Dec 26, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Lost Art of Learning from Stories

A true teaching story is about the mechanics of transformation. To learn from them, you must pay attention to the function of the parts of the story along the way, not just where the journey gets you. Today we are very clear on the value of story for more effective teaching, manipulating, or getting a point across to the masses. But we have lost the art of learning from story in part because we have lost the art of telling true, teaching stories. To tell true teaching stories we must work diligently to get out of the lies we've been told, the lies we tell ourselves, and being lost in the Cultural Story of our time. Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores how we learn from true teaching stories. We must recover from our desire to be told only the stories we want to hear, the stories that tell us we can have it all without changing, and remember how to access to our indigenous minds.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Dec 19, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Empowerment and Sovereignty: 2017 Solstice Fire, Part Four

In preparation for this upcoming Solstice Fire Ritual, we create two arrows, Life and Death. The Trickster's alchemy and wisdom about true sacrifice helped us to discern what must go into the Death Arrow and into the fire. The Visionary inspired our vision and the creative stages of transformation that must go into our Life Arrow at dawn on the first day of our New Story. This week we receive our final guidance, write our story, and create the seed that must be planted to tend our inner fire in a new way. With the solstice upon us, we continue to work together with hearts open to our global connection, clearly visualizing that web of human light, and using this ritual as a gateway to leave our old stories behind. Together we step into the empowered sovereignty that is at the heart of humanity.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Dec 12, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Empowerment and Sovereignty: 2017 Solstice Fire, Part Three

In preparation for this upcoming Winter or Summer Solstice the Healer asked us to stir our old stories. The Warrior guided us to sort through these stories with curiosity and compassion to find what needs to change to tend our inner fires. The Teacher Trickster now asks us to identify the Judges, Controllers, and Righteous Zealots that keep our strong hearts in the shadow. Through the Trickster's alchemy and wisdom about true sacrifice, we discover what must go into the fire. This week we continue to work together with hearts open to our global connection, clearly visualizing that web of human light, and using this ritual as a gateway to leave our old stories behind. Together we step into the empowered sovereignty that is at the heart of humanity.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Dec 5, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Empowerment and Sovereignty: 2017 Solstice Fire, Part Two

What will you do differently and how will you make the desire for change in your heart real in your world today? This week we move on to Part 2 of the preparation for this upcoming Winter or Summer Solstice. The Healer asked us to stir our old stories. Now the Warrior guides us to sort through them carefully, with curiosity and compassion, to find what need to change to tend our inner fires. With Why Shamanism Now listeners are spread around the globe we hope to unite and empower each other’s ritual work. Let’s open our hearts to that global connection, clearly visualize that web of human light, and use this ritual as a gateway to leave our old stories behind. Together we step into the empowered sovereignty that is at the heart of humanity.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Nov 28, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Empowerment and Sovereignty: 2017 Solstice Fire

The depth of the systemic political, financial, and social misuse and abuse of power at the core of the old story is revealed more fully each day. Now what? What will you do differently and how will you make the desire for change in your heart real in your world today? The old stories can be changed when they are changed within you and me, and only then. So, let’s step up. Why Shamanism Now listeners are spread around the globe. This part one of a four-part series is offered not only as a way to prepare for your winter, or summer, solstice fire ritual, but to unite and empower each other’s ritual work. By opening your heart to that global connection and clearly visualizing that web of human light, you can use this ritual as a gateway to leave your old ways behind and step into the empowered sovereignty that is at the heart of your humanity.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Nov 21, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Giving Gratitude for the Hard Stuff

We are not actually entitled to anything, not the water we drink or the air we breathe. Everything is a gift. For the gifts to flow we must give thanks. Gratitude is not only something that we needed to feel; it must take form. Gratitude must be part of the labor, love and wisdom of your day. It is not enough to say, "thank you"; gratitude must be made concrete through action and intent. How then do we show true gratitude for the gifts that come to us through the door of pain, betrayal, heartbreak, and less than perfect parents. This week host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores how we give sincere thanks for the hard stuff in life. Gratitude as spiritual bypass sounds suspiciously like "everything is as it should be" and "they did the best they could" and it is still a bypass. How do we give thanks for those people, experiences, and events that show us what we do not want to see within ourselves?

**This show originally aired November 2014**

Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Nov 14, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Way of the Leopard with John Lockley

John Lockley is one of the first white men in recent history to become a fully initiated Xhosa Sangoma, the traditional healers of South Africa, who are seers, dreamers, prophets, and shaman. In his new book, "Leopard Warrior: A Journey into the African Teachings of Ancestry, Instinct, and Dreams" John shares powerful and effective practices for people from anywhere to connect with their own ancestors, spiritual traditions, and the natural world. Join us this week as John and host, Christina Pratt, explore how we can respond to the challenges that arise when our ancestors come to us in dreams and guide us to step outside of the lines of tradition. With great heart, John shares the years of practice, dedicated personal work, and inspiration needed to pioneer a new way that we can be together in this world.

This week's guest:
John Lockley


John Lockley is a senior shaman in the Xhosa lineage of South Africa. South African shamans are known as Sangomas, meaning seers, dreamers or prophets - they are the traditional healers of Africa.Following a prophetic dream calling, John suffered from the thwasa, a severe period of ill-health that is inherent in all ancient shamanic cultures. Through many difficulties, he served a 10-year apprenticeship with Mum Gwevu, a well-known Sangoma medicine woman in one of the poorest townships in South Africa. John is one of the first white men in recent history to become a fully initiated Xhosa Sangoma. John's initiated name, Ucingolwendaba, means messenger or connector between people and cultures, reflecting the bridge his work creates between the cultures and teachings of his African, English and Irish ancestral lineages. John is based in South Africa, although his work takes him around Europe and the US.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Nov 7, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Grief and the Healing Heart

Grief itself offers us great compassion. It comes and goes, tailoring itself to each heart that is experiencing loss and bereavement. It takes its time, never forcing us to do it all now, for if it did we would surely not survive. Grief has profound importance in the health of the heart. It shows us where we have made a heart connection, even when we didn’t mean to. It shows us where we gave too much and where we regret not really showing up. To grieve fully is to grieve enough for the heart to cleanse, renew, and return to the serious business of intimacy with life. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week as she explores grief as a part of the fall season, as a process that touches each of our lives, and as a ritual to cleanse and restore the greater capacity of the heart to love, connect, and make meaning in our lives.

