STAR ANCESTORS

STAR ANCESTORS

 

Extraterrestrial Contact in the Native American Tradition

By Nancy Red Star


Published by Bear & Co
224 pages, paperback

Star Ancestors: Extraterrestrial Contact in the Native American Tradition


“Several years ago I was asked to document the extraterrestrial stories of indigenous peoples for a proposed rock concert in New Mexico, at the site of the Roswell UFO crash. Though the concert effort failed I continued to document Indian knowledge of our Star Ancestors and prophesy of their return – prophecies spoken thousands of years before such terms as unidentified flying object and extraterrestrial came into being.” – Nancy Red Star

As we rush headlong into the juncture between what the Hopi refer to as the Fourth and Fifth Worlds, the wisdom keepers of Native American peoples have recognised prophesied signs indicating that now is the time to speak, to reveal the sacred knowledge kept secret for generations and to share with the world what they know of humanity’s origins from the stars.

According to Native American tradition, the “Star Guardians” have influenced the formation of tribal culture, tradition and ceremony, and as we approach the crossroads of global transition, the return of these extraterrestrial Star Guardians is imminent.

Author Nancy Red Star is a Cherokee and documentary producer who found herself in the role of “runner,” charged with bringing an ancient knowing to a wider audience. “I run with mailbags full,” she writes in the book’s introduction, “gathering the rich oral traditions and images that detail Mesoamerican knowledge of our Star Ancestors. I gather the teachings of the past and present and prophecies of the future.”

Star Ancestors is a collection of her interviews with American Indian spiritual leaders, elders and wisdom keepers. Their message is clear: Humanity must return to a harmonious existence with Mother Earth, a return to the guidance originally handed down to us from the ET beings – or else the consequences we face will be dire.

But Star Ancestors is far more than just a warning to humanity over our stewardship of Mother Earth. The interviewees paint a very interesting picture of humanity’s ancient history, as well.

The Third World of Hopi lore refers to our pre-historic Atlantean age, a time when technology eventually overtook our spiritual heritage and thrust our ancestors headlong into cataclysmic destruction. The Atlantean survivors of the Third World’s destruction became who we know as the Maya, Aztecs, Incas and Hopi – and those who migrated northwestward over the Bering Strait’s ice bridge became the Tibetans.

According to Troy Lang (a Cherokee member of the United Nations’ International Treaty Council), “We destroyed the Third World with abuse of technology on Atlantis. We were rescued by the Star Nations, the Creator; the survivors landed in Mesoamerica, the birthplace of the last migration. That was the centre, and from there we travelled the four directions – north south, east, and west – building pyramidal monuments in each sector. In Tibet, the great white pyramid was built in the Himalayan mountain range; in Cambodia, the pyramid of Angkor; in Egypt, the pyramid on the Giza plateau.”

Pyramids around the world, then, were built during the dawn of the Fourth World. And now, according to Hopi prophecy, as humanity’s relationship with Mother Earth is teetering on the balance, we are approaching the end of the Fourth World. In tandem with these end times, according to Mayan/German descendant Paul Werner Duarte, an intergalactic conflict is raging:

“Forty thousand years ago certain ETs began manipulating the human genetic system, taking away ten strands of our DNA to create modern man, a workforce breed. The Greys are now taking the DNA that has been reconnected and using that to create hybrids. This is really what’s going on behind the cloning and the genetic research today. In the underground laboratory where this hybridizing is being carried out, the negative entities are reconnecting the strands to make a workforce for the battle.”

But Yaqui descendant Cecilia Vindiola Dean, founder and CEO of Stargate International, notes, “The beliefs are so varied and there are so many of them that it is really difficult to figure out what is true and what is not. Who is benevolent and who isn’t? Who is acting out of evolutionary purpose and who is acting out of personal gain and control? Who is in charge of our planet? It certainly isn’t human beings. Who is monitoring whom?”

