The Ancient Ways Project

"In the Wisdom of the Past Lies the Hope of the Future"

 

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Multimedia Lectures, Seminars, Workshops and Study Trips
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Exploring the Cultural Ideals, Arts and Sustaining Ways of Living of Ancient and Indigenous World Cultures
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And Their Vital Lessons for Living in Today's World


HISTORY AND MISSION

The Ancient Ways Project is a series of public educational and personal development programs, founded in 1982 and facilitated by anthropologist and author Peter Gold. They include an extensive repertoire of multimedia talks, workshops and experiential seminars, which express the essential oneness of humanity by exploring our perennial wisdom ways for living harmoniously in the world and within ourselves.

For over three decades, the Ancient Ways Project has communicated to a wide audience, the interconnectedness and wisdom of humanity’s cultures, their inextricable relationship to the sentience and phenomena of our planet, and their understanding that spiritual and daily life must be fundamentally one.

The Ancient Ways Project is dedicated to serving as a bridge between the perennial philosophy of living, which still informs indigenous and spiritually-minded, non-Western cultures, and our own ways of knowing and living. As humanity expands exponentially in numbers while decreasing, sadly, in awareness of the wonders and responsibilities of living, work such as that of the Ancient Ways Project is both timely and essential.

Current Programs



PETER GOLD is an anthropologist, artist, musician and educator who has traveled widely on three continents, studying the cultures, philosophies, arts and ways of life of Tibetans in Tibet, India and Nepal; Alaskan Eskimos; Native peoples of the U.S. Southwest and Mexico; African-Americans in the U.S. and Caribbean; the Balinese; and Georgians in the Caucasus and Turkey. He was research assistant to Dr. Margaret Mead at the American Museum of Natural History, and served as a curator at various cultural museums. He has authored numerous books and articles including the widely praised: Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit. Peter Gold is a Research Associate at the Museum of New Mexico's Laboratory of Anthropology and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe.

"For over three decades, I have been presenting the perennial philosophies, arts and practical ways of living of the world's ancient and indigenous cultures, through a series of multimedia lectures, seminars, workshops and study trips. They are based on living extensively amid these vital cultures, which has opened my eyes to the infinite possibilities of the human spirit. I believe that by exploring the vast panorama of the world's cultural ways, we are enabled take a major step toward intercultural understanding, self-awareness and peace."

Online Interview





ANNOUNCING A NEW MULTIMEDIA INITIATIVE:

AND WE'LL ALL GO TOGETHER: Expressing the Indigenous Legacy in Humane Living

Twelve years ago, I became inspired to compose a song describing the legacy to humane living that is still – just - surviving among indigenous peoples on each inhabited continent. I wanted to sing about how we and Native peoples are “all in this world together” and, of necessity, are all responsible for it and one another. After years of letting it slowly reveal itself, the song has now fully taken form. Recently, I recorded it in three part harmony, bearing the title: And We’ll All Go Together. Its lyrics are inspired by and are set to Robbie Burns' classic song, Will Ye Go, Lassie Go? - and done in an upbeat tempo full of feeling and meaning.

Recently, I've finished adding to the song various, “panned and zoomed” photo images, along with earth rotation movies from NASA. In its present state, And We’ll All Go Together is a low resolution, audiovisual “sketch” of several segments of the final piece, which will result from a planned “audiovideo walkabout” to representative indigenous peoples on each continent. These include: Native Americans, Tibetans, Saami-Lapplanders, Australian Aborigines, the Balinese and South African Bushmen.

What must now come to pass in the evolution of the final work, is to shoot on-location, high definition digital video clips, to replace most of the sample images contained in the demonstration version, which can be seen in the link on this webpage. At the same time, digital still photographs will be taken and digital sound will be recorded for the soundtrack’s final “mix.”

To finalize the video, grant funding and private donations must now be secured in order to go on an approximately four month-long “audiovideo walkabout” to the peoples and continents treated in the program. You are invited to view this short but sweet version of the program. Your support in realization of the project is deeply appreciated.

To watch the video and for further information, please click on the links to the right.


