The shamanic way
A little over a week ago I attended a shamanic retreat in northern NSW. I didn't have much expectations going into it, and to be honest I actually had a very little understanding about what shamanism was all about! So in today's post I will try my best to explain shamanism based on my experience and perception.
I believe that shamanism is a very old and traditional way of connecting with your spirit guides and the powers of nature in order to bring about healing for yourself or for other people. It's a technique that has a very long history and taps into knowledge that in this day and age, we have forgotten. We are so disconnected from nature and our ancestors that we do not know that they have so much untapped wisdom that can greatly help us.
If you are to walk the path of a shaman or at least want to be a recipient of a healing that a shaman provides, be open to the fact that you will most likely undergo powerful shifts. It's not to be taken lightly. You either hear the call of the shamanic path or you don't.
So what does shamanism involve? It can involve a number of aspects like:
- Working with your spirit guides (this is ALWAYS involved - you never do shamanism alone)
- Working with animal medicine
- Working with nature
- Using the above 3 tools to heal past life wounds
- Soul retrieval
- Healing traumas
- Cord cutting
- Removal of entities
- Initiation into the elements/directions/various stages of your life
Hollow Bone
The most important part of shamanism based on my learning is the concept of being a hollow bone. What this means essentially is that your entire body (and mind), become a vessel for which your spirit guides/animals/nature works through. You completely let go of your ego and let yourself be directed by the Divine. This means letting go of the fear that you are not good enough and just trust that what you receive is the right thing for you and for the person you are working on. It's a big lesson in the concept of surrender and trust! As my wonderful teacher put it "Doubt your doubt, and trust your trust".
When you let go of your fears, insecurities and place your trust in the Divine, amazing things happen. For me personally allowing my spirit guides and the like to come and work through me was pretty natural. In my energy healing sessions that I conduct at home, I completely surrender to my guides and the energy and let the whole thing direct what my hands and body are doing and where on the particular person's energy field. Sometimes my guides will give me some signs about what the underlying issues are, and other times they won't. The most important thing is not to compare - some people are stronger with clairvoyance so they can see their guides/see other things when they journey. For me, I'm more of a feeler so I tune into your energies to see what's going on from an emotional or "feeling" perspective. Sometimes I might get visions (e.g. when I did animal journeying I became a female lion silently stalking her prey through long blades of grass) but other times it'll just be energies moving my hands and arms.
The good thing about being a hollow bone is that you actually don't expend any of your own energy in a session. Similar to the concept of reiki and seichim where you a merely a channel for the universal energy, our guides use our body to channel through energy from the Divine. Of course that doesn't mean that you can throw out your own energy cleansing practices! Sometimes when we're doing big stuff like cutting cords, past life healing and soul retrieval, you actually really want to make sure your own field is cleared after the session.
Nature talks
The shamanic way really makes you respect nature. Trees, stones, animals, flowers, etc actually can talk, contrary to popular belief, and before you say it, no I am not crazy.
Treat nature with respect - they have their own personalities and their own wishes. If you treat them with respect, you will be treated with respect and gifted some amazing medicine. For example, when you first meet a person, do you go up and give them a hug or start a conversation on a major topic straight away ? Nope. It's the same with nature - you go up, introduce yourself, state your intent and ask whether it's ok to converse. Some beings of nature will be happy to converse with you, others will pretty much tell you to piss off. Some beings are actually very happy to be asleep and may not be very happy to be woken up! Others can be somewhat jealous if one of their counterparts seem to get all the attention and they don't. A particular rock was quite grumpy when one of the guys on our retreat used it as a footstool to tie his shoelaces - the rock wanted him to take his foot off immediately!
Whilst I was at the retreat I found a really nice rock in the bushes and did standing meditations there almost every day. My standing meditations essentially involve moving my body to wherever I feel the energy is directing it. In a lot of instances, I felt like I was either sending healing to the earth or bowing down to it to acknowledge what it was and to give thanks. On our last day at the retreat, we were asked to connect with particular trees/rocks. I tried to connect with that particular rock. After he told me about the fact that he had seen so much over the years and that he held the earth together, his last message to me was amazing. It went along the lines of "Do not think that the healing and meditation that you did on me did not go unnoticed". It was his way of saying thanks... although I distinctly got the impression that he found it difficult to actually say the words "thank you" hahaha. Another rock allowed me to take him home - he wanted to me to hold him whenever I felt insecure because he wanted to remind me of the strength that I had within. I thought that was really lovely.
In addition, I connected with some trees. There's one thing that is important to understand - trees talk to each other. They send messages to each other and trees will know if you treated one of their kind badly or nicely! On the retreat one particular tree initiated 4 of us ladies into the sisterhood. The tree told us that if we were drawn to certain trees, go up to them and receive information from them. I was drawn to some trees whilst I was there and each time I went up to them, I could feel information being downloaded through my fingers and hands into my entire being. In addition, I knew the trees were communicating because of the breeze. Basically, there was no breeze, and then there was a breeze for about 2 mins and then it went back to being still. Really amazing stuff!
Journeying and drumming
Shamanism is usually depicted with the use of the drums. The purpose of the drums is to assist you in journeying with your guides to wherever it is that you need to go to retrieve some information. Some people use drums as part of sound healing too - to ruffle up your energies and to help shift old patterns.
From my experience, I believe that shamanism is not ALL about drums. Drumming is merely another tool to assist you in the work but I don't believe that it's necessary. A lot of the work that we did actually didn't involve drums. It makes it a bit easier to get from one realm to another but I wouldn't say that it's the be all and end all. At the end of the day, if you're the hollow bone, than you don't need drums to do work!
Letting it all out - scream, cry, laugh, wail, stomp your feet!
Another thing I learnt about shamanic work is to really embrace what you are feeling in your body when you are experiencing a healing. So many people hold their emotions within - they bottle it up to the point that they are either numb or it gets too much and they explode!
As with everything, it is always better out than in! For example, there were a number of times I just broke down and cried a lot - and it wasn't one of those small cries, it was like a cry of desperation and deep sadness that came from the core of my being - something that I didn't even know that I had kept hidden for so long. The practice of crying, screaming, roaring, humming, chanting, etc is about letting whatever it is within you come out. Be authentic and do not be ashamed of it. As a person who can feel energies, I could feel the pent up energy building up in my body. My hands and fingers start tingling like crazy and then it goes to my head. If it's a really big release, it will take a long time for the energy to dissipate and go back to "normal" (10-20 mins for example). When I first experienced this at the Rewilding workshop earlier this year, I had no idea what it was and it kind of freaked me out. Now I understand that it is a clearing of stuck energies - making the way for a new more centered and better me. Sometimes with big traumas I have found that the energy is so strong in my body (think of the sensation you get when you have pins and needles and you're almost paralysed because it's so intense) - that's what I have felt. Afterwards you may feel super light and like you can take on the world, or you can feel empty and completely drained. I've felt both - but know that it is OK - at the end of it you have become a step closer to who you really are.
So - do you feel like you are receiving the call to go down the shamanic path? If so, give me a bell and I can recommend that guys that I did it with. I don't know whether I will continue to study the next 2 levels. The impression I got at the end of the retreat from my guides was that I wasn't going to do the next level. Whether that was because the timing isn't right or that I had learnt what I needed to - I'm sure I'll figure it out in time.
Btw - I met my new guide on Sunday during my psychic class. He's taken over as my gatekeeper/protector guide, and I look forward to working with him in the future!