What the coming end of the Fourth World will be like is a question that remains unanswered. Sequoyah Trueblood, a descendant of the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw tribes, discusses the message of the Kogi, an indigenous tribe that has the spiritual responsibility of maintaining the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

Trueblood notes, “They [the Kogi] do this by praying twenty-four hours a day and continually dissolving the out-of-balance thought forms that are constantly being projected into the atmosphere by Younger Brother.” According to the Kogi, modern humanity is “Younger Brother.”

“The Kogi came from another planet directly to here,” Trueblood adds. “The message of the [Kogi] Mamas is to move back into the Law of Origin or Mother Earth will die. Television, electronics, technology are distracting us from praying for Mother Earth and helping her to live. Younger Brother is destroying the world, and Elder Brother is trying to hold it together.”

Despite all the doomsday warnings of Star Ancestors, the book ends on a positive note. Trueblood states that the Kogi Mamas “say the world will not end. The cleansing that is already in progress will continue, but will only directly affect those people whose brainwaves and heart frequencies are tuned too far beyond Mother Earth’s heartbeat.

“I’ve been given a simple way to explain this to the Western mind – great thanks, great peace, great love.”

– Reviewed by Marc Star in New Dawn 137

TAOIST SHAMAN: PRACTICES FROM THE WHEEL OF LIFE

TAOIST SHAMAN

 

Practices from the Wheel of Life

By Mantak Chia & Kris Deva North

Published by Destiny Books
192 pages, paperback

Taoist Shaman: Practices from the Wheel of Life


Taoist Shaman: Practices from the Wheel of Life is another book from the great Chinese-Thai master of both popular and esoteric physical and spiritual wisdom, Mantak Chia.

As with some of his other recent works, he displays the universality of much Chinese tradition that initially seems unique. In the process, wittingly or unwittingly, he throws light on the deceptions of those who claim some special authority in revealing hidden truths.

To these ends, he has co-authored this work with Kris Deva North, a Taoist practitioner since 1987 and founder of the Zen School of Shiatsu and London Tao Centre.

I must admit to finding what I assume to be Chia’s contribution in illuminating aspects of an abundant Chinese tradition to be the high points in this book. These include, in separate chapters, verbal and pictorial accounts of The Taoist Medicine Wheel, The Five Elements, The Eight Forces, The Twelve Animals and The I Ching Hexagrams and Daily Life.

Although not unfamiliar with these central features of the Chinese cosmos, I always find Mantak Chia’s latest explanation offers me new insights and stirs dormant interests.

In particular, I relished The Eight Forces chapter, a simple series of stories of eight Chinese immortals. I found it difficult not to reflect on whether these did not appeal, with considerable variety and freedom of imagination, to many of the same human needs and interests as does the singular story of Jesus Christ in Christian doctrine.

The pathway to immortality, much fabled in Taoist teaching, takes on an enchanting inventiveness that distracts not at all from the profound human aspiration to transcend physical death. The more than thirty characteristics associated with each of these eight immortals deepens one’s sense of the encyclopaedic Chinese curiosity about the nature of the life that informed these grand symbolic figures. The symbolic animals that accompany the immortals – buffalo, chimera, horse, elephant, tiger, deer – stir and enliven the imagination.

The I Ching Hexagrams and Daily Life chapter is sub-headed “With grateful thanks to Guillaume Bouteloup.” It offers a simple introduction to the use of China’s great seminal classic. This is, of course, a book of profound and inexhaustible wisdom that insists its users continually review their ever-changing physical, emotional, social and spiritual environments.

The chapters Shamanic Practice, Spirit Guides, Comparisons with Other Traditions, Creating Power Fields and The Wheel of Healing appeal to me as representing a departure from areas specifically shaped by Chinese tradition and teaching and an exploration of what might be called more universal approaches to the challenges posed by the human condition.

Whether it is the shamanic teacher, the spirit guide, the commonalities of tradition, the exploration of fields of interaction or healing rituals, the Chinese influence rarely disappears but there is also a reaching out to less conspicuously unique or exotic forms of practice and conceptualisation.

The Wheel of Healing chapter opens with a piece of profound wisdom and piercing insight about one of the shibboleths of contemporary medical correctness:

“Modern medicine might describe shamanic healing as a placebo effect, healing by suggestion. Suggestion can come from within, say by positive thinking, belief or expectation, or from outside, by hypnosis, advertising, or ritual and ceremony. The shaman counts placebo as a healing resource.”

