John Deakyne is an author, poet,

Breathwork Facilitator and

Shamanic Minister

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Always Coming Home

Even as I release the words that rise in my awareness; even as I encourage my fellow travelers to use the written word to exercise their innate creative abilities; even now I am conscious of the utter inadequacy of words to capture the movement of spirit in our lives.

I have not blogged for three months even though I have transcribed several blog-worthy tomes.  Like you, I have opened myself to be worked on by the divine.  Because we have set our intention for transformation, spirit has obliged, and when we truly allow, she sends us the data that is needed for our newest calibration.  As you know, much of this work is accomplished while we sleep.

So we have had some restless, nearly sleepless nights.  We are being visited by strange and bizarre dreams that are just evidence of our busy-ness in the dream time.  And sometimes, even after sleeping deeply, we rise exhausted like we have run a marathon or been on a night-long bender.  It is hard for us to put this into words because we lack a story upon which to hang this experience.  But let me try:

One night recently I had a recurring vision of myself working to open an ancient door and heard over and over the thought about bringing in the age of _______________.  I kept getting this word; a foreign sounding word; and I told myself I should sit up and write down this word so I could later look it up.  Then I told myself that after repeating this scene what felt like a hundred times, I could not possibly forget the word.

I was borderline awake all night; from time to time setting up and speaking to the ceiling, “Okay, that’s enough; just let me sleep!”  I did sleep for a short time in the early morning, and when I came fully awake I sat up and asked myself, “Now, what was that word?”  Can you believe that after all that wrestling, the word was now just outside my remembering.  It was hiding itself, but I knew it was not lost.

Feeling depleted I decided to cancel my scheduled time to do readings at the coffee shop in Cottonwood, but I dropped by to tell them I would not be there.  I mentioned to my friend, Glen, that I had had an exhausting night; that I had been given a word that I could not forget, then I forgot it.  I told him it was a new word for me but at the same time familiar, and I thought it might be Latin.  To my surprise, he checked in and said, “No it’s not Latin.”  Then he said it’s “Lemuria”.

It’s Lemuria.  When he said the word, it all came roaring back.  I had seen the word before in New Age circles, but really didn't know what it was or what it meant.  If you also don’t remember, the legend of Lemuria is about a civilization during and predating the age of Atlantis.  It is believed that the beings in Lemuria were extremely high-conscious light beings; perhaps the last vestige of spirit beings before we had completely forgotten who and what we are.

I have decided to not over-think this vision, because it is beyond the understanding of the mind.  Me working on opening the door to the Age of Lemuria is about me continuing to work on up-leveling my own consciousness and understanding that our work is also about up-leveling the consciousness of (opening the door for) our collective humanity.

Lemuria represents a point on the spiral journey from which we are moving, and paradoxically to which we are returning.  For me, it feels like home.  That is really the point of the whole thing; however circuitous the way, we are always coming Home.

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Check out our website:  www.earthschoolforsouls.com for my latest workshops and events.  Next up is our monthly Mini-Jumpstart Writing Retreat on Saturday morning, June 15, at the Flying Eagle Retreat Center in Clarkdale, AZ.

Baton is Passed to Loving Hands

Greetings Dear Spiritual Teachers, Shamanic Facilitators, Musicians and Soul Friends,
 
Over the last 10 years, many of you have taught, facilitated, performed and offered your special gifts and talents to Venus Rising students, soul family and community members at the Isis Cove Retreat Center, an hour west of Asheville NC. Brad and I feel very blessed and fortunate to have had the opportunity to host you at Isis Cove Retreat Center for the mutual benefit of all concerned.
 
We are now overjoyed to announce exciting new changes taking place at Isis Cove Retreat Center (ICRC).  Recently, two of our soul family members, Robert Six Owls and Carol Fleitz, became the new earth stewards and owners of the ICRC. Brad and I are in soulful collaboration with Robert and Carol as they begin to answer their sacred souls' journey and inner calling of guiding ICRC to its next octave of offerings to the world.
 

ICRC will continue its evolution as an extraordinary sacred space for transformational healers, shamanic teachers and talented performers to offer their unique healing gifts, workshops, sessions and performances. In fact, Robert Six Owls and Carol are looking forward to expanding ICRC's program offerings and to actively participate with teachers on a regular basis. They are presently in the process of planting the spiritual seeds for not only the continuation of the great programs already happening at ICRC but for exciting new workshops and offerings to take root, blossom and grow.
 
