Billie Topa Taté

The Monthly Aspectarian: Billie, I usually like to start by asking people to briefly tell their story. What's your background?

Billie Topa Taté: I'm from the Mescalero Apache tribe. That's the base of my wisdom from this lifetime, the Native American culture. When I was about 25 years old, my mother, who is my primary teacher, sent me out to learn from other spiritual teachers outside of the Native teachings. I learned from the Tibetan and Hindu, also from the Philippine and Chinese cultures to gain perspective on different types of lineages and how they handle the sacred teachings. I continue to do that--I travel to India to learn from a wonderful Tibetan teacher who teaches something called the Phowa [pronounced PO-uh]; assisting people in the Tibetan style in their transition when they're passing over.

TMA: What was the nature of your Native American teachings?

BTT: The teachings in the Native tradition were the symbology of dreams, and also clairvoyance and psychic faculties; also about the aura and the energy field and how that works; the principles of energy, and how all of the different kingdoms interact as far as the energy field is concerned. There's a physical energy field that's the human being, where we get that energy from and how that comes to us and why that comes to us, and how to maintain a dynamic energy field complementary to the other kingdoms that are living in this earth plane with us.

TMA: I usually don't think of such terminology as clairvoyance and the aura as being part of the Native American teachings.

BTT: If you look at the ceremonial attire of Native people, you see that usually the tribal leader has a headdress on. The feathers represent the health rays of the crown chakra. That's not very much known in the non-Native modality, but that's what it is. The aura is part of the energy field of all living systems, so we can see that very clearly. If you go into nature, you get in tune with the subtle energies of nature, and get a deep sensitivity or awareness of all of the energy fields that are around us.

Clairvoyance and the psychic faculties are part of the Native tradition. They're word of mouth, not written down much.

TMA: Do the teachings go back in your family?

BTT: Very much so. It's a beautiful experience to be born into a family that encourages these kinds of teachings. When I was growing up I was much like any teenager, I didn't want to be "special" and I didn't want to learn anything that my other friends were not learning. It was very difficult sometimes when every year I was taken to learn something new from other spiritual teachers within different tribes. When I returned to school, my friends would say, "I went to Disneyland" or "I did this," and I never told them where I had gone because they probably wouldn't have felt very comfortable about that. When I was growing up, I didn't really feel like sharing that information, but when I was about 20 years old, I began to realize how rejuvenating it was to go back to the different places in Arizona and New Mexico with my family to learn those things. Yes, the teachings go back considerably.

TMA: Do you know how many generations?

BTT: I really don't know how many generations, but I do know that my mother is a retired shielder?? from the Mescalero Apache tradition, and her mother also. I remember learning from elders when I was very, very young and all the beautiful experiences I saw with them. I found that to be very intriguing, how they would heal people, how they'd sit in council and discuss things and do communal work. When we went to different tribes that were not Apache, I found that they had very significant core life behaviors that we did. I thought, "Oh, they're doing the same things that we're doing," and I enjoyed the experience very much. I learned a whole bunch of things, and I still go back there every year to learn. That's a lifelong process for me.

TMA: I notice from your website that you draw from many traditions. I saw that you have a prominent link to the Kriya temple.

BTT: As a matter of fact, when I was about 23 years old, I was missing the spiritual food from some of my relatives in Arizona and New Mexico. I did an invocation and asked for a wonderful spiritual teacher to give me spiritual food that I didn't have to travel so far to get. I did find a wonderful teacher, Goswami Kriyananda. I went to his temple and sat down and listened to him. He was explaining to the people in the temple the different sacred teachings, and I found it was exactly what I was learning from my spiritual teachers on the reservation. I knew he wasn't making it up. I had looked in many places for spiritual food and found that some individuals that I encountered were giving information that I couldn't relate to. I knew what he was telling me was from his own experience; he wasn't reading from a book. I felt that was very appropriate for me. Between my visits back to my spiritual teachers in Arizona and New Mexico, I sat and spent a lot of time with him. I brought my daughter with me and we received spiritual food from him, and we became very good friends. We still are good friends even though he moved to Kauai where he has his home. I visit him there once a year with my students. He does a lecture while we're there on a retreat that I put together a couple of years ago. He's a wonderful soul, very humorous and sincere and has a lot of information. I didn't want to be initiated as his disciple ... I wanted to continue learning and asking him questions, though, and he would laugh and say, "That's good, you're not taking anything " you're asking good questions, and that's a very good thing to do."

