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Updated: Nov 19, 2020
The death of Sacred Speech and its resurrection
“The People called this personal Truth: Debwewin — which literally means “voice of the Heart-of-Hearts.” It is there, in the Heart-of-Hearts, that the individual voices of the Ancestors, the senses, intuition, feelings, and the mind, come together to form one’s personal Truth.”
— Tamarack Song
Richard Avedon (1923–2004) · "Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent”
“I know a place where there are no lies; where gossip is just a meaningless word. There, People naturally speak with Respect. The Air is not fouled by cursing, and there is no shame or judgement. The expression of feelings — all feelings — is welcomed. Even anger and fear are regarded as Gifts.
“In this place, one can trust the word of another. Even without a person speaking, you can feel the Truth of her Heart. There are no doctrines, because each person knows her own Truth. Each and every person’s Truth is held sacred; it does not need to be sweetened with humour or masked with doublespeak. Everyone’s Truth may be heard, because listening is cherished as much as talking. They call this, their cherished way of communicating, TruthSpeaking.
“I would like to take you to this place, but I can’t. You must go there alone, because it dwells within you. Only you can find the way back to your HeartCentre.”
— Tamarack Song
The Risks Of Speaking Truth To Power
‘Speaking Truth to power is a non-violent political tactic, employed by dissidents against the received wisdom or propaganda of governments they regard as oppressive, authoritarian or an ideocracy.’ —Speak Truth to Power: a Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, 1955
There are very real risks, there are no two ways about it. There may be consequences. And we know this.
There are always consequences in fact. Whether it’s a deadly or ignorant silence, or a powerful attack and push-back by those feeling their kind of reality somehow under threat through the Truth being aired.
The TruthSpeaker always garners a reaction and it’s usually threatening. Threatening to those who prefer rhetoric to the bold candidness of free speech.
The ramifications of speaking the absolute Truth rather than attempting to manipulate or seduce an audience can be both complex and unwelcome to some. To those who prefer their rhetoric cloaked in doublespeak or innuendo.
Speaking Truth to power is dangerous. But not speaking Truth to power is also dangerous.
Anhidema — The Luna Moth
Parrhesia
“It can be difficult to speak Truth to power. Circumstances, however, have made doing so increasingly necessary.”
― Aberjhani, Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories, Aphorisms, Poems and Essays
“The Parrhesiastes is the person who says everything. Thus, as an example, in his discourse “On the Embassy,” Demosthenes says: ‘It is necessary to speak with Parrhesia, without holding back at anything without concealing anything.’ Similarly, in the “First Philippic,” he takes up exactly the same term and says: ‘I will tell you what I think without concealing anything.’”— Foucault
Foucault further said in 1983 that “Parrhesia is a verbal activity in which a speaker expresses his personal relationship to Truth, and risks his/her life because s/he recognizes Truth-telling as a duty to improve or help other people (as well as himself). In Parrhesia, the speaker uses [their] freedom and chooses frankness instead of persuasion, Truth instead of falsehood or silence, the risk of death instead of life and security, criticism instead of flattery, and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy.” — from Michel Foucault’s speech, “The Meaning and the Evolution of the Word Parrhesia.”
Parrhesia is in fact an ancient Greek word meaning the brave concept of free and fearless speech.
And by the way, Parrhesia is also a moth genus. Just sayin’.
The concept of speaking without generalisation and without manipulative intentions, but rather with boldness, frankness and utter honesty, opened the door to grave risk, not always but often. The risk of losing a friend or gaining an enemy. The risk of losing popularity through frank public speech.
Through opposing popular opinion the speaker may lose political traction. Their words may bring in scandal to those it exposes.
“In Parrhesia, the speaker uses his freedom and chooses frankness instead of persuasion, truth instead of falsehood or silence, the risk of death instead of life and security, criticism instead of flattery, and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy.” — Foucault
This is about the direct relationship the speaker has with moral law, and the sense of a very real duty to live in this way, and the understanding of the hazards and threats this exposes them to.
To live with great courage in the face of danger. And in spite of this, to continue speaking the Truth.
Come what may.
