GUIDES

  GUIDES

   In 2010 I was sat on a flight to California writing another chapter of my spiritual journey. I was on my forth visit to the great state and will be visiting Yosemite national park to pay homage to one of my guides. Margret “tabouse” Howard is her name she is a member of the Yosemite Valley miwok tribe. Her role when she was alive was head basket weaver and tourist guide for the native American museum in the park . how do I know she is my guide I hear you ask ! well the story begins in 2006 a week before I was due to leave on my second trip to California to meet my good friends Dick and Judy. I was sat in the grange town spiritualist church open circle on a Wednesday evening and my good friend Frederica cooper told me that while she was away on holiday a native American lady visited her (from spirit ). She told me the lady told her to tell ray to share. At the time the message confused me somewhat.

      So that weekend I set out over the pond to sunny California. We spent some time in San Francisco then visited our friends in auburn just outside of Sacramento they had planned a little special night in Reno where they took us to see frank Sinatra jrs great show. After that we went over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Groveland just outside the Yosemite national park. The following day we travelled into the park stopping along the way to take in some of the breath-taking views like the El Capitan Mountain and the mile high water fall. When you arrive in the tourist area there are many attractions such as the fantastic awarniee hotel (arwarniee is the name of the tribe that inhabited that particular area of the Yosemite) and the native American museum which we visited first. As we were looking at the fantastic baskets that had been made I noticed a native American dress and a picture of the lady and creator of the fine garment. the lady was Margaret Howard and she was wearing the dress which was on display. But something was different about the dress in the picture .the difference was on the dress in the picture along the bottom was a row of symbols that were similar in shape to the German swastika on the dress in the case these symbols had been removed. At the time were was a museum tour guide stood next to me. So I asked him why the symbols had been removed and what the symbol meant to the Native American people. I was greatly rewarded by his answer, the symbol was called the tumbling logs they signified the four directions of the wind and way back in 1933 when fascism in Germany was on the rise Margret Howard as a mark of respect to the people visiting the park from many nations around the world remove the symbols.

    this story was gold to my ears I was intrigued by the history surrounding Margret and her tribe . it was only when I got back to the uk that the penny dropped and realised this was the lady who had visited Frederica while she was on holiday. A week or so after I returned from holiday it was my turn to do the divine service at the grange town spiritualist church. Part of the service is to give a speech on your personal experiences or philosophy so the guests can take some inspiration home with them. My speech that day was about my journey across to the states ,who I met and what  stories I had to tell. Well Margret Howard had big impact on the tale and while I was giving messages out she worked alongside me and guided my information and messages to the congregation. That day I realised what it was she wanted me to share with everybody. Her love of life her respect for other people's beliefs and most of all her wisdom.

article by R Bokor