Dearest Friends and Family
What follows is an account of events which have transpired over the last week which I began writing on the 13th. Subsequently I have rewritten this journal more than 3 times as the situation here changed radically during the course of this time. I have since gone back and tried to piece together all 3 attempts at the letter I’ve been writing to send.
September 13, 2009
Cidade Ecletica
We sit here still in our hotel room after one month since arriving on the horns of a dilemma (one of Paul’s well used expressions).We are no closer to having a place to live, buying a used car, opening a bank account or understanding comprehensively this new language. Well perhaps closer, but no cigar (a variation of one of my former Paul’s favorite expressions!)
So we have taken the last few days to review our situation and our options in light of this. There have been a few factors that have come into play, such as the element of other foreigners (in the form of a beautiful young Italian woman) who take the much needed attention of Gaudencio from our personal plight. And the other demands upon his time by the administrating Elders of the community. And then there was a conversation 3 days ago with 2 separate men who both wanted us to know that we were fodder for the Brasilieros who will take advantage of us and eat us for dinner left to our own devices without the help of Gaudencio or anyone who can speak on our behalf!
Well. We had already been feeling the effects of our situation, being totally and completely dependent on the kindness of others for our very survival here and it was an uncomfortable situation to say the least. We are inclined to be very independent and rather private people and this warrants everyone being in our business. Not to mention the major title of this chapter being “Waiting for Gaudencio.”
So we take turns feeling blue, discouraged and profoundly bored. At least we take turns! While one suffers the other tries to either comfort or reason with the other. I’ve appreciated the occasional email from friends encouraging and applauding this bold step we have taken. While we are taking all our sources of gathering information into account – cognitive reasoning and logic, our hearts, the advice from the entities, sleeping on it, input from others, waiting it out and letting the way unfold…. This last has been mainly our resource but it’s not really forwarding anything.
So yesterday it occurred to us to return to a prior plan – that of taking a month long language immersion course in Rio, traveling a little to visit some people and places we want to see, perhaps pursuing a lead on a teaching position for Paul at a University…We think that most places we could end up in Brasil will offer us the opportunity to study to be mediums and this is still a priority for us, but without a more comprehensive understanding of the language, nothing works! This is our thinking at the moment, but for those of you who know us well, we change course easily as new input recreates our unfolding possibilities. A few days ago we were both in agreement to buy a piece of land we knew about and begin building a house there. Now today that seems like a bad idea.
You see, although we really dig (love the chance to use that particular expression from my past) the scene here with the entities healing the brother and sisterhood of the planet with our help as mediums, we dislike the surrounding towns. There is nothing cool about them as there is about some other towns in Brasil we’ve encountered. No art, no music in the streets(well not like other places-here it takes on a whole new context), no restaurants, no fantastic waterfalls to hike to, great architecture to feast our eyes on…. We’ve been places that soothed our souls with the sheer aesthetics of the walls of the houses and soft light coming from the open doorways in evening. Here there is little other draw than the healing passes of the entities – which, don’t get me wrong, is a huge draw. As artists our souls cry out for this aesthetic beauty and when we encounter it, it’s like an exhalation of a long held breath. So maybe we go on a search to find this? We’ll see how things roll out this week and next. This morning we had a long talk with Gaudencio who has resumed his efforts to help with the car and bank account. Meanwhile we wait to hear back from the immersion class…..Perhaps we’ll take that and then come back here to live for a while.
We have other new friends here who live in a very remote place near a beautiful national park. We say remote because it’s more than a 10 hour bus ride to the nearest airport. They are kindred spirits. They have relocated here from Argentina and England and have been setting up a life here to ride out the uncertain times ahead- self sufficiently on the land with a group of other like minded people. They are very spiritual people like ourselves but their path is different and in many ways one we can relate to more so than this Spiritist Umbanda path. They are much younger and we sometimes question if we’d be physically able to keep up and adapt to that lifestyle. And then there are the snakes! Hmmmm I think I could deal, but Paul absolutely knows he doesn’t want to. It’s another possibility going forward for us to consider….
