Tongva Creation Story

By request: the story told at the land blessing at Alma. The Tongva are the indigenous peoples of Catalina island. Tongva means ‘the people of the earth’, because they understand the way of creating harmony with the earth.
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In the Tongva creation story, like all creation stories, in the beginning there was chaos. From this chaos emerged the one god, Quaoar. He was sorrowed by the emptiness in existence and began to dance, whirl, and twirl all about while he sang the Song of Creation. Out of this melody began to form other beings - first was the god of sky, Weywot. Next emerged Chehooit, who became Goddess of the Earth. These two new deities joined in the dance and created the Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon, Tamit and Moar.

Together the 5 gods danced and sang, and as each unique divine being joined in, the song became more complex and intricate. Soon the Goddess of the Sea, Manit, and the Lord of dreams and visions, Manisar, were created; and when they joined in the Bringer of Foods and Harvests, Tukupar Itar, was manifested, and then Tolmolak, the Sky Coyote, and finally Shishongna, the Goddess of the Underworld, joined in the singing.

These divine beings danced and sang together, creating everything else into existence: they furnished the world with hills, mountains, trees, and rivers. They sang into existence the plants and animals, and finally the first man and the first woman to walk the physical plane.

This story of creation, manifested through song and dance, is like the tree of life, which begins with one seed and branches off, fractals into fractals, into more unique and specialized beings. This can be seen in creation stories of all cultures, like the Kabalah tree of life, with branches descending into lower and lower vibrations from heaven until they hit the physical plane and are able to manifest life on earth.

This is the portal we create when we align our bodies with heaven and earth - and like each branch of the tree, though we are unique and specialized, we each at all times possess an inner connection to each other, and to the source.

And the Tongva are referred to not only as the people of the earth, but the dancers - because they understand that dance is the way of creation, the way of creating harmony with the earth, of aligning ourselves with the heavens, of dealing with sorrow, with new beginnings, and of celebrating events.

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* picture: i love this one, we all feed each other the fruit of life, through our offerings!

Prepare to clone yourself...

cause as sick as that lineup looks, i just saw the workshop and Temple of Consciousness schedules, and they are insane! Can I please be everywhere at once?

~Calm in the midst of lightning stands the cause of lightning!~

The water blessing is on its way

the rivers will clear
the fire will be lit

Green Party

www.lime.com/live_change.../green_party
~ wow, that party sounds pretty cool! ~
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LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

May 23-May 26, 2008, Santa Barbara, CA
Headcount: 4,500

Fave Five: Yard Dog’s Road Show, Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque, Stanton Warriors, Bassnector, West Indian Girl.

The Vibe: A user-generated fest to the fullest, don’t expect to be a wallflower at this psychedelic summer camp weekend of art, music, dance, organic eats and camping amongst the trees. Don your most fabulous finery, and get ready to meet your new big green happy family.

Unique to LIB: Through solar art, eco-workshops and stages constructed from bamboo, rattan and recycled materials, LIB makes eco-awareness an interactive process that leaves visitors with new methodologies to integrate into daily life. This year, they’re especially stoked about their Free Water Initiative, enabling festival-goers to eschew disposables and fill up for free. Check out the Green Ticketing package which includes an LIB Kleen Kanteen, carbon offsets for transportation, and automated grouping into carpool forums based on your zip code.

Where I work, what I do, my bosses...

link.brightcove.com/services...480107384

I <3 my job
and my bosses.

Coachella sneak preview...

iz good.

very
very
good.

I love sweatin' with my family, packed together in our McMansion tent ghetto - its where the party's at! How do these creations just keep getting more and more amazing? It's the ramp up for LIB, and I'm just realizing I barely had an inkling just how explosive it's gonna be...

cockadoodledoo
sunrise bamboo,
orange moonrise
and steamroller surprise;
docking space stations
on our vegetable patch -
plus we all get to sort
our own damned trash!
bascetti 'n eggs
'n 2 minute yoga legs
grass between my toes
as the leaf pod grows,
hella long poles
hella tight holes
ripped seams
dream machine
sake
sunset
friction
forklift
stitch
stretch
screw
set
sweat
sit
smoke
smile
...
onion bloom,
dark side of the moon;
a moment of pause
as the heated sun withdraws -
Day 1 for the Do
...
k, yeah.

i'm ready for part two.

