In this weeks visit, Chief Joseph gifts us with many things: The gift of power to say ‘no’; the gift of discernment; the wisdom to be a great leader, and many others…He gives us a vision of his life and the lives of his people, sharing the lessons he learned, and reminding us to be aware of the messages all around…
Suzanne Maresca: Good morning and welcome to another offering of Heavenly Blessings with Linda Dillon, channel for the Council of Love and author of The New You, Emerging into the Brilliance of Humanity’s Heart Consciousness and myself, Suzanne Maresca.
We’re continuing our series featuring Native American Indian Chiefs and our guest today is Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe.
Joseph was one who wanted peace and safety for his people more than anything, and at that time in human history it just was not possible. We’re keeping the faith that now it is and that may be why these elders are stepping forward to share their stories and wisdom.
We’ve been very busy here at InLight Universal working out the technical aspects of running our shows from our very own platform. I have to say it’s been a bit of a challenge for me to maintain focus on all I’ve had to learn. I brought that feeling into meditation and what came to me is encouraging!
It feels like the way we do things with technology as we know it, is kind of rustic and primitive and unnecessary. So, it may be that perceptions are shifting because our galactic aspects are integrating with who we are in the now, and that idea is very exciting indeed!
Remember the website with all of our shows is www.InLightUniversal.com and we also have a Facebook page that you can follow us on!
Good Morning Linda!
Linda Dillon: Good Morning Suzy and yes, here we are! This is our first show on InLightUniversal as Heavenly Blessings and away we go!
SM: Whoo, whoo!
LD: Yea, and I know that all this technical stuff can, and I think has been, a challenge for you, but on behalf of our listeners and everybody out there who so enjoys the show and the messages of all the Beings that come to chat with us, we thank you!
SM: Ah, you are so welcome and it really is my pleasure, challenging as it may be, I absolutely want to do it, so thank you!
LD: It’s really worth it and I too encourage all our listeners to go to the www.InLightUniversal.com website because it is crisp, it is clean, it is so easy to find the shows that maybe you’ve missed or you want to go back and listen to because it was on a topic that really spoke to your heart! So, come visit us, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, so yeah!
SM: Whoo, okay! So, I have to say that Chief Joseph has been coming to me in preparation for the show and I really appreciate it and I think that you have some things to say about who Chief Joseph really was and what he meant to, well human history really.
LD: Yea, and I think you touched a little bit on it in your introduction, but my concern was that some people may not fully know or understand who Chief Joseph, also known as Younger Joseph, also known as Thunder Rolling Down The Mountain if you translated his real Native American name into English, but he was such a force to be reckoned with! And you know in Native American culture and certainly as a Nez Perce Chief, the way that they had their leadership I guess you would call it divided, Chief Joseph, in order of his tradition, was not a war chief. His role was more leadership and the care and feeding and the governance, which was far more democratic than some of ours, of the tribe. But he wasn’t a war chief, he wasn’t a battle chief and yet, in the end, that’s the role that he ended up playing.
But we know Chief Joseph was from the Northwest and lived from 1840 to 1904. He was from the Northwest, Oregon area, and then, like so many of the tribes, they were shifted, you know, they were shuttled around. They were given land and then the land was taken away. They would give consent to this reservation, then the reservation was changed, so they moved, from like taken off the lands in Oregon and sent temporarily to Idaho, then sent to Kansas. It’s been a really hard journey, but what we know Chief Joseph by is that quote, you know, “I will fight no more forever.”
SM: Yes.
LD: And even though that was said in his speech where he surrendered, very close to the Canadian border, but he and his warriors and his people that were traveling with him, women and children were starving and freezing and that is why he surrendered. They were just completely beaten down by war and the futility of war.
I think that’s part of what he’s going to talk to us about today, that, you know, no matter what situations we see nationally, internationally, in our families, in our communities, is that fighting, this war mentality, this violence mentality, there’s just no place for it.
He comes across, and you’ve been feeling it Suzy, as this very gentle, loving, loving soul.
