Pretendian Racist Tries to Colonise Ireland - The attempted return of White Ego Fraud

Thoroughly non-Native Rachel Holzwarth is still calling herself "White Eagle Medicine Woman," even though she promised the real Native Americans who picketed her racist displays that she would stop doing so. She is still dressing in fake Plains NDN regalia, even though she promised NDNs she would stop. She lied. Then she lied some more.

Now she's looking for some place to sell her fake ceremonies and "prayerformances" (her word), and she's hoping she can find some place where there are no NDNs, and where no one cares about misappropriation. Her only performances and workshops in the US in the past five years have been in all-white, gated enclaves. She's gotten some confidence back by selling her pretendian schtick to Jews & tourists in the Middle East. Now, five years after her broken promises, she is once again looking to branch out. This is from her Facebook page (It looks like you will have to temporarily "like" the page to see the posts):


from Holzwarth's Facebook page
Holzwarth photoshopped a version of a spiral from a Christian manuscript into one of her bizarre publicity photos:
 

It's not even an image of the Newgrange spiral. Ripping off an unrelated image from an Irish manuscript gives her no more connection to Newgrange, or any other Irish sacred site, than does her hanging Australian eagle feathers off that death drum and claiming it gives her the right to represent Native Americans. Yet she has lied and claimed to be "Celtic" just as she has lied about being Seneca. She has never shown that she knows anything at all about Irish (or any other Celtic) culture. She just tried that old racist ploy of thinking "Celtic" can be used as shorthand for "white appropriator." When pressed, she has admitted she is Jewish. There is nothing wrong with being a Jew, but apparently Rachel seems to think so. It looks like she has tried to be lots of things.

The death drum contains human remains and human blood. It is evil, like the racist pretendian fraud who bangs on it, the one who has openly espoused the racist theories of Steiner - suggesting that all the NDNs need to die so the white people can inherit their medicine. Anyone of any spiritual sensitivity who has been near that thing can feel that it is bad, bad ju ju. Anyone with basic human compassion for oppressed people must stand up to this crass exploitation.

She's also putting out feelers in England:


from Holzwarth's Facebook page
Heads up, Irish and English folks, and anyone else in the Isles. Don't let this woman exploit you the way she's tried to exploit Indigenous people everywhere she's gone. Don't let her come to your land, don't let her present there, don't buy her lies.

Don't let her rip us off the way she's ripped off Native Americans. Don't let her steal our ancestors or sell a mangled misrepresentation of us to the capitalist newagers. Don't let her use us to promote her racist agenda.

Go raibh maith agaibh! 

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Windigo Disease collage courtesy of When White People Go Bad.

Racism and Invisible Indians in the James Ray Trial

James Arthur Ray has been found guilty of three counts of Negligent Homicide

I join with the many activists who have followed this trial in being relieved we have a verdict of guilty. Like my colleagues, I would have preferred the manslaughter conviction, which carries a longer sentence. But at least Ray has been found guilty of causing the deaths of three human beings through his negligence. He will do time. May this serve as a deterrent to the other frauds and exploiters out there.

James Arthur Ray exploited Native people by mimicking their ceremonies and selling them for obscene amounts of money. He exploited lost souls looking for a spiritual leader. He killed three people in his sham plastic tent and sent many more to the hospital. I only wish the penalty was more severe for the damage he has done.

I pray that all those who have been exploited and harmed by this arrogant fraud, and by exploiters like him, find justice, completion, peace and healing.


  James Arthur Ray, manifesting his future
Racism and Invisible Indians in the James Ray Trial

One of the most horrifying things about the James Ray trial, and the coverage by the mainstream media, is that Native people were rendered largely invisible. Of the many witnesses who testified, only Fawn Foster, a groundskeeper at the Angel Valley
retreat center, claimed to have any Native heritage (I don't know if she does, but this is what she stated on the stand). The defense tried to use her stated ethnicity, and her disapproval of pay-to-pray, as a reason to doubt her testimony. It was ugly and racist.

Even worse was the news coverage on In Session and Headline News. They found a pretendian fraud to lead a badly-done and dangerous fake sweat for their cameras. Then they had the fraud on the air repeatedly to talk as an "expert" on Native ceremonies. The fraud violated so many ceremonial protocols in the footage, it was appalling. Native people from the family he claimed had adopted him went online to speak out and say he is not a member of their family and has no rights to ceremonies. He caused much distress to Native people, but even over objections In Session kept having him back.

