Takaji My Relatives
I was honored this year to be invited to offer ceremonial presentations at the 2012 celebration of the MIDWEST SHAMANIC GATHERING September 1, 2 and 3.
The invitation came from Ohio-based wise woman Mary Lou Swogger of the Eagle Condor Foundation of Minneapolis, Minn which sponsored the event.

I had met her while attending a traditional Shipibo Indigenous ritual with her near Erie, PA, officiated by Peruvian elder Don Valerio (Freddy) Cohaila several years ago. Freddy has worked for years with the Shipibo Indigenous people who live in the Amazonian rainforest region of his native Peru and he shares that tradition as well as the tradition of the Andean mountain Inca descendants who also live in his country. I have always had a singular interest in the Shipibo people since they are from the South American rainforest region which gave rise to my own Arawakan-Taino culture and since they produce an enigmatic artwork which is mezmerising and beautiful.

I attended the three-day event at the Beaver Creek state-administered campground near the town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin over the Labor-Day weekend which was blessed with the most beautiful weather all three days and nights allowing us to enjoy, on each night, the blessing of the incredibly bright Full (Blue) Moon that had been shining since the last day of August.
I arrived on Friday evening and almost immediately was treated to a wonderfully healing Anishinabe-style sweatlodge ceremony near the sacred tipi of the encampment. The ceremony was led by holy man Dan who is one of the elders of the Eagle Condor Foundation.


note the beautiful hand-crafted Shipibo fabric brought by Elder Freddy from the Amazon and utilized as tipi lodge door cover.

That same evening I had the pleasure of meeting Guatemalan Tzutujil Maya elder Tata Pedro Cruz of the UNIFICACION MAYAsacred community, and his wife the wise woman Shuni.

The opening ceremony on Saturday morning was moving and evokative including songs by a traditional drum group led by Anishinabe elder Dan and a powerful Andean-style Inca Indigenous ceremony by Elder Don Valerio (Freddy) called a "despacho".


Don Valerio's Despacho ceremony
Saturday morning's Opening Ceremony was followed by lunch and then afterwards a wonderful variety of workshops and demonstrations by elders and guides from many traditions of the world. I was fortunate that Shuni, Tata Pedro's wife and I agreed to present our two demonstrations jointly so I had the opportunity to present my demonstration on the ancient Maya 2012 Long Count to a large group of people. I began my presentation by relating the Taino sacred narration of Guaguyona, the women of Cacibajagua cave and Guabonito. It demonstrated an element of how the negative energy of a power-hungry authoritative male who causes the loss of balance by disrupting the energy of the female in the human community can throw the whole community out of balance. This, of course is one of the central themes of our 2012 message from a Taino perspective, and the lesson that the energy of the human female with its healing capacities (symbolized by the healer-woman Guabonito) must now during this era of transition again be brought to balance with the energy of the male in the global community.

My presentation was immediately followed by Shuni's demonstration on the Maya Tzolkin day-countand how to follow one's unique spirit path using this sacred treasure. That evening we all participated in an overwhelming Maya fire ceremony led by Tata Pedro.

The evening was filled with wonderful exchange and informal interaction among both presenters and participants. I had an opportunity to get to know Hilda, a marvelous Taina from Boriken who now lives in Maine and who demonstated interest in the tradition of our Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle and our United Confederation of Taino People tribal community.

The following day, Sunday we began the day with morning and sunrise ceremonies of different types, followed by a great deal of warm interaction and sharing through breakfast and lunch. In the afternoon I offered my second presentation, a demonstration of the Taino shamanic tradition which began with a group guaitiao dance in which pretty much all the attendees participated either as drummers or as dancers..."Guaitiao guariko aruaka guakia!!!".

The dance was followed by a relating of the Taino sacred narration of Deminan Caracaracol and the shaman Bayamanako. This introduced the attendees to the Taino perception of the power of the shaman to draw out of a person his hidden qualities like Bayamanako drew out of Deminan the sacred hidden turtle of compassion that had always dwelled within him all along repressed by the youth's arrogance.
It was wonderful to see how well received these messages from the sacred Taino narrative tradition were by people from all walks of life and from all ethnic backgrounds.

