| Interview with Mary Stoffel and
Lena Swanson, teachers of Medicine for the Earth by Tim Miejan Two local women, longtime animal communication teacher Mary Stoffel and educator Lena Swanson, have been trained by Sandra Ingerman to teach the Medicine for the Earth workshops in the Upper Midwest. The following is an interview conducted with the women at The EDGE offices in Woodbury, Minn. When did each of you first become awestruck about the beauty of the Earth? Mary Stoffel: I grew up on a farm in Southern Minnesota and I worked out in the fields a lot. My dad raised corn and beans and I was out walking the bean fields, pulling weeds in the bean fields. We also had to go out in the pasture and pull thistles. I remember on a summer day we had a hill out in our pasture and you could lie back on the hill and watch the clouds. It was one of those beautiful, spring days where the sun was warm and you could watch the clouds. The whole experience was so harmonious and just so fantastic. I felt as if, lying there on the earth, that I was a part of it. There was no separation. Lena Swanson: Because I grew up in Southwest Minneapolis, I was a city slicker and my first real connection happened when I was in junior high on a trip up to the Boundary Waters canoe area. Our church youth groups would always go up for weeklong trips. We were a bunch of crazy kids with these youth pastors. We would do 10 portages a day. I mean, we really went deep in. I remember they always called it God's Country. I remember how everything was so pristine and how we'd drink out of the lakes. There was something so special up there. The Divine nature. And I got it. I thought, "It is God's Country. I get this. This isn't just a cliché." As you've moved along in both of your lives, how have the things that you've done reflected that love for the beauty of the Earth? Stoffel: With me, it's been primarily my interest and concern about the things that we're doing to the Earth, and being really aware of the development and the encroachment of civilization on the wilderness areas. I watch this progression and feel so sad that this is the way things are going. I also try to be politically active, not so much doing the picket line or anything like that, but more talking to the politicians and really working to preserve the Earth. And I also go and see as many places that I can, connecting with the Earth as much as I can. Swanson: For me, it's just been in a real personal way, being compelled all the time to be in nature on a daily basis. I have two golden retrievers so I have a commitment to get out and being sure to walk them so I have that connection every day. It's not just a walk in the neighborhood. I always drive my car and find a little forest -- my friends go, "A forest!" and I say "Yeah, a little group of trees in the city" -- so I can let the dogs off leash. We're so lucky in the Twin Cities, because you don't have to go far for that. I grew up about 10 blocks south of Lake Harriet, so I always had nature even though I was in the city. I was very attracted to nature and I feel really upset about the urban sprawl and building, building, building everywhere. The same thing's happening in a village I'm connected with in Switzerland. I spent a lot of time in this gorgeous village on a lake there, but it's within commuting distance to Zurich, 45 minutes. We're covering so much land with cement and clearing out the trees. The whole mentality has been clear, cut and build and then plant a few little trees. It's just recently, and I think especially with that Highway 55 re-route controversy, that the highway department has become more active in trying to save a few more trees. Sometimes it does take that kind of protest, but also the work we're doing. Sandra's point is that when you put out negative energy to try to stop something negative, it's never going to work. Stoffel: The whole thing is to be positive. On a personal note, the way I actually renew my spirit is by going horseback riding in the woods. Every spring I can't wait to get on my horse and get out in the woods, because that's when I reconnect. It's like I just fill up again and recharge, and then I'm good to go again. When did you become aware of the work that Sandra Ingerman has been doing in connection with Medicine for the Earth? Stoffel: I found out when she first taught it in June 2001. I went to the week-long training in Santa Fe. I had been working with Timothy Cope in Minneapolis. He knew about my connection with the animals and the fact that I did animal communication and he told me about Sandra. And then I got the book and it was like, "Whoa! This is really way too cool!" I actually wrote to her. I knew how to do a shamanic journey because Timothy had taught me that, but that was all I knew, so I asked her if I could come to the workshop even if I didn't have the shamanic background and she said "Sure, that would be fine." It seemed to me at the time, everybody there was a shamanic practitioner except me. And I'm going, "What am I doing here?" But, it was one of those things that had to have been meant to be, because I was able to fit in with the program and I understood what the intention was even if I didn't know all there was to know about journeying at the time. Swanson: I found out about all of this through Mary. I'm a Reiki Master and that led me to Mary because the woman who introduced me to Reiki had studied animal communication with Mary. I took the advanced animal communication class, and Mary had us do a shamanic journey to get a power animal to help us with communication. I had this extraordinary journey. We both did soul retrieval training in July and then I just got strong messages that I should get involved in the Medicine for the Earth, too. So I got into animal communication and shamanic work and Mary and I really connected. Stoffel: And I already do workshops for animal communication and Lena is a teacher. Swanson: I've been teaching English as a second language for 22 years in St. Paul schools, so it's like "this really fits." It's been really a great journey. Stoffel: Sandra's whole emphasis over the last year has been to get this work out. It's great for us to go and do the transfiguration and transmutation of our own toxins individually, but the real thing that we're working on here is to get the message out so other people can participate in this. Describe how you're planning to do that in this