Talking Drum Newsletter
Number 15, Summer 2006
FEATURES:
The Therapeutic
Effects of Drumming
by Michael Drake
Drum therapy
is an ancient approach that uses rhythm to promote healing and self-expression.
From the shamans of Mongolia to the Minianka healers of West Africa, therapeutic
rhythm techniques have been used for thousands of years to create and maintain
physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Spirituality and the Drum: Excerpt from the book Sacred
Drumming
By Steven
and Renata Ash
Drumming connects you with your bones, your heartbeat, and your natural rhythms.
The beat brings you down-to-earth, out of your head, into your feelings, and
your connection to the Earth Mother.
Maria Yraceburu,
Dreamer of Time
by Joe Montoya
Maria Yraceburu is a 13th generation diiyin in the ancient tradition of Quero
Apache Tlish Diyan. During her early life, she was trained in the White
Mountains by her ancient grandfather and completed numerous long and arduous
training sessions among the ruins of the Anasazi, Hohokam and Salido.
Milky Way
Vibrating Like a Drum
Courtesy
University of California-Berkeley
and World Science staff
Our Milky Way galaxy is warped, and vibrates like a drum, because of
the influence of two small companion galaxies, astronomers have found.
Eskimos Face Hard Times After
Iraq Call-Up by Mary Pemberton,
Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Military families across America often endure hardship when
a loved one ships out. But there are not many places in the U.S. where those
left behind have to chop ice out of the tundra for drinking water and make sure
the freezer is well-stocked with walrus and seal meat.
FEATURES:
The Therapeutic Effects of Drumming
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Drake
Drum therapy is an ancient approach that uses rhythm to promote healing and self-expression. From the shamans of Mongolia to the Minianka healers of West Africa, therapeutic rhythm techniques have been used for thousands of years to create and maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health. Current research is now verifying the therapeutic effects of ancient rhythm techniques. Recent research reviews indicate that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system and produces feelings of well-being, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Other studies have demonstrated the calming, focusing, and healing effects of drumming on Alzheimer's patients, autistic children, emotionally disturbed teens, recovering addicts, trauma patients, and prison and homeless populations. Study results demonstrate that drumming is a valuable treatment for stress, fatigue, anxiety, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, arthritis, mental illness, migraines, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, paralysis, emotional disorders, and a wide range of physical disabilities. Research studies mentioned below indicate that drumming:
Reduces tension, anxiety, and stress
Drumming induces deep relaxation, lowers blood pressure, and reduces stress. Stress, according to current medical research, contributes to nearly all disease and is a primary cause of such life-threatening illnesses as heart attacks, strokes, and immune system breakdowns. A recent study found that a program of group drumming helped reduce stress and employee turnover in the long-term care industry and might help other high-stress occupations as well.1
Helps control chronic pain
Chronic pain has a progressively draining effect on the quality of life. Researchers suggest that drumming serves as a distraction from pain and grief. Moreover, drumming promotes the production of endorphins and endogenous opiates, the bodies own morphine-like painkillers, and can thereby help in the control of pain.2
Boosts the immune system
A recent medical research study indicates that drumming circles boost the immune
system. Led by renowned cancer expert Barry Bittman, MD, the study demonstrates
that group drumming actually increases cancer-killing cells, which help the body
combat cancer as well as other viruses, including AIDS. According to Dr.
Bittman, “Group drumming tunes our biology, orchestrates our immunity, and
enables healing to begin.”3
Produces deeper self-awareness by inducing synchronous brain activity
Research has demonstrated that the physical transmission of rhythmic energy to the brain synchronizes the two cerebral hemispheres. When the logical left hemisphere and the intuitive right hemisphere begin to pulsate in harmony, the inner guidance of intuitive knowing can then flow unimpeded into conscious awareness. The ability to access unconscious information through symbols and imagery facilitates psychological integration and a reintegration of self. Drumming also synchronizes the frontal and lower areas of the brain, integrating nonverbal information from lower brain structures into the frontal cortex, producing “feelings of insight, understanding, integration, certainty, conviction, and truth, which surpass ordinary understandings and tend to persist long after the experience, often providing foundational insights for religious and cultural traditions.”4
Accesses the entire brain
The reason rhythm is such a powerful tool is that it permeates the entire brain. Vision for example is in one part of the brain, speech another, but drumming accesses the whole brain. The sound of drumming generates dynamic neuronal connections in all parts of the brain even where there is significant damage or impairment such as in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). According to Michael Thaut, director of Colorado State University's Center for Biomedical Research in Music, “Rhythmic cues can help retrain the brain after a stroke or other neurological impairment, as with Parkinson's patients...” The more connections that can be made within the brain, the more integrated our experiences become.
Induces natural altered states of consciousness
Rhythmic drumming induces altered states, which have a wide range of therapeutic applications. A recent study by Barry Quinn, Ph.D. demonstrates that even a brief drumming session can double alpha brain wave activity, dramatically reducing stress.5 The brain changes from Beta waves (focused concentration and activity) to Alpha waves (calm and relaxed), producing feelings of euphoria and well-being. Alpha activity is associated with meditation, shamanic trance, and integrative modes of consciousness. This ease of induction contrasts significantly with the long periods of isolation and practice required by most meditative disciplines before inducing significant effects. Rhythmic stimulation is a simple yet effective technique for affecting states of mind.
