Circle of Ancestors

The 6th Sun, by Juan Rafael Arteaga

Last April 17, 2009 Circle of Ancestors sponsored Juan Rafael Arteaga in a presentation about the Aztec Calendar We would like to share part of that message with you:

My name is Juan Rafael Arteaga, and I come representing the Mexica people.

The Mexica or Aztec are the people who migrated from Aztlan- the legendary city that was in the current territory of Mexico- and was established in Tenochtitlan (Historic Center in of Mexico City) occupying a small island, which was the political, economic and religious center of the Anahuac or region between the Tropic of Cancer and Ecuador.

This place was chosen because in it the energy of the cosmos and the earth are in balance. This condition led to a synthesis of knowledge of the continent, achieving organizational forms that were attuned to the cosmos, which allowed the acceleration of the evolutionary process of the population so that people lived in harmony with their environment. There were great advances in all fields of knowledge: architecture, medicine, social organization, agriculture, arts and especially self-knowledge.

By knowledge transmitted orally, our people know that long ago when a planet in the zone of asteroids in our solar system was destroyed, it provoked a major imbalance. The main mission of the Mexican people is to re-establish the cosmic balance again.

Upon arrival of the Spaniards, the leader Moctezuma was assassinated. His successor Cuitlahuac died of a disease, then the Great Council requested Cuahutemoc (Eagle Warrior) assume the government and lead the resistance of our people, as commander in chief of the army. He accepted and fought until it was not possible to continue. For this reason the Grand Council during the night of August 13th of 1521, proposed the slogan of Anahuak decree, which means "the silence of our thing," this was a period during which people of Mexico were invited to save our culture in homes and concealment of the ceremonial centers, such decisions were extended to all other peoples of the continent.

For Mexican people time is based on solar cycles, each one has 676 years. A solar cycle ended in 1523 and began a period of silence, which is a closed cycle of 468 years (this period is divided into 9 cycles of 52 years), which was completed on July 11, 1991 when the 6th Sun began or the era that was expected by all peoples. At that time, there was a total eclipse of the sun, during which the decree of the re-establishing the global balance of male and female, science and tradition, politics and economics.  This decree was made in Malinalco, a ceremonial center, at the Temple of the Sun Eagles.

The Sixth Sun or Age of Quetzalcoatl, will encourage all people to remember their ancestral culture, providing the most valuable knowledge to all mankind, with the unification and spiritual shaping the great human family.

To begin to align it with new energy, we must remember that everything in the universe, including ourselves, is made up of 4 elements: Earth is related to the human body, water with emotions, air with thoughts, fire with sexuality and all are united by love.

If we understand that we are responsible for ourselves and we begin to heal our bodies, we work with the healing of the earth, healing our emotions to help clean the waters of the planet. When we are having positive thoughts, we work to clean air and when we use appropriate sexuality, this helps balance the heat of the earth.

To heal our body it is important to have a healthy and balanced diet, drink plenty of water, exercise daily and get enough sleep.
We are responsible for our emotions; we must heal all that has happened in our lives, looking for help, to live fully here and now. Our thoughts must be focused in the right way and we must be selective in what we see, read and do. This doesn’t mean to be insensitive to what happens in the world but try to maintain positive thoughts most of the time. Every culture has knowledge of the proper use of sexuality; we must talk to our elders for a return to the sacredness of sexuality.

As a community we should return to our traditional forms of organization. In my town there is a traditional form of organization called "Kalpulli" which is made up of 20 families, including children, youth, adults and elderly. Families gather in a circle. During the new moon members gather to discuss issues to improve the community and during full moon we speak of our culture and true history. In this form of organization there are no bosses, there is only one person who is the carrier of word and is responsible for conducting what the community decides. In this way the agreements are respected by everyone, because everyone is involved in the decision making process.

The people who are carriers of the word in different “Kalpullis” meet in another circle, called the council, where problems are dealt with in the community.
Meeting in the new and full moon are important because they allow us to be in harmony with our neighbors, with nature and the cosmos.

All of this attention to harmony (both individually and in groups) will enable us to work with the healing of the planet and prepare for the quantum leap that will occur on December 21st, 2012.

ON THE PATH OF THE ANCESTORS, Remembering our relationship to the Earth. Workshop with Kimmy Johnson will start May 15, 2009

Mesoamerican Calendars and the Renewal of Life

We are honored to present Juan Rafael Arteaga on

April 17, 2009
6:30 to 8:30 P.M.
RSVP for location in Oakland Hills Donations Sliding Scale
$15-$20 Purchase Tickets Now

In Spanish with Interpretation

To reserve space:
510-703-6771
510-708-4719

www.circleofancestors.org

Juan Rafael Arteaga
Conchero Dancer 
Member of the Council of Elders of Tenochtitlan

In December 2012, our planet will enter a time of high frequency vibration that will lead to an awakening in each of us. 

We can prepare ourselves to receive and utilize this vibration in order to participate in the healing of the planet.

