Shamanic Workshop 1 – The Power of Aloha
- Debbie Irvine
- Nov 5
- 32 min read
Updated: Nov 12
Wednesday 24th March 2021
Debbie Irvine
Evening Program
In Gratitude and Memory of my Teacher
Hank Wesselman 1931-2021
Shamanism and its qualities, attributes, gifts and practices.
Shamanic Journeying: Guidelines, Sacred Garden, and Drumming Protocols
Journey One: To a Direction of the Medicine Wheel that calls to you for Power, Guidance, and Healing
The Medicine Wheel:
Seven Directions: Qualities, Animals, Seasons
Four Directions, Four Life Stages/Aspects, Four Elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.
Journey One: To the Seven Directions and their Life-Quality Gifts and Lessons, and its Animal/Totem
Instructions for Journeying to Your Sacred Garden
Set your Intention to connect with one of the Directions for it to share its Gifts, Guidance, Healing or Lessons for you at this time
Ask your Power Animal or Guide to accompany you as you ask for the Gifts of the Direction that calls to you at this time
Invocation
Drumming
Sharing
Journey Two: Connecting to The Elements/Elementals:
Explanation of the Elements:
Hank Wesselman’s Elemental Clans; ii) Seven Directions Elements
Journey to an Elements/Elemental that calls to you for Power, Gifts and Healing
Set your intentions to connect with one of the Elements and its Gifts
Ask the Element that wishes to connect with you tonight, what Powers, Gifts and Healing it brings in Service to you?
How can you be in Service to this Element?
Invocation-Song to The Elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire with Rattles/Drums together
Invocation-Song to the Elements of the Seven Directions
Drumming and Journeying to an Element that calls to you for Power, Gifts and Healing
Sharing
Closing Prayers, Dedication and Blessing
Shamanism is the Path of Aloha, Love, Connection, Empowerment, Guidance and Healing.
It is the practice of Nature Mysticism
It acknowledges that ALL things have Spirit and Consciousness, and unique energies with which we can communicate and connect with for Spiritual Power, Aloha, Guidance and Healing.
It is a practice of Direct Revelation in Relationship with Ourselves, Earth, the Spirit Worlds and the Cosmos: Connecting with the Light behind the Form and the Formless beyond the Light.
It is about Right Relationship with ALL THINGS that brings to us the Goodness of Life
It is a Practical and Active Spirit-Based way of Living with Reverence, Humility, Self-Discipline and Reciprocity
It is about Healing, Power and Restitution: Re-Empowerment, Re-Balancing, Re-Harmonising and Soul-Retrieval
It is about Blessing: Our Incarnation, Our World, Each Other and Spirit(s)
It is about Gratitude and Forgiveness
It is about Service: The Spirits and Ancestors are in Service to US, and we are in Service to THEM.
It is our Birthright - as All of these aspects come to us as our Birthrights!
Open your “Yearning,” as the Celts might say!
Shamanic JourneyWork is about connecting with your Higher Self and to the higher energies of Spirit, Spiritual Beings, our Helping Spirits, Allies, Masters, Angels, The Stars and Cosmos, The Dreamtime and the Ancestors.
It is particularly focused on connecting with the energies of The Seven Directions and the energies of Mother Earth, Gaia, and her Elements, Elementals, Devas, all Animals, and Nature to come into Direct Relationship and Reciprocity to give and to receive Love, Truth and Power.
It is about travelling to the non-ordinary realms or Dimensions, the Lower, Middle or Upper Worlds that exist parallel with our World through Time and Space and where you can access the Past, Parallel Present, or Future, and the Ancestors of Past, Present and Future for Guidance and Healing.
Shamanism is a practical activity; it seeks Guidance and answers for problems, Healing and Empowerment.
Shamanism is about Direct Revelation: The Shaman, or Shamanic Journeyer receives authentic Power, Healing, Guidance, Insights and Information directly from his/her Spirits in the Spirit World, The Dreamtime or Cosmos, and particularly from Nature Herself and all her aspects and energies.
Shamans, and all of us practicing authentic relationship with All the Spirits, travel into other Worlds and Dimensions to ask for and receive Power, Healing, Guidance, Truths, and Insights.
Shamanic Journeying uses the aids of Medicine Plants or Sound (such as the beat of a drum at specific beats per second, or rattles, or singing) to assist the brain-waves to shift from a conscious active Beta wave to the slower Theta wave of relaxed right-brain dominance, shutting down the rational Left-brain and frontal cortex to allow access to the God-Brain, imagination, inspiration and Direct Revelation from your Higher-Self, or your Inner Shaman, Oversoul or Amakua, which are connected to Higher Spirits Spiritual Beings, Source or Great Spirit and the Spiritual Consciousness and Essences of Nature and the Elements.
Shamanism particularly focuses on Aloha, Power, and Re-empowering each of us, as Power and Re-Empowerment is the first stage in activating Shamanic Healing. The Shaman travels through the Veil to Other Worlds with the assistance of his/her Spiritual Allies to seek the needed Power for the client and brings it back. It may come in the form of Light or as an Ally, Being or Animal.
Soul-Retrieval is a Key aspect of Shamanic Healing: either directly through Shamanic Diagnosis (which may involve energetic and visual body-scanning, Divination, Spiritual Dialogue/Guidance, Extraction of Negative intrusions or Energies and Retrieval of Lost Soul Parts from other Dimensions where they fled due to trauma or accidents).
Soul Retrieval can also be administered Shamanically through JourneyWork, Creative Activities with Intentions, DreamWork, Dreams, Meditation etc. This may be more gentle and progressive over time and has the advantage of success due to continued encouragement for Healing and progressive embodiment to welcome the lost Soul Parts back without sabotage of doubt, fear or persistent trauma.
NB the Lost Soul Parts have to be Ready, Willing and Able to return in ALL forms of Shamanic Healing.
Re-empowerment is essential for preparing and keeping the lost Soul-parts back in the body.
Shamanisim also works in Healing:
The Earth, the Land, The Waters, and Animals.
Ancestral lineages re Illnesses physical, emotional and mental; Poverty, Soul Loss, Cultural, Religious, Political Traumas Past, Present and Future etc
Collective Traumas, Pandemics, Conflicts of Race, Creeds, Invasions/Wars
Weather Abnormalities and relationship with the various “Gods” or Energies eg Hawaiian Goddess Pele for Volcanos, The Winds (and Wind Shaman Renee Baribeau)
Shamanism has been practised all over the World in almost all cultures, handed down to us from our ancestors for thousands of years as found in early archaeology/anthropology evidence.
Shamanism has been practiced and continues to be practised because it works!
Because it provides information as to where to find food, the weather forecasts for protection and information for planting/harvesting crops, for Healing, for Explanations and Rituals and Ceremonies
Shamanism governs and provides meaning for The Cycles of Life:
of Nature, of the Human Life Cycle, for Initiations, bringing new Power, Clarity, Soul-balance and Meaning to help face and overcome challenges and obstacles in this World and the next. Daily Cycles, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly – The Medicine Wheel is the tool for all this.
A key motto of Shamanism is, “Pay Attention!” to the messages from the other Realms and Worlds your Allies and Guides may deliver to you, especially through the elements of Nature: messages in the Wind, the way the Water is moving, images and sound in Fire, and particularly messages from the Earth, the Trees, Plants, Animals and Stone Clan, the Mountains, the Sky etc
Shamanic Journeying:
Practice and Rules
Establish Your Sacred Garden
You Leave from and Return back to your own Unique Sacred Garden, a Sacred Place in Nature that is meaningful to you and that you can make your Shamanic Home. It becomes your Sacred Place of Rest, Healing, Restoration, where you feel safe and where you can choose to travel to other Worlds from and recognise it when it is time to return back home from your Journey. It is helpful to choose a tree that is special and meaningful for you to travel from and to return to when your Journey.
Your Sacred Garden provides Structure, Foundation Safety and Protection.
Your Sacred Garden functions as your Foundation; for all your Spiritual Travels and for ALL your Relationships. It is the symbolic and energetic manifestation of you and your Worlds.
Your Sacred Garden is a living, evolving entity in Service to YOU.
You are in total Authority over your Sacred Garden and ALL that you wish to Enter, to Leave and to Transpire and Travel to and From.
Where you Journey To: The Three Worlds:
Shamanic Journeying unusually focuses on travelling to one of Three Worlds, through Portals or where the Veil between the Worlds (our World and other Dimensions or Worlds) is thinnest. Each World has their own landscapes, Beings, and Animals and the Elementals.
The Lower World is usually the first place to journey to as it is the place of Power, of your Totem Animals and you reach it by travelling downwards through the trunk of a tree, or an opening in the roots or ground, a cave or river. You return by ascending up to the ground again via the way you descended.
The Upper Word is access through the top of the tree, travelling up the trunk and out via the branches and sky or from a mountain top or hot air balloon. Here you may meet with your Guides, Angels, Masters and travel further out past the Stars and Cosmos. It is Lighter and Ethereal in the Upper World and you may recognise its landscape more by its feel than its
NB. You do need to be careful that you are able to return as the pull from the Upper World is very strong to stay there. Listen to the Drum calling you to return and Pay attention.
The Middle World is accessed through stepping out into your Sacred Garden itself. It is here that you can connect with the Spirits that live in the Present and in Physical Reality and especially with Nature Herself, the Land of Plants Spirits and Devas and Elementals; Fairies, Elves, Sidhe; the Elements themselves Earth, Air Fire Water, Stone Clan; it is the place to access the Dreamtime; it is the place to do long-distance healing and to change aspects of your current Life by connecting to the Cycles of Nature for Guidance; the Place of Lost Objects, and Deceased Souls (who may not realise they are dead).
Protect, Ask, Direct, Trust and Thank Whatever Spirits you encounter, or wherever you actually travel to as your Journey is Unique and Specific to YOU!
Always ask the Spirits who show up if they are “on your side?” and always ask for protection and for spirits to be in service for YOUR Highest Good. Ask Spirit and your spirit guides to assist you in this journey. Even if you don’t know who or what your spirit guides are, trust that they exist, and reach out to them. Ask them to help you have a good, meaningful journey. Ask them to surround you with protection so you can be free of any fear and also free of any ego-based desire to create a dramatic, fantastic journey. Also, give the spirits permission to work with you. Merely say “I give you permission to work with me.”
True spiritual power arises when our work is guided by a genuine desire to serve the Great Mystery, the power of love, and the human and nonhuman community around us.
The best way to deal with all fears around journeying is to build a trusting relationship with a helping spirit from the other world. Your first journeys should be to ask for a trustworthy, protective helping spirit to come forward and work with you. When you have developed that relationship, you can then always take whatever fear you may be experiencing to that helper, and ask them for advice and perspective on, or healing of, those fears.
Ultimately, the more you Journey, the more “free” your travels, adventures and discoveries will be!
At the end of the Journey remember to THANK YOUR HELPING SPIRITS, GUIDES, ALLIES for Showing Up!
Ref:” Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide” by Sandra Ingerman
Rules for Journeying
You ask for Protection.
You tell anything or anyone who is not welcome or appears and feels untrustworthy to depart.
You have total authority over who or what appears in your Sacred Garden and you can put in or take out what you would like/or not like in your Sacred Garden.
You will notice over time and different Journeys, there will be spontaneous changes to your Sacred Garden, as it is the Inner World Representation of your Outer World.
Your Sacred Garden functions as your Foundation; for your Spiritual Travels and for all your Relationships. It is the symbolic and energetic manifestation of you and your Worlds.
Your Sacred Garden is a living, evolving entity in Service to YOU.
You Thank your Spirits, Guides, Allies for Showing Up! And for their Gifts to You
Hank’s Four Rules for Your Sacred Garden:
1. Number One, everything in your garden is symbolic of some aspect of you or your life. That's where it begins. Every aspect of you is symbolic and represented in your garden in some form.
2. Number Two, you can communicate with everything and that includes everything, the earth, the rocks, the trees, the stones, the water, the fire.
3. Number Three, you can change your garden. You can delete what you don't want in your garden because there is a delete button. And you can ask your helping spirits for assistance in doing that. You can then plant or add what it is that you want to have in your garden. In other words, you can modify your garden to be the way you want it to be and it's not dishonouring to do that. You can use your creative imagination to create an image of how you would like your garden to be put together or arranged.
4. Number Four, in interacting with the changes that you make in your garden, the fourth rule, is that when you change your garden, you'll change your life. Some aspect of you or your life will change in response to the changes you make in your garden. That's why it's such a powerful exercise.
The Medicine Wheel and
The Seven Directions
Journey One
The Medicine Wheel: A Map for The 7 Directions, The 4 Seasons, and The 4 Stages of our Lives
– Our Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Worlds and aspects of ourselves.
As a Circle, it mirrors the Circles and Cycles of our lives, daily, yearly and our Life Stages from Birth, Childhood, Adulthood and Elder to Death and Rebirth.
We walk the Red Road during our Lives and the Blue Road of Spirit with our ancestors before our next rebirth.
The Medicine Wheel actively provides a Map, and specific
Structures and Meaning,
Rituals and Ceremonies,
Lessons, Gifts, and Energies
Totem Power Animals related to each Direction.
Each Culture has its own version of The Medicine Wheel, depending on origin, Place, Cultural Traditions and Practices.
The Medicine Wheel I will Present and Use is a combination of the Indigenous American Indians from North and South America with reference to Jamie Sams (Cherokee Seneca Tradition) and South American (Alberto Villodo of The Four Winds Society).
Invocation to the Seven Directions as used in North, South American and Celtic Medicine Wheel Practice
Journey Intentions:
To connect with a Direction that calls to you to bring you its Guidance, Power and Healing in Service to you.
Then ask it these questions:
Are you giving me the Gifts, Guidance, Power and Healing of the Life Stage qualities?
i. East: Birth – Spiritual Illumination / Vision
ii. South: Childhood – Awe, Wonder, Pleasure, Faith, Trust, Intuition; Shedding the Past
iii. West: Adulthood – Reflection / Introspection, Healing, Releasing and Setting New Goals
iv. North: Elder-hood — Wisdom, Community, Gratitude, Ancestral Connections
v. Above: Origins and Returning Home – Gifts of The Dreamtime, Gifts of Life Recollections and Life Planning
vi. Below and Gaia – Support, Nourishment, Nurturing our Incarnation
vii. Centre and Heart-Flame – Inner Sovereignty and Authentic Power, Inner Aloha
Invocation to The Seven Directions
To All the Spirits of All the Directions
To the Spirits of the East
To Eagle, Condor, Hawk
We greet you and give you thanks
For your wings that carry us beyond the Veil
For your gifts of Sight, Clarity and Perception
For Illumination and New Beginnings
To Spirits of the South
To Wolf, Coyote and Snake
We greet you and give you thanks
For your gifts of Childhood and our Inner Child
For Awe and Wonder
Faith, Trust, Humility and Intuition
To Spirits of the West
To Grandmother Bear for Healing
And Jaguar for Power
We greet you and give you thanks
For your gifts of Rest, Regeneration and Empowerment
Of Introspection and Setting New Goals
To Spirits of the North
To Great White Buffalo and Hummingbird
We greet you and give you thanks
For your gifts of Strength, Fortitude and Courage
And to our Ancestors
For your gifts of Wisdom and Community
We give Thanks and remember our Prayers
To Spirits Above
To Father Sky, Grandmother Moon, Grandfather Sun, The Star Nation and the Dreamtime
We greet you and give you thanks
As we remember our Origins
And where we will return to
To the Spirits Below
To Great Mother Earth
To all your two-legged, four-legged, winged and finned, and creepy-crawlies
To your Stone People, Plant People and all your Elements
We greet you and give you thanks
For your gifts of Sustenance and Nurturing of our Incarnation
As we walk upon this Earth
To the Spirits Within
To our Hearts and Sacred Breath
We greet you and give you thanks
For our connection to our Higher Self
And to Great Spirit
And for your gifts of Love, Truth and Beauty
We ask that we may Form a Bridge
To ALL the Directions
And to ALL the Worlds
We give Thanks and say Welcome!Mitakuye Oyasin
Sa Sekhem Sahu!
