SPIRIT TALK appears on the Night Altar

SPIRIT TALK appears on the Night Altar

Living Grand on Grand Lake Festival

Living Grand on Grand Lake Festival Edition Premieres and Streams Thursday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. on RSU TV

This new pledge event will feature segments from RSU Public TV’s new hit show focused on the people, lifestyles and events of one of Oklahoma’s most popular areas. Show hosts Kristi Wallace and Brian Ruth will host this special pledge event, and artist Minisa Crumbo, a Grand Lake resident, will be on hand to discuss one of the very special thank you gifts for this event. Minisa has authorized an exclusive limited edition reprint of the stunning lithograph “Deer and Ducks”  (shown at 11:00 minutes) created by her father, renowned Native American artist Woody Crumbo. — with Ramona Montano.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW YEAR: Initiating the Day and Night Altars, Initiating Ourselves

It is now time, SPIRIT TALK WALKERS AND TALKERS, to initiate the new year, counting and sorting seeds of the previous harvest in preparation for Firing the Seeds of Prayerful Inspiration prior to the planting and sprouting time, yet to come. All fires of the northern hemisphere have migrated deeply into our innermost creative centers leaving the Father Sky-Sun Fire Regent into the gentle and companionable ascendancy and marriage with the now aged, resting and now, eternally renewing Mother Earth. Their fires, commingling quietly, privately, are yet receptive to the most mindful and honoring of our Medicine Wheel conversations ... conversations which include laughter and tears, prayer, stories, healing retirement, sleep, growing warmths and purifying colds. These qualities contain certain fullnesses defined by the Day and Night Creative Altars ... Creative Voids of naturally occurring and unnamed places of vision, personal and possibly secret, always sacred, Vision Questing Altars ... and so, now we prepare to go there and honor the winter cycle, the beginning of all. We are in a winter of our lives, no matter our age ... until the season builds and deepest prayer begins to bravely manifest and set out from the cave in curling sprout and seeking rootlet.

1st Night Altar

Initiating the renewed night and day altars will join in Creating, nourishing, sustaining, reawakening and energizing those new year focuses which are illuminated and emerging from the newly stoked and fueled fire centers, fire centers willing and capable of bringing the bright light and energy to the seeds of the deepest inner dreams of life. Now, we can and may design, and even easily accept a more balanced and harmonious quality of personal transparency, porosity and integrity, in preparation of once again approaching our now, well known and trusted companions of the Medicine Wheel. Stoking the bright inner fires of our center illuminates the day altars and casts the light of knowingness upon and within the night altars ... we no longer sit in darkness to ... Initiate and walk yet another cycle of life, with all of our relations ... Aho!

INITIATING THE DAY ALTAR OF THE WINTER

Purify and renew in a method or ceremony of choice and make ready to assemble, clean and rearrange an east altar where the sunrise can easily be approached, if not actually seen. An altar where the Dawn Light will be drawn from the night and Gratitude will welcome the Day when the long rays of Father Sky-Sun begin their travels upon the receptive body of Our Mother-the Earth (which is another way of saying: our minds, hearts, bodies and Spirits). At this time, consider 'making' personal and meaningful ceremonies of sacred, dry herbs, fire and earth, water, stone and breath (wind) ... freshly inspired ... daily. 

Continue to seek, find and design a personal WAY, inviting whatever and whoever is present and available to lend themselves to these ceremonies ... remembering that in the end, nothing comes between ourselves or anyone else, and the Creator.

It is by these WAYS that our paths continue to be swept clean and clear ... and no permanent perceptions or suspicions of separation with the Creator, or ourselves, grow up ... (they will and they do). It is by these WAYS that we maintain clean and clear pathways between ourselves and the Creator. 

These WAYS and their importance cannot be overemphasized. These WAYS, or other proven and worthy WAYS of choice, that build, honor and determine the most basic and positive qualities of life.

Sing and Drum the Sunrise and Day Light. Sing and Drum the New Year Alive!

