films of shamanic themes

THE PATHFINDER "Ofelas" Norway
old Sami legend, first film in Sami
1987 by Nils Gaup

COLD FEVER
Japan, 1995 by Friorik Frioriksson
Japanese businessman goes to Iceland to perform burial ritual for parents.

THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR
2006 USA
by Victor Salva. College gymnast is transformed by encounter with unlikely teacher.

EL TOPO
Mexico 1970 by Jodorowsky
early psychedelic symbolism, teacher student relationships.
also The Magic Mountain.

RIVERS AND TIDES- ART OF ANDY GOLDSWORTHY
2001 by Thomas Riedelsheimer
The artist works is temporary, natural forms, exposed to elements.

the whirling

Many techinques are traditional.Nothing is pure.The whirling ,a kind
of moving meditation used by Sufi dervish or seekers,has roots in
shamanic Central Asia.Every small child loves to whirl,till dizzy and
altered.It is not the possession of any culture or gender.Sometimes
called turning, or sema,it has a charming story of the 13th cent.
teacher known here as Rumi , hearing a goldsmith's hammer and
disolving into ecstatic ,rhythmic turning in the street.
Begin with an empty room, free of furniture or objects which hender
or distract . You may use music, or not.Choose traditional whirling
music, or anything calming. Stand with eyes at looking toward the point where
the ceiling meets the walls, keep them unfocused and blank. (You
should not use the spotting technique of dancers).You may like to
begin with hands crossed over heart, right hand on top. Slowly turn
left only , pivating on the left foot, opening arms fully. Right hand is palm up to the sky, left hand is palm down to earth.This is the direction of casting
off toxins, mental, physical, spiritual.Begin slowly,find your own
speed,end slowly.

OWL Poem

Your eyes are wide like sky-city bubble jewels
Lighting up the night
A crystalline metropolis of intrigue
A knowingness humming behind these double orbs
Twin portals of deep thought
Blown open
Like a thrust of air and wave
I feel your gaze shoot through my singing bowels of sight
Home in on my tune
A ringing ghostly sound you make
Finetuning corner into curve
Dead end into destiny
Primal predatory panic into patient pause
I need only ask
You engineer escapes
Before I turn to smile in thanks
You devise another way to disappear
I feel the thumping of your wings
Lift with elegance
Elevating higher
From your gaping eyes I hear only heartlife
I see only panoramic palisades
The curtain of dark undrawn in a blink
Is to know what you know
Think what you think

old keres pueblo song

I add my breath to your breath
That our days may be long on the Earth
That the days of our people may be long
That we may be one person
That we may finish our roads together
May our Mother bless you with life
May our life paths be fulfilled

The Horse Boy Trailer

Allowing the Light sent this film trailer around to some of us and I was blown away by the story. I have yet to see the film, but just from the promo it seems to explore one case illustrating what Jeremy Narby might call a "Blind Spot" for science. In other words, the nature of our intellectual training in the West when it comes to understanding how "primitive" cultures deal with certain "mental illnesses" creates an inherent contradiction. How can a rational analysis explain Rowan's nonrational case?

Narby is author of "the Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge." More on this book later.

Gabrielle Roth's 5Rhythms

I attended a 5Rhythms movement meditation session in Maryland. It was my second time participating in 5Rhythms and I loved it. 5Rhythms involves different phases of dance and different physical expressions to correspond with those phases. Each dancer follows general guidelines that go along with each movement but is encouraged to move to the music in their own unique style. Phases progress from Flow to Staccato to Chaos to Lyrical and finally Stillness. The Rhythms gradually build up to create an ecstatic feeling for those dancing, and then the final phase brings the dancer down. Although I have to take it easy, I found the experience fun and healing. There's a brief description included below. Go to Gabrielle Roth's website for more information.

5Rhythms is practised internationally in many major cities. A DC group is scheduled to start up in the New Year.

5RHYTHMS
The 5Rhythms are a simple, powerful moving meditation that anyone - of any age, size, or physical ability - can practice. There are no steps to follow, no choreography to learn, no way to do it wrong. The only requirement is a body that is still breathing, a heart that is still beating, and mind that is still curious! Just like light, sound or ocean waves, a dancing body when moving freely passes through 5 distinct rhythmic patterns. These patterns continuously repeat themselves in a wave of motion.

