Carol Locust, Ph.D. Native American Research and Training Center Tucson, Arizona (Tribal affiliation -- Eastern Band Cherokee)
"The talking stick has been used for centuries by many American Indian tribes as a means of just and impartial hearing. The talking stick was commonly used in council circles to designate who had the right to speak. When matters of great concern came before the council, the leading elder would hold the talking stick and begin the discussion. When he finished what he had to say he would hold out the talking stick, and whoever wished to speak after him would take it. In this manner the stick was passed from one individual to another until all who wished to speak had done so. The stick was then passed back to the leading elder for safe keeping.
Some tribes used a talking feather instead of a talking stick. Other tribes might have a peace pipe, a wampum belt, a sacred shell, or some other object by which they designate the right to speak. Whatever the object, it carries respect for free speech and assures the speaker he has the freedom and power to say what is in his heart without fear of reprisal or humiliation.
Whoever holds the talking stick has within his hands the sacred power of words. Only he can speak while he holds the stick; the other council members must remain silent. The eagle feather tied to the talking stick gives him the courage and wisdom to speak truthfully and wisely. The rabbit fur on the end of the stick reminds him that his words must come from his heart and that they must be soft and warm. The blue stone will remind him that the Great Spirit hears the message of his heart as well as the words he speaks. The shell, iridescent and ever changing, reminds him that all creation changes -- the days, the seasons, the years -- and people and situations change, too. The four colors of beads -- yellow for the sunrise (east), red for the sunset (west), white for the snow (north) and green for the earth (south) -- are symbolic of the powers of the universe he has in his hands at the moment to speak what is in his heart. Attached to the stick are strands of hair from the great buffalo. He who speaks may do so with the power and strength of this great animal.
The speaker should not forget that he carries within himself a sacred spark of the Great Spirit, and therefore he is also sacred. If he feels he cannot honor the talking stick with his words, he should refrain from speaking so he will not dishonor himself. When he is again in control of his words, the stick will be returned to him."
"Today there is a movement toward rediscovering the uses of astrology and the importance of the shamanastic viewpoint of the world. There is by some a turning away from the scientist-preists as the purveyors of all knowledge and wisdom. What we are beginning to realize is that left brain knowledge alone is sterile and incomplete. We cannot comprehend the bigger picture until right brain knowledge is also incorporated into the greater worldview. As a result, we have seen an explosion of right brain paths of consciousness exploration over the past three decades. A deeply buried need to experience mystical ways of knowing and perceiving the world is reawakening. In this search for greater self knowledge, many have sought to learn the shaman's path of inner knowing... A new form of whole-brain learning and perceiving the world around us is developing."
Richard Gerber MD, author of "Vibrational Medicine: the #1 Handbook of Subtle Energy Therapies" in Introduction to Barbara Hand Clow "Liquid Light of Sex"
Recent hoop phenomena: right handers gravitating toward left handed hooping for right brain turbo boost; lasso to waist with turn > "go with the movement of the hoop" (mondo)
Hoop Meditation
Find a space by yourself to hoop in. choose a place in which you will feel comfortable to close your eyes and move around in. this space is either dark or dimly lit with candles and incense. choose a selection of songs that you know will take you on a journey. i usually go for tribal beats, chunky and funky, and/or something eclectic, slow and melodic. It's important to choose music that you personally connect with.
Start by centring your body inside the hoop as you hold it with hands down either side. Close your eyes and breathe as you start to visualise your chakras in full colour detail one by one ascending upward - red at the base root chakra; orange at the 2nd; sun yellow at your core 3rd; green at the heart; blue at the throat; violet at the third eye; white open lotus at the crown. See a stream of light pouring into your head and engulfing all of these colours as it floods down your spinal column into your root chakra weaving and circling the spinning mandala type chakras along the way until it reaches the ground, takes a 180 to return back in an egg shape upward direction until it reaches your crown passing through all chakras along the way weaving and circling as it did coming down until it reaches way beyond the crown chakra and completes the oval. Watch that oval in its fullness and see it expand beyond your hoop's perimetre as far as the mind can see. Then watch it pulsate a vibrant white light as it radiates out into the galaxy then back in again. Hold the vision of the light and notice a space of total stillness. Music is optional for this part of the meditation but I find it often useful to listen to the sounds around you, preferably in nature, and start to hear the hum of existence as your meditation music.
