Journal Entry from the Trip to the Rock in the Caribbean

Day 3 here on this rock in the Caribbean Sea. I feel rebellious and so blissed out of my gourd I can barely stand it. Officially, by record, I'm nowhere, I've disappeared and some part of me wonders what would happen if I just didn't go back in 3 weeks. If it were all over tomorrow and a big wave came up and swept me away, I'd die content. I've had an amazing life, and the magic that has happened here in the past 3 days would have me flying back to source with a big smile on my face knowing I have lived a dream I've had for many years!

My first night, my friend Frank and I were wandering around the streets of this little ocean village and came across a man who amazingly spoke English. There aren't many here. I told him I was here seeking to learn about the Santeria Religion and Rhythms, and he informed me that he'd just heard some drumming behind his house and gave me directions. We hunted down the house and the Bembe (Santos ceremony of music, song and dance) was just ending. People in white were filtering outside and dispersing into the streets. Since I had just landed, I hadn't yet had any time to get a grasp on what is acceptable and how to approach this, so I was feeling a mixture of total excitement, and some nervousness about approaching anyone. Especially since my Spanish is far from fluent still! I could feel this little buzz in my heart and couldn't believe my good fortune that the very first night I am here, I would come upon this so quickly!

So I hovered outside, and Frank was encouraging me to wait til the morning and come back to the house and ask. Me being me though, I just didn't want to wait til morning for what I could maybe initiate now. So I hovered, and watched and waited and Frank and I cracked jokes about having ourselves sacrificied for being there hovering outside of their sacred space cracking jokes about being sacrficied! A very tall man somehow energetically caught my attention, and I decided he was the one I would approach, or maybe Spirit had decided for me. I was laughing at myself, "Sure pick the biggest guy around who looks the most intimidating and start there!" As he left, I grabbed Frank by the arm and followed him down the street, and I don't think Frank was super comfortable with all of this by the way. We followed him until he was about 100 yards from the house and I attempted to communicate in my limited Spanish that with all due respect, I had a question and would he be willing to grant me permission to ask. He was gracious, looked at me kind of funny at first (probably my Spanish), and said, "Si." When I told him I was interested in learning about the religion and the music, he gave a big smile and told me to come to his house, which we were now standing in front of, the next day at 10 AM and he would have someone there to teach me. His name was Ishmael, and I feel somehow like he is an angel indeed brought to me, or I to him to start this magical journey!

The next day I showed up at Ishmael's home. Ishmael is a big, beautiful, mature man, maybe in his late 40's, tall, elegant and with a tender heart and a kind way about him. He showed me his altars in his home honoring the different Orisha's of his tradition, Ilegua (the keeper of the doors between the worlds) lives behind his door to guard the opening to the house, Ogun & Chango were in the living room near the kitchen and assured me that "poco a poco" I would come to know more. I was glad I came with atleast a little knowledge of Santeria and the Orisha's from my time exploring on my own and my own spiritual guidance that has cracked open those doors for me. His house was tidy, and simple like most homes there and he led me out back to the "yard" which really is just a concrete slab with a tree coming out of it where I would be taking my lessons.

The doors here are opening for me and quickly. Everywhere I look there are Santos,and I have learned a lot in just a few short days about the religion. I have taken 2 drum classes already with Jesus Limon Morales and his son Jesucito. As it turns out, Jesus Limon Morales is a pretty well known composer (some here say "famosa") of Afro Cuban music here, so miraculously, in this little village by the sea, I was led to some pretty solid real deal connections!

The first lesson I was a little nervous I guess and had a really hard time with the language barrier, but it was beautiful because even with that, we were still able to have this profound conversation about how singing, drumming and dancing activate the mind to heal and help us to connect in ways that nothing else really does. I felt like these two men I'd just met understand something I know and feel that it seems few others do. They really understand the body/mind/spirit connection of the rhythms and their effects. They understand how it opens the portal to the Divine.
I felt like we understood each other on this whole other level, a very real level somehow and I left feeling more connected in just a few short hours to these men than I do to a lot of people I have known for years and realizing that the people I feel the most "family" with in my heart are those who understand these truths fully.

I am here with deep and ancient spirits, my teachers lineage goes back generations in the Santeria tradition, all the way back to the Yoruba roots. In a few days they are taking me to my first ceremony here and I am feeling very honored and blessed to feel the portals opening to me here! I rest tonite giving thanks for every part of the journey that has brought me here now.

Sanctuary

Sanctuary within my skin
The rhythm brings me in again
To pray at lotus feet upon which I stand
as movement lifts me into my own Promised Land

The temple I am
this form holds the formless
merging worlds above and below
My body teaches me
what I need to know

Silently hovering in ether's embrace
one arm drifts down
mesmerizing
I am entranced
I am danced
I am bedazzled by the glow I feel
Igniting spirit thru flesh
Nothing else is real

Sanctuary within my skin
Temple I am
Without and within

Sacred Space Jam: Sister Muse Sweetness

Magical Mystical Muse works are by far the most powerful medicine I have found for the dis-ease of Modern living. Co-creative, playful, deeply moving, prayerful, transformative and invoking the spirit of oneness, Muse experiences allow us to be witnessed, to hold space, to share and to meet in a profound way. Most of our lives are spent in the mundane, talking about our daily challenges or joys, our lives, our jobs, our frustrations, and often there is a certain level of superficiality to the exchanges, "Hey, how are you?" "Good.." because there isn't time, or because there aren't words to express the depths of what may be really going on for us in this wildly spinning world where the changes that are happening are fast, furious and sometimes totally unruly and insensitive to our more childlike, deeper, curious essences. This world can be so sweet, and so cruel all in one day.