TMA: I notice that you also teach a course of study based on the Yogi Ramacharaka books--which had a big effect on me as well.

BTT: Yogi Ramacharaka is a wonderful spiritual teacher. When I started reading his books, I really want to connect with him and the three initiates. I contacted the Yoga Publications and talked to the last link still alive who is carrying that information. She was very pleased with how much I enjoyed these teachings and actually gave permission for me to receive some of his other books, the actual exercises and lessons that he sat down and gave to his initiates before his passing. She gave me permission to utilize those in teaching modules for the Mystical Sciences Institute. We donate any money we receive through those teachings to Chicago's food foundation to give out to different programs to help the poor and serve food to senior citizens and so forth. We give that money at the request of Yogi Publications. We were going to send it to them, and they decided that they wanted it to go the Chicago Food Depository.

TMA: It was my understanding that Yogi Ramacharaka wasn't one person but an aggregate of people.

BTT: Right, the first person who sparked that flame of information was in India. Then the Englishman who decided to interpret that through a disciple ... there were a number of people who contributed to that. But those individuals who did so gave those books to their last family member and that's how the Yogi Publications originated. They are still in existence, however, but only one member of the family is still alive, a distant cousin. They have the copyright. They reside in Florida and come up here once in a while. Those books have a lot to offer.

TMA: Those books need to remain in print. Talk a little more about what you're doing with the Mystical Sciences Institute.

BTT: We're promoting different teachings from around the world. We're bringing forth these classes called the Universal Laws program, an eight-month program, and we meet once a month. We talk about a lot of the ancient wisdom books and the oldest philosophies of different cultures. We cover a lot of information within those eight months. We try to make it really cost-effective so a lot of people can experience a number of things if they choose to.

We're going on retreat to Kauai in February 2002 to be with a number of spiritual teachers who do not normally come up to lecture. It's a spiritual retreat for all the individuals who wish to relax and be taken care of by these wonderful teachers.
Billie Topa Taté is a traditional Native American healer and teacher, a Reiki Master Teacher and licensed therapeutic massage therapist with National Certification in TM, AMTA-NCMT. She has received both Pranic and Advanced Pranic Healer training and is currently attending the British Institute of Homeopathy Diploma Course. She is also a graduate of the Chicago School of Fung Shui

Billie Topa Taté is a traditional Native American healer and teacher, a Reiki Master Teacher and licensed therapeutic massage therapist with National Certification in TM, AMTA-NCMT. She has received both Pranic and Advanced Pranic Healer training and is currently attending the British Institute of Homeopathy Diploma Course. She is also a graduate of the Chicago School of Fung Shui.

A frequent lecturer for many organizations and institutions around the world, Billie is an acknowledged expert in the use of many ancient disciplines. She has created and recorded several healing meditations available on CD, including The Loving Kindness Meditation, The Breathing Meditation and the recently released Etheric Enhancement.

Billie has been interviewed by the BBC and by most of the local Chicago news stations, and has consulted on countless television and movie projects. She maintains a healing practice at the Mystical Sciences Institute and Healing Center (MSI) in Evanston, Illinois.

The Mystical Sciences Institute Healing Center (MSI) teaches universal laws, various healing modalities and harmonious integration of these principles into daily life. For more information about the Healing Center, phone MSI at 847/866-0505; website: www.msi-healing.com; e-mail info@msi-healing.com.

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