I have been practicing and teaching spiritual growth now for the past 20+ years.  In that time, I’ve seen first hand what makes the difference between those that make slow progress and those that make huge leaps forward in their practice.

People that succeed do the following:

1. Create a daily practice that works for them.
2. Adapt that practice as they go to keep things fresh, stimulating and fun.
3. Find a community of like-minded people to support them.

It’s been almost one year now since I took over as the organizer for the San Diego Shamans Meetup group.  A few weekends ago, we gathered to talk about what a day in the life of a shaman might look like.  I shared with the group my daily practice and how I adapt it according to what’s happening in my life.

Because my practice is quite long in the morning, and continues throughout the day, I thought I might list what I do, and then share my experiences and thoughts about a few of them over the next several blog posts.

1. Remembering
2. Five Posture Points
3. Daily lighting a candle and dedicating it to the Great Good
4. Salute to the beginning cycle of each new day – tobacco prayers
5. Purification and Cleansing through Smudging and Sweeping (cleansing the Spirit Body)
6. Centering (Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong)
7. Grounding
8. Body Mapping
9. Creating Altars and Working with a Sacred Circle
10. Protection – Calling in and Releasing the Directions
11. Expanding Five Senses Practice
12. Grandmother Moon prayers
13. Evening Recollection

My practice begins first thing in the morning.   The first four or five sacred tasks usually happen before I’ve even had my first cup of coffee.  For those of you who know me well, mornings are NOT my forte.  I do much better after I’ve had my first cup of coffee and begin to resemble a human being again.

Having said that, the first eight sacred tasks set the tone for my day.  If I know that I am pressed for time and have to be somewhere very early in the morning, I often will just do the “Remembering” sacred task, daily candle lighting, and tobacco prayers before starting my morning.  When I’ve returned from whatever appointment I’ve had, I then take time to re-group myself by completing the other sacred tasks.

Upon arising, my dogs know that I’ll be spending a few moments by the side of the bed as I do my Remembering and five Posture Points sacred tasks. Then I let the pups out, grab my small basket with the tobacco, and follow them outside.  Unless it’s pouring rain, I am out there no matter what the weather.  The tobacco is for my morning prayers, my salute to the beginning cycle of the day.  It’s as simple as acknowledging the seven directions.  It’s not quite the same as calling in the directions, for you would do that when you are intending to create sacred space.  With the morning prayers, I’m simply inviting the Spirits of the Directions to be with me throughout the day. It’s as simple as saying, “Spirits of the South (West, North, etc), be with me today.”   It’s usually done pretty quickly but that doesn’t mean I do it mindlessly.  These spirits are not unlike guardian angels, in that they loved to be called in to help!

Once back inside, I light a candle on one my altars, and dedicate it to the Great Good.  Since I have a fairly precocious and curious little jaguar-in-training (my kitty), my altars are high up where she can’t reach them or knock anything over, such as a candle.

Then comes coffee, feeding the furry family, and then I settle in the healing room by the altar.  Here I smudge or perhaps use Florida water to spritz myself, and clear the luminous body for the day.

I meditate for at least 30 minutes.  This is followed with some contemplative  reading, perhaps some poetry from Rumi, or some readings from St Teresa de Avila. If there is time, I will do some centering exercises such as yoga or Qi Gong.  Centering helps me to draw attention from all the issues and concerns of my world and it connects me with  the spiritual world.

Next comes Body Mapping.  The Body Mapping sacred task is a powerful tool that allows me to see how life experience is stored in my body.  I track the connection between my thoughts and emotions, and my physical experience.  By bringing awareness into my body, I enable events that are held subconsciously to process, release and integrate.

I might go back outside to do some of the next exercises, and sometimes it might happen later on in the day.  I have several Altars in my home, various crystal grids, and several outdoor altars.  I don’t necessarily visit each and every one, but if there is a particular issue that I recognized because of the Body Mapping exercise, I will spend some time in front of the altar that most closely deals with that aspect.  I have altars for Abundance, for Shadow work, for learning to live and die in the Sacred, among others.

If I’m outside, and I’m inspired by Source to do so, I may create an Earth Mandala to work through a particular issue or simply to honor something, such as  the Spring Equinox, or even something as simple and powerful as a new bud on a flowering plant.

My Five Senses practice always takes place outside.  With this aspect of my morning practice, I engage one of the senses, and expand upon it by going beyond just what it is.  For example, I might look at a tree for 10 minutes.  Then I will write down every specific thing I see about that tree.  Then I make a list of other things that I think are related in structure to a tree: an umbrella, a lamp, a broom.

