It's important to create space to acknowledge -and celebrate- the hardships and triumphs of our lives.

This past cycle has been huge for me.

I remember in past seasons feeling frustrated, irritated, deflated, depressed. Feeling like I was spinning my wheels but not really "getting anywhere”.

Offering ceremony on our previous lands in the High Country was the first big manifestation of a vision…

I’m not quite sure how to put it, but there’s something about the roar of wind through valleys and dry desert plains.

At times the whisper of a butterfly, at others, the relentless howl of an ancient power.

What am I seeking out here in the desert? 

Why am I really here?

Life is a game of mastery.

And most people live mediocre lives because the path of mastery is difficult.

Pain is inevitable. 

What would you rather choose...?

Back in 2017 I wrote about how ayahuasca and other entheogens were helping prepare me for my own death.

I was forced over and over again to stare at my own mortality down the barrel of the medicine cup.

If you’ve yet to experience any form of entheogenic medicine or psychedelic substance, the whole situation can get intense.Very intense...

We were nestled underneath a ginormous cathedral of bamboo, we had a lush rainforest creek flowing right beside us in our ceremonial area, two mountain ranges flanked us on either side, and the wind was shifting from a gentle breeze to an absolutely howling almighty constant roar.

Winter, mountain bear dreaming, rest, rejuvenation, hibernation.

It was minus five degrees in the Vic High Country this past weekend. That’s what several of our vehicles measured, early in the AM.

14 of us gathered around the fire as dawn broke, readying ourselves for a mid-winter saunter. A couple of us had frost on the INSIDE of our swags…

It was mid-morning by the time we reached the viewpoint, and plenty of others were clanking up steel stairs for the panoramic photos. 

People were loud, boisterous, making quips about the walk uphill, heavy footsteps and mindless chit-chat; obnoxious to the fact that there were others there before them, enjoying the views in quietude. 

People talk way too much up on the mountain, I thought…

This mountain almost killed me. It’s not a tale I’ve told often, but it deserves some air time.

Despite growing up by the coast, I’ve long felt like a mountain man. Probably no surprise to those who know me well enough. It’s hard to say when it all started…

It’s hard to see clearly sometimes. Windows foggy. Shrouded view.

Even if the skies aren’t grey and the colours of earth are in bloom, life can seem… a little dull.

Going through the motions, not sure what the next big stepping stone is, or when it’s going to come…

It’s not entirely uncommon for shamans to involve themselves in power games, dark magic, energy harvesting and any number of malevolent practices.

The polarity of light and dark, black and white, good and evil, knows no bounds…

When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us.

So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see…

Anything is one of a million paths.

You must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions.

To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life…

Norse mythology has been coming into my field again lately.

I’m particularly drawn to the tales and travels of the great one-eyed god, Odin. I’ll spare you the finer details, but the imagery of how Odin came to sacrifice that eye is one worthy of rumination...

The indigenous peoples have long used ayahuasca to cure a range of ailments, with many seekers and testifying how ayahuasca cured their depression.

Finally, it seems like science is catching up to what is obvious to many…

However, while the findings are compelling, the answer may be more complex than you first think…

Human sacrifice has long been part of the dominant paradigm.

People wiped out to feed the beast and fuel hidden agendas.

There's almost always more than meets the eye, but most are too blind to see past their own emotional reactivity to see the many shades in-between…

For the uninitiated, or for those who don’t spend a lot of time in shamanic meditations, consciousness exploration, religious sects, new-age spirituality or otherwise, the eyes might glaze over when one references “the sacred”.

Over the years, it had me thinking…

How do I best try and describe this to someone that has little-to-no exposure within this world, as simply yet meaningfully as possible?

There is almost always a bone pile waiting out there in the bush for us. The more attention you give it, the bigger it tends to get.

Bone piles are all the little deaths that have occurred along the way. The descansos of your lives, the crossroads moments where something or someone got chucked under the truck….

Birds have fascinated humans for centuries; it shouldn’t be difficult to see why.

They’re graceful, beautiful, and possess the otherworldly quality of flight that captures our imagination.

