Indie Issue 29 - Indie Shaman · and Indie Shaman as we know it now was formed. The shop was started shortly after with the aim of financially supporting the free services Indie Shaman

Issue 29 £3.99

ISSN 2050-568X (Online)

Siberian Shamanism: The Sacred Grounds

Indie Shamanfor independent spirits

Honouring the Sacred in Nature and our Earth Soul

Happy 10th Birthday Indie Shaman!

Exploring Ancient

Woodland with the Woodland

TrustA Meditation to

Connect to Mother Earth

www.indieshaman.co.uk

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Indie ShamanFor Independent Spirits

Honouring our Ancestors Honouring the Land

Honouring our Community and Ourselves

Indie Shaman aims to provide a means of helping people answer questions about life, promote self discovery and self development and encourage respect for the self, the community and the land. We aim to do this by providing a supportive network for those interested in a Shamanic way of life, as well as for Shaman and Shamanic Practitioners from all cultures and for those of mixed heritage as well as those who are unsure yet as to where their cultural heritage lies.

The answer to the question “what does the ‘Indie’ in Indie Shaman stand for?” is, as most people guess, independent; meaning all inclusive regardless of tradition or area of shamanic interest. Indie Shaman was set up with the aim of being approachable and providing accessible support, advice and information, spanning across traditional indigenous shamanism, contemporary shamanism and multiculturalism. The ‘Indie’ in Indie Shaman also means independent person who thinks for themselves as in our slogan ‘For Independent Spirits’, a very shamanic trait found in both indigenous and contemporary shaman. Plus we liked the pun!

HistoryIndie Shaman began as a discussion board in 2006. When it moved to its own hosted website, forum members suggested they could help contribute to the cost of running the site through membership and Indie Shaman as we know it now was formed. The shop was started shortly after with the aim of financially supporting the free services Indie Shaman offered. As our membership had expanded from those interested in training in shamanism to include those interested in shamanism in a wider context the concept of a ‘shamanic lifestyle’ was explored and included.

In 2008 members suggested starting up a ‘Good Causes’ Fund with donations being made by Indie Shaman including from shop sales and in 2009 we first adopted a hedgehog from Secret World Wildlife Sanctuary. We were pleasantly surprised to then receive a rather cuddly hedgehog and it was decided he could travel and visit members around the world. Shaman Sham the Wandering Hedgehog was born! Starting in the UK Sham visited many countries including Ireland, Scotland, Greece, the US, Peru and Spain; most notably attending 2 courses in shamanism with Ross Heaven earning his own ‘ologies’ and discovering his true name, Ezekiel. A member’s suggestion and further fundraiser in 2010 led to the adoption of Madadh, a beautiful wolf from Wolf Watch UK. We have also supported other animal rescue work such as Billy’s Campaign, a young abandoned horse rescued in 2016.

By 2009 Indie Shaman could afford to offer something more to members and Indie Shaman magazine was launched. Summer 2012 was the first edition of the magazine to have an ISSN number, being officially available for sale to the general public and stored for posterity with the British Library. 2012 was also the year when we first launched a pdf subscription giving an affordable, ecological option particularly suitable for our growing number of subscribers outside the UK. We have, of course continued to give free membership benefits to all subscribers to continue the sense of community.

Indie Shaman offers free information sharing to facilitate finding events, workshops or a practitioner and 2013 saw the expansion of both pages on our website. Sharing information about relevant books and the growing number of books reviewed for the magazine led to the birth of our book review website Shamanism Books.

The Future Indie Shaman has been through a few changes in response to demand since that first year and aims to continue to respond to the needs of those who approach us so if you have a good idea do contact us!

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Indie Shaman

WEBSITEwww.indieshaman.co.uk

OFFICE 18 Bradwell GroveDanesmoorChesterfieldDerbyshireS45 9TA

EDITORJune Kent

[email protected] 251768

All articles and images are © Indie Shaman 2009-2016 or to the artist, photographer, writer where named unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved.

The views expressed in the articles and advertisements in the Indie Shaman Magazine are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the editor/Indie Shaman.

The editor/Indie Shaman takes no responsibility for errors, omissions or the consequences thereof and or for any actions taken in relation to any article herein or for any contract entered into with any third party.

Environmental and Accessibility

Indie Shaman is committed to minimize the effects of its activities on the environment. Indie Shaman Magazine is produced by Minuteman Press, Bristol, whose products

are Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) www.fsc.org certificated and meet the requirements of the Programme

for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) Chain of Custody wwwpefc.org.

Indie Shaman is committed to aiming towards equality of accessibility. For this reason this magazine uses a book rather than traditional magazine layout, with clear print

size and spacing.

We carried out research with the help of our subscribers to make sure we are providing the service you want and we value your feedback. If you have any comments or

questions on any of the above please contact us:

by email to: [email protected]

or by post to: June Kent, Indie Shaman,

18 Bradwell Grove, DanesmoorChesterfield, Derbyshire, S45 9TA

Cover Features: 7

Honouring the Sacred in Nature and our Earth

Soul

Exploring Ancient Woodland

17

The Sacred Grounds: Siberian

Shamanism

13

22

A Meditation to connect to Mother

Earth4

Contributors

ArticlesBrooke Medicine-EagleChrista MackinnonElen SentierEoghan OdinssonMartin PallotRochelle Kent-EllisVirlana Tkacz

PhotographyFront Cover: ‘Inukshuk’, Christa MacKinnon. www.christamackinnon.com/Back Cover: ‘Barmouth’, Simon Harding.

ColumnistsYvonne Ryves, Shaman Moon

PoetMartin Pallot. martinpallot.wordpress.com. Contact: [email protected].

‘Shay Mann’Simon Harding

ReviewersJune KentWendy Stokes. www.wendystokes.co.uk

Editorial and ProductionEditor, Design & Production - June KentProofreading - Moonmad AntlermanPrinting - Minuteman Press, BristolDistribution - www.indieshaman.co.uk

ContentsFeatures

7 Honouring the Sacred in Nature and our Earth Soul

13 The Sacred Grounds: Siberian Shamanism

17 Exploring Ancient Woodland

22 A Meditation to Connect to Mother Earth

23 Meadow of Stags

27 A Deer Hunt

29 Northern Plantlore: Dill

Regulars & Snippets

3 About Indie Shaman

6 Community News

37 Shaman Moon

38 Shay Mann

39 Book Reviews

43 Events Calendar

www.indieshaman.co.ukwww.facebook.com/IndieShamanhttps://twitter.com/JuneKent

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Magazine subscriptions are available at www.indieshaman.co.uk. Only £10.00 a year for pdf subscriptions via email and from £20.72 a year (UK subscription price) for print editions. Subscription includes other benefits and offers plus 50p from all subscriptions go to support wildlife charities!

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Editor’s LetterWelcome to Issue 29 of Indie Shaman magazine and happy birthday Indie Shaman!

As you may know (I’ve probably said it a few times by now!) each issue of Indie Shaman magazine evolves from the articles sent by contributors, rather than a topic being set by me in advance. A bit like Indie Shaman itself, the magazine then grows organically. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, or lots of hard work for the editor at least, but it always seems to work well and I believe gives the opportunity for all to be as it is meant to be.

This issue began with me and Rochelle getting a wonderful opportunity to visit some ancient British woodland with the Woodland Trust. Synchronicity working as it tends to if you let it, as articles arrived it became obvious that the topic for this issue was to do with, as the lead article from Christa Mackinnon is entitled, Honouring the Sacred in Nature. A very appropriate topic for Indie Shaman’s 10th birthday issue as it is one, I know, dear to many of our hearts, souls and practice.

Many thanks to Blythe at Inner Traditions and Virlana Tkacz for The Sacred Grounds extract from Siberian Shamanism; a beautifully illustrated book I highly recommend, which describes the Shanar ritual of the Buryats.

Many thanks also to Christa Mackinnon for the beautiful front cover image of an Inukshuk from Northern Canada. We don’t know if Inukshuks were also used as ’showing the path in a more spiritual sense’ but they certainly are used as symbolism in a spiritual sense for that now. A wonderful, very appropriate image for this issue’s front cover!

NEWSHappy Birthday Indie Shaman!

Indie Shaman began as an online community in 2006, making it now 10 years old. The magazine itself is slightly younger having launched 3 years later in 2009. Many thanks to all subscribers, customers, contributors, friends and partners; we couldn’t have done it without you!

Visit to Bagger Wood with the Woodland Trust

Rochelle and I spent a very enjoyable and highly educational morning at Bagger Wood, ancient woodland near Barnsley in Yorkshire. Do read Rochelle’s very informative article about ancient woodland on page 17 of this issue ... then go and explore some ancient woodland for yourself (enter your location at https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ to discover your nearest wood). With many thanks to the Woodland Trust’s Senior PR Officer, Dee Smith; Site Manager Paul Jarczewski and Ancient Woodland Restoration Project Manager Dean Kirkland, who also happens to be a shamanic practitioner!

Inukshuks (Front Cover Image)

The image on this issue’s front cover is of an Inukshuk. These stone constructions, which are everywhere in Northern Canada, originate from the Inuit culture. Inukshuks are made from unworked stones and have been used by the Inuit for ‘communication and survival’ to mark good hunting places, good fishing places, good ways to travel through a mountain or valley etc. - the Inukshuk points in the right direction. The traditional meaning of the Inukshuk is “Someone was here” or “You are on the right path”.

Information on Inukshuks courtesy of Christa Mackinnon

Community News

Many blessings, June

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Honouring the Sacred in

Nature and our Earth

Soul

Christa Mackinnon

Lately I have been reminded that shamanism and nature are not only connected but that shamanism cannot be understood without striving to experience this connection on a deep level. Am I stating the obvious? Yes maybe, but when writing my latest book I was surprised how difficult I found it to write a ‘short nature chapter’ for a readership that would be mainly urban. Around the same time I was also asked in an interview if ‘urban shamanism’ is moving dangerously away from the nature aspect of indigenous, traditional shamanism, which was deeply embedded within the natural world – a question that played on my mind for a while afterwards. And, as if the world knew that this subject was on my mind, I was offered to talk at a conference about ‘psychotherapy and nature’, which prompted me to search for the latest data on the subject of ‘mental/emotional well-being and nature’.

Based on these experiences I thought, “why not write an article about one of the nature aspects I explore and discuss in my book, namely ‘the sacred in nature’”.

Indigenous voices about the sacred in nature

Living in a predominantly urban world, it is indeed easy to forget that shamanism originates from indigenous communities that were deeply embedded in the natural world, observed it closely and were connected to its spirits and the ‘earth’s soul’; therefore the deriving shamanic cosmology is traditionally nature-based. One of the most important teachings we have been blessed with is that people all over the world who are still rooted in such Earth-based traditions have always maintained that being embedded in nature means being close to creation, the creator and the divine - that the sacred is directly experienced through creation and can be understood through observation and communication with the spirit(s) of nature.

While we, in our so-called ‘modern world’, have for millennia been led to believe that the divine is somewhere ‘out there’, indigenous teachers remind us that the sacred and divine is ‘right here’. The Aboriginal teacher and artist Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann expresses this when she writes that it is easy for her to experience God when she hunts, is in the bush or is amongst trees. Her people have

“In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred. Everything is for sale”Oren R. Lyons (Faithkeeper of the Turtle clan)

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been so aware of nature that it is natural for her to feel close to the creator1. And Carlos Perez Shuma, a Peruvian shaman, echoes this from the other side of the world when he says “...because in nature there is God and God talks to us in our visions”2.

But not only have we been led to believe that the divine is ‘out there’, we have also been led to believe that we are separate from nature and, most importantly, that we are a superior species. Societies’ current spiritual beliefs, based on our religions, affirm human superiority instead of equality and the sacredness of all living beings. In Genesis God says “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground”3.

