Heyoka Merrifield "The Kachina Collection" ~ New Inspirations
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About the Kachina Spirit Helpers ... by Heyoka Merrifield
"With the coming of spring, I start preparing the soil in my garden for the planting of my corn and vegetables. It reminds me of a time in the early 1990s when I had been invited to experience a Native American Spring Kachina Dance ceremony at a Hopi village in the Southwest United States.
The Corn Kachina Dancers dressed and painted themselves in beautiful traditional regalia. About three dozen of them danced four days in ceremony, blessing their recently planted corn seeds. This ancient traditional ceremony honored and called on the spiritual powers of the physical universe to help grow the corn in what had been the challenging desert lands of the Hopi people for thousands of years. The dancers wore wooden masks and created otherworldly-sounding prayerful songs to the seeds, rain, sun, and all the powers necessary to grow the corn. Everyone gathered around the ceremony received gifts of food and the tribal children received small, carved, wooden dolls that replicated the dancers. After singing for a while the dancers went into underground ceremonial Kiva rooms to pray to the earthly powers.
I have incorporated many of the Native American ways of honoring the spiritual powers of creation into my life and art. From this inspirational source I create jewelry and sculptures that depict the Kachina powers I have experienced in similar ceremonies all over our magical planet Earth.
"With the coming of spring, I start preparing the soil in my garden for the planting of my corn and vegetables. It reminds me of a time in the early 1990s when I had been invited to experience a Native American Spring Kachina Dance ceremony at a Hopi village in the Southwest United States.
The Corn Kachina Dancers dressed and painted themselves in beautiful traditional regalia. About three dozen of them danced four days in ceremony, blessing their recently planted corn seeds. This ancient traditional ceremony honored and called on the spiritual powers of the physical universe to help grow the corn in what had been the challenging desert lands of the Hopi people for thousands of years. The dancers wore wooden masks and created otherworldly-sounding prayerful songs to the seeds, rain, sun, and all the powers necessary to grow the corn. Everyone gathered around the ceremony received gifts of food and the tribal children received small, carved, wooden dolls that replicated the dancers. After singing for a while the dancers went into underground ceremonial Kiva rooms to pray to the earthly powers.
I have incorporated many of the Native American ways of honoring the spiritual powers of creation into my life and art. From this inspirational source I create jewelry and sculptures that depict the Kachina powers I have experienced in similar ceremonies all over our magical planet Earth.
Tresa Vorenberg Goldsmiths presents the exclusive artistry of medicine man Heyoka Merrifield, from the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Heyoka’s sacred arts, symbolic jewelry, sculpture and writings are featured. His works honor the ancient ancestors & sacred arts that celebrate their mystical world. These traditions and myths are a means to heal psychological conflicts and create balance for our world. He embraces the indigenous treasures through the Sundance, Vision Quest, Sweat Lodge and Sacred Pipe ceremonials. Weaving together New and Old Worlds, Heyoka passes on the wisdom of nature, his elders and their archetypal powers. He is the author of “Sacred Art Sacred Earth”, “The White Buffalo Woman Trilogy”, “Ocean Mother's Song” and “Book of Shrines”. Internationally acclaimed, Heyoka’s works are held in the private collections of Cher, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond and the late George Harrison.
Heyoka's Books and DVDs: Please Click on "Ocean Mother's Song" (below) to View & Purchase Books & DVDs using Paypal
(or) To Place Your Order Call 505.988.7215.
Heyoka Weaves Together the Place where Myth and Nature Meet
at the intersection of the creative and the spiritual. His search for why ancient sacred art radiates power led him on a lifelong quest to learn from the same source that illuminated his artistic ancestors. In each piece of art he creates, Heyoka includes a waking-up ceremony using archetypes to invoke a new life and meaning. Touching the sacred within his art has brought international acclaim to his work. Some notable collectors include Joan Baez, Carol Burnett, Glenn Campbell, George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Cher, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Donovan, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Ringo Starr, Gary Wright and Joni Mitchell. His work has also appeared in MGM, Orion and Paramount films.
Click on "Ocean Mother's Song" (to the left) to be taken to his books & DVDs:
"Sundancing with the Muse" DVD
"Ocean Mother's Song", Paperback
"Painted Earth Temple", Hardback
"Eyes of Wisdom", Hardback
"Lying Down Mountain", Hardback
"Sacred Art Sacred Earth", Paperback
"The Book of Shrines", Paperback
at the intersection of the creative and the spiritual. His search for why ancient sacred art radiates power led him on a lifelong quest to learn from the same source that illuminated his artistic ancestors. In each piece of art he creates, Heyoka includes a waking-up ceremony using archetypes to invoke a new life and meaning. Touching the sacred within his art has brought international acclaim to his work. Some notable collectors include Joan Baez, Carol Burnett, Glenn Campbell, George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Cher, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Donovan, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Ringo Starr, Gary Wright and Joni Mitchell. His work has also appeared in MGM, Orion and Paramount films.
