Irakere (Yoruba for "vegetation") is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés in 1973 that won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with its album Irakere.[1]
The group used a wide array of percussion instruments like batá, abacuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras, and güiro.
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Consider yourself lucky listening to these shamansIrakere (Yoruba for "vegetation") is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés in... more
tankwa karoo [za]: afrika burn
the afrika burn experimental arts festival is back on sep 9-13. inspired by burning man in the u.s., it’s in fact a regional equivalent. for each edition creatives to come up with amazing installations, performances, art cars or a different artistic initiative. all works will eventually be burnt according to the event’s principles. afrika burn takes place at a remote spot, the karoo. this is a semi-desert northeast of cape town and participants are required to come well-prepared. location: stonehenge farm, karoo national park.
Brendan Smithers is the prime mover and ”Drill Sergeant” for the Upsetters, who created The Turbine for Africa Burns 2007 and The Wish for 2008, as well as being involved in the creation of the San Clan (Man) itself. As much as anyone else he has made his mark on the Festival, predominantly in his large scale work. So what thoughts lead to such powerful, iconic pieces?tankwa karoo [za]: afrika burn
the afrika burn experimental arts festival is back on... more
An Offbeat Insight into the World of the DJ and the UK Dance scene.
This work examines the role of the DJ as a contemporary urban Shaman, rather than the commonly portrayed media image of an ego-inflated superstar.
In an ever-complex contemporary society, functioning with the primal vitality of a musician, entertainer and tribal initiator, the DJ fills those voids left by individual and collective disaffection and marginalisation.
The DJ has the innate ability, and opportunity, to guide us through an entitled rite of passage, a custom long-lost in Western culture.
This film is a visual and musical narration with its focus on the seminal role that the DJ has within modern civilization.
Economics and the mass market are considerations. Dance culture forces significant changes within commercial, fashion and creative trends, with the DJ an inspiring impulse behind young design.
The DJ is a re-animator of deep primal needs, exposing with pulses and rhythms the communal heartbeat of those that abandon the prohibitive conventions of daily life, and welcome the spirit of dance, music and fellowship.
In all culture dance is a fundamental medium of sharing and expression, with the DJ having the entitlement to incite movement in even the most passive and sedentary. By the transmutation of contemporary social dance into community, culture is born.
This film probes a practice that has the capacity to initiate movement on a collective scale, to stimulate political mass and inspire new social consciousness.
The DJ is a leader in the transient community of the moment, uniting a largely anonymous collective through rhythm, dance and groove, navigating this group by the positive validation of shared values and beliefs.
In modern cosmopolitan society young people perpetually search for community ritual and myth from a world otherwise holding little spiritual meaning. Consequently there is willingness to enter into collective participation and lucid, honest connection with peers similarly disillusioned by the self-absorbed cult of the individual.
A penetrating analysis of research that incorporates facets of ethnomusicology and dance, this film is artistically reconstructed to illustrate the work-life, practice and socio-political potential of the DJ within Western culture.Spun Out
An Offbeat Insight into the World of the DJ and the UK Dance scene.... more
The Napo Runa tribe of the Ecuadorian amazon relies on CHICHA, a fermented beverage made from manioc root, for strength in daily activities. This documentary shows the origins, process, and uses of this mystical drink.The Napo Runa tribe of the Ecuadorian amazon relies on CHICHA, a fermented beverage... more
Part two of three: A conversation with shaman Sarah Hawley. This section addresses the various tools a shaman uses during session work - soul retrieval, chakra balancing, etc.
Seek Heal Keep: A Wonderer's Journey
The Seekers, Healers, & Keepers: Modern-day Wisdomseekers, Spirithealers, and Earthkeepers represent ancient archetypes that we must not let pass away. They are farmers, activists, musicians, healers, monks, metaphysicists, shamans, artisans, elders, and scholars whose profound inner gifts are offered to the world simply by their presence. Those offerings transcend time and space, flowing from the core of their beings through the power of their selfless service and their generous intentions.
The Journey: Beginning in August, we will travel across the lower 48 to meet these people who are reaching for and working toward a connection with something larger than themselves. We will spend time in satsang with them, learning about their work, their truth, their sacrifice, their journey. The stories and teachings will be documented in writing (as a blog) and on video (as a web series) so that all wonderers, worshippers, and lovers of leaving can come along on this caravan of discovery.Part two of three: A conversation with shaman Sarah Hawley. This section addresses the... more
This is a small piece of the whole article. This is very interesting and I recommend reading the rest of it at the link.
"In my view, the plant medicines used in the Amazon, among whom the visionary plant ayahuasca is only one, facilitate healing, but do not necessarily do the ultimate trick of curing. Whether it is worthwhile to cure a disease without healing the conditions that gave rise to it is not much considered by Western medicine, but if a disease is bringing an urgent life message to the patient, it may be folly to suppress its teaching. This, of course, is a paradox for many Westerners, who prefer the freedom, as Robert Bly once put it, to stagger from Burger King to Burger King over taking full responsibility for their spiritual, psychological and physical conditions.