Well the possibilities are endless, I suppose. We could go in any number of different directions. We thought to take the easy road, the one with the least obstacles to overcome and the appeal here is still enormous. I know that whichever path we follow I will continue to work with the entities and learn to develop myself as a medium. The rest is yet to be determined. If I can give up more and let go, especially of needing beauty in my surroundings, or perhaps change my eyes and the way I see and find beauty here where it is not now so visible, this could still yet be the perfect place for a while, a year or two or who knows, maybe longer….We’ll just allow it to roll out and work on being less discontent and find our gratitude again.
We send our deepest love and know that your love and friendship gives us our greatest strength.
Mindy and Paul
September 14, 2009
Just a quick note today before posting this as in the re-reading we felt it sounded rather negative and like to leave on a good, light and happy note. As I imagine it is with most of you, there are ups and downs. Some of us are thoughtful enough not to communicate during the down times and leave those times unspoken of. Not so for me! I find the richness of the felt experience of these times to be all the more interesting to reflect upon and that these times contain more lessons for growth…
Meanwhile, last night our new friend Daniel came by to invite us to join him while he played his guitar and sang. The power had gone out just before dinner and so we dined by candlelight with the other hotel guests including Francesca, our young Italian friend. Then we made our way over by flashlight to sit on the benches just inside the gate and sat with Daniel and his friends by moonlight for a while before the power came back on and lit the street with a soft warm glow.
Life goes on at a slow and very relaxed pace. I can’t say much moves forward, but the garden is growing, the people continue to be loving and kind and we feel less discontent knowing that there are options for us to explore and unlimited possibilities for our future.
There is a small house in disrepair a mile or two from the village, still on Ecletica’s land. It sits next to a river where there is also a small waterfall and a tiny chapel. The house serves as a post for caretakers to guard the chapel which is currently unused and sits behind a locked gate, posted with a sign prohibiting entry to it and the waterfall. One day a couple weeks ago we rode by and saw 2 young men bathing naked in the waterfall while Gaudencio clucked his disapproval. I adore the location and suggested to Paul that we volunteer to be the caretakers and fix up the house for us to live in. It remains yet another new possibility going forward…..
We are contacting language immersion classes in both Rio de Janeiro and Salvador to inquire about the availability for October. With any luck we will have a bank account and a car and can head out towards our next adventure while we ponder returning…….
My friends and loved ones
Just as I was about to send off the 5th newsletter which I composed a few days ago, everything changed. We had been assessing our situation here after one month and questioning whether we needed to change direction for a while and reconsider staying or leaving for a while to attend an immersion class. We’d been feeling discontent with our situation in many ways and we spoke to our friend Gaudencio telling him of our decision to leave for a while and travel to Rio where we had begun making arrangements to do a month long immersion class. He came to us the next evening and said, “Come with me, I have found you a house to rent. I want to show it to you before it gets too dark, because the electricity is turned off.”
Well, this was a major surprise as there had been no prospects for a rental and our only hope of leaving the hotel but staying here was to buy something or build something. We drove down the road to a side street where Gaudencio’s daughter lives and next door, his best friend, beyond to the next house where we entered through a gate in a high walled yard which we could not see into. On all our walks and visits to this street, we had never walked quite this far down the road because each house has barking dogs inside their gated yards who go a little crazy when Rocket walks down their street. But the road is spectacular in that it descends from the main road steeply down a hill which opens out to a very beautiful oasis of a valley. This house is 2nd to the end before open countryside and a very large farm owned by an American couple who live in the town of Abadiania about 1 ½ hours away. This is the town where the world renown healing medium, John of God does his work.
When we walked through the gate in the wall we were surprised to see a very large tiled and paved courtyard with a full size swimming pool (albeit empty of water at the moment.) The house although quite modest looking is quite large in size with several rooms and is only in need of a few repairs, some cleaning and perhaps some new paint. It has some very interesting features, covered walkways and a bizarre pit-like area behind, with an attached small house behind and sort of under. I will take photos because it is most bizarre and difficult to describe. One feature is a flat roof over the little house which creates a level raised deck with a spectacular view out over the valley, which at night lights up from the far off neighboring cities of Taguautinga and Brasilia and twinkles and sparkles like a Christmas tree.
