This page was updated March 27, 2000


Map of the World and Healing Ceremony

We will create a three dimensional map of the world using natural materials gathered from the desert. In this map, we can place prayer flags, offer our blessings to people, other beings, and places around the planet. After we have completed making this map, there will be a Ceremony of World Healing in which the whole Oracle Village will be invited to participate. Karen Kelly (England), Kate Fitzpatrick (Ireland), Ziva Garbi (Israel), Hideki Hamada (Japan), Carol Proudfoot-Edgar (USA), and Charley Abildgaard (USA), Tamara Kerner (USA), Dan Jordinelli (USA), Maggi Younger (USA), Jo Andersen (USA) Pirkko Miller (USA) are beginning to plan this. We would love more help! Contact Carol Proudfoot-Edgar at carolproudfoot@shamanicvisions.com. The picture is of such a World Map made at Black Tail Ranch, Montana.
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Rattles from the Sea

The Moss Beach, California drumming circle is planning on bringing "bull whip kelp heads" from the Pacific Ocean. They will bring the necessary materials to help participants make rattles that reflect the beauty of the sea. If interested, you might bring beads, stones, small crystals, etc. with which to fill yours and others' rattles.
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A Call to Men

Six men from a California Shamanic Men's Group are attending Oracle and would love to link with other men during their time at Oracle. Are you part of a men's circle? Wanting to be? Interested in rituals and initiations pertaining to men?

We see canoes of men coming from all directions
Oars glistening, brows beaded with sweat
Gathering energy, circling center
Following a whirlpool down to a deeper place
Where we drum to the sky king and thunderbird
And creativity ricochets like lightning caught by canyon
Where fathers teach their sons
the dances of their ancestors
Where we own all of who we are
our anger, our pain, our vulnerability
Where we sing of joy and gratitude
and move with fierce virility
Where we welcome and embrace
our elders, our youth, our age
Where Spirit fills our hearts so full
our love ripples out
till our children feel pride in our strength
and our lovers feel cherished by our tender touch.

We are just beginning to plan and would love to hear from other men interested in helping to create some type of heart share/ceremony. If interested contact Dan Jordinelli at jordinelli@earthlink.net.
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Using Shamanism to cope with grief

Daniel Potapshyn and Roland Hulstein will convene a group for those who have an interest in learning ways to use shamanic journeying to access information from spirit for working with grief or loss. This will be for those dealing with a personal loss, as well as, those whose professional life may be working with others experiencing loss.

Daniel and Roland use shamanic practices in their bereavement work and have also been sharing these practices with other hospice professionals. If interested,

contact; Roland Hulstein at DancngDeer@aol.com. or Daniel Potapshyn at Dandrumer@aol.com
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Shamanism in the New Millennium

I would like to convene a "village meeting" to discuss how the practice of shamanism and the energy of shamanic circles can serve our global community.

I envision possibly four areas of discussion which overlap to some degree. We could move into four groups to brainstorm on these subjects. Each group would be responsible for recording their ideas and presenting their results to the larger group however they decide is appropriate.
Group 1 - discuss the roles, purposes and goals of shamanism, shamanic practice, shamanic circles and shamanic community - what responsibilities are inherent in the above
Group 2 - what are the ethical responsibilities of shamanism, shamanic practice, shamanic circles and shamanic community - how do we develop (where it is needed) respect for the integrity of the practice - what professional standards are required in shamanic practice
Group 3 - what are shamanic values and how do we integrate them within our global communities - how do we educate the public and create positive awareness around shamanism
Group 4 - how do we continue to build shamanic community - how do we continue to create and nurture support between circles

The objectives will be posed as questions and with the information from the four groups, we will journey to ask for guidance and advice from the spirits.. (15 minutes) Our communal findings in both ordinary and non ordinary reality will be woven together. We will conclude with practical knowledge on how to proceed. (45 minutes)

"Many of the problems we face - environmental degradation, poverty, hunger, over population, war - are different facets of one single crisis, the crisis of perception. Only if we perceive the world differently will we be able to act differently…We need a shift from fragmentation to wholeness, from a mechanistic world view of the world to an ecological view, from domination to partnership, from quantity to quality, from expansion to conservation, from efficiency to sustainability." Fritjof Capra

I encourage people to journey on this prior to Oracle. Thank you. Blessings, JanFreya
If you would like to discuss or share your journeys you can contact Jan at
janfreya@mindspring.com

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CyberShaman Booth

We plan to have a space in which both an Apple computer (iMac) and a PC will be available to see how computers can be used for shamanic purposes. The Apple computer will be loaded with various divination programs. If you have suggestion for how we might us computers ar oracle or wish to help with this offering contact Susan Gilliland at EarthBear@msn.com

