Dear Friends and Family,

I see that I am right on time, at the equinox following the one when I wrote last fall! That's a little humor, since it has been a long time since I gave you an update! We have been intensely and happily occupied, getting ourselves on the ground at Earth Heart Sanctuary. Sunny did take enough time out from building to make me some wonderful clothes from the deer hides we tanned. This one is my winter dress, which turned out to be more like an ancient shaman's ceremonial dress!

GETTING ON THE GROUND

     Because it has been an extremely mild winter (Do we get that global warming is real yet??), we have been able to continue our building of the studio greenhouse you see in the photos. It was begun in October, and we have gotten this far: greenhouse is complete and receiving soil; exterior of the studio living space behind it and the office / craft room above are complete. We have yet to do the final plumbing and electrical, inner walls upstairs, cabinets, flooring and other finishing, plus the big porch that will wrap around the back half of the circle.

       One of the great joys is that we are not going into debt doing it! We hope to serve others through modeling a way to do this; several important things contribute. We are: 1) doing our own work, except in rare instances where we do not have the equipment to dig septics, etc., 2) finding as much recycled material as possible, 3) using materials from the land, and 4) perhaps most important, keeping it small and simple.

1) Although Sunny has experience in building, he is not an expert at any one thing. Our results are not perfect, and we face interesting challenges along the way, yet it is do-able. Because he has always chosen warmer climates in which to homestead, he has no experience with double walls, insulation, pipes buried 6 feet down, regular electricity, etc. So, he learns from knowledgeable folks around us, gets good books, opens his heart to universal intelligence, and goes for it!

2) We found an absolutely wonderful source of recycled building materials. A place called Home Resource in Missoula is the gathering place for almost everything and anything you can think of - from beautiful old hardwood doors, to sinks, lighting, wood, glass, and buckets of miscellaneous screws. All of the huge windows for the greenhouse (recycled aquarium and sliding glass doors) cost us only $200, and all the studio windows, not even that much. We also found some very useful things at Habitat for Humanity, a wonderful organization, where they, as well, are now collecting recycled building materials.

3) Our land is rich in building materials, logs, stones, etc. As we cleared space for meadows in the middle of dense forest, we used and traded for lumber. We will build our small log home of Earth Heart lodgepole in the next year or so. (Speaking of logs and recycling, reminds me that we bought some beautiful cedar lumber, plus logs for my medicine lodge / healing cabin, from a man whose cedar forest had been killed in a fire.) As digging took place, we gathered stones to be used in our Count Rumford fireplace. We'll use the little streams as much as possible for watering our gardens.

4) Keeping it simple (although functional and beautiful) is a major contributing factor to keeping ourselves out of debt. The entire building you see is only 36 feet around, 16 sided, the uprights made of logs and the center pole a fir from our forest. Half of it is greenhouse, which will feed us and warm our space, even as we use our main barrel stove to share heat with the plants on cold winter days. The back half might be described as a studio apartment, yet has all the space we need. Brooke has her office and craft, as well as storage, space on the second floor. The large porch will give us warm weather, space‚ a worm composting toilet is attached to the bathroom (This works very well, more info if you are interested); other small and inexpensive buildings which do not need plumbing and electrical will serve many other functions, and this studio will become a guest house / gathering center once we get our log home built.

This summer we will add a garage/workshop and car ports, plus a food storage cellar and a sauna - dug into a bank near the greenhouse. If we have enough volunteer help, we may even get to do the even more fun projects of creating small earth shelters, tent and tipi shelters, and my small cedar log cabin (which will tune us up on how to build log cabins before we begin constructing our home).

NURTURING THE WEB OF LIFE

All this building is only part of the process of getting ourselves on the ground and nurturing the web of life. Another vital piece of the puzzle is getting gardens and orchards planted and productive, creating a food forest! It's exciting to have the greenhouse done so that we can start some things there right away. We have found nearby some of the most wonderful soil I have ever seen! It is from a pond excavation of an ancient alluvial fan left by a glacier. Over its long travels, it has accumulated rock dust, which means it is full of minerals (which are lacking in most all of our American soil today, no thanks‚ primarily to  chemical agribusiness) and it contains what my guidance has called, ancient DNA‚ which is untouched and unchanged by all the pollution, chemicals, genetic engineering, etc. that is changing the web of life in ways that are not good for its healthy continuance. I'm told that we will create, with this earth and the pristine water, a kind of mother essence‚ that can be given to other growers and producers in homeopathic doses, thus enriching and uplifting the whole valley. The Bitterroot Valley is a wonderful place, having always been a rich gardening center, where there is deep interest in making ourselves self-sufficient. (By the way, we have been told to purchase as much of this magical soil as possible, hopefully 20 or more big dump-truck loads at $120 a load. If you would like to sponsor one or more loads, please see inviting your support.

Next, we need to get fences up to keep our many deer, elk, moose, and bear neighbors out of the garden and orchard areas. Eventually, when we get goats and chickens, we will need to fence the meadows so that we don't feed the huge packs of wolves all our animal friends and family. (The packs come in and often wipe out complete ranches of animals, including cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, whatever, so they need to be controlled and learn some respect for those who live near them in the wilderness.)

We are spreading grass seed and wild flower mixes in the areas we have opened to the light. We'll put in every kind of berry bush that will grow in our high country, as well as all such hardy fruit trees. And Sunny loves to have flowers abounding, so this will be a very magical and beautiful place.

TIME OUT

We have spent very little time away from the land. One trip last September was to Idaho, when we took our little gypsy wagon (which we have been living in at Earth Heart while we build) to Rabbitstick Rendezvous. This gathering of some of the finest aboriginal skills practitioners and teachers is a wonderful, inexpensive, camping week on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River. Sunny taught folks how to turn their buckskins into useable items of clothing and pouches. Classes were available in everything from basket making to snares, kayak construction, hide tanning, and herbal preparation, to mention only a few. See the Rabbitstick Rendezvous website at http://www.backtracks.net or phone them at 208-359-2400.

Brooke traveled east to Rosemary Gladstar's herbal gathering (and will again this June (see Calendar), and to work with Jackie Lowe Stevenson's Wolf Creek woman and others in the Cleveland area. She has also continued attending her Healing the Light Body shamanic training with Alberto Villoldo's Four Winds group. Awakening this new aspect of her work has been a pleasure for her personally, and a gift to those with whom she does private healing work in person and on the phone.

We'll be journeying across the mountain to the beautiful Blacktail Ranch in early June for a special and unusual gathering: in which we, Renee Baribeau, and Maria Elena, will be offering new ways of being for our Earth walk, discovering how to NOT DO the old, inharmonious, unconscious way and through singing, dancing, horseback riding, vision questing, sweat lodge and opening to Creation, experience new and unified ways to live. You are invited to join us for a very magical and transformative time there. (See Calendar)

COMING TO HELP AND LEARN

This summer there is an opportunity to come help us do our projects at Earth Heart and learn as you do. Our accommodations will be simple and rustic, and everyone there will help with all tasks, from building to gardening to food preparation, as is appropriate.

Although Sunny won't be slowing down much from his intense focus on projects, Brooke will be welcoming people to come on healing retreat and vision quest. Our land, although only 40 acres, is quite beautiful, and we are also near the Frank Church Wilderness area, where there is exquisite back country to explore. (See Offerings)

You will be able to join in fun projects like creating natural beaver dams on the stream to deepen some pools for swimming. In the heat of late July and August, these would be choice assignments, for sure.

HEAVEN ON EARTH

I certainly hope you have all seen Al Gore's profoundly informative (and Academy Award winning) documentary on global warming: An Inconvenient Truth. This crisis we humans have helped create is one of the major challenges we face on Earth today.

Our personal response at Earth Heart is to create Heaven on Earth, as much as we possibly can, through our energy and expression living simply and in Love. To keep a high, joyous, free. open and creative vibration is a gift to ourselves and to our world.  We are creating a living environment that supports and nurtures more life and more diversity of animals as well as beautiful, medicinal and edible plants. Thus, we leave behind a place that is more abundant than we we arrived there. Right now, our human family is destroying each other, the delicate web of life, the balance of Nature, the future of all life on this beautiful planet. We are Earth Heart are in service of helping people understand how to live in harmony and balance with each other, All Our Relations, and our Earth: Lady Gaia herself.

Wishing you an uplifting, magical, joyful and harmoniously creative Spring! 
Ho, Midtak Oyasin -For All Our Relations.

Brooke and Sunny   

  Autumn Equinox 2006

Dear friends and family,
    I realize that I have been a bit out of touch. Some of it is just simply enjoying a quieter life; some of it loving my restful and sweet time with Sunny; and in the meantime, we have been very focused on finding the perfect place for our Earth Heart Wild Life Sanctuary and FlowerSong Gardens. I'm thrilled to announce:  WE HAVE IT, and IT'S PAID FOR! Our friend and benefactor Sally Hill has helped us create this foundation for a way of beauty in the world, many thanks to her generous heart.

Finding our dream:  After thinking we had it two different times, the third was a charm and it is ours. It is 30 miles from Darby, a very small town at the lower end of the Bitterroot Valley here in Montana (we had wanted to stay in this area and continue with the community here, so it's a bit on the edge), yet we love the special feeling of it when we are there. It's 40 beautiful acres on the West Fork of the Bitterroot, only 1/8 mile off the highway on good gravel road , the highway itself goes for only 8 more miles, then branches to gravel roads into the enormous wilderness around us. There is a large reservoir a mile away for recreation and fishing, and a natural hot springs up in the mountains.

One of the most important things we required was good and plentiful water, and our quarter mile of "Moose Creek" is classed as pristine; behind us a few miles is a 200 foot waterfall; and beyond that is roadless wilderness. Springs come out of the little hillsides, and several small ponds are naturally created. It's a bit high in elevation for gardening, so it's good that Sunny is a greenhouse magician. We just invested in some of the finest greenhouse material available, that we found on half price sale, yippee!

