Black and White

Things are not always "Black and White". We often think that people and situations have to be a certain way to be acceptable. But they don't. People often have aspects of themselves that they don't share with many others. For example, I know a person who is a classical violinist and only plays for himself when he needs to calm down. He could be in a professional orchestra, but he chooses not to be part of that because it would take away from the calm that he so much cherishes.

I know a person who looks like a typical "accountant" type who also plays an extremely mean electric guitar. If he had long hair and makeup he could be in the KISS band! Why does he not follow his musical passion? Well, he has to put food on the table for his family, so he plays his guitar in his garage and punches in from 9 to 5.

There is always more to a person than meets the eye. Some people cage themselves while "paying the bills" and others keep their talents a secret for other reasons. The tiger in the photo looks furry and cuddly but if someone stepped into the cage with it that person would most likely be devoured! Beneath the surface is an extremely efficient killer.

Some people are amazed to discover that I play the piano. I don't know why this surprises them as for myself it is no secret. It is simply something that I don't have a lot of time to do. I have a piano in my living room and the one who plays it most is my daughter as she practices or performs her music. I love listening to her play. My other daughter plays the guitar and my heart sings whenever I hear her play it. I don't play piano mostly because of time. If it were something I was more passionate about, I suppose I would play it more often. I channel my passions into other things.

I do like to have tea now and then with someone whom others would consider to be "dangerous". I find that often other people's definition of that word is much different than is mine. To me, something dangerous is something that can cause great harm. The fact that someone is a radical and does not see the world in the same way as "normal" people see it does not make that person dangerous. It makes them intriguing to me. They may look "normal" but not be so standard within. Heck, I look normal and am not so standard within! So people and situations are not just Black and White. There is much colour in every circumstance. A rainbow is always there, just waiting to be discovered!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

SNOW DOWN!!

That wee little figure at the bottom of the photo is me, desperately shovelling my way out my front door! Just kidding. But Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada is not the place you want to be today. Over the weekend we have had several inches of snow and blowing snow. The transit system is all but closed, with very minimal arteries open and only running from the malls to downtown. The city crews are not able to keep up well because when they have cleared arteries the wind has immediately filled them up again, only making street clearing even slower. Sometimes Mother Nature has a strange and twisted sense of humour!

So when you have that much snow down, it makes everything s-s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w d-d-0-0-0-w-n. Seriously, when I cleared the driveway for the third time on Saturday I thought perhaps we were done. Then I woke up yesterday to discover that I could barely open my back door because of the snow bank that was formed overnight! Once the back yard was shoveled out, I went to shovel the front, but couldn't open my front gate because of, you guessed it, the other snow bank! So the shovel traveled through the inside of the house to the front door, which was just able to open for me to get out there and clear off the front step, deck and sidewalk. As I cleared the first half of the driveway I noticed that my elderly neighbours were also snowed in worse than we were, so I cleared their front walk and part of their driveway and their front step. Their nephew then showed up with a snow blower and blew out the rest of my driveway and front walk for me. Then he proceeded to finish clearing their place as well.

I think it is so cool when people band together to help each other in moments like these. The radio was reporting today the fact that people had 4X4's and Quads out and were pulling stuck cars out and helping to push people along the streets as they tried to get to work. My Love and I have decided to just stay home today. She called in to work and explained that there is no access to the bus and the one that usually goes past is not running anyway and we can't even get our car out of the garage as it is. Even if we could, I would rather not risk the fender bender that would surely ensue. My optometrist appointment will also just have to wait.

The real bummer is that I am also not able to get across town to pick up my daughter for her Dad Day with me. I will have to instead talk on the phone for a longer period of time. Then I will have to go out for what seems like the fifteenth time in three days to shovel us out again. The banks of snow are literally getting so high I am having trouble throwing the snow over and on top of them. Sheesh!

At least we have a fireplace and electricity still....oops.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Threshold Moments

There are always times in our lives when we reach a certain threshold. At times like these we have to simply pause and assess our situation. Is this something that scares us? Is it something that excites us? Is it something that brings deep knowing from within us?

If it scares us, then the timing may not be quite right. If is excites us, then it is causing us to exit from our bodies/minds. This might not be as good as we think that it is going to be and perhaps we need to prepare ourselves more in order to have the strength we need to cross that threshold. If it brings us a deep knowing, however, then we are certain to succeed.