When Gaudencio told us that the woman who owns it, who lives next door to him and bought it as an investment has not agreed to rent it to anyone because she does not trust anyone to take care of it, is willing to rent it to us for 300 Reals (That’s about $150) a month, we were faced with a proposition that was too hard to turn down, in spite of our decision to leave and perhaps not return. He said that he had not mentioned this place to us because he knew she was not interested in renting it to anyone, in spite of people she knew well asking her. However at the news that we were planning to leave (at least for a while – as we told him we would likely be returning) he went and asked her to reconsider. She agreed based on his word that she could trust us to take good care of it and that he would insure that nothing bad would happen.
All this transpired on day 30 from my first visit to the mediums for a special healing. On that day the entity who calls herself Tia Maria gave me a flower. She pointed out the several small buds encircling the main flower with a nod of her head in my direction to see if I was noticing and then instructed me to place the flower, wrapped in a white cloth under my pillow for 30 days. She said my entity would understand what this meant. On the 31st day I was to take the flower to the river, give my thanks to God and drop the flower into the river, walking away without looking back. This morning I did that. Would you suppose there is a coincidence in the timing of these two events? I don’t believe in coincidence, as I would say these are synchronistic events with a deeper meaning than we can classify by logical thinking or simply dismiss as coincidence.
We know that many years ago Yokaanan prophesized the coming of people from many places around the world when the major changes that will be occurring on the planet begin to take place. On many occasions they said to Paul, “ We were expecting you sooner. We knew you were coming.” As strange as this sounds, we believe that they think we are the beginning of this prophecy coming true. If you don’t think this is weird…. Imagine how we feel being someone’s fulfilled prophesy? If we were to leave, Paul speculates, it would be a failure for Gaudencio, whose role it has been to care for us and see that we have everything we need. Francesca, our young Italian friend, could not be convinced to stay or agree to return against the advice of the entities who implored her to consider this for her own best interest.
This last now brings up several questions… Could we be happy here in this most bizarre lifestyle, devoid of many of the pleasures and diversions we were once used to? It is hard to say…. Can we possibly turn down the ability to live for under $500 a month in a lovely pool home, eating organic food, drinking pure and sometimes blessed water, where we get to learn to incorporate entities who can heal people 3 times a week? I don’t think so.
Can you picture us walking down the road in long white gowns called Ballandrones on our way to the Temple to incorporate spirit entities and heal the patrons who come from the surrounding villages and towns? It sounds something like a cross between an old western and a science fiction movie, doesn’t it? But all this is sometime off in the future, as now we dress in normal clothes and know little of how to do this!
We like the possibilities of this house. It has room for an art studio and place for a ceramic kiln. It has a lovely and kind of quirky little nook with an alter where traditionally a virgin Mary would stand, but we like the idea of having a Buddha there with some of the fabulous crystals we’ve been given from the area and some incense with meditation benches…. It has at least one or two extra bedrooms and a little attached house which could be fixed up to be a guest house where we can offer to have people stay who come here for longer term healing. Often the entities need from a week to 3 months for healing serious conditions… And it has this lovely enclosed courtyard which is completely private with a swimming pool and places to hang a hammock. And I imagine we will still hear the radio tower’s broadcasts of announcements and music from down the street although probably not as loudly as we do at the hotel which is right across the street from the tower. Yesterday we were out at dusk driving the road even further from town that edges the rim of the valley and we could easily hear the music coming from the tower….
I have another exciting possibility to explore. I mentioned to Gaudencio that I would like to apprentice in the lab and learn the medicinal uses of the plants for making homeopathic remedies. Many of them grow here locally. There is a good possibility that I will be able to do this working under the tutelage of one of the senior Elders who holds all the recipes and formulas passed down from Yokaanan. I am thrilled at this possibility!
We thought we had things all figured out and were going to head off in search of new possibilities (or rather older unfulfilled possibilities) We were over sitting here in this hotel room waiting for Gaudencio and not being competent to understand the ambient language well enough to do anything without him.
And now a new turn of events…. And new possibilities.
Meanwhile, I don’t know if I mentioned that Paul has been writing again and we are both quite happy that he has resumed this activity as he has so many ideas that he has been wanting to write about in hopes of publishing and perhaps on his website which for a very long time we have discussed revising. We thought to include it as an attachment to this newsletter for any of you interested in reading it and submitting your feedback. I do personally enjoy the feedback from my exposés as they offer me the encouragement to continue.
