Bandelier National Monument

Bandelier has a long human history and links to modern Pueblos. Find it in the 'land of enchantment."

Click on www.nps.gov/band to learn more.

Introduction to 1823 -1826 in California

I'm beginning to post a series of notes I've made while reading The Romero Expeditions 1823-1826 by Bean and Mason. This somewhat rare work was published for the Palm Springs Desert Museum by the Ward and Fitchie Press pf Los Angeles in 1962. Double quotations marks show my use of the authors words.


The wealth of the early Californios was in their cattle and horses. The Yuma 'rebellion' had closed California to large scale importation of livestock. Before the Yuma uprisings a few cattle and horses had bee brought up for the tiny military force mostly on the coast.

The opening of the Anza rout made 'the days of the Don's' possible. The rout made immigration and large scale importation of cattle possible. Cattle were used to pay to pay off military veterans. After 1781 there were large herds and abundant cattle in the California province.

By the end of Spanish rule in 1822 the total population of California, exclusive of Indians, was only about 3500. California, at that time, was more isolated from Europe the east coast of North America, and Mexico City than was Manila and had been accessible only by sea for forty years.

"As a result of the war of independence in Mexico, no money or supplies were sent to California after 1811 and a series of rebellions in Mexico from 1810 through 1821 prevented the Government for sending help to California. " From 1817 until 1821, .....Trade with Russian, Americans, Englishmen and others was practiced." It was during this period raw hides became know as California dollars.

Governors of California suggested that trade and colonization between California and New Mexico would benefit both provinces. Pedro Fages who governed between 1783 and 1791 and Diego do Borica who governed between 1791 and 1793 are examples. Their recommendations included mention of routs laid out by Fages, Anza, Rivera and others.

After 1815 Spain's control of trade with California was strongly challenged and even her sea rout from San Blas to California was threatened. From 1780 to 1820 Russia, the United States, and Great Britain firmly established trading posts all along the Pacific Coast of North America. Illegal prate-like attacks were mad on Spanish settlements. Raids by Bouchard and Cochraine are examples of such attacks.

Popol Vuh Wisdom Road

~ Using your skills and resources ready yourself to put your thoughts into action.
~ Be discreet, courteous, and honor your roots.
~ Master the arts you have a talent for and develop your wit as best you may.
~ Make the lives of those near you more bearable.
~ Do as you wish, if it be just.
~ Be up righteous and law abiding.

I suspect that gloves, balls, trained coyotes, honeyed water, blowguns, beards, and green eyes existed in the land we call Mexico before the Spanish conquest.

Unwilling

We are so unwilling to pay that we enslave our children and our republic to bond holders.

We are so unwilling to govern that we have no foreign policy, no domestic policy, no economic policy, no military policy, no education policy.

Tao-like

You may consider these phrases worthy of contemplation:

~ Words have meaning.
~ Understanding is partial.
~ Approach happiness.
~ Reach happiness and be close to perfection.
~ Take 'both' sides.
~ Chaos and doubt are learning places.
~ Great goodness is not kind.
~ How can we argue about reality when all our words are imperfect?
~ Share opinions with respect.
~ What do we know of the beholder?
~ Meet the witness within.
~ The sage does not cling.
~ How can I tell?
~ It may happen any time now.
~ Live with all the opinions.
~ Leave the different viewpoints as they are.
~ Rest in the infinite.
~ Know what it means to follow the middle way.
~ Avoid fame and punishment.
~ Follow the natural grain.
~ Take advantage of what is there.

Music

Feeling.

Grand Music,

Grand Feeling.

Let's

Let's listen to one another being honest.
Let's speak a bit more frankly and listen with a bit more understanding.
Let's speak a bit more deeply about our true desires and values.
Let's be honest listening to each other.

Keep an Eye on Them

We are giving are lives, our wealth, and our sacred honor into the hands of those who are not noble, wise or holy.
Doesn't it seem prudent to keep an eye on them?

One World

I've heard that about 1/4 of the air pollution in L. A. comes from China.
How much of the air pollution in China comes from L. A.?


As a people we need to: train people; organize exchanges of information, personal, and technology; aerate issues by discussion.
The Chinese and others have similar needs.
Seems like a opportunity to make a buck.
Perhaps, well motivated diplomatic corps and organizations of higher learning may find opportunities in those needs to move us toward a safer more stable world.

If you find that safety and stability is not your thing, perhaps attention to such needs by those prepared to do something about them can move us to a more interesting world of greater abundance.

SNO

I have received a ten page holiday letter from the people of the School of the Natural Order. I intend to respond with a couple of pages. I won't describe the school here. You can start to find out about it by searching the www using "Vitvan," "SNO," "School of the Natural Order."

Vitvan is a name taken by a man whose words I have studied a great deal. "The School" has been the source of those words for me.

In their Christmas letter Marj, Val, Jane, Jim, B. Free, Bill and others associated with Home Farm and "the School" offer the word "gift" as the seed of a meditation. I think that offer is a gift.

Formal giving is an infinitesimal part of my life. I seldom give money to charities. I seldom send a Christmas or birthday card to even the closest friends and relatives. I do enjoy nurturing others in my own way.

In the holiday letter five specific questions are asked. I will repeat the questions and attempt answers:
SNO: What does membership in the School of the Natural Order mean to you?
Me: Nothing.

SNO: Should there be responsibility associated with that membership?
Me: I don't know what "that membership" is. It does seem that most memberships would include interaction, cooperation, and creation.

SNO: Should membership be renewed or allowed to expire?
Me: I don't understand the question. I do know that usually, as members expire the body dies.

SNO: What should the the school do for its members?
Me: Keeping them healthy would be useful.

