The Cherry Staff

My Basic Understanding Of Shamanism And Journeying

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 4 Jan 2026 02:17:00 -0600

Shamanism is tens of thousands of years old, and there are versions of it all over the world. All known versions share a "shamanic cosmology," or structure of the universe.

1. Everything in the universe has "spirit," and is therefore alive in a certain sense. Some spirits are far more complex than others, but even rocks have a basic "spiritual intelligence." I'n my own science-based understanding, I relate this to a quantum physics concept; There is a certain background intelligence to the entire universe. The universe must store information on how a rock is a rock, for instance, and on which quantum particles / waveforms are a part of that specific rock. So I equate "spirit" with "quantum intelligence" of the universe. Are you following me so far? The quantum stuff is my own layer and theory.

So in shamanism, there are the spirits of rivers, the spirits of mountains, the spirits of planets, and even the archetypal spirit of what a specific type of animal is.

There is the spirit of Crow, or the spirit of Deer. These represent the concept of the animal itself, rather than any specific example of those species. Still, each crow and each deer also has its own individual, unique spirit. Yes, they are part of the multiverse, which is another layer.

In shamanism all over the world, there is the waking, ordinary reality that we live in day-by-day. However, there is also a non-ordinary, spiritual reality that can be entered and journeyed through in a trance state - in my mind, a form of self-hypnotic meditation. The non-ordinary reality has three worlds.

In my mind, the human brain is a quantum computer, and while the "higher" brain functions give us consciousness and individual identities, the subconscious is another matter. The subconscious is shared through the archetypal spirit of a human, and is in fact a part of the quantum background intelligence of the multiverse. This is a powerful fact that has other implications, but it's not the time yet to dive into that.

The first of the three worlds in shamanic cosmology is the lower or underworld. This is the spiritual home of our ancestors and where they reside. It is bastardized by the Abrahamic religions as "Hell," or "Hades" in Greek mythology, but it's nothing like the place of torture that those fabrications present to discourage their followers from understanding shamanic concepts.

The lower world would be where a shaman would go to speak to the spirits of the ancestors for guidance, comfort, and wisdom in shamanic trance, if that was the purpose of the journey. The lower world would typically be entered by going into a cave, or a hole in the roots of a great tree in the spirit realm by the shaman while in trance.

Like the tree Yggdrasil in Norse tradition. In Norse mythology, it holds the three worlds in its roots, trunk and branches, binding them together into one reality.

Yggdrasil with animal spirits among its branches.

The second world is the middle world. This is the non-ordinary spirit analog of the ordinary world we walk every day, and of the Cosmos as far as our telescopes can see. So walking about in a trance journey would allow you to "step into the matrix," so to speak, and to have conversations with elemental beings like the spirits of rivers, trees, mountains, or the Sun or Moon, or even Gaia herself. The middle world would be where I was in the journey where I spoke with Sol and with Sister Moon, and with Charlie, my raven guide. (See https://cherrystaff.blogspot.com/2021/12/drum-journey-12-04-2021-third-eye-being.html )

Then there is the "upper world," which is the abode of advanced beings like the spirits of Christ, Buddha, Odin, Zeus, angels, and more.

That would be accessed by some means of climbing into the sky or flying into the sky in a trance journey. Say, by climbing up Yggdrasil, or being carried into the sky by your spirit guide, which might or might not be a raven. It could be any spirit that chooses to take on the role of being your guide. Or guides, plural. Most people start with one spirit guide, and eventually develop relationships with several.

There can also be spiritual entities that are not benevolent towards humans. You can recognize these by the presence of dripping fangs. Consider it your spirit's way of recognizing an entity that you should stay away from and not interact with. Simply leave such a spirit's presence. They can't harm you if you don't engage with them.

When first entering shamanic trance to undertake a journey, you should visualize a path over a small creek or passing by a deep well, and leading to a place in nature where you feel at peace, safe, and calm. If you have a spot like that which you know in ordinary reality, all the better. You can visualize that as your starting place for shamanic journeys. As you pass the creek or well along the path to your starting place, throw a bag with all your daily troubles and worries in the bag into the creek or well. Let the waters of spirit carry those away, so that you can focus on the intention for your journey peacefully.

Once you arrive at your starting point, look for the spirits that you find there. If they don't have dripping fangs, ask if they are there to be one of your spirit guides. One of them or more will answer you, but usually it's just one at first. Ask them about themselves, thank them for their guidance, and ask them to show you the way to where you need to journey to for this particular intention, and to introduce you to the spirits you need to speak with on your journey. It could be an animal spirit, an ancestor, or an ascended master, or even a mythological god.

