Beginning in March at Inward Bound Wellness! Join Sitka as she facilitates a group journey through using the voice as Self-Cultivation practice. We will be practicing working with toning, resonance, overtone singing, and mindfulness, combined with an internal practice of working with the MicroCosmic Orbit, Mulabandha, and various Qi Cultivation movements. Building towards a combined group vocal exploration of tribal vocal harmonics, inspired by Afro-Polyrhythmic song, to help release and transform energy through Ecstasy and Primal Sounding!

THE ULTIMATE RELEASE
by Wahkeena Sitka Tidepool Ripple, 2008

You will not find me subscribing to the belief system that spirituality must be devoid of sensuality, or that to be a holy person, one must be ascetic, renouncing sexuality. Archaic notions, such as in order to reach refined states of consciousness, one must 'transcend' the flesh or be above 'dirty' things like sex, are notions best left to centuries uncivilized. It is the 21st Century, and it is time to transcend ignorant social restrictions that inhibit the circulation of our healthy energy bodies and psyches. I am here to vouch for the experience of the human potential, and the ability to transcend the mundane and experience deeply expanded states of highly refined consciousness within an intensely sexually ecstatic experience. And I am here to vouch for the opportunity that sexuality offers every one of us, the offer of mastering our life force energy, mastering our energy body, mastering our meditative consciousness, surrendering into the thousand petalled blossoming flower of our open heart, thus mastering our potential for the deepest bliss imaginable.

My personal theory as to why sexuality has become such an amazingly imbalanced aspect of our culture boils down to suppression, based in the history of power & control of hierarchical structures rampant in Western Culture. Our culturally rampant sexual imbalances have exploded its themes into our personal lives in such diverse ways as pornography, violence & warfare, sexually disconnected marriages, maintaining clean exteriors of ideal marriage whilst having affairs & escorts, women who feel sexually disconnected from their sensual bodies, the impropriety of public nudity, shame of ones body and sexual energy, prostitution, rape, child abuse, discrimination of non-heteronormative people, and most importantly ~ the cultural obsession with putting images of ridiculously sexy and glamourously tantalizing women on every magazine page, street corner, web site and bus stop. The ideal is to live in a culture where none of these issues are common or even exist, where people don't act out their repressed sexuality by victimizing innocent youth, where people don't necessarily need to go a erotic practitioner or where people aren't judged when they do, where partners aren't confused and sneaking around each other to release their pent up sexual energy; a culture where people are unanimously honored for embodying their own individual expression of their creative selves and their healthy bodies. These would be ideals, but we got to work with what we got. Yet it offers a template for the direction one might want to go towards if one wanted to create a new paradigm of balance. And I believe that one of the most important things any one of us can offer our culture at large is our self-transformation, our vision of our full potential, and our process of doing the work necessary to embody our healthy, liberated, peacefully joyfully radiantly balanced selves.

When we understand that our sexual energy is an aspect within the core, creative energy of our bodies and the existence of our being, we realize it is interwoven within the essence of our life force energy. It is the spark that animates our presence being alive; we are born of sex ~ it is a supernatural action gifting the creation of life. Then it becomes apparent that by blocking or suppressing our sexuality, we are suppressing the very essence of our bio-energetic reality within our psyche and body. And that if we express our sexuality, we are expressing and liberating our bio-energetic makeup, we allow the free-flow of our energy body and this is the energy that gives us life and maintains our body-mind vitality.

The cornerstone of Buddhist thought is based on liberation from suffering, liberation from ego, and transcendence of duality, using meditation as the primary tool with which to achieve these lofty goals that most feel unable to attain. The attainment of an enlightenment experience has been equated with saintliness equivalent with Jesus or the Buddha, reaching transcendence that for most is seemingly an impossible mountain to climb, and so we put on pedestals and worship those that have. And many have said that Tantra is the fastest route to enlightenment, because it forces an acceleration of high energies through the human nervous system through peaks of orgasmic energy. Tantra is about the union of dualities, merging yin and yang, masculine and feminine, heaven and earth, divine intelligence and mundane existence. When we merge together through a wide open heart, it forces us to surrender completely into ecstasy, forcing us to examine all the aspects of our consciousness that are afraid to be open, holding back in the suppression of full throttle energy release. This requires practice with the most fundamental Buddhist tools of mindfulness and awareness in order to master ecstatic surrender release.