Creates a sense of
connectedness with self and others
In a society in which traditional family and community-based systems of support
have become increasingly fragmented, drumming circles provide a sense of
connectedness with others and interpersonal support. A drum circle provides an
opportunity to connect with your own spirit at a deeper level, and also to
connect with a group of other like minded people. Group drumming alleviates
self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation. Music educator Ed Mikenas finds
that drumming provides “an authentic experience of unity and physiological
synchronicity. If we put people together who are out of sync with themselves
(i.e., diseased, addicted) and help them experience the phenomenon of
entrainment, it is possible for them to feel with and through others what it is
like to be synchronous in a state of preverbal connectedness.”6
Helps us to experience being in resonance with the natural rhythms of life
Rhythm and resonance order the natural world. Dissonance and disharmony arise only when we limit our capacity to resonate totally and completely with the rhythms of life. The origin of the word rhythm is Greek meaning “to flow.” We can learn “to flow” with the rhythms of life by simply learning to feel the beat, pulse, or groove while drumming. It is a way of bringing the essential self into accord with the flow of a dynamic, interrelated universe, helping us feel connected rather than isolated and estranged.7
Provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power
Shamanic drumming directly supports the introduction of spiritual factors found significant in the healing process. Drumming and Shamanic activities produce a sense of connectedness and community, integrating body, mind and spirit. According to a recent study, “Shamanic activities bring people efficiently and directly into immediate encounters with spiritual forces, focusing the client on the whole body and integrating healing at physical and spiritual levels. This process allows them to connect with the power of the universe, to externalize their own knowledge, and to internalize their answers; it also enhances their sense of empowerment and responsibility. These experiences are healing, bringing the restorative powers of nature to clinical settings.”8
Releases negative feelings, blockages, and emotional trauma
Drumming can help people express and address emotional issues. Unexpressed feelings and emotions can form energy blockages. The physical stimulation of drumming removes blockages and produces emotional release. Sound vibrations resonate through every cell in the body, stimulating the release of negative cellular memories. “Drumming emphasizes self-expression, teaches how to rebuild emotional health, and addresses issues of violence and conflict through expression and integration of emotions,” says Music educator Ed Mikenas. Drumming can also address the needs of addicted populations by helping them learn to deal with their emotions in a therapeutic way without the use of drugs.
Places one in the present moment
Drumming helps alleviate stress that is created from hanging on to the past or worrying about the future. When one plays a drum, one is placed squarely in the here and now. One of the paradoxes of rhythm is that it has both the capacity to move your awareness out of your body into realms beyond time and space, and to ground you firmly in the present moment.
Provides a medium for individual self-realization
Drumming helps reconnect us to our core, enhancing our sense of empowerment and stimulating our creative expression. “The advantage of participating in a drumming group is that you develop an auditory feedback loop within yourself and among group members—a channel for self-expression and positive feedback—that is pre-verbal, emotion-based, and sound-mediated.”9 Each person in a drum circle is expressing themselves through his or her drum and listening to the other drums at the same time. “Everyone is speaking, everyone is heard, and each person’s sound is an essential part of the whole.”10 Each person can drum out their feelings without saying a word, without having to reveal their issues. Group drumming complements traditional talk therapy methods. It provides a means of exploring and developing the inner self. It serves as a vehicle for personal transformation, consciousness expansion, and community building. The primitive drumming circle is emerging as a significant therapeutic tool in the modern technological age.
References
1. Bittman, M.D., Barry, Karl T. Bruhn, Christine Stevens, MSW, MT-BC, James Westengard, Paul O Umbach, MA, “Recreational Music-Making, A Cost-Effective Group Interdisciplinary Strategy for Reducing Burnout and Improving Mood States in Long-Term Care Workers,” Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, Fall/Winter 2003, Vol. 19 No. 3/4.
2. Winkelman, Michael, Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey; 2000.
3. Bittman, M.D., Barry, “Composite Effects of Group Drumming...,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine; Volume 7, No. 1, pp. 38-47; January 2001.
4. Winkelman, Michael, Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey; 2000.
5. Friedman, Robert Lawrence, The Healing Power of the Drum. Reno, NV: White Cliffs; 2000.
6. Mikenas, Edward, “Drums, Not Drugs,” Percussive Notes. April 1999:62-63.
7. Diamond, John, The Way of the Pulse – Drumming with Spirit, Enhancement Books, Bloomingdale IL. 1999.
8. Winkelman, Michael, “Complementary Therapy for Addiction: Drumming Out Drugs,” American Journal of Public Health; Apr 2003, Vol. 93 Issue 4, p647, 5p
9. Mikenas, Edward, “Drums, Not Drugs,” Percussive Notes. April 1999:62-63.
10. Friedman, Robert Lawrence, The Healing Power of the Drum. Reno, NV: White Cliffs; 2000.
Michael Drake is a nationally recognized writer, rhythmist, and shamanist. He is the author of The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming and I Ching: The Tao of Drumming. Michael's journey into rhythm began under the tutelage of Mongolian shaman Jade Wah'oo Grigori. For the past 15 years he has been facilitating drum circles and workshops nationwide. To learn more, visit Michael's web site at: www.geocities.com/talkingdrumpub/.
