September 2005

Today is the close of the third traditional powwow or spiritual gathering I have attended in six weeks. This year a number of very important teachings were shared that affirmed and informed, some of which I would like to pass on to you.

The first concerns the 500-year-old native prophecy of the Condor (people of South America) and the Eagle (people of North America).
In 1959, at the annual Feast of the Return of the Pleiades, the Q’ero people – considered the last of the Incas – made their first public appearance in 500 years. Having lived in isolation at 14,000 ft in the Andes, the came down from the mountains to announce to the crowd of 70,000 the beginning of the great gathering or ‘Mastay’ when the world would turn “right side up,” and harmony, through compassion and love, would return to the world.  Many other prophecies, including the Bible, refer to a time of great change, an “end” to the world as we know it and the creation of a time of luminosity.
Part of the Condor and Eagle Prophecy involves a time when the four directions, the four races, will be united. In a time of greatest turmoil and threat the People of the Eagle will contact the People of the Condor and their coming together will ignite the Eighth Fire, the time of cultivating love and peace and illumination.
On the morning of August 7 I joined with hundreds of others at the Circle of All Nations gathering for sunrise pipe ceremony in Maniwaki, Quebec, on the reserve and home land of William Commanda, known as Grandfather William. Most of us had sweat our prayers in sweat lodges that ran from morning till late at night the previous day. Our hearts open, feeling brave and humble, grateful and loving, we gathered at 5:30 a.m.
Many pipe carriers sat within the circle around the sacred fire. They had traveled from many tribes and parts of the world. The pipe carrier who was asked by Grandfather William to “facilitate” that morning happened to be of Inca heritage. The final guest to speak rose to the centre of the circle to tell us a story, but first he asked all the men present to stand for the rest of the ceremony to honour the women. As hundreds of men stood in silence and reverence in the early morning, a loon called and tears began to run down my face, as they do now remembering. The energy of all those men was profoundly healing.
The speaker shared a wonderful story full of powerful omens and synchronistic events. All the characters in the story needed to trust that their hearts would tell them what was right, and that right action was always followed with confirmations and more insights.
The story began more that 10 years ago as elders and shamans of many tribes in the land of the Condor were guided to light fires in sacred places and with special people. At each sacred fire the ashes were kept until the final fire in a valley between two mountains where the ritual was completed and the ashes divided up into four bundles to go into the four directions. Four individuals found their lives profoundly changed as they were drawn into the story and became carriers of the ashes. The man who was sent “north” was told to wait until he was “contacted.” He waited 10 years to pass on the ashes of the 8th Fire.
Our speaker, the recipient, told of the ashes guiding him to where he needed to be and our fire that morning was an essential part of the weaving. He told us the 8th Fire is when women are equal to men, and honoured as being the bringers of peace. Women would teach the men to love again, to love the Earth and each other. This would usher in the golden millennium.
He asked for four women to come in who felt they could take on the responsibility of representing the four directions, for he had tobacco for them. Not four but all the women entered the circle. A grin formed as we watched this anti-hierarchical gesture of the women. An Algonquin woman selected an African, Peruvian and Japanese woman and they were each given their tobacco. These four women, without a moment’s hesitation, then shared the tobacco with every woman in the circle.
Each woman individually then gave prayers for all men and women in the sacred fire as we all sang. This was the teaching of the women: No one is more important than another. All gifts, no matter how sacred, are to be shared. As every woman hugged and cried and smiled and prayed, the men’s eyes glistened, their hearts open witnessing the gift that women bring to the world.
As we honour each other, the water, trees and all of creation, we walk the red road as children of the 8th Fire Prophesy.