During the Great American Southwest exploration our bus pulled into the Hopi Cultural Center for lunch and to connect with our Hopi guide Bertram Tsavadawa who would be taking us into the Great Mystery of the Hopi. After lunch we traveled about twenty miles through the beauty of a dazzling Springtime desert bloom. Bertram directed our driver to turn into a dirt road which we took for another few miles all the while hearing from Bertram much of the Hopi history and stories as a way to prepare us for what we were to soon witness.
Bertram asked that we stop at a place he described as where the Hopi mystery and prophetic stories would be told through ancient symbols and petroglyphs. After walking only about two hundred yards we came to a large semi-circle cliff face about 40 feet high and stretching about 100 yards in length which was literally covered with Hopi petroglyphs.
Bertram had received permission from the Hopi elders to take us to this place and tell us their stories which began at the top of the cliff about 6,000 BC or about 8,000 years ago. The stories began when the predecessors of the Hopi came up from below, what is now Latin America, and progressed down the cliff to the most recent level which portrayed the appearance of the Spanish conquistadors shown with horses and beheading the Hopi people. Each level of the story cliff carried elements of a spiritual progression throughout the ages. When asked about strange round headed images, Bertram was quiet for a time and then said that they were images of beings from another place, the star people, who came to teach the Hopi. Also evident were mandala type portrayals of discs, somewhat like those now being called orbs. Bertram referred to them as signs of spirit.
Following the mystical excursion to the Hopi cliff, our group was invited to visit the Hopi village of Old Orabi, a place still following the old prophetic teachings about not using the wires in the sky (electric and telephone lines). What looked like a run down shanty town was found to be a rich and pleasant cultural community.
We were greeted by Burtram’s Hopi elder grandmother, who we found out was one of the real leaders of the people, the elder women being the reflection of the earth in the Earth and Sun based cosmology. Her face was beautifully lined with strong character and deep wisdom and we were honored to be accepted by her in her community.
Bertram took us into his home which was full of his carved kachinas, or crafted spirit dolls depicting various powers and attributes for being in the world.
The author and scholar Frank Waters, probably the most noted authority on the Hopi says, "A kachina is a spirit of any kind--a star, mountain, plant, animal, or invisible force. So is the man who impersonates the spirit ... wearing the sacred mask and costume which invests him with its power."
Kachina
"Academic considerations, however, are invalidated by the basic truths and meaning of the kachina ... In its conception the Hopis have created a form for the everlasting formless; a living symbol unique in the world for that universal and multifold spirit which embodies all living matter; which speaks to us, as only the spirit can speak, through the intuitive perception..."
It is a consideration that Frank Waters’ exceptional work Book Of The Hopi, published five years before Carlos Castaneda's first book, was read by that young anthropology student interested in the southwest. There are numerous similarities with Castaneda’s writing (for more information visit www.sustainedaction.org/Explorations/book_of_the_hopi_by_frank_waters.htm).
The information in The Book of the Hopi was given to Frank Waters by Oswald White Bear Fredericks of the Hopi Tribe (whose name is on the cover of the book).
"That these Hopi have revealed their conceptual pattern of life to us now, for the first time, imparts to their gift a strangeness unique in our national experience... They reassert a rhythm of life we have disastrously tried to ignore. They remind us we must attune ourselves to the need for inner change if we are to avert a cataclysmic rupture between our own minds and hearts."
"Nor will the Hopi view of the universe as an inseparably interrelated field or continuum be quite palatable to those who tacitly accept the role of man as a rational entity created to stand apart from nature."
From our enlightening experience with the Hopi our expedition moved on to the magnificence of the Grand Canyon.
For the Hopi Prophecy about our future you are invited to visit:
www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/hopi1.html
More Mystical Musings From The Road will follow in future emails about our Great North American Southwest Explorations.
The following email is from people once again joining this magical quest.
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Hello Robin,
I read where Abiquiu (The White Place) is a ‘church’ for you and Cody. I still remember the powerful experience of being there and knew it was my home (I’ve Never felt that homesick before) from lives before – and it’s the first time I’ve ever felt powerful waves of love flowing towards and into me from the rocks and hills there. Amazing experience for sure.
Paul and I took a 10 day trip last year to NM and visited Abiquiu again. It sure is easy to get lost and lose your sense of direction in that place - I think it’s a vortex of some kind that has no direction. We’re going to go a couple of days early before the pilgrimage starts and go up to Ojo de Caliente to their 7 mineral springs. We went last year and had a beautiful relaxing day. Have you ever been there? It’s only $16 a day. I had a dream several mo. ago where, when I was waking up from it a voice told me I was to delve much deeper into geomancy. I had no idea what geomancy was and looked it up. Now I read that Martin Gray is very much into that. Very cool how it all works!
Blessings,
Margarete
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Abiquiu
THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST EXPEDITION 2007
May 14 – May 23
Once again we embark upon an adventure into the great beauty of the Southwest United States, the land of the Native American tribes and pueblos and some of the last remaining wild lands. Filled with magnificent vistas and sacred places, this expedition offers many life enhancing experiences and opportunities to immerse in native teachings and find personal openings only available in these magical settings. Getting back to nature brings a wealth of insights to assist in living in the turbulent urban world in which so many of us daily dwell. The land is big and filled with wonder.
Your exceptional guides are David Carson, Greta Carson,MA, Bertram Tsavadawa, Alan Osborne, and Martin Gray. Please read their biographical information and you’ll see how outstanding they truly are... greatmystery.org/events/sw07guides.html
The adventure begins in Santa Fe, New Mexico and ends in Sedona, Arizona, with visits in the White Place, Bandelier, Chaco Canyon, Hopi Land, Canyon De Chelly, The Grand Canyon. The complete itinerary is available at... greatmystery.org/events/sw07schedule.html
You may email prophets@greatmystery.org with questions and to register. Save $500 and register by January 15!
Photo tour:
For a preview of the magnificent places you will experience on this journey, click on the link below and scroll to the bottom: greatmystery.org/events/sw07.html
