Dedicated to Eve Dolphin, who showed me the path, with munay, the power of unqualified love.

Sunflower Stories are a work in progress. They are derived from the stories that come to me in the dream-time and from the voices of the old ones that I hear in the wind. More will follow this one, spirit willing!

 The archetypes of the four directions
So, child, you dreamed last night of a tiny ruby throated hummingbird, flying in her rainbow colours, opening her beating heart to you…

And you could not hear what she was saying?

Even though you are young it is the time, now, for hummingbird to remind you of what you have forgotten; the knowledge that you brought into the world, the gift of knowing that came into this world with you.

Hummingbird has come to tell you that now, this moment, is the time for you to remember, to bring that which you have forgotten back from the darkness and into the light of our sun. For until you remember you will not be able to do your work in this world. It is time for you to remember where you have come from and where you are going so that you can find your path on the Earth.

Child, you hold the powers gifted to all human persons – the power to love, the power to work and the power to wisely use the knowledge that you gain through what you do and experience in this world. These gifts we are given by spirit and we must return them with love to spirit through the Earth, the Pachamama and all her children, all our relations. This is our path, our duty and our joy. It is the reason we are here. We human people hold the balance between past and future, dark and light, and with conscious intention and joy we protect and nurture our mother earth and her children through our love, our work and our knowledge

Spirit does not leave us alone on our path, as you now know, having been visited by many of these great powers, even in your short life time. But perhaps you did not know them when they came? If you do not know their stories they may seem strange when they appear. So we must tell their stories so that you will not be afraid, but instead trust them and hear the knowledge that they bring you.

These four great powers that are always with us can best be told through the forms in which we perceive them – the story of serpent, of the jaguar, of the hummingbird and of the eagle. Their stories will help you to remember your path and to know that you are not alone. When you have remembered their stories they will know you, as you know them. And when you call them, they will come to help you on your path. And when you are a little older, and wiser, and spirit can see that you are ready, you will find that when they call you, you will come. You will be a Keeper of the Earth with the power to assist spirit with nurturing all that exists in this moment, and creating a future for all that will come after us.

You want to begin?  We are alone, and our sun is warming at our windows….                 We are beloved and protected… 
Let us begin then, at the beginning, with the South, our mother the Serpent….

Serpent
The direction is South, the element is Water, the time is Night, the season is Winter. Here the human person is held between sunset and the dawn, poised to begin the journey into this world. It is the time before birth, the time of gestation, reflection, preparation. A time of acceptance, all is, as it is – a time before the separation of the Earth and Sky. In the journey of the human, it is the path from birth through to adolescence, the time when we are nurtured and instructed, when we know that our earthly and our heavenly  parents will hold us, protect us and provide for us in our innocence and beauty.

She is the great Serpent, mother of the Waters, the Sachamama of the Americas. the world serpent of the Saxons, the Kundalini of the Hindus, the Caduceus of the Greeks; it is she who is the archetype, the unifying principle of holding, of stillness, of binding, of connection.

In this place is the perfect circle of Ouroborus, the serpent who holds her tail in her mouth, who holds the earth together. The perfect circle of life and death, in the place from which we emerge, the place of the beginning of the dark nights and the bright days.

And when the Sachamama appears to you, and she will appear, in many forms once you have come to know her, you may speak with her and ask her for her guidance. And always, before you speak, you must give her thanks for her gifts---

Great Serpent, mother, thank you
for holding us safe in your circle of light
your beginnings without end
You hold us in this place of gentle darkness,
enfolding us with your light
Showing us how simple it is to shed our past
Just as you shed your skin.
We see, in your glow, that our world is beautiful
We walk on it in beauty.

Jaguar
The direction is West, the element is Earth, the time is sunset, the season is the time of harvest. Here the human person is held at the balancing point between light and dark. It is the time to face and master the darkness within, time for mastering the mind and the emotions and the time for becoming the luminous warrior who knows the ways beyond fear.  In the journey of the human, it is the path from adolescence to adulthood; where we  shed our childish innocence and reclaim our own power to make our way in the world.

She is the great Jaguar, Otorongo, the guardian of the rainforest. She stalks, solitary, graceful, silent; ready to pounce and strike, the essence of speed and purpose. She is the eternal, wild feminine feline who shows us the way to mastery over all dimensions; the power reclaimed from the darkness. It is she who shows us our inner knowing and helps us to make it manifest. She is the archetye, the unifying principle of chaos and chronos, life and death, light and dark.

This is the place where Tane separated Rangi and Papa, so that he and his brother atua could grow and do their work; the place where the human spirit separates from heavenly parents, and then begins the journey towards re-uniting with them once again.

And when Otorongo appears to you, and she will appear, in many forms once you have come to know her; you may speak with her and ask her for her guidance. And always, before you speak, you must give her thanks for her gifts---

Otorongo, mother, sister Jaguar, thank you
for your protection, for stalking and tracking
in the darkness outside us and within us
and returning it to the Earth
As the light of the exploding star
from which we all come and to which we will return.
Thank you, mother
For showing us the Rainbow bridge
The path between light and dark, life and death
The path of the Luminous Warrior
who has gone beyond fear.