Time to groove it. Bring yourself back into the physical space that you are standing in and start spinning the hoop. We are looking for a free flow dance. Close your eyes as much as possible. Feel your body move and start to observe. Notice how your physical form engages with the hoop and how other parts of the body react to certain movements. Flow is important so rather than thinking about moves you are going to automatically just move and let your body decide how. Turning is key as we begin to discover the rhythm as your body communes with the hoop and music. Keep spinning and moving until you find a place of complete calm and harmonic resonance. As you move deeper into the movement meditation you can start to visualise the chakras again with the powerful white light as your spotlight. You can move the hoop to any part of your body during this time while exploring spontaneous movement and flow.
Don't time any of this. Just pick a playlist of songs that will last anywhere between 5 minutes and 5 hours! It's up to you how long each part will take.
When you are finished drop your hoop and stand in Tadasana. Feel the energy moving around the body. Then lie down on the ground for Sivasana Corpse pose final relaxation. Make sure you are warm and comfortable. Reflect on your movement meditation to find any key insights. Then just let your body and mind relax entirely with meditation and focus on the breath. Try not to force the breath just watch it. Sivasana is recommended for at least 5 minutes preferably 10.
When you have completed Sivasana record any significant revelations.
i sat inside my rainbow hoop at the beach contemplating meditating threw my rainbow at a little girl who was prancing and posing full acrobatic style - she loved it of course - then i journeyed to the clifftop (enroute... random callout: i thought they should have given you 10!) and so i sat on the edge of the cliff and gazed upon the ocean. the colours constantly changed as sunlight beamed in and out. a sea plane buzzed past calling me to look up and see the rainbow in the sky. breathtaking moment. there was so much love and light going on in that little bubble of mine and i thought: how can i hold onto this bliss? when i realised... this too will pass.
dreamscape: lots of travel and peeps - london bronwyn camping nick packing bags riding a mule enroute... cut to > walking into a room to find a man sitting on a chair. we both realise we are on the astral plane and are both lucidly dreaming. i wonder if we should engage and then we both realise that we don't know each other so it would be futile. fadeout
top 5 dancefloor experience on saturday night @ phoenix - when tim mentioned it i was tempted to ask who would be spinning and thought better to leave it as a surprise. yay! johnny. WOW. couldn't really have asked for anything more. he just does it every time. blissful tunes a mix of the deep dark dirty and the crankn electro kookified lushness that is the signature of this man's supreme style. oh and the incense! bring it ON. mental note - when doing out in catwoman stileto boots... take backup! good for curfews, challenging for hooping, broke through on the dance land front but... such pain! in a pain is beauty, beauty is pain kinda way but REALLY! who is responsible for this kind of footwear? actually. cut to conversation on friday night with jann about Chinese foot binding - the link was made. post-feminist feminist discussion to come... its lengthy.
"The vertex appears as a sensitive point linked to fateful encounters with others, seemingly sudden epiphanies, turning points in life and a destiny over which we have no control. Activated, it can synchronize with an experience of another whose effect registers as some degree of profound or extraordinary.
Meetings with significant people, as seen through synastry and composite charts, may also link strongly to the vertex. (Think of people as constant transits.) When one person's inner planets or asteroids (Sun through to Jupiter), angles, nodes, vertex or certain Arabic parts conjunct the vertex, there can be a feeling of fate, destiny, rightness or wrongness about the encounter. Something in the contact with that person may have the ability to create profound change in the native, over a long or short period of time.
Our location on the planet can awaken the vertex as seen through relocation charts and astro-carto-graphy. When we relocate, the vertex may become more prominent by changing house or aspect to an angle. The relocation vertex can signify places where meaningful encounters of a particular nature seem to happen more consistently."
