Blogging Shamanic Shifting

Shamanic Moon dreams all February

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:10 GMT

Maybe the freeze and thaw cycles of February have churned up more frequent Moon dreams for me. I have visioning Moon crystals, too.

February is the only month that can pass without a Full Moon, but this year Earth's Moon will bid a full good-bye to February on the month's final day. Like every month, February always has Dark Moon moments and there is always the Moon's far-side (or "other side") to consider.

The February 1 announcement that NASA's Constellation project (to return earthlings to the Moon) has been shelved in a drastic direction change to funding private companies to develop space travel (and space tourism) instead, might be stirring up my recent Moon journeying dreams as much as the weather.

Shamans can connect with any phase that the beings, places or flows of the present moment happen to be shifting through. Our Moon's dark, little-known and unseen regions may be shamanic journeyed or dreamed to, as well as the brighter, better known areas. Loopholes and pathways to unimagined possibilities can be conjured amid any current circumstances.

February is also Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, and National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated with pink ribbons (a color vibration of wonder because it may not exsist). Saint Agatha of Sicily, whose breasts were chopped off during torture sessions (and healed later, by an apparition of Saint Peter) is celebrated on February 5 in many in Christian denominations that follow the western spiritual calendar.

With the souls of saints, activists and researchers who have traveled ahead in spirit, I shall continue my shamanic Moon adventures all month. In my dreams, I shall seek awareness adjustments, healing medicines and surprises hidden in pink rocks.

Have you ever touched Moon rock or Moon meteorite?

Hunting and dancing with shadows on Groundhog Day

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:40 GMT

Image by Barbara L. Hanson via Flickr

Reveling in the present happy holiday synergy of Imbolc, Candlemas (also known as the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple) and Groundhog Day, I lit candles amid clouds and sought the wisdom of dancing shadows. This afternoon my colleague the Tortoise Cat and I saw no signs of our shadows outdoors.

A shamanic journey can head intentionally into the shadows of a life, event or situation, circling around and zeroing in on a period or theme, to shed light on any given present troubles. Shadows may frighten but they signal the undaunted liveliness of Spirit's lights, radiating a new now, re-creating this world's dreams and shapes from the ongoing collapse of open-ended fields of darkness.

Today, back indoors after sweeping snow from the back doorway, I shamanized by a simpler technique, in fun. I played, capered and spun with shadows amid candle lights, then lay down, relaxed on purpose and waited for wise messages and spiritual strength to arise in mind, heart and body.

My experience with ArticleIncome is no-go, so far

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:29 GMT

Image by ZeroOne via Flickr

I signed up for an ArticleIncome.com account on January 6, 2010 and received a notification that my "account is pending."

Then, since the account seemed frozen in pending status, I registered again using a friend&os;s computer and one of my alternative email addresses, just to rule out a glitch. But the same thing happened.

On February 1, I received an email at the first address, with the subject line "IMPORTANT: Regarding Your ArticleIncome Membership - Please Read," from "the new Customer Relations Manager" of ArticleIncome.com.

The email read:

"Hi Elizabeth,

This is an important announcement from ArticleIncome. (Which is why
you are receiving this email even if you specified that you don&os;t
want any newsletters from us.)

My name is Melissa Sencio and I&os;m the new Customer Relations Manager
at ArticleIncome.com. The site and program is now under new management
and hopefully in the coming months you will see a substantial
difference in the value you get out of your membership.

Over the past few weeks, the ArticleIncome Team has spent a lot of
time and energy combating unethical users who open duplicate accounts
to garner points and referral credit, to game the screening system,
and to get back into our system after having been banned.

We have decided that the best way to solve this ornery problem is to
revamp our entire submission and registraton system. Consequently,
ArticleIncome.com will be closing the site for NEW members only.

*Since you are a member nothing else will change other than the
submission policy as detailed below.

======================================================
New Policy - Unique Content Submission Only
======================================================
One major issue we are fighting against is the mass submission of
duplicate content. While currently we accept content that is legally
owned by the submitting member even if duplicate content, we&os;re
planning on limiting content submission to only UNIQUE content.

We feel that accepting higher quality, unique content will only
benefit our network of websites and therefore benefit you as a
member. Our main goal is to get traffic to these sites AND make sure
as many visitors see your articles as possible.

We need to ensure that the best quality content is published on our
sites. This will enable more quality traffic to be driven to your
articles and more money to be made.

We understand that submitting unique content may take longer and
more work. However, in the end your article will most likely receive
more traffic and ultimately more money.

======================================================
Highly Recommended Tool to Make Unique Content - Your Discount Link
======================================================
We would like to recommend a tool that can help you create unique
articles from your already created articles. It is an article
rewriter and spinner tool and it&os;s called "The Best Article Spinner".

This is the only tool we can recommend that produces high quality
unique articles from already written content. We&os;ve secured a
discount for you that is available only for a few days.

Please go here for your discount and to watch the video and see the
powerful features this software offers:

http://www.the-name-of-the-software-was-here.com

If you use this tool to rewrite your articles we&os;re sure you will
get more out of your ArticleIncome Membership."

But when I log in at ArticleIncome, the message is still, "Your account is pending" and I have no further access. Maybe this means my account approval is pending my purchase of the article spinning software ArticleIncome&os;s new management is pushing.

Insisting upon unique content is standard now. However, I cannot understand a website that states it pays for and sells "unique" articles, then peddles article-spinning software to its writers, up front.

Perhaps I am misconstruing this weirdness and my misunderstanding is spiraling out of context. I shall investigate further, if the opportunity arises for me to get to the bottom of the problem and give the place a chance (if my account ever gets activated).

Raising Energy in Ritual intensive, Chicago IL Feb. 6-7

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:26 GMT

Hi Southeastern Wisconsin folks, I apologize for not forwarding this along sooner. I know that a few folks from Milwaukee are planning to come down for this,

My Life123 experience begins

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:26 GMT

Image via CrunchBase

I published a first article on Life123, a content website that purports to be picky about writing quality. My latest quick sampling of articles on the site suggests otherwise.

But it is too soon to tell, because I have yet to return to see how quickly (or if) staff editors are removing the several articles I noticed that did not come close to meeting Life123&os;s editorial guidelines (with incorrect punctuation or misspellings). I skimmed many well written articles while I was browsing there, as well.

Life123 pays contributors up to $20 per article: $5 each for the first 50 and next 500 unique visitors and $10 for the next 500 unique visitors. Contributors may write articles on topics that fit Life123&os;s taxonomy or claim SEO-team-researched titles from a long list.

The Life123 community has four levels: Member, Contributor, Writer and Expert. Life123 encourages publishers at all levels to drive traffic to their own articles, though all are searchable by category and topic on the site.

My one (experimental) article, Choose a Fun Way to Fix Broken Healthy Habits, is up to 14 unique visitors, after minimal efforts to draw readers. (Besides this link, I have posted it only on Twitter and Facebook, so far).

Founded in 2008, Life123.com calls itself "the place to start when you need practical expertise—fast." It is a subsidiary of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), along with Mindspark.com, Ask.com, Citysearch, Evite, Match.com, ServiceMagic, Bloglines, Zwinky and Excite. Life123 boasts a long list of content partners.

ShamanicShift's Contact and News Portal

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:11 GMT

Greetings! This site is a contact form and shamanic and hypnosis news portal for ShamanicShift, a.k.a. The Rev. Elizabeth, a shamanic minister and consulting hypnotist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

To contact Elizabeth click the CONTACT tab above.

The other tabs lead to news and information about Elizabeth's ministerial, shamanic and hypnosis projects at Shamanic Shift Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Visit Elizabeth's Blogspot or ShamanicShift's FriendFeed to stay in touch.

Or, TWEET with Elizabeth as @ShamanicShift!

News:

Elizabeth is writing a shamanic teaching eBook, Your-Neighborhood-Shaman.net (in progress).

Freelance writing on any topic:

For information about Elizabeth's freelance writing, visit ECP Writes or use this other contact form.

There won't be new posts here, because this is a contact and news portal only.

Posted in Hello Tagged: Milwaukee Wisconsin, Shamanic Shift Center

Meteoric shamanic journey return

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:15 GMT

Image by Navicore via Flickr

After a deep sea shamanic encounter, a wild space ride:

I dream-dived two-and-one-half miles down into the Kairei Indian hydrothermal vent field in the central Indian Ocean to interview Crysomallon squamiferum the scaly-foot gastropod with the unique, extra-tough, three-layered shell. Scaly Foot is teaching materials scientists to build invincible armored suits and vehicles.

The iron-clad, cushion-padded snail's spirit presented me with an old, dented but whole, abandoned shell, whose original inhabitant had shapeshifted. This rare, simple gift represented psychological assistance for growing thicker skin and stronger courage, as well as soul wound healing and ongoing protection for all in my world who desire it.

After giving thanks and heading back, I found myself returning from the non-ordinary ocean floor to ordinary reality upon a spiritual meteoroid.

I wondered. What happens if a spirit-asteroid (or comet) collides with Earth?

