Accredited by Fire, Witnessed by Nature
Tonight wasn’t a performance or a lesson—it was a moment of becoming. Straight off the full-moon ceremony at that ancient mound, I could still feel the land’s pulse in my bones. What we did there—growled, moved, listened—was older than language itself. It was ritual in its rawest form, passed down through breath and bone long before words existed.
I thought back to the primal question an aware animal might have asked: “Why?” Why this sudden spark of consciousness? Why this burden—and blessing—of knowing? That question lives at the heart of our work. It binds us to every creature that ever turned a bone into a tool, a howl into a call, a silence into meaning.
Seeking Accreditation for What We’ve Already Become
In the coming days I’ll finish my shamanic-healing certification—a paper key to doors that only a certificate can unlock. Not because I need to become something I’m not, but because others still look for proof. They want to trust what I carry in my gut, anchored by land and ceremony, with the stamp of an institution they understand.
Learning from Those Who Never Left the Wild
It isn’t just humans who face the “why.” Think of Koko the gorilla, taught sign language, yet offering simple truths like “good, food, sad.” Or the chimps of “Chimp Empire,” observed for thirty years as they built alliances, defended families, and showed us forms of leadership more resilient than ours. Remember “My Octopus Teacher,” where a man learned patience, trust, and interspecies kinship from an octopus in the kelp forests.
These animals never left the land—they stayed one with it, trusting instinct over instruction. Their survival, their community bonds, their unspoken wisdom—they’re not lesser than us. In many ways, they surpass us: they pay no rent to live here, they ask no permission to be themselves, they teach us that strength and surrender can coexist.
Ceremony in the Park
This Sunday, I’ll gather whoever shows up in the park. No flyers, no agenda—just presence. We’ll sit in circle, invite whatever wants to speak through us, and honor the land’s memory. If you feel it calling, come bear witness.
The Path Forward
We guide you through:
Knowing—feeling your own spark of awareness.
Understanding—listening to what it reveals.
Implementing—walking the land in ritual and presence.
And when you’ve done these, you step into your own Becoming.
Because this isn’t fantasy. It’s remembrance. It’s ceremony older than speech. It’s you, awakened under moonlight and taught by every creature that never forgot how to be.
— Ash