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Renewing Your Dream

Short days and long, dark nights lend themselves to unpacking squashed impulses of authenticity, assumptions that diminish passion, and denied feelings. Winter is the time to entertain your deepest truths for the purpose of renewing your dream. Without taking some time each year for gestation to tend the self who is tired, feeling inadequate, too small, too weak, and without power the expressive self is not rejuvenated and realigned to live your dream in life. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores how we attend to "adrenal fatigue" and "yin depletion' by working honestly with our emotional life without indulgence or mental distance. With a renewed flow of our emotions we can replenish our stores of lifeforce energy and realign with our dream with the call for your unique genius that resonates in the Dreamtime.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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A Messianic Complex and Shamanism

Shamanic initiatory experiences often involve a break with reality and a time of madness, which is perceived of as a kind of test or challenge initiated by a helping spirit. The novice that allows a death of his/her sense of self moves through their own madness to the other side of that challenge transformed. The novice returns to a more ordinary state of consciousness and is acknowledged as a shaman. In contrast, in America similar breaks with reality lead into a dead end commonly referred to as a “messianic complex” in which the person perceives of them selves as a Savior or The One. This interpretation becomes a mental cul-de-sac for the individual with martyrdom the only way out. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the fact that how we interpret our own “madness” is culturally determined, thus those challenged by a diagnosis of mental illness may help themselves by ditching contemporary culture and interpreting their own experience through a shamanic cosmology in which no one needs to be saved.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Taking Shamanism Out of the Box with Sandra Ingerman

"This is a good time to settle into yourself and go beyond the surface of your spiritual practices," advises our next guest, Sandra Ingerman MA, a world-renowned author and much loved teacher of shamanism. She joins host, Christina Pratt, to explore the need to take our shamanic practice out of the contemporary box we have put it in, keeping us from our full power and potential. Sandy advises, "It is time for all us to stand up and do our spiritual work to shift our own consciousness and perception. It is time for us to stand up together as a global community so that we can create exponential change, which leads to healing for the earth and all of life." Sandra is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How are we meeting this extraordinary need today?

This week's guest:
Sandra Ingerman

Sandra Ingerman, MA, is a world-renowned author and teacher of shamanism. She is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture in ways that address the needs of our times. A licensed therapist, she is the author of Soul Retrieval, Medicine for the Earth: How To Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins, Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide, How to Heal Toxic Thoughts: Simple Tools for Personal Transformation and many other popular books on the contemporary practice of shamanism and shamanic healing.

Through her website, www.sandraingerman.com you can access her audio lecture programs produced by Sounds True, "The Beginner's Guide to Shamanic Journeying", "The Soul Retrieval Journey", and "Miracles for the Earth" lecture programs produced by Sounds True and find numerous other articles written by Sandra as well as read her monthly column The Transmutation News.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Chipping Away at Lululemon

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Chip Wilson is bad for business. He announced earlier this week that he will step down as chairman of the company he founded in 1998 -- a yoga-themed retail chain he created to address the scourge of feminism and named to mock the Japanese.

But the news just keeps getting worse for Lululemon. Yesterday the company took a beating on Wall Street after lowering its sales projections. Shares fell 11.7%.

Under the new chairmanship of Michael Casey and with new CEO Laurent Potdevin, Lululemon will try to rehabilitate its image and stock price.

Lululemon Athletica Inc (LULU.O) named a new chief executive on Tuesday and said founder Chip Wilson will step down as chairman, as the upscale yogawear retailer tries to expand globally and put a series of embarrassing quality issues and other gaffes behind it.

The company said Laurent Potdevin, most recently president of trendy footwear brand TOMS Shoes, will replace Christine Day as CEO in January and emphasized Potdevin's role leading TOMS' global expansion.

Lululemon, in the early stages of a push into Europe and Asia, was forced to recall some of its signature black stretchy pants in March because they were see-through. The incoming CEO said quality will be a top priority when he takes the helm.

"Product and quality for any premium brand such as Lululemon is absolutely paramount," Potdevin told Reuters. "It will be a very clear area of focus for me."

Strings and Things

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

There have been some big doings in the world of physics, real front page stuff. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to skip the part where I try to pretend I understand any of it.

The theory of the holographic universe just got a major boost from new developments in string theory.

A team of physicists has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that our Universe could be just one big projection.

In 1997, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposed that an audacious model of the Universe in which gravity arises from infinitesimally thin, vibrating strings could be reinterpreted in terms of well-established physics. The mathematically intricate world of strings, which exist in nine dimensions of space plus one of time, would be merely a hologram: the real action would play out in a simpler, flatter cosmos where there is no gravity.

Maldacena's idea thrilled physicists because it offered a way to put the popular but still unproven theory of strings on solid footing — and because it solved apparent inconsistencies between quantum physics and Einstein's theory of gravity. It provided physicists with a mathematical Rosetta stone, a 'duality', that allowed them to translate back and forth between the two languages, and solve problems in one model that seemed intractable in the other and vice versa. But although the validity of Maldacena's ideas has pretty much been taken for granted ever since, a rigorous proof has been elusive.

In two papers posted on the arXiv repository, Yoshifumi Hyakutake of Ibaraki University in Japan and his colleagues now provide, if not an actual proof, at least compelling evidence that Maldacena’s conjecture is true.