Now as to getting into a trance state, there are multiple ways. Some of them involve plant-based psychedelic drugs. I do not prefer such methods. Many methods of entering trance are through monotonously-repetitive sounds. Rattles, whistles, singing bowls, and perhaps the most well-known in our Western world, hoop drums - often called shaman drums. I use drumming for my journeys. You want a steady 105-120 beats per minute.

My Drum

My drum isn't a natural hand-made drum, but it's uniquely my own. I personalized it and named it Thrum. It's not super large, but it has a very powerful sound. I found it of all places in the back room of a Guitar Center in Oakbrook, Illinois, atop a pile of unsold instruments, marked down to $26.00 - I instantly brought it home, and crafted the drum beater you see pictured myself. I also added the Autumn leaves with a coat of clear polyurethane to preserve them, and string handles on the back to suspend it and let it resonate more freely are made from old shoe strings our cat Taboo used to love playing with when she was alive.

What's important here isn't the materials, as so many would insist on, but the personal relationship with the drum. Remember, in shamanism, everything is alive with its own spirit. So it's the case with the drum. In many shamanic traditions, a shaman's drum is called his or her "spirit horse." They ride the drumbeats like hoof beats into the spirit world or non-ordinary reality. This, to me, is a much healthier way to trance than drugs would be.

Now, when drumming to experience a shamanic journey, it's possible to want to spend too much time in the spirit world, or even get lost there. So you set for yourself an intention to drum a "call back" at the appropriate time, to remind you to return to your starting point, and come out of the trance. The "call back" might be an intermittent staccato drumbeat, or some other drumming that is very different from the steady, droning drumbeats that uphold the journey trance. Check YouTube for shamanic drumming with call-back to find something like that.

Definitely, it's easier to journey if someone else is doing the drumming for you. It's a bit more effort to drum and journey at the same time - much like trying to sing and play a musical instrument at the same time. It takes practice.

So you can see why I consider shamanic journeying as a form of guided meditation, but it's also much, much more. It's deep and ancient.

Yes, quite a lot here, and if done responsibly, with compassion and goodwill, shamanic journeying can be very therapeutic.

The Pearl of Sorrow was inspired by a shamanic journey I had back in 2014 where one of Odin's ravens tore the pearl from my chest and flew away with it to Asgard. It wasn't painful, it was a blessing. It helped me start healing from a tragic loss I experienced as a teenager when someone I cared for very much was lost to schizophrenia at a young age, and others had died. It took the edge off the grief. So in the spirit world, having something torn and rent from your body can be a painless blessing instead of a maiming torture as it would be in ordinary reality.

It was about my Aunt Felicia, and my grandparents. Yes. Aunt Felicia was a wonderful person, only 11 months older than me. We were very close when I was 15. She and my grandmother moved back to Michigan before I turned 16, and by the time she was 18, she had developed full-blown schizophrenia and was institutionalized. I never saw her again. I'm still in touch with her daughter. I didn't even find out where Aunt Felicia was until I was in my late 30's. My grandmother refused to tell me. Aunt Felicia passed away at 49 years old from breast cancer while in a mental institution. I spoke with her spirit once in a journey, or a part of her spirit. Diseases like that, or traumas can fracture the soul or spirit in shamanic tradition. I spoke to the part of her spirit that was the young lady I knew who was my teenage confidant, and told her it was now OK to come home. She didn't say anything, just gave me a small smile and hug. Two or three weeks later in ordinary reality, she passed away. The Pearl of Sorrow was a few years after that.

Hard, heartbreaking, but also comforting at a very deep level.

So as you can see, this is almost like structured astral travel, and has been used for thousands of years for psychic healing, or relating to weather elementals, or the spirits of plants and game animals when hunting. In our modern world, the psychic healing would be probably the most common use for journeying.

If you decide to pull up YouTube drumming and give it a try, remember the notes of caution I gave you, but otherwise it can be quite wonderful. I've found that several short journey attempts of ten to 15 minutes are best. That way if you fall into a light sleep in the early attempts, you're more likely to have a successful journey in the later attempts.

Using an audio source that you control is probably best. YouTube would be calling you back at the wrong times - with ads. Lol

I think this post on the Cherry Staff might be a good one to close out our conversation tonight: https://cherrystaff.blogspot.com/2012/09/finding-my-drum-my-guide-and-first.html

Have a wonderful journey!

Dan

The Pearl Of Sorrow...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sat, 3 Jan 2026 03:29:00 -0600

The Pearl Of Sorrow...

The Pearl Of Sorrow...

…is a wound that never fully heals,

For even if Odin's Raven were to tear it from your beating heart like a bug and fly away with it,

There is still the empty gap in your breast that fills in with the scar tissue of a love gone missing from your life.

