Hi Folks,

Again, I am sorry for the delay in releasing the Instructor/Keeper run classes but I had to wait for several dates to open up.  For those of you who are new to the Tracker School, Frank and Karen Sherwood were my head instructors in the early years of the Tracker School, where Frank actually helped me outline many of the classes you attend today.  Frank and Karen are members of the original Coyote Thunder Medicine Society and along with Malcolm were instrumental in encouraging me to begin teaching the Philosophy Workshops in the main stream Tracker curriculum.  Like Frank and Karen who were with me for nearly 18 years as head instructors and continue to this day as visiting instructors, Malcolm has been with the Tracker School for nearly 34 years.  

You all know the rest of the Instructors and visiting instructors, along with Charlie Blackwell who is both an elder and oversees the Keepers of the Wisdom Medicine Society.  I hope that you enjoy these classes as much as I did helping the instructors design their various class outlines and schedules.  I feel strongly that these classes will not only compliment the Tracker Classes but in may ways expand on the teaching.  Remember that all registration and questions should be directed to the Instructors along with registration.  No registration can be done through the Tracker School.  

One final note.  Jorge is always reluctant to run his own classes even though he is more than qualified and in my assessment overqualified if you were to ask me.  I’m thrilled that he is finally running his Primitive Cooking Class once again and with the fine tuning and addition of wild spices and herbs it should be nothing less than epic.  Equally as difficult as Jorge is Malcolm and his classes.  It is difficult for Malcolm to find the time away from his own school, Earth Heart, to run the classes that I have asked him to undertake.  Yet he like me sees the need for these west coast based Philosophy review and expansion classes.  We are constantly asked to hold something for our west coast students and finally the classes are going to happen.  Consider that Malcolm helped me with all Philosophy Classes since the beginning you can imagine what the review classes are going to be like.  Again, I know that you will be thoroughly blown away by all the Instructor classes. 

More to come to the blog site on awareness and man made concentric rings of city and suburbs within the next few days.  

In Medicine, 

Tom

Hi Folks,

If you are anywhere near New Jersey then welcome to the tropics.  Heat wave hitting us all week with little let up in store.  The rest of the country has its problems too.  I just wanted to send out a quick note about exactly that, the weather.  As with everything else that you pay attention to and research, I suggest strongly you do the same with the weather and weather patterns and forecasts.  Grandfather warned that this seasons’ storms are going to intensify even more and some areas of the country and the world for that matter are going to be hit harder than ever before.  You no longer have the luxury of taking a quick look at the weather for the coming day, look instead at the longer range forecasts and plan accordingly with family safety, supplies, and any worst case event.  Like the Ancient Scouts, plan, train for, and expect the worst possible event to happen.  Rely only on yourself, for with the events to come help may be a long way away.

It’s also important to slow down periodically throughout the day.  We get far too caught up in our daily rush and ruts, never taking the time to observe, assess, and be aware of our surroundings.  To Grandfather that “Pause” was an important part of his daily life and ritual.  Though his Pause never seemed to follow any time frame, he would periodically pause several times a day no matter how rushed we might have been.  

Along with that Pause he would also surrender all thought and emotion to a point of absolute nothingness, where time and place no longer existed, and he entered the consciousness of the eternal Now.  It was from the “nothingness” of surrender that hidden visions and signs would appear to him.  It was at this point of purity were he would be warned of danger or where there was “something not quite right” kind of a feeling.  And it is for that reason that I ask you to embrace and integrate that “Sacred Pause” into your life so that anything out of place or threatening to you or your family will come into your mind and into your spirit. Remember that whenever Grandfather named anything as “Sacred” we knew that it was of the utmost importance.   

In Medicine, and in Silence, 

Tom

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to announce once again that I will be going on line live this Friday, July 12th from 8:00 pm to around 9:30 pm. to give an update on world and local events.  I also have several things I want to warn you about as well as to update and expand some of the skills your will need in the months to come.  I know that this is short notice but I feel it necessary that it comes to pass before this weekend.  I am calling this an update rather than an emergency update but its close to being so.  