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Finding Your Life Magic

Your life magic is just waiting for you to notice it, to notice the natural (visible) and supernatural (invisible) forces that influence the events of your life. The way you interpret what is going on around you in the world, where you came from, and where you are going either opens your eyes to the magic or explains it way. "Believing in the magic in life is different from fantasy thinking," explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, "fantasy thinking is motivated by the need, real or perceived, to escape everyday reality. Believing in the magic in life is an attitude that opens our mind to possibility, our hearts to the flow of the forces moving around us, and grounds us in the full reality of the moment." Our world is inherently, wonderfully mysterious. Join us this week as we explore finding your magic and allowing it to open the way in the very real world to the life your heart dreams of living.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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James Arthur Ray Has a Record

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

One thing I learned during the James Ray sweat lodge trial was that you can't rely on mainstream media to report the unvarnished truth about the man's character or his crimes. If the recent Piers Morgan puff piece proved anything, it's that CNN is not so much a news organization as it is a PR venue for criminals. But then, the media has always been an enabler for the rogues gallery behind The Secret, ignoring one financial misdealing after another.

But there is a record. It's scattered across teh internets on blogs, zines, and message boards. The latest installment can be found on The Verge, who not long ago brought us Scamworld. In The Death Dealer, Matt Stroud offers a crash course in what went so horribly wrong on that awful day in Sedona. He also delves into Ray's autobiographical details, separating fact from fiction.

In Harmonic Wealth Ray describes sitting in the front row of his father’s church as a child. There he first heard that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." He describes how angry he felt, how that Biblical verse made him question his family’s situation — even question God. His parents didn’t have money to buy nice clothes, or own a home — they had to live next to the church. Rather than pay a barber, his mother would cut his hair. From his upbringing he concluded: "Here’s what I know: it’s a sin to be poor." That belief stayed with him for the rest of his life.

"I was the kid with the big Coke-bottle glasses and buckteeth who everyone made fun of," Ray writes, painting himself as a stereotypical nerd, mocked for his gangliness and lack of athleticism. Later, a classmate told the Arizona Republic that, like much of his "rags-to-riches" biography, Ray’s tale of an impoverished, socially outcast childhood contained embellishments if not outright lies. He dressed well and carried himself with confidence, said the former classmate. "It depends on what you call poor, but his dad made more than my family made."

Yes, Ray has both under and over estimated his net worth throughout his career -- his financial picture has always been more narrative than balance sheet driven. But more to the point, it's a sin to be poor?! Words matter. To Ray, poverty and illness are not simply unfortunate, they're spiritual failings -- even indicators of moral turpitude. Except, somehow, when it's Ray who's in financial trouble.

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What is a Shamanic Cosmology?

Cosmology is the science of the origin and development of the universe. When we say "a cosmology" we are talking the way we interpret what is going on around us in the world as seen through the lens of how we see the origins of life, where we came and our world came from, and where we are going. There are purely scientific cosmologies and purely religious cosmologies and there are cosmologies cobbled together from religion, science, and wishful thinking. We all have one and we all use ours to understand and interpret life accurately. What if your cosmology is false? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores shamanic cosmologies and their formation through observing and participating with the natural world. The great value of living from a shamanic cosmology is that it supports life choices that are sustainable, connected to both the environment and Spirit, heart-centered, and tend to promote peace in diversity.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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The Remarkable Vision of Jimmy Nelson

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

I don't like the title of this book. It sounds fatalistic to me, as if the attrition of these indigenous cultures is inevitable. But it is also a warning, a reminder of what a treasure they are, a call to protect what's left of humanity's origins.

These are truly remarkable photographs. Jimmy Nelson devoted 25 years of his life gaining the trust of these tribal peoples, so much so that they were willing be documented by a Westerner.

Looking at Nelson’s photographs, it’s difficult to imagine how a British man could gain this kind of access. “I never, ever take out the camera right away,” Nelson says firmly. “I didn’t know their language, but we connected as people.”

Because each tribe has its own particular dialect, there was only so far a local translator could go. The rest was up to Nelson. He says he used body language to convey ideas. By way of demonstration, he stretches his eyes wide, puts his hands on his face, makes an expression of awe and ‘ooos’ and ‘aahs.’

“It’s all about vanity and empathy,” Nelson says. “You literally go onto your knees and you beg them… You put them on a pedestal and you say until you can’t hear yourself anymore, ‘You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful. You’re important.' And eventually people feel that.”

Cardinal Dolan on Losing the Culture Wars

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Last night I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that Pope Francis had resigned and been replaced by yet another pope. How many retired popes, I wondered, could Vatican City accommodate? Would this become the new normal in the Catholic Church? And what about the Malachy prophecy? Because it looks very likely that Pope Francis is, in fact, Peter the Roman. Mostly, I was just really disappointed because I like this pope. He's not perfect but his heart is in the right place.

I was somewhat relieved to find this morning that Francis was still the pope and all was, more or less, right with the world. But then I was disheartened to hear that Cardinal Dolan was on Meet the Press spinning like a top. Because it's never about the regressive views of US bishops. It's about how they're being unfairly portrayed in media. Why oh why do they have so much trouble getting their message across?

They're not anti-gay says Cardinal Dolan. That's just how they've been "caricatured" by the media, simply because they're so pro "traditional marriage." But they've been "outmarketed," says Dolan.

"When you have forces like Hollywood, when you have forces like politicians, when you have forces like some opinion molders that are behind it, it is a tough battle.”

What the round-faced, red-hatted one never seems to understand is that if you're for something to such an extent that you want to prevent everyone else from doing differently, you are by definition, "anti." And Cardinal Dolan is "anti-anybody" who wants to get gay married. But he seems somewhat resigned to the fact that the "stampede" of same sex marriage support is crushing formal Catholic opposition.

On Watching Piers Morgan Interview James Ray -- UPDATED

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Yes, Ladies! He's keeping the hair. Natch!