4th Night Altar

INITIATING THE NIGHT ALTAR OF THE WINTER

The night altar can be and probably is the Day or Sunrise Altar. As the next day begins at sunset, this or any other time of night can honor the Creative Void, or Night. At this time we Initiate the First Night Altar of the New Year. Purify and renew with methods of your choice and make ready to do some Honoring things for the traveling Father Sky-Sun as he journeys into the collective new year of the Medicine Wheel Cycle (may include a sunset ceremony as well as a sunrise ceremony).

Sunset is a good time to face, look at sunset light or think sunset and think or say, 'Grandfather I thank you for your gifts and I pray you receive all that is needed to aid you on your journey'. It is also good to think or say out loud 'I LET MY TROUBLES SET WITH THE SUN'! Think these words if saying them out loud will draw unwanted attention, but remember, this is a proven and worthy tool which can be gifted, impersonally, to all within earshot. A gift becomes most truly ours when we give it away or pass it on. How will the teachings live and grow otherwise?

5th Night Altar

The shortening rays of the departing Father Sky-Sun build and lengthen the longest of our Mother's night cloaks as she begins the Winter Night Watch, wherein all things are protected. We stand at or sit with the Night Altars, especially the winter night altars, warming the deep inner fires of inspiration. Often these fires simply are, accompanied by no thought ... pure life force. The sacred herbs and incenses, fires and earth, waters, stones and wind breaths travels with us all ways, all days, welcome, honored and trusted allies and companions in the solitary and dark hours, often solitary, sometime lonely, probably undisturbed and quiet ... the healing night, home of the sacred creative void ... the dark, the vision quest cave, the dream, the groans of the Soul, the coursing bloods and pulsing systems, love and release. All of these things and more ... are the presences, qualities, reposes and reflections, and prayer limbs of the deepest and warmest inner fires. The Night Altars ... the fragrant and precious night lights of the innermost recesses of the Soul. The Winter Night Altar's heartbeat is the same as the heartbeat of Our Mother Earth.

Sing and Drum the Sunset and Night Light. Sing and Drum the New Year Alive!

WOTKO LONG and MINISA CRUMBO

Muscogee, OK

Roxy Theater

Following the screening of Sterlin Harjo's film:

THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME

Daughter of the Wind

minisacrumbo.com

I am happy to announce the live mount of my long awaited website. To My webmaster Debra Malmos, I would like to give big credit, Kiche Migwech!, for artistic and technical gifts in assembling a mass of writings, art and information and Kiche Migwech to family, friends, TEACHERS and supporters of SPIRIT TALK and THE MOON CIRCLE TEACHINGS! 

Bama Pi, Minisa

MINISA CRUMBO and LENEDRA CARROLL

An evening with Roy Clark at the Historic Spotlight Theater, Tulsa, OK.
Minisa Crumbo (left) is the author of: 'SPIRIT TALK', Tate Publishing, Spring 2015 release.

Lenedra Carroll (right) is the author of: 'The Architecture of All Abundance', New World Library.

From Lenedra Carroll:

Last week I was in Tulsa, OK with friends.  They included me in a special event - a small, private evening with country music legend, Roy Clark.  Many of you may remember Roy as a star on Hee Haw, one of the biggest television hits of all time.  Roy, now in his 80s, shared stories and wisdom gained from a lengthy and successful life and career.  I wanted to pass along one little nugget he gave us.  After relating an experience of his, he said to the 100 people there, “The lesson in this little story is, Don’t teeter.”  He went on to say that if you teeter, you’ll miss the opportunity.  “Don’t teeter, just do it!”

 

That’s a simple truth, important now as much or more than ever.  It’s rubber-hits-the-road time.  Time to “do it,” whatever it is.  Either we are “doing it” a little bit every day or we’re keeping our car in neutral.  That seemed important to say right now. 

 

It was a wonderful night, with many country legends in attendance, meeting Roy was an honor and I came away enriched by all he and his friends shared. Thank you, thank you, Tulsa friends, old and new. ... Minisa Crumbo Halsey ... is a wise elder and a medicine woman with ancient knowledge for modern times.  Her book, Spirit Talk, will be coming out this spring and I’ll tell you much more then ...