Spirituality and the Drum: Excerpt from the Book Sacred Drumming
Copyright © 2006 by Steven Ash and Renata Ash
Drumming connects you with your bones, your heartbeat, and your natural rhythms. The beat brings you down-to-earth, out of your head, into your feelings, and your connection to the Earth Mother. The rhythmical beat pushes through the emotions, the intellect, and into the spirit, the most etheric part of our nature. Spirit intuitively recognizes the transporting qualities of the regular beat as it draws the spiritual awareness out of the mundane into safe ceremonies and rituals that have proved protective for the soul over eons. These ceremonies are sacred to the spirit of the people; with the drum, they draw the people together as one. Drumming can be used in the following situations.
When you feel the spirituality of the drum, you must start by looking deep within you--it is from here that Spirit comes. It is behind your eyes, observing how you are living this life. It is listening from within your head to the sounds that enter. It is feeling through your fingers as you touch the skin of your lover. Your Spirit is the observer that is always there, always coming through--a silent voice that gently whispers your true name. Your Spirit knows your potential and seeks to be fed with light and truth. It feeds on prayer and meditation. Drumming, music, singing, and chanting are your Spirit's deserts, pure sweetness for the soul. It is your longing to gain a deeper connection that sets the intention into focus. You draw yourself out from within yourself your "natural authentic nature", that which you really are. You beat this feeling into the drum, pulling the feeling out with your sincerity. Where is your Spirit which lets this manifest? You were born with it; it was there while you were in your mother's womb. Your Spirit formed at the moment of conception, and before then was in the space that we call the Mystery. It developed and grew within your form as you became an embryo. Just as the tiny, flying seed of the birch tree contains a future mature tree, so you as a child and before were filled by Spirit. You will return to the Spirit world when you "drop your robe" and let go of your physical body at death. We all die, moving into the darkness of the west, and yet we become reborn as future generations. Therefore it is vital to respect the ancestors.
At the age of six STEVEN went to live with his family on Wikwemikong on the north shore of Lake Huron in Canada, where his father was the reservation doctor. Since then Mother Earth Spirituality has fascinated him. Learning with Ted Williams, Ed McGaa Eagle Man, and Grandfather Wallace Black Elk, he now runs shamanic and personal development courses, linking people back to the spirituality of these Isles.
Steven is married to RENATA, a gifted healer and teacher, who uses music, earth and energy medicine and shamanic healing practices in her work with individuals and groups. Renata has been studying and practicing Native American Spirituality for the past 12 years. Steven and Renata live in Surrey with their two children Joy and John. For more information or to order Steven’s book Sacred Drumming, click on the following link:
http://www.geocities.com/talkingdrumpub/bookspage5.html
Maria Yraceburu,
Dreamer of Time
Copyright © 2005 by
Joe
Montoya
Maria Yraceburu is a 13th generation diiyin in the ancient tradition of Quero
Apache Tlish Diyan. During her early life, she was trained in the White
Mountains by her ancient grandfather and completed numerous long and arduous
training sessions among the ruins of the Anasazi, Hohokam and Salido. Since her
grandfather's death in 1973, she has studied with many great Native American
Elders, including Rolling Thunder and Matthew King, and she holds an honorary
Ll.d. in Ecopyschology from Greenwich University.
Maria Yraceburu devotes
herself to teaching and counseling as the spiritual guide of Following Ancestors
Earth Wisdom, an international nonprofit visionary community of the heart. She
shares her wisdom with all those interested in combining traditional earth
practices with contemporary lifestyle. She is an authority on cyclic earth time
and the prophecies of earth transition, an accomplished lyricist, and the author
of two books on Tlish Diyan, Legends and Prophecies of the Quero Apache
and Prayers and Meditations of the Quero Apache.
JM: You’ve known a lot of the original Native American elders that stepped
forward in the 1960s. All of them left their mark. Can you elaborate on a few?
MY: I was honored to know Rolling Thunder of Cherokee/Shoshone bloods. He was
one of my grandfather's best friends. He was a hoot. For his 80th birthday he
took flying lessons. He scarred the tar out of his wife, Spotted Fawn, when he
had his solo flight and dive bombed their house. He was quite a trickster. He
was really like a surrogate grandpa when my grandfather died, and gave me lots
of relevant advice when my kids were small. He was there in the 60s and 70s when
the elders first began seeing the signs of prophecy being fulfilled.
Grandfather Phillip Cassadore of the Apache helped me see
past my anger. I got caught up in all the social activism of that time… even
was a member of the American Indian Movement for awhile. Went to
Alcatraz and
participated in demonstrations when I was in college. Phillip helped me see
that to be spiritual was to not have judgment and I removed myself from
politics. I still work at making life better for others, but choose to stay out
of the high drama and politics of it all.
N. Scott Momaday had a big influence on my writing. He also
encouraged me to stay in college. I found my voice at that time. I'll always
love Scott for the few minutes he gave me.
JM: What would you say the context of your work is?
