Shane Knox AKA Shadowhawk (was Shaman developing a modern edge)

[debbieredbear]

Shaman: developing a modern edge

Cyber shaman
- To learn more about Shane Knox — ShadowHawk, call 866-2248 or visit http://shamanshadow.com.

- For information about Natural Escapes Body Therapeutics, call 865-6996 or visit www.natural escapes.net.



By Linda Leicht
News-Leader
Feb. 19, 2005

http://springfield.news-leader.com/lifestyle/today/20050219-Shamandevelopin.html


Shamans are found in traditional cultures around the world — African witch doctors in huts, Celtic pagan priests standing in open fields, American Indian medicine men in sweat lodges.Shane Knox plans to work in an office.

Knox, who uses the name ShadowHawk, says he has been a shaman for 25 years. He studies and applies traditional native American, Asian, African, Celtic and other methods, but he is firmly planted in the modern world.

"I may very well do a traditional ... smudging and blessing with prayers to Grandmother and Grandfather, but I will have booked that appointment on my cell phone and entered it in my electronic organizer," says Knox. "Now we're going to do it at the office."

Moving into an office seemed natural to Knox as his business grew to include more clients, CDs and a Web site.

"My personal mission is to take all of these traditionally honored modalities of helping people and bring them into the modern age," says Knox, sitting in front of a desk covered with plants, crystals, a cell phone and a Hewlett-Packard computer.

Knox plans to be in his new digs by month's end. He will share space with longtime friend and massage therapist Sheila Johnson, owner of Natural Escapes Body Therapeutics on East Battlefield Road.

"My basic concept ... is to help people relax," says Johnson, leaning back on a comfortable brown leather sofa in the waiting room of her salon, the natural sounds of birds and running water filling the air. "The world is complex and fast paced. It's hard to get quiet," she says. "Shane is very good at ... getting you quiet."

The combination of a shaman — who offers guided meditation, intuitive readings, soul retrieval and energy work — and traditional spa services seems natural to Johnson, whose office is filled with representations of angels.

She also finds it a natural fit with traditional Christianity. A churchgoing Christian herself, Johnson believes her own clients will feel comfortable with the match.

"When doing massage you have a whole attitude of acceptance," she says. "You accept everyone where they are. That's why there are so many different religions; everyone is at a different level. There's room for everyone's beliefs."

Knox also has a Christian background. Raised in a Baptist church, he still remembers his "calling" as a young boy of about 10 singing in church.

"I felt the call of Spirit and was saved," he says. "I felt for the first time a true connection and closeness to God. I wanted more."

His quest began, leading him to various churches, faiths and interests from Zen Buddhism to metaphysics. By the time he was a student at Ash Grove High School, he was doing "shamanic rituals out in the yard."

While he was a youngster he met a woman he calls "Barb" who told him he was a reincarnated shaman who had more work to do in this life. Barb and her sister, whom Knox describes as "medicine women of the Black Bear Clan of the Lumbees," gave him the name ShadowHawk. The Lumbees are a tribe in the eastern United States.

Knox says he continues to respect the faith of his youth as he participates in rituals that recall other belief systems. "Even though I ... use words like Grandmother and Grandfather to refer to God, I believe it's a gift from God," he says.

"I'm not afraid of standing up in the middle of the Bible Belt and saying, 'I'm a shaman and I'm going to do my work,'" says Knox.

'Try on new ideas'

The word shaman comes from Evenki, a Tungusic language of Siberia, and means "a priest or priestess who uses magic for the purpose of curing the sick, divining the hidden and controlling event," or anyone who "resembles a shaman."

While definitions differ, Knox says a shaman is "somebody who acts as a go-between for the physical and spiritual realms, and who is said to have particular powers such as prophecy and healing."

Almost all cultures around the world have shamans, he says. They have different names and their emphasis varies, but they all connect the "people and the spirit world."

For shamans such as Knox — modern day Americans in a fast-paced world — all those traditions are mixed together.

"Each has his own specialty, but the core thing is that they are the people who can alter their consciousness, connect with the divine, the all, the that-which-is-beyond-the-physical-limitations," he says.

[debbieredbear]

Meditations, intuitive readings and even healings are now offered in climate-controlled offices, on CDs, Web sites and over e-mail.

Michelle Pillen, a psychologist and author who lives on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, seeks out Knox for his readings, a way she manages to "stay sane" amid a busy life of work and family. They connect every few months by phone.

"Shane has helped me to accept my path and live my life more fully," she says. "Sounds corny, but it's true."

