Malidoma Patrice Somé: Nature, Ritual and Community

Malidoma Patrice Somé is an author, teacher and shaman from the Dagara tribe in West Africa. Somé holds three Master's degrees and two Doctorates from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University. Representing his village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, Somé has come to the West to share the ancient wisdom and practices which have supported his people for thousands of years. He travels throughout the world bringing a message of hope, healing and reconciliation through the powerful tools of ritual and community building. Versed in the languages of psychology, comparative literature, as well as ancient mythology, healing, and divination, Somé bridges paths between the ancient tribal world of the West African Dagara culture and modern Western society. Over the years, he has come to understand that, despite their differences, Indigenous and Western peoples are actually children of the same Spirit, living in the same house they call Earth. 

 

Born in a Dagara community in 1956, he was abducted from his people at the age of four by a Jesuit priest and imprisoned in a seminary built for training a new generation of black Catholic priests. In spite of his isolation from his tribe and his village, Somé stubbornly refused to forget where he had come from and who he was. Finally, some 16 years later, Somé fled the seminary and walked 125 miles through the dense jungle back to his own people, the Dagara. Once he was home, however, many there regarded him as a "white black," to be looked on with suspicion because he had been contaminated by the "sickness" of the colonial world. Somé was a man of two worlds, at home in neither.
 

His only hope of reconnection with his people was to undergo the harrowing Dagara month-long initiation in the wilderness. Elders from the village believed that Somé's ancestral spirit had withdrawn from his body and that he had already undergone a type of rite of passage into manhood in the white world. Despite this, they agreed to let him undergo a belated manhood rite with a younger group in the tribe. Having been raised outside of the culture and not speaking the language made the initiation process, believed to unite soul and body, more dangerous for him than for the youths also undergoing the rite. Somé emerged from this ancient ritual a newly integrated individual, rejoined to his ancestral past and his cultural present. Even after initiation, however, Somé remains a man of two worlds, charged by his elders to bridge his culture and the Western world.
 

I had the opportunity to take one of Somé's workshops years ago. In his workshops, Somé tells participants that the Dagara believe each person is born with a destiny, and he or she is given a name that reflects that destiny. "My name is Malidoma," he says. "It means he who makes friends with the stranger. As my name implies, I am here in the West to tell the world about my people in any way I can, and to take back to my people the knowledge I gain about this world. My elders are convinced that the West is as endangered as the Indigenous cultures it has decimated in the name of colonialism. Western civilization is suffering from a great sickness of the soul. The West's progressive turning away from functioning spiritual values; its total disregard for the environment and natural resources; the violence of inner cities with their problems of poverty, drugs and crime; spiraling unemployment and economic disarray; and growing intolerance toward people of color and the values of other cultures—all of these trends, if unchecked, will eventually bring about terrible self-destruction. In the face of all this global chaos, the only possible hope is self-transformation through ritual."
 

Somé leads workshop participants in ritual drumming and singing. He shares ways to create community as well as ritual ways that activate the healing powers of nature. He says that in Dagara society, all healing is accomplished in ritual through nature, and the participation of the village community. Nature is the landscape in which all healing takes place and it's the environment in which we renew ourselves and become whole, experiencing a sense of well-being. From an Indigenous perspective, the individual psyche can only be healed by addressing one's relationships with the visible worlds of nature and community and one's relationship with the invisible forces of the ancestors and spirit allies. That is why the art of ritual is so important, for it's in ritual that nature, community and the spirit world come together in healing.   
 

In modern times, we've lost our natural tendency to function communally by embracing such thinking as "pull one's self up by one's bootstraps" and "every man for himself." Yet only with community is a person's life purpose discovered, nurtured, and most importantly, required to sustain community. Healing through ritual nourishes our spirits and our psyches. It heals the deep wounds in us that are unseen and unspoken. Ritual offers us a deeper healing solution to complex dilemmas that plague modern life, those problems that lie beneath the surface, waiting to erupt. Somé focuses on the need for grief ritual and ways of working with emotion in Western culture. The ritual of grieving, the sacred shedding of tears to heal the wounds of human losses, is a cleansing practice that purifies the psyche. Somé likened the danger of unexpressed grief to a social time bomb.
 

Somé emphasizes that, "for the Dagara, ritual is, above all else, the yardstick by which people measure their state of connection with the hidden ancestral realm, with which the entire community is genetically bound. In a way, the Dagara think of themselves as a projection of the spirit world. The abandonment of ritual can be devastating. From the spiritual viewpoint, ritual is inevitable and necessary if one is to live. Where ritual is absent, the young ones are restless or violent, there are no real elders, and the grownups are bewildered. The future is dim."
 

Somé is optimistic when he says, "At this critical time in history, the Earth's people are awakening to a deep need for global healing. African wisdom, so long held secret, is being called on to provide tools to enable us to move into a more peaceful and empowered way of being, both within ourselves, and within our communities. The Indigenous spirit in each of us is calling for cleansing and reconciliation. The ancestors are responding."

The Huichol Mask

An excerpt from my soon-to-be released memoir, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism. Copyright © 2021 by Michael Drake.
 

I made my first pilgrimage to the Maya pyramids and ceremonial centers of Mexico in March of 1995. It was an empowering, transformational journey of self-discovery--the culmination of a lifelong dream to explore the pyramidal temples found at Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Palenque and Tulum. I spent about a week in Playa del Carmen, a coastal resort town along the Yucatan Peninsula’s Riviera Maya strip of Caribbean shoreline. The Riviera Maya is known for its palm-lined beaches and one of the largest coral reefs in the world. The beaches of Playa del Carmen are famous for their white powdery sand and crystal clear turquoise waters.
 

