Journeys

The Sacred Aerie

2011-03-10T19:34:00.001-08:00

Wanted to share a link to the Sacred Aerie website:

http://www.sacredaerie.com/about-journey.asp

"Many indigenous societies believe that we all possess ‘Original Medicine’― personal power, duplicated nowhere else on the planet. No two individuals carry the same combination of talents or challenges; therefore, when we compare ourselves to others, native peoples see this as a sign that we do not believe we have Original Medicine.

This belief affects not only ourselves, but extends into the world. Not to be ‘in our medicine’ or bring our power into the world precludes healing from coming to Mother Nature & all her creatures."
— Angeles Arrien, The Four-Fold Way

ONCE WE RECLAIM OUR ORIGINAL MEDICINE we never again measure ourselves by another’s yardstick, never again compare ourselves to anyone else. We see the unique spark of Original Medicine in everyone and everything, suddenly inhabit a world literally alive with unfathomable wonder.

Teryl "T" Johansson

THE SACRED AERIE

P.O. Box 8526

Bend OR 97708-8526

www.SacredAerie.com

(541) 317-1120

Women who are doing great things

2011-01-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

Check out :
Wings Seminars, run by Kris King. The offering at Wings changed my life when the darkest night appeared. Her Organization have effective personal growth tools that change the way we do, talk and see the world. I highly recommend these programs, they take you to the next positive steps in your life. you can contact her at www.wings-seminars.com You will never be the same.!!!!

Also, sign up for " Women on the Edge of Evolution, they ahve free teleconferences. If your like me a woman, wishing, practicing and diving deeper and reaching higher to be all I can be. Then this great offering is right for you. Look at the site and see all the wonderful women of the world, who care and offer their knowledge to the World of Women. www.supportfemininepower.com or go to Google and search and see all the sites for " Women on the Edge of Evolution. You will be glad you did.

1.1.11

2011-01-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

1.11. 2011: Hope, Rejuvenation and Rebirth for Humanity

Welcome to the entrance the portal of this transitional new year 2011; we are about to feel on the New Moon, Solar Eclipse, which will begin within all of us the deepest intentions and resolutions.

The ecliptic lunar energy is a most extraordinary gift in which to seed and affirm opportunity for this next, most pivotal year of quantum change and preparation.

Plant your seeds now. Focus on what you need.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011: A partial solar eclipse is visible in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. The eclipse won't be visible from North America. Unlike a total eclipse, the sun will not be completely blocked out by the moon showing only a ring in the sky. With partial eclipses, the sun will continue to shine, but with noticeable darkness and the moon in partial profile in front of the sun. There are live links on the internet to watch this.

Four partial solar and two total lunar eclipses will take place in 2011. This is rare, with only six cases during the 21st century (2011, 2029, 2047, 2065, 2076 and 2094).

Wishing all a blessed new year. Here in Mexico for three months and send you a pray and blessing. Here to renew in the warmth, to share time with the Mexico family and take in the sunshine. Blowing this warmth back to you all.

my love,

Sweet Medicine

This Summer 2010: This summer was for reflection, remembering, healing, and supporting my parents.

2010-11-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

We held a family reunion for my fathers 90th Birthday to rejoice in his life. The family gathered in and out for three days to make great food, tell stories, and to enjoy each others reconnections after many years and find out how we are all related.

I also took on a job, working at the Camp Sherman store, here in Camp Sherman, and focused on really being present this summer around the Metolius River home. It's been a very liberating summer.

New Mexico Adventures

2010-11-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

October 27th, 2010

Took to the sky again after many months of rest and healing. Traveled to New Mexico, fulfilling the need to offer a class presentation to the City that has gifted Four Winds grant support over the last three years, the Santa Fe Art Council, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jeff Scheide connected me with teachers at the Gonzales Elementary School. I shared our youth program with eager and enthusiastic 4th graders. Thanks to Chrissy Romero and Contessa Serna for opening their classes. That morning, sharing what was “POSSIBLE”. The children had a hands-on trunk show experience of seeing touching and storytelling about what is possible around us, things and items around us we take for granted, and what things were used 500 years ago in their places.

