The SELF IN SERVICE Conference, which was the Society for Shamanic Practitioners first foray into its Shamanism Without Borders initiative, was a resounding success on many levels. Conference participants are invited to share their thoughts on this blog as comments to this discussion thread.
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This gathering exceeded any expectations I could have had. It delivered what was promised eloquently. My “personal” shamanic “training” was a brief time with Michael Harner, enough to understand shamanic healing as an internal natural gift that connects us-me back through time to our ancestors healing ways when we are present to “listen”. In Tom’s pre-comments I was touched by the humble thoughts that “crossing borders” might require us to adapt and discover new ways as we worked in groups in places we have limited understanding for. Carol’s comments about preparing were so right on. My prep time gave me guidance about “special” unusual things to bring and info related to the local area that served me well in engaging fully with our healing work. The openness to novelty, was key in the group I was a part of, that went to the beach flats near the boardwalk. We discovered that the elementals playing an active role as spirit helpers as we proceeded with our work. They also were also very present as part of the thread that connected us individually and as a group as we did our walk about from the neighborhood, to the river, the ocean, the amusement park, and back to the neighborhood. They strengthened our ability to listen from our core through our shamanic senses amid the distractions of the physical environment, to be open and flexible to what was possible with the resources at hand. A ritual requiring moonlight, offered by a Mongolian member, had to be deferred. (We are considering doing it with the next full moon) In a public environment where drumming and some usual shamanic practice wouldn’t be appropriate, it was fascinating to discover what connected us to our supporting healing powers, and in a way that was collaborative. This was natural for me, I think of myself as a closet faciitator. It was wonderful to be joined by other shamanic beings, as we did our out of the closet “act” of healing. The ecclectic nature of Santa Cruz was helpful in this regard. Fitting in with the “culture” at hand seems essential wherever we are. Tobacco had shown up as an active thread that connected us. We carried tobacco stems (in my preparation I was given strong guidance to bring these) which became an active part of the healing rituals we did both alongside the river bridge where a strong field of negative energy was trapped, and the next day when we did remote healing. Each time we did ritual, mutiple members had on them objects that could be inserted to strengthen the healing prayers we were sending out. This seemed to faciitate both the energetic shift as well as the integration of the work at the physical body-mind level. There seemed to be so many levels of meaning behind the simple spontaneous happenings that occurred as we “journeyed” together in this middle world place. I look forward in the future for further development of this work, opportunities for SSP members to call on each other when our helping spirits ask for combined distance healing. Perhaps a simple forum where shamanic healers can bring a current global-human issue, the specific focus and the collective time for the collective gathering.
) Definitely, this is an historic idea worthy of continuance. I can’t help imagining, this kind of work will give shamanic work a more respecful place in the world across a broader spectrum of human community. 
)
Shamanism Without Borders/Self in Service
Downtown Santa Cruz and the San Lorenzo River
“Epicenter of All Disasters”
Participants in Tom Cowan’s Group: : Marilee Bresciani, Rachel Chapman, Tom Cowan, Alan Davis, Paula Denham, Yalila Espinoza, Wayne Ishee, Gloria Quesada, Kate Franta Ries, Michael Stearns, Gyan Wells, Rain Worme-Chandler
Friday, June 4, 2010 Morning session
The entire SSP group met in circle and we learned a little bit about the greater Santa Cruz area. When there is something traumatic that happens in nature, the papers always report the “Top 10 Disasters,” constantly reminding residents of previous turmoil to humans via mudslides, fires, earthquakes, etc…
The southern part of the county has a long history of tensions between ethnic groups and immigrants, including Chinese (railroad), Japanese (WWII), and Latinos (present). Also, the Pajaro River is troubled due to farming practices/pesticides. These are two areas that would not be addressed directly by our individual groups.
The entire SSP group journeyed together to gather our helping spirits who would accompany us in the work and for advice/instruction. Tom Cowan shared his definition of “Disaster” as “a serious and sustained disruption of land, animals and people’s normal life patterns.” Carol Proudfoot Edgar instructed us that we are being taught by the sites. We are students, novices. “Listen. Read the signs.” Watch for omens. Remember we are walking with the spirits and we are walking between the worlds. Shamans have always done world-renewal ceremonies.
If the world is a hologram, and we can renew one small spot, we renew the entire world. “Correct” shamanic behavior might not be possible. We must be flexible. Our “mistakes” are perhaps our own borders—have no fear.
