All posts by tasara

Stay Awake in Times of Crisis

There is a cry going up in the world for humanity.
There is a cry for justice, for a cease fire, for accountability.
A cry for seeing each other as the precious gifts we all are.

This cry is a collective song being sung from every corner of the earth. Join in this song, this cry, to make it louder, to be nourished by the communion of it, to save the soul of humanity.

Do not hide from the news to preserve your sanity. Turn up the glorious song of freedom and let it fuel you. Sing it wherever you can, to your friends, your family and to your representatives. There is never a time to not shine. Let your shock, dismay and all your emotions about what is happening in the world fuel your next endeavor. Will it be prayer? Will it be art? Will it be conversation? A long-planned or unexpected life change?


We must be whole. We cannot allow ourselves to become compressed any longer. The world is insane, but that does not mean we have to be. It is best for Mother Earth when we are in rich relationship with her, when we allow the Spirits of Kindness to nurture us, to allow inspiration grow within us. It does not do anyone any good to not be well, even when others are devastated.

We must shine. Each of us has something different and unique to contribute to this song of the world. When we are in our personal song, others can hear it. They are lifted and in this, can hear their own song. We must shine for the world.


We must be big, not small. When we are in our true light, there is room for everyone. We cannot allow outside forces to dictate the psychic environment we live in. Instead of suffering, we can bring our own environment to the common space.

This is a form of spiritual activism.

For those of you who have been following me over the years, you may have noticed my own long struggle to get back to my service to you. I’ve suffered under oppressive work situations, oppressive situations of my own making, physical ailments, fatigue and I earned a master’s degree while working full time. Just like you, I can feel like I am underwater, but I continue.

Right now I am applying for jobs in a new career because the field I have been in has been toxic for me. Once I have made this shift, I will be able to devote my energies to my calling again, informed by my studies in Instructional Design. My soul does not turn away from my master plan even when I forget it myself.

My new offerings will be geared towards those who are on the sacred path for the long haul. The main banner will be spiritual activism. What is spiritual activism? How do you define it? For me, my spiritual activism is helping you find what you are called to do in this world and assist you in creating a manageable scope for it. Also, when we explore and understand our own creative process, it is much easier to allow it to happen without self-judgement. There will be some hybrid offerings, (online/in person).

Thank you for hanging in there with me. Holding circle is my happy place and I am so looking forward to being there again with you. Hopefully, in the meantime, I can provide a little bit of inspiration.

Much love,
Tasara Jen Stone


(Inspired by watching and listening to activists from all over the world on ‘Democracy Now!‘.)

A Shamanic Response to Atrocities in the Middle East

This list may have grown if you come back to it later.

Hello my friends. I’m sure you have been following the heartbreaking stories coming out of the Middle East. I will not repeat them here but it is clear that we are witnessing war crimes, millions displaced, families decimated and in it all, no mercy. Both Palestinians and Jews are calling for a stop to the violence.

As a shamanic person, there is much we can do. If you truly believe that we are all connected, that we are all one in some invisible way, your actions have certain impact, just as a person’s silence or non-doing allows forces of destruction to continue on undisturbed

Here are five things you can do:

Psychopomp Ceremony, Sunday, October 22nd at 2-3:30pm

I will be hosting an online ceremony to assist the souls of the dead who are ready and willing, in crossing over into the light.

Psychopomp is not a safe practice to do on your own without training.
In our ceremony, we will be inviting the psychopomp spirits to do all the work while we hold space and bear witness. Please register at this link.
– Virtual sacred space via Zoom will be open at 1:45.
– No one will be admitted after 2:05pm.
– The meeting will not be recorded.
– Please prepare sacred space before you sign in and be ready to work.

If you know me personally and have been to my home in the past, you are more than welcome to come in person. Let me know if you are. Bring some snacks and we can have community time afterwards.

It is my view that psychopomp also relieves pressure on the world at large. The more unrest souls we have in the physical plane, the more intrusions, overshadowing and possession we experience. This affects human motivations and actions, including some of our world leaders.

Personal/Group Shamanic Journey for Healing

There is a way to assist through your work with the spirits and still honor the ethical boundaries of the free will of all beings. The method was developed by a small group of shamanic practitioners who met in retreat and worked with the spirits over a long period of time. It is spelled out in a little book called Shamanism without Borders which can be found here in e-book or print: https://shamanicpractice.org/…/shamanism-without…/

The organization that hosts free, online shamanic ceremonies to aid global catastrophes is here: https://shamanicpractice.org/shamanism-without-borders/

Journey to Comfort Those Trapped Under the Rubble in Gaza

Here is another thing you can do immediately (10/17/2023).