Also, while there, met us with FWF family from Pittsburg, Lilith Bailey Koll and Jeff and Joan Scheide, Mahhaba Kauffman, Teresa Pisano, David Carson and others from years of traveling there.

Also gave a talk in Taos to people from Argentina, Taos proper and Ecuador. The talk was based on 2013, the next millennium. It was wonderful sharing thoughts, fears, and ways to relax from the doom and gloom of it all.

In all the years traveling to New Mexico I've usually stayed mostly in SF with Louisa Putman, (or her house), this dear sister on the Path. She has a Sacred Space she calls home here in New Mexico. She usually hosts people to come see me for a meal or talk, so this year I did that as well, and traveled to see members of our New Mexico family from Taos to Las Vegas, NM.

Louisa holds a Sanctuary space; for others and me it is a place of renewal and deep truth, and this is where so many creature comforts abound. If you’re ever going that way…Arco Aries will hold you.

Pets include two dogs, two cats, chickens sharing their eggs, goats who gift milk and cheese, and now a black duck and guinea hen that has taken Elizabeth as their Mom.

This year Louisa and I were both in New Mexico at the same time (she also travels a far amount back east to help care for her mother) and we shared with others the Mayan New Years Fire Ceremony. It was wonderful to renew, reaffirm and offer our gratitude to the 20 divine directions. We fed the fire and these directions candles, chocolate, tobaccos, and medicines from all over the world.

Also, I was honored to attend the Spoken Word performance at the Native American Indian School in Santa Fe…. where each performance was heart felt, from rap, poems, dance and acting dramas. These high school students gave me a night of tears and laughter, one I needed to continue knowing I am Indian as well as what I appear to be…. white. These students are led by one of the Men of Louisa’s Cedar Circle. It was a night to remember.

The return to fall full on here in Oregon is wonderful…but the mile high air in New Mexico is medicine for me.

Louisa and I Santa Fe, NM

Exciting New Program for Deer Haven & Four Winds!

2010-11-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

In September of this year 2010, I got together with my neighbor Sarahlee Lawrence, of Rainshadow Organics, www.rainshadoworganics.com, to form a plan to use Deer Haven as a site for a Farm School. The goals are to use educational skills, the love of the earth, and buying locally to launch a location of collaborating land owners, organic farming and outreach, in teaching skills around organic food and offering this, this spring at Deer Haven, the lands of Four Winds Foundation.

Movement has been fast and very supportive since we started telling people: local ranchers are signing on, schools want to venture out and also come back to their schools setting up further ways to create food security in our local area.

Six local ranchers/farmers have come on to join in this alliance and to offer their experiences in collaborating to create the curriculum that they will teach and share, which will be offered here at Deer Haven.

The land will be the school site. There will be public offerings monthly, as well as weekly for those taking a more extended learning curve to gain more knowledge as well as schools, organizations.

Our approach is called “Plots to Plates.” We're joining the rapidly growing movement that defies scarcity “thinking” and shows by example ways to grow food for yourself and others, providing organic produce, soil building techniques and how water can be present where it doesn’t seem to be, especially in this arid desert climates of Central Oregon.

WWOOF-ers, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, a place to camp, learn and eat organically, while gaining respect, and future careers raising honey, livestock or farming for the areas people. The outreach will be from many areas east of the cascades.

People will donate time and some cash to stay, be fed and in most cases join in, to further the movement towards healthier food sources, and showing there can be a living in growing food.

If interested in this program, get in touch with us at info@fwfoundation.com, or sarahlee.Lawrence@gmail.com

Prayers for the Earth.

2010-05-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

My Relatives,

Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I
ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit
of your Nations in prayer.

We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we
are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color,
which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As
I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened,
those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations,
eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.

The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The
catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make.

I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with
the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will
continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of
in their Prophecies.

I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers
for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as
Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to
allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth.
As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to
assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc'I Maka).

We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the
winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in
repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we
make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.

As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that
what we create can have lasting effects on all life.

So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along
with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st, World
Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural
site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your own sacred space, let us
make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our
children's future and well-being, and the generations to come.

Onipikte (that we shall live),

Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
(Wolakota.org)

Girls Rites Photo Update

2010-04-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Girls' Rites of Passage
April 21 - June 11th 2010
Bend, Oregon

There is still room for our divine feminine girls to attend!

