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In my last article about money you noticed I stated that we don’t need the banks. We need currency, a measure of value but we do not need the bank. This is a radical idea and one that needs our scrutiny. Banks are so everywhere that we do not really notice there might be life,…

Beginning in the 1700’s, the first Big Daddy of money was Mayer Amchel Rothschild: his famous remark you will relate to: Let me control the money, I care not who makes the laws.  Then, just before she died at an age well over 90, his wife who produced 5 daughters and the 5 sons who…

So, what might it all be about, I ask myself allowing a quiet mind to gather the message and the meaning of it all. And what is this “Ravens’ medicine” anyway? There’s a story about how it all began. Well, you knew there is a story, did you not? After this distance, you are certain there…

If there might be any one thing that this blog is about it is about thinking different. We can remember Steve Jobs: he invented Apple computers. One of very few television programs I saw was a sort of documentary about Steve and Apple and about his famous slogan: Think Different. One of his senior people…

In 1957 at 17, I saw only blind people wearing masks pretending they could see it all. At 18, I learned I had one eye. I could see the colors of the spirits of the trees, the flowing wave energy of animals and humans, sometimes even their colors. I heard a clear, sweet voice in…

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender be on good terms with all persons.  Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they, too, have their story.  Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations…

The social hug can sometimes be an opportunity for the vampires in our midst. It takes perception and finesse to avoid them without fracturing the social edifice. My sensors are awake to a deep perception of all people for each of them teaches me their special human lesson. Some lessons I wish I did not…

I’m not sure I can remember when I first heard “Ignorance is not bliss”. It is certain that it is as true today as it was that long ago when. Turns out I can blog here about some of the different changes that have come to me again and yet again. When I was thirty…

My next birthday is only 78. It could easily be said that I might be sitting in the sun in some tropic clime sipping a little lemon and mineral water. But that is not my present reality. I am in Vancouver in Canada. It’s a world class city with all the perks and all the…

Dear Friends, Compadres, Cohorts, Companions, all Pilgrims on the Path, Warrior Sisters; One and All This is the Last Post. I do not now know today what the outcome is to be but what must be is that I pull back and allow what will be.  My life is fast approaching its final days. The…

July 20 , 2015 Raising my sights, raising myself to manifest the Ecuador project. These have been times of crisis and I acknowledge that I have, for a while at least, made myself their victim. Sure, it is possible for me to talk myself into it because that day in the sheeting rain in Costa…

Day to Day on the Road Willy Nelson has a famous song. It was a wonderful liberation to be on the road again. And then it was Mexico for more than 3000 miles; onward through Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and now Panama on the Pan-American Highway another over 1000 miles:…

July 15, 2015 Watch and listen for the synchronicity Those who believe only in the material world call it coincidence: things that happen together: co – together and incidents – happenings, events, etc. It’s also been called serendipity, a word coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 after reading an Arabic fairy tale about the Three…

July 15, 2015 Unremarkable persons in quite ordinary lives What does it take for unremarkable persons in quite ordinary lives to find our true calling, to join with our soul companions and to meet our destiny? In days past, I attended goddess ceremonials originally sponsored by Starhawk in the San Francisco Bay area of northern…

On my birthday Actually I have had only one birth-day. That was July 5, 1939 in Wells, British Columbia, a tiny gold mining town in the north central mountains of the province. It was a tiny hospital as well with 2 beds and, I’ve been told, an old German woman who was the only nurse.…

June 22, 2015 An Observation of Latin Culture One of the purposes of the drive through Mexico and now in Central America on my way to South America is to immerse myself in the Latin culture. By this I really mean that it was not about taking the drive to visit the piles of rocks…

May 16, 2015 Crossroads on the Road Less Traveled The main highways everywhere I have ever been have, all of them, green signs with white lettering and numbers proclaiming the directions and the next landmark on the way. In cities and towns across North America, there are, signs at the corners of the streets as…

May 12, 2015 The dichotomy: Main Street evening parade, lively and solemn First thing I noticed was the Policia in their black and white car, blinking red on the top, leading a parade of many people, some carrying luminaria, handmade paper lanterns on tall sticks extended above their heads. The drums were in the distance with a…

May 1, 2015 Memory Foam Have we all heard about memory foam? I bought a piece for my bed in the van and I am not so sure with all the lumpy stuff that I have underneath that it does much good. Well, maybe this piece will do something a little better. On my travels, it…

April  30, 2015 Daring and resourceful camo-drest driver of a van! I have a general ploy that I have used many times to simply save my ass. “Even this must be funny,” is where I am most likely to go. It’s a personal tribute to a master comedian, Jules White, who used to say,  ”It’s all…

June 5, 2015 BLOG: Etrusca Ecuador Permaculture Plantation and Healing Temple Dear Friends, It’s time to get serious. Near the beginning of my Journey, I wrote a piece: This is not a Travelogue. I came away in December from the United States driving my red Ford van carrying my household with me, carrying what I…

