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Welcome to The Standing Bear
  & Depth Shamanic Counseling
Scarlet L. Kinney founded The Standing Bear Center for Shamanic Studies in 1994 in a beautiful coastal forest setting on Maine's Blue Hill Peninsula. The Standing Bear offers a full range of shamanic services and is dedicated to the psychological and spiritual growth and healing of women by means of depth shamanic counseling and study opportunities.

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The 2008 Shamanic Foundations Intensive
will be held from August 9-16
at the Center in Surry.

The first four and a half days of the intensive are for advanced apprentices only. The last three and a half days, beginning mid-day on August 13,  are open to the general public, incoming apprentices, counseling clients and others who want to learn the basics of depth shamanism.

Advanced apprentice Nancy Rehm will be assisting Scarlet Kinney in facilitating the Intensive from August 13- 16.

During the Intensive, you learn how to achieve the deep shamanic states of consciousness conducive to healing, and to participate knowledgeably in your own healing process. You also learn how to become a contributing member of a women's shamanic Council and  a women's shamanic drumming group.

The fee for the three and a half day Intensive from August 13-16 is $395, plus a catering fee, which is yet to be determined.

Pre-registration with non-refundable deposit of $95. is required. You can begin your registration process by calling Scarlet at 207.667.4772 or emailing me by using the link at the bottom of this page. 

       August 13-16 Schedule of Events
                Wednesday, August 13 ~ 2 - 8 pm ~ Introductory Workshops
      
Opening Smudge Ceremony
Introduction to Women's Shamanic Healing Ritual and Ceremony
Introduction to Shamanic Feminine Archetypes
Introduction to Snake Medicine
Drumming Circle

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Depth Shamanic Counseling: What is it?

Depth shamanic counseling is unlike other kinds of counseling, in that the guidance offered clients is retrieved directly from shamanic reality on many levels and can have a beneficial influence on your life at many levels of experience.

Depth shamanic counseling is distinguished from other types of shamanic counseling in the following ways:

~ Depth shamanic counselors undertake a thorough mapping of shamanic reality and are required to learn to heal themselves using depth shamanic methods prior to attempting shamanic healing for others. This develops empathy for their client's healing process and empowers them to know precisely where to go within shamanic reality to seek accurate guidance for clients.

~ Depth shamanic counselors are trained to correctly scan and interpret the shamanic archetypal energies informing your issue. Based upon the content of the scan, the depth shamanic counselor will know precisely which shamanic archetypal energies are available to offer guidance and healing for your particular issue. She will also know how to engage those archetypes as helpers in facilitating your healing.

~ As a result of her thorough mapping of shamanic reality, the depth shamanic counselor gradually develops a strong internal shamanic compass that can be counted upon to guide her in her shamanic healing efforts and in maintaining a sound ethical stance at all times.

Depth shamanic counseling can help you deal with
personal growth issues such as:

~Restoration of feminine self esteem and personal authority
~Achieving genuine feminine empowerment
~Spiritual and emotional growth
~Healing grief, loss, depression, sadness or fear
~Discovering and following your true path in life

A depth shamanic counselor can also offer you many
traditional shamanic services, such as:

~Power animal retrievals and integration of your power animal's medicine
~Soul Retrievals and integration of the retrieved soul part
~Removal of psychic intrustions and instruction in how to psychically protect yourself
~Healing ceremonies for various conditions and situations

In addition, your depth shamanic counselor may invite you to take part in depth shamanic meditation and drumming groups, or various workshops that will help deepen and enrich your experience of depth shamanic counseling.

Scarlet is available for depth shamanic counseling by appointment at the Center, and also offers distance consultations, which are done by phone and email. To schedule an appointment with Scarlet, you can email her at scarlet@thestandingbear.com or call her at 207.667.4772. If the 207# is busy, call 1-877-225-5928 and follow the prompt to enter the 207 number to leave her a phone message on her computer.

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We are pleased to announce that Nancy J. Rehm has completed the first three levels of training offered by the Center. She has been certified as a Depth Shamanic Counselor, and is continuing on into advanced levels of training.

Nancy was called to a shamanic path at seventeen, when she unknowingly ingested a psychotropic drug and experienced a complete breakdown of her usual way of perceiving reality. It took her twenty-five years, however, to realize that her ego-shattering experience had in fact been a shamanic initiation and for her to embark on her shamanic path. In the meantime, she married and had a son, became a teacher, divorced and remarried, and adopted a daughter. It wasn't until she was in her forties that she felt powerfully drawn to shamanism and began her three-year apprenticeship with Scarlet, which culminated in her certification as a Depth Shamanic Counselor.