In this dream-ride I sat upon a tremendous chunk of salt crystal. I could see ahead, somehow, that our course would graze the sun and glide by Earth.

As we coasted between Earth and the Moon, Albatross flew out to meet me and winged me the rest of the way home.

When I gazed up, I saw the meteor flash. The snail shell sparkled and gleamed in shades and tints of blue on the palm of my hand.

Shamanic flying and diving to deep sea, scaly-footed gastropodic dreams

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:41 GMT

Image by dimidam via Flickr

Human beings continue to learn exoskeleton technology from animal companions.

Today on DigitalJournal.com I reported research by MIT materials scientists on the scaly-foot snail, Crysomallon squamiferum, as a model for improving military armor.

Scaly-Foot's three-layered shell, unlike other natural or man-made exoskeletons, allows it to survive a crab's powerful, tenacious (possibly week-long) vise-like squeeze. Scaly-Foot diffuses the mechanical energy of Crab's grip into the ocean waves.

Living in deep, predator-filled, highly acidic waters near heat-blasting hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, Scaly-Foot has grown adept at dissipating the natural, ongoing energy-patterns of everyday challenges and expert at preserving what matters most.

Tonight I will shamanic journey to this extraordinary gastropod's wise spirit (within Spirit) seeking protective assistance for peaceful, life-improving or adventurous purposes to balance the combat applications. Albatross and Penguin will wing and dive me parts of the way.

Suite101 and Demand Studios: Two experiments end...No, they pause

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:06 GMT

In September, 2009, I applied eagerly for freelance writing gigs at Suite101 and Demand Studios. I was thrilled to be accepted by both almost immediately.

I sold several articles to DS and published two articles on Suite101.

It&os;s been a while since I have thought of claiming any titles at DS, although I am still an approved writer there. I am listed at DS under a pseudonym, because errors might get edited into articles once DS owns them. I might go back and grab a few jobs someday.

Who knows if I will suddenly need cash-flow and remember that DS pays up front (via PayPal) twice a week (as well as through revenue share assignments)? There is no minimum number of articles to turn in to stay on their list.

However, this week, with only two articles published on Suite101 after a generous deadline extension in effect, I requested that my contract (to publish at least ten articles every three months as a contributing writer) be terminated. I could not get comfortable at Suite101 and blocked up. I have not figured out why yet.

Suite101 and Demand Studios both are OK to great online writing gigs for many freelancers, but -- for reasons I may never trouble myself to understand -- I have been unable to get myself to produce a significant amount of content for either one of them.

Demand Studios

I became enthused over Demand Studios while perusing FreelanceWritingGigs, a site of freelance gig-inspirations that has partnered with DS.

After glimpsing the inside of DS, I found the detailed Wired article on DS definitive. Unlike many over at DS, I did not read this investigative review as derogatory and was surprised to discover it was received that way.

For favorable reports about DS from freelance writers, read on, here and here, where I was convinced to apply.

DS has been overhauling its system for years, but I arrived during an extra-tumultuous spell. The style guides were revised, then revised again. Twice, articles vanished when I attempted to save a draft.

On one occasion I was shocked to find an article submitted for review as I attempted to save the draft. That one was finished enough to be approved without a rewrite request.

In the DS forum I read scary stories about glitches, absurd and/or rejected re-write requests and unanswered appeals. I chose to let the couple of re-write requests I received lapse and publish those gems elsewhere. I had decided not to expend any more than one hour per piece, for those low but handy upfront payments.

The modest payments, from $3 (for 50 word tips) to $15.00 (for articles) were OK by me, as long as I stayed within the space-time boundaries I set. After all, freelance writing in meat space requires meetings, travel and other 3-D expenses, which cut into the higher rates I get, considerably.

Right before I backed away, DS began rolling out a new image gallery feature and requiring its use instead of uploads. From brand-newness it had too many bugs in it to be useful, but it must be working much better by now.

I have found the DS community to be highly helpful and supportive.

It was the bugs and glitches in the DS platform that drove me to call it quits for a while, though long-term DS writers were vouching in forum discussions that things would surely improve and get better than ever. I do believe them, so I will probably check back, later.

To be continued...

Image via CrunchBase

Suite101

What was it at Suite101 that turned me off?

The blogger whose Suite101 review put a notion in my brain to sign up seems to have gone inactive there as well.

"Turned off" applies only to my writing. I have nothing unfavorable to report about Suite101, nor have I been able to turn up many complaints through web searching.

I did find the Suite101 section and subsection tree a bit tangled and confused from overlapping. I was surprised – not pleasantly – to find that the subsection entitled Shamanism is listed under Mind & Soul > Paganism/Wicca at the discordianism subdomain.

Outdoor and Recreation, focused on activities, still overlaps with the destination focused Travel section. In the forum, many of the section editors have posted particular preferences or peeves, but the Travel editor&os;s list was the only simple, clearly titled, easy to remember example I had found before I took my leave. Her section specific guidelines encouraged and welcomed, and read like a pep talk.

The one copy editor who gave me feedback was nothing more or less than polite. Someone from the main editorial team answered my questions about policies and procedures within a day.

Also, Suite101 Admin informed me I can email a request to be reinstated if and when I hack through the block I was experiencing there.

Though I am not writing for Suite101 now, my articles, profile and membership remain. I continue to earn (Google Adsense) revenue sharing payments from them, though it will take quite a while to reach the $10.00 minimum payout, with so few articles.

While active on Suite101 I published only two articles: The Question of Shamanism Certification and The University of California-Davis Arboretum.

To be continued...

Starhawk in Milwaukee, March 1st 2010

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:29 GMT

Greetings all, I'm very pleased to announce that the Milwaukee Pagan community will be hosting Starhawk on March 1st. The Monday afternoon workshop might be a

Unusual request: How to cast with Swarovski crystals

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:10 GMT

Image by orsorama via Flickr

Casting or circling with the help of ornaments, accessories or miniatures?

As a neighborhood and universal shaman (written with a small "s") I tend to open circles to Spirit and Spirits rather than "cast" symbols and/or beings around in a protective or proscriptive pattern. The word cast brings many images up, besides the magical (prayer or meditation) actions of casting a spell or circle.

But intention is key when creating sacred space for shamanic journeying or placing crystals in divination or grounding any kind of inner change with outward, visible and tangible signs.

Focusing upon differences in terminology can illuminate unnoticed perspectives--or stop conversation. Anyway, I received an email asking how I would cast Swarovski crystal figurines in shamanizing. I wrote back, asking for clarification, but my email bounced back.

Swarovski is a company that produces precision-cut lead glass crystal. It was founded by Austrian glass cutter and jeweler Daniel Swarovski in in Wattens, Austria.

Certainly the bright figurines inherited by my mystery inquirer must embody patterns of paying close attention and working accurately and carefully on one chosen task at a time. Many cultural and singular shape and color meanings, perhaps new sets of correspondences for each person who gazes, must find room to inhabit each many-faceted piece.

I imagine this approach could ring true for any brand of crystal sculpture or bead. The crystal under consideration here is lead glass, which is denser and more refractive than ordinary glass, and not microscopically crystalline at all.

Lead crystal took on its name by resembling natural crystal. This suggests a successful synergy of nature and art, or nature and nurture.

Gemstone and semi-precious crystals, cut and carved, in agreement with their symmetry systems, would reflect their distinctive light-shifting attributes into any healing or transforming practice, just as well, and add the clear-cut virtues of their different sacred geometries to the spiritual reality-shift being sought.

Shamans can work with helping beings of all sorts, conditions and substances. Some of my favorites are plastic -- and scratched and dented.

For a shamanic journey -- the multipurpose practice I recommend most often -- I would arrange the crystal figures, according to the topic being shamanized, into a sacramental gateway to travel through into non-ordinary reality, via active imagining or stay-awake dreaming.

HubPages versus Squidoo, an experiment begins

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:46 GMT

Image via CrunchBase

Squidoo: I have been using Squidoo as a file system for online references and resources more than a publishing service. My experience, so far: I made Giant Squid status in September, 2009, with 75 lenses.

From all of these lenses I have earned only a couple to a few dollars per month.

The Squidoo community has been friendly and helpful to me and, as a Giant Squid, I receive improvement tips every day by email. Still, I remain unconvinced that time-consuming CSS and html lens tweaking will pay off.

Currently I am coasting on Squidoo while I flow energy toward other projects with more income potential.

I was constructing lenses for fun and future reference, anyway.

Ad-revenue at Squidoo is pooled and shared among lenses ranked higher than #85,000 with higher ranking lenses getting a bigger share. Commissions from modules are shared 50-50 and a limited number of one&os;s own affiliate links can be included (for 100 percent).

There is a complicated provision to receive a share from lensmasters who through an affiliate, and I haven&os;t tried to understand how that works..

Though Squidoo modules are supposed to be simple, the large, diverse array of them can slow, frustrate and daunt a newcomer to the platform. Many have quirks and glitches to work around.

Image via CrunchBase

HubPages: I published my first Hub today. The pub-tool at HubPages is much simpler than Squidoo&os;s, with fewer options, and no apparent way to tweak a hub with code.

