ANCIENT WISDOM IN NEW FRONTIERS

A few short months ago I gathered five stones in an arroyo in Abiquiu. They held the seeds of ancient wisdom to take into new frontiers. Little did I know that souls the world over would hear this call too.

I return to the arroyo in gratitude for the guidance on this first ever journey to build our personal mesa and deepen the connection to the ancient wisdom that lies in every rock and stone.

It was a glorious day in Abiquiu to open ceremony for our Mesa Building Journey. After a chilly and overcast morning the sun held us in warmth in the middle of winter.

A beautiful herd of cattle met us at the entry point to our sacred site for ceremony. On New Year’s Day I buried what did not burn of our despacho beneath the tree here. What gentle gatekeepers for us.

“Cows can teach us about home and community and the joy and contentment therein. Cows aid us in realizing to be easy going and live in the moment. They show us about love and connections at work and home. Cows can teach us how to make the changes needed to bring joy in our surroundings.” Animal Totems by Starstuffs

Before heading into the arroyo we prepared our luminous body with a white candle clearing to release the energetic impressions that have imprinted us in lack, limitation and fear. We carried the candles to our ceremonial site to burn.

At the start of our trek we found large stones to carry the burdens we are ready to release. The intention was held for all those on this journey by blowing them into the stone with our breath.

They were laid to rest at our site for ceremony in a circle of protection around our burning candles. Elizabeth Inman of the Purple Adobe Lavender Farm in Abiquiu brought her essential oil from the farm which we used to anoint the stones and each other.

As we laid to rest our burdens and burned the energetic patterns that limit us, we fed our prayers with offerings of flowers, sweets, chocolate and wine. A feast for Pachamama and Spirit!

Prayers for the highest manifest vision for humanity and the Earth were blown into the peace flags and wrapped around our Apuchetta or little mountain offering.

Our prayers and intentions created a vessel of beauty for our beloved Earth Mother, Pachamama, as we heed her ancient wisdom and travel to frontiers not yet known.

Let us remember we are born as the sons and daughters of Pachamama.
Let us remember we are her caretakers and stewards.
Let us learn to listen to her rhythms and cycles.
Let us learn to live in harmony with her
and all her beings.

Namaste

A bow of gratitude to Valerie Hart for capturing some of these moments.

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WINTER MESA DESPACHO

A Despacho To Open Our Mesa Building Journey

We prepare our hearts and call to the Grace of Spirit,
The wisdom of Pachamama and
The power of the Apus,
To guide us through the darkness of winter
As we build our mesa
To weave our hearts to the love and beauty
Of our Earth Mother, Pachamama.

May the white petals of the rose hold our prayers in purity.

We call to the Four Directions
So we may be in balance with all your elements,
So we may live in harmony
With the rhythms and cycles of Nature
Around us and within us.

We feed our prayers and intentions to you
With offerings to bring color and sweetness
To our hopes and dreams
As we walk this path of transformation.

We wrap our prayers as a gift to you Pachamama
With a forgotten prayer holder of the white rose
To hold our intentions through time and space
Until they manifest in this Earth dimension, the Kaypacha,
For the highest good of all.


We wrap our despacho in the sacred cloth
Informed by the blessing of a new snow
On the first morning of a new year.

We thank you, thank you, thank you
For receiving the prayers of our most tender and humble heart.
We bow in gratitude for the blessings you bestow upon us
And for clearing the path ahead so we may walk
In the beauty and the abundance that you so
Lovingly provide to us all.

Namaste
AHO
Amen

 

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A MAP OF YOUR OWN WILD WILDERNESS

At the time of our birth we are each held by a great power in Nature. Where were you born? What mountain or ocean held you when came into the world?

The shamans teach us an honoring and acknowledgment of these great places of power is needed to connect more deeply to the source of power that has kept watch over you.

Make an offering to show respect and say thank you. This is how we restore ayni or what shamans call right relationship to the source of power. We offer our prayers. We offer gratitude.

We begin to taste the drop of nectar that is our power. Not in an arrogant way. Not in a superior way that we have come to define and understand power but in a humble way.

We come to taste the power of knowing how our thoughts, our words and our actions are creating the world we live in. We are powerful in ways we never imagined.

This is the new frontier. It is a map of your own wild wilderness.

Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM

excerpt from forthcoming “The Feminine Path to Enlightenment”

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BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL MESA: A Transformational Journey Through the Seasons

During an intense few weeks this October, my life changed dramatically through circumstances and events that broke down the life I was living and opened the doorway to a new reality orchestrated by the Divine hand of Spirit.

During this time the land in New Mexico spoke to me through stones found during an early morning hike in an arroyo in Abiquiu. These stones held information on teaching people how to build a personal mesa.

A mesa is a shaman’s altar or medicine bundle used for healing, ceremony, prayer and divination. It is a portal to Spirit and deepens our awareness to non-ordinary states of reality.

I have carried a mesa for the past 10 years, starting with the Four Winds Light Body School and the teachings of Alberto Villoldo. Since that time I have had the great privilege to deepen my practices with medicine men and women in the high Andes through the Bouquet of Light Women’s Journey to Peru to awaken the Divine Feminine.

My mesa has changed in so many ways over the years as kuyas or healing stones have been added and released. This journey now creates a whole new mesa for me.

For some, a mesa looks like a bag of stones or arrangement of rocks and on a literal level this is true. But at the mythic level a mesa deepens your connection to Spirit and anchors you to Mother Earth. A mesa teaches us to listen to the voice of Spirit as it moves through us. The only reason I have any sense of what the stones in the arroyo were speaking of was because of the connection to my own mesa.

Each stone, or kuya as they are called in one’s mesa, represents a particular location in Northern New Mexico to gather for ceremony. Each ceremony will be an opportunity to receive a kuya and begin to build a personal mesa. Although these kuyas represent locations in Northern New Mexico, you can participate from wherever you are and build a mesa with stones from your own native land.

Each kuya is received during one of the four seasons. The cycle of seasons become the reference point for building our mesa helping to deepen the connection to our own inner rhythms and cycles as each season becomes a mirror for our own reflection.

During each season we will hold an intention for our personal evolution and transformation as we learn to work with our kuyas or healing stones. Each season will also include information and teachings on:

• Opening Sacred Space
• Creating an Altar
• Shamanic Journey to meet a Spirit Ally
• Clearing and Purification Practices
• Kundalini Kriyas and/or Meditation
• Guided Breathwork Session
• Journaling Assignments
• Personal and Collective Despacho Ceremony

The Mesa Building Journey will be offered on land as well as online allowing you to participate from wherever you are at a pace that suits your lifestyle although establishing certain practices each day will be highly advisable. A forum for communication and group sharing will be created through a closed Facebook group.

I never had any thought about teaching others to build a mesa but it is clearly Divine intent. Although this journey is still shaping itself into being I am inspired to start sharing and spreading the news of this unique opportunity for spiritual transformation that is being guided and informed by the Santa Tierras, the ancient wisdom of the feminine land spirits.

Registration for this first time ever experience will begin in the season of Winter after the start of the New Year so stay tuned for more information.

I thank you for spreading the news!

 

 

 

 

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UNDER THE LIGHT OF THE FULL MOON

As a group of women gathered under the light of the full moon in New York, a man in New Mexico quietly prepared the way for ceremony. Most of our evolutionary conversation speaks to the awakening of the feminine yet the cosmos aligned under a super full moon to tend to the wounds of the masculine.

As the moon waxed towards fullness I wanted my kuyas, the medicine stones of my mesa, to sit on Pachamama to guide our full moon fire ceremony. I was in New York. My mesa was in New Mexico.

The mandala of kuyas was laid on the earth just as I had asked. My visioning stone was placed on top of a selenite wand facing the Dark Mountain in a call to the Apus. Beneath the wand lay a heart-shaped kuya from the holy mountain Ausangate holding the spirit of a warrior. Offering support at the bottom were three kuyas with turquoise stones placed on top aligning Earth and Sky.

I envisioned this mandala as a source of guidance for our ceremony but never expected it to look the way it did as it lay on the Earth. A lingam was created or more loosely translated, a penis. I was hesitant to share the mandala of my mesa as embarrassment shrouded my vision from public view.

A ceremony begins long before a gathering takes place. As this powerful phallic symbol sat on the Earth I began to feel its strength. During my morning practice my body had become the mandala. Sitting strong in lotus I felt a deep connection to the Earth. My arms reached to sky with fingers pointed as my visioning stone. My spine felt clear as the selenite wand. I embodied the energetic vibration as the pure essence of direction and the steadfastness of one pointed focus.