A few days after that, In Session had a panel of six people discussing their experiences with "sweat lodges". Not a single one of the people interviewed was Native. They were all non-Natives who dabble in what they think are Native ceremonies. As I wrote to In Session at the time: "Non-Natives chanting vocables in a plastic tent is not a 'Native ceremony.'"

Native people and their supporters wrote and called In Session and Headline News to protest. We blogged and tweeted about it; one group started a petition. The only response was that eventually In Session stopped their coverage of the James Ray trial completely. They never issued a clarification or retraction. They never apologized. Perhaps they were embarrassed they had been tricked by the fraud, and wanted to pretend it never happened.

Though In Session gave the non-Native people multiple days of coverage to opine on Native ceremonies, and to spread more ignorance, the only time I saw any Native person given a chance to speak was a brief phone call with Floyd Hand (Lakota). His brief spot was not promoted the way the non-Natives were; he was given very little time to talk, and the vapid on-air personality interrupted him and ended the call when he didn't give her the sort of sound bites she was looking for.

It was very offensive.

The James Ray trial has provided a few small openings to educate about cultural appropriation and the cultural genocide perpetuated by frauds like James Arthur Ray. But mostly it has been horrible and disappointing: Newagers on parade, racism, and the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. Three people are dead and up until today nothing had really changed, except that a lot of ignorant non-Natives now think anyone can attend a sweat lodge and it's only inappropriate if you make it too hot and too long. Or they don't understand that what James Ray led was not a Native ceremony, and now they mistakenly believe that Native people have scary and deadly practices. Some Pagans who have commented seem to think it's only a matter of a few mistakes in construction and timing, "Oh, he used plastic tarps and overdid it." In terms of non-Native perceptions of Native people and Native lifeways, I'd say the net result has been more of the same ignorance about Native traditions, just on a bigger scale.

Today's verdict is not ideal. Manslaughter convictions would have locked him up for longer. But at least there is a guilty verdict, and some consequences. Maybe some of the exploiters will think a bit longer before they do one of their macho, sham ceremonies, where they (consciously or unconsciously) act out the racist fantasy that they can be "the better Indians" - that they can make their imitation ceremonies longer and hotter, and in airtight deathlodges, because they must know better than those traditionals who've only been doing this for many, many generations. And they must also be the better Indians since apparently they can just attend a few rituals by another fraud and then hang out a shingle as a sweat leader, when those silly Indians have to grow up in the traditions, be trained for decades by people who were raised in these ways, go through ceremonies cultural outsiders don't even know exist in order to be trusted with the right to have a lodge, and then be acknowledged before the whole community as someone who has earned this right. (As the Lakota ways are the ones most-mimicked by the exploiters, including James Ray, I think Chief Arvol Looking Horse's comments on the issue are especially relevant.)

I keep hoping we can use this case as an opportunity for education, and maybe in a small way we have done that. But aside from those who injure and kill ritual participants now knowing there is a precedent for them to face criminal charges, I'm not sure much has changed. I hope there will be more questioning of cult leaders like Ray. But with our increasingly desperate society, with the environmental and economic disasters we're facing, many people seem all too willing to turn off their brains and follow anyone who claims to have easy answers, or easy solutions. My prediction is that more people are going to die. Newagers and NeoPagans are still leading plastic sweats. Back when I was attending Neopagan gatherings in the 1980's, I saw Neopagans make every single one of the mistakes Ray made - the dangerous changes to lodge construction, the macho changes in tradition, the ignorant mixing of fragments of ceremonies, the ignorance of proper spiritual and physical safety protocols, all of it. The only difference, really, is that Ray charged thousands of dollars whereas Neopagans, if they charge money, usually charge hundreds.* Unless something changes in people's attitudes about cultural integrity and cultural misappropriation, the next deaths may be at a Neopagan gathering.

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For those who've never researched Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) Sweat House traditions, if someone brings that up you may be interested in this earlier post: New Age Death Sweats IV: Jackboots at the Seder Table. The section specifically about comparative Sweat-related traditions, "But Sweatlodge is Universal", starts about 1/3 of the way through.