Brad and I are very excited to support Robert and Carol as they pave the way for a variety of new teachers as well as the established programs and teachers already presenting to bring their special offerings to ICRC.
 
As you plan your next  performance, teaching or workshop, we wholeheartedly invite you to consider coming to ICRC to take advantage of what is already in place here to support your offering:
 
~ Retreat and Community setting, safe people, animals
~ Privacy
~ Self contained
~ Catering, vegan, vegetarian, healthy fresh foods including  meat dishes, organic nurturing food
~ Heal in Nature, walk beautiful trails through the woods, by the creek up to the Spirit Deck overlooking the mountains or for a nighttime star teaching
~ Vision quest in a safe space
~ Add Shamanic Breathwork to your workshop
~ Offer Massage, Acupuncture, Cranial Sacral, Hypnosis and other healing modalities to your participants
~ Add Sweat Lodges to your workshop
~ Seven Sacred Elemental Sites around property such as the 37 sacred stone Medicine Wheel (each stone weighs over a ton)
~ One hour west of Asheville airport, less than three hours from Atlanta international airport.
~ Shuttle services available
~ ...and more
 
Carol and Robert expect to move to Isis Cove early this summer and will be here for the Wise Wolf Councils this year. You can contact them now to schedule your next exciting workshop in this one of a kind retreat center in the magical blue mountains of NC. Call Carol today at (910) 580-2176 for more information.
 
Love and Wolf Howls,
Star Wolf and Brad

PS... 8th Gathering of the Wise Wolf Councils starts this weekend. Don't miss out on a chance to visit Isis Cove during the first big event of the summer! CLICK HERE for more info

Return of the Blog: A VRU Update

Welcome back to the Aquarian Shaman Blog!

When Mom (Linda Star Wolf, or "Mammy Wolf" to the rest of the world)asked me to revive this long-abandoned thread, I decided that the first order of business would be to introduce myself to those who don't know me and then to offer a broad update of some of the exciting new developments within Venus Rising (VR) and Venus Rising University (VRU).

 

My name is Casey Piscitelli, and I am the new Director of Media and Online Learning for VR and VRU... and I am Star Wolf's Son. Having grown-up in the midst of Mom's work - from her days as a mental health professional, to her addictions recovery work, to holding breathwork sessions in our living room, and throughout the journey that led to Shamanic Breathwork in its current incarnation - one thing is clear: this work is in a constant state of fluidity, and change/evolution is an inevitability. I was approached about coming to join the VR team just at the cusp of one of these shifts - perhaps the biggest one yet.

 

Many believe as I do that the world is in need/on the verge of a paradigm change, and this change will happen regardless of our readiness for it or our complacency with the status quo. Some see it as a purge. Some see it as a revolution. However this turning of the collective unconscious manifests itself, we believe that it can ultimately (but not certainly) be a change for the better. It's an opportunity for a course-correction for humanity, where like-minded, peace-loving, Earth-loving, self-aware, nurturing, forward-thinking humans who embrace shamanic consciousness help to usher in the new age... which, of course, is right up our alley at VR!

But, I will leave the esoteric musings to Mom and get to the point: Our Earth-Tribe needs to open its arms and expand and welcome and let in not only those who have sought this path, but those reluctant shamans as well. The concepts of shamanism and other aboriginal mysteries have started showing up in mainstream culture, priming the masses for an acceptance and embrace of these wisdoms that couldn't have happened just a couple decades ago. This has been further facilitated by the geometric growth of information technologies, which have served to shrink our globe. Venus Rising recognizes the need to adapt and plug-in to this global network in order to grow, to teach, to enlighten, and to heal at a pace that is consistent with the world around us.

From the beginning, as Mom and I lined-out exactly what my responsibilities would be with the organization, I felt called to do something with VRU. Real-world degrees in Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies - now that was something I could sink my teeth into! I had always imagined that, if I ever were to work with Mom and VR, it would be in a capacity that helped bridge her work to the “mainstream” or at least to a much wider audience.