In contrast, from a shamanic viewpoint, everything in the web of life is not only alive and interrelated but it is equally sacred as it derives from the same spiritual field. The loss of this knowing has led to devastating consequences. The more we define ourselves as separate from nature, the less we follow the intent of the spiritual dimension from which we have arisen. And the more we harm, not only the manifested dimension of our Earth, which we can see in the ecological damage we have done, but also the spiritual and sacred dimension of the Earth and our own souls. It is therefore not surprising that we hear increasingly urgent calls from shamans, medicine people and tribal leaders to wake up to the dangerous level of our disconnection from the sacred in nature and our violation of her inherent laws.

Living in the right way

The more I delved into the subject the more I understood that we need to wake up to the divine in nature because only the knowing of the divine in every living thing leads inherently to everything being treated with respect, rather than being exploited for the gain of one species, namely our own. This doesn’t mean, however, that Earth-based cultures are sentimental about animals and plants. Animals are killed for food and plants are eaten but understanding their inherent spirits leads to an honourable way of taking their lives. When I was in Mongolia I was touched by how the nomadic herders, whose livelihood was rearing and slaughtering animals, honoured their spirits. You could find animal skulls everywhere being used to house the spirits of the slaughtered animals. Societies that are still Earth-

1 Ungunmerr-Bauman, M.R. (2007) Dadiiri Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Awareness. http://nextwave.org.au/wp-con tent/uploads/Dadirri-Inner-Deep-Listening-M-R-Ungunmerr-Bauman-Refl.pdf2 Narby, J. (2003) The Cosmic Serpent, DNA and the Origin of Knowledge. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc. p.23 Genesis, 1, page 28

“...because in nature there is God and God

talks to us in our visions”.

Carlos Perez Shuma

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based will also thank the animal spirits for giving their earthly body for human nourishment and often hold ceremonies in honour of them. When I worked with shamans in South America, no food was consumed without offerings to the spirits and all leftover food was given away rather than binned. When they cut plants for healing or collected wood for a ceremony, they always left an offering in return and thanked the trees and the plants. In most traditions, including the North American, Inuit and Siberian, all edible parts of the animal are eaten, spirit guides are asked to lead the hunters to the animal spirit to thank it and feathers, skins and furs are worn in ceremony. The contrast to our cruel factory farming and slaughtering of about 56 billion animals per year worldwide couldn’t be stronger.

Once we reconnect to the divine in nature and begin to feel it, we will also appreciate the shamanic notion that nature teaches us right from wrong and that sustainability is directly connected to this. Eli Gatoga, a Cherokee chief, expressed this when he said, ‘”The Indian made an effort to know of spiritual things from his own observations of nature, because all truth can be found in Nature”1. Slava Cheltuev, a shaman from the Dyayat Kypchak clan of Russia’s Altai Mountains, says: “Our earth is sacred ... living on the earth, each person must respect their place. We must respect it, protect it and it will give us life, it will give us health.2”. While Oren R. Lyons, university professor, author of many books and Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, pulls it together stringently: “In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred. Everything is for sale”3.

It is, in my opinion, the sacred in nature that we need to re-experience because the moment we understand the sacredness, we also realize that the right way to live is in balance and harmony with the natural laws that are inherent in the underlying field of the divine mother. This means respectingthe preciousness of all life, giving something back whenever we take something, honouring the spirits within nature, contributing positively to the underlying energetic spiritual field and striving to live in a way that sustains all creation and helps it to thrive.

The starving of our sacred earth souls

But it is not only the earth and the many life forms we harm with our ‘forgetting about the sacredness’ of all life. Within this cosmology of the sacred inter-connectedness of all life it becomes obvious that the harm we do to nature within the web we also do to ourselves, to our body/mind and especially to our souls.

If we look at human development, we realize that we are indeed beings of both nature and culture and that our increasing neglect of the nature dimension of ourselves causes soul starvation and mental/emotional problems. My own observations as a psychologist, therapist and shamanic practitioner

1 Gatoga, E. (1914-1983) http://www.freepressjournal.in/the-call-of-nature/2 http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/land-has-breath-respecting-nature-in-altai 3 Lyons, O. http://www.indigenouspeople.net/orenlyon.htm p.1

“In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred. Everything is

for sale”. Oren R. Lyons

9

over many years have shown me how much disenchantment, emotional and mental imbalance and rootlessness modern people experience. This is supported by profound research, which also shows us the healing power of nature on the psyche. Nature symbolism is, for instance, dominant in healing experiences and people of all age groups feel emotionally more stable, more peaceful, more alive, more compassionate and re-enchanted after spending time in nature.

Nature also shows us alternatives to our consumer-orientated way of life. Bill Plotkin, a shamanic eco-psychologist who facilitates long, intensive, wilderness camps observes that: “...healthy human development requires a constant balancing of the influences and demands of both nature and culture... By suppressing the nature dimension of human development... industrial growth society engenders an immature citizenry unable to imagine a life beyond consumerism and soul-suppressing jobs1”

Unfortunately our longing for nature is increasingly pushed into the subconscious. Only when we are encouraged to dig a bit deeper do we realize that shamanic teachers are right, our mind still associates being powerful and wild; being at home; feeling safe, peaceful and healthy; with being in nature. In my practice I have never experienced anybody who, when asked to find their place of power, sanctuary, peace or healing, visualized a crowded city, their place of work, a shopping mall, a club or any other place in our urban world. People of all ages and social backgrounds visualize a place in nature.

The connection to nature is not only important for our mental and emotional wellbeing but also for re-experiencing the sacred within ourselves. As we begin to reconnect consciously with nature, we 1 Plotkin, B. (2008) Nature and the Human Soul. Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World. Novato, California: New World Library p. 610

recognize that our Earth soul is indeed wild and needs to be allowed to tune into where it lives, namely the vast and beautiful realms of nature, in order to be nourished and reflect itself back to us. In shamanism every time we connect with nature in a sacred way we reinforce the sacred within us, nurture our soul and give ourselves a chance to experience ‘being home’.

So, why am I writing about this? Well, mainly to stress that we as contemporary shamanic practitioners need to stay connected to earth and nature. We need to make time to be in nature, to be alone and still and to converse and merge with nature spirits, allies and helpers. We need to focus on learning from nature, be inspired by it, heal and do healing work with the underlying energy fields, revitalize and re-energize our powers, quest for vision and tune into the seasons. We need to reconnect with the divine within nature and use the many ways and means we have, from wilderness camps to vision quests, from fire ceremonies to connecting with the underlying spirit essences of trees, plants, mountains, rocks, water, stars and planets. Above all we might need to remember, in our very urban world and life styles, that ongoing work that makes us stay connected to the earth and to nature is not only good for our souls and for the planet but is a necessity if we call ourselves ‘shamanic practitioners’, as we cannot understand and practice shamanism without it.

Author’s BioChrista Mackinnon (MSc, DFC, PgDHyp, DITECH, FSBCH) is a psychologist, counsellor, clinical hypnotherapist, shamanic teacher and author. Christa trains, lectures and speaks internationally and also runs training courses and workshops in the UK, mainly combining shamanism and contemporary therapeutic approaches. She has worked with and been apprenticed to shamans in Asia and the Americas. Her ground breaking book Shamanism and Spirituality in Therapeutic Practice has been compared to the writings of C.G. Jung, and can be purchased via Amazon or Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Her latest book Shamanism: Awaken and Develop the Shamanic Force Within, has been written as an introduction to shamanism and can be purchased at Hay House and Amazon. If you are interested in finding out more about Christa’s courses and workshops please visit www.christamackinnon.com.11

The Woodland Trust is a registered charity. Numbers 294344 and SC038885. 8074 05/16

Find out moreWeb: woodlandtrustshop.com/memories Phone: 0330 333 5310

When a loved one dies, return them to nature and grow new life with the Woodland Trust’s eco-friendly biodegradable urns which can be buried with a tree.

Or keep them close with a beautiful piece of silver ash keepsake jewellery.

You’ll be directly supporting our country’s wonderful woods and wildlife, so your loved one will leave a lasting legacy we can all treasure.

Leave a lasting legacy of woods and trees

Complimentary sapling with

every urn

Christa Mackinnon

Psychologist, Counsellor, Clinical Hypnotherapist,

Shamanic Teacher and Author.

‘Shamanism: Awaken and Develop the Shamanic Force Within’, written as

an introduction to shamanism.

Her ground breaking book ‘Shamanism andSpirituality in Therapeutic Practice’ has been

compared to the writings of C.G. Jung.

Soul JourneysChrista o�ers a range of courses,

workshops and retreats.

For more information visit www.christamackinnon.com

12

The Sacred Grounds

An excerpt from

Siberian ShamanismVirlana Tkacz

On a good day At a good time

Mountain trees were pulled out with their roots. Mountain trees were cut at the root.

Each leaf was made golden. Each branch was silvered.

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The appointed place for the ritual was a large grassy meadow surrounded by gentle rolling hills. There were no shrines or temples. Here in the "lap of Nature," as old Buryats say, everything has a spirit - not only people and animals but also trees, rivers and mountains. A shaman mediates between the world of humans and the world of spirits. The spirits of nature help him in this process.

The tree that the Buryats respect and call their "family tree" is the birch. During a ritual the birch is a conduit between people and the world of the spirits. In special places large birches were dug out with their roots and smaller birch saplings were cut down at the root. They were brought to the ritual grounds with all their branches and leaves intact. Here they were decorated and set into the ground in a traditional pattern, as an offering to the spirits.

Two birch groves were set up. At the south end the men dug a large hole for a tall, thin birch. This birch was the Serge, or the Hitching Post.

The shamans at this ritual were both Black and White. Black and White in this case does not mean good and evil but rather defines two different traditions of shamanism. A Black shaman beats a drum while chanting and calls on the spirits of the earth. White shamans ring a bell as they chant. Black shamanism is believed to have arisen in the Lake Baikal area. The origins of White shamanism are less clear. Some scholars believe that White shamanism contains fragments of an old Mesopotamian religion, brought to this area thousands of years ago. Others point to the obvious influence of Buddhism.

Black and White were united For this full white Shanar

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In the Buryat Aga Region of Siberia, where the borders of Russia, Mongolia and China come together, Black and White shamans conduct rituals together. The Buryats here are Khori Buryats, descendants of Khoridoi Mergen and the Mother Swan. They consider themselves to be Swan people - descendants of Heaven who can unite the Black and the White.

During this Shanar Black and White shamans took turns conducting the various rituals. The White shamans used the southern birch grove, while the Black shamans used the northern grove. Most of the shamans in Bayir’s circle practice on both Black and White sides but each shaman has a preference for one. Bayir, as the leader of the group, would usually choose the Black side, which is considered to be more powerful. The other Black shaman was Dulma Dashiyeva, a striking woman from Aga. The leader of the White side was the shamaness Seseg Balzhinimayeva.

Bayir, Dulma and Seseg, now all in their forties, started on the path to shamanism at the same time. Those were difficult times, since shamanism was forbidden under the Soviets. All religions were dubbed “the opiate of the people,” but shamanism was considered a particularly odious form that prevented its “unenlightened practitioners” from joining the “progress on the road to socialism.” Shamans were portrayed as insane or devilish. The anti-religion campaigns of the 1930s and 1950s were particularly harsh. In the Buryat Aga Region people tell many stories of shamans who defied the authorities, but eventually most were shot or disappeared into the labour camps of northern Siberia.

Some shamans joined the exodus of Aga Buryats to Mongolia. Although Mongolia was a Soviet satellite state, the remote Buryat villages of Eastern Mongolia were far from government scrutiny. There the shamans were able to quietly continue their practices. With the easing of Soviet control Aga Buryats started to travel to these villages. Bayir, Seseg and Dulma, who were then young shamans in search of a traditional mentor, were able to find an old shaman in a Buryat village in Mongolia who became their teacher. And so the ancient traditions, which had been in danger of being lost because of the seventy-year ban, were revived.

