AN OFFER YOU DARE NOT REFUSE

So here's the deal. You buy my book The Medicine Wheel by Barry Goddard from Amazon, coming out this week, and leave a review (one nice word will do). In return I will give you a free astrology or tarot reading. It is win-win for you, better than Bitcoin or the Godfather could ever manage. Email me for the free reading at BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk. 

 

 

And a couple of endorsements from published authors:

Barry has created a meditation on meaning, a most interesting discourse on the Medicine Wheel tempered with Jung and other interesting philosophers, matching and mixing and extracting clarity and knowledge. I hear Barry as I read, his voice is clear and direct, there is no bull here but challenging discussions on teachings and the real meanings behind them. I have just read his lovely piece on aging, a subject I am deeply involved in through necessity, and I feel encouraged, emboldened and enlivened. It is like that through this book, Barry weaves teachings together from Jung to Winnie the Pooh in a most encompassing and enlightening way, always grounded and useable. A really good read! I heartily recommend this book as a good addition to texts on the Medicine Wheel and the mysteries of life.

Leo Rutherford, author of The View Through the Medicine Wheel and Principles of Shamanism

The Medicine Wheel affirms Plotinus’ dictum that ‘the native motion of the soul is circular’: as we move around the Medicine Wheel’s four (or eight) directions, each of which provides a different perspective on ourselves, we approach the four-fold wholeness of the Self so beloved by C.G. Jung. A sensitive and sensible guide to our circumambulation, Barry Goddard offers us telling suggestions and practical advice on how to understand ourselves and to manage life’s waywardness. We trust him because he doesn’t lay down the law so much as let us in on his own tribulations with endearing honesty and refreshing humility. The lessons we feel he has learnt the hard way are passed on unassumingly – even chattily – until they add up almost imperceptibly to more than the sum of their parts: a kind of wise Middle Way which may owe as much to his Buddhist background as to Aristotle’s Golden Mean.

Patrick Harpur, author of The Philosopher’s Secret Fire and Daimonic Reality

PS  Patrick Harpur is one of my favourite authors.

 

STORIES OF LAND AND BELONGING

I'm going on this weekend event in Cumbria with Lewis Mehl-Madrona and his wife Barbara in October. He's a proponent of Two-Eyed Seeing, a modern Native American concept that values both traditional and modern forms of healing, without one having to criticise the other. 

 

Lewis is himself Lakota/Cherokee, and trained in the traditional ways; he is also a conventional doctor. 

 I recommend his book Coyote Medicine, which describes his path to becoming a healer. I learnt a lot about traditional attitudes to healing from it. He also uses story as a means of healing. "Tell me the story of your cancer." And then watch the story change over the months.

 

 

I've been on a weekend previously with Lewis and Barbara, and I can recommend them. This event concerns stories of land and belonging. Notice the typo in the link that says tories instead of Stories. Lewis can be slightly disorganised, but to me that is in his favour.

CALLING ALL WORKSHOP JUNKIES 🙂

Something about attending workshops. Something I want to say about yeah, do them, but don't underestimate your ability to do it yourself, to make your own connections and run with them. Trust the guidance from within. That is what we are here to do. Particularly if you are starting to get on in years.

I have to say that in my experience, the majority of workshops are run by people who on the one hand do have something to offer, but on the other hand are also wanting to build something for themselves. I don't like putting others down, it is not my nature. But I also say what I think, that is also my nature. And if the leader has something in it for themselves - and it may take a while to spot that - to that extent they will want you as an add-on, rather than just for who you are. 

 

I put my hands up, this is a theme I go on about a lot, one way or another. The way I work is that you won't get courses, you won't get certificates, you probably won't get a sense of belonging to a tribe (though you might meet a few new friends.) But you are welcome to hang out with me, virtually, or in this reality, as and when, at no charge. We will talk about the stuff that matters, that gives our lives meaning. All against a back drop of the shamanic paradigm, of that sense that the universe is alive and we are part of that. If you visit me in this reality, maybe we'll go visit the fairies and the spirits too.

 

Experientially, that is where I start and end. I don't have 'teachings', I don't have lineages and initiations to offer. I have plenty to say, so much so that I have written books, but it circles around that central paradigm of a living universe, and around being true to who we are. That is all that matters. It is informal. You won't get a qualification. But you are welcome. I try to roll with whatever is happening.

ME, MY DAD AND MY POWER

I have my Dad on my mind a lot. He died 7 years ago. He was a powerful guy. What he wanted, he could make happen. If he wanted money, he would make it happen. He had many friends. He was good at everything he turned his hand to. He was always looking upwards financially and socially, and even in his 80s wanted to go higher. He had social skills, and made friends who were richer than he was, and was proud of that. He was not happy to die. He wanted to keep playing.

But I spent my life keeping my distance. I have a different kind of power than him, one he could not recognise. He wanted me to be like him, which I could never be. So for me, the distance was about survival. And it has taken me a long time to recognise the power he had, for as a young person it was a threat to my own. But it has been with me insistently of late.

In a way, power is power. What you use it for is another thing. For my Dad, it was to build a place in the world that was above other people. An ego thing, and that is very normal. I try not to judge that nowadays. In fact, in my mid 50s I decided to let him just be, not to want him to be any different. That was magically transformational for me. I immediately became happier, more at ease with who I was.

So there is something: if you can let other people be who they are, you will be happier with who you are. This is something that vitiates the counter-culture, of which Shamanism seems to be a part: let those rich guys be who they are, let those politicians be who they are, do not stand in envious judgement over them, don't build fantasies of oppression. When you can do that, it becomes clear they have their own aspirations too, they are not 'bad'. And they do not have the power over you that you may imagine. The 'muddling through and cock-up' theory is the best model for how the world works.

But more importantly, you can rest in who you are, without being in judgement over yourself as to who you 'should' be. And that is where your real power lies. That will change you. But not many people seem able to do that. They feel more comfortable in the 'anti' mindset. Fair enough. These things take time.

But back to me and my power. Power is not a word I feel entirely comfortable with, due to its connotations of building oneself up. Whenever I have tried to do that, I have been foiled at every turn, for over 20 years now. I cannot advertise what I do, I cannot advertise events. They just do not happen, or at least hardly. Money and 'success' has to happen in other ways. That is a good thing.

Today I have given in to the Great Spirit. I have to do that now and again. I had been trying to buy somewhere different to live, to which people could come. A valid aspiration. In theory, I could do that. But it just causes me huge stress, and I lose myself. I would be on my own in the middle of nowhere, and I don't want to do that. I am too social. Loneliness would eat me alive. So I have dropped it, yet again. Huge relief. And I am back to where I naturally feel at home: approach me for some astrology or some shamanic work or just to talk and chew things over, and I will say yes. I love saying yes. I will try and be of help, it is what my life is about.

So this is the point that prompted this piece: just keep saying yes to where your spirit feels comfortable. That doesn't mean you won't get challenged, you will. We need to be, or we're not fully alive. And your life will be in the right place. It is hard for us humans to find that place of balance. It is what characterises us. Animals and plants know how to be what they are. That is why we look to them for guidance.

Your power probably lies in that place you've probably always known. It does not preen itself. It may involve going back to something you thought you'd left behind. What I learnt from my Dad is that he had power and I have power, that is why he was my Dad. But I try to serve my power, rather than own it. That is where we are different. I am not able to do what he did. He was a very clever guy, a notable guy. He showed me what power is. But power is something I have to yield to. And then I have everything, more than he ever had. The universe flows through me.

PSYCHEDELICS

A long interview with a psychedelics researcher from John Hopkins university. Academic research has begun again in recent years, after a 30 year moratorium, the establishment having been scared shitless by LSD etc. And, in a way, understandably so. Our constructed reality can unravel under the influence of psychedelics, which is horrifying if, like normal people, your existential security lies in the apparent solidity of this world.

Don't frighten the horses, that would seem to be the approach needed now. Fortunately there is no Timothy Leary telling everyone to turn on, tune in and drop out. Society will tolerate that which contravenes public reality as long as we do it skilfully.

One of my own experiences, aged 20, involved an early initiation into my shadow side. This was really difficult for me but, looking back, invaluable. It was what others would have called a 'bad trip', but I don't see it like that. Those experiences deepened me. It also took 3 years, after those intense months of mushrooming, before my feet landed fully back into this world.

I like to take LSD occasionally as an inspirational re-set. I have access to some DMT which I've yet to try, but it's apparently big on reality unravelling. I think psychedelics also have an initiatory role to play. I am a bit wary of their frequent use. One person who has spent a lot of time in the Amazon was telling me that traditionally the taking of Ayahuasca is seen as an early stage in the training that initiates you, but that the real work comes later. I agree with that.

I think that with over-frequent usage you are likely to get subtly or not so subtly stuck at a certain point. Our purpose on this earth IMO is to incarnate, to show up fully. Psychedelics, sweatlodges, shamanic journeys and ceremonies generally all bring inspiration and perspective, but they are not a place to identify with or to be lived in. Religion is when you start to identify with certain practices, and that is kind of a natural human thing to do. But this world and the spirit world are not different places. It can take many years to experience the spirit world around you in the midst of this world. But I think that is what we are here to do.

