Spirit of the Southwest

Shamanic Journey in Today's World

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:55:00 +0000

Direct Experience with the Sentient Universe

Excerpts from Part 3 in Earth-Spirit Series by Sandra Cosentino, M.S.

Shamanism--the mystical path of direct experience with the sentient universe--is the worlds' oldest form of communion with Source and is based on a deep, living relation to Nature and inner pathway seer skills. The modern day seer uses archetypal pathways of the soul adapted for today's world. A new shamanism right for today's times is being created by peoples from modern cultures.

These direct experiences of expanded reality shift perceptions and create new neural pathways. New insights flow in that support conscious re-creation of your life in a frequency more aligned with your soul. Each of us has the ability to develop these skills, once the primary domain of the designated "Medicine Man/Woman".

Soul flight/shamanic journey practices are very much alive and thriving in today's world. These are natural, innate talents that can be developed and are compatible with all spiritual traditions. These directly felt experiences beyond our daily understanding potentialize a shift in your inner vibrational field into new possibilities. And collectively, we are contributing to our own species' conscious evolution.

Please see full article and images here

Ancestral Hopi rock art of Shaman working with
Dragonfly spirit (on his shoulder) to evoke water energies.

Be Your Own Shaman-Seer Insight Retreats
Sandra Cosentino has developed these mentoring experiences based on a lifetime of exploring and connection to the energies of wild nature, and 3 decades of experience with ceremony, lucid dreaming, vision quest, mindfulness practices, meditation and insight retreat facilitation. She has been working with shamanic journey for more than 20 years with a dedication to empowering others to be their own Seer.

Call of the Southwest CanyonScapes

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:42:00 +0000

by Sandra Cosentino

(photos by Sandra Cosentino except where noted)

Grand Canyon sunrise by Sandra Cosentino

These canyons and cliffs evoke a visceral level response in us.

Our very smallness relative to the landscape is humbling.

Yet you sense expanded horizons of who you really are.

Primordial Force of Nature

Sedona, Arizona resonates with the heart beat of the earth. There is a presence here that quickens your senses, that calls you home. It is a gateway into the Colorado Plateau, the second largest plateau in the world. A place of mysterious beauty, it is alive with Creation stories and with eons of the Earth's creation exposed in sinuous red and white canyons. A primordial force of crystalline rock embedded with prayers from many millenia of humans honoring this sacred earth, her energies vibrate at a cellular level in those who come in pilgrimage.

The Colorado Plateau is connected to the center of the backbone of Mother Earth, the Rocky Mountains, which extend from Alaska to Chile in a north-south direction. On the opposite side of the earth is the Tibetan Plateau, largest in the world, connected to the east-west chain of the Himalyas. These two great mountain chains form a cross of the 4 Directions. It is no coincidence that two ancient mystical cultures--the Tibetan Buddhists and the Hopi Indians--were guided by Creator to anchor and enhance these powerful natural energies.

painting by JohnSteele:

We Bring the Rains

Still today, the Hopi priests place offerings at ancestral prayer shrine sites all over the region including the Sedona area. The Hopis, the most traditional tribe in North America, settled on the Plateau after thousands of years of migrations to this their place of center. Their presence enriches my experience of this land as an ancient sacred place. And reminds me that we today too have a role to remember our reciprocity to our giver of life, Mother Earth.

Here, elemental forces sculpt a dreamscape radiant with sun, quickened by lightning. The wind that shapes the wondrous formations gives voice to the indwelling life that Navajos call Nilchi'i, the inner spirit of humans, the mountains, the stars and all of creation. It's easy to have that experience of having left the ordinary world behind and stepping into the non-ordinary world. Here ancient knowing is stimulated. Who are we? Why are we here now.

The Mystic's Path of Direct Experience

Exploring Sedona by Teresa Settles

Trips into the world of wild nature and Native cultures of the Colorado Plateau open people to a felt experience of empathetic unity, which is central to indigenous thought and being. Wild beings, trees, canyons, streams have a consciousness that communicates with us in dreams, vision and daily life in a thousand unseen energetic patterns or resonances. Moving fast, living in our head, we in the Western world seem to have lost touch with direct knowing of the heart, of trusting our own instincts. Subtle signs come to us constantly from nature, in our dreams, in the words of friends and co-workers. Do we slow down enough to listen?

We are vaster than our mind, than our body. And in the purity of wild nature we have a direct pipeline to Source. As you relax, quit thinking and doing and just be alive to the moment, Nature always gifts us. With every in-breathe light energy from the stars, the sun, the mountains feeds you. With every out-breath, the whole of the cosmos knows you.

Sedona photo by Sandra Cosentino

This path of direct knowing has always called me. Nature called me to move out of the city to the mountains after college and became a doorway to realignment of my psyche and seeing new possibilities. During this time in my twenties, while out on the land, I received my first conscious messages from Spirit that helped me shift out of limiting beliefs and set me on a life long path of spirit connection.

Countless times, I have known an animal was there before seeing them, looked in wild bird and animal’s eyes, felt wind swirls at auspicious moments, sensed myself breathing with a mountain, had lucid dreams with direct communication from animal helpers and wild places, looked with awe and gave thanks to rising sun, and felt sun and star energy as an internal fire. We live in a sentient world, all connected to the greater field of consciousness.

I share pathways of the modern day mystic with guests to this land, drawing from timeless principals; such as: developing attentiveness to energies and signs flowing within nature and us, becoming your own shaman-seer traveling on the wings of your intention and focused attention, and using ceremony to activate your intention and rebalance.

recent Sedona Ancestor Wisdom Circle
with Martika of Columbia and guests from Australia

We go out at dawn, sunset and under the stars--each time of day with its own sensory qualities. Circles with our Hopi, Navajo and other Native American friends deepen for us this ancient sense of being part of the greater circle of life.

We are part of the living body of the Earth—her vibrational frequency, like ours, is increasing. Direct experience of her energies, grounds and renews us. Her beauty fills our heart with awe and wonder. And for the mystic, nature is a portal to expanded awareness.

Answering the Call of the Desert:
"Upon my arrival, a mutual friend introduced me to Sandra Cosentino, owner/operator of Crossing Worlds Journeys & Retreats based here in Sedona. Through excursions of the heart-- Medicine Wheel ceremonies, drum journeys and cultural explorations into Hopi and Navajo Indian country, Sandra helped me deepen and further the bond I had with the wild magic here-- this ancient land that had courted me from the thick-treed slopes of the Northwest into the soaring rock and wrinkled hills of the Southwest.

We often don't have any precedent in our lives that suggests that this kind of connection is open to us; don't know anyone who has these interactive dialogues with Nature, with the wild energies of wind & rock and the ancient voices of the ancestors. Sandra has been in dialogue and soulful connection with this ancient land all of her Life. By example she helped me trust this seemingly unorthodox conversation I had entered into with this place and welcome the Mystery to enter into me."
Shay Panther, 2002

Sandra Cosentino, native to Arizona, created Crossing Worlds Journeys in 1991 to share her intuitive insights and informed passion for the spirit, lands and cultures of the Colorado Plateau. Her lifelong mystical relation to Nature led her to sharing of friendships and knowledge with Native peoples of the Southwest, Peru and Alaska and with universal wisdom keepers of many paths. She conducts journeys, retreats, and earth-spirit experiences in Sedona, Hopi and on Navajo lands in Canyon de Chelly and other places of natural power and beauty on the Colorado Plateau for individuals and groups from around the world . A former teacher with an M.S. in Natural Resources Planning, she has worked as a natural resource manager for the State of Alaska and for Native tribes in Alaska and Arizona

Please see: Crossing Worlds Journeys for Sedona and Colorado Plateau experiences, images and articles

Attention...A Core Mystical Perception Skill

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 23:01:00 +0000

Second in a series on Earth-Spirit Ways
By Sandra Cosentino, M.S.

