Soul Retrieval: Spiritual Healing for Trauma

Healing, Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing

Most of us who live here on planet Earth will experience a trauma during our lifetime. It may be the death of a loved one, an accident or illness, an act of violence, abuse, or other distressing situation.

During a traumatic experience, part of your spirit or soul may split off and drop out of your life. In the shamanic worldview, this splitting off creates a condition called soul loss. Those who suffer from soul loss may feel that part of them died or was cut off from the flow of life when the trauma occurred. If this happened to you, you may feel out of body, empty, without vitality, or disconnected from full participation in life.

Soul retrieval is the shamanic remedy for the spiritual aspects of trauma and soul loss. The human spirit can be deeply affected by loss and harm, hardship, sudden illness, violence, injury, and abuse. Trauma can cast a dark cloud over a person’s life and keep them from living fully. Soul retrieval does not erase trauma, but helps a person regain their wholeness and return to the center of their own life.

This shamanic healing work can complement psychotherapy and western medicine for those who have experienced trauma. Western medicine concentrates on the physical body. Mental health therapy deals with the emotions and mind while shamanic healing focuses on the dimension of the spirit.

While focusing on the spiritual aspects of trauma, all levels of your being – body, mind and emotions – can be positively affected as your spirit heals and becomes whole again. Other areas of your life may come into balance as well because there is no separation between these four aspects of your existence.

For over a decade, my spirit helpers have been working in partnership with me doing soul retrievals for people of all ages. During a shamanic journey, my spiritual guidance shows me the “soul part” – the lost inner child or distressed adult- that split off and left their body behind after a trauma. They are shown to me at the approximate age they were when the soul loss occurred. I’m shown the state of their emotions through symbolic images, impressions and feelings. The information coming through from my spirit guides and helpers does not reflect the actual experience of the person, but symbolizes their spiritual and emotional truth at the time of the soul loss.

The journey unfolds with my guides showing me a symbolic narrative. These stories always include the state of the soul part’s emotions at the time they split off, a recovery of the soul part, a healing and clearing for the soul part, a retrieval for any power that was lost or stolen during the trauma, and, finally a return.

The return brings the healing into the physical world through a brief shamanic ceremony in which the energy of the soul part is returned to the person who lost it. Many times people who’ve had soul retrievals report feeling the familiar energy of their soul part return to them during this ceremony.

The basic structure of each soul retrieval journey is the same, but my helpers tailor the healing, narrative, messages, and images to each individual’s unique experience and needs.

Integration

On occasion, a soul part may be hesitant to return to full life again and rejoin their present day self . They may need reassurance that their life will be different now than it was at the time of the trauma, that they are safe, and will be taken care of, loved, seen and heard. This helps integrate them into your life once again.If you were a child when the soul loss occurred and are now an adult, explain that. Talk that through. Let them know they are safe now, that you are in charge of your life, that you will protect them. Explain where you live, if you have your own children and partner, the work you do… anything that occurs to you.

To continue the integration after a soul retrieval, there are several questions to ask your returned soul part that will help you create an ongoing dialog with them.

Why did you leave?

Why do you come back now?

What gifts do you bring back with you?

Soul parts always return with several gifts of the spirit such as a strong true voice, an open heart, a peaceful mind, a sense of playfulness, etc.

What can I do to sustain this healing?

For a child soul part this might include such things as playing outside, walking barefoot, hugging a tree, swinging, laying on the grass, spending time in a place of safety…. pay attention to what they are telling you and do the best you can to give them what they need and want.

To communicate with your soul part/inner child, tune into your heart, ask, and listen for the answers. You might hear the answers telepathically, see images, or feel a knowing in your body. If you have trouble connecting you might work one on one with a friend, healer or therapist to do this dialog together. You can write down the answers or draw pictures, speak them into a recorder- whatever works for you.

Shamanic healing is not a cure for trauma, anxiety, illness or injury, but can help bring balance, wholeness, and life changing insights into your life. Shamanic healing is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care.

photo credits: Hand with hawk feather – jenelle – K2SXdKPEhcg – unsplash unsplash.com White feather – evie-s-white feather – unsplash unsplash.com

How to Connect with a Nature Spirit

Connect with spirit, Healing, Life Tips, Mediumship, Nature, Shamanism, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

In the shamanic point of view, every thing and every living being has and is a spirit. We can communicate, learn from, and live in partnership with these spirits. They have access to information that we who live in a human body do not. The scope of our knowing is often limited by our human perspective, worries, fears, concerns and judgements.

Communicating with our unseen guidance, we can better understand the spiritual aspects of challenges and illnesses in our lives, receive wisdom and healing, heal relationship issues, and learn to live more effectively in this world in body mind and spirit.

The Spirit world is on a different energetic wavelength than our normal day to day human activity. A relaxed and receptive state of mind is required for tuning in to spirit. When we slow brain wave frequency, we come into attunement with the spirit world. Shamanic practitioners and students deliberately slow their brain waves and enter into a trance state by listening to repetitive drumming. Shamanic journeying is an example of this. Meditating and spending time in nature also help you relax and slow down.

