Where Eagles Dare

This prayer was written many years ago by a Chief of the Ojibway, a North American Native tribe. How much wisdom and truth in only a few lines! Wisdom and truth which we, modern and "civilised" people, have forgotten.

Native Americas were experiencing their contact with the Father Creator through love and respect for Nature and its creatures. They did not believe in God; they lived God every day through their connection with Mother Earth. They were considering other creatures, not as enemies or as sources of profit and exploitation, but as sibling creatures which they could be helpers or leaders for them to the path of life, both this and the next.

Therefore the creatures of the world were for them spiritual companions, guides and assistants, and every Native American chose - or was chosen by - an animal that was most sacred to him or her. This animal protected and guided him or her, mainly through dreams. It was a spiritual symbol that was helping him or her to walk on the Sacred Path.

The same thing applied to every clan and tribe. For example, the word "Totem" describes any physical object, animal, or plant that they believed to have sacred attributes, and so they valued it as the protector of the clan or tribe, and even as the originator of the tribe. Every tribe had its totem, and it was forbidden to anyone to tease it or to hurt it, and sometimes even to mention its name.

Every creature of nature is sacred! Every creature of nature is a spiritual symbol, for its qualities which man has to imitate and develop in order to walk the Sacred Path to return to the Great Heart of the Father Creator! What a noble perception of Life!

A creature that was sacred to all tribes was the Eagle, because of its unique characteristics. As Eagle is flying high, higher than any other being, its prayers reach the ears of the Great Spirit, and its song reminds us to concentrate on our higher spiritual thoughts.

But the most significant is that when all the other creatures are hiding to protect themselves while a storm is raging, it does not compromise with it, but flies high above the storm clouds where the Sun keeps shining and feels the warmth. And it stays there until the clouds leave.

What a beautiful spiritual symbolism! When the storms of our lives strike, then we must not let our spirit hide frightened, but we have to remember that over the problems, still exists the Sun of Love and Justice. The clouds and the storm are temporary, but the Source of our lives is always there. If we send our spirit high, over the problem, the problem will sooner or later be lost, and the sunshine of joy will fill our body and soul again with energy. But we have to fly high, there where eagle only dares. We have not to compromise with the problems and difficulties, but we have to see above and beyond them, to face the Sun of Justice. If we turn to Him, He will not let us be lost in the injustice or into problems. This is the beautiful spiritual symbol of the Eagle that all the Native Americans worshipped.

Going one step further than this spiritual healing of the problems of life, we could think about mental prevention of life difficulties, the way we could avoid creating the storm instead of dealing with it. As, unfortunately, one "talent" that modern man has developed is to create these storms in his life, abandoning the Sacred Path.

This describes another beautiful prayer, of the Cherokee tribe:

"Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
Whose breath gives life to all the world.

Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.
Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my spirit may come to you without shame."

I think it is an all-powerful prayer that contains all the truth about the way we have to live in this world. It is a prayer that has helped me to find answers to many questions that have troubled me in the early years of my spiritual search. Every verse is an excellent guide to the path of life!

For example:

"Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock."

In this world of miracles we live, there are already around us, placed by Almighty's Love and Wisdom, all the lessons we need to learn to live our lives blissfully. All we need is to open our eyes, our soul, our heart and our mind to see them.

"I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself."

This verse is by itself capable of changing the life of someone who will understand and adopt it. We have to realize that the one to be defeated is our destructive self and no one else. To deny selfishness and to bring love into our lives. This will change everything!

We use to fill our every day with negative thoughts, words and deeds. We let egotism, envy, and hatred become our daily "companion". We devalue our true divine nature and end up entrapped in a materialistic way of life. All these have as a result of weighing ourselves with guilt as we fill at the same time the sky of our lives with dark, threatening storm clouds, thus depriving ourselves of the Sunlight.

But there is a way to avoid those stormy clouds. Whenever the first clouds start to gather in our mental sky, we have to let the winds scatter them. The wind of the positive thoughts of Love. The wind of the knowledge of our unity with our Creator, and the unity with all the creatures of the world. The wind of the awareness that with our attitude we can determine our world. The wind of offering and serving. All these winds will scatter these clouds, and the Sun will continue to warm our Soul. Every positive thought, word and act we do will clear the sky of our life disappearing every shadow. And then the Eagle of our Spirit will fly freely and will transfer our prayers to the Great Spirit. And that will bless the lives of all creatures!