Native American spiritual leaders say this is a time to recalibrate for a better future.
Jillene Joseph, a member of the Gros Ventre or Aaniiih people, enjoys a moment of sunshine at her home in Gresham, Oregon. The director of the Native Wellness Institute is deeply… Read More
PUBLISHED MAY 12, 2020 (nationalgeographic.org)
“What are we going to do?” Jillene Joseph asked the board of the Native Wellness Institute. It wasn’t a rhetorical question.
It was mid-March, and the board was holding an emergency meeting as schools and businesses began shutting down due to the novel coronavirus. The Oregon-based institute addresses trauma in indigenous communities, usually through in-person trainings that are rooted in ancestral teachings and traditions. Joseph, the executive director, knew she had to find a new way to help community members who were adjusting to stay-at-home orders.
Native Americans are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 due to underlying health issues such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as crowded multigenerational homes. On reservations, where roughly half of Native Americans live, not everyone has indoor plumbing or electricity, making it difficult to follow the guidelines to wash hands regularly in hot water. As a result, Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States, has an infection rate nearly as high as that of New York and New Jersey. As of May 11 there have been 102 confirmed deaths.TODAY’SPOPULAR STORIES
“An already traumatized people are being retraumatized,” says Joseph, a member of the Gros Ventre or Aaniiih people who are from Fort Belknap, Montana. Managing the pandemic’s psychological and spiritual toll has become her focus.
As a community health practitioner, Joseph sees traditional cultural beliefs and practices as powerful tools for helping indigenous people understand this pandemic. She is not alone. With an emphasis on community, resilience, and a holistic relationship with nature, spiritual leaders from different tribes express guarded optimism that people of all backgrounds will learn from the lessons coronavirus has to teach.
‘Blood memory’
For indigenous people, history plays an unavoidable role in interpreting the pandemic. One elder from Michigan called Joseph to talk about how difficult it’s been for her to care for herself and her family. After some reflection, the woman realized why: She was weighed down by thoughts of the smallpox epidemic that had killed so many Native Americans. She felt she needed to forgive the U.S. government for intentionally giving her people the illness.
While documentary evidence that Europeans or Americans purposely spread smallpox is scarce, there’s little doubt that colonizers brought infectious diseases that killed an estimated 90 percent—some 20 million people or more—of the indigenous population in the Americas. “Even though we may not have been alive in the time of the smallpox epidemic, that’s in our blood memory,” says Joseph, “just as historical resiliency is also in our blood memory.”
Those deeply rooted experiences can lead to acceptance, especially among elders. “They have been through so much and experienced so much that there’s no need to fear or even panic,” says Tiokasin Ghosthorse, the Stoneridge, New York-based host of First Voices Radio and a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation from South Dakota. “It’s almost like this [pandemic] is familiar.”
As such, indigenous communities aren’t dwelling on the pandemic’s backstory. “Indigenous peoples don’t always need to go and explain what happened, why it happened,” says the Reverend David Wilson, a Methodist minister in Oklahoma City and member of the Choctaw Nation. “We just know it’s there.”
“We’re taught not to think of nature as separate,” explains Ghosthorse, and that includes COVID-19. “The coronavirus is a being,” he says. “And we have to respect that being in an ‘awe state’ and a ‘wonder state’ because it has come to us as a medicine” to treat spiritual ills.
Reconnecting with culture
At a time when people around the world are sheltering in place, maintaining meaningful connections is vital. Native American leaders are finding creative ways to reach out. In an effort to bring positivity, calm, and reassurance to indigenous people, Joseph and her colleagues tapped into the community of Native American storytellers, musicians, healers, and even comedians to create the Native Wellness Power Hour.
Since it launched on March 21, thousands have clicked into the institute’s Facebook page to listen to prayer songs, lectures on navigating healing associated with PTSD, especially related to the ongoing epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, or just to dance along with others tuning in from around the country.
In Oklahoma, Native American Methodists sent videos of themselves singing tribal hymns to the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, which incorporated them into virtual church services. “We work hard to keep people connected to our culture and our language,” says Wilson, who is the conference’s superintendent. “Most of the people who have texted me or called me say, man, we love that—especially the hymns.”
Lessons for the future
While this pandemic is presenting an opportunity to find meaningful ways to connect, it’s also a wake-up call with important lessons for the future. “If we don’t learn from now,” warns Mindahi Bastida Muñoz, general coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico, “then another thing, more powerful, is going to come.”
