Blogging Shamanic Shifting

Celebrating as many winter holidays and festivities as possible while dreaming deeply

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:43 GMT

Again, I didn't blog on or about the December solstice or any specific Winter 2011-2012 holiday: Continuing a new practice, I shamanic journeyed on the solstice to a standstill in non-ordinary reality and waited at that crossroads for a spirit-power boost into new directions.

On every winter holiday I know of I have and will shamanic journey for power and knowledge, basking in the vibes of many traditions and appreciating diverse customary observances without copying.

These darkest, darkening, then lightening days have become for me a season set apart for deepest dreaming and intensest recharging, when I seek and receive longer-range guidance and "longer-haul" renewal.

In the original, non-traditional shamanic ways I practice, each journey provides revelation and activation -- prophesy as direct connecting with spirit in singular here-now ("hear now") moments (for me, then and there, as an individual, subject to and requiring ongoing shamanic shifting course correcting). Prophets (or spiritual leaders by any other capital-lettered titles) in most religions pronounce on behalf of community-, nation-, or world-wide organizations, communions, denominations or other large groups, but to avoid confusion and delusion Companions Circle teaches only incremental, shamanic shifting revelations and empowerments around specific prayer intentions by individuals and circles (when two or three or several more agree).

Many unfortunate, even devastating consequences arise from institutionalized revelation and from specific revelations by set-up or self-proclaimed religious authorities, whether the pronouncements predict the end of the world or give otherwise practical instructions about how to live. This article in Elle details one point of view from experience.

The misuse of human imagination -- the re-creative launchpad and landing zone for many shamanic adventurers -- also incarnates terrible mischief throughout this world. This Vanity Fair story tells the exploits of one gifted, talented mis-creative fellow (who now claims, according to CNN, he has learned his lessons and turned his life around).

Institutionalization and dishonesty and numerous other pitfalls every day halt intuitive ingenuity and sidetrack shamanic shifting. But crows on this winter's bare, snowy branches are watching over, and showing me in my dreams new escapes from such too-long-standing, destructive patterns.

Living 'neon signs' energized my wondering...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:14 GMT

Reading that humans devised and designed living 'neon signs' conglomerated from millions of programmed glowing bacteria activated my childlike wonder and shamanic wondering. Is the programming of one kind and scale of being by another somehow simply another natural feature of ordinary reality -- so no big deal?

Who or what programs humankind's reality -- and at how invisibly grand or subtle (or intrinsically tiny or macroscopic) a scale might it be happening?

Though it does not appear to be the case that our world is merely a bit of experimental culture growing in a giant giant's lab or even a giant giant's gigantic child's pond-water-drop viewed through a Brobdingnagian microscope (of any sort, toy to high-tech), I hear folks speculate often enough that we might be programmed.

Any mentions or examples I come upon of beings being programmed in physical, classical reality (the most obvious situations, those most likely to grab my attention) stir my childish wonder again, so I find myself asking, "How might this be happening in the universe as I know it?"

And of course there could be many improbable, un-provable and tricky ways programming could be happening to some and/or all of us. Most (if not all) the possibilities have been thought up already, then permutated, then extended to their absurdest extremes and otherwise discussed soberly or argued heatedly, formally and for entertainment purposes, ad hoc and ad nauseam.

The bacteria glowing in the researchers' sign might be doing fine, just living their spiral dances of universal FUN, no matter what. But the engineering project was undertaken for serious, practical purposes, such as developing low cost biosensors to detect pollutants wherever and whenever needed.

Image: Frostnova/Flickr.com

Secret rock garden in India inspires and encourages

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 06:21 GMT

This here LA Times story about a hidden rock garden that "rocks" has inspired and encouraged my humble rock gardening efforts!

The picture shows only the barest beginning stages of one of the new rock gardens I started this autumn in Dane County, Wisconsin. This layout is next to a home, but others are secret.

Much more work and play with these projects will happen after the spring thaws. Until this territory freezes over I continue adding and shifting in gradual, unpredictable increments.

Someday I would like to shamanic-shift a vacant-lot-sized public rock garden I have envisioned in shamanic dreaming into ordinary reality.

Rock garden shifting and miscellaneous musing

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:04 GMT

The picture shows a new rock garden's (soon-to-be) surroundings in early October.

My and the church's mailing address has not changed, though I have begun an "in residence" job near Madison -- installing a rock garden and assorted odd-jobs. I return to Milwaukee once a week or so, where I keep a severely downsized official residence.

Most of the branches here are barren now, in mid-November. Crows thrive on.

Miscellaneous musings:

1. I understand shamanic experience differs from psychosis -- but non-ordinary experience and psychosis might arise in some of the same brain cells and regions, and might overlap. A story like this one might be an example. But the archetypal shamanic-craziness overlap happens, plays out and materializes in many different ways everyday in ordinary and extraordinary brains, I have long supposed. Meaning, purpose and benefits (to self and others) make most of the difference, I am certain.

2. Shamanic experience is altogether different from scientific discovery, though imagination plays a role in both. When theoretical physicists discuss quantum weirdness; dark matter and dark energy; parallel universes, extra dimensions and the multiverse; vibrating strings, or superstrings (and membranes); singularities, black holes and more -- I comprehend all of these proposed marvels as matter-energy and space-time. All of that is still ordinary reality (baryonic and non-baryonic matter-energy realms that scientists can or could order or measure somehow).

But nowadays I read and hear more inelegant mix-ups of the ordinary (all of the aforementioned wonders of theoretical physics) and the non-ordinary (the routes shamans adventure), that seem to me to confound shamanic (or sacramental) dreaming, bridging and journeying, which I call mysterious, spiritual or imaginary acts of Faith, Hope and Love (the Graces).

3. Shamanic shifting begins and ends within without being of this world, and happens through mustard-seed-sized (un-measurable, more-than-infinitely TINY yet colossal) miracle-facilitating loopholes that will never be found through scientific investigations. Weirdly, I contend, believe or pretend: all worldly (individual or universal or multiversal) brains, bodies, bits and vibrations of ordinary reality (from the greatest to the least of every space-time/matter-energy kind, realm, season, direction and dimension) grace-fully contain wondrous arrays of these impossible yet dependable mustard-seed-wide doorways that are ever-ready for knocking and entering, that allow spirit-soul-imagination to reach on purpose into the non-ordinary and return with blessings.

I have yet to express what I mean by these musings, and this was only the latest rambling circumlocution, far from any final say-so.

ShamanicShift's Contact Portal

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:11 GMT

This site is a contact portal for ShamanicShift, a.k.a. ECP.

To send Elizabeth a message related to shamanic or ministerial services click here or use the CONTACT tab above.

This site's links lead to further news and information about the ministerial and shamanic programs at Companions Circle's “mother-ship” project Shamanic Shift Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Visit the shamanic blogspot to read more.

Freelancing: To hire Elizabeth as a freelance writer, researcher or editor, open an email conversation through this other contact form.

Or, TWEET @ShamanicShift on any topic of interest!

Because this site is for contacting, this first blog post will be its last, updated occasionally.

Filed under: Hello Tagged: Milwaukee Wisconsin, Shamanic Shift Center

Next adventures of the Blue Plastic Goat

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:52 GMT

Weird: I dreamed fleetingly of the Blue Plastic Goat I blogged about weeks ago, waking up suddenly, visioning the tiny battered toy lying near a dumpster in the church's parking lot, just around the corner from the courtyard garden (the last known location).

Evidently, one of the new gardeners had indeed decided the goat was trash, or simply scooped broadly and unintentionally. Yet since then repeated garbage collections failed to capture the plain, incongruous figurine for land-fill.

Both horns have diminished to stubs, I noticed. It appears the goat didn't get very far after it attracted attention!

But that is only one discouraging thought -- possibilities stir my imagination.

I shall attempt repairs and listen for stories of the blue plastic goat's multi-dimensional inter-dumpster travels.

This blog is moving...but WHERE? Wherever, updating would help...

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:31 GMT

This blog, for writing about personal and freelancing experiences, is shifting locations, and this post will be updated to link to its latest new location.

This is a new plan, and I am considering options still. I might blog a while on Digital Journal, but I haven't decided upon it.

Also, the location might shift more than once while I experiment. Of course, actually blogging regularly and frequently (wherever) would help!

Since almost no revenue is generated here on LiveJournal, anyway, because LJ forbids most monetization possibilities, I was considering blogging freelancing and personal stuff at Digital Journal, where I have been writing news, and where I was feeling almost at home

But last week DJ instituted gamification, and I feel embarrassed to be associated with such silliness. Maybe this is because I burned out participating in Squidoo's monster games, which were quite a bit more involved and complicated.

On the plus side of the new system, I would generate merit points for every post and original photo. However, the resulting un-professionalization of the service has already begun irking, embarrassing and distracting me, and I may decide to quit contributing there altogether instead.

The two to three bucks per article makes my work there, in my view, volunteering (with benefits). I learned at Squidoo that the bells and whistles of points, ranks and badges are -- above all -- a ploy to generate more volunteering, and do not equate to better article performance and more revenue..

Do real journalists in worldwide news organizations work for luridly colorful prizes, meritorious participation points and ranks with privileges?

Shamanic flight: shifting out of sight

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:09 GMT

Soon my "shamanic shift center" and the Tortoise Cat's territories will be traveling westward a ways: This move won't be as far west as the place that goes with this picture, of the first home I remember from my toddler-hood in Davis, California (where I pilgrimaged recently). I will be busing distance from Milwaukee -- still close enough to keep occasional, mobile office hours.

Companions Circle and Shamanic Shift Center will shift among the current official and known members' homes and rented spaces, while keeping its current mailing address. Anyone and everyone who wants to, or who is called to, can still join in, each their own ways, by declaring, being and doing "shamanic shift" in all of their unique heres and and nows.

But the location at the corner of N. Astor and E. Knapp Streets on Milwaukee's lower east side, held since November 1997, will be vacated by October 31. Amid this upheaval, Companions board is meeting periodically, as usual, to watch over the operation and continue to shift our mission re-creatively.

Lately, the mission-shift centers around this concept: A widespread shapeshifting circle, stretching though ordinary, cyber and non-ordinary realities that provides a dancing center for anyone adventuring shamanic ways without religion, tradition or belief-systems.

The board is discussing whether and how to officially record and certify members, ministers and local circles without stirring up institutionalization -- and discerning if official recognition, through electronic media or paper, is even possible for this sort of church that aims to be churchless, and operate though emerging new thought(s), spoken and sung word(s) and danced or jested deed(s). The Universal Life Church's model seems to have worked well over the years (but that church does not even specify any type of "ways" to live, and that may be why), so all I can report now is that this topic is still under prayerful study.

My shamanizing will henceforth (until the plan changes again,if it does) be unadvertised, ad hoc, impromptu and improvised -- mostly private, but not secret. I am un-affiliating myself from all shamanic and related organizations, foundations and groups, and unsubscribing from most lists, because my ways and understandings have diverged enough to be unrecognizable to most who call themselves "shamanic practitioners" or shamans or shamanic ministers these days, and this has proved more and more confusing to people who contact me with an interest in "shamanism," or anything related (mistakenly or correctly) to that problematic (but widely used and apparently unavoidable) term -- though I have nothing against what anyone is doing, teaching and learning.