I embodied the power of the masculine.

As this sense of pure direction landed in my body, the awareness of how I was directing my own masculine energy became apparent. Like a sword I had turned its direction against myself to control my own feelings and shape my feminine to hide her power.

As our sisterhood gathered that night for ceremony an altar was built with flowers gathered from gardens tended with love.

Building Altar

Altar of Flowers, Feathers, Crystals and Stones In Front of Fire Pit

Flower Offerings Held Prayers of Gratitude

We prayed for our Earth Mother and birth Mother. We prayed for our sisters and daughters. We prayed for our grandmothers. We prayed to empty our hearts of the wounds held in our relationships with all women.

We prayed to the Father, the power of the Sun as sustainer of all life, to the Father that created us. To our husbands and lovers. We prayed to our brothers and grandfathers. We prayed to empty our hearts of the wounds held in our relationships with all men.

We prayed to build a bridge in our own heart between masculine and feminine. We prayed to heal our own wounds so that we may be the peacekeepers, the healers, the lovers, the visionaries that build bridges between all hearts.

We prayed with the fire in New York as my mesa was lovingly tended by a man in New Mexico building bridges between Earth and Sky under the Light of the Full Moon.

Rose Petals for Blessing after Fire Clearing

Creating Sacred Space with Song of Gratitude
words and music by Kailey Wildflowers, my niece, (a very proud Aunt!)

Mesa Mandala on Earth in New Mexico facing Dark Mountain
Footnote to Howl by Allen Ginsberg

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IMAGINE A WORLD

Inspired by the Pachamama Days of Peru, let us imagine a world. The shamans of the high Andes dedicate the first 12 days of August to honor Pachamama and dream the year ahead into being with the Despacho Ceremony.

Dona Berna praying at Umantay, holy mountain in the Andes

During these Pachamama days I invite you to write in the comments below what you imagine so we may dream our world into being with a collective prayer for ceremony. Your prayers will be offered at a Full Moon Fire Ceremony on August 10th.

I imagine a world where love is the prevailing force on our planet.

I imagine a world where every child knows they are worthy and loved.

I imagine a world with clear waters and clean air.

I imagine a world where the abundance of our planet feeds every belly and soul.

The times we are living in are callling for our visions to be bigger than ever before. I bow in gratitude for addiing your voice to a collective vision. May generations to come look back and say thank you for what we are creating today.

We open our ceremony with a song to our Beloved Mother.
This song was birthed in June 2013 by Tracey St. John
during the Empowerment Camp at Feathered Pipe Ranch.

Click on the image to listen.

Mother Earth Prayer Song

We offer our collective hearts to Spirit.
We let go of the attachment
of how our visions and dreams 
will manifest in the Kaypacha. 
We cultivate trust in the divine order. 
We surrender to the great mystery 
so we are no longer guided by the voices of fear, 
the limiting belief systems 
and old paradigms
that have laid false imprints in our minds. 
We deepen our connection to Nature 
and open the channels to Spirit 
as we fearlessly step into the guidance 
that is so willingly offered to us.

AHO!

 

 

 

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FULL MOON RITUAL

The Full Moon in Capricorn is this Saturday, July 12th, bringing certain relationship dynamics to a head. Wherever communication has been lacking and emotions have been held in and back, prepare for whatever is pressing to come out on the table. Fortunately, Mars will also be trining loving Venus, which means if you are pure in your intentions to find a meeting ground and to resolve to evolve, your spirited talks will show the way.  Kristin Fontana, Evolutionary Astrologer

I recently returned to New York for the summer, grateful for the time and space to attempt to bring my book from chaos to order. Practices, rituals and ceremonies are woven throughout. As I was preparing for this upcoming full moon I thought to share an excerpt so you may use this time as an opportunity to transform your fears. For any ritual or ceremony, create a sacred space in whatever way feels natural to you. This can be as simple as lighting a candle or saying a prayer to align your intentions with the helping hand of Spirit.

Bring to mind a fear you would like to work with. Really give it full reign in your mind’s eye. Imagine the worst or recall memories or circumstances that validate your fear and offer proof that it is real. This allows you to feel it in your body. This fear can be energetically transferred through your breath to an element of nature. Use a stone and on your exhale empty all the energetic impressions that have laid a foundation of fear in your body into the stone.

