Pilgrimage to the Tashi Gomang Stupa

Since moving to the spiritual mecca of Crestone, Colorado in March of 2020, my wife and I have made pilgrimages to many of the areas sacred sites. At 7,923 feet in elevation and located next to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Crestone is both beautiful and isolated, subject to extremes of weather, wind, and temperature. It includes an astonishing array of spiritual sites -- more than two dozen ashrams, monasteries, temples, retreat centers, stupas, shrines, labyrinths, and other sacred landmarks. 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. 

Our most recent pilgrimage was to the Tashi Gomang Stupa, located about two miles by trail from our home. Since the time of the Buddha's (566-485 BCE) death, Buddhists have constructed stupas to contain the relics of enlightened teachers. Stupas have become places of veneration and pilgrimage in Buddhist cultures throughout the world. A stupa is an architectural rendering of the Buddhist path, the stages and aspects of enlightenment. When a great Buddhist teacher leaves his or her physical existence, the body that remains is considered to be permeated with the very essence of awakened mind, possessing tremendous intrinsic power and blessings. The appropriate vessel for containing these relics is a stupa. Through its design and contents, a stupa is regarded as having the power to transmit the essence of awakened mind, on the spot, to anyone ready to receive it.

Within the Tibetan tradition there are eight kinds of stupas representing eight major events in the life of the Buddha. The Tashi Gomang Stupa commemorates the Buddha's first teachings in Benares (Varanasi) when he expounded the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Interdependence. These teachings reveal the truth of suffering, the cause of suffering and the skillful means to bring about the cessation of suffering (enlightenment).
 

The stupa itself is completely enclosed and contains many special objects inside. A depository of offerings was placed underneath it in tribute to the goddess of the earth and local deities. It was considered essential to ask their permission before construction could take place. The base, or throne of the stupa was filled with juniper which has special powers of purification. Treasure vases were placed in the juniper along with musical instruments, medicines, herbs, food, precious jewels, silks, brocades, perfumes, gold, and silver. Through the blessings of the stupa, these substances will work to bring good health, harmony, peace, and prosperity to its surroundings.
 

The stupa has been filled with 100,000 tsa-tsas (or miniature stupas) made by volunteers. Within each tsa-tsa is a roll of prayers, and mantras. The tsa-tsas were blessed and consecrated by visiting lamas before being placed inside the stupa. Also inside the stupa are earth, water, and stone from the eight great pilgrimage sites in India; wood from the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, water from a cave of Milarepa, and other sacred objects.
 

The tsok-shing or "life force" pole was placed in the center of the bell-shaped body of the stupa and reaches to the top of the spire. It was carved from a juniper tree into the shape of an obelisk, with a half dorje (vajra - thunderbolt) at the bottom and a small stupa at the top. Precious relics were placed in the life-force pole and then it was painted, inscribed in gold with the Buddha's teachings, and wrapped in silks and brocades. It rests on two mandalas, also covered with offerings.
 

The statue of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, wearing his Black Crown, was placed at the front of the stupa. Artisans in Nepal made the statue and its encasing niche and frame, as well as the ornamentation on top of the spire. The gold leaf finish and additional ornamentation was done on site in Baca Grande. Inside the statue is another tsok-shing, rolls of mantras, and relics from all sixteen Karmapas and other saints.
 

The Tashi Gomang Stupa embodies His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. In the words of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche: "Within the stupa the teacher remains unchanging. The Buddha said that whoever sees the stupa will be liberated by the sight of it. Feeling the breeze around the stupa liberates by its touch. Having thus seen or experienced the stupa, by thinking of one's experience of it, one is liberated through recollection. As our world increasingly adopts a secular and atheistic perspective in many domains of experience, pilgrimage, for many like myself, remains a potent force.

Liberating Ourselves from the Power of Darkness

It is not hard to see that, even though we live on a planet that surrounds us with great beauty, 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. In these uncertain times, it is impossible to find stability in the outer world, so do not waste your time looking for it. Instead, we must hold steady within ourselves and observe the chaos from an inner place of power. When we center ourselves and calm our minds, we stop feeding the negative drama that is playing out on Earth. Our inner calm and stability helps contain the darkness so that it is unable to wreak as much havoc upon the world. It can be easy to lose hope at times, yet there are many opportunities for spiritual growth and meaningful action during this time. Here are some helpful guidelines to liberate yourself 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.
 

Use consecrated or holy water. The practice of charging water with intention, words, and sound is widely practiced in indigenous cultures throughout the world. In fact, people have believed in our ability to influence water since the days of antiquity. The Christian tradition is the obvious example, with the ongoing performing of rituals that turn regular water into holy water. Essentially, holy water is water with salt added during a rite of blessing. Learn how to make your own consecrated water, and use it for cleansing, protection and blessing. Pour some holy water into a spray bottle. To bless and protect your home, spray holy water around the perimeter of your dwelling and yard. 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 your best protection against negative and dark 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.
 

One of the most important things 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. Regardless of the experience happening around you, how you respond, how you choose to perceive that experience is always your choice. You can use what happens to learn and grow from your experience. Resistance is futile anyway, and what you resist persists. 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.
 

You do not have total control over what happens to you--in fact, often you have no control at all. But you have considerable control over how you relate to what happens to you. You can be mindful of your feelings and hold yourself with kindness and compassion. It is important to 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. We each hold a piece to the puzzle. Through honest seeking and compassionate sharing, we can weave our threads of wisdom together to create a whole tapestry.

Weaving Music into Art

The Shipibo are a tribe from the Amazonian rainforest in Peru credited with holding the traditions of the powerful entheogenic brew ayahuasca ("vine of souls"). This ancient tribe is known both for their beautiful geometric textiles and for their long history of using ayahuasca as an entheogen. This plant sacrament induces visual and auditory stimulation for the purpose of self-revelation and healing. In the Shipibo culture, shamans -- called curanderos -- work as plant-based healers of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual disorders. Their knowledge and healing power are said to come from the plants themselves.  

Shipibo shamans have a custom in which a they live for months in isolation and ingest different plants in order to connect with the spirits of the plants. According to Shipibo shamanism, each plant has a different personality, just like people. Once a plant is ingested, the shaman may be inspired to write a song. These songs, known as icaros, are then used in healing ceremonies, and eventually translated into geometric patterns in order to adorn tapestries with their messages. Each song and corresponding pattern embody the energy of a specific Amazonian plant. The colorful designs are a woven visualization of each plant's song, almost serving as a musical score.

