Nevada Desert Experience: Interfaith action

(1951 Nuclear Test at the Nevada Test Site)

People often equate a Nevada desert experience with

the bright lights of the Vegas Strip.

However, illumination of another sort will be gracing

Nevada’s landscape from March 31 to April 6, 2012.  During that time, participants of the Nevada Desert Experience Sacred Peace Walk will be making their annual 63-mile pilgrimage.  This Sacred Peace Walk (SPW) begins with an orientation at the Las Vegas Catholic Worker House, and ends at the Mercury entrance to the Nevada Test Site (Nevada National Secuity Site, aka NNSS).

This Sacred Peace Walk embodies interfaith, as well

as interspiritual, principles.  (The Free Dictionary

defines “interfaith” as “of, relating to, or involving persons of different religious faiths” – and the term

“interspiritual” reflects Mahatma Gandhi’s belief that “when you go to the  heart of your own religion, you go to the heart of all others, too.”)   A Passover Seder will take place at the Catholic Worker House.  The main Walk then begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Good Friday.  There will be a Good Friday Stations of the Cross Reenactment.

On Wednesday, April 4 there will be a Ritual of Peace, Forgiveness and Healing at the Temple of Goddess Spirituality in Cactus Springs.  This temple is dedicated to Sekhmet, who is described on the temple’s website as a “very ancient goddess; with her lion’s head and woman’s body, she is the opposite of the Sphinx who has a man’s head and a lion’s body.”  She is also described as “the great Being in us all… who will not allow the destruction of a Mother Earth.”   Johnnie Bobb, Chief of the Western Shoshone National

Council, will be leading a Welcoming Ritual on Thursday, April 5.

This week-long gathering of the faithful from many traditions is one that is committed to “a nonviolent campaign of change.”  It is meant to “humanize the many victims of nuclear testing and war-making.” 

Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28Txi6c75I

http://nevadadesertexperience.org/programs/2012/peacewalk2012.htm

http://www.lvcw.org/

http://www.topia.net/interspirituality.html

http://www.sekhmettemple.com/temple-of-goddess-spirituality/goddess-temple-herstory/84-2/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_Site

Copyright March 22, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved