The same journey we are all on...a journey to find our true selves and to craft a life worth living. Mickey once lived a typical American life; son, brother, husband, father, friend.
Mickey Mahaffey was born and raised in Hendersonville North Carolina.
Once a successful all-conference high school football and all-state track athelete, Mickey attended college on a track scholarship and running would be a central theme in his life for years to come.
Mickey's love of running was soon superseded by another calling....the call to preach. He transferred to another college to study to become a Baptist preacher and graduated with a degree and a longing to preach the gospel and make an impact on the world.
After graduation he preached throughout Western North Carolina.
"For the next fifteen years I was an itinerant preacher and teacher loosely affiliated with various independent ministries. I continued to study the Greek translation of the Bible with great intensity, believing that if I dug deep enough, I could uncover the original truth of God’s word. I worked as a house painter to pay my way -- refusing to take money for the work of helping people -- and taught and preached nearly every night of the week. By the time I was 25 years old I’d preached the fundamentalist, Christian message from pulpits throughout the USA and in hospitals, rest homes, prisons, summer camps, Sunday-school classes, prayer meetings, living rooms, bars and street corners. "
Mickey soon married, became a father (three times), was a successful business owner of both a construction company and a seafood distributing company; owned a nice home, owned nice cars...... He was "seemingly" the typical American success story. Respected by his peers, with a mission in life and a loving family.
Then life changed.
Maintaing the "status quo" and meeting the expecations of his family, his business and his preaching duties took it's toll. It seemed he was always running to-and-fro to take care of business, to preach, to tend to his house. He had less and less time for hiw wife and kids, less and less time for himself.
Mickey found himself dealing with an undefined anger. Mickey's anger turned inward but also was directed toward his wife and children. He preached about the peace and joy of the Christian life but his own life was anything but peaceful and joyful.
His descended into a deep canyon of internal strife which seemed to have no bottom.
Health problems, business challenges, marital problems ending in divorce eventually landed Mickey Mahaffey in a mental hospital and repeated stays in psychiatric wards left
Mickey a broken man with a broken spirit.His relationsihps with his wife and children were broken, seeminly beyond repair.....his businesses failed.....he'd lost his way with seemingly no path to regaining his sense of direction in life. It seemed he had entered an unknown wilderness with no idea where to find his way, to find the mental and emotional provisions to sustain himself.
Writing about his stays in psychiatric hospitals, Mahaffey recalls: "After thirty-nine years, my life is an abysmal failure. I’ve destroyed two marriages and distressed the lives of my children, Stephanie, Andy and Jake. My business is bankrupt. The fruit of all my religious seeking, teaching and preaching has withered on the vine.
Slowly, the sedatives douse the flames of my rage and turn my muscles to mush. My jaws relax and I feel the soreness from clinching my teeth like a bear trap. My muscles twitch and sensations of exhaustion pulse through my arms and legs as I drift in and out of consciousness. I sink into the bed like I’m slipping on an icy slope, near to plunging into the abyss. I plead for the angel of death to please carry me to my grave and lay me down for my eternal rest, the final solution for my troubled brain. Death seems like the only recourse. I’ve caused enough destruction."
In spite of his utter despair, there was still a splinter of hope in Mickey Mahaffey, but he realized that his hospital stays had done little to heal his wounded spirit and that healing was going to take more than medicine or "therapy".
Mickey determined that the only way to heal and to find a meaningful life was to peel away all of life's trappings and return to the raw core; to build a life from the ground up.
His new life began with the sale of his home, his car, his possessions.
Soon he was "a free man"; free from the burden of possessions and responsibilities, free from the hectic life of trying to get ahead, free from the expectations of family and friends.
But what was to be done with this newfound freedom and the emotional baggage he still bore.
Mickey began the life of an itenerant traveler, sleeping on the ground in a small wooded area in and around the mountain town of Asheville North Carolina. Mickey defined himself as "home free" and lived the typical homeless life, where the important issues of the day were acquiring food, wood for a fire, and a dry and safe place to bed down for the night.
Mickey decribed his new existence in an interview for local newspaper Mountain Xpress in 1998: "The difference is that most homeless people don't have a choice: We do. We've just chosen to live what I believe is a very natural way of life -- which is walking and living simply"
But Mickey's life was far from a life of leisure. In addition to the daily needs to secure food and shelter for the night, Mickey took on new responsibilites which extended beyond his own safety and security. The former preacher soon found a new mission, a new calling, a new field of service.
Soon Mickey found himself speaking out on issues related to the environment and the homeless. He began attending City Council
meetings and asking questions of the elected officials. He became an outspoken advocate for the marginalized citizenry of Asheville. He spoke out boldly on environmental issues, air quality, public transportation, police brutality, the litter problems in Asheville.He wrote empassioned letters to the editor of local newspapers about the plight of the homeless: "They are human beings. They have names. They laugh for joy and cry when in pain just like everybody else. Sadly, many of them have been kicked around like mongrel dogs from the time they were delivered from their mothers' wombs. Many suffer from chronic pain, depression, schizophrenia and a host of other mental/physical illnesses. A significant number are military veterans plagued by posttraumatic stress disorder."
