Origins of the Cycle Teachings
Where did the Cycle Teachings come from?
The Cycle Teachings are an authentic, non-traditional body of shamanic teachings emerging from Christina Lee Pratt’s initiatory experiences in response to the unique needs of our times.
From the perspective of the Cycle Teachings, many of the greatest troubles we face today are caused by the forced abandonment of ritual, due to violent persecution of those practices from colonial powers.
The key rituals most of contemporary culture has abandoned include tending the gates of birth, initiation into adulthood, eldership and death resulting in the disconnection, extractive behavior and dysfunction of our times.
Christina birthed the Cycle Teachings into the world in partnership with her helping spirits after successfully navigating her initiation. The Teachings began to emerge and solidify into a lineage after a decade of sharing them with people on the broken path, those who are living in cultures that:
Have forgotten or been forcibly separated from some or all of their traditional knowledge
Are often disconnected from the land where they live
Have lost the spiritual technologies for living a life of purpose in harmony with each other and the more than human world
People coming from the broken path cannot redress the challenges of our time by appropriating indigenous teachings divorced from their cultural context. At the core of the Cycle Teachings are authentic, cross-cultural tools for engaging directly with spirit, whoever we are, from any cultural background or path. And doing so while transforming the personal and cultural wounds that can so easily distort otherwise sincere efforts to manifest our gifts in a way that is good for all of life.
In this way we can not only heal personally but restore right relationship with the Earth and all of life. This carries the teachings forward in such a way that the coming generations can not just survive but innovate and thrive. In applying these teachings, we work to act as ancestors our descendants will be proud of.
The Cycle Teachings have unfolded and been refined over the last 20+ years, especially as they have been embodied in community. Today the lineage of the Cycle Teachings are stewarded by the Cycle Community, a vibrant movement of people committed to embodying animist lifeways and engaging the challenges facing humanity at this time.