The name ShamanicShift (or Shamanic-Shift) still expresses (to my satisfaction) my aspirations, methods and purposes, so I will keep going by it, so long as it does.

But I will not claim exclusive dibs, and dream and hope (daily) there are many shamanic shifts, shamanic shifters, and shamanic shift centers.

This blog (as well as FB and Twitter) will update as often as I find it is possible.

More regular blogging here and FB posting remain long-range goals. However, now I am focusing on writing that earns money -- and none of those mostly anonymous assignments have anything to do with shamans or their ways. Under my byline, for lesser, but still countable amounts, I write for Digital Journal (news about science, environment, health, technology and business -- occasionally other topics, even food) and Examiner.com (about Milwaukee airports and airlines).

(If you happen to want to become an Examiner, please join with my link, and give me a $Boost$, eventually, if/when you are accepted and begin publishing -- THANKS!)

Long-term project: Assignments for unquestionably worth-it Web content

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:10 GMT

I write articles on keywords for money and I write them well -- but how many of these are enhancing someone's life? Seeking new perspectives, I gazed out an airliner window at everyday clouds and terrain while I contemplated what I could do to upgrade my ongoing freelancing flight.

For a while I have been on a flight to anywhere away from working for a company in a world where many of the jobs people stress over and toil at appear to be cancelling one another out anyway.

The abrupt, mysterious departure of the Blue Plastic Goat

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:46 GMT

The Blue Plastic Goat, a long-term resident of the corner nearest the faucet in the courtyard garden of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church at the end of our block, journeyed on suddenly and mysteriously yesterday -- or not so mysteriously, perhaps:

Two new gardeners came to water the place, and after they left I noticed the blue plastic goat had left the garden also.

Did those young ladies and the blue plastic goat spontanteouly strike up a traveling camaraderie, then set off upon a challenging, new, adventurous itinerary? Or did they mistake the symbolic figure, which I discovered while freelance gardening there a few seasons ago and purposely did not disturb, for a pagan spell cast over those sacred, Christian grounds?

Or did they simply mistake this outward, visible sign -- of something amazingly wonderful, I had supposed -- for an incongruous bit of banal junk, to be tossed in the trash bag (for Universal Recycling)?

Maybe one of the gals collects animal figures, or found the blue plastic goat a perfect finishing touch for a whimsical collage, or has a kid who would love the toy. Well, anyway, the blue plastic goat has journeyed on, somehow, some where.

Oh, farewell and godspeed, you marvelous old Blue Plastic Goat!

Feline Shamanic Experience - Trespassing 'Raccowlly Dog'

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:11 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

My colleague the Tortoise Cat experienced an unlikely combination visit last night, both horrible, weird and natural, just as extraordinary as non-ordinary:

Like a synergy of Raccoon, Owl and Dog, I dreamed she explained.

It peed all over the back steps, much to her distress. Well, I can't smell anything now, but she still can.

Was it Totoro? No. OK, was it Tanuki or another type of Japanese Raccoon Dog (like the pic above)? No...NO...!

But there was someone there at the screen door, emitting a musky odor, we dreamed: both beaked and toothy; owl-headed and winged; a silent soarer arriving stealthily; then swooping, trilling, clawing, and scratching; while wagging a long doggy-tail vigorously.

I was awakened by bump in the night, but that was the Tortoise Cat knocking over a broom propped in the back entryway, as she fled from this mini-monster of a mystery-beast -- also fleeing, as I caught a mere shadow of an foggy glimpse.

Writing is fun; shaman-stuff, not so much

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:41 GMT

Image via Wikipedia
This weird, dead tree reminds me of a wildly dancing shaman!

Given a choice between making a living as a shamanic minister-consultant and a freelance writer of any kind of content, from the deeply meaningful to the frankly banal, if success were assured either way, I would pick writing. I get lost in writing, and would willingly write free, if earning a living weren&os;t so key to my well-being..

So, I need to leave "would" out of the sentence, and let all shamanisms go, except my own daily -- imaginary and artistic -- shamanic foolishness.

The only calling I still hear within my soul "from the spirits" is for daily shamanzing behind the scenes though outsider artistic expressions, and through re-creative "acting out" now and then -- and through fostering FUN and questioning, while I navigate this strange, wondrous planet..

The church of shamanic ways I founded to encircle my, and anyone&os;s, right to explore shamanry as a way to weave life meaningfully, no matter what -- on the short list of essentials for a happy, healthy life:

_has spread out;

_connects through cyberspace and non-ordinary reality;

_and its declared, known members practice as artists, entertainers and hermits.

Providing staff support for it is hardly any work at all -- and it also doesn&os;t pay at all. Making spirituality pay just isn&os;t one of my comfortable niches. Our doctrine and method is: Everyone, be a shamanic shift center, wherever you are, as you go along, each in your own ways. So simple. Already I have stopped booking shamanic sessions and religious ceremonies, so I can concentrate on earning my living writing.

I admit, the cyber-reams of writing being outsourced these days shocks and amazes me with every login to claim assignments. It has factored into my disillusionment with shamanic ways as New Age, alternative and complementary WOO, too. (I hope anyone who practices shamanic ways that aren&os;t like that won&os;t be insulted; I didn&os;t mean you.)

Companies are even outsourcing outsourcing, on every conceivable topic:

_get OK, legible, relevant content onto many ad-revenue pages, all with proper keyword density;

_link back with a tree full of so-so (i.e. cheaper) content.

_buy some slightly better-quality press releases, too, for an additional halfpenny per word.

Once a week, or so, I notice another personal development or prosperity "how-to" blog start up, with a clever, individualistic-sounding title. But, from my work, I know its words of wisdom are being pounded out by 100 freelancers sitting at keyboards, give or take five or ten, for a penny or two per word.

But I enjoy those writing assignments, anyway. I admit it. I just do.

I consider it research practice, writers&os; block busting and education about new topics, little known facts, and web writing itself.

Above all, writing about diverse lucrative keywords has opened my eyes to the wide-ranging variety of shams being sold -- and bought, evidently, though it is hard for me to believe so many folks are so gullible -- as alternative or natural treatments for ailments, eco-friendly solutions for energy production, and financial success products. But all I need to succeed at this relatively hassle-free (except for copy-editors), work-at-home venture of selling my time, talent and energy for money, is more web content pounding-out speed.

Doable.

Unlike this guy, a real deal blogger who pretty much solves all the problems folks consult gurus about, without the hoop-jumping mystification, I have yet to find my blogging niche, the gig I will find will so fun it pushes all banal content writing for pennies aside.

Relieved I woke up from dreaming I was a Squid

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:46 GMT

The pic on the right is a screenshot of my Squidoo profile, just before I resigned as a Giant 100 Club member and retired as a SquidAngel a few weeks ago. Oddly, the original Giant badge remains, though my message stated I was resigning from Giant Squidhood altogether. What a relief it is, to let all the monster games go.

Rule changes are OK by me, and should be expected on any site. For the record, none of my lenses ran into any problems.

But Squidoo&os;s changes, in response to Panda, were clumsily and confusingly implemented, in my view. Still, I backed off mainly because my ROI was low there, compared to other places I write. I realize participating brings great returns for many others, and I have nothing against it. Continuously updating lenses became a chore, then a drudgery for me, however.

As I have mentioned before, I have noticed many of the the topics I was writing about do not do well on Squidoo. Plus, I began lensing for fun, and later experimented with profiting, then grew enthused for a while, but then lost interest (after complications there developed complications).

The last straw was realizing that using the bookmarklet to add a link to a lens caused an annoying figure on the dashboard to request I update the category settings for that lens (that using the widget had undone, by some glitch -- that I reported, to no avail).

For now, I plan to keep the lenses I opened, not open any more, and update occasionally.

Shamanic circle loose enough to shift infinitely

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:55 GMT

More musings about this mission and its shifts that I decided to publish without editing:

I. We cannot even accurately call Companions Circle an un-church or a churchless church, because those terms are taken already to point to other missions, though there are resonances.

The concept of a "church of shamanic ways" that provides just enough structure to keep shifting out of and away from (an occasional circle, usually loosely held over cyberspace and/or within imaginations), and a body (a non-profit corporation, to be exact) that in some honest (though atypical) fashion meets the state's definition of church, was and is the intention here -- not linking to or initiating any lineage. In fact, such linkages and initiations are permitted, but not encouraged, in our circle.

II. Another motto came from my reconsideration of the etymology of the word church: "Circle, not cirice!"

That O.E. word cirice that became church came from the Greek for a ruler's house -- where the establishment, the enforcer of the status-quo lives. But the PIE base of church, and of the Greek word kyriake(oikia), is *keue-, or "to swell" and be powerful, the entry reads. So, besides usurped, dominating, enforced, worldly power, the oldest concept behind the word that evolved into church included "a center or circle of authentic, original power."

III. The self-declared members of this foolish church circle live their journeying adventures around the country nowadays, and two or three (or more) dwell in other countries.

This project was never (at all) about being and doing anything mystical, magical, pagan, new age, esoteric, occultist, spiritualist, traditionalist, reconstructionist, "complementary and alternative" -- or organic, natural, or indigenous. Any or all of these might be part of any given member's practices, according to free will and choice.

But joining mystery, spirit and reality anew every moment, without stopping to define the process, is ALL this folly that a few of us began on October 31, 1990 is about.

Companions Circle is what it is. And it definitely is, both incorporated and unincorporated versions (as one, the corporation being a subsidiary of the original), even while the circle shapeshifts infinitely. Probably this project would have been better left unorganized and unofficial.

IV. A shaman adventures through, shatters, re-heals, and goes beyond all known patterns. I call myself (merely) a shamanizer, when that is what I am doing on purpose in the moment, when I bother to use an s-word -- besides the all-purpose shamanicshift -- at all. But I do aim to leave all 20th-21st contemporary shamanisms, and all traditional shamanisms, and all related traditions and practices, from all histories and pre-histories, behind.

The techniques shamans use, and the discoveries they return to share before journeying again, usually, eventually become coded and canonized into beliefs and belief systems. The practitioners (whatever their titles) become priests, who may or may not continue to use shamanic methods, within the limits of their various traditions or religions.

V. This church-with-a-tiny-c is especially for lone, belief-lacking shamanizers.

Any two or three or more who circle around one or more intentions in agreement, within and as spirit, are this church. But the two or three may span dimensions, or even be the body, heart and mind of one journeyer.

VI. I continue to shamanicshift behind the scenes, for intentions brought to my attention, but I am doing my best to phase out scheduling appointments. The reasons: I cannot afford to; I am diverting to other projects that thrill me to ecstasy; and shamanic sessions stopped being fun for me at all, years ago.

