Drumming The Soul Awake

The text that follows is adapted from the sermon I delivered at Michael Servetus UU church Sunday March 16. To be human is to tell stories. It doesn’t matter if your stories are cloaked in the language of myth, science, psychology or religion, we tell ourselves and each other stories all the time. And most of these stories are about how the universe works, or how we should live inside it. This brings me to one of my least favorite characters in all of western history: St Patrick. He is famous for converting Ireland to Christianity. Legend tells us he chased the snakes out of Ireland. Of course, the snake – the better word is serpent - is a symbol for pagans. The serpent is the symbol for the great goddess, and of people who see holiness in the earth, and who have divinities that take female forms. To me the serpent is a symbol of the raw, untamable, awesome and frightening power of the life force that surges and courses through everything we see (and everything we don’t). And that ener...

Dear Drummers, I may be one of only a very few people in our drumming community who have a deep, almost obsessive fascination with Christian evangelicals. Zealots are amusing until they get control of the army; then there is always trouble. History has shown us again and again that the more assured religious people are about their god, the more certain they are to use violence to shape the world. But I have always admired evangelicals’ passion for their myth, and truthfully I admire their ability to spout certainties without wincing. Clearly, I am on the other end of that spectrum – I can barely say a few words about faith without backtracking, joking, and apologizing for the apparent hubris I am displaying. Well, that is a very old dichotomy in the life of religion: call it the tension between blinded faith and blinded doubt. Three years ago I was listening to a radio interview with Rabbi Michael Lerner, an amazing thinker and speaker ( http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/bio ). Someon...

Dear Drummers, A word has been floating around in my mind lately: biospiritual. It is a word used by some to define our planet, and by extension, the universe. The word affirms the interplay between the physical (“bio”) and ephemeral parts of existence. For much of the west’s religious history the physical and spiritual have been split apart and set in opposition to one another. Religion has viewed the physical world as fallen, unclean, sinful, or merely of no real importance. As science and religion came into increasing conflict during the Enlightenment (1700’s onward) the devout in both camps tended to preach that you must choose between poles. Science told us that must grow up, become rational and intelligent and put away the absurd superstitions of religion. As the enlightenment wit Voltaire said: “It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.” Extremist religion told us that...

Dear Drummers, Recently I discovered this hot new singer, Bon Jovi. Okay, he’s not new, he’s one of the kings of the 1980’s big hair bands who has survived and kept maturing. But I was in a sustained trance for the entire 1980’s and missed all the pop music of that decade. That may have been a great blessing, by the way. On his newest album, Lost Highway, Bon Jovi sings a song with amazingly simple lyrics: “It’s okay to be a little broken/Everybody’s broken in this life...” I’ve been listening to this song constantly for three weeks now. (Listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj00ncx-X6U ) When I worked in the liberal Christian world, this was also a guiding image, that we are all broken (and that through Jesus we are made whole again, or healed). This phrase, “we’re all broken in this world” was tossed about constantly. It irritated me because it smacked of original sin – the idea that because of Adam’s disobedience of God, we are all born broken, or infected by sin. This is a ...

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...

Dear Drummers, We don’t have a drum until January 11, but I thought I’d send you a new year’s wish. I hope my email finds you in good health and good spirits. As the sun begins its slow climb back into re-activating the land, this is a good time to contemplate our path, our directions, and our actions in the world. I read recently that Rumi, the magnificent 13th century Sufi saint, once said that you should make a list of the three things you most want in your life. If any of the three conflict with one another, you’ll have a lot of trouble. This is a wonderful meditation for the New Year. For me it seems so much friendlier than “resolutions” which carry the fragrance of sin, and the heaviness of lawmaking. So you may ask yourself what are the three things – or perhaps three “energies” – you most want to become active in your daily life as the year makes it way out of this round of darkness. Or you may want to pray for help or strength to bring these three things into your life without...