Gifts from the Indigenous: Six Awarenesses & Six Doings (Shenandoan Stone Explorations, #4)

This work exposes us to the Amerindian world view, offering six awarenesses and six practices. Awarenesses, such as being in touch with the "shamanic bone soul" and actions such as "mandalic walking" can gift us with an enriching and complimentary world view. Drawing upon the author's own symbolic experiences and after years of study, he presents the essence of what he has learned. This work especially draws upon two recent projects, interpreting markings on a stone tablet found by the Shenandoah River in Virginia, as well as from a stone formation at Penn Bluff, Alabama, both of which resonate with Eastern Woodland symbolism. We are invited to enter into an Indigenous worldview, so we may gain a more expansive sense possibilities in the universe and live a fuller life.

After having gone through a symbolic, quest experience, the author obtained degrees in Philosophy and Counseling Psychology. For many years, he taught a course on Indigenous symbolism. Having encounters with the sacred in the landscapes of the Shenandoah Valley, northern Alabama, and Guatemala, he offers this work as Gifts from the Indigenous.