All of the above advice is to be taken seriously.

As somebody who lives in area that is rich in American Indian culture dating back thousands of years.. their cultures are not to be toyed with as an outsider. Even if you have "blood" in your family it doesn't make you a member of a tribe or community.

I suggest if you wish to explore the Native American practices that you meditate and reach out and invite somebody to educate you. Perhaps a spirit will accept your invitation and teach their own ways. Hopefully safe ways.

SpyderBite wrote:All of the above advice is to be taken seriously.

As somebody who lives in area that is rich in American Indian culture dating back thousands of years.. their cultures are not to be toyed with as an outsider. Even if you have "blood" in your family it doesn't make you a member of a tribe or community.

I suggest if you wish to explore the Native American practices that you meditate and reach out and invite somebody to educate you. Perhaps a spirit will accept your invitation and teach their own ways. Hopefully safe ways.

I have to agree, I have a lot of different blood/ethnicities mixed into my family and started by getting my DNA test but the entities I worked with didn't exactly care as long as I respected them and actually wanted to learn the ways they wanted to teach. In America, there was even a recent movement that just because you have native American blood in you does not mean you're one of them until you show proof and are willing to adopt their culture. Entities are the same, in the sense as long as you're open to putting time into adopting their teachings and not waste their time.

Rungr wrote:Working with the culture's way of doing it doesn't have anything to do with the bloodline, you can learn the culture without being part of the blood American

The point is, SOME CULTURES are absolutely, positively bloodline-based, and some of the cultures that fit this description are North American indigenous people. Outsiders are welcome to learn the parts of the culture that are open to the public, but there will be certain aspects of the culture that are for blood-related community members only. ONLY THEM. No exceptions.

BTW, just because you have the DNA of one indigenous population, that would not give you a free pass to every other indigenous community's "for members only" rituals and practices. It absolutely would not.

which is my point, bloodline doesn't matter as long as you honor the deities in the way THEY want you to, not what some random individual says you have to because in the end it's YOUR personal connection to that deity or group of deities not someone else's to tell you that you aren't the right ethnicity.

Bloodline. Does. Matter. In. Some. Cultures. Bloodline is the MOST IMPORTANT criterion in some cultures. You will not have a personal connection to any deity that only chooses to connect to the people with a specific blood heritage, unless you share that heritage. Period.

Learn whether the particular culture you are interested in has such beliefs. If they do, then the discussion is over and you will need to study something else. Outsiders (especially of the dominant culture) can't just go around with grabby hands and latch onto traditions that explicitly state "Outsiders not allowed"'.

Just because one Navajo guy said such doesn't mean it will matter to the being you are trying to honor, you're not trying to honor the Navajo man, you're trying to honor the entity in question,

The poster in question has been apprenticed to a Medicine Man for the past 7 years. It's a shame you didn't actually read the thread linked by Alys. You really should. Take a few moments to click the link.

you may "disrespect" some random human, but whose respect really matters is the respect of the entity and that is why you ask them how can YOU honor THEM because it will probably not be the same as someone else who is honoring them.

Some deities only wish to be connected to the people with a specific DNA birthright. To TRULY honor these deities and cultures, FIRST do research with knowledgeable people from that community, and ASK flat-out what is and is not open to outsiders.

Then do not transgress those boundaries. That's respect.

It was more assuming that cause the Navajo man said this and that means it is universal, all the entities I've worked with from different cultures only asked I respect them by being aware of their time and energy, for someone else they may ask to respect them by means of offerings and so forth.
No one will have the same connection as another which was the point bloodline doesn't matter if you're trying to respect the entity, it only matters if you're trying to respect the deity or spirit in question. Personally, I don't really care if someone who is Nordic says I cannot work with their gods or African says I cannot Until the deity or entity tells me I cannot I will not.

You're trying to show respect to the entity, not a random guy who has no power over your path. In a lot of occult communities who work with different cultures they evoke the entity and if the entity answers they ask the entity "how can I honor you in the way you want me to" or something along those lines, that is the proper way to know what you need to do to be accepted or denied, not ask a random human of that ethnicity "how do I honor your gods" it's respectful to ask the deity yourself than to second hand it from someone who clearly will have bias and personal understanding of their own path and connection, not of your connection.

Every culture is different. But when you encounter the ones that say "We share these teachings with DNA-birthright folks only", that needs to be the end of the discussion. You can't trample all over a community's traditions and boundaries, and claim to be honoring their beliefs and their deities at the same time. It's a complete contradiction of terms.

And getting all grabby-hands and "BUT BUT BUT I have the right to learn All The Things!" when a community has specifically said "These teachings are for us only, not outsiders" is as disrespectful as it gets. If a culture says "no" to outsiders, then the answer is NO. Period.

Likes2Read wrote:The poster in question has been apprenticed to a Medicine Man for the past 7 years. It's a shame you didn't actually read the thread linked by Alys. You really should. Take a few moments to click the link.

That's all I could think of every time the poster was called male.

You're free to believe bloodline matters to the beings because someone said it does, no one can speak for entities on another person's connection that's my only point. Seeing as I have yet to be denied when working with different cultural entities, deities, "immortals" I highly doubt I am the only one as many occult practitioners have done so by honoring what they in a way want the individual to, if I need to learn something which is most likely true, but not what you are trying to push as until a entity tells me no on working with me my experiences outweigh your belief in the importance of bloodline. I am not exactly saying you guys are wrong in your belief because you're free to believe that, in the end of the day it's the person's personal connection to the entity and the entity themselves that make their own rules it's only ignorant of us to assume that the blood of a human matters to the ideas of an immortal being that predates our ideas of ethnicity but again at the end of the day if your belief gets you somewhere then the belief is beneficial for you.

However, it's kinda starting to go in circles, even though this conversation was really interesting it's only becoming filler now so I'll tap out of it, thanks for allowing my involvement though lol I enjoyed it regardless, I won't be commenting further.

thank you everyone for participating in this discussion it will now be locked