Healing is remembering what has been forgotten about connection,and unity and interdependence among all things living and non-living.
Jean Achterberg
Shamanism is an ancient, grounded and earth based healing tradition that in ancient times was commonplace in all societies around the world including the British Isles.
Shamanic healing is a very deep and profound healing process concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of spiritual illness. The reason for illness is seen as an imbalance of power, of our vital energy or life force. People who have power loss, loss of aspects of their power, often feel a lack of grounding and connection to themselves and to the environment around them. To restore balance I work with the spirit power of the universe to find and retrieve lost power or to remove the spirit of an illness, an unwanted power intrusion. I offer traditional techniques of shamanic healing to provide healing, reconnection and restoration.
The Shamanic Journey
The shamanic healer is someone who actively seeks out the spirits to ask for their healing, help or advice. She has a good connection with her own spirit guides and is able to travel easily to the world of the spirits. She does this by changing her consciousness, often through the use of rhythmic shamanic drumming, and travelling out of the physical body on a journey to the spirit world. Once there she communes with her spirits to retrieve the relevant help or information needed and/or request healing for the person who has asked for the journey.
Power
From a shamanic perspective:
- we are all born with the power/vitality that we need for this life time. Our personal power is defined as energy within. Ideally it rises and descends flowing through us with a natural rhythm. This can be likened to our Chi or Prana. The health of our personal power is directly related to the health of our energy system as a whole. For example, if our aura has holes in it power will leak out through the holes and as a consequence our energy system and personal power will be depleted.
- we are born connected to the spirit helpers and animal guides that we need to support us through our life time. These spirits lend us their power to help us in our daily lives.
Fragmented, misaligned & disharmonious subtle bodies (commonly known as soul loss)
Once our soul/spirit has incarnated into flesh it manifests the subtle energy body system. The physical cellular body has many layers of condensed energy e.g. bones and muscles. The aura, which is the subtle energy or biosphere that surrounds the physical body, also has layers. The seven layers of the aura are known as the subtle energy bodies and each individual subtle body has its own distinct nature and function. Often as we go through life we lose aspects of our power through trauma or enduring circumstances that the more sensitive parts of ourselves find untenable. When this happens some of our energy becomes misaligned or dislodged thus fragmenting and we lose that aspect of our vital energy. Once this fragmentation has occurred we no longer have direct access to our all power reserves or to who we truly are. When we experience trauma it manifests firstly in our energy body and then if not addressed it will work its way through the layers of subtle bodies and manifest in the flesh eg headaches, backache, digestive disorders. Corresponding emotional states can be a sense of feeling a void or of loss, or feeling lost with an inability to reconnect to self. Common internal thoughts can be ‘I don’t want to be here’ or ‘I want to go home’
For example:
A very sensitive child who has creative abilities may be born to parents who prioritise academic ability above all else and the child may feel that they are not seen or heard for who they truly are. This circumstance may seem untenable to the sensitive energy of the child which may decide to leave the physical body for a preferable existence in the spirit world taking with them the creative energy innately belonging to and part of the child as a whole.
Someone may experience a car crash whereby they perceive that they are in danger of being killed. Part of their energy may decide to leave the body as their sensitivity is such that that energy could not survive the trauma if it stayed embodied.
Adults that have experienced child sexual abuse often describe leaving the body and being elsewhere, sometimes floating above the body or disappearing into another world in order to survive the trauma.
Often times when we experience mild trauma, for example, falling off our bike or slipping on the ice and not hurting ourselves too badly, we can pick ourselves up, shake off the impact, and any energy that has become misaligned will settle back in after a short time. However, if the trauma is perceived to be extreme, the energy will not come back to the body and will remain fragmented off from the whole.
Time
From a shamanic perspective the soul comes from spirit, an existence where time is continual and spherical. There is no linear time so all things happen simultaneously. There is no before, there is no future, there is no past for the soul, there is only now and the soul cannot fragment. What fragments are the subtle energy bodies. Humanity views everything in a linear experience so our time is linear and we have markers of things linked to time. Trauma is linked to time so creating a fragmented link. A subtle body out of alignment and fragmented from the whole is an echo of the trauma, it is the imprint left behind from the trauma.