The "Girls Rites of Passage" provides a space for support and awakening of the divine feminine, and is created for girls 5th-8th grade. It is facilitated by Sweet Medicine.

www.fwfoundation.com or wwwthefourelements.org

This is a 6 course, 1 1/2 hour per session meeting beginning after school April 21 and ending June 11, with an evening ceremony involving mothers, older sisters, aunties, grandmothers and feminine lineage. The cost will be $90, and if you bring a friend deduct $10 (for your friend too!)!

This will be an interactive, hands-on curriculum acknowledging and teaching 'The Rites of Passage' of being a girl and coming into maidenhood.

The curriculum offers:
Body teaching, moon cycle comparison in nature;
Respect and awareness including body image and what this means;
Responsibilities of maidenhood, knowing boundaries and saying No, and issues regarding guardianship of our being;
Beauty reflection (inner and outer), authenticity, and Divinity in "being";
The final class will be an evening ceremony reinforcing the girl's connection to the women in her family and to celebrate and strengthen her trust in her own intuition and beauty. It involves the mother and elder lineage (older sisters, aunties, grandmothers, great grandmothers) of the girl and interactive participation of the mother in assisting their daughters to cross the thresh-hold of moving from Girl to Maiden.

If you know of interested daughters & mothers please pass this message along. With questions or to register, please contact Kimberly Kinney 541-306-8727 / widgi1899@yahoo.com; or Rebecca Fender 541-480-8043 / becksfender@gmail.com. For curriculum questions contact Sweet Medicine Nation at 541-306-0383.

Apprentice with Sweet Medicine

2010-04-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Sweet Medicine is offering a new Apprentice Program through Skype. This program is directed towards individuals not living in the state of Oregon who are interested in learning about traditional Native ways. You'll now have the opportunity to receive teachings and assistance on your Path with online classes. This is a year-long commitment. We'll be posting more information soon as we develop the program, so bookmark this blog and keep an eye out!

If you're interested, please contact info@fwfoundation.com for more information!

Young Teachers, Old Spirits

2010-04-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

During the winter of 2010, two very special teachers were asked by Sweet Medicine to lead classes in Central Oregon during her stay in Chile. Rainbow Eagle Dreamer, formerly Tyler Markland, and Katherine Amara Stanton invited the group into their home and shared their multitude of experiences from South America.

Eagle Dreamer, having known from an early period in his life that schooling and the “normal” American life of a teenager was not his path to walk, received a message of guidance during his first Reiki experience. After spending a short time in Hawaii and visiting sacred island sites, Eagle Dreamer was drawn back to Central Oregon where he was introduced to Sweet Medicine. He immediately began taking classes with her and attended his first vision quest. His path next took him to Prescott College in Arizona, where he pursued an independent study in shamanism. There he met Amara and together they began a journey pursuing indigenous South American ways.

Amara’s interest in ancient cultures started with a fascination for Ancient Egypt when she was a child. Amara spent many of her formative years in an ashram and during high-school developed an interest in permaculture, organics, and the alternative lifestyle that such values bring to an open mind. Amara also studied with an Essene Christian group that, as a part of their worship, honored both the masculine and feminine aspects of divinity. Continuing with her Eastern spiritual influences, she attended a ceremony with the Hindu Guru Amma, known as The Hugging Saint. Deeply moved by that experience and already attending Prescott College, Amara committed to a daily spiritual practice that would lead her to meet Eagle Dreamer.

Together, Amara and Eagle Dreamer traveled to Peru and Chile, visiting sacred sites, attending ceremonies, and gleaning the teachings of influential leaders. They have studied with Drunvalo Melchizedek, Alberto Villoldo’s student Corey Cooperman, Amma Chi, Don Howard “Otorongo Blanco,” Don Rober, Martin Prechtel, and Sweet Medicine Horse Nation. Their teachings have also been influenced by the Quero and the Chavin. Eagle Dreamer and Amara attended a gathering called Return of the Ancestors, and had the opportunity to experience ceremony with indigenous people from all over the world, including the Kogi, Mara, and the Aimara.

