Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Anima & Traditions In Western Herbalism’s

YEAR IN REVIEW

The past cycle of seasons has been as rewarding as challenging, with myself confronted with painful personal loss and humbling health issues as well as significant choices, with Kiva tripling her already prodigious output, with important new herbal insights and our responsibilities to a revitalizing herbal community.  2010 was yet another year of growth, working hard to keep a tight focus while still increasing the ways that we are able to teach, help and affect.  This meant the scaling back of some notable projects, and the development and launching of others.

For the first year I can remember, the Rio Frisco running through the Anima botanical sanctuary and retreat center failed to flood.  This made getting in and out to town over the seven river crossings much more certain, but is also an indicator of less overall precipitation.  The canyon continues its path of fervent rewilding even without the constant tending we once gave it, 32 years of fencing, reseeding, monitoring and inventorying.  We finally retired our U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service grant, that had helped pay for many of the indigenous plant species that we reintroduced.  What was once part of a denuded grazing allotment is now a sanctuary with a truly amazingly diverse number of medicinal herbs, attracting waterfowl, elk, mountain lion and bear.  We were surprised, in fact, to wander into a Forest Service office in search of topo maps, and discover among the various brochures one with a photo of our rewilded river right on the front!  Anima Sanctuary is the “poster-property” for the newest U.S.F.W.S. brochure about the Partners in Wildlife Program that we continue to be a part of.

There simply hasn’t been time to promote or host the usual round of small workshops at the sanctuary, no matter how powerful it can be to teach here in such an intense place.  Instead, our energy has gone in part to the further development of our herbal, nature awareness and herbal Anima Home Study Courses, with Kiva’s expanded Foundations of Western Herbalism series of courses expected to be released a few months from now.  These courses are way to majorly equip and inspire folks from afar, as was the successful multi media (including video) Energetics course of Kiva’s that John Gallagher and HerbMentor produced and released (for those of you who missed it, John expects to re-release it for another limited time later this year, stay tuned to the Herb Mentor Site).

The majority of our attention, of course, had gone to creating and producing the TWH Conference, tasks that begin with site logistics and contracting a year prior, and requiring at least a portion of our every day.  Work towards the 2011 event is predictable and practiced in comparison to 2010, when what seemed like an insane idea (launching a novel new event during the worst financial recession in 70 years) somehow coalesced into a rule-breaking, tradition boosting, spirit stirring experience for a sold-out crowd.  We were pleased and surprised to find that our sometimes unusual backgrounds and experiences were actually just what was needed to accomplish the range of things required, like Kiva’s holistic/wildlands/bioregional/steampunk brand of herbalism and the kinds of incredible people it curiously weaves together; her herbal knowledge, connections and expertise; even the hard edged and deeply felt experiences of troubled youth and childhood abuse contributing to her determination to encourage both healing and empowerment in others.  Like the earth-based nature awareness lessons Anima provides; my years of wildlands restoration as well as activism; my art and layout skills previously expended on painting to sell and fundraising t-shirts for government-harassed organizations I believe in; the now helpful observations made while giving 300+ presentations at other people’s conferences and rallies; even the concerts I organized and performed at as benefits for causes I supported, proving to be experience that TWHC needed… my multi media concerts/talks having been prophetically named the “Deep Ecology Medicine Shows.”   We’re thankful for the unexpected but undenaible “juju” that attracted the most amazing teachers and least typical participants from the get-go, for the evolving purpose of not only promoting herbal education but acting as a catalyst for a folk herbal revival.  (Go to www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org)

From out of the conference, rose the new magazine Plant Healer, featuring the same degree of diversity and depth, spunk and spice as the event, in-depth botanical and medicinal material balanced by activism and heartful story, interpreted with an artistic rebel sensibility.  There’s no way we would have added all the work such a magazine entails, if not for the wonderful way that it augments, expands and extends the spirit of the conference and continues its community building, information sharing mission.  The first 135 page, full color issue of Plant Healer has been made available in several digital formats to anyone subscribing, from high resolution files for printing to low res for those with slow servers, and even a 3-dimensional magazine format whose pages can be turned right there on the personal membership pages on the site.  Advertising is being accepted from only the most respected businesses and schools, and writers are encouraged to submit to any of its 16 different departments (www.PlantHealerMagazine.com).  For a free sample with short excerpts, photos and art, dowload the: Plant Healer Magazine Sample

To a luddite like myself, coproducing a digital publication is in some ways uncharacteristic and discomforting, my aesthetics calling out for real paper that can be touched and held.
This method is far more ecologically sustainable, however, requiring none of the virgin tree flesh that print copy does.  Text can be magnified for easy reading on screen, though the option remains to print out some or all of its pages.  Printed magazines of all kinds have been going out of business one after the other, coincidentally reducing the number of venues for our writings (in 1996 I was able to find 27 publications happy to print a total of 34 of my articles, in 2010 only 11 pieces of mine saw print, and in only 6 different magazines).  It is this trend towards online reading and pdf subscriptions that makes our websites, blogs, e-books and even this digital newsletter all the more crucial, and that led to our decision to release Plant Healer in pdf format.

Future books by us will in most cases be available in both digital and print versions, though elaborate full color versions may be sold as pdf’s only.  Next to be released will be the collection of my collection of essays with rural and bioregional sensibilities, a blend of backwoods wisdom, irreverent humor and sentiment, with seditious deep ecology and libertarian undertones.  It will titled “The Straight Shot” or “The Town That Waves” or some similar folksy lines not yet to be determined.   Next will be my historical novel The Medicine Bear, complete with herbalist and wise woman characters alongside real events surrounding the formulation of Aldo Leopold’s groundbreaking land ethic, Ben Lilly’s biblical bear hunting obsession, and Pancho Villa’s retaliatory raid on the United States town of Columbus with what were essentially Indian warriors!  Resolute will be expertly proofing both books over the coming months, with the hope of releasing them this Summer.

