Shamanism is an ancient, worldwide practice of engaging with spirit helpers
and the forces of the natural world to develop relationships, solve problems, perform healing, and bring balance. Beside the
ordinary world we live and breathe in are parallel, non-ordinary worlds...
The Shimmering World: Reciprocity With the Star Beings
Our ancestors came from the stars. Indigenous peoples, worldwide, speak
of star relatives and star beings. No different than all the elementals and other living energies we know from our shamanic
practice...
This is a story of relationship between us and the star beings. It is a story about shamanic community, feeding and being
fed by ancestral memory, the wisdom that surrounds ancient indigenous ceremony, and maps of consciousness. Its a story of
weaving the physical and the energetic, the mundane and the sacred. Finally, its a story of inquiry and discovery in following
a one-step-at-a-time, spirit-guided process for calling the spirits of the star beings, to "bring star energy down to earth
to assist us in the difficult times that are coming."
[First published in The Journal of Shamanic Practice,
this article describes our star (ch'aska) despacho project.]
Moving Energy Meditation: Releasing the Heavy and Bringing in the
Light Through the Four Elements
Use this meditation to release
and gift heavy energy—despair, grief, anger, depression, fear, powerlessness, and so on—to each of the four elements
from specific areas of your body, and receive elemental, light, refined energy into your body to replace what you have removed...
She lies open there, a breathing mountain, an oasis. Her green flanks rise out of flatlands, bay mud, houses, roads. Her
flanks reach toward the wind, caressing; toward the fog, thirstily; toward the stars, yearning. Her flanks draw my eyes toward
restful quiet ridges of silence, draw me out of freeway hum and into that other world. World of steep grassy meadows, hummingbird
bush-covered culverts, chemise and untamed wind on high.
Based on the ancient principle, "it is who we become that changes the world," Medicine for the Earth
offers deeply empowering ways of transforming our consciousness and transmuting internal and external toxins. Explore this
visionary philosophy and spiritual practice pioneered by Sandra Ingerman and taught around the world...
An exploration of working in parallel realities with Medicine for the Earth practices to transmute
toxins, and a bit about the quantum concepts that validate these methods...
Inyo Mountains, Saline Valley, photo by Meg Beeler
Journeying with the Spirits of Nature
I did not seek wildness. It chose me, bringing panther cubs and river meanders, mystery and galaxies into my life. I did not
look for cellular memory. It found me, threading ancestral wisdom with the knowledge of stones and trees. I did not want this
solitary path. It chased me from childhood, flowed into every awareness, taught me to keep going no matter how great the grief.
I walk slowly across the fields, step by step, from my place of power to the grinding rock below the petroglyphs. The ground
is uneven; grass seeds swell with rich food. At the flat, wide, grinding rock, the women roll their manos...
From my sitting position on the sacred stone huaca I rise into the air. An oval doorway appears in front of me. It is an
energetic opening, or apacheta; I peel the edges back and pry it open with trepidation. Through the opening, I see a filament
of light crossing the canyon like a thin golden guy-wire...
Despacho is the Quechua word for offering. It describes the Andean practice of making offerings to the mountains (apus), Mother
Earth (Pachamama), and other spirits in reciprocity, reverence, and thanksgiving. A despacho is an act of love and a reminder
of the connections we share...
In interviews from Siberia to Australia, traditional shamen describe deep reluctance to respond to the call of the spirit
world. "For nine years I fought against the spirit, without telling anyone what had happened...
The natural world has been source and ground for indigenous spiritual practices since humans first stood and began to name
the world. For everyone but western, technological peoples, this is because there was no separation: the physical environment
was and is the source of sustenance, life, spirit, and mystery...
As you become aware of your temperature rising, give it your full attention. Breathe into the heat,
breathe with it. Watch yourself heating up like a steam engine, like a volcano...
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