The Changing Woman

[Amorentia]

With in a couple of days, there was marked improvement in my health. The nosebleeds had stopped. The nausia was now within normal pregnancy measures. My energy was back, color returned, and bruises gone. I was still tired. But the two naps I took in the day, along with a good nights sleep, had me up to near my normal level of energy.

My youngest were down for nap while the oldest were at school. I was hanging in the kitchen with Buck, our new Chef. He and Siobian, the new maid, joined Ellana as additions to our familly. Buck was Makah so he was able to make all of the my home favorites, as well as suprirse me with creations of his own. In mid discussion about his new rugged love interest, while eating my Shrimp Pizza with spinach and alfredo sauce, Sarah Spirtsong and Maisse Pottinger showed up to check in with me.

Both Sarah and I were following Maisse's instructions and were looking better. Sarah told me how Jenny was doing, how we both caught up with Maisse on our currect health situation. Maisse did a through exam to readjust the potions accordingly. Then Maisse asked about thed dream travel.

"I haven't done any." I told her. It was hard at time to refrain. But the strength I'd gained had been much worth it. "I've been resting instead of working. Do you think I should start again just not the strenuious kind?" 

"I think you are fine," Maisse said after thinking a second. "But I'm still not sure of the exact toll it takes on your body."

"There's a ancestral council I go to often." I asked her. "Should I just start testing the waters?"

We discussed the distance of the Ancestral Council and how travel to council never bothered me during Bliss's pregnancy. I explained how travel there, or to the boys dreams, was do different than the travel I had been doing. But there was only so much I could say, because I still wasn't at liberty to explain the situation with Blaise.

"The offer is still opened for you two beautiful ladies to sleep with me and experience it first hand." I looked playfully at Sarah and Maisse.

"So, to travel with you," Maisse responded just as playfully. "Means we get to sleep together? If you are up for it, I have nothing to do today." She looked at Sarah. "What are you doing today?

"Nothing..." Sarah explained. "Everyone's either working or sick at my house."

That made my day! It wasn't often that I was able to share this ability with my friends. We teased some more about me getting them into my bed when I told them with a wink. "We can have some serious dreamtime fun. I could sersiouly make ever single one of your fnatasies come true."

"Oh yeah?" Maisse asked.

"Ok, ok....jeez...." Sarah said covering her face.

"Oh yeah!" I told them standing up. "What are you waiting for? Upstairs. Get in my bed, women! Clothes off....." Buck laughed hardily as I added, "we'll clothing is optional"

As we headed upstairs, Maisse suggested we travel somewhere distant so she could get a good measure of the toll it took on me. Since no one could decide where we should go, I took the suggestion of my Spiritul Mentor. "Let's take the Healer to her Ancestral Home to meet some of the Immortals of the Navajo. It might come in handy for you later."

"Cool," I said. First I went into Sarah Spiritsong's dream to gather her. In her dream two small girls - one small Jenny and one small Sarah - were holding hands dancing around with flower petals blowing around them. A tall Native American man stood watching with a large smile on his face. Reaching into her conciousness I said, "Sarah. It's Peni. I'm here to take you on a Spirit Travel. Is that you're Dad? He's beautiful. Is that you and Jenny?"

Adult Sarah appeared seeming in a rush to leave the dream, "Yes, that's my dad, Alo, he really was handsome. That was Jenny and I, when we first met. I usually dream my memories."

Laughing I took her hand, giving her a kiss on the cheek saying, "You two were so cute! Let's go see what Maisse's dreaming up for us"

There was nothing childlike about Maisse's dream. Sarah held up her hand to cover her eyes, "Aww hell...."

"Nice!" I smiled weaving Sarah and my side of the dream into a Movie Theater. Conjuring a tub of popcorn I sat down telling Sarah,  "I think we can stay awhile and watch the show."

Maisse was naked with her back against the wall with Mihai in front of her between her legs. The muscles of his rear flexed as he work her body

"Now that was a nice move.' I said taking another handfull of popcorn. "Tall-dark-and-frenchie knows his stuff"

"There has got to be a way out of here..." Sarah said looking around. "Damn Maisse, dream about the kitchen or something." 

"You had some of that didn't you?" I asked Sarah. "Oh, you two are some lucky ladies. Sit!"

"Yes, yes, I've seen all that....now come on....." Sarah said still trying not to look.

Sighing I put down the popcorn, and reached into Maisse's conciousness saying, "You don't have to stop, I wouldn't want to. But Sarah's getting uncomfortable. It's Peni. We're here to take you on a Spirit Travel."