Muse Experiences where we can let go, unwind, sing, dance, cry, lay on the floor and belt out our pain or our joy, writh in ecstasy or in sorrow, drum, pray and just simply be our true essence in the presence of others are a reprieve from the mundane, and a medicine that is deeply needed in these times. Last night I visited the Sacred Space Jam at the Starhouse and was right at home in the sweet and delightful facilitation by founder Karen and Michael Travers. I felt last night that I was in the presence of the Master Musers. Profoundly moving, the bodies, voices and music wove their way in and out of high states of trance and intense booty shaking. Many offered at the end of the night that the highlight was when the moon came shining thru the windows of the perfecly placed Alchemical temple we know as the Starhouse in Boulder, CO. The crystal bowl, the hang, and a circle of voices praying their hearts out carried us into the silence that closes the practice. Certainly, I too felt that magic as the crystaline point of our hearts, souls and bodies merging in service to the Muses that service us!

These practices are opening us into our hearts. I am honored to meet another sister carrying the torch of creative free expression and look forward to sharing every month at the Sacred Space Jam in Boulder! Don't miss the next one, and look for the Muse Practice which will be returning to fill in the spaces in between the Sacred Space Jams.

Gratitude for the Goodness of Life

Softest orange twilight tonite brings my open heart to grace once again.

I feel, so often, the blessings of this divine play of life and I find myself crying with gratitude and joy at the magic that this life has offered me. In truth, it offers itself to all of us, but many of us (me too sometimes I admit) stay so busy and occupied by the mundane that we can often forget, for days, months and sometimes, for some, for years or even a lifetime. A few moments sitting quietly with nature though and I am quickly brought back to my senses!

Reflecting in this quiet time on the many amazing moments of a lifetime. The good dear friends who make me smile, those who reflect such beauty and wisdom to me are so cherished; yet it seems impossible to express the depths of my love for them in any way. I Love you is just such a tiny piece of the equation.. I am you.. I see myself in you, I honor you.. still not even close to what I feel in my heart for those special lights who have walked some piece of my path with me. There truly are no words to express the profundity of love.

Tonite, sitting watching the last sensual embers of light fade into the dark of night I sent my love to them all, in all the corners of the earth that I have been blessed to touch my feet upon where I met their smiling (and sometimes not smiling) faces. Waves of peace and gratitude for the parents who, though they do not understand me, gave me my foundation to become the woman I am becoming. The woman I am learning more and more to love with great passion and tenderness. Not the egoic love of "I'm great," but the true acceptance of myself, with all my "faults," all my weird parts, my neurocies even. Love is acceptance and I am finding every day that I am learning more and more to accept all of myself with grace. A lifelong practice it seems to offer me. May we all bless our parents, even those who really didn't do as good of a job as we think they should have, for they gave us the greatest gift of life, and maturity is facing that acceptance that no one can ever be perfect for us but ourselves.

I watch nature and it gets easier and more simplistic to comprehend acceptance:

Does the earth try to change the plants that grow forth from it?
Do the plants complain to the weather that it's too hot or too wet?
Does the butterfly try to change the smell of the flower it suckles?
Does the hummingbird, whom I have been seeing every few minutes here, dislike the whirring of it's own wings?
Does the coyote question the strength of the herd it's stalking or simply await it's dinner if fate chooses to weaken one calf or not?
Does the river say to the sea, "I wish you'd get out of my way already, you're blocking my flow."

Love is total acceptance and total being of itself, and truly, nature embodies love in all it's forms.. wild, raging, hungry, passionate, animalistic, reflective, on and on.. there is for me no greater sanctuary, no more complete temple than the planet we live on. When we learn this, all that we must endure become gifts for our greatest unfolding. When we learn this, we are always in prayerful embodiment recognizing the divinity in all we see from the pauper to the prince, the parasite to the pretty flashy feathered peacock. We realize "church" isn't a building, the temple is within us, around us, underneath our feet; prayer is alive always in our senses and our touch. As above, so below. We are that which we seek outside of ourselves and when we get still, we know this to be true. No one else can make us complete, not a lover, not a job, not a house, not a man or woman alive can complete us, they can only compliment us and teach us and share with us our own self.

Nature is the greatest teacher I have ever known or will ever know I'm sure.

I was feeling tonite into my own life. My life has been, as truly I believe all lives are, an amazing experience. I have been blessed beyond what I often feel I am worthy of with good solid people, wise and loving reflections, and funky whacky trippy opportunities and people who remind me to live life as fully as I can; and though I may not ever have many of the "normal" comforts of "security" that many people value above all else, a "job," "house," "marriage," etc. I realize that what I have been gifted is pure grace to experience life in ways that many people may never know. I find myself regularly in complete humble astonishment at the beauty around me and within me when I allow it to unfold.

Music, poetry, sensual passion that is unbridled and wild, magic, mystical awakening to greater truths than money or the "American dream" have been part of my life since I was a small child. I have always known the Divine and been in awe and that to me is one of the biggest gifts I could have been given or chosen. I often try to deny those gifts, thinking that's not "enough" and I have to be "successful" in the ways society expects. Then, on nites like tonite, I get real and realize the illusion vs the reality of life: stillness, unparalleled natural beauty, mountain tops, a life where friends are making me smile and laugh on Facebook from all the different parts of my life, from highshool, my drum circle years, my professional musician colleagues who sings songs that make me fall in love with them to their bones hearing their passion that resonates with mine, Costa Rica connections, and I feel deeper than ever how much love I have been allowed to experience and how loved I am by so many whom I love and adore with all my heart.

What could I find more enrapturing right now than a night like tonite, alone in thousands of acres of desert and mountains, with no sound but crickets, no breath buy my own, no distraction whatsoever from my own depths, a shot of good tequilla and a sacrement of stillness?

I live in gratitude
I walk in gratitude
I breathe in gratitude
and in that gratitude there is such deep celebration in my heart for this life.