The reason that the modern Western adaptation of Tantra is so crucial to western culture at this time is that, by and large as a Western society, we have been unanimously caged in restricted modes of conduct that do not allow us to reach our full potential and don't teach us the value of our full ecstatic human potential. We are a culture of conformity and psychological control, and many find it challenging to 'let go', and we are not given visions of sexual liberation as tools for deeper personal growth and fulfillment as a whole being. And because for most, sex is bankrupt of ecstatic union, and for many sexual energy has served to sever us from ourselves because of so much wounding around our sexuality.

Many view sex in a dualistic manner, seeing man as eternally craving his unquenchable sexual thirst, seeing women as bound by social conventions, restricted in her body unable to fully enjoy her body and disinterested. This has created the rampant cultural image of women as providers for men's sexual energy, through the objectification of women as sexual images or sexual slaves, and has created women as providers for men's sexual fulfillment through marriage ~ creating assumptions that we are only meant to explore sexuality within the confines of our partners. And yet for many in marriages, this confinement of sexual energy with only one person has created deep imbalances and emotional and psychic schisms in a vast majority of relationships, feeling that one is not allowed to 'get ones needs met' when one has lost the sexual connection with ones partner, which is culturally prevalent in modern America.

And yet, for every single person alive on this planet, the subconscious is always drawn by the lure of the ultimate sexual experience. It is a peak experience for most, verging on mystically sublime, when two people find that perfect chemistry and merge in hours and days of an exotic serpentine dance of bodies writhing in ecstatic joy, uninterested in anything else in existence but coitus. And because Americans are so deeply sexually repressed and so needy for a higher, bigger, better, faster, more amazing 'fix' for themselves, the lure of sex is a common magnet. And we as a culture are finally being presented with a more promising vision of sexuality, a compassionate, accepting perspective of sexuality that gives us permission to explore some of the most central themes of being alive; love, our bodies, our psyches, and what it means to be fully alive and fully present & vulnerable with another.

However, for many the full ecstatic union potential of sexuality is often lost with many people who feel lost, struggling with 'mechanical' sexuality. Sexual experiences are meant to draw people together and be a sacred space of love, worshipping the exquisite divine beauty within each other, and yet for many we are drawn apart and feel disconnected and a lack of enjoyment or love is the result. For most, sexually intimate experiences lack true intimacy; that necessary element of deep connection and full presence with each other. So often, we disappear into a myriad of mental escape routes; memories, sexual frustration, pornographic visions and fantasies, thinking about chores. And so often, sexual experiences often feel more like two people masturbating together, trying desperately to release their own sexual energy ~ trying to get each other off, trying to please 'the other', rather than coming together and merging their energies to create a prolonged heightened state. It's a common scenario played out on screen and in bedrooms, where men masturbate themselves using a woman's body until they've reached their point of release and then everything is over. This is not a vision of union.

It has been said that in sex, women are like water and men are the flame. In order to get the women's water to the boiling point, the man must keep the heat on the water long enough to allow the water to boil, and once at the boiling point, the energy is unstoppable. This is the crucial juncture in the sexual realm where elements of self-cultivation, beginning with meditation and mindfulness come into play. If we do not learn how to master our sexual energy, then we will forever be slaves to our sexual energy ~ consistently yanked around by a carrot of desire; childlike, out of control, distracted, and projecting our needs on those around us. And self-mastery always begins with awareness, the crucial crucible of the Buddhist philosophical bedrock. Self-cultivation does not necessitate self-reppression, as in the Christian model, but cultivating awareness of how to move ones energy with skillful means.

Sexual awareness begins with the awareness of subtle body awareness. QiGong is one of the best teachers for subtle body awareness, learning how to practice awareness of, and feeling the flow of, Qi ~ or the Life Force Energy ~ within our body. For those who are new to cultivating an inner awareness, the process begins with bringing ones attention within oneself, rather than projecting your awareness outside of yourself. Begin with the breath, and move from there towards the fullness of your body sensations and your experience of the internal energy. Follow the natural, spontaneous movements of your body, as attuning yourself to your body's intelligence will be the best teacher for you to become Tantric. The more attuned you are to the inner awareness of your body, the more you will notice currents of energy moving through you, through your hands, through your arms, and through your torso. Becoming more present and attuned to your whole being, including your mind body and spiritual energy system, brings you into a state of being more psychic and energetically attuned to the energies around you. When you learn how to become more saturated in a state of body-mind-spirit wholeness, you can bring that inner cultivation to your relationship with your partner, and be more psychically and energetically connected to your partner at all times, including through sexual connection.

