FULL MOON POEMS AND DRAWINGS

SPIRIT BEAR HEALING

12.24.12

Yakima Peak is wearing its white robe for Xmas

the skies are all undressed in blue

a low sun reflects its psychedelic rainbow

from the A Street sign to my face

this morning I traveled to New York State

I stripped a lady's spirit from her skin

so my Spirit Bear could get in

he's been seeking a place to hibernate in

Egyptian Goddesses at the gate

entrance sealed with jade

12.28.12

Yesterday I had a long session with Gaia.  My morning yoga session with Marilyn Monroe morphed into a tantric dance with Gaia, exchanging energies between my yoni and the yoni of the earth.  It was like lightning between us.  I penetrated into the chthonic realms like never before.  When I went to the coffee shop, I did a drawing.  It shows Gaia's yoni projecting a lightning bolt (Zaza Zam's signature), with an object behind her that I couldn't recognize.  It was so distinct, I pondered about it all day.  Later I saw that it represents one of the four placards I had made to represent the Women of the Four Directions for my Medicine Wheel.  The Women are depicted as Double X chromosomes.  I forgot to scan the image, so I'll add it later.

GAIA

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*     *     *

TIME PASSES

12.26.12

I haven't danced since Fred Dunagan's wedding

drove over from Ellensburg to someplace in West Seattle

how'd I ever find it?  

wearing four shirts and my Redwings, beneath my 4X Serratelli Beaver,

me and some blonde hogged the floor

she never called me back

last time I saw Fred

he'd changed his name to Wilson

and I wasn't Dagaji yet

we got some Eagle feathers beneath the eire in the cliff

parted friends forever, him in New York, me in exile

it's been so long since I've kissed, I lost my whistle

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MY FATHER INDRA

12.27.12

I'm lookin at white guys with clean-shaven faces

Spanish guys, too  -- they look like women

how much time it takes! -- time lost to a social ideal

I'd rather spend my time combing my goldilocks out of my brush

brushing the fungus from my goatee

my goatee inspired by Queen Hapshethut, the Pharaoh 

now that the Hippies are dead, I feel like a Taliban

"Fuck the Earth!  Allah Akbar!" Gaia giggles

she loves em all; Gaia trained my yoni

Gaia makes me horny; Gaia likes Kundalini

Gaia likes my weenie -- Gaia the fellationista,

mother of Humanity, teaching men to walk erect

Homo Erectus ... Gaia Mother of Gods

Gods turning the sods into Sodomites

lunching at Gomorra (famed Nigerblood soup!)

the heart of Africa boiled in my crucible, the Heart of Mankind,

the dark beginning in a field of snakes

my father Indra toast-toasting with the worms of the wormwood,

chugging, chugging the brew to turn on the lights

*     *     *

Yesterday evening I was very depressed.  I was looking for a way out of it.  I reached over my shoulder to turn on the little lamp, and notices a couple of pieces of drawing paper.  So I whipped out a drawing:

LOVE CHILD

Marilyn Monroe makes things lots better, when she's not making them lots worse.

PSYCHIC PORTRAITS

Take a piece of paper, and scribble on it.  Wait until you see images forming from the scribbles, and begin to go over the lines until you have the image.

DEMO PAGE

This is a Surrealist technique, taken from one of my previous incarnations, Leonardo da Vinci.  I began this series of drawings in 1988, at Happy Hour in the Blue Moon Tavern in Seattle's University District.  It's like a Rorschach Test.  What you come up with is a message from your subconscious, which the Surrealists recognized as the Gateway to Alchemical Transformation.  Like Dreams (another Surrealist technique, also used by Carlos Castaneda), these drawings are messages from your Spirit Guides.

If you study the arts of indigenous peoples, you notice that they use distinctive patterns.  The patterns are indigenous to each particular locale.  These are the patterns of the Medicine Energies in each area.  When I used to take LSD, I could see the exact same patterns in the air that I saw in the arts of the Northwest Coast Indians.  But along with those patterns, I also saw other patterns -- like modern cartoon figures or faces.  As I later began this series of drawings, I noticed those same cartoon-like patterns in the scribbles.  The drawings seemed inept and embarrassing, but eventually the subject matter began to make sense, and when I finally entered into Union with my Allies during my Initiation as a Shaman, I saw that I had been doing portraits of my Spirit Guides.  

This continued throughout the Initiation, and I began to see my clients in the drawings, revealing various aspects of their healing process.  Often the Allies would just entertain themselves, telling stories and jokes, but the healing readings were always accurate, even though, as I discovered, I was entering an unknown area of psychic / spiritual information.  It took years to integrate the bits of knowledge and insight that I was gathering into a deeper understanding of the world of Spirit, and the ways in which it shapes every aspect of our reality.

During the recent killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, I returned to this style of drawing.  I had abandoned it during the period when I was forced to 'overcome the Allies'.  Once I had defeated them and regained the autonomy of my spirit, our relationship began to mature and I felt it necessary to resume this work.

One of my first new drawings was "Reynard", a chthonic entity who rules the Montana Flood area of Eastern Washington State.  I made his acquaintance a few years ago up in Ellensburg, and interactions with him and the witches forced me to relocate to Yakima.  Now he has engaged me again, and I am doing research into his ways.

A later drawing came through from Jesus.  He always manifests the fish symbol as here, for his nose, and in this piece he is holding a baby.  "T" was very distinct in the scribble.  It is my boyhood nickname, to insure that I understood he was referring to me.  In addition, he added the small lightning bolt at the top, referring to the spirit name given to me during my Initiation, "Zaza Zam" (the Lightning Man).  These drawings are training in using and trusting your intuition.

Marilyn Monroe gave me more drawings, this one with some ambiguity involved, in relation to the shootings... but she can be counted on to make things interesting!

And Jesus gave me the definitive image to denote his involvement with the massacre.  After Marilyn Monroe caused the earthquake which precipitated the Phuket Island Tsunami in 2004 (today is the eighth anniversary!), Jesus took me there to observe him at work gathering the departed souls.  It was obvious this is a feasting occasion for the spirits.  This is the underlying cause of such disasters and massacres.  The spirits feast on the soul and blood energies (human sacrifice) and the emotional outrage and fear of the masses.  He appeared to me then as a shark, with a shark's swiftness, fierceness, and voraciousness.

