Dancing Horse Tea House

NEWSBRIEF: Greetings and many welcomes to my readers!  Here we are, gathered in the Dancing Horse Teahouse for the first meeting of 2009. Can you believe it?  Whatever happened to time? Come to that, whatever is going on out there? The world seems to be whirling at an ever faster pace but the question remains: just where are we going and what is the purpose of this journey?

There are many confused people in the world. There are people who are afraid of what is coming, because of what has already happened. Many are caught up in a dream that, slowly but surely, is becoming a nightmare. For many, the nightmare is already a hideous reality that eats away at the tenuous hold they have on life, even a very short life that, because of the situation in which they exist, is destined for quick extinction. (See my news feature, Giaidrama).

There is, I assure you, a way out of this labyrinth. See the DREAM that you are living for what it is. Is it what you really want? Decide if it is worth all the hassle, the tension, the stress, and whether all the effort that goes into its materialization is really what life is about. If you find that it not fulfilling all your potential but rather debasing them, then quit, while you can. Set about the search for a new beginning, and here’s how.

See a new dream as a possibility. See the changed dream , and change the dream .  (see Themes and Meditations). 

DIARY DASH: ISTANBUL 2008, Sufi Music and the Whirling Dervishes.

On a recent visit to Turkey, and on my return to Istanbul from Trabzon on the Black Sea, I was delighted and blessed to be able to be present at an evening given by the Sufi, founded by the great Rumi, followers of the Mevlevi Way.
  
The Whirling Ceremony, correctly called the Sema, is made up of a group called the “Mutrip”, consisting of a flautist, a drummer, chanters and choir. The Mutrip gathers in the front of the Sema chamber. Then the dervishes take their place and the Naat-i-Sherif is recited by the chanter in praise of the prophet Mohammed. Then the drum, representing a divine command, announces “BE!” The flute then takes the role of the soul given up to the universe. Following this meditation, the dervishes bow to each other before the sheepskin post in acknowledgement of the divine truth at the centre of each one of us. The semazen, (dervishes), remove their cloaks and begin, slowly, to whirl. Here is the birth of humanity. His clothes; first, the sikke, the tall slender headdress represents the tombstone of the ego. Next, the hirka, a long, black cloak, is its tomb. The distinctive, full-skirted white robe, the tennure, is the shroud worn on interrment. The arms across the chest represent “one”, the symbol of the unity of God. During the Sema, the dervishes move circle-wise with upraised arms, the right hand opened upwards, the left turned downwards. This is a statement of intent: From God we receive, to man we give. We keep nothing to ourselves. As Mevlana Rumi said: If you entered the Sema you leave both worlds:  the world of the Sema is outside both worlds.

Just as the moon and plants revolve around their own axis and that of the sun, the semazens circle the chamber. The Sema is a means for humans to reach the Divine Reality.It is an intoxication of the soul and during the first cycle they view all the worlds, reaching for the grandeur and majesty of God, testifying their faith in that Unity. In the second round, they dissolve themselves in this Unity. In the third, purification and maturity come about and, in the fourth, and final cycle, the semazen arrive at the point of non-existence within the Divine Being. The flautist ends the ceremony, accompanied by a quiet reading from the Koran. This is an ending, and a new beginning, as are all cycles, an unfolding whilst on a journey. One leaves the chamber but, somehow, the Sema becomes part of you, like the wind that whistles round the corner and passes by with a caress, a sigh.

AURIGA Review
Reviewed by Emeliye Akdjali, Ph.D

VIETNAM   by C.G.Auty.   
Ebury Press, UK, 2006. ISBN: 9-7800-919-10129

Attitudes to war, whatever war, wherever pursued, vary as broadly as the imagination of the human mind can express. War, as we know it today, is neither glorious nor romantic. Gone are the days when poetry and literature could present a wordy picture of the gallent soldier fighting for “king and country”, the glory of manhood and the object of a swooning female adoring public.

Vietnam changed all that if only because it is within the living memory of all people today who are forty plus, maybe even younger. Not only that, it is still, decades later, fresh in the minds of all those, on all sides, who took part.

