The other day, I got sucked into an internet “rabbit hole”. You know, one of those times when you click on a link and then another until you’ve followed it into Wonderland and you never know what’s going to pop up …
Well, this journey yielded a great article on choosing your shaman. It’s called 11 Ways to Know a Good Shaman When You Meet One written by Jessica Brinton. So, I thought it was worth sharing. My own comments are in red. Continue reading
Hello Friends. I’m almost back in the shamanic world again. Spring at “The Grove” is always a busy time, and a lot of things get postponed (like meals, accounting, blogs, housecleaning…) This spring we’ve been putting up over 300′ of field fence around the garden (including cutting trees for around 40 fence posts), getting new beds made and planting, as well as building a pen for our baby chicks and caring for the land. Keeps us out of mischief 🙂
So this morning over tea, I got a chance to catch up on one of the blogs I read, Shamanic Drumming by Michael Drake. We’ve known Michael for years and enjoy his blog and the book (The Shamanic Drum: A Guide To Sacred Drumming) and CD (The Shamanic Drum Instructional ) he has on shamanic drumming.
As you all know, we do drum making playshops/workshops and help people create their own drums. Many of these drums are used for shamanic healing and some are simply instruments used to make joyful sounds (hmm…I bet that’s still a form of shamanic healing…)
During our drum making playshops we introduce ceremony many times during the workshop, offering thanks and healing to the spirits that offered themselves to be used in creating the drum, and welcoming the spirit of the drum. Continue reading
We often hear that the shaman travels “between worlds”. When asked how we travel through time to recover soul pieces, Gary and I say it is because in the dimensions we travel, there is no time, space or distance. That the spirit world is non-linear.To quote our book Shamanism and Soul Recovery – Everything You Wanted To Know But Didn’t Know What To Ask –“The shaman is one who chooses to “walk between the worlds” of everyday reality and the spirit realms for guidance or healing. They are able to slip out of their ordinary reality into an “altered state of consciousness”. In this state of shamanic consciousness, the shaman is aware of both the physical world and the spirit world or “Otherworld” at the same time. Continue reading
artist unknown
We often hear that the shaman travels “between worlds”. When asked how we travel through time to recover soul pieces, we often say it is because in the dimensions we travel, there is no time, space or distance. That the spirit world is non-linear.
To quote our book Shamanism and Soul Recovery – Everything You Wanted To Know But Didn’t Know What To Ask –
“The shaman is one who chooses to “walk between the worlds” of everyday reality and the spirit realms for guidance or healing.
They are able to slip out of their ordinary reality into an “altered state of consciousness”. In this state of shamanic consciousness, the shaman is aware of both the physical world and the spirit world or “Otherworld” at the same time.
He/she acts as an interpreter for the spiritual realm. Shamans treat ailments/illness by mending the soul.
Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body to balance and wholeness. They also travel to the spiritual realm to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul (Shamanism and Soul Recovery – Everything You Wanted To Know But Didn’t Know What To Ask, Debbie & Gary Gent, 2012, p.2)
So, what are those other worlds or dimensions we travel in? Many shamanic traditions believe that this unseen reality is divided into three separate worlds: the Upper World, the Middle World, and the Lower World. Each world has distinct qualities, including particular entryways and recognizable landscapes. The three realms are linked together by a vertical axis that is commonly referred to as the “World Tree.”
The Upper World above is the realm of unrealized potential, higher knowledge, and enlightenment. It is the domain of gods, goddesses, and evolved teachers/Masters. Many people experience the Upper World as very ethereal. The light tends to be bright, although the spectrum of colors can include everything from soft pastels to complete darkness. The landscapes in the Upper World are varied, and you might find yourself in a crystal city, phenomenal places of learning (i.e. classrooms and libraries) or simply in the clouds. In our training, this is where souls go when they are “taken to the light” to rest and prepare for their next journey. Here the shaman meets with teachers and ancestors who will aide the shaman through training and who will help guide the shaman in his/her work. Shamans also come here for cosmic wisdom, divine inspiration, insight, or to find ways to restore balance within themselves, their clients and Nature.
The Middle World is our reality as we know it. It is our day to day lives and the residing place of our physical bodies and our normal waking consciousness – the spiritual dimension of our physical world. Middle World journeying is a way of communicating with the spirits that live in all things present in our physical reality (Nature, pets, weather Spirits, the Moon, etc). It’s so parallel to the world we live in that we can visit all the places, people, and things we know in our ordinary reality. Shamans typically journey to the Middle World to find lost and stolen soul pieces, lost or stolen objects, or to do long-distance healing work. The shaman many come to both the Middle World and the Lower World to commune with Nature.
