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.

The Body Human

What could be more interesting than the human body?  There is much mystery to the workings and the systems and their interaction.  Perhaps few have ever fully figured it out.  Then you add all the outside influences like viruses and bacteria and fungus and yeast.  Then on top of that you add foods and liquids.  Then you experience emotion and how that affects the health of the human body.  It's all such a wonderful, enthralling mystery that makes the mind want to solve it.  Then, see what can happen when you add spirit to the mix.

Spirit is the ingredient that changes everything.  It is the one thing that can change something, anything, in an instant.  Spirit is not contained in a box, with rules and instructions attached.  Spirit is chaos and out of chaos comes order.  Or so I'm told.  Or so I've experienced.

TL came in with bent shoulders, fighting against gravity to be able to stand up straight.  "My shoulders are turning downward and my head is too far forward.  I have to fight every single minute to keep my head up straight!  It's exhausting."  I suggested we try Nuwati healing.  She asked what it was and I told her it was a method of moving into the Theta brain wave which is in tune with the 7th dimension where healing comes from.  Then I make a command for healing and just watch what happens.  She said she would try anything. 

Before the actual healing began I told TL that once the command for healing was made to just trust what she was feeling in her body and to just move with whatever was happening.  "Don't fight it, whatever happens to your body, don't fight it".  She agreed and the session was begun.

I asked permission and she willingly gave it.  The command for healing was made and my eyes were closed as I moved into the Theta brainwave.  Immediately, TL's spinal column was before my eyes in a lateral view.  It just sort of popped out at me and turned sideways as thought it were on a TV screen.  I watched as her whole spinal column adjusted itself from the sacrum on up to the 1st cervical in a matter of seconds.  Then the view changed and it appeared to me as though I were looking at it from the front of her body, from a prone position.  Then, it disappeared back into her body.

I opened my eyes.  TL sat with eyes huge.  Something had happened.  She explained that the moment I gave the command her head began to tilt backward and she was very much afraid and found that she was fighting the backward movement.  Then she remembered what I'd said and stopped fighting.  She relaxed her head as it went backward, seemingly on it's own.  She said it went so far back that she was beginning to think it was going to go too far when all of a sudden it stopped and she was able to raise her head with no problem. 

When TL left she was standing straight up.  She no longer had to fight to keep her head up.

I remembered Grandmother PaRisHa's words when she taught us about Nuwati.  She said to trust it, trust that Spirit knows what it's doing and just get out of the way.  She knew how powerful healing can be when you put your trust in something bigger than yourself and just let it work through you.  At the time I wasn't sure I knew what she meant but, with experience comes knowledge, then wisdom.  I'm so grateful I learned from one so wise.