

We’re in transition, that’s for sure. By that I mean the rate of change around the globe–climate, business, education, technology, etc.–is cracking along at a wildfire pace: in our faces. We’re moving decidedly toward some new state of life.
To add to the wealth of speculation about what some qualities of that new state may be, I offer yet another descriptor–one with mythic unifying attributes: the Age of Flowers. The concept qualifies as an aspect of deep agroecology.
But rather than lay the whole tale out a second time on this blog, I created a permanent page on this same website. Here’s the link. Give it a click and it will whisk you along to the page with the floral essay.
Note: I wrote this material in the mid-1990s as a facet of Legend of the Rainbow Warriors, an exploration in nonfiction mythology. Now in the summer of 2024, it feels relevant and worthwhile to publish it online and to thereby make it more widely accessible. – S.M.
Excerpted from Chapter 11 – Legend of the Rainbow Warriors – by Steven McFadden
We’re in transition, that’s for sure. By that I mean the rate of change around the globe–climate, business, education, technology, etc–is cracking along at a wildfire pace: in our faces. We’re moving decidedly toward some new state of life. To add to the wealth of speculation about what some qualities of that new state may be, I offer yet another descriptor–one with mythic unifying attributes: the Age of Flowers. I wrote this chapter in the mid-1990s as a facet of Legend of the Rainbow Warriors, an exploration in nonfiction mythology. Now in the summer of 2024, it feels worthwhile to publish it online and to make it more widely accessible.
Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo has spent much time contemplating the traditional calendars of the Americas and the Orient, and the concept of a new cycle emerging.
A teacher in the Etowah Cherokee tradition and also a recognized teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, in the Nyingma and Drikung Kagyu lineages. Ven. Ywahoo teaches from the Sunray Peace Village in the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains, toward the crown end of the Appalachian mountain spine, along the Eastern flank of Turtle Island (North America).
Dhyani says that many Indigenous people have paid attention to the transition described in Native calendars. “The age ending has been a time when people have gathered information about building and about inventions to make life better,” she explained. “Now it’s time for people to recognize that the inventions are a creation of mind, to put aside such inventions as cause harm, and to bring forth and further develop those activities that benefit all beings and benefit the future generations.”
“We are moving around the spiral, coming again to a place of whole civilization, of true planetary consciousness. What we see now are the fever throes, the end of the fever’s nightmares as the sickness and poisons leave the system. Just how well the culture, the people, go through this time is really dependent upon the calling of the light, because in a time of purification the light makes clear the places of darkness.
“How much the planet will suffer, how much the people will suffer, is really determined by the consciousness of groups. It is no longer a matter of just individuals finding the light within themselves; it’s really necessary to establish a network, to rebuild those areas of the Earth’s web that have been harmed by unclear thinking.
“According to the way we are taught, and the seeds that are being planted, the new calendar that has begun is to manifest peace–an age of peace. The elders have asked–this is a large council of elders, so they speak to Central and North American people–that the morning after every full moon at about 10 a.m., that we gather flowers and go outside and look to the Sun, to the flowers, and to the heart of the Earth. In so doing, we bring more solar energy and flower wisdom to the Earth, because the new age is an Age of Flowers.
“Flowers give light and joy. They also have a very subtle consciousness. They have a unity of mind. Flower energy is peaceful, and flowers are great medicine. By meditation on flowers, we can reduce the inflammation caused by aggressive habits of mind. Flowers are our medicine for the next age. In this new time, flowers will become very significant as teachers and healers of humanity.
“Flowers move with the Sun; thus they have a certain committed solar consciousness. They know the proper relationship between Spirit and Earth. The flowers remind us to look up to heaven and to actualize the solar energy in our own lives–to speak more clearly and to act more clearly.
“Flowers are the medicine we need for balance and tone,” she said. “The old people say that when properly prepared–and some of the preparations can take as long as twelve years–flower essences can widen the frequency response of the human mind. They increase our sensitivity. But they need to be prepared with prayer, right offering, and dedication. Flowers can remove the poisons of incorrect thought and stir the body to its fullest health.”
