A little about me
I am Irish born and raised and currently living on the island of Ireland, my parents, grandparents and ancestors are Celtic through and through both Irish and Scottish. I live in the North of Ireland and I have lived through what we call here the "troubles" the shooting and killings in the name of religion and politics. I am the proud father of 4 grown children and been married for nearly 30 years years to a wonderful lady. And lastly I am a therapist/counselor and a college lecturer for nearly 20 years. It was a good and rewarding career, that I had to leave as my wee wife is now ill and confined to bed and has been these last 8 years.
All my life I have have felt the keen loss of my culture, its wisdom and practices at the hand of christianity of one brand or another, and witnessed tribalism of the worst kind in Ireland, divided along the lines of religion and politics. I was for a time heavily involved christian ministry, but as I studied the bible, in Greek and Hebrew and in it's cultural and historical context, I left that faith and spirituality (won't bore you with the reasons, your probably more than familiar with them
) because of what I discovered there.
I am now exploring the faith and spirituality of "my" ancestors of my country and continent, which is difficult to do, as 2000 years of christianity does not leave much in it's path. But I and many others are doing the best we can, placing what we can together and finding what fits and what was meant.
I look to the commonality of "Native Wisdom" of those peoples across entire globe who have managed to protect what my ancestors could not, to give me some sort of guide. Because even though there are huge differences, there are some common grounds. Thankfully truth is outside all patterns, opinions and dogma and geography.
Thank you for this web page and the work you do.....even though Ireland is am old fashioned and at times parochial country. Money and Shamanism has finally come to my part of the world, and I am disgusted. Thank you for combining protecting Native wisdom and culture and yet trying to protect those seeking another way from the con artists.
As a working class man who struggled to pay for and get his education, I have never forgotten those roots. I offered free counseling to those who could not afford it, and often times they were the ones who needed it most and could not get access to that care. Depression, suicide and deprivation are rife within the community, 30 years of terrorism will do that. So you can appreciate, that it offends me slightly when I see people making money off people who clearly cannot afford it or seeing people "robbed".
So here we are with people offering training courses and retreats on shamanism (I've not problem with the word shamanism, I know some do) costing hundreds and thousands of pounds/euros. And to be frank, it angers me.....for there are a lot of spiritually disillusioned and hungry people out there..who are paying these ridiculous sums and those who are clearly cannot afford it putting themselves in debt to go and get this training. There is also deep anger with the revelations of the child sexual abuse cases and revelations caused by the "church" and the "troubles" have people in my country looking elsewhere for meaning.
Among other things in my life, your page and it contributors have encouraged me to refer others to this web page and surprisingly motivated me create and deliver a course on native wisdom and shamanism and share my understanding, studies and journey. It's a free course (I receive nothing, in fact it costs me money
not much thankfully and like many of your contributors I believe it is morally wrong to charge for something like this) centered around our own culture and ways of our own country and continent, our heritage may be fractured and broken in so many ways but it's still rich and diverse. And it requires a lot of work putting it together into a philosophy (not religion) that helps people.
It is my hope that this course will inspire others to respect and stop making money off what was freely given by "our" ancestors and also to stop making money off what has not been freely given from other native cultures. Never mind that those who teach and charge for this have never had even enough respect to seek permission to share it. Hopefully it will put these people will be out of business and put them "properly" into the business of help others
I am glad that you stipulate that this is not a forum for hate, wise words and protective words, my only concern is, that while I understand the pain, anger, loss and grief that many native people have experienced at the hand of colonial powers across the world (as any objective student of history could not ignore the lies, broken promises and disrespect and theft it's clearly printed).... some posts that I have read here and at other places have been almost venomous, and that is dangerous and destructive.... take it from someone who have lived through like I said the worst form of "tribalism" , it not only damages the person, but families, our communities but the future too.
I hope this ..my introduction to your group will be viewed with the heart that it has been shared with.
Again thank you for your work and especially the time that has clearly been put into this group and forum, time I am sure spent away from loved ones and better things that you could have been doing, but a time you chose to share with strangers in a effort to bring balance and social justice. I appreciate it
Respect and honor to you all ..........solas
