Interview with Michael Drake

The Barcelona-based magazine La Senda del Corazón (The Path of the Heart) interviewed me in September 2019. The interview was conducted by writer, composer and musician Josep Mateo. You can read part of the interview below and the entire interview online at La Senda del Corazón.

Josep: Hi Michael it's a pleasure to interview you for La Senda del Corazón. When did you discover shamanism? How did it change your life?

Michael: I discovered shamanism in 1988 when a friend of mine recommended that I read The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner. Founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Harner is widely acknowledged as the world's foremost authority on experiential and practical shamanism. This informative guide to core shamanic practice set me on a new course in life. From this guide, I learned to hone my skills of shamanic journeying. I have always had a vivid imagination, so journeying comes easily for me. I close my eyes as if to sleep, and my inner world awakens.

For six months, I journeyed virtually every day. My trance experiences were healing and empowering. They often triggered the release of suppressed emotions, producing feelings of peace and well-being. The process restores emotional health through expression and integration of emotions.

Once I learned to journey, my shamanic training began. I sought out and met my spirit helpers and guardian spirit, the bear. I communed with the archetypal realms of the collective soul. The spirit world became my classroom and the spirits became my teachers. This was a period of rapid inner growth for me. I was changing from the inside out. A shift in consciousness heightened my awareness and redefined my core values.

I was also tested. We are always tested by the spirits from time to time to see if we have a clear and open heart. You must show the spirit world that you have passion and heart. You must be willing to take risks. It never really ends. You must prove yourself again and again. A meaningful path must have heart. You must surrender the ego. You must give up the need for control.

Over the years, I learned to just go with the flow. The how and why of my circumstances became less important to me than the lessons that I was learning along the way. As time passed, I began to see how my life experiences honed me into the artist I am today. 

Josep: What main elements do you think should be given back to our society to unlock our true human potential?

Michael: We are entering an epic time of change in humanity's evolutionary journey into higher consciousness. I believe that core shamanic beliefs can help us navigate the shift from an old paradigm into a new one. Shamanism represents a universal conceptual framework found among indigenous tribal humans. It includes the belief that the natural world has two aspects: ordinary everyday awareness, formed by our habitual behaviors, patterns of belief, social norms, and cultural conditioning, and a second non-ordinary awareness accessed through altered states, or ecstatic trance, induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. The act of entering an ecstatic trance state is called the soul flight or shamanic journey, and it allows the journeyer to view life and life's problems from a detached, spiritual perspective, not easily achieved in a state of ordinary consciousness.

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. Shamanic practice heightens the ability of perception and enables you to see into the deeper realms of the self. Once connected with your inner self, you can find help, healing, and a continual source of guidance. To practice shamanism is to reconnect with your deepest core values and your highest vision of who you are and why you are here.

Shamanism is a way of living in harmony with nature, rather than an adherence to a religious doctrine. By practicing this way of being, we awaken our soul calling and our connection to nature. Shamanism is ultimately about consciousness, about learning through attunement to nature. It provides a myriad of responses to the spiritual quest of self-discovery. It emphasizes establishing a personal relationship with the powers of creation. It is a way that embeds us in the living web of life, yielding greater awareness and perspective. Shamanic practice is easily integrated into contemporary life and provides a means of navigating the turbulent times in which we live. 

Read the entire interview at La Senda del Corazón.

Book Review: "Black Elk, Lakota Visionary"

Black Elk was one of the most influential Native American leaders of the twentieth century. His influence flows from the enduring power and wisdom of his spiritual teachings, his lifetime of work with the problems of his people, and the catalytic effect of the book Black Elk Speaks on the revival of traditional religion and culture. Even though many books have been written about the iconic Lakota holy man, Harry Oldmeadow's 2018 book, Black Elk, Lakota Visionary: The Oglala Holy Man and Sioux Tradition, is significant in that it corrects the historical record through drawing upon recently discovered sources and places Black Elk within a universal context that extends across the world's religions. This engaging account by Oldmeadow explores the remarkable life of Black Elk, his visions, his relationship with Catholicism, and his commitment to revive traditional religion and culture. Oldmeadow clarifies from the beginning that this book is not intended to be "a full-dress biography, nor a history, nor a systematic account of Lakota religious life." The 256 page book consists of seven chapters and of three appendices that contain excerpts from letters that help further clarify Black Elk's life and mission.

