Who is Jim Cutropia?

No one ever asked, "Who Is Jim Cutropia and what is he all about?" however, it might be good to know a little about me.

I am a native New Yorker born in Harlem in 1945. My family moved to Hicksville, Long Island in the Summer of 1949 where I grew up in a post war housing development of "Ticky Tacky little boxes" so aptly described in a song by Pete Seger, walking a mile and a half to school every day in the sunshine, rain and snow. It was a place of small houses clustered close together and a true melting pot of Italian, Irish, Jewish and German kids who didn't know that they were all from different cultures. It was a place with a culture of its own. Nature was watching the sunset over the potato fields which rapidly disappeared and became developments and shopping malls by the time I graduated High School in 1963. I played stickball in the streets, and "stoop ball" in front of the house, and as I grew older, played lots of little league baseball, varsity baseball, and went out for the school football, wrestling, and gymnastics teams.

I was the kind of kid who was always running, jumping and climbing. I injured my back, cracking vertebrae, in High School Gymnastics and had to give up sports for My Junior and Senior years. I filled in the gaps by joining the chorus and drama club where I found a niche on stage crew building sets, learned to play guitar, and had a blast playing in a rock-n-roll band. My family life was calm safe and stable, a place where I learned the values of caring about others, and sharing what I had. My fondest memories of LI were the summers when I would lay in the grass and stare up at the white poofy clouds, and imagine flying among them, and spending hours at the beach on Long Island sound with the local kids. Our house was very near Grumman Airfield, and I was always watching the planes fly low over the house. My dad taught me lots of things. He taught me to play baseball, how to fish, and how to garden - or should I say weed the garden and mow the lawn. He also taught me about responsibility, honesty, and doing my best even when I didn't care for it - like helping him paint the house.

School bored me - I spent most of my 12 years staring out windows dreaming about doing other things like flying, sailing, and exploring the world. After High School I went to New York State University at Farmingdale where I studied aircraft operations technology, then transferred to Western Michigan University to study Aviation Engineering. I took flying lessons in my senior year, and upon graduation, joined the Navy and entered flight training in Pensacola Florida. I spent the next 10 years flying helicopters from the decks of aircraft carriers in the Pacific, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean. I left active service in 1978 and went to work as a corporate pilot for AT&T in Morristown NJ, and spent the next 20 years managing departments and projects at AT&T. I earned an MBA in 1992, and retired early from AT&T in 1998 and went to work for a friend at a start-up dot.com company. By that time, I knew something wasn't right. I'd achieved almost everything I'd set out to do over the course of 53 years, including raising two families and having three wonderful daughters. Of course there was the requisite 1st marriage that failed, and the second that was failing. I had a lot; good jobs, good income, nice house, and all that stuff, but couldn't figure out why I wasn't "happy". I had taken a couple of introductory workshops in Huna and had read lots of "spiritual" stuff for about two years. Then in the late summer of 2000 I read a book by Sandra Ingerman titled - of all things - "Soul Retrieval". And I remember saying out loud, "Boy, I'd give anything to meet this woman and learn more about this Soul Retrieval and Shamanism." HA! Be careful what you ask for in the presence of spirits.

Then it happened. I had an accident, nothing real serious, just a big bang on the face, a trip to the emergency room, and 30 stitches. This was quickly followed by a visit to a friend of a friend who performed a soul retrieval on me. This person not only brought back a soul part (actually 2), but a power animal (what's that?), and the name of a spirit who said they (collectively a bunch of spirits) have been trying to get my attention for a very long time, and this accident was no accident. This spirit also said I needed to go to Bandelier to get the message, and I would have to camp out in the wilderness where I would find the message.

So, guess what! Its October 30th, 2000 and I'm freezing my buns off in a little tent 4 miles north of the visitor's center in Bandelier National Monument. The sun went down 30 minutes ago, the wind is whipping, and the snow is flying. Earlier that day, a lone golden eagle flew into that canyon and perched on a ledge 30 feet above me and we spent 20 minutes staring at each other. And now, shivering in my tent, I get the message - the spirit shows himself to me and yells at me. OK, OK, I can take a hint!

So I went home to NJ, signed up for and took "The Way of the Shaman" workshop with the Foundation for Shamanism Studies, flew back to Santa Fe and rented a house, returned to NJ to sell the old house, moved my family to Santa Fe and signed up for the 2 week intensive at Sunrise springs taught by - guess who _ Sandra Ingerman. Then it started to roll like a freight train. You see, when you're older things have to happen real fast so you can get it real fast (like making up for lost time) and don't fall into the trap of changing your mind which can tend to upset the spirits a little. And I don't need another bang in the face.

Now the family is in Santa Fe, I'm in NJ trying to sell the house, and planning to ask for a transfer to Santa Fe - only the company beat me to the punch and fired me. Cool, now I don't have a job - maybe Spirit is trying to tell me something - like I'm doing the wrong job???

I got to Santa Fe in March 2001, took the two-week intensive (they don't joke when they call it intensive), and I signed up for he Foundation's three-year course in Shamanism. Talk about taking a drink from a fire hose. In the meantime, I went through a second divorce, and met Raven and Takara. My first exposure to Raven was at sweat lodge. It was such an intense experience, I kept coming back and eventually started helping by tending fire, which is a great honor. Throughout all this I found that I am very comfortable in nature, and have transfigured from a city kid to a mountain goat. I'll look for any excuse to take off and hike the mountain trails and canyons from here to Colorado and Utah as I have been for two years now.

I began teaching workshops in core Shamanism, and have found a peace and joy in sharing what I have learned. My focus today is to continue my studies with Sandra Ingerman and the Foundation, to work with Raven to help build the community around Spirit of Nature, and create the space and a place where learning, teaching and healing is offered to all carriers of the light. I know now that I have a place and a purpose in transforming myself and those around me into what we are to become, and from that shall flow the transformation of the earth and all its inhabitants into want is to be.

I look back on that kid in school all those years ago, day-dreaming about the sky, and flying and exploring the world. Only now I know that those weren't day dreams - they were journeys of the spirit - manifesting a life, for I did all those things without knowing that I was creating it with the help of Spirit.

And after all this, I'm still Jim, the same kid who has learned to journey with a purpose, and to live my life in a good way.

Join Jim Cutropia in one of his shamanism training workshops.

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