fifth world women walking upright
by debra roberts

Prasad is a Hindu word for a substance, often food, which has been invested with Divine grace or blessed. In traveling to India, I have received Prasad in places like temples, where it was offered to me in the form of sweet sticky rice, crystals of sugar, or sometimes a special drink. The food had been blessed by a priest, a holy person or a revered teacher and it is believed that this blessing passes on to the person who receives the food. I have come to believe that women are the prasad of our times.

In the mid-90’s, I lived in New Mexico with my husband Joe. During that time, we used to meet occasionally with a small group of people to discuss things of mutual interest, and one evening an elder appeared who was a guest of one of the circle. The elder was Hopi, from Arizona, and his name was Thomas Banyacya. I am guessing he was in his late 70’s or 80’s at the time. He was really a wonderful person and ended up being the focus of the evening.

He told us that he was sent out by his elders to carry and share a piece of Hopi prophecy with the world. It was quite remarkable to hear him talk about HIS elders, given his own age. He said he had spoken at the U.N., at conferences and gatherings all over the world, and basically to anyone anywhere who would listen and that that was the purpose of his life. Thomas talked about a shifting of the worlds that was prophesized by the Hopis–that within our lifetime, the worlds would shift from what they call the Fourth World to the Fifth World. This shift has in fact already happened and we are now in the Fifth World.

He said that traditionally, from a Hopi Fourth World perspective, the woman was in charge of the table–the place in the home where food, nurturing, family sharing, and connection happened. The heart of the home.

In the Fifth World, the EARTH is considered the “table” and the woman is considered responsible for that table, responsible for the whole of the earth. That’s a pretty large statement. Thomas then quietly addressed each individual woman in the circle of us gathered there and said, looking at us one by one, “It’s a woman’s time to step forward”, “It’s a woman’s time to step forward”, “It’s a woman’s time to step forward”.

Now in some ways, for some women, this is not hugely surprising or new news. But at the time, this statement from this venerable old man carried weight, this message delivered with the breath of his Hopi elders, from one of the most respected prophetic traditions in the world. I remember the little hairs going up on the back of my neck. I know that since then, this awakened something already in me as a woman born for these times, as YOU are a woman born for these times.

This “something” has continued to percolate over these many years, and especially in this last year when I made my own pilgrimage out to Hopi to pay my respects to Thomas’s family. Thomas passed away a few years ago. I have to say that he didn’t really tell me anything that I didn’t know. He just brought it more into view, awakened it a little, stirred the pot and woke up the smell of the stew somehow.

I believe his message also refers to the feminine nature within men. But Thomas particularly directed this message to women that evening. He said that Fifth World time means it is a woman’s time to step forward fully—privately or publicly, in seemingly big or small ways, and that every woman would somehow intrinsically understand what that meant.

Neither Thomas’s message nor any of the content of this talk is exclusive of men or anti-men. This is not an equality issue or a gender issue. I believe it is about timing. I treasure the healthy masculine, within me and also outside of me, in the form of my husband, my family, and some wonderful men friends. I am blessed with a beautiful husband, Joe, who has said more than one time across our marriage, unsolicited, that he feels he is here to support the feminine. And so he is. The point is that Thomas’s message and this talk just happen to be particularly FOR women.

It is simply our turn and our time. I like to think of it this way–if two children, say a boy and a girl, were playing with one rocking horse in a room and the boy had been on the horse foreeeeever, a grandparent could come in and say, “well, you Edwardo have had a gooood long turn, it is now Bernice’s turn….” It’s like that. It’s time for us to take a big turn. We are like a time release capsule, say one of those vitamin C time release capsules. It is our time to penetrate the bloodstream of this world. We are particularly good for the world and what the Table needs right now. Here WE are, with life, people, government, the environment, education, families, every which way of the world, exactly as it is. Whoever are we and whatever we are we doing, it is our time, our Table to take care of. We were born to do this, right now.