The importance of this book cannot be over-emphasised. In every aspect, the war thunders and blunders its way into life, from the simplest peasant working in the paddy fields to the most eloquent and educated people who participated, or those who merely observed. Its greatest value is the fact that it makes its point through the ideas, thoughts, impressions, experiences and traumas on all sides who fought, for whatever reason. Very few hisorical works present such a measured and balanced view of what actually took place.

This is precisely the value of oral history. It is history from a personal point of view, born out of personal experience. It is observation from the inside of events, not those of a mere onlooker drawing conclusions from “factual “ analysis. It is sad, honest, brave, far from glorious, inevitably heartbreaking. It highlights human ambition, power, ignorance, helplessness, deviousness and betrayel. Humanity at it worst, occassionally at its best.

THE SHAMANIC WAY OF THE BEE:   
Simon Buxton, Destiny Books, Vermont,
USA, 2006. ISBN: 978-159477119-4

Simon Buxton, the founder and director of the Sacred Trust, has long been known as a highly gifted teacher of the shamanic arts. Now he has proved himself to be a writer of great talent where words soon become a blend of poetry and ecstasy.

His initiation into the ancient world of the shamanic way of the bee is a journey into pain, the death of the ego, the renaissance of awareness. The slow, at times torturous evolution into a world that is both subtle and elusive, the stuff of dreams, is an astonishing revelation of a way of life that, on the suface, would appear to be totally out of keeping with the ultra-modern world of the twenty-first millenia. Yet, in its raw, sexually driven ecstatic power,, it is an image which is both as ancient as the drawings on cave walls, and as modern as “drug-imbibing, hallucinating, screaming addicts” at any jive in today’s world.

The difference is supplied by the drive of the bee-hive with its millions of years of collective wisdom, its discipline, its intensive focus, its capacity to thrive and survive by pursuing its way of being, its metaphysical right of life, honouring Mother Earth.

To be initiated into those rites, to become an intregal member of the hive, is to enter on a path, an ancient way of life that is both sacred and sublime. It demands discipline, responsibility,dedication, impeccability of intent. Above all, it is a way of life that honours Mother Earth and the life force that is the gift of the Cosmos.

In this day and age, such an initiation is an awe-inspiring event. Simon is to be congratulated on sharing with the world such a vivid and honest account of this most intimate of experiences.                                                                                                              

The truly inspiring example of his skilled and loving teachers is something that enriches this book beyond measure. Few teachers can reach such hights.   


THE SPONTANEOUS HEALING OF BELIEF:   
Gregg Braden.  Hay House, Inc, USA
2008.  ISBN-13: 978-1-4019-1689-3

“Just the way sound creates visible waves as it travels through a droplet of water, our “belief waves” ripple through the quantum fabric of the universe to become our bodies and the healing, abundance, and peace – or disease, lack and suffering – that we experience in life. And just the way we can tune a sound to change its patterns, we can tune our beliefs to preserve or destroy all that we cherish, including life itself.
In a malleable world where everything from atoms to cells is changing to match our beliefs, we’re limited only by the way we think of ourselves in that world.”(Dedication)

With these challenging, down to earth words, Gregg Braden opens up for us the possibilities we all have, within ouselves, to change not only ourselves but the very fabric of what we have been educated to look upon as the “reality” of our world.

If there is a way for the miraculous to achieve change by belief in that change, then there must also be a way for science to prove that change is miraculous. The way to do that is to combine the power of both, by taking a quantum leap into that world where change can, and must, become our way of thinking. That, in itself, would be a miracle.

Can it be done? Braden says it can, but you can prove it for yourself. He uses the image of the computer to explain how our conciousness actually works. He goes further and declares that that is the way the world works. It interacts with us through the language which our beliefs engender. But we live our lives, for the most part, oblivious of this reality, the result of conditioning since earliest school years.

In understanding belief and how it functions we can alter our perception of ourselves, of life. Above all, it can show us that belief takes us way beyond the limitations seemingly imposed by those perceptions and take us into a world where miracles are a fact of life. Best of all, science is beginning to share that view, which is, after all, a miracle in itself.

This is a thrilling and thought-provoking book, a challenge not to be missed. It is a book that will provoke change – the beginning of the miracle.