"I'm not uncomfortable...." Sarah said. "Just...um...not a fan of voyerisim?"

"Do you want us to come back?" I asked Maisse as Mihai did a particularrly impressive move. "Give you a minute?""

"Oh my God!" Maisse walked out of her dream fully dressed. "Oh, um... let's go." She grabbed me turning me away from the spectaular show. "Yeah, um, I dream about Mihai when he's gone..."

Turning for one more glimsp back I said, "I don't blame you one bit."

From there we left for our adventure. My guide lead us as we glided through space pulled to the heart of the Navajo, Dinetah. As we traveled I explained to Sarah and Maisse how we were seeing some of the many First Nation Immortals, "Like Elder Folk... angels... or whatever." As we were pulled to our destination, the sky grew dark full of thousands of stars that illumianted the high reddened mesas and deep canyons of New Mexico. Besides Sarah confirming that this is where she was from, we all quietly looked around the irregular layers of sandstone, marked by multiple benches and talus slopes around the deserts and vallys. As we explored the terrain, i explain that Dinetah means "among the people" we we're traveling to the heart center of the Navajo's magic.

As we appraoched an area of rock carved with original Petroglyph's, a wind began to pick up around us. "Can you feel it?" I asked. " Can you feel the enchantments?"

Sarah and Maisse nodded as I explained that this wind is protection for the rhelm for the Immortals. The wind blew stronger and stronger, lifting our hair, but welcoming us with it's arid warmth. Once we'd crossed the wind, we walked into a mist of lights. The mist of pale pinks, purples, and deep, magical blues were like a hazy veil of stars at twilight around us. When he came out of the other side, we saw a sacred pool of water.There was a House floating on the western water. The shore was littered with gems and white shell - turquoise, haliotis, jet, soapstone, agate, and redston. Lush vegitation grew around the landscape being fed on by  few antelope, deer, long-tail deer, mountain sheep, jackrabbits and prairie dogs. Tending to the animals and land were some of the Divine or Holy people. Standing on the edge of the water stood an Immortal Woman signing to herself as she scooped water up into a large shell.

This is a picture of the woman we saw:

Here is the song she sung:

As I watched her, an enormious bird rose into the sky. My heart leaped as I grabbed Sarah's arm.

 "It's a Thunderbird." I told her watching the creature flap it's wings that easily extended as long as a Great Whale. "I've never seen one before. Their no more around. I though they'd all died out." Even my guide was in awe of the bird as it called out to the sky. "They once saved our people by delivering a whale to keep the tribe from starvation."

My guide began to teach me the gesture we use to greet Immortals to signify that we too are First Nation that honor the old ways. When I asked her who the singing woman was, I was in shock. "Asdząąn nádleehé." Then I tured to Sarah to tell explain to her who the Immortal woman was. "The Changing Woman. I've read about her in the kids legends books. She's real. She is the Mother of the Navejo culture and way of life." Quickly I explained what I knew about her - how she changed along with the seasons. In the spring and summer, she appeared as a young maiden full of life, vitality and, of course, fertility. In the fall and winter she transforms herself into an old woman, representing the desolateness of age, infertility, and eventual death.

My guide led me over to "The Land That Floats on Water" which houses the Changing Woman so we could formally greet her and ask permission to visit her. Since Sarah would be there to translate the Navajo for us, and I could get is home, my guide left us there as I turned to Sarah and Maisse asking, "Are you ready to cross?" 

"Yes!" Maisse said quietly excited while Sarah nodded. Taking them by the hands, I led them across the water. The Changing Woman greeted Sarah first calling her - "Shitsi" - daughter - before she led us into her home.

The colorful house had a Pueblo style ladder with a raddle beside it that we were instricted to shake before we entered through the door. The white shell floor cruched under our feet. In the house were four rooms on each of its four floors, for which there were ladders of black jet, white shell, turquoise, and abalone on the four sides. On top of the house there was a multicolored thunderbird, larger than any that has ever been see. Sarah translated he was the chief of all thunderbirds. On his back he carried small thunderbirds of all the ceremonial colors. The Changing Woman lead us into the centermost large room with an altar decorated with all the colors of every flower that had bloomed and faded on earth, and with the spirits of all the birds. She sat on a carved stone regally. As Maisse, Sarah, and I took places at her feet, she began to talk.

