Evening drumming circle at the 35th Annual Native American Elders Gathering. Mary Kitchens (far right) leads the circle.

The occasion was the 35^th annual Native American Elders Gathering, led by Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, founder & spiritual director of Sunray Meditation Society & Peace Village in Lincoln, Vermont, where the gathering took place.

As Venerable Dhyani wrote about the event, “This year, it is time we open the conversation & acknowledge that our dance upon the Mother Earth is an extraordinary exploration that began in outer space. It’s not the ‘woo woo’ drama of alien beings. This year the elders & presenters will speak about the elements through which all forms arise and how they began in outer space.

“Deep inner peace is understood when we recognize ourselves as multi-universal beings. We have relationships with multiverses. To think that what is done on Mother Earth is just an Earth impact is just an illusion.”

Yup, I was in the right place.

It was a pleasure to see Venerable Dhyani regally holding space as the presiding grandmother of this meeting of several hundred people from all over the US & beyond. She’s a true powerhouse: the 27th generation lineage holder of the ancestral Ywahoo lineage in the Tsalagi / Cherokee tradition, chief of the Green Mountain Band of Ani Yun Wiwa, a respected teacher of Buddhism & a celebrated author of several books.

How I (Synchronistically) Ended Up at This Gathering

Months ago, when I was planning my writing pilgrimage (which is now entering its 5th month!), I learned about several events that were apparently bringing me into my next level & new directions as a spiritual human being (all of which I’ve written about in my weekly ezines). One was the lifetime achievement dinner honoring Onondaga Elder Oren Lyons in May. The second was the Human & Faery Relations Congress in Twisp, WA, in June. And the third was this Elders Gathering in July.

I found out about the recent gathering through Mary Kitchens/Reverend Meli, a longtime student of Venerable & now a Sunray minister in the Ywahoo lineage. Mary & I sang together in the Lighthouse Gospel Singers of Marin, and while we waiting on the sidelines at a performance earlier this year, Mary began speaking about this event & its starry esoteric theme. I realized I’d be in the northeastern US at that time, and I instantly knew I was meant to come to it. Had I not made the effort to reach out from the heart & engage Mary in conversation, I would’ve missed the entire thing!

Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo

I myself had a connection with Venerable Dhyani. Back in 2006 when I was writing my dissertation on divine birth, I contacted her because I’d read in her book Voices of Our Ancestors of the Tsalagi/Cherokee story that one of their revered ancestors known as the Pale One was divinely born of a virgin. I had wanted to include global themes of divine birth in my dissertation, and we had a brief correspondence, but in the end I had to restrict my project to ancient Greece so I didn’t take the communication further.

It was one of Venerable’s other longtime (now deceased) students & a dear friend of mine from the Boston area, Deborah Rose, whom I firmly believe pulled strings from “the other side” to get me invited to deliver the Harvard Loeb Classical Lecture on my dissertation when it was published as The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece in 2009.

A Momentous Convergence

One of the main draws to this event for me was Grandfather Clifford Mahooty, whom I’d seen featured on the Cosmic Disclosure show about two years ago. A wisdom keeper of the Zuni Nation, Elder Mahooty is an impressive mix of native wisdom and contemporary Ufology, with a background in civil & environmental engineering and Native American rights advocacy to boot.

I spoke with Elder Mahooty privately and was intrigued with his wide-ranging & deep knowledge. He reported that he’s been hanging around & collaborating with the David Wilcock & Corey Goode crowd, but always keeps to his own teachings and stays neutral regarding their claims, sometimes converging with them & sometimes disagreeing.

He also emphasized that, contrary to claims by detractors, such a collaboration is not bringing him financial wealth; rather, he’s in it for the opportunity it offers to bring the discussion of our star ancestors to an ever-widening public forum.

Elder Mahooty and other speakers at the gathering emphasized that Native American star wisdom keepers have only begun sharing their traditional information with the rest of the world in recent decades. Prior to that, they understood that the consciousness level of the planet was not ready for it & thus they held the information closely as preciously guarded sacred knowledge not to be trampled upon or misused.

Now, many star wisdom keepers are realizing that the threats to the planet from within & outside are so great that they must join with non-natives in bringing these teachings alive again.

Elder Mahooty stated that the road is not easy for the star teacher. Due to the programming of humanity, the native teacher who publicly shares information about earth & cosmic histories that fly in the face of mainstream doctrine risks being ostracized. The criticism, hostility, discrediting & even shunning can come not only from people outside one’s native tradition, but in some cases from those within the traditions.