MY: Community, definitely. Everything I do comes from, and is supported by, a
traditionally structured community circle. Nothing I do would amount to
anything if it weren't for our community.
The community premise is that we're all unique, necessary
and integral parts of the whole. We work together, celebrate together, heal
together and grow together. People come and go. Some come back, others follow
a different path having received what they needed in our time together.
Friendships remain solid. Difficult moments are worked through and all parties
involved are honored.
Of course there are boundaries that we maintain. We each
have a valid perception, but we sometimes have to agree to disagree on certain
things. As long as there is no abuse involved on any level, individuals thrive.
We work to develop nonjudgment in our lives. When we can
release the judgments we carry about ourselves and others, we find inner peace.
Inner peace manifests outer peace and this extends outward to others.
The context of my work is to be the very best I can be in
every moment, without judgment on those moments where I may be a little less
than the moment before.
JM: You really seem to love All Our Relations as you interact with them...
MY: Of course. Everything, everybody I approach in my life is a sacred presence
that has arrived on my path for a reason. By approaching each entity as a
unique experience, I am loving and fresh in my response. They interact with me
accordingly.
This goes beyond humans. Stones, plants, animals… all are
part of the greater scheme of things. All provide me with confirmation when I
need it.
Grandpa taught me that if there is on atom in motion, there
is life and it can be communicated with. True communication is very difficult
from what we experience with humans. It's much simpler… less complicated.
Sometimes it comes as a high vibrational sound, or as picture imagery, but it
always comes if we're open to it.
Have you ever felt like someone was watching you, but when
you looked, saw no one? Ask to see the presence and you will. The plants send
out an auric energy that's an amber glow. Sometimes there are symbols,
sometimes ringing in the ears.
Animals can be talked to. I've never had trouble with
animals, not even those considered wild, dangerous or high strung.
It's all possible if we just believe it.
JM: What sorts of people seek you out for work and ceremony?
MY: All kinds. I have found the individuals from all over the world, and all
walks of life, are looking for a way to live that makes them feel relevant.
This is a time of Coming Together… Taanaashkaada. This is the Quero Apache word
for the 5th World of Peace we've been talking about since the Harmonic
Convergence.
Of course, everyone comes for their own reason. Some come
for healing, some for guidance, and some for training in an easier, more
harmonic, earth lifestyle. For whichever reason, they all come because they're
looking for something they haven't found anywhere else. Sometimes they find it,
sometimes they don't.
What is “it?” The deep seeded realization that they are
loved and belong. This is what brings people to us. They want to know this
feeling, and hold on to it, feel their life has relevance, wherever they go.
The work we do in sessions or workshops, healings or
teachings, make up a journey of self discovery and responsibility. Only you can
determine where you will go with that journey. Lynda and I, our kids, and
others in the community, are there to assist, share techniques we've learned,
and support folks as they make their discoveries.
We're universal family. We're extended family. We're a
Vision Community of the Heart.
JM: Is everything you do aligned with cyclic time?
MY: I would say 80% of the time. I find that when I schedule activities
according to the earth's cycles I stay balanced in my life. The challenges take
less energy to work through, there is more power in the work I do, and I can
live a relatively stress free life.
There are obligations I have entered into by writing books
that I can't always schedule according to optimal cyclic time. The publishing
industry works according to its own system, and it's a system that took me
sometime to figure out. I work with it as best as I can.
Other than that, our workshops, ceremonies and days off are
all scheduled in accordance with the earth's energetic cycles.
This is something humans are learning to do. Once we can
see that the earth has cycles, and we have similar cycles we can align those
cycles for optimum nurturing, healing, manifestation, whatever.
You know, everyone jokes about the lunatics that come out
during the full moon. This is a sign of us being very disconnected and out of
alignment with the cycles. We have other options.
JM: How did you learn about cyclic time - living in earth's energies?
MY: My grandpa, of course, was instrumental. He taught me about directional
energies and how to recognize how my day would go based on the direction the
wind would blow, and the animals that would cross my path.
He taught me to observe, and that was probably the greatest
cyclic lesson of all. By watching the changes of the earth's seasons, how the
animals acted and interacted, and then paying attention to my own feelings
during these times, I learned a balance and harmonic flow to things.
I discovered that if I was tired, I often confused easily.
Then things would never work… my body appeared to need more rest in the winter
times, which traditionally was a time of rest, relaxation, crafts and
storytelling.
In the spring I have more energy and can do more, mentally
and physically. This is when the crops were traditionally begun and tended.
In the summer the air becomes heavy. It's another period of
going a little easier, but with the activities more of an outdoor nature than in
the winter, spending a lot of time at, and in the water, being rejuvenated.
Fall is much like spring. Lots of energy for the harvest
and celebrating the abundance of life and the blessings of Esonknhsendehi... the
sacred Changing Mother earth.
This is just the basics. We have lunar energies, daily
energies, but it all contributes to our lifestyles, and can be seen in the
rotation of Tutuskya... the Wheel of Life... and is experienced by our Spiral
Dance of Life.
JM: You say you “feel a person's energy” to know if you can work with them. How
do you do this?
