Drumming The Soul Awake

Dear Drummers, Below is an outline for a six month introductory course I'd like to lead. Please let me know if you are interested. The class is limited to 15, but I need a minimum number of about 10 to get started and pay costs. If you are interested, please send me an email at jaime@drummingthesoulawake.com Thanks! Shamanism as a spiritual path - Level 1 This six-month course will introduce students to the core concepts and cross-cultural practices of shamanism. This course is ideal for persons who want to formally learn the core skills and ideas associated with shamanism, who are motivated by a desire to expand and deepen their spiritual lives through earth-centered spiritual practice, and who want to engage with a community of like-minded seekers. This course sees shamanism, or shamanic spirituality, as a practice and a way of life of a person who is skilled in crossing into non-ordinary reality for the purpose of creating balance and healing of self and others in the community.

January 11, 2008 Dear Drummers, I love the word preposterous. The words absurd and ridiculous always float through my head, especially in reference to myself. Ridiculous means to cause laughter. Absurd means to be out of tune, or to not be with those who are playing the prescribed chord structure or melody. Both imply moving into a place considered by the rule-setters as uncouth or ill mannered. Both words imply entrance into the non-rational. But preposterous carries the day. Pre / posterior. To have what is behind come first, or to lead with your ass. I’m reminded of a story someone told me that may or may not be true, which does not really matter, I suppose: Sitting Bull, the great leader, sitting in a very important meeting of elders, gets up, leaves the tipi, comes back ass first with his pants down and parades around the circle, then leaves again, then re-enters again, the dignified leader we love to imagine. Imagine how the world would be different if the Pope or Billy Graham di