Drumming The Soul Awake

Dear Seekers of Earthy Wisdom, Welcome all to the warm wonder of the wild Wahoo! You have two chances to drum this week - in ecstatic south Minneapolis, or in sublime Burnsville. The Burnsville drum is a smaller space, a smaller group (for now) and it makes for an intimate experience. This week we find ourselves at Imbolc - the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. February 2nd is the holiday in European traditions that honors the great mother-grain goddess, and, in the Celtic world, the goddess of springtime, Brigit. February 1 is the Christian holiday Candlemas. In the British Isles (and places like Seattle) this time of year really is the beginning of spring. Crocuses are emerging. You could dig the first furrows in the land for the seed. There are all kinds of rituals around this ancient act of co-creation with the Great Mother. But here in our arctic tundra, it is too much of an abstract leap for me to say that February 2nd is the beginning of spring. The gr...

I love the shamanic path for many reasons, including that it makes me agitated and freaked out. I have a finely tuned woo-woo meter and the shamanic path constantly sets the needle jiggering. I love that. Today’s needle-jigger comes from the notion promulgated by so many teachers that everything is a dream: that we live in a constant dreamtime, and there is no difference between night dreams, reveries, day dreams and what we call waking. Night dreams are a form of reality where energies are less dense; my waking life is a dream where the energies are hardened into forms. But waking is a dream just the same. Waking is a shared dream. I dream I have a car, and my neighbor also dreams I have a car, and that’s why there is one parked in my dream driveway, right by the dream Azalea that Ralph, my dream neighbor surreptitiously tosses the dream poop squished out of his dream Schnauzer while walking by my dream house. According to the teachers, when you realize that all is a dream, it empower...

image: Digital Expressionism Dear Seekers, I’ve been asked many times to provide intensive shamanic training. I’ve been able to wrestle my schedule and create a four-month session, described below. The group will meet six times, but the bulk of your work will take place outside of those meetings, and will be created by you and me for your individual needs. My job will be to listen to where you are and what you want, and to find the right ways to move you to the next level. If you are interested in this, you’ll want to be available for these Saturday mornings: Feb 12, 26 March 12 April 2, 16 May 7 And you’ll want to contact me soon: drummingthesoulawake@gmail.com The Next Level: Personal Shamanic Soulwork Beginning early February, meeting approximately twice per month on Saturday mornings through May 7. The Saturday meetings will be mini-workshops on a theme and will include shamanic journey work or ceremony and individualized consultation. You will begin by completing a questionnaire, ...

All true spiritual work is about the tension between being open and being safe. That sounds lovely to say, but in practice it becomes difficult at different times because openness and fear are in a constant dance. You fear your experiences, or you fear what you imagine you may experience if you are too open. There is a point where openness becomes naiveté. Sometimes you are encouraged to be afraid, and sometimes that's good advice. So how does a seeker make their way? How do you navigate the tension between openness to new experience, trust, and fear? What has worked for you?

Jaime does the reindeer dance. Photo by Theresa Savina. Thank you, thank you to the 425 wild and wonderful folks who attended Winter Solstice Blessing! Here's wishing you a fabulous holiday Sseason and a new year of beauty, depth, glee, love, poetry and abundant Wahoo.

Winter Solstice Blessing Part Theatre. Part shamanic ceremony. Primal, live, human reverent reverie. Unrepeatable. Untweetable. Can’t be downloaded. At The Minnesota Opera Center, 620 North First Street, Downtown Minneapolis ( Click here for a map ) December 17, 18, 19 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) Time: 7:30 PM (Drumming starts at 7) Price: $20 Reserve your spot in advance! Click here to order tickets online This event sells quickly. (You may also pay cash at the door) The entire audience drums (Drums and other wahoo-makers are provided, or bring your own!) A chorus of 20 terrifyingly gorgeous earth-goddess women chant ancient melodies that Lutherans are not allowed to learn. The Urban Shaman tells three stories that call up laughter and a quivering sensation from inside your mythic muscles. The Old Bone Mother comes to remove your spiritual toxins (if you want that). The evening culminates in a shamanic ceremony in which the Great White Reindeer comes to give you a blessing (if you wan...

Click here to watch the Video At the autumn drumming retreat about a month ago, I was given a song by the land and water. I don't mean that to sound overly mystical, I just feel like I didn't make this song up - it came to me intact. Because it was a gift to me and that group, it is also a gift to everyone to learn, to sing, to teach, and to use. One way to let this song loose into the world is to make a video, and that's what a few of us did a few weeks ago. To Percolate Films who shot and edited the video: we thank you, we thank you, we thank you. The basic words are improvisational and the structure is simple: Someone sings out a praise of something, and the group repeats that praise twice. So you have "Power of the river, we thank you" or "Blessing of the falling leaves we thank you" or "Beauty of the half moon, we thank you." There is also a wordless phrase that can be cycled in: "Hey na-a na na, hey na-na-na, hey na-na, hey na-na, he...