ASQ University:  Already I have received a few comments that Friday afternoons from 5 to 7PM (Central-Whichever) is an inconvenient day of the week and period of the day to hold shamanic classes.  I am offering this ongoing, open, open-ended shamanic education (= spirit and self-education) to anyone who is finding self being nudged in any way towards any kind of contemporary shamanics.  This can mean attending a class every so often or coming regularly for a flexible and local yet deep apprenticeship or mentoring experience at a fraction of the cost charged by the FSS and many other shamanic organizations (not counting the travel and lodging expenses). 

Friday afternoon before the 7PM Shamanic Circle seems more convenient to me than the only other period I currently have available which is after the circle closes.  I could switch.   Still, studying and taking up and keeping up shamanic ways requires major life-shifting.  Yet these days most periods and days might be said to be inconvenient.

Update - October 30th...Shamanic classes are on hold for a while for reorganizing.  Please see later blog posts or click to here for more details.

Convenience and inconvenience....I have nothing against the more convenient distance learning through multimedia connections or the most inconvenient learning in the wilderness on an opposite side of the planet.  Our shamanic seminary/university gives credit for both - and credit for any related studies (compementary medicines, earth-centered or indigenous religions and traditions, and much more) when these have been merged into a student's individualized shamanic practice.  I don't think the costs and tuitions charged for other shamanic educational materials and programs (I have looked into) are unreasonable or wrong at all.  

For worse and for better (and ultimately all for the best) there is a lot of shopping around going on and a lot of dipping in and dropping out these days.  Not everyone is called to practice shamanic ways as such and I do trust  that the right individuals have been, are, and will be blown towards Shamanic Shift Center - Companions Circle (and our projects) by Spirit(s) and always vibrate into our circle(s) according to resonance.

Aloha Salem Quest (ASQ) is another alternative among a growing selection of ways to grok (not just learn about) contemporary shamanic ways - a.k.a. new shamanics for some of us.  When it comes to my own continuing lifelong shamanic education - I have rearranged my whole life drastically and spent small bundles of cash over the years and even now and then traveled way out of my way to receive instruction, but only as I was nudged by Spirit and Spirits.

I shamanize full-time yet do other things shamanizers also can do to raise funds and network:   Officiant and ministerial services of all kinds; non-sectarian spiritual, supportive, advocacy, information and referral, and self-change counseling for a donation or free; more self-employment painting and many property management jobs with another co-founder of our circle; workshops and inservices in diverse community settings; and shamanic sessions by email, phone, or in-person.

Shamanic Shift Center's way of shamanizing includes the basic, intermediate, and advanced methods and techniques taught by FSS and many other schools, each in their own slightly differing ways, and more.  And we feature the Shaman as the ecstatic bridge between the outward playing (wise) Fool's prophetic (from Gk. pro- "before" + root of phanai "to speak") entertainments and the inward working alchemist's sacramental transformations.  The contemporary shaman shamanizes self, community, and world toward the best by being present on purpose anywhere.  She or he acts out and fulfills any calling in any setting within the context of many emerging new ways of being family and community to one another during these exciting and adventuring ages and stages of Being LifeKind. 

There is more to our version of shamanic ways than this.  I will write more about our subtle to garish differences another day.  Naturally some of our separate ways are secrets which are in due course revealed to those who join our school circle and stick and stay. 

The picture is of the back doorway of Shamanic Shift Center and our (mini) outdoor teaching terrace, graced with high noon October sunshine and breezes.  Leaning up against and intertwining the railing is a weird twisted collection of driftwood and sticks.

Journeying in my dreams with my teachers last night I was encouraged to hear (again) that a key mission of Shamanic Shift Center and ASQ University is living and showing funner remedies for serious imbalances of places, events, and situations of ecological and community wounding.  I learned that 'seriousness' is a symptom of an imbalance of multiple elements and directions and stages at once and will be fatal unless transformed.  FATE+all!

Here I am in Sonoma California continuing my shamanic self-education through Myron Eshowsy's 'WHERE ARE THE DREAMERS?' workshop, part of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) Shamanic Innovations series.  Myron is an excellent and entertaining teacher and storyteller.  Perhaps the seriousness of the group is only a temporary side-effect of gathering so many shamanic practitioners into the same spacetime coordinates.

I escaped for a renewing pilgrimage to Pt. Reyes National Seashore, a favorite power-place, located an hour west of Sonoma and an hour north of San Francisco.  I didn't even know my camera could take videos when I shot a clip of South Beach featuring my shadow!  I cannot seem to upload the resulting file to YouTube but if I get that troubleshooted I shall embed it here.

Update - October 30th

I was able to upload that .MOV file of Pt. Reyes - South Beach to Shamantic.Org and it can be viewed at...

http://www.shamantic.org/powerplaces.php

...though it takes quite a while to load.

Update - October 5, 2008 - Almost a year later...

I was able to upload the movie to YouTube at last and now it is replacing the other on Shamantic!'s portal and other places. 