MY: I hug them. When I meet someone the first time I hug them. I can usually
tell from the hug if they will be open to the type of work I do. If not, then I
tell them so. I don't have any need to prove myself by trying to assist someone
that would do better with a different modality of healing or teaching. There
are enough people out there that are teachers and healers. I know a lot of
folks that I refer to.
After the hug, we work with my dzil kugha. This is a small
stone altar that represents the human internal wheel of life. As people pick up
the items I carry in my dzil kugha, they speak of things in their lives…
sensations, memories, wounds. This way I learn their inner workings and come to
an understanding of how they view their lives. As my friend Lewis Mehl Madrona,
who wrote Coyote Healing, says… I “listen to their story.” I learn their
personal symbology for what is going on with them.
Listening is probably one of the most important healing
tools I have. I listen without judging, with our comparing. Then I know how to
best assist each individual in claiming their own power of healing. They have
to be able to accept their role in the process for me to be able to help.
JM: When you say the rock or spirit “tells” you things, what exactly do you
mean?
MY: They talk to me. Not like humans, though some do. Nakia, my spirit guide,
my grandpa and great grandma speak in words, just like when you and I converse.
Plants, animals, stones, they communicate through sensations
and imagery projection. I talk to them, sing to them, project imagery to them,
and they sent things back.
My grandchildren really get a charge out of going on walks
with me. Our oldest granddaughter, Silver Star was really into the Harry Potter
series and saw a correlation with the traditional ways. Our youngest
granddaughter, Wolf Moon, is a rock talker. She has a real rapport with the
Stone People and ceremony. I always listen to what these Little Ones have to
say to me.
You know, our young ones are so connected to these things of
mystery. I ask folks if they remember when they were told their imaginary
friend wasn't real? Well, it's time to reevaluate that life belief!
My grandpa use to give me exercises to stretch my
imagination. We called them the Child's Count Lessons. One that I have fun
with is to half folks pretend for 15 minutes that they re their pet, or another
animal of choice. They have to get totally into the persona of the animal, and
feel what the animal might feel, see what the animal might see... sometimes this
involves laying on the floor and looking through your hand like a telescope...
this for becoming a snake! It's simple, but really powerful in shifting our
perspective.
JM: You were struck by lightning about two years ago - how has this affected
you?
MY: Oh boy, in many ways! First off, I have some trouble when I am in large
group scenarios and there's many conversations going on at the same time. The
Inkan side of the family has told me it's time for me to go live at the top of
the mountain and let people come to me. Maybe someday, but right now, my work
calls me to be out here in public.
I've also become even more sensitive to the earth energies.
I can predict the weather pretty well, earthquakes that happen around the Ring
of Fire and the ‘tsunami really wreaked havoc with my system.
Basically any electromagnetic shift in the planet's grid
will set off a correlating response within me. This is actually happening in
all humans, but few recognize what is happening. We're all empathic, and if you
look at how we're connected you come to recognized that we are feeling for the
earth and All Our Relations... it's the way of the united heart. I've always
been sensitive, but I guess you could say, the lightning expanded my area off
sensitivity.
In addition, there has been a lot more incoming messages
from between the dimensions. I've also slowed down considerably. My body is
moving through changes and I'm working to assist it as much as possible, being
in energetic flow as much as I can. I delegate more of the work load, referring
people to my students, friends and family that do this work.
JM: You talk about directional energies in Tutuskya, the great Wheel of Life -
how do you use these energies?
MY: Pretty much in everything, and in every way. Once I learned the meaning and
sensations of these energies, it was pretty much a natural step into utilizing
them in healing, divination, ceremonial ritual, and daily routine.
The wheel can be really basic, or really intricate. I
learned all of it, but the basics are always the first place I go, and on most
days, as far as I go.
When I am working with trust, intuition and emotions, I know
that this is a sough energy… unity… the unity of all things that was the reality
known in our beginning.
The southwest is where I go with my visioning and tapping
the force of co-creation. This is the truth of human nature. Being true to our
individual nature is the key to our abilities as spiritual beings living
physical lives.
The west is where I go for physical, emotional and spiritual
healing. The energy speaks of living life in ease. Grandpa taught me that life
was meant to be challenging so we would stretch and grow, yet it needs to be
relatively stress free. If you believe you’ve exhausted your options, stop,
breath and allow the west to show you what you have overlooked.
The northwest is strictly primal inner child energies. It
talks about how we let the energies of life flow in us, to us and through us.
Do we hang on to things believing they will never return, or understand that
each moment is a blessing that multiplies as it flows like the tide, in and
out. This is the energy I use a lot when working with inner child issues in
individuals. This seems to be the most compromised directional energy in
individuals today.
The north is where our internal committee likes to drive us
nuts. Oddly enough, it's where we learn about authentic power… wisdom, prayer,
gratitude and abundance… how to be confident yet not egotistical. Remember,
when your committed members (the voices in your head) all want to speak at once,
that you are the chairperson, they can be replace… yours is a permanent
position.
The northeast teaches us to live in harmony with All Our
Relations. We do this by calling on our spirit guides and teachers for
guidance, by recognizing that all life forms have sacred perspectives that need
to be respected… whether they are in alignment with our own or not. Life is
evolving, and in this evolution all things are on course as they need to be.
