Sparrow’s Blog

Brother to the Trees

Multi-day Intensives

I want to begin with a practice, “Presenting Your Ego to a Tree.” which I learned in Mexico in 1996. I was there for three weeks of workshops based on the book The Teachings of Don Carlos, Practical Applications of the Work of Carlos Castaneda. It doesn’t have to be called “Presenting Your Ego to a Tree.” The first time I performed it I happened to be in a thick… Read More »


Those Seeds That Want to Grow….

Tradition and non-traditional times

For a long time, I’ve tried to apply the mantra, “Energy flows where attention goes,” to my life, and considered my attention as perhaps the only thing I actually could control or take credit for. In service of that, for 30+ years I’ve begun most days by lighting sage and giving thanks to the world around and within me.

As Springtime approaches, the sense of new life wanting to burst… Read More »


Finding Your Way — Part 1

The Many Faces of Heroic Journeys

Yeah, though I walk through the Valley of Death … Made a decision to turn my will and life over to a higher power … The way out is through…

To me, there’s a consistent message here.

The first dispatch comes from the 23rd Psalm: “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of Death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with… Read More »


Finding Your Way — Part 2

The Many Faces of Heroic Journeys….

The very first time I experienced this Holotropic-like breathwork, the music began, I started doing connected circular breathing, and I rapidly became very agitated. I was miserable… frustrated, angry and simultaneously hopeless, and shortly I was thrashing and rocking side to side. One of the sitters who considered himself adept at doing body work on people breathing came over and started pressing on my… Read More »


Making Sense

Multi-day Intensives

Recovering from surgery recently, I came home with a catheter. Before this, I might have said I had “no idea” what that experience was like. But that phrasing is misleading. I had plenty of ideas about it — abstract notions, mental pictures, secondhand descriptions. But I lacked a sense of it: the physical reality, discomfort, and vulnerability, the way the body responds when something foreign is introduced to it. Ideas… Read More »


What people say about our Vision Quests

What a gift!

Our quest a few years ago in Death Valley changed my life forever. You helped me make deep, profound changes to my humanity by sharing your self and wisdom and letting me find my way in my own time. What a gift! Love and blessings to you.

— G. Won, Hawaii

Such an inspiration

You are an incredible Teacher, and I hope I can learn from you again in the future. The Heroic Journey is taking root in my life, more and more everyday. You’re such an inspiration to me. God bless you.

— R. L, Montreal, Quebec

Circles of Air & Stone • Putney, Vermont