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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Source of True Power

How do we cultivate the internal richness needed to sustain the true power of action? Where do we find the integrity to face our darkest fears and the impeccability to see them for the illusions they are, binding our hearts in mental unwellness, anxiety, and depression? When will we be accountable to the vulnerable steps required for the consistent self-care at the root of right action? “We are here now at the beginning of a new world,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “and we are charged with the responsibility to make the new world better than before.” Join us this week as we explore how we can change the old ways that drive us to false expressions of our true nature. It is not necessary that we live in perpetual exhaustion and deep dissatisfaction with life. With shamanic skills we can transform anxiety into alignment with purpose, inadequacy into interconnection with all things, and depression into the resources to restore and rejuvenate our sense of self.

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

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Viking Sunstone Discovered?

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Add another reason to love crystals. Scientists now believe that simple calcite is the Viking Sunstone of legend.

Ancient lore has suggested that the Vikings used special crystals to find their way under less-than-sunny skies. Though none of these so-called "sunstones" have ever been found at Viking archaeological sites, a crystal uncovered in a British shipwreck could help prove they did indeed exist.

The crystal was found amongst the wreckage of the Alderney, an Elizabethan warship that sank near the Channel Islands in 1592. The stone was discovered less than 3 feet from a pair of navigation dividers, suggesting it may have been kept with the ship's other navigational tools, according to the research team headed by scientists at the University of Rennes in France.

. . .

Because of the rhombohedral shape of calcite crystals, "they refract or polarize light in such a way to create a double image," Mike Harrison, coordinator of the Alderney Maritime Trust, told LiveScience. This means that if you were to look at someone's face through a clear chunk of Icelandic spar, you would see two faces. But if the crystal is held in just the right position, the double image becomes a single image and you know the crystal is pointing east-west, Harrison said.

These refractive powers remain even in low light when it's foggy or cloudy or when twilight has come. In a previous study, the researchers proved they could use Icelandic spar to orient themselves within a few degrees of the sun, even after the sun had dipped below the horizon.

Dethroning the Hierophant

Article first published as Dethroning the Hierophant on Blogcritics.

A few years ago, I observed that the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was hitting a critical point, as a glut of news reports was beginning to directly implicate the Vatican. I suggested then that what was happening in the Catholic Church was an indicator of the dismantling of hierarchical systems more broadly and that in the Motherpeace Tarot, such patriarchal, spiritual authority is represented by the Hierophant.

At its root, the word "hierophant" means bringer to light of sacred things. In the traditional Tarot, the Hierophant represents a priest or Pope, the paternal religious authority.... Representing a hierarchical view of religion, the Hierophant stands on a pedestal, raised up from the earth, above the common person. In the Motherpeace image, he has taken over the robes and skirt of the High Priestess, along with her breasts which symbolize her sacred power, but he has forsaken her "Sophia" or wisdom.... The authority of the Hierophant is based, in large part, on repression of women and the natural instincts that women symbolize.

The The Motherpeace Tarot Playbook explains how to read the card when it comes up in a spread.

The Hierophant represents spiritual authority. He represents ritual and ceremonial magic which manifests as organized religion in this culture. Or he represents the psychic control exercised by mostly male, authority figures in our culture, such as psychiatrists, gurus, doctors and courtroom judges. Since he is also the internalized parent or superego authority, he represents conventional morality.

The text goes on to explain how to read this card when it presents as reversed, or ill-dignified.

The reversal shows a full-scale rebellion. You can no longer tolerate external roles and conventional morality; you have begun to call on your deeper conscience for advice You are able to stop kneeling to the priest or the doctor or the father, choosing instead to take your own advice, heed your own counsel.

Five Bishops Agree: Violence Against Lesbians OK

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Read it and weep.

Five key Catholic bishops are opposing the newly authorized Violence Against Women Act for fear it will subvert traditional views of marriage and gender, and compromise the religious freedom of groups that aid victims of human trafficking.

But for the first time since the original act became law in 1994, it spells out that no person may be excluded from the law’s protections because of  “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” — specifically covering lesbian, transgender and bisexual women.

Yes. According to five signing bishops, compassion is conditional. Catholics can't risk their "conscience" by serving the needy if that in any way interferes with their right to discriminate against entire groups of people.

“Conscience protections are needed in this legislation to ensure that these service providers are not required to violate their bona fide religious beliefs as a condition for serving the needy,” reads the statement of the bishops, who have supported previous versions of the act.

Five bishops -- Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, Archbishop William E. Lori, and Archbishop Jose H. Gomez -- have a very strange idea of what it means to have a conscience.

Popeless

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

"Fight the real enemy." ~ Sinead O'Connor

Remember when Sinead O'Connor ripped up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live? Good times, good times.

A priest in Italy has stolen her act... and may have even topped it.

An Italian priest set fire to a photo of Pope Benedict during Sunday Mass in protest against his abdication, telling a shocked congregation that the former pontiff had abandoned his flock.

“It was wonderful,” the Rev. Andrea Maggi from Santo Stefano Protomartire church in the small northern village of Castel Vittorio, told La Repubblica daily, defending his act.

He played to mixed reviews. Half of the congregation walked out before the service was over. The best performance art is always controversial.

The local mayor was quick to point out that it was a "fragile" time for the priest, psychologically speaking. One could argue that it is a fragile time for the Catholic Church as well.

Cardinal Mahony Goes to Rome

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Cardinal Mahony doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. And neither does the Vatican.

Cardinal Roger Mahony expressed "amazement" at calls that he withdraw from the upcoming papal conclave because of his record on clergy sex abuse and said the Vatican, acting through its ambassador to the United States, had instructed him to take part in the election of the next pope.

. . .