The chapter goes on to outline rituals, ceremonies and meditations that are affirmations for the unification of mind, body and spirit with the world in which we must all live. All of Mantak Chia’s writing shares this inspiration of putting ancient wisdom to work correcting the follies of life ruled by mistaken faith in mechanistic and arrogant notions of progress.

Interestingly, the final chapter Turning the Wheel of Love is an exquisite representation of clearly Taoist practices of gentle partnership and mutual discovery. While never explicitly sexual, it is a guided invitation to take a physical relationship to a level of measured discovery alien to the pace and style of most contemporary life.

Overall, the book shows Mantak Chia, and his co-author, Kris Deva North, further extending one of the most promising aspects of the contemporary world. When financial adventurism, technological aggression, corporate greed and political ineptness threatens the well-being of vast populations in all cultural traditions, the growing popularity and influence of authors like these, who seek to outline a common way forward that draws on the wisdom of diverse experiences, is an area of promise and hope.

It is apparent that many talented young people in so-called advanced economies are discovering physical and spiritual renewal in ancient traditions from Asia. As the economies of Asia continue to out-produce and out-perform the erstwhile leading economies of the West, however, it will be important to recognise this success has not been won by some form of cheating that demands a military put-down.

Rather, it is the product of the same source of wisdom that is enhancing the lives of some of the best and brightest amongst the West’s next generation. In other words, Eastern wisdom is beginning to offer not only personal but also social and political renewal to a tired and often misguided West.

– Reviewed by Reg Little in New Dawn 130

ESCAPE TO HELL AND OTHER STORIES

ESCAPE TO HELL AND OTHER STORIES


By Muammar Gadaffi


Published by Blake Publishing
288 pages, paperback

Escape to Hell and Other Stories

Most books by world leaders are snow jobs written to project an image or polish an ego. You would be surprised how many are ghost written by an editorial team.

Escape to Hell is a breath of fresh air. It has an instant sense of authenticity and integrity not often found in a literary work. It speaks of the soul of the Libyan people: their anguish, dreams and visions for the future.

This book reveals a deep and thoughtful side to Muammar Qadhafi [Gadaffi] that certainly does not gel with his media created image. Read it and experience the man for yourself.

Escape to Hell includes a range of short stories and significant essays, as well as an eye opening Foreword by Pierre Salinger. What is most startling about this work is its tone: honest, funny, and at times snarling and cynical, other times visionary and mystical.

Muammar Qadhafi, honest to his Islamic heritage, takes a truly unique approach to communicating his vision to the world.

This is the city: a mill that grinds down its inhabitants… Children are worse off than adults. They move from darkness to darkness; from three darknesses to the fourth, as in the Quran.

Qadhafi reflections on urbanity and life in the city are powerful. The city disengages the individual from the land, his social network and himself, and he is reduced to quantity seeking financial goals alone. The city destroys the organic link between land, peoples, kith & kin & culture, and leaves its inhabitants in a “worm like biological existence.” The city creates an addiction to consumerism that is not easily resisted.

The problem is not with the people – they are the same everywhere city or country – it is when they are disconnected from the land and their natural networks that the city swallows them up. The village evokes the opposite vision, that of the natural state of human society.

Qadhafi’s vision of the village and the interrelation of land, people, culture and spirituality, has a strong environmental emphasis.

His short story ‘The Suicide of the Astronaut’ explores the inanities of irrelevant education and our lack of skills. As our knowledge becomes more specialised we lose simple skills needed to survive. In Qadhafi’s tale, it is likened to a highly trained astronaut who, returning to Earth after the space program fails, has no skills to survive, not even knowledge to till the earth. Totally indoctrinated in his discipline, he only sees things through the lens of scientific analysis and ultimately becomes so useless he commits suicide because there is naught else he can do.

Qadhafi also reflects on the power of the people, and this is examined in the core story of the book, ‘Escape to Hell’.