Bastida, who is also the director of the Original Caretakers program at the Center for Earth Ethics in New York City, says the world is out of balance and that anthropocentrism—our human-centric outlook—is the cause. “We think that we are the ones who can decide everything,” he says, “but we are killing ourselves.”
“Mother Earth is saying, ‘please listen,’” adds Joyce Bryant, known as Grandmother Sasa, the Abenaki founder of a healing center in New Hampshire. “We have to care about others. You know, the grass, the trees, the plants, the air, the water—all are extensions of ourselves. And they teach us.”
“Living in harmony with Mother Earth is a lot of work,” says Bastida, but it can be done by reviving the indigenous idea that humans serve as caregivers of nature. He’s working with spiritual leaders across the world to return to the old ways—producing food by hand, finding medicine in plants, animals, and minerals, and performing rituals and ceremonies that send prayers to Mother Earth.
Perhaps the biggest lesson that indigenous spiritual leaders hope people will take from the pandemic is that it’s a time to be still, to reflect, and to listen to elders. Both Joseph and Wilson likened this period of stay-at-home orders to a long winter, when people would traditionally stay inside and listen to stories. According to Joseph, it’s like Earth is saying “not today, humans, you need some more reflection.”
For much of human history, people viewed themselves as members of tribes or nations but had no notion of “race.” Today, science deems race biologically meaningless. Who invented race as we know it, and why? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika.
Photo: The Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal. The highlighted figure in the center is an effigy of Gomes Eanes de Zurara. The figure at the top right is Prince Henry the Navigator. Photo by Harvey Barrison.
There is a lot going on in June 2020. But two things stand out: 1.) a powerful Annular Solar Eclipse at the Solstice, and 2.) retrograde intensity – we have 6 planets retrograde in June.
And if that was not enough, we also have a potentially disruptive Jupiter-Pluto conjunction at the end of the month. There’s a lot going on in June!
Let’s analyze the most important astrological events of the month of June:
June 3rd, 2020 – Venus Conjunct Sun
On June 3rd, Venus retrograde is conjunct the Sun at 13° Gemini, and a new 584-day Venus cycle begins.
This is when Venus leaves her nightgown and transforms into a morning star. Venus is still invisible, burned by the Sun. But it is in the purifying heat of the Sun where we will experience a rebirth of the heart.
June 5th, 2020 – Full Moon And Lunar Eclipse In Sagittarius
On June 5th, 2020 the Eclipse portal opens with a Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius.
This is our first eclipse with the Nodes in the Gemini/Sagittarius axis – and even if this eclipse is penumbral, and less powerful, it will still give us the first hints of what to expect from the upcoming eclipses on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis.
This Full Moon / Lunar Eclipse is square Mars, so it triggers the Sun-Mars square. The Mars cycle is a metaphor for the hero’s journey.
This first Sun-Mars square (which occurs on June 5th, 2020) is when the hero leaves the “familiar world” and crosses the threshold to the “unknown world”.
This phase of the Mars cycle is when the hero is the most vulnerable. This is the Victim state of the Hero.
Later in the Mars cycle, when we have the Sun-Mars opposition (on October 13th, 2020) the hero will have to confront the villain.
That’s why right now, at the time of the 1st square, we’d better get ready. It’s time to draw on our resources, find a mentor, and ask for help. Which internal resources can you capitalize on to get ready for the “battle”? Which skills do you still need to master?
The Full Moon / Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius is a great time to see where you’re at and make an inventory of your assets.
June 13th, 2020 – Mars Conjunct Neptune
On June 13th, 2020 Mars is conjunct Neptune at 20° Pisces.
Mars is the planet of action. When we go for what we want, we act from our inner Mars. Mars is a straightforward planet “That’s mine, that’s yours”. Mars cuts, separates, divides and draws clear boundaries.
Neptune on the other hand, is the planet of oneness. Neptune dissolves any boundaries. When Mars and Neptune collide, we are asked to integrate these two very different parts of our psyche.
Mars conjunct Neptune will ask us to take a close look at how we assert ourselves and go for what we want: it is ok to be assertive, it is ok to take action, it is ok to go for what you want, as long as your actions don’t violate other people’s “Mars” their wants, rights and personal liberties.