According to Ven. Ywahoo, one way the flowers are teaching humanity is through their pollen. In recent years…doctors have reported an increase in the number of cases of hay fever, other allergies, and asthma. As Dhyani explains, “Through the movement of flower pollen in the air, we are all being quickened. That quickening for some is frightening, and it also brings a reaction–just like when someone takes a homeopathic remedy. First, they may become a little bit sicker, but it’s really the sickness being exaggerated so that the organism can be awakened to heal itself.”
“The whole issue of allergy,” she says, “is really an issue of the planetary system and not the human system. In some instances the Earth and the people are so out of alignment with one another that anything natural is disturbing to the human body. For years we’ve been taking artificial vitamins, and for years our food has been grown with artificial fertilizers. So the natural kingdom has been made an enemy, and the body and the immune system respond as if nature were an enemy. This is a result of years and years of improper drugging of the crops.
“By releasing their pollen, flowers are trying to attract the attention of human beings. The plants do that specifically. Plants do have minds and they have alertness and consciousness, and they can change,” Dhyani explained. “Notice also that the atmosphere’s quality is changing. Certainly there’s less oxygen. There are more heavy metals and acid in the air. So the plants are working even harder to transmute these things, and in their efforts for transformation the plants that survive become more potent.”
In the late 1980s, best-selling author Tom Robbins published a novel entitled Jitterbug Perfume. The book contains a chapter with a peculiar title: Dannyboy’s Theory (Where We Are Going and Why It Smells the Way It Does). In that chapter the fictional characters contend that humankind is about to enter the floral stage of evolutionary development.
Although the book is a novel, within this chapter Robbins offers some illuminating facts about human brains and the quality of their consciousness.
Specifically, through his characters, he notes that reptile consciousness is cold, aggressive, self-preserving, angry, greedy, and paranoid. Of note, neurophysicist Paul McLean has pointed out that within our skulls we modern-day human beings still harbor a fully intact and functional reptilian brain: the limbic lobe, the hypothalamus, and perhaps other organs of the diencephalon. When we are in a cold sweat or a blind rage, he says, our reptile brain is in control of our consciousness.
Robbins explains that human beings also have a mammal brain, called the midbrain or mesencephalon, and that characteristics of mammal consciousness are warmth, generosity, loyalty, love, joy, grief, humor, pride, and appreciation of art and music. In late mammalian times–the last several thousand years–human beings have developed a third brain, the telencephalon, consisting principally of the neocortex, a dense rind of nerve fibers about an eighth of an inch thick. This part of the brain is molded over the top of the existing mammal brain.
Brain researchers were initially puzzled by the neocortex. What is its function? And why has it developed? In his book, Robbins concludes that this third brain is a floral brain, corresponding to the evolving stage of human development.
Flowers extract energy from light. Likewise, neuromelanin–one of the principal chemicals in this part of the brain–absorbs light and also has the capacity to convert light into other forms of energy. Consequently, Robbins notes, the neocortex is light sensitive and can itself be lit up by higher forms of mental activity, such as meditation or chanting.
Thus, Robbins writes, “the ancients were not being metaphoric when they referred to ‘illumination.”‘ They were being literal.
Jitterbug Perfume brings forward the encouraging idea that we are moving gradually toward a dominant floral consciousness: “We require a less physically aggressive, less rugged human being now. We need a more relaxed, contemplative, gentle, flexible kind of person, for only he or she can survive (and expedite) this very new system that is upon us. Only he or she can participate in the next evolutionary phase. It has definite spiritual overtones, this floral phase of consciousness…”
“As our neocortex comes into full use, we, too, will practice a kind of photosynthesis,” Robbins writes. “As a matter of fact, we already do, but compared to the flowers, our kind is primitive and limited. For one thing, information gathered from daily newspapers, soap operas, sales conferences, and coffee klatches is inferior to information gathered from sunlight. (Since all matter is condensed light, light is the source, the cause of life. Therefore, light is divine. The flowers have a direct line to God that an evangelist would kill for.)”