I will now tell you the story of my experiences when I made that journey, that escape to hell. I will describe the road that leads there, describe hell itself for you, and tell you how I came back by the same way. It was truly an adventure, and one of the strangest true stories ever, and I swear to you that it is not fiction. In fact, I escaped twice to hell, fleeing from you only in order to save myself……

Qadhafi urges the masses to take responsibility for their own political lives through the Libyan People’s Congresses, but they still place endless demands on him.

Within this mass of people, who poisoned Hannibal, burnt Savonarola, and smashed Robespierre, who loved you but failed to reserve a seat for you at the cinema, or even a table in a cafe, who love you without expressing this in any simple way… This is what the masses have done and continue to do to such people. So what can I – a poor bedouin – hope for in a modern city of insanity? People snap at me whenever they see me: build us a better house! Get us a better telephone line! Build us a road upon the sea! Make a public park for us!…

Some of his essays are philosophical such as his piece on death. It is both a spiritual account of death’s influence on Qadhafi’s life and our own. Beautifully written and moving, it takes us into the Libyan experience of a harsh life fighting an old enemy. Qadhafi reflects on many religious tales but also rejects if not ridicules those who become so attached to the form they forget the spirit.

At the same time Qadhafi rejects the Luddites who refuse modern technology and sees a balance between spirit, science and his vision for his people without an addiction to progress as seen in Western consumerism. He stands against both Fundamentalism and liberalism offering a new vision or ‘third way’.

The essays which end the volume are written in a poetic manner. They evoke all manner of images, Quranic and literary, and offer a deep exploration of Qadhafi’s personal feelings on various political subjects.

This is the true secret for their hating you: you are not of this world. You are not wealthy, and for this they hate you. You are not oppressors, and for this this they hate you. You are not pretenders, so they hate you…

– Reviewed by Robert Black in New Dawn 127

WHEEL OF INITIATION

WHEEL OF INITIATION

Practices for Releasing your Inner Light

By Julie Tallard Johnson

Published by Bear & Company
305 pages, paperback

Wheel of Initiation: Practices for Releasing Your Inner Light

In some ways of life, our path is depicted as being along a wheel where each of us emerge onto the wheel at an optimum, specified point. We travel in an organised method around that wheel, completing the journey at what is again, the optimum location on the wheel.

For the spiritual seekers among us, this book will be of great help and significance. It covers the initiatory journey of ‘everyperson’ from the moment of taking the first step on the great inner journey to the actual initiations that mark the integration of the individual living an authentic life.

Ms Tallard Johnson has 30 years of experience as a Transpersonal counsellor and a writer of spiritual books. She holds regular initiation groups and gives talks and seminars far and wide.

In this work she offers a structure for the aspirant as well as a useful array of spiritual tools to use on the way. The more I read, the more I felt at ease in the author’s capable hands.

It is not necessary to hold any particular faith or religion to embark upon this journey. Ms Johnson harnesses her own knowledge, experience and wisdom with that of ancient spiritual cultures and philosophies, such as Native American, Buddhism, Taoism, Shamanism and Christianity, and with insightful modern writers.

The Wheel is visualised as a compass with the four directions delineating the segments of the wheel. This is the usual realisation of the Native American Medicine Wheel. The writing style is easy to read. A concept is introduced with some apt quotes from wisdom texts, then an elaboration of the initiations in that segment is provided. This is interspersed with stories of people who have undergone that particular initiation.

Discussion of the initiation in real-life terms follows. Briefly, one enters from the South where intentions and agreements are made for the journey. Then one proceeds to the West where basic transformation of negative beliefs, habit patterns and mind-sets are adjusted and recapitulated. In the North is the working toward sacred reality through exercising mindfulness and spiritual principles. Finally the journey takes one to the East. It is here that the reintegration of self and communities happens.

This all sounds fairly straightforward and fast. It is definitely not fast! There is a lot of hard work and dedication involved. Right from the formulation of intentions to later dealing with advanced initiations, focus and determination are required. As with life in general, there are ups and downs. Ms Johnson is quite clear on this. She offers sage advice for the difficult times. She also recommends that the student seek out a good and reliable teacher.