Both Eagle Dreamer and Amara are currently working towards degrees in Anthropology. Amara will focus on cultural Anthropology, while Eagle Dreamer will focus on medical Anthropology. Through this young pair, our group has been able to open our hearts to the traditions and ceremonies of the South. Eagle Dreamer and Amara may be young teachers, but they are old spirits.

Special Programs in Ireland, May 2010

2010-04-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

The land of the High King and the Queen of Knots.

Sweet Medicine will travel again to Ireland, offering a three-day workshop of Women's Initiation into Womanhood. This workshop will assist and invite the understanding of these times, our place as women, and providing ceremony for those asking to go through this Rite of Passage. This annual Women's renewal is open to women ready to germinate the "seeds" of time. This is the birthright of each woman.

There will also be a Vision Quest offered in the Choctaw Way of Sweet Medicine's people, being the first outside of the USA. She brings this part of her heritage as a blessing and thanks for those long ago that ventured over the seas in the North, and arrived in the North of Ireland. Those that left behind the ancient carved standing stones that point towards the marking of time, and the fast approaching alignment of 2012, and the Dawning of the Golden Age of Humanity.

This in addition to a four-day workshop with Men, focusing on the High King in each man and following the premise of Joseph Campbell's work, The Returning of the King. Men will be encouraged to reclaim themselves in their rightful places, and to see where in 2010 this moves us towards the Prophecies of old, affirming the Rite of a Man to govern his kingdom, himself with truth, honor, respect, and remembering.

If you are interested in this program, contact: info@fwfoundation.com

or Eleanor Higgins: eleanor.higgins@gmail.com

after the quake.

2010-03-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

After the Earthquake, Chile

Dear Four Winds Community,

Walking this Medicine Way is not always easy. Yet, it is very fulfilling. Sending all of you there in North America my love and understanding of these times we are looking at, during the Earthquake here in Chile and the aftershocks.

For me, I have always seen the Americas as one great serpent shaped land, connected and continuous. The tail of this Great Mother is down here in Chile and Argentina and its tongue stretches out at its tip (which is frozen, unable to speak) in the Aleutian Islands way to the North.

They say in many creation stories, which might sound like a fable, this Mother is to all of us here on the body of this connected body of lands called the Americas. This Great Mother is called by many names, for me she is the "feathered serpent," which means the mystery of the earth in this serpentine form, which was formed of the fire, and this fire being the feathers. Fire is also, in this case, the spirit fire of creation. Always creating something new. This is her power, her ability and her fearful capability.

Mother, has shown us all in the past few days here in Chile, her ability to get our attention. Also, part of this is so we will "listen" even deeper to the ways she tells us to pay attention. Who's agenda we really need to be following? This is not a time for Man's plans, but that of the Greater Planner our Mother & the Great Mystery...

We might have had many plans for our events, lodges and gatherings. Yet, she might be telling us we are on-the fast track of the planning of our human schedule.

These past few days while aftershocks still move this rattle tail of hers, we are being notified to stop all that we had planned and get on her timetable and listen to the greater agenda. Being here during this tremendous timing to feel her shake this tail of hers, the Mother Earth is asking us to wake up from our numbness, our folly and not to fall asleep.. Not to keep going on as usual, as if nothing has happened, but to look at what is important to us.

Who is important to us? Let them know. What are you waiting for? We have the ability to change our outcomes. I could see this in all the emails of concerns for my welfare and the relief from our loved ones. This is confirmation to what is Real!

Shaman's of old used such times to predict what would come next. They carved impressions on cave walls and danced to honor the mother with drums and foot beats. Today a person hardly knows what to do to care for ones self/soul. I believe we are in a time to be introspective, be still and pay attention. There has been much I have learned from doing just this in the last 28 hours. When we ask the Great Mother to show us the way, and ask with cannupa and tobacco to be shown what it is we are to be doing, I do not believe it is our own plans....but those plans that come following these prayers that require us to listen.

My suggestion is instead of driving all over the city we gather in small groups that do not require so much travel to practice what we believe. Make a tobacco, for this goes beyond any Form, Dogma or Road. Yet it honors all the holy first medicine, tobacco and corn. Then, share this prayer with your family or those in your neighborhood - nearby. Let Gratitude be the prayer. Assistance with our requests. Then to Know, through requests, what the Will of the Great Mystery, rather than Our own might be?

