Shamanic seriousness and a pilgrimage escape!

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 an even better .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.  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!'