“With reptile consciousness,” Robbins concludes, “we had hostile confrontation. With mammal consciousness, we had civilized debate. With floral consciousness, we’ll have empathetic telepathy.”
Since the early part of the twentieth century, flowers have emerged as an effective modality of healing. Specifically, in the late 1920s a British doctor began experimenting with flowers as remedies for human disease. The results of his experiments opened a whole new field of health care that began to blossom throuh the 1980s and onward.
Edward Bach, M.D. (1886-1936) practiced traditional medicine from 1914 until 1918, when he became interested in homeopathy, the healing modality founded on the principle that like cures like: in other words, that small doses of whatever is causing a problem, intelligently applied, can bring about a positive healing reaction within the body.
Bach was an outstanding doctor, held in high regard by both orthodox and homeopathic physicians. In 1928, he became interested in flowers and began to prepare homeopathic remedies from various blossoms. As time went on, he observed excellent results from these medicines. Working steadily until the time of his death, he developed 38 individual flower essences as well as the popular Rescue Remedy, a combination of several flowers used to alleviate trauma.
Bach believed that bodily ills were only symptoms. He wrote that the ills of the heart and the spirit should instead be the focus of a healer’s attention: “It is our fears, our cares, our anxieties, and such like that open the path to the invasion of illness.” Dr. Bach also believed that the overweening materialism of our times has caused us to focus almost exclusively on the physical aspects of disease and to pay scant attention to the underlying or spiritual causes.
In response to this perception, Bach developed a new branch of herbal and homeopathic medicine that employed flowers to relieve mental distress. With this system, problems could be dealt with on an inner level. Specifically, he created his flower remedies to heal attitudes such as anger, resentment, remorse, lack of confidence, greed, and anxiety. Bach believed that by correcting harmful mental attitudes, one could prevent a disease from becoming established in the body. If one treated a disease at the energy level, he posited, one could avoid having to deal with it later as a gross physical malady.
Flower essences are part of an evolving branch of the healing arts known as vibrational medicine. With vibrational medicine the subtle energies of the human body are influenced gently and non-obtrusively, through means such as color, light, sound, fragrance, and the essences of flowers. The theory underlying these modalities is that all living things, including human beings, have energy that flows in and around the body in particular patterns. Those energy patterns are directly related to–and in fact may even be the mold for–the physical form of the body. Therefore, if one can bring a person’s energy patterns (or energy bodies) into vitality and balance, then theoretically there will be a corresponding shift in the person’s physical health.
As viewed from the perspective of the classical four elements (earth, fire, water and air), floral healing approaches can be said to fall within the realm of air, specifically within the realm of Aquarius, which is the third and highest of the Zodiac’s air signs. The classical figure of Aquarius is not pouring out water, but rather waves of energy. Aquarius has long been said to rule electricity, high technology, flying, forward progress. In human beings the Aquarian impulse can be expressed as a cool detached intellectualism, the scientific mind. Aquarius is yang, and can be exceedingly dry.
In the context of our times, one might well ask, where does the yin or feminine energy come from to balance the yang-masculine energy of Aquarius. A likely response is from the flowers–which are a yin expression of the Aquarian air impulse.
One leading organization in the development of flowers as a healing modality has been the Alaskan Flower Essence Project. The project describes this aspect vividly: “Flowers,” the project’s brochures say, “are light patterns of truth, beautifully expressed in physical form.”
Flowers are the highest, most beautiful, most refined part of plants. They are said to correspond to the human soul. Flower essences may influence the subtle electrical energy field of the human body in much the same way acupuncture does, albeit more gently, and less obtrusively.
Flowers become an evolutionary force in the consciousness of the person who uses them. They are not the cause of the healing or the health that results from their use; rather, they are agents that support the free will and clear intention of the person who seeks to heal him or herself.
Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski are the founders of the Flower Essence Society (FES). Through this organizational vehicle, they support research and educational programs that deepen public understanding of flowers as a medium for healing.
