The Face of the Shaman

I came across this article/recorded story. It is about three Shamans among the nomadic reindeer herders of northern Mongolia. Certain parts of the article that jumped out at me convey the importance of recieving an offering when work is done for a client. Also, the experience provided by these shamans that if one is called to be a shaman he cannot refuse those who come to him/her for help. If they do the spirits will get weaker. It provides insight as to thier sense of committment to the community. The link to the story provides different information and is very interesting. It provides audio of the conversations with the shaman and the shaman during ritual. It also provides alot of detail about shamanism in mongolia and the reindeer herders. If interested in reading the article or listening to the story, the link is provided below:

http://homelands.org/worlds/shaman.html

When Land and Water Merge

This is from Night Sings... I keep getting the post in my email, but it does not show up on the blog that I can find, and Night Sings gets an error message. Sorry this thing doesn't always work right! Hugs, Robin


Walks in Two Worlds noted the coming together of two different worlds at the beach (when the wind is present, it can make three). Recall that Heart of the Mother also gave a beautiful description of the ocean story as that of the earth's heart, which stayed with me. The piece below is a reflection from a couple of years ago (recently updated) that I wanted to share with you directly at the retreat but forgot to bring. To me, the beach is amongst the most healing and most powerful spots because it is a place of intersection and reflects so much about the human body and humanity. The different conditions of different paths on the earth, and the dance of her different elements: they weave the songs of struggle and harmony we live every day, and vice versa. This is what wise people mean when they underscore how much a seeker can learn from being in and understanding the ways of nature, in my view. It is a fertile place for the shaman to decode nature's stories.


Ocean and sand merge with great force and motion
Yet two opposites could not inspire
A more serene diversion to human ears
Than theirs

They are like two lovers
Separated cruelly
The wind their secret messenger
I catch their song of longing

A lullaby of hope,
Threads from their whispers
Form a rope
To my own grand conversion

For land, illusion is a rock
It supports the water's touch
Absorbing the caress of rolling waves as they rush to comfort
The shore's coast of open arms

Water seizes land's attention
With stinging raids of liquid leaps
That tease and please the land escapes its senses
Little golden shards release from these earth-water shattering embraces

When these two races meet
And catch a taste of some new way to be
To see and free another place and fall in love... and break

Oh yes, they'll break and part
For duality discontinuity dictates
At times, they'll clash, and thrash and
In an irreverent, uncompromising and impossibly offensive manner...smash each other's hearts

Day and night

The ocean, insisting on the certainty of the uncertain deep
Engulfs, envelops, floats ideas, and raises tides to prove it's point

The stubborn land sits squarely on its seat
It will be damned before it flinches or moves one inch from its solid
And unwavering beliefs

And so these worlds will part and turn away
So intertwined and yet so strange

In places where they've learned how to receive
Find calm and tenderness in their betweens

In the roughest parts where treatment has been harsh
They are restless, toiling and tempestuous
Their dance
Craves unmet unconditional surrender and acceptance

The Sun and Moon and Sky
Look on and laugh
At these two halves of the same whole
But they explain the human struggle between
Body, Soul, and Song
They are what goes on inside and in between
Amidst the eyes and all
Throughout the world of the unseen
They are what goes on
But they still belong
They still belong

Sacred Fire

After our last gathering, Walks in two worlds and I burned the sacred fire to release the prayers you tied into the incredibly beautiful and powerful wreath of flowers.

Also, though not specifically shamanic, this link has simple ways to be good to our mother. http://www.dec.ny.gov/public/337.html

Untitled poem

I'm sharing one of my favorite poems. I don't know if it has a title.
I dedicate it the all those on the path of Heart.

And the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.
-Anais Nin

Shift Happens!

While going through the process of shamanic initiation, we apprentices have done a good deal of work with journeys, soul retrievals and hands-on healings. We act as both the shaman and the recipient. I find that this is a very powerful learning tool, not only to develop and practice our own shamanic skills but also in experiencing what it is like for someone who is going through the process of healing and transformation.

I’ve noticed that after every workshop, or after I’ve had powerful transformational work done on me, I’ve been experiencing some negative side-effects. I feel, to some degree, there is a retrograde effect. There is a very strong need for “down-time” and recuperation in the week that follows. On a few occasions, I’ve also been physically ill as it feels like I was working something out of my system to accommodate the shift in energy that was about to occur. I physically and emotionally reach a very low point. I throw myself back into my Muggle world, repress any shamanic inklings, and sleep as much as the demands on my Ordinary Reality will allow. And then just when it feels like all the work and healing that were done were for naught, a shift occurs, and I pull out of it. I find I have the energy and zeal to do dive into the shamanic realm, connect with Spirit, and get my work done. Transformation comes not only through having a healing done on you, but in holding up your end of your contract with Spirit to do the work.

Much of the work we are doing in our shamanic apprenticeship is to help us establish find our purpose and greater Life’s Work. I often feel at our group gatherings, and in time as I’ve grown in this process, I have a better sense of what my purpose is. After receiving so many healings to aide me in that transformation, I find there are definite side-effects and a need for my body and life to catch up to the changes occurring. Once the shift begins to occur, the upswing is as swift, and I find that my sense of purpose is not only something realized, it is also felt.

At our last gathering at the beach, after checking in with some of my fellow apprentices, it occurred to me that we are all having very similar experiences, shamanically as well as in our personal lives. So I’d love to know if anyone else in the tribe or anyone in the community at large has experienced the side-effects of performing and receiving shamanic work.

"The Woman In The Shaman's Body"

I was researching something and stumbled upon this  book called "The Woman In The Shaman's Body: Reclaiming The Feminine In Religion And Medicine." by Barbara Tedlock Phd.

Archeologist's had found during an excavation a particular burial-where a spearhead had been placed near the head of the deceased and the body of a fox was placed in the hand.  The body had been painted red over sixty thousand years ago.  There was no doubt due to the clues the body was of a shaman, but the skeletal analysis revealed it was a woman. It is interesting to note that the oldest skeletal remains of a shaman belong to a woman.

