The Web of Desire
According to my grandfather, the word Perakee was synonymous with Medicine Man, Wise One, and Manwolf. These are three distinct classifications. Just having the lines in his hands does not automatically make a child a Medicine Man. It is only after a lifelong struggle to understand who and what he is, to control the energies he carries, to find the balance and peace within himself that allows Wisdom to flow forth. He was held in awe from the moment of his birth. The people of the village understood that, though he be ignorant now, the time would come when he would lead, and upon him depend the survival of the village.
The knowledge the Perakee was given was not secret. My grandfather told me that Toh was surrounded by people of his village at all times. He told my grandfather his stories in front of all who wished to listen, and many did. They were free to use the information any way they saw fit.
There is absolutely no difference physically, other than the lines on their hands, between Perakee and Mahakah. You cannot pick them out of the crowd by hair color, eye color, musculature, likes and dislikes, personal history, financial status, habits, or any other trait you can name. Neither is more powerful, nor weaker, nor smarter, nor conscientious. They both receive the same amount and type of energies from the earth.
The only difference between the two is that the energies of Mahakah are divided, while the energies of Perakee are not. This makes absolutely no difference to society at large. But, according to the tradition of my ancestors, this makes a great deal of difference in how Perakee and Mahakah perceive the world. And they say that the secret to unlocking this mystery lies in understanding the only line they have in common—the Earth line.
When the Earth arrow was shot into the fetus to bring it to life, it split in two main pieces. In Perakee, the energies that make us human continued westward, forming a powerful river that flows across the palm and off the side into the afterlife and beyond. The most powerful of those energies is the Intellect, or Sun energies. In Mahakah, the Arrow is shattered and leaves many scars. The Sun continues to travel westward, but loses its force and flows southward. The Emotions, or Moon energies, form their own channel in the North.
In both Perakee and Mahakah, the part of the Arrow that humans do not use in their everyday existence, but nevertheless is used to uphold their world, flows South toward the wrist, and the scar it leaves in its passing is called the Earth line. Twenty-two energies flow through the River, but many times that number flow through the Earth line. No man knows how many it takes to hold our physical world together.
My grandfather told me, as an analogy, that humans use only the top four feet of the water of the ocean. And that all the water beneath is what flows through the Earth line.
The main energy of the Earth line is called Desire. Desire rules not only our world, but the entire earth as well. It is the prime motivating factor behind all that is, ever was, or ever will be. The Great Spirit desired humor in Its life, and told the Earth to make it so. The Earth desired to please the Great Spirit, and so created humans. Now the Great Spirit watches the comings and goings of humans, with our deadly seriousness, and laughs.
Desire is what causes us to do anything we do. All our energy is at our beck and call, and we direct it with our Desire. If we desire something, we do whatever it takes to acquire it, to the extent of the strength of that desire. Unfortunately, most of mankind doesn’t know what it desires. Their desire changes from moment to moment. And after getting what they desire, they find they are not satisfied. They find that whatever it was, was not what they desired after all. Their Sun and Moon bicker constantly, telling the person to desire more, better, different, faster, slower, prettier, stronger, and so on.
Their whole life is like being caught in a giant spider web, one huge web of Desire. People constantly struggle to free themselves from it until they run out of energy and die. All their energy is wasted on pettiness.
Perakee are not free from Desire, either. But, in an effort to counterbalance this strong pull, it is explained to them what it is and how it works. Then at least they are free to choose how to direct their energies.
When a baby is born, it arrives into a world that is totally alien to him. The only constant is his mother. She was with him while he was in the world of the Womb, and she stayed with him throughout his arrival here. She is his only link to his small sense of reality. Her touch, voice, and smell are all that he can even begin to understand. As his senses grow, he begins to feel, hear, taste, smell, and see other things around him. Everything is so strange, he has no idea what they are. But the adults around him help him by telling him what each thing is called. He sees a color, and he is told over and over that that is red, red, red, until he finally understands. Each object has to be identified over and over as he learns to judge depth, size, shape, and utility.
By the time he is five years old, he will have learned to identify literally thousands of things. You and he can discuss any number of objects and agree as to shape, color, texture, size, and usefulness. He has seen these things many times, and he has been told so many times about these things, that there is no doubt in his mind what these things are.
However, if you were to be able to perceive the world through another person’s senses and interpret them with his brain, you would not be able to identify a single object in the world around you. The world would be as alien to you as it is to a newborn child.
From this, the young Perakee is taught to feast his eyes upon the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of his world. For it was created just for him the moment he was born, and will cease to exist the moment he dies, never to be repeated again.
According to my grandfather, to the extent a person understands this one simple lesson, that person will be free from the draining influences of the Web of Desire.
I introduced the lines of the hand and told something about them to, at the very least, offer choices. We can either accept the standard orthodox view of the lines as expounded by modern hand analysts, or be aware that there are other views. My world is not black and white. It is filled with all the beauty of the rainbow. I have fought and loved every color under the colorful sun.
Teach your children that. Show them love and patience and kindness and mercy, so that when they go out into the world they will know how to treat others. Help them understand that they, too, are part of the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of this magnificent thing we call life. Lead them on a path of discovery that will so engross them that, when Desire flows so strongly within them that it threatens to pull them into oblivion, they will be too busy with their own path to succumb to temptations. And their eyes will walk on until they, too, become the Last of the Perakee.