Mother Earth's Children: Splitting the Sky, Walking Strong

Mother Earth's Children: Splitting the Sky, Walking Strong

This morning I found myself during morning prayers, standing once again in the stillness between the seen and unseen, the shadow and the balance of the dark and light of the Cosmos…a tapestry laid before me of all that Is vibrantly alive. At this time of year the Ceremonies of our respective Life Ways begin, once again to bring everyone together. I remembered my brother telling me that when the Prayer is strong, the Ancestors and Helpers gather all around,…yet just beyond a juxtaposing of life force exists and will try to test one's devotion, mind-heart, faith, commitment, to realize the Prayer into reality. 

In 2012, I blogged about Obama's criminal order of insanity, and asked that other well connected journalists bring the "executive order" to the attention of our Elders, our best Indian Lawyers, to our best Environmental Organizations, and to our Medicine Societies.  Why? Because it is the blueprint that is being acted upon by the Mordor's Beast: Corporatocracy of Insanity. 

I now ask you again to read it: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

I ask you to listen to Democracy Now March 17th 2013, where the Military declared war on everyone and everything the Beast decides are "terrorists". http://youtu.be/pCZV3Dy43tU

Who's sons and daughters will they use as fodder for their wars, and at what price to their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual bodies?

And who are these terrorists? If you read the Executive order, it goes as far to define a terrorist as someone who has more that 7 days of food in their home. I have been gathering, growing and preserving food my whole life.

It says that the Military can take anything, water, food, shelter, land, anything, to serve it's purposes to maintain "homeland security". 

The military can take over any and all contracts for what it needs to run it's operations: oil, uranium, WATER…anything. We see the same being implemented in Canada.

Meanwhile in the Land of Enchantment, Home of the Atomic Bomb, which has our own flavor of schizophrenia or is it Stockholm Syndrome: Pueblos make $ deals with the Beast that is poisoning all of us for miles around http://youtu.be/AyYNEbjs47c   and military tactical training goes on in our skies. To name a few goings on here,  to the east, Mora Country is preparing for legal battle with the fracking oil boyz, to the south Cannon Airforce base is being stocked with drones that are already being unleashed in Arizona, to the west Rio Tinto and the Bureau of Interior is making way to open yet another uranium mine, and the Little Colorado is to be siphoned off for the likes of Las Vegas's bright city lights, and to the north along the Colorado and NM boarder the BLM is making negotiations, and environmental studies to drill oil in the watershed because they have "ownership?" All this is going on around what has been designated as a "world heritage site and water preservation area"…..I think about the Revolt of Po'Pay.

Now I was taught in school that I was "crazy", because I was taught to love Mother Earth, that I am a daughter of the land, that we as human's are to live simple lives and not to take more than you need, nor without offering. I am ok with the label of crazy, because I know, those that label me are pathologically criminally insane predators. They know no healthy boundaries, respect no one.  

Yet we have good works, Idle No More, Owe Aku - Moccasins on the Ground, Tarsands Blocade ….we are gathering as Nations to Dismantle the lies of the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and the Papal Bulls, we are making Earth Sanctuaries…we are gathering as families, Clans, Bands and Nations, around the world and so much more.  Here we are still planting the Three Sisters, and living the Prophecies for the One Great Peace as best we know how each day.

It is time now to call upon our deepest strength of love for one another. To make friends and relatives wherever we go and in whatever we do. To nourish clear minds and pure hearts. Follow where Spirit guides us to do good works. Practice generosity, for where you hoard, withhold your love, tools, funds, voice, actions, will only support the suffering. It is only in our unity, that we will make things better for our children and the future generations to come. 

I think Ceremonies are going to be really strong this year.

Other links: 

http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=29739

Pueblo revolt: Po'Pay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt

A Good Day to Be Alive

Your truth stirs mine. 

