Blessings to everyone reading this blog:
May your path continue to be illuminated.
May you find peace and joy scattered like rose petals at your feet on your journeys.
May you dance with innocence and enchantment.
May truth fall like raindrops and refreshen the ground you walk on.
May love encircle your heart and send it's root into your soul to nourish nourish nourish you and keep you strong.
May Faith, Joy and Hope be your constant companions.
May blossoms of beauty scatter in front of you like tiny seeds blowing in the wind, and may all the desires of your heart become whispers that echo in the canyons of possibilities, manifest in the realm of dreams and take root in the lands of opportunity.
May ALL that is good, true, beautiful, magical and harmonious be your now and always and may you find those you truly love and continue to walk together with love in your heart, beauty in your soul and joy in your steps and the deep and true knowledge that you are always connected through time and space to the ends of infinity and eternity and back.
May you bathe in fountains of love and swim in rivers of abundant blessings.
May you know that you are a precious and true manifestation of the Divine and that you are always truly, truly blessed and that you are also a true blessing to Gaia/Pacha Mama, our home and earth mother.
This is my blessing to you ...
StayWell and Travel with Spirit, in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller
Monday, July 9, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Hanging Out with HyoChul
"Unlike goddesses associated with fertility, Tara is approached primarily as a protector and preserver of life. In the sky above, a dragon emerges from the clouds clutching a wish-fulfilling gem. In the Buddhist tradition, the pearl without price symbolizes the wisdom of selflessness, of great compassion - "the one force benefiting both self and others." Celestial Gallery. Romeo Shrestha.
Hyochul is a very special 14 year old boy who lives in Prescott, Arizona. He has lived here for 11 years and before that lived in Idaho. Hyochul loves to draw, ride his bike and rollerblade. Hyochul tells me he had leukemia for 3 years and says that he was dealing with the medical stuff for a long time. His mother clarifies that it was the rejection to the bone marrow transplant and the after effects of the transplant that lasted 6 and a half years. Thirty percent of kids who have the transplant die during the transplant and another 30% die in the first year. HyoChul is one of a very small percentage of kids who have survived a specific type of childhood leukemia, and his mother Daisy feels that he is a precious gift who came into her life to reinforce her faith in the Great Spirit and that through his sacrifice and her sacrifice to keep him alive, she found the strength she needed to become the guardian of the women's altar.
His mother, who has studied with many great teachers including Swami Hiraharinanda Giri, the last living disciple of Sri YuctaSwa and Yoginanda's fellow disciple, with Luke Chan the first Master of ChiLiel Chi Gong in the West and with Masauke, says that HyoChul is her greatest teacher. She tells of the time when they had found out how serious HyoChul's leukemia was. He had 0.02% chance of living because he had a very specific translocation and did not go into remission. She and her husband had to decide whether or not to go the route of a transplant and she had 4 people pray and send chi when they were making the decision about whether he would have the transplant that had as much chance of killing him as saving him.
Many say that HyoChul is still alive now because of Daisy's faith, she never ever gave up, and also because of the energy and chi and prayers sent by the thousands of people around the world who were part of Daisy's chi gung network. Hyochul's story touched the heart of a Navajo medicine man who gathered 21 native men who had never met HyoChul and did a sweatlodge for his healing. The Bodinath temple in Katmandu did a ceremony for his healing. Daisy even went to the local Tibet store and asked them to take a picture of HyoChul to Garchen Rimpoche and he too gave a blessing. "China and Tibet were completely united in that little child at 7 years old" she says.
After several attempts during the 6.5 years to reduce the anti-rejection meds that kept HyoChul's transplanted immune system from rejecting the rest of his body, he finally came of the meds last year just before he want to the Sundance. Daisy firmly believes that it was the days of drumming at the Sundance that kept HyoChul's body from needing to go back on the meds. When asked about his experience at the sundance last year, HyoChul said that it was nothing special, just another religious thing, but that he had met some people that he really liked at the Sundance.
Hyochul's first love is his art. He says that the love of art has always been in his family and that even when he was very little he can always remember scribbling and drawing, He's just gotten better as he got older. He feels that he is good at art because he practices every day not so much because he was born being really good.
The thing he loves best about living in Prescott is his friends. He loves hanging out with his friends and even more hanging out with his 4 older brothers and 1 older sister. Most of the time he is not very excited by Prescott though because he says that there is nothing to do in Prescott.
He is working on drawing a comic book which he started a few years ago and which features an evil inventor who created a character named after Hyochul who must escape from the clutches of his evil creator. The story sounds really interesting though I haven't seen Hyochuls' drawings yet. We spent some time this afternoon hanging out at the ice cream parlour in front of the downtown square eating sorbet while HyoChul filled me in on the plot of comic book.
Hyochul has been home schooled for most of his life and has had 1 year of regular school. Although he thought that the 'regular' school is more social and that you meet a lot of people, he did not like going to school because many of the kid were jerks to use his words.. They talked about people behind their backs and to their faces and he really did not like that.
He also plans to create designs that he wants to put on t-shirts and sell. He is already a bit of a business man as he negotiated a deal with Masauke to buy some of his Huichol t-shirts at cost and he sells them to visitors to the healing centre.
HyoChul has tried Aikido but found that sitting in ceza [sitting on your knees] was very hard on his legs that he says are not as flexible as many other peoples. I taught him some of the basic karate stances, kicks and punches and he seemed to really connect with karate so I plan to take him to one of the local karate schools later this week to see if he connects with that art in a way that will help him find the pearl without price in himself.
It has been a wonderful experience meeting this special kid who is struggling to find himself and his gift to the world and who despite everything he's been through, does not feel that he is any different from any other 14 year old.
Lessons learned: 1) Life is Precious, 2) Never make assumptions about who people are or what they have gone through, 3) Prayer is powerful! Faith even more so.
Staywell and Travel with Spirit in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller.
