What is Sacred?

JP: I have two questions: “What is Sacred?” and “What is, The Sacred?” If you ask a

shaman, “What is, Sacred? His or her answer might be very similar to the answer given

by a Quantum Physicist answering a question, what, created the world? And he or she

will say, Energy. Well, describe energy. “It can never be created or destroyed, it always

was, always has been, everything that ever existed always exists, it’s moving into form

through form and out of form” (Byrne 2006).

“Our tradition explains, sacred as having a form (An expansive form spiritually based).

The nature of the form is considered to have the essence of spiritual energy power force,

its past, present and future life force has no beginning and has no ending into the future.

Its form has vibrating energy existing in it’s own time/space framework. It transcends

from its time/space world through to the spiritual and mundane physical dimensions of

our reality. There is no beginning, is always present, its future assured and is believed to

have a specialized dual vibratory nature of positive and negative source energy (Parrish

2007). is also a place, person, and objects such as earth, stars, moon, sun, the universe,

especially Halley’s comet. The Sacred Natural phenomena such as lightning, wind,

clouds, weather, and fire, are considered to be, the

What is, The Sacred?

The second question, what is, “the sacred”? Ancient Kashaya tradition, answers that, in

this way. “The Sacred”, as interpreted, to be a number of forms that is inanimate or

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animate object/s including plants and animals, stones and rocks. “The Sacred”, is

believed to infused with duality explained to be of negative and/or positive power energy.

to have their power energy drawn from “Sacred”, The power/energy is considered to be

of a spiritual nature based on these definitions. It is explained to being a living entity,

equal to human, animal and plant life, though; with more destructive or benevolent force

energy. “The Sacred”, because it is a live vibrating power force, is believed to having a

sense of being alive. Due to having a power life force, it is aware of the use of the Great

Law of Reciprocity for the purpose of transcending through symbols for each, the

connection between our reality the spiritual world reality and us. Symbols are the

overarching connector between ourselves, the spirit world and that which is being

symbolized.

Otis: I think what you’ll find in the explanation is that the question, “What is sacred?”

will also address the second question, “What is the sacred?

The sacred in our cultures is defined through understanding processes of belief, and the

knowing of the many facets that make up the many cultural traditions and ritual

landscapes. The explanations given of the previous questions about sacred is elusive,

because of how the two languages in their separateness articulates reality and the spiritual

dimension.

When we speak of, “the Sacred”, there is a knowing perpetuated through the belief

system and through the physical articulation of spiritual teachings and the acting out of

ceremonials behavior. Ritual laws are the rules that control articulation of movement

through the patterned framework and its specialized systemic structure.

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Kashaya Dreamers, know through the flow of dreams, visions, and trances brought on by

their connection with the spirit world and their power sources positive thoughts. Love of

feelings, and allowing self into trances that only the sacred can produce through the

articulation of acting out within the rituals through the levels of spiritual transformations.

The sacred, produces feelings and undertakes to create an allowance in the human mind

to enter into levels of ecstasy caused by what is considered to be, “the sacred”. Sacred on

the other hand, is being within the realm that articulates the notions of knowing of and

adhering to the beliefs and feelings towards what is considered as phenomena and has a

timeless life span and is all encompassing of space and time. Spiritual laws are

somewhat different from social laws although they have an inter-connectedness about

them and it could be said they are the keepers of the status quo in our reality with regards

to, how human beings play out their lives in the reality to these spiritually based and

social controlling laws.

One of the most sacred of our laws, is what is described in the English language is

reciprocity. In my language it’s called (shayo?)/. It is to give with the knowing that,

there will be a response of like value, what ever that may be. It is, in another way, one

might express it as the law of attraction.

When one presents to, in the context of reality and in a spiritual context, it is for

attracting a like response from that to which one is presenting. “When I go to places to

gather food, medicinal, material resources I am required by the law of reciprocity, to

bestow respect upon and hold in reverence the plants or animals I am intending to

harvest. I accomplish that, by carrying out agreements culminated in the before world,

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which require me to perform the prayers, songs, and to gift food to feed the earth and that

which is being used, previous to harvesting those resources. It is because, those acts, are

spiritual performances that come under the purview of the law of reciprocity. The plants

or animals also are required by the same law to be glad to give up or allowed to be taken

as food or as medicine in response to the first act of giving for attracting a like value and

respond to the request”.

