May 12, 2026 • 35 mins
Join us with author and teacher, Razel Wolf, on her sharing of different aspects of the "gateway process" on the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, a shamanic tradition. Learn more about our programs: https://dtmms.org/programs-new/
#DTMMS #SMSD #GatewayProcess
Special guest, Razel Wolf has been studying the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path for over 35 years. She’s a teacher in our Red Lodge Arizona & Australia Longhouse programs. Razel is also a Rites of Passage specialist in this shamanic tradition.The Sweet Medicine SunDance Path is a mystery school that offers education and practices for anyone seeking esoteric knowledge, self-discovery, spiritual awakening and evolution through inter-connectedness. It is a shamanic tradition rooted in nature and universal spiritual wisdom, inspiring how to establish a deep connection to Nature which teaches us how we are interconnected with all of Life. The trainings, practices and ceremonies are available at workshops, events and ceremonial gatherings in various countries worldwide. We offer comprehensive programs designed for individuals seeking authentic spiritual connection, personal growth, and spiritual renewal. Our diverse offerings include foundational shamanic teachings, transformative rites of passage, powerful healing ceremonies, physical mastery practices, and vibrant community ceremonies that foster spiritual evolution. To learn more visit: https://dtmms.org/ See our international calendar of events: https://dtmms.org/no-apprentice-events-calendar/
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(00:00):
This podcast is produced by the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine
Society. Copyright DTMMS. All rights
reserved. Materials may not be used
without written permission. The Sweet Medicine Sundance Path
is a mystery school that offers shamanic knowledge and practices
for anyone seeking personal growth, spiritual awakening, and
(00:21):
evolution through interconnectedness.
Today, the wheels and keys, the teachings, practices and
ceremonies are available at workshops, events, and
ceremonial gatherings in variouscountries around the planet.
Welcome back to DTMMSTV. My name is Nicholas Samad and I
(00:42):
have been an apprentice on the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path
since 1999. Today, we welcome Sweet Medicine
Sundance teacher and author Rozelle Wolf.
Raisel has been on this path forover 35 years.
She's a teacher of our Red Lodgeprograms in Arizona and
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Australia. She's also a rites of passage
specialist in our tradition. Raisel, thank you for joining
us. It's really my pleasure and I
thank you for having me. There are many around the world
who are seeking spiritual growthand personal development.
(01:25):
Raisel, can you tell us or give us an overview of the various
ways someone who is interested in spiritual growth can get a
taste of our sweet medicine Sundance shamanic tradition?
Yes, there's an amazing plethoraof opportunities and ways to
grow spiritually that we have tooffer.
(01:49):
And before I go into those specifics, I'd actually like to
talk a little bit about who and how we are as humans, the
aspects that we hold and the thepart that our spirituality plays
in our larger makeup. And so we always talk about
ourselves as humans as having five different aspects.
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One aspect is our emotional aspect, which I'm sure we all
know a great deal about, our physical aspect, our mental
aspect. And then there's our spiritual
aspect, that desire for growth, for change, for evolution, that
we might feel inside of ourselves, as well as the 5th
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aspect, our soul force or our life energy.
And so when a human being is keen to learn and to grow and to
expand, then we might say, oh, I'm seeking spiritual
development. And this particular path, our,
our beautiful path has many, many offerings.
(02:56):
And I'd like to just share a couple of them with you because
there's, there's so many of them.
So one of them is for anybody that's a seeker.
And this is, it's called the theFriends of the Deer Tribe.
It's an outreach program. It welcomes all spiritual
seekers that are interested in what we have to offer.
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The sweet medicine. Sundance Path is what we are
called or the Deer Tribe is another name that we are called.
And as a friend of the Deer Tribe, you you, some of you that
are listening to this may already have experienced some of
our offerings. We have purification lodge
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ceremonies, we have community events that we hold.
We even have sacred sexuality workshops additionally, and this
is one of my favorites, as as you've said, Nicola, I'm a rites
of passage specialist and rites of passion passage is an arena
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of study that's open for anybodythat's a human being.
That's the only requirement thatwe are a human being and that we
have a desire to engage our lifepassages.
And so we know many of our life passages, things like birth,
things like death, things like marriage, things like divorce,
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but we also have opportunities to engage and honor the
different chronological growth stages that we go through.
And so that's another beautiful offering that's open to anybody
that wants to study or experience something that's
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really just for you in your growth.
And then recently we also added a beautiful program, which is on
Zoom. And so for the the people that
enjoy online training and teachings, we have a program
called Shamanism in the 5th World.
And this is a wonderful program that's very extensive in talking
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about the foundations of what itmeans to be in a shamanic path.
And our shamanic path basically works with the world's of
grandmother Earth. And that may not make any sense.
So I'm going to describe what I mean.
I mean the plant world, I mean the mineral world, I mean the
animal world, I mean the human world.
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I also mean the world of spirit.And so the the shamanism in the
5th world is an easy approach online for people that enjoy
that type of training to learn about the foundations of our
teachings. We do have a very clear gateway
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process within our path. Could you speak a little bit
about that? Yeah, I would love to.
You know, as you mentioned earlier, Nicola, I've been
studying this particular path for 35 years and it's been
brilliant for me because of the gateway path.
And I'd like to describe what the gateway path means.
(06:16):
So we just talked a little bit about the many and there's more
offerings by the way. I only went through some of them
for people that are just seekingpeople that are interested,
people that want to get it, you know, dip your toe in and get a
sense of what is on offer. And then when and if one finds,
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wow, this is really exciting to me.
And I actually would like to take a deeper dive.
I'd like to learn more about this because it's feeding me.
It's feeding me in a way that, you know, I love my day-to-day
life, but this is taking me intoother places.
