Act IV ~ Loving The Wetikó
Episode Music ~ Umunipsha: A Homage To Hummingbirds
The hummingbird is a symbol for accomplishing that which seems impossible. It will teach you how to find the miracle of joyful living from your own life circumstances.
–Ted Andrews–
I admit that I am biased…but, for me, The Hummingbird is hands down THE BEST bird!
Sure…of course…other birds are amazing, beautiful, and inspiring as well…but they are ALL “competing” for a distant second, in comparison to the place where Hummingbirds hover in my heart.
Truly, as I imagine it is for most people, I have been fascinated by the smallest bird in the world throughout my life. After all, no other bird can fly backwards, hover in mid-air, or fly upside-down!
UPSIDE-DOWN?!?!
Whaaat?!?!
Male Hummingbirds, when pulling up out of their ceremonial mating dive, are influenced by more g-forces (by weight ratio) than a pilot pulling up out of a dive in a fighter jet!
Whaaaaat?!?!?!
I could go on and on about the unique, mind-blowing, qualities that separate Hummingbirds from all other birds…but, instead, please click on the link below and enjoy Brian Doyle’s short piece…synchronously shared with me for the first time on my birthday a couple weeks ago. Brian offers a beautiful and inspiring perspective on some of The Hummingbird’s amazing attributes…to say the least, it warmed my heart:
Brian Doyle’s, “Joyas Voladoras”
My strong bias towards The Hummingbird began when I learned…a few years ago…about a particular aspect of my Mayan Astrological birth chart, seen below:
Without going into too much detail, the Mayan birth chart involves the concept of a “Destiny” or “Elder” Sun Sign which we begin to…energetically…”move into” at the age of 26.
For the Maya, 26 is when the Sun Sign under which we are born reaches its peak influence, whereas the Destiny/Elder Sun Sign’s energy peaks (in terms of its influence during our lives) at the age of 52…and has run its course completely by the time we reach 78 years of age.
As my birth Sun Sign is Ix (Jaguar), the Destiny Sun Sign for my chart is, Ik’ (Wind). Obviously the jaguar is the animal totem for the Jaguar Sun Sign…
…and the animal totem for the Wind Sun Sign is The Hummingbird!
This is true for all those born with Jaguar as their Sun Sign.
As I am meow 48 years old, I am approaching that “peak influence” age of 52 and…over the past 5 years or so…have become more and more in Love with Hummingbirds…as I have attended more and more to their role as a Spirit Guide, for the ongoing Hero’s Journey of my life story!
It certainly helps that…living in San Diego…they “hang out with me” year-round because of the paradise-like climate here!
I have feeders for them set up in the front and back of my apartment, so I see them up close (sometimes within inches) literally dozens of times every day!
For example:
We do not create our destiny; we participate in its unfolding. Synchronicity works as a catalyst toward the working out of that destiny.
–David Richo–
What an amazing power to wield, eh?
Umunipsha
I would say the hummingbird really deserves the royalties on some of my songs.
–Leonard Cohen–
While in Big Sur for my birthday earlier this month, I was hiking along the trail to see the iconic “McWay Falls”…
…and I came across a new-to-me sign that was either installed since the last time I walked this particular trail…or I just hadn’t noticed it before.
I’m not always drawn to read signs along hiking paths, but this one “called me in” to take a closer look.
The first thing that caught my attention, was that the indigenous people from that area of California…The Esselens…have been living there, seasonally, for ~10,000 years!
I don’t know why…maybe because of how much I Love Big Sur…but that’s just badass to me and something about reading that statement seemed to heighten my awareness of the energy around me…noticeably.
Pulling me deeply into the present moment, I felt as if I’d stepped into a temple or a Sacred site of some sort.
It caused me to temporarily ignore my primary purpose for being on this trail…to see the falls…and allowed me to become fully engaged with this sign.
Like a cat fastidiously following a laser dot, my eyes darted around the sign…absorbing the various images portrayed in the artwork…moving from the words at the top left, to the eagle and shoreline/ocean vista on the top right, and then to the people on the bottom left side of the piece.
It wasn’t until after I’d focused upon all of those other aspects of the image, however, that my eyes fell upon The Hummingbird…and I realized that I hadn’t fully noticed its presence in the art piece until this moment!
As if it was hiding in plain site…directly in front of me!
This came as a slight surprise to me, at the time, because of how much I Love Hummingbirds…so much so that I prefer to CAPITALIZE and “colorize” their NAME!…and yet it was the last thing I noticed!
But…then…I am:
As I read the Esselean NAME!, “Umunipsha,” I began to sound it out in my head…syllable-by-syllable…in an attempt to determine how they pronounce it.
Various incarnations presented themselves to be considered…
Um-uni-psha?
Um-un-ip-sha?