First she explain to us the Navajo legend of creation which was the Muggle verion of her story. Then she explained to us her true origination, about the other Elder Folk and other Immortals like her, and then about her twin sons, Monster Slayer and Born for Water. She spoke about the sacred medicine bundles telling the part they played in her conseption. Like Nessie, she grew fast - growing from infancy to puberty in four days. As she continued to narrate, we learned how her people inhabited Dinetah before humans settled. She came West agreeing to settle this land when the repitled monsters were tamed. When the Navajo settled here when the Athabaskands of Western Canada migrated down, she took them in as her children, and they became the Navejo. Then she showed us four patches of skin gone from her. With a laugh Sarah translated she saying, "Legend says I gave four peices of my skin that were used to make the four different tribes related to the Navejo." In her role as Mother to the Navajo, she taught them how to live off the land, flow with their spirit, and how to honor all that has come, is, and will be. All of the tribal ways the Navajo carry today came from her. Now, she explained, the only evidence the Navajo see of The Holy People today is when their presence manifests in the sound of the wind, the feathers of an Eagle, in various birds, the growth of the corn and other aspects of the world surrounding the earth surface people.

Holding Sarah's hand I sat in complete astonishment. Finishing her story, The Changing Woman would sat back for a second before she turned to look at each one of us. Turning to Sarah, she gave her a personal message, asking some questions that Sarah didn't translate. I watched her face as she looked at the ground, then answered her.

Then the Immortal woman's eyes turned on me, through Sarah asking who my people were. She was familiar with the Quileute, naming as as "Fishermen" and "Whalers" Next Sarah translated her asking me if I was a Dream Walker. Once I confirmed that, the lady began to speak again. This time I needed no translation. When I heard, "Yee Naaldlooshii," I knew that mean Skinwalker. That was what the Navajo called our Shapeshifters that they considered no more than deamons. Sitting up straiter, Sarah and I looked at each other wide eyed and frightened.

Sarah explained to Maisse, "Navajos thought that Quileutes were evil...."

When The Changing Woman met my eyes asking something else, Sarah translated saying, "Peni, she sees your babies..."

Swallow hard, afraid of her reaction, I nodded. Turning to Sarah, I cold only imagine she mentioned something about Embry. 

Then Sarah translated her saying, "I have no meanness left. When the legends were written all of you would be feared - witches, healers, Nightwalkers, and Skinwalkers." We all breathed easier as The Changing Woman turned to Maisse asking through Sarah, about Maisse's healing abilities. After a brief interchange that Sarah translated, the woman said to Maisse. "Though you are a very skilled healer, you do not yet know much about your ability to heal. You do know heal with you learned knowledge. It's instinctual ability that empowers your healing. This will all be clear to you... in time..."

Then the woman stood saying, "The Sun arrive soon for his visit. I must prepair. Thank you daughter." She looked at Sarah, "To know me better means to know a half of your heart. You will need that." Then she turned to me saying, "Dream Walker, return to visit me again as my guest gift." After looking at Sarah, I turned to The Changing Woman showing her a sign of respect and agreeing to come again. Lastly she'd turn to Maisse and say through Sarah, "There is so much more world for you to see. A lot more of your own life is opening up to you."

As we left the shore to cross the sacred pool, we hear The Changing Woman singing as we left:

After we crossed back through the mist into the wind I turned to them saying excitedly, "How wicked was that!"

"That was wild!  WOW!" Maisse exclaimed. "Thank you!"

"Holy crap, you know how old that woman was?" Looking at the bewilderment on Sarah's face I squeezed her hand

"That was....yeah....wow..."  Sarah breathed.

Before we depated, I suggested we go back to climb back into Maisse's dream. As we were pulled back to our bodies I said to them, "See, just another day at Peni's house. You all should come sleep with me more often."

After everyone was tucked safely back into their body, I woke them up. Promptly Maisse started another physical to make sure I was alright. It was a bit tired, but felt fine. She gave me a vial of potion to help. Then I teased Sarah about check behind me to make sure everyone was back in their bodies properly. Maisse suggested I not travel that far unless she is here. I agreed that after I returned to The Changing Woman like she asked, I would continue to limit the travel to close unless there was something emergent that arose. Maisse refilled my potions, agreeing to come back in about ten days to check back up on me.

Once they left, I laid down in my bed to honor my word to return to the Changing Woman. With the lack of a translator, the Immortal woman projected words and images into my head asking of me one favor for her hospitality today. It took me completely by surprise, but it was a resonable request. After I agreed, the ancient woman placed both hands on my womb speaking a prayer of blessing over my children. Lifting water in the shell, she baid me to drink speaking another prayer. With signs of respect and gratitude, I returned to my body. For all that I was exhilerated and moved, I was also throughly exhausted, and fell into a couple of hours of deep sleep.