The Sacred Path

My friend and fellow blogger, Juan, posted this video from wonderingman42 on his blog and I couldn’t help posting it here as if follows along with my thinking on the subject, that there will never be complete certainty or agreement on whether or not our actions are responsible, mostly responsible, partly responsible, maybe a little responsible, probably not responsible, or not responsible. Instead of arguing to what degree we are responsible, take a different approach and look at it from the standpoint of risk management.

These past several weeks I’ve been cranky. Not cranky with other people or cranky with myself about anything in particular, just cranky. According to friends, there is some stuff happening astrologically with an energy shift – Washington DC is in retrograde or something like that. I don’t follow astrology too closely, but whenever I notice energy shifts or something, astrology typically says something is going on.

In times like this, my journeys become quiet and I end up spending time just hanging out in my garden mostly. Even after all these years experiencing these cycles, I still find myself asking if I have “lost” the connection. It always comes back.

One thing I’ve started doing is drumming for 5 to 15 minutes a day. It’s always been difficult for me to drum and journey at the same time. The saying about not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time would apply. What I noticed the other day though, is that I had entered a light trance while drumming and that led me to the realization that I had been doing it, without knowing it for a while. It just takes practice I guess (Duh!).

I have a drumming CD that came with Hank Wesselman’s book, Journey to the Sacred Garden , and I use it from time to time, but I miss the vibration I can feel with live drumming; it penetrates and awakens me down to a cellular level. What’s even more magical is experiencing a large group drumming. Many times at the Shamanic workshops I’ve attended, after five minutes or so, I feel indigenous spirits moving in and around the group and I begin to hear their singing and chanting. The first time that happened, I opened my eyes and looked around the circle to see who in our group was singing. No one was.

My next workshop is in May, and I can hardly wait.

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.

Tags: healing, shamanic healing, Shamanism