The Heart of Light

In remembering the ancestors we find our connections within the web of life. Who we are and how we have evolved is made clear through comparing our lives with those of our parents and grandparents. And we have to remember things about our ancestors, stories we were told, perhaps photos or paintings we have seen help us remember our lineage. National holidays, like Memorial Day, and cultural holidays like All Hallows Evening (Halloween) remind us that we have roots, deep roots into the past.

Auntie Bim told me how our little church was filled with people in the 1970s. There were services seven days a week, and as she says “if you didn’t get there early on Sunday, there wouldn’t be a place to sit.” I love hearing her stories and look around the church imagining all those people are here in spirit. They sure aren’t here in the flesh. Times have changed. The violet ray has turned to indigo and the tribal consciousness of long ago has returned to the planet.

Now Sunday’s crowded places are the YMCA gym, the farmers market, and the running trails, the festivals, musical concerts, and restaurants. The focus is on the body, health, nutrition, and separateness with a hint of togetherness. Our tribes celebrate at Burning Man, Solstice, the Equinox, and the full moon, ceremonies where costumes, music, and self-expressive dancing abound. Three years ago I asked my niece if she wanted to go to church with me. She replied, “we’re going to Dance Church, Ecstatic Dance in Oakland, want to take the BART with us? It’s only $15 for two hours of love and movement.” I decided to try it. This was the new age church of self-expression. Our little tribe, niece, nephew, their 2 year-old, my son, daughter-in-law, and my granddaughters were there, mixed in with lots of others. It reminded me of a little Burning Man in a downtown ballroom. The windows opened out to Broadway and as I looked around me, I wondered how many people had danced here and whether my mom and dad would recognize us now. Isadora Duncan would be proud. That’s for sure!

The irony is that Isadora Duncan’s modern dancing and the Liberal Catholic Church were simultaneous events 100 years ago. Charles Leadbeater and Isadora Duncan were contemporaries. But, of the two, Isadora was the most forward thinking. She was a prophetess, and her way has prevailed. We are dancing into the New Age holding the spiritual hands of our ancestors. I know my mom would be happy dancing with us. She wanted to be Isadora Duncan as a child. I look back at her dancing with my dad and remember the 1950s of my childhood.

How will I celebrate this Memorial Day weekend? At the Drawing on the Moon Music Retreat in Malibu. Sunday morning I will lead a discussion on the importance of interpreting our dreams. The New Age church is without walls, but the ancient ways of the ancestors continue. They too were dreamers. They were looking for meaning in their dreams. Their visions created the Judaeo-Christian tradition and its heart centered celebrations. Dreams are human phenomena. They are the connecting thread weaving us all together backward and forward into time. The ancestors are present in our dreams.

Read Full Post »

Psychedelic Science 2013 Conference and Ayahuasca

For four days I listened to research findings concerning Ayahuasca. Presenters were the scientific super-stars of their areas, which ranged from MRI brain scanning to Psychiatric treatment of addictions and depression (growing areas of concern in Western cultures). There were three tracks with overlapping presentations, clinical psychotherapeutic, interdisciplinary, and ayahuasca. There were also workshops for more depth. Since many of the participants were counselors and therapists, these workshops were very popular. One of these was on Holotropic Breath Work.

I experienced that form of experiential therapy in1998 and found it very valuable for my spiritual/psychological growth. The founder of the technique, Stan Groff, introduced us to his life’s research with a slide show illustrating his personal relationship with Albert Hoffman, the chemist who discovered of LSD. Groff told us of his journey from Freudian psychotherapy to his study of non-ordinary states of consciousness, which was sparked by his research with LSD within a medical treatment modality. From that point on he realized that many of the states of consciousness labeled “pathological” by the medical profession are transitional alterations of the normal which provide for the individual’s spiritual growth. Examples of this would be mystic visions and voices occurring (1) spontaneously (Jesus, St. Paul, St. Teresa of Avila) or (2) encouraged during indigenous ceremonies like the Native American sweat lodge or vision quest (including the Sun Dance) without the use of native medicines, as well as those (3) induced with the aid of plant medicines like the peyote and san pedro cactus ceremonies. Groff realized that these altered or non-ordinary states of consciousness actually were beneficial in that they tended to lead toward integration of psychic contents into the conscious personality. Groff acknowledged the insight of Carl Jung in this regard in his remarks. Groff wanted to use a more neutral descriptive term which would not evoke pathological associations in the hearer. That is why he coined the word “Holotropic”, which comes from ancient Greek roots, meaning “leading toward wholeness”. Jung’s word for this process is Individuation. And we all know that just because these states have a tendency to lead toward wholeness, they can also lead toward disintegration and psychosis. Here’s the reason we need an experienced guide, if we are going to work with holotropic states, it is easy to get lost in the underworld of the mind.

