2010 with Shaman, Kiesha Crowther 1/10 shaman wisdom keeper

[Joni]

An Interview with “Little Grandmother” Kiesha Crowther and her Story as a Shaman

By Brent Raynes

“Little Grandmother” was made a shaman recently at age 30. The daughter of a white father and a Sioux/Salish mother, she grew up in a small farming community in southern Colorado, disconnected from indigenous traditions on the reservation of her people.

As a child she spent long periods of time alone in the wilderness where she lived with and learned from the four-legged ones, the flyers and swimmers as well as the star and stone people, unaware that she had been identified at a young age by the tribal grandmothers to later be a shaman. As a child, she had been taught by the ancestors, grandmothers past, and by Mother Earth. She was known for her ability to sense and communicate with animals. Growing up with such a deep and resounding love for the wild, Little Grandmother went on to achieve her degree in Animal Science and has worked as a wildlife specialist/rehabilitator for many years. She also established a non-profit organization called the SLV Wildlife & Endangered Species Rescue Center to insure a safe haven and protective environment for those animals who need rescue from either neglect or injury, by protecting, saving, rehabilitating and preserving wildlife.

Now in her own words, read what Little Grandmother has to say about her incredible life journey and what she foresees for our future.

Editor: It was through a mutual and dear friend of ours that I recently came into contact with you. Priscilla Wolf, who lives just outside of Albuquerque , New Mexico , attended your Return of the Ancestors on April 19th, near Santa Fe , and described how some pretty phenomenal things happened. She says that morning, in fact, back at her home she awoke and you had appeared to her. In fact, you had called her name, and when the two of you met later that day and she told you about it, she wrote that you had stated that you had dreamed of Priscilla, around the same time, and told a friend that she would be coming to the gathering. Priscilla said, "Amazing how two medicine women from the same town in the San Luis Valley of Colorado had this great connection."

Kiesha Crowther: It is true, Sister Wolf "Priscilla" and I have an uncanny connection, one I believe that stretches across many lifetimes. I live in a very small, tucked away town in the San Luis Valley where there are truly more cows than people. Picture something close to Little House on the Prairie and you get the picture. So you can imagine the surprise I got when dear Sister Wolf contacted me and mentioned she was from the very same little town. I was skeptical at first, I mean, how could this be? No one comes from my little town! Then she started mentioning the old country store that has been here for decades and where she used to learn the ways of old from her grandfather down at the bend in the river. There was no question she was from my little town. She also started mentioning experiences about lights in the sky, people of light visiting her and the windows to another place by the river. My attention was all hers at this point! The very bend in the river she spoke about is exactly where I received many of my "lessons" from the other side, taught by the most incredibly gentle, kind and tender beings made only of light and love. This sacred place is the very spot where I began my journey of initiation to becoming a shaman and wisdom keeper, although I had no idea at the time what was to become of me.

Sister Wolf and I began drinking in each others’ stories and experiences as though we had finally found someone who spoke this unknown language that we each thought belonged to only ourselves. We truly became sisters of one path, the path of love, light and remembrance.

Meeting Sister Priscilla Wolf was just as spectacular as our correspondence we shared via email. We had not shared a photo with one another nor had we ever met before, that is until the night before the second day of ceremony when I dreamt of a Native woman walking up to meet me as I sat quietly inside a teepee. She had a message for me and I in response had a gift for her, "a feather ". The next morning was a very important day of ceremony, so I soon forgot the dream and went about the task in front of me. It was about noon day as I sat inside the teepee for a lunch break, when in front of me was the woman in my dream. It was my dear Sister Wolf.

You yourself have written that now that the ceremony of that day is over you can speak on what "transpired physically, emotionally and spiritually for all that attended," and how this event marked a "great shift" for our planet.

Please share more about the significance of this gathering, of meeting Priscilla, and how you and others who attended have been affected by it.

Holding an event as powerful and meaningful as "The Return of the Ancestors Gathering" in Santa Fe , NM was a privilege and an honor but also a real learning experience for me. This ceremony was no small event. The period in April of the ceremony actually marked the time Mayan and Hopi Prophesy had foretold for centuries, a time when the healing of Mother Earth would begin, a time when the heavens would open, pouring down energies of assistance, light and love to help us as human beings remember who we are. In doing so we would be able to rise to a higher conscious level of being.

