But the article titled ‘End of the World Postponed’ by Yahoo News today makes nonetheless a good read. Here’s a brief summary, below which you’ll find a link to the news article:

Good & Bad News for Believers in 2012 Mayan Apocalypse

good news:Mayan “Long Count” calendar may not end on Dec. 21, 2012 (and, by extension, the world may not end along with it).
bad news: if the calendar doesn’t end in December 2012, no one knows when it actually will.

New Perspective

• “A new critique, published as a chapter in the new textbook “Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World” (Oxbow Books, 2010), argues that the accepted conversions of dates from Mayan to the modern calendar may be off by as much as 50 or 100 years.
• That would throw the supposed and over-hyped 2012 apocalypse off by decades and cast into doubt the dates of historical Mayan events.
• “The Mayan calendar was converted to today’s Gregorian calendar using a calculation called the GMT constant, named for the last initials of three early Mayanist researchers. Much of the work emphasized dates recovered from colonial documents that were written in the Mayan language in the Latin alphabet, according to the chapter’s author, Gerardo Aldana, University of California, Santa Barbara professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies.”
• “Later, the GMT constant was bolstered by American linguist and anthropologist Floyd Lounsbury, who used data in the Dresden Codex Venus Table, a Mayan calendar and almanac that charts dates relative to the movements of Venus.
• “He took the position that his work removed the last obstacle to fully accepting the GMT constant,” Aldana said in a statement. “Others took his work even further, suggesting that he had proven the GMT constant to be correct.”

Controversy

But according to Aldana, Lounsbury’s evidence is far from irrefutable:

• “If the Venus Table cannot be used to prove the FMT as Lounsbury suggests, its acceptance depends on the reliability of the corroborating data,” he said. That historical data, he said, is less reliable than the Table itself, causing the argument for the GMT constant to fall “like a stack of cards.”
• Aldana doesn’t have any answers as to what the correct calendar conversion might be, preferring to focus on why the current interpretation may be wrong. Looks like end-of-the-world theorists may need to find another ancient calendar on which to pin their apocalyptic hopes.

Over to YOU

What’s your take on this matter? Are you prepared for 2012? What does that mean to you?

Source: Yahoo News

More info: Mayan Calendar and 2012 prophecy:

The Mayan calendars are methods of measuring time that were developed by the ancient Mayans. They are rather impressive and have evoked the curiosity of many astronomy and/or archaeology
experts. They have been studied extensively and they appear to be interpreted well. However, there is one calendar, developed by the ancient Mayans that has caused a great deal of controversy and frustration. The interpretation of the Mayan Long Calendar has left a surprisingly widespread and significant number of people on the cusp of panic.

The so-called “Maya (or Mayan) Calendar” is actually only one of four calendars developed by the ancient Mayans. The calendar that is widely known as the “Maya Calendar” is actually the Mayan Long Count Calendar. All of the Mayan calendars served a purpose. The purpose of the Long Count Calendar was to measure time well into the future or past. Quite simply, it was used to measure hundreds or thousands of years, as opposed to the days, weeks and months in our modern calendars. The Mayan Long Count Calendar is round and covered in ancient Mesoamerican hieroglyphs. Each of these hieroglyphs represents a specific time frame. These are arranged to count the passage of time in multiples of 13 and 20.

Experts have deduced that the Mayan Long Count Calendar began on August 11 or 13, 3114 BC. Based on the hieroglyphs on the calendar, it has been calculated that the calendar ends on either December 21 or 23, 2012. Therefore, the amount of time that the Mayan Long Count Calendar measures is roughly 5,125 years. It is the belief of many that “doomsday” is going to occur on the last day of the Mayan Long Count Calendar. In other words, they believe the world will end on December 21 or 23, 2012. Well, most of them believe it is going to be December 21. What exactly is going to happen is not certain.

Source: Associated Content

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Today I want to highlight and explain the animal medicine contained in the heron.