Sanctuary, gardens and wild family:    The land has the wonderful feeling of sanctuary that we wanted for ourselves and those who come to retreat/learn with us. Within the surrounding National Forest lie our 40, + 160 more private acres; all the owners have made safe space for the moose, elk and deer whose home it is. When first exploring there with a couple of students, we were surprised by a young male moose who was very curious about us and didn't really seem afraid. It turns out that everyone there knows him by his one odd horn, he's just part of the family. We have bear and even wolves from time to time. The challenge will be to keep all these "neighbors" out of our gardens and orchards, so we will make a 6 foot picket fence to discourage them from eating our food. Getting ready for next spring's garden is our number one priority right now.

Varied land and vegetation:   The land is in several benches: the first a rather dry area filled with a special variety of huge ponderosa pine that will get good winter sun; the next a bench of lodgepole pine (tall, straight, and perfect for all the log buildings we will do), and then down onto the level of the stream where fir, aspen, alder, and sub-irrigated grasses make a green and beautiful park, as well as a good garden area. The only building is a tiny old historic log cabin that once was a school. I definitely think that we will stay youthful and fit doing all the homesteading work ourselves!

Riches and resources:    So we have privacy, quiet, good water, building materials, garden space, excellent health and a paid-for place. At first we thought our partner Sally might think it too far out from town (since she is not in such good health and wants to live up there with us), yet she got totally enthused when she saw it and went for it. She and I hold it in joint tenancy, and she sees it as a legacy of beauty and harmony that she will leave the world --a half million dollar gift! AND she is willing to help us keep this Sky Lodge home until next year when we can get settled at Earth Heart. Our contact information remains the same for now.

Dedicated home:    Since it is very late in the season to be creating something there from bare land, we are in a bit of a crunch to get wells, electricity/solar, and living space created. (That makes having time be down here in the valley, on the computer and on the phone, especially challenging. Our cell phone doesn't work up there. So I'll do my best to stay in touch.) We are now drawing up plans for a round straw bale greenhouse/shop/office space in which we can stay while we build our log home (then it will be a great place for guests, students and retreatants). We are dedicating this Earth Heart land as our home, and as a model / teaching retreat for a harmonious, flowering, beauty-filled, sustainable and graceful way of life. We'll be letting you know about our projects and inviting you to assist us in completing those projects. We'll be contributing what resources we have, and our total life energy!  

Sacred relationship and daily life:

   Sunny and I feel incredibly blessed, especially through our relationship. We get along with ease and sweetness, enjoying our 24/7 time together every minute, and taking great pleasure in making real our mutual vision of home / sanctuary / flowering gardens! When he first came to me, he said that he wished to serve the Goddess through serving me, giving me nourishing food, natural clothing, sustaining shelter, and cherishing love, even though he had no money. Thanks be to the Goddess, we live a truly rich and harmonious, though simple life, and I treasure him beyond all things. We are deeply committed in marriage to each other and to our wonderful land.
    Using the deer hides tanned this summer, we have been making clothing. My sweetheart fashioned me an exquisite winter dress, that is supposed to be my everyday dress and is truly more of a fur-trimmed Siberian shaman's ceremonial garment, with elk teeth, abalone, Turkistani silver, and beading! He just finished a simple, western-style workshirt for himself, with fringe on the shoulders and arms, and unusually beautiful beading on the yoke.
   So, folks, all is VERY well with us. Although I will travel some this autumn to complete my training in shamanic healing and do some teaching, we plan to basically be home and busy. We will look forward to seeing you here in the beauty of Montana's high country when you can come........we'll keep your hands busy alongside of us!

Stay in touch:

And in the meantime, stay in touch with our progress on our website. Along with laboring / playing on the land, I'm in the process of adding an Earth Heart Sanctuary section to it, with a photo gallery. We will be inviting you to learn through working with us, on all our projects that are focused toward a harmonious, sustainable way of living; these lifeways are what we will model and share with you. So be on the lookout for apprenticeships / workshops on natural building, greenhouse construction, no-turn gardening, earth shelters, log cabin construction, hide tanning and clothing construction, and other aboriginal skills.

This October, there is a chance to work with Sunny on building the greenhouse / living space while Brooke is gone teaching. Exchanges of learning and labor are possible. As many of you already know, being with Sunny is a deep learning process with lots of personal growth thrown in!

Private Consultations

Sunny and I both continue to love sharing with you individually in private phone sessions. The shamanic healing I am learning is growing stronger and clearer; it's a joy to mentor you and be with you in your growth, learning and blossoming! Call Pam for setting up a consultation time.

    Many blessings to each and every one of you. Thank you so much for your prayers and support all during the time we held our vision of this sanctuary land!  

Back letters from Brooke  

February 2006

Bitterroot Valley, Montana

Dear friends and family,

The months have passed quickly as I have rested back into the sweetness of my home here in the Bitterroot and my partnership with Sunny. After 35 years on the road, this is such a special treat! Our focus has been on putting our lives together, an interesting task for two people accustomed to leading, and is certainly a beautiful work in progress.

One primary bonding we experience is that of a mutual and radiant vision, Earth Heart Sanctuary.  Our dream is finding a home place where it is easy and graceful to create our life and livlihood, and is also a retreat where we can welcome you to experience the peace and beauty of sanctuary, as well as a harmonious and sustainable way of living. Sunny has devoted himself to searching for our perfect homestead in 4 or 5 states. The simplest things seem to be the most difficult to find in combination: excellent water rights on year-round stream and/or springs which we can gravity feed to our home & garden; good climate for gardening and outdoor living; remote-feeling yet accessible; opportunity to build and create our own home and gathering places; inspiring, magnificent views; ++. We look forward to a simple life of beauty and harmony, living an ancient way with modern technologies that are supportive to all life. (We recently had the joy of flying into a private, remote 240 acres in the Salmon River wilderness area of Idaho, where we spent the night with horses, elk, and a small pack of wolves! It wasn't our place but it was a great adventure.)

Wherever we are this summer, we will be offering the opportunity for you to retreat with us in a place of beauty. Coming into that radiant place, quieting your mind, calling vision in nature's uplifting energy; distilling your essence and focusing on your heart's path, learning hide tanning and aboriginal skills, gardening with us, and many more possibilities await you! We'll be inviting those who want to learn to build with natural materials as we find our home place and begin the creative process of making it our own.

Right now I'm thoroughly enjoying being on the land here at Sky Lodge, looking out over miles of snow-capped peaks. Sunny and I are building a beautiful little gypsy wagon for being home while we roam. In the meantime, we have been beautifying our log cabin home and grounds, with plans to put it on the market this spring. We prefer to sell it ourselves, so check our website in March for full information and photos. Speaking of sales, I am planning a fund-raiser for Earth Heart Sanctuary by selling many of the exquisite Native and special things I have collected over the years. In order to simplify, I now wish for someone else love, honor and hold them. Again, be looking on my website for these wonderful offerings!

    During hunting season, we gathered 14 beautiful deer hides from the processors and prepared them for tanning. During that same time, we attended Rabbit Stick Rendezvous, an aboriginal skills camp on Henry's Fork of the Snake River near Rexburg, ID, where Sunny has taught for many years. He demonstrated making a twisted rabbit fur blanket, one of the warmest and most sensual robes I have ever felt!  It was wonderful to renew some of the skills that I have not practiced much since my "In the Cradle of Mother Earth" gatherings a decade ago.

Click for larger picture.

 I've been pleased to share time with many of you in private consultations: Spirit sends through wonderful support and resources for each person to move forward in a really good way. Being able to work with gently releasing old trauma through the Somatic Experiencing work, and to promote healing in the Inka way -  at the level of the light body, before things become physical, is vital and powerful.

We keep up with the cosmic news, which matches our own experience, of both the challenges and possiblities of living Heaven on Earth as we move into this new time. We know that wherever we are and whatever we are doing, the most important piece is to hold a high and clear and happy and grateful vibration which magnetizes even more of those energies for ourselves and for All Our Relations. So I invite you, too, to hold these positive energies as we watch the sludge from an old and unworkable way of living be swirled to the surface and washed away.

Wishing you sweet and beautiful days,

Brooke and Sunny  

August 2005

Dear friends and family,
So many wonderful things have happened since I posted my last letter to you that I hardly know where to begin! The first thing is that I have come home to my new Sky Lodge in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. This sweet hillside log sanctuary, set on an evergreen-covered hillside that overlooks the beautiful river valley stretching far to the south and west to the white peaks of the Bitterroot Selway wilderness across the valley. Just up the creek a few minutes is another wilderness area. Community is present with friends who live on the lovely ranch below me and across the creek in a pyramid owned by a shamanic artist who does seasonal ceremony and special gatherings. It's 35 minutes from an airport and our major Montana city of Missoula, a very conscious and wonderful university town. (And, in case of need, getting to my folks on the Crow Rez is only an hour by plane or an 8 hour drive.) This Sky Lodge home is an incredible gift from the Goddess, made possible through the love and support of three wonderful women who believe in me and what I can offer to the world.

 I've been totally focused on creating a simple and sweet retreat space for you to come join me -- to spend time learning, quieting, hiking the wilderness, fly-fishing the river, and/or vision questing in the nearby forest. At present there are tipis and several tent spaces, and even a small room inside. (For more about these offerings, click here.) The image / prayer of me standing on the porch, welcoming you - that many of you held for me - is now a reality! It definitely feels like finally coming home for me, and I want it to feel that way to you, as well.

 AND, the most amazing experience in my life is that my heart-mate, my beloved partner Sunny, has found his way home to me!! I'm creating a whole section of the website to share him with you more fully, so I will simply say here that he has lived his life as a natural man, living an aboriginal lifestyle, creating paradisiacal communities in the wilderness with huge organic gardens, orchards, and homes built of natural materials from the land. He not only speaks and teaches about Earth harmony, he lives it more fully than anyone I have ever met; he is a master of voluntary simplicity and sustainable living, creating beauty and peace wherever he walks. Sunny is in love with life on this sweet Earth and walks a path of honor and harmony upon her. Rumi's lines are a wonderful statement of his way of being: "Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundred of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

He wrote me a letter 15 years ago, telling me that he was making real the vision of Earth harmony I expressed in Buffalo Woman Comes Singing, yet we did not meet until my friend Gael told him recently that he and I would have much in common. He wrote to me, offering to serve the Goddess through serving me. As we corresponded and talked on the phone, we realized that we were in love. All that was left was to see if we liked each other! And we do. In the short time we have been together, we have become not only lovers and partners, but best friends. I'm honored to simply know him and be in his presence, and it's extraordinarily sweet to be heart-mates as well. This Mary Oliver poem expresses much about his life: 

The Sun Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful than the way the sun, every evening relaxed and easy, floats toward the horizon and into the clouds or the hills, or the rumpled sea, and is gone‚ and how it slides again out of the blackness, every morning, on the other side of the world, like a red flower streaming upward on its heavenly oils, say, on a morning in early summer, at its perfect imperial distance‚ and have you ever felt for anything such wild love‚ do you think there is anywhere, in any language, a word billowing enough for the pleasure that fills you, as the sun reaches out,as it warms you as you stand there,empty-handed‚ or have you too turned from this world‚ or have you too gone crazy for power, for things?

