NATIVE AMERICAN OUTCRY
My empathic abilities over the decades of my life have often lead me to interaction with the spirits of persons who have passed in the same emotional experiences that I have known of living individuals…and in the same manner…having also greatly perceived and have even been occasionally immersed in spiritual phenomenon in which they have presented their strong feelings and expressions, and their desire to reach out to those of us who can understand them. It has been said that the spirits of the deceased have a great tendency to seek out soulful people…those of us of the living who have the humility and depth of heart and willingness to truly comprehend and embrace them…and in a way of having much great respect, engulf their sometimes impassioned outcries…not the least of which are from the enormous paranormal conglomeration of the Native American cultures who have resided here in Southern California throughout their generations.
It is very true that the spirits of the departed…and these in particular…are drawn to us…and they seem to know us, as if we had been part of their families all along. They seem to know who to find, who to appeal to…who to confide in and with whom to muse…who the empathic are, and those of similar spiritual abilities. It would appear that the souls of the past ages of indigenous peoples lean towards this in ways others don’t…although the ghosts of many worlds have long communed with those of extra perception …as many have experienced and also documented.
This is to express upon the experiences I have had in the empathic sense of the word of the spirits of the original cultures that once lived for centuries in this land, and who at one time teemed in great congregations here. They have provided a wealth of understanding of them through the phenomenon that have revealed them…and what can also be perceived as a silent outcry…as if needing to say something about who they really were, but also how they feel about their living descendants and the legacy that has followed them which permeates Southern California to this very day.
Emanations of the Mealing Stone
They could otherwise be described as enchanted places…and are very replete with the presence of the Native American spirits in a most particular way…but there is a very serious reason why I have always chosen to linger on these large and impressive expanses of stone. They are strewn with “metates”…mortar holes left behind from the previous tribal settlements who once used them to grind acorns into flour…their most customary edible staple. The visions of the spirits and their closeness is significantly strong when one is near these smooth rounded holes, and they are seemingly more real. The pestles they once used are no longer there…but the mortars, often filled with rainwater and leaves, exude such a heavy essence of the spirits…and they are seen in more powerfully felt experiences than in any other place that were once engulfed by their original tribal lands.
A hike up the Indian Trail in Mount Laguna or pouring over the boulders atop Mount Palomar…or skipping along the edges of the creeks in Mission Trails Park…is never without hovering over these strange but spiritually rich rock slabs. Alongside the mealing holes there is the power of the presence of the spirits, and they come especially close…also to emit the strength of their inner “speech”…(though no actual verbalizations ever really come from them). To amble over these rock facades also causes you to gaze at the holes and touch them, and not only are their souls very felt…their inner outcry is also distinct.
There seems to be something deep they want to express about their native mealing stones and these tools they used, something mystical and profound…but also something very sad. They seem to want to say that this is where they lived…and spent hours upon hours each day. There appears to be a reality that was lost, now hidden in past history and known only to those who have departed, and now buried in what has become known as their most famous artifact…(and today no more than a tourist attraction or if separated from the rock…a modern day souvenir).
They Walk Among Us…
The deceased are in an unknown realm in which they are no longer limited by the usual mishaps of the tangible as we know it…the impediments of the mind or other bodily incapacitations, however appreciated by living humans as they are. But having passed, now there is the clear advantage of being able to grasp everything…and this is how they also know whom to seek out and communicate with. Their knowledge is far more vast than we in the earthly world can ever comprehend, and their senses much more sublime and capable…perhaps even to an infinite dimension…and so it can be said that their approach to us who are still here in the physical is not surprising.
The strength of the concentration of Native American spirits here is very strong, and it appears they have indeed become accustomed to their freedom of both movement and sensations…as they literally walk among us…and with an ethereal outreach, trying to touch the hearts of the living and communicate with those whom can receive them. They have perceptive abilities beyond our capacity to understand here on earth. Their “voice” is almost always majestically profound…and yet utterly silent in actual words. But this is really only a radiation of their presence…it is the very powerful essence with which they drench the land. In speech itself they are never actually vocal…and one would presume that this is because they simply do not know the English language. But it is more accurately discerned that they have chosen not to…and there is a strong meaning to this. It is not only to honor their native tongue, but to display the natural disdain for the language that personified the encroachment of their land. They do indeed seem to have a very apparent affinity for what was once their home…as if they still reside in these hills and valleys…as the visions and other spiritual manifestations of them reveal a very keen appreciation for the simple lifestyle they once maintained here.
Legacy of the Luiseno
The original peoples of Southern California lived here for centuries long before the first European ships arrived, and the famous missions disguised as “religion” with the influx of Spanish settlers. But the “silent speech” of the departed natives that comes forth in countless experiences of them…and their very permeating and intense presence which is so heavily felt also expresses a certain humility…and not necessarily a demand for justice or outrage over how they were subdued. But there is one thing they have manifested…one expression alone which has been witnessed in spiritual phenomenon with serious emotion from them. It could be considered strange that they almost always never “complain” about the usual historical accounts…but have instead seemed intent on displaying their feelings about the “success” of their wealthy descendants…the “triumph” over contemporary society through tribal land casino operations. It is clear that their departed ancestors do not agree with their “achievements”…and are rather saddened by them…as if to shake their heads in shame over their “prosperity”. The boom of casinos is no more a heartache for the souls who have passed, and not so much a reason to rejoice…and far from seeing it as “justice” against white invasion…they are more deeply burdened by the grave realization of it all.
The surviving Luiseno boast of at least five tribal bands that now operate flourishing casinos…as do the Diegueno in the south. But as for the souls of their ancestors…the spiritual experiences of them have revealed that this “victory” over modern civilization is no more than a source of grief and dismay.
Cry of the Kumeyaay
The spirits of the passed Native Americans frequently present themselves in forms of visions and other heavily felt manifestations of their strong and sometimes surprisingly close presence…but never in a spiritual voice, which is a most unusual and understandably reasonable characteristic of their spiritual “appearance”. They always seem to be pensive and serious…and filled with the need to express depth and wisdom…but in a manner of being on purpose, they never actually open their mouths to speak.
But their evidence…as also seen in some visionary “encounters”…is often very strong and enduring…and yet free from any anxiety or restlessness…(as one might expect from the presence of spirits whom are thought to be “trapped” or unwillingly ensnared in their former habitats here on earth). In a more serene and rather uncommon way, it is as if they have chosen to be here…and to remain here to try to speak to us…and without any restraint or ill feeling…as if their former lands have continued to be their true eternal home.
There are always many of them…never few…and never alone…they are never single or scattered…they are always in large groups…and what could be said is a true saturation of them and in large accumulations. They are a great flood…a great mass…of untold numbers that still populate this region…but now only in their very powerful spiritual presence. Their cry is very strongly felt…and very solemn…very often sad, and rarely joyful…but also very profound and filled with much wisdom…yet heard only in their surreal manifestations and the visions one has of them…they speak in this manner to those of the living who understand them.
Theresa Tucker
All illustrations done by Theresa Tucker
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