VII. I shall be shifting this blog's purpose, too. Describing shamanic experiences was the emphasis when I began. But I am keeping more secrets about my shamanic ways these days -- because I have begun wondering if the non-ordinary life is best left unwritten.

Next, I might blog about ordinary reality science, technology and trailblazing endeavors in any field that are fulfilling shamanic dreams and themes, as is, without anyone's further interacting in non-ordinary realms.

Shamanic ends of the world

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:53 GMT

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

A rough draft I no longer intend to polish:

Considering recent news, I mused: An unusually fanatic fundamentalist, extra-prone to taking religious notions, concepts and doctrines only literally, concretely and personally, might still get caught up in compelling non-ordinary experiences, because most (if not all) humans have the ability, though few exercise it past childhood. But such a individual would then, most likely, be convinced that this wondrous (but dogma-tainted, personality-filtered) dream or vision applied to everyone and everywhere -- an enthused delusion, attractive to like minds who then eagerly join, until an unruly crowd forms.

However...

A shamanizer (who aims to stay sane) enters non-ordinary reality on purpose and seeks knowledge and power anew for each momentary intention.

So, speaking metaphorically, with many maybes attached...

Every Planck time unit, a Planck length unit of the world ends, a loophole opens, the world begins anew.

The building blocks / carrier waves of the universe are, each and all, ends and beginnings of this world.

The Content Authority & Digital Journal Win - For Now

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:33 GMT

Does my opinion hold water? I&os;ve changed my freelancing energy-flow so often, I give a blurry picture. I&os;m experimenting cutting back - writing at places I feel most at home that have the fewest hassles. Also, if I can write for a site I like to visit for a read, so much the better.

Demand Media Studios is great for some writers, and I was trying to be one of them. While I do not consider the content on the company&os;s properties to be of the lowest quality, as many claim, I have yet to find any I relish reading -- or have found useful.

Plus, with DMS...The computer-generated titles are often bogus or tricky - for example, an overview of "Idaho Stink Bugs" (when Idaho is one place this pest is NOT outbreaking); research and referencing take longer because content sites are blacklisted, and (rightly) DMS prefers .edu and .gov to .com (but the rules get complicated and change frequently); the photo gallery (that must be used exclusively) often has no pic directly related to the subject (and while photos are optional, searching the gallery before giving up, or getting creative and hoping the CE accepts it, uses up more valuable time); and...well, what I am getting at (in this parenthetical ramble) is how much this extra time I spend at DMS -- that adds up quickly writing $15 500-word blurbs -- is costing me (too much). I keep badgering myself to claim titles and work my way gradually to eligibility for better assignments. But...

But I find myself tossing the titles back and heading over to The Content Authority. I earn less per order there, but writing those blurbs is a simple, hassle-free business, usually. There are no reference and resource links or illustrations to fuss over. When the rare problem arises, the forum is often helpful and e-mailing the administration always brings friendly assistance within a day.

As I wrote before, the similar company Textbroker my be just as great (from what I hear), but I have not jumped in there, though I signed up. From a quick look just now, I notice most of the orders are for writers at the four- and five-star levels, that site&os;s highest ratings (their lowest rating is two-stars). Unlike TCA&os;s eight-hour writing window - which is provides a comfortable structure for me - I saw various deadlines, from one to four days. I just claimed my first assignment, so now I know that this is a one-at-a-time deal like TCA&os;s system (and that is fine with me).

What about my aspiring journalist self? Examiner.com and Digital Journal are still on my list.

Examiner.com is going through its major overhaul, but changes to the payment system are being pushed back, month by month, so it is too soon to tell if E is a keeper. So far, I am muddling along, publishing one or two articles a week. But I do not go there to read.

In contrast, Digital Journal would be among my favorite news sources even if I had not resumed contributing there.

Shamanic heresies, just in case

Sun, 22 May 2011 06:06 GMT

I founded a church to be an open haven for spiritual experimentation -- a role original shamans reveled in, I maintain, among many (many!) diverse activities.

Most folks I meet take spiritual and religious concepts, notions and doctrines literally, concretely and personally, and believe (accepting without questioning; holding dear without reasoning; and other like processes).

But doing so defeats the purpose and power of myth -- with or without supernatural extras -- to shift self-conscious psyches beneficially (and, inevitably change the outer lives too, through short- and long-term natural courses of tiny to tremendous events).

Believers, as recent news stories have demonstrated (but this happens frequently), seem to be open only to complete, sealed-up packaged-deal answers and instructions for life's puzzles, challenges and mysteries. The goofier, spookier, and scarier the claims, the quicker these believers grab on and the tighter they hang on.

The consequences run from relatively harmless to unfortunately expensive to absolutely deadly.

Shamans do their bests to avoid believing -- except temporarily, intentionally, to accomplish a definite purpose (then move on). But the human personality might be genetically predisposed towards believing: Perhaps it's a no longer helpful side-effect of the previously survival-promoting checks and balances authorities -- and bowing to them -- mixed into human nature millions of year ago. (OK, after I thought this notion up, I read it had been theorized by experts already.)

I see widespread reacting against science as the enemy of spirituality is one of the patterns continuing to wreck havoc with education. Maybe this is because I meet few scientifically literate folks anymore.

Every day, I hear what I laughingly -- or not -- describe as: Scientific Literacy trying to talk to Religious Literalism. But always, rapidly, these weird, double-monologues degenerate into what I can only call: Confusion gibbering with Misconception.

I had thought an open "churchless church" of shamanic ways would help foster sacred play among flexible souls who prefer paradox, seek serendipity and take non-ordinary experiences lightly and darkly at once. But the venture is always on the verge of bogging down with serious believers, or being abandoned -- dismissed or condemned -- as a disrespectful (or worse) apostate project, rife with heresies.

The word heresy, traces back to the Greek verb "choose" -- and believers, who usually count themselves chosen by god or gods or spirits, don't like hanging out with folks who insist on staying free to choose.

Two mottos of Companions Circle are "Don't believe, be LIVE!" and "Question...Quest on!" Be freely choosy, too, I say.

For now the church ministry is at the bottom of my to-do list, except for my daily prayers and behind the scenes shamanizing that remain at the top, just because the practices, on behalf of myself and others (done in the spirit of sacred fun), still enhance my life.

There is, as I have remarked often, another sort of believer out there who confounds me: the apparent half-believer who still follows directions from religious leaders or jumps on a familiar religious bandwagon, despite skepticism, who performs religious rites, anyway, while uttering the bizarre phrase "just in case...." Or, are these words a NAME?

WOW...This Justin Case (What, another upstart JC?) must be a powerful deity or other kind of universal force -- indeed -- for I am stunned to hear these (sacred?) syllables spoken so often, during a wondrously wide-ranging assortment of religious activities!

Shamanic entertainment purposes

Wed, 18 May 2011 06:47 GMT

When I consider my life as shamanic journey, it seems an odyssey of turning points, detours and lost ways.

Today I find myself often revisiting the days I emerged from a personal dreamtime re-creation crisis and began to study the contemporary shamanism(s) being advertised on flyers, imparted through workshops and linked to diverse complementary and alternative medicines and all manner of so-called new religious movements. The whole mixed bag was starting to trend back then, normalizing much of my childhood weirdnesses.

Because I suddenly found myself well, and what had kicked in and pulled me through bore a plausible resemblance to the "core" ways of shamans, I leaped in, fully enchanted.

But, for me, this has always been for fun, play and pretend.

On Halloween 1990, avoiding definitions, I and a few pals co-founded Companions Church Circle simply as a "church of shamanic ways" so any shamanizer (atheist, skeptic, agnostic or believer in whatever) could join this "churchless church" for meaningful, purposeful adventure and experimentation, on their own terms, under their own terminologies, with their own beliefs or lack thereof, beyond ordinary boundaries or barriers -- except that folks preferring to hold to traditions, systems, doctrines and laws would also be welcome as long as they agreed to foolishness and openness. But the temptation to take the church seriously still torments, as the unsteady stream of deadly serious inquiries trickling into my inbox or ringing my phone.

I shamanize over all of it, however...

As far as I'm concerned, no matter what anyone asks me, I will hasten to insist this is for entertainment purposes, first and last.

Because, I say: Shows, stories, songs, dances and art heal, transform and even prophesy better than any of the deadly serious, or just plain deadly, full-on quackery now shamming and shaming shamanic teachers and disciples alike (however they are billing themselves) in this gullible day and age.

Being child-like can open heavens on earth, within and all around -- but such openings are momentary and tricky, often found along fine lines or through narrow gates, though orders upon orders of infinities of these spiraling loopholes await activation. Wonder and imagine one now -- a turn-key solution!

I express caution to anyone eager for challenging initiatory ordeals: At all costs, avoid, as hazardous to health and progressively sickening then fatal, any scheme involving being reduced to infantile dependency while following leading experts or authorities. Say NO, then enjoy what's already within you for free, or spend your money on funner games of life.

Miscellaneous freelance musings

Mon, 16 May 2011 18:27 GMT

FREELANCE WRITING UPDATES

LiveJournal: Why am I here? LJ must be one of the worst hosts for a freelancing writing and odd-jobbing weblog! I might discontinue and abandon this one, because the only reason I can think of why it&os;s here is: This is a lifetime paid account, something I did before I knew better.

Here it is forbidden / impossible to run ads for carefully chosen affiliates to match reviews. All I can manage besides the in-house Adsense set-up is linking to Amazon from the sidebar. Content and sales go together on the best freelance writing websites I find (and list on this sidebar).

Squidoo again: A serious drawback at Squidoo, for me, is having to update / republish lenses once a month or more for them rank in the paying tiers. I surmise Squidoo works best for content producers who create only there and open new lenses often.

But Squidoo HQ tweaks and re-tweaks the platform and rules, forcing loads of extra work on its best Squids regularly.

Demand Media Studios: I&os;m still at the beginning stages of troubleshooting the editorial process and developing proficiency with the eHow format (a fill-in-the-blanks template). If I ever get comfortable there I could earn oodles.

Occasional reading on eHow convinces me DMS intends to publish useful, quality content there and on all its sites, beyond content farming for ad-revenue harvesting. Google appears to be recognizing the slightly better quality articles DMS stamps out (it seems more like a factory than a farm to me) because the algorithm updated named Panda failed to bite the site.

DMS has already started hiring their freelancers who stick it out a while (and produce hundreds of ordinary assignments successfully) to write much better paying features.

The Content Authority: TCA is a favorite I&os;m counting on. It pays less than DMS -- with far less hassle and much better support. Writing rapidly about key words anonymously is the program here. (TextBroker may be similarly great, but I haven&os;t gotten around to writing there yet.)

Examiner: There will soon be a tiered pay-scale, according to the site&os;s news, with performance pay scaled to it, with the minimum payout dropped to only $1 (and no more local incentive dollars).

After last and this years updates, the front page still is dismal to look at, IMO -- sparse-looking, like it failed to load properly. Every visit I find myself asking same question, "Where&os;s the news?" This site has only scratched the surface of its potential and possibilities and I keep hanging in there, gradually picking up my pace..