Hyochul is a very special 14 year old boy who lives in Prescott, Arizona. He has lived here for 11 years and before that lived in Idaho. Hyochul loves to draw, ride his bike and rollerblade. Hyochul tells me he had leukemia for 3 years and says that he was dealing with the medical stuff for a long time. His mother clarifies that it was the rejection to the bone marrow transplant and the after effects of the transplant that lasted 6 and a half years. Thirty percent of kids who have the transplant die during the transplant and another 30% die in the first year. HyoChul is one of a very small percentage of kids who have survived a specific type of childhood leukemia, and his mother Daisy feels that he is a precious gift who came into her life to reinforce her faith in the Great Spirit and that through his sacrifice and her sacrifice to keep him alive, she found the strength she needed to become the guardian of the women's altar.
His mother, who has studied with many great teachers including Swami Hiraharinanda Giri, the last living disciple of Sri YuctaSwa and Yoginanda's fellow disciple, with Luke Chan the first Master of ChiLiel Chi Gong in the West and with Masauke, says that HyoChul is her greatest teacher. She tells of the time when they had found out how serious HyoChul's leukemia was. He had 0.02% chance of living because he had a very specific translocation and did not go into remission. She and her husband had to decide whether or not to go the route of a transplant and she had 4 people pray and send chi when they were making the decision about whether he would have the transplant that had as much chance of killing him as saving him.
Many say that HyoChul is still alive now because of Daisy's faith, she never ever gave up, and also because of the energy and chi and prayers sent by the thousands of people around the world who were part of Daisy's chi gung network. Hyochul's story touched the heart of a Navajo medicine man who gathered 21 native men who had never met HyoChul and did a sweatlodge for his healing. The Bodinath temple in Katmandu did a ceremony for his healing. Daisy even went to the local Tibet store and asked them to take a picture of HyoChul to Garchen Rimpoche and he too gave a blessing. "China and Tibet were completely united in that little child at 7 years old" she says.
After several attempts during the 6.5 years to reduce the anti-rejection meds that kept HyoChul's transplanted immune system from rejecting the rest of his body, he finally came of the meds last year just before he want to the Sundance. Daisy firmly believes that it was the days of drumming at the Sundance that kept HyoChul's body from needing to go back on the meds. When asked about his experience at the sundance last year, HyoChul said that it was nothing special, just another religious thing, but that he had met some people that he really liked at the Sundance.
Hyochul's first love is his art. He says that the love of art has always been in his family and that even when he was very little he can always remember scribbling and drawing, He's just gotten better as he got older. He feels that he is good at art because he practices every day not so much because he was born being really good.
The thing he loves best about living in Prescott is his friends. He loves hanging out with his friends and even more hanging out with his 4 older brothers and 1 older sister. Most of the time he is not very excited by Prescott though because he says that there is nothing to do in Prescott.
He is working on drawing a comic book which he started a few years ago and which features an evil inventor who created a character named after Hyochul who must escape from the clutches of his evil creator. The story sounds really interesting though I haven't seen Hyochuls' drawings yet. We spent some time this afternoon hanging out at the ice cream parlour in front of the downtown square eating sorbet while HyoChul filled me in on the plot of comic book.
Hyochul has been home schooled for most of his life and has had 1 year of regular school. Although he thought that the 'regular' school is more social and that you meet a lot of people, he did not like going to school because many of the kid were jerks to use his words.. They talked about people behind their backs and to their faces and he really did not like that.
He also plans to create designs that he wants to put on t-shirts and sell. He is already a bit of a business man as he negotiated a deal with Masauke to buy some of his Huichol t-shirts at cost and he sells them to visitors to the healing centre.
HyoChul has tried Aikido but found that sitting in ceza [sitting on your knees] was very hard on his legs that he says are not as flexible as many other peoples. I taught him some of the basic karate stances, kicks and punches and he seemed to really connect with karate so I plan to take him to one of the local karate schools later this week to see if he connects with that art in a way that will help him find the pearl without price in himself.
It has been a wonderful experience meeting this special kid who is struggling to find himself and his gift to the world and who despite everything he's been through, does not feel that he is any different from any other 14 year old.
Lessons learned: 1) Life is Precious, 2) Never make assumptions about who people are or what they have gone through, 3) Prayer is powerful! Faith even more so.
Staywell and Travel with Spirit in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Supporting the Sundance
"Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being. Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves" Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
This was my third year as a supporter at the Little Big Medicine Sundance. How I was called to connect with the LBM sundance was totally a story of following Spirit. A chiropractor/ homeopath friend of mine had received an invitation to support the LBM sundance by volunteering her services for the local Navajo community and for the sundancers. She was really clear that she needed to go and when I heard about it, something really spoke to me so I asked her to forward the email invite to me. I contacted the homeopath who was organizing the healing tent to find out whether they needed acupuncturists and was invited to come. By the time my friend decided that she was not going to the sundance I was already committed energetically and financially [I was really excited about going and had already booked off that time as vacation time and bought the plane ticket].
I however knew nothing about the Sundance ceremony. As I am part native I had been studying with an Anishnawbe elder who encouraged me to go to the Sundance but would tell me nothing more than that the ceremony involved 4 days of fasting, praying and dancing. "Go and find out for yourself if this is a ceremony, a medicine, that speaks to you." She said, "You will know if this ceremony or something like it belonged to your people, you will feel it." Having never been to Arizona and knowing no more than the little I can find on google about the sundance ceremony, I asked Karen, the healing tent organizer, for a contact person to talk to … I felt there was something very serious about the sundance and knew I needed to be properly prepared.
I spoke to Cheryl, a local naturopath who had been to the sundance the year before and she filled me in on a lot of the etiquette and suggested that I call her when I get to Albuquerque airport and if the timing worked out I could get a ride with her. The talk with Cheryl set my mind at ease in many ways but there I was, the night before getting on the plane for the Sundance feeling like I was jumping into the unknown, feeling sick to my stomach so much so that I called the airline to find out if I could change my departure date. Not without paying another $150 was the reply, so after throwing up all night, I packed in less than an hour, arrived at the airport an hour before the early morning flight was to leave and was on my way.
I knew that where I was going was very significant for my spiritual development as the Adversary was already putting up roadblocks, or who knows maybe it was the Great Spirit who had decided to test my resolve. Was I committed to the path that I had chosen? As it turned out I was. When I called her from the airport, Cheryl had already left the city and had arranged to make a few stops before heading to the sundance. That worked out well because my luggage, with my camping gear and acupuncture supplies, had been delayed and when it had not arrived 3 flights later I rented a car and went to tour downtown Albuquerque. When my luggage came in on the last flight of the evening it was too late to start my journey. I stayed overnight in Albuquerque and in the morning I went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies before heading off into the unknown.
