Butterfly Woman Synchronicity

 "Butterfly Woman mends the erroneous idea that transformation is only for the tortured, the saintly, or only for the fabulously strong. The Self need not carry mountains to transform. A little is enough. A little goes a long way. A little changes much. The fertilizing force replaces the moving of mountains.  Butterfly Maiden pollinates the souls of the earth: It is easier that you think, she says. She is shaking her feather fan, and she’s hopping, for she is spilling spiritual pollen all over the people who are there, Native Americans, little children, visitors, everyone. This is the translator of the instinctual, the fertilizing force, the mender, the rememberer of old ideas."

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "Women Who Run With The Wolves" 

I had a strange synchronicity that has personal meaning for me, although I am not sure I can convey it well to others.  When things like this happen I consider them not to be dismissed as  if i get that "ah ha" feeling. The power of the message has to do with what is going on in one's life at the time, as well as one's personal symbol system.  Interpreting synchronicities is much like interpreting dreams to me, both universal and very personal.  I've written about this before. This one, for me, is a reminder.

In 2003 I started gathering materials for my book about the Masks of the Goddess, their travels throughout the U.S., and the stories and people who told them and danced them. I was writing about two masks, the  amazing story of the Cornmother mask, and another mask I made, Butterfly Woman, based on readings of Clarissa Pinkola Estes about the Hopi.  I remembered that Christy Salo  (whose story is below) told me that she had, in the course of gathering materials for her performance as Selu, met a Hopi woman who was visiting Isis Oasis, and that she had given her some 300 year old sacred cornmeal to bless her performance.  

I wrote to Katherine** in 2003.  She has worked with Hopi elders and activists, and founded a non-profit in San Diego called "Touch The Earth Foundation" back in 1993.  I hoped she would tell me more about why she felt moved to offer that corn meal, and also hoping she would tell me about the Hopi Butterfly Woman.  I never heard from her, and the book was eventually finished. And then, out of the blue, almost 10 years later, she answers me!

 (I have to add that I just closed my AOL email account, and if the email had come a month from now it would have bounced back to her.)

Reading Katherines words about her foundation work just today (I knew nothing about her other than that she gave corn to Christy and was Hopi) I was surprised to see that she wrote about "rainbow hoop" work with diversity groups - and her  logo is at right.  That concept of the "rainbow corn", like the coming "rainbow tribe"  was why I painted a rainbow on my mask.....but until this month, I have never seen her logo or read anything by her.   I feel heartened by this, because it remembers me to the interwoven threads that connect us all beneath the surfaces of things. It encourages me in mythic work, and that of my colleagues, women and men.  And I thank the Goddess, in all of Her many forms, for weaving these messages through us all.

Corn Mother (Selu to the Cherokee) sustains us. Butterfly Woman  bears the important job of pollinating the corn so that it will bear fruit and feed and sustain the next generation......(traditionally she was performed by an old woman, because it was believed that a woman with experience and "weight" was suited to do the job.  I like that....)

Butterflies are not only ephemeral creatures that embody the perfect metaphor for transformation. They are  the final life stage of the caterpillar, responsible for laying the eggs that will ensure future generations of butterflies. They are  generators of the future, because as Pollinators  they must also see to it that not only caterpillars, but many other kinds of life are able to have a future. Just as diminishing populations of honey bees threaten the food crops, so too are these creatures potent. 

What is the pollen?  The pollen that generates new civilizations, and new paradigms......that pollen is made of stories.

"And here too come visitors to the dance, some of whom are very starved of their geno-myths, detached from the spiritual placenta. They have forgotten their ancient Gods. They come to watch the ones who have not forgotten."

In  "Women Who Run With the Wolves", Estes tells of  the Butterfly Dancer, slow, sure, with her traditional tokens of empowerment.

"Her heavy body and her very skinny legs made her look like a hopping spider wrapped in a tamale. She hops on one foot and then on the other. She waves her feather fan to and fro. She is The Butterfly arrived to strengthen the weak. She is that which most think of as not strong: age, the butterfly, the feminine."

 "She is La voz mitológica" Estes reminds us, the "Mythic Voice". 

What's a mask?  A mask is a way to invite a persona, or to "invoke" (join with) an archetypal being, to  express within oneself and within the collective experience of ritual and theatre.  In the early days of theatre, whether in Greece or Japan,  all actors used masks.  To wear a mask that is deeply archetypal, such as the mask of a Goddess or God or an animal power (as contemporary participants did with the masks in my "Masks of the Goddess" collection) is, within indigenous traditions, to "bring the deity to Earth" to bless, prophesy, and instruct, to tell the sacred stories and legends, and to enliven and "seed" the imaginations of those present.  

So back to my book about masks, and my 9 year old email to  Katherine,  just now answered.

So here's the email.........

--Original Message-----

From: katherine cheshire
To: Laurenraine ; kc4bepeace
Sent: Thu, Aug 30, 2012 1:36 pm
Subject: Re: Butterfly Woman/Selu

Yes,
Dear I do remember you. I even remember the hosts of the gathering were a tad miffed at my blessing the spirit of the Mask and your lovely
dance.  I can not address your issues at the time as i am off to to
South Dakota at Crazy Horse, When i return let us re-connect and in the
mean time rest assured i will help you if i can.
Blessings and Balance,
In Peace, 

Dee See Mana-Ma
Katherine Cheshire

Original message:

 
From: "Laurenraine@aol.com"
To: kc4behopi@yahoo.com; kc4bepeace@crosswinds.net
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2003 1:57 PM
 

Subject: Butterfly Woman/Selu
 

Dear Katherine,

I know you don't remember me, but I met you in the Spring of 2002 when I was organizing, with others,  an event with my Masks of the Goddess in Oakland.  I write for two reasons:  one is gratitude, because you gifted a dancer with some sacred corn, which was used, as a blessing, in a performance devoted to Selu, Corn Mother.  I take the liberty of copying below this quite magical story, which is included in the book I'm writing.