Reciprocity is a sacred act required of human beings for everything that is requested for

survival needs. The act is necessary for the continued balancing of the cosmos and the

world on which we are visitors and assigned as care takers/givers. To understand why

reciprocity is so sacred, we have to go back to this place we call the before world. We

have three worlds we believe in: The before world, the present world and then the after

world. Those worlds or dimensions, if you will, are all interconnected to form the sacred

circle through which our inner-spirit selves travel whenever we have completed our lives

in each world.

Reciprocity: The Law We Agreed To In the Before World

Reciprocity comes from an ancient account we have in our oral history. It says that, in

the before world there were plants, and animals, as well as all of the entities that we have

in this present and past times of human existence on this earth. We all existed together in

that place. And in that world, human beings were Kashaya people of whom I am

descended. Our language was spoken amongst all of the people of that world. We

communicated in our Kashaya language with each other.

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In the before world, everything in creation was set out in an ordered ad sequential

progression. During the time in the before world, the Coyote man creator (duwi?ca’pte

ya?) made the decision to put human beings on this earth. But, the creator didn’t want to

leave us by ourselves so he gathered everyone together for a big time meeting.

“So it was that Coyote man gathered everyone together and all of the families met and he

said to them, I am going to put the humans at the place where they will live. Everyone

else gathered here will be going with them. The Huckleberry people will go with them to

give them your berry food. You will give to them your medicine also so the humans will

not be sick and will have food to eat.

Leader of the Huckleberry people made a speech, “Yes, we will go. But, the humans will

have to do something for us, also. We will give to them our beautiful berries and our

strong medicine. But, we ask them to make ceremony and sing to us before they pick our

berries and gather our medicine”, leader of the Huckleberry people said.

All of a sudden, leader of the Bear People, Grizzly Woman jumped up and made a

speech. Our people have something to say too. The humans can’t take all of the berries.

They must leave some for us because those berries are our favorite food.

They are to sing our song, our peoples special song, and sing to the Huckleberry People,

before they can gather the berries. And if they don’t sing our song and don’t leave us

some of the berries we will eat the humans instead. We will always be watching during

picking time from the bushes.

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When Grizzly Woman said that, leader of the bird people stood and made a speech and

said, "Some of our people like to eat those berries also. I want to have the humans leave

some of the berries for our people and do the ceremonies for us too.

The speeches went along like that and so the humans finally decided to do all that the

other families asked of them. They begin to perform the ceremonies and sing those songs

that were requested. And from there on, humans have been required to perform

ceremonies by singing, reciting prayers and presenting food to the likes of the

huckleberry people, the fish people, the tree people and so on, who have things to give to

the humans for the humans welfare. This is the end”.

It is then the Great Law of Reciprocity began, carried to this day in the 21st century. We

connect with the natural world order through ancient sacred ceremonies to carry out the

great law that is so important to the welfare of the local ecology and to create for our

selves a peaceful coexistence with our local natural world. There is an ancient Kashaya

saying that says, “Be aware of how you walk over mother earth and amongst other before

world families, but more importantly how you step. Step into the natural world with deep

reverence and loving peace to show respect to that which has given you life”.

So now, in this 21st century when I go out to gather from the natural world I perform the

Great Law of Reciprocity and when I walk I step in deep reverence and loving peace

towards my relatives and mother earth out of the respect for myself and for mother earth.

It is, the way it was and that philosophy will be my life as I have learned it from the

ancient ones.

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We sing music to the natural world for our sustenance to carry out the Great Law of

Reciprocity. In the music, is the language that is as ancient as is the world before. The

old people reminded me that it is our language but it is so old that we have lost its means

and only continue to understand the meanings of the sounds of the music. Meanings are

embedded in the sound and in how its energy vibrations influences ones inner spirit to

dance bringing peace, love and reverence into our lives and the lives of those from which

we are taking from for our sustenance. Oh! The old ones were so wise.