*See Update Below*

Well that was about insufferable.

Piers Morgan had an opportunity last night to hold James Ray's feet to the fire in a way that Arizona prosecutors could not. But it was Ray who was in control of that interview. Morgan could have had Ginny Brown on to offer a counterpoint, but Ray would not allow it. He would only deign to appear if he was the only guest. Why James Arthur Ray, convicted felon, is such a hot media property that he gets to set his terms is a mystery to me.

Morgan continued in the long CNN tradition of playing passive apologist for James Arthur Ray. This is, after all, the news organization that lost interest in covering the trial as it became increasingly apparent that Ray was going to be convicted. And that he's a horrible, horrible person.

For 45 minutes, Ray emoted for the camera about the totally unforeseeable events of October 8, 2009 and how painful it's been for himself and his family. Said Ray:

I think the most difficult thing I can ever imagine is investing your entire life in helping people, and then finding them getting hurt. It's just the antithesis of anything that I had ever stood for or wanted. [emphasis added] And so that anguish has continued every single day since that moment.

And much like when Lululemon announced that brutal murder was antithetical to their values, I gotta wonder why anyone would need to spell that out. Is Ray afraid we'll all think he asked his genie to bring him death and destruction? 

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The Shaman in Love

One of the great stressors in life is intimate relationships, both the having them and the not having them. We can cultivate intimacy with ourselves through our relationship with spirit in shamanic practice, but how does that renewed intimacy translate into our relationships with lovers, friends and family? For many the changes brought on by a healthy shamanic practice created great chaos in our most intimate relationships, which can then challenge the sexual sustenance and financial stability of our lives creating even more stress. How do we love in a healthy way? How do we maintain right relationship with our self, with spirit, and with those we love all at the same time? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she dives into the rich, nourishing, often frustrating, frequently heartbreaking realm of relationship.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Colbert's Alpha Dog of Yoga

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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Stephen Colbert skewered Lululemon's Chip Wilson the other evening, naming him Alpha Dog of the Week. For more background on the yoga tycoon's misogynistic, fat-shaming, racist blather see here and here.

Da Vinci's Music

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Slawomir Zubrzyck performs on his viola organista.

Just when you thought you knew how brilliant da Vinci was, you find out he was even smarter. Painter, sacred geometer, scientist, flight engineer, aaaaaaannnd musician.

As if all his other accomplishments were not impressive enough, it should be noted that according to his early biographers, Leonardo da Vinci was also a “brilliant musician,” who was a talented player of the lira da braccio.

According to award-winning biographer and author, Charles Nicholl, Leonardo must “have excelled” since the biographers “the Anonimo” and Vasari insisted Leonardo:

”...went to Milan, probably in early 1482, [where] he was presented to the Milanese court not as a painter or technologist, but as a musician.”

The lira da braccio was not the lyre of ancient antiquity, but rather a forerunner to the violin. Leonardo excelled at playing this instrument, and was, according to Vasari:

”...the most skilled improviser in verse of his time.”

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Questing for a Dream Worth Living with Sparrow Hart

"For millennia, people have entered the wilderness to encounter the Spirit, to seek their direction, purpose, or medicine," explains our guest Sparrow Hart, author of Letters to the River-A Guide to a Dream Worth Living. "Each of us has a unique voice, a song we must sing, a vision we must enact. Each of us has the capacity to contribute joyfully, making the world a better place." Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt explores the vision quest with Sparrow, Founder of Circles of Air, Circles of Stone, creator of the Mythic Warrior Training, founder of the annual Men's Wisdom Council at the Rowe Conference Center, father, and author. He is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. In Letters to the River Sparrow places the struggles and crises we currently face - personal, political, moral, ecological and spiritual - within the context of a mythic and heroic journey and in that act, shows us a way to the New World.

This week's guest:
Sparrow Hart

Founder of Circles of Air, Circles of Stone, Sparrow Hart undertook his first wilderness rite of passage in 1971, a five-month solo pilgrimage in the Cascades and Canadian Rockies, and enacted his first vision quest in 1980. Sparrow has been leading 6-8 vision quests per year in Vermont and the American Southwest since 1987 and the completion of his training at the School of Lost Borders with Steven Foster and Meredith Little, authors of "The Book of the Vision Quest".

He is a father, writer, creator of the Mythic Warrior Training, founder of the annual Men's Wisdom Council at the Rowe Conference Center, and a frequent workshop leader around the country. His work is firmly in the tradition of "joining Earth and Sky;" bringing spiritual life out of the heavens and into the nitty-gritty issues we face daily, and affirming the sacredness of the emotional, imaginative, and sensual landscapes we travel on our individual soul journeys. He is the author of "Letters to the River: A Guide to a Dream Worth Living".

Hart's work comes out of his own experience. His personal journey includes a wide range of shamanic practices; apprenticeship with the Native American teacher, Sun Bear; dream exploration; the twelve steps; psychodrama, inner child work, and a long immersion in the Toltec and Castaneda tradition. He aspires to be a simple human being, a man on his journey, a person of the earth; and he's recognized as having a unique ability to make the ancient teachings of the connectedness of all life relevant to our modern and personal worlds.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Lululemon's Law of Attraction Fail

What has Lululemon done to law of attract its shrinking stock price?! Numerous ham-fisted efforts to shrink women down to nothing perhaps?

The yoga-wear retailer is both alienating current customers and "making it tough" to get new ones, an analyst at Sterne Agee, Sam Poser, wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. Poser downgraded the company's stock and sent Lululemon shares downhill 4 percent to $66.24 on Thursday afternoon.

