Ancestral Voices

For anyone that is curious, the Sami people are the native reindeer herders of the Laplands. They are a Shamanic culture who, rather than using the repetitive beat of a drum or rattle, since those things were outlawed by the government of the invading culture, they learned to use a repetitive style of singing ("joiking" or "yoiking") as a vehicle for shamanic journeys to the spirit realms. Here's a sample of Sami Joiking.

Also for the curious, here is a sample of Native American Peyote Healing Songs.

All My Relations

For a few months now I've taken part in a program with Rose De Dan, a local Shaman who specializes in working with animals. We have been visiting different zoos in the Seattle area in ceremony and collecting, via prayer sticks, the prayers of the animals there whose role really is that of ambassadors between the animal and human kingdoms. It is amazing how interactive the animals are when you arrive fully present, with intention, and offer a vehicle of communion and energetic recognition of the Divine in each being. These have been the most profound zoo visits I have ever experienced, and I have spent a lot of time in zoos. We really are all related.

Aho All my Relations!
Aho Mitakuye Oyasin!