Unlike hamburgers and pharmaceuticals, Amazonian medicines are more akin to allies to be won in a battle of the soul. In this way, a patient seeking healing in the vegetalista tradition has much in common with the Native American on a vision quest or the Buddhist monk withdrawing into the forest to practice meditation."This is a small piece of the whole article. This is very interesting and I recommend... more
Servant-leadership can be understood as bridging the modern necessity to work and lead within complex organizations and environments with the call for tapping into ancient wisdom that is absent from such settings. The servant-leader’s role is like that of the Peruvian chakaruna -- one that bridges the core reality of sacred ecology with that of civil society. Shamans have called upon chakaruna to mediate between what I call the dream of the world (global economic system) and the dream of the earth (embedded ecology). In terms of our world’s vernacular (that is, as educated members of the global system), a chakaruna is a “servant-leader,” one who serves life, but also knows how to leverage the system that he or she works in. The servant-leader has a foot in both worlds in order to bring them into harmony.
An aspiring servant-leader is called to become a kind of neo-shaman within whatever profession she is working in; her desire to serve comes from a primal source. I use this model because shamans are typically chosen, not by the individual’s own career choice, but from a calling that is beyond individual consciousness or rationality. Like the shaman, the servant-leader must also “die” in order to release society’s conditioning before serving her community. Death sometime comes literally, other times figuratively. In my Buddhist mentor’s life it was prison and addiction; my situation was the collapse of my immune system. Like the plotline of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, the future servant-leader’s ordinary world is turned upside down, and then she is called upon to venture into the underworld in order to rebalance the world. First the servant-leader becomes a pilgrim before taking on the role of healer, or put differently, she must heal herself first before directing the energy outward to the general community. As MIT management theorist Otto Scharmer points out, “The Indo-European root of the word ‘lead’ and ‘leadership,’ *leith, means ‘to go forth,’ ‘to cross the threshold,’ or ‘to die.’”
Go to the site and read more!!Servant-leadership can be understood as bridging the modern necessity to work and lead... more
The Square Root of One Percent is a film David Lynch produced and directed showing the amazing effects meditation has had on lowering violent crime. It will be released worldwide in 2008. Get an inspiring look now
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What is going on outside of us is going on inside of us.The Square Root of One Percent is a film David Lynch produced and directed showing the... more
The graves of people who died 12,000 ago rarely contain a woman’s skeleton pinned down in an unusual position by large stones, accompanied by a menagerie of animal remains and another person’s foot. Yet that’s what archaeologist Leore Grosman of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her coworkers recently discovered in a small Israeli cave called Hilazon Tachtit.
Closer analysis shows that this grave holds a shaman, one of the earliest ever excavated, the researchers report in an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Continued....The graves of people who died 12,000 ago rarely contain a woman’s skeleton pinned... more
'Sara's house' is a business in Holland run by Sara Glatt - self proclaimed "Iboga Mother" offering a safe place for 'natural trips' and shamanic drug rituals. Her title, Iboga Mother refers to the drug Ibogaine, which is commonly used in her residence for the treatment of drug addiction.
An Ibogaine trip is compared with a waking dream, in which "childhood emories flicker through the mind like movies", but is not the only drug available on the menu. Sara has 5 kids (from 5 to 17), and grows peyote in one greenhouse (her 15 yr old son in charge of two nine-foot Cannabis plants in the other). Although drug addicts seek treatment at Sara's house and can often be cured of their addiction, the business also actively promotes the 'Day Trippers' visiting for that alternative holiday in their heads.
Over the course of a week, we follow the progress of regulars and first timers looking to kick their habit, alongside the family developments and a business struggling to survive. People travel from all over the world to see Sara, as she is often seen as their last chance to deal with their addiction, but they often bring baggage into the house in terms of violent behaviour. Within the rural setting of her household, we discover a number of characters, and their personal journeys and stories of addiction, and often abuse. Set in rural Holland, the chaotic household reflects a struggling family business campaigning for the positive effects of natural drugs alongside the jarring imagery of a 'family' business consumed by them. Sara offers a convincing argument for the widespread usage of natural highs, but what sort of example will their own family model portray?'Sara's house' is a business in Holland run by Sara Glatt - self proclaimed "Iboga... more
Simply dropping teabags into a mug not only yields an unsatisfying, solitary brew, Tony Turnbull writes in the Times of London—it spoils the ceremony and anticipation crucial for enjoyment. A teashop visit converted the self-described “inveterate teabag user” into a fan of the “strange alchemy” that transforms dried tea leaves into a perfect cup.
Turnbull learned to forget the Zen stuff and focus on process: A truly transcendent experience "starts not with the tea, but with the pot," (opt for Chinese clay) then focuses on the proper temperature and pouring techniques. As for the tea, buy it loose, as you would tomatoes on the vine—that way, "any faults become more visible."