That’s of course not an easy task. Where do you draw the line from being authentic to yourself while allowing other people to be their authentic selves… without it being at the expense of your personal authenticity?
Many philosophers have tried to answer this question and there is no right or wrong approach. But that’s what we have astrology for. We can at least become AWARE of what is going on, and from that place of awareness, try to act from our highest possible self.
June 18th, 2020 – Mercury Goes Retrograde
Just when we’re a few days shy from Venus going direct… Mercury goes retrograde at 14° Cancer to spoil all the fun. Mercury is retrograde until July 12th, when he turns direct at 5° Cancer.
If you have planets or angles between 5°-14° Cancer you will be especially influenced by this Mercury retrograde cycle. And of course, if you have a Gemini or a Virgo ascendant, you are by default on the radar of Mercury retrograde, since Mercury is your chart ruler.
However, whether or not you have planets in Cancer, or a Gemini or Virgo rising, you will still be influenced by this cycle – since Mercury retrograde will transit a particular house (or houses) in your natal chart, influencing the corresponding area or areas of your life.
With Mercury, 4 out of the 5 visible planets – Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn – are now retrograde, which is rather unusual. This is a time of deep introspection.
In the middle of the retrograde cycle, Mercury is conjunct the Sun at 9° Cancer, starting a new Mercury cycle. The new Mercury cycle chart is square Chiron (at 9° Aries) so the upcoming Mercury cycle has a Chiron “flavor”.
A Mercury cycle lasts for 116 days, so the upcoming 4 months are a good time to start a project that connects the qualities of Mercury (writing, communication, learning, commerce, DIY) with the qualities of Chiron (healing, spirituality, astrology, herbs, alternative healing, shamanism, working on the family/karmic wound).
June 19th, 2020 – Sun Conjunct North Node
On June 19th, 2020, the Sun is conjunct the North Node at 29° Gemini. The Sun is our identity and the North Node is our purpose in life.
The Sun is conjunct the North Node once every year. This is the best day of the year to ask yourself “Who am I really?” “What is my true purpose? What is my life path?”
Notice the first answer that comes to you. Gemini has a curious, open-minded vibe. It is important that you don’t try to seek confirmations or validations to existing assumptions during this time.
Instead – be like a Gemini. Be open-minded. Welcome new perspectives. Accept that you don’t yet have all the answers.
June 21st, 2020 – Sun Enters Cancer, Southern Solstice
On June 21st, 2020 Sun enters Cancer which means we have the Southern Solstice – the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
Each solstice and each equinox sets the scene for the next 3 months of the year.
This Solstice coincides with the most powerful Eclipse of 2020. This is BIG. The upcoming 3 months will have a fated flavor. Each day will feel like an eclipse!
June 21st, 2020 – New Moon And Solar Eclipse In Cancer
On June 21st, 2020 we have the most important eclipse of the year, at 0° Cancer, a power degree. The Eclipse occurs hours after the solstice so it is extremely potent – because this is where the Sun changes direction in the sky.
This Solar Eclipse is an Annular eclipse, creating a beautiful ring of fire effect, and it is visible in Central Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The Solar Eclipse in Cancer is a North Node eclipse. Unlike South Node eclipses, which have a karmic flavor, North Node eclipses are opportunities to rewrite the script of our destiny.
The North Node is like a vortex – anything is possible when we have a North Node Eclipse. But be mindful of what you do. Because there will always be a payout – usually at a future South Node eclipse.
The eclipse is square Mars and quincunx Saturn. Both Mercury and Neptune are stationing retrograde, while Venus is stationing direct at the time of the Eclipse.
We will feel just like a crab, with one foot we go in one direction, and with another foot in another. Push and pull, pull, and push.
But we can all learn from this Cancer approach. Walking sideways gives us room and time to assess the environment, take calculated risks, and still get to our destination.
June 23rd, 2020 – Neptune Goes Retrograde
Brace yourself – Neptune joins the retrograde party. Right now, we have no less than 6(!) retrograde planets. Outer planets like Neptune are at their most powerful, i.e. more keen to implement their “agenda” when they change direction – that is, now.
And what does Neptune want from us? Neptune wants to dissolve our ego so we can be at one with the source. Neptune’s message is that separation is an illusion and that we are all ONE.
When Neptune is direct, we look for experiences of “oneness” outside ourselves. When Neptune is retrograde, we seek oneness within ourselves.
