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

Truth or lie? Your body knows.

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

Are the messages you receive coming from your spirit helpers, or are they just thoughts in your head?

As a beginner on your spiritual journey, you may experience some uncertainty in trusting the messages that start coming through. This is part of the learning process and happens to everyone. How can you tell the true messages and genuine guidance from some random thoughts in your head? – Are they truly from spirit, or generated by ego? This is a very common dilemma when starting out.

Learning to trust yourself and the subtle information you receive is vital to building and deepening relationships with your spiritual guides and helpers. This truth or lie exercise will help you discern which messages are trustworthy and ring with the feeling of truth, and which do not.

Remember, you are a being of both spirit and a physical body. This exercise helps you discern the truth of spiritual messages in your body.

Truth or lies exercise

Find a comfortable seated position in a quiet place. Ground yourself by massaging your feet, rubbing the soles of your feet with a stainless steel spoon, or tapping your cheekbones and upper chest.

Take several mindful breaths to relax yourself and bring your awareness to your heart. Pay attention to the physical sensations you feel there. Can you sense your heart beating? If it helps you tune in, place both palms over the center of your chest, your heart chakra, as you breathe.

Truth:

When you feel relaxed, think back to a time in your life when you knew the truth without a doubt. For instance, this could be when you first knew you were in love with a person, the first time you met your newborn, when you saw a breathtaking landscape in nature, or another amazing situation you remember.

Now tune in and pay attention to the feelings in your body as you remember this significant moment of truth in your life. Where in your body do you feel the feelings of “truth”? Can you describe them? What qualities and emotions do you sense in the feelings? Pay attention to the sensations, the feelings that move through you while holding the memory. The memory is in the past, but the feelings are moving through you now as they did originally in response to that peak moment in your life.

You might write or record what you noticed and felt about the your physical response to the truth to help you remember these feelings.

Lies:

Next, tune in to a time in your life when you were lied to and you knew it, or when you yourself told a lie to someone. This could be a betrayal by a friend or partner, something that happened at your job, or the first time your mom caught you in a lie…

Once again, focus on your body as you remember the past lie. Pay attention to the feelings and physical sensations moving through you as you remember. In what part of your body did you feel them? What qualities did the feelings have? How did you know without a doubt that what you experienced was a lie? Write down or record what you noticed and felt.

How are the feelings of truth in your body different than the feelings of a lie?

Use this information for discernment as you begin receiving messages from spirit. Let your body and heart react to the information you’re not sure of by paying attention to the subtle energy moving through you. How do these messages feel in your body? When you believe spirit is giving you a message, does it feel like the truth in your body and heart, or does it feel like a lie to you?

If it feels like the truth in your body and heart, allow yourself to trust it. Now, pay attention to what happens when you trust the message and follow your guidance. Does it work out for you? How does it feel?

If a message feels like a lie in your body, it is probably not coming from spirit. Try letting it go and asking your helpers to clear any interfering thoughts. Next time you tune in, ask them for the truth.

Don’t try too hard, push or strive to get the “right” answers. If something isn’t clear, ask for clarity, go on about your day and come back to this later. Learning to discern by attending to your subtle body sensations is a basic skill in connecting with spirit, part of the learning process.

Have patience! You’ll get this. Trust your body to know the truth!

Photo credits: Sunset water person – Mohamed Nohassi on Unspash; Colored Night Sky – Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

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

Imagine and Create!

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

Like planting seeds for the future you desire in your heart and mind, you can do what is called “pre-paving” your intentions. This is a technique I learned from the channeled being, Abraham Hicks in the book written by Jerry and Esther Hicks, Ask and It Is Given from 2004.

To pre-pave what you wish to create in your life, think of an intention that is dear to your heart. Now, visualize or imagine the first step of making your intention come to life, then the second…

For instance if you intend to create more artworks, this year, imagine yourself going through each step in detail, finding ideas and inspiration, making preliminary thumbnails and sketches of your idea, then choosing one to develop, working on the drawing, transferring it to canvas, squeezing paint onto your palette, choosing the paintbrush, mixing color, blocking out your painting with large brush strokes, filling in the details, and finally, hanging the finished painting.

Now, (and this is important), decide how you want to feel as you do each step of the process. Imagine yourself sketching, choosing tubes of color, squeezing out paint, and painting with an open heart, with curiosity, and ease, with playfulness, excitement, satisfaction, and all the feelings you want to feel. Feel the sense of soul satisfaction as you hang and enjoy your finished painting.

Let yourself sense and observe those feelings, sensations, and actions in your body as you imagine doing your work. Smell the paint, feel the texture of the brush handle in your hand, see the creamy strokes of paint spreading onto the rough canvas… hear the sound the brush makes on the texture of the canvas.

You can apply this process to anything you want to manifest in your life.

Everything you bring into physical reality is created in partnership with your spiritual guidance. (whether you know it or not.) When you know this, you can invite and open yourself to the intuition and inspirations that come as you work. Spirit hears you, knows you, and answers in some way.

