Wow, April blew by fast. So fast that I posted this schedule late! I had a wonderful Beltane with many lovely people in the community, and I’m blessed and so grateful for this Summer to begin! As with many Summers, it will be a time of full outward expression – so it’s helpful that the journey topic for this month is Fire.
For the past couple of months, we have been working with elements in the journey group outline. Now we continue that journey with fire! The rest will be as follows on this big medicine wheel we will be taking a dive into 😉
Main Post: Purity and the Elements – Exploring the four element system, what it means, and the inter-connectedness/inter-related aspects of it all
April: Element of Air – Exploring the mental wisdom body and how to bring about the clarity of the mind
May: Element of Fire – Exploring the spiritual wisdom body and how we can use passion to fuel our drive in the world
June: Element of Water (post coming soon) – Exploring the emotional wisdom body and how we can use our emotions as a useful processing tool instead of drowning or being numbed by them.
Along with the basic journey group meetups, there is also a Shamanic Journeying Basics class on May 13th, as well as an Animal Medicine class on May 16th. Hooray for fun events this month!
Eagle Therapies Events Calendar:
May 9th – Heart Centered Sound Circle. Has been moved to a Tuesday due to Mothers day being on the following Sunday and I was away at a Festival the first weekend in May (which threw me off schedule in getting things posted on time).
May 11th – Shamanic Journey Group: Topic of Fire – What is fire and how does it relate to us? What does interconnection and our spiritual health have to do with our overall holistic wellness? Explore these questions and more at this weeks Journey Group.
May 12th – Drum Circle in Fairfax – For those that want a more “laid back” and just “old fashioned” drum circle, come try out the Fairfax Drum circle! Typically done on the first Friday of every month, but moved to the Second Friday due to scheduling conflicts.
May 13th – Monthly Shamanic Journeying Basics: The Bare Bones – Beginners introduction to Shamanic Journeying, or a refresher course for someone that is experienced with journeying but wants a different perspective. For more advanced journeyers, feel free to show up around 6:00pm for an hour long “Shamanic Journeying” expanded version (since we squeeze the journeying itself into a 30 minute time window).
May 16th – Animal Medicine – For those interested in finding out what their Power Animal is, or for those interested in having a straight forward guide. Already have a guide? Sometimes we just need to look at nature and listen to the messages we receive in order to begin to understand what they mean. Find out what your strongest connection to nature is in this workshop.
May 25th – Shamanic Journey Group: Topic of Fire – What happens when we have false passions that drive us to the brink of madness? Sometimes people can have addictions that fuel them to do things they would rather not do – but they end up doing them anyway without really realizing the harm or the damage they cause. Today we will cover the topic of a “Wildfire” and how this chaos can either be extremely beneficial and clearing, or how it can “burn bridges” before we are really ready to take that next leap.
Thanks everyone! For a copy of this months newsletter, please click this link so you can find out what else is going on in the area. If you guys have any questions or concerns, please feel free to text/call 571.306.3197, or email info@eagletherapies.com
If you have found this page, there is no coincidence that you are on a path of self discovery. Even if that wasn’t your intention, you somehow still wound up finding this page. This post directly deals with the Fire as an element, and how we can journey to find out the depth of our relationship with this element. It can be a direct reflection upon us and how we function in this world. We will be going through these journeying topics at the Shamanic Journey Group of Fairfax, however this can also be a “follow along at home” directional for those that wish to take this slowly and in a step-by-step process.
I shall update the table of contents as the blog posts get written.
Fire is one of those elements that requires the right balance in order to burn in a way that is healthy. Previously in other blog posts, we have discussed that Earth represents our physical body, Air represents our mental body, water represents our emotional body, and fire is the pivot point of all of these elements – representing our spiritual body. Our Western Contemporary culture doesn’t value (or in the past has not valued) our spiritual body. We do things that go against our integrity all the time: not fully being “present” and in the moment, falling back on what we said we were going to do, not being realistic about our expectations and overestimating the energy that we have left before we commit to a task, etc. In order for our metaphorical fire to burn well, the other three elements have to be in balance.
Let’s start at the base. Imagine your place of power, or the place you have visited with your guides before. Go back to that same place to see you relationship with these elements and be open to the images that pop up. If our metaphorical “ground” is too shaky, porous, or wet, and it not well formulated – is that a good place to build a fire? Is it wise to build a fire on top of a whole bunch of dry grass? Here is where I introduce the concept of judgement, because I know this has come up in previous journeys. When viewing our metaphors, we must not ask is “Is this wrong or right?” because that puts us in a mind frame of judgement. If we label something as “Good” or “Bad”, then we will automatically categorize things into polar opposites for us. Maybe having something a particular way can be beneficial, but we can’t see the value of it until we appreciate it later. Sometimes the biggest miracle is God’s unanswered prayers. Perhaps someone does need to build a fire on top of dry grass, because that dry grass represents a lot of the “burnt out” challenges they have had in their life and they need to clear it all out. Yes, it turns into a fire storm, and that can be chaotic for a time – but perhaps that drained state once the fire burns out is exactly what they need to be receptive for the next lesson. Sometimes we need to be under pressure before we can grow. For example, conifers are a type of tree where fire is vital in their life cycle. The seeds cannot germinate unless they have been cracked open by fire. Everything has its learning opportunity, and learning to ask the right questions of Spirit is key to understanding ourselves and how we operate.
Now to deepen this metaphor. If we go back to our earth element in the form of wood instead of just the ground, we can equate the wood to our materials for consumption. Do we have too much wood? Do we not have enough wood? The wood can represent what we use to feed/nourish ourselves. If we don’t feed or nourish ourselves properly, then how can we have enough physical stamina to burn the wood? If we happen to sleep really well, eat right, and then wake up with a full stack of logs to burn, do we have a tendency to set everything on fire at once? Usually what that looks like in physical reality is the person getting really super excited about an idea, then they proceed to go forward with many different tasks, throwing all of their logs on their fire and expending all of their energy at once. Before they know it, after they get through half their day, their energy is depleted and they are dragging by the end of the day. The question is not “Is this method wrong or right” but “Does this method serve me?” or “Is this a healthy way for me to expend my energy”.
If our mental state is out of balance, perhaps we might have too much wind to add to our metaphor. If there is too much air (too many thoughts circulating), then sometimes our fire can burn out of control and we can run out of fuel (wood) faster then what we normally would. Because of this excitement of ideas, we can burn through our resources so quickly that we still become drained. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, if we don’t have enough wind, our metaphorical status could be “stagnant” and it could be hard for us to burn anything at all, because there is a lack of air. This lack of air could be a feeling of hopelessness, dread, or depression that we can’t seem to kick ourselves out of. If we happen to fall into this category, then some questions we could ask ourselves are: “What is my right relationship with my mental wisdom body, and how does it affect my element of fire?”; “Show me how quickly I burn through my resources when I become too over excited about my ideas”; “What is right relationship with my mental wisdom body, and how can I stimulate/calm it down?”
If our emotional wisdom body is out of balance, then our metaphorical scene could either be too wet, or not damp enough. If the air is thick and humid, then it could definitely be hard to start a fire because of how wet/saturated the wood is. If there is little to no emotion at all, then it could be too dry – and again, our resources get burned quicker then what we can throw on our fire. Most people in our society have a hard time with our emotional wisdom body, because we either suppress our emotions (because boys aren’t supposed to cry, or crying is seen as a weakness) or we over indulge in emotions (those prone to gossip or drama and feed off of it). It’s hard to find balance within ourselves, but again, we see how this very vital wisdom body can influence our element of fire. If we consider ourselves to be “sensitive” and feel more than some other people, then sometimes some protection against another person emotions could be the key. Perhaps someone is “raining on your parade”, and you find yourself drained and can’t build your fire after interacting with a certain type of person. What that can look like, is someone with a lot of ambition, but then after talking with someone, can become really disheartened because that person does not believe in them or their dreams. Sometimes filtering out these people that weigh you down is the type of protection you need to help protect your fire. Great questions sometimes come from this, “What is the right environment for my fire to thrive?”; “Show me how my emotional wisdom body affects my spiritual wisdom body”; “Show me the type of protection I might need to protect my fire, and how my fire gets influenced by others”
All of these things factor into our relationship with Spirit. If we are imbalanced in any of those three areas, it could be hard to keep our energy going. Fire typically represents our passion, our influence, and what drives us in life. If we feel like we have no passion, if we lack creativity, or we stop short – then what are you doing to feed your fire properly? This is a direct reflection to ones spirituality. Our sense of purpose and what drives us is directly enhanced by our relationship with our spirituality. If taken into context, we begin to see that many people can be out of balance with their spirituality, because all of these things are connected and inter-related. The point is not to have a fire that burns too terribly brightly, or out of balance with all the other elements, because too much “fire” can lead to arrogance, aggression, and ambition. How many times have you been bull dozed by someone with a fierce determination without a lack of care for who stands in their way? There is a such thing as too much fire. If we have too little fire, do we feel stuck, depleted, or feel like we are lacking a sense of purpose?
Fire is perfect for those who feel like they have too much on their plate. One of the best things about the element of fire, is that is serves the purpose of purifying, as well as bringing the gift of instant transformation. It is a universal law that energy cannot be either destroyed nor created. So what happens if you’ve got a lot of baggage? If you learn to utilize and work with these elements properly, we can begin to reflect on some of the things we’ve got going on in our life, and bring it to the fire so we can transform our thoughts/perspective, and then “let go” of anything else that doesn’t fit.
