Joining Sacred Pipes For Standing Rock

"Drumbeat of the Rainbow Fire"

Joining Sacred Pipes for Standing Rock. It is a BIG WEEKEND at Standing Rock this weekend, and people are praying for the situation, all over the world. There are many in America and Europe who are pipe carriers, pipe holders - we can all help to hold sacred space. If you can, join your pipes each day and make prayers for the Water Protectors between the 4th and the 6th of December. I know many of you reading this will not have pipes, but you can still help in a sacred manner. This is a critical time to unite in prayer for all our relations. Aho Mitakuye Oyasin!

Trickster Times

Print by Bill Lewis

Right now, we're living in Trickster Times. Because when civilizations start to become moribund; when social, economic and political systems stagnate, and empires become degenerate and unresponsive to the needs of the people, in walks Trickster to shake it all up. Trickster is the catalyst, the disruptor who triggers the breaking down of the old order. The Trickster we get is often, in Jungian terms, a reflection of the cultural Shadow. When you identify the contemporary Trickster(s) in your culture, you'll discover the nature of the contemporary cultural Shadow. It's anger, hate, alienation, xenophobia, and soul-killing fear. The cultural Shadow is part of who we are, and we all have to take responsibility for it. Read more.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Releases Documentary

In the midst of federal government deliberations over the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has released a short film titled "Mni Wiconi: The Stand at Standing Rock," a new, eight-minute film exploring the nearly eight-month battle to stop construction of the pipeline on sacred tribal lands.

"This film tells the story of our prayerful and peaceful demonstrations by water protectors that have motivated thousands of tribal members and non-Native people around the world to take a stand," said the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Chairman, Dave Archambault II in a release. "In it, you hear the voices of people fighting for their lives, because water is life."

From Slave to Shaman

Guarani Shaman

Many people in today's world are being called by spirit to become shamans. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of nature, of spirit, and of self. We live in a culture that has severed itself from nature and spirit. Humans have lost touch with the spirit world and the wisdom of inner knowing. The spirits, however, have not forgotten us. They are calling us to a path of environmental sanity, to rejoining the miraculous cycle of nature. Taking responsibility for our lives involves breaking out of this robotic existence and taking responsibility for Life as a whole; for the evolution of our societies into something vastly more meaningful, creative and joyous than the moribund system we have today. Read more.

The 7 Keys to Accessing Shamanic Consciousness

Shamanism has achieved a dramatic modern resurgence. Recent studies by some of the world's foremost scholars on shamanism reveal that the contemporary world still hungers for transcendent experiences because the shamanic narrative is hard-wired in us all. Study results demonstrate that the cross-cultural manifestations of shamanism and its contemporary appeal are rooted in innate functions of the brain, mind, and consciousness. Many people in today's world are being called by spirit to become shamans. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of nature, of spirit, and of self. Learn the fundamentals of this sacred ancient practice in this in-depth guide to shamanism.

Meet the Shamans of Siberia

Long suppressed by the government, Siberian shamanism has experienced an unprecedented revival following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the number of shamans continues to rise. In a bewildering urban landscape where long traditions of nomadic lifestyles are things of the past, the ancient beliefs of shamanism serve to fill a spiritual void. Siberian shamans can cure illnesses, play a horse's fiddle and control the weather. Some of them can travel over long distances and even levitate by hovering over the birch trees. Meet the Shamans of Siberia.

Sending Out a Sound

Sound is regarded as one of the most effective ways of establishing connections with the spirit realm, since it travels through space, permeates visual and physical barriers, and conveys information from the unseen world. Sound, therefore, is a means of "relationship" as well as a "transformation" of energy.

Sound does not just travel out into oblivion. There is a call and then a response. When Iroquoian people of present-day central and upstate New York discuss "sending out a sound," they mention blowing on a conch shell and using the turtle rattle to attract attention, signaling the start of a ceremony, notifying the community, and drawing the Creator's participation. The conch is sounded at the beginning of important rituals because the sound is believed to have the ability to drown out any negative words or noises that might disturb or disrupt the harmonious atmosphere. The sound of the conch is understood as the source of all existence -- a cosmic womb, for when the conch is blown, it is said to emulate the primordial sound from which all else emanates.

According to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), when the turtle rattle is shaken, "the earth stops to listen." The turtle rattle is a symbol of the world on the turtle's back, Turtle Island. The Creator is said to have loved snapping turtle best. When Mother Earth hears the sound of the turtle rattle, all of creation awakens and moves to its shaking beat. The crack of a turtle rattle, which shakes the earth, draws the attention of the spirits at the beginning of a ceremony or meeting. "To Shake the Earth" is a metaphor often used in Iroquoian communities to describe the purpose of the turtle rattle.

The Link Between Shamanism & Quantum Physics

The key to understanding the shaman's world is to realize that the universe is made of vibrational energy: that it is a single, flowing, rhythmic being. 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 shamanic drumming. The shaman's drum is a tool for altering the vibrational state of the shaman and/or the patient or a particular situation in the community.