We reviewed some ethical considerations as noted in the handbook. It was suggested to maintain silence in cars while traveling to sites. Remember to maintain focus.We split into our respective small groups. Our group first learned a bit about the San Lorenzo River, since we would start our physical on-site work there. This river starts at 2400’ in the mountains and cascades down to 600’ in Santa Cruz. There was a flood in 1955, after which retaining walls were built to prevent further flooding. Walls failed in 1982 and another flood impacted area. Gyan instructed us that the river used to flow along Pacific Avenue, what is now the main shopping street (the Mall) in town. The river was moved from its original course and forced by humans to run where it runs now. As for the downtown area, we would be very close to the epicenter of the 1989 Earthquake, and one lot on the Mall of Pacific Ave. remains empty, allowing people to see remains of the quake. The town has a history of violence and the population fluctuates. There was a riot on May 1 of this year, blamed on the anarchists. May 1 started peacefully as a May Day celebration. By the end of the riot, 19 stores were damaged. There are homeless, street musicians and artists, high-end retail stores and glitzy restaurants all along the same street. A clocktower was built at the end of the street, with a fountain under it. Here on the anniversary of the ’89 earthquake, they stop the clock at 5:04 and remember each year.
We discussed a common intention: the visit the site and be, to listen. To assess and collect ideas. To tend. To gain info for the remote healing we would do the next day. We noted the use of “praying, healing, and tending.”
We did an individual journey to our destination, with the intent that we were coming to listen and help. Some responses from this journey: “Remember your own skills.” “At the river, encompass ourselves with power and call on the 4 directions, remembering the Sacred Center, and the Great Horizon encompasses us in all directions.” The image of the bridge over the river came up for a few of us. There was energy flowing down from the mountains and energy going up the river. “The river is a guardian spirit of Santa Cruz.” One member received a song for the area:
“Love, Acceptance, Authenticity (x2), Peace, Justice, Harmony.”
One member of our group was ill, so before we drove in silence to the site, we encircled her and let our drums and rattles do a healing for her.
During the drive, one of us really noted the number of hospitals, the breast cancer center, the urgent care centers, the car washes, the used car lots and gas stations…health and living through movement/locomotion.
At the riverbank, we called in the directions. The previous night, we had each chosen a direction to call in for the entire SSP group. In our small group, we had at least one representative from each of the 6 directions. As we were calling in, Crow flew by and was communicating with us. At least 3 of us work with Crow regularly. We sang the song (Love Acceptance…). We felt tendrils of energy. We walked down to the river’s edge. Some interacted with the water. Here, one of us felt the weight of the people’s despair and inconvenience/nuisance from the river. Another felt that the bridge over the river seemed to be stopping proper energetic flow, and it couldn’t arc over the re-route. Another felt like the river wasn’t able to move quite as fast as it wants to. He felt strongly that he should pay attention to the edges, the energy where the river meets the bank was important, even if it makes us feel uncomfortable.
We walked en masse to the Mall, Pacific Avenue. We felt the tension between the southern part of the street (poor) and the northern part (affluent). As we walked down the Mall, we noticed in silence our individual impressions: tension, the façade of community, a huge disconnect, shaky foundations (for relations), and “lipstick” treatment of the area. The surface looked pretty, but the facades, the makeup couldn’t cover up the troubled energies. One of us had walked the Mall countless times before, but had never felt safe enough to do so without armour until this day. He felt a “dead zone” on the Mall, as if there were no earth beneath the concrete, due to drugs, disconnection. Another felt it was “schizophrenic” pulling in different directions, like a “patchwork quilt of energy;” it felt like a tired street. In one place there was almost a violent scene, then down the block was a student trying to save whales. Another felt anxiety and chaos. She also noted that there was more resistance in the high-end retail area than in the area that had experienced the riot, as if there was more investment in remaining separate. Another described it as feeling “mini-wars” along the mall, and she witnessed an altercation, then drugs. Then she saw a street-art tree made of wires and beads and it made her smile. Another noted the young people trying so hard to be different yet accepted at the same time. Finally, one of us was struck by nausea at one area on the Mall, receiving an image from under the concrete that looked like a hole, a pit of heavy energy. He stopped, grounded, and sent energy through himself as a hollow bone to allow for whatever healing was needed. After this, and walking a few yards away, the feeling left him.
All 12 of us were still together as we made our way to the one empty lot on the Mall. It was roped off, and tarps covered our view from the Mall, so we walked back behind it and could see the twisted earth, the drop-off from the street level, the trash, and the grass and weeds growing there. We started drumming/rattling, one of us smudged the border of the lot and each of us with sage. Several of us went into a healing-witnessing of the lot. Impressions were: “Amazing.” “Spirits did work at the pit of soup of negative energy, changed it to heart and it lightened.” The energy shift was easy to feel when we were together. One of us felt like she needed to give back to the lot. She left a river rock there. Another was off to the side and she touched a bush there. The bush grabbed her bracelet and took it off her wrist so it fell to the ground. It gave her the impression that it wanted a daily offering. She thanked the bush for holding the beauty at the edge, the place surrounding the wound needs attention, too. Another saw the cosmetic re-build over the turmoil, loss, anguish, and fear, without thought of rebuilding the land itself. He received the message not to build on this empty lot yet. Another took out a buzzard feather and wrote the words to our Love, Acceptance song in the air and on the ground at the lot.
