Sunday, October 23, 2022
Drum Circle Facilitation Issues and Challenges
Sunday, September 25, 2022
The Shaman's Drum
Sunday, September 11, 2022
World Tree Meditation
Sunday, July 10, 2022
Pilgrimage in the Modern World
Sunday, May 29, 2022
"The Shamanic Bones of Zen"
Manuel speaks in deeply personal rather than theoretical terms about the underlying shamanic reality of Zen practice. Such awareness is crucial for the development of contemporary Western Zen. Displaying reverence for the Zen tradition, creativity in expressing her own intuitive seeing, and profound gratitude for the guidance of spirit, Manuel models the path of a seeker unafraid to plumb the depths of her ancestry and face the totality of the present. The book conveys guidance for readers interested in Zen practice including ritual, preparing sanctuaries, engaging in chanting practices, and deepening embodiment with ceremony. The Shamanic Bones of Zen will turn your conception of Zen inside out.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Joseph Rael's Sound Peace Chambers
Sunday, March 6, 2022
Give Peace a Chant
Like many mantras, this one begins with "Om." The word "Om" is believed to constitute the primal sound from which the universe constantly emanates. Chanting "Om" attunes us to the eternal oneness of all that is, unifying body, mind and spirit. The word "shanti" means a deep and profound level of peace. The meaning of "Om Shanti Shanti Shanti" is "Om, peace, peace, peace" -- "peace of mind, peace in speech, and peace in the body." It is also believed to harmonize the three lokas or cosmic realms: heaven, earth and the underworld.
When pronouncing "Om Shanti," the "Om" should be allowed to resonate throughout the body including the cavities in the head. The "a" in the word "shanti" should be long and drawn-out like in the word "father." The "a" is two beats long. The "t" in the word "shanti" should be pronounced pressing the tongue against the teeth; this sounds different than the English version of "t". Breathe in through the nose and voice the sounds as you exhale through the mouth. When chanted with love, devotion and sincerity, the positive effects are greatly accentuated. Send that positive energy like a beam of light to the people of Ukraine. Imagine that light enveloping and protecting them. Click here to listen to the mantra pronunciation and performance. Here are 22 meaningful ways we can help Ukraine.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Drumming for Peace
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Native American Gourd Rattles
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Solstice Blessings to Everyone
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Contemporary Korean Shamanism
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Laguna Pueblo Author Leslie Marmon Silko
I will tell you something about stories,
[he said]
They aren't just for entertainment.
Don't be fooled
They are all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off illness and death.
You don't have anything
if you don't have the stories.
Their evil is mighty
but it can't stand up to our stories.
So they try to destroy the stories
let the stories be confused or forgotten
They would like that
They would be happy
Because we would be defenseless then.(1)
The above passage is from Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko's acclaimed 1977 novel Ceremony. The excerpt emphasizes the essential role that storytelling plays within the Pueblo culture. It also sums up the repeated attempts of colonial invaders to erase Pueblo culture by destroying its ceremonies. Despite these attempts, which began in 1540 and continued until the 1930s, the core elements of Pueblo myth and ritual have survived. However, as Silko reveals in Ceremony, the years from World War II to the present have brought new threats to the Pueblos, which, although more subtle than the early Spanish conquests, are even more insidious, and must be confronted if the Pueblo culture is to survive.
In Ceremony, Silko portrays the endangered state of the Laguna reservation following World War II. The land has been damaged by runoff from the uranium mining, and a generation of young Pueblo men has been devastated by the war. Ceremony tells the story of Tayo, a wounded returning World War II veteran of mixed Laguna-white ancestry following a short stint at a Los Angeles VA hospital. He is returning to the poverty-stricken Laguna reservation, continuing to suffer from battle fatigue, and is haunted by memories of his cousin Rocky who died in the conflict during the Bataan Death March of 1942. His initial escape from pain leads him to alcoholism, but his Old Grandma and mixed-blood Navajo medicine man Betonie help him through Native ceremonies to develop a greater understanding of the world and his place as a Laguna man.
In his search for healing, Tayo seeks a cure from Ku'oosh, the old medicine man. Ku'oosh realizes that he cannot heal Tayo because, "Some things we can't cure like we used to...not since the white people came." While the return to the old ways helps Tayo, something else is needed to complete his healing ceremony. This is where Betonie, a new kind of healer, comes in. Betonie still wears the traditional clothes of a medicine man and uses the traditional paraphernalia, such as prayer sticks, gourd rattles and sacred herbs. But Betonie also uses contemporary items as healing tools, such as coke bottles, phone books and old gas station calendars with pictures of Indians on them, all common objects on the reservation. When Tayo questions the use of such non-traditional items for his ceremonies, Betonie responds, "In the old days it was simple. A medicine person could get by without all these things. But nowadays..."
