Holistic Pathways: Spirit Journey of the White Cherokee

By Jacob Carter

The White Cherokee is a man with Cherokee roots whose family survived the total devastation of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. He later found himself on a spiritual journey in connection with his heritage and was thrust upon a path of awakening to knowledge and insight that rival ancient teachings and reveals a sacred truth of creation that was hidden from the people a long time ago. Step into these pages and find out just how incredible our matrix of creation truly is and the immense spiritual power that is hidden within.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781982234836

Jacob Carter

Jake Carter is just another guy that got his diploma, then put on his blue-collar and went to work. He grew up in a split family that kept him on the move between the country and city as he bounced from his moms place to his dads. He’s got Native American heritage and has always felt close to nature, so he turned out a whole lot country and a little-bit rock and roll. After some severe trauma in his life, he managed to tap into that Native American side and found out a whole lot of truth for himself. The knowledge he learned is meant for everyone and he just wants to share his story so everyone can finally have the opportunity to see what we’re all truly a part of and just how connected everything really is.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Little Bit of

Childhood

Years ago, shortly after I became a father is when I first developed a spiritual interest. It was the cultural intrigue that my wife and I share for my Native American heritage that first sparked a flame of spiritualism within me. The respect that the Native Americans have for their environment and the knowing that there is somehow a Greater Spirit within all that is created is a belief that has inspired me to seek spiritual awareness for myself. The more I have learned about Native American values and perspectives, the more I recognize sharing similar features and I am inspired by the many similar perspectives that the different Native cultures share. Because of my like personality, I have realized that the old saying, It’s in my blood, seems to apply to me in a pretty big way. It has helped me understand why I feel the way I do about certain things such as God and nature.

Having a significant spiritual experience as a small child is something that has fed my desire to find out what I am really a part of as well. I never understood why I seen Angles when I was just a small boy, but they have always reminded me that things are more involved than we realize. Back in 1979 or 80, when I was only four or five years old, is when my first profound experience took place. I can still go to that moment in time and feel the warmth from the ray of light that the Angels resided in. They were so beautiful. I remember them being so gracefully perfect. Most of all, what I felt was meaning. They were so vivid it was almost like a cartoon with the immense clarity of the light they were in. The beam of sunlight was so golden it seemed to be a different kind of light. It seemed like it was thick, almost fluid like. I don’t remember ever seeing the sun, just the people staggered upwards.

I remember being by the plants outside the house when I felt a tickle on my feet. I looked down and it was like my feet were glowing with light, all the plants around me started to glow. It was majestic. It tickled where the light was shining on me. I remember following the light upwards with my eyes, completely mesmerized by how thick and unique it was. I followed it upwards and instead of seeing the sun, I seen people. They seemed perfect. They didn’t have wings or haloes but were Angelic with their presence within the light. I remember that instead of being scared or shocked I was overwhelmed by a since of welcome. They just stared back at me like if having an in-depth conversation with full focus of attention, but I couldn’t see their lips moving. Their eyes were just locked onto mine like they must have had something to say, but there were never any words.

The one closest to me was a man with short dark hair and just behind him was a woman with long strawberry blond hair, but the ones behind her were out of focus for some reason, they were still bright, but their features were not defined. I could see different colored hair and I could tell that they were looking in different directions other than towards me; it seemed as if I was only supposed to see the first two. The two of them just gazed at me as I gazed back and then the woman gave a slight smile and the man started to lift his arms, and they were gone.

I couldn’t wait to tell everyone about what I had seen. Just after the event I immediately told my mom. I remember being so excited and I thought everyone else would be too. Wrong! It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed to keep my mouth shut. Moms reaction was something like, wow honey that’s nice, now go play. I remember that no one wanted to hear about it. I didn’t realize how fast I could go from an overactive imagination, to just wanting attention. These were some of the different responses from people that I tried to tell. This was my first experience of a divine nature and has been a privately valued memory of mine for many years. You would think that an experience like that would make someone crave church or something, but it just didn’t work that way for me. Maybe it was being shut down by everyone that subdued my interest.