Thank you to all of you whom have graced my life with so much sweetness, humor and reflection of greatness. Though the words can never touch the true depths of my love for you, I LOVE YOU!

If I left the planet tonite, I would leave content and grateful for this walk on Planet Earth, for getting to know nature in the way that I do, for the coyote's song, for the crickets and cicadas, the howler monkey's, the sweetest yummiest jams and grooves by firelight, on stage, in living rooms, at my campfire last week in Crested Butte, with big lights or no lights, for the poetry that has floated effortlessly thru me from the Divine spirit of the Muse, for my family, for my sweet nephew who is now a man, for my dear sweet mother who I pray finds peace, and my father who I believe is maturing into his own grace, for my beloved partner Jessee of 7 years, for Matt who gifts me this sanctuary in Crestone every year, for Wolf and my drum brothers and sisters, for so much amazing life...

When I do go, have a big all night fire ceremony for me and play, dance, sing, and celebrate the joy that I know to be truth in this life that you have shared with me.
Cry but not for me.. I have lived a full life already and if this were my last night, I would go
In peace

Message from Peace

To know me is to love me
To feel me is to cherish your truest self
I am always here
Awaiting your remembrance
of the gifts I offer you

Tranquility
Magic
Mystical awakening
To the depths of your inner being

You and I are the same
Only you sometimes forget me

I welcome you to my abode anytime
Day
or night
My heart longs to feel your breath
slowed
Empassioned
Awakened fully to the love I hold for you

I am eternal
I am the dawn
I am the mid-day heat radiating my warmth
I am the soft surreal colors streaming from sunset's kiss

I am yours
Come to me
Again and again
And I will always hold you

I am your eternal lover
I will never forsake you
Though you will forsake me
Time and time again
Until...

You learn that I am here for you
Absorb me
Learn my ways
Rise into the heights of the glory of grace

Choose me
And I will return to you
Every day
In every moment that you let me
I will be the lover that you can never find in another

I alone can gift you eternal joy
I alone can be your ally in the darkest night

I alone

Breathe
And you will feel me breathing
Move
And you will feel me moving
For I am the blossom
I am the birdsong
I am the lone coyote
wandering the desert
with the rabbit and the fox
the elk and the deer

I am the magic
I am the mystery
I am the muse
I am
that I am

Yours Eternally

Midnite Moonlite Muse

Bright sweet mistress
Enraptures me
Entices me
Reminds me of slow, sensual sweet surrender
Like a lover
Soft
Deep
True
Creating heat in the cool night's kiss
My skin shivers
My spirit awakens

The Goddess on Sacred Ground
She shines down
Cascading mystical remembrances
Of the Truth in Being

Soft
Sensual
Delightful to all senses
She pulls me in
Like I would a lover tonite
Deep into the womb of warmth
Dripping ectasy

Magic is always here
And she reminds me
to find the grace in simple solitude
and body awakened to purity
As coyotes sing now
To the stillness of my heart
with one soft candle whispering flickering shadows

My body pulses to her call
I am awakened
Deep in the night
Thinking of the lovers of love
Feeling the call of divinity
Flowing
Effortlessly

Embracing me
I dance within her in midnight's magic
Willingly her lover
Always and forever more

Interview with Cheri Shanti on the Benefits of Musing and More

From March 2008 Interview with Jeremy Brieske

Click on the title of the post to hear the interview.

This is a little late in getting posted, but should provide good info for those of you wanting to know and understand more about the benefits of Music Making and the Muse works I offer for retreats and communities.

Gives a little insight on me too!

Dolphin Love

Had the most amazing opportunity while in Costa Rica, thanks to my good friend, Cameron Powers who made a connection happen, to play drums for dolphins! WOW.. so fun, so sweet and so beautiful to feel their hearts connecting to us. Thanks to Marta & Craig for making it possible for us to experience such joy and bliss on the sweet Pacific seas.

As a young girl growing up in Florida, I have had many dolphin experiences. My dad and I were always in the boat and there were always dolphins close by it seemed, a few times they even came down into the canal in our back yard which was super cool. I have memories of their love filling my heart that go back to those days, and the heart space they inspire has never changed or diminished. Last year I got to see them near Kauai and the Big Island, this year Costa Rica. It's fun to know they love to groove too!

Enjoy the video and pass it on!

Costa Rica Update

Such sweet times here in the warmth of the tropics. It's been an amazing time to dream the dream, live the dream and work with sweat dripping down my body constantly.

Costa Rica feels funny too, like a place that has pants it hasn't really been able to totally squeeze into!

Music is the place my heart always thinks it needs more of, even here with all the amazing sounds of nature and the wild things, my heart is craving the sweet soft places, the lover in the Muse! I've had a few good doses, luckily enough to keep me soft and yummy but always wanting more it seems of those really precious sacred moments in the Muse.

Forest Dance was here, old friends from many years past in the fire tribe community. Twas a treat indeed to hold space and play all night beneath a big phat tropical moon with monkeys howling and funky Whattar players busting early morning grooves by the fire that was a bit too large for the size of the circle! The beautiful Ceiba tree hovering ominously over our heads was a blessing to behold and the biggest relief on the land was the swimming hole just on top of Nauyaca Falls (the picture is Nauyaca).

I've been here, in Costa Rica, Dominical, for 6 weeks working with a very dear friend of mine on creating a Community Retreat project in Uvita, CR just outside Dominical. It's been an amazing time of writing the dream into being and feeling this super surreal knowingness that I am living in the dream I've been carrying for so many years. I feel so grateful for the opportunity to get to collaborate with a friend on something that we both have been dreaming for years! It's tremendously exciting, and I feel like kissing the ground almost every minute... wow..

