Technology in the modern sense is the application of scientific know-how to a particular field of endeavor, usually for the creation of a more efficient product or the solution of a human problem. For most of us, although we use the end-products of technology all the time, we are not the originators, nor do we design the applications. We are usually a step or two away from the source of this thing called technology.

Originally, technology for humans was the application of principles, in the form of archetypal teachings or tribal stories, to life situations. It was spiritual know-how. An example of this comes from an Iroquois story in which a spirit – ‘The One of the Bright Mind’ – said he had thought of a way to help the people resolve grief and establish harmony. He explained he would speak the principle, and the people would have to find a way to apply it to their current situations.* All cultures have examples of this kind of archetypal wisdom that was used by humans to resolve their problems and evolve better ways of living and relating. In the Andean traditions, the teachings about acceptance, vision, right action and relationship are powerful pieces of the original technology. In West Africa, the knowledge of the power and relationships between the elements of the cosmos is another example. Indigenous teachings about the structure of the cosmos we are placed in and our purpose in that structure are also examples of our original technology – archetypal knowledge that was given into human awareness to be used as tools for sustaining and evolving life.

Applied creatively to practical situations, this original technology still supports, improves, and evolves not just the human experience, but all of life and all relations in the great creation we call the cosmos.

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*Source: ‘The Art of Mentoring & Coyote Teaching’, audiotape lecture. Jon Young with Ellen Haas. ©1997 Jon Young.

There is a second kind of technology that indigenous people use: the direct, experiential knowledge of energy – applying the principles of the movements, behaviors, and interactions of energies to life situations to create, heal, grow, and thrive in all ways. The organizing principles of the Andean traditions are an example of this type of technology. Knowledge of the soul’s structure and behaviors in the Himalayan traditions, and of the Eagle’s gift in the Yaqui tradition, are other examples. Known through generations and applied to new practical situations as indigenous cultures evolved, the original principles survive as part of the technology of awareness. Always it is the archetypal and experiential wisdom that is applied to resolve or improve current situations, and as the elders understood, it is the applications that must evolve, and can still be evolved for the benefit of modern life.

This is indigenous technology. It is the most powerful technology humans have ever devised. It is still available to anyone who can bring their luminous shaman’s awareness to life, and it lives as the basis of the Shaman’s Light initiation and mentoring program.

Copyright Marti Spiegelman, MFA, 2007

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Read more about the program and
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My training with Marti has remade me as a teacher, especially in my ability to weave imagination and creativity into my instruction. I am clearer and more precise in my own vision, and as a result, the writers I help are taking more risks in their own work . . . and getting published.

– Dean Williamson, Writing instructor, initiated shaman, and founder and director of the Sunflower Center for the Arts – supporting writers, artists, and intelligent conversation, Bozeman Montana, www.sunflowercenter.org.

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