FES teaches that flower essences address health in a broad sense by strengthening the link between body and soul. The organization professes that flowers can be used to treat a wide variety of disorders such as stress, addictions, depression, fear, emotional repression, and jealousy. They can also be used to enhance creativity and spiritual awareness.
“With flower essences,” Richard Katz commented, “we are seeking to bring spiritual light into our lives. Forty years ago, with the nuclear explosion, we split apart matter to create light. Now the generation that was born in that time has matured and is deciding whether to continue to split apart matter to create light or to radiate it from within. Never has the choice been clearer.”
If this is an Age of Flowers, and if flowers are to become our healers and teachers, then what have we got to learn? As Richard Katz sees it, “Flowers are the soul of nature, and they give it expression through color, form, and fragrance. Flower essences are the art and science of bringing the balance of nature to the human soul.
“Most remedies are intended to make us feel better, but flower essences can help us heal our souls and find our life direction. Perhaps the most healing experience you can have is to be aware of your life purpose.”
To help a person develop awareness of and to take steps toward fulfilling his or her life purpose, Katz recommends one of three specific flower essences, or a combination of all three: Mullein, Walnut, and Wild Oat. He suggests that the person place a few drops of the flower essences under the tongue and then relax, repeating this process rhythmically, several times a day for several weeks, to internalize the subtle qualities of the flowers. To strengthen the process, the person might also use affirmations, either of their own design or as suggested by a supplier of flower essences.
The Flower Essence Society has published a pioneering booklet on this theme, entitled Affirmations: The Messages of the Flowers in Transformative Words for the Soul. As the booklet explains, “Affirmations are a specialized activity within the larger field of meditation, contemplation and prayer. They are simple, directly evocative words which enable the soul to work toward positive, specific goals of inner development. It is a tenet of all spiritual teachings, as well as business and professional training programs, that the ordering of thought and the harmonizing of feeling has a powerful impact on our ability to manifest change, both within ourselves and within the world.”
Affirmations are not magical words that immediately bring fortune or fame; rather, they are verbal tools that can help the personality to develop virtue and moral strength in accord with the real needs and capacities of the soul. Here, for example, are the original FES affirmations for two flower essences relating to life purpose:
Mullein
I hear the spiritual call that guides me.
I stand true to my inner guidance.
I bear aloft the torch of my Spirit Light.
Wild Oat
I am clear in my life direction.
I express my soul’s purpose in my life activities.
I create and attract the opportunities I need
At this juncture of world history many people sense the compelling forces of change bearing upon civilization–and they may also sense that it is part of their personal soul mission to engage and to help steer the Earth aright toward a clean, just, and peaceful state. For them the Age of Flowers has potential to resonate as an insightful frame of reference, and also as an auspicious soul call audible to the inner ear.
This essay excerpted from Chapter 11 – Legend of the Rainbow Warriors nonfiction mythology by Steven McFadden
My small-treasure gift book, Native Knowings, has earned high praise from The Reading Bud. Here’s the text of the review:
“Native Knowings: Wisdom Keys for One and All by Steven McFadden is a profound and soul-stirring journey into the heart of North American indigenous wisdom. This concise book, though just 84 pages, is a treasure trove of timeless teachings that are more relevant today than ever. As I delved into its pages, I found myself deeply moved by the words of wisdom that have been passed down through generations.
“McFadden’s writing is both eloquent and accessible, making the profound teachings of the Native American elders resonate with a contemporary audience. The book masterfully weaves together teachings from various tribes, offering a rich tapestry of wisdom that speaks to the heart as well as the mind. The quotations and teachings from elders like Frank Decontie are particularly impactful, urging the reader to listen not just with their minds, but with their hearts. This approach brings a deeper, more intuitive understanding of the messages conveyed.
“One of the most compelling aspects of Native Knowings is its relevance to our current era of transition and uncertainty. The book highlights how these ancient teachings can guide us in creating a more harmonious and sustainable future. It’s a call to integrate these insights into our daily lives, for the sake of ourselves and future generations. The sense of urgency in the words of contemporary elders adds a poignant note, underscoring the importance of heeding these teachings now.