In the east we learn that leisure is a necessity if we are
to connect with Spirit, others in relationship, our creativity, passion and
destiny. When times of leisure, or nurturing are planned into our lives,
everything works better. The fire of passion burns brightly and we find meaning
and self fulfilling purpose.
Finally comes the southeast which teaches us about beauty.
My tradition calls our time on earth intin hozhoni… the Path of Beauty. We
learn about kinship, the beauty of family and relations. This is the second
direction that seems very compromised. Interesting, don't you think, that it's
directly across from the northwest dysfunction. With all the dysfunction that
has come down through the generations, it's sometimes difficult for individuals
to accept and see the beauty, strength and love that has also been handed down.
The southeast is the beauty of recognizing all that we are, all that we have
been, all that we will ever be. It is the infinitely shifting perspective
maintained in the attitude of joy.
While we are learning how the wheel works, it appears that
we are walking the perimeter in a circle. Once we become one with the dynamics
of the energies, we recognize that we sit in the center of the wheel and dream
ourselves into the walk. Some people I've met in the last few years call this
holographic projection. I think it points to the illusion of time. There's many
ways of explaining things. I present the teachings in the way I am familiar
with.
JM: You say “knowing” is a sensation, not intellectual, but don't you have to
learn intellectually to know?
MY: It seems as long as things are intellectual, humans can find a reason to
explain it away as not real. An experience, on the other hand, is permanently
imprinted in every cell of our body. It joins with cellular memory to become
part of us.
When individuals begin studying with me, I tell them that
what we do in the beginning is not about understanding, but experiencing.
The understanding comes later. After all, how can we
understand something that we've never experienced and is not part of the world
reality we've been raised with? We can't. So beginning work is about
experiencing that which has previously been unknown, then we move into the how's
and whys of things later on.
This is the way we were traditionally taught. I also try to
make the teachings fun and direct them at the individual’s inner child. As I
said, the beginning lessons are called the Child's Count lessons. It's through
the child within that we learn, and maintain what we have learned. We keep it
as simple and much fun as possible.
JM: You charge a fee for your work. It's been said that sacredness should not
have a monetary exchange. How do you explain this?
MY: This is always a source of passionate discussion with individuals. In the
old days the medicine people, holy ones, whatever you want to call them, had all
their needs attended to so they could devote 100% of their time to the
community. When there was a hunt, the prime cuts were gifted, baskets of grain,
blankets, horses, firewood gathered… all because the value of the individual was
recognized as necessary to the community.
This is how I grew up. People were always bringing things
to Grandpa for our family. As I grew older I also began to see that there were
other means of exchange, including monetary when special ceremonies were needed.
Energetic exchange of this nature is actually the norm.
What people need to understand is that when a person works in service to the
community in this manner, there is very little time left for things like 9-5
jobs. They live outside the perimeters of societal structure, and work much
longer hours than the 40 hour work week.
We divide our work up in two different ways. Our ceremonies
are offered through our nonprofit church, so the moneys go back into the
community and fees are tax deductible. Our workshops, books, lectures, these
are our income, our 9-5 so to speak, through our intentional community
investment company... I get a salary out of this and through this, and then the
rest goes into our Taanaashkaada Project and assisting individuals realize their
dreams of having viable occupations of an alternative nature so they can live
their passion. It's all community oriented.
JM: You mentioned the Taanaashkaada Project. What is this?
MY: Our intentional community investment company - Following Ancestors - and
our nonprofit church - Earth Wisdom - have partnered together in a vision that
began with my grandfather. In the upcoming year we are working to acquire land
along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, where my people are from, to establish a new
traditional earth community as a model for future community relations. The land
will be divided into three portions... one for a retreat facility, integrative
healing center and artist coop gallery; one for the traditional community
ecovillage; and the final one for a Wilderness Reserve for wild mustang
preservation, horse retirement and rehabilitation. It's a really broad
scope vision, that is coming together. We anticipate being fully operational
within two years.
JM: What has being a diiyin - holyone - taught you?
MY: It's the community that calls me diiyin, but since they began referring to
me in this manner, my own evolutional initiation has accelerated substantially.
I think what prompted folks to call me diiyin was when I
began settling into my own inner peace. The greatest teacher or leader is
always someone that is an example. I constantly am reviewing what I teach and
how I act in my life… asking myself if I am walking my talk. Do my daily
actions match the words and teachings I share and claim to live my life by.
This helps me keep my ego in check. And if there is ever
any doubt in my motivation and intent, I seek the counsel of my elders and
teachers. As caretaker of our clan medicine bundle, I know that if I come from
any space other than that of integrity, they would be on my doorstep in a
heartbeat, removing the bundle from my charge.
I've also learned that we're all students… or memory
components. We trigger the re-membering within each other. There really is no
hierarchy in traditional living. We all just come to share. As long as people
keep wanting to know what I have, I'll keep sharing. This is my lineage and my
destiny.
I know I love going to other individuals’ workshops and
learning other ways. It all makes me feel more vibrantly alive to know basically
we are all doing different phases of the one great work we call evolution.
JM: You seem to do a lot of things in your work, why not specialize in one area
or another?
MY: Because what I do is community. How can one facet of that be separated from
the whole?