To connect more deeply to spirit, even if you haven’t formally learned how to do shamanic journeys, I offer a few ideas to help you expand your spectrum of awareness to include connecting with a nature spirit.

This begins like mindfulness meditation, but takes you a step beyond meditation into direct communication with spirit. Choose a nature object, a leaf, stone, shell, flower, a fruit, berry, even a tiny radish sprout or small raisin. Find one that you will enjoy exploring through your senses.

Create or find a quiet place without a to-do list, the news, distractions like your phone or easy entertainment, TV in the background, etc. Your quiet place might be outside in a beautiful natural area, a park, leaning against a tree, your yard, or in a peaceful room or mindfully decorated corner inside your home.

Tune your awareness from your head/mind/brain and into your heart. Let those never ending thoughts float by in your head without giving them attention. (If they’re important, you can get back to them later) This will help your brain slow down. Lay your palms on the center of your chest and allow your awareness to move down from your brain/mind/head to center in your heart. Feel your breath moving in and out, your chest rising and falling. Hear the sound of your breath. Focus on your sensations of touch, smell, sound, sight hearing. Allow yourself to let go of any tension in your body.

Now pick up the object you chose earlier. Take time to experience it with all your senses, letting all judgments go. Absorb the information you receive about its texture, scent, color, shape, form. Does it make a sound when you touch it? If this is something edible, savor the taste. How does it feel on your tongue? Allow all of your awareness to be focused on this one thing. Experience it as though you were a curious young child seeing touching and exploring this interesting thing for the first time.

Now get a feel for this object’s energy. How does it feel in your hands? Do you enjoy holding it, or want to put it down immediately? You may receive subtle sensations that can’t be translated into words. Pay attention to them. As you keep your awareness at your heart, you may begin to get impressions from the object. These would be very subtle at first, and may come through any of your senses plus your sixth sense of knowing.

Ask the spirit of the object for a message and pay attention to what information comes through your being. Messages from spirit can come in many forms and can be very simple and direct. Often they come in symbolic form – showing you pictures, images, sounds, feelings, emotions, or other sensations that you then can interpret for yourself.

You can ask the spirit of your nature object questions, such as – What you can I learn from you? What advice do you have for me? Please show me what I need to know about you. How can I thank you for speaking with me? Add any other simple question you might want to ask. Pay attention to everything that comes through for you.

If your ego mind demands attention and makes judgements about what you’re doing, (for example: “This is stupid.” “I don’t have time for this.” “I can’t do this.”) try to imagine an image of the thoughts evaporating – cool steam dissolving them, fog enveloping them, an ocean wave washing them away, wind blowing… whatever image works best for you. Return your awareness to your heart and allow yourself to notice the sensations and spirit messages coming through.

When you’re ready to leave your meditation, disengage by thanking the spirit of the object for what you received, and let it know your time together is over for now. Set it down or take it back outside. Send a blessing and gratitude for sharing its wisdom with you.

Now is the time to write down any messages you received before you return to normal everyday concerns and tasks. You may forget them otherwise. Next, come back into your body by tapping your cheekbones, the center of your chest, collar bones or rubbing & massaging your feet to ground yourself and bring your awareness back into your body and your mind back into everyday life.

In this way, you can learn to connect with the spirits of nature and receive their advice, love, and deepen your awareness of what is possible in life.

photo credits: Featured photo by petr sidorov on Unsplash; photo of feather by Evie S. on Unsplash

Earth Element Release Ceremony

Nature, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Web of Life

We belong to the Earth. We are attuned to the gravitational pull of our native planet, it’s powerful energy filling and anchoring our lives. She gives and gives. Her web of life supports all life forms. Our bodies thrive on the wide variety of food earth provides. We find shelter in materials gathered from the earth. She provides everything we need to survive and generously supports our lives of plenty.

Earth is the foundation for our physical lives which gives us a platform for the growth and the development of our souls as we meet the challenges of life in a body.

Earth heals. Nature heals. Think of the peace of a riverbank, resting on a pebbly sandbar, the solid bedrock beneath your feet, holding you steady, the peace and patience and beauty of trees, the fragrance of the evergreens, breathtaking and inspiring landscapes of all varieties.

Attuning ourselves to nature and connecting to Earth energy, we feel calmer, at home. Feeling calmer gives us the ability to slow down and tune into the quiet rhythms of life. The rhythms of life are those of the energies and cycles of nature, the ebb and flow of our breath, the beat of our hearts, sleeping and waking, light and dark, life and death.

The spirit of the Earth teaches us through the love and wisdom contained in the ancient stones here since our planet’s fiery beginning. We learn from the past through buried clues and hints from those who came before us, the transformation and renewal of new life feeding on the decay of the old. She shows us how all things are interconnected, interdependent, how nothing and no-one stands alone in the web of life. Her example is one of generosity. Earth teaches us giving and receiving when the timing is right, going inward and reflecting in season, gathering strength and sending down roots, grounding ourselves and opening to the light of spirit.

