Native Actor Lily Gladstone Makes History

Today, I share with you some great news! On January 7, in case you missed it, Blackfeet and Nez Perce actor Lily Gladstone made history as the Golden Globes' first Indigenous winner in the category of Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. Gladstone, who goes by both she/they pronouns, brought an understated power to their portrayal of Mollie Burkhardt, an Osage woman struggling amid the murders of her family and community by greedy settlers, in Martin Scorcese's "Killers of the Flower Moon."
 

After beginning their acceptance speech with a traditional Blackfeet introduction and a round of thank-yous, Gladstone said something important and inspiring: "This is a historic win, but it doesn't belong to just me. I'm holding it with all of my beautiful sisters. And this is for every rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories, told by ourselves in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from with and from each other."
 

That last statement is filled with both truth and nuance. It's a beautiful sentiment, but Gladstone may also be acknowledging that Hollywood remains a place with rich and powerful gatekeepers. Even in 2024, non-Native filmmakers (allies or not) like James Cameron (the "Avatar" franchise) and Scorcese are most often still the ones helming stories featuring Indigenous People and perspectives.
 

This needs to change. Allies are important, and representation is wonderful. Still, even the most positive representation on-screen is not the same thing as agency -- the ability to tell their own stories, centering their own narratives. And agency, particularly for the Native women without whom this story does not exist and the movie could not function, is largely missing for much of "Killers of the Flower Moon." When Native actors occupy the screen, the movie seems to vibrate at a different frequency. I'm left wondering what could have been had their characters' arcs been less peripheral.
 

Much has been written about the movie by Indigenous People across the nation. From a glowing review by Vincent Schilling, founder and editor of NativeViewpoint.com, to a scathing indictment from "Reservation Dogs" star Devery Jacobs, opinions on the movie vary widely -- and understandably so. The three-hour-plus epic, based on true events, is ambitious, messy, and devastating. Critics praise the movie's effort to highlight Osage history with Indigenous actors in prominent roles but express reservations about its graphic violence and lack of historical context, foregrounding of white characters and lack of an Indigenous screenwriter or director. One thing everyone seems to agree upon, though, is the powerful performances given by Gladstone and other Native People in supporting roles. I, for one, look forward to seeing more from all of them, especially in movies and shows written and directed by Indigenous storytellers.

Ritual Use of the Shamanic Drum

The shamanic drum, namely the single-headed frame drum, originated in Siberia, together with shamanism itself thousands of years ago. Shamanic drumming is considered one of the oldest methods for healing and accessing inner wisdom. Practiced cross-culturally, this technique is strikingly similar the world over. Shamanic drumming uses a repetitive rhythm that begins slowly and then gradually builds in intensity to a tempo of three to seven beats per second. The ascending tempo will induce light to deep trance states. Shamans use intention and discipline to control the nature, depth and qualities of their trance experiences. They may progress through a range of ecstatic trance states until they reach the level that is necessary for healing to occur. 

The act of entering an ecstatic trance state is called the soul flight or shamanic journey. During shamanic flight, the sound of the drum serves as a guidance system, indicating where the shaman is at any moment or where they might need to go. The drumbeat also serves as an anchor, or lifeline, that the shaman follows to return to his or her body and/or exit the trance state when the trance work is complete. When ready to exit the trance state, the practitioner simply slows the tempo of drumming, drawing consciousness back to normal. 

The sound of the shamanic drum is very important. A shamanic ritual often begins with heating the drum head over a fire to bring it up to the desired pitch. It is the subtle variations in timbre and ever-changing overtones of the drum that allow the shaman to communicate with the spiritual realm. Part of the shaman's training involves learning to hear and interpret a larger range of frequencies than the normal person can. The shaman listens and finds the right tone, the right sound to which the spirits will respond. Through the many tones, pitches, and harmonics of the drum, the shaman communes with the subtle and normally unseen energies of the spirit world. 

