Eagle meets Condor - Episode Dos - Preparations

 My first day in Vilcabamba, Ecuador for the Water Woman Festival.  I had stayed the night at a hostel called Le Rendezvous which I highly recommend!  

The festival grounds were a short walking distance, over the river and through the woods....

The sign on the bridge tells us that the Clean Water of the River Chamba is the pride of Vilcabamba

Welcome to Water Woman!

I arrived just in time to help with the final day of preparations.  There are some fabulous photos already on the web documenting the celebration, here I will share some shots from behind the scenes.  One of my preparatory contributions, along with photo journaling, was to gather beautiful, sacred objects and use them to create altars for several of the stages and workshops spaces.  Lucky Me!  Wearing my red puddle jumpers, jeans and straw hat, I was ready to get to work.  Many people had already invested hours and days and weeks 

Acaiah, signing people in and delegating responsibilities -

 Mother of Water Woman Festival, our beautiful hostess and organizational Maestra!  Also the long-term steward of the festival grounds along with her partner Pieter.  

(above, photo of Acaiah and Pieter taken by Caela Jane)

A tour of the grounds and works in progress....

The Sol Sanctuary

While some folks were setting up the dome, I was collecting rocks from the river and creating an altar for the Sol Sanctuary 

 Two more photos of the Sol Sanctuary by Jeff Eichen

When I had completed one offering, a butterfly landed on my arm as if to remind me that yes, we are one!

The Condor's Nest is one of the workshop sites, created by "Nature" (pictured above, also constructed some of the installations at the Envision Festival I attended in Costa Rica - check my previous blog entries for some of those photos)

(Condors Nest picture above, Thanks to Jeff Eichen)
See more of Jeff's work here

Setting up the Lotus Lounge, another workshop space

A few artists were still working on carving tree sculptures for the festival, they had traveled with chainsaws and sanders!

Through the enchanted forest, toward the river....

A funky little tree house about to become a stage for DJs

I created some altars and installations at the Nostradamus Hide Out using feathers, shells, stones and bones.  Next, I swept out the tree house to prepare it for the DJ station.  A crew of volunteers were setting up a sculpture nearby. Artists had a tent area set up where they were carving trees.

Also on site, a teepee and a sweat lodge for ceremonies during and after the festival

From where I am standing, the river is at my back and I am looking through the God's Eyes toward the sweat lodge

The woman pictured above also had mandalas for sale in the vendor village during the festival.  There really were so many amazing creations!

Kitzia's garden art -  a triple spiral design with a Mother Goddess Offering at the center.  This garden was at the center of the festival, near the house and vendor village.

The garden artist and her salad!

Still in process - the Mandala de Tierra

The residential bath house, above.  Water compliments of rain and gravity!

This is one of the first times I have performed at a festival where I was not playing the role of Magic Mama with the children.  Knowing I was setting off on a different kind of journey, yet still mothering my own children from afar and with several young ladies in my life coming-of-age, I was prepared with an offering for the Children's Village....

Just after my daughter and niece were born, my sister and I co-created an art exhibition titled "CHANGE"for which I had hand dyed several cloth diapers and strung them like prayer flags along the gallery hall.  Eleven years later, these same diapers are being cut and transformed into moon pads for the girls to use during this new phase of their lives.  I sampled a small square from each one and strung them together to create fairy sized prayer flags for the Water Woman children.  Here, they held space for the transition from Daughter to Maiden, Mother to Priestess

Follow the rainbow to the Quetzalcoatl Starship Stage....

Thanks again to Jeff Eichen for a few of these beautiful images!

Now, back up the hill to the Mandala de Tierra, now with fruit and plant offerings....

At the opening ceremony, we offered prayers, danced around the mandala, blessed the water in a clay vessel and poured it into the wooden trough pictured above.  There it sat, bathing crystals and evaporating into the sky throughout the remainder of the festival.  I added the water I had brought from Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, the Pacific Ocean, A spring in Waipio Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii, spring water from Minnesota and Wisconsin, the last Summer Rain gathered before I left the continent, and some Moon Tea.  Others added water they traveled with as well.

I moved my suitcases from Le Rendezvous, up the mountain a bit, to El Toro - The hotel where the artists were offered accommodations for the duration of the festival.