Chapter 13 – The Rock – 2005

As I drove the up the steep curves of the mountain road,  I welcomed the familiar volcanic mountains covered with the emerald green forest.  The flamboyan tree was in full bloom, offering bright orange flowers to the clear blue sky above.  That childhood longing returned. The excitement I felt as a child when my Dad drove us in the Jeep Wrangler through the mud soaked road of the past  flooded my mind. What an adventure we always had. We used to drive to a certain house in Cayey. We kept a Jeep Wrangler parked on the property of a family we became friendly with.  Upon arrival, we used to transfer all the belongings from Dad’s Lincoln Continental to this tiny Jeep. Since I was the youngest, I always sat on the window….literally. What a ride.  We slipped and slided everywhere. There were times that we questioned if we could conquer the rugged road ahead.

Once at the farm it was like Disney World.  We had every animal you can think of ….horses, cows, bulls, goats, rabbits, pigs, chickens, roosters.  We grew our own vegetables and fruits. We had a grove of orange trees and coffee trees. In our garden we grew lettuce, tomato, cucumber, all sorts of typical root vegetables like yautia, malanga and yucca.  On the side of the mountain we had the banana trees and the plantain trees. It was definitely a Garden of Eden.

My favorite part were the horses.  We used to saddle the horses and run them wild.  All together we were about 40 cousins. Not all of us were old enough to ride, but we had over 10 horses.  We took them out of the property and ran them on the country roads. We raced everywhere and stopped at the local cantinas for our malta, a non-alcoholic beer.  My other favorite part was exploring every nook and cranny of the farm. The quebradas (streams) were at the very bottom of the steep valley. I remember how difficult it was to walk down since it was so steep.  Once at the bottom, the stream of water surrounded by the huge rocks was an amazing sight and lends itself to the fantasies of the mind. Playing hide-and-go-seek in the mirage of rocks that adorned the front of the main house at the dead of night was also a favorite pastime.  Memories…..

I couldn’t wait to share the farm with Nancy.  The Taino Indian was very much prevalent on the farm and their markings were everywhere.   The large mountain has petroglyphs carved into the side by the native Tainos.

After arriving,  I wanted Nancy to see mom’s Meditation  Garden. It is so beautiful. Mom has been hard at work trying to make this garden a true place of beauty and spirituality.  Nancy and I walked down to the garden where I showed her the carvings on the rocks that were carefully placed long ago. 

When Nancy first saw the faces, she was in awe.  After a few minutes of staring at the rock, she stated to me that it was a burial site.  Something about 1802 or 1822. I was shocked.  Could this be the place we were supposed to find my burial?  I pulled Nancy away in order to show her the other rocks when Mom seemed to have overheard some of our conversation and asked Nancy what she felt about the area.  Nancy looked at me and said that it was very positive and very spiritual. Mom kept asking, seemingly unsatisfied with Nancy’s answer. She seemed to be fishing for something but Nancy and I couldn’t figure it out.  Mom got frustrated and said that a neighbor from around the farm came over for lunch one day. She had the reputation of being “strange.” When she came over to the main house and was overlooking the valley, she told my mom that this was a definite burial site.  At the time, my Mom was not ready to hear anything of the kind so she tuned out the woman. But, when she thought she heard Nancy say something about a burial site, the memories of that day came back to her.

Nancy and I got very excited.  We knew that our work was here at the farm.  I was to find my burial site at the very place I grew up.  We went back to the main house and sat for a while. Nancy decided to imitate the sound of a horse.  Mom was shocked how amazingly genuine her imitation of a horse was. Suddenly, two horses appear at the valley below.  They came all the way up from la quebrada when they heard Nancy’s call. Nancy bellowed again. This time the horses answered back.  Shortly afterwards, all the remaining horses came up the hill. Nancy and I remembered part of the reading that stated “Pow Wow has come as your guide and so have the horses in this life experience.” We looked at each other and decided to follow the horses.

We walked down to the road below.  The horses looked at us with curiosity.  We were very cautious since we were not familiar with these particular horses and the fact that there were bulls on the farm. We slowly followed the horses. They were leading us right to the stone mountain. At one point, we stopped since we would have cornered the horses and we didn’t want to alarm them.

As we returned and looked back up towards the main house,  we suddenly saw with clarity what the “strange” women meant by a burial site.  That is exactly what the carefully arranged boulders looked like….they looked like headstones. So maybe this was Pow Wow’s way of guiding us to my grave. He showed us clearly that we were in the midst of a burial site.  

We returned and had dinner.  There was a strange energy between Nancy and I.   There was a lot of tension. I am not sure why but we were both on edge.  What we didn’t realize was that there was much work to do that night.