IMAGERY IN HEALING.  
Jeanne Achterberg.  Shambala Publications, Inc. USA,1985
ISBN:  0-394-73031-3 (Random House)

“A renewal of focus on the imagination as at once an ancient and potent aspect of healing will help mark this decade as having initiated the most dramatic advances in medicine the world has yet seen. The forces responsible for bringing about these changes represent a grand confluence of theology, psychology, medicine and anthropology, and are embodied in the personages of the scientist and the shaman.”  (P.4)

Nothing could better express the dilemma of modern medicine and medical research than this staement.. It has been their pragmatic, philosophical and theoretical standpoint for as long as shamans have practised their art. Imagination is at the heart of the human psyche. Do we believe what we see or do we see what we believe? Either way, the answer lies in the achievement of balance The achievement of balance is a matter of finesse.

Clowns are wonderful shamans. Imagine (!) you see a tightrope lying in the sawdust. Enter the clowns. One, with huge boots, a tiny umbrella and a massive wig, begins to do the walk. He convinces the crowd and his colleagues that he is walking over a massive canyon. He is going to fall. If he falls, he will be dead. He is in imminent danger. Terror fills the great top. Both the crowd, ( and not just the children,) and his colleagues go beserk. He persists in the walk. His imagination will take him to the other side. And he will take the whole of the Big Top with him. The other clowns employ the whole of the audience to help in the rescue, shouting advice to the clowns. They scramble, tears pouring down their faces, real tears. What can they do to change things, they ask?  The walker looks down ‘into the abyss’, terror in every inch of his body language. We all know what we are seeing, but do we believe it? Of course we do. Why? Because we want to. Why? Because it changes everything we believe, it takes us into another world where everything is possible. We want the change, but not on a temporary basis, for a thrill, but for real. We need the change and its results. The clown reaches the other side and bows. The crowd cheer and laugh. That is the change. We all feel better, relieved. Laughter is the best medicine. The “journey into the unknown” was a challenge. What if we could make that challenge a way of life?

We can do the same with illness, even terminal illness. We can challenge the body: I’m not having this. You may not invade my body and take over my life. I will not tolerate this “sick dream” inside me. So “dream it out”. That is one way a shaman works.

This book, written by a professor of psychology with a profound interest in, and practising knowledge of shamanism, offers an approach which combines a scientific analysis and the practices used by early healers, where imagery was used to help the patient accept responsibility for the event taking place and its effects on the body as a whole. It is a triumph of the imagination in which both worlds can function and cooperate to the benefit of the sick one and the learning processes of the other.

THE BIOLOGY OF BELIEF:   
Bruce H. Lipton.  Hay House Inc., USA, 2005.
ISBN: 978-1-4019-2311-2

“By finally giving the energy-based environment its due, it provided for a grand convergence uniting the science and practice of allopathic medicine, complimentary medicine, and the spiritual wisdom of ancient and modern faiths.” (p. xiv)

When you pick up a book which, on the one hand, turns scientific knowledge  on its head and, at the same time, is an energy-driven, page turning epic of transformative thought, you end up both exhausted and exhilerated. Few books can achieve that, especially if it comes from the scientific world.

Nevertheless, that is precisely what Bruce Lipton has achieved. Chapter Four is not only sheer fun, it is an introduction to quantum physics which he brought upon himself by getting a copy of The Cosmic Code, merely as an afterthought. This put him into a state of aftershock upon discovering the debate about ‘the tendency to exist’. One by one his illusions were shattered, as many of yours may be. Turn the pages and find out where his discoveries led him.

In the epilogue we are asked to consider the human body as a television set. (You’ve already seen it as a computer so why not? Braden, above). I’m not going to spoil the fun of your imagination running riot. Read it, and see where you end up on the spectrum of life. It is so much more interesting and challenging than you could ever have realised, and the human potential is breathtaking. Don Juan Matus, (the Toltec), must be laughing his head off. Who needs explanations? Just do it.

A marvellous, erudite and delightful book. Every page is a challenge and you will need all your imagination  to go on this journey. If, and when, you return, one thing is certain-you will be changed. And that  will be another miracle, one you will have proved for yourself, and perhaps for others too.