The Lower World is the realm of animal, plant and nature spirits, spirit guides, and the Land of the Dead. The Lower World is often be seen as being the place where evil spirits live, darkness pervades, and in general, not a good place. This is mainly due to our cultural conditioning of “Hell”. While the Lower World can contain some “not so nice” people and places, it is not a place of evil or Hell. The landscape in most places of the Lower World tends to be earthy, filled with mountains, deserts, dense jungles, and forests – the realm of Mother Nature. This is where guardian animals(Animal Guides/Allies) or helping spirits are found. It can also be a place of tests and challenges. This is where we often find soul pieces of those who are suffering and stuck. A spirit journey to the Lower World is generally undertaken to seek the help and guidance of an animal spirit, to recover lost power, or to find and return a sick or stuck person’s wandering spirit.
Shamans are said to travel to these worlds by climbing the World Tree. The World Tree is the bridge that connects these three worlds; it is the central axis about which the universe of the shaman extends. And it is on the Tree that the spirits pass from one world to another. The roots of the World Tree touch the Lower World. Its trunk is the Middle World and its branches hold up the Upper World.
extracted from Shamanic Connection’s Spring 2014 newsletter
The most recent lesson in my Druidry course spurred the inspiration for today’s blog — Stepping into the darkness.
The ancient Druids were said to use sensory deprivation as a means of entering an altered states of consciousness and accessing Awen (inspiration). They entered a dark room and placed a stone on their chest to keep their mind from wandering. Eventually they would enter altered state seeking their vision or inspiration. Continue reading
Last week I had the opportunity to help a friend with her spring cleaning. No, not the dust rag and mop kind (and I DON’T do windows), but giving her house a good smudge after her roommates moved out.
Spring is a great time for smudging your home to remove any negative energy that has accumulated over the winter. It’s the time when the air is fresh from the spring rains and we can pop the windows open and feel the warmth of Father Sun flow in. Continue reading
“Forgiveness is no longer an option but a necessity for healing.”
~ Caroline Myss ~
Forgiveness is a concept that many of us struggle with. We are told from early childhood that we are supposed to forgive others when they hurt us, physically or emotionally, or “turn the other cheek”. The idea here is that we say it’s okay and “let them off the hook”. And we go through our lives letting everyone off the hook on the surface, while we nurture many of these wounds as fear, anger and resentment throughout our lives. From a shamanic perspective, we are giving away our power to those who harmed us.
I stumbled upon the concept of forgiveness that really helped me as I was going through my own healing crisis about twenty years ago. I was working on some old childhood wounding that had been so deeply buried that when it came up, it hit me in the face like a beach ball that had been pushed under water and then suddenly let go. Continue reading
Ah, the nights after Solstice and all through the house, no one was stirring, not even the mouse (this is the one the cat brought in and let go last fall☺).
And in the quiet I sat in my warm winter wrap, with the seed catalogs open all over my lap.
Gary still snuggled all warm in his bed, while visions of tomatoes and herbs danced in my head…
The new seed catalogs are arriving and I’m like a kid in a candy store. But just what does my garden planning have to do with shamanism, you might ask. And my answer is that we are all gardeners…gardeners of our own life. We all know the old saying “You reap what you sow.” What are you going to sow in the upcoming year?
It’s no coincidence that we gardeners take the winter months when the earth seemingly lies dormant to assess the previous year’s harvest and plan for the new year’s planting. It is this time of “dreaming” and planning that gives us the beautiful gardens and bountiful harvests. Without this assessment time, we would repeat the same mistakes and/or not see the new varieties and options available to us. Continue reading
She highlights some important points about attending to our healing at all levels, body, mind and spirit. Check it out. Read more.
Until next time –
Mitakuye Oyasin (A Lakota prayer reminding us we are all related),
Debbie
It’s that time of year again, for the 10 Billion Beats global drum circle. Seems like it wasn’t that long ago. For the info on our Grants Pass, Oregon event, go to our calendar.
10 Billion Beats is a Global Event that uses drumming to focus a collective positive intention, then send it around the world in a continuous wave to improve our relationship with each other, with the living planet upon which we live, and “all our relations” . 10 Billion Beats started in Sept. 2009 with nearly 200,000 people participating around the globe, including a group at our house in Phoenix, AZ. Each year this grassroots movement grows even bigger. The focus is not to have the world’s largest drum circle, but to help us, as human beings, stand with each other around the globe through the uncertain times ahead. Continue reading