#3 DRAGON FLYING WITH MERLIN

Detail from cover,  Nine Songs, Chinese Shamanic poems

[This is the third in the series dealing with my entry into the events of my Apprenticeship.] 

In order to deal with the tremendous energies of my Allies (term from Castaneda, referring to spirits who can take you into the ‘Nagual’, the place outside the universe we live in, which is the Universe of Consciousness, or ‘Tonal’, --a place where there is no Consciousness), I have had to use my knowledge of yoga.  Each of my Allies has required different techniques.  Jesus, for example, caused me to squat, as if carrying a heavy weight.  I had to hold my body erect with my breath; a very useful technique.  It took me a while to recognize the spirit who caused me to squinch up my nose in a ‘piggy face’.  Marilyn Monroe had taught me about the ‘Face Chakra’, and how to use the muscles in my face to achieve various results while ‘shaping’ my breath.  It out to be Merlin, the magician, who liked to use my voice to speak, once the face was sufficiently contorted.  My voice sounded very stupid and weird.

On Wednesday, October 23, 2013, I was wakened by a dream where I was kitchen-prepping ‘the last vegetables in NYC’.  I spent the morning doing work with the I Ching, which is controlled by Marilyn Monroe. Since the Full Moon had passed, I set up the altar for Hecate, as the moon began to wane.  I smudged the apartment with sage, and began to get ready to replace the clear plastic sheet which covers the front window during the cold of winter.  The rolled up plastic was not in the utility closet, or anywhere else.  Gone.  I did some kitchen work, then sat in the vortex to see if I could trace the plastic.  Before long, my face contorted, as it usually does, in Merlin’s pose, so that my breath is directed in certain ways throughout my energy system.  Again, I went into a trance.  I was with Merlin.  He is another of my former incarnations, and is almost always present with me.  This time, we were together facing a vast darkness of space.

In a moment, we were flying.  I was learning the flight of the Dragon.  (My Shaman name, Dagaji, means ‘sacred Dragon’.  It was given to me in about 2002 by Gaia, the earth goddess.)   It was hard work!  A woman encouraged me, “Come on, Tony!”, using my childhood nickname.  As I took flight, a dark spirit face appeared right in front of my eyes, looking right into me.  It was Merlin, introducing himself.  As I continued to fly, we came to a place of land, with maybe a seashore (Japan?).  A young woman was coming toward me, perhaps from the sea.  Her shirt was open in front, showing her small breasts with large dark nipples.  I woke up slumped in my meditation pose. 

A few hours later, I posted the first blog in this series, and later composed and posted the second.  The next morning, during my time in the vortex, Jesus was very active in my yoni, causing me to rise in my seat as he growled and shouted with the energies.  I went through the day, and in the afternoon sat to clear my energies with the drums.

I began to sing my song, “Oh, woe is me…”, and after a few moments I lurched from my seat and removed the Allies’ stones from the little altar I had set up for them.  I hid them away in a storage box.  My spirit had again rejected them!  Later I watched a World Series game, and went to bed.

This morning, I used my crow wing to clear the energies from the bed where I had slept.  I did the I Ching, as a courtesy to MM.  I was pissed!  I did the bala asana, into the bow, and by that time it was 7:00, and the corner market was open.  I went out and bought a six pack of Miller.  I drank a beer, made some pancakes, had another beer, did the I Ching, and passed out on the floor.  When I woke up, I sat with the drums, and sang a little song, “They grab you by the eyeball,

and drag you through the knothole!”  Then I drummed for Gaia.  I went to the coffee shop, but couldn’t write a poem, and couldn’t draw.  I went back home and did another I Ching, which came out “Exhaustion”.  My energy body was shot!

I am beginning to see how the Apprenticeship is going to work.  I am in deep trouble!  My Allies seem to have no clue that my energy body is a wreck after the heart attacks, and because my truck is in need of repairs which I can’t afford, I can’t get out to the Power Sites to restore my energies.  I love a challenge.  I love to invent ways to deal with the situations the Allies force me into.  I love it when I beat the crap out of them!  It reminds me of Castaneda’s work, but I can’t decide which one of them is ‘The Worthy Opponent’, and who is ‘The Petty Tyrant’.  In any case, they have managed to bring my own personal spirit totally into my physical body.  He is a bit slow to act, but he’s always there, always fighting for my independence.  I’ll never forget the day a few weeks ago when Jesus showed me the pages of an open Bible, and said, “I told you so!”, and my spirit spat on him.