Too often when we are on a threshold and know within that it is the right thing to do, we hesitate and worry about what others will think of us if we actually proceed and succeed. In moments like these we must remind ourselves that they would not really be thinking of us if they were to have a problem with it. So then we have to be strong and let them have their dramas and continue on our paths. That way we remain authentic to who we truly are.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

I'm Not Lost

Where in the world are we? When we go traveling, we often rely on a map to get us safely from point A to point B. In this high tech world, there is now a wonderful system called a GPS. These are not fail safe because the current map needs to be registered with the GPS system in order for it to be able to tell you where you are. Otherwise, when you go on a road that is not yet on a map, the GPS will think you've gone off the road.

Whenever I lose my way I do what most indigenous folks have done for eons. I go visiting. Eventually I find my destination, but that isn't without a lot of fun along the way. I don't use a GPS because I don't particularly want to have to deal with technology all the time. Besides, a GPS cannot direct or guide me on some of my more meaningful journeys. These are the journeys to the other realms of existence, in which a GPS is useless anyway.

I'm not lost, I'm just not on your map! People think that there is a map to life and everyone has to take the same road in the same direction. But what if, for example, one doesn't want to get married, have 2.3 children and have a big house with a white picket fence? What if one wants to instead be an artist who lives in a loft/studio and drinks coffee all night because that is when the creative juices flow? What if someone doesn't want to become a doctor but instead wants to be a professional dog walker and have the doctors, who don't have time for their dogs, be their clientele? Is there any map for these types of decisions? And if there were, would we always have to follow that map?

Maps set us up for expectations. Yes, they definitely give us geographic security, but they also create an expectation of what things will look like and how we will reach our final destination. The thing is, there really is no final destination! Life itself is a continual turn of events from conception through birth to death and the Light, and back into conception and rebirth etc. There never is finality. We may have gotten to where we have wanted to go, but then what? It really isn't enough to make it to the playoffs, we have to decide if we actually want to win the playoffs. So reaching our destination and then just sitting around drinking coffee all day long just doesn't cut it. What else do we then do?

Yes, I like to have a plan. Like most people I know, plans keep me focused. But then there is an even larger part of me that likes to go with the flow and see what happens. The problem with that is that it leaves just enough room for stagnation and laziness. So to balance both aspects is important.

This is why I never journey without purpose. If it is just a joy ride, I leave the journey alone. There is no way I am going to the Underworld, Middle World or Upper world without some purpose. Yes, I usually find even more gifts and tasks than I originally thought, but at least I had a goal in mind and then achieved that and more! Some people journey just for the heck of it and wonder why they get lost? Well, this activity reminds me of when, as a teenager, a girlfriend would phone me up and then not talk. There is only so much sound of her breathing that I could take and then I was bored to tears. So I would say goodbye and hang up. This would offend her and she would phone back to complain about the fact that I hung up. I would inform her that I had much more to do with my time than blow it on the phone listening to her breathe, then I would hang up. At times like that I wished that I lived in a tent with no phone to bother me.

Spirit also doesn't want to be needlessly bothered. So it hangs up if we are only journeying for the heck of it and don't really mean it. When you are not on the physical map, and abandoned in the middle of another realm of existence, the experience can really mess you up. So have some intent, even if you are not on the map. That way you will never be lost.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

When You Feel Boxed In

This happens to us sometimes. We allow ourselves to get into situations where we are not open and free. We let ourselves become caged in a way. Granted, we can always get out of the box. But sometimes in the process of getting out of the box, we are also faced with the fact that this box has, sometimes for years, become as safe as it is confining.

This is when we seriously need to look at pros and cons. Really, have we ever had profound benefits from imprisonment? Even if a prison is a beautiful castle, it is still a prison. People allow themselves to think that they have freedom when, in actuality, if they really had it they would not know what to do with it.

I often do the fantasy of "If I were King..." and then fill in the blanks. Other than having stupid drivers shot on sight, most of my list of what I would do if I were king actually can be accomplished. It simply hasn't been accomplished because I have not put my energy there.

