Tamarack Song

Have you ever wondered what it's like to live entirely immersed in Nature - to gather your own food, travel by canoe, and live in community with your extended family? Here, in intimate detail, you receive a vibrant picture of drying berries in the sunshine, raising children to be wild and free, and gathering around the evening hearth to hear the Elders' stories. Reading Fat Moons and Hunger Moons gives you the feeling of living in a traditional camp, as the author, Tamarack Song, has lived it himself. Having been a primitive skills instructor for the past thirty years, Tamarack has a knack for giving you the sense that you are the one out there, breathing in the rich scents of the forest. The engaging artwork of Moses (Amik) Beaver brings the scene all the more to life, as he draws his inspiration from growing up in a remote Canadian Aboriginal community where he practiced much of what you read about in this book. Although coming from different cultures, Moses and Tamarack saw each other as brothers. They both cherished the deep Nature connection and rich relationships they found in what they called the Circle Way of Life. Due to Moses's untimely passing, Fat Moons and Hunger Moons turned out to be their last collaborative effort. The book is dedicated to the life and memory of Moses - a man who worked tirelessly and lovingly to restore the ways of Honor and Respect for all life.

Some call him Scout, many would call him Warrior, and still others know him as Protector. To Native people he is Guardian. He is the manifestation of their courage, selflessness, and desire to serve. The Guardian can be female or male, old or young. He is invisible, alert, and detached. He is sentry, wayfinder, messenger, ambassador, sleuth, defender, provider, brother, and sister. His presence gives peace of mind to his people so that they can comfortably pursue their day's activities and rest peacefully at night. In this day, the Guardian is needed again by his people, perhaps like never before. This book guides you to where he can be found within yourself. You may be surprised to discover how close he lives to your heart. All people need protection--from the weather, a natural disaster, or sometimes perhaps from an "enemy," other times from the burdens of clan and family, and occasionally even from ourselves. The Guardian is trained to serve as a protector in all of these ways. Perhaps most importantly, the Guardian protects her people's state of well-being, by helping to assure a low level of stress and a high level of personal satisfaction in life. She fills in when parents need a helping hand. She protects and defends someone who is being persecuted or falsely accused. She stands up for the exploited and disadvantaged. She protects people from their own folly, from their shortsightedness and errors of judgment. Functioning from a place of greater perspective, she is able to foresee what peril looms ahead. When a Guardian meets conflict on her mission, her high degree of training in methods of camouflage, avoidance, and deception allows her to minimize her impact upon others. She has a highly attuned spiritual sense; she understands that the Lifeforce in others is the same substance that flows through her, so she grants those who stand in her Path the utmost respect and space. If there is no other way to navigate around them, she removes them in the least disruptive and harmful way possible. When she has no choice but to fight, the Guardian does not fight against anything or anyone; she fights for Balance, connection, and respect for all creatures on Earth. This book is a complete Guardian training manual, giving you the awarenesses, diet, and exercises to bring out your fullest performance potential. First, you meet the traditional Guardian; then, you find the Guardian within you. You discover how you can serve your people and your mother planet with the same sense of purpose and service as the Guardians of old. And just as importantly, you gain the deep sense of fulfillment that comes from performing at your creative, physical, intellectual, and intuitive peak.

Imagine a place where there are no lies where gossip is just a meaningless word and people naturally speak with respect The air is not laced with cursing and there is no shame or judgment The expression of all feelings is welcomed Even anger and fear are regarded as giftsIn this place, you can trust in another's word There is no need for doctrine as each person knows her own Truth Even without it being spoken you can read it in her Heart Everyone's Truth is heardas listening is valued even more than talking And each person's voice is held sacred There is no need to sweeten it with humor or mask it with doublespeakThey call this, their cherished way of sharing, Truthspeaking I wrote this book for one reason-to incite a revolution of the Heart. For too long we have been taught to say what others would like to hear, and what makes rational rather than relational sense. We have been encouraged to be assertive, but we have not learned how to listen. To tell the truth is our ideal, yet most of us tell dozens of lies every day. In the coming pages, we will reacquaint ourselves with a way of life based on the gentle, clear, and heartfelt communication which the American Indian Elders I apprenticed to called Truthspeaking. Notice that I said "reacquaint." You and I already know Truthspeaking: we are genetically programmed to be spontaneous, in-the-now beings with astute expressive and listening skills. We evolved the ability as a matter of survival. It is only since we have become urbanized that we have begun protecting ourselves by suppressing our thoughts and feelings-and defending ourselves from the thoughts and feelings of others. This book shows how to dissolve those boundaries, so that we can again say what we really mean and hear what people are really saying. About the author, When Tamarack Song was a child, he got to regularly practice Truthspeaking with the wild animals in the extensive woods and wetlands which comprised his backyard. As a young man, he lived for several years with a pack of Wolves. After that, he learned the human nuances of Truthspeaking from Menominee, Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Hopi, Iroquois, Australian Aboriginal, and Maygar Elders. They taught him much of the terminology and phrasing you'll find in this book. He augmented this organic tutelage with his lifelong academic study of nature, language, anthropology, and indigenous cultures.