By working with the energies in the medicine wheel, we begin to see how the four directions within and without us compliment and build upon one another. This is an ancient instrument of personal growth. Once you dive into the medicine wheel, the correlations and parallels that exist between the directions, colours, seasons, emotions and virtues begin to reveal themselves to you. And like most of the enduring traditions of the ancient world, this sacred tool provides a gateway to truth.
East, the direction of the sunrise, represents the birth of new things, the spring, the illumination of life, and is associated with matters of the Spirit. This is often represented by the colour yellow.
South represents youth, sweetness, and the fire element passion, vitality. It is most often associated with the season of summer and our physical body. This is often represented by the colour red.
West, the direction of the sunset, represents adulthood, reaping the harvest of hard work, and entering the dark “cave” of hibernation and creativity. It is associated with our emotional body and the season of autumn and Water This is often represented by the colour black.
North is the direction of the ancestors and the wisdom of our elders (both alive and deceased). The realm of the great return to spirit. We look to the north for inner healing and insight from those who have walked before us. It is associated with our mind/Soul and the season of winter. North is often represented by the colour white.
Four Directions Prayer
Creator, it is I. Thank you for today’s sunrise, for the breath and life within me, and for all of your creations. Creator, hear my prayer, and honour my prayer.
As the day begins with the rising sun, I ask, spirit keeper of the east, Brother Eagle, be with me. Fly high as you carry my prayers to the creator. May I have eyes as sharp as yours, so I am able to see truth and hope on the path I have chosen. Guide my step and give me courage to walk the circle of my life with honesty and dignity.
Spirit keeper of the south, Wolf, be with me. Help me to remember to love and feel compassion for all mankind. Help me to walk my path with joy and love for myself, for others, for the four legged, the winged ones, the plants and all creation upon Mother Earth. Show me it is right for me to make decisions with my heart, even if at times, my heart becomes hurt. Help me to grow and nurture my self-worth in all ways.
Spirit keeper of the west, Brown Bear, be with me. Bring healing to the people I love and to myself. Bring into balance the physical, mental and spiritual, so I am able to know my place on this earth, in life and in death. Heal my body, heal my mind and bring light, joy and awareness to my spirit.
Spirit keeper of the north, White Buffalo, be with me. As each day passes, help me to surrender, with grace, the things of my youth. Help me to listen to the quiet, and find serenity and comfort in the silences as they become longer. Give me wisdom so I am able to make wise choices in all things which are put in front of me, and when time for my change of worlds has come, let me go peacefully, without regrets, for the things I neglected to do as I walked along my path.
Mother Earth, thank you for your beauty, and for all you have given me. Remind me never to take from you more than I need, and remind me to always give back more than I take.
Journey Two: The Elementals
For Gifts of Power, Service, Healing
“We are born embodying one of the elements as part of our essence and this is important because your Elemental essence contains your genius. That's where all of your gifts are that you came in to offer in this lifetime and all the lessons that you came to learn in this lifetime.
Because of the nature of what the gifts are, when we are a gatekeeper to a particular element, we bring those gifts into our community.” (Wesselman) We are then in Service to this Elemental, when we give back to our communities, as it is in Service to us, when it give us its Gifts.
The Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Nature, Stone are all Clans, and we belong to one primary Clan, but we express characteristics of all the Clans.
The Elements, in both the Positive Polarity and the Negative Polarity, are far far more powerful than the Power Animals and are therefore fundamental in Shamanic work and healing.
“If you can attract an elemental or discover what your primary elemental is, the elemental spirits are hundreds of times more powerful than the power animals. So, for those of us who have healing sessions for individuals who are suffering, that energy, which is available to us, can be magnified enormously by working with elementals and elemental spirit.” Hank W.
The Elementals are often associated with Directions on the Medicine Wheel:
East/Air; South/Earth; West/Water/ North/Fire
The Above/Sky; Below/Deep; and Centre may also be associated with an Elemental: Sky and Stars with Stone and Shamans; Below/Deep with Nature and Gaia; and the Centre with Sovereignty and Inner Flame/Fire/Light or ALL the Elements and ALL the Directions.
Journey Intentions:
1.To connect with an Element or its Elemental that calls to you to bring you its Gifts, Power and Healing in Service to you.
Then ask it these questions:
What qualities, abilities and Gifts does the Fire/ Earth/ Water/ Nature/ Air/ Stone Element convey?
What does it mean to be a gatekeeper connected with this element…..?
What are the gifts conveyed through that gateway?
What positive polarity aspects do you identify with this element?
What negative polarity aspects do you identify with this element?
What actions might you take to Honour the Gifts and Relationship with your Element?
Song to The Four Elements
🌲Earth my Body🌲
💦Water my Soul 💦
🦅Air my Breath and 🦅
🔥Fire my Spirit🔥
Song to The Elements of The Seven Directions
Robert Moss
Spirit of the Air carry me
Spirit of the Air carry me home
Spirit of the Air carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Earth carry me
Spirit of the Earth carry me home
Spirit of the Earth carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Sea carry me
Spirit of the Sea carry me home
Spirit of the Sea carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Fire carry me
Spirit of the Fire carry me home
Spirit of the Fire carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Sky carry me
Spirit of the Sky carry me home
Spirit of the Sky carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Deep carry me
Spirit of the Deep carry me home
Spirit of the Deep carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Deep carry me
Spirit of the Deep carry me home
Spirit of the Deep carry me home to my Soul
Spirit of the Heart carry me
Spirit of the Heart carry me home
Spirit of the Heart carry me home to my Soul
Qualities and Gifts of The Elemental Clans:
Ref: Hank Wesselman
The fire clan people are the activists, they're the doers and the Light-Workers/Seers.