With this background in language, which covers many non-ordinary states of consciousness, we can turn to the master plant medicine of the Amazon rainforest, Ayahuasca, and the research findings presented at the MAPS conference in Oakland, CA. Since ayahuasca is legal in Peru and Brazil, most of the scientific research comes from those countries. Beginning with the presentation by Brazilian PhD Draulio Barros de Araujo, we were shown the MRI brain scans of patients who were administered one dose of ayahuasca and tracked for three weeks. Psychological index tests were also administered throughout the study. Ayahuasca causes a decrease in activity in the Default Mode Network area of the brain. This is called the default area because it becomes activated when we aren’t doing anything. This area is the brain’s daydreaming mode, where increased rumination takes place and negative thoughts tend to occur.  These phenomena are associated with major depression symptoms. (Decreased activity in the DMN means reduction of this “hampster cage” running of negative thoughts.  Interestingly, the decrease of activity caused by ingestion of ayahuasca is also found in the MRI brain scans of experienced meditators.) The research showed that one dose of ayahuasca lasted roughly 2 weeks and effectively lowered symptoms of depression. Two weeks  is the interval of most ayahuasca spiritual practices of the UDV and Santo Daime churches.

Dr. Luis Fernando Tofoli, MD, PhD presented findings which corroborated those found in all of the presentations during the four days. The long term effects of ayahuasca use in a sacred setting, in this case the UDV churches are (1) psychic wellness, (2) anti-dependence effects relating to addictions, (3) increase in self-knowledge, (4) suppression of depression symptoms for a two-week period. One of his concerns as a psychiatrist is that prescription of anti-depressant drugs is known to induce psychosis, yet doctors continue to prescribe them. He suggested we be aware of this as a possible effect in ayahuasca use, although there was no data to indicate a causal connection with ayahuasca use and psychosis. He also noted that several of the research participants were using anti-depressants when ingesting ayahuasca and reported only an increase in nausea or unpleasant sensations.

The research findings were unanimous. Ritual use of ayahuasca, as unpleasant as the experience might be in the moment, is not dangerous to public health and has many benefits. Most of these benefits have to do with insight into the nature and causes of trauma, the calming of the neurological network so that processing can take place, and when followed by counseling, either indigenous or psychotherapeutic in orientation, lasting changes are observed.

Read Full Post »

Intuition, Our Guardian Angel

After a great day meeting with friends and reading in my favorite coffee shop, I had a sudden feeling that I needed to go home. I left Ojai and drove 45 miles to the Pacific Ocean and Santa Barbara. The sun was setting and it was quite beautiful all along the coast. I looked up to our mountain top and discovered it was covered with a dark cloud, as were all the surrounding Coastal Range mountains. So I started driving up the highway and turned onto our Painted Cave road. There are two miles of switchbacks. All of the road is paved, but there are several places where there is only one lane of traffic. And of course there are no street lights anywhere, just an occasional light from a home snuggled into the hillside. Oddly there was no traffic. The sun was down as I drove into the fog.

Without a moon to light the way, it can get a little scary high up in the foggy forest. As I passed our famous landmark, the Chumash Native American Painted Cave, I noticed a car pulled to the side of the road on the hairpin turn. This seemed very odd, so I stopped to ask if the driver was OK. He wasn’t. He was scared and confused. He was headed to Paradise Road where his friend lived. Cell phones don’t work in the canyon, so there was no way to Google a map. When I explained to him where he was and how to get to Paradise, he was so afraid that he couldn’t repeat the directions. That is when I said, “follow me, I will take you to the junction up ahead, where you turn down hill on East Camino Cielo (the Sky Path).” He followed me through the fog. Luckily I walk that road every day and could find my way in spite of the fog. When I stopped my car, I got out and made sure he understood how to get down to the main highway and turn right. “Follow that road down the hill until you see Paradise Road on the right.” He told me his name. I gave him my card and said, “call me if you need any help.” He drove off into the fog.

