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SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE 97 TEXT ONLY PDF © Sacred Hoop Magazine 2017 PUBLISHING POLICY: Please don't distribute this ebook to other people who have not SACRED HOOP seeks to network those wanting to learn paid for it. We are a small magazine and we need sales to help the spiritual teachings of indigenous peoples as a living path us publish. If you are reading this because you found it online of knowledge. Our contents cover the integration of both somewhere, please visit us at www.sacredhoop.org and take out old and new ways, and insights that contribute to a balanced one of our low cost subscriptions. Thank you and sustainable lifestyle in today's world. We honour all paths and peoples and do not include material Nicholas Breeze Wood and the Sacred Hoop Team from, or give support to, any individual or group which seeks to oppress or discriminate on grounds of race, lineage, age, This is a text only version of Sacred Hoop - the full sex, class or belief. Nor do we knowingly publish any material version of the issue - with all the images - is avail- that is inaccurate. able as a pdf and also as a printed paper magazine Views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor. from our website www.sacredhoop.org ISSN 1364 - 2219 THE FOUNDING INSPIRATION FOR SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE IN 1993 DISCLAIMER: “Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, Whilst making every effort to be accurate, the editors will and around and about me was the whole hoop of the world... not be deemed responsible for any errors, omissions or I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in inaccuracies appearing in Sacred Hoop Magazine. the spirit and the shapes of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the Sacred Hoop of my people © Sacred Hoop Magazine and-or individual contributors. No part of this magazine, either written text or visual was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight art, may be reproduced in any way whatsoever and as starlight and in the centre grew one almighty without the written permission of the Editor. flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father, and I saw that it was holy.” (From the vision of Nicholas Black Elk Lakota Holy Man: 1863 - 1950) EDITOR, DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Nicholas Breeze Wood DESIGN AND EDITORIAL CONSULTANT: Faith Nolton PROOF READING: Linda Booth, Faith Nolton, Martin Wilford CONTACT DETAILS: Sacred Hoop Magazine Anghorfa, Abercych, Boncath, Pembrokeshire, SA37 0EZ, UK Email: [email protected] Tel: (01239) 682 029 www.sacredhoop.org HOOP ISSUE 97 2017 1 www.sacredhoop.org EDITORIAL THE IMPOSSIBLE CONTENTS TOUCH THE IMPOSSIBLE TOUCH Welcome to our largest ever issue of Sacred Hoop, eight pages larger than normal. I The Psychic Surgeons of the Philippines hope you enjoy the read. As you probably Healing, Sorcery and have long courted both cries of amazement know, I never plan the issue, I make it up as and of fakery. Howard G. Charing an ‘invention test,’ using the articles which Psychic Surgery in the looks at the tradition, and shares some Spirit drops into my inbox. A theme normally Philippines personal tales. emerges and I trust the process - after all this is issue 97. We seem to have two main Howard G Charing CALL OF THE BABAYLAN themes in this issue, the spirits, and re- Shamanism has a long tradition on the connecting to what really matters in life. islands of the Philippines, where it is a So, we move through the issue in and I My first visit to the Philippines was in woman’s spiritual tradition. We give a brief out of those two themes. We drop in on the 1998. I was intrigued by the phenomenon overview of its tradition and practice. psychic surgeons and women’s ancient of psychic - or bare-hand surgery - after JOURNEY TO ZUN shamanic traditions of the Philippines, meeting a healer from the Philippines the When dreams of a Zuni Sun face figure through to the medicine ways of the Zuni previous year in England. I could not have invaded Dr Steven Weiss’s conciousness, people of New Mexico and their wonderful guessed that this would be the beginning spirit fetishes, and on to reflect on the life of he had to set out for the ancient one of my own Native American medicine of an enthralling adventure into the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico to find out teachers, the Oglala medicine man Ed enigmatic and capricious world of the what was behind it. MaGaa. Philippines spirit healer. THE STONES ARE ALIVE Ed passed into spirit the day before I The Philippines is an archipelago of The use of carved stone animal fetishes wrote this