Rattling the Bones

Did anyone see HOUSE (American tv show) a few weeks ago? It was about a young woman who has a blog and shares every thought, every detail of her life moment by moment with a few thousand people. After seeing this episode of House I wondered if this is what it means to have a blog? Are the most popular blogs about people who open up every dimension of their life? When you read a blog what do you expect? This particular House episode in mid-March, 2010 – certainly got me thinking and brought up a lot of questions as well as helped me dig deeper on what I’m doing here… I’ve never been much of an extrovert although people who know me today are often surprised at this comment. After all, I lecture in front of thousands of people these days without flinching. The fact of the matter is you don’t talk to the dead, emerge as a traditional dreamer, and walk a shamanic path without being afraid of people’s judgments and reactions especially when you’re a child or a teenager.

Almost 15 years ago I put up some posters in New Age shops all around the Montreal area inviting people to a conference where I would be lecturing on Aboriginal Dreaming and the Medicine Wheel. The turn out was amazing, 100 plus people showed up and we had a great time at this gathering. Two months after the event we received a call from a woman who had lost her husband. She explained that her husband loved Shamanism and left her with boxes and boxes on the topic. "My husband wouldn't want these books to fall in the hands of just about anybody," she told us and hoped that we would be open to inheriting his collection since we shared the same passion. "Why us?" was my first unspoken question. Almost as if she was reading my mind the woman explained that she had never shared her husband's passion and didn't know the first thing about how to find people who did... She explained that she made a prayer and left it to her husband to guide her to the peop

It was CT who said that Rattling the Bones left her with an impression of stirring the past. It certainly made sense to me. When I was a teenager around 18 years old I often dreamt about a rocking chair which rocked on its own or with the help of the wind on a deck that floated across a bayou. This dream was in black and white. I mention it because I usually dream in colors. Dead trees dangled over the bayou and the water seemed muddy and murky. The dream seemed to last a long time. I would soak in the impression of this image and it seemed really important to me. I always woke up feeling spooked and extremely sad. After a year of two of repetition, I finally told myself one night that I wanted to know more about the dream. Why was it so important to me and what did it mean? One night I dreamt this dream again except this time there was rattling in the background as if bones or stones were knocking against each other. I turned around and saw for the first time, a cabin. I

I received an e-mail from RW today and she asked if I could share the story behind Rattling the Bones -- again! I had written to story on "multiply" another blog program and she felt it was important that I gathered all of "my stories" all in one box (so to speak). So here I am -- with the old story of Rattling the Bones. Since I've become a traditional dreamer I just naturally wake up every day around 4:00am. I've been doing that for the last 15 years. I stay up for about 20 minutes and then, go back to bed until sunrise. I was told by an elder once that our hearts give a rhythm to our dreaming and with discipline our hearts begin to follow the beat of the Earth's natural hum. We are jolted into wakingness when there's a transition between cosmological and natural influences. It actually helps to make our bodies (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and energetic) stronger because at that point in time when the stars and the earth connect/disconne

On the Medicine Wheel there are 13 moons. On our Western calendar there are 12 months. In ancient times, our ancestors used to name the Moons with the help of environmental signatures, and they would vary according to regions and landscapes. For example, in the Montégégie of Montreal, Quebec, the Moon of June could be named the Moon of Ripe Strawberries where in the Niagara region of Ontario the Moon of July could be called the Moon of Red Cherries. Images and impressions tied to the Moons and shared through storytelling allowed people to identify the clans and their ancestral land. It also conveyed the understanding that men along with nature are influenced by cosmology. Today, we don’t call the moons --- moons anymore but we call them months . The Moon of Changing Leaves for example would be the month of September. I believe that by calling the moons --- months and by distancing ourselves from a language that is based on experience, im