Hummingbird
The direction is North, the element is Air, the time is Noon, the season is summer. Here the human person is held between the dawn and the sunset, poised for the second half of the journey. It is the coming of age, the growth into and the manifestation of adulthood. Here we accomplish the impossible, accept that the universe is divine and that we may sip nectar from the flowers because we are in balance with all that is. It is time to begin the giveback of the sweetness of life.

She is the royal Hummingbird, Seq’e Kente, stopper of time; she who does not know that it is impossible for her heart to beat fast enough to sustain her flight across oceans and continents, and makes her great migratory journeys anyway, year after year. She is fearless and recognises no boundaries to her power. She plays, builds, flies, creates in simple, direct, knowing, loving joy.

And here, in the journey of spirit, is the place beyond time, where the past is ahead of us and the future can be tracked, where we are invisible to harm and where we know the secret that we keep safe in the dark, keep even from ourselves. Here is the place where we can speak with the mountains, those great stone people who know both earth and heaven and will joyfully tell their story to those who have the infinite patience to listen

And when Hummingbird appears to you, and she will appear, in many forms; once you have come to know her, you may speak with her and ask her for her guidance. And always, before you speak, you must give her thanks for her gifts---

Seq’e Kente, mother, sister Hummingbird, thank you
For the living energy of knowledge, of just knowing
From the place beyond time, where we speak with all that is
Thank you for our lineage of medicine people,
Who whisper to us, in the wind, in the flight of birds,
in the murmurings of the water;
who warm their hands at our fires.
Thank you, grandmothers and grandfathers
For telling us what you have learned
So that we may be stewards of the time to come.

Eagle
The direction is East, the element is Fire, the time is Dawn, the season is spring. Here the human person is held between the noontime and midnight, poised for the end of one journey and the beginning of the next. In the journey of the human it is the coming into wisdom, the growth into and manifestation of elderhood. It is the time of becoming the bearer of new creative fire into the world, time to share the wisdom of this lifetime with those who will come after, time to prepare for the journey into the next world.

She is the great Eagle, Condor, who flies wing to wing with spirit. It is the place of pure, white light, high above the snow line, where we fly at one with the air, free to soar to the sun and to return again to circle on spirals of sun-warmed air. She is of the earth, but not on the earth; she swoops, dives, soars, hovers as she finds the alchemical fire that brings re-birth. Here is the place where we are close to spirit; we may see with the eyes of the divine, beyond time, beyond space. Here we experience our oneness with all that is, and know that it is as it is, and all is as it needs to be.

And when Eagle appears to you, and she will appear, in many forms once you have come to know her; you may speak with her and ask her for her guidance. And always, before you speak, you must give her thanks for her gifts---

Great Eagle, Condor, thank you
For taking us under your wing
And teaching us to fly wing to wing with spirit
Thank you for giving us your eyes,
The eyes you borrowed from the creator
And for your gift of flying high and fast
To show us the fires to transform our world
So that we may become keepers of the stars

So, child, when you have remembered these four powers, and have experienced them in the world, I will tell you more, the stories of Above, Below and Within…..  and the stories of the Stone People, who were here when the world began and have seen it all…..

 

Caretakers of the earth
Dreamers of the time to come

The Call

All over Europe and the Americas at the time of the new moon, fire vigils are kept by those who have been initiated as dreamers of the time to come and stewards of the earth by the elders of the Q’ero nation. They are the ‘practical mystics’ of the high Andes, known also as ‘Laika’ because of their lineage connection to an ancient people before the time of the Inca empire. The Q’ero are the last of the children of the sun; the keepers of an ancient, feminine way of knowledge. They teach that all that is in the universe  – the earth, humans, mountains, animals, trees, and stars – is made of light and vibration.  Nothing we perceive as real exists, other than as a dream that we project, like a film. 
In 1950, 500 years after they fled from the Conquistadors to their ancestral mountains, the Inca elders began to come down from their remote villages to share what they have always known; that we are in the midst of the next leap of our evolution. They come to show us how to create a new dream, to heal ourselves, our past, our future and the earth herself. The Inca can teach us how to dream a different destiny; a new world where our waters are clean and our children’s children care for each other and for all that is.  Many of us have heard the call to do this work. Now is the time to answer that call.