The other is that I have made a Butterfly Woman mask.  It was inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estes story of the Butterfly Dancer among the Hopi.  I know nothing about the story of this Goddess.  I know you are a very busy woman, but I thought I might as well ask if you have any interest in writing something about Her story, or meaning?  I have no publisher as yet, but am submitting my book, and have good faith that it will find a publisher, and I can offer contributors publication, exposure, and referral when that happens.

With gratitude for what you contributed to the magic of our Dance,

Lauren Raine
www.rainewalker.com

Excerpted from "CORNMOTHER"..........

"Indigenous people have always known corn metaphorically in two or more of the four senses, mother, enabler, transformer, healer; that I use throughout this weaving.  Although early European settlers took the grain only, there is evidence in America today that the Corn-Mother has taken barriers of culture and language in stride and intimated her spirit to those who will listen, even if they don't know her story or call her by name."

   Marilou Awiakta, "The Corn-Mother Incognito.  Or Is She?"
   from SELU - Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom

Corn is the staff of life for the people of the Americas, and Corn Mother has many names.
Among the Cherokee, Corn Mother is Selu.  Selu's very body is the sustaining grain.
The story of Selu, like the myth of Demeter/Persephone, is the death and resurrection cycle of the grain mother.  But it is also, from the wisdom of the Cherokee, about understanding the reciprocal nature of being in right relationship with the Earth.

Selu's sons, being ignorant, fearful young men, discover her secret.  Selu knows this, and nevertheless compassionately teaches them to preserve the seed corn, her very essence. 
Selu's immature sons witness a mystery they are not able to understand, and make arrogant assumptions that bring disaster - the same human immaturity expressed by the forces of modernism that today bring destruction to the environment.  The  Mysteries of the Earth Mother are shared through reverence, cooperation, and a willingness to listen.  In loving generosity,  Selu offers her children another chance,  to atone,  to bring themselves back into alignment with the natural order.  Perhaps, even now, Selu compassionately holds out to us the opportunity to weave our understanding back into "good relationship" with the elemental and diverse intelligences that are the vast web of life we participate within, the past, and the future we co-create.     

Indigenous cultures understand that we are engaged in a quiet, mythic, and miraculous Conversation with nature.  There is a message in the sudden flight of a bird, an answer to their questions in the vision granted by a sacred place, or synchronicities that guide the way to an important revelation.  At times, we are "seeded", we are generously given kernels to nurture us, and to pass on.  I like to think the rainbow mask of Corn Mother was such a seed from the hand of  Selu, graciously instructing us on how to dance.

I had given masks to choreographer Manna Youngbear, who was directing a ritual performance at a theatre in Oakland.  Several weeks before her event, I attended a group meditation.  As I sat cross-legged on the floor, I found myself absorbed by a vision that had nothing to do with the ceremony I was participating in.  When I closed my eyes I saw a Native American woman wearing a deerskin costume. She was dancing with an ear of corn in each hand.  I opened my eyes to a room full of meditating people, then closed my eyes to again see her dancing to a chant I could almost hear, ears of multi-colored corn shining in her hands.  When I returned to my studio, I made a mask, and placed ears of corn on each side of the face.

A friend had just given me a little prism, and as I worked on my new mask, it cast lovely rainbows around the studio.  I had been reading about Black Elk, the great  Lakota shaman.  As a young boy, he foresaw the destruction of his people, the "hoop" of the Lakota nation.  But he also prophesized a future "hoop of the nations":  a great circle, composed of many interlocking circles. A  Rainbow Tribe encompassing people of all colors.  It seemed to me that Corn Mother, who nurtures all of Her diverse children on Turtle Island, was at the very center of Black Elk's vision, and so I painted a rainbow on the mask's forehead.

"When I held up an ear of calico corn"  Cherokee poet Marilou Awiakta wrote, "we would think about this wisdom of the Corn Mother.  How the different kernels are ranged around the cob, no one more important than the other.  How each kernel respects the space of those on either side, yet remains itself - red, black, white, yellow or combinations of those colors.  How the Corn-Mother, in Her physical being, exemplifies unity in diversity, "from the many one" - democracy."

Just before her performance, I learned there was one dancer in Manna's cast who had no mask.  Christy, who had created a dance for Green Corn Woman.  Now she had a mask - and when Christy danced, she blessed the audience with corn meal she received from a native American teacher.

*********

Interview with Christy Salo (2002):

I made a bouquet of corn for Manna and Stephen's wedding, with a necklace of rainbow beads on it I bought at a garage sale.  I used this same bouquet to dance Green Corn Woman at our performance.