The Universe is filled with galaxies of love and light fleeing a void.

Dark energy, indeed.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford

----------------

Finally Feeling The Christmas Spirit...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 7 Dec 2025 05:16:00 -0600

St. Nick's Yule

Saint Nicholas was grateful,

For the stars circled Polaris at the top of the world,

The greatest clock show on Earth,

Where the spirits of all our ancestors lie in the lower world,

The spirits of everything on Earth live in the middle world,

And the spirit of Magic and Wonder guides the upper world.

A drum was his spirit reindeer,

He flew on the powerful beats of its taut hoof,

All over the spirits of this world,

On Solstice Night,

Yule,

The night of the year that the world is reborn,

When the clock-tick drumming leads to the love and peace of Spring,

And the Sun begins its slow treading back to the North.

Every year,

This is a gift,

Every moment precious.

Dance with Old Saint Nick,

Around the tree of the world,

Let your spirit be light,

Somewhere tucked in the soft boughs of the Great Tree.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford

Climbing A Local Mountain To Drum...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 7 Dec 2025 03:37:00 -0600

Somewhere in Temecula Valley, there's an amazing trail to an incredible Sunset lookout point. Mother Earth is a wonder.

Went up here with a friend this afternoon. His spot. I did a little drumming up here after this video, and we picked a little bit of fresh sage (After giving Mother Earth some coffee, paprika, and Italian herbs. Things she can eat.) Enjoy the above 44 second short.

I also said prayers to bless the people in this valley, to bless the ancestors who walked the lands before us, and the first people who lived here for thousands of years. I was praying for peace, healing, prosperity, blessings, and for the health of the lands under our feet, the rivers and the lakes that sustain us, and all life in this valley.

For my friend, I explained the most basic aspects of shamanic cosmology, and that the drum was supposed to help us enter the spirit world.

It was a beautiful evening, just long enough.

Thank you for reading.

Dan

Poets' Trance...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 15:48:00 -0500

Poets' Trance...

Writing this way,

The mind slides underneath,

Lays down and rests,

Sunlimates to the verbiage,

Subconscious connections,

Endless probabilities spin,

A quantum word bin whirls,

A tornado of spirit winds,

The vortex at the center of everything,

Words fall out,

Land in flutters and thumps,

All about you,

And ideas grow like leaves and branches,

Tying back to the trunk of reality.

A poet lies under the tree on an Autumn afternoon,

Absorbed in the fall and turn and flutters and landings,

But the good ones,

They see the possibility of pretty leaf piles,

Arrange the fallen words just so,

And stories or new realities guard the seeds of new branches awaiting the future.

AquarianM

By Daniel A. Stafford

Regards,

Dan Stafford

Journey To Misted Lands...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 18:39:00 -0500

Journey To Misted Lands...

I feel the call,

Charlie guides me,

Befeathered for my ease.

I only just recently discovered that Charlie is Odin,

But I've known for awhile one of his other names is Hermes Mercury.

That the Egyptians knew him as Thoth was new to me as well.

At Yule, my Norse ancestry pulls me to the mysticism of old Viking gods, and giants, and the misted, snowy lands they loved.

Time works differently there. It comes with a pivot point of possibility that can't be navigated in a modern patadigm.

The Runes called to me last year, and I studied them somewhat, then put them down. That last is earning me some blowback. My runebook has vanished into the Void, and I await its return.

The Runes have been calling to me again, strongly.

Compassion is the greatest sign of Humanity.

The Runes Call To Me...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 1 Jun 2025 02:53:00 -0500

"Odin, a word which comes from the old Norse od, meaning 'spirit', is the Norse equivalent of the Roman Mercury, the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth.

It is also interesting to note that spirit tracks (identified as Ley lines in modem times) were considered sacred to Odin, so these, too, would seem to have a strong runic connection."

- Excerpted from "A Beginner's Guide to Runes" by Kristyna Arcarti

Given my Danish, English Norman, and French Norman heritage, it's no wonder that I feel drawn to Norse mythology and runes in particular.

In my shamanic journeys, I have had direct interactions with Odin and his Ravens.

My own shamanic spirit guide is a Raven that I call Charlie. I also knew that he is known as Messenger, and as Mercury and Hermes. What I did not know, not until tonight, was the connection of Mercury Hermes to Odin, that they are really the same archetypal entity.

With Virgo ascendant in my natal chart, the ruler of my chart is...Mercury.

It all tracks.

Dan

Anymore...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 04:28:00 -0500

A Friend From The North...