This power of the Great Mystery has shown us again, we are not in control here, but the Greater Planner is. So, slow down, stop all the doing and LISTEN. Respond and be Humble to the tasks at hand,

It is time to practice what we know how to do. This Earthquake might have felt a long way off for many of you in the North American or Europe areas...but all is connected. Sending mostly, that " you matter to me" and a "I love you all". And I am missing you. Your never out of my mind and heart.

July 4th Meetings in Portland

2009-07-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

We met with Sun Dance pledges to share experiences and prepare, and Four Winds Foundation council came together to discuss the future of FWF and Deer Haven and our common goals.

Right now FWF’s goals are as follows: to save the land by stewarding it through these times, not unlike our forefathers in the dust bowl years; to provide a secure and warm home for Sweet Medicine, our President and Elder; and to provide a facility that not only can host youth groups and ceremonies but provide a space for a returning warriors equine program. This program will be headed by Phiamma Stiles, regional representative for this equine program in the west, and will combine the latest methods of working with horses with the traditional practice of the sweat lodge to help these warriors transition, integrate, and heal—and, through this process, also to recall their dignity, self respect, and sense of belonging within their families and communities.

Four Winds has worked with Youth Eco-Science for six years now and also with Wolftree, another science based non-profit in central Oregon. With funding as it is (non-existent within the current economic climate) we have lost funding. At the end of this last school year we had zero funding and relied on mentor volunteerism. Together we are looking at what this will mean next September.

We’re working with of a grant from the Santa Fe Art Council to create the first short installment in a documentary on water (mni) and its importance, past and present. Brad Smith (HOTPEPPER Productions) and Daniel L. Prince (eAssets Program Manager, Hewlett-Packard Company) will combine their efforts to create a beehive of connections for our documentary and educational work.
We’re currently looking into alternative funding and support for these offerings.

Nicole Tripp will provide the means to continue this blog, Sarah Clark will work on public relations, and Susan Prior will be our special events coordinator and manager for our mailing list. Phiamma Stiles and Susan Prior have also joined our team of fund gatherers and Master Planners for the future of Four Winds and its far reaching connection to other indigenous communities throughout the Americas.

June 14-21 Vision Quest

2009-07-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

Pledges committed to a process of discovery fasted and prayed for four days. This year folks from all over the U.S. came together in the unfolding heat of central Oregon’s desert mesas to support those who cried for a vision that would help them learn who they are in relationship to their world and themselves. Some had done this before and some were new to it. All in all, we gathered, set a wonderful camp, and all arrived with their supporters to create the most peaceful and smooth-running camp in years.

Deer Haven, the 40 acres of land owned by Four Winds and Sweet Medicine, lay 17 miles outside of Sisters, Oregon. Its connection to canyon lands there is a plus, as the canyon provides for sacred encounters that bring not only respite and calm, but a deepening of spirit and healing for most.

This year’s group was a mix of elders who have been walking this Red Road for many years, youth supporting friends on the hill for the first time, and families--all holding the deeper mystery of what is possible for those that fast for these four days and nights.

We were blessed to be able to combine two altars and camps this year, as Little Buffalo joined us. Little Buffalo has been a helper in our camp for two years, but in his own right is also a leader of his own community. We were not surprised at how seamless the convergence was. The shared energy enhanced both communities with a sacred and profound blend of offerings.

Each night we gathered around a sacred fire in the tipi for teachings and each day enjoyed healthy, organic, and delicious meals prepared by gifted chefs and their charges in Four Winds’ well stocked kitchen.

2009-03-31T10:32:00.001-07:00

3-17-09

Journey continues, celebrating both Marina's and Ana's Birthdays with Morelia family.

On March Full Moon, attended a lodge (temezcal) and was able to see the new floor that was constructed for the ceremonial tipi.

...yep, those are tiles.

Circle for the fire pit in the Centre. The tipi is now up and all are preparing for this "52 year" celebrating for Marina. 52 added together create a 7 and five decades, plus two (Father Sun and Mother Moon). This celebration Wise years.

Next steps.

2009-03-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

March 1 2009.

In mid Mexico now with the family of Morelia, Michoacan. Celebrated Ana and Marina's (birthdays) cumpleanos, it is wonderful to be here for this too.

