The Twenty Count

Mathematics As Language of Universe

Within the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, mathematics is considered the language of the Universe. The Great Spirit speaks to us about the interrelationship of all things through mathematics, and the central core of that mathematical speaking is what is called the Twenty Count. The numbers 0-20 represent all that exists in other words the Everything.

What Do You Have To Give?

The Elders say the Twenty Count brought into existence the energy motion vibration of all forms of all things. All things have a vibratory energy, an essence, a form. We say that is its giveaway... its heart, its beauty, its medicine. There is no such thing as nothingness. The energy in motion of one thing is interconnected with and directly influences and is felt by every other thing.Within the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, the Twenty Counts have only one task: to give away their power to us as an act of empowerment.You may ask, What do I have to give back? How can I possibly (for example) empower the sun?The answer to this question is RESPECT.You must keep a proper attitude and express your appreciation for its gift. Without the sun there would be no life. Stop complaining about how hot it is. Stop referring to a cloudy day as a bad day. All faces of the sun are a mirror reflection for us.It is in this way we learn to come into balance and alignment with the powers of the universe. It is in this way, we step into co-empowerment with all of creation.

The Dance of the Twenty Count

An Intro

The Children's Twenty Count is a way of perceiving the special qualities and "give away" of the sacred powers of the universe and relating them to the numbers 1-20. This provides a valuable mathematical system the describes the interrelationships of the powers to one another and forms the basic framework for all of the Sweet Medicine SunDance teachings.The Children's Twenty Count describes our world as we live in it, and the powers that influence us here in our attempt to establish interconnection, interreliability and interdependence with all things.In upcoming posts, we'll take you through each of the powers to introduce you to qualities, vibrations, and give aways of 1 -20 of the Children's Twenty Count.Special recognition and thanks to Harley SwiftDeer Reagan for "Song of the Twenty"Let me sing to you the Song of the Twenty Powers within the Song of the Universe. It is like an Orchestra whose members have played together, since always. Each member of this Orchestra has its instrument, its sound, it light, its energy, its harmonic vibration called orende. Each has its giveaway to the collective sound, even though it has its separate and distinct sound.Within this Orchestra called the Everything, there are twenty sections or parts, the Twenty Sacred Powers. This Everything Orchestra has a Great Spirit within every member and within every instrument, and how it plays the sound and songs of Beauty and Light is indeed a Mystery. This Great Mystery has existed since always and will continue for always, even as it is playing now... Let us listen, and see if we can hear our Song.The Childrens Twenty Count describes our world as we live in it, and the powers that influence us here in our attempt to establish interconnection, interreliability and interdependence with all things.As we begin to discuss the lower numbers, we begin with the powers that are the "so below"...the numbers that are related to this 3rd dimensional reality and "all that is green"...

1 Grandfather Sun

Out of the void (also known as "0", zero ) came first Grandfather Sun. When we say "Grandfather Sun" we mean the actual sun around which our planet Earth revolves.Grandfather sun is light, illumination, enlightenment and knowledge. Let's look at the word "enlightenment." It means to put light into, to lighten up. It is plain to see that when Grandfather Sun shines on the planet, it definitely lightens things up.This teaching is not only literal, but translated into an internal symbolic sense. It is the great symbol of gaining knowledge. Within us there is a fire from within which burns inside us. It is our spark, our sexuality. We speak of this as the "little sun". It is our own Grandfather Sun which burns within us.When we are connected with the external Sun, we can ask it to ignite our own inner fire. Using our awakened inner fire, we can connect to Grandfather Sun. This is the male seed for all life. The fire of the male seed explodes as the dance of active-conceptive energy.

2 Grandmother Earth

Grandmother Earth is the actual physical planet that we live on. Our past Nagual, Swift Deer says you can tell the age of a tribe's knowledge by whether they refer to the planet as Mother Earth or Grandmother Earth. The older knowledge will refer to her as Grandmother. Her major gift to us as two leggeds is showing us how to go inside to true introspection and to develop our intuition, in other words, our place of "inner knowing."When Grandfather Sun explodes, Grandmother Earth, which is the receptive creative energy, receives the Sun's energy by imploding ... or what we also call "the inhale". Therefore, Grandfather Sun's and Grandmother Earth's love making is what we call Quodoushka, spiritual sexual union. She teaches us about love relationships and bonding. She represents the female egg, the womb, the birthing place of all life.Women on this planet are two legged receptive creative manifestations of Grandmother Earth. It is said that everyday since always when Grandmother Earth and Grandfather Sun make love, life is made possible.