Sexual connection creates psychic bonding, through the opening of our life force energy into the cellular & energetic body of our partner. We brings our hearts and awareness into attunement to those we are in co-creation with. If we are in a relationship where there is no real heart based or body based connection, we will be frustrated if we engage sexually because the energy of loving presence and union will not be possible. But when we learn how to be fully present, conscious of our full body's sensations, our breath, and stay fully present with our partner in a space of loving open vulnerability, we can become aware of the energy moving between us. Our experience becomes a passionate dance of total spontaneity, where we melt into the sensuous bliss moving our beings effortlessly. We cannot force this experience to happen; our desire may get in the way of the actualization of this potential.

In our culture where we always grasp for what we want and believe that attaining what we want is power, we try to force experiences to happen, rather than allow them to happen. This attitude too often is brought into intimacy and sex becomes a goal oriented game of trying to force an experience to happen. It is best to simply be with what is, and surrender to the spontaneity of the flow of energy, and allow whatever energy that exists to come forth. If sadness and frustration come forth, allow it. If there is no juice or the man loses his energy before total ecstasy erupts, allow it. If hours of unending ecstasy emerges in mind-altering oblivion and you find yourself totally harmonized with yourself and your partner, allow it. Trying to force our partner to have a specific goal oriented experience, ie that of attaining an orgasm, creates a situation where either person is trying to masturbate the other person, and thus both become disconnected from each other in the process. Instead, release any need for any ultimate outcome, and focus on being sensitive to the body-based information you receive through yourself and the body sensations you feel pulsing through the other, and try to melt fully into that feeling.

Be absorbed in the sensual experience, and release all plans. The longer you stay in that state, the longer you are able to stay in that state and remain unendingly absorbed, continually building and building the intensity and ecstasy within that bubble. In doing so, orgasmic potential becomes trivial and effortless. The woman's yoni becomes a fiery oven of heat; an inexhaustible flame. The man's lingam becomes the embodiment of what the word lingam means; the rod of light, and through that spear one is able to channel our heart's love and masculine virile power. And the two merge into one without any effort.

We have the potential to be annihilated into the infinite, and to experience ultimate states of transcendance within sexuality. And this potential exists because everyone subconsciously desires transcendance, mind blowing ecstasy, and feeling completely safe, loved, held and fully met. And also because we are all divinely inspired creations of the divine essence seeking a way to remember and re-experience the fullness of this ecstatic consciousness. Ecstatic sexuality is just one doorway to the divine. The potential seed may remain latent and unactualized for a long time, until one realizes that this is a doorway to becoming more whole and happy ~ and thus decides to pursue self-cultivation with dedication. Our legendary sexual experiences remain with us as sacred memories for a lifetime; that state of bliss is like a feeling of coming home into an effortlessly expanded state of power. As one couple I met with expressed to me, their most treasured sexual experience with each other was potent mostly because they felt so intimately connected with each other, because they had released all their distractions and work, having spent a week on the beach, disconnected from their global communications devices and totally focused on being with each other.

For myself, peak sexual experiences put me in touch with the energies of the divine feminine, feeling completely integrated with the cosmic knowledge of goddess wisdom, channelling that energy into every cell of my body. Peak sexual experiences bring me to being present and fully alive; vibrating with intense ecstasy from my yoni throughout my entire body in a state of power, feeling that vibrancy coursing through every nano-fiber of my energy body. I become an embodiment of love, openness, psychic awareness and full knowing of who I am. I become cracked open, and receive intuitive downloads of information coming straight from a blissful light-filled dreamtime consciousness. There is no longer any disconnect between my higher divine self and 'me' ~ within that state I feel completely whole and totally integrated in my power.

It is so crucial that we regard our sexual energy with reverence towards its sacredness because it has such amazing potential to open us up so beautifully, and likewise the potential to damage us and create so much fear, emotional scarring and separation. When we realize that we are divinely created beings awakening to our full authentic selves, and we let go of those blockages that keep us separated in fear from our fullness, we will experience the ultimate release into the knowing of who we truly are.

M i s t a k e - A b i l i t y
By Wahkeena Sitka Tidepool Ripple :: 2008

. : : .

