Going to a power spot is equally joyful and dangerous. I tell you this to be completely honest. The danger accentuates the value of going. It can be alleviated by prayer for protection. The spirit of the power spot does extend itself to help. I have an image in my mind of someone crossing the span of a great chasm by balancing on a log. The log would be safe enough on the ground, a bit scary over a rushing stream, but elevated over a chasm, it would be terrifying. If the person crossing the log were to have ropes held by trusted comrades, the fear would be diminished and so would the danger. Pray for protection and you can be assured that your allies in the spirit world will have those ropes around you. The intent to go to a power spot is the beginning of the journey. This is the time to begin praying for protection.

Having spiritual allies is a comfort, but it doesn't mean that we can be casual about the journey. We must act as warriors. We must be ready to respond to danger in the here and now. This is best accomplished by working from the heart chakra. Of course , Don Jose didn't talk about heart chakras. He would arrange our energy to the right "vibration" and then we could remember. You can ask Don Jose to guide you to this level of perception.

Perceiving from this point will be joyful. Your world will expand. Each time you make the journey you find the intensity grows. I hope you pay attention to everything. All of your senses should increase. Eventually, you will be able to perceive the life force throbbing about you. Focus on subtle aspects. The smallest matters may be the most important. The power spot will help you to remember how to use your senses.

I like to look for omens on my journey. I always look for hawks as a sign that the journey is being guided. Inevitably, one flies directly over my car as I drive. If I am driving down a country road and I see a hawk roosting alongside the road, I know it has a message for me. I stop the car and give the hawk a gift of tobacco and then meditate to receive the message. Don Jose called all hawks little eagles.

Very often the spirit of the power spot takes on a human form and will join you in the journey. It may come as a dog, cat, bird, a zephyr or any convenient form. Once, my husband and I went to a hot spring out in the desert that friends had suggested. The first time we went was in the middle of summer. It was about 105oF. I sat under a mesquite shrub for shade while my husband sat in the pool. After a few minutes, I got the distinct feeling of a "sidewinder" near me. I didn't see one, but the feeling was so strong that I very carefully got in the car. There I sat sweating in misery. My husband joined me quickly wondering why I would subject myself to the discomfort. When I told him about the sidewinder, he didn't want to stay for another minute. The next winter, we decided to visit the spring again. This time there was a group of people living there. They were drunk and generally had a low energy about them. They had scattered garbage all around. We felt disgusted with the whole matter and left soon. It was after dreaming that night that I realized that these people were spirits that had congregated at the spot. First we had been warned by the sidewinder, the spot's guardian, then we had been repulsed by the spirits. I am not certain what all of this meant. But we did get the message that we were not supposed to be there. It did not necessarily mean the power spot was bad. Perhaps, it indicated that the power spot needed cleansing. Some of the great power spots of the world are fouled. Mt. Shasta is one. I have often wondered if the Stonehenge is too. The problem is that so many people are attracted to some of these holy places and they take the energy without giving gifts in return. They show up wearing immodest clothes. They either have not been taught good manners in regard to sacred matters or are completely ignorant of spiritual manners. I think that the power spots get taxed of their energy or overwhelmed by the energies of the people. This a symptom of the great imbalance between worlds.

Don Jose came to the United States in an effort to diminish the negative effects of the materialistic lifestyle that is prevalent here. He was seeing that the power of materialism was overcoming the spiritual lifestyle of his people. He had a clear understanding of the connectedness of all people. It was his hope that by reintroducing us to our spiritual relationship to the earth, the shamanic tradition, we could reverse the harm being done to the earth.

When we arrive at the power spot we should greet it as we would our grandparents or other loved ones. I like to take time to just "feel" the spot and "listen" to it. This means to just be silent within ourselves. Then I begin to give my gifts.

Since I am in North America, I give the traditional gifts of this continent, tobacco and chocolate. Flowers are a universal offering.