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Native American Flute Circle

If you play the Native American flute join me in forming a flute circle. Beginners are especially welcome! We will play with each other, for each other, and will help each other improve our skills so that the Spirits can sing more beautifully through us. As we are moved by Spirit, we will play our flutes for the whole village. Contact Bob Edgar, at postmaster@shamanicvisions.com

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Storytelling

Lothar Tuppan is a professional storyteller who tells shamanic tales from various cultures. He and members of his circle would like to connect with others interested in sharing stories with the Oracle village. Do you have a shamanic tale from your personal life experiences or a traditional story from a culture important to you? Contact Lothar Tuppan at corvus@best.com if you are interested in connecting with other storytellers and want to be part of a group that offers stories to the Oracle village.
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World Rhythms

Interested in rhythms from around the world? I would love to circle with other drummers during our time at Oracle. Bring your djembes, congas, hoop drums and other percussives. Jan Freya. janfreya@mindspring.com.
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Gay Spirit/Queer Spirit

A number of us from the two Bay Area Gay Spirit Drumming Circles and the Los Angeles based Tumescence Gay Men's Medicine Circle are planning on attending Oracle. We intend to gather as gay/lesbian/queer folk and perhaps offer some type of ritual honoring "otherness" to the larger Oracle village. If you are interested, contact Roland at DancngDeer@aol.com or Steven at dreamlodge@mindspring.com
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Mask-Making

Barbara Dose' has offered to lead a mask-making workshop so that participants can make masks of their power animals. She is anticipating a process by which participants build their mask over a three day period (1-2 hours per day). Participants will start by making a gauze plaster mask that fits their face. After it dries, they will add their animal's features using plaster putty. Once dry, the mask can then be painted and decorated. Perhaps participants will want to dance their power animals during one of the evening ceremonies after completing this process.

If you are interested in making a mask, please bring objects/materials that you associate with your power animal to use in decorating (feathers, stones, etc.). Other materials will be provided. If you are interested in helping plan this offering and/or willing to help bring plaster mask-making materials, contact Barbara at Owltrails@earthlink.com .
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Shamanism and Passover

This year Passover (Pesah) will be from April 19 to April 26, which will follow soon after our gathering in Oracle. Passover has many associations yet the primary focus is on Liberation from Slavery, Freedom for all People, and New Beginnings (Spring). We would like to create a ritual that celebrates the shamanic aspects of Passover. We would be delighted if others would join us in creating this ritual. We are especially interested to have a group composed of both those who celebrate Passover and those who do not celebrate but are interested in journeying with us to discover what ritual the Spirits would reveal to us. Ziva Garbi and Carol Proudfoot-Edgar are currently journeying on this ritual.
Please contact Ziva at drorg@actcom.co.il if you wish to join us.

Following is a brief description of Passover for those unfamiliar with this celebration. As you read the description, consider the basic spiritual elements that are components of Passover, and, would be useful concepts about which to journey for creating a ritual.

Liberation from slavery: freedom for all people: Pesah, or Passover, the oldest Jewish holiday, celebrates the beginning of the Jewish people becoming the nation called Israel. It was on Passover three thousand years ago at midnight, under the first full moon of Spring, that the Israelites escaped from Egyptian slavery. Passover commemorates this Exodus and liberation from Egyptian bondage. The celebration of Passover begins with a special meal called "Seder" a dramatic, yet playful dinner rich with stories, food, and song. Seder means order, and a book called a Haggadah takes participants through the fifteen steps of the evening celebration that retells the story of how the Jews became a free people. The ceremony begins by reliving slaver and ends by imagining what the world will be like when all people are free. During the seven days of Passover, the custom is to eat matza, which is the "bread of affliction." The matza is unleavened, made out of dough without yeast. This is to remember the hasty exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. The people had no time to make leavened bread. The making of matza is very fast because you do it right after making the dough without leavening for the swelling of the bread.

The Birth of Spring: Passover also celebrates the beginning of Spring. Just as the Jews were freed from Egypt, so Spring frees the earth from Winter each year. From the first green shoots of barley that break the earth's cold surface, to the first calves that break out of the womb, Spring is a time of freedom and rebirth.

Thus, Passover festivities reflect all these elements: our constant human struggle for true freedom; the rebirth of Spring; the first harvests of Spring, and our continued hope for a prosperous and peaceful future for all.

