In this episode, we follow a river of a conversation that is a meeting of two beautiful souls, Pat McCabe and Dr. Jaiya John. We three, (Carl, Erin and Alexandre) have been deeply moved and influenced by Pat and Jaiya’s writings, and presence, and work in the world, and we were inspired to host a conversation introducing these elders, who each carries such potent medicine for our times.
Together, Pat and Jaiya weave through many themes, including power, protection, trickster energy, the sacredness of water, the importance of finding one’s joy, how to support young ones in this time, and so much more.
This conversation is also a beautiful love letter to the lands of Northern New Mexico, where Pat lives and Jaiya grew up.
Woven throughout the conversation is the theme of sacred remembrance, and the importance of not forgetting who we are, and why we are here at this time.
We hope you enjoy the conversation, the pace and the pauses, the tone of voice, the medicine songs, the humor, and the quality of reverence and respect and Jaiya and Pat each embody with such grace.
Dr. Jaiya John (Mshkiki Odeh Inini, Medicine Heart Man) was orphan-born on ancient Indigenous Anasazi and Pueblo lands in the high desert of New Mexico, and is an internationally recognized ancestral Baba, freedom worker, medicine poet, and keynote speaker. Jaiya is the founder of Soul Water Rising, a global rehumanizing mission to eradicate oppression. The mission has donated thousands of Jaiya’s books in support of social healing, and offers grants to displaced and vulnerable youth. He is the author of numerous books, including Daughter Drink This Water, We Birth Freedom at Dawn, Fragrance After Rain, and Freedom: Medicine Words for your Brave Revolution. Jaiya writes, narrates, and produces the podcast, I Will Read for You: The Voice and Writings of Jaiya John, and is the founder of The Gathering, a global initiative and tour reviving traditional gathering and storytelling practices to fertilize social healing and liberation. He is a former professor of social psychology at Howard University, and has spoken to over a million people worldwide and audiences as large as several thousand. Jaiya holds doctorate and master’s degrees in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow with a focus on intergroup and race relations. As an undergraduate, he attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he studied Tibetan Holistic Medicine through independent research with Tibetan doctors and trekked to the base camp of Mt. Everest. He is a Lewis & Clark College Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. His Indigenous soul dreams of frybread, sweetgrass, bamboo in the breeze, and turtle lakes whose poetry is peace. For more on Jaiya, visit his website.
Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, earth and global healing. She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honor of being human.
Her primary work at the moment is:
• The reconciliation between the masculine and feminine, Men’s Nation and Women’s Nation
• Remembering, recreating or creating anew a narrative for the Sacred Masculine
• Addressing the Archetypal Wounding that occurred in our misunderstanding and abuse of technology in prayer, ceremony and science.
For more on Pat’s work, visit:
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