Shaman’s Bells…and a request

I’ve been forging iron jewelry, shaman’s bells, and other magical iron objects for nearly 15 years, and am still experimenting with different styles and designs.  It makes me happy and feels like something I’m “supposed” to do. 

Amulet

I’ve been asked to write an article for Sacred Hoop about my blacksmithing and shamanic work.  The magazine explores modern shamanic practice and its connection to various aspects of traditional shamanism.  So the article needs to be more than just a description of how I work (as a shaman and a blacksmith) and what I make.  It needs examples that illustrate why and how people use the shamanic or ritual objects that I have made.  The point is not to write a long advertisement for my work!  Instead, I want to show that forged iron ”shaman’s tools” are being made and used in powerful, living, and evolving ways – they are not simply a historical curiosity to be found only in museums.

I have a request:  If  you have bought one of my iron items – a bell, a piece of jewelry, a blade, or whatever – and would like to explain how you use it, what it does for you, and anything else of interest – please send me an e-mail (OR if you don’t mind other people reading your story, you can simply comment on this post).  Please also let me know whether you’re comfortable with me quoting from your story or including some of its details in the article.  I won’t be using people’s names.

Thank you all!

Black Cat Deck: Five of Masks, Nine of Fangs

So far, most of the cards show cats doing ordinary, universal cat things.  The cats just happen to be black.   Only the the Two, Three, and Ten of Masks, the Two of Paws, and the Queen of Paws present black cats as special or different from other felines.  They also demonstrate that all black cats do not look alike, which is one of the deck’s themes.  But several cards will explore specific black cat challenges and advantages, and address some of the myths and folklore that contribute to human ambivalence about black cats (and by extension, felines in general).  I hope the final deck will combine all these diverse aspects into one true image.

“All these you are, and each is partly you,

and none is false, and none is wholly true.”

- Stephen Vincent Benet, John Brown’s Body

The Five of Masks is about personal identity.   The only sign of a live cat in this card is a pair of eyes peering out of a box.  The other four cat faces represent idealized felines.  The box is a hiding place for cats – a “kitty condo” with a door cut like a cat face and a roof decorated like a shrine.  Beside it, a stuffed toy and an Egyptian statue of the Goddess Bast have been placed like guardians.  The deity, the plaything, the ornament, and the abstracted outline are all familiar human-created feline symbols, yet the tenant of the shrine ignores them all as strangers.  Inside, a real, living creature watches, unseen and unknown, waiting silently for understanding as an individual…or just wanting to be left alone.

Five of Masks

The Nine of Fangs deals with real or imagined fears of personal attack.  It shows a cat with a fully puffed tail, indicating that he is startled, excited, and perhaps afraid.  Above him hangs a black cat poppet made from fabric, buttons, hair, and a gnarled root.  It holds nine black pins and wears a necklace of nine cat fangs.  Depending on your point of view, the primitive doll could be an amusing curio, an interesting cat toy, or a sinister “voodoo doll” or magical object used to control or ”put a root” on the spooked cat.   The cat is Leon, an intense, excitable little guy who fluffs his tail and runs to investigate whenever the other cats start facing off.  He even gets “poofy tail” when playing with his toys.

Nine of Fangs

Iron Magic

A couple of weeks ago I took a custom order from Nicholas Breeze Wood, publisher of Sacred Hoop, the British quarterly magazine on shamanism.  He wanted Siberian-type forged iron shaman’s ornaments:  cone bells (traditional style, not the curly ones that I usually make), a miniature sword, and a miniature bow with arrows.  I hadn’t thought about making this sort of thing for awhile, since I’d been more focused on jewelry.   A couple of days later, I went hiking in the desert and found a rusty pair of old (circa 1930s) Craftsman pliers.  I cleaned them up and found that the handles were decorated, probably to give a better grip in the days before dipped-plastic handle covers, but still a nice magical touch.  They are quite similar to the old pair of pliers (bought the swap meet in Georgetown, KY) that I’ve used for 15 years – a hard size to find, but indispensible for just about everything I make, so it’s great to have a second pair in a slightly different and very useful shape.  These are NOT the blacksmith’s tongs that are used for grabbing pieces in the forge.  They are used for twisting, curving, and shaping pieces of hot iron that are too small for the hammer.

Antique Pliers

Here’s the finished set of shaman’s ornaments.  The bow is four inches long.

