The Deer Dance at Lake Atitlan..Mary's Story

The photo is by Conrad Satala.
In the last few blogs I shared a little bit about the story of my friend's trip to Santiago Atitlan. Here is the full story from Mary Lazoff-Fyfe about her experience with the deer dance:

The deer dance was on Sunday, 6/23/08. We went up the mountain in the back of trucks (I rode in the police escort truck). When we arrived, you could see for miles all around: blue sky, bright sun, very few clouds, the green covered volcanoes, valleys and the deep blue of Lake Atitlan. The band (guitars, flute, and drums) set up right away and started to play.

The shaman and assistants began to build the ritual fire layer by layer (took two hours). The base pattern was outlined with colored sugar, filled in with flower petals, then layer upon layer of candles (different colors, each with their own significance). In the center were "eyes" made out of copal rounds and chocolate.

Each of us was given a candle as the Deer Dancers donned their deer skins and began to dance. We lit our candles off of the large white one the Shaman held and then began to light the main fire.

As the energy built, the clouds started rolling off the Place of the Deer just across the lake. They moved from all directions at once and began to form shapes as they swirled. Then the fog rolled up off the valley floor and completely surrounded our area, blocking the sun. An eagle (rare for these parts) flew right over our heads.

Each time the Deer Dancers danced outside our area, the fire grew larger, as if to follow them. The Shaman blessed each one of us and splashed liquor on us, and "incensed" us with copal smoke, as the band sang our names and where we were from. Between each one of us the fire was also "fed" liquor.

As the ceremony began to wind down (5-1/2 hours all together) the fog dissipated, the clouds rolled back and the sun came out again. The feel of it was so full I had tears coming down my cheeks.

Mary gave me permission to share this story with you. She is an artist who creates "Indigenous Portraits for a Modern World". Mary also is a master at energy balancing. To contact her, e-mail her at marylfyfeartist@comcast.net.

I will be musing a lot over the next days about the unseen world and how real it is in our lives.

Love to all.