And then there's the opportunityto experience what we call the
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gateway path. And that gateway path is
actually a journey through, as you mentioned already, Nicola,
many different ceremonial experiences that are literally
designed to take us as humans from A-Z in our spiritual
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evolution and growth. It's very carefully designed.
And for example, within each gateway, and I'd like to kind of
explain what is a gateway, you know, because we know of a
gateway is like you're going to walk through somebody's garden.
There's a gate, you walk throughthat gate.
This is also like walking into agarden, but it's not a physical
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gateway. The gateway is actually a
Series, A compilation of. In each gateway, there's usually
around 12:00 or so different specific ceremonies that you do
that one can do to experience clearing and growth and insight
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into all of our different aspects.
So not only are we pursuing inside of these gateway
ceremonies, our spirituality, but we're also looking into who
we are as an emotional being, who we are as a mental being,
who we are in our life force. And so inside of each individual
gateway, there's a series of different types of ceremonial
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experiences that everybody can can have that everybody can
experience, Especially in the first gateway of ceremonies,
that's very different. Each one is different to the
next. Would you like a little
description of of the type of ceremonies one might encounter
in, say, the first gateway? That would be great.
(08:47):
OK, good. OK, good.
So this is really exciting to me.
I love this stuff. You can tell I'm very excited by
it. So in the first gateway, and one
of the first ceremonies that we engage in is called the
flowering tree ceremony. And the flowering tree ceremony
is talking about how we as a human are like a tree in that we
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put our feet on the ground and we put our roots into the
ground. We establish ourselves in our
world, but then there's parts ofus that lift up like the
branches of a tree that lift up and, and lift into the light
that comes down from the sun. And as we begin in the first
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gateway, if we're so inclined, in the first gateway, there's
five different flowering tree ceremonies.
In the first flowering tree ceremony is you, and you choose
a tree that's that's welcoming to you and you sit with that
tree and you have a little conversation.
I want to share a little story that's very funny.
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I once had a brother who was a Wall Street investor, very
successful and I, we were out onceremonial land and I was
describing to him this floweringtree ceremony.
I said, brother, you're going tofind a tree that's welcoming to
you and you're going to sit and you're going to have a
conversation with this tree. He looked at me and he said, do
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you know who I speak to on a day-to-day basis on Wall Street?
You're telling me I'm going to be talking to a tree?
I said, yeah, you are. Just give it a try.
Don't judge yet. Just open up, see what you can
do and see if you can have a conversation with the tree.
And here's some specific questions to ask it.
And so he came back to me after his ceremony.
(10:39):
He said, Rezelle, that was the most intelligent conversation
I've ever had in my life. Thank you.
So, so that's like 11 gateway ceremony in the first gateway.
And there's many others, as I mentioned, there's five
different flowering trees and they're all a little different
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one to the next. There's also a series of
ceremonies in the first gateway that are called purification
lodge ceremonies. I'm not sure if you've, if
anybody listening to this has experienced A purification
lodge, but it's a, it's a littlehot light structure that's
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created out of bent tree limbs. It's very carefully built in a
very beautiful, alchemical and benevolent way.
It's covered with blankets or canvas and the rocks are heated
and brought into the lodge. And it's kind of like our
shamanic approach to going into a sauna.
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And if you've ever been in a sauna, you know that when you
get into that heated energy with, with water and the, and
the, and the hot stones, that something happens in your
vibrational level, that your, your cells start to vibrate more
quickly. And we go into that purification
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lodge to pray, to pray for ourselves, to pray for what we
need, to pray to grow, to let goof the things that aren't
supporting us in our growth. And with the support of that
alchemy of that beautiful, we call it a womb space, the
purification lodge, the alchemy of how it was built and all of
the prayers that are being spoken.
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We emerge after that ceremony coming back out of the womb
space, in a sense, having rebirthed ourselves.
So that's a really profound ceremony.
And we do a few of those in the first gateway.
One of the basic premises of ourpath is that nature is and
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spirit is our teacher that we are.
We are guided to communicate. We rekindle the connection
between ourselves and the natural world and allow that to
teach us how to be natural, our natural self.
We'll take a little break now, so stay tuned for more about the
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Sweet Medicine Sundance Path with Rozelle Wolf.
This program is brought to you by DTMMS, the Deer Tribe Metis
Medicine Society. I do enjoy the ceremonies and
all the teachings. I'm really looking forward to
the healing that I can do insidemy own self and also.
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The. Community is amazing.
I'm looking forward to learning new things, finding out about
myself. I'm looking forward to evolving.
The spiritual connection to Great Spirit and to all things
magical these are. The things that.
Are most important to me right now.
(13:53):
So welcome back to our conversation about the gateway
process of the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path with Rachel Wolf.
Is there any other type of ceremonies that the general
public as as seeker would would be able to to enjoy?
Yeah, I mean again, you know, there's there are many other
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ceremonies in the first gateway.One of them is where, where we
spend an evening in nature. And so this is done out of the
city. It's done in a totally natural
location. We ensure that wherever we're
doing this ceremony is done in asafe place.
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And we usually, because many of us that are beginning to connect
to nature, maybe some of us havehad experiences with nature
before, but maybe some of us arecoming from a city life or a
suburban life, you know, where, where nature is.
Yeah, it's hot outside. I'm going to turn my air
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conditioner on in my car. You know, and we're not really
like in tune with or experiencing nature as it exists
in the moment. And so very often part of what
we do to prepare for this overnight ceremony is we have
like an evening or an afternoon where we actually go out and we
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connect, as I mentioned before, to the worlds of grandmother.
We connect to the mineral world,to the stones that are on the
land. We connect to the trees and the
plants that are on the land. We connect to the well.
This ceremony is not so much about connecting to other humans
because we're we're really connecting with spirit.
