War & Peace by John Lockley

There is chaos in the hearts of man. And our chaos spreads like a virus into the natural world resulting in species extinction and unimaginable environmental destruction. It’s hard to conceive of war on the level of World War One & Two with millions of deaths and untold destruction.  As we witness the recent war in Gaza and Ukraine, we are all called to ponder the question of ‘Why’? And is it necessary to resort to violence in order to be seen and heard? How can we fulfil our role as custodians of this planet and rightful guardians of the plant and animal worlds? It is clear that we need to face our own darkness and explore our inner shadows meticulously and be aware of what we might project onto people we perceive as other or different. In South Africa we have had many lessons around this from the last few hundred years since the start of colonisation, then apartheid and now democratic South Africa.

For those of us who study nature and have learnt to befriend the changing seasons we know that chaos is part of change and transformation. A thunderstorm brings lightning and rain. The rain nourishes the land and makes new life possible. In order to bring peace to our world we need to befriend our inner weather, and ride the storms of shadow energies involving turbulent emotions like anger and resentment. What do we do when these energies seek to overwhelm us? Attack another, ourselves or transmute them into something more productive? Anger is a powerful emotion that can help us transform the living fabric of society. But to do it effectively requires discernment and respect. First, we need to respect ourselves and not give in to our inner critic and when we find ourselves in conflict with others, we need to also hold a space in our hearts for respecting them. In martial arts from the far east like Karate in Japan, opponents begin and end their match with bowing to each other.

I recall a story of Nelson Mandela years ago who was televised in his meeting with the heads of the Palestinian and Israeli youth leagues. They asked him how he managed to create peace in South Africa. He was very matter of fact and recounted his talks with FW De Klerk in the early years. He said they would start each day shaking one another’s hands and having a cup of coffee together. During the course of the day, they would argue with one another and sometimes it would get quite heated. The Youth league presidents asked him if he ever felt like giving up. He said, “no”, because he and Mr FW De Klerk were aware that millions of South Africans were counting on them to find a peaceful solution. It wasn’t personal.  No matter how difficult their day was they would always say good bye in an amicable and courteous manner.

In order to understand Mandela’s diplomacy and humanitarianism we need to explore an important aspect of his journey. Many people might not be aware of Nelson Mandela’s personal journey around his struggle with anger and hatred over white rule and lengthy incarceration. He recounts his story in his autobiography ‘A long walk to freedom’. He said that one night before he went to sleep a voice said to him “Nelson your anger can kill you”. And when he woke the next morning he remembered this voice and the next thing he heard was “…you need to befriend the enemy”.  These thoughts were going through his mind when the white jailer unlocked his jail cell. All he said to him was, “what made you decide to become a jailer and join the correctional services?” The guard was a young white man and told Mandela he didn’t have a choice because his father died when he was only 15 years old and he had to get a job to help support his mother and four younger siblings. This shocked Mandela because he thought all white people were privileged. He realised in their discussion that he grew up with more privilege because when his father died when he was seven years old, he was brought up in the royal household of the Prince of the Xhosa nation. This enabled him to go to university and become a lawyer. He only knew apartheid when he was twenty-one years old. He asked the young jailer where he grew up. The man replied that his family have a farm in the Eastern Cape. Mandela was surprised and told him that he too was from the Eastern Cape. He then asked him in IsiXhosa if he understood the Xhosa language, and the young jailer replied “ewe, ndiyasaze isiXhosa!” Yes, I know Xhosa. And they finished their conversation in Mandela’s home language, isiXhosa. When Mandela became president of South Africa his young jailer friend was sitting next to him as they had become close friends over many years.

Traditional Zen garden

I took part in a traditional Zen Buddhist retreat in the early 1990’s in a temple in South Korea. The Berlin Wall had just fallen a few years previously resulting in the end of the cold war. There were many ex-soldiers on my retreat from East Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and myself from South Africa. We all meditated like soldiers with discipline and a hunger to find peace within amidst the trauma of our collective experiences. During the 100 days retreat we became like brothers as we sought to befriend our inner demons and the cold of a Korean winter. I had never seen so much snow before. Sometimes our Zen Master would usher us outside at ten o’clock at night to sweep the temple grounds before the old people visited the temple in the early hours. One particularly cold night as the Siberian winds ushered in fresh snow the Grand Master, Seung Sahn was giving a dharma talk. He finished his talk with asking us if we had any questions. Everyone was silent, and then a young Californian woman said, “what do we do when the devil comes knocking?” Seung Sahn replied in his jovial way, “Ahhh, the devil! Well, ask the devil if he would like a cup of tea.” In life we our constantly fighting and blaming the devil for all of mankind’s problems. His answer was a quintessential zen reply. Respect all of life, including the devil. It doesn’t mean we need to side with the devil, but rather take a pause, reflect, bow and listen. This brings to mind a traditional Zen Garden with stones and sand in harmony. Listening within brings about spaciousness.  As we meditate on the stones and the sand, we start to befriend the opposites of light and dark within us.  Nothing is wholly good or bad, light or dark. It is our reactions that make it so.

