Gathering of Circles 2004

Gathering Of Circles
2004
Updated 10/27/2004
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10th Anniversary of The
Gathering of Circles
August 5 thru 8, 2004
Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Planning Meeting    Coordinators    Who's coming? Order T-Shirt   Check your T-shirt Order
Add me to Mailing list 2004 RSVP Raffle  Schedule of events Directions Cost
What to bring Give-a-way  First timers tips  Sweat Lodge  Logo

Healing Hearts October 29-31, 2004
Bearheart Vision Quest September 9-12 2004

Marcellus Williams, 86, is a multi-tribal spiritual leader of the Muskogee Nation-Creek Tribe. He is the author of The Wind Is My Mother, Random House, which is now published in 14 languages. One of the last traditionally trained "medicine persons", Bear Heart, who speaks in 13 native languages, is also an American Baptist Minister and holds an honorary PhD in humanities. He served for 7 years as a member of the advisory board for the Institute of Public Health- Native American and Alaskan Natives at Johns Hopkin's School of Medicine.

Other honors:
Past Director of Cultural Retention Program for Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission for 20 years.
Keynote speaker for Indian Public Health Service and US Forest Service-Employee Development.
Prayed in the White House with President Harry S. Truman.
Ancestors: Trail of Tears.. Georgia, Alabama- marched to Oklahoma. His Great-Grandmother died on that trail.
Bear Heart was born in Okemah, Oklahoma April 13th 1918.
He is a graduate of Oklahoma City College and Bacone College, an all Indian College.
He was called to be one of the spiritual counselors for the firemen and their families after the Oklahoma City tragedy.
He put down prayers with the Fire Departments at Ground Zero in Nov. 2001.
Bear Heart served on President Bush's Faith Based Initiative panel for the US Dept of Health 's WHEN TERROR STRIKES conference in NYC- 2001.
He represented Native American medicine people at the World Shamanistic Conference in Austria 1985.
He was the keynote speaker at the World Shamanism Conference in Garmish. Germany 2000.

BearHeart is a Muskogee Creek Indian. He is a medicine man and respected elder of his tribe. Bear Heart lives in Albuquerque and is a roadman of the Native American Church. He is in great demand as a public speaker and has made numerous television and radio appearances. Bear Heart shares a lifetime of training that includes ceremonies conducted in the sweat lodge and the Native American Church, chanting, and smoking the sacred pipe to teach us how to walk the Spirit Road.

From Regina Waterspirit: Download our September info (pdf file) for our Smithsonian opening in DC. Bear Heart used to baby sit for the director, Richard West! Bear Heart's granddaughters will be with us. Caitlin Charcoal 12 (Her birthday is on August 5th!) Creek/Cheyenne, Michelle Lawrence 9 Creek/German, Allison Lawrence 7 Creek/German. We are hoping that the 20 year old granddaughter, Angela comes with Bear Heart's great grandson, Ambrose Vincent Charcoal, 20 months but, we are not sure yet.

Founding president of the White Rose Foundation, Beth, is a mystic, ordained nondenominational minister, master's candidate, doctoral student, and informal scholar of comparative religions. Her lifelong work as a teacher and counselor, focusing on spiritually based directives, defines the White Rose Foundation*s mission to support the unity in diversity of all religions and world peace. The White Rose Foundation, established in 1995, is an educational foundation to promote understanding of the harmony of all world religions, while emphasizing the philosophy that: "God can be realized in every man and woman, according to the practices and precepts of his or her personal faith."

From Beth Hin: I am looking very much forward to being with all of you. It seems a ceremony like the Friday morning gathering is to take place with all of us. I would very much like to see a medicine wheel of some kind created through all of our lives and may put that together in a form, if that is all right with you, as part of the weekend. I would ask one of the speakers from each year to be one of the directions of the wheel, and the children to be the center, or radiating out, etc., so that the wheel goes out into the cosmos as one great circle as a tribute to the living promise of The Gathering itself, all ten years and before and ever after.

Serge is the founder and creator of the Healing Modality named "Shamanic Touch", which is a compilation of Shamanic techniques using the subtle energies to bring about complete healing. "Creating your own reality with help from the forces of nature and how to take responsibility for creating your life and using all of the elements at your disposal" will be my focus this year. As a Shaman, a warrior who radiates a calm and gentle spirit, Serge Runningwolf Martel, is of Mohawk and Hawaiian Heritage. He is an elder and ordained minister. The direct descendent of over nine hundred years of Shamanism. He is an adept in the release and clearing or negative and dark energies from people as well as spaces.