I do not have this book but I am interested in it  being a woman myself to see the shaman through the feminine. To learn about the moon cycle, and midwifery.

When You Grow Up Spiritually

I've always said you only need to heal until you realize you were fine all along. Until then, your need for healing is real. With shamanism, we serve those who are still in this place. Even if we, ourselves, begin to feel beyond it. Paradox, eh? Below speaks to one version of being fine all along... Hugs, Robin

A book excerpt from The Ascension Primer:



"Below is a list of new ways of being that usually arrive when we begin to reside in a new and higher vibrating reality. Many of these greatly surprised me as they were so much simpler and better than I could have ever imagined. The old rules and ways we were told of the higher realms were derived from an
ego-based consciousness that existed behind the veil, and were some of them ever wrong! And the majority, but not all, of any channelings only derive from the individual who is channeling the information. Anyone can tap into any energy pocket they choose that is vibrating as they are and get about
any kind of information that matches their belief system. Who knows about the accuracy. Through the ascension process, we go there. In this way, it is quite different indeed.

1. You reach a certain level through your ascension process where you no longer desire or resonate with any kind of healing. And like a reformed smoker, you can get frustrated when the New Age arena continues to focus much of their energy on healing. As we begin to vibrate higher, we no longer need healing. Healing serves to basically introduce us to a lower vibrating energy that is no longer any kind of
a match to us. It can take us "back" where we no longer are. And it can really bring in a lower vibrating
energy that we need not ever focus on again. Where we place our energy and focus greatly becomes our
surrounding reality more than ever in the higher realms. Why would one want to continually focus on lower vibrating energy? This energy can feel like something from another world where you are no longer residing. And receiving a healing after you have "gotten here" can also short circuit your system.

2. You no longer have the same connection with your physical family. We chose to be born into
a physical environment in order to support the development of necessary traits that we chose to
embody in order to support our soul purpose. In addition, most of us agreed to uplift the planetary
vibration through transmuting the darker and denser energies. After our prior incarnation is complete and
we are done and have arrived in a higher realm, our purposes with our families are now obsolete. The cords are basically severed. We are no longer connected through issues. We are done with this experience. Therefore, our family members can suddenly disappear from our lives for no apparent reason as there is no longer a connection to them. But if we continue to simply love them and have that as our connection, we can continue to maintain a relationship based on joy and choice. And after we arrive in a higher state of clarity, we are also able to clearly see who they really are and how they operate, which has absolutely nothing to do with us.

3. Your lifetime friends suddenly leave your life. Same as above. And sometimes we re-unite with
friends we haven't seen for eons. And this energetic pattern is also true for geographical areas on the planet as well. When we are done with a particular purpose, we are done. In the higher realms it is all about joy, fun, experiencing, and creating with no attachments. This is why we may also get to go back to old friends and geographical homes as we are now uniting for a different purpose.

4. You suddenly see what it is all about and always has been and it has nothing to do with "karma", "contracts", "life lessons", or "Earth as a school". These are things that someone made up and many of us bought into. We needed a story to explain why we were so uncomfortable and we needed it to be spiritual and purposeful so that our suffering would not be in vain. When the fog finally lifts and we rise above it, we are no longer seeing through limited thinking of a lower vibrating consciousness. It is all about energy and using it to have an experience. We wanted to play games. We made up stories. At times we came to he planet to try and alter it through our higher consciousness that we placed in form (our bodies). We were bored at times. The purpose of Earth and of existence is to create through form. We were
never trying to get anywhere, continually trying to go back home. We wanted to play, have fun and
experience. And we weren't serious all the time! Spirituality is about joy, fun, creating, and playing. It is
absolutely not rigid, full of rules, or judgmental. It is about freedom, love, and laughter.

5. You are no longer interested in spiritual gatherings, group meditations, or the New Age arena in general. You have come to realize that intentional spirituality is not really real and does not
stick. The truth of the matter is, we are spiritual 24/7 no matter what we are doing. Forced spirituality
removes us from the world and places us in artificial situations where we are not really being, but "trying" to be. In the higher realms, we are simply living our lives and experiencing. We are not continually wanting something else and trying to place ourselves in situations that we think may bring us closer to Source because they seem to be more spiritual. It is far better to have the presence of your being here in the world rather than in a pocket of distanced and artificial "trying".

6. You get rid of all your spiritual and self-help books and no longer desire to learn anything new. Congratulations! You have arrived in the state of being. You are also done learning as you
are readying to provide your energy through your special gifts and talents by simply being in a space
where you greatly enjoying being. Being in the moment relates to this as well. And expanding and
growing always comes from experience, not from book learning or mental awareness. We can now get any additional information we need through connecting directly to Source. In addition, if you are no longer
craving any new information, you are most likely done in this universe and preparing to go to the next level.

7. You crave simplicity and can barely tolerate anything complicated. We have released so much that we are much more in a state of simplicity. In the higher realms, one does not need to make anything happen or to do one thing in order to have an outcome. There are no hoops to jump through or complicated processes. When we are being a vibration, we simply and naturally draw it to us. And remember,
in the higher realms we are simply being, creating, and experiencing. No planning, agendas, opinions, or
having to prove something or do something in order to receive something.

8. Negativity feels downright awful. In the higher realms, there is no contrast or negativity. When we reach a higher state, we know intuitively that life is about joy, passion, and creativity and we never have a
thing to complain about. Negativity comes from powerlessness and this state does not exist in the
higher realms. And continually talking about anything in a negative way brings it to life and makes negativity a real experience and reality. It gives it fuel and allows it to exist.

9. Drama is a thing of the past. When we reach the higher states, we can clearly see that we had
been most certainly existing in a "play". As we are now living and viewing things from a higher level, we no longer need dramas and stories to unfold around us due to unintentional and unconscious creating. We no longer desire this emotional state of powerlessness as it no longer fits where we are. And we are much too tired and apathetic, as a perfect by-product of the ascension process, to have the energy for this kind of thing!"

