Nicholas E. Brink's Blog, page 3
November 25, 2019
Living with the Spirits
Living with the Spirits 11-25-19
I have frequently written about the importance of journeying with the spirits, spirits of the Earth and our ancestral spirits. This may seem bizarre to some, but it was the way of learning for our hunting and gathering ancestors, a way that was protective of the Earth. A more recent belief of many is that humans have dominion over the Earth to indiscriminately take from it what they need to increase their wealth, a human journey that is leading to the destruction of the human species and the Earth as we know it. This journey is taking these people into an era where they will find that their wealth is meaningless for their survival.
Returning to journeying with the spirits is returning to the Garden of Eden, to paradise, a garden in which our ancestors lived in health with their Great Earth Mother who filled all their needs for foods and medicines while giving back to the Earth as much if not more than they took. This journeying with the spirits is again available to us as we come together to learn, practice and teach the ways of the hunter and gatherers to protect our Earth. The indigenous peoples who continue to live around us know these ways and are open to being our teachers. They have the faith that our Great Earth Mother can sustain us if we listen to her.
I have learned, practice and teach the way of ecstatic trance using the ancient ecstatic trance postures identified by the anthropologist Felicitas Goodman. These ecstatic postures are powerful in healing and giving direction to how to live. I believe that for those of us who use these ecstatic trance postures or other shamanic ways our numbers have increased such that we have reached a critical mass such that we cannot be turned back to living the life of greed in taking from the Earth. More and more beautiful people are using the ways of listening to the spirits and to our Great Earth Mother, but the time is limited for us to regain our rightful place among the other dwellers of the Earth. I have the hope that our numbers will continue to grow and accelerate for living in health by venerating the Earth, and that we can again return to living in the Earth’s Great Garden.
I have frequently written about the importance of journeying with the spirits, spirits of the Earth and our ancestral spirits. This may seem bizarre to some, but it was the way of learning for our hunting and gathering ancestors, a way that was protective of the Earth. A more recent belief of many is that humans have dominion over the Earth to indiscriminately take from it what they need to increase their wealth, a human journey that is leading to the destruction of the human species and the Earth as we know it. This journey is taking these people into an era where they will find that their wealth is meaningless for their survival.
Returning to journeying with the spirits is returning to the Garden of Eden, to paradise, a garden in which our ancestors lived in health with their Great Earth Mother who filled all their needs for foods and medicines while giving back to the Earth as much if not more than they took. This journeying with the spirits is again available to us as we come together to learn, practice and teach the ways of the hunter and gatherers to protect our Earth. The indigenous peoples who continue to live around us know these ways and are open to being our teachers. They have the faith that our Great Earth Mother can sustain us if we listen to her.
I have learned, practice and teach the way of ecstatic trance using the ancient ecstatic trance postures identified by the anthropologist Felicitas Goodman. These ecstatic postures are powerful in healing and giving direction to how to live. I believe that for those of us who use these ecstatic trance postures or other shamanic ways our numbers have increased such that we have reached a critical mass such that we cannot be turned back to living the life of greed in taking from the Earth. More and more beautiful people are using the ways of listening to the spirits and to our Great Earth Mother, but the time is limited for us to regain our rightful place among the other dwellers of the Earth. I have the hope that our numbers will continue to grow and accelerate for living in health by venerating the Earth, and that we can again return to living in the Earth’s Great Garden.
November 18, 2019
Bear Spirit Posture
The Bear Spirit Posture
In my blogs I frequently mention the ecstatic postures and most always end the blog with a picture of one of the postures. These postures are central to the induction of ecstatic trance as researched by Felilcitas Goodman. In her search through books and museums for images of what she believed were postures used by hunter-gathering shamans, and while experimenting with these postures with her students at Dennison University, she found that some postures were for healing, of bringing in a healing energy. Other postures were for metamorphosis or shape-shifting while some were for divination or for finding answers to questions. Then there were the postures for spirit travel, some for traveling into the underworld, some for traveling in the middle world or the world in which we live, and some for traveling onto the upper world. Then there were the postures of initiation, providing a death-rebirth experience. Lastly there are several postures for Calling the Spirits. These postures are what make the Cuyamungue Method of Ecstatic Trance most unique.
