13 Indigenous Grandmothers

The number 13 is considered bad luck by some; Friday 13th, 13 black cats - apparently there's a band 'Bad Luck Thirteen: A Tribute to Social Distortion"- who would have known?
In this particular case, the number 13 is used intentionally to fulfill a prophecy for healing for the planet. This congregation of 13 Indigenous Grandmother signals a important re-generation of healing.

In October 2004, 13 grandmothers from all over the world, were brought together with one specific purpose - to pray for the world, all of its creatures and our future - together.

Mostly compromised of ordinary women who have spent their lives dedicated to learning and practicing their native traditions of prayer and healing, this group of grandmothers come as a fulfillment of prophecy from many different indigenous traditions.

These chosen elder women are ordinary in the sense that they have no unusual powers or anything that elevates them above others in the usual Western sense. I may be wrong, but I don't believe any of them are medicine women, in a traditional indigenous sense, or extraordinary healers or leaders.

It's important to realize that these women are ordinary people, just like you and I. If these were medicine women or extraordinary healers, we might be able to see them as somehow different than ourselves. To create more separation in our minds. But these women were brought to bring unification and healing for the planet, so it was by specific design that they be common people.

So rather than by some external power, it is by their commitment, the power of their intention and prayer, that holds them as the exceptional women that will change the future.

This is important to understand because each of us has something to contribute, each of us has a responsibility - to contribute and participate with all of creation. All My Relations

And this is part of the message of the 13 Grandmothers.

"We are the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. We have united as one. Ours is an alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children and for the next seven generations to come.

We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth, the contamination of our air, waters and soil, the atrocities of war, the global scourge of poverty, the threat of nuclear weapons and waste, the prevailing culture of materialism, the epidemics which threaten the health of the Earth's peoples, the exploitation of indigenous medicines, and with the destruction of indigenous ways of life.

We, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing are vitally needed today.

We come together to nurture, educate and train our children. We come together to uphold the practice of our ceremonies and affirm the right to use our plant medicines free of legal restriction.

We come together to protect the lands where our peoples live and upon which our cultures depend, to safeguard the collective heritage of traditional medicines, and to defend the earth Herself.

We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future.

We join with all those who honor the Creator, and to all who work and pray for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth.

For all our relations.

Grandmother's Council Website

"When we can heal ourselves, we also heal our ancestors, our grandmothers, our grandfathers and our children. When we heal ourselves, we heal Mother Earth."

- Rita Pitka Blumenstein
Yup'ik Great Grandmother

Grandparents are blessed people. Usually by the time they have reached grandparenthood, grandparents have seen their way through many hardships, difficulties and flat out failures. What emerges from the fire and ashes has then been tried and tempered - with wisdom.

Grandparents are able to offer wisdom without condemning, guidance without demanding, and acceptance with compassion. No matter what country, whether their aged hands worked hard in the fields or in the field of high finance, the world has much to gain from pulling up a chair and listening closely to these seasoned voices.