One afternoon, I went shopping for some gifts and souvenirs to take back home with me. While walking along Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue), a pedestrian-only walkway through downtown Playa del Carmen, I discovered a colorfully dressed street vendor selling his beadwork. He was a Huichol indigenous artist from Guadalajara. The Huichol, or peyote people, are known for their yarn paintings and papier-mache masks covered in small, brightly colored beads. Yarn paintings consist of commercial yarn pressed into boards coated with wax and resin and are derived from a ceremonial tablet called a neirika.
 

The beaded art is a relatively new innovation and is crafted using glass, plastic or metal beads pressed onto a wooden or papier-mache form covered in beeswax. Common bead art forms include masks, bowls and figurines. Like all Huichol art, the bead work depicts the prominent patterns and symbols featured in Huichol shamanic traditions. The most common motifs are related to the three most important elements in Huichol religion, the deer, corn and peyote. The first two are important as primary sources of food, and the last is valued for its psychoactive properties. Eating the peyote cactus is at the heart of the tribe's spiritual knowledge and core to their existence, connecting them to their ancestors and guardian spirits through psychedelic visions.  

Huichol masks are akin to mirrors that reflect the patterns of face paintings worn during sacred ceremonies. The Huichol people understand themselves to be mirrors of the gods. The Huichol believe that you must look past the ego reflected in a mirror in order to enter the place they call the "original times," before the present separation occurred between matter and spirit, between life and death, between the natural and the supernatural, and between the sexes. They are a culture based on being at one with the Cosmos. The very purpose of life is to reach a state of unity and continuity between man, nature, society and the supernatural.
 

The shaman-artist had some small beaded masks displayed on his table. I asked him if he had any larger masks. He pulled a bundle out from under the table and unwrapped a beautiful life-size human mask. The intricate design featured a radiant sun on the forehead, a stalk of blue corn on each side of the head, a double-headed peyote eagle on each cheek, a prayer arrow on the ridge of the nose, and a deer on the chin. I asked him how much? He said 300 pesos, or about 50 dollars. We settled on the price, but the artisan needed to finish the beadwork. He asked if I could come back later in the day. I agreed to return later that evening to buy the mask and continued shopping other vendors.
 

With great anticipation, I returned in the evening to purchase the finished mask. As I carried the mask back to my hotel, it felt warmer and warmer until it was hot in my hands. When I got back to my room, I noticed a tepo or sacred drum (which is the voice of the gods for the Huichol) in the mouth of the mask. The symbolism was a metaphor for a "talking drum," the name I chose for my entrepreneurial publishing company. This meaningful synchronicity convinced me that the mask was meant for me. I later discovered that wearing the mask during meditation induces a blissful state of unity consciousness with the deities that the mask both represents and embodies. It’s a way of communing with the essence of these deities, channeling them to deepen shamanic trance, to honor them and more. To learn more, read my blog post, The Power of Masks.

Pilgrimage to the Crestone Ziggurat

Crestone, Colorado is a spiritual center that includes an astonishing array of sacred sites. Within walking distance of this small international village are ashrams, monasteries, zendos, temples, chapels, retreat centers, stupas, shrines, medicine wheels, labyrinths, a ziggurat and other sacred landmarks. Most of Crestone’s major religious centers are sheltered in the juniper and pine forests on the lower slopes of the mountains south of town. The Camino de Crestone is a 26 mile inter-faith pilgrimage that visits 15 of the spiritual centers.
 

Since moving to Crestone, my wife, Elisia, and I have made pilgrimages to many of the area’s sacred sites. Although pilgrimage may seem an antiquated religious ritual, it remains a vibrant activity in the modern world as pilgrims combine traditional motives—such as seeking a remedy for physical or spiritual problems—with contemporary searches for identity or interpersonal connection. That pilgrimage continues to exercise such a strong attraction is testimony to the power it continues to hold for those who undertake these sacred journeys. Pilgrimage has been an essential component of my spiritual practice for over 30 years.  
 

Our first local pilgrimage was to the Crestone Ziggurat, a nearby landmark built by Najeeb Halaby, father of Queen Noor of Jordan, for prayer and meditation. Halaby, an American of Syrian Christian descent, built the Ziggurat in 1978 as a representation of the Zoroastrian gateway to heaven. Ziggurat comes from an ancient Assyrian word ziffurantu, meaning light pinnacle. A ziggurat, by definition, is a temple tower with an outside staircase that leads to a shrine at the top. The first of these temple structures were built in ancient Mesopotamia, or what is now Iraq. The purpose of a ziggurat is to get closer to heaven, the home of the gods; in fact the people of Mesopotamia believed a ziggurat connected Heaven and Earth. Essentially, a ziggurat represents a stairway to Heaven where one can commune with the divine.
 

Elisia and I walked to the ziggurat, which rises from a hill on the easternmost edge of the San Luis Valley less than two miles from our house. The wind began to gust as we made our way up the switchback trail to the castle-like observatory, which had been stuccoed a golden ochre color. The ascent up the rail-less ramp was treacherous due to the gusting winds. I hugged the inside wall of the structure as I made my way up the 40-foot tall tower. I stood on the summit and took in the stunning views of the San Luis Valley, one of the highest and largest alpine valleys in the world, encompassing an area of 8,000 square miles. The flat, expansive valley is ringed by the San Juan Mountains of the Continental Divide on the west side and the Sangre de Cristos on the east side. It is a truly inspiring place for prayer and meditation.