Shipibo textiles reflect the tribe's culture and cosmology. Largely geometric in nature, the designs feature the square, the rhombus, the octagon and the cross, which represents the southern Cross constellation. Other symbols featured in the designs are the Cosmic Serpent, the Anaconda and various plant forms, notably the caapi vine used in the preparation of the ayahuasca brew. Shipibo patterns are believed to heal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ailments, with each design carrying its own meaning. Some are said to bring wisdom or protection; others attract abundance. The textiles are worn as skirts, placed on tables or beds, hung on walls or used in ceremony.
 

There is an fascinating connection between the visual and aural in Shipibo art: the Shipibo can paint the pattern by listening to an icaro, or they can inversely hear the song by simply viewing the design. Shipibo shamans, under the influence of the psychedelic affects of ayahuasca, undergo a sort of biological feedback mechanism which affects the visual cortex, allowing the music to be seen, and then translated into artwork. Known as synesthesia, this is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway, in this case seeing by hearing, or hearing by seeing.
 

After discovering cymatics, the scientific study of geometric patterns created by sound vibrations, Irish artist Tanya Harris traveled to Peru in 2014 to explore the "visual music" of Shipibo art. Harris discovered cymatics while studying for an MA in Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins in London. Harris spent a month with the Shipibo and participated in ayahuasca ceremonies. During one of her last ceremonies, she received insight from ayahuasca that she should ask a shaman if she could record her singing a particular song and also get from her the geometric tapestry translation of the song. 

 

So, using a handy video recorder, Harris carefully recorded the shaman's icaro about a plant called marosa. Harris found striking visual similarities between the shapes created by her cymatic patterns and the designs created by the Shipibo as illustrations of their songs. For Harris, it was simply confirmation that "sound is a primordial, creative force." Her experiences with the Shipibo are described in this short video, Consciousness Resides in Geometry.

What is Rhythm?

Rhythm, in music, is the arrangement of sounds in time. The unit division of musical time is called a beat. Rhythm is the way that music is systematically divided into beats that repeat a specific number of times within a bar (or measure of time) at a particular speed or tempo. Rhythm is characterized by the regular sequence of opposite elements: the dynamics of the strong and weak beat, the played beat and the inaudible but implied rest beat, or the long and short note. When a series of notes and rests repeats, it forms a rhythmic pattern.

 

Rhythm functions as the driving engine of a piece of music, and it gives a composition structure. Whatever other elements a given piece of music may have (e.g., patterns in pitch or timbre), rhythm is the one indispensable element of all music. Rhythm can exist without melody, as in the drumbeats of shamanic trance drumming, but melody cannot exist without rhythm. In music that has both harmony and melody, the rhythmic structure cannot be separated from them. 

Rhythm is music's pattern in time. Music cannot happen without time. The placement of the sounds in time is the rhythm of a piece of music. Because music must be heard over a period of time, rhythm is the most essential aspect of music. Having a sense of rhythm separates good musicians from those that don't. For the drummer, rhythm is about keeping time for they are one in the same. The pulse of the drum is the pulse of time. The drummer is the timekeeper. Keeping time is the most important function of any drummer.

 
The Soul of Rhythm

Neuroscience research has demonstrated the therapeutic effects of rhythmic drumming. The reason drumming is such a powerful tool is that rhythm is rooted in innate functions of the brain, mind and consciousness. Our relationship with rhythm begins in the womb. At twenty-two days, a single (human embryo) cell jolts to life. This first beat awakens nearby cells and incredibly they all begin to beat in perfect unison. These beating cells divide and become our heart. This desire to beat in unison seemingly fuels our entire lives. Studies show that, regardless of musical training, we are innately able to perceive and recall elements of beat and rhythm.

We respond to rhythm whenever we sense it and seek it out when it is not present, for we are innately rhythmic. Every rhythm has its own quality and touches you in a unique way. These qualities, in fact, exist within each of us, longing to be activated. It is this process of internalization that allows us to access the inaudible yet perceptible soul, so to speak, of a rhythm. One of the paradoxes of rhythm is that the audible pattern is the inverse of the "inaudible matrix." Every rhythm has both an inaudible and audible aspect -- silence and sound.

Silence and sound are the two fundamental aspects of our vibrational world. Silence is the unmanifest essence of the unseen world. Audible sound is the manifest form. It is the inaudible intervals between audible beats that allow us to hear the grouping of beats in a coherent cycle or pattern. We sense the interval as the offbeat, or light element, and the audible beat as the heavy element. The drummer establishes the audible beat, whereas the silent pulse quality unfolds by itself in any rhythmic pattern. 

Master percussionist, Reinhard Flatischler, in his book The Forgotten Power of Rhythm, established that all people perceive the unmanifest essence of this silent pulse in the same way, regardless of how the drummer shapes the audible pattern itself. As Flatischler puts it, "As the inaudible part of a cycle, this pattern exists in a universal archetypal realm. The audible shaping of the cycle, on the other hand, exists in the realm of uniqueness and individuality. In rhythm, both sides unite and thereby allow the individual to make contact with the world of archetypes."

What is Smudging, and How is it Done?

Smudging is the burning of herbs for cleansing, purification, and protection of sacred space. Smudging cleanses the mind and environment by dispelling any stagnant or unwanted energy. Sage, cedar, juniper, and sweetgrass are commonly used for smudging. 
 

To smudge, light the herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle, and then blow out the flames, or burn them on a hot coal or pressed charcoal tablet. When using charcoal tablets, the smudge bowl should be filled with sand or a flat stone to prevent overheating the container. I recommend cracking a window or door for ventilation and for releasing unwanted energies.

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.

The Healing Power of Prayer

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 would like to use for a higher power) for something with intense yearning. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center analysis, 90% of U.S. adults say they believe in God or a higher power of some kind. In times of crisis, whether a personal crisis, a family crisis, a national crisis, or one like today's global pandemic crisis, many Americans turn to prayer. How often they pray and who they pray for varies greatly. The Pew survey data revealed that 55% of Americans pray every day, while 75% pray at least once per week and 23% seldom or never pray. Even among those who are religiously unaffiliated, 20% say they pray daily. Of people who pray, 82% say they pray for family and friends, and 74% say they pray for their own wants and needs.
 

According to these findings, prayer is an action that most people perform routinely. So, what are the main benefits of regular prayer? Research has shown that prayer induces relaxation, along with feelings of hope, gratitude, empathy and compassion -- all of which increase overall well-being. Studies indicate that prayer reduces anxiety and depression. A reduction in anxiety allows people to process and react to external events with a more cognitive rather than emotional manner. At a time in which there is worldwide concern over a virus without a treatment, a strategic and holistic approach to problem solving is a good thing. Lower stress levels, healthy habits and a strong spiritual life could be key to beating the coronavirus. An exhaustive review that compared spirituality to other health interventions found that people with a strong spiritual life had an 18% reduction in mortality.
 