Attention is a powerful skill used by mystics, modern and ancient, to expand awareness of energies and open to perceiving new insights. The practice of focused attention to subtleties can expand perceptual, direct knowing. Ancestral peoples had deep observational abilities of the cycles of nature and celestial realms, for example, that gave birth to astronomies and spiritual practices to work with these natural energies to enhance their lives. Confidence and inner knowing arise from paying attention.

"Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. Attention has also been referred to as the allocation of processing resources." (Wikipedia)

"Holding deeper attention is all it takes to illumine what is invisible." (Llyn Roberts)

Once I looked directly into a bear's eyes in the wild--that image of focused attention is forever burned into my psyche.

Please see full article and Southwest images here:
http://www.crossingworlds.com/articles/attention.html

Creosote Bush: Ancient Desert Shrub That Smells Like Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Hardy Pleistocene Invader - Volatile Leaves - Medicine Plant - Bees Partner

article by Sandra Cosentino

"The desert is unpredictable, enigmatic. One minute you will be smelling dust. The next, the desert can smell just like rain." (Gary Nabhan from The Desert Smells Like Rain)

Following recent spring rains in the lower desert parts of central Arizona, my nose was overwhelmed with the heavy pungent scent of the aromatic creosote volatilized by the rain. The air was thick with palpable presence of creosote--enveloping me in a blanket of life-opening-to-moisture energy. As a native Arizonan, this smell is a positive imprint that means rain! I instinctively felt energized. I have always taken creosote presence for granted, but decided this spring, resin-scented day to get to know more about this iconic desert shrub.

Until we take time to really look, how little we know of the intricate lives of the plant and animal beings that surround us. Even in our urban cocoons, we are woven within complex ecosystems exquisitely adapted to our local soils, light, moisture and temperatures. On a cellular level we are in vibration with these qualities of place in every moment. Only our busy minds take us away from this direct knowing. What lessons do they have for us to thrive and adapt to change?

Please see rest of article with images here

Grand Canyon South Rim: Images of Early Days of Tourism

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Grand Canyon Fever

Lookout Studio was constructed
by the Santa Fe Railway in 1914
to compete with Kolb Studio
(2012 image by S. Cosentino)

by Sandra Cosentino

The passion and fervor to create tourism access to the Grand Canyon is equally matched by the awe and magnetism this grand chasm evokes in people who now come from all over the world. Considering the remoteness and lack of development in Northern Arizona in the late 1880's and early 1900's, the pace of tourism development on the South Rim was astounding. These historic structures add to the richness of the visitor experience today and fire our imaginations.

Please see gallery of 18 historic images of this early tourism at the Grand Canyon. Click here.

Flagstaff and Phoenix were established in the 1860's less than 20 years after obtaining the land from Mexico. The railroad did not come to Flagstaff until 1882. Stagecoaches started bringing tourists to Grand Canyon the next year. Despite the lack of access, enterprising Americans knew this was going to be a major attraction. All of the early roads from Flagstaff, Williams and Ash Fork to the South Rim were built by canyon pioneers (by the 1920's these were taken over by Coconino County).

Arizona had territorial status from 1868- 1912.

In 1872 John D. Lee opened the first ferry service over the Colorado River near the eastern entrance to the Grand Canyon. Harrison Pierce in 1876 opened a ferry service on the western end.

The 1880's was the heyday of the first South Rim tourism entrepreneurs:

1884-1889 the two-room Farlee Hotel opened near Diamond Creek.
1886 John Hance opened his ranch near Grandview to tourists.
1889 Louis Boucher opened a larger hotel at Dripping Springs.
1890 miner William Bass opened the first tourism tent camp on the South Rim 20 miles west of today's Grand Canyon Village and operated a stage service to his camp.

Peter Berry, a "miner"/would-be tourism operator built the Bright Angel Trail in 1891 and the mule ride tradition began. Enterprising Ralph Cameron bought these "claims" that year and began charging visitors $1 per head toll up until 1912, the year of Arizona becoming a state.

In 1896 the Bright Angel Lodge in what is now Grand Canyon Village opened by James Thurber who ran a stage line from the Grandview area to this new location at the head of Bright Angel Trail.

By 1901 the Santa Fe Railroad developed a spur to the Grand Canyon and was beginning their tourism infrastructure development in association with the Fred Harvey Company. Politician Ralph Cameron fought the railroad for years to keep his exclusive access via his hundreds of unpatented mining claims so he could mine the tourism dollars. The railroad hired artists to paint the canyon to stimulate public fervor to visit this natural wonder. And the Fred Harvey Company early on used Native American people and their art as part of their tourism attraction.

In 1902 the Kolb brothers began popularizing photographic images of adventures in the Canyon and building their tourism studio.

1912 photo Kolb Studio which overlooks Bright Angel Trail

1902 was also the year the first auto made it to the canyon rim.
Rim tours by horse-drawn carriage were flourishing. (see historic photo gallery link above)

Hopi House built 1905,
designed by Mary Jane Colter.

2012 photo by Sandra Cosentino

In 1905 the Fred Harvey Corporation opened up the elegant El Tovar and the rustic Hopi House side by side. Hopi and Navajo people would dance outside daily. The Corporation required that one of them wear a Plains Indian headdress since this was the stereotypical image of what an Indian looks like.

El Tovar built 1905

2012 image by Sandra Cosentino

By 1908--the year Grand Canyon National Monument was designated-- the first cable was placed over the Colorado River in the bottom of the canyon and the development of the Phantom Ranch tourism camp began.

In 1912, the West Rim Drive was completed and then in 1914, Hermit's Rest, another Mary Jane Colter design, was built at the end of Hermit's Road as a tourist rest spot with food and restrooms.

Hermit's Rest, built 1914

1920 Hermit Road Tour

The North Rim was accessible only from Utah and only during the summer months due to its much higher elevation than the South Rim, thus tourism did not get a foot hold there prior to national park designation. The Wylie Way Camp operated from 1917-1927 when the Park Service cancelled its permit.

Wylie Way Camp, North Rim, 1917-1927

In 1918 the Grand Canyon officially became a national park. In the late 1920s the first rim-to-rim access was established by the North Kaibab suspension bridge over the Colorado River and Phantom Ranch was expanded in only two years later.

In 1920 Arizona had about 300,000 population, only 20 private auto registrations and northern Arizona was still very much a frontier with no paved roads. Still, in that year, visitation to the Grand Canyon reached 67,315.

Peach Springs, south of Grand Canyon on Rt. 66, 1928

By 1926 more people were coming by auto than train. By 1927 Arizona auto registrations rose to 82,000. Route 66 did not come through northern Arizona until 1920's and it was narrow, crooked and poorly surfaced all until paving was put in by 1938.

Original North Rim Lodge, 1930

On the North Rim, the Grand Canyon Lodge opened in 1928 under exclusive concessionare contract to Utah Parks Company, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad. It was closed by a fire in 1932 and reopened in 1935.

North Rim Grand Canyon Lodge, fall 2011 by Sandra Cosentino

Ruins of first North Rim Lodge, 1935

The opening of the Navajo Bridge in 1929 created the first road connection of the North Rim to the rest of Arizona. This was a major event.

Opening of Navajo Bridge in 1929

During the 1930's the CCC did major trail, communication and structural development work in the Grand Canyon National Park that really made a difference in accessing the interior of the Canyon. (please see historic images of this in photo gallery)

On 2nd floor of Desert Watchtower Hopi artist Fred Kabotie
painting of pilgrimage to source of the waters to
obtain the rain making Snake Dance ceremony.

Desert View Watchtower, also known as the Indian Watchtower at Desert View--a 70-foot stone building by Mary Colter completed in 1932--overlooks the great bend of the Colorado River on the east side of the Grand Canyon. Inspired by prehistoric towers, Colter hired Hopi artist Fred Kabotie to paint Puebloan murals and even installed an alter of the Snake Clan. Hopi ancestors used to farm on the Colorado river delta below and the Hopi place of emergence into this, their fourth world, is at this end of the Canyon. A Hopi priest I know told me that he believes the reason the tribe has allowed the altar to remain in public view on the second floor of the tower could have something to do with the sacred sites below.

