Dear Friends,
I went as a pilgrim into the lands of Israel last Spring. My journey began in the ruins of Ceasarea where the stones seeped with the agony of what had occurred there—where as I lay with sorrow in the sand by the Mediterranean Sea, a compassionate Spirit enfolded me with joy deeper than sorrow. Rising from the earth, there in the sand was the outline of a large Bear and I was blessed to know that this healing Spirit, having been such a Presence on my shamanic path, had come again when needed. The next morning found us down in the Desert, cleansing ourselves in the Dead Sea—using the mud from this Kiva of the Earth to remove our old skin and put on a new body.

Whether walking in the Judean desert, in the lands of the Galilee, around the Mount of Olives, or the vast Golan Heights, every place announced its power to us. The signature of Spirit’s interventions, visions, healing and other miracles, echoes in the names of holy sites across this land.

Arriving to somewhere, we would begin by rattling and asking the Spirits to bless us as pilgrims, for the Ancestors to accept us and share of their wisdom. Lodging at various kibbutzim, invariably we would find ourselves in a cluster of children and adults. I think our drums and our rattles drew them. Soon all would be drumming, singing, and trancing together. Our medicine pouches became occasions for stories—as we heard their stories, we shared our stories from Turtle Island.

As we explored Neanderthal caves, climbed sacred mounts, and communed with the Spirits, I understood how all that ever happened was held as though Present in the soil and the stones. They are the witnesses of every shadow that has crossed over their faces. As the Aborigines would say, these are the songlines of Israel.

In the medicine way of the Lakota, the road that one journeys from the South to the North is the road from the child to the elder, from innocence to wisdom. And that’s what I felt as we traveled south from the Dead Sea, through the city of Jerusalem, and north to the hills surrounding the misty Sea of Galilee. Here on a hill at the kibbutz Kadarim, with Israeli friends we planted a Prayer Tree. It is a Prayer Tree of thanks, a peace-making tree. We hung from that tree our promise to return, work together with the peoples of Israel and whoever else chose to join us in the year 2001.

As our plane departed, I carried a new appreciation why this is called the Holy Land. Here was the place giving birth to dreamers, poets, seers, prophets, healers, and mythmakers. Across these lands peoples wandered seeking divine guidance, a way of right living, and wrestled continuously with the question of “what are we being called to do and to be now?” Over hundreds of years, these were a people who walked with the understanding that spiritual guidance would reveal to them how to form community and live with grace in the lands which shaped them.

As my spiritual landscape moved from Israel to my shamanic retreats at Blacktail Ranch in Montana, increasingly I was aware of how our Ancestors carried hopeful visions for the future. They knew the future was dependent on communal acts of traditioning, passing on the stories, healing ways, wisdom, and honoring the cycles of birth, growth, death, and rebirth—whether within ourselves as humans or within the larger nature cycles. They knew these two cycles were interdependent and inseparable.

There in Montana they have left witness to what they learned over thousands of years. Every time a Circle journeys in this ancient Cave within the mountain, we learn new songs, stories, and visions are revealed. A dialogue is developing, held every Autumn, between some of us walking the shaman’s path and others who walked down through the Ice Age and made this their homeland.

Just as I walked with the Old Ones in Israel last Spring, and caved with the Old Ones in Montana last Fall, so too can I project into a future unseen. I can imagine descendants, eons from now, seeking the places where we are now walking, lifting their faces, their questing hearts and asking of us “What did you know that is wisdom for us? What did you leave as our spiritual inheritance?” Each of us carries the future as a sacred trust. We each have our work to do, not in relationship to this Earth, but as part of this Earth. For me, it is through continued exploration and teaching of the shaman’s ways because these practices enable a way of living that manifests the robust, lyrical, and imaginative qualities embedded within the nature of our souls and embedded within our relationship with all living beings.

I have a deepening commitment to the development of global shamanic community. This entails use of our Internet technology as well as people from around the world coming together to share their shamanic ways. Tending Sacred Circles, a non-profit of which I am a founding member, is sponsoring the first international gathering of people and Circles practicing shamanism in Oracle, Arizona this Spring. Here will be the seeds planted for what we anticipate to be people working together to cultivate and support each other’s efforts in our different homelands. We can draw upon the resources of this international community for applying shamanism to global events or issues that concern us. If you are interested in knowing about these developments, you can visit our web site www.shamaniccircles.org which carries listings of circles, global celebrations, and complete details about the Oracle shamanic village being birthed this Spring.

I will also be teaching in the Netherlands this year. I continue to give some time each year for walking and working with others in a country outside the US. In each of these workshops, there is a primary shamanic focus—particular methods and ceremonies we do. Equally important, I seek to support other peoples in connecting with their ancient shamanic roots, helping to awaken the spirits that have been dormant since the last ceremony was held there, and assisting those interested in forming shamanic Circles in the lands where they live. The blessing for me is that my soul is enlarged, my understanding expanded. I have come to respect the deep mutual connection or kinship between the various forms of spirituality and how each form has shamanism as its ancient underpinning. By exploring this common shamanic heritage, we can gain a deeper respect among cultures that allows us to work together to create a world healthy for ourselves, healthy for the whole planet.

