Prayers for the Dying

    Do not stand at my grave and weep,
    I am not there; I do not sleep.
    I am a thousand winds that blow,
    I am the diamond glints on snow,
    I am the sun on ripened grain,
    I am the gentle autumn rain.
    When you awaken in the morning’s hush
    I am the swift uplifting rush
    Of quiet birds in circling flight.
    I am the soft star-shine at night.
    Do not stand at my grave and cry,
    I am not there; I did not die.

    Ann Frye

"Form Is Empty" (2009)

I really don't know how to write this entry, or even if I should, because it's both very personal and conflicted.  But I want to try.  

In 2008 my brother suffered a brain stem stroke.  Because he did not have a living will, since then he has been on complete life support.  In 2009 he was pronounced brain dead.  My mother is now in a nursing home with Alzheimer's, and my other brother has finally agreed to allow me to withdraw life support for Glenn, which we will do on the 15th of this month.  

 Above is a card I made for Glenn  in 2009 when I created a "Dia De Los Muertos" Alter at Wesley as their resident artist.  Below is one of the sculptures I made in 2009 for Glenn, honoring his long interest in Buddhism. All of them have tiles with words and phrases pressed into the clay, symbols and antique designs, all of them, like pottery shards, broken, disordered, "de-constructing".  In this realm of being, words and symbols are what we construct our ideas of life from, the "shells" we create our identities from.  In  "Form is Empty" I saw the hand of the dying reaching through the shattering of form toward the offering hand of the Divine, the greater Self. 

It's been such a long time that I have grown numb to it, to be honest, worn out.  I've tried all kinds of strategies to come to grips with the situation, including calling in a medium several times who told me that Glenn was not in his body, and that he had "crossed over".  I was comforted by that.  Towards the end of his life Glenn was a bitter recluse, and I know that he was tired of the life he had.  That made the situation that much more awful to me.  I'm relieved that this is soon going to be over.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” 

Gospel of Thomas

I suppose it sounds hard, but people take a long time to die, and after a while, you just have to go on with life, or you lose your life to the dying.  I was my beloved grandmother's caretaker for 5 years as teenager, and I learned after a while to be "selfish" enough to allow myself an adolescence.  To survive in a family with much dysfunction.  In many ways, Glenn was the most sensitive sibling, talented and intelligent,  and I'm not sure he did "survive" - so many of the things he wanted to do he never was able to.  

I often think of the quote above from the Gospel of Thomas.  I think Jesus was talking about the great creative drive that every being incarnates with, a kind of individual purpose or purposes we all have.  We have to be responsible to the needs of family and tribe.........but we also have to honor what Joseph Campbell called "following your bliss", your unique path and calling. Sometimes the demands of family or tribe are wrong, the values inappropriate.  Sometimes relationships keep us from evolving..............In examining my life, I'm glad I was both rebellious and "selfish".   I wish Glenn had been able to do so as well, and I think of him free, and able to create a new life in the other realms.

Form Is Empty

"The Heart Sutra" (2009)

One story I remember was in 2011,  when I began to remodel my mother's house after she went into assisted living.  My other brother, David, left Glenn's room exactly as it was, including a locked closet that was full of guns, reflecting the paranoia and isolation Glenn felt. David refused to open it.   Finally, when he went back to California, I decided to clear out Glenn's room no matter what David thought, and I painted it a bright sky blue, as a ritual, to embody peace, and the open sky, release.  As I was painting around the door of the locked closet.........it very gently opened!

I took the guns, sold them, and sent the money to a couple of charities, including sponsoring a girl in Nepal, which I felt was another way to change the energy, to "open the way" for Glenn's spirit to be free.  I like to think, am pretty sure, that that opening door was Glenn's way of letting me know that all was well.  Unfortunately, my other brother refuses to consider anything he thinks is "metaphysical nonsense", so he's unable to benefit from experiences like this.

 In the 2nd piece, "The Heart Sutra",  I used the hand of a 90 year old woman and a 9 year old child.  The Heart is what lies between.