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So but we also connect with the animal world that is that that
lives on the land as well. And so we do a little
preparatory time where we becomea little bit more familiar with
more acquainted with who lives on the land.
And I am now a guest and, and how do I interact with the
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plants, with the animals, with the minerals in a way that is
respectful and that will supportme as my, as I do my overnight
ceremony. So we usually do a little
preparatory thing before we go out on ceremony.
But then when it's time to do the ceremony, we go out and we
spend an entire night from sunset to dawn outside in
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nature. And we have, you know, there,
there's all kinds of little steps that we take and we're
guided very carefully of what those steps are.
And the, the intent is to take agood look internally.
Who am I? How am I growing?
What are the medicine signs? And what I mean by medicine
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signs was, did that owl just hoot when I was investigating
something about my sorrow? You know, did I just hear a
coyote how when I was thinking about the time when I was really
happy as a child? Like we connect our inner
reflections to the outer responses that the, you know,
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did the wind just blow? Did that star just was there
just a shooting star? And we connect all of those
messages from the worlds of grandmother with our personal
and internal reflections throughout the night.
And we come back in the morning.We usually there's a great Big
Breakfast feast and we all gather together and harvest the
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gains that we got from our experience being in nature
overnight. So one could say that the first
gateway is we can is where we can reconnect back and learn how
to naturally how we naturally ashumans can communicate with the
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natural world, with creation of which we are a part.
Yes. Absolutely, Nicola.
And there's one other thing thatthe first Gateway is really
excellent at doing because we'vespent, most of us have spent
some time apart from nature and therefore likely apart from our
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own nature. The first gateway in all of its
subtleties and all of its intricacies and all of the
variety of ceremony also helps us.
What I like to say is peel back the layers of the onion so that
we begin to know ourselves as wenaturally are, not as just the
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layers of masks that we've had to put on and adjust to our
society, into what everyone has told us that we're meant to be.
And so not only in the first gateway of ceremonies do we get
to reconnect with nature, learn about nature, experience the
oneness, the beauty of nature, the messages from nature.
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But we also get the opportunity to, to, to peel back to, to let
go of those aspects that we've put on that we don't that are
not really necessarily beneficial for us and are not
necessarily who we are when we are our natural selves.
(19:22):
Thank you for this beautiful, very inspiring explanation and
description of our first gatewayprocess or the first gateway in
our process. Stay tuned for more about the
Sweet Medicine Sundance Path Apprenticeship gateway process.
Seeking opportunities with RazorWolf?
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Healing for me is is a lifelong process and inside of this
particular program, there are many very what would I call
pragmatic and also magical approaches to create healing
inside of oneself. It's critical that each one of
us, as a human being, find what is going to feed us, what is
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going to support us in our own healing and growing.
This program is brought to you by DTMMS, the Deer Tribe Matee
Medicine Society. Welcome back to our conversation
about the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path with Razel Wolf.
(20:30):
Razel. So we've spoken about the first
gateway, which I will remind ourlisteners and our viewers is
open for all seekers. And also part of the second
gateway is also open for them, right?
Correct, that's correct. So you know, in our in our
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lineage in the first gateway, a lot of the energy of the first
gateway is about seeking that expansive energy.
In the second gateway, there's alittle bit of a shift and
there's more of a introspective approach in the ceremonies in
the second gateway. And so again, the ceremonies
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that are available for people that are seeking very, they're
very, very different and they will have a quality of an energy
of going within. And so there's a very profound,
a very deep ceremony where we, where we, I think all of us have
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probably experienced that we have had people that we love
that have died in our lives thathave we like call it crossed
over, you know, gone to the other side, shed this mortal
coil. And in the second gateway, there
is a ceremony where we have an opportunity through very careful
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alchemy, to go into nature and to see if there are any of those
beings that are now in the spirit realm.
They're no longer in physical realm.
They don't have a physical body anymore, but we still have a
connection with them and we actually have an opportunity.
It's called the ancestor speaking ceremony.
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We have an opportunity to see ifthere are any of our loved ones
or maybe there's even somebody that we haven't been acquainted
with yet that is an ancestor that has crossed over that would
like to support us from that spiritual side.
So that is then that's a very different kind of ceremony then
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say, for example, the the ones we were talking about earlier in
the first first gateway. And then there's another
ceremony where we, where we really investigate who and how
we are in, in this lifetime and we allow ourselves to shed the
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energies that aren't working forus anymore.
And this is called the hole in the ground ceremony.
And so we get very up close and personal with the actual element
of Earth and also the, the planet that we live on,
grandmother Earth. And we engage overnight in this
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deep introspective space of letting go of those aspects that
we've held onto that really maybe we're ready to let go of.
They're not supporting us anymore.
They're not giving us what we need to grow.
And we emerge from that ceremonyin the morning again reborn, but
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in in a very, very deep and introspective sense.
So those are two of the gateway ceremonies.
In the second gateway, again they have a very different
flavour than what I described inthe first gateway that are open
for people that are seekers and are willing to, you know, really
go for it and have a different kind of experience.
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So thank you Raisel for the thisexplanation.
And so we've heard about the first gateway and some of the
ceremonies there that any seekerwho desires may take part in.
And there's also, of course, within that first gateway, not
just ceremonies, but teachings and practices, many, many other
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things. And then you come to the second
gateway where some of those ceremonies and practices and
teachings are available also forseekers.
But there then comes this part in the second gateway where the
question is asked, do you want to go further in the gateway
process? Can you explain why that is?
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And when we say go further, we actually mean are you going to
apprentice and what does that mean?
That's a really, really important and a good question
and I love to share what I've come to understand about that.
So as I've been expressing, you know, in the gateway ceremonies,
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it's not only that we're having experiences with nature, but
it's also that we're eliminatingthose things that keep us away
from who and how we are naturally.