It's not the wings that get you,

Mostly,

But the fierce intelligence,

Traveling the globe through the most spiritual places,

Seeing what would be quantum noise to us,

Places we are not,

Anymore.

In the undermind,

I call a friend,

Flight of the mind's eye,

Synchronized beats,

Playing three-D with empty space and time,

Where you are not,

That's mine,

Only because you don't listen,

Anymore...

The small tightness of detail,

The "anywhereness" of infinite scenes,

Elaborate wood carving of fantastica,

Too busy to practice pareidolia in mahogany,

You don't invest in purposeful months,

Anymore...

The quiet places,

Where you see what those places might be,

Inside your own head,

Outside of time,

The Universe between your ears,

You don't spend hours in,

Anymore...

Your time is carved into eighths of an inch,

Spit at you like machine gun fire,

Each tiny quanta painted in someone else's dream palette,

Not your own design,

Not,

Anymore...

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford

03-15-2025 Drum Journey

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 20:09:00 -0500

Amber incense cones from India.

Cardboard model of the Great Pyramid at Giza

I asked my guide Charlie (big raven, very wise) to help me talk with the Great Pyramid at Giza today.

It was interesting. The Pyramid was a very old spirit. It thought of me as an infant.

The Pyramid was talking to and through the black hole Sagittarius A at the center of the Milky Way.

Apparently, there are ancient Pyramids on planets all over the galaxy that are communication and energy channels.

The Pyramid had little to say to me. I'm too young and uninteresting to it.

My guide Charlie told me that the Sphinx is an interesting character, but we didn't get to talk to it today.

I spoke with my Sicilian grandmother a bit. We were in our old kitchen from when I was a child. She told me that a time was coming where we would have to learn to grow things like the spices she used to grow outside our kitchen window.

She also said Mom was doing better, but that she'd had a really rough exit.

Nono has apparently moved on to his next incarnation.

Aunt Felicia popped in briefly, just to say hello.

I have to admit, I have a tough time focusing on the journey while I'm drumming. I feel distracted, somehow. It's easier for me to journey if someone else is doing the drumming.

Rune Casting: 03-15-2025: Past = Mannaz, inverted. Present = Sowilo. Future = Kenaz. Obstacle = Othila sideways.

Past: Mannaz inverted - Mankind, the Self, Friends, Enemies, The Social Order. (I see this as society not being on the same page I'm on, not seeing the same big picture as I do.)

Present: Sowilo - The Sun, Success, Goals Realized, Honor. (I see this as some successes I've had at work and in my personal life)

Future: Kenaz - Torch, Vision, Revelation, Creativity, Technical Ability. (I see this as both learning new skills at work, and as getting better at my chosen spiritual path - which is uniquely my own.)

Obstacle: Othala, sideways - Heirlooms, Heritage, Land of Birth. (I see this as the utter chaos the USA is being subjected to. It's like the country I grew up in is being dismantled, torched, axed, and sledgehammered. It will need rebuilding.)

03-15-2025 Runecasting - DS

Dan

Compassion is the greatest sign of Humanity.

My Favorite Yuletide Tree Ever

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 01:42:00 -0600

Rowan's Promise...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Fri, 8 Nov 2024 00:50:00 -0600

Rowan's Promise...

Rowan had long locks of hair,

The color of Autumn fire,

Streaked through with chestnut brown.

Her eyes like amber and cinnamon were filled with an easy smile,

Warm like morning embers,

Easy to rekindle the bright light of laughter.

Rowan was the first-born daughter of Summer,

Her childhood filled with yellow dandelions and their seed-children flying on soft breezes,

Tickle-chin and bumble bees,

Butterflies and clover,

Beautiful lilac bushes and fireflies.

Soon enough came cool days,

Grasses grown tall and tufted,

Rabbits hiding abed and birds in big swooping black flocks,

Milkweed bursting with soft white and acorns falling,

Their caps like lost hats,

With breath hanging in the air like magic.

The leaves on the trees were mimics,

Vivid mirrors of Rowan's bright hair or her mother's,

Brown and red and orange and yellow,

Like cartoon fire decorating the land.

In what seemed like only a breath of time,

The air turned shimmering white as young Rowan exhaled,

Ponds became dark reflecting sheets of the soft charcoal-gray skies,

White flakes fell to Earth,

Days shortened into long and dark nights,

The stars became sharp and bright,

And drifts of snow rolled across the open fields,

Tufted by the tall locks of tawny-gold grasses and dark leafless trees.

Rowan and Summer lit candles and watched the Hunter dance across the cold dark nights.