I got home and decided to hike the road, since I had missed my chance earlier. My sister had just returned from Mexico and brought me a ceramic eagle whistle. I dressed in white so the cars would see me and I walked up to the Sky Path in the dark, blowing my whistle. Not once did I meet a car coming up or down the road. That means that I was the only one on the road to help that frightened young man. And then I understood why my intuition was insisting I drive home when it did. The timing was synchronous. I got to embody the Archangel Michael for that boy and help him to trust in himself and in the kindness of strangers.

Read Full Post »

Life calls to Life

That was the end of the faerie tale, when the simple brother’s pet bird awakens the sleeping princess from her coma.  The chirping bird calls back the lost soul from the path to the underworld.  Wealth and power could not accomplish this, only love awakened her elan vital.  The King, her father, offered a portion of his land to anyone who could heal her.  None could; neither magician nor powerful doctor, because the sickness of her soul needed a loving counterpart, in this case the masculine, to complete her, to make her whole.

This idea is central to the Chinese Book of Changes, the I Ching.  Spontaneous affection is the glue of human relatedness, “the all-inclusive principle of union” (Hexagram #54, Kuei Mei, The Marrying Maiden).  When we feel that magic attract us to another person, we can open a door to another world, even call back the dieing so that they can be reborn.  Spring is a good time for such miracles.  The earth which appeared dead is called back to life.  That surprising renewal came for me in the magic of a ceramic coffee cup on Easter morning.

I had attended a Brazilian Santo Daime Work, called a Mesa Branca or White Table Work Saturday night.  We drank medicine, sang and prayed, even called down the healing and protective spirits in their Christian forms of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, not to mention their Afro-Brazilian counterparts.  The prayer service was profoundly strong, the teachings subtle but noticeably transformative.  Although it wasn’t Greek Easter, I cooked lamb stew.  That was a traditional food in my wife’s family, after the midnight service, where we symbolically received the Light of God in the form of lighted candles, we brought the Spirit home with us.  Christ was called forth from the Underworld and reborn like the spring.  We celebrated.  We broke the fast.  We called him forth with our songs and prayers.  We rejoiced that the Dark Night of the Soul was over.  That was what my Holy Saturday was like.

And in the morning around sunrise I needed my coffee latte.  I had been fasting from coffee as it doesn’t mix well with ayahuasca.  I wanted my morning ritual of coffee and cream and I had my close friend there to complete the night’s ritual. I love drinking with my friends.  So we stopped at my favorite shop in the town where I Greek folk dance.  The barista loved my ceramic cup.  This was not unusual as most of them do.  It is hand cast and extremely light weight, and it fits perfectly into my 2006 Chevy’s cup holder.  But the light, or should I say the “glow” of the Daime was upon me and my friend.  We engaged the barista in conversation.  He told me his friends studied ceramics in the nearby college and that’s why he was so amazed by my thrift shop cup from Ojai.  When I went back to get a refill, my server disclosed that he drinks ayahuasca during trance dancing.  Now I hadn’t said a word about the Daime to him, yet the medicine in him was recognizing it in me.  We formed a psychic bridge of spontaneous affection.  I gave him my card.  We plan to get together and talk more about our experiences.

Life calls to life.  After driving my friend to his home, I drove up to Ojai and arrived in time for the morning breakfast in the Native American Church peyote ceremony.  I was welcomed in and my granddaughter asked me to sit beside her.  After the ceremony I talked to my nephews about the inner feminine in men, our inherited ancestral aggressiveness and how to deal with it along the lines of our lineage.  Then I said goodbye and arrived at Our Lady and All Angels Liberal Catholic Church in time for Easter Mass.  Three traditions, and all affirming the rebirth of the human spirit in their unique ways.  Yes, life calls to life and we are reborn with it.