So the next question is, do I want to put my energy there, knowing that each time I invest myself into something it also serves to get me out of my cage? It all amounts to choices. When I do actually want to invest my energy, mountains move to make way for my intent and the doors of the gilded cage fly open forever. If I don't want to invest my energy then things will remain as they are until someone else feels compelled to take on the task, or until I feel it is time to take on the task. Until then, status quo is the state of the union.

At least, until such time as change is required, we can peek out of our boxes and see the potential!

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Be Yourself

So often we find ourselves peeking out at the world from within a hole we crawled into to get away from the world. Most often we end up in that hole as a result of accepting someone else's beliefs about who we are. Most often those beliefs are projection of that person's own circumstances and have nothing to do with us at all. I recently had an experience like that. I chose to not hide in a hole.

A dear friend informed me that someone she knows has been trashing me. This person is someone who has never taken the time to get to know me. She simply has beliefs that are a little strange to me. Do I worry about this type of person? Well, why would I? She only harms herself every time she trashes me. People are not stupid. They can tell, like my friend did, that this person is wacked and they know that what she says is more indicative of who she is that who I am.

When something like this happens, however, I always look into what it is inside of me that resonated in such a way as to either draw the situation to me or even just to draw the disclosure to me. In much searching I found a wee twist in this. You see, what drew it out of the woodwork was my own personal quest for truth and authenticity. This quest brought up as well the antithesis of truth and authenticity so that I could see it. One must, after all, explore things from many different angles and through many different viewing lenses! It is like when someone is searching for love and gets a bunch of lessons in what love is not. The experience sucks but the lessons are invaluable!

What I am most grateful for is the friend who was courageous enough to disclose this to me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have shown me your own authenticity and strength in doing this. You have shown me that I can trust you. You have shown me that you have my back, and so I also have yours!

Just be yourself. Seek your truth and your authenticity within and let small minds go by the wayside. They don't know you and never will if they spout off the way this particular woman has done. You are bigger than that. Don't let a small mind hinder your great spirit.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Our Natural World

The World Tree is the Axis Mundai of our psyches. The roots go deep into the earth and the uppermost branches reach far into the sky above. The trunk and base are firmly rooted in this world, but always reaching for the sun! This creates a connection for us with all the realms of Existence.

In this portrait, there is the profile of the masculine and feminine energies looking toward each other. However, it is also like looking upward from within the earth and seeing the trees reaching even further toward the sky. Deep within the earth is the serpent, the representative of the Divine Feminine, who knows all Her secrets and mysteries and guides us through the realms of the Underworld. The Goddess is depicted in the feminine shape of the shadow between the lovers' faces. Her arms reach for the Sun, the Divine Masculine, which is represented by the blue and yellow of the sky. Her arms become the upper branches of the World Tree, and the Ivy that is draped on the portrait is also indicative of the Divine Feminine and the interconnectedness with All That Is. Around her head, which is made of Aspen, are purples, lavenders and yellows, indicating the Third Eye and the various levels of consciousness that are achieved through the exercising of that chakra. These colors also create a gentle flame, the flame of Spirit that always spontaneously burns and connects us to the Creator. The Aspen Medicine that is used to create Her head reminds us to listen to the whispers in the gentle breeze as it rustles through the leaves of the trees. Listening helps us to connect with Spirit. The blue bead in the middle of Her head represents our ability to look within to find our inner answers through our connection with the Inner Wisdom Voice.

All of this also connects us to the natural world. We get freaked out when we see worms and maggots in movies, but really, they are a part of the natural world and they have purpose. They help the physical realm to decompose, compost, and rejuvenate all that is otherwise going to serve nothing and will eventually only become a pollutant in our world. We eat plants, we live, we die, worms and maggots eat us, and then what is left feeds the plants in return. It is a symbiotic relationship with the natural world, whether or not we can stomach it in the here and now. Once we realize that we will become compost and feed the world long after our deaths, then death no longer holds any power over us. Only when this happens are we truly able to live.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Your Smiling Face

When I was very young I had to learn how to smile. This did not come naturally to me. I saw others do it, but knew that when animals "smile" and bare their teeth, it is a warning. I don't remember how I knew that, I just did. So smiling was something I had to work on. Over a few years I became more comfortable with the act. Now I can definitely appreciate a beautiful smile like this one.

