In fact, Siphokazi and Dana did indeed know each other. They had met a few weeks ago, but their first encounter was less kindred spirits meeting and more long lost friends reuniting. In rare instances, two people simply know each other from chance meetings or maybe intentional meetings from their past. With Dana and Siphokazi, this was one of those chance, not-so-chance encounters. Like a strange déjà vu. They both felt a sense of peace and comfort. It was as if they had been brother and sister in a past life time and were on a connected journey that involved guiding Sarina and Detective Holden concerning something involving the “Greater Beings.” Of course, Dana knew this all along. Dana knew that Siphokazi was not the same kind of being he was, but that she was a Safe Keeper. In the ancient Sumerian culture, a Safe Keeper is a being whose essence draws from the spirits of many healers. This person safeguards and passes on information in different media depending on the recipient. The information holds a key that unlocks a portal to the spirit world. In this time, the Safe Keeper Siphokazi passed on this information or key in the form of The Song.
Sarina was practically skipping home as the sidewalk felt bouncy. She ran up the stairs to her apartment and on the floor in front of her door was an envelope addressed only to “Sister.” She opened it and her door at the same time and inside the envelope was a recording of the song Siphokazi had promised her. The name of the song was titled “Bliss.”
Sarina looked around in surprise wondering how the CD had gotten to her apartment before she did. Sarina’s life over the past 48 hours had certainly been overflowing with mystery and intrigue, but she was feeling light and airy and believed it was her guides that had been taking care of her so she shrugged and put the disc in her player and listened to the wonderful music.
Sarina loved to dance and the colored fabrics hanging in her apartment seemed to come to life and before she knew what was happening she was pulling them down and around her as she danced around her apartment. Her apartment also seemed alive and she moved with the music with her apartment as her dance partner. The various artifacts on the nooks and crannies of her room virtually glowed with color and energy. The music played for what seemed hours and she was laughing and twirling until she collapsed with exhaustion on the floor. She lay on her floor for some time embraced with the colored fabric until the phone rang and brought her back to the present.
Riley was on the other end of the phone call and asked if seven o’clock was a good time for him to swing by take her out for dinner. She giggled and said sure. She hung up and took a few deep breaths and noticed it was 6:15. Oh Shit, she thought to herself. How long had she been dancing? Hours had indeed passed and she needed to collect herself and get dressed for her date. “Date,” she savored to herself. “When was the last time I went on a date,” she mused.
She quickly collected the fabrics and flung them onto her bed and thought that they actually belonged there. She quickly showered and frustratingly clawed through her closet for just the right outfit. She had no one to affirm what she was frantically attempting to find to wear when the phone rang again. Now what, she thought. It was Mary on the other end of the call. “Just checking in again, love,” Mary said.
“Shit Mary, I’m trying to pick out something to wear for my date tonight in … damn … 15 minutes!”
“What?! A date? You? With who, who darling?”
“Oh God, Mary, with Riley!”
“Riley, Riley who. Who’s Riley?”
“The detective who contacted me about Ann’s murder!”
“What the f – .”
“Mary, I’ll fill you in later. Right now I NEED HELP! I don’t know what to wear? Help me, PLEASE!”
“Uh … the blue skirt with the violet top and the purple wrap.”
“Right, thanks. I’ll call you later.”
“You better, sister, ciao.”
Sarina finished dressing and fluffing just as the knock came from the front door. A quick grab of the unworn clothes, thrown into the closet and a quick smoothing of her bed … “Why am I doing that?” she laughed.
Riley was smooth and slick; his clothes hung on his body like they were tailored just for him. Sarina was ravishing and they both stood in the doorway and soaked each other in.
“Oh … uh … sorry. Come in Riley. You look amazing.”
“So do you, Sarina.”
The awkwardness of a first date felt like high school for Sarina, not that she dated much in high school. The silence was deafening and they both broke out in laughter.
“You have a beautiful apartment,” Riley said.
“Thanks. I can tell you about how it found me over dinner.”
“‘Found you’? What are you talking about?”
“Uh ... Where are we going?”
Riley shot Sarina a suspicious eye. “I know a couple of fun restaurants in this district. One serves amazing South American food and the other South African. They are both wonderful. I know the owners of both so I am sure we will enjoy either place.”
“I just had an amazing experience with music from southern Africa so what do you say we explore that?”
“Sounds good to me, shall we go?”
Sarina and Riley walked the mile to the restaurant and talked about all kinds of things that had happened over the past days. Sarina mentioned the music experience at the Academy of Music gift shop and Riley stopped dead in his tracks. “What’s wrong, Riley?” she asked.
“What was the name of the song left at your door?”
“‘Bliss’”
“Sarina, when I got home, I also found an envelope at my door. It was a CD with a song called, ‘Bliss’ from a woman named Siphokazi. Do you know this woman?”
“She is the shopkeeper at the gift shop. Yes, I have known her for years.”
“What language is that? Where is she from?”
“Zulu, she is from South Africa and is a Sangoma.”
