HOW TO Approach Healers, Medicine Women, Shamans .. and an Hommage to my Healers and Teachers

My sister Magdala made me think about manners lately... as walking the way of the Divine Feminine does mean to NOT impose harmony or use politeness as a way of being . So what does that mean practically when it comes to manners ? Does that mean we can just behave like naugthy little hungry ghosts ...

We need Healing, we approach a Healer, Elder , Medicine Woman, Shaman ... and just bluntly ask for it and await them to give it freely, take their care, time and sharing wisdom for granted ? NO .

I did some research and found several notes about how to approach those ppl (in traditional ways) . Here is just a short excerpt:

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Visits With Healers, Elders and Medicine People

When you go to a Healer, Elder or Medicine Person, be yourself, be respectful to them and to yourself.

Take tobacco to give as an offering. Tobacco is meant for that communication between you, the Healer and the Creator. The tobacco can be in any form. For example, it can be one cigarette from a pack, it can be a pack of cigarettes, it can be a pouch of tobacco or it can be loose tobacco wrapped in a small square of cloth (called a tobacco tie).

Talk to the Healer or Elder explaining why you have come to them. Refrain from taking alcohol or drugs for four days before going to a Healer. Other gifts can be given to express your gratitude for the help you have received. This may be in the form of an item such as a basket or blanket or it could be money.

There are certain protocols specific to each Healer, Elder or Medicine Person. Many Healers will have helpers who will convey these protocols to you.

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But this again is a protocol you would just have to follow and question is, is that our ways ... giving rules, protocol and let ppl follow and hope they understand why ?

NO. This is male ways.We can do better now :)

So to me manners in The feminine ways have to work differently.

We have to find back into our Heart. Open the space and feel and realize what a great gift will be given to us through this meeting.... How deeply it will effect our Healing ...How precious life and lifetime is - not only our own but especially of those who have walked the path of pain, growth and went through it all for the Highest Best of all and now supporting us.

I have approached some real great teachers and healers in my life - some of them Natives but also western bodhisattvas. ... Protocol could not have awakened me to what I "owe" them ... but my heart could ...

even if things went bizarre for whatever reason, if something didn't work out as expected ... I owe them my life .

They brought me out of deepest depression , helped me out of phobic thinking that didn't allow for me to call my life life any more.Went through fear and grief with me. They re-connected me to All That Is , opened my heart (and often my eyes , too ;-) .

Our possessions are few, but I would always give as much as my life allows at that moment . What would all that be , if I would still be depressed, in fear and lack of love in my heart or couldn't move any more.

So when we truly live from the Heart we will never ever go to a Healer/ Teacher without a gift , something meaningfull , not just a "left-over" ...we feel such a deep love for them , that we naturally find "manners" how to approach someone we love , respect and care for.

As writing this note has made my Heart vibrate with Love and Gratitude ,

I take the opportunity to pay Hommage to at least some of them

( I am fully aware that everything that has life in it is my teacher and healer but that would expand my list in ways I cannot -yet- hold))

Sylvia Kolk/ Theravada Buddhist

Ayya Khema/ Theravadan Nun

Jade Kress/ Shaman & Astrologer

Joan Halifax/ Zen Roshi

Kazuaki Tanahashi/ Peace Activist, Zen Master & Artist

Irène Bakker/ Zen Master

Maria Yraceburu / Apache Holy One

Linda Yraceburu / Heal

Scott Johnson/ Chiropractor

Caroline Remondi/ Chiropractor

Magdala Ramirez / Mayan Priestess & Shaman

Agneta Loefberg / TCM Healer

I love you all & bow in gratitude .

In Lak'ech

Dagmar Magdalena

On Grief & Buddhism ~Joan Halifax

Photo: copyright Joan Halifax

Upaya Zen Center Dharma Podcasts ~ On Grief and Buddhism:
http://bit.ly/a4SMaK by joan halifax



I strongly recommend listening to this podcast as it is not only meant for buddhists

and really deep & profound & touching

Actualization Ah-Kine Enlightenment

by Dagmar Magdalena Ceki

I was asked to write an article about enlightenment and I thought –„gush, how can I do that ?„
So much is said about it already – many people have written about it .
Is there anything new I can write ?
Maybe by sharing part of my EarthWalk I can give an idea of what Enlightenment might be ....