3 Sacred Plants

Sacred plants refer to the actual physical plants on the planet. The grasses and grains, herbs, shrubs. flowers. fruits and trees, are that which we call the "standing tree nations."Out of Grandmother Earth's and Grandfather Sun's lovemaking, the first born children, the plants are born. They are givers, and without their gift of life, neither animals nor humans would have the potential for life. It is through the oxygenation process of changing carbon dioxide into oxygen that we receive the air we breathe.Therefore, we say the plants give us the breath of life which is life itself. They so this by seeking perfection of form through trust and innocence. They teach us about our connection with all forms of all things as well as how to stand in the center of our own essence.

4 Sacred Animals

Sacred Animals refer to the actual physical animals on the planet. They include the swimmers in the waters, the creeper crawlies (those that crawl with their bellies) upon Grandmother Earth, the four leggeds, and the winged ones (those who fly).The animals are the receivers, the implosive second born children of Grandmother Earth. The interesting thing about animals is that they never need to go to therapy to figure out who they are. You don't see cats trying to be elephants.They, therefore, walk like a cat, act like a cat, and meow like a cat. This is one of the animals' greatest teachings for us humans, be who we are! The animals walk in balance and teach us how to find balance and harmony within ourselves and align with all things with an open heart.

5 Sacred Humans

A Sacred Human is a person who has gained enough orende (energy) to step out of their single event and personality focus and into the open heart-to-heart communication which brings about healing. They are humans who know they are also the third born children of Grandmother Earth, who are determiners of energy on the planet and meant to walk with all things, not in domination over them. They teach us open-hearted, one-hearted communication and the qualities of humanness which are: health, hope, happiness, harmony and humor.To be a sacred human, one must have a minimum orende (energy level) of 5, which is the quality of being a sacred human. It is what is necessary to be a part of the solution on the planet, not the problem.The Elders say that not all humans on the planet today have reached this level, and that most people are somewhere between 3.1 and 3.4 orende. Yet, we have all have the potential to raise our level of orende to 5 and beyond. How would our world be different if all humans could approach life and others with open heart-to-heart-communication? We'll leave it to you to imagine!

6 Spiritual Ancestors

This is our inner state of full spiritual self-love. It is the sacred transformation of spirit into substance and substance into spirit. In other words, this is when a spirit personality takes on a physical form and then returns back into spirit again. We think of the Spiritual Ancestors in this way. The following names describe our Spiritual Ancestors:The Tolilahqui are the little people: the elves, gnomes, fairs, leprechauns, sprites and elementals who came here to prepare the planet for habitation by humans. They also keep the planet in balance and are communicators and balancers of ecology. They work with Sasquatch, who are considered by indigenous people to be rulers of the animal world. The elders say, only after the Toliahqui were present on the planet could humans be birthed in the world. The little people teach us to laugh at ourselves and not take life too seriously. They know the discipline of humor.Our Toushilahey are all of our spirit selves and personalities from every lifetime since always, for always, even as we are now. That means that in this lifetime, for example, I as a person am a spirit personality known as Jane Smith. Perhaps in 1200 A.D. I was a spirit personality known as Pierre Boulot. And in the year 3000 A.D. I am known as Tiyanda Seels. All of these lives (and many more past and future) are my Toushilahey.Our task in this life as this spirit personality is to increase our orende and gain freedom from our karmic patterns by coming into alignment with who we are. In this way, we can end the cycles of reincarnation and instead resurrect.Our Tungashilah are all of the blood relations of our Toushilahey. In other words, all our grandparents, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters, etc. from all lifetimes for always and since always.The Omitakoyasin are the gathering together circle of all humanity. Omitakoyasin are all of our Tungashilah. They are the spirits of all ancestors of all humans on this planet since always and for always. Therefore, anyone you meet in your world, you have dreamed them there. Somewhere or in some way, your souls have established an agreement. You are significant to each other's empowerment in this life and beyond.It is said that if someone professes to be your enemy, they have forgotten that we are omitakoyasin. We are all related!

