Anthropologists have traced the practice of shamanism back tens of thousands of years. Indigenous cultures all over the world have had from time immemorial, a medicine man or woman working to maintain the wellbeing of their people. What is remarkable is that in spite of never having met or come into contact with one other, there are many, many consistencies within the practices and belief systems of these ancient peoples. Collectively, these belief systems and practices have become known as shamanism. The term shaman means ‘one who sees in the dark’ or ‘to know’, and comes from the Tungus tribe in Siberia.
SHAMANISM
SHAMANIC HEALING
During a shamanic healing, the shaman induces a change in her own state of consciousness and enters into an altered state of heightened awareness. While within this altered state, she communicates and works directly with Spirit Beings who help her with the healing.
The shaman works directly with Spirit, and this is meant literally, not just metaphorically as in working with the ‘spiritual aspects of life’. This is what makes a shaman different from other types of healers and group facilitators/leaders.
Traditionally, shaman have used repetitive drumming techniques or other forms of percussion to help them enter into this altered state. While drumming the shaman then enters the different shamanic realms; the shamanic journey.
The shamanic journey is the corner stone of many shamanic healings, with many of the healings beginning and ending with the journey alone. Other types of healing may require additional work, such as ceremony, purifications, ancestral offerings etc.
When things go wrong in our lives, when we experience dis-ease and imbalance in our health, our relationships, our finances etc. etc. the shaman looks to the spiritual cause of the imbalance, and journeys to the realm of Spirit to find the answers that will help her client regain ease, flow and momentum.
The following are some of the shamanic healings I offer
• Journey to receive power animal/spirit totem
• Journeying to shamanic realms for wisdom/healing/advice
• Removal of intrusive entities from energy field
• Ancestral healing
• Soul Retrieval
Journey to Retrieve a Power Animal/Spirit Totem
Having a power animal or spirit totem is one of the core elements within shamanism. Essentially, our power animal is a creature from the animal kingdom, that exists within and beyond our physical world. It is a spirit being in the form of an animal, that chooses to work with us. The relationship between a shaman and her spirit animal is one of the most beautiful relationships there is. Just as in the physical world where our animals are our companions, so too are they in the spirit world. However, in the spirit world they have the added advantage of being able to talk, fly, swim, give advice, assist with healings, run errands, and all manner things! We all have one primary spirit animal, not just those of us who do shamanic work.
Most people find it enormously comforting to meet their spirit animal. This happens within the shamanic journey, where your spirit animal chooses you!! You can ask your animal questions, seek advice, receive a healing, go exploring or just plain hang out!
Journeying to Shamanic Realms
Journeying is one of the joys of shamanism and is a skill that can be learned by everyone. Traditionally the shamanic realms can be viewed as consisting of the Upper, Middle and Lower Worlds, with these different worlds being inhabited by different spirit beings. The Lower Word is not the same as Christian concept of hell or Hades. They couldn’t be more different! The Lower World consists of animal and earth related spirit beings. These are usually beings that have incarnated here on earth at one stage, including our ancestors. Mythical animals such as dragons can also inhabit this realm.
The Upper World consists of more celestial beings; angels, archangels, ascended masters and other types of highly evolved beings. This is where the Akashic records are held.
The Middle World is the everyday world that we perceive with our 5 senses, but on a psychic level.
The vast majority of journeying is done within the Lower and Upper Worlds. In fact 90% of all healing work is done in the Lower World, for that is the realm connected to our bodies in the here and now.
Finding resolution to personal questions through the use of a journey is a highly effective and empowering experience. During one of these sessions, I teach client how to journey, while at the same time journeying for them and their question myself. Most clients find this relatively easy to do within the safe confines of sacred space. They are the ones receiving the wisdom and advice, rather than it coming from an external authority. Any information that I receive is an added bonus, as well as being a safety net against the client not being able to journey. At this point I would like to say, I have not yet had any client who has not been able to journey during one of my healing sessions.
Having met your power animal is a prerequisite for this type of session. However, this can be incorporated into the one healing session through the use of a preliminary journey to retrieve your power animal.
Removal of Intrusive Entities
There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in most philosophies.
Our energy fields are composed of dynamic conscious energy which is in constant flux. This energy is always moving, changing and interacting with both its own internal and external environments. Blockages can occur in the different levels of our field interrupting the natural flow of our wellbeing as well as impeding our creative process.
During a shamanic healing session, these blocks can be located, removed and transmuted according to their makeup. The layers in the client’s energy field are then repaired allowing the natural conscious energy to flow smoothly and regularly once again.
Ancestral Healing
Honouring the lives of those that have comes before us is a key component to any shamanic practice and in terms of healing we must acknowledge and accept that the wounds and traumas borne out by our ancestors, may have also been passed down through the generations to us. These inherited wounds may still be actively playing out in our present life circumstances.
An ancestral healing session involves making contact with our maternal and paternal lineages. It also involves identifying patterns of dysfunction through out the generations. Once these patterns have been identified, they can be traced back to their original occurrence with an ancestor or ancestors. From this point the clearing work can begin. Following this, there is the integration of gifts and wisdom offered by the ancestor(s), previously blocked by the unresolved wound. This type of healing work not only helps the client in their present life situation, but also frees the ancestor(s), allowing them to continue swiftly with their own spiritual evolutionary journey.
Ancestral healing usually takes a few sessions to complete, depending on the nature of the issue. It is deeply transformative work and benefits the whole family lineage, including future generations.
Soul Retrieval (Singing the Soul Back Home)
Without getting into the metaphysics of what the soul is or is not, let us for the present purposes consider the soul to be our vital essence.
Looking at it this way it is easy to understand how our vital essence can be hijacked and impacted by the difficulties encountered in daily earthly life, particularly during childhood when we are at our most vulnerable. During times of illness, trauma, accidents, loss, bereavements etc.. a part of our vital essence can split itself off from the whole, in an effort to protect the self from the pain it is experiencing in that moment. This part then remains lost or stuck in the time/space when the splitting first occurred. This splitting off is an unconscious reaction to protecting the self. We don’t do it knowingly. And it is only after weeks/months/years or even lifetimes that we feel part of us is missing.
I have been taught to call this most sacred part of my work ‘singing the soul back home’, and in truth it forms the keystone to all of my transpersonal therapies.
In this healing session, I will help you find that missing part of your vital essence. In loving support and non-judgement, we will find the time/space where the splitting off first occurred. Together we will then find that fragmented part and bring her/him home. There are many more parts to this sacred process, including the integration of the new soul part with the whole. This work is done with the utmost care and respect for the divine aspects of your being.