Read Full Post »

On the wings of eagles

My client and I were sitting in chairs, enjoying the sun. The March wind was mild and the bright green grass created a beautiful carpet leading up to the social hall. During the dream consultation counseling session, a hawk had featured prominently. My client had dreamed of a raptor flying toward her, coming closer and closer. Birds of prey have incredibly powerful eyes. They can see things clearly at a great distance. The dream image had its eye on the cat in the midst of the people and swooped down quickly. Raptors strike without warning. They grab their victim with piercing talons, carrying them aloft toward father sky. Because of the hawk’s behavior profile, native peoples regard the symbol of the raptor as a spiritual messenger, one which sees the future and alerts the dreamer to expect a surprising event or message.

In ancient Greece the eagle was the sky god’s familiar and Zeus often dispatched his eagle as his messenger and agent. Perhaps the more notable examples of this were his abducting the sheppard boy Ganymede, who became the symbol of the Aquarian Age, the Water Pourer, and sending his eagle to help Psyche (the soul) in obtaining water from the source of the river Styx high up in Olympus. In both cases the Father God, Zeus, is motivated by Love. (Love is Eros, the Greek god; Amor, the Roman version.) For both Ganymede and Psyche these surprising turns of fate are synchronous events. There is profound meaning in what might be considered a random event.

Synchronicity is a meaningful coincidence, and one such surprise drove into the parking lot as I finished the session. The goddess in disguise looked to my human eyes as though she were an elder woman, dressed casually in men’s clothing. She wore a tee shirt which betrayed her feminine nature and her age. She wanted to know if the Liberal Catholics were Charismatic. I told her a little bit about the history of the old catholic church of Holland and how it split off from the Roman Church in 1723 over an authority issue, which attracted the English Theosophists who were ordained Anglican priests in the 1890s. Having translated the liturgy into English and launched a free thinking catholic tradition into the British Empire, the Old Catholics got a new name in 1916, Liberal for ‘free thinking” Catholics. Her next comment and question got me wondering if she might be the goddess Athena in disguise.

She began telling me about some past life regressions she had recently had with a spiritual intuitive. She remembered being a man, a young idealistic MD who served the Third Reich at Auschwitz, who “witnessed 500 people take their last breath” and whose early death created the karma of this life. She was a hospice worker, who served the dieing. Now her work was finished and she was leaving town, following the spirit, which is what had directed her to drive up to the church in the first place. That prompted me to ask her if she had ever heard of the channeled teachings of the Native American Avatar called White Eagle. I told her how I was given my name by the eagles on the Puget Sound in Washington State and how I later discovered the story of White Eagle,who explains the after life to fearful humans, as the beautiful place of learning created by the Loving Father Creator.

Not only had she heard of White Eagle, but she said that she had just taken her entire collection of White Eagle’s writings out of storage and knew that spirit was directing her to deliver them to me. As she handed them to me she confessed that she had bought them new and had never read them. “They all were sent from England and I have been keeping them for the right moment. This is it.” She wished me well and drove off. Each book has the symbol of the White Eagle Fellowship on the cover, just like the one inside the social hall of the church. It is the Native American circle quartered by the cross of the four directions with a five petaled white rose superimposed upon the Star of David, which is itself superimposed upon the cross. Synchronicity strikes again, this time in the form of Zeus’ daughter Athene, disguised as a hippie grandmother.

Read Full Post »

Redeeming Lucifer

Robert A. Johnson’s book, He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, became a best-seller thirty years ago. Johnson’s clear and concise explanation of Carl Jung’s psychotherapeutic insights make him necessary reading for anyone interested in the esoteric traditions of Gnostic, Alchemical, and/or Analytical (Archetypal) psychology. Applying those insights to one’s own spiritual process can be a daunting task. Johnson suggests we begin the work by tackling the repressed contents of the unconscious.

Robert A. Johnson

He illustrates the basic concepts of Jungian psychology in his book (1991) Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche. He begins with the mask we show to the outside world. “The persona is what we would like to be and how we wish to be seen by the world. It is our psychological clothing and it mediates between our true selves and our environment just as our physical clothing presents an image to those we meet. The ego is what we are and know consciously. The Shadow is that part of us we fail to see or know (pp. 3-4).” In those three sentences we are presented with the persona, the ego, and the Shadow. In adapting to the needs of our culture, we learn to repress those God-given personality traits of which family, group, and religious tradition do not approve. These are culturally relative. Growing up in a fundamentalist Christian environment might send our self-expressive, sensual abilities to dance into the shadow, while growing up in an East Indian Hindu environment these same traits might be encouraged.