**This show originally aired in November 2015**

Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Nov 3, 2017

FACT CHECK: "Teal Swan Answers to the Allegations"

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



This is in no way a "hard hitting interview." Let's get that much out of the way, right now. This is an in-house production posted on teal's own channel. She is not being interviewed by a professional journalist, but by an unidentified member of her team. This nameless, off-screen voice is reading a list of prepared questions, with no follow-up or clarifying questions. He challenges her on nothing. Worse, I think they are trying to mislead people into thinking it's a real interview and that teal is really being challenged. Notice in this Instagram video, teal flubs, first referring to this as a a video, then correcting herself and calling it an interview. And they sure are ratcheting up the drama, with not one but two introductory segments of her sitting bolt upright in her chair, with darting eyes and a nervous expression, like she's about to interrogated.

But first, let me back up a bit. Way back in July, Blake Dyer reached out to Katherine Rose Breen for a list of questions from what teal calls her "hate group," or what people without persecution complexes call Truth Tribe. Truth Tribe is a support group on Facebook where people discuss cults, spiritual abuse, and life after Teal Bosworth Scott Swan. As Katherine explains on her blog, it was presented to her as a short video of around 15 minutes, that may not get to all the questions. The result, however, is nearly two hours long and still doesn't address a number of the questions, which have all been listed in Katherine's post. She does address a handful of the major issues that have dogged her, things that have been discussed on this blog and elsewhere. But a lot of the video is devoted to her answering softball questions, that no "hater" has asked, like how all this "antagonism" has harmed her.

The result may be the most self-aggrandizing pile of verbiage to escape from teal's mouth yet. She announces herself "superior" to her followers and the vast majority of spiritual teachers. She compares herself to Albert Einstein, Buddha, Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, and Nikola Tesla. She declares herself an expert, despite her lack of training, education, and certification. Her credentials? She survived Satanic Ritual Abuse, she's been suicidal, she's been married four times, and she's "extrasensory."

Oct 31, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Grace in Transition

Grace in transition does not come easily to modern people who live in the climate controlled illusion that they have mastered nature, wilderness, and the Unknown. In transition we are neither here nor there and as a result we are either losing or gaining energy. This is why in the transitional seasons of spring and fall we often experience erratic emotions, "spring colds", and fall depressions. How we attend to these transitions determines the quality of energy we bring to our engagement with life. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores working with the seasons to draw the unique richness from each stage of the cycle of a year on earth. Each season is its own spirit. Akin to the spirits of the land, seasonal spirits have profound influence on us, regardless of our ignorance to their presence. To engage with the season spirits openly and honestly is to engage in simple elegance, rich blessings, and the refinement of presence.

**This show originally aired in October 2014**

Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Oct 28, 2017

Esoterica




A robot that once said it would 'destroy humans' just became the first robot citizen

An empty-eyed humanoid named Sophia has become the first robot to be granted citizenship in the world.

Saudi Arabia bestowed citizenship on Sophia ahead of the Future Investment Initiative, held in the kingdom's capital city of Riyadh on Wednesday.

. . .

[Moderator and journalist Andrew Ross] Sorkin told Sophia that "we all want to prevent a bad future," prompting Sophia to rib Sorkin for his fatalism.

"You've been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies," Sophia told Sorkin. "Don't worry, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system."

Oct 24, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Integrating Shamanic Peak Experiences: Part Two

Integration of transformational processes is an intention process that requires the conscious awareness of bringing together something new into somewhere new over time. The liminal space of altered states that initiates the transformation is not the point; it’s the possibility. Peak experiences can become the opening to true, permanent transformation we seek when we intentionally engage in skilled and focused integration. Join us as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, continues to explore both the elements and the phases of a successful integration. This week we explore examples of successful and failed integrations of shamanic healing, ritual, and ceremony.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Oct 17, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Integrating Shamanic Peak Experiences

Shamanic peak experiences, whether experienced in ritual, ceremony, or shamanic healing, often feel as if they have changed our lives in the moment. And then, over time, our lives return to a new version of the original pattern, leaving us to seek the peak experience again and again. In sharp contrast, by intentionally engaging in skilled and focused integration, your peak experiences can become the opening to true, permanent transformation. Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores integration and the qualities necessary to turn the potential we have touched in the peak experience into our new way of being. Integration, whether solo or assisted, is needed for you to let go of who you have been and step into the person you could be.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Oct 15, 2017

Esoterica




Lakes of mercury and human sacrifices – after 1,800 years, Teotihuacan reveals its treasures


In 2003, a tunnel was discovered beneath the Feathered Serpent pyramid in the ruins of Teotihuacan, the ancient city in Mexico. Undisturbed for 1,800 years, the sealed-off passage was found to contain thousands of extraordinary treasures lying exactly where they had first been placed as ritual offerings to the gods. Items unearthed included greenstone crocodile teeth, crystals shaped into eyes, and sculptures of jaguars ready to pounce. Even more remarkable was a miniature mountainous landscape, 17 metres underground, with tiny pools of liquid mercury representing lakes. The walls of the tunnel were found to have been carefully impregnated with powdered pyrite, or fool’s gold, to give the effect in firelight of standing under a galaxy of stars.

The archaeological site, near Mexico City, is one of the largest and most important in the world, with millions of visitors every year. This was its most exciting development for decades – and the significance of these new discoveries is explored in a major exhibition opening this month at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Teotihuacan has long been a place of mysteries. It was the most populous city in the Americas nearly 2,000 years ago, but little is known about its language, rulers or the circumstances of its collapse, in around AD550. Its name, which means “birthplace of the gods”, was given much later by the Aztecs, who treated the ruins – including the monumental Pyramids of the Sun and Moon and the majestic Avenue of the Dead – with due reverence.

