Best Meditation Chairs
Inti Raimi / Shamanic Celebration: Sun Blessings -The High Andes sacred movements
This workshop is for those who are curious to discover the mystery of shamanic healing practice and believes. You will learn the philosophy behind the Sun honoring and how to journey into non-ordinary states to meet your Huacas and spirit guides.
The Inti Raimi is a short sunrise ritual of welcoming the birth of the new day and to help us connect to the spiritual power of Father Sun and Mother Earth. It¹s a daily ancient ritual practiced by the indigenous people of the High Andes of Ecuador to aid invigorate and cleanse the body digestion and breathing system after our night sleep. The series of eight simple and easy to practice exercises help stimulate breathing and promote balance. You will feel, centered, balanced, recharged and ready to start a new day.
The Sacred Tree of Life – A Shamanic exploration
Amongst all indigenous cultures, the Tree is held to be a symbol of life, wisdom and the entire cosmos, as well as a sacred object of rituals, prayers and ceremonies. The Jewish tradition, too, reveres the trees, protecting them in time of war (Deut. 20:19) and comparing those protected by God to trees, as it is written, “He will be like a tree planted near water…” (Jeremiah 17:8). The Torah itself is often called the Tree of Life. Is there a deep meaning to this coincidence? Can we learn something from this metaphor that is relevant to our daily lives? Join Itzhak Beery in an experiential workshop to discover the relationship between trees and our bodies, spirit and souls. Using shamanic techniques aided by rapid drumbeats, chants and body movement, you’ll become aware of the type of tree you are. Are you a lone, fruit bearer, or a shade and shelter-giving tree? And what seeds are you planting for future generations? As you embrace your own tree and feel the oneness with the universe,you’ll be able to restore the flow of life back into your own body and life.
Deepening the Shamanic Healing Experience
This ³mini-apprenticeship² is for those who have had some exposure to shamanism and some experience of journeying into non-ordinary states but who wish to go deeper; either to make shamanism part of their daily practice or to add its age old healing methods to their repertoire of healing practices.
We will explore rituals and practices from several traditions, including those of the Ecuadorian Quechua and of the Brazilian Amazon; delve into shamanic journeying to the upper, middle and lower worlds; the role of power animal and teachers; the use of huachas (sacred items); how to set up and properly use a sacred altar from which to draw power; chants and the part of music in healing; shamanic divination using candle and energy readings; the development of intuition; healing techniques; and most importantly how to protect oneself from negative energies.
Meeting Power Animal Spirits The Journey to Non-Ordinary Realities
Participants will be introduced to the principles of the shamanic belief system. The workshop teaches the techniques of shamanic journeying which is used by shamans to enter non-ordinary realities. Participants will learn to travel to the other worlds to obtain personal Power animal spirits, to connect with these spirits, and to retrieve specific knowledge. This knowledge can be used in our world to heal, to settle disputes, to communicate between the living and the dead, to create abundance, and to pray for the well-being of the environment, for others and ourselves.
Accompanied by drumbeat, participants learn to journey to the animal energies and shape-shift into them, allowing each person to merge with their animal nature—a reflection of our innermost self that represent those qualities we need most in this world, but which are often hidden, or repressed.
This workshop will introduce participants to the principals of the shamanic belief system. We will learn shamanic journey techniques, which enable us to enter non-ordinary realities, and to travel to other worlds to obtain personal Nature spirits and Huacas, or magical objects. Participants will learn how to connect with the spirits of nature and to retrieve specific knowledge to heal diseases and wounds, settle disputes, communicate between the living and the dead, pray for the well-being of the environment, others and ourselves. Using these powerful techniques will enable us to affect changes both physically or spiritually in our everyday reality.
We will work in nature so that participants will be able to connect both physically and spiritually with trees, rocks, stars, wind, flowers, water, the four directions and the four elements. Participants will learn different shamanic journey techniques, which help restore spiritual power and health. They will learn how these techniques can be applied in daily life to heal oneself, others, and the planet by restoring balance and harmony.
s Restoring harmony with nature is especially important in these times as over consumption, air and water pollution, and rapid deforestation, are threatening our natural resources daily. It is throwing us out of balance physically and spiritually. Participants will connect with nature and the other inhabitants of this planet, and learn the importance of living in balance and unity.
This workshop has two parts. In the first, the participants learn to use shamanic journeying techniques to travel in other worlds and to find their power animal spirits. The participants then learn to connect with the spirits and how to retrieve specific knowledge, wisdom, and healing; this information can be then manifested in their every-day experiences.
In the second part, accompanied by drumbeat and other sacred musical instruments, the participants will learn to connect with their power animal energies by focusing their attention and shapeshifting. The participants will emulate the physical form of these animal natures. We will dance, chant, and move with them. This movement opens the animal nature within, connecting us to our true nature, release tension, and helps to find universal balance within us. While in this state, participants will be able to journey and communicate with their power animal spirits, ask for specific knowledge, for healing and to find true clarity to help with life’s challenges.
