Our story is truly ancient, carried on the winds of the four directions, passed down through various oral traditions, channelled dream-lines and visions, shared as songs around the fire by cosmic travellers. It is a tale of lost and broken fragments pieced together like drawings on a broken clay pot dug up from the old earth. This is not the academic tale of anthropologists and historians and yet resonances of this tale can be found in the beginnings of almost every culture from around the world. Those of us who have glimpsed deeply into the shamanic fires will recognise its truth for it is well understood that the essence and practice of shamanism precedes all cultures, religions and belief systems.
This tale is told of four mystical figures manifested into this physical world by the will of Great Spirit, four strange but beautiful beings who roamed the first continent of the earliest human tribes. They are described as magical beings who held great wisdom and power over the forces of life. They are depicted in various mythologies as unsexed by nature, neither male nor female but a mixture of both in mind, spirit and heart. It is said they could influence the weather and induce the seasons at will. They were also shapeshifters who could assume the form of human, animal, bird and insects and could speak all tongues and understand all hearts. We now identify these mystical figures as the very first soothsayers or shamans of the earth.
Each was gifted by Great Spirit with a power of service. The first was given the gift of eternal sight, the ability to see into the past and future, to glimpse the true nature of the universe and see into the hearts and minds of humankind- this being the Oracle. The second being was gifted with hands of light, who could lift darkness and release blockages just by the laying of hands, we know this being as the the Healer. The third being was entrusted with the knowledge of all of natures intrinsic secrets and ways and was given the task of protecting these secrets from those who would disrespect it and teach it to those willing to live their life with devotion and service: this being was known as the Custodian. The fourth being was given the most powerful gift of all: the power of utterance where any thought expressed in sound, word or song would be conjured into reality: this being was called the Weaver.
It is told that these four mystical beings had a great kinship and love for each other for while they roamed the lands alone fulfilling their various duties they would regularly gather around the fire in a sacred circle to dance and sing together in ecstatic revelry. With their powers and energy joined together they would invoke and open powerful portals for healing, exploration and creation. These portal were passages between all dimensions of time and space, between the form and the formless, between life and the deathless realms. They spoke directly to the sky and with the earth. All nature of creature and spirits would come to attend these gatherings to witness the transitions, the transformations, the revelries and to hear the intoxicating hymns to the Great Spirit. These portals would bring harmony and peace to the lands through great purging of darkness, re-alignment and remembrance of the true nature of life and the Great Spirit that flows through all. We call these portals Wake Circles.
It is told that while these beings were very powerful and lived for many sun circles they were in mortal form. As their glorious age came to and end they knew would need to pass on their gifts to a new generation else it would all be lost. So each took the form that would allow them to join a tribe from one of four corners in order to seed a linage that would pass down their sacred gifts. The Oracle joined the tribe of the south, the Healer the northern tribes, the Custodian went to the eastern tribes and the Weaver to the west so dispersed their seed and gifts into the linage of humankind.
The ancient tale most importantly tells of the final pledge they made to each other, that should order and harmony ever be lost in the lands that their gifts would call their living ancestors to gather together once more in sacred circle around the fire to open the great portal of transformation. For many ages since in times of plague, discord and darkness there have been scattered records and images of these four beings, in various incarnations and given various names, gathering around the fire with drums and shakers to enjoin their energies to open this Wake portal. Each time, while in the costume of different attire, culture and language the deep recognition and remembrance of their ancient kinship would be rekindled from sacred fire to sacred fire. While they would initially meet as strangers they would cry tears of joy at each reunion, sensing the mistakable knowing and connection that they had gathered around these fires in sacred circles a thousand times before and like lost cosmic lovers had found each other yet again.
In our modern times after generations of brutal colonisation by the newly emerged super tribes who have sought to conquer and divide all indigenous shamanic linages and suppress these gifts, the shamanic beacon of fire has once more been reignited and the spirit of these first true shamans called back in sacred circle. This is the ancient calling and prophecy that has given birth to Wake Circle. Through the torn spirit of humanity the presence of these mystical beings are now being invoked in those of us who feel the urgent calling to transform and heal humanity, to restore harmony and peace to this earth. The beat of the drum, the taste of the medicine, the heat of the fire and the smell of the sage evokes the remembrance of these four beings who have tended these ancient fires for eons before. The deep longing in our hearts that calls for this reconnection overrides all the constraints of our social ordering and cultural beliefs. And so here we find ourselves called to meet in a dance retracing the ancient footsteps shown to us through the medicines.
We recognise that the power of the circles we invoke can only be authentic and whole when all four ancient spirits: the Oracle, Healer, Custodian and the Weaver are equally present in the circle. As we strike our drums, shake our rattles we invoke each of these ancient spirits to imbue us with their wisdom, to channel our energies and to guide our hands to good purpose. While we shall meet as strangers we shall soon recognise our unmistakable connection that we have been here many times before and we shall cry tears of joy each time that we have found our ancient family once more. Old eyes shall be awakened and a new tribe shall rise from like the phoenix from the ashes of a burning world.
The true quest of contemporary or core shamanism is not an ethnographic revival of a tribe’s culture or an animistic religion but rather the reactivation of the oldest spiritual practice on this earth for the critical purpose of transformation. We wish to understand these ancient tools in the context of our own lives. Our preoccupation therefore is not conceptual but experiential, to re-find the key that will unlock the prison of our own indigenous soul. We wish to open the door again to perceive the true mystery of life and to feel our connection to it. We seek to activate something that is deeply within us that has ways been there, a dormant memory in our DNA waiting to rise again. These ancient mystical shamanic beings shall emerge through us once more, to see through our eyes, to guide our hands in healing, to chant through our voices and to conjure a new reality through our tongues.
This is the Wake Circle calling.
