I offer divination readings and consultation via phone (and Skype for international callers), and remote clearing / protection ceremonies, spirit guide retrieval and general consultation services which are personalized just for you, recorded and sent to you. I have performed remote services for private clients over many years, but am now expanding the practice to make them available for anyone who may be interested.

Please Take A Look At The Services Offered

My Commitment:

Years ago I committed the remainder of my life to being of service to others instead of to self, and I have tried to live up to it. Plus, I found there is much more to the process than simply hanging up an “Open For Service” sign!

Spirit doesn’t necessarily want someone mucking around in the spiritual healing circle without having paid their dues. So I went about gaining more and more experience over many years while learning the practical aspects of being of service direct from my clients. They were, and are, wonderful teachers.

So I offer that same commitment to you with these “cyber-services.” If you should not be 100% satisfied with any session, I will promptly refund your payment.

A Gift For You:
As a part of my service, I will send every first time customer a gift that I believe will continue to serve you in either the immediate future or in the years ahead.

Aho & Namaste, my friend.
— Bob

Heart Medicine is a healing practice which offers a range of holistic healing methods for body, mind and spirit.   It guides you through a gentle yet powerful healing process that enables you to achieve and maintain balance.

With her distinctive approach to shamanic healing Mirela has helped her clients through many challenges: stress, anxiety, phobias, depression, panic attacks, guilt, fears, low self esteem, loss of direction, feeling of isolation, coping with change, hopelessness, grief, despair, feeling disconnected, feeling stuck and much more…

Mirela’s healing work helps to release energy blockages and empowers her clients to access their inner resources to promote mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. This healing practice can help with a specific aspect in your life that you need to overcome or it can be used for personal growth, self exploration or spiritual development.

I visited a shaman, Marv Harwood because I had tried numerous other methods of trying to find out what to do with my life. I’ve gone to many counsellors and therapists over the past decade and nothing fit. I’ve been off religion since I was a kid, and while I’d like to blame it on some decision based on a well-thought-out argument of injustice or ideological differences, I’ll say that it just didn’t fit for me.

What fits for me with this?

First, the soul’s journey. There is something in all of us that keeps us moving in our daily lives. If it isn’t satisfied then our lives don’t seem complete. We can have all of the toys, gadgets and money, but without a connection with your soul/spirit, the party is empty. You can’t buy enough toys to be happy. You can’t take enough alcohol or drugs to make life joyous all of the time. At least, that has been my experience.

Second, the awareness of shadow. By addressing and working at reducing the impact of shadow, life becomes easier. Shadow, for those of you outside shaman circles, are those things that you project outside of yourself that require attention or they’ll keep coming back. Sadly, all those things that piss you off about the outside world aren’t the outside world’s problems. They’re yours. When that annoying person comes into your office to bitch about their problems, it’s spirits way of trying to get you to pay attention to something in your life. When you deal with it, the person either stops coming around, or they stop ticking you off like they used to. When the same situation continues to come up in your life — sometimes it’s the same situation in your father’s life and his father’s life… — it is spirit’s way of saying “yoo hoo, pay attention to this.” If you like it, it will keep happening. If not, what do you want it to be? How are you going to change it?

The great news is that Shadow is not just the things that bother you about the world. It is also the things you love about it. You don’t need to get rid of those things. You just need to decide that you don’t need them to rule your life.

Thirdly, there is no good or bad, just different perspectives. Sure, there are plenty of things that we label as bad or good, but it is all a matter of perspective. Consider the story about Zen Buddhist story about the Old Farmer. People do many terrible things to each other, but depending on a person’s point of view it might be good or bad. In reality, each good/bad action is just another event for us to choose how we react.

Fourthly, the mind-body connection. I’ve gone to a chiropractor for probably 20 years to fix the bumps and torques on my body. While many were injuries from the various sports I was involved with, over the last dozen years, I have gone to fix the problems in my body that have arisen from stress — caused by how I reacted to the work I’ve been in. There was a correlation between the type of stress I was dealing with and the pain in my body. As I have gone through my shaman training and have released the roles and beliefs and comfort with stressful things I have been to the chiropractor once in the past six months instead of the one-to-two times a month that has been my pattern over the last decade. A core belief in the shaman training I’ve taken is that energy from the external world, and that created in your own internal world (i.e., your mind), affects the energy field that surrounds your body and contains your soul. This energy field is connected to your physical body through your chakras. Exposure to energy wounds whether self-inflicted or from an outside source (other individuals, environment, generational influences, or karmic influences) can manifest physically in your body. By changing how you react to these energies and by removing energetic wounds from your energy field, it is possible that physical issues will disappear.

I’m sure there are more things I connect with on this journey, but this list is as good a start as any.

Workshop objectives include:

* Learning to ground and connect through your Hara line
* Understanding the nature and function of our eight major chakras and the minor hand and foot energy centers
* Sensing when a chakra is not functioning optimally
* Exploring various methodologies for clearing and balancing
* Re-energizing our chakras
* Learning the cycle of chakra development and re-development and its current impact on our lives

Contact  judyferrig@comcast.net or call (520) 245-4214 with any questions.

Dowload Chakra Flyer (doc)

You told yourself you would like to learn to love your own company.  That through practice, through meditation, through compassion you would learn to calm your mind, ebb the flow of restlessness, enrich yourself through experience, but accept that not all experience must be fast and exciting in order to take home the lesson.

In every moment, there is an opportunity to grow.  You shall try to seize–no accept–as many as you can.

But it’s not that simple.  Despite all the your experiences, your crazy stories, your mind-opening, challenging chemical and herb-induced states, you still reduce back down to Maria Mae Stevens, reckless girl who often trips and falls back on her Western thought processes and expectations.  You look for instant gratification; you feel frustration and grip tightly to your judgements, your conclusions, your models as though that really mean anything in the end–that they will have anything other than a fettering impact on your personal growth.

Golly, look at this wishy washy prelude.  Don’t forget, Maria, that this is supposed to be a travel blog, and not “Musings By Maria.”

So what did you do?

Your return to Sli Na Bande in Wicklow, Ireland was seamless, and you were welcomed warmly.  You also learned that the Autumn Equinox sweat lodge was being conducted the very next day.  It turns out that the equinox also coincides with a full moon, to make for a rather auspicious event.