At the encouragement of friends, Mahaffey ran a successful campaign for mayor ; not successful in the sense of becoming elected, but very successful in
raising issues no other candidate was willing to discuss. His platform stated his intention to "build people’s power to make change on a local level through participatory democracy".Mahaffey who had once been arrested for loitering on a city park bench, was now regularly invited into the office of the police chief and the mayor to offer perspectives on city problems from the point of view of those living on the streets. Mahaffey would soon be appointed to the Asheville Transit Board.
From running track to running successful businesses, to running for mayor; Mickey Mahaffey had experienced the heights and depths of a life journey which was just beginning.
While gratified by his newfound respect from his peers, local journalists, and civic leaders, Mickey Mahaffey's wounds were still deep and his healing had only begun. While living in forest encampments by night and on the streets of Asheville by day, there was still an uneasiness and feeling of a need to be somewhere else. The call to roam grew stronger and stronger.
Mickey sensed that his healing lay in living close to the land...the earth...the raw essence of life, but he felt he still had much to learn and staying too long in one place just didn't seemed to suit Mahaffey.
In 1995, Mahaffey began walking. Not just strolling the streets of Asheville, but walks into the high mountains around Asheville NC, (which is situated at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains. )
While he felt a sense of accomplishment and "calling" on the streets of Asheville, he also felt a need to travel, to experience life outside of the constraints of American culture.
Soon Mickey embarked on longer walks.
The former cross-country runner soon became a cross-country walker. Walks to the coast of North Carolina and up the coast into the northeast.
Not long after his run for mayor, Mickey laced up his hiking shoes and began a walk west.
He headed out on foot for the Central American country of Honduras. His journey carried him through the famed Sierra Madre mountains Northern Mexico, where he first encountered the physical beauty of the Copper Canyons, the Barrancas del Cobre. The contrast of the harsh terrain and natural beauty resonated with something inside of Mickey.
The Copper Canyons are wider and deeper than the Grand Canyons of the US. The Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barranca del Cobre) is a group of canyons consisting of 6 distinct canyons in the Sierra Tarahumara in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. The overall canyon system was formed by six rivers which drain the western side of the Sierra Tarahumara (a part of the Sierra Madre Occidental). All six rivers merge into the Rio Fuerte and empty into the Sea of Cortez. The walls of the canyon are a copper/green color which is where the name originates
Mickey felt pulled to descend into these canyons and explore the vast depths of this stark but beautiful landscape. There was something foreign yet familiar about these canyons, something which beckoned him to go futher and deeper.....and to linger.
There was a stillness in these rugged cliffs that resonated deep within Mickey Mahaffey. Honduras would have to wait as Mickey did what he'd been doing since he first bedded down on the ground in the woods around Asheville; he followed his heart.
As he journeyed further down into the remote depths of the canyon and along the Urique River valley, he encountered an indigenous group of Mexican "Indians", the Tarahumara (or Raramuri) as they
refer to themselves.In the depths of the canyons Mickey Mahaffey found himself among a people who lived simple lives as subsistience farmers, living close to the earth. They were a vibrant and thoughtful people who seemed to possess joy and contement in spite of their strenous and meager exsitence.
The Raramuri are self-dependent, hard-working people. They are also very much depedendent upon each other to help out in times of need, to sustain themselves, their families and their villages. Most Raramuri live apart from each other tending to their own farms, but come together to assist each other on a regular basis. They also hold regular Tesquinadas, or drinking parties, where the normal social mores are shed and music, laughter, and merriment are exhibited by the normal quiet and staid Raramuri.
Mickey "found himself" amongst the Raramuri people in more ways than one......he found his soul .....he found peace....he found
fulfillment in a simple life living with these hard working indigenous farmers.The Raramuri are a proud people who are very friendly, but very reserved. Their isolation borders on wariness when it comes to outsiders.
The Raramuri and their neighbors grew to respect Mahaffey for his honesty and openness and his desire to work, to serve, to live the simple life.
Mickey spent most of his time in the canyons in a remote area along the Urique River gorge. His made an encampment on a hillside above the Urique River which runs along the canyon floor.
The Raramuri are famed for their long distance running ability and it is ironic that Mahaffey finally stopped his "internal running" after encountering these fleet-footed mountain dwellers.
(The best selling book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall focuses on the running prowess of the Tarahumara people).
Mickey worked hand-in-hand with the villagers to repair homes and buildings, to build new structures, to farm the land. He worked hard and was often invited to take part in their Tesquinadas...where the normally staid and reserved farmers socialized with their neighbors and celebrated with their home brewed corn beer, Tesquino (a corn-based beer brewed in ceramic jars, that features prominently in many Rarámuri religious rituals)
Easter is a very special time for the Raramuri of the Copper Canyon. The week long celebration of Semana Santa is their most important religeous celebration. This ritual also marks the beginning of the agricultural season.
Each year hundreds of Raramuri Indians leave their remote adobe homes and walk hours, even days, to reach the nearest village with a mission church where they participate in ceremonies that blend their indigenous religious rites with the Easter traditions brought in by Jesuit priests over three centuries ago.
