Journey To Old Oraibi

I remember traveling out to the Land of the Hopi with Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha back in the late '80's.  We went with her to study shamanism, never imagining what would transpire because we were all so innocent.  Just our innocence was protection from evils, which we learned were only imbalances that could be balanced.  In those days I was very spiritual but had little earthly materials so I listened when Grandmother said, "Never become so spiritual that you're no earthly good".

Grandmother knew the people in the Hopi community.  "Hopi" are the Native Americans known as "the little people of peace".  When we arrived on the mesa known as Old Oraibi a young Native woman met us.  She was the one that would guide us and show us the village.  We went into the sacred place known as a Kiva which is built into the ground.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva.  This room is built for ritual and sacred ceremony.  Grandmother Parisha explained to us that the floor of the Kiva is sprinkled with cornmeal but at the end of the ritual, no footprints can be seen in the corn pollen on the floor.

While we were traveling through the village we went to the edge of the mesa which is protected by a 4 foot wall so you don't just go wandering around at night and fall off the edge.  I was one in a group surrounding Grandmother, and we stood and marvelled at the scene far below and out beyond.  It was certainly a long way down!  There was a very small, sickly looking bush up against the wall.  I noticed a group of Hopi men about 40 yards away, standing by a dwelling.  They were looking in our direction and just milling around. 

Grandmother was talking to us and teaching when we all saw a brilliant red and black coral snake appear by the sickly looking bush on the wall.  We all stepped back to allow room for the snake knowing there was no place for it to go.  At that moment a Raven began calling from the opposite side of the mesa and it caught Grandmother Parisha's attention.  She turned to look at the Raven and in that instant she doubled over, as if in pain.  The Raven had been calling a warning.

Also in that moment, the snake disappeared.  No one could see where it went, and we all knew that there was no place for it to go but over the edge.  No holes in the ground either.  Grandmother was definitely in pain and, taken by surprise, she still stood but looked as though she could use something to sit down on and get off her feet.  There was nothing.  I saw the look on the Native woman's face who was acting as our guide.  She was in a state of panic.  She turned and ran as fast as she could back to one of the dwellings.  Long braids flying.

Grandmother explained that she had been hit in her abdomen by the snake.  This was a form of sorcery, most likely attributed to the men we had seen standing by the dwelling.  She felt movement in her body and knew she had to take care of the situation.  We completely surrounded her and walked back to our vehicles to go back to the hotel.  My emotions fluctuated between fear and anger, which Grandmother recognized.  She smiled and said the damage could be fixed and would become a teaching for all of us.  I marvelled once again at her wisdom and her courage.

When we returned to the hotel it was dark.  We were in our rooms when the lights in the complex went out.  All of them.  The whole place had shut down because there was no power.  It stayed that way for about an hour.

Later, we all gathered with Grandmother who appeared to be herself again.  She held a large crystal in her hand and gave a teaching on sorcery.  The spirit of an old sorcerer had been called forth to do ill to her and she'd had to pull it from her body which pulled power from the circuits, causing the black-out.  The spirit of the sorcerer was caught in the large crystal she held in her hand.  She said that if one of us had been between her and the snake, she would have taught us about extraction.  Just for a moment, I was crazy enough to be sad that it wasn't me who had been hit by the snake!  I wanted to learn everything she could teach.

She taught that there was nothing but love and compassion and, resting in that, she sent the spirit of the old one back to the grandmothers and grandfathers who stood waiting to take the errant sorcerer back to themselves.  At that, she released the spirit of the old one from the crystal, from which arose a puff of smoke.

A Journey to the Mojave Desert

Traveling with Grandmother PaRisHa is always an extraordinary experience.  In the 25 plus years that I've known her it never ceases to amaze me that so much can happen in her presence.

Several years ago a group of us packed up and headed West to Arizona where we spent days and nights camping in the Mojave desert.  It was with a lot of apprehension that I made the decision to go because, if truth be told, I don't like creepy crawly things such as the big three: scorpions, any kind of spider - especially ones as big as tarantulas, snakes - especially poisonous snakes. 

So weeks before I made the decision to go sleep on the desert floor with all these critters I journeyed into the other worlds to see what would await me.  This is akin to time travel because it took me into the future to see what I could see.....and this is what I saw:

I saw a lush, flowering, wet desert as though it had recently rained.  I saw myself with my medicine walking stick and wondered why I would think to bring that with me.  There would certainly be no real need for it and it would be a burden to carry it on the plane with me.  I decided to leave the walking stick home where I thought it belonged.  I noticed that we were camping in an area that was cleared of brush and leveled out.  I saw that the creepy crawlies stayed to the outer reaches of the camp, as though out of respect for our being there.  I saw this through their eyes and from their viewpoint in the desert.  I knew in that moment that I would not encounter any of the things I disliked most and felt better about going on the trip.

As the day of my departure grew near, Grandmother PaRisHa sent emails from our desert destination saying that she had already set up camp.  She said that when we got there we would be able to see the desert in all its flowering glory because it was raining there.  Someone had been employed to come out and clear a section of the desert where we would be camping to make it easier for us to move around.  So much of what I had seen in my journeying had already come to pass, before I even got there!

After arriving in Arizona, and while taking my 50 pound suitcase off the back of the vehicle in which we were traveling, I dropped the case on my foot.  This was why I had seen myself with a walking stick.  It took my foot about 5 days of the trip to heal back to where I could walk without assistance from a stick that someone had gleaned from the desert floor, since I didn't have mine with me. 

I never did see any creepy crawlies walking around during the whole trip, something for which I was very grateful.

More to come.....