Page 38 - the NOISE June 2013

Saguaro
(Cereus giganteus)
Primary Quality: Guardian
Family: Cactus (Cactaceae)
Other Names: Sahuaro, Giant Cactus Where Found: in the Sonoran Desert along
rocky slopes and flats Elevation: 600’ to 3,600’
What an amazing living being the Saguaro is! I love to visit the Sonoran desert especially when the Saguaro flowers are in full bloom and their creamy white halos appear as a crown in terminal clusters on the Saguaro’s branches and main trunk. Their presence is that of magnitude, endurance, patience, and wisdom.
The saguaro has had many uses for early Native Americans of central and southwest- ern Arizona for centuries. The Hohokam In- dians, who inhabited the region until about a.d. 1200 allowed saguaro wine to ferment to vinegar (acetic acid) and used it to engrave sea shells centuries before Europeans began using a similar etching technique.
These people, as well as the Tohono O’Odham (the “desert people”) who came after them, dislodged the fruit from the high branches with pieces of saguaro ribs tied to- gether.
The syrup, yams, fruit wine, and flour made from the seed sustained them through the hot summer months when little else was available. The O’Odham credit the saguaro with saving them from starvation before they began to farm. The placentas of newborns were often buried at the base of the saguaro to request of Spirit a long life for the baby.
Woodpeckers often peck holes in the sa- guaro. This causes the damaged saguaro to line the hole with scar tissue, creating a boot- like void that owls, hawks, and otherdesert birds use for sh elter. This shelter protects the birds from the heat of the day because its in- side temperature is thirty degrees cooler than the outside temperature.
In the winter season, the sunlight radiates into the nest and keeps it warm.
The roots and the boot-shaped nests were used as containers by the Indians. The wood- en ribs of dead saguaros were used to make roofs, shelters, fences, hiking sticks, knick- knacks, and simple furniture, as well as to line graves.
In earlier times, the Indians gathered their families and walked to the harvest grounds to collect saguaro fruit.
The process could take up to three weeks. The women would gather the fruit and make syrup, leaving the empty fruit husk inside-out to encourage rain. The men would hunt for food and gather wood for the fire, then fer-
mentthesyrupintoalow-alcoholic-content wine. The wine was then drunk in a ritual rainmaking ceremony of thanksgiving; drinking the wine was symbolic of the earth drinking or absorbing the rain. The elders faced the four sacred directions one by one, drinking the wine and praying for rain. To- day, Indian families still harvest the saguaro fruit — but they usually make the round trip in only one day, driving a pickup truck.
The saguaro fruit eventually fall on the ground, attracting a variety of wildlife such as javelina, rabbits, birds, and ants.
Today there is a large market for saguaros among collectors and landscapers.
They are considered prized additions to many a yard.
Positive Healing Patterns
• Helps us to persevere in times of strug- gle, to open our awareness through our own developmental process and that of our children, to become mature people who act wisely when we are given authority, and to learn to pace ourselves and to build up our own reserves for times of need.
• Teaches us to build a strong nation of people who stand by their truths, who guard against negative ways of being and living, who protect their children and their environment, and who live with dignity; also shows us strength, insight, and wisdom through humbleness.
• Gives us an ancient connection and an ability to tap into our infinite storage bank of information that will help us evolve into our own spirituality; helps us emerge to- ward our higher wisdom and awareness, even in the darkness, and to find strength in our inner selves.
• Channels light, energy, and conscious- ness throughout all the all parts of the body. • Stirs passion, sensuality, creativity, and
positive abundance at all levels; promotes the magic needed to energize and produce positive resources and reserves from within and outside of ourselves.
• Encourages us to find our inner silence, to honor that which is sacred, and to take time during the day for silence, meditation, and devotion.