Between meetings this week 

with the women and sisters 

in my community, 

I found my self once again 

Stalking Truth 

through the archives 

of colonial obfuscated text 

written by patriarchal men 

I in search for lingering traces 

of my matrilineal relations, 

bought and sold into slavery and servitude, 

attempting to heal and reveal 

the blood stained memories 

of who and when the She's 

who are directly related to me 

were murdered without reason...

huddled trying to hide in the tall toolies, 

or in our homes...

this is the war within, 

I ask to come to an end. 

Do not pity, romanticize or forget me. 

For I will cry 

the sweet rivers 

and salty oceans 

into existence again, 

for I am made of the Alchemy of Creation. 

In the warp and weave 

in the seen and unseen

all my relations in timeless union 

with the Dance that sets me free

to midwife prayers for Beauty Way 

and future generations

I know our Mother Earth will birth again 

for I am winyan. 

Today is a good day to be alive.

Muse's About the Colonial Construct

Yes I acknowledge my anger, the violations and grief I feel, some of it is genetic memory, this life's memory, and memory is not my now, and some of it is now. I remember an older woman who yelled at a young woman "If you do not know what to do, SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!, LISTEN AND WATCH!" The woman who was being yelled at had not been raised traditional, and the force of the anger did make the her sit and listen. For many years I saw her do that and because she was not thrown out, she learned. But there is more to the story. The bully pulpit went to far and the young woman who was learning was followed by older woman into the kitchen where younger woman was learning how to feed the People. The older woman began to yell at the young woman in the kitchen. The caregiver of the kitchen, stopped the older woman, and explained that only prayer, song and good feelings were to be around the foods being prepared, otherwise, the People will become sick. The young woman, found love and peace in the kitchen, while she listened and learned. This example is in part what we are saying about the destruction to our Mother Earth - she provides and gives Life. Most people do not know how to live in Mother Earth's "kitchen".  I also think this is why our actions through Dance, Song and Prayer even during our resistance are so important. Understanding how to use the Obsidian Blade of Truth, and then heal and learn in a safe environment is beneficial so as not to cause more generational trauma.

I also remember a time, when a man who was not raised on the rez returned. He was in his 50's and his clan was preparing to give him Rites of Passage into manhood. A young woman went to uncle and said "Uncle he is old, I thought the Rites are for when he is younger". Uncle told her, "We always keep the door open. We do not judge what is in spirit's time. We are happy when our relatives come home, and it is our responsibility to do these things whenever that time is."  I think today that it is time for the keepers of the old patriarchal colonial paradigm to move over, sit down and shut up. And I think that for this to happen, I must stalk first what is in me to recognize the colonial construct and it's imprint upon my own mind, feelings, and ways of being. The insidiousness of the construct comes through willingly adopted (generationally internalized and taught through family) and unwillingly imposed (because of violence) imprints. It also continues through the slavery model of money. The natural instinct to survive and the colonial imprint is genderless and is seen in both males and females, and therefore there is competition.

If I do not decolonize the colonial construct internally, then I can not recognize the difference between what is happening to be merely a regime change, or something that will really lead humanity to Peace and living in balance and harmony with our Mother Earth again. So what really pisses me off right now? When ppl take anyone's words, and intellectual property for reasons of personal gain and prestige because it is done without even the minimum of acknowledgement from whence it came. So while I hear people espouse that the US constitution came from the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the reality of US colonialism is so far from that reality...and I have only been blessed to hear 20 minutes of their Great Law of Peace, which I was told actually takes 8 DAYS to hear it All. I know that if this were to be shared along with the totality of the Great Law's Life Ways...it would take the rest of my life and then some just to begin the journey.

Last year a Yarrabah Elder Bob, said that he believes that there are those that are willing to listen and learn today. So the question for me is with 350M ppl in the US alone: Is it better to educate and make allies, or risk http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/5/kill_list_exposed_leaked_obama_memo....because we already know both the fast and slow genocidal actions of the Colonial world, past and current. So I think that it will take great knowing of one's self to be able to know how to teach and lead others without being corrupted in the process.

Life Ways that protect Food Sovereignty is a Birth Right.