Throughout the day I pass by several different altars that are in my home.  I always work with the energies of them, re-establishing the grid if it’s a crystal altar, or simply doing a quick spiral motion with my hand over the altar.

At night, I again go outside, only this time with cornmeal, and thank all the Spirits of direction who guided me throughout the day.  In particular, I acknowledge Grandmother Moon, and ask for her guidance and protection throughout the night.

Once in bed, I do a review, a daily recollection of the day, in which I acknowledge with gratitude all the lessons and gifts I received throughout the day.

It sounds like a lot to do every day, and to be honest, there are some days when I need to be somewhere early, and I don’t get to do all the different aspects of my practice.  At the very least I do my tobacco prayers.  And at some point in the day, I can usually find 20-30 minutes to do a deep meditation.  The rest are all aspects of centering, grounding and coming into relationship with Source.  I figure a few hours a day to dedicate to Source is nothing compared to the extraordinary rewards I reap in return!

Next blog post I’ll explore the sacred tasks of Remembering and with it, the Five Posture Points that help with the Remembering task.

I would love to hear about your practices, and any feedback you’d like to share on this article.

The past few weeks have been a time for deep reflection on the incident in Sedona.  Normally, I’m pretty quick to make my peace with such tragedies, working through it shamanically, but something about this particular event tugged at my spirit, at the very edges of my awareness, and I couldn’t let it go no matter how hard I tried.  Why, I wondered, does this matter so much to me?

Like many of you, I was shocked, horrified and confused.  How could something like this happen?  Clearly, something went terribly wrong.  As the questions bombarded my mind, my heart was pouring over with compassion for every single person involved.

Many of those writing about the incident were quick to rush to judgment, a not-uncommon response when fear and shock comes up in someone.  As I mentioned in my last newsletter, it seemed to me that the inner voice or intuition of the participants was not working properly, for surely they would have followed their inner wisdom and left the sweat lodge once they found themselves in severe distress.  We may never know why that little button did not get switched on inside them.

Apart from the responsibility that each participant had for his or her own well-being, there is the responsibility of the facilitators.  And this, I believe, is why I couldn’t let the subject go.  The whole incident raises the question of gurus and their followers.  I am not the sort of person that has people falling at their feet in admiration of my work.  I do, however, have many who believe hook, line and sinker what I say to them.  That is why I am so careful to always let people know that I am NOT their guru.  I am only a guide shining a light on the path so that they can find their way to their own inner knowing.

The official definition of guru is “an intellectual or spiritual guide or leader.”  My experience has been that, particularly in American culture, people are often quick to give their power away to their gurus.  Thinking that the guru “knows best” leads people to abandon their own inner power and wisdom, and thus they choose to obey someone else’s so-called wisdom over their own inner wisdom.  This is an energy exchange that is highly off balance.  It creates disempowerment, and in this particular case of the incident in Sedona, it created a tragedy of massive proportions.

What comes to mind about so many spiritual guides or leaders is the way in which they have internalized their mission.  By that I mean that a guide or teacher ought to be there to help you move beyond your comfort zone while still holding sacred space for you to grow.  A guide or teacher takes your internal wisdom to heart, and knows when to push and when to hold back.  A guide or teacher knows when to challenge your beliefs and when to create a safe container in which you can learn to challenge your own beliefs.  Such a guide or teacher doesn’t know all the answers, yet may have learned some answers that are helpful to one and all and is willing to share them.

But most crucial of all is the net result of the tragedy and the inability of the guide to be anything other than a false guru.  The reason this has bothered me for two weeks now is that the incident will have far-flung repercussions that we are only now beginning to see.  When you think about what was supposed to happen, that is, an event that was meant to create “spiritual warriors,” and what did happen, which was an event gone terribly awry, then we have to explore how guru-ism becomes dangerous and how it leaves a mark on even those people not involved in that particular spiritual path.  The tragedy has deeply affected the participants and their families and friends.  And it has affected others who have only read or heard about the incident.  Indeed, in the minds of those unfamiliar with Native American ways, this incident calls into question the validity of a sweat lodge, and other ceremonies like it.  It sets up the possibility of disavowing all the good that can be learned from the First Nations ways.  Furthermore, it affects not only the First Nations’ community at large, it also affects the self-help industry, which often does a lot of good for those who are struggling spiritually and emotionally.

