In The Last Ghost Dance, Brooke shares a groundbreaking philosophy of Spiritual transformation. She challenges us to become the vital links in the next stage of our greater human evolution by participating in the practices of Earth magic and spiritual ascension.

Brooke invites all those who love Mother Earth to claim their new roles as Earth Mages--to enter committed circles and use their powerful spiritual technologies to become truly evolved human beings. Through prayer, music, dance and the power of sacred intention, Brooke teaches us how to confront our deepest fears, overcome our resistance to change, and renew our lives. © 2000 Ballantine Books, New York.

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The Last Ghost Dance is a call to radical honesty

and renewed spiritual activism in these times of challenge to wholeness.

For those of us seeking ways out of isolation, despair and hopelessness, Brooke Medicine Eagle offers a fountain of wisdom from which to drink. -

Malidoma Some´ Ph D

author of The Healing Wisdom of Africa

and Of Water and Spirit

 

Brooke Medicine Eagle is a wise woman, warrior, teacher, and kindred spirit. She walks her talk and has much to teach us about living in harmony with all life on the planet and with our own essential sacred nature.-

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD

author of Crossing to Avalon

and The Millionth Circle

 

In The Last Ghost Dance, Brooke Medicine Eagle, one of the most respected Native American metis teachers of the modern era, shares a groundbreaking philosophy of spiritual transformation. She challenges us to become the vital links in the next stage of our greater human evolution by participating in the practices of Earth magic and spiritual ascension.

Brooke invites all those who love Mother Earth to claim their new roles as Earth mages. Mage is a word that conveys the magic now within reach as we work toward the ascendant renewal of our world. In times past, magic was practiced secretly by only a unique few. At last the time has come for each of us to become Earth magicians&endash;to enter committed circles and use our powerful spiritual technologies to become truly evolved human beings.

As Brooke herself travels beyond the "illusion of death" to learn the wisdom of "heart-centered ascension," she teaches us how to confront our deepest fears, overcome our resistance to change, and renew our lives. She offers us ancient, yet new, ways to live in harmony with Earth's awakening rhythms&endash;through unified prayer, music, spiritual dance, and ceremonial celebration.

Perceptive, practical, and luminous, The Last Ghost Dance is a call to action, a command to rise up from the ashes of our desecrated planet to create a world that welcomes the full flowering of Spirit.

 

Preface

We are in the time of the New Ghost Dance.

--A Message from an Old Woman of the Earth

Brought through by Carol Aitchison

 

 

All of us alive on Lady Gaia at this time have the opportunity to be an active part of the Rainbow of Light that creates the bridge into a new and Golden Time for All Our Relations and us. At this point in human history, we have the opportunity to literally bring Heaven to Earth. Our ability to visualize and believe it is possible for us to lift ourselves up, to pick up the profound work of our Earthly ancestors and move responsibly into our own piece of the action, and to fully embody Spirit is what will make this ascension possible. The exciting part is that we have the opportunity to complete something Mother Earth and humanity have been working on for aeons.

The rainbow bridge to a renewed Earth was first shown to me in a vision given me by White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman, the mysterious holy woman who came many generations ago to a small group of Lakota people, bringing the Sacred Pipe that represents the Oneness and holiness of the Circle of Life. She, whose name is often shortened to Buffalo Woman, has been an inner guide and teacher to me and to many others of this generation, as her wisdom invites us to walk in a sacred manner on Earth, honoring All Things, not only as our family, but literally as part of our wholeness.

This particular time, she took me to stand at the edge of an enormous chasm made of black, shiny stone and asked me to look around. Looking across the gap, I saw a sight that thrilled my heart. On the other side was a radiantly golden world. Everything had an iridescent aura, like we sometimes see on a spring morning after rain when the dew picks up the many-colored light. There were people and animals there on a broad, flowering plain under crystal snow-capped peaks - with no sound but a soft breeze and happy laughter. Out of the sacred groves of enormous trees on the hillsides came rushing pure, clear water. Children and young animals played there together, splashing and laughing and drinking the water without fear. Two-leggeds went about peacefully and joyfully, developing and exchanging their gifts and talents, taking in the radiant energy for nourishment and nibbling for their sweet taste the fruits and plants that grew about them in profusion. Happy songs of birds and people and the calls of contented animals echoed across. It was a glorious place - a golden dream for us and All Our Relations. I yearned to go there.

Then I turned to look behind me and was aghast at what I saw. There were smog on the horizon and acridness in the air, which I could see was harming all the living things upon which it settled, for everything had a dull, gray hue. There was arguing and fighting and warring, repression and prejudice, with everyone grasping what they could for themselves while snarling at others. Noise -- screeching and pounding and roaring -- filled the air. The scream of chain saws bespoke cutting the precious trees on the hills. Everything possible was being eaten, which made the people heavy yet did not nourish them. The lost, homeless, dispossessed, and sick lay all about, with many dying at the feet of those who hurried past. People wandered about, seeming alone and frightened even among their own kind. The deep hunger and need and grief of all filled the air.