I have learned a lot of native American animal wisdom from Ted Andrews’ book called ‘Animal-Speak’. It is a great reference book on animal medicine. In particular, today, I’m referring to the section ‘Dictionary of bird totems’, in an attempt to give you some insights into how animal medicine works, and within this context, an understanding of the powers of the Great Blue Heron.

Animal Medicine

When you begin to work with animals for healing purposes, examine them carefully. If you choose to have a bird in your totem, then look at their qualities as well as their behaviors. Most importantly: What is unique about your animal’s behavior? This is your primary clue to its significance for you as a totem animal in your life.

In addition, look at its color and the symbolic meaning of the color. Look at its size, but do not assume that larger animals mean more powerful animals. Look at its shape and how his shape is used in his activities, and the role various parts of his body play in the functions he performs. How does it fly? Where is it from? (look for the symbolism of the place) When is it most often seen? (periods of powerful animal energy) What kind of sounds does it make? What does prefer to eat? How does it breed and what kind of environment does it live in?

Beyond your own observations, consider animal myths, that have been created based upon these aspects. They offer spiritual insight and understanding of the significance of the animal in your life.

Animal Medicine: Great Blue Heron

Now that we know a bit how to study the animals for healing, let’s focus on the bird that is currently guiding one of my clients: the great blue heron.

The Heron – In General

HERON’S MOST SIGNIFICANT ESSENCE: aggressive self-determination and self-reliance

ENERGETIC PRIME TIME – FULL OF POWER: Spring

Great Blue Heron, Everglades National Park, Unesco World Heritage Site, Florida, USA Photo by Ethel Davies Photo for purchase fr. Art.com

Ted Andrews points out that “There are many variations of herons, including bitterns and egrets. Storks and cranes should not be confused with them.

Herons are part of a group of birds called ‘waders’. It is a bird of the marshlands and shallow waters. All waders have similar physical characteristics – long, thin legs, long necks, and sharp bills. These physical characteristics are important to understand for those who have a heron as a totem.

Legs enable animals and people to move about on the earth. They are symbols of balance, and they represent an ability to progress and evolve. Also the longer the legs, the deeper the water the heron will feed in. The deeper life can be explored.

The long thin legs of the heron reflect that you don’t need great massive pillars to remain stable, but you must be able to stand on your won. This is especially significant for those with a totem of the great blue heron, as it is a lone hunter.

When it feeds, it stands in the water, reflecting a connection to the earth – while implying the exploration of other dimensions on the earth (water element).

It is important for anyone with a heron totem to explore various activities and dimensions of Earth life. On the surface, this may seem a form of dabbling, but those with heron totems are wonderfully successful at being the traditional ‘Jack of all trades’.

This ability enables them to follow their own path. Most people will never be able to live the way heron people do. It is not a structured way, and does not seem to have stability and security to it. It is, though, just a matter of perspective. There is security in heron medicine, for it gives the ability to do a variety of tasks. It one way does not work, then another will. This, heron people seem to inherently know.

Heron people do no seem to need a lot of people in their life, nor do they feel pressured to keep up with the Joneses, or be traditional in their life roles. The only time they gather in colonies is during the breeding season. They stand out in their uniqueness, and they know how to snatch and take advantage of things and events that the average person would not even bother with.

The Great Blue Heron

The great blue heron is considered the kind of the marsh, although the short-eared owl has been known to re-adjust a heron’s point of view. It is the tallest of the herons, and when it flies, its head is folded back in a flat S-shaped loop. This reflects the innate wisdom of being able to maneuver through life and control its life circumstances. It reflects a need for those with this totem to follow their own innate wisdom and path of self-determination. You know what is best for you and should follow it, rather than the prompting of others.

The great blue heron in flight is powerful, and its legs and head are held in a straight line. It uses a slow stalking stride when hunting. When it spies a fish, it spears its prey with its sharp beak and with quick speed. Again, it reflects an aggressive movement towards opportunities that present themselves.