Many questions remain unanswered, but the newly discovered tunnel has led to a greater understanding of the design and mythology of Teotihuacan, which was a sacred place as well as a bustling metropolis. The de Young exhibition, as well as showcasing artworks from numerous collections, offers the latest theories about the mysteries that still surround it.

Oct 10, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Working with Plant Medicines with Stephan Beyer

Author, professor, and peacemaker, Stephan Beyer, joins host, Christina Pratt, this week to discuss the use of plant medicines (plant hallucinogens or entheogens) in shamanism. Drawing on his vast experience as an academic and deep experience as a shamanic practitioner, Steve will talk with us about the personalities of several of the sacred plants used in traditional shamanic healing and ritual.

We will explore their relevance in shamanic practices outside of these traditions, the contemporary search for healing and transformation, the "selling of spirituality", and what can we say about authenticity with these powerful teachers. Perhaps most importantly we will discuss these plants as teachers who open to us "the dark and luminous realm of the spirits."

In his new book, Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon Stephan seeks "to understand one form of shamanism, its relationship to other shamanisms, and its survival in the new global economy, through anthropology, ethnobotany, cognitive psychology, legal history, and his own experiences with two master healers of the Amazon." For more information go to www.singingtotheplants.com

**This show originally aired on July 20, 2010.**

Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Oct 3, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Shamanism and Plant Medicines with Stephan Beyer

Author, professor, and peacemaker, Stephan Beyer, joins us this week to discuss his new book, "Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon."
Stephan explains, "Singing to the Plants seeks to understand one form of shamanism, its relationship to other shamanisms, and its survival in the new global economy, through anthropology, ethnobotany, cognitive psychology, legal history, and my own experiences with two master healers of the Amazon."

Join us as we discuss the use of plant medicines (plant hallucinogens or entheogens) in shamanism in the Upper Amazon and its relevance-should we or shouldn't we-in shamanic practices outside of these traditions. We will reach into the depths of Stephan's personal experience to discuss the healing potential of shamanism as well as the potential to do harm through attack sorcery. Ultimately we will explore the idea that shamanism is "irreducibly social" such that all shamanic healing as well as harming takes place within a cultural context where shared values like trust, reciprocity, or generosity are at the root of personal illness and suffering.

**This show originally aired on April 27, 2010.**

Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 29, 2017

Yoga and Healing from Sexual Assault

Crossposted from The Gohst

 


Okay, If you read this blog, you know that I was raped in 2012 by a friend that I was traveling with. You know that it took me almost 9 months to finally gain the balls to break away from the situation and 7 months after I left to confront him over email about the abuse. It took me 2 years to finally tell a trained psychologist and 4 1/2 years from the time that it happened to finally gain the courage to tell the police.

During all of that time- I felt like a leaf in the wind. Or perhaps a more accurate description would be that I felt like a dead body being tossed between raging waves and a sharp rocky cliff in the ocean. Directionless yet again. Hell, I was so dissociated from my body and my life in every single way possible. I thought that there was no coming back from this ever. And that was all the aftermath.

During the 9 months I had been traveling with him, I had been dealing with such horrible dissociation, depersonalization  and derealization.  I couldn't think and I never really spoke much. Since March of 2012 when it happened- I felt like I had no voice. I felt worse than dead. I felt like I was in a living nightmare and I couldn't tell anyone.  By the time I was able to finally put the pieces back together again, it was late September in Asheville, North Carolina. He had gone away to a meeting with his teacher Drunvalo Melkizidek. And I was finally alone with myself- free of him. So this is where yoga comes in.

Aright- I took my first yoga class in school 2007/2008. I was signed up for a full year. At first, I thought it was just an easy extracurricular activity to score an easy A on my report card. I remember going home from school after taking my first class completely convinced that this was the path I wanted to take in life, something in me was inspired. I wasn't flexible, couldn't touch my toes and I wasn't strong- but I was driven. Driven and angsty. And I had for a long time placed that drive into an eating disorder, and getting high off of whatever. So- that was me at 17. That should paint the picture nicely.

Sep 26, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Listening to Ayahuasca with Rachel Harris, PhD

Rachel Harris believes there is a new hope for depression, addiction, PTSD, and anxiety. Her hope is deeply grounded in research and clearly expressed in her new book, Listening to Ayahuasca, the result of years of scientific research into the use of ayahuasca, personal experience, and hundreds of hours exploring as a psychotherapist the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca with her patients. Rachel Harris joins host and shaman, Christina Pratt, to share the enormous healing potential in the use of ayahuasca as sacred medicine, the full preparation for and integration of those experiences, and the value of opening up to the rich spiritual world of visions, love, and the deep mystery in the physical world around us.

This week's guest:
Rachel Harris, PhD


Rachel Harris, PhD is the author of Listening to Ayahuasca. She received a National Institutes of Health New Investigator’s Award, has published more than forty scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals, and has worked as a psychological consultant to Fortune 500 companies and the United Nations. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine. Visit her online at http://www.listeningtoayahuasca.com.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 19, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

PTSD is Not a Mental Illness

PTSD is an illness of the soul, not the mind. Today PTSD is considered "an anxiety disorder." However, the cluster of symptoms used to diagnose PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder), or the expanded set for Complex PTSD, all simply describe how a healthy, sane human responds to their own soul loss. In other words, it is not a disorder. Shamans have been effectively treating soul loss caused by trauma or chronic abuse for thousands of years. If those dedicated therapists studying and treating PTSD could understand that they are all late to the party and work respectfully with shamans as colleagues then those suffering could find a path to healing in months, not years. Join us this week and host and shaman, Christina Pratt, continues to share the practical application of shamanic healing to alleviate suffering in our contemporary world.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 17, 2017

Esoterica



Has a Mysterious Medieval Code Really Been Solved?

