Ann’s move to the Bay area was prompted when she interviewed for her dream job working for the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, CA. She stumbled into the job through a close friend’s connection. Her friend knew of Ann’s history, her love of space and how she worked with her father and thought this might be a great fit. In turn, Ann’s experience working for nonprofit organizations along with her earlier volunteer positions while in college turned out to be helpful; she was gifted at organizing documents and photographs and converting them into outreach programs connecting people to other like-minded individuals. The position open at S.E.T.I. was in the Education and Outreach department, and Ann saw this as a possible way to help in her quest to discover the truth about her father’s work. Somehow she believed her father’s disappearance was connected to other forms of life beyond Earth’s community and she needed a change of environment.
Ann moved to Mountain View and settled into her new job and found a house in a quiet neighborhood. She tried to find a connection to Jack’s disappearance and beings from another part of the galaxy but was never able make any solid connections. As time went on, Ann began to sense that she might never find anything relative to the day her father walked out of his family’s life, now more than thirty years ago.
It was a typical chilly December night, and after years in Mountain View working for S.E.T.I., and after what had started out to be another lonely night for Ann, it changed abruptly when she heard her mailbox squeak open and close. It was too late for the usual mail; besides she had already taken it in earlier that afternoon. Ann had settled in for the night and changed out of her clothes she wore for work. She was not a pretentious person and her wardrobe reflected that. She was tall and thin and liked simple things. She wore jeans and a t-shirt. Her brilliant red hair was generally tied back and off her shoulders revealing her fair features. Ann rarely wore make-up as her skin was soft and unblemished. She was well built and strong. She worked out three times a week and rode her bike most days to work. The days had become colder so she had a few coats hanging by the door. So Ann had jumped up, gathered all her courage, and whipped open the door to see if she could glimpse who had been right outside her door just a moment before. She was frightened but was prepared to run outside with one of the coats that hung by the door. To do what? She thought. Chase down the figure? Her neighborhood was generally safe with very little crime. In fact, there had been no break-ins or attacks since she moved into her home, but still she was a bit frightened by the shadowy figure she saw through the privacy glass in her front door. The tension was high as she stood there with her hand on the door handle. Ann swallowed and swung open the door ready to scream, but the person was gone, leaving her mailbox open and a note dangling from one corner.
Ann stood there with her coat in one hand wondering what she might have done. She was capable of defending herself but realized how foolish she had been. She looked around and saw no one in her yard or on the street. The person must have been an Olympic runner to get out of her sight so quickly. It was as if the person had simply disappeared. The mailbox was close enough to her front door and out of the elements so she didn’t bother to slip on her coat and just took a step and snatched the note from the box. She took another quick glance to see if the person was running down the street and, satisfied that no one was around, she backed inside, slammed the door, and opened the note.
Looking at, feeling, and smelling the old stationery, she began to feel light headed and images of her entire life began to flood her consciousness. She steadied herself against the wall as she replayed past events, one after another. It was as if she was watching a movie in fast motion where she was the main character. First she was a little girl, then she was a teenager, then she was a young adult and finally she was in her house in Mountain View. A second later she was racing at high speed through the streets of the city when she saw Sarina’s face just before a bright blue flash of light and then everything went dark.
Chapter - One
The date was December 21, 2012 at 4:30 in the morning shortly after the official winter solstice at 3:12 when Sarina was violently awakened by a searing blue flash, a loud bang, and a woman screaming out Sarina’s name!
Sarina was short of breath and exhausted. Her chest heaved as she tried to regain her equilibrium and slow her racing heart. Her nightshirt was clinging to her body; she was sweating as if she had been running feverishly. But from what? The sweat made Sarina realize how dry her mouth was, and she groped a glass of water on her nightstand knocking her clock to the floor in the process. “Shit,” she muttered. Draining the glass, she fell back into the covers and recounted her dream. Then she ran her hand over the floor alongside the bed searching for a pen and notebook in which to write whatever she remembered.
But her dream had had so many unusual components. Green light surrounded by a mist or fog of some kind. Voices singing or chanting, soft and soothing at first then amplified to a shrieking frenzy! Most important were the names, 13 in all. Four of these names, her own name—Sarina, her sister’s name—Ann, her mother’s name—Mona, and her father’s name—Jack, were the only names she recognized. The next two names were unfamiliar to her. One of the names, Riley, she recognized in some distant way but could not quite put it into context. The other name, Dana, she simply did not know.
Sarina knew of the seven other names because of her work with ancient cultures. She recognized them as gods from the Mayan people and yet they made no sense to her in the context of her dream. Their names were Ixchel, Akna, Chac, Camazotz, Xbalanque, Hunahpu, and Cum-Hau. She scribbled the names phonetically, unsure of their true spellings.