“What is a Sangoma?”
“A Sangoma is a native Zulu healer or shaman of sorts. You received the same song as me?”
“Sure seems that way. This is very strange like unseen forces are at work here. I’m not sure I like this. How do you see it?”
“One thing I’ve learned over the years is to look at all things as gifts …” Sarina’s eyes opened wide.
“What, Sarina. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just that Siphokazi’s name means ‘gift’ in English. Pretty incredible, don’t you think?” Sarina had a pleasant yet somewhat perplexed look on her face of which Riley took note.
“Fascinating, shall we go in?” Riley held the door open for Sarina.
The name of the restaurant was Yumma’s. They were seated in a prominent spot and catered to by Yumma himself, the owner of the restaurant. Riley spoke of the music and the shop owner who, of course, Yumma knew. He shared stories with Sarina and Riley about the old ways and what they meant. His comments about the spirit world were indeed compelling and Sarina fit right in with the topic. Riley was a bit lost but trusted that this conversation was meant to be.
At one point during the evening Yumma made reference to some ancient names from the Mayan culture. He mentioned Xbalanque’s name, which silenced Sarina immediately. Both the owner and Riley looked at Sarina’s shocked look on her face.
“What is it,” Riley asked.
“That name you just mentioned, I had a dream recently and that was one of the names. Why did you mention the name and how is it relevant?”
Yumma shared how the spirit world knows no cultural boundaries as they pertain to the spiritual healers, whether called Sangoma, Curandero, Shaman, or any other label. “They are as one in the spirit realm and we are all connected energetically to them. They represent the shadow and the light and we possess both of these traits in human form.” He continued to say that humans have separated and isolated light and dark and have veered from the old ways for personal indulgence. “The old ones know this and offer this knowledge in human form. Alas so many of us humans no longe
r believe in our own divinity. We look away from our own gifts as if someone else has control. This has been the reason for our poor choice of path as humans. The under lords know this and take advantage of our weaknesses. Powerful leaders are in place to prevent us from seeking out truths. Humans indulge in diversions to aid in our blindness and to cloud our free will and judgments. We follow those who entertain us and who promise us shallow evolution in the form of technology and science. We continue to separate ourselves from our own divinity. This, we must realize soon before it is too late.”
Sarina followed every word of this wise man and was collecting the energy as well as the language and realized his words were spoken from a deeper truth. In her own life she had come up against the barriers of external addictions and believed these external technological devices—computers, smart phones, and other electronic machines—were indeed strong and powerful tools preventing a greater awareness. She had witnessed her own children use technology as a barrier. Video games provided external stimulus and disconnected the players from their own divinity. True spirituality was elusive to this generation because of the intensely distracting entertainment and superficial connections generated by video gaming, emails, blogging, social media, and Web pages. We no longer form what I call councils to create solutions to global issues to make this world a better place to live, but instead, human individuals have isolated themselves to such an extent as to be asleep to their own demise as a species. In every direction the path of human destruction lies in both physical and virtual realities and humans seem powerless to stop it. The physical realities include climate change, terrorism, and pollution. Whereas these virtual realities manifest in the form of social media that minimizes physical human contact, video game addictions, personal cyber-privacy issues, government and corporations amassing and abusing private data, etc.
“I’m wondering about these external barriers to our own divinity. My boys played video games every day for hours and hours inside the house and lacked the motivation to explore much of anything else. Is technology really ending our society?” asked Sarina.
Yumma answered, “I am not saying that technology is misplaced in our culture; in fact I believe virtual experience is actually preparing many for ways to communicate on a spiritual plane. I am saying that, for many, it may be too late. If technology does prepare us, it may take too long for the technological advancements to work. Our young generation may be lost. We are running out of time”
“What do you mean when you say out of time,” Sarina asked?
“The Mayan calendar; there is a date for the end of a segment but this does not necessarily mean the end of time for the human race.”
“Is that date December 21, 2012? Just a couple of days ago”
“Yes.”
“Well, the world apparently did not come to an end, so what does the date mean?”
“You will be better served by speaking with someone with more solid information than I can provide.”
“Who might that be?”
“I mentioned his name before, Xbalanque. You may know him as Dana?”
“You mean the dark shadowy …”
“He is the one. Did he not leave you his calling card?”
“Yes, he did as a matter of fact.”
“Then go to him with your questions. In the meantime, enjoy your meal.”
Riley was staring at Sarina with inquisitive eyes, wondering what was about to occur. He wanted to barrage Sarina with questions but held back, giving her some space to collect and process her conversation with the owner of Yumma’s.
Sarina paused in deep concentration and finally said, “Riley, there is more I need to tell you.”
“I'm listening.”
“Thank you. But I think I really need to work this part out later. What I really want, right now, is to have dinner with you and enjoy letting the evening unfold.”
“Great! Shall we look at the menu?”
Sarina let out a slight chuckle and said, “Okay.”