After my parents went to sleep,  Nancy and I went outside to meditate before turning in.  This ended up being another reading:

As soon as we sat down,  we could feel the electrifying energy around us.  We were not alone. Nancy says to me…..”they are saying to me ‘Lalu’s Land.’”  I was flattered and smiled but the true implications of what she said to me did not sink in.  She said it again, “this is Lalu’s land.” They are welcoming us. We proceeded to close our eyes and started with the James Van Praagh meditation.  Nancy kept hearing the song “Dai  dai ainu.” (Note: I’m now starting to think that they were saying “Taino” since the two words sound almost identical. Or was it the Jewish Passover song Dayenu? If so, what would the energy mean by “it would have been enough”).

The energy was so intense that we quickly focused on who was with us.  Nancy asked me if I could see the thickening of the air. I did. I saw clearly a vortex of energy, like a small tornado, right in front of me. There were two of them. She confirmed to me that not only am I seeing it but that I am ready to “see”  like she can. She proceeded to say that it was my turn to tune in. So, she started to teach me. “Focus on the energy. Stay calm. Now are you ready to be approached?” I said yes but as I saw the vortexes come close to me I have to say that I got a little spooked.  When I didn’t take over the reading, Nancy started to communicate with the people that had crossed and were there to greet us.

She said,  “The three men with the black jackets are here. No, it is two men and a woman.  They are all three related somehow. They are not good, they are evil. I am hearing something about devils.  You are the daughter of the woman chief that lived here. What do you call them? (They are called Caciques and I found out a few years later that woman were also Cacicas).  You were like a princess….like Pocahontas. Do you understand? (This was not the first time that Nancy stated this so I said that I understood). The men and the woman who are here killed your family.  They killed your family right in front of you….including children. You were very young at the time. Do you remember this Lalu? Yes, you can remember this…think. (I shook my head in disbelief. I had no idea what she was saying).  They murdered your family and members of your tribe in a raid ….for money or for gold. They are asking for your forgiveness. (I told Nancy that I couldn’t forgive something that I couldn’t remember but that I was the type of person to forgive if the person was sincere).  She said that I would have the opportunity of reliving this past and then decide if I wanted to forgive them. She then said that red clay and orange clay was used to make the petroglyphs on the rock. You used to carve wood in this past life. You were also a warrior, and your personality in your past life is a direct reflection on this current life.  You are not a warrior! (I told her that I was and that she should come see a Saturday morning class in the dojo….she would change her mind). You are to find your burial site and your name in that past life. I will also be shown by the three negative spirits why I should forgive. I am not to continue. You are to do this yourself.” Nancy then told me to call on Pow Wow to be next to me and to protect me.  She was getting frightened by the energy and this spooked me. She said again for me to call on Pow Wow. Before going inside, she asked me what the black shades on the eyes meant, of which I had no idea. We were kind of spooked, so we went back inside to sleep.

This was the third night in a row that I couldn’t sleep.  This time it was Pow Wow. He needed to work with me. The energy in the room permeated my entire body.  Nancy was fast asleep (snoring if you will) and I was lying there as if my fingers were stuck in an electrical socket.  When I realized that I would not fall asleep unless I paid attention, I grabbed my dream journal and pencil and laid still to see what thoughts filled my empty mind:

You must go to Lalu’s Garden (Mom shared with me and Nancy that she always wanted to call her meditation garden “Lalu’s Garden”. She knew how much I loved the farm and meditating in the garden). Take your camera. You will need to take pictures.

Look for the golden pipe. The orange butterfly will indicate the way.

Follow the watery path       ———————X

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Use the pendulum!

I then see a vision of the mountain and see a large opening, like a cave. It’s covered by what seems to be cowhide with red and black figures painted on it. “La Piedra” is your name in Taino. This opening is a burial site – a mouth to a cave. (Note: I had an archeologist friend visit the farm and he mentioned that the markings on the side of the mountain rock were indicative of a grave).

The female matriarch was a shaman and so was I in that past life and so am I now (still don’t know what to do with that). I had and have knowledge of the spirit world, knowledge of botany and can communicate with animals. (Don’t know what to do with that either).

Look for totem pole made of rock. Observe the numbers on the rocks. The rocks and the numbers are part of a puzzle.

Use a headband when doing this kind of work. For you it’s like a crown and it will protect you. The flat surface behind the house was the location of your village. The homes were located there. I could see what I looked like then which was surprisingly similar to how I looked now. I was an apprentice to my mom, who was a shaman. I was reluctant then, as I am now, to step into my calling. It was simply immaturity and a lack of confidence. I could feel my mom’s frustration.

