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photo by Bertram Tsavadaw
"There are stories and stories...There are the songs, also, that are taught. Some are whimsical.
Some are very intense. Some are documentary. Everything I have known is through teachings,
by word, by word of mouth, either by song or by legends.”
— Terrance Honvantewa, Hopi
During the Great American Southwest exploration a few years ago, also facilitated by Alan Osborne, 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 travelled about twenty miles through the beauty of a dazzling desert. 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 spiritual stories as a way to prepare us for what we were to soon witness.
Bertram asked that the bus 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 meters we came to a large semi-circle cliff face some 20 meters high and stretching about 100 meters in length which was literally covered with Hopi petroglyphs.
Bertram had received permission from the Hopi elders to take us to this special place and tell us their stories which began with petroglyphs at the top of the cliff dating about 6,000 BCE or 8,000 years ago. The stories began when the predecessors of the Hopi came up from below, which could mean from what is now Latin America. The pictures progressed down the cliff to the most recent historical level which portrayed the appearance of the Spanish conquistadors shown with horses and lances. 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.
The group was moved with amazement by this ancient monument and flooded with appreciation for these special people.
Following this 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 such as 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 Bertram’s Hopi elder grandmother, who we found out was one of the real leaders of the people. The elder woman was a magnificent reflection of the Earth in the Earth and Sun based Hopi cosmology. Her face was beautifully lined with strong character and deep wisdom and we felt honoured to be accepted by her in her community.
That these Hopi have revealed their conceptual pattern of life to us now, 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 that we must attune ourselves to the need for inner change if we are to avert a cataclysmic rupture between our own minds and hearts.
Alan with group
NATIVE VOICES: THE HEART OF THE SOUTHWEST
September 19-27, 2009
Guided by cultural historian Alan Osborne you will be mesmerized as we experience the beauty and allure of the land, the people, and the ancient sites. Journeying through New Mexico, Arizona and Utah we will be joined by Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo teachers, artists, and medicine people. Float rafting down the San Juan River we will see petroglyphs from 5000 BCE. Highlights include Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Zuni and Acoma Pueblos, San Juan River rafting, Walpi at Hopi, Santa Fe.
For full information please visit www.greatmystery.org/events/southwest09.html
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