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| Begins at Sunrise on May 8, 2004 to Sunrise on May 9, 2004 |
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The call for people of all nations, races, and traditions to participate in this massive Medicine Wheel ceremony comes at a time of widespread military conflict, and of profound environmental damage to the earth, the wind, fire and the water. It is also a time of intense culture war. The same kinds of passionate forces that bitterly pit religion against religion, race against race, and political party against political party, are also at work in Indian Country. There are many factions.
Not everyone will like the idea of White, Black, Brown, Yellow and Rainbow peoples coming to participate in a Native-guided ceremony.
But the intention of the 2004 Medicine Wheel Ceremony is for something all people can hold in common without dispute: the realization that a healthy earth is necessary to our survival, and to the survival of our children and grandchildren.
In responding to his visions and by calling for this ceremony, Bennie LeBeau is forcing the issue. Will Native peoples open their ceremonies and share their teachings? There are lots of strong viewpoints on whether this is a good thing.
Bennie says the indigenous tribes will have to open up and teach. He is well aware that not all tribal groups will welcome this. "Some tribes will open, some will not," he told me. "Each will make their own decision. This is going out to the world. There is no set ceremony. People may follow their own hearts and traditions. But we must all do it together. There is no one person who is in charge. It is up to the people."
"The old traditions alone will not work to meet this current challenge. Things have changed. We need to take the best of the old and add it to what is emerging. This is the medicine that we -- and our Mother Earth -- need now."
"If indigenous nations don¹t open the ceremonies now, then disease will come, especially diabetes and cancers. The Sun is vibrating at an extremely high frequency now, Sunspots and solar flares have remained at an all-time high over the last several years. That¹s a lot of energy coming to the Earth. We have got to be able to deal with this without loosing our balance. My visions told me to tell the tribes to watch what is happening, and to question why people are dying."
Now is the time, Bennie says. This is why the ceremonies were preserved for so many generations, against such overwhelming persecution. This is why the ancestors sacrificed, to save the songs and dances that set a tone of harmony in the relationship between the human beings and the earth, for the universe which provides our essential sustenance of food, water, and shelter.
The May 8 Medicine Wheel ceremony is intended to bring the people together through a unified vision on one day and to be guided by Native American neighbors and relatives, who have a millennia-old tradition of ceremonies to respect and maintain the balance of life on Earth.
About this diversity of viewpoints, Grandfather Martinez said, "Our gratitude will answer all the questions. We will be energized by this ceremony, making connections with all our relatives, all our cultures. All cultures must be valued and welcomed, not one left out." |
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The boundaries of the May 8, 2004 Medicine Wheel Ceremony that Bennie LeBeau has envisioned encompass nineteen well-known bodies of water and mountain peaks.
It covers an area whose radius is some 600 miles, with the Grand Tetons in Wyoming The Four Grandfathers Standing Tall -- at the center of the wheel.
The ceremonial points around the perimeter of the Medicine Wheel are located in close proximity to these sacred sites:
. Sullivan Lake, North
· Saskatchewan River
· Qu'appelle River
· Souris River
· James River
· Missouri River
· Platte River
· Arkansas River
· Cimarron River
· Colorado River or (Lake Mead)
· Lake Tahoe
· Okanagan Lake
· Mt. Taylor
· Mt. Humphrey in the San Francisco Peaks
· Mt. Whitney
· Mt. Shasta
· Three Sisters
· Mt. Rainier
· Lake Louise
As Bennie LeBeau explains it, "the intent of the ceremony is to place back into balance those lands, mountains and bodies of water that are now out-of-balance due to reckless development. We will use our drums, songs and dances to re-vitalize these sacred sites."
Working together with one another as the ancestor's once did, we will re-attune these sacred sites. Our ceremony will become an important tool to teach all people the importance of our mother earth.
Bennie says the re-attunement will help bring back the rains and dried-up springs will come to life once again. Water that sustains life, it is our lifeblood.
After the ceremony, Bennie said, "new dreams and visions will come. There will be new leadership. The mountains will be re-attuned, they will communicate once again." |
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According to Bennie, it is important to understand the relationship of the energy lines that link place to place on earth, and also the earth with the heavens. These energy pathways are like the nervous system of the human body and its wiring system, he said. The ley lines make up a matrix, or a network of energy for the body of the earth, and they can be adjusted the way a human body can be adjusted with acupuncture.
Bennie said that right now bad vibrations have built up to massive levels, and are stressing out the Earth Mother as well as many of her people. One clear evidence of this that is of particular concern to him is seismic activity in and around Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
Geologists call Yellowstone a super volcano, because of the massive calderas of molten fire beneath the park. Over 10,000 geysers including "Old Faithful" rise from the depths of the earth. Yellowstone has more geothermal activity in one concentrated region than all the other sites on the planet put together.
Now Bennie LeBeau says that recent eruptions, 200-degree ground temperatures, bulging magma and 84-degree water temperatures tell him something big is happening at Yellowstone. The earth is profoundly disturbed.
He notes the following in July, 2003 the Yellowstone Park rangers closed the entire Norris Geyser Basin because of the bulges in the land and excess temperatures. Ground temperatures on that bulge have reached 200 degrees. It¹s a dead zone. The fish were dying, trees, flowers, and grasses are dead and the zone is spreading. Animals are abandoning the park.
Some geologists have speculated that if the massive caldera we know as Yellowstone were to erupt, every living thing within six hundred miles could be affected with devastating consequences.