SM: Yes, yes.
LD: So, it’ll be a treat for us to hear from him. And it’s a treat for us to feel the energy of the different chiefs and what they bring! I even noticed, and I’ve been working with the chiefs for years, but this is like the encore round for me, but the energy of Cochise, the first week we did this was so different than Geronimo! And I know that Chief Joseph is going to be like ‘different’ again.
You know, so often, the chiefs get clumped together and nothing could be further from the truth, not only in their spirit, but in their personalities, and in the traditions of the various tribes that they grew up in.
SM: Yes, and I think that’s a good reminder to us for anyone who’s concerned that being in group consciousness means we lose our individuality, that’s absolutely not true. We will always be our individual expression of the One; we just become more aware of the Oneness of it all.
LD: Really good point.
SM: Yea.
LD: Really good point.
LD: And in this work that we’re doing with the chiefs, we’ve been working, and are working and will be working with the medicine wheel. And you know the medicine wheel in the native tradition is very sacred. It’s akin or parallel to the circle of life and the various elements and kingdoms and directions of the wheel. You know, whether we’re from Brooklyn or Vancouver or Native American and live in North Dakota, all of us in our lives travel around that medicine wheel. It’s really a useful tool and tradition for us to bring that wheel and get to know on the medicine wheel where we’re standing and what we’re working on. It’s a bigger way for us to incorporate not only Native American spirituality, but a way for us to understand our own journey.
SM: Yes, and our place in the wheel, and like you said, I think that’s really well put and it helps with the whole idea of unity consciousness, our connection with All That Is.
LD: Exactly!
SM: I feel so full of love right now, I am loving our listeners and I’m loving you and I’m just loving everything, so shall we leap into a meditation?
LD: Oh yes, let’s go, let’s go.
LD: And so again, what I’m doing is utilizing that medicine wheel meditation, but we’re going to use the portion of the meditation that brings us to the North of the wheel because that’s where Chief Joseph sits.
But, as you know the drill, we begin by just saying relax, and breathe and bring yourself into your heart. Anchor in your heart and let go of the day, the week, the week ahead, your to do list and feel yourself sinking into your chair or the bed or the floor, wherever you are. Just close your eyes, thank yourself for giving your self this time, this time of journeying with our forefathers.
We begin by breathing, breathe in the rich red clay of Sedona and the black, black earth of the Dakotas, the fragrant night blooming Jasmine of the south and the silent pine forests of the north. Breathe deeply and as so many of our friends, particularly in the Northeast are experiencing snow right now, breathe in that cold, crisp, damp air of snow. Breathe it in, that gorgeous crystalline energy and feel the brilliance of when the white is shining in the sunshine with a million sparkles and the milky white when it’s gray and shadowy.
Feel yourself standing on a prairie, on a wide open meadow, a perfect morning, a snow morning. Dawn is just beginning to creep into the sky, fingers of rose, pale smoky yellow, rising up and reaching for the eastern horizon. Breathe in that cold morning air as you awaken and look around you, as you walk to your sacred medicine wheel, to welcome the day, to begin our morning rituals, in the quiet of the morning.
You hear the first chirping of the birds as they greet the sun. Feel your self, greatly expanded self, reaching out and communicating with your winged friends who are reminding you right now of your ability to fly. Thank them for their song, the song that greets you morning and afternoon and during the setting sun. Thank them for their beauty, the beauty they bring to you every day, not only in this meditation, but in the heart of the city, the quiet of the country. Take a moment and notice, feel, look, in this meditation at what birds are speaking to you. What birds do you call to yourself and welcome them into your sacred space?
Feel yourself entering the medicine wheel, always from the East, from the place of the rising sun, the place of illumination, walking in a sacred manner, feeling your feet, giving and receiving and connecting with Gaia. Feel it as you pass to the South of the medicine wheel into the West, to the place of the void and continue on around the wheel to the North, to the place of wisdom, to the place, in many ways, of completion, the place where one day, each one of us will step off the medicine wheel and continue on the blue road.