It was one these long dark nights that Summer began to teach her daughter of their family:

"Rowan,

My love,

The time we just passed with the turning of the leaves,

The harvest and the falling of seeds,

The flight of the milkweed seed and the seeds of tall grasses on the wind,

The time of first breath steaming the air and first frost upon the prairies and windows,

That time was your time,

Your beauty lavishing the Earth."

Rowan smiled and remembered the beautiful colors,

And the feeling of the Spirit World close to the world of the living.

Summer continued the education of her daughter in her soft and warm voice:

"The time before that when all was green and hot,

When bees were busy and flowers turned to seed,

When leaves were emerald and creatures were swimming,

When dandelions showed their yellow heads and nights were warm and soft,

When birds raised their chicks,

That time was my time,

My beauty lavishing the Earth."

Rowan closed her amber eyes and remembered her youngest days,

When she roamed barefoot and waded in ponds chasing pretty dragonflies.

Summer continued on by the flickering light of candles,

As the snowy winds howled strong and frigid outside their house of stone and thatch,

An ancient abode made warm by the fire in a large hearth:

"Now we are in the time of my Grandmother Winter,

And this is her time,

And she will lavish her beauty upon the Earth."

Rowan's eyes opened in colorful surprise,

Full of doubt and disbelief.

"Mother,"

Said Rowan in a voice of dry leaves rustling in the tree tops,

"How can you call such as this beauty?"

Rowan gave depth to her question in a voice like a honking flock of geese and the flapping of many birds' wings:

"I can not bear to move far from our front door,

The trees look dead as sticks,

The paths I ran upon are treacherous with ice and snow,

The birds and bees and butterflies are all gone away,

And even the spiders,

Every pond is a sheet of ice as black as night,

And if the frozen winds do not chill my bones,

Then they howl and shriek about our door,

Worse if they are gone all is silent and dark as the days are short!"

Summer smiled as a wolf howled at the bright full Moon somewhere across the fields.

She replied to her daughter in the tones of a babbling brook and gently-rustling grasses:

"Look in the morning at the silver and crystal of the icicles in early sun,

And hear tonight the quiet inside,

For this is the time of rest and reflection,

Of learning and stories and tales of things long-gone and grand,

The time when old things pass and are either forgotten or woven into legend and songs,

As all the world makes ready for the arrival of my Mother,

The ever-lovely and new Spring."

Summer went on in the voice of bees buzzing and birds singing in the rustling boughs of trees:

"My Grandmother Winter is the source of all that is or ever will be,

She is the cold and the night,

The great void in which the Sun and Stars all nest,

She is the endless river of Time that allows the emergence of all which is new."

Upon these words a knocking came to their front door,

As if a sheet of snow and ice were flung at it,

And Summer smiled when she reached to open it for her dear Grandmother.

With a chill draft and a swirl of flurries,

Winter stepped over the threshold,

And the fire leapt and crackled as a burst of cold air rushed into the hearth,

Thereby feeding the burning of the logs stacked within.

She was beautiful,

With long and pale white hair trimmed in glittering ice crystals,

Her eyes as pale a blue as twinkling starlight,

Her hand like gnarled tree-bark clutching a staff of long-dead oak,

Her shawl of frost lace,

Covering the shoulders of her long black dress of deepest night,

Clasped together with the Moon as her brooch.

Winter looked down at her stunned great-granddaughter,

And she smiled like moonlight peeking through the dark clouds of a snowstorm in the night.

She spoke then,

And it was like the thunder of a distant avalanche accompanying carolers singing:

"Granddaughter,

You are lovely,

Born to herald my coming to the World,

The color before my pale and dark presence,

And I give you your True Name with love,

Autumn you will always be,

And a tree with red fruit will bear your child-name,

For all to remember your first season."

As Winter spoke,

The first rowan tree appeared,

In the ground at the foot of the path leading to Summer's door,

Just in the place where Autumn had first played as a toddler,

Its red fruit blended against the deep green of the pines,

And so we have the colors of Yuletide,

To remember the passing of Autumn's time to that of Winter.

Autumn's amber eyes danced with delight,

However Winter had further to tell her lovely great-granddaughter.

Winter's voice this time was the shrieking howl of a gale upon the frigid sea:

"When the wheel turns past my time,

Will come my first daughter Spring,

With flowers and new creatures born,

Early rains and new leaf-buds upon the trees,

Though you will never meet your lovely Grandmother,

Nor she you,

I shall tell her of you dear,

And you must tell all the World each year that I am coming,

So that All may be renewed."

"I will and I shall dear Grandmother!"

