GAIA MANDALA

Earth Treasure Vase for Southeastern Turtle Island US,
Shaconage, Tennessee

Introduction

“I would not say a word until I could set aside all I know or believe.”
— Toni Morrison

I’ve been at the edge lately; so very humbled by the task of planting this Earth Treasure Vase of the Third Generation of Vases, mothered by Cynthia Jurs. I come to you from a place of emptiness and fullness; a place of both knowing and not knowing. I come to you now with immense gratitude for the love and support of Cynthia and this Global Healing Sangha.

As a former teacher of young children, I can’t tell you how many times I have said, “Now this is how it’s going to go.” I can assure you this is not where I stand today! I’m in that place of grand parenthetic extremes; held in excitement and the tension of anticipation. Now is the time of resting, in the middle, before ascending to the mountainous burial site of the Earth Treasure Vase dedicated to Healing in the Southeastern United States.

Just after this vase was cool enough to carry, I brought her to the Sangha Circle at the Agape House at Ghost Ranch. There I spoke the words, “There is much to heal in the Southeast.” Other words were spoken that enabled the vase (and me) to become a conduit for Dakini Energy. I’m not writing this from a place of knowing or belief, but from one of experience! I became Apprentice to the Vase that day, as I heard the vase’s wisdom-voice whisper, “I am the size of a human heart, and I can hold it all.”

As I learned from indigenous wisdom teachings (thank you Marian, Vickie and Jon) and from the ways of honoring the ancestors by Touching the Earth (thank you Thich Nhat Hanh) I returned to the land of my birth with new ways of Entering. I have shown up here to work with enormous intentions for healing. I have prostrated my mortal body with the vase at head and heart onto Mother Earth at the feet of mounds, both ancient and new. Many tears have anointed this vase. We have walked and prayed upon portions of the Trail of Tears. We have shown up at monuments and memorials acknowledging the suffering of Indigenous People and of People of African Descent.

We have made offerings with intentions for healing All Our Relations and the traumas carried by this land; harms that have been perpetrated upon the land, people, animals, plants, minerals, the waters, air… all of creation. We have also prayed for compassion and healing for the perpetrators of harm. Offerings for protection of Gaia have been made.

We have collected waters at confluences, sources of rivers, springs, lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico, where these waters flow. We prayed healing intentions into these waters and charged them each month with full moon light.

We have breathed the Breath of Life and sang…
Om Gaia Mandala Siddhi Phala Bhrum Ah into the vessel. The Mother Gaia Sadhana is well known to this Vase! This has become a Way of Life!

1. Entering at the Sequoya Birthplace at the mound where Cherokee ancestral remains were relocated in preparation for flooding of burial grounds caused by damming in East Tennessee.
2. Going up on Snowbird Mountain toward the highest elevation of the Trail of Tears in North Carolina.
3. In Montgomery Alabama making offerings and prayers into the vase for her intentions at the Mothers of Gynecology Monument the artist sculptor Michelle Browder invited us to stand upon the platform. We were all so moved to bring in this healing for the history of horrific harm done to enslaved women.
4. We honored both the named and unnamed; slowly, slowly step by step singing prayers, at the lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.

I must acknowledge the love and support of my Beloved Friend, Ellen Hitchcock, for the Deep love and devotion we have shared along the way! And the rest of you—here, you go unnamed but not unnoticed for all you have done and will do in helping me plant this vase, offering our intentions for healing and protection of Mother Earth in the Southeastern United States.

Australian Friends honored us with an altar at their monthly gathering and prayers were offered in smoke from Colorado. Prayers for our success were made in New Mexico and Japan. Pilgrimage was made from Michigan, Columbia and Atlanta! Such a wide Circle of Love, this Global Healing Mandala!