When I talk of food sovereignty...and the rights of Mother Earth, all Peoples, and All Life...I always mention being in Guatemala in 1969 and what the resistance looked like then...it was understood by both the People and the Governor and Government of Guatemala City that there was in fact a "war" going on between those who were Indigenous to the land and the Colonized mind of progress and consumption that was and still is, ravaging the Life Ways of the People across the planet. My friends and I were asked to give a lift to some friends that needed to return to the city. We traveled unpaved mountain roads for many miles, until a few people came into our headlights. All bounded into our vehicle happily - guns and all. Me...? well there was not anything I could do except, accept that this was reality, and life and death became the sweet inhale and exhale of every breath. Later in the week, our friends invited us to go with them to the Governors Mansion Ball. 

I asked why they were going to the Ball. They explained that everyone knew who everyone was, and if the Governor was going to serve up a fiesta on the backs of the People, at the expense of the Mother and her People's Life Ways and "resources"...they were going, and they were going to sing, dance, pray and enjoy themselves. After all, if they are going to put on a big fiesta, while many People go hungry because they were removed from their homelands, it was their Right to be there. I said "well in the USA we are not allowed to go, we have to be invited and pay a lot of money to get to go, and if we do go we risk getting arrested." But they already knew that, and I knew why they were fighting as they did...because they felt alone, no one hearing them, if they were at their last stand, they would die for the Mother...and so they tried to fight might with might. Even at my virgin age, I knew the oppressive nature of the US and Corporate worldview, that had imprisoned my father for his refusal to be complicit in the government-corporate genocidal wars. My Guatemalan friends smiled, and told me that the Governments and Corporations do not own anything, they do not own Mother Earth, no matter how many contracts they sign without the People's consent, and they most certainly do not own the People.

I understood then what I understand now, one day the awakening will come to the colonized world, that we can not live without harmonious relation with our Mother Earth and each other. In the fall of 2011 a military copter hovered over the field of corn I was planting in the beautiful foothills of Northern New Mexico. I looked up into the cockpit of the copter as it's blade-wind blew all around me, at the two soldiers looking back at me, and then turned again to my planting. I knew that the awakening was no longer a vision somewhere distant upon the horizon....

There was a time growing up that the food that was collectively planted and wild-crafted in our village, or by collective families, was enough to sustain us from one harvest until the next harvest. It was understood what our collective gifts from the Mother were: water, field crops, mountain wild foods, wild game, and preservation practices...and these were all shared equally amongst us. All this, is still active knowledge in our community...yet, there are more mouths than what we currently produce agriculturally...in other words there are fewer people actively producing and gathering foods, than the number of mouths to feed.

So what happens when the con-ag truck does not come? We have a choice today in how we will choose to collaborate with each other. Life Ways that protect Food Sovereignty is a Birth Right. Idle No More!

Secretary Salazar visits Taos: Rio Grande del Norte Proposal to Become a Historical Preservation Site

I look out upon the fresh new snow, grateful for what moisture in any form tungashila blesses us with. I am contemplating what I heard or read about today. A morning prayer ceremony for our youth who are troubled and/or have taken their lives at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge... and then the Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar, Congressman Ben Lujan, et. all presentation, which included hearing from Taos Pueblo Governor Laureano Romero and Lt. Governor Gilbert Suazo Sr. and all our villages about the proposal to make the Rio Grande del Norte a historical preservation site....Secretary Salazar began the presentation with a comment about how proud he is about gas and oil development in New Mexico. He ended the presentation with a statement "Let me make this understood, this designation will in no way infringe upon or take away grazing rights, right to fire wood, plants or fish and game. It will not take away your right to live as you have been." Hmmm, I should be happy right? I should put my skepticism away right? Was everyone in favor of the designation? Yes. Have I read the designation? No. Do I trust Roberta Salazar of Rivers and Birds when she says this is a good thing? Yes.
Yet I still muse....

I asked Ben Ray Lujan how this would help protect our Rights, when Harper is in the process of breaking Indigenous Treaty Rights, and the US Government has no better record...he said he did not know what was happening in Canada, but would certainly look into it, and was in support of Indigenous Rights.

