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

Video of our June 2011 ceremony in Q'umark'aj

Pilgrimage to the Land of the 2012 Volcano TAJUMULCO

Greetings My Relatives

It is with the greatest of humility that I am called upon to report on the succesful completion of the long-awaited sacred tour that Antonio and I have been planning for over a year now. A total of 21 participants from the United States and Poland joined Antonio's father Don Telesforo and I, and a group of some of the most traditional Maya spiritual guides of Guatemala on a journey among the holy ancestral sites of the highland Maya people in that country.



Our tour was organized jointly by us at the MAYA TAINO PROPHECY INITIATIVE (a program of the Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle) and by the archeologist and epigrapher Dr Edwin Barnhart of MAYA EXPLORATION CENTER.
This tour is featured as an official archeology course through the CHATAQUA AHAU TRAVEL short course program.

We began our trek with a traditional fire ceremony at the main altar of the ancient city of Iximche, capital of the Kaqchikel Mayas. The ceremony was led by elder Tata Chus Ixim Toj, of Kaqchilel ancestry.

I was given the honor of helping Tata Chus with the preparations of the ceremony.

We were surrounded by the imposing ruins of the site.

Tata Chus guided us through the fundamental elements of the ceremony teaching the participants many things that are important to know to fully appreciate the ancient sacred calendar culture that is at the basis of this life-path.

Later during the journey we travelled to the remains of the ancient capital city of the K'iche Maya people, a place called Q'umarkaj, near Santa Cruz Del Quiche, and participated in a grand ceremony there at the temple of Tojil led by our own spiritual guide, the K'iche Maya aj k'ij, Don Filiberto Perez of the Wukub Noj ceremonial center project, one of the two projects in Guatemala that we at MAYA TAINO PROPHECY INITIATIVE support. Don Filiberto was accompanied by his wife the elder Do~a Santos Lucinda, also by Don Telesforo Itzep, the father of my collaborator in the U.S. Antonio Aj Ik. We were also joined by Tata Chus Ixim Noj and Tata Jose Soc of the UNIFICACION MAYA community.

We were guided through one of the most powerful ceremonies I have had the honor of participating in ever.

All of our participant guests were struck by the sweet serenity of the elder's prayers and by the intensity of the experience.

We were delighted by the fact that we were joined at the ceremony by Antonio's wife and three children, all of whom still live in his tiny village of Xix in the municipality of Chajul.

The ceremony concluded with prayers in behalf of Mother Earth and for all of her children during this the great era of transition just befor the end of this cycle of the Maya Calendar 2012.

Later on we scheduled a conference guided by myself and Dr Barhart during which the elders were honored and where they had an opportunity to share their teachings with the rest of us.

During the following days we travelled to other ceremonial sites where we were again led in solemn traditional ritual. These places included the K'iche Maya town of Momostenango and the imposing temple pyramid complex of Saculeu in the land of the Mam Mayas where Tajumulco volcano towers above the Heuheutenango landscape. It was this giant peak in the land of the Mam Mayas that was used by ancient Indigenous calendar elders over 2000 years ago to calculate the galactic alignment phenomenon that marks the 2012 prophecy.








In behalf of Antonio and myself and of the MAYA TAINO PROPHECY INITIATIVE, also in behalf of the CANEY INDIGENOUS SPIRITUAL CIRCLE which is the sponsoring organization of this initiative, I want to express my most sincere gratitude to the elders and teachers of the Guatemalan Maya community, to Dr Barnhart of MEC, to the wonderful group of participants from outside Guatemala who travelled so far to participate in this great experience, and most of all to the Divine Being who guides us all, HEART OF THE HEAVEN and HEART OF THE EARTH.
Taino Ti and In Lakesh
Miguel Sobaoko Koromo Sague

Spiritually awakened Indy Film makers from Virginia Beach visited Antonio and I here at the Pittsburgh Indian Center in April of 2011and interviewed us concerning the topic of Maya prophecy in connection with their upcoming movie WHITE BUFFALO: AN AMERICAN PROPHECY. Then afterwards they visited our own local white buffaloes of Southwestern PA. It was a great visit.



Antonio offered a prayer and fire ceremony to honor the holy Maya day sign of our meeting date and ask the Heart of Heaven and the Heart of the Earth to make of this film an effective vehicle for teaching.





Please explore their facebook page and their website.

Taino Ti

Miguel

Please explore their fnd their website.

