Why Shamanism Now - A Practical Path to Authenticity

What if the juiciest parts of yourself, your humor, your creativity, your sexuality were waiting for you in the shadow realms? What if the parts of yourself that had been judged, feared, rejected and repressed were actually necessary for you to live your soul’s purpose? What would it feel like to bring those parts of yourself back into your fullness and to transform them into allies through love? This week Langston Kahn, guest host and a senior teacher at the Last Mask Center, will interview students involved in the second year of the Cycle of Transformation, the 4-year training process offered by the Last Mask Center, which continues in year two with a week-long residential workshop, Dance of the Shadow Self. They will explore together what fears they held in anticipation of delving deeply into heart-centered shadow work, what differentiates shadow work in The Last Mask Community from other approaches and how their lives have been changed by their work.

What if you had a chance to hit the restart button on your authenticity? To peel back all the layers of trauma to reveal the magnificent human being you came here to be? What would you risk pursuing if you knew you would be held by a community to love and support you through the entire process? This week guest host Langston Kahn, senior teacher at the Last Mask Center, will interview students involved in the first year of the Cycle of Transformation, a 4-year training process offered which begins with a week-long residential workshop, Masks of Illusion and the Authentic Self. They will explore together what brought them to the Cycle, how their lives have been changed by the first year of the teachings and what it’s like to be supported in transformation by a contemporary shamanic community.

In the opening of Curing our Cultural Sickness: The Initiation Series on June 8th, shaman and host, Christina Pratt, presented the hypothesis that the lack of meaningful or functional initiation from childhood to adulthood is at the root of much of our cultural sickness. In the weeks that followed Christina interviewed a diverse range of shamans in the hopes that in hearing about the qualities of the experiences that actually transformed them from many different perspectives we could remember again what true initiation is. We learned that humility, the willingness to be empty, and asking our questions from that uncertain stance is essential to engage the initiatory potential in experience. We learned that pain, sacrifice, and a willingness to feel are all critical. And finally we learned that allowing oneself to be transformed not once, but at least three layers deeply into ourselves is necessary to even begin to call an experience “initiatory.” Join us this week as we explore all that we learned from these stories of initiation and what that means for our culture going forward.

Sangoma (shaman), Gretchen Crilly McKay is our guest this week in our Initiation Series: Curing our Cultural Sickness. She joins us to discuss her traditional kuthwasa (initiation) experiences in Swaziland, Africa, under the mentorship of Zulu shaman, P.H. Mntshali. It is our hope that in hearing the stories of a diverse range of contemporary initiation experiences—that have functioned to truly transform individuals into shamans—that we will come to remember what initiation truly means. Gretchen’s admitted love affair with Africa, the “home” of her soul, began decades ago. A consultation there with sangoma, P.H. Mntshali—who would become her mentor—revealed that her life had been difficult because she had not followed the path her ancestors had chosen for her. Through the traditional initiatory path of the sangoma, Gretchen became the woman she was meant to be. Gretchen’s private shamanic practice is in Southern California where she seamlessly combines traditional African practices, like throwing the bones, with cross-cultural shamanic practices, like soul retrieval, extraction, and healing with spiritual light to serve her clients and students. Her extensive calendar of classes, apprenticeship & mentoring, and two year advanced training can be found at www.ancestralwisdom.com

Shaman-healer, Michael Dunning is our guest this week in our Initiation Series: Curing our Cultural Sickness. He joins us to discuss his exceptional initiation experiences with a Yew tree in Scotland and how they transformed him. It is our hope that in hearing the stories of a diverse range of contemporary initiation experiences—that have functioned to truly transform individuals into shamans—that we will come to remember what initiation truly means. Michael gradually became aware of his calling as a shaman-healer following a near -death encounter with an elemental spirit in the far north of Scotland. A second near-death experience occurred several years later that entirely destroyed his health. Michael began to experience regular visions, prolonged out - of - body states and intense physical pain. Managing his daily life became a great challenge. He was finally rescued by a friend who lived in a small cottage close to a 2000 year -old, female yew tree. This marked the beginning of a ten-year period of healing and a shamanic initiation through nature, which took place under the vast enclosure of the tree. Michael now teaches Yewshamanism throughout New England where he is a biodynamic craniosacral therapist and teacher.