TOLTEC  DREAMING:   
Ken Eagle Feather.  Bear and Company, Vermont, USA, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-59143-072-8      

This is Ken Eagle Feather’s fourth, and possibly his best book on the world of the modern Toltec era. Dealing with the energetic body is an exercise in metaphysical subtleties . It is not a world that can be “talked” into knowing. As he clearly states, again and again, it is something you have to work at, day in, day out, and to experience. Every sentence carries the express authority of one who has done just that.

Eagle Feather has a unique gift. He carries his inaccessibility into his writing. His sentences are highly economical and carry an enormous authority that comes from a specific source, pure energy. The power of thought needs no elaboration. Such clarity comes from the world of tracking and dreaming , his place of predilection.

This is a book that demands focus and serious intent, but it also a joy to read, and share some of his experiences here and “out there.”  The openess to other cultures, other paths, is refreshing. Best of all, it is a reminder that the roots of the ‘shamanic’ way are deep, broad ,and always capable of evolving to meet the demands of the day without losing the power of authenticity and a  lineage that is as old as the history of mankind. Don Juan’s teaching is, if anything, more applicable to the situation we are in today than perhaps ever before. We need to change, as he said. Ken Eagle Feather is a living example of the way – the Toltec way – that can come about, if we apply ourselves. The choice is ours.

CHILD’S EYE BOOKSHELF:
  

THE PINK FAIRY BOOK:    
THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK:
THE YELLOW FAIRY BOOK:

Here is a joyful collection reproduced by the Folio Society in that unique and beautiful way that is their hallmark. It would be difficult to imagine a more beautiful Christmas or birthday gift than this. The paintings and decorations by Charles van Sandwyk are quite intoxicating. The very youngest of children will pour over them for hours and no doubt come up with their own versions eventually. A wonderful encouragement to creativity.

The stories come from all over the world and include the most well-known and many which are not so well-known. Parents will enjoy reading them for their children as much as the children will be enthralled.

I started this feature in the last issue and it seems the timing was spot on! It is essential that people talk, communicate, exchange ideas. It doesn’t matter if they don’t agree. It is better to struggle over words, ideas, proposals, counter-proposals, contradictions, rather than blow each other up, leaving the earth strewn with blood, bone and guts. Just after Pomegranate Seeds 7 went on line, things began to happen.

Can you believe this? Military top brass are speaking their minds on the political situation in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are now saying that we need to talk to the Taliban instead of fighting, instead of wasting young lives and destroying the pitiful infrastructure that exists in a poor, relatively illiterate and deprived society. In a recent interview with the BBC, Colonel.Tim Collins, with the British Forces in Iraq, stated that the Taliban know that the USA is not going away and that we should talk to them. He went on to say that they are Afghanis; we should help and educate them rather than attack them. There is no military solution here. We must find an Afghan solution to Afghan problems

British C. O. in Afghanistan, Mark Carleton-Smith said that NATO has produced disappointing results and there must be a huge surge of troops into Afghanistan, the majority of whom will be from the USA. A marked difference in attitude here.

If you believe that war and attack are roads to peace and freedom and progress, then look into oral history, the words and memories of those, on all sides, who endured it. One of the greatest books in this genre is by Christian G. Appy: VIETNAM (see Auriga Review). If, by the time you have finished it, you do not understand the call by Col. Tim Collins, for a halt to attack and the need for talks with the Taliban, then WW1, WW2, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, and all the other conflicts now taking place, have been a complete waste of time and life for one reason – we have learned nothing and the fault for these conflicts lies squarely with each one of us.

The resolution of the war in Afghanistan is an Afghan solution. The resolution of the war in Iraq is an Iraqi solution. Solutions to conflict are political acts. So stop the attacks and talk – finally.

The creation of a new Palestine is a political requirement, and that means TALKING! If Hamas really wants peace and a political future, then sit at the table and TALK!

Once again, the CONGO has become a centre of vicious war and multiple violations of human and animal rights. What are we waiting for – total annihilation?  The following was received as I was typing these words. It says far more than I can on the situation.