Preparations for Passover (perhaps to consider in our ritual since Passover will follow after Oracle). Before Passover people clean their house perfectly, turning everything upside down, in order not to leave any " leaven" which can be hidden. In the night preceding Passover, it is customary to search for bread and leaven through the house. This activity is called "removal of leaven". The custom is to put seven small pieces of bread in the corners of the house, as a symbol of all the leaven that remains in the house, and then to search for them in the darkness with the light of a candle. When one finds a piece, that person collects them with a feather, wraps them in a paper and the next morning burns it. Thus, the house and everyone within has no "weight" which would slow them in moving from slavery to freedom, from darkness to illumination.

What are the possible cross-cultural shamanic meanings of this festival about which we could journey and from which we could create a ritual? Here are some thoughts we have considered as foci for journeys and we welcome others. Together may we create a ritual that celebrates the ancient spiritual meanings of Passover for all people? 1) a ritual that involves cleansing our "inner house; our body and soul in order not to carry around those things which can be "swollen" (or are swollen), and block our movement to new adventures or to the Call from Spirit to new places, new lands (whether inner or outers) 2) A ritual celebrating the arrival of Spring, the rebirth both within ourselves and Nature 3) A ceremonial meal of Matza which would include prayers, poems, or songs both of thanksgiving and of supplication for peoples around the world living in conditions allowing little or no freedom. These are our initial thoughts. Please join with us, send your ideas, journey for a ritual, and let us create one together.
Thank you, Ziva Garbi email: drorg@actcom.co.il
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Web Healing Work

I will offer a healing ritual which I was given by Spider Woman to heal someone whose Web is in trouble. While we are all connected all of the time, sometimes we lose sight of that connection. This work is best done by a Circle fo an individual. With a Circle it is done as a dance ritual. At Oracle we can build this thread from many places around the world. If you are interested contact Karen Kelly at kkelly@caci.co.uk
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Kali.

The Hindu Goddess Kali is worshipped throughout India and Nepal. There Kali is seen as the Divine Mother, shakti, the feminine force within all, and the Supreme Goddess of creation, preservation and destruction. In Western cultures this latter aspect of Kali, that of the Destroyer, is often misunderstood. Many of us have worked diligently with the creator, but have little understanding of the role and power of the Divine Destroyer in our lives and in our shamanism. Paula Denham Pauladeeda@aol.com will lead journeying to Kali to learn of her gifts and experience her power.
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Shaman's Shield.

The Sacramento Shamanic Women's Circle will be offering the making of a "Shaman's Shield", a traditional necklace of power, protection and personal spiritual identification. They will bring supplies for 30 shields and teach the crafting of this object. As part of the process, participants will journey to learn the design and purpose/powers of their personal Shaman's Shield. For further information or if you want to help bring supplies, contact Paula Denham. Pauladeeda@aol.com
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Tarot.

Audrey Savage is interested in shamanic divination, specifically Tarot. She has extensively studied this ancient tradition and would like to connect with others working in this area. She'll be bringing large size tarot cards to share and learn from. Hopefully, others interested in tarot and other forms of divination will work together to focus on this during the week of the village. Contact Audrey at ASLBWeaver@aol.com.
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Journey Skills and Practice

Peter Bloom has graciously offered to lead a circle focused on basic journeying skills. This is a great way for those at Oracle who might be newer to journeying to meet others, entertain questions, and practice journeying together. If you are interested in participating or helping to facilitate, please contact Peter at Mojave@aol.com
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Soul Songs

We are part of the windswept plain.
We are kin to the great white crane.
Listen with your soul, you can hear it:
Holy Harmony.

Brother to sky, sister to rain.
All creation flows in our veins,
Holy Harmony.

Join Susan Mokelke (and friends) for a "soulsong" session. Susan will teach us several songs given to her by the spirits. Bring your drums and rattles, guitars and flutes, and most importantly your voices! Join us for a heart-opening session of singing to the Spirit from the soul.
For more information or to help with this offering, please contact Susan at mokelke@ix.netcom.com
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Plant Spirit Medicine

Experience the medicine of plant spirits. The Plant Spirit Medicine Circle is a group of healing practitioners who completed an apprenticeship together and are reuniting at the gathering at Oracle. These practitioners work with native plant spirits to restore the body's natural energy flow and sense of well being. They will also be offering Reiki healing work. The circle is planning to have a tent set aside where this healing work will be offered during the course of the gathering at Oracle. They will make daily announcements at the gathering as to the hours they will be available for healing work. You may contact Nancy Abildgaard at abildgaard@aol.com for further information.
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Maryenergy

Sharon Blessum works with a circle called the Owlwomen which integrates shamanism and christianity. The group journeys into the ecstasy of Maryenergy and into the ways of the shaman Jesus. Sharon would like to lead a journey circle for those drawn to the greatmother as manifest in Mary, for those who see the power animals and spirits attending the Christ consciousness, for those who would like to journey into the scenes where Mary/Jesus/owlwomen offer healing energy. If you are interested, contact Sharon at sblessum@erols.com
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Creating and Maintaining Vibrant Shamanic Drumming Circles