As I was being trained by my elders, it was necessary to
train in all venues of medicine work… as a counselor, healer, priest, teacher,
and finally dreamer. Once I knew the dynamics of each, I embraced the areas of
passion that I carried to create a uniquely tailored me.
Right now I do mostly ceremony and teaching and I'm
finishing up my third book, Wheel of Life: Mapping Personal and Planetary
Evolution. My houste - life partner - Lynda is a healer. That's her passion,
so as a healer, I assist her when she asks for help. The rest of the time I
occupy myself with what I do. I guess that's my specialty, and it's more than
enough.
I also have turned a lot of things like Moon Lodge and
Sweat Lodge over to other members of the community as they have voiced intent in
doing them. My eventual goal is to live within the traditionally inspired
community… and play with my grandchildren. It's a vision that takes one more
step into manifestation each day.
Maria Yraceburu may be reached at Following Ancestors Earth Wisdom, 595 Grand
Ave. #102 PMB 512,
San Marcos, CA 92078;
(760) 445-6266; or at
http://www.followingancestors.net/
Joe Montoya was born and raised in the
White Mountains of Arizona.
He is a roadman for the Native American Church, and an elder of the Chiricahua
Apache, descendent from Victorio. He works as a trail guide throughout the
mountains of the Arizona and New Mexico.
roadmanapache@yahoo.com
Milky Way
Vibrating Like a Drum
Courtesy
University of California-Berkeley
and World Science staff
Our Milky Way galaxy is warped, and vibrates like a drum, because of
the influence of two small companion galaxies, astronomers have found.
A spiral galaxy that is
warped, somewhat like our own: galaxy ESO 510-13. Astronomers say peculiar
drum-like vibrations in our Milky Way galaxy may explain why it is warped, and
similar explanations may apply for other warped galaxies. (Credit: Hubble
Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), C. Conselice (U. Wisconsin
/ STScI) et al., NASA)
The researchers said the
effect is due to the most prominent of the Milky Ways satellite galaxies, a pair
of galaxies called the Magellanic Clouds. They are stirring up with the Milky
Ways dark
matter, an invisible substance that’s detectable only by its gravitational pull,
the astronomers added.
Dark matter is thought to
make up more then 90 percent of the weight of the universe.
The interaction creates a warp in the galaxy that has puzzled astronomers for half a century, the researchers continued. The warp, most obvious in the thin disk of hydrogen gas permeating the galaxy, extends across the
Milky Ways 200,000-light
year width. A light year is the distance light travels in a year.
Leo Blitz, professor of
astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues charted this
warp and analyzed it in detail for the first time, based on a new galactic map
of light given off by the hydrogen gas.
They found the gas layer is
vibrating like a drumhead, and that the vibration consists almost wholly of
three notes, also called modes. These notes would be unimaginably deep by human
standards some three million octaves, or scales, below the note called middle C
on a piano.
This means that if a piano
could play these notes, it would require a keyboard about the width of Iceland
to do so.
It’s not uncommon for
astronomical objects to exhibit some sort of regular vibrations, like musical
instruments, so that they can be said to be playing notes. Which note depends on
the vibration speed. A study last summer found that a violent quake on the
surface of a compact type of star called a neutron star left it playing the note
of F sharp.
Although the Milky Ways warp
has been known for almost 50 years, astronomers previously dismissed the
Magellanic Clouds comprised of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds as its
cause because the galaxies combined masses are only 2 percent that of Milky Way,
Blitz and colleagues said.
This mass was thought too
small to influence a massive disk equivalent to about 200 billion suns during
the clouds 1.5 billion-year orbit of the galaxy.
But Martin D. Weinberg of
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, joined Blitz to create a computer
model that takes into account the Milky Ways
dark matter. The motion of the clouds through the dark matter creates a wake
that enhances their gravitational influence on the disk, the astronomers found.
The wake stirs a vibration at the center of the dark matter blob pervading the
galaxy. This in turn makes the embedded galactic disc oscillate.
When this dark matter is
included, the Magellanic Clouds, in their orbit around the Milky Way, closely
reproduce the type of warp observed in the galaxy, said Blitz, director of UC
Berkeley’s Radio Astronomy Laboratory. The model not only produces this warp in
the Milky Way, but during the rotation cycle of the Magellanic Clouds around the
galaxy, it looks like the Milky Way is flapping in the breeze.
People have been trying to
look at what creates this warp for a very long time, Weinberg said. Our
simulation is still not a perfect fit, but it has a lot of the character of the
actual data. The researchers presented the findings this week at the American
Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.
The Magellanic Clouds effect on the dark matter is reminiscent of the paradox
that led to dark matters discovery some 35 years ago, the researchers said.
Astronomers realized stars in the galaxies outer regions had speeds much greater
than the gravitational pull of the galaxies visible stars could account for.
Only by assuming that most of the galaxies mass was too dark to see could
astronomers reconcile the velocities with the laws of gravity.
Astronomers now take dark matter into account in computer simulations of cosmic
events, even though they don’t know what it is.
Some physicists have devised an alternative theory of gravity called Modified
Newtonian Dynamics to explain these observations without resorting to dark
matter. But Weinberg said his findings are bad news for that theory, because it
can’t easily explain the Milky Ways
warp, whereas dark matter can.