Spirit Horse Falls

An excerpt from The Shamanic Drum by Michael Drake

 

Jade Wah'oo Grigori, my mentor and teacher, stood before me. "Find Spirit Horse," he exclaimed! The shaman vanished from my dreams as quickly as he had appeared. I awoke in the morning with the words "find Spirit Horse" indelibly etched in my mind. I had not seen or spoken to Jade in over four years, but I remembered full well his teachings of Spirit Horse. Jade had taught me that, through sacred drumming, one could ride Spirit Horse for personal empowerment and healing the land.
 

I contemplated this dream throughout the day, trying to discern its meaning. I was finally drawn to a stack of back issues of Shaman's Drum magazines in my office. I fervently leafed through the magazines with no idea of what I was looking for. Midway through the stack, I opened the winter 1990-91 issue to an article titled "Native Americans Join Efforts to Preserve Sacred Ridge on Mount Hood."

Enola Hill, a densely forested, pristine watershed ridge on Mount Hood (Oregon), was under the threat of logging operations. A coalition of Native Americans, historians, and environmentalists appealed and delayed the U.S. Forest Service's timber sale, pending ethnographic studies to determine the area's cultural significance. The ethnographic studies revealed that Enola Hill is a tawyash, a Sahaptin Indian word for a place where spiritual power can be obtained and maintained. In fact, there is no other site in the Pacific Northwest with such great cultural significance. For thousands of years, Enola has been a Native American Mecca -- a revered and sacred place for pilgrimages, ceremonies, and vision quests.    

As I continued to read the article, I came across a reference to a spectacular waterfall known to natives as Spirit Horse Falls (Devil Falls on USDA maps). The falls got its name from vision questers who saw a spirit horse rising from the mist. As I read these words, I was overcome by a profound sense of euphoria and resolve. I knew that this sacred waterfall was the "Spirit Horse" that Jade had told me to find. I expressed my gratitude for this gift in a prayer to Creator.

Two weeks later, I stood for the first time on Enola Hill, overlooking Spirit Horse Falls. The power of the roaring falls and the beauty of the rain forest filled my senses with a lucid-like awareness. I felt a holistic connection to my Earth Mother. In my heart I felt that I had finally come home. I drummed and performed a ceremony for the protection and preservation of this sacred place that provided spiritual power for this region. I prayed that this nerve center in the web of life would continue to distribute vital energy throughout the surrounding natural systems.

Afterwards, I made the three-hour drive back to my home in Bend, Oregon. That night, and for many nights to follow, my dreams were filled with drums, Enola Hill, and Spirit Horse Falls. In my dreams, I saw myself drumming at all the waterfalls around Mount Hood. I was told that the rivers that flow from this mountain are sacred. These rivers feed the spirit. This water will awaken the people when you drum at the falls. All who touch this water will be awakened. I was told that a home would be provided from which I will go out to drum the sacred places. It is time to consecrate these sacred places. The time has come to awaken them.

Three months later, a friend contacted me regarding a caretaker position in the Mount Hood area. I soon relocated to a community near Enola Hill and Spirit Horse Falls. I spent the entire summer, hiking to waterfalls and drumming the sacred waters. By the end of the summer, I had completed a circuit around Mount Hood. Having completed my mission, I sensed that my work there was done. I moved back to Bend, Oregon, yet Spirit Horse Falls will always be a significant power place for me. I still make pilgrimages to the falls to drum and pray.

Unfortunately, the threat of logging persists at Enola Hill. Though ethnographic studies reveal otherwise, the Mount Hood Forest Supervisor has determined that there are no traditional cultural sites on Enola Hill. The Forest Service contends that Indian cultural use of the site was transitory and doesn't qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. The U.S. Forest Service hungrily eyes the mature forests on Enola. This greed for more timber to cut makes the agency loath to acknowledge the native cultural and religious value of the area. The continuing degradation of sacred sites stems not only from colonial attitudes about the lands where native people live and worship, but also from prejudice and disrespect for native religions. Indian religious freedom is an environmental issue, and the destruction of sacred sites is the ultimate environmental racism.

The I Ching and the Genetic Code

An excerpt from I Ching: The Tao of Drumming by Michael Drake

 

In the beginning, there was only the Tao or mysterious void. From Tao came forth t'ai chi, the unmanifest essence of being. Yin and yang, the feminine and masculine aspects of the universe were an inseparable whole. They rested in a state of absolute stillness in the oneness of t'ai chi. Through the act of creation, yin and yang became aware of their polarity. They began to vibrate and spiral in a sacred dance, giving birth to the sonic pulse of the cosmos. Radiating outward in ever-widening circles, the resonating energy of pulsation collected around inertia to form vibrational patterns and matter. Waves of rhythmic pulses reverberated throughout the universe, weaving the web of existence.

This cosmology that describes the universe in terms of only two polar but co-creative aspects is beautiful in its simplicity and forms the basis on which the I Ching was structured over 4000 years ago. The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text and divination system which counsels appropriate action in the moment for a given set of circumstances. Each moment has a pattern to it and everything that happens in that moment is interconnected. Based on the synchronicity of the universe and the laws of probability, the I Ching responds to an inquiry in the form of a hexagram. By evaluating the hexagram that describes your current pattern of relationship, you can divine the outcome and act accordingly.

The I Ching is the culmination of Chinese thought regarding the nature of reality. It is a philosophical system of primal insights into the workings and destiny of the universe. Philosophically, the I Ching describes the universe as a single, flowing, rhythmic being, and all things in it in constant cyclical change. Everything is t'ai chi, "one universal energy," which expresses itself as two polarized yet complementary aspects, yin and yang. Yin and yang ebb and flow, creating the cycles and rhythms of life. By observing nature, the sages perceived all of the rhythms and energy patterns that arise from the interaction of yin and yang. They then coded these rhythmic patterns into a "book of life." The I Ching's sixty-four hexagrams represent a code or program of the operating principle of life itself.

