What Wetiko Is And What We Can Be
A Poem about the Native American concept of Wetiko and our true human nature
A Poem about the Native American concept of Wetiko and our true human nature
Note: This poem is a follow-up to my previous post, where I examined the deeper psychological and spiritual meaning of the viral song and video “Hi, Ren” using the lens of a Native American concept called Wetiko, which author and shamanic healer Paul Levy has spent many years writing about.
Wetiko is…
a cancer cell,
growing for growing’s sake
until
there’s nowhere left to grow
and everyone you love and know
is dead and gone,
Mission accomplished.
Wetiko is…
a hungry ghost,
seeking satisfaction
it never finds,
yet always finding more ways,
more ways to consume the world,
boasting and toasting its way to the top
hoping to fill the empty hole it has
in place of a soul.
Wetiko is…
a vampire,
sinking its teeth
into the neck
of anything living,
sucking us dry,
until
there is no more
giving of life,
and the vampire flies away,
unsatiated,
seeking More.
Wetiko is…
a colonizer,
raining down
on New World shores
with steel and ships
and missiles and missionaries,
charged with self-righteousness
and genociding cultures …
… for their own good,
of course.
Wetiko is…
a politician,
promising safety
while delivering chaos
and then raiding the treasury
as though lack of money
created Wetiko.
Wetiko is…
the fascist-in-training,
dividing the world
into Us and Them,
scapegoating Them
while unwilling to see
that the line between good and evil runs through every human heart,
including hers, his, mine and yours.
Wetiko is…
the promiser
of UTOPIA!
That no-place that lies
at the end of the rainbow,
reachable only
by following Wetiko’s dictates,
no matter the means,
yet … even though
the end of that rainbow doesn’t materialize
people keep buying Wetiko’s lies.
Wetiko is…
all of these things
and so much more,
Oh, so, so, much more!
it’s deep, so deep
within our core
and to deny it
gives it
agency and power
to use us for its ends,
the ultimate sin.
But a funny thing about Wetiko
is that shining light on our inner Wetiko
instead of scapegoating it onto the Other?
Well, if one takes up this task …
Then…
Wetiko can be…
… a Way to remove our masks,
a vehicle to integration,
a renewed sense of connection
because as we cast our awareness
on the Inner Wetiko
we recognize its deception.
We see clearly,
“Wetiko is not me!
Nor are We it!
We and Wetiko are separate!”
Humanity, we can be
so much more
At our core,
each of us a co-creative fractal …
…
… pensively, playfully discovering,
in Beginner’s Mind moments
our True Nature,
each of us connected to Source.
Is it True?
Are we really?
Are we really the Ones
we have been waiting for?
Here we are,
and here we have been
still babes with wings,
learning to fly,
yearning to sing,
so many songs
soon to be sung.