We make mistakes. We are human beings; imperfect, unconscious some of the time, selfish and not thinking wisely always. Other human beings tend to look at us and make judgments about our lack of integrity. This I have come to accept is one of the primary rules or by-laws about living as a human being; that you must come to accept that other people will judge you. I feel that ultimately we all want peace of mind, which comes through a sense of integrity. But sometimes our integrity slips, and we act out of lack; we steal, we tell lies, we cut someone short, we fall through with our agreement, we don't do the dishes, we are late, etc.. The human story is one of drama, the drama of our experience, and our shared experience with other people. So many times, the story of "the drama" is a continuing saga of people frustrated with each other's lack of integrity; judging each other, holding each other accountable, and creating grudges. Thus creating psychic energies that have to be dealt with, healed, released, and oftentimes painfully evolved through.

We are imperfect human beings, we make mistakes, and we want to be loved. We want to be loved and accepted because ultimately it makes us happy and feel good about life and ourselves. Being loved gives us a sense of wholeness that we often feel we lack, and we look to the relationships in our lives to bring us that state of wholeness and completion in our being. But then those that love us, witness our lack of wholeness, witness our lack of integrity and our mistake-ability, and begin judging us and withdrawing their love bit by bit. We feel hurt, we feel abandoned, we feel betrayed, we feel confused, we feel judged. We become angry and seek vengeance on those we loved.

Withdrawing into the caverns of ourselves, we erect boundaries, self-protective measures, elaborate booby-traps to detect invading heart predators who might try and come too close to our vulnerability. Our hearts have created complex, unexplainable methods of sabotaging ourselves from receiving the love we desperately desire. We project our insecurities onto those around us, blaming others for our fears and we lose sense of our ownership for our experience. But we still want to be loved. We want to find that bridge back into the realm of blissful radiance. We want to feel nurtured and cared for. We want to relax into feeling connected to those we care about. We seek the perfect energetic relationship connection. We look for the bridge out of our cavern, so that we may walk from our heart into the heart of another.

But we do so with fear, knowing they will witness our lack of integrity; our mistake-ability. Ultimately afraid of not being accepted keeps us separated, with our hearts torn and broken, looking for that bridge forever. We cannot hope to be loved and accepted under conditions that we act a certain way, look a certain way, maintain rigid compliance to a set of behavioral patterns, follow rules, maintain responsibilities and schedules. Because we cannot be loved & accepted when we are trying to fit another person's image of what being perfect looks like. Since we are shamelessly, imperfectly human beings, we will always fall through somewhere, and despite our best attempts at lying and covering up our weaknesses, our mistake-ability will be discovered - it is only a matter of time.

So, it's time to be honest, mostly with ourselves. We have to be able to love and accept ourselves, despite our lack of integrity, despite our mistake-ability, because we will never be perfect and we will never appear perfect to another human being. Being glorified and put on pedestals of adoration does not equal being a perfect human being. Being enlightened does not mean you are perfect, it means you have attained a state of self-knowledge and can channel divine source-love to others from a space of compassion. An enlightened person loves and accepts themself, because they know they will never be perfect, knowing that in order to have peace of mind and to attain mindfulness clarity, they must love and accept themselves as they are; with their mistake-ability. No one will ever be perfect, so why hold others to standards and levels of expectation you cannot hope yourself to attain? Some people feel that you must put others through intense scrutiny, examining all the layers, waiting for that booby-trap moment where they show their lack of integrity, so you can judge them and mark them as imperfect; and thus not enlightened, not perfect, not equal with Jesus Christ, and not good enough to be loved.

The truth is, we are all good enough to be loved. When we decide to accept someone else as they are, despite their emotional process, despite their lack of integrity, despite their mistake-ability, we bring them into our hearts with unconditional love. This is the salve that mends our desperate, broken, torn hearts. We must be willing to be compassionate towards another person, letting go of the need to expect another person to be perfect, in order to be worthy of being loved. When we drop judgments and witness another person as they are, still able to express our perspective of imbalance, when we are able to nurturingly care for those we are in relations with; we embody the beauty of the Divine Mother. Forgiveness is the crucial key in this relationship, forgiving ourselves, accepting ourselves and loving ourselves as we are in totality - we are thus able to forgive others, accept others, with unconditional compassion.