Brighty of the Grand Canyon, published in 1935 by Marguerite Henry, is a fictionalized account of a real-life burro named "Brighty", who lived in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River from about 1892-1922. It quickly became a classic part of the lore of the Grand Canyon and added to the popularity of the Grand Canyon mule ride.

And still today, people come and stand in awe on the rim or hike into the depths. Unlike 100 years ago visitors can now rent mountain bikes, take a bus shuttle, and helicopter and river raft tours. But they spend less time just being in the wonder of it all than did the early day adventurers.

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Sandra Cosentino, native to Arizona, has been visiting the Grand Canyon all her life and the Canyon is a rich part of her inner and outer landscape.
See info on her tours here: http://www.crossingworlds.com

Fluttering of Butterfly Wings Ripple in My Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Desert Butterly Garden Magic
words and images by Sandra Cosentino inspired by Butterfly Beings
March 22, 2012

Fluttering wings of dozens of butterflies gently are silently rippling around my energy field as I enter this butterfly haven amid the desert garden. Mesmerized, I am drawn into their delicate, ephemoral world. Wings spread with backs to the sun on this cool desert morning act as solar collectors create a luminous display that dazzles my eyes. I feel as though I am in a fairy kingdom.

This adult stage of the butterfly may only last a week or two although a few species live up to 18 months. They will lay eggs that become caterpillars the pupate in their woven chrysalis hanging on twigs. It is here in the chrysalis shell that the caterpillar's structure is broken down and rearranged into the wings, body and legs of the adult butterfly. One of Nature's miracles of transformation.

This butterfly magic evokes the heart of the mystical child that lives within. Hope softly unfurls in a spontaneous flutter inside by being. Entranced, I can't help but smile.

Butterflies move with grace and eloquence. And inspire us to move with flow through the turns and shifts of Life that mold us into ever more refined expressions of our soul's presence. May we emerge from our transitions as luminously as the butterfly.

Please see more images: www.crossingworlds.com/articles/butterflygarden.html

Nature Mysticism

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:13:00 +0000

by Sandra Cosentino, M.S.
Part 1 in Earth-Spirit series

Aspects of mystic connection are explored along with photos from Arizona and Alaska. Opening and closing paragraphs below.

A Nature Mystic enters into conscious communion with the elements of the natural world.
In a state of expanded now awareness, you sense/invite a merging with vibrational energies from the stars, the earth, the trees, the waters, the bird and animal beings. As you enter this greater field of energy, you then see through the eyes of your Higher Self and enter a timeless realm Aboriginals call the Dreamtime. You are awake, yet in an expanded state of consciousness where direct knowing can flow in. A joyous sense of being part of the larger plan of life often arises spontaneously.

We are part of the living body of the Earth—her vibrational frequency, like ours, is increasing. Direct experience of her energies grounds and renews us. Her beauty fills our heart with awe and wonder. And for the mystic, nature is a portal to expanded awareness.

I use this image from the Sahara to give the feeling of early Christian monks practice of seeking “apatheia” (meaning “beyond every image”) in the desert which is mentioned in the article.

Please see full article: click here

A young caribou on fall southward migration at Kobuk River portage, Alaska, who spots me laying there in the bushes next to her.

Sandra, an Arizona native and life long Nature lover-explorer, is the founder of Crossing Worlds Journeys &; Retreats, Sedona, AZ since 1991 following her return from 10 years in Alaska.

Experiences related to this theme you might want to consider:
Nature Writing Awareness - Writing - Storytelling: click here
Mystical Nature Shamanic Journey: click here
Earth and Sky Speak to Us seminar on the land: click here

Positive Change -- Desert Light Images

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:34:00 +0000

by Sandra Cosentino

11-11-11 to me conveys a sense of positive change as millions around the world are treating this as a special day of ceremony. I think of this as a global version of what humans have done in village groups throughout time. In the coming together with shared focus, energy moves, gets recreated.

"When we turn to spirit within, an alchemy is released..allow it to flow through you and out to your community and become a point of light in global transformation." Rev. Bruce Kellogg (Verde Valley, AZ) sees this Friday as an opportunity for each person to recognize their worth thereby fanning the flames of love in your own heart which then ripples out and flows where it needs to be in the universe.

I send you energies and images of light from Southwest Desert lands:

unearthly turquoise and peach colors of high desert sunset

Dale Terbush Desert Twilight painting

Dawn twin balloons rising near Boynton Canyon, Sedona

Double rainbow over the vast Hopi landscape

Wild Places Charge our Imagination

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:42:00 +0000

Perceptions of the Southwest canyon horizons by Sandra Cosentino
With quotes from Terry Tempest Williams-- talented writer, naturalist, conservationist

Grand Canyon sunrise photos above and below by Sandra Cosentino June 9, 2011

Vivid imprints of times exploring in wilderness places such as remote Alaska and the canyon country of the Southwest are indelibly etched on the fabric of my being. A certain kind of quiet knowing, inner courage and ecstatic joy of connection was forged within me on those many sojourns. At the Grand Canyon this May, I had the joy of listening to Terry Tempest Williams read with informed passion from her book Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert as we sat in an outdoor theatre.

Please also see my new 3.6 minute video Grand Canyon Dawn - The Magic Time with a Hopi sunrise song (we welcome to subscribe to our Youtube site).

She speaks of finding your own equilibrium in the harshness of the desert. “What you come to see on the surface is not what you come to know. Emptiness in the desert is the fullness of space, that eliminates time. The desert is time, exposed time, geologic time. One needs time in the desert to see.”

Here on the rim of the Grand Canyon in the dark watching the stars move overhead I am newly aware of how expansive the view of horizon is -- in stark contrast to dark abyss below. Just as the first deep golden dawn light showed on the east rim, Venus appeared bright white slowly rising. I stared spellbound. Venus is twenty times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. No wonder the ancestral peoples of the Southwest were skywatchers. At high altitude with dry air there is less atmospheric distortion. Big canyon rim and plateau vistas are capped with a luminous dome of stars. Awestruck, I am drawn spellbound into silent communion.

Pre-western cultures were “deeply attuned to the motion of the sun, moon, and planets, and they used their naked-eye observations to create not only intricate astrologies and mythologies - in particular, those revolving around Venus - but also extremely accurate records and projections of meteorological phenomena,” according to Anthony F. Aveni in Conversing With the Planets: How Science and Myth Invented the Cosmos. You may want to ponder these questions he asks: “What have we moderns lost by turning our attention to the cold eye of the telescope, away from the natural harmonies of planet and sky? Why have we silenced the dialogue between observers and the sky?"

These canyons and cliffs evoke a visceral level response in us.
Our very smallness relative to the landscape is humbling.
Yet you sense expanded horizons of who you really are.

Terry (photo to left from her Grand Canyon appearance 5-21-11) characterizes vividly the expansive effects of desert sojourns on the psyche: “this is Coyote’s country—a landscape of the imagination, where nothing is as it appears. The buttes, mesas, and redrock spires beckon you to see them as something other: a cathedral, a tabletop, bear’s ears or nuns. Windows and arches ask you to recall what is no longer there, to taste the wind for the sandstone it carries. These astonishing formations invite a new mythology for desert goers, one that acknowledges the power of story and ritual yet lies within the integrity of our own cultures. The stories rooted in experience become beads to trade. It is the story, always the story, that precedes and follows the journey.”

Arches National Park, Utah--near where Terry lives

She says “that our capacity to face the harsh measure of a life, comes from the deep quiet of listening to the land, the river, the rocks. There is a resonance of humility that has evolved with the earth. It is best retrieved in solitude amidst the stillness of days in the desert.”

“If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide and so we are found.”

So that when you return back to the urban, domesticated world, you find your perception has sharpened. After all, “Coyote knows it is the proportion of days spent in wildness that counts in urbane savvy.” I recognized Coyote’s penetrating eyes when I spoke with her and sensed the kindred spirit we carry in our shared passion for this land.

