How to make a backstrap weaving become shamanic homework

When I create shamanic homework for life lessons, I like to make the homework into a physical process, and then let my learning of the process also teach me the lesson.  I was recently given a doll as shamanic homework, and understood that I need to help her “wear the mantle” of sovereignty. I decided to make a little backstrap weaving that the doll could literally wear.  Although I found excellent instructions on line from a web article called Backstrap Basics by Laverne Waddington, I soon found myself in a terrific snarl.

My first lesson had to do with understanding the principle of weaving:  the ability to keep making an X by first raising one group of threads and then the other. Understanding the product of weaving—what I want the end result to look like and do—is not the same as understanding the principle that results in the product.  What a significant lesson about wearing the mantle of sovereignty.   The understanding of authority does not come from the look on the outside but from the wisdom on the inside.

My second lesson had to do with accepting mistakes from lack of experience.   As I proceeded, I became dismayed at my uneven selvage edges, which I understand are the indicator of a weaver’s skill.   The temptation to quit and start again has been overpowering at times—and yet the behavior of sovereignty is not about perfection, but about the certainty that comes from clarity.  However this little weaving progresses, it is wearing my story of its making with honor, so how can I do any less?

My third lesson had to do with the cost of my choices.  If I abandon this  backstrap weaving, I will no longer have the red thread to make into a second attempt, although I know that the red thread especially represents the bloodline of sovereignty that I am following.   The true tribute that is accorded to sovereignty comes from acknowledgement, rather than from enforcement.  The cost of my choice for expressing my learning in this form is my accepting my lack of skill in this form. 

When I think of my redesigning the form of my Journey Oracle divination cards, or my new shamanic painting whose surface is presently like a battleground between old and new ways of applying paint—I have new respect for how this simple backstrap weaving is teaching me to do my homework.

Asking spirit animals for guidance

I am considering remaking my Journey Oracle website to create free oracle card readings online. I decided to go to the Journey Oracle itself, and found myself asking spirit animals for guidance.  This feels especially important since I just finished reading The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein, and my favorite Enzo the dog inspired advice is this:  “what is visible becomes inevitable…the car goes where the eyes go.” For me this means that what I see before me is what I will manifest in spirit, until it truly is before me in reality.

I am imagining that the online oracle card reading will give a first choice of picking either side of one oracle card, after asking you to think about a situation for which you want advice.  So think of a situation and let’s try it. One side will present a question about this situation from divine will, while the other side of the card shows you a chance worth taking in this situation.  The online free oracle reading then asks you to make a second choice between 1). Exploring the origin of the situation, your relationship to it, and exterior support for it; or 2). Exploring the change that leads to transformation in this situation. For my question about remaking the Journey Oracle online I chose to honor Enzo’s wisdom by picking card # 38, whose two images are of dogs.  I randomly selected the side showing a chance worth taking.

I also randomly chose the text exploring the situation and its support.

THE  SITUATION

This situation began by beginning at the middle.

The prevailing energy of this situation is quiet.

The core energy pattern of this situation is a carved stone.

The Mother of this situation is peering out.

The Father of this situation is streaked with white.

               

 ALIGNMENT  TO  THE  SITUATION

Your relationship to the prevailing energy is lit from within.

Your perception of the situation is wondrous.
The impact of your perception is sacred breath.

The connection between the core energy pattern and the situation

 is felt as a touch of tears.

The momentum of this situation is fed by unscheduled freedom.

 EXTERIOR  SUPPORT

An exterior or support system for the situation is climbing up.

I am most impressed by the “Take this chance” statement.  It would indeed be an answer to my spirit prayers to have the Journey Oracle find a audience wider than my friends and clients.  I am also quite struck by the statement about the momentum of this situation being fed by unscheduled freedom.  I am not working on the oysterlease right now and have the time to invest in doing the work to create the new pages.   Of course there will likely be much work ahead but it looks like I will have support for “climbing up.”  How was your situation clarified by this image and text?  Would you like to know more? There will be a way to book a full reading on the new website, as well as purchase the completer deck for yourself.  Stay tuned!