Feel yourself invigorated but at deep peace as you simply stand in the North, to the place of winter and night, to the home of the elders and yes, of wisdom. Chief Joseph welcomes you. He welcomes you right now with a look that warms your soul, even on this snowy morning.
He begins: “When I was tired, I traveled to the place of deep snow, the snows have the ability to cover the Gaia and to give the Mother time to heal her wounds. Snow is a time of rest and quiet reflection of what has been learned. There are no creatures on this planet that do not need this rest. It is the wisdom of the elders that they are not afraid to go to sleep and awaken in a new spring. Do not be afraid my friends to throw your ashes to the four directions, to allow the smoke to carry your prayers, your sorrows, your grief, and the winged ones to carry your dreams. Welcome the winds of change that swirl around you now and the bounty of the seasons. That is the gift of life! That is the gift of the good red road.
My gift to you this day is the power to say no; the wisdom to know when it is time to retreat and to begin again; the wisdom to lead your people in times of war and in times of peace. I give you the gift of discernment, the power of seeing and of knowing peoples true hearts and their selves; to know your enemies, but more importantly to know your friends. I give you the power of the elders, of the ancient ones. I give you the gift to carry this medicine with you, always.” (1)
Chief Joseph is exhaling, exhaling, breathing out upon you and you feel his white air of the North envelop you. Inhale this gift of Joseph and from all. Feel the blanket of snow embrace you and purify you. Feel that sense of peace that Joseph brings as you stand in the North singing the old songs of truth, your heart song of dreaming. Feel the energies of White Buffalo Calf Woman, let them come into you and support you. Welcome the totems of the winter rabbit, the egret, the snowy owl, feel the heavy step of the elk and the caribou as they join you as well. Feel this wisdom of the elders, of the ancients, seep into your very bones. Open and receive, you are one with them, with the wheel, with the kingdoms, with all journeys, all walks of life.
Chief Joseph: I am Joseph.
SM: Welcome.
CJ: Welcome to you my sweet daughter.
SM: Ummm.
CJ: It is long since we have come together in this way. And I welcome all of you. I would say I would welcome you to my home and to my land and to my people, but it is different. I think it is you welcoming me to come and join you in this way, as you walk on the beautiful, bountiful Mother.
When I walked the earth as Younger Joseph, as my father’s son, I learned the ways of Gaia and the beauty and the bounty that she gives to us, this sacred Mother! And I love, I loved my land, not the way that so many think of this as a possession or something that they will own and pay for, for such a concept was not only foreign to us, but quite ridiculous. How could you own anything like a breathing person? Would that not be a form of slavery?
SM: Humm, yes indeed.
CJ: So I loved my land, the land of my people, the land of my forefathers. And I did not wish to be displaced. But displaced we were. And as I moved to different places, we came to rely more on one another, we did not wish to engage in battle or war. That is not to say that we did not have our differences and skirmishes between tribes, but very often they were resolved by trade, by marriage, by counting coup. We did not think we had the right to take away from other people what their forefathers and the Great Spirit had given them.
Now why do I bring up this ancient history today? Why do I come in this honored position as your guest and speak of war and murder and theft? I do not speak of it for any reason other than to tell you the lessons of an old man. And certainly lessons that I have come to understand more deeply in this form that I now am in. War between peoples, whether it is within a country or between tribes, such as we see so much, say in Africa, or war that is waged so that you can own the resources of Gaia, gold and oil, gas, minerals, rivers and trees. Whoever heard of such a thing?
But we see these wars, and they are more than skirmishes, and why then do I, as chief of my peoples, come to share this wisdom with you? Because war, it will only defeat you. It does not only kill the people, it does not only kill and hurt and maim the Mother Earth and the animals, and yes the rivers and the trees; what it does is it eats your soul, it takes away your very will to be a human, and it destroys your soul.
