Shamanism & Medicine for the Earth

Here is our latest Shamanism Canada-Medicine for the Earth newsletter! Enjoy…with love and light from Martha.
To view a larger version click “Medicine Spring 2009″ below.

Medicine Spring 2009

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“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do it whatever way I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. i rejoice in life for it’s own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”- George Bernard Shaw

Are you interested in connecting with people who care about environmental sustainability, spirituality and social justice, the biggest challenges and opportunities of our time?

Last April while in Montreal I attended an Awakening the Dreamer Symposium (see post http://www.shamanismcanada.com/blog/2008/05/april-2008-news/)  I did not know at the time that I would become much more involved in the symposium!

One of the outcomes for me attending the symposium, was a desire to share the information with my community: to inspire my community in “bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Planet Earth”  the mission of the symposium.

If you are interested in creating New Dreams for your community and for our Planet please join us at 100 Ottawa Ave. at the Blue Canoe in South River, Ontario May 9th from 10-4 p.m.  Participants are invited to contact our Northern Edge office 800-953-3343, northernedgealgonquin@gmail.com to register($20 suggested donation and bring your own paperless lunch:)  There is also an Awaken the Dreamer facilitator training, at the end of April an hour from Toronto, that I will be participating in.

Martha and Leslie at Upaya

I recently had the pleasure of meeting ‘Lynne Twist‘, who is a co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance, the organization that offers the Awakening the Dreamer symposiums around the world.  I was in Santa Fe, NM with my friend Leslie, at the Upaya Zen Center participating in a workshop with Lynne called ‘Fundraising from the Heart’.  The workshop is based on her inspirational book ‘The Soul of Money‘ which is about transforming our relationship with money.

Lynne Twist is a phenomenal facilitator.  In my experience, Spirit moves through her like the wind and her high energy and passion for life is infectious!   She has inspired me to ensure my torch is burning as brightly as possible, like Bernard Shaw invites us to do !

May the energy of spring bring clarity of purpose as we begin planting  seeds our new dreams.  With love and gratitude.  Martha

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‘From Dark Side of the Light Chasers’ by Debbie Ford
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,” said Jung, “but by making the darkness conscious.”

Can you recall a time you were triggered by someone else’s behaviour? Intense feelings such as jealousy, anger, and resentment towards another are indications that the shadow is present. The shadow represents the aspects of ourselves that we do not wish to look at or claim. When we choose not to take ownership of our own ugliness, selfishness, greediness or laziness, we project these qualities onto others in the form of judgment. Many of us would rather run when in a conflict with another because this is where the many faces of the shadow show up. It is much easier to play the blame and shame game than it is to face our own shadow. I have witnessed many conflicts happening around me recently, and have been struggling with how I can be of assistance in bringing peace to these conflicts. I lay in bed one evening asking for guidance from the Helping Spirits around the conflicts that were presenting themselves.

This is the dream I had that night…
Shadow Dream: I was walking down a dark road at night in a busy city. There were other people with me. I saw a white van down the road, and a dark male abducting a woman, dragging her into the back of the van. No one else saw this but me, even though they were with me. My eyes met the abductor’s eyes, and I reached for my cell phone to call 911.

I continue walking down the same busy street and a gunshot is fired next to my face. The man had come up behind me and fired the shot as a warning, killing someone else. He whispered into my ear “I know you saw what I did and now I’m going to have to kill you”. He then disappeared.

I did not experience a deep sense of fear and continue walking down the same road. The man abducts me, and my hands are tied. I do not resist and surrender to the situation. Before bringing me into the van, we sit on a bench along the sidewalk. He begins to tell me his story, and how he is feeling empty and lost, as though something is missing. I look deep into his eyes and say “Do you know what I do? I work to help heal people’s souls”. Suddenly his dark shadowy face begins to melt exposing his innocence and vulnerability…and then I awoke!
What can we learn about the Shadow from a Shamanic perspective? The Helping Spirits can help us face our shadow and own the aspects of ourselves that we fear while embracing the gifts that lie beyond.

Home Practice

• Journey to the dark side of the moon, to learn about the nature of the shadow and what gifts lie beyond it.

• Journey with your Helping Spirit back through the threads of time bringing healing to an aspect of yourself that desires attention.

The Story of Uncle
I recently had the pleasure of meeting of Angaangaq an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder (see photo to right) whose family belongs to the traditional healers of the Far North from Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland. His name means “the man who looks like his uncle” and he is affectionately called ‘Uncle’ by many. I attended an intensive weekend with Uncle called ‘Returning to the Sacred Fire’ in Orillia, Ontario where Uncle shared a teaching from the Eskimo-Kalaallit people about ‘Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man’. Uncle invites us to travel the distance from our minds to our hearts bringing about personal transformation and global healing for the times to come.

