Secrets

I am currently reading Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martin Prechtel, which has been on my list for many years. I first discovered him in The Sun Magazine and was fascinated by his story. The short version is that he grew up on a Pueblo Indian Reservation and set off to explore the world at the age of nineteen or so. He eventually landed in Guatemala after a year of wandering, and made his way to a Mayan Village where he became a shaman and lived for thirteen years. This story is just amazing.

I'm almost done with the book, and it coincides with my begging a new film which I will keep under wraps for a bit longer. That said, the two are connected in some way (maybe many ways) so i include a quote I came across today:

"True creativity doesn't just make things; it feeds what feeds life. In modern culture where people are no longer initiated, the spirit goes unfed. To be seen, the uninitiated create insane things, some destructive to life, to feel visible and powerful. These creations are touted as the real world. They are actually forms of untutored grief signaling a longing for the true reality of village togetherness. The result of this uninitiated approach to life is violence, spiritual and otherwise, where the hoarding of wealth, the soul-curdling banality of popular television, and the creation of weapons of mass destruction are all accepted and considered status quo."

Posted by jeff pitcher at July 23, 2008 12:44 PM

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