Trafford Publishing: Hidden America: Spiritual Forces at the Birth of a Nation

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Hidden America: Spiritual Forces at the Birth of a Nation

by Luigi Morelli

125 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-1129; ISBN 1-55395-414-9; US$16.00, C$19.95, EUR13.00, £9.00

Hidden America offers a view of the compassionate America that could have been and that is still possible. It offers the inspiration of (This vision is supported by) myths, legends and biographies of great individuals.

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about the book about the author sample excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

The spirit of a nation is clearly expressed in its holidays. Here history unites with legend and collective imagination in a way that mutually reinforces each other and sheds light over the nature of the American Dream.

Who was Saint Tammany? Why was he celebrated at May Day in almost Celtic fashion? What can we learn from the froquois legend of the foundation of their League of Five Nations? W1io were Hiawatha and the Peacemaker? What spiritual tasks did Eranldin and Washington accomplish? Who was Pocahontas and why did she become a legend? These questions are used as gateways for understanding our major holidays - Presidents' Day, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving - and what they offer to the vision of a compassionate America.

The book offers an overview of the spiritual striving that accompanied the life of the Northern American continent for millennia. This spiritual path was promoted by the Native Americans, through the Algonquian ideals of Tammany and the Iroquois strivings of Hiawatha and the Peacemaker. Little known to history are the influxes of the ancient Celts, an emblematic Templar expedition to the eastern shore, and the idealistic striving of the Freemasons that added significant influences to the local tradition.

Wind your way through the many stories and legends that are woven into the historical fabric and the collective imagination of the nation. History joins forces with myth and legend to lend strength to the little understood American Dream that lies hidden from view. A compassionate America is still possible.

About the Author

Luigi Morelli was born in the US and left very early to live in South America, Africa, and for the most part Europe, then returned 22 years ago. Being both a native and a foreigner he has the interest and the detachment to look at the American spirit dispassionately.

Luigi is devoted to social activism and spirituality and has carried these interests in his professional life, first in building a business promoting the practice of ecologically sound practices in landscaping, then in working with developmentally disabled adults. He has explored alternative lifestyles (in the international organizations Camphill and L'Arche) in which service to the developmentally disabled is carried hand in hand with a free, inclusive and non-dogmatic spirituality.

This dedication to social work and social change from a spiritual perspective also permeates his writings. His interest focuses on those events in history in which change was introduced through the inspiration of the spirit, rather than simple political change. Additionally, he believes that myth and legends speak a language that offers a complement to history and hard facts. This integration of the two he achieves in Hidden America and the forthcoming Black Elk, Herald of a New Age and Spiritual Turning Points of North American History. Hidden America offers a wholly new way of understanding figures like Franklin, Washington, Pocahontas and others and the historical events they were part of.

Sample Excerpts

Destiny and Brotherhood

Through Pocahontas' devoted life history escapes the momentarily unavoidable play that the stronger political and economic forces of the moment bring to the surface. A sort of island in space and time is created by the commitment of an individual fully living on the strength of her moral intuitions, even at the cost of repeated sacrifice.
In Pocahontas the ideal of brotherhood is strongly rooted. Although she stands within the forces of race, religion and culture as do her contemporaries, the vigor of her individuality can rise above them. Her moral feelings and principled positions would surely puzzle one who believes only in racial, social or environmental determinism.
Destiny is a mysterious concept for some, an intuited reality for others. The individual can either accept destiny passively, with a feeling of fatalism, or blindly rebel against it. There is also a third, intermediate possibility. We can call it 'active acceptance', but it could also be called 'active questioning'. Active acceptance is an attitude that questions the given social and environmental conditions of the times. It challenges them with a constructive attitude at the opposite pole of pure rebellion or strict conformity. It stems from the realization that our life has both a set of constraints that we can free ourselves from and another set of constraints that we need to learn to accept. We may be born with a physical, mental or developmental handicap. Accepting this element of our destiny is the recognition that even those constraints that we cannot free ourselves from are not arbitrary baggage imposed on us by a malevolent god. This may not lead us into altogether denying our human potential or railing against the limitations set by fate or by genes. This active acceptance derives from either having or developing a strong individuality. Helen Keller is a fitting example. It would be difficult to think of her life without her disability. That she offered humanity the gift of her warmth and compassion comes precisely from having to live with her challenges. These enabled her to offer solutions and alternatives for all those who suffered as she did.
Another implicit element of active acceptance is the capacity to forgive. Forgiving has even linguistic similarities with forgetting. Yet it is a conscious forgetting, quite the contrary from denying, which occurs in the unconscious. In order to forgive the individual must fully know the pain of the offense that has been inflicted upon her. She has to build the strength and desire to be able to give back to the world as much as has been taken away through the offending deed. Forgiveness is also the trust in the presence of spiritual powers of good who are able to guide the individual in order to reestablish the social balance that the offending deed has altered. The odyssey of Hiawatha serves as a clear illustration of the act of forgiveness. Hiawatha could forgive the death of his wife and daughters because the spiritual powers were showing him the reality of the message of Deganawidah. Hiawatha could hold that higher reality in front of his eyes. His faith was the very force that allowed that higher reality to also become earthly reality.
This strength of individuality that actively accepts destiny and offers forgiveness is recognizable in Pocahontas. Active acceptance is as much an affirmation of our own individuality as a submission to a spiritual world above us. Through such a free choice healing can enter a community of individuals. Acceptance of our destiny, as we see from Pocahontas' life, is an act that needs to be renewed repeatedly. Through such active acceptance we can bring deeper resolve and determination to our activities in the world.
While unaccepted and undigested individual experiences act as a burden on the individual and as an anti-social force in the community, active acceptance of destiny and the forces of forgiveness that it generates act as a solvent that defuses social strife. Pocahontas' resolve for forgiveness brings about the ensuing years of peace. Throughout her life she strives to bring about the recognition of the universal spiritual element that unites communities beyond race, culture or religion. In this light her conversion experience is secondary. There is no marked difference between her behavior before or after it.
Seen without the elements of acceptance and forgiveness, Pocahontas' life becomes a legend. Her behavior escapes the deterministic paradigm that materialism embraces. Of all the actors on the scene of the founding colonies she is the least predictable because she is the most determined from within. It is in the ideal of brotherhood that Pocahontas becomes the first American heroine, as she has been fittingly named.
The future of America lay encapsulated in the contrast between Pocahontas and the Virginia Company. The Virginia Company ruled its territory like a business or a production unit. It was a symbol of the monopolies that exploited the colonies for the mother country. Monopolies rested on the alliance between the political system and the economy. Merchants would benefit from the exclusion of all competition while politicians would benefit from the company's fortunes. The Virginia Company would naturally have to be supported by the might of England's navy. The fate of an economic-financial pursuit thus came to be confused and assimilated with the interests of the English people at large.