"We believe that the core Lululemon customer has been alienated and will begin to look for yoga and active-wear pants from the likes of Nike, Under Armour, Athleta and numerous other brands," Poser wrote.

Lululemon did not respond to a request for comment.

Poser singled out the "mouth of the chairman," pointing to the recent controversy surrounding Lululemon chairman and co-founder Chip Wilson. In an interview on Bloomberg TV last week, Wilson attempted to address recent reports of issues with the company's yoga pants, which customers said were too sheer and easily pilled.

Wilson blamed the pants' problems on women's bodies, sparking outrage from consumers.

Yes ladies. Even women thin enough to fit Lululemon's yoga pants might be too fat to not rip them apart.

Who and What is Teal Scott?

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Because Teal Scott speaks for God!

Comment Overflow: I can see that a number of people are having trouble finding the newest comments for this post. It's not very well marked. So if you are wondering why you can't find where a comment you've just posted has gone, it's now on Page 3. Comments 201-400 can be found on Page 2. Comments 400+ can found on Page 4.


Several weeks ago I followed a link to the blog of one Teal Scott, self-described Spiritual Catalyst. I was pulled in for a bit. At first blush it struck me as the very open, honest disclosures of a psychic sensitive in a lot of pain. I can certainly relate to the challenges of being a super-sensitive in a jagged world. Teal was writing about her latest man trouble, about repeating abusive patterns in relationships. Yea verily, sister!

But as I clicked through a few more pages and tried to trace the narrative, things became increasingly convoluted. And was she really disclosing this man's identity? Wait, was he disclosing his identity on her blog? This man she was describing as a psychopath? That seemed most peculiar. And what was she really saying about the workings of spirit? It was something of a jumble, which would be fine, if she weren't relaying it all with such authority and certainty.

My bullshit meter was blinking red. I closed the tab and forgot all about Teal Scott.

A Facebook friend put her back on my radar when he posted one of her video lectures the other day. This led to a very frank discussion about spirituality, sexuality, sexism, and whether or not Teal Scott is a total fraud.

Massive Heart Integration

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important message.

Breathe into your Heart

I don't usually do things like this but the system is blinking red. Over the past couple of days this has come up in multiple readings as well as in my own process. There is some sort of mass integration underway. I don't know any other details. It's not anything I've read anywhere. I just keep seeing it. It's playing out in different ways for different people, as naturally it would, but it's in every case some version of a massive influx of new energy, soul parts, previously inaccessible components of our SELVES, that can be and need to be integrated now in a new way. Grounding this energy is important but it's not enough. The important thing is to breathe into the heart center whenever we have a few free moments to focus on it.

There are also feelings of emotional and psychic overwhelm for a lot of us. Taking a few moments to breathe into the heart as well as grounding into the earth is tremendously helpful in navigating this new dynamic.

Blessings to you all.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

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How do we ReDream our Life?

How do we redream our life when a spouse dies, a beloved sibling, or perhaps a child? How do we redream a life of love and relationship after a nasty, divisive, inequitable divorce? How do we redream life after time at war destroys our sense of the core goodness of humanity? Where do we begin when all that matters in life is tattered and in a shambles all around our feet? We accept that the Void is present and welcome The Original Dreamer into our life. And then we learn again to dream, just as we did as a child; we learn to dream reality into form. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores how we recover dreaming as a conscious act when the dream we have dreamt from childhood goes terribly awry. Join us and discover the art of dreaming well.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Once Upon a Time There Was a Voiceless Mermaid

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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I've told many people through the years that there are two ways to read Women Who Run With the Wolves. The first is bibliomancy, which is to simply let the book fall open to a random page and begin there. The other is to read it in order from the beginning, but to do so on no particular timetable and to take it up only when the spirit moves. To do otherwise is to find the book impenetrable -- nigh well unreadable. This is something many women have told me about their attempts to read it. But trust me, I would say, read it only when you feel it calling to you from the shelf and what had been a thick tangle of far too many words will be magically transformed into the most lucid, meaningful prose you've ever indulged. Read past the point in the book you were meant to read on any particular occasion and it will once again look like something written in a foreign language.

I read the book from front to back. It took me well over a year. But each time I picked it up it was a flawless reflection of that moment in time. Not only was the text the perfect insight into an experience I'd just had or some realization that had only just begun to dawn, it came accompanied by sometimes comical Jungian synchronicities. Like the time a boisterous, eccentric old woman in a restaurant bumped into my table and sent my chicken dinner clattering to the floor just as I was reading about Baba Yaga and her house on its crazy chicken legs. Some were far less humorous. One evening I felt moved to open the book again after I returned from the emergency ward. I had very nearly lost the tip of my finger to a confrontation with a trailer hitch. With my unbandaged hand, I removed the bookmark and found myself staring in disbelief at a story called "The Handless Maiden." A few short months later I was pregnant with my daughter. The day after she was born, the World Trade Center fell down and the realization that her father would almost certainly be heading off to war was inescapable. To anyone who's read that portion of the book, the parallels would be hard to miss.

As I enjoy my new favorite show Once Upon a Time, I find myself once again seeing the line between dreams and reality becoming blurred. After taking in a number of episodes from the first season, it occurred to me that I should grab the book I sometimes refer to as "the oracle" from the shelf and more deeply consider some of the rich themes that emerge between the lines of the show's deceptively pedestrian dialog. Book in hand I sat down to watch the next episode which turned out to be "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." In it one of the residents of Storybrooke has some very strange encounters with a wolf. It causes him to begin awakening in the dream as the viewer learns that the wolf had been his constant companion during his life as the Woodsman in the Enchanted Forest. I ran my hand across the gold embossed wolf on the cover of my book and just shook my head at the wonder of it all.

