Like A Shadow: The Life and Training of a Guardian Warrior
by Tamarack Song
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 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.
Journey to the Ancestral Self: Remembering What It Is to Be Human
by Tamarack Song
Second Edition
Deep within each of us is a person who dances to the Drum around the ritual Fire, a person who knows healing lore from times when plants spoke, a person who yearns for the peace and Blessings of walking again in the Balance of Our Earth—Our Mother. In the hollows of these words and the times after these periods, the Song of our Ancestors will be heard. When it happens, put the books book down and listen. It is precious time with the Elders, time we have been too long without. It is our birthright. It is also our sacred duty, as heir to our family’s Memories. This book will be there when we return; don’t let it get in the way of its reason for being before us.
Truthspeaking: Ancestral Ways to Hear and Speak the Voice of the Heart
by Tamarack Song
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.
A Zen koan encourages us to speak our Truths without punishing. 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.
Available on Amazon.com in paperback and on Kindle or at our online bookstore here.
Extreme Survival Meat: A Guide for Safe Scavenging, Pemmican Making, and Roadkill
by Tamarack Song
Whether you are faced with an extreme survival situation, or you’re simply wanting to obtain animals without hunting or trapping, this book will show you how to find, process, and preserve meat without anything but a knife. You’ll learn how to safely assess an animal carcass to determine whether it’s safe to eat – a vital skill that could save your life. There are also special sections on roadkill and making pemmican – the most nourishing and long-lasting survival food.
The instructions contained within this book are well tested, and easy to follow, as Tamarack and his family have lived for over forty years almost exclusively on scavenged meat and hand-caught fish. In an extreme survival situation, this is one book you don’t want to be without. It belongs in every backpack, glove compartment, and survival kit, so it will be there when you need it.
Available on Amazon.com in paperback and on Kindle or at our online bookstore here.
Zen Rising: 366 Sage Stories to Enkindle Your Days
by Tamarack Song
Zen Rising is a special collection of the most beloved teaching stories in the Zen tradition. They all trace back to the classical time when Sage and Seeker sat together and reflected on the inner truths these stories embodied. As the Quest for Awakening is intrinsic to the human experience, these tales are just as vibrant today as when they were first told. For this book, the author selected the stories he uses in his teachings. Each of us is part Sage and part Seeker, part Scholar and part Fool. We find these aspects of ourselves mired in confusion, struggling with paradox, and ecstatic with flashes of enlightenment as page-by-page we take this Journey of Life.
Available on Amazon and at our online bookstore here.
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Tamarack’s Other Published Writings
Find more books written by Tamarack on Teaching Drum Outdoor School’s online bookstore, including booklets that cover Native Lifeway topics such as practical crafts and skills, child rearing, and the quest for self-knowing. Visit the bookstore here.