On Sunday evening I had the pleasure to experience a screening of the new documentary by Shannon Kring Buset, 2012: The Beginning which coincidentally features no less than five important chroniclers and teachers of the 2012 meme all of whom I have worked closely with: The noted author of the epochal book MAYA COSMOGENESIS 2012 John Major Jenkins, the accomplished archeologist, epihrapher and Mayanist Ed Barnhart. the Yucatec Maya teacher and spiritual guide Ac Tah, The K'iche Maya elder who was one of the officiators at the ceremony for our group in K'umark'aj Guatemala during our 2011 pilgrimage to the sacred sites in the Maya highlands, Tata Jose Soc, and of course Tata Pedro Cruz, with whom I collaborated during this Midwest Shamanic Conference and with whom I established a powerful connection this past weekend.

Shannon's film is, in my opinion one of the most concise and accurate documentary expositions of the 2012 phenomenon and merits the praise of anyone who is seriously interested in this prophecy. I had the unique pleasure of meeting the film-maker after the screening of her movie and was touched by her genuineness and approachability.

On Monday after sunrise ceremonies and meals we all participated in a round-table discussion and group exposition of ideas and opinions concerning the gathering and its 2012 theme in the main classroom of the campground.



It has been an unique pleasure and honor for me to have participated in this endeavor and I loook forward to many future collaborations between myself, along with our CANEY INDIGENOUS SPIRITUAL CIRCLE and the enlightened organizers of the EAGLE CONDOR FOUNDATION which was responsible for sponsoring it.
Taino Ti
Miguel Sobaoko Koromo Sague

Venus Transit celebration in western Pennsylvania June 5 2012 at the Mesa

Takaji (greetings) My Relatives
A wonderful group of about 40 peaceful brothers and sisters gathered at the MESA CREATIVE ARTS CENTER in western Pennsylvania approximately 30 miles from Pittsburgh this past Tuesday, June 5, 2012 to observe and celebrate a once-in-a-lifetime event called the VENUS TRANSIT OF THE SUN. We gathered there in front of a symbolic altar that contained powerful elements of millenial Maya tradition, including our very own sacred green stone community skull and replicas of the bust of ancient Maya mystic ruler, Pacal and the Maya temple-pyramid in Tikal, Guatemala.

The astronomical event we were celebrating, as viewed from the Earth, consisted of the slow passage of the planet Venus accross the face of the sun as it passed between us and our solar lord, a phenomenon that occurs in pairs every century. I was able to observe the first one of this particular pair through the telescope of a friendly astronomer, perched on the heights of Mount Washington commanding the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June of 2004 and was looking forward to this particular one for the past eight years.
Although the skies over our area were heavily overcast all evening long on Tuesday, rendering my carefully prepared eye-safe rear-projection telescope rig totally irrelevant, we were able to watch the astronomical phenomenon online on the NASA webcast from the observatory on the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. And it was nothing short of IMPRESSIVE!

Our gathering was a joint effort of the MECG Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle through our MAYA-TAINO PROPHECY INITIATIVE, and the MESA CREATIVE ARTS CENTER, a mystical place of magic and healing right here in our western Pennyslvania region.
We were blessed to have been welcomed warmly by the founders and loving caretakers of the Mesa, Kate and Brad Silberberg.

We began our event with an introduction and brief explanation of the Mesa by Brad and Kate.
After that I took the time to explain the actual astronomical phenomenon of the transit using a large beach ball to represent the Sun, a smaller ball to represent Venus and an inflatable globe to represent the earth. I also discussed the significance of the Venus Cycle within ancient Maya tradition.



Our sister Vikki Hanchin, who is one of the most important people responsible for sparking the most recent wave of interest in the Maya prophetic tradition here in western Pennsylvania, shared with all of us her personal perspective on the meaning of Venus-associated phenomena as they relate to the visit here several years ago by Guatemala Maya teachers Don Alejandro and Grandmother Flordemayo which she was instrumental in organizing. She also shared with us important global spiritual understandings of this sister planet such as her symbolic representation of the Goddess Venus in Greco-Roman tradition and other vital elements of the femenine in the current stage of the evolution of human consciousness.

Both my talk and Vikki's were received with lively discussion and questions from the participants gathered in the main meeting area of the Mesa.