With all your personal goals, you thought, “What better way to embark than with a Shamanic Prayer Ceremony?  What better way to de-clutter your head, to lay all your shit out there in the sweat house, and de-tox?”

For your readers who do not know what a sweat lodge is… it comes from the Native American tradition.  It is a prayer ceremony that invokes the powers of the elements Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, along with the directions East, South, West, and North.  It involves beating drums, burning sage, candles, cards, chants, and phrases such as, “I call upon the children’s fire…  ho!”

For the average person, it is a difficult ceremony to confront because, at least for you, it involves stifling ridicule and feelings of utter ridiculousness.  It is, in all respects, something you might see only in the movies.  To find yourself lowering your guard, your sense of humility, and yelling like the rest of “those weirdos” is humbling.

Perhaps this was your biggest hang-up the first time you did it, over a year ago, with Alexis.  Maybe others don’t share your reluctance to partake in events that feel staged.  You went into this sweat, again, with your heart half in it.

The amazing part, however, was your humility melted away (probably from the heat).  You stripped off all your clothes, said “for all my relations” and crawled into the lodge.  Due to the timidity of the other volunteers, you had to lead the charge after Marlene gave her instructions, articulate your prayers audibly, and wait for the others to join in.

Sweat lodges are hot.  You are a baby when it comes to temperature, but you held your ground, refusing to fall over (initially!), refusing to puke, sucking at the grassy floor for cooler air, refusing to beg to be let out.  You thought your last sweat lodge was hot, but this time two people begged for release.

It wasn’t until the third quarter, after you’d fallen into sobs, that Marlene agreed that everyone should leave the sweat for air.  You crawled on your hands and knees through the mist.  You were blinded by the outdoor light, and you blundered until collapsing on your face into the grass, feeling little drops of sympathetic rain mottle your back.

By the end, you were quite happy with the proceedings.  Something to which you found yourself only half-embracing, though not without seriously, turned into a full-fledged feeling of relief and gratitude.  You dove into the pool when all was said and done, gathered up your things, and headed to the main house.

…only to feel overtaken with nausea and chills.  You crawled feebly into a chair and passed out.

Janice is a very gifted spirit.  I recently had a soul retrieval.  Through her guidance, I was able to feel a reconnection to loss I felt as a child.  It brought emotion to me as I felt I was able to reconnect with a piece of my past.   I was quite tired after the experience and went into a deep sleep.   I have felt more of an inner peace within me and more energy.  I am thankful for her guidance in helping me to take this step.  

When an individual experiences trauma, a piece of a person’s soul may become disassociated from the whole. During a soul retrieval, a shamanic healer, in partership with her Power Animal and Spirit Guide, finds the lost soul and helps to returns it back with the whole.

Soul retrieval can help any individual who has experienced trauma (emotional, physical, spiritual) in their lives, major health problems, and also individuals who have disassociated from themselves.

I have personally experienced several soul retrievals (sometimes you require more than one soul retrieval if different pieces of your soul have split off during different times in your life), and my son has experienced one when he was 3 years old.  I know that my experiences of my own soul retrievals were profound experiences, after which I felt more centred, more connected to myself, more grounded, more at peace and at ease, and had a better sense of my place in the world and my purpose in life.

In my son’s case, his shamanic healer found part of his soul in a higher dimension (Upper World, a heavenly realm). His healer got the sense that my son’s soul piece felt safer there (understandably) than with the discomfort that he was feeling in his body. Eventually, his soul piece was retrieved, after which, it appeared that he experienced greater ease in his body when his soul was intact.

I have received a strong message that soul retrievals can be very helpful for children with autism. My sense is that aspects of some autistic children are living in a different world (often in a higher dimension), which may account for some of the disassociation that can be present with some autistic children. A potential piece of the puzzle.

I have a strong sense that part of my life mission is to help facilitate the re-union of lost souls with their souls on earth.  Note that soul retrievals can occur over distance since this is the realm of Spirit. If you have any experience with soul retrievals or shamanic healing, I’d love to hear your story.

For more information about my energy healing services with children, please visit my Energy Healing website.

Originally posted 8/2009 ~In order to heal, Shamans routinely permeate boundaries; boundaries of mind and body, boundaries between consciousness and sub-consciousness, space and time, people and circumstances, humans and nature, and between matter and spirit.

Shamans show us that what we experience as our separate self is illusionary – they teach us to give birth to a truer sense of who we are and to recognize our connection to all things.  When we recognize our interconnectedness, we make business decisions from a holistic vs a compartmentalized view.

On the world stage, we are going through a collective shamanic healing process, a genuine death/rebirth experience. As Paul Levy, writes “our species and its civilization are currently in the throes of a collective nervous breakdown. If what we as a species, are doing to ourselves (destroying the biosphere, the very life-support system of the planet, to use one example) isn’t collective madness, then what in the world is? Our underlying institutionalized and incorporated structures that are helping to keep us asleep are breaking down and coming apart. The false, illusory separate self, which experiences ourselves as alien from one another is dying as is the fundamental framework by which we relate to each other and the world. As we recreate ourselves we awaken to our deep interconnection and interdependence with each other and all living beings.”

Interconnection and interdependence awakening are transcendent boundary breakers. Recreating ourselves and redesigning business frameworks from this expanded space is exciting…..and challenging. Relying on our innate Shamanic abilities such as going within, deep listening and relying on intuition will assist us in meeting the challenge. As awakening evolves, we come to recognize that we are all Shamans sharing sacred space. (Edited post from August 2009)

Pic originally uploaded by escher…

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Mina Bissell, Ph.D., Distinguished Scientist, has been working for years in the field of tumor biology. She has made some astonishing discoveries that have influenced new generations of scientists, including the facts that cancer is not only a disease of the cell, but a disease of the organ; and there is an experimentally demonstrable mechanism that somehow either enables the spread of cancer or limits it.

On May 8, a scientific symposium, along with a celebration complete with banquet and entertainment, will honor Bissell on her 70th birthday. Sponsored by several centers, departments and societies, it will be held at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California. The symposium is called “Cancer, Complexity and the Microenvironment.” When people explain Mina Bissell’s theories, there is frequent reference to a paradigm shift, which is a major big deal in any field. For instance, this Berkeley Lab website says,

Her innovative work has changed the paradigm by which scientists approach the study of tumor biology.

