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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

How Do I Find My Authentic Self?

Contemporary life is filled with so much promise of happiness and fulfillment. Yet many people find that, though they are doing all the right things, that passionate sense of meaning and purpose just isn't happening. Many others are so depressed or fatigued that they don't have the energy to care about what is authentic or what aligns with their heart. People, high and low functioning alike, feel a sense of alienation and betrayal that runs deep while the source remains a mystery. All of these experiences are symptoms of a dis-ease of the soul. "This is not an issue of good soul or bad soul," explains shaman Christina Pratt, "but of a distance from the soul and from connection to a community that cares that we are lost. As we reach out for help we are betrayed again and again by the failure in our culture to offer valid and effective paths back to our soul and its purpose for being here." Join members from the Last Mask Center Community as they interview Christina, asking what soul healing Last Mask Center offers for the individual, why these teachings work, and how our passionate expression of our soul's purpose is exactly the medicine the world needs at this time.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Awakenings with Michele Meiche

Way of the Weirdo with Author Jason Gregory

12pm PST --- Host MICHELE MEICHE and her guest co-host Paolo Doro share thier weekly Soul Insights, Meditations, Healing, Activation and Acceleration work for Soul Alignment. What is your Soul's Purpose & how can you actualize this? What is your role, your path, and what are the signs in your life and in the world telling you? Call in for channeled guidance readings, and psychic mediumship readings. Michele is the author author of the DailyOM course to Learn how to align to your Soul's Purpose and create from your Soul Blueprint 2012: Navigate Through Your Greatest Soul Shift http://bit.ly/izvzS1 Call in and share your path of awakening and Soul Alignment. You may also email your questions to be covered on air at awakenings@selfinlight.com. The second portion of the show is Conversations with Awakened Guests. Michele dialogues with spiritual teachers, healers, conscious experts, visionaries, awakened leaders, authors, conscious beings and people of all walks of life that are focused on living consciously. This week’s conversation is with Jason Gregory for years has been a researcher in the fields of suppressed history, esoteric knowledge and the origins of humanity. Growing up his whole life within the comforts of the west, he chose to live a more humble existence in the land of Asia. Jason's life in the east naturally moved him into the exploration of consciousness and the world within. In this journey he was profoundly influenced by the philosophies of Vedanta, Buddhism, Hermeticism, depth psychology, the Occult and the way of the Tao which are all reflected into his writing. Bestowed with this knowledge Jason continues to focus his energy on one's self-realization in the spirit of evolving creation while dismantling the illusion of separation.
http://oneworldwithin.com/
http://www.youtube.com/OneWorldWithin
http://twitter.com/oneworldwithin
http://au.linkedin.com/in/oneworldwithin

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/awakenings

Just Energy Radio

Reclaiming Democracy & Solomon's Temple

Ken Godon joins Dr. Rita Louise in the first hour of Just Energy Radio where he will discuss how we can reclaim democracy in the United States and have the world we want.
In the second hour, we will be joined by James Wasserman where we will discuss Solomon'sTemple, Ancient Israel and Secret Societie.

Ken Gordon
Reclaiming Democracy and The World WE Want
Ken grew up in Detroit and studied Econmics and Political Science at the University of Michigan. He served as Colorado Public Defender, representing minorities and low-income clients. Ken then was in private law practice for 14 years and in 1992 was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives. “I ran for office because I wanted to help protect the environment,” Ken explained, and also made campaign finance reform a major part of his campaigning. He has never taken a PAC contribution. Ken has served as Minority Leader in the House, Senate Judiciary Chair and now, as Majority Leader.

James Wasserman
Solomon'sTemple: Ancient Israel, Secret Societies
James Wasserman has been a lifelong student of religion and spiritual development. In 1973, he began working at Samuel Weiser, the world's then-largest bookstore and publishing company specializing in esoteric literature. In 1977, he left to found Studio 31, which continues to offer full-service book production and graphic design services.

Fri, Jan 13, 2012 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/just-energy-radio

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William Henry Talks Sun Worship, 2012, and More

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

I have not been and will not be doing much blogging until I get some computer problems resolved. Don't ask. It's been a rough few months on many levels. But, in the meantime, I've managed to catch some good new YouTube vids and this Coast to Coast interview from November is an excellent reminder of how much more advanced the ancients were than our current tech dependent civilization. George Noory's interview with William Henry begins a little before the 40 minute mark.

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Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

How Do I Begin Shamanic Healing?