In our Tuesday evening ecstatic trance group we will be using the Bear Spirit Posture. This Northwest Coast figurine of this posture is of a Bear embracing the human figure in this posture, and it is the logo for the Cuyamungue Institute. It was a figure found early in Felicitas Goodman’s research in seeking postures that she believed were used by hunter-gathering shamans, and it is a posture that she most frequently found in other hunter-gathering cultures, some as old as 6000 years. I have three figurines in this posture in my collection of posture figures, two from the San Blas Indians of Panama and another from the Senufo of Africa, a museum reproduction. The San Blas Indian figures were collected by Robert Van de Castle of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in his travels to Panama, figures that the San Blas Indians refer to as dreaming figures. In this posture you stand with your hands resting on your lower abdomen with the fingers of each hand gently turned under allowing your knuckles to form a triangle around your navel. It is a healing posture that brings in a strengthening, healing energy into the body. Bringing this energy most alive is when you breath correctly or naturally from your diaphragm, breathing that causes your hands to rise and fall with each breath, breath that provides the healing energy and strength.
In my blogs I frequently mention the ecstatic postures and most always end the blog with a picture of one of the postures. These postures are central to the induction of ecstatic trance as researched by Felilcitas Goodman. In her search through books and museums for images of what she believed were postures used by hunter-gathering shamans, and while experimenting with these postures with her students at Dennison University, she found that some postures were for healing, of bringing in a healing energy. Other postures were for metamorphosis or shape-shifting while some were for divination or for finding answers to questions. Then there were the postures for spirit travel, some for traveling into the underworld, some for traveling in the middle world or the world in which we live, and some for traveling onto the upper world. Then there were the postures of initiation, providing a death-rebirth experience. Lastly there are several postures for Calling the Spirits. These postures are what make the Cuyamungue Method of Ecstatic Trance most unique.
In our Tuesday evening ecstatic trance group we will be using the Bear Spirit Posture. This Northwest Coast figurine of this posture is of a Bear embracing the human figure in this posture, and it is the logo for the Cuyamungue Institute. It was a figure found early in Felicitas Goodman’s research in seeking postures that she believed were used by hunter-gathering shamans, and it is a posture that she most frequently found in other hunter-gathering cultures, some as old as 6000 years. I have three figurines in this posture in my collection of posture figures, two from the San Blas Indians of Panama and another from the Senufo of Africa, a museum reproduction. The San Blas Indian figures were collected by Robert Van de Castle of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in his travels to Panama, figures that the San Blas Indians refer to as dreaming figures. In this posture you stand with your hands resting on your lower abdomen with the fingers of each hand gently turned under allowing your knuckles to form a triangle around your navel. It is a healing posture that brings in a strengthening, healing energy into the body. Bringing this energy most alive is when you breath correctly or naturally from your diaphragm, breathing that causes your hands to rise and fall with each breath, breath that provides the healing energy and strength.
November 4, 2019
Gardening
Gardening
I have recently read on the internet that the most radical thing that can be done in opposing much of what is going wrong in our society and in combating global climate change is to plant a garden. I basically agree. Growing our food organically while not using the petroleum based fertilizers but working to improving our soil with mulching is a big step forward in protecting the Earth. I would like to add though the importance of listening to what we plant as did our hunter-gathering ancestors. Observing where and how the plants grow can tell us much about the conditions they need. With our interdependency with them they are prepared to fulfill our needs and we need to reciprocate by fulfilling their needs.
But beyond listening with our eyes we also need to listen at a deeper level from the heart, a level that our ancestors used naturally when sitting in front of a plant with eyes closed while opening themselves in an altered state of consciousness to the plant. Whether through dreaming or trance, hypnotic or ecstatic, they opened themselves to the messages and stories from the plants in the same way that the plants listen to us and know what we need. With the very wide range of phytochemicals that the plants offer and their ability to know what we need, they are able to select what we need when we go to them. In reading the book Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief the author David Winston reports that for Artemisia researchers have isolated one phytochemical, Artemisinin, that is effective in treating Malaria but that the Malaria parasite quickly develops resistance to this phytochemical. As research continued it turns out that when using the whole plant this resistance is reversed.
In sitting before and listening to Artemisia, I have learned that it is the wildness of this plant that grows everywhere that is its strength in healing and opening us to dreaming. From the ancient Anglo-Saxon manuscript, Lacnunga, Artemisia is the oldest or first among the sacred healing plants of Odin, and it is one of my favorites. Our gardens need to be more than just vegetables but also plants for healing. Our hunting-gathering ancestors ate and used many times more than the limited number of vegetables we grow in our gardens and they did not suffer from the diseases we do today.
I practice, teach and write about listening from beyond our five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch by listening through our sixth sense of intuition. This trance experience is induced with drumming while using specific ecstatic body postures that give direction to the trance experience. Rather than believing that we can take anything and everything that is of the Earth in or greed and belief that we have dominion over the Earth, I believe that our gardening can take us much beyond just providing us with food, but it can open us to a whole new world of finding our rightful place among all that is of the Earth.