I wanted desperately to get to the radiant life on the other side of the chasm. Yet as I leaned cautiously to peer over the edge, I could not see the bottom: the dark, slick rock dropped out of sight in the mist on both sides. The gap was much too wide to jump, and I had no other means to cross. A wailing cry erupted from my throat as I realized I could not get there.

All the while, White Buffalo Woman had stood beside me. Now she looked at me with compassion, and said, "The bridge upon which you will cross to that beautiful life on a renewed and flowering Earth will be a bridge of light." Then she sent from within herself a rainbow of light which jumped across the chasm to rest on the other side. "To make a bridge, the light must become a rainbow. It is the only way!"

I looked at her, still in desperation, because I did not know how to make a rainbow.

"To make a rainbow, all colors of light must be included. None can be left out, or there will be no bridge." And she went on to help me understand the deeper meaning of this symbol she had given me, "When I say 'all colors' I am referring to all things, all peoples, all beings. None can be left out. You must walk a sacred walk, acknowledging, honoring, respecting, communing and cooperating with all things and beings in the Circle of Life. No one, nothing, can be left behind. You must live a life of inclusiveness, union, and sharing -- letting the Light of Love flow freely among you. When all are included in a good way, the discordant song will become harmony and the light will automatically become a rainbow. Thus, all of you who are alive become the rainbow upon which the generations cross into this new and Golden Time.

"The rainbow also represents another aspect of our movement into this new time: lightening up! It reminds you that you will find joy and happiness by creating them through singing, dancing, and celebrating together in gratefulness for the beauty Creator has given. You must release your heaviness and those things that burden you -- lifting your attitude, practice, and vibration to a higher level. You must let what you love and what brings joy call you forward from moment to moment, for in no way can you bring this radiant time by doing things which displease or de-energize you. Rather than working for it, you must dance your lives as the old ones did. Nurturing ceremony and joyful celebration will be not only the hallmarks but also the means into this wonderful future."

This vision, which affected me so poignantly then, still calls to me deeply. That iridescent scene of a renewed Earth beckons me every day of my life. I seek to unroll that dream before me as I walk, as one would lay out a beautiful carpet. Having stepped forward, I realize that the polluted scene lives within me as well as outside of me, and that, for me, awakening the dream into reality means cleansing myself of the attitudes, beliefs, and actions that comprise it, in order that I may invite others to do the same.

I also realize that the beautiful, iridescent place already exists on a certain plane of reality. It is the gift Creator has offered us from the beginning of time, if we will only cleanse the smog from our eyes and choose that sacred path.

Now, another vision has joined this one - a vision of another Rainbow, half of which has already been created and sent forth. During the time of European expansion and aggressive conquering of the Americas, Father Spirit sent a Messianic vision of this radiant land on 'the other side' to a succession of tribal people, the most famous of which was a Paiute named Wovoka who shared it with natives far and wide. They were shown a radiant life similar to that which White Buffalo Woman opened before me. Their visions came over a 400 year period when subjugation, decimation, and finally genocide were taking place among American native peoples. The white man's greed for land and wealth was laying waste to the native tribes. Their lives were shattered, their homelands ravaged, the buffalo slaughtered and rotting in the sun, their families murdered, their dreams broken.

These radiant visions, and the Christ figure known as Dawn Star who brought them, gave the ravaged people renewed hope, offering them a way to re-create an even more beautiful life. Through the Spirit Dance they had been given, they would bring to life their golden dream. Their murdered relatives would walk again on green and flowering land; all that was destroyed would be made whole. It was to be a new world where Earth and spirit are as one. So in the latter days, they made the shirts shown in Wovoka's vision, using what little leather was left or flour sacks from the meager rations given them on the new reservations; and they circled in the entrancing dance that was shown them. They called upon their loved ones, so many hundreds now on the side of Spirit, to lift them up into this radiant dream. They danced that golden dream into the ground, set it into the reality of the Earth plane, made their half of the Rainbow. Then even that dream was shattered. At Wounded Knee, innocent, peaceful people of the Ghost Dance were murdered by the cavalry because the fearful white nation did not see the peaceful, beautiful dream that could unfold from it.

Those dancers lifted into Spirit, to hold their half of the rainbow until we of the present human generation could awaken and dance the other half into the ground of reality in this world. The vision White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman gave me is the same vision; it has been given into the hearts and minds of many of this generation -- it is alive and well. The Ancient Ones and native peoples have known and held these powerful dreams down through time. Although they seem to fade with our attention on other things, a fine, strong thread connects us to them. Our present task is to draw their essence forth, and to weave a web of beauty upon which to dance our lives.

