Shamanism, what is it? 

It’s wonderful that’s what. It’s work of the imagination, of the dreamtime, of an altered state of consciousness. It’s a way of being in direct contact with healing spirits.

In short, shamanism is healing the spiritual aspect of an illness. Cause here’s the thing, all the physical stuff that manifests – aches and pains, the emotional, mental stuff, anxiety, all the bits that come with it – it’s a disconnection from spirit, from our soul. 

And so it’s via the Shaman, who works like a bridge to the spirit world, to access the spirits to do their healing thing. And the technique used is Journeying. The Shaman journeys to the upper world and lower world to retrieve the necessary info and work with the healing energy of the spirits – and by spirits I mean teachers, guides, power animals – anything really. You trust what your intuition offers up. 

A drum is used to affect brain activity, so an altered state of consciousness is more easily accessed. There’s a lot of smudging to clear the dank energy, there’s a rattle, a few chants.

A huge part of Shamanic work is Soul Retrieval. The idea being that when we experience any sort of trauma (from abuse to being given a fright), a part of our soul escapes in order to protect us. But in order to clear those aches and pains and anxieties mentioned above, we need to retrieve this missing part of our soul, for it’s part of our vital life force, our essence. 

Conveniently while watching United States of Tara I came across a quote which summed this up perfectly …

“From birth each of us sets out to discover who we really are, but when trauma occurs we create ways to survive, often we split into pieces and abandon the most vulnerable parts of ourselves, boxing them up in tiny packages and then tossing them away. Later we spend our time looking for these parcels hoping to meet someone who can help us find these lost splintered pieces of ourselves.” 

This is soul retrieval.

All in all, the shamanic stuff I learnt was seriously good fun. There’s something about honouring the ritualistic aspect of doing energy work this way that makes inherent sense. And as it works out, it compliments Kinesiology beautifully.

For me, what I’ve enjoyed most, is connecting with the spirit realm in a way that feels so true.

In my last post I mentioned the grief my conditioning has given me in relation to believing all this stuff to be true. After the ghost thing, after the profound results I experienced working with Scott (think telepathic moments), after learning the ways of the Shaman – I now have not one tiny bit of doubt, this stuff is so real.

And the BEST bit, I can teach this to you. Anyone can learn. You don’t need to do a diploma or extensive study, the basics of Shamanism are available for everyone – which is the way it should be. Expect a workshop in about a months time. 

Before signing off I must bow my head with gratitude – to Scott and his wife Penelope for holding space, to Isha for her hideaway amongst the trees. And for the ancestors and spirits of Kauai. They took me in, protected me from the mountain tops and from the deepest depths of the sea. I felt their spirit and warrior instincts. I have carried their essence back with me.

To the spiritual warrior in all of us – xo

For more info on Scott and his wonderful work – click here.

And if you’d like to learn the ways of the Shaman, learn how to communicate with your spirit and spirit helpers more directly hit reply and let me know. The workshop is currently in creation mode.