The signature on these pieces refers to the fact that, until recently, I was always stoned on marijuana.  I added the J. for numerological reasons.

TODAY'S HYPNOPOMP

A giant red spider being eaten by a fat yellow cat.

SHAMANIC ASANAS

Concentration Breath

Description:   A deepening of Ujjayi Breath, bringing more force to the vibration in the throat; forming a direct channel through the throat; a feeling of coolness, opening directly into the area of the heart and central chest, behind the sternum; a discernible hisssss deep in the throat, descending into the esophagus;

Preparation:  Feel the coolness of the air as it passes through the first flesh of the nostrils.  Open the upper nasal area, to feel the coolness there.  Lift the back of the upper mouth where it joins the throat, to feel the coolness there, and to open the upper throat.  Force an inhale through the frontal nasal passage, until it vibrates noisily, then accentuate the noisiness as you inhale more strongly and more deeply, continuing louder into the area of the brain.  “Ssssnn00000RRRFF”!  This is called the ‘snorf’.  It is a Stalking maneuver designed to open the personality and relieve inhibitions.  The Concentration Breath occurs at a level beyond inhibition.

Execution:  Upon first entering into an asana, there is a period of exertion, during which the breath is working to bring the body into alignment with the brain, or Intent.  At a certain point, the brain releases its exertion, and the breath is available for a deeper concentration.  The body continues to accommodate itself to the details of the posture, the personality re-emerges, and conscious will can focus more deeply into the breathing.  Opening into the Concentration Breath shifts the energy into a more unified state, with body and brain linked to the will of the person.  Vision occurs at this point, and it is possible to See into the workings of the muscles as the breath begins to penetrate and link with the energy fields of the muscles.  This vision can extend to all areas of the physical body as the breath penetrates.  At that point the Concentration Breath becomes the Penetration Breath.  This is where the foundation of the Shamanic begins to coalesce.  Spirit begins to take up residence in the flesh in a new way.

Anga Banga

Background:  The fundamental aspect of yogasana is the duality of expansion and contraction; flexion and extension; agonist, antagonist; inhale and exhale; tension and relaxation.  The attitude and personality of the practitioner is the fulcrum upon which these polarities are balanced.  In order to achieve the state of fluidity in mindfulness, these opposites can be controlled to cancel each other out in a state of neutrality, or dynamic tension (“Tensegrity”), where contraction is equal to expansion in the dance of agonist/antagonist engagement and release.  At a certain level of intensity, there is a fiery energy which can be moved throughout the physical body like a spotlight searching a crowd.  This is the mind.  This fire is brought to life by the energy of the Concentration Breath as it penetrates deep into the flesh to the level where flesh is spirit.  This is the Shamanic level.

The intensity of this fire was spoken of in an interview in Yoga Journal some years ago as “anga banga”, or ‘not so good’.  The spirit teachers, however, insist on it.  In the intensity of this burning energy, the spirits are able to fuse themselves into the flesh of the practitioner.  This is the Shamanic level.

Chi Mudra

Chi Mudra develops in the fires of Anga Banga.  The mind of the body, or of the spirits, replaces the mind of the practitioner, inducing a purely spontaneous motion dictated only by the differential between the energies of adjoining muscle groups.  The body is forced into a deliberate, slow flow from engagement to disengagement in response to the needs of the muscles for the energies of the fires.  The feeling of the practitioner is one of exhilaration as the mind releases into pure enjoyment.  As the energy begins to penetrate and open the subtle energy systems of the chakras and the connectors between them, and spirit opens to participation in the dance, the energies become the energies of Tantra.

ASANAS

Tadasana

Any asana can be a Shamanic Asana, once the practitioner accomplishes the Concentration Breath.  Tadasana is a good one to demonstrate several principles of Shamanic engagement in the asanas.

Begin in normal Tadasana, feet hip width apart, body balanced and erect.  Once the mind and breath have settled into the asana, shift into the Concentration Breath and begin to focus directly into the breathing.  Let the eyes close gently.  Concentrate on maintaining balance as you focus the breathing through the various parts of the body.  You will see that each part needs to form a fluid alignment with the rest of the body, as the energy begins to swim in and out with the breathing.  Let the Concentration Breath force the pelvis into separation, so that the weight settles.  Let the feet widen, and toes open to grip the mat.  Let spine and shoulders shift and open as they will, letting the neck support the head in different ways.  Once you are loose and balanced, bring the feet together so that the skin of each foot feels the skin of the other.  This sensation of touch brings the Mental Body into engagement at the level of ‘rasa’, or ‘juice joy’.  The sensuality of the body brings the spirits to life!  (Tantra)

With the eyes closed, the balance is like music.  With the feet together, the entire body must refocus, and realign its relation with the rest of the body in this music.  The weight of each part of the skeleton will follow the Concentration Breath, allowing the skeleton to sing along with a moving melody of flowing energies.

Move the Concentration Breath to the spine, and bring all your faculties to the Atlas and Medulla Oblongata.  This is where the Causal Chakra is located.  (See “Thirteen Chakra System”.)  From a state of floating relaxation, begin to bring energy up the spine to the Causal Chakra, gradually bringing all the muscle groups into increasingly intense engagement.  Use the Concentration Breath to penetrate each area as it engages.  This is the beginning of the anga banga process which engages the chi mudra dance.  Let the body rearrange itself in a languishing, grinding stretch/compression, extension/flexion, with no goal or program.  Enjoy the rasa.