The hexagrams of the I Ching represent the sequence of development for everything that evolves from the void into a three-dimensional reality. The I Ching functions much like a computer. It is a binary mathematical program of all events, processes, and developments of nature, as well as a program of the fate of every living thing.

The Binary Code

At a fundamental level, the laws of the universe are written in a binary code. The binary mathematical system forms the basis of computer languages and applies to nearly everything from crystalline structures to the genetic code. Systems of binary progression underlie the structure of reality. Binary systems develop from two numbers or polar elements. The DNA code, for example, represents a binary progression of two to the sixth power, producing the sixty-four codons, or six-part structures that constitute the genetic code. The bilateral symmetry of DNA consists of a double helix with plus and minus strands, which contain the genetic script. Each strand is the inverse of the opposite in terms of polarity and direction of rotation, and each strand is capable of replicating the other. Both strands interconnect at regular intervals, forming binary pairs of molecular building blocks.

The sixty-four hexagrams, each with its six variants (lines), illustrate a pattern of development that mirrors DNA. Each odd numbered hexagram and its subsequent opposite or inverse represent binary pairs. Each stage of change or development is the result of interaction between conjugate pairs. A given situation would remain forever unchanging were it not for this dynamic interplay that spurs the static hexagram into motion.

 

The I Ching may contain the genetic code. Martin Schönberger, in The I Ching & the Genetic Code: The Hidden Key to Life, established numerous parallels that verify a congruency between the two codes. As Schönberger puts it, "The principle of polarity inherent in both systems, the world pole yang-yin on the one hand, the precisely symmetrical plus and minus strand of the DNA on the other, and the very marked congruence of the 64 signs when the two systems are combined, makes tenable the hypothesis that here we have one code..."

The Great Shift: And How to Navigate It

An excerpt from the newly released book,
The Great Shift: And How to Navigate It
Copyright © 2018 by Michael Drake

We are living during extraordinary times. So very many are asking the same question these days; "What is happening around us?" We live in a time of accelerated change and transformation. We see severe climate change, massive oil spills, and species dying off. We see corruption in banking, politics, and religions around the world. We see fear, anger, and hopelessness in our communities. Greed, poverty, violence, and injustice are predominant characteristics of our civilization. What on Earth is happening?

A growing number of voices in the international shamanic community are telling us that Mother Earth and her inhabitants are undergoing a fundamental, evolutionary change--a change that many of us will experience first-hand in this lifetime. Some call it the Kali Yuga, the age of maximum darkness and ignorance; a time when the dark forces of the unconscious are at their strongest. Some call it the Era of Strife, Tribulations or End of Days. Others refer to this unfolding event as the Turning of the Age or a Great Shift in consciousness that was foretold long, long ago. This is an exciting time to be present on the Earth. It is a time filled with unparalleled opportunities for spiritual growth. 

The Cycle of Time

The ancients understood time as circular, rather than linear. Yin and yang, the feminine and masculine aspects of the universe vibrate and spiral in a sacred dance, giving birth to the sonic pulse of the Cosmos. Yin and yang ebb and flow; creating the cycle of time. Behind the cycle of time lies an ongoing evolution of consciousness. Just as a tree has annual cycles of growth and retreat but continues to grow year after year, so all things have an inner growth process in which consciousness continues to develop through life after life.

The civilization process goes through four eras or ages. Like the four seasons in our year, there are four stages to man's evolution in the full cycle. Each cycle has distinct themes and spiritual lessons for humanity. Ancient astrology places humanity under the legendary four ages: the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron ages. We find this belief in world ages among the Greeks as well as the Hindus. In Sanskrit these are called the yugas or world ages of Satya (the first), Treta (the second), Dvapara (the third), and Kali (the fourth). After the world fall at the end of the fourth, worst age (the Kali Yuga), the cycle starts again.

The purpose of this Great Shift, we are told, is to establish a new Era, a Golden Age of peace and harmony on the Earth plane so that humanity may experience love in ways it cannot yet comprehend. The current upheaval in society must occur. Destruction is a part of creation. We live in a world of endless cycles. We are quite literally witnesses and participants in the shift from an old paradigm into a new one. We are part of the emerging consciousness, and the signs are everywhere. It is here now and we all have a part to play in it.

What Can We Do?

It isn't hard to see that even though we live on a planet that surrounds us with beauty, that there is a lot of darkness manifesting within humanity. We must learn to deal with this dissonant energy. We cannot make sense of it because it is entirely destructive. Instead we must hold steady within ourselves and observe its chaotic behavior from a place of power. If we do this, it will be unable to feed on us. Our inner calm and stability will help contain its voracious energy and it will be unable to do as much damage as it would otherwise. It can be easy to lose hope at times, but there are many opportunities for spiritual growth and meaningful action during this time. Here are 10 helpful guidelines to navigate these dark and turbulent times:

1. Take Total Personal Responsibility for Your Life

Personal responsibility is taking conscious control of how you think, act, and feel in response to the events and circumstances in your life. Accept yourself and your circumstances. Accept responsibility for who you are right now. It's not other people who made you the way you are, but only your own choices, thoughts and actions. Learn to harness the power of your thoughts, for your consciousness does indeed affect the stream of thought upon this world. You must be ever mindful of your thoughts and feelings. Your reality is the perfect, exact mirror of your thoughts and what you consistently focus upon. You are creating your reality all the time. Every thought you think, every emotion you feel is creating your reality. Give yourself the permission to create the life you want. As responsible human beings, let us affirm a world of peace, harmony, and balance. Let us cultivate care for life and one another. See things as they are, in process of change, without fixation on imbalance; see the potential and call it forth.