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*Yes, the old joke does still seem true for much of the Neopagan community:
Q: What's the difference between a Newage gathering and a Neopagan gathering?
A: A decimal point.

For those of you who may not know, the main reason I have very little to do with the mainstream of the Neopagan community these days is the cultural appropriation and usually unintentional, but still very real and unacceptable, racism that is so prevalent there. I just couldn't take it anymore. By the technical definition I'm still a type of modern Pagan, in that I'm a polytheist and practice an earth-based tradition that is both pre-Christian and other-than-Christian. But our Gaelic Polytheist (GP) community has largely different values than the eclectic Neopagan community. We don't have a lot of overlap. As participants in a traditional lifeway, my GP friends, family and I have more in common with our Indigenous friends. These days when I participate in large-scale gatherings it's usually at Gaelic cultural events that are generally secular in nature, or Interfaith gatherings with Indigenous friends and colleagues.

Closing Arguments in James Ray Deathlodge Manslaughter Trial

Prosecutor Sheila Polk delivers closing arguments in James Ray manslaughter trial

Thank you, Twinkie Wrangler for transcribing highlights from the closing arguments in the James Arthur Ray, newage shameon deathlodge trial: Closing Arguments in Arizona v. James Arthur Ray

The defense is delivering their closing as I type this. For the play-by-play, live coverage follow the James Ray Daily and the #JamesRay hashtag on Twitter.

For those wondering how to lead an eclectic, newage ritual that kills people, this is also a good intro. < / sarcasm >

Some quotes from the transcript:

Laurie Gennari ... heard a voice call out, “She’s not responding”.

And at another time, she heard someone call out, “She’s not breathing.” She heard Mr. Ray respond, “leave her there we’ll deal with it at the end of the round.”

...

In his pre-event briefing, Mr. Ray described all the signs and symptoms of heat related illness, but then told them to ignore them and that it was safe to do so.

Mr. Ray encouraged them to let others have their own experience and not to interfere.

Rather than teaching participants that altered mental status is hallmark of heat exhaustion, Mr. Ray encouraged them to push through and endure and that they would have a breakthrough.

...

You’ve heard the defendant’s own words describing how he was intentionally taking the lodge to extreme heat to achieve an altered mental state, telling and them to ignore signs of their bodies.

Sweat lodge ceremonies are not inherently dangerous events.

Endurance challenges where participants are told to ignore signs of heat illness are incredibly dangerous.

No one could imagine that James Ray would ignore calls for help and allow participants to pass out in that tent and just leave them there.

He knew.

He intended to introduce hellaciously hot heat and steam.

He told participants to ignore their body’s warning signs of distress and pushing through pain and suffering was a good thing.

He told them they were not supposed to speak during sweat lodge ceremony unless asked by him.

James Ray audio clip: “…By the time we get to the 27th round – just kidding I will promise you we’ll have at least 7 rounds it just depends on how I get inspired. You’ve got to surrender to it. We’ll be doing some prayers and chants and I may go into an altered state. …

"I’m the master of the lodge and when I tell you to do something that’s when you do it."

He told [participants] they could not leave the tent during a round. ... he said, “I am the grand master in this temple and I need you to think of it in this way. The person running the lodge is like a priest.”

...

What you must consider is did the defendant’s conduct pose a substantial and unjust risk of death and was the defendant aware of the risk. Did he substantially disregard the substantial risk of death?

To prove crime of manslaughter you would have to prove Mr. Ray was aware of the risk of death and ignored it.

I submit to you that Mr. Ray was aware of that risk.

His words before and during the heat challenge itself is proof to you that he was aware.

His conduct inside the sweat lodge as round after round after round more people got sick and his conduct about what he did and what he did not do shows you that what was happening is what he intended to happen. You’ve heard his intent was to create this extreme mental state.

But he intended to use that heat to take them up to that brink of death and think they were getting something for their $10,000.

That’s why he doesn’t stop as people are being dragged out. This is what he intended.

...

Witness after witness has testified about the growing chaos in this tent starting really about the end of round four.

Amy Grimes passed out on Kim Brinkley. She testified she yelled out for help and that Amy was dragged out.

Somebody drags out Amy right past the defendant.

