Sometimes the Red Sun does not recognize itself. Sometimes what is real in this place is not so real some place else. Sometimes the Nurmaná Road is the undiscovered road the Red Sun follows to find itself. Sometimes the voice in the wind is the Red Sun.
The Red Sun
El Sol Rojo
1
Not so long ago the ‘grandfathers’ were enslaved by the Spanish men who brought shot and steel to the old land. There was nothing left of the ancient ones; only the desert and Vincenté and three, maybe four more. Soon the last of them would perish. Vincenté knew this.
One night Vincenté left his body to walk the Nurmaná Road, the Spirit Road of his fathers. Vincenté met an ‘Old One’, “Find the ‘Red Sun’ ” the Old One advised, “find the Red Sun and live.”
2
Sometimes the Red Sun does not recognize itself. Sometimes what is real in this place is not so real some place else. Sometimes the Nurmaná Road is the undiscovered road the Red Sun follows to find itself. Sometimes the voice in the wind is the Red Sun.
3
Vincenté found the Red Sun at Escondida, south of Sonora: an old place where once a sacred house of healing stood, an in between place where energies, powers and spirits gathered. Vincenté did not know what to do.
The face of the Red Sun was hidden. The hands of the Red Sun were broken. Vincenté knew that sometimes the Red Sun is a ghost inside itself. Sometimes the Red Sun needs to be reminded that its light is in shadow. Sometimes the Rascal hides in the Red Sun. Sometimes the coyote swallows its light.
4
Vincenté cleared the way for the Red Sun to heal itself. Vincenté knew the Red Sun would find a place for him. Vincenté knew the Red Sun would show him a new way. The Red Sun nurtured Vincenté. In return Vincenté cleared the way for the Red Sun to shine. The rays of the Red Sun illuminate Nurmaná. Without Nurmaná we are lost. Without the Red Sun there is less. The mystery is the Red Sun. The mystery is the undiscovered law, something in movement, unseen action at a distance. The Red Sun lived with the mystery in the desert. When the Red Sun came out of the desert the Red Sun was the same; the Red Sun was different.
5
One day the Red Sun spoke of its wolf time. “I was stretched thin back then,” the Red Sun said. The wolf ran beneath cold moonlight white as snow is white on the plain. The wolf ran until the high moon sank low. The wolf ran until the rays of the Red Sun stained the white plain red as thin blood. The wolf did not rest. The wolf did not slow its run. When the wolf reached the edge of the frosty plain it leapt up into the sky. The Red Sun swallowed the wolf. The wolf was gone.
It was then the Red Sun listened to the song of the woman who sings in the summer valley. The Red Sun was no longer stretched thin. The Red Sun said “the woman who sings in the summer valley travels the Nurmaná Road. One day I will go there. One day I will greet her.” The Red Sun said, “I will not return. I will travel the Nurmaná Road with the woman who sings in the summer valley forever.”
The Red Sun healed itself.
The Red Sun healed its face.
The Red Sun healed its broken hands.
The light of the Red Sun dispelled the shadows.
The rays of the Red Sun shine warm and strong.
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