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Dream Adventuring On With Stoics, Skeptics, and Cynics - and a New Traveling Companion

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:39 GMT

Image by striatic via Flickr

Wow! Before dawn I woke up in mid-dream...wondering why a loud anachronistic circle of ancient Stoics, Skeptics, and Cynics had been shouting at me back in a mix of lifetimes during the Golden Age of Greece. What do these philosophical ancestors of mine want this go round?

Even weirder, I was remembering, a pale speckled parrot-like bird with a stoical expression had been perched on top of a severely pruned tree at the center of the circle the whole while, talking stories with happy endings, all but drowning out anyone else. This strange but wise and old bird often barked and head-tilted side to side to punctuate the performance.

"All religion is for the birds!" is the only - unusually pedestrian - message my brain kept chirping as I searched for deeper meanings and profounder interpretations. This sketchy dream scene is all I recall but I suppose more will come back to me later.

Or, maybe not. Other messages might have arisen from my inner well of knowing and been delivered though symbolic packaging while I was being distracted.

Or maybe my new bird buddy will reappear and tell more. Or &os;all of the above&os; might happen, bit by bit, and I will accept it - no matter what - as part of the wondrous fun of life.

Shamanic Shift Center's Contact Portal

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:11 GMT

: Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

Greetings! Welcome to the contact and news portal for Elizabeth of Shamanic Shift Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin! To contact Elizabeth, Shamanic Shift Center, or Companions Circle, click the CONTACT tab above.

The contact form ABOVE is the best way to send a message to Elizabeth of Shamanic Shift Center and Companions Circle Church. The ‘long list' of other websites and webpages is listed on the sidebar so you can find Elizabeth, shamanic minister and co-founder of Companions Circle Church, the non-profit umbrella organization for Shamanic Shift Center (Milwaukee and online), around the web.

Schedule and Events: For information about Shamanic Shift Center's ongoing schedule and services, such as the Friday night shamanic circle, visit our monthly Events and Updates portal. Register ahead for the shamanic circle here through the contact form or by calling 414-289-8661 or by tweeting it @ShamanicShift.

Blogging: Please visit the Circle's Blogspot. Elizabeth's other blogging, link blogging, and tweeting are linked at FriendFeed/ShamanicShift. Also, please do join Elizabeth on Twitter by ‘following' @ShamanicShift (who follows back)!

Shamanic Shift Center is for practicing and teaching new shamanics and shamanic innovations for everyday life. Companions Circle is a church of shamanic ways of self and reality shifting towards better and best through direct experience of Spirit and non-ordinary reality. Shamanic Shift Center, our circle's non-profit shamanic mission to Milwaukee, the world, the internet, and the universe is contemporary and original – not linked directly historically to any indigenous spirituality, culture, tradition, or religion.

This post and the sidebar will update but there won't be new posts while we use this site as our contact and news portal.

International Art at Folk Fair in Milwaukee WI

Bronze Fonz gives two thumbs up to residents of Milwaukee

Posted in Hello Tagged: Milwaukee Wisconsin, Shamanic Shift Center

Where to find me and Shamanic Shift Center besides MySpace

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:11 GMT

Greetings - It's Elizabeth checking in at MySpace, for Shamanic Shift Center! The picture is of The Tortoise Cat, my colleague, enjoying wildlife dreams in our sanctuary's mini-garden next to the eas...

Non-ordinary connections wide open...Ordinary connections slower

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:17 GMT

The topic I am pondering today is connections. My internet connection has become tricky. I chose mobility over speed and now use a USB 3G AT&T laptop connect device called the Mercury. When I travel it works well with the 3G signal but here at my usual location there is usually trouble. This sanctuary is a radio wave dead-zone and that might be considered a non-ordinary connecting &os;feature&os; by some.

Here in this space I can get a more stable but slower 2G connection which allows me to browse but times out when I am using advanced blogging platforms. This post is a test of 2G here.

