Healing the Earth/Ourselves Newsletter July 2008
Vol. 8 No. 7

Greetings! Osiyo!

Enjoy the ‘Goddess’ Energy

By Jim PathFinder Ewing (Nvnehi Awatisgi)

This is a special time of year that the ancients revered for its unique feminine “goddess” energy.

In ancient Egypt, it was a time of celebration for Isis.

Although, over the millennia the stars have shifted a bit, it was at the end of July that the festivals began that culminated in the “rebirth” of Sirius, the “dog star” from behind the sun in August (hence, the “dog days,” as the Romans referred to them).

Just as today, we may get up early in the morning to “drum up the sun,” in prayers and gratitude, and as at the time of Winter Equinox, longest night, when people would stay up all night in prayers that the sun would be born again, this was the time when people prayed for order and harmony in the universe, for all beings. Across the ancient Americas, people prayed that order and harmony would be restored. That is seen today with the Mayan and Aztec pyramids aligned so that shadows fall across them illuminating certain glyphs in certain ways.

From the majestic to the specific, we are all still in microcosm. All one.

It was six years ago at this time that a little kitty cat appeared on my doorstep. In honor of the energies, I named her Isis. She is still very much the goddess. :-)

It is a good time to hold ceremony, and give thanks for all things.

Register Now For Reiki Master Class Aug. 16-17

Please note that we will be holding a two-day intensive Reiki Master Class starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, and continuing from 9:30 a.m. til it ends on Sunday, Aug. 17.

We cover a lot of material in two days, so it's rather intense, including both Reiki III and Advanced Reiki Training (ART). Cost is $650. A book is provided. At the end of the training, you will be given a certificate as a Reiki Master, and of course taught how to give attunements. (You also after Reiki III/ART will be eligible after a one-year waiting period to take the Karuna Reiki® classes.) You must have completed Reiki I and II beforehand, but not necessarily from us as teachers. For more information, see the Web page (www.blueskywaters.com) under Services. To register, or for questions, write Annette Waya, who is also teaching her own Reiki I and Reiki II classes one-on-one, at bisonsmile@bellsouth.net. So we will know how many books to order, deadline to register is Aug. 4. A $50 nonrefundable deposit is required.

People who have taken the Reiki Master class from us before are welcome to attend free as a “refresher.” (Please let Waya know if you are planning to attend.)

Solstice Was Wonderful

The 6th Annual Solstice and World Soul Retrieval Daylong Ceremonies here June 21 were wonderful. We had people coming and going all day long, which is one of the joys of it – sort of an energetic, networking “open house.”

We had wonderful wisdomkeepers share their knowledge.

This year, Peter Bloom from Memphis was the big hit with the most popular – and best attended – group, honoring the Earth and learning people’s heart songs.

As in years past, James Medicine Bull Myers – Second Chief of the Southern Cherokee Tribe and Associated Bands in Texas – participated with public sweat lodge (Asi/Inipi) and shared teachings with his wife, and medicine woman, Carolyn Bright Star, who serves on the Tribal Council.

This year, we had a surprise special (unannounced!) guest of our chief, Bill Fishkiller Taylor to attend, with his wife Carol, who next year might be persuaded to share her Seneca knowledge. After the ceremonies were over, she taught a few people the medicine wheel teachings she had been taught by Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch. Daughter of a Seneca mother and an Oneida/Scots father, Grandmother Twylah was a direct descendent of Chief Red Jacket, a renowned Seneca orator whose discourses are still studied by scholars today. She passed away last year. We were most honored to receive this teaching and hope Carol will attend again next year and can be persuaded to make it available for those who attend.

We had beautiful ceremony and a powerful Bear Dance.

Evette LaBatte Tubby Passes June 23

Immediately after our happy Summer Solstice ceremonies, we were apprised of the sad news that a longtime friend and patient Evette LaBatte Tubby of the Choctaw Reservation near here at Philadelphia died of a heart attack, June 23.

Evette had been a friend and a “client” for several years. I say “client,” because she came to me for healing services, but she was much more than that.

A Lakota/Dakota, she married a Choctaw man here 28 years ago and began coming to see me because no one there offered traditional Native medicine ways. That, I understand, may be changing. But over the years, we developed a close relationship. I would frequently come home to find her sitting on my front porch waiting. Sometimes, she would come and sit all day until I came home, and, in traditional manner, we would sit and talk for a while, before she would reach over, give me some tobacco, and, after I accepted it, tell me whatever was ailing her mind, body or spirit.