Black Elk was born in 1863 on the Little Powder River, in what is now Wyoming. Like his father before him, Black Elk became a warrior, as well as a holy man of the Oglala Lakota tribe. Black Elk's early years were spent living the old nomadic life, and he was present at Custer's Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. In the 1880s, Black Elk toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show before returning to the Pine Ridge Reservation established for the Oglala in South Dakota. On his return to Pine Ridge in 1889, he became a leader of the Ghost Dance. When the government responded with troops, Black Elk called for armed resistance, and he was present at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. After being wounded in an attempt to retaliate after Wounded Knee, Black Elk was convinced to surrender by another Sioux chief, Red Cloud. He remained living on the Pine Ridge Reservation and later converted to Catholicism.

Black Elk's conversion to Catholicism in 1904, then in his 40s, was surrounded by great controversy and often misunderstood. The publication of John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks in 1932 put Black Elk in an awkward position in relation to the Catholic Church. His reputation on the Pine Ridge reservation was built as a Catholic catechist, not as a Native spiritual leader. The Jesuit priests at Holy Rosary Mission were shocked and dismayed at the suggestion that one of their most respected catechists still harbored beliefs in the old pagan religion. The monotheistic position that people are supposed to belong to one religion, or at least to one religion at a time in devoted allegiance to a singular belief system, has contributed significantly to the controversy around Black Elk's beliefs. Black Elk, like most Lakota converts to Christianity, was quite capable of moving between two or more religious systems on a situational basis, drawing from each and all those prayers, songs, rituals, myths, and beliefs that satisfied the needs of the particular time. For Black Elk, Christianity and traditional Lakota spirituality were part of one vision, one Spirit.

Although the Lakota elder was embarrassed in front of the priests, he never denied the sincerity of his belief in the way of the sacred pipe. Near the end of his life, Black Elk told his daughter Lucy and other family members, "The only thing I really believe is the pipe religion." Joseph Epes Brown--author of The Sacred Pipe (1953), a fascinating narrative on Black Elk and his remarkable visions--recounts that, "Black Elk says he is sorry that his present action towards reviving Lakota spiritual traditions shall anger the priests, but that their anger is proof of their ignorance; and in any case Wakan Tanka [Great Spirit or Great Mystery] is happy; for he knows that it is His Will that Black Elk does this work."

Though many books have been written about Black Elk, none have arguably explored the entirety of the Lakota holy man's life and the centrality of his universal vision as this book by Harry Oldmeadow. This biography will assist with correcting the historical record and will no doubt spark more interest in the life and legacy of Black Elk. This book depicts how the spiritual legacy of Black Elk is instrumental in representing the ancestral traditions in the pre-reservation era, their destruction, and subsequently a powerful revival that continues today. The old-time Lakota always believed that it was the warriors who would save them. What Black Elk taught his people was to depend instead on something harder to take away than guns--the trust that prayers in their own language, delivered in their own way, would reach the supreme being they addressed as Wakan Tanka.

Divining the Way to Harmony

To know harmony is to know the eternal. To know the eternal is to know enlightenment.
--Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching and founder of Taoism

Divination is the art of gaining insight into a question or situation by the interpretation of signs or omens. The goal of divination is to encourage well-being by helping a person live in harmony with the universe around them. One of the best known systems of divination is the I Ching. For some 3,000 years, people have turned to the I Ching to help them uncover the meaning of their experience and to bring their actions into harmony with their underlying purpose. The central idea of the I Ching is that divination is a means of coming into harmony with the ultimate reality of the universe. We can use the oracle to divine the way to harmony with the Tao (the absolute principle underlying the universe). It is a pathway to the infinite Tao, the unknowable force that guides the universe and everything in it.

The I Ching emerged in China as a fortune-telling guide. According to legend, it was Fu Hsi, the first emperor of China, who originated the linear yin/yang system of the I Ching. He discovered the symbols in the pattern of markings on the shell of a turtle that emerged from a river. It began with eight three-lined symbols called trigrams, which represented all of the fundamental phenomena in the universe. When doubled, the eight trigrams became sixty-four six-lined hexagrams. This doubling process produced trigram relationships, such as "Heaven and Earth unite," the symbolic elements of the hexagram for "Peace." The underlying premise of the I Ching is that the sixty-four hexagrams represent the basic circumstances of change in the universe. When you consult the I Ching, it responds in the form of a hexagram (or hexagrams if there are changing lines) that provides guidance for your specific circumstance at the moment.

