Category Archives: Mindfulness and Meditation

Plant Medicine

Shaman Explorations – Baby Pineapple

There are many people who believe that Plant Medicine only happens when you drink mysterious brews in the Rainforest of South America.

What I have learned is that there are three Great Medicines. Plant Medicine, Animal Medicine, and Stone Medicine. These Medicines are an integral part of our daily life. Animal Medicine is frequently how we harmonise and gain support in the Lower World. It, and Stone Medicine are topics for another time.

But Plant Medicine?

Let’s look at it on the Medicine Wheel.

Air – We love the beauty of flowers and their fragrant perfumes. We use trees to put our ideas into writing, with pencils and books. We inhale steam and smoke. I participate in Air Plant Medicine every time I hold a Pipe Ceremony (smoke). We smudge with sage and sweetgrass, and purify ourselves. We wear perfumes, and fill our homes with aromatherapy. All of this is Plant Medicine.

Fire – We keep ourselves warm by burning plants, and the warmth of lights at night is from plants. Coal is made up of plants, and wood has been used for cooking and heating fuel for millennia. Fire is also involved in smoking and smudging. This, too is all Plant Medicine.

Water – One of my favourite Plant Medicines! Making tea! We drink the plants in coffee and tea. We savour succulent fruits such as mangoes and citrus, and make orange juice and lemon juice. We cook with the plants. Spices in our foods (different spices might be in different places on the Medicine Wheel – chilli’s might be fiery, peppermint more watery, while paprika might be considered more earthy) provide flavour to our cooking.

Earth – Possibly the most widely used form of Plant Medicine. All of our vegetables, leafy greens, roots, fruits, stalks, grains, lentils – we get so much nourishment for our body from the Plants and their Medicine. Each plant has different qualities – the pineapple produces bromelain, an aid to digestion and a healer of burns. Each plant has a different profile of vitamins and minerals (Yes, that’s Stone Medicine, too), aminos and enzymes to help humans be healthier. Each plant has its own Medicine which is particular to it – whether it is the leaves of the kale, or the roots of the beet.

There is a reason why all religions have a pause of Gratitude before eating a meal. Not only does it aid digestion, but gives us an opportunity to be mindful of the beautiful Plant Medicine that we are about to merge with. You are what you eat!

We all use Plant Medicine every day.

Take some time to appreciate the Plant Medicine in your life.

Shaman Explorations – Pineapple Aug 2018

Why Daily Practice?

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Carl Jung Red Book Mandala

We like to believe that working and tending our homes and families is enough. Truly, it is a monumental and life’s work.

But if you don’t tend to yourself, your family, work & home will suffer.

Yoga teacher Shiva Rea speaks of the Practice as the dance with your Soul.

Only you can meditate, only you can practice your yoga, only you can create your artwork, only you can make your music, only you can sing your songs, dance your dance, knit, quilt, sew – whatever your Practice is. This is not something that you “have to do,” that you drag your feet as you approach the Practice – it is something that will uplift you and give you more than you offer it.

It is your very Soul, and the opportunity to dance with that place of G-d within you.

I don’t care what your practice is. It might be balancing a spoon on your nose, it might be time spent with your dog. But it’s not just “time alone,” it needs to be something that builds upon itself, that has the potential to spiral up into skill and mastery. If it is time spent with your dog, how does that deepen and grow? (hint: the daily walk is a chore and possibly an escape – unless you add the element of Practice to it) I used to train dogs, and the time spent training them was good for me, too – we both learned and grew. So your Practice is not just sitting with a cup of tea in the afternoon – unless you are striving to make that tea time better in quality with each session.

Let’s say that a cup of tea in the afternoon is your Practice. Can you bless the tea or give thanks, meditate on the people who made this tea possible for you, before you start steeping? How clean is the water? Feel the connection between the water and your own body. Exactly how hot is the water? Are the boiling bubbles “shrimp eyes” (for green tea) or “fish eyes” (for black)? What do you do while the tea is steeping? Is this a time to check in with your body, take a deep breath and let go of your thoughts? Perhaps you want to spend this time in your heart centre, cherishing the things that you love, and opening and expanding to forgiveness, kindness, and love. (hint: this is not a time for thinking-thinking-thinking or problem solving – those are just rumination, and you don’t need to Practice that!) Okay, your tea is steeped – have you blessed the cup which will contain the tea? Do you bless yourself as you take the tea in? How about some gratitude for this moment in time, this simple and nourishing thing? Tea can be a rich and deep spiritual practice, if you open yourself to the Mindfulness of the moment.