After drumming, we shared a bit, verbally here. Then we walked to the clock tower, which felt much lighter than the Mall, the lot, or the river had felt. All of us felt there was good energy at the tower. We split up to do individual work for an hour, and when we met back at the tower, we were in the middle of a demonstration against BP for the Gulf oil spill. Young women were making and holding up posters that asked drivers to honk if they wanted to express their displeasure with BP (not in such nice words). Two of our group were involved, either holding a sign as traffic drove by, or chatting with some of the women who were making signs. We walked back to the cars via the river, enjoying it for its beauty and enjoying the pedestrian path that meanders alongside it. Two bikers commented in frustration that we were “not looking both ways” and that we “weren’t the only ones here.” We good-naturedly stepped out of their path, one of us commenting, “But we’re looking both up and down!”
We returned to Kennolyn and each had brought back a river stone and something from the Mall area. Several of us also brought river water. While we all drummed/rattled softly, we built an altar recreating our area, with the riverstones and water put into a bowl to symbolize the San Lorenzo, and various leaves, trash, recycling that we had found on the Mall. There was one piece of art purchased: the wire-and-bead twisted tree from a street vendor was also placed as part of the altar. We each shared in depth about our personal experiences during the hour and our impressions, or what the land/river showed us:
— “It took a tribe to go together” to this place in this sacred manner
— The re-walking of the same location was much easier, more peaceful
— Upon talking with the river, she said, “I was meant to be a shelter, a place of life where people and animals could drink from me. Today the people ignore me. But the homeless people bathe themselves in me.” The homeless make it possible for the river to be a shelter still. “Drink from me,” she instructed.
“I can’t—it’s unclean to my body.”
“Then drink spiritually,” instructed the river.
Upon returning to the clock tower area, there was a monument off to the side entitled, “Collateral Damage” honoring all of the civilians who had been killed in all wars. The sculpted image depicts anguish and struck deeply. All wars are divisive. This practitioner drummed and sang until a stranger came up and asked her, “Are you Christine?”
“No.” Then the BP protesters started to gather in the same area, one woman with a toddler who liked the drum. The practitioner let the toddler play with the drum. Next a pit bull and his owner came up, telling her that the pit bull “really likes drumming circles.” This practitioner drummed a soundtrack for the background of the BP demonstration. A song came in which she sang, “I’m in anguish, I’m in anger, heal my heart.” There was surprise in this overall experience for her.
— Another practitioner witnessed the communal effect of the anti-BP demonstration
— “It was easy to feel the energy shift when we were together. I felt lighter returning together. We were all in the circle even when we were alone.”
—One practitioner continued past the clock tower, away from the Mall and ended up in a run-down trailer park. It was hard to believe anyone lived there. A not-quite homeless man spoke with her about wars. She had to buy the artistic twisted-wire tree, and she enjoyed the guy who sold it to her.
Upon revisiting the river, one practitioner noted ducks, a great heron, and minnows. She was instructed to transfigure at the shore of the San Lorenzo and carry that light as she re-walked the Mall. The river showed her that the re-routing was like a sexual assault on the river.
We ended our group session after sharing, and re-gathered in the morning, fresh, to do remote work on the same site. We started with a journey: What needs tending today? We received both personal and group instruction, and from there pieced together a ceremony that included all of the group work, plus time for individuals to do what they were instructed to do.
The ceremony went as follows: We all drummed or rattled softly, holding the circle. We each, in turn, took 3 spiritual drinks from the “river” on our altar. The first for the river herself, the second for the downtown area, and the third for whatever we needed. The entire group infused the energy needed to solidify the disrupted engineering lines of energy that crossed the river at the bridge, then we all walked around the altar together, re-creating our walk from the day before. We returned to a circle-form and this was when individuals journeyed or did what they were guided to do by the spirits. At some point during this time, each person touched the water from the river and self-baptized (if they hadn’t paused to do this on the walk or while drinking spiritually). We then all ended toning, bringing light to the area, with special consideration for the area between the land and what has been built on top of it. The toning started quietly, gently, then as more of us joined in, it grew strong and sure, full of beautiful harmonics.