HOROSCOPE ANGLES "The Ascendant is formed by the intersection of the eastern section of the (rational) horizon with the ecliptic. The Descendant is the intersection of the horizon and ecliptic in the west. The visible intersection of the ecliptic with the Meridian (above the horizon) forms the Midheaven. The IC is the ecliptic-Meridian intersection below the horizon. The intersection of the ecliptic with the Prime Vertical in the east forms the Antivertex; in the west that intersection marks the Vertex. The East Point is the intersection of the ecliptic with the unnamed great circle passing through the east and west points of the horizon and the north and south poles of Earth, and the West Point is its western opposition. The East Point has also been called the Equatorial Ascendant because it is the Ascendant on the Equator at the sidereal time of birth.
Both the East Point and Antivertex can be interpreted as auxiliary Ascendants. That is, they function as additional keys to one’s basic identity, action, energy, drive and self-expression. They do not seem to be AS important as the actual Ascendant, but do offer useful clues to major themes in the nature of the individual. Either angle requires more attention when a planet falls closely conjunct it. This is almost as significant as having that planet conjunct the Ascendant. The planet(s) involved denote major, keynote principles of that individual’s sense of self, identity, assertion and being in the world...
This potential of “giving away” a part of who we are and unconsciously attracting other people to manifest that missing side contributes to what has been called the “fated” quality of the Vertex. Where other people are involved, we have less control and less power than where we are concerned only with our actions and attitudes as an individual. People who externalize responsibility for their own lives call such interactions “fated.” I prefer to operate within the world view that life is a mirror; we attract people we can learn from. Everyone in our lives is teaching us about a part of our own nature and potentials.
Both axes then (East Point/West Point and Antivertex/Vertex) point to a basic self/other polarity in the life that must be faced. In any opposition, the goal is integration. There is a natural complementarity. Both ends need each other to be fully effective. There are two major dangers with any opposition (polarity) in the horoscope. One danger is swinging from one extreme to the other. It is not uncommon for people to overdo one end of a polarity, then—in reaction—go to the opposite extreme. Some people spend their lives flip-flopping from one end of the seesaw to the other. The second danger is projection. In that case, the individual identifies with one end of the polarity and denies its opposite. So, unconsciously, that individual attracts other people who are expressing that opposite quality. The problem is, they are usually carrying it to an extreme. So, when we see exaggerated behavior, it is a good idea to look into our own psyches at what we may be denying."
Sourced from and interpretation of house positions: CCRS Dodona
In a crossworld between the Lost Buddhas and Demon Leather - am perusing outfit (flashback to the Fashion Buddha and frilly leather shirt). I'm putting costumes into my car and realise I can't find a new expensive costume. Am wondering where it is when all of a sudden I realise I have a baby... a very small baby. I'm holding it and notice how fragile it is - can't support it's neck, can barely sit in my arms without flopping about. I almost drop it! Because I am so busy I ask a young girl to look after the baby. She takes it away for a bath and I continue packing the car. The young girl appears again without the baby. I run to the bathroom and see the baby sunken beneath the water with its eyes closed. It has stopped breathing and looks dead although not blue so I pull it out of the water and start to rescucitate it by massaging its heart. I call out for someone to help and then find myself in a chemist. I hand over the baby and ask the woman behind the counter to bring the baby back to life. She starts massaging its heart as then and listens closely for breath. She tells me the baby is alive and that it said to her, "Death is boring, I'm not dead." Much to my relief! Fadeout...
Again it has happened - LIFE! Not much time for the extra-curricular these daze. Last Friday was my first day off in 19 days... hmmm somebody build me a tetrahedron to fit out my brain! In an attempt to return to blogland to complete the desert review it seems all that has needed to happen in the meantime, has in fact occurred. So where to begin?
A conversation with a man at an art show last week about the desert - we were talking about how wonderful it is to find the opportunity to sit in a beautiful space for a length of time and just BE. To watch the sky, to notice the daily pattern of birds' flight, to check out your own bio-rhythms and to contemplate. We were standing in a gallery in the middle of Sydney that was so jampacked peeps had to hit the walls with their beers and wine just to make room for all the shuffling and perusing and shmoozing that is Sydney... this city is so dense (and yet when compared to other big cities around the world not at all) but it's interesting in its own diverse and eclectic way. I found it fascinating how old friends from way back kept popping out of the time closet almost like a dream - some had changed in appearance, others looked the same but spoke a different story, one had even changed sex. I saw a stunt double of a friend I hadn't seen for a very long time, I could have sworn it was him. It was all very holographic the way we dotted the room randomly and yet, we all still connected through that underlying knowing of who we are and what we are about - creatures intent on harmonically creating bliss states and connecting through art and each other. Epiphany had, I ejected rather quickly and headed to the beach!