This turns your daily cuppa into a Daily Practice, and as you gain mastery, a Daily Ceremony. As you Practice your tea, the quality of the practice and the time spent with your soul will reward you.

The reason we Practice is threefold.

First, to demonstrate our commitment to dancing with our Soul.
Second, to actually dance with our Soul, and
Third, to learn and grow as the soul teaches us through the Practice.

I don’t care what your Practice is, but your Soul wants to communicate with you. Are you giving it the opportunity?

Perhaps your practice can be incorporated in the tending of your life – the way you cook a meal, or expressing gratitude (Grace) before eating. Maybe your practice is something carved out just for you and your Soul – like juggling, balancing spoons on your nose, arts & crafts, yoga, tai chi, sitting meditation – or a daily cup of tea! The simplest of Practices – like just sitting and listening to a piece of music – not doing anything but listening – can reap great inner rewards. Regardless of what your Practice is, it is essential to your Growth as a Human Being.

What daily practice will you commit to? At first, make a small commitment: I will do this for a week. A week is long enough to start seeing the benefits. What about a month? What about every possible day for the rest of your life? There are exceptions, this isn’t about austerity, it’s about the pleasure of Dancing with your Soul.

What daily practice will you commit to?

Rhythm and Brain Waves

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Dragon Drum

The rhythm of the music you listen to – accesses different states.

Beta – active heart rate and above (like exercise, too). This is “pop music,” “rock and roll,” the things you hear on the radio.

Alpha – as close to slow, comfortable heart rate. This is meditation music, droning, a rhythm that matches a relaxed heart rate.

Theta – is more of a nervous system rhythm. Like a train running along it’s tracks. This is the shamanic drumbeat. For initiates, it seems too fast, too driving. But you get conditioned so that when you hear it, you are ready to go.

Delta – like an Alpha, only much, much slower – it encourages the heartbeat to slow further, even though a delta rhythm is slower than a heartbeat, and the heartbeat will never match it. Max Richter’s “Sleep” is all done in Delta.

Restoration happens in Delta (sleep). Theta and Delta are what is missing from an insomniacs life.

As shamans, we can restore theta in a waking state, and perhaps it will give you a better pathway to delta.

If you listen to an Indian Raga, it starts out in a gentle alpha, and gradually increases through beta to a fast theta, so that it enhances the entire being into a heightened, creative state. (this raga is an hour long, to demonstrate the journey through these tempos.)

Rhythm gives us access to the deeper parts of ourselves. Rhythm influences us whether we recognize it or not.

The screen switching rate of the TV, coupled with the music, is very manipulative of our emotional states. In advertising, it is trying to produce a feeling of anxiety, insecurity, or fear – so that you need whatever it is they are offering. If you compare today’s TV with the TV of 30-50 years ago, you will notice that the tempo of the “old TV” is much slower, as they were still learning how to best effect the human nervous system.

Now it is a fine science, called “Neuromarketing” or “Neuroscience Marketing,” and it not only includes visual and audio rhythm, but also colour, tone, texture – all designed to create a need and sell a product, service, or idea. Think about how the “header music” of the news program always captures your attention with its marching beat. If it is on, it influences you whether you are aware of it or not.

Be aware of it. Seek out natural rhythms like birdsong, water flow, classical, folk, and uplifting music (that’s a topic all to itself, as some rhythms of music, especially pop and rock, can be disruptive to the nervous and emotional systems).

Honour the rhythms of your own body – your breath, your heartbeat, your hunger, your sleeping, your waking. In this mindfulness, you can begin to open yourself to greater potential.

Animal, Plant, Stone Medicine

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Bjarnling – a beautiful manifestation of my Dog Medicine

In Circle, I am reluctant to name any animals we meet as anything more than Helper.

I am not you, only you know how deep your relationship with this animal goes.

This is also true for plant people and stone people. So when you are helped by a plant, an animal, or a stone – seek to develop a relationship with that Helper.

Is this not true of everyone we meet? Is this not true of our relationship to the things we ingest, the practices we perform?

