Thursday, June 21, 2007

Travelling with Spirit in Prescott Arizona

"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I flew into Phoenix Arizona and Masauke met me and took me to the healing centre in Prescott Arizona. The Morning Blessing Way Healing Centre is run by Daisy L, a long time apprentice of Masauke and a medicine woman in her own right. Daisy is an artist extrodinaire, a writer, drummer, fluteplayer and singer of medicine songs. She is currently finishing her soon to be published book At The Same Time, which tells of her spiritual journey on her path to connecting with God and establishing a woman's altar.

Daisy's story is an incredible one. She is the mother of 7 children, one of whom she conceived as a gift for an infertile friend when directed to do so by the Holy Spirit. In her book she tells of the miracles that saved her now 14 yer old son from leukemia and the blessings she received behind the wounds. Her work at the centre involves healing the spirit which she does through a rebithing process using the energy of the hicuri medicine altar, drumming, singing and flute playing.

Shortly after I arrived Masauke directed me to go to the altar and lie down on the birthing bed It is a bed made of a stack of sleeping mats sitting ona dibuck skin given to Daisy's father by an african tribe that he worked with in then Rhodesia during World War II. The sleeping mats are covered with several deerskins which had been obtained by Masauke during ceremonial hunts for deer. In the Huichol tradition the deer are the mediators between us and the world of spirit -- without them there can be no ceremony. The bed is facing the altar which has a shallow planter with a large hicuri medicine cactus, a beaded buffalo skull, a beaded deer skull, several different types of feathers, an eagle fan, bottles of sacred water from different sacred sites, beaded gourds made by the Huichols and a small gourd containing all the quarters and bills left by people to be sent to the desert as offerings. Directly over the altar is a small circular Huichol yarn painting with an image of a woman giving birth that symbolizes the women's birthing energy of the altar

The healing centre is beautifully decorated with Daisy's medicine paintings adorning the 3 walls surrounding the altar. Two of Daisy's paintings are large images of Masauke . There is a third one of Anthony D, Masauke's Kiowa dad and another of a beaded deer skull with the profile of the shaman, Masauke, against the background of the Wiricuta desert depicting the peyoteros on their pilgrimage. Behind the bed which sits a few feet away from teh altar, on the other side of the healing centre is a part finished painting of a young Wirriraca girl. Two large batiks portraying different views of forests with several deer,adorn the walls. They were donated by a local woman artist who also has come to the centre for healing work.

I arrive at the healing centre and before doing anything else Masauke suggests that I go to the altar to pay my respects and that I lie down on the birthing bed so that Daisy can bring me back in tune with the energy of the medicine and ramp down my energy from the high speed energy of big city life. I lie down on the bed and feel my whole body sinking into the deerskin. It is hot in the healing centre. The afternoon sun is pouring through the small high rectangular windows. Daisy comes in and sits on one of the Huichol birthing stools behind me. There are 3 birthing stools and 1 chair similar to the ones in the house in the desert, the healing centre annex. Like I do when I meditate, I am focusing on my breathing.

Daisy begins to play the flute behind me. The melodic notes carry my consciousness deeper and deeper inside myself. My years of meditation practice makes it easy for me to go deep inside. I become aware of the presence of a young child, a girl. She looks like me, but not me. I ask her how old she is. She says she is 5 years old and that she is my daughter. She tells me her name is Kyra. When I was married, my husband and I had always known that we would have a daughter. We used ot talk about her and both had a similar vision of her. After we got divorced I never thought about her again and though I had several opportunities where I could have chosen to get pregnant, I never did. I had forgotten about the daughter I never had until she showed up as I lay on the birthing bed, her spirit waiting to be born.

As Daisy sang I could feel her in my belly and then she was out -- not a baby but still quite young. I followed Daisy's instructions to nurture her. The music changed. Daisy was playing the drum, her vibrant voice echoing from the skin that covered the drum. As Kyra finished nursing and moved to take her place on my left side, I could see another figure curled up in the inner recesses of my subconscious mind. A woman this time. A very very sad woman curled up in fetal position. I asked her who she was -- your sister was the reply. She told me her name was Sandra and that she was 38 years old. She too had never been born. I knew it was my job to birth her, to act as the surrogate for my mother. When I did give birth to her, Daisy suggests that I hold her and comfort her until her sadness is transformed. I hug my sister for what seems like a very long time. Then, unlike the little girl, she was gone .... Back to the world of spirit maybe, I will never know.

The music continued to play. Daisy had switched to a different flute. I was still deep in that place inside myself and as the music slowly trailed off, I followed the notes back from the planes of inner consciousness to the bed in front of the altar in the healing centre as the rays of the hot Arizona sun poured in through the window shades. I was relaxed, re energized and felt that I had let go of energies that I had been carrying around for many many years -- the daughter I had planned to have but never did and the sister that maybe my parents had planned to have but also never did. Daisy had just facilitated a powerful healing at the Women's Birthing Altar.

When I later talked to Daisy and told her about my experiences she was thrilled to find out about the little girl and the once sad sister who had come to me. She had done a lot of work rebirthing women and birthing the spirits of babies who had been aborted or miscarried but this was the first time that a child that had never been conceived had appeared and she was thrilled at the new direction this was taking the work of the healing centre .... more to follow

Lessons Learned: 1) Spirit works in mysterious ways, 2) Our wishes, hopes and desires can and do manifest in the world of spirit before they manifest in the world of form. Sometimes healing involves giving birth to those wishes, hopes and desires we have forgotten we at one point had, 3) Letting go of the old allows us to let in the new.


staywell and travel with Spirit in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller.