The winds whirled wildly around the ancient stones, howling as the black storm clouds rolled in across the mountains. Darkness was approaching but not complete, not yet. The thick clouds were obliterating the divisions between night and day; this was a time of the in-between. A powerful time when the veil between worlds is as light and transparent as gossamer.

A solitary figure slowly approached the circle of stones. His footsteps were uneven as he fought frantically with the soggy marshland beneath his feet. With each step the marsh tried to suck him down, to deter him from his purpose and to prevent him from reaching the sacred stones. The Heavens opened and hail poured down, hail so small and hard that it stung on contact with his body. The figure wrapped himself ever more tightly in his coat, determined to continue. The ache, the pain and desire welled up within him, he could wait no longer. He wanted her more than life itself. It had to be done now, while the portents and planets were powerful, or he would have to wait for another lifetime. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, adding to the urgency.

Finally, he reached the first of the outlying stones. Leaning against it, he paused to get his breath, as the wind whipped the very air from his lungs. He swore at the elements trying to defeat him; not this time. He needed to be whole. The words of his incantation were lost as thunder roared overhead and echoed around the valley. Falling to his knees in the lee of the stone, into a small depression in the ground, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the items he had brought for this task. With his bare hands he scraped away at the waterlogged soil. The grass cut at his hands, making them bleed, and the mud stuck painfully under his fingernails. Within the small hole he placed the offerings and, as he pushed them down, the marsh responded, sucking them deeper. Leaning back on his heels, the figure raised his head, looking, searching, for something or someone.

Prologue

It had rained for an entire moon-tide and the small stream was spilling its banks, the reedy shore laid flat by the weight of constant downpours. But at last the sun was shining. The children rushed out of doors as soon as breakfast was over, pulled equally by the warm sunlight and the exciting prospect of puddles.

Ethne carried wooden bowls and cups from the morning meal in a large willow basket, to clean them in the surging waters. As she plucked rushes for scouring she reflected on what she and Ruadh had created together in the wilderness. She was older now, and crouching on the muddy bank to clean cups and dishes was becoming hard on her knees, but she still enjoyed seeing to the details of daily life in the Forest School. Her every waking moment was spent in passing on and preserving the ancient teachings, as much for the benefit of future generations as to honor those who had gone before. The Druid might no longer hold the status they once did, but at least Ethne could be sure she was doing everything in her power to preserve the ancient ways. She was satisfied that her life was fulfilling its purpose.

When the dishes were scrubbed, rinsed and stacked neatly in the basket to dry, Ethne clapped her hands to get the children’s attention;

“Who wants to take a walk and look for a “day sign”?

“We do!” came the chorused answer from stained, muddy faces.

Walking out in search of a day sign was a favorite activity of the youngest students because once they saw something significant; a raven, a deer, a pool, a rainbow, or any other natural feature that called attention to itself, Ethne would weave them a story.

On this day they trooped towards a small river that wound its way through the forest. The rains had left it murky and swollen and it was hard to calculate the depth of the waters.

“Let’s sit by the river bank and see what creature or object calls our attention” Ethne said.

The children arranged themselves around her like a tribe of goslings nestling against their mother and Druid-trained, kept their silence. Ethne had taught them that to experience nature directly is the quickest and surest way to discover Truth, for nature cares not what a person’s station in life might be, nor for wealth and possessions. Nature cares little if one is pauper or king, male or female. Nature just is and until you can see something reflected in nature it simply isn’t true.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a bright flash and a slap of water and then by rings of ripples edging towards shore. A moment later there was a second flash and another arc of silver against the sunlight.

“It’s the salmon!” the children shrieked.

“The Salmon of Wisdom” Ethne corrected, smiling, “see how they leap with ease between the worlds?”
Reprinted with permission from the author.

When I visited Ireland a few years ago, I was privileged to meet followers of the ancient Irish Druid tradition. They called themselves “Forest Druids” and soon told me that I was one of them, based on my Druid studies, my work with the trees and my book Tree Medicine-Tree Magic (Phoenix Publishing Inc, 1991). Forest Druids are working to reconstruct the ancient woods wisdom of Ireland, and to pass it down to future generations.