I believe that the reason we are on this Earth is to relate to one another. In so doing, we join, we contradict, we learn, we grow. In so doing, we deepen our connection with the Earth and each other. We become closer to that mystery that is G-d.

When you see an ant crawling across your foot, do you marvel that he is perfect in form, industrious in nature, and there you are – on his Path? Or do you hurry to shake him off? The simplest of things – and this includes Ordinary Mindfulness – the bloom of a tree, the flight of a bird, the new shoots in spring – are uplifting and supporting you, if you let them.

Explore your relationship to your Helpers, and as your relationship deepens, you will become more supported, and heal yourself and the Earth, and recognise your kinship to all of Creation.

In my own healing journey, I have learned that as I heal myself, I become a greater asset to my tribe and community. As I learn to heal myself, I gain wisdom that will help others. It seems selfish and counter-intuitive that we can help humanity by healing ourselves – but where else do we begin?

The cutting edge for me is my relationship to my food. Do I just hammer it down because it’s tasty? Or do I feel, mindfully, heartfully, the life that is in the food? The work that has gone into getting it to my table? There is a reason that cultures worldwide give thanks before a meal. Say, “Grace.” I try to remember to do at least that: not a long prayer for the food to get cold, but a single, deep, calming breath, and I whisper the word, “Grace.”

For the Medicine only comes to me by the Grace of All That Is. It is Grace that means I am fed while someone else goes hungry. It is Grace that this animal has crossed my path today. It is Grace that I take a breath of air, Grace to have a drink of clean water. It is Grace to hear the whispers of trees in the wind, or smell a fragrant plant on your Path.

In cultivating a relationship with your Medicine, therefore, the most important aspect is Gratitude. It is Grace that has brought you this Medicine – be grateful for this gift. Always ask, “What can I give you?” This Medicine has not come to you because you deserve it, it has come to you as a gift. Be grateful, acknowledge this stroke of Grace, and offer something in return.

So – it seems there are several “classes” of Beings who are around us assisting us at all times. I call them Helper, Medicine, Power Animal, and Guardian.

Helper – is any Being, Animal, Stone, Plant who aids you in your Journey in Non-Ordinary Reality and Ordinary Reality. I include “Allies” in this (see Carlos Castaneda Thread where I’m exploring relationships to Allies). When you are in the Lower World, and you see an animal, and as, “Are you my Helper?” the animal may say, “No,” but – isn’t this yet another form of Helping?

Medicine – after you have worked with a Helper for a time, you develop a relationship with them. They may have a special place on your medicine wheel (for example, my Frog comes to me from Sky/Above, is a gift from G-d to me), or a certain role they serve in your life (Wolf helps me teach). Medicine is a deeper relationship than Helper. This is the stone you carry in your pocket, the tea which is “just right” and you always come back to. This is the animals, plants and trees you observe in Ordinary Reality – and the healing you receive in Non Ordinary Reality.

Power – This is unique to you. Your Power animal is always there for you, waits for you at the boundaries of Non-Ordinary Reality, and accompanies you on the Journey, supporting and guiding you on the Non-Ordinary path. The challenge with Power Animals is feeling them in Ordinary reality. They are there – they empower you to deal with the mundane world – but it is a different level to perceive their support in the Ordinary Realm.

Guardian –Popular lore says we all have Guardian Angels. Michael Harner alludes to this – that we would not have survived to adulthood without Guardians. I have, over the years, seen a Guardian. My Guardians look human, albeit eccentric. I speak to them often, even though they are frequently invisible. More often, I sense them as invisible presences, and speak to them to help me solve the problems of my life, or help me to understand better, or to bring me the lessons I need to grow. They intercede for me – it is easier to communicate with them than with the Mystery that is Great Spirit. For me, the Guardian comes to me most clearly in the Upper World to teach and transform as I learn to relate to him/her/them.

It is the “Power Animal” or the “Guardian Helper” that comes in a proper Vision Quest. I believe there are other Helpers along the way – I believe that the Universe itself supports us when we seek to better ourselves, when we speak the truth, and keep our word. When we are on a path to do this, synchronicities and events will aid us on that path.