GAIADRAMA,   

ACT ONE,  SCENE ONE

This is a new series which will look at events and environmental issues as they occur around the world and which affect Mother Earth and all life forms. In shamanic philosophy, all life on earth and in the Cosmos, is equal and sacred. When we honour life we honour Mother Earth. If we dishonour life, by whatever means, we betray Mother Earth, the sustainer of all life. Those who betray life defile Mother Earth. Wild life, all creature life, cannot betray this principle because, in the act of survival, they honour life and Mother Earth, who sustains them. This is their way of being. Survival is their metaphysical right.

In this edition, Gaiadrama will, with the help of a most courageous piece of reporting by a young woman, Ramita Navai, which came out on UK Television, Channel Four, on October 17th,  take a look at an ongoing event which is not only shocking, but an outrageous affront to the sanctity of life and a heinous betrayal of Mother Earth. Not only that, the activities and thinking involved are a direct affront to, and contradiction of,  the concept of “healing” as understood in the shamanic world.

I refer to the phenomenon of the SANGOMA and the MUTI murders in the Republic of South Africa. The Sangoma are self-proclaimed ‘healers’ who, in order to obtain what they interpret as “power”, organize small gangs of two or three men, the Muti, to go out into the population and obtain body parts which are then used in ritualistic events and ‘healing.’They hold that this is the essential path to “power” by which, only, they can pursue their life-work.

What these people are, in fact, is murderous barbarians. Can a ‘healer’ terrify its subject into health?  The Sangoma believe they take “power” from the human parts they store up. They also believe that the greater the pain and fear experienced by the “donors” of these body parts, the greater will be the “power” accruing to the “healer”.

On the orders of a Sangoma, the Muti, go out, decide on a “donor”, and  living parts are hacked off the body with axe or machete. Feet, hands, limbs, genitalia, eyes and ears, lips, parts of the abdominal cavity, are taken. The breasts and other parts of a pregnant woman are especially treasured. One young boy, whose lips were sliced off during an attack, played dead under the bodies and escaped with his life. Those bodies were the men, women and children of his family. All these parts are then brought to the Sangoma,who stores them in his house in large jars.

When the local police were questioned as to why these activities were not only tolerated, but known to be expanding, the answer was the desperate need for money. Many body parts can fetch up to £250 - £550, more than a year’s wages for some. One group of men was caught on their way to Johannesburg carrying the testicles of young boys to sell..  There are many witnesses to these atrocities, but the fear of the Sangoma and the Muti killing groups is paramount. A special branch has been created in the police force, (not before time), the Investigative Psychological Unit, to deal with this problem. The officers are mainly white because the black officers are culturally affected by the “Sangoma syndrome”, (my prescriptive definition).

Our intrepid young reporter set up a meeting with a suspected Sangoma in a remote village who agreed to talk if features were not revealed. He admitted that he had an organized vigilante group who killed for him. He himself had killed three people and used their parts in ritual healing. Such parts were taken from living “donors”. He confirmed that the greater the pain and suffering the donor underwent, the greater the “power” he received from their use, and he was quite happy that it should be so. He showed her his wallet, made from a human scrotum, in which he carried herbs, and which had been obtained only “with great difficulty from the donor”. When asked if he had a wife he stated that it was so and that he had two children. When asked if he would use them as donors, he agreed he would “if power demanded it because the people needed his help”. He was later reported to the police who had long suspected he was Sangoma. One is forced to ask why, if he was suspected, they needed an outsider to confirm the facts and report them.

Such individuals are an affront to the sanctity of life and an abomination on the face of Mother Earth. Their activities have nothing to do with the art of healing in the shamanic meaning of the term. On the one hand it is the work of a depraved mind, On the other, it is another example of the male ego seeking to control its environment, to rule by fear, expressing itself in freak-control situations. Such people should be named and shamed, brought out into the light of day, judged and dealt with according to the law of the land. Mother Earth should not be contaminated by any vestige of their presence.

To punish them with mere fines is an insult to their victims. People who inspire terror need to experience the terror of being shown the “power” of ineffectiveness. They need to be exposed as ordinary mortals who, without the possibility of ruling by fear, are reduced to their true level, barbarians who practice fraud on a gigantic scale.

