This was very touching and inspirational. I, too, stand with Standing Rock and it breaks my heart to hear of the brutality employed by the pipeline company’s paramilitary goon squad. I strongly feel that Standing Rock is/will be an important and pivotal turning point in history. It is bringing together such an enormous and diverse group of people, not just from around America and Canada but from around the world. We all can’t journey to North Dakota but we can help by using the sacred pair of scissors in our heart. In meditation we can all cut those permits up.

I hate to be picky but I must point out that the Black Hills are in South Dakota, not North Dakota. Otherwise this was a very impressive piece of writing and I hope many read it. Considering he is not even a lawyer, reading that Bernie would be wearing the black robes of the highest court of the judicial branch of government made me chuckle. It was a nice image. Of course, I think he could do a lot more at the top of the executive branch. It looks like we may have to settle for him being at the top of the legislative branch. Where ever he ends up it is deeply reassuring to know that we have someone like him working for the people and the planet.

Back in the days when I was still with my Lakota teacher and our group was doing weekly sweat-lodges we worked on something my teacher called, ‘the circle of light.’ The people in a sweat-lodge sat in a circle around the hot rocks which the leader tossed water on to create the steam which created the intense heat the people had to ‘rise above’ into a vibratory state that allowed them to be unfazed by the searing heat.

Once everyone was in the right state of consciousness we all held hands with the individuals next to us. This created an unbroken chain between all the participants. We then closed our eyes and visualized a circle of intense bright white light flowing in a clock-wise direction through us. We put all our focus on that circle of light until it was extremely intense and we could all feel it flowing through us. (It’s unbelievably intense and powerful!)

At a certain point when the circle of light was at its most intense my teacher would then give a signal and, in our minds, we would move the circle of light out of the sweat-lodge and direct it to a predetermined location that we wanted to infuse with the light/love energy of the circle. For instance, we could visualize that circle moving all across the country and then encircling the Capital Building in Washington. We would maintain that visualization of the circle of light spinning furiously (in a clock-wise direction) around the Capital Building.

Whatever is inside that circle of light is infused with unconditional love and any impurities are transformed and brought to a state of purity.

The arroyo where we held our sweat-lodges was one arroyo over from a wolf sanctuary; a ranch that cared for and rehabilitated wolves and wolf-hybrids that had been rescued from people trying to make them pets and from breeders (who often were breeding illegally).

We experimented several times moving the circle of light across the mesa to the next arroyo where the wolf ranch was. We would encircle the wolves with the circle of light. Every time we did this the wolves started to howl. They could feel it. It was beautiful. And this also validated to us that this circle of light was for real and it worked.

One does not need to be in a sweat-lodge or even with other people in order to create this circle of light. (The more people involved, the stronger the energy.) But it is something we can all do individually and large groups of people doing it individually also significantly increases the energy.

If we all were to get out a map of North Dakota and find where Standing Rock is and then commit that image to our memory then we can get into a deep meditative state and create a small circle of light in our hearts. When we really have the light energy spinning strongly we can then move the circle from our hearts to the map of the Standing Rock area of North Dakota in our minds. With Standing Rock in the middle of that circle of light, we can then maintain the circle for several long minutes. In doing this we are sending unconditional love energy to the situation which will help transform the situation, bringing about peace, love and purity.

I’ve already been doing this and I invite others to give it a shot. The brave and peaceful protesters at Standing Rock need our help. They can’t do it alone. There are many ways we can all help. We can write our political leaders, we can boycott the banks who are funding both the pipeline and the paramilitary thugs brutalizing the protesters, we can share information on the internet, we can pray, we can use the scissors in our hearts, and we can use the circle of light. If we all do something in ten years we will look back and see how Standing Rock changed everything. And we will feel great about that.