Today times are good because people can openly display their belief in shamanism; but they are also very hard times economically. Seseg once taught kindergarten in her native village but the government stopped paying teachers in remote villages. Seseg had to think about her family’s survival. She

"The swan is our mother and the birch our family tree," say the old Buryats.The Khori Buryat Chronicles begin with the story of a hunter, Khoridoi Mergen, who discovers nine wild swans shedding their swan dresses to becomebeautiful girls. He steals one of the swan dresses while the girls are swimmingin lake Baikal. Startled, most of the swans fly off, but one is left behind to pleadwith the hunter for her swan dress. He refuses to return it, but marries her.Together they have eleven sons, who eventually head the eleven Khori Buryat clans.One day, when the sons are all grown, the Swan Mother begs Khoridoi to let her try on her old swan dress. Khoridoi at first is reluctant; then he shuts the door of thetent and carefully pulls the swan dress from its hiding place. As the wife putson the dress, she transforms into a swan and flies out of the smoke hole in thecentre of the tent. To this day the Khori Buryats await the return of their Swan Mother.

15

decided to get a cow because, as she said, at least the children would always have milk on their lips. So Seseg, educated to be a teacher, now keeps a cow for a living and practices shamanism. Many other educated Buryat villagers were also forced by circumstances to return to their ancient traditional ways.

In addition to Bayir, Dulma, and Seseg, there were several other shamans at the Shanar who were only starting on the path to shamanism. They served as assistants to the shamans during the ritual. There was Bato-Bolot, a middle-aged man who preferred to shamanize on the White side, and Tuyana, a young shamaness who preferred the Black side. Then there was the kindly elder Bolod-Akhe1 from the collective farms far to the south near the great lakes that border on Mongolia, and the beautiful Olya from Alkhanay who had only recently discovered her calling.

The calling to become a shaman usually first appears as a very serious illness that seems incurable. It is known as shaman sickness. The person must acknowledge that the source of the illness is spiritual. They also must accept the fact that they will become a shaman and undergo a ritual before the illness disappears.

The dedicating shaman at the Shanar was Volodya Zhaltsapov. He was the reason we were all there. He was the one who was bringing this Shanar to his ancestors.

Author biographiesVirlana Tkacz, the recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships, is director of the Yara Arts Group in New York. Since 1996 she has worked with Buryat artists to create theatre pieces based on Buryat stories, poetry and songs. Sayan Zhambalov is a Buryat writer, actor and singer. He performed with the Yara Arts Group and heads Uragsha, a traditional music ensemble that has performed at the World Music Institute in New York. Wanda Phipps is a poet, translator and founding member of the Yara Arts Group. A recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, her work has appeared in more than a hundred literary journals and anthologies.

Photography: Alexander Khantaev

Siberian Shamanism by Virlana Tkacz © 2016 Inner Traditions. Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International. www.InnerTraditions.com

1 Akhe is how Buryats address respected male elders. Abgey is the term used for respected female elders.16

Exploring Ancient Woodland

Rochelle Kent-Ellis

‘There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it,

and fills it with noble inclinations’ Washington Irving.

Indie Shaman were recently invited to the Woodland Trust’s charismatic Bagger Wood; an ancient woodland restoration site near Barnsley in South Yorkshire where their team are using a variety of landscaping techniques to achieve a state of high ecological diversity. This, ultimately, means transforming the woods back to how they were before non-native conifers were introduced for timber production, to a variety of much more natural native broadleaf species such as oak, ash and birch which are more ecologically beneficial.

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Every single one of us has at one time or another indulged in the tranquillity, adventure and intrigue that the natural world can offer us. Whether it’s climbing trees as kids in the summer or walking our four-legged friends amongst the falling leaves in autumn, we’ve all received something out of being in nature. Let’s also not forget the practical uses of the woods: from the Romans sourcing building materials, to the King’s deer forests, to charcoal extraction during the industrial revolution and more recently the rising trend in foraging (keep your eyes peeled for Bristol’s up and coming edible woods!). Unfortunately, as such enjoyments are taken for granted, there are now fewer and fewer truly natural spaces with only 2% of UK land coverage being classified as ancient woodland. Their protection is more vital than ever before.

The term ‘ancient woodland’ as we know it refers to wooded areas that have been under continuous tree cover since 1600AD1. It is believed that our first true maps were birthed in the 1600s, thus providing us with our starting point for ancient woodland history. We also know that there was little woodland creation up until and including the middle ages, therefore we can assume if one has been in existence since 1600AD, it had probably been there a long while beforehand too!

Ancient woodlands provide an irreplaceable haven for a significant biodiversity of native flora and fauna species. The lively bustling woodland scene is full of buzzing bees, characterful birds rustling in the leaves and a gentle flowing stream; bearing a stark contrast with the neighbouring crop field, barren and quiet only a few meters away. It is a not-so-subtle reminder of how important such areas are for so many species to call home in our increasingly over-developed countryside. During their development, plants, insects, birds and mammals have evolved together, intrinsically intertwining to create these unique habitats. For this reason ancient woodlands cannot be mimicked or replaced and therefore must be protected. The UK Biodiversity Action Plan (1994) has in fact categorised ancient woodland as the single most important type of woodland in nature conservation2 and rightly so.

Aside from their overwhelming ecological significance, these sites are of great importance to a whole host of communities and individuals from dog walkers to shamanic practitioners. Natural spaces with deep-rooted history and limited disturbance are seldom come across and in addition to the much-researched health benefits of ‘getting back to nature’, they can be sources of unparalleled creative and spiritual inspiration.

When assessing whether or not woodland can qualify as ancient, ecologists tend to look for ‘indicator species’. These species are those that are heavily associated with ancient woodland, preferring such habitats and therefore used as tools to indicate for how long these sites are likely to have existed. Such indicators include the bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), woodruff (Galium odoratum) and common dog-violet (Viola riviniana)3. One indicator species alone is insufficient evidence for determining ancient woodland as they may occur elsewhere or have been planted by a person. However, many of these occurring together in addition to details of the history of the site can provide high enough levels of probability to confirm such a status4.

As Woodland Trust Ancient Woodland Restoration Project Manager, Dean Kirkland, summed up for us, “restoration, basically, is all about balancing the light

1 Woodland Trust. (2006) Interview at Bagger Wood. Recorded: 24th May 2016.2 Thomas, R.C., Kirby, K.J. & Reid, C.M. (1997) The conservation of a fragmented ecosystem within a cultural landscape- The case of ancient woodland in England. Biological Conservation: 82 (3). 243.3 Woodland Trust. (2006) Ancient woodland species. Available: http://www.backonthemap.org.uk/theproject/analysis/species. Last accessed 18th Apr 2016.4 Peterken, G. (2000) Identifying ancient woodland using vascular plant indicators. British Wildlife: 11 (3). 153-158

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levels”. And it makes sense; by allowing a fine balance of light and space to the ground, seeds from the desired trees are able to germinate and regeneration will occur naturally. If you picture a forest of evergreen pines, you are presented with a dense canopy providing a year-round heavy shade with very little light able to reach the forest floor. This therefore places a cap on the potential diversity of surrounding flora, which then impacts on the insects that feed upon them and so the birds and the mammals. In order to achieve the conditions we would expect to see in a more natural setting, at Bagger Wood the Woodland Trust is selecting a number of conifers to remove, which then allows natural processes to take the lead. By thinning out the conifers, they are creating breaks in the canopy, allowing different species the chance to thrive. It is clear that the once popular clear-felling (removing the entire population of an unwanted species) and planting is not the most successful method of restoration here, as this creates an abundance of light rather than a balance, which can be of detriment to the long-term success of the project. Where trees are totally absent, thick vegetation such as bracken (think hoards of six foot nettles!) is given the opportunity to take over and out-compete any tree saplings, thereby creating another threat to ancient woodland by leaving little room for the species we need. The lesson here seems to be that if we go in too heavy handed, then we end up losing what we’re actually trying to protect.

With flora currently in a sub-optimal state, it is highly vulnerable to threats such as grazing pressure from deer and rabbits and tree deterioration caused by grey squirrels. Without a single natural predator in the UK, deer are widespread, very successful animals. It is understandable that the lure of young saplings is irresistible to little Bambi when he’s feeling peckish, however this places significant pressure on the populations of woodland tree species. In order to better understand the impact that this is having on Bagger Wood, the Woodland Trust have deer-proofed a number of areas around the site using simple barriers. This will allow researchers to draw comparisons between the areas that deer do have access to, and the areas they do not. Once the extent of the impact is determined, the appropriate counteractions can be carried out in order to protect the woods.

Restoration in action: inviting the light in(Photo © Woodland Trust)

Not so innocent: squirrels wreak havoc on trees by stripping bark

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“Restoration ... is all about balancing the light levels”.Bagger Wood - areas before restoration (above) and after restoration (below)

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It’s an unfortunate truth that without restoration and carefully considered management of these areas, many species will be lost from the woods, including the nation’s sweetheart, the bluebell. Put quite simply, the less plant species there are, the less insects, rodents and small mammals there will be and therefore the more glamorous fauna members including owls and badgers will be scarce if not totally absent due to a lack of resources!

Between the blackcaps, heaps of wild garlic and a tawny owl on the hunt, our trip to Bagger Wood was a welcome reminder of how important wild spaces are and how healthy it feels to be out in nature, especially somewhere as special as ancient woodland.

It’s not only the ecologists that can help to make a difference though, we can all take part. Widely recognised as ‘citizen science’, public involvement is a vital branch of studying nature as it allows the public to be the eyes and ears of conservation. Nature’s Calendar (http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/) is a useful website created by the Woodland Trust to service just this. Anybody and everybody can log their sightings and records on the site with the ultimate goal of understanding the populations of species countrywide. Official records date back to the 1700s and since then a significant body of data has been collected from a variety of sites. This is currently helping to determine exactly how things are changing in the environment, how our wildlife is adapting to it and what we can do to help.

You can find out more about how the Woodland Trust are helping protect woods throughout the country and in your local area, as well as find your nearest woodland site and how you can help make a difference at https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/.

Author’s BioRochelle Kent-Ellis is a zoologist who is passionate about wildlife and environmental issues. She has participated in a diverse range of conservation work including: tracking wolves and lynx in Poland; working as a conservation assistant at a fishing cat research and conservation project in the wetlands of Sam Roi Yot, Thailand; working on the Mankwe Wildlife Reserve in South Africa and initiating a project erecting barn owl nest boxes in Wiltshire, England! Rochelle is also a keen wildlife photographer and some of her portfolio of wildlife photography can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/tesauphotography/. When not writing for Indie Shaman she can currently be found working on waterway maintenance and restoration in South Yorkshire.

Many species rely on ancient woodland for survival, including the much-adored dormouse. (Photo courtesy of The Woodland Trust)

More informationWith many thanks to the Woodland Trust’s Senior PR Officer Dee Smith; Site Manager, Paul Jarczewski and Ancient Woodland Restoration Project Manager, Dean Kirkland for our very informative and extremely enjoyable tour of Bagger Wood. For more information on the Woodland Trust, how you can get involved, your ultimate guide to British trees, things to do in the woods and much more visit https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/.21

A Meditation to Connect to Mother Earth

Brooke Medicine-EagleIf possible, find a place to sit in where you can be quiet in nature. It could be on your lawn, in the back yard or near a tree. It would be wonderful to have your feet bare on the earth, touching some part of the natural world.

As you sit, pay attention to your body and become as present in it as possible, becoming aware of your physical sensations as you sit on the ground and whatever other physical sensations you feel, perhaps the breeze touching your skin.

So awaken your body and its sensations as much as possible, remembering that one way to think of meditation is to open our bodies, our minds and our hearts in a sensual connection with all of life, making ourselves available to perceive and connect to all that is around and within us.

Now turn your attention to the area just below your navel. Put your right hand on your belly and with your middle finger press a bit, right there at that centre, the area of your womb, your feminine centre. Put your attention there at what my elders call ‘mother’s mind’.

Tighten your stomach muscles, your belly muscles, tighten and loosen. Awaken that part of your body using your muscles. And sense that there is a powerful centre of energy there.

Then from that place become aware of golden cords which extend from there: down and down and down to the centre, to the warm core of Mother Earth. Imagine and become aware of those cords.