Digital Journal: I resumed writing for DJ after a feature for claiming assignments and getting extra pay for completing them launched early in May. It wasn&os;t the extra pay that drew me back, but the ability to claim stories with definite deadlines.

DJ is a great news site - usually stuffed with engaging reads and a special section for original, exclusive reporting.

Performance pay only counts for the latest 2 months of articles, with the "money-pot" getting divided among digital journalists by rank. So the pay-scheme is unique, weird and mysterious. A running earnings guesstimate shows at the top of the page when I login, rising or falling every two hours, as numbers of articles and their performances shift.

HubPages: I still cannot get excited about this site, though it looks better to me than Squidoo lately.

AROUND THE BLOCK

This location, in an office building on a busy city corner, has presented more security and safety challenges. The property management making an effort, but a few of the business-owners renting here seem to be lapsing into carelessness more often.

I am considering many options for a move when this lease ends on October 31.

The church garden a block west is unkempt because this year the gardener is working at a factory full-time, because he was promoted. Imagining the perennials and weeds competing for fun, I watch the situation run rampant without intervening.

The Tortoise Cat sniffs the flowers and gnashes the grasses and does not grok the concept "weeds" -- or care.

When it comes shifting territories in October, I expect she will disapprove -- vehemently.

Rocky shamanic road: regions of crystal clarity and cracked cloudiness

Tue, 03 May 2011 11:47 GMT

What is clear for me:

Spiritual, psychological and somatic healings and transformations happened for me through living some of the ways shamans merge ordinary and non-ordinary experiences. Irrationally, I sense and respond to an inner calling -- perhaps because of genetic predispositions in my nature -- to keep shamanizing, daily. I am happy to do so, because it brings me delight, wonder and awe (and occasional encouraging feedback).

Yet, my continuing lifelong studying and experimenting leads me further every day into an ecstatic, inconsistent agnosticism -- and a playful, persistent dis-belief in all interpretations centered around supernatural beings, places, powers or the like.

The extensive shamanic and related instructions I have partaken of taught me lots, often aside from those teachers' intentions. All too often, the classes and workshops also demonstrated how deeply the most successful presenters baffle themselves and their students, especially during intense large group awareness productions, thereby becoming famous spiritual leaders with faithful followers who hope to become famous leaders too, eventually, through ardent imitation.

Shamanic ways can liberate the spiritual experiencing of reality -- or discovering meaning and purpose and "tying things together" -- from soul-stunting subjugation to external authorities, hierarchies and dogmas. But just the opposite seems to happen much more often.

So new ancient traditions and idiosyncratic, eclectic fundamentalisms keep springing up in the marketplace, for better and worse.

I have noticed over the years, combining shamanic methods with "new age" doctrines and "complementary and alternative medicines" (under CAM or other terms) can enhance or confound the practices. During many days I hear mostly confusion within this wild proliferation.

Leaving room for continuing questioning and questing, these days I opine shamanic methods combine imagination and expressive arts within light trance states practitioners enter on purpose while maintaining self-awareness, and work though (possibly permanent, potentially profound) psychosomatic shifts. But any self-shift changes the universe by at least a mustard-seed-amount, so this is mightily powerful anyhow (in my view).

My calling to shamanize involves me daily behind the scenes, as prayer over topics variously brought to my attention. I simply encounter and relate to those situations and events as I find and connect with them over again, within myself.

But I support myself through freelancing (writing and odd-jobbing). Beyond this, when I give up work hours and earned-funding to be available for consultations -- teaching what shamanic shifting works improvements in my life or facilitating (through some type of ministerial counseling) someone's finding meaning and purpose amid challenges or troubles -- I understand it is perfectly natural and OK to request money donations to cover overhead expenses.

It is also OK by me if prosperity-gospel or LOA (-type) shamans (mergers of the ordinary and non-ordinary, by whatever name) earn a humongous profit from charging hefty fees free folks pay willingly, so long as their help to harm ratios are overwhelmingly favorable. But my calling does not cover such actions.

Besides, from experience, I know people can learn to shamanic shift their own lives effectively, relatively inexpensively.

What is cloudy, still:

Why I suppose to this day I need to write a book, when I tend toward agreement with this blogger about famous spiritual teachers.

Really, I cloud over around too many questions to blog about here now.

Such as: Is it possible to balance beautifully along the straight, narrow line between prophetic, entertaining trickery and corrupt, scamming treachery in shamanic performing?

Embracing clouds and peering into cracks:

My favorite crystals show irregular, shadowy, fantastical landscapes, built of clouds and cracks that seem to connect weird, little clear spots and murky, vast expanses into artistically wrought mini-multiverses, miniature bigger pictures I can grasp for questioning whiles, as if they were wondrous, imaginary, dream-roads onwards.

Content farms? Maybe some are factories -- or gardens!

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:40 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Why call an enterprise one means to disparage a farm rather than a factory? Farms and factories produce necessities, so neither word carries pejorative connotations for me. A mill grinds grist, so even that sounds potentially helpful.

Because I earn my living producing written content as a freelancer, I choose to chalk it all up as freelance writing. Landing a job as a print media journalist is an old goal I rarely revisit, even during reflective moments.

Still, I feel discouraged when: I come across a string of articles lumping together and dismissing under the label "content farm" many of the websites that pay me steadily.

Also I feel bummed-out when so-so, sloppy or lousy writing gets published on those pages alongside my work, because I do my best to follow editorial guidelines and often add an original spin. Perusing Examiner.com, the citizen journalist site aiming to become everyone&os;s favorite source for hyper-local news, reviews and information, I still cringe at the frequent quality lapses.

But, I must quit wasting precious moments and energy mulling and moping over discouraging words and trends!

The earning potential at Examiner.com is growing steadily. Furthermore, I understand and enthuse over this company&os;s mission, model and methods, blogged recently in detail.

As for Demand Media Studios (DMS), the place most often and vehemently dismissed under the content farm label: DMS offers chances at "real gigs" (as well as lucrative contests and generous grants) to anyone who can produce a steady supply (or crop) of eHow blurbs up to their exacting standards -- or insane ones, depending upon the copy editor assigned randomly -- for $7.50 to $15 each for several months running. With DMS templates and instructions, this is a fill-in-the-blanks task.

Citing acceptable references is the trickiest step, where I trip up (or give up) most often. Keeping up with weekly changes in procedures and policies is the second biggest challenge for me at DMS. When I visit the forum to read the latest, I find myself drawn into the rants, complaints and horror stories also.

Nevertheless, I am amid switching almost all my Squidoo-ing energy over to Examiner and DMS.

Afterthoughts:

Last year I freelance gardened. I prefer smaller-scale images of me pacing myself and relaxing while working...planning, planting, and nurturing...then weeding and pruning...and appreciating...and cleaning up. Earning slightly less gardening than I did on some much harder odd-jobs seemed like getting paid to have fun.

Earning smaller amounts from carefully chosen content sites isn&os;t so fun yet, but does seem like getting paid to avoiding cold calling, selling, advertising, conferences, travel, unlimited revising, billing and collecting.

Other spins:

Demand Media is still thriving (by Freakonomics.com)...Content farms are not competing with or hurting journalism (by BusinessInsider.com)...Post-Panda SEO creates lucky losers (by SearchEnginePeople.com).

My shamanic calling wasn't crystal-clear

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:56 GMT

Personal notes:

Growing up, I mislabeled my shamanic experiences as mental and emotional sicknesses and sought medical assistance to get over the "crazyness" -- even while I learned more from spirit and spirits and practiced the ways in secret. The weird special effects were troubling, yet compelling.

Gifts or aberrations? Both applied, often at once. What was self-absorbed dis-functioning was sick, and the rest was direct experience of spirit and spirits, misunderstood more often than grokked.

Finally, during young adulthood, I began favoring the pathological interpretations and this "made it so" -- the choice led me into grave illnesses and abuse (years of exhausting dis-ease and depressing disorder). After enough was enough, in a real way, I died -- physically, psychically and spiritually (though not permanently). I suffered a long, drawn-out near-death journey.

But then I began dreaming myself well for real, in and as spirit and spirits.

I would find myself dreaming adventures, while I slept or slumped around in a daze. One day, I realized I was growing well, ever so gradually, so I kept going. Then I came to a juncture -- get well or recycle, insisted spirit and spirits. (But either choice was absolutely, perfectly OK at this one, wondrous crystal-clear point; there was no shame or guilt at all in this encounter; it was simply, purely true-love).

Those are my only real "shamanic credentials," though my shamanic practicing has been vetted by an official shamanic church (besides the one I co-founded).

After I returned from the dead, so to speak, I noticed with astonishment that what I had run from, yet found myself entering into fully with growing understanding, was being called "the way of the shaman" -- just one stream of a popular spiritual revival. To get "up to speed" in ordinary reality with what had transformed me faster than light-speed in non-ordinary reality, I attended months of days of experiential study with various teachers of shamanic and many related ways at great expense.

Before my flailing, failing fall into the deeps, during the better moments on my good days, I studied the mystics, mages and alchemists of the western Judeo-Christian tradition intently and intensely, occasionally under priestly guidance, more often alone. Before and after that period, I lived my individualistic gnostic heresies, oscillating wildly in and out of agnosticism.

In my tweens, I had studied psychoanalysis and hypnosis. But I missed my calling all along, life twist after roundabout turn, approaching what would fulfill, then always veering away by a few inches to many miles (literally). In the long run, it all became learning (by hard ways up rough roads).

Now, what I live and teach bypasses most of the hardship and traces back to my earliest childhood shamanic experiences, not called any such thing by me in those days, though all is influenced by every instruction I have received since -- all sorts in many fields of life.

I claim no authorizing tradition or lineage -- only my life, lifelong studying and ongoing direct experiences of spirit and spirits, while by while, as shamanizing intentions arise. The way grows murky, off and on.

This is only one of the reasons I usually refer to myself as only a shamanizer, and that only when some shamanic activity is what I happen to be doing in the moment, with and in spirit and spirits, which I choose NOT to define. (Whether I call this play and pretend or imagination and art, or temporarily adopt other descriptions, or appeal to one Holy Spirit or Life Spirit, the methods work fine for me -- whatever that means).

Maybe I keep shamanizing though my skepticism because of genetic predispositions. Maybe I keep on because the practices delight me, while shifts for the better keep happening in my life.

Anyway, when I shamanize over a concern, for myself or someone else, I work within myself, to heal or transform my version of whatever pattern needs help, acting as if it will help, acting as if other folks' versions of whatever challenge or trouble I'm dealing with, known and unknown to me (near or far from me), might change in resonance also, according to free will and choice. I receive encouraging feedback, often enough, though it's always a happy (yet disconcerting) surprise that makes me wonder, and question all over again, then quest on.

Oops: In online directories I did begin listing my shamanic practice(s) some years ago under what seemed like the closest incorrect category (because shamanic ways defy categorizing). I have stopped doing this, but there are lots of listings out there haunting me, too many to go find and delete. No more listing or advertising for me.

