Maps to Ecstasy: The Healing Power of Movement

By Gabrielle Roth

In this revised edition of Maps to Ecstasy, Gabrielle Roth expands on the themes that have guided her — ways of transforming daily life into sacred art. Her work in teaching movement has been described as a marriage of art and healing.

Each chapter initiates readers into one of the five sacred powers necessary for survival and reveals the five life cycles that lead to enlightenment. The creative process brings readers in touch with these five sacred powers by freeing the body to experience the power of being, expressing the heart to experience the power of loving, emptying the mind to experience the power of seeing, and embodying the spirit to experience the power of healing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New World Library
• Release date: Sep 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781577313137

Gabrielle Roth

Gabrielle Roth has taught her unique style of art and healing throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has produced concerts and public radio programs, created numerous music and speaking tapes, and has acted as consultant to various educational institutions, mental hospitals, and professional associations. Gabrielle has worked with her own dance/theater/music company, the "Mirrors," has been a member of the Actor's Studio (Playwrights and Directors Unit), and has directed Off-Off-Broadway and experimental plays. She is currently teaching experimental theater in New York and is training others to use her catalytic methods in various artistic, educational, and healing contexts. Gabrielle's life has been devoted to empowering people through the creative process, inspiring them to free themselves, to transform their daily lives into sacred art. In Maps to Ecstasy she makes available to the general public what she's discovered — the ways to come fully alive. For further information about the lectures, workshops, trainings, and performances of Gabrielle Roth, visit her website at www.gabrielleroth.com.

Book preview

Praise for Maps to Ecstasy

"Gabrielle Roth is a unique and inspirational teacher, and this book is filled with her presence and her wisdom. I find Maps to Ecstasy fascinating, powerful, and delightful...."

— Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization

"Gabrielle Roth is one of the most astounding beings alive and moving on the planet today. Her story and method move beyond ordinary definitions."

— Joan Halifax, author of The Fruilful Darkness:

Reconnecting with the Body of the Earth

"A wonderful and inspiring book that can lead people to a new level of understanding and give them the courage to follow their dreams."

— Lynn Andrews, author of

Medicine Woman and Love and Power

"I love Gabrielle’s unique, poetic, down-home, funky style. She has been a constant inspiration to us creative people around the world. Maps to Ecstasy opens the door to living an ecstatic life."

— Margot Anand, author of The Art of Everyday Ecstasy

"Whether we live in urban or rural environments, our task is to remember and use the inherent instincts, rhythms, and intelligences available to us. Gabrielle Roth identifies these aspects of human nature and shows how we can apply perennial wisdom in contemporary times. Many books talk about shamanism; this one gives the reader an experience of shamanism."

— Angeles Arrien, author of The Four-Fold Way

"Gabrielle Roth dances timeless wisdom to the rhythms of today and tomorrow. Maps to Ecstasy is a moving, inspiring, and vivid experience from one of the world’s greatest teachers...."

— Brian Bates, author of

The Way of Wyrd and The Way of the Actor

"Gabrielle Roth’s book is a joy, a truly moving experience from a very fine teacher. It is both fun to read and immensely instructive. Don’t expect to finish the book in a couple of sittings — keep it around and work with it over time like an old friend FIVE STARS FOR GABRIELLE ROTH AND MAPS TO ECSTASY.’"

— Brooke Medicine Eagle, author of

Buffalo Woman Comes Singing

"You’re in the desert. The raven comes down and talks to you in a dry, ancient voice. Don’t mind the words — you recognize the voice. You knew it before you were born. That’s Gabrielle."

— Boris Grebenschikov, Russian rock musician

"Gabrielle Roth is a woman of power. In Maps to Ecstasy she takes us on a mythic journey through our lives and points the way to true balance. She challenges us to move and empowers us with the tools to dance our own dance."

— Michael Toms, host/producer of the radio series

New Dimensions and coauthor of True Work

This book of impassioned, dancing wisdom teachings will delight you. As the saintly Mr. Gurdjieff might have said, Gabrielle Roth is a human being not in quotation marks.