7 Symbols of The Dream

The dream is the process of living life itself. It is our day to day living which is experienced through symbol sigil form. It is the experience of what we call spiritual sexual eros which is the desire to live life fully awake, aware and alert in the now. It means to be an autonomous, individually free human being within this lifetime who is fully awake.7 is the place of our personal dream, which is how we take care of our personal survival needs, such as food in our bellies, clothes on our body and a roof over our head. Often it also includes our career or job.It is also the place of our sacred dream. The sacred dream is very simple, but not always easy. It is our continued self growth and development, which will bring about the evolution of our soul to maturity.7 is also the place of the planetary dream, which is said to be the destiny of Grandmother Earth... it is her next evolutionary jump.7 is also is the collective dream which is the dream of peace for all humans on Grandmother Earth.A basic teaching about the seven is that the goal is to have your personal, sacred and collective dream in alignment with one another, so that the personal dream feeds the sacred dream, and the sacred dream feeds the collective dream. As a result, the collective dream comes around full circle and feeds your personal dream.Sometimes when people first begin spiritual self growth, they focus so much on the sacred dream that their personal dream suffers. To ensure success, you must make sure your everyday world (the tonal) is taken care of and provides a stable foundation for your spiritual self growth and development.Little by little you can move the energy of the personal dream into alignment with the sacred and collective dreams with a strong foundation.Then, the each of the dreams will all be in alignment and feed one another.

8 Book of Life

The Book of Life is the place where our sacred images for this lifetime are stored or recorded. These images are all the mirrors that we chose, out of which and within which we reflect ourselves. They give you the teachings you have asked for in this life in order to grow and evolve. These sacred images are the karma and dharma which we are dealing with in this lifetime.In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, karma is lessons or patterns we have repeated from one lifetime to the next. They are in our lives to learn from. Karma is readily identifiable because it often translates as pain. When we change the pattern, we will experience a different outcome and ... hopefully ... pleasure or happiness. In other words, we will experience dharma.In many ways, karma has been given a bad name because it is linked to lessons that must be learned and past patterns repeated again and again until the lesson is learned. Some people feel that karma is something to be feared, and/or you can do nothing about it.Our former nagual, SwiftDeer once told the story about a man walking down the street and a brick falling on his head. He says, "Ouch! Oh well, that's my karma!" What the man doesn't realize is that all he has to do to avoid the brick (and therefore pain) is to do something differently. In other words, he needs to change his behavior pattern by stepping aside or by choosing to walk down a different street so that the brick doesn't fall on his head. By making this simple change to walk with pleasure versus pain, the man chooses dharma.In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, the eighth chakra is the physical body. We know that our patterns are stored in the physical body. Therefore, one could say that our body is a representation of a living Book of Life.The Book of Life teaches us our sacred images, our earthly family, the totality of the Four Worlds of Grandmother Earth and the Laws of Cycles.

9 Design of Choreography & Energy

At nine, you have energy in motion as well as chaos. Now, the question becomes what are you going to do with energy that is in motion AND perhaps chaotic? How do you design and choreograph it? Nine shows us how to design and choreograph our energy to be in alignment with the Great Spirit's design and choreography of energy by learning how to ride the wave of chaos.It teaches us how to have "maximum efficiency with minimum effort." Simply put, how to get a lot done with the least amount of effort and energy on your part.Within the chaotic wave, energy movement is always in absolute balance of male/female energies. If we come into alignment with sacred law in this way, we are, in a sense, cosmic surfers. After you catch the chaotic wave, the key is to stay on it until it ends! This requires us to align with change and movement, and to be relaxed while maintaining our focus.Nine also has to do with setting priorities, making decisions and choices in your life. Priorities are the major ways in which you choreograph your life energy. They are born out of what gives you meaning in life and what your visions are. They become the major focus of your attention. In other words, what is important to you is what you give major amounts of energy to.Decisions are the substance the priorities are made of. They swing the energy over to give credence to your priorities. Choices are the smaller energy dances you do around something. The secret to proper choreography of energy is first of all make sure that the thing you give most of your energy to is what you want in life and gives your life meaning.Next, make sure the decisions you make support that priority, and the smaller choices support the decisions. Then just relax and let life happen. If you find that you are constantly making decisions or choices which do not support your priority, then you must go back and re-evaluate what you claim as a priority.For example, if you have as a priority to earn your black belt in martial arts, you can't sit in front of the tv when it's time to work out. You must make the decision to commit yourself to working out. Once you're at the dojo, you must make the little choices to pay attention in class and not watch the clock. You have to choose to have an attitude that you will try to do everything I am asked.If your decisions and choices are in alignment every step of the way, you will indeed get your belt and will succeed in making your #1 priority your manifested reality.