Still, situations like this make me wonder sorrowfully, and contemplate withdrawing even further. Before any shamanizing, may I never forget to beg of spirit and spirits, "First and last, allow NO HARM to result from my foolishness!"

The (nowadays called) Law of Attraction is not the only cosmic law in effect in this multi-verse!

Rocks fund raising -- fun and amazing!

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:21 GMT

A couple weeks ago, many of the rocks and crystals here dreamed an ad into me, offering themselves for sale to raise money for this place and its mission, because they wanted to roll along anyway.

So I posted the ad on Craig's List. But I left it in the "materials" section, without any photos.

Then, no one called. No one called for over a week and I mused: I need to reclassify it and add pics! But I didn't.

No, I'll go back and delete it, I decided. But then, back on another task, I didn't do that either. This cycle repeated, five or so go rounds.

Then on Wednesday, a healer and jewelry crafter just starting out in business called! She brought a pal along this afternoon to "shop" and many minerals decided to roll along a town or two westward for their next earth adventures.

I hope and dream this was another meeting among new "old friends" and we can journey together a while and a ways. Those mineral companions who moved will always be here, vividly enough, in non-ordinary ways and the shift is renewing.

No matter what else, this encounter brought a few hours of delightful fun for me.

HourTyme fundraising for GreenTyme's circadian confusion shifting project

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:56 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Friendly news:

As standard time switched to daylight savings, GreenTyme's inventor Yale Landsberg emailed an alert about his organization's new fundraising campaign. As I blogged before, I like the Circa-Med clock and link to the project on the sidebar under Net Friends -- the only one, so far -- so Yale considers me a sponsor.

I began experimenting informally with the "meditation optimizer" version, shamanic journeying through it when prayer-requests relate to past or future experiences troubling the present. Weirdly, I seem to have been born immune to ill effects from circadian rhythm interruptions, so I can't recount any personal anecdotes about biological clock tweaking or harmonizing through watching (and listening to) this delightful, pretty, dynamic glyph.

For me, it is oddly cheer-inducing -- a frankly subjective assessment!

Certainly, more and more links between circadian rhythm disruption and many ailments now challenging growing numbers of folks are being discovered by scientists.

Yale's singing clock is not (yet) scientifically proven to reboot natural human biological clocks or synchronize our inborn circadian cycles with modern, artificial (but industrially useful and nowadays necessary) time-frames. The GreenTyme folks want to keep researching that hypothesis while donating 3-D versions of their unusual "suntyme-moontyme" (and now "hourtyme") clocks to hospitals and rehabilitation centers.

If you donate as little as $2 to this cause, you get a customized copy of the Circadian Meditation Mode version of theSunTyme&MoonTyme HourTyme clock. Here I am, spreading the word.

HubPages vs. Squidoo, facing the Panda "attack"

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:49 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

HubPages is getting new looks from me, while Squidoo&os;s "monstrous" response to Google&os;s latest algorithm update is (kind of) scaring me.

Because I made two hubs about two years ago, with plans to return to HubPages someday, I receive the weekly newsletter from the site. The March 9, 2011 enews outlined their changes in response to the Google algorithm update known as Panda, aimed to weed content farmers from top search results (so also informally dubbed the "farmer" update).

HubPages&os; plan of action is the most simple and straight forward strategy I&os;ve seen, so far:

So it&os;s easy to understand quickly: No duplicate content is allowed anymore on HubPages. For every featured product there must be at least 50 words of content. Amazon, eBay, RSS and Link capsules cannot be the first full-width item. Warnings appear with already published hubs in violation of site policy and after a time allowed for corrections reminder emails will go out giving another grace period. New hubs that don&os;t fit in simply won&os;t publish -- with definite corrections to make so a hubber knows what to change right away.

Squidoo&os;s response to Panda seems a confusion to me: Auto-filtering and auto-locking without human double-checking or indicating "how to fix" (I gather from Squidu. com forum posts); Guidelines (the filter operates by) I cannot find organized plainly anywhere on one page or tree of pages (spread over various, HQ-produced lenses or emailings and company blog or forum posts, some outdated, some not, some new, but now, along with the editors blogging that the new rules are really the old rules anyway, there&os;s a new, open-ended FAQ -- still incomplete and hodge-podge, last I looked); Frank, unapologetic inconsistency (expressed glibly in statements along the lines of "We might do this or we might do that, because we can!"); And, apparently, relying on volunteer topic SquidAngels (instead of editors) to boost up or "ding" down content.

To compare, I just checked Suite101&os;s plan and found it much better stated than Squidoo&os;s, but still vague around many topics, with several internal changes outlined, including stricter recruitment going forward, nightly deletion of old and substandard articles and editorial review for every new article before it goes live, instead of only the first, though "trusted writers" may be exempted eventually. I stopped publishing there after only three articles, because I noticed, perusing the forum, the many topic editors inconsistently enforce separate sets of rules that sometimes contradict the site&os;s general submission guidelines. Although I encountered no frustrations, I saw huge hassle potential in Suite&os;s system, and found myself writing blandly to avoid flagging -- for ad-revenue-share pennies. In truth, I hardly ever enjoy reading Suite101 articles and usually avoid clicking on any that appear in search results.

Another comparison: Demand Media Studios (that Panda barely scratched), where I have only written a handful of Lists, Fact Sheets and How-tos to give the site a whirl, is very picky about hiring, spells out and catalogs all rules, regulations, guidelines and procedures clearly and tidily, and posts change notifications promptly and prominently. But whenever I visit the forum there (just to see what&os;s what) I&os;m surprised to read how often their system fails to function as planned and generates extra hassles instead. Maybe it&os;s not so often, though, considered percentage-wise, given the huge number of writers working there, many earning a full-time living through DMS.

Human wrought Squidoo lenses and HubPage hubs engage and entertain me most, and more often than not. But suddenly, Squidoo has changed for me, from fun to frightening -- monsters, trophies and all.

Yesterday, I updated over ten lenses -- my favorite among those is Crystals and Rocks.

Shamanic carnival, mardi gras and ash wednesday within

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:44 GMT

To experience this transitional season without ingrained religion, putting aside all authorities' permissions or forbiddings: I shamanic journeyed from the northeast corner of the sanctuary, lying among the rock circle, labyrinth-life-tree and all-mothers-all-children shrines into a dream that reached before and beyond all traditions I grew up with or studied since.

But I woke up tumbling within a carnival-mardi-gras kaleidoscope. I experienced a kaleido-scape that tumbled me from element through rainbow to archetype and back and around, until I fell into ashes!

I had taken a big bag of prayer-requests along for the ride.

I entered shamanic consciousness through swaying back and forth and humming, then spinning and singing in place to the background sounds of ocean waves and city noises -- until I found myself dropping to my knees then falling forward. After that I reclined and covered my eyes with the back of my hand for the journey.

The non-ordinary kaleido-vehicle spun me through Tues-night on an inexplicable itinerary. It paused again and again, each while within a new, unique destination wrought of a dazzling array of colors, numbers, letters, geometries, glyphs, terrains and more, each arising solely for transforming one of the prayer purposes in my pouch for the better and dissolving as we feasted then farewelled and traveled again, onward, in a spiraling, coiling, clattering flurry.

One for one and one for all and all to ashes at last, the voyage refreshed by Wednesday's dawn.

Squid-do or don't?

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:57 GMT

Am I frustrated enough to rear up my drooping tentacles and delete my silly Squid-self despite my progress over more than three years?

Less drastically, I keep feeling tempted to hang-up my neighborhood SquidAngel-wings and disengage from the site until the fuss about cleaning up spammy lenses (ignited over Google&os;s "farmer" algorithm tweak) blows over.

Squidoo&os;s HQ has so far seemed to ignore my humble, SquidAngelic efforts to help out; TOS-violating junk lenses I dinged and/or reported are still holding strong weeks later.

But great lenses by "trusted" giant squids have been locked erroneously for days, I was dismayed to read on the Squidu.com forum, because those lensmasters didn&os;t realize their original content had been scraped and republished, triggering Squidoo&os;s newly tweaked clean-up filter.

I opine, no matter how much there is to do, amid scrambling to overcome surprise bonus obstacles, failing to double-check giants&os; lenses before disabling is inexcusable, because most of these squids have done lots of extra work for Squidoo for free in the process of achieving giant or giant 100 status, giving generously to the Squidoo cause of being the go-to website for Unique, Useful, Updated Human (UUUH!) content. Shutting down power-users&os; content first, instead of white-listing and pausing a couple moments to review for false positives generated by inhuman software, costs the site&os;s best participants even more time, energy and -- in many cases -- countable money.

This is unforgivable, I maintain.

I don&os;t know what to do about Squidoo. Probably, I&os;ll withdraw a ways and wait and see what, if anything, happens that affects me directly. Now I get around two cents to two bits to a few bucks per lens every month, so I hate to give up.

Anyway...Here I am shifting attention to what I can do to care for myself better and tweak how I spend my own earthly, universal energy and matter.

Now, forcing myself to switch topics:

A self-employed freelancing pal suggested this book and loaned me a copy, so I have added it to the top of my reading list. First I must finish two shamanic books I promised to review on the blogspot, long overdue for an update.

The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less by Peter Bowerman certainly looks promising and upbeat. Maybe I&os;ll re-prioritize.

OK -- great! I can recommend books through Amazon here on this blog using static html by uploading the picture for the link, an easy extra step.

I have been visualizing feeding myself better physically and spiritually. Professional sufficiency joins body and soul and keeps them living happily together.

My colleague the Tortoise Cat is well-fed and fit!

But, she is growing restless, increasingly impatient for snow-free outdoor strolls amid her favorite old cat-grass patches. Here is a picture of a resting Tortoise Cat.

Pagan Spirit Gathering, June 19-26, near Chicago IL

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:10 GMT

Greetings Wisconsin Pagans, I'm really excited that PSG (Pagan Spirit Gathering) will be just an hour and a half west of Chicago. It's the closest PSG has been

Squid-doubts or self-doubts?

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:08 GMT

Image by neurmadic aesthetic via Flickr

While I remain involved as a volunteer "SquidAngel" for the Transportation subtopic, I was planning to write my shamanic ebook on Squidoo lenses. But I am now reconsidering.

Re-reconsidering.

Though I make lenses for fun still, I have been shifting into earning mode gradually over the past several months. A high percentage of my lenses were opened as multi-media reference points to collect, all on one "cheat sheet" webpage: links and Wikipedia intros; updating news and blogs; the latest Amazon, eBay and CafePress products; and pics and vids, all around each of my favorite specific study topics and some broader categories.

In contrast, visits to SquidU remind me how seriously Squidoo can be taken.

Yesterday I read Squidoo-HQ phone conferenced with a group of invited top "...lensmasters responsible for the 500 lenses getting the most traffic on the site...about 250 people..." apparently meaning to emphasize that lenses should be UUU, that is "Unique, Useful, Updated" and show human curating.

All mine fit these guidelines. I was visualizing ambitious 2011 goals.

