BERLIN FINALE

From time to time I will publish blogs that just reflect my own interests, rather than the overall Shamanic theme of this blog. So please bear with me, this is one such! Though there is a connection....

This documentary novel had me gripped. It is an extraordinary account of the last 2 weeks of the Third Reich, set in Berlin as the Russians advance towards the city, while it is bombed day and night by the British and Americans. The author, a writer, spent much of the 30s unemployed because of his critical stance towards the Nazis, then during the war he was made to work on the railways. The descriptions of the ruins of wartime Berlin are very exact and detailed, yet poetic also: windows of ruined houses like blank eye sockets. 

And the same goes for his descriptions of people. He returns again and again to the psychology of different types of people under Nazism and what they became. He is positively Germanic in his forensic psychological analysis. And central to that analysis is the lack of personal responsibility, the lack of conscience, the cowardice. And you find that the problem for most Germans at the end is not Nazism itself, but the fact that it failed. And that probably tells us something general, and rather dismal, about humanity. 

My criticism of the book - which came out in serial form straight after the war, and was a bestseller - is that it is too long. It is 660 pages of not very large print, and for the first 450 or so it is gripping. But he needed to chop 100 pages out of the last 250. 

He also has a perspective on humanity that I think anthropological research has probably shown to be unfounded: namely, that early man was 'primitive', ruled by his instincts, that western culture has largely been a process of lifting man out of those base insincts, and that Nazism was a reversion to them. My experience of early cultures that are still living is that they are very civilised in the best sense, they are sophisticated and ethical. Our problem, in my opinion, is that we have large societies that are inevitably structured by impersonal rules rather than by relationships. That is a problem we have not solved.

LEWIS MEHL-MADRONA VISITS

I have arranged for Lewis Mehl-Madrona and his wife Barbara Mainguy to run a long weekend on 27/28/29 November this year at the Clophill Centre near Bedford, UK. I was on a weekend with them a year ago in Cumbria, and I have read 2 of Lewis' books, Coyote Medicine and Coyote Healing. We haven't decided on a format yet, though there will be a sweatlodge on the Friday, and I expect 2 days of workshops after that in a local village hall.

Lewis works in quite an open way, using story and journeying and hands-on healing - what he calls Cherokee Bodywork. One method he has is to get a partner to massage part of you that gives you trouble, and then see what stories or images present themselves to you as you are being massaged. If you pay attention to these stories or images, they can become another level for you to address that trouble.

He talks about his experiences as a healer in his books, and he is also a conventional doctor. He is passionate about both approaches. He has Cherokee ancestry, and in my opinion has a depth in his approach to healing that is both traditional, and not what we usually encounter in our trainings over here. So for example, if someone comes for healing, you will spend time getting to know them. Then you may get to know their family, for that gives you more information. And if you have a healing ceremony, you will have the family/community present too, praying for the wellbeing of that person. And your first job as a healer is to get the patient wanting to be well, and in contact with the Spirit dimension of their lives.

There is a certain amount of shared accommodation at Clophill, or you can camp. It will be bring food to share (there is a Co-op down the road) and we will be keeping prices down. If you are interested, please let me know in the comments below or email me at BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk and I will get back to you when we have more details. And put those dates in your diaries!

SOUL LOSS, SOUL RETRIEVAL and MULTI-DIMENSIONAL REALITY

Here is a piece by Leo Rutherford from his website at Eagle's Wing:

"Soul Retrieval is one of the most well-known and effective practices to restore or recapitulate lost life force.

To understand how recapitulation practices work, we need to look at the multidimensional nature of reality and move away from a linear sequential perspective. From this expanded perspective, ‘anything which has ever happened to anybody, anywhere; is still happening somewhere’. If a traumatic event occurred ten, twenty or so years ago, it is still happening for that person somewhere in the matrix of the eternal reality of ‘now’ and is likely to be still influencing that person’s life.

Shamanism does not dwell on ‘past’ events; there is only this vast awesome ever-moving great moment of ‘now’ where there is no separate past, present, or future. It is possible for a practitioner to journey outside of linear time and go to the place where that energetic event is still occurring and find and bring back that person’s trapped life force. When this has been carried out, the therapeutic healing of the event and its consequences can truly begin.

The lost life-force, known as soul-loss, can take place when we have an accident, experience overly strong emotional exchanges with a loved one, separation from a partner, death of a loved one or go through a pervasive period of difficult circumstances. When we undergo a severe trauma typically a part of our vital nature goes away, so that we can survive whatever is happening to us. Problems develop when the soul part or fragment does not return.It may not want to come back, or may not be able to return due to the nature of the trauma.