Tobacco is an abused spirit. It is a powerful one. If you smoke tobacco, you should get to know it as a living being. You have this living being within you for better or worse. It can either be an ally or a wild energy. This is like fire. Fire in our hearth brings us blessings. Fire on the roof brings us disaster. Lighting a cigarette in church is correct. The smoke carries our prayers to heaven. To light a cigarette in a nightclub out of habit is a desecration. This demonstrates the imbalance and reversal of the spiritual/material state of the world today. Tobacco smoking is a holy matter to be done with consciousness.

Chocolate was a gift from the "gods" to the people to be used for offerings. The "gods" did not appreciate the blood offerings that were being given, they wanted chocolate. I hardly blame them.

Tobacco and chocolate are relatively new to the continents outside of the American hemisphere. They are not, then, traditional gifts for power spots in Africa, Europe or Asia. They might be pleasing gifts anyhow. The power spot will give instructions on this matter. Anything that pleases you makes an appropriate gift. Anything that is dear to you will be valued as a gift. Anything that is a basic necessity should be given as a gift. This would include food and money. Grains are a universal offering. The Huicholi s offer corn because it is the foundation of their diet. Money is also an excellent offering. Money is the symbol of exchange of energy. In the U.S., quarters make an excellent offering because they have eagles on them and they can be polished. In Mexico, the peso would be used for the same reason. . Sincerity counts. A gift from the heart is always the best gift of all. The offerings should be in odd numbers.

A fire must be made and blessed. The fire is called Grandfather Fire by the Huicholis. The energy of the fire should be used to purify ourselves by using the hands to spread it about our being. This is not necessary nor always possible. Sometimes the fire can be a match lit only for a moment. In California, wildfire is a considerable danger. Sometimes there is too much wind to maintain a fire of any sort. Fire exists within us, what is our metabolism but a burning of our calories. The power of Grandfather Fire is essential to our existence in our earthly body.

After a fire is made and blessed, an invocation to the spirits is made. It must be done in order of descending importance; the Creator, the Great Spirit, the Sun, the Earth, avatars, and saints. The next prayers should be to the Five Directions. These are the cardinal directions and the fifth direction, the center.

Each direction is a spirit. Meditating upon each direction and making offerings to each brings us contact with these spirits. Each direction has valuable powers to share. They are valuable allies. The power of these allies is an intrinsic part of us. By becoming aware of them, we are better able to be in harmony. We all know someone who has no sense of direction. This means they have no sensitivity to the spirit of the directions within them. Then, there are people who can feel the directions in the dark.

After invoking the spirits, the offerings are made and the prayer arrow is "sent". I make my offerings in a design like a miniature mandala. I place my prayer arrow in the surf if I am at the beach. The best situation at the beach is where there are rocks in the surf. If I am on a mountain, I look for a secure spot in the rocks and wedge it in lightly. I try to hide the prayer arrow in order to protect the spot from curious people who may come later and unwittingly despoil the sanctity.

Once the offerings are made, it is time to pray. Don Jose advised us to pray for mental clarity, kapuri (life energy), memory, and healing. What is most important is that you pray for what you need and do so with good intent. And of course, we should offer gratitude for all that we have been given. What you do the rest of the time at the power spot is up to you and the power spot. Sometimes the power spot will desire that you do something special. Once, I brought a friend to a power spot for the first time, and after we had made the offerings we both got the message to drum with our hands upon the ground. So we did and the ground made a wondrous drum. We sat there for a long time drumming and we became one, the earth, power spot, air, my friend and I became one vibration.

Power spots need us as we need them. These sleeping spirits have healing potential that lies waiting for our consciousness to perceive and consequently actualize the power. It is like a kitchen appliance that is plugged in ready to be used, but having no use at all without our intent. The appliance, if never used, has no meaning or value beyond its potential. I do not want to stretch this model too far because I prefer preparing food without machinery. But, this model does serve to describe the necessity of intent and consciousness involved with power spots. When we decide to bake a cake we choose one appliance and when we toast bread we choose another. After some education and experience, we know which appliances are most useful to our needs. After some education and experience, we begin to know which power spots are most beneficial to our needs. Each spot is dreaming and wishes to share the dream with us. Our conscious perception of the dream is an actualizing of that power and that power brings healing. Power spots should be visited five times, at least once every year for five years. This is not so difficult because it is such a wonderful experience. One should not stay at a power spot for too long. I wouldn't camp there. Don Jose would not sleep overnight near the ocean.