The long-term effects of such an eruption would be even more severe. Thousands of cubic kilometers of ash would shoot into the atmosphere and block light from the sun, making global temperatures collapse, just as in the case of a nuclear winter.
Park officials disagree with this assessment of the situation. Franklin C. Walker, Assistant Superintendent of the National Park Service, addressed these concerns in a Dec. 12, 2003 letter to the chairperson of Eastern Shoshone Tribe "From the perspective of geologists, the Yellowstone volcano is not preparing to catastrophically erupt. No indication of increased volcanic activity is evident."
Yet since then, three earthquakes have rattled the ground at Yellowstone: A 5.3 mg quake was reported on Feb. 6, 2004, a 3.5 mg. quake hit a week later on Sunday, Feb. 15, and then Saturday Feb. 21 a 3.2 mg. quake struck.
Bennie sees all of this as distinctly ominous. He says one important way to respond is with ceremony, which can serve the earth in the way acupuncture, might serve the body. |
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As I talked with Bennie, he made an interesting observation. He said, "The duality we live in requires us to consider both sides of the earth when striving to keep balance."
He said the profound troubles of the earth are evident not only in Yellowstone, but also in the Caspian Sea area of Turkistan, Afghanistan Iran, Iraq and the surrounding countries -- the whole of the disputed oil resource areas. Bennie said this region is at the opposite side of the Earth from Yellowstone.
Because of what is going on there in mining, drilling for oil, and high-tech war in Iraq and, the earth is feeling the insults and reacting on the opposite side -- at Yellowstone. Bennie said the earth responds in an attempt to put herself back into balance via the seismic disturbances and the rising fire in the Yellowstone caldera.
If the abuse of the earth continues, Bennie believes, things may get so far out of balance that Yellowstone will roar so loudly that everyone on the planet will hear the cry of pain.
The collective songs, dances, meditations and prayers of the Medicine Wheel ceremony on May 8 will be directed to the Earth with the intention of respect, gratitude, and healing. Bennie says these good vibrations will then flow through Yellowstone Lake to its twin complement, the Caspian Sea and surrounding areas on the other side of the earth. |
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As Bennie envisions the Medicine Wheel ceremony, the Eastern Shoshone from the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, and others from the area who choose to participate, will gather at the center of the wheel, in Grand Teton National Park on May 8. They will combine their songs, chants and drums within the Grand Tetons.
At the same time other tribal nations, groups, and cultures near the other 19 sacred sites around the perimeter of the Medicine Wheel will use their songs, chants and drumming to vibrate and bless those areas.
This vast Medicine Wheel around the Rocky Mountains of North America will be in relation to, and supported by other ceremonies at sacred sites in North America and around the world -- wherever people choose to gather together in respectful ceremony. The whole of the Medicine Wheel will come to its highest expression in the hour when High Noon comes to the Four Grandmothers Standing Tall.
Turquoise Mountain -- the South Mountain on the Medicine Wheel -- has already committed to ceremony under the guidance of Grandfather Martin Martinez and Grandmother Janíce, and many other elders and Medicine People from nearby Pueblos. With Grandfather Secatero, the elders established a Protocol for the Turquoise Mountain Ceremony and made the Protocol available for others to consider.
Many other points on the Medicine Wheel are set, while some are yet to be organized for ceremony on May 8.
"This is to be a joint effort," Bennie said. "I call to all my relatives to come forward now, and help to make this Medicine Wheel Ceremony happen in a good way using their own protocols, and joining together in one mind, one heart at High Noon on May 8, and to remember the Four Grandmothers Standing Tall and Yellowstone in the center. We must be in the highest form of sacred thought while in prayer. We must work in a straightforward manner. There should be no disagreements as to who is right and who is wrong, for the mountains and rivers of this Medicine Wheel have already had enough of this."
"The vision showed that this undertaking would be a joint effort working together in peace. We shall bring back peace of mind to our hearts, to our spirits, and to our homelands. We will release the bondage of negative thoughts and prejudice for the betterment of all living things." |
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Bennie says that he has been attempting to gain permission for this ceremony to be allowed in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Park. As of late February 2004, he does not yet have formal permission from the park administrators. He is hoping people will write respectfully to the Grand Teton National Park Service to support his idea for permits and campgrounds.
"We need to do this dance," Bennie said. "We need to fulfill that vision, and I cannot do it alone. It needs to be done by all the people, all colors, and all faiths. They will come together from all directions."
No one need change any religious or spiritual beliefs to participate, Bennie said. There is only one central, non-controversial thought form that participants will be activating with their meditations, songs and dances: respect and gratitude for creation.
From his many dreams and visions, Bennie has developed a sense of what kind of impact the Medicine Wheel ceremony can have: "When the sacred mountains and waterways have been set back into good order and harmony, Mother Nature will be re-orchestrated in beauty. We will see a significant change in the attitudes of all those living inside and outside the wheel."
"After the ceremony the Indigenous Nations, groups and cultures that have participated in the manifesting of this vision will work together. This will awaken and re-integrate the ancient teachings of the Indigenous Nations as brothers and sisters."
"Together we can do this in a beautiful way. Together, we can bring balance and harmony back to the land. It needs to happen now. So be it."
In closing, Bennie articulated a point that he, Grandfather Martinez, Grandmother Janíce, and the Spiritual Elders of Mother Earth agree upon: "The human race is depending on us for we are the keepers of the earth and its sacred wisdom. As the Hopi teaching instructs us, "We are the one's we have been waiting for.¹" |
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