I will bring up a few patterns I see most common these days, that are standing in ones way to accessing their full potential of their spiritual wisdom body. One is that people are using life as an excuse not to get spiritual. Many people say, “Oh, I don’t have time to meditate” or “Yeah, I’m a really stressed out person, and I know I should do something for stress relief” and don’t take into account their spiritual health as well as their mental, emotional, and physical health. On the opposite end, I have seen many people take on meditations of “letting it go” and clearing the stress of the moment, but don’t into account why those stresses pop up in the first place or why it triggers them into an emotional/reactive state. If a person is constantly “letting go” and not diving down to why something is making them upset, it is termed a “spiritual bypass” so then they don’t really get down to the core of what makes them upset. Both can be an abuse of our spiritual wisdom body, and can lead to a superficial relationship with our own spirituality.
Many people can be in many different aspects of these relationships, the main point to draw out of this blog post, is what state are YOU in? This is not a linear path where you can “follow these steps and get this result”, but this is part of a guideline that is more holistic in application, and how you can pick up the pieces to strengthen the weak aspects.
Some questions we can ask our guides in regards to our relationship with fire are:
What things am I refusing to acknowledge at this point?
What are the challenges blocking me from accessing the full potential of my spirituality?
What things can I transform within myself to establish a deeper relationship with my spiritual wisdom body?
What things are standing in my way between me and living my life’s purpose?
As with any archetype, the shadow of fire is the wildfire (if you are confused at what the shadow is and what it represents, scroll down to the bottom of the earth post). The wildfire comes when we become too arrogant, sit on top of our high horse, and put all of our eggs in one basket. A more common expression of the wildfire is when our emotional wisdom body runs out of control, and the archetype of the “Wounded Child” drives the bus. Some people may or may not be familiar about it, but I tend to have a pretty unpopular view of the “Wounded Child”. What this usually looks like is someone who is fired by jealousy or their repressed emotions, and does something out of spite. They become “alive” and “on fire” because they feel like they need to get back at a person, or a group. Another thing is that we could have false passions that can drive us. Sometimes our addictions can fuel our motivations in the world, and we can become feverish to fulfill these desires we have. The wildfire is an example of chaos that can be used to drive us either into a state of madness where we destructively burn things without meaning to, or we can use it constructively in a way where we set forth fire in a way that allows for clear, concise break down so we can emerge as seedlings of a conifer that has been through the flame. The earth is generally extremely fertile after a fire, depending on what was burned. Could this be a new beginning for you that you can be proud of? Or is the wildfire a result of your repressed/unresolved issues that you continue to project on your surrounding situation? All of these are good questions to ask.
If you are an auditory person and would like an alternative way to listen to some of these ideas, feel free to listen to this podcast by Christina Pratt and Why Shamanism Now.
Other valuable links:
Journey Track Outline – Lost and need a refresher? Go back to the basics before moving forward
Purity and the Elements – Need a reminder on the element system and how these all play together?
Hey guys! I sure have been busy this past month, with my recovering from deaths doorstep and heading out to Standing Rock and all. I somehow managed to write up a Journey Track outline for beginner journeyers because my inbox was becoming full with people who had questions about doing it by themselves at home. With all of that being said and done, the next few months are probably going to blow by fast for me. I’ve taken up training with an indigenous teacher, as well as going out on my first retreat with Christina Pratt in June (I’m in her four year training program and starting year 1 this year). So that means that we are going to move a little bit quicker in the journey group.
The last two months we have been working on the topic of earth as an element, and exploring that relationship as a metaphor of our physical body. The rest will be as follows on this big medicine wheel we will be taking a dive into 😉
Main Post: Purity and the Elements – Exploring the four element system, what it means, and the inter-connectedness/inter-related aspects of it all
April: Element of Air – Exploring the mental wisdom body and how to bring about the clarity of the mind
May: Element of Fire (post coming soon) – Exploring the spiritual wisdom body and how we can use passion to fuel our drive in the world
June: Element of Water (post coming soon) – Exploring the emotional wisdom body and how we can use our emotions as a useful processing tool instead of drowning or being numbed by them.
Along with the basic journey group meetups, there is also a Shamanic Journeying Basics class on April 8th, as well as the Open Heart Path class on April 18th. Hooray for fun events this month!
Event listings for Eagle Therapies:
April 2nd – Heart Centered Sound Circle
This is the extended version of the 5-10 minutes of singing/chanting we do before we journey. It’s a ceremony that lasts for an hour. Begins at 1pm.
April 6th – Element of Air: Shamanic Journey Group
Today we will find the inter-connectedness and inter-relatedness of the element of air, and see how it fits in with the element of earth. Earth helps us cultivate a sense of wellbeing, as well as a sense of place, presence, and grounding. Earth helps us ask the question, “What do I stand for, and why do I stand for it?”. As earth helped pave the ground work, now we can step into the realm of air and be able to take on responsibility and power. The element of air helps us connect to vision as well as clarity, clear sight, and truth.
April 7th – First Friday in Fairfax – Drum Circle!
This is just a fun get together with drums, rattles, and shaky things 🙂 Come join in community!
April 8th – Shamanic Journeying Basics – The Bare Bones
This is meant for everyone from beginners who know nothing about journeying, all the way to experienced journeyers who want a refresher. This will also include a journey group right after, as well as a question and answer.
Cost: $15 – Please bring cash or paypal ahead of time
April 18th – The Open Heart Path workshop
This is one of my favorite workshops to teach, because the Open Heart Path is very near and dear to my heart (pun intended). Come find out what it means to live in todays world full of courage, and to bring your medicine to the table.
Cost: $15 – Please bring cash or paypal ahead of time
April 20th – Element of Air: Shamanic Journey Group
Whenever there is a light, if the light falls on an object of attention, it casts a shadow. The shadow aspect of the element of air is the tornado. Sometimes in life, we reach a point of hopelessness that it feels like an aspect of ourselves is suffocating. We feel stuck and can sometimes feel like we cannot move forward without being restricted in some ways. The tornado can help breathe a breath of life back into the stagnation that was there.
To all of my beloveds and family members that supported us as my teacher and I went out to Standing Rock, here is a synopsis of our journey. My teacher and I co-wrote this together, but it’s written in his point of view. I’m not going to bother changing it because I’ve had many other projects that I’ve been working on. Feel free to read, comment, share, and everything else. Based off of my Walk With Buffalo post, I find it very funny that a Buffalo Mother decided to walk up to the car to lick it 😛
Posted on his Facebook page at 7:00pm on March 29th
Greeting my Family, Friends and Earth Companions! I am home from my trip to Standing Rock, N.D, and here is our (Stephanie and my) combined synopsis of the trip and what we found and did there. I traveled there this time with a good friend and shamanic student of mine, Stephanie Seger. She is also a shamanic healer in her own right and runs Eagle Therapies to help others. When we arrived, we found out that all the original camps have been completely destroyed by the government with the approval of the Standing Rock Tribes Chief, Dave Archambault, and the council. You can read more about that here . The work on the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is complete and the oil either is or will be flowing through it by the time I get this finished and out to everyone.
Buffalo drum I painted during our travel
The journey started on Sunday, March 12, 2017. We drove for a little over 12 hours to Peoria, IL and stopped for the night to avoid driving in the blizzard that was coming east. It was a good decision, because we missed the snowfall pretty much completely and started driving again Monday morning to complete our trip to Bismarck, ND. We saw many vehicles’ in the ditches and medians that validated Lora and Stephanie’s counsel to stop and got into Bismarck, ND about 2am on Tuesday. A little over 1800 miles with no problems, we were blessed. We spent much of the drive both days exchanging stories while Stephanie worked on her many art projects. She tends to be a very creative person. One of her projects included free hand painting a buffalo on a new drum.
Four Bands Camp – Greater Sioux Nation
Tuesday morning when we woke up, we rolled out and went to Standing Rock to see what was going on. We were met by a Federal Marshall, who told us that we were not allowed to go into or see the area where the Oceti Sakowin Camp or Sacred Stone camps were. As we had approached Standing Rock, we had seen two small camp areas that had teepees and tents. When we went back to the larger camp, we introduced ourselves to the Four Bands Prayer Camp (Cheyenne River Camp). We met with the leaders (Leon Red Dog and Johnnie Aseron) to find out what they were doing and how we could help. Cheyenne River Lakota Chairman Harold Frazier has authorized the Cheyenne River Camp on the Cannon Ball River. Its purpose will be educational and spiritual. They gave us a copy of their rules for the camp (attached) and said that they need labor, supplies and financial support. So we rolled up our sleeves (figuratively, since it was about 6 degrees out) and help put up tents and clear snow. They didn’t have a general sleeping area yet, so we headed back to Bismarck to sleep since our tent was not going to be warm enough to allow us to stay on site.
It was still light when we left, so we stopped at the second, smaller camp on our way out and found out it was the Wolf’s Den (Sacred Buffalo Prayer Camp). It was an interesting and magical introduction. I stayed in the car while Stephanie walked up and introduced both of us. Stephanie has the gift of working with Spirit Guides, and met the crew outside. They almost turned her away, indicating that this was private property, when somehow her charm and way with words won them over. It also helped that at the same time of explaining her gifts, a Silver Hawk (my Native name and totem) flew in through the middle of camp, catching everyone’s attention. This is a rare occurrence and piqued their interest. It helped us as we introduced ourselves and asked about the camp. The Wolf Den is a smaller, independent camp that is trying to maintain the spirit and purpose of the Standing Rock camps that have been dismantled / destroyed. We went in to their primary tent and listened to their story and then Stephanie was asked to drum on her newly painted Buffalo drum. As Stephanie shared her story of being guided there by a buffalo spirit, the Lakota Song Keeper picked up on the holiness and exchanged song for song. It sealed their acceptance of her and they asked us to come back the next day, since they also didn’t have a general sleeping area yet. They only had one request for supplies to make a good beef stew and maybe some pork chops and bacon. Little did we know, but this camp is home to the “Walking Thunder Buffalo Project”, where they have many buffalo hides available for fleshing/tanning purposes as an educational tool. The hides will be used in sacred ceremony, to teach people about the spirituality that once thrived in these areas before colonialism.