Anima teacher Loba will be releasing the first of many long awaited cookbooks beginning with one focused on wild foods, and Kiva will inevitable release an amazing book on herbalism if she can ever stop adding to her accumulating material long enough.  My first book for children, “I’m A Medicine Woman, Too!” has continued to sell as more people become aware of it and its lessons of empowerment and herbal medicine.

Our daughter Rhiannon, too, has been full of creative energy, a year filled with home studies that she voluntarily opts for, homestead tending and wild-girl play time.

It is Rhiannon, like the Summer swelling and flowering of the canyon, that may best define what we here are referring to when we talk about the meaning of accomplishment and satisfaction, and the best measure of our efforts and days… our gifts to the world, rooted in this giving earth.

We value your alliance, assistance and affection, and value the opportunity to be of service or inspiration to you.  Warmest regards throughout 2011, from all of us here.

-Jesse Wolf Hardin

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Sweet Tina signing on as an Anima Sponsor, and an unexpected first donation to our solar fund from dear ally Dio, both come just as we’re rewriting the description of our School economics and personal Sponsorships for the website.  Below you’ll find the new text, approximately as it will appear.  Read it if you’ve ever wondered how we can “afford” to do this work while living here in the remote wilds… only by both spending little and wisely, and welcoming the help of people like you.

The Gifting Cycle:
Anima Sponsorship and Alliance of Purpose

The Gifting Cycle is the Anima term for the necessary receiving and purposeful giving that is one of the most fundamental systems of the natural world.  It is the grass in essence giving of itself and its energies to the deer, the deer becoming a gift to the lion, and all giving to the soil when they die.  It is the exchange of gases between plant, animal and atmosphere.  The joy a parent gets from providing for a child, and the blessings that they in turn provide.

Donations and Sponsorships are gifts in the purest sense, neither disbursed as wages nor demanded in payment, forced by law nor required by convention… ideally helping make it possible for the recipients to give back to those who have helped them, while crucially increasing their ability to give to both earth and others.

The Economics of Anima School and Sanctuary

Anima School is not yet, nor may every be an official nonprofit organization, though it has largely functioned as one since its inception in the 1980’s… minus the tax advantages that such status might offer.  All services are provided regardless of any financial benefit to the School or its staff – for the intended purpose of healing both land and people – and with only a necessary, modest amount of economic support from grateful students and folk who strongly believe in the School’s mission.  Contributors can be sure any such donations go directly to the development and implementation of effective restoration and teaching projects, given that none of the directors/staff are paid wages at this time, much of the food consumed is wild and gathered, and the Anima property was fully paid for and secured thanks to 15 years of difficult payments.

Remaining and ongoing needs include annual land taxes, wilderness restoration costs such as tools and seeds, satellite internet service, website hosting, laptop and program upgrades, promotional printing costs and outreach, the self publication of Anima books and recorded materials, cooking fuel and solar system repair and improvement, as well as water system, guest cabin and vehicle maintenance.

Donations and Support

Anima School and Sanctuary subsists almost entirely on voluntary donations from students and participants, along with the vital support of a few, committed individual Sponsors.   Contributors are absolutely essential to the teaching, counsel and restoration work, with almost none of the hundred or more helpful magazine articles submitted and published each year receiving monetary compensation, and with none of the directors/instructors having any savings, insurance or supplementary incomes of any kind.  In addition, much of the Anima work is done for free, and nobody applying for courses or retreats or requesting counsel or books are ever turned away for lack of money.

Unlike with the vast majority of schools, every Anima book, blog, home study course, counsel session and retreat are available to anyone who can benefit regardless of their ability to contribute financially in turn.  The School sets a sliding scale donation amount for each service, to be determined by how much they personally value what they’re given, but also by their present economic situation.  What’s asked for is a commitment to eventually send at least the minimum donation – in installments of any size, or even in barter –  yet we serve a third of such folks without any compensation besides the satisfaction of doing all we can to inspire, assist and equip them for a more natural, meaningful, effective and actualized life.

It is because of this that our never plentiful Supporters have been so crucial, from our earliest and longest lasting aides and friends Nick and family to devoted Resolute, and both the smallest and the most recent of Sponsors.  And ongoing, nationwide economic stress has reduced the number of such Sponsors, making each commitment all that much more valuable to our efforts and shared aims.

Individual Sponsorships

Sponsors are private individuals pledged to assist with consistent donations, whether monthly, quarterly or annually… integral partners, further affecting the world through the Anima work that they personally support.   Regular contributions of any size make it much easier to plan the extent of our projects and limits of our budget, and help to avoid suspended service accounts that could really hurt our work.

You too can become a Sponsor, for as little as $50 per month.  This can be in the form of a simple, scheduled donation via PayPal or postal money order, or you can opt to sponsor and take part credit for the success of a specific project, such as:
• Paying for the publishing of any of the Anima manuscripts waiting to see print
• Covering a variety of onetime purchases such as an upgraded laptop, an improved solar system or a rain water catch and storage system, etc.
• Underwriting riparian restoration projects, including purchase of rare plant starters
• Assuming responsibility for a regular bill, such as for a mailing list service or Post Office box fees
• Arranging to provide any regularly needed service or product, from sponsoring ad placement in magazines to monthly shipments of fruit, organic meats or other needed foods
• Or covering specific emergency costs as needed, such as vehicle or computer repair, or even an unanticipated medical or dental expense

Those who have followed our evolution, know that Sponsors are what we used to call “Supporters,” the new term denoting the enabling of projects and events rather than merely “helping to hold up.”  Sponsorship is an opportunity and means for a purposeful alliance of intent, through which allies far and wide can feel good about working together to carry this meaningful work forward.  No matter how you make your income, an Anima Sponsorship is a way to transform some of your labors into the the products and services we offer, and thereby to the purposes of educating and inspiring, inciting and empowering, healing and helping.

