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Israel: Responses from the Circles
Call for Prayers
 
 

November 26, 2000
Workshops in Israel, scheduled for March 2001, and co-sponsored by TendingSacredCircles,
have been postponed due to the current difficulties in Israel. We will be inviting people to use this time, across the world, for focusing on peace in the Middle East. We invite everyone to send healing prayers to the Middle East.
--Carol Proudfoot-Edgar


March 30, 2001

On the evening of the Equinox, ten men gathered to send prayers and healing energy to the peoples and lands of Israel and Palestine. First we journeyed as a spirit canoe or giant bird, flying to Jerusalem to see what the Spirits wanted to show us. Our journeys emotionally grabbed us and left us troubled. Amidst the beauty of the land and the dreams of its peoples, we saw separation and hate and disillusionment. We returned confused and demoralized. From next door, we heard the rising anger of a father and the crying of his son. The neighbor's troubles punctuated our journeys, and
reminded us that what we were working with lives in all of us.

After hearing all the journeys, we wondered whether we even knew what to pray for.Thus our second journey asking Spirit to guide us in our response - to inform us as to why we were gathered. Again our journeys were diverse. Some saw the need for an extraction of hate, "yet it would take the size of a tornado". Others saw the darkness/the misunderstanding/the suspicion being drawn into a vortex - swallowed by the Earth. Some saw the need for
re-connection to the earth - connection to the land beyond collecting stones to throw. The last member to share offered the following, which seemed to hold both the sorrow and the hope of renewal.

"I open my minds eye, and this is what I'm shown. Troops and armored vehicles crisscross the deserts of the Middle East. War planes crisscross the sky. The drumbeat of the death machine is relentless.

Ancient monuments stand as reminders of what most of us have forgotten. I see the pyramids, the temples of the Nile, Babylon and Ur, Petra, Catal, Huyuk. Even in these places the world is mostly lifeless - lots of sand, few trees or plants, almost no animals except domesticated ones. The manmade world dominates - buildings and machines. Nature is in retreat.

I return to Ein Gedi, a beautiful oasis on the shores of the Dead Sea where lush plants grow amidst waterfalls in deep canyons. Here the wildlife of Biblical times has been reintroduced. They come now as teachers. They show
the qualities that have enabled them to survive and thrive in a harsh world, and which can help humans to achieve the elusive gift of peace. The leopard tells of leadership, the hawk of vision, and the ibex (a goat-like antelope) of agility.

Their message is bright and strong. It transcends discouragement. It is about BEING the answer, BEING the peace, BEING the oasis, carrying it in our hearts. Beyond hatred, beyond revenge, beyond the words which so quickly
divide us. Using sound, movement, imagery to unite. Action, not reaction. The passion of compassion. In our troubled world, there are many oases. As we nurture these places and learn of each other we weave pathways of green
and life returns to the desert." - Jim Berenholtz, 3/21/01

Jim's journey of an oasis scattered our despair and we sent the message of the leopard, hawk and ibex to the peoples of Israel and Palestine through song. Together we sang, HEE-nay ma-TOV, a traditional Hebrew song. We sang in the original Hebrew and then in the translated Arabic: "Sha-hi du, Sha hi du ma al ta fa". As we alternated languages, the meaning of the song took hold: "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to sit together."

We closed the evening by watching a slide show that highlighted the diverse beauty of the peoples and lands of Israel and Palestine.

Lanz Lowen
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March 16, 2001
March 20 Ceremony in Israel from Ziva Garbi

In March 20 we are planing to make a "pre - equinox" ceremony in which we'll celebrate the conjunction of the opposites and to reach thebalance and the harmony as without so within. In my journey I saw a real ritual of marriage between the opposites...Our circle decided, with much excitement, to do a real marriage ritual. It will be a long ritual because we are planing to make marriage between several opposites. Now we are working on bringing this idea into practice. Part of the ceremony will be healing for Israel, in which we'll sow seeds of peace. In this festival of fertility and birth we'll send our prayers for rebirth of peace here in this area.
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February 18, 2001
Lori Levine, Tucson Circle