It was not in defeat that I said that I would fight no more forever, because my warriors, Looking Glass, everyone was dead, my children were freezing, dying of hunger. That is not the message I bring to you. The understanding that I had and that I share with you, you who carry the pipe, the continuation, and it does not matter whether you are white or red, yellow or black, or some lovely shade in between. I declared that I would fight no more because I realized there was no joy, no pleasure. But even the feeling of wishing to survive, for the purpose to enjoy the bounty of the land, the fighting ate the soul, the soul that was able to sit in the North and to sit in the deep snow and to listen to the silence.
There is no place for the warring heart. And this, my dear friends, my children, you must discover in your heart. There is a difference of becoming, of learning, from your elders. Yes, I know it is different in your time. So you learn from the wisdom of the elders and the innocence of the children. Do not strive, there are moments when you reach and expand and become who and what you truly are. But the war within, to become more, to have more, to be seen as having more, to have more than your brother or sister, to own what is not yours, to harm other people, this is the war within you. And this is the first war you say no to. And I give you that right, I give you that power.
You, you who have come in service to the Great Mother, you are all chiefs and you have brought your wisdom with you so you do not need to toil or steal or fight like a young brave to prove yourself. The way to peace is the knowing of your heart. And it is the knowing to say no to violence, to war, yes, no matter what. There is always a middle way and that is the wisdom that you bring, is to know, because in the aggression between people, be it nations or tribes, belief systems, religion, it does not matter, there is no peace if you pursue such violence.
But, when you say to your enemy, “I step down. Come and sit with me and tell me what you are afraid of. Tell me what you are afraid of that you covet, to conquer the people or the land or the resources of Gaia. Come and sit with me so I can show you that there is another way, that you were not born to bring violence to this world. The legacy, that we share together, is not for death and destruction, it is the land, it is the patterns that we share with our children. If it is all destroyed what do we have to leave them?”
There are those in your world that believe that it is too late, that there has been too much war, too much harm, too much death and destruction, and I tell you, from this side that that is not correct or of truth. It is of their belief in their truth, they do not say these things necessarily in malice, but it is simply not true. There is room, and there is time for everything and everybody to be restored and to fight no more, to struggle no more, to be fed and to have a home where they can love the land. I am but an old being but I wish to share this wisdom that I have come to with you.
Now dearest Suzanne, where do you wish to start?
SM: Thank you for joining us Father, I really appreciate having this conversation. One thing I would ask for you is to speak up a little bit because, I think Linda’s sort of fading off into ah, I don’t know, not hearing, but… okay, so one of the things you spoke of was the form that you are now in. Would you say more about that please?
CJ: Well I am not in a form like you (laughter), but I am not so far away from your form, and I am sorry if in my speaking I have drifted off in memory, as in to discussion of something that is very dear to me.
SM: Yes.
CJ: So, the form… If you were to look at me, if I was to appear to you, as I do to many by the way, Sitting Bull and I make a habit of traveling together for we are old friends. And so we appear to many, and we like to visit with many tribes, and we do not simply mean what you think of as Native Americans. So when I appear I will always come back looking much the same as I did in my younger days.
SM: Yes.
CJ: …as Chief Joseph, well even before I was Chief, for I like the strength and the vigor and the form of my body in that way. But I can take many forms and that is why I have asked the channel to begin this day by reminding each of you, not only of the totems, but of the birds. Often I will come as a hawk or an eagle, because it is joyous to fly!
SM: Yes!
CJ: And it is always traditionally, you know, that when you see the hawk or the eagle, the message or the messenger or the Great Sprit is speaking to you. So there is no confusion, although I must say, I love the black birds, I love the mourning doves, I love the quail. So there is never a bird that I have come to witness or look at that I have not enjoyed.
But, do I have a form? I am an energy form.
SM: Right.
CJ: If you were to look at me, you would see, ah, the shimmery energy that would look as if it is very electrical, like a, perhaps like a lake that is shimmering with the breeze at sunrise. So it is a mirror that has grown old and has many waves in it and that would be me.
SM: Ummm.