Journey to your helping spirits and ask them to ask the helping spirits of the 1000 people trapped under rubble in the Gaza strip to comfort them, to lessen their terror, to give them some faith and hope. Whether they are about to perish or be rescued, they have a great journey in front of them. Lessening the trauma is greatly needed.

Using Music and Dance

You can use dance, repetitive rhythm, drumming, chanting, fluting, strumming to express your own feelings about the situation into the world. Any sort of healing involves getting energy to move and that includes energy in your own body.

Know that you are not alone. Hear the grief, anger frustration of the collective and join the song. Feel the togetherness. After expressing your own, perhaps bring your songs of comfort, kinship and love into the collective.

All shamanic cultures are very, very expressive in their practices, until of course, state sponsored persecution of shamans. Lying down still and silent to journey is not normal. We engage and invest our physical energy into our work and it comes to life in powerful ways.

Write to your Representatives

Many of us overlook or belittle the small act of writing to our representatives. What can an email do? A lot! Our representatives need backing from their constituents to make their voices stronger in legislature.

You can look up your representatives here: https://www.house.gov/
And here: https://whoismyrepresentative.com/

“Never again” means “Never again” for all peoples. As I heard someone say, the hardest part of being human is staying human when under circumstances like these.

What Other Ways to Support Healing and Balance in Israel/Gaza Strip are You Practicing?

Please, put your ethical (not interfering with the free will of others) shamanic ways in the comments so others can benefit.

Thank you for all the work you do for healing in your own life, your family and your community.

Blessed Be,
Tasara Jen Stone

If you benefit in any way from my posts, I encourage you to send some love back by posting a comment with your reflections. Writing into a void can be disheartening sometimes.

Listen to the Spirits of Kindness

Those whispers urging you to go for a walk, to eat better food, knock off the sugar, those nudges to call that person you’ve been neglecting, to turn off the screen and get up off the couch…

Do you see flashes of your favorite park sometimes?
Do you miss the rush of wind in the trees?
Do you truly believe in the spirits? Are you listening?

As a shamanic journeyer, do you ever feel a pull to journey?
I dreamed recently that a totem was asking me to let her in. She told me my life would be so, so-oo much easier if I did. So, the next day I found a candle molded in her form and placed it on my work-from-home desk. I invited her and thanked her presence into the stress of my life, and my whole outlook on life shifted like magic. I am so grateful. I will mark this. I will remember.

If you have been trained in shamanic journey and want your relationship with the Spirits if Kindness to deepen, you need to listen when they are trying to get your attention. Let them in. Engage. It takes very little time. This authentic communication will always spark something good. Change will ripple through your tapestry.

The spirits miss you. They don’t judge, and they are not mad. They just miss you.

The spirits are telling me to say to you,

And don’t skimp when you come to visit us! Creating the sacred space and tapping into your center is more important than anything else. Use repetitive rhythm, not music. Cover your eyes so you can go deep. Then draw out your journey into the mundane by journaling so you don’t miss the juicy parts. Take action as soon as possible if action is asked for in the journey.

The spirits say,

It doesn’t matter what you journey on, all the questions lead to the same answers.

They are saying,

It’s easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in the methods and spiritual books and tools. Keep it simple and your practice will be clear and strong.

So that’s my public service announcement. There is always help on the other side, even when we don’t feel like listening. Give it a shot and see what happens.

Blessed Be,
Tasara

If you benefit in any way from my posts, I encourage you to send some love back by posting a comment with your reflections. Writing into a void can be disheartening sometimes.

The Spirits of Kindness

Come to me and I will show you the shape of your question.

I will bring you to the landscape etched in the sand between us.
I will lead you into plunging water and through endless caves.
We will fly the wide sky together
and I will whisper upon you.

There may be a hut between the stars
or a burrow at the base of a tree.
You may slide down roots to ancient realms
or glisten alongside frogs under moonlight.

I will ask you hard questions.
I will draw your truth out of the depths.
I will apply salve to your wounds.
I will shelter you, kiss you, surround you in my embrace.
I will eat you and see you returned whole.

I will send you signals when it is time to come again.

I will do all these things.
I need to do all these things.

But you must come.

Tasara

Learn to journey at an upcoming August 2023 workshop.

If you benefit in any way from my posts, I encourage you to send some love back by posting a comment with your reflections. Writing into a void can be disheartening sometimes.

Storytelling

Hey there. Thought I’d add a link to my site of the few recordings I have of my storytelling.

Here it is as well. If you click on the “YouTube” words it will open it in a browser window so you can see on the right a list of all the stories.