She says moving into Natural Escapes is a good business move because "it will give folks like me, who aren't fluent in New Age ways, more opportunities to try on new ideas and new experiences."

Mindy Spitz of Springfield agrees. She has been consulting Knox for years, but she sees his new location as a place where "people would feel more comfortable to visit."

For Spitz, who works in public relations, having a "regular place and schedule" will also make it easier for her to access his services.

Fitting the ancient spirituality of a shaman into a square office may seem an odd fit, but Spitz isn't concerned. "While (Knox) is in tune with other-worldly powers, we also have to be part of the real world," she says. "The real world means doing business. It's part of life."

'spirit guides'

Knox lights his smudge pot — filled with cedar, sage and tobacco — and blesses the room while moving the smoke with a "spirit fan" made of colorful feathers. He offers prayers to the Grandmother and Grandfather as the smoke covers his computer screen. He turns to a shelf covered with crystals, totems and a pipe wrapped in animal skin and leather.

"The sage gets rid of the negativity. The cedar calls for good, and the tobacco is an offering to the spirits," he says.

Then he sits down in a high backed office chair, tucking his legs up lotus style, and begins handling a deck of tarot cards with American Indian symbols. The cards offer focus but no information themselves. Bouncing back and forth, the leather medicine bag swinging from his neck, Knox begins an intuitive reading, barely looking at the neatly displayed cards.

He mentions disagreements at work, projects at home, health problems and a dying friend, all spilling out of him in a matter-of-fact way. It is his "spirit guides" who provide the information. He offers no solutions and no opinions.

"My guides and my intuition tell me" what to say, Knox explains.

In the background, he plays a CD of pipes and drums, taking the place of the traditional drummer. His cell phone interrupts the reading. He smiles apologetically and turns it off.

The computer screen shows the shamanshadow.com Web site where music and meditation CDs are available.

"We're introducing the cyber shaman aspect of what I do," says Knox. "Yes, we're going to honor tradition ... but we're going to bring it into the modern day."

He gently moves a rattle, tied with a small fetishes of bird and bear claw, to its place on the shelf, then flips open his cell phone to see who called.

"We're living in a high-tech world," he says. "There's no reason why those two things can't be married."

[educatedindian]

I wrote to the paper and their Religion Editor answered back:

Subject: Re: Would-Be Shamans and "Tribes"
To: "Linda Leicht" <lleicht@news-leader.com>
   
Dear Ms. Leicht,
Please see my comments below, which are marked by>>>.

Linda Leicht <lleicht@news-leader.com> wrote:
Dr. Carroll,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the shaman story. While I appreciate
your concerns about a "New Age imposter" claiming some American Indian
credentials, I never said that in the story.

>>>Mr. Knox claimed to have a sacred pipe gifted to him from a Native medicine man. If you'd done your homework, you'd know we don't hand out sacred pipes like party favors to white pretenders. The true number of sacred pipes is extremely small, often only one per tribe or band.

In fact, Knox clearly said he took things from all sorts of traditions.

>>>"Take" is certainly the appropriate word, I grant you.

The reader can decide for himself if he is comfortable with such a belief system. Also, I never called Knox's pipe "sacred," nor did I quote any "Lakota ceremonial phrase" other than to
quote Knox as saying he says prayers to "Grandmother and Grandfather."

>>>Your story includes Mr. Knox using the Lakota ceremonial phrase "Mitakuye Oyasin." See this link for how he is misusing the phrase.
http://users.pandora.be/gohiyuhi/nafps/articles/art04.htm

I was very careful not to imply that Knox is connected with any traditional faith system  whether Native American, Celtic or Christian. I am also aware of the sensitivity that any of those groups have about people who are not legitimate members using their traditional methods of worship. But in our culture, religious synchronicity is not uncommon.

>>It is not synchronicty for the simple reason that he is not imitating Native beliefs, only carrying out the New Age minstrel show version of them.

Even Christian worship is guilty of it. I don't think Knox's "cyber shaman" is a serious challenge to
legitimate shamans of any of the traditions mentioned in the article.

>>>Again, your phraseology is a good example of what your fail to understand. Native peoples do not have "shamans", that is the outsider's term for elders or medicine people, whether used by New Agers, anthropologists, or journalists.

>>>The pseudo-shaman movement does an enormous amount of damage to Native-white relations by making it far more difficult for you to understand us as we actually are. Outside of Hollywood, no other source spreads more misconceptions about Native than the so called "New Age."