The questions that went un-answered that many of us had:

"Will this designation help us heal our youth, preserve our language, Life Ways, and Cultures...our Right to Live with our Mother as we have for thousands of years? Our Right to clean Water, Earth and Air?...Our Right to have the heavy metal contaminated Red River (that flows into the Rio Grande) super fund site in Questa cleaned up? Our Right NOT to have our skies taken over by the military for tactical war training & re-fueling by air contamination? Our Right to have the nuclear waste at area G at LANL cleaned up, that for decades has been contaminating the Rio Grande and the Pueblo waters south of us? Our Right to have all Uranium mines closed? Will it protect us from the Oil boys fracking on the other side of the mountain, or stop the XL-Pipeline crossing the Oglala aquifer which are waters of life that interconnect the Comanche, Cheyenne, Lakota, Indio-Hispanic and all Peoples of this region?....Will this designation insure that the Cycle of Water is protected in the way it feeds our aquifers, and springs?" 

No, this is just a proposed "designation"...it is, and will continue to be, UP TO US, to protect our Waters of Life. Regardless if we get the designation of the Rio Grande del Norte as a historical preservation site...we la gente, have been and will continue to protect her. History and current events tell us, that despite treaties, "designations", laws, etc...our politicians have NOT protected our Life Ways, our Earth, Water and Air...and in fact abused the element of Fire.

So, I am thinking about the call to the One Humanity that has agreed to this 2012 galactic party, even though my Elders told me 15-18 years ago that the date was irrelevant..."you are aware and conscious or you are not"...

So if you have agreed to show up for this global-galactic prayer...remember there are many that have been doing their best each day to maintain their Life Ways, the Ceremonies and Prayers for generations...and that we will retreat no more...the Prayer IS IN MOTION....we are Idle No More.....and it will take all of us, everyday, in whatever Ways we are called,  to do something for the greater good of All Life, for the generations to come.

I think that the most concerning thing I see is that our People's are not able to produce enough food, gather enough herbs, berries and nuts, ask for fish, deer, or elk, to sustain all the people who now live here locally. This is a fact, not fiction. Ultimately this 2012 "shift" is not only about "Being Love and Living Love and Light" it is about lifestyle changes. Food, Way of Life (language and culture) and mental health are also at the foundation of a healthy culture... Is it time for you to become dedicated to learning how to live with Mother Earth and Father Sky? Grandmother is building a Seed-Sanctuary for the preservation of our seed, organizations are implementing urban gardens, a local school built a green house, local and regional Curanderas are teaching as many as possible about good diet and healing herbs....yet there is much, much, more to be done. Please do not ever leave the preservation of the Water of Life to politics. And, if we do get this designation, let us use it to strengthen and unify about the aforementioned concerns in our region. ~ April Mondragon