Right now we are looking for a place in this garden valley of Montana to create a more sustainable sanctuary than we have here at Sky Lodge. We need a spring, running water, meadows, and more privacy to create a model of harmonious, sustainable living -- with earth lodges and a small tipi village where you can come and learn from us by joining us in the life we live. In the meantime, we will be offering teaching and healing from where we are. Click here for retreat. I know you will love Sunny, and find both his presence and his way of teaching through example to be profoundly beneficial.

And besides all that, I think he's handsome and beautiful, all 6'4" of him. My girlfriend Charla, upon seeing this photo of him in his breechcloth putting up tipis poles, suggested that he 'be the centerfold for the August Moccasin Telegraph'! He tans hides and makes his own beautiful buckskin clothes, and has made me some lovely things as well. He is an artist in everything he does, and has offered his art and crafts to the world since he was young (After a winter of crafting, we will be offering you many beautiful items of buckskin clothing, medicine bags, etc. ). One fun thing he loves to do is create exquisite little gypsy caravans, with hardcarved wood and his own stained glass windows. I am selling my RV as fast as I can, and we will create a little traveling wagon for ourselves to camp and wander in complete comfort.

Just like his name implies, Sunny is a happy person with a radiant smile, choosing to live in Heaven on Earth. His East Indian master told him that he was one of the few who walk the sunlit path -- achieving enlightenment through love and joy, rather than through pain and suffering. He had the extraordinary gift 20 years ago of an experience of enlightenment which allows him to truly live in Oneness with everything, and in Love with life! He and I agree on the basic thing we have to offer the world, and that is the vibration we create -- one of love, harmony, sweetness, beauty, and a model of sustainable, gracious living. We look forward to bringing you into that high, sweet vibration, both at home and in the exquisite wilderness just minutes away.

Another way of expressing our Earth walk is sacred relationship. It is the keynote of our lives and work, both in relationship to each other and in relationship to all the life of Earth. I was told recently in vision that we are to be the carriers of one of the sacred Marriage Baskets which symbolize the balance of masculine and feminine energy vital for all life. One of the things Sunny will be offering, especially for men, is learning how to love and support the Goddess through women (and have a joyful life as a result!) He is deeply trained in Tantric practice, and has spent years learning how to love the Goddess the way she wants to be loved. We both feel that the energy of our love, as well as this transformative time we are in, will help bring other people's heart-mates to them as well. We invite you to retreat with us to learn more about coming into Sacred Relationship.

So much for my 'brief' statement about Sunny ….. more from and about him as I can get it posted!

My time at Blacktail Ranch this year was exquisite. In all the 25 years I have spent there, this was the sweetest, greenest, gentlest, most flower-filled time ever! My teaching assistant Heather Tiddens brought her wonderful energy and powerful yoga. We moved toward beauty and harmony in our lives through the natural world of Blacktail, through the trauma release work I offer, and through the somatic practices we shared. There were many personal transformations, and participants left with greater life skills for creating a beautiful life for themselves and for the planet.

I'm looking forward to spending more time at home and creating a beautiful and flowering sanctuary. It will be a joy to have you join me here (or on the phone) for private healing sessions. Through the Inka tradition of healing the light body, we can change the powerful, subtle patterns that create the unworkable behaviors in your life, and through the Somatic Experiencing work we can release trauma and stress, allowing you more resilience and harmony in your life. I'm investigating the process of teleconferencing, so we can easily and affordably share teachings with you from right here at home.

This is a powerful and amazing time on Earth. We came here as high masters in our different disguises to help Earth move through this ascension into a Golden Time. As we each do our own homework to release fear and negativity and to live in love and beauty, we will find our own lives working and our vibration healing the Earth and All Our Relations. May Creator's grace and love, and your own intention and action, move you forward in a very good way.

Love and many blessings from us at Sky Lodge.

Brooke and Sunny Winter 05

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm writing to you from the road -- in Salt Lake City, working with an engineering magician to transfer my past music and teachings from cassette to CD. This completion will open the way for recording new music and teachings. Then, after a short trip to LA for the continuation of my trauma release training ‚ "Somatic Experiencing" I'll get re-acquainted with an old college pal, David King, who is a fine photographer, videographer, and movie-maker. I sense the possibility of wonderful collaboration in creating new videos of my teachings! He took this portrait of me years ago, and we are doing a re-take just for the fun of it. I'm also spending time with Alberto Villoldo to focus on mutual support for our lives and work.

My most exciting project right now is fund-raising to buy a home and small retreat place in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula, Montana. Although my household is stored in Ashland, where I thought I would be moving, Spirit is offering me this very wonderful place that fits my vision remarkably well, especially since I feel the need to be closer to my aging parents on the Crow reservation at this time in their lives. The five acres has a log home, set into a large evergreen-covered hillside that looks out over the beautiful river valley stretching far to the south and toward the white peaks of the Bitterroot Selway wilderness across the valley. Just up the creek a few minutes is another wilderness area. Community is present with friends who live on the lovely ranch below me and across the creek in a pyramid owned by a shamanic artist who does seasonal ceremony and special gatherings. It's 25 minutes from an airport and our major Montana city of Missoula, a very conscious and wonderful university town. And, in case of need, getting to my folks on the Crow Rez is only a hour by plane or an 8 hour drive.

I plan to make a simple and sweet retreat space for you to come join me and spend time learning, quieting, hiking the wilderness, fly-fishing the river, and/or vision questing in the nearby forest. There will be tipis and several tent spaces, and eventually a sweet little cabin. I'm still in negotiations, so please hold a thought / prayer of me standing on the porch, welcoming you! It definitely feels like finally coming home for me, and I want it to feel that way to you, as well.

It's been very much a quieting and healing time for me this fall and winter. I've been home for more weeks in a row than I can remember in the past few decades! It means that I am generating almost no income, so I am visioning/working toward other ways of creating a life and living. One way will be the retreats; another will be the sale of some magical 3-pocket carry bags that you will soon see on the Rainbow Trading Post, and I'm also making available exquisite photographs of some of the gorgeous places on Earth where I have traveled. There will continue to be, of course, forays into the world to teach and share, yet after 35 years on the road, I would like them to be less frequent.

I can feel that the excitement and inspiration are coming back into my life. New levels of my FlowerSong teaching are being revealed; these focus on raising our vibration to higher and more joyous levels so that what we call onto our sweet Lady Gaia is worthy of a new and golden time. More to come on all of that.

In the meantime, I have the joy of teaching this summer with wonderful yoga healer, Heather Tiddens, who is one of my Wakantia students and a real inspiration. She has been working with Anna Forest in helping women recover from trauma and move forward in an integrated and balanced way, a perfect match for what I wish to share in that gorgeous ceremonial valley at Blacktail Ranch this July.

On the larger scene, we are experiencing many political, environmental, and (earth-change) challenges. Even in the midst of these, I sense a wonderful underlying upliftment in the vibration of the planet and us upon her. If we are in time with the ancient prophecies, then love and harmony will be more and more influential and prevailing. The entire Piscean Age (which is now ending) was a school for learning to walk the path of the heart. My sense is that Creator will not allow us to move forward into more power and magic until we have learned to move our energy through our hearts unrestricted, as is the definition of the Christ energy. Love is the answer, and we have the opportunity to put that into action in our lives. What a wonderful time we are in, when our energetic choices are portrayed in our lives so rapidly.

What we can do is 1) do our homework to clear old patterns of trauma and negativity and 2) consciously choose to do the warrior's work of holding a positive and golden dream in our hearts for this sweet Earth and All Our Relations. We have untold numbers of guides, allies, and masters gathered around us; remember to call upon them for assistance. Stay active and awake to the issues at hand, join with others in harmony and spiritual action, and take time for even some small joy in your life every day.

Autumn 2004

Dear Friends and Family,
  In reviewing my last letter to you, it seems to have been a century or two since I last wrote. This spring and summer passed in the blink of an eye! One of the sweetest things was that Montana had a wonderfully cool and rainy summer - no smoke anywhere! -- and after our many years of drought and fire, it was a tremendous blessing. This autumn, as I look out across the rolling pastures around our Flathead Valley ranch, it is green and moist even as the leaves are turning gold. Such precious times...

  Blacktail camp this year was one of the most exquisite I remember: some of it due to the fields of tall green grass and waving wildflowers, and some resulting from our theme of creating harmony. Click this link to see photos of 2004 camp. We built resources within us based on the beauty and sweetness around us, sat with the grazing horses in the high pastures and looked over the magnificent vistas, and sang harmony to the center of the Earth at the ancient shaman's altar in the deep cave. It was a very special time, and I look forward to next year when we will deepen the work of healing our own traumas so that we can resonate healing and harmony for all our Gaian family. See my calendar page.

  In the spring, I had the good fortune to begin my own personal releasing of childhood trauma, violence, and terror through Peter LeVine's amazing Sensory Experiencing work. Then, more good fortune -- a scholarship to study that therapeutic process to enable me to offer the same kind of healing for others. I'm just finishing my first year of classes, and find it a deeply powerful, gentle, rapid way of working with both immediate shock trauma and that which develops over time from abuse, etc. I'm looking forward to offering healing retreats in which I can facilitate your using the harmony of the land in purification lodge, questing time, and releasing any traumas that stop your natural experience peak states and creative expression.   