'EVERY POWER ANIMAL IS TERRIBLE'

NB Please note the 'free email subscribe' box, top right. And then check your spam folder for the confirmatory email.

The words came to me the other day, that most people, if they encountered a power animal for real, would run a mile. What do I do with that? I'm sure I would have to include myself. When an experience is truly visionary, you do not know you are having it. It is just as real as this reality: there actually is a big cat standing in front of you. And it shouldn't be there!

I don't want to sound like a certain person that many of us know through Facebook, who likes to say that our modern shamanism has no power compared to indigenous traditions. And he, naturally, is the authority on it, and the channel to it. It's a power trip, and he attracts disciples seeking the authority and certainty he provides.

Unfortunately, there is a partial truth in it. Here we go: I think it is equally true of most indigenous people, that they would also run a mile if they had a full-on encounter with a power animal. Phew, got there.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead similarly describes how normal humans shy away from the white light of reality after they have died, and flee in terror to their next body. Again, it is a religious power trip, a way of controlling the masses through fear. It is saying we are born out of fear, rather than for the beautiful experience of being on the earth, which is the more indigenous attitude. But it also contains the same half-truth, for what are power animals if not intermediaries between ourselves and the Great Spirit? As the poet Rilke said, “Every angel is terrible”. And as T.S. Eliot said, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality”. Marianne Williamson: “It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”

 

It's a glass half-empty, glass half-full thing. I am glass half-full, I want people to feel they can do this thing. It begins by being open to yourself and to truth in all its forms. Humans believe what they want to believe, about themselves and about the world. If you can be agnostic, more than that, dwell in the Great Mystery of things, and let the truth be what it is - and it is a fluid, complex thing - then you may encounter a power animal in its full reality, instead of a helpful reflection, who may do a few good things, but you're not going to deeply heal anyone, it'll just be bits and pieces. If you are building an identity, a name around being some kind of shamanic practitioner or teacher, then that is the opposite of what I am talking about, you are creating an ego-barrier between yourself and the free flow of Spirit.

That said, the most unlikely, dysfunctional people can have superpowers. The Native American Chipps family was well-known for this, a bunch of thieves and alcoholics whose head guy would switch into being a powerful healer when called upon. But the long-term path of truthfulness to yourself and to your spirits is definitely the way to go, without any thought of the healing powers or reputation that might accrue.

Your body knows, it has animal power and knowing. We humans are traditionally the new-born ones, because we do not know who we are, we are afraid of who we are. Animals know who they are. In this sense they are aligned with the Great Spirit in ways we are not. So we can learn from animals. Hence Power Animals. And Power Plants.

Core Shamanism is perfect if you want to keep it safe. I know one teacher who adds in all sorts of protections before you visit the Spiritworld. It amounts to a way of controlling his disciples by appealing to their fear of the unknown, and making it seem like the 'responsible' thing to do. Nonsense. The Spiritworld is to be trusted, deeply and wholeheartedly. That is where the real power lies. 

This teacher also plays the 'I'm super-intuitive' game, so you'd better believe him, because it comes from 'Spirit'. 'Intuition' does not give you a special pass into the Spiritworld. Apart from the fact that what you say is unverifiable by ordinary means, all temperaments have their equally powerful connections to Spirit. You may be a 'thing' person, or an ideas person. Or you may be illuminated by Spirit by direct transmission, by 'intuition'. That has much value, and you can feel the weight of it when it is genuine. But it is not a free pass. It can be, needs to be, subject to evaluation by others. This, in my experience, is not taught in our courses. It needs to be. Intuition is a subtle art. It is objective in nature, but unexamined is easily a conduit for personal bias and emotion.

I have a theory about Michael Harner, the originator of 'core' shamanism, as if there is such a thing. There can be no method that is core, because shamanism is an inner thing, it is essentially about being true to ourselves and to the spirits that guide the wider course of our lives. Be that as it may, Harner's formative experiences were under Ayahuasca, amongst the Amazon peoples. And the shamans there (see 'The Spears of Twilight' by Philippe D'Escola) are well known for sending black magic each other’s way on a regular basis, to a degree I have not read about elsewhere. Maybe there is an extra level of paranoia issuing from the regular ingestion of Ayahuasca, whatever its other benefits may be. My view is that psychotropics are an initiation, and that the real, unglamorous work comes later. Treating psychotropics as foundational, rather than as an occasional inspirational reset, leads to imbalance, and to a vulnerability to entities that do not mean you well. So Harner comes from a tradition in which you'd better protect yourself, cos there are dark entities and a jealous shamanic mafia out there. This does, incidentally, drive home the point not to idealise indigenous people. They are just like us.

