Shaman's Blog
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Welcome to some place, some time,

     Between Worlds

This blog is not about shamanism, it IS shamanism. It is shamsnism in a world of destructive, human-induced climate change.

I am

I am an environmental anthropologist. I am deeply involved in two research projects, one regarding the reintroduction of bears into the French Pyrenees, and the other regarding ways of working within and with our human cultures to stop our negative impact on the environment, particularly on climate change.

I am also a shaman.

Working with my guides through the medium of shamanic journeys, I receive messages and counsel that can be shared and used by those who with a desire for the truth... I practice shamanism but I want to clarify one common misunderstanding: while I respect immensely all shamanic cultures including those that are Native American, I am not Native American and do not wish to pretend to be. In fact, I am Celtic with some ancestors who come from the Siberian and Mongolian regions. My initiation into shamanism was through visions of dismemberment similar to those experienced by the Arctic shamanistic cultures.

This blog is dedicated to the educational and shamanic journeys that I undertake and to the teachings that I receive from my guides, both human and spirit. You are free to read, comment or ignore, but please do not judge arbitrarily.

Thank you for visiting and enjoy...

CHINOOK BLESSING LITANY

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This entry was posted on 5/31/2007 8:22 AM and is filed under uncategorized.

I have just ploughed my way through a several international reports on climate change and indigenous responses to climate change. I came across this beautiful and inspiring blessing litany from the Chinook. This is particularly of importance given how close we (the "anti-other") are to pushing all of humanity over the edge of self-extinction (as well as many forms of life as we know it).

I think it is safe to say that we, Westerners, learn more or less from what we see going on around us - schools, media, church, family and neighbors. And we have demonstrated time and time again that we do not learn from our mistakes. I think it is also safe to say that most of our learning depends on money in some way: how much or little we have, and how much the others that want us to learn their teachings have to invest in getting their message across. Simply put, almost everything we learn and everything we do is centered on money - it might well be one of the principal causes of depression, divorce and the breakup of the Western family. Evidently it has great value in our society.

I think that this Chinook Blessing Litany (2006, Ballew & Klosterman, Potential Paths for Native Nations: p. 68 in Climate Change and Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations, Parker, Grossman, Whitesell, Stephenson, Williams, Hardison, Ballew, Burnham, Bushnell, Klosterman; Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute: available online -- beware it is a 12+MB file -- at http://www.evergreen.edu/nwindian/pdf/papers/IndigClimate.pdf  presents an excellent contrast to our way of thinking: this litany has very little to do with money...

TEACH US, AND SHOW US THE WAY
(CHINOOK BLESSING LITANY)

We call upon the earth, our planet home, with its beautiful depths and soaring heights, its vitality and abundance of life, and together we ask that it Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the mountains, the Cascades and the Olympics, the high green valleys and meadows filled with wild flowers, the snows that never melt,the summits of intense silence, and we ask that they Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon, that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields and we ask that they Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the land which grows our food, the nurturing soil, the fertile fields the abundant gardens and orchards, and we ask that they Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the forests, the great trees reaching strongly to the sky with the earth in their roots and the heavens in their branches, the fir and the pine and the cedar, and we ask them to Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the creatures of the fields and forests and the seas, our brothers and sisters the wolves and deer, the eagle and dove, the great whales and dolphin,the beautiful Orca and salmon who share our Northwest home, and we ask them to Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon all those who have lived on this earth,our ancestors and our friends, who dreamed the best for future generations, and upon whose lives our lives are built, and with thanksgiving, we call upon them to Teach us, and show us the Way.

And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred, the presence and power of the Great Spirit of love and truth which flows through all the Universe, to be with us to Teach us, and show us the Way.

 

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