Hubbers receive 60 percent of the ad revenue from their own Hubs via individual accounts with Google Adsense, Kontera, Amazon and eBay (for those who merit an eBay affiliate account).

Hubs seem like simplified Lenses to me. Squidoo has modules and HubPages has capsules but the concepts look alike to me.

I will publish more hubs and see how they perform, in fun as well as profit, compared to my lenses.

Neighborhood shamanism is universal

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:25 GMT

Image by (Bill and Mavis) - B&M Photography via Flickr

My unfinished business on the Net, 2009:

In March I began constructing a shamanic teaching website called Your-Neighborhood-Shaman.net, linked to Squidoo lenses. This project progresses, albeit slowly. My understanding keeps changing, so much of the content needs revision, already.

What I am calling neighborhood shamanism differs from all published traditional and contemporary interpretations of shamanic ways, including Core Shamanism and other (Michael) Harner-style approaches. But any single neighborhood shamanism may overlap one or more of the world's (diverse, individual or collective) shamanisms, and will interconnect with all of them, somehow.

In my dream, each neighborhood shamanism is specific to one shaman (preferably written with a small "s"), who may work in any field, under any title, who lives to bridge the non-ordinary and ordinary realms of reality within h/er closest community, for the benefit of self, neighborhood and all. All life purposes center around bridging spirit and matter to shift life towards the best.

Every neighborhood includes the subatomic to gigantic and the particular to collective--backwards and forwards through time and radiating through all directions of space.

S/he draws upon many sources, from any bailiwick.

S/he may be inspired by other shamanisms and encouraged by other shamans, locally and worldwide, though inward spiritual and outward physical teaching. Teaching is experiential, open-ended and ongoing.

I envision an unceasing, unbounded circle of circles, voluntarily and individualistically uniting all neighborhood shamans, of every when and where--mostly unknown, non-famous and unpublished--coiling and spiraling, weaving and manifesting an ever shapeshifting, world-helping Universal Shamanism.

More unfinished projects and unmet goals:

I have changed the purpose (and URL) of my LiveJournal blog, a permanent paid account which was inactive from August until now. As soon as I decide upon a look I like, this journal will be dedicated to freelance writing and freelance anything--my experiences and general information and resources--as well as to any topic I happen to be wondering over, researching or keeping for future reference.

Also I am still getting around to deleting or hiding unused web presences, fun experiments I initiated, but have abandoned, along my Net adventure. Any seldom-visited profiles, listserves and other websites that require updating to remain accurate or useful will disappear (or be forwarded to one of the "keepers") soon.

The goal is a short-list of several places where I post daily or weekly.

Freelance writing, my new purpose for this journal

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:41 GMT

Use this contact form to open a conversation about freelance writing.

My writings about shamanic experience, Shamanic Shift Center and related topics are posted on or linked from my blogspot, my shamanic Squidoo lenses or my ebook (in gradual progress) at Your-Neighborhood-Shaman.net.

Use this old contact form for messages about hypnosis consultations, ministerial services or my ever-shifting interpretation of contemporary shamanic ways.

I still collect shamanic links.

I have removed all entries I posted as LJ user "Shamantic!" (before December 22, 2009) because I am changing this journal&os;s purpose.

From now on this blog will be about my freelance writing, freelance writing as a profession and freelancing in general. I may blog information and links for topics I am pondering, researching or keeping for future reference here also.

I am still looking for a look and layout I like.

If you arrived here from a profile link, stand by. More content will appear soon.

Rediscovery Review of the Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:01 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Here's a book to add to a healing library:

While whiling away several hours at the home of a relative earlier this week, I noticed an old, water damaged copy of THE GREEN PHARMACY by American botanist James A. Duke, PhD on the coffee table and began an engrossing, self-educational re-read. Now I am about to buy an updated version of the book, because I found too much useful information to remember -- hundreds of remedies and dozens of recipes, craftily laced with stories.

James A. Duke is an expert on botanical medicine. He developed the USDA's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases and has studied healing foods, herbalism and plant spirit medicine with natural, folk and shamanistic healers worldwide for many decades.

Generous introductory chapters cover safety and how-to grow, forage and buy healing herbs, defined by Duke as any healing or ailment preventing food. Most of the book is organized around an alphabetic listing of health troubles, but it reads like novel.

Duke repeats pertinent information each time an herb is recommended, but the informal, anecdotal narrative flows smoothly around these helpful redundancies. I skipped around, flipping backwards and forwards as questions arose. The book ends with an entertaining yet still instructive autobiographical postscript.

Perusing the older edition, I did find myself lamenting the lack of any specific citations of published studies to go with Duke's brief allusions to scientific research supporting or discouraging the use of particular herbs. I don't know if the newer version adds any of these references. An appendix for these, as well as a table, organized alphabetically by herb names would be a useful enhancements.

Shamanic view of the differences between Super Foods & Healing Foods

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:01 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

What are the differences between Super Foods and Healing Foods?

From a complementary and alternative medicine perspective, Super Foods (often called Superfoods) are recommended for almost everyone as preventative medicine. Eating Superfoods often is thought or theorized to ward off many diseases at once and even slow aging processes.

Super Foods help promote health and wellness in general.

Healing Foods may also be Superfoods and vice versa -- the two categories overlap often.

But herbalists and other complementary and alternative health (and folk medicine) practitioners, as well as some medical doctors, may recommend specific herbs, vegetables and fruits (and potentially any food) as healing foods, to help treat or prevent specific ailments or conditions.

As a neighborhood and internet shamanic practitioner, often I request from spirit and spirits an inclusive list of Superfoods and Healing Foods. However this is done on a case by case basis, treating each request as unique to the space-time-spirit situation (here/now moment) at hand.

I journey or dream on a particular intention, to receive a long list of foods that are preventative and beneficial in general, for an individual's shift towards healthier diet choices, and for a shorter list of edible interventions, just for h/er relief from specific health troubles.

This food shamanizing usually happens after an initial shamanic journey or dream has shown me what kinds of further help from spirit and spirits to seek.

Both food lists almost always expand into a third category that I will call "shamanic foods" (though I do not mean to generate another technical term or enduring bit of jargon).

Shamanic foods, for me, are (health and wellness promoting) Superfoods and Healing Foods (specific natural remedies) given by spirit and spirits especially for -- and perhaps, at lest temporarily, only for -- the individual and intention that is appearing before me, requesting assistance.

Shamanic foods and the instructions for their use might or might not follow -- or might include but expand upon -- other guidelines published by alternative and complementary or folk or standard medical model healers.

The shamanic foods on the lists I receive are almost always found or grown locally.

Often the consuming of shamanic foods (which may also be Superfoods and/or Healing Foods) is sacramental -- a tangible, outer, ordinary-realty grounding of invisible, inner, non-ordinary blessing and spiritual healing effects.

Circles and loopholes -- and major shifts -- can happen!

Shamanic food remedies begin as interventions for one here/now situation.

However, if I later shamanic journey or dream over a situation that appears similar to me, and feel moved to ask of spirit and spirits, "Can you help this trouble the way you helped with so-and-so's problem before?" I might receive an OK to use the same shamanic food again, and even start using it as a shamanic intervention to offer to others before dreaming or journeying for specifics.

This is true for me for all shamanic interventions.

Also, I have been spiritually counseled that when two or three (or more) companions gather (becoming "the circle") and invoke any remedy from spirit and spirits that they can remember, through any method of prayer and meditation, it will be effective.

I understand that this works because the universe operates according to (and as) the formula of two and three (or more) agreeing as and becoming one.

Effectiveness always varies according to the free-will, attitudes and life-vibrations of all involved, from the least to greatest, in all realms of reality.

So all levels of minuscule to humongous and subtle to obvious shifts happen on earth and in heavens (and between) -- some of each -- in an instant, a year, a decade or a century or longer.

I have also been been told, that even if the gut, heart and mind (and soul) of a single individual agrees over a matter of concern, this universal formula activates a cosmic loophole.

So the potential and possibilities of any situation (and all beings beings within it, according to their free-will and living vibes) can expand, through spiritual circle-action, beyond the limits of all categories and lists.

Open ritual, Milwaukee

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00 GMT

Hi all, Just wanted to remind folks that tomorrow's ritual is open. We'll be open at about 6:30 pm for potluck dinner. Thanks all! -shauna *Tending the Clan

Re: File - Welcome to Shamanic Alchemy

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:05 GMT

Hi all, I realized I never posted an intro. My name is Shauna, and I was raised by my hippie parents in Grafton/Cedarburg area north of Milwaukee. My parents

Leadership & Community Building workshop, Nov. 14-15, Milwaukee

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:55 GMT

Greetings all, We're expecting about 20 people at this weekend's class and there's room for more. Some folks have asked me if you have to attend the whole

Shamanic, symbolic meaning of crystal glasses and glass

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:18 GMT

Image by Rich Anderson via

Throughout summer and now, into this autumn, I have collected shards of pottery and glass to arrange within the rock garden I began keeping last spring, outside the back door.