There are many ways to assist, from much needed help with outreach to volunteer labor at the Anima Sanctuary, and a wide range of ways to contribute to the good of the world from teaching and the arts, to civil disobedience and resistance to injustices.  Some may at first glance appear more glamorous or exciting than a financial Sponsorship, and yet there can no contribution more valuable, versatile or timely than simple monetary donations, being both a means for – and the fuel and propellent for – nearly everything that Anima does.   There could be no blogs or books, magazine articles or Home Study courses, wildlife reintroduction or willow plantings without you… and your strong determination to give.

——–

If you are considering becoming a Sponsor, please download, fill out and return the

Sponsor Application

For more information or to read about current Anima Sponsors, go to the soon to be updated

Anima Website Support Page

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No Going Back: Viking Ships & Half-Hearted Swings

by Jesse Wolf Hardin (www.animacenter.org)

Wildness is ultra-expressive kids, unbowed women and unpaved nature, the irrepressible dandelion and the pet-scaring coyotes skulking within the city walls.  It is also a state where our needs take precedence over custom and schedule, where we are self defined rather than defined by other’s expectations… where we respond to our instincts and hearts, act to realize our hopes, live our wildest dreams.

While I didn’t think of it as such at the time, traipsing to New Mexico with hardly even the price of gas was surely a wild thing for me to do, a rejection of not only the normal, safe way of doing things but of the mindset that there is anything in the world an impassioned body cannot accomplish with the right balance of impassioned effort or inexplicable miracle or magic.  It was this that I drove my school bus camper home onto the land that became the Animá Sanctuary, across the fabled seven river crossings from a road and into what had once been a Mogollon Indian ceremonial center.  It was wildly unreasonable but true to heart for me to cover the earnest money required for my very earnest offer, by selling both my motorcycle and the engine out of our bus — the absolutely only other transportation that we had.

Years later I read about how ancient Viking warriors had disembarked on a raid of and English or other enclave, only to find themselves confronted by a much larger contingent of defenders.  The chiefs would on occasion set fire to their own ships’ sails rather than order a retreat, thereby ensuring that their men would give their all, guaranteeing there would be no “half-hearted swings.”  By then I had covered the bus with wooden cabin sides and trimmed it with a river-gazing porch, dressing if not totally concealing the metal form that had been both vehicle and home.  On the front I attached, for the general benefit of sentiment, history, my own gratification, and the curiosity of any guest to actually notice – a metal plaque embossed with an image of the Viking’s iconic shield-strapped vessel.  It is a reminder of the importance of taking risks in order to fully live the adventure of our life and purpose, whether that means selling everything to buy land, or renting a studio to teach dance, or writing blogs publicly telling the truth and struggle of your growth for the first time.  Daring to wildly stretch, grow, love and manifest, savor and celebrate

By the way, originally the word “viking” was a verb not a noun, and certainly not yet the generic term for a group of diverse and far flung Nordic tribes.  It was a verb, a word denoting action… meaning not to raid or plunder, but simply (and boldly) to venture.

To read a full detailed history of the founding and development of the Animá Center & Sanctuary, please go to the Archives list on the left side of this page and click on the Animá History heading under Teachings & Practice.  Thank you.

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People get very different impressions of Wolf, depending on their preconceptions and the circumstances under which they meet or read his work.  To back to the land types and conservative outdoorsman he is a Libertarian iconoclast, a throwback to another age and time who just happens to be a crazy tree hugger who consider the mountains his school and church.  Our more alternative friends and students tend to think of him as the rather psychic Intuitive and Counsel that he is, but manage to overlook his primitivist streak, or support for very non-liberal ideas like limited government and personal self defense.  Those living with him can attest that he is more of a warrior than his compassionate counsel would seem to indicate, and sweeter, gentler and funnier than his muscles or adament opinions might lead you to believe.  This picture of him was taken at age 5, at a time when it was trendy for photographers all over the U.S. to pose urban kids on groomed Shetland ponies (note that his legs were short and only extend halfway down the one-size-fits-all chaps).  Here you get a glimpse into the real Wolf, always ready to pay any price for adventure, and ready to break out of all restrictive conventions just like he broke out of the suburbs… mischievious and unreasonably happy, as he rides off into the sunset on his hero’s quest!

