“We have to recognize once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity,
and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense also the liberation of others and
of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realized in ourselves the divine symbol, to
reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalize it in others.” ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga

Qualities, Aspects and Traditions

In the Indigenous American Directions, a typical ceremonial practice would include the following: The East, South, West, North, Below (Mother Earth), Above, (Father Sun) and Great Mystery or Kitche Monitou, typically in that order.

(Wakan Tonka). However, this reading lacks one important element, which I feel is vital to any Spiritual practice.  That element is an acknowledgement of our Unity Consciousness, and as such, therein is implied All My Relations.  I have interposed it here, following Mother Earth as She is home to All Our Relations in this 3-D physical realm.

As noted in the commentary on Mother Earth, many Indigenous American traditions make use of eight “compass points.”  Should you like to imagine the “Extra-Terrestrials” as occupying “physical” spaces around the Medicine Wheel, then the appropriate compass point for All My Relations, following Mother Earth in the Southeast, is the Southwest.

In the Lakota tradition, the ideology of the “underlying connection” and “oneness” with All is expressed as Mitakuye Oyasin, which translates as the aforementioned All My Relations.  “Aho Mitakuye Oyasin” is a simple yet profound statement.  It is spoken during prayer and ceremony to invite and acknowledge all “relatives” to the moment.  That Lakota, “all my relations” is a prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, and even the rocks, rivers, mountains and valleys.*

In the Spirit Realms, which these “Extra-Terrestrial” Directions inhabit, time is completely irrelevant. Nevertheless, the following analogies work for me because of the unity of (no)time they suggest.

Time of Year – Dec. 31 – Jan. 1
Time of Day – 11:59 PM – 12 AM
Time of Life – Between Death and Rebirth (when we meet our “Away Team”**)

The Color – The Full Color Spectrum, visible and beyond 
The Part of the Plant – The Whole Plant, Root to Bloom
The Totem – The Seven Sisters – The Pleiades
The Element – The Aether – the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere
The Spirit Guide – Hiawatha – It was he who proposed the unification of the five tribes of Iroquois peoples, who shared common ancestry, as the one, united Iroquois Confederation. 
The Minerals – White Optical Calcite, Rainbow Quartz
The Lessons – Unity Consciousness, Oneness with All

A closer look at what these ideas implies that, if indeed we are connected to “all our relations,” then it follows that we are connected, to All Our Relations in our multitude of lives in, our bloodline, through our parents and theirs to all of our offspring and theirs too, though yet unborn and even to our many Brothers/Sisters by another mother.  We are connected to all those back to the first Mother, as well as to all of our “past and future lives,” throughout all Time and in every Density and Dimension, extending even unto all Spiritually oriented Interstellar Intelligences and finally into all Spiritual Realms.  

The Great White Brotherhood***

TGWB is also enlisted, in my Directions, under and alongside the Realm of All My Relations.  Far from being racist or sexist as its name might imply, it is actually a “kissin’ cousin” to All My Relations; they both embrace the entirety of the “Group Soul” of Creation.  

According to Machaelle Small Wright, “The White Brotherhood is a large group of highly evolved souls dedicated to assisting the evolutionary process of moving universal reality, principles, laws and patterns through all planes and levels of form…” which exists even “beyond time and history.”  They are multi-racial, gender inclusive, and multi-dimensional, just as All My Relations.

Acknowledging the Family-hood of all Creation is, really, what they are both all about: i.e., Unity Consciousness. 

The Brotherhood is, to us in these current 3-D expressions, our individual and collective connection to the state of Co-Creativeness in which we design the direction of our own evolution.  In this sense, it carries echoes of the West.  And although it is timeless, it has been associated with “New Age” themes, thus echoing the North.

And let us not ignore the Vedic Teachings:

“That in whom reside all beings and who reside in all beings, who is the giver of
grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being — I am That.” 
Amritbindu Upanishad

Indeed, All My Relations covers much and more.

This Direction is also the home field of all the Archetypes, of all ancient mythic Beings of Lore, of astrological and alchemical symbolism, each of which carry the implicit “as above so below.”  Lastly, it extends to our “Away Teams”* with whom we navigate Homeward as we sail upon the oceans of our dreams.

In other words, we are all connected through the essential Oneness pervading the Universes: Unity Consciousness

So these are some of the attributes of All My Relations, and as you know that YOU are the Wheel, so too do you know that they are elements within YOU.  Embrace them in your heart also, feel them within, and say:

I AM, WE ARE – ALL MY RELATIONS – NOW!

Then, step aside and allow the sheer force of you own Spiritual Gravity bring it into you,
from without and within.

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* The Lakota Sioux Prayer of Oneness and Gratitude

Aho Mitakuye Oyasin….All my relations.  I honor you in this circle of life with me today.   I am grateful
for this opportunity to acknowledge you in this prayer….
To the Creator, for the ultimate gift of life, I thank you.
To the mineral nation that has built and maintained my bones and all foundations of life experience, I thank you.
To the plant nation that sustains my organs and body and gives me healing herbs for sickness, I thank you.
To the animal nation that feeds me from your own flesh and offers your loyal companionship in this walk of life, I thank you.
To the human nation that shares my path as a soul upon the sacred wheel of Earthly life, I thank you.
To the Spirit nation that guides me invisibly through the ups and downs of life and for carrying the torch of light through the Ages, I thank you.
To the Four Winds of Change and Growth, I thank you.
You are all my relations, my relatives, without whom I would not live.  We are in the circle of life together, co-existing, co-dependent, co-creating our destiny.
One, not more important than the other.  One nation evolving from the other and yet each dependent upon the one above and the one below.  All of us a part of the Great Mystery.
Thank you for this Life.

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* *  The Away Team  This term is borrowed from the original Star Trek television series.  When Captain Kirk would “beam down” to a new planet he would routinely take several members of the Enterprise’s crew with him.  This group was always referred to as the “away team,”  each with different tasks and/or skills.  Like that away team, we too come into this life with a “crew” of spiritual “shipmates” who have agreed to appear at key points along our life’s path, some joyfully, those who we would consciously think of as “soul mates,” and some who have agreed, in our life between lives, to sacrifice our good opinion of them, or in other words, those who would seem to have been, shall we say, less than friendly, but without whom we would never have made the changes that were necessary to have brought us to the very place where we are today.  They are all, all – part and parcel – members of our hand picked “Away Teams.”

Do you recognize any of your team’s Brothers or Sisters?

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** *The Great White Brotherhood  Please see Machaelle Small Wright’s MAP: The Co-Creative White Brotherhood for a far more detailed introduction to the Brotherhood’s “Medical Assistance Program” and its multi-faceted applications.

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Next: Father Sun
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