I have, however, also become aware of how people use smiles to hide things. They smile when they are nervous, when they are wanting you to think they like you when really they don't, and when they are conning you. Then there is what I call the "born again" smile. "Really, everything is just fine! As long as we embrace the Lawd Jeeeeeeesus as our Saviour, no matter what happens everything will be okay." (That has to be read as a very thick Southern accent to have the full effect!)

How does one know which type of smile is authentic and which is not? There are so many agendas that people can have and sometimes they themselves don't even know that they are not being authentic. I think the worst smile I ever saw came from a wee little "Goldie Locks" type of girl. She was holding a long stick in both hands and walked up to the boy I was taking care of at the time. She was smiling away and when he said hello to her she began beating him with the stick like a martial artist would do with a staff, and with just as much ruthlessness involved in her energy. Needless to say, I intervened. I wish I could say that her body will never be found, but she was only about 5 years old. She still had the potential to grow into a good person.

So smiling can be used to trick a person. Hmmmm. I think it is more important to then pay attention to the energy that is being emitted by the one who is smiling. Yes, there are visual effects in the energy system, but a lot of people misinterpret what those are and what they mean. I think it is more important to look into how we are feeling in the core. Are we nervous? Are we scared? Are we feeling safe? Are we feeling warm? Are we feeling loved and appreciated? And most important, are we feeling like there is something wrong, even though this person is smiling at us?

It is the red flags in life to which we need to pay the most attention. If we don't then we get messed up and have the "sucker punch" waiting for our faces. If only people were as straight forward as animals are! The world would be a much safer place.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Instructions Please!

Technology. You gotta love it. It tends to make our lives easier as we go, right? Actually, right now I feel like an 18th century shaman in the 21st century. I just got my Visa/MasterCard/Debit machine for my workplace. I have discovered that there is a lot more to being the "merchant" than there ever was to just operating it at someone else's work place. I feel a wee bit overwhelmed. The legal agreement is mind-boggling and the instruction manual, well, let's just say that I am more of a "hands on" learner than I am an understander of technical terms in an instruction manual. I have put a call in to a dear friend who has utilized these things in order to see if she can help me tomorrow to figure this all out.

I thought that I was doing well with just being able to blog! Sheesh! A horse! A horse! My kindgom for a horse! (Shakespeare: Richard III). I do feel a little bit like I should be driving a horse and buggy instead of a car. Oh well.

By the way, does anyone out there know how to contact Google and let them know that the bold and italics on your blog site don't work? I log on to the help site and get replies that don't make sense at all. So for you computer wizzards out there, one wizzard to another, if you can help me figure this out, please do!

Oh, wait a minute....what is that? I hear a ringing sound....oh, just my phone. I do at least know how to answer that.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Twisters

A friend of mine asked me today about if I thought it would be strange if an inner masculine energy that has to date seemed "parental" should turn "romantic"? This is more common than most people would ever think.

Here's the thing. When the masculine or feminine energies turn romantic, it simply means that it is harmonizing with the opposite pole of energies within. It is like when a guy freaks out about a sex dream about another guy. Well, it simply means that the masculine energy within is harmonizing with the feminine energy within. We all have both of those energies within us. In our western world, guys tend to freak out about dreams like that more than women do. This is probably a result of our homophobic society.

Here is the twist:

Masculine energy is also parental energy, just as feminine energy is parental energy. So when the "parental" energy turns romantic sometimes, whether one is male or female, it freaks us out! But when you look at the human psyche, it becomes quite obvious that we "marry" our mothers or fathers all the time. There is an imprint on our psyches that creates a honing device within to attract us to our parent. Sometimes it is the parent that we most get along with (I have married my mother twice now and dated her 15-20 times!) and sometimes it is the parent with whom there is the most conflict (I really can't tell you how many buddies of mine have turned out to be my father and had to be kicked to the curb!). Either way, it is an opportunity to resolve some issues.

So strange, no, but twisted, yes. It is neither good nor bane; it just is what it is! We need not hold guilt or shame or any negative emotion towards it or we risk messing up the process of sorting it all out within ourselves.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Have a Seat

We get very busy in our lives. Between being slaves to our technology while we are constantly texting the person who is right across the table from us, and the busy work and soccer schedules, we barely have time to breathe. Then we hear the words, "Have a seat" and we know, we just know that our world is about to fall apart. We have missed something that has been right in front of us all the time, unnoticed, and now it is going to be put right in our faces and we are scared.