-Love, Kiva

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We’d like at this time to honor the passage of a dog.  You may be somewhat surprised, given our focus here on wild places, the rewilding of people, native plants and wild creatures big and small.  Ben Fun-Beast, as he was known by his hominid companion, held a special place in canyon history, being the only dog to be grandfathered (or “grand-dogged”) – exempted from the no-pets clause of our protective land use agreement.  His most-significant human was Van, the man who assumed ownership of 40 acres of this private inholding in the middle of the Gila National Forest when its activist residents moved on to other interests, and who spent a fortune in legal fees successfully preventing the primitive trail to the sanctuary from being designated and treated as a “public road.”  The no-pets clause has never been easy for us, as important as it is.  I admittedly ache for the company of free willed and blatantly sensuous felines even more than loyal-eyed canines, but for the first 30 years of my life I was seldom without a dog.  They would go with me everywhere I went, uncritical and understanding friends ready to share any madcap adventure or on-the-carpet cuddle.  Over time the species I picked were larger and wilder, moving from silly-sweet labs to quick witted Australian shepherds, then to a coyote cross that shredded furniture and howled in the night, and finally a pure bred wolf obtained from a breeder.  Only when my beloved wolf girl Loca was killed chasing rancher’s chickens, did I face what it was like to have to look to the un-pettable local wildlife for the affirmation and company that dogs had so long provided.  And only then, were we able to see what the canyon could be like without the deterrent factor of domestic animals.  It was after a bobcat ate my last and favorite cat (in heat, and only seeking his attentions) that the songbird and lizard population soared, ringtails began to inhabit the shed and treetop foxes gathered juniper berries into their mouths just outside our doors.  And likewise, it was after the tears for Loca had dried up from our eyes, that we were able to see deer and elk cavorting in the river, and hear the sexy midnight calls of returning mountain lions.

Even the scent of a dog along can be enough to dissuade not only lions but other creatures vital to a healthy wild ecosystem such as Van has helped us repair.  But that was the worst Ben Fun-Beast ever did, seldom barking, never chasing the deer, and actually helping the project by happily herding any cattle out of the canyon that managed to find their way past the protective river corridor fences.

While Van is only actually here a number of days each year, the soul stirring land has had a profound affect on him, awakening a spiritual sensibility and bringing emotions to the fore, inspiring a sense of commitment and purpose.  Ben, in his own way, also had a transformative affect, showing his man that it’s alright to lighten up and encouraging him to play… and, yes, teaching him better than any person ever could have, what it is like to really love.  For that and more, we honor here Ben the irreplaceable.

-Wolf & All

(photo of wild wolf track in the canyon (c) 2008 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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Mud Slips & River Whims – Post Flood Ecology

By Jesse Wolf Hardin

(www.animacenter.org)

The canyon and most of the Southwest was hit by a short but particularly violent storm last weekend (October 11th and 12th, 2008).   The ground was lashed by a tumult of rain and sleet, moisture spun off by a tropical storm that had hit the gulf coast of the United States earlier.  Usually the ground soaks up a substantial amount of rainfall, before it becomes so soaked that it can take more and the water races down well worn gullies to the so far insatiable river.  It is rare in my experience for the ground to be essentially dry at the onset of a storm, yet have so many inches of rain fall that it immediately begins running off across the whole of every surface.  One result in what we call sheet erosion, stripping away an inordinate amount of soil.  Not only the sandy composite, which is always the first to go, but also banks of clay that are pulled down the hill and deposited in thick layers at the canyon bottom.  The river both swelled and then shrunk again quickly, darkening not to the more typical reddish brown but to the slick gray sheen of a potter’s clay slip.

Whenever the river overflows its banks, things change.  Some are partly predictable, like the way fallen trees or rock outcroppings result in curving meanders, or that a flash event carves steep vertical cuts in the banks in the places where we depend on our jeep to cross.  Just as often there are surprises, such as one flood scooping out a 15′ deep hole that we do high dives into from 20′ up the cliffs, then another flood 3 months later turning the same bend into a sandy beach ready for a family picnic.  The flood last Spring deposited so much sand that we were surprised the plantlife could grow back so vigorously this Summer, but this most recent surge left us with large amounts of the ultra slick clay instead – the same material that the ancient Mogollon peoples used to make the bowl whose pieces we still find scattered on the ground.  And not even the mud has been consistent.  The area by the first crossing where we park our road car is usually impassable without four wheel drive after a good storm, but within two days was uncharacteristically dry.  The 7th crossing coming in still features a 2′ deep mud bog on one side after a full week of sunshine.  Oddly enough though, the crossing itself changed from loose sand that was hard to drive through, to being rocky and firm, and the far bank that was a steep wall of fine loose sand is now a gentle and easy slope.

Van, who own ands manages half of our 80 acre inholding, has made a study of stream and river morphology and dynamics, and a business of their restoration and repair.  Two or more times a year he arrganges for groups of volunteers from the Sky Island Alliance to gather here and do work on the Sanctuary.  He will be pleased to know that the berms they built this Summer on the trail in did a great job of diverting runnoff into forested areas that could capture the soil, and their rock berms also held more water long enough for it to penetrate into the ground where it is needed by the new growth’s thirsty roots.  A thank you goes out to everyone who has ever helped with the restoration work here, from us and every life form better able to thrive because of these efforts.

These periodic high water events point to the value of our understanding and actions down here.  They also remind us of the folly of imagining we can ever fully comprehend and predict a river’s course… remind us of the ultimately fortunate impossibility of ever controlling the wild nature that determines its roar and trickle, ebb and flow.

(To volunteer here, write us.  Please consider offering your time to Sky Island as well, by going to: http://www.skyislandalliance.org/volunteer.htm    ….and feel free to send this article to others)

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Health issues are just one thing that brings to mind the value of prevention and the preciousness of life, as well as the fact of our mortal spans… and the vital importance of preparing for the Center’s land, its ecological well being and archaeological integrity, the legacy of the ancient ones and the lessons that have come to be known as Animá – insights and tools that will be ever more important in the coming decades of overpopulation, personal desensitizing and dumbing down, political repression, and a culture that is in dire danger of devolving into tasteless diversion and superficial pabulum. Never will the tools – of self knowledge and awareness, compassion and passionate response, self confidence and sense of interconnection, natural being and the natural world – be more essential or timely for our kind… and never will what human kind does have more definitively impacted the rest of creation. And those who follow will be able to say, that never was it so vital that there still be wild healthful places like the Canyon for the plants and animals that remain, or that there be places of power such as the Animá Center where they can go to rediscover, restore and redirect their selves.