Gun Lake Band Potawatomi Surges Ahead In Broad Sustainability Initiatives!

Gun Lake Gathering 2014

Jijak Foundation

The Jijak Foundation of the Gun Lake Band, Hopkins, MI presents a vibrant and active sustainability program that reaches into all aspects of the Medicine Wheel. Language, culture, food, ceremony and community building skills and insights are offered on these pages in an easily integrated WAY. Start small and personal ... let it grow ...

Door of Maple Sugar House

PERSIMMON MOON - OCTOBER

The seeds journey continues as Winter Begins, the third week of October.
Excerpted from 'SPIRIT TALK', The Book of Days.

Persimmon Winter Count, October 2014

Early persimmons with snow spoons inside the seeds

 Winter Weather Prophesy
The seed shadows are spoon shaped, indicating a snowy winter.

2014 Cherokee Art Show, Tulsa, OK

Ruthe Blalock Jones and Minisa Crumbo

Making Tracks through the Cherokee Art Show 2014

America Meredith and Minisa Crumbo

Native Justice | Pokégnek Bodéwadmik | Pokagon Band Of Potawatomi

Native Justice Initiative -- Peace Making from Joseph Winchester

AN INTROSPECTION AND MEDICINE COOKIE ......from the DIRECTION of the WEST

From Common Sense Homesteading: Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies w/Walnuts and Dried Cranberries

Autumn harvest greetings, All,

Nokomis debegekgises, greetings Grandmother Autumn Moon,

Thinking of you all as each of us meet and move into the season of return and  the moons of falling leaves which bring us so much beauty and strength from the Marriage of Our Mother Earth and Our Father Sky Sun, our elemental parents....the first, most beautiful and enduring of gifts from the Creator God.

We Thank you for your beauty....and your Song...Shewendagzewin odo Pi...A Blessing has been visited on us here.

This recipe was passed to me, with thanks to Pazhe, and I would like to pass it on.

I've 'tinkered' with it quite a bit and re-sent this recipe with findings. The recipe was found to be very accommodating of sugar and wheat substitutions. When the cookies have cooled completely, place them in tins or baggies, refrigerate and the next day the flavors and cherries will have developed and deepened. Shopping for the ingredients, cooking, cooIing, and mashing a sweet pumpkin in prep for a double batch was a lot of work but these cookies go fast! Making these cookies is an act of devotion for it calls for most of a day in and out of the kitchen. But then, some of the baked pumpkin is available to serve with supper...clean and roast the seeds...compost the peelings and egg shells.

The oats, cherries and pumpkin make it a very substantial and nourishing cookie. The sugar rush can be softened if granulated maple sugar is used. I did not but DID cut the sugar amount down by 1/3 and substituted coconut flour for one half of the flour. Buckwheat flour could be used to completely eliminate wheat, if desired. Cardamom may be an unfamiliar spice for some of us but worthy of inclusion.

A sweet metaphor for 'making our days' and celebrating the sharing our 'breaths of life' together.
Offered In the Spirit of Light and Love Forever,
Dawn Woman

IEBA Awards, Nashville

Minisa Crumbo and Bill Miller

Taos Farmers Market

Taos Plaza, north side

Minisa Crumbo - Victor Higgins mural - Justice

Old Taos Courthouse - 1941 WPA Murals (1 of 10)
  2014 Taos Festival of the Arts
September 26, 2014

2014 Taos Festival of the Arts

Minisa Crumbo and Anita Rodriquez

September 24, 2014, Taos Mountain, Taos, NM, sunset

September 24, 2014, Taos Mountain, Taos, NM, sunset

The mountains are growing larger. The lens of the autumn sky seems to refract, elevate and magnify the Sangre de Cristo mountains as the Rocky Range finally plays out between the high great plains to the east and to the west, the northern most finger into the New Mexico Sonoran Desert sticks a beautiful, bony finger as far as La Bajada Hill, south of Santa Fe.

The autumn season of the western introspection time is drawing a brilliantly colored veil of illusion and crisp fact, crusted with blowzy finishes and a scent of the unexpected and unknown.