My first thought was that the classes needed to be adapted to an online format in addition to the in-person courses in order to broaden the exposure and appeal of the school. I'm pretty sure that was already on the minds of everyone on the VRU staff, as it was an easy sell.

Homepage Sneak-Peek

The project to develop venusrisinguniversity.org began in earnest in the fall and is in the late stages as of this writing. There have been many obstacles – so many moving parts to integrate. It has been frustrating at times, as collaborative efforts can be. The world doesn’t stop turning, and many of the players already have enormous demands placed upon their time and energy. I am confident, however, that end result will make a significant impact on the lives and work of all who are affiliated with Venus Rising.

The functionality of the site is ambitious. Not only will it be a place where one can browse degree programs, view instructor biographies, apply and enroll in classes, but we hope to soon have the "VRU Portal" live and online. This section of the site will allow students and instructors to log-on and access their personal VRU page. From that page, one can view their assignments, grades, current courses, and overall progress, as well as access the virtual classrooms of their online courses. Instructors will have the flexibility to deliver their course in person, online, or a combination of the two. They will also enjoy the ability to use any combination of documents, multimedia, and live or recorded webinars (Cisco WebEx) – whatever works best for a given course. The portal will also grant access to the lobby - a place for social networking and sharing images and ideas, fostering a sense of community.


 Sneak-Peek #2



 

In the coming weeks, expect password protection to be removed from the site, allowing open browsing (right now, the site is in construction mode). That will be followed by the steady addition of new courses. Until then, prospective students may still read all about VRU and enroll in the university by visiting:
http://shamanicbreathwork.org/venus-rising-university.

 

Degree programs include:

◦Bachelor of Sacred Elemental Studies

◦Master of Shamanic Intuitional Practices

◦Doctorate of Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies

◦Doctorate of Ministry in Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies

Many Blessings

Casey Piscitelli
VR/VRU Director of Media and Online Learning

casey@shamanicbreathwork.org

casey@venusrisinguniversity.org

 

Venus Rising Transformation House is a true gift to humanity

Kelley Grace Eden, Naturopathic Doctor, Shamanic Practitioner and owner of Innate Abundance in Mosier, Oregon, shares her experience of Venus Rising:

"10 years ago I was in a major time of transition and personal crisis. At that time, I was fortunate to have had Bradford Clark Collins and Linda Star Wolf drop into my life.  With their guidance and compassion, and the powerful Shamanic Breathwork process that Linda developed, I was empowered to completely remake my life in accordance with my own higher wisdom and values.  Making the decision to step into this growth process for myself absolutely saved my life from becoming dictated by outworn coping skills and patterns that no longer served me.  Brad and Linda have now created an amazing community of healers who all carry within them the authenticity and integrity that Brad and Linda have infused this powerful work with.  Venus Rising Transformation House is a true gift to humanity.  If it calls to you, and you feel a resonance, consider that your higher self is asking you to take this journey...your life will begin to transform from the moment you say Yes!"

Dr. Kelley’s specialties are working with the physical body using massage, botanical medicine, and biotherapeutic drainage, and working with the soul and emotional body through breathwork, energy work, psychospiritual counseling, and flower essences. Treatments are geared toward supporting the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of her clients so they are empowered to do the deep work of recovering their own innate (inborn) abundance through a discovery process within themselves. To read more about Dr. Kelley, please visit her website, Innate Abundance.  

Be Your Own Oracle with James Wanless at Isis Cove, Aug 8

Dr James Wanless

Dear Shamanic Friends and Soul Family,

Recently, while presenting at a book expo in Denver, CO, I had the great pleasure of meeting someone I have long admired - James Wanless, the creator of the best-selling Voyager Tarot Deck.  James Wanless is a futurist and pioneer of new thinking recognized for weaving timeless wisdom into modern life with intuitive tools and symbolic systems.  With his magical blend of personal charisma, humor and pragmatic enthusiasm, he is thought of as a “corporate shaman” and an internationally known authority on intuition.  I took the opportunity to invite James to Isis Cove and am delighted that he will be here as part of our upcoming two week Accelerated Transformation and Training Program.