The Tucson circle, with some visiting friends, did some journey/healing work for Israel February 11th. There was a strong sense of greater forces at work here, a bigger picture difficult to see, but that these forces were at work not only in Israel, but other situations and even personally. As a large family of Bears circle and enlighten Israel the message is clear: A fierceness and gentleness is needed to come to a place of peace. We are all connected, so embrace ways to spread hope and love; art, drumming, singing, dancing, praying. When someone's beat is different from yours, it is hard work to keep your vibrations flowing. What is required is to flexible and fluid, to get out of the head and into the heart. Listen to differences, to the elements and to the earth and let your heart expand. As the heart gets bigger and bigger the emanations are of connection and knowing we are all one. We will continue to send healing energy as we think of our family in Israel and Palestine.
Love,
Lori Levine
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February 13, 2001
from Lanz Lowen, Oakland CA

Dear Brothers,
On the Equinox, March 20th, a group of men are gathering to send prayers and healing energy to the peoples and land of the Middle East. We would like you to join us.

Some of us had originally planned to participate in a shamanic gathering to be held in Israel in late March, but given the recent deterioration in the peace process, this group is now calling on circles all over the world to take time to hold this part of the world in their hearts. In subsequent journeys, a few of us have been told that there is need for men to gather
with other men; that we have work to do; that the men of Israel and Palestine need our support.

The Equinox is a time of honoring opposites, the beauty of the whole, the dance of discovering balance. This is an opportune time for us to hold another part of the world close to us, to recognize our connections, to call forth the powers and wisdom that can bring healing and wholeness to all of us.

On the Equinox, we plan:

1. To journey as a group to the Holy Lands - to taste the beauty and spirit of this land, to feel what is in our Israeli and Palestinian brothers' hearts, to witness their fears and sorrows, to hold with them their hopes and aspirations.
2. To work shamanically and as a circle with what this brings up in ourselves. How do we as men become more whole How do we as men heal those parts of ourselves that have been wounded or have wounded others? How do we as men step into our destiny - to learn to hold up the sky?
3. To ceremonially drum and sing our love, our healing energy, and our prayers to the peoples and lands of the Middle East.

We will gather on Tuesday, March 20th at 6 p.m. at my house in the Oakland Hills. A light dinner will be provided. At 7 p.m, we will circle and begin our work (indoors). Weather permitting, we will hold our concluding ceremony
outdoors on the large deck behind my house.

Feel free to forward this message on to other men you know who are interested in shamanism and might join us in this healing work.

I look forward to circling with you. Blessings,

Lanz Lowen
LrLion@aol.com
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February 1, 2001
This is from Jean-Marc in France,
jean-marc.pouchelon@wanadoo.fr

Dear Carol,
I just come back from a journey with my PA to see what we could do for Israel and Palestine. Strangely we journeyed my PA and me to Jerusalem as crusaders did it some centuries ago : beginning in Paris, crossing north of Italy, Yugo-slavia, Istambul and getting down to Jerusalem. There, we met the town guardian spirit who is a tiger. I asked him what drumming circles could do to help him to bring peace in this region. In response he drew a Reiki symbol on the earth with his paw ( The one which amplify energy )

I understood ( for I am a Reiki practitian ) that we have to send energy to this land ( Reiki / prayers / drummings ...) being aware that its guardian spirit will use this energy to bring peace between peoples

On the 5th of February at 20.00 ( Paris hour ) our drumming circle will send energy for this land. I think that all around the world, drumming circles but also individuals would have to do so.

We will also send energy for the victims of earth quackes in Salvador and India


Love and blessings Jean-Marc
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January 31, 2001
The Tucson Bear Sisters

The Tucson Bear Sisters have drummed and journeyed several times in hopes of sending healing energy to the Israeli/Palistinian conflict. Our drumming seems to have sent strong energy to the areas of conflict. What I mean by that is during the drumming we all sensed Sprit being there and available and compassionate. I saw that there was strong energy available for warriors whose mission is peace and compromise. There is a sense that all involved need to look at the entire situation in a new way. Seeing it from the same points of view is an obstacle that cannot be overcome, as all have valid problems, worries, and needs. If a new view point could be established it would not only open up peace in Israel/Palistine, but could help many others in the world today. I saw that healing work by those inside Israel and by those outside the land itself is laying the fertile ground for peace in the future.