When it comes to dealing with illness, most Americans pray to a higher power for help. Nearly nine of ten Americans have relied upon healing prayer at some point in their lives, praying for others even more than for themselves. In his superb book, "Reinventing Medicine," Larry Dossey, MD, cites multiple double-blind university studies that measured the effectiveness of prayer as a healing modality. For example, they would track a hundred people in the surgical recovery ward of a hospital, fifty of whom were being prayed for without their knowledge, the other fifty of whom were not. In every case, the group receiving prayer -- even though they didn't know it -- recovered faster, had fewer complications, scored significantly higher on emotional and mental wellbeing, and performed better by every other metric the researchers could think to record.
 

Alternative medicine researchers have classified prayer as a mind-body intervention, and thus, a modality of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). According to the Washington Post, "...prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies." Studies have suggested that prayer can reduce psychological stress, regardless of the god or gods a person prays to. According to a study by CentraState Healthcare System, "the psychological benefits of prayer may help reduce stress and anxiety, promote a more positive outlook, and strengthen the will to live."
 

The research findings indicate that, despite the increasing growth in scientific medicine, traditional prayer is still very much alive. Outside of belief in a higher power, there may be no more ubiquitous spiritual expression in the U.S. than use of healing prayer. It is a cultural way of coping with health problems. I have only one word of caution if you're thinking of trying this for yourself. I believe that for prayer to be effective, it must be sincere and from the heart. If you can do that with a script, by all means, do it! But most of us can't. Let your prayer be a conversation, not just talking to a higher power, but also listening for a response. 

Six Native Candidates Elected to Congress

The 2020 general election has been a historic one in terms of "firsts" for more diverse lawmakers -- it also saw a record-breaking number of candidates of Native American heritage win their congressional races for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Six Indigenous candidates won their House races, which means the chamber will now have the most Native lawmakers ever serving at a time. Four of them are returning members.
 

Democrats Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo member representing New Mexico, and Sharice Davids, a Ho-Chunk Nation member representing Kansas, both retained their seats after becoming the first Native American women elected to Congress, in 2018. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) of Chickasaw Nation also won reelection on Tuesday, as did Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) of Cherokee Nation.
 

New members will include Republican Yvette Herrell, who unseated Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District. It's the second time they've competed for the seat; Herrell ran against Torres Small in 2018 and narrowly lost.
 

The other new member is Democrat Kaiali'i "Kai" Kahele, who won his race for Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District. The seat was vacated by former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who launched an unsuccessful bid for president. Kahele is only the second Native Hawaiian to represent Hawaii in Congress since it became a state in 1959. The first was the late Sen. Daniel Akaka (D). Kahele has served in the Hawaii Senate since 2016.

Finding Your Spiritual Dharma

The concept of dharma, or the "eternal spiritual path," is a key Hindu and Buddhist concept, referring to a law or principle which governs the universe. For an individual to live out their dharma, they must act in accordance with this law. In Hinduism dharma is both the eternal order that rules the universe and the duty or law that governs one's life. In Buddhism, dharma is the doctrine, the universal truth common to all individuals at all times, proclaimed by the Buddha. Dharma, the Buddha, and the sangha (community of believers) make up the Triratna, "Three Jewels," to which Buddhists go for refuge. In Buddhism, dharma additionally means acting in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha's teachings and the path to enlightenment are symbolized by the Wheel of Dharma.
 

On an individual level, dharma can refer to a personal mission or purpose. Fulfilling one's dharma or purpose in life is considered the way to transcend suffering and the cycle of birth and death. It is said that all beings must accept their dharma for order and harmony to exist in the world. If one is following their dharma, they are pursuing their true calling and serving all other beings in the universe by carrying out their authentic role. According to the Hindu scripture "Bhagavad Gita," it is better to do your own dharma poorly than to do another's well.
 

Finding your spiritual dharma, or purpose, is more about introspection and self-discovery than about following the same path as others. The most important thing you can do is to 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. This is where you practice a variety of techniques on a daily basis that are designed to expand your awareness with the intention of achieving higher states of consciousness and spiritual enlightenment. Here are a three techniques to finding your spiritual path:
 

1. Mindful Meditation: Meditation is probably the most ancient and well known spiritual practice. To meditate means to focus the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity in order to train attention and awareness, and promote calm and clarity. Mindfulness is the idea of learning how to be fully present and engaged in the moment, aware of your thoughts and feelings without distraction or judgment. Combining meditation and mindfulness together into a single practice optimizes the effects of both.
 

To practice mindful meditation, sit or lie comfortably, and then close your eyes. Begin by silently asking yourself: "What is my dharma or purpose in life?" Then simply focus on your breath and observe whatever comes up without judgment or attachment. You do not need to do anything to your breath. Just breathe naturally and focus your attention on where you feel your breath in your body. It may be in your abdomen, chest, throat or nostrils. As you do this, your mind may start to wander. This is perfectly natural. Just notice that your mind has wandered, and then gently redirect your attention back to the breathing. Stay here for five to seven minutes. It helps to set aside a designated time for mindful meditation each day.
 

2. Mindful Drumming: Drumming is perhaps the oldest form of active meditation known to humanity. It is a simple and effortless way to still the mind's internal dialogue in order to access personal revelation from within. Combining these two ancient practices -- drumming and mindfulness -- can be life-altering. Just like a yogi or a monk, who exists in a spiritual state most of the time because of constant devotional practices, we can readily induce profound states of deep meditation and heightened awareness by using a drum as an aid to meditation. Mindful drumming is a way to connect straight to the heart. The energy that comes in from the source is directed through our hearts. The essence of mindful drumming is the experience of direct revelation, which comes through as a feeling, impression or intuition.
 

To practice mindful drumming, sit comfortably, and then close your eyes. Silently ask yourself: "What is my dharma -- my purpose in life?" Next begin drumming a steady, monotonous rhythm and simply focus on the beat. If your mind wanders, gently redirect your attention back to the beat. Drum for five to seven minutes, maintaining a nonjudgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and insights. The punctuated sound of a regularly beating drum stills the incessant chatter of the mind, enabling you to achieve a mindful state almost instantly -- the fast path to self-revelation. This ease of meditation with a drum contrasts significantly with the often long periods of isolation and practice required by many other meditative disciplines before significant effects are experienced.
 

3. Shamanic Journeying: When we are unaware of our soul's true purpose, or simply not aligned in our actions, we often experience a malaise of the spirit. We can engage the blueprint of our soul path through the vehicle of journeying. Shamanic journeying is a time-tested medium for individual self-realization. We can journey within to access wisdom and energies that can help awaken our soul calling and restore us to wholeness. Journey practice connects us with our deepest core values and our highest vision of who we are and why we are here. It heightens our sense of mission and purpose, empowering our personal evolution.
 