One of the things I hate about any kind if  fundamentalism  is the endless heavy footprint  of patriarchal preoccupation with sin, punishment, torture, etc.  The Old Testament tribal war gods have a lot of rules, and no mercy.   I've met people so terrified of death because they feel they'll be tortured forever  by some vicious god or devil. 

 How much wiser the Egyptian concept of Maat, who holds a feather and a scale before the door of  death and new life.  With "the Questions of Maat", the Goddess helps souls to weigh the lives they've had, to understand, to "fore-give" and be "fore-given".  She is both grief and praise, and as I understand the word "forgive", it means to not hold on, but to release the energy in order to give it fore-ward, into new form, new love, new creation.   When at last each soul is  "as light as the feather of Maat", the door opens, and they can pass on.

"Holy Mother Take Me Home" (2009)

A River Runs Through Us

   

"Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. "

Norman MacLean, "A River Runs Through It"

The last piece, "Holy Mother Take Me Home",   is a prayer to the Goddess, the Source.  I used a child's hand again, and the broken shards, with all the words, float down the river of light.  We're all children, really, all children.  She reaches out Her hand to take us Home.  It doesn't matter what you've done, where you've been, what kind of life you think you've led or not led.  She waits.  

It's been a long journey Glenn.  Be at peace.  

"We have been raised to think that our body ended here, with this bag of skin, or with our possessions or education or house.  Now we begin to realize that our body is the world."

Joanna Macy

Finding Sulis - Celtic Goddess of the Hot Springs

 When Sulis appears take note of any psychic visions or premonitions while seeking Her help in their understanding.........On your next visit to a hot spring, invoke the name of Sulis as you meditate on the healing of your body and soul.  Call on Sulis for blessings on your personal journey to light, health, and wholeness.

  Judith Shaw

I've always loved hotsprings, and visited many, as well as living for a while in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, an ancient place of hotsprings along the Rio Grande.  Going to the springs has meant many things to me, healing, detoxing, but most of all, clearing away the dross so that the divine could shine through. I always take my journal and a sketchbook.   It never fails that after a day or so at a hotspring all kinds of visionary things happen, including synchronicities.  In 2012 while staying for a few days at Essence of Tranquility hotsprings in Safford an entire art project called "Numina", complete with a written Proposal, popped into my head while sitting in a pool of water! I called it my "hot springs Satori".......That became the series of masks I called "NUMINA - Masks for the Elemental Powers" in 2013, and I was further blessed when Ann Waters and Mana Youngbear in California produced a play with them.

Actually, in 2007 something similar happened at Tonopah Hot Springs.  I had received an Aldon Dow Fellowship, and was going to pursue my Spider Woman's Hands project in Michigan.  5 months before leaving I was sitting in a tub at Tonopah, and chanced to talk with someone who lived there.........he took me that day to a petroglyph site in the area, and gave me some of his own photos of petroglyphs.  One was, undoubtedly, a spider - Spider Woman.  I have used that photo as a logo many times.  

I think that qualifies as the "oracular powers of hotsprings". 

The springs at TorC were so revered by native people that there was an agreement that, regardless of the continuing warfare of various tribes, there would be no conflict allowed at the springs.     Many of the Goddesses and Gods of  world mythology began as what the Romans called "Numina",  the Genius Loci or Spirit of place.  For the Romans, as for virtually all early peoples,  a healing spring was overseen and inhabited by an indwelling intelligence, an indwelling guardian.  Little shrines were always made to the Numen, and often, as in the case of a healing spring or a place of oracular power, the Numina were consulted, petitioned, and honored.  This understanding that place was alive, conversant, and human beings were a reciprocal part of that conversation (a contemporary way of putting it might be "local ecology") was expressed and understood through myth making. 

So it is no surprise that when the Romans encountered the revered hotsprings of  Bath, in Southern England, and built  their baths there,  they honored the Celtic Goddess Sulis (Aquae Sulis ("the Waters of Sulis"), and later incorporated her name with that of the Roman Goddess Minerva.  The Roman bath becamed dedicated to Sulis/Minerva.   Sulis's name come from a root meaning "eye" or "gap", referring perhaps both to the spring from where half a million gallons of hot water still well up every day, as well as to Her powers as seeress.