Helpers and Medicine can change or grow or shift over time. Even Powers and Guardians can come and go. There is no need to attach to “I am a Bear,” or “I am a Buffalo,” because perhaps that Buffalo is for your time as a mother, or the Bear is for the time when your children are gone. Different stages in our lives require different lessons, and while that bird may be a deep comfort now, there may come a time when the bird lets you go and a snake takes over your tutelage.

In Michael Harner, he speaks of dancing your animal. I believe this is a valuable practice. You can do a ceremony, as he discusses in his book – or you can do a daily Practice. Dedicate a time each day to connect to your Medicine animal as a Practice. Feel the grace of the cat, or the wings of the bird, or the diligence of Mr. Ant, or the gentle consideration of a tree. Even if it is just a moment, this empathy with your animal will help to deepen your relationship.

Anytime we deepen relationships – with animals, with plants, with stones – and with each other – we strengthen our medicine.

Meditation is Essential

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Medicine Wheel by Carl Jung, from the Red Book

It’s essential to have a meditation Practice.

I can tell you a few that I’ve tried, and what I like and why. It is individual, so you will have to find your own way.

My first exposure to meditation was Yoga, at age 13. But I didn’t know I was doing meditation, I just thought I was learning greater physical control of my body. This was a huge benefit to an adolescent girl! In fact, I made speeches at my school about how it was physically beneficial, but did not have a religious element to it! I now think there is enough in yoga for a lifetime of spiritual development.

Then I found the martial arts, but I didn’t think it was meditation, either. I thought of it as a way for self defense, and physical prowess. I liked being able to beat up testosterone fuelled guys, and it gave me a sense of empowerment. Now that I’ve practiced various forms of marital arts for 30 years (on and off, due to injuries), I think there is enough there for a lifetime of mental discipline and depth of refinement to last a lifetime.

When I first started exploring esoteric subjects, I took up Mindfulness Meditation, as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh. Ah, I thought! Meditation! And it was. I learned to Witness my thoughts, and watched the thoughts become still and deep. I also think it enhanced my magick – my ability to shape my own consciousness to effect change in my life. But I didn’t understand how. Mindfulness meditation was – a tool. It refined my personality, but it was subtle.

Then came all the esoteric meditations: visualization (holding an image in your mind), ceremonies, and rituals, setting of intent and sending of energy to gather what I believed I wanted. Awesome. But it’s easy to get deluded and charmed by these – and miss the point. The point is – if I was so Great, if I am One with the Universe, then why was I casting spells?

Somewhere in there, I experienced Guided meditation. I hated it. The guidance was always to visualise things which were not in my nature. I would see a mountain, the guided meditation would send me to a grassy valley. I would see a stream, but the guided meditation wanted me to see a hall of doors. Or a staircase. Or whatever!

I do still use guided meditations, mostly to induce a relaxed state in preparation for dreaming or Journeying.

Then, I was initiated into Shamanism. I thought it was meditation at the time, just a different format of the esoteric stuff. It took about 10 years of practice before I started to feel my way and realized that – the theta state, while it can be achieved through meditation, is a creative state with direct access to the subconscious. It would take decades of meditation practice to call it up at will – and yet the drum brings it so simply, so easily.

But after my initiation, I let it drop for awhile, thinking it was just another meditation.

I started sitting Zen. This had value in the silent depths of it. I did not feel it refining me personally, and there seemed to be a lot of “more Zen than thou” games at the Zen Center. But I found it valuable to sit for 15-20 minutes at time when I still could. I had back pain, and it became difficult to sit properly for Zen.

Then I learned kundalini meditations. At the school I went to, it was guided meditations, but it was gentle, and opening. They were guided meditations, coupled with yoga practices and writing and creative exercises. It was like a personal development course, looking at the layers of kundalini and exploring my chakras on different levels. The founder of the school, Genevieve Paulson, is gone, and my teacher no longer offers retreat teachings (but you can meditate with her “in the cloud”)

So – the next thing to try was TM, Transcendental Meditation. I had heard about it at the kundalini retreats, and my boyfriend did it – 2 x 20 minutes a day. There was a “half price special” so I got initiated. It is a basic mantra meditation. There is value to mantra meditation – it can take you deep, fast, and separates you from your thoughts more quickly than Zen or Mindfulness Witnessing. But I started to dissociate, and worried that it was erasing Jan while it was “refining” her. I didn’t feel any refinement, it was just like a deeper sleep.