Or, I can pack up and stroll a few blocks to connect with WIFI (free many places or included with my plan if the WIFI is AT&T). Today I am amid planning a new strategy and routine, how to best reorganize my work day based around frequent short-distance travels to whereever I can set up shop and use WIFI to get my publishing and writing done - or maybe connect with the Mercury if I can find spacetime coorinates where it can pick up the faster 3G signal better. I cannot afford both DSL (or cable) and the mobile connection and I must have the ability to connect on the road. So...

With a name like Mercury, I might have forseen these challenges! Mercury is a trickster but connects happily and harmoniously while were traveling.

Ordinary everyday shamanic journeys and jaunts

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:52 GMT

Previous assignment from Philosopher Zeno:

I am to create a piece of shamanic art blending symbols for "happy stoicism, compassionate cynicism, and serene skepticism" and await further instructions. [Here is the Link to that previous post.]

I did create a shamanic mask expressing those qualities to go with the healthy, invigorating drink I invented for Crates. I am still dancing with the mask and drink, amid this ceremonial shamanic attitude shifting process. When I am finished I will upload a picture.

New ordinary-reality mini-challenge: My 3G internet connecting device includes Trickster, in the software or the hardware - probably in both! In Shamanic Shift Center&os;s space this USB-wand device receives and sends from one sacred place (and direction and height) only. WIFI connecting options are plentiful around this east side Milwaukee neighborhood. Maybe I am being guided to shift out of here and into public cafes for planned ahead periods of blogging, Squidooing, and other content production and correspondence.

This coming week I will test the 3G device as I travel out of town on a few short jaunts, that can be shamanic jaunts for gaining understanding around and within this situation. This may be an opportunity to learn more from Trickster. Also, while the window of opportunity for exchanging this particular 3G laptop-connect device is open, I will test it in as many places as I can.

ATT tech-support put in a trouble ticket because the agent became convinced the unstable internet connection I am getting is a network issue. I am supposed to get a follow-up call in a day or so about that. I agree there is a signal reception issue of some sort but I am almost certain that the device and communications manager have Trickster in them too.

Other networking and connections: I am looking to reach out more purposefully though social networks and shamanic organizations. But I know I must begin dropping some memberships and web presences to make spacetime in my schedule to link up some new - and hopefully more creative, harmonious, and effective - community shamanizing connections.

Wow, Milwaukee is blanketed with snow again!

I'm catching up in blogging but the Tortoise Cat is way behind!

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:22 GMT

Is the Tortoise Cat ready to blog?

Greetings Gaia! Here is a quick update.

As far as shamanic blogging goes I am updating more frequently these days on our circle's blogspot. But the other blog authors there are in retirement or semi-retirement from blogging or the internet. So our blogging shamanic shifting mission is up to me.

Those circle companions are supporting Shamanic Shift Center still in many other ways, most importantly through daily prayer-shifting, during 3 to 7 prayer-periods several of circle keep each day. Add to our prayer-shift list in our candle shrine or add to nShrine's Twitter Shrine (we check it).

The Tortoise Cat blogs here but she's way behind.

Tags: Tortoise Cat, blogging cat, blogging

Zeno introduces me to his teacher Crates of Thebes

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:44 GMT

Image from Wikimedia Commons

My extended shamanic dreaming and journeying the Golden Age of Greek Philosophers continues: I am still constructing the shamanic art assignment given by Zeno. But last night I became aware in a dream (with the Shamantic! spirit team) just as I was being introduced and turned over to Crates of Thebes for further instructions. He did not look like the picture above except in the clownish spirit it expresses so vividly. He and his wife were very fun folks.

They made my day too. After weathering a troubling ordinary reality encounter this holiday weekend with Trickster(s) under the from of two habitually, maybe even sociopathically dishonest (perhaps conscienceless) young businesswomen who just moved less than a mile from here I required soul healing. After weathering this challenge well and learning from the mistakes I made and repairing damages which were minimal, thank Spirit and Spirits, I know and feel that a medicinal infusion of sweet, jolly, weird, compassionate, original cynicism is what my inner soul-doctor is ordering!