Much love, Lori Levine
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January 29, 2001
from Pat O'Malley, Chicago

Middle East Healing Ceremony
The following is the Ceremony Of Light and Healing that the Chicago Healing Circle has been given for Israel and the Middle East. This ceremony will take place as soon we receive the dirt from Ziva. We will probably hold this ceremony outdoors - perhaps at the Farm - so dress warmly.

Our intention was "What can we do to support the healing and Light in the Middle East?"

Our ceremony begins with a central blazing fire. This fire represents the Great Central Sun and its purpose is for purification and healing. Our Circle gathers around this fire and brings to it some dirt that has come from the Middle East.( Patty O has contacted Ziva Garbi for this dirt). The dirt represents the Middle East; the grieving Earth that has been holding all the pain of conflict and separation for millennia.

Our circle will clap our hands over this earth (dirt) to raise its energy, and bring as much of its beingness into our gathering, then we will throw the dirt into the fire, as a form of purification - a release from the pain, suffering, derision, violence and chaos. ( Our journeys indicated that much of that energy is present in the land itself - and is passed on energetically from generation to generation. It showed itself as a black "cloud" swirling over the land. )

We, next gather in a circle around a single feather - that shows itself to one of us and offers itself as sacrifice for this ceremony. Each woman in our circle holds another feather tied with a pink (symbolizing love) ribbon (Laura offered to get the ribbons). We circle around the central feather holding our ribboned feathers and gathering Love & Peace- sweeping that energy into the center. We continue to do this gathering of Peace & Love until all the energy has been gathered and absorbed into the single center feather. Then, as a symbol of the Phoenix - the bird which rises from the ashes - the central feather is sacrificed and burned in the fire.

After this purification and redefinition of the energy - we now proceed with opening the energy to accept a flow of peace and love. This is done by placing a heart in the center of our circle. Around this heart lies three symbols of the three religions that share the land in the Middle East. A symbol for Christianity, a symbol for Judaism, and a symbol for Islam ( Renee will bring these symbols). This is done as a way of allowing the flow of energy to crack open the hard shell of "possession" and ownership that is present and is seen as the parting of the seas - a pathway to the Sacred places- so that all my worship and honor their traditions in peace and harmony with all others. There is enough for all !

As we close our ceremony , we will write our prayers on paper and throw them into the fire, so that the rising smoke will carry our prayers to the wind and finally to the Guardians of the Land in the Middle East.

We will honor the mothers of the Middle East by sending our words of encouragement, support and love to Ziva Garbi so that she may share it with her circle of women (Ziva's e-mail address is drorg.@actcom.co.il)

And we will honor the fathers of the Middle East by sending our Peace Prayers to Yasser Arafat through James Twyman as he travels to the Middle East by writing a prayer for peace at www.emissaryoflight.com

With these things we honor and are grateful to the spirits and beings who have helped us and guided us toward a more peaceful existence for all on Earth.

Our next meeting will be on February 25 - Sunday at 10 am at Catherine Joseph's' home. She lives at 18628 Palmer Circle in Homewood. Her phone number is 647-0378.
with many blessings
In spirit,
Pat O'Malley
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January 25, 2001
from Ziva Garvi, Israel

January 24, 2001
Dear Sisters and Brothers !

I want to thank all of you for the prayers for peace, the drumming, the journeys and the shamanic healing that you are doing for us in Israel and for the people here in the Middle East. Yes, the strand of the giant web that is encircling the world is broken here in our area; there are injuries and it needs healing. Thank you my friends over the seas and in other lands, for your healing work. I can feel it comes from your hearts and it enters our hearts.

I have just returned back home after three days near the Sea of Galilee where I gave a workshop to teenagers in a kibbutz. The children brought joy to my heart on these days of tension before the election here in Israel which will take place on February 6. The workshop was in a big room with wide windows through which you can see the Sea of Galilee and the mountains which surround it. It was painful to see that the Sea is so dry and you can walk on ... the earth instead of "walking on water".