With nearly 600 citations from his doctorate research and forty-seven years of experience designing forest bathing trails, Tamarack Song has given us the most comprehensive book on the subject. Here is the endorsement of M. Amos Clifford, Founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides & Programs and author of Your Guide to Forest Bathing: "Tamarack Song's vision for healing nature trails is an important and timely addition to the literature on forest therapy. Besides presenting a solid overview of recent science on the healing power of nature, he walks the reader along a path with surprising twists and turns, all in support of joyful connection to the earth and its many beings." In select nooks of Nature, there are trails specially designed to maximize the healing properties of flowing water, elder trees, and wildflower essences. Chipmunks scamper about, a fox gingerly weaves her way across the meadow, and a sprightly warbler alights on a branch in front of you. In such company, merely walking barefoot, breathing the air, and drinking in the setting become healing exercises. For an intimate look at a Healing Nature Trail, watch the video at www.healingnaturecenter.org. Healing Nature Trails are nestled in sanctuaries reserved exclusively for those seeking Nature's guidance and healing touch. Healthcare practitioners bring their clients, and people of all persuasions come to restore body, mind, and spirit, and to renew their relationship with Nature. This book serves as a comprehensive guide for all trail users, with in-depth sections that give: ◗◗ A multidisciplinary overview of the healing power of Nature. ◗◗ A guided Healing Nature Trail tour. ◗◗ A workbook for establishing Healing Nature Trails. ◗◗ A description of the Trail Guide training program. Tamarack Song learned about the healing powers of Nature through academic study, apprenticing to Native shamans and herbalists, living with a pack of Wolves, and residing in the wilds for most of his life. He currently lives in the Nicolet National Forest, where he keeps in touch with the Wolves and other medicine animals and plants with whom he works. Tamarack serves as executive director of the Healing Nature Center, and he co-founded Healing Nature Trails. He has academic training in Stress Management, Ethics, Therapeutic Breathwork, Conservation, and Nonprofit Corporation Management. The author of books on shamanic trance healing, suicide prevention, spirit animal guides, animal tracking, Truthspeaking, Native-inspired childrearing, and Zen, he also serves as an environmental restoration and outdoor expedition consultant. As founder of the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, he has developed management strategies for the psycho-emotional challenges unique to wilderness experiences. He has taught conflict resolution and indigenous living skills, herbalism, and dream therapy for forty years.

Animals and plants are in constant communication with the world around them. To join the conversation, we need only to connect with our primal mind and recognize that we, too, are Nature. Once in this state, we can communicate with animals as effortlessly as talking with friends. The songs of birds and the calls of animals start to make sense. We begin to see the reasons for their actions and discover that we can feel what they feel. We can sense the hidden animals around us, then get close enough to look into their eyes and touch them. Immersed in Nature, we are no longer intruders, but fellow beings moving in symphony with the Dance of Life. In this guide to becoming one with Nature, Tamarack Song provides step-by-step instructions for reawakening the innate sensory and intuitive abilities that our hunter-gatherer ancestors relied upon--abilities imprinted in our DNA yet long forgotten. Through exercises and experiential stories, the author guides us to immerse ourselves in Nature at the deepest levels of perception, which allows us to sense the surrounding world and the living beings in it as extensions of our own awareness. The practices in this book strip away everything that separates us from the animals. They enable us to restore our kinship with the natural world, strengthen our spiritual relationships with the animals who share our planet, and discover the true essence of the wild within us.

Stepping beyond the shape of a footprint and into the unseen story of the track, veteran wilderness guide Tamarack Song takes you inside the eyes and mind of an intuitive tracker, with intimate stories where Frogs show the way out of the woods, scat reveals life histories, and Bears demonstrate how to find missing people. Drawing from his years of surviving in the wild, apprenticing to native elders, and living with a family of wolves, Tamarack reveals how to achieve a level of perception like that of aboriginal trackers by becoming one with the animal you are tracking, whether Fox, Deer, Coyote, or Cougar. Sharing his innermost thoughts while following track and sign, the book’s adventures merge technical tracking methods with skills such as shadowing and envisioning, while demonstrating animal-reading skills considered outside the human realm. The author explains how to expand your awareness--to learn from nature by becoming nature--and tap in to the intuitive tracking consciousness each of us has inherited from our Paleolithic ancestors. Through his stories from the trail, Tamarack shows the art of tracking not simply as a skill for hunters and naturalists but as a metaphor for conscious living. By exploring the intricacies of the natural world, we explore not only our connections to the world around us but also our internal landscapes. We learn to better express ourselves and listen, meet our needs, and help others. Intuitive tracking provides a path to finding ourselves, becoming one with all life, and restoring humanity’s place in the Great Hoop of Life.

This title includes narratives inspired by the retelling of Indian stories and legends, with gorgeous artwork. Stunning Aboriginal artwork combines with provocative storytelling to renew, in all their traditional splendor, exceptional legends from around the world. Entertaining, profound, passionate, glorious - these are stories that illustrate and evoke themes common to everyone's life, with an ancient wisdom that helps the listener to cope with today's opportunities for tenderness, grief, passion, and irony. It's easy to imagine yourself transported back to a time when an elder might have told stories like these around a glowing hearth. Thanks to Song's storytelling skills, monsters, heroes, and shape-shifters come alive and open a doorway to the mysteries of life. Easily accessible to all ages, this is a book that speaks to each person at his or her own level of comprehension and need. It's as beautiful to read as it is to look at.