At the Neptune station, you may have some experiences, insights, or intuitive messages (pay attention to your dreams) that will reveal how you can access those Neptunian resources within yourself.
June 25th, 2020 – Venus Goes Direct
Now some good news. After a 40 days and 40 nights trial, on June 25th, 2020 the goddess of beauty and love finally turns direct at 5° Gemini.
If you’ve been feeling confused, emotional, divided, torn between different directions, Venus direct will come with the much-needed relief and clarity.
June 28th, 2020 – Mars Enters Aries
Brace yourself again. Mars enters Aries, and he’s here for a loooong stay – 6 months to be exact.
The good news is that Mars is not yet in the shadow zone (it will enter the shadow on July 26th, 2020) so you still have one month of Mars in domicile – which is a great place to be for Mars – anda great time for you to take bold action on your projects.
June 30th, 2020 – Jupiter Conjunct Pluto
… and brace yourself one more time. Jupiter is conjunct Pluto at 24° Capricorn – this is the second “kick” in the series of 3 (with one more to go).
The 1st conjunction occurred on April 4th, when the Coronavirus crisis was in full swing, and the final conjunction occurs on November 12th, 2020.
Pluto had been in Capricorn since 2008 – and while Pluto has a reputation of being overly secretive and working behind the scenes, Jupiter has the reputation of exposing, magnifying and inflating. We have a conflict of interest.
In 2020, Jupiter is asking Pluto to do what he dreads the most: to reveal his hidden agenda.
Both Jupiter and Pluto are known for blowing things out of proportion. We’ve all seen the less fortunate manifestations of this aspect.
But there is always a positive side to everything. And this 2nd conjunction will likely come with a solution or alternative route to the problems that have been brought to our attention at the time of the 1st conjunction.
It’s up to us to do our homework and act from our highest selves. Because the 3rd conjunction in November will come with the final outcome.
And – some good news – Jupiter and Pluto also have a reputation of being extremely generous. So act wisely, and you will reap the rewards later this year.
June may seem a month to fear – with all the eclipses and retrogrades.
But there are also many great things happening this month – Venus direct, Sun conjunct North Node, Jupiter conjunct Pluto, to name only a few opportunity-linked aspects.
June has something in store for everyone. Cheers to June!
Traditional healers have been entrusted with the well-being of indigenous Australian communities for as long as their culture has been alive – yet surprisingly little is known of them.
By Bonita Grima
30 September 2019 (bbc.com)
There I was, on a cold but bright day in late autumn, wearing nothing but my bathing suit, lying on a pile of kangaroo skins and engulfed in plumes of smouldering leaves from a peppermint tree by the banks of a sacred river.
Kwoorabup has been a place of ceremony for thousands of years. The river, located near the small town of Denmark, 360km south-east of Western Australia’s capital, Perth, was given its name by the local Noongar people, who believe it was formed by the Wagyl, a giant serpent from the creation period known as the Dreaming.
Most people journey to this wild coastal stretch of Western Australia’s Great Southern region to visit vineyards, sample delicious produce and holiday by its strip of stunning beaches, but I was there to have my spirit rebalanced by the local medicine man, Joey Williams.
Australia’s indigenous Aboriginal people have the oldest living culture on Earth. For around 60,000 years, their intricate understanding of ecology ensured survival, and their physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being was achieved by maintaining healthy, balanced relationships with all living and non-living things.
At the heart of their communities were traditional healers. They have been respected and entrusted with the well-being of Aboriginal communities for as long as the culture has been alive, yet still today surprisingly little is known of them. The few healers who remain, of which Williams is one, have extensive knowledge of Aboriginal culture and are believed to possess supernatural abilities. Their role is to treat physical, mental and spiritual ailments using bush medicine, smoking ceremonies and spirit realignment – the latter being a common remedy for depression, or what indigenous Australians call “sickness of the spirit”.
Australia’s indigenous Aboriginal people achieve physical, spiritual and emotional well-being through balanced relationships with the world around them (Credit: Catherine Mercer)
In 2017, the World Health Organization published a study stating the total number of people living with depression in 2015 was estimated to exceed 300 million – an increase of more than 18.4% since 2005.
More recently, the Australian Medical Association announced their agreement with other leading global health organisations, declaring climate change a “health emergency” that will cause a higher incidence of mental ill-health, among other health-related issues. With modern living an apparent threat to both mental well-being and the planet – and having personally battled with depression myself – I had wondered whether answers could be found by looking back to the wisdom of the world’s oldest continuous civilisation.
