I'm Not Asking You to Believe What I Believe

 

 

I'm not asking you to believe what I believe or to see the same things or talk to the same gods.

I'm inviting you to have your own experience alongside me. 

What I'm telling you is that we can do the same practice and have our own results. Think of it like yoga. You attend a yoga class, you go through the same asanas in the same order. But with each position, the challenge is personalized. You have your own relationship, your own struggle, and so your experience will be uniquely your own. 

And you could do it at home, alone. 

But there's something really fun about sharing experiences with other people. You can support each other, cheer each other on. It's bonding. It's community. It's human. 

That's what I'm trying to create. The FCDB Shamanic Cabaret is my version of what a group experience could be like. It's built for me, and for people who are like me, who share a lot of my tastes, and are flexible enough to work through the things they either aren't familiar with or don't enjoy as easily. 

Other people will come up with their own versions. 

But I would encourage them to learn from what I've done. I've put a lot of thought into the structure of the ritual, and to the themes, and to the images that help shape the experience. It's got build. It's got drama. It tells a story, and reaches a point of intense catharsis. It's not just a matter of throwing together a bunch of songs, although that can be super fun, too. But that's not a ritual. It's not something worth repeating, over and over, to try to get better at. The FCDB is. 

Maybe your thing will be, too. I'd be happy to help you develop it, help you run it. I'd love to attend a phonomantic rite every Saturday night, sometimes on the medicine, sometimes not, but always there to enthusiastically support. And to try to see the God/dess through your eyes, to share in the experience you've created.