Rituals are symbolic acts, gestures that create a relationship between individuals or communities with the larger reality. There are daily rituals, which indigenous cultures describe as maintenance rituals, and radical rituals which address larger questions and transitions in life.
Then there are Rites of Passage. These are rituals that take one
The title of a book by Buckminster Fuller has been running through my head constantly regarding the recent passing of my Mother. His book is And It Came to Pass, but Not to Stay. The words haunt me. Everything is passing. This we know conceptually, but I have just experienced
My Mother, Kathryn Whitlow, has courageously struggled with frail health for the last 6 years. During her many close calls all I could think to ask in prayer for her was that she have the gift of a good death. The idea that she might be alone, or frightened, or
There are realms within realms that we travel in; some of them register with our physical senses, and some through other senses, and some not at all. I often sense the realm where angels dwell. My mom has just entered that realm I am feeling, after a stroke she is
Recently life and professional circumstances have had me working with people who are navigating relationships through stormy seas. I hear confusion and pain as they seem to be clinging to the ship of the relationship with just their fingernails. I have long believed that the greatest spiritual discipline, and one
I wonder if humans are the only species on earth that resist incarnation, and sometimes only barely inhabit the bodies we are given. A lot of shamanic work is committed to bringing split off parts of the spirit back into the “house”, the body. Traumas, perceived traumas, resistances to the
We have not understood yet that the discovery of the unconscious means an enormous spiritual task, which must be accomplished if we wish to preserve our civilization.
-C.G. Jung
The Dialogue training that I took and taught for many years began with the tenet, “Are you willing to change your thinking?” This
I have recently started a series of treatments in Chinese medicine. Western medicine practitioners, try as they might, have given me weak and limited assistance in some of the concerns I work with in my physical make-up. The grand mountains in China called out to me, I saw their image and
I attended a retreat this past weekend, Your Healing Retreat, which was designed to educate doctors, clinicians and parents of children with autism about often undisclosed information regarding potential causes of autism and effective nutritional approaches to the treatment of autistic patients. I was invited to teach workshops about relationships
Lately I have been doing a lot of yoga and breathwork – in the Dreams and Yoga class that I offer with yoga teacher Lindsay Wilson, along with classes in Weaverville’s yoga studio with Mary Morgaine Thames, and recently at the retreat in Georgia where a wonderful yoga teacher worked