Nan & Steve Citty Dance Chiefs

2009 Seymour SunMoon Dance July 17-20

The Sun Moon Dance is a visionary dance.  Those who come to dance, come seeking a vision for their life and for the life of the People. The People are blessed when a dancer receives a vision and in proper time acts on that vision.

We have seen many blessings come to us from strong dancers who acted upon the visions they received in the Sun Moon Dance.

Dances, a young people’s program and more have blessed us as a community.  What visions are waiting for you on the Dance grounds?  Only the Dancers will discover those visions.
Dancers who are truly gifted by the Dance are those who come with no personal agenda, but rather with a willingness to serve the higher good of the People.  Those who come to pray for peace, healing and harmony.

When we dance, we are the truth of breath, matter and movement.  By dancing and fasting for the time of the dance, we heighten our awareness and allow ourselves to remake our personal world even as we call the vibration of peace to the land upon which we dance.

Many Dancers will find a new vision for their life in the dance.  Many will find that their life is profoundly changed by the ceremony, by reaching new levels of intuition and spiritual energy.  The dance will challenge your endurance; mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.  It will stretch your limitations and bring growth.

Welcome to Dancers who have danced on this land before and to those new dancers who are dancing here for the first time.

Nan Citty - Chief

Young People's Dance August 15

(The Young People's Dance is a one day dance that begins at 9 am with a Young People's Sweat Lodge. This is a gentle 4 round lodge focused on experiencing teh event. That is followed by a light picnic and then the dance, which generally lasts about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The day ends with a feast and give away.)

At the Center for Peace there are several opportunities to participate in various ceremonial dances.  Some are for Vision, some are for healing, some honor, and some are for growth and awareness.  The Young People’s Dance was born out of a vision given during a Sun-Moon dance twelve years ago.  What a wonderful way to cerebrate one of God’s blessings.  We exist within our families. Our families extend both forward and backward, to our past and to our future.

 Ancient native teachings speak of seven generations.  Our future is carried by our children.  We have been carried by our own ancestors. We now have the knowledge passed to us and we have the knowledge we have gleaned ourselves. The Young People’s Dance is a celebration and an opportunity to pass on the best of our experiences to our future.  I have seen children grow and nurtured into thoughtful young adults who were shaped by this experience, this offering to our family. It is a small step towards peace among people.  So, if you are called by Spirit to celebrate your family, your children,  please listen and follow your heart to attend and dance. You will dance with your children or you can dance singly for your children.  It will formulate a bond holding your family (whether by blood or by love) in the path of Spirit.  It will bring you joy.

Nan Citty

Men's Hollow Bone Dance August 28-31

Fire Ceremony

7th of each month, 7 pm
           ~ led by Katy Koontz
The purpose of the FIRE CEREMONY is to heal and purify both the planet’s physical oceans and the oceans of cosmic thought.
At 7 pm local time, fire elders light ceremonial fires at  each of the Peace Sound Chambers around the world. Those present watch the fire in silence until it burns out, giving to it what we want to transmute in our lives and staying open to the messages and teachings it brings. All are welcome. We suggest you arrive around 6:45 pm.
Donations are appreciated.

Sweat Lodge

A sweat lodge or "Purification Lodge", is an intensely rewarding experience. By entering the womb of Mother Earth (the lodge), we seek purification and a deeper spiritual awareness through prayer.
Generally speaking the experience is to deepen spiritual awareness. The steam, heat, and darkness intensify prayers and personal introspection. The lodge leader (pourer), with help from the fire tender, hold an energetic space of safety and security while setting the intent of the lodge. The medicine of the lodge leader and of each participant helps to enrich the lessons of the lodge.
There are composting toilets in the meadow. You may change clothes in these toilets or at the Peace Sound Chamber. There is no nudity in our lodges.
Suggested Items to Bring:
• Two Towels
• Men are requested to wear swim trunks, gym shorts or something similar.
• Women are requested to wear a skirt or dress. (Something for inside the sweat that is modest and you don’t mind getting muddy.)
• Change of clothes (Preferably long sleeve and covers all of the legs to keep from getting the feast area dirty).
• Covered Dish for the Feast.
It is appropriate to bring tobacco, a small gift, or monetary gift for the fire-keeper and lodge master, both of whom offer their services to the people as a gift.
Cash donations are used to support the Sweat Lodge.  We use lots of wood for the fire; supplies like herbs (sage, tobacco, cornmeal, etc.), drinking water, and more. If you are feeling abundant, a donation would be appreciated. 
There is never a charge for Ceremony. If you are not feeling abundant, PLEASE do not allow this to prevent you from coming.