So I put this away for the night, and Saturday came, a lovely sunrise.  I did the I Ching again.  As I was kneeling on the floor tossing the coins, the spirits came to me.  All of them.  I moved to the trance chair to read the hexagram, and they began to work on me.  They were all over me, inside and out, having sex with every part of my body, a huge slathery free-for-all!  I realized this is the ultimate goal of Tantric Brahmacharya, --the total Tantric union with Spirit.  This was the culmination of all my yoga training! 

I understood the reasons for the repeated assaults on my energy body.  Each spirit was making a home there, in preparation for the long journey.

#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.

MY DRAGON GETS WINGS

10.27.12 Saturday

So I’m in way over my head again.  Both Jesus and Marilyn Monroe are back with me.  I don’t really know if I ever expected that my Ceremony would rid me of MM.  But she did disappear for a while.  Yesterday she beeped the door chime on my truck; just once.  Even the door chime ding has a varied tonality when she beeps it!  Sometimes it’s clumsy and tenuous.  Sometimes it sends chills up my spine.  Sometimes it scares me, and sometimes it makes me furious.  Yesterday, it was so matter-of-fact, I just noted it and kept driving.  She didn’t appear in my dreams.  But all morning I could feel her presence.

I was watching UP with Chris Hayes on MSNBC early this morning, and switching to CBS during commercials.  There she was, all blonde and in bed with white sheets pulled up to her neck, looking divine.  While she was gone, she appeared in a credit card commercial as a work of art in a gallery, looking vapid and lost.  Even on TV she manages to communicate.  It was a real treat, in the early years of my Initiation as a Shaman, to watch her movies with her on the TV.  She would tell me things about what was going on.  She would manipulate her image to make her jaw look huge, or to make a long wrinkle of fat on her back.  Now I can’t stand to see her! 

One of the ways we learn to recognize the true nature of reality is when Spirit is present and active.  She unites various levels of reality, space and time and ‘mood’ because of the expanded and augmented nature of her divinity, --her Spirit, her Goddess Nature, her nature as an ALLY. 

On Tuesday, the 23^rd, I was doing yoga in the morning, and I could feel Jesus with me.  As I was doing a heart-opener with a Chi Mudra twist, he muttered deep within me, “I Die!”  Since then he has remained out of my consciousness.  The next day, the moon cycle shifted, and the rains came.  There is a feeling that comes with the rain, which connects it with the Moods of the Moon.  This rain has been a nasty rain.  Mostly a drizzle, it’s been dark, dank, and cold.  My teeth began to hurt.  This was my body relating to the energy drain from Jesus, deep within me.  Even my stool was affected.  The spirits eat it for its energy.  (Google Tlazolteotl, Goddess of Love and Excrement.  She was with me for a while in ’06.  She spoke through me by forcing my mouth into an extreme bucktooth configuration….  She is an aspect of Marilyn Monroe.)  Then I got a message from “Reynard”.

Reynard is the Werewolf Master of the Montana Flood region of Eastern Washington.  I first met him in Ellensburg.  He set the witches to attack me so as to drive me out of town, and I ended up here in Yakima.  Reynard is a red-head.  He showed up as the son of Frank, next door in apt. #3, early this summer, with a shit-load of trouble.  After a couple of Shamanic treatments on him and his Native girlfriend, things smoothed out and they found a house a few blocks away.  He helped me to see the ‘lines of force in the universe’ which would allow me to gain access to the spirit ‘handles’ on the un-evolved souls who inhabit this region.  There are many mythical and fairie folk who live in human form, but never migrate to the urban areas.  They are creatures of the earth, and have a very special energy vibe.  Meeting with them was one of the main reasons I was moved here to Yakima.  Their energies were certainly a shock to my system!

As the rains broke for a while, I was able to install a small shipping pallet I had scavenged from the hops warehouses on my way home from the coffee shop a few mornings ago.  It fit nicely at the alley edge of my compost heap.  So I was able to rake the three years of compost onto some cardboard, set in the pallet and bolster it with stones, and refill the space with my beautiful, fully transformed compost.  Truly a prize!  I love it when the vortexes tell me where to work in the yard.  I always start with the rake, and clean the area before I enter, and things flow smoothly from there.  Otherwise, they don’t flow at all.  The garden rake is the Shaman’s key to the earth, as the broom is the Witch’s key to flight.