I have recently read on the internet that the most radical thing that can be done in opposing much of what is going wrong in our society and in combating global climate change is to plant a garden. I basically agree. Growing our food organically while not using the petroleum based fertilizers but working to improving our soil with mulching is a big step forward in protecting the Earth. I would like to add though the importance of listening to what we plant as did our hunter-gathering ancestors. Observing where and how the plants grow can tell us much about the conditions they need. With our interdependency with them they are prepared to fulfill our needs and we need to reciprocate by fulfilling their needs.
But beyond listening with our eyes we also need to listen at a deeper level from the heart, a level that our ancestors used naturally when sitting in front of a plant with eyes closed while opening themselves in an altered state of consciousness to the plant. Whether through dreaming or trance, hypnotic or ecstatic, they opened themselves to the messages and stories from the plants in the same way that the plants listen to us and know what we need. With the very wide range of phytochemicals that the plants offer and their ability to know what we need, they are able to select what we need when we go to them. In reading the book Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief the author David Winston reports that for Artemisia researchers have isolated one phytochemical, Artemisinin, that is effective in treating Malaria but that the Malaria parasite quickly develops resistance to this phytochemical. As research continued it turns out that when using the whole plant this resistance is reversed.
In sitting before and listening to Artemisia, I have learned that it is the wildness of this plant that grows everywhere that is its strength in healing and opening us to dreaming. From the ancient Anglo-Saxon manuscript, Lacnunga, Artemisia is the oldest or first among the sacred healing plants of Odin, and it is one of my favorites. Our gardens need to be more than just vegetables but also plants for healing. Our hunting-gathering ancestors ate and used many times more than the limited number of vegetables we grow in our gardens and they did not suffer from the diseases we do today.
I practice, teach and write about listening from beyond our five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch by listening through our sixth sense of intuition. This trance experience is induced with drumming while using specific ecstatic body postures that give direction to the trance experience. Rather than believing that we can take anything and everything that is of the Earth in or greed and belief that we have dominion over the Earth, I believe that our gardening can take us much beyond just providing us with food, but it can open us to a whole new world of finding our rightful place among all that is of the Earth.
October 28, 2019
Applying the Constructivist Approach to Cognitive Therapy
From Applying the Constructivist Approach to Cognitive Therapy: Resolving the Unconscious Past published by Routledge, Chapter 6 takes the reader into new territory, an area of new popularity, i.e. the hypnotic elements of shamanic or ecstatic trance. Carlos Castaneda describes two forms of trance, dreaming and stalking. Dreaming is the letting go of one’s thinking and following where one’s thoughts go as in our nighttime dreams and much of hypnotic trance. On the other hand Stalking is entering trance with direction or intent, the energy experienced in ecstatic trance. One distinction can be seen in the background music used in these two forms of trance, new age music with hypnosis and rapid drumming or rattling stimulation to the nervous system with ecstatic trance, drumming that distracts the client/patient from rational thinking.
The anthropologist Felicitas Goodman in her research of ecstatic trance identified another important element in the induction of ecstatic trance, an element that adds especially to the effectiveness of hypnotic trance, i.e. the use of shamanic body postures. In her search of the body postures used by tribal shamans, both ancient and contemporary, she searched through art of these cultures in books and museums. She initially found approximately fifty postures she believed were used by the shamans, and when experimenting with these postures with her students at Dennison University she found that the postures gave direction to the trance experience. Some postures brought a sense of healing and strengthening energy into one’s body. Other postures were for divination or finding answers to questions, and some were for metamorphosis or shape-shifting to more directly experience one’s spirit guide. Then there were the postures for spirit journeying, some into the underworld, some into the middle world, and some into the upper world. The seventh direction given by some postures was for initiation or for providing a death-rebirth experience with the death of some unhealthy part of the self and the birth of a healthier part. I have used many of these postures and have experienced the direction the posture gives to the trance experience. The power of these postures as illustrated in this book adds a very significant energy to the trance experience, a powerful addition to the repertoire of hypnotic and shamanic trance techniques. As I offered in my previous blog, four of these postures can fit nicely into what is expected in a session of psychotherapy.
