Thursday, June 03, 2010

Joshua Tree on the Mesa 2010

Bright Cloud Woman and Live Arrow


This year I was blessed to be able to go out to New Mexico prior to the start of Joshua Tree and spend time with my friends Suzanne and Anthony in Santa Fe and at Ojo Caliente hot springs northwest of Santa Fe before we set off to Ghost Ranch.



Moon rise over Santa Fe's central square

Suzanne and Anthony in Santa Fe

St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe

One of the many inner courtyard gardens in downtown Santa Fe

We met up with some fellow JT-ers for lunch at the Coyote Cafe, which was absolutely delish, complete with a tequila/watermelon juice beverage!

In our room at Ojo Caliente in our robes about to partake the waters


Hiking in the morning up to Posi, the ruins of a pueblo above Ojo

A lovely stone circle someone created


Pottery shards were everywhere and other visitors has placed them on stones to be seen.  I'm very grateful that people didn't take them as I saw them do at other ancient pueblo sites in the past.

Life grows everywhere, even in a field of stone.  A good metaphor for difficult times.

Me on top of ole Posi.

A beautiful succulent in bloom.

Really cool patterns of lichen on a boulder

That's Mr. Lizard to you

The main building at Ojo Caliente that leads to the spa pools.  There are many different pools - arsenic, iron, soda and a mixture of iron and arsenic.  I drank from the well of Lithia.  Salty.  And warm.  But it's supposed to be good for you and your mood!

On Monday, after a relaxing morning hiking and soaking, we had lunch at the restaurant at Ojo before going back for a last soak before heading out to Ghost Ranch.

At Ghost Ranch on Tuesday morning after consecrating my drum in a wonderful ceremony by the stream

How can the sky be so blue???!

Ho! Spider Woman Mountain!

Window altar in my room

The fire circle being created in view of Spider Woman Mountain to the South for our fire ceremony Saturday night.

Happy me!

An elder mare spending her sunset days grazing anywhere she wants at Ghost Ranch

Moon rise over the mesa

Wednesday morning school day begins with the lovely Kim, Millie and Jane

Agape Chapel in the morning sun

Always looking over us sits Spider Woman Mountain.  On Wednesday, we sat in circle and learned to drum rhythms with Scott Rosner, our drummer extraordinaire of the band.  Not everyone was at Ghost Ranch yet, so it was difficult to feel whole.

Kim's eagle prayer stick.  So powerful I could only stare at it in wonder.

Hiking with Kim up to Chimney Rock on Thursday morning.  A view of Abiquiu Lake.

A first good look at Chimney Rock - look at the face in the stone!

A closer view.  All the faces in Chimney Rock and surrounding cliffside.

I remember seeing Georgia O'Keefe's painting of this very spot when I saw her exhibit in Chicago back in the late 80's.

The trail.  How far we have come.

My lovely roomie

Me goofing off as usual

Amazing vista

Kim and I met up with Bevvy on the trail and headed back down.

Suzanne at our first session with Lynn.  Bright Cloud Woman and Live Arrow has begun!  The teachings were amazing and so pertinent to everything happening around me and with me.  It's always that way and always blows my little socks off.  This year we looked at old agreements we made in the past that no longer work for us now and how our words, our thoughts have such great power.  We can change just by deciding to change, just by deciding to make new agreements and chuck the old.  It's that simple.  And that difficult.  Why do we hold onto things so hard that hurt us?

The World Altar at night - star-shaped and lit

The World Altar by day

Prayer sticks form the World Altar

A visit to the Elk Pole.  Every year, JT opens with the Elk Pole ceremony where each participant goes around the sacred wheel then ties a ribbon to the Elk Pole symbolizing in prayer the person's commitment to the work.  Because I am in the second year of Lynn's Mystery School, my task is to drum before each event with my classmates.  So while I did go around the wheel at the Elk Pole ceremony, I didn't get a chance to photograph it because I was drumming.  I said hello to the sacred Elk, symbol of Agnes Whistling Elk and her gift of teachings to Lynn and to us.

Ghost dolls.  Every year at the end of JT, we are given a task to create a ghost doll to symbolize what we learned at that JT.  Some people bring their dolls to display.  These are Thunder Being Ghost Dolls, honoring our work with the glorious Thunder Beings last year.  They are so beautiful, unique and one-of-a-kind, like their creators.

A task this year was to find objects out on the land to represent the old agreements I am willing to give away and to create a bundle of those objects.  Here I am on the Upper Mesa searching for objects.  This was really fun and liberating to create this bundle.