Old Taos Courthouse - 1941 WPA Murals (1 of 10)
  2014 Taos Festival of the Arts
September 26, 2014

Something completely unexpected at a critical seasonal juncture ... the inexact fortunes of all other things and beings besides those who would seek to plan, organize, understand and control as much as possible, brings the sense of a wild and possibly unruly finish to the season and perhaps presages more of the same as weather faces are exposed in our moment, but out of their along snaking journeys on high wind rivers.

Minisa Crumbo and Anita Rodriquez

Old water washed boulders tumble and soil breaks loose making mud flows in the flash floods of late fall rains and any kind of cloud from summer cirrus to thunder heads to spacey snow scouts can be seen.

7:40 AM -- The Equinox keyhole is opening ...

Dawn Woman has subscribed to "Writing Life in Taos"

Dawn Woman has subscribed to Writing Life in Taos.

The Vision of the 13 Moon-Blue Corn Circle is completed.

Bozho Nikan, Hello, my bone,
The 13 Moon Blue Corn Circle was harvested nine months after the Seeds of Inspiration-SPIRIT TALK- painting was begun. It is paintings, writings, conceptual garden plans and harvests and other records of ourselves as farmers of our lives, such as these, that are revealed in all of their integrity and beauty to be the intentional precursors that allow us to begin building, recognizing and experiencing ourselves as full co-Creators.

When we ally with the schedules of balance and harmony in accord with the rhythms of the natural world certain patterns reveal themselves with undeniable accuracy. Seasonal truths begin to become self evident when even minimal records are kept which can affirm the strength and power of Medicine Wheel partnership and mirror our inner most medicine truths. These truths offer validations of ours and others personal processes, placements and medicine journeys with our elemental parents, our Mother Earth and our Father Sky Sun, within the circle of the Sacred Hoop.

The Blue Corn Circle is my visible offering arising out of the December emergence vision of SPIRIT TALK and how it progressed throughout the past nine, gestational months, manifesting not only in the soon to be published SPIRIT TALK-BOOK OF DAYS but a visual record of the blue corn progress.

This is a profound moment in time for me personally. I invite and gift you to be the witness not only of the crop but of the conceptions and successful completions of the painting and of the book, SPIRIT TALK.

I would offer greetings and thanks for all of the encouragement and support I have received throughout this and all past years from my family, friends, teachers and the beings and blessings of the Creator and of all Creation.

Migwech, wewene kiche migwech,
Dawn Woman

Advance Schedule for the 13 Grandmother's Council 2014, Spearfish, SD

International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

Advance Schedule for the 13th Gathering of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, 

in Spearfish, SD, September 4 - 7, 2014

View and Download Full 4-day Program

Pre-Conference Excursions with the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers

Download and Share Flyer

RSU Rogers State University Annual Fundraiser Taping, Claremore, OK

...featured guest chefs from the Tulsa, OK area. Minisa contributed and demonstrated a recipe for Wild Grape Dumplings given to her by her maternal grandmother, Harriett Hogue.

A cook book will also be produced featuring the recipe and others from the guest chefs and cooks in the NE Oklahoma viewing area. It will begin airing in November.

The segment was taped at and sponsored by the Hahn Appliance Warehouse and Reasor's.
Pictured is (left): Jennifer Sterling, Ex. director of Programing, RSU TV; (Right): Minisa Crumbo Halsey

Jennifer Sterling and Minisa Crumbo Halsey

Minisa Crumbo Halsey and Lou Puliese, Reasor's, Special Events Coordinator

SPIRIT TALK

BELOVEDS
The 13 Moon Calendar has been revealing itself as a Gift from the Creator, Mother Earth and Father Sky Sun to support whole vision and beingness to us, the two leggeds, as we remain and grow ever more into balance and harmony within the heart, body, Spirit and mind of The Tree of Life as given to us by the Master of All Breath.

I would like to thank Drunvalo Melchidezek and all sentient beings of the unified heart consciousness for the work so graciously and freely offered to each and every one of us that we might most fully recognize ourselves as the sacred, all ways, all days....