Bitter cynicism is easy to find in our age in this world, especially on the internet, but the sweet, jesting, healing varieties seem all too rare - possibly endangered. My assignment from Crates was to help anchor and restore the original beneficial cynicism in our world (through me, by just that much) by creating, concocting, and consuming a health strengthening hot beverage today. In creative chaos every little shift has the potential to make big waves.

So now, guided by Spirit and Spirits, I am mulling old fashioned cynicism and spiced apple cider, 1000% of everything vitamin powder, honey, and several other secret ingredients. Mmmm.

Shamanic dream visit with Zeno

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:55 GMT

Ancient Agora of Athens by DerHexer, Wikimedia Commons

Shamanic Travels in the Golden Age of Greek Philosophy Update:

Last night I awakened within shamanic dreaming and realized I was in the Stoa Poecile. (Caution: This is the best link but it is a page of a blog about artistic Erotica!) I was shocked awake by the bright colorful paintings decorating that place but already I have forgotten the specific images and themes.

I remember that the original Stoic, Zeno of Citium had been teaching a crowd. Then before departing he singled me out and called me over to him. I remember we walked a ways as he gave me a shamanic action to carry out in ordinary-reality, and eventually the internet and some other middle realms.

I am to create a piece of shamanic art blending symbols for "happy stoicism, compassionate cynicism, and serene skepticism" and await further instructions.

Update on my shamanic journeying through Ancient Greece

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:27 GMT

Update on my shamanic journeying to the Stoics, Cynics, and Skeptics: My shamanic travels though several centuries of Ancient Greece now happen as dream-journeys, mostly during my sleep at night, but now and then during naps. Several philosophers are taking turns accompanying me and the Shamantic! spirit-team on spacetime middle-realms excursions through their Greece and their world, around various topics and themes.

Last night I visited Delphi! The philosophers have expressed happiness that I have finally demonstrated an interest in their throughts, words, and deeds, and the other benefits of connecting to their Golden Age. I wake up in a state of ecstatic amazement but even though I attempt to jot notes immediately, I forget most of these adventures until the dream-journeying picks up again.

My thoughts and emotions and moods have shifted for the better anyway. I expect that I shall be able to remember more later. I do recall that within these dreams I am constructing carefully some weird shamanic device or container for remembering.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, by inyucho

On Shifting Shamanic Shift Center

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:43 GMT

Update on the notion of shifting Shamanic Shift Center: Even as I signed the lease for another year (11/01/08 - 10/31/09) here at the corner of North Astor and East Knapp Streets on the east side of Milwaukee, WI, in the historical building known as Montgomery House, as I was guided by the Spirit-Team at the end of August, I still sensed energy-flows rising for GO-ing as I wrote earlier this year. But these stirrings and burblings were still a ways within and beyond this ordinary spacetime and the moment of action.

Ongoing problems with this building&os;s maintenance have kept me from feeling complacently comfortable here, though I have been able to shamanize all concerns effectively towards better so far. Building problems have provided a series of convenient opportunities for practicing shamanic shifting.

This office/sanctuary/home is an unusual mixed-use rented space where I can operate a shamanic circle &os;church&os; (office and small sanctuary) and also live on site as the minister. I still raise and donate over 50% of Companions Circle&os;s expenses through other self-employment projects, and meeting the medium-range goal of having Companions Circle become self-supporting including providing the minister&os;s room and board would be easier here financially than in any 2-rent arrangement.

So I have been hoping that the dreams and images of Companions Circle and Shamanic Shift Center (this micro-church&os;s main mission) moving are symbolic, meaning a bigger consciousness and life shift than usual in approach to this project rather than a literal location change. But I have been doing my best to keep my mind, heart, and gut open. On this Dark Moon day during the darkening days of the year I dream and journey for new lights on this subject!

