Dare Sohei & Animist Arts

[fairbanks]

This is a "non-dual animist" group run by Dare Sohei (originally trained by Daniel Foor who is listed as Fraud on here) and Larissa Kaul (trained by Jai Medina at The Balanzu Way School of Shamanic Arts, who also has a thread on NAFPS). They sell so-called "ritual-performances" called "Between Sun and Moon" online that are, "an energetic and spiritual tune up for ourselves and inevitably our ancestors, and doing our part as humans to collaborate with Spirit and Nature for the benefit of all beings."

[fairbanks]

https://www.animistarts.art/

[fairbanks]

It should be noted that Sohei came out against Daniel Foor, yet has set up their own business that's clearly similar to Foor's Ancestral Medicine in it's focus on ancestor work and "animism" (a term of course originally coined as pejorative against indigenous people).

[fairbanks]

They seem to use a lot of social justice rhetoric. Daniel Foor does the same thing now, continuing his plastic shaman "animism" business with a social justice twist. It seems that if you sprinkle in buzzwords like "decolonization", then you get a pass. When Foor was outed on here for his plastic shaman lineage, he distanced himself from his original teacher. I assume if Sohei comes on here, he will do the same. Probably talking about how he came out in a letter against Foor and all his exploitative fraud. At the end of the day though, this is the lineage here: plastic shaman wannabe to plastic shaman wannabe. You can dress up in social justice rhetoric all you want, but at the end of the day it's still selling "animism" ceremony online. Call it decolonial play or whatever is catchy for the more politically savvy kids these days, but it's all in the same breath of plastic shamanism.

I confronted Sohei personally on facebook, which probably wasn't the smartest idea on my part admittedly. They got very defensive, which is always a big red flag with these kind of people. Reminded me of the thread on here called "NAFPS takes pride in being called "Enemy""

When a spiritual exploiter insults us, attacks us, spreads rumors, issues empty threats of lawsuits, or goes to elaborate and ultimately useless efforts to go after us, we take it as a compliment.

We take it as a sign of success, a mark of how worried they are about the loss of their income, power, or standing because of their fraudulent or disprespectful actvity being exposed and criticized.

The more they squawk, the more they show themselves to be panicked or paranoid.

[Sparks]

... Dare Sohei (originally trained by Daniel Foor who is listed as Fraud on here) ...

It should be noted that Sohei came out against Daniel Foor, yet has set up their own business that's clearly similar to Foor's Ancestral Medicine in it's focus on ancestor work and "animism" (a term of course originally coined as pejorative against indigenous people).

They seem to use a lot of social justice rhetoric. Daniel Foor does the same thing now, continuing his plastic shaman "animism" business with a social justice twist. It seems that if you sprinkle in buzzwords like "decolonization", then you get a pass. When Foor was outed on here for his plastic shaman lineage, he distanced himself from his original teacher.

Daniel Foor's thread in here: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2393.0 [Daniel Foor]

[Sparks]

... Larissa Kaul (trained by Jai Medina at The Balanzu Way School of Shamanic Arts, who also has a thread on NAFPS).

Jai Medina is here: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5222.0
[Jai Medina — Two-Spirit Shamanic Healing]

[fairbanks]

I reached out to Larissa Kaul to see which Shoshone and Cherokee Elders she claims taught her (per website bio). The response was an explicit No, saying that I don't "relate well" and that she doesn't want me in their "field". I don't know what that means about being in the "field" but it sounds pretty new agey to me. Of course, when exploiters are confronted with their using of native elders to prop up their "animism ritual performance" business they can't even give you any names. For the unassuming buyer of these "animist" consulting services, all it takes is a simple line like "taught by Shoshone elders" to hook them in and fork out their hundreds of dollars per hour for services.

[fairbanks]

More about Dare Sohei from his website: https://bodyaltar.org/acknowledgments

A new-age shopping mall mix from Daoism to Witchcraft to a "courtship with Indigenous medicine ceremonies and practices".

is supported by my study in Steve Hoskinson's Organic Intelligence.
is inspired by the work of Shirley Turcotte's Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy.
arose out of my long courtship with Indigenous medicine ceremonies and practices.
is informed by the blessed teacher Liu Ming of Da Yuan Circle.
is guided by my friendship with my blessed mentor Henry who is trained by Victor and Cora Anderson's Feri Tradition of Witchcraft.
follows certain principles from interdisciplinary, dance and movement artforms/methods, such as Axis Syllabus, Authentic Movement, Devised Physical Theater, clown/bouffon, poetry and many forms of Improv.

I also trained in ancestral healing with Daniel Foor, though I am not offering their method of work due to issues I have stated publicly (link below). There are many effective paths toward practicing ancestral healing.

[Defend the Sacred]

More about Dare Sohei from his website: https://bodyaltar.org/acknowledgments

A new-age shopping mall mix from Daoism to Witchcraft to a "courtship with Indigenous medicine ceremonies and practices".

What a mess.

... guided by my friendship with my blessed mentor Henry who is trained by Victor and Cora Anderson's Feri Tradition of Witchcraft.

Victor Anderson admitted later in life that he based a lot of his "Feri Witchcraft" "tradition" on a freely mixed combination of Satanism, Appalachian folklore, Gardnerian Wicca, plus stuff he read about misappropriated/made-up "Huna".

Of course, he and his followers didn't know the books he read on Huna were fake ceremonies and "traditions" made up by colonists, so they were fine with the idea they were appropriating from Indigenous people. Other bits of "Feri" seem to have come from misappropriated Middle Eastern iconography, with is very ironic; they've cherry-picked deities from heavily patriarchal traditions and imported them into hippie feminist, often naked, newage rituals. They claim to be an "other-than-Gardner" Witch/Wicca tradition, but their ritual structure is the same as Gardner's made-up one he misappropriated from his ideas of Native ceremonies (four directions, four elements, casting the circle, etc).

...follows certain principles from interdisciplinary, dance and movement artforms/methods, such as Axis Syllabus, Authentic Movement, Devised Physical Theater, clown/bouffon, poetry and many forms of Improv.

Clowns and Buffoons. Well, they said it first.

It's performance art, not spirituality.

[fairbanks]

It's performance art, not spirituality.

They do actually call their pay 2 pray BS, "performance-rituals" of "non-dual animism." I read on Dare Sohei's website that they "play with Indigenous world-views".

Sohei also claims to be Taino, maybe this is something we can look more into.

[fairbanks]

Sohei also claims to be Taino, maybe this is something we can look more into.

Sohei also identifies as Afro-Caribbean Puerto Rican hence the claims to being Taino. Just looking more into Caribbean identification with being Taino came up with an interesting comment in the Taino Heritage subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/TainoHeritage/comments/i9myp5/this_is_not_taino_blog/

Realistically, most Caribbeans are not Taino. We have the dna, but we don't have access to the culture, which is what indigenity is. 99% of people claiming to be Taino know nothing about the culture and just use the label to claim being Indigenous. (Not to mention having no connection to the at large Indigenous community). It's Pretendian stuff.