 |
 |
| |
| Departments |
Home
Columns, Special
Topics & Features:
The Columns:
Angels, Guides, &
Loving Spirits:
Ask The Psychics Q&A:
Reading by Adena
Reading by Aeon
Reading by Fyre
Angel Blessings:
with Dr. Doreen Virtue
Ask Valerie Morrison,
Internationally
Acclaimed Psychic
Trust Your Vibes
By Dr. Sonia Choquette, PhD.
Internationally Acclaimed Psychic Healer & Author
Love Letters
by Erika Morrell,
Soul Mate Medium™
Astrologer's Notes:
Carin Martin,
Astrologer
Donna Cunningham, MSW, Astrologer
Basil Fearrington,
Astrologer
Diana Stone,
Astrologer &
Huna Shaman
Jeff Jawer
Astrologer
Ray Merriman,
Financial Astrology:
MMA Market Week
Noel Tyl,
Astrologer
Daily Aspect Calendar
by Care
MoonWatching with Dana Gerhardt and Friends
Starlight Musings
by Nancy Sommers,
Mundane Astrologer
Creating Bridges:
The Spiritual &
Philosophical
Act of Power
Discovering the Key to Living Your Sacred Dream
by Lynn Andrews
Avant-Gardening:
Insights
by Frank &
Vicky Giannangelo
From The Heart:
Alan Cohen
Teachings from the Western Mystery Traditions: The Esoteric "Paths of Return"
by Jacquelyn Small, Eupsychia
Spirituality in Daily Life: by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
The Conscious Column
by David Ault
Spiritual Mastery
for the 21st Century
Dr. Gwen MacGregor
Encounters on the
Shaman's Path with
Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD.
Anthropologist, Zoologist, Author, Shamanic Healer & Teacher
The Divine Human
by Ornesha De Paoli
Awakenings
by Karen Johnson
Worshipping by Wondering with
Sankara Saranam, MA Founder of the Pranayama Institute
Wisdom Walks in Circles
by Margaret Lewis
Author & Shamanic Practitioner:
Water For The Dry Sponge: Chronicles and Essays
by Shaun Brown,
Be Well Publications
“I of my own knowledge…”
by Frank DeMarco,
Author, Editor, & Psychic Explorer
Crystals, Minerals
& Gemstones
Light and Love with Crystals, Minerals & Gemstones
by Raven,
Raven Crystals
Furry & Feathered Family Members:
Dr. Carson's Holistic Animal Care
by Dr. Kathleen Carson, D.V.M.
Animal Insights
by Charlene Boyd, Animal Communicator,
talk-to-animals.com
Healing & Alternative
Health:
"Spirit and Practice
of the Wise Woman
Tradition"
By Susun Weed
The Holistic Mystic,
by Lonny Brown
Medical Intuition: Tune
in to Your Body and Improve Your Health
by Caroline Sutherland, Sutherland Communications
Transformational Healing through the Violet Flame!
by Eva Kettles
Herbs for Health
with Kami McBride
Cure Your Cravings
...For Life
Rena Greenberg,
Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming & Hypnotherapist
Humor:
Wake Up Laughing.Com:
Swami Beyondananda
Interviews:
Watch for Upcoming Announcements
Kabbalah:
Kabbalah Revealed:
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, Kabbalalist
Numberscope Forecast
by Vincent J. Barra
Oracle & Divination Systems:
Be Your Own Oracle
by James Wanless, Ph.D. Creator of the Voyager Tarot Deck
Resources:
Archives
Blessings & Messages
The Book Nook
The Directory
Event Calendar
Historical Notes & Data
The MetaPersonals
S.O.L.A.R.®:
S.O.L.A.R ®
Beyond Materiality. Beyond Spirituality. Toward the Complete Human Being...
by Martin Lass, Emissary
Tarot:
Moment to Moment
by Gigi Miner
Author, Tarot Consultant, & Teacher
Reviews:
Tarot, Cartomancy,
Oracle Decks,
Books, & Software.
by Bonnie Cehovet,
Tarot Educator
Tidbits:
News Briefs
Op-Ed
Pearls of Wisdom
by Astro Aeon
& Astro Care
Symbols, Seals,
Amulets & Talismans
The What in the
World Department
Trivia & Life's Other
Novel Moments
Publisher's Corner
General Information:
Advertising Information & Opportunities:
The Directory Advertising Rates
Premium Pages:
Groups 1, 2 & Display
Advertising Rates
The BookNook
Advertising Rates
About
The Meta Arts Magazine
Editorial Submission
Information:
Contact Us
Legal Notices
|
|
|
|
|
|
Encounters on
the Shaman's Path
with anthropologist Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD.
|
|
|
by Dr.Hank Wesselman, P.h.D. |
|
|
The Guardians
My narrative this month is inspired by an encounter with the Hawaiian elder and kahuna Hale Makua—one that happened more than ten years ago at a meeting that took place at the edge of the active crater of Kilauea volcano on Hawaii Island—the same crater that is currently belching out voluminous clouds of sulfur dioxide that at times shrouds the whole island.