And as we return to a greater state of naturalness, we
actually begin, and this might sound a little funny to
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everybody, but we begin to shinemore from within.
Like our natural shining starts to radiate more.
As we become more natural, more who we are, we start to shine.
And when we shine, we become a great attraction.
And so in our lineage, the reason why we, why we say to
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people at this juncture, and that's about halfway through the
2nd gateway, it would be important in order to continue
with the gateway path that you choose to, to apprentice to the
path. And so I want to explain what
that means. So, you know, we all have our
preferences, we all have things that we like and things that,
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you know, are not so much for me.
Like, I love English breakfast tea, but I'm not so big on Earl
Grey, for example. Not my cup of tea.
There are many, many approaches to spiritual growth and
evolution. We have many different lineages
that are available. We have the Buddhist and the,
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you know, the Eastern Indian traditions.
We have Christianity, Judaism and all, you know, the African
people have their own spiritual approaches.
They're just so many ways to move towards the light, to
evolve and to grow. This is 1 particular way.
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And the people that are our elders, the people that have
been the stewards of our lineagefor a very, very long time,
recognize that as people engage the gateway process, we become
lighter and lighter beings. We become an attraction, we
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become more seen for who and howwe are.
And our elders have spoken that it's very important that they
can. I'm just going to use a term,
and I hope this translates to everybody that they can have our
backs, that they can support us spiritually as we are growing.
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And the way that they know that they can have our backs, that
that they have the permission tosupport us as we're growing is
if we have determined in our heart of hearts that this
lineage, and I'm going to get it, use another term.
And I hope it makes sense to everybody that this lineage is a
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path of heart for me. In other words, it's my cup of
tea. It's working for me, it's
producing good results. I am growing.
I feel it. It may be a challenge from time
to time because growth is expansion.
And that's a challenge from timeto time.
And I can feel the benefit and Iwant to continue growing in this
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way. This is a cup of tea for me.
This is a path of heart for me. One of the things that's quite
beautiful in our particular lineage, which I think is so
important, is that this lineage is non exclusive.
And our elders prefer that we not only work with this
particular lineage if it in factis a path with heart for us, but
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that we also have two other spiritual paths that we work
with. And so we call it a Trident of
power, that we have 3 paths thatwe work with.
And not like you can only do this and there's nothing else
that you can do. It's this, you know, or nothing,
you know, go find another thing to do.
This lineage actually says please broaden your horizons by
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having a Trident of power. And so to come all the way back,
I know there's a rather long explanation, but to come all the
way back, the in the middle of the second gateway is where the
our elders have noticed that ourlight is beginning to shine
brightly enough that they feel in their responsibility and
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authority. They need to have permission to
support us in our onward growth.Well.
I don't know if I have a question, but what I, I do now
when I hear you speak, I can hear that this shining that you
speak about is very much to do with the lightness of being that
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one experiences as the layers ofthe, of the onion, as you spoke
about come off. It's like the, the conditioning,
I think is the word. We call it moulding, sculpting
and armouring. But the conditioning of our
upbringing, of our particular viewpoint or the events that
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have happened in our life have kind of shaped us in a way.
And the, the removal of those limitations, one could almost
say, is then where that light iscoming?
It's it's showing more and the happiness, the, the, or the more
happiness, the more healthy perhaps we are, the more hopeful
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we are, the more humorous we are, the more harmonious we are.
This is this is part of that shining, isn't it, that is
happening there. Exactly, exactly.
And it's such a profound thing to be a human being and to have
those experiences where maybe I didn't even know that I was
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limiting myself. Maybe I didn't even know that
that particular conditioning wasactually not that beneficial.
Maybe I thought that everything that I had created about myself
because I, you know, I think I'ma pretty cool and groovy person.
You know, maybe I thought that all of it, it was ideal and
perfect. And then as I begin to have
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these experiences and peeling back those layers of the onion
and I begin to see, as you said,Nicola, like that lightness of
being, of who I am, who I reallyam in my total naturalist.
It is a joy. It is such a joy to begin to
experience myself naturally. It is such a joy to.
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Yeah, there's growing pains, of course, but that's, you know,
everybody goes through that. I mean, we go through that going
from a baby and bringing in our teeth, you know, and learning
how to walk and falling down. Growing always involves bumps
and starts. That's natural.
But to come to that place where we, we, we could take a like a
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big breath and just go, oh, oh, oh, oh, this, this is who I
really AM. And then, amazingly enough, as
as the days go by, is the ceremonies go by, is the
experience accumulate, that becomes even clearer.
There's always more clarity, there's always more beauty,
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there's always more lightness about us and who we are.
So Raisel, thank you very much for being with us today.
And I'm just wondering what would you like to share with our
listeners, our viewers today? Well, there's so much
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information, but I think what I really want to say to everybody
is that the most important thingfor each of us, each individual,
is to find our passion, to find our edge for growth, our desire
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to know more. And what we've been speaking
about is not the mental desire in the sense of like academic
studies, but more the desire to know more about who and how we
are as spiritual beings, which is 1 aspect.
And so I think what I want to say to everybody is allow
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yourself to listen within to those small voices, or maybe for
you, they're loud voices that are saying, I want to grow, I
want to know more, I want to expand and then find your way to
feed that hunger. I think that's the way I'd like
to close today and share with everybody.
(34:22):
Thanks, Nicola. Well, thank you for joining us.
It's been really good to speak with you, and I look forward to
continuing our conversation about the gateway process of the
Sweet Medicine Sundance Path. For more information about DTMMS
and the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path, go to
(34:43):
ourwebsite@dtmms.org. You'll see a calendar of events
and our international offerings.You can also e-mail
d.tmms@dtmms.org to answer any questions.