Wednesday morning we rolled out and returned to the Wolf’s Den Camp first and delivered a very large top roast, 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of carrots, 20 pounds of celery, 20 pounds of onions and several packs of organic beef broth for the stew as well as two large packs of pork chops and two large packs of extra thick bacon. To say the least, it was well received. After catching up, Stephanie was asked if she would like to help with the fleshing of a sacred buffalo hide. She was excited about the opportunity and went out to work in the cold with one of the people. I went on to the Four Bands Prayer Camp (Cheyenne River Camp) to continue to help set up tents and organize supplies and materials. While I was working there, the camp had visits / inspections from the BIA, FBI, and state and local police departments. I believe that the visits were staged to interrupt our efforts, because all of them happened about 2 hours apart and took the better part of an hour. They required we show our ID’s and took photos of our vehicles. Overall it was a good productive day and we were both exhausted by the end of it. Since there still was no general sleeping area available yet, we returned to Bismarck and had dinner with a friend of Stephanie’s who happens to be the lead attorney for the Water Protector Legal Collective. Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) provides on-the-ground legal representation and coordination at Standing Rock, North Dakota in partnership with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). Sandra La Huracán went to North Dakota and left her loved ones in Colorado to stand for the people, and is a big reason that many are not still in jail. I truly honor her work and heart. We are all connected.
Bison berries that I picked 🙂
Thursday was another work day for both of us at the respective camps and I was also asked to go and assist with two PTSD veterans who were having issues with the local authorities and were being moved to the VA Hospital in Fargo. While I did this, Stephanie helped dig out the sweat lodge from a good half foot to a foot of snow. The weather had begun to warm up and it was just a beautiful day to be out doors in nature. It was a beautiful enough day that some of the native plants were peeking up through some of the snow, and the Lakota Song Keeper had decided to share some indigenous knowledge with her. I remember her smile as she shared the splendor of the freshly harvested sage and bison berries. This works agrees with her spirit and energy. But our mission and purpose was about to change. Stephanie had been invited to go to the Rosebud Reservation to talk to a chief and medicine man who runs the Sun Dance there. It was a very exhausting day both mentally and physically for the both of us, and we rested well until we packed up and headed out to the Rosebud reservation about 5 hours south of Cannon Ball, ND. Again, our trip was filled with magic, love, craft projects, and stories exchanged between us.
By the time we arrived, Stephanie was very nervous about meeting a medicine man of such power. She felt him miles out from our destination, and was more reserved then what she normally is. It was a lovely meeting that turned into a deepening kinship between people of a shared purpose. It’s hard to describe, but there’s something special about recognizing who your family members are, and realizing that we are all apart of the same tribe. Once Stephanie got her drum out from the car, the medicine man did an impromptu drum blessing for her newly painted drum. She was moved to tears and couldn’t speak for a little, and we continued conversation – all of us respecting the sacred nature of what had been unfolded before us. There was a lag in conversation when the medicine man turned to look at Stephanie as she held her twice blessed drum, and asked, “So are you going to sing?” Again she was taken aback, but obliged anyway. They asked if they could record her song by video, and she happily responded with a yes. It was another magical moment of a blessing exchange (because the song Stephanie sang was a blessing for the Earth). After her song and in between the discussion, I noticed that Gilly (medicine man) kept moving rather quickly through the background, gathering and collecting certain items and writing things down. Our conversation evolved, and when there was a lull in conversation, Gilly invited us to a ceremony in the Black Hills. We both voiced we were interested in going, and then he hands me a piece of paper with information already written down on it, and informs us that he already told people that we were coming. This adventure seemed to not end as we got another tip in our scavenger hunt of a trip. From this meeting, we drove down to Rapid City, SD where we got a hotel room for the night and got some much needed rest and stretching from being in the car all day.
Momma buffalo licking the salt off the carMomma Buffalo walking up to the car
Saturday was our last day in the Dakotas, and we spent it in prayer, ceremony, and blessing. We made it out to the Black Hills, which is a sacred site for the Lakota Sioux. We were gifted by live visits from buffalo, prairie dogs, antelope, hawks, deer, and many other types of wildlife. The buffalo even walked up to the truck to lick salt off of it! Stephanie felt called at one point to gather rocks from a buffalo wallow (this is where the buffalo roll around in the grass and leave a depression of dirt). We found the perfect wallow in the middle of a field where there were no buffalo (because you know, safety). She took some of the sage seeds that she gathered while she was with the Lakota Medicine Man at Standing Rock, and did a small ceremony to bury the seeds at the four corners of the buffalo wallow. She picked the three most perfect rocks, for her, my wife and I. As she was walking back, she smiled brightly as she found a sprig of sage that was broken off from the root, next to a buffalo hoof print. Funny that she got gifted sage from the earth that was broken off by the very animal she visited the wallow of. It was the perfect ending to our magical journey. From there, we gathered some gifts for our families from a local native gift shop and set our sights on the journey back home.
All of the bison!
The journey home was a bit longer than the drive out, since we were over 300 miles farther west than Standing Rock. It was evening and I just put myself in Road Warrior mode and off we went. I drove all night and had the pleasure of meeting an Iowa State Trooper around 5:00am when he pulled me over. I was not speeding, but had a headlight that had burned out. He was polite and helpful and only gave me a repair ticket to keep me legit as I finished the drive home. It shook me to see the flashing blue lights and I was just a little rattled when he let us go. Stephanie suggests that I stop somewhere and get some rest and after consulting with Lora, we stopped and slept for a few hours. We woke and hit the road to finish the journey. I drove for 17 hours straight and we arrived back home at 9:30am for a trip total of 6,200 miles.
We both will be going back.
Thanks for reading this post! And thank you to those that gave donations 🙂
This post is an at home journeying guide, which will either guide you into your own journeying practice, or deepen the practice you currently have. If you are interested in joining the Shamanic Journey Group at a distance, click here. If you stumbled upon this page because you would like a little extra help framing your journey practice, then feel free to peruse at your own pace. This is a helpful guide that pieces all of the journey topics from the past two years, and compiles them from basics to more advanced.
Beginners
If you are still relatively new to Shamanic Journeying, then I would highly suggest that the first journey that you take is either one that establishes a place of power where you always start off, or to meet a Spirit Guide/Helping Spirit. Whenever learning a new skill (such as journeying), it’s very much like working out a muscle to make it stronger. Some people are innately going to have no problem lifting heavy weights, while some might have to work at it a couple of times in order to produce some results. Remember to not judge the experience of others, and remember that we all have different strengths when it comes to interpreting messages from the other side. Some might be able to hear things better, others might be able to see things, while yet some others tend to just “feel” or “know” that they’re going down through a tree or sitting next to a river. The point about journeying is to be as into the experience as possible. See if you can get as much detail as you can. If you see a waterfall, what does it sound like? What does it taste like? Where are your feet? What type of ground are you stepping on? Do you hear any other things in your environment?
Preparation for:
It is helpful to turn off all electronic devices and either let other people know that you’re doing it so they don’t disturb you, or choose a time when no one else will be home
Call up protection, or set the intention for safety. There are many people who put up sacred space or set up crystal grids so then that way their bodies are protected.
This is a small advisement that some people still don’t know what it’s like to be “fully embodied” and tend not to be fully present. Traditionally in an indigenous culture, they would take their body with them when they journeyed (trance dance states, singing, chanting, etc.), but many individuals in this society have to peel off so many layers just to have an authentic spiritual experience that experimenting in different techniques (such as laying down, sitting, rattling, etc.) would be good to find out what works best for you. This is an experience based skill that is based off of what is best for you. What works for some people might not work for others. The main thing, is to try and stay fully embodied while you travel to the realm of spirit, otherwise if you leave open a space – then that could leave room for another entity to come in. Light some incense, dim the lights, and shake a rattle 🙂
Try to sing, dance, or do something that will get you into the right brain state. The left brain state is about words, communication, and invoking. Leave space for repetition, and conscious trancing. All of these things (especially singing, chanting, and dancing) will help get you into an altered state of consciousness, which typically will mean a deeper journey.
There are some people who lay down when journeying, but I don’t typically recommend this when first starting out. This reminds us of sleeping, and even though there is a such thing as lucid dreaming – that is a different avenue and is very different then shamanic journeying. Get a comfortable chair or if you want to try dancing your journey, put on an eye curtain (piece of fabric that goes on over the eyes so you can’t see ahead, but only where your feet are), and put a hula hoop on the ground so you stay in the confines of the hoop (this is a purely practical thing, so you don’t bump your shins into the coffee table – nothing takes you out of a journey faster then pain).
Don’t forget to grab a journal! It’s always good to have scraps of paper lying around if you don’t have a journal. It’s always fun and interesting to read them later after you have digested the message a little bit. Remember that when coming back from the journey state, short phrases or simple words that will bullet point your journey are best. If you write in full sentences, it put you into the left brain state, and that will take you away from being in the right brain state (which makes journeys harder to remember).
Journeying is a question driven activity. If you do not have a focused intention while going into the realm of spirit, most often our guides will just take us on a wild imaginative ride that might not make sense. Remember to have an intention and to really feel what your question is – other wise your answer will be as non-productive as your question was. It helps to not ask a yes or no answer, because it will not be as open ended and you could potentially trick yourself into hearing something you want to hear.
Great beginning journeying questions:
I would like to meet my entrance to the spiritual world, as well as find my place of power
It always helps to have the same visualization that will bring you over to the realm of Spirit. It will help even more if this starting point is a real place in nature that brings you comfort. Start by finding a small hole or opening, and then imagine yourself going through. You should feel a going up or down sensation, and then you will be transported to your place of power. Explore your place of power, and be as into it as possible. This is where we will be doing a lot of work (if you will be following some of the journey tracks listed below). It tends to be a place we’ve either visited before, or a place that we’ve always dreamed of being (like a beach, lake house, mountain cottage, etc.)
