It would be the last official meeting of the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Together with a friend I flew to Denver on August 25^th  in order to be at this special meeting, starting September 4^th, 2014 in Spearfish, South Dakota. I’m reading ‘Centennial’ by James Michener. In his book he describes the development in West America from the time the dinosaurs lived, up to now. A story about how the dinosaurs became extinct, how the Indians lived with and from the Buffalo's and how the white two legged did not follow up their appointments and took possession of the country. I experienced the whole book while we traveled from one State to State to end up at the Lakota's.

This was my 6^th time that I attended The Gathering and of course some of the stories were familiar to me as well as most of the ceremonies. Yet I sat breathless while I was listening. Of course I know that by attending these meetings there is healing for myself and at the same time, I know that it is also healing for the whole and especially for mother earth. Again and again I am touched by the story of Grandmother Agnes, who reminded us that we may be grateful for healthy water. We are composed of water for more than 75%. We therefore need water. Water is our first medicine. So Grandmother Agnes wisdom is: ' talk to the water in your body, bless the water from the tube; the water in the shower and thank the water each time when you drink it. Water heals you. We pollute the water and at that moment we do not understand that we pollute ourselves. A water war is closer than ever before. It is still foreign to me to bless the water, but I do my best. 

All the ceremonies were beautiful and Grandmother Rita, Juliette and Aama did their best to involve Joyti in their ceremonies while earlier this year the Centre of Sacred Studies and the Grandmothers had decided to move on separately from each other. This was not communicated with the environment and that was quite noticeable because nobody understood what was going on. At the end of the meeting Grandmother Mona told us about the separation and that the Grandmothers decided to continue independently. This Gathering in South Dakota was the first Gathering they arranged on their own including the sponsorship.

During Grandmother Aama’s ceremony I responded physically pretty hard to her drum and I needed all my strength to focus and to ground. 

Like all the meetings I have attended I felt the pain of the Indigenous people and it became again clear to me that those Gatherings are not only a healing for the participants and Mother Earth but specially for the local population. Whether we are white, red, black or yellow, we all have our pain and we all still suffer . We must not go into duality anymore. We are all one and the earth is nobody’s ownership. We are allowed to make use of the land and we should take good care of it, all of us.

Grandmother Mona announced at the end that this Gathering is not the last one. The last meeting will take place in July 2015 in Gabon, West Africa. 

Will you join me!