from Taos News' Tempo supplement
by Phaedra Greenwood
photos by Megan Bowers
You walk up to her house under swaying willow trees. The front porch is scattered with fragments of stone. You rlng the bell and stand listening to the melodic wind chimes. The woman who opens the door has a broad, smiling face and her eyes reflect the light. She is Ana Chavez, a local masseuse who does Taos Hot Stone Massage.

Chavez invites you into her kitcben where you sit at the table and fill out a card much like you would in any doctor's office, telling her about previous injuries and illnesses. Then she leads you to a quiet room where you remove your garments, lie on a table under a pink cotton sheet and listen to chimes, fiutes and chanting as she delivers what may be one of the most energetic massages.

Supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who was in Taos recently to shoot a Liz Claiborne ad, said a massage by Chavez was "the best, the best I ever had."

Chavez doesn't like to taIk durlng the massage as she stimulates the energy in your body. She works the soles of your feet with her fist, climbs up on the table and massages you from above. A disembodied pair of hands seems to know exactly where you hurt and what to do to make those muscles relax. She presses her knee into the back of your knee and extends your calf muscles. Gradually, you let go, drift away on the music and let her do the work. She pounds your flesh with rubber balls until your whole body vibrates. From her crock pot she removes a number of smooth, hot stones to rub along sore muscles.

They anchor your body while you soar back to the beginning of the world when all the colors were brlght and nothing was scratcbed or faded.

Chavez has been giving massage for 24 years. She says even as a small cbild people came to her for hands-on healing. She studied at the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutic in Albuquerque in the 1970s and added to her techniques with more courses throughout the years. She uses some Swedish massage and Japanese Shiatsu which focuses on tbe merldians and energy lines, she said. She aIso teaches yoga.

Chavez is aIso a personal massage trainer with a knowledge of applied kinesiology and connective tissue work. Her technique is a synthesis of these. She said she discovered the hot rock technique on her own about five years ago. They aid in giving a deeply healing and relaxing massage.

She leaves the stones lying on chakras and energy points which "grounds people and allows therm to travel out of their bodies," she said. "Sometimes they commune with dead parents or see wild horses running on the mesa surrounded by golden rainbows."

Chavez said one man claimed he saw God. "He got up totally confused and asked me to sit with him. He said he didn't fit into his body, didn't recognlze his clothes, couldn't put his shoes on. I held his hand."

"What you experience depends on where you are when you walk in," Chavez explained. "Some people are in transition in their personal lives and get an answer. It's a very spiritual thing."

"It comes from a place of service. I'm in a Christ-Buddha space, acting as a conduit for universal healing energy. It's not me. I run the energy and people accept the healing from their own higher power. My prayer when they're on the table is that their highest needs be met. I invite the light beings to come right in. The person is being totally loved."

Her standard massage takes two hours and she holds nothing back. She uses up so much energy she is only able to give a couple of massages a day.

Right now she is in Hawaii working as a personal trainer, exchanging knowledge with native Kahuna healers, she said. Sbe had to take her own rocks because there are no smooth rocks in Hawaii, she expIained. She uses igneous rocks, basalt stones washed smooth by the river, some that just fit in the palm of her band. They lie on the thighs and calves, on the abdomen and quadriceps to encourage tbe blood flow, increase the pulse and cleanse the lymph nodes.

"The rocks are beautiful," she said. "I use them in a place of reverence. I never take a rock without asking for a volunteer. 'Do you want to come with me and be of service to humans?' I never take them for granted. I massage them with roseoil and honor them. They are live beings. Using them, I feel like your ancient shaman, performing a ritual."

Taos is almost as big on massage as it is on skiing and art. With the warm weather encouraging us to get out and hike, bicycle and participate in sports, massage becomes more important than ever for all age groups.