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Spirit Keepers Series
2013 – 2014

Xavier Quijas Yxayotl

Dr. Kurt Kaltreider

Seed Wisdom: Benefit for Grandmother Flordemayo's Seed Temple

Maestra Laura Alonzo de Franklin
Rescheduled for March 27-28, 2015

In these times there are a number of Spirit Keepers who are emissaries of ancient and living indigenous traditions, acting as a bridge, straddling both worlds, uniting cultures. In the Quechua language of the Andes, a person who undertakes this sacred role is called a chakaruna. They help us remember what we already know.

Chakaruna's Offering is an introductory talk on the sacred message of the Spirit Keeper's wisdom ways. These Friday evening presentations are held 7:00-8:30 PM at North Mountain Visitors Center, 12950 N. 7th St. in Phoenix, AZ; telephone: (602) 335-1962 unless otherwise noted in the entry below.

The Spirit Keeper's Circle is a follow-on Saturday gathering led by the Spirit Keeper with more in-depth opportunities to experience the rituals, cosmology and practices that inform the spiritual consciousness of their native people. Circles are held 10:30 AM-3 PM at North Mountain Visitors Center, 12950 N. 7th St. in Phoenix, AZ; telephone: (602) 335-1962 unless otherwise noted in the entry below. Light snacks provided.

Xavier Quijas Yxayotl
Huichol Spirit Keeper and Ritual Musician

September 13, 2013 from 7:30-9 PM
The Chakaruna’s Offering Talk:
Music and Mysticism: Making Mother Earth Sing

The sacred aspect of music is well documented in ancient codices, murals and creation stories. The ritual musician is called to this role through dreams, visions or deep longing to engage in something timeless and uniquely collective. Yet, for many Native peoples, these traditions are lost.

Join us as Xavier Quijas Yxayotl tells the story of his odyssey to reconnect with his Huichol and Aztec lineage of Mexico through music and ceremony. Through a journey uniquely his own, he resurrected music and instruments that were prohibited for 300 years due to the intensity and deep spiritual impact it had on the people of those times. In doing so, he has returned to his people what was decimated and given the world a beautiful gift. Our evening together will include an abbreviated ritual offering integrated with music in the way of the ancients.

September 14, 2013 from 10:30 AM-3 PM
The Spirit Keepers Circle:
Offerings from the Ancestors

In our circle Yxayotl (his Indigenous name) will offer ritual and cultural knowledge passed to him by Huicholes and Tepehuanes, elders with whom he lived for long periods sharing ceremonies and day-to-day living. Using authentic replicas of ancient instruments, he will show us how music, called up through the ages and intertwined with sacred tradition, opens the heart — and the portal between worlds. Join us for a special afternoon that will infuse your soul from the traditions of Native peoples of Mexico.

My indigenous name is "Yxayotl", which in Nahuatl means "tears." In 1977 during a peyote ceremony, an old shaman from the Huichol tribe, Don Jose Matsuwa, gave me that name. I was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico on December 28, 1952. I am proud to be a descendent of the Huicholes. During the 1970's, I decided to follow my dreams and to investigate and play the pre-Columbian music. My passion took me to the mountains of Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico where I lived with the Huicholes and Tepehuanes.

I participated in indigenous ceremonies and rituals, sharing their knowledge. With the experience and knowledge I acquired, and through the studies I did, I have become one of a few Mexican artists who are able to construct with my own hands instruments identical to the instruments used by the pre-Hispanic peoples. They are replicas of the instruments used by the Aztecs, Mayas, and other Indigenous nations from Mexico, and based on ancient manuscripts. The magic of my instruments is a faithful reproduction of the autochthonous musical instruments and the music is authentic and natural. — Yxayotl

For the last thirty years, Xavier Quierjas Yxayotl has dedicated himself to bringing traditional rhythms and ancient instruments back to life, all intertwined in the sacred ways of Indigenous Mexico. A few of his major accomplishments are: performing at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Rome, the Grammies and United Nations. He is a 7-time nominee for the Native American Music Awards. His teachings and music have been the subject of several PBS productions and his instruments were used in the movie “Apocalypto.” He has appeared across North America and Europe at Pow Wows, museums, universities, conferences and many other events.

Kurt Kaltreider
Native American Author

November 16, 3 PM
Talk and Book Signing: Are We Still Fully Human?

People living today have the same genetic structure as a Paleolithic person 100,000 years ago, yet we do not live in the pre-technology Paleolithic world. What was man like before civilization? Why are we so stressed? What did we lose shedding tribal society for a world we were not made to live in?

Kurt Kaltreider, Ph.D., is the author of American Indian Cultural Heroes and Teaching Tales and American Indian Prophecies. He is of Nanticoke, Cherokee, Lakota and Swiss-English descent. As a result of the erosion of traditional Indian cultures, he devotes himself full-time to the protection and support of the ways of his ancestors.

He graduated from Gettysburg College and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy and clinical psychology from the University of Tennessee. Kaltreider is a leading authority on mathematical value theory, or formal axiology, upon which he based a highly successful investment model, which he uses to explore human values.

Seed Wisdom:
Benefit for Grandmother Flordemayo's Seed Temple located in Estancia, New Mexico

The seed has a spirit, but it doesn't have a voice. We are giving the seeds a voice! — Flordemayo

The Seed Remembers, in every cell is the seed of everything. The Mystery of energy is the magic of a miracle. Mystery resolves itself. — Carl White Eagle Barnes, Cherokee Corn Elder

These events feature Grandmother Flordemayo with Seed Keepers Dianna Henry and Greg Schoen, both having worked closely with Carl Barnes and Flordemayo, offering opportunities to discover the esoteric knowledge contained within seeds and ways we can all protect our birthright of health and wellbeing related to food.