To this end, it is our intention to find a pro-bono lawyer to assist us with setting up a nonprofit land trust, to preserve the teaching center as well as the biota. Any and all suggestions are welcomed in this regard, as we need a defense against what will surely be future pressures from developers, road builders, litigation, and intrusive legislation. Secondly, there is need for successive generations of folks as inspired by this place and purpose as we, including an expanding circle of allies, supporters and teachers who carry the effort forward in their own states, countries, and time. Our Animá Guide apprenticeships are for just that, preparing students to effectively teach in their own voice and own ways, from their own experience and moral center. And we will also have to make room in the Canyon for additional lifetime Canyon residents of all ages including the very young. This work was not meant to done alone, though we have to do it as though and even if were were to do it by ourselves always. It is meant that each caring resident or guardian help monitor the intentions, methods and results, each person doing their best to ensure that the crucial founding principals are honored through any of the Center’s inevitable changes in form. Each would ensure that the others can see beyond their own fears and needs, and do not neglect or dilute the integrity of this mission and land. Each would have varying personal gifts, that would make their contribution unique, and work in concert with others to advance and deepen. And one or more could abandon or betray this, or unexpectedly sicken or die, with their still being others “holding place,” and keeping things going. It would be a terrible mistake for anyone here to ever imagine we don’t need help, or to fail to not only tend the present but prepare for the future.

Any future residents of the Canyon will likely be drawn from our student and apprenticeship programs, with one of the most important qualifications being that no place else can satisfy or fulfill them, that they feel most their selves when here, and carry the Canyon in their hearts when away… that when they do go for however long and for whatever reasons, they ache to return. The second most important qualification will be their ability to devote. The myriad other requirements can mostly be learned, including awareness, discernment, teaching techniques and homesteading skills. The deep ways they feel, their insistence on bettering themselves and their world, the things they have suffered as well as learned, even their sense of loneliness or frustrations with aspects of society will prove to have been significant preparation for the huge role they assume here.

So it was with me, I can see as I look back. What had once seemed like wrong-headed choices or unnecessary diversions, appear essential in hindsight. I thought my childhood years in military school were wasted, though the teachers allowed me to advance as fast as I wanted and basically showed me that I didn’t need school (only desire, intuition and books) in order to learn; the conformism showed me the absurdity and artlessness of uniformity; the inequality inherent in militarism convinced me that all real authority derives from our selves and the permission we give ourselves to determine and act on what’s right; the tears of the children shamed by their parents for losing to me in spelling bees and shooting matches, helped turn me off to glory at the expense of others. Running away from home and school at 14 long seemed like a mistake, but being on the streets showed me the underside of our economy and the social unfairness, prejudice and police brutality that I would never have known in my suburban cocoon. I could not communicate with so many kinds of people, if not for the time spent traveling, nor could I have kept my commitment to stay here even without friends or a lover, if I had not already won and lost many loves, and realized that others can and should never be the sole source of our satisfaction or our sole reason for being. Even being beat on by druggie biker thugs resulted in my developing an attitude and skills that I needed twenty years later when defending the canyon from threats of violence. The disturbing dreams and arresting visions that once made me feel a little crazy, were indeed the signs and omens that led me home.

Some guests talk about complex challenges and situations in their life that they are ready to change, others can express only a general desire to reconnect with the canyon that nonetheless speaks of something primary, sincere and deep, and it is partly for them that both I, my associates and this place itself exist. And in truth, there is nothing else I want to be doing, besides what I already am – only more so – reaching, stirring, awakening, informing, helping heal and empower ever more people… while necessarily establishing a lasting lineage of Canyon caretakership, continued learning, deep feeling, radical envisioning and insistent doing equal to the greatest individual efforts and shared missions in all of history. Animá was never just an idea, nor only a piece of land. All the magic around it would seem to indicate that what I knew in my heart upon first putting my name on the contract to buy it… that it is meant to be an evolving tradition that lasts so long as there is even a fractional minority seeking out a more real and realized existence, and a place honored and protected not just for a lifetime, but forever. Such is the future we plant our seeds for, grown in the rich ground of our histories, fed in the now by our ceaseless helpful efforts, watered with tears and laughter, rivers of love.

—–finis—–

Your involvement is appreciated, your comments always welcomed.

The Animá Center Website: www.animacenter.org

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Even before Kiva and Loba, the Center depended on more than myself for its survival – as a wild place, and a place of teaching. Names pop to mind like John, Gena, Redtail and Ron, who each in their own way and time contributed to paying for the land. And then there were those others who gave in order to help further our message and programs, once I got over my pride and started accepting financial help towards this work. The director of the Kingsley School for troubled youth near Washington D.C., Jim O’Connor, brought some of his charges out to the Center for counsel after watching my presentations, performances and workshops for several years. It was he who made the first donation, after insisting it was hard-headed of me to refuse help when my life was dedicated to helping others. And it was Jim who introduced us to our second ever – and now longest lasting – supporters, our dear friends the Nick Morgan family. There have been numerous people since, some of whom gave regularly for a matter of months or years, others who gifted us only once but at a special time when we really needed it to cover some unexpected expense. There was a long period where we would likely have had to do without internet, the composting latrine, even a running vehicle, without Glenn Henderson. Now Shay’s fervent support is proving invaluable, moving us forward with self publishing as well as trying to assist with every other of the Center’s needs. It’s is only because others give, that we have been able to restore this land and offer these services without ever insisting on payment for anything that we do. (This photo shows some of the rock borders I first put up near the cabins, which immediately began to collect new soil and seed… a first step in the greening of the Canyon.)

