The Sacred Path

I’m constantly amazed, although at this point I shouldn’t be, how things are brought into our lives and how before they arrive, we may not completely sense what is coming, but somewhere just outside our vision, we are aware of something watching us; something waiting patiently for that point of intersection.

We were given a list of suggested reading for our upcoming Shamanic workshop in May which will be about healing. At the top of that list of books, was Coyote Medicine by Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, Ph.D. I ordered it along with five others on the list as a start. On the day I ordered the books, I downloaded and installed a plugin called “Now Reading” which is now in the sidebar on my blog, and at the top of the list, I entered Coyote Medicine and put it in the “now reading” category even though I had not yet received the book and entered another one in the “planned reading” category.

The books ended up being shipped by Amazon in three separate shipments with Coyote Medicine being in the last shipment I received. When the other two shipments arrived, I opened them and set the books aside intending on selecting one and starting to read it, but never got that urge to pick one of them up. When Coyote Medicine arrived, that was the book I picked up and started reading. I was waiting for it but didn’t consciously realize it.

I must say I found Coyote Medicine quite enlightening in many ways. For one thing it brought back fond memories of childhood as he describes flying into Casper, Wyoming to attend a sweat lodge and tipi healing ceremony on the Wind River Indian Reservation in west central Wyoming.

My first four years of life was spent in Riverton, Wyoming which is on the southeastern corner of the Wind River Indian Reservation. My father was part Shoshone, and a registered member of the tribe, and during our time in Riverton we attended quite a few ceremonies on the Reservation and I have fond memories of those times. Between the ages of 4 and 5 we moved to Casper, Wyoming, but we would make the trip from Casper to Riverton to visit family many times during the year. Dr. Mehl’s description of driving from Casper to Riverton along highway 20-26, through Powder River, Moneta, Shoshoni (with a stop at Yellowstone Drug for a milkshake) brought back fond memories. I had many wonderful milkshakes on trips back and forth.

For someone who is studying Shamanism, Coyote Medicine is virtually a must read (and for those who are not, a suggested read). Dr. Mehl is part Cherokee, and during medical school, he was confronted by views, attitudes and practices that went against the traditional healing methods he had been exposed to by his grandmother while he was young. This book is somewhat autobiographical and chronicles his sometimes difficult journey to integrated traditional healing methods with modern medical practices.

Traditional indigenous healing methods cannot replace modern medicine, and both Dr. Mehl and Hank Wesselman say that they should be used in conjunction with modern medicine. What Coyote Medicine has done for me is expanded or widened my perspective on healing, and anything that causes you to pause and look at something from a wider perspective is always a good thing.

Life is full of decisions, some easy, some not so easy, and some where there simply isn’t a clear choice. You can meditate on it, talk to “The Guys Upstairs,” make lists of pros and cons, nothing you do gives you a clear answer. In those cases, you simply have to take a deep breath and step off the curb – after looking both ways to make sure there isn’t a bus bearing down on you at 35mph (56 Kilometers per hour). You just have to trust that “you will find the answers as you go.”

A while ago, my good friend Dirk sent me a link to The Archdruid Report, a blog by John Michael Greer, the Grand Achdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) titled Solivitur Ambulando. According to John Michael Greer, loosely translated, this Latin phrase means, “you will find the answers as you go.” In his post he talks about the fact that we are going to be facing some turning points and that solutions to some of these problems are probably not going to be clear and that sometimes the best course of action is simply to take a step.

Over the past decade or two instead of moving forward toward solutions to the growing crises that are looming, we seem content to stand still and debate the issues into the ground like a bunch of adolescents arguing over which gaming console is better: Nintendo Wii or XBox. Solutions to our problems are not going to come running up to us, we have to move toward the solutions by making choices. Mistakes will be made, but if we are honest with ourselves about whether or not our path is leading us where we need to go, we can make adjustments and changes to our path. In other words, we will find the answers as we go.

I have not yet read all of John Michael Greer’s posts, but the several that I have read have lead me to include his blog in my blogroll. He has a wonderful writing style, and more importantly, he makes sense. I suggest you stop by his blog and give it a read. I think you will be glad you did.

It is interesting to review the search terms people use to find your blog. These are actual search terms typed into a search box on one of the search engines and this blog came up in the returned list.

Most are quite normal, but some of them make you smile, or in some cases, laugh. I haven’t searched, but I am pretty sure I haven’t mentioned “beached skulls,” or “beached” or “skulls” in a post, or written about turning an attic into a band room, or about precious livers. I have often pondered about how to get out of a bird suit, but can’t remember ever writing about it. Of course, in most of the terms below, I can see a word, or possibly two that I have used, perhaps on numerous occasions, so that would explain it.

Enjoy!

• sacred clothes
• eggplant christmas stockings
• browning the imprisoned splendor
• jetsam lama
• we can’t go to the moon anymore
• photographer catholic hold harmless
• ethics program at work
• play outnumbered game
• snowmobile blog burgess junction
• turn my attic into a band room
• beached skulls
• interesting info about our precious livers
• will you get me out of this bird suit atwood