      Creator is definitely moving me toward a deepened understanding of the importance of beauty, pleasure, harmony, and building those positive resources into our bodies. Rather than just being "frills", they are one of our most profound ways to deal with the stress and challenge of our daily lives without going into distress and dysfunction. Underlying happiness and spiritual peak states are our birthright, and clearing the way for those to manifest is what makes sense to me, especially as we are being asked to hold a high and clear vibration to manifest this new, radiant time on Earth.

   Keeping that beauty and pleasure in my body as much as possible has been especially important for me lately; I read that moving one's home is the 2nd most stressful event after losing a loved one. It surely seems that way, especially since I have moved my household things from Arizona to Ashland, OR, and as yet don't have a home there! After visiting my elderly family and the folks at Sacred Ground on the Crow Reservation this month, I plan to journey again to Ashland to continue to process of making a home before the snow flies! It is such a lovely little town, and a place where many people of high consciousness are now gathering. When I sat with Jose Arguellles in a little coffee house there and told him that Ashland feels like San Francisco in the "old days" when people gathered to generate an elevated consciousness that then spread out in waves from there, he said it gave him goose bumps! It will be a very special place to call home, for sure.
  As always in the midst of special stress, which includes changing the way I do my work in the world, I find that the best thing I can do is to improve my own health and well-being. After 35 years of constantly being on the road, I am definitely ready for a more settled life! So I've paid special attention to cleansing my liver (see Moritz's book reviewed in our New Books section), and to keeping my energy and mood balanced (see the very interesting work on women's diet and seratonin, Naturally Slim and Powerful by Dr. Lipetz and M. Pichler. These informative books can help you take responsibility for your own health and well-being.

   

Before leaving Arizona this spring, I spent as much time as I could in the petroglyph canyons there. Then in August, I joined Alberto Villoldo's gathering in exquisite Canyon de Chelley, a deep red rock place I consider to be the heart of the American earth. We had a powerful experience; the most fun for me was following one of our elderly Navajo grandmothers almost dancing up a trail of stone overhangs, hand/foot holds cut into the rock, and huge juniper stairs -- up 1500 feet to look over the amazing
spider web of red canyons and the New Mexico mountains beyond. Alberto and I found a wonderful resonance, and will be taking a group to visit his teachers in Peru in June. Visit my calendar page. I hope that some of you can join us on an extraordinary spiritual journey!  

Canyon de Chelley

 As many of you have heard, we lost two special beings in the last few months: Uncle Wallace Black Elk and Miracle, the first white buffalo calf. Wallace spoke of being ready to move from this plane to one where he could be of greater influence in our spiritual growth process here on Earth (and reminded us to keep up our own good work!). As I spoke about at length in The Last Ghost Dance, many special beings are "moving up a level"-- out of the body yet staying within the Earth consciousness -- to provide a bridge for the high energies that are now coming to enable us to transform ourselves and our planet. It's clear to me that Miracle may also be performing this function. The last time I saw her and fed her corn from my hand, I realized how small she was and how delicate. It seemed that she had taken on many physical challenges to be the first one to manifest the prophesied dream of bringing her unifying energy to Earth. As a memorial in her honor, I suggest that you send some monetary support to a group of white buffalo, the only herd with several generations of white calves (who have remained white as adults). The folks there under Arizona's sacred San Francisco peaks are working hard to feed well and to create a larger space for those lovely and amazing beings. Connect with them at <www.sacredwhitebuffalo.org> (928) 606-1651, and send your memorial contribution to:

 In closing, I want to remind you that as we experience the challenge and crisis of our times, it is especially important to keep our own energy positive and our dreams clear and full. I have just read a book that gives very powerful scientific affirmation of the prophetic information many of us have been sharing for years; it confirms and extends far beyond what I was able to do in The Last Ghost Dance. The title and part of the content might seem unusual to you, yet I assure you that by the time you get through the final chapter in part III, "The Scientific Engine of Ascension", you will be very glad you read Wynn Free's reporting of the experience and research of a very interesting and special young man, David Wilcocks in The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?. I highly recommend it because it brings very confirming GOOD NEWS about our upliftment into a time of light and love that gets fully under way in 2012, as an old time ends and new Golden Time begins. Keep a light and joyous heart!
   Love and many blessings,    

Dear friends and family,

Winter 2004

Whew, we made it through 2003! That was quite an experience. One of my coping strategies in dark times was to remark, "If this is truly the bottom of the 9th hell - the lowest most chaotic time prophecied - then I'm not doing too bad!" It seems that this new year, in whatever magical way, has broken the shell of darkness and chaos, to allow the cracks of dawning light to flow in.

For myself, I am emerging with a clear feeling of the releasing work yet to do in order to manifest my dreams through an uplifted vibration. I sense that there is a similar task for us all, and too, that unless we have our noses thoroughly rubbed in it, we resist looking at the muck. . … I was given the Tibetan name, Lotus of the Dharma Lake, and there has sure been enough fertilizer around to grow a glorious flower! So, happy hunting and releasing -- the Golden Dream is already present, awaiting our attunement with its high and exquisite frequency!

Many of you know that my heart has long been with my childhood home ranch, Sacred Ground, and yet it has not been possible to live there. Much work continues to be done to lay the foundation for community on that beautiful land. With a grant I raised last year, we were able to create a formal business plan, and Tana set about connecting with the agencies and organizations in Montana that support sustainable living, nature conservation, and consciousness raising. Now it seems that things are rolling again!

I recently had a most interesting visit from White Buffalo Woman, who spoke poignantly of my need to work with one of my most potent personal and healing medicines -- Buffalo! She pointed out that it is me on the cover of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing, not her (as I had always thought!). So my enthusiastic response was, "Then, send some help our way to support the ranch, its programs, and those of us who wish to create a beauty way there……All of our intense work has not yet unfolded those realities!"

Shortly thereafter a possibility presented itself for establishing an extension university of Earth wisdom and natural healing on Sacred Ground, as well as a clinic that would have freer expression of alternatives and natural remedies than possible outside the reservation. This has been one of our dreams and plans, and would facilitate and compliment all our other projects. My personal focus is laying the groundwork for retreat, healing, and visioning in the canyons, crystal mountains and aspen of the high country. I most appreciate the assistance many of you have provided in the past, and ask your continued support as we unfold these visions into reality.

On the Arizona front, I am thoroughly enjoying the little time I have here in this sweet home. AND, in April I will be packing up and leaving. This magical little home near the lake will be for sale! In the meantime my spiritual community have been meeting for sweat lodge, tipi gatherings, and prayer time. As the dark moon passes into light, we have mutually asked for a magnification of the support present for all beings and projects of blessed service to All Our Relations. Some of the eagles are back, and uplift our energy as they soar over to affirm our highest dreams. I had the remarkable privilege recently of being at Zuni Pueblo to witness the night ceremonies, in which 150 kachinas dance through the ancient village and kiva society houses. The individual kachinas were amazing, and the sound of them all chanting was truly entrancing. It was an enchanted night with the snow whirling around, the chants echoing down the old stone streets, and the sound of shell and bell ankle rattles on the legs of hundreds of kachinas!

GATHERING: The Sacred Breath, my new CD, is doing well. Niles - through our TribaLove Record label -- has been doing a great job of promoting it, and we have all the major distributors on board. However, we are challenged almost to bankruptcy by the fact that those distributors have it all their way -- CDs bought at a very low price, guarantee on returns, AND 3 months to pay! The gap between that pay and the need for more CDs now is what we face. If anyone could help us bridge that financial gap, it would mean the continuing success of this CD, and the others to follow. My other music productions have sold for 10-20 years steadily, and I trust that this will have the same longevity and profitability. The real joy is that those who hear it, love the rich harmonies and moving beat as well as the more meditative songs. Thank all of you for passing the word about it.

The newest being in my life is Kali, a gorgeous little calico cat who sort of dropped in a few days ago. I was absolutely stunned when she walked in front of the sliding glass door because she is an almost exact replica of my favorite cat who was killed 15 years ago by electricity -- and coincidentally she has an orange lightening mark down her black face. Oh well, what could I do but open the door and welcome her in? Magic is magic. Now I need to do the magic of finding people to caretake her while I am often gone. I've been making offerings to Bast (the Egyptian goddess in cat form) in thanksgiving for Kali's return and in supplication for loving house sitters to be available…..

I'm turning my attention to our summer FlowerSong camp at Blacktail Ranch -- SONG FOR GAIA: An Empowerment in Harmony. As I delve deeper into what has heart and meaning, it is clear that a powerful place to focus our attention is on the quality of vibration we carry day to day. Lifting this vibration, this inner song, into a more harmonious place, will be our goal; and our movement together toward that will be very sweet.

Since vibration is the basis of everything physical, working in this way is a direct line to how well we manifest what we need and want for ourselves and our world. And what a beautiful way to do it -- creating harmony within, expressing it, and consciously adding to the harmony of Creator's great song! We will work toward this resonance through all the senses: spending time on the glorious Blacktail land; awakening the Altar of the Heart (learning to tap the power of our hearts in order to align them more perfectly with the desire of the universe); becoming more alive and aware in our own bodies; opening to the wildness that is our natural life; and of course, singing beauty to the core of Mother Earth in the cave*(see note below). In that temple, we will do the magic of chanting to resonate the stones and to attune our bodies to their natural wisdom. This offering will also nourish our souls and heal our bodies, as that sweet resonance touches the patterns of form.

This way of attuning is very powerful and poignant for me now. I've been told I'm to work as a global harmonist, and it 'sounds good' to me. And this election year - when either beginning upliftment or continued degradation results - is the perfect time to do our Earth magic. White Buffalo Woman reminds us again and again that working TOGETHER in unity is the key. As our choices are narrowed by primaries and drop-outs, we must continue to unify around and vote for the choice which will in fact change the regime. I cannot think of a more important time to get out into your community and lend a hand.

May we hold 'greening, blossoming, unfolding in beauty' at the center of our heart's intent, and awaken that sweet dream on Earth for All Our Relations. Be very well and joyful,

*PS -- No need to worry about singing ability. Niles and I will find easy and fun ways to create some profound harmony! (Back to the letter)

"A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time is now .... Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter....The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy....... Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man evolve for all human conflict, a method which rejects revenge. aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." Dr. Martin Luther King, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1964.