Since that experience I’ve known that there is a greater purpose in this world and now It feels like I am closing in on mine. In the years following my childhood experience everything just seemed chaotic. My mom and dad divorced, I was in a different elementary school each year, three different middle schools, and two different high schools; I lived out of a duffle bag for the most part until I was fourteen and a freshman in high school. I was constantly on the move from my mom’s to my dad’s, to my grandmothers, and to my aunt and uncles. It was a lot of moving around, but it kept things interesting. It allowed me to learn how to accept diversity in my life as well as teaching me how to be adaptive to different lifestyles and environments. It also taught me how to be independent. I became more of a loner type. I didn’t care about chasing after groups of popular kids. I always had a few friends here and there, but I just done my own thing and didn’t really worry about social drama.

I grew up in the nursery business on my dads’ side of the family, so from a young age I was no stranger to hard work. If my cousin and I were out of school on summer break, we were at the nursery. I liked working with the plants and landscaping the different areas, well, a lot of times it was hot and miserable, but we tried to make it fun whenever possible, which also got me and my cousin in some serious trouble sometimes. My cousin who is only three months younger than me was always right there with me when we were on the clock, so it wasn’t that bad for the most part. By the time we were twelve years old we were full time landscape crew and could drive the trucks and tractors. We were like brothers, working, playing, arguing and getting into trouble all the time.

I remember on one of our landscape jobs when the temp was really hot, we were in the back of the property taking a break. We each had a wheelbarrow so we put them in the shade and pushed the handles to the ground, that way we could use them as chairs by sitting on the back sidewall. It was a nice break until there was a sudden swift kick to the side of the wheelbarrows. This is when we realized that each of us had dozed off when we were supposed to be working. It didn’t take us long to get up and start moving again. I think we could’ve done without the whipping and the restriction afterwards though. Needless to say, we were always finding some way to spice up our day, like dirt clog wars or throwing water at each other. We worked hard and played hard; it was all good. We were always told that it would build character. They were right! It builds character, calluses, aches and pains, but it’ll make a man out of you.

The years went by quick, before I knew it, I was sixteen, driving and living out in the country with my dad permanently and had met the girl of my dreams. A country girl that was never afraid to stand up for herself and what she believes in; a feisty thing not afraid to fight back, man she stole my heart eighteen years ago and now we have a family of five. If my life would not have been exactly as it was, I never would have met her, and we wouldn’t have our three kids. Story of my life; it seems like my blessings are always in disguise.

I guess I could say that I had a pretty diverse childhood with a country boy lifestyle on my dads’ side of the family which was hard work, grits and eggs, hunting, fishing, farming, trucks, tractors, mudding, woods, creeks and horseback riding. I loved it! I had more of a city boy lifestyle on my moms’ side that was more like school, home, mall, beach and some neighborhood friends. Mom and I had our kind of fun, and dad and I had ours; completely different lifestyles but I’ve always been a country boy at heart. When I was a kid mom and dads’ divorce made things seem chaotic with me always going back and forth from one to the other.

I would live with one then the other then my grandma, which is my dads’ mom who we call Meama, her and Pop (Meamas husband and Granddad to my generation of family) took care of everybody. If it wasn’t for her and Pop I don’t know if I would have made it at times. Meamas house was like a neutral zone, I got a break from the chaos while I was there; she always had that magical way to make things seem better, it usually involved homemade biscuits with some grits and eggs to go along with a love like no other. Meama was mother hen to everybody; I think she practically raised half the neighborhood friends of my dad’s and his three brothers. She had a compassion that was unmatched but also had a stern foundation. If you ever thought you were going to get one over on Meama you were mistaken and then you better watch out for that wooden spoon because it was going to find your rear-end or the side of your leg.

Even back then I felt a little different about things. I felt easily suffocated when I was in crowded environments; not claustrophobic, but just longing for freedom of the countryside. The feeling of peace that it offered along with the most awesome views of the nights sky that I have ever seen made for some good medicine. The air felt clean and crisp and the environment was full of life. Woods and creeks for miles with old country roads and wildlife everywhere, it was quiet and serene, which is the exact opposite of life in the city. The schools there were crowded and loud, and nothing felt clean about the air unless we went to the beach, which was always awesome, especially around sunset.