You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon
Music podcasts, and iHeartRadio.Thank you for tuning in to
(35:07):
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This podcast is produced by the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine
Society. Copyright DTMMS. All rights
reserved. Materials may not be used
without written permission. The Sweet Medicine Sundance Path
is a mystery school that offers shamanic knowledge and practices
for anyone seeking personal growth, spiritual awakening, and
(00:21):
evolution through interconnectedness.
Today, the wheels and keys, the teachings, practices and
ceremonies are available at workshops, events, and
ceremonial gatherings in variouscountries around the planet.
Welcome back to DTMMSTV. My name is Nicholas Samad and I
(00:42):
have been an apprentice on the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path
since 1999. Today, we welcome Sweet Medicine
Sundance teacher and author Rozelle Wolf.
Raisel has been on this path forover 35 years.
She's a teacher of our Red Lodgeprograms in Arizona and
(01:03):
Australia. She's also a rites of passage
specialist in our tradition. Raisel, thank you for joining
us. It's really my pleasure and I
thank you for having me. There are many around the world
who are seeking spiritual growthand personal development.
(01:25):
Raisel, can you tell us or give us an overview of the various
ways someone who is interested in spiritual growth can get a
taste of our sweet medicine Sundance shamanic tradition?
Yes, there's an amazing plethoraof opportunities and ways to
grow spiritually that we have tooffer.
(01:49):
And before I go into those specifics, I'd actually like to
talk a little bit about who and how we are as humans, the
aspects that we hold and the thepart that our spirituality plays
in our larger makeup. And so we always talk about
ourselves as humans as having five different aspects.
(02:13):
One aspect is our emotional aspect, which I'm sure we all
know a great deal about, our physical aspect, our mental
aspect. And then there's our spiritual
aspect, that desire for growth, for change, for evolution, that
we might feel inside of ourselves, as well as the 5th
(02:34):
aspect, our soul force or our life energy.
And so when a human being is keen to learn and to grow and to
expand, then we might say, oh, I'm seeking spiritual
development. And this particular path, our,
our beautiful path has many, many offerings.
(02:56):
And I'd like to just share a couple of them with you because
there's, there's so many of them.
So one of them is for anybody that's a seeker.
And this is, it's called the theFriends of the Deer Tribe.
It's an outreach program. It welcomes all spiritual
seekers that are interested in what we have to offer.
(03:19):
The sweet medicine. Sundance Path is what we are
called or the Deer Tribe is another name that we are called.
And as a friend of the Deer Tribe, you you, some of you that
are listening to this may already have experienced some of
our offerings. We have purification lodge
(03:41):
ceremonies, we have community events that we hold.
We even have sacred sexuality workshops additionally, and this
is one of my favorites, as as you've said, Nicola, I'm a rites
of passage specialist and rites of passion passage is an arena
(04:02):
of study that's open for anybodythat's a human being.
That's the only requirement thatwe are a human being and that we
have a desire to engage our lifepassages.
And so we know many of our life passages, things like birth,
things like death, things like marriage, things like divorce,
(04:24):
but we also have opportunities to engage and honor the
different chronological growth stages that we go through.
And so that's another beautiful offering that's open to anybody
that wants to study or experience something that's
(04:47):
really just for you in your growth.
And then recently we also added a beautiful program, which is on
Zoom. And so for the the people that
enjoy online training and teachings, we have a program
called Shamanism in the 5th World.
And this is a wonderful program that's very extensive in talking
(05:14):
about the foundations of what itmeans to be in a shamanic path.
And our shamanic path basically works with the world's of
grandmother Earth. And that may not make any sense.
So I'm going to describe what I mean.
I mean the plant world, I mean the mineral world, I mean the
animal world, I mean the human world.
(05:35):
I also mean the world of spirit.And so the the shamanism in the
5th world is an easy approach online for people that enjoy
that type of training to learn about the foundations of our
teachings. We do have a very clear gateway
(05:55):
process within our path. Could you speak a little bit
about that? Yeah, I would love to.
You know, as you mentioned earlier, Nicola, I've been
studying this particular path for 35 years and it's been
brilliant for me because of the gateway path.
And I'd like to describe what the gateway path means.
(06:16):
So we just talked a little bit about the many and there's more
offerings by the way. I only went through some of them
for people that are just seekingpeople that are interested,
people that want to get it, you know, dip your toe in and get a
sense of what is on offer. And then when and if one finds,
(06:37):
wow, this is really exciting to me.
And I actually would like to take a deeper dive.
I'd like to learn more about this because it's feeding me.
It's feeding me in a way that, you know, I love my day-to-day
life, but this is taking me intoother places.
And then there's the opportunityto experience what we call the
(07:00):
gateway path. And that gateway path is
actually a journey through, as you mentioned already, Nicola,
many different ceremonial experiences that are literally
designed to take us as humans from A-Z in our spiritual
(07:20):
evolution and growth. It's very carefully designed.
And for example, within each gateway, and I'd like to kind of
explain what is a gateway, you know, because we know of a
gateway is like you're going to walk through somebody's garden.
There's a gate, you walk throughthat gate.
This is also like walking into agarden, but it's not a physical
(07:40):
gateway. The gateway is actually a
Series, A compilation of. In each gateway, there's usually
around 12:00 or so different specific ceremonies that you do
that one can do to experience clearing and growth and insight
(08:02):
into all of our different aspects.
So not only are we pursuing inside of these gateway
ceremonies, our spirituality, but we're also looking into who
we are as an emotional being, who we are as a mental being,
who we are in our life force. And so inside of each individual
gateway, there's a series of different types of ceremonial
(08:27):
experiences that everybody can can have that everybody can
experience, Especially in the first gateway of ceremonies,
that's very different. Each one is different to the
next. Would you like a little
description of of the type of ceremonies one might encounter
in, say, the first gateway? That would be great.