The intuitive explorations, clarifications, perceptual tools and counsel for action that arose during hundreds of teaching and counsel sessions, were organized in the late 1990’s into the book we now call The Way Of Animá. For any of you who don’t know, these short sections and aphorisms were arranged by topic, so that one could turn to a particular subject relating to their personal quandary or inquiry, such as Trust & Discernment, Love & Self Love, Honor & Integrity, Illness & Death, and Finding Purpose. By 2000, a lifetime of understandings had begun to coalesce into a cohesive holistic way of thinking, being and living. Then in the Winter of 2005, with the excited encouragement and awesome assistance of Kiva Rose, Animá was launched as an effective organized system, school and tradition. The accent over the “A,” by the way, was meant to help with pronunciation, but also to distinguish the teaching from the general term, the archaic or even Freudian lower-case anima. For any who might be unfamiliar with it, you can read detailed definitions in the materials and essays on the Animá site.

With the change in name, came an increase and shift in events, with each more focused and filling a different need, as well as a new expanded website with far more resources, and eventually our blogs. Most important of all may be the developing of comprehensive Animá Correspondence Courses, for the first time making it possible for people anywhere to work closely with us without having to necessarily ever come here. The Path Of Heart is built around self exploration, self-nourishment/self-love and finding one’s purpose in life, for both men or women. The Shaman Path is also for anyone, regardless of gender, who wants to intensely develop their awareness and other abilities, vision and wisdom, purpose and power. The Medicine Woman Core Path is similar to the Shaman Path, only with healing intent and practice as its foundation, and the Medicine Woman Herbal Path puts additional emphasis on healing with plants. We expect it to take at least another two years before all the curricula, readings, questions and assignments/practices are complete, with the most advanced students now driving the pace of their development.

The Medicine Woman Tradition has become an integral element of and vehicle for sharing the broader implications and benefits of Animá, and is mostly thanks to Kiva Rose’s passionate studies, experience and effort. As of 2006 we have included the Tradition in our name, and feature it on the opening page of our website, reflecting its increasing relevance and importance. No other healing system or modality so clearly bridges personal physical healing with taking responsibility for helping heal and even co-create our world. The first complete Medicine Woman book is hoped to be finished by 2009, and its early chapters have already been praised by the healers and visionaries we respect the most.

In 2007 Kiva prepared a grant with Denise Smith of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Partners In Wildlife program, the same program that had funded the building of a cattle-exclusion fence all around the property several years before. The grant reimburses us for any plants, seeds, tools and so forth needed for the further improvement of Animá Center property as wildlife habitat. Plant species have been selected that provide fodder for the local wild animals, but also for their ability to stabilize the river banks, or because simply because they are native types that were once here and should be here again to restore the overall balance. She has also taken it upon herself to reintroduce native plant medicines, species that besides serving the ecosystem, also have known medicinal uses. We’ve since joined the important United Plant Savers organization (www.unitedplantsavers.org) in support of their efforts to halt the plant extinctions and promote ecologically sustainable harvesting.

Two things have made it harder, rather than easier for us to outreach. One is that a large number of nature/ecology, self help and spirituality print publications have shut their doors in the past few years, reducing the number of venues for our articles and event promo. The other, is that the increase in spam resulted in many people installing spam filters that filtered out any announcements from “mail@” addresses. It was this fact that drove us to stop sending out group emails, and to establish our two blogs for notices instead. The result is a greater dependence on you forwarding our announcements and posting our flyers, and encouraging your friends to check out our opportunities. It seems entirely appropriate, however, that our effectiveness hinge on the active participation of what is a growing and diversifying Animá community.

Fascinating to us, are the ways in which Animá students and alumni are also staying directly in touch with each other, forming alliances, working groups and discussion circles, and thus re-creating a tribal (intimate, devoted, with shared values, purpose and work) community of folks living as far away as New Zealand. More and more they are finding others to do activism and healing with, to go on nature walks and enjoy the many simple, fine things in life.

One thing that donations don’t cover – and perhaps never will – is medical and dental expenses for the Center’s residents. We each committed to this place and mission with full knowledge that we would be without health insurance, and that we would be relying on natural forms of healing to survive to a natural old age. My liver condition has appeared as one of the most serious challenges so far, affecting my sleep, with anything that is stressful (from urban shopping center crowds to worry over not doing all we can to alleviate some personal or global ailment) making the symptoms worse. I, who have defined myself my doing the seemingly impossible for so long, have learned from the condition how to calm and pace myself, to expect a little less and rest a little more… things I could well have benefited by when I first came here nearly three decades ago.

(To be continued)

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Starting in 1985, my time away from the Canyon involved not only raising land payment money, but also passing on to others what it so generously and adamantly taught. From California to Vermont, I put on over 250 shows, combining spoken word presentation with live music. Most often we would begin with a blessing by a local indigenous elder, then move through pieces that evoked moods as well as presented ideas, and into heavy rhythm numbers where my hand drums set the crowds to dancing. Bands that backed me up ranged from high dollar professionals to busking street musicians, and I adapted my message and tone to work with diverse styles. One night I might perform with a country western band, followed by several shows with a blues-rock band, and then a weekend of cool reggae. At certain conferences or campuses I would give a non-musical presentation, alongside firebrands like Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Snyder, David Brower and Winona LaDuke , other times with the musical accompaniment of the likes of African drummer Baba Olatungi, all male rockers Little Women, the women’s band Joyful Noise, California’s Joanne Rand, folky heart-throb Dana Lyons and the baritone mountain man Walkin’ Jim Stoltz. Always we donated much of the proceeds to whatever local cause we supported, from habitat preservation groups to those organizing for local community autonomy… and my remaining share went to paying Emil, the seller of our Sanctuary. The greatest reward, nonetheless, came not in dollars but smiles and tears, hugs and applause, the gratitude of people who felt moved to re-embrace the vitality of their lives, to join in common cause with others of shared values, to honor instead of conceal their love for natural places and more natural ways of being. The Canyon was speaking, inspiring and healing, far from its river’s shores.