Clear, green, and brown bits of glass are the easiest to find. Blue, red and pink are rarer treasures.

Interpretations of color meanings are easy to find on the Net. I like to add "in the moment" meanings, as I am guided by spirit and spirits.

The tiniest fragments, including the sparkly jewels of car window safety glass, intermingle with red and black chunks of lava. I place larger glass chips sharp-side down, well out of the way of paws and feet, on either side of a meeting place for fancy, multicolored river stones and plainer gray to pale limestone and agate street-found rocks.

Broken or shattered containers remind me of alchemical processes finishing up and releasing new energy flows and patterns into the universe. Next, I remember and wonder over the Big Bang (or Bounce or Shift) itself.

Also, I am attracted to brokenness for the openness it brings--and for the damage to any pretense of perfection it assures.

Yesterday, another kind of broken glass presented itself. I found broken green, purple and clear lead crystal goblets scattered around a dumpster!

Cups have always carried deep meanings. Again, the shattering of them is usually creative and re-creative.

I am keeping these sharp, intensely scintillating splinters hidden within a covered baking pot in the sanctuary, while I shamanic journey and dream on their mythic or symbolic meanings.

I shall reflect a while, then wait and watch for clear or refracted messages to shine or glint.

Shamanic and other uses of Yellow Root

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:49 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

I shamanic journeyed to a plant I had met in a dream, who was introduced by the name Yellow Root.

What healing help can Yellow Root give?

Yellow Root is part of the Buttercup Family and has, according to Drugs.com (and clinically speaking) no proven effectiveness in treating any ailments. Taking Yellow Root internally during pregnancy is even cautioned against because one of its active components, the alkaloid berberine, might stimulate uterine activity.

In folk medicine 2g of the Yellow Root rhizome is made into a tonic or antibiotic and immunostimulant medicine for mouth and throat infections. It is used frequently to remedy childbirth and uterine troubles--when contractions were desired--and given as a sedative, hypotensive and choleretic. Sometimes Yellow Root was used to treat diabetes.

But Yellow Root is another name for Goldenseal--which contains berberine also, and is used by herbalists to treat most of the same conditions and more.

The Yellow Root I met was the low-growing subshrub with purple flowers, going by the scientific name of Xanthorhiza simplicissima and growing along shady riverbanks. Yellow Root's namesake yellow roots can be chewed for tonic effect but are usually boiled into a strong, bitter tea then sweetened with honey.

The spirit of this Yellow Root had grown across my life and this dream to help me heal and transform several strong, bitter childhood memories of betrayal that were growing out of proportion and becoming troubling. Whenever my shamanic assistance is requested around a topic I suppose that whatever is challenging my visitor is living within me too, and I begin by dreaming on that.

Shamanic uses of Yellow Root, or any plant, might or might not match or overlap other uses in alternative and folk medicine. Always, I notice resonances between ordinary and non-ordinary uses.

I brewed, sweetened, and sipped the transformational tea in non-ordinary reality, shamanizing for myself in order to help the person who had come requesting spiritual assistance. I felt soothing strength in my throat for telling new stories of deeper understandings of past events, then abdominal pulsing, as if old shapes were flexing and dancing out of me.

I will do my best to connect with the plant in this world soon, too.

Yellow root is brightening up my life today and I am wearing a yellow shirt to ground and activate the shift.

What are the healing properties of Chalcopyrite crystals?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:10 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Crystal healing intuition-sheet on Chalcopyrite:

Chalcopyrite crystals are credited with diverse healing properties in folklore, metaphysics and alternative medicine, though medical science attributes reported improvements from crystal healing to the placebo effect.

Features

The metallic mineral Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2 or Copper Iron Sulfide, also known as Bornite) is commonly called Peacock Ore because its dark golden or brassy luster often shines with purple and green iridescent highlights. Chalcopyrite belongs to the tetragonal crystal system but occurs most often in massive form. It is an important source of copper.

Folklore

In folk medicine Chalcopyrite is suggested for hair loss prevention and as a remedy for throat, bronchial, lung, and brain ailments.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Metaphysics

In metaphysics Chalcopyrite is associated with developing and deepening inner vision, freeing stuck spiritual and vital energy patterns, and grounding meditation, prayer and exercise.

Alternative Medicine

Healing properties of Chalcopyrite in alternative medicine include fever and inflammation reduction, DNA repair, and the protection of crystal and energy healers during sessions.

Alchemy

The elemental components of Chalcopyrite reveal a restorative alchemical process. Copper, associated with Venus, female energies and creativity, joins iron, the symbol of Mars, male energies and strength. Both are acted upon by sulfur, representing fusion within the Sun, radiant expansion of life and the soul’s transcendence of opposites.

Etymology

Chalcopyrite comes from the ancient Greek words khalkos (meaning copper) and pyrites (meaning fire striking stone). This etymology points to additional life transformation processes–containing, conducting, and igniting.

Where does the healing power of gems come from?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:48 GMT

The healing power of gems may never be proven scientifically because it is the metaphysical or symbolic properties of semi-precious and precious stones that are invoked as complementary and alternative medicine remedies.

Methods

The healing power of gems may be stirred up through personal, traditional, or published correspondences in numerology, sacred geometry, and astrology. Or combine shamanic methods with all or none of the above.

Shamanic Ways

To touch the healing power of minerals and crystals directly through shamanic experience, journey or dream into each gem or its representation in memory, imagination, or art. Shamanize to get to know the spirit of each stone.

Then shamanic journey or dream on a healing or beneficial change intention for yourself and others.

Meditation

Bring the healing power of gemstones into your mind, heart, and gut by meditating, through your favorite method. When you are full of healing power, circulate it through your soul and body, then radiate it outwards into your world.

Layouts

Create a shape with your healing crystals and stones, incorporating numerological, geometrical, and astrological associations, or not, as you are nudged by spirit and spirits. When ready, lie down within it for a shamanic journey, dream, or meditation on the healing or transformation you desire.

Or, lay the stones down in a smaller configuration on your altar or within other sacred space. Let this shape remain there for a while or disperse it right away, according to the nature and particulars of your prayer intention and how you are guided.

Agreement

Gems and stones are beings in the shamanic way of relating to life and the universe. When you need two or three to agree in prayer or shamanizing, they can be there for you!

Imagine that crystals and rocks are friendly ambassadors from the realm of the divine within, carrying healing gifts from heaven on earth.

Photo: KaCey97007/Flickr.com

Spirit definition is impossible

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:22 GMT

WOW. I was asked to define spirit!

Coming up with a spirit definition to satisfy everyone is impossible, yet the exercise of trying to accomplish this task can deepen spiritual awareness.

Etymology

Our word spirit comes from a Latin word for both soul and breath, spiritus.

In Other Words

In ancient Greek spirit was pneuma (πνεύμα), also the word for breath which later came to mean spirit or soul.

In Sanskrit: The words akasha (the element filling and flowing around celestial realms) and ātman (breath in Indo-European but coming to mean soul, self, or ego in Hinduism and Buddhism) and prana (vital force or ) all express spirit.

The Hebrew words ruach (רוח; wind) and Ruach HaKodesh (רוח הקודש; divine wind) mean spirit and Holy Spirit.

In Chinese culture the word qi (air) meaning vital energy-flow can also express spirit.

From early on, in most (if not all) languages, spirit collected many meanings, connotations, and associations.

Interconnection

Spirit was usually linked to universal elements and vital functions.

Perhaps spirit definition began with wind breezing or water churning or earth quaking or fire crackling near a solitary someone hooked on pondering cosmic mysteries.

Spirits

In shamanic ways, as well as in many earth-centered and New Age religions, spirit is one and whole, yet is related to as an interconnecting and multi-dimensional many (many!) spirits.

Besides keeping company with animal spirits, shamans work with spirits of elements, minerals, plants, and many more kinds. Spirits can be visible or invisible; ordinary or non-ordinary; earthly, extra-terrestrial, celestial, or other-dimensional.

Caution

Spirit definition can easily be taken seriously or literally, which takes the fun out of it. BTW, my favorite word for spirit is FUN.

Placing dogmatic limits on spirit and spirits is as futile as trying to catch the wind, or collect the oceans in a bucket, or...go ahead and make up your own metaphor for it.

I am sure you already understand.

Oops! Because the spirits of Zemanta.com kept 'helping' I couldn't resist letting this post become a Wikipedia-fest.

Prakhar/Flickr.com

Shamanic Dreaming a Dragon

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:23 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Last night I dreamed strange basement noises! I woke up to visions and imaginings of a bright green dragon thrashing and thumping down there.

This building's basement is nicknamed 'the dungeon' by the property management company's maintenance staff. Once I recommended charging tourists admission for 15 minute tours of it as a House of Horrors.

The stairway down is under a padlocked outside crawlspace door under my back window. I have a key just in case I need to get to the circuit breaker panel.

I knew I had dreamed and imagined the green dragon as a shamanic experience. But, of course, this morning I ventured down into 'the dungeon' to investigate anyway.