CJ: Now it is a great advantage in many ways to be in such a form, because you can truly, simply become whatever you choose. Now this is something that we, and when I say we, I mean many of the Indian Nations, that we would practice shape shifting. And I know that you have discussed this with old Geronimo, but let me tell you, it is something that the human beings that are now, ah, on our land (laughs), will also learn and remember to do. It is a matter of choice, of course, but it is a choice.
If someone was to say to you, to many of you, “Would you like to go to Disneyland, or would you like to go and see a magic show?” You would say, “Oh yes, I would love to because it is full of fun and games and I get to have my imagination filled and I get a thrill besides!” Well, such is the way of shape shifting or taking a form that is not your normal way. You can be a hawk flying over the Taj Mahal if you wish So it is something that I would encourage each of you.
You feel, this is why I have begun by talking about this war within you. And what is this war? It is that you actually, and I know because as young man I did too, but you actually believe all the limitations that you have been taught, so that you think that your body, which is beautiful and helpful, and as I said when I appear, I love my young body, but you think that it is solid. You think that it is restricted and it is not. You are so much more than simply this minute, tiny… yes, even those of you who weigh four hundred pounds, you are tiny… and you think that it is inescapable, I have one choice, either be in this body or die. And in this body I have to do certain things. Well yes there are certain things to survive, you have need to drink water and eat and have some sustenance now and then. But your purpose, the only purpose of having the body is to have a journey! And yes it is a journey around the wheel. And if you think of it in your modern terms, think of your beloved planet as the wheel and travel to the East and to the South and to the West and the North and the Northwest and the Southeast. Travel above and below and come to know, not only within you, the medicine wheel, and the guidance that is there, but also the riches of each tribe that is on your plane. These are only friends that you are waiting to meet.
SM: Right. May I ask, in terms of Ascension how this goes, because as I think it’s going to be different, for us than it was for you? I certainly look forward to having my light body, energetic form. Will it be different for us because we’re ascending with our bodies?
CJ: Yes, it will be different because you will have… you are taking yourself with you. And you know, there are many jokes, and there even were in my time, that wherever you go, the problem is, you take yourself with you.
SM: Laughing….
CJ: I have learned this (laughing) and the bigger problem, sometimes I would say, “Well, I would not mind if I just took myself with me, but it seems I am taking myself, but my tribe, my in-laws, my children, even some that I have discord with and in addition to that I am taking the entire U.S. Army as well!
SM: Oh wow.
CJ: That is no way to travel light (laughing)! But I am making a joke.
Think of it as anchoring. You see, I talk to you a great deal about the birds and being the hawk and eagle and flying free, but in many ways what you are doing is also being the anchor. So you are the river, you are the ocean, you are the lake. Now, have you ever noticed, let us say, a lake? Think of this, and I speak in ways I hope you understand. A lake does not remain the same. There are trees that fall in, beavers that create dams; the shore will shift over the years. So it is with your body. But the lake will welcome in the light, every single day the lake welcomes the sun and the warmth and the stars and the coolness, it welcomes the wind.
If you think of these elements as the dimensions, as the energies, that you are the lake welcoming… The sun does not touch the surface of the lake and then run away. The sun reaches down and penetrates, even to where the deepest fishes are lying. And it is welcomed, particularly in the spring. It welcomes the sun, it welcomes the wind. And this is what you are doing in Ascension. So is the lake flying off of sweet Gaia? No, but is the lake changing? Yes.
SM: Ohhh!
CJ: And so are you! So as you are traveling the dimensions, you will notice that your water is sweeter, it is more clear, that you are singing more in harmony with the fish and the birds and the animals, with the elementals. So when you say, “Will I have my body and my light body?” Let me tell you something, and I don’t just mean just you sweet Suzanne, I mean all of you… You have your light body; it has been very deeply already anchored in you by the Mother’s Tsunami! It has been in construction, reconstruction, adjustment oh, for about two decades… Of course the children who are born now come in with their light bodies in tact. But that light body is simply waiting for the fullness of the activation. So it is already there. So it is the sun is already caressing your depths, you just don’t dive deep enough to see it all the time.