The Forest Druids told me the story of their past, and why it is so important to keep their woods wisdom alive today. According to them, until the Elizabethan era most of Ireland was covered with a vast Oak forest. The native peoples depended upon trees for fuel, shelter, medicine, furniture, household implements, weapons, and food. The trees were also a focus for spiritual teachings and rituals. The wisdom keepers of the tribes were the Forest Druids (as opposed to the ancient aristocratic Druids who served courts and kings) who kept the ancient tree wisdom and lore in their heads, and passed it down through the generations.

Queen Elizabeth I sent troops into Ireland with orders to cut down the trees. She was terrified that the Irish would ally with Catholic Spain and attack England and she knew that by removing the trees the English would have a military advantage because they would be able see any troops that were massing. The English used the wood to build ships to face the Spanish armada and once the trees were gone, parceled out the cleared lands to English lords so they could create “plantations.”

The process of cutting down the forests took about four years and many of the native people suddenly had nowhere to live or hunt for food and so were declared “poachers.” A bounty was put on the head of any “poacher,” who could be legally shot while seeking food. Almost half of the native people of that time were unbaptized, i.e. still Pagan, living by their wits and the ancient woods wisdom.

I was in County Cork attending a Summer Solstice ritual where part of the ritual was for everyone to “jump the flames.” Tradition states that it is very lucky to jump over a sacred fire on one of the holy days of the Celts. A Forest Druid who was present fell into the fire and an ember became embedded in the flesh of his knee. He was badly burned.

I had a jar of my tree salve with me, made from Horse Chestnuts, Walnut hulls, Comfrey, Calendula, Lavender, beeswax and olive oil. I told him to apply it to the burn. He later wrote to tell me that the burn healed in a week and he never saw a doctor.

The Ogham Alphabet

A vital bit of tree lore that has been handed down through the centuries is the “Tree Alphabet.” The ancient Scots, Irish, and other Celtic peoples did not use the A-B-C alphabet that we use today. They had their own script called “Ogham” which was both a type of sign language and a written alphabet. Ogham originally had four groups of symbols, of five letters each. Ogham writing appears to be as old as the second or third centuries CE but written descriptions of it do not appear until medieval times when literacy became widespread courtesy of the Christian scriptoria. Before that, knowledge of it was part of the oral tradition.

Ogham was not used to write books, it was used on commemorative stones such as burial markers. It was also used for magic; an Ogham spell could be written on a scrap of tree bark and placed in the way of an approaching army, which would stop them in their tracks. The Druids and ancient Irish knew other alphabets such as the Greek alphabet, which they used to tally merchants goods and for other mundane functions. But they preferred to keep truly sacred things in the oral tradition, to preserve them.

According to the “Ogam Tract” in the late fourteenth century Book of Ballymote, there were other alphabets besides the tree alphabet, for example “Mucogam” where the characters were named for five different kinds of pigs of different color. There was “Daenogam” where each group of five letters was a list of heroes, women (or nobles and clerics), youths and boys. In “Ogham usceach” each Ogham group lists wells, rivers, rivulets and weirs. “Conogam” lists groups of dogs; watch-dogs, greyhounds, herding dogs, and lapdogs. “Damogam” is a list of bulls, oxen, bullocks and steers. “Boogam” is a list of milk cows, strippers, three year old heifers, and yearling heifers. Other Ogham alphabets listed stags (Osogam), weapons (Armogam), boats (Ogam n-eathrach), rivers (Linnogam), fortresses (Dinnogam), birds (Enogam), colors (Dathogam), arts and occupations (Danogam), foods (Biadogam) plants (Lusogam), and many other word lists. There were also Oghams that consisted of whole phrases, and musical notations.

Ogham must have been used by Druids, Bards, and Poets, to communicate with each other in secret, the average person did not memorize these extensive word lists. The medieval Book of Ballymote gives a description of how Ogham was used as sign language; the person signing could use her palm, the ridge of her shinbone or the ridge of her nose to make the characters with her fingers.

