Durga

La Plaza in Santa Fe

Sittin' overlooking the plaza, sippin' a double americano and watching the crowd, people proverbialy pacing to and froe, Hanukkah celebration on the main stage, and other productions playing out on the broader: Kids [term used to denote young people or old of a certain disposition, and not specifically minors as such] swingin' herb and hash, and some kickin' the hack in a circle; couples walking arm in arm across the brick sidewalk wearing the Southwest style, beads and blankets and frills and more shinies than is most places the norm; yuppies bordering on hippie (or hippie-cum-yuppies); grandparents; Che and Mesuna with grandkids; mamas and papas toting tired little ones; old mystics with long gray hair and young ones with mohawks and twenty piercings or a set of knotty dreadlocks, all enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon on the plaza.

Earlier when I was waitin' for a couple grams of chocolate hash to show, three fellas were playin' Hanukkah songs by a bench, one squeezing an accordian, another on cello and one on hand drums. At least one was Hispanic and scarcely appeared of Hebrew descent, and another looked to be more an Italian than a Jew, perhaps indicative of the ecumenical magic of northeastern New Mexico, likewise exemplified in the plethora of religious communities hereabout, from whirling, spinning Suffis with a temple in Espanola, a mosque and madrasa in Abique, Amaji and Neem Karoli Baba and who knows how many other ashrams, buddhist stupas and monasteries of many faiths, communes of various dispositions and belief systems, and an interfaith foundation in the mountains above Taos called Lama. And of course there's kivas [ki, "anthill," -va "dwelling," Sanskrit] and teepees erected for ceremony and prayers at least a bit more native to this land [if bearing indices of sharings and connected lineages over time and space], sacred dances the earth here's felt in certain beats and rhythm for many, many moons, and songs resonate with the very mountains 'round.

Santa Fe's one of those towns don't fit a grid patterned spread, but circles and seems to spiral round the plaza, spreading into the foothills and o'er a greater span out onto the plains. Reminds me of the opening spoken word to a Midival Punditz tune: "If you’ve ever existed in grids or swerves you know that London swings, New York is a grid. Chicago swings. Bombay is a grid. Delhi swings..." And indeed the movement of more than people and cars in such towns and cities that ain't just squares and rectangles is a different thing than curvy circling wavy streets designating to whatever degree the flow and traffic patterns. To reduce these differences in types of towns or cities to taxonomized, essentialized and well-defined classification might be done, though's likely to miss the mark or present personal presumptions and perspective more than plain truth. Could be stastics compared to come to some conclusions, though could as easy represent other factors influences, such as curvy roads tend to be around hills and mountains and other geographic features, and grids on flat lands. Personally, I've not even figured out any direct correlations, though sense these nonetheless.

Anyhow, belows some photos of the scene, the set, stage and show . . .

namaste, and see

Reveries at the Aztec Cafe

So I'm sitting at the Aztec Cafe in Santa Fe, a coffeehouse was rather seminal in my transition from one paradigm to another, from Oklahoma preacher/University of Chicago grad student to wandering hippie-yogi-sadhu-freak. Upon my first venture hitchhiking, an endeavor I fashioned as a "pilgrimage" on the road, a leap of faith in no God in particular, an attempt to find out if trust in Divine providence and humanity was merited, I found my way to the Santa Fe International Hostel and the Aztec Cafe, and discovered a world I had not realized still existed. This was a door opened to the traveling hippie circuit, a world of post-modern gypsies and punks, Deadheads (just post-Grateful), dread-heads and mystics seekers of modern day America, something I had little clue had survived past the sixties and seventies.

After a mostly vegetarian Thanksgiving at the hostel, I spent my last five bucks at the Aztec, and encountered a collection of creative and exhuberant artists, traveling hippies and other colorful sorts, lively bohemian revolutionaries with hopes of transforming self and society. When I had set out from Oklahoma with my thumb extended in the middle of the night, less than two days previous, I had little clue that there were yet those with the impetus to explore outside of the norms of conventional propriety and societial norms. There were Rainbow hippie chicks braiding hemp, others plying pipes and beadwork, mohawks and dreadlocks and a mostly healthy community of self expressive individuals seeking some meaning beyond the thin veneer of American commercialism and capitalist desire, suburban malaise and conformist ways.

