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Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours
Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours: A Classic Native American Creation Story as Retold by a Seneca Elder, Twylah Nitsch, and Her Granddaughter, Jamie Sams
This latest effort by Sams (Sacred Path Cards) and Nitsch (Language of the Stones) purports to pass on the knowledge of Nitsch's grandfather, one of the last Seneca medicine men. The book relates the story of creation, of the four worlds (ages) through which the earth has passed and the three worlds yet to come. Past are the worlds of Love (when the love of the creating Great Mystery was poured on the earth), Ice (perhaps some racial memory of the Ice Age), Water (when whites came to Turtle Island, the primeval land mass of Indian myth) and Separation (recalling not only humanity's divorce from creation but also continental drift). Now is the dawning of the World of Illumination, from which we will pass through the World of Prophecy to the World of Completion, when all of creation will be reunited as one. With its emphasis on interdependence and the equality of all parts of creation, the book's heart is in the right place, and parts of it reflect the genuine oral tradition of the IroquoisSeneca are an Iroquos tribe per Jace . However, laden with New Age jargon and often impenetrable, this work ultimately will leave even sympathetic readers pondering its sincerity.
— Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This latest effort by Sams (Sacred Path Cards) and Nitsch (Language of the Stones) purports to pass on the knowledge of Nitsch's grandfather, one of the last Seneca medicine men. The book relates the story of creation, of the four worlds (ages) through which the earth has passed and the three worlds yet to come. Past are the worlds of Love (when the love of the creating Great Mystery was poured on the earth), Ice (perhaps some racial memory of the Ice Age), Water (when whites came to Turtle Island, the primeval land mass of Indian myth) and Separation (recalling not only humanity's divorce from creation but also continental drift). Now is the dawning of the World of Illumination, from which we will pass through the World of Prophecy to the World of Completion, when all of creation will be reunited as one. With its emphasis on interdependence and the equality of all parts of creation, the book's heart is in the right place, and parts of it reflect the genuine oral tradition of the IroquoisSeneca are an Iroquos tribe per Jace . However, laden with New Age jargon and often impenetrable, this work ultimately will leave even sympathetic readers pondering its sincerity.
— Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
160 pages, Paperback
First published September 27, 1991
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About the author
Jamie Sams
29 books107 followersJamie Sams is half French and half American Indian, with ancestors from the Cherokee, Seneca, Choctaw, and Mohawk tribes. She is also a key member of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge, retreat leader, and writer on American Indian spirituality, e.g. „Dancing the Dream”, „The 13 Original Clan Mothers”, and (with Twylah Nitsch) „Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours”.
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September 13, 2008
A truely moving book. Easy to read and very interesting. I personally loved this book.
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