I took the photo above while I was waiting in Bath  for a bus in 2011 to take me to the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury.  I think the Oracular power of Sulis, and the baths of Bath............continue. at least for me!   And so, at last, I'm able to honor Her with a mask.

The hot spring at Bath has been renowned for its healing powers since ancient times. Pilgrims came from mainland Europe to bathe in the therapeutic waters, and references to Sulis are known from as far away as Germany.  The Romans equated Sulis with their Minerva, and so She was known to them as Sulis Minerva--which is  unusual, since the Romans generally used the native Celtic deity name after the Roman name. This is taken as an indication of Her importance and fame. 

"The Romans identified the local Sulis with their goddess Minerva. So it  is specifically identified as the virgin goddess of the arts, wisdom, weaving and magic. From Roman times onwards the local goddess was known as Solis MinervaBath is at the South of the region that was occupied by the tribe known as the Hwicce closely related to the word 'wicca'. I have a page about that, and map which includes Bath, on my blog:

http://warwickshirewicca.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/kingdom-of-hwicce.html
 

Robert Moore

Image Courtesy Luna Lioness The healing Waters of Sulis

Sulis, Celtic Sun Goddess of Healing and Prophecy 

by Judith Shaw
http://feminismandreligion.com

Sulis, a Gaulish and Brythonic goddess, has the iconography of a solar deity. The name “Sulis” has a complex etymology, with various overlapping meanings. Her name may be related to the proto-Celtic word for sun, from which the Old Irish súil (eye) was derived. which probably leads to one of Her titles, “The Bright One”.  Her hair radiates around her face like the sun surrounded by sun rays.

Another interpretation of the name Sulis is “Provider of Healing Waters”.  She is  associated with healing springs in general and the natural hot springs of Bath, England in particular.  Archaeological evidence shows that the mineral hot springs at Bath were first used by Neolithic people at least 10,000 years ago.  The Celts, who arrived in England around 700 BCE, probably found Sulis already ruling there. Most likely they built the first shrines at the springs.  The Celts, who honored the sun on Beltane instead of the summer solstice, held their fire-festival on May 1 in reverence of Sulis.

Sulis by Judith Shaw

During Roman times these baths were named Aquae Sulis, honoring Sulis as the Great Goddess of this site. The Roman’s merged Sulis with Minerva, thus giving Sulis rule over home and state.  As Sulis/Minerva, She was the Goddess of City, Handcrafts and Agriculture. Through Her association with the warrior aspects of Minera, Sulis had the power to witness oaths, catch thieves, and find lost objects. Many curse tablets found at Bath call on Sulis to cast punishment on the guilty.

Sulis, Goddess of Healing, Prophecy, and Blessings is associated with healing waters and served by priestesses who kept Her eternal flame burning. The perpetual fires and the hot waters remind us of  Sulis’s origins as a Sun Goddess.

Her symbols are antlers, symbols of the sun’s rays, and eyes, symbols of the sun. She is often depicted with an owl, symbolizing wisdom.  Sulis’s power reflects the divine light of the sun filtered through the healing power of water, helping Her human children and their plants to grow and prosper.

When Sulis appears take note of any psychic visions or premonitions while seeking Her help in their understanding. Place a statue of Sulis in your garden to aide in the nourishment of the plants.  On your next visit to a hot spring, invoke the name of Sulis as you meditate on the healing of your body and soul.  Call on Sulis for blessings on your personal journey to light, health, and wholeness.


References:

Judith Shaw
Sulis, Celtic Sun Goddess of Healing and Prophecy  
http://feminismandreligion.com

Robert Moore
Warwickshire Wicca Blog
http://warwickshirewicca.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/kingdom-of-hwicce.html

Luna Lioness
The healing Waters of Sulis

http://lunalioness.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/healing-waters-of-sulis/

The Rainbow Bridge Oracle - A Divination System

I realize I've been very behind the times, as far as website tech goes, and finally I found a way to make a website with a store (at a reasonable price) with Weebly.  So the Deck can be ordered via PayPal, as well as a  Portfolio of 9 Selected Gigclee Prints on the new site.  It also has links to purchase the Book.