Click on "Ocean Mother's Song" (to the left) to be taken to his books & DVDs:
"Sundancing with the Muse" DVD
"Ocean Mother's Song", Paperback
"Painted Earth Temple", Hardback
"Eyes of Wisdom", Hardback
"Lying Down Mountain", Hardback
"Sacred Art Sacred Earth", Paperback
"The Book of Shrines", Paperback
More About Heyoka
After graduating with a degree in sculpture, Heyoka left his native California to move to a remote Northwest Indian reservation. For over twenty years, he lived in this wilderness while exploring his Native American heritage. Living close to the natural rhythms of nature, Heyoka began to observe the world from a different perspective: he discovered the way his ancient ancestors touched the Earth and that, unlike his contemporary art training in college, many of these ancestors created art that captured the radiance of the transcendent powers within their mythology.
In discovering sacred art and Native American ceremonies, an entire world opened for Heyoka. He felt a new passion for his work and, in order to pass on this gift, he began teaching apprentices in the almost forgotten way of mentoring. He realized that our culture had lost an important part of a young person’s journey when mentoring was replaced by our current school system. This discovery led him to write his book Sacred Art, Sacred Earth so he could relate his own personal journey from contemporary art student into the ancient tradition of the sacred artist. Eventually, this led Heyoka to create a documentary film that tells his life story while showing him making jewelry and sculpture, as well as doing ceremony.
What we know about our ancient ancestors was learned from the sacred art that celebrated their mystical world. Heyoka honors science for its many wondrous gifts to humankind, yet believes that when science took away many of our necessary traditional myths, it left a devastating void in our contemporary cultures. Heyoka feels that whether these myths are seen as a magical relationship with the mysteries of life or as a means to heal our psychological conflicts, they serve a very important aspect of our humanity.
As he embraced many of the mythical treasures of the indigenous people of the land that he was born into, he became involved in the Sundance, Vision Quest, Sweat Lodge, and Sacred Pipe ceremonies. This led Heyoka to write a novel about what became his primary myth, Eyes of Wisdom: The Myth of White Buffalo Woman. This story sprung from the Native American goddess archetype in the area of the country where he now lives.
With his other two books in the trilogy, Heyoka weaves together mythical tales of the New World and the Old World in the continuation of the White Buffalo Woman story. In these stories, he passes on what he considers to be the important wisdom of his elders, many of whom now reside in the World of Spirit. He also passes on the wisdom of his other primary teacher, Nature. When he is not creating sacred art, writing books, or walking in the wilderness, Heyoka spends much of his year learning, teaching, and doing ceremonies throughout the world.
In discovering sacred art and Native American ceremonies, an entire world opened for Heyoka. He felt a new passion for his work and, in order to pass on this gift, he began teaching apprentices in the almost forgotten way of mentoring. He realized that our culture had lost an important part of a young person’s journey when mentoring was replaced by our current school system. This discovery led him to write his book Sacred Art, Sacred Earth so he could relate his own personal journey from contemporary art student into the ancient tradition of the sacred artist. Eventually, this led Heyoka to create a documentary film that tells his life story while showing him making jewelry and sculpture, as well as doing ceremony.
What we know about our ancient ancestors was learned from the sacred art that celebrated their mystical world. Heyoka honors science for its many wondrous gifts to humankind, yet believes that when science took away many of our necessary traditional myths, it left a devastating void in our contemporary cultures. Heyoka feels that whether these myths are seen as a magical relationship with the mysteries of life or as a means to heal our psychological conflicts, they serve a very important aspect of our humanity.
As he embraced many of the mythical treasures of the indigenous people of the land that he was born into, he became involved in the Sundance, Vision Quest, Sweat Lodge, and Sacred Pipe ceremonies. This led Heyoka to write a novel about what became his primary myth, Eyes of Wisdom: The Myth of White Buffalo Woman. This story sprung from the Native American goddess archetype in the area of the country where he now lives.
With his other two books in the trilogy, Heyoka weaves together mythical tales of the New World and the Old World in the continuation of the White Buffalo Woman story. In these stories, he passes on what he considers to be the important wisdom of his elders, many of whom now reside in the World of Spirit. He also passes on the wisdom of his other primary teacher, Nature. When he is not creating sacred art, writing books, or walking in the wilderness, Heyoka spends much of his year learning, teaching, and doing ceremonies throughout the world.