The Feminine Landscape of Ceremony

The Feminine Landscape of Ceremony

Whenever one sets out to read or analyze a novel or tale by an Indian writer, one must bear in mind that the basic reality experienced by tribal peoples and by Western peoples is not the same, and therefore Native American literature will reflect basic assumptions and beliefs about a the Universe which the western reader may not identify or be familiar with. As a matter of fact, western cultures tend to separate the material from the spiritual and supernatural, while for the Native Americans the material and spiritual are different expressions of the same reality.

To put it more explicitly, in Native American thought their god/goddess is the All Spirit, but other things are also spirit, in fact more spirit than body, more spirit than intellect, more spirit than mind (Feldmann 45). Once the natural state of existence is whole, beauty, health and goddess are regarded as wholeness while disease is seen as a condition of division and separation from the harmony of the Whole (Feldmann 52). Therefore, the tribes seek- through song, ceremony, legend, sacred stories (myths) and tales- to embody, articulate and share reality, in order to bring the isolated, private self into harmony and balance with this reality (Feldmann 74).

The structure of Native American literature reflects this egalitarian view of Nature/Life, and for that reason does not rely on conflict, crisis and resolution for its organization (Witt 23) . Instead its significance is determined by its reflection of tribal understanding, and its relation to the unitary nature of reality.

The assumption that the Universe is Whole and unitary implies that all phenomena are perceived as intelligent manifestations of the intelligent universe from which they arise and is supported by the way most Indians believe Creation to have taken place (Witt 82).

In fact, according to Laguna religion- and for the purposes of this essay we will be concerned particularly with the world view of the Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico, once Silko is of Pueblo decent-, in the beginning existed Thought Woman and her dormant sisters. Thought Woman thinks Creation and sings her dormant sisters (Uretsete and Naotsete) into life (Allen 47). After they are vital she instructs them to sing over the items in their baskets (medicine bundles) in such a way that those items will have life, and will take on the power of reproducing other creatures of their kind (Allen 46).

Thought Woman and her sisters are not related on account of having parents in common. Uretsete and Naotsete ate in fact Thought Woman's equals, who have the power to visualize the creatures who will inhabit the Earth. In short, the Indian Goddess acknowledges her limited power (as well as a sense of proportion and respect for the other creatures) (Allen 48).

Actually, this rejection of the idea of Omnipotence is common to most Indian cultures as it is suggested by the following passage from a Cheyenne tale:

" Ð''How beautiful their wings are in the light,' Maheo said to this

Power, as the birds wheeled and turned and became living

patterns against the sky.

The loon was the first to drop back to the surface of the lake.

Ð''Maheo,' he said, looking around, for he knew that Maheo was

all about him. Ð''Yu have made us sky and light to fly in, and you

have made us water to swim in. It sounds ungrateful to want

something else, yet still we do. When we are tired of swimming

and tired of flying, we should like a dry solid place where we

could walk and rest. Give us a place to build our nests, please,

Maheo.'

Ð''So be it,' answered Maheo, Ð''but to make such a place I must

have your help if I am to create more, for my Power will only

let me make four things by myself.'"

The Native American Universe is therefore based on dynamic self-esteem, whereas the Christian Universe is, on the other hand, based on a sense of separation and loss. It follows then that individuals brought up in a Christian environment are inclined to perceive events and phenomena in hierarchical and dualistic terms, while those reared in traditional Native American societies tend to believe events and experiences are related to one another, in a process of reciprocal interdependence (Witt 93).

This way of perceiving reality implies that the Native Americans view space as spherical and time is cyclical. The circular concepts requires all "points" that make up the sphere of being to have significant identity and function, while the linear model assumes that some "points" are more significant than others (Feldmann 109).

At the center of all is Woman, and no thing sacred without her blessing and her thinking.

This spirit, this power of intelligence appears on the plains, in the forests, in the great canyons, on the mesas, beneath the seas, and her variety and multiplicity testify to her complexity (Allen 87). She is the true Creator, for she is though itself, from which all else is born. She is the necessary precondition for material creation, and she is, like all of her creation, is fundamentally female (Allen 88).

It is within this framework that Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony acquires significance. As a matter of fact, in her novel there is not one single symbol that is not in one way or another connected with womanhood, and does not, in some way, relate back to Ts'eh and through her to the universal feminine principle of Creation. In this sense, it would not be inappropriate to assume that although Ceremony is ostensibly a tale about a man, Tayo, it is as much, or even more, a tale about two forces: on the one hand the feminine life force of the Universe, represented by the female figures of Ts'eh, Laura, Night Swan, Grandmother, Betonie's grandmother, and by the male figures of Josiah, the Mountain Spirit, Betonie's grandfather, Betonie, Robert and Tayo, and on the other hand the mechanistic death force of witchery, symbolized by Auntie and Betonie's grandfather's wives, Rocky or Emo, to mention only a few.

While Rocky or Emo, who embody the forces of witchery, evil, appear to believe that the Earth is separate from