Rattling the Bones

In the name of the Father. Of the Son. And of the Holy Spirit. I must have been 2 years old the first time I invoked trinity in prayer before going to bed. I don’t remember every learning where this ritual came from and what it meant exactly. All I know is it was taught to me by my parents and it became a steady repetition all through my life: Two decades as a practicing Roman Catholic and two decades as a traditionalist. At the age of 12 years old I remember privately and personally changing the prayer to suit my own journey. By then, I had steadily become interested in Native Spirituality and it seemed to make more sense to invoke the name of the Mother, the daughter and the Holy Spirit. I was emerging as a young woman and I wanted to be connected to the Earth, to the other women around me, to my mother, to my sister and to all of my female friends. I was looking to understand the feminine. From the age of 6 years old to the age of 18 years old I went to school at the convent....

I recently received these two message from DALL and MR. From DALL: I watched the Nativity story this Christmas and it really opened my eyes to persecution and how it is something that we have live with forever. I saw how persecution is part of life. I am not a Religious person and I have noticed how I react strongly about anything that has to do with Religion. Watching the nativity story felt really healing. I wanted to know about Jesus. I have heard that he is the greatest Shaman: The shaman of all shamans. In the Muslim religion they say Jesus is the son of Mary and Joseph and that he is a prophet. I find that I am always wondering what is the true story about Jesus. Could you write a blog entry about Jesus and his connection with Shamanism? DALL ******* From MR: I would love to know the true story of Jesus as a Shaman. Another theme that has come up for me is around death and 
unresolved. It seems that when we face death, our unresolved is the 
most important thing there is... I re...

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...