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Sandpainting

I learned this technique as part of Alberto Villaldo's Shaman, Healer & Sage seminar at the Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, New York in the Summer of 2004. I signed up for this particular training after completing training with Hank Wesselman's journeying as a shaman. I had the unexplained feeling that something was missing from my experience with the Wesselman class. Yes, I learned about journeying and even had the experience of practicing a journey to each of the three levels/realms. Still, I felt something was needed by me. I also post this information for whatever use it may be to this site's visitors. The exercise described here served a very real purpose for me and served to bring home yet again Richard Zarro's oft repeated statement that I am a very powerful person and have only to own that belief. It expanded my skills and I was not clairvoyant and needed no tools to get me where I wanted and needed to be.

I will not reiterate the general training, which I was not particularly good at accomplishing at that point in time and will discuss only one exercise from the class and how it affected me personally and my ability to be clairvoyant. It is and has been my position that all these tools are able to be learned by anyone who chooses to do so.  The controlling actions by anyone are foreign to my training and belief structure.  If you are interested in attending seminars and trainings, fine.  Just be aware of those who question you and your ability, that you are guided, etc. in trade for the financial enrichment of any individual or group.

I had taught myself to read Tarot cards during the mid-1980's.  I had even read cards for others and had been told that my readings were accurate and helpful. Although I was not aware of the fact, in order to read, I had taught myself to focus and to alter my level of consciousness in order to receive the information.  For those of you who are not familiar, whenever one reads for another, the information is received and passes through you.  It is not coming from you.  The reader is only a conduit and thus the reader does not have memory of what is being said.  The information is not actually within or on the cards.  The Tarot only serves to enhance focus and sometimes a reader will see something new or different in a particular card and connect that particular learning with the person being read for.  The cards also help to put the person seeking information at ease, especially if they are new at these experiences.  Many people find it disconcerting to think a total stranger can "know" these things.

I had explored doing for myself and others the Tarot reading during the time after my other's home and propety had been stolen (see Doris Culver story behind the Roots icon on this site) by Rensselaer County, New York and while the legal challenges were going on.  I also looked up at the sky one day during that time frame as I was walking along the Schodack Landing Road and saw a huge explosion of light and a fireball.  I was unable to ascertain what that was (a space ship as I eventually learned) even with the use of the Tarot.  I remember very distinctly telling the the Universe I "did not want to see what I could do nothing about".  And so, I "lost" my ability to foreSEE events.  Although I got better with practice in using the Tarot, I eventually decided that those who wanted me to "read" for them, became apparently dependent on having this done for them and it lost its joy and fascination for me.

Eventually in training with Richard Zarro, I learned I had not lost my ability to foreSEE events, the knowledge came to me in another form.  I went from using the Tarot to using other means to accessing this information.  

Eventually, I put the whole topic of divination aside and did not dealve any further into that realm.  I also had extensive training in hypnotherapy and Holographic Hypnosis. I thus learned I could do many things with the mind that I did not believe possible during my advance training.  Still, my emphasis in life had shifted in the mid-1990's when I took basic and advanced training with him.

As I believed there was something missing in my course with Hank Wesselman, I went into the Omega catalogue on-line and found Alberto Villaldo's Shaman, Healer, Sage.  When that weekend came, I eagerly started out on Friday afternoon for Rhinbeck and the Omega Institute.  This was another Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday morning class at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York in the Summer of 2004. I would be commuting daily.  This seminar was in different building.  Before the class started, myself and a few of the other earlybirds introduced ourselves to each other.  This class was also structured to be a combination of lecture and experiencial learning.  

At somepoint, probably on Saturday, Alberto talked about sandpaining, had us divide into groups of two.  He told us to go outside and explore the area individually, collecting various objects to which we were attracted.  When we were done, we were to construct our sandpainting using objects we had collected and any others which we needed to collect to finish our painting.  We were to construct a circle in which were to place whatever other objects and the unused object in an manner that we found sufficient.  When both partners were done, we were to get together again and the partner was to interpret what we saw of our partners painting.  It was amazing the difference in the two paintings my partner and I created.

Example

Mine was sparsely containing information and even had a long twig that crossed the border from the inside to the outside. My partner's painting had not a spare inch of empty space. 

took a photo of mine at the time.  Being careful to respect other's privacy, I knew it was not proper to take a photo of someone else's painting

Since Alberto was apparently not ready to reconvene the class, I asked my partner, "Would you be interested in walking around the clearing outside the building with me and view what others had done?"  "Yes" she replied as she joined me.  We started over to a painting under one of the shade trees.

I sensed the woman, although still there, was done with her painting.  When she looked up to greet us, I told her "Your painting is so very beautiful!".  She thanked me and added "But you can't tell me what it means!".  I asked her what she meant by that to which she reiterated the same comment.  Okay, I think to myself, put the comment/question another way as she was not able to be flexible enough in this circumstance to realize the same response by me would normally signal a change in her response.  Remembering Richard's oft said comment adapted do this situation, "always do the same thing and you will always get the same response".  Being careful not to look at the woman so I would not "interpret" her body language and would be only concerned with the sandpainting, I asked "did she want me to interpret it for her?"  She responded with, "Yes, but you can't".  As a result of training in hypnotherapy and some with life skills with Richard, I had learned to trust my instincts. 

For a reason unbeknownst to me at the time, I walked between the woman and her painting, and asked if she wanted me to tell her what the painting meant. Still convinced I could not, she told me to go ahead since I could not accomplish it anyway.

I again told her what an overall beautiful painting it was. There were a lot of open spaces and various objects within the circle.  I interpreted the individual objects for her and told her the meaning of the various colors she had chosen.  She thanked me and told me how much my sharing meant to her.

Then I asked her if she still wanted me to tell the underlying meaning.  Yes was her quiet response.  I told her there had been a death in the family and she was still grieving because of it.  She asked astonished "how did I do that?"  It was not necessary to go into a drawn out explanation and I "knew" she would not listen to what I said.  She was still too consumed with the grief to hear anything I told her about the how and why I came up with the information.  She proceeded to volunteer that her son had died in a suicide by overdosing on pills and she had not had a chance to say goodbye to him.

Up to that point in time, she insisted to all in the class that she had healed from her trauma.  The painting indicated further proof she had not.

My partner and I then went around the clearing and looked at the other "sandpaintings", which were all unique and some were even quite clever.  For the most part, I kept my interpretations to myself and did not share further.  One other person asked an interpretation and I gave it to her.  She advised it was accurate.  Then Alberto reconvened the class.  He told us that we should return the componets of the painting we had completed to the woods so we would be free to move on with our lives. 

The other exercise and comment from that class was a journey to the afterlife.  I clearly remember him telling the class the greatest gift we could give somone on the other side of the veil was a healing.  During many of these exercises it was apparent that Alberto was using hypnosis and guided meditation to accomplish his goals.