Waiting

Thank you Nightsingsinhisheart for the gift of poetry. I would like to share a poem from this book. Although the language crafted is from a time gone by, the message intended for the heart and soul is timeless.

Waiting

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind nor tide nor sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays---
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me,
No wind can drive my bark astray
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall leap where it has sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own, and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.


John Borroughs (1837-1921)

Freedom in the Binding

My teacher told me to write about Illusion and the Truth.
I wrote Illusions on the left side of my journal
and Truth responded on the right.

Until it became obvious
they were opposing each other.
Ha!

“Where exactly do you meet?” I wrote.
And discovered, then, the binding,
A slit so narrow, there aren’t any words there.

I will write you a book of Truth and Illusion,
but where I rest is
in the binding.

The place where consciousness is born and breathes,
writing out the pages of a story
that holds together only by what binds it.

— Lorraine

Bring Me Only This

Life packs each vessel with song
until it overflows
then scoops it out like a melon,
spoon by sharp spoon
loss by loss
until just the rind is left
translucent,
to shape the aching hollow
through which sunlight pours.
But the hunger of absence
is wrapped around a seed
that cannot be destroyed.
When loss leaves you empty
sing into the void;
let the soft, moist breath of your moan
caress the seed. Water it
with attention until it reveals itself.
What you find there
at the heart of emptiness
born of loss
cup it tenderly.
Bring it to me.
Bring me only this.

John Mizelle

Take a look...we are listed!

http://www.shamanportal.org/display_blogs.php

This weekend our group came together and Robin played a song that Josh Groban sings called "Let me Fall". Those words will become a balm for me when it comes time for me to fall. Spirit will guide you if you listen and when it is time to let go there is no drama, it just is.

                              "Let Me Fall" Josh Groban Lyrics

                                                 let me fall

                                               let me climb

                                      there's a moment when fear

                                          and dreams must collide

                                            someone i am

                                          is waiting for courage

                                              the one i want

                                             the one i will become

                                                   will catch me

                 

                                                  so let me fall

                                                   if i must fall

                                              i won't heed your warnings

                                                   i won't hear them

                                                    let me fall

                                                     if i fall

                                             though the phoenix may

                                                 or may not rise

                                              i will dance so freely

                                           holding on to no one

                                               you can hold me only

                                                  if you too will fall

                                                   away from all these

                                                  useless fears and chains

                                                   someone i am

                                               is waiting for my courage

                                                   the one i want

                                                 the one i will become

                                                    will catch me

                                                   so let me fall

                                                    if i must fall

                                                  i won't heed your warnings

                                                     i won't hear

                                                     let me fall

                                                       if i fall

                                                 there's no reason

                                                to miss this one chance

                                                   this perfect moment

                                                     just let me fall  

                

                                            

Proverb

(disclaimer – I have been here, done that, guilty, guilty, guilty) life reminds me that I am coasting from time to time.

“The Teacher should never work harder than the Student”

HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH TO ME?

Last night's conference call was a wake-up/ kick in the butt for me. I have read most of the Mindell book, but completly missed the connection between the risks of seduction and Devil's weed. I had read that section in too much of a hurry because of time. The year is almost half over, and looking at it, I have people waiting for journeys, assigned books that I'm reading too fast, related books that are sitting there, exercises, practices, and experiences that remain undone, etc. At the same time, I am working more than full time seeing patients, I am substantially behind on paper work and documentation, take home paperwork every night and don't do it. When I consider the path of heart, I see a serious imbalance here. While I do , as often as possible for me, use second attention for my patients' benefit and to hone my own skills, too often I'm trying to return phone calls between people, get forms filled, etc. and I lapse into pure survival mode. This is a space too many of us in clinics try to avoid and know too well. It serves no one.

This is one precious year and I will not waste it. I sat down with my husband at breakfast today (should have waited until after we had our coffee) and worked out the following:

I am droppping one day a week at work, and cutting an equal amount of money from what I (we) spend. I've cut out cleaning help, my gym membership, Dr. Weil's site, etc. (I won't enumerate further , or you'll see how superficial I really am). this does not equate to following a teacher around the jungle for fourteen years, but it is a beginning to understanding the cost of the path. I will not miss the opportunity that this year is. it does not benefit my patients, it does not clarity my path. This is one step to clarifying and affirming what this calling means to me.

"Be The Change You Want To See In The World" Mahatma Gandhi

Depending on your perception of where you are in your world it would appear that people are on the verge of snapping. As I walked my dog Max this morning who is constantly being stopped for being "sooo cute", we stepped out of the elevator into quite a large lobby. He had his leash on and was walking very close beside me. A woman came in the front door and literally "if looks could kill" sent energetically bolts to me. She took one look of utter disgust to Max and me. I have to say I was taken aback and did feel her poison arrows. I sent her some peace perhaps she was having a bad day.

Moments later as we were walking back tot he apt on a very large sidewalk a woman came up behind Max and me and started yelling "to get out of her way, we were taking up to much sidewalk"!. I looked around and once again Max was walking very close to me and could see there was room to pass on the right or the left side. I think because of the first incident I reacted and yelled at her "have a nice day" sarcastically not with love. As I walked back I thought how could I have handled that better. So spirit worked quickly and reminded me of Ho'oponopono.

 Ho'oponopono's meaning is to rectify an error or to make right. The theory is that everything in your life has to do with your thoughts, feelings and personal energy field. There is that saying two people can witness an act but both of their experiences will be different. This is do to their belief systems, and what they have in their energy fields. 

This technique is very shamanic, to start visualize any negative experience as an error in your energy field, when you have created a visual image send pink light (love) to the problem. Say, "Please forgive me", or "I'm sorry. I love you." imagine in your mind the solution tot he problem. It does not matter if you do not have  a solution the intention is what matters just by sending the pink light (love) to the problem helps.

We are all burdened by the past , our memories are tied to emotion which affect us by subconsciously  associating an action or person in the present with something in the past.

