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26 The Journal of Shamanic Practice VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 FALL 2012 www.shamansociety.org 26 Field Trips On Saturday morning SSP member David Mussina gave us brief pointers on ways to approach spiritual places with reverence and humility and to be aware of how we can empower a place that has been disempowered. Then we hiked to a 9000-year-old rock shelter in the park and were greeted by a bald eagle high in a tree above our path. At the shelter we listened to Dave Beck the parks natural- ist and a shamanic practitioner explain how the shelter was discovered used and recreated who the peoples were who used it from earliest times into the 17th century and what the land would have looked like in earlier eras. We then went to honor a giant sycamore tree that has stood near the shelter for several hundred years. Our intention that morning was to connect our spirits to the spirits of the peoples vegetation and animals who once inhabited the valley. In the afternoon we drove down river about ten miles to Little Stony Point a promontory that sticks out into the river across from Storm King and West Point an area that includes an abandoned rock quarry an iron foundry that produced important weaponry for the North dur- ing the Civil War and wilderness sites where West Point cadets practice eld operations. High on the bluff we intro- duced ourselves to the spirits of the place with our rst names and the spirits we met the night before using the formula I am Joe and I speak for Beaver I am Sally and I speak for Mountain and so on. We then dispersed so we could each be alone to roam the point visit the beaches check out a cave and wander through the woodlands listening to what the spirits of the Oldest Beings would say to us about the needs of the Hudson River Valley. We each also collected a stone and a small bottle of river water to take back to the lodge for our evening ceremony. Back at the lodge each tribe gathered to prepare a report of what its members had learned heard saw and sensed dur- ing the morning and afternoon. What we had done throughout the day was to layer upon our awareness the envi- ronmental attributes and situations that might benet from shamanic tending. After dinner each tribes reporter gave a presentation so that collectively we might learn the various threats needs and con- cerns for our long journey that evening. The Long Journey Although our long journey might be considered remote work since it took place in the parks lodge it was really not. We were still after all on the Hudson River and just as importantly we created the river valley in the center of our circle with the stones and water we had brought back from Little Stony Point. In a simple ceremony we placed a long white platter on a deerskin and encompassed it with tea-lights. Then we placed the stones within it and poured our bottles of water over the stones. We considered that what we had created was not a replica of the Hudson River but the river itself which became a focus of energy for the long journey. The long journey consisted of an hour of individual drumming rattling dancing singing or journeying either in the lodge or outside. Each person in his or her own way would be present to the river and its needs the song of the river the ancestors of the valley the wisdom that many people before and after us would bring in tending and being good stewards of the land. Part of our inten- tion was to create reconciliation between us who have enormous technological power to disturb the ow of life in the valley and those before us whose impact on the valley was small tender and more easily adaptable. In the long journeying we hoped to dream the vision of new generations living wisely and sustainably along this great river. Although we were not attempting to drum in sync with each other the drumming began so but soon became what many felt was chaos. Some took that as a sign to move outdoors away from the lodge. Under a sweet crescent moon hanging over the river some of our people found a more peaceful place to drum and journey. But then remark- ably after a period of chaotic sound the drums in the room fell into rhythm with each other. They began to communicate in a pleasing pattern. Later when reect- ing upon the evenings experience some of us saw this change in drumming as in- dicative of the reality we were concerned about the once harmonious life along the river the moments of chaos and violence that disrupt it and the return to a life-afrming beat in which people and the land come into harmony with each other once again. Throughout the weekend our activi- ties were disturbed by intrusive noise. The rst evening in the park another nearby overnight group who were ham- radio operators carried on loudly until around midnight. At the rock shelter an ear-splitting helicopter hovered over us for a good length of time which we later thought might have been a tour- ist ight to see the bald eagles nesting in the park. At Little Stony Point the usual weekend power boats and jet skis cruised along the river below and around us and every so often the commuter train between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and Poughkeepsie Station barreled along the track that runs near the point. Yet these noises also like the chaotic drumming seemed an omen to take account of perhaps saying nothing more than that shamanic work must be done under the very circumstances for which it is needed. Conclusion and Leave-Taking Sunday morning we shared our impressions of the preceding 24 hours. We noticed that the three tribal reports the day before were for the most part not about pain and suffering but about good- ness and hope. This certainly character- izes the shamanism without borders work