When we first met in 1996, Makua became aware of the kind of work I do as an anthropologist—my research with the international scientific expeditions to the fossilferous geological beds of Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley in search of answers to the mystery of human origins. It was during that meeting that Makua told me a mythic story about the origin of humanity, although how widely this story is known in Hawaii and throughout Polynesia at large I do not know.
According to the kahuna mystics, he said, humanity originally came out of another dimension and across the universe. We came as seeds of light, as souls, and we were brought here to this water planet Earth by high spiritual guardians who accompanied us on our journey.
We didn’t come in spaceships but rather in what Makua described as canoes made of light. We were brought to this place because there existed primitive life forms that were ready to receive our souls. Then we descended and took up residence in these beings, and since the guardians possessed the knowledge of our purpose and our destiny, some of them descended and embodied as well so that they would be here to transmit this knowledge to us when we were ready to receive it.
And when we had achieved that stage in our evolution as a species, the guardians gave us this knowledge… then most of them departed. “However,” he twinkled at me, “some of them are still here…”
He watched me as I thought about this, then he gave me a clue. It took the form of a question. He asked me how far back in time I was working. So I told him about the discoveries that we were making between four and a half and six million years ago—the recovery of the fossilized bones of an early form of proto-human known to science as Ardipithecus in the tribal lands of the Afar peoples.
“This species is so primitive,” I said, “that it is literally half ape, half human. In fact it may be the famous missing link between the human and ape lineages that none other than Charles Darwin himself predicted that we would eventually find in Africa.”
Makua looked thoughtful and then gave me another clue. “When you get back to eighteen and a half million, that’s where you’ll find me.”
Eighteen and a half million… My inner paleontologist came to the fore. This was a time in geological history known as the early Miocene, and as Makua watched me attentively, I began to access my memories for the fossil fauna that lived during this time.
Now the Miocene Period was a very long stretch of the geologic past that began about 25 million years ago and ended around five and a half million. The animals and plants that existed during this time were radically different from those of today. For starters, the world was a greenhouse world for most of that time, with two million year episodes of ice ages between 12 and 10 million, and between 7 and 5 million. Otherwise, the tropics extended all the way up to the Arctic circle.
In response, the planet was blanketed with dense tropical forests. Crocodiles and proto-Hippos called anthracotheres cruised the Thames River in what is today England, and a variety of early primates lived in the trees of the forests of Eurasia and Africa.
Among them were some very primitive anthropoid apes known to science as the Dryopithecines. They actually looked a bit more like monkeys because the hominoid (ape) should joint had not evolved yet for arm swinging under branches and so they ran along the tops of tree limbs like monkeys do today. However, they had teeth much like those of apes, not monkeys, and they lacked tails.
You will have noticed that no one in your peer group is sporting a tail, at least none that we can see. This is because the physical vehicle—the body that we as souls inhabit right now right here on earth—is descended from that original ancestral stock.
There were many kinds of apes that appeared—and disappeared—during the Miocene Period, but we, and the gorillas and the chimps in Africa, and the orangs and the gibbons in Asia, are still here. We all have very similar teeth and we all lack tails.
And as many of my readers are aware, we humans share roughly 99% of our DNA in common with chimps. This means that we have shared a relatively recent common evolutionary relationship with them and 4.5-6 million years ago is right in the ballpark, geologically speaking.
So I’m sitting on the side of this volcano in the middle of the Pacific ocean and all this is going through my mind. And Makua is watching me for my reaction. How could he have known about the existence of the Dryopithecines in the early Miocene? The answer was that he couldn’t, but he was, in a way, right on the mark with the timing of his mythic account of our arrival here.
Then I thought to myself—the guardians. Who were the guardians? And if they had embodied here 18.5 million years ago, what physical vehicle would they have chosen?
I began my search of the fossil fauna once again. If they were that highly evolved, they would have been sentient and my reasoning led me to consider animals in that time period that had large convoluted brains. Another primate? There weren’t any with large brains…
Then I had it! In fossil record of the early Miocene, we find evidence for the first modern cetaceans—the whales and the dolphins.
We have records of early primitive whales and early primates that go back to the Eocene Period 50 million years ago. But the earliest precursors of modern apes and modern whales appear at about the same time—in the early Miocene. That suggested that the whales and dolphins could be the guardians who accompanied us across the universe so long ago.
“You got it!” Makua proclaimed with an explosive laugh. I had forgotten his clairvoyance. He had been tracking my thoughtline like a hunter tracks prey the whole time.
“The whales and dolphins…” I murmured. He nodded. “In Polynesia, we call them the record-keepers.”
And the knowledge that they gave us…” I asked. “What did they tell us?”
Makua gave me a long thoughtful look.
“They told us about our purpose as well as our destiny. And this is two-pronged. First, they said that we were brought here to this wonderful planet to enjoy ourselves—to grow and increase and become more than we were in the beauty of Nature.
