Category: aesthetic theory
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When Spiritual Worlds Collide
This week’s newsletter is an invitation to this special, intimate space: the inspiring encounters that have already happened this year, my honest-to-goodness confession why I won’t do livestreams on YouTube (and why I’m hiding behind a paywall!), and a very special invitation to a celebration at the next livestream…
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Body Poetry: Learning to Crawl, Learning to Fall
You must have the neutral demeanor of a martial artist for all Butoh exercises, because that means you are open to the most authentic expression arising in the moment, and you are unfiltered. The moment you try to make something of it it is false, it is contrived actually, and the body will always betray…
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Ministry of Presence
I do many things – music, dance, ritual, ceremony, writing – which represent the medicine of connection, clarity, and embodiment – and yet the deeper I lean into working with the richesse of my life, working with the elements that are laid at my feet to weave a meaningful life in service to the world,…
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20 years in the making
Do you ever feel like, “one day I’ll know enough about such and such to write a book or teach?” For some reason teaching always came naturally, and I have no problem dancing in a kimono in front of hundreds of people – but actually finishing and publishing a book – not so easy! Celebrate…
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I dare you to be MORE embodied
Many people I know are asking: “What can I do? How can I make a difference in a world filled with violence, injustice, and confusion?” The answer is complex, but I believe it starts here, in the body, with you.
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Chat with AI about Embodiment
I just had a fascinating and unexpected conversation with ChatGPT about embodiment…
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Decolonizing Research through Performance Ethnography
Is performance ethnography my true academic home? What do other researchers in this field feel about Indigenous Research Methodologies? How do embodied cultural practices threaten or uphold cultural continuity? How does the Shaman function in relation to embodiment, intersubjectivity and relationality – is there a universal shamanic praxis at play?
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But WHY?!?
I needed a new container to hold all of my wildness, my art, my writing, my research, my dance, my music, the uncontrived expression of my highest potential and my uncompromising aspirations for the world. “The Savage Shaman” became the container that would hold all of that, and keep me accountable, honest, and creative.
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Viral Dancing Nuns
To modern Western culture, the dancing nun is a contradiction in terms, or a merely laughable moment that peaks on social media for a while, and is just as soon forgotten. But I would argue the import of the dancing nun is far more profound.
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Shinrin Yoku III: The Way of Shugendo
In 1991, 23 year old Ryojun Shionuma, embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage that would take him nine years to complete by running up and down the sacred Mt. Omine in Japan for one thousand days. This unique spiritual discipline was started by “a mountain priest named En-no-Gyoja, who, in the late 600s, meditated for a…