But, according to some who listened in and posted about it, the call also hinted at sudden lens shutdowns soon to come, perhaps as soon as two weeks from now, for other reasons I can&os;t make sense of (yet), such as selling using Amazon modules (which I thought was being encouraged since Squidoo is an affiliate and offers six different Amazon modules) or for CSS lens-tweaking, which I only do a little of, and that grudgingly, because so many highly ranked lenses have been embellished (and count the number of high-ranking, highly-liked, even purple-starred or LOTD-featured, how-to lenses about spicing up presentations using CSS style="tags" within html there are, so I&os;m confused).

I thought I grokked the gist of Squidoo&os;s do&os;s and don&os;ts and I was feeling confident I follow the rules.

Still, with only 159 lenses so far, I would find getting some or all shut down because of rapid rule changes a heavy blow.

Now, doubts are arising about the wisdom of spending so many hours Squidoo-ing, as much as I enjoy it (when I forget about visiting SquidU). I&os;m starting to wonder if continuing to use the Squidoo platform to organize increasing amounts of content is foolhardy, after all, though I like it lots and seem to be getting better at earning money there, slowly but steadily.

From visiting the forum more often I&os;ve learned how much the top Squids do to promote their lenses and what SEO they use, occasionally picking up useful, instructive links. Yet I find this helpful stuff after scanning post after post about how much one or another Squid dislikes certain types of lenses and opines this or that type of lens must be making Squidoo look bad.

After I can&os;t stand to read more on that note, I click away, imagining one or a few new neighborhood SquidAngels might have "dinged" lenses of mine lately (the opposite of blessing). Since the new SquidAngels program launched in February, I rarely see a blessing on my activity page.

On a more pleasant note: I was ecstatic to discover two of my nominations for Squidoo Lens-of-the-Day were picked recently -- one yesterday, one last week.

Besides updating more than half of my lenses, I opened Air-Travel-Tips and Travel-Tips-FAQ this week.

I have given up all hope that any of my lenses ever will be picked for LOTD or purple star honors, and it&os;s a relief.

Milwaukee Ostara Festival, March 27 2011

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:04 GMT

Hi all, I wanted to forward along this invite to the Milwaukee Ostara festival coming up March 27th. This is a great opportunity to connect to local Pagans,

Squidoo's levels, points and trophies - worth playing for, or not?

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:24 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Squidoo-Plus is fun for me, that&os;s for sure, but what does this have to do with profitability?

When Squidoo transformed into a game last September, my participation zoomed, I interacted with other lensmasters logarithmically more, but my earnings improved only a bit. The slight increases appear to be caused indirectly by the new system, because I started opening more lenses faster and receiving "Thank-you!" traffic from other members amid interacting on quests and, later on, blessing lenses as a SquidAngel.

But the amusements have distracted me from off-site traffic-generating promotion -- still the key to earning significant amounts.

The tag-tweaking I started doing as I re-publish the oldest lenses every day has helped. But getting found within Squidoo seems to require short, general tags, while Net-wide, a few to several carefully researched keyword phrases work best.

Since 40 tags are allowed, I am doing what I can to fix my pages gradually, using between 20 and 35 oft lensed single words like "motivation" or "plant" (relevant to the content) for Squidoo-search, allowing the remaining several to be "orphans" (not associated with other lenses), such as "webcam photography" and "visualizing goals" to attract Net-wide search.

For backlinking on purpose, I am re-considering HubPages.

When it comes to link-building, I still drag and procrastinate.

My biggest mistakes in freelance writing, overall: Many topics I write about are unpopular search-wise, and I don&os;t write enough (as me). This year I began focusing on turning around these tendencies.

ShamanicAlchemy@yahoogroups.com

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 18:39 GMT

ShamanicAlchemy@yahoogroups.com I was enlighten to a way a life I never knew existed I can now take my children where ever they so desire click here to find

Look -- This SquidAngel has rows of trophies, but...

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 03:50 GMT

No Lens of the Day or Purple Star to show yet! Still, I&os;m still a happy Squid.

Though I include photos on all my lenses and several are LOTD-worthy already (IMO), I know I need to add more imagery to my best examples for any to reach Purple Star-dom.

Reviewing even more lenses these days as a SquidAngel, I am picking up ideas and inspiration for improving my lenses. Frequent favorable comments encourage!

One of my goals is opening 300 lenses by the end of June.

Paying attention to tags and picking more popular topics will help, too.

I stay active on Squidoo mainly because I like to read lenses, besides crafting them. Also, I have so far experienced it as a community that fosters friendly generosity.

The monsters and trophies are making participating even more fun for me, though I don&os;t usually like playing games.

Last year I started making lenses for others is a venture, taking it slow, informally "beta testing" the service with select clients while gradually researching the market. Soon, I expect, I shall start advertising.

Every week I scan the similar site HubPages and enjoy several interesting reads, so it puzzles me that I haven&os;t been able to get myself to write more hubs. Maybe it is because my schedule is full enough these days.

January has been a goof-off month for me for years, but now February -- usually my kick-off month -- seems to be flying by!

Shamanic time-flexing through a greener clock

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 05:15 GMT

Image via WikipediaAs a non-scientific, experiential experiment:

I have been shamanic-journeying through the Circa-Med clock as a glyph-portal-vehicle whenever a prayer intention links to time, season or history.

One of the tool's inventors, my "new old" Net-friend Yale Landsberg, introduced it to me recently. GreenTyme's project is, so far, the only listing in the Net-friends section of the sidebar, because Bloggersmosaic is still in flux and I am still seeking more Web-pals with unusual, fascinating notions or programs (relevant to shamanism) to add.

[Being listed means I like whatever it is, though maybe for my own weird or otherwise individualist(ic) reasons that are, most likely, aside from the owners' purposes. So I'm not endorsing anything; the most the listing implies is "I'm finding these folks honorable so far, and what they are up to might be worth a look or a whirl."]

When I enter shamanic consciousness through gazing at this clock in (sped-up) meditation mode and imagine myself entering the non-ordinary realms by opening some feature of it down, up or outward (for upper, lower or middle worlds), I do, so far, seem to find it easier-than-usual to venture my spiritual way to the moment or while of the season or history I have set out to visit and prayer-shift for the better. Of course, every voyage into the unmeasurable multi-world of spirit is different, so my reporting is purely subjective.

Back in the ordinary world, scientists are studying biological clocks empirically and linking many ailments to body-time disruptions.

Probably, clocks are keys to health and improvement on every level of life. In art-play, another method of shamanizing, I notice clocks naturally correspond to compasses and mandalas.

My friend Yale hopes the GreenTyme team will prove (eventually, scientifically) the Circa-Med helps induce "chronic health" for modern-day folks trapped long hours in windowless rooms, who may be losing awareness of natural (green) time while living by practical, mechanical periods.

For me, so far, this pretty, singing clock is a fun toy I'm playing with and a new shamanic method I'm giving a spin.

Next I will explore whether this through-the-clock mode of shamanistic soul-travel might help me generate more beneficial synchronous happenings around my world.

More easy shamanic sessions

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:32 GMT

What works best at Shamanic Shift Center these days:

In addition to simply being here, aware and relaxed amid the minerals, plants, symbols and critters (the Tortoise Cat and her pals) -- what I call the easiest intervention -- shamanic talk therapy works extraordinarily well.

This practice differs from psychotherapeutic talk therapies by emphasizing (overwhelmingly) the purposeful, re-creative retelling of traumatic or troubling life-stories (events, periods and situations in personal history) in the presence of spirit and spirits. In this method belief is optional -- pretending on purpose is powerful and effective.

Another shifting technique is enthusiastic talking up of three (or more) interrelated better potential possibilities to activate and live (from now on).

Transformational talking can be tricky. Acceptance flows into new healing and shifting stories, but denial distresses and depresses. Dwelling in the past just long enough to "grok it" (for want of a better term), but not a moment more (in any one session) is key.

Shamanic journeying and other ways of connecting with spirit and spirits through trance, art and ritual (steering clear of definitions and analysis) that help unfold this process are happening between sessions as often as during.

I notice more and more of my shamanizing for and around the many diverse intentions brought and sent here is happening before and after any phone or in-person consultations.

Also, I am experimenting, still:

I have been journeying and dreaming with the Circa-Med multi-clock I blogged about recently as a trance-enhancing vehicle-glyph. I have linked this tool up on the sidebar under Net Friends while this play and fun continues.

I will blog my first anecdotes about these experiences soon.

Other sidebar weirdness:

Bloggersmosaic is gone from that too-short list, temporarily I hope, because the website is down for a total re-design, the project's CEO @Amous informs me. We shall see what happens with it in three to five days.

The Net Friends section is there to highlight projects I and/or Shamanic Shift Center/Companions Circle participate in somehow.

Maybe the "list" will grow soon -- into a real list (of at least three items). I am seeking other interesting internet pals. A listing does NOT endorse -- just suggest, "OK, these seem like honest, honorable, fun folks, so have a look if anything sparks your curiosity!"

Creating my "no matter what" office environment

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:15 GMT

Researching generators of white noises and nature sounds to mask the din from the massage therapist&os;s operation upstairs, I have concluded CDs of environmental sounds played on inexpensive boom-boxes situated strategically under the noisiest spots are a better value.

If I had an iPod I could use an inexpensive iPod-dock, instead or also.

A complex sound-wave cancelling system is out of my price-range this year.

But I bought a year&os;s subscription to Pandora (for $36) to complement the boom-boxes (that, thriftily, I found by the dumpster) because a while ago someone donated set of speakers for the laptop that were sitting unused. So now I can play non-stop ambient music next to the natural soundscapes, mixing and matching.

The disharmonious din of clunking, banging and rolling that vibrates through the resonant hardwood ceiling in this historic Queen Anne Victorian building, hour by hour, six to twelve hours per day, six days a week (sometimes all seven), becomes concussive to body, mind and soul after a while. Wheeled equipment being shoved around and bumped suddenly into furniture, walls and radiators unavoidably causes the cacophony.

Any sustained sound helps blend out all but the loudest of these astounding shocks, but the too-short sound-loops on many affordable sound-generators only cause a rival (arguably worse) disturbance.

A minority of reviewers of most the better quality sound machines I looked over on Amazon mentioned various functional problems. Some reported noticeable loops and extraneous sounds even when the product description claimed those canned environments were captured in the wilds.

I will soon open (and link up here) a Squidoo lens about the CDs I can recommend for this purpose, so far.

Stand by. I will link to it on the sidebar, too, and include other resources that may help others in this silly situation.

Updated 1/20: Relaxing Nature Sounds is the new lens!

Reviewing William Bengston's "Energy Cure"

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 06:11 GMT

By Jo Guldi/Joguldi on Flickr.com

I may go ahead and begin calling myself a skeptic, so spiritual enthusiasts among my readers can go ahead and unfollow me.

After weeks of considering The Energy Cure by William Bengston, Ph.D, I must report I find it engaging, but no more scientific in approach than any other book -- of the MANY -- I have read about "energy" or "vibrational" healing. And I disagree with the subtitle that states the book is "unraveling the mystery of hands-on healing" at last.