Affirmation:
“I release and expand at all levels of my being, inviting my deeper awareness to guide my thoughts and actions.”
| Rhonda PallasDowney is the founder of Living Flower Essences and the Center for Plant Studies &
Healing Arts. Author of The Heal- ing Power of Flowers, and Voices of Flowers. centerpsha.com
Dear Representative Barton,
We recently moved to Cottonwood where I picked up the April and May copies of “the Noise” published by Weavel Inc. It is basically an art paper distributed for free in Northern Arizona. While it has a disclaimer saying it is a
“free forum for ideas and creative expres- sion,” both issues have extremist politi- cal editorials. The April issue has a long article proclaiming the 16th Amend- ment is unconstitutional while the May issue has one accusing the US and Israel of genocide. Of course the First Amend- ment protects free speech. My problem is that the publisher received a $4,500 annual grant from the Arizona Commis- sion on the Arts. I suspect that every issue contains only fringe political dia- tribes, not a “free forum.” Even if it were a free forum of political ideas, why is it receiving tax payers’ funds for the arts?
Thank you for looking into this matter. Sincerely, Leland Gamson, LCSW
Cc: Chester Crandell, Bob Thorpe, The Noise, Weavel Inc, Ari-
zona Commission on the Arts
Dear Leland
Thank you for taking the time to write down your thoughts and being so consci- entious in your appeals to individuals at the state level who have track records of limiting the size of government. It is pre- sumed your intention is to strip a $4,500 grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts this publication received for the first time this year after 12 years of pub- lishing works of art contributed by the community at large.
If by “fringe” you mean work that has not been published before, then yes, we are guilty. If by “art,” you mean any piece of human work that evokes thought and emotion from the beholder, then again we are guilty. However, to suggest that politics and art are two distinct beasts, then sir, it is suggested you reread your history books. For as long as there has been politics, there has been art to make sense of it, to keep the hackles raised, to question and answer, not by bow and ar- row, but by synapses and heart palpita- tion.
Art is how we progress to an under- standing without violence.
Just as the un-ratified 16th Amendment is still a poignant conversation 100 years after its introduction, so is the fact that as
of your encounter.
Letters
of today, 30% of our tax revenues are put to use by the military industrial complex. With- out examining the protocols of a government whose power is acquiesced by the people, we may very well find ourselves devolving the civic society we’ve worked for generations to achieve.
Art is the culmination of sweat, mindful- ness, and hopefully some beauty tossed in.
I believe sir, you share these characteristics and invite you to become a part of our free forum. We’d certainly love to hear more of what you have to say.
Charles Seiverd
Dear Cindy
I have read the article you wrote in the Noise — “USFS Above the Law” — with great interest.
On or about Saturday 7 July 2012, be- tween approximately 0800 and 1055 hours Arizona time, I was approached by a Rang- er at the Banjo Bill Picnic Area, and he had informed me that I needed to pay a fee to use the tables there.
I asked him, “for a bicycle? I thought only motor vehicles were required to pay a fee?” Then his supervisor came and got real ugly about it.
I have read the Forest Service publica- tion, Red Rock Country Recreation Guide and absolutely no mention is made in the entire pamphlet about fees for bicycles or motorcycles. Fees for autos, yes, but noth- ing about bicycles whatsoever.
Sincerely, POTC Daniel Posey, KG6UBS
Hi Daniel —
I’m sorry to hear about your experience and I wonder if the Ranger that approached you was, in fact, a USFS employee or an employee of Recreation Resource Manage- ment, a private company that manages the campgrounds in Oak Creek Canyon under a Special Use Permit. At one time they also managed the Banjo Bill Picnic Area but it is no longer under their permit.
The law states that the USFS cannot charge a fee to a bicyclist that passes through a fee area “without using the facilities and ser- vices.” Since you entered a picnic area that is still part of the larger fee corridor in the can- yon and attempted to use a picnic table, you weren’t exactly passing through.
However, the USFS’ Red Rock Country web- site states that “a Red Rock Pass (or America The Beautiful Interagency Pass, Golden Age or Golden Access) is required when recreating on National Forest land in Red Rock Country, a high-impact recreation area. The pass must be displayed in the windshield of the vehicle.”
While this information is clearly outdated as the USFS has stopped using the term high- impact recreation area, it does mention only vehicles with windshields. The Red Rock Pass is widely perceived — and promoted — as a parking permit for cars. This is exactly the reason why there have been several lawsuits filed (and won!) against the USFS for their im- plementation of recreation fees with several still pending in the courts.
The worst part here is that any USFS offi- cial or their designated representative would “get real ugly” with a visitor on our national lands! I would love any further details you might have, including names and the result
38 • JUNE 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
Cindy Cole