Sarina’s dreams, unlike most people, revolved around mysticism and the underworld. Images and chants permeated her space during these dreams and, although to anyone else they may have appeared fanciful, to Sarina they were very tangible. Beings appeared in shrouded cloaks chanting and drumming and the voices began as faint whispers. In this way, her current dream was very familiar and, yet, something was different and unsettling. Who was the screaming woman, whose name, voice, or face she recognized but wasn’t able to place? she thought. Sarina knew plenty about the old belief systems now long faded away. Her passion for learning took her around the world exploring various cultures, collaborating with others through her research listening rapt to their stories, always eager to learn the old ways. And why were the names of my family associated with the ancient Mayan gods? Sarina wondered. Maybe the answers lie in the ancient cultures, and descendants of many of these cultures, often just smaller fragments, still exist today.
Sarina had visited many of these small villages with wrinkled grandmothers who shared these old ways and from whom Sarina learned their customs and rituals. Sarina hungered for this knowledge, which was less academic and more soul- or heart-based. It was a knowledge based on connection, on the ability to communicate. And communication was very important to Sarina, something she learned from her falling out with Ann. She now realized, as an adult, that Ann was never to blame for her relationship with Jack. Worse, as a away to assuage her bitterness and hurt she felt from her father’s blindness, Sarina had let that misplaced blame become a barrier to communicating with Ann. From that loss, Sarina had vowed to never let anything interfere in her communications with others.
One result was that she intentionally learned the local language wherever she traveled so that communication was better. Even if she wasn’t fluent, having a basic ability to speak with other people in their own tongue helped Sarina gain the trust of the villagers. Once these connections were made, the information Sarina sought was gladly shared by these women from around the world.
Sarina traveled to distant Siberian tribes where the oldest Shamans lived, some over 120 years old. She traveled to the ancient plains of Africa where the Sangomas lived, where the very beginning of the Human race emerged. But the most fascinating part of the world for her, as it was for others in her family, was the Central Ameri
can jungles of the Mayan people in Guatemala where the Curanderos lived.
The old ways of these people somehow felt close to Sarina, likely because of her father’s research. But unlike her father, Sarina was less interested in the logical or computational aspects of these people. Although she knew that her father had influenced her research with these people, her desire to understand the rituals was more in harmony with her own life. She was not sure why, but she had come to believe that logic was for academics with limited views.
Sarina knew it was her academic education that opened doors for her, but still she was less than enthusiastic about the limitations of institutions of higher learning; her hunger for more than what these institutions might offer was what drove Sarina to these distant parts of the world. A message was hidden somewhere in the ancient rituals, and she wanted to unravel the codes deeply steeped within them.
Sarina grew up in her early years with a military father and a devoted mother. As an adolescent, she explored her desire to be closer to God through fundamentalist Christianity. This was in part because, after her father had abandoned them, her mother renewed a connection to her own Christianity, which her father had never explored and did not support for his children. But with Jack gone, Mona had wanted Sarina to believe as she did, but Sarina was on her own different yet somewhat related spiritual path. And that path led Sarina, by the time she was eleven years old, to a knowing that she would model her life on the disciples of Jesus by choosing a life of service.
Sarina’s deep love of Christ led her on her own unique journey where, as an adult, through different nonprofit organizations, she became a devoted caregiver to people who were displaced without shelter in the Midwest. She was selfless in her efforts to heal the wounds of these groups in American society and had spread the spoken word of Jesus to others who were willing to listen. During those first years after Sarina left home, she pursued an undergraduate degree in art therapy in the Midwest and used her training as an art therapist as an important component during her years of serving the underprivileged and mentally challenged inner city street population. As an art therapist, she was able to connect with people who had experienced trauma and helped them to express emotions that were necessary for their healing process through the use of artistic expression. By healing some of her or his emotional woundedness, a person living on the margins of society was able to make new choices based on a reclaimed wholeness rather than a brokenness stemming from some abuse or addiction. Sarina’s ministry helped many to become active members within their communities again.
It was in the Midwest where Sarina met her husband, married, and bore two wonderful boys. Her new family moved away from the Midwest and found a new home on the west coast on a community farm between Portland, OR and Seattle, WA and continued to be in service to the less fortunate. She devoted her life to helping people and bore two more boys in the community near the farm where her family lived.
During these times of her life, Sarina began to explore more Earth-based beliefs and looked beyond her Christian roots. She learned more about astrology and numerology and the ancient civilizations bound by doctrines eons older than biblical times. For Sarina, these older Earth-honoring ways seemed more connected to a grounded way of existence. Sarina never completely let go of her Christian beliefs, which she realized she did not have to do because she soon discovered that her established Christian beliefs, at their heart, had roots in her new more Earth-grounded beliefs.
Sarina and her family again moved, this time to a community north of Seattle, WA in the San Juan Islands. It was here, on Shaw Island, where she journeyed deeper into the mystical and spiritual ideals of the human species. Sarina began to unravel deeper meanings of her own mystery. She knew she wanted more and this island offered her a container to explore. Her beliefs continued changing from a traditional Christian model to a hybrid of Christianity and Earth-based systems.