Everything seemed as usual - a dim, dank, musty, labyrinthine mess. Shifting into a light trance I wandered through the cluttered rooms, blurring my eyes on purpose, tilting my head leftwards and rightwards, sneaking side glances all around.

But nothing jumped out at me or struck me as unusual. Just as I was about to climb back upstairs I was drawn towards the northeast corner directly under my sanctuary.

Then I spotted a cardboard box I had never noticed before, all by itself, up high on a built-in storage shelf. Coat hangers and papers were sticking out and it did not look interesting enough to bother with.

The business tenants of this building do not use the basement for storage. So I supposed this box had been left behind by a previous occupant of my space, which is leased as an apartment to allow this historic building to keep its 'mixed use' zoning (advantageous to the owner, somehow).

I reached up and over the side and pulled out college course notes about plate tectonics and a geology textbook, and then felt a bumpy, pottery-type surface. When I tugged this irregular object out, I was delighted to find myself holding a bright green 8 by 5 inch ceramic dragon!

Maybe last nights dream-commotion was this shiny mini-dragon in the basement, signaling its desire to reside in the sanctuary room instead of under it!

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Shamanic Raccoon Moment

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:44 GMT

Image by Michael Scheltgen via Flickr

Raccoon visited! My colleague The Tortoise Cat has yet to update her blog and tell of her Raccoon adventure, so I will share my side of the story (that I already tweeted) about a visit from Raccoon on September 13th, a Sunday morning. Tortoise Cat is a sweet, bold, fierce little kitty, but a reluctant blogger.

We both savor the fresh, night breezes of summer and we start early and stay late. As the weather permits I sleep next to the screen door, most nights from June through September. It is the next best thing to stretching out under the urban light filtered clouds or stars. Tortoise cat sleeps on a chair nearby or watches for mice and other critters through the screen.

In the wee morning hours Tortoise Cat was fussing to go all the way outside so I let her sit on the steps, attached to her longer backyard string. I lay back down, remaining restfully alert, just in case. Too soon I heard her yowl and jumped up, though I was not too concerned.

As I opened the screen door to peer out, supposing she had tangled her string in the deck chair already while chasing a mouse and was calling for my assistance, a terrified, medium-sized Raccoon shoved me aside and rushed in! By the security floodlights shining through the window I stared, thoroughly amazed, at this hefty young fellow who was sitting up on my bedding with paws stretched towards me, mouth opening and closing, with what looked like tears moistening the dark fur mask around his glistening eyes.

I cannot say how I knew this Raccoon was a male. Tortoise Cat and I have met the neighborhood Raccoon family and are somewhat acquainted - at a distance. We catch sight of them often, stealth-ambling past us on the way to or from the dumpsters, usually between mid-night and 3AM. Raccoon mom is huge compared to her two bulky 'teenagers' who I (somehow) take for brother and sister. The three littler ones who run behind? I have yet to get any notion of their genders.

"Hey, little guy", I said, "that Tortoise Cat is LOUD but she's tiny. You're almost 4 times her size, so muster up your courage, young friend, and hurry back outside so your folks won't worry!"

My Raccoon guest appeared to agree and crawled cautiously back into the doorway and peered out, but froze when he saw the Tortoise Cat still blocking the steps. I called to Tortoise Cat to show courtesy to our guest and make way for Raccoon's safe passage by, but, as usual, she did not comply with my wise instructions, and stood (well, actually she sat) her ground and began emitting a low, eerie, rumbling, surround-sound synergy of moan, groan, and growl while her eyes glinted and glared.

Then Raccoon uttered a trilling screech, crawled up onto the railing, jumped down, then scurried gracefully through the bamboo bushes and back into into the safety and comfort of the deep night's shadowy shrubs and darker corners. His mother and siblings must have been waiting nearby.

I was wide awake and this encounter happened in ordinary reality. Yet, as Raccoon is a long-term shamanic helper, I know there were messages and gifts in this visit. I realized how great a privilege this was and I feel highly honored. One night (or day) soon I will remember a shamanic dream with Raccoon and learn more.

Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

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Shamanize as a kaleidoscope, on the chaotic tension...

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:57 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Allowing poetry to dream into me is a shamanic way I used to practice more often. This free-verse poem - as it might be called by some - dreamed in with September. It seems more than a wee bit weird and nonsensical to me but that is the kind of poem I usually get.

Years ago I used to receive and write a shamanic free-verse poem every day - or, rather, words blown and strung together like this. Because I didn't call my shamanizing by any s-word or this sort of composition poetry when it started happening back in childhood. A high-school teacher assured me I was writing free-verse poetry but I called it 'word-juxtapositions' instead.

I don't recommend this as a once-a-day spiritual practice. It is too intense and does not make enough ordinary sense, and the temptation to re-work it into a more comprehensible form can hit hard.

As a shamanic poem I take this (like all the rest that came to me) as a whole, as a way of spirit-delivery of healing and transforming power, a container holding answers to prayer, that I don't need to (and should not try to) decipher or translate.

Shamanize as a kaleidoscope, on the chaotic tension...

between earthy limitation
just humming along
and cosmic springing-free, then

howl outlandishly...

between shaking containment...repetitive recombining of primary and secondary multi-colored building blocks
...and the next black and white, silver and gold, big-bang rainbow catastrophic surprise,
this universal serendipitous system of mercurial methods, always revealing itself

as just ordinary points

yet cosmic egg sets, of zeros and ones, set spinning around this expanding, accelerating circus circle,
though each radiating waving particle point of (visible and invisible) fields of resurrection is already spiraling probable
simultaneities inwards

and outwards...an infinity of infinities...

of infinities of orders of infinities...of parallel, perpendicular, tangential, and oblique yet ordinary, everyday, sharp fuzzy lines...
expressing worlds of thoughts, words, and deeds as complex designs of weaving
yet raveling multi-directions and multi-dimensions, eventually creating...

your Shaman Costume!

Oh let me only touch this flowing, glowing
super-asymmetrical, inexplicable, webby resonating deep space, material-energetic, earthy garment for a moment...
as the shaman passes amid the wild pressing crowds of expectant, jubilant confusion within me,

and wonder forever over the seamless holey wholly hol-y healing feel of it...
shimmering, glimmering, mysteriously holding and releasing so many sparkling arrays of vibrating

cooking vessels simmering uncertain, as yet undetermined, transformations

harmoniously jumping, falling, tumbling, dancing up and down and on and off this cliff,
or edge, or humpty-dumpty wall...singing into this abyss
thereby dream-seeding all of

this earth...the deeps, the seas, the lands, the skies...all commonplace,
known and unknown, sacred places...each stuffed with primary quintessentials,

every one of them hatching and scattering into wand-points

all over again, the same as always...
like never before.
(Patterns rattle, drum, and take steps while fringes fly...!)

The original shamans didn't...

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:55 GMT

Image by jeloid via Flickr

LAST very long! They were soon assimilated or forgotten, then seemingly seamlessly replaced by the ordinary shamans who we call shamans today. The original shamans didn't...

Bow to authorities
Stick to old stories

This is why whatever shamanic teachings you receive through books, DVDs, workshops, gatherings, apprenticeships, mentoring, courses, and any of the ways that shamanism is - that is, that shamanic ways or shamanisms are - passed on are really, mostly or partly shamanistic, meaning not quite shamanic (not quite meaning 'almost but not quite' all the way to 'not by quite a lot'). The original shamans have all been magnified by space-time then stuffed into spacey-timeless myths, or they are perfectly unknown in this world, lost to consciousness through history's mists.

The original shamans are universal yet singular, living in the neighborhood but are not of it. The original shamans are NOT the keepers of stories - they receive and keep stories only in order to be the shifters of stories and the dreamers of new stories.

Many of the original shamans drew followers even though they kept saying "Go away now! Go on, go YOUR way. Go be your own shaman!" Except that the original shamans hadn't heard of the word shaman.

Many of today's ordinary shamans suppose that they are already living and representing the secret circle of the original shamans. But supposing is sub-posing, placing under, and that's just another kind of shaman-istic.

Shamanistic is as far as you get on the way of the shaman if you insist upon bowing to authorities and sticking to old stories - regardless of how many shaman-techniques you learn and initiations you receive, no matter how powerful these are. And shamanistic can be life healing and transforming enough, for now - or not.

If it's not...then DREAM an original shaman, within yourself, and dream your ceremony of giving away all your stories, and dream your next step after giving up on all your sources of authority. Then forget it and shift on. Or shift on and forget it. (Repeat this as necessary.).

Shamanic journey to the everyday world of your dreams and hopes!

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:04 GMT

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

Here is a shamanic journey my circle is taking: First clear and ground yourself in your usual, favorite way(s) - incense, herbal bath, nature walk, or however you do it. Open your sacred space-time circle and non-ordinary travel portal expectantly.

Rattle, drum, sing, and dance a while. This activates dreaming, enthusing, speaking, and taking steps and resonates everything into one inter-flowing whole.

