"How to Resurrect Lost Species"

by Brian Switek

Will we ever see a woolly mammoth again? What about the striped Tasmanian tiger, once-prolific passenger pigeon, or the imposing wild cattle called aurochs? Our species has played a role in the extinction of these and many other species. But now some scientists are proposing a radical turn of the tables: Bringing lost species back from the dead. Three main methods for "de-extinction" have been proposed. Cloning gets the most attention, thanks in part to the science fiction of Jurassic Park. We probably won't ever see a Tyrannosaurus -- despite the discovery of degraded soft-tissue remnants in fossilized dinosaur bone, no one has ever found non-avian dinosaur DNA -- but cloning is plausible for less ancient creatures whose genomes can be reconstructed. Read more.

"In Like a Lion"

by Nan Moss and David Corbin

There’s something about March, with its winds and wild swings of temperature. Winter storms, floods, tornados – last year record heat, this year record snow…

Change is in the air, the trees are waking up, the birds are on the move (just saw a crow flying by dangling a strand of last summer’s straw from its beak!)

Even the storms now seem to rapidly switch up their presentations as they swirl by – first snow, then rain, back to snow, now ice, all topped off – glazed by wind.

Read more of "Weather Thor's Day."

Meditation and Shamanism

by Matthew Cosgrove, author of Artisans of the New Earth

Probably the single most important way to establish direction in our work and lives is to have a daily practice. Begin with some physical exercise, breath work, or yoga to open the channels. Starting in the very early morning, clearing the mind and re-directing ourselves before we re-imprint with troubled thought, allows the light of the rising sun to illuminate and activate our higher purpose. It is at this crucial time of the day, just as we are coming out of deep sleep into the dream state, that we choose which reality we will empower.  It is at this time, when the subconscious is trying to clear itself through dream, that we can consciously steer the course of our day and our lives. Read more.

Free eBook - The Mountain Chant

The Mountain Chant: A Navajo Ceremony
by Washington Matthews

 

Among the Navajo Indians of Arizona, the nine-day Mountain Chant marks a transition in the seasons. It takes place in late winter, at the end of the thunderstorms but before the spring winds arrive. The chant is also considered a healing ceremony, performed not only for individuals who are sick but to restore order and balance in human relationships. Matthews, an army major and one of the earliest Anglo recorders of Navajo culture, describes not only procedures and objects used, but emphasizes the ceremony's vision of humankind's place in a broader scheme. 

 

The ceremony centers around a recitation of a cycle of myths about a Navajo culture hero, Dsilyídje Qaçàl. His journey takes him to the land of the gods and goddesses, where he learns powerful magic. The narrative is compelling and compares well with the Homeric Odyssey, which it resembles both thematically and stylistically. The ceremony incorporates dance, song, prayer, sand-painting, drama, sculpture, conjuring, and even a bit of farce.

Navajo cures are targeted at body, mind, and spirit, calling on the patient, his kin, singer, and divine people to restore his harmony with the world. Before a singer, or medicine man (they are seldom women), is called, a hand trembler, or ndilniihii (often a woman), will diagnose the source of illness. Through prayer, concentration, and sprinkling of sacred pollen, her hand will tremble and pinpoint the cause, which then determines the proper ceremonial cure. Then a medicine man, or hataałii, meaning "singer," who knows the proper ceremony is called and preparations are set in motion.

There are nearly 100 Navajo chants of varying range and intricacy. Originating from the Creation Story, they are so nuanced and complex that a medicine man learns only one or two ways over many years of apprenticeship. Ceremonies last anywhere from one to nine days (the Mountain Way Chant lasts nine days) and include chants, songs, prayers, lectures, dances, sweat baths, prayer sticks, and sand paintings. In order for a ceremony to be effective, everything must be done as prescribed in the legends. Download The Mountain Chant.epub.

Terence McKenna's Time Wave Theory

I discovered Terence McKenna's 1975 book, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching while researching my 1997 book, I Ching: The Tao of Drumming. I was fascinated by McKenna's theory that the I Ching's King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagrams represents a wave model of time. I spent hours trying to decipher the complexities of the "Time Wave Theory" in order to write about it in my own book. Simply put, the King Wen sequence is a symbolic blueprint of the unfolding continuum of time in which events and situations recur on many different scales of duration. Each hexagram represents a unique yet integral wave cycle within the continuum. Many reputable scientists and physicists have embraced it. It has broken the barriers between esoteric philosophy and pragmatism. And, as you will see, its discovery is predicted within the theory itself. Read more.