If there no link in the email, click Comment and it will bring you to it.

Enjoy!

Letting Go

It’s no great effort. It’s no effort at all.

It is letting other forces drift on, glide through if need be.
It is a sense of whisper movements, not sticking, as our gentle core,
more or less condensed, more or less whole,
remains in its own rhythmic movement,
the movement of life itself.

Melodies may pass near, around or in concert,
even altering our flow, but we always return.

We are made of our own song.

You are not alone

There is no such thing as stillness.
We run and run and try to get away and still our heart is beating.
The wind is blowing. Everything is in motion, always. This is life.

There is no such thing as silence. We try to get away.
We try to shut it out but blood is rushing through our veins.
The wind is blowing. The birds are singing.

We could make a room that is pitch dark and sound proof
but still outside, the sun would rise and then at the end of the day
it would set, again and again.

We are living creatures, born into motion and sound,
on a trajectory that does not stop until death,
and even then our bodies, our beings would transform, ever in motion.

The galaxies are filled with motion, traveling particles of light and orchestral music.

So don’t be afraid to join in the songs around you.
Don’t be afraid to let go in the flow.
As humans our survival has always been relational.

There is no being alone.
Your food, your blankets, every tool you use was prepared and brought to you by other humans.
There is no being alone.

Yes, keep your discernment, for there are many songs and some of them are poison. Make your wisest choice and put both feet in it, keeping your eyes open, keeping your eyes shielded too, if necessary.

But be in your life. Enjoy it. Be it. Living is connection.

This is in response to decades of spiritual training how to remove unhealthy attachments and none in how to nurture healthy ones.

Blessings on your path.

Tasara

Creating Your Meaning for Winter Solstice

Each sabbat can mean many things depending upon where we are in our life. Sometimes we need to focus on just one aspect of the season. Other times we are having a layered experience.

It is darkest night of the year!
Feel the warm embrace of the crone.
Face your fears.
Lie down and rest.
It is time to let go.

It is the return of light!
Make proclamations.
Dream new things.
It is time to celebrate the light.

There have been times when I have even made a distinction between the dark dreaming, the dreaming that happens when the Spirits of Kindness enter our dreams and the dreaming that happens when we start to co-create with the spirits.

I wait and I wait for inspiration. How will I engage with the energies? How will I express? What is authentic?

This year, mere weeks before Solstice, I reached a milestone and my life went through a sudden, total change for the better. I was able to leave behind trauma, entering a new, promising environment. This brings to me all the things you might expect: shock, relief that it’s over, survivor’s guilt, fear and disbelief, joy, waves of healing and…. an empty void.

So for me this year, my Winter Solstice will be about gratitude and acceptance of this blessing. It will be about trust in the good things to come and a surrender to the Spirits of Kindness, allowing them to fill this void inside me with the starlight of the Solstice. It will also be about letting go. Praise be.

What does Winter Solstice hold for you? What is just right for you this year? Answer these questions and your holiday will be potent.

Blessings and love to you all.

Tasara

11th Trip to the Redwoods

When you come here,
you may be reminded of movies you’ve seen,
books you’ve read.
You may take impressive selfies.

While you are thinking,
your body will feel the weight
of the skyscraper-sized,
living beings who tower over you.
Your body will register the silence,
will sense the profundity.

You may want to run to your car and turn on some music.

You may see faces in the trees that make you laugh.
Dragons, hags, old men, spindly fingers pointing, goofy grins, drippy noses, penises and vaginas bigger than life.

You may silence yourself,
feel peace pour through you.
You may sit and wonder, why?
Why did my life come to where it is now?

You may see a shape in the web of patterns that surround you
and it reminds you of something important,
something you always knew, finally surfaced.

With every few steps there will be another, another.
You will want to fill yourself with all of them
but the wisdom here is infinite.
It cannot be done.

We are mere humans,
so small,
so small.

Sea Hag

Unfathomable,
ancient crone of the sea,
brooding
inexplicable dark silence.
Skies breathe above her.

Near the shore,
she boils over,
white foam spewing on black rock,

black rock which itself spewed
eons ago
hot, coursing deep from the Mother herself.

This Ancient does not use words.
She growls and foams and pounds.

The hill rumbles.
No one offers explanation.

She takes
in the flash of a sneaker wave,

and then under the morning sun
she floods the rocks
again and again
this time with frivolity.
Rivulets sing, streaming in unison
from every crevice.

Down the beach her moods gentle,
force turns to caresses,
ceaseless smoothing,
crooning,
whispers, whispers.

And in town, she lies docile
appearing domesticated
plain as day
in a way

as we forget.