Tamarack and Lety Want Your Children

These people have absolutely no shame or accountability for their past schemes that haven't worked, so they just make up some new ones, all the while the list of failed schemes continues to grow - the 2002 & 2007 Yearlongs that lost 22 people, the wolf sanctuary, the warrior way website and gatherings, unpublishable books, the yahoo group forum, etc, etc, etc.

Now we ask you, would you really want your children around a writer as bad as Lety Seibel? Or around a woman so desperate to be seen as the eternally-giving, unquestioning earth mother that the first thing we want to do when we read anything she writes is check her basement for decomposing bodies.

What do ya'll wanna bet that her own children aren't in the best state of mental health?

$8000.00?

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Lety"
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:43:03 -0500
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] We need your help

Greetings Friends and Relations,

The cozy white blanket of snow over the Mother's bosom keeps getting replenished by one after another Spring snow storm. When the warmth melts snow and uncovers the Earth's skin to the shining sun, another snow cloud repairs the brown holes with new patches of white. The tug-and-pull is fully on! There have been days in the woods when the smell, the light and feel of the air were those of a full-fledged green season day, except that the ground wore a thick layer of white! On another green-season- feeling occasion, the sound of the Spring Peepers filled the air until the realization struck that this was a lucid dream! Under these signs, sugar bush was set up early during a cold-night, warm-day spell which quickly turned to a quarter moon of solid storms.

Eventually, the sap started flowing in earnest and we boiled down over two gallons of syrup. Then more storms, which truly bewildered all the newly arrived and emerged Relations, and now the sap is flowing again. Who says our moods and whims are not modeled after our Mother!

At Mashkodens, the Wild Moon experience continues to flow and evolve as the second group of Wild Mooners say their gigawaabamins. Before long a new group of Seekers will be arriving for their turn of the seasons at the camp where the Old Ways return. And here at the support camp (Nad'mad'ewining), we are revving up the energy to bring a couple more families to complement our budding children's culture.

Would you care to help us? If you do, would you take a look at our invitational link
http://teachingdrum .org/childrenscu lture.html and forward it to families with children that might have an interest in checking out the possibility of being here?

Miigwech and rich transition time wishes,

Lety

Lety Speaks

And speaks and speaks and speaks, etc.

Ever wonder why all that happens at The Teaching Drum Outdoor School becomes a soap opera? Because these people have absolutely nothing better to do.

Lety writes so much like Tamarack we were tempted for a time to believe HE had written this new-agey junk. The student who sent us these letters assures us, though, that the letters came from Lety's personal email account, and we don't think Tamarack computer savvy enough to have broken into it.

In any event, Lety channels T's evasive self-absorbtion like no other.

First of all I want to thank you for sharing Tamarack's e-mails to you and for opening channels for this exchange to happen.

While waiting for your package to arrive, I asked to read the piece you included with your application for the year long program... I was delighted by the fluidity of your expression - I found myself hoping it would go on and turn into a novel. Your writing created vibrantly colorful images in my mind's eye. Your style is the kind I hate coming to the end of. How could Tamarack not fall in love with this Spirit?!

When your package arrived I felt very open and vulnerable, I wanted to be so, that I may truly receive what you were offering me, in a clear vessel, rather than one cluttered by my own preconceptions. When I read "I need to melt the ice, hold my breath and immerse myself." - Tamarack's passion, turned in your direction. I had to breathe and sit with my feelings.

Here I need to backtrack:

When I came to the yearlong program, I had been separated from Tom, my husband, for almost 2 years, celibate for the same amount of time, fulfilling a long ago promise to myself from which I had taken many detours: to Know MySelf, in my wholeness, the intrinsic and unchangeable, in balance with the moody, temperamental and ambunctious personality. All the aspects and levels which make me Me, connected to the volume of I AM.