Nancy has opened a depth shamanic counseling and teaching practice in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Her practice is associated with the Gettysburg Holistic Health Center. Nancy is fully qualified to do depth shamanic journeying and counseling for personal issues and to do Power Animal Retrievals. She is currently offering a monthly meditation and drumming circle for clients and others interested in learning shamanic drumming techniques. 

To schedule an appointment with Nancy for depth shamanic counseling, or to register for her monthly meditation and drumming circle, you can reach her by phone at 717.372.9675, or by email at njr1162@yahoo.com.



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Please  take your time and browse the remainder of the site in a relaxed way, as it contains a great deal of information.

As you scroll down this page you'll find a statement of the Center's philosophy regarding its teaching methods; basic information about the services and study opportunites offered through the Center; general information about the Center and its Mission Statement; and biographical information about the Center's founder and director, Scarlet Kinney, MA.

For additional information about the Center, please click on the various options listed on the sidebar.
 
To view Scarlet's profile under Teachers/Elders on the ShamanPortal web site: http://www.shamanportal.org/display_details.php?id=1042

To view Scarlet's blog, go to:
http://thestandingbearMaine.blogspot.com

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Teaching Methods
& Philosophy
Depth shamanism was developed over many years of study and practice by Scarlet Kinney. It can best be described as a deep shamanic approach to psychological and spiritual growth. This approach is based upon Scarlet's understanding of the teachings offered by the shamanic archetypal energies inhabiting shamanic reality. When filtered through one's ordinary consciousness, the guidance and teachings received from these shamanic archetypes can function as a stable psychological foundation that may enable one to correctly interpret and successfully move through the many challenges and obstacles we face in our daily lives..
 
Scarlet takes the position that the teachings arising from the Earth upon which we walk belong to all who have the heart to hear, regardless of cultural affiliation or ancestral background.

North America's pre-colonial tribal cultures were conscious of the energies inhabiting both the earthly and the spiritual realms. Members of such cultures gradually developed what might be thought of as a kind of "internal compass", which served as a lens through which they could perceive and interpret events occurring on both physical and spiritual levels of consciousness. Perhaps more importantly, this "internal compass" served to help members of such cultures who were called to serve their people as healers to tolerate and psychologically integrate the sometimes dangerous physical and psychospiritual experiences and insights that are part of one's initiation into such a calling. It also helped other people within these cultures to tolerate and integrate the sometimes intense visionary experiences resulting from such trials as vision quests and other aspects of initiation into the realities of the spirit realm.

These early cultures, evolvoving as they did upon the geography of North America, were solidly rooted in what we would today probably characterize as esoteric teachings arising from the earth upon they walked...the earth upon which all of us living in North America now walk. Furthermore, quite probably without exception, these cultures were gynocentric, which means that their women, with their women's spiritual and practical ways, were at the very heart and center of community life. They were afforded the highest respect, and they provided guidance for the community regarding all aspects of tribal life. Unfortunately, in today's world, gynocentrism no longer exists in tribal cultures in the old sense, except in small pockets of still-intact tribal cultures who were not completely destroyed by colonization. Nor is gynocentric consciousness to be found in mainstream culture, except in small pockets of awakened women. As a result, in both cultures the abuse of women, children and elders is escalating daily as the patriarchal values brought to this continent by the colonizers continues to influence every aspect of both mainstream and tribal cultural and personal experiences. (For a brilliant exposition about the gynocentric consciousness of pre-colonial tribal cultures and how the values they held were systematically destroyed by the patriarchal tactics of the colonizers, we highly recommened the book "The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions" by Paula Gunn Allen, published by Beacon Press.)
 
The Standing Bear's Apprentice Training and Counselor Certification programs are designed to prepare contemporary women from all cultures and ancestral backgrounds to heal the psychological and spiritual wounds we carry as a result of the patriarchal abuse driected at us over the past several centuries. These programs are designed to facilitate women's ability to create and psychologically integrate the kind of nature and spirit-based moral and ethical internal compasses our ancestors naturally enjoyed.

The Center advises women who are actively seeking spiritual and psychological growth through a study of shamanic ways to work exclusively with female teachers until they have learned to become their own personal, intellectual, spiritual and psychological authorities. The Center takes this position because even in these times, the patriarchal paradigm under which we all continue to live very effectively teaches male superiority, placing women beneath men and subject to their authority. For this reason, most women beginning shamanic practice are disadvantaged psychologically as regards the above issue, and may find themselves either becoming disempowered by or spiritually and psychologically damaged by a male teacher, whether intentionally or not. Another danger is that she may become dependent upon her male teacher to do for or to her what she is perfectly capable of doing for herself if given the right training and opportunities combined with the support of a solid women's sacred circle.