Elder Mahooty himself has been considered too “out there” even by some of his own Zuni colleagues for speaking what he feels to be “facts” – because he derives them from both ancient lore & modern non-conventional science & spirituality circles.

Thus the Sunray gathering last weekend marked an important convergence both for spiritual folks interested in Native American takes on the topic of star ancestors, as well as indigenous teachers who have been getting flak on many fronts.

Teachings from the Stars

Mi’kmaq elder David Lonebear Sanipass, who also spoke at the gathering, bases his star teachings on his people’s ancient copper scrolls. Estimated by the Smithsonian to be 20,000 years old, these scrolls are said to have been given to the Mi’kmaq by the “Star People” when they were on the earth at that time.

According to Lonebear and other teachers at the gathering, these Star Beings are thus considered to be ancestors of the people.

Lonebear describes the scrolls, which he has refused to sell to interested institutions such as the Smithsonian & the US government, as “an instruction manual on how to survive in this hostile world, how to live in harmony with each other and the Earth, how to build a house, how to harness energy from the wind, how to tap into the Solar System and how to travel back to the stars.”

The scrolls indicate that Lonebear, whose birth was prophesied by his ancestors, is tasked with “getting 7 million people to look in one direction.” When asked about the meaning of this, he said that the number one teaching from the star beings actually has nothing to do with astral navigation or technology.

“The number one teaching from the star beings is kindness,” he said. “Do you know your neighbor? Act like a community.” This teaching is followed by “compassion & happiness.”

It was the main theme echoed by numerous teachers at the gathering, including Venerable Dhyani, other male & female elders, and at least two Buddhist lamas who were present: We’ve got to open our hearts, act in a loving way, forgive ourselves & others, be in gratitude for our lives, and reach out to one another to serve & assist.

We also must connect again with Mother Earth, appreciate her resources, work in harmony with her ways & laws, and love her deeply. Pulling back from the alluring road of technology & returning to the outdoors is an important part of this, they emphasized.

Personal healing from trauma is also a critical necessity to enable global healing, a teaching that was emphasized in a moving talk by Tehoronio (Joey David) of the Mohawk Wolf Clan.

As we know, what seems like the simplest teaching is actually the most challenging of all for a humanity that has fallen away from its original instructions.

Several of the speakers emphasized prophetic warnings received by nations such as the Zuni & the Hopi regarding dramatic events that have come to pass or are yet to come. These include the prediction of a coming event or circumstance that will drastically change life on earth in a way that will make global warming look like a summer pool party.

As Elder Mahooty noted, however, prophecies are meant to warn so that we may change course.

Venerable Dhyani, a deeply mystical teacher, presided over a healing ceremony for the gathering, to which members of the community were also invited, on the Saturday night. A main feature of that ceremony was drumming & singing, and traditional dance carried out by women wafting over the grass with long skirts & shawls.

I kept waiting for the “healing” portion of the ceremony… until I realized that the sitting together quietly and absorbing song, dance, & rhythm that held the original vibrations of the Star Ancestors WAS the healing.

Earlier that day, Venerable said to the gathering, “The pulse of the universe is resonant in our heart. Release the notion of separation. Offer appreciation. Listen for the sounds of those who cry and you’ll know something when you know how to wipe away their tears.”

Coming into Mohawk Territory

As I drove out of the Sunray Peace Village after the conference, heading north for Ontario, Canada, I noticed that the road was taking me through the most northern parts of NY state, just south of the St. Lawrence River. Eventually I started seeing signs for Mohawk territories – and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory was ultimately where I was headed as I traveled over the border to stay with my friend & colleague Maureen Walton & her Wyldwood Sojourn retreat space.

I knew about Tyendinaga, because it’s where the Peacemaker of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy (of which the Mohawk is one nation) was divinely conceived by a virgin. This Peacemaker seems to be the same as the Pale One of the Tsalagi/Cherokee. Maureen & I have been fascinated with this story & have offered workshops connecting it with my research on divine birth.

In one of our workshops we taught about the Pleiades as female star seed beings who gave birth to human beings in divine/virgin fashion. The Tsalagi/Cherokee have a Pleiadian origin story.

Venerable Dhyani. Star teachings & Pleiades. Divine Birth. Peacemaker & Pale One. Mohawk nations.

I contemplated this series of synchronicities leading me into the regions of this branch of the First Nations family with wonder, feeling I was being led deeper & deeper into The Way. This Way, to me, is indeed primarily about kindness, something I commit to embodying more fully as I enter into this new phase of my life.

I’ll be writing more about information that was presented at this conference in future posts.