The Shaman's Mind

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Shamanism is a way of aiding people to integrate themselves with their environment and this view of life includes the whole person in a whole environment involving healing and the restoration of balance within those relationships.

In western culture we have quite a different view of life. We view our environment as something we are at war with and must be conquered and subdued. This, I believe, is due to the influence of the Christian doctrines of the 'fall' and 'original sin' and the 'nature of man'. These declarations of what the 'Fall' meant reflect those sentiments and the result is that mankind views himself in the attitude that it, mankind, is an alien, a stranger and out of place in the environment he finds himself in. So he is at war with it and he has no peace within himself as a result.

Shamanism attempts to revise the way we look at our presence in the world. It's ultimate goal is to restore man to the condition where he does not feel afraid or alienated in the world. In the end we need to understand what this brief experience known as life is all about. If we think we are at war with everything because of the doctrine of the 'Fall' we will be conditioned to respond as if we were at war. Basically the way mankind is relating to the earth is the way a thug looks at an old woman's pocketbook as she passes by.

I found this website which describes Shamanic activity in a scholarly way. Google Shamanism.org or copy and paste the link into your browser. http://www.shamanism.org/ It was refreshing to see so erudite and acclaimed an authority speaking on the validity of this approach to understanding the relationships that life is comprised of.









This song is appropriate. Jim at his best.





Photograph is my property Copyright 2011 David H. Roche

Floral Experience

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Click to enlarge flowers.

It should be obvious that the top photograph is of a sunflower.








The one below is not so obvious. The original photograph was of my flower garden just as the sun was setting and dark was setting in. Two poppies in the moonlight.







Photographic art by David H. Roche copyright 2011

The Human Condition

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"As for man, his days are as grass:
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

For the wind passeth over it,
and it is gone;
and the place thereof shall know it no more." (excerpted from Psalm 103)

I love reading the Old Testament poets and sages. The use of simple images of observed life convey monumental universal truths. The images came to life in my mind when working with pictures so I added bible texts to emphasize the image as I felt the bible text had impressed on me. The texts are from the KJV in the public domain.







The image above is a simple grass stem that has gone to seed. It was standing on the side of the pond and I imagine will provide food for the ducks at one point in its life here.

The image directly below is the same image as above with the colors inverted and enhanced. When I saw the blue appear I knew something interesting would develop.













While watching the changes occur in the image this passage from the book of Job came to mind. Job is very interesting to read as men understood life at a much more basic level than they do today. These were men who depended on the natural forces to be in order in order for them to survive. It was these natural forces to which Jesus appealed when he referred to the beneficence of his father in providing day to day necessities. He called this providence the basis of faith and trust in God, his 'Father'.

An audio recording of the book of Job is available at the link at LibriVox.org where you can find an entire collection of free audio books which are in the public domain. http://librivox.org/job-king-james-version/

This basic,'mean' way of living was also to be a means of connecting them to God in that they were directly dependent on the natural world to produce what it was they needed.

Today there are intermediaries between man, seed time and harvest. We call them money and supermarkets. They have effectively taken the role that God has traditionally held in the experience of man. I suppose this is the beast spoken of by the mystic John in Revelation. In effect our culture has become an alternative to God.











Original photography the property of David H. Roche Copyright 2011

A Time of Fire

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I made this picture over the course of two or three days. It began with a photograph of a stem of grass and a kitchen cabinet knob close-up. There are at least two more pictures involved in this and all of them completely different from the other.

I get a sense from this picture of a mountain range involved in volcanic activity. This area is only recently not like this. There are native stories of the mountains having fights and throwing fire at each other and of the mountains moving around. It's not hard to imagine people living 10 thousand or more years ago encountering this activity and then the deluge of the last ice age.

Cataclysms On The Columbia is a book I would recommend which gives a scientifically valid look look into conditions from the periods preceding and after the last ice age.


Living here within sight of the coastal range knowing that not all that long ago this place was a lot different makes this picture real to me.

Downstate at Crater Lake is a spectacular example of the power of volcanic activity. The original mountain which is now the home of Crater Lake is thought to have been 12,000 feet in height. About 7700 years ago the top third of the mountain blew off and the lake and environs were totally changed. Debris from the volcano has been found as far away as Alberta Canada.

When I saw the image emerge I felt I saw the mountain ranges on fire again. Time and again I think of how impossible it seems to arrive at an image like this when it began as a piece of grass and a door knob. It is is not quite like creating something from a formless limitless chaos.

Original photo Copyright 2011 the property of David H. Roche

Universal Love

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The moon squeezes
and sucks back
time after time:

occasionally it spills over.















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Photography and poetry by David H. Roche Copyright 2011