Chiron Communications

Chiron Communiqué

Author's Occasional Newsletter

from Steven McFadden

Vol. 6 No. 1

Legend of the Rainbow Warriors

Rolls Off the Presses

I am happy to announce the publication of a new edition of Legend of the Rainbow Warriors. (208 pages, softbound, 38 photos and illustrations, ISBN # 0-595-35947-7.

The book is available in a print-on-demand edition, and can be ordered through this web site and through Amazon.com.

Once again, in yet another way, this crucial tale of the Americas - the legend of the rainbow warriors - is being told. I have striven to do it in a manner that will allow thousands of people to learn, understand and enjoy.

If you live in America, you should know these parts of our story. They convey a message of tremendous importance for our times and our lives. In this new edition, the legend of is told as deeply, as broadly, as accurately, and as poetically as I am capable of.

The Traditional Elders whose voices and tales are documented in the book effectively convey inspiration and philosophy that they have been trying to give as a gift since settlers began to arrive in the Americas. Now the challenge is for readers to open their minds and give this gift fair consideration.

Legend of the Rainbow Warriors has been a project of mine since 1988. Back then I wrote and then printed up 500 spiral-bound copies of the original volume: authentic Native American understandings, or teachings, and an exposition of how they correlate with, and bear upon, contemporary national and world news. To me the connection was - and is - clear. Through the book I wanted to see if other people could see what I see, and to learn whether they found value in it.

The original book took off like a bottle rocket back in 1988. In a matter of weeks I sold all 500 copies. Then in 1992 Bear & Co., which was based here in Santa Fe at the time, purchased the rights and published an updated and expanded version of the manuscript, entitling it: Ancient Voices, Current Affairs: The Legend of the Rainbow Wariors. The book was a modest marketing success, yet elicited a profound response in almost all of thepeople who readi . Still the book just didn't get very far out into the world.

The Great Mandala of of time has inevitably kept turning -- up, down, and around. As fate would have it, the publication rights to the book eventually returned to me. I saw this as an opportunity, and entered with deliberation into the idea of reupublishing a new, extensively updated edition. This approach eventually captured my enthusiasm.

I overhauled the text of the book, dusting off the syntax and adding extensive new reports on the birth of seven White Buffaloes since 1994.

I also wove in a report of what happened when, in 1993, traditional Hopi Indians fulfilled an important instruction they say they have carried for many hundreds of years. They spoke formally at the "House of Mica," the United Nations general headquarters in New York. They spoke to deliver a message to humanity -- an instruction and a teaching that they say Great Spirit entrusted to them at the beginning of this phase of world history (Tewaquachi, the 4th World, by their reckoning). They had been waiting hundreds of years to speak their message -- and they finally spoke it at the UN on that day in 1993. The mass media looked the other way. But their messages are carefully documented in words and photos in this edition of the book.

The resulting new volume, Legend of the Rainbow Warriors, is essentially a journalist's account of one of the core myths of America, and an exploration of how that myth is playing out in real time.

As drawn from historical accounts, the legend of the rainbow warriors relates that "when the Earth becomes desperately sick, people of all colors and faiths will unite, and rise to face the overwhelming challenges with insight, honesty, caring, sharing, and respect." But that myth is still widely unknown, unheard. Other myths dominate our national and world psyches at the moment.

One of our dominant modern myths is formed by advertising images of vast, luxurious wealth Å the myth of materialism. Another prominent myth is conjured in the bloody, sorrowful images that pervade movies, music and computer games -- the myth that the world is hate-filled and chaotic beyond redemption. Legend of the Rainbow Warriors offers a deeply spiritual alternative of hope and happy possibility based upon personal freedom and responsibility.

As with all earlier editions, this new volume is dedicated to Carolyn Clay Mercer-McFadden. If you knew Carolyn and would like to view an online memorial, click on Prologue. At the top of the Prologue page you will see the dedication, which is also a link to the web site established for Carolyn by her brother, John Stiles Mercer.

It feels right and solid to have this book back in print -- bigger, stronger, and more comprehensive than before. It is a story I feel every American should hear and consider at some point, in one form or another. Legend of the Rainbow Warriors will make that possible for many more thousands of people at a time when the tale very much needs telling.

Click here to buy Legend of the Rainbow Warriors

Profiles  in Wisdom:
Native Elders Speak About the Earth

Available Again in a New Edition

For nearly 12 years now, Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth has related an important message. Slowly but steadily, the message of the elders has been heard and considered.

Thus, in the year 2000, I undertook the task of updating the book. I felt the elders would all have something important to say and contribute after 10 years. Thus, I made a sustained effort to contact and speak with all 17 Native American elders profiled in the original book. I asked them to share their perspective on the earth and modern life. Once again, they responded with deep intelligence and penetrating insight. It was my pleasure to weave this new material into the manuscript.

Click Here to buy Profiles in Wisdom

Retrograde Reflection

You may have noted that this is Vol. 6, No. 1 of the Chiron Communique, Volumes 1 through 5 were four-page paper newsletters that I used to type up on a cherished old IBM Selectric typewriter (now there was a machine that man and woman alike could love).

Then I would paste in graphics, copy the thing, hand address, lick 'em and smack on a stamp, and mail. The paper edition of the Communique was issued quarterly from 1989 to 1993 - and then entered hibernation. Thanks to the advance of computers, this re-birth of the Chiron Communique is a lot less work and expense. I have chosen to designate the publication schedule as occasional, at least for now, because I wish not to be constrained by an artificial self-imposed deadline. When I have something I feel is worthwhile to report, I will write and then - whew! - click on Upload.

Chiron 2001 Schedule

June 14: Thursday - 7:30 to 9:30 PM. Steven McFadden at Yeoho Grove Healing Center in Parkton, MD, which is in northern Baltimore County. A circle for Legend of the Rainbow Warriors. By donation. For information call Yeoho Grove at 410-343-0856.

June 15: Legend of the Rainbow Warriors Å An evening circle with Steven in the barn at Merriam Hill Education Center in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. Friday evening, 7:30 to 9:30. By donation. For information contact the center in Greenville, NH at 603-878-1818.

June 21 - World Peace Day Meditation. Noon to 1 PM at the plaza in downtown Santa Fe, NM. All are welcome. World Peace Day arises from the vision of Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th generation keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe. It has been an annual event at sacred sites around the world since the birth of the first White Buffalo, Miracle, in 1994. For more information on World Peace day visit: www.worldpeaceday.com

June 23 & 25 - INATS trade show at the Denver Merchandise Mart. Introduce Legend of the Rainbow Warriors.

July 22-29: "Midwest Odyssey." Week-long conference in River Falls, WI - close to Minneapolis, MN. Steven will present both morning and afternoon workshops (Legend of the Rainbow Warriors, and Breath of the Eighth Fire (in the afternoon with Jacki Hayward Gauger). For information visit www.midwestodyssey.com or call 612ú824ú9397.

More events to come…

Nota Bene: Chiron workshops and lectures are experiential. We meet in a circle, we talk with each other, and we interact intensively. I call the circle, tell some of the relevant tales from Legend of the Rainbow Warriors, and then guide the group in stretches, breathwork, encounter, time in the natural world, or council.

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* The Chiron Communique is now posted as a blog on the Chiron Communications home page.

For permission to quote or use images, please send requests to chiron@chiron–commmunications.com