We can use our understanding of the past to move forward into our future. Whatever 'facts' and knowledge I bring to you are meant as a way of grounding these prophetic principles in Earth clothing. Although you will undoubtedly learn from this book, it is not primarily instructional; instead, it's purpose is inspiration and empowerment. It comes from the deep knowing that life is unfolding something marvelous and miraculous, and that the more quickly and completely we embrace this opening with our understanding, our trust and joy, and take our own personal action, the sooner the unfolding magnificence will spring full and bright into our everyday reality. Far greater energies are moving than what I can humbly describe in these words: The ages and the aeons are coming around to fullness, to fulfillment of prophecies more ancient than time, as universal as the very Source of All Life.

In the beautiful words of our modern prophet Ken Carey,

Listen, O humans of this present world: listen as the sparrow listens for her lover's call upon the breeze. We are speaking to you in your dreams, in snatches of song heard in passing, from the mouths of children, from these pages and words, but more than this, we are speaking to you from the center of your innermost being. Hear us, and remember yourselves.

We have come to initiate the most joyous age this Earth has ever known: a thousand year period of Earth healing and renewed harmony that will see the four-legged flourish, the two legged awaken, the rivers run pure, and human-kind in conscious exchange with the stars.1

 

 

 I chose the art for the cover, Rainbow Sundancer, as a metaphor that expresses the dance of life for we who choose to enter new levels of awareness for an awakening humanity. This artistic expression is a portrait that all of us are being invited to make our own. Vera Louise Drysdale gave expression to her vision of an uplifted humanity through the traditional symbol from Native American culture; my approach is the same, yet the peoples, each of us alive in this time on Mother Earth. The time has come for each of us, in our own personal and cultural way, to become an enlightened dancer of life: a fully awakened two-legged, creating and celebrating a renewed and flowering Earth!

This painting contains many levels of symbolism that I wish to share with you. First, it presents the interdimensional realms of the modern day shaman: the Earth mage (magician) of whatever race, sex, or color.

It reflects our profound connection with all of things of Earth and demonstrates how Earth magic allows us to transcend the old image of Earthly life, thus bringing a radiant, spiritual presence into our Earth dance. In this way we become fully human--embodying Spirit in balance with Earth within ourselves.

The spirit dancer wears the horns of the shaman, who has the ability to dance in both worlds: the world of form and the world of the Shimmering Invisible. With the light of the Dawn Star in his heart, he offers that radiance out to the world through extended hands. Standing grounded in the pure and clear waters of the garden of Turtle Island, he brings down the Light of Spirit, and radiant wings are his gift. This spirit warrior stands poised on the Rainbow Bridge between Song and Light, at the point of power where we can dance beauty and abundance, unity , and joy into reality in the realms of Lady Gaia.

The sacred mountain rising in the background is red to symbolize the blood, the life force that lives in All Our Relations, and the moon brings in the sweetness of a clear night complementing a brilliantly sunny day. The dancer wears a skirt of red as dedication to All Our Relations, and an apron of iridescent feathers to represent the Rainbow that contains all things, all beings, all realms. His evergreen head wreath represents the greening of a renewed Earth, and the flowers depict the flowering of life of Earth.

The Rainbow Sundancer painting reminds us that the Sun Dance is a dance done by men and women honoring the Light of Father Spirit, which gives us and our world the flowering of life from year to year; all primary cultures have such a dance that invites our ancestors' help in the new century's awakening of a renewed Earth, with the full flowering of Spirit in each individual. Here we see that to form the Rainbow Bridge, the Sun Dance must be blended with the Ghost Dance. These powerful rituals must now come together in one great ceremony, one eternal dance of renewal for Mother Earth and all her children.

Through this book, I am extending an invitation to you to step into the last Ghost Dance and the joy and beauty that will result from taking your part as a responsible creator, a partner in aliveness -- an Earth mage who does positive Earth 'magic' in service of All Our Relations. For it is as we bring these profound ways of being into our everyday Earthly life that we have enough magic to ascend to higher levels of functioning. It is a process, not of leaving Earth (rising above or beyond her) but of tuning in to Spirit alive, and thus rising with Earth and All Our Relations. Those who wish to remain with Earth on her journey into a higher level of being must choose to elevate their vibration to match hers. White Buffalo Woman and Dawn Star have told us that this vibration is one of harmonious resonance, of unity, peace, Love, and true Oneness. Those of us who choose this uplifting path of the heart will feel the richness, joy, and prospering that will be magnified through our actions.

Our time of awakening has come. It is the time for the new Ghost Dance, which in fact becomes the last Ghost Dance. This time we will be able to dance the vision fully into the ground of Earth and make it real. This book takes you with me on a journey toward that renewing dance of life, toward the bright new world that awaits us and All Our Relations.

 

 

-Brooke Medicine Eagle

Flathead Valley, Montana

Dawn of the new millennium

 

 

 

Who would have thought

the dancing could make such trouble?

For the message I brought was peace.

And that message was given by the Father to all tribes.

. . Short Bull

Brule' Sioux Ghost Dance leader of the 1890's

 

 

 1. Ken Carey, Return of the Bird Tribes (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 133.