There was something about being in the country around a more natural environment that always touched me somehow. I could feel what was around me, or what was around me seemed to make me feel better and more at peace. One of my favorite things was to go outside at night and check out the stars. No matter what I had going on in my life I could watch those stars and the problems just seemed to fade. I guess it was the immense beauty of the vast blanket of them that just made things seem alright. It was a reminder to me that my problems were so small compared to everything I could see that I was a part of. I felt like I was a part of it anyway. I used to sit under those stars or I would go get on my horse bareback in the pasture and lay back on him while he walked around and I would think about different things like whatever was going on in life at the time, or the angels I seen when I was little. I didn’t even bother trying to talk to anybody about it. I knew it happened for a reason, I just didn’t know what the reason was and didn’t know if I would ever find out. Regardless, the sun comes up the next day and you keep on keeping on.

Nature has always helped me find peace. I guess with me being part Cherokee it must be in my blood. Since my childhood event, I’ve known that me and nature are connected in more ways than what I’m seeing through social belief systems, so I’ve made it my spiritual quest to find out exactly how connected we are and exactly how the connection works. I choose to see that all belief systems are significant, so why should I only be bound to one. I choose to take a journey within myself to see what could be found, but before I got to that point, I had to find myself and before I could find myself, I had to start looking. Think God I found the love of my life at a young age.

As a kid who saw angels, what does such an experience mean? For me, it stood for a reminder that there is more here with us than we know about. Why wasn’t anyone willing to hear my story? I couldn’t talk to anyone about my experience. It was just my imagination! I was just silly! I was seeing things, or it was just a dream! My favorite was, I just wanted attention! I still can’t talk about it with anyone without them thinking that I’m crazy, especially if I talk about what I’ve experienced since then. I can’t stand it! No one wants to hear about anything unless it involves them or unless they can gain from it, others just think I’ve lost my mind. I’m not considered anyone special so how could such a special event happen to me? That’s pretty much the perspective of anyone outside the event.

If I was a preacher and then told people that I saw angels it would allow them to make a rational connection between preacher and angels, then I would be considered a man of God and be able to gain credibility. Since I’m not a preacher and the event didn’t put me on a path to become one, people don’t consider me as a credible witness and feel they have no reason to believe anything I have to say about anything. I don’t have to be a preacher; I’m a Cherokee that has embraced my inner-self and made a personal connection between mind, body, and soul, which makes me a part of the spiritual priesthood that everyone can be a part of. I guess that childhood experience directed me toward a priestly path after all, in a round-a-bout kind of way but you’re sure as hell not going to see me standing in the middle of an intersection waving a bible and screaming verses at traffic or standing in front of crowds saying bla-bla-bla, and telling everyone it’s the language of the angels. Maybe that’s just a bible belt thing, I’m not sure.

CHAPTER TWO

Working Toward a Family

I met my sweetheart when we were in high school and fell in love with her like I never thought possible. That woman is a gift from God. I’m truly amazed that she kept a hold of me; the first time I took her out we got shot at, I figured that would be the last time she wanted to talk to me. I guess I had just enough good to make up for the bad. Now it’s eighteen years later, moving into 2010 and we’ve been through all kinds of ups and downs and we’re still going strong. We must drive each other just crazy enough to keep things interesting. She’s always been my blue-eyed angel and in a big way she helped save me from myself. Thank you, Angel; I Love You Forever!

I guess when I was growing up, I had a lot of built up aggression because there was a time in my youth when I’d fight a brick wall if I thought it was trying to put me down in some way. That’s probably over exaggerating a little bit, but not by much. For some reason when I was young it felt like there was always a fight going on inside of me that I just couldn’t quite figure out. I stayed halfcocked and ready for any sign of trouble, which seemed to never have a hard time finding me. I admit that I was hot tempered, but I can say that I never picked a fight, I just never ran from one, nor did I put up with any crap going on around me unless under a direct threat from my dad. I wouldn’t dare cross my dad.

On Friday and Saturday nights, back when my wife and I were dating, there was usually a bonfire somewhere in the woods near a river or creek that would have our usual crowd around it. That was how we had our fun, bonfire by the river somewhere, a little bit of mud riding, or if we were in town, we would be shooting a game of pool somewhere. We managed to have a good time and stayed out of trouble for the most part. Usually if things started getting kind of crazy, she would have me by the back of my shirt pulling me away from it before I got in to deep, but sometimes it was just time to throw down. You could have a fight and then drink a beer together afterwards when I was young. You didn’t have to worry near as much about getting shot, stabbed, or blown up like you worry about now days. We were just a little hostile at times, not just outright evil, nobody wanted to kill anybody, we just needed to resolve some occasional issues and be done with it.