Because the risks can be a matter of life and death for the TruthSpeaker.
THE WAY OF THE TRUTHSPEAKER
“Being a prophet in the wilderness speaking truth to power typically leads to poverty and punishment. It is far easier to follow the lucrative trade winds of popular opinion but withheld honesty results in forgotten words.”
― Stewart Stafford
When we TruthSpeak we speak directly from our hearts, straight and true. We release any fears of the reactions of others, of our fear of rejection or other emotions from our listeners, and we say what we feel. It’s clear and it’s simple.
It’s grounded in the Now rather than the Future or the Past. It strips away all defences, leaving us naked and vulnerable. It reveals the trap of the vicious cycle inherent in the substitution of Illusion for Reality. And how Illusion feeds our addictions and thus creates more constant craving.
When we’re forced back into the Now, the massive internal void created by avoidance of speaking the Truth is revealed. Our life and vitality begins to return, as does our sensitivity to the energy of ourself and others, as the chronic drain into the illusion gradually ceases.
TruthSpeaking is currently on the Endangered Speech List, says Tamarack Song, who has written extensively and rather beautifully on the native American tradition of TruthSpeaking.
Despite its inherent risk and very real dangers, TruthSpeaking is deeply healing. Once our projections, thoughts, feelings and memories are seen through a clear lens, we can embrace all that we are. Without fully embracing Truth, the medicine is lost, and the healing impaired. And honesty and forthrightness can also be respectful, do not fear! Some of us have been practicing it all our life, but for others it’s a fairly new concept…
Opening the way to Truth for this planet will be like breaking open a dam choked with centuries of old debris and garbage. Once the way is cleared and the river can flow, the waters can become crystal clear and pure once more.
You’ll see! Because this is how it rolls!
Why do people love Animals and all other forms of life so much? Well one reason is they’re natural TruthSpeakers, where ‘civilisation’ and domesticated creatures have lost much of this ability. The free and the wild speak and listen with and to the heart.
Words often mask the Truth. However, we can but try. Speak and listen with the HeartVoice — then you're back on track. Because TruthSpeaking is most definitely a matter of the Heart.
The love of Truth is innately the love of good.
Hearing The Truth In A Lie
“Truth is hard, propaganda is cheap.”
― DaShanne Stokes
These days many yield to the party line and water down their truth in order to feel accepted and not excluded. Not feeling honoured, cherished nor respected for speaking their Truth, they fall back into either the diluted Truth or an outright lie. This then becomes a hard habit to break.
Plus these behaviours model a bad example to others, including vulnerable children.
‘Humour masks Truth, cursing distorts it, small talk avoids it, gossip creates a false Truth, and lies are actually a form of Truth. ..Each can also be a doorway to Truth,’ says Tamarack Song.
These ways of toxic communication can reveal a deep-seated malady within the speaker. So although it can be a lie, it reveals the Truth of what poison may actually live within the heart of the speaker.
Sure, as we all know, swearing is an emotional release of strong emotions, but who does it help? Don't worry, I also need to learn this one! We all know other words that can equally express these feelings, so why don't we use them?
Real in-depth and honest communication is built on trust and through knowing ourself deeply. Back in the day, our tribes were small, only a couple of dozen people perhaps, and we could communicate based on a lifetime of experiential knowledge of the other. These days our technological ability to communicate with others has expanded exponentially to the global, and our reach easily falls within the millions.
This then has understandably contracted our ability to trustfully communicate with others we’ve known for only a few minutes or even seconds. And begs the question — is it wise to trust the unknown? Probably the answer is no.
But what we can do, to survive this incredible shift in global communication, is to listen and speak with our HeartVoice? We’ve learnt to speak mainly with words and forgotten all the other myriad forms of non-verbal communication.
When we fully communicate with another we also need to stay open to hear the entirety of what’s being communicated to us, and try not to shut down to what we may not want to hear. So in order to fully communicate we need to stay open to hearing the Truth within someone’s lie. Often the liar is desperately trying to get something across to us through subterfuge due to fear of the consequences, or it may be just their habitual way of communicating.