Middle-Realm shamanic consultation with Greek philosophers, still continuing

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:06 GMT

Extended historical shamanic journey and dream update: So far...I know that I and the Shamantic! Spirit-Team will be receiving attitude adjusting and energy-flow re-balancing &os;symbol-power-container&os; gifts for me and this world - which could be anything - from several Greek philosophers who lived over an ordinary-reality span of 300 years or so during the often so-called and variously defined Golden Age of Greek Philosophy, a period that is also often defined in reference to the life of Socrates.

The areas I wish to explore in ancient Greece are still variously roped, gated, or fenced off but the shamanic journeying portal vehicle shapeshifts various all-terrain features as needed. I am moved by Spirit and Spirits to stand fast and wait longer - before attempting to storm through.

Within this transitional, border realm I have been - for several non-ordinary days and nights- conferring and negotiating with an enigmatic &os;Pre-Socratic&os; guy who seems to bridge the Mythological and Pre-Socratic ages. Even though I appear to be detained, as if I present a problem to the beings within, I already sense beneficial, freeing shifts in my everyday thoughts, emotions, and attitudes around the modern false stoicism, cynicism, and skepticism I keep encountering journeying the WWW or city&os;s narrow streets, the intention of this extended shamanic journey and dreaming. I must be receiving gifts in secret while I rest here.

During the latest episode of shamanic dreaming I found myself startled awake in the dream, shocked to find myself (my &os;self&os;) floating and treading liquid in the fatal dose of Hemlock consumed by Socrates! Myth or fact, this poison and decision to swallow must be - for me, somehow - a remedy and a key.

Photo by Georgios Pazios (User:Alaniaris) from Wikipedia

Historical shamanic dream-journeying to ancient Greece continues

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:52 GMT

In my dreams... A deep distant ancestor appears on the non-ordinary border territory where I am still detained and entertained and remonstrates with Pherecydes, my challenger and would-be guide. I have not determined the gender of this rainbow-cloaked personage, also a traveler, who seems to be vouching for me and the Shamantic! spirit-team.

Now that I am awake to ordinary-reality I understand that permission for passage has been granted for a new shamanic-journey attempt to visit and converse with the original Stoics, Skeptics, and Cynics, the intent of this attitude-shifting shamanic excursion. Pherecydes and the Mystery-Advocate will both be guiding us into ancient Greece, to Athens soon. But at this moment I am distracted by wondering over the identity of the rainbow-cloaked Mystery-Advocate.

This is a shamanic journey and a shamanic dreaming not a Bible story or RPG experience, so the powers of the rainbow cloak may go beyond what I have heard of or imagined. I sense and suppose that this seamless garment is a connection to extraordinary non-ordinary potentials and possibilities. I notice pulsing from the lightning-struck journeying stick I customarily bring - which is both two and one and two in one stick(s) - a gift-treasure from the non-ordinary peoples who danced with me and the Shamantic! spirit-team on an extended series of shamanic-journeys in 2002-2003 into the non-ordinary reality of the land of the General Mitchell International Airport (GMIA) in Milwaukee, WI (MKE).

When this lighting-stuck stick pulses I know transforming and healing power is being transferred and released around the shamanic journeying intention for me, for us, and for all interconnecting beings, places, events, and situations. I am certain that this threshold will be crossed soon, but of course this will not be the only boundary or edge separating me and the ancient Philosophers I am hoping and desiring to consult. Today I will study these philosophers and their teachings more in ordinary reality, while I wait for the right spacetime coordinates and resonances to open the shamanic portal-vehicle again for so I can continue this shamanic adventure.

It is unusual for me to be held up for even this matter of a few days during a shamanic journey process. So I know I have much to re-balance and restore in this past. During a shamanic journey much can be cleared up and re-balanced symbolically without much need for intellectualizing, Background education gives Spirit and Spirits more to play with and is a way of making an energy-offering and demonstrating respect.

