The Forked Tree

On a very cold night in November 1942, my Grandmother and The Grandfather, speaking to me about Life and the coming Lessons I would require to fulfill my own Life as I matured into manhood.

The Lesson, The Forked Tree

"There is a twin-ness about Man," began The Grandfather. "A twin-ness of his nature. And there have always existed the twin parts of The People. It is always the other Man who does not understand, or the other Man who is the one at fault. The other Man is represented by the Forked Tree. The duality of Man. It is forked, but both parts of this are one thing. The two forks look exactly the same. And each fork branches into many Leaves that look exactly the same. But the question is always, which reflection is which? Which one am I? Or am I both? It is a great Teaching, and this is why it Symbolizes the building of Your Life Circle."

"This twin part of myself is quite evident," The Grandfather continued. "I have found myself moved many times to do things that have become entangled in the Lives of others and have been misunderstood by them. I have never set out to hurt someone else intentionally, but I have sometimes brought pain to People anyway."

"Yes," my Grandmother agreed. "This is part of the Teaching. One half of you Loves, and the other half of you at times Hates. This is the Forked Medicine Tree of Man. The clever thing the Medicine has taught us here is this. One half of you must understand the other half or you will tear yourself apart. It is the same with the other half of any People who live together. One must understand the other, or they will destoy each other. But remember! Both halves must try to understand. Even within yourself, at times, it is hard to know which of the Forks is which. 'Now why did I do that?' One half of you asks the other half. You may do things quite often which you do not mean to do or say, sometimes to yourself and sometimes to others. But you would not kill yourself for these mistakes, would you? I am quite certain that you would not. Yet there are those who have done this, who have killed either themselves or others. These are Men who have not learned. An entire People can be like this. These People and Men are not Full, they are not Whole."

There was a long pause as the winter Fire crackled and flickered, each of us Honoring the Silence.

"These People had been taught by the Euro-Americans," The Grandfather went on to say. "Taught that Good and Evil existed as separate things. We have talked about these things, Evil was a new concept to our People. These People that are not Whole have these two concepts set apart. But they are not separate. These things are found in the same Forked Tree. If one half tries to split itself from the other half, the Tree will become crippled or die. These People try to split this Tree within their Law. But you can not split these things with Law. Rather than taking this Lacking Way, we must tie together the Paradoxes of the Twin Nature with the things of ONE UNIVERSE."

"There are many Forked Trees," my Grandmother said. "let us pretent for a moment they alternated, The first one will be called Good and the next Evil. But the question will still be the same as before. Which is which? They are perfect twins and look exactly the same. They are all twins."

"But haven't I seen and experienced Evil?" I commented, unsure of myself, not knowing who would reply to my question.

"No, Little Brother," The Grandfather said with concern in his voice. "There is no such thing as Good and Evil. This is only a tool used by the Euro-Americans to create fear among themselves. It is only the Man who searches for what he perceives as Good who will also discover things that he will perceive as Evil. If this Man then tries to dictate his own perception of what is Good to others, he will ultimately become an Evil Man himself. And now here is the next Paradox, which is the other Twin? The Man who dictates his own perception of what is Evil to others is also Evil. One is Mirrored into the other. Because in Truth they are one of the same Forked Tree, and are alway perceiving the Mirrored Image of themselves."

"The answer to this conflict is the Giving Way," my Grandmother added. "Whenever one Gives from his Heart, he also receives. Every Man has his Separate Way. And every Man IS a separate Way. But we all Dance within Brotherhood and in Giving. We, all of us, ARE the great Forked Tree. We must bind together all things of the Universe by the Give Away. The Medicine Power is within all People, and all of the Universe. The Creator has been generous in his Giving and has Taught us Understanding, so that we might also Give."

The Grandfather continues. "Now as you begin your Life Journey, your Quest, the Lessons within the Forked Tree, the Twin-ness, you will discover the Understanding within Your Life Circle. As you seek to discover WHO YOU ARE, you will also discover who you Brothers are, the Twin-ness, and what your position is within the Harmony of this World. When a Man seeks the Forked Tree, he ultimately seeks both of his own Identites."

"You will Learn from the Forked Tree, and your Teachings, that we are all one, the two sides of the Twin-ness, within the Circle of Life. You will also Learn of your Personal Medicine. And through this, you will learn much about yourself. Look at BOTH SIDES of the Medicine, ONE BALANCES THE OTHER."

YOU ARE THE FORKED TREE

White Crow November 1942