Many times have I locked gaze with those wild yellow eyes of coyote, quickened by the flash of bold self-confidence staring back. The change bringer is his reputation here in the Southwest--but no matter what, he lands on his feet and keeps on trotting.

Summer is here--may the natural world call you out and about on the land. Who knows what new story you are creating or the mystery of why certain places call us to come out. But our heart knows.

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For more Terry Tempest Williams articles and info, you may want to go to her website

I highly recommend joining the Grand Canyon Association and take one of their excellent field classes—they support education, science, visitor services, and the arts at the Grand Canyon in association with the National Park Service.

For Southwest earth connections, mythology old and new--please see Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats

Mid-Spring: An Exhuberance of New Life

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:09:00 +0000

Lunar Beltane occurs this year on May 17 along along with the full moon (the astronomical date for this midpoint is closer to May 5 - 7, but can vary). Celtic traditions speak of this as a cross-quarter day, marking the midpoint in the Sun's progress between spring equinox and summer solstice. Beltane means bright fire and was a Celtic festival of fire celebrating fertility. It was known as a great celebration in the spirit of love and spring.


Navajo Lightning Boy depicted in sand

Now, by midspring, the storms have stilled. There is a new calmness and sense of confidence in the air. Tentative buds and unfurling in their fragrant abundance.

Throughout time and cultures world-wide Midspring is a festival season related to new life and the tree of life. Maia, for whom this month is named, can be traced back to Maya, the pre-Vedic mistress of perceptual reality who was the virgin mother of the Buddha. The Greek goddess Maia was the virgin mother of Hermes. Blessed Virgin Mary is patroness of the month of May, which the early church dedicated to her. The Brazilian May Day celebration is a marriage between the European Maypole and West African Universal Tree of Life. (this paragraph based on Celestially Auspicious Occasions by Donna Henes)

spring dune flower, Sedona, AZ

For the Hopi peoples, they are finishing the final spring plantings and their Kachina spirits have returned to the Plaza to spring blessings for all beings and help encourage growth.

Fresh hope emerges with the new life of Midspring.

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Photos by Sandra Cosentino.
We acknowledge season change with Ancestor Wisdom Circles and Circles of Power.

Brighty of the Grand Canyon - Beloved Folklore

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:31:00 +0000

In fond memory of the lore of Brighty
by Sandra Cosentino

Brighty has long since left this earth, but some animals, like some men, leave a trail of glory behind them. They give their spirit to the place where they had lived, a part of the rocks and streams and the wind and the sky. Brighty's spirit lives on, forever wild, forever free. (from 1967 movie)

Brighty of the Grand Canyon is a 1967 film based on the 1953 children's novel of the same name by Marguerite Henry. This fictionalized account of a real-life burro named "Brighty", who lived in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River from about 1892-1922 has become a classic part of the lore of the Southwest in only a few decades.

As a child growing up in the "Grand Canyon State", I always knew about Brighty. Although never have I seen a domestic mule gone feral in the Canyon. And as an adult today, I realize such feral animals pose a threat to delicate desert ecosystems of the west.

Nevertheless, every time I go to the South Rim, I get a thrill out of seeing the mules in the corral and the daily ritual of stoic mules heading down the Bright Angel Trail each loaded up with an excited visitor. Your initiation rite begins when your mule seems to lean over the edge on those outside corners. And suddenly you are hanging on for dear life as you stare straight down into sheer, dizzying depths that your mind cannot comprehend. You put a lot of trust in those mules.

Originally named "Bright Angel" after a creek that flowed into the Grand Canyon from his summer dwelling on the North Rim, Brighty spent summers carrying water from a spring below the rim to accommodate tourists coming to the canyon.

He was smart—he would kick a man he thought dishonest. He was gentle—children could ride endlessly on his back without his being provoked. He was known for his ability to camouflage himself against the gray rock when a stranger approached. Brighty loved to impress his friends bouncing bellows of mule laughter off the canyon walls. Brighty was said to be the first to cross the suspension bridge built over the Colorado River. He even hunted mountain lions with former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

Here's to the spirit of independence, fortitude, loyalty and courage of Brighty. He will always be one of my heroes.

Where is your True East and West? Spring Equinox is a potent moment to Re-orient

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:35:00 +0000

by Sandra Cosentino

Navajo ceremonial campfire

The vernal equinox comes, along with the full moon, on March 20, 2011—signaling the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. On this day the tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun. Night and day are equal all over the earth.

Two Nuns in the 4 Sisters, a Sedona sacred site

Mimbres turtle bringing up clouds

The arc of the sun is coming higher for us in the North. The long shadows of low angle winter sun are shortening. Birds and butterflies are migrating back northward along with the path of the sun. For those in the South of our equator, the opposite is occurring, autumn begins.

If you want to orient yourself to true east and west, this is a great day to go outside around sunset and sunrise and notice the location of the sun on the horizon with respect to familiar landmarks. Then, like our ancestral skywatchers, you can consciously note those points on your horizon. This gives you a physical reference point in your world. You see externally what your indwelling internal compass feels in orientation to our planet.

Seasonal turning points are known as propitious times for ceremony to create positive change. If, like humans have done since dawn of Creation, you join with others in celebration of balance, you potentize cosmic energies that are present. You align your human self with the Cosmos and this exquisitely beautiful planet we call Home.

Astrologer, Cayelin Castell, believes this is a powerful spring equinox: “The upcoming March 20, 2011 Spring Equinox features a Full Moon perigee (closest to the Earth for 2011) just hours before the Equinox and a rare Zero Aries Sun Uranus conjunction just hours after the exact Equinox. This suggests a huge assemblage point shift for all of humanity and how we choose to engage this timing will help to inform that shift.” She has posted a video with details (free).

I offer a suggestion for you: Go outside on March 20, look, find true East and West in relation to your world at dawn and dusk. Then breathe deeply, smile, and gift yourself with a timeless moment of inner-outer balance beyond the concerns of daily life. May you sense harmony with the greater cycle of life and feel poised for a verdant spring sprouting. Hope returns with the sun, the birds and your smile.

Winter in the Sonoran Desert--starkly inviting

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Images, Reflections From a Desert Meander

by Sandra Cosentino

Native to the Sonoran Desert, but now living in the Arizona highlands pinyon-juniper habitat, in winter I yearn for desert landscapes. The hard edge of the summer sun and heat soften in winter. Sparse gravelly ground becomes a pallet of dramatic long shadow etchings. The throaty long calls of the cactus wren and soothing contented cuckle murmers of the quail take me deeper into a reverie with the rhythm of the desert.
Paradoxically these prickly, spikey sere plantscapes are dense with the life-filled presence of wintering birds. As I slow down and focus on details of the surprising variety of plant life, the precious balance of life in this harsh aridity comes into stark relief. I hone my appreciation.
For a few timeless moments, there is no time. I am simply here now in soloquie with life expressed as Desert. And emotions which had been perculating beneath the surface unrecognized flowed up and found release here is the sharp relief of the winter desert. An inner peace walks with me as I meander out of the garden.

Palo Verdes not yet in leaf case shapely patterns in this tranquil desert setting.

Barrel Cacus already in flower.

How I love the gambel's quail (this one is a male), a familiar friend in the Sedona area too.

Agave Roasting: A Prehistoric Puebloan and Yavapai-Apache Tradition

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:25:00 +0000

More than just a food source, agave is a gift from the earth,

a tradition of gathering people together.

by Sandra Cosentino �

Agave shoot ready to flower, early summer, Sedona

I had the special opportunity to attend an agave pit roast the first week of May, 2008, which was put on by the Coconino National Forest (assisted by volunteers from our local chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society) at a rock art site south of Sedona. This is a several day process that starts with digging out the pit, gathering firewood, harvesting ripe agaves which can weigh over 100 pounds each. We gathered in a meadow near Beaver Creek on a warm sunny spring day and I quickly became immersed in the sense of community and joy of being outdoors together for a special occasion. It takes a community to do these gatherings.