Juan Rafael Arteaga will share the ancestral knowledge that will help us improve our connection with earth, air, water and fire.

He will also share about the Anahuak, or the Continental Period of Silence during which the ancestral knowledge was protected.  This new time is called the Sixth Sun by the Aztec people.

A quote...

Knowledge in the traditional world is alive, has spirit, and dwells in specific places.
Traditional knowledge comes through watching and listening, not in the passive way, comes
through direct experience of songs and ceremonies, through the activities of hunting and daily
life, from the trees and animals, and the dreams and visions.

(F. David  Peat, Lighting the Seventh Fire)

Recordar es volver con el corazón ( E. Galeano)

Este Diciembre me llevo de nuevo a mis tierras. La última visita habia sido cuando murió la abuela Olga.En sus deseos queria que lleváramos sus cenizas al cerro Uritorco en Capilla del Monte.
Es un lugar muy especial, y tambien lo fue el llevar sus cenizas  y las de mi abuelo.
Desde su partida mi relación con la muerte ha cambiado porque siento que mis ancestros que ya han partido estan muy cerca en el corazón. La abuela me enseño a vivir esta parte de la vida con naturalidad y con trascendencia. Desde los sueños ella me guia y sigue presente.
Y se comenzó en la familia a recuperar los rituales de pasaje. 

Después de un año nuevamente nos  convocó a la familia más cercana y en una escalada dificil por el calor y el poco tiempo nos enseñó a descubrir las fuerza que cada uno lleva dentro cuando nos proponemos algo estando unidos. Tambien nos ayudó a  reconectar con la madre tierra y con el espíritu de la montaña. Tuvimos que aprender a leer con el corazón la energía del lugar para reconocer cual era el lugar en el que debíamos dejar sus restos y los de mi abuelo.
Si bien todos la extrañamos mucho, su partida ha sido para todos nosotros como una iniciación
en otra etapa de la vida.

The Buffalo Return Home

Someone sent me a link to this video a few months back.  It documents the return of a herd of buffalo from the Catalina Islands to their homeland in South Dakota and to the Lakota people.  Buffalo are very sacred to Native American people- traditionally they provided the people with food, shelter, clothing, and tools.  During the colonization of Turtle Island herds of buffalo were killed mercilessly by the European invaders.  The story of their return to their homeland touches the spirit of hope and healing.  It is also a great metaphor for the journey back home to our indigenous mind.

As the Lakota man says at the end of the film, "They kept us alive a long time.  It's our way of life.  Their way of life." 

GOING HOME

7 Steps to Inner Peace from the "Trail of Dreams Peace Walkers"

7 Steps to Inner Peace

1. Establish a healthy relationship with self
2. Develop a spiritual practice 
3. Spend at least 20 minutes a day in nature
4. Build “Supportive Relationships”
5. Help Somebody
6. Enroll in a program or activity that expands your awareness of Self
7. Develop the strength and courage to follow your  passions

7 Steps to Manifesting

1.Develop a clear vision for PEACE
2. Maintain a focused Intention
3. Embrace a disserving spirit for the attraction of resources that will enable  the work to be done 
4. Ask for what is needed with clarity and detach from the outcomes
5. Develop confidence – know you know
6. Cultivate an attitude of gratefulness
7. Continually practice the 7 Steps to Inner Peace

Pretty Bird Woman House

Pretty Bird Woman House is a shelter that serves the women of Standing Rock Indian reservation in South Dakota, USA. Two women who work at the house presented on a panel I attended at Netroots Nation 2008 last Friday, July 18th. Alongside Amnesty International’s Amanda Flott (Report Here), Georgia Little Shield and Tinnekkia Williams spoke about The Maze of Injustice that is violence against women on America’s reservations.

In between feeling stunned and trying not to break into loud sobbing, I realized it wasn’t being documented and managed to capture a few clips. Unfortunately, I only caught Tinnekia’s introduction.

A few facts really stood out for me.

In 86 percent of the reported cases of rape or sexual assault, the perpetrators are non-native men.

This exacerbates the issue of jurisdiction. If a woman is native and the perpetrator is non-native:

Offender Victim Jurisdiction
If listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1153, there is federal
jurisdiction, exclusive of the state, but probably
not of the tribe. If the listed offense is not
otherwise defined and punished by federal law
applicable in the special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction of the United States, state law is
assimilated. If not listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1153,
there is federal jurisdiction, exclusive of the state,
but not of the tribe, under 18 U.S.C. § 1152. If the
offense is not defined and punished by a statute
applicable within the special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction of the United States, state law is assimilated
under 18 U.S.C. § 13.

Uncross your eyes because it gets even more confusing, to the point where officers of different law enforcement agencies will argue with each other and walk away from a victim without doing anything. If a state highway runs through your reservation, add another agency. Look Under Focus Sheets.

