I am no drunkard, but I am no saint either. A medicine man shouldn’t be a saint. He should experience and feel all the ups and downs, the despair and the joy, the magic and the reality, the courage and fear of his people. He should be able to sink as low as a bug or soar like an eagle. You have to be God and the devil, both of them. Being a good medicine man means being right in the midst of the turmoil, not shielding yourself from it. It means experiencing life in all its phases. It means not being afraid of cutting up and playing the fool now and then. That’s sacred too.
JOHN (FIRE) LAME DEER (SIOUX MEDICINE MAN OF THE LAKOTA TRIBE)
Ⓒ Liz Thompson
I will be in Sydney for a healing gathering on that city’s magnificent Northern Beaches on Saturday, December 11.
The focus of the day will be the exploration of the place of individual healing within the healing of the group and ultimately society, and how that healing has an essential connection with the healing of country. In the space of the day there will be the opportunity for individual unfolding within the shared space of the group, and an examination of what that requires in terms of “payment” to the earth.
Numbers will be limited, in order to provide a balance between the individual and group processes, and we will be warmly held in a delightful space overlooking Whale Beach.
Please call or use the contact form to register your interest in attending, and I will be in touch with further details.
For the Earth.
Simon
Play audio here
In an age of viral media sent moments after it’s capture, it was an interesting experience to be engaged in the crafting of a modern radio documentary feature. Over three weeks work in the ABC studios, as well of 100 s of hours of collecting, collating and editing material by Liz and myself.
Despite script compromises to allow broadcast in that particular manner, and a name I would not have chosen myself, I am pleased with the end result. I feel most comfortable in oral culture’s but I think this piece makes a worthwhile contribution to aural culture, and hope people will continue to find a richness in it which contrasts the banality of much of that which washes through the ever broadening media ocean.
When I launched my website some years ago I expressed on the home page
“Quantum Life Bodyworks draws on a vast array of technologies, from those of archaic shamanism to hyper-modern media manipulation, manual body therapies and entheogenic ecstasies.”
This program is another step in that project’s realisation, and I am heartened that in the nations where the direct experience of the spirits of the Plant Medicines is prohibited, the spirit of the Plant Medicines can still touch the hearts of the people.
Big thanks to Liz Thompson, Robyn Ravlich, Robyn Johnston, and Judy Rapley [amongst many others unnamed] for making this possible.
The program is available to stream or to download here. Additionally a number of visual vignettes edited by myself and conceived, directed produced and shot by Liz Thompson and I are here and here available for your viewing pleasure.
