Chaco Canyon Journey - Sound Vistas

Casa Rinconada, built around 1100, is one of the largest of the kivas and they named it "great kiva in the southwest". Some say this central and magnificent creation was used for the community at large, as an important meeting place. A thousand years ago, this valley was the center of Anasazi life. The Anasazi worked very hard to sustain themselves here. The harder they worked, the more pleased were their gods. They were a small people, physically, judging by the size of the small doorways of their dwellings. And apparently didn't ride horses, but walked everywhere. Chaco Canyon was believed to have been a cultural and political center. Severe drought and overtaxed resources caused the Anasazi to drift away. They retreated to better water resources, leaving behind impressive evidence of their former influence over a vast territory.

AN EXPERIENCE
The sun is high overhead at 10:00AM as I walked inside Casa Rinconada. I sat in the center of this great kiva and close my eyes to attune to the atmosphere. As I lightly touched my drum, the energies in the kiva awaken and come alive. Patterns of sound evolve with rattle and drum. Three beats repeating loud then soft tones, and a dance begins. The hot sun beats down, the wind is still. There is a silent solitude. I saw images in my mind of the people of the earth opening up like parched crevices in the dry ground. I could feel the them moving in a circle, slowly, in rhythm with the drum beats. This place is a high ceremonial setting. I faced north, with my back to the sun, and looked up straight ahead to a keyhole design in the far wall. Steps in front of it lead you down, down... and force you into an almost kneeling position before you can walk up the other side of it, to a higher section of the room. It is a very humbling posture.

In the higher rooms, two people are creating another sacred circle, the boundaries established by small mounds of blue cornmeal and tobacco, ceremonial substances. They place clear quartz crystals and rocks into a circle design, with a cross design in the middle, then join hands over the circle. They face east and west. Charges of energy pass between them as they close their eyes and become attuned to this experience. A breeze comes...scarves flutter around the figures then swirling patterns of energy in spiral form extend from the crystals as they are activated. Then the ritual is complete, and the essence of the crystals is left as a gift in this temple...as the two people quietly move away. An offering has been made, no words were necessary.

I walked back through the desert with the sound of the drumming still within me. Sound is easily remembered when your body has resonated with it, as in the drumming. In essence, it is your own rhythm you are feeling. It feels wonderful, grounded, centered.

Walking up into the hills that surrounded the ruins of the canyon, I climbed higher,higher. I passed through openings in huge boulders hardly wide enough to squeeze through with my back pack. Rounding a corner of a dusty golden pink boulder I looked up high and see petroglyphs on the wall, stories of the journeys of the Anasazi. Along the sides are unusual and interesting rock formations I have not seen before: amorphic shapes that look as if they oozed out of the rocks...greenish colors, rust, iron colored rings. There are many fallen slabs leaned up against each other in threes, for some odd reason.

My hiking companion tells me if I experience fear during the climb, just remember to "ask Mother Earth to grab your feet, and feel that your feet are like roots into the ground".

A black raven sitting on a high rock catches my attention. We are locked eye to eye for a few timeless moments. Then he flies to me, tracing a figure eight infinity sign over my head, and flies off. It has been an incredible experience coming to this sacred place.