To the Yavapai and Apache people, agave is life--a food with a spiritual meaning and a cultural identifying quality. In centuries past it was a nutritious, sweet food they savored and part of the year round cycle of harvesting the land. Apaches, as with other Native peoples, bring thankfulness, prayers, blessings, songs, dances and laughter to these gatherings surrounding the preparing and sharing of indigenous foods.

Here in the Verde Valley area, the traditional life of the Tonto Apache and Yavapai peoples was disrupted by the coming of the Americans in the 1860's. Interestingly, a revival of this tradition locally was stimulated by archaeological studies of prehistoric roasting pits that have been found at Sinagua (Prehistoric Puebloan) and Apache sites throughout the region.
See photos below by Sandra Cosentino taken at the agave roast.

starting the fire with wooden fire drill

The fire at our gathering was started with a bow drill the old-fashioned way and tended while it burned down to coals. Agave hearts were laid on top of the coals covered with wet burlap (wild grasses would have been used centuries past), then covered with mounded dirt and another fire lit on top for a few hours. For four days it simmered in the underground oven. When we opened the pit on day 4, it was still warm and the agave was tender and delicious with a flavor between sweet potato, molasses and pineapple. The taste took me back in time and connected me to this wild plant in a new and special way.

agave hearts before and after roasting (below)

Recent tests by New Mexico State University found that dried mescal leaves contain 85% soluble carbohydrates, 1% protein and 14% insoluble fiber and are roughly equivalent in food value to oats. The dried mescal had the added advantage of being easily stored over long periods of time.

In my almost three decades of hanging out with Native peoples, I recall so many times noticing how nurtured I felt by indigenous cooking. The foods are grown or harvested with gratitude and caring so the foods seem more alive. Not only are the simple foods of the land wholesome and delicious, but the ladies put a lot of joy and blessing into it that make me hum inside with a sense of well being.

Agave is also called mescal, and it is the use of agave that caused the Spanish to give Mescalero Apache their name. Mescaleros live in New Mexico and Texas today.

In this series of early 1900s photos by Edward S. Curtis below, Apache women are shown harvesting and processing mescal, or agave, for food.
Photos from the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Information in section below with historical photos based on University of Texas, Austin website.

Add Wielding carrying baskets,
Apache women trek across a hillside to the agave field.caption

Cutting mescal.

Filling the pit. Apache women load dozens of trimmed agave hearts into an earth oven that has been prepared for the roasting process. Earlier, the women dug a large pit and lined it with flat rocks. A fire was then built on top of the rocks to heat them. Once it died down, a layer of moist grass was laid on top, and the oven was ready to receive the plant bulbs for baking. Once loaded, they will be covered with another layer of grass, followed by layer after layer of dirt.


The covered pit. An Apache woman loads a final basketful of dirt over the mound now covering the baking pit. The layers of dirt seal the heat inside the oven in which the plant bulbs will bake for 12 to 24 hours. When the bulbs are removed, they will be fire-blackened, but moist and tender. After drying and cleaning, they will be ready to eat. Agave and other desert plant hearts are high in carbohydrates, providing an important energy food for native peoples over thousands of years.

The next 4 images below are of Yavapai people from the Verde Valley, Arizona who participated at the agave roast activities:

Monica and Damon Marquez tend acorn stew fire

Grinding wild lemonade berries on metate

Bird singers and dancers

Hopi from Third Mesa making Hopi popcorn the old way
with no oil, just rock salt

upcoming program:
Southwest regional flavors of the land: foods, cultures and circles of celebration...
Crossing Worlds will be offering some "ecotours" in coming months featuring local foods, cultures, songs, stories and circles of sharing to extend this joy to you and to support local food producers. These will feature foods with thousands of years of history with the Hopi people who are masters of the heirloom corn still grown today by dry farming, foods brought to the "New World" by the Spanish, local high desert vineyards/wineries, Navajo traditional foods and their outdoor cooking tradition, Churro sheep revival, new Santa Fe style Southwest cooking, Chimayo chilis, Taos Pueblo foods and more. Also here in Sedona are leading edge practitioners of organic raw food cuisine including amazing nutritious-delicious raw chocolate we will introduce you to for your good health and taste bud awakening (plus the local Sedona tradition of drum circles under the full moon). In winter or early spring we will explore some Sonoran desert foods and ecosystems in Southern Arizona. �

Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats
P O Box 3288
Sedona, AZ 863340
928-282-0846�

Mayan Cosmo Vision and Grand Canyon Images

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:19:00 +0000

Mayan Cosmo Vision

Article by Sandra Cosentino

With excerpts from The Book of Destiny:

Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Mayans and the Prophecy of 2012

by Carlos Barrios, shaman and member of the Mayan elders council

The power of sacred places of this region and the ancient wisdom that are associated with them has been calling me strongly in these past weeks—so much so, that all other priorities seem muted by comparision. Answering that call, I spent time communing with the depths of the Grand Canyon on the North Rim last month. While there, I absorbed the message Carlos Barrios is bringing forth in his book which came out in 2009. It stimulated new awarenesses of this time that I share with you in excerpts herein.

Beginning this fall equinox, which is also a full moon, September 23, 2010, we enter period of the Mayan calendar period Mr. Barrios calls the definition.

He believes that this week we are ending the purification period which began in 1987. This next 2 1/4 years, he says is a time of clearing out old programs and consumeristic patterns which will be replaced with a resurgence of true spirituality and a renewed respect for ourselves and everyone else on this planet.

This is the final phase leading up to sunrise on December 21, 2012 which for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration.

“Change is accelerating now, and it will continue to accelerate. If the people of the earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape, without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way.”

“Many powerful souls have reincarnated in this era, with a lot of power. This is true on both sides, the light and the dark…Things will change, but it is up to the people how difficult or easy it is for the changes to come about…The dark can only be transformed when confronted with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to fusion, a key concept for the World of the Fifth Sun.”

"Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a hard, but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this moment in history."

Mystical images of spirit mountain lion and more
from 5,000 years ago or more from
Shaman's Panel, north rim, Grand Canyon�

"The prophesied changes are going to happen," he said, "but our attitude and actions determine how harsh or mild they are. Meditation and spiritual practice are good, but also action. It's very important to be clear about who you are, and also about your relation to the Earth.”

I feel as an internal truth Barrios' concept that explosions in the universe can be compared to those that take place inside of each of us: one has to explode mentally in order to break free of the limitations of one’s perceptions. In this way we shatter constraints inside our spirit and consciousness and go beyond it.

“We are just one thread in the wonder we call existence. We inhabit as reality shaped and modeled after the cosmos, and we vibrate in tune with the movement of the stars. We find other dimensions by stopping time, and this is achieved in dreams or in absolute stillness.”


shaman image from same site as above

“The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said from the beginning: find your heart, and you will find your way."

“The Mayan cosmo-vision is an attitude, an approach to life, it is the way in which we learn to live with our perceptions of reality. Everything is integral; nothing is isolated from the sequence of life. Every action is connected to, and forms part of, the cosmic forces, the manifestation of nature and telluric energy. This convergence arises out of the state of universal consciousness. “
In the light of the full moon on this Fall equinox, I encourage you to go outside and send your heart’s energy out to the cosmos in a way that speaks to you. What a great time to be centered in your clear intention in the fullness of this harvest time of year and the moonbeam energy.


Prehistoric Mimbres image of eagle dancer invoking higher frequency vision of eagle. He is carrying his directionary tools on left and has sunflower emblem on right signifying great abundance. My dream interpretation of image would be: he is leaping toward spirit to engender strength and abundance for the future energizing it by becoming eagle who sees the big picture with confident, penetrating vision beyond our mortal human perspective. �

Captivated by the Spell of the Southwest

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Maynard Dixon, early 20th century painter captures that essence.
By Sandra Cosentino

“The West has an emotional hold
on people as a repository of hope."

