Rattle Speaks

"Turtle" came up a couple times as I was communicating online with folks signed up for Jean's Awakening course.  These unexpected "flowers" reveal themselves through collective generative substance.  These flowers of quantum manifestation (we create this reality) light our way and path. 

In the middle of the night (3 AM) I thought of someone who is in deep depression because she was rejected by a man.  I wanted to reach out to her and found myself rattling above her head and shoulders.  I rattled to clear out toxins, demons, negative patterns that have followed her most her life. The rattling sound was very loud and that "middle" space/time very real.

I looked for more information about rattle in my Native American books and found Where Eagles Fly  A Shamanic Way to Inner Wisdom by Kenneth Meadows

Shamanic Tools ...the Life Force has a sound (though ordinarily it is inaudible) because it is essentially movment and movement is what produces sound.  The Life Force pulsates like a heart-beat or the regular, monotone rhythm of a drum, and it also vibrates, swirling and spiralling in flowing circular motions like seeds swishing in a rattle when it is shaken.  So a drum and a rattle in the hands of a shamanist are not simply means of making a noise, howeverjoyful, but also m eans of stimulating the sound and movement of the Life Force.  This is why the drum and the rattle are principal tools of the shaman.

A shamanic tool is an extension of the person using it, and its purpose is to perform work.  Its power and effectiveness are derived directly from the skill and intention of the person usingit and from their motive for needing to do so.  A drum and a rattle in the hands of a shamanist are conditioned by his or her motive and directed by their intention.

Motive is an expression of the desire and generates activity.  Intention is an act of the will towards a specific purpose, and channles its use.  In Shamanics, the motive is always the samwe--Love and Harmony.  Only the intention changes.  In Shamanics, whatever is done is performed out of loving service and in order to restore or retain harmony through co-operation with the natural forces.  It is motive that separates the shamanist from the sorcerer.  A sorcerer endeavors to manipulate and exert control over natural forces for selfish purposes. When manipulation and exploitation of natural forces is motivated by self-interest, greed and egotism, it creates stress, and at some level causes pain.  It is the cause, too, of much of the misery, unhappiness, confusion and division in the world, for it sets negative energies into motion.

An intention is a positive affirmation that prepares a channel through substance along which energy may flow unimpeded.  The intention is what connects the rattle to the rattler and may differ with each "working" and may even change withing a working.  It specifies not only the aim but the outcome and must always be clear and precise if it is to be effective.  For instance, the intention of a simple working may be to disperse stressful energies and to restore harmony to a person's body and mind. That intention would need  to be repeated silently by the rattler whose intention would be focused upon it.  The rattling sound itself, once started, will then free any congestion that has built up in the receiver's energy-system and smooth out the fibres of the Energic Body, much as a gentle brushing revitalizes and conditions the hair.  The pleasant sound relaxes the mind also, as the receiver undergoes what could be described as a sonic massage.

I heard that this young woman was not responding to any outside simuli early today but by this afternoon she was praying with a friend.  I will try to spend some time with her.

I've never been good at following mental instructions about how to practice "medicine."  I turn within and listen as my body shows me the way.  The mental mind and its linear ways do not fit into shamanic practice.

Friend Peter's mom loaned me the book A New Earth by Ekhart Tolle.  The first chapter is about the flowering of consciousness and he refers to the word "flower" a lot.  He also makes some strong statements about the ego mind.  This is my first introduction to this man/author and I am happy to get to know his mind and heart.

I'm very curious about this space that is "in-between" realities. This space where "non-ordinary" work and interraction occurs. For some reason I am wanting to call it "Middle Earth."