The anthropologist Felicitas Goodman in her research of ecstatic trance identified another important element in the induction of ecstatic trance, an element that adds especially to the effectiveness of hypnotic trance, i.e. the use of shamanic body postures. In her search of the body postures used by tribal shamans, both ancient and contemporary, she searched through art of these cultures in books and museums. She initially found approximately fifty postures she believed were used by the shamans, and when experimenting with these postures with her students at Dennison University she found that the postures gave direction to the trance experience. Some postures brought a sense of healing and strengthening energy into one’s body. Other postures were for divination or finding answers to questions, and some were for metamorphosis or shape-shifting to more directly experience one’s spirit guide. Then there were the postures for spirit journeying, some into the underworld, some into the middle world, and some into the upper world. The seventh direction given by some postures was for initiation or for providing a death-rebirth experience with the death of some unhealthy part of the self and the birth of a healthier part. I have used many of these postures and have experienced the direction the posture gives to the trance experience. The power of these postures as illustrated in this book adds a very significant energy to the trance experience, a powerful addition to the repertoire of hypnotic and shamanic trance techniques. As I offered in my previous blog, four of these postures can fit nicely into what is expected in a session of psychotherapy.
The Wheel of Light
Celebrating the Wheel of Light
I appreciate the three people who corrected my last week’s blog. In three days we will be entering the time on the wheel of light between the fall equinox and the winter solstice, Samhain (Halloween) not Imbolc (February 1st). At our latitude the days begin to become less than 10 hours and the flora give up the ghost for their winter’s sleep, though I am not sure if this applies to all plants. Some seem to die back earlier and others seem to last longer, but the tradition of designating this date to celebrate the time for tucking them in for the winter is important in living in harmony with the Earth and its changes in her yearly cycle. I appreciate this coming time of slowing down, in listening to the stories that come to us from our Great Mother Earth, though for many people such as the Sami of the north life becomes more strenuous in facing the cold and the lack of daylight while tending their reindeer and our local farmers in tending their animals. I am looking forward to transplanting a couple of small oaks in their dormancy of winter to give them more space, but I will enjoy these shortened days by being able to slow down.
With all the holidays celebrated in our present culture I am finding that celebrating the eight points on the Wheel of Light as much more significant in our need to again become one with the Earth as it was for our hunting and gathering ancestors: Samhain, Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltaine, Summer Solstice, Lughnasagh, and Spring Equinox. This awareness of the eight points on the Wheel of Light brings us in harmony with all of the living species and substances of the Earth, our brothers and sisters. With this focus of awareness we move into the new age of Goddess, of peace and harmony and with a new sense of community of cooperating with all those around us. In valuing our great diversity, diversity in knowledge and in ways of living, we open ourselves to this new world with curiosity and continued learning that brings us into a new age of creativity. As with our hunting and gathering ancestors in listening to all that is of the Earth we are again learning the skill of this listening, a skills that is opened to us by listening to our dreams and other trance states of conscious. I practice and teach the state of ecstatic trance, one way of opening ourselves to this listening to our Great Earth Mother and all that is of her. I am excited by the possibilities that will open to us as we move into the New Age.
I appreciate the three people who corrected my last week’s blog. In three days we will be entering the time on the wheel of light between the fall equinox and the winter solstice, Samhain (Halloween) not Imbolc (February 1st). At our latitude the days begin to become less than 10 hours and the flora give up the ghost for their winter’s sleep, though I am not sure if this applies to all plants. Some seem to die back earlier and others seem to last longer, but the tradition of designating this date to celebrate the time for tucking them in for the winter is important in living in harmony with the Earth and its changes in her yearly cycle. I appreciate this coming time of slowing down, in listening to the stories that come to us from our Great Mother Earth, though for many people such as the Sami of the north life becomes more strenuous in facing the cold and the lack of daylight while tending their reindeer and our local farmers in tending their animals. I am looking forward to transplanting a couple of small oaks in their dormancy of winter to give them more space, but I will enjoy these shortened days by being able to slow down.
With all the holidays celebrated in our present culture I am finding that celebrating the eight points on the Wheel of Light as much more significant in our need to again become one with the Earth as it was for our hunting and gathering ancestors: Samhain, Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltaine, Summer Solstice, Lughnasagh, and Spring Equinox. This awareness of the eight points on the Wheel of Light brings us in harmony with all of the living species and substances of the Earth, our brothers and sisters. With this focus of awareness we move into the new age of Goddess, of peace and harmony and with a new sense of community of cooperating with all those around us. In valuing our great diversity, diversity in knowledge and in ways of living, we open ourselves to this new world with curiosity and continued learning that brings us into a new age of creativity. As with our hunting and gathering ancestors in listening to all that is of the Earth we are again learning the skill of this listening, a skills that is opened to us by listening to our dreams and other trance states of conscious. I practice and teach the state of ecstatic trance, one way of opening ourselves to this listening to our Great Earth Mother and all that is of her. I am excited by the possibilities that will open to us as we move into the New Age.
