If you don't live in Salinas, you probably only hear about it in connection with bad news. Gang homicides, parasitic spinach, immigration struggles, poisoned ground water or record unemployment - pick one and tune out. The 'Salad Bowl' of the world, Salinas has been pumping out food since WWII. Every means of pushing the Salinas valley to grow more vegetables has been employed over the decades.
Vital communities have a hard time thriving in the shadow of Big Ag. These places are rife with the wreckage of our industrialized method of food production that cares little for the land, the people who grow and harvest food, and ultimately not even for the people who consume the food. Yet where there is food there is life.
One of our presenters was a woman who's children had been taken from her home by child protective services. This was the wake-up call she answered, the one that helped her turn her life around. She showed up so fully, was supported so well, that she became an advocate for other mothers facing the permanent loss of their children. Because of her, after a mothers first trial, she will be met by a guide-mother. That mother is there for her, to help her take the steps she needs to take to get her children back. If she's willing to show up, she will have a partner on her journey.
A program to support mothers was born directly from our presenters own experience, she now heads that program. She embodies the medicine her community needs. She is teaching directly from her own life journey.
I applied to teach for The Foundation for Shamanic Studies after hearing her speak that evening. I've had a lifelong passion for shamanism and alternative spirituality, but I never felt why I should teach until that evening. I realized then that the cauldron of our own experiences is where authentic medicine for community transformation is born. We all have a responsibility to share from our own cauldrons when we are able.
There is still hope and joy in Salinas. Old Town Salinas is bright enough to attract coffee shops and kitch retailers. Alternative industries pop-up in the warehouse districts cleared by the economic downturn. Its as if the fertility of the valley refuses to be totally consumed.
I'll be teaching the Way of the Shaman in Old Town Salinas this November 10th & 11th. I don't expect to save the world, just to contribute to whats healing, fertile, transformative and authentic. I've come to think of the work I do, teaching core shamanism, as a way to help us remember that we're earthlings. We are completely indivisible from this extraordinary planet. If we trust that, follow the wisdom thats available to us, there's nothing we can't heal and transform.
To learn more about the Foundation for Shamanic Studies class the Way of the Shaman, click here: http://shamanism.org/workshops/calendar.php?Wkshp_ID=10
To register for my class in November, click here: http://www.alchemistsjournal.com/p/workshops.html
To learn more about the Foundation for Shamanic Studies class the Way of the Shaman, click here: http://shamanism.org/workshops/calendar.php?Wkshp_ID=10
To register for my class in November, click here: http://www.alchemistsjournal.com/p/workshops.html