“And secondly, they conveyed that each of us is to remember our divine origin, and this can only happen on one way—through the experience of love for one another.”
He nodded to himself and repeated in Hawaiian: “Aloha kekahi i ke kahi—love one another.”
Two years later, I brought Makua a stone from Ethiopia, a large white pebble that was 18.5 million years old. I told him how old it was and he laughed, raised it to his lips and kissed it.
And the guardians? Makua told me that their contract is up and most are preparing to leave. “Where will they go?” I asked him “Anywhere they want,” he replied with a laugh, pointing upward and outward into the Universe.
Until next month, allow me to invoke the spirit of Hale Makua, my great Hawaiian friend… and with his blessing (and his words), I extend to each of you the Light and the Love of the Ancestors, The Source of Life, rejoicing in the Power and the Peace, braided with the cords of Patience, revealing the tapestry of the strongest force in the Universe… your Aloha.
With warm thoughts—Dr Hank
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Hank Wesselman, P.h.D
Anthropologist, Shamanic Teacher, Healer, & Author
|
 |
Dr Hank Wesselman PhD., holds advanced degrees in anthropology and zoology from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Since 1971, he's conducted research with an international group of scientists, exploring eastern Africa's Great Rift Valley in search of answers to the mystery of human origins--fieldwork that has allowed him to spend much of his life living and working with traditional peoples, rarely, if ever, visited by outsiders.
During this time, he has worked with many notables including Prof F. Clark Howell, Dr Don Johanson, "Lucy's" discoverer, as well as members of the famous Leakey family.
He is currently engaged in fieldwork in northern Ethiopia with the Middle Awash Research Project headed by Prof Tim White, where he is reconstructing the paleoenvironments of sites dated between four and six million years old that have yielded the fossilized remains of humanity's earliest ancestors.
Dr Wesselman has taught anthropology for the University of California at San Diego; the University of Hawai'i at Hilo's West Hawai'i campus at Kealakekua; California State University at Sacramento; American River College and Sierra College in northern California; and Kiriji Memorial College and Adeola Odutola College in Western Nigeria, where he first became interested in indigenous spiritual traditions while living among people of the Yoruba Tribe as a US Peace Corps Volunteer during the 1960s.
Dr Hank (as his students call him) is also a shaman in training, now in the 23rd year of his apprenticeship. His autobiographical trilogy Spiritwalker, Medicinemaker, and Visionseeker describes an ongoing continuum of visionary experiences that began spontaneously out in the bush of southern Ethiopia in the 1970s, resumed in Hawai'i in the 1980s, and continue to the present day.
Combining the sober objectivity of a trained scientist with a mystic's passionate search for deeper understanding, Hank's books and teachings contain revelations about the nature of reality, the self, as well as the shaman's spiritual worlds.
Since 1994, he has offered seminars and training workshops at many internationally-recognized centers such as the Esalen Institute in California, the Omega Institute near New York, and the New Millennium Institute in Hawai'i.
Hank's newest books include the Journey to the Sacred Garden: A Guide to Traveling in the Spiritual Realms, and Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms (co-authored with transpersonal medical practitioner and soul retrieval specialist Jill Kuykendall).
He currently serves on the advisory board of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners, is a member of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, and is featured in Traveling Between the Worlds: Conversations with Contemporary Shamans by Hillary S Webb.
In addition to his scientific publications, he is at work on a book about his expeditionary field experiences in Africa.
He has also written a small book for children: Little Ruth Reddingford and the Wolf.
Contact info and workshop schedule:
www.sharedwisdom.
com
email:
hw@sharedwisdom.com
Notes & Updates
from Dr.Hank
Descriptions of the workshops and presentations offered by Hank Wesselman and his wife Jill Kuykendall, as well as the website links to the centers where they will be held in 2007, are now taking form on their web site:
www.sharedwisdom.
com
Soul Catchers
I discovered, quite by accident almost 15 years ago, that I am married to a great soul catcher. My wife Jill Kuykendall was trained in the Western medical paradigm and has worked as a physiotherapist in acute care rehabilitation in hospital as well as home health settings for more than 25 years.
Today, Jill works primarily in transpersonal medicine and has a private practice devoted to soul retrieval. Clients come to her from all over the country, as well as from abroad and she is usually booked up months in advance.
Interestingly, the transpersonal nature of this work means that it is “nonlocal’ and is just as effective when done long-distance, revealing that Jill can still do the work on behalf of those who cannot travel to meet with her in her office.
Jill is the co-author with me of Spirit Medicine and wrote the chapters on soul loss, soul retrieval and more. As you may be aware, we have a website <www.sharedwisdom.
com> where Jill has a page describing the nature of her work in soul retrieval.
For those interested, there are also two hour-long interviews with me posted on the Broadband Learning Channel <www.bblc.tv>, one of which is focused upon health, illness and healing the soul in the indigenous perspective.
|
 |
You'll find it in
The
Directory! |
|
|
|
|