Release Ceremony with the Earth Element

What feelings, negative patterns, ingrained false beliefs are you ready to release to the Earth? For this release ceremony, create a power object of nature materials to hold those feelings. You will infuse the object with the feelings you wish to release, then bury it in the earth. The earth will dissolve it into its component elements that will feed the soil and fuel new growth when the timing is right.

The Earth will disintegrate or dissolve your object over time in some way. Because of this, don’t get too attached to your object or make it too precious. Your creation must be biodegradable. Plastics or artificial materials that persist in the environment for many years are not suitable.

Your handmade article doesn’t have to be beautiful, clever, or complicated. Since it contains the energy you are releasing the earth will will dissolve, disintegrate, and recycle that as well. The physical object will rust, wither away, decay and dissolve, return to its original elements and feed the soil. At the same time, the earth will absorb and re-integrate the energy of emotions and feelings you are releasing.

Your power object is a symbolic assembly that will represent those feelings, beliefs, patterns of thought or action you wish to release. Before you create your object, spend some time thinking and writing about the concerns and challenges you are ready to release. Think about how you life will improve after letting them go, surrendering them to nature.

For your object, you might use leaves, small sticks, slabs of tree bark, seed pods, paper, an offering of food, vegetable matter such as you would place in a compost pile, a bouquet of wildflowers, a bundle of hedge trimmings, cotton string or hemp baling twine, Use your imagination and creativity and enjoy the process of making this article.

Now assemble your power object. It doesn’t have to be artistically pleasing or pretty. Remember, it will be destroyed. After your object is ready, gather the energy of those feelings you wish to release into your lungs on a deep in-breath and then breathe the feelings into your power object. This powerful out-breath empties you of those unwanted, unhealthy feelings, and transfers them to the object you will shortly surrender to the Earth. The earth will cleanse and clear, and make new again.

Next, find a place to bury your power object and give it up to the earth. Get permission if needed, and dig a shallow depression or hole. (If you dig deeper you may need to plan ahead and check with the utilities locator in your area.) Place your object in the earth and cover it with soil. You may also want to place an arrangement of stones, flowers, or dried grasses on top of your refilled hole.

Thank Earth for her assistance, her healing and clearing power, for her ability to recycle, transform and transmute energy, to clear you of those feelings that were holding you back in life. If you are so moved, do a happy dance, sing, drum in gratitude for the healing Earth has so readily provided.

Trust the earth to work in its own time to heal and diffuse the energy of your stagnant emotions, dissolve your object and return it to the soil. This is the power of the earth element in action.

Earth will hold you, she will shade you under her magnificent trees, she will calm you and restore you.

Tips for working with your spiritual guidance

Connect with spirit, Life Tips, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Dear friends, this blog post is an excerpt from my upcoming eBook (as yet untitled) about how to connect and work effectively with your spiritual guidance.

In the shamanic worldview, everything and every living being has a spirit, and we can communicate with them to improve our lives and bring our visions into physical reality. They have wisdom, knowledge, practical advice, and unconditional love to share with us.

Spirit is the energy and consciousness of any object or organism. Every human, every physical object and living being is composed of energy, and has an invisible energy field containing the innate intelligence of that being. All have wisdom and supportive guidance to share with us.

Connecting with your spiritual guidance is not difficult to learn or practice. However, your connection to your helpers will be much more effective when…

...your intention to connect with spirit is sincere and heartfelt

…you approach this work with curiosity and flexibility, letting go of preconceived expectations or a need to control outcomes.

…you seek to discern and understand the messages of spirit with both your heart and mind.

…you carry out the directions and advice of your spirit guides as best you can.

…you have patience with the process

Your non-physical helpers are ready to help you. Trust that they hear you, know you, love you. But they will not act on your behalf until you ask for what you want. I repeat: You must ask for what you want!

To ask for what you want – converse with your spirit guides, share your heart, your concerns, your challenges. Share your joys, your deepest feelings, your intentions. Ask for the feelings you want to feel! Make this a habit. Form relationships with your spirit helpers.

You might sit in meditation, drum, sing your words, connect as you walk , write, make art, dance, listen to music that quiets your mind, find a book on the subject, all with the intention of connecting with spirit. Know that you are heard!

Now, be open to the signs, answers and messages your guidance sends you in response to your asking. Spirit communicates quietly in symbols, metaphor, telepathy, signs in nature, feelings, humor, and through your senses. The meaning of some messages may not be clear to you immediately. You will gain clarity with time as you let them percolate quietly in the back of your mind. If, after a time you are still unclear about the meaning of a message, ask your helpers for clarification. Keep asking until you understand.

(True spiritual guidance will never ask, suggest or command that you harm any person or any living thing, cause damage, put a curse on someone, lie, cheat, or steal.)

Spirit Works in Divine Timing.

Unfortunately, there is no rushing the process of receiving advice and information from your spiritual guidance. Patience is called for! When you work with spirit, part of the process is living with some uncertainty and possible unanswered questions for awhile, because spirit time is non-linear. Your intentions may not be manifested in 3D reality on your preferred timeline!

Because of this, surrender, or letting go, is often called for after you’ve asked spirit for your desires to come into physical reality. This means asking for the feelings and experiences you want, giving it your all, pouring your heart out to spirit. Then, knowing you’ve asked, and made yourself clear, do not push, strive, or try to control outcomes or set deadlines.