"Living Our Daily Lives as the Path to Enlightenment" will be my subject. Following our highest path, being of service to the Heavens, and joining with the Divine is not only for people who renounce their families and join a monastery, convent, or commune. Many of us do not have that option, yet we yearn for union with the Creator in a good way. Together, we will explore the attitudes and tasks that are essential to creating a divine path from a seemingly ordinary one. Melinda Garcia is a Community, Clinical and Organizational Psychologist in private practice in Albuquerque, NM. She is of Chichimeca, Panamanian, and African descent. Indigenous, Christian, Buddhist, and Jewish traditions have shaped her spiritual practice.

AGREEMENTS: MORE HEAVEN AND LESS HELL Each moment your agreements determine, whether it will be for you a moment of hell on earth (fear, judgment, guilt, ugliness, and confinement) or a moment of heaven on earth (love, discernment, joy, beauty, and freedom). Most of those agreements were put into your book of laws by others who hooked your first attention as an innocent child, without your awareness.

Most of those agreements were put into your book of laws by others who hooked your first attention as an innocent child, without your awareness. In The Four Agreements, The Mastery of Love, and The Voice Of Knowledge, Don Miguel Ruiz presents three masteries that can help you apply your second attention with adult awareness to learn which of your agreements keep you trapped in the hell of the consensual world dream and which (new) ones can free you to create your own personal dream of beauty and love. First is the Mastery of Awareness of who you really are, with all the possibilities. The second is the Mastery of Transformation -- how to change, how to be free of domestication. The third is the Mastery of Intent (life itself, unconditional love) which is the Mastery of Love. You have this power, but you must (re)claim and practice it. Transmuting, transforming, transfiguring, and materializing more love will be our play together. Let us re-member, i.e. be, who we re-ally are: wise, wild, and free again: ARTISTS OF THE SPIRIT!!! LET'S BE!!!

Accept and carry out King Arthur's charge to his knights as they went in search of the holy grail: "BE GLORIOUS!!!"

WildHorse Charley Conatser is an artist of the spirit as founder/ director of The Healing Center in Lubbock TX. He is a master drum maker, ceramist, intermedia artist/sculptor, a Ph.D. in Math/Physics from University of Illinois, a past President of Mountain Desert District of Unitarian Universalist Association, a Reiki Master in the Usui spiritual lineage, a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist (American Council of Hypnotist Examiners #CHT 895-448), trained by the Alchemy Institute in Alchemical Hypnotherapy, combining alchemy, shamanism, & hypnotherapy. He has extensive training through The Foundation for Shamanic Studies with its founder/director Michael Harner PhD (THE WAY OF THE SHAMAN 1980 & 1990) and Sandra Ingerman MS (SOUL RETRIEVAL 1991, WELCOME HOME 1994, A FALL TO GRACE 1997, and MEDICINE FOR THE EARTH 2001), as well as a number of other shamans including Clarissa Pinkola Estes PhD (WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES, etc), and has over 19 years training & experience as a shamanic practitioner & teacher of complementary methods of healing, including extraction, power & soul retrieval, psychopomp, chakra animals, sacred space, imagery, ceremonies for transition occasions, wilderness gatherings, Mind Body River Adventures, & THE BOX PROCESS. Feel free to contact him directly at 806-763-DRUM (3786) or cwconatser@aol.com or 1915 33rd St, Lubbock TX 79411-1821.

By Charles “Wildhorse Charley” Conatser

The design for this years logo and t-shirt is truly a joint effort. Cliff had asked Lou Dale to submit a design for this year at last years gathering. She had trouble coming up with an idea. Surprisingly, the idea came to Cliff thru Spirit on a drive home from a photo trip with Mike Andrews at yellowstone Park. The idea was that the ten years of the GOC could best be represented by a heart, a healing green heart made up of all the names of the people who have attended the GOC over the last ten years. The letters of the names would have no spaces between them. Medicine names would be used if available. Names would be random and no preference given to any one name because we are all equal, all one, with nothing separating/between us. Lou liked the idea and created the sketch at the left.