Other Herons

The green heron is actually more of a slate blue, and it has orange legs with are distinctive. This color combination reflects an innate balance at living life in its own unique style. It flies silently, and is most often seen in flight at night and at dusk. Like all herons, it is a marsh bird.

There are distinctive seasonal changes in the color of this bird. The irises of the eyes will turn from yellowish to bright orange, as will the legs. Meditating on this color will provide a lot of insight as to its role in your life.”

From:
Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small by Ted Andrews

Animal Speak: Highly Recommended

Needless to say that I highly recommend the book, as I refer to it weekly. The book includes exercises to create your own totem and other animal medicine techniques. A good chunk of the book is a comprehensive dictionary of animal, bird and reptile symbolism. In this article I referred to the Dictionary of bird totems.

Other Animal Medicine

What’s next in this series of animal medicine articles? You ask. Which bird or animal do you wish to learn more about?

Personally, besides the herons, I have also spotted lots of hummingbirds and dragonflies during my healing treatments, so I will write about these as well, at some stage.

Now over to you: What animal do YOU see ‘all the time’? What animal inspires you?

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None of this is to suggest we shouldn’t be cautious or aware or concerned, that we shouldn’t be proactive in caring for ourselves or our children, and taking normal precautions for health and safety. But simple things like wearing seatbelts and washing hands will do more to protect you than refusing to talk to strangers or carrying a gun.

“To fear is one thing,” says author Katherine Paterson, who wrote Jacob Have I Loved (HarperTrophy, 1990). “To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.”

Nobel Prize Laureate Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic, suggested, in 1950 when we were dealing with all sorts of still familiar concerns, there are two ways of coping with fear:

“… one is to diminish the external danger, and the other is to cultivate Stoic endurance. The latter can be reinforced, except where immediate action is necessary, by turning our thoughts away from the cause of fear. The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itself degrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. “

In “We are Not Afraid,” Homer Hickam, author Rocket Boys (Delta, 2000) (which was made into the film, October Sky) , drew on his experiences growing up in the brave and resilient community of Coalwood, West Virginia, a town were the threat of death was constant, but fear was not. He said Coalwood residents take a four pronged approach to fearlessness that he sums up in something like a set of mantras:

• We are proud of who are
• We stand up for what we believe
• We keep our families together
• We trust in God but rely on ourselves

Hickam also says something profoundly Buddhist early in his book. He says that despite the ills of our society, we largely live among compassionate, kind and optimistic people who are striving to do good. “As an American,” he says, in a line that would make the Dali Lama proud, “you have a duty to be happy. It says right there in our Declaration of Independence that we have god given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So do your duty. Learn how to be happy and keep this in mind: You can’t be happy unless you stop being afraid.”

Senator. John McCain (R-Ariz.) puts it less poetically: “Get on the damn elevator! Fly on the damn plane! Calculate the odds of being harmed by a terrorist! It’s still about as likely as being swept out to sea by a tidal wave. Suck it up, for crying out loud. You’re almost certainly going to be OK. And in the unlikely event you’re not, do you really want to spend your last days cowering behind plastic sheets and duct tape? That’s not a life worth living, is it?”

Fear, Hickam says, is mostly a habit.

“The habit of fear and dread,” he writes, “can be compared to having a chronic disease. Some of us have gotten so used to having it, we don’t even know we’re infected. A symptom of this disease is that we walk around with slumped shoulders and drag one heavy foot after another. We dread getting out of bed in the morning, certain that only awful things are going to happen when we do. We never have anything good to say about anything, and that includes ourselves. We don’t like the way we look. We feel victimized. We’re envious of others and assume the world is filled with meanness. In fact, we think the world is a terrible place. We moan and groan. We eventually lose our family and friends. We become sorry sights and we don’t even know why. Worse, the disease we have is infectious. Innocent people we encounter are susceptible to catching fear and dread from us, including our children. We know something’s wrong, but we don’t know how to be cured.’