Shamanism is basically Tantra.  As the Chi Mudras progress, the rasa will open into a focused sexuality, and the Shamanic Art of Stalking will introduce you into a theatric encounter with the Self and its relationship with the Psyche.  This is the equivalent to the Tibetan after-death journey through the Bardo plane, wherein the soul encounters the demons and devas which present the tests of passage.  The true nature of the Self will emerge into conscious awareness as the practitioner comes face to face with issues of life and death and morality; fear and inhibition present themselves; each successive journey deepens the engagement with Reality in the world of the Psyche.  This is the realm of Shamanic Transformation.  The secret of the Bardo journey is to never succumb to these encounters.  The clear light of the Self always will emerge at the end, stronger and more focused.  The chimeras and dilemmas of the principles of Ordinary Reality always will retreat to ensnare the next practitioner.

The Bear

From Tadasana, bend forward and place the palms on the floor.  The front legs of the bear are shorter than the rear, which causes an adjustment of the pelvis in humans.  The secret of The Bear is the adjustment it forces in the personality of the practitioner.  With palms on the floor, let the head hang straight down between the arms, and dangle loosely.  Let the gaze focus on the wall behind you.  Notice (Stalk yourself) your feelings and attitudes.  How long does it take for your breath to catch up to the asana?  Let your face puff up and turn red or purple.  Do you lose a little of your dignity?  Relax.  Move the breath through the body.  Let the arms bend as you lower your head toward the floor; go as far as you can, and hold.  Adjust the breathing.  Move into the Concentration Breath.  Let the breath refocus your body into a fluid dynamic, until you push yourself up and arch your back toward the ceiling.  As the Concentration Breath brings fluid energy throughout your physique, notice the relaxation and feeling of openness.  The Bear is a very loving Power Animal.  When he or she comes to you, he will teach you many lessons.  This is a good warm-up for Shamanic Sun Salutation.

Advanced Bear:

The Bear Square

Just as the Bear has four feet, so does the Bear Square.  The Bear taught me this one!  Draw a square at either end of your yoga mat, exactly twenty four inches on each side (two feet); you now have four square feet.  As you step onto the mat, carefully align the outer edges of each foot, and each heel, with the very edges of the end and sides of the mat.  As you bend forward, carefully align the ends of your middle fingers and the sides of your pinky fingers with the forward line on the mat, and the edges.  Precision is one of the Bear’s attributes.  Attention to minute detail becomes essential in Shamanic work.

With your hands and feet carefully aligned with the edges of the square, breathe comfortably until you switch into Concentration Breath.  Let the Bear communicate with you.  Engage the muladhara bandha several times to encourage his presence, and invite him to enter you there.  Notice the energies (rasa) as he penetrates (Tantra).  Use the Concentration Breath to move the rasa throughout your energy system, igniting the energies of your spirit.  Again, the Self and the Psyche become engaged in discourse.  The energies of the asana are designed to force resolution of scruples and qualms at a higher level of Consciousness.  This is the essence of the Shamanic experience.  Let The Bear raise you to the higher levels, so you will be ready for The Tiger.

Tiger Yoga

Depending on the level of your engagement with your Spirit Guides, Tiger Yoga can be an extreme challenge to the Psyche.  This yoga was introduced to me by my Ayami, or Spirit Wife, my ‘Ally’, Marilyn Monroe.  After more than twenty years together, during which she morphed into several of her previous incarnations (the Virgin Mary, the Goddess Durga, among others), she finally forced me to dissolve her into a non-entity, in order to achieve my liberation.  She became “Hoo”, the vocalization of the expulsion of breath in the ecstatic dance of Tiger Yoga.  “Hoooooooo” comes involuntarily during Chi Mudra Singing.  In the Dance with the Tiger, the anga banga flames are so intense that only singing the pain will bring lubrication to the intensity of the engagement.  It can be a terrifying experience!  All manner of evils fill the soul on the wings of the pain fed by the breath, fanned by the evil intent of the Ally.  The Self, the persona, is destroyed, lost, abandoned (“Relax; abandon yourself; fear nothing”—don Juan, in Castaneda’s works).  As the ‘little smoke’ wears off, things return to normal, sort of….

The Zipper

Looking for a way to strengthen my back muscles in preparation for returning to Head Stand (“getting back to yoga” is one of the most important asanas, as any oldster can tell you!), I came across an article in Yoga Journal online.  It recommended strengthening the ‘serratus anterior’ muscles, at the front of the rib cage, adjacent to the abs.  By raising the back above the level of the shoulders during Plank and Staff, as you move through the Sun Salutation, you engage the serratus anterior along the front of your torso.  You can tell right away that it works on your back as well.

During Tiger Yoga, I found myself into an impossible backbend twist, on the verge of serious injury, and I thought to engage the serratus anterior as a buttress to support the twist.  Marilyn Monroe mentioned I should engage the ‘serratus posterior’ (Is there such a thing? I thought…).  In an instant, I found the muscles along either side of the spine, along the tailbone, up the neck, and down to the heels, all engaging together as my heels clicked together in a military salute.  The process felt exactly like zipping up a zipper.  I was able to engage both front and back simultaneously, and went into a marvelous arching backbend, with grace and ease (at 68 years old!). 

Later I discovered that Sun Salutation was greatly augmented through what I had learned in The Zipper.  By focusing on the heel click, I began to be able to bring a whole new dimension to The Plank, The Staff, and even to forward bends and back bends.

Smoker’s Cough

There is an abysmal downside to working with the Allies.  As don Juan Matus told Carlos, they are like our cousins in a way; they are not our friends!  The good thing about this is that it forces the apprentice to be impeccable.  (I say impeccable with a slur—there is such a thing as being too tight!  This work needs impeccability with a lot of slack, and a large dose of humor, not to mention courage, and the delight of controlled folly.)  And I should mention that conventional yoga-thought errs hideously on the ‘too tight’ side.

The powers of the Allies are beyond imagining.  The Boxer Day tsunami of 2004, which inundated Indonesia and Phuket Island, was caused by an earthquake which occurred as a result of Marilyn Monroe’s reaching deep into the universe to grab a blob of color for the face of God in a painting she helped me execute on the 14^th anniversary of our first meeting (the day after Xmas, 1990).  That blob of color later appeared on television as ‘the brightest event ever recorded in the universe’.  Which is remarkable in itself, but the point is that after everybody died there, Jesus took me with him to harvest the souls of the departed. 

