Saturday's Show Now Archived

Saturday night's show with Lance White the Zany Mystic was a great way to finish off 2019 and start 2020.  Here is the link.

The photo above is to pay homage to the area that I just moved away from, Cortez, Colorado.  At midnight of New Year's Eve, they always shoot off fireworks.  I am not sure what they do here in Cedar City.  Maybe fireworks, too?  In Montana, they shot their guns into the air, and in Illinois, everyone honked their car horns.  I will find out later tonight.

Happy New Year everyone.  May 2020 bring you your hearts desire.

Saturday Night's Interview with Lance White, the Zany Mystic

Here we are closing in on the end of 2019 and preparing for entering into a New Year and a new decade!  I am pleased once again to be interviewed by Lance White, the Zany Mystic, on his radio show, A Fireside Chat.  The broadcast will be on Saturday December 28^th at 10 PM Eastern Time, and 7 PM Pacific Time.  To listen live, kindly use this link http://www.afiresidechat.com .  If you are not available at that time, the show will be archived for later listening.

There will be several topics for this show.  First of all, I’d like to talk about my recent and fairly rapid relocation to Cedar City, Utah, and how that came about.  Then, we will segue into a discussion of 2020 and perhaps what to expect next year.  I have to say that I do not like giving predictions, but will tune into some trends that I will share.  My focus is always on the empowerment of the individual, and how you can ride the waves of change that may come your way. 

I hope your holidays are going well.  Please join Lance and me on Saturday night. 

Winter Solstice

Tomorrow evening here in the northern hemisphere is the Winter Solstice.  It is always my very most favorite organic/shamanic day of the year.  Unfortunately, because of my recent move to Utah, I will not be celebrating with a group of friends in my backyard.  This celebration, which I had been hosting for at least 14 years, always had involved a pot luck dinner, the creation of special sacred medicine bundles to set the intent for the New Year, and then a fire ceremony where those bundles were burned.  It is possible that I can gather a group here next year after I have met more spiritually minded people. 

So for now, I will do a bowl burning in my back yard, and I highly recommend that everyone reading this do some sort of ceremony.  For me, the Winter Solstice is the start of my New Year, thus the perfect time to let go of the past year’s trials and tribulations, and set a new template for the coming year.  Doing a bowl burning is a very simple yet effective process.  Supplies you will need are some sort of large bowl, preferably metal, Epsom salts, rubbing alcohol, a bamboo skewer, matches, and paper and pen. 

Sometime during the day, sit down and compose yourself.  On your paper, write down what you are releasing from the previous year.  You can write as much as you would like.  Then, write down your positive intent for the upcoming New Year.  This may be a shorter list, as this is not Santa’s Christmas wish list, but some simple statements of intent that will enhance your spiritual progress and process in the year to come.  This list is then attached to the bamboo skewer in any way that you would like. 

When the time comes to burn your list, always do it outside.  Pour some Epsom salts in the bowl, and add some alcohol.  Not too much, as that will drown out your lit match when you throw it into the bowl.   

Then, open a bubble of sacred space around you, light your fire, and energize your intent as stated on your paper.  Finally, toss your paper and skewer into the fire.  The purpose of the skewer is to keep your paper above the flames, as if you just throw the paper in, it will get soaked with the alcohol and may not burn completely.  Your skewer should burn completely, too.  Pay attention to anything energetic going on around you while doing your ceremony.  Surprising things may happen! 

Stay in contemplation by your fire until it is completely out.  Leave your bowl outside overnight, and then offer the Epsom salts and ashes to the Earth Mother.  Do not simply throw everything away. 

There you have it.  Do not let this once a year opportunity to slip by.  The energy on this day is very potent for manifestation. 

On another note, I drove down to St. George, Utah, yesterday to go hiking.  It is desert and about 3000 feet lower in elevation than Cedar City.  One can hike the trails almost all winter as long as it is not too muddy.  The header for this post is of the trail that I hiked.  Below are some more photos. 

The Big Wow!

This past week, Paul Smith was teaching a Basic CRV workshop here in Cedar City.  Coincidentally, one of my former healership students had signed up for that class.  It was delightful to spend some time with Sabrina before and during the class.  We went out to eat the night before class started, and I also was able to go along on the 2 field trips that Paul provided as learning experiences and a well deserved break from the intensity of the training.  Here we are.

On Friday, the last full day of class, he always takes the students to a nearby locality where they can be wowed by the dramatic scenery.  The purpose for these adventures is so that the students can experience what is called Aesthetic Impact, or AI for short.  During working a CRV target, this is the emotional response that the viewer experiences at certain point in the process, and is necessary to engage with that target at a deeper level, thus getting more information about the target. 

