Purpose
The Red Road is a path of covenant living; walking in balance, responsibility, and obedience to the Creator. Each step strengthens the circle for those who will follow.
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Modern world promises
The modern world promises convenience, but often produces emptiness. People are disconnected from land, community, purpose, and Creator. Native traditions taught respect for creation, stewardship, and living with awareness. Torah similarly teaches rhythms, rest, stewardship, and covenant living. Let’s examine what happens when society becomes artificial and detached from what is real.
Sacred Things Becoming Common
I am old, which means I have experienced many changes over time. I understand why powwows have become different from what they once were, it doesn’t mean I must change with them. I never imagined that the sacred grounds would change or even become abandoned as they have. I stopped attending and participating because of these changes.
The things that were once held sacred are now common. I had one man tell me that the holy man at his ground said the circle should be treated like his living room. As a result, this person and many others began to smoke and drink as they sat around the circle. When we are in the presence of the Creator, it should feel natural, but is our living room where we pray and worship? Have we made our living room a place that is holy as the square is holy, or as it once was holy?
The modern world promises convenience, but often produces emptiness. When we treat what is sacred as common, we lose the concept of a holy place. People are now disconnected from land, community, purpose, and Creator. Native traditions taught respect for creation, stewardship, and living with awareness. When we look at many reservations, much of this has been lost. I understand the feeling of depression when no real future seems to be in sight. However, when we live by our traditions, much of that despair begins to disappear.
What Is Real?
Just as our traditions teach these principles, Torah similarly teaches rhythms, rest, stewardship, and covenant living. Our way of life, in what we call the modern era has become a society living from artificial experiences, AI influences, stimulants, and a growing detachment from what is real.
The question is, what is real?
In today’s culture, many believe their way of life is real. Many even call the way they live traditional when it is far from what once was traditional. Others wish to blame everything on colonization, believing someone else has caused their troubles. They say they want to break the chains of colonization while holding on to government assistance and many of colonization’s modern norms. They proclaim they want freedom, but do not see it as moving back toward how life once was, when our people cultivated the ground and when everything—from the moment we woke in the morning until we slept at night—placed the Creator at the center. Our medicine, the food we ate, and the work we did were surrounded by reverence and worship. Now everything has become an artificial culture instead of a life that was once real.
Standing at the Crossroads
The scripture in Jeremiah 6:16 tells us:
“Here is what Adonai says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask about the ancient paths, “Which one is the good way?” Take it, and you will find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not take it.’”
It does not matter whether you are speaking of the Hebrews of old or Native people today; the story often remains the same: “We will not take it.”
People would rather cling to identities and behaviors that have become accepted parts of culture. Chasing after the aunties has become a joke, as if to say adultery is a part of our culture which diminishes family values. Few want the work it takes to plant and become part of the soil, part of the creation from which we were formed. There is a disconnect from Creation, from the different frequencies of nature that interacts with our human frequency. Many have traded a sacred way of life for alcohol, drugs and a poverty mindset.
The Garden Experience
There are many stories from ancient cultures about a garden. In Genesis 2:15 we read:
“Adonai, Yahweh, took the person and put him in the garden of ’Eden to cultivate and care for it.”
Ancient stories of other gods often tell that humanity was placed in a garden to supply food for the gods, to cultivate and till the soil. It doesn’t matter why they were placed in the garden, the setting was a land considered paradise.
In ancient times, our people planted food, and we were also blessed with abundance all around us. Berries, fruits, grains, and nuts grew naturally. The forests and plains provided an abundance of meat. Everything harvested was treated as sacred and was not wasted.
We have lost the garden experience. We have lost the knowledge of prayer after we took from the land.
In Genesis, we also see Yahweh walking in the cool of the evening. Imagine that experience, the holiness surrounding you. That can still exist if we create the proper environment. However, it must be natural, not synthetic. To learn how to properly create this knowledge takes time. We must be careful because the principalities of darkness will create a synthetic environment feel natural.
Learning from Creation
I use New Testament scriptures when searching for wisdom, but also understand the deceiver will use it for deception. I understand they were added later and are not the instructions of Yahweh. However, in Romans 1:20 we find this wisdom:
“For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities; both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse.”
We may blame many things on past generations or on circumstances happening today. There is certainly enough that can be blamed on circumstances, but we must still take responsibility for our own lives.
We must move from a desire for things to a life of simplicity and stewardship.
Many will ask, “What do you mean by that? I do not have a place to call my own. I’m already sleeping in a tent.” These are the words of many Native people.
It is not the simplicity of what you possess physically; it is the simplicity of what is within.
The scriptures are not difficult. What I share is meant to be lived. Simplicity is getting up in the morning and looking around you. You may think you have no food, yet food can be all around you without you realizing it. The acorns from a tree, edible plants, and the resources of creation provide what we need. Yet many have traded those things for concrete.
When we learn stewardship of the land, we become one with it once again. The trees become our shelter. The plants become our food. This is not going backward. This is becoming. This is learning how to be.
The Ancient Road
Returning to the ancient path is difficult, but it does not mean that if you have a house with air conditioning and food in the refrigerator, you must sell everything and live off the land.
Returning means recognizing how you became blessed and learning to be a good steward. You begin living a Creator-designed lifestyle where everything you possess serves a purpose. You purchase what you need and what can be used to help others in need. No longer do you buy simply for vanity. Everything becomes understood as a temporary gift that you are holding for a season and for a reason.
This is the way of the ancient road.
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Final Thoughts
Are you already walking this old path? Perhaps you have the desire in your heart, but are still standing at the crossroads.
Many are too comfortable walking the way of the synthetic world and have no desire to change. I am not here to say that you must. I am simply sharing the reasons and ways of the Red Road. The Old ways teach and we believe that when we cross over, the choices made here affect the road of eternity.
If we walk in holiness here, we will walk in holiness when we step to the other side. If we walk in chaos and confusion here, that life may continue there, filled with sadness and despair.
I ask that you examine where and how you are walking. The next step may be into the next world in that very moment, that flash of time when the two circles cross.
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Next Week’s Teaching
The Red Road Was Never About Religion
Here we will focus on relationship, responsibility, and walking rightly before the Creator.
My desire is to share the ancient path. However, I believe too many people have rejected the truth because they have only experienced religion without relationship.
In our next Red Road teaching, we will explore how both Torah and traditional Creator-centered Native teachings emphasize living rightly rather than empty performance. The Red Road was, and still is, about walking in harmony, responsibility, humility, and truth long before modern religious systems complicated it.
Until next time,
Shalom
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