How do you begin shamanic healing? And perhaps more importantly why would you start down the path of shamanic healing? Contemporary people begin to explore the path of shamanic healing usually because nothing else is working or they simply know something is missing. There is a growing frustration with the unfulfilled promises of pharmaceutical and surgical medicine and a growing irritation with the vacuous "you get what you need" response to our reasonable desire for efficacy and accountability when turning to alternative care. Shamanic healing with an initiated shaman offers direct access to the source of the inner dissonance that we experience as illness or disease in our mental, physical or spiritual lives. Often shamanism offers a direct response to our pain and suffering, like a soul retrieval or extraction, in just one session. Just as often the source of the problem is a bit more than we asked for, like ancestral healing and a strong need for a real personal daily practice. Nonetheless, the path forward is clear, practical, and doable. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she shares her experience and expertise to answer your question, "How do I begin shamanic healing? What is reasonable to expect from a shaman and what will they expect from me?"

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Shamanism and the Renewal of Spirit

Winter is the season of The Return. It is the time to rest and slow down. For most just slowing down is the challenge. We think all we need is to catch up on some sleep or restart our daily meditation practice. For others chronic exhaustion and fatigue is the challenge and we get caught up in the actions of healing. They are each a side of the coin of imbalance that is so common in the lives of contemporary people. Both require the same journey into solitude to remedy the deeper causes of this natural imbalance in our lives. However, to just rest or slow down or try a cleansing diet again are not The Return, explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. They only hold the space for it. The Return is a Taoist term for the natural turning inward, a natural call to leave the day-to-day patterns, expectations, habits and small addictions and to remember. We are called to remember the path back to our mountain and to connect again to why we are here in this life at this time. And we are called to participate in the kinds of actions that open our hearts, allowing true emotions to flow and fill the lake that lies at the base of the mountain. In this way we go into the source of our deepest dreaming, realign with our heart's path, and restore the resources we will call on throughout the year to come. Join us this week as we explore the renewal of Spirit.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Just Energy Radio

2012: The Year Ahead
Dr. Rita Louise is joined on Just Energy Radio by astrologers Michele Avanti & Debra Clement where we will have an astrology double header.

Michele Avanti
Michele Avanti is a published certified planetary systems analyst, consulting metaphysician and ordained minister. Since 1972, she has taught and consulted in many areas of metaphysics. Michele has lectured and given more than 15,000 live consultations on radio, television, and at seminars and workshops across America. Her columns have appeared in newspapers and magazines since 1985.

Debra Clement
Debra Clement is an internationally known astrologer with more than 20 years of professional experience counseling clients from all walks of life. Recognized for her insight into the birth chart and for the accuracy of her predictive work, she believes that her purpose as an astrologer is to help people make the most of their potential and their planetary cycles, especially the ones that will test and challenge them.

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/just-energy-radio

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The Invincible Sun of Winter Solstice

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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Wishing all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Yule, Raucous Saturnalia, and all other celebrations of the enduring of the light at Midwinter.

The Shortest Day Susan Cooper So the shortest day came, and the year died, And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned beseeching fires all night long To keep the year alive, And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake They shouted, reveling. Through all the frosty ages you can hear them Echoing behind us - Listen!! All the long echoes sing the same delight, This shortest day, As promise wakens in the sleeping land: They carol, fest, give thanks, And dearly love their friends, And hope for peace. And so do we, here, now, This year and every year. Welcome Yule!!

Midwinter Tomas Tranströmer translated by Robert Bly A blue glow Streams out from my clothes. Midwinter. A clinking tambour made of ice. I close my eyes. Somewhere there’s a silent world And there is an opening Where the dead Are smuggled over the border.

An Old Man's Winter Night Robert Frost All out of doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane in empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand. What kept him from remembering what it was That brought him to that creaking room was age. He stood with barrels round him -- at a loss. And having scared the cellar under him In clomping there, he scared it once again In clomping off; -- and scared the outer night, Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar Of trees and crack of branches, common things, But nothing so like beating on a box. A light he was to no one but himself Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what, A quiet light, and then not even that. He consigned to the moon, such as she was, So late-arising, to the broken moon As better than the sun in any case For such a charge, his snow upon the roof, His icicles along the wall to keep; And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted, And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept. One aged man -- one man -- can't keep a house, A farm, a countryside, or if he can, It's thus he does it of a winter night.

