The Shaman's Well - A Watering Hole For Your Inner Sage

Ceremony, Sacraments, and Solitude

Dharmabuilt — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 01:06:07 +0000

The Astonishing Panamint Dunes in Death Valley, California, December 2012

I recently travelled to the Las Vegas area again to visit with my elderly Mother in Henderson, NV as well as my sister and her husband in Pahrump, NV. I love the desert – she reminds me so much of her “opposite” in the sea – and I find it curious that I’ve developed a kind of sensitivity or recognition of the Yin/Yang of things – of the infinite opposites and dualities – and the ability to hold these opposites with a kind of balanced perspective. Equanimity and The Middle Way are very interesting things to ponder – on so many levels. And the holding of that balanced perspective for any length of time is challenging.

My beloved stepfather passed away in June 2012 and I’ve been concerned about the “bigger” aspects of my life and many tumultuous changes of late – with even more to come. The “shift” of December 21, 2012 and the various synchronicities and convergences continue to exert powerful influences on me – and obviously the collective. Whether naysayer or true believer, you have to admit that great change is indeed afoot and speeding-up and that we’re all subject to some very great forces at play that feel much larger than just the “usual-and-customary” of our rather mundane, material existence.

The Siberian Republic of Buryatia: Where Shamanism and Buddhism Come Together

Bill — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:47:19 +0000

A great look at the lives of the Siberian people in Buryatia where Shamanism and Buddhists traditions come together. It is beautifully shot with some great landscape scenes, looks inside a buddhist monestary and the shamanic ceremonies of the region.

Here's a description of the film:

The republic of Buryatia is located in the heart of Siberia in the shadow of the Sayan mountains. Most of its territory is covered with crystal rivers, virgin forests and the verdant shores and limpid waters of Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake. The beautiful landscapes leave visitors dazzled, but the local population, who know no other scenery, find inspiration in local spirits, prayers and rituals.

Death By Fear

ChayraCom — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:57:29 +0000

In a span of nearly half a century, I’ve said a number of goodbyes. Some to friends I never saw beyond kindergarten and to others when my extended stay in England was complete.

There were the polite goodbyes with employers for whom I, or they, were no longer needed and farewells to college friends as we embarked on our grown-up lives after graduation. And who can forget the tender farewells of heartbreak and the good riddance to liars and cheats?

Perhaps the most emotional and painful of goodbyes, however, is the abandonment found in death. As you get older these occurrences happen in greater frequency yet each is as sobering as the next.

Death might be the most climatic of goodbyes but there are other exits almost as dramatic. Bidding adieu to your first apartment in anticipation of establishing a new home with a backyard for your growing family and the empty nest that comes after you say so long to your 18 year-old “baby” heading off to college.

Parting becomes integral to our lives and nearly all of literature, poetry, music and art would not exist if not for the muse of goodbye.

So with all this experience and necessity saying au revoir, why is it we still resist?

The answer is very simply fear.

Fear of loss, loneliness, pride, control and most of all the unknown.

Healing Begins With Joy!

KY Drummer — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 22:58:03 +0000

Let's face it, there is a little known component in spirituality in general and shamanism in particular that needs more attention—mirth! After all, as every healer knows, the sacred is fueled by joy, and at the base of joy is love. Love makes us happy...joyful! And that's the nexus point of healing. It's a beautiful circle.

Often when I speak at conferences or teach classes, audiences and students alike seem to expect anything but laughter and joy. Yet, the cliche, "Laughter is the best medicine," was once the benchmark of a healer's creed. If you do not carry a smile in your heart, how do you propose to engender it— the very basis of healing— in another? Indeed, joy has healed far more people than any pharmaceutical yet invented.

So, to honor joy's importance in our lives, I've dedicated several weeks to the subject on my blog. But it's no long litany of quotes from inspirational speakers, no endless lists of things you must do to be joyful. Rather, it's a comic book!

Who says the treasured principles of spirituality can't be entertaining or joyful? They should be!

In one post per day in the series, you can catch snippets of what the ancients taught about our common struggles as seekers of joy who also want to be of service. The series features many bygone superheroes and their nemesis enemies from aging comic books. The heroes are re-purposed with a new mission, to help people learn the importance of joy instead of a reliance on fast fists or superhuman powers.

Making Your Own Orgonite - A Generator for Attracting and Purifying energy

Kate Bee Moon — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:08:52 +0000

~ The making of Orgonite ~

A finished product! ~ Hardened polyester resin with metals, copper, gold flakes and crystals within.

