HEALING THROUGH SHAMANISM
Shamanic Healing is the oldest known form of healing. Though it may be buried or obscured, it is a primary root for all of our ancestral cultures. Functioning not only as a healing method but also:
• as a means of divination
•a way to cultivate a sacred relationship with the world
•a way to explore our relationships with unseen forces in life.
It is a common ancestor for all of the worlds major religions.
Shamanism directly and effectively addresses the spiritual, emotional and physical aspects of our lives, offering practical and powerful remedies to many illnesses and life challenges. Through direct relationship with spiritual forces, the Shamanic Practitioner restores power to the individual and offers healing insight to help clients meet life's challenges. When we are "power filled" we remain free from illness and able to pursue our own destiny.
CORE SHAMANISM
Developed by Michael Harner and the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) staff for the last 40 years (www.shamanism.org), Core Shamanism encompasses the underlying principals and practices of shamanism.. It represents a time tested, extensive set of teachings designed to return to us our birthright of shamanism, lost for centuries to so many of us in the West.
I've trained in Core Shamanism for over fifteen years. The following practices are also offered as services by me. I also teach the introductory course for the FSS - The Way of the Shaman. Please email me for more information.
SOUL RETRIEVAL
First taught by Michael Harner and then popularized by Sandra Ingerman through workshops and her book "Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self Through Shamanic Practice", Soul Retrieval is the ancient practice of returning lost vitality to an ailing client. The stressful events of our lives can result in loss of some part of our vital essence. Soul Retrieval is the process of returning lost essence to the client.
Causes of soul loss can be:
1. Any physical, emotional, or psychic trauma.
2. Intentional theft, or the result of unconscious power dynamics.
Symptoms of soul loss can be:
1. A sense of dispiritedness.
2. Exhaustion or depression.
3. Illness of any kind.
4. Inability to heal from minor injury or crisis.
5. A feeling of loosing ones way in life, a lack of goals or life vision.
Soul retrieval is a common technique in most cultures that still have strong shamanic healing practices. For these communities soul retrievals are most often performed shortly after the initial loss. Since this practice is rare in our culture, soul loss goes un-addressed usually for years or decades if it is ever addressed at all. Integrating soul essence after years of loss can require ongoing attention to fully complete. Any soul retrieval work should be followed by further work by the client tailored to their needs, this may include seeing a western style counselor to compliment integration of the shamanic work.
POWER ANIMAL RETRIEVAL
Many cultures believe that we are all born with relationships to guardian spirits. In many non-western cultures these guardians are animals and beyond being guardians, they are our compassionate teachers. Through developing a relationship to our power animals through shamanic practices, ritual, art and other means we ensure protection and guidance for ourselves throughout our lives.
Few of us had communities that nurtured our relationship with our Power Animals when we were too young take on that responsibility for ourselves. Few of us have, over the years established and cultivated relationships with our Power Animals. This lack of care and attention can result in a loss of relationship with our Power Animals. There can in fact be many causes for Power Animal loss. The symptoms of Power Animal loss are very similar to soul loss.
When clients recieve a Power Animal Retrieval, they often report a sense of well-being, more energy and more focus. In essence, they become "power filled" as Dr. Harner points out in his book "The Way of the Shaman." Some experience a sense of kinship much like being reunited with a long lost friend.
EXTRACTION
When we are weakened through Soul Loss or Power Animal loss we become vulnerable to spiritual intrusions which further diminish our ability to stay healthy and strong. These intrusions can come about through intention or simply the random interactions of our lives. The practice of extraction removes energy that is not appropriate in our energetic body, freeing us from the dysfunction and discomfort that the intrusion has caused. Because the intrusion opportunistically filled a space in our energetic body that was open due to some loss, extractions usually include the restoration of power in some form.
CURSE REMOVAL
Over the past several decades we have become more and more aware of the effects of positive thinking on our lives. Whether we are trying to maintain a positive outlook on our own lives, or we are praying on someone's behalf to effect a healing, we know that our intentions towards ourselves or each other can have a powerful effect. Similarly, our own intentions can negatively impact our well being or the well being of others. There are even individuals who engage in intentional psychic activities which result in the harm of others.
While the more virulent forms of cursing are rare in our culture, unconscious and unskilled cursings are extremely common. Our lives may also be impacted by curses laid upon our ancestors and our family linneage. The SP can directly address the curse, remove its harmful effect and offer help in de-escalating harmful situations. The method taught by Betsy Burgstrom is strongly based in Shamanic Journeying and strives to come to peaceful reconcilliation for all parties involved. It is useful to note that self-cursing is also very common. Our own negative self-talk can be addressed using these tools.
DE-POSSESSION
Possession has been a common theme in many cultures. Often depicted in the movies as violent and demonic, possession is seen as rare and intensley traumatic. Betsy Bergstrom and other modern shamanic practitioners teach and practice a gentler form of de-possession which emphasizes a sensitive approach to the recognition of possessions and offers compassionate means to enable the possessing spirit to move on to a more appropriate domain.
Because we tend not to assist people in their dying process and do little to address the needs of spirits trapped in this world, the occurrence of possession and haunting or "obsessions" is very common. We tend only to recognize the presence of spirits when they are wreaking havoc in our lives, but their impact is often subtler and more frequently influential. Symptoms of spirit possession can be as minor as a slight change in opinion about ones favorite t.v. show and as obvious as explosive anger and objects levitating about a room.
When spirits are lost in this world and they have no physical presence, they need some source of incarnated being in order to sustain their consciousness and power in this world. Spirits turn to the living in order to sustain their own experience of being "alive" in some way. Because our world is so filled with lost spirits, the instance of possession and obsession is quite common.
It is possible, through compassionate shamanic work, to address the needs of both the client and the possessing spirit. In a kind of shamanic conflict resolution, discarnate being are guided out of this world and clients are supported in reclaiming their fullest energetic selves.