All cultures require suppression of undesirable qualities. As Johnson put it, “This is wonderful and necessary, and there would be no civilized behavior without this sorting out of good and evil. But the refused and unacceptable characteristics do not go away; they only collect in the dark corners of our personality. When they have been hidden long enough, they take on a life of their own—the shadow life (p. 4).” And the unconscious shadow side can actually gain more and more energy by being denied by the ego. “If it accumulates more energy than our ego, it erupts as an overpowering rage or some indiscretion that slips past us; or we have a depression or an accident that seems to have its own purpose. The shadow gone autonomous is a terrible monster in our psychic house (p.5).”

Now what does that word ‘autonomous’ mean? Its origin is Greek and it literally means a law (nomos) unto itself (auto). The gods and goddesses were autonomous, they created history and myth through their actions, just like the Hebrew God and the Muslim Allah. These ancient patterns, which our ancestors called Divine Beings, can overpower us, forcing us to do things our ego would not choose to do. Hera causes the Greek hero Hercules to go mad and kill his wife and children. No rational husband and father who loves his family would do such a thing, so obviously it wasn’t his doing, he was possessed by one of the gods. We have received this way of thinking through our Christian ancestors, who called it “being possessed by the Devil or an evil spirit”. In any case the force is irresistible. We cannot help ourselves when we are enthralled, when we are entranced by an archetypal, autonomous pattern. We might want to resist, to “just say no”, but anyone who has had these sorts of experiences knows how hard and often times, impossible, it is to resist the Unconscious force compelling us to sin.

Jung’s insight regarding the origins of the shadow was remarkable. He realized that both the ego and the shadow come from the same source and balance each other. Like it or not, as Johnson says, “to make light is to make shadow; one cannot exist without the other (p. 17).” So it behooves us to get to know our unconscious and enter into a dialogue with it. Jung called this the Transcendent Function, where the dream images, slips of the tongue, and other unconscious expressions can be observed by the analyst, who calls the ego’s attention to these things, the expressions of the shadow, and a relationship can be bridged between the unconscious and the conscious. This is the heart of Active Imagination, where the unconscious images can be given a voice, where the ego can hear and respond to the shadow and they can begin to work together to create a whole person, one who is more aware of him/herself.

This process was illustrated in German literature by Goethe’s Faust,

Faust and Mephistopheles

the tale about “the meeting of ego and shadow, is about a pale, dried-up professor who has come to the point of suicide because of the unlivable distance between his ego and his shadow. . . At this point Faust meets his equally impossible shadow, Mephistopheles, who apprears as his lordship, the devil. The explosion of energy at the meeting is extreme. Yet they persevere and their long, vivid story is our best instruction in the redemption of ego and shadow. Faust is saved from his lifelessness and becomes a red-blooded person capable of passion; Mephistopheles is saved from his amoral life and also discovers his capacity to love. Love is the one word in our Western tradition adequate to describe this synthesis of ego and shadow. Faust shows with great power that the redemption of ego is possible only as the redemption of the shadow parallels it. As the shadow is drawn up into consciousness, it becomes softer, more pliable, more gentle. Faust’s character is filled out by the addition of his shadow. He is made whole by his encounter with Mephistopheles, and the same is true in reverse. Better said, neither ego nor shadow can be redeemed unless its twin is transformed. (pp.40-41)”

Symbolically the Shadow bears the light from the darkness. He who bears or carries the light is called Lucifer, the left-hand of God. Balancing the light and the dark brings us to the core of our humanity, to the whole person. This task probably takes a life-time. Jung called it Individuation, becoming an individual, and it can only be done in relationship, to others and to our interior parts, and expecially to our shadow. That is what the alchemists called The Work, the Opus. And interestingly enough it is the Work of Illumination of the Dark Spirits which Padrinho Sebastiao Mota de Melo pioneered and his PhD. psychologist “scout”, Paulo Roberto, has developed within the Brazilian ayahuasca (Santo Daime) tradition.