I would like to meet my non-egoic connection to spirit at this time
There are many different types of spirits that we can encounter in the journeying state. It is my belief that we are all born into this world with at least 1 to 2 non-egoic helping spirits. These are the helping spirits that we do not need to feed, we don’t have to hide their identity, and they often change form as we learn and grow as individuals. Non-egoic helping spirits are directly connected to Source/Universe/All that is and only care about our own personal development and teach us to be better humans. I have run across many different individuals that practice different forms of Shamanism, and some might call this aspect a “higher self” version of a spirit guide. But this is a very big difference then working with an egoic spirit. A spirit that has an ego is very much like us humans here on the physical reality. They have their own personalities, their own likes/dislikes, and they definitely have their own opinions. These helping spirits tend to be specialists, and can offer very unique advice that non-egoics sometimes cannot give a clear opinion on (because they only care about character development and see everything as a lesson). There is a benefit to working with both of these types of generic spirits (for example, I primarily work with about 80% egoic spirits, but have 2 constant non-egoic helping spirits that I use to vet everybody else), but the benefit of working with a non-egoic helping spirit is that they cannot be fooled because they are directly connected to source. An egoic spirit can be tricked or lied to, possibly bribed to work against you (hence why some traditional cultures do not share their helping spirits identities). The trick is, that working with non-egoics is more about asking the right questions because they are not as opinionated as an egoic helping spirit. Which is why I have the journey tracks listed below, so that it can be easier to ask non-egoics some of these questions. The reason why “at this time” is added on at the end, because we want to be present about what will be beneficial to us right now. I have had a person get a past guide or a future guide that they are not meant to work with, or have had past debts with, so it made journeying challenging for that particular person. These are just suggestions I offer.
After repeating those journey questions to yourself at least three times, I would then listen to a good drumming track with anywhere between 180-220 beats per minute. Here are some good ones that are out there right now:
Of course there’s shameless self promotion for the journey track that I created. It’s on the sound cloud. But in case you can’t access that or have trouble downloading it:
12 minute track – Has whistling in the beginning to call in protection and the ancestors by Sandra Ingerman
30 minute track – Single and double drumming tracks by Michael Harner
30 minute track – Beautiful Taiko drumming with Nagado drums, Odaiko, and rattles by Sandra Ingerman featuring Taiko Sol
If you would like more information, follow Sandra Ingerman for up to date Shamanic Journeying Basics courses. She is the person who I learned from, and her online training’s work quite well! Sounds True also has a lovely website dedicated to all things Shamanic Journeying. I will also hold a once monthly Shamanic Journeying Basics class with a journey session afterwards so you can try out what you just learned. Sign up for the Newsletter for up to date events.
Intermediate
Alright, so you’ve got the basics down. You have a place of power and you have a guide that’s willing to work with you. What’s next?
The first step is learning about energetic hygiene. What is energetic health? This is where I introduce the concept of the “energy bucket”, and I refer to this quite often. This is meant to be a daily practice, as well as something that is to be maintained whenever life starts to go awry. It can change from moment to moment based off of what is happening to you in the moment. When we get exposed to different triggers, and enter into a reactive state – our bucket can sometimes become a little unstable. There are many things which can change, but remembering to take care of yourself as well as your energy level is crucial/critical to having a good foundation for shamanic journeying. When we have these introspection’s about ourselves, then we can be of better use for those that we help/serve/love.
The energy bucket meditations are guided visualizations that can help, and I also have a link to a journey track that you can listen to at home as well.
These are optional, but are good starters to anyone that is beginning to step onto a more shamanic path. I also digress slightly when I say this – but the purpose of me putting all of this information into one space is not to promote more shamans out there. Shamanic Journeying is a helpful tool that is very valuable. It can be added to any practice, and is not a religion. It’s a way of looking at life, and it is completely okay to have one helping spirit that constantly helps us rather then more “facebook friends” that we don’t really know that well. On that note…
Some good journey questions that come out of this article are:
What does my personal/inter-personal container for transformation look like now?
What does my personal/inter-personal container look like for __(name a particular event you are having difficulty with)____?
What is this particular container supposed to look like?
What is missing from this container so that this transformation can be a powerful one?
Show me the steps to take so that my container for transformation aligns with my path and is healthier for me
Show me an example of a transformation that tried to take place but it backfired instead
Previously Recorded Shamanic Journey Discussions
A helpful suggested journey topic can sometimes help us if we are stuck trying to look for something but don’t know how to articulate it. For about 2-3 years we started recording journey groups and it was a great way for people to participate on their own! In the summer of 2021, we decided to stop recording journey groups because there was an increase in people attending who didn’t want to be recorded. Click here to access the journey group archive.
This is a lot of information, and hopefully this all helps and fits together! If you have any questions, concerns, or are just lost – please feel free to text/call 571.306.3197 (just leave a message, please) or email chenchira@eagletherapies.com
If you have found this page, there is no coincidence that you are on a path of self discovery. Even if that wasn’t your intention, you somehow still wound up finding this page. This post directly deals with the Air as an element, and how we can journey to find out the depth of our relationship with this element. It can be a direct reflection upon us and how we function in this world. We will be going through these journeying topics at the Shamanic Journey Group of Fairfax, however this can also be a “follow along at home” directional for those that wish to take this slowly and in a step-by-step process.
I shall update the table of contents as the blog posts get written.
As we have found out through previous posts, all of the elements are inter-related and interconnected. Through earth, we have cultivated a sense of who we are, why we are here, what we stand for, and why we stand for it. If we don’t cultivate these things first, then we can get very overwhelmed in the element of air. Many people in this society have an excess of the air element. Because the air element represents our mental wisdom body, that means that we can have an abundance of ideas, but lack of follow through. Have you ever heard of the phrase “air head” or thought of the meaning “building castles in the sky”? That is because without the earth quality in balance, we can become very “ungrounded” and can begin to think with fantasy thinking, allowing our brains to run away with us. Air in excess can be manifested physically as anxiety, migraines, and headaches because we are up in our heads all the time. Air in and of itself physically is made up of smaller, less dense molecules then that of earth. The molecules tend to bounce around a lot faster, and sometimes when they are “heated up”, they move at lightning fast speed, bumping into each other and causing all sorts of chaos. Have you ever noticed that when someone gets excited over new ideas they trip over themselves trying to write them all down, but then they burn out before they begin to enact any of the steps? Excited air energy is great and wonderful, but being grounded and methodical is how we begin to plant these seeds that we get from the air. Right relationship with earth helps remind us to take a step back and breathe.
When working with the element of air, it is a direct engagement of Spirit. If we think about it, the first element that we are introduced to as we are born into this world is the element of air. A baby is not marked as fully alive until they “take their first breath”. Air is the element most taken for granted. The same air that we breathe now is the same air that was once breathed by our deceased relatives, animals, as well as ancient beings – including dinosaurs! When we breathe the breath of our ancestors, we can restore ourselves back to the original dream. We commonly engage in ceremony with words and speaking. Air is the energetic driver for taking a particular vow (which most people don’t take seriously anymore because vows are often broken in this society).
The spoken word does have a lot of power, because many words together begin to tell a story. We often tell ourselves stories about ourselves and can portray others and ourselves in a certain light. This is human nature and happens unconsciously. An example of a “story” that we tell ourselves is the story of being “a good husband/wife”, or “being a good daughter/son”. We often get a perception of what is good/bad from the people and community that raise us, so if we grew up in a very dogmatic household – it can be very difficult to unlearn certain behaviors, and we can have trigger reactions when a story that we are telling ourselves is being challenged. For example, if we keep telling ourselves the story of judging our own self worth, it could restrict our decisions. Because we could have a low opinion of ourselves and we see a dream job, we could potentially restrict ourselves from applying to that open job position. The “story” we tell ourselves often comes as a soft whisper that speaks to us like, “Nah, I’m not going to apply for that job. I don’t have the credentials yet”, or “Well, if I apply for the job, I won’t get it anyway”. In the end, that story boils down to our worthiness. Maybe in the past we were told that we couldn’t amount to anything, and over time if things like that keep being told to us – we believe it. When we begin cultivating a healthy relationship with element of air, we begin to challenge these stories and ask if they are grounded in reality, or based in fantasy thinking.
There is a difference between doubt and critical thinking. Doubt is paralyzing, we lose our sense of connection and we only focus on what is wrong. With critical thinking, we are finding what is valuable in the situation and come at the situation from an open place of curiosity and discovery. When you follow the lead of critical thinking versus doubt, you can begin to discern the difference between delusion and imagination, and then begin to make progress forward on how you can move forward with the resources available to you now and in this moment. With a healthy relationship with air, we can begin to cultivate the qualities of truth telling. How often do we lie to ourselves when we think we can accomplish some grandiose task but don’t realize how much energy we really have in the moment? How often do we overstretch ourselves because of the dreams of others and their projection of how we fit into the picture? How often do we lose our sense of boundaries because we really just want the approval of others and try to make ourselves fit into their dream instead of dreaming our own dream? This is where we begin cultivating a proper relationship with air – by asking ourselves these questions. Many times when a person first journeys to find out their relationship with air, they will either find out that they can’t breathe, or that the air is filled with a thick smog. A healthy relationship with air is one that is crystal clear – like unpolluted mountain air.
Within this same vein, there is a difference between stagnation and suffocation. With earth, things feel very heavy – almost as if you can’t move. This is stagnation, when things are unmoving or you are too unwilling to let go of your own beliefs. With suffocation, you are living in something that is dead. Have your dreams died? Have you lost sense of what your dreams once were? When you feel suffocation, it is because we lose our sense of hope, or we drift away from the things that are aligned with our true path. This often leads to fast paced moving thoughts because we keep “spinning our wheels”. When we connect back to our dreams and our passions, that is how we can “breathe life” into a particular situation – by bringing in new ideas from our mental wisdom body and being able to discern which ideas will really be able to take off with the resources we have available (earth based realization). By flowing into this relationship between air and earth, we must realize the choices that we are making. Every time we say yes to something, we are also saying no to at least 10 other things. Earth can help us realize what is important to us, and how to prioritize, while air can help inspire us to take care of the situations we already have growing. We can ask vital questions such as:
By doing this particular action, what am I feeding?