This gives you a deep connection with the centre of the Earth. What’s interesting is that every other person, thing or being also has these golden cords that connect them to the centre of the Earth. So you can connect with any other thing or being through this central place.

So for instance to be in communion with a tree, rather than this interaction taking place at the surface, you might rather follow these lines deep into the Earth and connect in that direct way with the tree and its intelligence.

As you do this more and more, you become bodily aware of all of life, in a more profound way, so it is a way to centre yourself and open to the wisdom of Mother Earth and All Our Relations.

Author’s BioBrooke Medicine Eagle is a legendary Earthkeeper, wisdom teacher, healer, visionary, singer/songwriter, catalyst for wholeness, and ceremonial leader. She is the author of the Native American literary classic, Buffalo Woman Comes Singing and of The Last Ghost Dance. Her music recordings, teachings, writings and wilderness spiritual retreats have touched the hearts and minds of people world-wide. Website www.medicineeagle.com.

Photo of Brook © 2016 Lisa Levantwww.goddessonearth.com

Brooke’s events in the UK in AugustAugust 4th - 7th, For the Love of Mother Earth: a women’s leadership retreat, healing circle and Earth Ceremony, Snowdonia Mountain Lodge near Bangor, Wales. Residential £495, non-residential £295. For more information call Claire on 07970 409 724 or visit www.northwalesretreats.comAugust 27th, Blossoming into Harmony workshop: a Native Way of Coming to Presence and Power, at Shamanic Planet in Deal, Kent. £100. For more information call Seersha on 07809 722 097, www.shamanicplanet.com

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Meadow of Stags

Elen SentierInchnadamph, at Assynt in Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland, is an anglicisation of the Gaelic name Innis nan Damh which means Meadow of Stags. Wild and beautiful it harks me back to ancient times and is one of my favourite places on Earth.

In April this year my friend and fellow British native shaman, Fiona Dove (with her two lovely whippet ladies) and I took a cottage beside Loch Assynt and stayed for a week. Deer visited us every day, coming right up to the window as well as standing on the mountain sides and cliffs around us and we saw a young trout in the pool behind the cottage and ospreys fished the loch. And I saw my first wild golden eagle flying in front of us up the loch as we were out driving one day. He went to sit on a cliff about thirty feet up and posed for us. Unfortunately neither of us had a camera that would do him justice so we just sat in the car with our jaws clanging on our kneecaps. I even went “Squeeeeeee!” for the very first time in my life. It was utterly mind-blowing!

In April it’s like being in the tundra. The mountains are stark and bare. Most mornings they were crowned with snow and, on our very last morning, the snow came right down to the lower skirts of the Quinag, the mountain behind the cottage. The birch trees – the most prevalent tree around there – were just pinking up into bud whereas, down here in Herefordshire, they had been much further along when I left for Scotland on the train. It’s things like that which really bring it home about what lines of latitude are really about, how they affect climate, and weather too. I so love it when the Earth shows me like this just how she really is, not book-learning nor reading it on Google but reality, the real thing, feeling it on my skin, scenting the different smells of the land as well as seeing it.

Meadow of Stags is one of those special places that tugs and holds your heart in ways that are hard to put into words, it’s a homecoming feeling but so much more than that and it takes me back thousands of years every time I go there. I always feel I’m so close to our ancient ancestors while I’m there, that their spirits are out, lurking in the woods and heather and bracken, on the paths, in the lochs, just waiting for me to come close so they can show me things.23

It’s famous for the Bone Caves. The caves were found to contain bones of Eurasian lynx, brown bear, Arctic fox, reindeer from as long ago as 47,000 years ago and the only evidence of polar bears so far found in Scotland. They also found human skeletons from about 5,000 years ago. The bones were found by cavers in 1995 deep within the Uamh an Claonaite system (Scottish Gaelic for cave of the sloping rock). It’s the longest cave system in Scotland consisting of a series of dry passages and a series of at least six sumps which have been dived over the years. Rather them than me as I’m claustrophobic!

We visited the caves last time we were up here and also walked along above Uamh an Claonaite which is quite incredible. When you walk above caves and passages, feeling all the time through your feet for the threads going down and along, you’re actually there, down in them. We got a lot last time we were up here as we walked the ways our ancestors from way back had gone. One was the most incredible water-slide; you drop down into the sink-hole and the water carries you down through this passage all the way down the hill up which we had just walked! We’d stopped at the bottom and felt an “oddness”, a feel of “landing” but had not understood it … when we stood by the sink-hole at the top we got the message! Despite my claustrophobia there was a strong urge to jump down and do it again, 5,000 years later, but we managed to restrain each other from trying it!

Meadow of Stags is such a good place for foot-dowsing, as my Dad called it; at least it is for Fiona and me. We really do find ourselves following in the deer trods, the ancient paths the deer have trod for thousands of years and which they still follow now. On one walk we found ourselves literally following three young stags up a path. We hadn’t realised they were there when we began but on rounding a rock there they were! They stopped grazing and looked up at us, staring, watching.

Meeting their eyes we could sense into what they were thinking about us and it was fascinating … Humans! No guns! Dogs! Smell female. Interesting. Ah they want to walk past us ... and on that last they moved aside up the hill a short way to look down on us as we followed the path. Needless to say we said thank you! And we made sure the dogs stayed quiet and close beside us too!

I love mountains, so being here was wonderful that way too. Mountains are sentient, they think and feel and you can hear them if you ask to do so … and are willing to believe you can. It’s so “normal and easy” for most people to dismiss the whole idea of being able to communicate intelligently with anything other than humans but, in so doing, we cut ourselves off from the rest of creation. Everything

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can and does hear us, hear our thoughts, and much of it would like to communicate with us too but cannot get through the force-field-wall most of us put up against the whole idea of such communication. These mountains – Suilven, the Golden Mountain, and Canisp and the Quinag – were all very talkative. I found myself getting up in the early hours to watch them through my bedroom window and to talk with them. Some days I’d pull on boots and coat to go outside with them. We were there over the full moon which was quite incredible and sparked the mountains in a whole other way. The land gets pulled by the moon too as well as the water in the loch, I don’t understand scientifically how this works but by damn I could feel it! The mountains also sparked us into the joint writing of an adventure novel set there and we’ve got 10,000 words of it done already – I just wish I had more moments to get back to it now I’m home again. Must get some discipline on this!

The moon was amazing. I had the upstairs bedroom looking out over the loch so I could watch her come sailing up and over us and, on our last night, she put on a terrific light-show. I woke at about 3am to see the most wonderful rainbow of colours in the sky. I got up to see what was going on and saw them repeated down in the loch. The moon herself was hidden behind a cloud but her light was pouring rainbows across the sky and across the water. I’ve never seen anything like before and stood watching for I don’t know how long until I thought, ‘I must photograph this’. No sooner thought than the cloud moved and the light-show was gone. No way did the moon want me taking pictures; this was just for me to remember.

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As well as walking, we drove around some of the back roads and that was incredible too. If you’ve been up in Sutherland you’ll know that the A-roads are just about all single track with passing spaces and if you look at the map you’ll also see there are very few roads up there of any description! I love this and so does Fiona, although one of our drives brought our hearts into our mouths on lots of occasions. There you are on this single track road also knowing that lorries use it too. You come up the hill to the top and you can’t see over … you can’t see the road because it drops away so steeply. And sometimes it both drops away and makes a right-angle bend at the same time! I had to get out a couple of times and walk forward over the brow of the hill to convince us both we weren’t about to drive over the edge of the world! Well done to Fiona for her driving skills and courage.

But it was so worth it. We got views we’d never seen before, saw the mountains from all sides, saw deep down into sea lochs full of tiny islands and down into deep valleys where there would be just one house … and the best way for the folks who lived there to get around was by boat! Oh how we’d have loved to live in one of those.

I could live up there. It’s wild. It’s the place for lynx and wolf and even bear and most certainly for reindeer as it’s actually cold enough for them to thrive. The people, the local people, are lovely too – you know they can’t think you’re too bad when they take the trouble to try to get you to pronounce loch properly! One day … maybe. In the meantime I must just keep on going up for visits. Meadow of Stags lives within me; I’m there again now as I write this despite my physical body being a day’s travelling south of there. It’s one of my favourite sacred places.

Author’s BioElen Sentier is an author and teacher: she writes books on British native shamanism and magic/mystery/romance novels. She was born on Dartmoor and grew up on Exmoor, and now lives, with her cats, husband and a host of wildlife in the back of beyond by the river Wye in the Welsh Marches of Britain. www.elensentier.co.uk

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A Deer HuntMartin Pallot

There were six of them.

Each wore a Deer skull with the antlers attached, from holes in the skull a Deer skin was tied to hang like a cloak over their backs; it was only partly cleaned and the men walked bent forward so both their scent and shape were disguised. Five of the group carried bows or spears.

One, who walked slightly behind the others, carried only a handful of fresh shoots and grasses.

They moved slowly and quietly through the trees, following the animal tracks.

As one, they suddenly stopped.

Behind a thin curtain of saplings, a sun lit glade opened in the forest and dappled shapes slowly moved around it or stood with heads lowered as they fed on the lush undergrowth. The two leading hunters carefully raised their bows, drew back and by some instinctive understanding born of long practice, let fly together. The air sighed as it parted round the arrows as if sad that it could not stop death in mid flight; they struck cleanly and two Deer fell while the others leapt away crying out in panic to their kin; and the quiet thunder of their fleeing hoof fall swiftly faded away between the trees.

The hunters walked into the glade and the two who had fired gently and carefully removed their arrows; as soon as this was done, the five who carried weapons dropped face down on the grass and lay utterly still, as if they too were dead.

The last member of the group, who had waited in the tree line until all this was done, now stepped lightly forward and knelt. He took a pinch of powder from a pouch at his waist and placed it on his tongue, then removed his Deer skull and untied the skin cloak from it; turning the skull he held it before him for a few moments, whispering words as if speaking to it, he then placed it back on his head so it became a mask and he was looking at the world through the bones of a Stag; looking through a Spirit face.

And so he saw into the Spirit world.

And so he saw the spirits of the two Deer who had been killed.

They were nervous and fearful, unsure what to do in this place of plenty that had now become so strange; one was sniffing at its own body as it lay on the ground, the other was looking towards where the herd had disappeared into the forest; their forms were made of the worlds breath, the same breath

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that could be seen lying in the hollow places of the earth on a cold morning as the day began to rise.

They both looked round in confusion and panic at a movement on the edge of the glade and saw a Stag that seemed of spirit like them; the Shaman was walking in the other world.

In this world, the Shaman bent to the ground picked up the grass and shoots he had carried and placed them in his mouth; in the other world, the Stag quietly and calmly began to graze. He raised his head with the food showing in his mouth and turned towards them with lowered eyes, he meant them no harm; cautiously the Deer moved towards him, beginning to trust, beginning to forget their other selves that lay on the ground.

One of the Deer stepped gently up to him and took a few strands of grass from his mouth, on his other side the second Deer did the same, it was enough; the offering had been accepted. With a shake of his head the Stag was running and the others ran with him.

In this world the Shaman, standing with eyes closed, was as taut and still as stone except his breathing was deep and quick but in the otherworld where he ran, the trees blurred, the grass and wild flowers became a passing rainbow of colours that they seemed to travel over as well as through. At one point they stopped at a stream of an ever darkening blue and where, in the depths, what seemed like tiny white stones glittered and shone in the ripples that spread from their drinking. Then they ran on and the path they traveled seemed to tremble as it passed beneath their hooves.

Then, in the distance, there was a Pine tree; a tree whose trunk stretched from earth to sky without touching either; a tree whose branches swirled and shook and shaped on winds that were never felt by any living thing; and on the land that was around it, a herd of Deer were grazing.

There was a Stone standing by the path they ran on, a Stone covered in shallow grooves and scratches; the Stag stopped beside it and the others stopped too, unsure once more. With slow and gentle movements the Stag nudged them onwards keeping his body calm and his eyes lowered, telling them there was nothing here for them to fear; so they stepped forward across the shining land that reflected the green light and life of the trees branches and were welcomed back into their Herd.

