Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance….Orpah Winfrey

Tzolkin Date: 13 Manik. Ruler is Blue. Blocker is Purple. Gatekeeper is Mercury.

Meaning: Deer, grasp. Sign of the Lord of the Hunt.

Associated Qualities: Completion, Beauty, the Craft of Life, accomplishment, gateway, dance, spiritual tools, priest/priestess.

MANIK

My mother was thrilled yesterday to catch a glimpse of four deer streaking through our back yard. Deer have that effect on people. Living in the woods in West Virginia, seeing deer is almost an every day occurrence, particularly if you are traveling on the roads at dusk. Nevertheless, the sight of them is stirring. They are truly beautiful animals, graceful, elegant, powerful yet peaceful. Following a well-lived day of Cimi, the day of Death, discipline and transmutation, we can arrive at Manik with a new level of Beauty, Grace and Balance.

It’s at first curious that this glyph represents both the hunter and the hunted.  The hand pulls back the bow and let’s fly the arrow. But of course, there is great wisdom in this.  The hunt is a metaphor for life. And in the spirit of Zen and the Art of Archery, we must become One with the prey in order to truly become the quintessential hunter. In other words, we must be as elegant, graceful and powerful as the deer in order to be the true hunter, a master of the craft of life.

Or master of the Dance of life?  Oh what power there lies in the Dance! James Brown said, “The one thing that can solve most of our problems is Dancing.”  If only humanity took this wisdom to heart and understood the Truth of it.  But maybe we are on our way!  My local community center has just begun Zumba classes and they are filled to overflowing! Dance is like a magnet. As a Dancer of the Sun, I look forward to the day, sometime in the Golden Age after 2012, when swarms of people clamor to learn this Sacred ceremony.

I participate each summer in a Sun Ceremony at Friendship Village in Ohio, under the leadership of my, Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha. Although the Ceremony has a quite uniform, proscribed tradition of regalia and dance steps to which we strictly adhere, there are times during the four day event when “free form” dancing is also enjoyed. It is then that Grandmother always plays one of her and our favorite songs, I Hope You Dance, by Lee Ann Womack. We all really “get into” the lyrics. We enter the dance arbor and flow gracefully round and round, happy and smiling at each other as we image our lives as fulfilling the words:

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat,
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you’ll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they’re worth taking
Lovin’ might be a mistake
But it’s worth making
Don’t let some hell bent heart.
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you’ll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

In honor of the Deer, the Dance and the Hunter in your Heart,
Today, I hope you Dance!

Elizabeth/Du’Tsu