Tuvan shamans believe that the spirits of nature create their own sound world, and it is possible for humans to communicate with them through the sound of the drum. According to Tuvan ethnographer and former shaman Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, "We understand the spirits answers mostly from the tangible results of the communication, in terms of benefit or harm. But some people actually hear the spirits singing." Tuvan shamans use the drum to convey to the spirits of a place their greetings, any requests, and thanks. It is a spiritual practice designed to help human beings relate to all of nature. Tuva (southern Siberia) is one of the few places in the world where the shamanic heritage has remained unbroken. 

Drumming opens the shaman's inner, spiritual ears and eyes and also calls the helping spirits. As Tuvan musicologist Valentina Suzukei explains, "By changing and listening to the frequencies and overtones of the drum, the shaman is able to send messages to, and receive them from, both the spirit world and the patient. For example, the shaman might use the overtones to send signals to the sky, where they provoke a voice from the cosmos; in turn, the cosmic signals are caught on the drum and reflected to the shaman through the creation of subsequent overtones." 

The shamanic drum is a time-tested vehicle for healing and self-expression. A shaman may use the drum to address any number of health issues including trauma, addiction, depression, and chronic pain. Additionally, the shamanic techniques of extraction, soul retrieval, and journeying, can all be performed with the drum. According to Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Neumann Fridman, authors of Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, "The drum is used in a variety of ways in shamanist rituals; it may serve as (1) a rhythm instrument, (2) a divination table, (3) a "speaker" for communicating with the spirits, (4) a spirit-catcher, (5) a spirit boat, (6) a purifying device, (7) the shaman's mount."

Discovering the Power of Perception

by José Stevens
©2023 All rights reserved
www.thepowerpath.com

In this article we are going to revisit the topic of perception and how important changing our way of looking at the world and ourselves is in order to cope with new realities. This is a highly condensed opening sentence so let us unpack it a little. Perception can mean several things; for example, it may have to do with becoming aware of something through our senses such as the perception of pain or pleasure. In addition, it may have to do with how we perceive and interpret an experience such as the perception that someone we meet is angry, sad, fearful, amused, or maybe on drugs. Furthermore, it can have to do with our interpretation of an event as being unfortunate or discouraging versus seeing it as encouraging, fortunate, or a good omen.
 

How we perceive our world has a great deal to do with how it shows up according to our expectations as in the perception that the world is in terrible shape and it is all the fault of a particular political party or official. Our perceptions, then, are closely tied to our beliefs and expectations and these are what tend to form our reality over time. If I believe that the world situation is hopeful then I am inclined to perceive each event or experience as a sign that this is so, even if an event according to most people is seen as a disaster. If most people are discouraged and seeing climate change as hopeless then this will subtly make it so because they will be more inclined not to invest money in fighting the effects of it or by changing personal habits. Seeing climate change as something that can be influenced by changing our lifestyles is more likely to produce some beneficial results.
 

Some of the things I am going to say now reflect my own bias based on what I believe the long-term prospects of life on this planet will most probably be. Despite what appears to be much evidence to the contrary I believe that, come what may, the human race has already decided to have a future on this planet and that we will find ways to thrive and transform ourselves as a result of and because of a radical elevation in consciousness that is already beginning to occur. This bias has an influence in how I see the nature of the obstacles and what I believe must be done to realize our highest possibilities.
 

The nature of the obstacles
 

Despite the soaring visionaries, poets, musicians, and philosophers amongst us, the human race can be incredibly concrete at times. For example, we still believe verbatim the highly distorted, influenced, and reinterpreted words of sacred books written over two thousand years ago and take the parts we choose as gospel. We are still smiting the philistines, oppressing our women, and stoning our sinners in the name of a wrathful and vindictive God who we believe wants to control us, oppress us, and ultimately cast us into everlasting flames. So attached are our scientists to their theories that we are loathe to accept new discoveries and evidence that the world works in totally different ways than we thought.
 