2. See the World as it Truly Is

The world that you see around you is nothing more than a very convincing illusion and can completely change in the blink of an eye. The quantum theory of physics states that our material world is created over and over before our very eyes each instant we perceive it. Our world is ultimately no more real than a hologram. It is just an illusory product of our mind. Light is the only true thing that we can see in the world. The challenge we face is that light manifests itself, as well as darkness. Consequently, there are two spiritual forces that we deal with on planet Earth everyday--Light (positive) and Dark (negative). Light energy is unlimited and comes from the Source. It's highly vibrational, expansive, and full of love. Dark energy is dense, negative, and goes against the flow of the universe. It's about manipulation, power, conquest, and fear. Darkness is part of who we are, and we all have to take responsibility for it. The darkness that is now showing itself everywhere will eventually consume itself and perish, for it has no inner light to sustain it. Remember that no matter how hopeless the world or your life seems it is only a mirage. Light is the only real thing there is. The rest is a dream.

3. Learn to Live With Your Heart, Not Your Mind

We live in a highly visual world that continually bombards us with stimulation, exposing us to a multitude of sensations that keep us in our heads. In a rapidly changing world, we won't be able to figure things out mentally, so it's best to go back to our heart and be there whenever possible. If we are able to get in touch with our hearts, we will be able to connect with the guidance of our own intuitive knowing. Intuition reveals appropriate action in the moment for a given set of circumstances. To live fully from the heart we must learn to still the mind and quiet the emotions so that our personal truth can emerge. Stopping the chatter of the mind frees us of fear, doubt, and limitation. Take the time to quiet the mind, whether in meditation or prayer, and ask to be taken into your heart's sacred space. While you are there, practice seeing the world from that point of view. The energy that comes in from the Source is directed through our hearts. When we are in sync with the heart, we are in sync with the Cosmos. As we learn to live from the heart we are able to move with the ebb and flow of change with grace and ease.

4. Seek Equanimity or Steadiness of Mind

According to Buddhist teachings, equanimity is an unshakable balance of mind. The kind of equanimity required must be rooted in the insight that we create our own reality. Nothing that happens to us comes from an external source outside ourselves; everything is the result of our own thoughts and deeds. Because this knowledge frees us from fear, it is the foundation of equanimity. To attain equanimity as an unshakable state of mind, we must release all attachments to negative feelings and thoughts that float on the stream of mind. It requires diligence and commitment to release such attachments. The moment you feel some thought of fear, anger, or doubt creeping into your mind; simply let it go. Allow it to drift off on the air of the wind, on the breath of life. Breathe deeply and gently exhale any tension you might feel, clearing the energy channels of your body. You must be gentle with yourself, in spite of your errors, and gentle with others who react from a place of fear or anger.     

5. Develop a Spiritual Practice

A spiritual practice is the regular performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual development. A spiritual practice is something you do every single day that grounds you in your own truth and helps you get to know your inner self. It is important to remember that each person is different and so what works for one person may not work for another. The key is to choose an activity that makes you feel calm, centered, and relaxed. A spiritual activity might be gardening, hiking, running, dancing, chanting, making music, painting, meditating, praying, doing yoga or tai chi. Regular spiritual practice helps to build spiritual strength and this in turn becomes our protective armor. We must not fall into hopelessness, but instead must strengthen our personal practice and act as a light in dark times for those around us that are lost. Any behavior that is kind, gentle, generous, virtuous, sincere, respectful and reverent, is emulating behavior that brings us closer to the next stage in the cycle, a Golden Age of primeval peace, harmony, and prosperity. When we bring ourselves fully into the present moment, our life becomes the spiritual practice.

6. Incorporate Drumming into Your Spiritual Practice

Drumming is perhaps the oldest form of active meditation known to humanity. It is a simple and effortless way to still the chatter of the mind, thereby inducing altered states of consciousness. It is one of the quickest and most powerful ways I know to open the heart and connect with a power greater than ourselves. Drums can also be used for prayer, healing, and clearing our homes of negative or unwanted energies. When we pray and drum with intent, the drum amplifies and carries our intentions to the Loom of Creation, thereby reweaving the pattern of existence in accordance with those prayers. Shamans have understood for centuries that sustained focused attention on a specific intention, while in a state of inner silence, channels the Source energy of the universe into manifesting the physical equivalent of the focus. The key to understanding the power of the drum is to realize that the universe is made of vibrational energy. According to quantum physics, everything in the universe, from the smallest subatomic particle to the largest star, has an inherent vibrational pattern. The entire universe is created through vibration and can be influenced through the vibrations of drumming.    

7. Cleanse Yourself and Your Home of Negative Energy Daily

Smudge yourself and your home each day. Smudging is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to dispel negative energy and open the energy channels of your body. Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging. Light the herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle and then blow out the flames. Then use a feather or your hands to fan the smoke around your body and home. I recommend cracking a window or door for ventilation and for releasing unwanted energies. Additionally, learn how to make your own consecrated or holy water and use it for cleansing, protection, and blessing. Many people will dismiss the power of holy water based on its association with the church. This is not about religion; this is about a pragmatic solution to an age-old problem. The fact of the matter is that holy water is the only thing that darkness cannot manipulate. It's your best protection against negative energy. It's also important to establish clear and healthy personal boundaries: the physical, emotional and mental limits we establish to protect ourselves from being manipulated or used by others. Define your core values, belief system, and outlook on life so you have a clear picture of who you are and how you want to live. When linked to your core values, boundaries help you align your daily activities and behaviors with your life's purpose. The passionate expression of our Soul's purpose is precisely the medicine the Earth needs at this time. 