FLOW
fluid, continuous, grounded glide of our own movements

STACCATO
percussive, pulsing beat that shapes us a thousand different ways

CHAOS
rhythm of letting go, releasing into a catalytic wildness that can never be planned or repeated

LYRICAL
rhythm of trance, where the weight of self-consciousness dissolves as we lighten up and disappear into our own uniqueness

STILLNESS
quiet emptiness, where gentle movements rise and fall, start and end, in a field of silence

The Labyrinth by Jorge Gomez

Jorge beautifully captures the stillness and flow of time and emotion experienced in the labyrinth walk.

In the labyrinth I walk, there I feel peace.
Beauty everywhere, the song, the breeze.
Most journeys should not be taken alone.
Is life not a labyrinth?

The feathers, the water, the sweet scents,
the fire that kept us three warm,
the chants, the sake, the wines, the sake.

In the labyrinth there is neither today,
nor tomorrow, nor past; all then melts
into one from the depth of my heart.

Find me in the labyrinth I am not far,
and though I am far I am near.
Like touching the clouds with one's hand
yet touching the fountain's water, same no?

Your silence, your talk, your happiness, your smile
God is one )! And God is three T.
One plus one is two and one plus one is three.

free will

just on the chance you havent come across this, its a poetic/archtypal
approach.
also ' pronoia as the antidote for paranoia ' is always right on time.

www.FreeWillAstrology.com

MANASSAS AMERICAN INDIAN POWWOW

October 17-18, 2009 -
Location: Manassas, Virginia.
Notes: Public invited to enjoy Traditional powwow to be held Sat & Sun 11am-6pm at the Prince William County Fairgrounds. Outdoors unless it rains, will be in exhibition hall. MC: Keith Colston, Host Drum: Stoney Creek; Aztec Dancers. (Adm. $7.kids $5.) Lots of great Native American dancers, drums, music. Craft demonstrations and lots of quality Native American jewelry, art, crafts, flutes and drums available to purchase. Open to all dancers in proper regalia.
Contact: Barry 252/257-5383, Email: powwow@vance.net .

Thanks to Laura Zamfir for sharing this announcement with us.

Labyrinth Walk

I recently discovered a labyrinth and was exposed to its healing power. There are a few dotted around the city in unsuspecting places. While there are no hedges to demark their walls, walking on the labyrinth's winding path created a peaceful feeling of flow and an active medititation for me. Overall, I got the sensation of being inside and outside myself simultaneously; slipping in and out of micro and macro; inner and outer. I also felt a certain connectivity to the surrounding area the deeper I went. The complex patterns of life seemed to simplify themselves and become more focused with every step along the labyrinth journey's pathway. As I made my way to the center, I could detect these patterns imprinted on the water, the breeze, the trees, the dying sunlight, my veins.

This excerpt is from the book "Labyrinth Walking" by Patricia Telesco:

"By creating labyrinths, mandalas, and mazes the ancients were trying to illustrate a trusim that modern-minded folk are also starting to re-acknowledge. All of life can become a sacred pattern that guides us toward a reunion with Spirit. When we don't recognize or activate this aspect of life's potential, our souls remain lost in old patterns, old ways of thinking, old ways of being, and often lose sight of the sacred powers alltogether...

"Whether you want to deal more effectively with the constantly changing world, create new patterns that will help you become a truly magickal person in thought and deed, or strengthen the positive patterns you've already created, walking a sacred path, following a sacred pattern, is one answer to that desire."

John Perkins Keynote, D.C. GreenFest

Another upcoming event (October 10/11) is the DC Greenfest at the Convention Center. John Perkins, a fellow Shaman and author of several Shamanism books, will be delivering a keynote address at 2 p.m., on October 10th. His lecture doesn't look like it will deal directly with his shamanic practices; nevertheless, he is a true champion for the environmental cause.

I read Perkins' Shapeshifting book over the Summer and he went over much of what we learned-- the importance of shifting stories, shifting dreams, even the power of shifting form on a molecular level.