My experience at Nishnajida allowed me to poignantly feel a wound up mechanism, which, though rapidly unwinding within the safety and relatively uncluttered mental space I was in, was nevertheless, always within me, acting as a barrier between me and Me.

During the darkness of the Solstice, alone at Wabanon while Seekers were away for the holidays, the wound-up mechanism inside me, unwinding at its own pace, finally came to its last turn - and with tear filled, shimmering eyes, I witnessed and Experienced Me!What I saw and felt filled me with the most reverent awe. How could I
not fall in Love, in love with the Beauty and Glory of the omnipotent immortality nestled in a fragile, soft, perishable shell that was me.

My Joy knew no bounds. The Fruits of my fulfilled Promise intoxicated me with their Nectar. Peace permeated my inner world just as the glimmering white snow quilt covered and warmed the Mother's bosom. I felt freedom from my own relentless judgements of myself; from my trying (though not wanting) to be 'someone' in one of society's domesticated molds, and from my compulsion to justify my every action, thought and feeling by the nebulous rule of good vs. evil.

The Relations from the Natural and Ethereal worlds Celebrated with me, nay,as me. And me as they; my lungs were the trees, breathing for the Mother. The lines of separation disappeared, and yet, I was still in a definite and finite body. Thus, I walk since those days, with a perception which is all inclusive though within the parameters of my own limitations. This is both my challenge and my Gift now.

Early January, Seekers began returning and I began the process of reintegrating to the human community. It was then, that I began noticing Tamarack with different 'eyes'. Up to this point there had been nothing to warn or prepare me for the outpour and intensity of feelings towards him that broke my carefully protected feeling dam. Neither he nor I expected what was to come, and it literally blew us out of the water.

The recognition that we were 'intended mates' felt like Something, other than us had selected us to be together - we were not even each other's 'type', and had not fathomed that we could be attracted to each other in the way that unfolded. I was terrified: "but I only came to Wisconsin for ONE year - NOT to spend the rest of my life!!!" I lamented, realizing how deep my roots had grown in New Mexico.

This would be a terrible blow for Zinnia, who just wanted her mom to return home (Zinnia had left the program around Dec. 11) and to have her old life back. And for my mother, who secretly hoped Tom and I could be reconciled. And all my friends, who are more like my chosen family...and all for what??? for a 'recognition' which I could not explain in words, but which was clearer than anything I had ever perceived. To deny it would be akin to refusing to inhale my next breath.

I decided to fast for five days to gain the strength and perspective that I needed to walk the path unfolding before me. I fasted in the earth lodge at Winter Camp with the support of my group + Jill and Jonas, who heated rocks morning and night to keep the lodge warm. It was early February and temperatures were below zero. With the end of my fast I released my celibacy vows and embraced my future as I had come to embrace my Present during my lone Solstice days.

To put things into chronological perspective: I started to feel drawn to Tamarack the first couple of weeks in January. By around the third week I had realized this was not a simple attraction. After much trepidation on my part and with much encouragement from my inner Voices, I wrote him a letter basically letting him know that if he felt the same signs I did, I wanted to walk our Vision together. We were spending more time together including some nighttimes. I was committed to my time at Nishnajida - so he would sometimes stay at camp with me. We slept together, but he respected my desire to remain celibate. (I am using the word celibate to mean not
engaging in sexual intercourse.)

When things started to feel clearer regarding our intendedness, he told me that he and you had been exploring an important connection between you, the purpose of which had not yet been clarified.

- CUT -

I know Tamarack feels deep caring for you and admiration for the beautiful womin that you are, as well as sadness that you be in pain. Anger and hatred can hurt the people acted upon with these intense feelings, but the damage inflicted on the hated cannot begin to compare with the destruction that the feelings in themselves wreak on the person holding them within.