Lou Caci ... delirious and unconscious, falling into that pit of heated rocks.

You have heard so much testimony about the growing chaos, moans, requests for help, dragged out limp and lifeless in front of the defendant.

All the information that he had about people being in distress as early as the fourth round and all the opportunity he had to stop this challenge. He didn’t.

Mr. Ray’s desire to make people think they were experiencing something unique took precedence over their safety.

Debbie Mercer testified that she assisted about 25 people.

Beverly Bunn testified that everything was chaos after the 4th round. Sydney Spenser was dragged out completely lifeless right past the defendant. The defendant shouted, “Everybody quiet down! I am in charge!”

When Scott Barratt tried to move Linda Andresano, the defendant yelled at him to stop. Scott Barratt testified that he stopped because he was afraid that the defendant would yell at him again.

Mr. Ray said, “Just leave her. We need to keep going.”

All these opportunities to stop that event.

These deaths were not inevitable.

Ask yourself , if the defendant had stopped the ceremony when he had these warnings would Kirby, James and Liz still be alive?

There's more. Much more...

It is abundantly clear that by the fourth round, Ray knew people were in medical distress, and needing medical attention. He ignored their distress, told others to ignore their distress, and kept calling for more rocks, more buckets of water to create more heat and steam. He continued this hell-lodge for four more rounds as people lost consciousness and three died. He watched them vomit and lose control of their bodily functions. He watched them unconscious and not breathing, and still he went on. He could have stopped it and he did not. Let's hope the jury gets it and locks this guy up.

Don't Pay To Pray: Lakota Nation Calls James Arthur Ray on his Disrespect

Don't Pay To Pray: Lakota Nation Calls James Arthur Ray on his Disrespect

More details about the Lakota Lawsuits against DeathRay, the impact of this sort of cultural appropriation, and the harm the desecration of the ceremonies and lands does to the Indigenous peoples of the area.

Wannabe NDN

Rezerella brings us this commentary on DeathRay and his DeathTrap. Show it to all the others out there doing the same thing, but who just haven't killed anyone yet.

Plastic Death Sweat - 2 Dead, 3 Critical, 16 More Hospitalized

James Arthur Ray promised to make them Spiritual Warriors.

The newage, pyramid-scheming, scam artist crammed 65 people into a plastic death tent, which he claimed was a sweatlodge. In the hot, wet dark with the man who had no idea how to lead an Indian ceremony, and no connection to any culture that could have taught him how (or told him this was a really bad idea), they sweated for two hours... till two were dead, three were unconscious, and 21 others went to the hospital.

Hazmat teams and crime scene tape now surround the site. Native American ceremonial people from the area are saying that, by imitating a ceremony he was not trained to perform, this newage plastic shaman killed these people. I agree. They used materials in this fake ceremony that should not be used, they used things that were physically and spiritually dangerous. They paid $9,000 for a sad death at the hands of a greedy con man.

I have no idea if they prayed in this fake ceremony, or how. I don't think this guy knows any prayers beyond, "Gimme Gimme Money Money".

James Arthur Ray made them to Pay to Pray. And Michael and Amayra Hamilton provided the place to do it.

James Ray makes his living as a self-styled, newage "prosperity" guru. He sells pyramid schemes and "you create your own reality" guilt trips to rich people. He's been on Oprah.

Even if this shameon knew how to run a small sweat, even if by some miracle this non-Native had been authorized to do so (not going to happen, but we're playing "what if") there's no way one person can keep track of 65 people in the dark. Especially 65 people who've never done this before, and been told they have to suffer to learn. 65 ignorant people who thought paying a newage guru for a weekend retreat would make them "warriors". I'm sure these seekers were all trying to out-macho each other; they were dehydrated and suffocating, and may not have said anything about how much distress they were in. And even if this creep were able to tell they were in distress, maybe he just didn't care. I've seen some really ugly, psychopathic predators among these types. These are the sort of callous exploiters who blame suffering people for their illnesses, and claim victims of holocausts and genocide brought it upon themselves with their "negative thoughts".

From James Arthur Ray's webpage:

"Many so-called successful people make a tremendous amount of money, but their relationships are on the rocks. That's not real wealth.

Likewise, there are others who qualify as a creative genius, and they're physically sick all the time. That's not real wealth!