The Rainbow Bridge Oracle:  A Divination System by Lauren Raine


Here are a few of my favorite Cards - felt good to take another look at my own  "Sibyll"!

THE PRIESTESS

The Priestess sits before the doorway to the subtle realms, to the psychic and spiritual realms.  She beats her shaman's drum in invocation as she opens, or protects, the way between the unconscious and the conscious self, which can only be accessed through dreams, synchronicities, symbols and shamanic journeying - and sometimes through the creative process as well. She represents serene wisdom that comes from  depth understanding, from intuition, and from skilled access to an intuitive way of knowing.   She is a seer, an oracle,  a guardian of the Mysteries that can only be revealed when the circumstances are ripe.  She embodies feminine wisdom as she heals and teaches, qualities that you yourself possess.  You are encouraged to listen well to your inner voice by this card, and to develop your psychic and spiritual powers.  It may also be that this is a good time to find a teacher who can assist you - she or he may have already appeared in your life. 

Reversed:  You aren't listening to your inner knowing, to your intuition.  By trying to "stay on the surface of things", and by refusing to acknowledge the deeper levels of your experience these days, you're causing many problems that could be avoided.  Conversely, the card can mean that you may be studying or working with occult knowledge in  superficial and egotistic ways, and failing to comprehend the deeper significance of what you are being offered to learn and grow from. 

VISION

 In this immeasurable darkness,

 be the power that rounds your senses 

 in their magic ring,
 the sense of their mysterious encounter

 Rainier Maria Rilke

Among the Lakota, long preparations were made for the Vision Quest.  Those who sought  initiation fasted, prayed, and prepared themselves  to  "call for vision".  They then went to a special place in the wilderness.  When a young man returned with  a vision it was shared with the tribe,  and sometimes examined to see if it had prophetic or ceremonial significance for not only the individual, but for the entire tribe.

This is a tool we have largely lost.   True visionary experience is "soul language"; like dreams and synchronistic experiences, a vision has multiple layers of meaning, and transcends  time as we understand it.   Visions, like dreams, communicate universal and personal truths, and whether unintended or intentionally induced in some way, can  catalyze a spiritual path or a life's work.  You are encouraged to "call for vision" in your own way. Do it in a sacred manner, and share and discuss your vision with others of like mind.

Reversed:  Visions can be profoundly significant.......but sometimes there is also a fine line between spiritual revelation and highly subjective schizophrenia.  Practice discernment.

 MANIFESTATION

"Remember that not getting what you want
is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."

The Dalai Lama

"Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it" is an old folk saying that has much truth to it.   We have all dreamed of having great wealth, or being with the best looking boy in school, or any number of  wishes.  And sometimes we do get what we think we want, but in one of the great ironies of life, our happiness can soon turn to misery and disappointment.  Sometimes getting what we think we want can be the worst thing that can happen to us, because what we want is concentrated on desires that are  immature, addictive, vindictive, greedy, or even unconsciously self-destructive. 

 The "Law of Attraction" demonstrates that we attract that which we focus upon,  and consciously (or unconsciously) what we  concentrate upon can manifest.  Loving and generous wishes attract loving and generous results. Negativity and pessimism just manifests more negativity and pessimism, creating a self-fulfilling cycle.  Bearing all of this in mind, now is an excellent time to begin to manifest!

Reversed:  You're not able to manifest what you want because of either a lack of belief in yourself, or you are too negative in your worldview. 

The Talking Trees

 "Speak to the Earth and it shall teach you."

Job 12:8

I've so many times spoken about "the Great Conversation", and asked myself how we can learn once again to "speak with the land".  Here's a short video I was forwarded by a forester that talks about that in another way.

http://youtu.be/iSGPNm3bFmQ

Lady Loreon of Isis Oasis Passes

I was so saddened to learn that Lady Loreon Vigne, founder of Isis Oasis in Geyserville, California, had passed away on July 15 at the age of 82.  Lady Loreon created a true sanctuary - for the Fellowship of Isis, for the Goddess, for her beloved endangered animals, and especially her Ocelots, for beauty, and for many, many artists, seekers, healers, friends, and wanderers.  I count myself privileged to be among them.  She was one of those who did so much, in her life, generosity, and vision, to help create and re-claim  Goddess Culture.  She will be sorely missed.