The wedding was at a retreat center in Geyserville, California.  After the ceremony, I met a woman walking about the property.  She told me she really didn't know why she was there!  She had been heading to Oakland, and felt an urge to turn off the road.  When she drove by the sign for the center, she impulsively pulled in as well.  And there she was, in a lovely place with a wedding in progress.  As we talked, I recognized she was the woman I had bought the rainbow beads from, the same beads that were decorating Manna's bouquet, even as we spoke!  She was a touchstone on my "journey to Cornmother".

When Manna cast her show, she asked if I wanted to dance Corn Mother.  Manna is part Cherokee, so perhaps that was what she was thinking about.  I had been making collages with corn in them for years, and it seemed right.  We didn't have a mask for the Corn Goddess, but I was inspired to create a dance anyway.  I  knew very little about the Native American Corn Mother.  I intended to visit the library, but a friend turned up with a wonderful book called BROTHER CROW, SISTER CORN that was full of indigenous corn legends.  I also stopped at a used bookstore, and opening a rather esoteric book at random, discovered I was looking at an article about the Corn Maiden.  I was further stunned to find it was illustrated by Vera Louise Drysdale.  Vera was the first woman I met, years ago, when I lived in Sedona.  I was ready to begin.

Corn Mother among the Cherokee is called Selu, a funny  synchronicity,  as my own last name is Salo.  I felt I was following an invisible thread - and the feeling of familiarity continued as I created a costume.  I was looking for materials I associated with Corn Mother, and a few days later, Manna left me a message. "Christy" she said, "There is a Hopi woman at Isis Oasis you need to meet!  She gave me some 300 year old corn meal to give to you!"

I felt the spirit of Corn Woman encouraging me!  I thought about what She personally meant to me. Corn Mother is about the wealth that comes from the work of forgiveness.  How can we be fed and sustained, how can we create peace, if we cannot learn the lessons of forgiveness,  if we cannot learn tolerance for our differences?  That is the beginning place for the cooperation we will need in order to evolve.

I've always conceived of the Rainbow as actually being a circle.  Half of the rainbow disappears into the ground, into an underworld realm, where it exists beneath the Earth, hidden, but present.  Like the Corn Mother.  And aren't we all Her children?  Especially in America, where we have come together with our mixed bloodlines:  we all have "rainbow blood".  I believe our challenge is to understand our true relationship to each other,  to widen our vision to see the future Black Elk prophesied, the creation of a Rainbow Nation.

We received the new mask around the time of the lunar eclipse, in May of 2002, and decided at that auspicious time to consecrate it with some dried corn.  As we did, a flash of light went off in the room!  At first we thought it was a light bulb that blew out, but looking around, realized there were no electric lights that had been on in that room.  We looked at each other amazed,  and we felt the presence of Corn Mother.   

**Touch The Earth Foundation was founded in 1992 to provide education and instruction in cross-cultural customs and beliefs.

"When we open a door, such as a “Medicine Wheel”, we must be mindful that the spirits are of our pure intentions; they are gifted and hosted with corn meal or tobacco in some parts of the world. Then, after the ceremony, give thanks and close the door behind you so mischief will not change your intentions of Universal Balance and Peace. Think of  Brothers from Tibet, they often make Mandalas and often they take many days, even months, to accomplish. And after the ceremony the prayers and divine message and Mirror to the Universe is destroyed and returned to Mother Earth as the Reflection is already in the other worlds. We live in the world of temporality and so it must be destroyed so the intention will not be misused or become stagnant." 

Catherine Cheshire, from Global Meditations (2004)

 http://www.jnanadana.org/hopi/touch_page.html

Travels on the Coast..........

Jughandle State Preserve

There are seamless  moments that reveal

a pulse

rolling down 47th street, or the freeway

a pulse, not apart perhaps

from a white capped wave that just

broke on a summer shoreline in Cape Cod,

and now ripples off to Africa.

I want to tell someone (who will believe me?)

that if I lift this foot

a spiral galaxy

will spill like cream

across the fine dark pavement of eternity.

(1989) from "A House of Doors - Open Poems"

Saying Hello to Gaia

The Way I Think It Really Is......

Hydragea in Mendocino

 The green plants

         magically
from water      air
the soil
from water      earth
    air
earth        water
air            light
earth and sunlight

sunlight
vibrating waves
        shimmering
grasses in the sun

........Felicia Miller*

Jughandle Farmhouse Hostel

Saying Farewell to the Ocean

Pink Ladies say "Hello"

 "Then what is the answer?— Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
the least ugly faction; these evils are essential.
To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil; and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness.
These dreams will not be fulfilled.
To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand
Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars
and his history... for contemplation or in fact...
Often appears atrociously ugly.
Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is
Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things,
the divine beauty of the universe.
Love that, not man apart from that,
or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions,
or drown in despair when his days darken."

Not Man Apart - Robinson Jeffers*

*My friend Felicia passed away in 2010 - she was a mermaid never entirely easy on land.  Robinson Jeffers spent much of his life wandering the Big Sur coastline of California.  I always think of them both when I visit the coast, feeling perhaps their spirits leaving footprints in the sand still. 

Isis Oasis, Lady Olivia, and Lots and Lots of Ocelots

It was my pleasure to visit Isis Oasis on my trip to California, a sanctuary and retreat center I've visited many times in the past, and to visit with Reverend Loreon Vigne, the Founder of Isis Oasis Sanctuary and the Temple of Isis there.  Loreon's vision has created and sustained the Oasis for over 30 years, in the beautiful wine country of northern California.  Isis Oasis Sanctuary was founded in 1978. Before that time Loreon was an artist and  in San Francisco. She created a line of gift ware and jewelry called Noir Enamel craft and as her work became popular she needed a workshop. Answering a newspaper ad, she was delighted to discover that the building was on Isis Street - Loreon knew of this street, and because it was named for the Goddess  wanted to live there....this synchronicity was the "go ahead" for her.