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Why Are We Afraid to Live Well? Part Two

We must first change what we want if we are to release our fears of living well. We must decide that we want the path of our soul or our destiny more than we want to fulfill the roles that define who we are and who we should be. The good wife, good provider, perfect child, excellent lover, good girl, bad boy-whatever the role is, it's and roles which means it is something we have learned to do to survive. Fear-based survival roles are never big enough or wholehearted enough for real life. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she continues to explore a shamanic approach to learning to listen to your soul in ways essential to cultivating fearlessness and passion for a life lived well. Just because your culture has failed you doesn't mean you need to continue to fail yourself.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Are We Afraid to Live Well?

One of the biggest challenges for us to understand in the New World is sovereignty or the supreme power to govern yourself. The sense that we have supreme power terrifies most people because we witnesses abuse and misuse of power every day at home and around the world. Add to that the fact that your supreme power carries with it your supreme responsibility to govern yourself, your energy, your thoughts, your choices, your physical health and most people are diving for the couch and some electronic device to escape. Why are we so afraid to live well? This is the question host and shaman, Christina Pratt explores this week offering shamanic remedies for the cultural issues that ail us and challenges for the soul cultivation that lies just out of reach. What better gift can you offer the next generation but the image of a life lived well?

Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Bishops Behaving Badly

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Catholic bishops are making headlines again and not in a good way. This week saw the suspension the "Bishop of Bling." It's a decisive action from the new pope that shows him actually putting his money where his mouth is, so to speak. One hopes it is a harbinger of things to come and that Pope Francis will start backing up more of his lovely rhetoric with decisions that reflect it. For a pope who seems to take the vow of poverty very seriously, the German bishop is downright embarrassing.

When Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Germany traveled to India last year to minister to poor slum dwellers, he reportedly flew first class.

This year, renovations of the Roman Catholic bishop's church-owned residence in the city of Limburg ran massively over budget to cover $620,000 worth of artwork, $1.1 million in landscaping and last-minute design revisions -- $42 million in all, billed to the Vatican and German taxpayers, Hamburg's tabloid daily Bild reported.

Dubbed the "Bishop of Bling" by European media that have been avidly tracking the bespectacled clergyman's lavish lifestyle, Tebartz-van Elst was suspended from his post by Pope Francis on Wednesday in a clear sign that the new pontiff is serious about diverting resources from the "princes of the church" to the paupers in its congregations.

Because Tebartz-van Elst is a bishop in Germany, there's more to this case than the obvious hypocrisy. For Germans, donations to their church aren't voluntary. Germany does not separate church and state and German church-goers pay taxes to support their churches.

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Why Are We Afraid to Die?

The stories we have been told about where we go when we die shape our reality about death. Millions of people are terrified of death because they have been told a story of hell and damnation. Others face death without suffering because they have been told a story of the turning of the great karmic wheel and reincarnation. The beauty of shamanism is that we can actually go explore what is true underneath these stories that shaped the Old World. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt this week as she explores cultural stories about death and how to work shamanically in your own life to find your fear of death and dispel it. The idea that we would go anywhere but Home when we die has done great harm to humanity, caused great suffering, and created a logjam of frightened souls between here and the Land of the Dead.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Stealing Malala

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Available on Amazon.com

An excellent write-up in Salon takes on Sam Harris's disturbing crush on Malala Yousafzai.

In an era of narcissistic self-obsession, there’s something to be said for the value of self-awareness. This week, atheist philosopher Sam Harris leapt forward to claim Malala Yousafzai as another trophy in his one-man jihad against Muslims and the weak-kneed “Muslim-apologists” he perceives on the left.

That Harris has been denounced as a crude, pseudo-intellectual bigot for his various tirades about the monolithic evil of Muslims didn’t do much to deter him; but what was most interesting about his latest missive was its complete disregard for Malala’s actual words and opinions. Either he didn’t listen to her words at all before plastering her face on his website or he was too contemptuous of her to think it necessary.

According to Harris:

Given the requisite beliefs…. an entire culture will support such evil. Malala is the best thing to come out of the Muslim world in a thousand years. She is an extraordinarily brave and eloquent girl who is doing what millions of Muslim men and women are too terrified to do—stand up to the misogyny of traditional Islam

It’s worth pausing here to listen to whether Malala thinks that she is standing up to her own evil culture and the misogyny of “traditional Islam”:

“The Taliban think we are not Muslims, but we are. We believe in God more than they do, and we trust him to protect us…..I’m still following my own culture, Pashtun culture….Islam says that it is not only each child’s right to get education, rather it is their duty and responsibility.”

Whatever one thinks of this, given that these are Malala’s beliefs, anyone with a modicum of decency or respect for her would not go ahead and use her suffering as a tool to attack the very things she is fighting to defend. Yet Harris takes up this opportunity with great vigor. For him it doesn’t matter whether Malala believed she was defending traditional Islam, because anyone who tries to differentiate Islam from the acts of extremists are part of the “tsunami of stupidity and violence breaking simultaneously on a hundred shores … the determination that ‘moderate’ Islam not be blamed for the acts of extremists.’”

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Lessons in Courage with Don Oscar Miro-Quesada

Lessons in Courage, by Don Oscar Miro-Quesada, is a guide for changing our lives and bringing much needed healing to ourselves and our planet through the applied wisdom of Peruvian shamanism. This book offers us challenges, insights, and daily practices to aid us in becoming the people the New World needs us to be. Host, Christina Pratt, explores this new book with Don Oscar, originator of The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition (PMT), a five-part workshop apprenticeship series and tradition rooted in the Peruvian spiritual methods of sacred relationship with the Earth. Don Oscar is the founder of The Heart of the Healer (THOTH) Foundation and our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How is this shaman meeting this extraordinary need today?

