THE VISION
In the Fall 1997 I observed the thrilling conjunction of the sky field
and the assembly of these elements along the horizon [see sketch The
Toronto Conjunction]. I began a brief habit of visiting a natural viewing
place at the western tip of the peninsular parkland which protrudes into
Ashbridge's Bay on the city's east side.
First, I would visit a place
on the southern shore to leave tobacco and offer thanksgiving to the Creator.
Sometimes I would look back from these shores of my Hotinonshón:ni ancestors
at the dense and spiky architectural assemblage of the core district and
think to myself - look what they did! knowing that this is what they want
and wondering what it now says about this civilization so willfully imposed
on Turtle Island. Was it simply their will?
I am yearning for something
good. Our ancestors taught us to share with visitors and in the spirit
of the Two Row Wampum, to ask that we travel in our own ways here with
respect for each separate path - our differing world views. I stand there
at the fulcrum of the two ways, wondering now where I stand.1 So I go
regularly to this earth-sky-water-wind place to commune with the spirits
for my assurance and guidance.
A response came to me one afternoon just
before sunset on October 14, 1997. As I watched the sun falling into dusk,
the glowing sphere came to rest for a moment exactly at the tip of the
CN Tower. And then in succession, it's continuing path came onto the BCE
phallic tip and finally precisely over the nipples of the double breasted
tower. This ancestral, masculine, and feminine conjunction confirmed for
me the experience of the ritual prediction, ceremony, and feasting which
accompany sky events and architectonic resonances in aboriginal cultures
all over the world.
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