In the time I have shared with Tamarack platonically and intimately, I have known him to be a kind person of integrity and high moral values. He encouraged me to 'interview' his past mates regarding him, his character, his healing history, etc. when we first got together, so that I may know him from a wider perspective. Even though I do speak with both Jill and Lisa, two of his latest relationships, I have not 'interviewed' them, but I believe I will do so now in honor of the situation that has ensued between you and Tamarack and which is gifting me with a reminder of the importance of full and open communication, of a flow that connects us with all aspects of being, and not only the positive ones. Tamarack's cherishing of my 'flaws' and 'weaknesses' together with my 'joy' and 'wisdom' encourages me to reciprocate the Gift toward him and others...

Besides, I too, care about you as the brilliant person that you are and want to help in any way I can, to alleviate affront or injury, if there be such; to serve as a sounding board, if one be needed, and to also hold your shadow side in respect and honor for the important role that it plays in the grand scheme of life. I am open to talking on the phone or in person and extend an invitation to you to visit in person if you should desire it. Our home is your home and our hearts are open to you. Not one of us can truly return Home until we are all healed and restored to our intrinsic balance.

Even though I may not understand exactly where or why the rift began between the honorable feelings you and Tamarack shared, I feel unconditional love towards you as well as towards him. Perhaps because I have come to love myself in this way.

Everything in my reality mirrors to me how I truly feel about myself. If someone or something shows me ways in which I still despise or judge myself without mercy; that person or situation does me great honor by opening my eyes to a place within me which needs integrating and cherishing. I therefore owe that person or situation a great debt of gratitude. The beauty of this reality is that by paying my debt, I restore the balance that was missing and which blesses not only me, but the whole.

I sincerely hope that your wish, which is my wish also, comes true and that we may always be blessings to one another. Lety

Good Morning ____, Back after another night rich in dreams and Guidance. Wasn't able to send this letter last night and this morning realized why. Wanting to integrate the following awarenesses into the body of the previous letter, I recognized the need to share them in the order in which they are becoming apparent to me.

First of all, I most sincerely hope that my words do not feel like a condescending shpiell. My intent is to communicate that this exercise of examining my feelings and motives is timely and takes me to explore my own perceptions and hidden agendas once again. Every time I hear myself giving 'advice' to someone, or thinking that I'm helping someone else figure something out, I surely find down the line that those words fit me to a tea and help me to expand my awareness and knowing of myself. Of course, if these words happen to help clarify or heal, then the blessing is multiplied.

On my life journey, I found that I held a very deep and strong belief that I was intrinsically evil, and that my least possible denominator surely was dark and low - I stalked myself as I extended that perception about myself to everything and everyone about me. I was even suspicious of the most enlightened people I met, for they too carried within them that 'original sin', and like myself, were so fallible.

As my walk continued, understanding dawned that without forgiveness, I could not experience my own Divinity, that I would be unable to see the Divine within me unless I was able to forgive that which I believed not to be Divine. Forgiveness expanded my perception: my Shadow, as a vital player in my creation - gave texture, dimension and perspective to an otherwise flat landscape. As I was able to forgive myself for that which I was not (the shadow my light cast), then I was able to experience my truest Essence, my Divinity, and consequently, the Divinity of all.

No longer needing to charge an 'eye for an eye', because that 'other eye' is also mine. Relief floods me, there IS justice.

Cherishing this opportunity to recognize the perfection that we already are, I thank You and hold you in my Heart.

Somehow They Always Find Each Other

Isn't it amazing how REALLY bad writers (and dressers) always find each other?

Lety, the woman Tamarack was getting his "intended to be mated" on with while sending "love" letters to a female student, was later sent copies of the letters. She asked the student for further explanation about what really transpired. The student complied. This is an excerpt from Lety's return response.

She do sing a twinkie song, don't she?

Thank you so much for your sharing, for extending your Trust to my listening.

You have strong Wind Medicine in You. The tempest of your turmoil has shaken me to my roots. Branches from my tree have been ripped and shattered at my feet. Green leaves as well as brown ones form a carpet on the sacred ground I stand on. I have put myself in your shoes and reveled in the rich texture of your complexity, and bled with the anguish of your Secret Voices, the ones that haven't found true resonance.

