Rattling the Bones

In the field of self-discovery, we often talk about how challenging it is to work through our psychological programs. There’s a great French book entitled “J’ai Mal à mes Ancêtres” by Patrice Van Eersen and Catherine Maillard. This book explores a fairly new concept called “psychogenealogy.” Basically, psychologists who study in this field believe we are affected by the “psychology of our ancestors”; hence their issues, their unresolved, their fears, their insecurities etc… Not unlike shamanic beliefs and the idea of “ancestral stories or past lives” psychogenealogy expresses that we are programmed through DNA. Obviously we are programmed by the people who are most directly connected to us; but this new psychological perspective seems to imply that DNA isn’t only about physiological inheritance. Recently I was speaking with a few parents who had children between the age of two and 12 years old. One of the fathers mentioned how his children (two daughters between the age of 5 and...

Since Fall we’ve been shopping for a house. To date we’ve visited close to 85 homes. The last time we bought a house, almost 8 years ago, we went roaming a neighbourhood we liked and found exactly what we wanted and needed right away. Not only did we dream of the house a few months before hand; but we seemed cosmically guided to it all the way to the front door. This time it seems more difficult. The Sacred Circle (Medicine Wheel) teaches us that life is about movement and along this spiralling lessons are handed to us with the help of specific natural or cosmological themes; which bring about personal healing and personal growth. Eight years ago we searched to find a home; which could benefit not only our family but a whole community. For the first few years we learnt what it meant to commit to community and what it took to manifest it. Lessons and sychronicities followed us closely. Finding a house to suit our vision was the easy part. Devoting and manifesting our dream was...

Full Moon. This weekend we celebrated the Moon of Welcome. You would think it would be the kind of Moon that is uplifting, filled with smiles and great intentions; but this year the vibe at our circle was somewhat morose. Many of the stories, that were shared were about death and the miserable feeling that’s attached to growing older. Strangely enough most of the women in our circle are in their early 30’s. It’s amazing how every year the Moon of Welcome offers a different facet attached to the theme of “welcoming.” For example this year, there’s no doubt the Moon of Welcome is asking us to explore the idea of “welcoming death.” None of us made any association to 2012. It was more about connecting to the moment and to the synchronicities. IL talked about some of the discussions; which occurred in her family between Christmas and New Year. She mentioned how many of the elders in her family were more expressive of their fears relating to death because one by one they were slo...

We gather twice a month in Montreal to discuss the Medicine Wheel. Last week our topic was “the winds or the eight roles of the Wheel.” When I started this group almost a year ago I explained to everyone how I wanted our circle to explore the wheel empirically. So it wasn’t only about intellectually understanding the Wheel; but also about applying the teachings of the Medicine Wheel to our daily living. Personally, I get a lot from our discussions because the stories, which we share are always incredibly descriptive and do more than just define the 36 different stones of the Medicine Wheel. These personal stories show the meaning of processing and mastering the different facets of the Sacred Circle. Last week, IL talked about the Fire Keeper as someone who gets a project started. She explained how the Visionary is the person who comes up with the idea; but the Fire Keeper is the one who gives direction to a concept by organizing ways to make it manifest. IL has been climbing ...

On our Facebook site, Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming - I came across this dream and this request from Kate. In response I promised her I’d write a short blog discussing the GENIUS of the dreaming. FROM KATE: Ok, I've got one for you...

 I was lying in bed on one side of Mr. Miyagi (of the Karate Kid movies.) There were two other women on his other side. I got up to go put on a black bikini so that I could have sex with him. After I entered the first room in order to change my clothes, someone came in. So I found another place where I could change in private. Then I was in a room putting small menagerie type toy animals (like a pegasus with no front legs) into a box. But the box was also like a book. Each section/page had a few chess pieces in it. I would add a few animals, that belonged to my friend, then I would turn the "page" and open the next area which contained a few more chess pieces and add some more animals. 

Help me out with this one! PLEASE! ☺ ...

