Thinking Should Replace Killing
This is a story of peace—a very influential and meaningful story, as far as peace in North America and beyond is concerned. But it’s not very well-known. It is the story of the Great Peacemaker, the founder of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which today consists of Six Nations (originally Five). What follows are excerpts of this long and great story, parts of which were told at the International Students’ Conference that took place in April 2024 in Switzerland.
600, 700, 800 years back in time, in the area of the Finger Lakes, the place that is now called New York, there was perpetual war between five nations: the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca. It is said it was a time of great evil which found expression through black magic and cannibalism. The conflicts just kept repeating, again and again, in endless cycles.
At this time, an individual is born who eventually becomes known as the Great Peacemaker. As a young man, he realizes that he has to bring the Great Law of Peace to this land of war and conflict. So he sets out to spread this great law, speaking to anyone who will listen. But there’s so much deep cynicism and so much trauma related to violence that not many people do. They have a hard time making meaning out of the words that he uses.
At one point on his journey, he comes to the home of a woman named Jigonhsasee. Jigonhsasee nurses and cares for wounded warriors, no matter what nation they belong to. But her help is partly for her own amusement: she relishes the tales of war – she has little true sympathy for those she mends, and it often turns out badly for them. The Peacemaker proposes that she join him in trying to bring an end to the perpetual circle of violence, but she cannot see how it’s possible. “It’s easy to speak about peace, but it’s hard to realize peace. How will you do this?” she asks. But over time, the words and the impression of the Peacemaker work on her, and she has a change of heart. Jigonhsasee becomes one of the first people to join the delegation of the Peacemaker. He names her “Jigonhsasee of the new face.” A meaningful intuition exists in the relationship between the Peacemaker and Jigonhsasee that will eventually find expression in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, where the chiefs and leaders are chosen by a circle of women carers. But at this point in the story, when the Peacemaker first meets Jigonhsasee, and she joins his effort, there are many years and many journeys before any such confederacy is to become a reality.
This text is an excerpt from an article published in the (online exclusive) Goetheanum Weekly. You can read the full article on the website. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can get to know the Goetheanum Weekly for 1 CHF./€.
Commentary from Nathaniel Williams:
The International Students’ Conference, Taking Heart – Finding Our Way Together, took place in April of 2024 in Switzerland. The special qualities of being young, the heartfelt questions, the hard challenges, and the surges of enthusiasm and compassion have a special place at the ISC. An instinctive spirituality and wisdom light up, especially through encounters, conversations, creativity, and experiences, where the great questions of life can be explored. After experiencing a project with renewing, warm light, like the ISC, it is easy to feel a plea rise from within for others, young and old, to take heart by clearing away more suffocating brambles of isolation and fear; to make spaces for the young, thinking heart and all the patterns it can help weave into the future.
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On the image At the conference, the Haudenosaunee tale of the peacemaker was recreated as theater in public space. 734 young people and other guests paraded with large puppets and backdrops from Dornach to the city center of Basel. Photo: Xue Li