Chaco Canyon
Peering over Pueblo Bonito
For me visiting ancient ruins and dwellings is a psychedelic experience. Words will never express the potency of my experience at Chaco Canyon this past week. I have been dreaming of visiting this canyon for over 6 years now but it always seemed to be a little too far. Without physically being there I have fallen in love in this place and had my heart broken all in the same breath. I don’t know why I feel so connected to this place, but I feel a strong spiritual connection like I’ve visited this place throughout many of my lives and will continue through reincarnation. I always say that my spirit baby entered earth side through a portal in the Colorado Plateau and now I’m certain that the portal was above Chaco.
Since visiting Mesa Verde 6 years ago I developed an obsession with the Southwest. Every chance I got was spent road-tripping South and West to explore ancient dwellings, sing to pictograph panels and soaking up earths healing red vibration. Red is my favorite color after all. If you look at a map of the US from space you can see a giant red dot in the center, like an acupuncture meridian point… that is the Colorado Plateau and my favorite place on planet earth and Chaco Canyon has always been the Mecca.
To me Chaco Canyon is a mystery a great mystering (on going) as Elder Don Ricardo would put it. We sat through maybe a minute of a tour by the National park but I quickly realized I didn’t want the learn about this place from an alien archeologist, I want to learn from the descendants of this land, the Puebloan People. We met a descendent tour guide, got his card and upon my return I will be reaching out to him to tour the land. So my first experience is very much based off of feelings, sensations, wonder, questioning and pure awe.
I have so many questions. The first one being why is this place here in what seems like the middle of nowhere? It’s not like there is a major water source or perhaps there was in the past? Why was this place even built? It is said that people would predominantly visit for ceremony and then return to their homes near and far. The structures are like calendars which reminds me of Chichen Itza a calendar temple I visited in the Yucatán a little over a year ago. The pueblos and wall art in Chaco track the sun, moon, planets, and stars. The walls stored and housed Macaw birds brought up from Central America and vessels of cacao. Cacao was a part of ceremony in this place. How cool is that?!
During the height of Chaco Canyon Leif Erikson first landed on turtle island around 1000 A.D., he peered across the land and wondered if people lived here. It is said that over 5 million people lived and thrived on this land and Chaco Canyon is a testament to their intelligence, ingenuity, and deep connection to the natural world. Something I love so much about Ayurveda is how it brings us back into connection with the natural world. It shows us how we are a microcosm of the macrocosm. This is very much reflected in Chaco Canyon just as Ayurveda is an indigenous system of medicine that transcends all traditions and cultures.
Here’s a entry from my journal after visiting Chaco Canyon,
“ … After dropping down a small hill I looked up at what seemed like the middle of nowhere, emerging from the land were red and brown stone towers standing tall, erect in the middle of a flat desert. I thought my eyes were making up images, like a mirage. I closed my eyes, rubbed them, and opened them again. The structure was still there and I was not hallucinating. I got the same feeling I felt when I saw Chichen Itza for the first time. Tears rolled down my eyes. The wind was raging, I couldn’t hear my friend speaking three feet away. The wind carried melodies and brought me a song. I began to sing. I could think of nothing else but to sing the melodies with deep gratitude and reverence. I now call it the Chaco Canyon wind song and hold it near to my heart. We continued down the path to pueblo alto, which was across the way from the newer towering pueblo alto. As I approached pueblo alto the energy of my body completely shifted, I was in a trance and felt a strong connection like a magnet. It was the least “grand” of the ruins because it was actual ruins that have barely been excavated. The structure seemed like a giant circle with multiple Kivas in the center, including a giant Kiva in the middle. Before entering I said a prayer, offered deep gratitude and gave an offering. I had brought some osha from Colorado that I wanted to give to the people and the land. I entered the center Kiva and was pulled directly to the center. I continued singing. I kneeled own and offered the osha in the sand in the center, closed my eyes and placed my hand on a stone. I fully dissolved. I was existing in all dimensions, including the past, present and future simultaneously. In that moment I saw myself handing the osha medicine to all the beings of this pueblo who came before and who will come after. I could feel their hands as I handed it to them, as they received the offering. I was blown away. Upon exiting the center a raven came by, the keeper of magic and messenger of Great Spirit. It hovered above me as if it were flying yet fixed in space, transcending space and time. I took a deep breath and said ‘thank you.’ The magic here is potent. I am humbled and grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Pueblo Alto
It is with deep reverence I bow to the people who have protected this land for generations, the Puebloan people, Diné, Apache, Hopi, Ute, Red Willow People and their ancestors the Clovis and Folsom people and all the others I do not know the names of. I bow to the fierce mountain lions, rattle snakes, cranes, Buffalo, ravens, rabbits, deer, all of the canyon animals, and plants. The yarrow, rubber rabbitbrush, osha, sage, willow, and cotton woods. I bow to the majestic mountains and canyons and hot mineral waters, vast landscapes, and sky. I bow to my ancestors, the Taíno people who with strength and resilience brought me here today.