Environmentalist theorist and activist Edward Abbey once said, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” Growth for the sake of growth is what makes things sprout inside us that we don’t want. How do we keep hostile cells from colonizing us? Well, what about containment? This is one of the directions explored by Mina Bissell, with astounding results.

What did Bissell figure out, exactly? Gina Kolata gives us a general outline of what it’s all about in her article in The New York Times. She explains that a person who dies from some other cause than cancer is often found to have very small tumors that he or she never even knew about. It suggests that cancer itself is the norm, except that many people have some kind of system in place that polices stray cancer cells and cordons them off. Kolata puts it this way:

The basic idea — still in the experimental stages — is that cancer cells cannot turn into a lethal tumor without the cooperation of other cells nearby… It also may mean that cancers grow in part because normal cells surrounding them allowed them to escape. It also means that there might be a new way to think about treatment: cancer might be kept under control by preventing healthy cells around it from crumbling.

So, there you have it. Only, it gets even more interesting. In the February issue of Transmutation News, Sandra wrote that Gail Walker told her about Mina Bissell’s work, and shared her own thoughts about how it relates to spiritual healing. Walker points out how this notion of the body deciding to switch off the aggressive cancer cells is related to shamanic practice. In the same way that a cell turns into a tumor, a toxic thought turns into a pattern. Walker suggests that while cells are being influenced on one side to let the cancer spread, there may also be something in the next layer of cells, also exerting influence, but for the opposite reason. An organ can send a signal to the potentially dangerous cells, and tell them, in effect, “We have you surrounded, so give up.” With a healthy community of cells around it, the threat can neutralized, and with a healthy community of people, toxic thoughts can be rendered harmless.

We can, individually and together, find ways to contain and restrain the toxic cell and stop it from proliferating. Novelist Francoise Sagan was not the first to express some variation of the thought, “You become invulnerable when you lay down your arms.”

American guru Stephen Gaskin is known for his Monday Night Talks in San Francisco in the late 60s; his founding of The Farm; and his championing of midwifery, among many other things. Gaskin thinks you should be able to tolerate anybody saying anything about you. If it’s true, he suggests, then what’s the problem? And if it isn’t true, well, just think of all the reasons why you’ve said unkind and ill-considered things to other people, and cut them the same slack that you would want. He goes on to say,

If there’s anybody whose sudden presence puts you uptight, if there’s any subject that makes you uptight to hear about it, you’re not free; you can be moved around to do anything if you have enough handles like that sticking out.

Also, remember how in The Teachings of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda reported the shaman as saying,

I’m never angry at anybody! No human being can do anything important enough for that. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important. I don’t feel that way any longer.

All this suggests that we can do our part to keep our toxic thoughts from becoming toxic cells that infect any of our communities, including home, school, workplace, worship center, town meeting, or whatever.

Source: “Cancer, Complexity and the Microenvironment: A Scientific Symposium and Celebration in Honor of Mina Bissell,” Berkeley Lab
Source: “Old Ideas Spur New Approaches in Cancer Fight,” The New York Times, 12/28/09
Source: “Transmutation News February 2010,” SandraIngerman.com, 02/10
Image by Dan Zen, used under its Creative Commons license.

Kunsang Hyolmo is a social worker and a lover of traditional music, who has posted wonderful video clips of people drumming and chanting at a shaman festival in the Nepalese Himalayas. A shaman is known there as a Bhombo or a Jhankri, and shamanic practice is so integrated into everyday life that it’s not even viewed as particularly spiritual, but more as a practical matter. The filmmaker says,

It is likely that many of the healing practices of Buddhism and Hinduism share a common origin with Himalayan shamanism. However, Nepalese shamans belong to different religious groups and do not see themselves or their shamanic roles as ‘religious.’

The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin was recently graced by an exhibition of the work of Kevin Bubriski, documentary photographer who had spent nine years in Nepal. The gallery had also showcased many shamanic tools from that country, where shamans perform divination, healing, and rapprochement with unfriendly spirits. There are even more spectacular photos on Bubriski’s own website, where we find that Nepal is not the only place where Bubriski has photographed shamans.

In Siberia, Altai has always been the most active area for the practice of shamanism. The Soviet communists did their best to extinguish it by executing or exiling the shamans. Somehow the clans had managed to keep and pass on their knowledge anyway, and democracy, strangely enough, has brought about the revival of shamanism. Galina Angarova, Program Associate for Community-Based Initiatives for Pacific Environment, tells us about her native land:

For centuries sacred sites served people as places where they could come to pray, cleanse themselves, and recover from the hardships of life… For indigenous cultures, and specifically shamanists, these are places or objects created by nature: mountains, healing springs, mountain passes, plants and animals.

In Kosh-Agach, a region between Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan, Angarova interviewed a local and relatively young shaman named Slava Cheltuev, who had been chosen by the community to be the keeper and passer-on of its traditions.

Also in Siberia, the government of Tuva sponsored a contest the goal of which, at a first glance, was to find the nine greatest treasures of the nation’s heritage. At TuvaOnline, Dina Oyun explains why the number nine was chosen. But, really, the number isn’t important. What matters is how many groups and individuals have seen this contest as an opportunity to spotlight little-known “noteworthy objects,” including both natural phenomena and monuments of culture and history. The author quotes an official who says the point is,

… to wake the people’s activity, their basic curiosity, the wish to search and to find miracles and wonders in one’s own native village, district, or city.

Byambasuren Davaa, director of the film The Two Horses of Genghis Khan, dates the post-communist rebirth of shamanism to 1990, so it has been regaining strength for a couple of decades now. Davaa tells us that, in the time of Genghis Khan, shamanism was the official state religion, and talks about how, in Mongolia, singing is inseparable from life:

You have to sing, otherwise you can’t survive. You’re often spending days in the saddle and all alone. Without singing, you’d perhaps have gone mad. The treatment of animals and our rituals are also tightly bound up with song.

If you haven’t heard about The Horse Boy, which was first a book then made into a movie, here’s a review at the Lincoln Journal Star detailing this true story of shamanic healing. L. Kent Wolgamott describes how a couple discovered that their autistic son responded to horses, and decided to seek the help of shamans from a horse-based culture, which meant traveling to Mongolia. Don’t forget to watch the movie’s trailer, where the father says,

This is a story about how as a family, we did something crazy. How we ended up going halfway across the world in search of a miracle.