The water clan people are the healers, they're the medicine people.
The earth clan people are the nurturers, the supporters.
The stone clan people are the storytellers and the Shamans.
The nature clan people are really about change. That's a process. It's a verb, it's not a noun. And as we change, we evolve and we grow and we become more – And this is in our nature to do that. They tend to be shape-shifters.
Air/Wind clan people are the thinkers and “knowers.” The Shamans are often Air people who fly with the birds to other Worlds.
The Gifts of Fire
Life, energy, passion, inspiration, vision, Light and Lightening.
Core ingredient for Life – Energy, the Sun, building blocks of Life (along with Water).
The Fire Clan People: Fire people are people with passion, people with enthusiasm and action, people with goodness, to help people dream and to activate their higher self, soul, their mental soul and their physical soul and connect to their Aumakua or OverSoul in Hawaiian. They connect both to the future of what can be, and to the past by connecting to the ancestors.
The fire is the primary element from which everything comes. It's also the element to which all of us will eventually return because when we dropped the physical body, we're light, Our light body.
So, it's light. Now, it's present and in everything.
Your energy, that's your fire. The more fire you've got, the more you can do.
Fire energy is present in everything, and it's the state that our ancestors are in; It means our ancestors are light energy, with conscious awareness of everything that they've done and come across eons of time.
The energy within us is also fire, and that energy is sourced to us by the mitochondria which release energy, ATP to ADP
Fire energy is also on the mental emotional psychic level of awareness, of consciousness.
Energy opens the doorways to the spirit world and allows us to communicate with the past, the present, and the future.
A Fire Clan Person is:
A person with vision and passion who is actively involved in the world embodies fire.
People who work Inspiration (Spirit with-In) transmutation, Light-Workers, Seers
Most people in Western Cultures are Fire Clan: The do-ers and the warriors. They're active. They're quick. They're not afraid of a challenge.
The fire clan people are the guardians of truth, the Way-showers.
Fire people live on the edge between humans and their ancestors. Each of us needs to nourish the ancestral fire within so that we can stay in touch with our dreams and our visions. They can go back and forth between the two worlds; The worlds of things seen, the world of things hidden, which is where the spirits, the ancestors, the gods and goddesses, that's where they live.
So, shamans fit into this category of the Fire Clan particularly well because they live in two worlds. There are the known worlds, and then there are the unknown worlds where we can have extraordinary experiences once we learn how to see them.
The fire you could think of it as the primary element from which everything comes. And it's also the element to which all of us will eventually return because when we dropped the physical body, we're light. Our light body. And it can maintain its integration as a personal pattern for a long time.
So, it's light. Now, it's present and in everything. Your energy, that's your fire. The more fire you've got, the more you can do. Fire energy is present in everything, and it's the state that our ancestors are in. Now, that doesn't mean that our ancestors are on fire. It means that they are light energy with conscious awareness of everything that they've done and come across eons of time.
The energy within us is also fire, and that energy is sourced to us by the mitochondria which exists as organelles inside cells which release energy. They convert adenosine triphosphate ATP into adenosine diphosphate ADP - ATP to ADP and with that transfer, the energy is released and that is the energy that we use to do absolutely everything.
Fire energy on the mental emotional psychic level of awareness, of consciousness.
Energy opens the doorways to the spirit world and allows us to communicate with the past, the present, and the future.
Negative Polarity: Frenzied, rushing, violence, anger, selfish, uncontrolled, warriors.
In the negative polarity, fire clan people tend to rush ceaselessly with a consumer's mentality, polluting, destroying, conquering, and changing things because they're restless.
They cultivate scarcity to promote production and consumption, ”Oh, we don't have enough money to fund that." To promote production and consumption.
A fire culture is often fascinated by violence in the negative polarity. And in such a society, violence is highly marketable as it stimulates the culture as a whole which the military is about. And it entertains us.
The Gift of the Gatekeeper of Fire / The task of the Fire Clan people:
is to keep the community and the culture aware of its vital relationship to the spirit world. i.e. What shamans do/the roles they play in societies both indigenous and western.
is to inspire and help people dream and vision, to awaken their intuitive or emotional selves, help with self-realization, to En-Liven people, to restore energy and Life to them.
The Gifts of Water
Life, nourishment, blood is Water, we are mostly Water; Authenticity, Healing, Peace/Calm
The Water Clan People: Water Clan people are the Healers, the Medicine People, the Peace-Makers, the Harmonisers, Mediators, the Authentic ones, the Intuitives.
A person who is slow to anger (who pacifies and puts out Fire!)
Who cools things down
Who is gentle, calm, kind and agreeable
Who Flows and is flexible or inflexible/slow to change in the negative polarity
Who can lack drive or ambition if too much Water, indecisive, stubborn
The Gift of the Gatekeeper of Water:
is to purify, wash away discord, anger and to calm and pacify the community or inner fires of discord and to create harmony.
Their gift seems to be helping people to dream and awaken to their intuitive and emotional selves to find their deeper focus and to create peaceful solutions to conflicts.
Water is one of the essential elements for Life and to sustain Lifeforce.
Water is a Boundary between this World and other Worlds and often appears as a mist or river to cross between Worlds.