Then there are those who claim to be really "spiritual," and they're always financially broke. That's not wealth either!"

Then he goes on to promise that if you pay him lots of money, he will show you how to fix all this. If it doesn't work, well, you just weren't spiritual enough.

No compassion, no spirituality, just greed.

And the people were willing to pay him so much because he's been on Oprah. Are you listening, Oprah? I know some kick-ass Indian women who could come on your show and talk about how dangerous it is to Pay to Pray.

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This is all over the news now, but for analysis that doesn't mislabel this new age fraud as a "Native American" ceremony, I'd suggest the ongoing discussion and posting of links in this thread on the New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans site.

More mainstream coverage via The Huffington Post, AP Video, and this video of the 911 calls.

Note: When I first wrote this, initial reports were unclear, but most said there were 21 people in DeathRay's DeathTrap. Now that we know more, I've changed this to reflect the number that survivors are saying he crammed into the fake lodge (approximately 65). As of this update (Oct 26, 2009) three people have died, and more are suffering with neurological damage and possible organ failure. We now have multiple survivors stating that Ray forced these people to stay in the death tent even when they were severely disoriented, crying for help and passing out, and that he told people to not get medical help for those who were sick and dying. Criminal charges appear to be pending.

Thanks to Diana, LaDonna, Sarah, Lierre, the Iktome Returns Collective, and everyone else who has emailed and posted about this.

White Ego Racist flocks to Long Island

Native American groups are organizing protests against Rachel Holzwarth (aka "Suraj Holzwarth" aka "White Eagle Medicine Woman" aka the name actual Native elders have given her: "White Ego Woman" or "White Ego Fraud"), who is planning on spreading her racist swill on Long Island, NY.

Lisa Hill has written a good summation of the situation so far, including an excellent analysis of Ego Fraud's racism and it's similarities to the ugly, racist philosophies of Rudolf Steiner:

“On one side we find the black race, which is earthly at most. If it moves to the West, it becomes extinct. We also have the yellow race, which is in the middle between earth and the cosmos. If it moves to the East, it becomes brown, attaches itself too much to the cosmos, and becomes extinct. The white race is the future, the race that is creating spirit.” (Rudolf Steiner, The Being of Man and His Future, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1981, pp. 118-119)

A common theme of Holzworth’s talks is the need for the human race to “evolve” to a higher state of vibration and the belief that it is inevitable for the ancient “red race” to go extinct so that the more spiritually evolved “white race” can fulfill its destiny to replace the “red Indian of old.” Holzworth has made no secret of her opinion of modern First Nations people as a degenerate race who have no spirituality because their karma is to live in poverty and alcoholism.

Steiner and Holzworth both find what they call “the red race” to be lacking. Steiner considered First Nations people to be connected with “the forces that have a lot to do with human extinction.” Both Steiner and Holzworth describe contemporary First Nations people as “a degenerated human race” which was the reason why they had succumbed to such a degree. Her teachings are filled with the concept of the more deserving “White Race” evolving spiritually to a higher frequency take the place of the degenerate, corrupt, drunken “Red Race” who exists at a lower frequency than the “White Race” and whose karma is extinction.

Steiner stated that “It isn’t because of the whims of the Europeans that the Indian population has died out, but because of the Indian population had to acquire those forces that led it to die out.” (Steiner, Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen, s. 4:9)

The statements that Holzworth has made in her talks about the Whirling Rainbow prophesy and her public statements about drunken, deranged Native Americans who object to her teachings are virtually identical to Steiner’s views about race.

Read the full article: White Eagle Woman Evokes Anger and Outrage from First Nations People: The Grandmother Drum Project is universally denounced as fraudulent by First Nations Groups

Don't Pay to Pray is continuing to post updates on the actions, related info, and what you can do to help out, on MySpace and Twitter.

