Awaken to a world of enchantment. Let your spirit cross into a world of beauty and timeless peace, crossing into the only medicine country there is--your inner truth.

ENRICHING LANDS WHERE SPIRITS DWELL

All aboard the bus. Sit back, relax and enjoy each passage of passages and the most astounding landscapes on Planet Earth.

Four Corners is the place where four states meet, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. But what are states? Are they not mental constructs? Four Corners has the unique distinction of the joining of these individual states of consciousness.

Long before our agreement in modern languages of what to call this land, there were other constructs of cultures as different from our own as day from night. The trip explores and acknowledges a deeper perception of the magical qualities of this land and its deep metaphysical meaning for our times.

True, we will still be immersed in modern culture but we will follow the tracks of a deeper vein. We will leave our footprints over these older ones, tracking back the dimensions and tracing the legacy, mystery and beauty these ancients have bequeathed us.

The trip begins in Santa Fe where long ago dwelled the Deer People who walked the path of the heart and our tour follows this path too. First to Taos, the eye of the great spinning and twirling logs, the "center of the world" the old ones called it. We will visit Taos Pueblo nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.

Santa Fe and Taos are the beginning of an adventure in consciousness and a deep spiritual touching of the oneness of life.

The North American Southwest is known as the Spanish el norte and for many Pueboan cultures, the middle world or center. During our adventure, we will explore this sacred landscape and a world of cultures on the Colorado Plateau, the magical red rock country of the Four Corners region.

Watered by the legendary San Juan River and its tributaries, we will explore some of the most beautiful and powerful rock, mud, stick and tree dwellings, and ceremonial spaces and chambers, often built into cliffs by the ancestral native peoples. Known by some as the Hisatsinom, or ancestor people, who lived from the 7th to the 14th century, their descendants were known by Spanish explorers, adventurers, missionaries and settlers, as Indios de los Pueblos, or Indians of the Villages, or Pueblo Indians, as they are known today.

The entire region was depopulated by the early 14th century, and the population centers moved south, into the northern Rio Grande Valley, where our Crossing Into Medicine Country journey begins in Santa Fe.

Today, nineteen Pueblo villages, whose diverse languages are in some cases related, but separate, and in other cases unrelated to each other, exist in modern yet ancient settings. These American Natives maintain millennia of cultural memory and a tenacious hold on ancestral culture, tradition, arts and crafts, and spiritual traditions, reflecting every chapter of history, including pre-Columbian, Spanish Roman Catholic, Mexican and American Christianity, and others. In the region today living in accommodation to each other are communities of American Sikhs, Hispanic-American Muslims, Spanish penitential Catholics, and Tibetan Buddhists. There are also many who practice what 20th century historians call the 'Boomer Theology' or new thought spirituality, for which Santa Fe, Taos, and northern New Mexico serve as a spiritual centers.

During our journey back through the mists of time...Alan Osborne, acclaimed Southwest cultural historian, will serve as one of study leaders.

GUIDES
DAVID CARSON, ALAN OSBORN, GRETA CARSON

DAVID CARSON, this year’s Grammy winner for Native American Music, is a novelist who has written for newspapers, films and social reform publications. He is the co-creator of Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals, and author of the recently released Crossing Into Medicine Country. Raised in Oklahoma Indian country, David learned from many tribal elders and medicine carriers. He is of Choctaw descent and has lived on various reservations in Montana and Canada.

He has been involved in sacred ceremony throughout the US and many other countries and has traveled worldwide at the invitation of shamans from Siberia and Hawaii. David has taught seminars throughout the world on "Animal Teachings Around the Sacred Medicine Wheel." He has lead dances in Iceland at the foot of glacier, Snaefelsnes, which is said to be the crown chakra of the earth. He has done ceremony with the Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans, leading to the establishment of White Buffalo Day, a yearly celebration.

In 1999, David brought a medicine wheel ceremony and animal medicine teachings to Israel before joint Israeli and Palestinian audiences. More recently, he has attended shamanic conferences in Northern Italy.

David has given animal consultations and Medicine Card readings to thousands of people world-wide guiding them to their own personal truth. He can be reached at www.crossingintomedicinecountry.com.

Enjoy reading DOWN THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, adapted from Crossing into Medicine Country, A Journey in Native American Healing by David Carson.

"Part Mark Twain, part Carlos Castaneda, David Carson is a born storyteller. His tale is a rich broth of enchantment, wisdom, and holy mischief."
            -Julia Cameron, author of Artist's Way and The Sound of Paper

"Crossing into Medicine Country is a rare account of a true transformational experience, which holds the key to profound healing. David Carson reveals sacred Native American knowledge in a unique, new way. Here is an exceptional opportunity to follow him on his journey through 'myths with hidden meaning and a deep touching of the soul.'"
            -Olga Kharitidi, M.D., author of Entering the Circle and The Master of Lucid Dreams

"David Carson captures a segment of spiritual history that until now has been suppressed. Crossing into Medicine Country is transformational literature at its best. His stories give completely new insights into ancient healing practices."
            -Cody Johnson, founder of The Great Rethinking Conferences and The Prophets Conferences

ALAN OSBORNE – Doors and hearts open when Alan Osborne meets the Indians of the Southwest. Alan is held in the highest regard by the tribal leaders and medicine people and is a dear and loved friend to them and their customs and ways.

A native of Oklahoma, Alan was educated at Oklahoma State University and completed his Master's coursework (UNM) in American Indian history and Spanish Colonial borderlands. His academic teaching and public lecturing specialties are American Indian history, Spanish Colonial borderlands frontier history, and Mexican-American territorial history.

Alan is the cofounder of Southwest Seminars (www.southwestseminars.org), a nonprofit cultural education organization which offers public lecture series in the fields of American Indian culture and history, Hispanic culture and history, Southwest archaeology, art and literature. He was the New Mexico State Director of Elderhostel for 12 years and cofounder of New Mexico Elderhostel, as well as founder of College of Santa Fe's Elderhostel program.

He has lectured or toured for educational study travel groups sponsored by: The American Orient Express/American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Travel Associates, Clipper, Special Expeditions, Saga Road Scholar/Tony Hillerman Program, Yale University Alumni Association, UCLA Alumni Association.

Alan has presented educational guest lectures for organizations such as the Western United States Attorneys General, Federal Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Senate-Canadian Parliament Bilateral Trade Commission, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He has provided museum docent and educational training lectures for Museum of Indian Art and Culture, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and The Palace of the Governors.

GRETA CARSON, MA, also this year’s Grammy winner with her father, was born at Crow Agency, Montana and spent her early life on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Her family moved to Iowa, Oklahoma and then New Mexico. Greta received her Bachelor of University Studies, with emphasis in Psychology and Health Education, and her Master's of Education in Counseling from the University of New Mexico. Greta lives and practices in Taos, New Mexico.

Greta was blessed when she was four days old by a medicine man during a then illegal Sundance. Thence forth she has been involved in Native American culture, ritual and ceremony. A seeker of spiritual truth, Greta has also participated in Judaic, Buddhist and Hindu spiritual systems. Greta is an advisory board member to Walkingstick Foundation, a Judeo-Native American retreat center dedicated to inter-cultural learning and spirituality. For the past ten years she has traveled and co-facilitated workshops, with her father David Carson, throughout the United States and Europe.

Greta is a Sun Dancer and an accomplished ceremonial leader who will be leading us in ceremony throughout our journey.

During this Crossing Into Medicine Country adventure we will be joined by other powerful, and in many cases, exceptional Native American Teachers and medicine people who will share their power, wisdom and stories.