April 28, 2015 BLOG: Tropical prêt a porter In our Euro-American world of fashion, we look at the top which might be the Italians, then the French and we look at the bottom, K-Mart, Marshals and T.J.Max. There are some few who regularly attend the Paris atelier to buy their clothes. The New York houses…

April 28, 2015 Raven’s Medicine: Making a Successful Life There are many ways to have what may be called a successful life. The materialist says: money is the measure. I just saw a list of 50 people who possess 50% of the world’s wealth. The usual question asked is, “but, are they happy?”  For some…

April 25, 2015 BLOG: Life in the Bodhi Hostel, El Valle, Panama El Valle is a small town. From what I hear from Diana the real estate agent whose office is next door, the town is mostly native Panamanian peoples, some with old time, quite large homes here and a smaller group of white folk…

April 25, 2015 BLOG: Kids on Parade for Peace and Justice Since I found a parking place to actually stop the van for more than 24 hours, I have been cleaning up and drying it all out. With that in mind, I had Brad here at the hostel take down the spare tire and loosen…

April 19, 2015 BLOG: moving on from crisis There are moments in every life that it becomes necessary to simply end the story, end the circumstances, leave behind the mess and move on. After three and a half weeks in Paso Canoas doing okay thank you in a safe place to park in a bus…

April 13, 2015 What is Lotus? When you were doodling around with an ordinary compass as a kid, you probably drew a circle with it and then, shortening the radius of the compass a little, you set the point on the circumference of the circle and drew an arc from the 2 other points on…

April 11, 2015 Making Your Own Medicine: a new definition and a new way The First Nations, Native American peoples lived on Turtle Island (their name for North America) many millennia before any of the White Lodge peoples came. Theirs is a very mature society. Understand that what we think we know about any of…

April 10, 2015 Raven’s Medicine Some of you who come to this site which we call Raven’s Medicine might wonder what it’s all about and so, after about 4 months of our progression called Journey of the Lotus, I decided today to talk a little about this. For the average kind of white folk, those…

April 6, 2015 The Mornings and the Evenings Each day of a Journey takes on its own character. I believe every day is like this but the embarking on a specific trip has a way of focusing my attention when I might not have been doing that at other times. Waiting for a certain time…

March 4, 2015 Work Ethic When I was quite a young woman working for my daily bread in a warehouse business that sold lighting, fixtures, cable and assorted equipment for illumination there came a day of intense transformation for me. There was a brilliant 5 minutes of the time I was there when several quite…

March 3, 2015 Leaving El Salvador, the Next step A Journey happens on many levels. Likely the first step at the very beginning was the decision to do the trip in the first place.  I was told once that as soon as a decision is made, the brain responds immediately with its specific chemicals to…

March 2, 2015 Elections in El Salvador; the Will of the People There is, no doubt, that the American media has reported that there were elections held in El Salvador yesterday, Sunday, March 1. The polls here in Puente Arce were closed early because two women were fighting! The rest of the family went early…

Part One: Pay yourself First My personal story begins in 1979 when I attended a ‘Prosperity Seminar” given by John Roger. His teaching was simple: Pay yourself first by tithing (10%) to the God Force living within you/me. Separate 10%, 10 cents of every dollar, one dollar of every 10; 10 dollars of every one…

February 25,2015 Blog: Puente Arce, El Salvador: typical and untypical town Puente Arce is a border town between El Salvador and Guatemala: in this it is untypical. The main street is always crowded with big trucks coming and going. There are local buses that go to Cara Sucia and onward both south to San Salvador and…

FEBRUARY 24, 2015 BLOG: Ready, Set, Almost a Go I do not think I will envy the tourists who take themselves on exotic cruises on those enormous ships. It might be great for some to have a printed menu in their hands before they leave the safety of their own back yard. It may be…

February 21, 2015 BLOG: Fisher Folk, the beach in El Salvador I have some fantasies that come along with becoming a ‘divine older woman’, one of them is that, even though I am always willing to drive wherever I wish to go, having someone else drive is wonderful. I get to go where I would…

Dear Friends, This short prayer came upon me a few days ago when I was cruising the internet and it felt to me quite like the same message that many of us deeply feel. I have included it here because it just fits. Much Love and Blessings, to you, one and All One.