Please feel free to observe and interact with the 13 Moon image in your own creative brilliance to further the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health and balance of all life, now and forever more. Be it known that the 13 Moon Inner and Outer Calendar of Days and Nights remains in a state of vital flux and growth, as does and will your experience of it as it seats and integrates the energetic daily messaging of the Father Sky Sun and imbues us with the necessary mannas by which to live and function, In A GOOD WAY!

May I suggest you initiate and physically create a Calendar of your own beauty? I invite you to enter images and writings to this site that we, The Contemporary Wisdom Keepers might continue to live and grow together in the Community to which we hue.

Beloved, we each mirror a unique aspect of beauty, truth and sacredness...for this I offer humble feelings of recognition and gratitude..

In the Spirit of Art and Beauty,
Dawn Woman

How To Fully Activate Pineal Gland Antennas (choose #5) by Drunvalo Melchizedek

Contributed by Dr. David Busch:
I once had an experience, at my first ceremonial adventure of this lifetime, around 1987, on Mic Mac Land in rural Vermont. This grandmother "happened" to hear me play one of my Native American flutes at a psychology conference in Atlanta, and she invited me to this gathering. At the time, I didn't even know such traditional gatherings still existed. I arrived late at night in a misting rain, and awoke before dawn to the sound of quiet singing. I followed the sound through the still misting rain to discover a dozen or so people under a little pavilion, a beautiful ageless grandmother from Canada, presiding. She said, "Now I'm going to sing a song to ask the grandmothers to help us." I closed my eyes as she sang, and thought of my two sweet grandmothers to whom I was so close; one half-Choctaw, the other one-quarter Creek and one-quarter Cherokee. Suddenly they were there, on either side of me, plain as day.. After a moment of awe, for the first time ever, I thought of Their grandmothers, and then there were four more sweet familiar loving women around me. And then, Their grandmothers... I found myself in a crowd of familiar women who loved me. Tears poured down my face like a faucet.. I was Home.

This morning, I wrote....

When a wise woman crosses over, she may take on the responsibility of facilitating the spiritual unfoldment of her grandchildren. I believe she would then put the most attention on the ones who paid the most attention to Her. So let's be more aware of our guardian angel/grandmother/spirit guides, and never in a pretentious or exaggerated way. It's magical enough, as is.

It only follows that the spirit grandmother would then bond with her great grandchildren when they are born, and so the web expands, grandmother's spiritual response-abilities expanding with her consciousness and love, helping us all unfold into beauty with as few bumps and bruises as possible. Gratitude and humility grease the wheels.

Love flowing out through the Web, from the Center, all those hands connected, supporting us here today.

This is a good day to Live!
Hechetu welo.
I love you Gramma.
Walked Away

Contributed by Reginah WaterSpirit:
Aho Tribe,

Just got home from Gathering of Circles in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Our Will Star Heart is a past speaker and this was the twentieth anniversary of the event. I was asked to do a workshop that Bear Heart and I did for many years, but, I decided to alter it a bit. Another friend and past speaker for this event is Melinda Garcia, PhD. When I told Melinda that I was going to have the participants come forward to say "whose shoulders they have stood upon" to be the people they are today, she offered another point of view. Being a Panamanian indigenous person, she always seems to give me a way to look at and say things in a beautiful, nature honoring way. Melinda said, " I see my life as a tapestry made up of all my ancestors. I am pulling the threads forward on this tapestry to continue to weave the picture set forth before me."

Her words inspired me to bring my Dream Catcher to the gathering to represent the larger web of life. I tied 4 strings on it. As each person came forward to share about an ancestor or mentor who influenced their life, I had them make a prayer tie to tie onto the Dream Catcher's strings which stretched out about four feet. We wound up with a beautiful assortment of colorful ties, each representing an elder who gave a gift to these loved ones, and, consequently all of us, including the 'more-than'humans'.Of course we offered the prayer ties to the Fire at the end with a prayer of gratitude.

I'd like to share the following, written about the workshop (WaterSpirit's We Are Not Alone Workshop at Gathering Of Circles 2014) by poet Sheri Young:

Whose threads have you been pulling forward in life?
On whose shoulders did you stand?
Tell the stories of theones
Who lifted you and held your hand.

