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The Long Dance ceremony is brought to us by Beautiful Painted Arrow (Joseph Rael) Native American Medicine man, Visionary, Mystic and author from the Souther Ute and Picuri Pueblo Native Nations. Before the dance all dancers paint a banner where they materialize their pourpose for the dance: What it is they want to leave behind in their lives, what they want to call into their lives and what their wishes are for others and the world at large. Traditionally we dance all night around a fire within a circle enclosure; half the night in one direction, the other in the opposite direction, working the spirals of energy to first go deep within where matter implodes and we are purified of that which we wish to leave behind in our lives, and then when we change to the upward spiral, we send forth prayers and blessings to the universe and also receive them, as our wishes for the future are potentiated and realized through the energy we set in motion through our dance steps. The earth we take out from the fire pit in the middle is placed in front of the entrance on the eastern side of the circle enclosure, and becomes the earth altar, where we place offerings, flowers, cornmeal and candles, and where dancers can go pray anytime during the dance. We dance from sun down to sunrise mostly without stopping. Each dancer is welcome to play instruments while they move around the fire in one or another direction. The San Pedro Long Dance Ceremony is a variation created by Miguel A. Kavlin, Bolivian Shaman and apprentice to Beautiful Painted Arrow, who named him the caretaker and chief of the Bolivian Sun-moon Dance which is being danced for eight years now.. This variation was inspired by his work with the magical and sacred cactus of the Andes, San Pedro (achuma). Before the San Pedro Long Dance Ceremony we prepare a burnt-offering ceremony in the Andean tradition, to propitiate the Great Spirit, the Grandfathers and Grandmothers of the four directions, All Enlightened Beings, The Mountain Guardians (Achachilas), Spirits of Sacred Places (Huacas), Ancestors (awichas), Mother earth and local guardians in order to obtain their permission and help in conducting the dance.
In the center is the fire where all is one and all pollution and contamination is consumed and transformed, and wherefrom blessings ensue to guide us towards the integration of our manifold dislocated and uncoordinated energies into the one heart. When they want or need dancers kneel in front of the fire to pray and offer cedar or cornmeal or coca leaves. In the San Pedro Long Dance Ceremony participants in the dance consume an amount of the sacerd cactus and enter the healing and cleansing process which it brings along. An incredible amount of work is done in one night, where with everystep we set energy in motion and are able to transcend obstascles carried within, sometimes for entire lifetimes. Some of the participants enter into pastlife experiences in order to free themselves from their naegative charge in the present. One dramatic example is of two ladies who during one dance both entered into a state of great suffering and wailing, breathing very fast. This lasted for a long time until they where able to relax and rest in peace. As they told us afterwatds, they where seeing a life where they where both burnt unjustly at the stake, accused of witchcraftŠsubsequently they entered a state where they saw themselves dying and giving birth simultaneously. It was a rebirthing experience that freed them from the past and allowed them a free start in this life. Another lady completely lost her sense of self into a seeming chaos, only to find herself back in full consciousness, only this time in onneness with the Great Spirit, feeling the perfection of it all and herself in harmony with all of creation. It is through the sacred songs that Miguel was taught, both by beautiful painted Arrow as well as his amazonian techer, Don Agustin Rivas vazques, and others directly by the spirits, that all these processes are kept within safe bounds and the entire process carried out without any harm to participants. No matter how intense the process during the ceremony is, by the time we come around to finishing the ceremony, everybody is safely brought back to themselves, only free of some of their burdens, full of insight and blessings, and ready to enter back into their lives with renewed energy, vision and insight. To do so the shaman blesses each
dancer with the sacred smoke at key places in their bodies, helping
to expell anr remaining negativities attached to the dancers,
blessings the energy pathways of the body, and closing the chackras
so that dancers can safely reenter the world. Once a year Miguel tours Europe, Canada and the US, and also takes people on journeys through the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes and Amazon.
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