Mature Life Features

. . . anyone else feels,

but I’ve found that

growing old

has come at a very inconvenient time.

= = = = =

Taos Pueblo Houses Magic, Mysticism

Pueblo Indians carry a certain magic about life. They know about p’o (the moon), sip’ophe (the underworld) and ‘opa (everything). And, that song and the universe are one. They always have been one with the land, sensitive to its beauty. Their whole being is open to the glory of life in their valley. Indeed, the word “taos” means “place of red willows” in their native Tiwa tongue.

They believe all nature’s elements — the snow, the land, the sharp mountains, life itself — flow into their essence and make them look vibrant and purposeful, but act shy.

Silence is an important element in their nature. Solitude often is their way of communicating. To the stranger, they may not utter a word, yet one can feel a new force passing between you. Through hundreds of years, when bitter cold embraced the harsh landscape and there was almost no food to eat, Pueblo chiefs would go to the kivas, below-ground centers of religious ceremonies. The drums would start the chanting and accompany a dance whose steady cadence transported those present to the future when corn, wheat, and beans would once again be plentiful. Each generation learns that winter is only part of a cycle: that it will go away. The cold will go because the people in the pueblo command it to go, they say. They concentrate. Be the summer.

Be the warmth.

Author D.H. Lawrence sensed the area’s powerful natural force. “The moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning sunshine high over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul and I started to attend.”

For Pueblo Indians, the stillness helps them hear the energy of the universe. They see themselves as eternally knowing, part of the creation of the cosmos — secret knowledge given by their ancestors that should remain theirs alone. But it is their eyes that reveal the great sweep of life within them: the invisible fire.