I proposed to my wife when she was still a senior in high school, we couldn’t wait to get married and start our family. I had graduated the year before her and had a good job and an apartment so all we were waiting on was for her to graduate. At the time it seemed like it would never get here, but it finally did, and we were on our way. I was nineteen, she was eighteen, just a few days after she graduated, and we tied the knot. We wanted our own family more than anything so a couple of months after the wedding she was pregnant with our oldest son. We had some scary times during the pregnancy, but he was born healthy other than a little jaundice. A little time in an ultraviolet suitcase and he was good to go. That’s what it looked like anyway.

When I saw the birth of my oldest son it changed my life forever. It was one of most magical experiences of my life that brought me to a whole different level on how I valued life and love. That experience is also one that diverted my mind back to my own childhood and the spiritual experience that I had. To know that I had took part in creating this new life and then experienced the emotional power of his birth was to know that I am truly blessed and maybe those angels haven’t forgot about me after all, even though it had seemed like it through so many years of chaos.

Five years later we had a beautiful little girl. Watching my daughter be born was the same magical experience as before. A new life taking her first breath in this world on her own. When she was eighteen months old, she had a severe allergic reaction and ended up being rushed by ambulance from the doctors’ office she was at with her mom and grandma. She had already had her temperature taken by the doctor at over one hundred-two but after that her eyes rolled back and she collapsed into a fever seizure as her temp passed one hundred-five. After a week in the hospital with tubes and monitors everywhere we found out that she was severely allergic to cats, wheat products, dust mites, and eggs. This was a life altering experience for all of us to say the least. Our entire lifestyle had to change in order to get her through this life challenge.

We had to stop going to the creek and camping. It took about all we could do in order to buy the health foods that she had to eat because of the allergies. We became home bodies that never went anywhere or did anything outside of our property. My son and I would still go hunting on occasion, but not as often as either one of us wanted. The money wasn’t there, and my favorite areas had been taken over by hunting clubs that were way too expensive for me to join. We still went to the old property that I grew up on where my Meama and Pop lived, and next door is where my kid brother and sister lived with my stepmom at the time. My daughter didn’t go outside much after she got sick so we limited outdoor activities and tried to do things that all of us could do. That sounds good but with no money that just means hanging out at the house. That’s fine, we can have fun anywhere. No matter what you are going through, it can only be what you make of it.

Being a land surveyor, I was outdoors all day every day anyhow. It was always challenging dealing with the heat, bugs, snakes and whatever else nature had to throw at us, but I absolutely loved it. You can throw me out in a swamp, I’ll find a way to make it fun. I had fun no matter what we were getting into. I was still getting my outdoors fix anyway. My son didn’t get his near as much other than just playing out in the yard.

As the years were going by with so much more time being spent at home, there was a lot more time spent reading as well as introspecting. My brother in law used to come by the house all the time for discussions about creation. My wife and I with my brother in law had a good time exploring the subject together by combining our knowledge of different aspects and viewpoints to enhance the understanding of ourselves and what this crazy world is all about. During these years we became very involved with meditation and conscious mind exploration. We enjoyed comparing notes on experiences like dreams, premonitions, and Deja vu. There were several occasions when two of the three of us would have dreams that were very similar, to the point of being almost identical.

The longer we practiced our meditation the more vivid our dreams became. There were many times when even the days themselves seemed to be more vivid than usual, which we determined was more clarity in the mind that enhanced the perception of our environment. The study of the human mind has been another life changing experience for me in itself for the fact that it’s through self, not just reading about what other people have to say. I found the perspectives of others to be extremely valuable to my overall understanding. I also found that it’s only a perspective until applied to self, through the mind until a personal understanding is gained and then it becomes insight.

My brother in law, along with my wife and I are all what you would call super-sensitive in our own ways. We, just as anyone have different qualities that seem to go hand in hand when we’re together. The three of us before our quest or study, seem to have different natural