Otherwise known as the Book of Changes, this archaic and enigmatic text was the fountainhead of Taoist and Confucian thought. Its philosophy encompasses such issues as ethics, social values and personal responsibility. It conveys archetypal paradigms and perspectives that serve as models of ethical and harmonious living. Over time, the symbolism of the I Ching was interpreted in commentaries by thousands of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist adepts, inspiring a renaissance in philosophy, religion, art, literature, science and medicine throughout East Asia, and eventually the West. In short, the I Ching became, in the words of a nineteenth-century Chinese commentator, "the mirror of men's minds."

The wisdom unveiled in the I Ching is simple and consistent: if we relate correctly, keeping ourselves in harmony with the universe, all things work out beneficially for all concerned. The I Ching reflects the philosophy that all events (past, present and future) are part of a single, interrelated whole. It describes the universe as a vast, singular entity in which all things are in continuous cyclical change. The central theme is that all things move in predictable patterns or cycles, therefore no situation is static or immutable.

The original text of the I Ching was organized by King Wen of Zhou around 1150 BC and remains virtually unchanged to the present. It consists of sixty-four hexagrams or six-line symbols which consist of upper and lower trigrams. King Wen is credited with having stacked the eight trigrams in their various permutations to create the sixty-four hexagrams. He is also said to have written the judgments which are appended to each hexagram. Each hexagram is accompanied by a text containing folk poetry, historical tales and commentary. These ancient writings describe the conditions associated with the sixty-four archetypal patterns of cyclical change. They convey the laws and principles pertaining to time and change. The hexagram symbols reveal the patterns through which change manifests itself in the ebb and flow of time. According to renowned I Ching scholar Richard Wilhelm, "The hexagrams and lines in their movements and changes mysteriously reproduced the movements and changes of the macrocosm."

The I Ching is a codebook of archetypal patterns in which the hexagrams counsel 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. The oracle serves as a gauge -- a precise means for placing oneself in relation to the pattern or way of cyclical change, and that way is known as Tao.

The I Ching is a microcosm of all possible human situations. It serves as a dynamic map, whose function is to reveal one's relative position in the cosmos of events. The hexagram texts address the sixty-four archetypal human situations. The commentary of each hexagram reveals the optimal strategy for integrating or harmonizing with the inevitable for a given condition. It provides the appropriate response to your inquiry. It affords a holistic perspective of your current condition and discusses the proper or correct way to address the situation. To align yourself with the universe, consult the I Ching.

Five Books for Connecting With Power Animals

Shamanism is the endeavor to cultivate ongoing relationships with power animals to gain insight, healing methods, and other vital information that can benefit the community. Power animals are also called guardian spirits, spirit allies, totem animals, and tutelary animals. A power animal is the archetypal oversoul that represents the entire species of that animal. It is actually the spirit of one of the First People, as they are called, who at the end of mythic times turned into the animals as we know them today. The following books will help connect you with the collective strength and wisdom of power animals:

1. Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sams: Jamie Sams is a best-selling author and medicine teacher of Iroquois and Cherokee descent. I have used her unique and innovative divination tool since its publication in 1988 for guidance, insight, and help in finding answers to life's questions. The messages always clearly reflect whatever life situation I am going through at the time. This card-based divination system draws upon ancient wisdom and tradition to teach the healing medicine of animals. The deck of cards and book connect the natural attributes and behaviors of the animal with the native lore relating to each creature in a way that is both sensible and spiritual. The suggestions for introspection are evocative, and I find myself returning to them again and again.

2. Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small by Ted Andrews: Easy-to-read and understand, Ted Andrews's bestselling Animal Speak shows readers how to identify his or her animal totem and learn how to invoke its energy and use it for personal growth and inner discovery. Nature lovers will love this insightful compendium filled with touching stories about animals, natural history, and animal folklore. Readers will also learn magical animal rites and how to read omens of nature. Animal Speak includes a dictionary of bird, animal, reptile, and insect totems, which describe each creature's meaning. This bestselling guide has become a classic reference for anyone wishing to forge a spiritual connection with the power and wisdom of the animal world. 