Shaman's Cone Bells, Mini Bow and Arrows, Mini Sword

I was inspired to design a new cone bell style, nice and loud but a bit too heavy for jewelry – they’ll be strung on a chain.  Here’s one with firescale removed with a wire brush, but not yet polished or blackened.  The small cone acts as a clapper.  When several of these double bells are strung together, the small cones will also add a high-pitched tinkling overtone to the hollow clanking of the bigger cones.

Double Cone Bell

Surprise Agave Spike

One of the agaves in our yard has begun to send up a flowerstalk.  I had expected this plant to grow much larger and live for several more years, but the high elevation and relatively harsh environment may have triggered an early bloom.  This is Agave colorata, native to the Pacific coast of Mexico but widely planted as an ornamental in Tucson.  Clusters of four-foot plants are commonly seen in gardens.  It doesn’t grow as large as the immense gray Agave americana, but it’s still an imposing plant.  The lovely banded blue-green leaves have prominent teeth and a long dark spike at the tip.  Wild plants are reported to flower after 15 years, but cultivated plants are more variable, and the age at which they bloom depends on elevation, local microclimate, and whether or not they receive supplemental irrigation.  I have ten agave species in my yard and water some of the plants occasionally, but not this species, since it rots too easily.

Agave colorata

Here’s the spiking plant in my yard with boulders and native southern Arizona oaks (Quercus oblongifolia, Mexican Blue Oak, and Quercus hypoleucoides, Silverleaf Oak).  Note the cluster of small agaves at center left, behind the large plant.  That’s another A. colorata that I put in at the same time, in 2002.  Both plants were nearly identical and about six inches tall, but one of them grew larger and had a few offsets (young rosettes), and the other stayed small and produces dozens of short-lived offsets each year.

Like all agaves, this one will die shortly after it flowers, but the offsets will survive and continue to grow.  Meanwhile, it will be fun to watch the beautiful spike develop and flower – the ultimate Ace of Wands!

Agaves are native to Mexico, central America, and the southwestern U.S.  They are NOT cacti.  They are closely related to the lily family and to similar large desert succulents such as yucca, nolina, and sotol.   The best guidebook to this large and complex genus is the classic Agaves of Continental North America by Howard Scott Gentry (1982, University of Arizona Press, 670 pages).  It has descriptions, photos, drawings, and range maps for all species, as well as taxonomic keys and plenty of background information on genetics, ecology, economic uses, ethnobotany, and many other interesting details.  Unlike many field guides and botanical manuals, it’s a very readable book.  It was written with a genuine love of the plants and an appreciation for the land in which they grow.

Black Cat Deck: Four of Masks

The Four of Masks shows a cat guarding its favorite possessions, including a rug adorned with cat faces at the corners, a string of beads, a bell, and a ball. 

Four of Masks

In a colony, some cats are very possessive about “their” toys and blankets.  Others are quite happy to regard such things as community property, and some simply ignore them.  An interest in human-made playthings is not the same as the desire to hunt (cats know the difference between live prey and a plastic ball), nor does it have anything to do with the need for personal territory.  Instead, it seems to be very similar to the human urge to surround ourselves with objects that are beautiful, interesting, entertaining, or comforting.

Fric with Beads

The cat is Fric, a small roly-poly male who came to the shelter several years ago with his brother, Frac.  They were kittens rescued from a feral colony.  Frac was quickly adopted, but shy Fric remained at the shelter.  He follows me around and picks a spot (usually out in the open or on an empty shelf) to sit and watch me, “talking” with his eyes.  Occasionally he lets me pet him, but he isn’t comfortable with it very often.  When he stops and stares, I know that is my signal to sit near him and spend quiet time together “in the place between fleeing and clutching”, as I described it when I first began to work with these shy cats. 

Lichen Oracle Card Design

Lichen Card Sample

I’d like to print the Lichen Oracle as cards that look something like this, and include the unfinished 16-card Sticks and Stones Oracle along with it.  The card border (shown here in shaded gray) would be warm metallic silver.  But I doubt there would be much interest in these except from a few oracle collectors and people who are interested in divination systems.  But I may consider printing a very limited edition (50 copies or so) once the Black Cat Deck is done.  Meanwhile, I’ll revise the Lichen Oracle website to show the oracle in the form of these cards instead of the current glyph table with separate descriptions.  That should make it more accessible and prettier.

Working with the Lichen Oracle

Lichen Oracle

I haven’t written about the  Lichen Oracle for awhile, but I’ve been quietly working with it.  The table of glyphs, numbered as a Moon Calendar, is shown above.  Visit the LICHEN ORACLE webpage to learn more about this project and even get a free online reading.