The Law of the Mothers regarding this issue states that no woman should allow a man to teach her his views of spirituality or his shamanic ways until or unless they have both completed training in women's ways. This law also states that no man may be taught women's ways, but that if he wishes to learn them, he must become humble enough to seek such teachings from a woman in the right way. Once fully trained in women's ways- the Ways of the Earth- a man then becomes qualified to teach a woman men's ways- the Ways of the Sky...provided she herself has also completed her training in women's ways.

The Center's methods of achieveing its goals of enabling women to achieve spiritual and psychological growth and evolution leading to a strong sene of personal, intellectual, psychological and spiritual authority as womenare based upon founder Scarlet Kinney's understanding of the North American Medicine Wheel as a sacred mandala. The Medicine Wheel Mandala is worked with as both a map of the shamanic level of human consciousness and as a guide to psychospiritual wellness. The experience and study of the Medicine Wheel Mandala and its multifaceted meanings is characterized by a gentle and gradual process. This process begins with work in nature, learning to drum properly and to relate correctly to the Medicine Wheel in both physical and shamanic realities. It continues on to include learning to become a stable, contributing member of a solid women's sacred circle.

At the heart of such work is one's participation in a thorough mapping of the entire shamanic content of the Medicine Wheel Mandala using special shamanic journey methods developed by Scarlet, and the nurturing of positive, healthy relationships with the archetypal energies residing there. The goals of this training- which may take anywhere from three to ten years, depending upon the individual- are to facilitate the apprentice's or student's capacity to achieve psychological and spiritual stability, and to thereby become able to psychologically tolerate and successfully integrate the often intense spiritual events they may experience when they later are exposed to advanced shamanic experiences. In short, depth shamanic practice, and especially one's integration of the "internal compass" of the Medicine Wheel Mandala into one's sense of Self, provides one with a "safe place to land" when confronted with deep shamanic experiences.

Those taking part in the Center's Apprentice Training and Depth Shamanic Counselor Certification programs are required to actively participate in their own healing process as part of their training. Such healing is generally facilitated by one's depth shamanic teacher or counselor using depth shamanic methods. However, it may also include referrals to psychotherapy or treatment for addiction when necessary. The reason for this is simple. The perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors of people suffering from such conditions are all too often informed and/or driven by these conditions rather than by the integrated and healed psyche, which can lead to distressing lapses of judgment that may be harmful to onself or others. 

Because of her personal experience in dealing with such misuses of shamanic skill that have been directed at her, it is Scarlet's opinion that advanced shamanic skills should not be taught to people struggling with psychological issues or addictions. Because of who Scarlet is, she has managed to survive such unhappy experiences. However, those who are not trained in shamanic self-protection methods may have a very difficult time dealing with such misdirected uses of shamanic skill. 

Therefore, only the most basic of shamanic skills are taught in the first year of training, which is open to all. Those completing depth shamanic counselor or apprentice training are required to sign and abide by the Center's Code of Ethics. By the end of one's first year of training, both the teacher and the apprentice candidate will have become aware of such issues. At that point joint decisions are made regarding whether or not the candidate should continue on into deeper levels of training and/or whether outside help should be sought by the candidate before continuing with her training. 

Your comments and questions about depth shamanism are welcome, and will be carefully considered. Please feel free to Email Scarlet using the link provided below, or to call her at 207-667-4772. If this number is busy, which it may be if she's online, you can leave a message for her by calling 1-877-225-5928 and following the prompt to enter 207-667-4772. 


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Services
Shamanic VisionaryReadings & Depth Shamanic Counseling

    The Standing Bear Center for Shamanic Studies is located in a quiet forest setting only a short walk or drive from the rugged Downeast Coast.
    You can combine shamanic studies at the Center with an unforgettable vacation in one of the most beautiful and dramatic landscapes in the world. Explore the coastline, picnic and swim at local beaches, bays and coves, and enjoy the freshest seafood you’ll find anywhere.
    Looking East from Surry, one sees the mountains of spectacular Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park, less than an hour's drive from the Center. Also within an hour’s drive is the island of Deer Isle, with its thriving arts community and the picturesque fishing village of Stonington. In Stonington, you can hop a mail boat to Isle au Haut, part of which is an extension of Acadia National Park. Both Acadia National Park and the Deer Isles are accessed by bridges. Other islands are accessible by mailboat or ferry. 
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                The Center’s Mission

1. To contribute to the rebalancing of Feminine and Masculine energies
at the archetypal level by means of depth shamanic techniques.