Source: “Kunsang Hyolmo,” Hyolmo, 03/18/10
Source: ” Nepalese Shamanism Ritual Objects from Nepal,” DouglasHydeGallery.com
Source: “The Sacred Land Of Altai, Russia,” Pacific Environment blog, 02/08/10
Source: “Regional experts of Tuva entered more than 120 noteworthy objects into the “Nine Treasures” contest,” Tuva-Online, 03/11/10
Source: “Interview with Byambasuren Davaa, director of The Two Horses of Genghis Khan,” NationalGeographic.com, 03/08/10
Source: “Review: The Horse Boy,” Lincoln Journal Star, 04/01/10
Image by The Wandering Angel, used under its Creative Commons license.

It signals family and community members that the shaman is functioning in official capacity as a servant of the spirit world (and therefore not to bother him/her with mundane concerns and to be sure and show the respect the spirit world demands).

The widespread use of amulets worn on the body is explained. Whether it’s a six-pointed star or an animal’s tooth, an item blessed by a guru or shaman is an object with meaning and purpose. Often the spiritual teacher instills the power not just with words invoking the spirits, but by making the amulet (or rattle or drum), usually from natural objects and materials.

Arizona craftsperson Karen Furr makes ceremonial drums. On this page of her website, SpiritDrum.org, are pictures of drums she had enhanced with artwork, for others and for herself. Each picture opens up into a full page of fabulous close-up views.

The design inspiration comes first from the person the drum is being made for, who is consulted about their accumulated personal assortment of influences, meaningful symbols, themes, mythologies, and purposes. The artisan/shaman then journeys to her helping spirits, and even to the drum’s own spirit, to ask for guidance.

The threads of color are painstakingly placed, strand by strand, to make the designs. The focused energy of the artist goes into the piece, as she “holds the particular intention for the drum as a healing and ritual tool.” That is what makes it a talisman. As well as being an accomplished artist and shamanic healer, Karen Furr holds a Masters degree in social work, and she is also a Reiki Master Teacher. The photo above is of her own spirit drum, described as follows:

The theme of this drum reflects Karen’s love of Saint Francis, and her several years as a Franciscan Sister of the Poor. It is the Canticle of Creation, a song written by Saint Francis in the last few years of his life on the planet.

Clothing made with mindfulness is particularly helpful for surrounding the wearer with protection. This is something we instinctively know, and it explains why mothers often feel an urge to make clothes for their babies and children, even though WalMart is just down the road. Shamanic artifacts are made by our hands and by other hands too, the invisible ones. We invite helpers by creating in ourselves a space where they can show up. The various authors of Awakening to the Spirit World are passionate about working with craft, and all agree that the world needs more objects made with love and intention. Sandra talks about making scarves and blankets from yarn she has spun herself:

With each crochet stitch, I focus on the words of power I am placing into what I am making. In this way what I create is truly filled with power and healing.

Hank Wesselman emphasizes that with patience, the spirit of what you are creating will come through. He tells of the oil painting he created many years ago, representing one of his spirit helpers known as the Leopard Man; how it graces the cover of his book Visionseeker: Shared Wisdom from the Place of Refuge; and the place it has in his life today. Incidentally, Wesselman was recently on the Coast to Coast show (where Sandra has also been a guest), teaching about “Shamanism and Anthropology.”

Soul-crafting is the term Carol Proudfoot-Edgar employs for her melding of art and shamanic practice, and she considers it vital. There are two kinds of crafts. One kind is made from natural materials found on the land, and left on the land, in the manner of Australian aborigine tradition. The other kind results in items which the shamanic practitioner will keep and use. Healing quilts, medicine bundles, prayer beads, and dream gatherers are named among the examples.

Something happens in crafting such items that joins all the senses with the heart, mind, hands, and the landscape wherein the Circle is gathering… After the objects are crafted, they are empowered, blessed by the whole Circle, and used according to the intention with which they were formed.

Awakening to the Spirit World also includes an “Exercise for Crafting,” and so far we’ve only been talking about the text, and not even the actual book itself, which has a richness in its physical qualities, with paper that feels like the spirits of trees are in it. The artwork is gorgeous. You can truly tell this is an object lovingly assembled to reflect the values of the authors.

Another of the book’s contributing authors, José Stevens, often travels to Peru and brings back items of “woven song.” He characterizes the Shipibo artisans as specialists in discerning nature’s patterns, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. Each piece of textile has meaning and purpose. The pattern functions something like sheet music. To those who can understand it, it’s a musical score. The power is sung into the cloth on the loom. There are also water bottles and window decals with some of these designs imprinted on them, which is an interesting concept. One protects the incredibly precious element we know as water, the other interacts with the life-giving light.

At DrummingTheSoulAwake.com, Jaime Meyer shows handcrafted shamanic rattles in three designs: two-sided, three-sided (or Celtic), and the goddess rattle. Dried corn is inside them, providing the noise when the rattle is shaken. Meyer says,

My job is not to ‘make’ something, but to help it become, help it emerge into this world.

Source: “Masks and Other Shaman Regalia,” Shamanista.com
Source: “Karen’s Art,” SpiritDrum.org
Source: “About the Drums,” SpiritDrum.org
Source: “About Karen,” SpiritDrum.org
Source: “Awakening to the Spirit World,” Amazon.com
Source: “Woven Song: Textiles,” ThePowerPath.com
Source: “Rattles,” DrummingTheSoulAwake.com
Image by Karen Furr, used with permission.

The trailer for Sandra’s short film, Listen With Your Heart (directed by Victor Demko), includes a reminder that the shamanic path is a path of humility, and that shamanism lives in the mouths of others: only the community defines who is a shaman, by granting its recognition. The person who self-proclaims is likely to be ignored. The ability to become a conduit to the invisible world can be cultivated, but sometimes it is abruptly and arbitrarily given. The spirits may decide to ally themselves with you in the aftermath of some shattering personal tragedy, illness, or misfortune. In other words, Sandra says,

I don’t think becoming a shaman is something that you can pick for yourself.

