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Food & Spirituality |
How on Earth did I end up with a food website that is even bigger than my shamanic website? My curious path has taken me into many aspects of food since 2010, when I took on the task of coordinating the "Ethical Eating" program (a new role) at my Unitarian Universalist church. At first, I could not see what it had to do with shamanism other than my helping spirits telling me it had to do with my journey questions to them about the "rightful (appropriate) place of humans in the universe."
What a journey it's been! My extensive ordinary reality studies have led me to conclude that we are indeed most closely related to the Great Ape family and that our anatomy strongly indicates that animal parts and products are emergency back-up foods for us, nothing more, and best not consumed at all unless we have no choice. We seem to have a bad case of "predator envy."
Unlike many vegans, I would advocate that we eat other animals—if it were indeed our proper place in Nature to do so. I am opposed to lions becoming vegan, because their rightful place is as predators. I am opposed to humans being predators because, among other reasons, that is not our rightful place.
Many shamanists claim that it is okay to eat animals as long as proper prayers are offered and the animal was slaughtered in a sacred way. But most of the animals we eat were not slaughtered in a sacred way, far from it. And even if they were, that does not mitigate that we are out of our rightful place. How can an act be sacred when it violates our compact with Nature and the Great Wheel or "Sacred Hoop" of Life? When we are out of sync with our proper place, we violate our relationships on several fronts:
- with ourselves, because we are not in alignment with our true Nature;
- with the animals we eat that aren't "ours" to eat;
- with the predators whose place IS to eat such prey animals; that is, we're "stealing" their food;
- with the plants we are supposed to be eating, who "need" us to eat them;
- with other humans, who are starving because of climate change imbalances;
- with those yet to come, human and other than human, because we are destroying their future; and
- with all beings, including elements, because we are creating massive, disturbing imbalances in the Great Wheel/Sacred Hoop of Life.
My work with the various "non-shamanic" aspects of food, with references to great, free online videos, are detailed in Food to Heal: the People, the Planet, and the Animals.
Pathways magazine also printed an article of mine on Food and Spirituality in their Summer 2014 issue. Because it takes a long time to download the full issue, I've created a pdf of the article for easy online reading and printing.
Contact Mary at Shamanic Spring to receive her biweekly e-newsletter or for info on shamanic healing sessions.
About Your Teacher, Mary "Tyrtle" Rooker
To learn more about shamanism, see Resources.
(c) 1999, Mary Rooker * Please obtain permission before reproducing anything from this website. Thanks!
About Your Teacher, Mary "Tyrtle" Rooker
- is a member of Betsy Bergstrom's Compassionate Depossession Teachers Alliance,
- has studied with world-renowned shamans and healers, and
- is a licensed minister with the Circle of the Sacred Earth.
To learn more about shamanism, see Resources.
(c) 1999, Mary Rooker * Please obtain permission before reproducing anything from this website. Thanks!