The weather here in the million plus people is high spring. Orchids and roses, as well as all the tropical fruit you can imagine is blooming, fruiting and being eaten, by me each morning.

More to come.

Mexico.

2009-03-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Jazmin was my hostess in Mexico City, as well as her son Omar and daughter, Katrina. Thanks to them for all they shared. Thursday last I went to the Bosque (forest) to see the butterflies....and oh my god. There are trillions of them there. It was much better than last year's trip there. This year I also walked up the mountain seeing I needed to get the exercise and also save the money.

Day traveling around Valle De Bravo, and the Monarcha Preserves, in the high pine covered mountain, to see the beautiful butterflies and their mating dances and the males ending of life. As we travel to the Monarch butterflies:

On the next weekend we travel thru Silver mine country of Mexico, where we would stay for two days to visit the city of Ixcateopan, in the state of Guerrero Mexico.

The plan was to be apart of a celebration of Cuauhtemoc's life, and to be apart of some ceremonies around the Red Road and this cultural event, held here each year at this time. (March 26th) The story goes that when Cortez came he killed a young warrior king Cuautemoc. His mother took him from the hanging tree and hid his body. After 6 generations the person who held this secret of the family, saw the sign that the mother had told the people that would come (which was her sons pictured as having value). well, the one day the Mexican government printed a coin with his picture on it.....this was a sign, so the person who h

elps this secret in the family for all these years told of the resting place of this young man....who by the way was even more loved by the people of all Mexico that they called him the peace chief....so

the officials of Mexico in the state of Guerrero looked into this....and found the remains of this wondrous young man, he was 23 when they hung him to take the power of the hearts of the people and turn them into Catholic based people.

The most interesting part was over time his resting place was covered by the catholic church that stands in its place today..... not only was it there the whole time, but it was also visited by the people all over Mexico that understood that this is the resting place of this man, but not a soul ever thought it would be found in the ground under the church where the actual pulpit was or altar of the church. Well, since then people come each year to this place and dance this special kind of ancient dance called the danza....and they do it all night for two days....this little mountain town that boasts only the large deposits of Marble. Yes all the streets are cobbles of marble...as well as the foundation are made of this.

Anyway the church folks immediately of course built another church as this old one was the resting place of this king....and now there is a glass bed of his bones and the remaining items he had on his body at the time of his death

. I took pictures and movies of this dance to give a feeling of the whole town. Food flowe

d from everywhere....people came and chokes the streets finding a bed or camping is the only option in many cases as the people there are not tourist minded. This was amazing to see and be a part of for two days....but two days without sleep took its toll on me today.

So I am resting and packing for Morelia.

Then went on Friday to Teotihuacan.... you can see the website of this one..... it is the biggest in the whole of Mexico.... see this site. it is a good one.

There we met with the man I had met 6 years ago and was taken to the powerful understanding of this place....he is the guardian elder of this place and the main history keeper of the town and its ceremonies. He took us to the palace of the kind and behind the closed doors and chains to keep out the visitors we did ceremony with him.... a little kitty came to sit in our laps and be with us while there.... outside as I told some of you there was a big lightening storm and rain that they so needed flowing until we stopped the ceremony..... in fact the lightening beings were with me for most of the week. Then the Pyramid in the whole of Mexico (the pyramid of the fire) and then here.

I had the best pulque here too and the older tequila....dangerously smooth. Thought I am not a drinker of such things.

HISTORY of Pulque is the old drink of 24 hours of fermentation of the Maguey in less than a day the drink will be ready, the old wine of the Gods that still in certain corners of the Mexican plateau is continued producing and that all the family farmers consumes on a daily basis. Given to its antiquity and the symbolism that surrounds so much to the plant, the maguey, like its product pulque, this practice turns out to be a true ritual, the hymn of the farmer to an old world as soon as forgotten. From the moment in which old the Mexicans domesticated the maguey with the purpose of to take advantage of not only their juice, chewing the pulp, but its fibers to weave their clothes, their thorns to sew, the stem of the flower - greatest in the world like beam, to make ceilings and walls. its foods, the skin of these to make paper and, finally, its sweet sap to satiate the thirst of the man since then and for that reason was naturals who the maguey acquired deity title today.

