Sitting in a coffee shop writing this, my curiosity gets the best of me as I gaze over the ever-growing number of self help books.

How does one achieve enlightenment through a book?

It seems to me that it’s most always hand-me-down knowledge.

The flow of this knowledge, as I see it, is:

• A person has an enlightenment experience in their life.
• They write a book about it.
• They create and execute a workshop about it.
• Another person takes this workshop.
• That person has a life-altering experience in the workshop.
• They write a book.
• Yet another person reads this book and feels changed by it.

Trickle-down enlightenment, eh?

So often I have had someone tell me that they just read something and it explained to them some puzzle they had been pondering.  Since when did our personal experience become the truth that explains the world for everyone else?

Often I hear people in a meeting quote some “fact” or anecdote as if it explained something to me.  Sometimes, I’ll look these things up and find that they are not corroborated or have been debunked as merely hearsay.

Because they get quoted so often they become part of the truth by which we make meaning of the world.

We give away the power of our own intuition, our ability to tap into the vast storehouse of knowledge out there, in lieu of something written by someone else who believes that they are experiencing the world through their intuition.

What is the reason that we fear our own intuition? Well, we might be wrong.  The human ability to identify, listen to and understand their intuition is “iffy” at best.

The last thing that our ego will accept is us being wrong about anything. So we read a “fact”, accept it as truth and if it turns out to be false, then we can blame the author. We stay free of blame!

Perhaps a more useful approach would be to read a “fact” then spend some time with it, turning and twisting it over in our minds, examining it with our own intuition while asking “Just how true is this for me?”

From that we can make our own explanation of the world, or that is, of the world according to us.

Our intuition is connected to all that is us.  It views everything in light of our preferences, our filters, our desires.

And it is connected to our oneness.  That seems to be a great place to start when I am trying to make meaning of this existence!

Tucked away in a residential neighborhood just off of 89th and Aurora is an amazing little facility that generates a lot of good energy for North Seattle!

Standing Stone Healing and Arts, managed by Veronica Appolonia, is a complex that contains practitioner spaces, two meditation gardens, and a large meeting area that easily handles 50 people.

I was introduced to Standing Stone several years ago (then known as BodySong Healing and Arts) when I attended a Hawaiian shamanism workshop.  I’ve attended several workshops in this facility since then.

One thing that stands out for me is that even though I was less than a half block away from Aurora, I never noticed the street noise in the large meeting room.  It was as if the energy in the room cocooned us from the outside noises!

There are several people practicing out of Standing Stone. Traditional and alternative healing techniques are supported here.  The practitioner offices provide privacy and allow for individuality.

On the constant watch for meeting spaces, the large classroom is a rare find! Various functions are held there from short meetings to weekend workshops.  Free parking is available.

The best way to get a sense of Standing Stone Healing and Arts is to meet with Veronica and ask for a tour of the space.  She is passionate about the mission of Standing Stone to be a healing presence in the community.

Email Veronica at standingstonehealingandarts@gmail.com.

While there, ask Veronica to show you her intuitive stone paintings!

Standing Stone Healing and Arts is definitely worth a visit and a consideration for your next workshop or meeting!

Jennifer at One Gathering

This is an interesting time on our planet.  And I am always on the lookout for ways that people can become connected to communities. People gain strength from their communities.

On October 3rd at the Theater Off Jackson in Seattle, my friend Jennifer Yost will be holding the 4th Annual ‘One Gathering‘, a powerful place to get connected with people and community.

According to Jennifer:

“As people are losing their jobs, homes, cars, and extra luxury items, they are discovering what is really important to them – family; friends; relationships – connection; as well as the essential necessities that were once taken for granted.  It seems that the intense happenings of the world are driving people to make changes within themselves in a deeper manner than ever before.”

“Jennifer Yost, MA, Reiki Master, has been inspired to create a 2.5 hour, multi-sensory program, ‘The One Gathering’, to offer gentle, supportive guidance to transition out of old ways of being, into new ways of perceiving these times many are experiencing. ‘The One Gathering,’ provides entertaining, practical, and useful insight into viewing problems that once seemed like mountains, turn to mole hills, to steadily create a world of peace as a result.”

When people gather together in a group to try to make sense of the world, magic happens!

The 4th Annual “One Gathering” is October 3rd, 4:00pm-6:30pm, at the Theater Off Jackson. Visit www.TheOneGathering.com for more information.

An Indigenous Shaman

This is an interesting culture.  It’s also a young culture compared to many of the cultures on the planet that have thousands of years of history behind them.

One thing we do not have is a shamanic culture.  The original native inhabitants of this country had spiritual and religious roots.  They also had a healer, sage or medicine man (or woman) in their community.

The Europeans who subsequently came here did not bring a shamanic presence with them.  Their concept of a “medicine man” was already influenced by medical and pharmacological knowledge.  Spiritual support was available through local clergy.

People nowadays drawn to shamanism face the interesting task of creating shamanic roots for themselves on which to build their knowledge or practice. This can take a couple of forms.

A person may have an affinity to a particular shamanic culture (i.e. South American Peruvian Shamanism) and devote their studies to reproducing the style and techniques in their practice.

Or a person may study many different cultures and adopt particular techniques from each into their practice. Often this person will start with and build upon the concept of Core Shamanism, an observation that there are various beliefs that exist within most shamanic cultures regardless of geographical location. Core Shamanism was defined by Michael Harner, founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Neo-shamanism is a term used to describe the creation or revival of a shamanic culture.  Most of us doing shamanic work in this country fall into this category.

Out of respect for indigenous cultures that have a history of shamanic initiation, I do not call myself a “shaman”. (OK, “The Crying Shaman” does sound better than “The Crying Neo-Shaman”!). I use a variety of techniques from different shamanic disciplines when I work with people.

Frankly, I like this! Because so many people are working with such varied knowledge and techniques, one day we will be able to describe our Western shamanic culture.  It will be broad and inclusive, taking into account many different belief systems.

Perhaps, then, it will be a common practice for our communities to call upon their local shaman for support!

In September 2010, an interesting event took place at East West Bookshop in Seattle.

Shamanic practitioners from various disciplines gathered together to share their teachings and learn from each other.

This is the brainchild of Jan Ysslestyne who wanted to create a space in which people of different shamanic backgrounds could compare notes about what they do and the philosophies under which they work.

This is an unusual event because of 2 reasons:

1. Shamanic practioners, and indeed, indigenous shamans, are not known for being a gregarious bunch.  They tend to do their work alone and rarely do collaborative projects.

2. Even though Seattle is a highly spiritually charged place, we are still infected with the “my way is better than your way” bug. This again keeps people from working/sharing together.

So it was with delight that I attended this meeting of various practitioners and heard some of their beliefs and stories!

Represented disciplines included Native American, Peruvian, Siberian, Mongolian, Hawaiian, Wiccan, Pagan and someone calling themselves a practitioner of Gaian shamanism.

Jan did a wonderful job of facilitating the group.  She brought several questions for us to consider.

Two questions of note brought up much discussion that will, no doubt, keep us busy for several meetings:

1. How does your discipline define “soul”
2. How does your discipline define “shamanic road (or path)”

It was very interesting hearing how each of us viewed these concepts.  While each of us would say that we believe in a “soul”, we each had a different definition of it.

At the end of the meeting, we all agreed that this was a valuable way to spend our time and would like to meet this way monthly.

Until the next meeting, Jan is working on keeping us connected.  She even gave us homework!

Jan runs a local school for Ulchi (Siberian) shamanism.  If you have an interest in attending a future meeting, please contact her at pathfindercounseling@gmail.com.