If you want to try a mantra, don’t pay $$$$ like I did. Try So-Ham. So-ham is the joining of all binaries: In / Out breath, Male / Female, Holding / Giving, Day / Night, Rain / Earth, Wind / Fire. As you inhale (So) see the Yang, as you exhale, see the Yin. As breath comes in (Yang), feel it spread to your body as you exhale (Yin). Ride the So-ham mantra for 20 minutes a day. It will refine you, it will take you to deep states of consciousness, and it will prepare you for exploring in your Journeys.

There is a danger to mantra meditation though. While you are repeating the syllables, you are simplifying your brain – and while it can serve you to be simplified, it effectively works as an entrainment procedure which also makes you vulnerable to outside influence – like mind control. As I was in TM, I was susceptible to all the hogwash that goes with the practice.

After the brainwave flattening and mind control of TM and other rituals of guru practice, I return to shamanic practice.

In shamanism, I fly my own ship. The information and experiences I find in the shamanic Other Consciousness is rewarding, enriching, comforting, and teaching. It requires discipline and balance. Holding on and letting go. I don’t need to worship a specific deity or guru, I don’t need to adopt authoritarian practices or participate in fear based religion.

In shamanism, I am presented the lessons exactly as I am ready for them.

And in shamanism, I start to see the meditative value of my other practices. Pipe ceremony and prayer, medicine wheel and protection. Yoga, where my body becomes guru and guides me to the open spaces Inside. Karate, which challenges my mind and body to synchronize and develop coherence. Walking, which enhances mindfulness. Mindfulness – which enhances my entire life.

Shamanism pointed me back to the practices which are valuable – and meditation is now more integrated into my life. I still have practices – but they are foundations upon which my meditations are built.

In the beginning, chop wood and carry water. In the end, chop wood and carry water. The work is the meditation.

The Value of Altered States

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Dragon Drum

In shamanic trance, we go into an altered state, enhanced by theta waves of the brain, as driven by the drum. Casteneda called this “Non Ordinary Reality,” while Harner calls it “Shamanic State of Consciousness.” (contrasted with “Ordinary Reality” and “Ordinary State of Consciousness.”)

Is this a dream? It is very similar to a dream, and as you get skilled in shamanic trance, you will begin to connect your dreams to your shamanic state, too. As your mindfulness improves, these Non-Ordinary states will connect to your Ordinary states as well, in the form of Synchronicity.

Is it an hallucination? Imagination? Something Real?

On entheogenic drugs, especially plant medicine, you can also easily tap into these theta consciousness creative states. But the elders speak that these “hallucinations” may be more real than the waking beta state we associate with reality, and teach that this Non Ordinary Reality is the actual, Real World where we create the Ordinary Reality. The Three Worlds give rise to this one, and the shamanic state is pre-reality, and therefore more real, more fluid, and more primal, than what we agree upon in consensual reality.

Another form of hallucination is misinterpreted by modern medicine as a “psychotic state.” These, too, can be deep plunges into the Other Worlds, only when one is thrown there – no drum, no control – these states can be frightening, overwhelming, all encompassing. Our medical professionals are not trained to teach how to access and utilise these states to heal – the drugs are given to silence them. This can be a form of oppression, even if it does stop the worst of the distress.

Only by exploring the Spiritual Emergency, psychic crisis, Dark Night of the Soul – can one integrate and use these tools.

Human brains seem naturally to go into altered states, whether by communal trance, plant medicine, or crisis-induced states. Some scientists claim that our brain is designed to receive this connection to the Divine. The drum is a simple, pure, clear and uncomplicated way to do this safely.

It doesn’t matter if what you experience is imagination, story-telling, actual spirits, the Akashic records, or manifestations of your sub and unconscious or the collective unconscious. It is a valuable tool to help you learn and grow, and become a stronger, truer Human Being.

I heard Dick Sutphen say, “If I’m making it up – that is real, too.” Do not judge the information you gain from deep states. Ask and learn, listen, pay attention. The creativity gained in these deep states is waiting for you.

Shamanic Tools for Conscious Development

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Carl Jung from Red Book

Magick is the art and science of changing consciousness at will. Dion Fortune

These are a few simple exercises to help train you to experience in altered states of consciousness.

The first is to cleanse and relax.

The second is to build an escape hatch, so that wherever you are, whatever you are doing – no matter what is going on with the drum or other people – you can come back to your body.