After creating our bundles, we each went through an incredible tunnel of fabrics from dark to light and were "birthed" at an altar to place our bundles.  It was a beautiful experience to walk through these veils that have clouded my vision and my life, to lift them away and emerge into the light to give away the very things that have kept me blind.  These roses were at the foot of the altar in this cobalt blue vase.  There is such truth in a flower.  It is only what it is, not trying to be something else, and it is truly beautiful beyond words.

I think this photo is out of order, but here we all are at a meal, all us second years, plus Caroline's wonderful grandmother friend, June, who joined our group with a full heart and gave us so much support and love.  xoxoxoxo June!


After dinner, I went to the labyrinth out on the land and had another opportunity to face my old agreements and make a decision whether to let go or hold on.  Going through the maze does something to you - allows you to circle internally and release in a way that is joyous.  I literally skipped, danced and sang my way back!

The lovely Labyrinth

After walking the labyrinth, I captured this photo of the sun setting through the cactus behind Chimney Rock.  Magical.

Saturday night's ceremony involved face painting.  We took our Live Arrows to the fire and planted them in sand, uniting the power of Father Sky and Mother Earth in our giveaway.  The fire was reversed from other years - we walked through the purple juniper smoke as a symbol of walking through veils of ignorance first and then the fire burned clean the rest of the night.  Lynn joined us by the fire and we danced and sang and watched the flames burn purely.  I sat close for a long time and then moved to the outside of the circle where I danced to the rhythm of the thunder drum.

These are again out of order a bit.  The second years were given the task to create a Face of the Earth altar on the land.  This was done on Friday, I believe.  I had gathered some natural things - stones, wood, pinecones - and left them to be used, but I didn't participate in the building of the altar as I was elsewhere working on my Live Arrow.  I added an object to each of the quadrants later on.  It turned out beautifully, especially when there had been conflict over how to do the altar prior to the event.  It really came together.

Leota took a few pictures of the building of the altar.  Here, Kim and Caroline are looking at the beautiful buffalo skull Kim brought which went onto the life quadrant.

Here's another shot of building the altar.

And here is the buffalo skull with my "Joy" stone in its mouth.

On Sunday, I was serenaded by a bird in a tree as I went to retrieve my Live Arrow from the sacred fire circle.  The arrows had remained outside all night under the moon and stars.

Spider Woman Mountain looks beautiful in the morning!

I came upon the final toning circle.  I had attended two incredible toning sessions in Agape Chapel during the week facilitated by Moss Rock.  Really powerful to voice sounds from the soul.

Live Arrow

The morning session was a celebration of our Live Arrows and letting go of old crap.  This JT was more inward for me and I found myself very peaceful and quiet.

I love this blue ladder.  I shoot a photo of it every year.  It's a ladder to the sky.

And speaking of the sky...damn!

A last prayer by the World Altar.  Lynn says if there is war in the world, there is war inside of us.  What is outside is just a manifestation of what is internal.  To break the cycle of war, we have to start with ourselves.

Beautiful prayers

 
Wonderful Richard, my friend and our registrar for the school.



Suzanne's painting of Bright Cloud Woman

Leaving Ghost Ranch on Monday morning.  The horses didn't want our carrots!!  Hahaha!  They didn't even sniff them, just snorted at us to go away.

We had a little time so started up the drive to Spider Woman Mountain.  When it became obvious it was going to take a while to get there, we pulled over and I shot this photo before we turned around to get going to Albuquerque.

Looking from the other side of Lake Abiquiu towards Ghost Ranch

Next year I'll be visiting you up close and personal, Spider Woman Mountain!!  I promise!

So another year at Joshua Tree on the Mesa ends.  My heart and will are filled with all sorts of powerful tools and teachings to assimilate back into my life in New York and I feel like I traveled a long road of ups and downs this year, only to reach back to the start with new eyes.  I'll continue with my studies at LACSAT and before I know it, it'll be time for Storm Eagle in LA in November.  I am so blessed.






4 comments:

jordanzacksmom said...

lovely, lovely photos Michele!! Such a transformative, uplifting experience it appears...when do I get to accompany you? :)

Unknown said...

Great pictures! Looks like a wonderful place to be:) Thanks for sharing

AnExquisiteLife said...

That was excellent, felt like I was there.. such a beautiful trip in so many ways.. happy for you.. thank you for sharing.!

Mary Alexander said...

This is so beautiful and makes me so nostalgic. I love this land and this circle of people. Thank you so much for sharing all this.