A part of the Law of Reciprocity is learning to give, but as important is learning to

receive. An old Kashaya man once told me years ago that receiving and giving is like

swimming up stream as opposed to swimming down stream. Receiving something is like

swimming down stream. It’s easy. Giving though, is more difficult. It’s like swimming

up stream. It’s more difficult. One has to learn how to do that. Though swimming down

stream is easier there are safe ways to do that, so one has to learn how to do

That safely to enjoy it. He said, “That is what the Great Law of Reciprocity is about.”

As I have pondered this saying over the years I have come to learn that the truth is in the

act and how that act teaches one to go to the center of self to understand the ancient

wisdom.

The meanings that are embedded in our ancient wisdom of the philosophy of giving and

receiving are important because they teach and show us how to allow us to feel. We have

a difficult time in listening to our feelings and what they tell us. Our ancient elders have

taught us to allow ourselves to listen to our feelings so we can be in the full awareness of

the present. Feelings influence how we learn of ancient wisdom, so, we, who have

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learned about our ancient wisdoms, will give to the next generation of People From On

Top of the Land. These are sacred endeavors. Giving and receiving are, The Sacred, the

old people said.

Our tradition regulates how we think of the external world and in what we believe in

terms of expectations of those with whom we have communion. In our medicine world,

we are taught that our communion with the spirituality of self and external world is

considered to have sanctity. It is therefore is an answer of a condition to what is, The

Sacred. It is not so much to do with the communion per se; rather it is the manner in how

a communion is approached. Because of being “The Sacred” we approach a connection

for a communion with no expectations as was taught by the ancient elders. Expectations

on one hand, is believed to have a dual nature that consist of a positive and negative

nature. How one thinks of expectation is important because, in the healing arts there is

only one expectation and that is to have a person to exist in a healthy spiritually physical

body. In that process there is no room for anything other that to have a positive

expectation for an outcome in the process of healing. That expectation is a must for any

healing to occur therefore is the sacredness of the ancient ways.

So when we give or receive it is done in a special and sacred way, because of the nature

of the giving and receiving. Introduced into and as a part of those two processes is what

is considered to be the defined parameter of expectation. The parameter is defined by

belief. The belief is that, positive expectation will bringing something to completion. To

positively expect, is to bring into being what one expects to accomplish.

As an old shaman of my dads tribe once told me, “If you want something, think about it

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with a good feeling and expect it to happen with your belief that it will happen. Continue

to think about whatever is expected and your thoughts will bring it into being. That is the

healing way”.

In the process of carrying out the Great Law of Reciprocity there is a passing of the

sacred spirituality between people and the natural world. When you begin to act out the

great law, you must begin with good feeling and you will draw to you the positive energy

and power of those that make up the natural world. In carrying-out G.l.R. you are

influencing the energy and power to be attracted to you for use in a way that will benefit

the community and oneself. And in doing so, you are then returning like energy source

and will create a wonderful feeling about giving and receiving.

Ancient Kashaya wisdom proclaims, there will be a time you will practice carrying out

the giving and receiving to and from others the feeling emerging from the deepest part of

your beliefs and convictions to others. As that knowing occurs, that level of wonderful

feeling, in carrying out that endeavor is what eastern philosophy consider as arriving at

Nirvana. In our philosophy it is called (?amaqali: c’o? ghaba:maltow). Having appeared

into the Before World. Land beyond the clouds. It is acting out the sacredness of the

ancient wisdom through the explanations in our shamanic traditions that have continued

into the twenty first century.

Stepping Onto the Ancient Land:

It is in the before world where defining our symbiotic relationship we were to have with

our environment took place. We made our agreements with our relatives in how we must

as human beings relate to them when we were put here on our ancient land. The complex

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intertwinement and the intimate symbiotic relationship we have garnered in those

agreements created an intra-dependency that is continuing to this very day. We sing,

dance and offer prayers to the land we have stepped onto. We offer up our tribute to the

earth and those plants and animals that have sustained us for thousands of years. They in

turn give thanks to us for carrying out our part of the agreements for them.