Umu-nip-sha?
U-Mu-Nip-Sha?
I cannot say exactly in which order these came to me…but what kept coming back to me was, “U-Mu-Nip-Sha”…and without thinking…I slowly began to repeat that pronunciation over-and-over.
As I walked away from the sign, to continue my journey…again without a conscious intention…I noticed that the sound of each syllable was aligning with each step I took along the path to the falls!
Before I knew it, the repeating NAME! had taken on a chant-like vibe in my mind…spiraling through me over and over again, with each four full footsteps, as I arrived in view of the falls.
As you can imagine…I was NOT in a hurry to walk away from this view…it is SO spectacular, after all, that I felt guided to include it twice in this piece! 😛
But after I’d sufficiently soaked it in, I began the walk back to my car and…as I approached the sign again…the chant started to repeat in my mind…again.
But this time, there was a drum beat too…and as I stopped and stood in front of the sign for the second time…I discerned that this was a song coming through me!
I believe my exact words…which I enthusiastically exclaimed out loud to myself…were, “Hooooolllllly SHIIIIIT…this is a song!”
I stood with the sign for a few more reverence-filled moments…thanking the Esseleans and The Hummingbird for the Sacred Gift I had just received through this experience…and then I walked on…the chant continuing to align with my footsteps…but fading slowly away as I moved further from the sign.
So, I stopped and walked back the other way…and it got louder again! Naaahhhh, I’m just being silly…that last part didn’t happen! 😛
As I had another hike planned…to see another waterfall…I decided to let this inspiration simmer vs. immediately going back to my cabin to begin recording it.
I felt VERY confident that I wasn’t going to forget that chant, so the urgency waned for the rest of that day and, back in my cabin, I closed my eyes easily that night…without a thought related to when I might start working on the song.
Just another magical day in BIg Sur!
It was here in Big Sur, that I first learned to say ‘amen.’
–Henry Miller–
The next morning…which turned out to be my birthday…I awoke at 8am with a clear intuition to start a fire, make a cup of tea, and begin recording right away.
Three hours later, I had ~80% of the song recorded! That’s the type of birthday present that ONLY Spirit can offer! 😉
It is not so much that it was 80% finished in 3 hours…its not a highly complex song, after all, and it actually took probably between 15-20 hours total…over the past two weeks..before the song was completely finished…it was just mind-blowing to have it happen at all…regardless of how long it took…especially as an unexpected start my birthday! I was feeling the Agape Love!
Having experienced the creative process…on a number of occasions meow…I already knew that the less “I” did to attempt to “make” the song appear, the better.
All I really needed to do was to get myself “out of the way” enough to allow the process to mystically unfold through me…not from me.
After all, it is A LOT harder for something to flow through me…if I am standing in the way!
The pencil does not decide what to write.
After first recording the chant bit, each additional layer that was added to create that “~80%-in-3-hours”-initial-recording-session, is something that I can clearly remember witnessing…as it happened…but at no time during that 3 hours, do I remember thinking about what I wanted to add next.
The inspiration for the various instruments continued to spiral through me…a piece at a time…and I listened as it came through…a piece at a time…and then I participated in the manifestation of each piece…as it spiraled through. Simple as that!
Through me…NOT from me!!!
I am emphasizing this point because THIS is why I choose to present this website…and these songs…as “authored by NAME!“…not by my BIRTH NAME!
NAME! flows through me as revelation…literally revealing these pieces of art to me…as they are created through me…carried on the wings of inspiration that my ego did not generate. (Who is NAME!?)
THIS is the primary message I wish to convey…above all others…with every piece I publish…because each and EVERY one of us has the ability to align with the way NAME! flows through us, as our birth right!
Follow your heart!!!
Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
–Rumi–
My ego is doing its best to show up, “paddle out” and align with the waves of inspiration that NAME! provides, so that…hopefully…I’m not standing in the way!
And maybe…juuuuuuust maaaaaaybe…I can even witness myself surfing those waves from time to time!!!
What a ride…oooooh this sweet life!
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
–Mahatma Gandhi–
Please click on the link below to watch the video for this song:
If you would like to download the mp3 for this song, please click the download button below:
P.S. ~ Synchrony With Intention ~ Energetic Alignment
Synchronicity is an ever–present reality for those who have eyes to see it.
–Carl Jung–
Today is December 31, 2022. On the Mayan Tzolk’in calendar, today is 13 Wind.
As you may already know, the Tzolk’in is a 260-day, never-ending “energetic tracking system,” spiraling through time. You can learn more about it here, if you wish!
I usually write the “Synchrony With Intention” section of each piece on the day I publish. That way, I’m writing about these Astrological synchronies while “marinating” in the energy of the day upon which I am discussing. Today is no different.