An ancient prophecy that is told by Uncle’s Elders is that one day the Sacred Fire will return home to the people on the Top of the World. July 16-19, 2009 there will be a Fire and Ice Ceremony in Greenland focusing on the significance of the melting of the Big Ice. Indigenous peoples from the Four Directions will ceremoniously bring ashes from their Sacred Fires to the people on the Top of the World and together with the newly grown trees of Greenland, a single fire will be lit melting the ice in the heart of man.

Other News
July 10-14th-Mandaza Augustine Kandemwa will be visiting the Edge (see photo to left). He will be available for private appointments and participating in various ceremonies. Please stay tuned for details on our website, http://www.ShamanismCanada.com.

March 6-8th-There is availability in our upcoming Journey Within: Basic Shamanism. Learn Shamanic Journeying for the purpose of problem solving and restoring spiritual health and power. Please call our office to register, toll free 800-953-3343 or local 705-386-1595!

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Things have been moving at ‘winters pace’ around here lately. Yesterday morning the mercury read -35 degrees and everything was laying pretty low waiting for the morning sun to break the deep freeze that has set in the last couple of days. Imagine being one of the many animals that live in the forests here, what would you be doing in these temperatures. It made me think of the Native Algonquin people who are the original habitants of this land. Traditionally this area including Algonquin Park was utilized by small family groups who would break from the larger villages and spread out across this bountiful land to hunt for the winter. Would they be ready for the winter to transition into spring? What kind of shelters would they be living in? What would thier daily routines be like? These people blended with the landscape and were a natural part of the eco-system. The original caretakers of this land. I was thankful for these people who went before us. How can we follow in thier footsteps? How thankful are we for the gifts and comforts that we have in this day and age? How can I be the most effective caretaker of this land? What gifts and visions do I have for the future? Just some of the questions that I asked myself as I walked across the frozen lake towards the Edge. Today is a beautiful day, a new day. May we walk our paths in a sacred manner for the future generations.

Alexis Burnett

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Tired after a long day at the office I drove to North Bay at 8:30 p.m. last night to get my son Tim, who was performing in an Arts Fest. Driving conditions were not great, with a lot of snow falling and black ice on the highway. It is an hour drive to North Bay from our office.

On our return home I saw what appeared to be a car flipped over in the snowbank on the opposite side of the highway. I could barely see one red tail light. It was late and there were not many cars on the road, so I turned left heading the other direction until I came to the overturned vehicle.

Two men had just emerged from the car, and were quite shaken up. They had hit a patch of black ice. Their vehicle was a wreck! I gave them my phone to call 911 and offered for them to sit in my car for warmth until the police arrived. I was not the only one to stop. There were others that stopped to ask if anyone needed help. The police came about 10 minutes later.

When the police arrived, my son and I started to drive away. We drove over something and we heard a noise in our wheels. I thought it was a chunk of ice in the wheel well. The noise got worse and worse and we made our way to the closed gas station where there was a large flood light, to take a closer look. It was part of the fender of the car that had flipped. This is not great news. We unknowingly drove over it when we stopped. Now we were in a pickle, because it was not easy to remove. We tried tugging and moving the car back and forth and it was most certainly jammed.

After 20 minutes of attempting to get this object out of my wheel well, a man stopped his car next to ours in the closed gas station asking if we needed help. He took a look and asked me to turn the wheel to the left and to our amazement, it popped out! Well, I guess that was my payback for stopping and assisting the others!

We continued on our drive and passed several other flipped over cars and flashing lights. It was a frightening night for driving indeed. We finally came to our home town and started down our road. Unfortunately, it had not yet been plowed, and my little Prius was slipping and sliding away. I was doing my best to keep it on track, when 10 minutes from home a snowbank swallowed the passenger tires and pulled us in! We were so close!

It was getting quite late by now, 12 a.m. and I had been up since 6. Exhausted and not in my best humour we popped open the trunk and got out the usual supplies….a shovel, a warm pair of gloves, my headlamp, and two tire grips to place under the tires to give them traction.

We dug a trench to free up the wheels from the snowbank, and put the grips in place. The wheels spun. We moved back and forth and back and forth, but to no avail. My 6 ft 250 lb son gave the car the best push he could, but we could not get out of the bank.