Many galaxies have warps, possibly for similar reasons, he added.
His team mathematically described our galaxies vibrations as a combination of
three motions: a flapping of the disks edge up and down, an up-and-down motion
like that of a drumhead, and a saddle-shaped oscillation.
That it took just three
notes to describe the motion was very surprising, Blitz said, noting that this
had escaped astronomers notice before now. This simple, elegant vibrational
structure just popped out.
The findings are to be published in an upcoming issue of the research journal
Astrophysical Journal.
Eskimos Face Hard Times After Iraq Call-Up
By MARY PEMBERTON,
Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Military families across America often endure hardship when a loved one ships out. But there are not many places in the U.S. where those left behind have to chop ice out of the tundra for drinking water and make sure the freezer is well-stocked with walrus and seal meat.
The first major call-up of National Guard reservists from rural
Alaska since World War II could mean sacrifice and upheaval for Eskimo villages
that practice subsistence hunting and gathering in some of the most remote and
unforgiving spots in the nation.
Eric Phillip's job in the small Yup'ik Eskimo village of Kongiganak in southwestern Alaska is to hunt walrus, seal, mink, otter, geese, ducks and other animals to provide food for his immediate family and other relatives. With Phillip shipping out, his wife and their two young sons will be moving to the city of Bethel, about 70 miles away.
"Out here it is harder for them to live alone," Phillip said. "In the village we don't have water. We have to go to the tundra and chop ice for water and melt it, and we don't have flush toilets. It is hard for a single parent to live around here in the village."
Similar stories are being told in Eskimo villages across the vast state, in places with names like Alakanuk, Emmonak and Manokotak, as 670 soldiers from some of the most hard-to-reach places in the nation head to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Six men headed to Iraq are from Scammon Bay, a Yup'ik Eskimo village of about 520 people in western Alaska where residents rely mostly on subsistence hunting and fishing. Families left behind will now rely more on each other, another time-honored tradition in rural Alaska. The village will take care of them.
"Everybody shares food really well out here. It is a custom," said Darlene Cholok, whose husband, Thomas, is one of those going to Iraq. "Our community is so close-knit and everyone is practically related in some way that there is a lot of support."
While Alaska's National Guard does an excellent job of helping its military families, it will be particularly tough for these soldiers and their families, because they live in such inaccessible areas, said Pete Mulcahy, executive director of Armed Services YMCA of Alaska. That makes it more difficult to arrange help for them, he said.
"These guys have a bigger challenge," he said. "Even a remote village in Texas is still on the road grid."
Amy Chikigak of the Yup'ik Eskimo village of Alakanuk is preparing to say goodbye to her husband, Vernon. She said she is not worried about food. Their freezers are full of seal, whale, fish, geese, swans and berries. The village store also is pretty well-stocked.
"We have vegetables and stuff like that, mashed potatoes for our fried moose," she said. "We have macaroni and cheese, and that always helps, too."
She and the three children, ages 12, 9 and 7, are going to remain in the village. If she runs short of anything, her mother and father and brothers will provide, she said.
Chikigak is more concerned about learning how to use the chainsaw to cut wood to heat the steam bath. She also wants to be able to run the boat so she can take the children on summer picnics: "I will have to force myself to learn and I will still panic."
Before leaving for Iraq and Afghanistan, the troops will get three months of training, which will include getting used to hot weather at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.
Maj. Stephen Wilson, who returned from a one-year stint in Iraq in 2005 and is overseeing the deployment of seven soldiers from Barrow, 340 miles north of the Arctic Circle, said the Alaskans should do well once they adjust to the 120-degree heat in Iraq. In Barrow — the northernmost city in the United States — the temperature doesn't get much higher than the low 50s in the summer, and often drops below freezing at night.
Maj. Mike Haller, a Guard spokesman in Anchorage, said about 35 percent of the approximately 4,000 National Guard members in Alaska are Native, well above their 19 percent share of the state's population.
Being in the National Guard is a rite of passage for many young Alaska Natives, Haller said, a tradition that started during World War II when Alaska was still a territory. In that war, the state's National Guard troops fought in both Europe and the Pacific, and some were stationed in Alaska's Aleutian Islands to guard against the Japanese.
Besides honor and tradition, service in the Guard brings in money that comes in handy in the villages, where jobs are hard to come by and food and other goods are expensive.
As for the dangers that await the troops in the Mideast, Staff Sgt. William F. Brown, the leader of the Barrow troop and 29-year guard veteran, said he has faced fear before and beaten it.
Brown recounted a whaling trip about 10 years ago when a polar bear came within about 30 feet. Brown was about to grab his gun when the whaling captain told him to relax.
"He said, `Don't show no fear, don't be scared. They're like dogs, they pick up your scent and take advantage of your fear,'" Brown said. The polar bear "just stood up, sniffed and walked away. Ever since then I've been teaching myself not to be scared, to show no fear."
________________________________________________________________
Many Blessings,
Michael Drake
To view articles, books, and music downloads on shamanic drumming, please visit my web site, Talking Drum Publications at: www.geocities.com/talkingdrumpub/