Sebastiao Mota de Melo

If you want to see “shadow work” up front and personal, attend one of Padrinho Paulo’s Illumination Works. It is frightening, amazing, and transformative. The ancestral spirits, collectively called the Shadow, are invited to incorporate for the purpose of redemption and transition, or a spiritual return to the Source which created all of us. The technique is effective when you use it properly, and that effectiveness can only by determined by the extent to which one is transformed by the Work.

Pad. Paulo Roberto

If you have integrated the shadow as Johnson suggests, there is less fragmentation in one’s behavior, we can express ourselves in direct, forceful and less destructive ways. As the English say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating; it doesn’t matter how good it looks on the outside, what counts is its taste and can you digest it? If it nurtures, and hence can be integrated into the whole person, then I would suggest it is a good pudding.

Read Full Post »

The War for Independence

The Muslim Turks conquered and ruled Christian Greece for four hundred years. The English poet, writer, and libertine Lord Byron put all his wealth and ultimately his life into the War for Greek independence. So it seems fitting that someone like me with Scots-English-Irish ancestors should be cast as the Grandfather in the Greek Independence Day play. Having married into a Greek family who immigrated from the isle of Crete at the turn of the century, I had already studied classical Greek in college. That was 45 years ago when we had our big fat Greek Wedding. (Seriously it was just like the movie.) Last year when I moved to Santa Barbara, I heard the Greek Orthodox Church offered modern Greek language classes. I enrolled and there met a delightful young family who were beginning their studies. The four year-old boy loved showing me his language puzzle, just like the ones we used in Montessori school, but in Greek. As I watched him work and reflected his expressions, his mom and older sister were free to engage in the class activities. It felt so good to be able to give a simple validation of his process and accept him as he is.

That was six months ago, before I was cast as the grandfather. Now I am working with young Greek American men who are playing the roles of the Turkish soldiers.

Turkish Soldiers

One of the interesting things about the Turks was their form of conquest. They left the Christians alone to practice their religion, provided they paid their taxes and didn’t cause any trouble. To insure there would be cooperation, the first born male in every Greek family was impressed into the Turkish army, forced to convert to Islam, and serve a period of time in the service of the Sultan. Usually these converts married Muslim women and became part of the great melting pot, but still maintaining their ties to their Greek Christian families. This practice also explains how Jews, Arabs, and Christians got along in Spain. They were all related through family ties. The Muslim approach provided a great deal of stability in general.

One rather infamous exception to the rule was the Moldavian Prince Vlad Dracul, who was given, at the age of seventeen, as a hostage by his royal parents to assure peace. Whatever happened to him in the Turkish court can be assumed by his behavior when he returned four years later. He ruthlessly impaled anyone who had collaborated with the Turks, on the sharpened poles of his city’s wooden fortress walls. Even the Turks were shocked and afraid of his crazy ways. Perhaps because of his excesses the Prince was successful. He freed his people. He came to a bad end since his paranoia was coupled with incredible political power. He saw enemies everywhere. How could he not? All of the nobles were married into the Turkish power structure, so he turned on anyone who opposed him. The nobles assassinated Prince Vlad. Loved by the Orthodox Church as their hero/liberator, his remains are guarded by the monks. His country is now called Romania, but the Latin speaking Roman Catholics referred to his kingdom across the forest as Transylvania.

Vlad the Impaler

We know him as Dracula, but that’s another story.

The young men playing the oppressors in the Greek play could easily be the young Turks of the 1820′s. They have mixed physical features which come from a new gene pool. We play the embattled Greeks, mostly women and children, who would rather die than be slaves to the Turkish Empire. As the grandfather, I am wounded and am sitting on my bed with pistol in hand, surrounded by my grandchildren. The little boy I mentioned earlier was not cast in the play, but his older sister plays one of my granddaughters. During rehearsal the 4 year-old wanted to be part of the fun with the other children, so I had him sit with me. He was wonderfully quiet and totally absorbed in the action of the play. When it ended and we were about to start all over from the beginning, the boy turned to me and said, “You know my grandfather died?” “Yes,” I said, “I heard that.” He continued with “I miss him. I loved him a lot. You remind me of him.” And he embraced me sweetly. Such pure and simple expression of affection and love for the kind of energy we carry. Both his grandfather and I were teachers.