>>>See this collection of articles if you doubt me. The second set, General Articles on Cultural Theft, is especially relevant for surveying the damage, spiritual, emotional, social, and even the loss of life caused by such people.
http://users.pandora.be/gohiyuhi/articles/index.htm

[educatedindian]

Pt 2:

I think that you would prefer that a "better journalist" simply refuse to write anything about the likes of Mr. Knox.

>>>Not at all. I simply wished you had brought up this issue in your article. It would have been far more informative than the simplistic praising of this naive man who is, as I said before, as much a victim as a victimizer.

>>>In fact, let me say clearly that I hope you *do* write on this subject, this time focusing on the harm done to Natives and Native-white relations.

>>>You have a subject ripe for investigation in your very own backyard, as it were. William "Blue Otter" Anderson is based in Cabool, MO, and has likely victimized many of your own readers with his deceptions. I strongly urge you to write an expose of this man.

>>>You also have a number of pseudo- and would-be "tribes" within your state taking advantage of those with distant Native ancestry, especially those with a family story about a Cherokee ancestor. There are literally thousands of these poor souls in your state who have lost huge sums of money given to fake "tribes" who charge for membership, such as Lola Scholl and her "Western Cherokee Nation."

You have a right to that opinion, but even "New Agers" have a right to be heard.

>>>New Agers who do not exploit Native beliefs certainly do, even if it is, as Hopi elder Wendy Rose points out, largely a consumerism phenomena and not a religious movement.

>>>But there is no First Amendment right to commit fraud by impersonating something you are not, anymore than someone has the right to call themselves a rabbi or Catholic priest when they are not and gather donations or perform dubious ceremonies. I direct this more to characters such as Anderson more than Mr. Knox. Knox likely got taken advantage of by someone posing as a Lakota elder.

I cover many different faith traditions, including Native American. Each has its own challenges, but I try to give them a fair airing on their own terms, rather than finding others who disagree with them. Would you have me seek out a Jew who finds the Christian exploitation of their traditional religious beliefs a blasphemy every time I do a story on some Christian _expression of faith?

>>>Once again, you show a lack of the most basic understanding of New Age exploitation of Native beliefs.

>>>They imitate a *stereotype* and propagate a *fantasy* of the Indian as Noble Savage, dressed up as enlightenment and "honoring."

>>>A true parallel would not be a Jew who is offended by Christianity's use of their beliefs (something I've never encountered or even heard of BTW.)

>>>A true parallel would be someone Jewish offended by the Aryan Nation describing themselves as the "true Jews," which they do in their own literature.

I try to be sensitive to those concerns, however. Which is what I did in the story about Mr. Knox.

Linda Leicht
Religion Editor
Springfield News-Leader
651 Boonville Ave.
Springfield, MO 65806

>>>I believe you did try, somewhat. I also believe you still did not do a very good job, and hope you will do better in the future.

>>>Let me encourage simply to write with more depth and do more investigation instead what was close to being a puff piece on Mr. Knox.

>>>I also hope your paper will have the courage to print my objections to your story, and especially to do investigative pieces on such crass criminals as William Anderson or Lola Scholl.
Thank you for listening,
Dr. Al Carroll

[AlaskaGrl]

I located a picture of him here "smudging"
in his office I presume...  

http://springfield.news-leader.com/lifestyle/religion/index_new.shtml

I found amusing the image and the tag line:

"Tarot cards offer Knox focus but no real information"  

to which I have to smugly reply....  then he does not know how to use them.. but that is beside the point.    I see in this article another Pagan playing at this and that at the cost of others for money and a nice office.  These people don't understand they can't mish mash things together, they don't want to understand.  

I know it is very difficult to reason with people like this.  I don't like to see people playing "Witch" and mixing those things in with other systems.  You see that happening out there and it's good sign that the person does not know what the heck they are doing.  Like with the people mixing in the "Skinwalker" things you mentioned elsewhere here.  


Linda.

[debbieredbear]

Oh brother, did you read this part:
"While he was a youngster he met a woman he calls "Barb" who told him he was a reincarnated shaman who had more work to do in this life. Barb and her sister, whom Knox describes as "medicine women of the Black Bear Clan of the Lumbees," gave him the name ShadowHawk. The Lumbees are a tribe in the eastern United States."

A reincarnated shaman. How special. One of the local frauds convinced the more money then brains crowd around here that his 14 year old daughter was a reincarnation of a 2000 year old medicine woman. Basically pimped the kid off. Now he has a restraining order against his now 21 year old daugter who is on drugs and angry.