What possible actions can I take in this situation that help feed what drives me?
How is this aligned with my path and does this stray from who I am?
Show me with clarity the choices I have available to me that I can reasonably accomplish
The element of air is very strongly connected to the element of truth telling. Truth can be a double edged sword in the fact that is can cut both ways. The hurt comes in the fact that it cuts, and the wound can hurt very deeply when we find out a truth. However, the blessing is that it’s a clean cut and it heals faster. How many times have we been fed lies, and the lies feed a blister or an abscess that just keeps growing. Many times people try to ignore the sore spot, lying to themselves that this abscess is not really forming underneath the surface. Doesn’t a clean poke hurt in the beginning but drain the abscess, leading to wellness? How many times have we allowed the abscess to pop because we didn’t realize/ignored that it was there. After it bursts on it’s own, note the length of time it takes to heal as opposed to when it was cleanly cut. This is a metaphor of a healthy relationship with air, and being able to have the wisdom of asking what the “spiritual antibiotics” are so that we continue to not get sick from our choices. When we cut with the sword of truth, it can help breathe life into things that were once dead. It can hurt at first, but it helps with the awareness and healing of it in the long run.
To help cultivate a strong relationship with air, we need to focus on truth telling and find out where we are lying to ourselves. Once we have this sense of awareness about the reality of a situation and begin to move from fantasy thinking (imagining that we are some place instead of actually realizing the state we are in) into a grounded sense of who we are, what we are, and the resources we have available – we become so much more productive in this world. This in turn helps us become more grounded and more efficient in fulfilling our lifes purpose. When our mind and heart move through with intention, we can begin to discern where it is we are really going. By cultivating a place to stand with earth, we can step up and grab some of these ideas from the mental wisdom body. It has no power unless we ground it in physical reality.
As with any archetype, the shadow of air is the tornado (if you are confused at what the shadow is and what it represents, scroll down to the bottom of the earth post). The job of the tornado is to dismantle. Perhaps a new perspective is needed because it’s being encumbered by your limitations, expectations, and views. Because of some of the stories we tell ourselves, we can lead ourselves into set patterns of thinking, and sometimes these thoughts swirl in our head so fast that we can challenge ourselves to question our ability to think. When we have such a strong degree of suffocation where we feel like we have no hope in a given situation, we might need a tornado to come in to “wake us up”. What are you feeding? What are you giving life too? How can we be thankful when a new perspective brings to light a huge story that we tell ourselves in regards to how connected we feel to other people, as well as how worthy we are to receive something. Remember that a shadow is neither good nor bad. It is a natural disaster that can have the positive aspects of wisdom once we clear out the debris/rubble.
Some journey questions we can ask ourselves based off of this article:
What is the quality of my relationship to the air element?
What shape is my mental wisdom body in?
Is there a particular area of my life that is suffocating right now?
Show me an aspect of my life that is in excess, and how do I calm this down?
Show me what right relationship with the air element looks like
If you are an auditory person and would like to listen to these same ideas in a podcast, feel free to listen to it on the Why Shamanism Now podcast.
If you have found this page, there is no coincidence that you are on a path of self discovery. Even if that wasn’t your intention, you somehow still wound up finding this page. This page is the unfolding of a path to explore the metaphor of a four element system. This post directly deals with the Earth as an element, and how we can journey to find out the depth of our relationship with this element. It can be a direct reflection upon us and how we function in this world. We will be going through these journeying topics at the Shamanic Journey Group of Fairfax, however this can also be a “follow along at home” directional for those that wish to take this slowly and in a step-by-step process.
I shall update the table of contents as the blog posts get written.
Earth is the first element we start off with, because there is a need to be grounded and centered in this world. Our needs of the physical body can be symbolically represented by the element of earth in this four element system. My teachings are based off of the four basic wisdom bodies. In this series, Earth represents the physical body, Air represents the mental body, Fire represents the spiritual body, and Water represents the emotional body. Before we can venture into any of the other bodies, we must take care of the vessel. We cannot venture into the spiritual or emotional bodies with a clear mind if we are sleep deprived, malnutritioned, or in a state of panic/worrying about our safety. This is why the most logical approach at a healthy start is through the earth element. When following a true path of shamanism, it is about the depth of relationship. Lots of people have superficial relationships with people, nature, and most often themselves. People that have a good relationship with the element of earth tend to be people that feel secure with who they are and bring a sense of belonging with them. Have you been around a person who just feels “solid” as compared to a person who is scattered, or doesn’t really feel like they belong? A person can feel rooted in one particular area of their life, but then when they get moved out of that environment of safety, their “stability” can change (having social awkwardness, not good at public speaking, etc.) and they can become fidgety, nervous, and not be as interactive as they once were in their “safe zone”. Meanwhile a person with a strong earth element can bring this sense of “home” or safety with them, emanating it. Others who feel less secure can gravitate towards this type of person with a strong earth element. The thing is, very similar to the earth, our relationship with the earth element can grow. Things that we were once uncomfortable with, we can explore and “grow into” liking. Very similar to how a plant takes time to grow, we ourselves can grow into a different person, changing our comfort level as time goes on.
Technically speaking, there are two different “earth” energies. One is earth as an essence energy, and the other is spirit of the earth as a planet. Most indigenous cultures have words that distinguish the difference between the two, but in the English language we have one word that represents both. This is why some make the distinction and say “Mother Earth”, “Pachamama”, or “Gaia”. For the simplicity of this series, we will mostly be talking about the earth element, and I will emphasize the spirit of earth with a capital E. The earth element represents cleansing, grounding, centering, and a sense of belonging. It can help restore connection and interconnectedness. It is the element that we go to for restoration and rejuvenation. The Earth as a planet is an archetypal energy that can be reflected through many different avenues (most common ones are Goddesses or consciousnesses such as Pachamama or Gaia), but an archetype is the energy that is behind a Goddess. The Earth represents the wisdom that comes from the spirit of the Earth. We go back to the Earth for restoration, it can be the driver of a slow transformation (as compared to fire, which is a quick type of transformation).
There are two different sides to each coin. A healthy relationship with earth looks like what we have listed above. Someone who feels secure with themselves, their choices, and their decisions. They know their place in the great web of life, and are grounded/centered individuals. There can be “too much” of a good thing, and earth in excess can appear depressive, stagnant, too heavy, slowing down/unmoving, feeling like you’re not going anywhere, or having a low self esteem. There could also be a time where there is a feeling of betrayal, as if we had an idea of what our life/life’s purpose was – but then we got “dropped” from the big web of life. This is usually an act/event that breaks trust within the person. Broken trust makes us feel like we are unstable and on “shaky ground”, so doing something that helps re-establish a right relationship with earth can be helpful in bringing us back on track.
What are some ways to work with the earth? It is definitely helpful to have a “hands on” approach with this, because the earth element is about our physical body. It’s great to receive messages from spirit, but the main thing the earth element teaches – is how do we ground these visions we see into reality? There is a tendency in this westernized contemporary culture to “overthink” things, spending way too much time in the mental realm instead of the physical realm. This is why we have predispositions to anxiety and fast racing thoughts. When we learn to slow down and take a walk through nature, we can learn to appreciate our physical body and recharge. For those that need a refresher on energetic health and recognizing when we need to focus on our relationship with earth, please read the Energetic Bucket metaphor. When we feel that we are feeling “drained” or our energy is running low, sometimes replenishing ourselves by eating some comfort food, getting a good nights rest, or simply taking a walk outside in nature can help to “refill our bucket”. It’s good practice to feel the earth on our skin. When was the last time you sang? When was the last time you danced? Getting into our bodies is the first step into getting us our of our heads. For some that have trouble with the earth as an element, taking up gardening or finding a nice park to sit in could be helpful things to help restore our connection to this element. We often go to the Earth to listen for the heart beat and to synchronize with a bigger picture, and feel connected to something larger then ourselves. Restore that sense of awe and bring gratitude back into our daily practice. The Earth carries an innate wisdom to be whole, as well as how to heal. If we are having trouble with a particular sore spot, or wound (whether emotionally, physically, mentally, or spiritually), we can go to the wisdom of the earth to help correct this balance.
When we begin to work with earth as an element, we begin to talk about our boundaries and our sovereignty. Sovereignty is having a healthy relationship with our ego, making sure not to dip into arrogance, but having a firm knowledge that we are in control of ourselves and establishing dominion with our choices. Most people who are operating on “auto-pilot” tend to not be aware of their own actions and their impact on others. For those raised in a dogmatic household, perhaps we have been taught from a young age that it’s bad if we stand up for ourselves, and things are “wrong” if we do them a certain way. We could have a past history of abuse and have had our trust broken so many times that we don’t know how to begin to open up. Perhaps we might have a lot of clearing work to do before we can actually get down to the real working relationship of earth. With a more balanced earth element, we can set our own rules, and take up responsibility for our actions. We must be willing to take up space. For those with a spotty relationship with earth, they will often find themselves shrinking when they are not sure of themselves.
When working with the element of earth, we ask ourselves these basic questions:
Why am I here?
Where do I stand?
What do I stand for?
How do I gain confidence in these aspects?
The healthiest aspect of being in a working relationship with earth is carrying your sense of belonging with you. This cultivates Presence. There is a difference between engagement (which is chatter) and presence (going deeper). Many people can talk a big talk, but what is the solidarity behind their words? What actions do they take in the real world which back up what they are saying? A person with a healthy relationship with earth will be able to say something, and then follow through with it. We must remember to be nomadic, and bring this sense of presence with us. Where have we been laying double standards? Where we get upset at someone for doing something when we do it ourselves? Maybe deep down we are really upset at ourselves because we keep performing an action that we resent ourselves for and instead are projecting our upset onto someone else. It’s easier to see the sickness in others rather then ourselves.
