shamanism

The Emerald – ND #143

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Sky Bridge (to our ancestors?) – Photo: L. Weikel

The Emerald

It’s been almost exactly two months since I discovered a podcast that I’m excited to share with you. It’s a wonderful respite from my usual fare, which runs the gamut of legal analysis of current affairs and politics to astrology. Instead of any of those topics, The Emerald covers subjects that make me smile and nod, and occasionally gasp at the resonance with what I know in my heart to be true.

I took a podcasting course two years ago, and then re-took it again this past fall. No, I haven’t been holding out on you. The idea remains, but finding the internal bandwidth to create it on a consistent basis eludes me. For now, anyway.

But the course itself was wonderful, both technically and in the fact that it introduced me to a cadre of people I never would’ve met had we not shared the aspiration to give literal voice to our passions. I hung out in a couple of groups self-selected for our shared interests, and it was in one of those that I received a recommendation to check out The Emerald Podcast.

An Irony

In spite of the fact that I took a podcasting course – twice, no less –I actually listened to very, very few, especially at the time. I don’t want to spend my time in nature with AirPods in my ears. I still resist shutting out the voices of the wind and birds, the stomping of deer hooves and accompanying snorts, the songs of the peepers, tree frogs, crickets and locusts. (Yes, I was surprised the other day to hear locusts so early in the summer.)

I listen to more podcasts now, though I still find myself only listening part-way to a lot of them. The Emerald, though, is different. The creator, Joshua Michael Schrei, has both a delivery and depth of knowledge that I respect, enjoy, and am inspired by.

Yearning to Share

A real plus for me has been the fact that I discovered The Emerald only recently – but it began back in 2019. So I have four years’ worth of episodes I’ve been slowly working my way through, savoring them bit by bit.

But the episode that captured my attention and engendered my devotion was this one: Animism is Normative Consciousness. It’s a rebroadcast (May 9, 2023) of one of his earlier episodes. I’m not entirely sure what possessed him to go back and add to it, apparently tweaking it from its original broadcast (which I believe I’m only an episode or two away from reaching). But as it happens, the remastered episode landed in my email inbox on May 9th of this year and its title kept nagging at me until I surrendered. All I can say is that, when I finally listened, it made my heart beat a little faster and all my cells sing, “Yes!”

So, my friends. I want the opportunity to make your hearts sing in exclamation, too. Give this a try. You’ll catch your breath and know the truth of what you’re hearing. And hopefully, you’ll understand why I’ve been yearning to share this with you.

ND #143

Unexpected Opportunity – Day 528

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 4 Comments
Last Night’s New Moon/Lyrid Night Sky – Photo: L. Weikel

Unexpected Opportunity

When I woke up this morning, I never guessed I’d be presented with such an unexpected opportunity. But there it was – a text message, asking if I would be willing to be interviewed for a segment on ‘Spirituality in the Time of Covid-19.’

The sheer fact that I was given the chance to voice my perspective is surprising enough. But on KYW Newsradio? (Yes, all of you from the tristate area surrounding Philadelphia, say the jingle aloud with me:  “KYW, Newsradio…1060!”)

Nope. I have to admit it; I didn’t see that coming.

But when I received that text message this morning, I immediately flashed to the fact that today is the new moon. New beginnings. A perfect time for planting the seeds of what we want to create in the future.

My Passion

I love the world that has opened up for me over the past 35 years through my studies of, and experiences in, shamanism. Embracing my relationship with Mother Earth and the interconnectedness of all beings, and exploring the different realms that exist around us, changed the course of my life.

My passion for this perspective on life and my direct experience of astonishing shifts in both my relationship to life as well as those of my family, friends, and clients, strikes a chord in me that is difficult to shush once you get me going.

Pretty Low Key

Nevertheless, overall, I think I come across to most people as pretty low key when it comes to my relationship with ‘the spiritual realm.’ I don’t shout from the rooftop the nature of my work. I don’t try to persuade people to ‘believe’ anything in particular. But I do love introducing people to our inherent ability as humans to access information from and establish relationships with unseen forces and archetypal presences that want us to remember and recognize that they have sentience.

Whew. That was saying a lot. Luckily, I didn’t wax quite so rhapsodic in my interview.

Speaking Out

Given that I tend to mostly only speak of this passion to my family, friends, and clients (and to those of you who care enough to read this blog), I have to admit, when I was invited to participate in the interview today, my first inclination was to say no.

But I do try to ‘walk my talk.’ And given everything I’ve been writing about lately, the choice seemed clear and unequivocal – even if it did make me really nervous.

So I just wanted to let you all know that I planted the seed of one of my intentions today. And I’m so incredibly grateful for the unexpected opportunity to do so.

I hope you planted some as well.

Maybe you’ll catch the segment if you tune in tomorrow.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-583)

Take a Chance – Day Fifty Four

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Take a Chance

You never know how a day is going to turn out.

