Nov 22, 2009
There are no passport checks, no immigration lines and no border patrol, yet to enter the remote desert land of Southeast Arizona is truly a crossing of worlds. This is where one of the oldest civilizations in North America lives, where ancient culture and traditions, spirituality and mythology form one continuous link from past to present.
If you are ready to leave behind our world of consumerism, excess, technology, and religious strife, there is another world waiting for you to explore and a woman who can guide seamlessly between the two.
Sandra Cosentino has been offering guided journeys into the sacred lands of Arizona for over fifteen years. She shares a deep respect and a friendship with the indigenous people who inhabit it. One of the many excursions that Sandra offers, and that my husband and I joined earlier this year, is to Hopi and Navajo country.
We set off from Sedona in Sandra’s van on our expedition into the desert. The sun shone madly as we passed giant red rock formations and entered the Coconino Forest, thick with Ponderosa Pines. I inhaled the fresh mountain air of the snow-capped San Francisco Peaks, and then, they vanished. We reached the desert.
Climbing to a flat-topped mesa we entered a civilization lost in time. Hopiland. A group of small houses, some of them the ruins of thousand-year-old structures, sat grouped around a central plaza, where Hopi ceremonies take place. I gazed across barren land where remnants of last year’s corn crops jutted from a parched desert floor.
Sandra introduced me to several Hopi families, each as welcoming as the last. Sitting around the table in one home, we shared a meal of spicy beef, bean chili and fry bread (a scrumptious flat bread, deep-fried until light and crispy). Spontaneously, one member picked up his drum and began beating it while singing in his native tongue. Everyone joined in and, danced and kept rhythm with handmade gourd rattles. At the end of the evening we all gathered for a prayer circle. Bundles of sage were burned in a cleansing ritual and we stood together with our Hopi friends who offered up prayers for the universe. We followed our hosts outside to sprinkle corn pollen onto Mother Earth, thanking her for her many gifts. A divine ending to a glorious day!
After spending the night at the Hopi Cultural Center, I awoke to a hearty breakfast of blue corn pancakes and then traveled on to Navajo land. We visited a mud Hogan, the traditional home of the Navajo and had lunch in the company of a weaver, who told us about the spiritual components of her amazingly skillful and beautiful art. That afternoon, a Navajo guide took us by Jeep deep into Canyon de Chelly, sacred land and former home to the Anasazi Indians who inhabited it as early as 300 A.D. Their cliff dwellings remain visible today. Our guide played his flute for us and the music reverberated around the canyon. He built a fire and the crackling wood was all that I heard in the depth of the earth. Mesmerizing.
Under a canopy of stars and a full moon, Sandra drove us back to Sedona, accompanied by haunting native music. I experienced overlapping cultures, blended spirits and made some wonderful new friends. I crossed worlds.
Information about Crossing Worlds can be found online: www.crossingworlds.com
Virginia Foley is a Canadian writer currently living in Wisconsin with her British-born husband and American-born puppy. Her travels have taken her across Europe, North America and the Caribbean but her heart will always belong in Canada, where her three grown children live. In 2007 she lived at the Old Course in St Andrew’s, Scotland for year but didn’t golf once!