“The water clan people tend to be intuitives. They tend to be shapeshifters, peace bringers, mediators. They contribute to harmony: environmental, political, social and personal relationships. They're seekers of balance, conductors of healing energy. They're creative, nurturing, persistent, supportive, and can sense underlying unspoken hidden currents in a person or situation. Their gift seems to be helping people to dream and awaken to their intuitive and emotional selves, to find their deeper focus and to create peaceful solutions to conflicts.
Water clan people in the negative polarity can be stubborn, stagnant, resistant to change. A water clan person in a negative polarity thinks about all those things they will never accomplish and they have no regrets about those things. They tend to be very phlegmatic. But water clan people in the negative polarity can also be shallow, rather self-centered and unconcerned with the effects of their words and actions on others, both on a personal level and on a global level such as the effects of pollution and how they contribute to it.” H. W.
Negative Polarity: water as a destructive element: the erosion of canyons, river systems, tsunamis.
In elemental work, consider this from Tao Te Ching, “The sage who makes himself as water is distinguished for their humility. He embraces passivity, acts from non-action, and conquers the world. It encompasses both. Of all the elements, the sage should take water as his preceptor.” Water is yielding but also conquering. Water extinguishes fire. Or finding itself likely to be defeated, it escapes as steam and then reforms. Water washes away soft earth or when confronted by rocks, it seeks a way around. Water corrodes iron until it crumbles to dust. It saturates the atmosphere so that the wind dies. Water gives way to obstacles with deceptive humility, for no power can prevent it following its destined course to the sea. Water conquers by yielding. It never attacks, but it always wins the last battle.
The Gifts of Earth
“As an elemental, earth is the mother on whose lap everyone finds a place to sit. That's a wonderful statement. I got that from an African shaman.” Hank Wesselman
Earth delivers Her Blessing to us when we are in Right Relationship with Her; when everything is in balance and harmony and we take no more than we need from Her. When Respect and Reciprocity create equal Flow of give and take we are cared for, nurtured, supported, loved.
The Earth Clan People:
take care of others, accepting them as they are.
They are the caretakers, the nurturers, the nourishers.
They promote a sense of love, home and belonging
Each of us needs to be grounded in the earth so that we can become a source of nourishment for our community and families, bringing a sense of love, home and belonging
Earth Clan People are the Stabilisers, the Grounding, Nurturing, Foundational people who bring gifts of enrichment through structure, and care.
They’re the Artists, creators, lovers of beauty.
In the positive polarity, earth is about grounding, and grounding is very important especially when you do spiritual work, and shamanic work.
They support. They nurture. They take care of us and they love abundance. They take care of other people emotionally, materially, and spiritually.
They love abundance, and are quick to give away to meet others' needs because they know that they will always have enough.
Earth mothers, earth women and earth men, earth knowers: They love abundance, they can't stand scarcity, and they're constantly involved with accumulation as well as giveaway.
In the Negative Polarity, Earth Clan People:
Can lose their sense of connection and thus their grounding. This can create crisis, feeling empty, alone, homeless and confused and disconnected from the world. They feel alone, very strongly, whatever the situation or no matter what they have.
They suffer from invisibility and anonymity, both real as well as perceived, and they feel a compulsion to buy and sell things, including homes or parcels of the earth.
They can become hoarders or collectors, materialists, hedonists
They find meaning in what they own, or in who they own more than the authentic, intrinsic worth
They're ambivalent, they're indecisive, they're unable to follow through without much prodding.
The Gift of the Gatekeeper of Earth that comes through that gateway, is awakening in themselves and others, the need to nurture and support and accept others as they are and to care for all members of the community through their generosity, and/or to express their creativity for the betterment of all.
The Gifts of the Nature Clan
There is the spirit of nature, the nature spirit, then there're spirits who work with nature like the green man or the green woman. And there is a concept of a green woman rather than a green man, same thing in Polynesia but the Celtic people and the Anglo-Saxons and the Druid people, all had this idea of nature as a male, as a green man.
These Nature spirits are spirits, which means that they are dense concentrations of energy that exert an attraction power, which helps to hold them together. And they have conscious awareness and they have memory.
Nature is an elemental mosaic or matrix.
Nature is about change, and another word for change is evolution.
Now, evolution is about change. It's about transformation, flexibility, life and death, and magic.
Magic is being able to step into the realm of the sacred, connect with the power that resides there, and then use your body and your mind as a bridge to channel that power back into our world, to manifest something. That's magic. That's real magic. Everybody knows that magic is real in the indigenous world.
Nature is vegetative and, therefore, includes all plants and animals as well. It's the biosphere, that skin of life around this planet.
Nature invites us to change consciously and to welcome change.
In the same way that stone stores information, nature is a complex library for those who know how to read it.
The magic that we search for and our attraction to the supernatural, in general, are found in nature. Supernatural. There's the natural and there's the supernatural.
The shaman is the one who learns through trial and error and training and self-discipline how to enter into those hidden worlds, those unknown worlds, and nature is a gateway.
Nature is a gateway to Other Worlds.
Nature Clan People: Nature is not polarized at all. It doesn’t have a negative polarity. Yet it could be observed that a culture and relationship with nature is extremely sensitive to life's cycles, and the mythology of such a culture will be filled with animals and trees and plants that speak, beings that live inside the waterways and inside mountains and hills. In other words, they tend to lead a rather mythic life.
Now, despite our tendency to project our human failures onto nature like killer storms, killer tidal waves, killer typhoons, killer cyclones that isn't what these things are about, because nature does not have a negative polarity.