[educatedindian]

That reporter really didn't do her job. I was trying to find out if that "Lumbee Black Bear Clan" that "Barb" was part of was for real and found this:

http://www.uncp.edu/nativemuseum/publications/right.htm
"...the kinship network on which they can depend.  One of the first things Lumbees who don't know each other ask is: "Who are your people?"  This is a way to situate folks in a known network of families and clans (commonly called "sets" among modern Lumbees).

Another surviving element of traditional culture is the central role of spirituality.  One of the first things noticed by European travelers in the "New World" was the great importance of religion.  This traditional Indian kind of spirituality cannot easily be separated from the other, more commonplace, elements of culture.  Church is not only pervasive among the Lumbee as a spiritual matter; it defines social and economic matters, and influences political matters.  Despite the fact that Christianity generally replaced traditional Indian religion during European conquest, spirituality itself continues to be an integral part of  the Lumbee universe, and a more broadly experienced phenomenon."

[JosephSWM]

The predominant Native population here in Baltimore is Lumbee. I have had Lumbee friends for 30 years., etc. I can tell you that Lumbees do not have Clans in the traditional sense. When I meet another Cherokee for the first time we usually first run through family names and then ask each other's Clan. Lumbee do this too but stop at the Clan asking. This is not a fault or anything I am trying to say negatively, its just that whatever Clan system they had has been long lost.

Also almost everyone of them is Southern Baptist. Our Indian center here in Baltimore was started by Lumbees in the Southern Baptist church right down the street from where our current center is.

Joseph

[AlaskaGrl]

He has a message board at the below link.

http://pub9.bravenet.com/forum/720709514

[AlaskaGrl]

He has a message board at the below link.

http://pub9.bravenet.com/forum/720709514

===

"Part Cherokee trained Lakota"
http://shamanshadow.com/thought.html

"The Tribe
  I often get asked what tribe I come from. I don’t answer in terms of ancestry or Native American tribes. Instead, I start talking about my friends, my mother and brother, my husband Scott (yes I said husband, please assume the obvious), our animal companions and so on. I guess the traditional answer would be “part Cherokee trained Lakota???, but I kind of have a problem with all that. What part of me exactly is it that is Cherokee, my big toe or possibly my left eye? It’s just too hard to pin down""

[shadowhawk]

wow, what a bitter bunch of insecure individuals.  since when in Spirit exclusive to the Native Americans?  When did it become wrong to help people?  What gives any of you the right to comment on my work or my abilities without having experienced or even met me in person?

i have dedicated my life to my shamanic path. I didn't charge people at all for twenty plus years.  did you know that?  did you care to find out?  

the pipe that was questioned was gifted to me as i am the elder of my tribe.  It came directly from the sacred catlinite mine.  you can doubt the authenticity but that doesn't change the truth.

i feel fortunate that i answer only to Grandfather and Grandmother for my work and my path.  i am thankful that Spirit isn't limited to those who would hold onto it like a child holding a toy in a sandbox, afraid that someone else might get to use it.  

Shame on you all for bashing people you do not know.  Shame on you for presuming to pass judgement on anyones path.  You say that everyone should honor your path and your ways and yet you refuse to offer that same courtesy.  

Again i ask, who are you to do this?

It is my prayer to Grandfather that he will open your eyes to the world we live in today.  That he will soothe your troubled minds and allow you to focus on your own paths instead of worrying so much about mine.  

I would like to thank you all for the energy.  Your comments here have shown me how important my work is.  How necessary it is to show people that not everyone that honors the old ways would keep it from them.  That not all of us believe that spirituality is exclusive or limited to the "chosen few".  You have helped me to know my path more fully.  

be blessed
ShadowHawk

[Barnaby_McEwan]

since when in Spirit exclusive to the Native Americans?

We're not all Indians here, and please drop the newage jargon. 'Spirituality' is still a perfectly usable word; no one here's saying that spirituality is exclusive to any group of people. What Indian people here say, as I understand it, is that their religions *are* exclusive to them, and cannot be understood by people who don't belong to an Indian community. I can see you don't like that, but that's tough.

When did it become wrong to help people?

Feeding sugary fantasies to your clients is helping them? Messing with stuff you don't understand is helping? Perpetuating noble-savage stereotypes is helping who, exactly?

What gives any of you the right to comment on my work or my abilities without having experienced or even met me in person?

