The Cherokee Full Circle


Book Description

A comprehensive overview of Native American spiritual principles and their application for personal spirit-healing. • Includes traditional sacred exercises, teaching tales, case studies, and suggested rituals for individual and group healing. • Outlines the core principals of Native American traditional values and teaches how to apply them to the contemporary path of wellness and healing. • Publication to coincide with annual Full Circle gathering in September 2002 The Four Directions, the four seasons, and the four elements that make up the sacred hoop of the full circle must be in right relationship with one another or disharmony will result. Native American ritual has always emphasized the restoration of balance through ceremonies that provide a forum for learning, transition, and expressions of personal growth. Now Cherokee authors J. T. and Michael Garrett share Native American traditions to explore interrelationships as a tool for growth and transformation. The Cherokee Full Circle gathers techniques representing Native American cultures from across America--stories, exercises, and individual and group rituals--to teach the inherent dynamics of right relationship and apply them to the healing path. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of Native American spiritual principles and traditions and demonstrate how these ideas and methods can be applied universally to deal with life's situations--from depression and grieving to finding purpose and establishing positive relationships.




Medicine of the Cherokee


Book Description

Discover the holistic experience of human life from the elder teachers of Cherokee Medicine. With stories of the Four Directions and the Universal Circle, these once-secret teachings offer us wisdom on circle gatherings, natural herbs and healing, and ways to reduce stress in our daily lives.




Coming Full Circle


Book Description

Coming Full Circle provides a working constructive dogmatics in Native Christian theology. Drawing together leading scholars in the field, this volume seeks to encourage theologians to reconsider the rich possibilities present in the intersection between Native theory and practice and Christian theology and practice. This innovative work begins with a Native American theory for doing constructive Christian theology and illustrates the possibilities with chapters on specific Christian doctrines in a “theology in outline.” This volume will make an important contribution representing the Native American voice in Christian theology.




Walking on the Wind


Book Description

In the spirit of the highly acclaimed Medicine of the Cherokee, coauthored with his father J. T. Garrett, Michael Garrett shares with us the delightful, all-ages stories passed down from his great-grandfather and other medicine teachers. Blending his background as an Eastern Cherokee with his skills as a counselor, Michael reveals through these tales how to make sense of our experiences in life, see beauty in them, and be at peace with our choices. "Michael's blend of traditional Cherokee ways with that of science and psychology illustrates that both Native and non-Native peoples can learn to thrive together...for the betterment of all" --Native Peoples magazine




Meditations with the Cherokee


Book Description

• A collection of earth-centered meditations to enhance our connection to the natural world. • Reveals the Old Wisdom of the Cherokee elders for living in harmony with all beings. • Written by J. T. Garrett, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, who was taught the ancient ways by his grandfather and other medicine men of his tribe. In a time before ours, humans could talk with animals, hear whisperings from plant life, and understand the origin stories written in the stars. Survival depended on active kinship with family and tribe, with four-leggeds and plant people, with sun and moon and fire. The Cherokee, known widely as the Principal People or the First People, hold a deeply tapestried collection of stories about human interrelatedness with nature. Those stories, passed down through countless generations of Cherokee, are especially significant at this time in human history, when Mother Earth suffers under the weight of unchecked "progress." As a boy, J. T. Garrett sat beside his grandfather and the other medicine men of his tribe as they chanted and drummed the stories of his ancestry. From those stories of Nu-Dah (the Sun), Grandmother Moon, Spring Rain, and Little Eagle comes this collection of active meditations for reconnecting with the natural intelligence that is our birthright. Recognizing that we are all kin in the Universal Circle of life opens us to communication with all beings, bringing us back to our natural spirit selves. If we listen carefully to the Cherokee stories of the Old Ways we can gain understanding of lost social and spiritual traditions that can help ensure a thriving future.




The Cherokee Herbal


Book Description

A practical guide to the medicinal uses of over 450 plants and herbs as applied in the traditional practices of the Cherokee. • Details the uses of over 450 plants for the treatment of over 120 ailments. • Written by the coauthor of Medicine of the Cherokee (40,000 copies sold). • Explains the healing elements of the Four Directions and the plants associated with them. • Includes traditional teaching tales as told to the author by Cherokee Elders. In this rare collection of the acquired herbal knowledge of Cherokee Elders, author J. T. Garrett presents the healing properties and medicinal applications of over 450 North American plants. Readers will learn how Native American healers utilize the gifts of nature for ceremonial purposes and to treat over 120 ailments, from the common cold to a bruised heart. The book presents the medicine of the Four Directions and the plants with which each direction is associated. From the East comes the knowledge of "heart medicine"--blood-building tonics and plants for vitality and detoxification. The medicine of the South focuses on the innocence of life and the energy of youthfulness. West medicine treats the internal aspects of the physical body to encourage strength and endurance, while North medicine offers a sense of freedom and connection to the stars and the greater Universal Circle. This resource also includes traditional teaching tales to offer insights from Cherokee cosmology into the origin of illness, how the animals found their medicine, and the naming of the plants.




Cherokee Astrology


Book Description

Explains the ancient astrological system sacred to the Cherokee and how to use it in the modern world • Provides easy-to-use format for determining what signs and numbers rule the day of your birth and what influence they have on your destiny • Includes a traditional Cherokee ephemeris through 2015 An essential aspect of Cherokee religion is the belief that everything on Earth is the reflection of a star. This includes not only people and animals but also trees, rivers, stones, and mountains--all sentient beings to the Cherokee. Astrology has always played a strong role in the Cherokee tradition because of this belief, but unlike our Western system of astrology, Cherokee astrology is based on a 260-day Venus calendar, which includes 20 individual day signs and 13 numbers. It was the task of the Cherokee daykeeper to coordinate this calendar with those of the Sun and the Moon to determine the most auspicious times for ceremonies as well as to understand the star wisdom carried back to Earth by each newborn child. The day sign of a child explains his or her strengths and weaknesses; the number explains the individual’s role in the great cosmic scheme. Raven Hail, an elder of the Cherokee nation, provides insightful descriptions for each of the twenty signs that identify characteristics of those born under a particular day sign and gives the meanings of the thirteen numbers that determine the significance of that sign in the larger scheme of life. The author has translated the traditional Cherokee ephemeris into an easy-to-use format that allows readers to quickly determine which sign rules the day of their birth and which number has influence over it.










Seasons of the Circle


Book Description

Illustrations and brief text introduce activities of various Native American people in each month of the year. Written by an acclaimed Native American storyteller, this book is a stunningly illustrated celebration of the Native American year. From Maliseet hunters following moose tracks in the snow to Cherokee people gathering berries in May, this is a hauntingly lyrical tribute to the circle of the seasons. Full color.