I had been to PowWows, full moon ceremonies, sweat lodges, shaking tent ceremonies, sunrise ceremonies, solstice and equinox ceremonies, but somehow this felt different. I had been reading Douglas Adam’s book Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and had connected with the part where Dirk was following a lead and jumped on a plane not really knowing where it was going then gets in a cab at the other end and passes a sign that says ‘Gusty Winds May Exist’, so as I am driving along I-40 heading towards Arizona and I see the same sign and I immediately felt at ease. “Ah, a wink from the Great Spirit” I thought at the time. The passage from the book I had just recently read had manifested in my path to let me know I was indeed heading in the right direction – going where I needed to be.
Well, I arrived at the Sundance the first time after taking many wrong turns and driving half way across the Navajo reservation and back but when I arrived I was greeted by an older woman with a beautiful spirit who invited me to set up my camp in the area that she and her daughter and granddaughter were camping. She took me under her wing as though I was her own daughter. From that moment it felt like coming home and I knew why the Great Spirit had led me to this place at this time. I received many winks from the Great Spirit at that first Sundance and once the ceremony began I immediately connected with it. It felt as though my many years of martial arts training, meditation, fasting, praying and dancing had all brought me to that moment to be there supporting the sundancers both during the ceremony with my dance, as well as after the ceremony with the acupuncture, massage and other healing arts.
Last year I supported the Sundance again and felt that my connection was even stronger than the first year because as well as supporting in the ways I had the year before, during the dance, I really connected energetically with one of the sundancers, a man who I never met and knew almost nothing about, and felt that during the 4 days of the dance that my prayers were being taken directly to the Creator through him and his dance. It was a very powerful experience that awakened in me long forgotten memories of a time gone by -- maybe this sundancer was my energetic counterpart at some moment in time, who knows, but our purely energetic connection awakened memories of past lives, or maybe they were ancestral memories encoded in my DNA, who is to know but the experience and the dance were very powerful.
Again this year I returned to support the LBM Sundance and it’s beautiful vision of many little medicines coming together to make one big medicine that will be healing for all the individuals at the Sundance as well as for our families, our communities and for the entire planet. This year I was called upon to do more than I had in previous years, to help take care of a young child, so that her mother, a sundancer, could dance, to assist at Masauke’s altar when he and Linda were called away and to continue assisting with the healing work I had been doing in the past 2 years.
This year I was also called to take part in the ceremony at a deeper level, and received permission to dance the last day of the dance to give thanks to the Creator for all the wonderful blessings that had been bestowed upon me and to ask for my own healing and for the healing of all sentient beings. Being in the dance itself, even for such a short time, was extremely powerful, even more so because the energetic connection I had to the sundancer who is like my energetic double was re-established and once again he too served as a channel directing my prayers to the Creator.
To think that three years ago Sundance was a name that I only associated with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Spirit has really lead me a long long way and who knows where this path will end.
Staywell and Travel with Spirit in beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller
This was my third year as a supporter at the Little Big Medicine Sundance. How I was called to connect with the LBM sundance was totally a story of following Spirit. A chiropractor/ homeopath friend of mine had received an invitation to support the LBM sundance by volunteering her services for the local Navajo community and for the sundancers. She was really clear that she needed to go and when I heard about it, something really spoke to me so I asked her to forward the email invite to me. I contacted the homeopath who was organizing the healing tent to find out whether they needed acupuncturists and was invited to come. By the time my friend decided that she was not going to the sundance I was already committed energetically and financially [I was really excited about going and had already booked off that time as vacation time and bought the plane ticket].
I however knew nothing about the Sundance ceremony. As I am part native I had been studying with an Anishnawbe elder who encouraged me to go to the Sundance but would tell me nothing more than that the ceremony involved 4 days of fasting, praying and dancing. "Go and find out for yourself if this is a ceremony, a medicine, that speaks to you." She said, "You will know if this ceremony or something like it belonged to your people, you will feel it." Having never been to Arizona and knowing no more than the little I can find on google about the sundance ceremony, I asked Karen, the healing tent organizer, for a contact person to talk to … I felt there was something very serious about the sundance and knew I needed to be properly prepared.
I spoke to Cheryl, a local naturopath who had been to the sundance the year before and she filled me in on a lot of the etiquette and suggested that I call her when I get to Albuquerque airport and if the timing worked out I could get a ride with her. The talk with Cheryl set my mind at ease in many ways but there I was, the night before getting on the plane for the Sundance feeling like I was jumping into the unknown, feeling sick to my stomach so much so that I called the airline to find out if I could change my departure date. Not without paying another $150 was the reply, so after throwing up all night, I packed in less than an hour, arrived at the airport an hour before the early morning flight was to leave and was on my way.
I knew that where I was going was very significant for my spiritual development as the Adversary was already putting up roadblocks, or who knows maybe it was the Great Spirit who had decided to test my resolve. Was I committed to the path that I had chosen? As it turned out I was. When I called her from the airport, Cheryl had already left the city and had arranged to make a few stops before heading to the sundance. That worked out well because my luggage, with my camping gear and acupuncture supplies, had been delayed and when it had not arrived 3 flights later I rented a car and went to tour downtown Albuquerque. When my luggage came in on the last flight of the evening it was too late to start my journey. I stayed overnight in Albuquerque and in the morning I went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies before heading off into the unknown.
I had been to PowWows, full moon ceremonies, sweat lodges, shaking tent ceremonies, sunrise ceremonies, solstice and equinox ceremonies, but somehow this felt different. I had been reading Douglas Adam’s book Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and had connected with the part where Dirk was following a lead and jumped on a plane not really knowing where it was going then gets in a cab at the other end and passes a sign that says ‘Gusty Winds May Exist’, so as I am driving along I-40 heading towards Arizona and I see the same sign and I immediately felt at ease. “Ah, a wink from the Great Spirit” I thought at the time. The passage from the book I had just recently read had manifested in my path to let me know I was indeed heading in the right direction – going where I needed to be.