Whenever there is a light, there is always going to be a shadow that is cast. For every aspect that we will talk about in this four element system, we will also briefly explore the shadow aspect. The shadow is not a bad thing, however many people put a negative connotation on it because of this societies fear of death and polarization (good vs. evil mentality). In an indigenous culture or true shamanic path, there is no such thing as good or evil, everything is perceived of as a lesson. This polarization is a relatively new concept which indicates that anything that has “darkness” is bad. The shadow (the term coined by Carl Jung, one of the major influences of modern Psychology) is originally supposed to be an archetype that represents a respite, a break because of a challenge/trauma. Now-a-days, the shadow is pretty much a closet that we shove repressed aspects of ourselves in because it’s been viewed as “bad” or “not fitting in”. We still have access to these parts of ourselves, but they come out in “shadow patterns” or archetypes. The shadow of earth is represented by an earthquake. Again, this innately is not a “good” thing or a “bad” thing, because the earthquake represents a time in our life where we need to be reminded of our bare bones of who we are. Many times when there is an earthquake, our relationship with earth has become so shaky that the shaking energy has the ability to bring us back home again. If we have created a life built on an illusion of what we believe we are supposed to do in this world, an earthquake can be extremely detrimental because we realize that underneath we don’t have the best foundation. For those that have a healthy relationship with earth, an earthquake will just reinforce the “support structures” of our life, and realize how unshakable we really are.
Abundance is not dropped from on high, it is cultivated from the earth. Don’t forget to look down at your foundation. Who are you? Why are you here? What do you stand for and why do you stand for it? If you journey, it is an activity that is question driven. Some good journey questions to ask for the element of earth are:
What does my relationship with earth look like?
If your relationship is not what you had originally envisioned, you can then ask:
What does a healthy relationship with earth look like for me?
If it’s still something that makes you uncomfortable, the next journey question should be:
How do I bridge the gap? What are the next steps for me to take to create a healthier relationship with earth?
Hopefully these questions will begin to help kick start you on the path of finding your stability and relationship with your own inner world. For those that tend to be more auditory learners, feel free to listen to this helpful 45 minute podcast from Why Shamanism Now about Earth.
Any questions, concerns, or generalized comments, please feel free to call/text 571.306.3197 or email info@eagletherapies.com
As many know, there is a situation that is brewing out West that has been going on for quite some time. For others who haven’t read it, I have posted why I believe so much in the Standing Rock movement in this previous post. This is an expansion of that, because I have taken up training with an individual that was largely based out of Standing Rock. I started working with her in January, and since then she has passed away – but other indigenous teachers have stepped up in my training process. This post is made in honor of her memory (Hail the traveler, Buffalo Woman), and a promise to myself as well as her, that I would make it out to Standing Rock.
Please have it be known that I do not go out there for glory, or for the fact that I’m a half white woman who is “Playing Indian”. Over the past few months as my love for these people has deepened, I see the struggle they go through because of Indigenous rights. I have become immersed in Shamanic training for the past few years of my life, and my studies have lead me deeper in the paths surrounding Native American culture. The religious intolerance that is growing in this country can be appalling, but I choose to focus on the beautiful people in my circles who cannot fathom such things. I cannot lie to myself and tell myself that these topics are not real, but I can certainly press forward knowing they exist, knowing that there is much resistance to the amount of love that is growing.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” C.G. Jung
One of the reasons why I love the Standing Rock community is because it has started a movement. No, this is definitely not the only oil pipeline that is happening in the United States of America – but what this has done has shown that through peaceful protesting, we can accomplish so much. Because of Standing Rock and other similar movements, there has been a ripple effect where people are looking into the pipelines that have been proposed in their own backyards and fighting them. What this movement has also done, is raise awareness for why we need to preserve what we have for our future generation. Water Is Life, and it has been proven that oil pipelines leak. For example, less then 150 miles away from the Standing Rock reservation, a pipeline leaked 176,000 gallons of oil. As another news flash, the city of Flint, Michigan still does not have clean water. Do we want a future similar to Flint, Michigan to be popping up all over the United States, where they have been battling for clean water since 2007 where they began suspecting sewage spills and industrial waste were contaminating city water supplies? With Donald Trump lifting the EPA regulations, it has been allowing certain companies to dump their waste into rivers, creating more problematic situations that will soon be affecting more rural cities/towns. THIS is why I stand with Standing Rock, because this isn’t right, and I pray for a future where my son can drink clean water from the tap without fear of it being contaminated.
What most people don’t know is that the Native Americans have stood for the rights of the land because there is this stewardship that is born of a people who have lived off of the land for so many generations. There is a sense of pride, and a belief that the Earth is alive. The Sioux tribe and the rest of the Native American tribes that have gathered in North Dakota have been in constant prayer and ceremony since the beginning of this movement. This peaceful protest and the constant prayer that was going on at Standing Rock have been consistent and running 24 hours a day – because prayer is powerful. If you don’t believe me, look at how much attention this movement has gathered. There have been no guns used by the Water Protectors, and the only things they are armed with are bundles of sage as they clear out the negativity thrown on them by the opposing forces. At this current time, prayer at Camp is currently paused (but not stopped), because there was a forced evacuation by North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum on February 22nd, 2017. During that time a total of 47 arrests happened, including one of Grandmother Regina Brave. Please listen to the wise words from this elder. We could stand to learn something from the elders who have walked before us and lead us during this chaotic time. From the words of Ladonna Tamakawastewin Allard, the Sacred Fire that has been burning at Standing Rock is not out. The fight is not over, and the fire still burns.
It is because of all of the above that I choose to go to Standing Rock. There are many personal reasons why I want to go, but my heart is firm in wanting to support a movement this large. I am traveling with a dear and loved friend by vehicle, and we would appreciate donations for gas money and food (as some who have been following me know that I have life threatening food allergies and carry an epipen with me). No, I don’t have a 401-C, but many people who I have told my story to want to support Standing Rock in some way, and they want to support individuals going out instead of just sending money to a random charity. If this is your choice, then may I humbly ask that you support us as we choose to help rebuild this camp so that this can be a more sustainable protest. We will be participating in ceremony over there, and listening to the elders. We are bringing our own supplies so we are not a burden on the community, but instead helping contribute in a way that is healthy.
As one of my teachers have said on many occasions – if the Standing Rock movement has moved you in any way, please allow that movement to be mediated from the heart and do something in this world that is a direct reflection of that movement. If you feel impassioned by the oppression of the Indigenous people and you want to help support, or if you feel passionate about protecting/conserving the water for our future generation, then please support by sending prayers, donating gas funds, or donating supplies that we can take over to camp as we help to rebuild. Even $5 helps.
My son at the #NoDAPL protest in Washington, DC. He’s my reason.
All Eagle Therapies events are run off of donations, but donations made to this paypal will go directly toward supporting Standing Rock and rebuilding a more sustainable protest.
There is an interesting thing that happens when one is faced with their own mortality. Many people talk about a moment when time stands still. I’ve been arguing with myself about writing this, but I’ve decided to go ahead and write about what happened and share it, and the message, with the general public.
It was a Saturday and I was driving to Washington DC to meet some of my friends at a conference. I had decided to grab some shrimp from a birthday party earlier that day. I had no idea I was allergic to shrimp, because I have eaten shrimp without a problem in the past.
Well, half a pound of shrimp and thirty minutes later, I’m walking down the street and feel the beginnings of hives. This was different than a “normal” outbreak of hives (I have several food allergies and unfortunately hives are a way of living for me) and grasped the severity of it when I felt my face swelling. I was 2 blocks away, and turned back to go to Union Station. By the time I walked hurriedly to Walgreens to get some benadryl, my hands, feet, arms, legs, and face all felt swollen. My eyes were beginning to swell shut and I felt the onset of tinnitus. 15 minutes had elapsed.
Upon entering, I looked at the cash register person and announced, “This is a medical emergency, where is your benadryl?”
The man at the counter looked up and stuttered, it was obvious by his reaction that my face was visibly swollen. He pointed me in the direction of the “back” and simply said “Along the wall, I’ll be there to help you in a moment.”
On my way to the back, as I rushed – I walked up to a group of three employees. I announced the same thing, “This is a medical emergency. I need benadryl. Where’s your benadryl?”
One kind gentleman brought me exactly to the wall where I needed to be, and I grabbed the first box that I saw. By the time I got up to the front of the store, I collapsed. I shakily got out my wallet and threw my credit card at the cash register man, asking for a bottle of water while on the floor. By the time they handed it all back to me, I was shaking so bad and my hands were so swollen that it was hard to open the packages. I somehow managed to do it and got 3 pills down with a whole bottle of water.
That’s when I noticed it was difficult to swallow.
I vocalized this to the people standing around, and this was where my senses started getting hazy. The manager walked by and informed me that she called the ambulance and the Union Station medic. By the time the medic got to me, I still had the ability to speak and gave him my information. I shakily handed him my driver’s license and let him know my age, address, and phone number. It was at this time when my sight started to waiver.
When the paramedics arrived on scene, that’s when my body started becoming limp. I couldn’t really see anything, because at this point I went physically blind. I forced myself to breathe and stay in my body, because I noticed that it was easy for me to not be present. I felt this calm sense of urgency surging through my blood to be present, and I took it one breath at a time.
When my vision went completely black, it was strange because I could still “see”. I couldn’t really see around me, but my senses were heightened in a way. I began to see energy. It was at this time when a great Buffalo Spirit came to stand beside me. I felt the energy shift at the presence.
The buffalo spoke and said, “You have two options. You can either stay here, or you can come with me.”