My yoga dance with Jesus led to a vision of the male genitals, which was transferred to the new rattle I made to use with the chakra board.  As I gave myself a chakra treatment on Thursday, I was directed to sit in the Ting.  (“Ting” is the Chinese word for cauldron, the name of I Ching hexagram #50, the most favorable in the book.  It is the name I have given to the Buddha Vortex, after Buddha left with Jesus and Quetzalcoatl to become Xoxolotl, my Anaconda Nagual, Lord of the Underworld.)   As I sat there, I went into trance, and my genitals opened to send my DRAGON into the world.  He is no longer an Anaconda.  He has morphed into a dragon, and while I was being amazed at this vision, he sprouted his wings!  My genitals exploded, and I burst out in a ‘ROARRR’.

As I sat there, amazed, he told me his name is “TEOTL”  Nahuatl for “God”.  At the same time, I was getting a message from the yoga mat on the floor in front of the Ting.  It features a large black circle, or Bindu, center of the universe.  The bindu was fluctuating in a sort of Morse Code.  It was a way to alert me to the fact that I should time my Full Moon ceremony to the Dark Crescent, three days after Full.  And just at that moment, I repeated my Death Rattle.  While Teo was emerging from my yoni, I was giving off a powerful noise from deep in my throat, which registered in some part of my consciousness as my death rattle.

I don’t know what’s going to happen next.  The moon is Full in two days.  I’ve lost track of what I’m supposed to do for Ceremony.  As I did my recapitulation this morning, it was clear that I have a duty.  In my role as Quetzalcoatl, a title I received years ago during my Initiation as a Shaman, it is my duty to put an end to the present (Christian) era.  It may be that this is happening as Jesus becomes my Nagual.  Or that could be just another Spirit mirage.  It seems I will wait until I feel that burning rage which shapes itself into a white-hot fury, to burn through meteorites, and I will know what to do as I’m doing it, as usual.

MY DAKINI RETURNS

My journey to the inner realms began in earnest in about 1964, I suppose.  It was about that time that I wandered into some of the bookstores in Seattle’s University District, where I was midway through my undergraduate ‘career’.  I found some books on Tantra.  I had known about and sort of practiced yoga for maybe half a dozen years.  I had decided long ago that Christianity was totally bankrupt and definitely not for me.  The Tantric logic intrigued me.  It seemed unassailable, indicating a depth and a centered approach to understanding the inscrutability of the psyche, which seemed to be the actual center of the world.

It took me years to gain the maturity to develop a real practice, once I had exhausted the indispensable magic of the LSD experience.  My poetry and the arts of Surrealism worked to develop an inner stability which manifested in the outer structuring of my lifestyle, which was centered on ‘get the poem!’.  The Chinese poets had figured out long ago that a simple life away from the ‘world’ was most conducive to the inner journey, and the Zen Masters had proven that many aspects of their practice had definite practical results.

Many years into the journey, I began to discover that the things I was practicing had just that same sort of results.  I did all these things, over the years, and they all actually worked!  I was transformed.  I entered the realm of the Spirits, and the spirits entered into incarnation in my physical body.  It was a psychic circus.

And then it began to fall apart.  I began to notice that twenty years had gone by with these two sharing my life, and I was not making the progress I needed to in order to complete what I began to see was my true mission.  I had been shanghaied into an agenda regarding the return of Jesus in the Second Coming.  It was a program concocted in the times before the Sphinx in Egypt, and was proving to be based on cosmic assumptions that were no longer valid.  I was in revolt.  I began to do whatever I could think of to rid myself of my hitch-hikers.

The Tantric aspect of my Shama, of course is central to the configuration of the energies which must be controlled in order to achieve the results of Mastery in this tradition.  The sexual energies are the core of our being, and of course, our being is the core of the world.  It’s all One, but the Self is the Center… Square Zero.

I must say, in spite of the difficulties I’ve encountered, that this journey I’ve undertaken is a totally fascinating experience.  If you like existential challenges, this is a wonderful path!  And it’s encouraging to know that these techniques, whichever ones you choose, actually work.