“In conclusion, Native Knowings: Wisdom Keys for One and All is a must-read for anyone seeking wisdom, guidance, or a deeper connection to the Earth and its history. McFadden has created a powerful compilation that not only educates but also inspires. It’s a book that I will undoubtedly return to, as its messages are timeless and its wisdom, inexhaustible.”
Many years ago I compiled a concise eBook with some key native knowings about the earth, and about the era of transition we are living through. Much of that book came from my notes about meetings with traditional native elders, and other people learned in the ways of earth and spirit. Our current national and global circumstances prompted me this past month to update the eBook and slso to publish it in a paperback edition for the first time.
With that background and intention, Light and Sound Press, LLC hereby announces an important addition to the Soul*Sparks collection of gift books–-small treasures recognized for their enduring insights. As of late May 2023 Native Knowings is now available in a slender, handsome, and impactful paperback edition as well as the eBook edition.
Indisputably and on many levels of experience and understanding, profound changes are underway in the world. My hope is that this small volume will in some ways help us to move through the changes more wisely. The root teachings of North America—native knowings—can truly help. This I know in the core of my being.
The words of contemporary leaders in particular bear notes of urgency. They share a sense that the time for us to make profound changes in our attitudes and our behaviors is short. As Native Knowings makes explicit, they encourage us to consider their voiced offerings promptly and carefully.
The back cover of this small treasure gives a sense of what lies within:
My wife Elizabeth treated me to a movie for my birthday just before 2022 came to a close: three hours of the new Avatar film in 3-D at an I-Max theater. Great beauty we beheld in The Way of Water. Although I have to say that as is true for me with most modern adventure films I find the endless battles to be tedious at best, deranging at worst.
More emphasis on story in 2023, I say to Hollywood, and less focus on ways to maim or terminate ourselves and other entities.
In that regard, I’m interested to share a link to a two-minute video clip on water and the IMAGES we hold and project into the world. May we all find ways to do this with greater skill and beauty in the new year and beyond. Peace, S.
Dear Readers, I’m pleased to announce a facelift for an old book that is, I feel, acutely relevant to all that’s going on in the world. It’s the slimmest of volumes, but it still goes right to the heart of the matter. As of today the new cover and format edition is readily available as either print or eBook.
Here’s an image of the new cover, and below you will find the updated text from the book’s back cover:
Tales of the Whirling Rainbow is a journalist’s account of some of the key myths and mysteries of the Americas, and an electrifying exploration of how those myths are resounding in real time.
Veteran journalist Steven McFadden weaves the living myths together seamlessly. Like an atom of gold, this wee book radiates deep beauty. It delivers authentic inspiration for our 21st Century souls.
Tales of the Whirling Rainbow conveys critical insights into core wisdom teachings at the heart of North America’s unfolding saga. Respect for these knowings is fundamental to our survival, and to our spiritual development.
As the Sun awakens and Earth changes intensify, our lives attain high velocity. At this time and in this manner, elders across The Americas informed the author, the human beings who are the different colors and faiths of the world will have opportunities to heal their web of relationships with each other, and with the natural world.
Don Alberto Taxo crossed into spirit on the cross-quarter, February 1, 2022. That’s the moment each year when the Sun crosses the point in time and space that dwells halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.
In passing Taxo left a legacy of kindness, respect, and spiritual intelligence. He also left illustrious teachings for all of The Americas.
To acknowledge Maestro Taxo’s death, and to honor him for all he gave to the world through his years of life, I offer a story.
It’s the story of the day that Taxo walked upon on the great plaza that sprawls before the entrance to the House of Mica (United Nations Headquarters) on the island of Manhattan. A man of respect, gratitude, and natural grace, don Alberto generously helped bring those qualities forward through an important ceremonial day.