SM: Oh, well yes, that’s true. It’s hard being completely in a meditative state all the time because I certainly feel it and do all kinds of wonderful travels in my meditations.
CJ: And, you are doing well my child.
SM: Aw, thank you. May I ask a question about what you mean by ‘pipe carriers’ and if you could give us information about the peace pipe and that ritual about the importance of the smoke and the breath in this?
CJ: It is one of our most sacred rituals, and it was always done in a sacred manner, and you had need to prepare and also to be discerned, some would say judged, to be prepared. It is the union ~ you have had, I listen often to your shows you know, and you have listened to many on the sacred union of male and female. But in many ways such is the nature and the honoring of the pipe. So it is the stem and it is the bowl and the bowl, of course, is the woman who carries life, tobacco, and tobacco is the sacred honoring and the life. But the bowl by itself, you cannot draw just from the bowl, it must be matched and joined with the stem. And the stem, of course is the masculine.
When I say to you, it was an honor, a restricted honor, amongst all the tribes to be a pipe carrier. It meant that you heard the voice of Great Spirit and that you dedicated your life to this ceremony and to the people because it would remind you, brought by White Buffalo Calf Woman, and it would remind you that you were nourished. And the smoke…two things, you would light the tobacco and you would breathe the smoke and when you would breathe the smoke you would receive the blessings of Great Spirit, of above and below, and the four directions, within and without, because it is always done in the sacred ceremony. So you would receive the blessings, and the blessings you may have been praying, sometimes the tribe would pray for rain or for a hunt or a skirmish or a war, or a Chief. There were many things that we would pray for. But, individually, you were also encouraged to pray. So perhaps you would pray for a son or to be brave in battle, or to be in a happy marriage, to be a great hunter. So you would express your prayer beforehand in sacred ritual, and then you would breathe in the energy of the blessings from Great Spirit. Then when the smoke from the pipe and from the brave would travel outward, it carries the energy back and it is the energy, not simply of the prayer, but the gratitude and thanksgiving for the fulfillment and the gift that Great Spirit gives us all the time.
This is not something, like many rituals, but this is our most sacred that is done in a casual manner. This was something that was dear to us.
So now, I turn to you, in what some would think of as blasphemy, huh, and I say, I welcome you, all of you, that you think yourself as light workers and I call you pipe carriers! I honor you! This is more sacred than being Chief or shaman. This is the sacred way to connect with Great Spirit. But as I say to you, all prophecies, all stories, all legends, and we did not think of them, by the way, as prophecies; this was the story of the people and that the time would come when all of us would share the pipe and that peace would reign because not only do you have to carry peace and be willing to live in peace and create peace to be part of this ceremony, it also gives you peace and greater peace and greater blessings. Each of you are trusted with this undertaking; you are the pipe carriers.
SM: Thank you, thank you very much for joining us today, Joseph. Have you got anything else to say in closing?
CJ: Every man, every woman, every child is your brother and your sister and your child. Remember this, love them, embrace them, nourish them, do not fight them. Ask them to sit down and share their hearts, their stories, ask them to be part of your journey as you will be part of theirs. Go with my deepest love, Ho.
SM: Ho. Thank you. (Pause) Linda?
LD: Yes, hi.
SM: Hi, I just wanted to add onto the back end here that next week, well not next week, but two weeks from now our next show will be featuring Red Cloud.
LD: That’s right, Red Cloud will be joining us and Red Cloud is of the Oglala, Lakota, the Sioux Nation, so that will be interesting.
SM: Yes, very, very.
LD: I can’t wait!
SM: So, well okay! There you go, thank you so much for listening!
LD: Thanks everybody, bye bye.
Channeled by Linda Dillon 01-27-15
© 2015 Council of Love
https://counciloflove.com/
(1) This meditation is from Spirit Speak CD ~ available for download:
https://www.mcssl.com/store/col/spirit-speak