(08:47):
OK, good. OK, good.
So this is really exciting to me.
I love this stuff. You can tell I'm very excited by
it. So in the first gateway, and one
of the first ceremonies that we engage in is called the
flowering tree ceremony. And the flowering tree ceremony
is talking about how we as a human are like a tree in that we
(09:12):
put our feet on the ground and we put our roots into the
ground. We establish ourselves in our
world, but then there's parts ofus that lift up like the
branches of a tree that lift up and, and lift into the light
that comes down from the sun. And as we begin in the first
(09:32):
gateway, if we're so inclined, in the first gateway, there's
five different flowering tree ceremonies.
In the first flowering tree ceremony is you, and you choose
a tree that's that's welcoming to you and you sit with that
tree and you have a little conversation.
I want to share a little story that's very funny.
(09:54):
I once had a brother who was a Wall Street investor, very
successful and I, we were out onceremonial land and I was
describing to him this floweringtree ceremony.
I said, brother, you're going tofind a tree that's welcoming to
you and you're going to sit and you're going to have a
conversation with this tree. He looked at me and he said, do
(10:17):
you know who I speak to on a day-to-day basis on Wall Street?
You're telling me I'm going to be talking to a tree?
I said, yeah, you are. Just give it a try.
Don't judge yet. Just open up, see what you can
do and see if you can have a conversation with the tree.
And here's some specific questions to ask it.
And so he came back to me after his ceremony.
(10:39):
He said, Rezelle, that was the most intelligent conversation
I've ever had in my life. Thank you.
So, so that's like 11 gateway ceremony in the first gateway.
And there's many others, as I mentioned, there's five
different flowering trees and they're all a little different
(11:01):
one to the next. There's also a series of
ceremonies in the first gateway that are called purification
lodge ceremonies. I'm not sure if you've, if
anybody listening to this has experienced A purification
lodge, but it's a, it's a littlehot light structure that's
(11:21):
created out of bent tree limbs. It's very carefully built in a
very beautiful, alchemical and benevolent way.
It's covered with blankets or canvas and the rocks are heated
and brought into the lodge. And it's kind of like our
shamanic approach to going into a sauna.
(11:44):
And if you've ever been in a sauna, you know that when you
get into that heated energy with, with water and the, and
the, and the hot stones, that something happens in your
vibrational level, that your, your cells start to vibrate more
quickly. And we go into that purification
(12:06):
lodge to pray, to pray for ourselves, to pray for what we
need, to pray to grow, to let goof the things that aren't
supporting us in our growth. And with the support of that
alchemy of that beautiful, we call it a womb space, the
purification lodge, the alchemy of how it was built and all of
the prayers that are being spoken.
(12:28):
We emerge after that ceremony coming back out of the womb
space, in a sense, having rebirthed ourselves.
So that's a really profound ceremony.
And we do a few of those in the first gateway.
One of the basic premises of ourpath is that nature is and
(12:49):
spirit is our teacher that we are.
We are guided to communicate. We rekindle the connection
between ourselves and the natural world and allow that to
teach us how to be natural, our natural self.
We'll take a little break now, so stay tuned for more about the
(13:10):
Sweet Medicine Sundance Path with Rozelle Wolf.
This program is brought to you by DTMMS, the Deer Tribe Metis
Medicine Society. I do enjoy the ceremonies and
all the teachings. I'm really looking forward to
the healing that I can do insidemy own self and also.
(13:32):
The. Community is amazing.
I'm looking forward to learning new things, finding out about
myself. I'm looking forward to evolving.
The spiritual connection to Great Spirit and to all things
magical these are. The things that.
Are most important to me right now.
(13:53):
So welcome back to our conversation about the gateway
process of the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path with Rachel Wolf.
Is there any other type of ceremonies that the general
public as as seeker would would be able to to enjoy?
Yeah, I mean again, you know, there's there are many other
(14:15):
ceremonies in the first gateway.One of them is where, where we
spend an evening in nature. And so this is done out of the
city. It's done in a totally natural
location. We ensure that wherever we're
doing this ceremony is done in asafe place.
(14:35):
And we usually, because many of us that are beginning to connect
to nature, maybe some of us havehad experiences with nature
before, but maybe some of us arecoming from a city life or a
suburban life, you know, where, where nature is.
Yeah, it's hot outside. I'm going to turn my air
(14:55):
conditioner on in my car. You know, and we're not really
like in tune with or experiencing nature as it exists
in the moment. And so very often part of what
we do to prepare for this overnight ceremony is we have
like an evening or an afternoon where we actually go out and we
(15:17):
connect, as I mentioned before, to the worlds of grandmother.
We connect to the mineral world,to the stones that are on the
land. We connect to the trees and the
plants that are on the land. We connect to the well.
This ceremony is not so much about connecting to other humans
because we're we're really connecting with spirit.
(15:37):
So but we also connect with the animal world that is that that
lives on the land as well. And so we do a little
preparatory time where we becomea little bit more familiar with
more acquainted with who lives on the land.
And I am now a guest and, and how do I interact with the
(15:59):
plants, with the animals, with the minerals in a way that is
respectful and that will supportme as my, as I do my overnight
ceremony. So we usually do a little
preparatory thing before we go out on ceremony.
But then when it's time to do the ceremony, we go out and we
spend an entire night from sunset to dawn outside in
(16:22):
nature. And we have, you know, there,
there's all kinds of little steps that we take and we're
guided very carefully of what those steps are.
And the, the intent is to take agood look internally.
Who am I? How am I growing?