Today, 13 Wind, is the “ascension day” of the Dog Trecena…which began 12 days ago on 1 Dog, 12/19/22.
The Sun Sign that holds the “1” position, in each Trecena, is said to energetically “rule over” the 13-days…infusing Its energy into the other 12 interweaving combinations of Intention number and Sun Sign, which can be explained as telling a 13-part piece of the story…out of the entire 260 days…that the ruling Sun Sign embodies…Its “role” in the entire 260-day spiral of the never-ending Tzolk’in.
Among other qualities, the Dog Sun Sign exemplifies Unconditional Love.
Another NAME! for “Unconditional Love,” is Agape Love.
What I have come to understand, in my experiences with Agape, is that this form of Love transcends all other “human” definitions of love. Agape Love feels like God is reaching out and wrapping around my heart…infusing me with sensations that rise far and above all others.
In truth, the only other experiences I’ve had in my life that come close…and that’s a DISTANT close…to these nearly-indescribable sensations of Agape Love, are those of the other forms of love. The ancient Greeks described these as Eros (romantic or passionate love), Philia (love between friends), Storge (love between parents and children), Philautia (self-love), and Xenia (which translates as “hospitality”). I feel that they, the ancient Greeks, created a separate category for Agape because it really is in a “class” by itself.
Synchronously, the last song I published…on 2/22/22…at 2:22AM PST…NAMEd, “Strawberry Skies,” was offered on 13 Dog.
As it is with everything I publish, I do not pick the publication date ahead of time…it reveals itself to me only after the inspiration spirals through me to begin creating each piece. Thus, the “decision” to publish Umunipsha today was made after I’d already recorded the initial pieces in Big Sur.
Being that The Hummingbird is the animal totem for the Wind Sun Sign, it intuitively made sense to me to publish this piece…and this song…on a Wind day.
From that vantage point, a couple weeks ago, when I looked into the future and saw that the next Wind day was today…and that it was going to be 13 Wind…I immediately knew that today was the day…and, just for good measure, I’m publishing at exactly 13:13 PST (1:13PM) too! 😉
It is certainly fun to publish something on the final day of the Gregorian year, but more significant to me…is the combination of 13 and Wind.
13, as described above, is the day of ascension for each Trecena. It is also a day that is infused with the energy of our ancestors and of the Spiritual Realm, in general.
Wind, among some of the other descriptions above, can be understood as a day of Divine communication. A day when Spirit is sending us messages of all kinds and a great day to send our prayers and messages to Spirit and those who have transitioned back to the other side.
As I briefly described at the end of the “Synchrony With Intention” section for Strawberry Skies, synchronicity is present at all times…not only when something “cool” happens.
The day before Strawberry Skies was published, 2/21/22, 12 Offering…my neighbor’s cat, Wyatt, transitioned back to Spirit. I was very attached to him and so were all three of my kitties. It was a challenging time for all of us, as it always is when death comes for those we Love.
And so it was again just two days ago, when my neighbor’s sister’s cat, Kitty Meow Meow, transitioned back to Spirit.
As it was when I dedicated Strawberry Skies to Wyatt, Kitty Meow Meow’s transition was so recent, that I cannot find the words to accurately describe how I am feeling in this moment…as the loss of his regal presence slowly sets in for all of us.
Where I can see the beauty and feel the Agape Love, however, is in the synchronicity linking the passing of these two precious cats.
Kitty Meow Meow passed on an 11 day, 11 Sun, but we buried him yesterday on a 12 day, 12 Crocodile. Wyatt passed and was also buried on a 12 day…12 Offering…as I mentioned above. So both cats were laid to rest on the same Intention day.
Among other qualities, 12 represents completing the journey and the understanding that can only come once the journey is complete…so I see and feel Agape Love in the timing of both transitions.
Further, the day after Wyatt passed was 13 Dog…and today, as I mentioned above, is the final day of the Dog Trecena.
So, in that way, to me…Dog/God feels close at hand…holding me during both of these transitions…and I am very grateful for that, because one of the difficult aspect of these losses, for me, is that both happened the day before I was intending to publish a new song…which is a joyous occasion.
I feel that I am meant to understand that choosing to see, feel, and experience death as a joyous occasion, as the Maya do…is one of the greatest and most important life lessons for my journey with Discovering The Wetikó.
Sat NAM! and thank you, Meow Meow!
Kitty Meow Meow Barreto ~ 10/2005 – 12/2022
We Love you, we miss you, and we feel you purring in our hearts!
Sat NAM!, Great Spirit! Sat NAM!, Pachamama y Papa Cielo! Sat NAM!, Umunipsha!!! Sat NAM!, Kitty Meow Meow!!! And Sat NAM!, “My” Beautiful Human Family!!!
Spiral on…and spiral out!!!
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