As you move from your imagination to doing your work in physical reality, you may get messages from your guidance to use a certain color, change a shape or part of the composition, or even to throw the whole thing away and start again!

Listen and try to follow the messages of your spiritual guidance if you can. It gets easier with practice. Whatever work you do, It will be so much more if you allow your spirit helpers to partner with you. Your connection and relationship with this non-physical assistance will help you in bringing the work you visualize and imagine into physical reality.

Everything you plan to do in your next hour, the coming day, the year ahead can be pre-paved – imagined in detail ahead of time, made real in your heart and mind before it becomes a physical reality.

Make this process fun! Dream, imagine, create in your mind first, without limits, then bring those feelings and knowings and actions you’ve practiced into your physical reality.

Photo of large paintbrushes by RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist on Unsplash

Photo of smaller paintbrushes by Yannis Papanastasopoulos on Unsplash

What are Your Intentions for the New Year?

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

Many years ago I wrote down this quote for myself: “Intention is aligning your heart and mind to a single purpose.” (Unfortunately, I don’t remember where it came from.)

What do you intend to align your heart and mind to create in this coming year? What are your intentions for this precious gift of life and time you’ve been given? This new year represents a portion of your future that you can plan for, look forward to, design in your mind and heart to bring your dreams into physical manifestation. Setting new year’s intentions help you manifest your dreams into being and keep promises to yourself.

The earth is turning back toward the sun. It is It is time to rededicate yourself to those dreams and intentions that are closest to your heart. Those that drive you to get out of bed, satisfy your soul, inspire your creativity, and resonate in your heart.

Think about what you want to create, accomplish, spend your limited and precious time on this year. How you will take care of yourself, how you will carry out your life’s purpose, how you want to feel as you live another year on our sweet green planet.

How will you focus your energy this year?

Do your intentions reflect the true desires of your heart and mind? Do they come from your connection to spirit, from inside yourself? Or are they a result of cultural or family expectations, coming from outside yourself, from other people’s ideas of how you should be? Do they make sense only to your logical mind, your willingness to please others, bypassing your heart and intuitions and deep knowings? Do they tell you what you should do, ought to do, must do? These types of commands and demands do not come from your heart.

To make your life sing, to manifest your true purpose and desires in life, please learn to trust yourself, the feelings, impressions, emotions, and the subtle messages that come from your spirit, your body and heart. Pay close attention, and follow the subtle guidance of spirit which will never steer you wrong.

Spirit messages will never ask you to harm others, cause damage, destroy, put others down or hurt them, take advantage of others. Spirit messages will be uplifting or energizing to you and through you bring more connection and love and understanding into the world.

These spirit messages may come to you in various ways, through your intuition, your knowing, any of your senses, your body – as in a gut feeling, or a knowing in your heart. They will not be loud or invasive or strident. They will be quiet and subtle, and you will know them to be true.

To set your intentions, find a quiet time every day when you can tune into your heart and spirit. Listen to your intuition, that still small voice, or gut feeling, and know what is true for you. As you practice, you will gain clarity on how best to focus your intentions of heart and mind and bring your dreams into being.

I wish you and your family a beautiful, peaceful, and happy New Year!

Photo credits: Photo of balanced stones by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Photo by Mohammad Nohasi sunset water person on Unsplash

Will You Choose Life?

Healing, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

“My will has chosen life.”

This is a memorable line from the 1993 movie, The Piano, written and directed by Jane Campion, and starring Holly Hunter as Ada, a mute woman whose beloved piano stands in for her silenced voice. We hear Ada’s thoughts after she has had a harrowing escape from death. We watch in horror as she chooses what looks like suicide by drowning, then as she is sinking under the waves, change her mind and fight for her life and breath.

In dramatic fashion, Ada chooses life, and recommits to living fully, being present to life, no matter how difficult it might be at times.

Throughout your time on Earth, you will be given many opportunities to recommit to being fully alive, choosing growth over stagnation, love over fear. During these choice points, your heart’s wisdom. the inner compass, will guide you.

Red Wing Blackbird

This path is not always easy, it takes courage, commitment, endurance, and will to blaze your own trail in life and follow your inner guidance.

Several years ago in early February I fell on a patch of ice and struck the outer corner of my left eyebrow hard on the concrete sidewalk . It seemed that my outer world and body were mirroring my inner ambivalence about my life at that time and asking me – will you commit to staying here in this body and living fully, or will you choose to coast and stop growing and reaching for your heart’s desires?

This accident was a wake up call! It made me pay attention to how my life had gotten into a rut, how I had become complacent, taking life for granted, how I was allowing fear to rule me.

After the fall, I had a choice. I could recommit to this life and meet the challenges and changes I was facing with grace and courage or stay stuck in ways that diminished me and my spirit. For about a month after my fall, I had a huge purple and black eye to remind me of this.

Calling Red Wing Blackbird

Life circumstances will give us all plenty of opportunities to choose growth and the uncertainty that comes with it, to step with courage into the unknown, to choose the path that our hearts and spirits desire. alternatively, we may choose to stay with the easy, the familiar, the well trodden but unsatisfying existence that no longer feeds our spirits or makes our hearts sing.