There are a number of symptoms of soul-loss. For example, when people feel that they are observing life as an outsider rather than engaging and being fully involved or when feeling ‘spaced’ out a lot of the time, not really here. Other symptoms are life-themes such as a pervasive fear, inability to trust people. Severe depression can also be a symptom as can chronic illness, ME and lack of energy symptoms. This directly relates to Personal Power. In the shamanic worldview, power and maintaining health go hand in hand. If the body is power-full, there is no room for illness or disease, which are regarded as an invasive force."

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I used to do quite a lot of Soul Retrievals myself years ago. These days I am somewhat ambivalent about them, because I would rather help people find their own bits of soul themselves. Then they learn something.  So for me the jury is out!

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I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

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ON NOT JUDGING

When we stop judging ourselves, the shadow can reveal itself, and we become more whole and more at ease. And then we stop judging others, and people start to feel instinctively that they can trust us and be open with us. And then when you can stop judging politicians, particularly the ones you don't vote for.... now that seems to be the biggest ask of all, for 'spiritual' people at least as much as for anyone else. But when we can stop judging politicians, then we can start to understand how the world works, and let go of unrealistic expectations.
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I offer Shamanic consultations, usually by skype, in which we can talk over anything you want to talk over. I may use the Medicine Wheel, Journeying, Astrology, Tarot or anything that works. And it centres around listening to ourselves in a deep way. I work on a donation basis, and I am happy with whatever is easy for you: I love this work. Contact: BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk

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The Bad Professor

In 2014 Richard Dawkins, Oxford Professor and well-known evangelical atheist, described fairy tales as pernicious, and said that children should instead be taught scientific rigour. In response I wrote this short story:

THE BAD PROFESSOR

There was once a bad professor who didn’t believe fairies existed. And if they did exist, well they oughtn’t. And all the children in the land were afraid, because when the Moon was growing bigger in the sky and the stars were out and if they were unlucky, there would be a knock on their bedroom window while their parents were asleep, and there would be the face of the professor with his helpful smile.

In he would come without so much as a by-your-leave, and he would rifle through their books – again without so much as a by-your-leave - and he’d take out all the fairies, as well as anyone else he didn’t believe in. And into his jam-jar they went, and they got stored, so it was said, in the shed at the bottom of his garden.

And the jam jar got so full, and the buzzing of angry fairies became so intense, that one day they burst out. And they headed straight up the garden, with Santa, a bit out of breath, bringing up the rear. The fairies made a beeline for the bad professor’s study where they found him vivisecting an elf, a pool of elvin tears glistening at his feet.

Now no-one knows exactly what happened next. But the screams were unearthly and terrible, and they reverberated throughout the land, and all the children instantly knew that their books and the fairies who lived in them were once again safe, for the bad professor was no more.

Fairies are not always nice.

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I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

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SPIRIT AND ARRANGED MARRIAGE

Did some astrology today for a Romany couple who had an arranged marriage. And it has gone very well, for 17 years. They hardly knew each other at the start, and they seem very good together. I looked at the chart for the marriage, and there was a strong outer planet emphasis. The outer planets, which are invisible to the naked eye, describe the influence of Spirit in different ways. And this marriage was decided by Spirit, not by humans. That much was clear from the chart, even though it was the respective Romany parents who had set it up, who I guess knew how to listen to Spirit.

And I thought well why not? Isn't this interesting. Are we necessarily the best person to decide who is right for us? Unless we can listen to Spirit, and very often that will require someone else's help, or considerable maturity on our part, our desires will get in the way.

But maybe, when we are younger, it needs to be that way. Relationships are often a necessary long-term working out of shadow projections - 'shadow' having a broad remit here. But maybe we also often go through far more mess than we need to, because there are no wise elders to arrange this business for us, at an age when we hardly know anything about anything.

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I offer Shamanic consultations, usually by skype, in which we can talk over anything you want to talk over. I may use the Medicine Wheel, Journeying, Astrology, Tarot or anything that works. And it centres around listening to ourselves in a deep way. I work on a donation basis, and I am happy with whatever is easy for you: I love this work. Contact: BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk

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'Normality' is both people maneouvreing until what each unconsciously wants is satisfied. Then you have 'love'. We edit ourselves to suit the other, and generally we stay edited until - and if - life decides it is time for us to move on. And then, yes, we learn, and Spirit may well have played its part in setting it up to start with.

