Teaching Stories, part 9

"Walking The Sacred Path Of Life"

- Updated: November 3, 2018

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Gaawiin bekaanizid awiya odaa’aanjimokibidoosiin anishinaabemowinan gaye gagiikwewinan, giinawind gidaawimin...

"There is nobody else who can revitalize our culture and values except ourselves. Life is what we make of it."

- Anishinaabe proverb*

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Boozhoo! Hello! I consider it an honor to share with you today the sacred story of these gold rings. The rings serve as teaching tools and are not available for purchase. 

The story of the rings has been told throughout history, its meaning deeply rooted in the collective memory and cultural consciousness of the Anishinaabe Peoples. It's also a story that's quintessentially universal in its scope and in its applicability to our everyday lives and relationships.

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Teaching rings titled: Mino-bimaadiziwin/Giizis-babaamaadiziwin (The Way of the Good Life/ Path of the Sun). 

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The exterior of the rings display a stylized form of the diagram of the Midewiwin Miikana or Anishinaabe mino-miikana: the Good Life Road of the People. The interiors of the rings depict the daily path of Gimishoomisinaan giizis, our grandfather the sun, our Lifegiver who brings us light and warmth and energy.

Symbolically, the Life Path design of the rings runs parallel to the rotation of the earth around the sun as well as to the daily path of the sun from east to west. Gete-ayaa’ag, the ancestors, regarded the Road of Life as a cyclical path, like the changing of seasons and the cycle of day and night.

The orb-like overlay symbols inside both rings represent the sun. The yellow gold interior of the men’s ring symbolizes waaban, the morning light from the east, and mookise giizis, the rising sun; the red glow of the ladies’ ring interior stands for bangishimo giizis, the setting sun in the west.

Thus, the ring set with its age-old Life Road design in a cosmic way links the love between two life partners with the sun, the seasons, and day and night. 

Teachings of the Midewiwin

The teachings of MIDEWIWIN, the Lodge of Medicine and Ethics of the Anishinaabeg Peoples, tell us that each person has a path to follow, called The True Path of Life, a capricious trail with many digressions (dangers and temptations) traveling over four “hills”: infancy, youth, adulthood, old age. This trail of life was originally depicted by the ancestors on ancient, sacred birchbark scrolls, as a stylized path with seven or nine digressions or lines leading from life’s main trail. Kept safely within the caches of the Mide spiritual practices, the teachings of the True Path of Life have been passed down for many centuries.

For a Midewiwinini or Midewekwe - Mide man or Mide woman -, to depart from Bimaadiziiwin-Miikana, the true path of life, and to not return is equivalent to dying. But since digression has rarely a permanent character, he or she is expected to withdraw annually in vigil and prayer, to ask the aadizoogaanag (spirit helpers) for guidance, and to review his or her life to determine whether he or she is still on the true path.

A good way of life

The title of these Mide path wedding bands, Mino Bimaadiziwin, literally means "A Good Way of Life." Life as the People should live it in order to receive good fortune, good health, and peace of heart in this world; and to gain admission into the Land of Peace in the next world. Material wealth does not enhance the status of a person in Anishinaabe society. Only courage, skill, and respect for the children and the elders and the sacred web of life lead to mino-bimaadiziwin, a good way of life.

To live a good way of life is the central goal for the traditional Anishinaabeg. This goal cannot be achieved without one’s own personal efforts or the aid of specialists (medicine persons); nor can it be obtained without the effective help and cooperation of certain nonhuman persons called aadizoogaanag (“our grandfathers” or spirit-helpers), who inhabit all layers of the universe. Reciprocal responsibilities and mutual obligations, not only between humans, but also in connection with all life forces and beings of the world are simply taken for granted.

Inaabandamowinan (dreaming) or seeking waasayaabindamiwin (a vision) are the primary means by which one can enter into direct social interaction with persons of the nonhuman category. Maintaining a high moral standard within Anishinaabe society, honoring the principle of mutual obligations between all life forms, and obtaining power from both aadizoogaanag and bawaajiganag (grandfathers and ancestors appearing in dreams) are equally essential conditions for obtaining Bimaadiziwin.

Giiwenh. That's how far the story goes. Thank you for reading & listening.

Read the next episode in the "Teaching Stories" series: Heartbeat of the Earth.

*Source: The Seven Sacred Teachings

Image storytelling rings by ZhaawanArt. "MINO BIMAADIZIWIN": overlay rings, 14K white gold, red gold, yellow gold by ZhaawanArt. The rings serve as teaching tools and are not for sale.

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About the artist and his sources of inspiration:

Zhaawano Giizhik, an American currently living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in North Carolina, USA. Zhaawano has Anishinaabe blood running through his veins; the doodem of his ancestors from Baawiting (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) is Waabizheshi, Marten.

As a writer and non-commercial artist and jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.

Photo: the author at Agawa Rock, Ontario. Photo by Simone McLeod.