2. To restore respect for and affinity with the Feminine principle
within the larger culture at mythic, archetypal levels.

3. To contribute to the psychological and spiritual healing of contemporary women
 through the practice and study of women’s depth shamanic ways.

4. To train women who possess the shamanic talents and skills
  to become Certified Depth Shamanic Counselors, Kinney Method.

5. To awaken women's genetic/ancestral memories of pre-patriarchal women's ways,
and to bring them into alignment
with the energies and archetypes native to the North American continent.

6. To offer the larger community a full range of shamanic services,
including depth shamanic guidance and counseling,
power animal and soul retrievals, puberty and other transition ceremonies.

7. To train advanced students to participate in the Center's
depth shamanic research projects, with the goal of publishing the results.

8. To offer basic workshops, retreats, drumming circles and storytelling events
as ways of acquainting the general public with depth shamanism.

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                        About Scarlet L. Kinney, MA,
            The Center's Founder & Director

    Updated/Edited March 17, 2007    
   Scarlet Kinney is an experienced depth shamanic teacher and counselor, and a professional artist and writer. She combines her talents to create shamanic healing performances during which she tells her original shamanic myths and tales, accompanied by the Center’s drumming group, The Turtle Mountain Drummers. She creates shamanic images to illustrate her myths and tales, and these are projected large scale during her performances. To schedule a storytelling event in your area, please contact the Center, using the link at the bottom of the page.

    As a young girl growing up in Maine’s coastal forest, Scarlet experienced many openings into shamanic reality, all of which seemed to occur under the protection and guidance of unseen, but powerfully felt bear spirits. These experiences culminated in a profound shamanic vision at the age of sixteen during an encounter with a large black bear in the Maine woods.

    Because Scarlet belonged to an Irish-American-Catholic family living in a distinctly small-town culture, there was nobody she knew of with whom she could talk about such experiences, or from whom she might seek understanding or guidance about them. Because of this difficulty, she attempted to repress her memories of these kinds of events. Just out of high school, she married and began creating a large family.

    The memories would not be repressed, however, and continually appeared and reappeared to her as images that seemed to be asking to be expressed. Having known she was an artist from a young age, she periodically attempted to paint these images, but lacked the technical skill to do them justice. When her children were old enough so that she could be away from home for periods of time, she began her formal art training, with the goal of eventually being able to express such images. She began her training at the University of Maine, Orono. She later transferred to Goddard College, Plainfield VT, where she earned a BA in studio art. She also completed several graduate-level studio courses at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

    It wasn't until 1988, however, that Scarlet was fully reacquainted with the Bear Spirits of her youth and became shamanically empowered enough to accurately depict the images that had haunted her throughout her adult life. During a propane explosion in July of that year, in which she was severely burned, she was initiated into a shamanic path by members of the Bear Spirit Clan.

    As she was struck by the force of the explosion, she had an out-of-body experience, and knew she was dying. As she moved farther and farther away from her body towards a blinding light, she was met by five Bear Spirits- not black bears, as the bears of her youth had been- but grizzlies. The largest of them, who later identified himself as Standing Bear, asked her to return to the body and get it out of the fire, as there was "a work" his clan, the Bear Spirit Clan, wished her to do. She agreed. Standing Bear then placed his forehead against hers, and transmitted, in a few seconds, an enormous amount of what Scarlet could only perceive at the time as densely compressed images. Standing Bear then asked Scarlet to look down at her body. As she did so, she felt deep compassion for its suffering, and was forcefully propelled back into it.

    As she went through the physical experience of her injuries and the healing process that followed, the five Bear Spirits remained with her, facilitating her recovery, which was remarkably fast, given the extent of her injuries. As soon as she was physically able to paint again, the images that had always haunted her, and were now coming endlessly in a wild ecstatic rush, demanded to be painted, and her creative work took an entirely new direction.

    Over the next ten years, she experienced frequent ecstatic visionary states and dreams of a distincly shamanic nature as the compressed images Standing Bear had transmitted to her during her initiation gradually opened and fully revealed themselves. As there was nobody Scarlet knew of in her own culture who could guide her regarding the meaning of her initiation experience and the visionary states that followed it, she realized that she would need to turn to Native American culture for guidance. A series of dreams and visions led her to a Mohawk shaman woman with whom she studied women's shamanic ways for three years.  During that time she learned how to manage the energies and powers that had come to her during her shamanic initiatory experience. 
      