The Stag stood still a while, then twisting his neck he struck the Stone with his antlers; once; twice. The sound drummed down through the Stone into whatever earth it was that it stood upon; he lifted his head to gaze into the branches above him for a moment and then closed his eyes.

In this world the Shamans eyes opened and he dropped to the ground, muscles shaking as they suddenly relaxed and sweat running across his body. The others came to their feet and went to him; one gently removed the mask revealing eyes that did not quite see the world they looked on; another lifted his head and gave him water while a third placed a mash of berries and dried meat in his mouth. The Shaman chewed the food and then took the drinking horn and swallowed down the rest of the water, when he lowered his hands, his eyes were once more focused on the here and now.

The rest of the group busied themselves collecting their gear and tying the carcasses to carrying poles, leaving the Shaman to recover in his own way; he picked up the Deer skull gazing into its eyes, for a moment his journey returned and he whispered words to it once more, then he blinked and reached for his Deer skin; he smiled as he did so, even after all his seasons it could still surprise him how far he could travel while barely moving an arms length. He looked up and saw the others respectfully waiting; so he rose to his feet and draped the skin over one shoulder, cradling the skull in the crook of an arm; the others had also removed their disguises since there was no need for them now. Seeing he was ready, they turned and disappeared back into the forest.

Alone for a moment, the Shaman paused and looked back across the glade; deep in among the trees, vague and cautious shapes were moving; the Deer would return to this favoured feeding place before long. He smiled again and sent a silent blessing; all was as it should be.

Author’s BioMartin lives on the drifting edge of Epping Forest in north east London. He describes what he does as ‘writing pictures’ and uses inspiration from nature, myth, folklore and his animist beliefs to create poetry, short fiction and ‘dream tales’. Having been an actor for many years, he now only inflicts his own material on an unsuspecting public at events and readings in and around the capital. He’s been published both online and in print, here and in America and was recently featured in the anthology, Moon Poets (published by Moon Books). You can read more of his work at martinpallot.wordpress.com and contact him at [email protected]

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northern plantlore:dILL

Eoghan

odinsson

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Quick Facts - Herb and Leaf

Other Uses: Culinary: In Manipur, India Dill locally known as “Pakhon” is an essential ingredient of Chagem Pomba – a traditional Manipuri dish with fermented soya bean and rice.

Action: Antispasmodic, Bacteriostatic

Indicated For: dyspepsia

Preparation: Whole seeds for teas and other galenical preparations for internal application.

Latin/Linnaen: Anethum Graveolens

Family: Apiaceae

Old English : Dyle, Dile

Synonyms: None

Part Used: Seed

Dosage: Unless otherwise prescribed: Average daily dosage: Seed, 3 g ; essential oil, 0.1 - 0.3 ; Equivalent preparations.

Cautions: None

Description

Dill (Anethum graveolens) is a perennial herb. It is the sole species of the genus Anethum, though classified by some botanists in a related genus as Peucedanum graveolens.

The plant measures 40–60 cm (16–24 in), with slender stems and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) long. The ultimate leaf divisions are 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) broad, slightly broader than the similar leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than 1 mm (0.039 in) broad, but harder in texture. The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels 2–9 cm (0.79–3.5 in) in diameter. The seeds are 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long and 1 mm (0.039 in) thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface.

Dill originated within an area around the Mediterranean and the South of Russia. Zohary and Hopf remark that “wild and weedy types of dill are widespread in the Mediterranean basin and in West Asia. Although several twigs of dill were found in the tomb of Amenhotep II, they report that the earliest

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archeological evidence for its cultivation comes from late Neolithic lake shore settlements in Switzerland. Traces have been found in Roman ruins in Great Britain.

In Semitic languages it is known by the name of Shubit. The Talmud requires that tithes shall be paid on the seeds, leaves, and stem of dill.

The name dill comes from Old English dile, thought to have originated from a Norse or Anglo-Saxon word dylle meaning to soothe or lull, the plant having the carminative property of relieving gas. In Romania it is called Mărar and is used for preparing borscht or pickles.

Fresh and dried dill leaves (sometimes called ‘dill weed’ to distinguish it from dill seed) are used as herbs, mainly in Finland, Sweden, the Baltic, in Russia and in central Asia.

Like caraway, its fernlike leaves are aromatic and are used to flavour many foods, such as gravlax (cured salmon), borscht and other soups and pickles (where the dill flower is sometimes used). Dill is best when used fresh, as it loses its flavour rapidly if dried; however, freeze-dried dill leaves preserve their flavour relatively well for a few months.

Dill seed is used as a spice, with a flavor somewhat similar to caraway but also resembling that of fresh or dried dill weed. Dill seeds were traditionally used to soothe the stomach after meals. Dill oil can be extracted from the leaves, stems and seeds of the plant.

Dill is the eponymous ingredient in Dill Pickles; cucumbers preserved in salty brine and/or vinegar.In Arabic, dill seed is called ain jaradeh (meaning ‘cricket eye’) and used as a spice in cold dishes like fattoush and pickles.

In Arab coutries of the Persian Gulf, dill is called shibint and is used mostly in fish dishes; dill is also used in Iranian ‘Aash’ recipes and is called sheved (also shevid) in Persian. Very rarely it is used in chicken dishes.

In Lao cuisine and parts of northern Thailand, dill is known in English as Laotian coriander and Lao cilantro. In the Lao language, it is called Phak See and in Thai it is known as Phak Chee Lao. In Lao cuisine, the herb is typically used in mok pa (steamed fish in banana leaf) and several coconut milk-based curries that contain fish or prawns.

In Romania dill is used on a national scale as an ingredient for soups and other dishes; it is often mixed with salted cheese and used as a filling for langos. Another popular dish with dill as a base ingredient is dill sauce.

In Vietnam, the use of dill in cooking is regional, specifically northern Vietnamese cuisine.

In Iran, dill is known as Shevid and is sometimes used with rice and called Shevid-Polo.

In India, dill is known as Shepu or Shapu in Marathi, Savaa in Hindi or Soa in Punjabi. In Telugu it is called soya and soya-kura (for herb greens). It is also called sapsige soppu in Kannada. In Tamil it is known as Sada kuppi. In Sanskrit, this herb is called Shatapushpa. In Gujrati it is known as hariz. In India, dill is prepared in the manner of yellow Moong dal as a main-course dish. It is considered to have very good anti-gas properties, and hence it is used as mukhwas, or an after-meal digestive. It is also traditionally given to mothers immediately after childbirth.

In Serbia, dill is known as Mirodjija and used in addition to soups and dishes, also in potato salads and French fries.

In Canada, dill is a favourite herb to accompany poached salmon.

In Santa Maria, Azores, dill (Endro) is the most important ingredient of the traditional Holy Ghost soup (Sopas do Espírito Santo). Dill is found practically anywhere in Santa Maria, and curiously rare in the other Azorean Islands.

In Anglo-Saxon England, dill was used in many medicines including those against: jaundice; headache; boils; lack of appetite; stomach problems; nausea; liver problems and much more, as

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Cultivation

Hardiness Zone: Not applicable/annual plant

Soil pH: 5.5-6.5 preferred, can tolerate up to 7.5

Soil type: Well drained rich loose soil

Cultivation: Started in early spring by seed

Historical Notes

Sunlight: Full sun

Habitat: Native to the Middle East and Europe

prescribed in Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England (also called Læceboc), many of whose recipes were borrowed from Greek medicinal texts.

Cultivate dill frequently, lay seed on cotton sheet to dry naturally and store in cotton sacks in a dry place. The leaves of the dill plant are best harvested in the early morning after the dew has dried. They can be used fresh or dried for later use in seasoning food.

When used as a companion planting, dill draws in many beneficial insects as the umbrella flower heads go to seed. Fittingly, it makes a good companion plant for cucumbers. It is a poor companion for carrots and tomatoes.

Dill is a hardy annual, a native of the Mediterranean region and Southern Russia. It grows wild among the corn in Spain and Portugal and upon the coast of Italy but rarely occurs as a cornfield weed in Northern Europe.

The plant is referred to in St. Matthew XXiii., 23, though the original Greek name Anethon, was erroneously rendered Anise by English translators, from Wicklif (1380) downwards.

Dill is commonly regarded as the Anethon of Dioscorides. It was well known in Pliny’s day and is often mentioned by writers in the Middle Ages. As a drug it has been in use from very early times. It occurs in the tenth-century vocabulary of Alfric, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The name is derived, according to Prior’s Popular Names of English Plants, from the old Norse word, dilla (to lull), in allusion to the carminative properties of the drug.

Lyte (Dodoens, 1578) says Dill was sown in all gardens amongst worts and pot-herbs.

In the Middle Ages, Dill was also one of the herbs used by magicians in their spells and charms against witchcraft.

In Drayton’s Nymphidia are the lines:

'Therewith her Vervain and her Dill,That hindereth Witches of their Will.'

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Culpepper tells us that:

The plant grows ordinarily from 2 to 2 1/2 feet high and is very like fennel, though smaller, having the same feathery leaves, which stand on sheathing foot-stalks, with linear and pointed leaflets. Unlike fennel, however, it has seldom more than one stalk and its long, spindle-shaped root is only annual. It is of very upright growth, its stems smooth, shiny and hollow and in midsummer bearing flat terminal umbels with numerous yellow flowers, whose small petals are rolled inwards. The flat fruits, the so-called seeds, are produced in great quantities. They are very pungent and bitter in taste and very light, an ounce containing over 25,000 seeds. Their germinating capacity lasts for three years. The whole plant is aromatic.

The plant was placed by Linnaeus in a separate genus, Anethum, whence the name Fructus Anethi, by which Dill fruit goes in medicine. It is now included in the genus Peucedanum.

CultivationThis annual is of very easy culture. When grown on a large scale for the sake of its fruits, it may be sown in drills 10 inches apart, in March or April, 10 lb. of the seed being drilled to the acre and thinned out to leave 8 to 10 inches room each way Sometimes the seed is sown in autumn as soon as ripe but it is not so advisable as spring sowing. Careful attention must be given to the destruction of weeds. The crop is considered somewhat exhaustive of soil fertility.

HarvestingMowing starts as the lower seeds begin, the others ripening on the straw. In dry periods, cutting is best done in early morning or late evening, care being taken to handle with the least possible shaking to prevent loss. The loose sheaves are built into stacks of about twenty sheaves, tied together. In hot weather, threshing may be done in the field, spreading the sheaves on a large canvas sheet and beating out. The average yield is about 7 cwt. of Dill fruits per acre.

The seeds are finally dried by spreading out on trays in the sun, or for a short time over the moderate heat of a stove, shaking occasionally.

Dill fruits are oval, compressed, winged about one-tenth of an inch wide, with three longitudinal ridges on the back and three dark lines or oil cells (vittae) between them and two on the flat surface. The taste of the fruits somewhat resembles caraway. The seeds are smaller, flatter and lighter than caraway and have a pleasant aromatic odour. They contain a volatile oil (obtained by distillation) on which the action of the fruit depends. The bruised seeds impart their virtues to alcohol and to boiling water.

ConstituentsOil of Dill is of a pale yellow colour, darkening on keeping, with the odour of the fruit and a hot, acrid taste. Its specific gravity varies between 0.895 and 0.915.

The fruit yields about 3.5 per cent of the oil, which is a mixture of a paraffin hydrocarbon and 40 to 60 per cent of d-carvone, with d-limonene. Phellandrine is present in the English and Spanish oils but not to any appreciable extent in the German oil.

In spite of the difference in odour between Dill and Caraway oils, the composition of the two is almost identical, both consisting nearly entirely of limonene and carvone. Dill oil, however, contains less carvone than caraway oil.

English-distilled oils usually have the highest specific gravity, from 0.910 to 0.916, and are consequently held in the highest esteem.