Another reason Loreon moved  was because of her love for ocelots (and later for  servals, the "hunting cats" of ancient Egypt as well).  On this visit Loreon let me visit with several of the big cats.  Ocelots can purr, but they don't "meow", just growl their pleasure or dislike.  It was quite a treat to sit with a gorgeous cat the size of a good sized dog who growled convincingly like a tiger to let me know he wanted his ears rubbed.

"While in the city of Saint Francis, patron saint of all living creatures, I discovered my passion for one of the most beautiful cats on the planet - The Ocelot. I have been working with Ocelots since the mid-1960’s and have created a vibrant family tree of Ocelots. To my knowledge I am the only one at this time to have bred a seventh generation domestic born Ocelot, and it is my hope to continue to create more of this highly endangered feline species of North America for future generations to enjoy. 

There are some that believe that Ocelots should stay purely in the wild to live or to die. Commonly held knowledge shows the difficulties that this amazing species faces in the wild - Poachers who hunt them for their beautiful fur, although it is an illegal practice, and the deforestation of their habitats.  Therefore I believe that a population of Ocelots kept in captivity is the only way to ensure their continued survival, for in ten years there may no longer be any Ocelots left in the wild in North America"

Lady Loreon Vigne

If you are passing through the area, it's just off of Route 101 and easy to find from the small town of Geyserville.  Camping is available, and rooms can be rented in the Goddess Hotel, which has a hot tub and pool.  I recommend the "Sekmet Room".

 White Peacock at Isis Oasis

Mana sweeping before the Temple of Isis

"Dirt Sculpture" fire pit

Isis Oasis has been where Lady Olivia has come for many years, and I can't write about Loreon and Isis Oasis without including Lady Olivia.  She's an amazing woman, and if you have met any of the Fellowship, you immediately are struck by what a wonderful, warm, life-affirming and creative group of people they are.  I found it annoying that the group is so often called a "cult".

Now let me see.........millions and millions of people believe that we are born sinful (especially women because of Eve and that forbidden apple).  Seeing this, God sent his only Son (who didn't have a mother, but was "incubated" in Virgin Mary) to be violently sacrificed like they used to do for God with sheep and goats ("Lamb of God") so that, instead of being eternally punished for being born (sinful, in other words), we could instead be "born again" and go to heaven with Jesus.  This proves that God loves us (unless, of course, you don't believe this story or are born in some other part of the world that has a different idea, or were born and died prior to Jesus coming to earth to save us.)  In those cases, whether God loves you or not, you have to spend all of eternity tormented in Hell.  So it's really, really important that you take the appropriate initiations and vows now, while you still have the chance to be "saved".

That's called Religion.  The Fellowship of Isis is called a cult.  Hmm.

Lady Olivia, who co-founded the Fellowship of Isis with her brother in Ireland (and now around the world)  is much loved by friends and family everywhere.....I met her briefly when I was at the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury last year.   Recently a movie has been made about the Fellowship and Lady Olivia  - She has come to Isis Oasis for Convocation and initiation of priestesses for many years from her home in Ireland - this year, her 96th,  is the first time she hasn't been able to come, although she's planning on coming next year, Goddess willing. 

Below are Utube Videos about Lady Olivia and the Fellowship of Isis:

James Swan on Spirit of Place

Avebury

  

In thinking about "Numinous", trying to incubate an art project, as I travel along the coast of California for my retreat at Jughandle State Nature Preserve, I think of a book by James Swan that I love, "Sacred Places".  Dr. Swan has published numerous books about Numina, the Spirit of Place.   His book "The Power of Place" draws on  26 presentations drawn from the five year Spirit of Place symposium  held in the US and Japan between 1988 and 1993.  I wish the symposium was still happening, because I believe people like James Swan, and Gloria Orenstein, are among those who are helping us how to have a dialogue again with the earth.  

I'm kind of academic, so I guess what I'm doing here is gathering voices to help me understand what  "numina"  means to me.....in essence, I want to know how we can speak to the Earth, and how people have spoken to the Earth in the past, and elsewhere.  I agree with  Swan - I think this understanding is so very vital to us now.  It's a blue moon......seems like a good time to share another article that I've reflected on  over the years.

The Spirit of Place Symposiums: 
 Seeking The Modern Relevance of Ancient Wisdom

By James A. Swan, Ph.D
________________________________________
"Modern man will never find peace until he comes
into harmony with the place where he lives." Carl Jung (Pantheon, 1964)
________________________________________

Introduction

The ancient Greeks spoke of the "genus loci," or spirit of a place. They sited a shrine to honor the Earth Goddess Gaia at Delphi in Greece because the unique personality or spirit of that place was divined to be especially suited to Gaia residing there. Understanding the forces that drew the early Greeks to reach that decision may well be a concept that is at the very root of developing sustainable human societies on earth and creating tourism programs that maximize the unique values of each destination.

