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May our Creator be with you always.
Walk in faith.   Love your neighbor.   Shine your light.

I grew up on a farm in rural Alabama where nature was all around me.  I was so blessed to experience green grass at my feet, a blue sky over my head, a creek in my back yard, and plenty of wide open spaces to roam and explore.   I was encouraged to stay outside as much as possible during the day,  as long as I was home before dark.

My Great Granddaddy "Ocee" was a naturalist and a healer, and I have his medicine box which is near 100 years old. My mother passed it down to me several years ago.  She's told me stories about the kinds of things he used to carry in it such as small bones, herbs, cures and the like.   Of course those things were long gone by the time the box came to me, but I can visualize the items he must have carried in the box and his use of those items.

I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church.  Around my early 40's, I felt a strong call to return to the teachings of my native ancestors and to learn their way of life.  I bought a drum and began to journey on my own.  I had no Earthly teachers.  In those days, the Spirits I met and worked with in my journeys were the sole source of my instruction.   Although I am thankful now, back then it was sometimes frightening to have such vivid experiences and no mentor to help me understand their meaning.

I remember clearly the first journey in which I received what I now know to be a shamanic "dismemberment".   In a dismemberment journey, spirit teachers or power animals give the shaman an experience of some form of death, usually by tearing him apart (thus the term dismemberment).  It is always done with love and kindness, but the experience can be terrifying none the less.   It is an initiation, a rite of passage, a gift of Spirit in which old habits, ego, and limiting beliefs are stripped away.  The shaman is then re-membered and transformed into a higher consciousness.   It is a call to shamanic healing work.  In this journey, I was asked to drink something from a small bowl.  Then the teacher proceeded to plunge a knife into my heart.   I was frightened because I thought this meant literal death for me in the physical life.  I remember saying, "I don't like this, isn't there some other way?"   My guide took me gently by the shoulders, looked me squarely in the eye and said, "This is the only way.   It will be all right."   Trust in our Spirit Teachers is a crucial element of shamanic work, and although I didn't understand, I knew I had to trust in the experience.  

Time went by.   As my life began to change, I felt the need to go on a vision quest to seek direction and guidance.   After more than a year of preparation, I fasted, prayed, sang and spent time alone in the high mountain desert of California.   It was one of the most profound experiences of my life.   I found workshops and training programs around the country that taught me more about shamanic healing.  Shamanic practice became a part of my daily personal life, yet, I would not discuss it openly among my family, my friends or my peers.  Here in the Bible Belt, shamanic healing practices are not widely used or understood.

After a few years, I experienced another dismemberment.   In my journey, I found myself in a frozen tundra, submerged in sub-zero temperature waters.   With glaciers around me, ice above me, and water filling my lungs, I was freezing, drowning, dying.    My Spirit Guide pulled me from the water, sat me by a fire and wrapped me with a warm red robe.   Then, a village chief came to get me in the company of a walrus and a polar bear.   He smiled and took me to his village where I was offered whale meat to eat.   I didn't want to take the whale as it was one of my animals spirits, but the chief told me the whale had gifted the meat to me as I was in need of his medicine.   The village people were warm, friendly and loving, and I enjoyed being with them in fellowship around their fires.   Then the chief pointed a finger close in my face and with a toothless smile, said "You're not doing what you're supposed to do."

I knew exactly what he meant.   It was time for me to use what I had learned.   It was time to embrace the call to shamanic healing work, and to share what I had learned with others along the way.   I was no longer a student.   I had become the teacher.   On that day, I accepted my call.  Over the years, I have learned not to worry so much about what others think.   I do not presume to call myself a "shaman", or a "medicine woman".   Those terms are best left to be used by others.    I think of myself more as a traveler on a never ending journey for knowledge and truth and healing.    I learn, I experience, I grow, and I pass on what I have learned through the spoken and written word.

I am a certified Remo HealthRhythms Facilitator and a certified Reiki Drumming Practitioner.   So much healing can be had at so many levels through drumming.   (Physical, emotional, spiritual and mental).  My shamanic work includes soul retrieval, power animals and totems, extraction, psychopomp (death and dying), shamanic illumination, drum and sound healing, Medicine for the Earth and Healing with Spiritual Light.  

I teach a variety of classes and workshops which include both basic and advanced training.   My series of workshops is called "Compassionate Journeys:  The Shamanic Path to Spiritual Healing."   Please see my training schedule for more information.

Temple Mound in Tarpon Springs, Florida is my spiritual and shamanic home.    I lead a number of community ceremonies on the mound there.    There is always a teaching circle in these ceremonies, which may be followed by the passing of the Talking Stick, and an opportunity to pass the pipe.  Temple Mound is a beautiful place that is alive with Spirit.   If you are on a spiritual journey, you are welcome to walk the grounds and spend time on the mound.   Steve Derderian is the Mound Keeper, and his family lives on the grounds, so please call first to schedule your visit.   727-942-1051 or 727-244-3110.   Temple Mound is located at 1130 Anclote Road, Tarpon Springs, Florida.   Visit www.templemound.com for more information.

Here in Earth School, I have been pleased to study under Sandra Ingerman, and she is my role model for this work.  She is completely dedicated, and she approaches teaching and shamanic healing from a place of compassion and giving.  In April, 2011, I completed Sandra's Two Year Teacher Training Program, and I count that experience as a great gift in my life.    I am currently also participating in the Foundation for Shamanic Studies Three Year Program with Nan Moss and David Corbin in Madison, Virginia. 

Thank you for allowing me to share my story with you.    I hope to meet you and work with you soon.

Mitakuye Oyasin.     (We are all related).