When I was a sociology major in college, I took a class on the dynamics of social change and the professor shocked the class by informing us that social change becomes possible only by the holders of the present theories dying off of old age. In other words what he was saying was that most people tend not to change their minds once they are set in their ways despite all evidence to the contrary. This accounts for the relatively slow evolution of social change in relation to the rapid technological change we have experienced in these last few decades. Another way of saying this is that we humans tend to lag behind our discoveries and adapt rather slowly. While this viewpoint has proven to be fairly accurate it has not accounted for several other facts that sociologists don’t understand. We are living in a time frame where the children being born are much more adaptive to new ways than their forebears or ancestors. The difference between people of various generations is enormous compared with the differences say five hundred years ago, so while we are waiting for older generations to die away, the new generations are light years ahead in their attitudes, creativity, and beliefs. What is oppressing them right now from exerting more influence are a couple of things. They are outnumbered by the Boomers who dominate politics and positions of authority and they are oppressed by the fact that Boomers are favored economically and as hard as they try to catch up, the economics of the times prevents many of them from getting ahead. Ask any of the recent generations about buying their own homes and you see despair in their eyes. This too will pass.
 

Anyone can see that the new generations are born equipped with the skills to handle and understand all the new technologies and then some. They also seem to not care what their elders think about gender identification, social equality, and a host of other notions. Contrary to popular opinion the new generations are hard working and highly principled with regard to the environment. They are no slouches but they are somewhat handicapped by the hypnotic social media technologies that have interfered with their need for intimacy. They will overcome all that because of where we are actually going as a species.
 

When people see the world a certain way it tends to reinforce the reality of that way of seeing it. This has become an enormous obstacle to our evolution. Seeing the world according to fixed beliefs tends to fix the way reality shows up. The world however, is not waiting for us to evolve out of this problem. The amplitude of the physical plane has already begun to increase substantially in the last thirteen years and like a learning curve it is headed rapidly upward. This gives the impression that reality is speeding up and for all practical purposes, it is. So, while many humans march to a slow beat of the drum, the world all around, nature if you will, is marching to a much more rapid beat. This throws those humans who do not perceive the faster beat, the younger souls, into a very difficult situation. They march very slowly while the fires and floodwaters are racing up behind them, not a pretty sight. Their tendency is to double down in the belief that their pace is the right one, despite all contrary evidence.  This is like watching a train wreck already in progress.
 

In addition to this tendency to double down they are experiencing a world that seems to have run amok and this causes them massive fear and stress. In response to this anxiety, they seek strong authoritarian father like leaders who cater to their most primitive notions of who to blame, revealing the racism and bigotry that has been present all along but not acknowledged. They believe their leaders will solve everything and make them feel safe again, the blind leading the blind. Fortunately, this is only approximately 48% of the population of the world at this time which creates dangerous polarities considering how vocal the minority is and how willing to take action they are. That is another subject for another time.
 

Meanwhile the world is relentlessly moving on, climate change being only one of the visible aspects of this total transformation. Nature truly does mirror and reflect the inner dynamics of the consolidated consciousness that human beings are, but refuse to admit.
 

When perception is at odds with the way reality is there can be serious consequences. Let us take for example the reality of the flow of a particular river in an easterly direction. When someone perceives the flow of the river opposite to how it is actually running, they can produce all kinds of optical illusions and even hallucinations. This person might look at the river and actually believe it is running in reverse, to the west. This does not change the actual course or direction of the water in the river to the east. It only changes things in the mind of the beholder and can make them very vulnerable to danger. If according to a more accurate person’s perception they see that the river is actually running east, they are not only seeing things the way they are but they are able to perceive a whole host of things that the first person could not, for example what this does to the plant life and animal life living along the river, how it is impacted by the weather and climate as the flow goes further east. The first person who believes it is running west has to be in denial about all this and they will make assessments based on a false set of facts that could prove fatal for them in the long run as they think they are going west, not east.
 