An Aboriginal elder and mubarrn, meaning “medicine” or “lore” man in the local Noongar language, Williams told me his healing ability has been passed down through his ancestral lineage. For him, and other Aboriginal healers, the most important first step in relation to healing is the ability to reconnect to the land, since for indigenous Australians, connection to country represents connection to their culture. For this reason, we’d started the healing ceremony the previous day in the Stirling Range National Park, a 90-minute drive north of Kwoorabup, to experience a reconnection ceremony at an ancient sacred site on the traditional lands of the Koreng tribe to which he belongs.
The few traditional Aboriginal healers who remain, of which Joey Williams is one, are believed to possess supernatural abilities (Credit: Bonita Grima)
Western Australia’s only southern mountain range is an area of extraordinary beauty. It’s one of the few places in the state that gets snow, and spring sees it dotted with an array of brightly coloured wildflowers. Home to 1,500 species, many growing nowhere else, it’s one of the world’s most important areas for flora.
Many of these native plants have medicinal properties, and because Williams spent his early childhood living off the land with family, it’s no wonder that he, now in his late 50s, refers to the area as his “supermarket” and “pharmacy”.
Wading through knee-high grass, Williams showed me how to dig for bloodroot (good for numbing toothache) and gather resin formed from the oozing red antiseptic sap of a marri tree, which strangely resembled the very thing it is known for healing – an open wound. “It cures stomach ache too,” he said.
Indigenous Australians see the land as a “mother” and very much alive (Credit: Bonita Grima)
As we walked, Williams demonstrated that to him and other indigenous Australians, the land is very much alive, with songlines (cultural memory codes that hold knowledge of a place and define the responsibilities attached to kinship and lore) scattered across its skin. After singing the specific songline attached to the spot we were standing, Williams “read” the land to me, pointing out peaks like chapters. “There’s Bulla Meile, the hill of eyes,” he said. More commonly known as Bluff Knoll, southern Western Australia‘s highest peak is where the Koreng people believe they return after death. “And straight out in front of us is Talyuberlup. See her face, breast and stomach?” he asked, tracing curves in the air. “Meaning beautiful woman sleeping. She’s the protector of this range.”
Following his gaze, the undulating countryside did indeed look like an expecting mother resting, and served as a reminder that Aboriginal people see the land as a “mother” and a guide for reciprocal wellness.
Back in the car, we continued on to Wickelenup, a semi-dry salt lake that is a “power ground”, a place where the Koreng people have performed ceremonial reconnection rites for thousands of years. Wickelenup means “lake of many colours” and it’s named for the ochre pits resting beside it. These large deposits of clay earth produce pigments ranging from pale yellows to deep reds, which, when painted on the body during a ceremony, represent the important connection that indigenous Australians have with the land.
I only have to listen to you for half an hour and I know you
Entering Wickelenup, Williams used clapsticks and what he called a “protection song” to summon his ancestors for the protection and blessing of our steps upon the Earth. After crossing a bed of clay that looked as if giant tins of red and yellow paint had been dropped from the sky, he led me to an oddly shaped chunk of volcanic rock that he used as a platform for grinding ochre. Williams stood with his eyes closed and sang the songline belonging to his family, the Kaarl Poorlanger, meaning “people of fire”, before mixing ochre on the stone and painting a russet-coloured pigment onto my skin in a technique known as “smudging”.
“This is your mark, your connection to this land. You might wash it off later but I know it’s there… and so will you,” he said.
Looking at the symbol on my arm, I asked why he had chosen what looked like ripples in water. “I didn’t,” he said. “You chose it in your mind.” Sensing my confusion, Williams elaborated. “I only have to listen to you for half an hour and I know you.”
Aboriginal knowledge of the land has been passed down through songlines, cultural memory codes that define the responsibilities attached to kinship (Credit: Catherine Mercer)
Whether healers truly possess any psychic ability, it seems a key skill Aboriginal people have honed over thousands of years is an advanced way of listening.
Elder Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, an Aboriginal activist, educator and artist from Australia’s Northern Territory, believes “dadirri is the Aboriginal gift” the world is thirsting for.
Meaning “inner deep listening and quiet still awareness” in her Ngangikurungkurr language, dadirri is a form of mindfulness and reciprocal empathy we can develop with the land, each other and ourselves, according to Ungunmerr-Baumann. “We call on it and it calls to us… It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’,” she writes on her website.
