Uluru to Maui to Mt Shasta - June 2, 2008
Blessed to attend 2 druming sessions in oregon, one in Eugene and the other in Salem, with 3 magnificent community drums and 28 enthusiastic people drumming and singing, what a treat! My friend has been giving me advice on changing my diet and I am on a cleanse, it seems that visiting so any high energy areas and the changes that we are all undergoing, is changing the cellular matrix of the body so quickly,I don't know what the body wants for fuel anymore - I do know it will no longer tolerate the genetically altered, fast food and chemically enhanced items they disguise for Hu-man consumption. As an opportunivore, it was much easier to eat what ever presented itself on the journey, I will have to be much more aware while traveling.
There is a pet Zoo aways down the road, I have been enjoying walking to, each day, it has an assortment of live snakes, turtles, birds, rodens etc, this is the closest I have in town to connecting with the lifeforce of nature. An amazing thing happened - there were 2 red tailed Boas in a glass cage, which I sat in front of for a while, the largest rose its head up in the air on an angle and stayed like that, while the other then also raised its head up and their head and necks formed a cross in front of me - they stayed his way for a very ong time. In meditating on this afterwood, I realised they were telling me this is what I am to do with my snake head medicine items - thanks for that guys!
We headed out last Monday from Eugene to drive in an amazing little frieghtliner Rv with a mercedes Diesel - across Oregon, over the mountains with the Snake river flowing beside us, through the forests and even in June there was still lots of snow around. We followed the scenic routes and the old Oregon trail for aways, I marvelled at the thought of settlers, wagons and indians here a little over a hundred years before - I was saddened by the amount of logging and cleared spaces, that created a checkerboard across the country.
Then we drove across the corner of Idaho - through canyons and across rolling plains, I could imagine the thundering hoofbeats of thousands of buffalo, where now there were homesteads and industry. We stopped at the Painted Hills for lunch and to enjoy the many colours of natures pallet, walking around the Hill of Leaves, which is a pile of leaf impressions in stone, millions of years old. The volcanic landscape of ancient lava beds and volcanic plugs was incredible, as was the ancientness of the land, we cut throughg ravines of lava to open out into flat rolling plains continuously.
Driving into Utah at first was long rolling plains, industry and homesteads but south of Utah was amazing with buttes, canyons, white, vermillion and crimson cliffs. We stopped in the tiny town of Marilyn at the Mystic hot springs for a dip to refresh, this was kind of like a blast from the 60's, quietly nestled at the edge of town. We were amazed and awed by the Moqui Caves, which featured dinosaur footprints, glow in the dark mineral specimens - the owner of the cae was the son of the original white settler, who had 5 wives and 50 children. Apparently the 2 chambers of the cave were used as a tavern and dance hall in the 30's and 40's, We then stopped for the night at Cliff Dwellers, a rest area of a lodge and service station, nestled at the base of coloured cliffs, a few hours north of the Grand Canyon, Nansing bought me a beautiful necklace of turquoise and stone inlay from the Navajo women, who were trading next to the ancient stones and a stone dwelling.
Next day after passing through many wonderful canyons we arrived in Sedona to be met by Lakota Wolf and her family, I have a wonderful week here as part of her family, not far from Bell Rock and the Grand cathedral. Enjoyed visits to Cathedral Rock and swimming in the river here, beautiful water, walk to Bell rock and laid out Snake medicine items and walks to the sacred rocks to sit and hold ceremony, I was met by a deer at one of the spots and it stayed with me while I meditated.
Sedona (AZ) to Cortez (CO) to Los Cruces (NM) to Austin Texas June 18th
Drove from Sedona to Cortez via Monument Valley - WOW - what an amazing site of canyons, buttes and mesas, we stopped at Gouldings in the middle of Monument Valley, at what was a trading post in the early 30's and the site of many John Wayne movies - the scenery is so breathtakingly beautiful! This route took us near the hopi reservation and through the navajo and Ute reservations. We rolled into Cortez Colorado as the moon rose the day before the full moon. It rose in a lavender and indigo sky, between mesas and buttes over the desert - beautiful!
At Lionfires, Cortez Colorado - we were treated to many Anasazi ruins, a dawn sundaggers ceremony, where 2 fingers of light cross over 2 sets of 3 ancient petroglyph circles,in the Canyon of the Ancients vortex at 4 corners - the 4 sacred mountains are visible in each state here. Lionfire has 2 ancient Mongolian stone skulls, dated to approx 8,000 years old. I had the blessing to work with them each evening in preparation for sitting with them in the Great Kiva at Lowry. Here at the timing of the Solstice and 6 others to hold and ground the energy we set the Kiva in motion, linking up with many other kivas across the landscape and sacred sites around the world. I was gifted with 2 moults of a gold and indigo macaw in Eugene (OR) from the tail feathers I created 2 healing fans, the Macaw tail feathers have a nice swish to them due to their length.
On the rocks in the Ute reservation we found petroglyphs of the macaw, the snake, buffalo and many spirals, which the sun and shadows marked the cycles of the seasons. I said my goodbyes to Nansing, who has been my chaffeur with her wonderful little 23 foot RV we have nicknamed 'Goldie', and I set out with Ajumaaree whom I have met on Tribe.net - she has driven all the way from Austin Texas in 2 days (almost 1200miles) to take me back to Texas. We have stopped at Los Cruces (NM)for 2 days to rest and catch up with Yolanda Martinez - Apache singer / Songwriter and drum maker, whom I met with the Grandmother drum crew in 2007. She has a medicine wheel here in her yard, which overlooks the portal of the Organ Mountains. Next day we drove to Austin Texas - I have been here in Austin for a week as of the 1st July, as my host works during the week, I have kept busy making turtle shell and deer leg bone and toe rattles and medicine bags from the bits and pieces I have picked up on my journey. Looking at alternatives for the next leg of the journey - there is a Pow Wow in Illinois next week,another 1200 miles travel - looking at alternatives to get there - greyhound or a lift, I will know in a couple of days whether I get there or not, depends on what other opportunities present themselves - it is my birthday on the 12th July, it would be nice to play at a Pow Wow, will see what the universe delivers!