It was Wednesday, August 9, 1995. I remember it vividly. It was the 48th day of the Sunbow 5 Walk for the Earth, a dedicated band of travelers on foot from the Atlantic toward the Pacific. I was among a small group of those Sunbow pilgrims that day. We journeyed to the UN specifically for ceremonies marking the first annual occasion where member nations of the UN would—at least on paper—formally recognize and honor the indigenous peoples of the world.
Whirling Rainbow
As the ceremony began mid-day, the murky Manhattan sky above the gleaming facade of the House of Mica, brought forth a sunbow, the rare, natural phenomenon of a circular rainbow hoop around the Sun. The whirling rainbow held its form and presence in the sky for over 90 minutes, the entire duration of the ceremony.
Altogether about 250 human beings—representing all nations, all ways—gathered on the UN’s plaza. But note: not one official from any of the world’s incorporated, industrialized nation states showed up to acknowledge, to listen, to engage.
Chief Oren Lyons, Onondaga Faithkeeper and professor at the State University of New York-Buffalo, served as master of ceremonies. He offered a gracious welcome. “For many hundreds of years,” Chief Lyons remarked, “it has been a daily struggle for the indigenous peoples of the Earth to survive. So we are happy to be here. We are happy to have survived.”
Delphine Red Shirt, Lakota, Chairperson of the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, led a moving pipe ceremony. As she stood on the plaza before the UN and under the rainbow hoop around the Sun, she lifted her pipe high to honor everything, all relations, the sacred hoop of life.
Then Maestro Alberto Taxo came forward. He was a middle-aged then, about 40, hailing from the Andes Mountains of South America, a master Iachak of the Atis (Kichwa) people in the Cotopaxi region of Ecuador. An Iachak is someone who embodies and shares the wisdom of his tradition for the benefit of others, a leader for the community.
On the broad UN plaza, singing in Spanish, Taxo lifted a lilting, enchanting song honoring all Creation. As his final notes faded, everything became deeply still, a moment of grace.
Then Taxo began a brief oration. He spoke of the condor of the south and the eagle of the north, a reference to the widely-known teaching that one day the great sacred birds of both North and South America would fly together, cooperate, and establish a healthy, sustainable future that merges high intelligence with full, open hearts.
Often it is said, “when the eagle flies with the condor a lasting peace will reign in the Americas. It will spread throughout the world to unite humanity.”
As author Michelle Adam notes on her blog, “…like many native elders, he (Taxo) carried a 500-year-old teaching of his indigenous ancestors to prepare for an immense change for the earth and humanity, a ‘Pachacuti,’ that would occur at this time in history.”
Quetzal – Wiki Commons
The eagle and the condor would unite, some elders say, through the agency of the ethereally beautiful Central American quetzal bird. “Those of the center will unite the north and the south,” Mayan elder don Alejandro Cirilo Perez has proclaimed for decades. He also has worked to make this particular vision real.
The teaching foretells the coming together of two great powers: Eagle (the power of the mind as exemplified in the industrialized nations of the North) and Condor (the power of the heart, and connection with nature as expressed in indigenous ways of the South). Heart and mind.
House of Mica (UN)
Standing before the House of Mica in August 1995, don Alberto said the condor and the eagle have already met. The time for the fulfillment of this teaching is now.
He said the eagles of the north cannot be fully realized without the condors of the south, nor can the condors ascend without the eagles.
Taxo commented directly on the relationship between the technology-based cultures of the world (yang, or masculine, eagle in character), and the earth-based, or native, cultures (yin, or feminine, condor in character).
As he succinctly explained, profound social, political, and spiritual currents are at work in indigenous nations all around the globe. These dynamic currents parallel the vividly obvious dynamic currents in the technology-based cultures. The currents parallel, but do not generally intersect.
Mass, corporate media shuns this knowledge and these parallels, don Alberto said. Consequently, the public remains deprived of information about these crucial parallel developments, and thus the two sacred cultural currents of North and South America (eagle and condor) have difficulty finding each other to fly together.
But, Taxo said, they will find each other. In time eagle and condor will fly together in cooperation and peace.