What are the medicine signs? And what I mean by medicine
(16:43):
signs was, did that owl just hoot when I was investigating
something about my sorrow? You know, did I just hear a
coyote how when I was thinking about the time when I was really
happy as a child? Like we connect our inner
reflections to the outer responses that the, you know,
(17:09):
did the wind just blow? Did that star just was there
just a shooting star? And we connect all of those
messages from the worlds of grandmother with our personal
and internal reflections throughout the night.
And we come back in the morning.We usually there's a great Big
Breakfast feast and we all gather together and harvest the
(17:32):
gains that we got from our experience being in nature
overnight. So one could say that the first
gateway is we can is where we can reconnect back and learn how
to naturally how we naturally ashumans can communicate with the
(17:53):
natural world, with creation of which we are a part.
Yes. Absolutely, Nicola.
And there's one other thing thatthe first Gateway is really
excellent at doing because we'vespent, most of us have spent
some time apart from nature and therefore likely apart from our
(18:13):
own nature. The first gateway in all of its
subtleties and all of its intricacies and all of the
variety of ceremony also helps us.
What I like to say is peel back the layers of the onion so that
we begin to know ourselves as wenaturally are, not as just the
(18:37):
layers of masks that we've had to put on and adjust to our
society, into what everyone has told us that we're meant to be.
And so not only in the first gateway of ceremonies do we get
to reconnect with nature, learn about nature, experience the
oneness, the beauty of nature, the messages from nature.
(19:01):
But we also get the opportunity to, to, to peel back to, to let
go of those aspects that we've put on that we don't that are
not really necessarily beneficial for us and are not
necessarily who we are when we are our natural selves.
(19:22):
Thank you for this beautiful, very inspiring explanation and
description of our first gatewayprocess or the first gateway in
our process. Stay tuned for more about the
Sweet Medicine Sundance Path Apprenticeship gateway process.
Seeking opportunities with RazorWolf?
(19:44):
Healing for me is is a lifelong process and inside of this
particular program, there are many very what would I call
pragmatic and also magical approaches to create healing
inside of oneself. It's critical that each one of
us, as a human being, find what is going to feed us, what is
(20:09):
going to support us in our own healing and growing.
This program is brought to you by DTMMS, the Deer Tribe Matee
Medicine Society. Welcome back to our conversation
about the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path with Razel Wolf.
(20:30):
Razel. So we've spoken about the first
gateway, which I will remind ourlisteners and our viewers is
open for all seekers. And also part of the second
gateway is also open for them, right?
Correct, that's correct. So you know, in our in our
(20:50):
lineage in the first gateway, a lot of the energy of the first
gateway is about seeking that expansive energy.
In the second gateway, there's alittle bit of a shift and
there's more of a introspective approach in the ceremonies in
the second gateway. And so again, the ceremonies
(21:12):
that are available for people that are seeking very, they're
very, very different and they will have a quality of an energy
of going within. And so there's a very profound,
a very deep ceremony where we, where we, I think all of us have
(21:35):
probably experienced that we have had people that we love
that have died in our lives thathave we like call it crossed
over, you know, gone to the other side, shed this mortal
coil. And in the second gateway, there
is a ceremony where we have an opportunity through very careful
(22:01):
alchemy, to go into nature and to see if there are any of those
beings that are now in the spirit realm.
They're no longer in physical realm.
They don't have a physical body anymore, but we still have a
connection with them and we actually have an opportunity.
It's called the ancestor speaking ceremony.
(22:22):
We have an opportunity to see ifthere are any of our loved ones
or maybe there's even somebody that we haven't been acquainted
with yet that is an ancestor that has crossed over that would
like to support us from that spiritual side.
So that is then that's a very different kind of ceremony then
(22:44):
say, for example, the the ones we were talking about earlier in
the first first gateway. And then there's another
ceremony where we, where we really investigate who and how
we are in, in this lifetime and we allow ourselves to shed the
(23:08):
energies that aren't working forus anymore.
And this is called the hole in the ground ceremony.
And so we get very up close and personal with the actual element
of Earth and also the, the planet that we live on,
grandmother Earth. And we engage overnight in this
(23:30):
deep introspective space of letting go of those aspects that
we've held onto that really maybe we're ready to let go of.
They're not supporting us anymore.
They're not giving us what we need to grow.
And we emerge from that ceremonyin the morning again reborn, but
(23:51):
in in a very, very deep and introspective sense.
So those are two of the gateway ceremonies.
In the second gateway, again they have a very different
flavour than what I described inthe first gateway that are open
for people that are seekers and are willing to, you know, really
go for it and have a different kind of experience.
(24:14):
So thank you Raisel for the thisexplanation.
And so we've heard about the first gateway and some of the
ceremonies there that any seekerwho desires may take part in.
And there's also, of course, within that first gateway, not
just ceremonies, but teachings and practices, many, many other
(24:35):
things. And then you come to the second
gateway where some of those ceremonies and practices and
teachings are available also forseekers.
But there then comes this part in the second gateway where the
question is asked, do you want to go further in the gateway
process? Can you explain why that is?
(24:59):
And when we say go further, we actually mean are you going to
apprentice and what does that mean?
That's a really, really important and a good question
and I love to share what I've come to understand about that.
So as I've been expressing, you know, in the gateway ceremonies,
(25:21):
it's not only that we're having experiences with nature, but
it's also that we're eliminatingthose things that keep us away
from who and how we are naturally.
And as we return to a greater state of naturalness, we
actually begin, and this might sound a little funny to
(25:41):
everybody, but we begin to shinemore from within.
Like our natural shining starts to radiate more.
As we become more natural, more who we are, we start to shine.
And when we shine, we become a great attraction.