It is important to act with dignity, modesty and humility at a power spot. The spirit of the spot can be offended and if not angry, could like a kindly grandmother, give us little lessons on our behavior.

This is the world of healing. The majority of us are here to receive healing. We did not come here to learn, but to remember what we know. We all are in possession of great powers. As we remember, we become aware of our powers and how to use them. We are here to heal and to be healed. We are all connected and that means that to some degree we suffer with each other and celebrate with each other. The power spot is the connecting point. From this point we can travel to any world. Don Jose said that we must absolutely never go into the underworld. It is too dangerous! Only certain shamans can do this. The naarikas to the underworld are narrow, dark, twisting holes. Naarikas to the higher realms are straight, colorful passages with the light of the sun at the end. Power spots are like time machines actually erasing time and space so that we can go be with Buddha as he is receiving enlightenment, or with Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane. It is as if all of the great spiritual writings are actually maps to guide us into eternal events that are considered to have happened in the past in the material world. Because we use our mind to interpret our experience, we tend to always be looking back missing the present. Thus it is through memory that we see how the spirit world has been aiding us always. We can go back to the Upper Room with Jesus and actually receive the Holy Fire from His hand. Then we remember how holy and loved we are. We remember all the great powers we were given by all the avatars, saints and spirits. Pray that your memory will be healed. Don Jose said memory is a mirror that we must wipe clean.

Once you have been to a power spot you can visit it anytime you wish by simply thinking about. Of course you will be traveling by spirit. And if you go to several power spots, it will be easy to travel between them. This takes practice. Don Jose spent twenty years alone in the forests of Mexico. Much of this time he spent at power spots. This is a lot of time for practice. He had the unusual experience of being given the power of a shaman by the power spots. He said that "you could learn all this from a shaman, but it is much more powerful to learn from the trees." When he came back to his village, this power was recognized. He did not come back and announce that he was a shaman. A true shaman never recognizes her/himself as a shaman. It is the people who decide and know. I am wary of people who go about calling themselves shamans. It is a difficult and dangerous life, filled with selfless devotion to healing the world. A shaman is not made or even taught, only discovered. The shaman was born at the beginning of time. Don Jose initiated many other Huicholis as shamans. He also initiated a man from the United States, Brandt Secunda and adopted him as a grandson. Brandt has dedicated his life to bring Don Jose's dream of healing to the world.

Don Jose was puzzled by the people he saw in the United States. He asked me why people had large pieces of land with no corn growing on it. To him, growing corn was a sacred act. Grandmother Growth, how can we get to know her, how can we better be with her than when we are growing our sustenance. And yet, a majority of us would be hard pressed to grow enough lettuce for a year. If we are so out of touch with the living earth in the garden, how are we to recognize our total connectedness with the earth and the heavens beyond it. A few years ago, I learned that the meaning of humble meant someone who worked in humus. My heart was overjoyed to finally understand that. When we are called to humility, we are being called to living in harmony with the living earth. Don Jose taught that the rocks were living. When we take minerals into our bodies for our health, we are ingesting living beings to bring us health. Silver, copper, and zinc are metals that suddenly found to be important to our health. Perhaps it is our lack of regard for the mineral world that we do not connect the health giving gifts of the spirits of this world. Perhaps our lack of regard for the Five Directions is the cause of the problems we suffer due to our polarity. And what is happening to the earth's polarity?

Finding our connectedness with all life is a great gift. How this happens is a unique experience for each person. The more people who share their revelation, the greater the universal healing. We don't have to re-invent this spiritual path. It is ther e for us to remember. I hope that I have helped you to begin a personal adventure of joy.