. I don't think you were really "initiated" so to speak in the official sense on the Native path, as much as you were awakened to your pure humanity. Which makes us all as human animals "Natives" and children of our earth mother. Awakening is gradual. Never ending. It's Awareness blooming on every level. As a Tracker. As a Scout
With this comes a deep visceral connection with earth and spirit almost immediately. Soon you become aware of the consciousness of the spirit-moving-in-and-through-all-things. And it is about that time you sense its pain and suffering and that there is more you can do for it. Enter our spiritual life purpose we accepted before we were even born. Our Visions.
Conflict with ones Vision arises when we get caught up in the physical mind trying to substantiate it and figure it out. All we truly need to do is spiritually ask, "What is the next step?" But what we're talking about here is prayer. Not the bullshit religious kind. But prayer empowered with spirit. Asking "What is the next step?" falls into what Grandfather categorized as a prayer for enlightenment. Another one which I use most is the "Prayer of the Known Heart". Literally "You know my heart." This one is for when you feel a need so deep and so beyond words that you are at a loss as to how to continue.
This stretches us beyond trying to define everything and set parameters. What Crow Feather told you is true. But what you heard was not.
Yes, your place is now including the role of Elder as your seat. But you are a Scout. He didn't say that that will ever end did he? I bet not. What he referred to was more in that you no longer have to be pointman on the Scout team. A painfully exhausting position from just the intense awareness maintained alone. I know that one for a fact.
Quoting you here: "And there are times when I ask if it is permissible for a scout to end his own walk because sometimes the pain is more than I can bear. All that I have seen my whole life is coming to pass and it is so hard to watch the two-leggeds, Mother Earth, and all my relations suffer, even as I see the two-leggeds begin to awaken."
You know damn well that you can't do that! Walk On! To drop our strength now reminds me of so many quotes regarding how so many people quit on the verge of success. My favorite: "On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions, who at the dawn of victory, lay down to rest, and in resting died." ~ Adlai E. Stevenson
This is why you are a Scout. I don't know where or when you began your Scout training. But from mine, this is totally unacceptable. We carry the lives of so many in our hands. So many are counting on us to be the leaders, teachers, protectors, Shamen, healers etc. with their lives. Most don't even know it. Making it a thankless job. But we are not doing it for credit. Credit dies with the forgotten dreams of forgotten people laying in forgotten graves. We do this to heal the earth, to heal the spirit-moving-in-and-through-all-things, to heal our people. To stop walking is to betray them all. All ancestors and all who follow us.
Our death is inconsequential now. Our life is what carries our power. Use it.
What you are experiencing is what we refer to in Tracking as "Hitting the Wall". You are struggling to find that next track. Trying and trying. But when you finally see it, you will never have difficulty finding another track of that difficulty again. This is what Chris Long was probably referring to.
So here you are, hitting that wall. Your flow of momentum has been dammed up in a pool at it's base. You're trying and trying but feel that your progress is too slow?
Perhaps it's time to get out of the point position and let someone else take that role. It's time to ascend to the next plane. After all, Tom always says, "Whenever I see a Scout, the first thing I see is a Shaman." Scouts from this tradition are not tethered to the illusion of age. Traditionally they weren't even considered full-fledged Scouts till they reached their 40th winter. Many of Tom's Scouts are in their 60's. The master Scouts of Grandfather's time were often in their 80's and 90's. Remember that he met Tom when he was 83, and could not only out run him, but run through dried leaves without making a sound. Through sand without a track. Shit you'd never believe if you hadn't seen it demonstrated by those he passed it down to.
To bring it into application, your watchdog role is to change probably. You've already reached enough people. But knowing is not enough. It's time to act. Time is running out. You're practically singlehandedly creating the majority of the "Rainbow Tribe". But now that they are awakened... What are you going to do next? Your power is moving from the screens of light to moccasins on the earth. Are you going to follow it? I think all of your fans are waiting on the next step.
I don't feel it is my place to advise you. (Just trying to find the light switch maybe?) You seem to have what it takes to find your way. I'd strongly suggest a Vision Quest however. And perhaps Tom's books. Particularly Awakening Spirits.
Attached is the Prayer of Grandfather's lineage. Be very careful who you share it with. It is private and sacred to us.
In good medicine, Keith Markley