Like trees, the human spirit needs roots, and a primary root of the psyche is in the land. Psychiatrist Carl Jung was an explorer of those deeper regions of the mind, the unconscious, where symbols and primal energies originate. Jung declared there were two types of unconscious: personal, which is unique to each person, and collective, which is shared by all humans, and seems to have loose boundaries with other objects and creatures (Dell, 1968). In our sleep, the unconscious comes to the forefront, and Jung observed that people tended to have dreams of a similar archetypal nature when sleeping at certain places. Jung called such place perception "psychic localization," and asserted that it was an important part of human nature.

East Indian scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy agreed with Jung about the unique association between place and consciousness and noted that myths were frequently linked to certain places. He coined the phrase "land-nam," a term derived from the Icelandic tradition of claiming ownership of a place through weaving together a mythic metaphor of plants, animals and geography of a place into a unique mythic story (Luzac, 1935).

The spirit of place plays a strong role in traditional societies, where it is commonly held that each place has a personality and some places are associated with spiritual sentiments. Ancient wisdom deserves respect and preservation, but what additional value may such concepts as the spirit of place have for modern society?

The Spirit of Place Symposiums

From 1988 to 1993 my wife Roberta and I produced a five-year series of annual symposiums -- The Spirit of Place: The Modern Relevance of An Ancient Concept -- seeking to help restore the wisdom of the past about the significance of place and explore its meaning to modern times.

Each symposium was begun with an open call for papers, inviting people from all disciplines and cultural heritage backgrounds to share in a common quest for understanding the subtle power of place. Nearly 300 speakers participated in the programs, four of which were held in the United States -- University of California at Davis, Grace Cathedral, Mesa Verde National Park, and at the San Rafael, CA, Marin Civic Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright -- and one was held in Sendai, Japan. Speakers represented disciplines as diverse as aerospace engineering, biophysics, psychology, architecture, biology, law, history, anthropology, music, dance and art. Members of 20 different American Indian tribes participated with speeches, music singing and dancing, along with others from Eskimo, African, Polynesian, and Oriental ethnic backgrounds. The rule that was used to organize such a diverse group was that they had to participate as peers, equal experts in whatever their profession. 

Thus panels blending a salmon fisherman with a physicist and an aerospace engineer with priest and a farmer became a common search for truth where many new alliances were forged. At each program, we concluded with a performance inspired by special places. Artists who performed included flutists Paul Horn and R. Carlos Nakai, dancer-choreographer Anna Halpern, keyboard artist Steven Halpern, Japanese recording artist Jun Hirose, and the rock-fusion band Earth Spirit.

Lessons of The Spirit of Place

In producing these programs our principle goal was to explore the modern validity of this ancient concept. We did not to try to start a spirit of place movement. Rather, we hope that what has taken place will set the stage for others to conduct programs that will advance our understanding of the power of places everywhere.  In these five programs, listening to nearly 300 speakers, formally and informally, we heard common themes emerge. The following are some of these shared areas of agreement:

1)Among indigenous cultures all around the world, the belief in the existence of special places of power and spirit seems universal. It is commonly believed that some places have spiritual powers, and these places are normally seen as cornerstones of traditional cultural belief systems. Modern society has often not paid much attention to sacred places, which is a source of great concern to traditional cultures. Another concern is that modern cultures tend to see places as only having value to the past or to other cultures, rather than to society in general.

2) At each of the five Spirit of Place symposiums researchers and designers from many disciplines agreed that gaining a sense of place is a very important part of their work, yet there is very little research on this topic or professional organizations seriously investigating the topic. Modern people are often aware of the unique spirit of a place, but do not have a vocabulary to express their feelings, except through art.

3) A characteristic style of art seems to arise from a geographic region; it is a voice that speaks to us through indigenous art of the spirit of that place. Drawings, paintings, carving, sculpture, stories, songs, poetry and dances, are all fed by the spirit of a place. The artist's mind is not so encumbered by the constraints of intellectual reasoning and so it becomes a more clear channel for the unconscious to expressed. He or she gives voice and form to the spirit of the land.

4)The experience of place is multi-faceted and influenced by culture, personal uniqueness and modality of awareness. There may be many more sensory processes by which we perceive the earth and nature than modern science and psychology are willing to admit. Ancient traditions such as Chinese Feng Shui assert that we have at least 100 senses to perceive place. The needs of modern society for ecologically conscious design suggests that in the training of designers we should seek to cultivate the inner designer as well as training professional skills.

5) Each place has a unique quality which in turn influences what can best be done there.
The built environment can serve as an amplifier of the powers of a place, or it can negate the influence of locality, yielding what Frank Lloyd Wright called "cash and carry architecture." Architecture and design that honors the spirit of place and gives it meaning and form expresses beauty and nourishes health and creativity. Architecture is ultimately a ritual in structural materials.

6)The act of making a pilgrimage to special places is among the oldest acts of human respect for nature and spirit, and one of the least understood and appreciated by modern society, despite the facts that we undertake pilgrimages by the millions each year. Psychology needs to better understand the value of pilgrimage to human life as it may be one of the most important ways that we can discover our meaning, find health, and be inspired, as well as build reverence for nature.

7)The lack of feeling connected to a place, especially a place where one lives and works, can be an important source of mental and physical stress. People need to feel peaceful where they are, and maintain a psychic connection with a place of natural beauty if they do not reside in one. Actor James Earl Jones, who gained his awareness of the power of place by growing up on a dirt farm in northern Michigan has observed: "I have always thought it quite wonderful and necessary to keep connected to nature, to a place in the country landscape where one can rest and muse and listen" (Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1993).