On Monday clouds covered the sky and rain began to fall. When I finished the work, I went to the shore and watched the upper water, joining the lower water, of the Sea of Galilee. I could feel the bottom of the lake and how it drank the drops of the rain ... every drop of rain is so precious here. When the rain began to be heavy, I came back to my car and sat there for a while. The drops of the rain fell on the windows with a monotonous sound like a drum ... the beats of the drops took me on a journey. My attention and intention in this journey was to meet a Power Animal for the Middle East.

I was taken to Oracle, Arizona ... and there I found myself walking on the Global Map that we made last spring on the sands. My feet took me through Africa to the Middle East and there I sat down. After a while I saw a Snake crawling slowly all over the place: at some point, he disappeared under the sand and then his head came out and slowly his whole long body appeared. He looked at me with his wide round hypnotic eyes, opened his mouth and said
"Psssssssssssss ... there is so much poison here all over this place. You the people in the Middle East need to transmute the poison into medicine....yes it will take time, it is a long process of healing and alchemy but only this will bring healing and rebirthing to this area."
Then his eyes began to cloud over, and he began to shed his skin. It took a long time and it was not easy for him to shed his skin. Slowly his skin came out, but not in one piece, as usually happens, but in many pieces. Then he was with no skin at all-it seemed for a while before a new skin began to cover his body. He opened his mouth and said in a low voice :
"You the people here in the Middle East have to shed your old skin and grow a new one. It will take time to shed the old skin which holds in it so many painful memories but this is the process of healing. The time between shedding the old skin and growing a new one is very delicate stage, you need to pay attention to this stage and take care. Look at me, I need to hide myself for a while in order not to be wounded."
When he finished talking he disappeared under the sand. The pieces of his shedding skin remained near me on the sand, it was a part of him that he gave me... Now while writing to you it came to me very strongly that two weeks ago one of my patients, who is working in a Zoo, brought me a skin of a Snake as a gift. She told me she believes it brings good luck.

I send to all of you many thanks and a big hug

Love Ziva
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January 24, 2001
Sent from: Gay Men’s Medicine Circle journeying for Israel and Palestine
January 21, 2001

Lament for the Middle East
Mountain Lion sheds tears over your lands-
The Blood that binds all beings together
flows in rivers-
May you fashion a sacred pipe
from the blood drenched rock-
A white bird sheds feathers of blessing over your lands

Spinning wheel of white fire emerges from my heart-
Soars through space and hovers over your lands
Spraying holy flames to the earth below-
Spraying holy flames to the blood drenched lands

The blood that binds all beings together flows in rivers-
Mountain Lion is weeping.

A Prayer for the Holy Land
We call upon Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery!
We ask that peace come to this holy place!
We ask that the people of this sacred land be protected and assisted!
We ask that the people of spirit be heard by the people of politics!
We ask that grandmothers and grandfathers no longer weep
over the graves of their children and grandchildren!
We ask that “meeting half way” occurs!
We ask that conflict be replaced by love and compassion!
This we ask and this we pray of the great Spirit!

Keep your heart open to the love, support and guidance that flows toward you.
You are not alone!

Please focus on the watering hole in the African plains—where for the temporary respite from thirst, all memory of atrocity or horror is suspended while life replenishes itself. The watering hole- an international city where all enter to refresh- as can Israel and Palestine—build a city for the Spirit of humanity to launch a greater consciousness and enter a common ground for the life of the Spirit.

Journey about peace in Israel and Palestine
Descent into the pain. No resistance. Grieve. Ask for help. Call on the center of light for teaching. Become the center- find compassion. Become the Earth. Become the Mother—not the mothers of the sons who are destroyed but the Mother Earth. She sees the eons pass. She is all compassion. She is all love. She remains centered in peace and love. We are all one with her, somewhere, some time. She knows that if the Earth is destroyed, she will remain, centered in love and compassion. This is her essence. From this place there can be no more destruction. Each of us is on this journey to this place.

The Shamans and circles there need to tone together using the note ŒB&Mac226; to stimulate the 7th chakra-spiritual energy. While doing this hold the image of a 3 sided pyramid- which starts out cracked and then is mended and made whole by the vibrations of the tone.