I'm not sure I know anyone who has been able to say to me that they are a good judge of who to get involved with. A lot of people I know are washed up on the beach in middle-age or later wondering what was all that about? And living with the cultural brainwashing that you are less than adequate if you are on your own, that there is something wrong, instead of right, because you've never been able to make this often crazy thing last.

My own standpoint is that I'm not going near anyone unless Spirit unmistakeably shoves me. I have been happily on my own for a few years, in a way that I couldn't have been when I was younger. And I can have a great time being friends with women, and there can be a lovely buzz there, a dance between us. But these days I feel fairly whole in myself, and I don't feel driven to turn that into something else.

Singledom is much underrated, there is a whole world to be discovered. And there is a considerable sense of freedom in it. For myself, let marriage and relationships be arranged by Spirit. And if nothing is happening, I will trust that. Like I am learning to trust all the other things that aren't happening. That sort of trust gives you space to tune into the bigger picture. Read those last 3 sentences again :)

Here is a Navajo take on the business, which I published here some time ago.

THE WISE MADNESS OF TRANCE DANCE

Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, asked "Which will you have: wise madness or foolish sanity?" What we usually call 'sanity' is foolish because it creates a pretence that reality is a certain way, and that everyone living according to that certain way is sane. (Unless they are from a foreign culture, in which case we probably secretly think they are insane, but being good liberals, we maintain otherwise).

This sort of pretence is necessary for all of us, at least to some extent, or we would fall apart psychologically. "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." (TS Eliot) The path of the healer involves letting go of these false foundations - life will do it to us, bit by bit - so that Spirit can flow through us unhindered. This is the 'hollow-bone' principle, that is a lifetime's work. The power of the healer comes from the ability to stand apart from the necessary foolishness we call sanity.

Trance dance is like the ocean washing away our foolish rigidities. It is not any view or value in particular that is foolish, it is the way we hold on to them that is foolish, the rigidity behind them that creates an illusion of a solid identity in this temporary dream of life. Give me an open-minded flat-earther over a fundamentalist climate scientist any day!

In Trance Dance we surrender to the Spirit that wants to flow through us, that wants to take us over, that wants a few moments of incarnation. This is said to be especially precious to the Spirits. And yet for 1000 years we have denied them this chance, ever since medieval Christianity banned dancing in churches. You can see why. If you let the Spirits dance through you, then you have your own connection to the divine, you have your own metaphysical authority, and that simply won't do.

But it is on its way back, through rock and roll, through Pentecostal Churches, and of course Trance Dance. It is a madness in the sense that we let go of the controlled behaviour that makes us 'sane'. That is why we wear a blindfold: we are such social creatures, and so fragile, that we are always on the lookout for the approval of others to give us our sense of who we are. In Trance Dance we take a risk, we let go of that and let in what, from a conventional point of view, is madness. Madness because it has thrown over the authority of social norms and given authority to Spirit.

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I offer Shamanic consultations, usually by skype, in which we can talk over anything you want to talk over. I may use the Medicine Wheel, Journeying, Astrology, Tarot or anything that works. And it centres around listening to ourselves in a deep way. I work on a donation basis, and I am happy with whatever is easy for you: I love this work. Contact: BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk

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For myself, after a dance I feel deeply aligned with who I am, I may be in an altered state for some hours afterwards. If called on to do healing work, I am in the same place instantly, without the drums. It is never far away, because this world and the 'otherworld' are one and the same place. They are deep, wild, subtle, beautiful energies that want to course through us, that want to be part of this dream too.

'Possession' is when they take you over completely. When that happens, it is a sacred moment, for magic has entered the village. I have heard of it happening in our Trance Dance, but very very rarely. You need to let go of the ego completely, and that is like a death. Embodying the Spirits as a healer, that is what I would like to see more of, it is something I want to teach. And Possession, that is an aspiration of mine. (Be careful what you wish for!)

Above is a recent picture of me in my madness, and below is a picture of Leo Rutherford in his madness. He introduced me to the dance 20 years ago. I'm wearing a blindfold. Some of my strongest dances are without one, for then the Spirits can have me flailing from one end of the room to the other. They are so expressive. And yes, those are superheroes on my pyjamas. You can just about see Captain America on my right thigh 😂

 Thanks for pics to Lisa Bridge of www.seventhrayarts.com