Betonie provides Tayo with the blend of tools and faith Tayo needs in order to undertake the completion of the ceremony, which can cure both himself and his people. The key to survival of Pueblo culture, as Silko demonstrates in Ceremony, may be found in allowing traditional Pueblo ceremonies to change to meet the present-day realities of reservation life. It's in this fusion of old and new that the Pueblos may find the healing they so desperately need after suffering nearly 500 years of colonialism.
Ceremony gained immediate acceptance when returning Vietnam war veterans took to the novel's theme of coping, healing and reconciliation between races and people that share the trauma of military actions. It was largely on the strength of this work that literary critic Alan R. Velie named Silko one of his Four Native American Literary Masters, along with N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor and James Welch. Her publications include Laguna Woman: Poems (1974), Ceremony (1977), Storyteller (1981), Almanac of the Dead (1991), Gardens in the Dunes (1999) and The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir (2010).
1. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (Viking Press, 1977), p. 2.
Sunday, June 20, 2021
The Summer Solstice: Planting Seeds of Good Cause
Creating Reality
We are creating our reality with our thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and more. When we are oblivious to the power that we all share to create our collective reality, that power slips away from us and our reality becomes a nightmare. We begin to feel like victims of a dark and chaotic creation that we are unable to influence or change. We are inundated with negative world events that create anxiety, fear and hopelessness. The only way to end this dreadful reality is to awaken to the fact that it is imaginary, and recognize our ability to imagine a better story, one that the universe will work with us to manifest.
We cannot "restore" our broken reality without "restorying" our life. It is easy to create in the world that everyone believes to be true, the collective story of humanity. It is easy to reproduce and replicate the reality of the world as we know it; in fact, it is automatic. It requires no thought or awareness. We can only change our collective story by changing the way we think--by changing our beliefs, expectations and assumptions which keep us stuck in a limited perspective of our personal and social reality. Those aspects of our experience that are most enduring are the effect of habitual expectations and beliefs, or in other words, what we focus our attention on.
It is through our attention that we influence and direct the aspects of our experience and the world around us. What we pay attention to becomes what we know as ourselves and our world, for energy flows where attention goes. As positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi points out in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, "We create ourselves by how we invest this energy. Memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under our control; hence, attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience." What we focus our attention on is what our life becomes--the clearer the intention, the greater the impact.
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Malidoma Patrice Somé: Nature, Ritual and Community
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Ritual Drumming: Invoking the Spirits
All elements of drum music such as timbre, rhythm, volume and tempo play an important role in shamanic ritual. By using different parts of the drumstick to play on different parts of the drum, different timbres can be produced for transmitting different meanings. Different rhythms transmit different meanings and enable the practitioner to contact different beings in different realms of the cosmos. Volume and tempo arouse feelings in the listener and communicate symbolic meanings directly as aural sense experience.
A practitioner may have a repertory of established rhythms or improvise a new rhythm, uniquely indicated for the situation. The drumming is not restricted to a regular tempo, but may pause, speed up or slow down with irregular accents. The practitioner may stop playing altogether, or suddenly hoist the drum skyward and bang it violently, throwing the disease into the heavens; returning it to the spirit world.
Creating effective rituals
Ritual drumming is a universal way to address the spirit world and provide some kind of fundamental change in an individual's consciousness or in the ambience of a gathering. It is designed to engage the spirit world in helping us to do what we are unable to do for ourselves. With a strong connection to the powers of the spirit world, ritual becomes an effective tool for restoring or changing the status quo. By creating effective ritual, we can skillfully engage spirit in the processes we are involved in like healing, therapy or actualizing our goals. Potent rituals have similar foundational elements. Key elements of this foundation include:
1. Intention is the first element of effective ritual. You should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. Without a clear intention or desired outcome, the energy created in the ritual is poorly structured with little or no direction. Articulating your desired outcome is how you channel the energy of the performance toward the intended objective. One good way to think about it is by asking yourself what you want to happen as a result of the ritual. What effect do you want it to have on individuals, community and the world?
2. The creation of sacred space. Sacred space is that territory that we enter for spiritual and inner work. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, having a special place in your home reserved for quiet introspection, reflection and spiritual connection can nourish your soul. A sacred space can be any location in your home where you can be by yourself and be fully self-expressed. Be creative with this, but find a special place for you to go at least once a day.
Consider setting up an altar that is appropriate for the purpose of your ritual or ceremony. Although an altar is not essential, it provides us with a focus to pray, meditate and listen. An altar is any structure upon which we place offerings and sacred objects that have spiritual or cosmological significance. It represents the center and axis of your sacred space. A simple altar can be created with a cloth, a candle and other symbols that mean something to you.
