Ecstatic trances

When I was visiting Taos last December, I learned about ecstatic trance; L shared her training from the Cuyamungue Institute.  She is not officially a practitioner, but she’s well on her way.  As with any healing technique there is much learning and certification. She cannot charge for her work without the blessing of the Institute.  

I had not realized how involved and exhausting the process would be for her.  On the drive up, M had told me about this new venture of L's, and it sounded fascinating.  In all my energy work with meditation, yoga, acupuncture, and tai chi chih, I had never reached a place of trance or even transcendence. I don't know if it's the heavy influence of my left brain, or if I just haven't found the right practice.  I know that I want to connect at deeper levels, but I'm not really sure what those deeper levels are.  

The other reason I was interested was the state of my tailbone and a recent recurrence of vertigo.  I was in some pain from the hard sit/fall in Ireland, a few weeks back, and I was not able to meet with my Taos energy healer.  Somehow I'd messed up the schedule.  She had me on a waiting list for Monday, but I wasn't sanguine.  Meanwhile, there I was, at L's lovely earth ship, with two of the coolest women on the planet, one of whom could lead me to ecstatic trance.  It seemed the perfect solution.

We talked about the Institute and what the work involved.  It seemed that an anthropologist had used her study of ancient drawings to determine that shamans had used a combination of pose and sound to achieve ecstatic trances, some healing, some other.  I, of course, was interested in the healing poses, but left it up to L to decide what to do.  In fact, I left it up to her to decide if she even wanted to do this.  It's not a simple process.

In the privacy of her room, she dowsed "Is it for our higher good that we do this?" and then for the choice of pose.  We set up a sort of altar on the floor, choosing objects of earth, air, fire, and water.  I chose one of the pots I had left with her last May:  as it was fired in a pit and later washed with milk, it combined all elements.  And I love it. 

Then we arranged cushions and blankets and practiced the pose, trying to find a way to be comfortable enough to hold steady for 15 minutes.  The pose had us kneel and hold arms up, with hands meeting in the middle and elbows out.  The head needed to be turned up, slightly. None of this was easy:  turns out it was one of the hardest poses, the very last of the healing poses.  L  did not share that with us, nor read what the book said about it, as she wanted us to come to it unbiased.  After some fussing with pillows, we were as ready as we could be.

We started with a ritual, calling spirits from ordinal points and scattering corn meal.  This was followed by 5 minutes of breath work. Then we listened to the rattles from the website while holding the pose for 15 minutes. Afterwards, we wrote about the experience, and after that we shared.

M had a number of visions, interspersed with the thought, "I am so uncomfortable!"  I can't recall what L said, but she spent some time explaining how she had come to choose the pose:  she had thought about what I needed.  The interesting thing is, while I had no visions or feelings of transcendence, the next day I woke up with no pain in my tailbone.  It was pretty amazing.  The pain came back later, but to a much lesser degree.

Here's what I wrote after the pose:
Aftermath: legs tingling as I stretch them out, head cool
During:  cool tingle across the crown, breathing, pulses in legs, warmth pulsing through arms and legs, head pose not hold-able.  ache at base of head, sweat trickling down my back, then at the base of my skull, in my hair; a sense that the chi was pounding through, released in breath and sweat, warmth throughout. Thought of B; listening for the rattle; legs getting warmer and warmer, pulsing. no coherent thoughts, focus on body and noticing no back pain, thinking about my "sisters" wondering how long the pose could hold, sense that time was not, that body could sit like this, but not wanting to :) opened eyes occasionally, straightened head to relieve neck pressure, turned more to center. 
Basic sense of cleansing.

I'm thinking about this, because I realize that I am not involved in any energy practice right now. As I worked on the 2nd violin parts yesterday, I noticed that my back and neck muscles are compromised, and I am generally stiff.  Clearly, while trance is beyond my grasp, I need to do some more yoga.   Or meditation.
Ommm