David,
you recently wrote a book, entitled Crossing into Medicine
Country. What inspired you to write the book and what do you hope
people will gain from reading it?
Actually, I
wrote Crossing Into Medicine Country over ten years ago. It was
sent to most of the big ticket publishers and they all turned it
down. I had sent the manuscript to a friend to read, a rabbi
named Gershon Winkler who lives out here in the New Mexico
desert. Gershon is an incredible, beautiful spirit. He called me
several months back and told me he had gotten tired of seeing that
jumble of paper sitting on his shelf and that he hoped I didn't
mind that he had sent it to his agent to get rid of it. We had a
good laugh. The agent, his name was Gary Heidt--called me a week
or so later and said he really liked it. So I said sure, go ahead
and try to get it published and he did.
Everything
has its seasons and its fated place on the earth I think. So
that's how it found ink, print. Now it's beautiful pages between
covers, a power object--a real boy or perhaps girl.
Please
tell us a little bit about the book so our readers have some
background.
Well, it's a
decidedly American song I sing and I hope it addresses some of the
ancient powers of this land. It's mainly set in southeastern
Oklahoma. I'm the teller of the story and it's from my eyes and
my own experiences but it's not really about me. It's about
spiritual Native America. Least we forget, there were traditions
here and still are here today that are many thousands of years
old. I wanted to tell what I know about that. Crossing Into
Medicine Country tells the story of my initiation into conjure,
sometimes called powwowing, and sometimes called juggling.
Whatever it's called, it was ceremonial healing and doctor
medicine. Mary Gardner, my teacher, is at the heart of it. She
taught me through stories and through fasting and many other
methods how to develop various nonordinary abilities.
This book is
about the time I was privileged to spend with Mary Gardner. She
changed my life and I never saw the world the same after knowing
her. She taught me that most of humanity lives in a very narrow
band of their own creation but there are countless other
frequencies that can be explored. This book flips through the
dial to some of these other possibilities.
Could you
please tell us a little bit about non-ordinary abilities that you
developed and why Mary Gardner became your mentor?
Maybe we
should be careful with the word non-ordinary. I'm not sure
there's any such thing as non-ordinary powers. Mary Gardner said
as much. Take our senses, hearing, seeing, touching and our
senses of smell and taste. What are we told as children? Can't
you hear? You're not listening. Don't look at that. Don't touch
that. And whatever you do, don't touch yourself. Body odors are
bad and the food like candy that taste good are bad. Maybe that
last is true. But right from the get-go our senses are
marginalized and limited. Non-ordinary is a word that is in
current usage. Perhaps more accurate terms are exceptional or
unusual powers. We don't want to chase those powers away and make
them appear somehow freakish by the terms we use. My belief,
fostered by my experiences with Mary, is that we are all always
surrounded by the mysterious and within the mysterious everything
is unusual and exceptional--every person, every tree, every
mundane item, and even every event. We are in the dance of living
and we each have our given chorography and contribution as one
event flows into another. Power, as I experience it, is truly an
unmasking of our conditioning. We find a certain essence revealed
to our understanding and we enter it. With that, we can seize the
moment and the miraculous can happen. This is true medicine power
but difficult to describe because it is ultra-ordinary or
supra-ordinary. I'm convinced that the ancients were aware of
accessible openings to magical possibility. Rather than try to
pinpoint them, I will defer to Crossing Into Medicine Country
where there are many descriptions of so-called non-ordinary
reality. As far as Mary being my mentor, she was unique to her
day and time. I became her apprentice because I didn't think
anyone could teach me anything but her. I was very limited and
culture bound you see. I didn’t realize it but I was skittery and
fearful of life so I was greatly limited. I was in a sad
fix. Now I realize that most everyone and everything is my
teacher. The greatest teachers of course are our opponents.
Mary taught me that but that's yet another story.
You also
created the popular, best-selling Medicine Cards that have been
translated into over 6 languages. Did the wisdom and spiritual
growth that you gained from your time with Mary lead you to create
the Medicine Cards or was that a prior work in progress?
Mary
and other experiences, but yes, it did. In fact, I saw her
in a vision right before the
cards were written. You know it was a lifetime of seeking
but it all came together in that moment. Jamie and I wrote
that book in a week and also designed the cards. And the day
after it was completed we had a publishing deal. We were
certainly guided by higher powers than our own.