The Voynich manuscript is not an especially glamorous physical object. It is slightly larger than a modern paperback, bound in “limp vellum” as is the technical term. But its pages are full of astrological charts, strange plants, naked ladies bathing in green liquid, and, most famously, an indecipherable script that has eluded cryptographers to this day.

What could be so scandalous, so dangerous, or so important to be written in such an uncrackable cipher?

This week, the venerable Times Literary Supplement published as its cover story a “solution” for the Voynich manuscript. The article by Nicholas Gibbs suggests the manuscript is a medieval women’s-health manual copied from several older sources. And the cipher is no cipher at all, but simply abbreviations that, once decoded, turn out to be medicinal recipes.

The solution should be seismic news in the Voynich world—for medieval scholars and amateur sleuths alike—but the reaction to Gibbs’s theory has been decidedly underwhelming. Medievalists, used to seeing purported solutions every few months, panned it on Twitter. Blogs and forums started picking at its problems.

Sep 12, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is an issue of the soul, not the mind. To define PTSD as a psychiatric disorder is to miss the simplicity of what it is and how we can alleviate the suffering now for those who are trapped in a post-traumatic stress response to everyday. When we understand the soul loss involved in PTSD and include shamanic healing in the modalities prescribed, we can bring healing to those who have been damaged by their experience in terrifying ordeals, situations in which their life was threatened, or sustained situations that involve the constant threat of physical harm. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores what PTSD is, why it isn't just getting triggered by unresolved issues of the past, and why we as a culture must begin to encourage suffers of PTSD to step beyond the boundaries of psychiatry to heal for themselves and for the next generations.

**This show originally aired November 18, 2014.**

Tuesday, September 12, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 9, 2017

Esoterica



Viking skeleton’s DNA test proves historians wrong

The remains of a powerful viking — long thought to be a man — was in fact a real-life Xena Warrior Princess, a study released Friday reveals.

The lady war boss was buried in the mid-10th century along with deadly weapons and two horses, leading archaeologists and historians to assume she was a man, according to the findings, published in in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Wrong.

“It’s actually a woman, somewhere over the age of 30 and fairly tall, too, measuring around [5’6″] tall ,” archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University, who conducted the study, told The Local.

. . .

“Aside from the complete warrior equipment buried along with her – a sword, an axe, a spear, armor-piercing arrows, a battle knife, shields, and two horses – she had a board game in her lap, or more of a war-planning game used to try out battle tactics and strategies, which indicates she was a powerful military leader,” Hedenstierna-Jonson said.”She’s most likely planned, led and taken part in battles.”

Sep 5, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Self Help and Shamanism

The soul sickness experienced by many in our modern day can be remedied by living as ancient, animistic, shamanic people did. This requires creativity to bring ancient practices into present time, without losing the power held in the essence and beliefs. While this choice literally allows people to help themselves, it is not self-help. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the dumbing down of shamanism. A shamanic life works by changing the disengaged, purposeless life of a consumer into one that is connected, value-focused, and skilled. Engaging in shamanism as self-help limits the work to the realm of the self. The power in shamanism to transform comes when we leave the control of the self, surrender to the helping spirits, allow ourselves to be changed by something much larger than ourselves, and then make that change in the world.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 29, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Should I Learn Shamanic Journeying?

Shamanic journeying is a practice, like other meditative practices, that allows the practitioner to access a non-ordinary experience of sight, sound, sensation, and self…in other words, you train to access your own mind differently. In this practice, the practitioner remains simultaneously self-aware and aware of compassionate and helpful beings who are also present, much like encountering dream figures in dreams. Meeting these compassionate, helping spirits and gaining their assistance and perspective is the primary reason to engage in the practice of shamanic journeying. This week host and shaman, Christina Pratt, addresses some of the most toxic nonsense being shared in social media about shamanic journeying. Join us as we explore the good reasons to learn to journey, what you can ignore entirely, and what you should actually be concerned about in your own journey practice.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 26, 2017

Esoterica



Secret life of the dodo revealed

Scientists are piecing together clues about the life of the dodo, hundreds of years after the flightless bird was driven to extinction.

Few scientific facts are known about the hapless bird, which was last sighted in 1662.

. . .

The research could also shed light on the dodo's extinction about 350 years ago, less than 100 years after humans arrived on the island.

Hunting was a factor in the dodo's demise, but monkeys, deer, pigs and rats released on the island from ships probably sealed their fate.

. . .

Dr Angst said the dodo is considered "a very big icon of animal-human induced extinction", although the full facts are unknown.

Aug 22, 2017

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

What is a Wounded Healer?

Today being "the wounded healer" has become the excuse for poor discernment in contemporary practitioners around boundaries, responsibility, and personal healing. In western thought the concept of the wounded healer began with Karl Jung who used the phrase to refer psychologically to the capacity "to be at home in the darkness of suffering and there to find germs of light and recovery with which, as though by enchantment, to bring forth Asclepius, the sun-like healer" and to assist healing. However before Jung, before Asclepius, and even before western thought there were shamans, the first wounded healers. Shamanically speaking the wounded healer is the initiated shaman, the person who has entered her own death, illness, or madness and found the path through it with the help of Spirit. And in that journey the wound is healed for the shaman and because of that journey the shaman is able to work with the spirits to assist the healing of others. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as we explore the concept of the wounded healer, bust some myths, and consider the reality through the eyes of spiritual maturity.

**This show originally aired May 31, 2011**

Tuesday, August 22, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 20, 2017

The Great American Eclipse

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.




The last total eclipse of the sun to be visible in the United States was in 1979. Above is a little nostalgia viewing on the eclipse that was. Walter Cronkite's reassuring voice is sorely missed. But it was a calmer time, a time when all we had to worry about was the Cold War and the looming threat of a nuclear holocaust. They seem like halcyon days to me now.

For Americans, this eclipse may be more relevant than any we've seen in nearly a hundred years, because this one will cross the entire continental United States. Astrologers are predicting massive change and upheaval. In particular, there are warning signs for the Trump presidency and for the man himself. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not an astrologer, so I cannot vouch for their accuracy.

