Feature Film About Shaman, Yogi And Artist Heyoka Merrified Premieres In Ojai
The burning sweet grass smoke wafting from the Earth and Sky Temple (honoring the sacred masculine and feminine spirits) begins Heyoka Merrifield’s day. He lights his peace pipe (based on the tradition brought by White Buffalo Woman) which he hand-carved from pipestone from by a Paiute medicine man.
As his niece, I have participated with him in moving ceremonies. He spread the ashes of his parents on the meadow of my father’s property on San Marcos Pass in Santa Barbara, just above Painted Cave and the White Lotus Foundation. During the ceremony, he poured the ashes into a bowl and they formed a yin/yang symbol, one slightly darker than the other. As Heyoka called in the powers of the four directions (East for sunrise and beginnings, West for sunset and unconscious night, North for wisdom and air, and South for healing and water), our balloons moved in the invoked directions. When he was summoning the animal spirits as medicine powers, we were swarmed by ladybugs and then gazed at hawks circling high above us. Animals figure prominently in his life; Heyoka is drawn to the eagles and white tail deer who regularly visit him on his land in Montana.
Heyoka performed a healing ceremony for my mother, to help heal her breast cancer; she is now in remission. When my daughter and I visited this summer, he officiated an initiation ceremony of her coming of age into womanhood to honor her 18th birthday.
Embracing the shamanic traditions of his Native American ancestry (Heyoka is part Cherokee) as both a Sundancer and medicine man is his life-long journey. In the mid-1960s, Heyoka lived alone in the wilderness near Mt. Palomar for a year with chickens, a milk goat and a garden. This experience allowed him a better understanding of nature’s rhythms and his place within them with time to explore spiritual disciplines. The shamanic tradition of the Native American peoples, the keepers of our continent’s mythology spoke strongly to him and nature became one of his greatest teachers.
Heyoka’s life work combining art, ceremony and Yoga is captured in the documentary feature Sundancing with the Muse, premiering in Ojai in December. As filmmaker Jason Gutzmer says, “We discover the importance of the sacred in art, the sacred in the Earth and a ceremonial life that makes them one.” Sundancing follows him through the seasons, through celebrations of the Solstice and Equinox, through the sweat lodge tradition, Heyoka’s passion for jewelry-making, mentoring apprentices, vision quests and the healing Sundance ceremony.
Heyoka is the oldest of the Crow Sundancers who dance to a central sacred tree of life, worship the Sun as giver of life and go without food or water for three to four days in the summer heat. Through this sacrifice, the dancers become closer to the spirit world achieving a state of bliss.
Ojai is a fitting locale to show the film since Heyoka’s earliest childhood memories involve living here, near Khaled Al-Awar’s Primavera Gallery where his jewelry has been exhibited. Heyoka spent the majority of his time with our aunt Elise, an artist whose 1929 house was built by one of the people in J. Krishnamurti’s spiritual community, merely blocks away. In her garden, Elise planted gorgeous flowers; here Heyoka watched her paint and here she taught him, awakening his own inner artist. The proximity of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings also influenced his path.
Sundancing covers Heyoka’s intersection of the creative and the spiritual. We observe his practice of finding balance through meditation, Yoga, nature and healthy food to stay grounded while in the intense and often exhausting processing of dancing with the muses of inspiration and the archetypal powers within works of art. We see the impact of Yoga on his life, particularly in healing from the shamanic journey of death and rebirth after breaking his back horseback riding. Severe pain from several compound fractures led him to connect with Ana Forrest, who specializes in helping people overcome catastrophic injuries. Heyoka’s daily morning practice continues to be influenced by her teachings and Ana still performs Native American ritual.
Heyoka’s search for why ancient sacred art radiates power led him on a lifelong quest to learn from the same source that illuminated artistic ancestors. In each piece of art he creates, Heyoka includes a waking-up ceremony using archetypes to invoke a new life and meaning. Touching the sacred within his art has brought international acclaim to his work. Some notable collectors include George Harrison (with whom he became personal friends and for whom he created original Yogananda and Ganesha shrines), Michael Jackson, Cher, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Donovan and Joni Mitchell. His work has also appeared in MGM, Orion and Paramount films.
This film’s inspiration came from two different sources. First Heyoka was encouraged by filmmaker Beth Earl; later, he met Jason Gutzmer while the filmmaker was touring Heyoka’s pyramid home during a show there. Jason noticed a poster of Heyoka’s “Warriors of the Rainbow” sculpture with his quote on all tribes coming together. The same quote was a manifesto for a pilgrimage Jason took to South America, reminiscent of Che Guevara’s journey in The Motorcycle Diaries. Jason’s friend in Mexico had translated Heyoka’s quote, found in The Little Book of Native American Wisdom by Steven McFadden. The quote’s original source was Heyoka’s book Sacred Art Sacred Earth.
On Heyoka’s 70th birthday, we drove up to Arlee, Montana to visit the in-progress Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. Heyoka installed the jewel in the third eye of the main shrine, the eye of the lotus, the central image. We were toured by the local monk and met the Nepalese artist/painter who was applying finishing touches to the Shrine before returning to Nepal. The Garden will be a place of spiritual pilgrimage where people of all beliefs can connect with inner qualities of peace, wisdom and compassion. Upon its completion next year, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama will make his first trip to Montana to perform the traditional consecration ceremonies.
Sundancing with the Muse, Heyoka Merrifield’s Sacred Art Story will premiere in California at the Ojai Playhouse on Saturday, December 11 at 4:00 P.M. A reception and book signing follows: sundancingwiththemuse.com.
Heyoka Merrified is the author of Sacred Art Sacred Earth, The White Buffalo Woman Triology and most recently, Ocean Mother’s Song – A Dolphin’s Journey (Heyoka’s latest book was inspired by joyful personal interactions with wild whales and dolphins. In Native American tradition, dolphins are considered to be the humans of the sea). For more on his work and art, visit: heyoka-art.com.
Beth Thomas is a writer with a Masters in Communications, who also enjoys teaching yoga and aqua aerobics in the Carpinteria community. beththomas2002@yahoo.com
“There are many ancient prophecies among Native American peoples concerning the times in which we are living. The indigenous tribes were not surprised when the black, white, and yellow peoples arrived on their shores, because their prophets had spoken of the coming of races. They knew that the new tribes would overwhelm the ancient cultures of the land they called Turtle Island, until the spirit of the Indian would almost disappear. In our time, the spirit of the Indians will be born anew into all of the races that have gathered in this land. A portion of each of the different races of the rainbow colors will see that we are all one family. They are called the “Warriors of the Rainbow.” This new community of mixed races and cultures will recognize that other humans are all their relations. The Rainbow People are not called warrioresses and warriors because they are waging war on other tribes, rather they are making war on the parts of themselves and their culture that are out of balance. In discovering the balance of the self, they will find harmony with all life. The Warriors of the Rainbow will bring with them a new time of living in harmony with our environment and with all peoples.”
By Beth Thomas