8. Pray Without Ceasing

The word prayer is derived from the two Sanskrit words 'pra' and 'artha' meaning pleading fervently. In other words, it is asking God (or whatever term you'd like to use for a higher power) for something with intense yearning. To pray without ceasing means to be continually in a reverent attitude of prayer. Regular prayer is a cornerstone of spiritual practice. Over time, frequent prayers help to dissolve our mind and through them we gain access to Divine consciousness. Praying brings us Divine help, reduces our ego, grants us forgiveness of mistakes, and more. Words have great power. In the shamanic world, words transform substance. I am now going to tell you about one of the most powerful phrases in the world. Simply open or conclude your prayers with the words "In the name of Jesus I pray." Praying in the name of Jesus evokes all of His power and protects us from darkness. Again, this is not about religion; it's is about choosing the right words to liberate us from the power of darkness. The reason this prayer is so powerful is that the name of Jesus is not just a passive word. It is a creative word, like the sacred Word by which God created the universe. When spoken, it produces a vibratory resonance that allows this creative energy to be called forth. Simply chanting the words "Lord Jesus" helps us assimilate that aspect of Divinity that his name represents. It can be done anytime and anywhere, helping us to remain in communion with Him at all times. 

9. Give Thanks

Giving thanks and being in a state of gratitude opens our heart, allowing our indwelling presence of being, our Spirit, to rise forth unimpeded. Gratitude, like any other spiritual practice, is something we do, not just something we feel. And it's something we need to practice. Try to cultivate a spirit of gratitude in all things. Even in situations that seem difficult to give thanks for, just remember that you are on the Earth to experience, learn and grow. An "attitude of gratitude" in all things helps connect us to our core values and purpose for being here. Foster a reciprocal relationship of meaning to the Earth. Take time to honor and respect the reciprocal cycle of give and take, for Mother Earth provides everything we need to live and flourish. Express your gratitude through prayer and offerings. Give thanks also for the things you are praying for. Giving thanks before needs are met is a way of making space to receive them. Expressing gratitude for something before it actually appears in your life develops trust and confidence in your ability to create.

10. Keep Your Heart Open 

The most important thing you can do at this time is to keep your heart wide open. To keep your heart open, be willing to accept what life brings you. Resistance is futile anyway and what you resist persists. If there are challenges on your path, trust that there is a lesson to be learned and growth will occur as a result. You need a completely balanced and open heart to be able to hold steady during these dark times. Make a conscious choice not to be swept along by unfavorable circumstances or permit your steadfastness to be shaken. Be mindful of who you are. You are a being of light, capable of the most extraordinary things! You were put here on Earth to hold a steady place in an unsteady world. Remain calm and centered in your power. Never compromise or lose sight of your goals and principles. Such an attitude will sustain the inner light that exists within you in even the darkest of times. We each have a part to play during this dark time. Be as you were born to be!

The Cosmology of the Drum

An excerpt from the book The Shamanic Drum by Michael Drake

Humans have always looked beyond the factual world of ordinary reality for something solid on which to ground their lives. The models of the mystery of life have always been based on the myths of an immemorial imagination. "Mythological cosmologies do not correspond to the world of gross facts, but are functions of dreams and visions," writes the late Joseph Campbell, one of the great mythologists of the twentieth century. Dreams and visions have always been, and will always be, the creative forces that shape cosmology. It is an inherent product of the psyche, a symbolic language of metaphysics recognized by shamans and seers. The personal vision of the shaman becomes the collective vision of the group.

Mythological cosmology is evocative rather than referential. It is not science or history, but rather symbolism that serves as a catalyst of spiritual well-being. Like the beat of the shaman's drum, it disengages the individual from the integrating component of ordinary thinking consciousness and invokes the mysteries of the imagination and intuition. The realm of cosmology and the domain of shamanic trance are one and the same.

"Shamanic Transformations"

I am a contributing writer for the new book "Shamanic Transformations: True Stories of the Moment of Awakening." It is a collection of inspiring accounts from contemporary shamans about their first moments of spiritual epiphany. Contributing writers include Sandra Ingerman, Hank Wesselman, John Perkins, Alberto Villoldo, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Tom Cowan, Linda Star Wolf, and others. My contribution is "The Calling," which is an excerpt from my book "Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits." How does one receive the "call" to enter onto the shamanic path? What causes some people to change their safe, uneventful, and ordinary lives and start on a spiritual search? To learn more, look inside "Shamanic Transformations." To read the entire excerpt of "The Calling," click here.

"The Calling"

An excerpt from the newly released book, 

Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits 

Copyright © 2012 by Michael Drake 

The spirits called me to a path of shamanism. I do not know why I was chosen. I ceased making such queries long ago. Over the years, I learned to just go with the flow. The how and why of my circumstances became less important to me than the lessons that I was learning along the way. As time passed, I began to see how my life experiences honed me into the artist I am today.

For as long as I can remember, I have been an explorer--pushing beyond familiar territory to investigate the unknown. As a child, I had a near-drowning, out-of-body experience that opened my eyes to the hidden dimensions of life and propelled my explorations. Like everyone, I was trying to find myself. I was also searching for something that resonated with me--anything that evoked a shared emotion or belief. I identified with people whose words were congruent with their actions. My inner self was most nourished when I was immersed in Nature. Being introverted and eccentric, I often felt a closer kinship to Nature than I did to people.