The World of Energy

The metaphysical, numinous world of light and energy and the world we think of as the physical world co-exist. All of us have the innate ability to sense the human energy field and the web of energy that connects us to the universe. Artists in many cultures have shown it; the halo of light often depicted around Christ is essentially the same as the one portrayed in images in stone, on wood and on canvas, encircling a buddha, an Egyptian god or a Maori tohunga. The artists were not using the halo just as a symbol; they could sense it.
In the West, we are taught to recognize as real only that which we can see with our own two eyes. Consequently, we often mistake the film show, beamed from our eyes to our cerebral cortex, for reality. We all have the capacity to experience the metaphysical world in the same way we experience the physical world, that is, by fully using all our senses; by touching, smelling, tasting, seeing and sensing through our intuition.
Through ceremony, and practices of ‘seeing’ and ‘tracking’, passed to us from earth peoples such as the Inca, we can go beyond the film that we are projecting to perceive the luminous blueprint of the universe for ourselves.  As we access this world of light we become the dreamers; the co-creators of well-being, the healers of all that is, and the shapers of destiny. 

Sacred Space

The Inca practice many simple ceremonies for healing and giving thanks to the earth.  Every ceremony is performed in sacred space, created by invoking the protection of the elemental energies of the four directions that are within us and around us. As we access sacred space we remember the lines of energy that connect us directly to the sun. We activate the lines of energy that connect us to each of the four corners of our planet.
Jose Luis Herrera, a Peruvian shaman, showed me a Q’ero framework for invoking sacred space. When he passed it on he emphasized, as all shamans must, that we each create sacred space in our own way. Shamanic practices are learned through direct experience, so that there may be as many different ways of creating sacred space, as there are people on the earth. The only strict rule that must be followed is: formulate and state your intention for the healing work that you want to do, and ask for help in your work from each of the directions. Then, when you have prepared yourself, face in each of the four directions, and call in the assistance of the archetypal energies or spirits; whatever these are for you.

The four directions

In the east, you become vision, embodying light and transcendence of time and place. You align with the rising sun, assisting with the assembling of reality.
In the north, you embody knowledge. You align with the mountain; the source of
knowledge of the earth herself and of those who have gone before us. You align
with the mystery, the heavens, the source of creation.

In the west, you embody action. You achieve the mastery of words and emotions,
and create a luminous reality.

In the south you embody the gifts passed through the generations, the holding and
healing passed from parent to child. You achieve mastery of the body, and of healing.

Once you have opened sacred space, stand back! Everything is as it is, and all is as it
needs to be. The healing will unfold.

Ayni

In sacred space and with clear intention we come into ayni, harmony, balance or equilibrium; right relationship with all that is. In this place we heal our past and our future. In this place we practice well-being in this moment. In this place we do our work in this world is as stewards of the planet. All illness, whether of a person or of the land, is caused by some disharmony in life.

Doris Rivera, a Q’ero medicine woman, tells that the Inca shamans of old treated the health of the land and the health of the people as if they were interchangeable. The Tuhoe tohunga, Hohepa Kereopa, recently told the historian Paul Moon of similar understandings and practices amongst his people.

There is a story, told in many cultures, of a medicine woman, asked to bring rain to a remote hill settlement. Instead of embarking on a long ceremony, she went to a hut at the edge of the village and remained there for three days and three nights. On the fourth day, the rains began and she came out. In the joyous celebrations that followed she slipped away, but not before one man noticed and ran after her. “What did you do to make the rains come”, he asked. She looked at him, to see if he was one who would understand. At length she replied “Your village was so out of balance that I too became unbalanced. When I came into ayni again, then the village came into balance and the rains were able to return.”

Then, it took one medicine woman four days to bring balance to one small village. Now there must be many medicine people to bring our wounded earth back into balance. We all have the potential to come into balance, to connect and activate the ceke lines of energy that connect us with the past, present and future and to dream our world into its becoming.

The prophecy

Almost 60 years have passed since the Laika came down from their mountain to share their teachings of stewardship. They have found many ways to communicate their knowledge to the people they call “the people of the west”, because they know that it is us who, with our collective delusion that we are in control, have come close to suffocating the earth. And, ironically it is, mainly we, the creators of the most profound disharmony the earth has ever known, who have the potential to dream it back into harmony.
The Inca, like the Maya, the Hopi and other earth peoples of the Americas, believe that humanity is on the brink of a new cycle of existence. The change we are experiencing now is the beginning of what the Q’ero call a Pachakuti – a cyclical movement in space and time which occurs about every 500 years.  In 2004 the Laika began giving the Mosoq rites, the rites of stewardship of the time to come, to their students in the Americas and in Europe. These initiations, which would only have been passed on to a selected few after years of apprenticeship, are now being given to all who are ready to receive them.
At a ceremony for healing the earth in London several years ago, Don Humberto, the highest-ranking Inca shaman priest from Q’ero, introduced himself and his fellow shamans as eagles. “We are all eagles’’, he said in Quechua. “ I am just flying faster’. Last year, for the first time, Don Humberto passed the creator rites to a group of western apprentices in the Andes. These initiations had never before been passed from person to person. He instructed that they must be passed to all who are ready to receive them.

When I heard this I understood another thing I had heard Don Humberto say that night:  
“We are all eagles now. And we must all begin to fly faster.”