071504

 

Truth or Consequences, NM

Thursday July 15, 2004

     7:45am  I just woke up in Jeff's car. He slept in the tent outside. He kept insisting last night that I crash in his tent with him, but I told him I didn't mind the car. I just went around and looked for a place to take a shit. I dug a little hole with the heel of my shoe. I took a shit and covered it back up. Cool, cool.

     9:30am  Man, it is really beautiful out here. This is the land of enchantment. Me and these girls who showed up are walking to the Kiva. What were your names again? Marie and Ariel. They work at the youth hostel. All three of us are walking to the Kiva right now. I'll get to see what that is and take a picture of it. Awesome. Look what I walked into.

     9:40am  I just took a picture of the Kiva.

 

                   What is this thing?

 

                  Elaborate on the Kiva. They call it an earthship. It was built by stacked tires with earth in between. It's a ceremonial gathering place for Lee and the other people that helped build it. Before they were used by Pueblo tribes that abounded in this area as sacred meeting places.

     9:52am  Marie is telling me about the sweat lodge. Marie: "The sweat lodge is oriented exactly east/west. The humans enter on the eastern side. The western side, which actually has no door is called a Spirit Gate. That's where the spirits enter into the ceremony. The fire-pit where they heat the stones is aligned with the east entrance. There is a certain kind of stone that they use. It's a volcanic rock. They have to travel quite a ways to find it. It's porous. It's not as fragile as pumice, though. It heats to an extreme degree and takes a long time to cool down.
                   When you start the ceremony, the first thing that happens is there is an alter on the outside. Everyone who comes to the sweat lodge makes an offering. It can be an antler. It can be an amethyst. It can be any kind of stone. Cornmeal, tobacco, something like that. You can also put a piece of jewelry or something that's important to you and have it blessed by the spirits while you're in the sweat lodge. So that's the first step. You come and deposit your offering.
                   The fire has been lit for about four hours before you start to let the stones gather heat. Then the master ceremonist, who deals with the sweat lodge, in this case, Martin, he'll come in and he draws a line. He draws a directional line which starts east from the fire-pit and he basically draws it out to the spirits. It's the symbolic passage between the earth world and the spirit world. Then he draws one in line with the entrance. You're not supposed to cross that line. You are supposed to move in a clockwise motion. Everything that happens here is in a clockwise motion. He draws a circle with a cross between it that represents the four directions. The sky and the earth are represented by the cross. In each of the four quadrants of the circle, he'll deposit cornmeal, tobacco, sweet grass and sage. Before we actually enter, you cleanse the interior with sage to basically set the stage for the spiritual quest that you're going to have.
                   You walk around the firepit and actually touch the edge of it. Never cross that line once it's been drawn, because that's the path of the spirits. They're starting to come towards us. You walk around and you touch the sweat lodge. You say, "For all my ancestors." I can't remember the whole thing but you say, "A-ho," which means, "Welcome spirits." What you are doing is you're trying to communicate with your ancestors and sisters of the people who lived here.
                   There are four sections to the ceremony. They last approximately 15-20 minutes each. In extreme heat. After you go around, you stand in the east/west access. You plunge yourself with sage and you do the four directions, and the sky and the ground. Then you turn and do the same thing in all four directions. When you are ready to enter, you come around here, enter clockwise into the sweat lodge. If you happen to be the last person to go in and you are dying of heat and you need to get out, you have to go behind of in front of everybody to exit in the clockwise fashion.

     10:20am  Dude, I am having a good time. Well, not really. These two girls showed me the Kiva, but they wouldn't let me tell my story. Damn the ignorance in this world.

                     For some reason, I didn't tape any more for the day.

 

Next day..