What is our response to all of this?  Compassion.  Compassion for those affected AND compassion for the leaders who created the events.  It is hard to look at a self-proclaimed guru and feel compassion, but that is our role in this tragedy.  We are equally responsible for holding the sacred space in which this all occurred in the first place, and we must hold sacred the intention of not only the teachings meant to come from that event, but also from the teachings of future guides and teachers.  I’m not excusing the mistake.  I am saying that we need to open our hearts to the lessons learned, and to the ways in which we can steer ourselves clear of false gurus.  It all continues to come down to inner wisdom and integrity.  When we can tap into those two gifts, the teaching will be complete.

And that is the Art of Shamanism.

You can’t have missed it. It’s been in the news, and the internet has seen a flurry of blogs, comments, and videos on the tragedy.

I’m talking, of course, about the recent travesty, er… tragedy at Angel Valley Resort in Sedona, where 2 people lost their lives and 19 others were hospitalized because of a botched sweat lodge ceremony.

I won’t comment on the leader, James Arthur Ray, except to say that there is clearly an issue of greed involved here when a leader charges over $9,000 for a participant to sit in ceremony. Most Native Americans will not charge you for a sweat lodge ceremony, hoping that not only will you bring a dish for the potluck that always follows, but that you will consider a small donation for the location, the wood and if so inclined, the running of the ceremony.

Let me explain a little about why this money-grubbing disturbs me. I trained with Cherokee, Blackfoot, and other First Nations elders, who taught me about the spirituality of the sweat lodge. It is not only found here in the United States, as many think, nor is its use a recent phenomenon. It is found in cultures world-wide., dating back centuries. From Scandinavia to South America to Africa, people have come together in the sauna-like structures – typically heated by pouring water on hot lava rocks – for a variety of reasons, says Joseph Bruchac, author of The Native American Sweat Lodge. He’s part Abenaki, a tribe concentrated in the northeast United States, and part European.

In North America, most Native American tribes use the term “sweat lodge” to refer to a dome-shaped structure where the intimate ritual of the sweat takes place. In his book, Bruchac says, “Sweat lodges are typically used for a ritual preparation, like before a hunt, or nowadays, people might do it before a wedding or dance or some kind of community event as a way of putting yourself in balance.” In other words, the sweat lodge ceremony, in most cases, serves as a healing ritual for one or more participants.

If you are choosing to come into balance, and you are calling on the spirits to help with this imbalance, then why would you pay for it? We don’t pay to pray every day. Why pay for this? Perhaps because our society nowadays seems to be lost, misguided and genuinely frightened, and thus seeks out shortcuts to healing and salvation in hopes of a quick fix for the spiritual pain. First Nations don’t believe in “pay to pray,” but it would seem that we as a nation do. And we’ll go to any lengths to make it happen, STAT.

That leads me to the second issue I have with what took place in Sedona. Typically, a sweat lodge will hold up to 16-18 people, including the leader, though usually it’s only about 8-10. In Sedona, over 65 people were packed into a 415-square foot structure no more than 53 inches high at its center. That alone should have been dropping red flags all over the place!

“It’s important to know who is responsible for your spiritual and physical safety in that lodge,” said Vernon Foster, a member of the Klamath-Modoc tribe who regularly leads ceremonial sweat lodge events in central Arizona. During a ceremony, the sweat lodge leader will often ask how everyone is doing. The blankets covering the structure are raised after each of the 4 rounds, to allow in cool air; water in a large bucket is passed around to quaff one’s thirst or even pour over the body. If one chooses to leave the ceremony, there are no recriminations nor inducements to stay.

None of that happened in Sedona during that fateful ceremony. Not only were the people crammed into a very small structure, there was little attention to their welfare. In fact, repeatedly one participant implored someone to help the person next to her, who was lying there unresponsive. The “leader’s” response was that she would be dealt with in the next round.

A true leader would deal with it right then and there. As healers, we all know that when something comes up, we must pay attention to the lesson, for it is not only about the person experiencing it, but about all of us, for we share in the collective consciousness that created it. And simple compassion would dictate that if there is a cry for help, you reach out in the moment, not in “the next round.”

Finally, it brings out in the open a discussion that has been around for a long time, that of white people usurping the rituals and ceremonies of the First Nations. Indeed there are many north Native Americans who decry the new-ageism with which we have jumped in, lock, stock and barrel to “adopt” the native ways. I find that ironic, given that we stole their land, forced Christianity down their throats, threatened them if they chose to honor their ancient ways, and literally demoralized them in every way possible at every turn. So it’s no small wonder that there is a hue and cry against white people now pretending to be – and know – more than the tribal cultures themselves.