Whether it is a relationship that is about to change or a habit that needs to be broken or even a change in the workplace, change is frightening. The thing is that the change is inevitable. The growth as a result of the change is optional. The change would not have ended up being so frightening had we taken the time to have a seat and talk things through in the first place. You see, this would require the risk of conflict. We, as humans, don't like to have conflict in our lives. We avoid conflict at all costs. But what we really need to realize is that there is a difference between conflict and dispute.

If we can resolve things at the dispute stage, conflict need not even occur. Dispute allows us to clarify and to communicate more effectively. Conflict brings us to defensiveness and hostility. Yes, conflict can also get resolved, but it is much easier to resolve things at the dispute level than it is at the conflict level. Most people don't know the difference between the two and equate one with the other, thus going into fear and attack modes immediately. They actually avoid sitting down and talking things out. Then they wonder where it all went so wrong!

I am here to tell you....it all started when you didn't want to have a seat.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Magical Things

Halloween is my favorite time of year. We get to allow the inner being show itself. Mine is a mischievous Gypsy man. This was one of three outfits for the season. Anyway, it is the one I enjoyed the most because it was so "out there"! These days seeing a man bedecked in scarves and beads and bells is quite the sight. Yet when we think about it, it really has only been very recently in our history here on this earth that this sort of attire has been considered "unacceptable" in a social way. I have Gypsy blood in me, so I thought that I would express it while the occasion was upon us.

All of this got me to thinking about magic. I had a conversation with a friend today that reminded me about wanting to blog about this subject matter. So here I go. I have said in earlier blogs that science is the magic that we do understand and magic is the science that we don't understand. I would like to take this a step further, if I may.

When we observe things around us (which most Westerners don't because they are too freakin' busy texting) we have an inner response to what we observe. For example, I might observe a fountain in the park on a hot summer's day. Now my response might be to also observe the signs that say "Please stay out of the fountain" or my response might be to listen to my blistering hot feet and jump in and allow them and the rest of my hot body (and it is pretty hot, according to my beloved) to cool down. Could I get arrested if I do the latter? I possibly would, but it just might be worth the risk. After all, I would at least not be wading into the river which has a huge undertow that would wash me up somewhere on the other side of the weir and then result in emergency personnel getting involved. Avoiding that sort of incident might make wading in a fountain much more appealing. That, to me, is the magic of life. It is the delightful response to what is right there in front of us all the time. Magic can be heard in the echoes of children's laughter. It can be seen in the warm embrace of two lovers. It really is all magic. It is also the force that created the Universe in the first place. This was not "accidental" as much as "intentional", according to my spiritual teachers. So if that magnitude of magic can exist, then who am I to ignore it? Why would I, of all people, ever want to miss out on a big bang??

I think that it is important to simply pay attention. We have to allow ourselves to look into what is happening around us and actually see what is right in front of our eyes. We also need to put our piddly technology down for a while and just reconnect with nature, otherwise we will simply walk right past that delicious fountain and not even notice it calling to us! That, to me, would be truly tragic.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Zebra Medicine

Most people don't even think of zebras as having a powerful medicine. They actually do. First off, each one has its own set of stripes, much like that of a fingerprint. Amongst all the zebras in a herd, a mother and child zebra can find each other based on stripes alone, let alone scent. Zebras also have the benefit of fooling predators by sticking together. It is only when a zebra is out all by itself that it is more visible as prey to its predators. When in a group a zebra becomes part of a larger unit that then looks like one big moving animal that is much too large to attack. So some of the medicine that the zebra brings is that of group consciousness that goes hand in hand with individuality. When in balance, every voice is honoured. When out of balance the group consciousness can become mob mentality.

I have always loved zebras. There has been a strong resonance with them right from the time, as a wee boy of about 3 years of age, I saw my first Tarzan movie. I knew what horses were, but zebras?? Wow!! They have fascinated me ever since. My office chairs are zebra striped and so are some throw cushions in my family room (like the one in the photo). If it were cool for a tall white guy to wear zebra striped clothing, I would be there. Unfortunately, it is not cool at all. So I don't. I just hold zebra medicine in my heart. I actually got to pet a zebra at a zoo when I was around 19 years of age. It was so cool to just reach out and have it come up to the fence and lick my hand, then nuzzle into me through the fence. I totally loved it!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com