Shamanism is based on the principle that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. Basically, shamanic journeying is a way of communicating with your inner or true self and retrieving information. Your inner self is in constant communication with all aspects of your environment, seen and unseen. You need only journey within to find answers to your questions. You should have a question or objective in mind from the start such as identifying your innermost purpose in life. After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.
 

To enter a trance state and support your journey, you will need a drum or a shamanic drumming recording. The drum, sometimes called the shamans horse, provides a simple and effective way to induce ecstatic trance states. When a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats per second for at least fifteen minutes, most novices report that they can journey successfully even on their first attempt. Transported by the driving beat of the drum; the shamanic traveler journeys to the inner planes of consciousness. Try a shamanic journey.

Anarchism Has Indigenous Roots

Across the United States, activists are responding to the pandemic crisis with anarchist strategies, like mutual aid. In Window Rock, Arizona -- the seat of the Navajo Nation -- the K'é Infoshop is one such group, and has been providing food and medical supplies to elders, families, and those infected with the virus. In a recent article in "The Nation," the Infoshop's members said their style of autonomous organizing has distinctly Navajo roots.
 

Just a few minutes from the Navajo Nation government offices, the K'é Infoshop opened its doors in April 2017 in a vacant coffee shop. Inside, early collective members painted each wall to correspond with the sacred Navajo colors -- black, white, turquoise, and yellow -- and began stocking the space with Native American books and magazines. Near the entrance, they hung a painting of a women's turquoise-ring-clad hands wrapped around jail bars -- a piece by a member who the group says was unjustly arrested in a police raid of the nearby flea market while she shared her lunch with a group of homeless people. Across the back wall, they put up red stenciled letters that spelled out, "K'é does not discriminate."
 

Anthropologists frequently describe k'é as the Navajo kinship system, but Infoshop members say it's much more than that. "It's our theory of everything," K'é co-founder Brandon Benallie declared. "It's our string theory. It's how we're connected to everything -- but specifically how that kinship is reciprocated and maintained. K'é is this huge overlapping philosophy that the whole universe is interconnected. But it's also these relationships that we have with one another and with the elements that exist in the world, whether that be the weather or the water or the animals."
 

Although there is a markedly European jargon to describing contemporary anarchism, the movement has long been influenced by Indigenous ideas. Being Navajo could be considered anarchist because they never had chiefs; they didn't have a hierarchy. It was always horizontal. Socialism and anarchism derived ideology from Franciscan missionaries who came to the Navajo Nation in the 1500s and 1600s and studied Indigenous societies. And later you have notable activists like Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Mikhail Bakunin reading the journals of these religious figures and how they describe Indigenous societies at that time.
 

As soon as the pandemic hit the Navajo Nation, K'é's members decided they had to help. K'é utilized the food pantry it had stocked for weekly solidarity meals with homeless community members. They gave away a years supply of food in just two weeks. At first the Infoshop was alone in its relief efforts in Navajo Nation, but by April and May, other mutual aid projects began to emerge. The youth-led Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief project raised funds to place large orders and organized teams to distribute upwards of 10,000 pounds of food each week across the 27,000 square miles of the reservation.
 

As the Navajo government struggled to control the spread of the outbreak, it established curfews and stay-at-home orders that no doubt saved lives, but made it more difficult for families to travel to any of the reservation's 13 grocery stores. Mutual aid groups obtained essential worker passes to distribute food after curfew, but organizers still faced resistance from the government. They were harassed on many occasions by Navajo police pulling them over and telling them that their authorization letters were not valid.
 

Commenting on the impacts of the pandemic and rapid growth of mutual aid groups across the country, Benallie noted, "Every time capitalism fails, we land on socialism, we land on anarchism, to take care of us. I hope it makes people question who is there for them. Was it the $1,200 stimulus check or six months of unemployment? Or was it the good people of the earth who were organizing resources and material needs to make sure that you don't go to sleep hungry or that your children don't go to sleep hungry?" he said. "Capitalism fosters this unhealthy, highly individualist view of oneself. People began to forget their responsibilities to each other, to the land, and began to only worry about how much they can benefit from the imbalance from broken kinship."
 

As organizers contemplate strategies to take care of their communities in the absence of government support, Benallie urges them to remember their relationships to one another and to the planet. "We can't do this alone. We need all of the good people of the earth to come together."

Appropriate Destruction

From a shamanic perspective, all creation is based on some form of destruction. In order to create something new, something old first must be destroyed. The old form is taken apart and from its energetic source, something new arises. Nature offers the best examples of this constant destruction in the form of seasonal changes. As each season gives way to the next, something is destroyed in the process. Fall kills off the green leaves and lays the landscape bare. Winter kills off the insects and weakest animals. Spring destroys the snowpack and brings floods. Summer bakes the land, drying up the streams and plants. Everywhere in nature are examples of great destruction that reform the land, creating a new canvas for change. Earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, erupting volcanoes, and withering droughts destroy the landscape as it was, clearing the way for new life, new forms, new possibilities.
 

Shamans acknowledge the awesome power of transformation that comes with destruction and seek to harness that power. One powerful universal shamanic motif of appropriate destruction is the dismemberment of the apprentice during the initiation as a shaman. The individual dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life. Completing this restorative rite is precisely the task of the shaman. As anthropologist Joan Halifax explains in her book Shamanic Voices, "The shaman is a healed healer who has retrieved the broken pieces of his or her body and psyche and, through a personal rite of transformation, has integrated many planes of life experience: the body and the spirit, the ordinary and non-ordinary, the individual and the community, nature and supernature, the mythic and the historical, the past, the present and the future."
 

The viewpoint emerging from the shamanic community suggests the times we live in have a theme of planetary and cosmological initiation. Shamanic initiation is most often precipitated by physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual events that force the ego into submission. Who we believe ourselves to be is not who we truly are. No matter how many years one has been developing their consciousness, no one is exempt from this shamanic death-and-rebirth. This is a shamanic initiation on the grandest cosmological scale.
 

The times we find ourselves in are like a great river in flood. We can try to hold on to the shore to save ourselves from being swept along with the current. But this is a futile effort, for nothing can resist the great tide of change that is sweeping through and forever altering life as we have known it for millennia. Instead, we are being challenged to let go and go with the flow. We are being given the opportunity to surrender to the current of change so that new dreams and visions can emerge.
 

The cure for dismemberment is appropriate destruction. An appropriate destruction measure for anyone would be to get rid of anything that does not contribute to personal growth and learning. This would include the elimination of unnecessary possessions, ideas, habits and limiting beliefs that no longer serve you. Situations, careers or relationships that no longer resonate with you will eventually fall away from your life. When you clear out the old, you make way for the new.