October 15, 2019
The Coyote Spirit of Dreams and Trance Experiences
The guiding spirits of our nighttime dreams and trance experiences, whether ecstatic or hypnotic, bring t us healing and directions in living. Our experiences may be positive and enlightening and others traumatic, but each offers us something important. The traumatic experiences show us something about what we need to overcome or change. One very common experience I would call a “wheel spinning” experience. Often in our nighttime dreams we find ourselves trying to accomplish something or trying to get somewhere and never get there. These dreams are generally quite exhausting and metaphoric of something we are trying to accomplish in our waking life but with feelings of frustration in getting there. This dream is sometimes a suggestion for taking a break from what we are trying to accomplish to reassess what we are doing, to change the way we are approaching it, or to consider how to move ahead. Possibly it is a direction we are not meant to go. From my many animal spirit guides the “wheel spinning” may come from the coyote who is challenging me in some way. I am often a bit leery of the coyote but still love him because when he comes to me I know it is for something important. The way I feel towards the coyote is the way I feel towards my wheel spinning dreams. The Nordic god Loki is the same, the challenger, the trickster. The wheel-spinning dream is just one theme and there are many other kinds of dreams, nightmares, and trance experiences, each with something important to tell us.
We have often been taught throughout our lives that dream or trances experiences are “unreal” since they come from beyond our five senses, but I find them more important than what comes from the five senses, because they are taking me beyond where I am in life, taking me to a new stage in life. These dreams or trance experiences can’t or shouldn’t be ignored. Our dream and trance experiences are taking us on the journey into the New Age and they are often signs for what is inhibiting us in this journey. This pictured coyote is always looking down at me as I lay in bed.
Nick
We have often been taught throughout our lives that dream or trances experiences are “unreal” since they come from beyond our five senses, but I find them more important than what comes from the five senses, because they are taking me beyond where I am in life, taking me to a new stage in life. These dreams or trance experiences can’t or shouldn’t be ignored. Our dream and trance experiences are taking us on the journey into the New Age and they are often signs for what is inhibiting us in this journey. This pictured coyote is always looking down at me as I lay in bed.
Nick
October 7, 2019
Listening to Plants
Listening to the Plants 10-7-19
I continue to be excited by my journeys with the medicinal herbs and other flora in listening to what they have to tell me. It has become more and more clear to me that the plants know best what a person may need, but listening to the plant is necessary in order to get its message. My way of listening is through the ritual of ecstatic trance for which I have become a certified instructor. The intelligence of the plant has become quite clear to me, though in listening the answers are not as clear and simple as to which herb needs to be taken for a specific malady. By asking what herb I need to take to treat a specific symptom is following the model of what we expect from the pharmaceutical companies, i.e. to take a specific drug for a specific symptom, a model that profits the company.
Often the problems or maladies as seen by our contemporary medical establishment is to recognize a particular symptom, e.g. an upset stomach, muscle soreness, or depression, even cancer, heart disease or diabetes, and find what it takes to relieve the symptom, but the question is not asked “Why are we experiencing this symptom?” Why are our cells dividing in a crazy manner, why are our arteries clogging up, why is our blood sugar level up? The answer is very often behavioral, i.e. in the way we live, our diets, the exercise we get or how we face life emotionally with such stressors as our fears, depressions, anxieties, guilt, and obsessions. Often the problem may be considered spiritual or in the way we think, that we think negatively, that everything around us is bad, something to conquer, rather than seeing the beauty in the world around us.
Trusting Mother Nature is important. Everything of nature is interdependent, an interdependency that can provide us with a sense of security if we recognize the value of everything around us rather than trying to control it for our own selfish profit. Everything has something to share with us. The plant with its intelligence is able to see the cause behind the symptom, the why of the symptom, not just the what, the symptom itself. By listening to the plant we are again rejoining the our rightful place in the interdependency of all that is of the Earth.
Our hunting-gathering ancestors had a much broader diet than we have now, for us by eating only that which comes from the supermarket. By listening to the plants our ancestors discovered what was edible, to be used as seasonings or as a substantial part of a meal such as berries, nuts, fruits, mushrooms, lichens, roots, leaves, stems, foods that are found all around us. As I read about the usefulness of wild plants, so may relegated to the category of weeds, I plant them in our yard or just find them around our place. Most all are edible and healthy, able to treat many of the maladies that we suffer with today. Just as I have valued my animal spirit guides, I am now discovering the plant spirit guides are just as valuable.