During this period of waiting, stay open to what does come through no matter how small. Notice any movement toward your goals, thank your helpers and celebrate each victory no matter how small! (A little happy dance works!) This shows spirit you are paying attention!

While spirit works for you behind the scenes, go on about your daily life, living mindfully, enjoying yourself. Your spirit helpers work for you in unseen realms, drawing together all the threads and connections, meetings, and coincidences needed to bring your visions to life. Give the seeds of your dreams time to germinate and begin growing!

When we connect with spiritual guidance, we are not in the “logical zone”.

This means temporarily releasing the ego’s need to control outcomes, letting go of left brained logic and a need to think rationally. One way to let go of your ego is to visualize it as a toddler, and take him or her to the babysitter while you ease your mind, and let go of worries, fear, and doubts. Then your mind is free to relax, become playful, open like a flower to new insights and feelings, and connect with the magic and wisdom of spirit.

When we partner with our non-physical helpers, we connect with unconditional love, practical advice, fearlessness, true power, acceptance, healing miracles, and limitless potential!

photo credits:

evergreen forest Photo by Joseph Young on Unsplash Evergreen sunset Nikola-Tasic on Unsplash – Everygreen sunrise – Les Anderson on Unsplash

Winter Solstice

Nature, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing

The Low angled sun illuminates our land with brilliant light,

Bathing the mundane, the everyday scene with exquisite beauty, with burnished gold for a fleeting moment.

sunlight low in the sky, reaching into dark corners that have been without light for many months. Piercing and illuminating the shadows with long sunbeams across the land, reaching into the unlit corners your homes, Creating great beauty, Spotlighting this fleeting and precious moment in time.

The cycles of our seasons, those contrasts of light and dark, winter and summer are integral to our existence. The autumnal earth tilts slowly on her axis, as the northern hemisphere moves farther away from the sun, bringing darker, colder, days, snow and winter.

The winter solstice, the day the earth stands still, and begins its tilt back toward the sun, is our time to welcome life and light returning. Know this: Even in winter, sleeping life is stirring deep underground in the roots and seeds, the hibernating creatures as they wait for their time to grow, to wake. when conditions are right – for spring.

You may doubt that the light, warmer days, and growing buds will come again now that we are deep into this season of cold. There is no way to rush or hurry the cycles of our lives or the order and timing of the heavenly bodies.

This is the time of Dormancy, resting fields, and fallow ground. This is the time to let your soul rest, your mind restore itself, regain energy beneath the surface, releasing what is stagnant and used up within, making room for fresh new ideas to emerge.

Even during playful, quiet or idle moments the mind and heart percolate deep below the surface of life and create new connections, new insights, and ideas that will come forth effortlessly when the timing and conditions are right.

So, Celebrate! Now is the time to welcome the light returning, the Earth tilting back toward the sun, toward growth and spring and new life once again!

Thanks and Gratitude to the Four Elements of Creation

Connect with spirit, Nature, Shamanism, Web of Life

On this Thanksgiving week, I invite all who read these words to offer gratitude and appreciation in your own way to the spirits of Earth, Water, Air and Fire for making our lives possible.

Thank you Earth for our lives and all of life. Thank you for our home, for the solid bedrock foundation supporting our physical lives. Thank you for providing everything needed to thrive and maintain our lives in health and wholeness.

Thank you for the variety and beauty of your landscapes, your mountains, forests, deserts, plains, all manner of living beings, Trees, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, sea creatures, fur bearing four legged ones, all forms of vegetation, each an integral component in the web of life.

Thank you for your powers of restoration, your prolific growth, your creativity, the seasons and cycles of birth, life and death and birth again.

Thank you Water for our lives and all of life. Thank you for your flow, for nourishing the cells of our bodies with your life giving energy, for facilitating the flow and movement of energy throughout our bodies, Thank you for providing a home for all water creatures, from the microscopic plankton to all manner of fish, and aquatic life forms to the blue whale.

Thank you for sculpting the landscapes of our Earth into caves, valleys, canyons, coastlines, alluvial plains. Thank you for your beautiful and wild oceans, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, for the underground aquifers that shimmer still and silent beneath the surface of the land. Thank you for our health, for nourishing every cell of every living being.

Thank you Air for our lives and all of life. Thank you for our precious breath, the breath of all creatures who breathe and those who absorb air to sustain their lives and health. Thank you for filling our lungs with your energy, for permeating us with your chi, or life force, for sustaining every cell of our bodies and blood stream with your oxygen. Thank you for carrying away airborne toxins with each exhale and cleansing our bodies in this way.

Thank you fire/sun/light for our lives and all of life. Thank you for fueling the web of life here on planet Earth. For fueling the growth and life cycles of all living beings here on our home planet. Thank you for making our very solar system possible, and all life forms on Earth we depend on for our continued existence.

Thank you to the flames keeping us warm in winter, for cooking our food, for bringing light into the darkness. Thank you for fueling our lives with passion and purpose and creative power, for mirroring to us our light and our brightness!