Once we stepped onto our land we lost the ability to communicate with our relatives. We

are unable to converse with them as we did in the before world. As we settled on to the

land there was a great silence between us. The old elders explained, the silence exists

within the space between us. We will make the silent space between us and our relatives

hum with vitality and energy, they said.

It was then the first Dreamer and Visionary Healer was born. She was the one who

explained how the Coyote Creator gave her the explanation as she gathered the people to

tell of her dreams and visions.

She went on to explain that, when we left the before world the ability to communicate

with the natural world was taken from us. But she explained, the Coyote Creator, didn’t

leave the people without a way to communicate with the natural world. She went on to

explain, it was planned to have certain people who were true to the beliefs and traditions

to be given the gift of returning to the spirit world or the world before through use of the

spiritual gifts and also to be able to communicate with the natural world. It was planned

to be the Dreamers and Visionary Healers with the gift to communicate with the natural

world for the lay-people. That is the story that was given to me during my training.

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When I was still a young boy mother once said to a question I posed to her. “How did

the old people know what plant to use for different sicknesses”? Her reply was, “Nobody

told them, but the old ancient dreamers/healers (Yomtas) were the ones who, during their

healing ceremonies or during their spiritual dreams were taken into visions where they

were shown which plant or a combinations of plants to be given to a patient with

formulas and instructions in how to use certain plants for certain sicknesses. She said the

old powerful dreamers were given the information. They are the ones who taught us

about the medicines”.

They were instructed in the law of reciprocity for each plant and to understand the

special ceremonials and language of the natural world.

Mother was always taken aback of the suggestion by anthropologists when she heard

Indian people didn’t know how to make these medicines work, only through trial and

errors. That is not the way it happened was her statement.

People From on Top of the Land:

The account of how we came to the land is at a place that wa given to us after leaving the

before world. It is our second spiritual beginning and our human reality.

At the time of our appearance onto our aboriginal territory, we were given one place to

enter our land. Our ancient ones gave it a place name and it is in our language (mahta?

qha?bel?elli) Stepping Rock Place, s small island north of what today is known as

Stewarts Point. Another translation is “where the people first stepped onto the land or

Place of the steppi.00……ng stone. This where Coyote the Creator said we should first

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step onto our land. Then to verify that this place was to be forever sacred, every marine

resource our people use is found here at this place. Everything is in this place; abalone,

turbin snails small shell fish mussels two types of seaweed, se anemone, se urchins, bull

head fish, red cod, black cod, sea perch, two types of kelp we use; bull kelp and palm

kept chiton black and red type,

The last of the food is a small sea bug which in our language is called k’uthuthu a small

food that is an acquired taste. It has a strong taste but the after taste is wonderful. It is

often found embedded in the dried seaweed and is cooked along with the seaweed. It is

this small sea bug, through its taste the old people say is the reminder to the humans that

this is a sacred place when you accidently eat it.

Because of the sacred nature of the place the ancient ones have told there are certain rules

for each place that is considered sacred. Here at this site are, when harvesting foods at

that place one should never deficate on the beach or urinate there for is you do you are

showing disrespect to the sacred and what the Sacred is. Because of the sacredness of the

area all those food that reside there also have a sacredness about them and if you break

that rule the foods will leave and never return. Always arrive with ceremony, and make

prayers to the ocean and the place. Because that’s the way sacred is.

When we first came upon our land we were given a name. And that name is (?ams:

wina:bakheyachma) People From on Top of the Land. The name was given to us by the

Coyote Creator, at the time we stepped onto our land. It is because you will spread over

the mountains and will make your villages up there on the mountain tops, your first name

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will be, People From on Top of the Land, forever.

The future will know your descendants when they carry that name and when we die and

go to the other side your ancestors will know who you are, a member of a special people,

from a special place, with a special culture like no other. The Kashaya people will be the

culture who continues the ancient culture into the future as an example of how ancient

people behave to exemplify the ancient laws and rituals given to us in the before world.

