Chapter 13: The Way of the Heart
Symbol of Manidoo, the Great Spirit
Religion may be as old as humanity itself. The impulse to explain the unexplainable is innate to human beings.
The traditional religion of the Mishigami, called Midewiwin (“The Way of the Heart”), is often simplistically referred to as polytheistic. This is not entirely wrong but it fails to capture the complexities and contradictions that define Midewiwin.
There is a single overarching god, called Gichi-Manidoo (“Great Spirit”). Although Manidoo has no gender, for simplicity I will follow convention and refer to Manidoo with male pronouns when using English.
Manidoo is the Creator, the Supreme Being, the Uncaused Cause, the Unchanging Truth, the Arbiter of Life and Death, the Great Spirit, the One, the Many, and All That Which Is. He is all knowing, all powerful, and all encompassing. He is winter, summer, spring, and autumn. He is rain and snow and sunshine. He is good. He is evil. He is the burning hot. He is the bitter cold. He is.
Manidoo has many aspects, called
Ojichaag.
Ojichaag have been likened to lesser deities, and demigods. They include great ancestors, and the spirits of animals and places. There was no single pantheon but many local and regional sets of
Ojichaag were favored by the different people at different times.
How many Ojichaag are there? Count all the men and women in the world. Count all the beasts, plants, and crawling things in the world. Then count all the rocks, hills, and mountains in the world. If you did that, you would still not have reached the number of Ojichaag. Or, so the saying goes.
Each Ojichaag represents a different part of the personality of Manidoo. Shingebiss the duck is a symbol of fortitude and perseverance. Gaagaagi the raven is a symbol of truth. Nanabozho the rabbit is a trickster. And so on.
Every person would be expected to worship one or more Ojichaag. Many would venerate an Ojichaag as the sacred ancestor of their doodem. Others might appeal to an Ojichaag who favored the area they lived in. Perhaps some aspect of their life or work might be best served by worshipping a particular Ojichaag.
One of the most common ways to appeal to an Ojichaag was through prayer. Spoken prayers would have been the most common but they vanish with the wind. Other types of prayers have been preserved. A common practice was to take a small piece of clay, carve a few glyphs or pictographs on it representing your prayer and cast it into the fire. Caches of such prayers have been found in excavated temples. They preserve a thousand different struggles, tragedies, and every day worries. People pray to be healed, to marry well, to become pregnant, for friends and family to return unharmed, and many other things. The most common prayer, scrawled in crude glyphs as no priest would agree to write it, is “Let me be free”, written by slaves.
Only Mide were allowed to make appeals and offerings directly to Manidoo as a whole. Everyone else should only appeal to Ojichaag and only their own Ojichaag. Praying to the wrong Ojichaag could be seen as a betrayal and might incur spiritual or temporal wrath. The physical manifestation of Manidoo was said to dwell on Mackinaw Island.
Mishipeshu, the Great Lynx, surrounded by his servants the Mishi-ginebig, the Horned Serpents
[1]
The most popular
Ojichaag of the classical period was
Mishipeshu, the Great Lynx.
Mishipeshu is the patron of the Peshu doodem or Lynx Clan. He is also the protector of sailors, particularly those on Lake Gichigami [Lake Superior] and the other Great Lakes. He controlled the water and the weather. Sailors offered prayers and sacrifices in order to soothe his savage temper and fickle nature. He is said to live in a cave at the bottom of Lake Gichigami. He was attended by the Mishi-ginebig, the Horned Serpents.
Binesi, most commonly translated as thunderbirds, are masters of the air. As they fly through the air, their wings create the sound of thunder. They can use lightning against their enemies. They live in opposition to Mishipeshu and are eternally at war with him. They control the wind as he does the water. They delight in fighting both each other and Mishipeshu. When the wind is swirling, the Thunderbirds are said to be quarrelling. They punish humans who have broken moral rules. They live at the end of the four directions, where a great mountain lies. They were the second most popular Ojichaag of the classical period.
Nanabozho is a trickster rabbit. Amongst many other tales, he is said to have named all the plants and animals. He shape-shifts to play tricks, start trouble, and fool people. He is said to have whispered in the ear of Medweginoonind when he created Mowin syllabics. He was also popular in the classical period.
The most popular female Ojichaag in the classical period was Asibikaashi, or the Spider Grandmother. She is a protector and helper. Her webs inspired the
Asabikeshiinh, or dreamcatchers, that were hung in every longhouse to guard against evil spirits. The spiders that infested the rice bogs were said to be her spirit protecting the manoomin as it grew.
Shingebiss is a duck who defied winter to survive and thrive. He is prayed to when it is most bitterly cold. He is said to be the enemy of Wendigo, a creature who represents insatiable greed and hunger. Wendigo possesses the bodies of humans and makes them murder and cannibalize their loved ones. As terrible as Wendigo is, he too is an Ojichaag, an aspect of Gichi-Manidoo. Worshipping Wendigo would have been akin to Satanism to Europe.
Although rarely worshipped in temples, amongst the common people there was also a belief in memegwesi, little people covered in hair with horns on their head. They caused mischief, sometimes at the direction of Nanabozho. They were similar to the fairies of European folklore.
Each ojichaag had their fanatics and their detractors. Many of the people in the Mishigami during the classical period would disagree with the idea that they shared a religion. They believed that Manidoo could appear in many forms but only some deserved worship. For example, followers of Mishipeshu would violently suppress the followers of the thunderbirds and vice versa.
Parts of the Midewiwin religion are kept secret from all but those who have been initiated as a
Mide. Historically these have been called cults, in the Greco-roman sense of the word. Due to the negative connotations of the word and backlash from practitioners who feel that it trivializes and belittles their religion, we will instead use the term mystery religion.
Each mystery religion had a collection of sacred stories, called aadizookaan. Some of these sacred stories were public but others were not to be shared. Most of the public stories were the same or at least similar across the Mishigami. Private stories varied considerably from place to place. Some revealed some aspect of the creation story. Others had secret rituals in order to appease Manidoo or certain Ojichaag. Among these private stories were detailed instructions for sacrifices and offerings.
Next time, we will have a narrative interlude for a slice of life from the Classical Period. But first, a supplemental on human and animal sacrifice in the Mishigami.
[1] Taken from:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Agawa_Rock,_panel_VIII.jpg
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