I then hear screaming and there is total chaos around me. I don’t react or move and as if in slow motion I see these men kill everyone in my tribe. I then experience the final blow. I was stabbed in the stomach. As I die, I regret not having the opportunity to fulfill my purpose in that lifetime and I now realize that I’m back in this life to do just that.

I was up all night.  This information was coming in but it wasn’t the same as for Nancy.  It was like being in labor. I closed my eyes and about 5 minutes would go by and then I would get the information.  I would write it down (dead tired, if I may add….forgiving the pun). Then I would close my eyes again and then more information would flow.

Than something odd happened. The animals on the farm started to scream. The roosters, cows, dogs, birds, goats, horses and sounds I never heard before …. all the animals were going crazy. What a serenade! Including the coqui!  

It was 5:30 in the morning and I wake Nancy up. She was confused wanting to know what the fuss was all about. We went outside and started to meditate. The animals were howling so loud that I found it strange. Suddenly, the howling turned into a chant, a Native chant. The voices were singing what sounded like“Dai  dai ainu”. It was so eerie to hear and yet completely clear.  I thought I was imagining it until Nancy verified it for me.

I then told Nancy how I didn’t sleep all-night  and about the reading. She looked at me and told me that I was to find the burial site on my own.  She was tired and was going to go to bed. So, she went back and went to sleep. Since I couldn’t sleep,  I gathered the items that Pow Wow instructed me to take…. the camera, the pendulum and the diagram and set off to the meditation garden.  One path was the path from the main house to the Meditation Garden, which intersected the old road that went to the small house that once sat on the same site of the Garden.  So, I knew the burial site was somewhere there.

I started to search the rocks,  looking for a clue. One rock in particular held my attention.  There was a faucet hidden behind it and I thought….. “where the slippery water path meets, the green leaf is large and next to it is a coqui”. Is it possible?  So, I started to search the rock. It was huge but it didn’t have a face.  I stepped away from the rock and then it was suddenly visible. It was a huge head lying on its side.  The face seemed distorted and in a painful grimace. This was it!

I started to look for a marking on the rock.  I noticed something on the top of the rock so I used a smaller rock as a “step” to climb on top. The rock had deep slashes on top,  which if you considered it as a face, the slashes would have been on the left cheek. I got very excited and started documenting my discovery with lots of pictures.  I kept looking for other markings and tried to understand what the other large rock next to mine was….again I couldn’t find a face. But, there was a craving in the rock that I just couldn’t make out.

Mom joined me at the Garden.  She wanted to know what I was doing.  I told her that I found my burial. She asked how did I know. I responded, “I can’t say why but I just know.  If I only could find a coqui on a broadleaf. ” She told me not to expect to see one since it was already morning and the coqui’s don’t come out during the day.  

I then asked mom if she knew what the craving on the neighboring rock was. She responded, “Doesn’t it look like a coqui?” I looked and realized that it could be and wondered if the “coqui” was supposed to be a marking on the rock and not necessarily an actual coqui.  The rock was next to a plant with large broad leaves. So maybe this was the validation.

Previously, when searching the area, I noticed that many of the rocks in the garden had marking that looked like eyes. They were everywhere and gave you a feeling you were being watched.  I was curious if this particular rock  had eyes too. So, I started to part the large leaves that were in the way and suddenly I jump up in surprise.

Sitting on the leaf below was a beautiful coqui.  “Mom! There is a coqui on the leaf!”

“You’re kidding!  I don’t believe it!”, said mom.  

We carefully approached the broad leaf plant, called elephant ear in Spanish,  and pulled aside the top leaf.  Sitting there was this gorgeous tree frog…. a coqui.  It was brown with green stripes going down its side.  Mom was so excited. I was so glad she was with me. Who would believe me otherwise? She exclaimed how beautiful it was.  

We proceeded to carefully take pictures as per Pow Wow’s instructions. It was amazing how the coqui just sat there unafraid.  As a matter of fact, when Cano and his wife came down later in the morning, they went down to check out the rock and the coqui was still there.  Cano said that the coqui was pregnant, and his wife called it the sacred coqui. How perfect…pregnant….symbolic of the beginning of life and all of life possibilities.

I’m not sure why it was important to find my grave. Some of the information I have received from Pow Wow has taken me over a decade to understand. I know at some future moment I will know it’s relevance. But everything I was told was there. The muddy dirt road leading to a water faucet that marked the location of a rock that had a face carved into it and sitting next to the rock was a coqui on a elephant ear plant.