Well, I arrived at the Sundance the first time after taking many wrong turns and driving half way across the Navajo reservation and back but when I arrived I was greeted by an older woman with a beautiful spirit who invited me to set up my camp in the area that she and her daughter and granddaughter were camping. She took me under her wing as though I was her own daughter. From that moment it felt like coming home and I knew why the Great Spirit had led me to this place at this time. I received many winks from the Great Spirit at that first Sundance and once the ceremony began I immediately connected with it. It felt as though my many years of martial arts training, meditation, fasting, praying and dancing had all brought me to that moment to be there supporting the sundancers both during the ceremony with my dance, as well as after the ceremony with the acupuncture, massage and other healing arts.
Last year I supported the Sundance again and felt that my connection was even stronger than the first year because as well as supporting in the ways I had the year before, during the dance, I really connected energetically with one of the sundancers, a man who I never met and knew almost nothing about, and felt that during the 4 days of the dance that my prayers were being taken directly to the Creator through him and his dance. It was a very powerful experience that awakened in me long forgotten memories of a time gone by -- maybe this sundancer was my energetic counterpart at some moment in time, who knows, but our purely energetic connection awakened memories of past lives, or maybe they were ancestral memories encoded in my DNA, who is to know but the experience and the dance were very powerful.
Again this year I returned to support the LBM Sundance and it’s beautiful vision of many little medicines coming together to make one big medicine that will be healing for all the individuals at the Sundance as well as for our families, our communities and for the entire planet. This year I was called upon to do more than I had in previous years, to help take care of a young child, so that her mother, a sundancer, could dance, to assist at Masauke’s altar when he and Linda were called away and to continue assisting with the healing work I had been doing in the past 2 years.
This year I was also called to take part in the ceremony at a deeper level, and received permission to dance the last day of the dance to give thanks to the Creator for all the wonderful blessings that had been bestowed upon me and to ask for my own healing and for the healing of all sentient beings. Being in the dance itself, even for such a short time, was extremely powerful, even more so because the energetic connection I had to the sundancer who is like my energetic double was re-established and once again he too served as a channel directing my prayers to the Creator.
To think that three years ago Sundance was a name that I only associated with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Spirit has really lead me a long long way and who knows where this path will end.
Staywell and Travel with Spirit in beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller
Friday, July 6, 2007
Tibet in Arizona -- Happy Birthday Dalai Lama
"Generosity Brings Forth Fortune. Perfect Self Restraint Creates No Enemies" From the wall of the Garchen Institute stupa.
Last night I was getting restless, feeling that I am in between assignments, waiting for further instructions from the Great Spirit. Daisy and I had worked together for the second time and done a very powerful healing/rebirthing for a local man and I had since been working on my book and feeling called to get away from the healing centre and out into nature. I pulled 3 cards from a deck of self care cards at the center and they had read - Nature, Help and Wait. How appropriate. I asked Daisy for help...the name of a good place to go and sit with nature. She suggested several. The third one was the Garchen Tibetan Buddhist Institute which was about a half hour drive from the healing centre. This one resonated with me as I had just pulled out my travelling altar and placed it on the desk beside my laptop. As well as the kanji for compassion given to me by my Sensei I have a picture of the Dalai
Lama and several other sacred items.
The Tibetan Buddhist Institute seemed like a great place to visit -- though I am not Buddhist I am familiar with and have great respect for their teachings and spent several days receiving the teachings directly from the Dalai Lama himself when he was in Toronto. As one who travels with Spirit, I travel with my own altar with all the things that are sacred to me and at the same time I respect all spirits and all spiritual traditions. I always ask permission of the spirits of the land wherever i go before entering any sacred space and I honour the deities of the people with whom I am travelling or in whose lands or territories I find myself.
Yes, when I woke up I was sure that greeting the Tibetan Buddhist Deities residing in this part of Arizona seemed like an appropriate thing to do today. I took highway 89 into Chino valley, past the Safeway to the next road, Perkinsville Road and then turned right.
Starting off with the typical suburban scenery, several Arizona style houses in close proximity, Perkinsville Road soon gave way to open countryside -- the road was fenced on either side and several herds of cows roamed the dry pasture land. I passed a gravel quarry, then several small farms or ranches. The road switched from a paved road to a gravel/dirt road. I kept going. It was almost 10 am. The sun was already quite hot. Unlike most of the other days since i had been here when the sky was completely clear, today there were many clouds.
I thought back to my high school geography classes tyring to remember the names of these particular clouds, but they escaped me. I studies the clouds as i drove slowly along the dirt road. There were several different kinds of clouds some round and white floating very high in the sky and others whispy, hanging in the sky behind the hills in the distance, changing the blue skyline to a hazy gray. The hills look very dry. The brown dirt is covered with patches of sparse green brown grass and short round green bushes. I see many short seemingly stunted fir trees. I keep driving slowly observing the scenery and slow even more when I spot a young cow sitting in the middle of the road. Luckily I am gong so slow that it has time to get up on what seem at first like wobbly knee and then run off gracefully into the field beside the road. I pass a faded sign that says welcome and wonder if that is the institute but keep going.
The next entrance way on the right sports a sign that says The Garchen Institute. I have arrived. I notice some very faded prayer flags on a tree. I drive in along the natural gravel nd dirt road and pass more prayer flags.. green, red, white, blue and yellow, streaming in the wind. The road is very windy and this is the middle of the desert. The ground is parched. I drive by a house and wonder if it is the institute, there is no sign. I keep going. I see a sign saying Keep Right. I follow the sign up the hill to where the road widens into a parking area with several fir trees with tattered prayer flags and a stone facade witha small green tile roof that says Garchen Institute. There is a metal pole behind it with a gold orb on top and a line ao prayer flags area attached to the pole. I know I am in the right place..
I park the car beside the 2 other cars in the parking lot which both have window shades to protect from eh already brutal rays of the sun. The stone facade has information about the institute, pictures of 4 lamas and announcements about the retreats that have just passed and retreats to come. The crickets are singing and in the background I hear the crows calling to each other. I stand in the parking lot for a moment and admire the beautiful view of the nearby beige hills covered with stubbly green desert vegetation and the distant red cliffs reminiscent of the red rock country of Sedona.