Keep blowing into the stone until you have a sense of completion. Your stone is now holding this pattern. This fear code will be offered to the earth. Bury it if you like for the element of earth will compost the energetic vibrations. You may throw your stone in a moving body of water to cleanse and purify the energetic code of fear. This is a process that does not involve analysis of your fear the way therapy would but works beyond the mind at the level of vibration and frequency.

This clearing practice creates a vacuum in our luminous field as we begin to empty these energetic patterns of fear. In the presence of a void our energy field is going to look to fill that that space up. Our attachment to these patterns are often so strong and the roots go very deep that our field reshapes itself to the previous pattern. Once we release something we need to replace that with a new pattern. In this way we are rewiring our luminous field that in turn is informing and shaping our physical body.

How do we reinform our luminous field after a clearing? What is a simple and effective way to repattern the field after release? Notice what you would like to create or call into your life.

Abundance. Joy. A sense of purpose. Vitality or health. Balance. Prosperity.  

There is an endless source of qualities to be informed by other than fear. You can begin to reshape yourself with a new vibration with a very simple practice.

Our most primal sense is our sense of smell. We have lost touch with its significance but watch any animal and you will see the power of this sense at work.

Find an oil that uplifts you. Try clary sage, bergamot, lavender, sandalwood or myrrh. Apply under your nostrils. Mentally vibrate your intention as you breathe in deeply. Use a mantra or create an affirmation in the present tense. Your primal sense of smell bypasses all that is logical and of the mind and associates this scent with a new vibration.

An excerpt from forthcoming book, working title The Feminine Path to Enlightenment

 

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THE RED FAIRY QUEEN

 

Our Offering to the River Honoring the Wild and Untamed Divine Feminine

On the Summer Solstice, a smal group of women entered the mystical caves of Ra Paulette for our first ever women’s retreat in Northern New Mexico. Three days later I was ecstatic to receive this email.

With permission granted from the Red Fairy Queen herself, I share the power of our intimate gathering in sisterhood.

Dear sisters,

I wanted to give you an update on my experience since the retreat! Thanks Karen- it is really amazing how you held the space for us all to deeply feel and express our true, wild, succulent selves! I feel like the work we did cleared a lot for me. I feel more comfortable with myself than ever. During the retreat my gut asked me to do a three-day juice cleanse. Today is the last day! I’m detoxing a lot!

Another story.

Two days ago I made a new friend and we laughed and played music on a mountainside for hours upon end! During that time I had an idea that I really wanted to practice being my full, emotional, sensitive, vibrant, sexy self in public. So the next day I dressed up in my shiniest red spandex pants, stuck the raven feather in my red hat, wore a belly shirt with solar systems and galaxies all over it, tied a red table-cloth on as a cape, and walked around with a silly basket giving away free things all day. I was also experimenting with liberating myself not only of worrying about other people’s judgments, but also from being enslaved to money and the idea that giving has to be an exchange of material objects.

I gave away $10 dollar bills, fairy stamps and glitter, roses and other goodies. I called myself the Red Fairy Queen and told people what I was doing. People were really excited about it and I had some amazing exchanges!

What I learned:

Presence is the most valuable gift of all!

It meant more to people that I was there doing what I was doing, being present and connecting, than that I was giving them a physical object. I also realized that receiving can be a gift in and of itself.

Giving truly is receiving in a sense. 

By the end of the day I realized a lot about myself and also had been gifted many new friends, deep heartfelt connection and stories, and a beautiful crystal necklace and ring! I had a blast! My new friend and some old friends came out to join in the giving and receiving. I think I inspired some people and I definitely became more comfortable with the discomfort of being in a society that sometimes isn’t so accepting. Thanks for helping me on my journey sisters!

tata for now!

Love,
Melissa

 

 

 

 

 

I utterly adore you dear Melissa Gail Klein! Now where did I leave my red spandex?

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EASTER PILGRIMAGE: A PHOTO JOURNEY

How many words is a picture worth?
I do not know if we can truly measure that one
but I do believe the best way to share our Easter Pilgrimage
to the Cathedral Cave in Embudo
is with the images of that day.

Through the generosity of Spirit
and the owners of the caves,
we were gifted two caves to visit that day,
entering the first one in ceremony
to deepen our connection with the Mother.