Previous White Ego Fraud posts:
* April 18, 2008, Haudenosaunee speak out on Rachel Holzwarth
* October 14, 2008, Update on Plymouth Protests against White Ego Fraud
* September 14, 2009, The Return of White Ego Fraud

The Return of White Ego Fraud

Rachel Holzwarth (aka "Suraj Holzwarth" aka "White Eagle Medicine Woman") laid low for a bit after lots of Native American groups protested her "prayerformances" and workshops. At these events she charges outrageous fees to white people to watch her mimic pipe ceremony and other Native American ceremonies of which she has no knowledge and to which she has no right. She claims to be Seneca, because she had a dream she's Seneca. She's not Seneca. She belongs to no Native American or First Nations community. She parades around in fake ceremonial regalia, and gave herself the oh-so-humble name, "White Eagle Medicine Woman". She's no medicine woman. She is a fraud, making her living off the ignorance of non-Natives who think they can buy their way to enlightenment.

When gig after gig on the mainland US was shut down by Native protestors, she just moved to Hawaii, and used a private mailing list to solicit marks and charge even more money for private workshops. In this video promoting a Hawaii event, she made stunningly racist statements about how she's here to heal Indians of "anger and negativity" and "release their souls" and "heal our stories"... or something. Sickening stuff.

As I mentioned here, at times she has tried to dissemble about her activities by claiming they are "Celtic". Nope, no one bought that lie, either. But it hasn't stopped her. Like all perennial frauds, she just waited it out and has now broken all the promises she made. She has returned to the mainland and is planning more appearances and workshops.

At the Michigan protest she promised not to wear her fake Native regalia anymore, among other things. As all recent photos and videos show, she has broken every promise she made. She is also selling chant books and tapes that appear to me to contain copyright violations from multiple First Nations artists as well as Neopagan ones.

Don't Pay to Pray has posted an update with lots of links here: YouTube Action: White Eagle Woman's At It Again!

Another of Mtig49's videos about Holzwarth. Though I will note that he has reproduced Holzwarth's claims to be "A trained Strega Wiccan priestess". I don't think this is true, either. Obviously, this crap she's selling has nothing to do with Stregheria, and I've never heard of anyone from those communities claiming her, either. It looks like Rachel/Suraj has claimed to be all sorts of things over the years, tailoring her self-description to whatever market she's keen to exploit.


crossposted to craobh caorann

Identifying the Predator: Spiritual, Financial, and Sexual Abusers

As some of you know, I've been involved for decades now in trying to do something about predators in our communities. And as some of you also know, one of the reasons I do it is that I, and some of those I love, have been harmed by these con men (the vicious predators I've dealt with have all been men). The reason they were able to fool some of us long enough to hurt us is because they are skilled at it; it's what they do. Hopefully this information will help those who may have been victimized. Even better, maybe it will help someone spot a predator before they have a chance to harm them.

I think this is the first time I've reposted an entire article by someone else on this blog. It's worth it.

My gratitude to RedRightHand over at NAFPS for permission to repost this in full.

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Identifying the Predator: Spiritual, Financial, and Sexual Abusers

There are common traits, common behaviors in human predators of all kinds. Spiritual scammers often operate the same way and use the same methods as other types of criminal con artists, batterers, and rapists. These different kinds of abuse often blend into each other.

A liar doesn’t just tell falsehoods/lies to strangers or only in certain situations. A liar routinely lies to everyone. In the same way, a spiritual fraud is not just a spiritual liar. He or she will always lie about other things as well.

Understanding these patterns of deceit among abusers and rapists gives us direct insight into the patterns of spiritual frauds. The following points are offered specifically about the patterns of physical abusers but the parallels to spiritual exploiters should be clear. The aim of this post is to help people in spotting frauds before they can do harm, and to help those who have been harmed find help.

1. Abusers are charming and tend to be very skilled at social manipulation.

2. They are skilled liars. They will also declare they are very honest and honorable but their actual actions will show otherwise.

3. They are in control of their actions, not out-of-control. They do not harm everyone they meet. They are very careful to abuse people they feel confident they can get away with harming, such as wives/girlfriends, children, “apprentices,” or those they are “instructing” ceremonially. Substance abuse may increase their aggression but you should never accept being high/drunk as an excuse for their actions. They are far more in control of their actions than they let on and they also harm their victims when sober.

4. They blame others for their behavior. “The abuser shifts responsibility for his actions away from himself and onto others, a shift that allows him to justify his abuse because the other person supposedly "caused" his behavior.” The fact is, abusing another person is a choice. It is the fault of no one but the abuser.