Healer, Desiree DeMars is our first guest in our Initiation Series: Curing our Cultural Sickness. She will join us to discuss her own initiation experiences and how they transformed her. It is our hope that in hearing the stories of a diverse range of contemporary initiation experiences-that have functioned to truly transform individuals into shamans-that we will come to remember what initiation truly means. Desiree is a co-founder of The Center for Shamanic Healing in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Center is dedicated to bridging the ancient and ancestral wisdom of shamanic and spiritual healing with direct engagement with spirit in a contemporary life. Desiree's initiations have occurred over time and place. She travels extensively, often stopping to live for months or years in places that call to her. She began living a holistic life 30 years ago building a green, self-sufficient homestead in Northern Wisconsin. Her holistic lifestyle has evolved into 20 years studying herbal remedies, live food nutrition, several bodywork and energywork modalities, and shamanic healing arts. Her travels have brought her in contact with indigenous healers in Peru, Ecuador, Bali, Hawaii, Mexico and Nepal. If we are really lucky we will get to tell us her story of initiation by scorpion...

This week begins a series exploring initiation and spiritual maturity. “It is my hypothesis,” says host and shaman Christina Pratt, “that the lack of meaningful or functional initiation is at the root of our cultural sicknesses from greed and irresponsible leadership to ecological waste to psychoemotional illness and pharmaceutical abuse to teen suicide and violence.” To begin we will explore what a functional initiation involves and how shamans see it at the core of the healthy psychoemotional and psychospiritual development of the individual. Given that we will look at two things: first, how the lack of initiation and the resulting spiritual immaturity leads to our cultural sicknesses and second we will look at what you can do to begin to open yourself up to the initiation into adulthood that is wanting to happen. Over the next several weeks a diverse array of guests will share their initiatory experiences along the path they walked to become practicing contemporary shamans. This series will end by looking at the parallels and lessons we can learn from those who have walked the path of initiation and now live in a way that models for us spiritual maturity and the possibility of curing our chronic cultural sicknesses.

The Nepalese Shamanic Path is a major contribution to our understanding and practice of shamanism. This new book offers the expertise of jhankri, Bhola Nath Banstola, and the crystal clear writing of Evelyn Rysdyk joyfully woven together with the obvious direct inspiration of spirit. This work offers a sound path for anyone looking for guidance to clarify and purify their heart for right action in these challenging times. This week as author, teacher, and practitioner, Evelyn Rysdyk join host, Christina Pratt, to share the many ways The Nepalese Shamanic Path offers deep engagement with the complimentary dualism at the core of the power of shamanism. We explore the red flags for when we are fooling ourselves and the signs of true entry into the wilderness of the shaman’s heart.

The Nepalese Shamanic Path is a major contribution to our understanding and practice of shamanism. This new book offers the expertise of jhankri, Bhola Nath Banstola, and the crystal clear writing of Evelyn Rysdyk joyfully woven together with the obvious direct inspiration of spirit. This work offers a sound path for anyone looking for guidance to clarify and purify their heart for right action in these challenging times. This week as author, teacher, and practitioner, Evelyn Rysdyk join host, Christina Pratt, to share the many ways The Nepalese Shamanic Path offers deep engagement with the complimentary dualism at the core of the power of shamanism. We explore the red flags for when we are fooling ourselves and the signs of true entry into the wilderness of the shaman’s heart.

True Transformation delivers us to a new state of being from which there is no going back. “Today most people are aware of transformation through Death and Rebirth,” says host and shaman Christina Pratt. “They may not like it, but they understand intuitively that a death is required for the rebirth that allows true transformation to run its course.” The American weakness here is our cultural fear of death, which leads to our refusal to let go of anything, even those things we dearly long to be rid of, and our inability to surrender control. Shamanism offers us not only a remedy for our fear of death, but a second path to true transformation—Transformation of the Enemy to Ally, or Transformation through Love. While love sounds like a respite from death and fear, it is the more challenging path. Transformation through love requires that we truly see the enemy within ourselves and love it. For most, the prospects of loving the enemy within makes embracing death, fear, and surrender look like fun on a great date night out.