That small island not far, and yet a world away, from Seattle was a place of emotional and spiritual rebirth for many of its inhabitants. People moved to the island to seek a reprieve from the demands of a mainland of life. On the island, nature was easily accessible and social groups were smaller and more intimate. Many saw this place as a cradle for growth, a place to discard old patterns and embrace new ideals. Intuitives have named this island the island of adolescence. The island seemed to allow people to relive and heal their adolescence and re-experience a growth into a new maturity. For some, once this journey toward maturity was complete, the time to move on emerged, which is what happened for Sarina.
Sarina and her family left the island to live in the Southeast where she followed a nine-year journey of artistic inquiry. She was a gifted art therapist and, true to her desire to live in service, worked with underprivileged local children and adults using her skills in art therapy to heal others. This work fed her soul.
Sarina also took a position as a middle school art teacher in her small rural county for five years and co-created beautiful art murals in the schools with her students as she offered her therapeutic healing experience to those who sought her out. During this portion of her life’s journey, the local art community also fed her soul. She enhanced her experience by teaching at a local School of Arts and Crafts for older students. This refuge of higher artistic learning offered Sarina opportunities to grow into deeper levels through her artistic expression with less academic influence. These were times of great transformation for Sarina. Her journey was also including institutions of higher learning but not in traditional ways. She was able to engage her talents using her artistic pursuits while helping others as well as herself.
Sarina and her husband divorced a few years after their move to the Southeast. Her children grew and moved on, following their own paths in the world. The local school system no longer served her and an unsettled almost restless feeling began to emerge. Something was drawing her in a new direction.
Sarina decided to pursue her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Expressive Arts. Not so much to return to the halls of public education but more to connect with a new community of heightened process. She was invited into her cohort because she brought fresh perspective and greater interest to explore less academic process and more artistic process. She met many new and evolved individuals and found deep connection with them. The idea of others who were also drawn away from the status quo towards a more cosmic way of thinking was alluring. As she progressed through her doctorate journey, Sarina began to connect these cosmic perspectives to her deep longing to serve others using a variety of tools.
Sarina possessed knowledge of astrology and numerology which allowed her to help others navigate their own journeys. Many of the members of her cohort asked Sarina to do readings for them. These readings fell in line with the way Sarina engaged the world through her art: she was able to introduce these intuitively creative tools to better serve others. Her artistic sense was more of a right brain, creative style and gave birth to her passion for astrology and numerology. Her fit into the academic world with the tools and knowledge she possessed was perfect.
Her doctorate program lasted for three years and with her Ed.D in Educational Leadership and PhD in Expressive Arts now in her back pocket, she diverged from her academic path toward a distant calling to the old ways and thus began her life of travel and adventure into the old indigenous cultures. Sarina’s education involved the exploration of artistic expression, which was practiced by most ancient cultures. Her education helped her better understand how these ancient cultures solved their internal issues as a group through their rituals with the use of artistic expression. When words are not sufficient, the people drew their issues in sand or as cave paintings that helped them express how they were feeling. The wise elders were then able to interpret these images much the way a modern therapist can.
Sarina often called upon the stars and numbers to guide her as she explored these non-verbal ways to communicate when the people she worked with “drew in their sand” or “pa
inted on their cave walls” She developed her deeper intuitive self and continued feeling drawn to the ancients and their enlightened ways.
Sarina realized that some scholars might perceive her intuitive methods as a bit of a stretch. But in her heart she knew how her education, along with her tools and natural gifts, helped serve her deeper intuitive beliefs.
This way of being was about to be tested as her emotions were going to be full and powerful and many new paths were about to open for her and choices were going to be challenging, challenging in ways not susceptible to the usual academic ways of perceiving the world. The challenge these paths were about to present to Sarina would require another way of knowing, another way of being present and mindful in any situation. Sarina had proven to herself and to her colleagues just how valuable her academic knowledge, intuitive tools, and natural gifts served her and others. Her first path opened at 4:30 this morning of the 2012 Winter Solstice, the end and beginning of a new era of the Mayan calendar.
But Sarina did not know that yet. Instead, she was still focusing on what she thought was her greatest adventure, now on the horizon. She had recently secured a grant from a renowned spiritual organization to research the thirteen Grandmothers of the thirteen nations. These multicultural elders came together to be of service to humanity and Sarina was thrilled to document their journey over the next few months.
On this day, December 21, 2012, Sarina was to prepare for this amazing journey to the heart of the Mayan lands in Guatemala, Central America, where the thirteen Grandmothers were to meet in closed council. Sarina was one of three chosen to witness this meeting, an honor to be sure.
As metaphysical and mystical as the Guatemala journey was likely to be for her, Sarina had no idea that her life was about to take a deeper and much more spiritually profound twist after she answered her now ringing phone. Who could be calling at 6:30 in the morning?
The Song_A mysterious tale of the Mayan spirit world and the Mayan calendar Page 5
