Meditations with The Hopi
by Robert Boissiere
ISBN 0-939680-27-0
Bear & Company, PO Box 2860, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
Copyright © 1986 by Robert Boissier
http://www.innertraditions.com/isbn/0-939680-27-0

Chapter 6 – The Upperworld and The Hopi Prophecy
The Day of Purification

Long before Pahana, the white man, ever set foot
in the Americas; long before the hegemony of the red race
had been challenged by light-skinned people,
as the prophecies told us it would –
a spot in the immensity of the desert, a center of Spiritual power,
       was Hopi. The land of the peaceful ones.
The continent was different then:
      much space, few to occupy it.

But the energy coming from Hopi is in realms
where communications are not of this world; in dimensions
set by Taiowa and expressed by Massoua,
Hopi was the thread, the bridge,
       the place of peace and balance.

If perhaps there is a name, a word, that can show the world
       what Hopi peace is – it is balance.
The world must grow, expand, but it must do it in balance.
Otherwise, nature, the great regulator, will take over,
as it is now, with floods, eruptions, famine, earthquakes.
This is nature at war, nature that will convince humankind
of the need for balance, to set in motion positive energies
       to reestablish a world in balance.

From the days of discovery to this day, the need to preserve,
unite and insure the balance of the Hopi Way in a pact
made long, long ago between the Great Spirit, Taiowa,
and ourselves, to preserve his way through this bond,
       this promise, to sing the Song of Creation.
And for the rest of the world too –
now that the quality of life is at stake,
in the present days – we must have a model, a plan,
to be followed, to bring at last the peace of ancient days
       through balance of the present ones.
From the beginning, humankind never had more than two ways:
“prayer and meditation,” as the leaven of human presence
on Earth. What is seen, touched, and felt is thought to be real,
rather than the reflection of the world of the unseen,
       the real dimension of creation.

In the beginning, we are told, Taiowa, the Creator,
gave us his life plan, as it is written on the rock of Oraibi,
       which we call the prophecy.
If we hold fast to the sacred way as he devised it for us,
what we have gained, we will never lose.
But still, we have to choose between the two ways.
That is the balance of Taiowa’s way.
For he will always meet us halfway. That is why on the
sacred petroglyph he is portrayed holding in his hand
the thread of the sacred way. In the other hand is the bow,
for the Bow Clan is the one which led us out of the Underworld
       at the beginning of the Hopi Way.
That is what the arrow shot from the bow means on the rock.
The diagram shows two lines: the lower line
is the path of the Great Spirit, for in its last end, a man is bending
on the cane the old ones use, pointing to the corn,
which is the sacred food that nourished us from the start.

The old one shows he was the first and he will be the last.
And so will we if we hold fast to his pathway.

But next to him, beware of the other way,
the way of life of those who do not pray.
It is easy enough to see that their heads are not fastened
on their body, as it happens with people who use their mind,
instead of their faith in the spirit way.
As Taiowa’s life plan shows, their line ends in a zig-zag way,
in the void of the mind of the faithless life
       and the fruitless.

But there is another line on the sacred map drawn on the rock
– a vertical line that connects the two ways.
It is like a ladder that some might use to change ways,
to go from the way of peace and balance – Taiowa’s Way –
to a path that seems to many a much easier one.

Finally seeing that the Hopi Way of balance is the only chance,
many will choose to climb down the ladder,
to go through the Great Spirit gateway.
This time of confusion, in which many will chose either path,
       is called a time of purification.
So it seems we now are all at this point in our lives,
where indeed purification is for the world, the order of the day.

This is the time, so the Great Spirit says,
where people will earn the name I chose for them: Hopi,
“the people of peace,” the name they call themselves today.
The Hopi Way is a condition, a way of life,
and as an elder once said, “Our religion may be of benefit to others.”
Indeed it is, for new clans of Hopi are born to teach
       the way of balance,
the Hopi knowledge of peace, the Hopi way.

“Give love to all things, people, animals, plants,
and mountains; for the spirit is one, if Catsinas are many.”
The Prophecy says the Earth will shake three times:
first the Great War, then the Second One,
when the Swastika rose above the battlefields of Europe,
to end in the Rising Sun sinking in a sea of blood.
The end of an Empire … or perhaps the beginning of another?
Now what would the third one be?
This, the Prophecy does not say.
For it depends on which path humankind will walk:
the greed, the comfort, and the profit,
       or the path of love, strength, and balance.

When strong-hearted people keep on singing the Song of Creation,
they will find the true path, forgotten by many,
       so Grandpa David says.
When prayer and meditation are used rather than relying
on new inventions to create more imbalance,
       they will also find the true path.
Mother Nature tells us which is the right way.
When earthquakes, floods, hailstorms, drought, and famine
will be the life of every day, the time will have then come
for the return to the true path, or going the zig-zag way.

Long ago, Massoua told us, “Remember the Pahana,
the white brother. He has the other stone tablet,
but he has not returned it, yet. He will be sent
so the people who hold fast to the Hopi Way can be spared
       from destruction.
He is the purifier, for people to go on with
       the Great Spirit life plan.
It will then open our hearts and minds when a new age
is about to be, with people renewed and purified through fire.
It will be like the pure gold of a new day.
But fire is red, and when it takes command,
it will set the forces of nature in motion.
We will then know purification day has come.
We all are the caretakers of life.
       The balance of nature depends on us.
       The world will be what we want it to be.

The Hopi know what it should be. They kept the ceremonies
going to help them on the way, and remember what
the sacred path should be: live simply, humbly,
and in a balanced way, for the sake of all that live –
man, animal, plant, rock, and the sacred water.
But man has dropped from the sky the gourd full of ashes.
It boils the sea, burns the land – it is indeed the mystery egg!
It could trigger a rebirth or annihilate us all,
       depending on which way we go.
Purification will come either way.
What will change it all is the Hopi Way.
To help the human race choose its way,
nature will hold its balance …
       Regardless.
For it has a plan, a grid, a course that has been sowed
       in the beginning.
The great computer, we might say, has been fed
       for all time to come.

So let us hold our breath, and play it right.
On this planet of ours – this “Upperworld,”
as the Hopi would say – no matter how it ends,
       we are all in it together.
How many worlds after this one?
The only issue is the individual choice we make.
When events come at us, is when our life gets its meaning.
This is when we do our best, for it is all we can do
to understand the experiences, good or bad,
       that make our life.

When we leave our own page of history, our best
is all that counts. When the time come to pack,
and we find no room for all we wanted to take along with us
to the Underworld, our best is all that counts.

– – – – end – – – –

Author’s Note: Chapter 6, end notes: In the text of Chapter 6, the prophecy was spoken by David Monogye; By Dan Katchongva, the departed Chief of the Sun Clan; by Andrew Herequaftewa; by Thomas Banyacya from Oraibi; and by many others.

Additonal Information/Excerpts from Meditations with The Hopi:
Glossary of Hopi Words
Leslie Koyawena’s Prayer