I knew deep down in my core the ultimatum he presented to me. My first thoughts were of my son. The second were of all of the work I had yet to do in this lifetime. I mentally told him a firm no and instead focused hard on staying in my body and breathing.
It was hard to breathe, it felt like breathing through a straw. I knew that I shouldn’t panic, because if I did, that would make the air not come. Slow, even, controlled breathing, like in my sitting practices…even though I was dying.
That was when I heard one of the medics say my blood pressure wasn’t reading. I remembered one of them saying they couldn’t feel a pulse. I remembered the high pitched hum of a defibrillator firing up. I remember someone shouting, “Ma’am, stay with us.” I know it might sound odd, but I could have swore I heard a medic “think”, “I don’t think the epinephrine is working, we might have given it too late.”
Still breathing, the only thoughts in my mind were of my son, and the beautiful world that I still had show to him. I had to stay. I forced myself to breathe. I couldn’t leave him.
This was when the Buffalo spirit nodded.
At that exact moment, I started coming back to life and vomited all of the shrimp in my stomach. I vomited for a good 5 minutes, and then that’s when I began to have seizures/tremors from the epinephrine. I remember being paralyzed and cognizant of what was happening, but not being able to speak or move voluntarily. I was so cold. It was terrifying with that lack of control, but at the same time, I was just so in the moment, that I couldn’t think of anything else. Nothing else runs through your mind when you’re in that state.
When I came too, the only thing I could think of was to apologize to the nice Walgreens employees who had to clean up the vomit on their floor. They kept telling me, “It’s okay ma’am.”
Eventually, after the tremors had eased to the point of me being able to speak and move of my own accord, the paramedics helped me stand and get to the stretcher. That was when I noticed the IV line in my arm, and one of them had reported my blood pressure being close to 50/30. Hey, that was an improvement from not having one at all.
Since I was coming out of it, I decided to grab my phone and begin calling/texting all of the people who I was supposed to be meeting that evening, as well as inform my housemate and the one watching my child. I was told it was quite comical to see a woman who was pale as a sheet from anaphylaxis on a cell phone, while holding up her own fluid bag as two paramedics wheeled her through Union Station on a stretcher.
I couldn’t stop shaking, and the tremors continued for two and a half hours. My fingernails were blue, and my blood pressure was still pretty low. The details of my escapades aren’t really that poignant for me to explain, but I do wish to express the spiritual type of experience that one walks away with from something like this. Yes, the experience was something simple and mundane (eating shrimp) – but it almost cost me my life. Why did I choose to bring up the Buffalo in this post when I could have just as easily left it out? Because to me, the Buffalo represents a choice, and represents a power that everyone has access to.
As most know from the topic of my website, as well as my business, that I am a Shamanic practitioner and energy worker. Most know that my descriptions of events and presentation are going to have a more “spiritual” aspect to things. I host a bi-weekly Shamanic Journey Group and frequently introduce the concepts of Helping Spirits/Guides to people – because we don’t need to have a near death experience in order to have a connection to one of them. The Buffalo that came to me was not an average helping spirit that one would journey and find on first encounter. The Buffalo stood for, and represented, a connection to a greater purpose.
Malidoma Patrice Some is a wonderful Shaman of the Dagara tradition. He explains this concept beautifully, where everyone carries a certain “responsibility” with them by just existing. If a person is alive, they take resources to live. They require food, water, shelter, etc. If a person were to appreciate what they have, then they would have gratitude and know that in order to live, it takes resources. Life doesn’t freely give without any expectation of not getting anything back. There is a sacred giving and receiving, and an awareness that you are a part of a greater whole, a greater collective. If you take resources from the great web of life – that means you must give back. In the Dagara tradition, the way you give back to the great web of life is by living your life’s purpose, or living your own unique genius. I’ve talked about this before in previous posts, and on the main page of my website. I believe that we were all born into this world for a reason. Your unique set of gifts, experiences, and the way you live your life right here and right now are a type of medicine. It’s something that you bring to this world that no one else can offer. Most people choose to not see themselves as a gift, and most people avoid stepping into their power – choosing to give their power over to someone else. It is this lack of responsibility and hoping that someone is going to come along and “save them” that gets them into trouble. We lack good leadership in this culture because we are projecting our leadership on those in “positions of power”, instead of finding the leadership where it really needs to stem from. Within ourselves.
What most people don’t realize is that they are holding themselves back when they do this. When we expect other people to do the work for us, or when we don’t think that we could do the work ourselves, we cheat ourselves into superficiality. We take the “easy” way out. We were born into this life for a reason, and I believe that the purpose we have as we live our lives, is to really awaken into who we are. To be the Medicine that we came here to be.
There are three stages to becoming the medicine you really are in this world. When we first learn to pick up our medicine, it acts as a poison in our life. This is what is meant when we are “toxic”, or when people express an “ickyness” when interacting with a person. It’s because they’re spewing energetically out of a wound, and that manifests as unhealthy reactions and relationships. It’s not until we stop pushing away this “poison” and allow this poison to truly transform us. There are many people who take a spiritual by-pass to this work and say something along the lines of, “Just send love and light” without diving deep into what is driving us to act this way. It’s not until we stop and really evaluate why things are happening, and why patterns keep repeating – that we are able to come to a full understanding of an unhealthy/destructive pattern we have.
When we allow the poison to truly touch us – we are transformed. Through this transformation, we are changed and we can’t fathom being the same person that we were before. It it through this, that we touch the poison as this transformed “antidote”. This is the transformation of poison into medicine through our own direct revelation. This is the second stage.
The third and last stage is taking that medicine, picking it up, and bringing it out into the world. If we have done the work to transform ourselves and transform our poison – it’s now considered our job and our responsibility to bring that medicine out into the world to help other people.
In an indigenous culture, it would be an abuse of power to not pick up your medicine, or step into your power – when we deny ourselves what we have worked so hard to achieve. Most people don’t realize the toxic behavior they do have, and they sit there waiting for someone else to save them, destroying themselves and their relationships in the meantime.
Wake up. Realize you have the ability to do something. Every process begins within. When something upsets you in your environment, take the time to see why it really upset you. Dive into your own wounds and see what makes you tick. Who knows, maybe what really hurts you inside is a gift that’s waiting to be surfaced and you just need to wade through the poison and allow yourself to change so you can be the medicine this world needs.
All I know is that I walked out of that Emergency room a changed person. I realized that I had a lot more things in this life to live for, and at any moment it could be taken away from me. I was lucky enough to be given a choice to stay or go. It would have been so easy to have been selfish, to have looked at everything that I don’t have in this life, to look at my struggles and just have easily gone to go with Buffalo. But you know what? I chose to stay. I chose to be the medicine, because my son needs me in this world. Maybe he doesn’t know it right now, but I chose to stay for him and his generation. The ones that are just learning how to walk and talk need us here, and they need us to be fully awake and aware. We damage others when we are not aware of our actions and spread toxicity in this world.
Everyone was born into this life for a reason. The earth is in need of medicine. You are the medicine. And I am the medicine. We all are the medicine. And the earth is going to pull this medicine out of us no matter what state we are in.
Winter is typically a time to go within and to rest, reflecting the Earth and how it gets covered by a blanket of snow. As we enter into the spring in the Northern Hemisphere, there is a tendency to emphasize a theme that leans toward planting seeds and beginning to emerge from the slumber that is winter. As we unfold and begin to awaken, the Journey group shall reflect upon basic foundational understandings and go back to the simplicity that is the elements. We did this in 2016, and you read the summary post from last year here.
What are the elements? How do we relate to them? Can we harness the wisdom inherent in them to find deeper meaning within ourselves and others?
There are many cosmologies out there that deal with the foundations of the elemental systems. They span anywhere from a three element system, to a seven element system (sometimes even more). They are akin to an operating system on a computer, and each works better for different individuals and for different purposes. There’s nothing wrong with preferring a Mac over a PC, or vice versa. The problem that we encounter most, is that a lot of people are running on autopilot, not aware of how they operate on a foundational level. All of these systems are correct in their own way, and the purpose of these journey groups is to find out what your personal foundation is, and to create/maintain an operating system that is right for you.
I will be introducing these concepts from a four element perspective because that is what I am most comfortable with. I do not want the individuals attending to limit themselves to condensing to my viewpoint of how I see things. For the pace of this Journey Group, it would be helpful if you did minimal research on how to journey so you can join along in conversation so we don’t have to back track on what exactly journeying is. If you follow one of the other numbered element systems, feel free to read through these blog posts and take what you need. Come to the groups and share your knowledge. Find the hidden gems to deepen your own practice. All paths are welcome, and I encourage others with different viewpoints to come. It brings diversity and a clarity of shared vision to the whole.
If we go back to the elements, we go back to the simple nature of the way things used to be before humans even arrived. Human beings have this tendency to add layers of complexity. We can find a lot of deep and meaningful teachings in nature, because Nature is one of the first teachers that we, as human beings, learned from. The elements are the core basics of everything that exists on this planet, and every material has reflections of these elements. Sandra Ingerman always says that the Microcosm of our Universe (within us) reflects the Macrocosm of the Universe (outside us), and vice versa.
So how do we take these elements and apply them to our lives? It’s not going to be in the literal sense that we find these answers, but the metaphoric. Surely we are in human bodies, so how can we find earth or fire in us? When we journey to our helping spirits, they will speak with us in metaphor. It’s rare that they’ll speak directly in English or our native tongue. Most of the time they give us thoughts, feelings, or images. It’s when we work with them that we begin to develop this symbology of how they speak with us.
