Eagle and Condor Fly Together: An Epochal Moment

A Prophecy of the Wisdomkeepers of Native America

Following is an updated version of two posts to The Green Pen of April 2012. Even more relevant now thus well worth repeating!

People in the United States and around the world are experiencing a period of change of historic magnitude. It is an epochal moment, as worldviews shift from separateness, fear, and security through competitive dominance and win-lose violence to oneness, hope, and security through cooperative interdependence and win-win peace.

It is a time of breakdown and breakthrough. It is a time in which economic, social, political and other human systems created out of a culture of violence are, at last, increasingly being recognized as just not working any more. It is a time in which those systems are necessarily giving way to new systems based on a very different view of reality, a culture of peace. It is a time in which the eagle and the condor are learning to fly together once again.

Prophecy of Eagle and Condor

In his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins writes (p. 209 in the first edition; the link is to the third edition):

“Nearly every culture I know prophesies that in the late 1990’s we entered a period of remarkable transition. At monasteries in the Himalayas, ceremonial sites in Indonesia, and indigenous reservations in North America, from the depths of the Amazon to the peaks of the Andes, and into the ancient Mayan cities of Central America, I have heard that ours is a special moment in human history, and that each of us was born at this time because we have a mission to accomplish.

“The titles and the words of the prophecies differ slightly. They tell variously of a New Age, the Third Millennium, the Age of Aquarius, the Beginning of the Fifth Sun, or the end of old calendars and the commencement of new ones. Despite the varying terminologies, however, they have a great deal in common, and “The Prophecy of the Condor and Eagle” is typical. It states that back in the mists of history, human societies divided and took different paths: that of the condor (representing the heart, intuitive and mystical) and that of the eagle (representing the brain, rational and material). In the 1490’s, the prophecy said, the two paths would converge and the eagle would drive the condor to the verge of extinction. Then, five hundred years later, in the 1990’s, a new epoch would begin, one in which the condor and the eagle will have the opportunity to reunite and fly together in the same sky, along the same path. If the condor and eagle accept this opportunity, they will create a most remarkable offspring, unlike any seen before.

“‘The Prophecy of the Condor and Eagle’ can be taken at many levels — the standard interpretation is that it foretells the sharing of indigenous knowledge with the technologies of science, the balancing of yin and yang, and the bridging of northern and southern cultures. However, most powerful is the message it offers about consciousness; it says that we have entered a time when we can benefit from the many diverse ways of seeing ourselves and the world, and that we can use these as a springboard to higher levels of awareness. As human beings we can truly wake up and evolve into a more conscious species.”

You can also watch a YouTube video of Perkins speaking about the prophecy. If you google on “eagle and condor prophecy”, you’ll find many more sites describing and discussing it, for example, this one and this one.

Personal Eagle-Condor Insights from Wisdomkeepers

The prophecy is a very personal story as well as a cultural one. The eagle is the head of each of us. The condor is the heart. Flying together, they will spawn in each of us – indeed, are spawning – a new culture, a culture of peace. It is a culture that synthesizes the knowledge and wisdom of both birds – of both West and East, North and South, Modern and Indigenous, Rational and Intuitive, Analytic and Holistic– and thus synergistically transcends both.

Steve Wall and Harvey Arden, in Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders, chronicle in text and beautiful photographs their journey to “the land of the Wisdomkeepers, which lies “[j]ust off the map, beyond the Interstates, out past the power lines and the shopping malls, up that little side road without a sign on it … .”

Here are a few insightful nuggets sifted from the mother lode contained in this book that have fed the Condor in my heart learning to fly with the Eagle in my head:

“The Grandfathers and Grandmothers of tomorrow are in the children. If we educate them right, our children tomorrow will be wiser than we are today. They’re the Grandfathers and Grandmothers of tomorrow.” Eddie Benton-Banai (Ojibway)

“When we walk upon Mother Earth we always plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground.” Oren Lyons (Onandaga)

“I myself have no power. It’s the people behind me who have the power. Real power comes only from the Creator. It’s in His hands. But if you’re asking about strength, not power, then I can say that the greatest strength is in gentleness.” Chief Leon Shenandoah (Onandaga, Tadodaho of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy)

“The founder of Haudenosaunee government [the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy], whom we call the Peacemaker, intended that there be social justice in the world. No man was to be more privileged than any other man. All were to be accorded respect.” Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah (Onandaga), from her keynote address at the January 1990 Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival

“There is no word for ‘nature’ in my language. Nature, in English, seems to refer to that which is separate from human beings. It is a distinction we don’t recognize.” Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah (Onandaga), from her keynote address at the January 1990 Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival

“He finally learned that wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start truly living the life the Creator intended for you.” Leila Fisher (Hoh)

“These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our Mother Earth, from whom all life comes. In order to do this we must recognize the enemy – the one within us. We must begin with ourselves.” Chief Leon Shenandoah (Onandaga, Tadodaho of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy)

“Throughout our travels in search of the Wisdomkeepers we kept seeing aspects of that same sacred circle or sacred hoop – one of the fundamental symbols of the Native American culture. There’s the cycle or circle of the seasons, the circle of the ceremonies, the family circle, the circle of the community, the circle of Elders, the cycle of the generations, and the circle of all life, of which mankind is only one aspect – all things one.” Harvey Arden and Steve Wall (Journalists), in Epilogue to Wisdomkeepers

Concluding Query

To the Eagle, time is linear. To the Condor, time is cyclical. With the two flying together, time becomes a spiral, the cycles advancing inexorably toward … what? The Omega Point? God? The Tao?