One way to rid yourself of this infection, says Hickam, is to “stand up straight and ….be proud of who you are.” To do that, he says, it’s necessary to know who you are, and how you’re connected to your family and your community. That involves talking to family members, to community members – and passing their stories on to your children and other family members. To be unafraid, you have to be connected to something larger than yourself, says Hickam.

The habit of fear and dread also causes timidity, says Hickam, a tendency to avoid confrontation, especially in defending our opinion. That one’s probably not quite as big an issue here for us – we have lots of opinions and fling them around easily here. But how about “out there”? “If you act as if what you think isn’t important, it’s the same as believing *you* aren’t important,” writes Hickam. “An attitude like that can squeeze the life right out of anybody.”

One of the best ways to overcome that aspect of fear and dread, he says, is “to take up for those who can’t take up for themselves.”

“There’s always someone who needs you help. How can you be afraid if you’re the protector of someone else in a dangerous world? Sometimes, just acting brave is enough to make you brave. “

But there’s more to it than just faking it till you make it. Hickam says you should also teach that person to stand up for himself, too, so that he can keep his dignity. Hickam cautions that standing up for what you believe “does not mean that every time you feel you’re being slighted, you should erupt with loud, hateful behavior. Standing up for what you believe has nothing to do with being violent or being obnoxious because of some perceived oppression. This attitude ahs to do with a quiet determination to have your opinion explained and heard. To be effective, it also has to be respectful and fair. … The most effective way of standing up is always going to be the nonviolent way, quiet but determined.”

Keeping our families together can actually be one of the harder tools for fearlessness, observes Hickam, but it’s a vital one. “An intact, functioning family works to not only provide a loving refuge, but also fills in the cracks of our own personalities. Where one family member is weak, another is strong. A cohesive group is always stronger than an individual, no matter how smart he is, or how many muscles he ahs or anything else. The family can be a shield against the world, and also the springboard to a better life.”

And finally, Hickam says trusting God but relying on yourself is a sure way to rise above fear. “The people of Coalwood were against calling on God any time they needed help,” he recalled. “For one thing, it was considered impolite. God had a lot of things to worry about after all, without including everything that got in the way of one particular human being. The way folks in the town saw it, God had already provided them with most of what they needed to get past a scrape, including their own good common sense.” Mostly, he said, they reserved their prayers for thanks.

While others often ponder why bad things happen to good people, Hickam ponders something he says as more amazing: “Why, in a universe and a world where everything must work hard to simply survive, did that which we think of as decent and fine get embedded into our souls? Why is that we crave goodness, seek out honesty and strive to be honorable, even when evil is so much easier? How is that evil, the desire to destroy and hurt others, hasn’t been the driving force in our species and our world and our universe? Some great goodness is out there, and it’s here, too. It is everywhere.”

We’re two parts, says Hickam, “one spiritual and the other physical. Both are important. The design of the human body and mind is evidence of that great truth. We have to trust in the spirit that is everywhere around us and in us. But we also must use our hands and minds to keep our families safe and build a better world.”

A world in which we are not afraid.

“We are not afraid.”

Say it slowly, and savor it, says Hickam, like we should savor the world and each moment. This sacred time of year honors the timeless changes of our lives, and offers us a rare opportunity to look death in the eye and give it a wink and a nod.

“There is no reason to fear life or dread what might be coming your way,” writes Hickam. “Every hour of every day, recall all the people who came before you, all those who make up who you are, and stand tall and be proud. No matter how perilous the times, they will always be with you…”

Bertrand Russell would agree. “We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world,” he said. ” — its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. …We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create.”

As Samhain reminds us, death is not an end, but a transition, a time to look forward to new beginnings, when we will be born anew as the wheel of the year turns on and on.

And there is nothing to be afraid of.

By Guest Blogger:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theresa_Willingham

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“Until 2001,” he writes, ” far fewer Americans were killed in any grouping of years by all forms of international terrorism than were killed by lightning, and almost none of those terrorist deaths occurred within the United States itself. Even with the Sept. 11 attacks included in the count, the number of Americans killed by international terrorism since the late 1960s (which is when the State Department began counting) is about the same as the number of Americans killed over the same period by lightning, accident-causing deer, or severe allergic reaction to peanuts.”