The Kahunas from Hawaii see this as a subconscious creation coming from your field. Instead of blaming someone else or walking away from the incident, one would send POSITIVE energy rather than negative.

Violence begets violence, positive energy tends to neutralize an emotion or an event, creating the possibility of an observer state.

In experiments with quantum physics  the observer state shows outcomes changing, or possible outcomes when an observer is present. When we are in observer state  we can change ar eminds or reactions.

An example of this is the shaman Dr.Ihaleakala Hew Len who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients without ever seeing them! He would study the inmates chart  and then look within himself to see how he created that persons illness. As he improved himself , the patient improved as well.

Dr. Len did not see the patients physically, but as he worked on himself he noticed that the patients began to heal.

The ward was not a pleasant place to work in, due to the environment there was  a high turnover of staff or people were sick or just terrified of being attacked by the patients.

Dr Len noticed after a few months patients that were heavily medicated were off drugs or patients that were shackled were now walking. Eventually the ward closed.

When Dr . Len was asked the question: What were you doing WITHIN yourself that caused those people to change? "I was simply healing the part of me that created them," he said. He further explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life, simply because it is your life, is your responsibility. In a literal sense , the entire world is your creation.

If you take responsibility for your life , then everything you see, hear, touch, all your senses, any way you choose to experience is your responsibility because it is your life. So whatever you experience that you do not like , the economy, your boos or spouse, it is up to you to heal. They do not exist except as projections from inside you. The problem is not with them it is with you, and to change them You have to CHANGE YOU.

I know blame is far easier than total responsibility but if you want to improve your life , you need to heal your life. Ho'oponopono means loving yourself.

What did Dr. Len do when he was studying the files of patients he said " I just kept saying, "Im sorry and "I love you" over and over again.

So today I learned instead of reacting to those women who are not OUT THERE they are IN ME I can say "I'm sorry I love you" I can be the change I want to see in the world. 

The Philosophy of Fear

I was at a business dinner the other night, trying to be as muggle as i could be, and the conversation was very generic and focused on "getting to know each other". The other three people there were older than I.. I think they were all around 60 or so. The owner of this other company was Indian (from India) and a very nice man.. I was drifting in and out of listening to what they were saying and trying to feel them energetically.. (something I find myself doing more and more during these exciting times in my life!!) and I was brought out of my dream world with the comment by the Indian gentleman that we needed to study the Philosophy of Fear. He went on to say that many people have studied many different emotions of people and there are now "scientific" points of view for many things.. there is a psychology of Fear, but not a Philosophy of Fear.

What really struck me as interesting about this is the fact that it didn't fit into the conversation of the evening at all.. After that, I could only think about (and still am) how to arrange another meeting with this guy to just talk about that! We all have fears and I think looking within to find the source of our fears is a driving force for many of us. I would love to get input from you on your thoughts. I contacted the guy and told him i'd like to get together again over lunch.. and said maybe we could come up with a plan to study Fear.. not sure if he thought I was joking or not :-) We'll see.

A poem by Antonio Machado:

"Last Night While I was Sleeping"

Last night, as I was sleeping,

I dreamt--marvelous error!--

that I had a behive here inside my heart.

And the golden bees

were making white combs

and sweet honey

from my past mistakes.

Except from the book: The Shamanic Way of the Bee

I had then decided to emphasize that our search for the transformative paths should begin at home and that even the humblest of gardens oozed power and dripped magical secrets.

written by Prof. S.R. Harrop

Today, in the woods, much bee activity could be observed. Slowing down and honoring their space (and sting) enabled us to sit amongst the many buzzing mighty mitochondriacs, in peace.

Change, Choices and Decision Making...

As of late, I have found it quite difficult to make decisions and choose that which I feel serves me and expresses my true desires. I find that the more I do the work the more I realize that the term me, myself and I applies on many levels. I find that I cannot always clearly identify my likes and dislikes or identify who I am in a solid sense. Many aspects of who I am seem very polarized. I find that in many ways my likes are not black and white but many shades of grey. The farther along I get in the work the more conflicting, polarized and broad this aspect seems to be and I have to work at finding the middle point. So when life asks that I walk one way or another, my choice is often to want to walk the middle path. Unfortunately the middle path is not always offered up in some cases and this creates frustration on my part when having to make a choice. It is like going into a restaurant and wanting a buffet rather than a main dish. Only a certain combination of a little bit of this and a little bit of that seems to be just what my soul wants for authentic expression. In many ways foods that typically may not even go well together! Wanting the sunny day and the thunder storm all at the same time because that is what creates that perfect expression or seems to truly reflect that which I am longing to experience. I realize that if I choose one or the other, black or white so to speak, there is this deep sense of dissatisfaction and longing.

To make a long story short it comes to a point where I realize that I am neither this nor that but I am all of it. I can no longer stand firmly in one space and say this is me or that is me and the sense of a one dimensional identity is broken down into many many pieces. Having to choose feels like a diservice to myself. Integrating conflicting aspects of the psyche, although powerful and necessary for whole making, can become somewhat confusing when translated into every day decision making in life. Realizing that I am all of it and none of it all at the same time. No true solid sense of identity. It is created moment by moment. Who I am today may not reflect who I am tomorrow and choices shift and change like the ocean tide always leaving room for the desire to create something new. Death and rebirth experienced on a daily basis and life becomes like a Kaleidoscope. Always something to let go of and always a new dream to be born. Wow! What a roller coaster ride this is!

Synchronicity

Even though we don't communicate constantly as a tribe, similar events are happening to many of us at the same time. I was in Barnes & Noble Sunday, expoloring the"New Age" (like about 3000 years?) secition when all alone, cover out, was one copy of Nicky Scully Alchemical Healing. I did not know of this book, but it all but jumped at me, I could not have missed it if I tried. I was lost in a lot of our alchemy work reading, hiow could I not give it a second study?