For indigenous Australians, this spiritual listening practice provides a way to observe and act according to the natural seasons and cycles in a way the modern world seems to have forgotten. “We watch the bush foods and wait for them to ripen before we gather them. When a relation dies, we wait a long time with the sorrow. We own our grief and allow it to heal slowly,” she told me.
According to the World Health Organization, the number of people living with depression increased more than 18% between 2005 and 2015 (Credit: ANTAC)
While much ancient Aboriginal wisdom and culture has already been lost, elders such as Ungunmerr-Baumann are striving to keep what’s left alive, but it’s not an easy task. When the First Fleet of British settlers arrived in Australia in 1788, Australia’s indigenous population was thought to be around 750,000. Ten years later, it was estimated to have dropped by 90%, due to the introduction of new diseases and violent clashes with the European colonisers. Today, indigenous Australians make up just 3.3% of the population. The forced separation of families and removal of Aboriginal people from their traditional lands, lore and practices affected the passing of cultural knowledge and led to the intergenerational trauma that is still being experienced today.
But one woman advocating for greater recognition of traditional Aboriginal healing principles, practices and medicine is Dr Francesca Panzironi, a human rights academic from Rome. The CEO of Australia’s first organisation of Aboriginal traditional healers, Panzironi formed Anangu Ngangkari Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (ANTAC), with Ngangkari (healers of Australia’s central desert areas) in 2012.
“For indigenous people, it’s about reconnecting to culture and accessing healing techniques that are different from Western medicine,” Panzironi said. “Western medicine looks at the body from a mechanistic perspective, whereas healers highlight everyone has a spirit that intimately links to the body and emotions.”
Aboriginal Ngangkari healers now work alongside Western doctors and mental health experts in some public hospitals (Credit: ANTAC)
Although traditional Aboriginal medicine is not recognised as an alternative medicine in Australia (due to difficulty regulating spiritual practices and the lack of testing of bush medicines), Ngangkaris are recognised in South Australian legislation through the Mental Health Act of 2009, and ANTAC now has healers working alongside Western doctors and mental health experts in some public hospitals. They provide “complementary” treatments to medical care for indigenous Australians – something especially beneficial for people recovering from intergenerational trauma, stemming from colonisation.
Panzironi says there has been increased interest from non-indigenous people, too, who are dissatisfied with the mainstream model and are looking for alternatives. “We had a middle-aged woman who reduced her intake of antidepressants significantly over a six-month period of regular pampuni (a massage technique used for spirit realignment by the Ngangkari, particularly in the stomach, which is thought to be connected to the mind), in consultation with her GP. Both the woman and her doctor noticed improvement in her mental health,” she said.
Currently ANTAC has a mobile clinic allowing Ngangkaris to travel to patients in areas of Australia where access to their services are non-existent, but Panzironi would like to see hospital programmes similar to the one in South Australia rolled out nationwide. “The goal is to have Aboriginal traditional medicine recognised as an alternative medicine and to make healers commonplace, as a viable choice for everyone through Medicare [Australia’s universal health care system],” she told me.
During ceremonial reconnection rites, the Koreng people paint their bodies with clay – a practice known as “smudging” (Credit: Bonita Grima)
Back at Kwoorabup, Williams was preparing for the final stage of my spirit realignment ceremony. After using smoke to cleanse and protect our surroundings from bad spirits, as is the traditional ceremonial practice among Aboriginal people, he placed a small stone upon my navel – a tool, he said, to absorb my vibration or spirit.
“We’re all made up of vibration,” Williams said. “It’s connected at birth through the umbilical cord. It’s the essence of who we are.” Through his water vibrational healing ceremony, something that is unique to mubarrn of the area, he explained that I’d be able hear my spirit amplified when he placed the stone in the river. “High vibration means anxiety,” Williams said. “Low vibration is depression. I’ll take your vibration and balance it by releasing it through a portal I’ll open in your back.”
We’re all made up of vibration – it’s the essence of who we are
I had known the water would be cold, but that still hadn’t prepared me for the shock I felt when it came time to immerse myself in the river. Floating on my back, with Williams holding me, I tried to relax and listen to my “vibration” with the stone now held against my spine, but my shuddering body wouldn’t cooperate.