Credit:
Image from Wikipedia

Shamanic journeying to the Athenian Golden Age, continued

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:07 GMT

Portal-Vehicle: I set up my portal, a layout of books, pictures, minerals, and other symbolic tokens and it shapeshifted into the vehicle for this middle-realms shamanic journey into our western ancient history in Athens, Greece. I was hoping to meet right away with the Stoics, Cynics, and Skeptics of that age.

A Challenge of Sorts: But there is a delay. I am still negotiating, on the outskirts of this non-ordinary land, with a prospective guide for me and Spirit-Team Shamantic! for there is no Athenian Golden Age specialist spirit among us. The challenger and potential guide appears to be Pherecydes of Syros. He seems to be a mysterious, tricky, mystical type of fellow who looks a lot like the guy in this picture - and through a game of clues he spelled out PHERECYDES.

At first the letters were to be written in Classical Greek (which I did take up in college) but after I couldn&os;t finish spelliing the name this &os;shaman-philosopher&os; took pity and compassionately switched to the Latin-English alphabet. Only after I - with the help of several spirit-team helpers - discovered the letters of his name would he converse with me. This letter-game challenge began during the shamanic journey but continued into shamanic dreaming later.

The equivalent of a spirit-realms reference, background, and credit check is being done on me to determine if a spirit-visa into the Athenian Golden Age will be granted. Yes I am somewhat lacking in spiritual companionship in this non-ordinary realm - or perhaps I have unwittingly offended someone here!

So I am doing my best to wait patiently and respectfully: I expect to have to jump through some hoops - not flaming hoops I hope. I am also requesting red-tape cutting tools from my spirit-helpers and deeper research into connections to other spirits who might help our cause at this gateway. Let this adventure go on a ways!

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Shamanic states entrained by the ordinary

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:56 GMT

Image via Wikipedia This new shamanics I practice here at Shamanic Shift Center is more than ecstasy amid the ordinary, and more than ecstasy through the ordinary. It is an ongoing play-s...

Here I am linking up my Gaia Pro tips again

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:43 GMT

My Gaia Pro tips were better than my blog posts here, IMO! Gaia is still serving but no longer featuring the tips since Gaia Pro is (again) no longer paid or ad-free. I only wrote a few tips, off the cuff but I did put a considerable amount of heartfelt, spirited thought into them.

The nagging notion that I needed to write tips really divided my attention from blogging where I was already having trouble keeping updated. But since the tips were associated with a professional listing I wanted them be examples of my better writing.

Here are links to those tips and the comments:

The Universe rattles, drums, sings, and dances!

Life is mostly tips - of icebergs floating on seas of Mystery!

So what? No matter what...Simplest word shifts change all now!

Image CredIt: ImageAfter.Com

Tags: wisdom, tips, shamanism, shamanic shifting, shamanizing, shaman

Shamanic-journey to the original Stoics, Skeptics, and Cynics

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:18 GMT

Preparing for a shamanic-journey into history: After noticing many pseudo-sarcastic and pseudo-cynical comments and mini-reviews, at StumbleUpon and Digg for examples, after noticing more effete whinings and inchoate grumblings around the WWW than I usually do - which I would call grammar-less philistinian spewings, instances of witless rudeness, and chronic complainings, undifferentiated type, rather than smartly dashed-off mini-rants - I felt and witnessed my inner state of being shifitng from sad, incredudulous, exasperation towards resigned yet happy stoicism. Let go and get going. Live and let live. (This common, old, pedestrian slogan can never become banal, IMO - I mean imHo.)

So then I decided to journey back to the Golden Age of Philosophy and gain direct insights from the inventers of open-ended wondering and speculating...about what is, what we know, how we know, and how to live. I understand that whatever I notice, whatever seems to distract me, is really LIFE attempting to lighten me up - and I want to get a grip on this knowledge!