The next day we decided as a group to “meet” and revisit our site remotely once per month on the full moon. The scribe agreed to remind people, and via the email list, we could all communicate our journeys/info. For June, July, and August, we will work with this site. We take requests for future sites starting in September, and one of our group has already suggested San Diego. The June full moon is three weeks from the date we were last physically in circle.
Love Creek Shamanic Practitioners Group Report
Love Creek Group Participants: Barbara Dose, Cecile Carson / Leader, Cheryl Ban, Gisela Ko, Maila Davenport, Phyllis Andrews, Robert “Han” Bishop, Susie Mader
The profound healing work described below occurred during the 2010 Society of Shamanic Practitioners Conference in Santa Cruz County, California (June 3-6).
We began our work at an overall meeting on Fri morning (June 4). Carol Proudfoot-Edgar introduced us to the work we would be doing altogether in the practice of “Shamanism without Borders”, and each of the conference participants was assigned to a group.
Our group was assigned to the Love Creek area, where a powerful mudslide occurred in 1982 destroying many homes and killing ten people, including two children.
We learned later how important our work was, since every year, landslides cause more destruction and death on earth than all other forms of natural disaster combined.
During our first meeting, we introduced ourselves only by name, and which of our spirit animal allies was with us for the work at hand. Two members of the group indicated that Snake showed up, and the significance of that only became known after our visit to the site itself.
We then engaged a group drumming remote journey to the site itself, to see what we could learn individually and collectively about the shamanic healing work needed there.
While there were differences in the information each of us received from Spirit during the journey, the theme was similar overall.
Collectively we “got”:
• That the land itself at Love Creek was doing fine, but would welcome us as “walkers between the worlds” to come there to help heal and release the human energy of grief still hanging on in this place. We were also asked to rebalance the corridor of power of Love Creek that was still disrupted by this grief
• Psychopomp activity was needed there as human spirits were still present, needing to be released so they could move on. We felt that most likely these were spirits of the two young children who died in the tragedy.
• We were also going there to learn from the land and the living beings that are part of this place, most importantly the Spirits of the Great Trees.
• Each of us had work to do at the site individually and collectively as part of the group.
• We were going there, not only to do healing work, but to celebrate the land, and our connection to Mother Earth.
After having lunch together along the way, we traveled by car (four of us in each of two cars) to the site. At the Love Creek Memorial Site, Forget-Me-Nots were blooming. We took some time to move about, finding places where each of us was moved to do our individual healing work. One member found that the group energy grounded her so that she didn’t feel she had to do it all alone. Another found the spirits of loved ones who had survived the mudslide and died years later, but were still attached through grief to the site. She did psychopomp work for them. Another did psychopomp work for the 2 children who had died in the mudslide, but seemed still to be held there by the grief of the survivors
Later we reconvened all together at the main memorial site where a large cross and a large toy box had been placed to commemorate the tragedy, especially the loss of lives of the two children. There we connected with our own divinity, singing and dancing within the Love Creek Corridor of Power.
We ended with a ceremony of release and celebration, singing our praise and gratitude to Mother Earth. Many butterflies (symbols of transformation) came around us, and near the end of our singing, one landed on a member’s arm, staying for a while.
The following day (Sat, June 5) we again met as a small group to discuss what had occurred for each of us, and to create a report that the group scribe could convey in a meeting of all conference attendees later in the day.
We began our meeting with a drumming journey to visit the site again remotely, to see if there was more work we needed to do. One of the questions we had of Spirit was the significance of Snake, since during the individual work at the site, one member of our group encountered a coiled artificial snake placed in the middle of a road, seemingly as some sort of warning we needed to heed and convey to others. We ended our gathering with keening as a group to further release grief from the Love Creek area
In summary, we “got”:
• That indeed, as a group, we had completed the healing necessary at this time.
• That we had helped the spirits of the children and some loved ones who died later (but whose spirits were still remaining) to move on.
• That the great trees wanted us to call upon them as Allies in any future work we do individually or collectively for the sake of Mother Earth.
• That Snake (especially the constrictor type) was a the symbol of the mudslide itself moving swiftly along the path of least resistance and crushing that which gets in it’s way. The Snake is also a symbol of transformation: It is time for mankind to regain a true connection to the Earth, and to respect her places of movement by not building where such movements inevitably occur.
• That part of our work individually going forward is to communicate to others what we have learned practically about the dangers of landslides, and building in places where humankind should not.
• That the Spirits of Love Creek wanted us to follow up, continuing the healing process, and helping facilitate further clean up of the human trash left behind from the mudslide…
All in all, it was a most powerful healing and learning experience for each of us in the Love Creek Group.