— Dr. Robert Masters, director of research,

The Foundation for Mind Research

Maps to Ecstasy

A Healing Journey for the Untamed Spirit

Maps to Ecstasy

A Healing Journey for the Untamed Spirit

Gabrielle Roth

with John Loudon

NATRAJ PUBLISHING

A DIVISION OF

NEW WORLD LIBRARY

NOVATO, CALIFORNIA

Revised edition © 1998 by Gabrielle Roth

Original edition © 1989 by Gabrielle Roth

Permissions acknowledgments are on page 213

Cover design: Michele Wetherbee

Cover illustration: Paul Heussenstamm

Interior design: Aaron Kenedi

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice nor prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or mental problems without the advice of a physician either directly or indirectly. In the event you use any of the information in this book, neither the author nor the publisher can assume any responsibility for your actions. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for personal growth.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

Roth, Gabrielle, 1941-

Maps to ecstasy : a healing journey for the untamed spirit / Gabrielle Roth.

--Rev. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-57731-045-4 (alk. paper)

1. Shamanism. 2. Mental healing. 3. Shamans. I. Title.

First printing, October 1998

ISBN 1-57731-045-4

Printed in Canada on acid-free, recycled paper.

Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West

10 9 8 7

Dedicated to Robert and Jonathan

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD

by angeles arrien

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

initiation

CHAPTER ONE

freeing the body | the power of being

The Five Rhythms

Practicing the Rhythms

Rhythm Massage

The Rhythms of Lovemaking

CHAPTER TWO

expressing the heart | the power of loving

A Map of the Emotions

The Song of the Heart

Discovering Your Emotional Self

The Pulsing of Love

CHAPTER THEREE

emptying the mind | the power of knowing

Discovering Your Own Mind

The Five Sacred Teachers on the Journey of Life

Writing Your Story

The Birth Cycle

The Childhood Cycle

The Puberty Cycle

The Maturity Cycle

The Death Cycle

CHAPTER FOUR

awakening the soul | the power of seeing

Soul and the Power of Seeing

The Soul and the Ego

The Characters in the Ego Theater

Enacting the Soul

CHAPTER FIVE

embodying the spirit | the power of healing

Inertia

Imitation

Intuition

Imagination

Inspiration

Ways to the Center

Healing

EPILOGUE

PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Acknowledgments

I guess it would be easy to write acknowledgments if I only owed a little to a few people, but my life and work have been touched so deeply by so many. In general, I have received something from everyone I’ve ever worked with. My most important teachers have been my students. I can only lead by following and they have always taken me exactly where I needed to go.

I am deeply indebted to my whole family. Especially to my father, for initiating me into the art of living and of dying. To my mother, for her constant flow of unconditional love and support. To my husband, Rob, there are no words to convey how profoundly he has served the development of my work in general and this book in particular. I thank him for being my best friend, wisest teacher, and constant collaborator — the one who dances with me through all the changes. And to my son, Jonathan, for being my deepest pipeline to my real self I am honored to be his mom, and often humbled by his wisdom, some of which has made it to the pages of this book.

I am also indebted to Oscar Ichazo — for teaching me how to tell the difference between who I am and who I am not. I could not have written Chapters Three and Four of this book without his teachings.

My deepest thanks to the Mirrors, kindred spirits with whom I worked and performed daily for three years, and whose courage, honesty, and commitment in stripping down their psyches and performing their pain enabled me to develop the material in Chapter Four. These warriors of Ritual Theater gave life to a whole new level of my work. Thank you. Jay and Amber Kaplan, Martha Clark Peabody, Elliot Sobel, Melissa Rosenberg, Robert Ansell, Ma Prem Lolita, Nirvesha, Bonita Mugnani, and Bobby Miller.

Along the way I have received unconditional support from Michael Murphy, Dick Price, and Nancy Lunney, who provided me with a laboratory at Esalen Institute in which my entire body of work was developed. And my heartfelt thanks to Kathryn Altman, who has continuously blessed me with her support, love, home, car, and closet.

My deepest struggle has been to bring my work to the written page, to freeze in time something that is essentially moving. This could not have been done without the wisdom and sensitivity of my collaborator, John Loudon. His faith in me and this project was as important as his enormous talent in bringing this book to fruition.

I deeply appreciate my publisher, New World Library. Shakti Gawain has been a good friend and formidable ally; Marc Allen has been a stillpoint of strength in my corner, and, in my editor, Carol LaRusso, I have found a true servant of the heart, and of the reader. I thank her for her exquisite attention to the details of this work, and for the many laughs we were able to share in both the peaks and the valleys of the creative process. And I thank the entire staff at New World Library for their generosity of spirit. Special thanks to Deborah Eagle-barger, for typing and preparing the final manuscript with such speed and devotion.