5. While “friends” and acquaintances will be subjected to manipulation, lies and sometimes emotional abuse, usually only the abuser’s intimate partners and immediate family will see the monstrous side of them. Abusers are very invested in their public image, and will use acquaintances to lie for them and/or pass on their lies in their defense. They will spend a great deal of time lying to non-intimate “friends” to lay a false trail of misdirection and alibis. On the internet and in long-distance phone calls, it is particularly easy for abusers to construct a good front for their online friends who may never meet them in person.

6. Abusers specialize in finding out your vulnerabilities. In the beginning they will tell you how special you are. They will encourage you to confess your fears and vulnerabilities, and they will make a good show of being vulnerable themselves (even though it is just an act and built on lies). They do this to make you emotionally dependent on them, and so later they can use these things to harm and manipulate you.

7. They will seem too good to be true. And they are.

*** *** ***
There is a common misconception that predators and abusers are easy to spot, that they display obvious signs of their predatory nature. While there are warning signs to look out for (linked below), predators have carefully tailored their disguises through their years of abusing others and getting away with it.

If predators weren’t skilled at convincing potential victims and supporters that they’re a nice guy (and those who commit physical abuse are overwhelmingly male), they wouldn’t be successful at what they do. They’ve learned how to fool and manipulate people. It’s their profession. If they weren’t good at fooling people, they would have moved on to some other way of making a living by now. By the time an abuser is middle-aged or elderly, they are very experienced at it; they are not going to change.

Abusive behavior usually starts after the victim has made an emotional, spiritual, and/or financial commitment to the predator. Abuse usually starts right after some milestone: moving in together, getting married, pregnancy, or the birth of the first child. With spiritual predators, it’s often once the victim has made a ceremonial commitment and/or given the predator a large amount of money. Once that investment on the part of the victim is there, the predator knows the victim will be hesitant to throw away all that time and effort they’ve invested in the relationship. By that point the abuser has probably also isolated the victim from other sources of support and information, and has made sure the victim sees them as the unquestionable source of the truth.

The vast majority of rapists don’t hang out in alleys to commit “stranger” rape. “Over 70% of sexual assaults are committed by someone the survivor knows. Over 40% of sexual assaults occur in the victim's home and another 30% take place in the home of a friend, neighbor or relative.”

If you’ve been abused, there is help available. Once you know the patterns to look for, abusers are much easier to spot. Remember, if someone has harmed you, you can bet there are other victims out there. If everyone who has been abused speaks up, the world will change. Those who work the hotlines, who counsel victims of domestic violence and other forms of sexual and spiritual abuse, have heard it all before. They will recognize your story. They won't be shocked and you don't have to be ashamed. The patterns are all too common.

Web Resources

* No Nonsense Self-Defense is an excellent site with many informative articles. Among them:
** Profile of a Rapist
** Stalking/Domestic Violence

* Domestic Violence: In the Mind of the Abuser

* Warning Signs of an Abusive Personality

* Myths and Facts about Sexual Assault

“Myth: Women frequently "cry rape". Fact: The FBI reports that false accusations account for only 2% of all reported sexual assaults. This is no higher than false reports for any other crime.” Rape and domestic violence are the most under-reported of crimes.

* Patterns of Emotional Abuse

* Be Alert To Common Traits of Stalkers

Books

* Why Does He DO That? - Inside the minds of angry and controlling men by Lundy Bancroft (This book identifies specific types of abusers and their M.O.s, though many abusers are of mixed types)

* The Anatomy of Motive
by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker (Understanding criminal psychology, the reasons predators abuse, the types of victims they target, and why)

* Trauma and Recovery
by Judith Hermann (Help recovering from PTSD, whether from combat in war or surviving domestic violence)

Phone and Internet Resources

* National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233)

* RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): 1-800-656-HOPE (1-800-656-4673)

* Sacred Circle: National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women": 1-877-RED-ROAD (1-877-733-7623):
“Women Are Sacred! Violence Against Native Women Is Not Traditional!”

* Mending the Sacred Hoop, Technical Assistance Project

* Red Wind Consulting, Violence Against Native Women

* Domestic Violence and Native Americans

* Native Women's Society of the Great Plains: 1-605-455-2939 (not toll-free)

* South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault: 1-800-572-9196

* White Buffalo Calf Woman Society


Permission to re-post granted by the author.

