The Death of a White Buffalo; The Splitting of Giant Rock

There has been some good news and some sad news for those involved in advancing the evolution of world spirituality and peace. As I write this in early April, the worldwide peace vigil called Great Experiment II scheduled for April 23rd is still in the future. This is very good news. In fact, some of the developments that took place prior to the event that are nothing short of amazing.

The focal point for Great Experiment II was an event scheduled to take place near the Giant Rock in Joshua Tree, California. Giant Rock is the largest freestanding boulder in the world and was considered sacred to the Native Americans of that region. The Native Americans are no longer doing ceremonies in the area. However, on February 19th and 20th, Shri Naath Devi, a local shaman, was inspired to bring a number of powerful healers to the desert near Giant Rock to pray and meditate. She stated that an ancient Native American prophecy was about to be fulfilled. Many native people believed that when the rock split that "the Mother would open her arms to us all."

According to Shri Naath Devi, the earth itself was about to react with a violent upheaval (Joshua Tree is located in a highly unstable earthquake fault area). She stated that if the Mother accepted the prayers that were scheduled, then Giant Rock would split at the side, relieving pressure on the Earth's tectonic plates. If the prayers were not accepted, then Giant Rock would crack directly down the middle. The fact that Giant Rock has not moved for millions of years made the likelihood of such a change remote. But guess what - Giant Rock did, indeed, split. I received an e-mail about the occurrence, which was featured in the High Desert Star newspaper. Here is an excerpt about the split as it appears on the web site of James Twyman, one of the organizers of Great Experiment II (www.emissaryoflight.com - the site also contains some amazing pictures of Giant Rock):

"And yet, the next morning, to everyone's amazement, the boulder had not cracked; rather one-third of the rock had split and had fallen to the desert floor. Shri Naath Devi interpreted this in the most positive light. She said that the Mother had opened her arms to us, cracking open her heart for the whole world to see.

Fr. John [another powerful shaman and a Catholic priest from Los Angeles] was there for part of the prayer. He too felt the incredible shift and joined two of my assistants, LaurieJoy Pinkham and Will Clark, who had participated in the prayers with Shri Naath Devi. They had gathered at her house less than 24 hours later. As they stood in the kitchen discussing the events, lightning struck, sending a ball of light through the center of the house in a north/south direction. Within moments, lightning struck again and shot through the house in an east/west direction. This was a very auspicious moment and was witnessed by all four people. Shri Naath Devi declared that the prayers were now complete and that the lightning was honoring the four directions as a sign from the Mother that supported this completion. The boulder had split open only two hours prior to this gathering."

That was the good news. Unfortunately, I received a follow-up e-mail about the desecration of Giant Rock just two days after the split occurred. During the night, people came to paint profanity on the face of the boulder and to burn large objects atop the section that had separated from the original rock. All was not lost, however. A call went out for volunteers to join a 24-hour "Giant Rock Watch" and local residents offered to pay for the rock to be sandblasted to remove the graffiti. The organizers of the April 23rd peace vigil asked people to pray for "those who would rather cling to the old fears, and even try to pollute the Brilliant Light that is now upon us."

In late March, unfortunately, there was some more bad news. I received an e-mail stating that Medicine Wheel, the only white buffalo born on native soil in over one hundred years, had been killed in an act of senseless violence. My source stated that the information came from an article in the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper. I was able to verify the information via the Native American section of their web site (www.journalstar.com). Aside: If you're interested in Native American issues, check out this site. The articles are written by a fine Native American reporter named Jodi Rave.

Born May 9, 1996 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Medicine Wheel had been viewed as a symbol of hope, rebirth and unity for numerous Great Plains tribes. In Lakota spiritual history, the white buffalo represents the White Buffalo Calf Woman who visited their villages about 2,000 years ago and taught them their seven sacred ceremonies and their four great virtues: courage, wisdom, generosity and fortitude. Before she left, the holy woman told the people that she would return one day, and that a sign of her arrival would be the white buffalo calf. One version of the White Buffalo prophesy states that the calf would be born white, but would change in color to black, yellow, red and then back to white. The color changes represent the colors of the four peoples of the world and would signal the beginning of unity and harmony among all people.

It was disconcerting, to say the least, to hear about the white buffalo's death. Medicine Wheel had been in her black phase when she apparently was spotted running down a road near the Red Cloud community by police officer Alex Morgan. Morgan and tribal member Leon Poor Bear pursued the animal. "We tried to chase it back down the road, but it would put down his head and charge us," Morgan later wrote in his report. "I told Leon to shoot the buffalo for the safety of the community."

Medicine Wheel's death was bad news for the Pine Ridge community. Looks For Buffalo, a spokesman for a group called Grassroots Oyate, stated that the buffalo's death is a sign that life for American Indian people will get worse before it gets better. Joe Merrival, another tribal spokesperson, stated that the animal's hair and bones would be used "for spiritual purposes."

Does Medicine Wheel's death signal a reversal in the efforts to bring spiritual awareness and harmony to the earth? Probably not. According to Chief Avrol Looking Horse, the 19th generation Keeper of the Buffalo Calf Pipe, it was the birth of the white buffalo calf Miracle in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1994 that signaled the beginning of the shift toward world harmony. Since Miracle's birth there have been at least three other white buffalo calves that have been born.. It was Miracle's birth that inspired Chief Looking Horse to begin sponsoring annual World Peace Vigils on June 21st at various sacred sites. The vigils began in 1996 and continue this year with World Peace and Prayer 2000 Black Hills, June 18-21, at the Ditch Creek Campgrounds in South Dakota (for more information go to http://worldpeaceday.com/2000).

While reading the information at Chief Avrol Looking Horse's original 1996 web site (http://indy4.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/arvol/), I took solace in the words from an interview with Joseph Chasing Horse: "No matter what happens to Miracle in the coming months and years, Joseph Chasing Horse says the birth is a sign from the Great Spirit and the ensuing age."

At his worldpeaceday.com site, Chief Avrol Looking Horse states that humanity is at a crossroads. "Human kind has to make a decision and have courage to stand for Peace," he says, "even when their relatives' minds are restrained from spiritual awareness of healing the mind. We still have a chance to choose to make a change."

So, the main thing to remember is that we must persevere and not give up hope. Joining in peace vigils like Great Experiment II and World Peace and Prayer 2000 Black Hills is important: you can join in mind even if you can't attend the actual events. And remember, these vigils are not in competition. For example, a very beautiful thing happened on the way to finishing this column. The original e-mail that I received about the death of Medicine Wheel was from one of the organizers of Great Experiment II. My research on Alta Vista led me to Chief Avrol Looking Horse's site about World Peace and Prayer 2000 Black Hills. Right there on the home page was information urging readers to pray for world peace on April 23rd during Great Experiment II. How's that for coming full circle and being shown that everything in inter-related?

Do you have a favorite spiritual or personal growth Web site that you'd like me to review? Please drop me an e-mail at Monty764@aol.com.

Mary Montgomery-Clifford is a certified web author and developer. Her company, Montgomery Media Enterprises ("Freelancing with Finesse!"), specializes in public relations, events, promotions, writing project and web authoring, development and publicity. Contact her via e-mail at Monty764@aol.com, by phone at 773-235-8821 or at her web site at www.montymedia.com.

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