I am also trying to relate better to my cards. They are spot on for me, and when I do a reading, I am beginning to intuit an overall picture, but I have not been diligent in learning my cards as individuals and in their meaning for me and for others. I have planned to research each animal and journey to it for meaning, to make my readings less of the book and the 'booby prize" according to Robin.

More to the point, how many of us are feeling ther same issues in our own ways at the same time? Coincuidence? I think not. I'd love some input.

Alchemy & Mysticism

I found this book while pursing the local Borders store. The full title is: The Hermetic Museum - Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob. It's published by Taschen and the ISBN is 978-3-8228-5038-1. This is one of Taschen's 25th anniversary special editions and it is beautiful to behold. It is brimming with artwork and quotations throughout all ages relating to the written subject matter such as Macrocosm (includes sun, moon, cosmic time...), Opus Magnum (genesis, purification...), Microcosm (human form divine, brain & memory...) and ending with Rotation (whirl & magnet, divine geometry...). This book is helping me to go deeper and wider in my understanding of the subject matter from our required reading of The Emerald Tablet by Dennis William Hauck. This will become a "go to reference" for me for understanding the long and varied history of this ancient sacred path of becoming a shaman.

ShapeShifting and Connection with Conscious Intention

It really hit home for me last week why I have been so wiped out after a training trip (as most of you know I cover a 19 state area teaching loggers how to best utilize and recover value from the trees that are selected for harvest). What I realized was that during theses trips, I have been “unconsciously” or “unintentionally” shapshifting back to my consensus reality, industrial persona and holding it for 5 to 6 days. This has been creating a huge drain on my system.

I recognized that the same thing happened when I first started working Co-creatively with Nature. That is, purposely connecting with the Spirit of Nature or a specific plant and asking how to best work with it in a cooperative and balanced partnership. It is important to remember that once you are connected, you stay connected until you intentionally disconnect. Having that open line of connection is like leaving the facet running or the lights on. Energy is constantly being used to sustain the connection and can drain you very quickly.

The answer, is to be conscious and intentional of what/who we are connecting to and to not leave the lights on.

Is it in the cards for you?

I’ve recently begun to re-examine my relationship with one of my divination tools, the Tarot. When we began our shamanic apprenticeship earlier this year, one of our tasks was to learn a card deck or some form of divination. I had looked into runes, I Ching, astrology and numerology among other things. Ultimately, I decided to stick with a card deck, the Universal Waite Tarot, in particular. There were many “flavors” of the Tarot to work with, some based on various cultures, mythologies, shamanic traditions, and nature. I decided that I would stick with the most well-known and widely accepted. I wanted to work with a deck that most people could relate to or least had heard of. My decision came a time in my apprenticeship where I felt like I had to somehow prove to everyone in my sphere of influence (as well as myself) that shamanism and my divination skills were “real.” I felt that if I gave accurate readings from cards that people were familiar with, it would be a win for Team Spirit/Magic/Shaman vs. Team Rational Muggle. I quickly learned that Spirit spoke loudly through the cards, although not always clearly.

Tarot’s rich history and scope across many cultures lent to many interpretations of each card. While the major arcana cards – i.e. Death, The Fool, The Lovers, The Devil – remain unchanged, the lesser arcana containing the suits of cups, pentacles, swords and wands which our modern playing cards are based on often had different artistic and divinatory interpretations. Though it gained popularity in medieval Europe, earliest records of Tarot divination date back to Alexandrian Egypt and Hermes specifically. As we learned from The Emerald Tablet, the Tarot grew out of alchemy. The suits, as well as major arcana, reflect the stages of transfiguration. The major arcana represent archetypal elements and the minor arcana represent their expression in reality. By shuffling the cards, divine elements were dispersed into the physical world, according to William Hauk’s The Emerald Tablet.

It is through alchemy that our cards get their “magic.” I could definitely feel Spirit working through my cards. The cards quickly became an ally for me because whenever I would call on Spirit for guidance, an answer was always delivered in the shuffle of the deck and the flip of a card. Every time I would pull a card for someone, it often reflected their personality or situation they were inquiring about. Though often what felt like an accurate interpretation, it was not always a positive reading. Though proof that the Universe has a sense of humor and is always brutally honest, I was getting frustrated in being Mr. Gloom and Doom. If the person I was reading for was someone who put all of their faith in divination and did not believe they can change their future outcomes, I often found myself discounting my abilities to read the cards, even though we both knew deep down that the cards were right.

Not only were my frustrations in giving negative divinations, but I had a hard time crafting “the Big Picture” I would put together from either the three or four cards that I would pull. I found myself going back to the book that gave divinatory interpretations of each card quite often. The Universal Waite Tarot that I used had several meanings for most cards, and sometimes they were contradictory. Also, when reading the Tarot, if the card is reversed when you pull it, it takes on a different interpretation, sometimes the opposite meaning and sometimes to just a lesser degree. It was quite confusing! I would lose the immediacy of giving my “gut feeling” interpretation of the cards.

Arthur Edward Waite was a respected Hermetic researcher. In 1910 he revised the Tarot and removed outside influences to reinstate their esoteric meanings which established the tarot as the “unbound book” of Hermes. “Waite believed that the original intent of the images was to guide the initiate through alchemical transformation as well as provide a roadmap for the perfected Astral Body,” says Hauk in The Emerald Tablet.

I decided to check out other decks. If the images on the cards are catalysts to the alchemical process, I wanted to look for other decks with richer, more layered images. I also want to find a deck where I have more liberty to give my own interpretations, rather than deciphering which of the multiple divinations in the Waite Tarot best applied to the person I was doing a reading for. I’ve ordered an Egyptian Toth Tarot deck, the Voyager Tarot, and a Shapeshifter Tarot deck. Hopefully they will arrive this week.

Grandmother's Speak, Urgent Wolf Cry

Someone asked me to pass this on...

URGENT MESSAGE

Wolf Cry


Two days ago I was awakened in the early morning hours with this message: "Call your tribe." I am not an indigenous person so the word 'tribe' coming at me like this is a bit startling. However, working with the Great Council of the Grandmothers who have come to return the earth to balance, and working with the teaching and helping spirits of the upper and lower world have taught me to sit loose in the saddle and let myself go where I am being guided.