Midwinter Sophie Jewett All night I dreamed of roses,     Wild tangle by the sea, And shadowy garden closes.     Dream-led I met with thee. Around thee swayed the roses,     Beyond thee sang the sea; The shadowy garden closes     Were Paradise to me. O Love, ’mid the dream-roses     Abide to heal, to save! The world that day discloses     Narrows to one white grave.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Bringing Health and Well-being to Children

"Let yourself imagine and experience the certainty that ADD and ADHD, birth trauma, incomplete bonding, sensory overload, dyslexia, and autism, labeled strenuous and unalterable by the mainstream society, can be immediately and beautifully transformed forever." This is the reality accessed through the work of Jon Bredal, MA. Jon joins host and shaman, Christina Pratt to discuss his innovative, joyful, and effective healing process with children and families. His work integrates decades of art and teaching, deep exploration into kinesiology and BrainGym, and the influence of his experience with many North American indigenous peoples. Jon explains that, "These difficulties (for children) are primarily caused by incomplete infant developmental patterns. The methods and activities in this process work to eliminate the underlying causes through a combination of joyful, spontaneous play, integrative movement, repatternings, heart activities, as well as developmental/rocking movement." Jon is our next guest in the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this show we explore how we could be more effective in our healing with children facing the challenges of ADD, dyslexia, anxiety, depression, sensory disorders, learning blocks, birth traumas, incomplete infant bonding, autism, and those other experiences children suffer for us that we can't diagnose or explain away.

This week's guest:
Jon Bredal, MA

Jon spent twenty years in the classroom teaching, coaching, and counseling middle and high school students in Minnesota, Colorado, Texas, and for the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Midlife sparked a period of intense spiritual seeking for Jon, bringing him to discover kinesiology and Brain Gym, then the best known and most powerful integrative movement method of the time. He studied this craft and over the years has blended his experience, insight, and exposure to other modalities into his own unique method of healing which assists people of all ages in developing skills that lead to inner peace and personal power.

Jon Bredal's committed contributions to the field of child development, family systems healing, and natural play are unparalleled at this time. Through a combination of reflex activations, joyful play, and spontaneous movement, Jon makes healing for children and bonding for families deeply fun and deeply transformative-like no one else. Jon has helped children heal some of the most challenging difficulties facing them today: ADD, dyslexia, anxiety, depression, sensory disorders, and autism, among others. His love of North American indigenous culture continues to inform the work he does with the Six Nations, Toquat, and Okanagan Nations. He has led workshops, given courses and consulted in over forty schools, community centers and treatment facilities throughout Europe and the Americas, where he now regularly teaches. Father of three and grandfather to seven children, Jon lives in the mountains near Wolf Creek, Oregon.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Awakenings with Michele Meiche

Metaphysican, & Spiritual Astrologer Robert Wilkinson
12pm PT --- Host MICHELE MEICHE and her guest co-host Paolo Doro share thier weekly Soul Insights, Meditations, Healing, Activation and Acceleration work for Soul Alignment. What is your Soul's Purpose & how can you actualize this? What is your role, your path, and what are the signs in your life and in the world telling you? Call in for channeled guidance readings, and psychic mediumship readings. Call in and share your path of awakening and Soul Alignment. You may also email your questions to be covered on air at awakenings@selfinlight.com. The second portion of the show is Conversations with Awakened Guests. Michele dialogues with spiritual teachers, healers, conscious experts, visionaries, awakened leaders, authors, conscious beings and people of all walks of life that are focused on living consciously. This week’s conversation is with Robert Wilkinson. He has been an internationally known futurist, metaphysican, and spiritual astrologer, spiritual counselor, and strategic analyst for over 35 years.Using Astrology, Spirit, and Archetypes to move and groove through the intersections of fate and free will. He has one of the largest astrological/metaphysical blogs in the world with visitors from over 130 countries and 6.5 million page views in 6 years. www.aquariuspapers.com

Wed, Dec 21, 2011 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/awakenings

Just Energy Radio

The Gospels: Fact or Speculation & Jesus: The Missing Years
Dr. Rita Louise is joined by Gary Greenberg and Frank Huguenard to discuss the life and times of Jesus.

Gary Greenberg
The Gospels: Fact, Fiction or Speculation
A New York City criminal defense attorney and President of the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York (BASNY), Greenberg has long been interested in the intersection between ancient myth and ancient history, especially as it applies to Egyptian influences on the writing of the bible. The problem, he says, is figuring out how to separate the myth from the history. Gary is the author of The Moses Mystery, The Bible Myth, 101 Myths of the Bible and Manetho: A Study in Egyptian Chronology.