It was my pleasure to visit Isis Oasis on my trip to California in 2012.  I visited the sanctuary and retreat center  many times in the past when  lived in California.  Reverend Loreon Vigne founded Isis Oasis in the beautiful wine country of northern  in 1978. Before that time Loreon was an artist living in San Francisco. She created a line of gift ware and jewelry called Noir Enamelcraft and as her work became popular she needed a workshop. Answering a newspaper ad, she was delighted to discover that the building was on Isis Street  ....this synchronicity was the first  "go ahead" for her.

Another reason Loreon moved  was because of her love for ocelots (and later for  servals, the "hunting cats" of ancient Egypt as well).  Both animals are endangered species.  On my visit in 2012 I was delighted when Loreon let me visit with several of the big cats.  Ocelots can purr, but they don't "meow", they  just growl their pleasure or dislike.  It was quite a treat to sit with a gorgeous cat the size of a good sized dog who growled convincingly like a tiger to let me know he wanted his ears rubbed.

"While in the city of Saint Francis, patron saint of all living creatures, I discovered my passion for one of the most beautiful cats on the planet - The Ocelot. I have been working with Ocelots since the mid-1960’s and have created a vibrant family tree of Ocelots. To my knowledge I am the only one at this time to have bred a seventh generation domestic born Ocelot, and it is my hope to continue to create more of this highly endangered feline species of North America for future generations to enjoy.

There are some that believe that Ocelots should stay purely in the wild to live or to die. Commonly held knowledge shows the difficulties that this amazing species faces in the wild - Poachers who hunt them for their beautiful fur, although it is an illegal practice, and the deforestation of their habitats.  Therefore I believe that a population of Ocelots kept in captivity is the only way to ensure their continued survival, for in ten years there may no longer be any Ocelots left in the wild in North America".

Loreon Vigne

Hymn to Isis

Bestower of Wealth, Queen of the Gods,
Speaker of Wisdom, Omnipotent Lady,
Agathe Tyche, greatly renowned Isis
through you, Heaven and Earth have their being;
and the gusts of winds and the sun with its sweet light
All who live on the boundless earth  invoke  your fair name,
honored among all
Syrians honor you as Astarte, Artemis, Nanaia; Lycians as Leto, the Lady;
Thracians name you Mother of the Gods;
and the Greeks Hera of the Great Throne, Aphrodite,
noble Hestia, Rhea and Demeter.
But the Egyptians call you ‘The Goddess’;
for you are all other goddesses invoked by humankind.

 –Isidorus, ca. 100 BCE. Adapted from Vera Frederika Vanderlip (1972) in The Four Greek Hymns of Isidorus and The Cult of Isis. Toronto: Hakkert.

 White Peacock at Isis Oasis

Mana Youngbear  sweeping before the Temple of Isis

"Dirt Sculpture" fire pit

I can't write about Loreon and Isis Oasis without including Lady Olivia.  Lady Olivia, who co-founded the Fellowship of Isis with her brother in Ireland (and now around the world)  passed away in 2013.   Recently a movie has been made about the Fellowship and Lady Olivia  - She  came to Isis Oasis for Convocation and initiation of priestesses for many years from her home in Ireland.  If you have met any of the Fellowship, you immediately are struck by what a wonderful, warm, life-affirming and creative group of people they are. 

I shall miss Lady Loreon, and it is my hope that the Sanctuary for the Goddess that she dedicated herself to will continue.  

Thank you, Loreon.   We will all miss you.

Lady Loreon Vigne dies at age 82

Friday, July 18th, 2014  by Deborah Mitchel Serval


Vigne started a program welcoming classrooms of children from Sonoma County and beyond to teach them about the once endangered animals and their unique home at the Geyserville sanctuary.  Last month, Vigne hosted the Geyserville Chamber of Commerce’s end of year dinner with a surprise guest, a snake dancer wrapped in a 20-foot live snake.

