Timeless faithways in this perilous time
The COVID-19 virus pandemic is like an invisible yet perilous cloud or fog that has forced all of us in El Norte and elsewhere to be exceedingly careful in every aspect and circumstance of life from the most mundane activity to the most complex community events and celebrations.
Many of our various legacy traditional and cultural observances and seasonal fiestas have had to be curtailed and reduced to the essentials, and many communities including some of the ancient pueblos have had to withdraw back into their old basic ways, so as to protect the people.
Ironically, many people from elsewhere in the USA and from around the world view the Taos/ El Norte area as a kind of refuge region to visit and get away from the pandemic in their own place at least for a while, and apparently some are choosing to move here.
The viral affliction has precipitated the resetting and realignment of life and custom in the world’s international governmental, economic and religious institutions, including the dismaying cancellations and drastic reductions of spiritual and religious traditions in this time.
There is something one could say that is also like an intangible and invisible “blessing dynamic” here in the clean flowing rivers like the Río Pueblo de Taos and others, in the fragrant evergreen mountain forests, in the healing earth of places like the holy Santuario de Chimayo and in the prayers and songs and drums and alabados of the timeless spiritual faithways of the area that ultimately could prevail against the present affliction.
The Taos/El Norte region has undergone and prevailed over tremendous cataclysms and catastrophes and afflictions of many kinds in the course of the ongoing story. The “legacy heirs” of these lands and cultural ways have seen many things come and go.
Yet we continue to be thankful for these natural and supernatural healing and life-giving resources, and for the continuity of our area’s special customs and feasts, like the upcoming San Geronimo Taos Pueblo autumn feast days and those of the other pueblos and communities.
These great feasts take place now when the fullness of summer is just passed in our Taos/El Norte mountain region and the lifegiving beneficence of the sustaining waters and earth are manifest again in the first fruits and produce of the land and sky. All is in balance now for the season of the autumn equinox and the profound cycle of the year progresses by the inexorable sacred power of life and of the sun and all other aspects of the unique world of Mother Earth.
Taos Pueblo San Geronimo Feast Day is one of the most profound and meaningful social and spiritual events in the life of the peoples here, but this year the pueblo remains closed to outsiders due to the pandemic. This year may be even more special as it marks the 50th anniversary of the Blue Lake return to the people in 1970 after the sacred lake was taken from them by United States government in 1906.
The lake and its Río Pueblo de Taos water, which flows into the Taos Valley and beyond, are what give life and sustenance to the cities and towns here.
This San Geronimo Feast is a blessing for Taos/El Norte and beyond.
“Normally,” thousands of people from all parts come to this Feast Day. But this year due to COVID-19, all would-be visitors for San Geronimo are being politely and cordially and firmly asked to not come. The Taos Pueblo is and will be closed to visitors and tourists to that occasion, and until “normalcy of life” might otherwise return.
We are all grateful for the blessing of the Feast Day there and the many others that are held elsewhere in this perilous time. We extend our own blessings to these peoples again as always, in the long-view anticipation that the holy continuum will ultimately prevail over the challenges and afflictions that beset us.