I continue to be excited by my journeys with the medicinal herbs and other flora in listening to what they have to tell me. It has become more and more clear to me that the plants know best what a person may need, but listening to the plant is necessary in order to get its message. My way of listening is through the ritual of ecstatic trance for which I have become a certified instructor. The intelligence of the plant has become quite clear to me, though in listening the answers are not as clear and simple as to which herb needs to be taken for a specific malady. By asking what herb I need to take to treat a specific symptom is following the model of what we expect from the pharmaceutical companies, i.e. to take a specific drug for a specific symptom, a model that profits the company.
Often the problems or maladies as seen by our contemporary medical establishment is to recognize a particular symptom, e.g. an upset stomach, muscle soreness, or depression, even cancer, heart disease or diabetes, and find what it takes to relieve the symptom, but the question is not asked “Why are we experiencing this symptom?” Why are our cells dividing in a crazy manner, why are our arteries clogging up, why is our blood sugar level up? The answer is very often behavioral, i.e. in the way we live, our diets, the exercise we get or how we face life emotionally with such stressors as our fears, depressions, anxieties, guilt, and obsessions. Often the problem may be considered spiritual or in the way we think, that we think negatively, that everything around us is bad, something to conquer, rather than seeing the beauty in the world around us.
Trusting Mother Nature is important. Everything of nature is interdependent, an interdependency that can provide us with a sense of security if we recognize the value of everything around us rather than trying to control it for our own selfish profit. Everything has something to share with us. The plant with its intelligence is able to see the cause behind the symptom, the why of the symptom, not just the what, the symptom itself. By listening to the plant we are again rejoining the our rightful place in the interdependency of all that is of the Earth.
Our hunting-gathering ancestors had a much broader diet than we have now, for us by eating only that which comes from the supermarket. By listening to the plants our ancestors discovered what was edible, to be used as seasonings or as a substantial part of a meal such as berries, nuts, fruits, mushrooms, lichens, roots, leaves, stems, foods that are found all around us. As I read about the usefulness of wild plants, so may relegated to the category of weeds, I plant them in our yard or just find them around our place. Most all are edible and healthy, able to treat many of the maladies that we suffer with today. Just as I have valued my animal spirit guides, I am now discovering the plant spirit guides are just as valuable.
September 30, 2019
Global Clilmate Change
Interdependency
As part of our ecstatic trance ritual we call the spirits of each direction, of everything that is of our Great Mother Earth. These spirits are called recognizing their interdependency upon each other. This interdependency or Gaia is central in the creation of the Earth and all that is of the Earth. With the consciousness of everything that is of the Earth what is needed by each element of this interdependency is known and these elements provide what is needed to keep everything flowing in a sustainable and healthy manner. I am continually amazed by this process seen in the balance found in this interdependency. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors their ability to listen to the spirits of all that is of the Earth showed them how to live sustainably with everything, a way of listening that demonstrates the consciousness of all elements of this interdependency.
The Earth continually finds what needs to be done to sustain all that is of the Earth, and that is what it is doing now with Global Climate Change, again doing what it needs to do to bring about a sustainable and healthy environment. I have been amazed that in places where the natural environment has been re-established some of the animals that we thought to be extinct are again showing themselves. Most recently I read that a thought to be extinct spotted big cat has re-emerged in a place Asia. Yet so much of life is disappearing with the extinction of more and more animals because of the greed and disregard of the human species, extinctions that throws our sustainability out of balance. If we are unable to reverse what we are doing to the Earth, to save the Earth we need to also go extinct too to protect what remains to allow the sustainability to re-emerge. This is a time that we need to return to listening to the spirits of the Earth to regain our ability to live sustainably with all that is of the Earth. We have so much to learn, and the remaining hunter-gatherer people are there and open to teach us. We are only a part of this interdependency and not above it as we have been living for the last several millennia.
As part of our ecstatic trance ritual we call the spirits of each direction, of everything that is of our Great Mother Earth. These spirits are called recognizing their interdependency upon each other. This interdependency or Gaia is central in the creation of the Earth and all that is of the Earth. With the consciousness of everything that is of the Earth what is needed by each element of this interdependency is known and these elements provide what is needed to keep everything flowing in a sustainable and healthy manner. I am continually amazed by this process seen in the balance found in this interdependency. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors their ability to listen to the spirits of all that is of the Earth showed them how to live sustainably with everything, a way of listening that demonstrates the consciousness of all elements of this interdependency.