It was Wolf, the great teacher, who was speaking. "Call your tribe," he said again. "Call them and tell them the time is NOW! They are needed!" he emphasized. " More people are needed to do the work of holding the Net of Light at this time," he said. "Tell them to call on the Net of Light and take their place on it. Ask them to then hold it and cast the Net further and further. Wherever there is suffering on earth and where there are people who long to serve, but don't know how-cast the Net of Light," he said. "Tell everyone you know," he said, "and write an article calling people to the Net of Light." When the spirits speak to me like this, I listen.

The Net of Light is called by different names. Web of Light, Grid of Light, Indra's Net, Net of Life and Net of Light are a few. They all, however, refer to the same thing. The Great Council of the Grandmothers say, "This is the Net of Light that will hold the earth during the times of change that are now upon you." ("A Call to Power: the Grandmothers Speak" by Sharon McErlane)

A few weeks ago the Grandmothers said, "In addition to casting the Net of Light wherever there is suffering on the earth, begin now to also cast to people who are disturbed by the rise of negativity on earth and want to help in some way. Many of them have no spiritual path to follow," they said. " They cannot relate to organized religion and they have not found a way that speaks to their heart. We ask you to cast the Net of Light to them now," they said, "so the Net can take them to their path." When Wolf woke me in the middle of the night he was basically repeating what the Grandmothers had said, except that his message was much more urgent, ("Tell them that the time is NOW!")

It is my experience that the Grandmothers and the helping spirits do not mess around and they ask that now we not mess around either. They are asking for our help. You can think of the Net as a lighted fishnet that covers the earth, holds it from above, from below and at the same time penetrates the body of the planet as well as the body of everything that lives here on earth. The Net is lit by the jewel of the heart of each person who holds it; it is held in selfless service.

The Grandmothers urge us to "Go forward now and take your place on the Net of Light. Somewhere where two strands come together is a place that will feel just right for you. Walk forward now and take your place. Hold this place on the Net and let the Net hold you. You hold and you are held in light," they say.

At this point there are thousands of people working with the Net of Light through the Grandmothers network as well as seventy Grandmothers groups focused on spreading their message in different countries of the world. The Grandmothers say, "From this place on the Net of Light, cast now to those who do not know that they too are held in light. Cast to those who are suffering and also to those who wish to help with this work but who have not had a way to access the healing, love of the Net of Light. We ask you to do this for yourself," they say, "and for everything that lives. And as you work with the Net of Light," they add, "you will become a walking blessing upon the earth.

We bless you.

Both the Grandmothers'

website: www.grandmothersspeak.com , and 'A Call to Power: the Grandmothers Speak' give a more detailed explanation of the Net of Light.

We have been asked to get this message to as many people as possible, so if you have suggestions as to where we might post this (magazines, newsletters, etc.), please get back to me. Also please forward to people who would resonate with this urgent message.

I salute the beauty/power within you,Sharon McErlane

interview with a modern day alchemist

http://spiritofmaat.com/may08/alchemy_21st_century.html

I soon learned that the challenge is to control one's self with one's own powers....

a third of our bees are dying

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_us/disappearing_bees

What does this mean? How would a shaman help? Read the article link (or text only below), and ask yourself, what would the shaman of the tribe be called to do?

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal.

About 29 percent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't.

"What's frightening about CCD is that it's not predictable or understood," vanEngelsdorp said.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania's Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.

The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies that depend on honey bees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs.

Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Daazs' varieties flavor depend on honey bees for pollination, the company is donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.

More On Water

This is from an EXCELLENT resource for the five elements, Feng Shui, and using the elements in healing. All apprentices should learn all they can on the elements, and this is a great place to learn them. You can sign up for the six part class on the law of attraction and the elements, free by email.

http://sourcedesignsonline.com/creations/

Water (Hydor in ancient Greece) is primarly cold and secondarily wet. Water is an element of endless moods and tremendous power: the crashing surf, the gentle mountain stream, the flood which destroys everything in its path. The story of Water is a fascinating tale of plots, subplots, life and death.

The amount of water on the earth is fairly constant. What changes is its purity, its vitaliy and its location. Water will be in one of four spots: on the surface of the earth, below the surface of the earth, in the atmosphere and in organisms. 97% of all water is in the ocean, and of the remaining 3%, 2.94% is captured in glaciers and polar ice caps. Usable drinking water represents .06% of all the water on the planet. Its journey from ocean to land begins with the Sun's energy evaporating ocean water, creating clouds and weather systems. Some of these systems travel over land, where water changes again, into either liquid or solid precipitation. This will either be trapped in an ice cap, run back to the ocean or find its way into the water table.

The groundwater cycle is of key importance to the vitality of water, and this little known aspect of water is crucial to the health of our species and this planet. Vital or "living" water contains a spin that is imparted to by the the geomagnetic field of the earth in the hydrological cycle. If this cycle is disrupted or its benefits comprimised before the water reaches us, the water will be "dead". At a microscopic crystalline level there is a profound difference between vitalized water and water that has gone through city pipes. The living water is ordered into beautiful geometric arrays, while the the dead water crystals are relatively chaotic.

The platonic solid associated with Water is the icosahedron, a 20 sided polyhedron whose faces are equilateral triangles in the case of a regular icosahedron. Bearing in mind that the association of water and the icosahedron was made 2300 years ago in ancient Greece, ponder this. Recent research by Martin Chapin, professor of Applied Science Water and Aqueous Systems Research of London South Bank University has demonstrated that water molecules can arrange themselves in different configurations based on the icosahedron. The most interesting of these configurations is one that consists of 13 smaller icosohedrons and 1820 total molecules. It is this "supericosahedral" array that supports living water, by resonating with the fundamental energy, Chi, or what modern phisics would call zero point imploding energy. Water is literally a medium of the energy of life. Your body which is more than 2/3 water, is animated by Chi conveyed through highly structured water which science has recently shown exists in a biological cells.

