Comes a Time

There comes a time in the life of the Shaman when consideration must be given to the passing of the Ways to succeeding generations. That time, in my own life, has been making itself known. In my younger years I sat at the feet of Elders, absorbing and honoring the wisdom they were, in their simple elegance, passing down to us younger folks. So has it always been, one generation passing the Ways to the next, always richer and deeper than what they had themselves received from their own Elders. And so the Circle goes on.

As a younger man, learning and earning my way along this well-trod path of knowledge, there were times when I stumbled - and was humbled - and yet found a way to pick myself back up, often with the helpful hand of an Elder, and continue along my course. Fear, lack of confidence, laziness, arrogance and recalcitrance were certainly attributes by which I misguided myself along the way. The arrows slung towards me of willful misuse of power and knowledge I endured, and stood in the test of time and dignity. With the oversight of Elders and peers - who would brook no taint of such misdeeds - peering into the very core of my Soul, I was given an all clear and a chastisement about allowing such people in the Circle of the Sacred. I have stood accountable to my Elders and the Greater Ones who oversee these Ways that were placed in my caretakership. They were not always easy on me, and for that I am now, as an Elder myself, grateful.

As my life's years moved along I traversed many paths in the quest for understanding and fulfillment of my Spirit's purpose and desire. When asked, now, where is to be found the greatest treasure of a spiritual life, I can with clarity tell you where it ain't.  Where it is to be found is not a 'where', but 'by what manner'. Of these, dedication, integrity, sincerity and appreciation I hold to be of immense value in having helped me to get to where I am now, here in the latter decades of my life. It is these same qualities by which I will also take the measure of the upcoming generations that will, in their time, come seeking the guidance of their own unfolding path.

With maturation of my practices in being a ceremonial leader, called upon for assistance in healing the ails and travails of so many people who have knocked on my door over the years, I found perspective of my own sufferings and indignities. Compassion and acceptance grew, and somewhere along the way, flowered into a way of meeting life. Compassion, though, like the myriad of other spiritual states, is not a thing achieved; it is a choice and a submersion, a relinquishment of control, into the vast waters of love and equanimity. Power and Knowledge, brought to ground in Compassion, emerge from those waters as Wisdom. It is the Wisdom of which the Elders have sought to point oblivious youth towards. The honored obligation of my own culmination of life, to this point, is to now provide what I can in service and guidance to those who are earnestly willing to learn and earn their own way - not my way, but their own way - to the embrace of Power, Knowledge, Compassion and Wisdom.

As the moments and years of my life have moved me through quest, experience, practice and maturity I find myself looking now, not so much towards the past and resolve of issues, nor even towards the effort of staying in the present (I've found I can be nowhere else, no matter how much I tried escaping), but towards the future. The future, not as a place in time, but as a continuum. As a firebrand passed to my hand, my responsibility has been to keep it alight and available to be utilized by 'the people' for the lighting of fires and lighting the way. Replenishing the torch as necessary, ensuring that the fire is what is held sacred, not to confuse the stick that the fire burns as being 'the thing', this is of importance. It has become apparent, in light of these strange times and timings, that the flame itself, not just the torch, is now to be passed along, not only to 'the next in line', but to all who are ready, willing and capable of carrying that newly-lit flame into the deepest recesses of the Darkness, and to be the Passion that is the light of the celestial realms above. This is the time for which the torch has been handed down through the ages. We are the people for whom the fire burns.

It is in keeping with this understanding that I am now readying myself to begin the immense task, and honor, of assisting those who would light their own torch from this flame, in preparing themselves for the responsibility and methodology that these time-honored traditions of Shamanism have shown, irrefutably, to be necessary in keeping the flame alive. These Shamanic Ways are simple, without being simplistic. They are complex without being complicated. These 'Ways' have been around throughout the whole of humanity's sojourn, and have been at similar cosmic timings in times ancient. For generation upon generation it has been solely the torch that was passed from hand to hand. At the timings of the great Cosmic alignments, seen in the stars above, it is the flame itself that is transferred to the many hand-held torches, awaiting to be lit and take on a life of their own as a Firebrand of Power, Knowledge, Compassion and Wisdom, to be carried to the four directions, there to light the fires and the way for the people. The timings have shown that this is the time. I hold this Firebrand at the ready, with humility and surrender, with dignity and dedication, for those who would receive the flame. There comes a time. The time has come.

Jade Wah'oo Grigori

Winter Solstice, 2010