Further, Meuller noted that transportation researchers at the University of Michigan calculated than “an American’s chance of being killed in one nonstop airline flight is about one in 13 million (even taking the Sept. 11 crashes into account). To reach that same level of risk when driving on America’s safest roads — rural interstate highways — one would have to travel a mere 11.2 miles.”

Driving is, in fact, one of the most dangerous things we do, and yet most of us are quite willing to accept that risk. Author Bruce Schneier, in Beyond Fear (Springer, 2^nd edition 2006), observes that, “In America, automobiles cause 40,000 deaths every year; that’s the equivalent of a full 727 crashing every day and a half — 225 total in a year. As a society, we effectively say that the risk of dying in a car crash is worth the benefits of driving around town. But if those same 40,000 people died each year in fiery 727 crashes instead of automobile accidents, you can be sure there would be significant changes in the air passenger systems. Similarly, studies have shown that both drivers and passengers in SUVs are more likely to die in accidents than those in compact cars, yet one of the major selling points of SUVs is that the owner feels safer in one.”

Many of our fears, of late, involve children – everything from being afraid for them to being afraid *of* them. Surveys have found that kidnapping tops parents’ list of concerns for their children. Yet the biggest safety issue for kids is basic simple safety measures in homes and public places. The risk of kidnapping by strangers remains incredibly small – under 1% of the nation’s more than 64 million children are seized by non-family members and actually returned. A far smaller number die.

And those killer Columbine type kids? They’re statistically almost non-existent. 80% of our nation’s counties never experience a juvenile homicide.

But are things getting worse? “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know, “said Harry Truman.

“A new army of 6 million men are being mobilized against us, an army of delinquents. Juvenile delinquency has increased at an alarming rate and is eating at the heart of America,” declared a Juvenile court judge – in 1946.

There are “predatory beasts” on the streets, hordes of teens and preteens running wild in city streets, “gnawing away at the foundations of society,” said a commentator – in the 19th century. In 1850 in New York alone, there were more than 200 gang wars fought mostly by teenage boys.

The youngest American ever executed for murder was 12 years old. She killed the baby in her care – in 1786.

So how did we get so scared? Our fears, suggests Glassner, are carefully and repeatedly fed by anyone who wishes to create fear, often by manipulating words, facts, news, sources or data, in order to induce certain personal behaviors, justify governmental actions or policies (at home or abroad), keep people consuming, elect certain politicians, or distract the public’s attention from allegedly more urgent social issues like poverty, social security, unemployment, crime or pollution. The most common techniques for social haunting include:

• Careful selection and omission of news (some relevant facts are shown and some are not); (reporting that the number one problem teachers faced in 1940 was talking and gum chewing, and in 1990, pregnancy, suicide and drug abuse; distorted from a National Center for Education Statistics survey inquiring with principals, not teachers, about crimes – when actually asked, teachers today site problems parent apathy and lack of text books as their biggest problems)
• Distortion of statistics or numbers (declaring 800,000 children missing each year, but failing to break those statistics down meaningfully)
• Transformation of single events into social epidemics; (going “postal” isn’t a postal service epidemic – that remains one of the safest occupations)
• Corruption and distortion of words or terminology according to specific goals;
• Stigmatization of minorities, especially when associated with criminal acts or degrading behavior;
• Generalization of complex and multifaceted situations;
• Causal inversion (turning a cause into an effect or vice-versa).

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In the early 1990s, there was a dramatic increase in the public perception of crime as the most important problem facing the country – 52% of Americans, in 1994, felt that crime was of utmost concern. Based upon data from 1978 through 1998, results suggest that this “big scare” was more a network TV news scare than a scare based upon the real world of crime. The television news alone accounted for almost four times more variance in public perceptions of crime as our most important problem, than did actual crime rates, which – believe it or not – have actually gone down in the last fifteen years.