When we enter into this realm of unconditional acceptance and non-judgmental compassion towards those we are in relations with, we are re-creating the sacred circle of wholeness with those we are surrounded with. We are reaching out and co-creating the magic of a unified love field, a circle of positive energy, where people feel comfortable being their free:ky selves, accepted as they are. Where people come together to celebrate the bliss of community, the support and love of people who see each other and accept each other despite our mistake-abilities, and give each other the hope and nourishment that our soul longs for. We come home, and we relax into the peaceful surrender of being received, being met, being nurtured, and being seen for who we are. Thus our heart weeps joy, and we know for fact within every cell of our bodies that love is the true medicine.

Who are we when we aren't defined by our story? Our beingness is much deeper than is the story of how we came to arrive at point A and moved towards point B, and the drama that ensued along the way. It has taken me years to realize that I am not my story, and that the truth of who I am is much deeper than the story of the moments & dramas along the way that have defined and shaped my path in reality. Two years ago, I had a meltdown at a psychedelic rave party out in the woods that my friends were throwing. I'd arrived at the party with my boyfriend, we set up our tent underneath a gorgeous pine tree overlooking the meadow along the path towards the main stage, which was a stunning achievement of visionary creativity. We arrived and began preparing food and drinking wine. As the evening progressed, I had less and less motivation to do anything other than cuddle and be in a warm cozy nest. But we were at an all night long psychedelic party and there were hordes of people taking psychedelics and dancing all night long, becoming liberated in total ecstatic visionary freedom. At that point in my life, I had defined myself as a "psychedelic cosmic shamaness with visionary goddess powers" ~ and had defined my identity by my ability to make love for 14 hours on psychedelics and achieve union with God and merge with the land in visionary states of chanting ecstasy, and enter into the realms of pure light vibration while on peyote in Costa Rica. I had defined myself by my ability to completely let loose and flail my arms and body as my spirit exploded on a wave of orgasmic fire while dancing. I gave myself completely to this vision of who I am, and revelled in the freedom and free-ki-ness of my regular states of spiritual ecstasy.

But that night in the tent with my boyfriend, I had no desire to take psychedelics, or dance, or explode in cosmic visionary freekiness. All I wanted to do was relax and bliss out in cuddle coziness. Matthew, my boyfriend, left at some point and danced for a while, leaving me to spend the entire night in the tent resting. In the morning, a wave of sadness came over me. I do not remember what triggered the sadness, but I do remember how deeply depressed I felt, how completely overwhelmed with sorrow I felt, and I dove deep into that despair. It became more and more infused with self-hatred and life-hatred and an undeniable sense of needing to evacuate from life. I couldn't handle the intensity of being alive and feeling so much and having to go through so many challenges. I just wanted to give up. I was uncontrollably sad, and the further I went into the depths of the sadness, asking "Why am I so sad?" What came up was a realization that I hadn't fulfilled my vision of myself and my self-defined identity at the party. I had not taken psychedelics, I had not danced all night long spinning off into eternal ecstatic dervishhood, I had not made love until the sun rose. All I had done was slept, and I had wasted this beautiful opportunity to experience complete ecstasy, and so I grieved.

And then I realized that I had defined myself as this role, this vision of a cosmic creature, and that I wasn't truly that idea of who I thought I was. I realized that for so many years I had defined myself by the circumstances and stories of my life, but that ultimately I was not who I thought I was along the way because I had changed and evolved so much. Those old identities were like snake skins that dissolved as I grew and transformed. I began to realize that who I truly am is that observer awareness, watching my mind, thoughts & stories come and go with a Buddhist detachment. I began to do my best to align my identity with that; the essence of consciousness, the clarity of pure awareness, and watch myself when I get sucked into the mental belief game that I am a broken person that is not whole. I have spent the last several years trying to integrate myself into a space of alingment with that clarity of pure observer awareness, and to witness my identity as that divine essence. It is a practice that has shown me the dualistic split in my thoughts, between broken and suffering in the story of my sadness, versus totally at peace, fearless, powerful, grounded, wise divine being that feels completely whole and eternal. To continually re-align myself with that divine essence is daily work and requires meditation, self-love, humility and practice.