My birthplace was Oklahoma, but Topeka, Kansas became my home at the age of five until I moved away at age twenty-three. I was raised in a conservative Southern Baptist Church, which shaped my personal ethics and early life. I had my first ecstatic experience as a youth at a church revival, an evangelistic meeting intended to reawaken interest in religion. This state of rapture and trancelike elation inspired my spiritual quest. For much of my youth, I had aspirations of attending seminary to prepare for some form of ministry. I met my wife, Elisia, at a church function. We were wed by our pastor in a church wedding in 1976.

After I graduated from college in 1977, I felt a great pull to “Go West.” I mailed résumés to employers up and down the Pacific Coast. As fate would have it, I was offered a job with the Glidden Paint Company in Portland, Oregon. Elisia and I promptly sold our house and moved to Oregon. As a couple, that is how we often did things and that is how we still do things, after thirty-five years of marriage. We decide to do something, and then we just do it. Elisia and I have learned to trust and follow our inner yearnings. One of the things we learned working with spirits is that they often prompt us through urges to do one thing or another.

Upon our arrival in Portland, we soon found a house to rent. After settling in, we spent most of our free time hiking and exploring. Enamored with my new home, I began studying the geology and ecology of the Pacific Northwest. What I began to understand is that Nature sustains us and everything around us through an interdependent web of life. There is no separateness. We are all one consciousness.

In early 1980, I lost my retail managerial job. I was ready for a change and, with so much free time, I took up reading full-time. One of the influential books that I read was The Dharma Bums, a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. Kerouac's semi-fictional accounts of hiking and hitchhiking through the West inspired me to embark, with my wife's blessing, on a backpacking/gold prospecting adventure to northern California. After all, in 1980 the price of gold hit a then-record of $873 an ounce. 

In May of 1980, my journey began with a bus ride to Yreka, California. From Yreka, I planned to hike and hitch my way about fifty-three miles over a mountain pass to Sawyers Bar, California. I stepped off the bus in Yreka, shouldered my heavy pack, and started walking south on State Route 3. After walking a few miles, a local farrier in a pickup offered me a ride to the small town of Etna. I spent an uneventful night camped in the Etna City Park.

On day two, I arose early and continued my trek. After a few hours of steep climbing, I hitched another ride to Idlewild Campground, a forest service recreation area on the North Fork Salmon River six miles from Sawyers Bar, California. Idlewild became my base camp for prospecting and further explorations in the surrounding area. 

After a few days of unsuccessful gold-panning, I decided to backpack into nearby Marble Mountain Wilderness. I walked up Mule Bridge Road along the scenic North Fork Salmon River until I reached the wilderness trailhead. From the trailhead, I hiked the North Fork Trail deep into Marble Mountain Wilderness.

I met no one along the trail. I was alone in the wilderness. Late in the afternoon, I came upon the skeletal remains of a large bear along the trail. It was one of the most peculiar sights I have ever beheld. The skeletal paws of the bear resembled human hands and the massive skull was quite intimidating. I later learned that a local bear hunter had reportedly shot a dangerous nuisance bear, but not had not killed it outright. The wounded bear had then escaped, but eventually died next to the trail.

I dropped my pack and walked a short distance down the trail to a river crossing. The North Fork Salmon River was swollen with spring snow melt, making it unsafe to cross. It began to drizzle again; it had been raining off and on all day. I had no choice but to turn around and look for a suitable place to camp for the night. Wouldn't you know it; the only level campsite was only a short distance from the bear skeleton.

I certainly was in bear country. There were tracks in the sand and mud all along the riverbank. I came across a bear footprint so large that I could step into it with my size 12 vibram-soled boots. It wasn’t a fresh track, but it was at the base of an ancient cedar in the very grove of trees where I was going to have to camp for the night. All of the large cedar trees in the area bore the claw marks of a bear marking its territory. The claw marks were so high on the tree trunks that I could barely touch them with my fingertips when standing on the tips of my toes. This was a very large bear and I was going to have to spend the night in its territory in a dark grove of trees along a raging river. I took some comfort in the fact that the tracks and markings might have been made by the bear that I discovered along the trail before it died.

I was nervous to say the least. I am always on my guard when trekking through bear country. After setting up my tent, I fired up my camp stove and cooked a hot meal. To minimize odors that might attract bears, I hung my nylon food bag from a high tree limb some distance away from the camp. I then gathered up as much firewood as I could find for the long night ahead. I found some cedar bark, which is good for getting a campfire started under soggy conditions. Once the fire was going, I stacked damp wood around the perimeter of the fire pit so that it would slowly dry. Heat from the flames warmed my face and hands and the warm glow perked up my spirits. As long as the fire burned, I felt relatively safe. I tended the flames late into the night until I finally ran out of wood.

Without the comfort of a warming fire, I had no choice but to crawl into my tent and try and get some sleep. I lay awake in my sleeping bag for a long time, listening to the night sounds. I focused intently on every strange noise I heard outside my tent. To get to sleep, I focused my attention on the current rushing over the river rocks. At times, the river made haunting sounds as it rolled big rocks along its course. At some point, I fell off into a deep sleep.

Then it started; the most terrifying experience of my life. I was awakened by a mysterious roar. It resembled the sound of a helicopter hovering directly over my tent. The previous day, before entering the wilderness, I had heard the "whop-whop-whop" sound of a dual-rotor logging helicopter in the distance. Helicopters, like all motorized vehicles, are prohibited in designated wilderness areas. Rationally, I knew it was highly unlikely that the sound was emanating from a helicopter hovering over my tent, yet a whirling windlike howl filled my ears in the predawn darkness. I have never been so frightened in all my life. I had spent countless nights camping in wilderness areas across the West and never had I experienced anything like this.