8) Geomancy is the spiritual parent of modern design. Many ancient geomancies understand the importance of the relationship between place and personal experience and take elaborate measures to insure people are harmonized with the spirit of a place. When principles of design from Feng Shui and other geomancies are applied to modern buildings and communities, positive results occur. We need to set aside our limiting beliefs and appreciate the power of such approaches in the same fashion that western science has acknowledged the healing values of acupuncture, even though modern science cannot prove the existence of the life force chi and other geomantic concepts.

9)Modern science is beginning to measure the subtle properties of place. We now know that air ions, electrical and electromagnetic fields do influence health and well-being. More research needs to be devoted to the study of subtle environmental fields. Documenting the existence and value of these fields, may well lead to a whole new art and science of design with modern science and ancient wisdom working together.

10) In a Spirit of Place keynote, psychologist Robert Sommer observed that people can become "a voice" for the spirit of that region as much as for a human community or a relationship. John Muir, for example, seemed to embody the spirit of Yosemite Valley. The Lakota holy man Black Elk was a voice for the Black Hills of South Dakota. Rachel Carson was inspired by Cape Cod to write about "the sense of wonder" in nature as well as the dangers of pesticides to ecological balance. Becoming a voice for the land creates a "psychic anchor" that seems to be important to mental health.

11) The spirit of place concept is less understood by modern society, and one result is that conflicts about the value of place can and do arise between traditional and modern cultures.It is easy to flame the fires of conflict in such situations, creating enemies to raise funds to wage wars that should never have to exist. This kind of self-righteous scapegoating is as exploitive as developers who wish to commercialize sacred places for the sake of pure profit. The more difficult task is to build bridges of respect and cooperation between traditional and modern cultures, but it is the only path that can lead us to greater harmony and understanding.

12) We need new laws and land-use categories that facilitate honoring the power of place, including recognition of sacred places. Creating the public policies that yield such laws will require cross-cultural communication, cooperation and understanding unprecedented in modern society.

Conclusion

The consensus among participants in the Spirit of Place Symposiums is that we must rediscover the wisdom about the power of place and turn it into practical concepts that will guide modern people to live in harmony with the earth, as well as show respect for ancient traditions. Learning to plan and design with respect for the unique spirit of each place is a touchstone of responsible eco-tourism that respects traditional cultures and provides important benefits to modern culture as well.

________________________________________

This paper is drawn from Dialogues With The Living Earth.

Bibliography

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. 1935 
Jones, James Earl. 1993 Voices and Silences. New York, NY: Chas. Scribner's Sons, p.358.
Jung, Carl 1964 Civilization In Transition: Vol. 10 Collective Works of Carl Jung New York, NY: Pantheon.
Jung, Carl 1968 Man and His Symbols New York, NY: Dell.
Lawrence, D.H. 1923 Studies In Classical American Literature. New York, NY: Thomas Seltzer and Sons, p.8-9.
Swan, James 1990 Sacred Places: How The Living Earth Seeks Our Friendship Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Company.
Swan, James ed. 1991 The Power of Place Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.
Swan, James and Swan, Roberta 1996 Dialogues With The Living Earth Wheaton, IL: Quest.

         

Gloria Orenstein: Toward an Eco-feminist Ethic of Shamanism and the Sacred .

(1993) ( This Illustration was inspired by the art of Catherine Nash)

For years I've been wanting to share this article by one of the most eloquent Eco-feminist writers I know, Gloria Femen Orenstein.  The article is  extracted from Toward an Ecofeminist Ethic of Shamanism and the Sacred .

I heard Dr. Orenstein speak in 1989 at the Symposium for Art and the Invisible Reality, produced by Dr. Rafael Montanez Ortiz, at Rutgers University.   She was accompanied by her teacher, and friend, Ellen Maret Gaup-Dungeld who was a traditional Sami shaman.  I remember well how powerfully Ellen Maret cleared and raised the energy of the auditorium she spoke in by 'singing the yoik'.  More information about Gloria Feman Orenstein is available at the bottom of this post.

Toward an Eco feminist Ethic of Shamanism and the Sacred .

The shamanic worldview considers all of creation to be both spiritual and sacred. This dimension is as sacred as the spirit world. Thus, what happens to us while alive and awake, although interconnected with what is taking place in the spirit world, is also of great importance shamanically, and, of course, is also sacred.

Through the spiritual journey Shamans pick up vital information from other realms, in much the same way that we get our news from abroad via satellite and TV. By the same token, one could not characterize the human experience by the "core" activity of tuning into the news from abroad, even though this is a necessary part of our daily lives. Naturally, when Shamans work in the here and now, they are calling upon forces that reconfigure our ordinary concepts of space an time. Whatever their powers for certain kinds of work, they are not necessarily journeying out of the body, but they are expanding our concept of what a body is and relating to the body as an energy field composed both of spirit and matter.

Once again, from my own experience in Samiland, I know that I was always waiting to meet my "power animal," and my Shaman teacher was always taking me to the real reindeer, the real birds, the real mosquitoes. It wasn't until she communicated with birds, brought them to us, talked with them, and sent them away, or until she "psyched out" the problem of a lost reindeer, that I began to understand how the neo-shamanic narrative from contemporary workshops had actually blinded me to the fact that real animals are also spirit and power, and, at least to my Shaman teacher, they were every bit as important, or even more so, than her owl spirit guide who had appeared to her in childhood.

