**Skye (Narrator)**: Every time when I sing with them, they come to me.

*[Music]*

**Skye (Narrator)**: When you trust, you're open up; you invite your ancestors. They come through me and they sing.

**Skye (Narrator)**: We are about to go meet a one-of-a-kind human, Snow Raven.

*[Music]*

**Skye (Narrator)**: She comes from Arctic Siberia, the coldest inhabitable place in the world. So, Snow Raven has really made it her mission to bring the teachings of her ancestors into the modern world.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Snow Raven's legit. I've done my research on her. And what's hilarious is that I actually did a video last year about a fake Siberian shaman who is a con artist, a fake guru. And now, I'm meeting a real one.

**Skye (Narrator)**: I bring this up right now because I want to make it clear that in the space of spirituality, there definitely are fake gurus and fake shamans, and it's very important to do your research and to be aware of that.

**Skye (Narrator)**: We have a very short window of time to film today. So, she's going to be taking me into nature. She's going to do a traditional ceremony and then guide me into how to communicate with trees and plants, which is something that she grew up doing. One thing she asked me to do is to bring cow's milk for an offering for the ceremony. I personally want to be able to connect more with nature, so I'm excited to see what she has to teach.

**Snow Raven**: Hi.

**Skye (Narrator)**: How are you?

**Snow Raven**: So good to meet you. I brought the milk.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Oh, thank you. I did my best. I couldn't find a cow to milk it from, but I tried to get it.

**Snow Raven**: Yeah, you know, the reason it's cow's milk is because it's in a traditional way. We bow to cows and horses, and we milk them, and we do an offering to nature. But I usually drink plant-based milk.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Are you mostly plant-based?

**Snow Raven**: Mostly. So, I was born and raised in a small village with 600 people in the middle of nowhere. Only horses could be transportation in the village. We didn't have cell phones or the internet. Living in that environment for 18 years.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Can I ask you a question? Are the dots on the face, are these things you draw?

**Snow Raven**: Yeah, so that's my meditation, and I do that every day. I have to put it straight, and if I screw up somewhere, it means that I'm not ready for the day. I need to center myself. I'm assigning the energy flow. Is your arm getting tired from holding this?

**Skye (Narrator)**: Yeah.

**Snow Raven**: So, I'm holding it to energize it, to charge it up, to charge it out.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Yeah. Cool. We bought it in a grocery store, right?

**Snow Raven**: Yeah, so this is the fact of the modern life. But my ancestors, they were milking, right, and taking care of animals for decades and surviving through -96 in the wintertime. That's the whole value of that, that the milk comes to them through hard work and harsh survival. And they bow to the nature. And then, as a result, we give that, we share it to the nature.

**Skye (Narrator)**: What are we going to be doing today?

**Snow Raven**: Introducing you to my culture's agriculture and also connecting to nature and how to connect to outer and inner worlds of us. I'm really excited to just learn from you today.

**Skye (Narrator)**: I will change my clothes. This is my casual, and for the ceremonies, I change it.

**Snow Raven**: Ready. You look beautiful.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Thank you.

**Snow Raven**: It's going to be fun. I'm so hungry for green, nature, like trees.

*[Music]*

**Skye (Narrator)**: Listen, listen. This is my totem animal. Do you know that, Raven?

**Snow Raven**: Yes.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Raven, they follow me sometimes, like that.

**Snow Raven**: Why is the raven your totem animal?

**Skye (Narrator)**: First of all, I had a very deep connection when I was a little kid. I was feeding them with raw meat. My whole culture, the food, raw meat, raw meat, and raw fish. You cannot survive without meat. There, ravens, they eat meat. So, I was sharing, and they're always around me and then greet me. And then in California, where I used to live, I do this.

*[Sound]*

**Snow Raven**: There it is. That was huge.

**Skys (Narrator)**: I know you said that you are plant-based now, but you grew up eating raw meat and raw fish. So, what made you decide to become more plant-based?

**Snow Raven**: Environment. I'm no longer in -96 winter. When I changed the environment, I adopted.

**Skye (Narrator)**: We were walking here, and our attention all of a sudden was caught by these trees. I feel that it's elderly and very significant being here. And what I'm going to do is before we start our teaching, I would like to enter this area of the local spirits. Because we do believe that every area has its own spirits. And what I'm going to do is bring food offerings and the milk, both charged. The people who actually brought it to the grocery, milking the cow, and they also charged it. So, it has its own heritage and story. Right, so we're going to offer that to the tree. It should be a white beverage. That's why I also chose milk. It's in a traditional way to enter their space and have permission to start our teachings.

**Snow Raven**: The tree is very significant in my culture. We call that Lukmas. And therefore, I'm going to do this offering to the spirit of the tree, the spirit of nature. We see it as actually as a woman with very big breasts, very milky, because it's giving life. And that's the tree spirit. It's a spirit of nature.

**Skye (Narrator)**: Nature always gives, right?

**Snow Raven**: And that's why we're bringing also milk. Let's start our ceremony.

*[Music]*

**Snow Raven**: Actually, not me. I empty myself. When you trust, you're open up, and then you invite your ancestry.

*[Jay]*

**Snow Raven**: Every time when I sing or dance, they come through me, and they sing. When I get connected to the tree with my nervous system, for me, it's a green light.

Snow Raven: It gives me permission to do something in nature, specifically with the sound, because you're going to impact with your presence.

[Music]

Snow Raven: To this ecosystem, which was here before us.