Winter Solstice

cold creek / saddle peak
~ shena ~ reigns
forbs unseen
over mountain top
made invisible with
a winter storm
a winter rain
now in the river
tail twitching
of autumn memories
constant companion
I see spring
warms my lap

by David

gratitude

Is it just me, or is this thanksgiving totally out of control amazing and full of love? It has been so intense for me all day, sometimes I felt the need to just turn away from locking eyes or seeing a beautiful face because it was so overwhelming in emotion. Tonight someone was looking at me from across the prayer circle as we gave thanks, and I felt like she could see straight into my soul, the very core of my being, and recognize who I am. That deep remembrance... it was everywhere. it's so present. Just a look and I fall apart. Reality is powerful.

I am so thankful for all the gifts my friends have given me today, and for the moments people have shared with me as they too shed their tears, all in gratitude of community. Connection. It is everything. I am awestruck by its omnipresence and its potency. I realized two days ago that my friends, my community, gives me everything. Everything I want, and more importantly, everything I didn't even know I wanted. To live the dream, all I have to do is live.

How is it that I keep receiving? I can't really attribute it to something about me, but only the amazing being of those that just keep giving to me for some crazy reason. Giving is scary. Giving emotionally and unconditionally for five years has left me feeling depleted...yet I know I have so much more. Infinite. Giving tangible things is also scary when you constantly have to make the trade off - between the 'other' and the 'self'.

I look at these beautiful flowers next to me ...a gift...
A decision. This next year I'm going to give tangibly, every time I think of something without letting fears of cost, budgets, or time hold me back. What if I want to give someone something and I run out of time for myself? What IF I keep wanting to buy things for people and don't even have any money left to eat? What if? But what if I didn't..

You can never know how much you have until you try to give all you've got. And how could I live my life without knowing the depth of my riches?

And all that from just the beautiful gift of a flower.

..and some more thoughts on the thrush and Dia de los Muertos

Dying is an art; a beautiful, difficult skill to learn. We must practice dying throughout our lifetimes so that when the time comes, we are ready. Dying is one of the most important (if not the most important) moments of our lives, and thus we should never jump into it unpracticed and scared, not knowing where we are going, what it's going to be like, what to do. This is why monks spend their entire lives meditating about death, envisioning the release, practicing the feeling of letting go of attachment and coming into warmth and freedom. This is why in indigenous cultures the elders know when they are going to die, and know where they are going to die, and when the time comes they set off into the hills or the cave or wherever it is that they know is the place for them to die. Because they have practiced it and meditated on it their entire lives - they envisioned these beautiful places and went through the steps of walking there, releasing from their body, and smoothly letting go and into the light.

If unpracticed, the soul will get scared and lost and possibly trapped between realms, unsure what to do. This is why we go through the battles we do in our lifetimes, experience loss and change and transformation. Because the more we must deal with it the more practiced we get at embracing it, feeling the warmth from it, walking steadily forward toward whatever is beyond even though something severely tumultulous and confusing, possibly disheartening, just occurred. We must visualize and feel beautiful surroundings in these moments, envision the place where we will go to die, so that we don't die in sudden, horrid places - knowing where we will die will allow us to go to that beautiful mountain or stream on the day that we have prepared and allow it to manifest in a beautiful way.

And today on the Dia de Los Muertos we help the souls who were scared and didn't know which way to go and maybe had gotten trapped, to feel warm and comforted and secure in taking a strong step toward the light - and embrace the unknown.

We're going to have a little ceremony and procession by the Hopi circle to honor those that were lost, and practice walking to that other realm - practice feeling warmth and purpose and no fear, only love, when we take those steps.

the finch and the spotted thrush

Today I was sitting at my desk and looking out the window at the ocean, and saw some wings flutter past and heard a loud sudden thump.
I went to the door and a little brown and white spotted thrush was lying unconscious on the ground. I hoped he was just in coma and would get up, but could feel his soul escaping. I sang to him and put my hands around him to heal him like with the finch, but it felt like air escaping, then empty. I said some words for him and asked the earth to take him into her, and for him not to be scared as they once again became one. I went out to the garden and dug a hole in the compost and put him inside. I sang with some of the attendees - a blue jay, a snake, a lizard and a few other chirping birds.

It was amazing how light he was when I brought him over to bury him. Air. Just beautiful colorful feathers and his now empty shell, which just moments ago was full of life as he was flying over the mountain. The end of life is so sudden. With a loud thump. But at least at that moment he was soaring in the blue sky, free and happy.

I told Eric about it and he said he had found two other thrushes on the ground that morning that had flown into their house. Very strange, startling. If the omen of the lost little finch last week brought the fires, I wonder what this means...

hopefully it is just a continuation of the theme of transformation.. albeit a bit more intense.

Today I am grateful that I am still breathing after my own neck broke with a sudden thump. The veil between life and the after life is so thin.

**photo: earth vs. fire, the arbitrary burn line on the land where the fire stopped and vegetation prevailed