Rattling the Bones

We rarely speak about the elements on the Medicine Wheel and when we do discuss them, we usually move quickly through them as if they are steps within a process rather than actual whole experiences. For example I’ve been spending lots of time with our new Beagle puppy. She’s been with us for a little over three weeks. During this time I’ve observed how important trust is to dogs even more so than it is to humans. When CT played his drums last weekend, Bella ran back and forth from the living room to my desk where I was working. She was nervous and scared. She didn’t trust the noise. When we started teaching her to walk and sit, we noticed that she sat sideways rather than confidently forward. After a while we realized it was because she wasn’t completely comfortable with what she was doing. In the car, in the dark, in the back yard and while roaming the neighbourhood all of her behaviours translated to trust. Did she trust the dogs in the neighbour’s yard; did she trust the l...

Some mornings, JP and I have breakfast while watching Pasquale’s Express Cooking. Most days I try to scroll through the tv programs in hope to catch something we’ve never watched before. Italian, Spanish, Chinese and English television often wins the draw. This morning though as I waited for Color Your World, a presentation on indoor decorating, I fell on a pregnancy show; which discussed post partum blues. After hearing the psychologist’s final words of wisdom I decided to close the television: It was definitely enough for the day! Perhaps JP noticed in the shake of my head that I was hiding some thoughts of my own on the topic because it was at that point she started asking lots of questions on the subject of pregnancy, children and shamanism. It’s not that I don’t believe in post partum blues actually I happen to know that it’s a sad reality and it is more and more predominant in our population of young mothers. Yet, I wonder how much of this particular depression is due to p...

I don’t know too many people now-a-days who can comfortably define the word family. What does it mean to be family? Do we have to be blood relatives? Does a family consist of grand-parents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins? Does it matter to the definition if the family is functional or dysfunctional? For most people whom I surveyed for the purpose of this blog entry, family seems to hold the connotation of love, trust, respect, support and most of all happiness. There’s nobody out there who wants to be part of a family that doesn’t want them around or doesn’t care for them… Lets face it if we had to define family it wouldn’t be so much about blood but more so about the concept of relative: Individuals who gather together under a common ground. A few years ago while I was in the hospital for my kidneys I came across this older man (mid-60’s) who was synchronically looking for the office of the physician who was treating me at the time. He stopped me in the hallway and...

The Medicine Wheel produces a magnetic force which is very noticeable to plants, animals, birds and insects etc... Unfortunately, most humans won’t pick up on the sound and energy that it yields. Almost a decade ago GP and I went to Quebec city to teach the Medicine Wheel. We were invited by a group of nurses who cared for patients in palliative care. I knew right away when I met this ladies that if I didn’t show the phenomenal impact the Wheel has on us and our environment, they would never use it with their patients. I remember we were gathered in the living room, at one of the participant’s home. We were about 25 people around the Wheel that day. As I was building the Medicine Wheel the house cat kept mewling around the stones and it seemed to bother the hostess. She was a polite lady who didn’t want to disturb anyone. I made sure to set the anchors around the animal as if I was building an invisible cage. I asked the hostess to try to take the cat out of the circle. She ...

Different people will teach the Medicine Wheel in different ways. Still the Wheel and its contents is pretty much the same. Recently I was making a comparison between learning the Medicine Wheel and learning Karate. I explained that in Karate, the initiates called Karateka have to earn belts by memorizing katas which are patterns of fighting moves; and by passing practical fighting tests. With each new coloured belt the techniques and challenges get more difficult until they finally reach the black belt. Once the Karateka reaches the black belt, he or she has to show the Sensei (the Karate Master) that they have learnt what has been taught to them; but they also have to show the Sensei that they can contribute to the art of Karate by creating katas of their own. They have to show that they can be masterful as well which in many sacred arts means being able to be in service to the art. In the end, there may be different schools of Karate but they all share a common ground of fighti...

Lots of people have asked me during the course of the last 20 years if it is possible for us to be reborn as animals or is it possible to have some of our pets reincarnate as human beings? I have had e-mails asking me if “animals actually reincarnate?” I’ve noticed through this life time that pretty much everyone is curious and worried, sometimes even anxious about what lies beyond this reality. I think it is safe to say that we all fear death in some shape or form. Recently, especially in the last month I’ve noticed there’s been lots more animal and human deaths than usual. For sure, Autumn and Spring are usually the seasons of choice for dying; but this moon has given us higher numbers than the norm. Why so? In Shamanism answers always lie in natural and cosmological laws. Like I was telling DAL and WI a few days ago, Shamanism is mostly concerned with the notion of natural balance and rhythm. If there’s more death at this point in time it’s telling us that nature is attemp...

Before any question on Shamanism, the Medicine Wheel or Dreaming people will ask me: “Where’s the book?” I’ve often been told by agents, experts in marketing and other lecturers as well as members on the conference circuit that the lack of a book may have cost me some opportunities along the way. In response I have often said: “Opportunity in traditional Shamanism is defined very differently in comparison to Western society.” Still when I’ve seriously sat down to write through the years I’ve often spiralled around a timeless question: “Should Shamanism remain within the realm of oral tradition? And how much is lost when it’s anchored down – written?” After 20 years of teaching and journeying the Shaman’s path I’ve come to realize that the debate isn’t between oral and written tradition but between medicine words and dictionary words. I remember listening to my grand-father and my father tell stories when we were growing up. My mom had to beg us to go to bed b...