To Fly on Eagle's Wings

Our last time together, we all were gifted with an Eagle feather. I have been wondering about eagle medicine and have done a bit of reading from Ted Andrews. The following struck a cord in my heart. I didn't realize the how profound eagle medicine can be.

"To align oneself with eagle medicine is to take on the responsibility and the power of becoming so much more than you now appear to be. From a karmic aspect, it reflects that the events will now fly faster, and the repercussions for everything you think, do or say (or fail to think do or say) positive and negative-will be both stronger and quicker.

To accept the eagle as a totem is to accept a powerful new dimension to life, and a heightened responsibility for your spiritual growth. But only through doing so, do you learn how to move between worlds, touch all life with healing, and become the mediator and the bearer of new creative force within the world."

Wow! Thank you Hears the Trees! We ARE ready
Blessed be,
Truth on the Wind

Spirit Releasement

Someone recently sent me these resources, though I don't know much about these particular ones.

"You may find these books of interest, albeit they are written from the standpoint of psychotherapy, as opposed to shamanism. What I most appreciate is that these approaches doesn't just turn entities or dark energies loose, but lovingly sends them on their way to a higher plane. I've got other references for spirit releasement therapy, but these references include the dark energies."

Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual by William Baldwin
( Bill died a couple of years ago, but his wife is still doing training and healings. I'm hoping
to get some exposure to her when she resumes training next year.)

Freeing the Captives: The Emerging Therapy of Treating Spirit Attachment by Louise Ireland-Frey, M.D.

Remote Deposssion by Irene Hickman, D.O.

More Campbell ....

Following Night Sings great posting, I decided to post some info from the Joseph Campbell book that I am currently reading, "Pathways to Bliss". In the book, pages xviii-xix, he states the following:

"In Primal Societies, the Shaman provides a living conduit between the local and the transcendent. The Shaman is one who has actually gone through a psychological crack up and recovery. The young boy or girl approaching adolescence either has a vision or hears a song. This vision or song amounts to a call. The person experiences a shivering, neurotic sickness. This is really a kind of psychotic episode, and the family, being in a tradition knows about this thing, will send for a Shaman to give the young person the disciplines that will carry them out of this dilemma. The disciplines include enacting certain psychological rites that put the individual back in society again, of singing his or her song."

"Of course what this individual has encountered by going deep into the unconscious is the unconscious of their whole society. These people are bound in a small horizon and share a limited system of psychological problems. And so the Shaman becomes a teacher and a protector of the mythic tradition but is isolated and feared; it's a very dangerous position to be in."

"Now, an older person can want to become a Shaman in some societies, and so then has to undergo certain ordeals to gain the power that the primary Shaman has gained automatically. In northeast Siberia and in many parts of North and South America, the call of the Shaman involves transvestite life. That is, the person is to live the life of the opposite sex. What this means is that the person has transcended the powers of his or her original gender, and so women live as men and men live as women. These transvestite Shamans play a very large role in the Indian mythology in the southwest.-the Hopi, the Pueblo, the Navaho and the Apache- and also among the Sioux Indians and many others."

"Waldemar Bogoras and Waldemar Jochelson first recognized this gender reversal among the Chukuchi people and the Kamchtka Peninsula in Siberia. These two men witnessed a constellation of reactions to this phenomenon. One is that some young men who heard the call to become what they call a "soft man" were so ashamed and so negative to it that they committed suicide. If the Shaman does not answer the call, then he will be psychologically shipwrecked and will fall to pieces. It's a very deep psychological summons."

" I recently read the story of a woman who grew up in a mining town in West Virginia. When she was a little girl, she went walking in the woods and heard marvelous music. And she did not know what to do with it, or anything about it. The years passed her by, and, in her sixties, she came to a psychiatrist with the feeling that she had missed a life. It was in deep, hypnotic memories she recalled this song. You recognize it of course; it is the shaman's song."

It is through attending to this song, to this visionary image that the shaman's center themselves. They give themselves peace by chanting the songs and performing the rites. At the very tip of South America, in Tierra del Fuego, there live about the simplest tribal people on the American Continent, the Ona and Yagan people. In the early twentieth century, Father Alberto Agostini, a priest who is also a scientist, lived among them for some time and gave us practically all we know about their mythology. He tells of waking in the night and hearing the local Shaman playing his drum and chanting his song alone, all night long holding himself to the power.

Now, that idea of holding yourself to the power by way of your dream myth is indicative of the way in which myth works generally. If it is a living mythology, one that is actually organically relevant to the life of the people of the time, repeating the myths and enacting the rituals center you. Ritual is simply myth enacted; by participating in a rite you are participating directly in the myth.

Campbell, Art, and Shamans

I've been watching the "Power of Myth" videos and wanted to share some of Joseph Campbell's comments and views of the shaman. He calls the "artists" of today the equivalent of shamans of past societies.

"The new vision of the universe, it must be kept alive. The only people who can keep it alive are artists. His function is the mythologization of the environment and the world."

The poets of the past were troubled people who found their own way to relate the community:

"They come out of an elite experience, the experience of people particularly gifted whose ears are open to the song of the universe—and that they speak to the folk and there is an answer from the folk which is then received as an interaction, but the first impulse comes from above not from below, in the shaping of those traditions."

He touches on the shaping of the shamanic experience:

“The shaman is the person who has in his late childhood and early youth (could be male or female) had an overwhelming psychological experience that turns them totally inward. The whole unconscious has opened up and they have fallen into it. And it’s been described many, many times and it occurs all the way from Siberia right through the Americas down to tierra del fuego. It’s the kind of schizophrenic-crackup-shaman experience."

Very reassuring, I know. Campbell then distinguishes shamans of the past to priesthood orders:

"A priest is a functionary of a social sort. The society worships certain deities in a certain way and the priest becomes ordained as a functionary to carry on that ritual. And the deity to whom he is devoted is a deity that was there before he came along.

