#1 AYURVEDA: A SHAMANIC ENCOUNTER

Shamanic Meditation

[This is the first in a series of three blogs regarding the circumstance of my birth, the ending of my Initiation as a Shaman, and the beginning of my Apprenticeship]

After many years of studying yoga and practicing on my own, and teaching my Shamanic Yoga, I came to a point where I needed a deeper experience.  I had been undergoing my Initiation as a Shaman for two decades, and my life experience was much deeper than anything conceived of in regular yoga.  When I first Googled Ayurveda, I came across info on the three doshas, but that was not what I was interested in.  I looked around at Ayurvedic diet, and other aspects.

Two things that interested me, because they related so pertinently to the Shamanic experience, were Dinacharya and Ritucharya, i.e., daily and seasonal practices to keep healthy and in synch with the life force.  Ayurveda translates as ‘life science’, and the path, or practice of Shamanism requires a mastery of the science of living, which is why I believe a personal yoga practice is so important to the Shaman.  The Shamanic world is very active on many levels, and requires a highly developed awareness of areas of life which are totally ignored in the normal societal experience.

The “Medicine Energies” of Shamanism are built of many aspects of the world of nature as it exists in our immediate environment –our homes and yards.  So the Ayurvedic practices of Ritucharya struck me as pertinent.  The year is divided into segments of two months, instead of our three month seasons.  I thought this was interesting and useful, but upon practice, I realized that the Wiccan/Pagan divisions of the year using ‘cross-quarter days’ (the midpoints of the seasons, rather than the solstices and equinoxes) was superior.  The world-view of the yoga community is not based on the Shamanic knowledge of ‘Power’ –that force in the universe which comes to the assistance of the Shaman, and is especially apparent at the midpoints of seasons, when things begin to change to the next season.

I found many aspects of the yoga philosophy to be less than adequate in comparison to the Shamanic way.

But in my Googling, I came across an essay, which I have since lost track of, in which

the first line was, “Rest, digestion, and sexual energy –the three pillars of life.”  As I read on, I found the Ayurvedic emphasis on agni, or the digestive fires, to be very interesting and helpful.  The Ayurvedic view of the workings of the human body is very different than the normal western view.  I began to work with the agni.

I found that, after eating, I would lie down on the yoga floor to digest, and after a bit, I would be flooded with sexual energy.  I began the practice of transferring this energy to my meditation vortex.  After eating, I would go sit in the Buddha Vortex while the agni was providing its fire.  This began to add considerable energy to the vortex.

Many months later, about six months after the ending of my Initiation as a Shaman, in the month of October, 2013, this process began an important phase of my journey into my ‘Apprenticeship’.  On Friday October 11, one day after my 71^st birthday, I again sat in the vortex with a full stomach.  Again, the sexual energies arose.  This time, however, I went into a trance state.  I had turned on the “Jazz” channel on Pandora, for my meditation.  The first tunes were by Miles Davis and John Coltrane.  I’ve always loved their music.  Suddenly, I was in a dance hall in Harlem, in the 1950s.  A woman across the dance floor made eye contact with me.  She was wearing an elegant, slim-fitting night club dress of satin, and it accented every curve of her ravishing figure.  The music was like I’ve never heard it.  It was a slow passage, so slow that I marveled at how powerful the rhythms were.  It was a deadly serious piece of music, to match the deadly serious expression on the woman’s face.  She knew exactly what she was doing.  Her languid stroll was intended to transfix my attention, which it did.  She entered my energy field with the intent of a woman who could wrap the world around her little finger; it was not like the world as I had ever known it.  It was the world of the rich and powerful, the jazz world of Harlem, where the players were Big Time, and the stakes were high.  She took me to the middle of the floor, and I wilted. 

I came out of the trance, and life went on.

I train hard for times like these.  These times are powerful, like the cross-quarter days which mark the turning points of the seasons.  In my journey through the process of Initiation, which took over two decades, and saw me turn from a healthy and fit man of 48 to a man losing his teeth and vitality at 71, I’ve developed techniques such as surfing the moon, and harnessing the cross-quarter days, for the power they bring, and many other aspects of adapting to the much different time-frame of Shamanic Reality.  This moment of trance, I knew, was a sigil for me.  It marked something, which would reveal itself in its own time. It was a ‘blow from Power’, as Castaneda would call it.  I knew that the next period of time, days or weeks, would reveal the import of this event.  So I marked it in my log book.

Not long after that, I fell into a terrible funk.  She had damaged my energy body.  I had been struck deeply.  It hurt to realize that I had been shown just what a punk I am.  No way in the world could I have entered that reality which she showed me, with the high stakes players, the fast women, and the genius musicians.  It was the blow to my energy body which I knew to be the signal of what was to come.

'MR. MOONSHINE' IN MY DREAMS

This New Moon seems to be a 'cutting' moon; I'm reminded of the scimitar, the sickle and the scythe.  My dreams showed me a young man made of moonlight.  He had the same glow as the Man in the Moon, whom I had met earlier.  But he was obviously a 'new' moon man.  He was very slender, very pale, but very male.  He was interacting with a moonlight woman, older than he, and was warned away.  He had a message for me.

Over the weekend, I met three young people, all new to Yakima, all in the startup phase of their businesses.  I was very much impressed with the beauty and quality of their light.  They were obviously people of spiritual gifts, reinforced with a practice of some sort.  It was the opening of a Tai Chi studio. I enjoyed chatting with them for a while, and then the energies began to grow.  I found myself picking up a small pyramid described as an 'orgone' tool.  As I turned it over, I noticed very active energies in the base.