I got to see the outside that night of the BIG church dedicated to Guadalupe....and hear all about its history and controversies too....but I was too cold and tired to get out of the car and go inside that night around 10:30pm. Another time.

Walked the 800 steps to the top of a hill or pyramid which was the central of all Mexico....it was the place where the new fire was lit each year....and the last time a fire was placed there was for one day was a torch for the Mexico World Olympics was help there.....funny that no ceremony can be done there now, but people can have picnics, play football on the top and do anything else but no fire ceremony....seems odd.

Seen the floating lands and its canals, of old Mexico, built on plants, soil and then plants, that cause the land to float. Old days of Styrofoam, hee hee! It is on a system of canals, full of water bird life and many colorful flat bottom barge like boats. There people on their boats came to sell us all sorts of goodies.....lunch was the best buy.

Have done a lot in a short time here, thanks to Jazmin's hummingbird nature to get around. It was all wonderful.

Heading South.

2009-03-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

SOUTH to CHILE, Jan - Feb 2009, now this was not a cold climate when I was there. It was mid-summer. So the cloths for the plane rides were too hot by the time I got off and to some of the wonderful peoples homes in Santiago, Camelo and Apaula.

It was surprising how comfortable I was after a 5 hr plane flight to Mexico City over night, then a 8 hr flight to Santiago, then a 8 hr bus ride to Pucon in the southern part of Chile. I was to say the least excited but had two naps that day.

I arrived here to be greeted by wonderful people (who spoke perfect English) that then took me around the small city of Pucon, which is like Boulder Co. It is a very big resort town in Feb. the highest season, when summer vacationers flood the black volcanic sand beaches of the huge lake it is on. The people seem very European in blood, blondes and redheads, mixed with the Machupi, indigenous people of the region.

Here we took off from Kitralma, in the heart of the Andes, and the location of Vision Quest was already underway for one man who was going for 17 days. This property is huge......and encompassed by straight up mountains on both sides, and volcanos in the distance what smoked and reminded us all that this earth is still very much alive. The good news about this is that there are tons of hot thermal waters to go and soak there in. Seems that instead of Casinos )which they also have in Pucon) the indigenous folks here have hot springs to enjoy.

Bill Stanton, Tyler and Amara joined me here. Tyler got ill and they left camp after a few days to rest in Pucon. I made a few trips to see them, Tyler is doing fine now and they are back in the USA.

The food is very yummy there and like Europe offers a fair that is not only delicious, but artfully prepared. You can find any kind of food you would dream of. They however do not like garlic and onions as they feel they make your breath smell bad so only in Veg or Hostel restaurant did they serve such yummy stuff.....I did not suffer at all as you can see.

It was hard to leave the most amazing ceremony and all 150 plus people that adopted me and the Community of FW as family. Many elders from all over the South American countries were there to help and support this time. At one point there were 8 Elders all taking people to the different locations and planting them for their special time.

After the camp I was placed on a horse and taken for a two-hour plus ride up above the Kitralma to a sacred lake. There we rode thru Trees that reached the heavens. They are sometimes described as a living fossil. Araucaria araucana is the national tree of Chile. Also called Monkey Puzzle trees, and old growth as we would call them in Hawaii. And the Alerce trees. Resembling giant sequoias, alerce trees have witnessed countless centuries of history. They have a life expectancy of up to 4,000 years and exist only in the temperate rain forests of Chile. Thanks to all there for their supporting my very bad Spanish. We had wonderful weather the whole camp, with artists of dance, music, and painting plus crafts of Chile all coming to share. We sang, laughed, and shared this experience and its sacred time.

The loving people were refreshing and wonderful. In each moment there, was an experience of a lifetime. I even stayed ten extra days to meet and be with important people in Santiago, and to have this trip into the wilds of Chile. Thanks Sole' and Claudia for hosting me in your special ways.

New Year, New Places.

2009-03-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Jan 2009 new year and new places to travel.

On this beginning leg of my trip this winter I want to tell you how wonderful it was to have been gifted this camera, to record the adventures of 2009. My last canon Elf fell in the drink while releasing 179 thousand baby steel head in the spring. Thanks to all of you that contributed, the women and men of Four Winds Community. You will see I am using it.