Experiencing Archaic Crete’s Sacred Trance Poses

[Shallah Kali]

Experiencing Archaic Crete’s
Sacred Trance Poses

Robinette Kennedy, PhD
http://www.europeanshamanism.com/article.html

Felicitas knew that traditional pre-agricultural societies begin their rituals by respectfully inviting their Ancestors and Spirits, so she too opened each session by offering cornmeal and sage smoke to the sacred realms. During these sessions, after demonstrating a body position found in a prehistoric religious statue, she would rattle her gourd, as she had heard the Pueblo Indians do, at approximately 200 beats per minute, for about 15 minutes-the length of time that she estimated that anyone could comfortably hold a particular pose.

Rhythm and special positions of the body was the magic combination, and volunteers’ trance experiences sprang to life. Later, using the same procedure, she arranged a group of volunteers in the position of the shaman embraced by a Bear Spirit shown in the nineteenth century American Indian carving. When Felicitas finished rattling, although none of the volunteers had previously viewed the photograph of the carving, most of them described having seen a similar “landscape.” Many volunteers said that in their visions they had encountered a bear.

snip

As I began my own research, one question was always in the back of my mind: how might experiencing trance postures from Crete change the consciousness of people whom American Indian activist Russell Means calls “mental” Europeans-people of any heritage who support the values and politics of a typical USA lifestyle?

In 1997, Felicitas Goodman and women from mainland Europe, the USA and Crete joined me on Crete for two weeks to explore that question. Of her time there, Trish Mashburn said, “I was living in several dimensions of reality at once: the daily life of the village where Robinette lives on Crete; visiting Bronze Age ritual sites where the postures were originally performed; and experiencing ancient visionary realms from the beginning of European culture.”

Ecstatic Trance: New Ritual Body Postures
Felicitas D. Goodman, Nana Nauwald
http://books.google.com/books?id=rXhEPUIQrcYC

Where the spirits ride the wind: trance journeys and other ecstatic experiences
Felicitas D. Goodman
http://books.google.com/books?id=WM4zfPOLXpkC

The Ecstatic Experience: Healing Postures for Spirit Journeys
Belinda Gore
http://books.google.com/books?id=XL-yOwAACAAJ

Ecstatic Body Postures: An Alternate Reality Workbook
Belinda Gore
http://books.google.com/books?id=R5TeHyLrOmsC

Cuyamungue: The Felicitas Goodman Institute
http://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com/

[Cleita]

1. Interesting. I have an interest in Mediterranean,

Neolithic and Bronze Age civilizations. It's cool that our modern shamans are trying to resurrect rituals of the past to see how they worked.

[kentauros]

2. You'd probably like this woman, then:

Layne Redmond :)

Your Brain on Drums by Layne Redmond

[Shallah Kali]

3. a few more links

Article in Yoga Journal by someone who participated in an ecstatic body postures workshop: http://books.google.com/books?id=SOkDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA97&ots=d2FQN1ng34&dq=Cuyamungue%20goodman&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q=Cuyamungue%20goodman&f=true

A History of the Cuyamungae Institute - an interview w/Belinda Gore
http://www.lauralee.com/index.cgi?pid=3075

Ecstatic Wisdom Postures - Good Medicine for our Time by Deborah Jane Milton, PhD
http://www.deborahmilton.com/postures.html