I am midway through my two-year training in Celtic Shamanism with Tom Cowan (His website is www.riverdrum.com). Something Tom has encouraged us to practice during our study of Celtic shamanism is memorizing and reciting poetry, which honors the ancient bard tradition. The bards studied for over 20 years, committing to memory all of the epic tales and poems of Celtic …
The Power of Symbols
The Celts believed that the feminine creative principle (potential or pure consciousness) required the force of the masculine creative principle (will or action) in order for life to take place. Neither can create under its own steam. When the two come together it makes being, existence, life. This is called Ur, and its symbol is the egg or a five-layered …
Excuse Me While I Kiss the Ground
Kiss the Earth with your feet, says Thich Nhat Hanh. Give the Earth your love and happiness. Nowadays, I recite this while walking. It brings me back to Earth. That and a wonderful poem called The Messenger by Mary Oliver, which I recently added to my repertoire of memorized poems: It opens with the line: My work is loving the …
Terra Not So Firma
So everyday for the past week, I pull a reversed Singer of Connection card from the Faeries’ Oracle deck. Are you centered, the guidebook asks. Are you grounded? Well, no, apparently not. When I visit my chiropractor, Dr. Worden (if you are in the tri-state area, he is well worth the trip!), I ask if he has any ideas for …
Breath of Life
I’ve become really curious lately about what serves as a medium for transporting energy from non-ordinary reality into this physical or ordinary reality in which we live. When a shaman brings healing energy, power, or soul parts back from the spirit world, the breath is used as the medium of transport. Breath is after all a life-giving force. For years …