Disclosing that I was provided a (free) review-copy, I wish I could recommend it more highly!

Bengston, a sociology professor, does go into intricate detail describing his efforts to study energy healing scientifically. But, as he narrates, he indicates the protocols were not followed or the experiments were terminated prematurely or data were contaminated or lost. So his coverage is, as I understand it, just as anecdotal as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) accounts usually are.

His set-ups may be useful as examples of how-to (or not-to), for others working along similar lines.

As I read I found myself wondering: Is Bengston embracing science, even as a maverick-loner, or, rather, cleverly claiming this stand as a raconteur's artful twist, to draw readers into some rather tall (and pretty entertaining) tales in later pages? Anyway, I did not find any formal experimental, or even much formal empirical, evidence that reveals measurable processes behind energy-healing successes in his account.

But because non-ordinary means "unmeasurable" by objective standards, and energy-healing is a CAM that happens in non-ordinary realms (the mysterious yet central source of the ordinary, according to those who live in faith and hope or as imagination and art), anecdotal evidence for it, considered the weakest kind for scientific purposes, is the proper kind to get, really, I opine. So, I enjoyed reading The Energy Cure as another teaching story about hands-on healing.

Also, I appreciated Bengston's how-to sections. Amazingly, he claims close to 100 percent success in practice, so why not give his methods a whirl?

New Year's Day 2011 Notes

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:30 GMT

Squidoo glitches: Squidoo&os;s new topic scheme does not match with many of my lenses. Worse, the "My Lense" module I use to build themed lensographies is not working at all for me with the new topics since the changeover, though it does function so-so when I imput "Any topic" plus a tag, and that is how I usually use it (fortunately) . I know this will be fixed soon, and such curves get thrown often on the Net.

The upside: By updating all at once on the dashboard, I received 500 points and all my lenses suddenly showed a 12/30 or later "last published" date. So, I am all caught up suddenly, for the New Year -- though none of my lenses had been published since mid-December anyway.

Back to bugs: Yesterday and today, annoyingly, the Squidoo dashboard over and over again invites me to re-categorize lenses I already switched to the new topic scheme. I have submitted reports, of course.

Camera testing: I began playing with the new Fujifilm FinePix J40 (donated by JMM). The rock-garden pic above is one of the first. Tortoise Cat helped me snap a second batch.

Cloud life begins: I&os;m uploading then deleting from now on!

Tortoise Cat: My colleague is comfortable preoccupying herself with cat-naps and winged dreams.

Meeting a new old friend under the invisible sun

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:20 GMT

I took a call while I was shopping for gifts for a family's celebration of these ongoing winter festivities. I do not usually answer my phone amid a hubbub, but now and then I am stirred by the spirits of the moment to click the green button.

So I met Yale, who was inquiring about my Wisdomology quote expansion on Sir Thomas Brown's words:

"Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us."

A search around "invisible sun" had juxtaposed my exposition and his GreenTyme Project for restoring chronic health by giving folks a way to show "natural time" to their inner children and brains more easily, more often.

These darker days, even the visible sun shows only the briefest, tiniest patch in the Tortoise Cat's play space near our back door.

Ironically, I am some sort of biological-clock mutant who is immune to circadian rhythm disruptions. I can always sleep for short or long periods when tired or sleepy, whenever and wherever, without suffering stresses. I have never experienced jet-lag or upsets from fluctuating work shifts.

Yet, as Yale described his clock that tracks the visible and invisible sun and moon, I began to visualize a delightful online meditation tool and was eager to see it.

Well here it is -- the Circa-Med Clock on the Net for you to see and play with yourself, in SunTyme mode! (Download versions include MoonTyme modes.)

I will be studying the material on the GreenTyme website more while I experiment with this fun, charming, cheer-inducing toy during shamanic experiences. While my tests cannot be scientific, I expect have stories to blog later, about whatever happens while I meditate with -- or through -- this alluring chrono-glyph.

Winter shamanic shifting in the dreaming stages

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:22 GMT

Standing or hanging above the snowy winter garden, frozen dry stalks and branches transform into a vision of gold and silver trees!

Doors and windows to unknown possibilities show, but do not open yet.

This is the advent season: New lightenings, godsends and gifts will appear in this world in just days, with the sparks of the next adventuring season. Restfully aware, I shamanic shift in my dreams.

Plan changes are in the winds.

Reconsidering Bukisa after the site's revamp, revenue changes

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:46 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

I signed on at Bukisa last year, but experienced many glitches even setting up my profile and decided to put-off contributing.

Today I received an email announcing the site&os;s total overhaul and impending switch to the Google AdSence API for payments. When the changeover is complete in about a month, writers will earn 60% of the Adsense revenue from their content, through their own Google accounts.

The website appears transformed and more functional now. Published content lists were not showing on profiles or in RSS earlier today, but this is due to a soon-to-be-fixed glitch in the latest version, I learned by exchanging tweets.

I encountered no difficulty integrating my Google Adsense account.

The site&os;s blog explains the reason for abandoning the original Bukisa index payment scheme.

Certainly this venture is worth another look as a revenue share gig.

The new How-To template might provide a hassle-free eHow alternative and draw me in for that type of article, especially when a fully-loaded Squidoo lens seems too much.

Researching for this post, I noted Bukisa articles about Medicare changes, physical changes from old age and Ayers&os; Rock color changes showing at the top of Google&os;s results for "Bukisa changes" -- meaning the site&os;s content must be getting significant search engine attention.

Know-it-all colleague: To make money, write what you like to read!

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:46 GMT

He claims: If I wrote to the best of my abilities what I most liked to read, giving that my fullest possible attention and most concentrated effort, I would start make more than enough money to live on soon.

Perhaps. But I know I need "content production" to earn enough of a living to stay in the black today, though I can see myself transitioning away from that business plan over the course of a few years.

Today I am contemplating his suggestion, asking and answering this question: What do I choose to read on the Net, first and last?

Though I cannot cite the Wikipedia as a reference and have no desire to write for it, I read its entries on most topics I research, clicking over to the references and external resources. After that, when I read for fun, I am most often drawn to news, blogs and Squidoo lenses.

But if someone asks me to write for money about this or that specific keyword phrase, I can do it quickly. However, I never read articles like that, not even mine.

Meaning, for example, if links to eHow, Suite101 or eZinearticles appear in search results, I rarely click. But (I hasten to add) I make a point of reading and linking up pieces created for content sites by friends or colleagues.

News:

I read lots of news, so I need to pick one place to focus on writing news articles. Examiner.com?

Besides current events, science and technology, aviation is indeed a favorite news topic. But what I write for Examiner must be about or connected to MKE or another local airport or one of the airlines that serves Greater Milwaukee.

It does not pay for me to spend hours visiting the airport, because the long bus ride would take up most of any period I could devote to the project. I am barely hanging on as an Examiner and my pal makes a good point, that I need to begin really doing it, or quit.

Blogs:

I have this one -- for my musings and amusement -- and my shamanic blogspot. Next to news, I read blogs the most.

It might seem odd, but I can no longer bear to read blog posts about personal development, health and wellness, or body, mind and soul. Or complementary and alternative medicine. Or any spiritual and religious stuff.

After skimming, I link up the best of the least pseudo-scientific of those writings up on Squidoo lenses for others to appreciate.

I read eagerly and thoroughly several libertarian and survivalist blogs and many, diverse blogs and posts about nature, science, technology, history, biography, travel and transportation. And freelancing experiences and tips often hold my interest, especially blog posts about freelance writing.

Maybe I should switch to blogging about one of those categories.

Squidoo:

I must be hooked. After more than 130 lenses, so far, why is it still so hard for me to admit I would do well to begin taking it seriously as a potential income source?

Anyway...

Here I am sharing some recent pictures, as usual. Above is today&os;s first sticky snow over the rock garden and Japanese Knotweed near the back steps. Yesterday the scene looked like this:

Where is my colleague, the Tortoise Cat? She has appeared slightly blurry-eyed ever since the colder weather blew over us, perhaps from taking more, longer-than-usual, deeply dreamy, highly adventurous cat-naps.

Shaman Antics Distract & Release Consciousness

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 07:21 GMT

Shamans perform antics on multi-purpose, doing their bests to defy explanations!

Distractions entertain, awaken and loosen the grip of ailing prevailing patterns of matter, energy, space and time. Unexpected blossoms amid thorns show the next window in the wall.

We can allow ourselves to be drawn, for undefined whiles, into earthly yet heavenly mansions of many interconnecting multi-dimensional rooms, a vast, open-ended, non-ordinary territory of expanding realms of growing potentials and new possibilities. For me, this is best experienced, like a child would, as FUN and Mystery, though aspects of it can be studied and analyzed, by anyone who insists.

For everyone who joins in, amazing changes start happening from within, often seemingly instantly, but usually incrementally and gradually. Placebo effects, imagination, brainstorms, creativity, ingenuity, endorphins, immunodefences, chaos, serendipity and synchronicity (and, maybe, even some quantum weirdnesses along with classical atypicalities) rattle, drum, sing and dance wondrous shifts for the better into the world.

The shaman-antics can include any and many kinds of healing or consciousness-changing medicines, methods and techniques.

By the time (and in the places) successful shamanic actions have been concreted into dogmas and rituals and the original instigators have been institutionalized into prophets or priests, most followers are, again, searching for help or healing outside themselves, within authorities and their formulas, all ready, even eager, for new belief-systems to take hold. Eventually, the best (or most promising) of those organize into the next tradition or religion, alternative or mainstream (still shamanistic, perhaps, or not so much, depending on the complex action among many variables).

These days, the urge to explain, prove or debunk the ways of shamans through the scientific method seems irresistible to many folks. But, all too often, to me, this appears to turn into another childlike-fun spoiler.

I just began reading a review copy of William Bengston's "The Energy Cure, Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing" I OKed the publisher to send me, free of charge. Unraveling mystery is not a favorite activity of mine, but I expect the author presents some interesting, useful information I can blog about later.

The Garden's Message: Winter's Longer Dreaming Spells Deepen!

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:37 GMT

The garden at the end of our block was "put to bed" for the winter today.

The gardener left several patches of frozen, dried flower and pod stalks sticking up as points of interest. The hard freeze of the last two nights withered all remaining flowers and leaves, but the bright purple, violent and green Kales survive, still.

Tortoise Cat appeared amazed and dismayed by the new vast, clear expanses.

She rushed around, sniffing, until her paws got uncomfortably cold.

November walls, shadows, clouds, windows and doors distract

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:50 GMT

My world is looking like an amazing obstacle course lately, but I can use the exercise anyway.

The sun is vacationing in the south, letting shadows run wild over many stony walls in my life. But many windows and doors appear to be awaiting my actions.

Yes, I am still slow-poking my way through false starts amid the final stages of gearing up to pound out mass quantities of 300 to 500 word articles about worldly keywords for many (many!) minimal upfront payments at TheContentAuthority. After I clear out the latest backlog of assignments from local sources that are easy to grab, but do not offer a steady flow of work, I shall be underway for the winter.