I’d expressed an interest in attending a program tonight in NYC several weeks ago, and then forgot about it.

The Rubin Museum is an absolute treasure. I’ve been to several programs there and every single one has been well worth the trip.

The program that was scheduled for tonight at the Rubin was Altai Kai – a world-renowned throat-singing ensemble from the Altai region of Siberia. If you’re not familiar with throat-singing, it is hard to describe with words. Similar to shamanism, you have to experience it to truly appreciate it.

Indeed, hearing throat singing for the very first time caused me to spontaneously burst into tears. Not because I was offended or frightened by what I heard emanating from my car’s speakers but because it reached right into the center of my chest and pierced my heart. It spoke to me in a way I’d never experienced music before. And that extremely unexpected occurrence sealed my fate of actually taking a trip to the former Republic of Tuva (now a part of Russia) in 2003.

And that trip ended up being my literal and completely unexpected initiation into shamanism.

But that’s a story for another day. Suffice it to say, though, throat-singing is near and dear to my heart.

So I’d tossed out the idea to Karl that we might want to attend this concert tonight and we’d agreed it might be fun. And then we just put it on the back burner. Wait and see.

Yesterday, we suddenly remembered that this was a possibility. I contacted the Rubin and almost bought the tickets – but had the possibility of a session with a client today and didn’t want to make plans that might have to be canceled. So I held off.

Turned out that the session never took place today, so I logged on to order the tickets and – you guessed it – they were sold out.

We were so bummed out. Checking further on the website, I could see they had a process for a waiting list – but you had to sign up for it in person – and not a moment before 5:00 p.m. (the concert started at 7:00). And then you had to show up again at 6:50 p.m., again in person, to see if you were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to buy some tickets at the last minute.

Why Not?

After only a moment, we just looked at each other and said, “Why not?”

So we took a risk. We threw caution to the wind and left for NYC at 3:00 p.m. Wow, we made fantastic time. In fact, we got to the Museum at 4:45 – and they wouldn’t let us sign up for the wait list literally until the stroke of 5:00!

We grabbed a quick dinner and made our way back to The Rubin.

Didn’t we see my niece and nephew (who’d introduced us to the magic of The Rubin to begin with) sitting at a table in the lobby? They, too, had put themselves on the waiting list and were hoping to have their name called at 6:50. (I guess procrastination might run a tad in my family?)

We hadn’t even realized the other would be there – and neither of us had contacted the other because we knew we hadn’t been able to buy tickets ahead of time.

Turned out all four of us got in! And it was a great concert. Just…amazing.

I hope you enjoy the taste of the Altai Kai, above.

And next time you have a chance to take a chance? Do it.

(T-1057)

Where are the Close Encounters Now? – Day Forty One

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Where are the Close Encounters Now?

We just finished watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I remember watching it at a movie theater when it came out. As we watched it tonight, I was transported back to the days when I was in college, and then first married.

Watching that movie in 2018 yet remembering what it was like to live in 1977, I was shocked. Yes, our computers are light-years beyond what we had at our fingertips back then. And yes, today there would probably be just as many women as men scientists involved in such a rendezvous (let’s hope).

But I was stunned to consider just how precious little we seem to have succeeded in exploring more deeply into space on a personal level in the past 41 years.

Think of it – forty one years! Shouldn’t we be at least communicating and establishing relationships with other civilizations by now? Or have a base on Mars or Venus or both?

We landed a human on the moon in 1969. I was ten years old.

When my mother was ten years old, in 1927, Lindbergh flew across the ocean.

Forty Two Years

There were only 42 years between having the technology to fly across the ocean and having the technology to not only fly to the moon, but also successfully land on it, and return to tell about it!

So, really –  it makes me question just what the heck we’ve been doing these past 42 years. It seems we’ve lost our way. Our curiosity as a country appears to have lost its focus on great scientific innovation and exploration of the natural world, in particular the universe (and multiverse), and turned instead to navel gazing and wondering how we can exploit the Earth most effectively to earn a small amount of people more money than they could ever imagine spending.

I know innovative research is still taking place. But I also know that there seems to be a lack of communal vision of working toward new horizons. Not to conquer, but to discover. Not to exploit, but to explore.

Is it just me, or were you hoping we’d be way further along the road to astonishing new discoveries, vistas, and opportunities by now?

Then again, I have my experiences of living my now to compare to the ‘reality’ depicted of every day life in the U.S. in 1977 (based upon the movie). They made fun of parapsychology in the movie. I have my degree in Psychology and made the mistake of mentioning parapsychology to the grad student I was a research assistant for as an undergrad. She ripped my head off when I even mentioned the word ‘parapsychology’ (and my interest in it).

And yet…look at me now. What I do. My education level. How I am of service to others.

Are the shamanic journeys I’ve learned to take the actual mode of exploration that’s going to shift the evolution of our world? Not what I would have thought, but think of the possibilities of uniting science and shamanism.

(T-1070)