Odyssey of the 8th Fire is the true tale
of an epic pilgrimage for the Earth
across North America
by people of all colors and faiths.

  ◊ - A creative non-fiction book in online evolution - ◊
© - 2007 by Steven McFadden

To hear a sample audio recording of Odyssey of the 8th Fire, click here.
Visit Steven McFadden's Youtube channel.

“In this Medicine Way, when we come to the ceremonies, in the old teachings of our elders, they would say, 'You watch, you listen, and you learn.' And that was the advice they'd give you. And you don't ask why. You only watch, listen and learn. And that's how you learn, by watching, listening, feeling, using all your senses, opening yourself to everything. The senses will tell you—the Spirit will tell you. Then you don't have to ask why. You see what's going on. You see.

“The older people did not want us to ask why, because they did not want us to feel that we didn't know anything. They didn't want to judge us. They'd say, 'We can't tell a person what to think, or how to think. If you tell people that, then you're insulting their intelligence; insulting their mind.' That's part of the native culture—never to insult a person's mind.”

- Johnny Moses

Day 149  - Saturday, November 18, 1995 - The walkers were incommunicado today. I could reach no one by phone, and no one called to check in. The plan was to keep the base camp at Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and to keep walking west.

Back home in New Hampshire, I spent the afternoon working up firewood out in our barn, splitting and stacking for for winter use in the kitchen, to feed our big black-and-silver Sweetheart wood cook stove. In the late afternoon I checked my flight plans, to be sure everything is in place for me to journey west to be with the walk at the reconciliation council we have planned for next week, the day after Thanksgiving.

Our reconciiation circle will create another opportunity for us to come back, look at one another, and try to find a way to walk together again as brothers and sisters. Along with the Earth, the people, the animals, the plants everything else we are remembering in our daily prayer circles, we are praying for ourselves -- that we will find a way to unite.

Warming up - Sunbow walkers sit by the fire and soak up the warmth of the flames. From the left, Larry and Clair Mitchell, Silverio Jimenez, and Scott Kecken. Author photo.

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Copyright 2006 by Steven McFadden

Read Day 150 -- Odyssey of the 8th Fire