Cannabis has been enjoyed for centuries, this modern day war on drugs is a farce. watch An American Drug War http://www.americandrugwar.com/Cannabis has been enjoyed for centuries, this modern day war on drugs is a farce.... more
Western Shoshone leader, Corbin Harney talks about his prophetic conversation with the waterWestern Shoshone leader, Corbin Harney talks about his prophetic conversation with the... more
Here's my website. It tells all about me and my book, Medicine Dance...including a sample of the first chapter. You can also find out about my readings and workshops...and other stuff about me like all the magazine articles I've written and the award-winning children's DVD, The Magic of Martial Arts, that I wrote/produced/directed. Here's my website. It tells all about me and my book, Medicine Dance...including a... more
Just listening to Beautiful Painted Arrow chant this Song of Peace in Tiwa (his native language) will bring you inner peace and thus help create peace on earth.Just listening to Beautiful Painted Arrow chant this Song of Peace in Tiwa (his native... more
Beautiful Painted Arrow/Joseph Rael is an authentic Native American mystic/visionary/medicine man of Southern Ute/Picuris Pueblo origins. He's been my teacher for nearly 20 years. My adventures with him are chronicled in my book Medicine Dance (www.medicinedancebook.com). Be sure to follow the link to him chanting the song for peace on youtube. You can also download his visionary art which serves as portals to "non-ordinary reality." He's the real thing. Check it out. Beautiful Painted Arrow/Joseph Rael is an authentic Native American... more
Traditional Amazonian healers or curanderos, claim the spirits of the plants communicate with them through lullabies, called Icaros. Every being in the rainforest has an Icaro and its melody alone is believed to possess curative powers. These songs have been described as the "quintessence of shamanic power."
An Icaro's primary function is to call upon the spirit of a particular being. For example, a curandero will sing a plant's song while preparing and administering it as a medicine to invoke the spirit of the plant as an ally in healing.
While there has been little research conducted on Icaros, we do know that the songs are used to call defenders (arkana icaros), cure specific illnesses, reinforce the effect of medicinal plants, attract the love of another (huarmi icaros), call the spirits of the deceased, cause rain, wind or thunder, for bewitching, for hunting or fishing certain animals, and for curing snake bites.
We are grateful to the Boras of Pevas, Peru and all of the healers who shared their songs to make this possible.
Relational Shifts is a new book that provides families with an intimate portrait of the realities of divorce while offering a potentially positive alternative. Divorce affects all aspects of every family members physical, mental, emotional, social, sexual, and spiritual self. This book asks: Does a family have to end just because a marriage does?
Co-written by Julie Rappaport and former husband Lee Liberman, with their teenage daughter Tasha Liberman, Relational Shifts offers three unique perspectives on divorce voiced personally by each family member.
In their respective, distinct voices, Julie, Lee, and Tasha reveal their emotions while voicing their perspectives as they recollect their individual experiences about specific events and issues in this familys true story about divorce. Each chapter is followed by a provocative discussion of the preceding chapter, along with Evocations, which readers can personally utilize to evoke thoughtful consideration of the presented themes. The books covers many of the different facets of very difficult subjects regarding divorcemoney, sexuality, traditions, custody, remarriage, and more. Relational Shifts is a new book that provides families with an intimate portrait of... more
SMOKIN YOGI VISIONS is a Minneapolis-based Production Company dedicated to creating high-quality, unique, and forward-thinking Film, Literature, and Communications. Balancing a love of art with a passion for supporting women in commerce, SMOKIN YOGI provides products that are as meaningful as they are entertaining.
SMOKIN YOGI focuses on projects that offer the public an avenue to thoughtfully consider subjects that are prevalent everywhere, and yet remain taboo for manye.g., divorce, mental illness, sexuality, money, etc. Co-authored by Smokin Yogi founder, Julie Rappaport, along with her former husband of seventeen years and their teenage daughter, their newly published book, 'RELATIONAL SHIFTS, A Family Doesn't Have To End Just Because A Marriage Does,' details one such story--their own family's personal story of their journey through divorce to the other side of their 'relational shift.' (See BOOKS for more information and to order your copy today.)
As SMOKIN YOGI values projects that develop themes that have been unmentionable, SMOKIN YOGI also values the ability to create an open dialogue for discussion of these difficult subjects. As such, SMOKIN YOGI provides peer-to-peer social therapy as well as related links of interest to all through EZINE, where individuals can find important social, spiritual, and emotional resources.
In addition, SMOKIN YOGI is building a library of short films for distribution via the net, ipods, and cell phones. Please see FILM for more information regarding the upcoming Abnormally Normal, a series that parallels and highlights many of the issues discussed in the book, Relational Shifts. The demo-pilot for Abnormally Normal, Just Breathe, Part I, She Says... has been awarded a Fiscal Sponsorship by the IFP MN, as an Independent Feature Project. Abnormally Normal had its premiere screening at the Swansea Bay Film Festival, Wales, UK, June, 2007. SMOKIN YOGI VISIONS is a Minneapolis-based Production Company dedicated to creating... more