Pain from the freezing water intensified and I was also experiencing discomfort because I was unused to feeling supported. An irrational fear came over me – if I didn’t break free, to move by myself in a way I was used to, I might sink. But then I felt a strange force pushing up from under me and realised it wasn’t just Williams supporting me, but the river itself.
Doing as Williams asked – to relinquish control and acknowledge pain and trust – I tipped my head back and focused on the warmth of the sun’s rays. I remembered something I’d read earlier by Ungunmerr-Baumann. “We cannot hurry the river. We have to move with its current and understand its ways,” she’d written. Moments later, much to my disbelief, my ears filled with a sound like the motor of a distant power boat, growing louder and resonating within – sounding a lot like anxiety, according to Williams’ earlier description. Letting go, I breathed out and went under.
The author took part in a water vibrational healing ceremony, which is meant to amplify the vibrations of one’s spirit (Credit: Catherine Mercer)
From my own experience, recovering from depression is a little like resurfacing from a cold river; thoughts like colours and sounds seem brighter, louder, clearer. And even if there’s no magic fix for mental illness, it seems indigenous Australians have much to teach us about developing greater awareness and reciprocity with our planet for our physical and emotional survival – if we only take the time to listen.
“You need to ask, who you are, why you’re here, where you’re going,” Ungunmerr-Baumann told me. “We know who we are as Aboriginal people. It’s in our language, dreaming, country. We’re waiting for all people to listen and hear what we hear so that we can connect and belong together.”
THIS COULD EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD TRIP AND A BAD TRIP.BY DAN ROBITZSKI / May 27, 2020 (Futurism.com)
Many people who take psychedelic drugs like shrooms or LSD describe one aspect of the experience as a “compromised self of ‘self,’” or a breaking down of the familiar feeling of a boundary between yourself and the universe. It can be a moment of profound breakthrough, or a horrible experience — a “bad trip” — that turns you off the substance forever.
Now, neuroscientists from the Netherlands’ Maastricht University think they’ve uncovered how psilocybin, the active chemical in shrooms, causes that mind-bending sensation that researchers call “ego dissolution” — findings they say could help explain the growing evidence for the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs.
Brain scans of subjects dosed with psilocybin, according to research published Saturday in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, reveal that the effect is related to a neurotransmitter called glutamate. In the brain, glutamate acts as a sort of “on switch” in that it helps propagate neural signals traveling across brain cells — and altering how much reaches different areas of the brain, the findings suggest, appear to trigger profound changes in perception.
Put plainly, the study reveals a bizarre fact about our consciousness: altering one biomolecule in our brains can profoundly alter our subjective ability to perceive ourselves and how we experience the world.
Even more provocatively, the study found that the activity levels of glutamate in various brain regions are directly linked to a person’s experience on psilocybin — higher glutamate levels in the medial prefrontal cortex were linked to a negative experience of ego dissolution, while lower levels in the hippocampus were linked to a positive one. And it turns out that psilocybin causes both impacts.
That’s striking, because colloquially speaking, those findings could point to the neurological difference between a “good trip” and a “bad trip.”
While scientists have long suspected that glutamate played a key role in psilocybin’s impact on the brain, this study was the first double-blinded, placebo-controlled experiment to be conducted on human participants that confirmed and further probed that hunch.
Magic mushrooms remain illegal in the vast majority of countries around the world, but in recent years a number of clinical studies in countries where it’s legal, like the Netherlands and Jamaica, have started to probe the drug for medicinal benefits.
Doctors have found evidence that psilocybin could help treat conditions ranging from anorexia to clinical depression and anxiety — and these first-ever human brain scans could help them understand why, at a biological level, that is.