This week's guest:
Don Oscar Miro-Quesada

Don Oscar Miro-Quesada Solevo is a respected kamasqa curandero and altomisayoq adept from Peru. His apprenticeship in northern coastal huachuma curanderismo and initiation into the southeastern Andean paqokuna shaman/priesthood, formally took place between the years 1969 and 1986. Don Oscar has been facilitating experiential workshops and apprenticeship programs around the world since 1979 that integrate millennial and contemporary healing practices and Earth-honoring ceremonial traditions with a focus on the creation of heartfelt sacred communities around the world.

Don Oscar is the originator of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural shamanism, a soul-infused vehicle for deep personal and planetary transformation, that blossomed organically from Oscar's practice and fulfills the noble intentions of both venerable elders who bequeathed don Oscar with the oral sanction to preserve Heart Island's (South America) ancestral healing traditions as Peru's legacy to all future generations. He is also the visionary founder of The Heart of the Healer Foundation (THOTH) whose mission is preserving indigenous wisdom and restoring our earth. More about THOTH can be found at www.heartofthehealer.org. He is the author of Lessons in Courage: Peruvian Shamanic Wisdom for Everyday Life.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Once Upon a Time There Was a Chymical Wedding

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

"Stories are medicine. I have been taken with stories since I heard my first. They have such power; they do not require that we do, be, act anything -- we need only listen. The remedies for repair or reclamation of any lost psychic drive are contained in stories." ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés in Women Who Run With the Wolves

I'm a little late to this party -- two years to be exact -- but I have recently fallen in love with Once Upon a Time. Once again I tried to curl up with a little diversionary fluff and was instead abruptly pulled into the heart of the mysteries. As ever with these pop culture creations I am left to wonder if the writers are just randomly pulling these profound archetypes out of their deep subconscious, totally unaware of the implications, or if it's a carefully scripted foray into Gnosis.

The central plot is clever and entertaining. The evil queen from Snow White, she of the poison apple, takes her revenge by casting a spell that drags a myriad of fairy tale characters into a small town in Maine. There they live trapped in time and unable to remember who they really are. But the curse may be undone by the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, who was secreted out of the enchanted forest before the curse fell and predestined to return at the age of 28. Twenty-eight years later Emma Swan is living a lonely life in Boston until a young boy claiming to be the son she put up for adoption pulls her to Storybrooke. He insists she must fulfill her destiny and break the curse cast by his adoptive mother, who he is quite sure is the evil queen in his very unusual book of  fairy tales.

Each episode weaves together the complimentary narratives of the characters' lives in Storybrooke and their history as fairy tale creatures. It's skillful, if somewhat predictable, storytelling. But it's in the imagery that the creators tip their hand. They speak the language of symbols far too well for me to take the series lightly. From the first episode I was struck by the subtle but brilliant use of sacred geometry, character names, and striking tableaux. 

It is essentially a mystical story employing the most basic numerical code to appeal to conscious oneness.

TEDx Gets Punk'd

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

While some of us were focused on TED's censorious and insular nature, the many people who don't care about that were noticing something else: TED has simply jumped the shark. Snooty articles are popping up all over the place opining about the fact that the once clever packager of ideas has devolved into self parody. TED hate is the new black.

And so the stage was set for the self-important TED talk to be lampooned by an ostensibly serious TEDx speaker.

Everyone is annoyed by TED Talks these days, those vacuum-sealed idea nuggets. So comedian Sam Hyde sneaking onto an (independently organized) TEDx program at Drexel University last weekend and delivering this incomprehensible 20 minute talk on the "2070 paradigm shift" must be seen as a symbolic victory in the war on bullshit, even if it gets kind of old after minute 10. (Which is, I think, part of the joke.)

The best part: "What inspire me, is teaching African refugees how to program Javascript. What inspires me is finding out how to use MagLev trains to get resources to the moon. These are the challenges that tomorrow's going to face."

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Shamanic Practice in the New World

How is shamanic practice evolving, as it has in every age, to meet the challenges of our time? The spirits gave us good council as we entered the New World, but what have we done with that information? Are we shifting our relationship with the Unknown in ways that allow us to truly guide the young through initiation into adulthood and the dying safely through the threshold of death? Have we embraced the path of the passion and true heartedness to effectively guide the reassembling of people struggling with PTSD and our epidemic of mental illnesses. Have we made any progress at all out of the lie of separation from God and begun to bridge religious separation and embrace diversity as our true savior? Have we accepted the piles of research that supports the ancient knowing that sustainable health is rooted in the ability to rest, fully relax and to nourish that which matters in life. Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores how to work with the guidance of spirit to change your story, live in new ways, and to write the New Story with our shamanic work in the world.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Shamanism in the New World

The shamanism of today must continue to evolve if we are to respond to the times we have chosen to live in. Our contemporary shamanic practices have not been immune to the influence of the Old Story. Now is the time of the New Story of the People in the beginning of a New World. This week we explore how the lie of separation, so foundational to the Old Story, undermines the personal message of love and self worth from our helping spirits. And, more importantly how that lie keeps us engaged in the age-old religious battle between good and evil, instead of using our understanding that Everything Is One to return even evil to it's origins. Fear of the Shadow also drives the Old Story effectively keeping us from facing our fears and experiencing meaningful individuation and initiations. But with our helping spirits we have an avenue into the Shadow that allows not just understanding, but the rescue, transformation, and integration of the original ally form. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week and she unpacks the Old Story in our shamanic practices and challenges us to write the New Story with our shamanic work in the world.