The synchronicities have been wild and whacky of course too! Lots of re-connecting with old friends from all over my life, Florida, North Carolina, Fire Tribe all over this country and others have been showing up left and right. It seems there is some merging here of all the differeng amazing pieces of my life! That's telling me something, as a big part of my dream/vision has been that all my favorite people from my whole life would come to be together in one magical, natural place like heaven!

The book, "Muse Power: How community Music Heals us from the Symptoms of Modern Culture" is in it's final final stages, no really, I mean it! I'm having Sirian Philips redo the cover and once that's done, it's off to print, so it will be available from my website as well as Amazon.com and other sources before spring I think!

Always good for me to leave the country and reflect on how amazing a place we live in in the US. Even with it's crap and it's problems which are many.. we are so blessed to have the reality we do.. bless the mess and let's dance the dream alive every day!

PREFACE to Cheri's Book by Cameron Powers

Cheri Shanti’s musical path and mine have followed some very similar
trajectories. I was very honored when she requested that I write this
preface. My evolution as community musician has culminated in
the creation of a non-profit organization called Musical Missions
of Peace which raises funds to carry community music-making into
international arenas. My non-profit organization has recently helped
fund an American woman to travel through Iran, sowing the seeds of
connection and friendship by joining in village festivals across the
Persian countryside.

Musical Missions of Peace also currently supports music lessons for
Iraqi refugee children which in Syria and in Jordan. These schools
provide employment for displaced professional Iraqi musicians and
help ensure that the valuable content of ancient Iraqi musical tradition
is not lost during these times of upheaval.
My community music engagements have ranged from Native
American festivals in Peru and Mexico, to Greece and finally, during
recent years, to Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon.
My years of study of the ancient micro-tonal music scales and the
music of the Arab world have enabled me to feel a sense of belonging
in many far-flung community settings in the Middle East. Ah, if only
the politicians could experience some of these same things!
Early in life I spent years in counter-cultural communes across the
Western states in the USA and I led many live music events when it
was time to celebrate.

I have had the great pleasure to join with Cheri in some of her Colorado-
based community “Muse” and “Fire Ceremony” celebrations and have
been delighted to feel the powerful energy and clarity of vision which
she brings to each occasion.

Baghdad, Iraq: Unified by a favorite old Iraqi song we stand and
move our bodies together while the high-rise buildings burn and
the invading army tanks drive by. Musical reality is more cohesive
than military reality. This is what I have discovered. When will the
soldiers lay down their guns and pick up the flutes and the lutes and
the tambourines? The ancient wisdom tells us that this option does
exist! It works for us here on the streets of Baghdad: we are American citizens singing with Iraqis here in the ancient Iraqi capitol even as we
all mourn the destruction.

In this book, Cheri reveals her experiences drumming with women
in India and we discover that there are indeed other tools for cross-
cultural commuication which, unfortunately, are generally omitted
from US foreign policy around the globe. Connecting through the
universal language of music offers us familiar and respectful ways to
bridge worlds.

Sina, Peru: Tucked into a village in a valley high on the slopes of the
Andes above the Amazon jungle the Inca-speaking families are into
the third night of the celebration. Clapping their hands for rhythm in
their dance they sing of the loneliness of the vast mountain landscapes.
They sing of the pain of lost loves and of the hopes for new romance.
Eusevio Qispi has planted the cornerstone for his new house! Tears
come as he sings in anticipation of the arrival of his new bride! No one
mentions the one awkward detail: he has yet to succeed with romance
and the bride is entirely imaginary. But never mind! Four days and
nights of singing and clapping the village rhythms will surely help to
conjure her up!

Cheri’s elucidations of the roles music plays in tribal societies around
the world make it clear that brides can indeed miraculously appear
when the right music is played long and sincerely enough!

West Bank of the Nile, Egypt: The piercing wails of three ancient oboes
ride atop the skilled drum-strokes on the skin of the big bass drum.
Dressed in their white robes the village men whirl at opposite ends of
their ceremonial dancing sticks. The flavor of a martial art stylizes the
dance. There are no gaps in the music between midnight and dawn.
Once again all turmoils and struggles have been laid to rest for an
entire night. From time to time a woman dances solo in the center of
the courtyard beneath the appreciative gaze of the assembled men. All
is just as it should be. The atmosphere is absolutely Egyptian! Eight
thousand years of ancestral rhythmic tradition manifests once again
and carries our energy up into the sky!

In this book we discover that Cheri has been laying the same foundations
for rhythmic tradition right here in the USA! Her work offers a place
for us here in the US to find this kind of experience, a place to lay down the struggles and turmoils of the world and be together, in spite
of our differences, and celebrate life in community.

Naxos, Greece: Tonight the island drummers and musicians have
congregated in a small town near the northernmost Mediterranean
beach. While the lines of dancers revolve under the moon a wave of
energy carries the energy to new highs: the rhythm has suddenly shifted
from seven-beat phrases to eight-beat phrases! Without a single break
the band plays until past dawn. Dancing all night is something taken
for granted as a natural human right!

Cheri’s clear statements about the strangeness of some of the still
existing rules about MUSIC “disturbing the peace” here in our
homeland can help us bring about changes in values. There are few
cultures in the world where music making on a community level are
so restricted, repressed and devalued as it is in the US. The freedom
to gather and play music, anytime, anywhere is not something we are
familiar with in the US.

Sinaloa, Mexico: It’s now four o’clock in the morning in a small
mountain town. A group of fifteen guitar players serenade the
crowd from the front porches of randomly chosen homes along the
neighborhood streets. The highly amplified dance band in the central
plaza has finished for the night. Now there is acoustic space for random
improvisation! This village has truly come alive!
Here, as in most of the indigenously intact cultures in the more
tropical parts of the world, the music is “by, for and of” all the age
groups in the community: the children, the teenagers, the adults and
the grandparents.

