Survival Guide

Hopi Survival Guide
Blend With The Land And Celebrate Life

We are blessed to have the Elders become deeply personal with us, telling us things they have never before told outsiders. It is up to us to take the information given, evaluate it, and choose the best way to implement it in our own lives.

Maasaw laid out a detailed way of life for people to follow some 900 years ago. It is an overall cycle of activities and thoughts that are to be repeated year after year. Carrying it out prepares the Traditionalist Hopi for dealing with life in the past, present, and future.

To join with the Elders and Traditionals in this great adventure, we must choose to go on board the Spiritual Ark they already live on, and let our lives be infused with the same wonderful thoughts and feelings they experience. Just as they have been a people of peace, so too will peace and beauty come into our lives as we do these things.

The Spiritual Ark is a spiritual flower garden, and at the same time a fortress. So long as we follow its rules, it will entrance us, and protect us.

Below is a list of things you can do to help you survive in these trying times. Just as with the Hopi, these things will help you in the present, and prepare you for the future changes that we can all see are coming.

BLEND WITH THE LAND AND CELEBRATE LIFE
  1. As you board the Ark, make your own Covenant with the Creator and Maasaw. That does not mean you will exchange what you are going to do on the Ark for your own religious faith. While the Ark does function in a relationship with the Creator, it is not a place of specific religion, nor does it recognize any religion as superior to others. You do not even need to have a specific religion, believing in a Divine Creator is enough! This message now is not about eternal matters, or the afterlife, it is about one thing, SURVIVAL.
  2. Live simply, as Maasaw himself lives and don't let materialism control your life.
  3. Practice self-denial.
  4. Practice self-sufficiency. Each of us should possess whatever margin of preparation we need to get us over humps that may last for long periods of time. We who live in cities must ask ourselves what we would do if all of our food supply sources closed down tomorrow. Practicing this is something the Traditionalist Hopi do as a natural way of life, and it is one of the strategies that has enabled them to endure for thousands of years. Having learned from long experience that circumstances can change drastically from one year to the next, they lay aside enough food each Fall to get them through the next year. If the worse happens, they are ready. We too are advised to stock our shelves with enough non-perishable foods to sustain our families when the prophesied emergencies strike.
  5. Change your priorities. Make careful choices.
  6. Recognize that it is the Creator's wish to rescue us, and that together with the Hopi we can rescue the world.
  7. Think of attitude as being an equal partner of application. What you think about what you do may be even more important than what you do.
  8. Make your attitude regarding life and the environment a reverent one.
  9. Throughout the Ceremonial Cycle there will be dancing in the Ark. This pursuit we are following has a serious nature, but we know it will be successful. This awareness keeps us in a state of joy and fulfillment. So, except for the sixteen days of Soyal, listen to music and dance when you want to. Remember that it was the Creator who originated the Kachina and unmasked dances. The Hopi perform social dances throughout much of the year. The Creator made it possible for us to enjoy sex too, so long as we do this in a healthy way and with a sense of responsibility.
  10. During the first part of December say prayers for the well being of the entire world. What is being done during this season is to prepare the atmosphere for the coming year. During this period, you will be blending with the world, and your consciousness of this state will enfold you and affect everything else you do during the coming year. If people all over the world are doing this, think of what the effect will be.
  11. On December 21, do initiations to bring others aboard the Spiritual Ark.