Thank you Earth Water Air and Fire for our lives and all of life.

More wisdom from Fox

Mediumship, Nature, Power Animal, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Wisdom, Web of Life

Dear Fox, What do you want us humans to know?

Please – get out of your heads, into your heart and body. Try getting out of your cars too, now & then. Park them and walk! Skip off work! Walk under the trees, mute your phones, and listen to nature.

Observe the beauty, the life all around you. Listen deeply, observe everything in your world through a state of silent awareness. Feel the energy around you. Try this every day.

_{Photo by Daniil Silantev on Unsplash}

Your phones and devices rule your world, implanting ideas and thoughts into your heads, creating an alternate un-reality, meant to distract you from your inner knowing, wisdom and your higher self. This is meant to keep you off balance…

Why do you put up with this?

You must own yourself and your power, not give others the power to distract you and steal your precious life moments that can never be recovered.

Note from Betty: If you silence your phones, you may notice your thoughts racing, anxiety growing, and come face to face with your own inner being, your heart, and feelings.

When you go inward, when you observe and attune with nature in silence, your mind may try to distract you and may fill the quiet spaces with worries, fears, and anxieties that have no basis in what you refer to as reality.

This may be uncomfortable. Try to sit quietly and notice your fears and feelings. Allow yourself to feel them in your body as you breathe. Notice them as they shift and change and move through you. This practice will diminish their power over your life.

When you have mastered the art of managing your life from the inside out, acting as your own authority, you can open your view and learn how you fit into the larger web of life on this planet. Your place in the cosmos.

Fox speaks of winter

Connect with spirit, Life Tips, Mediumship, Power Animal, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism

Betty’s note: Dear friends, As I practiced mediumship, and invited fox to speak, he came through for me in a very insistent way, wanting humans to know and understand his perspective. I have interpreted the impressions, feelings and telepathic messages I received from fox into words. My next three posts are all channeled from fox.

I am fox! I survive and thrive in your human-centric world in all seasons, all conditions.

Why do humans fuss about winter and cold? This is an integral season in the cycle of nature on our planet, a time to go inward, rest, live off the fat of the land, hibernate, relax, plan, play.

If you resist and disparage the cold and harsh winds of winter, you resist reality. If you resist reality, you resist your life.

_{Photo by Amanda Frank on Unsplash}

Do you wonder why life is so hard? What if you did not resist the unchangeable conditions of your life? Would your life be easier?

Just as our physical bodies require us to wake and sleep, the larger cycles of life on earth give us day and night, sunlight and shadow. Winter follows fall, then spring and summer – every. single. year. if you are ready or not!

You are alive and rooted here on this Earth for now, so if you wish to thrive, learn to be at peace and relax into the cycles of nature beyond your control.

I say, follow your nose, your senses, the quiet inner voice within that leads to the sustenance you seek in mind body and spirit. Find sustenance for your life even in the deep snows of winter.

I am a creature with confidence. I do not question my existence. I do not question my right to live, to feed myself and my family. I do not resist the reality of freezing cold in winter or steaming heat in summer. I live within the parameters of my life as a fox on this planet in this year you call 2023.

Can you do this as a human?

7 Reasons to Consider Shamanic Healing

Healing, Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom

Shamanic healing is a powerful ancient method of receiving information and healing energy from spirit for the highest good of yourself, another person, or your community. This information may come through symbolic stories, images, and messages that can reveal new perspectives on your life and situation.

Practitioners channel energy and information from spirit helpers that is unique to each individual. Shamanic healing works with the spirits in all things to restore balance, harmony, and wholeness to your life.

Shamanic healing can complement your work with therapists and other health care professionals. It works with the spiritual aspects of illness and other obstacles in life.

Have you felt empty, off balance, or lost since you experienced a trauma or injury?

Are you at a crossroads in life, unsure about your direction, unable to make a decision?

Do you have energy that does not belong to you?

1. You feel something vital is missing in your life or that part of you died when a loss or trauma occurred.

Soul retrieval provides spiritual healing for soul loss. This is a process by which the practitioner works with spirit helpers to find your lost soul essence that left during a traumatic event and bring it back so you can be whole in spirit again. In addition to soul retrieval, shamanic journeys for healing and healing with spiritual light can help shine light on the spiritual aspects of soul loss.

2. You feel powerless at times

Was your power stolen from you by a family member, partner, stranger, friend, or co-worker? Did you unknowingly give your power away to someone? Did another person misuse and abuse your trust? Power retrievals locate and restore your lost or stolen power through the guidance of spirit helpers.

3. You feel that you have energy that does not belong to you, that is holding you back or overshadowing you.

This might include thoughts, feelings, emotions, or physical sensations that are out of character for you. There may be an attachment, or disembodied spirit that has been attracted by your light depleting your energy and life force. This is a common occurrence in our culture since we no longer “tend the gates of death” and help disembodied spirits cross to the light as was the custom in ancient times.