Imagine yourself in your safe, spiritual non-ordinary middle worlds haven and departure nature-scape. Travel from there (through the conduit of your choice) to the lower realms and request assistance of a trusted spirit helper. The intention of this shamanic adventure is finding and experiencing and empowering in the spiritual world, the physical world we wish, hope, and desire to leave future generations of earth children.

Be guided and challenged by spirit and spirits to this potential new world as it exists as pure potential. Meet and get acquainted with at least one spirit being within it. Ask what to shift about yourself and your particular little bit of the present world to help bring the desired world into ordinary reality as soon as possible. Look for and receive a symbolic, potent gift to bring on the next stage of this excursion.

This symbolic gift spirit-power container might be given to you in a natural or abstract form - a rock or stick, perhaps, or a geometrical ornament. Receive this gift and thank all beings.

Then journey to the upper realms and request assistance around this intention from a trusted spirit helper there. Ask to see possibilities - an array of beings and events changing the world for the better, into the potential new world you dreamed in the lower worlds. Allow the spiritual energy-flows of these visions to sweep-away the power-gift you carried up.

Then, thank all beings, and accompanied by all of your helping spirits, return to your sacred departure place and sit in circle waiting - calm and relaxed. When your possibility-infused gift drops into the center of your circle, rejoice and give thanks and return to your ordinary-reality circle and rattle, drum, sing, and dance yourself back to everyday consciousness.

Jot down details and make a list of self-changes and steps to begin living your new world. Sleep on this shamanic journey overnight - no need to remember any night-dreams about it (but OK if you do). This is a way to plant the dream-seeds of potential, possibility, and power you brought back in your spirit-gift. Another way to activate your gift is creative and/or expressive art-play.

Then begin making these envisioned self and local changes, one by one, day by day.

Shamanic imagining is another way of getting REAL

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:18 GMT

Image by woodleywonderworks via Flickr

Are shamanic ways imaginary? When I emphasize imagination in shamanic practice it might seem as if I am debunking shamanizing. Well, one person's debunking can be another person's enthusing.

I used to suppose I could categorize my shamanic shifting alongside the traditionalists, new-agers, esoterists, occultists, complementary and alternative medicine practitioners, and shamanistic or earth spirituality and religion participants. These are the directory categories where websites associated with me are still listed, because while I was signing up there seemed no other fitting category for my interpretation of contemporary shamanism.

As healing and transformational as (most of) these other types of practices can be, not much of any of what is listed in the paragraph above is what I am doing and intending now. Less and less of it relates or even resonates with my current shamanic practices.

I am not about to (futilely attempt to) redo directory listings around the web. Link directories are almost obsolete now anyway, and my old links will probably be way at the bottom of a way-back page by now.

I stopped signing up for new online directory listings anywhere a while ago. Nowadays I am making sure my webpages reflect clearly what I do and don't do, even while my understandings continue to shift, so whether folks find me through from an old listing or a social network profile they can read my newest view. (Ceremonial officiating and ministerial services listings are easier because my ministering is, and is likely to stay, very earth-religion - and almost any-religion - friendly.)

For me shamanic ways are 96% Art - Performance Art - in synergy with many expressive and creative arts. Shamanic ways can also be a combination of prayer, meditation, and healthy living but for me those are beneficial side-effects.

I tell anyone who asks these days that shamanizing is mostly (non-ordinary) dreaming and imagining flowing into purposeful (ordinary yet extraordinary) resonant embodying: dramatically expressing one's inner shaman-artist's faithful, hopeful visions and CHOICES of new, better life on earth, from the inside-out, with one's heaven-on-earthly self as the message-incarnate, though individual, singular, original multi-media costumed story, song, and dance performing. The shaman uses show and even sham on purpose, and the people know this, and go with the fun-flow on purpose, too.

This is how I shamanize and teach. I do acknowledge and respect many other understandings, interpretations, and practices of the 'way of the shaman' - even as I part company with most. And, as I have written often, just because I am calling shamanic ways imaginary and artistic does not mean I am saying they aren't real. Imaginary and pretend are powerfully real and wondrously reality-shifting when play (or the play) is on purpose, in my experience.

What about the other 6%? Well, for today, for the fun of it, I'll say that the rest is mostly Science(s) with a dash of the universe's own mysterious, trade-secret blend of ordinary (scientific) and non-ordinary (mythic) whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts CHAOS!

Topic change: Please visit some of my Squidoo lenses, where I am continuing my self-education, selling some stuff, honoring favorite places, and more! Many of them are new, opened so I could keep adding on, and all are undergoing continuing polishing.

My online retired blogging companions shapeshifted!

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:35 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Wow, big shapeshifts have happened recently! I have been doing my best to let go, live the fun, and keep on my shamanic way, shapeshifting along, adjusting to these drastic yet not unexpected changes.

Soon I will be removing the links to my (former) blogging companions' blogs (and listserves), allowing those sites to rest in peace but remain on the web as archives and memorials as long as the servers allow. I embrace the internet and they - named on the net Rezzee, Crabbee, Alan, Sharon, Tom, and L.C. (son of Teal and Chammy) and Sharandet (L.C.'s wife now) - tried blogging and social networking and cyber-shamanizing, then variously realized they didn't like it after the novelty wore off.

Now they have shapeshifted their shamanic circle offline into a new kind of cloistered yet close-together scattered site spiritual intentional community, that exists, nameless and unnoticed and un-sectarian at the edges (shamanic fringes?) of an ordinary reality community, somewhere not so far from here. I have agreed not to tell those spacetime coordinates.

This move rattled and drummed around then sang and danced to life out of an enduring dream shared around our circle for quite a while. But, even though I have kept daily and seasonal prayer cycles for years, I know the cloistered life is not for me (yet, anyhow).

Via snail mail I send lists of intentions for shamanizing. I receive reports about once a month (and ongoing support). We shamanic-dream as a circle often, still.

The other big shapeshift: Elders Teal and Chammy both shapeshifted from earth life into universal LIFE earlier this summer by dying of 'natural causes' a few weeks apart, both well over 90 years old, healthy for almost all of their days. For the last few years we have not been able to visit in person very often but I do still miss their earthy presences!

These two wonderful shapeshifts are interconnected directly, which is why so many changes have happened almost at once. I was stunned and grief-stricken by so many life-shifts in such a short period even while I was ecstatic, even though I consider it all GOOD NEWS.

I suppose this paradoxically ecstatic grieving is the main reason why my blogging all but stopped - and so soon after I had gotten off into an enthused, fresh, energized 'starting over' much earlier in the year. I am ready to get back to it now, though.

Shamanic Journey For My Mouse Neighbors

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:59 GMT

Image by Bob & Jane via Flickr

I had been wondering when an exterminator would arrive to kill rodents in the building. It happened last week.

Psychotherapists and psychiatrists with offices here were reporting unscheduled mouse consultations, happening in broad daylight. Tortoise Cat was playing nightly with one catfood-craving mouse buddy. The other mice were staying away from our space, probably because Tortoise Cat is a skilled, clever hunter.

I assured the exterminator that Tortoise Cat had our territory covered, then shamanic journeyed to do what beneficial reality-shifting I could. I met up with Chameleon in the non-ordinary lower-realm forest where we usually confer then we headed back up to this middle-world and descended into this office building's basement.

Mouse soon joined us there for a chat. Mouse thanked me for my concern, but amazed me with the news that the mice know how to use the exterminator's poisoned traps as an opportunity to shapeshift directly through the middle-world! So everything is going according to DREAM.

Furthermore, some of the mice, including the Tortoise Cat's play buddy, had simply crept stealthily to another nearby safer location. Mouse instructed me that this longstanding cycle helps shuffle habits, keeps complacency away, re-balances (and strengthens) the urban mouse populations, and restores a pinch of re-creative quirky chaos to life for them and for all.

Tortoise Cat might miss her play sessions with Mousy but she seems to understand the wisdom of these ways.

Fortune Cookie Shamanic Journey

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:59 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Now and then I shamanic-journey the middle world with fortune cookies! I never take this spiritual quest the same way twice.

As with all shamanic navigation I never go without a genuine, heartfelt intention after consecrating sacred space-time around me. Next, I open a box of fortune cookies and select one for each sacred direction and lay them out before me. I usually include 8 compass points plus the center, but more or fewer travel directions can be used, as you are guided by Spirit and Spirits.

For me the directions are verbs, sets of inner alchemical processes with many associations. So I plan this shamanic journey's itinerary to resonate with the intention I am seeking assistance with.

If my quest intention has more to do with health, vitality, finances, luck, skill, or other practical matters I begin by seeking out a familiar shamanic helper from the lower-worlds. If my intention has more to do with wisdom, knowledge, or understanding I begin by seeking an upper-worlds shamanic guide. Often I enlist the protection and guidance from both the lower-worlds and upper-worlds.

Then I allow myself to be guided around the directions of the middle-world, seeking a non-ordinary fortune cookie in each. The non-ordinary fortune cookies I find are usually made of an alloy of sacred metals and are usually decorated with a symbol which I do my best to study and remember before adding each cookie to my bag or pocket or crystal and continuing along the way.

