THE SHAMAN
Plant uses (Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society) |
The shaman climbed the mountain, gathered sacred flowering herbs and berries along the way -- Datura moonflowers, toloache, Brugmansia angel's-trumpets, Salvia apiana kasiile sage, toyon, holly -- until delirium overwhelmed him with lurid and ecstatic visions of hell and heaven. Then he returned to the human world.
Tongva Culture Tour, Summer 2005 (Takwish) |
"I have."
"What's it like?"
"It's hideous, ironic, horror beyond imagination," the shaman winced to relive, nearly blinded by his recollection:
When do we eat? - We're eaten. |
The people shrank away, with growing acreage dedicated to burying their discarded surplus, collapsing under smoldering heaps of trash.
Forced conversion (Museum of the SFV) |
"And heaven?" asked the hopeful. "Is it true, as they say, that you have seen heaven?"
"I have."
"And what's it like?" they pleaded.
"Heaven," the shaman revealed, "is exactly the same."
"What!?" cried the people. "The same? Surely that is no heaven!"
"In heaven, there is an abundance of food and drink, long wooden spoons, and bodies with tiny appendages too short to bring these utensils up to their mouths. But the beings there, without hesitation, use the long spoons to feed one another.
"There is no want. No request goes unanswered, no desire unfulfilled. Acts of kindness overflow as do the spoons. Spoon fed and cared for, there are continuous cries of gratitude and rejoicing as beings fall over one another to be the first to give.
Time to eat? - For us? - No, for them. |
- Seven (poem), Ashley Wells (ed.), CC Liu (graphic design), Wisdom Quarterly
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