This is the "death or the end" the Mayans speak about-- the death of our planet as we know it. We as human beings have a choice to make with only two options. One, we continue on as we are, blind children constantly gutting Mother Earth for all she is worth, taking without replenishing, using without thanking, polluting the air and the soil, the animals and the plants, killing, raping, abusing, neglecting and torturing each other and Mother Earth, ensuring our death. Or option number two, we witness our mistakes as human beings and come together as one people to start taking responsibility for our actions. We once again learn the wisdom of the past, the truths that have been lost for so long and act on them. This is what the Return of the Ancestors Ceremony was all about, bringing back those truths, the wisdom and the earth-honoring ways of being human. This very ceremony had been prophesied to come for generations and generations and finally Grandfather Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj "the keeper of all Mayan teachings" announced that in late April a pivotal time on our planet would come that would offer us a crucial decision to make. Are we, as human beings, capable of change?

With a great and resounding YES the ceremony began at sunrise. There were gatherings planned all across the globe between April18-28, 2009, to link in with the Return of the Ancestors Gathering that was happening in northern Arizona . Wisdom Keepers, shamans, elders and spiritual leaders, indigenous and non-indigenous peoples joined together for sacred ceremony. There were three very important ceremonies that needed to be held. For months preceding the ceremony, I had been taught these ceremonies by the other side and was guided very specifically on how to conduct them. The other Wisdom Keepers and shamans were given much the same instructions and teachings. The first day, April 18th , began at sunrise and was dedicated to the healing of our Sacred Mother Earth. The sacred medicine wheel/ circle was formed, crystals were placed into the Earth, and the prayers began. As crystals were placed inside the center of the circle something incredible began to happen. This first day of ceremony was so very cold, clouds covered the rising sun’s rays and snow flakes fell from time to time, but as we put the crystal inside the Earth and as we all sent loving healing energies to Mother I began to see them. I do not say this lightly, nor do I ever make light of something so sacred to my heart, or exaggerate when I say "The Ancestors were among us!" I remember clearly saying to the group that they came in great waves like the sea, it truly was a sea of people of all tribes, nationalities and colors. They came from all directions and covered the hills around us, stretching on and on. I had never seen anything like it! My joy was so full that it felt as though my heart would truly burst! I could not keep the tears from flowing down my face as I spoke of what I saw, to this day I get the goose bumps and I swell with such pure love and joy when I think about that morning. This truly was an amazing event, the ancient lay lines of energy that once were connected from "hot spot to hot spot of high energies" were once again connected after they lay broken for centuries. It was truly happening, I could feel it happening. As the leader of this amazing group of people I had a great responsibility to do things correctly and listen deeply to the guidance I was being given by the Ancient Ones. I could literally feel within my very core when the energies would connect, and what was more amazing to me was the amount of energy I could literally see pouring down from the heavens to the Earth.

I started seeing the "pillars" of energy about December 12th of last year, tube-like pillars coming down from the sky here and there. As time went on these pillars of light or energy got more and more massive, but this first day of ceremony the heavens truly opened and a these pillars of light I had been seeing for some time began to grow outwardly... until soon they were one large pillar. Many people felt when it happened-- there was a gasp or an intake of breath. There was no denying the presence of the ancestors around us or the massive amount of energy that was flowing from the heavens that day. It was simply undeniable!

The second day of ceremony was, and I think I speak for everyone who attended, the most profound and powerful for all of us. This day was extremely difficult but crucial to the purpose and fulfillment of the gathering. The second day of ceremony was dedicated to the healing of the Masculine and the Feminine. As I learned what this day was going to be about and how to perform what was needed through dreams, visions and lessons, the more I became wary of this day. I, like so many women, have been hurt by the negative energies of the masculine severely in my lifetime, so I didn't know if I could get through this day myself and do what was needed.

We cannot heal the Earth until we heal ourselves, and the biggest wounds we carry as human beings are those buried deep within our masculine and the feminine beings. These two energies have been so out of balance for so long, that it is impossible not to see the damage created by this imbalance in almost every living human on the globe. The imbalance is so great that without rebalancing and healing, we human beings simply will not be able to survive, nor will our planet. I began talking to the group about the great imbalance, how the collective negative masculine energies have created a massive wound on our planet through thousands of years of domination, rape, torture, warfare, molestation, violence and horrific unthinkable acts on children, women and other men.. Both men and women bear the wound of this loss of heart, this trauma and the alienation it causes.

Most of the men in the circle had no idea what was about to happen and it was probably just as well, since some of them would have probably wanted to exit then and there! I did not envy the men in the circle as I asked them to please stand and join hands. My heart wept for them so deeply as I instructed them on what needed to be done and what was being asked of themÉ to go inward, as deep as they could within themselves and witness all of these atrocities, to witness the grief and pain of the feminine, to feel and release these negative energies, not just in their own lives but for those lives that had come before them throughout history. As I spoke my whole body shuddered as the gut-wrenching sorrow and pain started to build inside of me, as I asked these good-hearted men to do such a hard thing. I must say now that the men in this circle were the strongest and purest hearts I have ever met and I love them deeply. I assured them I did not place any blame on them as individuals and I swore to keep them safe and grounded to Mother Earth and Father Sky the entire time. As I spoke of what needed to happen I had all the woman gather in a larger circle around them to hold space and send them loving light and energy as they went through this ordeal.

I weep now as I recall this... even though it has been weeks since the ceremony. As we began and the men held hands in a circle tears were already falling, even the women who stood in a circle around the men were weeping for them. I have a hard time finding the words to describe the suffering these beautiful men went through, the anguish and their cries were so deep and raw, some of the men coughed an agonizing cough so as to rid them of thoughts and images in their minds; some men tried to fight off vomiting, others wept and convulsed, overcome with grief. I stayed as grounded as I could as I went from man to man, raising my energies as high as I could to hold them in a safe and held space, grounding them to Mother Earth and Father Sky as I was instructed to by my guides so that the pain and suffering could be given away out through their feet and heads. The women who encircled the men would start humming or singing as one voice, sending loving sounds to the men to help them stay grounded and in the heart. One man collapsed, having a cathartic fitÉ I realized I no longer could hold the space alone and asked the energy healers/ reiki masters to step in and put their hands on the men to help them ... I watched and listened, praying for it to be over, to get some guidance that we could stop, as the pain of the men was almost unbearable for all of us.

All the while I watched not only the men closely, but I witnessed the male ancestors who were there gathered behind us in a sea of people actually move forward and literally step into the men one at a time then exit. As this would happen the men’s cries would change as they expressed the suffering and pain of the different spirits who took part... then. finally... I heard a calm but strong voice say "It is done!" I quickly announced that we had accomplished what was asked of us and had all of the woman go to the men, hold them, thank them and love them. We all wept together, completely drained. We held onto one another in a tight embrace. I knew this day would be hard but not even I knew how extremely powerful and life changing this ceremony would be for our planet. We all took a long break before the feminine healing began. This time I was instructed to have the woman form a semi circle, to form a chalice, a womb and the men stand in a straight line across this semi circle, sealing off the two corners of the chalice. Again we all held hands as I instructed the woman to go deep within and let all the abuse, all the grief and rage, the experience of the feminine throughout millennia, to rise to the surface. I was fully expecting the healing of the feminine ceremony to be much worse, harder than the masculine-- but it was different. It began with quiet sobs as the woman thought of their own abuse, their children’s abuse... it was a low sob, a quiet weeping for a long time and then I was instructed to place my hands on their lower bellies. I have to admit I didn’t understand my instructions at first. As I went from one individual to the next I started to see what was happening.... The woman were still holding onto their buried pain, suppressing it as we are all taught to do. But as I went from womb to womb the screams and the cries broke out, things started to surface in a huge wave of sorrow. All of the woman fell to the ground. Some lay on their bellies, some on their backs, many were in the fetal position as they wept, wailed and cried out.

Just as in the men’s ceremony I witnessed the ancient ones "spirits" step into some of the women and then leave, as they took their turns being witnessed through the different woman lying on the ground. I witnessed one woman actually turn into a bright light, almost metallic, and soon found out after ceremony several others had witnessed the same thing. Soon the answer came, "It is done!" and with that I had the men step in and hold the women, thank them, and give them their love.. The men tenderly held the woman for quite some time before we ended ceremony completely.

The third day was dedicated to the Wisdom Keepers’ teachings, the "lessons" I had been receiving since a child and some of the prophesies that I had been given from the other side to share. This day was a lot more light hearted than the second. I spoke about the times to come and how we, as literal children of our Mother Earth, needed to remember the Great I AM that we each are, and how to live from the heart and not the mind. This day marked the Condor of the south and the Eagle of the North finally flying wingtip to wingtip, as prophesy has spoke about for thousands of years—that the time is upon us for us to remember that the heart is the connection to the Great I Am that sent us here. I could speak a lot about what I have been taught, what will come in the future if we choose to remember who we are and listen to the wisdom keepers who are now all on our planet giving of their wisdom, which includes the teachings of the “star people” who will come to our planet to help us heal ourselves and Mother Earth. It is known that these star people came to our planet before and hid "buried" truths and teachings that would come back into use after the time of sacred ceremony, after the "the Return of the Ancestors" ceremonies. There is a great deal of information here that would probably be best to save for another interview.

Editor: Back in August of last year, my wife Joan and I were honored by Priscilla who took us on a tour of her old hometown. She had some pretty unusual experiences there as a child, and it sounds like you certainly did as well. Could you describe for us what sort of manifestations occurred to you during your childhood and how this conditioned you for your later role as a medicine woman?

Kiesha Crowther: For many years, I guess since I was around 8 years old, I have been getting "lessons" from a voice or voices who call me Child, and it all began down at the river. There is a very special spot at the river I have ran to for many years "my special spot" is what I call it, it has always been a refuge for me, a place where there were no humans, no houses or even roads. This spot is something very special. For years I thought it was only me who could feel the tingling in the air and in my feet as I walked on the Earth there. I have had many beautiful and magical experiences down there, always during the hardest times of my life when I would run off to my refuge. I became very close friends to the animals that lived out there and the beautiful trees that I used to sleep in. It was here at my special spot that the most amazing things started to happen to me.

I once lay on the ground looking into the trees one night as I saw a light blue light. At first my rational mind decided it must be someone on a tractor plowing in the field beyond the trees but there was no sound at all, no wind at all, everything was so silent as I watched this light get bigger and bigger as it moved through the cotton woods. I watched the light as it appeared from out of the trees, a light blue orb of light. I wasn't scared at all. I guess I was transfixed by what I saw, if anything I felt at complete peace as I watched this light. As the light came closer and closer I could make out that this light was not just light, it was a woman.. a woman made of light. Again I wasn't frightened at all, I felt at complete ease and a still calmness. I was still lying on the ground just watching her approach. I can remember every single detail of this woman, her hair was long and wavy with two braids at each side of her face that were pulled back, her dress was also just made of light blue light that waved as if there were a breeze but there was no wind at all, her face was full of love and compassion, a kind of love I can not describe in words. She came and placed her hand right at the side of my face very lightly so that her palm was holding my cheek. This is all I remember of this experience. The next thing I remember was waking up in the morning. I was still lying in the very same place I had lay down the evening before. There was a small heard of elk across the small running river to the west of me, an owl above my head, and I remember it being cold-- I could watch the steam literally rise up off the elks backs as they began to rise up from sleep and began to graze on the meadow grass-- but something was VERY different! The elk had this color moving through them, sparks of color that moved like falling snow or slow moving water, I watched for a while.. rubbed my eyes and looked again, still there! Everything looked different, Everywhere I looked things had colors running inside of them, not just a color but moving, alive color! The owl, the grass, the trees, even the water... I must have looked insane to anyone who could have seen me. I spent hours on my hands and knees looking at the soil, the ants, staring at a blade of grass giggling and then rubbing my eyes again and again.. but every time I opened my eyes I could still see this color moving through things.