Update on Plymouth Protests against White Ego Fraud

Hartman has posted about his experience confronting White Ego Fraud (Rachel Holzwarth) last spring in Plymouth.

Hartman is one of the protesters who was attacked, pepper-sprayed and arrested, and the one whose blood Ego (Vampire) Fraud stole and rubbed on her drum.

It's good to hear more details on what happened. Other good news is that the case has been continued without finding, with no time served and no guilty verdicts.

Though the protestor's aim of destroying the drum was not achieved at that action, I think it was the brutality shown by the cops and the "peaceful" nuagers, as well as Ego Fraud's chilling blood incident, that really got the ball rolling on this. Hartman and his crew are my heroes for their bravery that day, and I'm relieved they haven't had to serve any time for it.

Thanks to their confrontation, word and outrage spread, so it was a success.

May it continue to spread, till the bloody fraud drum is destroyed and Holzwarth is forced to find a new career.

Haudenosaunee speak out on Rachel Holzwarth

Rachel Holzwarth
There are lots of frauds out there - self-proclaimed "spiritual leaders" who are using aspects of Native American ceremonies, against the wishes of those in the very communities they are stealing from. In the Gaelic and CR communities we are dealing with this when some white person decides they will justify their theft by calling it "Celtic", and hoping people are stupid enough to not know that the ceremonies and beliefs of the diverse Celtic Nations are different from those of the various First Nations. While some settle for the ugliness of painting a triskele on a fake Indian drum and doing their idea of a chanupa (pipe) ceremony, the really shameless have even gone so far as to publicly tack a mis-applied Gaelic (or other Celtic language) name on their idea of an Inipi or smudging ceremony, stupidly thinking that no one out there who is actually part of these cultures will notice. Though not always confronted in public, these people are being laughed at by those who speak the languages (Native American and Celtic languages).

Sometimes the theft gets so egregious that the laughter turns to anger, and people rise up and go public with it, despite the fact that many of these frauds have a number of Newage supporters. This has been happening more and more lately, and as Native American protesters and their supporters are getting more organized, the trend is going to continue. A recent example of this is the movement against Rachel Holzwarth, aka Suraj Holzwarth (sometimes her last name has also been spelled Holzworth). She has renamed herself "White Eagle Medicine Woman", despite these being titles one has to earn, from communities she has no legitimate connection to. She is traveling around, selling "prayerformances", at which she wears Indian regalia and claims to present a Seneca ceremony. She is not Seneca. This is what an actual Haudenosaunee has to say about it:


For more on Holzwarth, check out the very long and detailed thread on NAFPS, and the briefer MySpace page by one of the groups organizing protests. The MySpace page also includes more pictures and videos. So far the group has been successful in getting many of her engagements shut down. The ones that have not yet been canceled... if she attempts to proceed, the protests are being planned.

When she performed in Massachusetts, Wampanoag warriors and their supporters stood up to her. The confrontation became bloody when her security, and the cops they called, attacked the protestors. In an act of desecration, Holzwarth walked up to Hartman Deetz, one of the Wampanoag men beaten by the cops, who was lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor; Holzwarth rubbed her hands in his blood, then proceeded to rub his blood into the skin of her drum.

Maybe she did it so now she can say she "has Native blood." And for the first time it won't be a lie.

Oh, btw, when asked her ancestry she has given a variety of conflicting stories. She's claimed she's Seneca because... she dreamed she's Seneca. She has also said she's "Seneca and Celtic." Great. Just Great. Guess what Rachel, we don't want you either.

crossposted to Craobh Caorann

The Resurrection of NAFPS

The good people at New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans (NAFPS) have been through some hassles lately. A Newage magazine publisher who profits from ripping off Native cultures, and who actively promotes a number of the worst Plastic Shamans and other spiritual frauds, recently trolled the forum and, when that didn't disrupt things to his satisfaction, lied to the group's server and got the message board shut down.

Thankfully, they have found a new host for the board, and it is up and running here: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php

As this is not the first time this sort of attack has happened, members were prepared and had archived the old board. Hopefully soon the website will be fleshed out again, as there were some very valuable articles on the old site which I would love to see available again. Specifically things on the abuse of the Sacred Pipe and Inipi.