His personal transformation story was an inspirational shapeshift on its own: after working as a highlevel corporate operative with all kinds of exposure to crooked practices and access to world leaders, he then chose to turn his back on the world of international finance and reveal its dirty secrets.

His story also touches on one of the apprenticeship's tenets--the absolute necessity of reintroducing the wisdom of primal cultures into the West. He is as convinced as I am that our survival as a species may depend on it.

Go here for more info on John's work.

teepees, drums and alters at washington monument

17th annual prayer vigil
washington monument
saturday oct 10th at sunrise 7am
till sunday oct 11th 1pm
www.oneprayer.org
to participate in program
oneprayer4@aol.com
volunteer for friday and sunday
chrisoceanshaman@comcast.net

free and open to all

Sound and Visuals

I attended a group sound healing session last night in Falls Church, VA. The practitioner, Barry Goldstein, used tuning forks to open and balance the 7 basic chakras. Laughter Yoga, chanting, and listening to his original music were included in the mix of evening activities. He also took the time to have each member of the group use one word to describe their association with joy and then a barrier to their joy. Using guided imagery and relaxational sounds, he asked the group to visualize and then cross a rainbow bridge leaving their own self-defined island of despair for their island of joy. Holding and maintaining the vision seemed to be just as critical as the type of sounds he was using to create a meditative space. A shaman might go further by allowing these energies to be expressed or channeled physically as a way of giving form to the mind's nebulous contents.

It's always been interesting to me how certain frequencies can assist in the removal of blocks that form in and around the body. There is no standardized tuning fork method--different masters use different frequencies and scales. Barry was trained by Joseph Crane. I plan to train with a West coast healer later this year. More to come on that.

walking

A dear friend now lives in U.A.E. ,so I haven't seen her in a couple years. Yet here she came walking through my backyard and into my house a few nights ago, with another friend (each of us has been a student of Adnan Sarhan, Sufi master from Bagdad.Steve for decades, I a few years, Leilas for weeks.) We were telling funny stories of our own, a lizard in the bath room, a horse in the orchard, then slipt into
the stories we just carry from one lover to another .

A student was walking on the outskirts of town, and came upon his teacher riding a horse. They strolled along talking. The teacher began to spur the horse, and the student had to run to keep up."Look at me. Concentrate on what I am asking you" said the teacher. The student ran, and had to use all his attention to answer the questions, listen and barely keep up. Faster they went, still faster, still harder. Abruptly they stopped. He looked back over the great distance they had covered through a thorn field, but had not one scratch on him.


The water carrier for a village was a woman, who took a large yolk with two large clay pots everyday to the river and back . One of the vessels, on the right, had a flaw and lost 1/2 the water each time. It felt terrible about this and after many months said to the woman, "I really want to apologize for not being a perfect vessel. I wish I could carry my share."
The woman replied,"Look at the ground. The left side of the road is lifeless, just dirt. But the right side is lush and green and full of flowers . I knew this all along."

TaKeTiNa: Dance and Chant

TaKeTiNa is an up and coming rhythm, dance, and chant discipline. It involves basic beats layered with gentle body movements and uses a single stringed musical instrument (the berimbau) as an accompanying drone. After completing the exercise, the participants (usually in a euphoric state) all lay down and are asked to bring their focus inward. I tried it recently and found it enjoyable and insightful.

Celebrate Scars

A rapturous shriek and a gash
That’s how it starts
This intolerable tear in a fabric-like womb-tunnel shoots
Opens a break away channel for water and blood to seep
An escape
Through the tug of gravity’s downward slope
I pierce through skintightness and numbness
Into the arms of a new world I land
Violently parting curtains of tissue
Lifting window panes of separation
The way back spins shut
Awakened by my severed connection’s pull
I grieve contemplating this journey’s price
The losses, exchanges of comfort
One cut to the cord and the ensuing emotional sting
Lingers to tell me nothing will ever again be assured
Further from home, closer to knowing it(’)s nature in all that I am
I run my fingers over
Open wounds I have emerged from my organic tomb
The parted fibers seal, harden fast and fold into scar
A rippling reminder that
The unseen mystery can sail into flesh
And ship out again anytime with the tide
Change is a tattoo
I am etched in and out of its portals
From far away worlds to this one and back I have passed
The first order of business
Survive
The blackness of travel
The agony sung from the struggle to sustain a unit of delicate life
Learn to willfully die a little each day
And every morning again be
Recreated
This biosuit demands much from its host
I make peace with my body’s wasteful consumption
I will breathe, feed, and take
from Ocean and Earth only what's needed
But I will wither away if attunement to beauty and purpose is denied
A tear from her glittering eyes to my kiss
A sliver of gold uncoiling eternal verve from her breaching lips
Carried from inside her belly to mine
Food for my soul lends me enough strength to dream a return to her shores
By braving these scars as entryway points to much more
I can be sure
Before I drain away
That the Beloved exists
and will always be here
Arise

