Basement Shaman Blog

Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall

Hello my friends, thank you for your kind and encouraging words. I've been in a funk as of late. Why's that? Look at the news, the blogs, the whirling entropy happening everywhere. It breaks my chest open as if receiving open heart surgery everyday to see atrocities overseas, our complete submersion of the right of habeas corpus in Guantanamo bay ,our malnourished babies here in the inner cities or rural America, the unbearable pain of a young college gunman and the subsequent pain he invoked on some many innocents. In my own Buddhist training, the idea is to feel compassion for every sentient being, whether they're living lives in deep, horrific delusion or just peacefully struggling for food and shelter. Just when it feels you can't take in more, you breathe in more of the world's pain, and your heart expands. Eventually your heart becomes an infinite reservoir, ready to take in the pain of all sentient beings.

Bobby Dylan has been spinning chronically in my cd player and his words seem to convey my mood best :I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains, I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways, and I've stepped in the middle of seven side forests, I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans, I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard , and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard rain gonna fall....and what da you do now my blue eyed son, and would do ya do know my darling young one, I'm going back out for the rain starts a fallin, I head for depths of the deepest, dark forests, where the people are many andy their hands are all empty, where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters, and I tell it and think it and breathe it, and reflect from the mount so all souls can see it, and I stand on the ocean till until I start sinking, and I know my song well before I start singing,and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard rain gonna fall.

The Sacred and the Profane

The truth is that The Basement Shaman is irrelevant. You don't need us or anything we could possibly try to offer you. We've always struggled to walk the razor's edge between the sacred and the profane.We've restled with the concept of being a "conscious" business since our inception, and struggled with whether the very idea is ridiculous or meaningful.

It's funny you know, when we first started business back in 1992, there were very few companies involved in the business of offering ethno or more precisely entheobotanicals. We owe much debt in the formation of our original business idea to the now defunct "of the jungle...", an absolutely novel, and pioneering company. Now we see hundreds of businesses have spun off from the original model. Many are poor copycats, some are outright scams, and a few are gems. You'll find many self-proclaimed "shamanic superstores", and it makes us wonder when Wal-mart will enter the gig. It's sad to see how much the essence of shamanism and the spiritual connection of humans to the radiant intellechy of nature has been the commercialized and commodified. What a hallmark of our time that money seems to be king in every possible venue including the ineffable.

At times, when I'm feeling most cynical, irritable and just downright depressed, I think of pitching it all. Throwing in the towel, and trying for something more pure. I've heard very litttle from all of you, except for when we offered some enticement such as a product freebie for leaving a comment on this blog. Tonight it leaves me feeling raw. I realize I'm being peavish, petulant and self-absorbed to ask for more. Once again, we're likely irrelevant, but I'm left wondering, just what is it that you all really want? What do you feel you need? Are you all just spectators, witnessing this like anonymous bystanders to a traffic accident at rushhour? The silence is deafening.

How's The Basement Shaman Doing?

We'd like to hear from you. All the people that have made it possible for us to exist and evolve over the past decade. We welcome all input without bias, be it negative or positive. Share your experiences of our service, our products, and the directions we've explored. Give us your ideas, critiques, rants and raves.

We strive to be a conscious business, that acts ethically and responsibly on both a person to person and planetary level. We know that we're far from perfect, but we're willing students to strive for better. We'll do our best to help you on your path, and we ask that you help us too.

Happiness,
Andy @ The Basement Shaman

My 10,000 Foot Confession

I have a confession to make, well to be precise, I've two confessions. A couple of weeks back when the Basement Shaman gang was out on a collecting trip, I was actually playing hooky. Instead of boarding a plane bound for tropical locales in South America, my plane was bound for Denver, and my eventual destination was for a magical town tucked high up in the Rockies of southwest Colorado. The town was Telluride. Once a rough and tumble mining town that was nearly deserted in the 70's, but infused with new life when the terrific Telluride ski resort ski area opened later in that decade. This tiny town condenses a cosmopolitan world of culture, food, music, theater, sport and hip, alternative lifestyles into a unique package. The reason for the visit was to meet up with some very good friends and celebrate a special birthday all while catching some of last great spring skiing in the high mountains.

Now imagine, if you will, the effects that a flatlander like me encounters when suddenly your body goes from near sea level conditions to 10,000 feet. Some altitude sickness is the inevitable outcome for most people who undertake such a shuttle. If you've never had altitude sickness, well, it's not very fun. Severe headaches, shortness of breath, muscle cramps, fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, diffculty sleeping and general malaise are a few things you can expect. A day of skiing can be an exercise in utter exhaustion. Through in a few alcoholic drinks for aprés ski, and it's a recipe for a brutal hangover.

My friends all struggled the first few days trying to get acclimated. I outskied everyone, including some of the bunch that were twenty years younger than me. I recall the clan stopping numerous times on the way down the trails to quiet thighs racked with the burn of anaerobic exhaustion. I remained untired and quite happy. Here's my second confession: I began taking a course of the marvelous adaptogenic herb known as Rhodiola rosea about two weeks prior to the trip. Rhodiola's effects are pretty transparent. You don't feel overtly stimulated or wired in any sense. It's not until you push yourself into the extremes of exertion, or lack of sleep, or any other situation that would normally be fatiguing that Rhodiola suddenly shines. And unlike some other performance enhancing drugs, Rhodiola is actually beneficial to your body. As an adaptogen it is able to regulate and balance a wide range of bodily functions, including enhancing the body and brain's use of oxygen.

Researchers in the former Soviet Union made numerous studies of Rhodiola's beneficial effects. The plant was regularly prescribed for cosmonauts, special forces, fighter pilots, olympic athletes, and heads of state. Rhodiola eventually was used in many hospitals and psychiatric wards to great effect. It's only been recently that the western world has begun to take notice of this miraculous plant.

Landing into Happiness

touchdown from a field collecting expedition...flights delayed all along the way...tired, and feeling obliged to post...here it is, just a timeless moment to allow being to simply be-- unadorned...to all, may you know happiness and the root cause of all happiness

andy @ the basement shaman