What You’ll Get Over the Next 7 Weeks

While the Grandmothers want to educate on the topics listed below, it is also part of their manner of following Spirit’s guidance and responding to the needs of the present. The themes may alter as participants express their prayers, insights, and questions during each session. Our intention is to create a potent healing, learning, and waking container in which you can engage the Grandmothers and trust that Spirit will do the rest.

Week 1: September 18th Prophecies Revealed: The Council’s Mission

Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother

Rita Pitka Blumenstein, grandmother

The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers was inspired by shared visions and prophesies that were planted decades ago in the minds of many people all around the world. Some of the prophesies had been passed down through generations of the Grandmothers’ peoples. Members of the Center for Sacred Studies (CSS), which hosted the Grandmothers in 2004, had some of those visions.

Grandmothers Rita Pitka Blumenstein and Agnes Baker Pilgrim share the prophetic spiritual truths that gave birth to this worldwide movement – and what is at the heart of their work – in this inaugural session. You’ll discover how these elders understand our current situation and how we might respond to the greater call to alter our relationship with one another and with the land.

“We are here to let the beauty, love, and pleasure to continue, so that when you complete your journey, the planet will be better for it. When we’see’ correctly, we may return love, generosity, and forgiveness. Yesterday was the past, future is unknown, and today is our gift! What role are you going to play today?!”
-Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother

‘You belong to the Universe, not the Universe to you,’ says Grandmother Rita Pitka Blumenstein. Yup’ik

Week 2: September 25th Uplifting the Soul: Fostering Respect Among All Nations

Ambassador for Grandmothers Tangiora, Pauline

We all live on a global scale. However, we must acknowledge that we are not all the same. There has been oppression of peoples who live in a natural environment – getting what Mother Earth and Sky Father offer for our daily life and making it possible for future generations to care for and pass on to the next generation. This has resulted in indigenous tribes losing their place in their country – and so in society – as a result of forced or accidental migration.

Week 3: Reciprocity on October 2nd: Reviving Traditional Ceremony

Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother

Holy Dance Grandmother Beatrice Long Visitor

The Grandmothers originate from prayer and ritual lines that heal and revitalize our relationship with Creation and each other. This workshop will focus on actually experiencing ceremony as a powerful means to mend relationships, build connections of mutual trust, and access enormous energies that we would not have access to otherwise. We learn the value of mutuality and reciprocity through ritual.

“I began the Blessing of the Salmon Ceremony on the Applegate River in 1994. I wanted to reintroduce our traditional way of life so that people would comprehend, appreciate, and be mindful of what they were doing to the land.”
-Pilgrim, Agnes Baker

“Our people understand that the land and the language are inextricably linked. If we lose one or both, we are no longer who we claim to be.”
-Grandmother Beatrice Long Holy Dance Visitor

Week 4: Oct. 9th Relationships: Walking in Our Ancestors’ Footsteps

Mona Polacca, her grandmother

Visitor Rita Long Holy Dance

The Grandmothers follow in the footsteps of their foremothers and share their wisdom with all of us. Forebears are revered in indigenous cultures, and this class will teach you how to develop a deeper relationship with your physical and cultural ancestors. This cultivates a feeling of place, of rooted and grounding, as well as a greater thankfulness for life itself.

“To our Oglala Lakota peoples, the Sundance is incredibly holy. Something wonderful will come to you and your people if you support the ritual in a polite manner.”
-Rita Long, Holy Dance Visitor

Week 5 begins on October 16th.
Water as a Human Right: Who Is Responsible?

Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother

Mona Polacca, her grandmother

One of The Grandmothers’ core teachings is to take responsibility for peace in our communities and peace in our hearts. Developing a closer relationship with the natural elements around us is a part of this. We come to recognize water, for example, as the source and mother of life when we enter into this respectful connection.

Listen as the Grandmothers discuss their relationship with this essential element. Learn to connect more deeply with the water inside and around you, which will result in a significant transformation in how you move through life.

“‘Know where your water comes from,’ my elders said. Understand your fire. ‘Know where you’re going to get your nourishment from.'”
-Hopi, Havasupai, and Tewa Grandmother Mona Polacca

“We call themselves Water Babies. Do not forget to praise God every day for the water you drink and bathe in. We could not subsist without our Mother Water.”
-Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother

Week 6: October 23rd
A Hopeful Future: Educating Our Children

Visitor Rita Long Holy Dance

Julieta Casimiro, grandma

The Grandmothers’ prayers are focused on the following seven generations, ensuring that traditional ways of life survive. We cultivate a world of hope by educating our children in the ways of peace, harmony, and balance with the land and with one another. Because our children will continue the peace action forward into the future.

“I do everything for the next seven generations.”
-Grandmother Rita Long Holy Dance Visitor

“I wake up every morning and pray for all sentient beings…humans, animals, even birds – they all deserve happiness.”
Tsering Dolma Gyaltong, Grandmother

Week 7: October 30th Celebration and Healing: Bringing the Prayer to Life Through Sacred Song

Julieta Casimiro, grandma

Sacred songs have given voice to the deepest links with Source for all peoples and throughout all time. Songs awaken hearts and heal bodies; they invoke spirits and drive away negativity. In their healing rites, grandmothers Maria Alice Campos Freire and Julieta Casimiro employ sacred music and chanting. They will share their songs as well as the wisdom of this precious sound therapy.

“Everyone brightens up. Each of us is moving and vibrating as we unite as the light beings that we are. We’ve all been summoned. We can all sense the shift and understand the importance of being One.”
-Flordemayo, Grandmother