But I could not have arrived at this knowing without going through the gauntlet of years of suffering and anguish, both conscious and in denial. As I grew from phase to phase, I received subtle and not-so-subtle and powerful visionary astral initiations that helped bring me to the next level of my development. And with every step up into the next level, I realize that I cannot be attached to the previous identity and drama. I realize with my real eyes that it's all a lesson in helping me to keep following my heart and trusting spirit; to help me move in the direction of true soulful happiness. Because it is within the layers of broken-hearted, victimized, frustrated and stuck story that I make hard decisions to change in a way that will push me forward in the ascending spiral staircase; that is my heart speaking to me. And with each layer shed, I can look back upon the old skins with compassion for that layer of suffering and see the medicine within the drama, and be grateful for the pain. I realize that I am no longer the sad, lonely pathetic child who felt unloved and suicidally depressed for years. I am no longer the sixteen year old girl who looked like she was ten years old, who had to have her ovaries removed because she had 2 maglignant ovarian tumors. I am no longer an isolated, lonely and angry teenager who wanted to be loved but felt neglected. I am no longer a good conservative Christian teenage girl that wanted to know if there was anything more to life than this wall of despair in every direction. I am no longer the Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper, nor am I any longer the young rebellious head-shaven college freshman bisexual curious explorer of alternative paradigms.

I no longer define myself by my religion or by my sexual preference. I no longer define myself by where I was born, I define myself as who I want to be, what I want to explore, and where I feel at home and at peace. The first place I felt at home in life was with water, amongst rivers in the Smoky Mountains, along the ravine at Church camp as a young child, amongst the tidal cliffs and granite boulders of Maine's Mount Desert Island. This feeling of belonging, of being at home with water, hit me like a tidal wave at my first Rainbow Gathering, where during hours of riverside meditation, I came to realize that I was vibration and that I moved like the ripples of the water, and I realized that "I am a Ripple." It felt like the most profound statement of self-knowing-truth in my entire life. And so I changed my last name to Ripple.

And this was the first time in my life that I made the choice to become self-identified with my heart and my spirit, rather than my story.

REALITY IS PSYCHIC
by Wahkeena Sitka Tidepool Ripple, 2008

. : : .

Reality is Reponsive to Consciousness. We must begin to understand that our reality is shaped by our belief systems, not the other way around. We can create the reality we want, if our belief system is in alignment with our desires. If we want one reality, but our belief system says something else then our reality will create a mirror image of our subconscious beliefs. Reality is a dream mirage that teaches us how to be more in tune with ourself, it is as responsive to our consciousness as food is to our hands. We create what we want in the material realm, whether it be a plate of food or a hand crafted table or an item of clothing, and before we can begin, we must have the idea within our consciousness and begin making choices to create the manifestation of our plan. Whether it be making a journey to a destination, manifesting our new home, finding a new job - we can create what we want because reality is responsive to our desires and our creative energies are what propel us forward in this dance. And if we are confused, or uncertain of what we want, and we believe that we are out of control in reality, we will be shown exactly that it is true. We must own our power as creation masters, learning how to master the subtle dance of creating with our willpower and surrendering to the flow of the "reality support team" - spirits or what we can call the Tao - to help align us and bring to us what we need in perfect timing.

In my reality, I live in a reality that says that the Divine presence is constantly supporting me and giving me what I need, and that I have no reason to be afraid or worry about my needs being met, because my needs are always met and I am always able to receive what I need when I need it, so long as I relax into the flow of divine timing. As such, I at peace and am able to be more available to receive gifts of synchronicity when they arise. Synchronistic miracles are a daily reality, and are no more cause for celebration or intrigue than the daily news. Reality has taught me how to trust that I am held and supported, constantly monitered and nurtured. All I need to do is learn how to relax and receive that support. As a result, I have no fears, because every time I have been afraid or worried, I have been shown that it is ungrounded and unnecessary. I just need to trust that reality will support me, and it does. Effortlessly and gracefully.

That's not to say that my quadrant of reality is perfect or effortless or graceful, or that there is no work, challenge, or emotional distress to move through. Reality is a mirror of our deepest subconscious, and in that sense, there are always layers that must be examined, and that is where the Shadow self exists, and we all have it, cannot deny its presence, we must learn how to be mindful so as we are not swallowed up by our shadow and are able to walk in integrated balance.

But there is a huge fear pandemic sweeping across our nation, and the fear that is being drilled into the minds of the masses, whether it be towards War or towards Economic Crisis, is what creates the situations. The more people believe that we are on the verge of economic ruin, the more the reality will hit our lives. We cannot live in a reality and tell reality that we do not trust it, that we do not trust that we will not survive, that we do not trust each other and the system, and not expect reality to give us exactly what we believe to be true. We cannot live in economic prosperity and healthy ecosystems of sustainability, moving truly into the 21st century level of sustainable technological creative geniusness, until we believe THAT is our future, not a future of endless war, tyranny and economic ruin.