Now I know why this little boy’s dad always smiles when he sees me. As I took the bread from his father’s hand, he smiled, and said, “It’s good to see you.” I smiled back and responded with, “It’s good to see you too.” Father-son-grandfather, these are roles we are blessed to play in Creator’s beautiful paradise and the spiritual connection bridges family and traditions. Who knows, maybe I was a Turk in a former incarnation.

Read Full Post »

The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz

In Miguel Ruiz’‭ ‬little book‭ ‬The Four Agreements, the author uses our Western European culture’s attitude toward dreaming to produce a paradoxical shift in consciousness.‭ ‬Ever since Chuang Tzu’s question whether he was dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Tzu,‭ ‬humans have noticed dream material cannot easily be distinguished from waking state material.‭ ‬That is disconcerting.‭ ‬So we tend to reject events in the dream state after waking up when the events seem to contradict our view of what is normal.‭ ‬Ruiz uses our cultural bias to shift our consciousness.‭ ‬He calls our concept of reality a dream.‭

According to Ruiz everything we have been taught by parents,‭ ‬family,‭ ‬friends and culture is mitote,‭ ‬the dream of the world.‭ ‬By putting‭ “‬reality”‭ ‬into the category of dream and creating paradox,‭ ‬Ruiz has accomplished something akin to a Zen koan.‭ ‬We are put off balance and made to consider the possibility that we have been programmed,‭ ‬albeit with the best of intentions,‭ ‬to accept the dream of the world,‭ ‬the dream of hell.‭ ‬Calling ordinary cultural perceptions‭ “‬hell” also has a jarring effect on consciousness.‭ ‬Ruiz challenges us to consider the possibility that we can change our preconceptions and create a different‭ “‬dream of paradise”.
‭ ‬Choosing our reality,‭ ‬in the sense of the kind of world we wish to dwell in,‭ ‬has long been a Native American belief.‭ ‬My understanding of the Red Road of Life resonates with Ruiz’ Toltec path.‭ ‬The four agreements are just that:‭ ‬ways of focusing our intention on creating our world,‭ ‬ways we agree to change,‭ ‬hence these are correctly called‭ “‬agreements”.‭ ‬These agreements are simple guides.‭ (‬1‭) ‬Be impeccable with your word.‭ ‬So don’t make promises you can’t keep and don’t project negative energy.‭ (‬2‭) ‬Don’t take things personally.‭ (‬3‭) ‬Don’t make assumptions.‭ (‬4‭) ‬Do your best.‭
By recommending this little book to others I have been able to build a framework to talk about powerful life changes.‭ ‬People in‭ ‬12‭ ‬step programs can relate to the book and it supports the Red Road of Recovery approach to life.‭ ‬I have seen terrific progress in the process of one of my friends after giving him Ruiz’‭ ‬little book.‭ ‬Although I have several reservations personally regarding Miguel Ruiz’‭ ‬world view,‭ ‬I have found his book to be powerful and meaningful in my interactions and communication with others.

Read Full Post »

Arvol Lookinghorse in Ojai, CA

Julie Tumamait-Stenslie

We arrived at the Ojai Foundation’s Council House just as Chief Arvol Lookinghorse stepped onto the path.

Chief Arvol Lookinghorse

That gave me the opportunity to shake his hand and welcome him to the valley. Then the Chumash Elder, and Leader of our community, Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, formally welcomed our visitor to Ojai. She reminded us that “ojai” means “moon” in the Chumash language. Then, in the tradition of her people, and followed by her Mexica dansa group of women, the spirits of the land and the ancestors were welcomed with song, movement, and copal incense offerings. Then we went inside to hear what the Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Woman’s Chenoupah (Sacred Pipe) had to say.