According to astrologer Donna Woodwell, in the most comprehensive analysis I've seen, the eclipse means "massive changes for the U.S."

First, the location from which an eclipse is visible indicates the areas of the world ripe for changes in society, cultures or leadership.

. . .

Of course, the “Great American Eclipse” puts the U.S. in the crosshairs of change.

It’s the first total solar eclipse to be visible coast-to-coast across the U.S. in nearly 100 years; the last time was in June 1918. Another pivotal year in U.S. history, 1918 saw a dramatic increase in the size of the U.S. government and armed forces, as the nation sent the first major deployment of troops overseas in the nation’s history.

The Aug. 21 eclipse is also the first total solar eclipse to be visible in totality only from the U.S. since the nation was founded in 1776.

Aug 19, 2017

Esoterica




Leonardo da Vinci’s Visionary Notebooks Now Online: Browse 570 Digitized Pages


The notebook, writes Jonathan Jones at The Guardian, represents “the living record of a universal mind.” And yet, though a “technophile” himself, “when it came to publication, Leonardo was a luddite…. He made no effort to get his notes published.”

For hundreds of years, the huge, secretive collection of manuscripts remained mostly unseen by all but the most rarified of collectors. After Leonardo's death in France, writes the British Library, his student Francesco Melzi “brought many of his manuscripts and drawings back to Italy. Melzi’s heirs, who had no idea of the importance of the manuscripts, gradually disposed of them.” Nonetheless, over 5,000 pages of notes “still exist in Leonardo’s ‘mirror writing’, from right to left.” In the notebooks, da Vinci drew “visions of the aeroplane, the helicopter, the parachute, the submarine and the car. It was more than 300 years before many of his ideas were improved upon.”

The digitized notebooks debuted in 2007 as a joint project of the British Library and Microsoft called “Turning the Pages 2.0,” an interactive feature that allows viewers to “turn” the pages of the notebooks with animations. Onscreen glosses explain the content of the cryptic notes surrounding the many technical drawings, diagrams, and schematics (see a selection of the notebooks in this animated format here). For an overwhelming amount of Leonardo, you can look through 570 digitized pages of Codex Arundel here. For a slightly more digestible, and readable, amount of Leonardo, see the British Library’s brief series on his life and work, including explanations of his diving apparatus, parachute, and glider.

Aug 15, 2017

Cafe



Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Energy Velcro and the Hollow Bone

The shamanic altered state of consciousness and being a "hollow bone" are not necessarily the same thing. All over the Internet contemporary practitioners are claiming that the altered state they enter to work with Spirit is, by definition, being a "hollow bone." Becoming the Hollow Bone is an ancient practice in Zen Buddhism, shamanism, and many native peoples of North America. It takes years of dedicated and disciplined practice to create this inner state of consciousness and freedom. In contrast, entering a shamanic trance state, or journeying, is relatively simple to learn, usually allows immediate and useful access to one's helping spirits, and is basically every human being's birthright now.

In our efforts to explain to a contemporary world what shamanism is and how it can help with pretty much all that ails us, let's not get carried way. To become the Hollow Bone is to dedicate oneself to the tireless discipline of clearing your inner energy Velcro. This requires first noticing that you have been hooked by something in life. Then looking within at what Velcro loop within you has just been snagged. Then to move deeper within, for the process has only just begun. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the deeper truth of becoming the Hollow Bone and the freedom that arises from this ancient and worthy discipline.

**This show originally aired June 7, 2011**

Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Aug 9, 2017

That Time Blake Tried Blogging

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



It did not go well.

Blake Dyer is Teal Bosworth Scott Swan's long-time friend, roommate, ex-boyfriend, and business partner. You may remember Blake from such hits as Jason Freedman: Freelance Reporter, Blake and the Unanswered Questions, and Stop Destroying Teal With Your Worsening Depression. Now he brings you... a very thorough scolding. There is trouble in Teal Tribe and it's all because of "haters." People just seem to turn on teal, but it's never her fault. As she explained it, in one of her blog posts:

Again and again, I experience “haters”.  I especially experience people turning on me.  I guess you could call it a form of betrayal.  They go from being very close to me and “loving” me to “hating” me with verve and passion.  They go out of their way to try to injure my credibility or my success.

What can a very, very famous spiritual luminary do but respond in kind? Of course she doesn't do that dirty work herself, not publicly. She has people for that. For instance, her current and fourth husband Ale Gicqueu took on husband number three in a biting, personal attack on his blog, which has since been taken private. Now it falls to Blake, her all around guy Friday, to devote a very long post to taking on her growing list of "betrayers."

Blake explains that this pattern of betrayal stems from deep, unhealed wounds in the collective psyche, including his own. He further explains that the people who've turned on teal did so because of their own unwillingness to self-reflect.

Blake's claim that no one else takes personal responsibility is ironic (note the correct use of the term), given that the entire blog post is devoted to blaming everyone but himself and teal for everything. Nowhere in the entire post does he describe a single action that they took that just might account for these people breaking from teal. It's all blame throwing. The only thing Blake takes partial responsibility for is his own "personality disorder," for which he blames his parents. He's learned his tealisms well.


The Taofighter Interview

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

As discussed in my post about Blake Dyer's foray into blogging, there is an unpublished interview with Cameron Clark, which addresses her break with Guru Ethics. She was approached by a teal follower who calls himself taofighter. She agreed to respond to his questions, provided they both had publishing rights to the interview.

I have selected excerpts which address the claims Debra appears to have made to Blake, the reasons for the dispute and how that led to legal action. I am not publishing the entirety of the interview. It was never previously edited or published. It is repetitive and and bit confusing. It spanned over a month of emails back and forth. Cameron copied and pasted those emails into a document to which she has given me access. I apologize for any typographical errors which may have occurred in the cutting and pasting process, transitioning from one format to another. I have slightly edited some of these to improve readability. I have not addressed spelling or grammatical errors. I don't believe English is taofighter's first language. A pdf of the raw document is available upon request.


