Dancing Braids In the Dark

"Darkness is not the devil," I heard a lady say on a podcast I was listening to recently. "It is the womb, the birthing space."  This comment caught my attention.  I have been reading a little bit about shamanism recently because, well, why not? And I had put my book down because the path of the shaman seemed too dark for me.  I am seeking a journey to the light.  Light and love, you know?

The ecstatic shamanic journeys I was reading about were voyages to the underworld and came with warnings of danger and frightening potentials and dim passageways fraught with unknown terror, that come from who knows where.  If love is letting go of fear, then in my mind, a scary shamanic journey was not getting me closer to love, even if it was helping me overcome some fear and giving me some glimpses of altered states of reality.  So, I set the books aside for the time being.

(83) Above & Beyond Live at Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam (Full 4K HD Set) #ABGT200 - 

But the thought of the darkness being the womb intrigued me.  And ecstasy and alternate states of reality fascinate me indeed.  So, to consider the darkness, of the womb, as an incubator of our soul, filled with our own shadow work that stands between us and heaven is just a little bit of a "I must find a way to have this" experience.  Who wants to do Amsterdam?  

As synchronicity would have it, the above video appeared in my YouTube feed after watching the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's video I posted yesterday.  I really like Above & Beyond.  I'd love to see one of their concerts live, but in the meantime, I can dance in the kitchen!  I can dance in my bedroom!  I can dance in the whole back yard!  Let's!

My great, great, great grandfather on my mom's, mother's side married an Indian woman, Cherokee (maybe?), from the east coast of the United States back after the Revolutionary War.  It is interesting to think that maybe she even walked some of the trails I tread here in North Carolina, who knows, but I love that I have that blood in my DNA, and it makes me feel wild sometimes.  It makes me want to live free, and close to the land and in harmony with nature.  That native American connection sparked my interest in shamanism, or perhaps it's the reverse...shamanism is in my blood and connects me to the tradition, I'm just awakening to what's inside of me, that's all.  

Red Alien Braids (ha ha!) 
Click the link above to hear some traditional Shamanic Drumming

And of course, I like to make my own rules.  I like to create my own rituals.  Heck with traditional tradition (sometimes). But I can be inspired by what WAS to create something that IS.  So, I see myself like a little shamanic trance dancer.  I enter the womb of the virtual arena.  I get down in the dark.  I let the waves of people wash over me like the vital fluid of life.  I hear the music like a heartbeat.  I let it dance me.  I move.  I move.  I move...Alive.  Free.  Ecstatic!  I am Light!  I am Love!  I am the One!  Join me in virtual Amsterdam.  Any old kitchen will do. Or grab a bucket and dance to the beat of your own drum.  It's all good!