Your angels are dancing
Your spirit guides are dancing
Your power animals are dancing
Invite them in
Watch them
Listen to them
Dance!
Dance with your Family
Dance with your Friends
Dance with your Lovers
Dance with your strangers
Dance with your enemies
Dance!

(email sent by James Tryheart)
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January 18, 2001
Ziva Garbi. Israel

Since my last email the violence here has continued, every day was a shooting and/or bomb explosions. Last Thursday the bomb in the bus was exploded very near to our house. Carol do you remember the high buildings near our house? The explosion was there.

On the day after, on Friday evening, when the conflict .... seemed to be with no end and the politicians did not speak with each other, the TV showed a program called "A Dialogue Between Israelis and Arabic". The dialogue was with not many words, instead the drums were speaking... the beats of the drums connected the beats of the hearts of the people. On these days of violence here, the TV made a program about my drumming teacher who is working with Arabic in the Galilee. My teacher had asked me to join him with my Native American drums. So in this program you can see Laurie's drum with the Whale and dolphins and the drums you brought me, Carol, with the Horse, the Snakes and the Turtle. You were in my heart and soul while I spoke about the Shaman's drum, and the Spirit was with us while we drummed and sang. The director and the photographer are very sensitive people and they made this scene with much respect .

The process of making this program was very special, with no ego and with special atmosphere of working together as a team. The result was a wonderful program especially on these days of conflict... yes the drum can be a mediator ...when people are drumming together they "take their heads off" and for a while they let their hearts speak...the drum beats join the hearts' beats and we are becoming one ...

With beats of my heart I want to thank you and TSC for helping me to walk this path of Shamanism, it has changed my life ...

And Carol, again we are tune ...I was shivered when I read what you had written about the Circle in Jerusalem ...on the same days that we have prepared the program of the drums here in Israel you wrote to us:

"What does one call such unfazed joy and faith?
Call it our craziness even,
call it anything .
It is the life force in us
That will not let us die.
Even in war's hand
we fold the fingers up
and call them greens and
grow on them.
We hum our fingers upward
make them beaters and play our drums."

Love Ziva
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January 18, 2001
Ann Waterhouse/EagleHeart

our shamanic-healing circle sent some healing energy to the Middle East last night during our gathering. We drummed to create the circle/container then we called in the six directions, acknowledging the help from each of these corners. The circle felt very powerful. We sang some songs of connection and then we called friends/relatives into the circle with us who needed healing and support and remembrance. We then did some healing work for the sister of one of our members, we sent energy to El Salvador and then we did healing work for the Middle East.

We circle around our altar drumming energy (5 of us last night); we hold our intentions for peace in the Mid-East strongly in our hearts and minds. We feel the energy rising as we walk and drum. When we stopped we sang some songs of healing and then closed our circle.

Ann Waterhouse/EagleHeart
for Circle Tuesday
Madison, Wisconsin
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January 17, 2001
Susan Fredricks

I did journey for support for those in Israel, as well as the land torn and divided, and received this from the Spirit worlds:

"As one sees the heat vents from an erupting volcano, so too are the earth's hot spots, where the crust is thin and archetypal energies are active for centuries. This is one of these hot spots."

"When the doors open, one is to enter; it is a sign that the doors are closing at this time."
I waited and saw a white heat in the center of the hot spot,and watched and it became a white stone.and I heard:

"Tell her (Ziva Garbi): Out of the process, comes the white stone, the fruit of the process". "There will be 3 white stones coming out of the heat and eruption."