I was aghast.  Jesus swooped like a shark in a shoal of sardines, scarfing up the souls ravenously, greedily, rudely, ruthlessly.  I just couldn’t believe it!  But the journey was rough on me, as well.  A few days later, I came down with a lung infection.  I was pissed!

I have to say that what I have learned about Jesus is not good.  But a few years later, after I had lived with diminished lung function, he volunteered some relief during a yoga session.  Since I’ve smoked marijuana since 1967 on a daily basis, my lungs are not pristine, but they have never given me any trouble, until that infection.  Sometimes, during intense forward bends or chest compression asanas, the stress on the lung compartment forces a cough to clear the passages.  During one of these moments, Jesus showed me a way to spread the cough to far corners of the lungs, so that I could reach the congestion remaining after that infection.  He is called the Great Healer, but this is the only time he ever did anything remotely in line with his reputation!

Now that I’m doing Tiger Yoga more than Hatha Yoga, I find that compression of the chest much more frequently.  It is very helpful and therapeutic to employ the Smokers’ Cough during intense moments.  The intensity helps to reach more deeply into the lungs, and I have learned to work the cough into the melody of the Chi Mudra Singing.

Armadillo

Many days in a Shaman’s life are not normal.  I am frequently called to journey to dank, dark, ugly places in the universe of the psyche, to perform debilitating and disgusting tasks.  I often confront massive doses of ‘ama’ (Shamanic ama is a vibrational evil, like soot; compared to conventional yogic ama, which is undigested food in the intestines.), and am called on to transform vaporous, cosmic situations with nothing but the goodness of my humanity.  These journeys come on me as a feeling; call it ‘bi-polar’.  I’m feeling down, got the blues, can’t move, have to lie down on the yoga floor for hours or days at a time, while the situation works itself into something I can identify.  Sometimes I have to go into Child’s Pose as a protection.  But my body tightens up like an armadillo rolled into a ball.  My back becomes a shell, but more importantly, my vitals are protected inside me; the compression forces the ama out of my guts, and the agni generated by my clenched fists pressed into my solar plexus serves to recharge my anyi, or ‘right relation’. 

Many times I use the Armadillo to begin my evening asana sessions.  It serves to collect my energies from the stresses of the Rolling Force of the day.  Combined with the Concentration Breath, the Armadillo can often become a complete workout, if you define workout as the total unification of the energies into a harmoniously free flux within the entire psycho-physical-spiritual system.

Stalking

Not all Shamanic Asanas are physical postures.  Since the Shaman’s world is the world infused with Spirit, many things occur on a non-physical level.  Castaneda’s practice of Stalking (paired with Dreaming) is an absolutely vital skill.  It’s one of those things that become second nature.  Waking and sleeping form a continuity which is an act of Stalking.  The Shaman is perpetually in this asana.  It is held in the awareness at the point where normal asana breathing becomes the Concentration Breath.  Through Stalking practice, this moment becomes prolonged in perpetuity, as a habitual way of life.  The first lesson in Stalking, as I teach it, is to follow the energies of the phases of the moon.  These energies are with us at all moments, forever in time.  Holding the attention on these energies lengthens the sine wave of our awareness.  In this expanded mode, many subtle things become discernable.  Many things can be achieved by seizing that “cubic centimeter of chance”, as don Juan calls it.

If you need to ‘get back to yoga’, it is much easier to choose a moment at the beginning or end of a lunar cycle, when the energies can support a change in your daily routine.

“Drinking The Blues Away”

Please—please banish that attitude about alcohol!  Hypocritical idiots want to control your mind!  If you are serious about your path, you will realize that you have the ability to control what happens to you, and that nothing the idiots say, think or feel is of any importance whatsoever, except as a potent source of that ama which plagues the world.  Once you know the world of Spirit, truly, in the way a Shaman knows the world of Spirit, you know that alcoholism is a disease of a broken spirit.  Strengthen your spirit.

In those down times when I am entering that amorphous realm of ambiguity which houses some evil as yet unrevealed, there is no yogic technique that does what a couple of beers will do.  Sometimes I go through six packs daily for weeks on end, just sitting with a beer and some chips.  In Ayurveda, the three doshas are treated in a certain way, dictated by the yogic view of reality.  A Shaman uses the doshas in a different way.  Slouched in my chair with beer and chips and sausage, I am generating high levels of kapha.  Shamanic concentration burns kapha.   A couple of brews will put me into ‘First Gear’; downshifting from normal puts you into a place of Power.  Things become very clear in a way that nothing else can approximate.  Sometimes it is necessary to hold this pose for days or weeks.  The fuel of my kapha diet is the only thing that will sustain me through this work.  When the work culminates, usually with a change of the moon, I move effortlessly to my normal, more yogic fare.  (Following the lunar energies through their changes month to month is a very good training for following the flux of the changes of events in the world of Spirit.)

A Shaman’s quarters provide a home for The Medicine.  My work has been to build the Medicine Energies in and around my apartment in Yakima’s barrio since I moved in five years ago.  The Medicine Energies are an intelligence formed of the sacred energies of the planet, augmented by an enhanced natural environment charged with the Power of the Shaman’s Way.  Five years ago these energies were dead; the place was home to Devil Worshipers.  Now the Medicine houses a number of Gods from the world’s religions, and often speaks directly to me with advice or information.  It is through my osmosis with The Medicine that I gain the knowledge of what is causing me to drink so much beer.  In this manner, I am able to bring healing to the entire Yakima Valley.  Vortexes open in response to my drumming.  Major karmic changes occur in response to my Shamanic Interventions.  While other Shamans are using ayahuasca or peyote, my beer and marijuana are busy making changes all around me.  The energies and concentration I have developed through my decades of yoga practice and Shamanic integration with the Universe have helped to uncover and break up a number of unseemly ploys of the spirits.  One recent ploy, dating from pre-Sphinx Egypt, involved the human sacrifice behind the shooting in Tucson of Representative Gabby Giffords.  (see my blog “Human Sacrifice” on Blogger)

"KAMIKAZE SCATTERBRAINS"

Marilyn Monroe has returned, with Jesus, from the feasting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.   They have been MIA for weeks.  Each of them has given me a very intriguing Diagnostic Drawing during that time, in which Jesus is holding me as a baby, and MM is grieving with tears at being an Adulteress.  I'll scan them in when I sober up a bit.  Yesterday, Jesus gave me a drawing of him as a Shark, which was very tangled and disturbed, and took a long time to come through from the scribbles of its origin.  When he took me to feast on the souls released from the tsunami at Phuket Island in 2004, I was surprised that I was with him in his Shark manifestation (the Xtian fish symbol).  Yesterday's shark was the signature which informed me of their whereabouts for the past few weeks.