Paul’s playing Malaguena again for me this evening as I sit cooling off under the ceiling fan composing this journal. Rocket’s looking over trying to communicate something to me from his blanket on the floor. He spent the day at Elliana’s house with her 2 tiny Chihuahuas and brand new golden lab puppy, while we accompanied Francesca to the airport with Gaudencio by way of a few visits around Brasilia’s spiritual sites. Life is good and we have once again found our deepest gratitude for all our blessings.
September 17, 2009
We were driving down the road the other day and Gaudencio flipped the car around because he wanted to show us something. We were only a couple miles from Ecletica on our way back from spending the day in Brasilia. “That’s black magic,” he said, pointing to a dead animal carcass on the side of the road next to a couple of whiskey bottles and a tire rim arranged in a strange formation. He said whenever we see whiskey bottles with a dead animal carcass, it’s black magic and someone trying to kill someone. “Don’t go anywhere near it, don’t touch it or kick it, stay away,” he said, as if we would!
Certainly we knew about black magic, but we hadn’t anticipated we’d encounter it around here, so close to Ecletica. We hear stories now and then about the fact that when people know you are from Ecletica, they won’t mess with you or try to steal from you because they know you are working with spirits and helping so many people working with the light side. People love this place so much and respect and admire all the people who are working here. They are so grateful that they go out of their way to help and to protect the people from here.
One of the things I like best about this place is their refusal to accept money or have much to do with it. I am repulsed by it and would be very happy if I never had to deal with it again. Not likely in this lifetime but here I do not have to be as involved or concerned with it as elsewhere and this is very appealing.
It has been 5 weeks since we arrived and we have still not been successful in opening a bank account. Is this a message?
September 18, 2009
Two days ago, after receiving such hope for a new life in that intriguing pool home only the day before, Gaudencio arrived 1st thing in the morning to say the owner had changed her mind and wouldn’t be renting us the house. He was furious with her for disappointing us and rescinding her word. He had not slept all night and had been ill from the negative vibrations and the anger he felt towards her but could do nothing about but stuff inside.
After much hesitation he called a former acquaintance who he had not spoken to in a very long time and asked her to consider renting us the farmhouse which he had helped her to build and which was sitting empty. This was the American woman who had left here under unpleasant circumstances to live in Abadiania. She agreed to consider it and instructed him to have me call her to discuss it. I was given detailed instructions about how to handle the call and warned to be on guard as she was a sharp businesswoman who would want to overcharge me for the rent.
Not happy about having to make this call and negotiate under instructions to not agree to any price without consulting him 1st, I was never the less happy that we had a new prospect for another house and knew that this was an even lovelier place to live than the last. I had no reason to believe that we would not succeed in an agreeable arrangement. The phone call left me on edge as she did indeed want to charge me more than I had been instructed to agree to and I had to be somewhat withholding until communicating again with Gaudencio before returning her call the following morning.
Both Paul and I did not feel right about this and the angst over money was a sign that this was not a good scenario. The next morning before returning the call, Gaudencio showed up, told me not to accept and said that he and Jason, one of the senior Elders here had another idea that they wanted to pursue and would let us know later that day or the next. Without disclosing the full details, he mentioned the possibility of another house located in the valley and mentioned that it could be seen from in front of his house. The valley which can be seen from his house is my very favorite and I have often wished I could live with a view over that valley. I had no idea that there was a house there.
Later that morning Paul and I walked Rocket over to see if we could catch a glimpse of this new potential house we might be offered to live in. My disappointments of the last couple days disappeared as I imagined what might be coming, but would have to wait yet another day to find out about……..
Before he died, Yokaanam predicted many things that would happen in the future. One of them was that many people would come here from all over the world. He instructed his followers to welcome them when they came and help to make it easy for them if they came with the intention of joining the community. Many people here believe that we are the first of the people who Yokaanan predicted would come. Gaudencio has shared with us that they are very happy that we are here. He said, “They need you as much as you need them.” He tells us that they are so happy we’ve been attending the classes to become mediums and they like very much the way we are with all the people who live here, treating everyone with kindness and respect. They are also happy about the way we feel about money as this very same attitude towards money was one of the most important doctrines to Yokaanan and now to his followers. They will not accept any monetary payment for the services they render.