How are we able to assess our stability, the ground we walk on, and do we have enough to feed and nourish ourselves? This is our sense of earth, and asking the element of earth is akin to asking our physical body (because our body is manifest) what exactly it needs. Earth helps us answer our basic needs, self care, as well as our stand in the world. This is how we define who we are, what we stand for, and why we stand for it. If our ground is unstable, and cracked – that can represent that we don’t feel secure with ourselves or feel like we’re living two different lives. Our mind might say one thing, but our heart says another, and in that, we can create shifting sand or something that may seem stable at first, but as soon as you put any pressure, you start sinking down and find that it’s mud.
When we take a look at our mental capacity and sometimes find that our thought swirl too fast in our head, we feel stuck in being able to see what is coming, can’t come up with new ideas or even having too many ideas which can lead to planning our next day instead of sleeping – this could be an out of balance relationship with air. Air represents our mental body, the strength of relationship we have with our minds. Lots of people in this society tend to be overactive and over-stress our mental bodies. This can lead to actions without a lot of thought, as well as doing things on “autopilot” because we’re constantly thinking of the next step instead of enjoying what’s in front of us. Sometimes it could feel like we are suffocating, or it feels like the air isn’t moving terribly well. If we get to our inner world and we find that there’s a metallic taste to the air, or there’s smog that makes us cough – it’s a metaphor that our minds/mental body is not as clear as it could be. We could be feeling “foggy” or we might not be thinking as clearly.
When sometimes it feels like our motivation is waning, we don’t feel like getting ourselves out of bed, or it’s the opposite and we are too emotional, too creative, too expressive, over share, and get really enthusiastic about a project but then fizzle halfway through – this could be an out of balance relationship with fire. Fire tends to be our energy production/level, as well as our connection to Spirit. When it’s out of balance, it can burn out of control, or feel like we’ve got nothing left to give. A fire that burns very hot takes a lot of energy and resources to keep going. If you enter into journey space and you see that there’s a fire that’s burning so fiercely it’s consuming things without control, then are you the type of person that tends to go off of whim and whatever good feeling you have? When you crash, do you find yourself feeding yourself caffeine or sugar in order to help cope? A fire that is forced is generally not going to be using all of the resources it has to it’s fullest potential. Do you see a path that the fire has burned, or does it have a stable place to burn and you are wise about what you feed it? If a fire is generally low, then that could mean we need to think about self care and how we are feeding ourselves spiritually. Are you giving too much to your relationships and not to yourself? These are all questions when we go to the fire.
Water represents our emotional body. It is our relationship with our emotions and the expressions of them. Emotions are not meant to rule us, they are meant to be flags for knowing if we are on the right track, or if we have a boundary violation. Western contemporary culture tends to flip flop on two extremes – either emotional indulgence or a shutting down of emotions. With a tendency for shutting down, we might be playing in the “shallow end” of the pool, or hanging out near the beach where if we fall down, we don’t have far to fall. We don’t have to swim. We can still get back up. In this, we don’t have to risk getting hurt by drowning, or have the fear of getting caught out in the rip tide. If we are too emotionally indulgent, do we happen to be swimming constantly? Diving in, even when we know we are not the best swimmer? The point of our emotions is not to get lost in them and have them control/power our actions – we are supposed to use them to float on top and to carry us to our deeper meaning experiences. To be present in the moment, and figure out how we feel in the moment. How deep of a person are you? Do you ride the wave, or do you allow the wave to ride you?
Now that we have briefly explored the elements, the next layer is how we view their relationships with each other. If there is too much water, then our fire cannot burn bright. If we have too much air (ideas and inspiration), our fire can burn out of control. If there is too much water (emotions) in our earth, then our stability gets muddy, and we begin to sink when we stand up for ourselves and our beliefs. This concept is known as complimentary dualism. In a lot of Eastern Traditions, it’s best explained as yin and yang. Yin is a word used to describe the inner aspect, while yang represents the outer. Everything has a yin and yang aspect. When there is too much yin energy present, that leads to a stagnation. If there is too much yang energy, that leads to a depletion. When looking at the elements in this four element system we will be exploring, the elements that represent more of a yin quality are water and earth. These are the elements that are restorative, that which we lean into when we feel tired or exhausted. They are replenishing, refreshing, and rejuvenating. The yang elements are represented by the fire and air. We typically go to these elements to carry out certain actions, or to be viewed by other people in a larger setting. They are how we interact with each other (one of the main archetypes that air typically brings is communication). Fire is interesting because it’s an element that requires the other elements to even be initiated. The environment has to be right, and the right potential for combustion needs to be present. Fire needs to constantly be fed, and all of the other elements need to be in balance for a fire to be more properly utilized – otherwise it burns out of control and causes chaos, or it is suffocated and cannot burn.
Having a more shamanic view of life is also about relationship, and if we view these relationships with our elements and assess the quality of them – it can provide a tremendous amount of introspection that can be transforming. Sometimes, being able to work with a metaphor can help us figure out what we need to do, in order to clear the pollution we find in them. Once we see the state that something is in, we can ask our guide what the next step is to create a healthier relationship with that aspect of ourselves. This is the gift of journeying – to be a powerful tool to help us see the imbalances and apply them in our life so we can learn to be in good relationship with the world around us. It all starts with our relationship with our self, and being honest with our self.
For a deeper look and practical application on how we can begin to work with these concepts, let’s explore each element individually:
For those that tend to be auditory learners, the inspiration behind this series of posts are a grouping of podcasts from Why Shamanism Now. Feel free to listen to the originals listed here: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Each podcast is about 45-50 minutes long.
For the past couple of months, we have been working with elements in the journey group outline. Now we continue that journey with fire! The rest will be as follows on this big medicine wheel we will be taking a dive into 😉
Fire is one of those elements that requires the right balance in order to burn in a way that is healthy. Previously in other blog posts, we have discussed that Earth represents our physical body, Air represents our mental body, water represents our emotional body, and fire is the pivot point of all of these elements – representing our spiritual body. Our Western Contemporary culture doesn’t value (or in the past has not valued) our spiritual body. We do things that go against our integrity all the time: not fully being “present” and in the moment, falling back on what we said we were going to do, not being realistic about our expectations and overestimating the energy that we have left before we commit to a task, etc. In order for our metaphorical fire to burn well, the other three elements have to be in balance.
Event listings for Eagle Therapies:By the time we arrived, Stephanie was very nervous about meeting a medicine man of such power. She felt him miles out from our destination, and was more reserved then what she normally is. It was a lovely meeting that turned into a deepening kinship between people of a shared purpose. It’s hard to describe, but there’s something special about recognizing who your family members are, and realizing that we are all apart of the same tribe. Once Stephanie got her drum out from the car, the medicine man did an impromptu drum blessing for her newly painted drum. She was moved to tears and couldn’t speak for a little, and we continued conversation – all of us respecting the sacred nature of what had been unfolded before us. There was a lag in conversation when the medicine man turned to look at Stephanie as she held her twice blessed drum, and asked, “So are you going to sing?” Again she was taken aback, but obliged anyway. They asked if they could record her song by video, and she happily responded with a yes. It was another magical moment of a blessing exchange (because the song Stephanie sang was a blessing for the Earth). After her song and in between the discussion, I noticed that Gilly (medicine man) kept moving rather quickly through the background, gathering and collecting certain items and writing things down. Our conversation evolved, and when there was a lull in conversation, Gilly invited us to a ceremony in the Black Hills. We both voiced we were interested in going, and then he hands me a piece of paper with information already written down on it, and informs us that he already told people that we were coming. This adventure seemed to not end as we got another tip in our scavenger hunt of a trip. From this meeting, we drove down to Rapid City, SD where we got a hotel room for the night and got some much needed rest and stretching from being in the car all day.
This post is an at home journeying guide, which will either guide you into your own journeying practice, or deepen the practice you currently have. If you are interested in joining the Shamanic Journey Group at a distance, click here. If you stumbled upon this page because you would like a little extra help framing your journey practice, then feel free to peruse at your own pace. This is a helpful guide that pieces all of the journey topics from the past two years, and compiles them from basics to more advanced.
As we have found out through previous posts, all of the elements are inter-related and interconnected. Through earth, we have cultivated a sense of who we are, why we are here, what we stand for, and why we stand for it. If we don’t cultivate these things first, then we can get very overwhelmed in the element of air. Many people in this society have an excess of the air element. Because the air element represents our mental wisdom body, that means that we can have an abundance of ideas, but lack of follow through. Have you ever heard of the phrase “air head” or thought of the meaning “building castles in the sky”? That is because without the earth quality in balance, we can become very “ungrounded” and can begin to think with fantasy thinking, allowing our brains to run away with us. Air in excess can be manifested physically as anxiety, migraines, and headaches because we are up in our heads all the time. Air in and of itself physically is made up of smaller, less dense molecules then that of earth. The molecules tend to bounce around a lot faster, and sometimes when they are “heated up”, they move at lightning fast speed, bumping into each other and causing all sorts of chaos. Have you ever noticed that when someone gets excited over new ideas they trip over themselves trying to write them all down, but then they burn out before they begin to enact any of the steps? Excited air energy is great and wonderful, but being grounded and methodical is how we begin to plant these seeds that we get from the air. Right relationship with earth helps remind us to take a step back and breathe.
When the paramedics arrived on scene, that’s when my body started becoming limp. I couldn’t really see anything, because at this point I went physically blind. I forced myself to breathe and stay in my body, because I noticed that it was easy for me to not be present. I felt this calm sense of urgency surging through my blood to be present, and I took it one breath at a time.
I will be introducing these concepts from a four element perspective because that is what I am most comfortable with. I do not want the individuals attending to limit themselves to condensing to my viewpoint of how I see things. For the pace of this Journey Group, it would be helpful if you did minimal research on how to journey so you can join along in conversation so we don’t have to back track on what exactly journeying is. If you follow one of the other numbered element systems, feel free to read through these blog posts and take what you need. Come to the groups and share your knowledge. Find the hidden gems to deepen your own practice. All paths are welcome, and I encourage others with different viewpoints to come. It brings diversity and a clarity of shared vision to the whole.