Within their lie lives the Truth of who they really are.
If we can listen with our Heart, their Truth will be revealed no matter what seductive and glamorous words or cloaking techniques they use.
The problem of lies though is the incredible power they wield. Over the lives of others, over the innocent and the unsuspecting. We then ask ourselves about the very real destructive capacities of the lies of the abusers, the murders and the thieves? Or those trained in slick deception with a highly polished delivery of what they're selling to the often gullible. Those masters of deception who mimic and exaggerate in order to punch home their spin. Those who have organisations that unquestioningly back them, and who hold positions of power?
Those who stand on stage or on our screens, larger than life and holding a microphone, lending a false legitimacy and accentuated credibility.
How do we deal with this?
The answer lives in our ability to hear the Truth behind the lies within their words. Why are they lying?
When we can hear the Truth of who they are, they stand there naked before us.
Whether we want to judge them, or hold them accountable for their actions is our call. Or more often the call of the legal bodies, who may not always be so open to really hearing the Truth.
If you cannot hear the lie, don’t judge yourself. This takes skill to master. Learning from childhood would be helpful…When someone is compulsively speaking intense DoubleSpeak, on and on and on, this can be hard to see through. It can have an addictive quality for both the listener and the speaker.
Hearing through the lie is as easy as it is difficult! It really just takes practice — that of listening with your heart. The Indigenous communities that practice TruthSpeaking and HeartListening, well know that lies are never born from the crystal clear wellspring of the Heart-of-Hearts within. Lies are born of fear of consequences, a product of a moral or religious code that sanctions deception and dishonesty.
The voice of the Heart has many ways of expressing itself. So, say what you mean, and mean what you say!
The Truth In Listening
“To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against or one might believe that you support things you really do not.”
― Germany Kent
Listening is an acquired skill. Hearing the voice of the Heart takes practice. So how can we know when the corrupt or distorted voice of the inflated or power-hungry ego is speaking — and when Truth is speaking? Of the adult who’s really speaking from their wounded inner child? How can we know the difference? Here's how, says Tamarack Song:
— The Heartvoice is often soft and complex; the ego’s voice is usually straightforward and lacks depth. — The Heartvoice asks for openness and discernment in order to be heard; the ego’s voice needs only another listening ego. — The Heartvoice travels from one Heart to another slowly, with little fanfare; the ego’s voice carries like the hullabaloo of a fired-up preacher on a crusade.
This is not to say the use of a soft voice is actually and always Truth — some soft voices speak the most depraved of lies. Within their apparent quietness is a brash and raucous core. And lies have the ability to move swiftly — round the world in fact — whilst the real Truth may be quiet, hidden and still.
This is, sadly, how effective Smear Campaigns work.
The work of the discerning heart is to decipher the multitude of often deceptive messages coming through, hear the subtext, and only let the Truth live.
The ability to hear without paranoia or judgements initially kicking in to subvert the ability to effectively hear, is of importance here. To separate a veiled plea for love and understanding, from the utter Truth, can be a hard thing initially.
Are our gut reactions always true? Perhaps not initially — as I say — it can take practiced skill to finally hear the truth and also separate our judgments and reactions from a gut feeling. Due to western culture not raised from birth to really hear from the Heart.
This is where so-called ‘gut feelings’ can be dangerous, when they bring in the personal opinions, knee jerk reactions and judgements born of lies, that can blind the person to the actual Truth.
We are listening here now, with the Heart. We hear what we hear.
Matrika Shakti
“Oh Goddess, the whole universe from Brahman until the earth is filled with matrika, which is filled with the glory of the Supreme Consciousness ego.”
— Tantrasadbhava 900 A.D.
The incredibly powerful creative energy behind the letters that make up our words is called Matrika Shakti in the ancient Sanskrit writings and yogic traditions. Every letter has its own distinctive resonation and intrinsic vibration. These individual tones reverberate within us and throughout our cosmos.
“Matrikas are defined as tiny mothers of “creation” who represent the deep roots of each vibration of sound from which letters, words and language are shaped,” says Giulia Silvestri.