By spring, I want to be ahead of this game, well on my way to saving money for a move to Woodland, California, with the surplus always on hand for traveling back and forth to visit the folks, as needed.

To be able to travel frequently, I need to earn more of my living online.

Can I also get myself to post at least twice a week on Examiner.com, Suite101 and my blogs so I can transition gradually away from upfront payments for anonymous writing?

Shortly after I reactivated my Suite101 account, the submission guidelines and rules changed; there is no more ten articles every three month quota and writers may use any voice. As long as it is that easy to keep my account open, I am pausing my participation, again, to research what I can publish there to attract significant numbers of page-views and ad-activity.

For clues I am studying the content of Suite101 writers in the top 1000 list for page-views, especially those with the smallest content libraries generating above average interest.

I am also paying attention to what I do read and bookmark for future reference. Perhaps surprisingly, next to none of it relates to "personal development" or "health and wellness" anymore. Science news articles and press-releases draw my attention most often, but appear to already cover adequately what needs to be written.

Suite101&os;s Writer&os;s Block tool just brought up "health food store online," along with several more search-engine-attractive keyword strings. The Idea Generator suggested another full page of phrases with better than average revenue potential, including "wind power industry."

Yet, consistently, I enjoy scanning Squidoo lenses on a wide range of topics. I like well-maintained lenses as one-stop-shop webpages with unrestricted link lists, auto-updating news, blogs, pics and vids, alongside related book and product suggestions, plus original blurbs or articles. I have been using Squidoo as an online filing system, but not taking it seriously otherwise. Hmm.

No matter what, the Tortoise Cat continues to insist, "Savor the remaining days of waning Cat-Grass Season, and keep pausing to sniff the longest lingering, dying flowers!"

Experience the nose-blurring aromas of Kale, still thriving in the chillier breezes!

Suddenly dusk arose, and fast fading metaphorical messages seemed to smolder unreadably over crow and tree shadows.

Autumnal Alchemy

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:15 GMT

Contemplating a sudden shower of autumn leaves, I wondered,

"What is the intention behind all these journeys?"

And heard:

A voice from the Burning Bush...

Autumn's dying, dead and voyaging leaves are vessels of life patterns and weaves spiraling into transformational middle-realm adventures. Those life stories were already uploaded into the branches and roots of their tree's lower and upper worlds, where dreaming recycles all experiences into next season's growth.

Then a voice from the Ginkgo agreed...

The colorful clutter of empty shells and decaying corpses that drift across life's paths so noticeably this darkening season are only the most minuscule, fractional sample of the myriad beings always tumbling into earthly, earthy niches, farther afield than they've ever flown or fallen, as all are finally accepted as primary matter for the most chaotic, radical and improbable shape-shifting alchemy possible.

Then I agreed...

Let the howling autumn gusts blow our dust to dust, because it is the weirdest puffs of this rejected stuff that sparkles into miracles, eventually!

Lame Halloween Tricks

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 04:09 GMT

The Tortoise Cat and I became aware of pre-Halloween (Saturday night party) revelers running in back, hurrying away from the rock-garden last night...well, during the early morning of Halloween, really. But, all they did was steal my broken patio chair, so I did not open my back door to shout after them, and relaxed again, awaiting further developments!

I do my best to foster re-creative funning.

But...!?

Halloween tricking must be another dying art. Nothing further transpired.

I was disappointed while I walked about attempting to snap crow pictures this morning, NOT to spot that green wreck of a chair on a single-story section of this building's roof...or upon one of the construction cranes nearby...or at least upon a neighbor's porch...or car.

Just removing a cheap, old, worn, tied-together chair that one can hardly successfully sit in that was about to be recycled, doesn't cut it as Halloween mischief, folks. But, perhaps, I am being too harsh...?

I could suppose, giving a bit of the benefit of my doubt, the chair was used as a prop for another, more exciting trick on a more appealing target that was completed later, elsewhere. Still, essential to proper tricking is displaying the finished product -- to ALL the trickees involved -- within an unlikely, ingeniously absurd, public displacement or other artful, crafty installation that could only have been juxtapositioned thusly, on purpose, for trickstering fun.

Tricks, especially Halloween tricks, must be distinguishable from sloppy, drunken, after-bar-closing goofing off, or plain and simple stealing...or mean, selfish or hateful acts, like revenge or vandalism.

Tricks are crucial to practicing shamanic ways, so I take a professional interest how Halloween trick-or-treating is going. It is, for me, a diagnostic reading.

Uh oh...I am afraid, Trickster is less and less respected.

Lame trick-or-treating is only one sign that trickster energy-flows are being suppressed, repressed and blocked, an unsustainable situation of imbalance and dis-ease. More serious troubles and horrible disasters are likelier to befall those who can least weather intense or extreme life-changing and life-threatening challenges, if Trickster's chaos-channeling antics are not soon given more than only token (or, worse, incompetent or corrupted) expressions.

Shamanizers of all persuasions can help the world today by performing proper, Trickster-worthy antics!

Anyway, my crow photos turned out only slightly better than earlier examples -- nothing to caw about -- but I added them to the album on my Neighborhood Crow "Squidpaws" lens.

I hope you visit and take a look. My efforts to improve shall continue!

P.S. That old duct-taped, plastic-tied, faded pea-green patio chair was booby-trapped...with BLESSINGS (as is everything I leave out)!

Almost too-bright moments thrill amid October windy, busy days

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:37 GMT

There is always time and space for an autumn garden stroll with my colleague, the Tortoise Cat!

I still blog irregularly and infrequently because I must write hundreds of articles for the up-front payments. It is great to be able to earn a living mostly over the internet. But, I write too slowly, still, especially about unfamiliar technical topics.

Keeping at it, no matter what, will bring relief by next spring, I expect. Learning about so many assorted topics is fun.

Like the autumn leaf piles neighbors have heaped up, these unfinished work piles will disappear in due course.

How do you repoint (not tuckpoint) an archangel?

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:28 GMT

Once-a-year a contractor fixes this red sandstone church, a prominent east side Milwaukee, Wisconsin landmark.

The masonry repair process happening now near this Archangel on the tower of Saint Paul&os;s Episcopal Church on our block appears to involve tuckpointing and repointing, if the Wikipedia articles are correct.

In the picture above, Ken Gammon of Holton Brothers, Inc., is a little lower than the angel, but he appears to be reaching for the trumpet (or whatever kind of musical instrument that is)!

Later, he had raised himself higher than the angel.

October shifts: Picturesque Messes and Freelance Clean-Up

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:59 GMT

So what is the freelancing business plan now? It&os;s almost all writing gigs these days. I have let gardening and other odd jobs go indefinitely, to focus on freelance writing.

My mess of tasks is clearing and the ball is rolling.

Shamanic Shift Center is still active, of course. But I&os;m not drumming for business, practicing almost as a solitary at the edges and fringes of many neighborhoods.

I am shifting into content production hyper-drive. For upfront payments, I&os;m revving up my activity at TheContentAuthority (TCA) and claiming an occasional assignment at Demand Media Studios (DMS).

TCA has a simple setup and its administrators are easily accessible and unusually helpful. DMS keeps adding features and perks, and I have no complaints, but searching for appropriate, hassle-free titles gets tricky and time consuming there. I am humbled by the information that many write 20 to 200 or more DMS articles a month .

For performance pay, Suite101 and Examiner are my next priority.

I will continued to update this blog, the shamanic blog, the Tortoise Cat&os;s blog and Twitter, and ShamanicShift&os;s FB and Twitter as often as possible.

Squidoo lenses are my research file system that I update as I browse, so I shall keep expanding my lens collection.

Also, I am considering writing the shamanic ebook in lenses.

On hold, just in case: Digital Journal and Hub Pages.

Let go permanently: Science 2.0 -- I like that website and the members, and I held high hopes for the Freelance Wondering blog for a while. But, it doesn&os;t pay enough for me to be able to afford to do it justice.

The Tortoise Cat is tugging me outside more than ever for neighborhood strolls and photo sessions.

Blogging Shamanic Shifting

Celebrating as many winter holidays and festivities as possible while dreaming deeply

Living 'neon signs' energized my wondering...

Secret rock garden in India inspires and encourages

Rock garden shifting and miscellaneous musing

ShamanicShift's Contact Portal

Next adventures of the Blue Plastic Goat

This blog is moving...but WHERE? Wherever, updating would help...

Shamanic flight: shifting out of sight

Long-term project: Assignments for unquestionably worth-it Web content

The abrupt, mysterious departure of the Blue Plastic Goat

Feline Shamanic Experience - Trespassing 'Raccowlly Dog'

Writing is fun; shaman-stuff, not so much

Relieved I woke up from dreaming I was a Squid

Shamanic circle loose enough to shift infinitely

Shamanic ends of the world

The Content Authority &amp; Digital Journal Win - For Now

Shamanic heresies, just in case

Shamanic entertainment purposes

Miscellaneous freelance musings

Rocky shamanic road: regions of crystal clarity and cracked cloudiness

Content farms? Maybe some are factories -- or gardens!

My shamanic calling wasn't crystal-clear

Rocks fund raising -- fun and amazing!

HourTyme fundraising for GreenTyme's circadian confusion shifting project

HubPages vs. Squidoo, facing the Panda &quot;attack&quot;

Shamanic carnival, mardi gras and ash wednesday within

Squid-do or don&apos;t?

Pagan Spirit Gathering, June 19-26, near Chicago IL

Squid-doubts or self-doubts?

Milwaukee Ostara Festival, March 27 2011

Squidoo&apos;s levels, points and trophies - worth playing for, or not?

ShamanicAlchemy@yahoogroups.com

Look -- This SquidAngel has rows of trophies, but...

Shamanic time-flexing through a greener clock

More easy shamanic sessions

Creating my &quot;no matter what&quot; office environment

Reviewing William Bengston's "Energy Cure"

New Year&apos;s Day 2011 Notes

Meeting a new old friend under the invisible sun

Winter shamanic shifting in the dreaming stages

Reconsidering Bukisa after the site&apos;s revamp, revenue changes

Know-it-all colleague: To make money, write what you like to read!

Shaman Antics Distract & Release Consciousness

The Garden&apos;s Message: Winter&apos;s Longer Dreaming Spells Deepen!

November walls, shadows, clouds, windows and doors distract

Autumnal Alchemy

Lame Halloween Tricks

Almost too-bright moments thrill amid October windy, busy days

How do you repoint (not tuckpoint) an archangel?

October shifts: Picturesque Messes and Freelance Clean-Up

The Content Authority & Digital Journal Win - For Now

HubPages vs. Squidoo, facing the Panda "attack"

Squid-do or don't?

Squidoo's levels, points and trophies - worth playing for, or not?

Creating my "no matter what" office environment

New Year's Day 2011 Notes

Reconsidering Bukisa after the site's revamp, revenue changes

The Garden's Message: Winter's Longer Dreaming Spells Deepen!