A few weeks before Taxo’s death, in concert with natural rhythms on the Winter Solstice of December 2021, anthropologist Shirley Blancke published her book, The Way of Abundance and Joy: The Shamanic Teachings of don Alberto Taxo (Destiny Books).
In her new book Blancke writes, “The Condor gift that don Alberto (brought) to the lands of the Eagle is Sumak Kausay, which means Abundant Life in Kichwa. It is the indigenous Andes’ basic principle of living. It requires a kind of awareness, a living in the moment that entails a deep ability to feel connected to what is around us and appreciate the gifts nature and life bestow on us constantly.”
We all have that ability, Taxo taught. We need not behave automatically, like robots.
Kaypimi kani, kaypimi kanchik, elder Taxo taught: here I am, here we are. Fully present. Fully awake. Fully connected.
Through the example of his life, through circles and books, and through Shaman’s Portal and other communication vehicles, Maestro Alberto Taxo shared his teachings for many years. He encouraged all people, all nations, all spiritual pathways to cultivate a high level of awareness, respect, and gratitude. He taught that what is necessary for now and for our future is an authentic and graceful connection with the whole, the great hoop of which we all are part.
Now don Alberto Taxo has crossed to spirit. He rests. Descansa en paz. May he rest in peace.
In this season so busy—things changing so fast—I happened upon this dark passage: the cautioning utterance of a spirit long departed:
~ Thus Spake Zarathustrua (Nietzsche)
Stark words. From one vantage as we head into 2022, it’s as if this ancient cautionary couplet were engraved in ominous foul-tempered clouds looming over our moment in history. Dangerous rumbling darkness. People in need of light. Woe indeed.
Not really a new sensation. Same as it ever was, going back through our long global history of tragedy, enslavement, rioting, rebellion, fascism, war, and staggering natural disasters. We’ve been here before. Most of us have learned that when we honestly face the inner wastelands, we can create ways to regenerate. These are matters of will and intention. Inner and outer landscapes can be seeded with flowers, fruits, and light.
Observations about light remind me of something the late Grandfather Martin M. Martinez said one day in 2004, another time when seasons were changing. We were sitting with Navajo elder Leon Secatero at the time. We were talking, drinking hot coffee and eating berry pie. Leon translated Grandfather’s words from Navajo to English as he shared something about the medicine songs he had mastered as Hataa’lii, a traditional chanter in the Navajo way.
“Many of the songs are keys to repositioning and setting right vibrations,” he said. “These are what we call the notes of the holy ones, such as the Song of the Mother Earth. Our ancestors have always told us, this is the way…It is known throughout the indigenous world that light and vibration directly connect all living beings to our environment. This first light from the stars and their vibrations are explained in our Blessingway songs.”
For me, this first light serves as a reminder of what we human beings have learned through the millennia about how we can best generate light in times of darkness. We do it through the verities, or eternal verities as they are sometimes called. Basic stuff. Honesty, caring, sharing, respect, and that ineffable attribute which some possess and which all may cultivate—grace.
When we embody and express these virtues, when we sing or chant in beauty, we add light to the world. When we add light we are traveling upon what Grandfathers Martinez and Secatero spoke of as hózhó jí, the blessingway. This is good. Very good.
In 2022 and beyond, with the seasons so busy and things changing so fast, may we all find ways to keep our hearts, minds, and feet traveling forward in beauty on the blessingway. May it be so. ~ Thus spake Steven.
Now that I’ve finished telling the tale a second time, via the supplemental medium of memes, I’m happy to invite you (one and all) to engage the Odyssey of the 8th Fire. Through following the journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific you will meet and learn from traditional wisdom keepers of North America. What they share is directly relevant to this moment in history.
My first telling of the story was through an epic-length narrative. That’s a demanding literary adventure for readers, but also, I feel, very rewarding.
But if you set out on the journey through the second telling—8th Fire slide shows that I’ve created and posted to Youtube—you can engage this true, epic adventure with the wisdom keepers, and complete the journey, in less than an hour. Check it out.
The Odyssey of the 8th Fire meme slide show is now live on Youtube at this link. ~ SM