In this book you will find beautiful descriptions
which hint at the beauty of this reality, although, as one of her quoted
contributors mentions, you really had to be there!

Deep in the Grand Canyon: The rhythm fever is upon us! Anything
will do: we extract whatever pots and pans and jars and cans we can
find from the cooking gear on our tethered rafts. Spoons make great
drum sticks! Which parts of our primal identities will emerge during
the next few hours of frenzied playing? High moonlit rocky crags stand
sentinel for the duration of the night. Musical moments are punctuated
with the sights and sounds of ecstatic human bodies diving into the
fast-moving river waters of the Colorado. Everyone swims back more. The next day there is a special satisfaction in the air.

In her chapter on the glamorization of popular music, Cheri gives
our young folks some encouragement for personal participation in
the communal creation of rhythm and music even as we observe the
trends toward electronica.

Amman, Jordan: Thirty Iraqi refugees gather in a friend’s apartment.
Dinner is shared but then the drums and instruments come out of their
cases. As the rhythms bubble out of their fingers onto their drums,
the refugees burning questions around basic survival gradually recede
from the forefront of consiousness. Someone has begun to sing. An
ancient stringed instrument, the Arabic lute, is in the hands of a skilled
player. Drums begin the accompaniment. A violin appears. Five hours
later the dancing and singing are still in full swing. Spoken words and
conversation will have to wait for another time. Now we are in a space
made sacred by the rhythms of the ancient muses of the Mesopotamian
Tigris and Euphrates river people!

What are the glues and fabrics of cultural identity which can hold
people together even in extreme times of disruption and catastrophe?
Cheri examines the trends in music teaching in American schools and
makes some clear-cut suggestions.

Boulder, Colorado: Seventy-five dancers reach the stage of screaming
and singing out their ecstasy. Four percussionists are here in the
ballroom well into the second hour of rhythmic ebb and flow. The
sound is live and no amplification is needed. The drummers and the
dancers adjust the tempo and no electronic tracks are included. A
wave of refreshment rolls through our consciousness as we celebrate
our freedom from the usual electronica. Cheri Shanti is one of the
drummers.

What do all these scenes have in common? Music is flowing. Love is
flowing. Bonding is happening. No one is divided. No one is separate
or left out! No one has reason for plotting or trickery. We are all
one. Even aging bodies feel pain-free and young again! The elixir of
communal music is being served by these drummers and musicians
who have evolved to become the local shamans and priestesses. The
ancestors are having their say and harmony has been achieved. What
a magnificent model for the rest of life!

Honoring the Stillness

Last night's muse was so symbolically sweet! As one of the last nights of winter, as the sweetness of spring is approaching, the energy was still, quiet, deep, contemplative and reflective. The sharings of stillness were profound! Just hearing each other breathe, sigh and relaxing deeply without any need to do anything was a soothing reminder of our connection, and an honoring of winter's teachings!

Grace in these shared moments permeates the room, and every person present. It was as if the exhaustion of winter was running thru us, and we were willing to be spent together in that space, willing to succomb to death in the moments just before rebirth!

Thank you to those present for honoring the stillness in yourself, and together as a community.

Sweetness!

Excerpt from Chapter 4: The Glamorization of Music & Decline of Music Making in Western Culture

“What is happening to raw music? Some people would rather listen to techno than create raw music. The very magic of synchronizing group music and dance is going away. A lot of tribal dance was dancing the same steps to create togetherness with the raw backbeat and magic that only drums, flutes, bells, stings, and singing can create. Dancing to a computer can never be the same to me. “
Johnny, Denver, CO

Making music together has shifted from a community sharing to a profession that has alienated the larger community from a very real and basic human experience. It has become a lost art form, something “scary” for non-musicians or “ordinary” people, and unfamiliar even to trained musicians in any out of context way. Many trained musicians can’t improvise, don’t know how to play from the moment or their heart. In this shift, we have lost something very valuable and indescribable. We’ve lost an inclusiveness, an openness and a willingness to “play” with each other, and in that, there has been a loss of intimacy and connection. The musical experience is more and more now dictated by the performer or DJ, more or less, and the opportunity to experience true group expression thru chanting, music making and story telling is more or less non-existant in the vast majority of bars, nightclubs or music venues. Music has become far more of a spectator sport and a commercial venture than a simple sharing of the human spirit. In my perspective, the commercialization of music is a major contributor to an overall feeling of dis-empowerment in ordinary, everyday people in relation to their own connection with music. For many adults, music was maybe in their lives as children, but for one reason or another they gave it up before they left highschool and never touched an instrument after that. Perhaps they quit because they didn’t think they were “good enough,” or “serious enough” or maybe because there is this illusion that everything we do has to be for profit, and playing music “just for fun” isn’t enough of a good reason to do it when there are bills to pay and mouths to feed.

As a society, we are taught that we “Go and see” music, that there is an “appropriate” place to “go and see” music (bars, nightclubs, etc.), and that we have to “Pay” to see people “Perform” or “Pay” to have lessons for the priveledge of learning. The free sharing of information that happens in more traditional cultures with music, the passing on, generation to generation of rhythms, songs, dances and musical etiquette, just isn’t always prevalent in the western culture. It has been a progression over time of commercial interests, again need and greed on the part of artists, and corporations, and the seemingly always present concept of the western mindset that everything has a price and can be bought and/or sold. Music and the arts have suffered tremendously from this way of being as it has shifted the consciousness of creativity from one of a playful exploratory child to a business man making deals that please the audience.