Sometimes I used to feel that I had a more "shamanic" perspective than she did, because I was always coming up with sophisticated symbolic interpretations of dreams and I was always looking for "power animals," while she seemed to be more interested in the real animals and she understood the figures in dreams to represent the spirits of real people. The truth is that she made less of a distinction than we do between real and spirit people or animals. To her, all was real, all was spirit, and all was sacred, simultaneously. There was no contradiction in that.

IGNORANCE OF GEO-COSMIC REALITIES

Through our education in the scientific worldview of the Enlightenment, we have become alienated from the earth and have forgotten that the earth is also a heavenly body. We have ceased to take into consideration the powers of the forces and the knowledge of the cycles that govern our lives. We hardly ever give a second thought to gravity, for example, without which we would all be floating off into space, and we certainly never think about the real magnetic force of the North and South poles. We also take for granted the amount of light and dark we experience each day. But what if an that were to change? What if we were suddenly plunged into a world in which the sun never set or never rose? What if we were to go to live at the magnetic North Pole? 

Then we would begin to experience syndromes similar to jet lag, and we would take seriously the implications of the revolutions of the earth on its axis around the sun. In Samiland during most of the fall and winter, the sun sets very early in the morning. During the summer, the sun doesn't set until well after midnight. The rituals women have begun to perform in the feminist spirituality (Goddess) movement have begun to put us back in touch with an awareness of the solstices, the equinoxes, and the lunar cycles. But how does this all relate to ecofeminist ethics and to Shamanism? Because of our geo-cosmic ignorance and amnesia, we fail to take into consideration the fact that certain powers can only be obtained and put into practice in certain places on the earth and at certain times during the year or during the larger cosmic cycles.

 It is interesting that when it comes to sacred herbs, we recognize that they grow in certain places and that people who cannot obtain certain herbs cannot experience their effects. However, herbs are portable, and this suits our purposes, for we can transport the products of the Amazon jungle to California via plane. However, we can never transport the magnetism of the North Pole to California. Nor can we manifest the effects of the Arctic midnight sun in Los Angeles. 

When I travelled to Samiland, I became aware of the effect that the magnetic North Pole was having upon me. It was causing me to enter a deep trance state when I slept, and it was when I was in such a deep trance that I was able to hear the voices of the ancestral spirits. As I ate Sami food, I noticed that my hair and skin began to take on other characteristics. This might have been due to the purity of the air, the water, and the food, as well as to the intensity of the earth's magnetic field in which the food was grown. We have noted that people are sensitive to light deprivation and that they become depressed when they do not receive enough light. Have we thought about what an overabundance of light might do to a person or how light might affect one's consciousness? In Samiland in the summer, when the sun sets well after midnight, sometimes as late as 3:00 Am., one enters altered states, highs, and expansive states of consciousness.

Westerners always want to bring Shamans to the United States, put them on American TV talk shows, and have them perform miracles on our turf to prove their powers. When a Shaman from Samiland insists that you must travel to the North Pole in order to study Sami Shamanism, an American may tend to balk and dismiss the Shaman as a phoney. I brought my Shaman teacher to the United States to participate in a number of conferences (such as Ecofeminist Perspectives: Culture, Nature, Theory-held at U.S.C. in the Spring of 1987), but she always insisted that my real training would not take place in the United States, but in Samiland.

She was right, because my progress was intensified as soon as I came into the magnetic field of the North Pole. The results of culture shock and jet lag, when combined with the magnetism of the North Pole and the surplus of light in summer, catapulted me immediately into a shamanic state that was intensified by the presence of two powerful Shamans. It is important for us to honor the geo-cosmic realities of shamanic cultures and to realize that certain things cannot be transported elsewhere.

One of the main features of summer in Samiland is that suddenly the marshes become swamped with mosquitoes. The Sami love their mosquitos, because they realize that "the white man" cannot stand them, and so the mosquitoes have, in some sense, kept their land from being taken by outsiders. Most people cannot bear to live with those mosquitoes. As I mentioned before, Sami Shamans communicate with their mosquitoes, and they understand that they can be messengers, guides, and protectors.

 Ultimately, as we come to respect the geo-cosmic specificities of particular cultures and as we realize that there are things that cannot be bought, sold, commercialized, and commodified, such as magnetic fields and sunsets, (whereas people have already commercialized sacred waters and herbs), we must develop an ethics and a politics that will protect the earth and the cultures that reside not only in "places of power" or in places where we can obtain special products, but everywhere on our planet, for we must remember that the specificity of each location has its own potency. In this way, by raising our consciousness about the geo-cosmic specificities of gravity, light, magnetism, solstices, equinoxes, lunar cycles, indigenous plants, animals, climate, and so forth, we may come to value the variety of diverse cultures and regions whose multiple knowledges all serve to enhance life everywhere on our planet in an astonishing number of ways. Most of these geo-cosmic teachings can only be acquired in the particular region in which they originated.

Finally, if we are to awaken our own shamanic abilities, perhaps lost in the mist of time for some but founded in the traditions of the Early European Tribes for others, then we must attune ourselves to precisely those same forces as they manifest in our own bio-regions. In some cases this may require us to learn about our region from the indigenous tribes in our area; in other cases we must set about discovering the power of the places in which we live on our own. This is our challenge, if we want to save the earth. We must not run away to other "exotic' cultures, but we must begin by exploring our own backyards.

