The reasons for taking a shamanic journey are much the same as why one might pray. Contrary to popular opinion, we don’t journey or pray to get our way in life.
Instead, we journey and we pray in order to bear up under what comes our way.
We aren’t changing the world with our spiritual practices; we are changing ourselves. Spirituality is vital to embracing the world as it is and being able to go the distance in times of difficulty.
As we grow in the unconditional love of Life, we give Spirit the freedom to enliven and renew the world through us.
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Last week, in our weekly online journey circle, we journeyed to explore a moment from the past week. Our intention was to discover what truths live under the surface of our daily life, to see things from the heart’s perspective.
For much of last week, I could feel the talons of fear digging into me more by the day. I had no idea what was really troubling me, but I knew it wasn’t only due to the current situation.
When my mind is at a loss to understand what I’m feeling, I know it’s time for a journey.
As my journey in the weekly circle unfolded, I saw myself wiping down our blue-and-white kitchen countertops with disinfectant spray. My shoulders were raised and the stress I was feeling was evident.
I stepped forward to ask myself why I was so tense. The regular me, the one with the spray bottle, replied: “This is the same thing we went through with the mold, fighting an unseen enemy that made us sick.”
I hadn’t consciously connected the two experiences, so this was helpful information.
A few years back, we had to spray and wipe down every square inch of our home, from ceiling to floor, as well as every item we owned in order to remediate for mold. This mold wasn’t particularly toxic, but we had become sick from years of exposure.
Because mold can multiply from just a few spores in moist conditions (and we live in Oregon) we had to try and get every bit of it in order to heal.
Though we had expert advice to guide us through the cleanup process, I had little faith in the whole enterprise. I mean, how can you possibly remediate a household full of invisible spores?
By being methodical and dogged in your efforts, that’s how.
The miracle wasn’t that the process worked; that much was assured. What wasn’t assured was our execution of the plan. The miracle was that we stuck with the painstaking process of cleaning for months. We defeated the unseen invader.
We can do the same. Staying home, practicing social distancing, washing our hands, wearing masks when shopping for food, practicing all of these things despite inconvenience and cost to ourselves will help to save lives.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed by circumstances we cannot control, let us focus on the power we now hold in our hands. Together, we are remaking our world in love.
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I wish there was something I could say that would make this situation less difficult for you, but so far I’ve not found the words.
What I can do now, though, is offer you a journey to help you better understand and have compassion for yourself in this crazy and upside-down time, much as my journey helped me.
Many of you are artists and healers, teachers and builders of community, who cannot work. Some of you are physically and/or financially vulnerable.
I want to hear from you. Let’s meet on Zoom. We can talk, we can journey, we can laugh, we can cry, drink beverages, eat lunch. I don’t care.
If your financial situation is unchanged, but you’d be helped by a journey or a chat, I’d love to see you, too, of course.
But all of you: tell me what you can pay in your email to request a get-together and I will honor it.
Hit me up. Let’s do this thing with some grace and pizazz. This ain’t the end, I can promise you that much.
But together, let’s make this is the start of something new.
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To participate in our Wednesday free online journey circles, see this link: http://gaiashamanism.com/free-offerings-from-gaia-shamanism/
To learn more about the services Gaia Shamanism offers, check out the webpage: http://gaiashamanism.com/
To email me, write anna@gaiashamanism.com.
Be well.
I loved “the miracle was that we stuck with the painstaiking process”. It occured to me that I can ever forgive an assumption that I am the past me that knew what I was doing. The knower oscillates between hope/congratulations for when s/he tells herself what s/he knows will/does match with “achievements”, and the dejection/condemnation when they don’t. The momentary simplicity that is always available can’t be remembered. But a present movement “towards” this present simpliicity “remembers”, tells a better story, about how perceived difficulty doesn’t have to add the meanings of inability and failure. That’s a big deal, like in recovery the “mystery” of how people put together “time” to have a stretch of it, but one day at a time – and by telling others that’s the way as a simple gift to “both”. “Both” because it is also the simplicity of recognizing that consciousness-we-are is exactly the same, and thus the self/other division is equally relieved. A simple consequence is that it relieves the burden of “my” actions in time. The past stories that are available under that “present” burden of “my knowing” are what rein-force the factness of that interpretation of the past. And the movement of consciousness-we-are’s ability to lighten the perceived burden in/by pointing this out to each other, is ever fresh air. It can never be encoded into a me (or any other formula), not even a spiritual one, because it is that “hope” that denies the simplicity of now. In recovery, sober “time” can be experienced as an accumulation as well (and one reason why relapse can be a gift). It’s ever only windows of opportunity that our happier experiences of now (including re-appreciations of a past) are opening, one onto another, May we hold them open for each other until we are convinced we are ever only the big open Sky easily meeting and embodying unseparately, as formed expression (grounded) Earth.