The shaman’s powers are symbolized in “familiars,” deities of his own personal experience and his authority comes out of a psychological experience not a social ordination."

He then brings in the value of the ecstatic experience and, using the example of the African bushmen dance, comments on the altered states that shamans learn to experience and master-- the natural state of "the second attention," we are reading about, I'm guessing.

“This is an actual experience of transit from the earth through the realm of mythological images to god or to the seat of power."

"And the way God is imaged. God is transcendent, finally, of anything like a name: God. As the Hindu’s say, "Beyond names and forms. No tongue has soiled it, no word has reached it."

The entire segment can be seen at the link below. I recommend it. If you want to focus on the shaman commentary, then skip to the last 15 minutes or so.

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000811750

What Water Can Do...

In Preparation of our WATER retreat...

Come with me now, down this garden path, and sit with me at this
stream. Watch how the water flows by. See how it flows over and
around the rocks. See how it flows even where there are obstacles;
even a dam of rocks, higher than the bed of the stream, cannot stop
the flow. It may hold back the water for a time, but eventually, the
water will prevail. It may rise up and flow over the top of the dam.
It may simply leave the banks of the stream, spread out and go around
the dam. Or it may find the weakness in the dam and through its
relentless pressure cause the dam to crumble as the water is let
loose to flow freely again.

This water is love, the source of all being. It is freedom and power,
unrelenting, unending. It overcomes all barriers which lie before it
through its unending flow.

But yet its pressure is gentle. For the rocks over which it flows, it
is soothing and purifying. For that which dwells within it and on the
banks along the side, it is a life giver, flowing and gentle. And
yet, when it is thwarted, as with the dam, it prevails through its
unrelenting nature.

There is nothing that you can do, nothing you can fail to do, that
will keep love from you. There is no blame you can place upon
yourself that will stop the flow of love in your life. Love is the
blood that flows in your veins, the breath the goes in and out of
your body. Love is an essential part of who you are. It cannot be
stopped. It cannot be overcome. And even if it is forced underground
for a time, still it flows and will again be made visible in your
life.

You are blameless before this love. You are not judged and found
wanting. You, exactly as you are right now, are deeply loved, are a
part of love, are made of love eternal.

You breathe and it flows. You live and it flows. You are love.

The life-giving source is within you and it is the foundation of your
freedom. The more you allow yourself to become one with the flow of
love, the more freedom you will experience in your life. The more you
give it away, the more it will flow in to fill you. The more you
acknowledge its presence within you, the more you will flow and glow
with love and freedom, going so deeply into the holy center of love
that you finally see and know and feel who you are: a shining beacon
of love and light in human form, as holy and free as anyone who has
ever walked the earth and ever will. You—yes, you—are the ultimate
expression of love.

The rocks of fear may pile up around you and in front of you, but you
are not those rocks. You are the flowing stream of love and you will
prevail over the barriers and watch them crumble and tumble before
you. Such is your power, the power of love.
~Quado by Carrie Hart

Journey Through Dance

For the past couple of years I had been aspiring to take higher level classes from my favorite dancer. Technically perfect and flawless, she leaves you captivated and amazed by her abilities. I was sure that finally taking classes from this teacher would be my ticket, a way to truly connect to my soul. I want to dance like that!, I said time and time again. The time finally arrived, and she provided me with the green light to attend her class. My skill set was finally at a place that I was given permission to move up. Suddenly, there was an internal crisis. The one thing I had wanted for the longest time, no longer truly held a strong appeal. It was the opposite, every thing in me was saying NO!

I was perplexed. I believed that perhaps it is because I was depressed or too tired to truly be inspired. Again and again, I watched her perform trying to come to a place of making a decision. Each time I watched I became sadder and sadder. The promise of the teacher who could show me the way crumbled and fell apart. I noticed that although her skills were technically awe inspiring, they seemed empty to me. Nothing spoke to my soul. I did not feel any of "me" in there. Emotionally I did not go anywhere. It was as though I was emotionally standing on a static platform. No depth, no rise, no fall, no journey. I struggled with my ego but finally allowed the dream to die and I let it go for now.

This morning, I got together with my sister in dance and we were attempting to choreograph movements to a song. I was feeling somewhat apprehensive because for a long time now I have been feeling stuck. Unable to get up and just dance or create anything and feeling as though there was no “crack” in which true expression could come through. The door seemed closed. She showed up this morning, ready to break down music the way we usually do, counting beats and phrases. It suddenly occurred to me to dissect the song differently this time and change our usual pattern of creating. I suggested that we open up and listen with our eyes closed and then write down what we felt the essence of that song was for each of us. Listening,seeing, allowing the spirit of the song to tell us it's story and who it is. Being willing to allow the song to dance us as opposed to us dancing it. At that point,we were to
each take everything we identified, the story, the essence, the spirit and like a candy wrapper holding the most delightful surprise, wrap it up in a movement. Lastly we were each to perform it for each other. We came to an agreement that we would not get caught up in being overly concerned with technical precision or even appearance.

End result? I danced in a way that I have not been able to since I first began. I moved with the essence, I told the story. No particular attention was paid to how good my technique was or even if I was portraying the movement correctly. I felt free and so much more like me. There was a “crack” and it was joyful and it brought back the joy in dance that I had lost. Did it look good? I did not know. I did not care. It felt great! It felt full and alive. My sister in dance? Well, she was moved and inspired. Her comment was, I had no idea you could move like that! You are already where you have been longing to be, you just don’t know it. She was also so very excited and appreciative of this new way of creating.

It occurred to me that in the same way a story full of metaphor and symbolism told verbally upon rising from a journey can hold essence on so many levels, so can movement. It was another delivery vehicle that opened a new door for me. Although I may still long to learn how to technically tune up my skill set, it is no longer more important than harnessing the soul. Hence, this was truly my journey through dance, the depth, the rises, the falls, death and rebirth. Although lasting only an hour, I felt as though I took a journey of a thousand miles and I am grateful for it and my ability to share it.