THE DE-POLITICIZATION OF THE SHAMANIC VISION

By universalizing and essentializing a "core" concept of Shamanism, we tend to ignore the practical and political use to which shamanic powers can also be put. When Ellen Maret Gaup-Dungeld led a contingent of women from the reindeer ranches of Samiland to stage a sit-in in the Norwegian parliament in order to protest the hydroelectric power plant that the Norwegians were planning to erect over the Alta-Kautokeino River on the day that Prime Minister Gro Bruntland stepped into office, she used visions to create her political itinerary. 

When the new prime minister did not return to hear the Sami women (after twenty-four hours, as she had promised), Ellen Maret asked the women present to relate their dreams. Some had dreamed of flying to Rome, so she requested an audience with the Pope at the Vatican (in order to obtain publicity for their cause); another dreamed of flying over large cities, so she planned a strategic visit to the United Nations in New York. Ellen Maret did not make the kind of separation that we, in the West, would make between those dream-inspired journeys to Rome and New York and other dream-inspired journeys to the spirit world. Nor did she consider the dream to be an inferior means of establishing a political itinerary. Being a political leader was being a spiritual leader, and vice versa.

Because Shamans from indigenous peoples do not separate spirit from matter and do not privilege a "core" shamanic experience over a this-worldly journey, knowing that both are sacred, both are real, and both are spiritual, focusing exclusively on lower, middle, and upper world shamanic cosmology in our courses excludes the important political function that shamanic vision often serves. Furthermore, she took the visions of women to be as relevant as those of a Shaman. She did not establish a hierarchy among women as visionaries. These women from the reindeer ranches were considered to be the very people whose dreams (spirit-world contacts) would help the Sami to save their land and protect the earth. Here is ecofeminism in action.

CONCLUSION: NEW DIRECTIONS

In conclusion, I would Like to suggest that we begin to take the shamanic means of obtaining knowledge seriously in our culture. First we must begin to return the various shamanic practices to their specific cultures. We must not be reductive, but must see the complexities posed by the diversity of shamanic practices around the world. This will be enriching to our understanding of what Shamanism is, in the long run. Then we must set about creating a shamanic practice that is indigenous to our part of the world and our culture. However, we must revise many of our own cultural assumptions from an ecofeminist perspective. 

White Westerners must cease to project their white Western fantasies of the exotic, the glamorous, and the romantic onto other cultures. We must always assume diversity, and not make assumptions about being the same all over the world just because some aspects of them may appear similar to us. We must also resist thinking in a dualistic manner. We must remember that in Shamanism, spirit resides in matter, and all that exists is sacred. We must also resist thinking in hierarchies, privileging the spirit world and its entities over the material world and its inhabitants. Nor must we engage in elitist assumptions about whose visions have the most wisdom. We must respect the folk of every culture, remembering that their experience contains wisdom, and we must seek out women teachers whenever possible, for they have generally been the guardians of earth wisdom (because of women's socially constructed roles, and not because of any inherent or "essential" characteristics).

We must also learn the folklore of the cultures we visit and remember that what we consider to be "lore" and "legend" may have actually taken place in that culture and that these stories often contain real lessons for us that we would do well to heed. We must remember to seek spiritual protection, and we must become aware of the risks involved in shamanic practices, as well as the dangers incurred when working with people of power. They are also very human, and like non-Shamans, they may be tempted to abuse their power. 

Above all, we must cease to trivialize the spirit world. We must begin to take seriously the reality of spirit-especially those of us who engage in spirituality rituals. We should practice these rituals believing that the rituals we engage in are real events that do communicate with the spirit world. As we are taught in anthropology and folklore courses, we must not exploit the sacred ways or appropriate the sacred objects of other people-especially not for commercial purposes. 

One of the first things I was taught was that you must replace everything you take. Rather than stripping a foreign culture of its material and spiritual possessions, we should begin to contribute to its survival. We must begin to set standards for the practice of Shamanism, in order to protect the population from charlatans and new age dilettantes who know nothing about the spirit world and less about human consciousness and psychology. A new age neo-Shaman might easily jettison an ardent Shaman student into a state of severe mental or physical injury, simply due to the kind of ignorance, arrogance, and lack of responsibility that typifies much of the dabbling that takes place in this movement. We must remember that Shamanism is just as serious as surgery. Would we like to have our brains operated on by someone who had not been trained in medical school?

From the eco-feminist perspective on ethics, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is the misogyny and dualism at the root of white Western civilization that have caused the exploitation of both women and nature. On the other hand, we must not guilt-trip ourselves to the point of endangering our lives. Somehow we must come up with a balance in which we honor both non-Western cultures and ourselves for all that is beneficent, while constantly maintaining a critical position toward all forms of abuse of power.

If we take the lessons of Shamanism seriously, and  revise our cosmology in time, if we practice eco-feminist ethics while honoring both the material and the spiritual realms, then, I believe, there is real hope for us to heal the earth, our homeland.

Gloria Feman Orenstein is Professor Emeritus in Comparative literature and the Program for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Southern California. She is the author of The Theater of the Marvellous. Surrealism and the Contemporary Stage, The Reflowering of the Goddess and co-editor of Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism.   I  highly recommend her book The Reflowering of the Goddess, (1990), published by Pergamon Press, New York. (ISBN 0-08-035178-6).  

For more information:   Gloria Feman Orenstein