It is important to cleanse your sacred space before starting any spiritual work. Cleanse the space by smudging and/or spraying holy water around the perimeter. Preparing a purified sacred space shifts our awareness from ordinary waking consciousness to a more centered, meditative state. Ritual preparation awakens our connection to the web of life and structures a boundary that separates the sacred from the ordinary and profane.
3. The opening of sacred space. After preparing a purified sacred space, you may wish to ritually open the space. The opening of sacred space is essentially an invocation; calling in the spiritual energies of the seven directions: East, South, West, North, Up, Down and Within. Calling in the directions not only aligns you with their power, but is a spiritual activity in and of itself. The orientation embeds you in the living web of life, yielding greater awareness and perspective. It imparts a comprehensive recollection of the basic experience of being fully human. The ritual grounds you completely in the present moment to begin your day or to begin a specific spiritual practice.
Though there are no rules or restrictions, on most occasions a sacred circle is cast in a sun-wise direction. I would suggest you start in the East where the sun rises. Strike your drum four times to open a portal in the East to the spirit world. Using words, chanting or song, invite the benevolent spirit powers associated with that direction to participate and assist in the ritual or ceremony. Welcome the spirits with an open heart and mind. Some people will whistle or make animal sounds to call in spirit helpers. Trust your instincts and intuition in this process.
Pause after calling the spirit helpers of the East and listen for any guidance or wisdom that direction has to share. The spirits will always respond when you call them. Sound does not just travel out into oblivion. There is a call and then a response. Pay attention to any guidance that comes to you. Communication may enter your awareness as a flash of color in your mind's eye, a visual symbol, a tingling of the spine or an inaudible sound heard deep within your soul. It may be visual, auditory, intuitive or some combination of these. Sometimes it is just a knowing that your helping spirits and guides are now around you. You may feel energy flowing into your hands, feet or arms, or showering down through your crown. When I channel spirit energy, I often feel chills and goose-bumps.
Next, pivot around clockwise and repeat the same procedure to invoke the spirits of the South, the West and the North. After that, invoke Father Sky above and Mother Earth below. When invoking Father Sky, reach to the heavens; when invoking Mother Earth, reach down and touch the ground where you stand.
Finally, face the center of the circle and bring your hands to your heart to invite the spirit of Within. Call upon the spirit of divine unity that flows from within the center of your being where the six directions meet. Welcome the gifts of balance, oneness and connection with all things, for all things are one and all things are related.
4. The induction of altered states. Altered states of consciousness are induced through intense rhythmic drumming. An altered state of consciousness is any state of mind that is significantly different from normal waking consciousness. Altered states produce deeper self-awareness; allow us to connect with the power of the universe, to externalize our own knowledge and to internalize our answers.
5. The closure of sacred space. When you have finished your ritual, sacred space should be closed. Follow the same procedure as for the opening, but in reverse order. Begin by thanking the spiritual energies of Within, Mother Earth and Father Sky, and then the North, West, South and East in a counterclockwise movement. Play your drum to say farewell to the spirits. As you drum, give thanks to all your relations for the needs met. The phrase "all my relations" is used at the end of a prayer in many shamanic traditions, for all living things share in the relationships of life on Earth. Express your gratitude to the helping spirits for assisting you and send them off, releasing their energies to the seven directions. Remember that drumming opens portals to the spirit world, draws spirit in, and opens you up to receive it.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Beau Dick: The Legendary Indigenous Woodcarver
Beau Dick was a Canadian art legend and enigmatic carver from Alert Bay, a small remote village on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. The Kwakwaka'wakw artist was a heredity chief and cultural activist whose generous and prolific nature exemplified the spirit of potlatch (a gift-giving feast). His remarkable masks have been celebrated across the global art scene as vibrant expressions of West Coast Indigenous culture and a sophisticated crossover into the contemporary art world. Dick had an unprecedented ability to tap into the collective memory of his people and breathe new life into age-old traditions.
Born Benjamin Kerry Dick in Kingcome Inlet, British Columbia in 1955, he first learned the art of traditional woodcarving from his father and grandfather at the age of six. While his carving career began as an assistant to his family in creating totem poles, one of which remains among the world's tallest, Dick's calling lay in making masks. His talent for combining traditional Indigenous techniques with contemporary influences, such as Japanese anime and Mexican art, makes him a standout in the art world, with critics citing him as "one of the most important artists since contact."
The late carver is the subject of the acclaimed 2017 documentary film "Maker of Monsters: The Extraordinary Life of Beau Dick," which follows his life, career and activism. Written, directed, and produced by curator, author, and filmmaker LaTiesha Fazakas and Natalie Boll, the film gives an intimate look into the life of one of Canada's greatest artists. Beau Dick worked within an ancient tradition and rose to the ranks of international success within the world of contemporary art while never forgetting his roots. This moving film captures the essence of Beau Dick and his mysterious enigma as an artist who symbolized Canada's history with the First Nations and the ethical dilemmas faced in reconciling with that colonialist history. Beau was able to use his celebrity to call attention to the injustices done to his people and the environment.