Pre-Columbian Council Circle Discovered in Kansas

Archaeologists using new drone-sensing technology have found evidence of an enormous, horseshoe-shaped trench hidden beneath a Kansas ranch. The rounded earthwork, which may be part of the largest pre-Hispanic settlement north of Mexico, appears to be what's known as a council circle. To date, researchers have identified five such structures across 22 sites in the area. Ancestors of the modern Wichita and Affiliated Tribes lived in what is now southeastern Kansas between about 900 and 1650 A.D. They lived in grass-roofed pit houses; hunted bison; and farmed crops like squash, beans and corn.
 

Over time, erosion filled the newly discovered earthwork with topsoil, concealing it from view. But modern sensors can detect subtle differences in temperature and foliage between the filled trench and the earth around it. The researchers located the ditch through a combination of drone surveying and LiDAR, infrared and thermal imaging.
 

Relic hunters who looted the region in the 1800s gave council circles their name, but the earthworks' actual purpose remains unclear. Researchers have previously posited that the structures served as the site of ritual ceremonies, housed community elites or offered protection from invaders. Archaeologists now suggest that sites including the just-detailed trench were part of Etzanoa, a population center dubbed the "Great Settlement" by Spanish conquistadors.
 

Spanish colonizers first encountered Etzanoa in the 1590s, when an unauthorized group traveled north in search of Quivira, a mythical city of gold. Though the expedition ended violently, one survivor managed to return and inform the Spanish of what he'd seen. In 1601, conquistador Juan de Onate marched to the settlement, captured a resident and tortured him until he revealed the city's name.
 

Archaeologists first excavated the site of the newly discovered council circle more than 60 years ago. But by 1967, they felt that they had discovered all of the mounds and earthworks located along Walnut River. Thanks to new technology, contemporary researchers have proven these predecessors wrong. Led by Dartmouth anthropologist Jesse Casana, the study's authors used nighttime thermal imaging to measure how daytime heat dissipated from the soil. The ancient ditch, which measures roughly 165 feet in diameter and 6.5 feet thick, is filled with looser soil than the tightly packed prairie around it; as a result, it holds more moisture and radiates less heat at night.
 

Casana and his colleagues identified the ditch as a cooler, darker horseshoe shape in a warm landscape. They then followed up during the day with photography and infrared imaging. The team also reviewed previous aerial and satellite images, spotting the circular formation in photos taken in June 2015 and July 2017. Researchers plan to continue exploring the site with remote-sensing techniques, which will hopefully enable them to develop precise targets for future excavations.
 

This article first appeared in the September 2020 issue of Smithsonian Magazine

Out of the Darkness, Light

From Hitler's Rischstag Fire to 9/11, history is beset with instances of governments using terrorist attacks to justify invasions or suspend civil liberties indefinitely. The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on February 27, 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was the culprit, and it attributed the fire to communist agitators. A German court decided later that year that Van der Lubbe had acted alone, as he had claimed. The day after the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed. The Nazi Party used the fire as a pretext to claim that communists were plotting against the German government, which made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, restrictions on civil liberties began to grow. The attack spawned wars to export democracy abroad, while degrading it at home. Our military actions, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Syria, have reflected increased investments in the military, accompanied by diminished attention to political change, economic development and institution-building -- the essential prerequisites for democratic freedoms. Fear of terrorism has justified excessive and persistent suspension of good governance, ultimately creating more fertile ground for terrorists. Our leaders have nurtured a crisis of "domestic terrorism" within U.S. borders, perpetrated not by foreigners, but by U.S. citizens.

The question is not, "is it happening?" but, "why is it happening?" To fully comprehend the "why" of it, we must first understand the meaning of the Latin phrase "ordo ab chao" or "order out of chaos." The  expression "order out of chaos" or more accurately translated, "out of chaos, order" is the idea that the order of the world emerges out of chaos or the undifferentiated. The term is often used to capture a fundamental dimension of evolutionary change within nature. It has become popular in contemporary times to identify chaos as a precondition for transformation, rebirth and creativity.

However, to our political leaders and their inner circles, chaos is a way of getting power and keeping it. That is, if you can create just the right crisis or chaos, you will necessarily get a citizen outcry for the kind of solution or order that you wanted to have all along. It really is a "shock and awe" military strategy based on achieving rapid dominance over an adversary by the initial imposition of overwhelming force and firepower. Politicians engage in shock and awe politics in order to stun their opponents into inaction.

The idea that the order of the world emerges out of chaos is actually not new at all. It was preceded by more ancient principles such as "lux in tenebris," or "light out of darkness." Light out of darkness is an expression of an ancient wisdom about the relationship of complementary opposites in nature. In the eastern tradition of Taoism, light and darkness are represented by yin and yang, each of which contains the seed of its opposite within it as expressed in the ancient Chinese symbol (T'ai Chi Tu) of the yin-yang. The two teardrop figures within the circle illustrate the balance between the dark yin and the light yang. The black vibration of yin is dark, passive, feminine, nurturing, intuitive, and corresponds to earth or matter. The white vibration of yang is light, active, masculine, creative, expansive, and corresponds to heaven or spirit. Yin and yang pulsate within all things and in unison, they are the moving force of nature and all its manifestations.

Various mystery traditions such as Hermeticism had similar concepts such as "As above, so below" and "As within, so without." In Hermeticism, the phrase "As above so below" can be taken to indicate that earthly matters reflect the operation of the Cosmos. In other words, the human experience is a microcosm of the macrocosm we call the universe. Each human being is a hologram of the Cosmos, a weaving together of universal information from a particular point of view. Essentially, we are the universe experiencing itself in human form.

The idea that "As within, so without" can be found in the world's indigenous shamanic traditions. In the shaman's world, all human experience is self-generated -- our inner thoughts actually create what we see and experience. Everything that we perceive began with a thought. The structure of our universe is thought, mind and consciousness. Consciousness determines the form of our experience. The shaman traverses the inner planes of consciousness in order to change and shape experience. It is an inward spiritual journey of rapture in which the shaman interacts with the inner world, thereby influencing the outer world.

Shamanic rites involve many technologies for inducing altered states of consciousness. These vary from drum and dance to ingesting sacred plants. Practitioners enter trance states in order to perceive and interact with the inner world of the self. The essence of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation from within. Shamanism is about remembering, exploring and developing the true self. Shamanism places emphasis on the individual, of breaking free and discovering one's own uniqueness in order to bring something new back to the community. The goal is inner transformation; not outer.