    Following her initial shamanic studies, Scarlet earned an MA in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis on Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, having felt the need to locate her personal experience within the larger world culture and mythology. Over the years, she has gradually integrated the teachings she received from the Bear Spirit Clan during her shamanic initiation with what she learned from her Mohawk teacher and with her understanding of the nature of mythic and archetypal realities gained during her Master’s studies. Her Apprentice Training and Depth Shamanic Counselor Certification programs, which lead to certification as a Depth Shamanic Counselor, Kinney Method, are based upon the result of this integration process, as are the shamanic research projects occasionally undertaken at the Center.

                               News Flashes!!!
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The Standing Bear Center for Shamanic Studies is featured in the  section on shamanism in a new book,  Exploring the Spirit of Maine: A Seeker's Guide, by Karen Batignani, which was published recently by Down East Press.

The book, which surveys Maine's alternative teaching and retreat centers, celebrates the diversity of Maine's spiritual and philosophical communities, and is a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to explore this most interesting aspect of Maine's culturally rich environment. It is now available in bookstores, and can also be ordered through the Center. To order a copy directly from The Standing Bear, please call the Center at 207-667-4772, or if busy, call 1-877-225-5928 (to leave a message, follow prompt to enter the 207 number),or Email Scarlet at scarlet@thestandingbear.com. 

Cost: $14.95 plus tax and shipping. Personal checks, Visa and MasterCard accepted. Please allow up to three weeks for delivery.
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                     Native American Considerations
Updated/Edited July 22, 2006

There appears to be a great deal of confusion about the difference between Native American spirituality and cultural forms, and shamanism. Although I studied with a Native American teacher, I do not teach Native American spirituality per se, nor do I perform any specifically Native American ceremonies. I teach a particular form of shamanism that I have developed over many years of study and practice following my initiation, and any ceremonies I perform are my own. 

Native American spirituality and shamanism are not necessarily always one and the same thing, nor does shamanism belong exclusively to Native American culture. Historically, it has been practiced in cultures worldwide by people of differing ethnic and cultural roots.  For my definition of the two paths, as well as other clarifications and thoughts on the subject, please see my essay on the topic on the Writings and Musings page, which you can access through the link provided in the sidebar.  

I teach what I term depth shamanism. Depth shamanism combines the basic skills and ways of shamans the world over with specific teachings received during my shamanic initiation by the Bear Spirit Clan; things I learned from my Mohawk teacher and my five years of study with a Rinzai Zen Master; and a mythic, depth psychological perspective on the nature of reality. 

While I use certain "forms" or structures for teaching that I learned from my Mohawk teacher, as well as certain techniques- for example, how to "catch" shamanic songs, and how to meditate on the Medicine Wheel- I do not teach people how to pray in the "Native American way", nor do I perform any specifically Native American ceremonies. Any ceremonies performed at The Standing Bear are exclusively my own, or were created by me and advanced students, with the possible exception of the smudge ceremony I learned from my teacher. The songs and stories I work with as healing events are exclusively mine, or were "caught" by me and students.

I am very much aware that within some circles in Native American culture, it is considered offensive to charge for teachings. I do not belong to Native American culture. I am not teaching exclusively Native American teachings, and nor do I present myself anywhere as doing so. I belong to white culture, and in my own culture, paying for one's education, whether it be at university, seminary or shamanic center, is not problematic. Nor is it problematic to pay for counseling. Therefore, this is a non-issue for me and my students and clients.

I find the current uproar within some levels of the Native American community regarding this issue to be out of balance with that culture's tradition, which has always recognized that teachers and healers need to be compensated, as, being human, they must meet their basic survival needs and expenses just as other people must. To date, I have never charged a single Native American a penny for any counseling or other services she may have received from me. I do, however, expect compensation of some kind in such situations, so that the relationship is balanced. I believe this approach is in line with the thinking of many Native American teachers and holy people, who advise their people that they need to donate as much as they can to the support of the teacher in return for what they have received from him or her. I am giving a lot of thought to how I can create a way of working through this issue with Native Americans who may wish to study with me.

Finally, yes, I do work with the Medicine Wheel. I work with it as a sacred mandala, at a level that many Native Americans may not recognize as being part of what the Medicine Wheel means. The reality of the medicine Wheel Mandala with which I work nevertheless offers entry to those skilled in depth shamanic ways to a very real level of shamanic consciousness in which one can achieve personal healing and growth, and become capable of assisting others to do the same. 

I suggest that those pondering the above issues take a moment to consider the following: The Earth our Mother, upon whom we walk, supports all life equally. She offers Her sustenance and spiritual wisdom to all people of all races who have the heart to hear. We are all her children, even those of us who, like me, have been born white in a red land. 

Scarlet Kinney