Food Feature: Earth bound

No vacation is complete without a spontaneous adventure, surprise visit or sudden change in plans. With that in mind, I found myself looking up an old acquaintance during a week vacation to New Mexico last July.

In truth, I scarcely knew Cathy Hope, and I hadn’t kept in touch with her since taking her workshop on shamanic journeys and using her handmade oils.

In the late 1980s, Cathy was one of several people I knew who left Atlanta, a city becoming too busy for anything but business. Over the years, I wondered why she had settled near Taos, in northern New Mexico.

On the two-hour trip from the Albuquerque airport to Santa Fe, I began to understand why this is known as the “Land of Enchantment.” New vistas seemed to open up before me, like some silent western movie rolling by my car window.

I arrived in Santa Fe (“The City Different,” according to locals) and pulled up to a motel, behind a Volvo with the personalized license tag: “7th Chakra.” (According to Eastern traditions, chakras are the body’s seven energy centers, with the seventh being the center of highest consciousness in the body.) Whether or not this was a sign that my journey would lead to higher consciousness, I couldn’t be sure. But later that evening, standing beside a lone cottonwood tree, I watched the reddish glow of a shimmering sunset spreading across the endless horizon. As dusk settled in, the rugged mountains took on a bluish hue, and I knew I was in a very different place indeed.

Continuing on my journey, I took a pilgrimage to the ancient Taos pueblo, where I watched Native Americans perform the annual ceremonial corn dance under the watchful eye of sacred mountains. For centuries, the area has been a rich crossroads of Native American, Hispanic and Anglo cultures.

But since the 19th century, the area has drawn legions of artists, photographers, writers and Hollywood celebrities, as well as many people seeking spiritual and physical cures. In the 1960s and ’70s, there was an influx of bikers and hippies, and several communes settled into the area. In the years since, many New Age healers and gurus, from the Dalai Lama to Ram Dass, have come to visit or stay. The Lama Foundation, the publisher of Dass’ psychedelic classic Be Here Now, is an ecumenical spiritual community and educational center in the mountains north of Taos.

Some have speculated that northern New Mexico’s appeal to New Agers stems from an admiration of Native American spirituality, which has led some to take up Indian rituals such as drumming and “sweats” (a practice in which believers encamp in a very hot, enclosed space to cleanse their spirits).

Others have rediscovered their ancestors’ pagan religions, an Earth-based spirituality that honors the elements, the seasons, and holds all life as sacred. It seemed natural to me that this stunning landscape could deepen one’s spirituality and summon a gathering of kindred spirits. After visiting Hope in her new home, it was clear that she belongs here.

Nearly 25 miles north of Taos, Hope’s 1920s stuccoed log cabin sits on a small patch of land in the rugged outback of northern Taos County, a vast valley of sagebrush, with the southern range of the Rocky Mountains looming in the north.

I found her working in a converted garage, crouched over a bucket, her arms wet up to the elbows and stained blood red by the St. John’s Wort herbal mixture used to create her Crown Chakra oil. Only a week remained before the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, an annual women-only event where she sells her products and holds workshops on natural remedies. Her handmade massage oils, salves, perfumes and bath products also line the shelves at local retail outlets including Elixirs, a small aromatherapy shop in Taos, and at a cultural center/art gallery and supermarket in nearby Questa.

Once a week, Hope and a group of 13 women, all members of a women’s spirituality group, gather in a kiva, a 22-foot hole within the Earth the women dug by hand, to engage in various practices from many of the world’s religious traditions — from gospel singing and Passover Seders to ancient pagan solstice rituals and meditations. (Sacred kiva are also used by local Native Americans, who find depth of spiritual feeling by descending into Mother Earth rather than by ascending as taught by Western Christianity).

“This has always been a place where people have traded goods and ideas, sharing their particular take on reality, and my women’s group is no different,” Hope said. “We’ve got Jews, Catholics and people following the Buddhist way, all sharing and rediscovering traditions.”

Hope ventures into the small but culturally rich town of Taos only once a week, occasionally dining at Latitude 37, one of the many restaurants that serve organic and vegetarian meals in the area. She gets eggs and milk from farmers in her neighborhood, and last year she built a solar-powered greenhouse, which allows her to harvest rainwater and grow all the vegetables and herbs she needs.

Hope shares her knowledge about the benefits of greenhouses, consulting on construction methods and selling blueprints each summer at the Taos Solar Music Festival. Hailed the solar capital of the world, Taos hosts this energy-efficient event June 29-July 1, featuring a solar-powered sound stage and alternative energy displays in its “solar village.”

In the rugged outback of northern New Mexico, Hope has found a slower-paced way of life and a rural hospitality in which neighbors-helping-neighbors are the ties that bind the community. There are many people who call themselves progressive or non-mainstream. You’ll find crystals and channeling and New Age music here, but this community is much more. It includes a broader group of people who are pushing the boundaries on all levels: environmental, political, intellectual and spiritual.

“Living in a large city like Atlanta, I had to shut down emotionally to function in a fast-paced, noisy, over-stimulated environment,” Hope said. “Here, I’m more accepting of my emotions, and I’m connecting more with the Earth.”

Visit www.solarmusicfest.com for details about the Taos Solar Music Festival, June 29-30 and July 1. Go to www.irisherbal.com for more information about Cathy Hope’s herbal products and www.passivesolargreenhouse .com to learn more about her passive solar greenhouse projects.

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