Tobacco, cloth and string
A prayer bundle makes
Tied to the living web
We must participate

In the creation of
The story we will live
The story we will tell
The story we will give

We honor these gifts of love, compassion,
perseverance, bravery, strength, musical vibration,
wisdom, eloquence and empathy
passed onto us from those who held us up.

Yigaquv osaniyu adanvto adad naqvv utlogasdi nihi (Muscogee Nation-Creek Tribe language)
(May the Great Spirit's Blessing always be with you)

Reginah WaterSpirit
Brown Dove
A Passion for Kindness. Acting Justly. Walking Humbly with your Creator.

Milagro Collection Gallery, 127 Bent St., Taos, NM

Full Moon Cherokee White Eagle Blue Corn

Cherokee White Eagle Blue Corn

Full Moon First Harvest

Aquarius Full Moon, 8:41pm, August 10, 2014

Gun Lake Language Conference and Gathering of Potawatomi Bands, Hopkins, MI, August 2014

The 2014 annual Bodewadmin Gathering of the Bands and Potawatomi Language Conference
August 1-10 Gun Lake, MI

Bozho Nikan, Hello, My Bone,
Aboard the birch bark voyager canoe at the 2014 Potawatomi Language Conference at Gun Lake, MI and the Annual Gathering of the Bands on the Match-che-be-Nash-she-wish Potawatomi lands at Hopkins, MI as we are prepared to push off onto Gun Lake. This large canoe is made entirely by hand with no metal incorporated. It is made from original designs and materials and is capable of handling the waters of Lake Michigan. This day, 16 persons were on board and paddling.

Potawatomi Elm House

Presented Colors

The Language Conference
The Potawatomi language has been in declining use and through Spiritually dedicated programs is acting to restore the language actively back into the culture at all levels, beginning with the primary immersion levels but classes are designed and available to all age groups... At the current rate the Potawatomi Nation will turn the language issue and resultant usage around in a generation. Good work all! AHO! Language is culture.....

Doors of Maple Sugar House

Copper Maple Syrup Cauldrons

The Gathering
There were many, many workshops offered, among them, the construction of the birch bark canoe. Also offered were extensive talks and hands on demonstrations on maple syrup production and products in the sugar house, wild rice cultivation, harvest and handling, basketry, hoop dancing for the children,earth oven construction, corn, milk thistle and wild rice soup teachings, copper metal construction, a wigwam built of huge sheets of elm bark, an overview of the migration and sacred prophesy, and so much more. It was impossible to take very many for they overlapped, we're through and in some cases extended for the three days of the gathering.

Women's Moon Camp Teaching Lodge - under construction

Inside Potawatomi Elm House

Roof of Fire House

There was a sacred fire which started our fire, carried by coal from the reservation fire. It was tended by the men (nene) 24 hours a day. The men sang fire songs and the women (kwe) offered the water ceremony and a water song. Daily sunrise and tobacco offering ceremonies occurred. We say, 'We just hope that every dawn, somewhere, a Potawatomi stands waiting to greet the Grandfather Sun and put down some tobacco'.

Elm Bark Potawatomi Wigwam

Food is our 'Medicine'
The registrants were provided with food cards for the duration of the gathering which allowed us to 'trade' them for Indian grown, cooked and served foods. There were extensive camp grounds, playgrounds, communal dance grounds, a women's moon lodge and teaching center, elder camp, indoor basketball court, indoor and covered outdoor dining areas, cisterns of spring water conveniently placed and many arts and crafts offered by the vendors.

It took place during one of the finest weather weeks of the summer but still, some mornings the lake was swathed in mists and fogs and occasional brief rain showers passed over.

There were many out of state attendees from out of state, notably members of the Prairie Band of Mayetta, KS and the Citizen Band whose agency of Shawnee, OK.

Wabaksekwe n'deshnekas: Minisa Crumbo Halsey
N'dogzewin Shawnee: my agency is Shawnee

Man with his Dog Birch Bark Canoe

Minisa Crumbo Halsey and Michael Bourbournaise

Conference End Pleasure Face