what are you reading wednesday?

[frenzy]

What have you finished reading?

nothin'

What are you currently reading?

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions by Richard Erdoes (Author), John (Fire) Lame Deer (Author) - We've gotten s through the past traditions, and past the kill whitey portion and we've gotten into a lot of the woo. Im sorry, like, i just dont really believe a medicine man can turn into an animal or anything like that. sure, half of this is very practical and real, like herbs curing things, but... you know... Also there was a chapter on sex that... was pretty sexist by today's standards and herteronormative. they did mention two spirit people which was neat and really drove home the point that theyre neither man no woman, but both. like for the 70s, sure, this stuff is p okay, but in 2020... yikes. At any rate, i think im past all the ceremonies i think and should hopefully be back on more solid ground.

Comments

[symbioid]

The one thing I take away from Shamanism is the "Birth" of the Shaman via death and rebirth processes, where they are torn up in a violent horrific way. The idea that Shamans are born via tragedy.

Wow, I just found a Terence McKenna video after writing about him in a reply this morning, and now your post and while I'm listening to Terence he's mentioning Shamanism as I write this (the video clip said it was about Taoism, so heh).

Yeah most of the new age stuff is a bit woo. I tried "The Four Agreements" by don Miguel Ruiz, didn't reallyi find it interesting. Just a typical western "self-help psychology book"

Have you read any Terence McKenna? He's much more interesting IMO.

[frenzy]

tbqf, i cant say this kind of book is my cuppa tea. im only reading it because it was Laras favorite. The first half was very good though.

I havent read any Terence McKenna. I feel like the only this-kinda-thing that still jives with me is the tao te ching

[symbioid]

So first, sending another hug... I hope your community of friends are able to bond her. I saw your Vicki pics and post about sledding with her. Sounds like it's been a bit painful experience in general beyond the shittiness of the situation... :( I'm sorry you're dealing with so much in such a short time. You're still dealing with Blue and all that.

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To respond to the OP:

Tao Te Ching is def my cuppa tea (as you saw on my recent book post)...


Even if you don't read Terence, there's a lot of great stuff on Youtube. I might share a few of my fave clips on my wall.

Actually let me share a quote of his that I love:

"We are like coral animals embedded in a technological reef of extruded psychic objects. All our tool making implies our belief in an ultimate tool. That tool is the flying saucer, or the soul, exteriorized in three-dimensional space. The body can become an internalized holographic object embedded in a solid-state, hyperdimensional matrix that is eternal, so that we each wander through a true Elysium".

"My vision of the final human future is an effort to exteriorize the soul and internalize the body, so that the exterior soul will exist as a superconducting lens of translinguistic matter generated out of the body of each of us at a critical juncture at our psychedelic bar mitzvah".

"History is the dash over ten to fifteen thousand years from nomadism to flying saucer, hopefully without ripping the envelope of the planet so badly that the birth is aborted and fails, and we remain brutish prisoners of matter".

"It may instead be what I've recently come to suspect - that the human soul is so alienated from us in our present culture that we treat it as an extraterrestrial. To us the most alien thing in the cosmos is the human soul.

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(there's a lot of subtlety and what he speaks of is alluded to hear, but they're fragments of what he's trying to say - and I like him because he's more poetry than "self-help", and that he doesn't fully take himself seriously, which is probably the greatest thing he has going for him, IMO. It allows him to have a sense of humor where these other hucksters can't/don't/won't).

Hugs again.

[symbioid]

(and sorry if I was doing the thing dudes do, not meaning to come off as a "you should" - I know how it is when people shove something they're a fan of down your throat when it's not something you want to do/care about - and I realized it after I posted).