And then there are those friends who, in one way or another, supported and inspired the process of writing this book. Special thanks to Yolande Villemaire, Philip Doughtry, Louise Riskin, and Joanne Segel.

My special thanks to the following people for their contribution to the second edition:

Lora O’Connor, (here and after St. Lora) without whom there would be no second edition, for her unconditional support and endless generosity of time, energy, and spirit.

For their invaluable editing skills, Linda Kahn, Kathryn Altman, Lori Saltzman, and Jason Gardner. I am grateful to Michele Wetherbee, Aaron Kenedi, and Paul Heussenstamm for the cover art, and Hans Li for the illustrations.

For general support in managing the process: Becky Benenate, Tona Pearce Myers, Pat Sweeting. And to Peter Jones for his inspiration in the eleventh hour.

Foreword

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask you one of four questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?

Where we stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories, or finding comfort in silence is where we have experienced the loss of soul. Dancing, singing, storytelling, and silence are the four universal healing salves.

Gabrielle Roth is a master dancer who has identified the five universal rhythms that are elemental when any human being explores dance:

  •    The flowing rhythm is a teacher of fluidity and grace

  •    The staccato rhythm is the teacher of definition and refinement

  •    The rhythm of chaos is an announcement of creativity seeking form

  •    The lyrical rhythm is the teacher of synthesis and integration

  •    The rhythm of stillness is the teacher of contentment and peace

Gabrielle Roth embodies these five rhythms with elegance, grace, and mastery. She reminds each individual of the beauty and the mystery found in the human body when it engages in any of the five rhythms. And she shows how the five rhythms bring us into our own definition, fluidity, integration, creativity, and contentment.

Gabrielle Roth has made an outstanding contribution to the universal healing salve of dance. She has initiated thousands of people back into their body wisdom.

Folk wisdom from East Africa describes the unity experienced when one is dancing fully: One leg cannot dance alone, they say. And the old Yiddish proverb says, With time, even a bear can learn to dance. Gabrielle Roth’s gift has been to bring this ancient wisdom to us now, when we need it — to consistently inspire and motivate people with movement’s dynamic healing power.

— Angeles Arrien, Ph.D.

cultural anthropologist

Author of The Four-Fold Way and Signs of Life

Author’s Preface

to the second edition

Ritual is routine infused with mindfulness.

It is habit made holy.

—Kent Nerburn

Small Graces

Fifteen years ago, I had a rendezvous with a half-blind Indian shaman in the Buffalo airport. As we sat in the fast-food café sipping tea, we each drew our cosmologies on paper napkins, which we then exchanged. His was ancient and had been passed down over the centuries; mine was brand new. He called his a medicine wheel; I didn’t have a name for mine, so I called it a map.

I’ve always felt like a cartographer obsessed with surveying the geography of inner space. Indeed, one reason I started dancing was to explore my uncharted interior territory. Eventually I discovered that the markers I used as guideposts on these inner quests were not specific just to me — they were universal.

All journeys raise the same questions: Where am I going? How will I get there? By what means and what route? The process is the same whether you are going to San Francisco or the stillpoint — the still-point at the core of who we are. There are plenty of ways to go to San Francisco: you can fly, walk, drive, take a bus or train. And there are plenty of ways to get to the stillpoint: through martial arts, yoga, Zen meditation, vision-questing, golfing, running, fly-fishing.

I get there by dancing. I remember being a wild child of the sixties, having to dance or die — letting go of everything I thought, felt, or knew to be true as some kind of jazz riff seized my bones. I spent long nights in my living room, the music at full volume, eyes half closed, making love to the beat. Swooning to the rhythm, I felt as if I’d met the ultimate lover. In ecstatic rapture, I surrendered to something old and mysterious.