Compassionate Depossession is a gentle process in which the misplaced spirit is contacted, their concerns are heard, healing is given, and they are taken out of the living person’s energy field and sent to the light where they belong. This creates a win-win situation for the person who is seeking relief and the disembodied confused and lost spirit who can now move on to their next adventure.

4. You are at a crossroads in life, not sure how to move forward, what choices to make.

Journeys for divination (answering questions) can bring through images, stories, symbols, words, and knowings that give you new and different perspectives on your life and the situations you face. Journeys can show you possibilities you never expected or thought of. The information contained in journeys are unique to the individual receiving them.

5. Tough problems seem to be stuck in the cells of your body, are persistent and difficult to shift. These issues may come from the lives and unresolved problems of your ancestors or from your own past lives.

Past life work or ancestral healing may be called for in these situations. We often carry the burdens of those who’ve gone before us and who have not been able to reconcile or heal their guilt, shame, anger, or fear before death. For Ancestral healing, the practitioner and spirit helpers travel into the past and look into any traumas in your ancestral lines that may have been the cause of the toxic patterns you wish to clear. For past life traumas that you may be re-experiencing in this life, spirit helpers discern what happened in the past and do clearing and healing as would be done for issues in this life.

6. You have a feeling that you or your family have been cursed in some way

Curses are thought forms, beliefs, and patterns of thinking and being that can be passed from generation to generation and affect your life adversely. Curse unraveling locates the originator of the curse, often the reason for the curse, the toxic energy of the curse and and removes it from all who’ve been affected since the curse was made. This sometimes involves many individuals over many years who’ve been affected.

7. You sense that there are wandering spirits, (aka ghosts) or “negative” energy in your home or a space that you frequent.

Space clearing is a process of discerning if there are spirits inhabiting a space, locating and communicating with them, and helping them find their way to the light where they belong, assisting them in vacating the house, building or space where their presence causes disquiet.

After the spirits are cleared, the space can be cleansed further with spiritual light, sound vibrations, a smudge ritual. Often the story of the spirit or spirits will come through. They usually have a reason to stay behind in a particular place. They are often stuck in their own emotions and fears and can’t move forward without help.

Shamanic healing is effective, drug free, life affirming, and promotes wholeness in mind body and spirit.

If you are overwhelmed, feel cut off from your body, if you are seeking spiritual guidance, shamanic healing may be a good fit for you.

Why learn shamanic journeying?

Connect with spirit, Healing, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance, Web of Life

What are shamanic journeys? Where did journeying come from?

In the worldview of shamanism, every thing and every living being on our planet has a spirit. Shamanic journeying is a practice developed before recorded history for humans to connect with and learn from the spirit world.

Receiving accurate and valid information and acting on it meant survival in those harsh times. In turn humans learned to offer respect to the spirits who helped them by creating ceremonies, dances, works of art, rituals and offerings to honor them.

Why ask the spirits for help?

The compassionate helping spirits who work with humans have access to a much wider perspective on our lives and everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. They understand and witness the amazing and constantly shifting web of life and energy that connects all beings.

The spirits are always with us and they have always been with us, waiting for us to ask for their help. Journeys tap into this wellspring of compassionate spiritual information that is freely shared with us out of a wish to be of service. The well of spiritual information and guidance never run dry! There is constant revelation of new finely tuned information for those who ask.

Why learn to journey?

Journeys are still relevant to our lives now, many tens of thousands of years after the first person discovered they could connect to the spirit world.

We no longer fear as much for our physical safety and survival. Yet, even as we have access to medical care and miracle drugs, smart phones, comfortable and reliable heating and cooling of our homes, a stable food supply, easy transportation and communication, we face challenges in our individual lives and our collective societies undreamed of by the first shamans who painted on torch-lit cave walls.

We can use the time honored practice of shamanic journeying to ask the spirits for help with our current personal challenges; our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health, our relationships, families, children, our jobs, life decisions large and small…

We can also journey for practical information about how we can help in reweaving the web of life – healing the larger challenges of our planet – environmental problems, economic troubles, widespread poverty, epidemics, pollution, violence…

How can journeying help me? Several stories…

Practical advice

I was having a hard time deciding on how to organize one of my longer classes. Fresh new ideas and inspirations were needed to make my class more interesting. In a journey, I asked for a sign from nature. The next day on my walk in the woods there was an huge spider web lit by the morning sun. I knew in my body and heart that was my sign! It showed me how to organize my class in an effective way that had never occurred to me.

Shift in perspective on the everyday dilemmas of life:

When you can’t figure something out from your normal daily perspective, the spirits can show you another way to look at things. A client asked about her difficult relationship with her daughter-in-law. She was shown some information that helped her understand the younger woman better and allowed her to create a more fulfilling and peaceful connection with her.

Spiritual messages can that help shift your focus.

C had been diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer. She was having a hard time with her diagnosis and the treatments were making her sick. Then she received a message from spirit that came through in a journey– “Your soul is indestructible.” That message changed everything for her. She was able to carry on while maintaining a sense of peace and acceptance about the truth of her situation, knowing she was so much more than her body.