Orgonite is a composition of catalyzed organic resin, metals & crystals coalesced together, to create a generator which does attract and purify etheric energy-- this energy also known as Chi, Prana, the Fifth Element-- or Orgone.

Plant Spirit Shamanism: Icaros, the Sacred Songs of the Amazon

Bill — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Author: Ross Heaven

Daily Spiritual Practices To Bring Balance To Your Life And To The World

Bill — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:30:20 +0000

Alex Stark has a great post on Shamanic practices you can perform every day to maintain your focus, your energy field, and your balance with the universe. He covers the following areas:

Purification
Breathwork
Invocation
Receiving
Thanking
Feeding
Closing

Below are two of the sections:

Purification

In order to begin your practice it is essential to cleanse the aura of impurities. To do this you can perform hucha mijuy (digesting energy) in several ways:

Bring problems or concerns which are currently affecting you and capture them in the breath by holding an inhalation. Then forcefully blow them down into the Earth. The hucha you release is a valuable sacrifice to the uchu pacha (the lower world) and will also work to enhance your relationship with the darker forces. (i.e. keep them at bay)
Capture energetic debris from your poqpo by opening your qosqo (navel) and pulling the negativity downwards into the earth through your first chakra. You can also split this stream in two. One stream of hucha moves down, the other steam of sami (refined essence) moves up into the Hanak Pacha (Upper World).
It is also possible to purify your aura by bathing (especially in a sacred river, lake or spring), by smudging yourself with sage or incense, or by using florida water (lavender).

Feeding

Feed the Spirit World as follows:

Transforming Therapy with Shamanic Energy Healing

Girvani Leerer — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:33:59 +0000

Shamanic Energy Healing opens the doorway to healing on a new level -- the Luminous Energy Field that surrounds the mind/body. This field envelops, fuels, and informs the mind/body via energy pathways (meridians) and centers (chakras). The Luminous Field contains the records of all previous life experiences: emotions, beliefs, traumas; personal, ancestral, karmic memories. The knowledge that all past experiences are encoded in our energy field underlies the ancient healing practices of the Americas and has been rediscovered by current practitioners of energy psychology.

Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking we used when we created them.” Psychotherapy attempts to resolve emotional and mental problems through emotional/somatic expression and cognitive revision - staying within the mental-emotional level. Shamanic Energy Healing takes us beyond the mental-emotional to the level of the energetic Luminous Field.

Shamanic practitioners step outside of linear time into the sacred space of infinity to act as intermediary between the worlds of energy and matter, dancing on the equal sign of E=mc².

Shamanic Fire Ceremonies For Releasing, Cleansing, And Balancing

Pamela Panneton — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:10:13 +0000

Shamans perform fire ceremonies for releasing, cleansing and balancing. Fire ceremonies are essential to purifying the body, spirit and heart, and can be used for healing and creating fruition in our lives.

The fire is an ideal place to re-connect to your Oneness with the Universe. By honoring Pachamama (Mother Earth), Great Spirit, the Angelic light Being, and those who came before us and will come after us, you will re-orient yourself as to your true place in the Universe.

We bring an offering to the fire as a gift. It is something that is made from nature that is burnable - a stick, flower, pinecone, etc. Spend some time with the item, and with your intention, blow into the offering whatever you want to release, heal, or bring into your life. When you approach the fire, say a prayer of gratitude and make your offering.

Through a fire ceremony, energy bound in old ways can be freed to move in a new direction. We symbolically release something that no longer serves a useful purpose, and claim the energy we invest in that old behavior pattern for a new purpose.

Father Sun and Mother Moon

Winter Solstice

On the longest night and shortest day of the year, we go within to find our joy and gratitude for the stillness of the long winter nights. Father Sun seems to be awakening after dying all winter long. On the day after this long night he is reborn and begins to grow strong again. Thus the theme of rebirth is the essence of this celebration. This is the time to acknowledge all within ourselves that has grown cold and dark. As we light the Solstice fire, we make a prayer for the rebirth, in our hearts, of warmth and light.

The Awakening of 2012: A Relief for Some. a Struggle for Others, and What to Expect

Jon Rasmussen — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:46:15 +0000

For many years I have been studying all that surrounds the Mayan calendar and prophecies related to 2012. In response to more recent questions about it, I have tracked very deeply and broadly to come up with the clearest answers that make sense to me at least. I have employed all of the tools of observation, research, logical deduction, channeling, and psychic vision that I can access as a shaman and scientist, and now feel that I have honed in on a definitive explanation.