Yes – down: For the 10-year trend, from 1996 to 2005, the FBI reports that violent crime declined nearly 18%. Murder decreased 15% in 2005 compared to 1996. In this same time period, robbery offenses decreased 22%. Even motor vehicle theft decreased, down more than 11% in 2005 compared with 1996.

So just what are we so afraid of? If you’ve managed to avoid the crime scare, modern media has some other worries for you: How about dying in an airplane accident? Getting cancer from …well, anything at all? Virulent breeds of superbugs resistant to every known antibiotic? Food safety? Organ trafficking? Killer bees? Having your child kidnapped? Hooked on drugs? Or finding a razor blade in their Halloween candy? Lead in toys?

For what it’s worth, the Halloween razor blade thing never happened, and most of those other concerns are overblown as well. Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear (Basic Books, 2000), calls these “pseudodangers”, and says the media, advertisers, politicians and various companies and organizations thrive on them and the money (or votes, which ultimately translates to money) that your fears bring them. Pseudodangers, suggests Glassner, represent an opportunity for us to avoid facing problems head-on. Rather than address – or perhaps, better said, because of our inability to address — poverty, we fear the criminals that poverty can create. Our inability to address foreign policy issues renders us terrified of terrorism.

“In just about every contemporary American scare,” says Glassner, “rather than confront disturbing shortcomings in society, the public discussion centers on disturbed individuals.”

Our fears, however, are often far worse than our realities.

According to John Meuller, the Woody Hayes Chair of national security policy and professor of political science at Ohio State University, we’re suffering from a national false sense of insecurity.

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At its core, Samhain is about the night when the old God dies and the crone Goddess mourns him deeply for the next six weeks. The popular image of her as the old Halloween hag stirring her cauldron comes from the Celtic belief that all dead souls return to her cauldron of life, death and rebirth to await reincarnation.

Despite efforts by the Christian church to recast the sabbat, or seasonal festival, by turning it into a day of feasting and prayer for saints (All Hallow Eve, preceding all Saints Day, is still one of the holiest days in Catholicism), Samhain lore and practice remained popular and the church was forced to diabolize it as a night “boiling with evil spirits.”

Masters of cultural blending, the church declared that the evil spirits were dispelled only the ringing of church bells on All Saints Day. Although terror has nothing to do with this pagan holiday, the idea of Samhain being a night of unleashed evil took hold in the collective mind.

The affect of this unfortunate misinterpretation is that a great opportunity to reflect on life and death, on the endless cycle of seasons, and ultimately, on confronting and overcoming that which frightens us, has become lost. Halloween has become an extremely commercial holiday, second only to Christmas in decorating and candy sales, or a celebration of the macabre, leading to fearful rejection by religiously conservative groups, or wanton abandon by those happy to unleash their versions of the hounds of hell.

Very few people however, seem to take the opportunity Halloween presents to face our fears, which is interesting – or maybe understandable — America appears to be one of the most frightened places on earth. According to a NY Times poll in 2006, nearly half of Americans feel “somewhat uneasy or in danger.” Compared with five years previous, 39% of Americans said they feel less safe now, while only 14 % said they feel safer.

While there don’t seem to be any exact figures, turn on the television at almost any given time, and it’s clear that there’s been an increase, in recent years, in the number of crime dramas and crime related news coverage. We’ve got show like the venerable America’s Most Wanted reminding us that violent predators are loose in every city; CSI solving dramatic murders in at least three states; 20/20, PrimeTime and 48 Hours, with their companionable reporters warning us, with great concern for our well-being, about scams, crooks and thugs of every variety; and horrific slasher films, available on cable, right in our own homes and enhanced with the best blood-letting computer graphics to bring it all home.

Click here for part 2 of the article

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Shadow dancing is a Shaman’s art. While a healer works just with the Light to help heal the self and others, a shaman is different. A shaman works not only with the light, but also the dark forces. Shaman has the ability to conquer shadows, like fear, insanity, loneliness, self-importance, addictions, etc.