Accurate Perception
 

When we see the world the way it is meant to be seen, life becomes so much simpler. Most people see the world as “not me.” I am here in this body and everything and everyone else is out there. This means that according to this perception I have to control the world to make it work for me. I have to effort and struggle to manage it and force it to bend to my will. It means I am always afraid I might not be able to succeed because the world is so big and I am so small. So, this means that fear always runs me and the world and this is based on a denial of Spirt, quite the hallucination, and a rather dangerous one. In an interesting way it makes this scary version of the world real, not because it is real, but because it is real in my perception of it.
 

Let’s consider the alternative. I see the world as my home, as within me just as it appears to be around me. It’s all me, it’s all Spirit, and I am intimately related to it. The whole business of me and my body and my inner world and the whole world I see and feel around me are all one vibration, the ancient sound of AAAAHHHH, the sound of Spirit, God, the Source, the Creator and so on. This is what the Tibetan Buddhists say in agreement with the Toltecs, the Mayans, the Ancient Egyptians, the druids of old and a host of mystic traditions. There is no in here vs out there. It is just one awareness. In this perception of the world there is nothing to fear, nothing to control, nothing to manage, nothing to fight with. It is in the words of the Buddha and the ancient Taoists, empty. It is the kingdom of heaven in Christian terms. It conforms with the ancient saying, “Be still and know! In this perception there is no need for racism, bigotry, fighting, polarizing, fearing, judging, saving, and so on. It just IS. When this becomes the perception, the truth of reality is quickened, is activated, is acknowledged. Since reality in this viewpoint is eternal, everywhere, and nowhere, it is never fixed and therefore always becoming, always new because there is no real past to fix it in place and give it a narrative. When we see it this way, we make it new because we are it, and we are always being new. We are in total harmony with it.
 

Now it is important that this not become just another theory. What would be the use of that? As the Mandalorian’s are wont to say, This is the way! To adopt this way of seeing is to see it as we always have known it to be on an essence level, like a diamond, beneath the dust and the dirt. It may need a good scrubbing after being in the dirt for so long. Try seeing reality as all one at least once a day, in the morning is best. You will like it. Then do it twice a day. You will like it. Then three times. Again, you will like it. You get the idea. This practice will gradually take over and your perception of reality will change in a good way. You have everything problematic to lose, everything great to gain.
 

All is blessed as are you. Spread it around.

Saint Nick the Flying Shaman

Have you ever wondered about the origins of modern Christmas traditions? What is the origin of the Christmas tree, decorations about, and all the brightly wrapped presents beneath? This Christmas, as it's been done for generations, stories of Santa and his reindeer will be told around the world, including tales of how Saint Nick flies around on his sleigh in the middle of the night delivering presents to all the good children while they sleep snug in their beds. Where do these stories come from--and better yet--what are we actually celebrating on Christmas morning? 

Although most people see Christmas as a Christian holiday, many of the symbols and icons we associate with Christmas celebrations are actually derived from the shamanic traditions of nomadic reindeer herders in Siberia and the Arctic Circle. John Rush, Ph.D., author of Mushrooms in Christian Art and professor of anthropology at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA., suggests, "Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world." He believes the story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions, where the practices of the Indigenous shamanism have uncanny resemblances to the traditions of Christmas. In particular, the red and white mushroom, Amanita muscaria, is a significant connection between the two. Indigenous shamans would visit locals on the Winter Solstice, an astronomical phenomenon strongly related to modern-day Christmas, with gifts of dried hallucinogenic mushrooms.
 

According to scholars who study Arctic cultures, Indigenous shamans would pick the Amanita in summer, hanging them to dry on the evergreen trees growing above them. The mushrooms may also be taken inside to dry by the fireplace, leading to comparisons with stockings and a Christmas tree surrounded by red and white parcels. The drying of the mushrooms was one way to remove the toxins found in Amanita muscaria, while increasing the potency of psychedelic compounds. Come late December, on the Winter Solstice, the shaman would gather up the dried Amanitas and make use of the mushroom's psychoactive effects to commune with the spirit world and bring gifts of healing to the families, as they set intentions for the new year. If the hut's doorways were covered in snow, the shaman would enter through an opening in the ceiling.
 