There have been many ways of looking at the phenomenon now simply known as 2012. The range of speculation spans from a total annihilation of life on Earth as we know it, to a shift into higher dimensions, to a conscious awakening and/or evolution of humanity, to the final battle of good and evil, to nothing new. Some people are going to great lengths to prepare to survive in a post 2012 hostile world, or to be spiritually prepared to move to the next level. In many ways I agree with the suggestion that to be both naturally self-sufficient and spiritually advanced are great endeavors under any circumstances; so on some level I'm grateful that 2012 is the motivation to work toward changes that may improve quality of life in general.

Folk Technologies and Trust in the Process

Dharmabuilt — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:13:43 +0000

Coyotes in the distance bid me farewell as I leave the Valley of Fire

I am a healer. We all are. We are here to heal ourselves and to assist in our own powerful and unique ways on the healing paths of others. And it has taken me the better part of 46 years to come into my own as a healer, wounded or otherwise. And for me, this healing journey is an internal (r)evolution – a path that I follow mostly alone because of the lack of place for it in my “ordinary” life in this modern, western society. Let’s just say that it’s not an acceptable topic of conversation in most circles. However, this does not detract from the validity of my personal experience in the context of healing ceremony in sacred space. I’d like it if I didn’t have to bifurcate my life in this way – that I don’t have to conduct two lives in a kind of modern-day schizophrenia, but this is part of my process – the integration of all these things and the owning of who I really am. We each have our unique processes – we each have our monumental struggles. This is life.

The Hero's Journey: A Mythological Story We Are All On

Bill — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:37:41 +0000

The Fool (The Hero) starting off on his journey

The Hero's Journey, a term Josephy Campbell developed in his work, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces," is a mythological story of transformation that we are all on in one way or another. When we can move to a place that allows us to see that we are on a journey, and that it has some easy understandable steps along the way, it makes it much easier for us to deal with what is happening, and gives us the perspective of the long term view and how we will move forward through these trials and turbulations. It is a really beautiful story.

What is the Hero's Journey?

VivideLife introduces us to the Hero's Journey:

If you are someone undergoing a process that feels like you have been turned inside-out, or have had to surrender almost everything near and dear, or feel as if you have suddenly found yourself in altogether unfamiliar surroundings in almost every way, even to the point of “losing your mind” (and finding your heart!) then I invite you to join me in exploring what I believe cannot only be called “awakening” but The Hero’s Journey – a term coined by Joseph Campbell, but an experience lived by a great many before us. This experience usually begins with an event taking place that causes the human being to question everything they thought they knew, and to search for real meaning in the day-to-day, no longer content with simply trying to survive. For these people, there comes a “call” to something deeper.

Sandra Ingerman On The Shamanic Calling And The Title of Shaman

Bill — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:11:49 +0000

This is a great video from Sandra Ingerman where she talks about several important aspects of shamanism and being a shamanic practitioner. A quote:

"I really do believe that it is a destiny to be on this path. It is not an easy path. It is the path of the wounded healer."

The Energy of Sound: A Powerful Healing Tool

Anasuya Krishnaswamy — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:07:00 +0000

Full moon in Leo, solar flares, days lenghthening, and new year celebrations from around the world mark the transistion around the darkest time of year into the period of new light and new life. We often celebrate and emphasize the light, a lovely notion, even a profound one. But the profound inference isn’t just that we are shining light on what is in the dark, it is also to remember the light that is already in the dark, to acknowledge the wisdom in the dark, the not knowing, and to be with that. We may have heard or experienced that this place of the dark, the void, is the place from which creation springs forth. Perhaps true, but I want to suggest that it is a destination in and of itself, a space to intentionally go to, spend time in, celebrate, and be with. Simply because there are inherent benefits of being there. This is a place of least resistance, of surrender. It is a place of going inward to experience the silence of the mind, the gap between sounds, the gap between thoughts.

I have been attending a Sound, Voice, and Music Healing certificate program created by Silvia Nakkach at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The practices have led me to consider the parallels, complementarity, and relationship between the energy work I’ve been practicing and the sound healing modalities. And, of course, one of the lenses that I’m peering through is a microscopic, or nanoscopic lens.

The Beautiful Healing Despacho Ceremonies Of The Q'ero Shamans - Video

Bill — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:52:01 +0000

This a great video that provides a basic outline of what a despacho ceremony is from ShamanicStudies.org. Here's a quick description from the YouTube page:

The Q'ero are an Quechua speaking Andean tribe living high in the mountain plains of Peru. The Despacho ceremony is one of the primary ways their Pacos (shamans) communicate with the natural world.

Here's the video: