Survival Essentials - Water Questing - Location

In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman.
We get into episode twenty-seven of Survival Essentials.
Section five - Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. Location.

This and so much more in this episode of Inside The Ravens Eye. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Inside the Raven's Eye. I'm your host, Alan Mitchell. My medicine name is Raven Spirit. This podcast is partnered with Earth and Spirit Medicine, owned and operated by Winfield Ivers. His medicine name is Coyote Thunderhawk. He is a shaman here in the state of Utah, so make sure to visit Earth and Spirit Medicine.com. In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman, we get into episode 27 of Survival Essentials, Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. Locations. This and so much more in this episode of Inside the Raven's Eye. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Alright, here we are in episode 20 27, section 5 of Water Questing, and this one is location. And I was kind of thinking a little bit about location. I was kind of because we do a lot of like you know the modern and the raw wilderness, and it's kind of mingles in. Not yet, and hopefully I'm hopefully if I am doing that, I'm with you or someone that knows what they're doing. Because you know, the fact is I I haven't put myself in that or I found myself in that situation. And but thinking about how quickly fear would probably settle in pretty quickly, kind of being on a hike, and like you said, I think in the previous, kind of going through a few can't canyons here and there, thinking you know where you are. I think of one time I was on a hike with Todd and we were in Escalante and we went into a canyon. Wow, is that place beautiful? But whoa, you can get lost quick. And I was so thankful that he was taking photos on his phone of he was kind of doing backward walking. Thank goodness, thank you, Todd, for doing that. Because we were walking back and we made one simple turn, and then we were kind of looking around, and in that one little moment, we were lost. And again, thank you, Todd, for taking photos because we were able to backtrack and get ourselves out of there. But so whenever I hear about getting lost, I immediately go back to that memory. And but yeah, even being a uh man, if I was alone in that situation, fact is I know I can look back and be like, yeah, I would have been a little scared, and you know, no, I can possibly get my collect my feelings and be like, okay, I've been preparing and training for this moment, and I think this is kind of getting into the survival essentials. And when you really do take a good look at it, and you even at beginning stages of it, it can really save your life. And especially in the water questing and and understanding your location, understanding how you say, I'm right here, right now. This is a situation, and to identify, when I think about that, I think about okay, the location where I'm at, right here, right now, okay, and what's what's the first thing I need to do is stop. I need to stop, think, observe, and then make plans to be able to find water if that's what I'm searching for. So yeah, I was thinking about this in a in a lot of more survival essence, and even thinking about location. Okay, I'm at home, why do I feel like crap? Oh, I'm not drinking enough water. Okay, that's pretty. That's not too bad if you turn on the water like we're saying. You got more than enough that you were talking about at the home, but sometimes we forget that. So saying all that, I'll just hand it over to you. I love water.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

And wow, it's just so powerful. So many times I've been underneath water. I say so many, but yeah, so many times I've been underneath water, and I would say that out of those so many times being underwater, there were a few that I wondered if I was going to drown. I wonder if I would make it to the surface, and so water is interesting. You know, there's been those times when I've been out in the wilderness and way out in desert canyons in the Escalante, Utah areas, and there's a few mountain ranges around. Boulder Mountain is nearby, and the Escalante River uh runs along the path where many of those washes that have been carved over years, when it rains on Boulder Mountain, that water's gotta go somewhere wherever it rains on any mountain, it's gotta go somewhere, it goes down and goes, you know, to places it can. And when there's a lot of it, it'll basically move things along with it. And so sometimes, like I was saying, I was out in the Escalante wilderness area with a group, and we finally get to the Escalante River, and we had not seen any rain, but four days prior when we had arrived and then dropped off at our location, it was wet from previous rain there, but it was evaporating in the little wash that led into the Escalante River daily. But when we got to the Escalante River there were big like logs and oh my gosh, all kinds of things coming down like a raging torrent. Well when it's raining so many miles away upon that mountain, that boulder mountain, and here I am that many miles away, say oh maybe twenty-five is the crow flies, but fifty, you know, to drive or something, and that water goes down all those canyons, feeds into that Escalani River, and then here I am downriver, and I'm witnessing flash flood material in the sunshine. Can't see the storm, but I'm witnessing the effects of that storm far away, and I'm seeing all this debris, and we cannot cross the river. We wait a day, slowing down a little bit to try to cross. We're holding hands trying to make a chain to go across, and one of us went down, and two of them pulling back up. He was a young, thin boy, so it's easy for the water to pull him, and