Having said that, there are a number of elders who are choosing to share their ways, knowing that it is the return to a more earth-centered way of being that will ultimately bring balance to this very unbalanced country of ours. These elders share their teachings, and include in that the teachings of the ceremonies, such as how to lead a sweat lodge ceremony.

When gurus such as James Arthur Ray, and others like him, create a travesty of the very nature of the ceremony, then it is blight on a spiritual path that has been in existence longer than he and the other gurus have been breathing.  They are not acting out of integrity nor impeccability, with themselves and with others.

What’s the solution? Trust your leader. Trust your teacher. Trust your teachings. And most importantly, trust your intuition. Under normal circumstances, no one would fast for 5 days then head into a sauna, which is exactly what transpired in Sedona. Under normal circumstances, IF we are trusting our intuition, we would wonder why someone who hasn’t even studied with a First Nations elder would lead such a ceremony. Under normal circumstances, we would think twice about forking over $9,000 plus for a “spiritual” experience. All of these things would have been knocking at my head like a giant 2 by 4. I would have run like crazy to get away from there.

Does this mean you shouldn’t participate in a sweat lodge ceremony led by a white person? Not at all. Many of us have trained with elders and medicine people, and we take the work very seriously. It is meant to be not only a healing ritual for the participants, but also an honoring ritual for the ancient ones, for Mother Earth, and for all the beings – stones, elements, earth, trees – upon her.

Trust your intuition, and watch out for spiritual new age gurus!!!

"O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not,
but sit
Beneath my shady roof, there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance,
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers. "
~  William Blake, To Autumn

I absolutely love fall.  It is my most favorite season of the year, as much as I like the others too.  There’s something about the autumn, especially in the northern states, that let’s you know things are really gearing down.  And our ancestors knew that too, for they celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices, markers for dramatic changes in the seasons.  The Fall Equinox on September 22  is a time of gathering and the "looks within place."

As we head towards the Fall Equinox, there is the gathering of the last of the crops, and with it the need to give thanks for these bountiful gifts of life. In giving thanks for the gifts, when we are in the sublime space of gratitude, that we achieve harmony and balance and so begin to prepare for the next season, winter, soon on its way.

During the Fall Equinox, we honor the time of equal day and night, a perfectly balanced time in life.  And so it is a time for honoring and empowering the balance in all areas of our lives.

Traditionally the Fall Equinox was observed with a harvest feast to celebrate and share the abundance of the past season. At this time, the plants are setting their seeds, making themselves ready for their new cycle. Why not create a ritual at this time for yourself, and perhaps gather some friends to celebrate with you?

The ritual can be about harvesting ALL that the Universe has waiting for you, and to ask for assistance so that you may use this "going within" time to balance yourself and your life.   During the Fall, you are creating the space for yourself and your life to be ready for your new cycle of being.

Remember that in the Universe, everything is in balance, even though it may not seem that way to us.  All that is placed on one side of the scale has to have something else placed on the other side in order to maintain that balance.  If we disturb or unbalance one side, it affects the other side. When creating your ritual, make sure that it assists you in creating and maintaining that balance.  Why not take advantage of  this time to look closely at the balance in your life and begin to shift what needs to be shifted, or change what needs to be changed?

Ask yourself these questions:

• How do you balance your personal needs with your commitments to the outside world?
• How do you receive?
• How do you give?
• How do you hold on to that which is no longer beneficial in your life?

You might want to reflect on this in a journal or make it concrete by putting objects on a scale.  If you have an altar, you want to be sure that the items are evenly balanced on both sides at this time.   For everything which represents one side of the scale to you (for instance, a book representing quiet time alone), place something on the other side which represents its opposite (a letter or phone for reaching out to friends). If your scale is out of balance then this ritual can assist you to bring yourself and your life back into balance.  In this way you will harvest more peace of mind, joy, prosperity, happiness and less loneliness, chaos, confusion and frustration.

During this time, Great Dreaming Bear begins to prepare her den for hibernation.  She gathers soft ferns, grasses, whatever she needs to make the den comfortable for her long sleep.  And during her hibernation, she is setting the seed for the growth to come in the spring.  You will want to do the same thing – think of this as a time to plant the seeds of inspiration for your new cycle.

Here are some suggestions for a ritual you might do for the Fall Equinox.  You will need the following items:

• A few candles, ideally in fall colors if possible
• Sage and/or incense
• A container to hold the burning sage/incense
• A few seeds
• A journal
• Some meditative music

Begin by cleansing your home and yourself with herbs, incense and perhaps even some healing baths.