The Earth continually finds what needs to be done to sustain all that is of the Earth, and that is what it is doing now with Global Climate Change, again doing what it needs to do to bring about a sustainable and healthy environment. I have been amazed that in places where the natural environment has been re-established some of the animals that we thought to be extinct are again showing themselves. Most recently I read that a thought to be extinct spotted big cat has re-emerged in a place Asia. Yet so much of life is disappearing with the extinction of more and more animals because of the greed and disregard of the human species, extinctions that throws our sustainability out of balance. If we are unable to reverse what we are doing to the Earth, to save the Earth we need to also go extinct too to protect what remains to allow the sustainability to re-emerge. This is a time that we need to return to listening to the spirits of the Earth to regain our ability to live sustainably with all that is of the Earth. We have so much to learn, and the remaining hunter-gatherer people are there and open to teach us. We are only a part of this interdependency and not above it as we have been living for the last several millennia.
September 23, 2019
Autumn Equinox 2019 Odin's Nine Sacred Herbs
#61 Autumn Equinox 2019 Odin’s Nine Sacred Herbs
I had the exceptional opportunity to celebrate the summer solstice 15 years ago in 2004 with the Danish worshipers of the ancient Nordic gods and goddesses at the Galvendrup burial mound on the Danish island of Fyn. Since then I have written a letter to these friends of Forn Sidr each solstice and equinox, knowing that they are gathering in celebration at these times of the year. I hear from a number of them regularly, especially on Facebook, and love to hear what they are doing in their lives. I have also been writing a weekly blog of the power of Ecstatic Trance, a shamanic form of trance for which I have become an instructor. It so happens that this Autumn Equinox falls on a Monday, the day that I usually write the blog, thus my writings come together.
We now live in the Hudson Valley of New York on an acre of land upon which we have built a labyrinth in the woods and have been busy planting a garden and beds of medicinal herbs. The medicinal herb beds each are following some theme, e.g. a bed of herbs following the Celtic Wheel of Light, and another bed of Oden’s nine sacred herbs from the ancient manuscript Lacnunga described in the book by Robert Rogers “Worms, Worts, and Leeches: The Nine Sacred Herbs of Lacnunga.” The translation of Lacnunga from the Old English is “Remedies.” One of these plants, the Crabapple tree, is the center of the bed surrounded by a ring of ten other herbs, ten because in the translation of Lacnunga some of the herb names could mean more than one herb. So far I have planted three of the herbs, Stinging Nettles, Artemisia and Plantain. The others will likely have to wait until spring: Betony, Shepherd’s Purse or Pennycress, Chamomile, Chervil or Thyme and Fennel.
Then in my practice and teaching of Ecstatic Trance I have learned much from and value my numerous spirit guides which have generally been animals, birds, a snake and the honeybee, but recently I have been striving to develop a spiritual relationship with a number these plants/herbs. Our hunting and gathering ancestors knew how to listen to the spirits of plants to learn which ones to eat and how to use them medicinally. Through Ecstatic Trance I am relearn this ability of my distant ancestors of listening to the spirits of plants. I have been sharing this exciting new journey with a few others who are interested in learning this way of communing with medicinal herbs.
I am excited by this journey also because it is bringing me closer to Iduun and her garden from which her golden apples keep the Gods and Goddesses of Asgard young. I am sure the Garden of Iduun is much more than the golden apples and these other plants are a central part of it in her ability to bring back to life the fallen warriors/heroes that occur in their daily battles.
Thus again I celebrate this God and Goddess: Hil! Oden for bringing us his nine sacred herbs, and Hil! Iduun for her knowledge of the medicinal herbs.
I had the exceptional opportunity to celebrate the summer solstice 15 years ago in 2004 with the Danish worshipers of the ancient Nordic gods and goddesses at the Galvendrup burial mound on the Danish island of Fyn. Since then I have written a letter to these friends of Forn Sidr each solstice and equinox, knowing that they are gathering in celebration at these times of the year. I hear from a number of them regularly, especially on Facebook, and love to hear what they are doing in their lives. I have also been writing a weekly blog of the power of Ecstatic Trance, a shamanic form of trance for which I have become an instructor. It so happens that this Autumn Equinox falls on a Monday, the day that I usually write the blog, thus my writings come together.
We now live in the Hudson Valley of New York on an acre of land upon which we have built a labyrinth in the woods and have been busy planting a garden and beds of medicinal herbs. The medicinal herb beds each are following some theme, e.g. a bed of herbs following the Celtic Wheel of Light, and another bed of Oden’s nine sacred herbs from the ancient manuscript Lacnunga described in the book by Robert Rogers “Worms, Worts, and Leeches: The Nine Sacred Herbs of Lacnunga.” The translation of Lacnunga from the Old English is “Remedies.” One of these plants, the Crabapple tree, is the center of the bed surrounded by a ring of ten other herbs, ten because in the translation of Lacnunga some of the herb names could mean more than one herb. So far I have planted three of the herbs, Stinging Nettles, Artemisia and Plantain. The others will likely have to wait until spring: Betony, Shepherd’s Purse or Pennycress, Chamomile, Chervil or Thyme and Fennel.