I was called upon to be one of the drivers, as the students were all blindfolded until the big reveal at the chosen location.  As we drove up Kolob Canyon, which is south of Cedar City, I was overwhelmed with the vistas, and experienced my own AI. The experience prompted reactions of "wow, its amazing, look at that, it feel so good to be here" from me. 

I look forward to visiting this canyon many times in the future, in different seasons and times of the day.

All Souls Day

So here we are on November 2^nd, All Soul’s Day, and the party is still in full swing.  After yet another full day of touring, there was still an opportunity to wander the streets later on enjoying the street vendors, music, costumes and face painting. 

In the morning, we traveled to a village where the specialty is wood carving.  They use copal wood which is very soft and easy to carve. 

Then we had lunch at a huge open air restaurant, where we were practically the only ones there. 

There were several parrots in cages there.  I struck up a conversation with the bigger parrot in this photo.  I said “Hola” in my regular voice, and he responded “Hola” in a deep man’s voice.  It was hilarious! 

This is a very large wooden sculpture of a group of animals that was on display outside the restaurant. 

In the afternoon, we visited our final ruin of the trip.  Zaachila was the last capitol of the Zapotec empire, and was still in use up until the Spanish arrived in 1521.  It is mostly unexcavated, and the local people have built their houses on top of a lot of the old city, which would make it even more difficult to continue excavating.  There is an unexcavated pyramid behind the area that has been cleared.

In the center of the excavated portion, there were doorways to 2 tombs.  

 They are well preserved, and it was fairly easy to climb down into the largest one.

Here are some photos from the second tomb.

What I found extremely interesting was this photo of a crystal skull in the office of the site.  It says that this skull was found at the site and represents the god of the underworld.  It is now in a museum in Mexico City. 

Finally, I’d like to share some of the fabulous murals that we saw on this day.  In recent years, a movement has taken place to train and encourage artists to paint murals around the area of Oaxaca.  Here are some of  my favorites, most of which have the "Day of the Dead" as a theme. 

All Saints Day

After the big excitement of the night before, we were gifted with a morning off.  Well deserved!  Today was All Saints Day, in which the Catholic Church honors all saints known and unknown.  This was our chance to visit yet another cemetery that afternoon.  There were no crowds, and some of the families of the deceased were just now cleaning and decorating the graves.  I have to say that I find cemeteries to be immensely interesting places, in addition to being serene and relaxing.  This cemetery had some very unique grave sites, and some excellent decorations.  

October 31st

On October 31^st, all of the “Day of the Dead” activities reached a fever pitch.  Our day started out with a children’s parade that went right past our hotel.  It would be one of many other parades that passed by in the next few days. 

Before joining in the fun, our group paid a visit to the nearby site of Atzompa, which is a sister site to Monte Alban and is visible on a nearby mountain top.  It is a lovely site on a hilly area, and is currently being excavated.  We were told that we were being watched by site caretakers the whole time we were there, and that if we took any photos of the actual excavation work, our cameras would be confiscated.  Nevertheless, here are some photos of the ruins.

After lunch, we had the afternoon free in preparation for our nighttime visit to the local cemeteries.  This was a wonderful opportunity to walk up and down the main street to view all of the altars to the deceased, indoors and outside, that the various organizations and businesses had created.  A funny note here—our Archaeological Conservancy rep, Jim, and his husband flew into Oaxaca the day before we all arrived to make preparations.  One of the things that they did was to visit numerous local shops to purchase small statues of us all to put on the hotel’s altar.  Keep in mind that they had never met any of us before, so they just used their intuition. Here is a photo of that altar with all of the little statues in front of it. 

 Here is the statue that they chose for me.  Ha!!! Looks like I am the hooker for the group.

Below are some of the altars that I visited in the neighborhood around our hotel.  Note the profuse use of marigolds.  Everything smelled really nice. 

That evening our group took a tour of 2 of Oaxaca’s older cemeteries.  The tradition is that the relatives of the deceased decorate the grave with candles and flowers, and sit there all night communicating with their dead relatives.  The food and drink that they bring to the cemetery is often shared with passersby. 

This was a real mob scene!  It was extremely crowded and pushing and shoving our way through the first cemetery was exhausting.  We then walked over to the old original cemetery, which was much less crowded and actually more interesting.   

On the way over to the second cemetery, the governor of the state of Oaxaca and his security team passed us going the opposite way.  What a fun night.  In a certain way, it was very stimulating being in the crowds of people all having a good time.