We set to work.
Yoga and breath,
drumming and silence,
opening our hearts
and deepening our sacred feminine well of receptivity.

In silence I enter the pregnant void
Alone with myself
and yet truly not alone at all.
For here, I begin to realize
I am One with all Creation.

This is the home of the unmanifest
In all its fullness.
The plenum,
source of all that is,
was and shall be, too.

I come here on my own,
Unafraid, so that I may know myself better,
To learn the truth
Of who I really am
In my deepest being.

As the outside world falls away
I tremble in awe and fascination
At the hidden power which
So few take the time to go within
And explore.

Karey Pohn

Our intentions were offered in prayer
as we built a community despacho in the Earth.

The second cave left us in AWE,
and ready to move in
with its soaring architechture,
hardwood floors,
running water,
mosaic tiles,
electricity.

A thousand words would not do
so may you enjoy the magic through these pictures.

Some of the adventurous souls that made the first Easter Pilgrimage to Embudo! Not everyone is in the picture but the spirit of this one really captured the joy and magic of the day. A huge bow of thanks to Elizabeth Inman, Izabel Nazario and Don Myer for sharing their beautiful photos!

ps…I was not sure if this would be the one and only ceremony I would have the honor to hold here but it seems that Spirit has more in store. Inspired by the efforts of our Easter Pilgrimage a seed has been planted for a women’s retreat to Embody the Sacred Temple of Our Womb. What magnificent space to do this work…more to follow my friends!

If you would like to know more about Ra Paulette’s hand sculpted caves in Northern New Mexico watch Cavedigger.

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A MYSTICAL PILGRIMAGE

When I first heard of the mystical caves of Ra Paulette I became enamored. My heart was full of a desire to be in one. Not as a curious tourist but as a medicine woman. How a city girl would find her way to a cave in rural Northern New Mexico was beyond me. I offered my wish to Spirit. If it was to be the way would open.

Rio Embudo, Embudo, NM

My pilgrimage began with a friend request on facebook, the modern day version of sending smoke signals.

Shortly thereafter I was coursing along Rio Embudo, my little Honda traversing the rough terrain like a 4 wheeler (well more like the little engine that could).

One of Ra’s mystical creations sits on Scott’s property. Scott’s generous heart created an immediate kinship as I arrived at his home for our first meeting to create ceremony.

The short trek from the house to the cave’s entrance was guided by Lou and Ruxton, two of the friendliest gatekeepers.

My Happy Guides to the Cave

One thing I learned as a child is you never show up at someone’s home empty-handed. The same is true of someone’s cave.

Offerings were made in gratitude for the grace that guided me here.

A dreamcatcher was hung at the doorway to capture the wishes of all souls in need.

Your wish is here

After entering the cave, a short walkway beguiles the majesty that lies beyond.

The Way is Open

The space is holy, sacred. You are immediately humbled. What else can one do in the face of God?

The hand sculpted cathedral hidden deep within Pachamama is at once earthly and ethereal.

Slowly, reverently I make my way through. It is the only way to walk here. Every step on our Mother should be so hallowed.

Stairs spiral to a balcony surrounding the heart of this soaring space.

Seats are built into earth as meditative respites. Shrines are hand chiseled into stone. Nooks lay like little wombs waiting to hold you.

Words alone cannot describe. Awe perhaps? That pales in this palace. Words fall away.

Spirit Stairway

I did take pictures but other than the ones here they are not worth sharing. The space cannot be captured that way. It must be felt to be known.

My desire for ceremony began with a love filled intent, the source of any creation.

And this ceremony has begun.

It is a practice in trust, informed by our Mother and this divine infused human creation.

There is not much “doing”. The space itself transforms.

It provokes our deepest listening.

It awakens our deepest silence.

It allows us to be held in an infinite well of Mother Love. A womb that has the power to hold all of human suffering.

This vessel is a mirror of our vessel, holy and sacred.

We are reminded of the humbleness of our power.

Our luminous body is re-informed by the Great Mother who wants us to know we are of her.

We are infinite love, infinite creation, infinite mystery, infinite wisdom.

It is time to remember.

The invitation to ceremony is open. I offer this so the seed may be planted.

It is born from your intent.

CaveDigger, nominated for an Academy Award, is the short documentary that tells the story of Ra Paulette and his mystical cave creations.

Watch the trailer for a glimpse into a world divine.

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