Rattling the Bones

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 recently spent some time with an elder friend who loves dogs as much as I do. She lives in a remote wilderness area of the Province of Quebec. In the last decade she’s spent a lot of time helping in rehabilitating wounded animals especially those who have been hit by motorists. She’s contributed to the healing of deer, caribou, coyote, wolf, owl, eagle, raccoon and so much more… BP often calls on ME to help when the animals are struggling with recuperation. She always says: “I can see wounds, I can see pain, I can see healing but I can’t see death lingering over people and animals.” I love spending time with BP because her perspectives always get me thinking. BP has been a successful psycho-therapist for over 30 years. She is now retired. I’ve often given workshops up in Northern Quebec where BP lives. She has always been interested in the idea of vision quests, soul retrieval and totemic guidance. Before G and I started working together I often traveled to BP and handled...

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...

I recently asked for some blog ideas, on our Facebook group the Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming. Sometimes I draw a blank. I was lucky enough to receive feedback from quite a few people. Thank you to everyone who keeps encouraging me to continue writing this blog. This time around I’m replying to Amanda’s question; but keep on reading because I’ll surely respond to the others in the following entries this month. QUESTIONS: Lisa, I've noticed that in the past couple of years, when I dream of you, there are always so many people around. The dream space is very crowded. It would be interesting to know how you stay connected to so many people. And how do you keep track of everyone? Amanda **** I quickly got inspired by Amanda’s question because it suggests that “dreaming is a lucid experience and that the people in our dreams aren’t just a figment of our imagination.” I’ve been studying about dreams for a bit over a few decades. There are countless angles to th...

I teach the Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming. GP and I try to offer 4 to 6 workshops a year. Some are open to everyone and others are for special interest groups. Between the workshops and the conferences we give classes, do ceremonies, and do dream time charts. We may sound really busy but we often complain of boredom. Don’t ask me why? LOL Recently I asked myself the question why is it so difficult to be content? And why are we always looking for something new to experience? Why is it necessary to always be useful? Lately, I notice how grateful each member of our family has been through the last decade because we’ve experienced together a lot of great adventures. My daughter was mentioning to a friend this weekend how “we’re” kind of like ghost busters. I couldn’t help but laugh at the words she used and how she attempted to make something, which sounds “crazy” to most people an event that is extraordinary and somewhat normal. KT told a story, which occurred al...