I pointed the base of the pyramid at the heart center of one of the young women.  Her chest energies began to heave, with visible undulations, and she turned away from the energies, as I immediately turned the energies away from her.  I pointed it at her male companion, but he seemed unaffected.  I could see great energies in his hands.

I put the pyramid back where I found it, and we continued our conversation.  The young woman had told me, when we were introduced, that she was looking for a Shaman to teach her.  She had been told that she had been a shaman in a past life.  I could see that this was true.  Soon other people came in the door, so our conversation was interrupted.

When we were able to resume our discussion, my Shamanic persona took control of me.  I told them that I was going to present them with a display of my energies.  It doesn't take long for my Shamanic energies to have an effect on people, so I wanted to give them a demonstration while there was still time for my introduction to make sense to their OSC.

I just started telling them about how I became a Shaman.  I told them what I had to tell them, and said that they should just let it rest in them for some days, and think about how it had affected them.  I then said my goodbyes and began to leave.  As I left the office of the owner, I noticed that the young couple were curled up together on the floor, in the corner, apparently drained of energies.  They were no longer shining!

I wanted them to know in their energy bodies what it is like to enter the energies of the Shaman.

The work that I have to do with people when I work with them begins with getting them to understand that their energy bodies are not able to withstand my energies, regardless of their training and practice.  I am a Nagual Shaman.  (This does not refer to the 'nagual' as it manifests in the 'Toltec' cult of don Miguel Ruiz.)

My energy body was very much alive this morning, as the North Wind came along to begin the work of stripping the leaves from the trees.  When I speak of the 'moods' of the moon, this is what I'm talking about.  The energy body interacts with the weather,  as the weather interacts with the phase of the moon.  The energies of the trees and vortexes all resonate with the same energies.  It is a 'Medicine' concert.  As my energies opened in the early morning darkness,  I was able to open into the Voice of the Dream.

It is not so much a speaking voice, but an energetic telling of what was encoded in the dream.  As I entered into the New Moon energy field, I also opened the energy packet I had received from the young people in the Tai Chi studio.  The Moon Man was telling me that I should give them instruction in the "Expense Account".

All three are in the beginnings of their businesses, and new to Yakima.  But they have been here long enough to know how hard things can be here.

My task is to convince people that they need to 'tighten up' their life path, in order to save and protect their energies when they work with me, in particular, but also so that they can be assured of a safe journey in the years to come, by foregoing some of the carelessness that is inherent in the OSC (Ordinary State of Consciousness), and adopting the protocols of Shamanic Ritucharya and Shamanic Dinacharya, the seasonal and daily tasks required to bring the proper 'tightness' to the lifepath.

This is the first assignment for anyone wishing to study with me.  I ask that they bring the materials of their Expense Account to the first session.  It takes three moon cycles to begin this work, so get started today!

First, ask for and save the receipt for each and every penny you spend.  Keep the receipts in an envelope for each month.

List on a piece of paper, yes, paper! all these expenditures.  Everything.  Make vertical columns for the various types of expenditure.

Make a horizontal column for each day in the month.

Add up the totals for the month at the bottom of each column, for each and every type of expenditure.

Make a new Expense Account spread sheet for each month.

You will notice that things get out of hand somewhat, as the Holidays approach.  At the same time, Winter descends on us.  Each month is a new season, with new and different types of expenditures.  As in observing the lunar cycles, the Expense Account serves to extend and expand and deepen your attention span, and your attitude toward the Sacredness of Life increases and deepens.

If you are in a relationship, you will notice that most arguments stem from disagreements of one sort or another, with one common denominator being money.  If you have your money under control, it is much easier to control your attitudes and emotions.  This is one of the best entry points into the Yogic 'niyama' of Svadhyaya, or self knowledge.  Pennies are the cells of the self.  The Expense Account is the pranayama of the cash flow.  Mr. Moonshine wants you to know this, at this time.

AUTUMN RITUCHARYA TRUMPS THE MOON

It's all a matter of timing...  Starting a group to observe the moods of the moon just at the change into Autumn!  The sun, as we all are aware, certainly trumps the moon at these times.  While the moon has been very influential in my Shamanic work recently, I've been so totally absorbed in the ritucharya of the equinox that I've not been able to blog the moon.

I'll just say now how important I've realized it is to live in a community of like-minded souls.  It's too much for a single individual to track and record the many aspects of Shamanic life, while at the same time being fully engaged in the practice, which is both active and re-active!

I've been working on developing a place to house my burgeoning collection of containers with everything from roses to peppers in them, as well as my beloved geraniums, to get them through the winter.  And finding a way to get a doghouse of sorts for the wild dog who has adopted this apartment as his safe haven.

I mentioned the Ayurvedic term 'ritucharya', which denotes the chores specific to the seasons, as marked in two-month intervals.  The corresponding term, 'dinacharya' refers to the daily chores and practices necessary to support a yoga practice.  Ayurveda translates to 'life science'.  While the phases of the moon are a subtle mode of access to the outer world, ayurveda provides a remarkable and novel way to access subtle systems in the inner world of the body as it is affected by yoga.  This is a very complex science, developed over thousands of years, and views the energies of the body in very different ways from Western science.  I think ayurveda is extremely important, as is a reasonable yoga practice, in order to sustain the subtle and gross anatomies over the many decades of spiritual engagement.  Within the body are systems which interface in wonderful ways with the energies of the outer world.  These energies are the Medicine Energies.

Observation of the lunar energies is a convenient first practice to open the awareness to other avenues of subtle realizations which can be very helpful in avoiding the disasters of modern 'medicine' as it wreaks havoc on the aura and other subtle energy systems of the body, psyche, mind and spirit.

More later...  --soon!
Namaste, Shaman :Dagaji