It was a warm summer evening on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in western New York when Grandmother Twylah,( we called her "Twy" back then around 1985) asked me to join her for a talk she would be giving at a place called Lilly Dale. I was happy to be her driver as I would often do at that time.
She invited me to sit up front and before I knew it she was introducing me to the audience and explaining to them I was going to teach them the Seven Directions Movement Meditation.
A surprise to me since I had never taught the dance to a group before. I had been practicing it myself for awhile and would informally share with others what I had learned. I knew one cannot say no to your teacher so there I was being given "the nod" as we had come to know by the "Big T" and that was it.
I received a pleasant response that evening and when I returned home to the Catskills I shared that story with Susun Weed as well as the Seven Directions Movement Meditation.
Susun invited me to teach the Seven Directions Movement Meditation in the early mornings of the longer herbal workshops she offered. Susun found the women responded more readily to the spirit of the plants when they felt centered and balanced within, allowing the teachings of the plants to enter.
As a result women would come to me and ask to know more or want to write it down to remember so they could take it home and practice, hence, the booklet was born. With great perserverance by Justine Smythe and Jan Cohen, our illustrator, we would work into the wee hours on borrowed typewritter and hand pasting in the little cabin in the woods until to the best of our ability it came together in written form.
The women were pleased! and the men too.
We established the thought into action that the money generated would go to help children as this dance is dedicated to the seventh generation.
Now as we look back some years later seeds have blossomed and lives have been uplifted. We are grateful. It seems I taught the dance at the Wise Woman Center for about fifteen years.
There have been many beautiful memories for me of sharing the Seven Directions Movement Meditation with others on this blessed Motherearth. From a circle of one to a hundred women during the Harmonic Convergence at the Michigan Womens Music Festival in 1987. It has traveled into university nursing programs and to the far reaches of Lhasa, Tibet.
A gift of beauty, if by chance you have first come upon the Seven Directions Movement Meditation treat it as you would a friend you have not seen in a long time. Get to know it, spend time with it. Bring your personal attributes and connection to the directions as well, all within the circle is sacred, all outside the circle is sacred, all is sacred.
Grandmother Twylah has said we honor the traditions of the past and each generation adds something.
We trust the dance has embraced many in a positive way. As it continues to strengthen the Pathway of Peace, the Cycles of Truth brought forth by Grandmother Twylah and her mother Blue Flower, her father, Moses Shongo, all the way back to its origin the Peacemaker.
We keep the teachings of peace alive.
Da Na Ho!
Collect all three of
White
Feather's Seven Directions Movement Meditation; includes
booklet, CD, and video.
Sacred Dance for Spirit and Body
by Whitefeather
Collect all three of White Feather's Seven Directions Movement Meditation;
includes booklet, CD, and video. With this complete set you will be practicing
this dance with ease and grace. The perfect gift for someone who has
everything!
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Click here to read the introduction and an excerpt from The
Seven Directions Movement Meditation by Whitefeather
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