I WAIT...

I wait,
I wait,
I wait..
As I remember
I am not really here until I breathe
To draw in the wind
And animate,
Contort and create a solid drop of spirit-world wisdom
Feels right to be kept alive by the ether
They swim in
I ponder what must be said to send me forth to
The doorway between us and them-
The mystical oxygen dwellers
And my absorbing lungs--
This is our song.
I am a reed
and they are a cosmic exhale of the master musician's breath
I've struggled to turn this melody key that already fits
Instead-- I grip to a whip and a crack
Defacing an effortless action that requires little or no motion on my part
My singing heart is my beat and my feet. Do you hear?
No need to wrestle with locks on my lips until they twist into chains.
No violent revolt exists
I'm bought back and set free by my slaves.
For it is my place to be
Emancipated-
Now, in the flesh drawing breath
My contents-- a love letter inspired by atmosphere's kiss and carress.
My intent-- to let loose of this seal
I want you to open me, read me, release by your hand my tucked away dreams
Unfold the crease in my back and my neck
Deliver these reams of my story.
I am to be heard and received--
A sensory-carbon-based-connective-tissue-communication-exchange
Lies between earth and all its otherworld children
A spirit-umbilical cord feeds the land of the
Tall ape with soul.
Down deep inside this call to just be
I can live as if life's end never mattered at
All times I wake, every day
Finding myself marooned
without water and food
I hoist my sail and I wait
and I wait
and I wait
Till the wind blows me back to this shore
from the deep sea despair, I am spared
When I recall the distant rush of
Lush waterfalls and the rustle of leaves
The sounds that remind me of home
Intervene

Wisdom from American Mystic, Jeru Kabbal

Each day is a day unto itself
Each breath is a breath unto itself.
Live for that which is truly happening
Not for that which is dead and gone.
Live life as you listen to music
As you hear each note you release it
Making space for the next note
And even though you’re constantly releasing the music that you hear
You still hear the melody, you still hear the majesty, you still hear the harmony
And so it is with life.
Let it flow through you
Don’t try to hold it fast.
And above all
Don’t hold old memories for these are dead and deadening
Trust existence, trust life, trust yourself.

-Jeru Kabbal

Animal Totem Website

This website is a great resource for those who want to learn more about the nature of their animal spirit guides. Here's what it has to say about the wolf- perhaps the most well known night singer.

"To understand totem wolf symbols, one must first understand the heart of the Wolf. This takes time because the Wolf has had to endure many false stereotypes, misconceptions and misunderstandings.

Some common traits that accompany totem wolf symbols:


Intelligence
Cunning
Communication
Friendliness
Loyalty
Generosity
Compassionate

Not at all the picture of ferocity or terror, the Wolf is a creature with a high sense of loyalty and strength. Another misconception is that of the “lone wolf.” To the contrary, the Wolf is actually a social creature, friendly, and gregarious with its counterparts. ***googlesmall.sthml***

The Wolf is an incredible communicator. By using touch, body movements, eye contact as well as many complex vocal expressions – the wolf makes his point understood. Those with totem wolf symbols are of the same inclination – they are expressive both vocally and physically. Those who have the wolf as their totem animal are naturally eloquent in speech, and also have knack for creative writing.

Totem wolf symbols belong to those who truly understand the depth of passion that belong to this noble creature. The Wolf is a representative of deep faith, and profound understanding.

Further, the Wolf possess a high intellect, and have been observed using strategies about hunting, habitat and migration.