Across worldly cultures and traditions, birds have played significant roles in story, mythology, folklore, and the very tangible reality of birds offering cues and teachings about the ordinary, and not-so-ordinary happenings within one’s local ecology…

That's the whisper that I heard anyway. On those gentle southerly winds; down from the summit.

Two Eastern Whipbirds chase each other through the ferny scrub and a few Black Cockys glide above distant gums.

It's unexpected, but I stood there sobbing for a moment. Something about the beauty of it all. It touches the same tenderness that my recent Vision Quest reopened for me…

It’s cold up on the mountain.

Every now and then the golden shimmer of midday sun blankets the green canvas below in warmth. Brooding clouds roll back over, highlighting the crisp touch of winter's breath.

My mind drifts off to the words of Chinese poet, Du Fu. “The nation falls into ruins, but rivers and mountains remain”…

There is a remarkable scene in the book Our Kinship with the Animals.

A zoologist was caught early one evening by the splendour of an incredible sunset in an African rainforest.

While he was appreciating the moment, he saw a lone chimpanzee come into the scene, cradling a papaya close to his body…

Nalungiaq, an Inuit woman, reported that she learned this creation song from an elderly uncle named Unaraluk. Unaraluk was a shaman; some kind of sorcerer or priest.

This folktale passed from generation to generation, until it was first written down by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in 1921, during his expedition across the Arctic.

The poet Edward Field eventually made the translation to English…

The Vision Quest, also known as a Vision Fast, or Wilderness Vigil, is one of the most ancient rites of passage and initiatory experiences available to us in the modern era.

Most familiarity with Vision Quests perhaps comes from the native traditions of North America, however similar practices of extended time and solitude in nature as a passage rite can be found cross-culturally across our world…

It seems to be that our entire scientific-medical model is founded on Germ Theory.

Louis Pasteur is considered to be the forefather of this notion, dictating that germs “out there” are a threat to our health, and we need to enlist injections, antibiotics, and the mass production of various pharmaceutical drugs to keep us healthy and safe from illness and disease.

Pasteur was found to be a fraudulent huckster with a vested interest alongside the media moguls and growing pharmaceutical companies…

One of the big differences between Germ Theory and Terrain Theory is that germs are not the CAUSE of sickness and disease; germs are the RESULT of having an imbalanced internal ecology…

It seems that since 2007, terrain theory, which is one of the fundamental underpinnings of 'the old guard' of complementary medicine philosophy and practice, has been lost.

It is no longer mentioned anywhere in the curriculum of any Australian based complementary medicine course that I am aware of.

This has occurred, in part, from an unprecedented push towards evidence-based medicine, and the slow dilution of traditional evidence-based practice…

Many moons ago in a time long forgotten, the first people of the land shared noble kinship with the whales of the sea.

These were the days when the islands were untouched and pristine, and the sky hung so low that the people could easily reach the stars.

It’s even said that each time the whales would surface, their joyful stirrings would splash the clouds above, providing rain and water for all to thrive…

There's a lot I could say about sitting in the wilderness for extended days and nights on end.

Mountain valley cocooned me, my humble nest situated in dense forest, surrounded by bracken fern and eucalypt trees, young and old.

Relentless rains and howling winds formed much of the backdrop. Ancient trees and heavy branches would fall in the dark of night. Some of them were earth shaking. Thunderous…

There’s a place between worlds. Between stories you’ve heard. It’s carried on wind, on the song of the bird. In mountains and forests, fur of a bear, tattered red fox, platypus stare.

Take courage, stir those waters, take the reigns of the heart. Gallop in dark oceans, shine with the stars. No shields are needed when you wield the sword of truth…

Let me tell you a story…

We love stories.

Ever since our ancestors first conjured up sacred word, leaning in receptively around ancient fire to hear sweet flicker of tongue and strange incantation, stories have brought forth magical stirrings of meaning and imagination…

The only constant in life is change, proclaimed Greek philosopher Heraclitus, way back in the day.

On a personal level, we change our clothes, change our careers, change our relationships, change our beliefs, thoughts, behaviours, religions, businesses, brands, environment and more.

It’s even said that our body constantly replaces old cells with new ones at the rate of millions per second, with about 50 million cells having died and being replaced by the time you finish this sentence…