Our circles go through cycles of growth and learning. It is one of the gifts of being in community and being in a circle. It takes energy to keep the circle healthy and strong. I would like to hear from others how they tend their circle - how they learn from both the joys and the challenges. I suggest a wisdom council - a time for us to share what we have learned. What activities/journeys/structures have built strong connection and deepened your circle's shamanic work? What difficulties have arisen and how did your circle work through them? Bring your ideas, questions, experiences. If you are interested, have suggestions or would like to help, please contact Sharon Stevens at mtnmdn@aol.com

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Journeys in Oracle: Poems & Chants

We will use journeying and mindfulness as tools to tap into the spirit world of earth, rocks, plants, animals, air, sky, and the landscape of Oracle. We will use mindfulness walking meditation to reveal the places which resonate most within our hearts. We journey to communicate with the Spirits. We open ourselves to human words to honor the Spirits. We gather back into a group for deep listening to our own words and those of others in order to glean the essence of what has touched us. We create poems or chants that give voice to this essence that has touched our hearts. Sharon Brady, who lives in Oracle, will lead this offering.
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Mending Earth's Net

In this session, we will journey and share knowledge regarding the "Net" in the outer atmosphere that surrounds the Earth and supports life on Earth. (This is different from the Web that connects all life.) The Spirits say this Net is supported by "true singing" of the kind the Aborigines are known to do in their songlines, the Sami (Laplanders) do in their yoiking, and the whales do in their deep water serenades. Because so many peoples of the Earth have forgotten this singing in modern times, the Net is torn and in disrepair in places. There is great hope that the shamanic knowledge returning to the planet will lead to many people working to repair what has been damaged, and learning to work positively with this phenomena. We can only start by beginning! Diana Reno diana@exotech.mv.com

Diana, an environmental educator, comes to this interest via her work with Michael Harner and her studies of the Sami ways with Ailo Gaup.
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Nordic Seidr - Singing

Seidr is form of communal shamanic ritual which is native to Europe, being practiced by the Vikings. It is well attested in the sagas, which makes it unique to me as a form of shamanism known to be practiced by many Europeans' ancestors. Three things are mentioned in many descriptions of seidr; the shaman (who was usually a woman) sits on a high seat, she carries a staff (the old name for her was volva which means staff bearer) and she was sung on her journey by a circle of singers (whose song was sometimes said to be like the cries of wild birds). I find seidr an inspiring and very powerful practice and one that strongly connects me to my ancestors. We will sit in circle together to decide on an intention which fits the community that will be Oracle, and then sing our volva on her way. Karen Kelly at kkelly@caci.co.uk
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Mandala - Journey to Wholeness

Mandalas and the use of symbols have been part of the language of our ancestors thoughout time. As an artist I have been studying mandalas and ancient symbols, and incorporating the metaphorical images I receive in journeys into my artwork. In this workshop we will explore the power of symbols, and specifically the mandala - the circle - the symbol of wholeness and integration.

We will journey to the Cave of our Shamanic Ancestors to learn about using the metaphorical language of symbols and ask be given personal healing symbols. With their guidance and wisdom, we will create a mandala with these symbols, using pastels, paint, ink and collage materials. After completing the mandalas, we will return to our Shamanic Ancestors to ask for their blessings and the empowerment of our mandalas. We will also ask for information on how we can honor these visual symbols in other ways as well as incorporate them into our shamanic practices. If you're interested contact Pat Dolan oracle2@theriver.com


CREATING HOME

Choosing Where and How You Live, if Protecting and Being a Steward of Mother Earth is your Desire

In this session, I would like to share my experiences in using shamanic practices to locate a specific piece of property that needed my protection, planning a low-impact house built out of straw bales for that site, and doing the building myself. All of this was accomplished using my shamanic journey group and my own shamanic practices. PART I: Oracle Session: We will start with an exchange of information about land that especially needs protecting, types of houses that can be built for low cost and with low tech materials, and what it takes to be your own builder. Then we'll do a series of short journeys for each other that help clarify our general aims and interests. Then as a group we will help each other shape a question for each of us to ask on our own journey, and journey for our guidance in this area. PART II: Post Oracle Field Trip: Session participants and/or others are invited to visit the land of which I am the steward --located about 16 miles from the Oracle Village in the Sonoran Desert near the San Pedro River -- We will tour the straw bale house and conclude with a ceremony of commitment and gratitude at the site's medicine circle. For more information, contact: Mary Myers, (520) 212-5402, or stainedglassmary@theriver.com


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