Indigenous people know that nature does not make compromises. It's not at all interested in the business red line or the corporate profit margin.
Nature is a force, and it holds the life force. It holds and expresses the life force, and these physical bodies are expressions of that life force through nature.
Indigenous people know that nature does not make compromises, however, and not understanding this, modern cultures lack the understanding that nature's destruction means our destruction. For this reason, indigenous people embrace the wisdom of living close to nature and respecting its wishes, cycles, life ways and patterns.
As a gatekeeper of Nature, the Gift from Nature allows us to be real, to just be yourself without any self-promoting schemes, thereby you embody nature.
The Gifts of The Stone Clan
The Stars, the Crystals
Stone is the storage place of memory, creativity, resources, stories, and symbolism.
It's the elemental energy that allows us to remember to communicate with each other to express our feelings, to receive messages from the other world, and to remember our origin and Divine life purpose.
Stones are so attractive to people. People see a stone, pick it up and hold it in their hand. Then something happens. This is elemental energy! People may not intellectually perceive it, but there is definitely something powerful and attractive, magnetic, that they do receive.
The true story of ourselves, the Earth, and the universe is the stones.
The friendly Mimi spirits are rock spirits, who taught the aboriginal people how to paint on rocks and that's about recording stories, recording mythic images.
A lot of shamans are stone people.
Stone people in the positive polarity are storytellers, and they're fascinated with myths and traditions, as well as rituals.
They're well-versed in metaphors and symbols. It's like when I merge with one of my power animals, I am that power animal. And shamans thought a great deal about this.
Stone people are those with great social skills.
Those who are always drawn to connect with others and hold the stories of others embody stone.
The stone people are the mythologists.
And stone is in our bones. Stone is in our bones. That's stone. That's the stone elemental. Stone is in our bones, giving each of us the ability to remember the knowledge stored in our bones; and to remember our life's purpose and live our own unique genius.
Stone People are patient and calm.
In the negative polarity, too much stone energy creates for overly analytic and frenetic levels of communication, and language can become a formidable instrument of power.
Such stone people love to argue, and they create eloquent ways of saying nothing, becoming bombastic, excessively extrovert, and overbearing.
As a Gatekeeper connected with Stone: you possess the gifts of producing meaningful images activating Insight, in the mind of another to help people remember their Life Purpose and to help heal distortions of the Past which warp their personal energy matrices.
That's called activating intuition. And that's not a small thing.
Healing the collective distortions of the earth's grid. That's their gift. This is done by stone clan people through the creation of new myths and stories.
The stone clan people may have been the bards, the singers, the storytellers, the teachers, maybe the philosophers, maybe the healers, maybe those who did hunting magic for the hunters.
The shaman is really the magician. And the shaman in their training with the spirits really learns how to balance all of these energies in a way that is very productive.
The Air /Wind Clan
The Celts work with Air/Wind but the African people don’t.
In the positive polarity, the wind people, the air people:
tend to be the intellectuals, the philosophers, the spiritual leaders and the academics.
They tend to be free and spontaneous, and they often move from place to place, graceful, yet strong.
They hold the space for freedom of expression, thought and movement.
They tend to be like stone people. They're very good communicators. They're witty. They're quick-thinking and inventive. They often see solutions to problems before others do or intuit solutions that no one else has thought of before.
In the negative polarity, air people:
Can be inconsistent: They can be alternately flighty or smothering. They can be aloof or in your face.
They can be airheads or they can be very judgmental.
They can be overly analytical and argumentative like stone people, or they can be solemn and silent.
Air people and the negative polarity are often passive-aggressive. They're prone to mood swings, apathy and depression.
They can be closed-minded and rigid.
The Gifts of Air and the Gatekeepers of Air/The Winds: is inspiring others to see beyond themselves to greater truths and to discover new and better ways of being in the world; this is what comes through the gateway connected to the air.
“The animals and the plants own the wild places,
humans own the towns and cities,
but the shamans own the air.”
That's because as shamanists, as shamanic practitioners, our method of getting around involves soul flight and flying in your dreams to Other Worlds, Other Dimensions, to bring back Love, Power, Knowledge and Healing for the benefit of themselves and especially their Community and the Planet.
May the Sun bring you
New energy and the Fires of Transformation by day,
May the radiance of the Moon
Softly restore you by night,
May the Rain wash away
Your worries and sorrows, and purify your Body and Soul,
May the Breeze blow
New strength and the Sacred Breath of Life into your Being,
May you walk gently through the World,
On your Red Road of Life and Dreams,
May you know Her Beauty,
And receive Her Sustenance, Nurturing and Protection.
May you also find Love, Harmony and Truth
All the days of your Life.
Mitakuye Oyasin
--Apache Blessing
Conversation Between Hank Wesselman and Hale Makua,
his Hawaiian Kahuna teacher and friend, about
Our Origins and Our Destiny
“I thought about the guardians and I'm thinking to myself of the great guardians from the universe who came here with us and brought us to this beautiful world. My understanding of the way life was in the early Miocene… the whales and dolphins, so I said, "They are the guardians, aren't they?" And Hale Makua said, "Yes. In Polynesia we call the whales the record-keepers. They're great beings." And I said, "Did they convey the knowledge of our purpose and our destiny to us when we were ready to receive it?" And Makua said,"Yes, they did. But unfortunately, we've forgotten it and we've strayed from the teachings of the guardians into our preoccupations with technology and materialism and sex and status and so forth and so on." He said this is very typical of younger souls to be focused in that direction.