Many people are speaking about the war in Ukraine and Gaza while the hidden war against animals and nature continues unabated. As humanity fights with one another and with issues of power, powerlessness, wealth and poverty, the natural world is dying. What can individuals do? As a traditional South African healer or Sangoma the answer is simple; we need to connect to our own ‘Ubuntu’ (humanity). This involves befriending our ancestors and our inner demons or conflicts. Ubuntu is a circle and speaks about the importance of all of us to hold hands and embrace our collective humanity. In traditional Xhosa and Zulu culture every human being is seeing as being related when you go back far enough. Why? Because we all have red blood and this blood or life force is transferable from person to person regardless of creed, culture or skin colour. We are the natural guardian and custodians of planet earth. We have an unassailable duty and responsibility to all of life on earth. The animals and plants are counting on us to respect life. And when we look closely at the natural world, we see the teachings of mutual respect and understanding shining back at us. Plants are wonderful teachers and demonstrate unconditional love in their offerings to the world of medicinal plants that spread healing and harmony.

In order to heal our world, we need to look into the past and see how our ancestors dealt with chaos, whether environmental or man-made. We are lucky in Africa to still retain a connection to our distant past.  Southern Africa is thought by many anthropologists to be the birthplace of mankind. Our ancient ancestors are thought to be a small band of hunter gatherers or San Bushmen that inhabited the coastal regions of South Africa. They left their mark with numerous rock art paintings highlighting their incredible spiritual and tracking talents. They are the spiritual ancestors of current sangoma or African shamanic lineages in Southern Africa and represent what is possible when we connect to our spirit through trance dancing, plant medicine and following the tracks of animals in the sand. We are part of nature and in order to heal our environment and prevent species extinction we need to learn the language of nature.

I was on a recent ‘Dreams and Tracking retreat in the Kalahari Desert’ and I was speaking to one of our Bushman trackers about healing and dreams. In my experience as a sangoma I have encountered many people who are not remembering or connecting to their dreams. As we walked through the bush together, hundreds of kilometres away from modernity, I asked him if he could recommend any plants that can help people to remember their dreams and connect to their ancestors. The reason being, as a sangoma we believe that as people connect to their dreams and ancestors then they connect to their ‘Ubuntu’ (humanity), and balance and harmony is returned to the circle of life. The Bushman tracker walked past a shrub, stopped, and broke a piece off and placed it in his mouth. He then smiled in a gentle way and told me about this plant. He said that this particular medicinal plant was very powerful because it can heal conflict in the community. If people are struggling with one another in the community, they bite a piece off and spit it on the ground between them. This will help reduce the conflict and spread harmony. At this time the Ukraine war had just started thousands of kilometres away. The bees were going about their business pollinating flowers, and an interesting flock of birds were gravitating around a nearby bush speaking in the language of nature that we were trying to understand.

One of the Bushman elders started to speak in an animated way with the young tracker and they were pointing at me. The elder then approached me and asked me if he could participate in my ‘shrine tent activities’. He had heard about this white sangoma and wanted to see what I do. I was overjoyed and said, “yes of course, join anytime”. Every year on my Kalahari retreats I create a shrine tent for 7 days in the bush. It is a place where I teach people ‘inner tracking skills’; in particular how to connect to ancestors, dreams and ‘ubuntu’, the circle of life. The next day the Bushman elder called Gqikau joined our shrine tent with about 10 or more of his family/ community members. I beat my sangoma drum and we danced and sang together. I explained how I teach people how to pray in the sangoma way and then we all prayed together. It was a beautiful blend of different languages and cultures. The birds took a flight closer to see what was going on. The bushman band said that people visit them from all over the world but never tell them about their lives only asking many questions about them and how they live. They said they were curious about modern people and how they experienced life. I thanked them for their comment and then we went around the room and each retreat participant gave their name and where they came from in the world. People listened to one another. We then spoke about what was happening in the world, and one of the bushman ladies said the biggest problem she has noticed is that people are becoming selfish, they don’t want to share.  We compensated for this by listening deeper and bridging our ancient and modern worlds.

John and San Bushmen elder Gqikau on retreat in the Kalahari desert in 2023

At the end of our ceremony in the bush I offered Gqikau one of my sangoma fabrics which I draped over his shoulders. At the same time, I noticed a vulture flying towards us, low, almost touching the trees, and then flying over our heads. This was a wonderful sign, as vultures often represent transformation. Sangomas view them as powerful healers, with the ability to transform poison and negativity. This was a realisation of a vision I had for many years, of ancient and modern people sitting around a fire revisioning our humanity.

Excerpt from Odyssey magazine article, summer edition 2023-2024, Click here to view.

Ubuntu in the New South Africa

Ubuntu Retreat 2022 at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo, South Africa. Sangomas practicing Ubuntu around the ceremonial altar.

Ubuntu is an old South African word meaning ‘humanity’. I just completed my 7th year of Ubuntu retreats at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo. The numbers of retreatants have steadily grown over the years. I felt priveliged to teach the old teachings of Ubuntu that was taught to me through my Xhosa sangoma apprenticeship. My Xhosa elders speak about ‘Ubuntu Ubunzulu’, the depth of humanity teachings. It starts with the individual person. We are all born human, however the elders say that we have to make a decision to become a human being. In the isiXhosa & isiZulu languages they speak about ‘umntu, ngumntu, ngabantu’. A person becomes a person through other people. As we listen to one another and engage with acts of kindness, consideration and empathy we feed our human family and ourselves.