The quantum theory of physics states that our material world is created over and over before our very eyes each instant we perceive it. We can change reality just by changing the ways we perceive it. Our world is not real. It is a fantastic illusion of genetic and cultural imprinting. There is only energy -- infinite and creative. We can't resist energy because we are energy. When we practice sacred drumming, we feel that primal energy. We become one with what we are made of. Read more.

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 Skin: The Art of Sacred Tattoos

Tattooed Maori

It has been estimated that 500 years ago perhaps 1,000 indigenous cultures practiced tattooing. Today, most of these groups have completely vanished from the face of the earth, and only a few continue to persist in the remote areas of Asia, South America, Africa, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Only fragments of this once rich heritage of body art remain in our modern world, but they allow us to gain a glimpse of a culture that connected tattoo, ritual, religion, myth, and nature from which indigenous tattoo culture ultimately sprang.

Why was it important for indigenous tattoo artists to create permanent designs on the body? Were they made for purely aesthetic impact or for other more sacred reasons? What deeper significance did these elements have for their makers and owners? And what did they communicate to others? Read more.

The Bridge to Eternity

The spiritual traditions of the Hopi, Cherokee, Tibetan, Hindu, and other cultures teach us that there are seven vibratory centers located along the center of the human body. Known as chakras, each vortex of energy is associated with a particular function of consciousness. They are the interface among the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of one's being. While the sacred teachings of many cultures recognize seven chakras, Amazon and Andean shamans teach that there are nine chakras. Seven of them are within the physical body, and two are outside the body. The eighth chakra is called the Wiracocha, which is the name of the Creator or Great Spirit (the word means "sacred source"). This chakra resides within the Luminous Energy Field (LEF) and hovers above the head like a golden spinning sun. It is our connection with the Great Spirit, the place where God dwells within us. When we shift our awareness to the eighth chakra, we experience a deep union not only with all of Creation, but with the Creator. Read more.

Music as Medicine

Burundian Drummers

Imprinted into the fabric of reality is a fluidity which at the underlying core is comprised of vibration. Just as letters, words and phrases carry vibrational information which transmutes out into our greater universe, so too does music. There may be no greater language with the power to break all universal vibrational communication boundaries than that of music. Music plays a vital role in human culture; it is a key social technology for building and sustaining community. Theoretical neuroscientist and philosopher Walter Freeman tells us that a "significant discovery by our remote ancestors may have been the use of music and dance for bonding in groups larger than nuclear families…" In aural and oral cultures, music and sound would have been a vital element of human life and ritual culture. Ritual in many human cultures involves music, and it often provides the primary structure for activities that construct meaning. Ritual music 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. Experiences of ego loss and trance are important for integrating the individual into the group and maintaining community, and music is a significant element of such ritual activity. Read more.

What is a Shaman?

According to the Encyclopedia of Shamanism, a shaman is a practitioner who has developed the mastery of "accessing altered states of consciousness" and "mediating between the needs of the spirit world and those of the physical world in a way that can be understood by the community ...." Shamanism is the intentional effort to acquire and nurture ongoing relationships with personal helping spirits by journeying into realms where the spirits dwell. The reason for developing personal relationships with spirit helpers is to gain wisdom, healing techniques, and other vital information that can benefit the community. It is this intimate relationship with spirit and the use of trance states that distinguishes the shaman from other practitioners.

Shamanism represents a universal conceptual framework found among indigenous tribal humans. It includes the belief that the natural world has two aspects: ordinary everyday awareness, formed by our habitual behaviors, patterns of belief, social norms, and cultural conditioning; and a second non-ordinary awareness accessed through altered states, or trance, induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. This second-order awareness can be developed over time or appear all at once, but once it is discerned the world is never the same. According to shamanic theory, the ordinary and non-ordinary worlds interact continuously, and a shamanic practitioner can gain knowledge about how to alter ordinary reality by taking direct action in the non-ordinary aspect of the world. Read more.

Sioux Nation Defends Its Waters from Pipeline

Elder Addressing Crowd

According to the Standing Rock Sioux Chairman, the Dakota Access Pipeline "Is Threatening the Lives of My Tribe." In North Dakota, indigenous activists are continuing to protest the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which they say would threaten to contaminate the Missouri River. More than a thousand indigenous activists from dozens of different tribes across the country have traveled to the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, which was launched on April 1 by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The protests have so far shut down construction along parts of the pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has also sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over its approval of the pipeline. Read more at Democracy Now. Photo by Shane Balkowitsch: Dakota Access Pipeline Native American protest site, on Highway 1806 near Cannonball, ND.

Battling for the Earth: the Huicholes

In the fight for the land against mining multinationals, the Huicholes represent us all. They are the last Peyote Guardians.

In his two-hour indie documentary, Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians, Hernán Vilchez captures one of the last Mesoamerican civilizations to preserve their distinctive way of life in an ever-globalizing world – still able, until now. The Huicholes tribe has been a largely resilient culture that lives in parallel to contemporary Mexico. Carbon dating proves their people’s existence long before Christ and their beliefs predate those of mainstream religions, practicing an early form of animistic and pantheistic mysticism.