The smallest events in life can sometimes be the greatest teachings. In the last month, I’ve observed a hand full of people who are absolutely not comfortable with receiving gifts or asking for help. Strangely enough most people are conditioned to wait or hope for assistance and not too many understand that they can actually request it. When discussing the topic with several individuals this month I was caught aback by their common response: “Nobody has ever told me I could ask for help.” When I was growing up my parents taught my siblings and I to always ask permission. We had to ask permission to go in the fridge, out with a friend, out on a bike ride, away on a trip, out shopping etc… This Summer, JC who’s 12 years old and one of ET’s 4th cousin has been spending some of time at the house. I noticed how many times he had to check in with his mother or father to ask permission. “Can I go out for an ice cream?” “Can I go out to the market?” “Can I stay over for supper, c...

Have you ever heard of auras? I’ll be honest as much as I can see and interact with the dead, I’m hugely sceptical about lots of what is discussed within the New Age movement. It doesn’t mean I don’t believe in many of the concepts but I often draw the line when information is being shared as fact and isn’t connected to anything remotely empirical. Strangely enough I like the “supernatural or paranormal reality” to be something logical, rational and practical. I like it to make sense. I see no reason to explore an ability that I can’t use in my daily living or that doesn’t in some shape or form enhance my understanding of life. Earlier on in my journey, I was not attracted to the idea of auras mostly because information on the topic focused on definition (colors emanating from the chakra system of the human body) or it centered on interpreting colors. I’ve always found that interpretations are highly subjective and aside from contributing some confirmation and sometimes even ...

I’ve been sitting with our Golden workshop for over a week. I knew that I would eventually write a blog on “our” experience but wanted to take some time to integrate. I was telling G before the workshop that even though we’ve been teaching for over 15 years, I always come out of these experiences learning more… Every workshop is different despite the fact that we’re always exploring the Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming. How do we describes what goes on at one of our workshops? This particular workshop started off with the title: Northern Star. The objective was to help people find their path and purpose. Yet as the week got underway we noticed that more and more the workshop was about inter-relations. As it turned out most of the participants were hoping to work on their couple relationships and even those single individuals found themselves unexpectedly exploring different forms of love-relationships. The whole idea of “relationships” is a great topic to bring to t...

On June 16th, 2011 – it was my birthday. Like anyone else I get lots of attention on this day: Good wishes, phone calls, cards and gifts. I even get news from people I haven’t talked to or seen in ages. There’s something about that day that makes me wish we could do this every day. Our western perspective is that on our birthday we should celebrate the passing of time. I assume the cake and gifts imply that everyone around us is happy that we are alive and part of their life story. I don’t know about everyone else but a part of me enjoys this attention and another part of me feels uncomfortable with it. 21 years ago when my children were born I realized that birthdays were a connection between parent and child. Every child birth is different and tells a story about the child and his/her parents. CT for example was born premature during a snowstorm by emergency cesarean. The morning of his birth I woke up from a dream, which literally told me: “Go to the hospital today is th...

The big question these days on our Facebook site Medicine Wheel and Indigenous dreaming is: “Why do some people have a difficulty to dream?” There’s more than one answer to that question depending on the perspective we take. It would be incredibly easy to say that all those people who don’t have the dreamer role on their personal Medicine Wheel would find dreaming a challenge. The fact of the matter is this answer is actually accurate but does it explain how dreaming works and why one would find dreaming difficult without the dreamer role? Where most people understand the Medicine Wheel as an esoteric concept there are some who abide by this ancient science still today. It’s rare that you’ll find me talking about the brain when it comes to dreaming. From a sacred circle perspective there’s more than one physiological element that plays in the process of dreaming and each one plays a distinct role. It’s no different than working with our personal roles on our sacred circle (fire...

Most of you know that in the last year we’ve adopted two Beagles. After the death of our 14-year-old companion, Lucky who was also a Beagle, I was guided through a dream to go out and adopt two new members to our family. After the Great Gathering workshop in October of 2010, I promised to dedicate myself to this journey and give it at least six months of my undivided attention. This is the reason why you haven’t seen me at any workshop since last year. I will be at the Golden workshop though coming up this July. I honestly believe that Lucky passed away to make room for Bella and Murfle. It’s certainly not the first time in my life that decease animals or humans have guided me towards others, towards change, towards profound learning and healing. It probably won’t be the last. Having the ability to lucidly speak with the dead has certainly made me unique. Seriously I believe that this dimension of my life has managed to impact all other dimensions of who I am. For example, ...