[Music]

Snow Raven: The whole purpose of the ceremony was entering the space humbly, asking permission. And it said yes.

Skye (Narrator): I loved witnessing that. Thank you so much.

Snow Raven: Thank you.

Snow Raven: I would love to share with you that knowledge, like a little exercise, some techniques.

Skye (Narrator): I would love that.

Snow Raven: So, what we're going to do now, I would ask you to close your eyes, sit in a position that is most comfortable to you. Whatever sound comes through me, I would ask you to repeat, and if you are not doing it right, like me, so don't worry about that. So that also helps you to go through those blockages. And then some of the sounds might scare you, or it will sound really weird, and that means we face our fear. We don't push it away; we just face it.

Skye (Narrator): Okay, ready.

[Applause]

Snow Raven: Good.

[Music]

Snow Raven: Skies.

[Music]

Snow Raven: Is beautiful.

Skye (Narrator): Is beautiful.

Snow Raven: Try it.

Skye (Narrator): So, thank you so much. You have an amazing sense of tuning into it. You were repeating the melody.

Snow Raven: I heard that your high-tone voice is so clear. It's like a singing ball.

Snow Raven: So maybe we try one bird sound. The whole purpose is to imagine that you are that bird. The bird sound is the crane. Have you ever seen a crane bird? It's a white, beautiful bird, and they do this sound when they fly.

Snow Raven: I would like you to imagine like spreading your wings and flying in the sky like that bird and dancing. They dance in the sky. So, and do that by taking a deep breath in and then supporting it with the throat area and then you see. So, this is when you imagine, you embody it. You invite the spirit of that bird or animal coming through you to give you skill.

Snow Raven: I also have this beautiful instrument, a mouth harp. We call that "hummus." So, those are all from the indigenous people, Sakha people from blacksmith.

Snow Raven: Feel the energy while I'm explaining. So, these are the different sounds. Lower tone, it sounds like this.

[Music]

Snow Raven: The middle one is the higher one.

[Music]

Snow Raven: What are you doing? You're just holding it here and hitting. That's where we're going to start with.

Snow Raven: So, this is the whole body of hummus, and this is the tongue. They're going to just lay on your teeth. And then what this hand, this hand needs to be loosened.

Snow Raven: Do you see this area?

Snow Raven: Ow.

Snow Raven: You're going to have a little in the beginning.

Snow Raven: Ow.

Snow Raven: That's really painful. Sometimes you have bleeding.

Snow Raven: Yeah, sometimes you can cut your...

Skye (Narrator): How do you do this? I don't know if I'm ready for this.

Snow Raven: And now, more amplitude. Yes. Don't close with your lips.

[Music]

Snow Raven: Exactly.

Snow Raven: You see, I'm telling you, this is a very easy instrument when you feel mouth harp, and you have to make initiation with the opening up your body with blood and connecting with mouth harp.

Snow Raven: You see, yeah. And then you have a little blood here. That's right.

Snow Raven: It's initiation. Look. Do you see the blood?

Skye (Narrator): You see it. You got the sound.

Skye (Narrator): I love that.

Snow Raven: And this is a way that you access altered states.

Snow Raven: This is one of the ways. This is besides singing.

Snow Raven: Sing. Or I even can sing through that.

Snow Raven: So we do this.

Snow Raven: And then we say "Mahdal" and we bow to the person or to spirits or to tree plants when we finish doing something.

Snow Raven: Thank you so much for trusting me and learning a little bit. That was a really small introduction.

Snow Raven: But for this short time, you extracted the sound of mouth harp.

Snow Raven: That was your sound coming through you.

Skye (Narrator): Yeah, and together with the mouth.

Snow Raven: So, my dear, I would like to connect to this tree before we leave.

Snow Raven: Embracing the tree, right? Inhaling, connecting through the air, and just dropped into the silence with the tree.

Snow Raven: What is the tree telling you?

Skye (Narrator): It's saying, "I've been here for a long time, and I've seen many people coming by year after year. Only sometimes do they come to talk to me. And when people come to connect with me and talk to me, it makes me very happy."

Skye (Narrator): Dom, dom, domini dom. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Snow Raven: The tree is telling me right now that we are the tree. We have the same nerve system, and we're part of this invisible web of life where we're connected collectively.

Snow Raven: Beautiful elder sharing wisdom, and I'm so grateful to be with you today, Skye, exploring this such a beautiful way to spend another day, you know, and being alive.

Skye (Narrator): We're always making fun of people hugging trees, but I don't care because it feels really good.

Skye (Narrator): It is a ritual to actually connect and hug a tree and say thank you and express gratitude.

Skye (Narrator): I want to ask you one last question. If people remember one thing from this video, what would you like them to remember?

Snow Raven: We all have ancestry; we all have roots. Reconnecting to those roots and communicating with our unseen ancestry is very important.

Skye (Narrator): Thank you for sharing this. I acknowledge you for being so brave to share your culture so powerfully, to share this mission from your heart with so much courage.

Snow Raven: Thank you for taking the time to be with me today. I'm so grateful to have had this time with you, and I think that we maybe need to do another video at some point.

Skye (Narrator): Yes, I would love to.

Snow Raven: Thank you so much for introducing my culture to your audience.

Skye (Narrator): That's where we'll leave it off. If you want to see another video with Snow Raven, please like this video, comment below, go show Snow Raven some love on her YouTube channel and social media. She's incredible music with her band, Alex, so check it out. I'll add links in the video description to everything.

Skye (Narrator): That's it for this episode of Sky Life, and the adventure continues.