Is there authenticity in shamanism without knowing and living your authentic self? Authenticity isn’t always popular or trending. At times what makes you most unique and feel most deeply resonant with your authentic self can also call down a world of hurt in the everyday life - possibly in your own neighborhood. Yet, without going beyond what is popular, tending, and risk free, we will not access the guidance and healing we need to step into a new story. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the relationship between your authentic self and depth and potency of your shamanic practice. How do we rise out of the “sea of likes,” seduction of the false self, and perceived need to belong to find the True Self and its intimate relationship with the non-ordinary world.

If you say, “I love that show” and “I love my car”, what does it mean when you say, “I love my child” or “I love my wife?” The essence of love is weakened by casual or careless usage. Why does it matter to some that others take the Lord’s name in vain? Because casual and careless usage weakens the essence of The Creator. Don’t think this matters? Well, how do you feel when you pour your soul into a project and it is treated in a casual, ordinary, and careless way? We strengthen or weaken the essence energies through the quality of our attention to them. Essence energies are “essential” because they are the energies that nourish the soul. Shamanism gives us the skills and awareness to call on the essence energies, to tend them and to create a relationship of gratitude and reciprocity with them. Then they are there for the soul to grow strong and flourish. Join shaman and host, Christina Pratt, as she explores the essence energies of life and why your relationship to them matters.

What does it take to live a legendary life? A human is born to live a legendary life because we are all born of the Big Dream. In the creation stories of shamanic peoples the Great Timeless, Spaceless Mystery Void dreamt, for reasons no one knows or understands. But from that Big Dream came fire and ice, yin and yang. As they continued to dream, the world as we know it was manifest and those legendary dreamers took the form of Earth and Sky. When we are able to release our parents and the small story of our personal childhood with all of its beauty and suffering we can then take the Earth as our True Mother and the Sky as our True Father. In that initiatory act of surrender and release we step into our true family and we orient ourselves for a legendary life. “We are born into this world with a blueprint for a legendary life,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “But that doesn’t mean living it will be automatic. To engage the blueprint for your legendary life you must consort with beings of legend, sacrifice your mediocre expectations of safe comfort, and reach within for the passion that lights up the heart memory of why you are here.” Join us this week as we explore the acts and attitude necessary to live a life of legend.

The depth of systemic political, financial, ecological, and social divisiveness and abuse of power is revealed more fully each day. Now what? What will you do differently and how will you make the desire for change in your heart real in your world today? Winter or Summer, a solstice fire ritual is an opportunity to work with our most ancient ancestor, Fire, to release our deep habits of inner discord and out divisiveness to step into the medicine the world is calling out of us. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she shares the guidance of the Teachers for the 2018 Solstice Fire Ritual. The message is Essence and surrendering to the Fire those energies that keep you in internal discord and unable to become a transforming force for the divisiveness in the world around you.

Courageous Heart Series—Part 4 of 4: The Vision of the Seer Shamanism as a spiritual practice allows us to gather and cultivate the powers of the heart: love, wisdom, power, and vision. Vision allows us to see through our lies and self-denial to see our True Nature. Our True Nature resonates with our calling and our soul’s longing express the unique energy of this lifetime. When we slip into fear and begin to doubt the vision we see only what is wrong and what is not working. We loose the resonance of our soul’s purpose and the larger vision that supports it. Shamanic skills allow us to reengage the clarity of the heart and it resonance with the truth. Truth telling brings us back to our True Nature. From our True Nature we can work with spirit to learn to craft the Big Dream from which reality is created. The challenge of the Seer’s heart is not “what is my purpose?” but “which of all of these wondrous visions is the one vision the sings with the greatest resonance in my heart?”