What is Shamanic Healing?


What is a Shaman?

 

But ask the animals and they will teach you,
or the birds in the air,
and they will tell you to speak to the Earth
and it will teach you.



A shaman is a healer (medicine man or woman) within a tribal group. The shaman is able to connect to earth, and universal energies to retrieve information that will help to heal the sick. For example a shaman would be guided as to the correct herbs or essences to use to help an individual. They do this by tuning in directly to the plants to discover the healing powers they contain. Edward Bach, for instance, worked this way intuitively to develop his flower remedies. In modern society we are so cut-off from nature that these things may seem strange, but imagine you were a member of a native American tribe whose survival was based on understanding, respecting and being a part of nature.

The individual life force within is able to reach out beyond itself even to the far reaches of the stars. But it does so by first going within itself. It is within your own energy system at the centre of your own being that you are at one with both the visible and the invisible. So it is necessary to go within to reach the within of that which is without.

To the shaman, and such cultures, the concepts of others realms and realities, spirit guides, non-physical teachers and allies are quite natural. These beings are available for support and guidance in the unfoldment of our lives. As we start to connect to nature, we start ot understand the unwritten laws of coincidences and mother nature's universal language, which is communicated to us through the entirity of the natural world - the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms as well as the weather and our general environment. These may all have messages for us at certain times, to teach us, support us, heal us or guide us on our spiritual journey.

For example, the spider teaches us to be direct in our lives and an appearance of several spiders over a short period of time, especially just at the moment we are thinking a certain thought, when we have concern over an issue, may be indicating to us a need to be more direct in our approach. As the circular part of the spider's web contains a sticky substance to ensnare its prey, but the radial spokes of the web are not, which enables the spider to travel directly to the centre.

The medicine wheel which we construct at every shamanic workshop is shown here. The power of the medicine wheel is brought in as the energies of the directions and elements of water, earth, fire, air and ether are invocated by verbal decrees. It is used to honour the energies we work with and to keep the space sacred and safe. Stones that have been felt to have the right energies are used in the 8 directions, and representations of the elements are placed by them.





THE INVITATION

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are,
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon,
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow.
If you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;
If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
Be realistic or to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you're telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore Be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from God's presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon. “ Yes!”
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and Bruised to the Bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here,
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied,
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.






Philosophical implication of quantum mechanics is that all the things in our universe (including us) that appear to exist independently are actually parts of one all-encompassing organic pattern and that no parts of the pattern are ever really separated from it or from each other.




It is through the spirit that you can come into contact with the life-force of rocks, plants and animals who will be your allies, cosmic beings who will be your helpers, for the spirit is the being. It is the being that which is in the process of becoming, of coming into that which is greater than itself. That which is in you is thus able to communicate with that which is in everything.