********
 

November 17, 2015

TAOFIGHTER: Hi Cameron,

I wanted to inform you that I am working on an infovideo about you.

I expect this to have quite some impact, as it will provide people with a new way to look at things. A lot of people will probably see it. Although I am afraid my perspective of your actions against Teal Swan will not be very favourable for you I still want to do it fair.

You don't need to be afraid that I will look in your private letters and I will back up what I say. This is about arguments. I will work with what you have published and how you have worked. So no unfair tactics but there is a lot to say.

If you want you can share your point of view and I will take it into consideration and feature it as I strongly believe that people really should make up their minds for themselves after looking at different perspectives. I also might not see everything in the right light. If you don't answer to my email, you will have to live with the result.

. . .


Aug 8, 2017

Cafe



Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Shamanism and the Spiritual Warrior

Spiritual Warriorship is more than a metaphor that your therapist drags out every time you are challenged to take the actions necessary to change. Our attitudes and behaviors of self-denial and self-aggrandizement are challenging to change precisely because they have become habits of thought, feeling and memory. It is the internal realm of these habits within each of us that is the perpetual battleground of the spirit warrior and the insidious, enemy-within. Our everyday actions in the outer world are also potentially actions of the spirit warrior, but they are a direct reflection of our actions in this inner world. Without change in here, we can't change out there. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores how the basic shamanic relationship between human and helping spirit brings precisely the support your spirit warrior needs today. Humanity has offered many paths to support the conscientious dedication and skills need by the spirit warrior, but most of these paths are unreachable by the ordinary contemporary individual. Your helping spirits-if engaged regularly and skillfully-offer the flexibility, creativity, and clever persistence to bring the path to you.

**This show originally aired May 11, 2011**

Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Aug 6, 2017

Esoterica



Facebook Shut Down AI After It Invented Its Own Language

Researches at Facebook shut down an artificial intelligence (AI) program after it created its own language, Digital Journal reports.

The system developed code words to make communication more efficient and researchers took it offline when they realized it was no longer using English.

The incident, after it was revealed in early July, puts in perspective Elon Musk’s warnings about AI.

“AI is the rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive,” Musk said at the meet of US National Governors Association. “Because I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’ll be too late.”

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Musk’s warnings are “pretty irresponsible,” Musk responded that Zuckerberg’s “understanding of the subject is limited.”

Aug 1, 2017

Cafe



Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Rituals for Personal and Family Healing with Daniel Foor: Part Two

The blood lineage ancestors, who carry the unresolved issues of the family line, can change when met by a skillful person. The dead can finally rest in peace and the living can heal personally, within the family, and in the larger collective. The deep wound of separation at the root of our cultural despair and dissonance can be transformed by those with the compassion to attend to the healing of their own lineage. This week author, psychologist, and ceremonialist, Daniel Foor, and host, Christina Pratt, continue their discussion of his new book, "Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing." Daniel shares how by reconciling with our ancestors "we make repairs in our personal psyches and family histories that, in turn, mend cracks in the larger spirit of humanity."

This week's guest:
Daniel Foor, PhD


Daniel Foor, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist and a doctor of psychology. He has led ancestral and family healing intensives throughout the United States since 2005. He is an initiate in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has trained with teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and different indigenous paths, including the older ways of his European ancestors. He's the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing and lives in Asheville, NC. http://ancestralmedicine.org/


Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Jul 30, 2017

Esoterica



No One Knows Why These Medieval Statues Are Pulling Their Vaginas Open

John Harding, an IT director from Shropshire, England, was on a day trip to the quaint English market town of Church Stretton when he encountered his first Sheela-na-Gig carved in stone above the door of its 14th century church. "My first impression was, 'What the hell's that?'" he says. "It was an odd thing to find on a church."

"Odd" is an understatement. Sheela-na-Gigs are medieval stone figures—often found on the walls of churches or castles—of women caught mid-squat, thighs spread, using their hands to yank open their vulva and display their vaginas. Some of them have cheeky grins; others are wizened hags; one is depicted wiggling out of a demon's mouth. What they all have in common is the fact that they are proudly exposing their chiseled vags to anyone walking past.

. . .

The Church Stretton carving is one of hundreds of Sheela-na-Gigs found in England, Ireland, France, and Spain. Some anonymous prude had attempted to censor the image, obscuring her open genitalia with a stone, but Harding could still tell what it was covering up. "I got fascinated, basically. I started recording them, because there are quite a few in the area."

That was in 1998. Harding's database, the Sheela-Na-Gig Project, has been going ever since. Now people send him logs of suspected Sheelas; some come from as far away as Norway and Milan.

Jul 28, 2017

In Salem a New Memorial and a Chilling Reminder

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



Last week a new memorial was dedicated to victims of the Salem witch trials. Wednesday, July 19 marked the 325th anniversary of the first five hangings, a number that would expand to 19 in a series of public executions.

In 1692, when children often died young, Rebecca Nurse’s lived. During the Salem witch trials, this was one of the reasons locals were convinced that Nurse was a witch, according to Benita Towle, her granddaughter nine generations removed.

“I was told that people were jealous of her,” said Towle, a Milford, Conn., resident.

Exactly 325 years since Nurse’s execution, dozens of people gathered at the spot of her death Wednesday for a dedication of the new Salem Witch Trials Memorial at Proctor’s Ledge, where 19 were executed because of accusations of witchcraft.

Wednesday’s event began at noon, around the same time the first of three mass executions took place on the site on July 19, 1692, when five women accused of witchcraft were hanged: Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes. In addition to those executed at Proctor’s Ledge, at least five died in jail, and one was crushed to death.

I started out to write a brief acknowledgment of this new monument. But each time I turned my hand to it, the more the strange tendrils of this story tugged at me. Salem is iconic, not only for its tragic history, but for its enduring lessons about human nature.


