It is done! The final Earth Treasure Vase was buried in Australia on the June 2013 full moon by Cynthia and a group of pilgrims. Now, the global mandala is complete and transmitting our most heartfelt prayers, songs and dreams throughout the Earth for her protection and healing. Cynthia shares her account of the […]
As I write, it has been a little over 3 weeks since I returned from England, and still I wake every morning having dreamt of the crop circles and the sacred geometry of those “temporary temples.” These mysterious creations cannot easily be explained and have entered my psyche, effecting me deeply. Like the palaces of […]
In April 2012, Alliance for the Earth buried the 27th Earth Treasure Vase in the Itombwe Forest of the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with the guidance and support of the Pygmy people. Nowhere on Earth are the issues that we must face, heal and transform as graphic as they are in the DRC. We, […]
This Winter Solstice we brought our 26th Earth Treasure Vase to Maui as an offering for the restoration of balance and harmony among all beings. Our global mandala is now being activated by planting the remaining five vases (out of the thirty we started with) in sacred places that are like key acupuncture points for […]
On October 31, 2011, we entrusted the 25th Earth Treasure Vase to Leslie Temple Thurston and Brad Laughlin, co-founders of Corelight, who became our good friends and collaborators during the ETV project pilgrimage to South Africa in May 2011. At that time, we planted an Earth Treasure Vase at the rim of the Blyde River […]
2.4 million years ago, human life evolved in Africa. In the ancient African teachings it is said that we come from the stars. It is also said that the reappearance of the sacred white lions in Timbavati, South Africa, heralds a time when reconnection to our ancient roots will help to guide our way forward… […]
The first vase for Africa was buried in Liberia, West Africa on the winter solstice 2009. We returned to Liberia in March 2011 to water the seeds of peace. To learn more about our second journey to Liberia and watch the companion video, please click here. The seeds we first planted in 2009 have now […]
The Elder Brothers in the high Sierras of Colombia were in possession of an ETV that was buried in secret by the leader of the Tayrona peoples, Ramon Gil, in 2009. Gil is both Kogi and Wiwa, as well as a Mama. We have been inspired by the Tayrona peoples since 1992 when a book by […]
In August 2008, we journeyed to the Arctic Circle in Alaska to direct our prayers to “The Sacred Place Where Life Began,” the ancestral homeland of the Gwitch’in people. We went there to bury the 20th Earth Treasure Vase and were hosted by former Gwitch’in Tribal Chief, Evon Peter and his family. Today, oil and […]
In 2004 a Treasure Vase was buried near the source of the Amazon River by Vijali Hamilton. Vijali is a sculptor, artist, writer and filmmaker. Her World Wheel Project has taken her to many places around the world where she engages with communities using art and activism to inspire a vision of peace. I have […]
In late winter/early spring of 2004, a small group of us made a pilgrimage along the upper reaches of the Ganges with the intention of burying a Treasure Vase as close to the spiritual source of the Ganges (at or near Gangotri) as we could get that time of year. We had already been in […]
Like many cities across the world, East Oakland is the home of gang violence and high crime. Activist Claire Greens Felder directed the MLK Freedom Center located in the MLK Regional Shoreline Park in East Oakland. The center’s work focuses on empowering youth to stand for change and become leaders in their community. The vase […]
Biosphere 2 was an architectural wonder built in the Arizona desert to contain the living eco-systems of Earth’s biosphere inside a structure that would model a living, breathing, life-enhancing support system to the world. The crew who built Biosphere 2, lived inside it, and demonstrated how the biosphere was a delicate living system, needing care […]
After 9/11 a Treasure Vase was taken to New York City by Wendy Johnson who also stewarded a Treasure Vase for us to the Headwaters Forest in Northern California. Wendy worked with the members of the Village Zendo to fill and seal the vase and a location in the wild land belonging to the Cloisters was […]
Interview with artist & activist, Mayumi Oda about the Earth Treasure Vase she took to Hiroshima: Mayumi Oda is an artist who is known to many as the “Matisse of Japan” and has done extensive work with female goddess imagery. Born to a Buddhist family in Japan in 1941, Mayumi studied fine arts and traditional […]
Our friend, Irit, a woman working with Israeli and Palestine youth to build peace in the region received a vase and buried it with heartfelt prayers in the village of Ein Kerem, a location she chose because of its shared connection to both Israel and Palestine. There is a sacred spring there where she buried […]
The Earth Treasure Vase buried in a vast and wild forest near the Burmese border in Thailand, was stewarded by renunciate monks in the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chaa. Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro of Abhayagiri Monastery in Northern California requested the vase to protect this pristine forest under siege from drug trafficking, potential […]
“Vessels of the Holy” The work of mentor and advisor to the Earth Treasure Vase global healing project, Joanna Macy, has been a profound inspiration to Cynthia from the beginning. Joanna buried a vessel in the grounds of the University of California at Berkeley where there is a laboratory working with Tritium, one of the […]
The Treasure Vase was taken to Kosovo by our dear friend Fran Peavy and Jan Hartsough of the non-profit organization Crabgrass as well as the Women in Black who were working in the former Yugoslavia to bring peace and healing to the women post war. Carefully packed in its special copper-lined basket made by Anne Wilson […]
Taken to Ecuador by Elly Richards, this Treasure Vase was originally planned for burial in northern Ecuador on a sacred mountain whose waters flow into the Amazon where there has been much devastation from the oil companies. That turned out not to be the case and the sacred valley of Il’ca’bama was chosen instead. Il’ca’bama is […]
After a tremendous hurricane devastated the coast of Oaxaca, a vase was taken into ceremony between the equinox and the solstice with local curanderas and healers, then buried on the sacred land of the Punta Cometa. As the group asked Spirit for an indication as to where the vase should be buried, a whale breached […]
Old growth redwood trees — “the ancient ones” — threatened by logging, called for protection in the Headwaters Forest in Northern California. One of the earliest vases to go out beyond the Rio Grande bioregion went into the depth of this primordial forest, stewarded by our dear friend and dharma sister Wendy Johnson. This is […]
One of the first Treasure Vases to go out beyond New Mexico was stewarded by Ann Dunn who was strongly called to place a vessel in upstate New York for the protection of the Hudson River. She chose the Harriman State Forest which is close to the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
Anchoring the western point of the original mandala in the Rio Grande bioregion of northern New Mexico, Mt. Chicoma is a sacred site for the Tewa people and rises above many of the pueblos in the area. Part of the Jemez mountain range, hundreds of thousands of years ago these volcanic mountains were as high […]
The highest mountain in our Rio Grande bioregion received one of the first Treasure Vases, anchoring the eastern point of the original mandala. Pictured here is David Bacon who crafted many copper-covered hardwood boxes to contain the Treasure Vases for burial. We chose copper because it is said to conduct energy within the earth.
Our intention in burying a vase at the mouth of the Rio Grande was to anchor the entire bioregion and direct our prayers out into the Gulf. This location marks the southern point of the four directions of the original mandala that began this practice. When the B.P. oil spill happened in 2010, this location […]
The first Treasure Vase to be buried was stewarded by Leslie Larsen to the headwaters of the Rio Grande, bringing blessings to the entire bioregion watershed that stretches all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. We chose this location because according to tradition it is said that burying vases at sources of rivers allows for […]
This location is considered to be the center of the entire Earth Treasure Vase global healing mandala. There is a cave above Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, where one of the first vases was buried with the help of the Gyumed monks. When Cynthia first asked the 106-year-old lama Charok […]