She was a source of great delight and sometimes great aggravation, especially when she would call at odd hours. But that was part of the dance, too, of traditional healing. Unlike Western medicine, the medicine man addresses the whole person, including relations. Over time, whenever she would get a new doctor, at the reservation, or elsewhere, I would verse her on what to tell him; that we practiced “complementary, alternative medicine” that was in now way designed to conflict with the doctor’s orders. Sometimes, the doctor would be happy to hear it, sometimes (usually older physicians) would not. One time, when she was having a difficult time and we had done a good bit of work, she went to the doctor who, surprised at her changed condition, told her: “I don’t know what it is that you two are doing, but whatever it is, keep doing it.”

Dreamed She Departed

We were distraught to learn of Evette’s death. I actually had dreamed it the week before, but couldn’t make out what the dream meant. It was so perplexing that I wrote it down in my Dream Diary with the notation: “I don’t know what this means.” But I had a feeling I would find out.

In the dream, I was talking with a friend, named John, who had died about 10 years ago. Somehow, in the dream, Evette’s name came up, and I said: “There she is, over there, and that’s her brother, Woableza (in the shadows) behind her.”

Only after her brother, Woableza, a Lakota medicine man called me from California and told me of her death did I realize what the dream was about; my friend was saying she was on her way, and I was asking him to look out for her.

Special Traditional Ceremony

We were most honored to assist her brother Lakota/Dakota Spiritual Elder Robert Woableza LaBatte in the funeral ceremonies. She was buried at the Catholic Church in the Tucker community.

We made tobacco ties of dogwood branches from our yard, one to each corner, red, black, yellow and white; and we made a wreathe with a medicine wheel in the center. But south was white and north was yellow, for "the buffalo nation" as she had seen in a vision.
We built a small fire graveside while the priest was performing his ceremony inside the church and when they brought the coffin out, it was passed over a hot grandfather, the steam releasing the soul. Two little girls caught it like a bird with the branches we had cut from our yard - a dogwood and a rose of Sharon, because both are in the Bible and fit her Christian beliefs. While Woableza and I ripped a white sheet we held, the little girls released the soul to the four winds, and a spirit eagle caught it up and carried it away, while Annette Waya sang an eagle song that some said afterwards seemed to soar like an eagle itself bringing some to tears.
The gravediggers at the cemetery said they had been there three years and had never seen a traditional Native ceremony there. It was a first.

We gave our respects to Vernon, her husband, and to all her relations.

We Were Able To Say Good-Bye

It was a good ceremony, and an honored one, where even her relatives from afar were able to express their best wishes through written communications.

Evette and I shared many memories; there are too many stories to tell. The secrets between a traditional curer and those who come to him/her are many, and it’s not always the healer who heals. Once, I remember, I came back from doing ceremony far away and I had been so honored to do the ceremony that after it was all over and everyone had gone, I realized I barely had enough money for gasoline to come home. I told Evette, in passing, about this; and the next time she came, she brought me a gift: a little beat up, red, wire basket covered in hearts. “Next time you go do ceremony, you take this and put it on a blanket with a couple of dollars in it,” she said. “So, people will fill it up!” I carry it with me still.

I remembered that each time she called, no matter how distraught, or what time of the day or night, or how long or short the conversation, she would always pause at the end, collect herself and say: “I love you.”

At the graveside, I was able to say for the last time, as I always did when we ended our conversations: “I love you, too.”

I’ll miss her. She was a good person, a great friend, and wonderful human being.

Aho.

Upcoming Events:

We are busy farming this month, but have things upcoming.

Next Bear Dance is tentatively scheduled for Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Sept. 20.

Keep an eye out on the Web page under Events for more information.

Because we are getting things off to a new start here with our farming, new house and so forth, we are unable to attend the annual Elders Gathering at the Peace Village in Vermont, July 25-27. We urge those who can to attend. To read more, see: http://www.sunray.org/

New “Fan” Page

Also, we have started a new page, called a “fan page,” on Facebook, so that people can be alerted to happenings here, or scheduled.

We invite you to log in to Facebook, and “become a fan.”

Click on:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jim-PathFinder-Ewing/19604582873

Plants and Animals Excerpt Explains Much!

