SpiralDancing Musings

I came to SpiralDancing in 2007.  I had for many years studied various spiritual systems.  I’d come to realize that I needed to work in a deeper way with a teacher.  I’d gained a lot of breadth but in order to achieve real transformation I was going to have to commit.

Maria’s book of prayers first snagged me.  Then her book on the legends and prophecies of the Quero Apache hooked me in.  Here was someone who knew what she was talking about.

I learnt that Maria had a distance learning apprenticeship and after a bit of back and forth joined.

Here are some musings on my Dancing the Spiral.


South – Unity

As part of my SpiralDancing training I go out in the mornings to breathe with the directions and greet the sun.  Over time this has totally restructured the way I feel in the world.  Wherever I am now, the landscape stretches away from me and I am an integral part.  I can face a direction and the immensity of the world opens to me.  All My Relations are always with me and I am a part of what goes on around me.  This is the Path of Beauty.  Everything becomes sacred.

Southwest – Nature

The Thunderbeings live in the Southwest.  During my time SpiralDancing I have gone through several profound initiations.  Throughout my life I have at times faced some very serious issues within myself.  Having received no training in how to deal with these things I developed some behaviours and perceptions that were very unhealthy.  Through my training I have reached a place where, when I come up against some challenge, I am able to face it with a deeper comprehension of what is going on and how to navigate things.  I have been able to work with recurring challenges, to release what no longer works, to befriend difficult aspects of my experience and find the energy and gifts that got trapped by them.  My perspective is shifting from one where fear was quite dominant to one where a challenge now seems an opportunity to grow further, feel deeper, and open to life more fully.

West – Ease

I’ve always been very reliant on my mind and given most things in my life to it to deal with.  Through SpiralDancing I have learnt much more how to look at what is going on around me, to align with it, and then to allow what needs to happen to come through me.  That most elusive of qualities – trust – has begun to blossom within me.  I no longer struggle as much as I used to and have discovered that when I relax with what is happening, I can open to a deeper place to find my response.  The effects are far reaching.  Relaxing in life opens me more to the joy and daring of living.

Northwest – Flow

One of the biggest lessons I have learnt is how much I was trying to control – everything!  It has taken courage, trust, and patience to learn to relax this and let whatever is happening to flow through me.  The result is a coming home to myself and a reclamation of a way of looking at the world that is familiar from childhood.  A lightness and spontaneity develop which enhance life immeasurably.  It takes guts – but the rewards are a life more open and full of possibility.

North – Authentic Power

Some of my most challenging teachings have come from the North.  How do I stand in my power?  How do I balance assertiveness with non-interference?  How can I hold appropriate boundaries without closing down?  Tuma, the Buffalo is a great Guide in this direction and has taught me much about a calm, steady presence, vast as the earth.  I have learnt how in practicing Remembrance of Sacred Identity, through daily ritual and the larger ceremonies,  I am in a place where I am connected to my purpose.  Often, when things are tough now, I remember to drop into connection.  The result is stabilizing and expands my perceptions so I can see a wider picture.  I am working on the realization that I am always connected and that this can become part of my basic perception.  Until then I have the rituals and teachings to remind me!

Northeast – Harmony

One of my original impulses for joining SpiralDancing was to learn techniques to share with others in my community for reconnecting to nature.  I got a whole lot more than I bargained for!  One of the real joys of the training has been that over the past year or so I have started holding ceremonies with a small group of interested people in my local area.  Sharing the ceremonies is a beautiful way to be together in sacredness and seeing the way people gain so much from them is one of the true beauties of my training in SpiralDancing.

East – Leisure

I’ve woken up a lot to how I used to drive myself.  Now I give myself time.  There’s a whole Stone in the training devoted to Time and it has been an eye-opener for me.  I am learning how to recognize what I need and to make enough down time that I can be truly receptive.  A sheen to the world has come back – a juiciness that I remember from childhood and my teenage years.  A richness that can only be truly experienced by taking time.

Southeast – Beauty

I am incredibly grateful for the gift of SpiralDancing.  As I have progressed further it has become so clear that I am being given access to a way of living that has been developed and sustained over many generations.  Its knowledge of human beings and what it takes to live in the world, and be of benefit, is some of the canniest I have ever met.  It is very clear to me that the teachings and practices that Maria shares with us are part of an unbroken lineage of people who knew what it takes to walk the Path of Beauty.  The generosity and clarity of Maria and her lineage in sharing this with me is both a source of wonder to me and a call to embody what I have learned as fully as possible – in order to be of benefit for All Our Relations.

In SpiralDancing I have realized that Pinu Echicasay – We are All Our Relations.  I am home and take my part in the great dance of evolution with more and more ease and a lighter heart.  Our great world is again open to me with her challenges, caresses, inspirations and wonder.   I know that my perception is my responsibility and have the tools to choose to walk the Path of Beauty. 

Daaina…

And so it is…


(for more information on SpiralDancing please click here. )

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