Awa Belrose, vendor of ceremonies

[Ingeborg]

Quoted for documentary reasons from the thread on Larson Medicinehorse:

Dear Sir or Madam,

while surfing  on the net last week I had the bad surprise to find my name quoted as follows  :
"Larson Medicinehorse - New Age Frauds & Plastic Shamans
Larson Medicinehorse was Sundance Chief and Keeper of the Crow/Shoshoni Sundance Society (an „office" he retired from due to health reasons) ... A site püblished in French and German by one Awa Belrose: http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/sur_moi.htm. Quote."

What shall a person finding this quote  think when they read such a thing for the first time? Did you try to contact me to get nearer information about your allegation that my "spiritual" work is a fraud? That if I well understand (english is not my mother tong) my sweat lodges authorisation would be fake? On which FACTS do you base this DEFAMATION?

To your defamation I want to answer this :
Roland Scholz was my teacher for sweat lodges. He who was a pupil and a dear friend of Larson Medicin Horse gave me the authorisation to lead Sweat Lodges as he learned it himself from Larson that is to say in the same tradition. Roland spent a long time with Larson Medicine Horse and did the Sun Dance in America with him. I had personally the chance to meet Larson Medicin Horse and to  serve as firewoman in lots of the Sweat Lodge he made during the Summer Camp 2008 in Scheuren (Germany). We even smoked the Sacred Pipe all together during this Summer Camp and he "blessed" my older daughter! Larson came in 2013 again to Scheuren but I couldn't attend because I just born my last daughter.

I am not sure what to think about a procedure / a site / an organisation in which the names and the work of honest (I hope for most of us) people are fouled, discrediting them without giving them a possibility to answer. I find it good to flush out the "bad ones" in the "spiritual" scene but I find it even better to try to speak directly with people instead of lynching them on the net. If they choose not to answer, it is then another matter.

This is the reason why I am asking you to cancel my name from your page / to cancel the page on which my name appears and to address me excuses on your site. This matter is a real shame for all people who try to make our world a bit better.

Being sure you wil understand me, I thank you in advance.

Awa Belrose  www  seelenwerkstatt  org

(Link altered by me)

[Ingeborg]

Ms Belrose runs a Nuage business at www dot seelenwerkstatt dot org , selling indigenous ceremonies like Vision Quest, sweatlodges, but also things named „medicine walk“ and „walk a way“:

http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/visionssuche.htm

Vision Quest is a ritual to support a chance to inner growth. It helps to „give birth“ to new steps for life. It functions like meditative work in which one looks at oneself in the large mirror of nature.

Vision Quest itself comes from North American Indians who still practice it today in the way of „Hanblecheyapi“: „Crying for a Vision“. This ritual can be found all over the world. The wise ones of all cultures practice a retreat into loneliness when they are looking for an answer for themselves or their community. The most well-known: Moses, Jesus, and Buddha went into retreats to realise who they were and receive clarity about their aims.

The ritual has been adapted to our Western culture with keeping its renewing power.

No price tags mentioned. Belrose uses the Lakota term for Vision Quest, not a Crow word, so she belongs into the ranks of yet another vendor of a twisted form of Lakota spirituality.

Belrose also sells sweatlodges to her clients:

http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/schwitzhuette.htm

The Inipi ceremony cleanses us, makes us free and one with ourselves and the world. Peace will come into ourselves and into the world. In order to enter the lodge we have to bend over. This is to remind us that we are nothing compared to the Great Father or Mother Earth.

Yet another Lakota term, inipi, used by Belrose. I doubt that Lakota spirituality knows the concept of a 'Great Father' as used by Belrose in this paragraph.

According to her site, Belrose advertises three sweatlodges in 2015:

Jan 31, 2015: Imbolc – women's sweatlodge. Topic: Re-awakening light, cleansing

May 9, 2015: Beltane – sweatlodge (mixed?) Topic: Fire, sensuousness.

Oct 31, 2015: Samhain – women's sweatlodge. Topic: ancestors.

Fee: € 40 plus Give away or € 5 for the fire woman. Reductions available.

So Belrose mixes Lakota spirituality with some generic Celtic bosh.
As her tutor Scholz learned from Larson Medicinehorse, Belrose, too, sells 'mixed' lodges for both male and female clients, without worrying too much whether this will be in congruence with indigenous ways. Oh wait – stuff has been 'adapted to our Western culture'.
It has been indeed – indgenous nations practicing the sweatlodge do not sell it.

The „Medicine Walk“:

http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/medizinwanderung.htm

The Medicine Walk is the smallest format of the quest for meaning I offer. It takes place in nature. Nature is the most suitable ground for healing and has the ability to straighten us in our power: it accepts us the way we are.

The walks are „outings“ and work in the way of contemplating nature. You will fast during these walks. Fasting refines your perception, gives a valve to your flow of emotions and helps you to clear the sense of all which is inside you and at the same time detoxifies your body. By making your mind come to rest and soothing your will, fasting leads you into a simple state of being in which you feel connected to nature. You can experience the power of life which carries and supports you. […]
Fee (energy exchange): € 105 to 150 according to self-assessment – reductions possible.

I suppose a non-ceremony like walking 'through nature' while hungry may easily be obtained somewhat cheaper than € 100/150.