I am preparing my shamanic-journeying portal for this non-ordinary middle-realm excursion into our &os;western&os; history carefully. My preparations may take a 2 o4 3 days and include more background reading. I must wait to be guided to the best symbols that I have here besides pictures and books. Yet I may be surprised by Spirit and Spirits and spontaneously dream-journey part of the way tonight.

I can hardly believe that I have never shamanic-journeyed to Socrates, or Plato and Aristotle, or the original Stoics, Skeptics and Cynics!

Image: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Un-settling into my non-routine of re-newing shamanic ways

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:20 GMT

Frontier flights and energy-flows back: The Frontier animal companions shamanic shifted my airline flying experiences again. From Sacramento to Denver Rudy the Raccoon (A319, N023FR) flew me past occasional wild wind-chimings and mysterious footfalling fallen leaf-crunchings into light looping dream-tours of possible change-scenarios.

In Denver Trixie (A319, N912FR) the (baby) Red Fox picked me up once again and droned and toned me back to Milwaukee for an early landing. I felt Frontier's wider circle of animal-linked aircraft energizing airline industry shifts for the better too.

Decided while away: My and the circle's shamanic bloggings are already the core of the book on new shamanics I kept thinking I was procrastinating over writing. What remains to be done is editing and commenting what is written and finding the best format for publishing and distributing.

Also I received more guiding messages and strenghening visions on my 9-day pilgrimage about continuing and intensifying Shamanic Shift Center's shamanic shifting mission(s). We must keep on questing re-co-creative ways to live and teach new shamanics. We must continue re-newing non-authoritarian, non-religious, non-institutionalized, science-informed, art and technology marrying contemporary shamanic ways and shamanic innovations within many more individual (and small circle) shamanic shift centers all over, to foster more and more ongoing un-organized yet spirit-coordinated, worldwide, local and global, everyday situation shamanization.

Also I dove into wilder, weirder night dreams than usual while away. These dream adventures felt like ventiings and re-inventings for the improvement of my health and the healing of related trouble-spots near and far.

Photo Credit: Jack the Jackrabbit at Denver International Airport by Aykleinman/Wikipedia

Tags: shamanic shifitng, shamanizing, book, shamanic ways, shamanics, purpose

Singing with the Putah Creek Crawdads

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:33 GMT

Still in Davis, CA: On Saturdays in Central Park the Davis Farmer's Market is a must. I intended a walk-through on my way to walking through the University of California - Davis (UCD) Arboretum along Putah Creek. But I never made it past a street singing performance by the Putah Creed Crawdads, a popular local acoustic band.

My own acoustic steel-stringed guitar has been packed away in a closet for a while - and is now listed as for sale on Craigslist - but there and then I suddenly dreamed of singing folk music again. When I requested Wildwood Flower the band obliged even though they hadn't played it in a while and had not brought the lyrics. As I was thanking them afterwards (and laying down some dollar bills) I heard my voice mentioning that I USED TO play folk guitar and sing every day as well as lead sing-a-longs occasionally.

Just as it had happened in my momentary dream the Crawdads then insisted that I join them for the next song! We sang Will The Circle Be Unbroken? and later I rejoined them so a friend of theirs could snap a photo with my camera. We sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic and another one I had never sung or even heard before. What fun this was!

Crustaceans are one of the few animals I am (deathly) allergic to eating so I understood in a shamanic way that this ordinary happening was also a guiding message from Spirit. I am about to go and delete that Craigslist ad! Oh, and I now know there is a lot more to Putah Creek than I had realized.

Tags: music, singing, songs, fun, performing, dreaming, dreams, encouragement, ordinary reality, inspiration

Pilgrimaging, Re-Balancing, and Re-Questing

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:24 GMT

Here I am on a new pilgrimage to Davis, CA for elemental rebalancing and vision re-questing. This small university city (Google Map) in the Central Valley where I grew up through my first childhood still relaxes and restores me at once. It is hot and dry through Summer and my favorite weather happens during Fall as the breezes pick up and the temperature lowers just a little. It looks like a perfectly ordinary place yet it is a paradise for walkers, bicycle-riders, and autodidacts.