BECOMING POMO LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

We have an account of how we became the present 7th Pomo language and how the

people became to be where we are geographically located.

One night after filling themselves with food, Crow, Raven and some other birds were

lying around a campfire getting ready to sleep for the night. Its colt along the coast at

night so lying near a fire at night is how they kept warm. The Coyote watched as night

came and the birds began to fall off to sleep. When Crow fell asleep, Coyote crawled

silently, looking over his shoulder all around making sure he was not seen. He crawled

up to the Crow after Crow started to snore and plucked seven tail feathers from the bird.

Afterwards he went down into his underground roundhouse and stood the feathers up in a

circle.

Afterwards he said to the feathers, become people and begin to speak. Nothing happened.

So he ran out side and faced the ocean and hollered “all of you feathers become people

and begin to speak! He ran down into the ceremonial house and waited, however nothing

happened.

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So he repeated it again but, again nothing happened. So he ran outside and did the same

thing again. He returned into the roundhouse again nothing happened. So this time he

did the same thing however, he didn’t run back into the roundhouse rather he waited

outside and waited until finally he began to hear people talking and laughing but they

were not speaking the same language. So he entered into the roundhouse and took each

of the people and said you will go to this place and each left the roundhouse. Finally, the

only one left was told to stay in this place and they were the Kashaya people. That is

why we speak a different language from each other but we are the same people because

the feathers came from the same bird. We are also known as the people of the Crow.

This is the end. “ma?u?e:mehphi”

Now when the Coyote built the roundhouse and did the first ceremony it was our first

spiritual ceremony. And that is the reason that Crow can be taught our language and that

it can be trained to speak.

There is a hill on the Sonoma Coast adjacent to highway 1, about a mile south of the

hamlet of Stewarts Point, which our people consider to be our first roundhouse built by

Coyote for the our People. White people named it, Medicine Hill.

Our Dreamer/Healers, went there to collect medicinal plants for healing ceremonies and

to act out the Law of Reciprocity performing ceremonials at that place. A short distance

south of Coyote Roundhouse is a spot where our dreamers danced before gathering

medicinal plants off of the hill. The reason for performing a dance ceremony was

because it’s a sacred spot related to Coyote roundhouse. When they danced there, the

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earth responded with a special sound. It’s sound is like a drum. Underneath of where

dancing occurred the earth responded to the ceremonial dancing with its sacred sound.

To our people it is known as the Sounding Place.

To the old people the Before World is a spiritual reality. We have a spiritual history as

well as a physical history. But, as it was explained to me, we have a spiritual history

before we had a physical history.

The spiritual world or in other words the world before is where medicine people return to

during their dream and vision state as well as being taken there during healing

ceremonies to advised by their spirit helpers.

Although the word sacred, in the English language is very difficult to define it is more

difficult to define our knowing of what sacred is in the cross-translation. Our definition

of sacred lies within the everyday cultural experiences and the experiences in acting out

behavior in relation to laws that govern how we learn, understand, believe, and put into

practice behavior, within which gives understanding of the special nature of certain

animate and inanimate objects that are believed, through known experiences, to be

imbued with separated, duel, positive and negative vibrating, energy force, understood to

come from our spiritual universe.

The old people told that in order to naturalize the destructive negative energy force you

must feed it with the food given in a ceremonial way, not unlike one feeds the grizzly

bear when hungry. If you feed that bear it will leave you alone, they said. That

destructive negative energy force is to the grizzly bear is to the hunger for human being.

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We do this so that destructive energy force doesn’t give us sickness or bring us bad luck.

It is to quiet its spirit. It’s so that it doesn’t communicate with us in a negative way. In

the end it is carrying out the Law of Reciprocity as has always been the responsibility of

the Kashaya people to act out that endeavor.

The positive part of the equation is requiring us to fulfill our agreements by carrying out

performances of certain ceremonials of respect to the Law of Reciprocity and the World

Before agreements. Why that is so, is because we consider it as our sacred duty and

obligation to perform those sacred ceremonies.

