Wilkinson Public Library: “Beyond Shamanic Visions”

20 Apr Wilkinson Public Library: “Beyond Shamanic Visions”

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Kent Tompkins]

Tompkins uses words/images to go "Beyond Shamanic Visions" April 22  at Wilkinson Library in Telluride

Telluriders may be exceptions to the rule. We tend to march to our own drum. However, in this Piscean Age, the rest of the world has made like sheep, relying on bellwethers for guidance to the Promised Land. According to healer/counseler/documentary photographer Kent Tompkins that mindset is about to become toast. Just as the flower children of "Hair" sang: "It is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius," when each individual becomes capable of spiritual awareness without the intercession of religious authority.

To date, the way of the seeker has been littered with metaphysical possibilities, rituals, prayers and lessons entirely from ancient cultures, largely from the East. Yoga, Sufis, I Ching, Kaballah are on a long list of examples.

From 1978 – 1990, Kent lived in the Navajo Nation, where native elders and shaman invited him to document sacred  ceremonial "sing" and learn the secrets of the medicine man.

Kent 's personal journey continued beyond the borders of our country.  Last January, he visited Northern India, soaking in the world of  Sikhs and Tibetans.

At his library talk on Wednesday, April 22, 6 p.m., Kent plans to take us "Beyond Shamanic Visions" to discover the shared wisdom of the cultures he recently explored with the Native Americans he called family.

We will travel with him to the Sikh golden temple in Amritsar, India and to Dharamsala. We will visit Dine'tah-Hajinei'(deena-ta-hajeanay), the "Place of Emergence," in NW New Mexico where Athabaskan and Anasazi peoples co-habited for several hundred years. Many shamanic visions stem from the Dine'tah region, including hints about inner healing.

To learn more about Kent, about his early life on a ranch in Fruita, Colorado, and what Ansel Adams taught him, also more about his talk, click the "play" button and listen to his podcast.