Autumn promised in a voice of a scythe singing among stalks of wheat.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford

Quantum Entanglement: How Lady Gaga, Jim Carrey, And Steve Jobs Used This Force To Change Their Life | YourTango

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 4 Dec 2022 00:29:00 -0600

https://www.yourtango.com/self/quantum-entanglement-how-lady-gaga-jim-carrey-and-steve-jobs-used-force-change-life

Meditation reorganizes the brain's spatial topography - Big Think

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 02:30:00 -0500

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/meditation-change-brain-spatial-topography/

New research suggests our brains use quantum computation

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 12:40:00 -0500

https://phys.org/news/2022-10-brains-quantum.html

Swift...

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 17:50:00 -0500

I found this little guy in the Autumn display aisle at WinCo. Last one there.

Caught my *eye,* and inspired me too.

I'm going to find small totems like this for each of the four Seasons to keep in my traveling altar.

I'll look for Winter when her time is here, and Spring followed by Summer in their times.

Right now is Autumn's time, and I'm letting her totem animal Swift spend some time with me.

Dan

09-25-2022 Drum Ceremony

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 23:35:00 -0500

Flew with Charlie Messenger above hurricane Ian. Charlie is a Raven for me, his spirit job is similar to Mercury/Hermes in the Greco-Roman pantheon. He becomes a Thunderbird to fly at these heights and above storms like this.

I thanked Ian for doing what it must, and no more than it must. I had a sense of agreement, not in words, but in feeling.

I spoke with Gramma Enid, but that is private.

I was asking the Spirits (my guides) about my tribe. (AQ62) The answer that came back was to the effect of "You don't tell stars which way to cross the sky, do you?" My answer was simply to as Spirit to be with them in flight.

Lastly, I had a question about the future of my career. Odin rested a hand on my shoulder and told me I already knew. For emphasis, a White Buffalo appeared and in no uncertain terms told me to fight for the Earth, to stand with Turtle Island.

Finally I was working with Thrum to get better at drumming, and called back as Charlie and I were finishing our conversation.

I pulked three runes of the Elder Futhark at the end.

Past: Berkano, not inverted.

Present: Sowilo.

Future: Thurizas, not inverted.

Thank you to the ancestors, spirits, and Deities who chose to bless this ceremony, give wisdom, and participate.

Dan

New Scientist Offers a Sympathetic Account of Panpsychism | Mind Matters

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sat, 2 Apr 2022 21:08:00 -0500

https://mindmatters.ai/2022/04/new-scientist-offers-a-sympathetic-account-of-panpsychism/

Pic of me for the sidebar

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 18:27:00 -0600

The Guardians of Atlantis

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 9 Jan 2022 22:12:00 -0600

During my journey this evening, bI went into the depths of Mother Ocean.

There I met the Eye of Leviathan, a great Blue Whale so large that I couldn't see all of him.

I was told to remember to the world what dolphins are, to honor them.

Dolphins are the ancient Guardians of Atlantis. They are our brothers and sisters in the Sea.

All of the old maritime cultures from Phonecia to Norse, Greek to Egyptian knew this in their hearts.

Harming whales and dolphins is an assault on an ancient bond.

Let their playfulness and compassion remind you. Pray that if you are ever in trouble upon the Sea they find you.

AquarianM

Is human consciousness creating reality? - Big Think

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 01:41:00 -0600

https://bigthink.com/thinking/is-human-consciousness-creating-reality/#Echobox=1640805933

Drum Journey 12-04-2021: Third Eye Being Opened And Other Revelations

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 5 Dec 2021 14:07:00 -0600

Drum Journey 12-04-2021: Third Eye Being Opened And Other Revelations:

I began the journey with an incense & sage cleansing of the space, and a request to the spirits to guide my journey and drumming, and to help me journey and drum at the same time.

Believe it or not, being able to drum while you journey is a skill akin to singing while playing an instrument. The instrument has to be second nature.

In this case I was able to, with a few hiccups, but in the end successfully.

In the journey I met my spirit guide who is a raven walking around our block. This is probably because I walk around our block most evenings several times for exercise. There is another place I am thinking to use as a beginning point, but I need to spend a little more time there in ordinary reality first.

I have been calling my guide "Kutcha" after the traditional crow or raven spirit trickster of the Siberian tradition, who is a lot like Coyote in native American traditions as I understand it.

Today my guide told me that his name is not Kutcha. I told him that I would be pleased to call him by whatever name he chose, and to please let me know what that was. He laughed and said I should already know this.

I have had several visions of making friends with a crow named Charlie, who I would hang around with and talk to a bit. I had thought they were just simple day dreams, but apparently not. My guide is Charlie - but he told me his other name is Messenger, like the Greek Roman god Hermes / Mercury. (Or more precisely like the role they fulfill)

Charlie was distinctly clear that he was NOT Huginn or Muninn, whose other names are Thought and Memory/Mind.