GLYPHS form the core of the oracle, and can be used like runes.  Each symbol can stand alone, independent of its place in the sequence or any other relationship between the glyphs, and can be read individually.  Many of the symbols are suitable for use as personal runes for decorative and/or magical uses.  Some glyphs can be joined together like rune charms, like this combination of #2 and #14 which I have adopted for personal use:

Personal Lichen Rune

 Although they can be simplified into completely angular symbols, like Norse runes, they lose some of their unique living energy when the curves are removed.  It’s important to remember that the glyphs were traced from living, organic shapes that reflect the way the lichen grew as the lirellae literally burst through the tree bark.  The glyphs are composed of only four basic design elements:  the straight or curved line, the v-split, the u-split, and the prong.  The many combinations of these simple lines reflect the microscopic divisions of the lichen fungus mycelium as it grew.

VERSES provide a unified, poetic way to describe and read the glyphs, though they are tied to a specific place and sequence.  The symbols themselves will suggest additional interpretations.  Verses for each glyph are given on the Lichen Oracle webpage, although I have long since simplified many of them.

If you like, you can stop here, having accessed the heart of the oracle.  To explore the oracle more deeply, there are several other components to work with, any or all of which can be used.

 

 1.  Moon Calendar

Each glyph has been assigned to one day of the lunar month, as shown in the chart. When using the oracle this way, a glyph’s place in the sequence becomes part of the interpretation, since each symbol is now connected to all the others.  You can pull the current day’s card for additional insight in a reading.  If you know the moon’s phase on your birth date, you can use your personal “birth glyph” as a significator or touchstone.

 

 2.  Three Minor Moon Glyphs

When working with the moon calendar, each glyph can be assigned three minor “companion” glyphs, and all four glyphs mark the same number of days after a primary moon phase.  The chart at the top of this page is set up so that each vertical column represents one of these groups.  The “companion” glyphs can lend their interpretations to the primary glyphs.  These extra symbols decorate each glyph in the large chart on the Lichen Oracle webpage.

 

3.  The Two Halfmoon Paths

The oracle incorporates a pair of cycles that is specific to the eastern U.S. coastal plain.  The time from the First to the Third Quarter shows the development, zenith, and disappearance of the Path to the Moon, the track of light that appears on the ocean at moonrise and reaches its zenith at the Full Moon.  The time from the Third to the First Quarter is the Blackwater Spiral, the creek flowing through the swamp to the coastal marsh, with the nadir at the New Moon in one of the freshwater ponds hidden in the forest at the center of the island (these ponds aren’t just symbolic – they are actual places you can visit).  Each glyph has a place along one of these paths, as well as along the moon’s monthly journey, and this can be an additional “milemarker” to show the way in a reading.

 

4.  Glyph Clans

The glyphs can be arranged in groups based on similar appearance.  Each ”clan” carries its own “root” interpretation underlying that of the individual glyph.

Lichen Oracle Glyph Clans

  5.  Generative Sequences

Some (perhaps all) of the glyphs can be arranged in sequences in which one glyph can be seen to evolve into another.  Some of this can be seen in the glyph “clans”.  But a few glyphs offer more than one possible path.  This type of connection adds a transformative layer of meaning to each symbol.

Lichen Oracle Glyphs: Growth Sequences

 

 

 

Black Cat Deck: Four of Fangs

The Four of Fangs shows a sleepy longhaired cat stretching.  Nearby is a medicine bag adorned with the four fangs from a lion or other big cat.  The suit symbols form a square spiral, indicating protection and order.  All the Fours depict rest and temporary stasis, but they interpret it in different ways.  Here, the cat has sought his own protected place in which to recover from stress or even recuperate from an illness.  “Rest” is not always passive, and this cat knows how and when to take care of himself.  Stretching is an instinctive self-healing activity, a renewal of the simple pleasure of just being alive.

Four of Fangs

The cat is Todd, a shelter cat who passed away about a year ago. Unlike the other cats pictured so far, Todd wasn’t black – he was dark steel gray, with a unique vulpine face.  I was never able to pet him  and rarely saw him in such a relaxed pose, since he was quite shy and wary.   But I was browsing some old cat photos, found this picture of him, and realized that it was not just a graceful pose – it was a perfect expression of this card.   Here’s a closer view:

Todd