Poison Ivy Season...

Does or did anyone else out there get poison ivy? Last year, using Louise Hay's affirmation for poison ivy/poison oak, I avoided it for the first time since suddenly becoming vulnerable to it 25 years ago.  Here's another post on the same topic.  This is the kind of wisdom I want to make more widely available; I know it would have saved me decades of trouble.  What are your experiences?

Shamanista Dawn

I am in NYC just back from a phenomenal weekend of shamanic work with Shamanista Healing Circle.  It confirmed my knowledge that Witchcraft and Shamanism are the same thing.  The movement of energy, the spirituality of the earth and everything in/on it, the importance of intention, the centrality of freedom, integrity, and respect--it's all there--or can be.

I know I'll be writing much more about all this in future.  For now, I'll just say that after doing a soul retrieval journey for someone this weekend, I felt the need to channel a small healing poem for him--a kind of a charm, talisman, that he could use to embody his healing, carry with him, and re-cast the spell whenever he needed it.

The connection between poetry and healing is ancient.  And one thing I learned this weekend is that the ancient things are not far away, just because they are ancient.  In fact, they may be the closest to us of all, because they are the things that arise naturally out of being human.

My Old Screensaver and My New Screensaver

I've had this screensaver for months now:

 It's a painting by John Singer Sargent that used to hang here in the Portland Museum of Art.  The brilliant curator had hung it at the end of a long, quiet corridor so you got to approach it slowly

Scottish Beat Burning Man Wolf Song

Thanks to Wendy Babiak for telling me about this link to Scottish drummers and pipers at the Edinburgh Festival.  The more I learn about the world, the clearer it seems that we are all so closely linked physiologically, artistically, psychologically.  Meanwhile, I've been thinking about the connections between meter, rhythm, wicca, and shamanism while developing ideas for a workshop on Spell Rhythm for the upcoming Burning Man Festival.  And listening to the incredible music for the Wolf Song play, the rhythms of the instruments, singers' voices, and dancers' feet bringing my words to life as if had always been meant to be heard that way...

Answers for Kailee

Kailee is a high school student who wrote me a note one day.  Here's our correspondence:

Hello Annie,

My name is Kailee Hocker. I live in Hiawatha, KS and I'm a junior in High School. Our english teacher wanted us to do research on a famous poet that we like; as well as contact them in any way and ask questions. I looked at a lot of poets and I thought your poems were very pretty. I would really like to get to know more about you. So, please e-mail me back ASAP :) I have some questions I would like to ask you regarding your poetry!