Lady Loreon Vigne was married to the late San Francisco beat era film maker, Dion Vigne who died in 1970.  Lady Loreon Vigne’s artistic career started in San Francisco where she was an artist and crafts person. Vigne created a line of giftware and jewelry called Noir Enamelcraft. Her gallery specialized in enamels and stained glass was located in downtown San Francisco.Isis Oasis

Lady Loreon had a collection of exotic Ocelot cats at her home and workshop on Isis Street in San Francisco. When the regulations against owning exotic cats in San Francisco  were imposed, Lady Loreon moved to Geyserville to provide a new home for her exotic cats.

Isis Street was one more thread in the woven cloth of  the Isis Oasis beginning.  Lady Loreon had a series of  encounters with the Goddess Isis, and decided to transform the property into an Egyptian themed retreat center.  Vigne personally created  stained glass pieces all over the property, and built enclosures for her cats and exotic birds she began to acquire. Over time the animal sanctuary was born.  34 years later Isis Oasis has provided a place for artists to be creative and groups to use the space for  retreats, workshops, weddings, concerts, and myriad other activities.

Vigne was an author and poet, with past speaking engagements at the Wells Fargo Center, local bookstores and Isis Oasis. Lady Loreon leaves a living legacy in Geyserville, Isis Oasis.

Aphrodite (Pt. 2)

Mask of Aphrodite (1999)

 "Today, I would describe a priestess as a woman who lives in two worlds at once, who perceives earthly life against the backdrop of a vast, timeless, reality."

"In the Western traditions, spirituality has been so drained of Eros, it has vitually been removed from what most people consider a spiritual life.  And there is a deep hunger to heal that wound."

  Jalaja Bonheim

In my earlier post I shared a performance piece I wrote for Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Erotic love.  I also wanted to re-post also some information about  Jalaja Bonheim,  psychologist, temple dancer, and creator of the Institute for Circle Work in Ithaca, New York who has devoted much of her life to re-sacralizing and healing  the wounds of feminine Eros.   She is the author of Aphrodite's Daughters: Women's Sexual Stories and the Journey of the Soul.  After spending her childhood in Austria and Germany, Jalaja studied classical temple dance in India before coming to the United States in 1982. She is the author of three other books as well, which were inspired by her passion for integrating sexuality and spirituality in our world. 

"I think that every woman should have the opportunity, at some point in her life, to set down her sexual baggage among people who respect and support her, and to unpack it with them.  Our isolation has reinforced the assumption that nobody shares our feelings, or cares about our story, or wants to know.  But our individual baggage is never just ours alone.  Rather it belongs to the collective.  Other women have their own piece to carry.  The time has come to speak of what we know.  In the Temple we now sit in silence, a circle of priestesses.  One by one, each of us has stepped forward to make her offering.  Each one has given her gift, revealing through her story a beauty that made us catch our breath, a courage that renewed our own.  Around us we sense the spirits of many others - mothers and grandmothers, lovers and husbands, teachers and guides, the spirits of the ancestors and the spirits of those who are yet to come."

(from Aphrodite's Daughters)

http://youtu.be/03Rm3K8Ail0

Thanks to Janie Rezner and  Nick Polizzi  for this story about a remarkable woman...............

Shamans Among Us

by Nick Polizzi

When I say the word “shaman”, what imagery immediately comes to mind? Is it a male or female? Old or young? What nationality?

There is an interesting phenomenon that most experienced ethnobotanists and anthropologists are well aware of, and it’s this: most shamans don’t like to attract much attention to themselves. They tend to dress and act exactly like the rest of the community. Only family, friends, and local villagers who at one time needed their services are usually in on the secret.

A few months ago, my colleague Shannon and I had the great honor of meeting with well-known ethnobotanist, Dr. Rosita Arvigo down in Central America. She shared some poignant plant wisdom with us (which we will be sharing with you in the coming months), but the biggest teaching I received that day came from a story about a legendary midwife that Dr. Arvigo befriended decades ago in Belize.

This woman was Ms. Hortense Roberts, known by locals as “mil secretos”, or a thousand secrets.  Born on the Island of Cozumel, which happens to be the mythical sanctuary of the Maya moon goddess of medicine and midwifery, Ixchel, Hortense came from a long line of midwives, her mother and grandmother included. When she was thirteen she had to be hospitalized after a severe asthma attack and it was here that the legend of Ms. Hortense began.