In Medicine,  Tom

Hi Folks,

Grandfather warned; “we should be most aware in places where we are the most familiar, comfortable, and relaxed.”  In other words we should be most aware at home and in our home territory.  He warned of “the rut”, calling it a coffin, a killer, and a demon.  As one looks closely at “the rut” and all the negative things that it embraces we all can easily and clearly understand why Grandfather called it “The Demon Rut”.  In the Way of the Scout I warned that on ones’ own home turf we become the most vulnerable because it is at home that we become the most unaware.  The Scouts knew this and took the utmost precautions to insure that everyone was at the highest possible level of awareness when at home camp.  Basically they taught themselves to remain forever “tourists”.  

You’ve all heard the expression; “you can always spot a tourist in town”, and that is because a tourist is doing something different than the locals.  A tourist is looking around, taking it all in, and interested in everything and everyone.  But given a day or so in a new town the tourist soon becomes the local; walking with his head bent at a 45 degree angle to the ground, looking at the same things the same way they always have, and missing all else.  As I tell you during the Standard Class that the hardest time to hide on you is during the first few hours of the class because that is when you are most aware.  After that and once in “the rut” you pass us right by as we hide in the open, never seeing us.  

Always remain a tourist.  Force yourself to look at the familiar in a new way, from a different angle, and also force yourself to look at things you don’t normally pay attention to.  Play the game where you imagine that someone is watching you, stalking you, or hunting you.  In many cases this is not a game but part of the reality taking place all around you.  Predators often watch prey for long periods, watching movement, action and reaction, what the prey sees and what it misses, then plans the attack based on that observation.  As for Rick and I we never had to force ourselves to play that game because the threat in our lives were very real.  We, Grandfather included, were always hiding on each other, setting traps for each other, or waiting in the forest canopy to drop a bag of grade A glop on the head of the unsuspecting.  

As with what I said of Awareness and Observation, we no longer have the luxury of not being a tourist.  To say we are in troubled times is and understatement.  We are facing EXTREMES on all levels of our existence and extreme threats needs to be counterbalanced by extreme awareness and part of that extreme awareness is to forever remain the tourist.  More extremes are coming and are close at hand, especially in the summers heat.  Hot weather, hot tempers, hot fires, and so much more.  

On tuesday I will finally be releasing the schedule for the fall and winter months.  I just had to make sure my brother Jim would be available for one of the programs along with a few other visiting instructors that have to get back to me this weekend.  

In Medicine,  Tom

Hi Folks;

I just finished up the first session of the Temples I on line yesterday and once again I am amazed at the results.  I know that I am going to be able to take this class much farther than I had originally planned and that is the reason for at least part of this announcement.  I know that this Temples on line class will run over probably by a weekend and when that happens I am thinking about inviting the entire Temples Classes to that last weekend session at no cost to you.  By bringing together both the on line and all the physical classes I can take you further and to higher levels of education, technique, and application of the skills.  I’ll certainly keep all the Temples classes posted as to when this will happen but it looks now that it will take place in September.  

I am also thinking about doing another live on line this class this summer.  Many of you who have taken the Temples class have asked me if I was going to offer any other classes this summer season that they could take since they had already taken the Temples class.  The answer is yes.  I am developing a class called THE EXPERIMENTAL CLASS.  Basically I am wondering how much I can use the on line format and what I can teach via that medium and this EXPERIMENTAL CLASS will answer that question.  I am going to design this class to see what students can learn, how fast they can learn, how much they can learn, and how intense of detail I can show.  

The EXPERIMENTAL CLASS will embrace many areas of survival, tracking, awareness, observation, Way of the Spirit and Temples, stalking, camouflage, and a laundry list of other skills I want to try out via the on line format.  I’m thinking that we will meet for two sessions on one weekend where I will teach you new things, load you up with homework on the final day, then meet a month later for the second session to further your education and listen to your feedback on how you did with the homework assignments.  This would be of tremendous benefit to me because then I would finally know how much I can get across to people on line.  Let me know you thoughts.  

In Medicine,  Tom