The shamanic middle-world(s) can be confounding but with help and guidance from Spirit and Spirits and this relatively simple task of collecting a non-ordinary fortune cookie for each sacred direction I have decided to visit I almost always stay on track. Between directions obstacles loom, however.

It has happened that I have had to make more than one shamanic journey. This shamanic journey can be completed in any number of sessions - such as one session for each direction if this proves necessary.

After I have visited all the directions where I have placed a fortune cookie I return to ordinary-reality and jot down the story of the shamanic journey before I forget it, especially the symbols (if any) on the non-ordinary fortune cookies and/or any shapeshifting I observed or other changes in the cookies or messages I received, all according to what I experienced. These details are all parts of the 'answer' and assistance from Spirit and Spirits for this shamanic journey's intention.

Then I eat the cookies for each direction in the same order as I traveled through non-ordinary reality to gather them. I lay out the ordinary reality fortunes before me and sing them in a song and create and dance a dance to go with it.

You may create a picture or other artifact, instead of or in addition to the song and dance, around an overall theme suggested by the non-ordinary and ordinary fortune cookies. This is to give thanks and to ground and activate the spiritual shifts of this shamanic journey into life in this world.

Where to find me and Shamanic Shift Center besides MySpace

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:11 GMT

Greetings - It's Elizabeth checking in at MySpace, for Shamanic Shift Center! The picture is of The Tortoise Cat, my colleague, enjoying wildlife dreams in our sanctuary's mini-garden next to the eas...

Shamanic Shifting Fireworks

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:13 GMT

Image by milesizz via Flickr

Fire-works, over water, bursting in air, bouncing off bluffs and buildings:

Several thrilling fireworks displays energized Milwaukee's east side lakeshore lands around me. I listened from the back porch, taking breaks from my office transformation project.

The deep, resonant, shocking vibrations, lights, and colors reflected and reverberated all around and within. It felt like I was getting an extreme healing, cleansing, radical elemental night spa treatment.

So at the Friday, July 3 circle, I shamanic journeyed for more of my own inside-out life-shifting, purposeful, beautiful, spiritual explosions. This is a shamanic journey I will take periodically.

In everyday reality fireworks are dangerous fun. For many fireworks are frightening and disturbing, even panic-attack triggering un-fun, or unwelcome reminders of warfare, destruction, and death. Folks are injured and even killed every year 'playing' with firecrackers, bottle rockets, and the like. Even expert pyro-technicians lose limbs or lives setting up, practicing or putting on the public displays.

So a shamanic journey for fireworks isn't for everyone! On this adventure my internal fireworks were predominantly green and red and appeared to be arising from a barge that was sailing towards me over the calmest waters I have ever seen. After I returned to ordinary-reality I drew a picture and improvised a dance to activate and remember the energy-shifts that I know happened and are happening still.

Shamanic ways for solving everyday troubles & widening wellness

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:51 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

I am a neighborhood and universal modern shaman (with a small 's') who stands aside from a lot of things. I do my best to stay centered on my purpose - helping anyone I can - and usually I steer clear of, and journey WAY around, a lot of energy draining controversy.

Staying centered, while sanding aside, while steering around - yet pausing at breathtaking edges now and then - gets easier and funner now that I have developed the knack into a shamanic dance-habit. Of course, writing about it breaks this healthy habit, briefly.

I practice shamanic ways and hypnotic ways for self-change aside from any and all western medical (also called allopathic) diagnoses and interventions - and aside from most New Age and other kinds or schools of complements or alternatives as well. I chose - years ago - to work under my ministerial and consulting hypnotist credentials rather than my (still valid, for the record) Wisconsin licensed clinical social worker credential. And I shrink away from, without opposing or attempting to debunk (though I have my doubts), much of what is often called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as well.

Because: Given any being or situation calling for help and change, I have found, over many years of practice, that when motivation, attitude, healthy lifestyle choices, and everyday troubleshooting are shamanized and/or addressed through hypnosis and related techniques such as self-hypnosis, guided imagery, relaxation, storytelling, and more, MAJOR life-shifts for the better happen, all without and beyond pathologizing what comes before me under any type of terminology.

This 'everyday help for ordinary problems' approach can complement most, if not all, standard, government-licensed medical or mental-health, but is not offered as a replacement for any of it. And this simplifying, ordinary-reality centered approach can complement most complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as well. But as intentions go, complementing is near the bottom of my top 10.

I do not offer shamanic or hypnotic ways as complements or alternatives to anything. The methods I practice work best to change ordinary rather than pathological trouble patterns. Still, I hear back that beginning and ending with activating and enhancing wellness brings remarkable, lasting relief and renewal.

Shamanic session = I facilitate YOUR shamanic journey!

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:17 GMT

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

As a neighborhood and universal shaman I can shamanic-journey on behalf of others, but my aim and emphasis is teaching and facilitating interior voyages for the knowledge and power to self- and reality-shift on purpose. Shamanic Shift Center is designed and kept as a portal for connecting to Spirit, and many find it to be a trance activating place. 'Hanging out' here for a while of interacting with the rocks, crystals, essential oils, art-play materials, books, percussion instruments, divination and meditation cards, theme shrines, and more, can be waking, awakening shamanic experience by itself.

Within this portal environment, I can share many older and newer ways and means to psychonavigate within, towards powerful new dreams and patterns, so you can bring back your own re-creative stories and energy-flows of change for the better. Besides drumming, chanting, dance, storytelling, and other adapted, universal shamanic ways, I facilitate soul travel with modern methods of consciousness-shifting, such as self-hypnosis and guided imagery.

There are as many ways to shamanic journey as there are spiritual adventurers. As with all prayer and meditation treatments, all the spiritual healing and transforming is accomplished by Spirit and Spirits, as each journeyer understands those words and concepts. When you engage in a shamanic session YOU become a shamanic shift center and living portal for inward spiritual change to grow into outward, everyday changes.

Welcome...But this list isn't active now...Yet....

Wed, 20 May 2009 01:16 GMT

Welcome anyway! I have already advised list members to change their settings to web only (no emails). Because I approve requests to join when they appear to

Happy Spring Holy Days Everyone

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:01 GMT

Hi Everyone, Since this group/circle is mostly dormant I decided to post an update (like I did just before at Shaman Fools) to save it from being deleted and

Happy Passover (continued), Holy Saturday, and Easter (and an update

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:29 GMT

Happy, fun Spring, Everyone, Spring shows and tells it all without the liturgical follies - but it's ALL fun to me. Happy holy days to all! Most of our

Hungry spirals haiku

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:36 GMT

Hungry Spirals Haiku
by Teal Talking Raven

Life's spirals eating

us alive, alive, alive...

Nothing can stop them!

Nom, nom, nom, nach, nach...

delicious...equisite...YUM!

Spring the relentless

Hungriest season,

eat my heart out, why don't cha?!

Yes...I'll die laughing.

Celebrating sea gulls on winds of changes

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:24 GMT

We visited Milwaukee again this weekend! Every visit we say it might be our last - mostly because of our older ages.

One of my favorite Milwaukee walking shamanic journeys is to, around, and back from the Milwaukee Art Museum. I usually connect with many favorite bird spirit allies along the way.

The near freezing wind gusted against me mightily but I plodded on because road trips like this are so rare. Chammy had gone to the Milwaukee Public Museum (his favorite) instead, with our friends and neighbors, a much younger, lovely, thoughtful, generous couple we had hitched a ride with.

So my dear Chammy stayed warm while increasing his scientific knowledge while I tramped around in the weather. I have never enjoyed museum exhibits because I long to see 'artifacts' still in sacred use or naturally decaying.

The sky shifted from blue to gray and back again many times. The grasses were half brown, half green. Bright green Tulip and other Spring bulb sprouts had grown to 5-6 inches high already.

We arrived Friday night for the 7pm Shamanic Shift Center circle, then stayed at the Astor Hotel across the street. After coffee and rolls in the hotel's charming little east facing tea room we set out on our separate ways, me bundled up in 3 layers.

Saturday was partly sunny and chill and the clouds had won over the sky by the time we rejoined our friends. Chammy doesn't like Daylight Savings Time but (partly) because of it we had scenic dusky views most of the way home.

Here Spring springs without any troubles

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:50 GMT

Image by Sascha Grant via Flickr

Maybe Spring is the longest season even though it seems to spring up on us! Spring begins before the Vernal Equinox, way back on some secret day during February, as soon as the first warmer, that is warm instead of cold, teaser day dawns, delights, and dusks. As soon as that happy surprise strolling-around-in-shirtsleeves day happens I know Spring is underway, though mostly hidden underground, volcanically bubbling life around and upwards within seeds and roots.

Spring 2009 unfolded in a series of catastrophes for many around the nation and the world, showing how violent and furious life can be. A steady series of economic, financial, and social blows seemed to match an unremitting sequence of large scale or acute Nature traumas - fires, floods, blizzards, earthquakes.