"Without my even having to inquire, the nuncio in Washington phoned me a week or so ago and said, 'I have had word from the highest folks in the Vatican: You are to come to Rome and you are to participate in the conclave,' " the cardinal said.

Mahony has been mystified since his successor Archbishop Jose Gomez benched him a month ago. He doesn't think anything in the recently released files is so damning.

Mahony said he was "amazed" at the controversy over the Los Angeles files, claiming that the salient information about sex abuse in them could be found in a 22-page report available on the archdiocese's website since 2004.

"There are some new things in the files that came out, but as far as I know I don't find anything in there disqualifying," he said.

One wonders, then, why Cardinal Mahony moved heaven and earth and retained an army of lawyers to keep those files from being released.

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Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The True Power of Action

We have lost the true power of action in the habits, expectations, and excess fire of the Old World and its story. The Warrior warns that the spiritual ambition, economic aggression, and arrogance of the full range of positional people have stripped us of the understanding of what an expression of true yang energy looks and feels like. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the true power of action and how we can transform the aggression and control of our false self into the precision with which we chart the course to live our soul's true purpose. We can transform our ambition to be good girls and boys and get it right into devotion to the ever-unfolding process of living honestly and authentically. And we must transform the arrogance that arises from our identification has the healers, light workers, and good-guys into the excellence that flows with ease and joy and laughter from giving our gifts to the world.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013 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.

Cardinal O'Brien Comes Clean... ish

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

I thought it was fairly safe to assume that Cardinal Keith O'Brien was guilty of something when he abruptly resigned and withdrew from the conclave. Accusations by several priests and one former priest of his making sexual advances stood in sharp relief against the backdrop of his notorious anti-gay views. A report last Friday in The Scotsman claimed the Vatican had received a report months ago of yet another incident dating back to 2001.

Yesterday the cardinal publicly announced that he was guilty... of something. We're still not sure exactly what.

"In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them," O'Brien said.

"However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal," he said. "To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness.

So here's my question: What constitutes the "standards" expected of a Catholic priest? Wouldn't that be any sexual conduct at all? It just strikes me as a bizarre and excessively couched statement by a man who is still just refusing to name the love that dare not speak it.

Retired Pope Rattled

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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If I were Pope Emeritus Benedict, I might be feeling a little paranoid right about now.

Various Italian news sources reported Sunday that a mild earthquake had struck Rome and surrounding areas, including Castel Gandolfo, the former pope's temporary home.

According to the Agence France-Presse, the earthquake had a local magnitude of 2.5 and was felt in Rome, Ciapino, Marino and Castel Gandolfo. So far, no reports of injury or serious damage have been relayed to the Italian Department of Civil Protection.

. . .

This latest event comes on the heels of a photo that appeared to show a bolt of lightning striking St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City just hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation on Feb. 11.

Granted, this isn't the first time Castel Gandolfo has been rattled by a quake and there is a lightning rod in the Basilica, but still, it's a little weird.

FLDS Splinter Group Takes Root in the Desert

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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A very long, convoluted, lede-burying set of articles and blog posts in the Salt Lake City Tribune profiles William E. Jessop, the leader of a growing group of FLDS apostates. Not to be confused with Willie Jessop, William E. Jessop was born William E. Timpson but an earlier splintering of FLDS caused him to become a Jessop. I suspect this story would be easier to sort out if FLDS weren't so inbred and didn't keep playing musical chairs with the wives and children.

Apparently William E. Jessop was ordained by Rulon Jeffs, father of the currently incarcerated Warren Jeffs. The ordination is dubious, however, because the elder Jeffs had had a number of strokes which by his own rules disqualified him from ordaining anyone. Even so, Jessop was one of Warren Jeffs's top lieutenants and the bishop of Short Creek. He was often called upon by Jeffs to do his dirty work, like delivering his capricious excommunications. Jessop also acquired the wives of a number of excommunicates.

Jessop acknowledged taking some of those women as his own wives. Records seized by Texas authorities in the 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch show Jessop had 11 wives as of 2006. Jessop says he has many fewer wives now.

Within his new group, polygamy is still practiced, but Jessop has condemned the practice of compelling young girls to marry. Teenage girls are to be provided with options and if they choose to marry, are to be warned of the implications.

Bugging the Vatican

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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In the wake of an historic, papal resignation, much of the world's gaze is fixed on the Vatican these days. And the picture ain't pretty. The shroud of secrecy is slipping and exposing rifts, power-plays, mistrust, and even the possibility of wanton, homoerotic debauchery. But what is most surprising in all of it isn't the scandalous intrigue or distinct whiff of criminality. That much is hardly news. It's that they look like the bloody Keystone Cops! When it comes to  managing their internal crises and dealing with the media, they're just incompetent.

There were indications of that in all their buffoonish attempts to tamp down the furor surrounding the sex abuse crisis. As I wrote here, being a former publicist, I have found myself astonished at their ham-fisted ineptitude. They seem to spend a lot of time rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and castigating the media for noting that they're taking on water.

As I wrote here, Pope Benedict is being subjected to scrutiny and criticism that most outgoing popes aren't... because they usually go out in a body bag and defaming the recently deceased is just bad form. But it's not just his liberal -- and moderate -- critics who are questioning his record. The knives are out in the very fractious Vatican and we're hearing the rumblings about what a poor administrator and ineffectual leader he was.

In the Vatican itself, there was always a subtle current that held that Benedict may be a world-class intellectual but he was out of his depth as a CEO, sometimes leaving the church rudderless. Even his resignation stirred sotto voce resentment, with Vatican insiders grumbling that plans for the timing of the conclave to elect his successor should have been worked out in advance rather than left hanging.