Yesterday they offered us a house to live in. They had been intending all along to offer us one but had some difficulties to overcome. Had they offered us one of the two houses which are currently under renovation, some people here would have been very upset as they have been waiting to move into them. Their intention has been to move a few people around to make available another for us. However they had not been able to do this fast enough to get us out of the hotel in the time frame we had hoped for. Knowing we had become so discontent with waiting that we made plans to leave, they put their heads together to come up with a new plan. Gaudencio hearing my many comments about desiring a small farm outside the village where I could be in nature and have some privacy, suggested to the Elders that we might be happy in their old farmhouse. It seems there was once a chicken farming operation there which for several reasons ceased to operate and the farm went into disrepair and became used mostly as a storage area for old displaced furniture and miscellaneous items. The little farmhouse has housed a succession of single men who have not been well enough to maintain the upkeep and the house is in need of some TLC. The elders were reluctant to offer such a run down place in such a remote location to us but Gaudencio told them that we were used to living on a farm and would enjoy the location.
Yokaanan bought something like 60 square miles of land which now belongs to Cidade Ecletica. A very small part of this land is occupied by the residents, both inside and outside the gated portion of town. Most of the land is still left undeveloped and in it’s natural state with the occasional farm or sanctuary in remote locations. This particular farm is located inside the gated entrance to town making it very safe and protected, however to get to it you must first drive through the village and then out past the last house, through another gate and down a long winding dirt road into the valley which remains lush with it’s natural growth of various plants and mature trees of all kinds including fruit trees. So much of Brasil has been defoliated by intentionally set brush fires to clear the land of jungle for cattle grazing and the raising of crops like corn and sugarcane. To have some land still here that has not been cleared is rare around this part of the country. This now defunct chicken farm sits remotely in the middle of this most beautiful of valleys. This valley is in fact my favorite one and I have always maintained since arriving here that it is the view I would have preferred to have. Now not only do I have the possibility of this view but I can be right in the middle of it, surrounded by the peaceful sanctuary of nature with the security of knowing I am protected from the happenstance of wandering banditos.
While the location couldn’t be more beautiful, or even more ideally situated, both inside the protected area of town while privately remote at the same time, the farm itself is most interesting. The house is TINY and the rooms barely big enough to furnish. It will be a challenge to fit into it even the contents of our 5 suitcases we came with, let alone furniture. But as this is a tropical climate we can comfortably do most of our daytime activities outside under the cover of a roof or awning during rainy season. Fortunately there are several outbuildings placed all around the house which can be used for a variety of these possible activities. We will also consider building on an additional room to create more space. We can do this with money we would have spent towards rent as we will not be asked to pay anything to live there. Rather we will agree to give of our time to help with some work yet to be determined. Mediumship will be a part of this work we will be asked to do.
We don’t know how long we will stay there as there may be other plans for it in the future. At one time there were as many as 20,000 chickens on the farm living in about 5 very large buildings. We would love to do something on a much smaller scale like raising laying hens for the production of eggs to feed the community.
Meanwhile apart from the news of our living arrangements, we are at work in our studies. Part of this task involves the translation of a journal from our mediumship class. I have in the last two days translated 2 documents. One was channeled from an entity and the other written by an early disciple of Yokaanan’s about his beginnings and his mission. Paul and I are inspired! Now we are beginning to get the full impact of what we are doing here and why!
Here’s what we are thinking. If we revitalize Paul’s former website to post the articles he is writing along with the journals I am writing we can also post the translations of Yokaanan’s writings, the messages that are being received from the entities and what the core focus of this brotherhood is all about. Perhaps more of you or people that you know may be interested in being a part of this as we uncover more. There is much to be done on the planet in this time of great change. So many of us are looking for direction in what we can possibly do to help one another. These people are expecting others to come. It is all for a great purpose and as we learn more we will share this with you and on our website if indeed we make it happen. We will see how much work there is to do and what seems most important and compelling and do what we can. It would seem we may be chicken farmers?????? In addition to being healers……
I’ll end at last this longest of all my news from Brazil and report back later with other news as it unfolds in rapid succession!
We send our love and gratitude….
Mindy and Paul