Odyssey of the 8th FIre

“After you light tobacco, with your first puff you should think a good thought or make a prayer. With your second, quiet your mind, rest in stillness. With your third puff, you can receive insight related to your prayer—perhaps an image, words spoken by spirit, or an intuitive feeling.”

- Rolling Thunder

Day 106 - Friday, October 6, 1995 - The earth is alive and angry.

Smoking volcano -
Photo courtesy stock.xchng.com

Today volcanoes spewed fiery hot ash and gas toward the heavens in Russia, in Montserrat, and in New Zealand.

Today also a mammoth tropical cyclone dropped a deluge on the slopes of Mount Pinatubo thereby loosing vast rivers of mud which began to slide down the Phillipine mountainside and engulf several large towns. Meanwhile, in Japan, Indonesia, China, and Alaska, earthquakes shook the ground violently.

At the Sunbow 5 camp in Toad Suck Ferry Park, Arkansas, shock waves have also beem roiling hearts and souls. Issues of power, leadership, and general discord have have again come front and center.

For me, sitting in an office in far away New Hampshire, it is not at all clear what has happened and why. It's only clear that something is really wrong among the walkers in Arkansas, and the future of the walk is is doubt.

The Moon will wax full in the headstrong fire sign of Aries over the weekend. Jacki talked with me over the phone. She told me there is a lot of hurt and anger, and talk of splitting up. She said the situaton was very confusing for her and for everyone.

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Smoking walkers - While Running Fawn takes a seat in her car to tie her walking shoes, Ned (l) and Joe (r) light up a smoke.

As a statistical batch of human beings, we Sunbow walkers qualify well outside the norm of common sense.

We are a band of heavy smokers. Maybe 60-70% of our group smoked at the time of the walk—not just the Pipe in ceremony, but cigarettes. Mostly we smoked hand-rolled cigarettes. It's a lot cheaper that way.

As our pilgrimage made its way along the road for 106 days, some observers have mentioned that they see a murky brown cloud above our heads as we walk to the West, as if the billows of cigarette smoke we have puffed out have created for us our own peculiar Sunbow nicotine aura. For those with eyes to see, it's a factor.

We’ve been called a lot on our collective bad habit. Many people have asked us to explain how we can justify walking to save the planet while at the same time being a bunch of blatant and unrepentant tobacco addicts. What kind of an example are we setting? They want explanations; we just want to keep on walking and fuming. Tobacco is the chief of the herbs, the observers remind us, and you walkers are not just using it -- you are abusing it.

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Read Day 107 -- Odyssey of the 8th Fire