Circle

MAY 2023 -

The stream is flowing, calling with every note 

as the fresh water tumbles over the rocks

Listen, even the thrush is inviting you

Rejoicing in the sun

The green stretches, opening wide

A simple day, so rich and full

Life is here. Let us join the dance

** SHAMANIC INSPIRATION:

During Spring, Life energy is everywhere. It is a good time to enjoy being alive. However busy we may be, Spring is an opportunity to appreciate beauty, and spend time with miracles unfolding in Nature…

APRIL 2023 -

Home can be not only a place but also a state of being

Every day we come home. Come home to how we live, to how we breathe, to who we are. Wherever we are, whoever we are, we can connect to this place within us, and through this, connect to the world.

Sometimes it can feel difficult to find or locate this place. Where is the center, this calm still place that knows it is home? How do I find it?

When all around us is wild and moving, where do we go? What is the core that we must neve…

JULY 2022

Things happen when we sit in Circle
It is a central part of our work with the Spirits
Bringing the Circle together and feeling the connection
As the Power flows through

The Circle is a birthplace, a beginning and an ending
Holding space for things to happen
There is a place for each of us here,
An invitation to step in and take part

Even in times when we may not feel the connection
it is still here, holding us and reminding us
that so much more can happen when we come together

Surrounded …

MIDSUMMER 2022

In literature and philosophy, rivers have long been used as a poetic analogy for Life, and with good reason. Rivers are born as a spring, where the water bubbles up from the depths of the Earth, just as we are born from our mothers. As they flow down the mountainside, they gain in power – just as we become more and more physically powerful as we grow. The river becomes stronger and carries a heavier load as it moves along, but in times of drought it can shrivel to a trickle, and …

APRIL 2022

Life makes itself known, in its vibrant and insistent regeneration. Springtime in Scandinavia is a rich time - tight tiny buds on trees unfurling, early flowers reaching for the Sun and green growth overtaking dry remnants of Winter.

Whatever tragedies play out on the human stage, Nature insists on Life. Here it is again, right in front of us. We can open to the Power of new Life, of Regeneration, of Budding and Blossoming. Even in sadness, grief and anger, Beauty is here. Even in …

FEBRUARY 2013 -

Many of us recognize the importance of finding and following our own path. My own life experience has been that sometimes I find my path to be be hard and stony, sometimes smooth, sometimes inspiring, sometimes boring, and sometimes it just didn’t seem to be there at all - even though it always is.

In January, I volunteered to be Firekeeper for our International Shamanic Community (ISC). The Firekeeper takes on the responsibility of tending the spirit fire of the community for …

SPRING 2013 -

It was a long winter, but now it seems we can finally say “Spring is here!” How wonderful to walk on the bare Earth, feeling that raw, re-awakening power come up through the snow-flattened grass. I always become more Earth-conscious in the Springtime, the joy of the early days of smells and textures in the air, the new shoots penetrating through last year’s leaves, the brush of green on the willow, hazel and beech.

This joy is sometimes dampened by the constant reminders that som…

MIDWINTER 2014 -

Years ago on a workshop in Finland, a friend asked me, “What do you do when you get tired?” “I drink a cup of coffee,” I answered. He smiled. “That’s one possibility,” he said. So I asked him, “What do you do?” He smiled again. “I take a nap.” For me it was a very deep teaching that I often reflect on, especially at this time of year.

In these days before the Winter Solstice, we are at the edge of darkness. And what do we do when it’s dark? We turn on the lights. Well, that’s …

HARVEST EQIUNOX 2015 -

The first birch leaves are yellowing, and soon the cranes will be flying south as Summer seamlessly moves into Autumn. When does the one end and the other begin? It’s different every year, but one day I become aware that the light is changing and I find myself looking back on the warm mornings of July and forward to the cool evenings of October. What did I plant in the Springtime and what am I harvesting now?

At the end of the soul-retrieval course in August I realized t…

FEBRUARY 2018 -

Our first human teacher of shamanism, Michael Harner, left the land of the living to join the Spirits on February 3rd. He left behind him a great legacy. No, not his organization, The Foundation for Shamanic Studies. The legacy he left behind are the thousands of people who have had their lives changed because he showed that the ability to do the shaman’s work is not limited to people living in tropical jungles or on the arctic tundra. The ability to intentionally contact and i…