Will you choose life? Will you choose to speak and live your truth? Life means growth. Growth is not always easy, but is the path to self respect and fulfillment.

Like Ada in the The Piano will you find your voice? Will you choose life?

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

Connect with spirit, Healing, Healing Touch, Power Animal, Shamanic healing, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

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

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

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

Energy Healing, Healing, Shamanic healing, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spirtual Guidance

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!”

Tips for working with power animals

Power Animal, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Has a power animal appeared for you? Why did that particular animal choose to work with you? What gifts and guidance do they bring you?

Monarch butterfly

I thought power animals were the product of fanciful and wishful and maybe even loony minds until Horse appeared at my side one day. I was out for a walk several days before a healing touch class in which I would experience a life-changing healing. It seemed like a normal summer’s day. Suddenly, a chestnut brown horse was walking close beside me. He seemed so real, I thought I could lean against him and smell his horsey scent, feel the texture of his course mane, hear his soft nicker, and scratch around his ears. But he was in spirit form; sent to guide, comfort and support me through my mind bending healing experience that was yet to come. He’s been a helper to me ever since.

If you don’t feel connected to a spirit animal, a shamanic practitioner can do a power animal retrieval for you. Or you can learn to do shamanic journeys and retrieve one for yourself. Remember, the animal actually chooses you, so be open to whoever comes your way offering their services. It could just as easily be snake, vulture, spider, or mouse, as wolf, bear or eagle!

Power animals are compassionate spirit guides that have taken on animal form. Each creature has special attributes and powers (superpowers!) that can help you with your unique needs. No list or book of animal attributes can capture the full meaning your power animal has for you. Be open to listening, learning and building a relationship with your helper. You will be richly rewarded!

Squirrel

To Connect: You can use journaling to connect, or go into a daydream state with a question ready. Do this at a time of day when you can be quiet for awhile. Connect directly by learning to do shamanic journeys.

Ask the power animal what you can do for them. After all the relationship is a two way street.

Always be respectful of your helpers. Thank them for their presence, their support, their advice. They have chosen to work with you, and that is an honor.

Questions: When you first visit with your helper, ask how they can help you and what gifts they bring to you. Ask what they want from you. After that you can ask other questions. “Why” questions don’t usually work too well. Try to re-word them: (Can you help me understand…? Show me about… )

Red winged blackbird

The answers may come to you in several different ways such as a picture or “movie” in your head, words, emotions, impressions, etc. Accept what comes. It won’t always be earth shattering. It might be quiet at times. It might take some time for the answer to become clear to you. The more you work with your helper, the easier it will be for you to know what they are communicating to you.

Follow the advice you are given if possible. Remember that your power animal will never ask you to do something that harms you or another person or living thing. If you get something like this, it is not coming from your power animal.

Disconnect: When you’re done visiting your power animal, thank them, say goodbye, open your eyes and take a drink of water, a bite of food, or dance around a little to get yourself back into this reality.

Above all, enjoy you power animal! They can bring you humor and fun, spot-on guidance and serious healing if you are open to their messages.

Blessings,

Betty

Resources:

Shamanic journeying by Sandra Ingerman ; Sounds True, Incorporated. 2006

Animal Speak by Ted Andrews; Llewellyn Publications. 2002

Is shamanic healing right for me?

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

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

What is Shamanic Healing? How can it help me?

Healing, Mediumship, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Shamanic healing is spiritual healing.

Its been part of the human experience for tens of thousands of years. The healer works with masterful and wise spirit guides, light beings, and power animals for healing that goes beyond the physical realm to address the unseen energetic, emotional, and spiritual causes of disease. She acts as a channel for their images, stories, energy, and words. Shamanic healing is effective and potent healing that works on a deep soul level.

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How can it help me?

Shamanic Journeys are channeled stories meant just for you. They bring wisdom, insight, and healing energy. Journeys can surprise you with new perspectives and effective guidance for your life and bring you in touch with your deep inner wisdom

Soul Retrieval returns lost power to you and helps you feel whole again. During traumatic events, a part of your soul essence may be lost. The soul retrieval restores it to you.

Psychopomp or “spirit guide” work can clear your home and spaces of unwanted energies and remove overshadowing energy that holds you back. Spirits who are “stuck” here after death can be helped to cross to the light.

Energy Extraction can clear your energy field and body of stagnant energy.

Curse Unraveling can clear and heal negative ancestral patterns and past life problems.

Mediumship Messages from loved ones who’ve passed on are channeled to you through the practitioner.

Power Animal Retrieval brings you a spirit guide in animal form.

Toning and Healing with Spiritual Light can bring you a sense of peace, connection with the universe and well being.

Many of my clients have found that they feel less anxious, less stressed, and more tuned in to their own spiritual guidance and life path after receiving shamanic healing. It can be a life-changing process!

Blessings,

Betty