What is a shaman (mara'akame)?
Shamans are men and women who have a calling to serve as intermediaries between their communities and the gods. Most commonly, they call upon the gods for healing, but they may also engage in other activities to promote the well-being of their people--like petitioning the weather-beings for favorable growing conditions.
In the Huichol language, a shaman is a mara' akame--which literally means 'a singer'! This is because prayers are not spoken so much as sung: music (and especially the heart-felt emotion which underlies it) is especially pleasing to the gods.
How do our communities serve, and be served by, the mara'akame?
This question brings to mind a kind of 'chicken and egg' paradox (also called a 'hen koan'!!): a community cannot exist without a shaman, and a shaman cannot exist without a community. A true community needs someone steeped in a spiritual tradition to provide a deep foundation so that the community can be in alignment with the Divine and therefore flourish. But, a shaman in turn, needs the community to support his or her work--offering material *exchange for that work, as well as providing a kind of recognition that helps the shaman to meet the difficult challenges of their calling.
*The term exchange is core to the Sacred Fire Community. Our western mind has the default mode of trying to take everything it can get and exchange as little as possible in the process. The Sacred Fire Community has as a primary mantra that our happiness depends on the process of joyful exchange: whether offering a piece of wood to the Fire for the warmth and light that it gives; or gratitude for the sacrifice of the plants and animals, rocks and other inanimates to help support and sustain human life. We seem prone to deny, and thus disrespect, our profound dependence--on everything and everyone around us. Come to the community fires for more dialogue and to share in the on-going deepening of this wisdom!
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The head mara'akame of the Sacred Fire Community is Eliot Cowan, author of Plant Spirit Medicine (click on book image below for more information). Eliot, with his plant and animal friends, has reintroduced Plant Spirit Medicine,ancient healing wisdom, to the Western world. Eliot provides guidance and mentorship for spiritual growth and transformation for the entire Sacred Fire Community. Eliot is Tsaurirrikame of the Huichol tradition, Singer of the Song of the Blue Deer. He has been instrumental in instigating the Blue Deer Center in Margaretville, NY (founder and chairman) as well as other mischief throughout the Sacred Fire Community world-wide. We are grateful to Eliot for his care for the global communities.
David Wiley, also a mara'akame in the Huichol tradition, Trabajador del Tiempo of the Nahuatl Weather Working tradition, and shaman with a special role in the Sacred Fire Community, is an ancient soul in a middle-aged body that gifts the Sacred Fire Community with the wisdom of Grandfafther Fire (Tatewari'). David lends his body and voice for the divine Spirit of Fire to speak and offer guidance. David leads numerous types of initiation in Mexico, and is a board member of the Blue Deer Center. This rare bird can be glimpsed in airports around the world, around fire circles anywhere in the world, drinking hot chocolate on the warmest of days.
The mara'akames that serve (and are served by) the Northwest Fire Circle Communities are:
Friends--
As many of you know, I was initiated as a mara'kame (shaman) in the ancient healing tradition of the Huicholes last September. Recently, I completed my post initiation tests and now I'm ready to begin my healing work. Not only that, but the Gods say that I have to do this work if I want to keep living. And I do like to live.
So, this is my offer and plea--please let me bring the wisdom and gifts of the Gods to you for your healing, the healing of your friends, the healing of your children, the healing of your relationships. I don't know how this works or what I will do other than listen to you and to my guidance as it comes from the fire and the wind and through my feathers and then do what must be done.
Healing sessions typically last an hour to an hour and a half. It works best if both you (the one who is seeking healing) and I fast for 12 hours (no food or drink) prior to the work.
An equitable exchange must be made between us for the healing to take effect and so a donation of $75 is suggested. I am not authorized to do remote healing work, so, if it is necessary for me to travel, expenses must be covered.
Those of you who know me know that I am a person of integrity and that I have given my heart and my life to this work. At the same time, it has given me my heart and my life. If you feel that this work can benefit you or someone you know, please contact me by phone at 503-643-2462 or by e-mail at meansitt@yahoo.com
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Larry Messerman has been a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner for 7 years and has been facilitating community fire circles for much of that time. He is an initiated Firekeeper, and in September 2004, he became an initiatated mara'akame (shaman) in the ancestral tradition of the Huichol people of Mexico. Larry lives with his wife Jessica near Sebastapol, California, where they host a community fire circle. Larry is on the board of directors of the
Sacred Fire Community.
Email: lmesserman@gmail.com
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We keep hearing about the Huichols...who are they and why are they important to this community?
The Huichols are a people who primarily live in small villages scattered through the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. Because of their relative remoteness, they have been able to keep alive a shamanic culture that is thousands of generations old. They lack our material comforts, but the Huichols posess a rich spiritual wisdom about living in harmony and balance. Their way of being honors elders--of all walks--animal, plant, mountain, human.
Huichol art is part of their way of being in the world. The Blue Deer Center hosts the Huichol Art Project that fosters respect for Huichol art outside of Mexico.
The Fire Circles have been gifted with ancient Huichol-approved rituals to help 'hold' our communities in a profound way. We are grateful for their kindness in sharing this part of their sacred way of being with us.