Every year they perform an 800-kilometre pilgrimage to the top of the Cerro Quemado, a sacred mountain in the fertile semi-desert area of Catorce, where the hallucinogenic Peyote cactus grows. Eating the fleshy gourd 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.

The earth where the cacti cultivate has evaded drought – which is widespread in surrounding regions – but is now falling foul to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). N.A.F.T.A. grants mining concessions to Canadian multinationals out to quarry natural riches in the Huicholes’ holy land. Read more.

Huichol Shaman photo by Kila: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huichol_shaman.jpg

The Power of Harmonic Reiki Drumming

Indigenous cultures have come together in community percussion circles for thousands of years. Although most of us did not grow up in an indigenous rhythmic musical tradition, we can still tap into the healing power of the circle. By creating a circle, the participants are structuring a pattern that will contain, focus, and amplify the energy and intention of the gathering. In a Reiki drumming circle, a group of Reiki practitioners gather together to create a rhythmic container that channels the outpouring of energy toward the circle's intended outcome. The objective is for everyone to play in unison, which facilitates entrainment, synchronizing each participant's heart and metabolic rhythm with the drum beat. The energy created when the group finds harmonic unison is greater than the individual components. There is power in drumming alone, but that power recombines and multiplies on many simultaneous levels in a group of drummers. The drums draw individual energies together, unifying them into a consolidated force that can be channeled toward the circle's intended goal. Read more.

Music and its Role in Ritual

Shamanism and music combined thousands of years ago. By observing nature, shamans perceived that the power of sound could be used to help and heal others. The first drums and musical instruments were put to shamanic use, as were many of the early singing traditions. According to folklorist Kira Van Deusen, "In a shaman's world music operates in several ways. It helps the shaman and other participants in a ceremony to locate and enter the inner world, opening the inner, spiritual ear and eye. Musical sound calls helping spirits and transports the shaman on the journey. Both the rhythm and the timbre of musical sound help heal the patient through the effects of specific frequencies and musical styles on the human body."

Music is an essential tool in shamanic ritual and healing work. Music is the carrier of the specific intention or desired outcome of the ritual. Music is used to contain the energetic or spiritual aspect of the sacred space, which is defined physically by the assembled people who participate. Dance and song propel the ritual process forward by providing a vehicle for self-expression within the sacred space. Together the musicians create the necessary container that channels the energy generated by the performance in ways that the shaman can guide toward the ritual's intended outcome.

Three elements are constantly interacting in communal healing rites: the shaman who guides the flow and pattern of the ritual, the musicians who contain the sacred space, and the gathered people who participate. Interaction between all three elements is necessary to maintain the energy, flow and intention of the ritual.

Music is also used to crack open the part of the self that holds emotions in check. For example, in funeral rites among the Dagara people of West Africa, drumming and singing are used to open the mourners to grief. Grief is then channeled in such a way that it will convey the newly deceased soul to the afterlife. Without the help of the drummers, musicians and singers, the powerful emotional energy cannot be unleashed. If not channeled properly, grief is useless to the dead and dangerous to the living. According to Christina Pratt, author of An Encyclopedia of Shamanism, "This musical container of the ritual space must be maintained continuously. The musicians do not rest as long as the ritual continues, though the ritual may last one to four full days."

Bolivia's Law of Mother Earth

Imagine a lake having the same rights as a landowner. Or a condor with the same rights as a child. Under Bolivia's historic Law of Mother Earth ("Ley de Derechos de La Madre Tierra"), signed into law in 2010, all entities in nature have equal rights to humans. The law holds the land as sacred and holds it as a living system with rights to be protected from exploitation. Based on Andean spiritual principles, the law was enacted in an effort to curb climate change and the exploitation of Bolivia's natural resources. It spells out seven specific rights that nature and all its constituents have. Read nature's rights and find out more about this groundbreaking, comprehensive plan to protect the environment.

The Power of Communitas

Edith Turner offers an excerpt from the preface of her book, Communitas: The Anthropology of Collective Joy. In the excerpt, she recounts an incident while doing fieldwork among whale hunters in Alaska when a moment of "collective effervescence" was generated by the community in an effort to influence environmental conditions to better support their whale hunting activities. When anthropological research enters a culture for the purposes of fieldwork, it may exist as a strange seed inside the womb of that culture. It grows and strains against its flesh, producing something entirely new—a combination of that culture’s own truth, and the gift of a vision of what that society is really like. This book describes scenes where light dawns for all kinds of groups, times, and places, where people stumble on “the best time they’ve ever had” – the time of communitas, unexpected and extraordinary. Read more.

Shamanism and Entheogens

While the use of mind-altering drugs is prohibited in many religions, other traditions around the world have long celebrated their spiritual and medicinal benefits. Entheogens used in a religious or spiritual context, include psychedelics such as peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and ayahuasca, and the substances often supplement practices geared toward achieving transcendence. Further, many believe entheogens foster communication with the spirit world and help heal addiction, trauma, and depression. A growing interest in entheogens is evident in several books coming from religion and spirituality publishers in the coming year. Shamanic teachers Hank Wesselman and José Luis Stevens are among the authors coming out with new books. Check out a few titles that explore the intersection of drugs and spiritual development here.