I turn to walk up the hill. a sign by the path says Natural Wildlife Area. Please Watch Carefully for Snakes. I keep my eyes peeled on the ground noticing several short gnarled sticks that resemble snakes, but no snakes [I would be warned later about the 6 foot rattler that was spotted int eh parking lot but luckily it wasn't there when I passed by!]. My first stop wa st the stupa, a beautiful octagonal white building with red trim around the windows and doors, a green roof with red trim and 4 sets of eyes painted on the steeple like structure above the roof -- presumably each set of eyes is watching one of the four directions.
I take my shoes off before I enter the shrine. It is decorated with blue red and gold wall hangings around the outer walls with statues of various buddhas and teachings painted on the walls. There are numerous sacred objects in the shrine along with a sand mandala. I stop to examine each item as my feet sink into the plush burgundy carpeting with the gold trim. The silence in the shrine and in the whole area is tangible. The energy is amazing.
Next I visit the temple, which is a much large space with long red rectangular floral carpets on the floor. Again I take off my shoe and hat to enter. There are piles of meditation cushions and an altar with a picture of the Dalai Lama and with numerous statues of Tibetan Deities. The walls are all decorated with colourful banners. There is an oriental woman sitting down at the front of the temple space with a laptop computer sitting on a short stool. She is documenting something. I sit down on one of the mats to do my meditation. Half an hour later when I come out of my meditation I notice another woman has entered the temple and is sitting crosslegged on a meditation cushion praying. There is complete silence inside the temple.
After I leave I bump into Trish who coordinates the work of the Institute and who asks me if I want a tour or if i would like to wonder around. I chose the latter option and spend the nest 3 hours exploring the grounds and hanging out with the rattle snakes, who luckily kept out of sight. As I am leaving I go to the washrooms in the office area and notice a sign which says that In honour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama' 72nd Birthday there will be a ceremony in his honour on July 6th at 9 am. I realize that is why the Great Spirit has directed me here to this little piece of Tibet in Arizona today, to honour His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 72nd birthday, by visiting the temple and connecting with the teachings and the energies.
staywell and travel with Spirit in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller.
Lessons Learned: 1) There are no co-coincidences, 2) Nature is a beautiful teacher and a great healer, 3) Always listen to your inner guides. If you have done your homework and know how to listen, they will not lead you astray.
Last night I was getting restless, feeling that I am in between assignments, waiting for further instructions from the Great Spirit. Daisy and I had worked together for the second time and done a very powerful healing/rebirthing for a local man and I had since been working on my book and feeling called to get away from the healing centre and out into nature. I pulled 3 cards from a deck of self care cards at the center and they had read - Nature, Help and Wait. How appropriate. I asked Daisy for help...the name of a good place to go and sit with nature. She suggested several. The third one was the Garchen Tibetan Buddhist Institute which was about a half hour drive from the healing centre. This one resonated with me as I had just pulled out my travelling altar and placed it on the desk beside my laptop. As well as the kanji for compassion given to me by my Sensei I have a picture of the Dalai
Lama and several other sacred items.
The Tibetan Buddhist Institute seemed like a great place to visit -- though I am not Buddhist I am familiar with and have great respect for their teachings and spent several days receiving the teachings directly from the Dalai Lama himself when he was in Toronto. As one who travels with Spirit, I travel with my own altar with all the things that are sacred to me and at the same time I respect all spirits and all spiritual traditions. I always ask permission of the spirits of the land wherever i go before entering any sacred space and I honour the deities of the people with whom I am travelling or in whose lands or territories I find myself.
Yes, when I woke up I was sure that greeting the Tibetan Buddhist Deities residing in this part of Arizona seemed like an appropriate thing to do today. I took highway 89 into Chino valley, past the Safeway to the next road, Perkinsville Road and then turned right.
Starting off with the typical suburban scenery, several Arizona style houses in close proximity, Perkinsville Road soon gave way to open countryside -- the road was fenced on either side and several herds of cows roamed the dry pasture land. I passed a gravel quarry, then several small farms or ranches. The road switched from a paved road to a gravel/dirt road. I kept going. It was almost 10 am. The sun was already quite hot. Unlike most of the other days since i had been here when the sky was completely clear, today there were many clouds.
I thought back to my high school geography classes tyring to remember the names of these particular clouds, but they escaped me. I studies the clouds as i drove slowly along the dirt road. There were several different kinds of clouds some round and white floating very high in the sky and others whispy, hanging in the sky behind the hills in the distance, changing the blue skyline to a hazy gray. The hills look very dry. The brown dirt is covered with patches of sparse green brown grass and short round green bushes. I see many short seemingly stunted fir trees. I keep driving slowly observing the scenery and slow even more when I spot a young cow sitting in the middle of the road. Luckily I am gong so slow that it has time to get up on what seem at first like wobbly knee and then run off gracefully into the field beside the road. I pass a faded sign that says welcome and wonder if that is the institute but keep going.
The next entrance way on the right sports a sign that says The Garchen Institute. I have arrived. I notice some very faded prayer flags on a tree. I drive in along the natural gravel nd dirt road and pass more prayer flags.. green, red, white, blue and yellow, streaming in the wind. The road is very windy and this is the middle of the desert. The ground is parched. I drive by a house and wonder if it is the institute, there is no sign. I keep going. I see a sign saying Keep Right. I follow the sign up the hill to where the road widens into a parking area with several fir trees with tattered prayer flags and a stone facade witha small green tile roof that says Garchen Institute. There is a metal pole behind it with a gold orb on top and a line ao prayer flags area attached to the pole. I know I am in the right place..
I park the car beside the 2 other cars in the parking lot which both have window shades to protect from eh already brutal rays of the sun. The stone facade has information about the institute, pictures of 4 lamas and announcements about the retreats that have just passed and retreats to come. The crickets are singing and in the background I hear the crows calling to each other. I stand in the parking lot for a moment and admire the beautiful view of the nearby beige hills covered with stubbly green desert vegetation and the distant red cliffs reminiscent of the red rock country of Sedona.
