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April/May 2007 Volume 44Welcome to this bi-monthly edition of our newsletter! You will find these columns contained in our April/May issue:
Metaphors for Life
Carla Woody, Founder Metaphors for Life
Sioux Medicine Man, Standing Rock Reservation, 1911.
GrowthWorks Holding Space by Carla Woody Over the years I’ve explored the nature of intent through experiential study, indeed as spiritual practice. In the process I’ve uncovered – for myself – what I believe is Universal law as well as creative power. To show that learning is never over, I’ve only just realized something that was right in front of my face for a long time. In fact, I often use the very words holding space to describe it. But didn’t quite get the underlying depth until just recently when it was fully mirrored back to me. I was on the receiving end and it happened during our January group in Mexico, in fact, on Lake Najá in the middle of the Lacandón Rain Forest, close to Guatemala. To hold space is integral to intent and brings another dimension. If intent provides the portal through which we’re carried, then holding space is the permeable container that creates stability in the parallel world we’ve entered. It’s the empty vessel of probability that the ultimate possibility of what could fill it – does. When we practice intent and hold space it is in the parallel world, what some may call the Mystery or in the Andes they call the left side, and thus it’s hard to describe in mere words, something I struggled to relate in the latter paragraph. However, it does make its way back to the right side, or everyday life, in such a way that we never really recognized we were somewhere else. That comes later when we look back and realize that magic happened. Though it may not have seemed like anything in the moment or was even painful in some way, it ushered in the threshold that now lies before you. I just threw that last one in just in case anyone thinks that magic only results from bliss and awe. When our group first came together in Palenque I created the framework I usually do, about the cocoon in which we would travel, about allowing, giving permission for everything to happen. That would be the silent teaching of our journey and whatever intent we came with would thus be delivered. Here is how intent and that other dimension was brought to me. If you’ll bear with me, I’ll weave the story. We were a few days into our travels when we came to stay in the Lacandón Maya village of Najá. It had long been a dream of mine to come here and, if possible, to be part of rituals I had only read about. Now we were here and everything fell into place. Later that day Don Antonio invited us into his god house and allowed us the incredible honor of being present during a god pot ceremony. He carefully picked out two gods to be part of the ritual from the many who were represented through different clay pots, brought them to the center and placed the copal to be offered. One of the pots took a long time lighting and he chuckled that the god was shy. When both were flaming, the rich smell of burning resin wafting, Don Antonio began to chant his prayers. As he did so, it felt to me as though something encircled us. The next morning brought a light rain on and off. After breakfast and some other exploring we were bound for Lake Najá, just a short walk away, where we would participate in another ceremony, equally as special. Some years before, Paul and Phoebe had undertaken a spiritual journey, a promise, to carry the sacred greenstone of New Zealand and connect its filaments to ancient power spots. They’ve already been a number of places doing just that – Tibet, Hawaii, the Outback of Australia. A couple of years ago they were with us at Apu Ausangate in Peru and placed a greenstone, containing a symbol carved by Paul, in a sanctified lagoon at 18,000’ in altitude. I was honored that they were with us again, this time to place a greenstone in the timeless waters of Lake Najá. Imagine the moisture dripping off the foliage as we made our way, single file, on a raised boardwalk through the jungle, its planks mossy, slippery as ice, seeming to stretch on forever. We were careful to go very slowly. Until finally, we were at lake’s edge. Not far beyond, everything was shrouded in misty fog, like some hidden entry point to another world. There were just two canoes, obviously very old, thick dugouts. One was half-filled with water and we quickly determined that limited our options. With room for only a few in the remaining one, Paul and Phoebe asked Alonso and me to accompany them. Murmurings about holding space ran through the rest of the group. With two young Lacandón men to guide us, we settled into the dugout, glided onto the lake. The rain came down steadily now but it didn’t matter. We moved farther and farther away until our friends were dots on the shore and then rounding to an island, they dropped out of sight. Our guides wanted to take us to a place where some ancient god pots rested a short way inland. A visit to this natural temple seemed fitting, a part of the ceremony. After returning to the dugout, Paul began to direct the guide, who stood rowing, to the area of the lake he sensed the greenstone was to rest. On the shore, closer now, I could see the group watching, more than watching. As Paul unwrapped the Mother Stone to introduce to the water and then the greenstone that would be placed, deep, joyful emotion washed over me. To be part of such a ceremony, yes, and also because I could feel the great energy reaching and holding us, extended from our fellow journeyers standing at the edge of the lake. My tears continued to fall through Paul’s silent prayer, the splash of the stone entering its resting place. And as we returned to the banks, welcomed home like heroes, I saw tears in many eyes around the circle. We were all deeply moved. To hold space. While I know that others have done that for me as I have done it for them, I’d never quite felt the profound energy of it in that way. Perhaps because of the “world” we’d entered, it was relayed so robustly to me. Often it’s subtle or absolutely transparent, I think it goes unnoticed by most. And yet, what a gift we give when we create that intangible container! There are many facets and layers to this spiritual aspect of holding space. It seems circular to me, like ayni, the sacred sense of reciprocity held in the Andes. As the last elder practicing his ancient traditions, I believe Don Antonio held space for us to be part of something so rare, whether he realized it or not. But we also held space for him in our