Readers may already be familiar with the “Tree Calendar” that has become popular in Neo-Pagan tradition. However, there is no evidence that the Celts ever used the Tree Ogham as a calendar. The tree calendar was the invention of the English poet Robert Graves who claimed to have intuited the evidence….

This excerpt is from A Druid’s Herbal of Sacred Tree Medicine

Reprinted with permission from the author.

That is the beginning of true Goddess Path, for that is the start of claiming yourself as a Daughter of Goddess. It’s something you’ll do every waking minute as you – consciously at first and later more automatically – put aside the choices you would have made in the old paradigm and embrace the sometimes radically different choices that are yours as a Daughter of Goddess. Don’t worry, however, for you are not alone, nor will you ever be as you make these bold statements, these bold choices for there are women out there with you every day who have made the choices and faced the fears and they are your Sisters in Goddess. They are there with a ready hand and a listening ear and many, many cups of hot chocolate to sustain you as you start this journey and toddle with your first baby steps on this new path as a Daughter of Goddess. And as you gain in strength and wisdom, they will also lean on you as another Sister when they know doubt and fear.

This Sisterhood is to me the biggest and the best gift that Goddess gives Her daughters as they make their way home. For this is also part of the paradigm shift; there may be women who teach you, who write books that you learn from, whose words you may drink in like water on a hot day, but these women are not gurus looking for a hold over you or who expect your deference. These women will not be part of some spiritual hierarchy over you and have the power to say that you belong as a Daughter or not. No one can say that. Goddess loves all Her daughters and we are all equal in Her eyes, and that is how we must treat one another as we interact with each other.

From now on, you are free of the spiritual power-over reality and are part of a community of spiritual equals where the only power is the power that comes from within. Don’t put on a pedestal your sisters who have been on the Path longer and are there to offer a helping hand or a wise word or expect to sit and learn at their feet. They don’t want the pedestal, and you are just as capable of a new insight as any of your sisters. Give up your submissive place in the FatherGod spiritual hierarchy and embrace yourself as a capable woman and listen for the voice of Goddess in yourself. It is time to dig deep and learn new ways of thinking so you can get rid of that submissive garbage and be strong in who you are.

We will journey to the Mother together. You will be challenged and you will be required to think for yourself and question and seek answers. Just as a Mother first helps her children get their feet under them as they learn to walk, then as they are stronger lets them run and play and discover their own strengths and weaknesses, so our Mother, the one we have been calling to all this time, will expect us, Her Daughters, to run and play in our freedom and explore our new world and create this new paradigm for ourselves.

Tendrils of musky incense curl about you in Baal’s temple of seven elements. You light an oil lamp in reverence to the ancient deities. Have you ever wondered who were the deities in the land of Canaan before the Bible? A practical and well-documented guide, this work combines history and archaeology of the Canaanite world with modern insight.

Learn about Asherah poles, how to avert the Evil Eye, how ancient sorcerers created golems, and about the legends that inspired the bible. Unearth a culture based in bias, rediscover a pantheon and a people formerly described as excessively violent, sex-crazed, and devoid of humanity. Read of a religion far more rich and complex than previously understood.

Whisper of Stone will guide you through the sandy paths as you learn about Natib Qadish, modern Canaanite religion. The ancient stone gods call…will you answer them?

From Chapter Three: Beliefs and Ethics

Death and Afterlife

Scholars debate the Canaanite concept of afterlife. As seen in the Ugaritic texts, the Canaanites may have had a concept of the afterlife. After a person dies, mourners bury the body with quicklime sprinkled

atop the corpse.13 Motu consumes the corpse after the burial.14 Motu is king of death and the deceased body, but he may or may not reign over the souls of the dead. The vaporous napšu, sometimes identified as the soul, appetite, or ‘breath of life’, separates from the body at death,15 and continues to live on. The separation of napšu from the body transpires through the nostrils.16