In the Appendix on Teachers and Groups at the end of the book comes what I consider to be the best part of all. Ms Johnson agrees that the journey of initiation does not depend on participating in a group. However, the support and wisdom from a group and a good teacher can be invaluable. But there are many false teachers out there. She gives some commonsense guidelines for the search.

Such things as questioning authority and believing nothing at face value are basic tools of discernment. Rigorous investigation is required. Your own core values are also essential. Some teachers have their own, self aggrandising agenda which involves creating a ‘following’ and will react negatively to being challenged by a student. This is a hallmark of a teacher to avoid. Ms Johnson goes on to list the signs of spiritual seduction, then the hallmarks of a good teacher. Readers, please pay close attention to this Appendix!

There are many books on spiritual initiation and others on the Medicine wheel, but this one I found to be well organised and extremely useful for both the newly intentioned as well as those who have been distracted, disheartened, stumbled or lost their way.

It is an intensely practical book that will help you take the first step or jump back into the Wheel.

– Reviewed by Jennifer Hoskins in New Dawn 124

THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF CARLOS CASTANEDA

THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF CARLOS CASTANEDA

By William Patrick Patterson

Published by Arete Communications
290 pages, paperback


Who was Carlos Castaneda? 20th century shaman, anthropological huckster or spiritual leader?

To this day, no one really knows the real Castaneda, but William Patterson goes closest with this book shining light on one of the most mysterious men of the last 50 years.

Castaneda has enthralled generations of readers since the publication of his first book The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, with all his subsequent books being bestsellers. However, little is known about the man himself.

Born and raised in Peru, Castaneda fled from the death of his mother (and a pregnant girlfriend), arriving in Southern California in the early 1950’s. He attends Los Angeles Community College and UCLA, where he first presented the thesis that would become The Teachings of Don Juan to his teacher, the revered Harold Garfinkel.

Following the publication of his first book, his star rose, but his personality and movements became increasingly fluid. He produced many more books, gained a highly devout cult following, and invented a spiritual exercise program (Tensegrity) before his death from liver cancer in 1997.

All that time he rarely talked about himself, and although he weathered storm after storm of journalists wanting proof of Don Juan’s existence, he merely shrugged off all insistence that his books were nothing more than a conglomeration of influences he had molded together over the years.

As interesting as the books he wrote is Castaneda’s influence over a small group of women, who were known as his ‘witches’. They catered to every whim he demanded, but were powerful in their own right, producing books, giving lectures, and conducting seminars all over the United States. They tie themselves into his mystery, claiming to be powerful spirits and devout followers, willing to die for Carlos.

Upon the death of Castaneda, five of the most well known witches, Florinda Donner Grau, Taisha Abelar, Nury Alexander, Kylie Lundahl and Talia Bey, disappeared without a trace. Nury’s remains were found near the site of her abandoned car in Death Valley in 2006, seven years after her disappearance. It is generally believed the others committed suicide, perhaps successfully following their teacher into other dimensions.

If one digs deep enough, one sees many influences running through Castaneda’s work. From the dreamy poetical musings of Anais Nin, to the Fourth Way exercises of G.I. Gurdjieff and many philosophical and anthropological examples in-between, Patterson unveils some of the mystery surrounding the enigma that is Castaneda.

Castaneda did not want to be remembered as simply a man. He wanted his ideas to live on, and clearly, he has succeeded in that.

The line between fact and fiction in the life of Castaneda has been a deliberate move, in order to spread the mystical impact of Don Juan’s teachings, and to help the reader cast of the cloak of accepted reality.

In order to truly understand Castaneda and Don Juan, one must see fact and fiction as inseparable, and get rid of the identities thrust upon them by society and psychology.

In explaining Castaneda’s ideas, Patterson does a nice overview, but with 30 years of active publication and 12 books to his name, summarising everything Castaneda was about would be next to impossible. The biographical aspects are very interesting, but as so little was known about the man, the stories themselves are few and far between.