 

So the possibly slightly paranoid indigenous tradition that Harner comes from, issuing from the overuse of psychotropic drugs, has influenced the emphasis he places on protection in the Spiritworld. We do not live in a culture where such a level of protection is necessary, and it comes at a price, which is that wholehearted trust in the Spiritworld, which in a way we have as children, and need to re-learn in a less naive way as adults. Anyway, it's just a theory about Harner, I may be completely wrong.

An experience of a power animal can take many forms. It may not be obvious. It may be the hidden power behind an idea, such as when I am writing my fantasy shapeshifting novel, which seems to have a wolf presiding. It may be a general sense of something guiding your life, which may have the raw, direct visceral quality that typifies a power animal.

And it may be present very directly, very fully, in doing healing work. This is where I particularly relate to the idea of power animals as something we might shy away from. There seem to be ways in which I seem to be quite deeply open to myself/the spirits, I am not hiding behind some kind of identity as a shamanic teacher. That has never worked for me if I have tried (thank you, universe.) The way I work is by embodying and surrendering to whatever it is that wants to show up. I Shapeshift. I do not need a name for the spirit, and often it is others who tell me what they experienced - a woman, a bear, a dinosaur, whatever. In a way it doesn't matter, but I also honour whatever those presences are. They come from a deep, direct, raw place in me: my root chakra, if you like. They may be a very delicate feminine presence, they may be a roaring beast, while often expressively vocalising in an unknown tongue.

 

When I work in this way, it is like a good actor on stage: people experience the presence of what is living through me. Deep and tangible healings seem to happen, they may take a while, but they address long-term underlying issues. I am trying not to be boastful, I am trying to say that when you embody the spirits, and you have been at the coal-face of who you are for enough years, then the Great Spirit has a more open channel through which to work. There are no shortcuts, no shamanic trainings. I am not saying at all this doesn't happen for other healers, of course it does. But it can also be that little happens, it is not the real deal, but we're not supposed to say so. Well I am saying so. I can often tell: this person has all the certificates, but they do not have a deep relationship with themselves, the power is not there. There is a degree of fakery to what they are offering. These things need saying.

 

So the way I work takes me over. It has the presence of a good actor channeling a character. I am fully present, yet surrendered to the spirit. This is how the Siberian shamans work. The power of it is natural and free flowing, and of a different order to that which 'core' shamanism teaches. This is quite a claim to make. Maybe some will see it as arrogant or judgemental. But it is the truth of the matter. And it does not preclude people experiencing that sort of spirit presence and power within, or maybe despite, the 'core' shamanic paradigm.

And it is why some people might run a mile from a real power animal. It is what happened around me a couple of months ago. Some people found the way I worked 'wrong' or 'sexual' or they could not look at me. They were all people who had been indoctrinated with the teaching of needing lots of protection in the Spiritworld. Lots of fear. It goes back to Harner. 

Let's look to Siberia instead. And let's look above all to ourselves and to our Spirits with courage and honesty. Let's not listen to the voices of disempowerment in whatever form. We can do this. It is the point of this Shamanic path. We need to bust out of Shamanism as religion, those little cults of personality that spring up all over - and which do provide a necessary starting point for many of us - and trust that voice within, that we maybe think is wrong, because it disagrees with the teacher; it is maybe undisciplined and 'lazy', but it is where our yearnings are. It is the tantalising voice of our soul, which keeps coming back. And it guides us, if we have the courage, and the chutzpah to ignore others, especially some 'elders', into something that is uniquely our own. That is what the Animals want for us. And that is why they are terrifying.

JOKE MEDICINE NAMES

You know that story about a guy in a village who fucked a goat, and he went on to become a national war-hero, but in the village they only ever remembered him as the guy who fucked a goat? There's something important about that. In indigenous communities you'll get a joke medicine name that refers to something comical that you once did, and they'll never let you forget it. It's probably mainly a bloke thing, it is how we keep each other from getting too inflated. So if you come to me with your fancy medicine name, I will immediately want to invent a joke one. I mean, you walk into the pub and announce you are now Dave Standing Elk, what are they going to do? They will laugh, they will tease you mercilessly, and quite right too. It is pretentious, it is a claim to spiritual status.

If you do have a medicine name, it is precious, it is between you and the spirits, it is not a proclamation to the world of who you are. You will disempower that connection. Stick to Dave. If others want to put you on a pedestal, that is their lookout. But you don't want the kind of loser around you who's going to take your pretensions seriously. My favourite joke medicine name is probably Two Dogs At-It.