The problem was that the more I was in demand, the more I found myself away from the place that informed, nourished and sustained me, from the place where every insight and tool I taught seemed to arise. Given how much I talked on stage about relationship with the land, I began to feel hypocritical – almost like a speaker on the topic of marital bliss, who is seldom home to tend to his marriage. Realistically, I was not being disingenuous by traveling to teach, but life was certainly getting out of balance, with there being more days where I was out giving than days in the Canyon taking it in.

As a result, in 1993 I pulled in the reins, refocusing on restoring and “growing” myself, with the restoration project here, and reaching out to the world not through guest appearances but through still more articles and books. Whereas I had previously written only for the so called alternative audience, I now began to weave the same values and insights into works written for widely divergent audiences: into sensory-awakening essays on cooking, idea-challenging history pieces, sense of place and the importance of purpose into articles on Old West firearms, pieces on stewardship in the back-to-the-landers’ Mother Earth News as well as the cowboy’s Range Magazine. The first of the books written here were released, and I began to respond to the influx of seekers and students by developing a form for that.

That form was The Earthen Spirituality Project, so named to recognize the inspiritedness of everything in creation, as well to honor the deep and revelatory connection between certain individuals of seemingly every persuasion – from Atheist to Christian, Pagan to Buddhist, and from urban to rural – and the rest of the natural world of which even the most civilized of us is still a part. It was with some naivety that I underplayed the ways in which the word “spiritual” could be hot button and a liability, making it easy for the uninformed to confuse our utterly nonreligious teachings with everything from “Nature Worship” to the often escapist “New Age.” No doubt there were people who never contacted us because of that, who could otherwise have benefitted. The Project nevertheless afforded an increasing number of folks specific opportunities they took advantage of. At first these were counsel sessions with me (personalized insights and provocations), retreats (unstructured time here, to replenish the self), and primitive vision quests (periods of ritual exposure and privation, such as Native Americans and even Anglo-Saxons underwent). All such opportunities, then as now, were offered free, on a donations basis, ensuring our intention as well as making it possible to exclude no one for lack of funds.

Because of this policy, and my not touring anymore, finances became more difficult again. At one low point I had sold 10 acres to a gal whose well intended but often reckless activism dearly cost the work here and jeopardized the Canyon. A subsequent buyer built the cabin that has since been called the “Gifting Lodge,” then “flaked out” as we say, and if Canyon acolyte Ron Sutcliffe had not come forward and paid the fellow off, the portion where the Lodge sits could have ended up on the open market instead of being given back to the Sanctuary. With no money for building materials, I didn’t get our Anima den – a humble 12’ X 20’ one-room office, internet, counsel area and art studio – built until 1990. In the accompanying photo, you can see the den as well as the now-covered school-bus kitchen to its left, taken from the other side of the river (about 230 yards away), at approximately the same height.

Loba had arrived in 1993, the first person besides myself to ever come to stay. Before that, no girlfriend, friend and student had demonstrated a need to remain, or the necessary level of devotion to both place and cause. It wasn’t me but vision of New Mexico that had spurred her to leave trendy San Francisco and search out a fated lifetime home. From the start her effect on people was significant, and even when she couldn’t put a lesson into words she was somehow able to impart much of what a visitor needed. While I looked into the secret chambers of their hearts, imparted sometimes hard truths, asked them to take responsibility and watched if they lived their truths or neglected their hopes and dreams, Loba emanated acceptance and caring, and modeled engagement, compassion and delight. Some who tried to block out the counsel they most needed to hear, still found in her meals and the way she serves them, inspiration that would slowly reshape and revitalize their lives.

Loba made it easier for me to be home writing and teaching, but she also made possible and timely the creation here of a women’s center. Long before she got here, there was a higher percentage of female questers and students than male, and those who came often spoke of how important safe woman-space proved in their emotional healing. From 1996 on, we have scheduled specific times for Summer coed events, while reserving for women the time and space between. It was in 2000 that Loba facilitated the first ever group event in the Canyon, The Wild Women’s Gathering, and since then we have hosted up to 6 events per season (May through September), with from 6 to 16 participants average from all over the world. It would be four more years until the coming of Kiva Rose, and an increase in Supporter involvement that would mean our being able to do more for the land – and help more people – than ever.

(To be continued– 7 parts total)

Anima Center Website: http://www.animacenter.org

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Shown in the photo is the original Anima school bus, sporting a Viking ship medallion to commemorate the act of selling the engine and wheels to raise the earnest money. You see it covered by a sheath of well weathered wood insulating it as well as helping it blend into the landscape, but for over a decade it served as the only structure on the property without cover or siding. It was there at the table I sat, looking over the freshly signed sales contract, thinking hard on what I would do next. Coming up with the down payment for what became the Anima Sanctuary put me through unbelievable stress, as did every single semi-annual payment over the course of the fifteen year obligation. A child of the 60’s (60 B.C.!), I had always chosen free time over dependable income and illusory security, and even my art and music were geared towards awakening personal and global change rather than taking those forms that could actually make me some money. My role models were not the shallow cultural icons of the day, but those who did much with nothing, from cantankerous mountain men to visionary holy men, and I had always quit every job as soon as assured income began to take the edge off my risk taking, or slow my learning, experiencing and growth. I focused on music and art not only because of my natural talents, and their potential beauty or ability to touch hearts and open minds, but because I knew neither would ever make me so secure as to become less motivated and alert. Now I took dangerous and unpleasant jobs that paid well, as well as menial work like pouring adobe bricks that paid almost nothing. Instead of insisting on meaning and enjoyment from my employment as before, I now accepted every opportunity that could help nudge me a little closer to sealing the deal. What I might otherwise have thought of as an unpalatable compromise, I now looked at as simply the necessary trials on the way to what I was meant to do, and where I was meant to be.

