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 😂
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