by The Practical Shaman on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 2:42pm
A Lineage of Thriving - Notes taken by community member, Mary Garvey. Thank you Mary for calling this back to my attention. This is the foundational belief for this weekend's workshop in Santa Fe. There is still room for you to answer the call.
This is from the Radio Show, Awakening Values with Renee Baribeau hosted by Marti Spiegelman http://www.martispiegelman.org/light.html
Complementarities – one of the organizing principles of consciousness
This is very important in modern cultures where we tend to embrace sameness, rather than accept complementarity.
Pairing of opposites – We used to be indigenous, but now we have become one. We are now blurring the boundaries of separateness. So we need to ask, are these opposites (indigenous and global/singular and universality) in conversation? We have to hold these two together until a unity is formed.
Initiation is a required aspect of consciousness. You have to be awake to work with wisdom. Then, you become a wisdom keeper, not a wisdom hider. Wisdom is woven into our very DNA- tended by a few, but shared by all. The need to be mentored in the great wisdom is true of our modern age.
The concept of lineage deals with a continuum of consciousness. Just as we are experiencing a Quantum Leap in culture, so too is a quantum leap needed in the new lineages. The Andean teachers and shamans are telling us that this is our task (the Western teachers), not theirs.
Shamanism is meant to be practical because we need guidance and mentoring in our modern world. Both Marti and Renee are “white” people who have been initiated into several lineages.
Marti asks Renee: “What was your experience of a gateway?”
Renee: 15 years ago landed in the Desert and attended a traditional inipi there and then went to Peru. “One system was open and one was closed”. In my traditional “home” lodge, I had the experience of coming home.” The Andean shamans were clear that the Westeners would carry the tradition and lineage, and not themselves.
Marti – “Coming home” is concept that speaks to the fact that we are wired to use this wisdom. “People know the authenticity of this wisdom when it touches them.” There are CEO’s of companies and branches of the government who seek out the shamanic practitioners for guidance.
Renee – When I started, it was about “me” and that’s where I first began the process. I am working with a 4 Step Process of Transformation in which a person surrenders and takes a solid inventory of his/her life.
Marti – Fool’s Crow described the importance of initiation. All initiation starts with the self because if the sense of the self is not well-rooted, nothing can grow. The Andean shamans speak of the depth of healing that modern people need to go through before they can be conscious. “A person can’t relate to another until they themselves know themselves.”
2.Renee – An elder once said to me “you need to be balanced within yourself before you can help others.”
Renee related a story of taking a 9 mile detour on a hike while being lost in Peru. She came upon a spigot of water and talked about her initial experience of reverence for the water.
Marti – We, in the modern world, have overdone individuation. The collective will never by any better than the individuals themselves. Most people have difficulty in bringing it home to themselves. For example, they may go on a vision quest and have a powerful experience, but don’t know how to integrate this into their everyday lives. Is your upcoming workshop meant to translate these indigenous principles into a formula for everyday living?
Rene – I spent 20 years going through all of these initiations and now have come back to a simple formula. The workshop, “Tool for Awakening: A Compass to Navigate Your Soul Driven Purpose” is meant to find the magical in the mundane. We want to make it so complicated! When we are in alignment, things unfold naturally and easily.
Marti – Angeles Arrien describes consciousness in this way, “Sacred is always simple!” In the Andean tradition, we are the Sacred and the sacred arises within us.”
Renee –“My new program is asking where you are in relationship to your own true north?” We will work with tools to navigate wherever you are on the compass in order to align with your own true north and get back there as quickly as possible.
Marti – It sounds like you are describing the Shamanic concept of “Pacha” of taking note of where you actually are and keeping on track. You seem to be working with the core principles of these indigenous teachings and devising tools that have meaning and significance for modern people. You seem to be taking the core principles and putting them to use in the modern world.
Renee – I am taking from all of these traditions (Lakota, Quero, Hindu Swami) and getting underneath the wisdom principles and applying them for the modern person. We are a mobile people and are not locked into a geography. Indigenous peoples were/are locked into a geography. So much of our landscape is changing. I try to meet people where they’re at. I want to help people create tools for navigating their landscapes.
Marti – There’s something called “collective initiation” (Carpi). You have to be given power and wisdom to do something great. It might be helpful to some of the CEO’s to step down from their pedestals and be infused with a collective initiation from the people.
Renee – Who is to say that the CEO is any more important than the mother in Utah who is concerned about how to raise her children?
Marti – The gateway is open to anyone who is ready to show up and access it.
Renee – The act of being open in precisely when “the download” can & does happen.
3. Initiation is a way of carrying the wisdom forward. There is actually a process of initiation that Martin Prechtel describes in Secrets of the Talking Jaguar.
The person has to be strengthened by an experience
Play with the experience and become informed to hold the wisdom
Marti and Renee have shared initiation in different lineages and are able to go back to the underlying principles that they entrust.
Renee – “All initiations lead to God.” Initiations go back to places that are “key” turning points in our lives. We have the right to add to the traditions. Take, for example, the Munay-Ki of the 4 Winds Society. These were added, but are very powerful and are being used all over the world.
Marti – Modern people need to stand up to this. We are going to have to evolve the process of initiation. We are talking about engaging with life. We are being informed by God/Great Spirit at every moment. Can you share a tool for awakening that our audience can begin using right now?
Renee – In your house, it is important to have a place for collecting sacred power. This could be your personal altar or it could be outside of your home.
Example: collecting rain water and placing rose petals in it. Every day at first sunlight, go out and cleanse yourself with this water. It is a way to “empty yourself in front of spirit.” When you empty yourself in front of spirit, you see what spirit has in mind for you that day. When you are empty, you are able to be initiated more easily and readily.
Marti – In our modern culture, we want it now and we don’t want to let go of anything. People don’t understand that they are clinging to the wrong things. When we surrender, we are open to Spirit manifesting in our lives. It is not a matter of what we want, but of what Spirit wants to manifest through us.
For more information on the workshop
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154799631265026
Awakening Value with Marti Spiegelman
http://www.martispiegelman.org/light.html
Image by honestysprotegee.wordpress.com