So, I looked at him and I said, "The whales are the record-keepers. And the dolphins?" He said, "The dolphins are the keepers of the HA." The ha is the divine breath of life that we received when we drew our first breath when we emerged from our mother's bodies. This is when the spirit soul seed descended and took up residence within us. The breath was the conveyance.
Then I said, "The whales are the guardians, aren't they?" And he said, "Yes, they are." And I said, "Well, they're under siege from the western world and people who hunt them for meat and so forth and so on." And he said, "Yes, they are. They're making a decision on whether to stay or whether to go." And I said, "Well if they go, where will they go?" And he said, "Wherever they want."
Makua’s implication was that the universe is immense. It's huge. And so, I looked at Makua and I said, "Makua, what did they tell us? What did they tell us? What is the purpose of our destiny?" And he looked amused, and he said, "There are always two possibilities. Things come in doubles or triples." And he said, "First of all, we were brought here to this beautiful earth, to this beautiful world in order to grow and increase and become more than we were, and to enjoy ourselves on this beautiful planet." I thought about it. I thought, "Gee that sounds pretty good to me." And then he laughed again and said, "And number two, we are to remember our divine origins, and this is only possible through one vehicle through the experience of love for one another."
So that's it, folks. That's the purpose of our destiny as human beings walking across eternity on this beautiful world. We're here to enjoy ourselves to grow, increase and become more than we were in response to living in this beautiful planet. And secondly, we're to love each other. And it's through the experience of love that we remember who and what we really are, and where we came from. That reveals that all of us are star people. We came from the stars.”
Merging into Oneness
A Sweatlodge Prayer by Sa Silvano
I pray to be “One” within
I pray that the Light of my past
Merge with the Light of my present
I pray that the Dark of my past
Merge with the Dark of my present
I pray that the Light and the Dark of my past
Merge with the Light and Dark of my present
I pray to be “One” with ALL My Relations
This prayer is for me
This prayer is for All My Relations
Mitakuye Oyasin,
Sena.
Gratitude Prayer
– Alberto Villodo
We return thanks to our mother, the Earth,
Which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams,
Which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases,
We return thanks to the moon and stars,
which have given to us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to the sun,
that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit,
in Whom is embodied all goodness,
And who directs all things for the good of Her children.
Mitakuye Oyasin
Shamanic, Dream, Healing Resources
The Shift Network:
Sounds True:
Four Winds Society:
Power Path School of Shamanism:https://thepowerpath.com
Society for Shamanic Practice SSP Jaime Meyer: Celtic Shamanism/Peruvian Shipibo shamanism
Awakening to the Spirit World by Sandra Ingerman, Hank Wesselman, Jose Luis Stevens
Sandra Ingerman
Walking in the Light
Medicine for the Earth
Soul Retrieval
Hank Wesselman PhD
Bowl of Light
Re-enchantment
Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms
Spiritwalker Trilogy
Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman
Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation
Robert Moss 15 published books eg.
The Three Only Things
Dreaming the Soul Back Home
Dreamgates
Conscious Dreaming
Active Dreaming: Journeying Beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom
Sidewalk Oracles (and Synchronicity)
The Dreamers’ Book of the Dead
Alberto Villodo PhD The Four Winds Society: Free blogs
Shaman, Healer, Sage
One Spirit Medicine
Heart of the Shaman
Lewis Mehl-Madrona MD PhD: Coyote Institute (lots of free lectures & resources
Coyote Medicine
Coyote Wisdom
Coyote Healing
Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story
Remapping the Mind (Neuroscience of Narrative Therapy and Healing)
Julie Tallard Johnson: Wheel of Initiation: Practices for releasing your Inner Light – Medicine Wheel
Nicki Scully: Shamanicjourneys.com
Alchemical Healing
Planetary Healing
Power Animal Meditations
Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt
Anubis Oracle Deck and Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt Book
The Union of Thoth and Isis
Sekhmet: Transformation in the Belly of the Goddess
Jamie Sams
Sacred Path Cards book and cards (The Medicine Wheel)
Medicine Cards book and Animal Cards
Dancing the Dream: The seven sacred Paths of human transformation
Jose Luis Stevens
Awaken the Inner Shaman
Encounters with Power
Don Oscar Miro-Quesada & Bonnie Glass-Coffin
Lessons in Courage (Psychology and Peruvian Shamanism) The Heart of The Healer w
John and Caitlin Matthews: Celtic Shamanism
Tom Cowan: Celtic Shamanism
David Spangler Incarnational Spirituality Lorian Association
Card Deck of the Sidhe
Mircea Eliade
“Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy” (Classic foundational anthropological Study)
Roger Walsh MD PhD (Brisbane UQ trained; University of California Prof. of Religion &Psychology
“The World of Shamanism”
Michael Harner (Key Founder of Western Shamanic Studies and Practices) and teacher of most Shamanic Practitioners
The Way of the Shaman
Cave and Cosmos
Malidoma Some, PhD African Shaman and Lecturer/author
Castenada
The Teachings of Don Juan (shamanic experiences with Yaqui Way of Knowledge)
Robert Bosnak Jungian Analyst Embodied Imagination and Dream Work
Jungian psychoanalyst pioneered the Embodied Imagination® (EI) method and founder of the Santa Barbara Healing Sanctuary.
Embodiment: Creative Imagination in Medicine, Art and Travel.
Eligio Stephen Gallegos PhD &Jungian: Integrating Psychol/Imagery/Animal/Shamanic Processes
Animals as the Four Windows
The Personal Totem Pole Process
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