Once you and your home are cleansed and balanced,  invite your spirit guides to assist you in the ritual. Before you start, put on some gentle meditative music.  Then begin by creating sacred space, and enter into that space for a bit of quiet time.  Bring in with you some candles, perhaps some sage, Palo Santo, or other herbs or incenses, the seeds, your journal.

Light the candles and smudge yourself with the sage or incense.  Place the container to the side and allow the smoke to waft over you. As you sit or lay down in the center of your sacred space, begin to meditate, pray, or perhaps chant mantras. When you feel relaxed, find the center point within you, the place where you feel ‘together’ and balanced. This is usually a few inches below your navel. Focus on this point; feel yourself balanced there.   Place your hands on your belly, just below your navel, and feel the power surging through this energy center within you.  As you hold your hands there, allow the energy to swirl around until it settles down and feels centered, balanced.

Now find the same center point of the Earth around you, and feel the power that Mother Earth holds within her. Feel the connection between your center and that power as if it were the roots of a tree, taking the power, pulling it higher, bringing it up your spine and through your body, flowing like a river, like sap rising in a tree. When the power reaches your brow, feel it burst forth like a cascade of water, out and down. Feel the power both within and without flowing through you like a circuit, returning to the earth beneath your feet, making a circle, a full circuit.  Allow the circle to flow naturally, and remember to breathe!

Know that that point in you is connected to everyone else’s balance point, and to that of Mother Earth, the Universe and Source. And know that whatever method you use to sense this is just a tool; the end result is what counts, the feeling of relaxed tension, balanced focus.

After this, take a moment to think of where you are in your life right now, what you are thankful for, where you have been given abundance.

In your journal begin to make three lists:

1. The things for which you are grateful  in your life.
2. The things you want to bring into your life.
3. The things you want released from your life.

When you feel complete with writing out your lists, and when you feel right doing so, take a handful of seed, and as you run your hand through the flame of the candle, say something like "For ________ I give thanks: I harvest the seeds of rebirth!"  Acknowledge all the gifts you have received, each time running your hand through the flame.

Because you are focusing on the aspect of gratitude  (a powerful paradigm of the Universe), you do not need to worry about what you are releasing.  The Universe knows you intend that, and will take care of it for you!

Once you have given thanks for all your gifts, throw the seeds up into the air, knowing that as you do so, you are seeding for the next harvest! Then relax, and let the excess energy drain off into the Mother, who has room in abundance for all that you can’t hold.  Slowly allow your own power flows to ebb back to normal.  Find the center point within you again, the place where you feel "together" and balanced.  Breathe in the energy you feel, give thanks again, and close the circle.

Of course a feast is central to this harvest celebration, and a favorite of mine is any dish that has apples in it, especially when I’ve had the opportunity to harvest the apples myself!  I might also include some bean and vegetable soup. The meal is meant to highlight food that is bountiful at this time: grapes, wheat bread, cornbread, corn, root crops such as onions, carrots, potatoes, etc., nuts, dried fruits, apples. And, of course, no meal is complete with a drink so your typical fall drinks might include wine, ale, and cider.

Enjoy this wondrous time as you come back into balance with Mother Earth, the Universe and Source.

This is the Art of Shamanism.

We’ve all heard of medicine wheels and medicine people, shamanism and sorcery. Some of us don’t really know the difference between shamanism and sorcery and so we lump them all together under one umbrella. Even though both shamanism and sorcery call upon similar techniques, the intentions behind each is totally different. What we call shamanism is nothing more than an ancient belief that everything around us is alive, that we can discover our personal power in dialogue with all of nature.

10. Connection with Nature

Regardless of where you live on the planet, to be involved with a shamanic path means that you must know and work with and in Nature. This means that you cannot stay safely ensconced in your home or apartment except for those occasions when you go shopping or out visiting with friends. You must step out into Nature, get down on the ground, sit on the dirt, talk to the trees and the birds and the insects… you must learn to connect with Nature. This can be an incredibly daunting task for some folks. Best avoided if you are not fond of flowers, butterflies and warbling birds.

9. Your limiting beliefs will be transformed

When you begin to walk a shamanic path, your “stuff” comes up front and center and is so glaring that many people simply stuff it back down, and slowly, albeit unknowingly, begin to implode.  This “stuff” that comes up usually has to do with beliefs that hold you back, or perceptions you have of the so-called reality you see in front of you. Are you disgruntled because your daughter-in-law wears white shoes after September 1^st ?  Limiting belief.  Are you afraid to tell someone they shouldn’t have cleaned up your space while you were gone?  Limiting belief of your power and your boundaries. Do you say yes, when you really want to say no?  Limiting beliefs.

Walking on this path will bring them all up for you not only look at but also to resolve once and for all. Too daunting a task for some. Let’s not change too much all at once!

8.   You can’t follow a real guru.

Sure, there are lots of well-known shamanic teachers out there, many who act like gurus and love the adoration we bestow upon them. Yet, to really walk on the shamanic path, we must learn to take the teachings and at the same time not be in obeisance to the teacher.

These teachers are, after all, human, with similar foibles and quirks. To endow them with so much power takes your own power away. And yet, this is what we as a culture do all the time. We create gods where none should be.

The shamanic path is not always well marked. It depends on who and what WE are, what our stories are, what has gone on before for us. Any teachings that come our way need to be filtered through the lens of our experiences, not those of the teachers or the indigenous cultures they are purporting to represent.

This is hard work for someone who depends on others to tell them how to think, act, be, do.

7. You might find a sense of humor

Once you step on the shamanic path, you find out that the spirits love to make jokes at our expense. This is why First Nations cultures have the tradition of the heyoka, trickster, coyote, sacred clown. Trickster holds the mirror up so we can see how goofy we really are, and so that we may learn to laugh at ourselves. Nothing is ever that serious.

This particular step is difficult for some who make everything a top priority, for whom every decision is a Type A (do it now) rather than “I’ll get to it in due time.” Some things are just meant to be left alone to come to fruition in their own time. Hard to do when one is constantly being serious.

No matter what you believe in or what you follow, once on the shamanic path, you learn to laugh and have fun. But if you’re laughing, it can’t be serious or “real,” right?

6. You’ll find out the quantum physicists were right, after all.

Consciousness is the groundwork of all being. The quantum physicists are now telling us that there is no real “there” there, that we create that so-called reality and it dissolves as quickly as we create it. We need to understand consciousness if we hope to understand how reality exists in form. Since everything is infinite possibility, then in the blink of an eye, we can change our possibilities to probabilities.

Now we can no longer blame someone else for how our world is turning out. It seems we created that world.

So much easier NOT to begin a shamanic path or else we’ll have to learn what our true destiny really is!

5. You can’t use your mind in a left-brained way

OR another way of saying that is that you can’t depend on your mind to get you through anything. Logic as we know it flies out the window. Intuition and trusting in the unexpected stands front and center.

This is very disturbing to some folks (see #7). If your life is linear, clock driven, point A to point B to point C, etc., then you will be miserable on a shamanic path. A shamanic path is not only circular, it bends in on itself (see #6), turns itself inside out, and follows anything but a straight line.

Many people who begin the shamanic path take the structure as the ultimate truth and turn it into a belief system. When this happens, what was originally a living bit of knowledge is turned into a philosophy or worse, a religion. It then loses all ability to have an impact on personal transformation. It becomes nothing more than an addition to someone’s personal inventory, another tool, another trick.

The Truth is outside of the mind and cannot be found in the mind. It simply is. It starts on its own, not from what our mind says it is. It is not linear or lock-step.

4. Death loses its hold on you

When you follow the shamanic path, you learn to walk between worlds. What this means is that you no longer collude with the consensual. In our culture, death is something to be feared, or alternately, to die means one goes to meet one’s maker. What if there is no heaven as described in the texts? What if dying is simply a way of being in the flow and ebb of life, of recycling a physical body?

Such heresy! And yet in the shamanic traditions, we wake up every day knowing that today is a good day to die.  It means we live with such integrity and right relationship that nothing is left undone, unsaid, and that we can complete our life’s destiny with honor.  Dying is simply dying to this physical body; our essence, our spirit, our soul lives on.  And it may choose to return for more lessons… or not.

Definitely not the PC version of death, is it?

3. It won’t give you a one-size-fits-all answer to the questions of the universe.

Just as we need structure to guide our way when we start, we also need to abandon structure as we move from learning to knowing-ness. This is where many of us fall by the wayside. We’ve become so attached to the structure which has no turned into a belief, that we no longer see the path itself and cannot grow.

We have lost our ability to “know” something. When we know something, it is not coming from outside us. To know something means that we trust and depend upon our direct inner guidance, the knowledge that comes from our higher self.

Exploring various different traditions, one comes to see that there are inherent connections among them. There are synchronicities, congruencies, right fits with much of the information. And at other times, the information sends us reeling. That is why there is no one clearly defined definitive answer. There is no One God. There is no One Truth. There is no One Direction, One Path.

The fact that there are dissimilarities among the different traditions is what makes them living, palpable expressions of freedom.

For many it is imperative to have ONE answer. Shamanism won’t give you just one answer, nor will it make everything easy for you. It is a venue towards the freedom to explore. How scary is that?

2. You’ll find out WHO and WHAT you are.

Most scary of all. To learn the truth about oneself is the true destiny of the soul’s sojourn. It is also the one step most easily ignored, wrapped up in bright paper and ribbons and presented as something else. To look in the mirror and truly recognize who we are means that we can love our warts, our being overweight, our sharp tongue, our many shadows. Most of us spend decades avoiding those aspects of the self. Many spend thousands of dollars in therapy, only to disregard at a deep level the teachings inherent in that dissection that takes place.

When we spend time decorating and re-decorating our psyche so we can “fit in,” we expend a lot of energy moving and shifting things around, but nothing gets healed at the core level – it’s all superficial.

Easier to take two aspirin at bedtime and begin again the next day pretending to be on the soul’s heroic journey, but really just getting through the day.. and the next…. and the next…..

1. You might become enlightened

When one becomes involved with the shamanic traditions, there are subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in experience. One is no longer a physical being having a spiritual experience but a spiritual being having a biological experience. Now we learn to travel between different worlds, accessing information from these different worlds. And as we recover the true Self, we realize that we can walk in beauty on the Earth, we can honor ourselves by honoring the Earth and being stewards for her. Enlightenment is nothing more than taking full responsibility for our ability to live in a world that is fully alive.

How frightening is that? Taking responsibility? For our actions? For who we are? For what we say?

Unheard of!

Best stay away from this whole shamanic nonsense in the first place!

Those who awaken never rest in one place.

Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.

On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.

Their food is knowledge.

They live on emptiness.

They have seen how to break free.

Who can follow them?

–Siddhartha Gautama, The Dhammapada

We are currently undergoing a major revolution.  I’m not only talking about the elections and politics of this country; I am talking about planetary changes.  No doubt if you are a healer, you’ve heard over and over again about the “big” transformation awaiting us all.  There are those who say that as we approach 2012, we are evolving into homo luminous.  Perhaps those of us who are taking and risking a journey into another stage, another level, are actually evolutionary mystics.

When I see workshops advertised to help find your “purpose in life,” or to answer the question “why are we here”, I always turn to the words of Andrew Harvey:  “We are here to embody the transcendent.”

These are powerful words.  We are here not to only “know” about our life.  Not to only align with our life’s purpose.  Not to only experience life in small pieces.  We are here for the simple purpose of allowing our soul to embody the transcendent.

Ahhhh, but what does that mean?  The word “Embody” means to bring the light down to us, down to our body.  And yet, most spiritual teachers talk about going UP to the light and losing one’s body in the light.  Perhaps if we really explore the concept of embodying transcendence, we would realize that we need to bring the light down to us.  We need to bring the laws and the radiance and the brilliance of the transcendent down to our emotions and our thoughts.  And as we bring the transcendent down to us, we do so not just to light our heart and our soul, but to actually bring it into the very fiber of our being, to live with the transcendent in every single cell of our body.

In that way, we become a living instrument of the transcendent.

Have you ever had the gift of being in the presence of the Dalai Lama? His aura is huge, his presence can be felt way before he actually even enters a room!  If you watch the Dalai Lama, he lives and embodies the essential life of the awakened human being.  At every single moment, whether talking with someone or addressing a crowd, he is wholly and completely present.  His attention is directed at the person with whom he is talking, to the total exclusion of everything else around him.  He has surrendered to the moment and so time and space disappear as he enraptures us with his presence.

Once one has allowed the transcendent to be in one’s physical being, one is ready to become its ACTION in the world. It is impossible to mindful of the transcendent and not wish to become a voice for its consciousness.  There is a Sufi prayer that suggests that the “journey to God was over.  The journey with God was now.”

The enlightenment field is a quantum field that is ever growing.  Are you ready to become a rebel of Divine Love?  Are you ready to become a spiritual activist, embracing not knowledge nor illumined knowledge, but the transcendent?

I find the current election fascinating in terms of the picture it provides of where we, as a country, are headed.  Let me digress for a moment and talk a little about those of us who are in the healing profession.  This is a huge container, for one may be a massage therapist, a counselor, an equine therapist, an herbalist.  The list is endless.  So if you fall into that container of being a “healer,” you’ll understand what I’m about to say.

We all know that our energy lately has been extremely harried, discombobulated, dispersed, and accelerating faster than we can manage it.  We are hurtling towards 2012 with ferocious speed and there are times when it feels that we need to ratchet down our brain or it will fly away with all the information that is being downloaded into it constantly.

My business partner Katina and I were sharing some thoughts about consciousness recently and we both agreed that each day we are learning about consciousness in exponential ways.  By next week the process of what we know and how we know will be different from this week.

Consciousness??  What does this have to do with politics? Well, let’s start with the candidates.  If you listen to Obama talk, there is candor and freshness to his speeches that comes from having spent time thinking about things — really thinking about things.  And not just thinking, but thinking in new ways, opening up to the higher consciousness becoming available to us all.

I lived in Arizona for 11 years, land of McCain,  and I can honestly say that McCain hasn’t said a new word in all that time. It’s couched in different terms, but it is still the same ole, same ole.

That which is hurtling us through time and space is also affecting how we gather and process information.  And it is that same opening to higher consciousness that I fervently believe was a part of what the founding fathers had access to when they created this incredible political system that we call democracy.  They saw with new eyes, heard with different ears, thought with a open mind and so brought forth a vision of equality and elegance still unrivaled in this world.

And we too must approach this election with open mind, different ears, new eyes.  What is the legacy we wish to leave our children and their children?  We can’t make changes with the same mindset that created the problem.  Increasingly our children and their children are either Indigo children or Rainbow children, and each generation gets more and more connected to the wisdom of Source, of higher consciousness, of All That Is. How will they look back at us if we continue to play ostrich and bury our heads in the sand? When do we stand up and acknowledge how we are growing and thus invite in a new way of governing, of being, of thinking, of sensing?

I don’t believe that it is an accident that Barack Obama has declared his candidacy now.  When we tap into higher consciousness, we see a bigger picture.  I urge you to do the same.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you throw your hands up in despair because nothing is working? Your brain is so addled that you can’t even remember what to do next.

That just happened to me. I had been amassing information for a protracted court case, which, when the day finally arrived, I was sure would turn out my way. Ha! The universe had other plans. Though things didn’t turn out as badly as they might have, I still was quite shocked at the end of the day.

I was in despair, my body quite numb, what shaman’s would call a "dark night of the soul." My brain was so out of tune with my body that I couldn’t even think to conjure up any of my shamanic tricks to make myself feel better.

Feeling hopeless about my plight, and engaging in a pity party of massive proportions, I decided to do something, anything, that would change the energy and dynamics of what I was feeling.

When I feel despondent, I always go sit on Mother Earth. This certainly felt much more serious, so I took my mesa , my medicine bundle, out with me and decided I would do a healing body mandala.

After calling in the directions and creating sacred space, I created a form of mandala large enough to hold my body. In creating the mandala, I used elements from nature such as twigs, stones, flowers, whatever I could find on the ground.

Inside the mandala I lay out some of my medicine kuyas (stones that have been initiated in the Inka path) with my powerful mountain stones where my head would lie, and the earth stones at my feet. I placed river stones on my right side and fire stones on my left.

I stepped into the mandala and lay down. Almost immediately I could feel the energy shift. Though my eyes were closed, I could sense that animals were nearby. I peeked open one eye, and right above, less than eight feet away and about eight feet up in the air, was a beautiful Cooper’s Hawk, just hovering right above me, creating an ever-so-soft breeze with the fluttering of his wings. Nothing about his being there frightened me. On the contrary, there was a strong sense of his watching me, willing me to make energetic shifts in my luminous body.

I closed my eyes again and felt a fierce need to lay on my stomach. Turning over, hands splayed out in front of me, I lay on the Mother, feeling her cool earth sending waves of energy through my body. With no sense of time nor space, I lay there, feeling the hawk’s protection, and Mother Earth’s cleansing. The tears I was shedding felt as though they were going down into the Mother, and coming back up as replenishing water to cleanse my despondent spirit.

I must have been out there quite some time, because it began to feel quite cold, and as I opened my eyes I realized it was getting very dark. I sat up, did a quick chakra check, and spent a few minutes saying prayers of gratitude to Mother Nature who had so lovingly looked after me.

Contact with Mother Nature is something we’ve lost in our society. It’s not just that we don’t go out into nature, or know about it, we do not ENGAGE with it, we don’t listen to the messages and lessons being given to us every day.

I learned an important lesson that day. In my own way, I had become complacent and neglectful of the wisdom I had been given from the universe. It took a crisis to remind me to go seek the one source that would heal me. And working with Mother Earth and nature always creates a shift and a healing.

That is the Art of Shamanism!