February 14, 2015 BLOG: Love is our only Reality: the Practice of Human Life Dear friends, as you might have discerned by now, I have been at a stall at the border in El Salvador for over two weeks. I have been most fortunate to find a home here while I wait for money stuff…

February 20, 2015 BLOG: Living fences There was quite a lot of pure bliss on the drive through Mexico before I came upon the human realities of border crossings. The more tropical the weather and the land, the more I noticed and recognized the crops that grow in these humid and warm climates. The first…

February 20, 2015 BLOG: Mountain Bones Dear friends, part of my plan with this blog of my ‘Journey of the Lotus’ is to tune you into some parts of the travel adventure that might not commonly be noted. Forget the cities built of piles of stones and cement, girders and flag poles, the icons and…

February 22, 2015 El Salvador Mercado My stay here in El Salvador is accomplishing one of my purposes for this Journey of the Lotus: cultural immersion. Here in this family there is an ice chest that is supplied with ice only once in a while. This means, of course, that the getting of fresh food…

February 12, 2015 BLOG: Arboles Magic: Tree Magic There was some time ago that I began to understand our human relationship with the plant kingdom. In my 30’s near the beginning of my training, a sweet older woman sat with me to talk about the kingdoms of nature. At the time, it was all a…

February 9, 2015 Journey of the lotus: All the Fine Princes In any kind of journey, people are all important. Even if I am rowing myself solo across the Atlantic, there is some one other person or persons to whom I am related, to whom I wish to return and who I would wish to…

February 10, 2015 West Coast Mexico: Redux.: the Final Miles It was an eye opener when I first checked out the map of Mexico, taking note that the distance from Tijuana to Acapulco was 2000 miles! After the wild trip through the teeming centro of this truly quite fabulous metropolis, and the liberation I experienced…

February 9, 2015 No Tire Basura: There is No ‘Away.’ It is a tribute to Julia Butterfly Hill to remind ourselves that the trash simply does not go away. As I am driving the libre roads of Mexico on my journey so far I see plastic garbage littered nearly everywhere. Most people simply ignore it…

February 5, 2015 West Coast Mexico: Redux: Manzanillo In this zone of the west coast of Mexico, the cities look a little like American centers especially that there are Walmarts. There is a difference here, however, in the tropics: the parking lots are covered with tent-like roofs and there are bevies of older guys, in…

February 5, 2015 West Coast Mexico; Redux: Playa Azul If you believe that you need some tuning up in the realm of patience, I can recommend a road trip down the west coast of Mexico to assure an outcome that you will become either a mountain of patience or utterly frazzled and burnt out, a…

February 6, 2015 Puente Arce, El Salvador: Philosophe I was taken down again to the river today: Arce flows here between the borders of Guatemala and El Salvador. As I shifted myself into the cooling waters flowing quite swiftly over the stones in the river, I became entranced by the whole of the view I…

El Salvador,  January 30, 2015 If I Had a Hammer: Swim in Arce River The first night in the village allowed me to truly relax and sleep peacefully for the first time in nearly 2 weeks. I do rest well even in the remote places that I find free parking along the way, but in…

BLOG: El Salvador, January 30, 2015 Making the Impossible Happen: It takes Angels. There will be entries that in time come before this one, but today I am writing to you from a wonderful alley home in Puente Arce in El Salvador right at the border with Guatemala. As I arrived at this border two…

January 18, 2015. Playa Azul. Michoacán The Tao of the Broom and the Mop Just about wherever I am going doing those ordinary needful things that are an auto trip, gas and bathroom, specifically; I encounter the holy people wielding brooms and mops. They are in the Pemex lots where they sweep across the pavements…

January 2, 2015 Guaymas, Mexico This is not exactly a travelogue A while ago I looked up on one of those interesting internet sites that feature synonyms to discover what other words there are besides journey to describe this precedent setting trip to Ecuador. The first obvious one is ‘hegira’ which is actually rather religious…

December 31, 2014 It’s Always Best to take Good Advice: Making it to Guaymas The route takes me onward: Sonoyta, Santa Ana, Hermosillo and finally today, the last day of 2014, to Guaymas, even further south in Mexico, from the dry desert to the humid air of the Gulf. I pace myself each day because…

I had not seen much of Jonathan for quite some time since I left the coastal regions of Washington State about 2001. Raven favors the desert uplands where she scavenges for carrion doing her kind of clean up eating also berries and seeds from the Joshua tree and pinyon pines. Family member, Jay inhabits the…

Older ladies, and probably gentlemen as well, are awake in the night. Sometimes I am awake for a couple hours, sometimes meditating, in the old time in the coach, I might be working on the computer or sewing. It is a sweet time, quiet and undisturbed because most of the rest of the world in…

The gas company in Mexico is called Pemex. Everywhere in Mexico you will find Pemex and gas is the same price wherever you go. I thought that to be a really great idea. As a van-gabond, gas stations can be terrific places to stop to park, use their bathrooms which are usually decently clean, get…

Are you wondering how this all begins? I mean the idea of an exit strategy might not be the first thing on your mind today. What I am discovering is that my own idea of an exit strategy began quite some time ago: the late summer of 2011. At that time I was completing an…

The stuff is everywhere in our world and so are the people who perpetrate it. It is not difficult to call forth from any stranger on the streets some kind of anger,  road rage, or a torrent of shouted words laden with the verbal filth of our times. Since it seems to be so prevalent,…