Ugaritans referred to the spirits of the deceased, or ‘shades’, as Rapi’ūma.17 Šapšu, Rašpu, or Ba‘lu may rule the souls of the deceased.18 Rašpu, a chthonic deity, is associated with the planet Mars,

burning plague, war, the underworld, and healing.19 This deity opens the gates of the underworld allowing Šapšu to enter at night.20 Šapšu, the sun goddess, makes her journey to the underworld every evening;

the Ugaritans may have viewed sunset as symbolic of life’s end.21 One of Šapšu’s names, Šapšu-Pagri (Šapšu of the Corpse), further solidifies her relationship with living and dying.22 Yarihu, the moon god, may journey to the realm of the deceased by day and serve as a lord in the underworld.23 Ba‘lu travels to the Bētu Huptti, ‘House of Freedom’, when he submits himself to Motu; Šapšu helps Ba‘lu return from the

underworld. In the ancient texts, Šapšu’s companion Katiru-wa-Hasīsu assists Šapšu nightly to slip past Arš, a sea dragon. The living may invite the Rapi’ūma to feasts and drinking gatherings within the context

of a marzihͅu, a group of people gathered to honor them; and with ’Ilu who often invites the Rapi’ūma to share his table.

The Rapi’ūma ride upon chariots through a threshing floor (gurnu) to visit the living or to visit ’Ilu at a feast.24 The threshing floor perhaps suggests the lifecycle of grain as a metaphor for human life and death. In the tale of Aqhat, Dani’ilu and the elders hear the cases of widows and orphans while seated on the threshing floor, further associating the gurnu as a threshold between life and death, decision, and change.25 In daily life, people winnow life-sustaining grain, separating the grain from husk. The winnowed grain can go one of two ways: it can be sown and return to life,26 or it can provide sustenance for the living. In Ugaritic literature, ‘Anatu treats Motu as if he were grain, cutting him down, winnowing him, parching him, grinding him with millstones, then sowing him in the ground.27 The Bētu Huptti may serve as a temporary storeroom, a silo for the souls of the deceased, until such time as they are ‘sown’ –perhaps symbolic of Ba‘lu’s return to life—or so they can provide assistance to the living. The threshing floor acts as a sacred, liminal space demarking the boundary of life and death. I find it symbolic that the biblical Ruth and her husband may have passed a night on a threshing floor.28 However, we do not know exactly what the ancients would have thought of death, and these are my own modern musings.

The name for the underworld that I use here, Bētu Huptti, has mixed meanings. Many scholars see the term not as a name, but as a sarcastic euphemism for the underworld.29 They believe that the Canaanites characterized the underworld as a prison for all souls. Other scholars remain skeptical of this interpretation.30 To me, ‘house of freedom’, implies the spirits are free from toil, free to rest, free to join a marzihͅu drinking rite with the deities, free to share with family and loved ones after death. I see the Bētu Huptti not so much as a spiritual jail, but as a sacred resting place, perhaps as preparation for the next incarnation. We know that Ugaritic royalty are perhaps depicted as having a contented afterlife in the underworld.31

The Canaanites honored the Rapi’ūma with funereal rites and mourning for the recently deceased; a rite requesting the spirits’ assistance; and perhaps marzihͅu social drinking gatherings held in their honor.32 Sometimes the Rapi’ūma are treated like saints because they have abilities and wisdom that the living do not have. Let us now move from discussing spirits to examining the concepts of deities.

Seeing in the Dark demonstrates a practice of integral shamanism along with the strategy and approach for making a difference for oneself and the world. It describes the discipline, tools, and way of living that comprise the extensive body of knowledge used to cultivate non-ordinary awareness and achieve personal freedom. Using journeying, ceremony, psychology, energy movement, and traditional shamanism, the authors provide the inner workings we need to evolve an unhampered clarity and live a life that makes a substantive difference. Seeing the Dark presents a means for connecting to soul and Spirit, and achieving the clarity necessary to express the agenda of one’s soul in the world.

Inner Power: Six Techniques for Increased Energy and Self-Healing is an empowering program of effective, non-traditional, and self-applied techniques for increased energy, self-healing and personal and spiritual growth. This book describes in detail, in an easy to follow step-by-step format, the techniques of Shamanic Journeying Visualization, Self-hypnosis, Energy Movement, Meditation, and Psyche Inventory. Readers will be able to implement this program right away to:

• Manifest health and well-being
• Self-heal from illness
• Reduce stress
• Heal mind, emotions, body and soul
• Increase vital life force energy
• Self-actualize
• Release, heal and gain better understanding of past experiences
• Master emotions
• Re-connect mind, body, & soul

Everything is made of energy, and energy is all around us. So, why do we have so little of it? This book will help you find the answers. Learn about energy, how to cleanse and activate your personal energy field, and how to harness life force energy for dynamic health, vitality, and spiritual awakening. You will learn over 100 simple energy movement visualizations that you can do anytime, anywhere in your busy life, thus transforming any activity into a healing, energizing activity.