Ken Burns: The National Parks

The Southwestern rugged cliffs and canyons bathed in luminous light places a spell on the beholder. I know, I am one of those Colorado Plateau junkies. Wide open vistas stimulate the imagination. Freedom is felt as a tangible presence. Infinite possibilities reach out. Ancient rhythms palpate in the rock, ruins, living descendents of those who came long before us.

Artist, Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), really understood this. On this page are a few of his paintings and quotes that capture some of Dixon's fascination with the Southwest. But I encourage you to a view many more of his wondrous feeling-filled paintings of the Southwest and her Native peoples along with excerpts from Desert Dreams, the Art and Life of Maynard Dixon. (see http://books.google.com/ )

“To me, no painter has ever quite understood the light, the distances, the aboriginal ghostliness of the American West as well as Maynard Dixon. The great mood of his work is solitude, the effect of land and space on people. While his work stands perfectly well on its claims to beauty, it offers a spiritual view of the West indispensable to anyone who would understand it.” (Thomas McGuane)

Ansel Adams once commented that for Maynard Dixon, "the West was uncrowded, unlittered, unorganized and free." Adams might have added that Dixon would allow no fences to surround him, imaginary or real.

Maynard Dixon was also, for much of his life, a solitary desert pilgrim. From 1900 to his death in 1946, Dixon periodically roamed the West's plains, mesas, and deserts on foot, horseback, buckboard-even by automobile-drawing, painting, and writing, pursuing a transcendent awareness of the region's spirit. These long, often solitary excursions into lands "where no one went," were prompted by intense personal and philosophic examinations.

“Through them I can express that phantasy of freedom of space and thought which will give the world a sentiment about these people which is inspiring and uplifting.” source

In the 1920’s during the Cult of Primitivism (a time of yearning for a return to nature and an escape from the complexities of modern life when American Indians were often romanticized), Dixon became enamored of the Hopi: “There is something of magic in it and legends endow it with strange meanings. The imagination moves free and the past and present are one. So the visions of the old days have been as important to my work as things actually seen.”
from: Hagerty, The Native American Portrayed.

“Dixon was a man of the West not because he was born there or because he painted Western scenes, but because he embraces what the West was and represented: mobility, freedom, possibility and the sense of the infinite. For Dixon, room to move about was not a luxury but a necessity. To know the world, he needed space to listen to it. He needed space for time itself to disappear and for his own poetry to take shape.

And, so do we. We are drawn to the art of Maynard Dixon today more so than ever as space slips away and the desert hush is no longer. Dixon's West of space, color and intensity is the West of our own physical and spiritual desires: we desire the experience of it more than to merely admire it. We understand the land once more for the healthful and nurturing phenomenon it is.”
from: Thoughts on Maynard Dixon by Will South

Canyonscape and Cultural Journeys related to this theme you might want to consider in Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, prehistoric sites, vast canyons

Or on your next trip to Sedona, consider a Ancient Wisdom starlight-moonlight circle or a Sedona Explorer Journey

Weaving Life in the Dine World: an interview with Navajo Weaver Winnie Henry

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

by Sandra Cosentino

Weaving to Winnie Henry--a handsome, wise and determined Navajo woman--is to weave together the pieces of your own life.

For Winnie, weaving is a philosophy, a way of clarifying mind and values. She says:
Every portion of weaving is a representation of Life.
The whole part of setting up the loom is the Universe.
What's in the Universe?
Life.
What makes Life?
How does Life live?
Every living plant on Earth lives for a reason.
Forward, backward living is Future.
What's in Life is all up to you, once you learn your Right and Wrong.

"Weaving to me is keeping my art. There is a legend behind it given to us by Spider Woman. She gave the art in a spiritual way." The deeper meaning is not shared in public. Winnie was told to do so might cause her to loose her art. Her dark brown, almost black eyes radiate a depth and a quiet sense of power and strength as she speaks.

Spider Woman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom which Spider Man told them how to make. The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords, and sheet lightning. The batten was a sun halo, white shell made the comb. There were four spindles: one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was white shell.
Navajo Legend

Winnie at her summer home site in Canyon de Chelly

Young girls that want to weave have to be initiated. Then they can learn from a wiser woman who will share sacred stories for her to hold within her heart. You are being blessed by the Holy people. They are proud of you. You keep believing it and doing.

"Art is life to me." Upon returning from her boarding school years, Winnie knew weaving was valuable. She realized it could be an art that died and knew she had to keep it. Winnie continues today to weave many traditional patterns such as the Chinle, Lightning, Two Grey Hills, Yeibichai, Chiefs, Ganado Red, Big Star, and Storm. (Photos of these rugs.) This is her personal expression of beauty--a harmonious synthesis of elements that expresses activity, movement and energy.

Every part of weaving represents something like thoughts within the mind. "When we do a good pattern, a good design, it makes a train of thought." With each new woven creation, her own thoughts become clear and focused as she plans, organizes and begins visualizing the pattern in her inner eye. All of this was given to women as part of weaving along with skillfulness, exercising the hands and fingers, strengthening the back, keeping the posture straight.

Winnie learned watching her Mother weave and from years and years of practice. She remembers how fast her Mother wove knowing she had to provide support for 9 children. "My Mother told me if you know how to weave, you will never starve." During her Mother's time every part of the weaving process was done by hand beginning with sheering and cleaning the wool to cording, spinning and dying the wool. It took all day to set up a loom. "I wanted to learn, I wanted to be like my Mother." If there is more than one daughter, an older woman can tell who will become a weaver.

Winnie at her family hogan on north rim.

Winnie, however, had only brothers--8 of them. Growing up in a earthen-floored hogan, she helped her Mother with the daily cleaning, water hauling and cooking. Each day the sheepskins they slept on had to be taken outside and shaken out. She also rode horses, herded sheep and learned to be strong in all ways. "Somebody made me be born right in the middle of 4 boys ahead and behind me for a reason," Winnie says with pride. "I cried a lot of times, why me? I was trained to be tough." Even today she walks the trails in and out of rugged Canyon de Chelly and lives in a remote hogan.

Winnie's own birth was very dramatic. Her Mother came into labor on a cold March morning, 1945, at 3 am in their isolated Canyon de Chelly, Arizona hogan. It took her Father more than half an hour to catch and saddle the horses. As they started up the 600 foot canyon wall on the White House Trail (which is much rougher than the well graded trail of today), her Mother, Rose Henry, was having contractions. Rose stopped and got off the horse and Winnie popped out and landed in the snow. All her parents saw was steam rising from the snow surface. Her Dad quickly dug her out and wrapped her in his shirt. He bundled Mother and daughter up and rode to her Great Grandmother's hogan, which unfortunately was locked. But he found a sharp can lid with which to cut the umbilical cord. Then he rode for help and the hogan key. He came back with her Grandmother who spanked her and gave Winnie her Navajo name which is only used in communicating with the Holy Ones. It is the name they know her by. Later they went to the Ganado Hospital which is about 65 miles away and the nurse there gave her the English name she carries today as her public name.

Growing up speaking only Navajo, her parents hid her from the Bureau of Indian Affairs people who came to take the kids away to boarding school. Winnie's parents believed a girl did not need an education in white men's world. So whenever she would be coming back to the hogan with their sheep flock, if a BIA vehicle was there, she was told to hide and wait until they left. At age 15 she finally was sent to boarding school in Ship Rock, New Mexico where they cut her hair, forbade her to speak Navajo or practice her religion. "I thought they were mean. I got homesick and became ill with high fever and almost died." For the next 10 years, Winnie, an "over-age" student who did not fit in, was sent to boarding schools in Shiprock, Ft. Wingate and Albuquerque, New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona. Her last year a high school was opened in Chinle so she was able to graduate in her home town. Chinle is a large Navajo service center town built at the mouth of Canyon de Chelly.

"I always wanted to go home. The teaching from my parents and grandparents were a treasure to me. Every Sunday, we had to go to a Christian church. But I never lost my Native religion. Mom and Dad always said, "if you know who you are, where you come from and where you are going, you will never get lost in this world. I believe that philosophy so deeply, so I stayed with my own religion."