It wasn't until I went home that I discovered there was something else just as amazing and I have to admit a bit confusing! I was still dazed, excited, confused, nervous about seeing colors but now there was something else, not only did different people have different colors moving in them but almost all of them, with the exception of some infants, had an image of an animal in their chest or next to them! As you could imagine growing up in a small Mormon community, I didn't pipe up about what I was seeing. In fact, I thought I was going crazy and spent many years as a kid being embarrassed of how I saw things. The next few years were hard for me, one because I didn't know what was happening to me and I didn't want anyone to find out that I was so "weird" Things got even weirder as I started to understand how I could communicate with animals. Even now I'm very aware of how this must sound to someone who can’t quite understand this. I still have a hard time putting into words how this actually happens but I will try.

Knowing where an animal is, even what species and sex the animal is without even seeing it, happens in many ways and with all the senses, It is a taste, a sound, a texture and a color and even a number.. All of these things happen quickly and almost simultaneously. Each animal is different, so for example if there is an elk on the road a mile up ahead around the corner I will get the taste of pine needles in my mouth, a feeling of coarse wet fur and the number 4, the color brown like tree bark..compared to knowing there is an owl in the tree outside the house while eating dinner in the dining room..feels like the number 8, and is dark purple and is like a cool breeze at night. This is the best way I can describe it and how it happens, this is also how I understand animals and what they are "saying" its not with words its with textures and tastes, colors and feelings.. if they are scared its bright yellow or orange, I feel panicked and it’s a pitch or a sound in my head. Aggression is red, the number 9 and feels annoyingly hot... when I know what they are saying and feeling, then I send them information in the way of emotion and energy with color and sound. I'm not sure how to better describe how it happens but as a child I did not dare describe this and hid the fact of what I was doing most of the time by just saying.. I think you should slow down, or I'm gunna go outside for a minute when in fact I knew there was a dog in the lambs’ pen. As I grew older I still didn't really admit what I was doing or the lessons I was learning from the other side, or those spirits who would come to me and literally teach me things about life and how they work, how we are connected and so on until I became shaman.

Becoming shaman was a total surprise to me, when I was called to be shaman for the Sioux and Salish tribes I was scared and almost turned the calling down because of the responsibility and huge commitment it would take, and because it would mean I had to come clean about all these "weird things" I had been experiencing. I was told by people in the tribe that they knew I had been receiving teachings from grandmothers’ past to prepare me for the day I turned 30 and became shaman. Somehow knowing that others knew what was happening to me gave me the strength and the courage to step forward into my calling. Since becoming shaman I now walk fully in the wisdom I have been given and the gifts I have been blessed with so that I can better serve, love and honor Mother Earth and all her creatures including all of my brothers and sisters on this planet. I have promised to share my visions and my lessons with those I come in contact with.

Finding out who Priscilla Wolf was and her gifts and the fact that she knows about the sacred spot by the river and the things she has witnessed also gives me great courage and support to tell my stories and share my wisdom with others. You can imagine what all we talk about as we have both experienced phenomenal things in this valley. I have seen many things, many windows that lead to a place of great knowledge, a great library if you will with so much to learn and know the answers to, a place of great love and light, of peace and harmony. I have spoken with beings not of this realm many times, in fact I hold some of them as dear to my heart as I do my family here on Earth. My message to the readers is that these "star people" if you will are here and have been here for a long time, coming and going. But I would like to share with you that what I have learned from them is that they love us deeply and they want to help us as a parent wants to help their child. They are not here to destroy us, those who are visiting us now are here to help us remember who we are, to help guide us and bring back the wisdom's and teachings that were once on earth but had to be hidden when organized religions and groups started persecuting and giving the rights to killings, wars and unspeakable things against one another because of our differences. But now is the time that the wisdom will be brought back. We are at a pivotal point on our planet where we will continue as we are now with wars, killing each other and our Mother Earth or we can change. The time of ceremony marked the beginning of a new way of being. The heavens opened and shared great energies with us, changing us on a molecular level, the ancient ones, our ancestors have chose to come back in spirit by the thousands to help us be better people, to help us spiritually and energetically make the decisions needed to better ourselves and one another. It is now time for us to start setting down the things we do in our lives that no longer serve us, that no longer make us better people. If it doesn't come from the heart than we should stop, if it doesn't make you feel good then stop doing it; if it hurts Mother Earth, then it hurts us. The time has come, the shift has begun and we are here living at this moment that was foretold to come for thousands of years. Will we be ready for 2012? Will we have made the changes in our hearts, will we have risen into a higher consciousness, a better way of being? I believe deeply that we as children of this planet can remember who we are and become the loving beautiful light beings we were meant to be all along. My prayer is that we operate from our hearts, listen to the wisdom that is being given and share love and kindness to all living things.