The license to freedom, and the encouragement of comrades to radical living, expanded consciousness, exploration of the realms of mind and spirit off limits by the standards of the world I had known. Here were people who had the strength to question the system, the desire for an experience of life unconstrained by conventional religion and social and economic expectations so heavily laid upon members of proper and conformist society. Though certainly there was some degree of dysfunction, something endemic to a society so seperated from nature and the ancient truths known to our ancestors, each and all, these were men and women of more than a couple of generations, young people and old, who were to some rather ecclectic degree united on continuing the sorts of change sought by the hippies and the beats, and revolutionaries of many ages and eras, and people endeavoring a creative and bold response to dysfunctions both societal and personal and familial.

I had encountered Deadheads in Oklahoma, as I would sometimes go to clubs in Norman where these ecstatic dancing freaky folk would cut loose to the vibes of cover bands, but especially in that part of the country, such people were a tiny minority in a sea of Bible-belt bullshit. Similarly in Laramie, closest to hometown I have known in this lifetime, there were a number of hippie--or as I called them at the time, "granolas," but had only come to the acquintance of these, again mostly through attending shows of cover bands at local bars. At the Aztec in those days, I found a concentration and concentrated version of the post-modern gypsie-hippie-freak world.

As I rolled into town last night, catching a ride from Antonito with an older hispanic man on his way to make deliveries towards Mexico (and I am assuming to return with other cargo), my first stop was to the Aztec. As I rounded the corner past the Cowgirl and started down Aztec Street, I was dismayed to see no light in the windows, and that as I approached the door, the sign noted this officially designated "Cutting Edge Art Space" is no longer open at night, indicated that at least to some degree, the scene has been subdued. Indeed, as with the first generation of hippies, things like family and economic necessity take hold, and seems only the die-hard maintain the full-blown ways and vibrance they knew in those wilder days. Nonetheless, these people continue to push society towards the transformation they sought whilst on the road, when young and youthfully excited at the newness of experiencing, the movement towards environmental sustainability, spiritual freedom and making life the artistic and exhuberant and wholistic experience it was meant to be has moved more mainstream than ever, and this movement was indeed given impetus from venues like the Aztec Cafe, coffeehouses having indeed always served as hotbeds of radical thinking, revolutionary spirit and transformational intention. And the young of today offer all the more promise.

Well, despite the limited hours of the Aztec Cafe on Aztec Street in Santa Fe, as I arrived this morning for my morning cup of black brew and a bagel (they were apparently out of the delightful almond croissants long my favorite), I saw many familiar faces, people I first met in those early days of my travels, and indeed they seem still of the same mind, if a bit older and some steeped in family life and even careers. And indeed, there is still plenty of impetus displayed towards seeing the changes and self-expressive, artistic spiritualistic exhuberant transformational means and modes I found so encouraging back in those days, the fall of 1996, and the beginnings of my personal pilgrimage to finding myself, and Self, Atman, the transformational seed of the Divine already extant in each and all, sometimes just needing a little attention and care to bear fruit, encouragement to grow and to manifest through each individually the beauty and power intrinsic to being and Being.

Maybe Columbus Found India After All: Traces of India Amongst American Indians (repost)

I promised some evidences of early colonization of America by ancient Indians/
"Hindus" (i.e., people of the Indian subcontinent, south Asia). By these evidences I intend to refute the theory generally held by academia and popular culture that Native Americans all came from north Asia across the Bearing Strait land bridge (as well as the Mormon myth that Native Americans were Hebrew--not to say no Hebrews or other Europeans, Asians, Africans or others ever ventured here before Columbus, just that most early colonists of the "Americas," or as this land was named by it's earlier colonists from India, "Patala," were either Hindu or north Asian).

Indeed, India had established ties with America long before Columbus, Leif Erickson, or even early Chinese explorers set foot on American shores.

One of the above ancient temples is in the Americas, and one is in India. Can you tell which is which?

Apache's call themselves "Inde," i.e., of the Indus Valley, Hindu, "Indian."

Apache people worship Yusn, lord of wealth, one of Siva's names is Jatin, and Siva is known as Lord of Wealth.

Pima god "Siuuhu," or "Sewa." Hindu god Siva.

Viriseva and Vairubai, names of male and female deities worshipped by natives of Northen Mexico. Seem likely to translate to "Lord Siva" ("vira"--"great," "eminent man"; "seva" phonetically close to "Siva")and "Bairavi" (one of Parvati's names, i.e., Siva's consort).

Nah-big, O'Odham (Arizona native tribe) word for water-siphon.
Nag-beg, Kashmiri term for water siphons named after water-serpent deity.