The Republic of South Africa needs to get to grips with the situation, to get a grip on themselves, and come to grips with these insidious, “dark power-mongers” who walk the land, murdering, mutilating, terrorizing. “Healers” they are not.

Ramita Navai and her team are to be congratulated on a brilliant piece of investigative reporting which must have been nauseating and unsettling. Channel Four has brought many exposures to the screen and on the 12th November, yet another shocking report came out, this time on Nigeria.

ACT ONE, Scene TWO
            
THE EVANGELICALS AND THE “WITCH CHILDREN”
IN NIGERIA   

In the name of a gentle healer, prophet and Rabbi, Yeshua of Nazareth,  approximately 15,000 children from the age of three and up to teenage, are tortured, killed, thrown out of their families on to the streets, ostracized, abandoned, declared to be witches who have caused sickness, loss of crops, death in the family, harbingers of disease, servants of satan. Whatever a “Christian” church is capable of spitting up, you name it, this is what the children of Nigeria are accused of.  They roam the countryside, starving, covered in scars inflicted by their torturers, priests and priestesses who purport to “love” the world and the people they “serve”. They are self-appointed priests, judges, healers, torturers and juries all in one, and in the name of one who condemned none.

So just what is going on in Nigeria? Where is the rule of law? What is the government doing about this outrageous situation? What kind of a church is it that, like the Sangoma in South Africa, cause the people to live under a reign of terror and abuse in which innocent children are the stigmatized guilty parties. On the orders of these monstrous effigies of self-righteousness, families evict their children that have been condemned as witches. They are driven out of their villages and left to roam the countryside, helpless and abandoned. The government is responsible for the welfare of its people. It is responsible for the education, health and security of its citizens. Religion, of whatever denomination, is not exempt from the law. And religion that purports to act in the name of its founder, but flouts all the principles by which that founder operated, is not only a menace to the society within which it functions, but is an insult to its founder and an abomination to Mother Earth on which it practices these atrocities. Yeshua, in his capacity as Rabbi and healer, drove the evil out but unfailingly treated the victim with love and compassion.

The Pentecostal Church has, in line with the extremes of the “power drive” that feeds these self-appointed egos, become a distortion that only a religion can configurate. It has adapted the “black arts” as pursued in ancient worlds, becoming distorted into the means to control, mainly by fear, the everyday world. The church has forgotten its founder’s way of life to such a degree that, in reality, it is now the home of the “Black Arts” dressed up in fancy clothes like a circus ring master, but much more dangerous.

Children have been made to drink a concoction of mercury and the “bishop’s” blood in order to get confessions to witchcraft. Drops are forced into their eyes in order to “blind them from the sight of satan”. The same “bishop” admitted, with a broad smile, that he had killed 110 people identified as witches. If parents cannot afford to pay his fee for an exorcism, the child becomes his captive. In other words, his slave. One girl of about thirteen had had a nail driven into her skull to “drive out the devil”. Two boys were chained day and night until they confessed and were then killed. Exorcism is big business and lucrative. The “victim” of satan is the scapegoat. Just who is “satan” in this tragedy?

Is there any light in the tunnel? Is there even an end to the tunnel? There has been a recent upsurge in reported cases which can be traced to one source, the Liberty Gospel Church, founded by Helen Ukpabio. (Name possibly incorrectly spelt).It already has 450 branch churches. (www.libertygospelchurch.com)  She has released a film: End of The Wicked, which supports the fight against witches. When interviewed by Channel Four, she was extremely aggressive and outraged by the charges laid at her door.

Gary Foxtrott, an English Christian living in Nigeria, co-founded Stepping Stones and is the funding manager of the charity, set up to bring help and hope to the young victims of this appalling situation. Their most important aim, to remove the children from the brainwashing influence of this “priesthood”. But the urgent need is to bring these children, and their suffering, to the highest authority in the land. Gary organized a vast gathering of children to form a protest march. Villagers and parents, not out of sorrow for their suffering children, but because it would draw attention to the witchhunt, protested angrily but he succeeded. He was supported by CRARN, a foundation working for the establishment of a law for Children’s Rights in Nigeria. Hundreds gathered in Port Ibaka and marched to Government House. There they sang until the Governor came out to speak to them. They presented a Petition for a Law of Children’s Rights. He accepted it and promised that it would be signed into law at once. There is more to the law than adding a flourishing signature to a document. It requires responsible action, preferably now.