As I opened my eyes, I realized that I couldn't move, or I was too afraid to move. I was virtually paralyzed. I lay rigid inside my sleeping bag and prayed that whatever was outside my tent would just go away. My heart pounded like a drum. My panicked mind was reeling, as I struggled to classify what I was experiencing. Frenzied thoughts of UFOs, alien abductions, and even Sasquatch raced through my mind. I don't know how long the mind-bending experience lasted. It was all so surreal. I started to hyperventilate. Death seemed imminent.

Suddenly, the eerie moaning stopped and the bizarre incident ceased almost as abruptly as it had begun. I could hear the roaring river again, along with the pitter-patter of raindrops bouncing off the top of my nylon tent.

The paralysis ended immediately and I gasped in a lungful of air. I finally managed to sit up in my sleeping bag, my body trembling in shock. I sat motionless, lost in my thoughts, wondering what had just happened to me. The entire experience was much too real to have been a nightmare. As I relived the terrifying event in my mind again and again, the first light of dawn illuminated my tent.

I arose, hastily packed my gear, and then marched out of there as fast as I could. I retreated from the wilderness, returning to Idlewild Campground--back to familiar territory. Upon my arrival on May 18, (1980) I learned from a fellow camper that Mt. St. Helens had erupted earlier that day at 8:32 a.m., killing fifty-seven people. The destructive power and devastation of the eruption served to distract me from my disturbing predawn experience. Though I prefer the isolation and quietude of the wilderness, I spent the remaining two weeks of my vacation camped in this developed campground, never venturing back into Marble Mountain Wilderness.

During my stay in this idyllic area, I made many new friends. I met mountain climbers, backpackers, gold prospectors, miners, kayakers, a hermit, and a colorful assortment of local hippies living on gold mining claims and growing weed. All in all, it was an epic adventure for me. I will never forget it. Idlewild Campground became a restful sanctuary for me at that moment in time. Where the North Fork Salmon River wrapped around my camp, the soothing sound of the water lulled me into a peaceful sleep every night.

Many years later I began to understand the significance of my anomalous Marble Mountain experience, although I realize that I will never understand it fully. I have come to accept that there will always be that which is unknown to me--that which is "the Great Mystery."

I now also know that the eerie howl that aroused me on that fateful night resembled that of a bullroarer. A bullroarer is a thin, feather-shaped piece of wood that, when whirled in the air by means of an attached string, makes a loud humming or roaring sound. Bullroarers produce a range of infrasonics, extremely low frequency sound waves that are picked up by the cochlea (labyrinth) of the ear, stimulating a wide array of euphoric trance states. The bullroarer dates back to the Stone Age, and is probably the most widespread among all sacred instruments. With over sixty names, it is universally linked to thunder and spirit beings in the sky.

The first time I actually heard a bullroarer was in December of 1991. Elisia and I were traveling through New Mexico on a cross-country tour, promoting my newly released book, The Shamanic Drum. By chance we happened upon the annual Shalako festival, which is a series of dances and ceremonies conducted by the Zuni people near the winter solstice in which they celebrate the return of the sun and pray for rain, growth, and fertility. Shalako is named for its masked dancers who embody kachinas or ancestral spirits. Kachinas mediate between humanity and the gods of rain and prosperity in a sacred ritual performance that ensures the transformation of winter’s death into spring’s rebirth. Standing ten-feet-tall and resembling birds, the colorful Shalako kachinas dance rhythmically, clacking their long beaks together. They come to the human realm to collect the people’s prayers and take them back to the spirit realm.

On the day of the Shalako ceremony, the six kachinas, one for each of the four cardinal directions plus zenith and nadir, entered Zuni Pueblo at dusk. Each Shalako deity was escorted by a group of singers and an attendant whirling a bullroarer over his head. As the first procession filed into the plaza, the sound of the bullroarer elicited an intense feeling of déjà vu, triggering memories of my traumatic experience in Marble Mountain Wilderness. Reflecting on my ordeal created anew the conditions for revelation, learning, and reintegration. I finally realized what had transpired on that life-altering night in 1980. Although I didn’t know it back then, my guardian or tutelary spirit was "calling" me. Chosen by the spirit of a bear, my shamanic initiation had begun and, like a sluggish bear emerging from the slumber of winter hibernation, I gradually awakened to the knowing of my true self.

I have since had other initiation experiences, such as a shamanic death-and-rebirth. However, none of these subsequent experiences have impacted me as much as my Marble Mountain experience did in 1980.

That mystical encounter with Spirit shattered my ego, cracking me wide open. Shamanic initiation serves as a transformer--it causes a radical change in the initiate forever. It is typically the final step in becoming a shamanic healer, a process that is facilitated by the aspirant’s shamanic teachers as part of a training program. However, initiation may also be spontaneous, set in motion by Spirit’s intervention into the initiate’s life. It is probably the most powerful and least understood of all forms of spiritual awakening.

This excerpt also appeared in the 2015 book "Shamanic Transformations: True Stories of the Moment ofAwakening." It is a collection of inspiring accounts from contemporary shamans about their first moments of spiritual epiphany. Contributing writers include Sandra Ingerman, Hank Wesselman, John Perkins, Alberto Villoldo, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Tom Cowan, Linda Star Wolf, and others.

Entering Marble Mountain Wilderness