'Mercury has the dominion of this plant, and therefore to be sure it strengthens the brain.... It stays the hiccough, being boiled in wine, and but smelled unto being tied in a cloth. The seed is of more use than the leaves, and more effectual to digest raw and vicious humours, and is used in medicines that serve to expel wind, and the pains proceeding therefrom....'

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Historical Medicinal Uses - For Entertainment ONLY

UsesAs a sweet herb, Dill is not much used in this country. When employed, it is for flavouring soups, sauces, etc., for which purpose the young leaves only are required. The leaves added to fish, or mixed with pickled cucumbers give them a spicy taste.

Dill vinegar, however, forms a popular household condiment. It is made by soaking the seeds in vinegar for a few days before using.

The French use Dill seeds for flavouring cakes and pastry, as well as for flavouring sauces.

Perhaps the chief culinary use of Dill seeds is in pickling cucumbers: they are employed in this way chiefly in Germany where pickled cucumbers are largely eaten.

Some Old-Fashioned Fennel and Dill Recipes

A Sallet of Fennel‘Take young Fennel, about a span long in the spring, tye it up in bunches as you do Sparragrass; when your Skillet boyle, put in enough to make a dish; when it is boyled and drained, dish it up as you do Sparragrass, pour on butter and vinegar and send it up.’ (From The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected, 1675, by William Tabisha.)

Fennel and Gooseberry Sauce‘Brown some butter in a saucepan with apinch of flour, then put in a few cives shred small, add a little Irish broth to moisten it, season with salt and pepper; make these boil, then put in two or three sprigs of Fennel and some Gooseberries. Let all simmer together till the Gooseberries are soft and then put in some Cullis.’ (From Receipt Book of Henry Howard, Cook to the Duke of Ormond, 1710.)

Dill and Collyflower Pickle‘Boil the Collyflowers till they fall inpieces; then with some of the stalk and worst of the flower boil it in a part of the liquer till pretty strong. Then being taken off strain it- and when settled, clean it from the bottom. Then with Dill, gross pepper, a pretty quantity of salt, when cold add as much vinegar as will make it sharp and pour all upon the Collyflower.’ (From Acetaria, a book about Sallets, 1680, by John Evelyn.)

To Pickle Cucumbers in Dill‘Gather the tops of the ripest dill and cover the bottom of the vessel, and lay a layer of Cucumbers and another of Dill till you have filled the vessel within a handful of the top. Then take as much water as you think will fill the vessel and mix it with salt and a quarter of a pound of allom to a gallon of water and poure it on them and press them down with a stone on them and keep them covered close. For that use I think the water will be best boyl’d and cold, which will keep longer sweet, or if you like not this pickle, doe it with water, salt and white wine vinegar, or (if you please) pour the water and salt on them scalding hot which will make them ready to use the sooner.’ (From Receipe Book of Joseph Cooper, Cook to Charles I, 1640.).

Medicinal Action and UsesLike the other umbelliferous fruits and volatile oils, both Dill fruit and oil of Dill possess stimulant, aromatic, carminative and stomachic properties, making them of considerable medicinal value.Oil of Dill is used in mixtures, or administered in doses of 5 drops on sugar, but its most common use is in the preparation of Dill Water, which is a common domestic remedy for the flatulence of infants, and is a useful vehicle for children's medicine generally.

PreparationsDill water, 1 to 8 drachms. Oil, 1 to 5 drops.Oil of Dill is also employed for perfuming soaps.The British Pharmacopoeia directs that only the fruits from English-grown plants shall be employed pharmaceutically, and it is grown in East Anglia for that purpose. The Dill fruits of commerce are imported from central and southern Europe, the plant being largely cultivated in Germany and Romania.

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Considerable quantities of Dill fruit are imported from India and Japan - they are the fruits of a species of Peucedanum that has been considered by some botanists entitled to rank as a distinct species, P. Sowa (Kurz), but is included by others in the species, P. graveolens. Indian dill is widely grown in the Indies under the name of Soyah, its fruit and leaves being used for flavouring pickles. Its fruits are narrower and more convex than European dill, with paler, more distinct ridges and narrower wings.The oils from both Japanese and Indian dill differ from European dill oil, in having a higher specific gravity (0.948 to 0.968), which is ascribed to the presence of dill apiol and in containing much less carvone than the European oil. It should not be substituted for the official oil.

African dill oil is produced from plants grown from English imported seed. The fruits are slightly larger than the English fruits and a little paler in colour, their odour closely resembling the English. The yield of oil is slightly larger than that of English fruits, and it is considered that if the fruits can be produced in Cape Colony, they should form a most useful source of supply.

Author’s BioCanadian born Eoghan Odinsson is an award winning journalist and author with a lifelong passion for the knowledge of our Northern forefathers – or “folk lore”. Literally, the knowledge of our people.

Graduating from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland with his Masters of Science degree, he subsequently taught for the University and was a dissertation advisor for graduate students. In addition to his academic background, Eoghan also holds a Black Belt in Chito-Ryu Karate, and has taught Martial Arts in Canada and the USA. Eoghan has just returned from a 10 year stretch working in the Washington D.C. area and is now back in his native Ottawa Valley where he lives with his wife, son and three dogs. Eoghan is a professional member of the Canadian Authors Association.

Anethum Graveolens1

1 By Bff (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

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36

Shaman Moon

Yvonne RyvesI have just been reading Taz Thornton’s book Whispers from the Earth which although small is full of delightful stories that she has channelled from the ancestors.

Now if you are a regular reader of my column you will know that I am in no way a story teller but there was something about Taz’s words that resonated with me and drew strong parallels between the purpose of Taz’s stories and that of shamanic journeys.

In her book Taz speaks of how: ‘Some of the lessons are screamingly obvious, some more subtle – and whichever teachings you find, the ones you notice – the ones that land in your heart – will absolutely be the ones you need.’And isn’t this exactly what happens to us within a shamanic journey? Shamanic journeys, like stories, give us what we need at the time. But they can also have different meanings, deeper ones, ones that may be hidden from us immediately after we have journeyed. Much of the value of journeying work is determined by how we interpret them and on the whole we interpret them according to what we need to see, know or get from them at the time we journey. This is why for me it is so important to record them in some way.

I always write my journeys in my journal because I like to be able to come back to them in the future. This way I may see something different and just as Taz says about stories, my journeys may speak to me in a different way. Without a journal I would have no way to go back and see things in a new and sometimes clearer way, to see patterns or to find those deeper meanings in a journey. My journal serves me in the same way that reading or listening to stories can.

Whispers from the Earth contains advice and guidance on how to channel your own stories, Taz Thornton calls this ‘story weaving’, so for fun I thought I would have a go. My way into this was to step into a shamanic journey and then attempt to rewrite my journey as a very, very short story. Read this with kindness please for as I keep reminding you I am not a story teller.

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Shay Mann

It is a beautiful sunny day as the young woman meanders along the path. She looks down as she walks and sees that the surface of the path is made of tightly packed earth. If she looks very carefully she can see tiny pieces of stone embedded in it, some of the stones even sparkle. The path twists and turns but she is always able see ahead, see where she is going, for although it is far from straight the path is clear and very visible. In fact now she thinks about it she realises that she can see a long way ahead of her. The way the path carves its way through the landscape though reminds her of waves as they flow from the sea to kiss the shore.

As she wanders slowly on she starts to enjoy the movement of the walk;

“This is so much more interesting than walking in a straight line”, she says to herself. “There’s a kind of sway to it all, a gentle relaxing rhythm that would be missing if I were walking in a straight line”. Then she realises how the twists and turns each reveal secrets, surprises, things that she might have rushed past and not noticed if she were walking in a straight line. She knows instinctively that it is the twists and turns that are encouraging her to take her time; that cause her to look back and sideways as well as forwards as she walks.

As she glances around her she sees bluebells, swathes of colour washing out into the distance. But she is aware that had she not turned as she walked she would have missed this completely, for it would have been hidden by the willow trees that cast their branches down to meet the blue. Another turn and she glances up into the branches that stretch high above her, seeing as she does a sleeping owl tucked away in the leaves. Usually the young woman would have been wondering what kind of owl it was but for now she is content to know that it is an owl and that it is asleep, for now that is all that matters.

I have found my own meaning in this but maybe in the reading of it you may also find your own and perhaps it is quite different to mine, which is exactly as it should be.

BiographyYvonne Ryves is a Shamanic Healer, Reiki Master, Chios Energy Healing Master Teacher and Past Life Regression Therapist as well as being the author of Web of Life published by Moon Books as part of their Shaman Pathways Series. She offers healing sessions as well as running workshops and courses from her home in West Cork, Ireland. Yvonne is currently training as an Ovate with OBOD. You can find out more about Yvonne at www.yvonneryves.com

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ReviewsSky Shamans of

Mongolia: Meetings with Remarkable Healers

Sky Shamans of Mongolia is a captivating, highly informative account of author Kevin Turner’s travels, interviews and experiences with shaman in Mongolia, providing a vast range of information from his extensive experiential research into Mongolian shamanism.

An interesting, honest and at times, humorous personal account of Turner’s exploration, Sky Shamans of Mongolia includes frank, fascinating interviews with shaman (both male and female) and a personal account of the Khentii Gathering, which was the first time in history that the three major traditions and many smaller ones came together dedicated to the revival of shamanism in Mongolia. There is also detailed information about the history, culture and practice of the Darkhad, Khalkh and Buryat lineages as well as the origins of Inner Asian shamanism and the revival of shamanism in modern Mongolia. All followed by a section featuring beautiful coloured photography of shaman from the various lineages showing their wonderful costumes, taken with permission at the Khentii Gathering and the author’s thoughts on shamanism as a personal evolution.

Sky Shamans of Mongolia is an outstanding contribution to the field contained within a book that is very hard to put down once you have picked it up. Highly recommended!

Shamanism: Awaken and Develop the Shamanic Force Within

An excellent practical introduction to shamanism, Shamanism: Awaken and Develop the Shamanic Force Within (part of the Hay House basics series) covers the primary subject and gives information about practices in clear cut detail.

Author, Christa Mackinnon, includes selected exercises readers new to shamanism can use by themselves to journey for personal healing and development and includes useful examples of journeys from the author’s own and other’s experiences.

Shamanism: Awaken and Develop the Shamanic Force Within is a very well written ‘how to’, giving clear, easy to read instructions including: how to create sacred space; contact and connect with your spiritual helpers and ancestors; create ceremony and much more.

Perfect for beginners who don’t know where to begin!

Christa Mackinnon. Shamanism: Awaken and Develop the Shamanic Force Within. Hay House Basic Series. Hay House (2016). ISBN: 978-1781805879.

Kevin Turner. Sky Shamans of Mongolia. North Atlantic Books (20 April 2016). ISBN: 978-1583946343

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ReviewsWhispers from The Earth:

Teaching stories from the ancestors, beautifully woven for

today’s spiritual seekers

There is something magical about the stories in Taz Thornton’s Whispers from The Earth. Gifted directly from the ancestral spirits to the author, these parables are both a highly enjoyable read and an inspiration; each tale firing the imagination and containing a truth within.

Teaching stories have been used throughout time and it’s wonderful to have new tales to explore by such a gifted storyteller. Containing a dozen stories, including: Why Pheasant’s Face is Red; The Girl Who Was Different and the Wasp King; Faerietale of the British Isles and Grumblethwick’s Bad Day, these are stories for you to dip into for yourself as well as for sharing with others.

Whispers from The Earth also contains a chapter with very useful guidance on how you can channel stories for yourself, followed by four excellent stories from some of Thornton’s students, demonstrating the diversity of style and storytelling.

Guaranteed to inspire you to connect to and share your own stories Whispers from The Earth is highly recommended, with something for everyone. Perfect for curling up comfily on a sofa alone, for storytelling around the fire and for use as a personal or workshop inspiration on the art of storytelling.