When we are in victim consciousness, and believe ourselves to be powerless victims at the hands of a reality that is seen as separate, disparate from ourselves, to which we cannot see our ability to control our situation, then reality shows us that it is true. When we scream to reality telling it that we are powerless victims of injustice, it showers us with experiences that validate our belief. We must believe that we have power over our lives and that we can consciously create what we want, if we have enough willingness to dream courageously, then our reality will show us that it is true, and we will no longer be victims of circumstance, but powerful co-creators of our life. There is no reason why anyone should be sitting at the bottom of a well in misery, waiting for reality to change for them, waiting for someone to save them. We must learn to believe in ourselves, and to believe that reality will nurture us, and trust enough to receive the help and guidance when it arrives.

Indigenous Shamanic cultures had a very different experience of reality because they did their best to live in communion with the forces of the 'Tao', with the forces of nature, and to maintain the delicate threads of balance between all the relationships to the supernatural, to the animal, and to the plant kingdoms. Instead of an individualistic, self-centered reality where reality is defined by individual choice, belief system and lifestyle, an Indigenous Shamanic culture was focused on the tribe, the community. And the community upheld a specific perspective of reality, and that reality was maintained through rigorous maintenance by rituals. Rituals were used to maintain cohesiveness within the tribe, and rituals were used to maintain balance with the elemental spirits. As such, a specific reality was experienced by that tribe, and their reality was monumentally radically different than the encroaching European mentality that slowly crept across the planet destroying everything in its path, and told everyone else that their reality perspective was the only valid one. In Indigenous Shamanic realities, reality was imbued with a level of magic and tribal harmony that we lack today because in the modern reality, we no longer choose to believe in these things, and instead believe that skepticism is intelligence, and that we walk alone, instead of dance together as community.

It takes time to learn that reality is a psychic phenomenon that is responsive to our consciousness, and that we are constantly in conversation with our surroundings and our experiences. But when we see how reality is talking back to us, through our body, through slips and falls, through broken hearts and broken ribs, we are being reminded to pay attention, to be more mindful and to not fall into unconsciousness, otherwise we will be in suffering. And as attaining happiness and peacefullness is the ultimate goal in life in everyone's subconsciousness, beginning with mindful awareness and honing our belief system is a crucial first step towards the attainment of a centered, balanced existence.

If you're interested in Visionary Art, Extreme Mysticism, Tantra, Psychedelics and Sufi Poetry, you may be interested in exploring my Visionary Temple-Blog called LUNACLIPSE ~ It's been active for over a year and a half, and I post a wide spread of mystical, poetic & visionary art on this space, cultivating a meditative frequency....

Explore :: LUNACLIPSE ~ Visionary Art & Mystical Poetics Temple-Blog

Hi There,
If you're a whore for gorgeous photography like me, if Flickr is your Crack, if good lighting and composition is your porn, then you might appreciate my new Photography Weblog over on Livejournal..

I'm posting my favourite photographs culled primarly from Flickr, with links back to each of the respective brilliant photographers.

check it out if you like eye candy...

EKKHU :: Photography Weblog

I am excited to finally present 6 of my songs to the Myspace Community!

To present to you, I have ::
1 Songs recorded in 2004, found on my album "Surface Tension" :: "Eternal Soul Gazers"
1 Song recorded in 2007, co-created by DJ Manifest and Myself; a Psy-Downtempo w/ Vocals track :: "Liquid Stone"
2 Songs home recorded on Garageband on my computer.. Simple, unedited, unpolished; Just Voice and a bit of reverb / echo.. :: "Canyon Echo", and "Full Moon Rise"

2 Brand New Songs co-created with friend Curtis Humphrey, of Kalpataru Tree, under the auspicious name of our collaberation, "KEMBWE" :: "You Speak My Language" and "Surrender Wings"

I hope you enjoy!

blessings
sitka

Hi There Folks,
I am currently collaberating with a downtempo-dub producer named Curtis Humphrey, creator of Kalpataru Tree, and we are creating some beautiful new tracks... Still in early phases, yet to be mastered with proper mix down, but we are evolving and growing and want to begin sharing our music.

We have created a new Myspace account for our collaberation, please check it out and add us as a friend!

http://myspace.com/kembwe

blessings to you
/sitka