The Message and the Form

In most versions of the legend (White Roots of Peace), Hiawatha and Deganawidah form a duality. Occasionally they merge into the single individuality of Hiawatha. The dynamic of the legend revolves around the two of them and Atotarho. Deganawidah's biography is by far the most extraordinary of the three since he is conceived by a virgin. In some versions of the legend the messenger also prophesies that
Deganawidah would indirectly bring the downfall of his people, the Hurons. The Grandmother tries to kill him by throwing him in the freezing waters and twice again in unspecified manners.
In Deganawidah we see an initiate who tries to introduce new spiritual principles. That he is an initiate or an exceptional person is also indicated by the fact that he rides in a white canoe made of stone. In the version of the legend quoted above, once his mission is accomplished, Deganawidah rows in his canoe towards the setting sun, never to be seen again. In the version given by Horatio Hale it is also said that Deganawidah is the only name that cannot be used down through the line of heredity, contrary to that of all the other chiefs present at the foundation of the League. This is because none can do what he has done.
Like Deganawidah, Atotarho (alternatively spelled: Thadodaho) shares a mixture of human and superhuman attributes. His cry is 'the mocking cry of the doubter who killed men by destroying their faith'. The translation of the cry means 'When will this be?' This impatient attitude is typical of a being who wants to bring forth events before their time. The physical appearance of Atotarho * his crooked body, his head covered with snakes - is the expression of the fact that he is a black magician.
Between these two extremes stands Hiawatha. His flaw, cannibalism, is a major trespass that he has inherited as a cultural habit. It is a practice tied to war and religious beliefs. Cannibalism stands at the center of the encounter between Hiawatha and Deganawidah. Because Hiawatha is in touch with his true humanity, he is able to overcome his cannibalistic habit. The prophet allows him to recognize his shortcomings and realize his full human potential. This brings about the recognition of the pain caused to others and the desire to redeem himself, made possible by Deganawidah's message.
Soon after, Hiawatha takes on the task of helping his people. The length of the process of grief is emphasized by the establishment of the Ritual of Condolence, the burdensome journey to the Mohawk nation and the earnest desire to bring consolation to others. Only Deganawidah knows the depth of Hiawatha's sorrow. He can reach to the spiritual source which offers him peace and allows for perception of the truth that suffering has obscured.
The dynamic of development played by the two founders shows significant nuances that could escape first sight. Hiawatha is as much a pupil of Deganawidah as he is a collaborator. While the prophet carries the vision he is also impaired by his stuttering. He needs someone else with oratorical skills; that is Hiawatha's role. Although Deganawidah guides and inspires, it is Hiawatha who carries out the burden of the central confrontation with Atotarho. He cannot make use of supernatural powers as Deganawidah does in the instance of the test of the fallen tree. Still it is Hiawatha who establishes the Ritual of Condolence and who combs Atotarho's hair. The prophet has to find a willing companion before he can realize his mission. With the achievement of the League Deganawidah's task comes to an end. Hiawatha still has a political task to carry out.
The legend has still other implications on the social level. The Ritual of Condolence has a central place in Iroquois society, not immediately noticeable from the legend. Previous to the advent of the League the strife between the tribes was perpetuated by cycles of war and revenge, cannibalism and black magic. The cornerstone of Iroquois Society is the recognition of the need for the process of grief and consolation to replace the cycle of violence and revenge. The Ritual of Condolence makes possible the harmonization of the aims of the community by allowing individuals to overcome their grief and align their goals with those of others. Grief is seen as a veil covering the senses and the heart. The Ritual of Condolence lifts these veils and makes explicit the second principle expressed by Deganawidah: health as harmony between spirit and body.
More important still is the outcome of the legend in the form of government that arises within the Iroquois community. The New Word is the message of justice, health and power. The Iroquois know that a Word is nothing without a Form. They have embodied the Word in the Form of the Longhouse, symbolizing the union of many fires, which stood for the idea of confederacy. For the first time nations stand as equals, no more as vassals. Authority is defined by complex organizational levels built to ensure that no individual, nor single nation, can at any time impose their will upon the community. The political power is also clearly differentiated from the religious one. It is in fact a system of checks and balances, obliging the representatives of power to seek broad consensus in all their decisions. More detail about this form of government can be found in the fine analysis of Bruce Johansen.
The Iroquois achievement is significant. It prepared a favorable ground in that part of the American continent where the American federal government saw its birth. We will now see how the Templar influence finally reached North America in a transformed way three centuries later.

Catalogue Information