Climate and other earth changes (no matter what the causes) are certainly bringing on worsening ecological distresses and accelerating the extinction of living beings. This energy of troubled elements calls out to me for creative redirection.

Image by nimboo via Flickr

Life for us in this seeming refuge called southeastern Wisconsin stayed comparatively calm and safe but I could feel the blows and shocks from afar reverberating underfoot and within soul. Visits to nearby Milwaukee show me how much even light pollutes earth's ecosystems and severely attenuates humankind's view of the night sky and its inspirational, encouraging, beckoning planets and stars, the ancient life-adventure navigation beacons that used to help us reach beyond all apparent arising limitations.

How do I re-create and resolve these disturbing patterns within myself as a shamanic death and resurrection prayer? I take ordinary-reality action through charitable relief and social change efforts as much as possible then I wait.

I sit and take in as much as I can of what is and breath and dream on it. Then I stroll and imagine on it.

For every scenario of suffering that appears I superimpose and transmit one of this haven's vibrant, beautiful images. Who knows if or how this is effective? If it changes me, it changes the universe by that much, is my conviction, and some days only my 'act as if'.

Randi keep debunking and dowsers keep dowsing!

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:08 GMT

Quoting Randi speaks truth! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine:I?ve already mentioned that my man Randi has started a new video series, but I wanted to call your attention to this week?s in particular. Randi is on his game here, funny and fierce and

We exchanged shamanic Valentine's Day masks

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:37 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

Happy V's Day, belated! Valentine's Day is tied to themes of fertility, courtly love, poetry, and martyrdom. Martyrdom?

Two or three or maybe 14 Saint Valentines lived during the Christian haydays, whose energy-flows and life patterns now seem merged. At least the first two Saint Valentines were martyrs to keeping the faith yet no one knows very much about any of them.

Maybe it was the vibrant RED of the Eucharistic vestments and altar trappings on feast days in honor of martyrs against the priest's alb and white linens that linked the martyred Saint Valentines to the theme of lovers joining. Red and white as colors are alchemical lovers.

Red, the color of wine, roses, and desire and white the color of bread, lilies, and snow, dance together yet separately, through this originally Pagan celebration of Spring's earliest dreams and hints of bright flowers and happy birdsongs. Then they flow into our modern Valentine's Day red on white love tokens.

Anyway, this year Chammy and I commemorated and blended all the themes and energy-flows of Valentine's Day by making each other Valentine's Day shamanic masks. Can you imagine that?

Oh, more belated happy day wishes! Happy Friday the 13th, too! This year there will be two more Friday The Thirteenths (in Live Science).

Before I was old enough to know of the common superstitions about unluckiness around the number 13 or Friday, my Grandmother had instructed me that 13 was her special luckiest number and Friday was her extra-lucky day of the week. She never told me why and now, as I remember her, I suppose it may have been for secret reasons, and/or to keep me from being afraid of the number 13 or of anything numbered 13 or of Friday the 13th.

Feed digests for science and religion news stories

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:53 GMT

Image by DaylandS -Married 20 Years on Feb 13th via Flickr

Two RSS feed digests you can subscribe to: Unless or until Feed Informer ceases its feed digesting service our circle has a Plus account there. Currently we can digest 100 news sources into 100 RSS feed digests which can show 100 items.

We have not been able to pay up for this wonderful service due to ownership and other changes (from what used to be Feeddigest). The message on the account details page at Feed Informer's website still states that their payment service is being transitioned, and not to worry, that our service will continue. So far we have been unable to connect to find out more. The login that is supposed to allow us to join a support forum won't work and comments left on their blog just get deleted without response.

So the feed digests I am about to tell about here could cease to exist suddenly. In the meanwhile we keep using the service. We also display these feed digests on Shamantic!'s old portal website, here. The URLs to subscribe are below. (You can substitute 'atom' for 'rss' if you prefer the atom version.)

Chammy curates a feed digest of science news and blogging -
http://app.feed.informer.com/digest3/SOW9YQK6N7.rss
So far this digest draws from 35 sources.

I curate a feed digest of religious and spiritual news and blogging -
http://app.feed.informer.com/digest3/ISZJ4VGZ9R.rss
So far my digest only draws from 11 sources.

Update 2/15 - I have about doubled the number of feeds included in mine.

I wrote a wings poem while celebrating birds and trees

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:16 GMT

Image by Sergey Yeliseev via Flickr

New NOW Wings

A Free Verse Poem
by Chammy

Wholly, Holey, Holy
HEAVEN as Earth,

Multi-holi-dimensional rainbow incarnate,
seamless, stretched thin, garment - of
LIFE, the universe, and this fool,

Gravitationally distorted, wildly warped, expanding container,
nevertheless, the best for making LIGHT
of anything,

Wrap around me, rapt, in this cosmic fun!

Refine and purify me
with each uncoiling weirder, wispier, wickeder
spacetime moment,

While impossible, unauthorized,
ultra-shiny, extra-blazing new now-WINGS unfurl

on my feet,
on my heart,
on my head!

Also: For me, this is the month and season for celebrating birds of all kinds. They are springing into singing every morning. And to go with celebrating the birds of earth, another New Year is happening.

Tree New Year! The New Year of Trees, or Tu Bishvat is Monday, February 9th, 2009. This is a Jewish holiday so it begins at sundown, Sunday, February 8th.

Comet Lulin is visible! The green Comet Lulin now on approach for a fly-by can be viewed with naked eyes under the darkest, clearest night skies. Lulin will pass closest to Earth (0.41 AU - 38 million miles) on February 24th. Lulin's green color is from cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C2) glowing in sunlight.

*More...Update...A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse!* The first of four penumbral lunar eclipses in 2009 happens Monday, February 9th. It will be visible in the western United States at 6:38am (Pacific Time, or 1438 GMT), and many other places, but not here where the moon will have set.

Wow...That is tomorrow early morning, already, as I add this! Healer Diana Allen shares a more astrological perspective of it.

Healworld and Prayer-Request Twttrstrm Shout-Outs

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:27 GMT

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

Where would you like Twitter Healers to send healing? Go here to shout-out your answer. There is also a module for voting for the next featured location. Our circle participates with the Twitter Healers every day sending healing energy-flow towards the location chosen for the day during shamanic dreaming, journeying, and prayer-shifting periods. When we give healing attention to one place it radiates over the net to all places and the whole world.

What topics, peoples, situations, events, and individuals would you add to our circle's prayer-shift list for daily shamanizing? Our Twttrstrm shout-out is here. Our prayer-list is here. Please join in, whether you tell about it or not!

Calming vitalizing road trip along Wisconsin Hwy 18

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:35 GMT

Image by Heyes via Flickr Road Journey: I'm blogging from Shamanic Shift Center in Milwaukee tonight! Chammy and I will be staying at the Astor Hotel across the street, nothing fancy. But we are both too old to bed down on the floor anymore, I hate to admit.

It is rare to be here in Milwaukee and even rarer to be able to attend the Friday night circle in person. We are among those who join in, in Spirit, every week through non-ordinary reality.

We traveled here with neighbors who are visiting relatives and shopping. I was very happy that we drove along Hwy 18 most of the way so I could peer through the tree branches for glimpses of Red-Tail Hawks, Barn Owls, and Crows.

The drive was calming and vitalizing. I blurred my eyes and tilted my head sideways as I gazed out the car window. I spotted several raptors perched in barren branches, none circling or soaring, and many crows, some perched but many more climbing and diving, as if for fun.

We shall be returning to our hideout tomorrow night. Now already we are amid deciding between visiting the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Milwaukee Art Museum for a challenging excursion tomorrow. But we may go sight-seeing from a Yellow Cab instead if we can reconnect with our regular driver.

A young lady named Ann who drove up from Chicago was here for her first visit to the Friday night Shamanic Shift Center circle, but not her first shamanic journey. Tonight the circle's overall intention was catalyzing more emerging beautiful, crystaline pockets of order from chaos of all shapes, sizes, forms, and kinds throughout the world.

Update: Due to the hospitality of another circle companion (who did not attend the circle) we have overnight accomodations in an extra bedroom. And we are turning in early! Elizabeth was simmering vegetable, rice, and bean soup during the circle which was delicious for summer with sourdough bread.

Celebrating sunspots as the days glow lighter

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:22 GMT

Image via Wikipedia
This blog is still about seeking and finding beings and wonders to celebrate. I celebrate both natual and human wrought wonders.

Today I visited SpaceWeather.com, usually my first stop on the web, and found, natually, a new cause for celebrating. I had just been expressing my appreciation to our sun as I took my daily walk, outside again, noticing the longer day, basking in the warmer temperature.

Then I read that a new Solar Cycle 24 sunspot was born two weeks ago over the sun's eastern horizon. NASA has been watching it though the STEREO mission, through the ultraviolet telescopic lenses of two identical spacecraft orbiting opposite each other. Now NASA is showing the world this weirdly green (and hey, that's OK by me) amazing little movie of it.

So today in my shamanizing I'm celebrating these wonders of space weather and rocket science! (When I was a child all of rocket science was still in the dreaming stages of life.)