Often, no official of any kind will show up after an assault. If one does, it may be days or weeks after the assault. Indian Health Services does not stock rape kits so victims must be driven to other healthcare facilities off the reservation, many hours of travel away.

Both Georgia Little Shield and Tinnekkia Williams were so grateful to all the netroots donors and their dedication was very moving. They didn't ask for anything during their panel, but I'm going to ask for donations for them here.

Our Solstice Newsletter

As we move towards the Summer Solstice (and gratefully out of Mercury retrograde!) we'd like to share some updates for Circle of Ancestors.

The Polish Ancestral Healing Project (PAHP) which is fiscally sponsored by COA, now has a new website:

http://www.polishancestralhealing.org.

PAHP was founded by Atava Garcia Swiecicki and Maura Singer Williams in 2004 when they embarked upon a journey to their shared ancestral homeland of Poland.

Their work in Poland & the US draws upon their indigenous Slavic and Judaic traditions to reconnect with the spirit of the Polish land and to face and heal the wounds of their Polish ancestors. Visit the site to learn more about the work PAHP.

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Our guest blogger this month will be Venus Herbito, an Indigenous Mind graduate with ancestry from the Phillipines. She will be blogging about her own recovery work as well as how the remembrance work is going on as she travels to her homeland.

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We are celebrating the submission of our tax-exemption paperwork to the IRS! By the way, any donations made to us now will be retroactively tax-deductible once we receive our tax-exempt status.

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Heidi Guttmann is preparing to present as part of a panel at Dreaming Across Borders, the International Association for the Study of Dreams Conference in Montreal in July. She will speak about her life-changing White Tigress Dream. The lead up to this presentation is her re-publication of two posts on footbinding on our blog:

http://blissing.typepad.com/circle_of_ancestors/white_tigress/index.html

The final post will be published after the dream conference. Teresa MacColl, our guest blogger for March, will also be presenting at the conference.

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Last March, Marcela Sabin attended the The convening of Indigenous Peoples for the Healing of Mother Earth in Palenque, Mexico. This convening was “planned by and for Indigenous peoples from North America to bring together Indigenous leaders, including spiritual and traditional healers, elders, wisdom keepers, and practitioners, to address the need for immediate intervention and action, based upon original teachings, in order to ensure a healthy future for our coming generations. We recognize that our current and future actions must not be based upon the same worldview that has brought such global destruction to Mother Earth. We must reclaim and revitalize the wisdom passed on to us from our Ancestors about how to be responsible to each other and to the Natural World. "

Footbinding, Part 2--The Women in my Family

Although I’d always heard that Chinese women had bound feet in the “olden days”, for some reason it had never occurred to me
that any of my female ancestors had them. It wasn’t until after all my maternal ancestors had passed away that I asked a cousin about it. She said that my great, great grandmother was the last woman to have bound feet in our family. Luckily, I was raised by my grandmother and she had memories of HER grandmother. One story stands out. If my grandmother ever did anything wrong while growing up, her grandmother would never beat her or say anything in anger, she would just make a gesture that later ended up being used on me—drawing the index finger downward on a child’s cheek to say, “shame on you.” She is the only gentle relative I’ve ever heard of or known.

My great grandmother, the first girl to have "big" feet, was a cruel woman. She was born in 1900. She was very regal and intimidating. My cousin told me that sometimes she would wake up the kids in the middle of the night and start beating them for something they had done two weeks prior. Or worse, throw a bucket of water on them while they slept. She was probably addicted to opium, although all I know is that they had a special ma jong room in the house that had a big hookah in it. How did she get so mean?

My ancestors were herbalists. My great, great grandmother was known to spend most of her time on her knees sorting herbs. (Was it too painful to be on her feet?) The story of how her daughter ended up with "big" feet goes like this: My great, great grandfather traveled around a lot trading herbs as the Sichuan province is renowned for its special herbs that can be found nowhere else. He therefore heard news that footbinding was going out of style before the people in the village did. So, he didn’t bind his daughter’s feet, and got a lot of flack from the other villagers who teased him.

Bless him, bless him. But, with this unbinding, a thousand years of oppression, inexplicable suffering and resulting anger were also unbound. Neither Chinese, nor, after emigration, American culture, acknowledged or allowed space for women’s anger. My great, great grandmother, bound and oppressed, was gentle. My great grandmother, with her free feet, was vicious and cruel. Her daughter, my grandmother, could be cruel, but not quite as vicious. She found power through her drop-dead gorgeous beauty. Later in life she became bound up by her multiple plastic surgeries and the restrictions of her fundamentalist Christian church. Her daughter, my mother, left me as a newborn with my grandmother. For 25 years, she was the classic co-dependent wife of an alcoholic man who wasn’t my father. She was a compulsive liar. She developed a severe eating disorder. Her anger had become more inwardly directed. All of my maternal ancestors were unbound but still hobbled-- by their rage and sense of powerlessness rather than their tiny, broken feet.

Originally posted 4/18/06 at blissing.net