Rattling the Bones

There are some places in the world where the presence of the ancestors can be felt more so than anywhere else. Usually it is because these places are extremely old and they keep stories that can no longer be found amongst the people of today. It’s as if the memories are getting stronger as the humans of the earth are forgetting more and more the ways of yesterday. This morning as we were driving through our little town, doing some errands, we noticed a crowd of people in the cemetery behind the old, historical Catholic Church. Hidden under black umbrellas, dressed in black clothing, these people awakened in both my husband and I an impression of time passed. It’s rare these days that you’ll see burials of the kind because more and more people get cremated but this one was even more surprising because it occurred in one of the old burial grounds of the old village. We wondered for a moment who could have possibly passed away? Who still had access to the old family plot...

«The Medicine Wheel is an altar of stones of descending rings contained by four anchors and divided by a cross. The rings express different levels of consciousness whereas the anchors show that this awareness is earth bound or incarnated. The cross implies a challenge. Simply translated the Medicine Wheel is a life philosophy that invites us all to become more conscious of our story and the hardships, which bring forth learning and healing. It was a Jesuit in the late 1800’s that named these mysterious stone altars: Medicine Wheel.» (Lisa F. Tardiff) When I asked a Passamaquoddy friend and elder of mine how our ancestors used to name these stone altars before the arrival of the white man she replied: « we didn’t name them anything because they were the word so to speak to experiences that reached beyond language. » Then, she asked me with the tone of a child seeking a bedtime story: « have you ever had an experience that you couldn’t put into w...

Recently a student of mine shared a story about a friend of hers who often uses her shoulders to cry on. CH described this person as the typical individual who goes out to party, meets the perfect man and falls instantly in love only to uncover soon after that the man is married. Still many of these women believe they can change their man: Help him, and maybe HEAL him. Of course, more often than not, three to four months down the line these individuals come knocking at the door in tears, heart broken and completely oblivious to what went wrong. I’ve had people come to me asking for psychic cleansing or soul retrieval because they reasoned out that their repetitive, dysfunctional behaviours or obsessions with older often married men were due to past life karmas, evil spirits or a some kind of jinx. It’s difficult to talk reason with these women because there’s something in their experience that seems to support the thought “that they can make a difference” and that “the...

I live in the country side and every year in October we get two to four days where the house is covered in lady bugs. To make sure they don’t come into the house, we cover the doors with plastic and remove it when the cold has set in. This year, there were no infestation of lady bugs. I don’t even remember seeing any. Not even around Equinox where usually they are numerous and feeding on the autumn flowers of my garden. The missing lady bugs became such an issue this past month that I heard countless neighbours talk about it at the post office and the local food stores. “Isn’t it great: NO LADYBUGS!” cried out this young woman pushing a stroller with twins at the Chambly IGA. “Not really,” responded an older man squeezing the melons and peeking through the apples, “they may be a pain in the ass for a week but they do wonders all summer long keeping the pests away from our harvest.” As I continued food shopping the words of the farmer kept ringing in my mind. ...

Every day I get lots of e-mails asking questions on Dreaming, the Medicine Wheel, and Shamanism. Clover's question made it to "my blog today." Clover's Question and Dream: Okay I’ve been dreaming a lot this past week or so and my hubby had a cool dream last night that sparked some questions for both of us. I love hearing about dreams and want to know more about their messages :) first dream... Chris said he was playing bingo with his mom and he said he had an overbite that he could feel through his upper lip he then felt them cracking and he flicked one tooth and it fell right out then all his teeth on top fell out except for one on the front.....one Dream what does teeth mean falling out? Clover I don’t believe in symbolic dreaming and thus, for several reasons. For starters, it doesn’t work. It’s just not possible for teeth, for example to mean the exact same thing for everyone on the planet. Culture, religion a...

I’ve been teaching the Medicine Wheel for over 15 years. I started teaching the Wheel after I adopted this life-philosophy to help me cope with chronic illness. It helped me so much that I became convinced that it could be a miracle-worker for everyone. I didn’t quite use those words or even that kind of enthusiasm then, but that was pretty much the way I felt. Religion, psychotherapy, and even alternative medicines didn’t help me much – not to say that “they didn’t help me at all.” I’m extremely grateful for the guidance and the help that I’ve received along the way no matter where it came from. Still, for me, at the start of my journey, I needed a tool that was practical and that considered my physical, emotional, psychological or mental, energetic and spiritual bodies. I experienced illness at all these dimensions and wanted to find healing at all of these dimensions as well. When I finally found the Wheel – it was introduced to me in this manner. The teacher, a...

In Shamanism, mostly in books, Soul Retrieval is often a topic of choice. I’ve noticed that most people who find themselves called to explore Shamanism often start by being curious about soul retrieval, vision quests and drum circles. This isn’t to say though that these three subjects define or describes Shamanism as a whole. On a monthly basis, I get lots of calls by new comers to Shamanism on the topic of soul retrieval. There is something in the words that seems to attract people. Many want the experience of soul retrieval but very little people can actually explain what the experience entails or what are the end results. In recent years, I’ve come to notice that lots of individuals have read book by Sandra Ingerman and Micheal Harner on the topic but not too many people have met individuals who have talked about their soul retrieval experience. In most Aboriginal Traditions, our elders and grand-parents will guide us to be present and appreciative to our s...