Ed Mays This talk is an edited for Free Speech TV version of the Collins Distinguished Speakers’ Lecture given April 26, 2019 at the University of Oregon titled “Race Matters…A Timely Discussion on the Fabric of America. ” The increase of racist incidents in Baltimore, Ferguson, Charlottesville and nationwide, alongside movements such as Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock, has made the need for conversations on race in the United States today one of continued urgency. Dr. Cornel West published the book ‘Race Matters’ in 1993 following the Los Angeles riots, which examined the crisis of black leadership in the United States. “We need to take a critical look at ‘We the People’ through the lens of these complicated issues and make connections about the deep questions of quality of life in this country,” he said. Cornel West is currently Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University, with a joint appointment in the Harvard Divinity School and the Department of African and African American Studies. He is an ardent political activist, a keen social critic, and a prolific writer. Author of 20 books, his publications include Race Matters (1993); The Future of the Race (1996), written with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; and The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto (2014), written with Tavis Smiley. Thanks to the Collins Fund Camera by Pirate TV contributor, Todd Boyle *************************** Pirate TV is a 58 minute weekly TV show that provides the book talk and lecture content for Free Speech TV. Pirate TV challenges the Media Blockade, bringing you independent voices, information and programming unavailable on the Corporate Sponsor-Ship. These posts are for YouTube and are usually longer than the broadcast versions. You will notice that I don’t monetize my videos. I’m irritated by constant interruptions as I’m sure are you, and I would like to have a say over sponsorship. If you would like to pitch in to support this work, consider a donation: http://www.edmaysproductions.net/pira… or PayPal: PirateTVSeattle@gmail.com
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Jazzaddict 98 Please Like, Comment & Subscribe. If you like this album, please consider buying it. Enjoy! Feel free to leave an album request in the comments 🙂 [Tracklist below] Part I – Acknowledgement 0:00 Part II – Resolution 7:42 Part III – Pursuance 15:02 Part IV – Psalm 25:44 Line-up: John Coltrane — bandleader, liner notes, vocals, soprano and tenor saxophone Jimmy Garrison — double bass Elvin Jones — drums McCoy Tyner — piano
UMG (on behalf of John Coltrane Documentary); UMPI, LatinAutor – UMPG, Warner Chappell, LatinAutor, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., PEDL, Jowcol Music (Publishing), and 6 Music Rights Societies
UMG (on behalf of Verve); Jowcol Music (Publishing), LatinAutor – UMPG, Warner Chappell, PEDL, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., UMPI, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, LatinAutor, and 7 Music Rights Societies
UMG (on behalf of Verve); UMPI, PEDL, Jowcol Music (Publishing), UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., LatinAutor – UMPG, LatinAutor, and 8 Music Rights Societies
UMG (on behalf of Verve); UMPI, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, PEDL, LatinAutor – UMPG, LatinAutor, Jowcol Music (Publishing), BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., and 6 Music Rights Societies
Peak June 18, 19, 20 – Signs affected: Gemini, Sagittarius; Pisces and Virgo to a lesser degree
Remember that the areas of your horoscope where the affected signs lie will be impacted, even if your Sun is not in one of those signs.
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Energy map by Rick Thomas, H.W., M.
For the USA, the chart for the Moonwobble peak shows every planet except Mercury below the horizon: The focus is inward. In addition, all of the personal planets except Mars will be retrograde: The focus is inward. Moon and Mercury are accented.
On June 12 Mars reaches a conjunction with Neptune and is joined by the 3rd quarter Moon; this configuration squares the Sun which, at that point, is about one week away from the Moonwobble peak. It shows up in the USA 3rd house and signals active deception, challenging the country’s sense of Self. It seems to be home-grown mischief and not something cooked up by foreign powers, which doesn’t mean those powers won’t take advantage of the situation.
By June 19 the Moon has moved on and is unaspected in the Moonwobble chart, as is Mercury. The 6th and 7th houses are prominent in this whole cycle, which began with the New Moon in Gemini on May 22. This signaled the too-rapid and too-manic drive to “open at all costs.” By the time we get to June 19 the picture will look very different and we will be thrown back on ourselves to figure out what comes next. The main focus will be on the weak and vulnerable while innumerable “messages” will be flung about, without reason or purpose.
Significant forces are dedicated to preventing you from getting a clear picture. Use Translation® and Releasing the Hidden Splendour™ to sift the messages, and your own anxieties. This will deliver you to an intuitive sense of what is right for your specific circumstances.
If you feel the need to speak with someone, send us a note.
Our world culture is founded on the belief that consciousness is derived from matter, giving rise to the materialistic assumption that informs almost every aspect of our lives and is the root cause of the suffering within individuals, the conflicts between communities and nations, and the degradation of our environment. The Nature of Consciousness exposes the fallacy of this belief and suggests that the recognition of the presence, the primacy and the nature of consciousness is the prerequisite for any new paradigm that is to address these issues at their core.
(Goodreads.com)
Consciousness, spirituality, biography, sexuality, androgyny, futurism, space, the arts, science, astrology, democracy, humor, books, movies and more