It is difficult to really imagine, now for many of us, that there was a time when music wasn’t a commodity, a specialized “skill” or a game of money. There was a time, and it still exists in some tribal communities, that music was simply for the sake of music, a way of life and a part of life. It wasn’t relative if you had a “look” or not, or how much you could turn on the opposite sex, it didn’t matter what kind of clothes you wore or who you “knew,” and you didn’t need to know every mode, scale or methodology to be an active participant, whatever piece you felt to contribute, dance, story, song, drumming, was equally valued and appreciated as a part of the whole.

“Serious music, which sticks to the strict, life inhibiting rules of harmonics and the twelvetone system is not capable of creating a new culture." (Grandpierre) Both classical and contemporary music "expect the audience's pregiven consent and forebearance. There are no participants here, just performers and listeners. Fake 'folk music', beyond its commercial uses is only good for damaging the word 'folk' and for frightening as many people as possible away from true 'folk music' Let's add to this the sleep inducing hits of light/pop music and we can say that the overwhelming part of today's music is quite simply only good for exposing man to his own misery and for manipulating him so that he can be even more manipulated. The music that used to be so vigorous and alive that neither man nor animal could free himself from its magical power is now a disemboweled mammoth on tip-toes." (14, p. 24)
Grandpierre, Hungary


In general, in the 20th century, the mainstream culture in the west has gone deeply into the capitalism of music and away from the concept of music for the people, by the people thru this process of “glamorization” of music, the artists and the whole lifestyle around it. “The history of the American Music Industry is a disheartening one, which largely details the exploitation of artists and musicians by opportunists and those without the musician's best interests at heart.” (16) Rock, pop and hip hop in particular have created an idolization of a lifestyle that is for the most part (there are exceptions of course) a relatively unhealthy one that is overly glamorized and filled with drugs, alcohol, sex, guns, and vanity. Just watch a few minutes of MTV or VH1, or look in a pop magazine and see what is being portrayed to our youth and the entire population as “Cool,” and you can easily get a concept of what is being “sold” en masse to mainstream society and in particular to our youth.

I do recognize that there are artists who break this stereotype, I know several personally and greatly admire their inner resolve to set a good example in an industry that sets a lot of poor examples of integrity, community and self respect. The reality is those artists, overall, get a lot less media attention, and a lot less exposure to the people who really need to hear their messages and see their examples. Many of them are preaching to the choir really, performing for people who are already somewhat aware of their messages and in support of them. In the past few years, it seems there are more and more up and coming artists who are realizing the power they hold to influence their listeners and are making wonderful contributions to the world thru their arts. I look forward to the emergence of more of those beings. I also appreciate those elder artists, such as Bono, of U2 who are setting positive examples by using their influence, money and success to launch humanitarian projects and serve the world.

Possibilities for Transformation

Tonite I recieved great blessings in the sharings of many hearts all tuned to the chords of community.

I am inspired and touched to my core and somehow I am even more committed to this great work: the Alchemy of the Soul, and the Personality, and even more so the Great Alchemy of Global consciousness.

Each of us is such a vital piece of the whole. The transformation of consciousness that is emerging is doing it's dance in every person it seems. Some are more resistant than others, but still I see this magic working it's way into the heart and mind of each person. Something wonderful, magical and revolutionary is brewing up in the cosmic soup of consciousness, and we have a responsibility to step up, step in and do our part, to whatever extent it is possible. Not just for us, but for our children, and their children.

To invite, support and encourage those who have skills, resources and wisdom to connect, collaborate, and support each other whole heartedly is a crucial piece that we can all take part in. Encourage dialogue, encourage mutually beneficial relationships, talk to those people who you think are so "different" than you, and give an opportunity to find the common ground, give what you have and know that IT IS ENOUGH to make a difference.

We are in such desperate need of GOOD leadership on all fronts. We need more solid able minded beings who know how to move between the worlds and people who can help assist in the in between spaces. We are in need of more liasons between corporate consciousness and New Paradigm consciousness, we are in need of more sharing, more relating as humans, as friends on Planet Earth. We don't have to always agree with each other, or try to change each other, we can't get rid of "one" for the "other" but we can learn to honor, respect and find creative ways to let all voices be heard and respected!

The time now is for integration and exploring how we can dance together. Trying to fight the inevitable is just a waste of time and resources, but learning to utilize what's already in action and move within the matrix to shift energy is an invaluable skill in today's world, and will be increasingly so in the future! We all know, there is no "going back." There is only learning from the past and using that wisdom to guide us into new possibilities and openings. From here, we have to move much more consciously, with much more respect and contemplation into tomorrow's playground of possibility!

There is nothing "too hard" or "too much" for us! Humans have proven that over and over again, we can create ANYTHING we want! What do we want? Really, what do we want? If it's only money, or only stuff, we've missed the essence of life. I think for most people, it's more than that. In the depths of the heart's longing there is a call to help, to serve humanity, to do something that matters in the world, in whatever small or grande way, whether it be feeding our children, or feeding a hungry nation of children. We all have something to offer.

Remembering the grace and the sweetness of community, of family, of sharing the simple pleasures of life, good food, good conversation, fire, starlight, dancing and singing together. For me, that's the essence of life... the essence of love is sharing!

Great gratitude for this night, and this open inspired heart.

Polalu Valley: Hawaii

Trembling
bone crunching
jowels of hell
With eyes of fire piercing eternity

Eternal Guardians
Always watchful
Always foreboding
Always vengeful

Some place of evil doings
Terror beyond the imaginable
Lives here on this island

Spooky
Cursed
The forbidden land
Protected but wrongly taken

Deep pulsing mother earth
Yoni fat and moist
Dripping most enticing delites
An Eden poisoned.

What stories live here
I feel the bones
I see the blood
I know mine are here too
My blood and bones

Savage beyond the conceivable
A fortress impenetrable by design

Haunted forests
Ironwood dancing
Featherlike in the raging wind
The wind that never sleeps here

He he o a na..
He he o a na...