This show originally aired February 5, 2013.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Two Popes?

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

In a very strange turn of events, the former pope -- Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI -- has broken his public silence to defend against allegations that he covered up sex-abuse.

The comments - which a victims' group rejected - were made in an 11-page letter to Italian author and mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi, who had written a book about the problems facing the Roman Catholic Church before the pope resigned in February.

"As far as you mentioning the moral abuse of minors by priests, I can only, as you know, acknowledge it with profound consternation. But I never tried to cover up these things," said Benedict, who now has the title Emeritus Pope.

Excerpts of the letter were published in the Rome newspaper La Repubblica on Tuesday with the former pope's permission.

It was believed to be the first time Benedict has responded to the sexual abuse accusations in the first person, although the Vatican has always said he did much to put an end to sexual abuse of minors by priests and never tried to cover it up.

Even stranger than the public nature of retired pontiff's statement is the fact that it appears to echo a letter from Pope Francis to the publisher of La Repubblica -- or does Pope Francis's statement echo Pope Benedict's?

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What is intimacy with Spirit?

True shamanic trance states, those that actually clear the control of the small self, require intimacy with spirit. "Intimacy grows with contact," explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. "Intimacy is an embodied experience, not a virtual one. Your capacity for intimacy with anything-spirit, technology, a lover-begins in the cultivation of true intimacy with yourself, not the self you envision, but the self that you are in this moment." This week we explore intimacy, radical acceptance, and how to cultivate the intimacy with spirit required for deep shamanic currents to move through your life and bring miracles to even the most basic, beginning journeyer.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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The Surprising Nature of the New Pope

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Pope Francis created shock waves again this past week with his surprising ability to not hate on entire groups of people. Of all the comments in his interview with fellow Jesuit Antonio Spadaro, what has gotten the most press was his blunt assessment of the Church's relentless focus on divisive issues. The Church is "obsessed," he said, with abortion, gay marriage, and contraception.

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.

The pontiff reveals much more than the radical nature of his thinking here. He reveals that he has been "reprimanded" for it. By whom, one wonders.

The Unbreakable Woman in Red

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

For anyone with an interest in Warren Jeffs and his FLDS, this Dateline episode is must viewing. Rebecca Musser -- former wife of Rulon Jeffs, witness for the prosecution against Warren Jeffs, and red wearing apostate -- has written a book. The Witness Wore Red tells the story of her life before and after breaking from the church she grew up in. Musser was instrumental in putting Warren Jeffs behind bars and this Dateline episode gives a fairly thorough overview of the long process of bringing this unrepentant pedophile to justice. The whole show is in the embed above and can also be viewed here. Some of it is hard to take. The "desecrated" temple with its sacred, holy beds is every bit as creepy as other well-hidden rape rooms Jeffs has constructed.

Musser is one brave woman, risking hell-fire and damnation to free herself from total domination by dirty old men of God. One can't help but marvel at the strength of women like Musser, her sister, and other apostates, who have not only found their voices but used them to put a far too powerful sex offender in prison.

In other news, the FLDS empire continues to crumble. The Alta Academy, where Warren Jeffs raped children and taught such unassailable facts as how the moon landing was faked because God would never allow such a thing, is slated for demolition. Good riddance.

Natural News Notices That TED's Dead

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

"Allow me to be the first to announce that TED is dead," says Mike Adams of Natural News. But Mr. Adams is a little late to the funeral, having only just noticed TED's "bad science" letter of December 7, 2012, previously discussed here. Natural News has observed that among the many areas of inquiry proscribed from the TED brand is any health topic not sanctioned by mainstream science, aka. pharmaceutical and chemical companies.

In that letter, TED says that people who talk about GMOs are engaged in "pseudoscience." Those who discuss the healing potential of foods are spreading "health hoaxes."

The letter also advises TEDx organizers to, "reject bad science, pseudoscience and health hoaxes," meaning anyone who talks about GMOs, "food as medicine" or similar topics.

Natural News overstates TED's policy guidelines. The letter does not say these subjects are banned outright. What it says is that these topic areas are "red flags" that should alert TEDx event planners to likely "health hoaxes" and other "pseudo-science."

That letter sets a bar that few natural health advocates are likely to meet. As stated, not even Einstein's groundbreaking work would have met TED's criteria.

TED has also let TEDx organizers know what it finds distasteful with this letter -- and what could put their affiliation on the chopping block. What organizer would want to test those limits by hosting a "red flag" topic, no matter how well-sourced? TED has made it very clear with its high profile actions against Graham Hancock, Rupert Sheldrake, and TEDx Hollywood that they will silence speakers and pull sponsorship without reasonable notice and without explanation. I repeat: without explanation. Note that Chris Anderson has never bothered to justify the decision to quarantine Hancock's and Sheldrake's talks even when directly asked to do so. What TEDx organizer would want to risk having their fate quietly decided in TED's star chamber?

There is no question that last December's letter and TED's subsequent actions can only have a chilling effect on anything but its nice, corporate-friendly, mainstream science -- no matter how poorly sourced, blatantly incorrect, or incredibly dull.

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The Tribe of the Modern Mystic with Kelley Harrell

What is it really, creatively, effectively like to do good shamanic work these days? How do you manage the demand that every class, ritual, and ceremony be offered online? Where do you draw the line between the old ways that actually worked and the new needs driving our shamanic practices to innovate? Shamanism has adapted through the ages so that it remains a vital and effective option to heal that which wounds us, our families and our environment. Join us this week as author and neoshaman, Kelley Harrell and host, Christina Pratt, for an exploration of the ins and outs and ups and downs of tending our non-local, shamanic communities. Kelley has served her local community in North Carolina and an international client base since 2000 through Soul Intent Arts. She is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How are we meeting this extraordinary need today?