I flew here in Frontier Airlines A319s upon spokesanimal energy-flows of air and metal, Trickster and Wisdom, and much more - with Trixie the Red Fox (N912FR) from Milwaukee to Denver and Doc the Snowy Owl (N017FR) from Denver to Sacramento. Both aircraft are powered by two General Electric (GE) CFM 56-5B5 wing-mounted engines yet I experienced each plane flying with a distinct style.

Trixie took off and rose up humming resonant didgeridoo-ing and bag-piping thrummings mostly in the deepest and highest ranges that flew me into a trance and shifted us to Denver in what seemed like no-time. Doc;s flight felt less dance-like and more serene, and instead of wild thrilling drones I heard women's voices chanting and lulling softly yet vibrantly and intensely yet smoothly in mostly the middle ranges.

My whole self began recycling and initiating another AQAL-ity fresh start as soon as my feet touched the ground here!

P.S. The photo is from the Wikipedia. (Wow, there is a Davis Wiki too!)

Tags: Davis CA, pilgrimaging, questing, vision quests, animal companions, energy-flows, elements, healing music, shamanic flying, ordinary reality

Ready...get set...GO..."Big Bang" experiment!

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:34 GMT

Hi! This was a test of the blog-it tool at Digg before I edited it and added on....a test post about a mini-universal test soon to begin. Avoid those stray micro black holes!

"Tests have cleared the way for the start-up next month of an experiment to restage a mini-version underground of the "Big Bang" which created the universe 15 billion years ago, the project chief said on Monday..."

read more | digg story

How strange...an imaginary mirror tree!

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:32 GMT

Imagine A Mirror Tree!
Sculpture in progress by ECP, August 2008

Imagine a mirror tree!

Imagine...wandering into a forest of trash dunes and urban driftwood wands
and city-beachcombiing for a day of unstructured fun....
then, after hours, suddenly coming upon

A mirror tree with a lantern - how strange, how wondrous -
enlightening
WHAT...?
The next quick question, a new old direction, a momentary disturbance of the forces of be-ing,
a dissolution of a fearful throught&os;s worth of reality binding
glue...

and one leaping renewal spark of COURAGE!
OK, go back...run home now....enough fun for today,
but please retrun...soon,
as soon as an instant instance of idle innocent imagining flows and fires up under
foot!

by ECP

Everyday signs form a non-ordinary message to shift

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:09 GMT

Harbinger: Someone wrote to me a little while ago commending the practice of offering Shamanic Shift Center consultations and sessions on a donation basis. Weirdly, that same day the signs of a message urging big shifts in our longstanding purposeful money-practices began appearing.

First sign: To fund Shamanic Shift Center I am doing some property management jobs as an independent contractor for a local property management company. Some new tenants - jovial young men and self-described yuppies - got wind of this shamanic practice and attempted to get a shamanic performance for free for their own and their friends' amusement at their next weekend party by 'pulling my leg' about a haunting in their new abode.

When I shamanic-journeyed on this, I was tipped off by Spirit and Spirits that these funny business guys assumed I was gullable, and this was a sympton of a mild sort of dis-empowering disrespect that had grown out of their interpretation of Shamanic Shift Center's published 'donation basis' or 'energy-exchange' or 'love-offering' policy around shamanizing.

These young men are in business with a gusto to achieve ambitious goals and they could hardly help concluding that I must not really be in business here, that this Shamanic Shift Center - Companions Circle is only a pretend gig. Well pretending is an effective shamanic technique and we do call the life-source-force FUN, but this here is a real business, albeit a non-profit one.