we didn't even have all of us halfway across yet, didn't even get that far, and and I went down, and I'm leading, but I caught myself, so we navigated back. So the effects of water caused me to make a decision. See, this was a 30-day wilderness trip that I was taking these youth on. I had gone out and buried food at several locations that we would need to hike to in order to get to our food. Little rations of rice and lentils and flour, buried in five-gallon buckets in the sand, trying to make it fun so that when we would get there, we would unbury this and we would run out of our week's worth of food and then get to a new location and refill for the next week, and then go to the next location and then refill for the next week, like that. See, and so I had to change my plans. And that water caused me to have to shift geographic locations and figure out how I was going to continue that 30-day wilderness trip regardless of what was going on because of the need for the food. So I went and I said some prayers because I'm kind of confused, kind of, oh gosh, you know, some of the things we don't think about in life. We we are going along thinking everything's okay. We don't see, you know, the storms going on around us, say, in life, but we get maybe to work and someone's acting out really bad. We didn't see that storm coming. You know, we didn't see that storm coming when these people are acting out in horrible ways with guns and assaulting people in uh public gatherings. Uh, this is the storms that are happening out around us uh with our human kinship, so to speak. And, you know, we've talked a lot about navigation and signaling, people sending out all these signals that they need help. And here I'm getting a signal out in the Escaletti wilderness saying, you know, you're gonna somebody might die if you try to continue on this journey. So knowing we've only got so much food, knowing that we were already uh three days delayed because of other situations previous to getting to that river, we were low on food. So I prayed. And a hawk comes, and I watched that hawk go up the wash that we just came out of. And so I told everybody we gotta go back up here, we're gonna go back up this way. You know, so sometimes people question uh the way that we go about getting information, but they weren't questioning the power of that water. See, they could fill it, they could fill it. But see, once we got up that canyon, and then everybody's wondering, well, how are we going to find a new location? It'll work out. So then some people showed up out there in this very vast area. All of a sudden, there's this big van out there, and this van had enough room to transport everybody, even though nobody was at the van. I could hear some motorcycles. They'd gone out that day and went desert motorcycle riding for some reason. And so we got there and they gave us a ride when I explained my situation to the town of Escalanti over to a place called White Hollow Reservoir. And I got there, got us all over there. I had my car, but it would not hold all of the people that were on this trip. So I followed that van and we went into town. I then found a landowner of, because I asked who owns the neighboring land, and somebody told me, and I went and found him in town, small little town. Hey, have a little mishap. Need to see if I can keep this trip going. Could I do this on your land? He had water running through his land. It was nice, fed right into that wide hollow reservoir. We were able to continue that 30-day trip. I went back out a couple different times to those locations by myself while the others were in the group working on fire-making skills, etc., and unburied the food that I had previously buried. So I would drive my car for a couple hours out and get the food and come back to this new location. And then another day when I could take that time when they'd be working on skills, I'd go get the other set of food. And during that time it was very hot and the deer flies were out. I don't know if you've experienced deer flies, but they have this scissor action, okay, and they penetrate your skin and they just eat the flesh. It's scissor actions back and forth. They're very, very painful. So I am working to unbury this food when I am being attacked by these deerflies. Deerflies generally in these areas come out in June, etc., and it is around water. It is based upon the elements that are going on. And so what's nice is when you can get in the shade, these deer flies are not generally there. They're out in the heat. Okay, they're out in the heat. But I was standing in that sun and both times digging down into that sand, finding those buckets, getting attacked by these deer flies relentlessly. Having to somehow, as I've talked about before, subjecting my body to my mind, but trying to hustle, trying to get all this, trying to figure out why all this is going down, to the long summation to this 30-day wilderness trek, it was all altered because of water. Now, at the end of this trip, these four young boys that were the only ones that were left, we started off with six in our group, and four remained to the end. They were all 13 and 14 years of age. And they all did a four-day, four-night fast and solo in this heat of a hundred degrees, sitting in one location, each of them in their own spots where we went and gathered firewood. And they had a five-gallon jug of water and they had their food. They could look at that water all day as they sat there in that hot sun with those deer flies trying to get in the shade of little bits that they could get during these times too. And so as they went through and they did their spirit quest, four days, four nights, no food, no water, these young men transitioned. Water was a very, very, very big part of that journey. And one of those young men was my younger brother, fourteen