The nearest village to Mickey's encampment was the tiny isolated village of Guadalupe Coronado on the banks of the Urique. Despite it's small size and remote location, the village has an old mission church and each spring, hundres of Ramarui descended upon the tiny village to celebrate Semana Santa.
Mickey had observed the Semana Santa rituals in previous years and sought to understand the symbolic customs and strange observances of the week long celebration.
As he discussed the upcoming Semana Santa one year, the elders he spoke with surprised Mahaffey and bestowed a rare honor on this tall bearded gringo; they invited him to particiapte in their annual ritual celebration, Semana Santa as one of the "diablos"
The diablos are a group of painted devils who play a key role in their annual ritual drama depicting the ancient struggle between the forces of good and evil in the world and in their community. Throughtout history, the Raramuri kept their ancient Semana Santa practices to themselves and only Raramuri participated. As the years passed a handful of non-Raramuri (referred to as Chabochi' by the Raramuri) began venturing into the canyons to observe the rituals but they were just observers and not participants.
Mickey Mahaffey became the first Chabochi (non-Raramuri) to be invited to take part as a participant in Semana Santa, a unique gesture of friendship and acceptance toward this new resident of the canyons.
Being a diablo involves a three year committment. It's physically and emotionally strenuous and most of the diablos were much younger than Mickey Mahaffey. Taking on this challenge would be one of the most difficult challenges of his life.
Preparations for Semana Santa begin some time in advance and involves days of back breaking labor followed by endless "dance rehearsals" and mass consumption of the home brewed Tesquino corn beer.
The diablos engage in service projects in the community, but as Holy Week begins, the diablos shift to endless dance rehearsals and the brewing of huge quanities of Tesquino for the coming celebration.
On Saturday morning, the Diablos gather at a remote location in the cliffs and begin drinking......and dancing....and drinking...and dancing. Musicians with fram drums and handmade fiddles arrive and play driving repetetive melodies to keep the diablos dancing.
Crushed stone and other materials are used to create body paint and each diablo is assigned a painter who will cover their entire body with unique designs of black and white.
Finally a signal is given and the Diablos descend into the village with riotous fury. They run through the dirt covered plaza with cries and hollers, good-naturedly "terrorizing" the crowds who have assembled in the plaza and around the church.For 36 hours straight, the Diablos dance, and drink and parade from one of the the plaza to the other and in laps around the small whitewashed adobe church. Periodically trying to enter the small church where the phariseos fight them off, symbolically demonstrating the triumph of "good" over"evil".
The diablos go without sleep for the entire 36 hours. With the combination of tesquino, lack of sleep, and pumping adrenaline from the dancing, the diablos often become transformed into the demonic beings they represent.
Taking on the role of the painted diablo and dancing and wreaking good-natured havoc through the climatic final Sunday morning of Semana Santa was a deeply moving event in Mickey Mahaffey's life. On Sunday morning, the exhausted diablos are finally allowed to enter the church and a "redemption ceremony" takes place.
At the end of the ceremony, Mickey and the other Diablos plunged themselves into the Urique River to cleanse themselves of the head-to-toe body paint but also the dark side of their own lives and the dark side of the lives of their community.
Rising from the river at the end of his third year of being a Diablo brought a sense of relief and release for Mickey Mahaffey. It was a marking of a rite of passage in his life and moving on to new life and new adventures.
Mickey Mahaffey found his healing in the waters of the Urique River in a remote village of indigenous peoples at the base of the Copper Canyons.
But his true healing came not from the water but from the people....from the sense of community he found......from a sense of purpose....and from his learning from the Tarahumara the path to discerning the important from the trivial in life.
Mickey Mahaffey now lives part of the year in Mexico and part of the year back in Asheville North Carolina where he owns a small painting business which employs Mexican workers.
He operates a "school", the School of the Traveler with his daughter Stephanie Mahaffey as he continues to repair the broken relationships with his family from his earlier time of struggle.
The classroom for The School of the Traveler is the trail, as Mickey and others guide students on mountain journeys but also journeys into their own inner lives.
"Today I'm poor but happy, , people in America have everything but they are not happy, because they need more, myself and I need nothing, I'm single, and am free." says Mahaffey in a recent feature story in a El Diario Lealtad a Chihuahua, a leading Mexican newspaper.
Mickey Mahaffey is the subject of a newly released documentary film,
"Being the Diablo" which tells the story of Mickey's life and his attempts to restore broken relationships with his family and his children. The film is currenty making the film festival circuit and may be available on DVD in the futre.
Mickey Mahaffey is the subject of a newly released documentary film,
"Being the Diablo" which tells the story of Mickey's life and his attempts to restore broken relationships with his family and his children. The film is currenty making the film festival circuit and may be available on DVD in the futre.Mickey has completed work on his memoirs which talk about his life experience, his struggles, his triumphs, his ideals,.... his philosophy for living a meaningful life.
The forthcoming book, Whispers of My Blood is a riveting account of one's man inner and outer journey through life. It's a story which we all relate to in some way as we deal with our own demons and struggles while trying to be true to ourselves and the expectations of those around us.
The book will be released soon and information about it's purchase will be available on this website.