SNO: Do you feel that you are a member of the school?
Me: No.

My answers are my own. If you have found,say, the Salvation Army or the ACLU worthy of your support you may find SNO to be, at least, as worthy.

Mexican Maya

Cultural remnants found on the Yucatan Peninsula are strongly Maya and the are many.
Ancient gods and rites persist. Hach Chac Yum, Akyantho, Usukum, Kakich, and other gods are remembered. Pilgrimages are still made. Offerings are often and copal is still burnt. Prayers are made and purifications carried out.
When you decide to visit the land of the Maya the Mexican state of Tabasco can be a good place to start. In the region of the Chontalpa (Putun-Maya) is the town of Cardenas. If you want to see ruins, Comalcalco is not far.
Comalcalco is of interest to some as a place of debunking. As a student you may have learned that Arabs brought bricks to Spain, and that Spaniards brought therm to Mexico. At Comacalco are found pre-Colombian sun dried blocks of clay with no known connection to Arab or Spaniard. Stucco made of oyster and other shells were used to cover and ornament those bricks.
From Cardenas you might drive to Villahermosa and then on to Palenque in Chiapas. I don't mean to turn this history essay into a travel log. Still they often seem to go together, don't they? As for history, La Venta Park may be a good place to meet the Olmec, the Maya's predecessors.
I stop here to allow you to remember what you will of incomparable Palenque.

From Eckhart

"God never gave personal property to anyone." "Treat all things as if they were loaned to you ..."

"If a person were in a rapture as great as St. Paul once experienced and learned that her neighbor were in need of a cup of soup, it would be best to withdraw from the rapture and give that person the soup she needs."

" ... remember the poor."

Humanity in the poorest and most despised human being is just as complete as in the Pope or President.

" .... Humanity is dearer to me than the human being I carry about in myself."

If you would be comforted, comfort one worse of than yourself.

There is love where equality and unity are. Create real equality. Make place for peace and you make place for love. Be busy creating equality and therein find pleasure. "Practice equality in human society." Practice loving, esteeming, and considering yourself so that you may learn to love, esteem, and consider another and all. Nurture your empathy.

Humanity is born in the intimate depths of divine nature. See the nobility in each.

Cope strongly and effectively as you become rooted in love. You may move on and away from honored father and mother to find nourishing ground. Do not fear an other's anger. Feel bad only if an other's anger with you is merited.

A good deed results in justice. A deed of goodness and justice begins a dance of universal joy.

When you find a way which is beautiful, pleasant, joyful, and familiar hold to it and nurture it. The best have told us that the practice of loving justice brings us to that path.

Traumatized

To help a person who has experienced trauma, take her part. Be honest and realistic, but respect what he says and does, take her seriously, try walking in his shoes. Ask questions. Admit errors.
Show interest in her story. Look for messages, reenactments, and other evidence of traumas.

Adults with recent traumas may demonstrate neuroses or compulsion similar to a person traumatized in childhood.

The traumatized person benefits from having an honest understanding advocate.

Know that the past cannot be corrected, but the reality of it can be grieved in a way that allows one to move on in greater health.

The traumatized person is isolated by the trauma and may be lonely and misunderstood without being fully aware of it.

It may be unpleasant to be exposed to the anger and aggression of the person becoming aware of her trauma. The mute inner-child is easier to be with than a newly expressive adult. However the creative marvel of the regained ability to feel may be nearly as rewarding to the witness as to the person returning to their whole self.

The traumatized person has learned a fear of feeling. Once that fear is overcome healing, growth, and development begin and continue.

Not Obama

In our republic pretending to democracy, it is not up to Obama, me, or you to fix things. As a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, it is up to us.

From the land Around the Sea Surrounded by Land

They are mysteries until we illuminate them.
~ Did the Phrygians, the oldest human stock, a race older than the Egyptians, call the mother goddess Pessinuntia?
~ Is the nature of the Assyrian Hera fish-like?
~ Why is Hiew, a city in Syria near the Euphrates River, thought to be holy?
~ Did the goddess Ceres
~

Not All Mayan

The peoples of the Lacandon Jungle of the Yucatan peninsula have long been various.
They are not all Maya. Some are Caribes or Hach Winik.
We are not sure of much. For example, the source of the name Lacandon may or may not be 'Lacam-tun,' a name given to the island on the present Lake Miramar, used as a retreat by the Chol people into the 16th century.

Clear, solid information is still rather scarce, Even though it is now a fairly active area of study. More face to fact talk to present day Maya by experts with knowledge of Maya culture, history, and language is needed. More firsthand investigation of colonial archives is also needed. A lot of interpretation of more easily available information is also needed. You can participate. Your interpretations may provide valuable insights and understandings.

In 1530 captain Alonso Davila discovered the island mentioned above. It was described then as being in the center of a large lake and containing a village of rich, warlike Indians. The Spanish sacked it in 1559 and in 1586 the Indians themselves destroyed it completely.
Those warlike Indians were Caribes who had moved down the Orinoco to the Caribbean in excellent canoes centuries before the Spanish conquest. They moved on into the Caribbean islands probably as far north as Cuba. They dominated and intermarried with the Arawak natives they found occupying the islands.
The Caribes were probably more supported by their seamanship and war abilities than by other areas of their culture. They were the first to meet Columbus in the New World. Although the Spaniards war abilities were more advanced than those of the Craribes they were not able to enslave them. They did kill many and in certain cases virtually eliminated them form some islands. Still, it is not hard to find their decedents on islands such as Trinidad, Tobago, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Dominica as well as at mainland sites.

So, we may note that certain people and proper names found in the lad of the Maya are not all Mayan.