Mr. Wanless will present an open-to-the public talk, "Be Your Own Oracle", on Wednesday, August 8, 7:30 - 9 pm.  He will also be available for personal tarot readings, either from the Voyager Tarot or his new deck "Sustain Yourself: Live Well and Live Long" on Wednesday, August 8 and Thursday, August 9. 

Space is limited for the August 8 evening presentation.  Register on-line at www.shamanicbreathwork.org.  To schedule a private reading with Dr. Wanless, email us at venusrising@shamanicbreathwork.org.

I hope to see all of you here at Isis Cove for James Wanless's presentation, "Be Your Own Oracle" on Wednesday, August 8 and that many of you will grab this rare opportunity to receive a personal reading from Dr. James Wanless!

Shamanic Blessings,
Star Wolf

Awakening the Visionary Shaman - on Reality Sandwhich

Reality Sandwhich recently featured an article by Star Wolf.  Check it out at:
http://www.realitysandwich.com/awaken_visionary_shaman

Join Linda Star Wolf for a live, interactive on-line video course, "Awakening the Visionary Shaman: The Shamanic Breathwork Process." This Evolver Intensive online course starts on July 7th and runs for 5 sessions.  It can also be taken for credit towards a degree with Venus Rising University.  For more info on the course, click this link:  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4730843

What does it mean to "Awaken the Visionary Shaman," to live from the shamanic psychospiritual perspective, and to embrace the spi­ral cycles of change? The shamanic psychospiritual path is a path of direct experience to our own lives, the mystical and the mundane. It is not a religious path; however, it can be brought into any spiritual or religious tradition that you may already be involved with. It is the merging of the ancient wisdom teachings inherent in all traditions -- everything that has already been -- with the new, cutting-edge, consciousness paradigm and downloads from the future, the quantum leap of being that is calling to us from our imaginal cells.

I created Shamanic Breathwork several years ago as a synthesis of my personal exploration and direct healing experiences with breathwork, shamanic wisdom, depth psychology and addictions recovery methods. The Shamanic BreathworkTM Process utilizes the breath, sound healing through chakra-attuned music and energetic release work to create an altered state of consciousness. In this process, we encounter and recover lost soul parts, release self-defeating patterns, awaken the Visionary Shaman within and remember who we really are. After 40 years of using many different modalities, I have found Shamanic Breathwork to be the most powerful tool of all to heal the past, activate the imaginal cells, open to future downloads and live life more fully in the present.

Imaginal cells represent what has already happened in "heaven," if you will; they exist as thought forms in the archetypal blueprint of the invisible world, the place where all of creation arises from the cosmic soup.  Several spiritual evolutionists today are speaking about the imagi­nal cells. They believe that even though we are not consciously aware of these imaginal cells, they are present nevertheless.

Science tells us that the caterpillar, like us, has a regular cellu­lar structure as well as a cellular overlay composed of imagi­nal cells. Gradually, as the caterpillar grows and evolves, the imaginal cells become greater in number and threaten to override the old structure.  As they gather momentum by forming cell clusters and exchanging information, they become the dominant growth paradigm of the organism, until pretty soon there is no stopping them, and they gloriously morph into the new creature that is the beautiful butterfly.

Human beings are much like the little caterpillar walking around, munching on leaves, and happy in its sphere of being. Then one day some­thing happens. The caterpillar experiences a restlessness, a dissatisfaction with just eating leaves and being on the ground. It wants to do something entirely different, but it doesn't yet know what exactly that is. It suddenly feels a yearning, a holy longing, for some bigger purpose than what its life has been thus far. It's time for it to take an action, perhaps one it has no understanding of cognitively but feels instinctively.

It's really important to understand how to become ungrounded, uprooted, and to take ourselves apart; the caterpillar inherently knows how to do this. A secretion of its body is designed to dissolve its form, and as it dissolves itself, its little eyeballs fall off, its tail falls off, and it turns into mush.  Simultaneously, emerging out of that muck is a new creature that's growing little humps on its shoul­ders and acquiring colors and new eyes and a new way of being. However, at the time the caterpillar is undergoing this process, it doesn't know what's coming.  It's not like it dies and then it becomes the butterfly either -- it's all happening simultane­ously. The old form is dying while the new form is being born. Life and death are complementary opposites that travel together.