The world is changing.

Environmentally, we are seeing increases in the frequency and magnitude of storms.  Earthquakes are prevalent and devastating worldwide.  The ice caps are melting, ocean levels are rising, and more arable land each year either disappears or becomes barren.

Sociologically and culturally, we are seeing an increase in extremes and a shrinking of the middle.  Wealth is concentrating in the hands of the very few and poverty is increasing among the masses.  We are experiencing a social divide in opportunity which further stratifies the division between the haves and have-nots.

Technologically, we have automated ourselves to the point where very few know how to manufacture or produce the vast majority of what we consume.  It is significant that we have a new generation of computer technology every three months, while most of us would be stymied should we be required to manufacture a paper clip from raw materials.

We have also become a species who has lost its inclination for self-determination.  We allow ourselves to be told how to act, what to do, what to want, and even who or what to love.  The mainstream religious practices are fundamentally exclusive, rather than inclusive.  That is, they posit an idea that if you do not believe as they do, your soul will be denied reward of any kind, because theirs is the only way.

In essence we are a tribal species who have just enough out-of-control technology and little enough wisdom so that we are capable of doing some real damage.

And we are.

So, in the midst of devastating change, what can we do?  Well, if the world trend is to isolate and become more dependent on a tenuous infrastructure, and that’s not working, perhaps we should consider an alternate point of view.  Maybe the answer is to become more connected, more self-reliant, and unswervingly responsible for ourselves.

What kind of paradigm, model, or philosophy can provide that?  If everything changes, where can we look to find an immutable constant that has weathered the ravages of time?

The answer to that question is Shamanism.  It has even survived evolution.

In 1972, two French archeologists unearthed a 50,000 year old Neanderthal burial site in Southern France.  At this site, called the Hortus site, they found the body of a man wearing a leopard hide, complete with claws and tail.  There were no other leopard bones in the grave.  The only cultural comparison we can see in the archeological or anthropological record is that tribal shamans in certain cultures are known to wear animal capes in their rituals.  They are buried with these magical garments.  It is widely accepted among scientists that the Neanderthal man found at the Hortus site was a shaman.

This and other evidence demonstrates that shamanism has been around since before people were even people.  It outlived the Neanderthal and has flourished for tens of thousands of years to the present day.  If it has been able to survive that long, it must have something of value to offer those who practice it.  Certainly, if shamanism can endure through all the changes of the last 50,000 years and even the death of an entire species, it can help us during these times of change.

The reason shamanism is so effective is that it is a point of view, a lifestyle, rather than a doctrine.  It is experiential in nature and teaches us that we know, on a very fundamental level, who we are and what we need to do to take care of ourselves.  It provides a way of self-examination and natural connection that can help us find our way, even when we are lost or confused.  It is possible to believe anything you want to believe and still be a shaman.  You can embrace any God, prophet, or savior you desire and shamanism will still work for you.  Why?  Because shamanism teaches us how to live in the world, in harmony with all of creation.  Its over-arching tenet is that we are all connected, and because of this we can rely on ourselves to fulfill our destinies.  More than that, we can use the principles of shamanism to do the personal work that will ultimately allow us to choose an alternate course for this world.

Hindu scholars say we are at the lowest point of the darkest age of a repeating cycle that began 12,800 years ago when our summer solstice sun aligned with the Galactic center.  They claim we will begin our ascent back to light when the winter solstice sun aligns with the Galactic center in 2012.  Coincidentally, this is when the famed Mayan calendar ends, and when several of the most prominent modern alchemists in America and France believe the dimensional door will shut, leaving only those on the planet who will continue their spiritual evolution back to the transcendent light.

