Chapter 16: Unlocking Ancient Mysteries at Wizard Wells

I met Chira Sweet Medicine in mid 1993 when I was in Dallas giving a lecture. We formed an immediate bond. Perhaps we knew each other in a past life. She was a powerful teacher in the Native American Indian tradition, trained in the Lakota path by Mary Thunder. Chira was one of the few women permitted to start her own lodge and had her center in Wizard Wells, Texas, near Fort Worth.

I liked Chira because she was a rebel and believed spiritual mastery could be gained with ease and grace instead of pain and suffering. She experienced a powerful Heart & Soul Healing session with me and believed strongly in the effectiveness of my work.

In 1996, Chira invited me to be a part of her fall Vision Quest, a bi-annual tradition in her lodge. I decided to participate since I was, once again, facing major changes in my life and it felt right to spend some quiet time with Spirit. In a traditional Vision Quest, the questers fast alone in the wilderness for several days with the hope of receiving a visitation from Spirit. It was the first time I would spend twenty-four hours alone in my life.

Chira sent me out on a hill for several days. I placed my bedding under cedar trees and gathered a few rocks to build an altar. I burned tobacco and sage as an offering to Spirit.

I had no food or water. Soon the land and the trees felt different. As night fell, I felt something else -- the presence of a bear. I know there are no bears in Texas, but I could definitely feel bear energy. The bear was a part of me, a part of my soul. Under the beautiful starlit sky, the bear and I merged. I was quiet and full of amazing, surging power.

A few hours before dawn, the Vision Quest staff members came to check on me. When they asked me how I was doing, I said I was one with the land, one with the animals, and one with bear. They nodded and left. I maintained my quiet vigil.

The next day, I spent my time observing ants and birds, trees and grasses, connecting with everything around me. I was beginning to realize I had to release the energies building up inside of me. This power had been accumulating all my life. I understood it was my raw-male-bear energy. I needed to turn this energy into my passion: moving into oneness with all things. This realization marked a new direction for my life; I started searching for how to connect to my heart, to my soul, and to the oneness.

On the following day, it was time to end my quest. I could have stayed under the trees forever. Sleep, food, and water seemed unimportant to me. I came down the hill quiet, happy, peaceful, and one with the world.

Shortly after the end of the Vision Quest, Chira asked me to teach HSH to the twenty senior students in her lodge. Chira thought it vital that they learn the HSH approach to spirit as she knew they would be powerful teachers. The students came from all walks of life and had experienced hard lessons. While some of them had been years in recovery, not one of them was afraid of life, and each had made a personal decision to show up and be fully present.

True to Chira's prediction, the graduates represented the finest class I ever trained. In the evening, after my last day of teaching, Chira invited a small group and me to stay for dinner and a small ceremony. The ceremony was for one of the students and two of my associate teachers who had petitioned Chira for their spiritual names, a sacred event in Lakota practice. It would be a fitting end to my wonderful experience at Wizard Wells and I agreed to stay for the ceremony before dinner.

Once again Spirit surprising me. As we assembled in the sitting room for the naming ceremony, I sat quietly off to Chira's right, showing respect for those receiving their names. The ceremony was beautiful and touching. At the very end, Chira stood right in front of me and said, "Dear one, while I was in ceremony receiving the names of those who requested them, Spirit gave me a name for you. It's up to you whether to accept it or not." Completely taken by surprise, I instinctively knew the moment was right. I nodded and was gifted the name Lightening Pole Star Warrior. At supper following the ceremony, Chira gifted me again. She leaned over and said quietly, "You know, when I travel to other dimensions I use the Pole Star to leave and enter this world."

This was the last conversation I had with Chira. In a few weeks she was dead. One morning she sat on her couch and waited for her daughter to pick her up and take her shopping. When her daughter arrived, less than a half hour after speaking with her mom, she found that Chira had passed over.

I was shocked when I heard Chira died. The family asked me to come to Wizard Wells right away and help plan her memorial service. Chira was very loved in the community, and they expected many people to attend the service. When I arrived, they asked me to come directly into her sitting room because they felt something was wrong in the room, and they wanted me to help clear it. Upon entering her sitting room, I felt a lot of chaotic energy. I spotted the apparent source right away. All of her talking sticks were gathered into one corner.

A talking stick is used in Lakota ceremony to bring respect to the speaker; only the person holding the stick is allowed to speak. The talking sticks had picked up the vibration of every ceremony Chira had either conducted or attended and they were all talking at once! I suggested the talking sticks be evenly placed around the room, and the family moved them. Instantly, the energetics of the room were balanced.

Later that same day, a family member brought me an object discovered in Chira's private room, close to where the talking sticks were originally gathered. At the time of its discovery, a memorial altar was being prepared with sacred objects from Chira's room. As items were gathered for the alter, a basket was accidentally overturned and this object was found wedged underneath. Because the object did not feel "right," the family brought it to me. Even as I touched the outer wrappings I knew something was very wrong.

I unwrapped the object and found the most diabolical amulet I had ever seen. It felt like pure evil, the essence of hate. Someone with a great knowledge had prepared it using Chira's hair and menstrual blood. The amulet was wrapped in magical veils and negative intentions. Were the talking sticks trying to bring this to our attention? I vowed I would find and deal with the energy behind the amulet if it was the last thing I did.

Spirit heard my vow and set me on a path of discovery. Within days, the clients I saw brought me clues to the origins of this killing energy. My first client was murdered (in a past life) in the Nazi death camp at Auchwitz. The Charles Manson family murdered a close friend of my second client. My third client had a bad experience in India with a world famous guru who fed off the sexual energy of his devotees. I knew I was dealing with a combination of power, ritual, and sex.

Spirit reinforced my insights when Chira's family called me. They had found some unusual books on her night stand, which included two books by Aleister Crowley, The Book of Four and Magic Without Tears, as well as an obscure book detailing specific tantric techniques. These books represented teachings from the left hand path, about which I knew nothing. This led to my research into several mystery schools and my focus on the eight brain states.