circle of respect and because, through our experiences and stories we tell, his tradition lives on beyond his god house. Holding space is also a teacher that shows us we’re sometimes called upon to be in the background, a nondirective presence, when we may be used to being in the foreground. And through that non-doing all is accomplished. Many times, it can be an unspoken invitation for someone to step through a threshold – in their own time and way, not ours - a healing place or an expanded way of life. And a very real aspect is seeing something in someone, a talent not yet fully manifested or a possibility, and quietly creating a way for them to open to it. Then there’s the tangible way of literally providing a spot that contains energy, where people show up to meditate, to drum or for a safe environment to heal. And our families and friends hold the space while we travel – even if we never physically leave home - and then receive us back. As you can see, through my experience on Lake Najá I’ve embarked on a deeper odyssey around this practice and acknowledgement of it. I invite you to do the same. I have much gratitude for those who hold space for me and I am indeed honored to do so for others. After all, there really is something to that old folk adage, “what goes around comes around.” Intent creates the pathway that rises up to meet us. The space is held in its midst. ***** Note: To view photos of our time in Najá and elsewhere in Chiapas and Piedras Negras, go here and also see travelers’ stories To see the greenstone ceremony at Apu Ausangate in Peru go here and scroll about halfway through the photos. To follow Paul and Phoebe Hoogendyk’s ongoing sacred journeys with the greenstone, go to Ancient Pathways. © 2007 Carla Woody. All rights reserved. Carla Woody is the author of the book Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage and Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness and founder of Kenosis, an organization supporting personal transformation. Carla has long been leading people toward mind/body/spirit wholeness using integrative healing methods blended with world spiritual traditions. She may be reached by e-mail at info@kenosis.net or by telephone (928) 778-1058.Special Events
Review More often than not, the publications or music you will find reviewed here will not be new or “bestsellers.” Websites or organizations may not be well known. But all are spotlighted by virtue of their impact and value.
Chac: The Rain God
The original impetus to watch Chac: The Rain God was because one of the main actors, Alonzo Méndez Ton, is the father of Alonso who partners with me for our Maya Mysteries program. After the group’s return home from our January trip, a showing of the movie provided our local travelers an opportunity to reconnect and reminisce. I’m glad to have discovered this film. Chac was originally made in the 1970s, but now reproduced on DVD. If you watch it with a casual, literal eye then you’ll find the cinematography stunning, but may miss the significance of this film about a Tzeltal Maya village, living through drought in near starvation. You may find the storyline merely curious about a group of village men seeking a diviner, rumored to live in isolation in the mountains, to help them contact the god that brings rain. But view it through the lens of metaphor and you’ll uncover its depth and what it really portrays. The film is said to be based on the Popul Vuh, the ancient text holds Maya creation stories. The Tzeltal Maya from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico prevalently practice a syncretistic religion, combining their ancient Native practices with Catholicism. Syncretism and deeper mythologies flow through the movie as well. The Hero’s Journey, a thread in most major parables, is present. There is a quest where they leave their home for the unknown and enter a dark “forest”, in this case the jungle. An ally is found, trials are encountered and so on. Numerous elements of the Ancient Maya creation stories are expressed. Through a deep cave the Underworld is entered. For the life’s blood to flow in the form of rain, the gods demand sacrifice. Christianity is represented in a beautiful scene of the seekers walking across the edge of a great waterfall, appearing to walk on water. It’s also a perceptive psychological study about what sometimes happens when a person perceives that they’ve given their power away and turns on the very one they sought out to support them in order to wrest it back. There’s also a very humorous part where the disgruntled leader leaves the group, enters the unfamiliar jungle and, in being overcome by his own fears, sees an owl overhead that somehow morphs into a priest-dwarf in long frocks, slithers down the tree and jumps on him – the demons of the mind. There’s much more and I’ll leave it to you to discover. Pssst…Alsonso’s father is the village leader. It was also fun to see the Lacandón Maya and the rain forest we’d just visited as that unknown, scary territory in the movie. That means we travelers must have been heroes of our own journey! I bought the DVD through Amazon.com and I’m sure it’s available for rent or purchase elsewhere. - Carla Woody A New Review for Standing Stark by Carla Woodyby Emma Onawa for the Well Red Coyote: Books on the Rocks Sedona, Arizona In the world of books about new age spiritual topics, only a minority is truly accessible and easily applicable to daily life. STANDING STARK by Carla Woody is one. Our true intent is a key. When we are able to move from the mind/ego to an intent that comes from the heart, we open to immense guidance, knowledge, growth and potential. Real knowing, which comes from the heart, is experiential and is not simply a mental construct. Woody describes spiritual questions, practices, and phases of spiritual awakening which, combined with sharing of both her own experience and the experience of others, easily illuminate the spiritual path to higher consciousness and transformation. This combination is very effective in helping her audience to “know” what the process of spiritual evolution entails. Woody helps the seeker to understand and navigate the joys, trials, and pitfalls of the spiritual path, and makes esoteric concepts understandable on a deep, feeling level. I read this book from a place of allowing, rather than thinking, and found it to be very descriptive and affirming of my own process and journey. I recommend it without reservation for both novice and seasoned travelers on a spiritual journey. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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