Even in his activism, Beau relied on his culture to inform him on how to be political. He didn't simply stage protests; he enacted ancient ceremonies, creating a public display infused with spirituality. He challenged the Canadian government on his own terms by using traditional Kwakwaka'wakw political protocol, with slight adjustments for the contemporary situation. He performed a traditional copper-breaking ceremony to shame the Canadian government on two occasions. First, on the steps of the Parliament Building in Victoria, BC, and then one year later on the steps of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Striking stone against metal, Dick and his entourage broke large copper shields into pieces. They placed the copper fragments in a folded piece of canvas artwork and left it on the steps.
The copper-breaking ceremony is a spiritual and political act that had not been performed in over 100 years. The ritual was a call to action in dialogue with the Indigenous grassroots movement, Idle No More, and a revival of a shaming rite prohibited for over 60 years under the Indian Act. Copper-breaking was once practiced by First Nations across the Pacific Northwest. Endowed with supernatural power, copper occupies a central position within potlatch ceremonies. Since copper was highly valuable and expensive, breaking it represented an act of shaming someone after a breach of law or protocol.
"Maker of Monsters" illuminates a man whose art and life continue to transcend expectations and boundaries. Beau was more than an artist. He was a leader, an activist, a teacher, a humanitarian and a virtuoso who was larger than life. When he was asked what gets him excited in the world, he thought for a moment, then answered, "Creating an opportunity for somebody else to do something." Watch "Maker of Monsters" on Tubi TV.
Sunday, December 20, 2020
Liberating Ourselves from the Power of Darkness
The most important thing you can do is to smudge yourself and your home each day. Smudging is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to dispel negative energy. Sage, cedar and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging. To smudge, light the dried 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.
Practice white light cleansing. Light--imagined or real--is a powerful cleanser. White light can be called upon by anyone for cleansing, healing and protection from negative energies. Begin by finding somewhere that you can sit undisturbed for several minutes, and then do some mindful breathing to calm and focus your mind. The most basic way to do mindful breathing is to breathe naturally and simply focus on your breath as you inhale and exhale. Next, visualize a sphere of white light emanating from your heart. Just allow it to expand outward until it completely fills and surrounds you. Envision the white light purifying your body and displacing any negative or foreign energy. Really focus on seeing it clearly in your mind and keep building it up so it is brilliant and glowing. You can keep expanding the light, sending peace and love out into infinity.
Use protection stones. Protection stones can help dispel negative energies and shield you from psychic, emotional and physical attack. Black tourmaline repels lower, harmful frequencies and is good for general all-round protection. Black obsidian is a good grounding stone to wear in your aura each day, shielding you from negativity, sorcery and spirit attachments. Jet helps clear internalized emotional energy. Apache tears transmute negative energy. These gemstones can be obtained as small tumbled stones which can easily be carried in your pocket every day. To protect your entire home, place black obsidian in the four main corners of your house. Cleanse your stones frequently with holy water.
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Weaving Music into Art
Sunday, November 29, 2020
What is Smudging, and How is it Done?
Next, use a feather or your hands to draw the smoke over your heart, throat, and face to open the energy channels of your body and raise your personal power or windhorse. According to Mongolian shamanism, windhorse, or hiimori, can be increased through smudging, drumming, and other forms of shamanic practice in order to accomplish significant aims.
In Tuva, juniper smoke is sacred and an intricate part of everyday life. Sacred smoke encircles the shaman’s patient, family, and yurt or sacred space. It is the smoke of blessing, purifier, prayer sender, and also the extractor of disease. Smoke is also one of the foods for spirits. The spirits eat just as people eat. Tuvan shamans believe that "if the spirits are not fed, the ritual may not go well."
The following is a list of herbs that I use in my shamanic practice. You can use them independently or mix them together in a smudge bowl. Each plant imparts specific qualities when burned. Remember to thank the plant or tree spirit whose body made the cleansing possible. To assist you in creating sacred space:
1. Smudge with the smoke of cedar or juniper for protection, deep cleansing, and the dispelling of negativity.
2. Smudge with white sage or common sagebrush for cleansing, blessing, and for calling in the specific spirits that you require to aid you in the task at hand.
3. Burn sweet grass, the breath of the Earth Mother, to attract and draw in the helping spirits that are called upon.
4. Use copal resin, the blood of trees, to honor the Tree People for providing our first breath, which is spirit, and to call upon the ancestral spirits for their oversight, insight, and protection.
5. Burn Palo Santo, which translated means "holy wood," as an energy cleanser and to attract sacredness and benevolence to a space.
6. Offer tobacco smoke or a pinch of dry tobacco to carry your prayers to the Loom of Creation, thereby reweaving the pattern of existence in accordance with those prayers.