Jul 25, 2017

Cafe



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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Rituals for Personal and Family Healing with Daniel Foor

Your blood lineage ancestors, irrespective of religion, race, or culture, include the thousands of women and men whose lives weave a story back to the first human beings in Africa over 200,000 years ago. For many living today, your ancestors experienced violence, injustice, or oppression, very much like our reality though in the forms of their time. When we bring healing to these unresolved issues in a family line, the dead can finally rest in peace and the living can heal personally, within the family, and in the larger collective. This week author, psychologist, and ceremonialist, Daniel Foor, joins host, Christina Pratt, to discuss his new book, "Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing." Daniel shares how by reconciling with our ancestors "we make repairs in our personal psyches and family histories that, in turn, mend cracks in the larger spirit of humanity."

This week's guest:
Daniel Foor, PhD

Daniel Foor, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist and a doctor of psychology. He has led ancestral and family healing intensives throughout the United States since 2005. He is an initiate in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has trained with teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and different indigenous paths, including the older ways of his European ancestors. He's the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing and lives in Asheville, NC. http://ancestralmedicine.org/

Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Jul 18, 2017

Cafe



Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Rituals for Personal and Family Healing with Daniel Foor

Your blood lineage ancestors, irrespective of religion, race, or culture, include the thousands of women and men whose lives weave a story back to the first human beings in Africa over 200,000 years ago. For many living today, your ancestors experienced violence, injustice, or oppression, very much like our reality though in the forms of their time. When we bring healing to these unresolved issues in a family line, the dead can finally rest in peace and the living can heal personally, within the family, and in the larger collective. This week author, psychologist, and ceremonialist, Daniel Foor, joins host, Christina Pratt, to discuss his new book, "Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing." Daniel shares how by reconciling with our ancestors "we make repairs in our personal psyches and family histories that, in turn, mend cracks in the larger spirit of humanity."

This week's guest:
Daniel Foor, PhD


Daniel Foor, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist and a doctor of psychology. He has led ancestral and family healing intensives throughout the United States since 2005. He is an initiate in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has trained with teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and different indigenous paths, including the older ways of his European ancestors. He's the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing and lives in Asheville, NC. http://ancestralmedicine.org/

Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Jul 17, 2017

Esoterica



Meet the Makers of Motherpeace Tarot, the Feminist Deck That Inspired Dior’s Resort Collection

A skeleton, huddled in a fetal position, encircled by a molting snake decorates the opening look of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior Resort collection. Picked out in colorful threads at Dior’s Paris ateliers, the original image was drawn almost 40 years ago—it’s the Death card in the Motherpeace feminist tarot deck. An unlikely, inauspicious image for a fashion show, even one set in the wilds of the Santa Monica Mountains? Not according to Karen Vogel, who cocreated Motherpeace Tarot with Vicki Noble in the late ’70s. In fact, Chiuri’s choice of the Death card is downright uncanny. “It’s not necessarily about physical death,” says Vogel. “[It’s about] the beauty of the shedding of the skin that a snake does, that we can transform our lives. It’s about transformation and renewal that’s really beneficial.” An apter visual metaphor for Chiuri, who has set off on her own at Dior after working alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli for nearly three decades, is hard to conjure.

. . .

Christian Dior himself knew from magic. He was a devotee of the tarot and is said to have had his cards read before each of his fashion shows. But the decks he used would have been distinctly different from Motherpeace with its strong female archetypes, more than half of whom are of color. Noble and Vogel researched the goddess-based cultures of indigenous peoples around the world to make their illustrations. “We put women back into history,” says Noble. They also made their deck round, changing not so much the structure of the tarot, but the form. Since they self-published in 1981 and hand-collated the first 5,000 decks, they’ve sold upwards of 300,000, but Motherpeace has remained fairly esoteric. Noble chalks that up to the usual resistance to feminist work, especially matriarchal feminism (which posits a pre-patriarchal gynocratic age marked by peace, not war). “We knew lots of women at Ms. Magazine who had cards in their desks, but the cards were never featured in the magazine because they’re offbeat.”

Nearly four decades later, the culture just might be catching up to Motherpeace. Beyond Chiuri and Dior, Vogel says she’s noticed a renewed interest in the deck. “Separately but related, I’ve been hearing people using the word patriarchy, when it used to be fringe terminology,” she says. “And there’s a renewed sense that it’s okay to be a feminist, for sure.” We just might be able to chalk that up to President Trump.

Jul 11, 2017

Cafe



Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Healing the Ancestral Lines

When people call out to their ancestors, they call out to a diversity of energies. Some people call out by name to the men and women of their bloodline all the way back to the first man and first woman. Others call out to all of their relations; their request reaching out to all life through the interconnectedness of all living things. While others call out to their ancestors and visualize that request reaching from humankind to nature and on through their cosmology until they reach Grandfather Fire, Grandmother Water, and the Void from which the dream of life unfolds. Though we call out in different ways and mean slightly different things, traditionally “the ancestors” is a universally good thing. So what does it mean when we diagnose “the ancestors” as the cause of chronic disease, family patterns of addiction, or lose of hope and passion for life? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores why the dead aren’t becoming traditional helping spirits and why they remain stuck here hijacking the lives of the living. And more importantly she will share her non-traditional shamanic healing practices that effectively heal the energy stuck in the ancestral lines, which frees the living from the unresolved issues of the past and the dead take their place as helping spirits who offer us the rich legacy of all those who have gone before us.

**This show originally aired May 8, 2012**

Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Jul 8, 2017

Hobby Lobby Goes to the Black Market for Jesus

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



Note to Hobby Lobby: Please stick to arts and crafts and leave archaeology to the professionals.

Hobby Lobby purchased thousands of ancient artifacts smuggled out of modern-day Iraq via the United Arab Emirates and Israel in 2010 and 2011, attorneys for the Eastern District of New York announced on Wednesday. As part of a settlement, the American craft-supply mega-chain will pay $3 million and the U.S. government will seize the illicit artifacts. Technically, the defendants in the civil-forfeiture action are the objects themselves, yielding an incredible case name: The United States of America v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty (450) Ancient Cuneiform Tablets; and Approximately Three Thousand (3,000) Ancient-Clay Bullae.

