Human sexuality goes back as far as time immemorial. We can look to our spirituality, traditional knowledge and heritage for our basic understanding of being a two-legged person and what it means from a natural law perspective.
When we look at wildlife, for example, there are animals out there such as geese that mate for life. Humans are supposed to be like that too. When we choose a partner there is a commitment that we make to each other: a sacred union. Quite often this sacred hoop becomes broken by having multiple sex partners, or being sexually abused or assaulted, which can lead to people self-medicating and even overdosing.
The teachings of the White Buffalo Calf Woman (bit.ly/bt1020-im1) were brought to humanity many generations ago amongst the Sioux in the heart of Turtle Island (North America) and from there, her teachings spread like wildfire. The ancient oral history tells of this beautiful young woman that appeared on the great prairies when there were two male scouts out searching for buffalo in a time of scarcity. They saw this woman floating over the prairie coming toward them. One of the scouts had impure thoughts and desired her in a sexual way, while the other scout recognized that she was very sacred.
The man that had the sexual thoughts went to that woman and all of a sudden, a cloud came up and surrounded the both of them.
When the cloud dissipated, the woman was still standing there, but the man was just a pile of decomposed bones on the ground and therein lies a very important teaching for all humanity about sexuality. The other scout was told to go back to his community and prepare for her coming.
She taught many sacred ways of being, including human sexuality and reminded males that man has a big responsibility to not look at women as sexual objects. She also taught men and women have different roles in society, but both are equal. While men were predominantly hunters, providers of things like protection and food, the women had their roles, which were and still are just as important as that of the man. While the women cooked meals, gave birth, breast-fed the babies and predominantly raised children, their work was equal and just as important in all ways to the men. It is said that White Buffalo Calf Woman spoke to the women and told them, the work of their hands and the love that grows in their hearts is what keeps the people alive. She said to them, you are from Mother Earth and what you are doing is as great as what warriors do.
When she left humanity, she went to the four directions and in each direction, she turned into a buffalo and each of the four colours of humanity, red, yellow, black and white. When she left, she was a white buffalo calf, that represented new life. She reminded us that the children are the future of the people.
There has been this unraveling of the sacred hoop, which is now the strife of much of what family law has to deal with today. It seems that when a breakdown in marriage occurs, there are now laws in British Columbia such as the Family Law Act and the Federal Guidelines for Child Support, which are in a way, the codification of parents’ duties toward the family and children. These laws perhaps could be viewed as punishment for breaking the sacred hoop of one’s own family, but it is not, it merely is the fulfilment of one’s obligations or “responsibility” as taught by White Buffalo Calf Woman so many centuries ago.