Human sacrifice has long been part of the dominant paradigm.

People wiped out to feed the beast and fuel hidden agendas.

There's almost always more than meets the eye, but most are too blind to see past their own emotional reactivity to see the many shades in-between…

For the uninitiated, or for those who don’t spend a lot of time in shamanic meditations, consciousness exploration, religious sects, new-age spirituality or otherwise, the eyes might glaze over when one references “the sacred”.

Over the years, it had me thinking…

How do I best try and describe this to someone that has little-to-no exposure within this world, as simply yet meaningfully as possible?

There is almost always a bone pile waiting out there in the bush for us. The more attention you give it, the bigger it tends to get.

Bone piles are all the little deaths that have occurred along the way. The descansos of your lives, the crossroads moments where something or someone got chucked under the truck….

Birds have fascinated humans for centuries; it shouldn’t be difficult to see why.

They’re graceful, beautiful, and possess the otherworldly quality of flight that captures our imagination.

Across worldly cultures and traditions, birds have played significant roles in story, mythology, folklore, and the very tangible reality of birds offering cues and teachings about the ordinary, and not-so-ordinary happenings within one’s local ecology…

That's the whisper that I heard anyway. On those gentle southerly winds; down from the summit.

Two Eastern Whipbirds chase each other through the ferny scrub and a few Black Cockys glide above distant gums.

It's unexpected, but I stood there sobbing for a moment. Something about the beauty of it all. It touches the same tenderness that my recent Vision Quest reopened for me…

It’s cold up on the mountain.

Every now and then the golden shimmer of midday sun blankets the green canvas below in warmth. Brooding clouds roll back over, highlighting the crisp touch of winter's breath.

My mind drifts off to the words of Chinese poet, Du Fu. “The nation falls into ruins, but rivers and mountains remain”…

There is a remarkable scene in the book Our Kinship with the Animals.

A zoologist was caught early one evening by the splendour of an incredible sunset in an African rainforest.

While he was appreciating the moment, he saw a lone chimpanzee come into the scene, cradling a papaya close to his body…

Nalungiaq, an Inuit woman, reported that she learned this creation song from an elderly uncle named Unaraluk. Unaraluk was a shaman; some kind of sorcerer or priest.

This folktale passed from generation to generation, until it was first written down by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in 1921, during his expedition across the Arctic.

The poet Edward Field eventually made the translation to English…

The Vision Quest, also known as a Vision Fast, or Wilderness Vigil, is one of the most ancient rites of passage and initiatory experiences available to us in the modern era.

Most familiarity with Vision Quests perhaps comes from the native traditions of North America, however similar practices of extended time and solitude in nature as a passage rite can be found cross-culturally across our world…