Fall 2003

Dear Friends and Family,

What a busy summer, and we here in Montana have had lungs full of smoke since mid-July. Today, we had the first rain since early spring &endash; a few minutes of blessing, which we are praying will continue since everything is literally burning up! I am working with the Green Dragon energy I have been given &endash;this reminded me of her.

Hildegard of Bingen

As my life changes, I am guided to put more of my energy and attention into the healing and transformative power of music, which has always been a deep love of mine. So I'm thrilled to say that after months of work, my new CD, GATHERING: The Sacred Breath, will be out in late September. It's filled with wonderful and inspiring songs, many of which also invite you to awaken aliveness through their "inviting" dance beat. It can be pre-ordered now. Rainbow Trading Post or phone 406-883-4686.

Speaking of song, it was amazing to sing in the King's chamber of the Great Pyramid as Nicki Scully and I moved people through the initiation we had received in meditation. The entire Egypt trip this spring was a wonderful experience, especially since Nicki made sure that our group were alone at dawning light in the holy of holies in the temples we visited. One enters the great temples through two-story "courtyards" often filled with enormous colonnades. Then each of 6 successive rooms grows smaller and more intimate until the small, echoing holy of holies is reached. There we did ceremony.

Our cruise down the Nile to reach the many temples and the Valley of the Kings was the loveliest part of the journey for me. I appreciated being able to look out along the banks and observe the everyday life of the people -- simple, sustainable living, and young men bathing their horses and cattle in the river each morning…..

The beauty, mystery and spirit lives in my heart. Someday I will return, and I hope that some of you will be able to take that initiatory journey with me.

AND, I'm looking forward to working with Nicki again at Mt Madonna in November. We will work deeply with the process of "Heal Yourself, Heal the Planet".

Our wilderness camps were beautiful and inspiring this summer. The Wakantia Gateway class brought us many wonderful new friends, many of whom had marvelous music in their bones. We sang the song I wrote for Wakantia, "Walk in Beauty", in such beautiful harmony that I felt they should have sung on the CD! It was good to be together deepening our spirits in that beautiful high valley. Then came Dance Awake the Dream, a ceremonial gathering through which we created a powerful dance of manifestation and celebration --for the highest dream of humanity coming into reality. Our dance arbor held our energy as we dance into the starry night.

These last months have been intense and challenging for everyone I know. It seems that we are no longer able to get away with our old patterns of negativity and low consciousness. My spiritual practice has been that of keeping a song of joy and thanksgiving -- Pilomaya -- in my heart, thanking Creator in advance for the beauty and upliftment that is to come. Faith is our ability to hold that Golden Dream, for ourselves and for All Our Relations, although it is not yet present in the physical world. Understanding that all things originate in spirit, in the non-physical, we place our trust there, rather than on what our five senses reveal as "true". In that way, we magnetize our part of the Golden Dream for humanity, bringing joy and beauty into our lives.

May you have the faith and courage to hold joy and beauty in your own heart, and give constant thanks to Creator for those things you are calling into reality. AND, I encourage you to get active politically. As we rally around those who choose to support peace and unity in our world, we will help bring it into our daily lives and the life of our family around the world.

  Spring 2003

 Dear Friends and Family,

Whew, it has been a wild and wonderful winter/spring so far! So much is transforming in my life and it still hasn't settled into a specific pattern. I do see vague lines of attention and intent forming though. My guides have urged me to get back into my music more fully, and that has been my focus. My new apprentice Niles is a musical prodigy and plays 60 indigenous instruments from around the world, as well as having a beginning recording studio set up. As soon as I'm back from Egypt in May, we go into a studio in Sedona with Ani Williams to record a double CD titled Gathering: The Sacred Breath. We hope to have that out in early summer. I'm happy to now have Visions Speaking out on CD as well.

This has been a time of deep prayer and focus for peace in our world. Practicing non-judgement and pouring love from our hearts has not been the easiest thing to do, yet it is what is required to keep the energy we magnetize for our future on a high plane. I love the practice some call kything, which is to meditate upon the people affected so terribly by the war until some one person's face and perhaps name come to you. Then open your heart and send love to that person every day, every time you think of it.

It's also time for us to speak up an to support the movements happening which raise consciousness, join our hearts together, and address the political process. For the first time in a long time, I am feeling the need to be politically active, and am really pleased to see people like Dennis Kucinich running for President. We need to make a big, clear statement in our politics as well as in our social and ceremonial lives.

STAY AWAKE, ALERT, ACTIVE, AND UNBENDING IN YOUR HEARTFELT CONVICTIONS. I believe that it is only when we do not speak and act, that the kind of things that befell Germany in the Nazi era can hold sway. We MUST make our values known and live by them. We must use our energies together to make a difference. When you realize that 25-30% of Americans are what Paul Ray calls "Cultural Creatives" -- who believe as many of us do-- in freedom, protecting our environment, supporting children, creating peace, and living sustainably -- you realize the power we wield as we speak and act together. It's time to let the pettiness and divisions among us dissolve as we come together in unity for All Our Relations and Seven Generations of Earth's children.

I'm looking forward to an amazing opportunity in Egypt to pray for peace and the mending of the broken hoop of life in the magnificent temples there. You can join energy with us from April 27-May 9 as we journey in our initiatory journey down the Nile -- a special day to pray with us will be May 1 at the Temple of Isis where we are being asked to call in a blueprint for our new human way of being.

Also, this summer in the ancient ceremonial valley of Blacktail Ranch, we will be gathering for a renewal prayer dance and ceremony, Dance Awake the Dream. This gathering began as a specifically Wakantia dance, and now we feel it is important for all who want to dance renewal for the world to be able to join us. You are invited to come for this powerful time of prayer quest, ceremony in the shaman's cave, and dancing wholeness and peace for ourselves and our world.

I have been in Arizona for the winter, while others are holding the energy at Sacred Ground. Many of you helped raise money to feed the buffalo and horses this winter, and that was so deeply appreciated. We need to find a way to fund the entire ranch process there soon -- the stress of carrying the whole thing is getting to be too much for everyone. I stand in a somewhat odd place since I am 'family' there, but do not own the ranch and am not on the board of Sacred Ground Foundation. I keep my love for that land shining from my heart, and hope that I can find a way to be there more often, and to create the programs and retreats I have been shown in vision. We need to get the baseline secure and sustainable before we can truly begin development of community there. Our focus at present is to establish connections with the University of Montana and other programs which give credibility and support to our sustainable buffalo ranching program and the educational opportunities we wish to create.

One of the strong visions I have recently been given is to produce a web course which addresses issues of native/Earth spirituality and promotes deepening into a more profound place through the present challenges. Our prayers and continuing Earth ceremonies are of vital importance in the challenging time we face. I know many of you are deeply affected by the withdrawing of Lakota ceremonies, yet this is an incredible opportunity to deepen your own direct connection with Spirit rather than relying on those outside yourself, or even sacred objects, to hold your spiritual intent. Please see my letter which directly focuses on that process of transformation.

I have been urged for some time to create courses on the web so that more people could have access to the teachings than can come to specific programs and workshops, especially internationally. I'm in the process of raising money for doing the recording and creating the videos we would like to include. If you are interested in helping with this, see our Contributions page.

You'll get another report when we return from Egypt. Nicki and I will be riding Arabian horses in the desert on my birthday, and making a pilgrimage to Mt. Sinai to pray for peace and to focalize the initiation journey before others arrive.

In the meantime, keep your focus on the positive and beautiful, even as you walk through the muck that is sometimes in the pathway. I've been shown that part of Eagle medicine is the ability to hold the long view and keep a sharp eye on the goals and dreams we hold in our hearts. It is so important for us to work together on our local levels -- to create everything from healing programs to ceremonies / gatherings that unify and share our energies. Also joining together on a global scale through focused meditations and sending love to others is helpful and useful. I'm proud to be a part of this family of life which is breaking new ground and holding high visions to become real on Earth (that were only vague fantasies in the past!). We are each here to bring our gifts to this transformational, rainbow time. Remember to stay in gratitude and appreciation......

Love and many blessings.

Fall 2002

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow, alot has been going on in the past few weeks - energetically and otherwise. I'm at Sacred Ground, working to get buffalo pastures fenced so they can be moved where they will have something to eat this winter. The energies here are amazing and intense -- lots of changes in the etheric, it seems.

I imagine that you, too, are feeling the intensity of our times, challenging us at every level. Our opportunity as spiritual warriors is to stay clear, happy, and flowing in the midst of all the stress and changes. Keeping our eyes and heart on the activities and dreams that bring us joy -- rather than what is stressful, fearful, or causes anger -- is our charge. Doing this often seems difficult to nearly impossible in these times, yet we know that we are tested as we grow in awareness and spiritual depth. Learning to choose being happy and peaceful, in spite of what is occurring around us, is the only way to transform it-- hanging out in anger, fear, and agitation set up that vibration and call more and more similar energy to us. We are learning to be the responsible creators of our energetic / feeling / vibration (and thus what we manifest for our future) rather than doing what we were usually taught in the past -- responding passively to what comes. That is literally one of the keynotes of this new Aquarian time we approach.

I have been visiting family and friends on the Crow Reservation and nearby. I had the pleasure of doing part of the wedding ceremony for my god-daughter Puja Wentworth and her love, Jonathan. She is the daughter of my good friends at Rainbow Heart Sanctuary in Texas. Both families gathered in Big Sky, Montana, and enjoyed the beauty of the mountains as we put ourselves together in a new "tribe" in support of this wonderful young couple. My mom is doing well after a heart valve at 89, yet is aggravated by the months of recovery that are required, since she is accustomed to being up and working steadily. As I watch her deal with her issues around work and worth, I learn a great deal about the family attitudes and beliefs I received.