Much love to all thru this time,
Susan Fredricks
Box 272
Skagway,Alaska
99840
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January 17, 2001
Donna Henes, Urban Shaman

STREAMS OF CONSCIENCE:
CHANTS FOR PEACE*
CHANCE FOR PEACE

CHANT FOR PEACE THERE'S A CHANCE FOR PEACE FOR PEACE ON EARTH FOR PEACE ON EARTH FOR PEACE OF MIND THERE'S A CHANCE FOR PEACE THERE'SS A CHANCE FOR EARTH FOR PEACE ON EARTH FOR PEACE OF MIND FOR PEACE FOR A CHANCE FOR A CHANCE FOR PEACE FOR EARTH FOR PEACE FOR EARTH FOR US THERE'S A CHANCE STILL A CHANCE STILL A VERY GOOD CHANCE FOR PEACE FOR A CHANGE FOR A CHANCE FOR A CHANGE CHANT FOR CHANGE FOR PEACE FOR EARTH FOR PEACE ON EARTH FOR A CHANGE FOR A CHANCE FOR A PEACE OF MIND A PEACE ON EARTH A CHANCE FOR EARTH A CHANGE FOR A CHANCE A CHANT FOR A CHANGE FOR PEACE FOR PEACE ON EARTH STILL A CHANCE FOR PEACE STILL A CHANCE FOR EARTH STILL A CHANCE FOR PEACE STILL A CHANCE STILL A CHANCE FOR CHANGE


I have conducted this Chant for Peace with thousands and thousands of people in over 100 cities in 9 countries since 1980. At each gathering, I collect the prayers, hopes, and wishes of the participants which they inscribe on orange ribbons. In 1984 I delivered some of these peace messages to Jerusalem and placed them in the crevices of the Wailing Wall. May these dear and fervent Chants for Peace continue to radiate out and spread an energy of hope and possibility of a Chance for Peace to all peoples of the Middle East.

Donna Henes,
Urban Shaman
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January 16, 2001
Lenore Steinhardt

Reflections on healing - from a sister in Israel
As I think about the nature of healing the psyche, and its reverberations in the body, as I know it, the change to health is so so slow, and so subtle in its progress that one doesn't see it at all sometimes until suddenly it manifests in new form, as if it was always there but couldn't be available. Now, in a terrible time in the land I and my family and friends live in, healing seems so unattainable, that the only possible way I can think of it as an option for the future is in these slow, slow unnoticeable steps, that will add up and influence the healing that must happen.

**If we are all to regain health, mentally and physically and be able to get back to the love of this land in a way that all who live here can enjoy, and all those who visit can enjoy, it will be in a multitude of small small efforts, and so we will welcome all prayers and journeys and thoughts that contribute to this.

A large healing will come one day, suddenly, as if it was always there.

Love,
Lenore Steinhardt
Israel
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January 16, 2001
from Ilmara

Strengthening The Circle

I am working with morphogenetic fields to create sustainable balance in relationships. Recently, i set up a symbolic model of the Earth Family including the planet as mother, and all the creatures - animals of the land, creatures of the waters, trees and all that grows to sustain the system, and humans. All are to form a circle around the mother. the only group that started out not in alignment with the circle is the symbolic representation of humans - only a small portion were in the circle. The work is ongoing and the circle is getting stronger.

As corrections in the morphic fields are made, the corresponding corrections in the manifest world follow. I know this work is supportive of the call for help. And as each of us visualizes this circle, it adds to the solidification of the field.

May this day be a day of empowerment flowing to you and from you...,
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January 16, 2001
sent by Sherry Narens

The world is made of stories, and the stories we choose to tell are the stories we live.

This story was given to be shared for healing. It is a story which will be told by our grandchildren to our great grandchildren. It is a story about the Middle East. --

Many years long past, before all was as it was even yesterday and the day before, the Creator (already known by many names before the birth of humankind) called the beginnings of many great peoples into being, and these peoples came to be, each in their own turn, and in the place appointed.

And three of the greatest of these peoples found that the Creator had called them to the same land for their beginnings, and each cherished the land and lived upon it and with it and called it holy.

But over time these peoples became covetous of the land, each in their own way, and as time passed, covetousness became anger, and anger became rage and rage became destruction, and the peoples began more and more to look always back at their deep hurts, and less and less to look ahead to the possibility of joy. And as is the case in all of the worst of ancient fueds, none of the peoples was without blame, and none was without innocence, and in their innocence they nursed old wounds endlessly, and to their blame they plotted revenge, and new wounds made the memory of old wounds sharper, and the peoples continued to look back, and to dwell in the past.

And so it was for a great long age.