I looked in the mirror and realized it was really me I was looking at. The clamorous din pervaded my being, each Voice weighing heavier than the other, my back sagged, my knees buckled. My eyes flooded over with the thought fueled emotions. There was no hope, the Secret Voices were being drowned by the shrieks of love forsaken ghosts screaming for retribution, for restitution. I realized they were after my flesh, so I gifted them with it, grateful that there was something I could give for their pain. With a prayerful sigh, I capitulated. Death washed over me with its healing balm.

The Present moment was the only reality left, New Life coursed through my veins, and renewed hope filled my awareness.
...........

Ten New Seekers Going Hungry at the Teaching Drum

As much as these clowns obsess about food and how its gathered, you'd think Tamarack and Co. were afflicted with eating disorders. Actually we really do wonder if anyone in Lety's or Tamarack's family has ever been diagnosed with an eating disorder. It would be interesting, certainly, if something like that could be confirmed, and it would explain a lot about the sick, controlling mentality that marks the philosophy behind the Teaching Drum. In any event, we have no doubt that food is quite the weapon around the Konen family table.

Enjoy the road kill and handful of berries, Suckers - um - Seekers. Remember, the staff at the Big House gets first dibs on the tasty treats YOUR money bought. You get the moldy food drops.

Particularly heartening to see in this broadcast from Lety is to what great effort she goes to explain away criticisms of the school from those who have experienced it in the past. We concur with her however that if you are interested in paying $6000 to eat roadkill and go hungry while living 24/7 with dirty, cranky strangers - please do go visit the school first.

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Lety Seibel"
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 06:36:52 -0500
Subject: RE: [Teaching_Drum] Re: This years Wilderness Guide Program

For those of you curious or interested in the WGP, the first step is to get a WGP information packet which goes over description, philosophy and logistical details. You can order it through our webpage wwwdotteachingdrumdotorg (I'm writing it like this to minimize spammers collecting the 'ready-to-click' address)or by calling the office here 715-546-2944.

The second step is to visit with the current participants for a full week and be completely immersed in the experience, this is the only way to dispel myths and get a glimpse into what it is really about. This step is so vital that it is required before an application can be submitted.

To tackle Nick's questions: the year-long is going great! There are 10 Seekers in two camps, 4 of them women. There is way too much to say about what they are working on right now as the physical, mental, emotional & spiritual aspects of being are all involved in the process of re-awakening,so will give you a synopsis.

Right now they are living in tents, they are gathering material for and building bark lodges. They are foraging all their drinking water, greens and protein, the School is still providing them with fruit, along with a small amount of starch and fat. The berry season is beginning, so soon they will be providing all their own fruit. So far they have made baskets, wooden bowls and eating utensils and are working of making fire by friction. They have learned about wilderness hygiene and first aid, direction
finding/lost- proofing, and many other foundational skills. Breaking mental patterns, awareness and attunement exercises & truthspeaking are integrated into the everyday until they cease to be 'exercises'. They will likely begin hide tanning soon.

Every year's process is very uniquely tailored to the people participating and we discourage comparisons from one year to the next because it sets people up for disappointments and reinforces the 'future/past- projecting' mentality which is already so rampant everywhere. One of the great challenges for people is to be fully present in the moment and that is one aspect which is emphasized and nurtured in this experience. Outwardly the timing and skills practiced during the WGP may seem to vary, and yet the core concepts are fully covered every year. After the year's experience we encourage Seekers to test out these universal concepts by applying them to the next step on their journeys, thereby reinforcing them and having them as
allies for the rest of their lives.

A couple of people from Australia have visited the School in the past including a man who took the Program three years ago; I could check with him and give him your e-mail address if you'd like to get in touch with him.

Lety