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www.shamansociety.org 9 S H A M A N I C P R A C T I C E Shamanic Life in a High School Kitchen By Cynthia Nado When we consider our relationship with food in the United States we now see two generations that have lost the knowledge of how to seasonally grow keep a garden and preserve the food to feed their families for a year. Our relationship with plants has changed to the extent that there is no need to work to grow our own food as the supermarket is the destination now and not the garden. Plants are viewed primarily as decorative and certainly not medicinal. This is a time in our world unlike any our ancestors ever faced when corporate food factories feed huge numbers of people and animals. The food produced is made with many different non-food items to en- sure a lengthy shelf life and a healthy prot. Fast foods or pre-prepared foods are often the only choices due to lack of gardening skills space to garden or knowing how to be self-sufcient. In a way corporate mass food production has helped to separate and steril- ize us from the earth and from ourselves. Extensive internet searching informed me that in indigenous cultures shamans do not usually cook but are fed by their com- munities. Their cooking is in preparing medicines. In present day western culture cook- books with a shamanic orientation often make reference to working with energy intention respect and thanks to all things to start tuning us back to ourselves to create a shift in thinking and feeling and in im- proved health.1 Perhaps this is a way of helping us to begin to remember another time that had deeper more direct connections. Mark Perkins of onenessjourneys.com says Being a shamanic practitioner and the family cook I strive to ensure that I am in the proper frame of mind allowing me to infuse the food with aloha lovepositive energy. I do this via a zen-like technique where I focus all of my intention on the task at hand in the preparation of the meal. This includes actually preparing the food all the way down to selecting the appropriate plates glasses and position of the family at the table. Each of these steps helps to ensure that the plants and animals who sacriced for the meal are honored and the recipients of the meal can absorb as much of the energy as pos- sible. Another important part of the meal is the blessing. In our family each member thanks the plants and animals for the gift of life. Should we have guests we do a more formal blessing helping the guest to understand our ways. We will also tailor the blessing to t the views and practices of the guest.2 In my shamanic apprenticeship with teacher Cecile Carson I chose a project to look at how I worked with food both as a shamanic practitioner and as a chef in a high school kitchen. While I knew at some level I had been working with the food in a sha- manic way this project helped me to iden- tify particular aspects and methods I utilized unconsciously and to see exactly what I was doing in the kitchen. The background for this project began in 1990 when I developed a part-time catering business. My menus and cooking had always been spirit-led so I was used to paying at- tention to the quiet voices I heard while planning a menu when I felt part of me con- necting to something that I called the other side. When this happened ideas would start owing. At some point in creating various dishes I would recognize food combinations not my own yet not unfamiliar. There was a resonance in the making of each dish choos- ing ingredients deciding how to assemble elements and cook the dish weighing and balancing textures and checking the acidity or sweetness of each menu item to another until an all around good menu was created. When I reected on the whole menu sometimes I could tell exactly who had been helping me by how it felt when doing the cooking by the music I chose to listen to during the preparation by sensing the voice or by identifying the historical aspect of a recipe rural upstate New York New Eng- land seacoast Mediterranean Scottish or French. For example using white acorns in morning pancakes in Native American style. There have been times when I had no idea who was present in non-ordinary assistance I just felt grateful for the help. The Cooks Dream When I cook I dream. I dream into the food under my hands all the possibilities of what can be. Cooking dreams into food so that all who eat may dream their own dreams into being. Cynthia Nado