years of age at the time. And you fast forward just a few years from that trip to another trip that I was on in southern Utah when I had committed to taking a seven-week journey for some youth. And after three days of me being out there on this trip and fasting and trying to get in tune with the trip and, you know, get to where we're going to go for those seven weeks, and having a again, a situation around water because I went out trying to figure out where we were going to move our group, and a hawk comes. And the short summation of that story, you can go back and hear the entire story on some of these podcasts in the past about follow your heart against all odds. But I was out praying for a location that day. We were near a stagnant wash, we were near a stagnant pond of water, and I'm out praying, and this hawk says, You need to change locations. You need to go where there's running water. Running water. Well, water became very different that day because I knew that I had to leave that group. I had to leave a commitment. I had committed to somebody to guide a group of youth for seven weeks, and I'm three days in, and a hawk's telling me to change locations, and I need to go to where there's running water, and I know I'm going to go to my parents' home, and I'm leaving immediately, and I don't know what to do, and I know that I'm going to experience some obstacles as I explain myself to the person that I had committed to that had arranged this trip with these youth, my boss, and explained that I was leaving. So, under some circumstances, I ended up leaving. I ended up at my parents, and within a couple of days, there was a lot of running water. July 1st, 1994, my younger brother, 17 years of age at that time, just almost uh just barely three years past his vision quest. And uh he and two cousins, one of them, which were on that same 30-day trip, were killed in a train auto accident. So when that hawk told me to go to where there's running water that time, when the hawk told me to kind of go away from all that water the other time, one's in a very raw wilderness survival situation. Yes, I was out in the wilderness on the second one too, but when I came home, and then when my brother and two cousins were killed in that train auto accident, there were a lot of people crying, hundreds of people. We have a big family, and those boys were very popular. They knew a lot of young people too, and there were a lot of people crying, a lot of running water. So, see, when I'm talking about water questing, always staying hydrated and aware, you know, this life-giving substance, it wherever it goes, it nourishes. Water brings something out of what can't be seen. It's almost like water coming down a little path, and if there's that dormant seed laying there and it has a chance to sprout and grow, well, we didn't know. We might say, hey, there's a tree. And then that tree grows up to be a cottonwood tree, and maybe a few others do. And then maybe years later, see, because those trees need water to live. And so, you know, they must be saying thank you for that water that keeps coming through there and helping them each year to grow. So whenever it rains and it allows those waters to run through that wash, to take those cottonwood trees on a journey of life to where one day I can be out there in the wilderness and I can say, Oh my gosh, because our first topic we're talking about underwater questing today is location. And if you're following me here, I've talked about two different locations already. One's out in the real raw wilderness with water, one's in the heart. Location. What indicators or signs do I look for? You've just got to learn to trust yourself. You've got to learn to understand that something works with us, like that water going down that wash. Those cottonwood trees are not out there, maybe, you know, my gosh, I'm so thirsty. We don't hear it maybe anyway. You know, oh God, there was so much water yesterday, and Harry drank it all. Harry's the other cottonwood tree, I guess. Okay. And uh so, but but years later, see, I'm out there in the wilderness and I'm looking for water. I'm looking for indicators or signs. And all of a sudden I'm looking and I'm in the desert and I can't see anything, but looks like maybe red rock and sagebrush and stuff, but then I see some really like beautiful green patch over there. And that's those cottonwoods. And now they're bringing me to water, and there's more than enough, see. More than enough. They've had their water, and now they're giving me a sign that says, come and have some water. There's more than enough. More than enough water, folks. There's more than enough water for everyone. Obviously, we have the oceans and tides that run within us. Those things that take place in life that sometimes we just do. No matter the age, no matter the creed, no matter the religion, the sex, whatever it might be, we fall upon our knees, and this water begins to trickle down our very face. We feel it coming on. We feel it coming on within us. We begin to tense, we begin to kind of choke up. We begin to to almost try and prevent this water from flowing. See, like I was saying, you can't keep water from going where it's gotta go. So those tears start to come out. Maybe you might not be in the most pleasant place when you have that physiological place of water, that surge of emotion come upon you. You might not be in the most wonderful location where you might question that others, you don't want them to see your pain, you don't want to be embarrassed, you don't want to burden, whatever it might be. Washay, you want to let that water flow. If you feel it, and also if I'm out there and I'm thirsty and I'm looking, and I'm looking, and I see those indicators, those cottonwoods, I'm not gonna say, no, I'm thirsty, I'm going, I'm beelining. We need