Our latest book, Healing Plants and Animals from a Distance: Curative Principles and Applications, explains much of why we do what we do, and believe as we believe, regarding our relationships with all beings. An excerpt from the book (strictly copyrighted): http://www.blueskywaters.com/hpapreface.html

Ascension Test: Be Here Now

When days of summer reach their fiery hardest, the sun’s glare like hot bronze upon the landscape, we are reminded that growth requires standing up to the light, as well as absorbing it. This is the South on the Medicine wheel, when growing things are yearning ever higher, digging deeper into the soil, straining in the heat, holding, taking in and surviving summer. This is a unique time, when it seems that days whiz by even as moments last forever: the lazy, hazy summer that is gone so quickly. Ask any schoolchild where the “summer vacation” went. But it is also the time when we live most deeply. When the fires of the skies are gone, and the days are short and nights are dark, if our roots in each moment are deep enough now, then we shall remember the kaleidoscope of life that burned deeply into our memories.

Aho.

Celestial Happenings:

From Allison Rae:

Each year at this time, our Sun aligns with the magnificent blue star Sirius, creating an initiation portal linked to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Egyptian goddess Isis and the all-seeing, all-knowing Eye of Cosmic Wisdom. The rising of Sirius with the Sun near the June Solstice marks the beginning of the Egyptian New Year and heralds the annual flooding of the Nile, replenishing the physical and spiritual fertility of the motherland. The brightest star in our sky, Sirius streams the cosmic frequencies of Love-Wisdom to Earth. As Sothis, she catalyzes the purification of ego so we may born on July 6).

Read about the Sun's summer dance with Sirius:

http://www.souledout.org/nightsky/dogdays/dogdays.html

As the Moon waxes to full, we turn our attention to teachings, inner and outer, the blossoming of consciousness in this and all realms. The Full Moon on July 17 is Guru Purnima in the Hindu tradition, celebration of the Guru, inner and outer, the teacher, the guide.
Venus soon returns as Goddess of the Evening Sky. Watch for her just after sunset in the west beginning July 15. She'll re-emerge from the Underworld sometime between the middle and end of the month, newly cleansed from her journey and glowing in the regal sign of Leo.
Venus and the Moon represent aspects of the feminine, the goddess. Guru Jupiter will be visible near the Moon on July 16 and 17. Commune in the night with these sacred wisdom keepers. What gifts are they offering you?
Our star brothers and sisters suggest that we pay attention, seize the moment. Like the Grand Fixed Cross Solar Eclipse on August 11, 1999, and the explosion of Comet Holmes last fall, star glyphs in the fields of England in recent weeks have depicted the partial eclipse alignment coming up August 1. The matching lunar eclipse takes place on August 16 and seems to be suggested in the crop circles, too.

The Big Show of 2008 is the August 1 Total Solar Eclipse on the Lammas cross-quarter gateway.
Rarely does an eclipse align so perfectly with a cross-quarter, the powerful mid-points between Solstices and Equinoxes. This spectacle will be visible in nothern Canada, Greenland, Siberia, Mongolia and China, where the Olympic games will begin on August 8. A partial lunar eclipse follows, on August 16.
Both eclipses straddle the Leo-Aquarius polarity, encouraging each of us to embody and express the Divine more fully, in service to humanity and the needs of the collective.
Earlier this month, we described the higher-dimensional heads-up about the August eclipses in the form of crop circles in England. If you missed the July 1 issue, you can find it in the Cosmic Time archives:
http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/16155
This is one of the most meaningful opportunities in recent years to step into your power, embody the great perfection of who you are, and activate a fuller expression of the divine blueprint encoded in your DNA.

This is one of the most meaningful opportunities in recent years to step into your power, embody the great perfection of who you are, and activate a fuller expression of the divine blueprint encoded in your DNA.

Pluto's passage over the Galactic Center since late 2006 and double Scorpio Moons this spring have helped cleared the path. It's up to each one to take the next step, to align with Divine Power, Purpose and Presence.

The solar transmission reaching Earth now through the Sun-Sirius portal is a warm-up. The Big Show of 2008 is the August 1 Leo-Aquarius eclipse on the Lammas cross-quarter gateway. Mark your calendar. We'll be in touch with more details and opportunities to connect with others catching this cosmic wave.

Copyright 2008 Allison Rae/www.StarPriestess.com

For more, see: Allison Rae: http://www.StarPriestess.com/

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Thank you! Wado!

May You Walk in Peace and Harmony!

Aisv Nvwhetoheyada ale Nvwedoheyadv

Many Blessings!

PathFinder

This newsletter is offered with prayers for healing, growth and development by Jim PathFinder & Annette Waya Ewing, Healing The Earth/Ourselves.
For more information, or to read past newsletters, see our Web site: Healing the Earth/Ourselves www.blueskywaters.com
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Namaste! Mitakuye Oyasin, Gus dii dada dv ni, Sa'ah Naaghaí Bik'eh Hozhoon. Blessings To You and All In Your Sacred Circle and "Keep in touch . . ." -- PathFinder