Those who presently call the shots and pull the strings on the world stage only use "order out of chaos" to create favorable circumstances for themselves; to gain and sustain the same authoritarian power relations. For the power elite, external order is the goal. To achieve their goals, they first create the conditions for chaos/disorder to bring about order. The controlled chaos we are witnessing in society today is the direct result of the coordinated efforts by some to turn people against each other. This is a classic "divide and conquer" strategy.

A highly centralized government relies mainly on lies, fear and economic prosperity to maintain equilibrium. Allegiance is achieved through various means of socialization and indoctrination. Political propaganda emphasizes material and technical development while suppressing access to personal revelation and spiritual experience. Citizens are discouraged from thinking for themselves and required to follow the laws of secular authorities regardless of the discrepancy between what is legal and what is considered to be moral, ethical and right. The individual is left morally and spiritually impaired; their soul abandoned in darkness and chaos while urged to acquiesce to the needs of the collective.

This imbalance is reaching such heights that the pendulum of change will soon begin swinging back in the opposite direction. The movement for external transformation will reach a psychological extinction -- meaning there just won't be a situation chaotic enough or carrot sweet enough to keep people hoping external transformation and order will bring salvation without a shift in the internal direction. People will begin to realize the limits of external order when their internal worlds are in chaos, thus discovering the seed of the one in the other… out of the darkness, light!

Decolonizing Indigenous Cultural Protection

In 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux and legions of their allies protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would carry Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, crossing underneath Lake Oahe, the reservation's water source. Tribal members opposed the pipeline over fears of water pollution and climate impacts; it also crossed their ancestral lands, and they argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not adequately surveyed the burial grounds in its path. But because the pipeline wasn't on tribal lands or under tribal jurisdiction, there were few legal options. As Indian law attorneys Hillary Hoffmann and Monte Mills write in their new book, A Third Way: Decolonizing the Laws of Indigenous Cultural Protection, after almost 200 years of treaties, court cases and federal infringement, "The tribe had lost almost every source of legal authority to regulate or stop it." The pipeline was ultimately constructed, though its legality is still in court over potential environmental violations.

The battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline exemplifies how difficult it can be for tribal nations to assert their sovereignty within the existing legal structure to protect culturally important land, water, wildlife and ancestral objects. Over the last decade, however, Hoffmann and Mills argue that a new era of Indian law has emerged that protects Indigenous cultures based on Indigenous value systems. This "third way" -- neither solely Indigenous nor European, but rather both -- shows tribal nations working within those legal constraints in novel ways, or changing them altogether, to better reflect their values. This could mean different outcomes in future cultural protection conflicts.

In A Third Way, Hillary Hoffmann and Monte Mills share what they've learned over their combined 31 years of teaching Indian law and working with tribal nations. They explore the myriad ways Indigenous people are decolonizing laws around cultural protection. The book details the history, context, and future of the ongoing legal fight to protect indigenous cultures. At the federal level, this fight is shaped by the assumptions that led to current federal cultural protection laws, which many tribes and their allies are now reframing to better meet their cultural and sovereign priorities. At the state level, centuries of antipathy toward tribes are beginning to give way to collaborative and cooperative efforts that better reflect indigenous interests. Most critically, tribes themselves are building laws and legal structures that reflect and invigorate their own cultural values. Taken together, and evidenced by the recent worldwide support for indigenous cultural movements, events of the last decade signal a new era for indigenous cultural protection. I highly recommend this important book to anyone interested in the legal reforms that will guide progress toward protecting indigenous cultures.

A Message From the Dalai Lama

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, spoke about how love and altruism can help get us through the pandemic. In dire times, the Dalai Lama's life story is one that is worth repeating. The adversities include being taken away from his parents as a child and placed in an old palace, where he had to relearn nearly all of the knowledge he had garnered in his previous incarnation as the 13th Dalai Lama. Then, at age 15, being required to confront Chinese officials who were invading his country and would soon seize control over it. Later, at age 23, his holiness was forced to disguise himself and flee Tibet under the cover of night, spending the next few weeks crossing dangerous stretches of the Himalayas before arriving in India, where he has lived in exile for the past 61 years.
 

Through it all, his role as spiritual leader of the Tibetan people was to act with equanimity. That he did so -- and continues to do so -- has made him an international beacon of light and hope to millions. When asked what advice he had for people who are struggling through the pandemic, he replied: "Now this pandemic is very serious. Very sad. We're just so afraid. That's not useful. We must attack it -- specialists, scientists, doctors, I very much appreciate. If the problem can [be] overcome, then no need to worry; make effort to overcome. If no way to overcome the problem, there's no use too much worry."
 

When asked how he kept himself from worrying, his holiness responded: "Through training how to tackle destructive emotion, and how to develop positive emotion. This is very important. All destructive emotion [is] based on appearances, not reason, so we cannot meditate on anger, hatred, fear. But positive emotions such as compassion, altruism, or enthusiasm are based on reality, on reason, so we can train [them] through meditation. Ignore seeing, ignore hearing, pay more attention [to] your mind. Only the human brain has the ability to concentrate on a point and analyze."
 

The album "Inner World" was released July 6 when the Dalai Lama celebrated his 85th birthday. His first musical album is a sacred offering of mantras and teachings set to music. His holiness chants key Buddhist mantras and delivers his insights that trace much of the world's pressing concerns to the spiritual malaise characterizing life in the new century. In short, much of the world's problems owe much to its neglect of the soul: the "Inner World."
 

Toward the end of the record, his holiness says that whether believer or nonbeliever, "we are the same human beings (who want) a happy life, a peaceful life." This could be attained only by inner conversion. "We have to make every effort to promote through education about inner values," he concludes.
 

The Dalai Lama's renewed calls for "inner values" are peaceful and nonviolent exhortations that are addressed as much to modern mankind as to Communist China, which has been enslaving Tibet for nearly 70 years now.

Great Power

In order to gain some insight into the chaotic events of our world, I consulted the I Ching. 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.

When I consulted the I Ching regarding the state of our world today, I received Hexagram 34: Great Power. This hexagram symbolizes the truly great power of movement that is in accord with what is right and virtuous. It indicates that we must concern ourselves with correctness, for our character, attitude, and actions have a significant influence on others. The vital energy needed to accomplish great aims infuses the situation. Our influence at this time is significant and far-reaching. We must pay special attention to propriety and goodness, for any abuse of power can lead to downfall and chaos. We should pause before taking action and evaluate the appropriateness of our objectives. We would be wise to focus our attention on benevolent endeavors, for the power of our influence is directly proportionate to the merits of our efforts. Our success is directly proportionate to how persons we affect are benefited, or otherwise enhanced.

With such great power at our disposal, we must wait for the right time to speak or act -- when we are free of the pressures of the ego -- when we are in full possession of the inner truth of the matter. Everything we say or do proceeds from a sense of what is fair, just, and essential, and we rely on the power of good in others, trusting that their sense of truth will emerge to support what is right. We must be willing to trust that if we are sincere in trying to find the correct way, the power of good will come to our aid.