A person can’t decide to be a brilliant artist, either, but brilliant artistry has a better chance of showing up if the aspirant happens to be in front of the easel, with paint on palette and brush in hand. The enormously popular novelist Nora Roberts has said that her first rule for success is, “Rear end in chair,” though not quite in those exact words.

So, while we probably can’t make the voluntary decision to “be” a shaman, we can definitely initiate and take part in beneficial spiritually-oriented activities. We can meet the spirits halfway, by expressing our gratitude for the things they have done for us already, by our words, song, dance, service, ceremonies, and all the other ways open to us. Sandra’s Shamanic Meditations CD audiobook is not only educational but experiential, offering several guided journeys. Sandra states this concept elegantly:

Although most of us have not been called by destiny to become a shaman we can all engage in shamanic practices which bring about growth and evolution. Engaging in these practices ultimately creates healing for ourself and the planet.

What happens to our intentions sometimes? What happens to the promises we make to ourselves, about taking steps toward transformation? One thing that can happen is, we get distracted by static from the monkey mind, chattering on about this and that. This is one of my favorite things that Sandra teaches, and you can find the whole story in the February 2010 issue of her newsletter, Transmutation News.

Here’s the condensed version. As a shamanic therapist, Sandra would sometimes be assailed by doubt. Because of her pragmatic, no-nonsense upbringing, and adaptation to the culture she grew up in, a voice would throw in its unwanted two cents’ worth:

‘Have you completely lost your mind?!!!’… How I would handle this is, when my mind would start to interfere with my healing work I would just say to myself, ‘What if this really works?’ This question would open up the possibility — quiet my mind, and frankly I do believe that it impacted the results of my work in a positive way.

“What if this really works?” It’s an exhilarating thought to keep in mind. In this month’s Transmutation News, Sandra has more to say about the “What if?” factor:

Let us ask ‘What if’ questions which open the doors of possibility in the universe. What if we joined together and projected abundance, joy, light, love, peace, and good health, etc. in our circle? What if we radiated light daily into our circle? And what if we did this with focused intention?… What if we held our concentration and focus when working with our intentions?

You may have seen a terrific movie called Roadie, that was written by Michael Ventura and Big Boy Medlin. One of the characters always likes to say, “Everything works if you let it.” There’s a great Cheap Trick song, too, from the movie, which is quite energizing. The song goes on to say,

Everything’ll work out if you let it
Let it in your heart.

And when it does work, sometimes, in our ignorance, we want to call it luck, but consider this story from George B. Leonard, related to us by J. Akiyama of AikiWeb. Because of his 1972 book The Transformation, Leonard is one of a handful of people who have been called the father of the New Age. This story is about champion pro golfer Ben Hogan, who was asked by a reporter how he had managed to play such a spectacular game while under so much pressure. Hogan said he had guessed he was just lucky. When the reporter went on to ask whether his work habits might have anything to do with his success, Hogan said,

Well… The more I practice, the luckier I get.

Source: “Listen With Your Heart,” FilmBaby.com
Source: “Shamanic Meditations,” Amazon.com
Source: ” Transmutation News February 2010,” SandraIngerman.com, 02/10
Source: “Transmutation News April 2010,” SandraIngerman.com, 04/10
Source: “George Leonard Sensei,” AikiWeb, 04/00
Image: “Global Teacher Reunion 2″ with Sandra Ingerman, used with her permission.

Tomorrow, March 20, is the vernal or spring equinox. In California, New Jersey, and a multitude of other places, drum circles celebrate every solstice and equinox. In the Pacific Northwest, an organization called the Nine Houses of Gaia hosts an annual Fall Equinox Festival that is a major event in the Pagan community. From coast to coast in America, groups gather to honor the changing seasons. We’re out there, under the stars, gathered around bonfires, honoring Mother Earth and everything that vibrates. In New York’s Hudson Valley, the Easton Mountain retreat center will host the 4th Annual Gay Shamans Retreat, starting March 26. According to the center’s promo literature,

Together we will collectively create a Rite of Spring to feed our roots and support new growth in our spiritual and physical lives. Using traditional shamanic techniques of ecstasy (ex stasis = to stand outside oneself), we will support each other to dissolve the fog of separateness, move towards a deeper realization of our androgyny, and connect with joy of the new season as a gift from the Divine.

One of the event facilitators is Tom Cowan, a man with a quarter century’s experience as a shamanic practitioner. He has published books about runes, séance methods, mystical traditions, the lives of saints, shamanism as a daily spiritual practice, and humankind’s relationship with nature. Cowan is also an editor of The Journal of Shamanic Practice. One of his books, a collection of inspirational essays titled Yearning For The Wind: Celtic Reflections on Nature and the Soul, includes a foreword written by Sandra Ingerman. Additionally, Tom Cowan serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. To the question, “What is shamanism?” he has many answers, describing a shaman as a person who heals with the help of spirits, including:

[…] animals, birds, rocks, all the elements — earth, air, fire, water — land spirits and nature spirits, the seasons, the ancestors.

Seasons are important, and observing their markers can impart meaning to our lives. In her March 2010 newsletter, Sandra suggests that we gather together to celebrate the spring equinox, as a circle of thousands, and focus our energies as a global community. We might, for instance, transform a glass of water with our love, and then pour that water into a stream or lake. We might simply exhale our love into the air, blowing the world a kiss. And, as always, we can offer our love and gratitude to the sun and the earth.

In How to Thrive in Changing Times, Sandra talks about our heritage of observing the cycles of nature. Our ancestors didn’t have a choice about living in accordance with natural cycles. They went to sleep when it got dark, for instance. When winter came, they moved their herds or put up shelters. They saw life as going through seasons just like Gaia, and honored the special days belonging to both people and planet. As Sandra reminds us,

[…] ceremonies were performed at changes in the seasons and to honor the changes in life. Ceremonies were performed to create harmony with the forces and elements of nature.

A look at the “Shamanic Training” page on the Society for Shamanic Practitioners website gives us a hint of the wide range of possibilities. For example, shamanic practitioner Joseph J. Burinsky offers solstice and equinox ceremonies which can connect and integrate “the elemental earth energies with spirits of place.” Shelley Stump, of the Healing Waters Institute, leads solstice and equinox drumming circles, as well as women’s spiritual empowerment circles and many other types of healing programs.

Alone or with others, take a moment to observe one of the Earth’s mini-birthdays, our yearly spring equinox. We’d love to hear how you do it!