I see shamanic work as a continuous prayer:
For mountains, and rocks, tiny grains of sand
Seeds, Flowers, shrubs, and standing trees
All sister and brother species—known and unknown
Who crawl, walk and swim, or fly in, out, and above
Through the dark and glorious body of great Mother Earth
For all of the waters in their many forms
For the Sun, Moon and Stars
For all that is Circling Around,
May we Circle together—May our songs be as One
May we Circle together—May our heartbeat be One
Circling together we can spin a great spiral
Holding All in our Hands
Formed for casting our blessings,
For stretching through space to find the hand of another
To know we are one.
Love and blessings,
Carol

Please note: The sponsor or coordinator of each workshop listed below has a complete description of these workshops including details about the places, accessible airports, type of shamanic activities, and method of payment. If you are interested in participating in any of these workshops, these are the people to contact.

All these workshops have limited enrollment. I recommend you contact the indicated sponsors early to ensure participation. If for some reason you are unable to contact them, you can contact me. My email address is CEdgarBear@aol.com

This is the third annual retreat for women in the healing professions. Originally titled “Modern Medicine and Traditional Healing,” the focus has shifted from a retreat for women physicians to include women in the wide range of healing professions. It is an opportunity for women in these professions to join together, and to explore how shamanic methods can be used both for renewal of one’s self and of one’s professional life.

For a description of this workshop from 1998 click here
Contact: Dr. Rosalind Shorenstein, AMWA, Branch 59. 700 Frederick St., Ste. 103, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, phone: (831) 458-1002

April 5—9
The Desert Speaks – Oracle 2000
in Oracle, Arizona

Along with others creating this international shamanic village, I plan both to participate and to offer activities to the village. For more information go the Shamanic Circles web site

Contact: Lori Levine, 2 North Sierra Vista Drive, Tucson, AZ 85719-3838; phone: (520) 323-3626 email: LEagleBear@AOL.com

For more information, click here.

Contact: Dan Jordinelli, 6048 Hayes Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90042,
phone (323) 258-0982; email: jordinelli@earthlink.net

July 22—23
Ancestral Shamanism

Ancestors are those beings who have ‘come before,’ left their tracings in this world, and prepared the way for future generations. Whether of human, animal, mineral or some other form, shamanic peoples know that the Ancestors are sources of great wisdom, to be honored, and available for help when called upon. Ancestral Shamanism involves learning ways to reconnect with the Old Ones, to find the gifts they left for us, to know and embrace our spiritual inheritance. In this weekend, we shall do journeys and shamanic explorations connecting us with our spiritual, biological, and ecological Ancestors.

For more information, click here.

Contact: Dan Jordinelli, 6048 Hayes Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90042, phone (323) 258-0982; email: jordinelli@earthlink.net

November 11—12 (canceled)
Shamanic Extraction Healing Training
Advanced Course for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies

For more information, click here.

Contact: Amanda Foulger, P.O. Box 557, Topanga, CA 90290; phone (310) 455-3758; email: Afoulger@AOL.com

Dec. 8 (evening), 9 and 10 (Canceled)
Ancestral Shamanism

For more information, click here.

Contact: Janine Ellison, P.O. Box 82 Clinton, WA 98236, phone: (360) 341-1586

September 6—13
BearMedicine – Women’s Ways of Knowing and Practicing Shamanism

This workshop builds on eight years of intensive research, explorations, and workshops in Bear medicine practices of the Northern Hemisphere. Each year new methods and practices are introduced within the Circle of women gathered. Equally important is learning the art of circling. Special focus is given to healing practices, visionary and artistic expression, women’s rites of passage, dreams, journeys within the Cave on this land, the hibernating cycle of both ourselves and Bear. We work with the tutelary Powers that govern the feminine principles of birth, death, and rebirth. Our Circle gathers on 8000 acres of land nestled on the eastern side of the great Rocky Mountains.
Description and details of this intensive workshop (8 days/7nights) can be obtained from Pirkko Miller who coordinates the Bear Medicine retreats and workshops.

For more information about this workshop click here

Contact: Pirkko Miller, P.O. Box 1465, Warsaw, Indiana 46581; phone: (219) 834-3460, email: Pirkkobear@AOL.com

This workshop will focus on the many shamanic methods for renewing the Soul. These include finding and building the shaman’s web of power, working with Ancestral spirits, being initiated into soul healing methods, and tending the soul’s coextensive relationship with others beings in the natural world. We will be meeting in a beautiful retreat center nestled in woodlands.
For more information click here

If you are traveling from the United States, please contact Pirkko Miller. All other individuals should contact Mathilde Geraets who is coordinating this workshop.

Coordinator: Mathilde Geraets, Bies 12, 1273 CH, Huizen, The Netherlands phone: 31-355-24-0241; fax: 31 35 525 0444, email: geraets@xs4all.nl
US contact: Pirkko Miller, P.O. Box 1465, Warsaw, Indiana 46581; phone: (219) 834-3400 email: Pirkkobear@AOL.com