to beeline the same way, we need to just go ahead and uh I'm I'm noticing my my indicators, the signs, the locations inside, and I need to let this water flow. I need to cry, I need to, you know, things have been building up, if you will. So each of us go through this, you know. We we go through this. I I don't care who you are or how tough you may think you are, maybe somebody says, Well, I've never shed a tear in my life. Well, maybe so, but it doesn't mean that it won't find its way someday. It will find its way. See that water? There's a a way that this system works. It kind of has to be there, you know. We call this photosynthesis, but water kind of as a cycle, kind of disappears, goes into like this thing we call evaporation, and then these clouds we say come and they like cry on us, and we drink that water. I told in the episode of the introduction to water about like in Africa, and those waters come and all that needs water, wherever there's water, you will find all that need it. Remember, why is she crying? They say, I don't know, she's been out there crying. She just keeps crying. Well we'll see. Does anybody know why? Oh no, nobody's gone over there yet to to see. So sometimes it's the little child that will go over in the awkward situations that adults perceive as awkward and say, Hey, why are you crying? Oh, I'm sad. Why are you sad? Well, because something happened. So then, see, we we saw the signals, we saw the signs, we hesitate. Why is there a hesitation in our emotional side of things? But why are we willing to kill people over this other idea of no, that's my water, that's my water, where people have literally been for centuries killing each other over this water, and there's more than enough. There's more than enough for everyone, and it is the connective force. So think about it when that water comes out of that sky, goes on the whole earth, and things grow as a result. We drink that water, everybody, all the life that needs the water drinks it, and all the life that comes forth that we need to eat too. So see water, and when we get down our list of resources here, when we get down to food gathering, you know, we'll we'll see how important water is again as to how it was able to nourish plants, etc., to give us the life force, uh, food, medicine. So we can't say anymore on this planet that we are a disconnected people. We can't. It's a lie, it's a lie. I will tell you right now how it is a lie. Because if you don't go to where the water is when you're thirsty, you'll die. And everybody goes to the water when they're thirsty. But how do we go to the water? One must go with gratitude, see. This is where we connect, this is where we say, okay, we're all the same. I live and then I die. My body goes back to the earth, kind of disappears in this way over time, and flowers might grow where my body lay, and food, and then an animal comes and eats that food, and then goes over and defecates over here, and then another plant grows, and then we eat that, and then you know the cycle. Uh water comes down, things grow, things utilize, things eat, things adjust, but we all have to go to the water. So ask yourself right now if you can ever think of water again as anything other than the gathering of the life force. Everything has to come to have their life force nourished. We're all that same. We should be kinder. We should offer up that water. There's more than enough. Don't be afraid that you don't have enough. Go ahead and offer that up with gratitude and say, here, looks like you could use a glass of water. You get those solicitors coming to your door in the hot summer that you don't want to have coming selling you, you know, um pest control or solar or new roof or whatever, just enter your door and see if they would like a nice cold water. Chances are, whether they're missionaries selling religion or somebody selling pest control on a hot day when they're out there working and you don't want to talk to them, I'll show you you can connect by giving them that cold water. And that will change everything. It makes people real. Then they have gratitude. Then maybe you do bypest control, maybe you don't. Maybe you find out that your grandpa knows that kid's dad. Who knows? But when you take time to gather around the water hole with gratitude, you begin to realize where the location really is and where the need, remember the need about walking barefoot, last episode. Okay, what are our needs? We need water. I need it. Alan needs it, my family needs it. So let's give thanks for it. Let's keep praying for more of it. Let's pray that we can gather around in kind ways and loving ways. Let's pray that we can start to steward ourselves and our loved ones and our earth in a powerful way. This earth is the location. This is a prime location. This Mother Earth, this planet sea, she sits in a really, really unique place in this space and time. And she has an offering. And we must take heed to her offering in order to have a longevity of sustainability. We are in transition. We must come together around the water with gratitude every day. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

There we have episode 27 to Survival Essentials, Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. Locations. Hawk's deep dive into the details of the raw wilderness experiences and his modern wilderness experiences are filled with an absolute gold mine of spiritual knowledge. Take advantage and re-listen. Listen carefully, take notes, and share this podcast with people you care about. I believe this information can save and improve many lives. If you enjoy this podcast, please remember to share this with your loved ones, family, and friends. Give us a rating and follow us so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. Thanks again for listening and much love and God bless.