Vah-Mat, O'Odham word for snake.
Veh-Mar, Sanskrit, "poinonous snake."

Baboquivari mountains in southern Arizona, traditional name given by O'Odham people, and a source of much gold.
Baba-Kubera, Sanskrit, "father"-"god of riches and treasure."

Recall that the conquistador Coronado was seeking "Quivira," fabled city of gold. Obviously very much like the name of Hindu deity, "Kubera," again, a god of riches and treasure.

"Some tribes, such as the Huicholes in Central Mexico, even remember from what Indian seaport they left for America - Aramra in Gujarat. The Huicholes revere a part of the beach at the old Mexican seaport of San Blas, Nayarit, as Aramara, "Place of Origin of the Huicholes." Millenniums ago, Gujarat was called Jukhar. Juj-Kha is an O'Odham name for "Mexicans." The Navajos call them Nakaii (Nagas). The Apaches claim to be Inde (Indus People.) They worship Shiva as Yusn. In Sanskrit, Yishan = "Shiva." Apache = "Enemy" in O'Odham. In Sanskrit, Apachnan = "Destroyer." Another name of the Zunis ("Zoonyees") is Ashiwi (Azhuva?, "Way of the Serpent," in Sanskrit). Two of their principal deities are Shivani and Shiwanikoya. Zoonya (Zuni?) and Zeenya ware epithets of ancient Kashmir. According to Indian historian K. P. Chon, the Naga Azhuvas, perhaps the forefathers of the Zunis, were India's oldest ruling dynasty. He said that they ruled for more than a thousand years." (copied from Webpage, "Journey to Baboquivari, Gene Matlock explores the paths of ancient migrations," in the article, "The O'Odham, Native Americans with Ancestors from India?" link at end of post)

Deity's names are useful for finding still extant connections linguistically and culturally, as people generally are more careful to maintain the names of gods than other words. Also, words for the sun and moon often maintain their structure better than other common words.

Cherokee "Lucky Hunter" god, sometimes called first man: Kanati.
Sanskrit for hunter, kSAnta, etymologically quite close to Kanati.

Cherokee goddess of corn, Selu.
Sanskrit "selu" means many, a term oft associated with corn/grain/abundance.

Creek god called on for strength, Hayuya.
Sanskrit for "exhibiting strength," ojAya.

Creek Supreme God was Master of Breath.
Breath, pranayam, is the source of life-energy and is central in Yoga.

Choctaw deity, "Hashtahli," "sun completing it's cycle."
Sanskrit, "asta" setting sun, "li" end.

Cheyenne for "sun," Éše'he.
Again, Sanskrit "asti," setting sun and the direction to India from the Cheyenne lands.

Cheyenne for moon, "Taa'é-eše'he."
Sanskrit for particular full moon, "taiSa."

Aztecs.
Sanskrit, "Astika," faithful, one who believes in existence of God/another world.

"Kiva," round half-underground Hopi ceremonial houses.
Sanskrit "ki"--anthill, "va"--dwelling

Maya people.
Maya, hindu Goddess of illusion.

And of course the Swastika (not the tilted version of the Nazi's, mind you) is found from ancient Indus Valley seals to ancient Native American sights.


Most of the above examples were found by a simple comparison of Native American words with words meaning the same in Sanskrit I found in a Sanskrit lexicon, and from similar research done by others. I imagine I could go on for pages and pages with this stuff if I chose, and mind you, these etymological similarities are as strong as any touted by any PhD linguist. Indeed, there is ample evidence that people from ancient India--and very sophisticated peoples, at that--were the forebearers and ancestors of many Native American Tribes. Yet again, the official version of history and archeology is found quite wanting, if not outright in denial of obvious truths of human history.




http://www.vandemataram.com/html/diduknow/diduno-mexico.htm

http://www.viewzone.com/baboquivari.html


http://books.google.com/books?id=Eh1WHqo0JN8C&pg=PA530&lpg=PA530&dq=ancient+hindu+america&source=bl&ots=QyqtiTi6k-&sig=j3_M1nezgLoWXKDRDxBCS-wd3YA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result

http://www.viewzone.com/kokopeli.html

http://vedicempire.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=26

http://www.jansamachar.net/display.php3?id=&num=49&lang=English

http://books.google.com/books?id=Obgdz8auwkMC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=hindu+artifacts+in+america&source=web&ots=c44PyVw213&sig=SQpAOScDUw54XrWWibcIyGmtgL8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA53,M1