A Peek into “The Foot of the Lion”

During the past few weeks, I have been deeply involved in finishing my novel, The Foot of the Lion.  I am in the midst of wrapping up the last chapter.  Here’s an exclusive preview:

The Foot of the Lion is a fictional story about a man who returns to his father’s house to die.  He is attended to by a fifteen year old girl servant who washes and oils his feet as he tells her stories.  Without his knowledge or approval, she goes to his father’s library and rewrites the stories, adding her point of view.  In the end, her benefactor dies, leaving his father’s house and fortune to the servant girl and their daughter.  The central relationship and main thread of the novel is between the benefactor and his cousin - all told in story form to the servant girl.  His cousin whom he refers to as “his beloved”, had died suddenly and mysteriously in a swimming accident at the age of seventeen.  The benefactor mourns that death and hopes for a reunion with his cousin in the afterlife.  The young girl hopes with him and wishes him peace and joy on his path into Paradise.

My editor in England is current with my work and is encouraging. I also am scheduled to attend the Tin House Writer’s Workshop in July and the Tomales Bay Workshop in October in order to network with agents and other writers and plan to receive guidance from Luis Urrea, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, and Dorothy Allison, 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award Winner for Fiction and member of the board of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Information about the publication and availability of advanced readers copies will be forthcoming.

This, along with poetry, keep me content and inspired.

Welcome to an update on what I have been up to…

In my private practice, several new clients have joined to deepen their lives and to take the courageous path.  They are committed and working hard.  I am honored to work with them.

I am working on fundraising for my non-profit projects, in particular, Youth at Risk in Sonoma County.  The organization is called Listening For A Change and has a focus on gang intervention and prevention with intensive group and family therapy.  The basis of this work is storytelling in youth groups and between family members.  It also focuses on community involvement in order to empower youth and families and to discourage gang violence, drug abuse and bullying in families, in schools and on the streets.

I am also working with Sonoma State University recruiting interns to train for the work with at-risk youth.  And I am working on a historical project for The Hutchins Institute for Public Policy Studies & Community Action. 

Finally, I am near completion of my novel “Foot of the Lion” – and have found a committed editor in England as well as support from Tin House Workshop and Tomales Bay Workshop.

You will continue to see me in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and Santa Clara Counties with the messages I send to the communities through published media.

As always, I thank you for your friendship and support.

Until next time, I wish you strength and hope.

Wisdom Keeper, Mercedes Cerna

What is the Shamanic Healing method?

Many have been intrigued by and asked me about shamanic healing. Let me explain a little from my 22 years as a Shamanic Healer. I incorporate Shamanic practices into many of the things I do. I have two non profit affiliations in Sonoma County working with youth at risk in a storytelling project with youth and their families and community. I also produce a radio program on KBBF, 89.1 in Santa Rosa, called “El Consejo de las Abuelas” (The Council of Grandmothers) which uses Shamanic ritual and healing to work with community concerns.

Shamanic healing is not as strange or “out of this world” as it may sound or what you may think. At its very core, Shamanic healing is simply ancient and ancestral wisdom combined with engagement with the spirit. It’s about mending the soul through communication and storytelling.

Let's begin...

I draw an image of a black dot in the center of circles that move outward from the dot. At the moment of your birth, your soul or self or force or essence was and is that which sustains you and moves you forward in your life. The first circle represents your foundation from 0-5 years and the second is your base from 5-10 years. The third is your youth from 10-25 years and the fourth is your adulthood from 25-on with the fifth being your persona or "mask" to the outside world. The circles are the lines of your patterns and how your soul or self responded to and was influenced by your environment.

I then draw a line from the black dot, past the circles to create the aspects of your self or soul. I draw a diamond shape to represent your force or self or soul which has facets like a diamond. Much of the Shamanic healing work would be within those facets/aspects.

We begin a drumming session as I explain how the Shamanic aspect of our work together would be used. If you wished to continue with your story and to press on into some concern that was bothering you, we would do that. I would listen and we would begin our dialogue using the imagery we've just drawn with the circles to represent your layers.

I am a healer so I would advise as needed. We might talk about dreams, patterns and family concerns as well as fears, anxieties and losses.

I then draw three parallel lines to introduce the concept of the Lower World where you would find your Power Animal. In the indigenous world, it is believed that a Power Animal goes journeys with you into the Spirit World to protect you because animals have better instincts than humans and came into this world before us. The Lower World is often where the work is done with an intention stated by the client.

The middle line represents the Middle World which is ordinary reality where you go to look at everyday problems like a worry about work or something down to earth like that.

The top line represents the Upper World where you go to find your healer for a specific problem/illness and your teachers or guides.

There are two circles. The first is at the end of the Upper World and is called the World of Spirits. There, you receive an image or sense of your own Self/Soul and retrieve the spirit of a departed beloved who may be able to help you.

The second circle below the Lower World is the World of Souls. You journey there with your Power Animal and Soul/Self and a Healer and I would go as well, to work on a very entrenched problem or very frightening past or present wound.

All this work would be done with your journeying or meditating and entering an alternate state in order to see and sense and work with the intention you bring.

Afterward, with the visions or sense of what needs to be done or can be done, we will talk about your life going forward with the changes needed.

I would then say goodbye until the following week or second week, working in two hour sessions so that time in-between can be two weeks.