Most of my time has been very happily spent in the high and clear beauty of Sacred Ground. Although we are absolutely in need of money for a ranch truck to feed horses and buffalo this winter, and a list of other things too long to mention(see Sacred Ground Page), we give thanks every day for the beauty and clarity of that wonderful place. Because of the energetic technologies we are using, the water table is coming up and springs being renewed, even in the middle of the drought which plagues our area. Magic is certainly afoot, and yet nature magic takes it own sweet time. It may be several years before the pastures can come back from the drought and from severe over-grazing which happened when the land was leased to support the ranch. We have 'bit the bullet' and rested those pastures for their restoration and the long-term good of all, yet such devotion costs the very money which would finance our other projects.

We are focusing attention on the medicinal plants around the amazing pure and nourishing springs on the land. It was good for me to get some hands-on experience of making tinctures and salves. A very disappointing thing happened to the magnificent stand of nettle in what we call 'the sacred grove' because of its pristine nature. We had planned to gather and tincture it when the time was right. In the meantime, because of the poor condition of our fences and the hungry cattle in every over-grazed pasture outside them, cattle broke in and literally destroyed all the herbs in a day.

That and other such experiences have led me to establish the Clear Springs Conservancy whose purpose is to protect, the pure spring water of this land. We must re-cognize the sacredness of water and its sources; the lack of water in our cities and many parts of the country and the devastation which follows will assist us in that process. I'm wanting to be a step ahead, and begin now the work of preservation, conservation, and re-sacralization of these precious and vital sources of water and their nourishment for All Our Relations. We are finding that the herbs found in these watersheds are especially powerful and healing. We plan to begin with preservation of our Sacred Ground springs and move out from there, as we can raise conservancy funds. For more information on this exciting work, click here.

There is a feeling in the air of "waiting to exhale" -- I catch myself in this literal state often these days and you may, too, if you will notice. In these moments, take a special deep breath and relax. Think of at least one thing to be grateful for and send thanks to the Universe. To consciously choose an attitude of gratitude is our best "insurance" and assurance of calling to ourselves a world of beauty as this time of trial and transition passes.

May we stand together for peace and prosperity for all.

Summer 2002

Dear friends and family,

Whew…….. is the main thing I have to say!! While spending time supporting my mom during her recent heart challenges and working at Sacred Ground where we are hanging on by a shoestring, I was also dealing with the inferno approaching my Arizona home there where my most precious and sacred things are housed. It has been quite an exciting couple months, to put it as positively as possible. I'm pleased to report that my home was not touched by the fire (except for the disarray made by wonderful friends packing and moving some special things in a panic!) and the horrible mess in the refrigerator from where the electricity went out because of the fire. Small problems, compared to what some people are facing. I was just told that Showlow is coming back with enthusiasm, and had a large 4th of July parade honoring the firefighters who saved the major part of the town. Please continue to pray and feel the normal monsoon rains coming to all those dry areas -- the danger isn't really over until the earth is soaked………..

In between times of taking Mom on the long round trip from my brother's ranch in Wyoming to Billings, I was his best ranch hand. In this photo, the cow is not too thrilled about my holding her sweet new calf.

Cowgirl!

At Sacred Ground, my old home ranch of the reservation, the joy of being in the moment with new colts and buffalo calves and a growing organic garden balance the possibility of having to sell the place in the near future for financial reasons. The spring rains blessed that area, and when I came over the dry hills and saw the bowl of green (especially since I was coming from dry and fiery Arizona) it was like a magical kingdom opening before me! The quiet beauty and sweet energy there are such a healing balm. We are continuing to concentrate on our goals and dreams, and to work with the highest and finest spiritual and energetic technologies we know. Our clear focus is to ground these new ways of being and doing on the land, opening a way for leaders and the magical children who will be their teachers to come together for healing and communion. Newborn Colt, Troubadour, Attempts to Stand

We are hearing from our highest guidance, and I know it applies to your life and projects as well, that focusing on the money required for something brings all the money blocks and negativity we have associated with it on the material plane. It is important to keep our intention on that which we dream of accomplishing, and to move forward with radical faith, having no regard for the usual rational guidelines. We are a time of such unprecedented and tremendous change that the old ways of thinking simply do not apply.

In this time of uncertainty in almost every phase of our lives, it is especially important for each of us to:

1. Focus on what we individually DO want, rather than what we don't;

2. Give thanks and live in gratefulness;

3. Stay in present moment aliveness and loving energy rather than past/future fear;

4. Follow our heart and personal bliss,

5. Bless and ask for upliftment / love for all persons or situations that bring up any judgment or negativity, &

6. Take a deep breath, center ourselves, and act from our highest Self in all situations.

Remember that every present action and thought is enormously magnified into your own future and that of future generations.

One of the results of crisis and emergency (as I have seen in the Arizona fires) is that everyone drops all the small, petty stuff and begins to work together with great energy. Why don't we just go ahead and do that anyway, before crisis forces us to awaken to another level of being and doing? White Buffalo Woman urges us to put our hearts together in all situations, for in doing so we are living in the new way, the new time. The more we choose this way of being, the more easily others can choose it as well. Thus, we are each doing our part in the great transformation in which we are involved. Our rational minds cannot plan exactly what will happen, yet our energetic presence in each moment can magnetize peace, beauty, ease, sharing, caring, sweetness, and harmony. May the grace of that way of being be yours.

In Love with Life,

Winter 2002

Dear Friends and Family,

Practicing gratefulness every day, I am thankful for the opportunity that has come with the challenges of elder family having major health problems. As I spend sitting time with them, we are developing more intimate relationships, speaking openly about their quality of living, Spirit, death and eternal life. And the greatest personal boon is that I have been home, off the road!, for the longest stretch I can remember, and am finding great joy in the everyday tasks of life. Having a chance to build community with the ranching families in our area, watching the miracle of birthing calves, spending time with my colt, and playing with my dog day after day are major treats to this one whose life has been of service on the road. Following is a story of a miracle I witnessed (bracketed for easy scanning down, if you have no interest in such things).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sit here looking out over incredible beauty. All around me mountains rise, small ones in all directions but east, where they jump from this wide, 3500 foot Flathead Valley floor to 14,000 feet of ice-capped majesty. My studio window looks south toward the National Bison Range a few miles away and over our pasture of cows ready for birthing.

This morning I awoke to the sight of a miracle: a cow pacing and restless, kicking at her belly when the contractions began. She finally lay down and gave easy birth to a beautiful, curly-headed black calf. She stood almost immediately and began to lick her newborn, to clean away the afterbirth from it's nose and body, and to stimulate its breathing and blood. I watched fascinated and then concerned as the little one tried again and again to rise on the snowy ground, made slick by the birthing. His mom just kept licking and nudging -- urged by a deep knowing that the calf needed warm milk in its tiny belly very soon in this cold weather.

Just then a coyote came into view from over the hill near them! He watched, fascinated as well, drawn by age-old instinct and the smell of blood. A mouse-eater by trade, he was likely hoping to have a late breakfast of wonderfully crunchy and nourishing afterbirth, rather than being any danger to the baby. The cow, touchy and protective, turned to confront him. She had just driven off even the raven who perched on a post nearby appreciating the same breakfast menu. Putting on my coat, I walked quietly down through the pasture toward the birthing pair and their visitors. My cattle dog Rags, lean and fast by my side, saw the coyote and did her job, joyfully giving chase over the fields and far into the neighbor's back pasture.

As I turned my attention back to the cow, the calf tried again to rise, lifting first it's rear end, then lurched up to stand wobbling, his mother now licking and nudging more intensely. I didn't realize that I had been holding my breath until a huge, satisfied sigh heaved my entire body into relaxation.

And now for that milk ……the little calf, after a few false starts looking for teats between Mom's front legs and along her belly, at last seized onto a swollen, waiting udder between her hind legs and clung there, sucking with instinctual vigor, weaving and quaking a bit on his long, slim legs -- stretching to use those muscles for the very first time.

Ah, another miracle. Another beautiful morning in the sun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the human side, everyone I know is experiencing the pits of despair and the depths of intensity -- facing the oldest and biggest and most buried obstacles and negative patterns in our lives. Again in the positive side, it is great to be facing them consciously at last, yet there are hours and days when any thankfulness is difficult to find, and we think we will never understand, release, get through them. I assume you are experiencing some of the same, and I urge you to practice giving thanks for the opportunity of clearing these things before they get even more intense. Gratitude is a major key in creating a more positive future, so even if you can't be specifically grateful for the challenges, find something, many things, in your life that are good, and sing their praises. Another powerful practice is one of sending loving feelings to everyone and everything around you, whether a friend, a tree, or the traffic lights which keeps you from accidents. When you get good, you will move on to sending uplifting, loving energy to those who anger you or whom you might judge as "bad or evil." They need your love the most, and besides, judgment is the very opposite of gratitude -- it gets you in big trouble karmically and you will, for sure, have to work those things out through tough experience sometime down the line. Why not create more love in the world, and in your own body/feeling moments NOW-- a win/win situation for all?

I'm in my 2nd Saturn return -- a time of total change of focus in life -- and enjoying being a student again. I'm falling more and more in love with the ones I consider god and goddess of this Earth -- soil and water. My strongest impulse is to preserve pure water, work with its healing energy, and to nourish the soil so that our lives, which grow from it, are also nourished. Rudolph Steiner's Lectures on Agriculture is my constant companion, and I am amazed by the depth of insights he shares. Any of you interested in human enrichment may want to read this stimulating material because it applies to so much of human life. I'm also getting marvelous encouragement from Lenedra Carrol's book, The Architecture of All Abundance -- from the mother and manager of singer Jewel, whose personal life and businesses reflect high integrity and humanitarianism. (See What's New section for reference info.)

Speaking of soil and water that I love brings me to Sacred Ground, my beloved home place, where we are still having major financial struggles . Thanks every one of your for your prayers and monetary support -- keep it coming! We have received enough that the animals are fed and the propane heating tanks are full -- whew… Despite the challenges, I plan to be back down there living in the magical canyon in my tipi this summer, and hope to invite you to come for retreat and questing time. (There will be information about these possibilities on the calendar when they are solid.)

My sweet interlude at home is soon to change -- work with CIIS in San Francisco, and visioning/renewal time in Mexico will occupy most of the month of February. (Thank you, LB, for this loving support!) Upon returning to Montana, I will pack and travel to Arizona for the remaining months of winter and early spring. I hope to get a few new recordings done with my friend Ani in Sedona, so that you'll have some new CDs by summer. In addition, grant writing, grant writing, grant writing!!