January 31, 2014 from 7:00-8:30 PM
The Chakaruna’s Offering Talk:
Seed Keeping: Honoring the Sacred Codes of Life

Flordemayo opens with her vision of the Seed Temple project and its status. Greg Schoen covers his work with Carl Barnes, sharing wisdom passed on to him by this Cherokee Elder from Oklahoma, with photos of unusual traditional varieties of corn and other crops. We journey "down the rabbit hole" with Greg's personal insights regarding: GMO crops, the relationship between seed genetics and spiritual knowledge, and the deeper meanings behind the practice of seed keeping. We end with a blessing by Flordemayo.

February 1, 2014 from 10:30 AM-3 PM
The Spirit Keepers Circle:
Opening and Caring For the Sacred Codes of the Seed

Flordemayo provides a ceremonial presence in our Spirit Keeper's Circle while Dianna Henry leads us through an experiential, intuitive process called "The Library." Participants learn how to receive impressions of the wisdom contained energetically in seed during meditative states. Greg Schoen later shares practical elements of heritage seed saving which includes selection, growing, maintaining purity and diversity, and networking with others through seed exchanges.

Flordemayo was born in the highlands of Central America and grew up in a family of traditional healers. At an early age, she was found to have the gift of Sight. Flordemayo's mother was a midwife and healer who taught her daughters in the use of herbs, women's medicine and how women are to honor and care for the Earth. When she was 4 years old, Flordemayo began learning the art of curanderismo in the traditional way: taught from mother to daughter, generation to generation. Her mother's guidance, both practical and spiritual, have helped to form who Flordemayo is today: a Curandera Espiritu — a healer of divine spirit. Flordemayo is deeply respected for her healing ability and wisdom. In addition to her involvement with other organizations, she is the founding Director and President of the Institute of Natural and Traditional Knowledge, based in New Mexico, and has been recognized by The International Congress of Traditional Medicine as the recipient of the Martin de la Cruz Award for Alternative Healing.

Dianna Snow Eagle Henry is the author of Whispering Ancestors: The Wisdom of Corn. The corn started calling to her in the late 70's and she became a Sacred Corn Carrier, unfolding her ancestral Native American-European roots. A lifelong organic gardener, she began to actually hear plants and seeds. The experience of these profound and instructive messages launched her awareness into the amazing world of Spiritual Gardening. Working with mentor, Carl White Eagle Barnes, thirty years in research, laboratory work, and preservation have culminated in a wealth of seed knowledge. Dianna lives near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Visit her website.

Since his youth, Greg Schoen has explored his interest in the natural world, been involved in horticulture, botany and ecology. Over more than twenty years, he acquired a useful body of knowledge of regional native botany and ecosystems through study of native plants and travel in the Southwest. Greg attained seeds from Carl Barnes in 1995 and grew them in New Mexico for several years. Through this process and mentorship by Carl, he found deeper insights into the spiritual nature of corn and our seed heritage as a whole. Greg committed himself to seed preservation and crop diversity — and its importance for humanity on many levels. He has documented his findings for Mother Earth News. Greg has a B.S. degree in Botany and an M.S. degree in Horticulture, and currently resides at the Southwest Sufi Community, in a rural setting near Silver City, New Mexico.

In this time of movement, where celestial doors have opened, we must do what we have been asked to do. We are standing in the movement and the vibration of a sacred prophecy. The prophecy tells us that consciousness is preparing the spirit of the feminine, the spirit of the grandmothers. It is in the prophecy that we shall walk into the light, united from the four directions. — Flordemayo

Maestra Laura Alonzo de Franklin
Curandera and Spiritual Healer

RESCHEDULED FOR MARCH 27, 2015
Check the Spirit Keepers Series for 2015 (available later in 2014) for details.
The Chakaruna’s Offering Talk:
The Medicine Is for Everyone

Maestra Laura Alonzo de Franklin offers an introductory plactica (heart-to-heart talk) about Curanderismo (Mexhika traditional healing) and RE-Membering our own medicine.

RESCHEDULED FOR MARCH 28, 2015
Check the Spirit Keepers Series for 2015 (available later in 2014) for details.
The Spirit Keepers Circle:
The Mexhika Medicine Wheel

Maestra Laura invites you to the Medicine Wheel, known as the Sacred Hoop, used by various Indigenous tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Sacred Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Heart — all which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life.

In this walk around the medicine wheel, participants will learn how to integrate the elements, food, body energy and symbolic color of each direction into their daily lives. Wear comfortable clothing, bring items you wish to share on a communal altar and an open heart.

Laura Alonzo de Franklin, LMSW, is a curandera, spiritual healer, community advocate and health promoter in New Mexico. An empath, intuitive and traditional healer, she uses clinical social work methods and evidence-based practices for the immigrant community, incarcerated Native American youth, homeless veterans, young mothers, hospice patients and those in addiction recovery. Much of her work focuses on susto (PTSD) in returning veterans.

Her evidence-based practices include: Indigenous ceremonies, placticas (heart-to-heart talks), temazcales (sweat lodges), prayer, meditation, herbal consultations, soul retrievals, PTSD ceremonies, transition/crossover ceremonies, land and home blessings, and energy work.

Cross-cultural spiritual practices are her expertise. She has been initiated into Mexhika, Aztec, Lipan Apache and Lakota traditions as a medicine woman.

To view information about past Spirit Keepers Series, visit the Spirit Keepers Series archives page.

Photos used with permission. All rights reserved.

Proceeds support Kenosis Spirit Keepers programs.

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Last updated 15 April 2014   |  © 2009-14 Kenosis Spirit Keepers