I was not in a fasting state. I was not meditating. I was not under the influence of a drug-induced trance. It was during the day, late afternoon, that I had my vision. Since Vince verified it was a true vision, it further proves the knowledge and ability of having a consciousness and awareness of radical nonduality. This was not a product or a subjective view of my mind but a visual reality of the Otherworld while awake and conscious in this world.
In our apprenticeship with the late Mom and Vince Stogan, Coast Salish Musqueam Medicine Doctors (shamans), who passed on to Sherry and me the power and authority of their medicine (shamanic) tradition (lineage holders), Vince once told me to be aware that I might have a vision revealing how to paint my face during ceremonies and healings. Vince was correct.
My enthusiasm for running eventually led me to this vision. My daily runs took me to Fort Williams, a park situated next to the Atlantic Ocean in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Fort Williams is a former U.S. Army fort which operated from 1872 to 1964. It was part of the coastal defenses of Portland with various concrete gun emplacements at the edge of the ocean. My runs would average four miles. Halfway through the run, I would jump up on one of the gun emplacements and do a hundred quick push-ups, then jump back down to continue running. After a few minutes, I would return to the same spot and do another 100 push-ups, jump down, and continue my run back to our home.
Running was an expression of my soul, my freedom, the freedom of movement. Running was also part of my spirit training. During storms, especially nor’easters, I would take that first step outside the comfort of my home and, wrapped within the wind-whipped darkness, run out to Fort Williams, the location of the Portland Headlight. The Headlight is a historic lighthouse located on the cliffs overlooking the open ocean. The name “nor’easter” comes from the directional origins of the storms’ strong winds. Once at the Headlight, I would voice prayers to the living essence of the storm and sing my spirit song. To embody and breathe in the power of the winds and the force of the storm, I would stand on the cliffs facing north and then east experiencing and witnessing the full power of the storm. As the winds howled and screamed and waves crashed on the rocks below, anointing my body and soul with its salty spray, I would become one with its power, an honoring and empowerment of my Maya Day Sign – Storm.
During one of my runs, I had a vision of my face paint. It happened during my second round of push-ups. As I jumped up while running in place for a few seconds, I happened to look down into the ocean water and I saw an image of a sea creature and my paint colors of black and red.
Black and red, I thought as I jumped off and continued my run. Outside the fort, on shore road I came across a dead snake. I picked it up and realized that it was a spirit snake, as Vince had taught us how to tell if a dead snake is a spirit snake – a gift from spirit.
When I got back from my run, excited by the prospect of knowing how to paint my face, I told Sherry about my experience. We wondered if it was a true vision because we had never seen anyone wearing two different colors of paint on their face. Later that evening I called Vince in Vancouver to tell him about my experience. I was concerned that the image and the paint colors were just wishful imaginative seeing.
As I related the story to Vince and said I didn’t think it was a true vision given that we’d never seen those paint colors on any of the dancers in the longhouse during the winter dance season, he laughed and said (paraphrased), “Of course, you wouldn’t. Those are my face paint colors, the colors of a medicine person, or shaman. You only saw the all-black face paint of the warrior or all red of the healer, but the Indian doctor’s face paint is black and red. To the serpent ….” What Vince told me next is private knowledge and can’t be revealed in print.
Outside of identifying me as a shaman/medicine man, what is the significance of my paint colors? In various Indigenous traditions these are the colors of Venus, known as the sacred twin, in its two phases as the morning star (red) and evening star (black). Additionally, concerning my connection with Quetzalcóatl, “the red and black coloration provides an intriguing link with Quetzalcóatl, for the Aztecs said that Quetzalcóatl died in the ‘land of writing’ (tlilan tlapallan), meaning literally ‘the land of red and black,’ the colors used in Mayan writing.” In Nahuatl philosophy, red and black represents the place of sunrise, the duality of darkness and light as well the intellectual world of knowledge and perception. Furthermore, “black and red in conjunction signify wisdom.” Finally, according to Miguel León-Portilla in, Aztec Thought and Culture – A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, “the wise man is black and red ink. But since these colors symbolize the presentation of and knowledge about things difficult to understand, and about the hereafter, throughout Nahuatl mythology, the obvious metaphorical implication is that the wise man possesses “writing and wisdom.”
When do I wear face paint? I paint my face for ceremonies such as burnings and bathings, and for certain healings, while Sher wears the red paint of a healer. Indigenous face painting has an importance that dates back millennia. It is a form of “masking.” However, face painting delves deeper than masking within our consciousness by unlocking the quality or qualities we are bonding with in a transformation from our mundane selves into supernatural selves.
It was an important part of ritual and ceremony at Teotihuacán and in other parts of Mexico where face painting was the equivalent of a mask. “Huitzilopochtli: ‘His face is painted with stripes; it is his mask.’ Such facial painting, as a mask, allows the simultaneous perception by the viewer of the human and divine identity of the wearer and forces the realization, exemplified by Hopi children confronting the unmasked kachina, that the world of man and the world of spirit are essentially one, a unity realized in the liminal state of ritual.”
Earth Medicine Truth
In Vince’s tradition and in other Indigenous culture’s beliefs, you must have a vision or a dream to acquire any type of medicine, such as the design and colors of face paint. And your dream or vision must be confirmed by a traditional Indigenous medicine person or elder. You cannot just make something up. Vince always emphasized to Sher and me the importance of not making something up. He called it, don’t “fancy” something, it has to come to you in a dream or a vision and then be verified by a medicine man/woman.
This earth medicine truth is very important. I was not in a fasting state. I was not meditating. I was not under the influence of a drug-induced trance. It was during the day, late afternoon, that I had my vision. Since Vince verified it was a true vision, it further proves the knowledge and ability of having a consciousness and awareness of radical nonduality while still in a dualistic state of mind. This was not a product or a subjective view of my mind but a visual reality of the Otherworld while awake and conscious in this world.