This week's guest:
Kelley Harrell

Kelley is an author and neoshaman living in North Carolina. Her memoir, Gift of the Dreamtime: Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma chronicles her pivotal step into the role of shaman. She has been on a shamanic path for over 20 years, works locally and with an international client base. Kelly is an Ascension and Usui Ryoho Reiki and Master, an Ordained Priestess by Global Goddess, and she honors the path of the modern Druid in her practices. She incorporates these other trainings, ways of knowing, and modalities into her shamanic practice, Soul Intent Arts, LLC.

Kelley writes the syndicated column Intentional Insights - Questions and Answers from Within, is a contributing writer for The Huffington Post, and a contributing book reviewer for SageWoman and The Beltane Pages. She is also the proud founder of The Saferoom Project, a non-profit support network for sexual assault survivors, and their partners, family and friends. She joins us today to talk about her work and the re-release of her book, Gift of the Dreamtime.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Television and the Quest for Immortality

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Torchwood: Miracle Day begins tonight
Sept. 14 at 9:00 pm EDT on BBC America

I've not been doing much writing lately... obviously. I'm still settling in after our most recent move. But, on my breaks from unpacking boxes, I've mostly been staring at that other box... the idiot box. It was supposed to be passive, relaxing entertainment -- a restorative after long, hard days of hating the entire process of moving.  Instead, I've once again been pulled down a rabbit hole into a network of intertwining symbolism and myth. I pretty quickly noticed that a theme was emerging and that the theme was immortality.

I finally had the opportunity to see Torchwood: Miracle Day when it came on Encore. I'd been wanting to see it since it came out but I don't have or want Starz. The previous Torchwood miniseries Children of Earth was excellent if very, very disturbing. I had wanted to write about some of the symbolism of that series when it aired but after I watched the final episode, I was just too emotionally wrecked and I never wanted to look at the series again. Miracle Day is also very dark. The mythic symbolism is, once again, so veiled, you could easily miss it.

Human immortality is suddenly, inexplicably achieved and the world discovers that it's really very inconvenient. This is not a good version of immortality. It's not an ascension of any kind. It's just an inability to die no matter how sick, old, injured, or executed one might be. But underneath all the gruesome dreariness of that Torchwood sensibility, there are subtle points to some greater themes, which keep this from being pedestrian science fiction of the "wouldn't it be weird if" variety.

As Doctor Who fans know, Jack Harkness's immortality is an aberration -- a fluke that the Doctor finds disturbing and wrong and against the natural order. But there are subtle nods to a deeper mythos. In Children of Earth, for instance, Jack is killed, dismembered and buried in cement, only to be reassembled and resurrected. He has become Osiris. In Miracle Day we again see him playing out a resurrection mythology as he is effectively crucified -- hung by his arms, tormented by townspeople, and put to death, only to rise again... and again and again.

William Henry on 9/11

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

William Henry has been talking about the symbolism of the World Trade Center Memorial architecture for some time. Above, in the player, is a video blog he did in 2011 which lays the groundwork for his new interview with Mark Gray; also in the player. In it they discuss, among other things, the startling connection between the new architectural vision for Ground Zero and it's relationship Mecca. And, no, it has nothing to do with the radical Islamists who apparently leveled the original towers.

Meanwhile, coincidence?

Koenig Sphere ~ Battery Park




Sphere in Pine Cone Court ~ The Vatican

James Ray: Felon

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

James Ray Sports Guru-do Upon Release

James Arthur Ray will remain a convicted felon. Arizona's Court of Appeals has granted Ray's request of last week to drop his appeal. It appears that he weighed an attempt at clearing the conviction from his record against the very real possibility of being convicted again in any potential retrial and facing more than the paltry sentence he's already served. He's opted not to risk his recently gained freedom from incarceration.

In documents filed with the Arizona Court of Appeals Thursday, Ray, 55, signed an affidavit stating that he wishes to "avoid any possibility of a retrial and a resentencing."

Had he not dropped the appeal, oral arguments would have begun today. He would have also faced a cross-appeal from the State claiming, among other things, that the jury should have been informed of Ray's duty to act when participants were in distress.

Tom Kelly is unhappy with Ray's decision to let the matter drop.

His local attorney during the trial, Tom Kelly, said he was less than pleased with his former client's decision to abort the appeal. He said he met with Ray, who has remained in the Phoenix area pending the end of his parole, earlier this week.

"I was disappointed with his decision and I believe justice requires a resolution of the points raised on appeal," Kelly said.

But since it appears that Kelly's passion for "justice" does not include his continued representation of the harmonically destitute Ray, who cares.

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What is the Axis Mundi?

The axis mundi is an existential place or point wherein creation and entropy, the essential generative and destructive forces of the universe, exist as one within the Great Mystery. The axis mundi is an important concept in many philosophies and religions and it has a unique relationship to shamanism. Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores the axis mundi and why contemporary practitioners often stay on the surface of their practice because they avoid deep relationship with the axis mundi and it's energy. We can use ancient sexual practices to cultivate our relationship with the energy of the axis mundi which is essential to a strong and deep shamanic practice. The axis mundi is not just a mental concept for the shaman; it is both a practical tool and a spiritual awareness. It is the place through which the shaman travels when journeying in an altered and often ecstatic state. Ecstasy is not the purpose of the shaman's journey, however it is often a valuable by-product.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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