Charlie asked me where I wanted to go today, and I replied that I wanted to go where he thought I needed to go. The whole point to this journey (and the ones I will be taking over the next year or two) are to learn from the spirits, not to tell them what I want. I had also asked at the beginning ceremony to be taught how to be of service to humanity. I meant it.

I told Charlie that it didn't have to be in water. In the past I had a journey where I walked on the bottom of one of the Great Lakes, but Charlie wouldn't go into the water. He told me that he didn't like to go in the water, he is of the Air and Earth.

Today, Charlie told me it was different, and that the waters we would be near were not a problem for him.

Charlie then grew to an enormous size, and carried me in his talons through the air. We flew over a vast sea, and in the far distance there were stars and galaxies and nebulae. We landed on a dome-shaped island, and I knew immediately that it was Turtle Island, otherwise known as Gaia, Mother Earth, or Pacha Mama.

Charlie returned to normal size, and I asked Mother Earth where we were going. She said we were going to talk to Father Sun, whose name is Sol.

I asked at that point why the Earth looked flat in my journey. Wasn't it actually a globe in ordinary reality? Pacha Mama said that yes, the Earth is a globe in the reality of matter that we walk around on in ordinary consciousness, but that for our purposes here in non-ordinary reality, the flat Earth model is an easier representation for going into space, because we could just go off the edge and be flying in space.

As a side note, I understood why she would say this. I know instinctively that a person's totem of their spirit guide must have a bit of a "cartoonish" look to it. If it is too photo-realistic, it just represents any creature of that particular nature in ordinary reality, such as a hawk or deer or rabbit. If it is a little ambiguous, with softened edges or a little bit of glow to it, it can represent the idea of the animal, which is what most of our spirits are. They are not AN animal, they appear to us as the archetypal idea of that animal so that our human spirits can interact with them in non-ordinary reality. This softness, or fuzziness of form allows the totem of a spirit animal to have a little magic to it.

It's similar to Schrodinger's Cat, in that it is in an indeterminate state. Our spirit animals are really the embodied probabilistic quantum fields of an entity who exists in non-ordinary reality, which underlies the structure of ordinary reality.

For this reason, the flat-Earth representation I saw in my journey was best for the journey, but it was not a reflection of what is true in ordinary reality, which is a globe. It was a representation of what exists in ordinary reality. There is a difference.

With this, Charlie and I flew off the edge of the flat-world ocean on the back of Turtle Island, and we glided through space so that I could have a conversation with Sol.

In my vision, the Sun definitely had a masculine energy that was older than time. He was paternalistic, in a good and kind way. His face was like the old drawings of the Sun you would seen in children's books from the 1800's or early 1900's, and smiling gently.

Sol told me that he was sorry and sad for what he must do. I understood instantly that he would be heating up the Earth, and that many would die because of it. I asked if he had any choice in the matter, or if there was any way he could delay it. Sol replied that "The laws of this universe are what they are, and even I must live within them." Sol made it clear that this was not his choice, and that we humans were choosing this. He then begged me to talk to humanity and try to get them to change their minds.

I replied that I would, that I have been, and that I would continue to do so. I also explained that it was a minority of humanity that was choosing this, and that most of us didn't want this path, but it's a situation that would take a very large majority of us to change.

I also told Sol that I held no blame for him, and that I personally forgave him for what must happen if we continue down this road as a species.

It was not really satisfying for either of us, but this was where we parted. I thanked him for spending the time to talk to me, and for sharing his wisdom.

At this point, Turtle Island flew away the other direction with Charlie and I on her back. Have I mentioned yet that the flat-world ocean she was swimming in the middle of when Charlie and landed on her was the Cosmos? The ocean of stars, the froth of the great lighted clouds of gas and dust that lie between the lights? Again, a representation rather than a reflection.

We flew past Sister Moon, who is the local embodiment of Cosmos. I asked if I were to speak to her, but was told by Gaia that now wasn't the time. Sister Moon winked at me and whispered "We'll talk later." I smiled and nodded.

Turtle Island flew toward the constellation Aquarius, and there we met my Muse. I didn't get her name, and I am certain she is the "Family Muse," who also worked with William Stafford. (If he is any relation to me, it's very distant, but I feel related to his poetry, or what I have read of it. It resonates with me deeply)

Our Muse was asking me why I had made so little time for art and poetry of late. I tried to explain to her about the demands of work and family, but she lives outside of human time, and I'm not sure she understood. I did promise to do better, and that I would spend much more time with her once I am able to retire. She also was adamant that I "get the poetry out of the machine." This is NOT generic in this case. She is not talking about doing poetry on computers in general, but rather about recovering a large library of web poetry that is from multiple poets, and that I have a copy of on one of my computers. I'm only one of two people alive who is able to access this library, and I need to recover it and get it back online before it becomes impossible. It's a huge project. I told her that i would work on that as well.