I'm sending you much love. All of you who have been my students in any way know that my spirit is with you in total support of your becoming more of the beauty and love that is truly you. As we love and care for each other, working in harmony, we will come shining through this very challenging and remarkable time.

In love with LIFE!!
Brooke, Chalise

 Autumn 2001

Dear Friends and Family,

Having been overwhelmed with the amount of material everyone else is putting out about the current world situation, I have chosen not to add to the mail challenge, and instead keep working to create a model of the kind of world which will transform and uplift this harmful and negative energy. For a few words of response, see Brooke's Comments and the articles to which we link.

Some of you know the astrological concept of Saturn return. It occurs about every 28-29 years when Saturn returns to its original position in your birth chart. This phenomenon has been very significant in my life. During my first Saturn return, I moved out of working as a college counselor and student personnel administrator to further my education and ability to make healing change in people's lives. This led me on the marvelous visionary path to my medicine teacher, vision questing, and the eventual change of my name, occupation, and life! I became Medicine Eagle! This radical change gave me a wonderful, rich, and fulfilling life.

Now, at 58, I am again in that fateful year of major life transformation. Many people at this age do not choose to transform, but instead just continue in the same patterns and lose energy until they leave the planet. There certainly are aspects to this kind of radical change that bring up fear and challenges to our faith in the unfolding of Creator's plan for us. However, based in my adventurous spirit and the joy that the last transformation brought me, I have gladly embraced the current opportunities for change. As a matter of fact, I have sought them out, being worn out with life constantly on the road for 25 years. I'm a double Taurus, for goodness sake, and I want my time on the land!

So I have been laying my plans for many months. First came our Wakantia Gateway Training at Blacktail Ranch and the Ceremonial class that followed it. My highest guides told me that I would be working with the Wakinyan, the Thunder/Lightening Beings, and we certainly got those kinds of intense lessons during our stay. The thunder rolled literally, and lightening struck figuratively in transforming ways for many of us! Then after a very brief few days at home, I journeyed to Madison and Spring Green, Wisconsin, to be with my friends Kris Knight and Susan Lockhart, sponsors of an exceptional event there. I had an inspiring time teaching with Glenda Green ( author of Love Without End) Then came the wonderful Prophet's Conference in gorgeous Victoria, British Columbia; and the opportunity to be with an extraordinary group of presenters and participants. It was wonderful for me to stand in the place of global visionary, which fits more than any other limited definition of my work right now! And, hanging out in the back room with Gregg Braden, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Edgar Mitchell, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Judith Bluestone Pollach, and many others was nourishing and joyful.

Susan, Brooke, Glenda and Kris

Ah, then free time to pursue my true love -- going home to my childhood ranch on the Crow Reservation to help create sustainable community there! My heart has yearned for this kind of Home-coming for many years, and it is a true joy to be in the process of creating home and following my vocation there. Because of the breadth and depth of the work ahead of us through Sacred Ground International Foundation, all my skills, knowledge and visions will be called upon -- I will be happily and well used.

Tana Blackmore, who lived on the ranch next door (which bought our place when we lost it), is back home again, and our visions are matching one for one. We feel that creating a harmonious, sustainable way of living is the finest response we can make to world events of the past, and as a legacy for the children of the future. Sacred Ground is dedicated to education in indigenous ways of living, land restoration, and supporting the new human being by working with children and youth. We are creating a healing atmosphere of pure mountain springs, organic gardens and orchards, a sacred wilderness canyon for ceremonial and spiritual work, buffalo and hores, with plans to grow sacred tobacco as well.

We are in the beginning stages of the process, buying the land for the foundation, putting in 6000 gallons of storage for the pure water that springs form the hillside, clearing and renewing the aged ranch buildings, and constructing a home/lodge for staff and guests. The latter is our primary project, since many are now living in tents, and it has already snowed several times there in the high country. Another urgent project is to buy and erect buffalo sorting corrals so that we prevent further inbreeding of the herd. We then need to purchase new cows to add to this herd, held strong by Rainbow, the enormous old bull. (Please take a few minutes to view the Sacred Ground page. )

You are heartily invited to get involved in this process by donating to our 501-C3 non-taxable foundation. We need help with all the above projects, with salaries to support us as hard working staff, and with all the land restoration and program possibilities planned for spring.

Right now, we are focused internally on creating the infrastructure we need for future educational programs: an equestrian center where we will work in natural and healing ways with Paint and Morgan horses and people; an academy where we will actively support the new human expression of the native children in our area; and a mentoring program directed toward neighbors and ranchers who are dealing with the same drought-damaged and over-grazed land we are. In the future, we look forward to working with children and youth, to inviting retreatants and vision questers, to sponsoring some of our Wakantia events and ceremonies, as well as inviting people into deep apprenticeship, with their hands in the soil and their hearts with the children.

The land and soil are calling loudly to me right now. In the spring, I will be focusing my attention on working with Permaculture, Bio-dynamic, biomicrobial fertilization, and other means to help renew the land. Not so many years ago, Tana recalls standing in grass and flowers well over her knees -- our dedication is to see that beauty again, with the help of Creator and all we know. We have some amazing new technologies of healing that we apply to people, land, and animals with great success. We commune with everyone from the star ships that frequent the skies to the devas of the grasses, receiving nourishing support for harmonious work. The crystal pyramid within the mountain above us and the vortex near the spring magnify the healing energy and prayers we send for our world and All Our Relations. It is a rich, sweet, intense, and rewarding life.

Again, you are invited to look over our Sacred Ground site and stay linked in heart and support with us as we do this exciting and profound work. Be sure to stay tuned!!

With love and blessings, Brooke, Chalise

Summer 2001

Hey beautiful people!

It's a good, hot summer day in Montana. The hills are just beginning to turn brown because, hurray, the drought broke in late spring and we have had reasonably good rain. Beautiful Flathead Lake is a joy to be near, and I've had some truly enjoyable days recently&emdash;sunning, then swimming and knee boarding over the clear, deep turquoise waters. I promised myself a summer where I spent some time enjoying this exquisite place I live, rather than being gone teaching during the most beautiful time here!

Most of June was spent in a wonderful journey to teach in England. I had some great days in London, and then went to the moors and tors (huge rock formations) of the SW. My favorite thing was to be on the rolling hills amidst heather and gorse with the wild ponies&emdash;their long mane and tails blowing in the wind. Borders of high stone walls with flowering shrubs growing tall on them are so much more beautiful than barbed wire fences! It was all entrancing, including the amazing beaches and cliffs of Cornwall I visited in my last free days. Click for more pics of England.

At a lovely manor/center called Grimstone, I presented Dancing The Ghost Dance Dream, a week of teaching and sharing leading up to an all night ancestor dance through which we prayed for a renewed and radiant world. It was really wonderful and I plan to offer this same opportunity in several places around the USA this year.

I'm learning more and more about the inner magic that creates a beautiful life for us and All Our Relations. It's my passion right now to share that, and will be doing this Empowering the Heart work in as many places as I can this year. You'll find it joyful and magical, if you have a chance to join me.

I had a short few days home on the Flathead Valley ranch, and then spent most of July at Blacktail Ranch, doing two Wakantia classes. The groups were wonderful, and we experienced the most beautiful weather ever in my 15 years of going there. Vision quest days were absolutely perfect, and we sang beauty in the womb cave of Mother Earth there. Immediately afterward, a traditional encampment of elders came in to renew some of the very old ceremonies that are being lost. Dancing and praying in an unusual large tipi lodge with top open to the sky, and listening to the drumming, singing and prayers of the old ones transported us back to another time.

I'm looking forward to the Prophets Conference in Victoria, B.C. this month, then going, finally, to be on the Sacred Ground ranch to begin working with the sustainable community forming there. (See Spring letter for more details.) It is exciting to be beginning the next major phase of my life. I can feel the energy there bubbling up life a hidden spring, calling me to a new and more sustainable life. The "chalice of light" I've been told we will create there will be an energetic prayer for the world.

For all of us, holding an attitude of gratitude - swirling and sending that energy through our hearts - is a wonderful place to begin the changes our human family needs desperately to make. Real transformation (within AND around us) begins in a grateful heart; here we can hold powerfully positive energy to call forward true peace, good relationship, joyful life, and sustainable living. Our continuing challenge is to keep these golden dreams strong in our hearts, even while we may be grieving over what we see happening around us. That empowered heart will move us effectively forward.

My thoughts and prayers continue to be with you as we make this journey through the throes of our transformation into a more truly human form of being. I know that the oldest and deepest of our challenges are arising, so remember to keep love, thankfulness, and courage in your heart. Bring yourself into the present moment where true Power resides. Beauty will prevail as we hold it strong and high, and make it real in each of our own lives.

Be very well.

Love and blessings,

Spring 2001

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Spring! For most of us, it's many weeks until the flowers begin to blossom and yet its now possible to feel that burgeoning energy arising. One of the challenges in our NW states is that there was not enough winter, in the sense of snow in the high mountains and moisture for next summer. Montana, which literally almost burned up last year with 75% of the usual water level, now has only 55%! I am definitely praying for spring rains, and I invite you to send a prayer to that part of the country, as well. Weather forecasters, behind the scenes where their corporate sponsors don't hear, call this Œpetroleum weather -- noting too many petroleum particulates in the air for rain to be able to fall.

With our new President and the Ambush team in office, we are in for many more environmental challenges, it seems. Perhaps the ignoring of the welfare of the people and the Earth will become so blatant that there will be an enormous backlash against that kind of behavior. I know it gets pretty tiresome, yet I hope you all devote some energy to doing whatever you can to help stop the destruction. Finding true peace and contentment within ourselves in the present moment is a profound beginning. When each of us realize that we don't need or find real and lasting pleasure in all the things the advertising world wants to sell us, then we may be able to discover the true joy of family, community, and this sweet Earth upon which we live. When we stop supporting with our dollars those who would damage our world, our voice will be heard very loudly.

