Rattling the Bones

“Are you ready to see the beauty that I see in YOU?” The Medicine Wheel introduces us to four great life attitudes. The question is – are we ready to listen and adopt these attitudes? 1. We should walk and talk with beauty and abundance. 2. We should quest to learn and heal. 3. We should inter-relate, find common ground, find consciousness. 4. We should be glad – appreciate and live in a sacred manner. Fifteen years ago I was in the Maritimes waiting to lecture a group of First Nation people on Indigenous Dreaming and the Medicine Wheel. I remember being in the bathroom, hiding basically in a stall, waiting for the moment where I’d be called to talk to a group of 100+ people. Two ladies came into the washroom and started talking about me. One of them said: “I can’t wait to meet the Dream Lady. I heard she’s really special.” The other replied: “She’s young too and that’s cool.” When I finally came out from my secret nook there was...

Often I share stories with friends and students about the phenomenal beauty, magic and eccentricity of the Shaman energy. Some of these stories can be quite entertaining (funny, moving, sad, and extraordinary); but they’re always set in mundane living and they always depict a kind of simplicity that people aren’t used to seeing around the notion of Shaman. It’s like I tell my students: “A Shaman has to blow his or her nose too.” It’s those kinds of stories where the Shaman is depicted as innocent, humble, loving, and childlike-wise that I wish we could see more of in the-up-and-coming books on Shamanism. JP was telling me just this weekend that “people are so used to the stereotypical definition of shaman that they unfortunately rate authenticity according to it.” It would be nice to hear more about the Shaman personality from a daily perspective: the up-close-and-personal so to speak because this way we could truly see Shaman as a whole. A good decade ...

This weekend I had the pleasure to give an introduction lecture on Sacred Circle Tradition, Indigenous Dreaming and Shamanism to a group of individuals who are just starting to get interested in Shamanism. Most of these people were well read on the topic and although they were novices in the empirical world of Shamanism they were certainly intellectually ready to embark on a journey. During the following two days after the circle, I wondered what that meant “being intellectually ready for a shamanic journey.” Not so long ago, when I started on the Shamanic path, my elders specifically asked that I learn to detach from expectations and let go of my intellectual knowledge of shamanic or Native Spirituality. “You need to be able to be open to mystery and the unknown,” said EC “and you need to be ready to see even if it’s not where you expect shamanism to be.” The mind can often be a hindrance when you’re embarking on a shamanic journey. My husband says that “in most people it’s the over a...

I’ve been stewing with this blog entry for a few days. The Blue Moon of 2009 certainly left many of us with profound impressions and mine are still all tangled up waiting to be expressed. Don’t hold it against me if it takes a few weeks maybe even months to share it all. Like I was telling a friend tonight “it feels like we’ve been under a spell and it is slowly lifting.” Again I don’t want to get too ahead of myself because the Blue Moon influence won’t stop until after the next full moon which is at the end of January. At that point we’ll be starting a new moon cycle, with the Moon of Welcome. Where many of us have been talking about the next cycle being identical to the Western calendar I have to correct the mistake by saying that we’ll be off by one moon. In fact the Moon of Welcome will be in February rather than January. With the Blue Moon of 2009 we’ve actually been robbed of five moons (so to speak) having one cycle interrupted to start a new cycle. Lots o...

There are a few stories which occurred in the last few weeks that I’ve felt called to share but have been having trouble putting into words. One of them refers to a topic that I’ve been exploring for a little over a decade and that concerns the Moons of the Medicine Wheel. Like many of you know the Moons of the Sacred Circle Tradition specifically speak about our ego development. Our first moon cycle for example refers to our first 13 years of childhood and then, the Wheel continues to spins through what we call “human seasons”: Adolescence, adulthood and then into the elder phase. Every cycle repeats exactly the same thirteen moons but we explore them differently with each season. For example the Moon of Welcome which is about our birth process during the first moon cycle is suddenly very different when we turn 14 years old. In adolescence this moon is about high school and how we are received by our peers. Whether it refers to our very first moon into this world ...

On Dec.31 st .2009 there will be a Blue Moon which means the 2 nd full moon in the same month. The Blue Moon phenomenon usually occurs approximately every three years. The next time we will be celebrating a Blue Moon will be in August, 2012. For those of us who follow the Sacred Circle Tradition this means the crossing of the Dream Time Gates. The whole idea behind the Blue Moon is that it is a Moon of Initiation. Every three years we are basically tested or challenged on what we’ve learnt in the past three years since the last Blue Moon and offered a chance to move to a new reality of awareness and learning. If we pass the gates we are offered a major life change and if we don’t pass the gates we basically continue where we’ve left off for another three years. Unlike the Western perspective of failing and success the Blue Moon initiation only focuses on what is best for every individual. For some not making it across the gates may be the best possible solution… ...

When I was younger we spent Easter with my aunt and uncle who were Southern Italians. A week before Easter my aunt would prepare the food. The tomato sauce was made from scratch with tomatoes that were canned and grown from their garden. The ravioli was also home made with ricotta and parmesan cheese that came from my uncle’s family village in Italy. The bread, the olives, the wine – all the food was carefully prepared to impress and to please. Once everyone arrived we walked around the living room kissing and hugging every family member whether we knew them or not. It seemed tradition. If we didn’t want to hug and kiss distant relatives our parents would give us the evil eye. It was impolite and disrespectful not to greet everyone. They didn’t seem to care whether or not we rushed through it as long as we said “hello” to everyone in some shape or form. The more creative individuals got the more they received what they wanted... For the rest of the afte...