I recommend this book to the hardcore Castaneda fan. Anyone else interested in Carlos Castaneda would be best off starting with The Teachings of Don Juan and moving on from there, if they dare…

Padding out the book is Daniel Brinton’s 1984 essay ‘Nagualism in Native American Folklore and History’, which proved to be a fascinating read. It is full of examples from early texts written just after the conquest of the Americas by the Spanish and is a must read for anyone interested in Native American shamanism.

– Reviewed by Chard Currie in New Dawn 122

SALVIA DIVINORUM

SALVIA DIVINORUM

Doorway to Thought-Free Awareness

By J.D. Arthur


Published by Park Street Press
144 pages, paperback

Salvia Divinorum: Doorway to Thought-free Awareness

Salvia Divinorum, a hallucinogenic plant of the Mint family, is illegal in most Western countries.

Like most plants used over thousands of years for divination and therapeutic practices, Salvia Divinorum is deemed too dangerous for the general populace. While the occasional death has arisen from Salvia use, it remains a misunderstood hallucinogen, with little or no research on its make up and effects.

In his new book, J.D. Arthur dispels some of the myths and dangers surrounding this plant. He recounts his own history and insights made while experimenting with this plant.

Arthur begins the book with a disclaimer, warning of the dangers of Salvia’s use to those under 18, and to those without prior experience with hallucinogens. All hallucinogens can seriously impact developing brains and of course there’s always the possibility your conception of reality will be obliterated.

For almost the entirety of the book, Arthur recounts his experiences in detail. Good trips, bad trips, recurring themes and the like.

The meticulous detail he kept in his journals would make any hardened pothead blush, as he discovers and dissects the worlds he is drawn into with almost every Salvia trip.

Salvia was primarily used in Central and South America by shamans to induce altered states of mind. They would cross into the spirit world to seek advice from their ancestors.

Arthur seems to have taken its history to heart, as he constantly refers to meeting people who appear to be Mexican, South American or Caribbean in appearance. One might argue this is the result of prior ideas formulating present experience, but in reality this happens all day every day, even when you are sober.

Later in the book, Arthur attempts to clear this way of thinking up with the idea that reality is purely subjective, and we cannot help but build our world based on ideas and experiences we have already come across.

Think dear reader, about being made aware of something completely new, something outside your sphere of experience. Under the influence of a drug like Salvia, you might never be the same again.

Interestingly, the author starts to believe he is being pulled into the world of the dead with every smoke of the Salvia laden pipe. These spirits, he claims, do not communicate with words, but have their own language more related to body language, psychic power and observable intent.

More than once, Arthur recounts how the spirits know he is not dead and that he is merely visiting their realm, with some spirit children memorably calling him ‘The Meat in the Chair’, given he always takes his trip while sitting in a comfy old chair in a work shed at the back of his rural property.

One of the biggest no-no’s Arthur commits is that he does not have a sober sitter present to keep an eye on his physical body while his consciousness is dragged to other dimensions.

Even the spirits advise him against this, but he ends up paying little heed and barrels on all by his lonesome. Not the best idea when experimenting with hallucinogens.

His explanation of the affects of Salvia are second to none, and prepare the reader quite well if they choose to experiment with this hallucinogen.

The book is a quick read, as most of its pages are journal entries of his trips. In the final chapters, Arthur attempts to explain his experiences with ideas on subjective reality and how Salvia breaks down forms, language, and the conditioning of our worldviews.

However, if you want true meat on the ideas of the perceived and the perceiver, go to Krishnamurti, Timothy Leary or Robert Anton Wilson. As for plant based consciousness expansion, read Carlos Castaneda.

Arthur’s book walks the razor’s edge of being relatable and outlandish. Everyone’s trips are different, and as any hallucinogen experimenter knows, if you cannot tell your stories right, you lose your audience and muddle them up in your own head.

Salvia Divinorum: Doorway to Thought-Free Awareness is insightful and readable. More on the history of the plant would have been welcome, and do not expect it to be any kind of substitute for your own experiences. At best, let it be a guide, a doorway in itself, to bigger and better things.

– Reviewed by Chard Currie in New Dawn 121