Next signs: Then came a series of contacts by earlier inquirers or visitors who had phoned or arrived here for shamanic assistance before, stating up front their various situational inabilities to donate any money for sessions. In each of these cases the process had side-tracked somehow - from cancelled or missed appointments, unfulfilled energy-exchange agreements, half-hearted participation, seemingly relentless self-defeating actions, and apparent (attempted) crazy-making. I noticed those old familiar patterns starting up and begining to cycle in each of these out-of-the-blue renewed requests for more shamanic assistance.

Juxtaposed alongside came a series new contacts flowing new energy, who clearly took as a given donating an amount of money comparable to a massage-therapy session's cost. These new visitors are clearly shfiting their lives according to their stated goals as their shamanic processes unfold. After shamanic dream-venting for a few days I shamanic-journeyed again on these old and new connections and was taken by Spirit and Spirits to a place of a bright red X and two green arrows along a lighted tree-lined road.

"Shut down one lane and open two new ones!" I was urged, by Spirit and Spirits. "The other way was the best for a long while, but no longer - shift now!" Now I am changing all those shamanic consultations or sessions 'offered on a donation-basis' statements on websites, announcements, and business cards. I am leaving open several donation opportunities that are obviously separate from the booking of shamanic sessions and consultations.

And...As gently and kindly as possible I am terminating (and redirecting onward with many blessings) those earlier customers. I take some deep blessing (leading up to laughing) breaths whenever I consider how I may receive unhappy or even disparaging and debunking comments and/or low ratings somewhere over these recent changes and actions. I ask for and accept ongoing gifting and guiding from Spirit and Spirit for facing cheerfully any challenging counter-reactions to this radical shift to new ways of going about shamanic-ways business!

Update - Clarification - Elaboration: A key feature of Shamanic Shift Center's non-profit mission is keeping a shamanic practice active and shamanic practitioner(s) available in our community. So requesting payments or donations for shamanic assistance to offset costs or improve our shamanic outreach is 'related business income' for Companions Circle Church, a non-profit corporation.

For shamanic consultations or sessions one can pay the suggested amount(s) or donate another amount. The form of matter-energy to pay or donate for shamanic assistance is money in US Dollars. If anyone wishes to offer some other form of energy or matter in addition to the suggested payment or a donation of money, OK.

Funeral officiating and the Roadscrossing project's supportive counseling and related services for our uninsured and lower-income neighbors are still offered on an "affordable donation' basis.

Tags: business, shifting, radical shifts, money, non-profit mission, shamanic assistance

Shifting purpose and mission for Companions Circle

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:35 GMT

Visions and messages of more drastic than usual changes are becoming or seeming more probable: I am being shown pictures and sung songs by Spirit and Spirits in the summer tree branches and leaves, hinting that the purpose and mission of Companions Circle - Shamanic Shift Center here in Milwaukee is shifting radically. I am percieving a new purpose and mission and maybe a move, though probably not a physical move from this rented space.

There has always been a calling to incarnate a &os;circle church&os; here - but not an institution, not even a tiny one, and not an authority-source, not even a flexible one. So why live as a circle-church at all and why live here?

The underground and emerging &os;church&os; paradigms did attract me in years long past, but only fleetingly as I realized that whatever I am being called to (and now whatever is called for here) is more subtle and even farther off the mainstreams of religion, spirituality, and community. It is also flowing away from the newer mainstreams of spirituality and religion, including the western revival of shamanic ways.

This energy-flow spirals into new territory at a new-fangled angle. This energy-pattern and mission is leaning farther and further out and away from even the alternative mainstreams of the &os;post-&os; and &os;new&os; and &os;complementary and &os;alternative&os; and &os;emerging&os;&os;.

Will this dream-seed that has been growing skyward and earthward and spreading gradually here really shift and pull up roots and walk onward instead of just bending and swaying at this crossroads? I do not know yet if this is a message these new shamanic sights and sounds are vibrating between earth and winds, interpreted and passed along to me by the trees around here.   I seem to be hearing &os;stay&os; and &os;go&os; at once!

I must gaze and listen longer to understand these messages.