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NOTE: In case you missed it: “Coast to Coast,” hosted by George Noory, provides a link to hear the show where he interviews Sandra about healing from a shamanic perspective. Sandra discusses how emotional and physical illnesses represent spiritual imbalances, caused by the loss of a person’s guardian spirit or by trauma that has torn away part of the person’s soul. Through shamanic therapy, these spirits and soul parts can be retrieved. Also, a person can accomplish this through dream work. Hear it from Sandra!

Source: “4th Annual Gay Shamans Retreat,” EastonMountain.com
Source: “Books by Tom Cowan,” Riverdrum.com
Source: “Transmutation News March 2010,” SandraIngerman.com, 03/10
Source: “How to Thrive in Changing Times,” Amazon.com
Source: “Shamanic Training,” Society for Shamanic Practitioners
Image by Jack Heart, used under its Creative Commons license.

We don’t know if Christine Stevens ever said “I drum, therefore I am,” but the expression sure fits. A quick look at the West Coast music therapist’s schedule shows such events as a HealthRhythms weekend training, a United Centers for Spiritual Living Gathering, the Lost Boys of Sudan Drum Circle and Fund-raiser Dinner, the Seattle World Rhythm Festival, and events called Drumming Up Spirit and Drumming for Meditation & Unity. The founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, Stevens is a musician’s musician, as well as a speaker and writer. One of her recent articles, “Creating a Musically Accessible Culture,” states:

Envision the larger perspective of musical accessibility, a culture rich with hootenanny-consciousness that once permeated barns, churches and parks of the 1920’s in the Adirondacks and Blue Ridge Mountains. Music making can become part of every medical center’s treatment program, every long-term care center’s activities, every fitness center’s creativity component, and every school’s requirements in every grade.

Stevens wants to see families drumming together as taking part in a fun intergenerational activity, and kids drumming on the playground after school. A lot of people have a mindset that defines making music as just another grinding bunch of lessons, but that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Music, she feels, should be more accessible to everyone, and in order for that to happen, we have to “build on-ramps” and make “reachable doorknobs.” Music for recreation, healing, and the sheer joy if it — that’s what we need — and the more community support there is, the better. Christine Stevens believes we can create a revolution of musicality and music-consciousness that might be the most important revolution yet.

Here is some typical UpBeat Drum Circles advice for those days when the “monkey mind” keeps chattering and the stress starts to build up. Grab your drum and take a 15-minute break. First, play a beat that matches your heartbeat. Then, put a little expression into it. “Allow your own personal heart rhythm to emerge,” advises Stevens. Let yourself move, by swaying, rocking, or even dancing to the beat you are creating. Then be still and breathe for a while. There, doesn’t the world look better already?

On his Shaman UK website, Phil Jones talks about the steps in making a drum. The blogger is a shamanic druid who lives in rural Britain and makes drums and rattles. He also holds workshops where he teaches other people to the same. We’re pointing this out because, just in case you can’t make it over to Kent, reading about it is the next best thing.

In Sandra’s book Awakening to the Spirit World, we learn that the original practice of shamanism had a lot to do with shaping all of the world’s present-day religions. The shamanic journey is a meditative method that has proved itself over centuries. One of the things this book does is making sure that we get the full benefit of all that accumulated experience, by showing how to avoid the common pitfalls of shamanic practice.

Awakening to the Spirit World also comes with a CD with four tracks to get started with. They are played at a steady rhythm, four or five beats per second, to entrain the theta brain waves. This is the path to dream work, to connecting with the spirit guides, and to healing ourselves and our environment. Here are some words from Awakening to the Spirit World:

The intensely physical stimulus of monotonous drumming and rattling, combined with culturally meaningful ritual and ceremony, prayer and chant, singing and dancing, can be equally effective in shifting consciousness into visionary modes of perception. Not surprisingly, the use of drums and rattles by shamanic practitioners is a universal practice.

Nice picture there at the top of the page, eh? That’s Sandra and other participants at the Global Teacher Reunion.

Source: “Creating a Musically Accessible Culture,” UpBeat Drum Circles
Source: “About,” UpBeat Drum Circles
Source: “Awakening to the Spirit World,” Amazon.com
Source: “Shamanism and The Birthing of a Drum,” Shaman UK, 03/11/10
Image: “Global Teacher Reunion” with Sandra Ingerman, used with her permission.

In his essay “Overcoming the Second Great Human Fear,” José Luis Stevens talks about the five different kinds of adults, with the categories defined by what the people are most oriented toward — survival, rules, success, relationships, or philosophy. He shows how, despite their adulthood, the adults in all these categories nevertheless resemble children in one way or another. As it turns out, the emotion described here as the second greatest human fear is the fear of enslavement or entrapment. Apparently, too many people feel like they are spending their lives in prison — but it doesn’t have to be that way. Stevens also discusses ways of improving the lives of children, starting with the necessity to make sure that all infants are wanted and nurtured. The amount of structure and guidance needed by any given child should be determined on an individual basis. Stevens names several more desirable conditions, and adds:

Now, idealistically providing these ingredients to children should not be so difficult. In actuality it appears more like an insurmountable task and yet humans have proved that they are capable of doing the almost undoable.

Dr. Stevens is a psychotherapist with more than 30 years of experience. He is licensed in the states of New Mexico and California, and he is also the author of 10 books. He and his wife, Lena Stevens, served 10 years’ apprenticeship with a shaman in central Mexico, and they continue to study with Andean Inca shamans and with Shipibo healers in the Peruvian Amazon. Together they established Power Path Seminars, an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and indigenous wisdom to business and everyday life.

In Awakening to the Spirit World, José Stevens describes the shaman as a person who can help others achieve a new state of mind through ceremony. Actually, he says, a shaman fills at least seven different roles: ceremonialist, healer, warrior, artist, storyteller, leader, and keeper of knowledge. The best part is that anyone can bring the shamanic approach into their daily lives with simple ceremonies and practices. Many ceremonies are created around children, to bless them at their birth and at other times throughout life. Chapter 12 of Awakening to the Spirit World is all about children, and our responsibilities to them, with a strong emphasis on the fact that our future is in their hands.

