GIVING THANKS

Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

Words Before All Else

Greetings to the Natural World

We are gathered together in this place to greet the world in Thanksgiving.  We bring our Minds together to extend thanksgiving and greetings to one another.

With our Minds as one we offer thanksgiving to the Earth Mother who from the beginning of time has cared for our wellbeing.

We direct our Minds to the Waters, the source of all that lives upon Earth Mother. With one Mind, we send greetings and thanksgiving to the Waters.

We address all the Beings both seen and unseen that dwell in the Water. They continue to follow their original instructions from Great Spirit to provide for us. With one Mind we send the Beings that dwell in the Waters our greetings and thanksgiving.

We send our Thanksgiving to the Trees. Trees offer us peace and strength, provide for our needs of shelter, fuel, and maintain the atmosphere. With one Mind, we thank the Tree Nation.

We offer our gratitude to the Plant Nation, who provide food for all forms of life. With our Minds as one, we thank the Plant Nation.

We direct our Minds to the Medicine Plants and the Medicine Keepers who continue to follow their instructions to take away illness, and who are always willing to help us heal.  We extend greetings and thanksgiving to the Medicine Plants and the Medicine Keepers.

We offer Thanksgiving to our relations in the Insect Nation.  They too have not forgotten their original instructions to fulfill their obligation to Continued Creation. With one Mind we send greetings and thanksgiving to the Insect Nation.

We send our gratitude to the Animal Nation.  Each member of this Nation has received a piece of the wisdom of basic survival to share with humanity.  With one Mind we extend greetings and thanksgiving to the Animal Nation.

Now we direct our Minds to the Bird Nation.  Great Spirit gave the Birds a special duty to perform, to make sacred all the places of the Earth with their song and flight. We send our joyful greetings and thanksgiving to the Bird Nation.

We are thankful to the Four Winds for following their original instructions to cleanse the air with their breath.  With one Mind we send greetings and thanksgiving to the Four Winds.

We direct our attention to the Thunder Beings, our Grandfathers. With thundering voices and lightning they control the forces that would prevent life from continuing.  With one Mind we send our greetings and thanksgiving to the Thunder Beings.

We send our greetings to the Sun, the energy source of all life.  We are grateful for the renewal of life each day. With one Mind, we send greetings and thanksgiving to the Sun.

We are thankful for our oldest Grandmother, the Moon. She binds rhythms of the Waters and the female cycles. By her changing face we measure time. With one Mind, we send greetings and thanksgiving to Grandmother Moon.

We are grateful to the Stars. In the darkness they guide us home and hold the secrets of forgotten stories. With our Minds as one, we send greetings and thanksgiving to the Star Nation.

We direct our gratitude to the Enlightened Masters for helping us to remember our original instructions from Great Spirit. With one Mind, we send greetings and thanksgiving to the Enlightened Beings.

We invoke the Four Spirit Beings who dwell in the Four Directions. They were sent by Great Spirit to instruct us, guide us and protect us on our path.  With our Minds as one we send our special Gratitude to the Four Spirit Beings.

We have arrived at the dwelling place of Great Spirit, the womb of life and love.  Great Spirit provides for all our needs and asks only that we always remember to live in gratitude for the gifts of Creation.  With one Mind we send our love and thanksgiving to Great Spirit.

We send Thanksgiving Greetings to the ancestors and to the future generations, to the honored elders and the children and to all of the Nations of the World.  It is now time to end words.  We have become one being.

And now our Mind is one.

 

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This “Basic Call to Consciousness” was born through the Peacemaker Tradition of the Haudenosaunee People.  Traditional meetings of the Iroquois Confederacy begin and end with this Thanksgiving Address. It forms the guiding principle of culture.  This prayer originates from an ancient time in the evolution of Earth, has been held and was spoken during the establishment of the Great Law of Peace, the Iroquois Constitution, 1000 years before European settlers arrived on American soil.  The Constitution of the newly forming United States of America was modeled after the Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy. 

The Thanksgiving Address directs our thoughts.  Our actions arise from our thoughts to become part of the process of nature.  The Thanksgiving Address humbles us before the wonder of natural world and awakens a universal consciousness.  An unbroken memory of the cultural ethic for peace and balance has been faithfully preserved and transmitted by the Elders through this prayer as guidance for the Seventh Generation.

May this Thanksgiving Address be honored and preserved—intact and as written.  It is a gift from the Ancestors passed forward to the Seventh Generation to serve human potentials for the re-creation of a peaceful, prosperous and happy world.  May the Circle be un-broken.