The third is a trauma-based method for those of us who have fear about leaving our bodies, or trauma in our body.

FIRST – CLEANSE, RELAX.

Relaxation is essential for any spiritual work. It is the first key to open the locks of consciousness and the Worlds.

Different people relax in different ways. Many people use a body scan technique (my favourite method). Some people like the tension/release – of making muscles tight, and then letting them go, called “Progressive muscle relaxation.” This causes spasms for me (not my personal preference).

Meditation is important – it cleans and conditions the brain and keeps it fresh for new experiences, and teaches us about the presence of the now. The important thing about relaxation is you learn to fall into alpha – that light, pre-dreaming state where your body is relaxed and your mind is floating. This is why I do a few minutes of alpha (heart beat rhythm) drumming before I start the theta rhythms – to remind you to relax the body and mind.

I encourage anyone to find music that helps keep an alpha state of awareness, and find time to drift and float in alpha – just breathing, not judging – feeling the state, so that you are aware of what relaxation feels like, and become more skilled at dropping yourself into a relaxed state at will. To recognise alpha music, find something which gently slows your heart beat.

Cleansing can be part of relaxation, or it can be a ritual or ceremony that you choose before you meditate or journey. I love salt bathing, as my body has no choice but to relax and let go. It is cleansing, as the salt draws out impurities. Many cultures use smudge and smoke for cleansing ceremonies. In India, they do a fire ceremony called puja for cleansing. Prayer can be an important form of cleansing – letting go of what is not needed, setting intention for what it is that you need.

In a proper shamanic setting, there would be sweat lodges, herbal cleanses and fasting in preparation for Journeys. I encourage no food within 4-6 hours of Journey time. Some teachings suggest no meat the day before a journey, especially a plant medicine journey.

In our Drum Circle, I offer different means of cleansing – using earth, water, and air. Earth – we slap our bodies with rosemary, or pour what is not needed into a stone or bowl of earth, we dance. Water – I use a scented spray like a gentle shower (the shaman would spit the water onto you, adding spiritual potency, but in modern society, we are leery of spit!). Air – cleansing, deep breaths, and breathing out the impurities or unnecessary energies, breathing in light and higher vibration. Out with the old, in with the new. Each breath is a renewal and a cleansing. In outdoor rituals, I would like to do more with smudging and smoke. I’m still working on a fire cleansing, as I’m careful in the yoga studio, and I am not qualified to perform a proper puja.

TWO – “This is My Hand”

This is a lucid dreaming or dream yoga technique.

When I have initiated people into drum practice, I have asked for a wiggle of the hand, and I will ask the drum to bring them back.

This is less practical in a group, though if anyone waggles their fingers I will bring the whole group back. Better safe than sorry!

So – establish a practice in your daily life that gives you the power to change your state at any time.

Several times during the day, look at your dominant hand, and say to yourself, “This is my hand.”

Get so that you are familiar with your hand – its curves, scars, wrinkles, shape of your fingers and palm. See your hand in a number of circumstances – washing dishes, writing, typing, waving, reaching, holding, giving, clenching, fanning, wiggling. “This is my hand.” Always. “This is my hand.”

Then – when you are in an altered state of consciousness, you now have a tool, a power that you can use to adjust consciousness.

For lucid dreaming, this gives you the power to shift your dream, and guide it directly. If your dream is uncomfortable, you look at your hand, say, “This is my hand,” and you can come out of the dream, or, as you develop more skill, adjust and guide the dream by choosing a different situation. The awareness of your hand is a key to the shift.

In the journey world, it is the same. As soon as you look at your hand, and recognise, “This is my hand,” you now have the power to return to your body, or even shift the journey to something you are more comfortable experiencing.

This is an important and empowering skill.

THREE: FLEX

Build sphere.
Relax
Flex – Choose an object. It may be a stone, or leaf, a feather (natural items), or it may be an object of sentimental significance, like a piece of jewellery, a gift from a loved relative, or a toy from childhood.

Later, the sphere and ceremony will be less essential – but for the first few session, please consider doing the work in a Medicine Wheel or Sphere.