I turn to walk up the hill. a sign by the path says Natural Wildlife Area. Please Watch Carefully for Snakes. I keep my eyes peeled on the ground noticing several short gnarled sticks that resemble snakes, but no snakes [I would be warned later about the 6 foot rattler that was spotted int eh parking lot but luckily it wasn't there when I passed by!]. My first stop wa st the stupa, a beautiful octagonal white building with red trim around the windows and doors, a green roof with red trim and 4 sets of eyes painted on the steeple like structure above the roof -- presumably each set of eyes is watching one of the four directions.
I take my shoes off before I enter the shrine. It is decorated with blue red and gold wall hangings around the outer walls with statues of various buddhas and teachings painted on the walls. There are numerous sacred objects in the shrine along with a sand mandala. I stop to examine each item as my feet sink into the plush burgundy carpeting with the gold trim. The silence in the shrine and in the whole area is tangible. The energy is amazing.
Next I visit the temple, which is a much large space with long red rectangular floral carpets on the floor. Again I take off my shoe and hat to enter. There are piles of meditation cushions and an altar with a picture of the Dalai Lama and with numerous statues of Tibetan Deities. The walls are all decorated with colourful banners. There is an oriental woman sitting down at the front of the temple space with a laptop computer sitting on a short stool. She is documenting something. I sit down on one of the mats to do my meditation. Half an hour later when I come out of my meditation I notice another woman has entered the temple and is sitting crosslegged on a meditation cushion praying. There is complete silence inside the temple.
After I leave I bump into Trish who coordinates the work of the Institute and who asks me if I want a tour or if i would like to wonder around. I chose the latter option and spend the nest 3 hours exploring the grounds and hanging out with the rattle snakes, who luckily kept out of sight. As I am leaving I go to the washrooms in the office area and notice a sign which says that In honour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama' 72nd Birthday there will be a ceremony in his honour on July 6th at 9 am. I realize that is why the Great Spirit has directed me here to this little piece of Tibet in Arizona today, to honour His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 72nd birthday, by visiting the temple and connecting with the teachings and the energies.
staywell and travel with Spirit in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller.
Lessons Learned: 1) There are no co-coincidences, 2) Nature is a beautiful teacher and a great healer, 3) Always listen to your inner guides. If you have done your homework and know how to listen, they will not lead you astray.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
A Prophesy Fulfilled: Tales of the White Sundancer
A few days before we left for the Sundance, Isaiah, one of the local sundancers, stops by to visit. He works in the forests behind the healing centre and had walked over the mountain to stop by to connect with Masauke. I spoke to Isaiah about his journey as a Sundancer. He is an eagle dancer at the Little Big Medicine Sundance that i have been attending/supporting for the past two years. He has been sundancing for 8 years -- this was his 9th year. As well as sundancing he has been doing sweatlodges for 12 years since he was 16 years old. He told me that he had bolted out of the first sweatlodge that he ever attended in Florida and had sat outside for the rest of that sweat wishing that he had never left.
Isaiah informs me that Souix sweats are part of the Souix 7 sacred ceremonies brought by White Buffalo Calf Woman. The Sundance is a part of the same spiritual system. The Sundance is the the most sacred, of the sacred of the sacred ceremonies. When Isaiah started sweating he knew nothing about the Sundance. He was sweating to connect to the earth and to hear the traditions and teachings from the Lakota Souix.
When I asked how his life might have been different if he had not become involved with Sweatlodges and the sundance, Isaiah tells me "I have always been a spiritual person and have connected to other spiritual traditions form around the world and see that if I would have pursued one of these traditions the details of my life might have been different. The underlying essence of the dance is to have this practice that is to relieve the suffering for all sentient beings. In many ways the underlying goals and motives are very similar to the Tibetan Buddhist path."
As well as being a sundancer, a sweatlodge conductor and someone with a deep connection to Native American Church ceremonies, Isaiah is also a feather worker. Like Masauke, he uses the feathers from a variety of different birds to make ceremonial fans for sundancers and Native American Church ceremonies.
"My spiritual connection to birds is related to the Sundance. It is my medicine. The style of featherwork is also related to the family I am in. In the Peyote way there is a tradition of featherwork that I am adopted in, it is a complete way of using all of the bird species in different ways. It is based on what these birds are, the essence of the bird. I use my connection to the bird in the sundance when I am doing the featherwork, but in general as an eagle dancer my greatest connection is to the eagle."
What else have the sweat lodges taught you? I ask. "I take a psycho-spiritual approach to conducting sweats using the concepts of psychoneuroimmunology bringing that from a traditional standpoint and applying it to modern principles of psychological growth. The sweat that I use is all about healing. I'd mixed sweats and mens sweats. There are many ways to run the sweats for different reasons eg if someone is sick or if they want to celebrate."
As a white boy from Florida, how did you get introduced to your first sweatlodge? His reply is simple. "Some friends of my family had an organic farm and they had a sweatlodge there."
After the first sweat what called you to continue? is my next question. "The feeling of wanting to … there was noting more profound."
How has the sweat lodges and the sundancing helped you to understand native people and their culture? His reply shed light on something that I already knew about Isaiah, he had a deep connection to native cultures. "Through the traditional ceremonies, different tribes maintain their cultural belief systems. The ceremonies are the heart of their cosmology, by sitting in ceremony you learn from the inside out , not as an onlooker. I have a lot more inter-cultural sensitivity because of this path."
What made you lead sweatlodges? "Because I wanted to sweat. I love to sweat. After you sundance for 4 years you earn the right to lead sweat lodges, to pour water. Mine is a mixed sweat because it is a family fireplace. If I do a sundance sweat it is a men's sweat."
It is at this point that Masauke tells us the story of a white sundance chief who goes for the first time to another sundance where everyone is native and is feeling a little bit tenuous because of the colour of his skin when a native sundance chief comes up to him and says, "When I was young my grandfather predicted that there would come a time when the white man would be dancing in our ceremonies. I did not think I would live to see that prophesy fulfilled. Thank you for being the person who has fulfilled the prophesy"
Lessons Learned: 1) We never know what path the Great Spirit will lead us on, 2)Always follow the path with heart as Carlos Casteneda would say, 3) Respect for others and their traditions is respect for ourselves and our traditions
staywell and travel with Spirit, Spirit Traveller.