Subtle body retrieval ( commonly known as soul retrieval)
When someone has experienced subtle body fragmentation they have to deal with the original time of the trauma in order to heal. The shamanic practitioner is able to make a shamanic journey to the spirit world on behalf of the client to find and retrieve the fragmented aspect of the subtle energy body. On return from the journey the practitioner blows the energy back into the client’s system. The journey is spoken out loud so that the client can receive the information and energy of the journey as it’s happening and it is also recorded so that it can be taken away and listened to again. When the energy comes back it is very important that it is welcomed back by the client including the energy of the place from where they were in spirit world. Often times these energies bring back the memories, thoughts and feelings around the time that they fragmented however with the power back the client is usually able to move through this process relatively quickly. The client also has the gifts back that the energy originally manifested for example, the creative energies that they lost as a child, or the spontaneity and adventure they lost or the child like wonder and joy at life, the sense of oneness with nature etc. Most importantly they are reconnected to themselves. In order to heal and live fully on the earth we need to be embodied in the flesh that we were born with otherwise we are to some degree disassociated and absent from our own life.
Subtle body retrieval is done in 4 sessions over about a 3 month period.
a) the first session is a shamanic consultation to get the necessary advice from the spirits as to what healing is needed
b) the 2nd session is to retrieve the fragmented energy
c) about 3 weeks later we do a 2nd journey session to meet the returned energy and ask what it has come back to teach the client and how can they welcome them home
d) about 3 weeks after that we do a 3rd journey session to ask for a ritual to keep the energy home.
These follow up journeys are an essential part of the healing process as they help to ground the whole experience and support the client in their integration process.
I have arrived, I am home.’
means ‘I don’t want to run anymore’
‘You need that insight in order to be
truly established in the here and now,
and to embrace life with all it’s wonders.’
Thich Nhat Hanh
Power Animal Retrieval
This is a classic shamanic healing method which seeks to reconnect the client with their own spiritual power. It may be that as we have gone through life we have lost connection to our own power animals who are here with us to lend us their power and support our life. The Power Animals that we retrieve are mostly from the lower spirit world which is full of primal power and often what we need to become more substantial in our energy. We can also receive power animals to help us with specific tasks for example, a power animal to support me as I go through a divorce process, a power animal to help me to support my daughter, a power animal to support me in my teaching role.
The shamanic practitioner is able to make a shamanic journey to the spirit world on behalf of the client to find and retrieve the power animal that needs to come back. On return from the journey the practitioner blows the energy back into the client’s system. The journey is spoken out loud so that the client can receive the information and energy of the journey as it’s happening and it is also recorded so that it can be taken away and listened to again.
Power Animal Retrieval is done in 2 sessions.
a) the first session is a shamanic consultation to get the necessary advice from the spirits as to what healing is needed.
b) the second session is the power animal retrieval
Removal of a power intrusion
Whenever we lose power there is a void and sometimes an unwanted power intrusion can move in to fill the gap in our energy. This is not seen as a malignant energy rather as an inappropriate energy. In much the same way if you put diesel in a petrol car, nothing wrong with the diesel but it’s inappropriate in a petrol car.
To proceed with the removal of a power intrusion a shamanic consultation is necessary to get the advice from the spirits as to what healing is needed. The shamanic practitioner then follows the advice of their spirits as to how best to remove the power intrusion and quite often a power animal retrieval or subtle body retrieval is required to then fill out the gap in the client’s energy system with their own power.
As an example, I worked with a woman one time who came to see me complaining of severe headaches. She had consulted with various medical professionals and even had a MRI scan on her head and still could not find the cause of her headaches. She came to see me as a last resort and on the investigative journey to the spirits it became apparent that a very powerful power animal was residing in her skull. This woman was a Reiki practitioner and trying to live her spiritual path however her power animal said that the only way he could get her attention was to be in her head. I removed the power animal and blew him into a stone so that she could communicate with him in a different way. Later she wrote to me to tell me that her headaches had gone and that she slowly developing a relationship with her power animal who was helping her to deepen her spiritual practice.
The healer deals with the mishandling of the gaps that occur in one’s life, with one’s losses of spirit.
Chogyam Trugpa
.
