Eight years ago I found myself in the center of a sacred circle, dancing, praying, feeling the tears run down my face as I stared at the sacred Sun Dance tree. I remember the year before I started dancing when I was at a Sun Dance as a helper, smudging the dancers and tending to the sweat lodges. I watched these men get pierced and dance without food or water for four days. I told myself, “There’s no way in HELL that I am going to do this! There’s gotta be a loophole somewhere.” A year later there I was.

I didn’t dance last year because my kids came to live with me and I needed to be with them. It has been a year of blessings and great changes. It has also been very difficult for personal reasons.  July it will be my seventh year dancing and as I look forward to this I ask myself what have I learned? If I can boil it down to one word it would be balance.

Our greatest challenge as humans is to walk in balance with all things. Let’s go back to the beginning of time as we know it. Before humans were put on earth. God and his female counterpart Goddess were the first manifestation of balance. Together they created man and woman and gave them the earth so they would have a place to learn things that they could not learn in the spirit world. Things like restraint, limitations. The ability to feel love and pain. Each color of man was put in charge of one of the elements. The White Man was in charge of fire, the Black Man in charge of water, the Yellow Man in charge of air and the Red Man in charge of the earth. Each one was given certain instructions as well as the ceremonies required to have the spiritual strength to handle this responsibility. As time went on some of the humans became restless and started seeking other places. As they traveled the world they left their ceremonies behind with the original set of instructions on how to be. This is when things first began to get out of balance. Looking forward in time we can all name the things that have continued to take us further from balance.

One of the most detrimental things to occur is the imbalance of man and woman, God and Goddess. The original teachings were ripe with wisdom on how men were to always honor, respect, protect and keep the women safe. When we lived this way the women were free to live in the pure glory of being life givers who lived with compassion for all things. With strong men in place women didn’t have to fill both roles. Men held their masculinity close as a badge of honor and worked continuously to earn the right to be called a man.

All of these teachings still exist and it is our duty to access them and  bring them into our lives. How? By taking advantage of this critical time we are living in as we near the close of the Mayan Calendar. As the planets get closer to alignment the vibration on earth and in the whole universe is increasing. When we increase our vibration we come closer to the realm where the sacred teachings exist. We must be in ceremony, prayer, gratitude, humbleness and focus. These are the things that will bring us into balance and raise our vibration.

I can’t think of a more powerful place to immerse in prayer and ceremony than the Sun Dance. I welcome you to make a pilgrimage this year to South Dakota July 5-9 to support our dance with your prayers. It is a rare opportunity to be in the presence of this very sacred and ancient ceremony. Spend this time away from the distractions of life and commit to finding your balance.

Peace,

Andrew