Stevens is one of several contributing authors whose wisdom fills the pages of Awakening to the Spirit World. Another, of course, is Sandra, who reminds us in this book of a very important fact: Even if we don’t have biological children in this lifetime, we all have spiritual descendants. She describes guiding a shamanic journey during which the person requests to meet with descendants — beings of the future, not necessarily actual genetic relatives — and pick their brains:

Ask to meet with a descendant or a group of descendants who can show you how they use sound and light for healing. Then ask for something simple you can bring back into your practice today.

How to Thrive in Changing Times, also by Sandra Ingerman, contains a section about working with the elements, and how children can be involved in simple practices. The various elements can work as cleansing agents, and remove what we no longer need in our lives. Children are exposed to a lot of bad news about what the elements can do. They hear about the destruction left in the wake of hurricanes, earthquakes and other planetary events. It’s good to provide balance through ceremonies that give a different perspective on the powers to be derived from the earth and the elements that make it up.

Sandra points out that kids hardly need to be taught creativity, since they have that quality in such abundance. We can help them channel their creativity into activities for growth and change. She suggests creating stories, together with a child, that envision a harmonious and peaceful world, and creating artwork that depicts this optimized world:

Teach your children how to use their imaginations to dream the world they wish to live in, engaging all their senses to manifest their dreams… The more you can encourage your children to dream, the more they will continue to embrace the light of hope — and that in itself changes the present and our future.

How to Thrive in Changing Times also features a section on helping children work through disappointment, in situations that we as parents find themselves faced with more often than we would like. Additionally, the book suggests including the kids in a practice called “Get in Touch with Your Light” — especially at the monthly appearance of the full moon, when so many of us come together in the global ceremony of creating a human web of light. Remember, “Children always shine.”

Source: “Overcoming the Second Great Human Fear: Enslavement and Entrapment,” José Stevens website
Source: “Power Path Seminars,” Power Path Seminars, School of Shamanism website
Source: “How to Thrive in Changing Times,” Amazon.com
Source: “Awakening to the Spirit World,” Amazon.com
Image “Eileithyia, Goddess of Childbirth” by RomTom; used with permission.

I am also continuing with my Reiki journey and will be receiving my Reiki master attunement in the next couple of weeks. I will eventually be able to practice shamanic Reiki and combine the healing techniques. I have two friends who practice shamanic Reiki and have very much resonated with their work.

Other news is that I have connected with another shamanic practitioner who will be travelling to St. John’s over the holidays and she will be leading a fire ritual / full moon ceremony on New Year’s eve. I am thrilled that I will bringing in the new year in such a powerful and meaningful way.

I will keep you posted on my healing journey, and in the meantime, you can read more about my journey at “My Path to Healing” blog.

I am also continuing with my Reiki journey and will be receiving my Reiki master attunement in the next couple of weeks. I will eventually be able to practice shamanic Reiki and combine the healing techniques. I have three friends who practice shamanic Reiki and have very much resonated with their work.

Other news is that I have connected with another shamanic practitioner who will be travelling to St. John’s over the holidays and she will be leading a fire ritual / full moon ceremony on New Year’s eve. I am thrilled that I will bringing in the new year in such a powerful and meaningful way.

I will keep you posted on my journey.

A great blog post by Rick DiBiaso (formally the Affluent Artist) on the book Socialnomics, by Eric Qualman inspired me to consider social media as a strong thread that is weaving Business & Spirituality together.

Did you know that the Social Media Revolution is the largest revolution since the Industrial Revolution?  The democratization of media led by blogs, Facebook, and Twitter has leveled and expanded the marketplace playing field.  Big advertising budgets no longer rule the world.  Real people, connected across the globe as never before, control the conversation in real time.

From a Shaman’s point of view, being real (authentic, unveiled) and connected are fundamental spiritual practices. Shamans show us that what we experience as our separate self is illusionary – they teach us to give birth to a truer sense of who we are and to recognize our connection to all things.  The current media revolution is all about experiencing connectivity and demonstrating authenticity.

Referring back to Rick DiBiasio‘s post, the main message I got is that if you are trying to build a business, any business – forget Email blasts, forget web sites, forget banner ads – you don’t need an ad campaign.  You not only can, but must, use social media to find your customers and give them what they want  ——- AFTER they get to know you through social media — THEN pay really close attention to how you treat them.

Being real and authentically connected matters – social media forces us to practice being in the NOW and to profoundly pay attention.  Being cognizant of the power of social media to make or break you in real time should be an ongoing practice – a dissatisfied customer can negatively saturate your market fast —–on the flip-side well-networked “fans” can exponentially increase sales. The more we understand our connection to all things (our authentic selves, to each other, to nature) and how our actions immediately generate impact, the truer and brighter we will shine in the marketplace.

Here is an entertaining video on the Social Media Revolution~ the facts may astound you:

Related Posts: Infatuate Your Customers, Secret to Biz Success is On-Line Community

In order to heal, Shamans routinely permeate boundaries; boundaries of mind and body, boundaries of consciousness and sub-consciousness, boundaries of space and time, boundaries between people and circumstances, between humans and nature, and between matter and spirit. Lifting the veil of boundaries (filters) is not always pleasant and can be disturbing, but ultimately Shamans show us that what we experience as our separate self is illusionary – they teach us to give birth to a truer sense of who we are and to recognize our connection to all things.

On the world stage, we are going through a collective shamanic healing process, a genuine death/rebirth experience. As Paul Levy, writes “our species and its civilization are currently in the throes of a collective nervous breakdown. If what we as a species, are doing to ourselves (destroying the biosphere, the very life-support system of the planet, to use one example) isn’t collective madness, then what in the world is? Our underlying institutionalized and incorporated structures that are helping to keep us asleep are breaking down and coming apart. The false, illusory separate self, which experiences ourselves as alien from one another is dying as is the fundamental framework by which we relate to each other and the world. As we recreate ourselves we awaken to our deep interconnection and interdependence with each other and all living beings.”

Interconnection and interdependence awakening are transcendent boundary breakers. Recreating ourselves and redesigning frameworks from this expanded space is incredibly exciting…..and challenging. Relying on our innate Shamanic abilities such as listening and touching deeply, exchanging healing energies, and relying on intuition will assist us in meeting the challenge. As our awakening evolves, we become aware of a curious familiarity with ancient practices ……and come to recognize that we are all Shamans sharing sacred boundless space.