In this experiential workshop, the participant will develop their healing intuition by learning to use shamanic journey techniques to travel in non-ordinary realities. Assisted by their personal power animal spirits, the participant will learn to retrieve knowledge, wisdom and healing. The information and healing acquired in non-ordinary realities will enable one to affect changes either physically or spiritually in this reality. Accompanied by a drumbeat we will use a number of ancient diagnostic techniques, working both
What are you listening to right now? Doom metal? Beethoven’s Fifth? Afro-Cuban hip-hop? Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” on repeat?
There’s no single right answer to this question, but there is a wrong answer: if you tell us that you’re listening to “nothing,” then you’re not doing deep listening. There’s sound all around us, from the bass tones wafting from the air conditioning vents to the creaking floorboards from the toddler birthday party upstairs, from the cacophony of car horns on South Congress, to the crunching granite under your sneakers on the Hike and Bike Trail.
has been one of the most influential figures from the last 50 years in contemporary music. The idea of “deep listening” is central to her work as an artist. As we anticipate the world premiere of a new piece written by Pauline Oliveros, to be presented at the Blanton during , here’s an overview of the composer and her importance to contemporary art and music:
Who is Pauline Oliveros? One of the most influential figures in contemporary music and art, she’s primarily known as a composer but is the rare musician who’s just as likely to be profiled in or as in or . You’ll find her compositions performed in concert halls and on recorded anthologies, but you’ll also find her teaching, writing, and interacting with a wide range of collaborators from any discipline you can imagine. She’s shared the stage with Cecil Taylor and DJ Spooky but also with karate instructors and entomologists.
She’s also notable for her committed political stances on feminism (see her provocative New York Times editorial from 1970, “”) and environmentalism, and for her prolific writings as well as her long career teaching at Mills College and Oberlin College.
What is “deep listening”? Oliveros has described deep listening as “the seemingly impossible task of listening to everything all the time.” As a young composer of electronic music in the 1950s, Oliveros discovered that the act of recording found sounds (via a tape recorder placed on the sill of an open window) focuses our attention on the ordinary sounds during our everyday lives that we’ve missed because we weren’t paying attention. Deep listening, similar to other forms of mindfulness, seeks to make us more closely aware of our environment. It draws on traditions of meditation used for physical, cognitive, and emotional benefits, but it also ties those traditions to creativity, collaboration, and experimentation. Deep listening can be calming but it can also help you to think more creatively.
Where can I hear this? On September 13, we’re producing a program in our award-winning series SoundSpace that explores deep listening. We’ve assembled a large cast of Oliveros’s collaborators and students, performing classic pieces as well as a new, world premiere piece written by Oliveros specifically for SoundSpace, with the whole program culminating in a massive site-specific piece that will fill the entire museum with sound. Several of these pieces are interactive, allowing audience members to participate in the sonic experience.
Turning the Blanton into a 124,000 square foot chamber of sound fits into the tradition of past Oliveros performances in unique spaces—the album of the Deep Listening Band was recorded inside a . She’s also written compositions that are not only site-specific but time-specific: for instance, her pieces written for accordion, clarinet, and live singing cicadas, performed outdoors. It’s only possible to recreate this piece while the periodical cicadas are active, which happens only once every 17 years.
Okay, but how can I hear this on my phone right now? Well, of course you can visit Oliveros’s , , etc., but you can also hear her influence all over experimental and pop music of the last 50 years: Brian Eno’s site-specific compositions in the 70s, the droning cello of Arthur Russell in the 80s, 90s British IDM like Autechre and Boards of Canada, doom bands from the 00s like Sunn O))) and Earth, and contemporary ambient artists Grouper and Actress. These musicians are very diverse, but all share an interest in developing their compositions through tone clusters held for extended periods of time, in which the development of the entire piece relies upon the listener’s close attention to how notes, chords, pitches, and tempos mutate and shift.
A simpler pop song might repeat the same chords—Taylor Swift’s ”‘s” F/C/G/A minor—so that you’ve figured out the entire 3-minute song in the first 10 seconds. The deep listening approach, by contrast, is more about giving the listener a sonic palette that develops and envelops, repaying focused attention over the duration of the piece.
I’m not a musician—can I practice deep listening if I can’t read music or play an instrument? Yes! There are a number of text-based deep listening pieces that you can perform at home.
Here’s one you can use to warm up for the participatory pieces at the Blanton this month or simply to cultivate mindfulness and creative engagement with your environment. It’s titled Urban and Country Meditations:
Urban Meditation Listen to a roadway–eyes closed–distinguish size shape make of car by sound–also speed and health of engine. Country Meditation Sit by the trees–what kind of tree makes what kind of sound?
Make sure to drop the Blanton this Sunday, September 13 from 2-4pm to experience .
Adam Bennett organizes the music, film, and lecture series at the museum in his role as the Blanton’s manager of public programs. He also writes about arts and culture and practices law in Austin.
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