area. Stoffel: We have two weekend workshops that are scheduled right now for this spring. Actually, they're more like gatherings than workshop. Swanson: Part of Medicine for the Earth is the power of language. There's a whole section in the book on the power of words and their essence. An obvious one for Sandra was "work" and the fact that she hopes the word "work" will eventually disappear completely from human language. She really emphasizes calling them "gatherings." Stoffel: What we will be doing is taking the material from the book and actually applying it through very illustrative and participative exercises and meditations and journeys to allow people to do their own transfiguration, to connect with their own source, to connect with the Divinity within. Then they become familiar with what it feels like to operate in a state of grace, in a state of Divinity. Because when you do that, you automatically affect everything around you, whether you know it or not. Being able to maintain that as much as possible is what actually creates the change within us and within the Earth. Swanson: There's so much in the book that you can't even begin to do in a weekend. We'll start out with weekend gatherings, but we could also move into five-day sessions if we feel there's a need or a good purpose. Stoffel: I also envision that once people have been through the initial gathering and get a taste for it and begin working with the book on their own, they will want to reconnect once a month and just keep the work going and just bring in more and more as we go. Swanson: People trained by Sandra are teaching this all over the country. She always emphasizes that she's giving us the foundation and she wants us to fly on our own, to spread the information. From your own perspective, summarize for people what they will get from this, what it actually does? Swanson: It's a really transforming experience. I think that is the intention, that a personal transformation will change the environment, changing the world around you. We change ourselves, we concentrate on connecting with our own Divinity and that ripple effect automatically goes out. The whole idea that the external reflects the internal. Stoffel and Swanson: (In unison) Harmony within creates harmony without. Swanson: People will leave with ways to access and become harmonious for themselves and then that will be the ripple effect that goes out. It's basically what Sandra says, transforming personal toxins. Stoffel: Exactly. It's not only transforming the toxins within our own bodies and the environmental toxins, but it includes our attitudes and the belief systems. This process allows you to go within and to access "Who am I really?" That's the real transfiguration. Swanson: Well, when I went for the five-day training, one of the last things Sandra said was, "It's not about whether you had a fantastic workshop for Medicine for the Earth. It's about how you treat the cashier at Safeway." Her thing is: How are you living your life on a second-to-second basis? This isn't about compartmentalizing your spirituality and "I did yoga this morning and now I'm a jerk on the freeway." That's what we hope to emphasize, the need to incorporate this into your daily spiritual practice, or even have a daily spiritual practice, so you're touching base with this all the time and you don't lose it. Then you are able to transmute on a daily basis and feed yourself the good life-giving things that you need to maintain. Stoffel: The other thing Sandra really emphasized is how we can work in collaboration with the Earth and in cooperation with our helping spirits and our helping guides. They are there and ready and willing to help. The animals are willing to help. Everything around us is ready and willing to be connected and stay connected. Nature hasn't gone away, we have. God did not turn away from us; we turned away from God, or we turned away from our natural way of being. This is a way of reconnecting -- and it starts with reconnecting with ourselves and our true nature. Once you do that, you cannot help but reconnect with the beauty all around us. Once you become your true, perfect spirit, beautiful spirit that you really are, you can't help but recognize the beauty around you. Swanson: You see it in everything. Stoffel: And realize that that is the connection, that is the true state of being that we were meant to be -- and the rest of this becomes totally irrelevant. It just doesn't matter. This is where it is. The thing that is so wonderful about this work is that it allows the individual to really make a difference. So often we feel so powerless when we look at what's happening. We look at the state of things and think, "Well, who am I? I can't make that much of a difference." This is about doing your own individual work. By incorporating this into your daily life, you DO make a difference because of that effect you have. If you start to do it on a regular basis you notice the effects, you really do. Swanson: Because you're more in the flow of life. You're in the river going along with it instead of standing there trying to fight against the current. A nice part of the work is that you don't have to be in a certain place along your spiritual path. You don't even have to necessarily be on a spiritual path. This work takes you wherever you are in your life and helps you progress. If you're a human being, then you fit in. Swanson and Stoffel: (In unison) That's right! Swanson: You don't have to be called to a certain path at all. You have to be a human being who wants to see a better world to live in. Based on what you've said, this is a pretty profound piece of work. Swanson: Absolutely. It's amazing. Stoffel: Certainly changed my life! 2003 Spring Gatherings Mary Stoffel and Lena Swanson will lead two Medicine for the Earth Gatherings this spring. The first, for those with experience with shamanic journeying, will be Friday-Sunday, March 28-30, in St. Paul, Minn. Registration is $252. The second gathering will involve creative visualization, as opposed to shamanic journeying. It will be Friday-Sunday, April 11-13, in St. Paul and registration is $252. For more details, call Mary at (763) 444-8146 or Lena at (651) 206-0644. Tim Miejan is editor of The EDGE. Contact him at (651) 578-8969 or toll-free 1 (888) 776-5687, or e-mail editor@edgenews.com Copyright (c) 2003 Tim Miejan |
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