Silver Wheel: The Lost Teachings of the Deerskin Book

“A precious treasure of lost Lemurian wisdom is found in the forest. It is a book, clad in worn white deerskin, and within on pages of bark is inscribed a mysterious and glowing script. It is

written in the language of the Elven Ones, who so long ago vanished from our world.”1

Silver Wheel is a beautifully presented book detailing the spiritual teachings of the Shining Ones (Elven elders), revealed in the Deerskin Book and channelled through author Elen Tompkins following her shamanic training in the ancient forest of Wales.

Described as ‘The Celestine Prophecy for the new millennium’, Silver Wheel is similarly a first-person narrative through the author’s spiritual awakening with evocative descriptions of her journeys through the thirteen spiritual teachings revealed within the ancient manuscript of the Deerskin Book, originally written in the language of the Elven Ones.

A visionary composition of automatic writing poetically presented and interspersed with meditations, bringing an auspicious message from another dimension to speak directly to the spirit within.

1 Head of Zeus 2016 http://headofzeus.com/books/silver-wheel

Elen Tompkins. Silver Wheel. Head of Zeus (7 April 2016). ISBN: 9781784972691

Taz Thornton. Whispers from The Earth. Moon Books (25 Mar 2016). ISBN: 978-1782793823

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The Shaman's Oracle: Cards for Ancient Wisdom andGuidance

The pack contains 52 excellent quality cards and a hardback ‘explanation book’ which are contained in a good quality box with pull out drawer. A template pictorial of a hand is included in the pack to aid reading. Information is provided about Palaeolithic art which is found in Australia, the Americas, Europe and China and has inspired the artwork of this deck. Each card carries a different image. Information is also given about shamanism as an ancient spiritual practice and on how to use the cards and frame questions. A sample layout helps with this process. Beautiful poems accompany each card. The images are excellent in transporting the reader into an inspirational space where the reading flows quite naturally, sometimes without needing the book’s explanation. Each card is enjoyable to use, even those with a less than positive meaning, such as The Spirit of Destruction. The Journeyer card, which represents the seeker, seems to have wings and a light of bright yellow around the head. All wonderfully exciting images to work with; they certainly took me to the dark places hidden within the mountains where the ancient ones recorded their inner world.

There are five suits of ten cards each, titled Spirits, Ancestors, Hunters, Dancers and Shamans which represent divisions and boundaries, home and protection, transition and change and inspiration and spirit. There is also a card titled The Journeyer and a card titled The Companion, which represents our spirit guide. Try the five card layout where earth, water, fire, air and spirit are portrayed by each finger. It’s an extraordinary deck that will produce fascinating readings!

ReviewsCrystal Wisdom

Oracle Kit

This updated and revised edition of The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle deck features 50 crystal oracle cards and a full colour illustrated handbook, nicely presented in a black and silver box with pull out ribbon.

The sophisticatedly silver backed and edged cards feature photographs of individual crystals on a black background with coloured edging representing five card suits reflecting the vibrational frequencies of the crystals within them. The cards themselves are very high quality and sturdy in addition to being a good size to be held in the hand and for ease of shuffling.

The 120 page handbook gives crystal profiles and meanings plus suggestions on using the cards; you can draw a card for immediate insight or use one of the author’s ‘lattice’ design layouts for more in-depth readings. The 50 featured crystals give the reader great access to rare crystals as well as presenting some of the more common ones and the cards can be used for healing should you not have access to the physical crystals.

A wonderful oracle deck for anyone who is inspired by the healing power of crystals.

Judy Hall. The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle. Watkins (19 May 2016). ISBN 978-1780289403

John Matthews (Author), Wil Kinghan (Illustrator). The Shaman’s Oracle: Oracle Cards for Ancient Wisdom and Guidance. Watkins Publishing edition (6 Jun. 2013), ISBN: 978-1780285238. Price: £14.99

The Shaman’s Oracle was reviewed by Wendy Stokes.

www.wendystokes.co.uk41

REVOLUTIONISING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH PLANTSREVOLUTIONISING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH PLANTS

J o h n P e r k i n sP a c h a m a m a C o - F o u n d e r , A c t i v i s tH o w T h e P l a n t s A r e G u i d i n g U s To A N e w C o n s c i o u s n e s s

K a y H a wW o o d l a n d T r u s t , C o n s e r v a t i o n A d v i s o rE c o p s y c h o l o g y & C o n s e r v a t i o n

M i c h a e l D u n n i n gYe w S h a m a nYe w - Tr e e O f E t e r n i t y

R o b i n H a r f o r dF o u n d e r E a t W e e d sC o n t e m p l a t i n g P l a n t s : C o m i n g To Yo u r S e n s e s

J u d y M c A l l i s t e r F i n d h o r n F o u n d a t i o nT h e V o i c e O f T h e F o r e s t

C a r o l y n H i l l y e r& N i g e l S h a wS e v e n t h W a v e M u s i cE c h o e s O f T h e A n c i e n t F o r e s t

K a r e n L a w t o n & F i o n a H e c k l e s S e n s o r y S o l u t i o n sV o i c e s O f T h e H e d g e r o w s J o n a t h o n C o d e

B i o d y n a m i c A s s o c i a t i o nE n c o u n t e r i n g Ya r r o w :A M i r a c l e O f C r e a t i o n

w w w . p l a n t c o n s c i o u s n e s s . c o m

Early Bird Tickets only £129Standard £144 Plus PayPal booking fee

S u p p o r t e d b y

THE YEW MYSTERIESYew Shamanism Workshops with Michael Dunning

9.30-18.00�e Art Shop & Chapel,

8 Cross St, Abergavenny, NP7 5EH

www.plantconsciousness.com/yew-shaman

Early Bird £89 per dayStandard £99 Plus PayPal booking fee

Including Lunch

Yew Mysteries Continued: Essence Of �e Five TreesSun 16th Oct ‘16

Introduction To �e Yew MysteriesSat 15th Oct ‘16

Both days include working with ancient Yews in the Brecon Beacons

42

Events and WorkshopsDRUM CIRCLESCambridgeshire Wellbeing Drumming Circle. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. Meets on 2nd Saturday afternoon each Month. Raise Your Level of Vibration! Let Your Spontaneous Creativity Flow! Beginners welcome, drums provided. www.sunflower-health.com/shamanicworkshops.htm#Workshops ‘The Buzzard Circles’, Wilmslow Clan. Meets on the first Monday of the month at Friends Meeting House, 1a Bourne Street, WILMSLOW, CHESHIRE, SK9 5HD. Spend the evening creating a beautiful sacred space and connecting with other like minded souls. Contact Nicola and Jason Smalley [email protected]. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/about-our-circles/‘Spirit of The Wind’ Shamanic Drumming Group Ings near Staveley, Kendal, CUMBRIA, UK. A monthly meeting to help support shamanic practice and journeying. A chance to journey for healing for yourself and others. Ability to journey is essential. We meet on the third Thursday of the month. https://www.facebook.com/shamanicdrummingkendal?ref=hl‘The Shamans Drum’ Monthly Drumming circle The Arkwright Hall, Moorside Lane, HOLBROOK, Nr Belper, DERBYSHIRE, DE56 0TW, UK. Unite with the Spirit of your Drum. Journey. Find your Spirit Guides. Designed to connect you with your Drum and Spirits. E-mail: [email protected]: 01332880984. http://dunnwooddrums.com/#/drumming-groups/4533077917Monthly Shamanic Drumming Circle. TOTNES NATURAL HEALTH CENTRE, TOTNES, DEVON. http://www.southdevonshamanism.co.uk/workshops/Kki Sounds - Inspiring Inner Stillness. First Friday monthly 7.30 – 8.30pm exchange £12. Bell House Dance Studio, ST. MARY’S CLOSE, ALTON, GU34 1EF, HAMPSHIRE, UK. A warm welcome. Journeying often with the guidance of Reindeer. Contact: Nikki Marianna Hope, E [email protected], T 0791 871 5011. No sessions during August. http://kkinaturally.net/sounds.html/‘Call of the Drums’ Addington Village Hall, Park Road, Addington, nr West Malling, KENT. 4th Thursday of every month.7.30pm - 10.30pm, £6 per person. http://www.woodspirit.org.uk/. Email [email protected] Buzzard Circles, Chorley Clan Meets on the second Tuesday of the month in the stable block behind The Bay Horse pub, Heath Charnock, CHORLEY, LANCASHIRE, PR6 9ER, starting 8th March 2016, 7.30pm. Connect in with other like minded souls .Contact Nicola and Jason Smalley [email protected], 01257 233909. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/buzzardcircles/The Buzzard Circles, Lancaster Clan Meets on the First Thursday of the month in Halton Mill, Mill Lane, Halton, LANCASTER, LANCASHIRE, LA2 6ND, starting 3rd March 2016, 7.30pm. Spend the evening creating a beautiful sacred space. Contact Nicola and Jason Smalley [email protected], 01257 233909 http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/buzzardcircles/‘The Buzzard Circles’, Cuerdan Clan Meets on the second Monday of the month at The Barn, Berkeley Drive, Bamber Bridge, PRESTON, LANCASHIRE, PR5 6BY. Celebrate, share, reflect, journey, drum, sing, chant and deepen into our connection together. Contact Nicola and Jason Smalley [email protected]. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/about-our-circles/‘The Buzzard Circles’, Stockport Clan Meets on the third Thursday of the month at The Friends Meeting House, Cooper Street, STOCKPORT, SK1 3QL. Spend the evening creating a beautiful sacred space and connecting with other like minded souls. Contact Nicola and Jason Smalley [email protected]. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/about-our-circles/Kki Sounds - Inspiring Inner Stillness. Mondays in MIDHURST, WEST SUSSEX, UK, 6 – 7pm or 7.30 – 8.30pm exchange £10 per session. At The Old Town Hall, above Gartons Café, Market Square GU29 9DN. Journeying often with the guidance of Reindeer. Contact: Nikki Marianna Hope, E [email protected], T 0791 871 5011. No sessions during August. http://kkinaturally.net/sounds.html/Evening Shamanic Drumming Circle Monthly from Wednesday 1st July (then every 1st wed in month). £15 7.30 - 9pm Baby Moon Camp, DUNSDALE, NORTH YORKSHIRE, TS14 6RH. With journeys, healing & huge energy raising! Plus, a grounding cup of tea or hot chocolate to close. Please contact me for availability: phone 07933 718368 or via http://www.innerpeacehealing.org/Monthly Shamanic Drum Circle. Crystal Space, Silsden, WEST YORKSHIRE. All welcome. Second Wednesdays. 7-9pm. https://bearfootconnections.wordpress.com/. Shamanic Journey and Drumming Circle with Sarah Howcroft. Near BRECON, WALES. First Wednesday monthly. Drum, journey, dance, heal, learn and empower yourself – everyone welcome! Contact via website or phone/text 07968 010103. http://www.shamanism-wales.co.uk/

Shamanic Journey and Drumming Circle. KSD Buddhist Centre, CARDIFF, WALES. Monday July 6th, 7pm to 9pm, and monthly. Drum, journey, dance, heal, learn and empower yourself – everyone welcome! With Sarah Howcroft. Phone 07968 010103 With Sarah Howcroft. Phone 07968 010103 http://www.shamanism-wales.co.uk/43

