August 2008

Hau kola na tiyospaye (Hello friends & extended family),

Welcome to all new Circle members!  Each section of the Circle of Nations newsletter is written 'facing' one of the four sacred winds, beginning with the east, then the south, west and finally the north.  This is to honor the old ways.  It is to teach and to help us to focus and find the center.  I have designed the Native Circle website in the same spirit.  I welcome you all to the Circle....

EAST - Wiyohinyanpata - Yellow (Four Winds)
To make a voice....
At first it is faint.  A still, small whisper on the winds of time.  Crying, it speaks without words, making more sense to our soul than any spoken language.  Gently, it reaches into our quiet, hidden places and we are drawn into its warm embrace and find our spirit somehow transported to another time and place.  A time of simple, profound wisdom.  A place of pristine beauty and wonder.  Its soft voice of love holds us close to the spirit as we journey through the joys and sorrows of our life story, remembering our pain and our dreams.  A soothing, healing balm is absorbed into the dormant wounds of our soul as its sacred sounds mysteriously mend the broken petals of the flower of our heart.  And as it returns once again to where it began, fading off to a still small whisper until it is only a memory, we are left somehow transformed.  We have made a journey into ourselves, into time, and have awakened to find that we are more at peace, more healed, more loved and more at home….

Let me come right out and say it plainly - that soft, gentle voice of the ancient Native flute holds the power to heal.  Like a great messenger of peace, this sacred instrument is quietly experiencing a world-wide renaissance.  It is touching people with its humble voice, drawing people together with a common thread of respect for connection to the earth, and imparting deep wisdom to all who have come to know and love its sacred healing power.  What you read above in the first paragraph is an excerpt from my new book ‘To Make a Voice - Native Flute Lessons and Wisdom’.  Hokagapi is a Lakota term for the flute which means ‘to make a voice’, and that is what anyone who truly plays the Native flute is doing - making a voice.  More importantly, making a voice that can reach into the places deep inside that are hurt and broken and quietly mend.  Do you want to experience the Hokagapi in its truest sense?  In the Native way and from a Native perspective?  Do you want to take a journey into some of the mysteries of American Indian pathways?  To hear the old voices and their legacy of wisdom?  Do you wish to understand and connect with the true story and power of the Native flute and the people it comes from?  If so, then I humbly extend this offering of my words to you.  May you become one with the sacred voice within, and share the healing with the world....

To Make a Voice - Native Flute Lessons and Wisdom


SOUTH - Itokagata - Red (Red Earth)
A word from Peggy....

Hold on friends while I get my cup of coffee...
Ok
Hello family and friends!

Where to start.  Well here is a good place.  Sitting in Northwest Arkansas with the sun shining, having just passed the last 4 days thru hell, how much sweeter is my little heaven of earth, honor and sacred purpose.  How did Spring and Summer race us to the finish line?  I am like the tortoise, still sitting here getting ready to get started.  “hurrah summer, swim, sun, lazy days of afternoon reading and meditating….. hey wait, what is this colors on the leaves… what… how”
Well I have been too busy and I vow that that will stop, and hopefully before someone is shoveling dirt over my grave.

Hey Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were great!!  I saw so many of you all there, some I met for the first time, some are very familiar with the Circle of Nations.  Ohio retreat was awesome!!

We had only a few days to prepare and then it was on to Florida, that is where we ran into the opposite of heaven I mentioned above.  I don’t want to get myself back into that place, but just let me say, we traveled 1,500 miles to be met by a sign that said event cancelled.  No apology, no explanation, no honor… just a sign. Which meant turn around and head back another 1,500.  That is between 12 to 14 hours a day driving in a car stopping only for junk food, gas and potty.   Because I don’t want to figure out how people can so easily dismiss Indian folks, I think I will just leave the last few days behind me.

Onto this moment, this marvelous moment, here with you.  I am so full of hope for the world, because I know that honor and truth, although not popular, are the threads that hope and love and victory are made of.  If in your life you can honestly connect in this moment, to this moment in your life then you will have hope and you will share love and you will feel victorious, regardless of what is going on around you.  Do I sound like Polly-Anna?  So be it, believe me I have my Downer Debbie side too…….but when you have been so low, there is no where to look except upwards and I know many of you know what this means.