And there came a time at the Splitting of the Ages, when the wounds of the past had built to a roaring rage, and the peoples, even those who harbored the deepest rage, began to feel fear. And all the peoples of the world began to pray, each praying as their people prayed, and all praying to the Creator for help.

And so it happened that one night a dream came to all the peoples of the world, all dreaming together. And in this dream a wall had been built between the people and their memories, so that it was only possible to look forward. And each person looked, and they saw only this day, with its joys and its hopes and its possibilities and, yes, its wounds, but this day's wounds only. And in each dream, each person traveled to the holy places, and without the memory of pain they were able to see only the beauty of their shared roots, and they stood in awe, and looked at one another for the first time.

When they awoke, all the peoples trembled with the power of the dream. Each person remembered the dream vividly, and even though memory of the past had returned, the beauty of the present with its possibilities remained, like a filter through which the people looked at each element of their world. And as the people met one another in the street, or met their eyes across the barriers, it was clear that all had shared the dream of a time without the burdens of the past. At first a few and then many people began to feel their rage gradually transformed to sorrow, and the people, seeing for the first time what a life without rage might hold, became quiet and thoughtful.

And on that day people traveled to the holy places, and when they arrived they were still, in awe of the beauty of Spirit in their lives. And each person looked across at another person, and all knew that the roots of Spirit are deep, and where the roots grow as one, each branch is also part of the same One. And even though the people could now see the great sorrow each had caused in the other, they could also see the great beauty of their shared beginnings.

And the crowds of people began to smile and nod as their awareness grew, and their smiles grew until they laughed, and when all the people were laughing in joy at the power of the present, and laughing with regret at the folly of of the past, then they knew that a beginning had come.

And on that day of celebration, The Day The People Looked Away From The Past, on that day the healing began.
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January 11, 2001
Lanz's journey - sent in a letter to Ziva

Dear, Dear Ziva,
I've been meaning to write for so long, but wanted to journey and focus on Israel before doing so. I'm sorry its taken so long, but maybe I needed to wait.

I got your latest email and last night Blake and I watched your video of the beautiful land in which you live. This morning I sat in front of the large Balinese gong and began singing my prayers. I gonged and rattled and sang my prayers for you and your family and the people of Israel and Palestine. The praying got deeper and turtle came and I changed rattles so I could work with the sea (I used a sea turtle rattle and a rattle from Hawaii that brings sea snake energy). As I rattled and sang the prayers just came flowing.

Oh great ocean
Wondrous sea
Wash over the land
Of Galilee

Let their wounds be healed
Let their pain subside
Let their sorrow seep
Into the Holy Ground

Let the waves wash over them
Let the rains fall down and take their pain
Let their hearts be cleansed
So they begin again

Into mosques
Into synagogue
Into steepled temples
As they pray to God

Let their eyes be open
Let their hearts see
One people held by the Earth
Bathed by the Sea

Let peace emerge
In each our hearts
Let its light flood out
And lift us all

Oh Ziva, People of Israel
Oh Ziva, People of Palestine
Let love wash over you
Let peace breathe in this Holy Land

The prayers just kept washing over me and then a brightness appeared and the rattling became softer, but just as intense. I saw you and your circle in Israel and saw people in places all over the world sending love and prayers and the light grew brighter as we all breathed our love and blew the light toward the sacred land in which you live. And I had a knowing that the Middle East needs to be held and loved by many peoples all over the world; that there is tremendous power in peoples being in their own homeland and sending their love and light to Israel and Palestine; that there is learning needed by all of us how we can hold a land/people/prayer in our hearts and let our prayers encourage healing.

And then it was abruptly over, I was back in my body and thinking, "It's not safe to travel to Israel, but in March we must be with you as you work. That there are many of us that could set aside a day, that might come together in circles, that might create a web of love and light around the world to hold you in your work, to help you re-sow peace in this place we all hold in our hearts. That this would be supportive of you and your circle and your people, but also a great teacher for all of us in how we can be at each others' back as we sit in different places all over the world.

So I send this with love and blessings and for you to know that if your circle chooses to continue to plan your gathering that you might consider ways others from other lands could help hold you in your work.

Much love to you, your family, and all those you are working with. Lanz

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