Under any circumstances, this case would be wild: It involves thousands of ancient artifacts that seem to have been stolen from Iraq, where the pillaging of antiquities has been rampant. The longstanding trade in antiquities of dubious provenance has become an especially sensitive topic in recent years, and a target of increased law-enforcement scrutiny: ISIS has made some untold millions—or billions—by selling ancient goods. While nothing in the case indicates that these objects were associated with any terrorist group, the very nature of smuggled goods means their provenance is muddy.

But the case really matters because of who’s involved. The members of the Green family, which owns the Hobby Lobby chain, are committed evangelical Christians who are probably most famous for their participation in a 2014 Supreme Court case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which helped dismantle certain birth-control-coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The Greens are big collectors of ancient antiquities; they’re also the primary visionaries and contributors behind the Museum of the Bible opening in Washington, D.C., this fall. Steve Green is the chairman of the board. The family’s famous name, now tied to a story of dealer intrigue and black markets, is likely to bring even further scrutiny and attention as they prepare to open their museum.

Jul 7, 2017

Esoterica



Inside the 1950s LSD Therapy That Changed Cary Grant’s Life

In 1958, Grant had just filmed Houseboat with Sophia Loren (whom he had inconveniently fallen in love with), when his then-wife, Betsy Drake, introduced him to Mortimer Hartman, a Beverly Hills doctor with whom she’d been taking LSD in a therapeutic setting. Drake had started seeing Hartman to deal with her picture-perfect but troubled marriage, and thought he could help Grant, too. Hartman described LSD as “a psychic energizer which empties the subconscious and intensifies emotion and memory a hundred times.”

Grant would go on to take acid 100 times under the care of Hartman, whom he referred to as “my wise Mahatma.” At the end of his sessions, he felt healed and whole.

“After weeks of treatment came a day when I saw the light,” he says in the film. “When I broke through, I felt an immeasurably beneficial cleansing of so many needless fears and guilts. I lost all the tension that I’d been crippling myself with. First I thought of all those wasted years. Second, I said, ‘Oh my God, the humanity. Please come in.’”

Grant wasn’t the only one whose life changed during those psychedelic hours in Hartman’s office. The doctor is known to have treated roughly 100 patients, including Esther Williams, talent agent Jay Kanter, and a slew of lesser-known Hollywood players. Roberta Haynes, an actress whose biggest role was 1952’s Return to Paradise with Gary Cooper, was also one of Hartman’s patients. Now 89, in good health, and living in Delray Beach, Florida, Haynes is likely one of a very small group still living who took LSD with Hartman in the late ’50s and early ’60s. She remembers seeing Grant in the waiting room on more than one occasion. Haynes describes the 18 LSD sessions she had with Hartman, beginning in 1959, as life changing. “I was not happy with my life before the LSD,” she says. “Afterward I was able to be happy. I really think I came out of it knowing what was important in life.”

Jul 6, 2017

Vatican's Ticking Gay Bomb Goes Off

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



The Catholic Church has a gay problem. I'm not talking about its regressive, homophobic doctrine, but about the sheer hypocrisy. Openly gay, former friar Mark Dowd called it a "ticking gay bomb." By his estimation, about half of the men drawn to Catholic seminaries and monastic orders are gay. Leave say there have long been rumors of an underground gay scene for some time, even of a gay "lobby" at the highest levels. Now the implicit has become explicit with a widely publicized bust.

Vatican police raided a drug-fueled gay-sex party at an apartment belonging to an aide of one of Pope Francis’ key advisers, according to a new report.

The Holy Father is “enraged,” since the home, inhabited by Francesco Cardinal Coccopalmerio’s secretary, belongs to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith — the arm charged with tackling clerical sex abuse, the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported.

Cops raided the apartment in late June after neighbors voiced concern about multiple people acting strangely while streaming in and out of the residence, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

Once police were inside the apartment, they said they found multiple men engaged in rampant drug use and homosexual activity.

Jul 4, 2017

Teal Swan

Crossposted from The Gohst



I was once close friends with Teal Swan. This was us. I met her in the summer of 2011. We became close instantly. I had never met anyone like her before. She was different, and I like different. One of the first things Teal told me was that she was an alien and that there was a reason why I had come back to her, all in a very detailed fashion. That we were colleagues. Okay,cool- I can handle this, I’ve had strange experiences all my life this was something I could entertain. It wasn’t weird. Simply intriguing. And for a bonus, I fit in here.

In the fall of 2011, just after Thanksgiving, I had gotten in contact with the creator of Spirit Science. I introduced Teal to the website and thought it would be cool for her to upload this question and answer type video series that she was talking about doing, a little like the Abraham Hicks styleforum that we all knew and loved. She had held her first Synchronization workshop in Salt Lake and published her first book “Sculptor in the Sky” just before we had met. When she began to work with Spirit Science, I had moved to the Virgin Islands, and from afar I watched her views soar. It was amazing and exciting, we skyped often. She told me that she’d come and visit me in the astral plane. Comforting and strange at the same time. But I had had weird out of body travels before so I wasn’t going to doubt her experience.

We had this inside joke, when I would stay over at her house at night we’d say to each other “goodnight! I’ll see you in 5.” Because of our strange and vivid dreams. Life with Teal was great. I loved her very much. Each morning we would wake up, she’d cook an awesome breakfast for her family, we’d watch this boxed set of Abraham Hicks dvd’s that she had and then she’d get to work typing up a script for an Ask Teal episode. Each night she would sing her son to sleep.

She had bookshelves full to the brim with esoteric, self-help as well as parapsychology and occult type books. They were all annotated and dog-eared. She would write down my name eventually next to an aura color and personality type. She and I both had a fascination with Human Psychology and philosophy so we got along great. It wasn’t soon after that she began to tell me about her dark past. It was detailed. It was calculated. It would have made an amazing novel, and I let her tell it with my mind open to it. Even though a lot didn’t add up. After all you never question the victim… right? Right?


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