Guess what?  All of this speculation is nothing more than an abstraction.  None of it matters even one little bit.

What matters is if we can find a way to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others.  Sitting alone in the dark wringing our hands about what is coming only helps to manifest that which we dread.  The key to the coming age is to remain engaged, get out into the world, do substantive work to initiate change, and find those who can pick the necessary agreements to precipitate a new reality.  That is the essence of shamanism.

Before we delve into the techniques associated with engaged shamanism, it is important to think about what it means to be your own shaman.  To become your own shaman entails embarking upon a power path of unveiling and cultivating the sacred and spiritual in your everyday life and in the modern environment and culture in which you currently live.  To effectively utilize the practices of shamanism you do not have to move into the wilderness or desert, don a leopard cape or a feathered headdress.  You do not have to practice someone else’s ceremonies and rituals or pray at their sacred sites.  In fact, this is adamantly discouraged unless you are taught by, and given permission to perform these practices or visit these places from, a reputable person of that culture.

Modern shamanism is not a practice of taking or borrowing someone else’s religion or spiritual beliefs, nor does it involve copying the ways of the Mexican Nagual, the Lakota Medicine Woman, African Dagara Healer, or Peruvian Shaman.  There is no need to imitate.  The practice of shamanism is intimately personal and unique to every individual practitioner.  No places, cultures or peoples own these universal energies or the practices that access them.  Animism, the Web of Life, Spirit, and sacredness are omnipresent; they are everywhere, in everything, and belong to everyone. Your personal home-made Spirit-directed ceremony can be just as effective as a traditional cultural ceremony when practiced with heart, focus, energy, and right intention.  To effectively practice shamanism in our culture and modern environment we need only wake up to our awareness of self, life force energy and Spirit and reap the rich experiences available to us right here, right now, and make a difference in the world around us.

The beauty of shamanism is that it is universal.  The practices and principals can and are being applied around the world in many diverse cultures.  Though shamanic practitioners may choose to learn from teachers of different backgrounds, they must ultimately incorporate their learnings into their own personal practice in their own culture and environment.  Shamanic practices are a gift to all people from Spirit, not only the indigenous people that have bravely risked their lives to keep this powerful way of living alive.  We are all benefactors of this Spirit gift.

Michael Harner, noted luminary and grandfather of the Neo-shamanic movement, notes with great insight that no matter how far we may be removed from our ancestral roots, we are all indigenous people from one place or another on this earth that has or has had shamanic roots.  Shamanism isn’t about doing what the native peoples do exactly like they do it.  It is about connecting with Spirit and one’s self using practices that help one follow a balanced personal path.

No matter what is on the way, no matter what changes, cataclysms, devastation, joy or boredom we must face in the coming age, what happens is for us to determine.  Our destiny and the destiny of the world and its inhabitants are in our hands.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).  Many people come to shamanism to experience this on a personal level.  It is this great contribution of shamanism that it provides us the means to do just that.

Let’s get started.

Morning Prayer to the Four Airts

I give thanks that I have risen again today

and to the great Rising of Life Itself.

As the sun brightens up the sky and earth,

may my soul be bright with gratitude

for all the good things in my life.

May I be generous in sharing these with others.

I give thanks that I have risen again today

and to the great Rising of Life Itself.

As the trees, rivers, animals and everything sing their songs of life,

may my soul sing the song of my heart.

May I sing it gladly whether in joy or in sorrow,

and may it help me find humor and laughter in the day.

I give thanks that I have risen again today

and to the great Rising of Life Itself.

As the sun crosses the sky to where it will set in the west,

may my soul proceed on its journey through life.

May I keep the vision of my life ever before me and may I have

faith that my life has meaning.

I give thanks that I have risen again today

and to the great Rising of Life Itself.

As everything in nature strives to live and survive,

may my soul be strong in its struggles.

May I meet adversity with courage and hope.

I give thanks that I have risen again today

and to the great Rising of Life Itself.

As the earth spreads out from me to the horizon,

may my soul expand to embrace it. May I speak the truth of the land and take responsibility for my life.

~Written by Tom Cowan based on a 19^th century prayer from the Scottish Highlands¹