Shamanism is a term used for traditions and rituals to understand and communicate with the spirit world. It is based on the understanding that the tangible world is pervaded by intangible forces or spirits who affect humanity. Seen as such, shamanism has existed throughout the world since prehistoric times.

There is a wide range of types of shamanic traditions. There are however common traits and beliefs. These include:

The Role of Spirits

Spirits can play important roles in human lives. They can be either good or bad. Animals play an important role, acting as omens and message-bearers, as well as representations of animal spirit guides.

The Role of Shamans

Shamans are unique members of the community in that they are healers and gurus. They engage various processes & techniques to induce trance, incl. drumming, dancing, singing, meditating, and taking hallucinating drugs. During shamanic rituals, the shaman is an intermediary between the physical and spritual worlds. His spirit may leave the body to enter into the supernatural world. ‘Shamanic ecstasy’ is the terms used for the state in which the shaman transcends.

A shaman works with Spirit to benefit the community. A shaman has the ability to diagnose & cure illness, and to alleviate suffering. Shamans require specialized knowledge or abilities. Shamans are often organized into full-time ritual or spiritual associations, like priests.

How Shamanism Works

A shaman’s work is accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a relationship with spirits, seeking their assistance and/or control. Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, healing & hunting results; doing divination, dream interpretation & astral projection; and traveling to upper and lower worlds.

Some anthropologists object to the term “shamanism” being expanded to fit any healer from any traditional society. Their argument is that it produces a false unity between cultures and creates a false idea of an initial human religion predating all others. However, some others say that these anthropologists simply fail to recognize the commonalities between otherwise diverse traditional societies.

To learn more about shamanism:

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“I had another very nice visit from my Shaman friend, who gave this very touching speech. I have blown up the golden rules and plan on reading them every day to keep my humble, Love, Peach and Understanding. I will see you in the new Garden Of Eve we are creating with our positive energy.”

=== SHAMAN’S GOLDEN RULES ===

Father and Mother

Many, many light years ago, he traveled the universe enjoying all that he had created. He found beauty in everything and felt love in all that existed. Yet something was missing and then he saw her in a dream. She was so exquisite and so delicate. She exuded energy, and healed all that she held. Her colors were like none he had ever seen. Her passion was so deep and alluring he knew he had to have her in his life.

For the next seven days he work on his masterpiece duplicating what he saw in his dream. Every detail sprang forth from his fingertips as if it were a part of him. When she was finished he knew he had only to breath life into her and she would be his forever. Sitting there he pulled all his energy to the center of his being, he went deep inside himself to his core and unlocked his heart. He opened it and poured forth his love, covering her and letting it seep deep into her being.

She opened her eyes and he knew from that day forward he would never be the same. Life sprang from her very being, pure clean liquid poured out from deep, deep inside her womb. He reach down and took her hand and in a second he knew they would have many, many children together.

Their children came forward, each one of them so different and so unique they taught their mother and father to appreciate the little things in life. Laughter filled the air as they played in the paradise their father had created. His guidance and compassion made them strong. Their mother’s love feed them and kept them from harm. They went forth and multiplied spreading their mother and fathers love to all their children, teaching them the ways of the oldest ones.

The golden rules they abided by were simple.

Show respect for anything older than you, show compassion for anyone who has less than you, leave all that you touch clean and pure, put in as much as you take out, keep the door to your heart unlocked, and always remember who brought you into this world.

Living by these simple rules seemed so easy and left everyone who followed them happy and content. Yet somehow as time went on some people began to ignore these basic rules. The distance they created from their mother and fathers original intent created a distance inside them. The further away they got the unhappier they became. The unhappier they became the angrier they grew. Soon they were fighting amongst them selves blaming each other for their unhappiness. They began abusing their mother, showing no respect for anything older than themselves, they had no compassion, locked their hearts away, poisoning all that they touched, taking so much more than they put in and forgetting who had brought them into this world.

