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What is Shamanism?

Working with the non-visible realms of spirit and essential energies
to support transformation in ordinary reality

I wish to start by acknowledging that the origins of the term shaman or shamanic is fraught. In this time when we must be conscious of appropriation of oppressed cultures, it is important to own that Shaman is an appropriated word from the Siberian Steppe peoples. It comes from the Siberian word for seer and in the modern, western world has been applied generally (and often disparagingly) to any person or culture that is deeply connected to spirit and works in concert with spirit for the well-being and growth of the people (in these cultures this includes ALL of life, the self, other humans, and all other forms of life). Understood in this way, all humans can trace a lineage back to shamanic roots. We all have the capacity to develop that connection to spirit. I sincerely wish that I knew a different term to use to identify this path but I know of no other that holds this meaning.

Shamanism is not a religion. It is a spiritual path and practice for life. Foundational to this way of life is the understanding of the interconnected, oneness of all things and an active, conscious relationship with unseen energies and spirits existing in non-ordinary realities. Shamanic healing follows the guidance of helping spirits to bring people into wholeness and alignment with themselves. It supports the individual's work in ordinary reality to restore harmony within themselves and with their family, their community, the web of life, and the spirit world.

Some of the healing practices I may employ in the course of our work together include:

Shamanic Journeying: Learning to journey provides you direct access to the wisdom, guidance, and loving support of archetypal teachers, essential life energies, and helping spirits.

Energy Clearing: Learning this brings you into presence with the feelings and experiences energetically imprinted by formative moments in your life within your body on the physical, mental/emotional, energetic, and spiritual levels. It empowers you to become for yourself what is needed to transform and clear that energy from your system, allowing you to be cleaner, more grounded in yourself, and more authentic with others.

Power Retrieval: It is next to impossible to live in Western culture or go through trauma without, intentionally or unintentionally, giving away some of our power or having it taken from us. In a power retrieval, that power is retrieved and returned to you. We then work to understand, integrate, and learn right use of that power.

Soul Retrieval: This is a process of tracking and retrieving soul parts that have split off, been fractured, given away, or taken. As with power loss, this can happen for many reasons. The soul part is returned and then we work to integrate the part. Integration often requires transformation of patterns that established to cope with the precipitating event as well as the soul loss itself and healing work around the precipitating event(s) and the reason that the soul part did not return on its own.

Healing Medicine Retrieval: This is basically a prescription from the spirit world to help integrate work done in a healing or to support transformation you are working to manifest in your life. The energy of this may be offered through my performance of what I am asked to retrieve for you or through teaching you, so you may use it in your daily practice. This is commonly a song/toning, dance/movement, or ritual.

Ancestral Clearing / Healing: Sometimes our ancestors' strongly held beliefs or choices set energetic patterns in place in our ancestral lines. These ancestral patterns can be foundational to keeping us stuck in the version of the pattern we are choosing to live. This work tracks the origins of these energetic patterns and clears them out of your ancestral line. This can ease your work in transforming that pattern in your own life and, possibly, offers an opportunity to call these ancestors back as ancestral helping spirits to support your life and soul.