Here are a few more impressions of the shamanic workshop I attended then shifted away from:

I received, receive, and practice through shamanic journeying and dreaming with my circle of Spirit Helpers similar yet different shamanic techniques to those Myron was teaching in the workshop.  This is encouraging, of course. 

The oak trees at the ranch and conference center often hurled acorns and small branches down onto the roof of the meeting room.  Maybe this was 'dry humor' being drummed into us, tempering frustration.

On Monday morning I found myself dismayed and annoyed to be caught by surprise, ambushed by another practitioner's 'You look like you need...' offer of healing.  Yes, here I was relaxing, gazing into the tree-tops while scratching an itch on my back, otherwise un-agendaed, so I didn't notice this hungry do-gooder while evasive countermeasures and diplomatic avoidance were still possible strategies. 

I smiled while I suggested that she go ahead and work within herself on whatever she saw lacking in me and otherwise wait until asked for assistance...and do her best to shift consciousness to focus attention (more and more habitually) first and foremost on what is well and whole.  I long ago noticed that one of my shamanic jesting roles to play is being a handy hanger for the projections of others - only I know who I am so the projections don't stay hung.   I fold them up neatly and hand them back.

A couple dozen 'healers' gather for a workshop and quickly the area's air stagnates, congested with their neediness to give - and to be recognized as powerful, positive, active, 'I know and have what you need' expert intuitive healers.  And here I am just sitting around on vacation...vaguely vacant...entranced and buzzed...savoring the smells, the bird songs, the sights...the golden hills and eucalyptus and bay trees swaying in the blue sky...merely relaxing on some sidelines...presenting a still target.  

As a shamanic fool I often fill with trickster spirits and pop-up a funhouse mirror in the face of unintentionally one-up do-gooding.  My response might be clever or reactive but this is all ok because between moments of shock at the unexpected response arises a moment or two of clarity for (two-way) deeper recognizing and respecting of the essential wholeness and oneness of healer and healee in any situation.  It is a banner day when I go with the flow mostly, without much reacting.  And whoever this person is, they do transform me, just not in the way they expected.  The other person in any encounter where something 'gets me' is really my main teacher of the day.
   
Oh well...this little surprise spine-bristle and feather-ruffle started me dreaming up a funner notion - a shamanic teaching doll shaped like me and named after me (like the ResussiAnnie dolls for CPR training) for shamanic workshop leaders to use for instructional purposes and for shamanic students to practice on.  There would be little doorways at energy centers with itty-bitty plastic power animals and soul parts to escape and be retrieved...and roll-out strings for attatchments to be cut...and open-up cavities with mini-monsters representing intrusions to be extracted...and more, much more.    

When I attend a workshop mainly it is to shamanize in a larger circle with other folks than usual, not to copy down or even jot notes on shamanic rituals presented by a shaman expert.  For me the methods and techniques presented are just good examples to experience in the moment within a healing, transforming circle that is open  for business - the teaching comes through the experiencing.  

From attending shamanic workshops over the years I am understanding and accepting more that there are only a few of us who are not looking or asking for an infusion or transfering of a magical or mystical  'something else' from a known or renoun expert shaman.  Until I can be less prickly and impatient amidst a crowd I will refrain from signing up for more shamanic workshops.

Also, for a while, I will be practicing even more restraint than I have been in teaching shamanic ways myself.  All the more do I intend to offer an alternative school of shamanic ways and innovations.

Alternative:  less seriousity...more FUN... less literalism...more originality...less idealizing of indigenous peoples...and way more scientific, philosophic, artistic, and historical literacy...and as little as possible pop-newageiness, pop-esoterisism, pop-occultism, and any kind of supernaturalism or religious dogma...less attention to governments and religious organizations as solution generators...more unity and interconnective consciousness (famous folks are never the ones in charge of what is ailing the community, country, and world)...to be continued.

Myron kept recommending that everyone journey to their own Spirit Helpers and receive original rituals for each situation - but still, before and after and during every shamanic activity during the workshop many pens flew over the pages, recording every minute detail uttered by the teacher.  Then hands were raised and serious examples of terminal uniqueness expressed as 'But what if...?' and 'Yes but what if...?' or 'What if my ___ is ___?' and Myron's answer would always be 'Well that is ok...that is one of the things that can happen...' and/or 'You would just have to journey on that!'

Newest news about ongoing shamanic classes:  From now on, anyone interested in ongoing  shamanic classes at Shamanic Shift Center is hereby asked to contact me (Elizabeth) and open an email conversation leading to a phone or in-person interview and then planning how it can happen.  So the Friday 5PM shamanic classes are on hold until I can gather two or three or more who want to participate in ongoing shamanic self-education with Spirit and Spirits.  The spacetime coordinates may be different whenever classes begin again too. 

Anyway, in the meanwhile participating in the 7PM Friday night Shamanic Shift Center circle and/or the Thursday night ('Green Rock Club') discussion (details here) is still the best way to receive and share shamanic teachings.  Shamanic ways begin, continue, and end, then begin again in the circling around of two or three or more who agree to gather at the crossroads of here and now!

The photo is another I took on the Drakes Beach side of Pt. Reyes National Seashore, a favorite power-place for shamanic journeying and dreaming.