How to survive in the city

While recently on my way to Birken Forest Monastery for a retreat, my travels obliged me to spend a day in Vancouver, BC.  As cities go I understand it is quite beautiful and relatively safe and full of interesting diversions; but how does a country girl survive in the city?  I thought I'd look for the answer by seeing how the country survives in the city.

My first answer came by juxtaposition: be my best self.  No matter the setting.  Be natural and I will shine with my own unique vitality and intactness.  

My second answer came by looking up: reach. Reach toward new views; reach beyond the experiences I think might limit or confine and the city will show me new ways of being here. 

These humble berries brought my third answer for how to survive in the city: trust myself to live out what I know to be true.  I am a drum maker and visual artist who is also an oyster farmer.  My life makes a different kind of fruit--different is not better or worse, just different. 

My favorite answer came from this tree pushing though the asphalt: I get to define the terms of my life. I get to be rough or polished, amazed at the complexity or serene moving through the tangle.  This time in the city has truly been a Journey Oracle, much helped by the words of Cheryl Strayed in her book: tiny beautiful things, which also describes the plants that came to show me how to survive in the city.

A drum for joining Heaven and Earth

This new drum from the Journey Oracle is tied with an octagon interlacement pattern.  This is the first time I have used this eight pointed design in a journey drum, and I'm discovering that the meaning of an octagon is quite special.

The combination of the circle, representing Heaven, and the square, representing Earth, are joined together as a symbol of transition to rebirth: the regeneration of new life from old.  What a perfect symbol for  a new shamanic drum made during these last days of winter as we transition into a new spring.

The smoke-tan doe skin hitching covering the octagon seemed to glow in the still cool almost spring sunshine, and the drum felt a good fit between the cedar touching heaven, and the moss  growing over our rocky earth.  

Click on Purchase a Journey Drum to read about the size, price and special materials used in this new shaman drum whose voice joins heaven and earth.

Oracle card workshop

I am preparing for a Journey Oracle workshop in Edmonton, Alberta this spring of 2013.  Although I have given several workshops about my divination cards there—this is a workshop with a difference.  I understand that this is the card workshop where, using my participants’ sharing of experiences and readings, I make my final decisions about the form and content of the Journey Oracle, and then proceed to enlisting a publisher for this long-time-being-born Oracle with the support of my dear friend and patron Ann Mortifee.
My Journey with the Oracle began in 1992, and one of my first pieces of writing was this Preface to the Journey Oracle. I recently found the page again and realize I am describing quite precisely my own adventures across these 20 years.

 Are you willing to work for revelation that is truly yours, instead of receiving someone else’s version of spiritual truth?  Are you willing to journey into authentic self-discovery?

The word work in this opening passage is the signature experience of both creating the Journey Oracle and conducting a reading.  Not work in an arduous way but work that requires engagement and commitment to go deeply.

The usual experience with most Oracle decks is passive, after the act of choosing a card is accomplished.  It becomes easy to receive pronouncements, easy to hear similarities, and easy to forget these.  This is because there has been no investment in discovery, in seeking connection, in self-education. It is not easy to look beyond what we think we know about ourselves to glimpse the mystery of who we really are.  It is not easy to fracture the acceptable truths of our situations so that revelation can emerge.

Across these 20 years I have discovered that spiritual progress is not supposed to be easy.  Right now is the time in the Earth’s unfolding story to commit to doing the work we came here to do. Now is the time to not be lazy.

The Journey Oracle is a symbolic and actual journey into life’s situations.  A journey takes time, and if we are to learn from the time spent traveling, it takes attention.  When we are truly attending to a new view, we often initially feel overwhelmed and confused.  Little makes sense according to our usual perspective.  When we pause to absorb and process information we discover new understanding that both extends and expands our attention, and we literally see with new eyes.

When creating these oracle cards my deepest struggles and satisfactions have been about how to create something with which others truly connect.  It is like these 20 years have been one long reading.  To honor this insight I just now drew 5 Oracle cards to reflect back to me the journey I have been taking. If you read in sequence the questions and phrases of these cards, while gazing into their images, you will have a guided tour of my Journey with the Oracle.

The Journey Oracle will reward your time and attention with revelation.  This is not easy, but the wisdom is unforgettable.