Maps to Ecstasy implies that ecstasy is a place and that we can get there with a good set of directions. The key to entering this place is some radical form of surrender, a ritual shattering. For me this has taken place on countless dance floors, when the music was really pumping and I stopped caring about what anybody else thought of my dance, my hairdo, my brain, or my butt. Through dancing I navigated the badlands of endless headtrips and found my way back to the stomping ground of my own two feet. Through dancing I discovered that when you put the psyche in motion, it heals itself

Since making this realization many years ago, I have become a tour guide, taking groups of people on the inner journey from inertia to ecstasy. It’s been a very popular trip. In workshops, I’ve led thousands of people into states of being they never dreamed existed. Because of the way we’ve all been conditioned, however, we may experience wonderful transformative epiphanies but don’t trust that anything real or valuable has happened. Unless we categorize, verbalize, and intellectualize, they have no meaning.

This book was born out of a need to slow the process down, so we can appreciate the individual steps to awareness and how they are interconnected. Indeed, to stop the world and contemplate how all things are interrelated in the context of our psyches is a way to self-knowledge. And to honor the timeless motions of the body, the heart, the mind, the soul, and the spirit is to behold the amazing grace and impeccable design of the human psyche.

Since Einstein, physicists have been seeking a grand unified theory of the universe. I’ve been looking for a grand unified theory of the soul. Each of us is a vast field of energy that is constantly in motion. But at our core is a stillpoint. After a number of years of looking out at dancing bodies from my stillpoint, I began to see patterns in their movements, an infrastructure underlying all our experience, a living language.

I was stunned at how all these patterns revealed themselves to me in fives, as if guided by some universal principle. From where I sat in the deep, dark emptiness, every body appeared as a star in a sky of infinite possibilities. The feet, hands, and head were five points mirroring some ancient law connecting all our parts to the whole. The five rhythms I had been dancing were hooked up to five layers of consciousness. As we move through the five layers, five tasks reveal themselves, each designed to unleash a specific power in us. And those five powers are grounded in five creative archetypes. When we embody all of them, we become the fascinating, mysterious, mystically inclined, poetic, free-form selves we were born to be.

In Maps to Ecstasy, I’ve codified these patterns into a series of maps to guide you through your inner world and help you make some sense of it all. The book’s five chapters mirror the five aspects of the psyche. In Chapter One, we enter the teachings of the body, which are rooted in the map of the five rhythms. Chapter Two charts our journey through the heart and reveals five core emotions. Chapter Three is the domain of the mind, where we investigate life’s five stages, focusing on each one’s sacred teachings and teachers. In Chapter Four, we expose the ego to reveal the mysteries of the soul. And finally, in Chapter Five, all the paths converge on the road to the Silver Desert — an illuminative, visionary level of consciousness.

From start to finish, this is a spiral journey we can enter again and again from different viewpoints and at different times in our lives. The journey provides a psychic framework to show us where we’ve been, help us pinpoint where we are, and allow us to choose where we want to go.

Perhaps one reason these maps work on such a deep, catalytic level is that they emerged organically from my teaching rather than from the library. They have been road tested by thousands of students over thirty-odd years. Over this time, this infectious body of work has spread across the U.S. and to other continents, creating an international tribe of untamed spirits moving through the wilderness of their true selves. The five rhythms have become a spiritual practice, a workout for body and soul with astounding healing properties not only for individuals but for entire communities.

We live in critical times — ecologically, politically, socially, and philosophically. Essentially the world is in chaos. Old systems are breaking down and new ones have yet to develop. But they are emerging. Now more than ever we need to return to ourselves for guidance and to rely on long-buried instincts and intuitions. As parents, teachers, friends, lovers, and leaders we need to honor the artist and healer within, who hold the key to our spiritual growth as tribal individuals, independent from dated dogmas and full of deeper independence.

The maps in this book represent fixed points in a fluid worldview. They ground and enhance our free-spiritedness so that we can embrace the creativity in the chaos and the sacred in our story. But maps are only maps; it’s up to you to take the journey.

— Gabrielle Roth

Manhattan, May 1998

Introduction

Initiation

Somewhere along our journey of awakening, with all its struggles, joys, and disappointments, ecstasy will be revealed, as a confirmation, a blessing, a message from the Source. Then all that remains is to live with joy, love, and laughter.

— Margot Anand

The Art of Everyday Ecstasy

I was born to move and to teach others to move. To move their bodies, their hearts, their minds, their souls, their spirits — to heal the rift between their dream and their reality, their experience and their potential.

From an early age, my energies were drawn to healing. I could slip into a trance, see through bodies, smell death, feel birth, know when someone was in pain and how to guide them through it. I learned to focus these instincts and turn them into a body of work designed to show people