There is another comment on the Vision Quest on her site:

http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/etwas_fuer_dich.htm

Difficult transition, situation of decision, loss of meaning
The Vision Quest may be an interesting instrument in all kinds of situations of transition and/or coming to a decision which need the will (opinion, wish?) of your heart, of your soul is necessary (new orientation, marriage, parenthood, letting go something gone etc.)

This turns the ceremony into some kind of an alternative for card readings or palmistry, to be done whenever there are a few minutes of time, or probably a free day or two over a weekend.


Belrose also targets adolescents:

http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/walkaway_deutsch.htm

13-16 years. Three days for yourself.
June 6, 2014 – June 9, 2014
What does that mean?
The ritual „Walk a Way“ accompanies you on your way to becoming an adult. This is not about giving you advice and recipes, treat you like a baby (once again...). Quite the contrary: perhaps this will be the first time you take over responsibility for yourself. You prove to yourself and to the adults that you are able to do so and are able to lead your life independently.

How does that happen?
After a common preparation, you will retreat into nature for one night and one day. During your stay in nature, you will take time to think about where you stand, your being as a human, about your strong and weak points. Parents and friends may be around to greet you on your return if you wish so.
You will report about your experience in nature. The adults support all changes which manifested within you.

Fees: € 180
Accomodation, food, and rental of premises: € 90

What's this?!?!? A fee of € 180 for telling someone to bugger off into the woods for the next day or so? And accom for putting the kid up in the bushes? What food? What premises must be rented? I mean, perhaps we've got some funny ways over here in Europe, but as far as I know, we don't have to pay entrance fees for a walk in the woods.

[Ingeborg]

Then there may be some reason why Ms Belrose is somewhat miffed at finding her name mentioned at NAFPS – it might stand in the way of her earning some money doing Newage fairs, which she seems to have taken up in recent years:

In 2013, she took part in the „Ganesha Expo Bonn“
http://www.ganesha-expo.de/ganesha-expo/r%C3%BCckblick/bonn-05-06-10-2013/
Her profile as a lecturer was deleted from this site, but there is a complete brochure of the 2013 lecturers here:

http://issuu.com/vigeno/docs/broschuere_bonn_web/15

Belrose made an appearance with many other German lecturers and exhibitors, as well as some international ones, like Chris Griscom.

One lecturer praised the alleged advantages of a material called clinoptilolite (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinoptilolite  ). It is sold as a dietary supplement in the altmed scene, but 'under the counter' gets promoted as a cure for all kinds of serious ailments, from Parkinson's to cancer. It is also quite a fad for 'cleansing' and 'detox' treatments.
In short, clinoptilolite is a mineral, today used e.g. as an additive to asphalt, or in kitty litter. So if you'd like to transform yourself into a few metres of road or fancy rolling about in your cat's litterbox, this is something you shouldn't miss.

Another fair Belrose did was the „Esoterik-Tage 2014“ [Esoteric Days] in Cologne, April 4-6:

http://www.esoterikmesse.de/esoterikmesse/cms/Vortragsprogramme/VP_Koeln_F2014.pdf?PHPSESSID=575e2283285e7978cebacc5c82518254

Belrose did two lectures there. Other lectures were done on card reading, on messages from the spiritual world and energy of the new era (seems to be Kryon garbage), on Spirit Drumming, a lecture on „ How can I best protect myself against psychic/astral attacks? How can I establish that I am influenced by non-material energy / spirits?“ by a lady who claims she was a „Channel Medium of the New Time“ (some more Kryon sh!t), on „Egyptian mysteries and healing arts“. A veritable Princess Elina Kuragina spent 40 minutes lecturing on „Into the Future Happy and Healthy and full of Love – Recognizing the Matrix of one's own body and acitivating the programme of happiness.“ The ancient healing knowledge of Siberian shamans. More lectures on remote viewing, astrology, palmistry etc. 

One lady by the name of Annette Casimir lectured on „christocentric healing“. She belongs to an evangelical cult and tours the Nuage circuit and particularly Nuage fairs to do lectures to lure in some more victims. The cult is lead rather authoritarian. They have caused unfavourable headlines for two things: a) they attempt to heal gay persons and, in the city of Hamburg, have got a medical doctor doing this and giving advice to patients how they can cheat their health insurance to pay for it; b) one of their ministers runs an alleged project rescueing adolescent prostitutes who then join their cult and are presented publically to tell the world they were saved by Jesus. At least in one case I know of it has been proven that the entire heart-breaking story was a bunch of malicious lies – instead of being the daughter of a knocking shop owner who sold the young lady's services when she still was a child, she grew up with her grandparents who took good care of her. The grandparents are worried about her, since she has mental problems and is in need of medication, but cannot get her out of this cult. Other, serious aid projects for adolescents or prostitutes, BTW, strictly refuse to cooperate with this outfit.

So this is the environment in which Belrose did two lectures.
The first one, of 50 minutes, was on „The Power of Rituals of Transition“.
The second one, of 40 minutes, was titled: „Vision Quest. Starting anew in nature“.


On her website, Belrose provides links to the School of Lost Borders.
Among the literature recommended by Belrose, there are books by Steven Foster and Meredith Little, Serge „Kahili“ King, Mircea Eliade, and on sweatlodges, she recommends „The sacred pipe“ by Hehaka Sepa [sic] which, if I'm not mistaken, is Black Elk. Another recommendation is „The Wind is my mother“ by Bear Heart. 

http://www.seelenwerkstatt.org/literatur_und_links.htm