In what
ways do you wish to utilize the power you have gained to heal and
"see beyond the tangible"?
Whatever
powers I have to see from the implicit world into the numinous one
are what the Great Mysterious gives me. They are not exactly
my powers. When those powers show up, as they do from time
to time, I have to decide then what to do with them.
Mainly, in the past, I've just kept what I see or don't see to
myself. Not always though.
Do you
have students that you pass the ways of the Red Road on to?
No, not
really. I leave that to more traditional people who want to
share their ceremonies and knowledge. I've tried to
discourage that sort of thing just for myself but every once in
awhile I'll make an exception. I have my family and if my
kids want to know, I will certainly teach them. The ones
that have gone that way, they're now way out ahead of me.
One daughter, Sara, is a true healer. She has devoted her
life to that and it was predicted by holy people that this would
be her road. She lives in Colorado and she's certainly a
part of the solution, a true healing and helping hand.
Another daughter,
Greta, is a nine times traditional sun dancer and I do work with
her now and again. She has a lot of medicine power and
sacred knowledge.
My son Jon,
a sun dancer living in Oklahoma is without a doubt becoming a
medicine carrier. He runs sweats for troubled people and people
with addictions. Of course his sweats are open to everyone. He
lives his medicine in a wonderful helping way and serves his
community.
Do you
see yourself traveling and speaking of your truth as people like
John Trudell and Corbin Harney do?
Those are
extraordinary people you mention. I'm open. Of course, I want to
tell it and speak what I know. It’s a great privilege to do so.
But my plan is to have no plans. I want to go where the spirit
moves me. If I find myself up on a soapbox, so to speak, well
then, that's where I'm at and I'll do my best to deal with it.
Mostly, I want the world to keep its mystery, its enchantment.
We're only here for a little while so we might as well appreciate
life's beauty and its wonders.
If you
were to give young adolescent kids one piece of wisdom to help
them along, what would it be? What about for adults?
Yes,
appreciate the simple. Put your own circle under your feet.
Forget about games and popularity and all that nonsense. Forget
what people, parents or teachers or anyone else demands of you and
wants from you. Inside your own circle, find your connection to
Great Spirit and realize the love from Great Spirit. Inside your
circle, remember the three As--AAA. Acknowledge yourself. Accept
yourself. And give yourself Affection. Stay away from judgment
of yourself and others and find the unconditional love and peace
of the universe. Find the spirits that feed you. That's your
direction, where you can find a good spirit meal. About the same
for adults. Adults would do well to remember the sacrifice. It
isn't about them. It's about future generations and what you can
do to leave the world a better place for the ones coming after us.
Do you
believe that everyone has the powers that you speak of in your
book if they focus on their innate wisdom, or do you think there
are "chosen ones?"
Everyone has
power or they wouldn't be here. It may not appear so now with all
the problems of greed and environmental degradation but I believe
America is a mystical country and the United States was initiated
by enlightened people, enlightened in the western history sense of
the word. Our own history here is not nice in that the land was
ripped away from the indigenous and sacred connections were lost.
But maybe
they are coming back. To answer your question, when we connect to
the spirits of the land, we begin to have power--planet power.
Everyone is chosen but it's up to them to actualize their
medicine.
Do you
plan on writing anymore books in the future?
Well, I hope
to. My wife, Nina Sammons, and I have completed a work on
divination and prophecy and the end of the Mayan calendar--the
beginning of a new world. People seem to need navigational tools
in these turbulent times. This work provides guidance. I'm very
interested in cyberpunk and detective fiction. Also, coyote has
been showing up in my life and I may write about coyote energy. I
may
write some
more about Mary Gardner. I'm not sure. I'm the first and
last to
know.
What else
would you like to accomplish in this life? What are your future
goals?
Well, I'm a
writer and I want to write, God willing. But mainly, I want to be
present--awake. You might say my future goals are now.
Thank you so much David for speaking with us. Best of luck with
all of your life's ventures! We look forward to reading your
future works.
To find out more about David Carson, to order
his new book, "Crossing in Medicine Country", or to order his
renowned "Medicine Cards," please visit his website:
http://www.crossingintomedicinecountry.com/index.html.
David
Carson