To help us find the correct way, it helps if we get to know our body better. Our body is our compass in the physical world. Both physical and emotional feelings are registered in the body. There is wholeness and grounding in this way of perceiving that is more reliable than the mind. The mind does not really produce any feelings. It chatters incessantly and shows images, but there is no true feeling in it. We feel the truth in our body. If we listen to the body's messages, it can guide us toward creating sustainable and lasting change.

When we perceive the correct way to go, we must not become obsessively lost in the forward thrust so that we lose our inner composure, for our ego waits for just such an opportunity. The ego can interject itself only if we become so absorbed in what we are doing that we lose touch with our inner being. Our true self is always objective, reticent and reserved. Awareness of this danger protects us from losing our inner balance, and from forgetting that right and justice must be accompanied by moderate thoughts and actions. Obstinately pressing for results creates more rather than less resistance. True greatness is the ability to possess power and not use it.

According to the I Ching, success is assured if we allow the clarity and strength of higher truth to guide our actions. 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.

Honoring the Birth of a White Buffalo Calf

About 30 people, including members from all seven tribes in Montana, gathered Aug. 29 in Lolo, Montana to celebrate and honor the birth of a white buffalo calf. The female calf was born about two months ago at the Bitterroot Valley Bison Ranch. At the ceremony, tribal members named her the Creator's White Buffalo Maiden. Experts say the birth of a white buffalo is "extremely rare," and for many tribal members, the extraordinary animal holds spiritual power and cultural significance. Lakota holy man John Fire Lame Deer once said, "A white buffalo is the most sacred living thing you could ever encounter."
 

Blair Gopher, member of the Blackfeet and Ojibwe tribes and pipe server at the ceremony, said a white buffalo is symbolic of a message from the Creator, or Great Spirit. "We are thankful to the Creator for sending the calf. It's seen as a warning and a blessing," he said.  
 

Many tribal members who attended the ceremony said the calf is symbolic of widespread unrest. "I think the reason the Creator sent this calf here is because of all the injustice that's been done," said Glenn Gopher, who conducted the ceremony. "Our country is in serious chaos. We have this virus and we have racial injustice. Our world is corrupt."
 

But Glenn added that the buffalo is also a blessing, as she symbolizes hope for a better future. "She shows that we need to love and respect one another. Refrain from hatred and racism. Love and respect are what's missing in this country; our lawmakers are out of hand. We prayed for peace and harmony for all of mankind," he said.
 

Carol Dubay, matriarch of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille tribes, said the calf looked "strong." "She was so happy. She was frolicking and dancing. The buffalo are calling, and we are honored," she said.
 

Jimmy StGoddard, member of the Blackfeet Nation, said he'd "never seen such enlightenment." "Everything shook when she was born," he said of the calf.
 

Frank LaPier, who serves on the Little Shell Tribe's Cultural Committee, said he attended the ceremony to heal. "I had a stroke a few weeks before, and if it weren't for the prayers and the support from the tribes, I wouldn't be here. It was such a unique moment," he said.
 

Richard Parenteau, vice-chair of the Little Shell Tribe's Cultural Committee, added that he couldn't help but notice the buffalo was born the same year the Little Shell Tribe gained federal recognition status. "It's really beyond words. It's just amazing," he said. "It was a spiritual awakening to see her."
 

Because the buffalo calf is female, many who attended the ceremony said her birth is a sign that more women should hold positions of power. "Our women have been abused, and we need to pray for better leadership in this country," said Blair Gopher. "Women will lead, and we must respect them."
 

Mary Gopher Parenteau, who led the women's pipe ceremony, said she brought her 12-year-old daughter to see the buffalo to instill in her a sense of pride. "(My daughter's) spiritual name is The White Buffalo Woman, so it was wonderful for her to be connected to this moment," she said.
 
How rare is a white buffalo? Historically, white buffalo appeared once in every five million births. Since people have started breeding bison, in the last 20 years or so, more white calves have been born. Experts now estimate a white buffalo is born once in every one million births.

"Ze" Film Depicts Shamanism in Modern Mongolia

In 2014, Mongolian filmmaker Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir went to see a shaman named Uranbold. Although going to shamans was not a new experience for her, meeting Uranbold shocked her, because a young man of twenty-one in jeans and T-shirt appeared from underneath the shamanic robes and headdress after the ritual.
 

According to Purev-Ochir, "a shaman must balance double lives. He must listen to and guide people who come with problems ranging from infidelity to bankruptcy. He must play the role of psychiatrist, financial adviser, doctor and many more. He must comfort the dying and those they leave behind. And that is just his life outside of school, friendship, and romance."
 

With Uranbold in mind, Purev-Ochir began to form the backstory for "Ze," her feature-length directorial debut. The film tells the story of the budding relationship between a teenage shaman and a young woman, set in the impoverished yurt district of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. "Ze" is an exploration of the contradictions of modern-day Mongolia, a country where growing class divisions spurred on by what Purev-Ochir describes as "unfettered capitalism" are thrust against the traditions and beliefs of an older way of life. Caught between those contradictions is the emotionally charged relationship between 16-year-old Marla and the shaman, Ze, a bittersweet love made all the more complicated by the pressures of life on the rough-and-tumble fringes of Ulaanbaatar.
 

"Ze" is a portrait of the hard-scrabble realities of what it means to be a young, urban Mongolian today. Purev-Ochir wanted to tell a story about the bipolar experience of growing up in contemporary Mongolia, where Mongolians lead precarious existences due to ongoing economic instability and underdeveloped social infrastructure. Within this context, shamans play an important role in providing comfort and guidance. Yet they are people, too, living and breathing within the same restraints and freedoms as any other Mongolian.

Standing Rock Developing Wind Farm

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is developing a wind farm, the first of its kind on an Indian reservation in North Dakota. About 60 turbines are slated to dot the Porcupine Hills between Fort Yates and Porcupine. Tribal leaders have nixed moving ahead with a wind farm in the past, reaching the conclusion that they would have little ownership of such a facility if a developer were to build one on Standing Rock.

To aid in that effort, Standing Rock over the years has secured small grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to study wind development potential on the reservation, as it's long been something the tribe has wanted to pursue. With that work done and with the right approach moving forward, the tribe now hopes to attract a developer aligned with its values to build the project.

Standing Rock is pursuing the idea amid its fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has spurred efforts to harness renewable power on the reservation. A small solar farm already exists in Cannon Ball. Standing Rock is working with advisers, including LIATI Capital, Connexus Capital and Hometown Connections, to make the wind farm come to fruition.