Eventually we transitioned into the ceremonial portion of the gathering with two songs by members of the White Buffalo women's drum group led here in Peaceburgh by our sister Susan Ferraro. Although Susan herself was not able to make it to the event our sister the Caney Circle beike (spiritual leader) Tenanche Cemi-Ata Rose Golden led those women members of the group who did make it to the gathering in several of the group's best loved songs and chants playing the beautiful buffalo-skin drum that resides at the Mesa Center. The women were accompanied by the rest of us chanting and playing our own drums and rattles to the rythm of their powerful music


The songs of the women helped all of us transition from the indoor activities to the outdoor portion of our ceremony. We all exited the building and gathered before the beautiful new tipi that Brad and Kate have erected in front of the main structure at the center.

Once inside the tipi the ceremony continued with the burning of copal and sage and the chants and songs of the participants many of whom brought their own sacred music to share with us.







The event culminated appropriately enough just outside the tipi with the traditional lighting of the two ceremonial torches that in the Taino culture celebrated by our MECG Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle, represent the double light of the full moon. We did this since the Venus Transit of 2012 coincided with the June full moon occurrence. We honored the femenine element of the cosmos in two different ways on Tuesday evening. Our sister the Boriken Taino beike (spiritual guide) of the Caney Circle, Allia Tureygua Rahe Martinez honored us by taking the role of Ata Bey the Cosmic Matriarch in the lighting of the torches, led by our sister, the Powhatan-Taino beike, Tenanche Cemi-Ata Rose Golden.

I want to say Bo Matun and Hahom (Many Thanks) to all of the beautiful humans that joined us this past Tuesday at the Mesa for this historic event. I also want to thank the Great Spirit Yaya Guaturey for allowing us to celebrate this ceremony in such a blessed space and with such wonderful people.
Taino Ti
Miguel Sobaoko Koromo Sague
Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle

PEACEBURGH NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Greetings RelativesThis past Saturday night Dec 31 2011, a large number of Pittsburgh residents gathered at the First United Methodist Church in the Shadyside neighborhood of the city to celebrate New Years Eve in an alternate spiritually conscious and Peace-empowering way. The event was conceived by Kevin May of EVOLVER PITTSBURGH, in co-operation with other peace activists of the area.It was my honor to represent the CANEY INDIGENOUS SPIRITUAL CIRCLE and the MAYA-TAINO PROPHECY INITIATIVE at this event and to share the beauty of my people's Taino tradition in the form of the Cosmic Mother Ata Bey's sacred chant with the co-operation of my wife Leni.

Kevin organized an activity using a ball of yarn, that created an image of a great web which he called the "PEACEBURGH HAMMOCK" uniting in a network, all the elements of peace-making in the region. This imagery actually reflected the identity of the Maya day-sign for December 31 2011, which in K'iche Maya language is called K'at and represents a net or a heavily laden net sack symbolizing abundance.

It was amazingly synchronistic, since I don't believe Kevin consciously was aware of this connection between his perception of the web and the identity of the Dec 31st Maya Day-sign's association with networks.Just as synchronistic was the request that we received from Maya-descendant peace-activist Ac Tah of Yucatan who through our local sister Vikki Hanchin, communicated to us here in Peaceburgh the intention of a newly inspired labrynth that he was asking people all over the world to activate at exactly midnight on Dec 31st. It turns out that Ac Tah identified this particular labrynth with the name "PLUMED SERPENT LABRYNTH" and he sent us a number of cloth sheets with the labrynth printed on them so that we could trace it with a stone at the proper moment during the night.

The sychronistic element of this is that the Maya day sign for January 1st 2012 is called "Can" in the K'iche Maya language and represents the sacred serpent.And so at exactly midnight a number of us squatted under a "network" of yarn representing the last day of the year Dec 31 Maya-day "Net", a net that was held up by a large group of peace-lovers and tracing a labrynth with a small stone held in our fingers, a labrynth called "Plumed Serpent" and ringing in the first day of the New Year January 1 2012 whose Maya day-sign is "serpent".

There was joyful celebration with drum circles, music, dancing, yoga, shamanic journey etc.The event was powerful and filled with meaning. In behalf of my son Miguel Sague III (Cha) who played conga drums during the drumming session, my wife Lenia Sague (Leni) who helped me with the interpretation of the Taino Cosmic Mother chant and myself, I want to thank those who conceived this wonderful happening and all of those who contributed to making it such a success.

Many Blessings

Taino Ti

Miguel