The evening was delightful for both Sarina and Riley. They shared stories from their lives as children and laughed at how they were both awkward teenagers, not really sure how to navigate their adolescence. They found common ground while comparing notes. They both found high school to be socially challenging. Sarina was more interested in her academics in those days, which left less time for social interaction. Riley was focused on sports and band, which helped create social circles with less effort than other cliques that had formed around him.
Sarina shared how she had been motivated by the academics in college, which again had left little time to enjoy other interests. She graduated with honors as did Riley but for different reasons. Sarina followed the college prep path with AP classes. Riley followed the easier path, foregoing AP classes, making his high school days easier to complete.
They both loved the food and discussions. Even though she was quite academically gifted, much more so than Riley, it became clear that Sarina was driven more by intuition and less by intellect. Riley tended to use street smarts relying more on logic. This tilt was very obvious as she shared her love of astrology and numerology. Riley had some experience with these disciplines but realized Sarina was very gifted in these areas and his curiosity carried their discussions well into the night.
Chapter - Seven
Riley Holden grew up in a small town in Idaho. Riley had friends he had known most of his life and as childhood friends go, they were enough to help him through his adolescence navigating his interest in sports and girls. He had a few girlfriends, but nothing that lasted more than a few months or maybe a year.
Riley graduated high school and went on to the local community college. His provincial life was making him antsy and he felt uninspired. His only option in his mind to escape his limited and small town life was to join the military. Then he stumbled onto a campus job fair where he discovered that he could make a career in law enforcement. He decided to leave college and enter the local police academy when he was 19. He saw this as a way out.
Riley and his parents, Charles and Margaret, lived a modest and settled life in this small town, where many generations of his mother’s Native American family had lived. Margaret’s mother, Nash, was one of a long line of these Native women healers for whom visions were a part of the healer’s package. Like any small town family doctor, her mother was always rushing from patient to patient (mostly indigenous people). But her treatments were not like those of her allopathic counterparts because she used traditional herbs and potions along with incantations.
While Riley’s grandmother Nash was one of the tribe’s female healers, his grandfather Running Bear was one of the tribe’s male elder council members. The role of the male elder was to offer council to and hold sacred space for the female healers. They protected and preserved the health and balance of the entire tribe, which in turn offered a gift of balance to the entire Earth. The healers maintained the balance of the mind, body, and spirit of the people through the use of special herbs and incantations. The council members called in protection for the women through the use of chanting and drumming. Through this collaboration, the healers could perform their tasks for the good of all the people who believed that in turn a global healing was possible.
Margaret’s mother was one of only three healers remaining in that part of Idaho and was important to the large Native population of the region. So she was away from home more than Margaret wanted. As hard as the absence of her mother was on Margaret, the social ostracism that Margaret experienced was worse.
In Hayden Lake, the Native population was smaller than the White population. Although the dominant culture exerted all kinds of pressure on the Native Americans to assimilate, Margaret’s mother and father were impervious to such influences. Without doubt or hesitation, they continued the old practices in the early years of her childhood. Nevertheless, their traditional ways were discouraged by the town’s people and they themselves were treated with ridicule and disdain.
/> Unlike her parents, Margaret, who had lived since infancy in the White world, was desperate to fit in. She was deeply embarrassed by how the traditions of her mother and father reaped disrespect and insult from White adults and teasing from other children who called her “red skin” or “Injun.” Margaret’s humiliation was particularly intense because she so wanted her childhood to be “normal” like the White kids’.
Because of all the pain that she believed resulted from her mother’s insistence on practicing the old ways, Margaret committed to living a different life when she grew up. Her children would never experience all the teasing and lonely nights. Margaret vowed to never be a healer like her mother.
After she grew up, Margaret decided to leave behind those challenging times and what she termed “black magic” beliefs of her own mother for a life with Riley’s father, Lou who had served a tour in the U.S. Air Force in the mid-1950s. After his service, she married Lou, who was six years younger, and started a family and had three boys. She saw this as a way to live the typical American dream she had always craved with a conservative ex-military man whose morals and beliefs were easy to live with and were very predictable.
Riley’s mother died suddenly in a car accident when he was sixteen. Lou shut himself off from his children during his grieving process and remarried less than a year later. Riley’s new stepmother was harsh and strict and wanted all of Lou’s attention, which added to the emotional distance between Riley and his father. Riley wanted to grieve the loss of his mother with his father, but the relationship with his father all but ended after Lou remarried. Riley blamed his stepmother for the loss of his relationship with his father and retreated into himself.
Nevertheless, as the middle child, Riley assumed the traditional peacekeeping role, which satisfied him in terms of maintaining the relationships between his brothers and his parents. This peacekeeping ability also helped him deal with the loss of his mother and the emotional distance between him and his father to some degree. The three brothers offered support to one another and were able to process their mom’s death and their father’s emotional shutdown. They were closer in those years than ever and it was hard on Riley when his older brother, Frank, left the fold.
The Song_A mysterious tale of the Mayan spirit world and the Mayan calendar Page 13