I never saw Thomas again, but he made a big impression on me. He didn’t say what women were to do (and THAT was probably a good thing!). He was a messenger, a male messenger, and not the message; he was one person amongst many, handing over a baton that some of us knew was ours anyway in these times.

For some of you, that same message may have come through your grandmother or mother or father or a dream or an experience in the natural world or through an illness or any of a number of other ways… The message is out there in the airwaves.

Let me tell also you about Ted, a beloved elder and friend named Ted Williams. When I began recording these talks recently, Ted Williams was alive. He passed away last week and I still feel deep sadness and gratitude for the monumental spirit he was and still is. He was Tuscarora, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy–one of wisest and funniest men I ever met. Goodness could he tell a great story–fall off your chair kind of funny story teller.

I have always, the whole of my life, felt like this is a beneficial universe: humans can create experiences that we call “good” and “not good” – but the universe itself is a beneficial place, a very beautiful place indeed. Ted always called it 'The Divine and Harmonious Universe' and those words have permanently woven into the fabric of my language and life. The Divine and Harmonious Universe. In what turned out to be my last conversation with Ted in the hospital recently, I talked about women and it being a woman’s time right now. He looked at me and asked, “Well, where are they then?” My answer is this, a mere week after his passing, “We’re here Ted. Right here. We are women of the Fifth World, women walking upright in the world, and it’s our time.” In some ways, I feel like Thomas and Ted, and a host of others (both men and women) have handed us a baton, the baton that has been ours all these many years. It is time to fully take hold of it.

How do we know what to do as Fifth World Women? Here is what helped me answer that question, or actually rephase that question, and become well again, after decades of dealing with some serious body challenges.

The essence of understanding Fifth World, I think, involves three things:

The first is noticing that we ARE upright–to see that we ARE already upright. And from that place, the doing, the walking reveals itself. The message here is not “STAND UP” – the message is NOTICE THAT WE ARE STANDING UP. This is a Fifth World reality. In the Fourth World, we were standing up, not standing up, trying to get up, dealing with the every which way of it. When we shifted to the Fifth World, we stood upright. It just happened. Our recognition of this is the first 1000% of shift in how we relate to ourselves, each other and this Earth, this Table. Just the simple act of changing our perception to the fact that here we are, right here, right now, upright.

Once I embraced this simple fact, then restlessness, illness, and a lifetime of extreme Type A habits, like burning the candle at a zillion ends, began to fall away, have fallen away. Over the years since meeting Thomas, and more recently since stepping back and taking a sabbatical, I came to notice what a Fifth World Woman means to me—that I AM already upright and this essential truth then informs everything I choose to do. That’s huge for me because I was trying to find myself through doingness. How can I DO myself into BEING? Well, frankly I was doing myself into the grave. We are spirits in human form, and we are going to DO things big or little. It is part of the human experience, it is part of why we are here. But first but first, notice we ARE upright —that is a huge discovery to make about ourselves as women.

What else did I come to know about Fifth World Women? The second thing I learned is that we have CHOICE—about everything.

This choice is our birthright. Remembering I have choice was very central to the recovery of my health. A year ago, I simply chose to stop doing practically everything I was doing. It took a health crisis for me to break open my thinking. It wasn’t convenient or timely, especially for others. And it wasn’t particularly fun. But it was also a huge relief. I remembered that I have choice, about everything and any thought, story, piece of advice or voice that says different, I have found to be a lie. We have a choice about what goes on in our personal lives and in our communities, both local and global. We have the freedom to examine everything that we call reality and agree with it or not agree with it. Much of our world and how it THINKS it works is based on what we are USED to, asleep to, afraid of, or unconscious about. Reality is what we agree to. This upright essence that is YOU, that is alive and well and always has been, brilliantly informs ALL your choices. This is a time to remember we have choice and to exercise that. It is waking up in us. It is how we can and will take care of the Table as Fifth World Women.

The third thing that I discovered for myself and it has been said many times, in many ways before. But I finally got it (!): We need to Listen to our BODIES which never lie: they tell us how to make choices, the best choices, and they tell us how and where to walk.