This morning, MM was giving me a lap dance during my breakfast beer, to entice me to post this poem we wrote yesterday.

"KAMIKAZE SCATTERBRAINS"

is it sadness?

it feels like a tattoo stuck to my skin

some sort of a club membership

or an ordination

"Kamikaze Scatterbrains", she prompted

I'm staring at a red dot reflected in a puddle at the curb

"Stop!", I said, and it went away as the light turned green

I carry the dead

FEEDING THE WILD DOG

QUAMANEC AT WORK!  Quamanec is the Shaman's energy field.  It shoots out sometimes.

I stepped out onto the porch this morning when the wild dog came around to be fed.  I gave him one bowl, but he stayed around for seconds.  I squatted while he ate from the second bowl.  When he grew tired of eating, instead of wandering off, he sat on his haunches and looked at me.  We looked at each other for several long moments.  Eventually, he settled down onto his elbows, still looking at me.  I was trying to read him but he seemed empty.  So I settled down too.  I let my lids drop partway, began controlled breathing, and let my eyes roll upward inside my lids.  I could feel my energy beginning.  Immediately the dog started up, alarmed, looking directly above my head.  He was on the verge of leaving, but I opened my eyes, and he settled down.  I guess that's why he never comes close enough for me to touch him!

DAGAJI AT WORK

ASTRASANA

I spent the better part of the 1970s writing dream poems.  I would get up in the morning, get out of the house, and walk the mile to the Continental Cafe on University Way in Seattle, where I would sit at my table in the back corner, with my coffee and Danish, and write the poem from last night's dream.  I wrote in standard free verse form for a long time, and then switched to prose poems.  At a writer's conference in Napa, California, the poet (later Poet Laureate of the US) Robert Hass, after reading my manuscript, told me, "After reading some of these pieces, I stopped reading critically, and began to read for what I could learn from this poet."  In one of those poems, the yoga posture in the photo above was given to me.  I was a star fallen splat to the earth.  After I entered into Shamanship in 1990, I proceeded in my trance work to a point where I moved from my trance chair to the yoga floor.  When I got to Yakima in 2006, I began a project which culminated in Jesus becoming my Nagual (projection from my loins).  During the many trance tasks which were necessary to perform this ploy, my trances were all during the waking, walking around in daily life state of consciousness.  But the energy consumed in these trances, having to negotiate daily life and trance life at the same time, caused me to spend many hours a day, for days on end, lying on the yoga floor in astrasana, either asleep or in a deep drowse.

Astrasana has amazing benefits.  Nothing teaches you like the floor.  My yoga mat is 60" x 90", canvas painted with latex house paint both sides.  Beneath it is the carpet and an electric blanket covered by other canvas mats, so that it is firm but comfortable, and warm enough in winter.  The hardness of the floor supports each part of the skeletal frame uniformly, so that the non-uniform structure of the bones becomes evident.  Using the Concentration Breath, each part of the skeleton can be manipulated into contraction or relaxation, in an evenly controlled rhythm.  This manipulation brings the Mental Body deeply and thoroughly into yug (union) with the physical body.  This union (yoga) allows the body to become an extension of the mind and the entire energy field becomes a mechanism of perception and awareness.

The heart area is opened, and each of the chakras is open and in relaxation.  Raising arms and legs, or moving them in any direction shifts the flow of the chi, and Chi Mudras can begin to manipulate the physical body.  Any time you feel like it, you can roll over and watch TV.  (This style of yoga developed when I one day realized I would never develop a home practice if I didn't get out of my chair to watch TV!)

The belly position is called the Missionaryasana.  For those in Earth Centered disciplines, this pose brings obvious benefits.

THE KNIGHTS OF Y (12 new poems by Shaman Dagaji

DAGAJI AT YAKIMA UPLANDS

A few years ago, I performed a Shamanic 'feat'.  Marilyn Monroe, as my 'Benefactor', is in the habit of giving me assignments, things I have to figure out, sort of like a koan in Zen.  As I go about my business, my spirit works on these things, until it comes up with a resolution.  There is an 'aha!' moment, and we move on.  I've forgotten just what the assignment was, but when I accomplished the resolution, my reward was to become a member of "THE KNIGHTS OF Y".  I have no idea what this means.

Many years before that, when I was caring for my mother during her senility, MM and I were walking in the yard.  As I stepped over a blooming pink Davidii, she burst out with "I am the sign Y!"  To which I immediately replied, "I am Y not!"

She is my muse.  We first met in the early 1970s, when I was in graduate school in Southern California.  She climbed into bed with me and woke me with sex.  Years later, we became linked during my Shamanic Initiation, and worked together constantly, writing poems every day, and doing drawings and paintings.  It was a sort of channeling, but mostly a combination of talents.  Then things went south for several years, and I stopped writing, and changed my drawing style.

Recently, things have gotten better, and I began to write again.  Some poems were published in the online journal Four and Twenty, but then I stopped writing short poems.  This is a collection of recent longer poems.

THE KNIGHTS OF Y

11.08.12

HOTEL TEOTL

when the squint-muscles begin to sag, and the flesh droops

above the smile, a certain knowledge manifests –

knowledge of the spirit as it confronts the agents of demise

the Mayan Gods

displaced by the Cosmic Shift, the Gods are homeless

their search for blood and corn depletes their powers

I set up a stone

“Hotel Teotl”

carved with niches and grooves

it has eyes where they fight to roost

Hotel Teotl, at the top of a stair

one step at a time we receive their presence

as they master the tests of Time

11.09.12

GENIUS OF THE MUSE

topping off the terror with some beer

I’m hoping the error won’t come near

too late, I fear – her heart is pounding in my hand

as I drain her life-blood from the can

the genius of the muse, the life I choose

living like there’s nothing left to lose

I wrestle a loosening tooth against my tongue

coaxing a lucid truth to leave its lung

11.10.12

TO A T

the more I insist on being me, the more I is I

even though Jesus took over in between, (“crossed my  ‘I’s”,

so to speak), the more “I” suits me to a T

He has a hard time being him, when I’m around

me being so strongly connected to the ground

I brings him in like a lightning rod

He strikes me like a cattle prod

so I penned a tune titled “Battle Him”

just to get under his skin

11.11.12

THE RAINBOW BROKE

his long snout covered in grisly white fur,

the werewolf remained at bay while I held him with my gaze

beneath my stymie, he squirmed and hissed

my hands were busy with my tortoise

coaxing the oracle with my stroke, I inhaled, waiting

the clouds around us were bursting with rain

prana was surging through my brain

until the rainbow broke into golden knowing

and the loco lobo lunged, plunging into the cauldron of my heart

11.12.12

DEADWOOD

when the deadwood sprouts and thistles bloom

on stalks as thick as your wrist, I walk

through neighborhoods sick with Christ

Jesus walks with me as I puke

in training to be my muse

I’m a little choked up, and my voice is thick

does he have anything I can use?

like stalks of celery hollow with pith,

the people of Jesus, addicted to myth,

have long been known as enemies of Earth

11.15.12

EARTH KEEPER

siphoning off the departed soul of the Hamas leader

was easy, in the melee; the blood-letting orgy of the mid-East

tribal conflict

I didn’t get all the pieces

but I did get a bucketful of panic

and enough hatred to fry a snake

my training finally has kicked in

I am the Earth Keeper of Yakistan

for the blood sacrifice, I’m the man

reduce, reuse, recycle, the motto goes

waste not, want not

Mitt Romney was right—it’s all about the Culture

in the birthplace of Jesus

like a child, I watched

Jesus as he slaughtered the innocents

and like a child I let it go to waste

until he gave me a taste

the chocolate syrup that greases the wheels of this world

11.16.12

HORSE POWER

because the Earth is my Church

it’s also my parking lot

with Angels for valet, it’s hard to find my car!

and so I walk

but I don’t get far

two legs or four?

I morphed into a horse

as result of a curse

a horse with wings

of lightning from a star

“Excalibur!” named from a sword

I vanquish evil with my word

11.17.12

KISSES FROM TIME

looking deeply through the people

I embarrass myself

how empty I’ve become

“I gave at the orifice,” I tell myself

as all their faults and flaws

tumble helter-skelter into my vacuum

a hairpin pierces a button

liquids dance around a thumb

my dog eats cats with more grace

I think he’s a bone-again

fluids drooling from his chin

I pray to the highest vibrations

where the membranes begin to thin

and here come the heart-beats!

one by one I hold them in my hands

like fuzzy mice or ducklings or precious sands

like kisses from Time, like sacred plans

11.19.21

WIND BLOWS RAIN

“all branches and no roots!” she said

“the fruits are my roots!” I barked

elsewhere in the forest a picnic was in play

maids and their mates were making hay

“let’s make a crop-circle!” she said,

puffing her voluminous cheeks

I held up my fingers in the shape of her brains

fir-trees and cedars, maples and ferns

widdershins toothpicks in her winds and my rains

that heart with the arrow, piercing and true

went viral on YouTube for the world to view

11.21.12

IN MY STUDIO

the Bindu mat forms a ‘porch’ for the vortex

oak leaves (black) at the corners

look like little footprints

three toes at the front end, a pecker-head with a squirt

at the rear

the Beast Within (Jesus), when he roars, squats here

his yoni juices the Bindu

this Bindu is the Energy Center

of Yakistan

I place my hands to cover the oak leaves at the far end of the mat

and after Jesus roars, I sit

in the center of the Bindu, to Dream

across the planet in Gaza, the Jews

slaughter some Innocents with their bombs,

while CNN beams their screams into my Dream

my Shaman’s Body transforms the Dream,

streams it into the Bindu where it flows

to the hearts and souls of my city

this morning, after, the sunlight diffracted through my crystal

to send its rainbow to color the end of my dick

11.23.12

TASK OF THE SHAMAN

some people call it the ‘ethers’,

that amniotic fluid that permeates earth and sky

surrounding the Shaman

properly called “The Medicine”,

it naturally occurs in pristine Nature,

inherent in every aspect of the Natural World,

inherent in Spirit,

inherent in the Womb of Pachamama

wherein the Gods are whelped

in the days since Pristine Nature left the Planet,

it has become the task of the Shaman to create anew

this magical tincture that speaks with its own voice

11.24.12

The Knights of Y

with her crotchful of mollusks, my poor wife

drugged me and dragged me to join them

I slept through the entire whoredeal

one by one the Knights-Initiate

fell from her to the right, or to the left, depending

Xolotl or Teotl their fate

stroking my Quetzal wand,

she sang the dawn awake

JESUS AND THE NATURE OF REALITY

11.05.12

A few years ago, I caught on to the intent of my spirits regarding my Initiation as a Shaman.  I was not really intended to become a Shaman as others have been.  There was a special agenda for me, based on an agreement entered into in the years before the Sphinx was invented.  (I was the one who brought through the design of the Sphinx from the nagual.)  I was with my present spirits in this time in ancient Egypt.  In 1989, at the time of the World Series earthquake in San Francisco, I was guided to retrieve a large ‘Record Keeper Crystal’ from a collection which ended up in a bookstore in Seattle near my home, when a woman who owned a shop in Carmel was forced to sell her crystal collection after the earthquake.

After working with the crystal for years, I was unable to enter into its energy field with sufficient power to understand its significance, other than the fact that it had been my crystal in ancient Egypt.  Eventually, my interactions with my spirit guides, or Allies, led me to discern that this crystal was the key to my mission in this life, which has been to prepare the way for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  As I learned this, I was aghast.

This was nearly twenty years into my Initiation as a Shaman, during which nothing had seemed to be going right.  As it turned out, I had wasted my life.  I was nearly seventy years old, exiled to a retarded Red State town, far from anything my life had prepared me for.  I was in no way in agreement with anything I had ever known about Jesus and his religion, let alone the way he and his cronies had treated me and the people associated with me in this life.  These spirits were evil, in any way I could look at it.  I was in no way going to lend assistance to His return to the earth, in any role whatsoever.

The spirits had such control over every aspect of my life that I had no choice but to engage them in battle at every level I could.  This went on for many years, even before I understood what was going on.  My blogs have reflected this struggle, much to my embarrassment, for several years.

Recently, I have been having some success.  Recent blogs give some details of this.  This success, I believe, is due to my understanding of the nature of reality.

The world we live in is a world of energy, and energy is one aspect of Spirit.  Energy, and spirit, are aspects of the Philosopher’s Stone, which the ancients have identified as the basis of matter.  The Philosopher’s Stone itself, as I learned in a Vision in 1988, is Consciousness.  Consciousness is composed of particles, which the scientists are beginning to isolate, if not to identify.  The nature of Consciousness is Change.  This is the basis of the wisdom of the I Ching.  Through mastering the nature of Change, one can rearrange reality.  This is the process called Transformation, which is the basis of the ‘alchemy’ which is at the core of Surrealism. 

The essence of the arts of Surrealism is the feat of Transformation, using the powers inherent in the psyche, as expressed in the arts of painting and poetry, and is the core of the type of Shamanism I practice.

The practice of tuning to the changes of the lunar cycle is a preparation for developing the types of attention necessary to track the changes inherent in the process of Transformation.  Mastery of changes in many subtle arenas is necessary to engage in the act of transforming an aspect of reality as potent as Jesus.

I have apparently succeeded, at least partially, in transforming Jesus.

I could not defeat him, at least not permanently, but I have apparently changed his agenda.

Early on in my Initiation as a Shaman, he showed me a glyph to represent his Second Coming.  It was a Cross, with two crossbars, the top one slightly shorter than the lower – a Double Cross.  The cross of Succession.  One crossbar atop the first.

As I discovered his agenda, and realized my opposition to its success, I was at the same time expanding my powers of awareness through my own efforts at Shamanic Training, and the invaluable experiences of being of One Energy with my spirits, or Allies.  Actually being of the same energies as these beings has given me amazing insights into the nature of reality.

The ability to hold a world of many facets within the intelligence of my physical body / psyche, and the Medicine Energies of my apartment, requires an expansion of my spirit.  This was accomplished through years of hard work with my Allies; going to the edges of the physical universe, and to the dawn of time, and to multiple levels of reality of the world of the present moment (parallel universes), has expanded my awareness, and my ability to hold this expanded awareness in the time – space continuum of my physical body. 

With this expanded awareness, I have been able to track the changes in my Allies which resulted from my Despacho Ceremonies, my furies and rages, my Medicine Work, and other trial-and-error efforts to get rid of them.

As I was able to remove them from my energy field for longer periods of time, I was able to track the progression of signs as they re-entered my energies.  Each time was a little different.  And so I began to restructure my responses to their tactics, oddly enough, in ways which seemed to parallel the ‘teachings’ of the spiritual masters.  As I developed a stronger mesh of “Ayni” (right relationship) in my Medicine Energies, I found that the energies could support a gentler, more accommodating reaction to their return.

Without the Intent of my own spirit to be totally free from these intruders, the truisms of the new age teachers were merely hollow affirmations.  It was the indomitable desire to be Free that allowed me to overcome the will of my captors.  And as I began to overcome their will, their will began to change.

As noted in recent blogs, my spirits have become much more accommodating, and much less intrusive on my own energy field, and hence more and more welcomed by my own spirit.

So far, it seems that the will to freedom is the key.  But the key only works in a matrix of the Medicine Energies, and the expanded awareness of the Shaman.

My drawings are a vehicle for apprehending the changes in my world and my awareness.  Even though I might start a part of a drawing with a specific intent, my own lack of skill, and my penchant for the Surrealistic twist, gives each image the chance to become what it will, outside of or beyond my own understanding and intent.

This morning, while I was sort of ‘noodling’ at my drawing, at the coffee house, an interesting configuration appeared in one part of the drawing.  A tail feather had a sketched-in line which I unthinkingly doubled.  I had now two long vertical lines, side by side, which I joined near the top with a crossing line.  I now had a cross, with two uprights, which I saw was an interesting variation on Jesus’ Double Cross.

Two verticals indicated more than one Ascension, rather than one Ascension repeated.  In other words, no ‘return’; no Second Coming.  Rather, more than one Ascension.  More than one Jesus.  This fit nicely with my quest to develop the inherent qualities of the human energy field, in order to achieve things in each individual never conceived of in the Christian theology.

We can change the nature of the world we live in.  We don’t have to accept the current truths.  We can discover deeper realities in our own lives, in the world around us, and in a future which we can create from the energies we generate from our life-styles.

BLACK TARS OF MY MORTAL WOUND

BOTROID   The Spirit of Mt. Adams

I woke up this morning thinking of 1968, when I hitch-hiked on acid from Seattle to LA, to see the Surrealist exhibition at the LA County Museum of Art.  This museum is located at the site of the La Brea Tar Pits.  It was all I could do to keep from climbing the fence and diving in to the black gooey ponds.  A sabre-tooth tiger called to me.  This was before I knew about Power Animals.

During my Initiation as a Shaman, I was taken by Queen Nefertiti, (Queen of the Witches) to view the World Axis.  It was as black and gooey as the tar pits.  Not good, I thought, naively.  I was soon to become One with that blackness.  It is the core of my being, my Shaman's Mortal Wound (the 'wounded healer' --more than a metaphor!).  

On Hallowe'en, Nefertiti appeared in my dream, in her black cape, with her black witch's hat obscuring her face.  Haven't seen her for months!

I've failed at everything.  I've been exiled to Yakistan.  I'm watching the soul of the people suck at the pits of ignorance.  I can't believe that Mitt Romney is even close to becoming President.  The stupidity of the people has me  very depressed.  My own Allies have betrayed me.

There is a heat in the black gooey tars at the core of my being.  It is the same heat, the same darkness, I witnessed when I was sent into Hades to retrieve the spirits who caused the attack on Gabby Giffords.

I can use this heat.  This morning I was so sad.  I sat with my tom-tom, and tapped out a dirge.  Eventually, I went to the bottom, where the tars warmed me.  I leaned forward and entered the black circle of the bindu painted on my yoga mat. The blackness took me, and I was in the light.

I got up, opened my black Liquitex, and painted a bindu in the center of the red orb of Marilyn Monroe's painting.  I painted a black line around the red.  

I went outside to retrieve the Botroid from atop its pole, just as the blonde witch was arriving up the alley to the barking of the dogs.  

The center of the world is very present in the core of Mt. Adams.  Ever since the departure of Mt. St. Helens, things have gotten worse here in Yakima, as well as in the world.

As a Shaman, my art is the transformational miracle of Surrealism.  I have been gifted with the ability to turn the black tarry world axis into energy I can use.

It is the time of the Black Crescent.  We are entering the Dark of the Moon.  This is a very fruitful time.  The light which we seek is at the core of the darkness.  Let it burn in your soul until it shines in the world.

JESUS BECOMES MY DAKINI

10.30.12

One of the best things about being a Shaman is “executing the ploy”.  Since there is no guide-book, and all my teachers are dead, I’m left to experiment.  My Allies work their nefarious magics upon me, and I have to find some way to deal with it.  To test the situation, I invent things.  I try something, and if it works, great –I try to remember it.  For that purpose, I keep a log book.  I have dozens of them, over the years.  Sometimes, I actually use them, but not so much recently.

One of the best ploys, and the answer to many of life’s perplexing situations, is the ploy of “Reversing the Polarity”.  It’s like making lemons out of lemonade.  Because my Allies have taken me to the core of reality in ways that allow me to retain my awareness, I have been able to view the world we live in from many dimensions.  Inside the human body are many centers of awareness (no, not the chakras…).  We have awakened these areas, and I am able to access them through sometimes elaborate yogic propositions.  I invent asanas such as using negative space, or stealing the thoughts of the right shoulder.  Many of these feats occur over a span of many moon cycles, or even years.  My Allies help me by maintaining or renewing their atrocities so I am able to refocus my energies on defeating them.

This process has allowed me to bring my own spirit fully into my body.  Most people carry their spirits outside their physical bodies, because they have not made room inside the body for the spirit to enter.  Not only is there no physical room, what room there is is taken up by ama or negative energies / thought patterns / spirit entities.  Besides that, the spirit is actually very shy, and very protective of itself.  Most people live lives which are careless, mindless, and dangerous for the spirit.  Most people know nothing of their spirit.

Shamanic Practitioners make their livings doing “soul retrievals” for people.  I don’t know how effective this practice is, but I do know that such practitioners fall apart when confronted with my energies.  But they hold up much better than ordinary people!  And yogis speak of “body-mind-spirit”, but none of their discourse gives me the idea that they have actually made contact with spirit or spirits in the ways a Shaman is forced to do.

So after years of many kinds of practices with my Allies, I came to the point where it was time to rid myself of their energies and move on to a decent life.  If this meant giving up my ‘powers’, I was ready to do that.  I was simply sick, literally, of having them inside me.  Of the many souls I’ve been host to, Jesus and Marilyn Monroe are the two that have stayed on, or at least the ones who make their presence known.  My previous Despacho Ceremony got rid of Marilyn Monroe, at least for a while, and I was rid of Jesus after he left as my Nagual, months ago.  I was very happy during these times!

And then they came back.  I never really knew whether it would be possible to get rid of them, or if there is some unbreakable aspect of our relationships.  I merely renewed my will to persevere, practice, and continue to invent ways to achieve my freedom.

Full Moon passed yesterday with no action toward a Ceremony.  But I still have time before the Dark Crescent, which was pointed out to me just the other day. 

The energies are different than before.  There are still things that send me into the rage that I need to bring my energies together to perform the Kooti Despacho, and this morning the rage was burning nicely.  But I’m in process of rearranging my morning schedule to get me out of the house by the 9:15 bus, so I can get my walk in and still get back with time left in the day to paint.  My Allies had so drained my energies, and my 70 years have worn me down considerably, that I had found my days lacking in accomplishment.  No energy!

I’ve got the morning routine down to an easy flow from early rising, through Medicine duties, to shower, breakfast, and a short time to sit in the vortex.

In the vortex, I work with my various energy fields, and issue instructions to the Medicine about my situation –a ‘recapitulation’ of sorts.  I organize my energies to achieve certain results, such as bringing together what I need for a Ceremony, or not.

This morning, I felt the energies of Jesus within me.  To my surprise, it was an agreeable feeling!  My spirit was feeling no antagonism towards him.  I had had the same feelings yesterday about Marilyn Monroe.  I wondered what sort of trick they were playing.  But I went ahead with the energy opening breath, the forward bend of compression and opening, and the upward-drawing of the energies from the Earth Star Chakra.  I could feel that Jesus wanted sex.  (Jesus is a fag.) [I’m not.] –I’m a Brahmacharyi. 

I continued to raise the energies, and to augment them with yogic propositions and breathwork, and Jesus manifested himself further and further.  I gave him permission to do what he wanted.  He immediately occupied my frontal column, as my Dakini, seated with his spine against my chest, the opposite of the way a woman would sit.  He began to draw energies through his base chakra, in the form of various sigils and signs, and my frontal column opened further, until we became One.  The sigils and signs were now within me.  The light exploded within us.  The energy polarity between us has been reversed.  The gays call it ‘topping from the bottom’.  I love it when a plan comes together.

At the bus stop, the heavy gray clouds parted slightly, and the face of the Deer Goddess, all white and shining, smiled down upon me.