Winnie says with firm conviction, "I can pray anywhere. God doesn't tell us to practice this way and that way. I don't think there should be a routine. There are signs I see and notice when I pray. Examples make me believe--people living their belief. My culture and my religion live within me and won't come out. Trees, water, every living thing has male and female. The heat, the air, is for a reason. All are team work."

I witnessed people with alcohol problems. I feel like it is not their fault they started drinking. They were never told what my Mom and Dad told me. How to keep my center of faith. You have to be an example if you want to help people with addiction problems. I refer back thousands of years to First Woman and First Man. Generation to generation, never written. Mistakes were made, corrections were made. I also read the Bible three times as an adult. To me the Old Testament is very similar to our legends. I used to teach Sunday School.

Hozona h'astleen is the way the Dine (Navajo word meaning "the people"--what they call themselves) close their prayers. Winnie interprets this as "everything will go well." She says to be in balance you must evaluate good and bad in your thoughts so one does not get overemphasized. "Everybody makes a mistake, sometimes you just need a listener to heal yourself."

"To walk (live) in beauty and to die naturally of old age is the Navajo notion of the good life. Weaving offers Navajo women the chance to be active participants in the generation and expression of beauty. To be able to create and experience the universal theme over and over again--each time in a unique way--is certainly an exercise that builds self-esteem and enhances self-expression."
(quote from Tension and Harmony: the Navajo Rug,
Plateau magazine of the Museum of Northern Arizona,, 1981)

I asked Winnie what advice she might offer to people. "I advise women to weave together the pieces of your own life. Remember that interwoven with the mind are meditation and thoughts. Find something to look forward to--a permanent goal--and go get it. When you make a mistake, correct it. Life is like a menu, you have to mix all kinds of ingredients to stay strong. If you get too perfect, you are in heaven already. Once you find yourself and open the door, you know when to come home."

-----------------
You can order a custom-made Navajo rug from Winnie
and, if you are in are at an Arizona location, arrange a weaving demonstration and talk:
Winnie Henry
PO Box 1583
Chinle, AZ 86503

See photos of rugs here.

Some of the traditional designs that Winnie weaves are Chinle, lightning, chief, big star, , talking bird, yei.
Estimated costs, depending on design:
2 x 3, $360
3 x 4, $675
4 x 5, $975
4 x 6, $1,275
5 x 6, $1575
50% deposit, balance on pick up in Chinle or with COD delivery. Buyer pays shipping, insurance, COD fees.
--------------------

Hopi-Navajo-Zuni Cultural Journey, spring and fall or arranged at other dates

Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats
928-282-0846
PO Box 3288
Sedona, AZ86340

The Last Child in the Woods, Saving our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:53:00 +0000

Following are some excerpts/concepts from this excellent book by Richard Louv
Review by Sandra Cosentino

Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families and communities.

Sensory magic occurs when we are exposed to even the smallest direct experience of a natural setting. And brings with it so many values; such as, complete relaxation, a sense of pattern and order, a sense of wonder. It can help us develop a habit of quiet and concentration and allow us to use more imagination than in structured environments. When we witness natural events beyond human control such as lightning, there is a keen sense of being alive.

Ecstatic memories give us meaningful images, an internalized core of calm, a sense of integration with nature, and for some, a creative disposition. Ecstatic memories require space, freedom, discovery, and and extravagant display for all five senses. And behind this is the effusive quality of loveliness.

In the most nature-deprived corners of our world we can see the rise of what might be called cultural autism. The symptoms? Tunneled senses, and feelings of isolation and containment. Experience, including physical risk, is narrowing to about the size of a cathode ray tube, or flat panel if you prefer. Atrophy of the senses was occurring long before we came be bombarded with the latest generation of computers, high-definition TV, and wireless phones. Urban children, and many suburban children, have long been isolated from the natural world because of a lack of neighborhood parks, or lack of opportunity—lack of time and money for parents who might otherwise take them out of the city.

“We are beginning to lose the ability to experience our world directly.” (Edward Reed, The Necessity of Experience)

“Children live through their senses. Sensory experiences link the child’s exterior world with their interior, hidden, affective world. Since the natural environment is the principal source of sensory stimulation, freedom to explore and play with the outdoor environment through the senses in their own space and time is essential for healthy development of an interior life.” (Robin Moore, director of the National Learning Initiative)

Not surprisingly, as the young grow up in a world of narrow yet overwhelming sensory input, many of them develop a wired, know-it-all state of mind. Any natural place contains an infinite reservoir of information, and therefore the potential for inexhaustible new discoveries.

D.H. Lawrence describes his own awakening to nature’s sensory gift in Taos, New Mexico, as an antidote to the know-it-all state of mind, that poor substitute for wisdom and wonder: “Superficially, the world has become small and known. There is no mystery left, we’ve been there, we’ve seen it, we know all about it...Yet the more we know, superficially, the less we penetrate, vertically. It’s all very well skimming across the surface of the ocean and saying you now all about the sea...We are mistaken. Underneath is everything we don’t know and are afraid of knowing.

Primal Vibrations of Nature Bring Us Home to Who We Really Are

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:03:00 +0000

Canyon de Chelly--Eyes of Mother Earth ancient sacred site

by Sandra Cosentino

Given even a brief encounter with a coyote’s bold yellow wild eyes, or in a soul-imprinting moment gazing at the luminous layers of light and color of a sunset over prairie or sea, or seeing the stars out away from city lights--wonder can erupt. It is never too late. In a flash we remember we are connected to a vaster universe full of mystery and beauty that is always there, eternally waiting to inspire us directly from Source.

“By becoming more attuned to the vibrations of life, we come closer to our natural state. We clear our blocks and our resistances. We discover the power to be. “ (From Being and Vibration by Joseph Rael from Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico.)

“Bird language will get inside you and changes you, opening up deeper and deeper levels of perceptive ability...Nature awareness also develops your ability to go into deeper and deeper levels of connected consciousness.” (from Advanced Bird Language, Reading the Concentric Rings of Nature, CD set by naturalist and tracker Jon Young available from Wilderness Awareness School, http://www.WildernessAwareness.org)

As you absorb and observe with child-hearted openness the primal vibrations of nature, you become more and more the mystical being, which is actually a natural state that is all too often drowned out the the noise of daily life, our busy ego minds, and cultural beliefs. Mystical, to me, is absorbing eternal wisdom from direct observation and knowing.

On our most fundamental level, the human mind and body are not distinct and separate from their environment but a packet of pulsating power constantly interacting with this vast energy sea. (From the work of Lynne McTaggart, investigative journalist, who reveals in The Field a radical new biological paradigm.)

Just the simple act of greeting the new day can be a connecting point. Sun, radiant sun, primal central fire of life--rises at dawn with hopes for a bright new day. Birds, feeling its pulsation of life, joyfully sing up the sun. In turn their song vibrates like harp strings though me —I sense life force rising.

Sunset Crater at dawn

As a child I lived for the summers in the central Arizona mountains on Aunt Beulah and Uncle Jacks’s ranch. There I was free to explore the juniper studded hills that held remnants of ancestral people who lived there hundreds of years before my time. Lit by the softness of gas light with no TV, nights spent on the porch watching lightning storms were great entertainment. I could explore mysteries just going to the huge barn of rough sawn lumber from Jack’s mill. Smelling of earthy horse scents, full of hidden places where hens would lay eggs I would search for, and full of shadowy corners, this was a place I adored. The big corral gates and the loft were such high places from my child 's eye view. Yet I was safe there to just be me.

Every fall I feel the Grand Canyon call to me. I must go to both rims and be in communion with those depths. Just as the bear prepares to go into the cave for winter, I connect with some deep place in me that is stimulated by this extravagantly eye-dazzling display of light-infused-in-colored rock shelves dropping off to dizzying depths. It is kind of like renewing that inner hum. Something beyond mental understanding calls me to renew my sense of true center in a place that is beyond human scale.