No convictions have yet been processed against the perpetrators of these atrocities. How long will Mother Earth bear such pain and suffering polluting the land?

(Source :   www.channel4.com/dispatches   CTRL + click to follow link  (UK)     

(For  suggested further action with reference to Acts 1 and 2 of Gaiadrama, please see final feature.)

ACT ONE, Scene THREE

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS from around the world.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Twenty-seven new sites have been added to the list at  the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee. Included are natural sites in Yemen,the Socotra Archipelago, the Saryarka Steppe and lakes in northern Kazakhstan, and the lagoons of New Caledonia. Also the Mijikenda Kaya fortress in Kenya, and the wooden churches of the Slovak area of the Carpathian Mountain Area in Slovakia. This brings the total list of the WHS to 878. Source, UNESCO news service, 2008.

Recent studies of birds affected by lead poisoning from ammunition can have serious implications for human health. Exposure to even low levels of lead can cause organ damage, hearing loss and Alzheimer’s disease. Particularly at risk are those who enjoy hunter shot game. In America the use of lead bullets has been banned in California’s condor range because the species has been suffering losses due to lead poisoning. Source: American Bird Conservancy press release.

Biodiversity Loss Indicates a Drop in Global GDP:

The Stern Report claims that the living standards of the poor may halve as intact ecosystems start to dismantle. Reduction may reach 7% by 2050, and its effects will be felt mainly by the 1.5 billion poor who, at the moment, are the principal beneficiaries of healthy ecosystems. The calculation is based mainly on deforestation. The hope is that, as expressed in economic terms, it may encourage governments to look seriously at the issues and act urgently to halt the losses ensuing. Source: BBC News 2008.

“Huge Step for Mankind!”  Another One!

Statutory Rights for Apes in Spain were granted by the Spanish Parliament’ s environmental committee, some of which previously applied only to humans. It is expected to be passed into law following Parliamentary ruling within a year. The Great Ape Project was drawn up by scientists and philosophers. It will ban activities such as harmful research, ape trading, and using apes for public performances. Zoos will be allowed to keep apes in order to ensure breeding of rare and endangered species, but only in appropriately styled enclosures which allow the maximum possible freedom.

Source: Nature 2008.(ADD HERE THE EM SENT REF SLAUGHTER IN FAROE )      

OPEN LETTERS

E-mail from Frederik (Croatia):
Who says that he is surprised when he finds shamanic practitioners who, in speaking of their work on a web site or in an advertisement, refer not only to that work as healer or therapist or teacher, (whatever), but also give their qualifications in that work and any academic degrees they may hold. He feels that such self-advertising is out of place by those who profess to serve the Spirit.

Thanks Frederik! Your question rightly points to a dilemma. Modern day practitioners living in the developed world are, to a large extent, deprived of that most basic element which was the normal part of the old shamanic way, that of living in a community in which they played an important and unique role. They were honoured for their healing skills, physical, psychological and spiritual. For their ability to see into the future and plan for the welfare of their community, its stability and development.

Western practitioners live, for the most part, in highly developed areas, where education has affected all areas of thought, changed attitudes, and, to a very large extent, broken the sense of community and care which was the mark of older societies. The indiginous gift of community is very strong, but modern practitioners live either in the city or in suburbia. For them life can sometimes be very isolated. Because they are not surrounded by a community of which they are an essential and vital part, they have to make a living. Almost all of them are professionals in some sphere or other. To be “considered” professional, they must have qualifications, without which they cannot practise because of the legal requirement for insurance, both for themselves and for their clients.

One of the great attributes of shamanism is its ability to adapt to circumstances. It is the oldest extant “way of life” in the world, from the time of paintings on the walls of caves to the present time. It is a world-wide phenomenon, practised by peoples of all languages, races and cultures, in all environments. Their qualifications are simply accessories, needful, helpful, keeping them grounded, in touch with whatever society they inhabit, even if that society, for the most part, rejects them, either through ignorance or misunderstanding or prejudice.