Editor: Priscilla believes that there are portals to other worlds in the San Luis Valley . Do you agree? Have you seen any of the UFOs that she talks about?

Kiesha Crowther: As I said previously, I have seen and even interacted with many beings from the other side.. but I believe there are differences between those on the other side whom I call the ancient ones or ancestors and those who come from different places in the universe. It is my belief from what I have been taught that there are many beings, many groups of beings.. Some are less intelligent/spiritually coherent if you will, and many who are much much more advanced than we are intellectually/spiritually/energetically and so on. It has been my experience in the past that there are also those groups of beings who are more advanced than we, but that are also on the same level spiritually as we areÉ so they have come here, to our planet, in search of things that could better them, or wished to know more about us and how we operate, and in doing so gave many of us a good fright by the means in which they took their information because they do not feel the same fear emotions and or compation as we do. Having said that, I have been told and I do believe strongly that they will no longer be visiting us, in fact they have been stopped. I know I'm going a bit deep here but bear with me as I try to explain. There is an intelligence higher than us, I say higher but what I mean is that they understand more, they spiritually are more advanced, their consciousness is far beyond our own here on this planet and they deeply love us, they see us as "children" trying to make it but we are making many, many mistakes, they are not angry at us but they want us to do better, they want us to succeed, they do not want us to harm each other or kill the planet. This Earth is VERY important to them, they love Her as a living, breathing being, who is the mother to many creatures who WE (human beings) will not be allowed to destroy. Understand that they love us, yes; but they also love the rest of the living planet and they will not let us (the only living creature on the planet that kills needlessly, pollutes, destroys and neglects the others) destroy Her. We, the human beings, are the only thing killing Mother Earth and we will not be allowed to do it. They, the “star beings" do not want to see us fail, or destroy each other, they want us to realize who we are, what great capabilities we have and this is why they are coming to our planet and will be coming "with their families" to help us.

I do not look at UFOs as a Sci-Fi, spooky and scary mystery that belongs on the X Files, nor do I believe that it’s all a hoax. I know they are real, I know we are being visited, that the crop circles are messages for those star beings who are already here from the others, that they are here to help us, to give us the tools to better ourselves. It is a very real thing for me and that there is nothing to fear as long as we live from our hearts with kindness and love. I have experienced seeing many unique and I guess strange phenomenon. I have watched large red balls of light hover over my home from time to time since I was around 13, one of which many people in town saw, including my neighbor who was/still is a police officer. I guess this is where I should mention that a government helicopter landed in his Field the next morning.. I have watched lights land on top of the hills here outside of town and never leave, in the middle of the night. I witnessed several times the green glowing orbs of light flying in a triangle pattern in great speeds over the mountain tops one second, then be over the town the next second. Many, many things happen here in the valley and I’ve heard many different stories from people, people whom wouldn't make something like this up, just simply wanting to know if anyone else saw it.

Editor: What are your future goals?

Kiesha Crowther: My goals in life do not include making a huge name for myself or making a ton of money. Being a shaman should never include these sorts of things and I think it’s a good way of weeding out the "went to school to become a shaman" kind of shamans. It should be a service, from the heart, a way of sharing a gift that was given to you in this earthly life to help heal and teach others. It’s a responsibility, not just a gift. My goal in life is to simply stay true to what I know, be honest and as loving of a person to all walks of life as I can, and to serve, heal and teach others how to love and protect Mother Earth and Her creatures.

[Myriel RAouine]