Frank Huguenard
Jesus: The Missing Years
Frank wanted to create a documentary on the topic that filled what he felt was a void. He wanted to take a spiritual route and to focus on comparing the teaching of Jesus with Hinduism. Franks documentary Beyond Belief explores compelling new evidence that the eighteen 'missing' years of Jesus' life, unaccounted for in The Bible , were spent with Rishi's, Yogi's and Swami's of India, and also focuses on significant evidence that Jesus lived to be around 100 years old and is buried in Kashmir.

Fri, Dec 23, 2011 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/just-energy-radio

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Michigan Christian Notices Christmas is Pagan

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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Christmas lovers in a quiet Michigan neighborhood were shocked to find a note appended to their mailboxes denouncing their holiday light displays. It began:

Hi neighbor

You have a nice display of lights and this love note explains how that pagan tradition began. For thousands of years Sun worshippers have celebrated the Sungod's rebirth after solstice. Pagans honored the birth of the "invincible sun" with a "festival of lights." They used big bonfires, pigs fat tallow candle lights, and today, billions of colored christmass [sic] lights. Rome's seven-day December Saturnalia was religious revelry with decadent drunkenness outrageous adultery and giving Saturn's nativity birth gifts to the children. The Norseman's yuletide solstice carousal used sexual soliciting mistletoe, Yule-log bonfire, and decorated evergreen wreaths and tree worship. None of this honors the life of Yeshua the Christ.

But for the invective, that could have been written by a pagan. (I particularly like the way Sungod and Saturnalia are capitalized but "christmass" isn't.)  In fact, last year I offered a bit of history regarding the pre-Christian roots of bringing evergreens into the home during solstice and the Bible's condemnation of it. But light-displaying Michiganders scoff at such litmus tests of their Christianity and do not take kindly to the grievous insult of being called "pagan."

Danette Hoekman, who received the letter, said: 'I laughed because I think it’s ridiculous that people would get upset over Christmas lights.'

. . .

Miss Hoekman added: 'It's a sin to judge other people and to tell people that if they have Christmas lights they are Pagans.

'We're not Pagans, we go to church regularly, my kids go to the Christian school.'

The mash note writer isn't the only one calling Hoekman's faith into question. George Conger at Get Religion points out that Christianity and single motherhood are oxymoronic and strangely conflates the whole thing with lesbianism.

A “Miss” whose kids go to the Christian school? That would be news.

But facts and George Conger don't seem to be well acquainted. Conger also takes both the Michigan do-gooder and the Huffington Post to task for claiming that it was Christians who coopted the pagan holiday when it was the Roman Emperor Aurelian.

This bit of conventional wisdom does not stand up to scrutiny. It will disappoint the crank of Hudsonville no doubt, but he (and the Huffington Post) have it backwards. As Prof. William Tighe wrote in Touchstone magazine a few years ago:

… the Emperor Aurelian instituted on that date [Dec 25] in the year 274 was not only an effort to use the winter solstice to make a political statement, but also almost certainly an attempt to give a pagan significance to a date already of importance to Roman Christians.

In other words, it was the pagan Emporer Aurelian who sought to paganize the Dec 25 holiday of the Christians, not the Christians who sought to Christianize the Roman pagan holiday.

Never mind that Christianity owes ancient Rome and its emperors for most of the Christian foundations we hold dear. It was the pagan Emperor Constantine who formally legalized Christianity and organized the Council of Nicaea which was responsible for hammering out Christian doctrine and assembling the Bible that fundamentalists today consider the irrefutable word of God. Constantine was only baptized into the Christian faith on his deathbed after a living a thoroughly debauched, wife-murdering, life.

More to the point, "the crank" doesn't appear to have said anything at all about who it was who so thoroughly enmeshed Christmas with paganism. But that enmeshment cannot be reasonably disputed.

The Wild Hunt has more on the link between Saturnalia and Christmas.

So get out your statue of Saturn, or if you don’t have one, I suppose a statue of Santa will have to do, place him on your best couch, and let the merriment begin!

“According to the Augustan historian Livy, following the sacrifice the Roman senate arranged a lectisternium, a ritual of Greek origin that typically involved placing the deity’s image on a sumptuous couch, as if he were present and actively participating in the festivities. A public banquet was held (convivium publicum), and afterward the shouting of io Saturnalia began, originally only on the single day.”

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