The wind farm would be named "Anpetu Wi," which in Lakota means "the breaking of the new day." The Lakota people traditionally have prayed at that time, SAGE General Manager Joseph McNeil said. "You're praying for guidance, you're praying for wisdom, you're praying for what's best for the day for your family, for the people," he said. "This is really how we look at this project, as a prayer to guide our people into the future, into the new day." 

The wind farm would have a 235-megawatt capacity with the potential to expand down the road. SAGE recently filed an interconnection request with the Southwest Power Pool, which oversees the power grid in a number of central states, including in parts of North Dakota. McNeil said he anticipates the interconnection process to take at least two years as the grid operator studies plans for the wind farm. In the meantime, SAGE plans to work on other aspects of the project, including building access roads through the area this year in an effort to make use of the Production Tax Credit, a federal wind incentive expiring at the end of 2020.

SAGE also intends to do other work, such as identifying the exact location for each turbine with the help of Standing Rock's Tribal Historic Preservation Office, which will survey the area for any cultural resources that should be avoided. The project also will need various environmental analyses.

Philanthropic foundations already have contributed nearly $2 million toward those efforts, and SAGE is launching a crowdfunding initiative at www.anpetuwi.com to raise another $1.5 million to complete the work. SAGE is seeking donations as the tribe's resources have been drained amid the coronavirus pandemic and a drop in revenue from Prairie Knights Casino following the pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017. The total project cost is estimated to be $325 million. SAGE plans to secure that funding through additional crowdfunding and by partnering with a developer and investors. SAGE also hopes to court an entity to purchase the power generated by the wind farm. SAGE leaders envision that the wind farm, once built, eventually would generate revenue for the tribe, as well as provide construction and maintenance jobs for tribal members.

Earth: The Free Will Planet

Earth has always been a free will planet. We incarnate here on Earth to experience freedom of choice. A free will system is an experimental laboratory for creation. We can choose to do anything we want, no matter how it affects others. There are other worlds where we learn other experiences, but the human realm is the only one in which our choices (good or bad) affect our future. We live in a reciprocally interrelated world where there are repercussions for our actions. As conscious moral agents, humans have power that the beings in other realms do not; this clearly underscores the importance of moral action and spiritual development.
 

Freedom of choice is our human birthright and gift from the Creator. When the Creator created the world, he gave humans the option to choose between good (light energy) and evil (dark energy). Light energy is unlimited and comes from the divine source. It is highly vibrational, expansive and full of love. Dark energy is dense, negative, and goes against the flow of the universe. It is about manipulation, oppression, conquest and fear. Darkness is part of who we are, and we all have to take responsibility for it.
 

At any moment, each of us is confronted with choices between good and evil forces. The dark forces were created so humans could realize their inner powers and develop the soul. The darkness consistently tries to make people choose between the good and bad and tries to tempt them to choose the bad. Its goal is to force us to behave in opposition to our true soul, to be bad. When we choose good over evil, we grow spiritually and bring more light into the world. This is how we learn to take responsibility for our own actions and eventually realize that self-centeredness is counterproductive to the evolution of the individual and the collective.
 

The Great Shift
 

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.
 

Great shifts in energy are taking place at this time. The veil between the spiritual and physical worlds is growing thinner. In other words, the boundaries between spirit and matter have greatly dissolved, and these worlds are currently overlapping and blending together. There is a major battle going on in the spirit world between the light and the dark, and it is spilling over into the material world. It is not hard to see that, even though we live on a planet that surrounds us with beauty, there is a lot of darkness manifesting within humanity. The dark is making a bid for power. The light is countering every move made by the dark; the light will ultimately prevail.
 

In the struggle between good and evil, we are all being called upon to choose which side we are on -- the light or the dark. This is not judgment day. It has nothing to do with religion or ideology. This is about human existence, free will, and each of us claiming our sovereignty. Sovereignty is the supreme power to self govern -- to be the exclusive controller of one's own body and life. If we claim our sovereignty, we can shape a truly New World.

The Healing Heartbeat Rhythm

According to new neuroscience research, rhythm is rooted in innate functions of the brain, mind, and consciousness. As human beings, we are innately rhythmic. Our relationship with rhythm begins in the womb. At twenty two days, a single (human embryo) cell jolts to life. This first beat awakens nearby cells and incredibly they all begin to beat in perfect unison. These beating cells divide and become our heart. This desire to beat in unison seemingly fuels our entire lives. Studies show that, regardless of musical training, we are innately able to perceive and recall elements of beat and rhythm.

Rhythm is the heartbeat of life. It is the primal power that unites us all. All rhythm is healing, but the heartbeat rhythm is the most healing of all. The familiar lub-dub, lub-dub of a heartbeat rhythm has a therapeutic, integrative and calming effect. This healing pulse redistributes the energy from your head into your body. It has an almost instant grounding and centering effect. Moreover, it reconnects us to the warmth and safety of the first sound we ever heard -- the steady, nurturing pulse of our mother's heartbeat. When we drum the heartbeat, we connect to the feminine energies of creative imagination, birth, and intuition.

The heartbeat is a rhythm archetype representing yin, the receptive, feminine form-giving principle of energy. Yin energy is magnetic, receptive and conducive to great healing and regenerative powers. It is a descending force that draws the energy of the original cosmological pattern down into the earthly realm, helping to align the circle of life with the original intention for the Earth. One of the commonly held beliefs in shamanic cultures is that there exists a patterned cosmological order, which can be disrupted by human activity. When harmony between the human realm and the original intended pattern is disturbed, we drum the heartbeat to bring back the balance. In harmonizing the microcosm of the self with the macrocosm of the universe, we harmonize Heaven and Earth.

Every rhythm has its own quality and touches you in a unique way. These qualities, in fact, exist within each of us, longing to be activated. It is this process of internalization that allows us to access the inaudible yet perceptible soul, so to speak, of a rhythm. There are two voices to a drum. One is physical, having to do with the drum's construction, cultural context, and method of playing. To commune with the drum's second or spiritual voice, we must be carried away by the rhythm. We must soar on flights of rapture. It is this ecstatic element that today's drummers are rediscovering.

People are again hearing the call of the drum. As we hear and respect the compelling voice of the drum, we connect with our own inner guidance, which inspires us to heal our own place on the planet. The heartbeat of the drum is breaking through our soulless scientific misconceptions of nature to a new communion with our planet. The drum is calling us to a path of environmental sanity, to rejoining the miraculous cycle of nature. Indeed, it is the voice of our Earth Mother who is speaking through the drum, for the drum echoes the pulse of her heart. Her heart is crying out to the circle of humanity to attune our hearts again to hers. May we all heed the call of the drum.