Click Here to View Video
Click Here for Project Overview
Click Here for Song Notation & Full Lyrics

α ANNOUNCING THE BLOG: HUMANE BEING Ω

In February 2007, Peter Gold launched the blogpost, Humane Being.

The blog's essays comment upon the human condition from the point of view of a humanistic anthropologist, and serve as a vehicle for proposing humane solutions to the uncertain condition of being human.

Humane Being is being constantly updated with new essays and explorations, so please visit often, at:

 http://humanebeing.blogspot.com




Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit

The similarity between the Navajo and Tibetan spiritual traditions has often been remarked upon by scholars chiefly because of the mandala sandpaintings common to both cultures, their ideas about matter and spirit, and their uncanny physical resemblance to one another. Author Peter Gold substantiates the shared knowledge of these seemingly disparate peoples by drawing extensive parallels among many aspects of both cultures, including: creation myths, cosmology, sacred geography, psychology, visionary arts, and healing and initiation rituals. Through his sensitive comparison of Navajo and Tibetan sacred ways, the author encourages us to reconsider our own cultural paradigms and shows us how we might begin to recover a sense of the sacred in contemporary life.

(Author Autographed Copies: $29.95 plus S&H: $6./USA)

Book Orders


WHAT HAS BEEN SAID

"Peter Gold describes and compares many aspects of Navajo and Tibetan Buddhist practice, highlighting the humanitarian principles on which they are based, reflecting the fundamental goodness of the human heart." - The Dalai Lama

"A bold and exciting exploration, showing many astonishing parallels between these precious and imperiled traditions, from which our own world-weary western culture has so much to learn." - Peter Matthiessen

"Your descriptions are deeply moving and will teach even the un-initiated the beauty and spiritual achievements of Tibetan Buddhism. You have seen this through the eyes of a poet and the heart of a lover." - Lama Anagarika Govinda

"At long last the mighty indigenous traditions of Navajo and Tibetan are juxtaposed, to let their powerful teachings reinforce each other and resound together. Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: a beautiful and wise book." - Joanna Macy

Foreword by the Dalai Lama
Book Reviews
TIBET: An Odyssey in Sound

Welcome to an aural pilgrimage into the land, life and spirit of Tibet. This is a montage of Tibetan sacred chants, tantric and archaic rituals, folksongs and dances, and aural environments, recorded in Tibetan communities throughout India, Nepal and Tibet itself. They are woven together with pilgrimage narratives written by Peter Gold and excerpted from his three books of essays, poetics and photographs on Tibet: Tibetan Reflections, Altar of the Earth and Tibetan Pilgrimage. This "soundscape" was initially produced for Radio Australia on the occasion of the Dalai Lama's first visit "down under."

CD with descriptive insert: $16.95 plus $1.50 S&H

Download overview and contents
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RECORDINGS, PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS
(click on above CD image to listen to sample songs)
(click on above CD image to listen to sample songs)

My connection with music began during the folk music revival of the 1960’s. The wonderfully limitless songs of the world’s peoples inspired me to arrange, compose and perform my own compositions, accompanied by modern and traditional instruments. Over the past 40 years I have lived with and studied the musics and instruments of Native North and Central Americans, Tibetans, Georgians in the Caucasus and in Turkey, and African Americans in the Caribbean and the US.

Together with salon concerts, I’ve also been offering “Sacred Hootennany” sing-alongs and more extensive “Spirit of Song” workshops. They are built upon songs, chants and instrumentals - some totally traditional and others in “world fusion” style - accompanied by western and traditional instruments. I am vitalized and inspired by the profound beauty of these timeless chants and songs.

Recently, two retrospective CD’s of my songs have been released, entitled: Golden Road and Anima Mundi.

On a personal note, I feel fated to have followed the path of song. I am a kapelmeister twice over. “Kapelmeister” is the German word for “chapel master,” one who leads singers and instrumentalists in the sounding of music, chant and song. Johann Sebastian Bach was, for example, the most illustrious of European kapelmeisters. And, Kapelmeister holds another, more particularly intimate meaning for me. It is my mother’s family name. I have reason to believe that several centuries ago, when people took names based on their professions, I had an ancestor who indeed had been such a musicmaster. It makes me happy to think that I am following in my family kapelmeister’s footsteps along the golden road of song.

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