Holding an attitude of gratitude - swirling and sending that energy through your heart - is a wonderful place to begin. Real transformation (within AND around us) begins in a grateful heart; here we can hold powerfully positive energy to call forward true peace, good relationship, joyful life, and sustainable living. Our continuing challenge is to keep these golden dreams strong in our hearts, even while we may be grieving over what we see happening around us. That empowered heart will move us effectively forward.

On a more mundane yet very happy level, I have just returned from a month in various parts of Mexico. First, I spent a week with Baja Expeditions at Magdalena Bay, getting close to Grey whale mamas and their playful babies. The babies would be moving up and down through the water-- an impressive one-ton sight. Then, their moms, who don't have to breathe so often, would surface and it seemed the whole ocean floor was rising! Although we saw hundreds of whales, many at close range, I never get over being awed and thrilled when those enormous backs, gentle eyes, and huge tail fins arose near us. When we weren't with the whales we were picking unusual shells on the Pacific side of the island, and kayaking among the flocks of beautiful birds in the mangrove swamps.

After that I had the pleasure of spending some gorgeous days in a lovely home on a pristine beach in Cabo San Lucas, watching the manta rays flip in the air to loosen their barnacles. The turquoise water there, rolling into white lace on the beach, is one of my favorite things. Then I went on to some wonderful, healing and rejuvenating time at a spa owned by my friend who gifted these healing weeks to me. She is an Eagle Song camper and an inspiration to be around. Her love, caring, sharing, and work with the green nations is a joy to behold. It was a truly generous gift of quiet time for me, and much needed!

Photo by Robin Silver, M.D.
www.biologicaldiversity.org
Click here for more pics

Now my attention turns to a spring of teaching and a summer of WAKANTIA camps at Blacktail ranch, plus the 563 emails from the month of my journey and their accompanying siblings who come in at 25-40 a day! They bring me both joy and the biggest challenge I face day to day!

WAKANTIA is continuing to develop and unfold in wonderful ways. I'll be working on the web page soon to reflect some of the new experience we are having and offering. See calendar.

In my heart and in the planning stages is the likelihood of creating a home ranch on the Crow Reservation where we will be able to live sustainably, work with native children and community, and invite people for deep apprenticeship with their hands in the soil and their hearts with the children. Our Sacred Ground non-profit needs start-up money to help pay for lawyers to create the appropriate set-up; we want to be sure that this land and what we do there can be gifted to generation after generation. I'm excited about it because I have longed to put much of my Permaculture and other healing knowledge "on the ground." If anyone is interested in being a sponsor of this kind of very exciting and long term project, please contact me through my office.

My thoughts and prayers are with you as we make this journey through the throes of our transformation into a more truly human form of being. I know that the oldest and deepest of our challenges are arising, so remember to keep love, thankfulness, and courage in your heart. Bring yourself into the present moment where true Power resides. Beauty will prevail as we hold it strong and high, and make it real in each our own lives. Be very well.

Love and blessings,

Winter 2001

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year and calendrical New Millennium!
While many things in the political and social arenas seem less than bright and hopeful, there is an interesting and unusual light coming onto Earth from an unexpected direction -- our children! Children always bring a special sense of newness, curiosity and open heart, yet some of the children now being born are bringing even greater gifts. These are what I call "the children of compassion", and they have inborn abilities unseen before in large numbers of people -- some are 100% psychic, others can levitate objects, others are physically capable far beyond their years, and some are totally immune to disease. The immune children are showing a variation in DNA coding, so they are truly not the normal human being of the past.

These children seem to be keeping intact the sense of oneness and wholeness which is the baseline truth about our relationship with other two-leggeds and our Earth as a whole. This gives them great compassion and communion with all things. They also many times have a challenging time trying to fit into the ways of thinking and focusing that are the old normal, and thus need help to use their remarkable abilities in ways that work for them and others. One name that has been given them is "Indigo children" and a book has been written about them.

It seems that we adults can pick up this new way of being while in heartful contact with the children. I want to encourage us all to pay attention to the magnificent possibilities being shown us by Creator through these children -- to make a good and welcoming place for what they have to offer in our homes, communities, and schools. Our saving grace may be coming to us in ways we do not expect. If we neglect the gifts of these children while we are trying "to save the world" in other ways, we may be losing a key ingredient in the transformation of our species into a more peaceful and powerful state.

On the home front, we are busy planning our continuing Wakantia classes, both Gateway and continuing levels, after a successful beginning in 2000. I launched my new book, THE LAST GHOST DANCE, into the world with a book signing and media tour in November. It is selling well, and the best part is that readers are finding it useful, informative and inspiring!

In December I attended the International Spirit in Business conference in Acapulco. It was heartwarming and inspiring to know how much heart is entering business, and that it is making a positive difference on the bottom line! True change in corporations and business can make the most powerful impact on our lives of anything I can think of! I'd like to do more consulting with businesses -- any referrals??

Soon I'll be going to my place in Arizona, and you may contact me through the office as usual. I plan to work on the deepening of Wakantia, on getting some new CDs out, and on my own personal meditation and integration.

May this be a bright and beautiful year for you, even though we all may face some extraordinary challenges as Lady Gaia brings us back into a more sustainable way of living. Get a jump on the changes by committing to this way of living NOW and by following your heart along the winding and joyful path of your true purpose!

Autumn 2000

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been flying by! After the intense heat and drought of the most devastating fire season Montana has experienced in my lifetime, we are finally blessed with rain and cool. Thank you all for your concern and prayers. Our ranch and the surrounding area have been fine -- we live in an area irrigated by clear, wonderful water from high in the Mission Range -- yet we lived with dense smoke all summer.

Wakantia report: Our first gateway class: Living the Truth went beautifully, and 28 of 31 participants chose to commit to the continuing path. In late September we will do another Gateway at Rowe Retreat Center in the Berkshires of Mass. and are working on at least two other sites for you to choose from for this initial work -- very likely in upstate New York and northern California / southern Oregon. We'd like also to do one in the SE. Since we will begin each new level of training in Montana during the summer, we hope to find warm places where we can offer classes late fall - early spring. This means that those committing would then be eligible to join us in Montana for the next level. Once we initiate the levels in Montana, we will move them out around the country so it is easier for folks to get to them.

At last, my next book, The Last Ghost Dance: A Guide for Earth Mages, will be out October 31. If you'd like an autographed copy, call or eMail my office. We now have credit card capability. Check our calendar for information about November book signings, and be sure to ask your bookstore to carry it - you may not even realize how much that helps.

Because of the remarkable amount of energy coming onto our planet right now, it is especially important that we clear any negativity we carry, open up the limits of our thinking about the possible future, awaken the amazing beings that lie behind our conditioning, and step forward with joy and power. Everything we think and do will be magnified enormously, so what better time to do our very best?

Wishing you a magnificent autumn. As the leaves fall this season, it can help you, as well, release what you no longer need!

Love and blessings,

April 2000

Dear Friends and Family,

Joyous Spring to you!

Isn't it wonderful how life rolls around the holy circle and brings us this resurrection every spring? My elders tell the story of the ancient ones needing to decide whether or not to have death be a part of earthly experience. When they realized that without death, there would be no birth, no new life, no children, no springtime, they chose to have the transition of death be an integral part of life. And I, for one, am glad they did. ...

Even though it means that yesterday I lost a long-time buddy and best pal, my blue healer dog Bud. He is headed through the pearly gates into the Sweet Summer country beyond. Since he was a small but joyful part of many of your lives, and you know how much he meant to me, it seemed right to let you know of his passing.
He was 13 happy years old, and had recently been letting us know that he was not well. Al was very lovingly caring for him at the Montana ranch. This morning after wandering toward the RV (our happy traveling buggy) and sniffing around for me (having not walked around much for days) he made his way back to the shop where he and Al spent part of the day. Just after noon Al petted him and gave him some water, thinking he was seeming pretty listless. Al turned his back to work at the bench,and said he heard a kind of sigh and rattle. He knew before he turned around that Bud, in his usual gentle and gentlemanly way, had left. He had laid his sweet head down, and stepped into Creator's loving arms. I also think there were the spirits of a whole bunch of Eagle Song campers there to welcome 'Spirited Stick Dancer' into the flower-filled meadows that represent his happiest times on Earth.
Although I'm very sad tonight, thinking about all our good times, I'm glad he left with grace and peacefulness. I sense he's enjoying the freedom of spirit, after living in that old and tired body for the last few years. Please send a good thought to celebrate his life with us, and his transition.

As you may already know, I've moved my personal household down to the White Mountains of north central Arizona for the winter. There is a magical canyon here where the ancestors call me, and all the red rock area that I dearly love nearby. The area lies between the two Apache reservations on the south and the Navajo / Hopi reservations on the north. I'm making some wonderful connections with Apache folks - a surprising and special gift. It is certainly their ancestors who inhabited this canyon where I have found grinding stones and pot shards, stone enclosures, and great energy. It's my first real introduction to the Apache people and I'm finding it really wonderful. Their springtime dances will be a joy to attend.
This area offers opportunities for kayaking in the red rock canyons of Lake Powell, hiking the Grand Canyon, enjoying the ancient energies of the native country here, and visiting Chaco Canyon and other special sites more frequently! Although I'm working on finding some great places to do gatherings down here, I have realized that our 5700 foot elevation makes our weather very much like that in Montana so I may have to choose 'between' for some things. Getting down in the warm canyons will be the main focus for late spring time fun and I hope to find ways for you to join me.
Tomorrow some student / friends are coming by and we're going to Canyon d'Chelley, one of the homes of my heart in this area. Exquisite red rock canyons, lovely wind-swept ruins with the scent of cedar surrounding them, a winding river turning spring green on the banks. Would anyone like to join me for a horseback tour and pilgrimage there next year?

By the way, my contact information remains the same; Pam, my assistant, will forward everything to me wherever I am. It won't be too long now until I journey to the north country fair again, anyway.

We humans are such an interesting bunch. Right now we seem to be making so many leaps in consciousness and light, and then we just goof up royally again. I mentioned in the Comments section that one of the white buffalo born on the Lakota reservation was shot by an Indian cop when it got outside its pasture. Hellllllllo! And at Joshua Tree national monument in California, an age-old native prophecy came true when a giant rock