Twenty years ago, I created a flyer in which I said, “The myth of modern psychology — its focus and truth — is that our lives are determined by our past: our personal history, wounds and childhood experience. But the ancient world contends our lives can be guided by something else — our destiny, accessible if we follow the voice of the spirit and the calling of our souls.” I… Read More »
I was recently at a men’s group gathering of about a dozen men, where the meeting was started by “creating sacred space.” As someone who’s guided vision quests for 35 years and been on over 30 quests of my own, I’m familiar with the concept, know the feeling of, and have spent days sharing time-honored wisdom and teaching about ritual, ceremony, and practices for creating and being in sacred space.
My last post – The Dangerous Ape – expressed the hope that we (humans) could become adults, and that involves “embracing reality” by looking in the mirror and seeing our gifts and our gold, while simultaneously owning and taking responsibility for our shadows… and neither avoiding nor denying any of that. My hope is also that, starting there, we can focus on what’s truly important — developing those practices and… Read More »
I recently returned from New Mexico, having spent most of the month of October there leading a vision quest. Most of that time I was in wilderness without any connection to the Internet, so I haven’t posted in a while.
I was there over Columbus Day, recently relabeled and repackaged as Indigenous Peoples Day, and I want to address some of the assumptions — mostly incorrect — that people make… Read More »
The well-known yin-yang symbol represents two snakes, the head of each one pursuing and devouring the tail of the other. The white snake (yang) is usually seen as masculine, and it creates rules, structures, and form (order). The black snake (yin), is generally seen as feminine, and represents nature and wildness, the forces of chaos and disorder.
Order (yang) creates agreements and the stability, safety, and predictability that follow, but… Read More »