Upon comparison, the similarities in ancient and modern Christmas traditions are undeniable: a Winter Solstice celebration in the snowy North Pole region where reindeer are prominent, consisting of evergreen trees, fireplaces hung with colorful decorations, rooftop chimney entrances and communal gift-giving. Regardless of where the origin of Santa Claus comes from, Christmas is a time of year for rebirth, inward reflection, setting intentions, gifting to loved ones, communing with family...and perhaps, unknowingly, celebrating a psychedelic mushroom.

Winter Solstice: The Return of the Light

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year and the first day of winter. This occurs December 20, 21, or 22, varying from year to year, dependent upon the elliptical path of the Earth around our Sun. Technically the solstice marks the instant at which the Earth's axis stops tilting away from the sun and starts going back the other way. Solstice means "Standing-Still-Sun." At Winter Solstice, the Sun journeys farthest south in its orbital path and for the next three days it rises and sets at virtually the same place on the horizon, appearing to stand still, and then it slowly returns north.
 

This three day pause in the Sun's movement is a time of inward reflection. We are each given the opportunity to take a peek at what is happening on a heart and soul level. We can reflect on the year ending to see where we have erred and reform those beliefs, attitudes, and strategies no longer applicable to the New Year unfolding. Such a fresh open-minded approach will broaden our perspective and start us out on the right track.
 

Ancient peoples in our northern climes regarded Winter Solstice as the pivotal time of year. It is a time of transition in the annual cycle when the old year ends and our journey into the New Year begins. It is a sacred time to conduct ceremonies focused on the return of light and warmth. Rituals designed to divert nature from the path toward eternal winter and oblivion to one directed toward light and prosperity. Most cultures planned festivals and celebrations at or around the Winter Solstice to ensure that the Sun would return.
 

The Pueblos of the American Southwest have honored the Winter Solstice for thousands of years. Zuni Indians celebrate Shalako and Hopis begin the observance of the month long Soyal with rituals to insure victory of light over darkness. Hopi priests wear feathers in their headdresses symbolizing the Sun's rays. Sacred underground structures called kivas let in the rays of the rising and setting Sun and Moon throughout the year. Among the Pueblos, Winter Solstice is an affirmation of the continuation of life; that the cyclical order of time and the cosmos will continue intact.
 

Fire and light have always played a central role in the Winter Solstice ceremonies. In much of northern Europe people ignited huge bonfires. Lighted candles were often placed on the branches of evergreen trees, which symbolized survival and eternal life. These symbols of warmth and lasting life were lit to hasten the "old" Sun's waning and the "new" Sun's rebirth. People often tied apples to the branches of firs and oaks to remind themselves that summer would eventually return. In the British Isles, mistletoe was placed upon altars. Mistletoe's golden color was believed to store the power of the Sun, especially when plucked at the solstice.
 

In Peru, the people fasted for three days prior to the solstice. At dawn on the morning of the fourth day, everyone gathered in the public plaza to watch the sunrise. When its light appeared, the celebration began with shouts of joy. At the Sun Temple the rays of the Sun were focused with a mirror to make a fire. This sacred fire was carried to all the outlying temples, where it was kept burning on the altars throughout the year.
 

In my own solstice celebration, I like to incorporate a sacred fire. Before the Sun sets on the solstice, I will light a large candle or oil lamp, call the spirit of the Sun into that fire, and allow it to burn until morning, when his spirit has returned to the sky.
 

On the Winter Solstice we are all praying, on some level, for the darkness to end. "Just return the light!" the ceremonies seem to say. As we celebrate the return of the light, we affirm the continuation of life at the very moment of dissolution. To be sure, dark days lie ahead. But contained within each is the promise of brighter tomorrows.