Is anything in this universe ever truly still ? These eternal vibrations resound within the very cells of our body, our being, our soul. And this is how it works — the vibrations lead to thoughts, then feelings, and then possibly to actions and reactions.
And thus we manifest our reality.
So be careful how you speak especially to yourself, as well as others — nurture yourself as though you are your own best friend instead of your own worst enemy.
Words directed toward others, particularly if used in a negative way, can be seen as a type of sorcery and the use of the dark arts to control or harm others. Control or hurting of others in order to breed power for self is always a universal crime.
Words have power — use them wisely!
Putting Words To Our Feelings
“These days, a sling of Truth, still can make Goliath fall.”
― Tom Althous
Is that really even possible? To put words to feelings and emotions? We say it is and that we do it all the time, but is it true, do we really?
Is it perhaps more true that authentic emotion has no words, it’s better expressed in feelings, touch and wordless connection? So what happens when we try to express our emotions with words? Is something lost in the translation?
Veritably yes. And so it’s imperative we learn ways to express these emotions in ways and words that carry as much of the original feeling as possible.
Is it true? That they want to bury the Truth?
As they say, many people hate the Truth but luckily, Truth doesn't care. Hmm, but is that really the Truth, though?!
Shaman Jon suggest that when having an internal dialogue that feels a little distressed, we can lead ourself to our Truth through these steps. First:
— ask yourself if you’re having an internal dialogue.
Then ask:
— is the dialogue pointing to what you consider to be a fixed Truth, or is it moving it towards your preferred experience?
And then:
— change the dialogue to gently move towards your ideal Truth, meaning, and/or experience. Imagine soothing a sensitive child who is being self-critical, or is influenced by another child’s hurtful words.
In these reflections, we see that almost all perceptions involve projections. We see what we are expecting to see. We tell ourself a story and listen to it.
Jnana dhistanam matruka: “Matrika — the power of sound inherent in the letters of the alphabet — is the source of unlimited knowledge.” — Shiva Sutra. 800 AD
Take your time to listen to your body’s answers and then shift your thinking from “I’m inadequate” to “I’m clever and beautiful”. Let the sensations then arise and pass through you, and experience it as a given.
The challenge is to stay open to the Truth rather than our past experiences of life.
How We Can Use “I” And “We”
“In order to dull the line between singular and plural and encourage the feeling of the collective I, I use “we” and “ourself” (an invented word) together in the same sentence. Some of you may already be familiar with this concept of the collective I from your exposure to Eastern-Buddhist as well as Native consciousness.” — Tamarack Song
Since I arrived in this lifetime, I let myself follow my yearning to learn everything I could of indigenous and ancient ways, as I saw the dying heart of civilised humanity all ‘round me. I knew before I came here we had a job of work to be done, to heal the intergenerational trauma and reclaim our often multiple lineages.
This tasking from beyond the veils of death carried with it a deep understanding of the Truth about so-called ‘civilisation’ and what can be learnt from the old ways of indigenous humanity.
One of my first lessons as a younger spiritual warrior was that of language and how we use it. I’ve been criticised by some for my use of “we” instead of “I”, and “our” instead of “my” — but I have reasons for it — ah yes, there is a method to what I do, it’s not random, trust me.
Learning to speak again in a different way, took time but it was done. To let our words take the winding trail rather than the straight hard road empty of heart or soul.
This was needed to be unlearnt, undone and remade.
And please don't be put off by the Elder Storyteller’s ways of using riddles and parables to get a point across. If you listen with your heart you’ll clearly hear the Truth borne within.
Indigenous people who live in the old ways mostly don't use absolutes in their speaking and thinking — they leave room for perhaps and maybe’s. This leaves the door wide open to everyone’s own Truth and differing perceptions. Western culture sees it self as the paramount authority on all and everything, and this way of thinking ultimately closes the door to certain possibilities.
The way of listening to, and hearing HeartSpeaking, challenges us to explore our own Truth deep within. And to look at our intrinsic self with an objective perspective.
Divine thought is the absolute wisdom that transcends time and space. Its light shines in the darkness, but darkness does not always comprehend.