My Relationship with Shamanism
WHAT IS SHAMANISM?
Through my personal lens and lived experience, shamanism is a remembering of a timeless, ancient wisdom that lives within us all. It reminds us of the interconnectedness of all beings, and invites us into the realms of the seen and unseen, Mother Earth, and Spirit. Shamanism honors all life and helps us to remember that life is in service to us, as we are in service to life. It is a reciprocity in the realm of the seen, and the support of the unseen helps us find our way home.
Shamanism teaches us we do not have to heal ourselves and the collective alone, there are allies just beyond our sight who are here to help- if we ask. However, we cannot leave the burden all to spirit guides and allies, we too are responsible for our growth and healing, and so the two worlds weave together, the seen and the unseen, to create the crucible of our human evolution.
Whether you believe in Spirit, the Divine, or Source, there is an undeniable Divine Intelligence woven into the fabric of all life, and shamanism invites us to fine tune our skills to see/feel/hear/sense the intangible to access what may seem out of reach. By acting as a hollow bone for whatever is ready to come through for the greatest and highest good of all, practicing shamanism is acting as a mirror in order to reflect what is ready to be healed - for others, for the earth, for animals. Within the realm of shamanism there is no limit to ‘what’ we heal, because it is all connected.
WORKING WITH SHAMANISM
Working with shamanism is to engage with a reality that lives just beyond our own. A true practitioner will not only bring healing, but help you to remember how to heal yourself and the world around you. There are many ways a practitioner may invoke Spirit, whether it be through journeys, drums, rattles, movement, ceremonies, retrievals, extractions, communion with plants/nature, dreams, or visions to name a few. There is no ‘right’ way to work with Spirit guides, but gratitude, compassion, integrity, surrendering, trust, faith, and an openness to receive are at the forefront of what authenticates an experience.
It is with gratitude and reverence that I share the wisdom of the indigenous peoples that has been lost over time through colonization, white supremacy, and capitalism. In order to bring healing to the world we must remember what those who came before us knew in their bones and honored with every breath. In this time of great change and remembering, shamanism and the original indigenous holders of this wisdom are gatekeepers to bring us into great transformation, into a new time of love over fear, abundance above scarcity, and community over self.
SHAMANISM AS A WAY OF LIFE
We do not need to be practitioners to access this sacred medicine, we merely need to look inside and around us, in the world of the seen. Nature can show us the blueprint of life. Mother Earth is the best teacher and is always available to us. Her lessons can be seen in the falling of a leaf - a reminder to let go, the current of a stream - a reminder to trust the flow, the sturdiness of the mountains - a reminder to be rooted, grounded and present, in the changing of seasons - a reminder that life is cyclic, or the bloom of a flower in spring - a reminder that when beauty can’t be seen it still lives, waiting for the perfect time to reveal itself. Shamanism lives within each of us, it is our DNA, our blueprint, or connection to life and the Divine.