editorial, I have good memories of seven thousand islands with a myriad of have been a feature of traditional Zuni working with him, and his teachings cultures; it boasts 120 recognised medicine ways for hundreds of years. We changed the way I live my life. We first languages. The country still bears the explore this fascinating sacred, ceremonial published his article in Sacred Hoop twenty stamp of the former colonial powers, Spain art. years ago, but reading them today - when I and later the United States, following the made the decision to include his article in Spanish-American War in 1898. The THE RAINBOW this issue - they seem even more important American occupation led to English being a AND THE BLUE MAN and relevant than they did all those years ago. lingua franca - side by side with Tagalog, In late August 2017, Oglala medicine man one of the main local languages. and writer Ed McGaa Eagle Man passed But hey; ‘lights, camera, action!’ Life goes on - and what better for a change of The ancestral traditions and strong folk into spirit. We republish an article we had culture of the Philippines have fostered a from him, back in 1997 as a memorial for subject than a freezing cold winter photoshoot for a new feature film, in a climate of tolerance and acceptance him. haunted location in Mongolia? toward traditional healers, shamans, and SHOOTING THE SPIRITS And yet movies - and all that goes with psychic surgeons. The trials and tribulations of shooting a them in our digital, dis-connected, often This tolerance had been taken up by feature film about shamanism, in the urban life - is a cause of deep disconnection government ministers, presidents, and, winter chills of Mongolia, by Amalia Rubin from the natural world. Why freeze our own interestingly, the powerful Catholic Church. and Aminaa Batmunkh, two producers butts off, when we can watch someone else A sympathetic feature article entitled of the film do it for us, from the comfort of our warm sofas? ‘Priest Heals through Power of Touch,’ A PRIMAL HOMECOMING featuring Father Fernando Saurez - a So we have two articles, two heartfelt prominent Filipino Catholic priest - was Humanity is becoming increasingly out of calls, to reconnect, and stay connected, touch with nature. Geral T. Blanchard with reality and the natural world. printed in the national newspaper. Father Saurez came to national prominence, in looks at the importance of keeping a And we end the issue with a ceremony close connection to the reality of the that you can do yourself, to bring balance part, because the husband of President natural world. and to feed the spirits. I was moved to offer Arroyo was healed by the priest in his NATURE CONNECTION this - a gift from my spirits - to help the celebrated ‘miraculous recovery.’ Father Saurez’s healing work is all approved and Raised in Australia with a childhood of people and spirits of North Korea. And I Damh McTavish share the ceremony here, not only for that praised by the church hierarchy. playing in the Bush, reason, but as a blueprint for many other makes an impassioned plea for taking occasions where you might feel moved to do Filipino traditions have maintained an some small risks in the natural world and a ceremony in order to strengthen the spirits. reconnecting. awareness and faith in the existence of It feels like a lot is going on globally at anitos - the nature spirits that reside BRING BALANCE - FEEDING THE this time, we need to know where our between the natural and supernatural SPIRITS connections are, and we need to feed and honour that connection. We are all worlds. Although the Filipino people With the ongoing situation between North connected and we forget that at our peril broadly regard themselves as rationalists, Korea and America Nicholas Breeze they more readily embrace the more Wood shares a ceremony making Blessings to all Beings intangible, enigmatic, and metaphysical offerings to the ancestors and spirits to magical reality. Nicholas Breeze Wood bring empowered peace. The situation is comparable to Peru. Since the Spanish conquest and colonisation there, five hundred years ago, the folk customs and spiritual practices have not been eradicated, despite the early Catholic missionaries holding the native HOOP ISSUE 97 2017 www.sacredhoop.org 2 practices in considerable contempt. spun around me, and the clamour of the The mangkukulam [sorcerers] are paid by In the Philippines - as in Peru - there airport became silent. I came close to people who hold grudges and animosities has been a syncretism of traditional lore fainting but managed to grip the rail of the to make a kulam [curse or evil eye] to and the Church. For instance, in Peru, the stairs to prevent falling down on the tarmac.