Healing Energy

When I journey with an intention of healing for others, my spirit helpers often fill the physical body and aura with divine light and beautiful rainbow colors. I see and feel this beautiful light and color filling every cell and energy particle of my client. There is no effort involved. I simply ask and the person on the table receives. This healing energy can shift a person’s mood and thinking to a more peaceful place, helping them feel calmer and more centered. The journeys end with thanks to those spirits and helpers who have worked with my client and me.

When you connect to the spirit world from the heart with sincerity and integrity and ask respectfully for help you will receive advice, guidance, insights, and healing. – It won’t necessarily be what you expect, but it will be finely tuned to your needs and your level of understanding right now.

Meeting and working with your spirit guides

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Do you need higher level help solving the baffling problems of your life? Do you know that you are never alone? Have you ever felt the presence or received the guidance of your spirit helpers?

We are all surrounded by compassionate loving spirits that offer us their support, advice, and guidance, protection and wisdom. I’ve learned as a shamanic healer that no one is ever alone, that we are constantly encircled and supported by these loving beings, and that they will provide help and guidance if asked respectfully. Our spirit helpers and angels will share their wisdom and show us what we need to know for healing, empowerment, and peace of mind.

Dragonfly

All human beings have the capacity to connect with the spirit world and receive help. We have been doing this since before recorded history. In the words of my teacher, it is “in our DNA”.

Shamanic healing is based on our human relationship with the spirit world. You can connect with your helping spirits when you let your body and mind relax and settle down, let go of the busyness, stress and constant chatter, the monkey mind of everyday living.

To Connect:

Create sacred space in your home. Make it relaxing and inviting. Clear all clutter, clean away dust, strike a chime or bowl to clear the energy of your space and set the tone. Make yourself comfortable.

You might put on soft instrumental music and close your eyes. Now sit comfortably and ask inwardly to meet one of your helpers. When you begin to relax, you might see a scene unfolding in which your guide appears. You might hear spoken words, you might feel their loving presence.

Your guide may appear in human form, or as an angel, a mythical creature, a beloved grandparent or ancestor who has crossed to the light, an animal, bird, insect, a bubble of light, a plant or tree… Be open to any possibility and accept who comes to you without judgment.

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My Grandparents, both spirit helpers for me

Greet your guide. Ask them a question you’ve been mulling over. Thank them for their presence. Feel the emotions they radiate. Even if you see or sense nothing, act as if your guide is there and hears you. (If you meet a being who appears to be a guide, but is mean, nasty, demeaning, it is not your spirit guide. Stop the exercise and try again when you are feeling better.)

Formulate your questions:

Your asking for help and guidance is the key to receiving it. If you are skeptical, if you expect your helpers to know what you want without taking the time to form a relationship, without thinking seriously about your questions, you will be disappointed.

To get started, ask them about themselves and how you will work together. After you’ve set this groundwork, you can ask your guides anything. Ask for what you want. Go right to the heart of your dreams and desires and start there.

Ask respectfully and with humility. I like to use the phrases “Show me more about…” “Show me what will happen if…” “What is needed now to heal this situation…? If you keep your questions open ended, you won’t shut down the possibilities that might occur otherwise.

Try to avoid asking your guides to predict the future with pinpoint accuracy. Because you are a being of free will, your free will interacts with all possibilities in the universe and these possibilities can generate many different conceivable outcomes for you.

The compassionate guidance you receive is to be taken seriously and acted upon. Perhaps you receive guidance to have more fun, to lighten your heart. Now it is up to you to decided how to do this. Use your intuition. What ideas are flowing into your mind as you think about this? Consider them all, do not dismiss the guidance you receive.

Orange butterfly on elderflower

Always express your thanks and gratitude for the guidance you receive.

Of course, if you are advised to make drastic changes, you must take it slow, test what you have been given against the conditions of your life, and move forward at your own pace within your comfort zone.

Connecting with your guides is like a prayer, a heart to heart conversion, or a soulful experience with a wise, loving, compassionate spirit that cares deeply for you and your well-being.

Working with spirit guides can change your life in amazing ways. Remember to take your guide’s advice to heart, open your mind to new ways of thinking and acting, and trust the advice you are given.

How soul retrieval can help you feel whole again

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Do you feel as though part of you is missing?

Do you feel like it is an effort to “get it all together”?

When someone has suffered a traumatic event, loss of a family member, accident, illness, or a distressing situation, they may have experienced soul loss. If you have ever said the words “I’ve never been the same since…” or “part of me died when…” you may have experienced soul loss.

A soul part can also be stolen – as when someone takes your power, bullies, or abuses you.

A soul retrieval is a shamanic journey that locates and restores this lost or stolen soul essence to the client. The power and gifts that were lost with the soul essence are returned as well. This can be a very moving and life-changing spiritual healing experience.

Often, the symbolic pictures and stories of a soul retrieval journey show the soul essence as a child or young person, or the age they were when the event or injury occurred. I have also brought back soul parts in the symbolic form of precious gems.

Winter bird’s nest

Please come with me as I take you into the heart of a soul retrieval. (This is an excerpt of a soul retrieval my helpers and I did several years ago.)