Frankly I'd rather not 'experience' you in person. Anyway, it's called freedom of speech, and it's not necessary to meet you to know that what you're doing is wrong. There's plenty of evidence of that on your website.

the pipe that was questioned was gifted to me as i am the elder of my tribe.

It's beyond belief that you're an elder of any tribe except maybe the Wannabes.

i am thankful that Spirit isn't limited to those who would hold onto it like a child holding a toy in a sandbox, afraid that someone else might get to use it. Shame on you all for bashing people you do not know.  Shame on you for presuming to pass judgement on anyones path.  You say that everyone should honor your path and your ways and yet you refuse to offer that same courtesy.

You're not just talking about the people on this message board. You're talking about the many Indian community leaders who've been protesting about people like you for decades. Implying that they are childish shows the hypocrisy of your demand that everyone respect your 'path'.

[shadowhawk]

make no mistake.  i am talking exclusively about the people on this message board.  hate board is more acurrate.  you all live in a life of negativity.  you spend your time speaking ill of people you don't know instead of actually helping people to understand your point.  you speak of acting childish....do you read your own posts?  do you realize how you come across?  you are not helping your cause one bit.  

as i said before, you are all helping me to see how much my work and my teachings are needed.  when you make your comments about me you must understand you are making comments about everyone that has contributed to my path.  many true blood natives, that by bashing me you are also hurting.  

again i say, shame on you all.  i was never  aware that the traditional teachings of any tribe was to redicule the earnest.  you all speak of me not doing things the "right" way or of not being a full native.  is it traditional native american to use a computer to insult others?  i would think not.  

you point out that "shaman" is not a native american term.  why then would you all be so offened that i call myself one?  it's a siberian russian term for a person that is the go between for the people and the spirit world.  

in truth i have to wonder why you care what i do.  i never claimed to be a native american.  i simply said that i honor the traditional ways.  you take my honoring as an insult.  thankfully, grandfather isn't as petty.  

keep up the posts.  they are helping me to know that my path is so very right for me.

to be the subject of a hate site is inspiring in some ways....again, i thank you.

shadowhawk

[debbieredbear]

Wow, talk about insecurities! Seems to me if you REALLY felt you are on the right path, you wouldn't come here to attack people. Oh, and why not ask Arvol Looking Horse what he thinks about Cherokees practicing Lakota ways.

[educatedindian]

Mr. Knox...

(No, I absolutely will not call you by your Faux "Indian" name. True Indian names have to be EARNED and given out by elders at name giving ceremonies. Only a wannabe thinks they can give themselves what they naively think are "Indian names" but instead come across as someone who's seen Dances With Wolves too many times.

Your "Indian name" is, frankly, laugh out loud funny, like calling yourself Crystal Light Warrior or Rainbow Eagle.

And Indians will continue to laugh at the pretensions of non-Indians who don't realize how foolish they look, just like Blacks have every right to laugh at white kids into hip hop who try to "talk Black" or what they think is Black.)

Mr. Knox, as I said in my letter to the editor of your Springfield paper, I honestly think you are as much a victim as you are a victimizer who carries on the cycle of abuse.

I truly feel sorry for you, which is why I wrote to the Religion Editor of that paper.

I saw an oportunity to reach out and try and keep others from being badly abused and lied to as has happened to you.

And I still think that is possible here. You have the chance, if you truly have the maturity and openmindedness you claim to have, to see what you have done wrong and how you have been misled by one charlatan after another...

...and are now doing in turn to others, largely because of your own ignorance of what Natives are truly like and what Natives truly believe.

Your friend "Barb" is almost certainly a fraud. She is NOT a Lumbee medicine woman, elder, or even anyone with any knowledge of Lumbee ways.

Lumbees DONT have clans. Her "Black Bear Clan" is an invention of hers.

Similarly, the "sacred pipe" you allegedly were gifted with is just a pipe. The true number of sacred pipes is TINY, often only one per tribe.

Think about it: Why would any respected elder hand out pipes to outsiders like a party favor?

Being a self styled "psychic" is also not something practiced by ANY Native tradition I'm aware of.

"Native tarot cards" are also nothing but a lie. Tarot is EUROPEAN.

If you truly want to understand your alleged Cherokee heritage, why are you dong this confused mishmash of white STEREOTYPES of what Indians are like?

Your Cherokee ancestors must truly be ashamed of what you are doing now, and praying you find your way back to a genuine path.

Instead of your immature name calling, negativity, and lashing out in such a childish way, why don't you try to LEARN the TRUTH about your heritage?
Dr. Al Carroll
History Dept.
St. Phillip's College