Ubuntu is a circle of interconnectivity beginning with the human world and stretching into nature. The more harmonious and balanced the human world the more opportunity we have to help our non human families, animals and plants. The Ubuntu circle stretches upwards into the future with our current actions affecting the next generations, and it also stretches backwards in time to our ancestors. In South Africa we have many words for our ancestors, abazali bam (our parents), abantu badala (the old people) and one of my favourites, amathambo (bones, representing our bone people). There is an implicity responsibility to remember and honour our ancestors. As we do this we strengthen ‘isidima’ or dignity, facilitating a deeper sense of ‘Ubuntu’ and the interconnectivity of the human and non human lives on our planet.

I recorded a few of these teachings whilst leading the 3 day retreat in Ixopo at the Buddhist Retreat Centre. Please click the links below to access the youtube videos.

A discussion on the 3 jewels of Buddhism vs traditional Ubuntu practice in South Africa.

A talk on developing an Ubuntu practice with emphasis placed on Dreams, Ancestors & personal responsibility.

Deepening Ubuntu Workshop

I enjoyed the dancing, it felt as if I was totally on my own in a mist.  When John played the drum I could see and feel images of my ancestors passing before me. The singing and clapping gave me so much energy that even when my hands felt tired, I could continue on. While we pounded the medicinal herbs for the finale ceremony, we all came together in unity.

Jackie Evans, retired Nurse.

In Ubuntu

African Spirituality

What does African spirituality mean to you? Voodoo, witch doctors, black magic? I can’t remember now if those where some of my first thoughts, but I certainly hadn’t ever found myself particularly drawn to African work. Yet somehow, in September 2007, I found myself on a weekend work shop with Sangoma (shaman), John Lockley. I still couldn’t understand what I was doing there. It was held in a beautiful shamanic centre in the hills of North Wales, a secluded spot near Corwen that I had visited a few years earlier. I hadn’t been up there for a while, but something was calling me, and when I looked at the workshop list the only thing that caught my eye at the time was this African Shamanic work. Even though there was no single thing about the workshop that jumped out at me, it just kept popping into my head and then someone gave me a free copy of Sacred Hoop magazine that happened to have an article about John’s initiation, so I decided maybe I was supposed to go along.

The introductory weekend is now a bit of a blur in my memory, but I remember particularly enjoying the trance dancing that John taught us -which is great fun! I also remember feeling my heart really open over the weekend. Another thing I clearly recall is John telling us that the work can set things in motion in your life, which stuck in my mind because the following week a couple of fairly big changes happened in my personal and work life. These were not easy things for me, and left me unsure of whether I wanted to continue the work further. It was not long after this that I did a shamanic journey to the spirit of water. It was a beautiful journey and during it I was told that it would be good for me to do more work with John. Not being one to ignore the advice of the water spirits, I signed up for a 9 month African Shamanic practioner’s course!

Having talked later to other people on the practioner’s course, I found my journey was not unusual. Many of the others felt a great deal of resistance to the work, but just kept getting called to it in various ways. And I have to tell you that I am so glad that I followed my intuition. The practioner’s course has been amazing.

Africa is a continent of great spiritual power, where the old shamanic ways are still alive and shamans can trace their lineage back through ancestors going back many hundreds, if not thousands, of years. I have felt this work more deeply than I have felt any other spiritual work before. I have found a path which is based on being humble, open hearted, respectful and digging deeply into your soul. It is about finding your humanity, and an understanding that my humanity is bound up with your humanity. It is about respect for the old ways, the elders and our communities. It is about working with dreams, nature, the plant spirits and our ancestors (both our blood lines and our spiritual families). The work has subtly, yet powerfully worked itself into every fibre of my being. It has truly and deeply touched my life on every level.

There is often a lot of negative press about African spirituality. I think that the great power found there can bring up fear in many of us. And yes, where the light is very bright, there can also be found darkness. But in John’s work I have found only the purest light. And I would urge any one who is drawn to shamanism and the old ways to come along and experience one of John’s workshops.

Caroline Evans, Teacher, Wrexham.

In Ubuntu

Poem about Ubuntu

This is a poem about Ubuntu that I wrote after attending John's workshop in Wales. I came with curiosity,

Intellectual interest,

Prepared to criticize,

Proud of what I knew.

My own fearless self

Was free to walk away

I nearly did.  Then,

Moving through the motions,

Something dissolved.

Seeing the simplicity

Of opening hearts,

Sensing support,

Honouring ancestry,

Inviting,

Accepting,

Allowing,

Something true,

Something sweet,

Something right,

Came.

Now expanded

By the beauty of humility,

I go smaller.

Smaller

Is not what it seems.

Smaller

Is connected.

Smaller

Is bigger.

Smaller

Is huge.

Rob Fradley-Wilde, 3rd May 2009

In Ubuntu