Drumming Circle

Every Friday @ 7 pm
~led by José and Tamy
Drumming is a powerful, sometimes dramatic, way to break into other levels of our mind.  Sensitive instruments can measure the way that drumming affects the brain waves.  That’s the reason for tens of thousands of years the shaman has journeyed with the drum.
This drumming is not specifically for journeying; but you get to use it whatever way you wish – including having a good time doing it!
So, on Friday of each week, bring your drum, and come join us.
Donations are appreciated.

Perry's Ponderings

It Was Time

By Perry Robinson

For the past few days I had been stalled out on writing an article for the July/August edition of PEACE TALK.  I know from much experience how futile it is for me to “take the bull by the horns” and compose an article out of my left-brained, well-educated mind.  That did not work even in my days as minister of a Presbyterian Church.

On my book shelf I noticed Richard Bach’s little book ILLUSIONS, “the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah” [Dell, 1977].  This book is an old friend I like to visit with from time to time.  

This is the first time I had visited this book in several years.  When Spirit gave me the direction to begin a series of lessons [2 years ago] to be called “Messiah Training”, the book had drifted so far into oblivion that I did not even make a connection between “Messiah Training” and “Illusions”.  I remember how much I rebelled against the title “Messiah Training”, yet acquiesced to the point of allowing it as long as it was in quotation marks.

Those who attended those seven sessions seemed to receive a good deal from the teaching – I know I did.  

I had forgotten the parts in the book ILLUSIONS which are quotes from a “Messiahs Handbook; Reminders for the Advanced Soul”.  During the short time it took me to read the book, I became quite aware how much what we know can become a burden, which we must carry and pass on to others, and how frightening it can be for some people, when we share stuff they have never thought about before.  It must be far easier to just not listen or to condemn it as evil or “of the devil”.  

Certainly, it is hard for us who are focused on opening up to our deepest memories, when we have lapses and people say things to remind us what a beautiful mess we have made of this or that, when we all know better.  When someone feels like whining once in a while – as I think all of us do – there is always someone to remind us, “You’re a dancer [or shaman or kahuna]; you can deal with it!”  And, of course, we can.

I have never lived in a time which demands as much of me as today.  How I deal with these demands will either make me frustrated or strong.  The amount of energy required is the same.

I am feeling the urgency once again to teach some of the things I know.  I am quite aware, however, that my way of teaching is as a participant in the learning process.  Things are coming into focus for a beginning in September on one night per week.  It is still along the theme of “Messiah Training”, with the understanding that our time together will be focused upon encouraging each person to remember his/her unique part of the shape, form, and understanding of that that means.

Look what you are doing!  How many ways are you engaged in healing?  How many dance chiefs are among you?  How many are leaders of ceremonies?  How many of you have assisted in the dances:  drummers, dog soldiers, fire keepers, cooks, personal support?  How many of you have taught a class or workshop.  How many of you are putting off some form of teaching.

Additionally, how many of us are more and more running into people in need of some form of assistance in their lives?  How do we respond?  How do we offer what we offer?  More and more people are out of work and facing financial challenges.  How can we help them?  How do we avoid stepping into the role of enabling people who are already able to respond to life’s challenges?

The truth is already within us.  Our answers are already inside.  How do we help each other find that truth and retrieve those answers?  I believe that the process of spiritual awakening is a very deeply personal process.  When a rose is opening, a lot of control and pushing it around will interrupt the process; and it will wither and die.  

I think our spiritual awakening is somewhat the same.  Because it touches us at our deepest, most fragile levels, it will be interrupted or stopped by a lot of “take charge”, and/or dogmatic input.  That is one of the reasons that our focus at the Center for Peace is on the safety of those who come here to change their lives.  Maybe, ultimately, that momentary safety for people to explore and choose is all that is needed.  Certainly, no one makes a deep personal change under duress.  Under duress, we adjust, until it’s over; then we return to our former ways – unless meanwhile we have made some conscious choices on our own.

So, where is this headed?  For most of us you what is written thus far is nothing new.  What seems new is a sense of urgency and poignancy, in the issues of today and how they relate to the things which we have been remembering.  

It is time to look around at what is going on and to see it through the eyes of the saviors and messiahs of the world, through the eyes of ones who hold in our hearts pieces of the vision of the new heaven and the new earth, which just may be birthing – long expected, long awaited – and the “labor pains” can get almost overwhelming at times.  Don’t let the terms savior and messiah bother you.  They do not matter; and, certainly, you do not need to use those terms.  All that is needed is to notice who and what is before you and to let what you do be guided by that deep part of you that has never left the “heart of God”.

When we do that . . . . well, any description would probably be some form of limitation.  In that divine space there are no limits.

My desire is that, when I lay this body down and step back into the radiance, I’ll be able to look back and say, “It was time; and I did what I could.”

In This Issue

2009 Seymour SunMoon Dance July 17-20

Young People's Dance August 15

Men's Hollow Bone Dance August 28-31

Fire Ceremony

Sweat Lodge

Drumming Circle

Perry's Ponderings