Sacred Wilderness by Susan Power - Essay Example

Susan Power`s “Sacred Wilderness” This paper is dedicated to the novel “Sacred Wilderness” by Susan Power. This novel is marked to be written with passion and wisdom, tenderness and unexpected humor, touching on its pages what is memorable and worthy in human experience. According to the dictionaries, we say “the wilderness” in the meaning of "self-willed-land" or "self-willed-place". We set upon one`s intrinsic volition. The wilderness is often associated with the absence of people of humans, the place, opposed to civilization. “Sacred Wilderness” represents the four women`s lives. Different backgrounds and eras gave them an idea to restore foundation to fulfill the dream of American women. The novel is taking us through the time, when the Mohawk were living on the territory of present-day Minnesota. Spiritual significance of the natural world of “Sacred Wilderness” The fourth novel by Susan Power is taking up to the centre cultural and spiritual traditions. We are getting cognizance with four women: Gladys Swan is enjoying the mansions on St. Paul’s Avenue. She is a housekeeper in the house of Candace Jenssen, who is well-to-do lady. She has all necessary material goods, she does not suffers from poverty, in spite of this she has a lack of spirit, being in disconnection with her husband and the sources and heritage of her Mohawk culture. Gladys, being as the elder of an Ojibwe, is thinking about putting Candace in touch with her ancestors as her private mission. However, Candace does not know about this idea. Beautiful Maryam is her co-conspirator in this unusual task. Candace dismisses appeals of Maryam, thinking about her as a hallucination caused by a brain tumor. Maryam changes the strategy, appealing to Gladys, who is very glad to meet “a sister”, who would join to her work and share her desire to help Candace. The author is trying to show is the images of the prehistoric biblical times, giving the readers an interesting re-imagining of first meetings of Native Americans with the missionaries of the Christian religion. She makes the reader to look from another fresh point of view to the lives Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Al this is happening in addition to the Power`s contemporary line of story, returning to the traditions of ancient cultures, which the imaginative time-traveler would be able to found in the early 17th century on the territory belonging to the Mohawk people, when man were hunting the food and female Mohawks looked after the gardens and collected vegetables to feed the tribes. “Do you really want to be reduced to some kind of throwback stereotype from the Dark Ages? Honestly! A maid for some rich lady in a mansion?” (Power 8) In such way we meet Gladys Swan with her intuitive feeling she is needed to do, hiring as an American Indian housekeeper. “This lady doesn’t need a maid so much as something else. I have to go figure out what that is”, is Gladys` answer to her daughter. However the anger is not directed to the racial features of the new job placement, but for the fact that American Indians are thought as historical figures with a touch of romance and refusing from all suggestion of dehumanization. This novel is using the strategy of the minor storylines. It was written to break stereotypical expectations, talking more about Native American people. Binah, our next character, in this way is separated from her white-skinned husband, who says to Binah after long conversation that “The care and maintenance of your precious wound trumps us all” (Power 73). Then, presenting of the story of Maryam can be a strike against colonial thought itself. The Clan Mothers have enough power to save the world, revealing secrets of the history and breaking hearts. The author imagines a woman, who suddenly appeared in a little St. Paul park, not as a kind of “magical realism”, but from the point of how white people can tell Native stories. “Where are the women in your story? You have heard us talk of our Mother, the Earth, and Sky Woman who came down to get everything started. You have met our Clan Mothers whose wisdom is so cherished we rely on them to select our leaders… When you tell us these stories empty of women, they cannot walk properly on their one leg. They sound unfinished because they ignore half the world” (Power 130-131), such question is posed for the missionary, at the first contact between Native Indians and a Jesuit missionary who is travelling to bring Christianity for the world. The Clan Mothers can be wisdom-keepers of the nation, despite the fact they are women of joy, they can be stern and risk their hearts and their lives for the sake of those they love. The “disputes” between the Black Robe and the Mohawk people found a mirror image in the peaceful conversations of Frank and Binah; however they are used as examples of decolonizing hearts. Power is sure powerful connection between mind and body really exists. It was definitely expressed in the scene of the death of a missionary priest. The history of religion has practically no more abiding creations than wilderness. Its history is long and seminal. Despite this till contemporary times it was not a subject of attention and cross-cultural study from the perspective of religion. The author was trying for years to hear the clan mothers` wisdom to create the novel "Sacred Wilderness". The story is talking about a wide range of topics, but in a quiet unique manner. It touches the issues of spirituality, history and religion, question, raised for indigenous people. However the significant feature of this novel is the balance which is kept between the religious issues and characters. The short stories make this wonderful and entertaining. The author is giving a message to accept and understand each other despite of differences of the traditions and beliefs. This story was written to show us the past and to make it possible to link the reader with the ancient times and remind that this connection is needed to be saved in the modern world. Thus, seventy-four-year-old Gladys remembers an exciting novel of four women, including the Virgin Mary, as “clan mothers” to share the sacred wilderness in the novel, which has a special meaning for women who are looking for transcendence according to the rely on nature as the sacred base. Native American religious values The wilderness is like a symbol of sacred nature, where the person can renew the relationship with Earth that he lost, as it is located apart from settlements. For some religions the symbol of wilderness is used to help people to see the glory of a Creator God. For other beliefs, the sacred place may be separate, but the meaning of it does not changes, it is necessary to remind the human-beings that everything is interconnected in this world. We are separated in order to join as a whole. For that the word “wild” is taken the same root as “will”, so the place which the people cannot get control on by the wills is wilderness. Only when the blinkers of controls are taken off, it is possible to see the sacred and the real. An unclear future is predicted for spiritualized wilderness tradition of American people, but the concept of the experience of God in wilderness is continuing to state a love for nature as the way to understand the values of religion. Practices and traditions related to the both humans and nature and their relationship, whether these are faiths of Central Asia, African continent or Native American religions as it was in our story. Sometimes the location that is wilderness can act as a key, for example, as the society members should pass some kind of checkout, this happens in the wild areas. The Mohawk people are known as the “People of the Eastern Door,” and their religious beliefs have been formed and adapted from European-Americans customs. Traditional Mohawk spirituality differs from their cultural mixture of the present day. In fact, Mohawks did not pose themselves as religious, their beliefs includes the union of the ancestors and nature. Also they paid attention on the importance of dreams. Thus we meet a Jesuit missioner who wants to bring to Christian conversions to Mohawk people. However ordinary Mohawk religion was centered on the nature`s respect and all important ceremonies were conducted according to the year’s natural cycle, with the Midwinter Feast. I could not but mention the Mohawk culture included shamanism, in which holy people were able to receive and interpret the dreams, which had a spiritual importance as they were thought to be a kind of messaging providing instructions that should be followed. It is interesting that for Native Americans sacred land and wilderness did not mean the same, it meant the land of their gods. It such way we need to say that the sacred is not wilderness but wild places have to be sacred. We notice that religion has wilderness in its background. To threat the wilderness is to create a danger for the heart of the most taboo beliefs and most treasured doctrines of people. This is one of the base relationships between a world of spirits and all living humans. The author once described her novel with the following words: “This book means more to me than anything Ive written,” she is telling the reader. “Ive set aside ego and ambition. I am totally in service to my characters». This novel, both its ancient and up-to-date parts touch some unknown strings in the reader`s soul, creating a new sound of spiritual journey and sacred understanding. This is a story of expected and unexpected of the mind and character and self discovery at the same time. The author was trying to show the story of humanness, which unites the generations and the things can throw us apart from each other and then to join back together. Read More