Taino Ti

Miguel

Takaji My Relatives

As part of my preparations for the upcoming pilgrimage to the sacred sites of the Mayas in Guatemala this coming June I travelled to the traditional highlands of that country in March of 2011 to confer with the elders who will be guiding us on this powerful nine-day experience.



This is a land where most of the women still wear their traditional hand-woven "corte" skirts, each one colorfully and graphically announcing the town in which she lives.

Ixil Maya women in their traditional hand-woven colorful maroon "corte" skirts and gorgeous embroidered "huipil" blouses stroll naturaly all over the streets of Nebaj, the tiny vilage where I stayed while on my mission to meet with the elders.



While at the outdoor market we ran into the wife and young son of Antonio Aj Ik, the man with whom I have been working and teaching for almost three years all over the eastern U.S. sharing the truth of his people's prophetic tradition.




You can tell that Antonio's wife is not an Ixil but rather a K'iche Maya because she does not wear the traditional maroon Ixil "corte" skirt. Her corte is blue and bears a different woven pattern. The Ixils and the K'iche speak different Maya languages and although these languages are not mutually intelligible the people go through the trouble of learning each other's tongue and now live in peace side by side in this small mountain community.



The men typically have abandoned the traditional native dress and as can be seen in the case of Antonio's young brother and his father seen here at the market where we ran into Antonio's wife. They wear typical western European and U.S. clothes, T-shits, sweat-shirts and jeans.



However the tradition is so strong here that from time to time one runs into an older man who is still wearing his traditional outfit. This old man was selling ceremonial candles at the steps of the local Catholic church in the main square of the town of Nebaj. I bough some of his candles in preparation for the ceremony I expected to participate in later during my visit. I also bought the local copal incense.



Notice the old woman in the background who has just finished doing special prayers in the church and is walking out barefoot.



The Highland Maya combine Catholic religion with ancient millenarian Indigenous tradition that dates back from the time before Jesus was born.

I held my meeting with the elders Don Telesforo, who is Antonio's father, Don Filiberto who is presently in the process of organizing and constructing a sacred ceremonial and teaching center in his town nearby, Don Francisco, Dona Santos and Dona Ana, We gathered at the town square and conferred for several hours in the modest outdoor patio of my hotel. Then we ate brunch at a nearby eatery.

After my meeting with the elders, Don Telesforo guided me to key people and organizations in the town who could help me with our plans of marketing traditional Guatemalan handcrafted artwork in the USA to raise funds for Don Filiberto's project and for our assistance of the IX Canaan women's organization in Ramate, in the Peten jungle.



One of these people was the weaver Dona Rosa whom we met at the local Nebaj crafts center.

I made plans with Dona Rosa to market her weavings and the weavings of other women in the area through the Caney Indigenous Circle.



After my visit to the highlands I journied deep into the lowland rainforest of the Peten in the north, not far from the site of the most spectacular ancient classic-era Maya sacred ancestral sites.

I arrived in Ramate on the shores of Lake Peten Itza and met with the women of Ix Canaan who devote themselves to creating beautiful hand-crafted wooden carvings. I delivered power tools which I had brought in behalf of the Caney Indigenous Circle as the first installment in what I hope will be an on-going project of assistance of these artists with art supplies of all kinds. They had a lot of fun trying out the unfamiliar Dremmel tool, which when they are able to master, will make their work a great deal easier.



I also gave them an electric handsaw and watercolor paints. As part of my gift I created an instructional video that provides them detailed instructions on the use and care of the tools as well as several manuals in Spanish. In this photo the ladies watch the instruction video on my laptop computer.



Soon I hope to be marketing beautifully crafted wood carvings such as these, created by these women as well as other items such as basketry and small jewelry.







The last portion of my visit in the Peten was spent with a local Maya holy man, Tata Chus, who recognized my status of spiritual guide of my Taino people and took me on a special personal journey among the most powerful energy centers of the two nearby ancestral sacred sites, Tikal and Uaxactun.



We performed joint tobacco ceremony among the imposing temple pyramids and stelae of these two timeless energy centers.







Then in Uaxactun we culminated the journey with a small Maya fire ceremony using some of the candles and copal that I had acquired in Nebaj.









Tata Chus and I capped off our prayerful visit to Uaxactun by meditating as we faced the three sacred monuments of the so-called "Group-E" which are special archeo-astronomical guide points that allow for the calculations of Solstices and Equinoxes.

Taino Ti
Miguel