When I reflect on our time in the desert, with more than a month having passed in a turbo tail wind of the fast lane variety, an involuntary sigh escapes each and every time. Pining for the past, I know... never a good thing. BUT! When I look up at the sky in the city I feel deprived. Where are all the stars and galactic spiral highway?? When I race from point A>Z filling in each and every hoopy letter several times over with some extended yogic breaths in between I end up feeling exhausted barely remembering what just happened. It feels different to the predictable post holiday come down... I'm not quite sure you would even call what we experienced a "holiday" - the dust storms, the hauling of steel and wood and bling, the organisation, the drama... although... crafternoon on the sandunes, sitting around the fire at night, gazing at the sky, photoshoots and glamour - i think ADVENTURE is a better word to describe the experience. And in every adventure is a mission, with every mission is focused intent - we weren't faffing yo, we were actualising a vision that started with a drawing in the desert of Nevada (i.e Burning Man 06) and just grew with the additional vision and sweat of Nick, Falcon, Gemma and everyone who contributed to making that Mothership Hoop Disco land in the third dimension.
What struck me the most was in the mission to make that big heap of steel and wood and gas and light into the fire breathing, light shifting blingtastic thing that it was... having traveled several days across Australia with I think it's safe to say a pretty precarious transport situation going on and a bus full of people (some with WAY too much blingage but ultimately not)... all this 3Dness seemed to merge with an energetic forcefield of collective consciousness. I would even go as far to say that at times the 3Dness submerged completely beneath a grid of awareness that just kept on expanding and contracting then expanding again - it was amazing to witness and be part of. The massive amount of effort that was put into the project was delivered right back in that wonder twin kinda way - shape of some pretty wicked sacred geometry... form of personal fulfilment, creative realisastion and, in the context of the droll world we live in, an illicit amount of FUN! I don't think a single one of us left the desert without feeling that somehow life had changed. It's a pretty spacious art gallery out there in the middle of Australia.
For me, a shift has occurred at a cellular level that has tuned me in with my truth. It just gets stronger and I feel like I am changing every moment of every day. The information and people and energy that flows toward me, around me and back out again is super charged with cosmic intelligence. At times I feel like (apart from the obvious mundane ratting around) I don't really need to DO anything except watch it ebb and flow and shape it accordingly. And lots of yoga - yum yoga! It leads me to believe, beyond the wanderlust, that everything is absolutely perfect exactly how it is... even the chaotic rat race, especially the chaotic rat race. There is much to be done in a small amount of time with a lot of people... hence the city living. Sometimes it's a little too easy to deflect responsibility in accepting our karmic requests and choices in life. Ultimately it's about perception and so a lot of the DOING is in fact the mind racing. Meditation anyone?
(To watch high quality versions click on video to teleport you to YouTube and then click on said option)
It's odd how so many Australians spend so much of their travel time abroad. I know I have and am about to yet again. I guess my next trip to the forests of California and then onto New York feels almost like a bit of a last hurrah for a while. It's more a feeling than a thought. Burning Man gripped me and blew me away in all the right ways but Earth Dream wrapped me up and sent messages that I don't think I've ever experienced before. The difference between an um and an om perhaps. Anyway, it's all just words at the end of the day... or is it? I'm a bit of a fan of the saying, wherever you go there you are... but then, sometimes being in the right place at the right time really does help - follow your dreams and you can't go wrong.
More beauty:
More dreams. It's what it's about this life - living the dream.
So as August jetted past, wow my dreams - more flying and incredible ethereal experiences... the lucidity is so strong right now. Some highlights of the month gone by...
WORLD HOOP DAY 080808 - Taylors Square, Darlinghurst
Intergalactic hoopstress on a mission to share hoop love and joy with as many humans as possible so that we can all ascend in a spiral vortex of hoopiness as often as we care to enjoy!