He told us how he was raised in the traditional Lakota way, speaking his native language, and living with his grandparents. His grandmother was the Keeper of the Sacred Pipe during his childhood. She was the last of eighteen generations of Pipe Keepers, and when she died, she gave her twelve year-old grandson the responsibility of guarding his people’s most sacred relic. He told us of his education in the traditional way, speaking his language, and what a surprise it was to attend the English speaking school. There he learned that the Lakota people’s gift from Creator, the Sacred Dog (Horse), had been brought to Turtle Island by the Spanish in the 17th Century. Before that time the dog was their friend and helper, now it is the horse. Arvol was a horseman, until he was thrown and injured. His paralysis was lifted through prayers at the Sun Dance. And he spoke of the Pipe Gathering in 1996 at

Arvol at Bear Butte

Bear Butte, Montana, referring to it in the White Man’s way as the Devil’s Tower. Instead of dis-empowering that appellation, having noted the negative projection onto the famous Sacred Site, he continued to use it throughout his speech. And that made an impact on me and my sister, who represent the Native American Church tradition in the valley. Why do we continue to use the conqueror’s descriptors? We dis-empower our ancestral traditions in that way. Of course this is unconscious and perhaps no one has pointed this out to the Chief.

In 1996, my sons, Tony and John, drove out to the Pipe Gathering in Montana. An elder woman invited them to travel back to Green Grass, South Dakota with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota people. They went and were happy to help out. They cleaned all the cooking utensils, pots, pans, helped prepare and cook the buffalo, and served it to those assembled. And like the traditional chiefs of olden times, they ate last. There was very little left. But then our family are White Native Americans and it must have been some Heyokah grandmother who got them into the traditionalists’ camp. My sons told me how they cleaned everything up and got ready for the Inipi (Sweat Lodge). But they were told that there was no room in the lodge for them so they would have to stay outside by the stream. This they did. When in Rome, we do as the Romans tell us, but we notice what is happening. We can see that all of the abuse suffered at the hands of countless Europeans has been transferred psychically onto the only objects in the environment: the stupid “want to be” white boys, who dutifully served their hosts and went without food themselves in service of the people. But the spirits were watching and my sons received a gift from them.

In the middle of the Lodge Ceremony, a man stepped out of the Inipi and came over to them. He talked with them, asking why they weren’t in the lodge, and they told him. My sons are honest. That’s the way we taught them to walk their talk. He listened and then said that for their service, he wanted to honor them with four songs. He sang and thanked them for their service to his people and went back into the lodge. I remember John and Tony telling us back home in California, “Dad that guy never came out of the Inipi. We watched them all come out and he never did.” Things like that happen when you walk your talk. The spirits manifest in human form, interact, and bless you.

Read Full Post »

From peyote to Greek folk dancing and back

A year ago I got a phone call from a young man, Sean Terrell, who was bicycling from Vancouver, British Columbia to Mexico. A friend had told him that I was putting up a Native American Church meeting for my birthday and he wondered if he could attend, and could he also stay for a week? Our mutual friend is an excellent judge of character, so I immediately said yes, he could visit. He rolled into our driveway later in the day. He was an ideal guest. He helped with the cooking, washed the dishes, and provided groceries. He helped set up the Sweat Lodge, split and collected wood, and later in the week set up the Tipi for the ceremony. After the Ceremony he set off to his next stop, but on the way he had an accident and had to rest up at my grand-daughter’s retreat center. There he painted his impression of the peyote ceremony which he had just attended, my 69th Birthday Celebration. He gifted the painting to his hostess and it graced the main room of her center Oshunmare, where several Santo Daime ceremonies were held throughout the year.

Last week I met another young Canadian man in Ojai at my favorite coffee shop, the Bohemian. He looked so much like my nephew Seth, that I thought he was him. But upon closer inspection I realized he was just a taller version, a writer and a traveler like my nephew. I introduced myself, showed him iphone videos of my 70th birthday celebration at The Greek at the Harbor and suggested he check out my blogs. I told him of the Canadian guest, who stayed with me and my sister last year. In a couple of days I received a request. Could he visit? He showed up on Sunday at Santa Barbara’s Greek Orthodox Church parking lot. When I was ready to escort him home, we discovered that he had locked his keys in his car. Although I called AAA for help, their computers were down and told us it would be about 90 minutes. We went off to talk. 3.5 hours later and a couple of telephone calls (complete with apologies) I took my guest into town for dinner. The next day we went to a showing of Cloud Atlas at the University Theater. Just before the show another of my nephews dropped off a gift from my grand-daughter. It was Sean’s painting. She told Nick that the painter wanted me to have it.

Last night my son Christopher called. It was his birthday and he wanted to tell me he loved his birthday card. I told him the story of the Canadians and he suggested I share the painting with the rest of the family. So I did. Hope you like it.

Read Full Post »