…my spirit helpers, power animals and I enter journey space and travel along a wide stream. At a shallow place, we cross the river on stepping stones and climb up the steep bank. A nearby fence row is full of dead leaves. One of my power animals sniffs the decaying leaves and noses them aside.

I come over and begin to dig with my hands. Under the matted leaves is a little 4 year old girl with blue eyes and short dark hair – a soul part who left my client many years before because she felt deep shame when her father treated her in a humiliating way…

After a deep healing and cleansing, this soul essence was ready to return to my client, so she could be whole again. The little girl brought the gifts of fun and play, easy happiness, and self confidence back to the woman who had lost this part of herself so many years ago….

I blew the soul part into my client’s crown and heart and sealed in the healing by rattling around her 4 times. In the next few days, my client contacted the soul part and asked 5 questions to begin the integration process:

Why did you leave? Why do you come back now? What do you want? What can I do to sustain this healing? What gifts do you bring?

After a soul retrieval it is common to spend some time getting re-integrated with your newly returned soul part. They bring with them the fullness of who you were at the time they left you. It is a tender time of getting to know each other again, of remembering, of learning to be whole again, of reclaiming the inner child or young person you once were.

You may dialog with your soul part and let them know about your life in the present. It is important for healing and integration to listen and try to do what the soul part asks of you. If her or she wants to play, sing, swing, swim, run, paint fingernails…skip stones… etc, see if you can allow yourself to do these things in an easy and comfortable way adapted to your present life conditions.

Lost or stolen soul parts return when you are ready for the healing, wholeness, renewal and new energy they will bring to your life.

Blessings, Betty

The healing gift of Compassionate Depossession

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Compassionate depossession is one of the cornerstones of shamanic healing. Spirits who are trapped in this dimension and can’t move to their rightful home can cause problems, at times quite unpleasant.

With the help of my spirit guides, these beings are located, contacted, and helped to cross safely to the spirit world (or what I call “the light”). Possession is a common occurrence in our culture where the spirits of our deceased are not often thought of or cared for after the body dies.

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Who are possessing spirits?

Some spirits or “suffering beings” are not able to find their way to the light after death. For instance, if a person died in an accident or during a violent act, they may be confused, disoriented, lost, and afraid. Others may choose to stay behind to help loved ones, or because they are afraid to move to the next dimension. Suffering beings I’ve worked with have come from many sources including war zones, hospitals, crime and accident scenes, funeral homes, and old buildings.

What is possession?

When a suffering being is attracted to a living person they may become attached to that person’s energy field. The attached suffering being can become something like a parasite, feeding from the host’s energy and sapping their strength and overshadowing their energy. When this happens, the host can experience any number of symptoms. They may feel that they have thoughts, feelings, compulsions, and emotions that don’t belong to them. They may experience fuzzy thinking, emotional problems and addictions. They may feel that they’re going crazy.

A win-win healing scenario.

During a compassionate depossession, the suffering being, or possessing spirit is contacted, their story is brought to the light, and they are respectfully and compassionately removed from the host’s energy field and sent to the light (or their version of heaven). After the removal, the suffering being will not be able to return to the host or any other person. The suffering being wins by getting “unstuck” and moving forward with their spiritual journey.

The client wins because this work clears them forever of the heavy overshadowing energy, the emotions thoughts and feelings of the suffering being. The client often feels lighter, and more centered in their own body, more in control of their own mental, physical and emotional health. Their energy is no longer being sapped.

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I share this information with you because I have seen the powerful results that occur when suffering beings are removed from a person’s energy field and sent to the light. Compassionate depossession can be a potent life changing healing experience.

If you feel in need of compassionate depossession for yourself, please contact me through my website contact page. I will be happy to visit with you and we can decide how to proceed. This work can be done via distance healing if you live out of the central Iowa area.

I close with the words of a client after her own compassionate depossession experience. She had suffered from anxious thoughts for most of her 70 years:

“Fear is no longer my go-to emotion!”

Is shamanic healing right for me?

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Shamanic healing can be helpful for many people. The guidance of compassionate loving spirit helpers is channeled through the healer for your benefit. Since the helpers communicate in symbols, having a feel for images, symbols, and stories can be useful (but not necessary) if you are interested in receiving a session. Shamanic healing can be a unique and profound process, so it is helpful if you are receptive to new experiences.

Consider these questions:

Are you ready for change in your life? What changes do you desire?

Are you tired of feeling stuck? Where do you feel stuck? Are you willing to do what it takes to get “unstuck”?

Have been told “It’s all in your head.”? Do others discount you and tell you to “Buck up.”, or “Get over it!”?

Are you tired of feeling anxious and stressed? Do you believe it is possible to feel better? Do you believe that you deserve to feel better?

Have you tried other forms of medicine or alternative healing, but had no luck? Shamanic healing deals with the spiritual aspects of disease and disharmony. There is no pill for that!

Do you feel that something is missing in your life?

Do you ever feel the presence of energy that doesn’t belong to you?

A “yes” to any of these questions may indicate that you would benefit from shamanic healing or other forms of spiritual healing.

I will continue this series of posts with an in depth look at several shamanic healing techniques.

Blessings,

Betty