A Heart Song to All My Relations

A Heart Song

to

All my Relations

 of the 

Heart of the West  

Heart of the East

Heart of the North

Heart of the South

All Around the Sacred Hoop of Life

 to the Beloved Heart of All Beings,

 to the Heart of Beloved Pachamama

to the Heart of 

Beloved Luna and Beloved Taawa

to the Beloved Heart of Cosmos

to Beloved Heart Within

In 2009

the 

Rainbow Arborealis, Spirit Fire

was Born

to melt the Hearts of Masculine

In 2012

The Rainbow Borealis Serpent Fire 

was Born

to restore 

the Creative Life Source

of the Feminine

Both now merged as

One

Grandmother's

Long Ride Home

healing generational trauma

in the Heart of the West

Grandmother's

Clarity of Mind

in the Heart of the East

ushering new beginnings

for generations to come

Mind, Heart, Body and Spirit

a world in balance

wanowa ka ta se

resilient

Spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge

Eternal Cosmic Law

A Heart Song

to 

All my relations

you are the Messengers

the Midwives 

Wisdom Keepers

Dream Keepers

Mother Earth and Father Sky's

Children

Now is our Time

the Dreamtime restored

Listen to the Living

Heart Song

Seed Our Traditions

Cultivate

Being

Practice

Generosity

Compassion

Speak Truth and Wisdom

Re-teach the Language of Beauty

to Every Being

Peace

Now is our Time

Collaborate

Celebrate

this Brings

Good Health and Strength

Prophecies fullfilling 

Now

Answered by

Living them

within

Love

© ~ April Mondragon

Winyon Woniya

My musings today only reflect that which has been taking place in the very recent past or at this moment. In writing, which becomes the past as soon as it is written, I can only convey and draw upon that which I am living.  It is for this reason that all Indigenous Peoples have Oral Traditions of which are shared while living them. This is why we consider the Oral Traditions as being living and the written, dead. This is not to say that one is better than the other. Both Life and Death have their purpose in Being. 

Being, is only accessible in the now. All matters of healing are accessible in any given moment, depending on the capacity one has to receive it. What each of us choose to do, think, feel, attach or detach from, heal, sing, be,  in the present moment is a choice one makes. This morning I chose to write this song, as my dreaming heart song wanted to speak to you with love. ~ BearSense

What do you think of Our Lady of Guadalupe?

Dear BearSense, 

What do you think of this FB Site? https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guadalupanas-and-Guadalupanos-Unite-in-Prayer-to-Tear-Down-the-Wall/471200326236355

hmmm, can't answer your inquiry with a short answer....but if I did

I would ask why are they hanging onto a paradigm shaped by the last world?

Long answer:

http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one=azt&two=god&id=519&typ=reg

in the Temezcal, even today we sing to Tonantzin, and we did this at a recent Gathering as well...another thoughtful comment http://www.xispas.com/archives/virgin/virgin.htm * with a short

exception that Quezalcoatl is not a "he"...lol

In considering how the "Church's worldview" has greatly influenced interpretations

of the wisdom and knowledge of Indigenous mind-heart and history, I would agree

that Our Lady indeed made a bridge between the Indigenous and Colonizers, 

in that she pledged that they would survive the genocide if they understood her role. 

I have said that the feminine went to great lengths to insure the survival of her

children, including but not limited to willingly adopting the dominant culture's religions, language, life ways ( patriarchal mind), and marrying or being sold into families with power and to lighten their skin. This in fact was in part what my mothers did in the attempt to insure the survival of our linage after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo. 

Larry M. said that "our ancestors knew that much would be smashed in the feminine and so kept hidden much knowledge and wisdom". If I were to write today about the appearance of Coatlaxopeuh I might suggest that she was giving the message about the destruction to Coatl (feminine/serpent/earth) that has come to pass and is being healed in at this very moment. I would also add the message that Hohongwitutiwa shared from Hopi

"no matter what happens or how much destruction you see or experience stay true to our Mother Earth (Tonantzin). Do not be afraid to die, she loves you, you are her children."...

We are children of the marriage between Earth and Sky.

There are many faces of the Feminine, yet each play a distinctive role in the life, death, rebirth process, healing arts, the art of dialogue (language) and the sciences. It is for this reason that the masculine goes to great lengths to protect, nourish and revere her. When he could not do so the loss was great for him in so many ways during the last world...and for many has left them still struggling

to understand their relationship with the feminine.

However the masculine I have recently come to know in the Condor half of the world are incredibly beautiful in their shift and open process

from patriarchal imprinted behavior/mind to one of balance with the feminine as they embody the depth of love, courage, gentle strength, willing generosity and necessary providing for her at this time. I think that some never really left their roots with Mother Earth. For others I found their willingness and relationship with the feminine within themselves, swift in shifting their fears, insecurities, anger, ego, and mis-placed blame to coming into balance with the haven of feminine love, compassion, and forgiveness. Many are also working tirelessly to

provide for women, and make venues available for them to do their work.

As in all things as the Grandmother's ask us to be the love that we are. If you go to my FB page there is a post by a woman who asked them (when she saw them in Nepal) : "what are we to do right now?" https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4715069070789&set=a.1130096968727.2020851.1116303179&type=1&theater

So what are you willing to let go of to stand in the light and love of who you are?

Much Love and Peace, 

BearSense