NEWS FLASH!!
New Signature Series Medicine Wheel Flute!!!  Available now online.  Only 44 ever made and signed and numbered.  Great value.
The New “To Make a Voice” book is available online.  John’s incredible insight into the lessons and wisdom of the American Indian Cedar flute.
SPECIAL
First 50 “To Make a Voice” books sent out will be autographed.
Retreats coming up.  The Flute Discovery Retreat appears to be full, however if you are interested you can call and if there are any cancellations I can get you in.  It is Sept 12th, 13th & 14th, 2008.  Call:  479-253-5826
2 Mending Medicine Retreats in Oct.
1st week is a 3 day retreat and open to all, we have plenty of room in this retreat, so get your deposits in… the 4 day retreat, which is also open to all, is filling up with our present Circle of Nations family.  Please get your deposits in, so I know who is attending.

SCHEDULE
John will be hosting our Flute Discovery Retreat at the Peace Mountain Retreat Lodge on Sept 12th - 14th.
John will be making book signing appearances for the release of his new book this month.  Check the schedule page to find out where.
Memorial Ancestors Pow-wow - Blue Spring Heritage Center.   Circle of Nations, Peggy and John will be available all weekend to meet and greet.   Sept 26th and 27th
Oct 4th  Fayetteville AR  Twist of Green,  John will open the ceremony at 11:00 am and The Badlanders will perform at 6:00pm.
Oct 11th John Two-Hawks Concert in West Plains Mo

November  29th and 30th  Art Show in Eureka Springs at the Inn of the Ozarks.

Lots more events coming up…. please continue to watch the schedule page.

Love ya!
Peace,
Peggy
Native Circle - Red Earth
JTH Official Website



WEST - Wiyohpeyata - Black or Blue (We are STILL Here!)
Let’s all meet in the middle....
It is too easy to choose sides.  It requires very little thought, and certainly requires no diplomacy or negotiation.  What has always intrigued me about the ‘sides’, is that they always both think they are right and the other is wrong.  Our Creator must think we are silly sometimes.  One night, when I was young, my brother and I were outside looking at a full moon that was overhead in the nighttime sky.  At one point we had walked about 50 yards apart.  When I looked up, the moon was straight up above me.  My brother looked up and told me the moon was straight above him, and that there was no way it could be straight above me!  I learned something that night about the realities of choosing ‘sides’ - sometimes there is no clear and definitive right or wrong.  Sometimes there is a little right and a little wrong on both sides.  That night, my younger brother and I decided to walk toward one another, while keeping each of our eyes on ‘our’ moon.  When we finally met in the middle, we were delighted to find that his moon and my moon were one in the same!  We will never agree on everything with everyone in this life.  However, only when we are willing to take the time to communicate respectfully, share openly and ultimately meet in the middle will we realize our common threads.  You can’t see threads from far away.  You gotta get up close.  Only then can you see the fiber of someone’s being.  And only through meeting in the middle will we ever have a chance at world peace.  So, I’m looking at my moon and you are looking at yours.  Let’s come together and see if they are the same....


NORTH - Waziyata - White  (Words of Wisdom)
Some thoughts from my contemplations....


Power and Progress should not be synonyms

Knowledge and Wisdom are only distant cousins

Harmony is two different notes agreeing to disagree

One sacred note is where the healing begins



May Wakantanka encircle you and yours with faith to believe, hope for the future, and love for all....     

As always, in the spirit of mending the sacred hoop of the nations of the world
Your Oglala Lakota friend and brother,
John Two-Hawks
http://www.nativecircle.com
http://www.johntwohawks.com
Reprinting of this Circle of Nations newsletter is encouraged!  All I ask is that it be printed in its entirety, with no changes, and that I be given proper credit, unless I have otherwise okayed it.  Wopila (great thanks)!