I come to pay my respects
I come in peace
I go in peace.

Feedback on Rough Draft of Book

Angel Cheri, I have read a lot of your book. Thanks for sending for feeback, via email. Again I see what a Super weaver you are of the tapestry and a profound messenger.
You deliver & compose powerfully for the community. Thank you for your assistance and for sharing your wisdom & insight.

You cover so many bases. And some amazing & inspirational stories in there. I realize why you couldn't sleep alot of nights, you have had so much to get into words and to realease out of your head. It's great that you have included Tayler & I in your book in the way that you have, and others in our 'tribe' and other 'tribes' That's cool. I see how so much greatness can come from this getting composed and out there. Nicely done.

Very glad you have had this time to upload/download and proceed with what you are up to and what you are here to offer the world and yourself. Thanks for following your intuitions and callings. It is my hope that we can all be supported to follow through with this process that can hugely effect the consciousness & direction of our souls and the planet.

It can be quite subtle but profound in the scope of it all. ay.
Talk w/you later. Hugs ~*
Jen

Excerpt from Chapter 9: Moving thru Chaos: Professional In Service to Community

Moving thru Chaos &
Professionals In service to the Community Spirit

It seems that there is a missing Link in the Community Music arena that I feel called to mention, and that is the integration of all levels, meaning in particular, those who have dedicated their lives to studying the intriciacies and subtleties of music, those who we call “Professional Musicians.” I personally know of many people who have had all or some part of their original inspiration come from drum circles and/or open community music jams. Some part of the experience opened them up to a part of themselves, or to their own potential, or maybe it exposed them to the magic of rhythm in community and how it feels to create an ecstatic experience with and for others. It was from that place that they got to where they are now being paid to perform, traveling all over the world performing with famous or semi-famous bands or as solo artists, with their own bands, etc. I can speak for myself in that drumming opened me up to discovering I could sing, and improv and make songs, etc. I now have recorded 4 CD’s, have my own band, and have performed all over the country as a solo artist: all of it was inspired by what I experienced in these raw, spontaneous sessions in different communities drumming, dancing and creating together.


A lot of my friends and colleagues who have left the Community Music scene to go into professional music talk about Chaos as a part of what pushed them out and away from wanting to participate in community music making. I can understand, as I am often challenged by it in my work and every time it comes up I have to find a creative way to accept it, honor it and move thru it. Chaos is a real part of the human experience, and how we deal with it or run from it is also worthy of examination. If we all just run from the chaos instead of working to bring order and harmony back from the edge of insanity, then the finer teachings that music has to offer will never be fully transmitted. If all those who master elements of Music (in any form) continue to abandon the chaos out of frustration, fear or not knowing how to move thru it, then how can this movement continue to evolve? And, how does that foster strength in community, or teach anyone anything? It may be a bit of a stretch here to say this, but it bears some metaphorical resemblance to ditching out on a child because they are too difficult to discipline. The wild, free abandonment that happens sometimes in Music Making is like the mentality of an undisciplined child who is just so lost in themselves and the experience of life that they can’t see past themselves!

I feel that those who have attained higher levels of proficiency and skill could greatly serve their communities by participating and helping to create solutions, modeling different aspects of musicality, and sharing what they’ve learned instead of just ditching their roots completely.

or running away because it’s too hard. This is not in any way to say that they shouldn’t step out into their professional callings and become the best they can be in their chosen expression! I just feel called to offer the possibility that by occasionally showing up and holding space in their communities on a more roots level, they can provide a source of deep inspiration, and set an example for what’s possible!

In my research, I found an example of this kind of thing in Hungary in the táncház movement. “This model involved strong cooperation between musicology experts and enthusiastic amateurs, resulting in a strong vocational foundation and a very high professional level. The involvement of experts meant an effort to understand and revive folk traditions in their full complexity. The movement revived broader folk traditions. Started in the 1970s, tanchaz soon became a massive movement creating an alternative leisure activity for youths apart from discos and music clubs—or one could say that it created a new kind of music club. The tanchaz movement spread to ethnic Hungarian communities around the world.” (Rolk hungary)

Inspiring a movement is a pretty exciting concept to me personally! I’m in! Imagine what could be inspired if the Professionals of Music actually returned to their roots on occasion and offered themselves in service to the community in a way that wasn’t about “Watch me perform” but was instead about, “Come on, let’s do this together!” The entire group would benefit, and that musician would receive so much love and gratitude for their sharing, and so much respect from their community of Music Making Lovers. I have a strong network of “Professional Musicians” whom I invite regularly to my community sessions in Boulder. Very few of them have ever come, not yet. I will continue to hold this vision in my heart that one day they’ll show up and together we can inspire and show possibilities that have yet to be fully experienced for many people, and maybe even start off a Revolution of music that I’ve been dreaming about for years, that is truly “For the people, By the people,” where everyone is empowered to express and to participate equally, where there are strong models of cooperation, listening, communication, dialogue, dynamics, play and mutual respect interwoven into the fabric of the Groove!

Excerpt from the Upcoming Book: #1

Vibrations within
Cells dance beneath this skin
Myriads of orgasmic pulses create me
I am Life, moving in Harmony
I am Unity.
Spirals of perfect light
Cascading within my inner sight
I am Rhythm
I am the Cosmic Pulse in form.

I feel the Dum Dum of my heart beating, sending fluid, red, vibrant and nutrient rich thru the tunnels of veins and arteries that give color and life to the cells as they dance and tumble thru my blood.

I hear the sounds of my own body just being and I am amazed at the quiet symphony that I am on the inside.
I am even more amazed that not only can all of this be going on inside, all the time, thru each breath, but I can also experience and even create a whole other rhythmical reality on the other side of my skin. I can experience layers upon layers upon layers of vibratory awareness from the inside, out.