And so in our lineage, the reason why we, why we say to
(26:07):
people at this juncture, and that's about halfway through the
2nd gateway, it would be important in order to continue
with the gateway path that you choose to, to apprentice to the
path. And so I want to explain what
that means. So, you know, we all have our
preferences, we all have things that we like and things that,
(26:29):
you know, are not so much for me.
Like, I love English breakfast tea, but I'm not so big on Earl
Grey, for example. Not my cup of tea.
There are many, many approaches to spiritual growth and
evolution. We have many different lineages
that are available. We have the Buddhist and the,
(26:49):
you know, the Eastern Indian traditions.
We have Christianity, Judaism and all, you know, the African
people have their own spiritual approaches.
They're just so many ways to move towards the light, to
evolve and to grow. This is 1 particular way.
(27:10):
And the people that are our elders, the people that have
been the stewards of our lineagefor a very, very long time,
recognize that as people engage the gateway process, we become
lighter and lighter beings. We become an attraction, we
(27:30):
become more seen for who and howwe are.
And our elders have spoken that it's very important that they
can. I'm just going to use a term,
and I hope this translates to everybody that they can have our
backs, that they can support us spiritually as we are growing.
(27:51):
And the way that they know that they can have our backs, that
that they have the permission tosupport us as we're growing is
if we have determined in our heart of hearts that this
lineage, and I'm going to get it, use another term.
And I hope it makes sense to everybody that this lineage is a
(28:13):
path of heart for me. In other words, it's my cup of
tea. It's working for me, it's
producing good results. I am growing.
I feel it. It may be a challenge from time
to time because growth is expansion.
And that's a challenge from timeto time.
And I can feel the benefit and Iwant to continue growing in this
(28:38):
way. This is a cup of tea for me.
This is a path of heart for me. One of the things that's quite
beautiful in our particular lineage, which I think is so
important, is that this lineage is non exclusive.
And our elders prefer that we not only work with this
particular lineage if it in factis a path with heart for us, but
(29:00):
that we also have two other spiritual paths that we work
with. And so we call it a Trident of
power, that we have 3 paths thatwe work with.
And not like you can only do this and there's nothing else
that you can do. It's this, you know, or nothing,
you know, go find another thing to do.
This lineage actually says please broaden your horizons by
(29:25):
having a Trident of power. And so to come all the way back,
I know there's a rather long explanation, but to come all the
way back, the in the middle of the second gateway is where the
our elders have noticed that ourlight is beginning to shine
brightly enough that they feel in their responsibility and
(29:47):
authority. They need to have permission to
support us in our onward growth.Well.
I don't know if I have a question, but what I, I do now
when I hear you speak, I can hear that this shining that you
speak about is very much to do with the lightness of being that
(30:13):
one experiences as the layers ofthe, of the onion, as you spoke
about come off. It's like the, the conditioning,
I think is the word. We call it moulding, sculpting
and armouring. But the conditioning of our
upbringing, of our particular viewpoint or the events that
(30:35):
have happened in our life have kind of shaped us in a way.
And the, the removal of those limitations, one could almost
say, is then where that light iscoming?
It's it's showing more and the happiness, the, the, or the more
happiness, the more healthy perhaps we are, the more hopeful
(30:59):
we are, the more humorous we are, the more harmonious we are.
This is this is part of that shining, isn't it, that is
happening there. Exactly, exactly.
And it's such a profound thing to be a human being and to have
those experiences where maybe I didn't even know that I was
(31:21):
limiting myself. Maybe I didn't even know that
that particular conditioning wasactually not that beneficial.
Maybe I thought that everything that I had created about myself
because I, you know, I think I'ma pretty cool and groovy person.
You know, maybe I thought that all of it, it was ideal and
perfect. And then as I begin to have
(31:43):
these experiences and peeling back those layers of the onion
and I begin to see, as you said,Nicola, like that lightness of
being, of who I am, who I reallyam in my total naturalist.
It is a joy. It is such a joy to begin to
experience myself naturally. It is such a joy to.
(32:06):
Yeah, there's growing pains, of course, but that's, you know,
everybody goes through that. I mean, we go through that going
from a baby and bringing in our teeth, you know, and learning
how to walk and falling down. Growing always involves bumps
and starts. That's natural.
But to come to that place where we, we, we could take a like a
(32:26):
big breath and just go, oh, oh, oh, oh, this, this is who I
really AM. And then, amazingly enough, as
as the days go by, is the ceremonies go by, is the
experience accumulate, that becomes even clearer.
There's always more clarity, there's always more beauty,
(32:53):
there's always more lightness about us and who we are.
So Raisel, thank you very much for being with us today.
And I'm just wondering what would you like to share with our
listeners, our viewers today? Well, there's so much
(33:14):
information, but I think what I really want to say to everybody
is that the most important thingfor each of us, each individual,
is to find our passion, to find our edge for growth, our desire
(33:35):
to know more. And what we've been speaking
about is not the mental desire in the sense of like academic
studies, but more the desire to know more about who and how we
are as spiritual beings, which is 1 aspect.
And so I think what I want to say to everybody is allow
(33:59):
yourself to listen within to those small voices, or maybe for
you, they're loud voices that are saying, I want to grow, I
want to know more, I want to expand and then find your way to
feed that hunger. I think that's the way I'd like
to close today and share with everybody.
(34:22):
Thanks, Nicola. Well, thank you for joining us.
It's been really good to speak with you, and I look forward to
continuing our conversation about the gateway process of the
Sweet Medicine Sundance Path. For more information about DTMMS
and the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path, go to
(34:43):
ourwebsite@dtmms.org. You'll see a calendar of events
and our international offerings.You can also e-mail
d.tmms@dtmms.org to answer any questions.
You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon
Music podcasts, and iHeartRadio.Thank you for tuning in to
(35:07):
DTMMSTV. If you liked what you heard then
thumbs up and share please.
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