It was less than one week from the deadline spelled out in the offer, before the final dollars were raised, in a celebration that included counting several years worth of change and stuffing it into paper rolls. Still another hurdle seemed to arise, when I heard in town that the conservative owner had previously refused to sell a different parcel after hearing that the would-be buyer had long hair. Needless to say, I was as attached to my flowing locks as Samson, and hadn’t been to a barber since I was a teenager. It was a flag, a symbol of my attraction to previous centuries and backwoods lifestyles, and one that I had more than once defended from scissors-wielding drunks. I loved the feel of a fast horse or sleek motorcycle with my hair in the wind, and took comfort in fingering a braid when there were reasons to be sad. But with the first hint that it could jeopardize the signing of the contract, I took a quick swipe with my custom Ruana knife, and the braid hit the floor.

Emil and I put our respective signatures on the contract in the Winter of ‘80/’81, by which time I had already bonded to the property to the point that it would have felt like death to give it up. When not working, I spent every minute exploring the canyon and its surrounding mountains, acquainting myself with the flora and fauna, quieting my busy mind enough to start hearing the subtle chords of river canyon life and the beckoning of the spirits of place. Already I felt as if I were leaving a part of myself when I left its caress, and like I was coming home as soon as I was pointed back. The Native American saying about “you can’t own the land, it owns us” was always something I accepted, but never had it felt so real and personal. No matter how much money I paid year after year, the canyon could never really belong to me. I, however, increasingly belonged to it. The twist was that the closer I got to the land, the harder it was for me to go out year after year to earn the latest payment. Allowing other people to buy a portion from me helped, but also ended up endangering the property in one way or other, and ownership would have reverted to Emil on two separate occasions if not for old friend John Drake interceding and committing.

With nearly everything going towards the cost of the land, it was over five years before I could afford another vehicle. For the first twelve months of that I walked not only the two mile trail to the road but also the eight additional miles of pavement to town, carrying a backpack for groceries, and sometimes packing a car battery out for a fast charge just so I could hear a little recorded music. There were other prices for being here as well, beginning with loss of my artist identity and the conscious community I’d known in Taos. The loss of my wife, who never could understand what was so special about the canyon, followed by the loss of the daughter that begged her mom to let her stay. A decade of girlfriends saying they wanted to live in the wilderness, but always going away. Knowing I’d never be able to afford health insurance, and that I’d be lucky to cover gas and food.

There was never a seconds doubt however, in all that time, that it was worth it… and never a morning at home that I did not wake up filled with a depth of gratitude for being here greater than I had ever known. It’s possible for someone arriving here to act as if they had hustled it, and claim the land as a prize of their cleverness. Even given all the hoops I had to jump through and all the struggles and dramas I suffered in order to pay for it, I still sensed that I was not the facilitator so much as an agent of some larger plan or process… that I was the recipient of a great and wondrous gift. And with every blessing seemed to come an assignment, a clear and impelling means for giving back.

Initially it seemed no more complex than a special opportunity to get grounded, nourished, stretched and strengthened, a chance for true wholeness and home. This stretching deserved at least my openness in return. In gratitude for wholeness, I gave my pledge to utilize every part and facility. And for the gift of home, I gave attentive devotion and unshakable loyalty. Secondly, I recognized the rarity and power of the canyon’s wildness, the way the river crossings helped prevent development as well as casual intrusions, how special it was to have multiple ecosystems in a single property involving from desert communities to high elevation pines, and what a dream come true it was for a young man who had spent too much hard time on the streets. In exchange, I would give care and protection, helping by planting native shoots and seeds, removing the cattle that graze the surrounding National Forest, encouraging the repatriation of the countless creatures meant like me to be here. It was not long before the full significance of the third gift sunk in, the legacy of the ancient Sweet Medicine (Mogollon) people who first settled this watershed. Not only was the entire property an archaeological site, but first my intuition and then the explorations of visiting archaeologists pointed to it being the hallowed ceremonial center for an entire region. That element, too, would receive my protection in turn, as well as my promise to honor that legacy by living out my purpose as full and honorably as the most committed of those who came before.

It was several years before I acknowledged the fourth level or gift, the life changing experiences and enriching insights that this section of the canyon in particular seems to excite. Stories and lessons started pouring through faster than I could write them down, interconnected truths needing a voice, an avenue, an outlet. Among my infrequent guests, even the most resistant or disenchanted found that submerged feelings and issues would come up, prompting self evaluation and sometimes important change. What’s more, an eclectic assortment of characters started stumbling onto this long-held place of power, while on a search for something they usually couldn’t name. Folks who had once purchased artwork, somehow rooted me out, asking not for more paintings but for advice and counsel. The gift of the land, I saw, included a deep knowing vital not just to myself but to human kind and all that we as humans affect. And the appropriate if problematic way to give back, would be to pass on what I learned here. At times that would mean staying home and spending impossible amounts of hours on a laptop computer, while other times it would require that I hit the road to give presentations, perform and inspire.

(to be continued)

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