Their mother and father stood by and watch with sadness in their eyes as there children ran adrift. The children, feeling like lost souls were unsure of what to do so they got down on their knees and prayed.

“Heavenly Father forgive us for what we have done, in our ignorance we have abused our Mother Earth and in doing so have abused our self’s and the home you have made for us. Please tell us what we must do to make it right.” From the heavens boomed a voice loud and clear. “It is simple, just follow the golden rules and the rest will take care of itself.”

“Show respect for anything older than you, show compassion for anyone who has less than you, leave all that you touch clean and pure, put in as much as you take out, keep the door to your heart unlocked, and always remember who brought you into this world.”

This came to me from the old Shaman I travel with. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Many moons ago lived a young man. He was very wise in the ways of the world. He traveled through out the land in search of his purpose in life. Looking under every rock, in every river, through every wind that blew by him, and even into the sunshine itself he looked but he could not find his purpose in life anywhere.

Finally overcome by his frustration he sat down and spoke directly to God,
“I will not move from this spot until I find my purpose in life” he said.

God spoke back; “you drink the water from the river that runs past to help nourish you do you not?”
“Yes I do” the young man answered.

“You take in the energy from the sun that shines on you to keep you moving do you not?”
“Yes I do.”

“You also breathe deep into your lungs the air around you to stay alive do you not?”
Again came “Yes I do.”

“You eat the food that comes from the earth you stand on to help you live do you not?”
“Yes I do.”

Was all the young man could say. “Can you not then see how all that surrounds you lives to service you? The water, the air, the energy, the earth all exist so that you may exist.

Why then do you not understand that your purpose in life is to return this gift and to service them, as theirs is to service you? Get up go forth and fulfill your purpose in life serve all that serves you.”

I wrote this the day I decided to start H.E.A.L. (Heal Earth and Life) 2005

To my lord and savior
To all my best friends
Who have traveled these roads
Again and Again
I dedicate my passion
To travel within
And there I will stand
Ready to explore
What this life brings
Higher and higher
Our mission it soars
To the stars and to heaven
And back to the Earth
We lay our hands on her
And Heal we do because
If she does not breath
Neither do we.

If you would like a free copy of my just published book H.E.A.L. please write me at Ziggy@healchile.com
And thanks again for all you do.
Love, Peace and Understanding
Ziggy

The RAVEN is in our midst to give us messages from the beyond. One of the people in our World Healing group saw the RAVEN during his meditation, and asked me for an explanation of this vision. In short: Expect magic, shape-shifting and creation!

I can see four aspects of the Raven that can be helpful in healing:

1. The RAVEN is a messenger of the great spirit-realm. He is a trickster who brings light and life. In many native traditions, the trickster is essential to contact with the sacred, and to creation – birth. In the folklore of the Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest, the RAVEN lived in the land of spirits.
Raven Meditation
How can this connection to the spirit-world & the access to the sacred be used creatively in your life?

2. Trickster as he is, the RAVEN transformed himself into a white bird to charm the maiden so he could steal the sun, moon, stars, fresh water and fire. Then he brought all these to the people so they did no longer have to live without.

Raven Meditation
How can you use the RAVEN’s ability to become other animals and speak their languages? How can you use its ability to shape-shift your life or your being?

3. The charming RAVEN is famed for his amorous behavior, reflecting his strong creative life force to which he has access. This creative life force can be used to work the magic of spiritual laws upon the physical plane.

Raven Meditation
What would you like to do as the magician of your life?
How would you like to use the creative life force?
How can the state of the magician enable you to help others?

Visualize going into the void to stir sacred energies to manifest that which you most need.

4. The RAVEN is a very smart bird. He is playful, and an excellent tools- user. They are not easy pray for other animals/birds.

Raven Meditation
Visualize stirring the magic of life without fear. Have fun!

Sources: I was enchanted by the story of the RAVEN on my first visit to Seattle, a decade ago. Beyond this, my greatest sources of information in this realm are: Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small. (In my ‘Books for Healers’ library, look for shamanism.) and Wikipedia.