Relation to the Land;

Sacred Places:

The earth we know of is believed to be a living entity. Because it has a life force

endowed with a heartbeat and it is considered in our ancient tradition to be very sacred.

The known fact that the earth is sacred it has chosen to present to our people, places on

its surface these sacred places created for the benefit of the Kashaya people.

Our old Dreamer/Visionaries told us the earth has a living heart at its center as humans

do. It is from this sacred inner spiritual center vibrational, energy force immenats to the

surface which is where sacred places appear.

It is at these sacred places over the Kashaya territory where events occur that may be

unbelievable to an outsider, but to the insider things appear, or hair raising events occur

or specific kinds of feelings come over a person which may be of a negative or a positive

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nature.

Should that be of a negative nature that negativity may cause an accident, a death, or a

bad sickness may befall the sibling, a child of the person experiencing the event or even

to the point where the person may loose their mind.

In the positive though, the occurrence is milder and not life threatening. It is celebrated

and venerated as a sacred spiritual place. It is a place where healers go to be given songs

and ceremonials. It may also give to medicine people instruction for healing purposes

and visions for directing their communities. People go there to be able to tap into the

power source which exists in those places.

There are places in our mountains, our people go to, to get to the power energy. The

dreamers of our tribe have been going to these places for thousands of years. Places

where the earth has designated as sacred places for the benefit of our people. People go

to some of the special places for reflecting and for spiritual assistance. Prayers are

offered up and food offerings are brought; respect is offered up through the use of the

Law of Reciprocity. Power is manifested in a number of ways at these places. As an

example there are two places where the old people went to dance of special grounds to

communicate with and to listen to the resonating echos mother earth is sending in return.

One is at an old village site know in our language as Pohtol, or Place on top of the Red

Earth Place. The other is at the Coyotes Round house, south of the small hamlet of

Stewarts Point mentioned previously. They are places medicine people went to for

connecting with the spirit world and asking for assistance in healing and gathering

medicines, spirit dancing, offering sacred songs and waited for the voice of the spirit

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world that came through mother earth as the intramedeairy between our people and the

spiritual healing universe. Mother told me once, our doctors went there to perform spirit

dances, sing songs of reciprocity, and offer up spirit prayers. You can feel the energy at

those places when you are in the right place within yourself.

Taboo Rocks:

In our area we have what we call taboo rocks. Although all stones/rocks are considered

to have a nature of being in a context of a taboo that is the reason the old people warned,

one must not pick up stones or rocks for no reason at all. One must always have a

purpose for picking up a rock or a stone. It may be an unusual stone or a pretty rock or a

specific shaped one. That is because of the spirit power energy that is locked within each

one. Part of it is because life force and its placement on the earth that was not a hap-

hazard rather, it that has to do with the purpose and reason for being taken away from its

placement on the earth.

When a stone or a rock is taken away from its purposeful setting, it is taken away from its

home. It is taken away from its place of sacredness. The is the reason the old people tell

not to remove these stones and rocks from its place on the earth. If that is done bad luck

or sickness will occur to the person who has removed it from its place.

When one takes the action to remove it from its place there has to be a purpose or a

reason for the taking. One will then be provided by these living beings a satisfied

reciprocal calmness because intention of purpose and reasons is performing the Law of

Reciprocity.

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One the road out to the Sonoma Coast following the Warm Spring Creek at the eastern

border of Kashaya aboriginal territory at one time before the road was built there stood

two large rock outcroppings opposite each other on the banks of the creek. These two

outcropping rocks were known to manifest in the spiritual universe as the spirit of a large

stag deer and the feathered serpent.

The road followed an old trail leading from the valley to the coast used by Kashaya

people for hundreds of years. As the old people traveled over this part of the trail it was

mandatory to offer up, under the sites taboo laws, offering to the rock outcroppings under

the auspices of the Law of Reciprocity. When offerings were done it satisfied the law of

taboo for the site.

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