With this past New Moon, and the Despacho ‘Kooti’ Ceremony I performed at the Crescent, I seem to have achieved something especially significant.  With Jesus and Marilyn Monroe in my body, my Tantric practice was intimately tied up with them, either or both, at various times.  As their agenda began to prove itself to be bogus, this aspect of the relationship became very irritating.  My Tantric practice became a drag.

Part of what I had hoped to achieve with this cord-cutting ceremony was to ‘free up my sexuality’.  Neither of them was welcome any longer in my Tantra.

One of the delightful aspects of the practice of yoga is the Ayurvedic sequence of RDSE (Rest, Digestion, Sexual Energy).  After the morning meal, when the energies are freshest, it is a good idea to sit or lie down while the agni (digestive fires) do their work.  At a certain point, the Energy Body converts the digestive process into sexual energy, which is then available to me moved throughout the chakras via the Concentration Breath.  This brings a delightful vigor to the whole body, and to the psyche.  The sexual excitement is only a small part of this process, but is especially delicious, under the proper conditions.

Three days ago, the Ceremony had appeared to be a success, but I was wondering how I would actually assess the results.  Today, that question was answered.

As I lay on the yoga floor after breakfast, I went through the rituals of relaxations of the various parts of the body in Savasana (Corpse Pose).  At a certain point, the energies opened into a sort of movie screen, upon which images were being projected.  (I love the various ways of Seeing.  The ‘third eye’ is only one of many ways of perception, and the others are often spectacular.)

One of the things you have to get used to, in the inward journey, is going to places you might not find comfortable.  There are many aspects of the psyche, and its extensions into ‘paranormal space’, which are ‘necessary evils’, so to speak.  As I lay there, I was viewing the fly of a man’s trousers.  Behind the fly, the genitals became visible; then an image of fellatio.  At this image, the energies in my own genitals burst alive.  Soon a fire was flaming in the lower chakras, in all the colors of the inner spectrum.  I had never experienced this before. I caught the fire with my inner breathing, and the energies expanded to fill my abdomen, and expand the entire ‘frontal column’ of the chakras, the area where the Dakini resides when she visits.  The Dakini is the female sexual partner of the Tantrika.  She had been overshadowed by Jesus and Marilyn Monroe for a number of years.  Sex with the Dakini is a delicate, wonderful marvel.

Today the Dakini returned.  As I was experiencing the psychedelic colors of the male sexual energies throughout my entire body, in wave after wave, suddenly there was an opening, and another energy was visible.  It showed what seemed to be an almond-shaped opening, of lavender and magenta light, which immediately became the inner labia of a delicate vagina.  My entire energy field burst into penetration of this vagina, again something I had never experienced –a full-body Satori!

At this penetration, a number of images came to me.  It appeared that the male energy was an aspect of the God-figure Ganesha, the elephant.  It was his trunk that was curling upward along the frontal column of my energy body.  As I lay there in Corpse Pose, I became the “corpse Shiva”, the dead god, who is pictured with Shakti (the Goddess), or Kali, the dark one.  I also became Osiris, the dismembered God of ancient Egypt, one of my early Shamanic personas. 

As I’ve learned how things unfold in this world of Shamanic Reality, I can more easily understand the vastness of the inner dimensions.  I’m looking forward to the further unfolding of other aspects of the Ceremony, as this moon progresses toward Full Moon on the 29^th, just before Halloween!

'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.

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. This is called 'catching the breath'.  When you have caught the breath, force it through the open throat, and direct it first into the tops and bottoms of the lungs.  Then open the lower belly, and force the breath directly through the throat into the belly.  Use the breath to expand the pelvic bones; then expand he shoulder bones.  Then force the breath into the back of the neck, and up into the brain.  You'll see how it's done!  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

Begin in Child's Pose (Balasana): Drop to vajrasana, knees on floor, sitting on heels; bend forward to prayer position, forehead on floor, arms outstretched in front of you.  Position and reposition any part of your body which doesn't feel perfectly comfortable.  As you 'catch your breath' (begin to enter into conscious breathing), you will notice an easing in various parts of the body --(see CONCENTRATION BREATH).  As you follow the breathing, you will enter into your body, and your mind will relax as it deals with the aches and pains within you.  Just keep repositioning any part of the body which doesn't feel right, and keep breathing directly into the stiffness.  You'll get the hang of it quickly.  After a time, you will notice the entire body feels great.  You can get up.  Do this any time you get depressed or uptight!

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 ayni, 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)