This voice from the natural world is as real as a phone call from a human friend. Such a calling took to Alaska to experience wilderness for 10 years. That time ended when I heard in my inner being the voice of the Colorado Plateau: I am your real Mother, it is time for you to come home now.

Wild nature has infused some of my most inspiring lucid dreams. Even in my soul body I flow through pulsing streams and move through high mountains in a blissful state of union. I once fell over the edge of the Grand Canyon in a dream and somehow she cradled me on the landing. I wonder if all people have such lucid nature experiences in the dream time? Or does my dreaming come from my direct physical world experience and love of these primal places? Perhaps they are just mirrors of the same reality.

May you..... remember yourself in primal places—that windswept seashore, under the sheltering arms of your favorite tree, laying on crystalline red sandstone looking at an impossibly blue sky that goes forever, entranced with the plant beings in your own garden....Be graced by looking into the soft eyes of a deer in the woods who curiously comes near to you at a moment when you are free of the electric mental static of everyday life....or laugh at yourself when a raucous raven breaks into your self-absorbed reverie with its loud mocking call as if daring you quit taking yourself so seriously.

Nature, Soul and Vision Pilgrimage: Reflections from a Grand Canyon, Zion, Antelope Canyon journey

noreply@blogger.com (Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats) — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 18:01:00 +0000

by Sandra Cosentino
This article is reflections from my spirit renewal journey Sept. 8 - 11, 2001. I was on the 4th day of my personal pilgrimage enroute to the base of Page Dam to go on a raft trip on the Colorado River, when we heard of the attack on the Twin Towers and that the dam and all federal facilities had been locked down. Now almost 10 years later, I remember the long drive back to Sedona in shock taking in the the growing dimensions of this tragedy as I listened to NPR. Somehow this 4 days was a foundation time I was guided to do. And that, like all of my intentional power places time outs, is still resonating in frequencies recognized by the soul. Though indirectly understood by the thinking mind, these primal experiences continue to provide support and on-going sense of direction.

The Call to Pilgrimage
September 5, 2001, NASA spaceweather news reported a visible flare was recorded from a powerful X-ray outburst. Scientists say the black hole gobbled up a comet or asteroid or that the flare might have been caused by the reconnection of magnet field line near the black hole, a process that also triggers solar flares on the Sun.

This is an artist conception of the
supermassive black hole at the center
of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Just as the sun shifts its poles and the galactic center realigns its magnet lines releasing tremendous energy, I felt the call to come into greater alignment with my soul's destiny and let my creative fires flare.

Here on the edge of the unknown me--the Black Hole at the center of my being relentlessly stalks, pulls like a magnet. Take a chance, leap over the edge, let the fire of your central sun burn away the dross and realign you. Allow the old carapace to dissolve and make room for a larger boundary to come into being. Tap into the power that lies deep in the vortex of my inner center.

This image triggered a response, a gut feeling: go into canyons of immense power and beauty in northern Arizona and Utah. Once again, the spell of the Colorado Plateau called me out to explore. This primordial force of crystalline rock and sun embeded with prayers from thousands of years of human presence, is the second largest plateau in the world.

Over the years, each time I responded to my heart's yearning to go to places of natural power and energy, it became a doorway into a new reality. Responding to a cellular level vibrational charge, I was encouraged to step out past my comfort zone. This in turn, opened more doors of creative expression than I had previously imagined.

David Whyte speaks eloquently of this edge place in Crossing An Unknown Sea.:

"We all have our own ground to work, you know. You have yours, too. You just have to find out what it is. But you know what? It is right on the edge of yourself. At the cliff edge of life. That's the edge you go to. Put yourself in conversation with that edge no matter how frightening it seems. Look down over that edge."

North Rim of Grand Canyon
Sitting on the edge of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the jagged cliff face sheers straight down toward the turquoise ribbon of the Colorado River far below. A Holy Place, not far from the sipapuni, the Hopi mythological place of emergence into this the fourth world. A vast birthing place womb of Creation.

junction, Little Colorado-Colorado River, Grand Canyon

I revolve around my own abyss, magnetized, irresistibly attracted by force greater than my mind can grasp. Time and again when my mind wants to spin, I come back to staring at the textures, the purple, green and red layers of the landscape temples before.

Every nuance comes into sharp focus: the abrupt ree..eee squawk of the pinyon jay announcing his presence, the soft feel of cool early fall breeze quivers the needles on the pinion pine and flows over my body like silk, then gusts in a strong who-who whooshing voice. Senses heighten and subtle awarenesses flow through.

But when my mind want to analyze, plan, spin me out of the moment of connectedness to the vastness, I notice it. I make a choice to deepen my breath and come back down into the body. Back into deep observing, just being here, now. This is my practice of Presence, divine communion with Source.

The quote below is a good example of how the Grand Canyon evokes a larger sense of reality even within the context of a western novel.

Vast canyon scape evokes sense of freedom:
from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey, a Western novelist who wrote this while living in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona in 1920.

"She could not estimate distance. But she did not need that to realize her perceptions were swallowed up by magnitude. Hitherto the power of her eyes had been unknown. How splendid to see afar! She could see--yes--but what did she see? Space first, annihilating space, dwarfing her preconceived images, and then wondrous colors! What had she known of color? No wonder artists failed adequately and truly to paint mountains, let alone the desert space. The toiling millions of the crowded cities were ignorant of this terrible beauty and sublimity. Would it have helped them to see? But just to breathe that untainted air, just to see once the boundless open of colored sand and rock--to realize what the freedom of eagles meant would not that have helped anyone?

And with the thought there came to Carley's quickened and struggling mind a conception of freedom. She had not yet watched eagles, but she now gazed out into their domain. What then must be the effect of such environment on people whom it encompassed? The idea stunned Carley. Would such people grow in proportion to the nature with which they were in conflict? Hereditary influence could not be comparable to such environment in the shaping of character."

Zion Narrows
Slim waterfalls cascade over the rounded cliff face rising over 1000 feet above. Hiking in the Virgin River, I lean heavily on my walking stick to keep balance on the slick algae-coated boulders. This cleft is the Narrows in Zion Canyon, Utah. Rain upstream can bring a sudden torrent of water rushing through the narrow, winding confined slot. Knowing this adds to my sense of exhilaration, adventure.


One of many natural temples of Zion NP

Moving water is a constant background hum and carries a moist, organic smell. Hanging gardens form in seeps wonderfully exotic with moss, ferns, orange stars, red firecracker penstemons. Giant stone temples tower overhead and in a flashing moment we merge and I too am a temple alive with celestial music and light shining on water, in orange rock, in my heart.

Antelope Canyon
On the open plateau lands of the Navajo Reservation, Arizona, I walk into a deep dry crack in the Navajo sandstone--dunes frozen in place from the time when dinosaurs walked the earth. The sandy floor is only 4 to 8 feet wide narrowing overhead to a slit arching in domed swirls and jagged promontories.

This cross-section reveals angled bedding of the wind-driven dunes now cut through by water in sensuous corkscrew curves. My fingers caress the surprisingly smooth, nubby textured wall, more like a tapestry than stone.Sun light illumines the crack like a sand lantern burning in luminous shades of orange, yellow and red. Painted by light. This is my quest to be infused by Light direct from Source. In hushed awe I am right here now a radiant star of light.

After the Journey
Stimulated by this journey, a powerful Navajo guide came to me in the dreamtime showing me the essence of being the new vision. Sitting still with her body curved forward, alone amid endless dunes, the Navajo grandmother sees through the sands of time. Her tiered skirt ripples in the desert wind. Lines etched in her face reveal the sculpting forces of wind and sun. She does not doubt who she is. Confidence radiates out from eyes that penetrate my inner truth. Nowhere to hide, I am drawn into her aura of natural power. She evokes this chant in me:

With Beauty before me, I sit.
With Beauty behind me, I am in the center of life.
With Beauty below me, I am life.
With Beauty above me, I am held in the hand of Creator.

first posted Oct. 4, 2001, updated March 3, 2008 and Jan. 17, 2011

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