One afternoon during her stay at the hospital, a group of chicleros (gum factory workers) raced into the room with a pregnant woman on a stretcher. She was in the middle of hard labor and there were no doctors or nurses in sight, only little Hortense. Desperate, the woman on the stretcher yelled to Hortense, “Come here, child, and catch this baby!”
Instinctively, young Hortense knelt down knowing exactly what to do, guided the little baby’s head out of the birth canal, and caught the little one as it came out. She did exactly what she had watched her mother and grandmother do many times and massaged the belly until the placenta came out. Next, she removed her hospital gown and used it to wrap the baby and placenta up snug, then sat down to wait for the doctor.

The nurses frantically rushed into the room, saw what had occurred, and pleaded with Hortense to not tell the doctors what had just happened. Forgetting that she was a child, they handed her her first cigarette. For some, adulthood starts well before age 18.
Thus began a life of perhaps the most important work there is, delivering babies into the world. Not only that, Ms. Hortense had 8 children of her own AND adopted 14 unwanted babies, raising them all to adulthood!

In Dr. Arvigo’s words, “If she delivered a baby that a woman didn’t want, Hortense wrapped it up, put it in the crib, and took care of it. Sent them all to school. So she raised 22 kids, most of the time as a single mother.”  That was just a peek into the depths of Ms. Hortense.

According to Dr. Arvigo, everywhere they went together, someone would say, “That’s Ms. Hortense and she delivered me!”, or “She delivered all of my babies!”

Rosita told us a story that gives me goosebumps as I write this:

“Hortense was a female shaman. She had such a connection with animals. All the time that she was staying with me, animals, and birds, and creatures that I never see would come up on the porch and just walk in front of you. Armadillos, all kinds of animals. 

Hortense was with me one winter for about four months. She was sleeping in the downstairs bedroom and I was in the upstairs bedroom. One morning I heard a strange noise. It sounded like something scratching. So I got up out of bed and I looked down to the first floor veranda and there’s a jaguar walking across the downstairs porch. And off it goes, over my deck and jumps into the bush. When Hortense got up , I said, ‘Hortense, you won’t believe it! I saw a jaguar this morning and it was right on the porch by your bedroom!’

She said, ‘SHHH! Don’t you dare say a word. That jaguar comes every night to sleep.’ She said, ‘You didn’t notice that it’s injured?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, as a matter of fact it was limping. It was kind of walking on three legs.’ And she said, ‘That jaguar knows this is a safe place and it comes every night for protection and as soon as dawn comes, off it goes. And it will be there until that leg is healed, so don’t you dare tell a soul.’”

Rosita said that she saw that jaguar about 10 more times. If you were careful, you could get up in the early morning and as soon as the sun came up, off it went.  One night, Rosita asked her if she could sleep with her and wait for the jaguar to come. And it did. Almost exactly at 10 o’clock at night. The animal came limping in and it layed down. The door was open, but there was a screen door. In bed she could see the cat’s back. It was about 6 feet long. A big, big animal and all night long you could hear it breathing.

It was guarding, but was also there for its own healing. It felt safe because of Hortense. It was there because she was there.”  In addition to her gifts as a midwife, Ms. Hortense had an innate connection with the natural and spiritual world. Her knowledge of medicinal plants, home remedies, and spiritual healing was enough to fill a library, and she had a lifetime of hands-on experience with patients, big and small. She healed thousands of sick people, using only traditional methods and prayer, and welcomed everyone into her home without prejudice.

According to Ms. Hortense, much of her knowledge came through dreams in which she was shown which herb to use for a particular patient and how to prepare it. In a beautiful essay that Dr. Arvigo wrote to honor Ms. Hortense after her passing, she says:  “She had humility, and would never big-up herself – in her own words, ‘you could never be too humble.’”

She wore no special garb, had no elaborate ceremony or entourage of devotees. Ms. Hortense lived a life of loving service to others and revered nature like few others do. If you asked her if she was a shaman, she would probably smile to herself and tell you no.