3. Bird Medicine: The Sacred Power of Bird Shamanism by Evan T. Pritchard: Evan T. Pritchard is a descendant of the Mi'kmaq people (part of the Algonquin nation) and the founder of The Center for Algonquin Culture. Pritchard's scholarly and illuminating book is based on his field interviews with people in the Native community on birds as teachers, guardians, role models, counselors, healers, clowns, peacemakers, and meteorologists. They carry messages and warnings from loved ones and the spirit world, report deaths and injuries, and channel divine intelligence to answer our questions. Bird Medicine is a treasure trove of ornithological insight and indigenous wisdom. It provides numerous examples of everyday bird sign interpretations that can be applied in your own encounters with birds as well as ways we can help protect birds and encourage them to communicate with us.

4. Power Animals: How to Connect with Your Animal Spirit Guide by Steven D Farmer: Dr. Steven Farmer is a psychotherapist, shamanic healer, and the author of several best-selling books. In Power Animals, Dr. Farmer guides you through a journey on the accompanying audio download to connect with your power animal. Once you meet your power animal, you can refer to the text to learn what this says about you and read a channeled message for you from that animal spirit. This is an easy-to-read introduction to the concept of power animals, and provides descriptions on 40 different animals. It's clear, insightful, fully developed but not overly wordy, and all of it is helpful.

5. Animal Spirit Guides: An Easy-to-Use Handbook for Identifying and Understanding Your Power Animals and Animal Spirit Helpers by Steven D Farmer: After the publication of his book Power Animals, many readers inquired about the meaning of power animals that were not contained in that work. In Animal Spirit Guides, Dr. Farmer provides concise, relevant details about the significance of more than 200 animals that may come to you in physical or symbolic form as guides and teachers. He lists three things for each animal: 1) if the animal shows up, what does it mean, 2) when you should call on the particular animal that you are reading about, and 3) if the animal is your power animal what does it mean. This makes the information very concise and easy to find and understand. It is an excellent reference book to have on the shelf.

Journey To Meet Your Power Animal

The practice of shamanism is one of direct revelation and therefore anyone can find and meet their spirit animal. To meet your power animal, I recommend traveling to the Lower World using the technique taught by the late Michael Harner. Founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Harner was widely acknowledged as the world's foremost authority on experiential and practical shamanism. In his book, "The Way of the Shaman," Harner suggests that you visualize an  opening into the earth that you remember from sometime in your life. The entrance could be an animal burrow, hollow tree stump, cave, and so on. When the journey begins, you will go down the hole and a tunnel will appear. The tunnel often appears ribbed and may bend or spiral around. Enter the tunnel and you will emerge into the Lower World, the realm of power animals and spirit guides. It is an earth-like dimension where we can connect with helping spirits.

To enter a trance state and support your journey, you will need a drum or a shamanic drumming recording. Shamanic drumming is drumming for the purpose of shamanic journeying. A good shamanic drumming recording should be pulsed at around three to four beats per second. Read through the exercise first to familiarize yourself with the process. The basic steps for a journey to the Lower World are as follows:

1. The first step is to select a private and quiet space. Make whatever arrangements are necessary to assure that you will not be disturbed. No phones, no interruptions.

2. Next, you should smudge the space, yourself, and your drum with the smoke of an herb. Smudging is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to purify a space in preparation for spiritual or inner work. The sacred smoke dispels any stagnant or unwanted energy. Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging, but any dried herb is acceptable. Light the herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle and then blow out the flames. Then use a feather or your hands to draw the smoke over your heart, throat, and face to purify the body, mind, and spirit. Next, smudge your drum by passing it through the smoke. Conclude the smudging by thanking the plant or tree spirit whose body made the cleansing possible.

3. After smudging, dim the lights and sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor. Close your eyes and focus on the breath as it enters the nose and fills your lungs, then gently exhale any tension you might feel. Continue this breathing exercise until you are calm and relaxed.

4. Once you are fully relaxed, it is important to frame a simple and clear statement of your intent. You should always journey with a purpose, question, or intention. You might phrase your intention something like, "I choose to meet my power animal."

5. The next step is to enter a trance state. Either listen to a shamanic journey drumming recording, or begin drumming a steady, metronome-like pattern at a tempo of about three to four beats per second. This rapid beat creates the sensation of inner movement, which, if you allow it, will carry you along. Close your eyes, focus your attention on the sound of the drum, and vividly imagine with every sense the entrance to a cave or an opening in the earth that you have seen or visited. Clear your mind of everything but this image.