At this point, Pacha Mama began flying us back to the Flat World, which is kind of what I am going to start calling ordinary reality I think.

While we were on the way, I asked Charlie and Mother Earth about aliens and UFO's. They both laughed at me and said in unison "You already know the answer to that. It's other races and species, from other planets and other dimensions, and your human governments. It's all of the above. You've seen your own government working with time travel before (Another story for another time), so why would this surprise you?"

I have to tell you, two spirits speaking in n unison is NOT like two humans speaking in unison. It's like one voice in your head.

At this point, we landed back in the flat ocean of the Cosmos that is at the edge of or world, and Charlie carried me back to land. He asked me if there was anywhere I would like to go. I told him that I would like to see Yddgrasil, the World Tree. Charlie landed us by its roots. He also told me NOT to go up the tree just yet.

We walked around the base of the tree, where its roots meet the ground, which is the sky of the lower world. It is enormous, but it only took Charlie and I a few moments because we were in non-ordinary reality, where distance is a mater of thought and intention.

We came around to the other side of the tree, and I could see the scars on its trunk where Odin had been nailed to the tree for nine days before he was given the runes by the Norns.

Just a little bit from the base of the tree was the well of the Norns. I looked at the well, but didn't look in. One of the Norns appeared, and I am not sure which one she was. The three Norns are the Past, the Present, and the Future. Together they weave the threads that make up the Universe into the fate of all beings. I have seen those threads in a vision before. They are pure energy, the brightest white light you can imaging, and I am not sure how the Norns can touch them without their fingers being burned off.

The Norn didn't say anything, she just dipped her fingers in the waters of the well. Like a Catholic Priest does to his flock on Ash Wednesday, she marked my forehead with the water of the Well of Fate, but the mark was not a cross. It was a five-pointed upright star in a circle, with a dot just outside the circle at each point of the star. The design soaked into my forehead right where my Third Eye should be.

At this point Charlie tore a Pearl from my chest, but instead of flying away with it like Muninn did the time he tore the Pearl of Sorrow from my breast, Charlie spat the Pearl at my forehead so hard that it sank in, right at the center of the star the Norn had made.

Charlie told me that this was the Pear of Wisdom, and that moving the Pearl to its correct position would begin to open my Third Eye. He also said that this was a process, and that it would take some time.

With that, Charlie brought me back to Turtle Island for a bit, and told me to practice my drumming for a little longer right now.

After I drummed for a little bit, Charlie and Turtle Island told me to do the call back, and she raced across the water to the shore so fast that it shot up roster tails and left a huge wake.

I returned to ordinary reality and did a ceremony of thanks to all the spirits who had helped with this journey.

Dan

Watch "How I Found My Drum, Thrum" on YouTube

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 20:44:00 -0600

https://youtu.be/lwNr9e2TbSo

Christmas Tree Ascention - on YouTube

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 20:43:00 -0600

https://youtu.be/7vKAPNHln3c

For those who understand the shamanic symbolism inherent in a Yule tree from the Northern traditions, this is beautiful.

Dan

Got In Some Practice Today

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:54:00 -0600

I set up the ful traveling workshop today and got in a good half hour or more of drum practice.

I'm also developing the opening and closing ceremonies.

One of the biggest things I'm having to learn, aside from drumming itself, is to slow down and be even more deliberate, careful, and reverent.

Most of these items are old and delicate in the extreme.

Traveling Drum Kit

aquarianm@gmail.com (Daniel A. Stafford) — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 19:51:00 -0600

I had the inspiration yesterday to craft a traveling mesa from an antique suitcase.

I first measured Thrum to make sure I got one large enough for the task. I figured I needed a minimum of 18" of space inside, and this beautiful old Samsonite suitcase perfectly fits the bill. It even had the original hangers that go with it. The only thing missing is the key.

I have Thrum, my " drumstick", an effigy of my spirit guide Kutcha, a Nordic shaman effigy, a mesa cloth, clam shell for incense, a turtle to represent Turtle Island / Gaia, and a small spirit bell inside.

I plan to find a miniature weather vane to go in there on my next shopping trip.

Most of the items inside are antiques, so they have a resonance of deep time and history to them.

I think I will put up a board in the back with pictures of some of my ancestors as well, and likely a physical copy of Sacred Hoop magazine and a book o

n shamanic drumming.

We'll see what comes to me from the Universe.