Flex your attention – focus on the object for a few breaths. Then FLEX your attention back into your body – your breath and heart region is a good place to focus, but maybe you will choose your left foot big toe. Just make it the same every time (which is why I say heart and breath is best – but if you are “safer” in your left big toe – that’s fine!). A few breaths in body, then FLEX back to object.

Continue this process for 3-5 minutes. The purpose of this exercise is to make you aware of the “attention muscle.” In mindfulness, the attention is more drifty, let it come, let it go. This is mindfulness, too, but tuning your mindfulness into a more active focus.

FLEX: Object.

FLEX: Body.

FLEX: Object.

FLEX: Body.

After 3-5 minutes of FLEXing, let go let go let go and float for the rest of your meditation.

This exercise is developed from a trauma technique for making room in your bodyand expanding your body’s capacity for feeling in safety. The goal in trauma is not to suppress trauma, but to make room so that it is safe to come out. Some might even call it dissociate / associate: “I am in the object” (dissociate), “I am in my body” (associate).

Over time, this tool will also enable you to inhabit Universal Consciousness, or the Witness in meditation. FLEX: I am All. FLEX: I am One.

In shamanism, this helps with travelling and shape shifting. It can also give you deeper insight into those things which you encounter. FLEX – I am the flower, FLEX – I am myself. This will strengthen your compassion for yourself and others.

The more you practice the flex, the stronger your attention muscle will get. It is something you can do while commuting: Flex (attention in that poster), Flex (in my body again). You can do it while shopping: Flex (attention in the apple), Flex (in my body again). I don’t recommend it while driving or in situations that require your full attention. But if you have a little space or time – a moment waiting at the bank: Flex (in a pen on the desk), Flex (in my body again).

⊕

Magick is the art and science of changing consciousness at Will. These are a few tools which improve your magickal ability, and help you in entering and controlling altered states of consciousness.

I think of these three tools – relaxing in alpha state, “This is my hand,” and FLEX – to be excellent pre-journey skills to develop.

The Neutrality, The Permanence, The I-AM, and That

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Solar Braids by JanCarol

I believe that there is Something

Whether it is “weird action at a distance” or a soul –

That connects All Life together.

That Something is greater than all of us.

A dear friend speaks to me about “The Neutrality.” I had never heard that name used before, but it is useful.

I have always called it The Witness (meditation) or The Self (Advaita Vedanta) or Atman (yoga), Causality (also yoga), the I-AM (Judeo Christian) or That (also Advaita Vedanta), Eternity (many religions) or Permanence.

You can be personal, or you can be neutral.

You cannot be both at the same time, even though that is exactly the definition of you. You can breathe in, and breathe out – and still be both you (the individual) and You (the Divine).

In a personal perspective, your emotions are large, your thoughts are mile-a-minute and you engage with them and ruminate. Your problems are insurmountable, and the next goal is all you want.

Stepping back to the “neutrality,” is like getting into a jet plane and looking down – observing – that tiny city – those emotions become tiny, the thoughts – are just brain firings, and the problems and goals – are just one small life.

You can do both, but a shift is required to even perceive the neutrality (most people can’t do it), then you can Be Here Now, truly in the now.

You can get lost in the personality, and have to remind yourself that the neutrality is still there, you are still connected to the Oneness, and the personality fades as you realise that.

This is how you set the ego free.

It is also how you refine the personality, by ‘witnessing’ it. (a meditation event). By stepping back into the Permanent, your problems and emotions are diminished, but when you return to the Impermanent, the Personality – your experience as a Divine, Permanent Being – influences and changes your personality.

Personality is the things we are as a human. Emotions, feelings, memories, thoughts, identity, history – all the things that make up the individuality.

Causality – or beyond is the permanent part of us.

Papaji and Eckhart Tolle explain. When you ask, “Who am I?” Papaji wants to know – who is asking the question? Who is “I” and who is asking to define I? Eckhart Tolle had a flash of insight when he realised in a state of depression: “I don’t like myself.” He then realised that there is a split between “I” and “Myself,” and in his delving into this split, he found the difference between the Eternal (“I” in this sentence) and the Temporary (“myself” or the personality).

The clearest way to be aware of causality is mindfulness.

My first lesson in mindfulness was about train cars. As you are meditating, your thoughts are train cars going by on the tracks. Your brain’s job is to think, to produce thoughts. In meditation, you let the train roll by, observing the train cars, then letting them go so that the next one can come. To engage in a train car is to “get stuck,” so you go back to the breath, and observe the thoughts again.