6. Approach the entrance or opening and enter it. Typically, someone or something will be waiting there to guide you. It may appear to you as an animal, a person, a light, a voice, or have no discernable form at all. If you are uncomfortable or put off by whatever appears, ask it to take another form. It is important that you see, feel, hear, or in some way sense the presence of a spirit guide that you trust and feel at ease with before proceeding with your journey. If you do not, then come back through the entrance and journey another time.

7. When you are ready to proceed, state your intention to the spirit guide and begin the journey. Follow your guide's lead and instructions in every respect. If asked to leave, do so at once. If the spirit waiting to guide you is an animal, ask it, "Are you my power animal?" It might answer you telepathically, or it might lead you somewhere and show you something. If it indicates that it is not your helping spirit, ask it to take you to your power animal. Your spirit guide may ask you to accompany it in some fashion. Typically, you will proceed rapidly down a passage or tunnel. If you encounter an obstacle, just go around it or look for an opening through it.

8. When you emerge from the tunnel, you will find yourself in the Lower World. It is here that you will find your power animal. Allow a landscape to materialize before you. It can be a desert, a forest, a beach, or a wilderness area that you have seen or visited. To make it more real, infuse your vision with all the sensations you can muster.

9. Then allow an image of an animal to appear in that landscape. Should a spirit animal present itself, ask it, "Are you my power animal?" Listen carefully to its response, and don't worry if you feel like you are just making up the answers. It often feels this way in the beginning. Be open to the sensations and feelings of being that animal. It is not uncommon to be and see the animal simultaneously. Moreover, it is best to avoid menacing animals with bared fangs. Such animals represent obstacles and challenges to be confronted at a time when you have the assistance of a power animal.

10. Next, thank the animal for its assistance, and then allow the image of that animal to fade and another image to open up before you. Repeat this imagery with as many different animals as you wish. The key to recognizing your power animal is that it will repeatedly appear to you at least four times. It may appear to you at different angles, in different aspects, or as different animals of the same species.

11. After an animal has presented itself to you four times, ask the spirit animal to be your ally, to merge with your being. Imagine yourself embracing the animal, and then return rapidly to ordinary reality. Envision bringing the animal spirit back with you. Your power animal will readily return with you, otherwise it would not have revealed itself. Bring nothing else back with you on this journey. The spirit acting as your guide, however, may or may not accompany you. If not, try to return via the same route that you took to arrive. Upon your return to the entrance, thank your spirit guide, emerge from the opening, and return to your body.

12. Once you have returned to ordinary reality, end your drum journey with four strong beats to signal that the sacred time of focus is ended. If listening to a shamanic drumming recording, you will hear a similar call back signal near the end of the track, followed by a short period of drumming to assist you in refocusing your awareness back to your physical body. If for any reason you want to come back before the call back, just retrace your steps back. Sit quietly for a few moments, and then open your eyes. To learn more, look inside The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming.

Helping Indigenous Artists Protect Their Work

Copyright infringement of Indigenous designs is rampant. Their artwork is one of the last things that Indigenous Peoples have left. A new Canadian Indigenous art registry aims to help artists who have struggled with questions of ownership over their designs. The registry is a joint effort between Tony Belcourt, former president of the Métis Nation of Ontario, and Mark Holmes, director of G52 Municipal Services, the service provider for the register’s technology, in consultation with Indigenous artists.

Still in the early stages of creation, the registry is designed to give artists a place to document designs, control ownership and track works as they are sold and resold. Artists would be given a registry number for each piece of work, so when designs are stolen, they can take action and have a legal document to prove registration. The responsibility to ensure authenticity in part rests with consumers to buy products that identify Indigenous artists on the label.

One such artist collective has existed in Cape Dorset since it was established in 1959. The community-owned West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd. manages copyright for Indigenous artists in Nunavut, many of whom are without access to phones, bank accounts or Internet access and speak only Inuktitut. The co-operative has returned profit of more than $1-million a year for the past three years as equity back to its membership of 1,698, who each pay a one-time fee of $5 for a share. 

Creative Commons Photo by Indigenous artist David Neel, from the Kwakiutl first nation. Seen wearing a Ka'sala headress with a Grizzly Bear frontlet and canoe paddle with an Orca design, which are the crests of his family.