In history, the totem Wolf symbol appears with the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Legend has it that the two founding brothers were raised and suckled by a she-wolf.

In Norse mythology, the Wolf is a symbol for victory when ridden by Odin and the Valkyries upon the battlefield.

As a Celtic symbol, the Wolf was a source of lunar power. Celtic lore states that the Wolf would hunt down the sun and devour it at each dusk so as to allow the power of the moon to come forth.

In Asia, the wolf guards the doors that allow entrance to heavenly, celestial realms. The Wolf is also said to be among the ancestry of Genghis Khan.

When this gracious creature appears to us, and serves as a totem in our lives, the Wolf beckons us to ask these questions:

Are you thinking about a different form of education?
Are you being a true friend, and are your friends being true to you?
Are you communicating yourself clearly to others?
Are you being loyal to yourself?
Are you incorporating strategies and planning to achieve your goals?
Are you spending enough quality time with yourself, friends and family?

Click here to find more about other animal totems as well as totem wolf symbols and discover if the Wolf is your Native American zodiac sign.

Take some time to know more about the Wolf, you will be amazed at the knowledge these regal creatures can share with you."

Night Sings Our New Moderator!

Many thanks to Night Sings for taking over the role of moderator of this blog! He is our greatest poster, and wishes to make this blog come alive again. In the coming weeks and months, he will be remaking any/all of the display, inviting others, and having a great time of it! Welcome Night Sings, and many thanks! Robin

Duo

Two appear from none
I felt less sure about one
Once upon a time
No longer alone in the cosmos
I now roast inside their lotus flower gazes
Ablaze at their touch
These helpless droplets of sun
Breaking the mind-baking arena's sodium hazes
Illuminating forgotten fumbled through mazes
Underneath my soul's arrival
I heard their voices announced
Traveling from yet another world
Uncoiling from the web of my dreams
I catch life and steal health from these echoes
anew
In a quick second
My being's memory too will pass
But not before
Two faces appear from the stars
Their beauty a breeze to the comet tail's fire
That fueled their arrival
Upon impact
They sear away
Traces of plague
In the undergrowth of my fears
If I knew not what a father sees in the reshuffled
Wilderness of his heart
I now cannot part from the vision of truth
From their eyes
I shoot further up
Before leaping back into earth's womb
I've been reborn by my own mortality
immortalized

Ursula Le Guin

I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child, and that if these faculties are encouraged in youth they will act well and wisely in the adult, but if they are repressed and denied in the child they will stunt and cripple the adult personality. And, I believe that one of the most deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the power of imagination: so that it is our pleasant duty, as librarians, or teachers, or parents, or writers, or simply as grownups, to encourage that faculty of imagination in our children, to encourage it to grow freely, to flourish like the green bay tree, by giving it the best, absolutely the best and purest, nourishment that it can absorb. And never, under any circumstances, to squelch it, or sneer at it, or imply that it is childish, or unmanly, or untrue.

For fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of fantasy, because they are afraid of freedom.
- Ursula K. Le Guin -
From: The Language of the Night

Wolf

I hear your song echo through
Pores and flesh and hair
You lie there
In the white wilderness dress of my
Mind's winter coat
Melting the frost
On my body and
Inside my voice
Warmth rises
From deep within
the forest
Undisturbed
by the nighttime
mist of breath
From your howl;
A sailing medicine
ascends to the sky
And flies
No shade of dark
Can constrain this
Smooth, soothing voice
All I hear
When I shut my eyes
is your image
Running wild in the snow
The moon undresses
My wounds
And frustrations are laid out
To satisfy your hunger
I feed them to you
And surrender to
Ressurection

Terence McKenna

The apprenticeship is over :( The blog is a resource and a repository of information for those with an interest in Shamanism. Is there any objection to continuing with posts?

A good friend recently introduced me to Terence McKenna. I've collected a few of his talks and think he's an important philosopher and writer of the psychedelic movement. He frequently lectured about the corrupting influence of Western culture and ideologies, and he believed shamans were bearers of "spiritual technologies," which could be used to help improve the consciousness. To me his main message is that we can explore the world's mysteries and unlock the mind's potential through restoring our relationship with the earth and the plants. Here is an excerpt from one of his talks complemented with some beautiful graphics.