Seven Practices

We are the Sun ~ Rumi

Color

Originally uploaded by aknacer

Old school, hard-core balance is about finding an optimal-point between two opposite forces; balancing the scale. Remember the term “work/life balance”? First of all it is, of course, bizarre that work and life would be considered opposing forces. Second, it is fundamentally unbalanced to consider work as one side of a scale, while the other side is LIFE where everything that is not work fits – exercise and family and friends and romance and spirituality and all the other ands. Logically, you would have to take stuff off the life side of the scale to have it “balance.” That sucks and is simply frustrating. We are becoming more and more aware that what we are really “working” towards is a seamless life with absolutely no seemingly opposing forces.

My husband sent me this excerpt from Sacred Hoop Magazine that describes Q’ero Inca Shaman principles of, what I would call, seamlessness…I like it because it initiates with the importance of action. Also, the term “balance” is used in relation to inner and outer work only…  ”The way of action is called llank’ay in Quechua (pronounced ‘yan-kay’). The literal translation means ‘to work.’ The spirit of llank’ay, however, goes beyond physical labour and includes mental and creative work, as well as performing ceremonies and healing. Ceremonial life imbues work with meaning and, to the Q’ero, balancing outer activity with inner work is the key to survival.  Ceremonial work is not isolated from physical work. The planted field is holy ground just like the mountains. Love and beauty, munay, make daily life pleasing and soften the hard edges of difficulty; but without initiating right action, llank’ay, nothing gets done and things stagnate.  Action for its own sake can lead to conflict, however. The best outcome of actions proceeds from knowledge, yachay. Munay becomes impersonal love that embraces all things.  Yachay becomes the superior consciousness one arrives at through the proper cultivation of love and work, and llank’ay becomes right livelihood.  A way of living that is ecologically sound, promotes the welfare of others, and encourages service performed in the spirit of lovingkindness, is central to the higher form of llank’ay.”

This is a truly seamless life.

Programs & Services

1. Keep it Balanced – Incorporate both leading measures that drive performance and lagging measures that are outcome, or results-oriented.
2. Know the Organization – Align productivity objectives with the mission and strategy of the organization.
3. Establish Credibility – Make sure there is buy-in and keep it simple.
4. Ensure Integrity – Use measures to track progress against goals or targets, not to create competition among teams, business units or individuals.
5. Share Results  - Establish who will receive what results when.

The context in which the keys were originally designed — “productivity is an expectation that employees produce output that gives rise to, and forwards, company goals” could be altered to “productivity is the innate ability of every individual to express, produce or give rise to” — period.  From a Shaman’s point-of-view it could be said that the only reason we do anything is to express and connect with other people.  It could be said that business is really a construct for people to do that – express and connect – and only that. From this context, the Five Keys to Measuring Productivity would be:

1. Keep it Un-Balanced – Incorporate both leading measures that drive performance and lagging measures that are outcome, or results-oriented.  Focus on the leading measure – have more leading measures than lagging, include measures that express expression.  Allow individuals to design their own leading and lagging measures – incorporate them.
2. Know the Organization / Individual Connection – Align productivity objectives with the mission and strategy of the organization.  Include the mission, vision, and values of individuals involved in the organization.
3. Nurture Credibility –  Credibility should be nurtured, never established.  Make sure the company keeps it’s word. Make sure there is buy-in to productivity measures, that people are aligned and inspired, and keep it simple.
4. Ensure Integrity – Don’t have a whole lot of goals or targets, and never design measures that encourage a breach of an individuals ethics, or pit them against one another.
5. Share the Good and the Bad Results  - Establish who will receive what results when e.g. everyone whenever they want them.

Measures are important…..they set the edges of the garden in which a business can grow.  Measures should never, however, rule us and they should above all, support every individual to view and expand their expression and connection – ultimately creating a profitable bottom-line that everyone can feel good about.

View the original article published under my non-pen name, Brenda Rarey, as “Get all employees on board when dealing with productivity issues” Houston Business Journal

Update: 6/28/11 : Look for new website coming soon strategystream.com 

I met the blogger of Soul Lab, Jennifer Hill Robenault, at the Writer’s Conference in Austin a few weeks ago…I told her about my book, Shaman’s Guide to Business (now Love’s Guide to Business) and her response was “What is up with all the Shamans?” She proceeded to tell me that in two days she was going to go to her first session with a Shaman. When I talked to her later that week she told me it was “life changing.”   Now Jennifer and I are working together….my husband and I are meeting the Shamanic Practitoner, Gerry Starns, next week!  Its all about connection………..

I come from “beginners mind” when it comes to Shamanism and view it as a powerful context from which to talk about connectiveness. Following is an excerpt from the Q & A session with Gerry I particularly resonated with:

SL: You essentially help people reconnect to the spiritual in everyday life. How do people’s lives change as a result of your work?

GS: I believe that if we can infuse our everyday life and experience with spirit, we will naturally become more whole and more connected with that huge context that we call Nature. If we can stop compartmentalizing family from work, from spiritual practice, from parenting, from play, and so on, we will become stronger and feel more fulfilled moment by moment.   To read the entire Soul Lab Interview…….

About the pic

shamanism and ayahuasca art (53)  

Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

July 25th – 28th 2009

and

August 13th – 16th 2009

The Gyreum

Riverstown

Sligo,  Ireland

This 3 day retreat will offer:

Creative Vinyasa Yoga: 

to integrate mind, body and spirit, led by Tanya Gillen.

Shamanic journey: 

6 part Shamanic workshop. Journey into the sub conscious mind to explore and discover keys, tools and spiritual guidance to help you on your path, led by Ginny Hamilton.

Meditation: 

guided meditation visualisation and manifestation techniques: the tools and techniques to quieten the mind, let creative source flow and create our hearts desire, led by Stella Fairbairn.

Retreat Cost: €450.00 includes all meals, accommodation and tuition

Eco-shared accommodation, organic vegetarian food, sauna, 360 view of area in crows-nest library very informal and relaxed atmosphere with a compassionate and safe environment to explore yourself further.

Contact for prices

Stella Fairbairn tel. +44 (0)7787 880969 or + 44 (0)28 2073 0136

or email: onepointone@hotmail.com

Venue web address: www.gyreum.com