My consequently walking a spiritual path started in 1998 when both my parents died in a very short period of time.
My mother was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive type of cancer which progressed very quickly .
It was a gift for me that we still had enough time to heal our lifelong issues with each other and that we
were able to experience a special kind of closeness that often only dying makes possible .
It rids us of all conventional behaviours and attitudes and thoughts , we come to the very essence of our being.
During this process , my father- as an alcohol addict - , could not cope with the situation . He went in and out psychiatry , but always started drinking again. So after my mother passed it took not long until he died one night in the street , because he lost his key and couldn’t enter his house again.
It was cold and he already was ill , so they found him dead on the next morning.
Death is one of the greatest teachers and brought me into a deep commitment to find out more about life and spirituality.

First I met Roshi Joan Halifax at a Buddhist Women Congress in Cologne / Germany. As she held workshops about death and dying , I went to see her . Listening to her talks and participating in a workshop , made me wanting to continue studying with her.
For several years I practiced Zen and had the blessings of deep and profound buddhist teachings.
Enlightenment in buddhist practice is a topic that seems very central to the teachings.
Enlightenment is like the fuel that runs the practice ...but what is this „Enlightenment“ we are striving for ?
There are many different approaches already in Zen practice , even more when we take all buddhist traditions in account.
On my way, to be honest , I lost interest in this question. I felt being here NOW is a task already big enough.

While in retreat with Joan Halifax, I came in touch with women who practiced shamanism and were students of a Native American teacher. After an invite to a Sweat Lodge I felt a deep longing of going deeper into it.
But it took me a while to find my own teacher.
2003 I started a traditional apprenticeship with Maria Yraceburu, a Quero Apache HolyOne of the Tlish Diyan ( Snake Clan).

In a traditional apprenticeship there are several circles and spirals in personal growth and spiritual re-connection that we have to go through. First we have to free ourselves from the Ego, this part we usually mis-identify with the I or Me, the part that has a lot of „Likes and Dislikes“ and very personal intention in all it does and decides .
We go through all our issues and, like an onion, get rid of one layer after the other as long as it takes to be freed from at least the biggest Ego parts and have kind of a sense of connection to our True Self, to our authenticity and to the spiritual source that we might call God/ess – Spirit – Emptiness or whatever.
This is followed by a period of time in which we need to learn how to go with the flow, integrate our knowledge into daily life and get more insights about our purpose here on Earth.

Enlightenment in the Tlish Diyan Tradition is called Ah – Kine and means Actualization.
People who come to that actualization are called the same , as there is no longer a gap between Enlightenment and the Enlightened person.
Ah- Kine means to be aware of our Oneness and Diversity in a profound way. Not in the meaning of a short and spontaneous moment ( like e.g. Sartori in Rinzai Zen ) but in the moment to moment living our evolutionary role.
Of course I know there are moments of Enlightenment ever now and then , spontaneous experiences of Being One .
But where does it lead to ... ?
In our times of Narcism and Egoism as valued attitudes and ways of living , in our times where „being One „ is often misunderstood as „I am okay , you are okay“- no matter how I behave- , and the fact that we are all already enlightened on our deepest mindground leads to the thought of „ we do not have to work any more on it“ – we need more to the concept of Enlightenment.
I had dozens of opportunities to observe so called Enlightened Masters or students having these Sartori moments, and I was puzzled by the way they lived ...about the amount of sexual, financial abuse and addictional behaviour to be found..
Explanations as „don’t expect teachers to be perfect „ wouldn’t work for me. I felt that if somebody is enlightened this should go hand in hand with a authentic, ethical behaviour towards all sentient beings.
Meanwhile I understand that Enlightenment might happen in a moment , but if it it not intristically connected to a profound spiritual and personal growth in this person it means nothing but an EgoTrip . It does not serve the community , not the world and not the Universe.
Enlightenment unfolds, and only if we join into with ALL efforts to grow personally , become more authentic , live ethically it becomes Enlightenment that serves humanity and All That Is.

Only Enlightenment that is more then just a nice moment of personal feeling and insight can be called Actualization – Ah- Kine .... Walk your Talk ...