I have talked with women for years and I am always fascinated with how our bodies help guide us. I want to share some of their signals with you. There is no right way, no right formula, about this. It varies with women. But notice how it is for YOU. Because the more we get to know the truth our body is always telling us, the more the conversation goes from a whisper to a louder tone, the more it goes from a tentative feeling to a confident one, the more it goes from a corner of the eye perception to one right in our immediate and clear view, front and center.

One friend of mine sleeps on decisions and notices her first thought and how her body feels on awakening in the morning and she makes life decisions based on that. Another notices when she feels tired for no apparent reason or if her asthma rears its head. Another notices changes in her breathing (and whether she is breathing). For me, it is my digestion. My digestion these days tells me within minutes, hours or a day at most, how I feel about anything or anyone.

Does something or someone FEEL sensible? Do certain situations or people make you vaguely irritable, intimidated, hot? Does your breathing change? ARE you breathing? Do you feel vaguely disturbed, do you have constant sore throats, do certain kinds of fears keep floating around in certain places inside you?

What if there isn’t ANYthing wrong with any of that? Find out how your body talks to you. You might not immediately know WHAT your body is saying but I have learned that if I stop and listen and take the conversation seriously, it keeps me seriously upright and on track.
Give yourself the benefit of the doubt and assume that what you feel in your body is correct, and that it is leading you the right way. That it is an impeccable source of information–EVEN if you are sick, addicted, or depressed, and probably especially then. It is still talking, right this minute. Build this relationship because it is part of your wealth and wisdom. And you’ll come to gain confidence in what you basically knew all along.

We are upright no matter how we feel or what’s happening around us – if it’s a great and glorious day or a complete dog’s breakfast. We are upright no matter our nationality, personality, age, race or face. No matter our weight, IQ, literacy level or our stories, our very convincing stories. We are upright even if we are addicted to drugs, alcohol, medicine, bad relationships, junk food, sugar or television. We are upright even if we are under a veil, locked up, knocked up, burned up, feeling washed up, on anti-depressants or completely broke. We are upright whether we are healthy, sick, laying in a bed or terminally ill. I am a cancer survivor so I don’t speak of this lightly or disrespectfully.
Getting educated, getting healthier, dealing with addictions and habits, getting help and support – all of these things are vastly important. What I am pointing to isn’t about any of those things – I am inviting you to look at your essential nature right now, and at your good sense and great good hearts.

This is our time, our challenge, our great joy, our canvas, our sacred work, our sacred trust. This earth, this time, now. We are born for these times—and of course this has always been true for women anytime in history ... but I believe there is a special poignancy and potency, even urgency, to our presence as women now. It isn’t personal anymore, if it ever was. What we each are, we all need, every last woman of us. Every good impulse, calling, instinct, stirring, essence, skill, ability, intuition, guidance, and dose of common sense, from the biggest big to the smallest small, all of this adds to the wealth and well-being of this world.

WE are the holy food for these times, the Prasad of these times, you, me, exactly as we are right now. Yes we change and grow in every moment and that is always happening, thank goodness. But we need nothing more than ourselves, in this very moment, to be the activated blessing for this earth, this table, for life, right now.

We make the Divine visible in the world through recognizing, acknowledging and remembering our essential natures – this recognition of our uprightness becomes a daily act of grace, and I think, a way of thanking the Divine for making us so.

Women are Milagros. Do you know that word? It’s Spanish for miracles. We are Milagros. We are Fifth World Women, Walking Upright.

©2005 Debra Roberts

This article is excerpted from the first CD in the Prasad for Women series, available at fifthworldwomen.com

Debra Roberts is a documentary filmmaker, creative consultant, and author of Prasad for Women. She lives outside Asheville with Joe, Bea and Bo (husband, dog and cat) in the beautiful blessed mountains.
[debra@fifthworldwomen.com; fifthworldwomen.com]