Isaiah informs me that Souix sweats are part of the Souix 7 sacred ceremonies brought by White Buffalo Calf Woman. The Sundance is a part of the same spiritual system. The Sundance is the the most sacred, of the sacred of the sacred ceremonies. When Isaiah started sweating he knew nothing about the Sundance. He was sweating to connect to the earth and to hear the traditions and teachings from the Lakota Souix.
When I asked how his life might have been different if he had not become involved with Sweatlodges and the sundance, Isaiah tells me "I have always been a spiritual person and have connected to other spiritual traditions form around the world and see that if I would have pursued one of these traditions the details of my life might have been different. The underlying essence of the dance is to have this practice that is to relieve the suffering for all sentient beings. In many ways the underlying goals and motives are very similar to the Tibetan Buddhist path."
As well as being a sundancer, a sweatlodge conductor and someone with a deep connection to Native American Church ceremonies, Isaiah is also a feather worker. Like Masauke, he uses the feathers from a variety of different birds to make ceremonial fans for sundancers and Native American Church ceremonies.
"My spiritual connection to birds is related to the Sundance. It is my medicine. The style of featherwork is also related to the family I am in. In the Peyote way there is a tradition of featherwork that I am adopted in, it is a complete way of using all of the bird species in different ways. It is based on what these birds are, the essence of the bird. I use my connection to the bird in the sundance when I am doing the featherwork, but in general as an eagle dancer my greatest connection is to the eagle."
What else have the sweat lodges taught you? I ask. "I take a psycho-spiritual approach to conducting sweats using the concepts of psychoneuroimmunology bringing that from a traditional standpoint and applying it to modern principles of psychological growth. The sweat that I use is all about healing. I'd mixed sweats and mens sweats. There are many ways to run the sweats for different reasons eg if someone is sick or if they want to celebrate."
As a white boy from Florida, how did you get introduced to your first sweatlodge? His reply is simple. "Some friends of my family had an organic farm and they had a sweatlodge there."
After the first sweat what called you to continue? is my next question. "The feeling of wanting to … there was noting more profound."
How has the sweat lodges and the sundancing helped you to understand native people and their culture? His reply shed light on something that I already knew about Isaiah, he had a deep connection to native cultures. "Through the traditional ceremonies, different tribes maintain their cultural belief systems. The ceremonies are the heart of their cosmology, by sitting in ceremony you learn from the inside out , not as an onlooker. I have a lot more inter-cultural sensitivity because of this path."
What made you lead sweatlodges? "Because I wanted to sweat. I love to sweat. After you sundance for 4 years you earn the right to lead sweat lodges, to pour water. Mine is a mixed sweat because it is a family fireplace. If I do a sundance sweat it is a men's sweat."
It is at this point that Masauke tells us the story of a white sundance chief who goes for the first time to another sundance where everyone is native and is feeling a little bit tenuous because of the colour of his skin when a native sundance chief comes up to him and says, "When I was young my grandfather predicted that there would come a time when the white man would be dancing in our ceremonies. I did not think I would live to see that prophesy fulfilled. Thank you for being the person who has fulfilled the prophesy"
Lessons Learned: 1) We never know what path the Great Spirit will lead us on, 2)Always follow the path with heart as Carlos Casteneda would say, 3) Respect for others and their traditions is respect for ourselves and our traditions
staywell and travel with Spirit, Spirit Traveller.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Lunch with the Sinagua People of Walnut Canyon, Arizona
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes” Marcel Proust
It is about 2pm in the afternoon. I am sitting on the dirt under an overhanging cliff on the island trail in Walnut Canyon, Arizona. As I take a bit of the juicy red organic fuji apple I brought with me on the short hike and sip the still somewhat cool water I have been carrying around, I look out past the remnants of the ancient walls of the small room built by the Sinagua people more than 800 years ago. Behind me the walls of the cliff/cave are still blackened with smoke from the fires they used to cook their food. I am eating my lunch where someone, likely a Sinagua woman, spent many hours cooking and possibly where the family also ate. It is a lunch invitation I have taken a long time to accept.
The Sinagua people [sin agua from the Spanish meaning without water – these were the people without water] are no longer with us but they left a powerful indication of there presence, life and culture in the cliffs of Walnut Canyon. I was driving from Wheatfields to Prescott Arizona and the Walnut Canyon National Park sign caught my eye as it had the two previous times that I had passed this way on highway I-40. This time I am in no hurry to get anywhere and so I answer the call of Spirit and accept the age old luncheon invitation.
The road to the park has pine forests on either side. As I drive up to the park ranger’s booth, I remember that I had planned to stop at a bank machine in Flagstaff. I have only $5 US currency in my purse and a few Canadian bills that I have not yet converted. Before I have time to wonder if I will be able to get in the female ranger says, “Only one person? That will be $5”. Spirit is making sure that I can keep my lunch date. The visitor’s parking is only a few feet away from the ranger’s station, with the Visitor’s centre hanging off the edge of the cliff on the right side. I am pleased to see recycling containers lining the parking lot. They are few and far between. So far I have not seen any at the many rest stopped I have made along my journey. I have collected a large plastic bag full of plastic water bottles and metal tins along the way and am glad for the opportunity to finally recycle them.
The ranger in the visitor’s centre has a beautiful smile and a twinkle in his eye as he tells me there are two trails that will allow you to see the cliff dwellings – the easy one, a 0.7 mile trail along the rim of the canyon passes by the ruins of rimtop structures, while the second one is a bit more physically challenging I am told as it involves a 185 foot climb into the canyon on the 0.9 mile trail which I am told goes past many of the cliff dwellings. I decide to take the more challenging trail and the ranger advises me to carry some water with me. I return to the car for my water bottle and decide to take my lunch, an apple and orange with me.
Descending the 240 stairs to the island loop is not difficult but I pass several couples huffing and puffing as they make their way back up the stairs. The canyon rim is nearly 7000 feet above sea level so going up hill is not as easy as it is at lower altitudes. I walk along the constructed path wondering what it was like to navigate when the pavement was not there. I stop at the first overhanging cliff which looks like it has several flat bed like structures carved out of the rock at the base. There are no walls, but the overhang would certainly keep away much of the rain, snow and the mid day desert sun.
I am fascinated by the canyon vegetation which varies from tiny red bell like flowers to prickly pear cactuses, pinyon pine, ponderosa pines and balsam firs. It is such a mixture of what looks like temperate as well as semiarid vegetation. On the other side of the cliff face I see caves with walls inside. These must be the cliff dwellings I think as I walk further along the path and come face to face with several shallow caves, mostly not much taller than my 5 foot 3 inches height, with remnants of walls built from what looks like limestone rocks and clay. Each ‘room’ is small about 3 feet by 6 feet and many of the back walls are blackened with the smoke from years of cooking.
I walk further past other open and semi open cave rooms and am finally find the perfect spot to sit and eat lunch in a relatively open room with half a wall and a magnificent view of the canyon below. Apparently the Sinagua began building their cliff dwelling around 1100AD and lived there until about 1250 AD when they are thought to have moved to new villages closeby along the Anderson Mesa and to eventually become assimilated into the Hopi people. Exactly why they left is not known but they certainly left behind enough to spark our imagination about what life must have been like without water high up on the slopes of Walnut Canyon.
After my lunch date with these ancient people is over I make my way along the remainder of the path admiring the magnificence of the canyon before hiking up the stairs back to the visitors centre and heading on my way.
Lessons Learned: 1) Water is precious. Our bodies are made of 70% water. We need water to live. Learning to respect and take care of the water element is an important part of maintaining a healthy life and a healthy planet, 2) Nature is beauty. Stillness is peace. 3) Whenever you find a beautiful spot away from the madding crowds take a moment to stop and meditate, soak up the energies of that spot or simply sit and have lunch with the inhabitants of days gone by. You will be surprised what messages and memories the walls and the wind may share with you.
It is about 2pm in the afternoon. I am sitting on the dirt under an overhanging cliff on the island trail in Walnut Canyon, Arizona. As I take a bit of the juicy red organic fuji apple I brought with me on the short hike and sip the still somewhat cool water I have been carrying around, I look out past the remnants of the ancient walls of the small room built by the Sinagua people more than 800 years ago. Behind me the walls of the cliff/cave are still blackened with smoke from the fires they used to cook their food. I am eating my lunch where someone, likely a Sinagua woman, spent many hours cooking and possibly where the family also ate. It is a lunch invitation I have taken a long time to accept.
The Sinagua people [sin agua from the Spanish meaning without water – these were the people without water] are no longer with us but they left a powerful indication of there presence, life and culture in the cliffs of Walnut Canyon. I was driving from Wheatfields to Prescott Arizona and the Walnut Canyon National Park sign caught my eye as it had the two previous times that I had passed this way on highway I-40. This time I am in no hurry to get anywhere and so I answer the call of Spirit and accept the age old luncheon invitation.
The road to the park has pine forests on either side. As I drive up to the park ranger’s booth, I remember that I had planned to stop at a bank machine in Flagstaff. I have only $5 US currency in my purse and a few Canadian bills that I have not yet converted. Before I have time to wonder if I will be able to get in the female ranger says, “Only one person? That will be $5”. Spirit is making sure that I can keep my lunch date. The visitor’s parking is only a few feet away from the ranger’s station, with the Visitor’s centre hanging off the edge of the cliff on the right side. I am pleased to see recycling containers lining the parking lot. They are few and far between. So far I have not seen any at the many rest stopped I have made along my journey. I have collected a large plastic bag full of plastic water bottles and metal tins along the way and am glad for the opportunity to finally recycle them.
The ranger in the visitor’s centre has a beautiful smile and a twinkle in his eye as he tells me there are two trails that will allow you to see the cliff dwellings – the easy one, a 0.7 mile trail along the rim of the canyon passes by the ruins of rimtop structures, while the second one is a bit more physically challenging I am told as it involves a 185 foot climb into the canyon on the 0.9 mile trail which I am told goes past many of the cliff dwellings. I decide to take the more challenging trail and the ranger advises me to carry some water with me. I return to the car for my water bottle and decide to take my lunch, an apple and orange with me.
Descending the 240 stairs to the island loop is not difficult but I pass several couples huffing and puffing as they make their way back up the stairs. The canyon rim is nearly 7000 feet above sea level so going up hill is not as easy as it is at lower altitudes. I walk along the constructed path wondering what it was like to navigate when the pavement was not there. I stop at the first overhanging cliff which looks like it has several flat bed like structures carved out of the rock at the base. There are no walls, but the overhang would certainly keep away much of the rain, snow and the mid day desert sun.
I am fascinated by the canyon vegetation which varies from tiny red bell like flowers to prickly pear cactuses, pinyon pine, ponderosa pines and balsam firs. It is such a mixture of what looks like temperate as well as semiarid vegetation. On the other side of the cliff face I see caves with walls inside. These must be the cliff dwellings I think as I walk further along the path and come face to face with several shallow caves, mostly not much taller than my 5 foot 3 inches height, with remnants of walls built from what looks like limestone rocks and clay. Each ‘room’ is small about 3 feet by 6 feet and many of the back walls are blackened with the smoke from years of cooking.
I walk further past other open and semi open cave rooms and am finally find the perfect spot to sit and eat lunch in a relatively open room with half a wall and a magnificent view of the canyon below. Apparently the Sinagua began building their cliff dwelling around 1100AD and lived there until about 1250 AD when they are thought to have moved to new villages closeby along the Anderson Mesa and to eventually become assimilated into the Hopi people. Exactly why they left is not known but they certainly left behind enough to spark our imagination about what life must have been like without water high up on the slopes of Walnut Canyon.
After my lunch date with these ancient people is over I make my way along the remainder of the path admiring the magnificence of the canyon before hiking up the stairs back to the visitors centre and heading on my way.
Lessons Learned: 1) Water is precious. Our bodies are made of 70% water. We need water to live. Learning to respect and take care of the water element is an important part of maintaining a healthy life and a healthy planet, 2) Nature is beauty. Stillness is peace. 3) Whenever you find a beautiful spot away from the madding crowds take a moment to stop and meditate, soak up the energies of that spot or simply sit and have lunch with the inhabitants of days gone by. You will be surprised what messages and memories the walls and the wind may share with you.
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.
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.
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