Personality is the cars and their contents, and it can be useful to explore the cars and their contents. There is self knowledge, and a move towards individuation, to examine these feelings and what they are teaching you about the human experience. “That” is the observer which watches the cars go by, the cars are always changing, but That is Permanent.

Who is it that observes your thoughts?

That’s Causality.

Once, all of my religion and spirituality existed in personality. “I believe this because -” and I was very invested in religion as the identity of my personality. Now I am finding that I am able to use my personality (the train cars, the body, the emotions, the thoughts, the passions) to drive my own train, and yet I can still, observe it from a position of Permanence.

First, I explored the Personality, to learn more about why I am Human and made this way.

Then, I stepped back into Objectivity/Causality, to detach from the Personality

NOW, I am plunging that Objectivity back into the Personality to infuse my existence with the Holy.

This is also called “not taking it personally” in the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

Neutrality is the observer, the witness, in meditation. I am not thought, feeling, pain, relationships, I AM lies beyond that.

There is a movie. It is projected on the wall. The neutrality is not the story of the movie, nor is it the wall upon which the story is projected. It is not the projector. It is the light upon which all things ride, and the darkness which dances with the light.

Because I am human, I have a mind, and my mind wants to attach to the stories, to the wall, to the projector, to the methods and the practices. But the truth is, I am not those things. I am That.

Neutrality is identifying with the permanent, the Whole, the One, That, the Self, instead of identifying with the personality, the temporary, the emotions, the thoughts, all of the things bound up in individuality.

To Channel neutrality is to open oneself up to the openness and possibility of the Divine, and to let go into that, knowing that all will be well.

The permanent will always care for the impermanent, and has a deeper understanding of the layers of causality in this existence.

From Neutrality comes the drumming, comes the words that I share with the people who ask for them. From the Neutrality comes the connection, the gifts of animal, plant, stone medicine, earth, sea, sky, space. From the Neutrality comes the gifts of the Gods – though the Gods themselves are personality, they, like me, are channels for the eternal gifts.

Is this the Right Path?

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Carl Jung, from The Red Book

Yes, and yes. No and no.

How many colours are in a rainbow?

How many paths are there to heaven?

How many grains of sand on the beach?

The air that you are breathing – who breathed that air before?

The drops of water in the ocean

The stars in the sky

The blades of grass in a meadow.

The number of hairs on a bunny.

The multitude of biological species required to maintain a human

The number of breaths in a life.

How many plant species are there? Fungus? Virus?

Anyone who says that it must be this way or that way – is just wrong. Because we don’t know all the ways it can be.

People have their pet ways, Maharishi said do TM, Papji and Gangaji say “who are you?” Patanjali said, “know yoga,” the tribes of South America say, “learn from the plants,” the Siberian shaman says, “let the drum teach you.” Jews say learn it from the Torah, Christians say learn it from the Bible or the life of Jesus. Buddhists – well you get the idea.

As long as you are learning and experiencing then you are moving on the path, and processing the process, then you are on the right path.

Mindfulness and Shamanism

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1995 I Want to Heal – Original by JanCarol

Mindfulness is a tool that can be used in shamanism.

One of my Drum Circle ladies asked, so – you just like drift off into trance all the time?

Oh no! It’s more mindful than that. Yes, we go into trance to get new information – but information is also there in the everyday world for us to see.

Today, a praying mantis jumped onto hubby’s hand. She was beautiful! All shiny, bright green, and graceful, slender, deadly. She promised to eat lots of insects, so we gently put her back into her hunting grounds, on a leaf.

Yesterday, white cockatoos flew over my house, squawking and making a fuss. By paying attention – being mindful in my day-to-day life, I am also tending my spiritual life.

As you know, in mindfulness meditations, you watch the train cars go by: they are only thoughts, only thinking, only thoughts. The cars go by, but you do not jump onto them.

In trance, we choose a train and follow it to specific places (lower, middle, upper world) to bring back information to waking consciousness.

Then, in waking consciousness – mindfulness comes to play. If you saw a cricket in the lower world, do you hear crickets? Even if it is just tinnitus? Are there times when the crickets sound louder or quieter? There are ways that symbols and animals interact with our everyday feelings.

Paying attention is the first step.