The choices before us were: start walking into the blowing snow for home, or stay put and hope someone will come along at 1 a.m. in the morning on a road that is not very well traveled during the day! Oh, did I mention we live beyond phone/electricity or cell phone range?

We got back into the car and decided to stay put after recalling recent stories on the news about people dying or coming close to death in snowstorms after falling into snowbanks. After about 20 minutes, a truck pulled up next to us. It was “Ed” one of our dog sledding friends. He offered to lend a hand and pulled us out of the snowbank with his truck and a chain. It took about 4 attempts and then my car was set free!

I sit here a bit puzzled…..What was that all about? A question that comes into my mind is “What does it mean to be a caring person”? Would you have stopped to help a stranger in need? I invite your input as to the message this story has for you!

Thank you to all Good Samaritans! I will continue to pay it forward.
Martha

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I went for the most glorious ski today on the lake. It was perfect, with no wind blowing and incredible sparkles of light reflecting on the snow. As I was skiing I noticed how the sparkles of light on the snow shimmered when I moved. As soon as I stopped the snow crystals stopped glittering. Once I started skiing again the snow shimmered directly parallel to me….not behind me nor in front of me.

As I take steps into my life, my life glitters. When I pay attention to the moment I am in, my life shines. Life does not shimmer in the past or in the future….only in the now!

May your life glitter, sparkle, shimmer and shine as you move and live in the present moment!
Martha

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After our New Year’s Eve dinner I invited our family and friends to gather outside around the big cedar tree, where Todd and I had placed about 20 ice lanterns with candles ready to light. After reading from Marianne Williamson’s book ‘A Return to Love’ about shining our divine lights, each person was invited to light a candle as they held an image of the dreams they had for themselves, family, community and the planet.

The wind was bitterly cold blowing off the lake, and at first none of the candles would light. Just like the penguins in Antarctica, we all huddled together around the person lighting their candle, to ensure their candle lit…even if for a brief moment. I was amazed at everyone’s patience, especially my 4 year old grandson ‘Aiden’, who’s job was to shine his headlamp onto each lantern, which he did with great focus and determination!

The experience was a metaphor for me of the importance of supporting one another in our dreams…that it is difficult on our own to keep our flames and dreams burning, but together with the support of other’s we are more likely to succeed in maintaining our focus and manifesting our dreams.

Penguins have much to teach us about teamwork, cooperation and working in partnerships and as a collective to achieve success. May the seeds of your dreams be nourished with love and light while supported by the Spirits, community and the universe!

With love and gratitude! Martha

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December 2008

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Mandaza Augustine Kandemwa is a nganga, a Bantu shaman or medicine man, in the Shona and Ndebele traditions of Zimbabwe.  He carries with great heart the Central African tradition of healing and peacemaking. Mandaza regularly travels North America providing an opportunity for people to gather to experience an indigenous understanding of the interrelatedness of healing, peacemaking and community.

People come to Mandaza from all over southern Africa to receive healing and initiation. He does not charge for his services. In Africa people try to offer a donation in return for his healing work, but he works with the poorest of the poor, who have sometimes walked great distances to be with him, and it is more likely that he will have to feed them than that they will not be able to pay him. Between Mandaza and Simakuhle, his wife, they have many children and a large kinship network and community that are dependent upon them for food and spiritual nourishment.

A former anti-apartheid activist from Zimbabwe, Mandaza is one of the truly exceptional men of our time, a warm and generous teacher and healer with magnificent gifts and an entourage of spirits, a man of deep and profound love, laughter and wisdom. Educated in the western traditions of what was then colonial-era, Rhodesia, Mandaza was called by the ancestors to the old ways and taught the exceptional art and craft of being a true healer. He has the skill to look into an individuals’ heart, even if he has not met them before, and thereby awaken the process of initiation that removes the obstacles between the initiate and the spirits.

Mandaza taught about peace-making and offered his healing services at Northern Edge Algonquin in August of 2008.  He sat down for an interview to talk about his beliefs in this video.  Some of the participants of the program also shared their experiences in this video.

“Tatenda” http://www.ihcenter.org/groups/tatenda.html – is a non-profit organization committed to supporting and sustaining traditional healers and their communities in Africa (was previously the Nanga Project). This is the project supporting Mandaza’s work, his family and the community around him in Zimbabwe as well as to fostering exchange between different indigenous healers and western culture. When visiting communities in North America, the core group coordinating Tatenda (all on a volunteer basis) encourage and support donations to the Tatenda Project to support Mandaza and his Daré in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

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