Just as the caterpillar is designed to morph into the butterfly, so too can we morph into our most highly realized state of being, by activating our own imagi­nal cells.  Imagine that one day the little caterpillar -- when it has finally reached its new form -- gradually breaks open the chrysalis.  When it comes out it sits there for a while and rests, drying off its wings for a moment, and then . . . something happens. An incredible urge, it doesn't even know what it is, and it doesn't even have the word "fly" in its vocabulary, but imagine this incredible urge that propels it to take a leap and to fly like crazy, and suddenly . . . it has a much bigger world! Instead of just a little area where it can crawl only a few inches or feet or yards, it can fly hundreds, even thousands of miles, over mountains, over streams, tasting the nectar and pollinating the flowers in all this beauty, offering its gifts back to the world in a much bigger and more profound way than it ever imagined.

This shamanic journey, of being born and then evolving to the next level of consciousness, is ongoing. The natural world is always changing, as are we. We do not just create that chrysalis once. With anything that requires a change in our lives, we have to go through a very similar process to the one demonstrated by the caterpillar. However, if we're resistant and afraid of change, we are going to shut down, contract, close up, and hold on to all the forms that we have, whatever they might be. We're not going to let these old forms dissolve, because we're afraid that if we do, the next one either won't be waiting for us or if it is, we won't like it, or it will be dangerous and we won't feel safe.

Every one of us can think of something that we're afraid to change. We're afraid to sell our house, leave a dysfunctional relationship, quit our job; we're afraid to let go of certain securities; we're afraid to express our opinion -- what will people think? Why were we feeling the need to change anyway? What could pro­pel us into undertaking such major upheavals in our lives?

I believe it is the imaginal cells that call us to change.  Some part of us knows how to answer that call, just like the trillions of cells in our bodies that are right now in the process of dying off and renewing themselves.  We are multidimensional beings going through cycles of change on a multitude of levels.  We are walkers between the worlds and have the ability to be aware of existing in many worlds at once. We are able to transform consciousness, to move to higher and lower levels, to integrate all the worlds together, and to access the future and the past and the present. This constitutes the ability to be a time traveler and a shape-shifter, moving from caterpillar to butterfly, from life to death to rebirth, traveling to higher levels of consciousness.

The Visionary Shaman loves the earth and the imaginal realms and the cosmos as well.  Now is the time for us to become visionary shamans, to become more thoughtful and heart-centered in our treatment of the earth and her resources. We must consider how we're using or abusing this Earth -- our sacred home planet.  And even if we feel overwhelmed when we do that -- a sense of "But what can I do?" -- that's a good place to start.

So how are we going to change? Are we going to hold on to what we have, hoard our goods and energy, and contract so small that we do not make the conscious evolutionary changes that we are here to make? If we really are "the ones we've been waiting for," we had best get on with changing our outlook, our actions, our selves and our relationship with the planet.  If we're the ones we've been waiting for, are we going to take respon­sibility for the redemption we seek? We need to grow up from being children who have abdicated our personal responsibilities and take back our power. And we can do that. Why? Because we have imaginal cells that are ready and waiting to inform us, to create a paradigm shift of seeing and being in the world.

If we said to the caterpillar, "You see that butterfly? Well, one day you're going to be a butterfly," the caterpillar might respond in disbelief. "Oh no, I could never be that! I'm just a little caterpillar on the ground. I could never become a beautiful butterfly." The answer to that is, "Yes, you will, because one day in the recent past that butterfly was just like you."

That's who we are too. We're just like the little caterpillar. The past, the present, and the future exist in who we already are. Our job is to learn how to remember that.


This article was adapted from Visionary Shamanism: Activating the Imaginal Cells of the Human Energy Field by Linda Star Wolf and Anne Dillon, Bear & Co., Rochester, VT, Copyright © 2011 by Linda Star Wolf and Anne Dillon

Beautiful Egyptian Pendants

Dear Friends, Many people have commented lately on the one of a kind sterling silver Anubis pendant that I often wear.  It was hand-made by a shamanic soul sister, Moonstone Star White.  Please check out her websites and the Egyptian and other indigenous inspired power pendants she creates:

http://www.moonstarwhite.com

http://amazon.com/author/moonstone

http://www.LiberateYourSpirit.com
 
In love and service,
Star Wolf