Click the graphic below to get a larger view of the heart. If your name is not in the heart and you attended previous gatherings it may be because I have lost your current address or that my records are not accurate. Or, that I just missed it. If that is the case, I apologize.

Please order your t-shirt now. Don't make us call you. Colors are Ash, Khaki, Yellow Haze, and Gold. Call/e-mail JJ Hamilton. 432-381-4500/557-5553 jh58@juno.com Same prices as last year $12 s thru XL, $15 XXL thruXXXL or Cliff Buchanan 432-550-3302 Cliff@ISISoftware.net

The usual assortment of small workshops will be replaced by the programs offered by our five speakers Except for a handful of health practitioners who wish to offer their services on an individual basis.

The regular old-timers, and elder hearts will be available to talk, Listen, answer questions, and share experiences.

I wish we had another day. Thanks to Pamela Scheler and Cyndi Huges for being workshop coordinators, perhaps they will agree to coordinate again next year. More detailed information will be available at the GOC and on the web site.

Give-a-way by Vicky Vaughn: Bring a gift wrapped in a paper bag for the *give-a-way.* This should be something of significance (meaningful) to you, which you now want to relinquish your attachment to, and let pass on to a new keeper. The size or monetary value of this item is irrelevant but the more significant to you the better. It may be symbolic of something of yourself, which you have or wish to turn loose of so that your *hands* are freed up for your present pursuits. Listen to your heart in deciding what to *give-a-way* at this time.

Introductions and Pipe ceremony start at 7:00 pm on Thursday evening.

Directions: Go to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Take Hwy 130 South out of Cloudcroft for 1.2 miles. Turn left at Sleepy Grass Campground or 0.7 miles. Turn right on 5661 for 3.9 miles. Turn left at 5661 marker, look for forked tree on left before turn. Then turn left again immediately (about 40 feet) and follow road. Signs will be posted.

Registration: Please pre-register with Cliff Buchanan, 1404 Castle Road, Odessa TX 79762, 432-550-3302, WinterFox@GatheringOfCircles.com . We need to know if you are planning to come so we can order the proper number of Port-a-potties! Cliff will be happy to answer any questions you might have about the GOC.

Cost: We depend on donations solicited from T-shirts, raffles, pancake breakfast, CD's and other donation producing activities to pay our out of pocket costs like postage and flyer costs, speaker stipends, port-o-potties, workshop materials and other costs approved by the planning committee. No monies go to any individual in the form of payment for any activity. We want to have anyone to be able to attend regardless of financial ability, therefore, there is no fee for attending the GOC. However, we encourage you to participate fully in our donations producing activities mentioned above and also invite you to make a donation according to you level of financial ability.

Honor and respect the land and natural life on it as part of our family. Treat it as you would like to be treated. Do not bring any alcohol or drugs. You are responsible for your own meals and camping gear (this is a wilderness area, so bring tent, sleeping bag, etc.). You will need rain gear and rain fly. Port-a-potties are available. Bring a potluck dish to contribute to the Feast on Sunday. Bring noisemakers (drums, rattles, etc.). Rules: Radios will not be allowed except with earphones. Dogs are welcome but must be kept on a leash.

Welcome to the Gathering of Circles 2004. This annual event is sponsored and supported by various individuals and circles of people in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Colorado, Virginia, and other states who wish to get together and share ideas, ceremonies, spirituality, talents, and friendship. These events include, but are not limited to, various workshops, face painting, world-class pancake breakfast, children's activities, sweat lodges, "Sweet Medicine Dance", Give-A-Way, and feast. We gather on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM for the opening pipe ceremony and introductions. Friday morning is usually dedicated to introductions and our featured speaker. Afterwards, we provide an itinerary of the various activities for the weekend. Friday afternoon and Saturday morning are scheduled workshops. Separate Men and Women's sweat lodges will be held Friday night, and a co-ed sweat will be available on Saturday night after the "Sweet Medicine Dance". Sunday morning we will all gather again for the Give-A-Way ceremony and feast. We should be ready to leave the area by 2:00 p.m.

I too am getting excited about Sundance which will be in about two weeks also. I would ask that when you are gathered in your circle that you would pray for our circle as we will be tethered to the tree once again sacrificing for our people. We in turn will be praying for you and your circle while we are there on Holy ground. See you upon our return.