Events and WorkshopsONGOING EVENTSIntroduction to Shamanism days. with Paul Francis, Therapeutic Shamanism. Various locations in the UK. These one-day workshops run at various times in the year. The day is experiential and covers the basics of shamanic practice. For more information or if you would be interested in organising an Introductory Day in your area email [email protected]. http://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.ukShamanic Beginners’ and Development Days or Weekends with Sarah Howcroft - IN WALES OR WHEREVER YOU ARE! Explore journeying, Shamanic healing, guides and power animals, nature spirits, working with tree spirits, the elements, altars and ceremonies, wilderness experiences. I can structure the weekend according to the experience and needs of your group. http://www.shamanism-wales.co.uk/ – or phone 07968 010103.Shamanic Sundays. with Mandy Pullen. FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. Usually on the first Sunday of every month 10.30am - 1pm. Monthly journeying circle suitable for those who can already journey and beginners. Regular Introduction to Shamanism workshops are held for those who wish to go on and learn the technique. Contact details: Mandy Pullen Tel:01594 541850 or Email: info@mandypullen. co.uk. http://www.mandypullen.co.uk/Workshops_Groups.htmlWander the Wheel Sabbat celebrations with Nicola & Jason Smalley, The Way of the Buzzard. Day long celebrations at Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, Samhain, the Equinoxes and the Solstices. West Pennine Moors near Chorley, LANCASHIRE, with time in an old converted stable block, out on the moorlands, in the meadows, woodlands and at ancient sacred sites. Contact Nicola and Jason on [email protected], 01257 233909. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/sabbat-celebrations/Drum Birthing Days with Nicola & Jason Smalley, The Way of the Buzzard, near Chorley, LANCASHIRE. There is something really special about crafting your own sacred tool, putting your creative energy into something which you will work with on your spiritual journey. Join us on one of our days to birth your own drum. Cost from £190. Contact Nicola or Jason on 01257 233909, [email protected]. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/drum-birthing-day/Reiki Drumming and Meditation in the Woods with Tanya Adams. A series of summer sessions at The Cabin, behind Queens Wood Cafe – 42 MUSWELL HILL ROAD, LONDON, N10 3JP. Relax, Recharge and Re-centre with an hour’s Meditation and Drumming. Please book in advance as places are limited. Email [email protected] or book on line. Please bring your own water, blankets and cushions and/or yoga mats to sit or lie down on. https://pathwayfinder.wordpress.com/home/Shamanic day workshops & weekend retreats throughout the year in the PEAK DISTRICT, YORKSHIRE DALES, LAKE DISTRICT, FOREST OF BOWLAND and the WEST PENNINE MOORS with Nicola & Jason Smalley, The Way of the Buzzard. Develop your shamanic practice through nature connection, journeying, drumming, crafting, working with spirit guides and tree spirit medicine. [email protected], 01257 233909. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/workshops/Monthly Open ‘Warrior’ Soul Rescue Circle with Shirley Flint and Kieron Morgan. St Michael’s Church The Sanctuary, EWELL VILLAGE,SURREY, ENGLAND. 7.00 pm for a 7.30 pm start. An evening for those who have died as a result of war throughout all ages and lands. Enquiries please contact Shirley Flint on 07889 018713 or [email protected]. No charge for the evening but donations to St Michael’s are welcome. http://www.ravens-wing.uk/events-warriors-soul-rescue-circle.htmlCrystal Space Events. Meet up at ‘Our Space’. Plus events including drum making. SILSDEN, WEST YORKSHIRE. http://www.crystalspace.co.uk/Open Shamanic Journeying Circle, The Energy Centre, Burlees House, Hangingroyd Lane, HEBDEN BRIDGE, WEST YORKSHIRE, HX7 7DD. Thursday evenings, 7.30pm, weekly from September 1st. An open journeying circle operating on a drop-in basis for anyone with an interest in shamanic journeying, from complete beginners to experienced practitioners. £5. Contact: [email protected] Ki Network. YORKSHIRE http://crystalspaceally.wix.com/munay-ki-networkAyahuasca Apprenticeship Retreats ongoing Ayahuasca and shamanic plant diet apprenticeship retreats with Shipibo Maestra Rosa, in SACHA HUARMI, PERUVIAN AMAZON. 1-26 weeks. Certificate from 13 weeks onwards. http://www.elmundomagico.org/

EVENTS DIARY 2016For the Love of Mother Earth, a women’s leadership retreat, healing circle and earth ceremony with Brooke Medicine Eagle. 4th - 7th August 2016, SNOWDONIA MOUNTAIN LODGE, NEAR BANGOR, GWYNEDD, LL57 3LX, WALES. Take quiet visioning time in nature. Contact: Maria on 07497 001 542, email [email protected]. http://northwalesretreats.com/44

Events and WorkshopsThe Cactus of Mystery with Ross Heaven. Aug 4-11. 7 days, 3 ceremonies. SPAIN. This course offers you a remarkable opportunity to work with an amazing teacher plant. Three cactus ceremonies are included, as well as limpia (soul cleansing), pago (a blessing from spirit) and daily circle meetings and seminars. The workshop is co-hosted with Andean shaman La Gringa.Weekend retreat: Finding Freedom through Rewilding with Nicola & Jason Smalley from The Way of the Buzzard. Friday 12th - Sunday 14th August 2016. Lower Winskill Farm, SETTLE, YORKSHIRE DALES. Working with ancient animal bones and letting the wild back into our lives. Cost £245. Phone 01257 233909, [email protected]. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.ukThe Shaman’s Path with Sarah Howcroft, BRECON BEACONS, WALES, August 13th - 14th. An introductory level weekend exploring the worlds of Shamanism, journeying, guides and power animals, nature spirits, the elements, altars, ceremonies and healing. For more information or to book visit Shamanism Wales or phone/text 07968 010103. http://www.shamanism-wales.co.uk/Summer Vision Quest with Sarah Howcroft and friends, BRECON BEACONS, WALES, August 20th - 26th. A powerful Quest in an extraordinary landscape, held by an experienced and trained leader, in the wild cauldron of the Brecon Beacons, with three days and nights spent out in the mountains. For more information or to book visit Shamanism Wales or phone/text 07968 010103Discover Shamanism. With Paul Francis of the Three Ravens College in LLANDUDNO, WALES, 27 August. Simple yet profound techniques to enter shamanic reality to reconnect to their own spirituality. No prior experience is necessary. Times are 10am till 5pm. Cost £40. Contact Paul on 01492 873739, [email protected]. http://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/Hatun Karpay Chaupi, PERU with Sandy Corcoran, September 5-12. This sacred journey takes place throughout sacred sites in Peru. This involves Ayni Rimanakuy, an active state of preparation for the anticipated emergence of higher consciousness symbolized by the ‘return of the Inca’. See website link for more details or email [email protected]. http://www.starwalkervisions.com/Stonehenge Moonlight tour 2016 with David Rowan, STONEHENGE, SALISBURY, ENGLAND. 24th-25th September. 2016 http://www.davidrowan.co.uk/solar/moonlight_stonehenge.htmlEnglish Speaker’s Nepal Himalayan Experiential Shamanic Trip to NEPAL with Bhola Banstola. September 27, 2016. Includes pilgrimage and retreat to sacred mountain site, 4 days shamanic experiential exercises, 3 days trip to Pokhara, visit to sacred sites, ceremonies, visits to shamans, healing sessions, rituals. Email Bhola at [email protected]. http://www.nepal-shaman.com/Discover Shamanism. With Paul Francis of the Three Ravens College in CHESTER, UK, 1 October. This experiential course covers the basics of shamanic practice. No prior experience is necessary. The course is taught in a grounded way and rooted in personal experience. Cost £40. Contact Paul on 01492 873739, [email protected]. http://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/Plant Consciousness. Regents University, LONDON, UK. 1st & 2nd October. http://www.plantconsciousness.com/Mysterious Peru with Ross Heaven. October 1st - 14th, PERU. Featuring ceremonies with ayahuasca, san pedro and sacred mushrooms, as well as trips to sacred sites and energy portals, limpia soul cleansing rituals delivered by Qero shamans, a traditional temezcal sweatlodge ceremony and pago ceremony. email [email protected]. http://www.thefourgates.org/Shamanic Healing Practitioner Training with Sarah Howcroft and friends, BRECON BEACONS, WALES, October 7th - 9th. First weekend of six-part course (18 days in all), designed to equip you for practical healing with clarity, connection and integrity. For more information or to book visit Shamanism Wales or phone/text 07968 010103. http://www.shamanism-wales.co.uk/Damanhur, ITALY with Sandy Corcoran, September 28-October 8, 2016. Classes will include Personal Past Life Research, Alchemy, Bral Talej a divination class, alongside a day into Turin to see the Egyptian Museum and the Shroud of Turin. See website link for more details or email [email protected]. http://www.starwalkervisions.com/Weekend retreat: The Quest with Nicola & Jason Smalley from The Way of the Buzzard.Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd Oct 2016. UNSTONE GRANGE, DERBYSHIRE. We will be joining our ancestors to seek clarity of our path and purpose in life. £245. Contact Nicola or Jason on 01257 233909, [email protected]. http://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk/quest/ Discover Shamanism. With Paul Francis of the Three Ravens College in MANCHESTER, UK, 29 October. This experiential course covers the basics of shamanic practice. Times are 10am till 5pm. Prior booking is essential. Cost £40. Contact Paul on 01492 873739, [email protected]. http://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/

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Dancing with Darkness with Jayne Johnson at Middlewood Trust, LANCASHIRE, 18th, 19th and 20th November. A shamanic weekend residential workshop preparing for the Winter Solstice. Dancing, drumming, ritual and community. Cost £250 includes food and accommodation. For more information and bookings phone 0785 414 6986 or see website. http://www.shamanismembodied.com/Discover Shamanism. With Liz McWatt and Jayne Birkett. A One Day workshop with Jayne Birkett & Liz McWatt at INGS, NR STAVELEY, Saturday 12th December 10am- 5pm. No prior experience is necessary. The course will include the basics of shamanic practice. To book: Cost: £55. Contact: Liz McWatt, email:[email protected] Tel: 01539-72818. Jayne Birkett, email: [email protected] Tel: 077177 25672. http://www.holistic-healing.org.uk/

EVENTS DIARY 2017Stories from Grandfather with Ross Heaven and La Gringa, Jan 27-Feb 2 2017, NEW ZEALAND. A residential ceremonial workshop with three ceremonies from the Andean tradition. Please email [email protected] for full information and to book. http://www.thefourgates.org/Curanderismo, Andean Healing with Ross Heaven and La Gringa, Feb 4, NEW ZEALAND, Island location. Day time ceremony with Grandfather, night time velada with the Holy Chldren. Please email [email protected] for full information and to book. http://www.thefourgates.org/Shamanic Healing & Soul Retrieval diploma course, with Ross Heaven, Feb 7-11, NEW ZEALAND. An introduction to the Heaven Method of soul therapy - everything you need to become a qualified shamanic healer. Please email [email protected] for full information and to book. http://www.thefourgates.org/Plant Spirit Shamanism with Ross Heaven, Feb 13-14, NEW ZEALAND. An introduction to shamanic healing with plants. Please email [email protected] for full information and to book. http://www.thefourgates.org/The Holy Children with Ross Heaven, Feb 15-16, NEW ZEALAND. Ceremonial healing veladas in the style of Maria Sabina. Please email [email protected] for full information and to book. http://www.thefourgates.org/Stories from Grandfather. A ceremonial healing workshop with Ross Heaven and La Gringa, Feb 28-March 6, AUSTRALIA. Please email [email protected] for full information and to book. http://www.thefourgates.org/The Sands of Time: Awakening your Shamanic Perceptions with Sandy Corcoran and Indigo Ronlov, EGYPT, March 17-31, 2017. Tour includes 9 nights on our private dahabeya, 3 nights in the elegant Mena House, and private after-hours visits: night ceremony in the Great Pyramid, sunrise ceremony between the paws of the Sphinx, and sunrise ceremony at the Temple of Isis at Philae. We will visit Luxor, Aswan, Dendera, Abydos, Karnak, Sakkara, the ancient market in Cairo, and the Cairo Museum to name a few. Participants limited to 16. See website link for more details or email [email protected]. http://www.starwalkervisions.com/

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Poetry: ‘Wandering’; Martin Pallot. Website: martinpallot.wordpress.com. Contact: [email protected]. Photography: Simon Harding

WANDERING

Wander lonely, like a cloud,An aimless, gentle, breeze blown way,Avoid the purposeful pressing crowd,Just let your feet, pied piper play.

And walking, let your mind roam free,To touch, then let the thought go far,Let eyes not fix on what they see,But lightly hold to where you are.

Give no thought to journeys end,Nor fear the ever circling time,Just see what intuition sends,Or wait some serendipitous sign.

For this walk from place to place,This idle, undirected drift,Away from whirl of daily race,May bring the grace of wisdoms gift.