Category Archives: Animal Guides

The Honorable Turkey

It’s been a while since our last post. A lot has happened since then. If you follow us on Shaman’s Blog, you know that Gary had a small heart attack (if you can call them small) at the end of September. It’s been somewhat crazy since then. He is doing well and is back to his feisty self again. So, we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

But, since it’s Thanksgiving, it seemed right to pay some homage to the honorable bird who will grace many of our tables on Thursday. So, with this blog, we honor Turkey.

According to Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small the keynotes for Turkey are shared blessings and harvest. No wonder the turkey has become the symbol of Thanksgiving. Continue reading →

Squirrels – Mother Nature’s Boy Scouts

I have been out of sync with my blogging lately. Our son came from Arizona and paid us a visit for a week and so we got out and enjoyed our time together playing on the river and visiting the coast. He was so glad to be “home”, he found a job and arrives next week with his moving truck!

For the past month, I have been busy getting the winter stores put up. We live in a wonderful area for growing and have luscious fruit and veggie harvests during the late summer and fall. I have always canned food during the summer. I remember it as a child, helping Mom and Grandma, and the taste of the yummy sweet fruit mid winter. So, I have been canning up a storm.

As I sit at my computer every day, looking out into the forest, I can’t help noticing the squirrels gathering acorns and other seeds, putting away their winter stores. And as many of us begin to prepare for winter and the slowing of our energies, I thought squirrel would be a good topic for today’s blog.

Squirrel medicine comes in a couple of different forms. Continue reading →

Deer Medicine

Deer Medicine – Gentleness and Innocence – Gentle Luring to New Adventure

I’m sitting here typing and watching one of our mama deer and her fawn, refresh with the nectar of the Faery Fountain and munch their way through our back yard. So, deer medicine seems the appropriate topic for our first blog.

We have been blessed by several deer families that reside here. We have had the opportunity to witness mamas with new fawns that were barely able to walk on their wobbly legs. And they have adopted us as one of their own. This is their home and we’ve just moved in. They sleep under our deck, just look at us as we go about our business outdoors, and don’t bother to move when we approach an area where they are resting. Today I was working on the sprinklers for my herbs and three deer approached the fountain in the front for a drink. We were only a few feet apart. They acknowledged me, got their drink and left. Continue reading →

Totem Spirit Stones

Totem Spirit Stones are now available at Shaman’s Marketplace. These Totem Spirit Stones are created by carving totem animals into polished tumbled gemstones to unite the healing property of the stone with the attributes of the totem animal.

These carved stones are great for inviting the specific attributes of the totem animal into your meditation or daily routine. Carry the stone in your right pocket or hold in your right hand during meditation. They are also a good to place on your desk, altar or meditation table to honor your totem animals or animal spirit guides. Continue reading →

Lions and Tigers and Bears – Oh My … Animal Guides

Okay, so I’m behind AGAIN… Can I say I’ve been busy harvesting and preserving the fruits of the summer’s labor? Someone at the farmer’s market yesterday was buying zucchini… I’ve been trying to GIVE them away! (Hey… maybe zucchini should be our Fall Harvest Give Away!) I have also been working on developing and acquiring some new product for our website at www.shamansmarketplace.com.

And, besides, you don’t want to just hear me ramble. I’m sure you all have someone in your life who can fill that role if you need it. I’m not a rambler. Gary and I can ride in the car together for hours and hardley say a word. Just knowing we’re together and sharing the time together is heavenly.

Those of you who have worked with Gary and I over the years have heard us constantly referring to “we” when talking about your journeys. It sounds like we’re pregnant or have a mouse in our pocket, right? Well, we’re definitely NOT pregnant, but could possibly have that mouse in our pocket. An animal guide mouse that is. Continue reading →

Everything is Sacred

Well everyone, I know I’m way behind on updating the blog, but life is such a whirlwind right now that it’s hard to keep upright.
We are busy preparing for our big move to Oregon the end of next month, so we are working diligently preparing our house to be rented, including the final piece of remodeling and lots of small repairs that we seem to not notice except when the rental agent is pointing them out.


I will be leaving my part-time job the end of this month and have started training my replacement. Can you imagine trying to pass along 4 ½ years of job experience in two weeks?? I see many margarita nights coming….

And we haven’t even started thinking about packing yet….


So, I hope we have your sympathy and that you’ll bear with us until we are settled and can start writing on a regular routine.

So, on to our story….

Sometimes we tend to get caught up in the trappings of the world and forget that everything is sacred, especially when it comes to spiritual endeavors including ceremony. We have to have the right stone or candle or incense or the ceremony won’t be right. Or we have to craft an item to perfection. “The right tool for the right job.”


I touched on this quite a few blogs back with the Popcorn and M&M ceremony, that even the most mundane item can hold a spiritual purpose. We often employ the “Sacred Bic” that Gary carries in his pocket and the “sacred hair dryer” for tightening up a drum head when the weather is too damp. Like a dear friend use to tell us, “If the Indians would have had a Bic or a glue gun, they’d have used them.” Indigenous people are VERY practical! Continue reading →

A Coyote’s Tale

My deepest apologies to those who follow our blog. Hopefully some of our readers have not quit checking in thinking we’d abandon everyone. Like each of you, sometimes life gets really crazy. Shamans are not exempt for the worldly chaos. We reside physically in this plane and experience it to it’s fullest – ups and downs.

Over a year ago, we decided we would be returning to Oregon soon. Well, soon is rapidly arriving and there is a lot to be done here to make that transition. We are finishing some much needed upgrades in our house to prepare it for renting, and that always takes a lot longer than we plan. So, if ever we’re away for a long period, you will likely find us under a pile of sawdust or covered in paint 🙂

A couple of blogs ago, I told you the story of the coyote’s tail and promised to fill you in on the coyote’s “tale”. It wasn’t a very big or exciting story, but here is the Coyote’s Tale. Continue reading →

A Coyote’s Tail

Back at the beginning of the month, I required a “mental health weekend”. I was nearing a point of completion with a shamanic death and restructuring process that began with the full moon and lunar eclipse in July and was due for the final integration at the full moon and lunar eclipse in August. This was a intensely deep process that completely picked my bones clean, disintegrated me down to my DNA and slowly began the process of recreating me. Needless to say, this certainly rattled my cage and shifted many things in and around me, much to the dismay of some people and situations that no longer fit into the new me. But, that’s another story. Verging on the point of explosion, I called for a “mental health weekend”.

Often I’ll tell Gary “I need a vacation” and we both agree and that’s where it gets left. Not this time. Immediately after I made my declaration, I returned and asked just where we were going camping. I needed to spend time with Mother Earth and the Elementals. So, we packed up the Taj Mahal (our roomy tent), air mattress and the rest of our camping gear and headed toward north eastern Arizona.

We found a lovely primitive place to camp, amidst the noise of several families with little ones. And, in spite of the screaming babies, we reveled in the cooler weather, journeyed to the moon and stars, danced with the fire spirits and played with the Elementals and ravens that happened by, and just sat and did NOTHING! Continue reading →