New Shaman.

It’s nice to be able to finally post this. It’s the kind of thing a Shaman has bitter sweet feelings about the person you put so much time, effort, resources and love into is now off on to their own path.

A usual apprenticeship is about six to eight years. Time is towards the shorter when the Shaman and the person they are working with live together and share lives. So it went with Sequoia and I. After the live in period comes what we call “the journey”. It’s a time when the apprentice goes out in the world on an adventure for self exploration (or just to get away from the Shaman) and can last two years at an average. When the Shaman sees the journey coming the process of building up and knocking down gets stepped up. We call it tempering but they call it “fucking with…” By the time the journey comes up the student has had about enough of Shamanism and anything like it and forget all about the purpose of the journey phase. It’s time to be free.

This is good because the apprentice isn’t trying to do anything Shamanic, it’s just them in the world. Before we can say they are Shaman they have to show signs of self reliance in their own power and self guidance. Then we like to see the part when they “kill the teacher”. So the Shaman, often with help, provoke, set up obstacles, stage events and do everything that a drill instructor would do in boot camp style to undermine their self confidence. They become training implements and targets of opportunity. Then we undermine the confidence they have in us.( This is the part where other Shamans get in on the act and nothing is sacred nor safe. ) We look for signs that they feel like they are being torn, ripped, falling apart, going crazy and feel totally betrayed and abandoned, but are still going forward, even if they don’t know where or what they are going to do when they get there. That’s strength. That’s power. That’s what will serve them in helping people through natural and manmade disasters. It’s what makes them leaders in civil disobedience for a good cause. It’s what makes them teachers.  In the last post on sequoiaredd.com “the green mountains” we saw what we have been waiting for. Not to mention I got a healthy “fuck you” in an E mail and several other “killings” in phone conversations. After the last phone call she posted her last blog entry and all was done. Subtleties to most but to Shamans it spoke volumes. I read her last post after I posted That Sequoia Redd thang. By the way, everyone needs to “stand down”. We’re done.

Imagine what it’s like to constanly fuck with someone you deeply love, knowing that you are potentially pushing them away from you and their last memories of you are bad. It was a hell of a risk I didn’t want to take but I had to complete the promise I made to her when she was only seventeen years old. I promised I would do whatever it took to make her the best Shaman possible.   When I left the woman that was training me I thought she was the most manipulative bitch on the planet. She was my lover, confidant and I thought my best friend. I couldn’t believe how she could turn on me as I thought she did. I told her she was just leading me on because she wanted a younger lover and she was a Shamanic ”has been”. I told her a lot over the next year. When I told others of how she was fucking me over I was surprised at their indifference. I later realized she really loved me and it was hard for her to mold me into the man she saw I needed to be, the way I needed to be molded, for the horrific places I was going to go. I never got the chance to thank her in person but I do now in my prayers. For a few years after I left her I didn’t call myself a Shaman and dismissed the whole thing entirely. I wanted nothing to do with anything Shamanic, much less spiritual of any kind. Years later a few events happened that were a wake up call about who and what I was. Now, here I am the source of ill thoughts I hope don’t last long.

When I agreed to work with Sequoia it had a condition that I could retire, for good, and I would be able to tell anyone of any culture our ways and our story to the public. So goes the internet. What is her specialty? Manifestation on the physical plane is the one I’ve seen as her best. She can create situations and opportunities she wants to be in her life very quickly. She has excellent body working skills through massage and healing with sexual energy. Her research skills are phenomenal as well as her writing but her photography shows a deeper understanding of who she is. I never knew so much could be seen in a picture or the fuss that could be made over tiny details that gave off a different mood when viewed. She has the most loving touch to a garden and her Earth Magik is something to see.  Her passion for the environment and animals is unequaled and I hope she considers politics in that arena as well as rights for Sex Workers. I guess to sum it all up she is a Shaman of Passion.

She had mentioned that there was a lot that she didn’t know about me. She may never. Our lives are taking very different directions and I doubt I’ll see her again. Her life is just beginning and I see next year being very big for her. We had some interesting times and I have some very fond memories of a life with a fine woman. Sometimes I wished things were different but considering the state of the world it was better to have a woman that was tempered and tried out there. There’s no holding this one back.

So, world, I give you Sequoia Redd, Shaman.

Sequoia Redd, Shaman.

Feel free to send comments and congratulations.