Then in my practice and teaching of Ecstatic Trance I have learned much from and value my numerous spirit guides which have generally been animals, birds, a snake and the honeybee, but recently I have been striving to develop a spiritual relationship with a number these plants/herbs. Our hunting and gathering ancestors knew how to listen to the spirits of plants to learn which ones to eat and how to use them medicinally. Through Ecstatic Trance I am relearn this ability of my distant ancestors of listening to the spirits of plants. I have been sharing this exciting new journey with a few others who are interested in learning this way of communing with medicinal herbs.
I am excited by this journey also because it is bringing me closer to Iduun and her garden from which her golden apples keep the Gods and Goddesses of Asgard young. I am sure the Garden of Iduun is much more than the golden apples and these other plants are a central part of it in her ability to bring back to life the fallen warriors/heroes that occur in their daily battles.
Thus again I celebrate this God and Goddess: Hil! Oden for bringing us his nine sacred herbs, and Hil! Iduun for her knowledge of the medicinal herbs.
September 16, 2019
Ecstatic Trance Uniqueness #2
Ecstatic Trance Uniqueness #2
In my last blog I wrote of the uniqueness of the Cuyamungue Method of ecstatic trance, of the use of the ecstatic postures that give direction to the trance experience. As mentioned the problem or concern that is brought to the tribe’s shamans give the trance experience direction. They probably use only one or maybe a couple of different postures and would become specialized in the manner in which they seek answers whether in calling upon a healing energy, divination, shape shifting, traveling into the underworld, the middle world or the upper world, or seeking a death-rebirth experience. For us to use a larger number of ecstatic postures gives us the able to go on any of these journeys, gives us a broader range of directions in seeking answers or resolutions to particular problems even when the problems are undefined as they may be in understanding the source of the problem. Our consumer medical industry generally considers only the symptom of the problem and not what causes the symptom. For example, we may not understand the cause of an anxiety attack, a cause likely based in something that happened many years earlier that began the growing habit of feeling anxious when something even minor occurs in later years. Our world now is much more complex than it was for our hunter-gatherer ancestor, and these ecstatic trance journeys can be very revealing in understanding the nature or cause of problems that occur whether personal, relational, or in the community.
Felicitas Goodman’s wider range of postures for providing direction for resolution to these problems and concerns was likely unavailable to our ancestral shamans. These postures being available to all of us is reminiscent of the earliest times when everyone in the hunter-gatherer tribes had available to them the ability to commune with the spirits to find answers. We now are able to relearn these powers available to us through guiding spirits, whether two legged, four legged, winged, finned, or rooted, powers that were available to our hunter-gathering ancestors, our ever present origin. Our way of life is rapidly changing, and to keep up with these changes to survive into the future relearning these ways of our distant ancestors that are again available to us will be and is important.
In my last blog I wrote of the uniqueness of the Cuyamungue Method of ecstatic trance, of the use of the ecstatic postures that give direction to the trance experience. As mentioned the problem or concern that is brought to the tribe’s shamans give the trance experience direction. They probably use only one or maybe a couple of different postures and would become specialized in the manner in which they seek answers whether in calling upon a healing energy, divination, shape shifting, traveling into the underworld, the middle world or the upper world, or seeking a death-rebirth experience. For us to use a larger number of ecstatic postures gives us the able to go on any of these journeys, gives us a broader range of directions in seeking answers or resolutions to particular problems even when the problems are undefined as they may be in understanding the source of the problem. Our consumer medical industry generally considers only the symptom of the problem and not what causes the symptom. For example, we may not understand the cause of an anxiety attack, a cause likely based in something that happened many years earlier that began the growing habit of feeling anxious when something even minor occurs in later years. Our world now is much more complex than it was for our hunter-gatherer ancestor, and these ecstatic trance journeys can be very revealing in understanding the nature or cause of problems that occur whether personal, relational, or in the community.
Felicitas Goodman’s wider range of postures for providing direction for resolution to these problems and concerns was likely unavailable to our ancestral shamans. These postures being available to all of us is reminiscent of the earliest times when everyone in the hunter-gatherer tribes had available to them the ability to commune with the spirits to find answers. We now are able to relearn these powers available to us through guiding spirits, whether two legged, four legged, winged, finned, or rooted, powers that were available to our hunter-gathering ancestors, our ever present origin. Our way of life is rapidly changing, and to keep up with these changes to survive into the future relearning these ways of our distant ancestors that are again available to us will be and is important.