10 Sacred Measure of Intellect

The sacred measure of intellect is all current, potential or possible states of mental awareness, meaning conscious, subconscious, unconscious and collective conscious, collective unconscious and universal conscious.In totality, 10 is the expression of artistic originality into all forms of all states of consciousness. This is the measure of all things possible within the Everything.10 is the measure of all mental thoughts, ideas, images and belief systems as human beings as well as the consciousness levels of all plants and animals.10 includes the above-mentioned six states of consciousness as well as four levels of attention. Combined, this is the "power" that makes all things possible and carries all potentialities of what can be.When we say something gives away its "ten-ness," we mean its consciousness, its spirit and its understanding of self as consciousness.Within the 20 count, 10 is known as the "crack between the worlds." In other words, it is the jump from the the "so below" energies of 1-9 into the "as above" energies of 11 through 20.As humans evolving, we strive to have the highest measure of ourself possible, honesty and sobriety around what it is today, and hope and determination to continue growing as sacred human beings.

As we begin to discuss the upper numbers (11-20), we begin with the powers that are the as above the numbers that are related to beyond this 3rd dimensional reality and all that is blue

11 Grandfather Stars and Sister Moons

In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, Grandfather Stars and Sister Moons are the enlightenment of collective consciousness and represent the number 11. Eleven is intellect within the light. Eleven gives us memory and recall.The Elders teach us that Grandfather Stars are all stars that have planets with human life. You mean more than our planet Earth have human life? In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, we have been taught that yes, there is human life beyond Grandmother Earth.Consequently, Sister Moons are all around these planets with human life. Our own moon is called "Waheyton." She is a sister to Grandmother Earth. She works with Earth to control the cycles, tides and seasons. However, she also dances with the sun. The Elders say the moon is Grandfather Sun's "second wife."According to the Elders in this Twister Hairs cosmology, there are basically four kinds of stars: blue, white, yellow and red. The red stars are the grandfathers, like our planet Earth and sun. If, in its rays of light, the star has the cosmic seed to impregnate a fertile planet, it is a grandfather star or sun. They have planets that bare life revolving around them. The fertile planet is the sun's mate and the other planets are her sisters.The influences or effects of the moon as an actual heavenly body are experienced at the number 9. The moon functions as a mediator between the sun and the earth. Therefore, we say the moon also recalls all memory. This kind of memory isn't a reference to your grocery list! It is genetic body memory of all that has and will be.

12 Grandmother Planets

In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, the number 12 is expressed through the Grandmother Planets. These are the planets on which human life is present and revolve around Grandfather Suns. Our Elders have said there are 12 planets with human life in this universe. (Yes 12!)12 in the Children's Count refers to any body of energy within which sacred life can form or take place. It also means the grandmothers, any woman who is the bearer of life, the carrier of life, and therefore the number of the goddess.Because 12 is also our ability to be present here now, it represents the opportunity to gain total inner clarity of our Higher Self through meditation, chanting, prayers and ceremony. It is the point that we call the moment of internal light, the moment of awakening into one's truth, of actualizing collective conscious awakened memory.

13 Quetzal

13 represents Quetzal and is symbolic of death and change and death giving life. Quetzal is known in many cultures by many names. She is the Goddess Beauty, Goddess Nature and Death Mother. In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, the Elders have taught us she is the Daughter of the First Breath. Christians call her Blessed Virgin Mary. In Mexico, she is Virgin de Guadalupe, and Native Americans in North America call her White Buffalo Woman. Different names, same feminine energy.Quetzal is Earth Mother, the spiritual consciousness of all plants. When we eat a plant, its physical nutrition is not all that feeds us. Rather, when we are eating a plant (3), it releases its consciousness or spirit (10), and that (3 + 10 = 13) is what gives us sustenance and nourishment.

14 Coatl (The Spirit of All Animals)

Coatl as 14 is the spiritual energy of all the animals and is also known as Earth Father. In the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, 14 is called Sweet Medicine (another name for animals) and Seven Arrows. 14 is also known as the Son of the Perfect Dream. To the Christians, Coatl is known as the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. Remember, it was a dove that came into the crown chakra of Jesus after He was baptized.Without exception, each of the major religious traditions around the world used their animal totem (the image and symbol of an animal) to denote this presence of the passing of knowledge: the Dove for Jesus, the Eagle for the Native Americans, the Tiger for Buddha, the Crane for Lao Tzu. In our own Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, we take our name from all Sweet Medicine animals. Shamans use Coatl in their shamanic journeys to bring about healing, using the spirit of the animal to heal the spirit of the human.14 is also our intellectual instincts and our feelings. Most importantly, 14 is the key to being human. It is the teacher of what we call the 5 huaquas of being human: health, hope happiness, harmony and humor and our ability to be here now.