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The 11th Cycle Pilgrimage: June, 2000 by Tomás Pinkson  
All the Pilgrims are home safely now, a bit tired perhaps, but very grateful for the gifts of the journey. We came through some tough weather that could have been disastrous but each time we needed an opening, we got it. The presence and power of all of your prayers in our support was a tangible force in helping open the "weather doors" and I am deeply grateful. I thank you very much. The first group of pilgrims was blessed with very good weather--warm sun and clear blue skies. Well, almost all good weather. For those of us holding the ladder down at Horsecamp, we had a real scare when fantastically shaped lenticular clouds came in while some of our team was up above Red Banks and heading for the summit plateau. From the lower vantage point it looked like the entire area above the Banks was in white-out conditions. Sitting on the bench in front of the Sierra Club hut with my prayer arrow and muviere's, drumming and praying for hours on end with other group members, I felt the ladder that extended up in to the dark heights from its grounded roots back in the San Francisco Bay Area--all those relatives praying together for the safety and success of our journey, and the power of love flowing up and back down its length filling us all with the kupuri of the sacred mountain and the medicine singing of Mis Misa. We kept pouring protection prayers up the ladder praying for their safety and rejoiced many hours later when, through powerful binoculars, we finally were able to make out their forms descending Avalanche Gulch. Two pilgrims made it up to the summit plateau bringing sacred arrows carrying prayers for many relatives and loved ones. Upon their return they spoke movingly of the power they felt running up the ladder that helped them overcome their fatigue and winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour to reach their goal and return back to base safe and sound. The second group of pilgrims ran in to a cold front and rain that seemed at first like it would keep us from even hiking in to base camp. But early afternoon the skies opened and we were able to hike in and set up our tents just before a snow storm hit. We had been hiking on snow since we left the cars, were camped on snow, and now we had the beauty of big snow flakes pouring down from the heavens, sun shinning through clouds and the soft hush of the wind-driven snow swirling all around us. Later that evening the snow let up and we formed our plan for the morrow. We would get up at 1 am and look out the tent. If we saw stars, we'd go for it. It not, we'd go back to sleep. Very sophisticated strategy I know. Wake-up call came at 1:20 am and awoke me from a fitful sleep. I zipped opened my tent and looked up in to a star-studded sky. "Let's go for it!" I hollered out to my compadres. A hour later, crampons attached to our boots and headlights showing us where to place our feet, we set out on four inches of freshly fallen snow. We hadn't gone more than several hundred yards when ominous fog came up from the lowlands and even darker clouds moved down from the heights. Soon the stars were obliterated and visibility very limited. Concerned for our safety and not wanting to push on in bad weather that could deteriorate into another snow fall, I sent out a prayer for help. "Tatewar?--Grandfather Fire, Kauyumari--Deer Spirit, Akoo Yet and Mis Misa, Spirit of the Sacred Mountain, Tatema,--Sky Father, we need your help. I am frightened about what I see and the danger that could find ourselves in. I ask that you, Kauyumari, go up in to the clouds and use your antlers to create an opening for the people to pass safely through on the way up and on the way down. With all of your help, if this is for our greatest good, I ask that you do this for us now. MAY IT BE SO. Aho. Pompadios." Then I started singing a song to Kauyumari to give our strength to the work Deer Spirit was doing for us. Almost immediately I felt the surge of all the rungs on the prayer ladder--from relatives back in Marin, two staying at Gatehouse in Mt. Shasta City, two back at Horsecamp, and many more, pouring their kupuri up the ladder to help us go forward in a good way. Fifteen minutes later the sky was clear! We could see the stars again and hours later when Father Sun came up over the ridge, the sky was still clear for a beautiful sunrise, and it stayed clear for most of the time we were on the mountain. All the climbers went forward in a strong and steady progression, the results of a year of training and unbinding intent and will. Everyone of them had a chance to make it up to the summit plateau, until driven back by the combined effects of freezing temperatures that froze the water in our canteens as we were climbing, altitude sickness, high winds above the Red Banks and the threat of returning weather. Over the past eleven years I have witnessed the wisdom of the Mountain stopping each person at the place where there Is important medicine testings and teachings for their lives. Each person then becomes another rung in the ladder that enables the others to continue climbing until they too find the place of their greatest medicine. It has become increasingly clear to me over the course of these many pilgrimages experiences, no one rung is more important than another. Take one rung away and the whole team is stopped. Each rung is needed, each person and their placement is vitally important to the entire venture. It really isn't about who gets higher physically on the mountain though it certainly appears that way on the surface, especially coming from a culture that is constantly measuring, comparing and evaluating performance and competition of one against the other. But the success of this pilgrimage is determined by how deeply we can open our hearts, how sensitively we can attune ourselves to the soft medicine singing of Mis Misa, and how kindly we can treat ourselves and each other as we face the challenges of a mighty mountain that makes its own weather which can change in an instant--a mountain that claims at least one person a year in death and which just last week allowed rescuers to find the body of a young climber who died in a storm this past April. Our success was huge. Both groups showed tremendous valor, courage, soul strength and physical strength, love, caring and skillful, mindful behavior. Later each pilgrim shared in circle around Tatewar? how Mis Misa spoke to them and the medicine they received. To be in their presence and the magnificence of their being, and the magnificence of this great, beautiful, powerful Mountain of Wisdom in the full majesty of Great Spirit's Creation, is truly a privilege I will never forget. Almost every person spoke about the ladder and how the prayers and love ran both upward and downward in a great rush of power and beauty uniting us all. I went to the mountain feeling very sick and weak with a bad cold. I returned from the two climbs feeling healed and healthy. I couldn't have done it, we couldn't have done it, the weather nierica's opening whenever we needed them for our safety, couldn't have happened without the unified line of power that was the love of the community coming up that prayer ladder. It reminds me of the Huichol Pilgrimage and how at one place of great danger the Mara 'akame asks Kauyumari to fly up in to the sky and hold the Crashing Clouds open for a few moments so the pilgrims can safely pass through the doorway on the way to Wiricuta before they violently crash together again smashing the pilgrims in the process. The power for the shaman to do this work comes from the unity of the pilgrims, the unity of the relatives back at the rancho who keep Tatewar? going the whole time and whose prayers form a conduit that strengthens the work of the Mara 'akame who delivers the message to the Gods and Goddesses who do the actual work. This is all based on respectful right relationship of everyone in the community. Sincerity, love, caring and a willingness to give to help the other in bringing through the greatest good for all. This is the medicine. It worked for us up on the mountain. Deep appreciation to you all that helped create and maintain the ladder. Without you this story would have a very different ending. Ho!
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