Going deeper still, I can go into the spaces between those beats of my heart and connect there with a silence so deep and far reaching it returns again to the One source of Creation, the Void, the Nothingness from which all is birthed thru a tremor in the cosmos. There, at the Source, I can receive inspiration for creativity. There, in the stillness before the spark of creativity, the inside world and the outside world merge, and breathe together, sharing the awareness of each other’s gifts and possibilities in divine rapturous union. There, in the stillness, in the quiet sanctuary of my own being lies all the potential of the universe waiting to be birthed thru my own unique expression.

Vibrations within
Cells dance beneath this skin
Myriads of orgasmic pulses create me
I am Life, moving in Harmony.

Muse Reflections

Once again I am humbled by the omnipotence of grace and sweetness in my life... such constant reminders, when I allow myself to SEE and FEEL the TRUTH of what is....

This past Muse: Prayers for Peace... brought tears of grace and gratitude... deeply moved and deeply touched... I remain in the afterglow of grace....

Soft burning fire light
Dancing candles
Deep haunting voices of every human expression
Joy, Grief, Passion, Searching, Yearning, Knowing, Ancient Songs
My own hands on Skin pulsing rhythms I never knew I knew
My own voice met by the voices of others
Passion making the Spine Tingle
Moments of Silence & Hearing the Breath of Each other...
More Voices Emanating from the Ethers
A Man swaying back and forth, hands lifted,
His voice that of an ancient angel lifted into the room
A woman echoing my own song, playing joyfully with the shared spirit...
Acknowledging Reflection For both of us
Two Young Girls Sitting by the Altar... one with a feather, one with sage.. staring intently into the candles..
Carrying the Prayers of Peace for all of us
Learning this Sacred Way to Share with their own Generation....
A Generation who will need them to Carry the Torch

Deep Respect Emanating from every pair of eyes:
We are timeless and beyond words in our hearts...
Two Lovers in the corner, fingers touching, embracing softly for a moment...
They are wrapped in the Arms of Sonic Bliss created by 15 Beings United in Expressive Alchemy
Tears of Gratitude hitting the floor beneath me while my body is Bowed in Deep Honoring at the Altar of Our Intentions
Ancient Crystals & Stones Absorbing Our energy: charged by our hearts..

Profound Presence of the Grace Of NOW always present
Humbled to Offer SOMETHING beyond my SELF
Humbled to Participate and Witness...
Looking around the Circle at the Joyful Openings of Each being present

Somehow we know each other better
We are More than we were Alone...
We are Unified in Intent and in ACCEPTANCE and Willingness to HONOR each other fully thru Musical Expression
Thru Witnessing
Thru Being

The Truth of our Selves

I thank you... mystical musers... I thank you from the depths of my heart and soul for allowing your SELF to shine and for gracing me with the opportunity to serve and hold the space for you to reveal and shine your self.....

Hawaii Rhythms of Truth

Rhythms of truth
Sing thru the sea
Sing thru the wind
Sing thru me


Life itself
Is simple

It asks
For nothing

It gives
All of itself

Here in Heaven
I Am Remembering life

As a way of being
Like the whales
Like the palms
Like the birds

Effortless
Simply being

These are the Rhythms of Truth

Slow
Soft
Sweet
Always present

Essence is Truth
All else is Illusion

Free Flowing: A Sharing of the Heart

Being someone that has been an active participant as well as someone that has sat on the sidelines witnessing what occurs, I've seen beautiful things come together within community musical sharing groups that are almost difficult to put into words and is something that almost needs to be felt as a personal experience.

What I do know and can say at this point is that it seems that in the moment music making brings out a precious and mysterious quality and essence. I wonder if I might be a mess if I didn't have the music, dancing, drumming outlet available on a consistent basis for myself. And for me just being able to 'get out of my head' has been such a relief & necessary part of keeping my balance & peace in times of stress & responsiblities on so many levels.

There is no need for head thinking here. It is all a free flowing in the moment space. Never quite knowing what to expect and what will show up, there have been times that I have been in awe. I am happy to have my expectations blown apart.
And just when I think it's the best, I've come to see that it can get even better.

I enjoy the in the moment playfulness that happens. Everyone is there, in thier own space but in the space together too. And they are not anywhere else in thier minds, just right there together to create, to play, to express, to be creative and without any effort. This sort of energy seems to transcend all the other stuff, and quite quickly. I so honor and respect this place to see this happening and to be a part of it's experience.

It's also cool what I have noticed with the time, it does seem to fly. Just like the saying goes... "time flys when you are having fun." This does seem to be the case.

What I've realized again being in The Magical Mystical Muse, is how amazingly profound the opportunity is when an individual or commmunity is in a space of safety, love, support, creativity, spirituality and nurturance... it allows like a launchpad for sweet things to open up and come forth. It is of innocent, healing & inspirational quality. So very essential, especially in our current times. It is something that I wish I could experience in my everyday life. Once you have felt it, you will know what I mean, and to those that have, I'm sure they would agree.

Being in-sync, in-the moment, in-tune in some unspoken way, is so very powerful.

Cheri Shanti has so graciously helped facilitate this to bring together what is somewhat mystical & magical in nature. I think anyone desiring such an element in their soul would appreciate the time & essence of The Muse. It helps to bring forth some awesome stuff that might otherwise not get tapped into... I think it is connected to our higher & ligher beings.

I would also say that it is as if we are able to break through this thick fog of our daily mundane world and trancend to a higher playing field - so to speak.
I feel so many people don't have an outlet that they can safely co-creatively express themselves, that it, very unfortunately, gets bottled up inside and perhaps for a lifetime... Yikes.

I have a dream that one day this stuff will be happening all over.

Jenny Sustello, Boulder, CO