The quest of course has begun already. The ceremony begins when we make the commitment. the first aspect of preparation for me is physical. I will be carrying a 50 lb pack for five miles at high elevation. I am 53 and ride a computer, a lot. so this is the first phase–getting into shape.

In the last month I have done several ceremonies with 40-50 stones. I have prayed to them, offered them tobacco, nourished them with corn meal, and then had some transformative initiations inside geometric ceremonial altars we have made with them. They have become my beloved ones, my familiars. So now they are riding around on my back. I put them in my day pack, and I am carrying up hills on my daily hikes. I will be adding some stone people every few days. I am up to 16 lbs, and it is only my first week. i love them. They are making me strong.

It makes me smile as there are several Lakota songs about the stone nation needing to roam. I feel like I am helping them roam. I can feel them supporting me. It is quite a magnificent surreal powerful dance we are in together.

Tunkan oyate wan, Pilamaye!

The Sweat Lodge on the solstice at Hidden Lake was a wonderful way to enter and call in the light and 2012. The weather spirits were so kind, opening the night sky to let the stars in in a big way (and keeping us dry)

 The spirits came in in a big way the first round. It is always interesting to notice if any of the directions resonated more or less with us. They each have their own medicine, and in my cosmology: The west brought introspection (black/water); the north brought wisdom and gratitude (red/earth); the east brought new beginnings (yellow, air) and south, passion (white/fire). When we call these directions in, with above and below, all aspects and potentiality are included. Clues to what we need to focus on come when we notice we are feel the directions differently.

The people who came to lodge honored the stones in such a good way. There was such reverence, from the care and love and attention by the firetenders, to Yuri’s kind placement of the stones into the center of the lodge, to the connections people made with the stones and the songs we sang to them. It was very heart-warming to know that the grandmothers were seen, heard, felt.

 The spirits made it very clear before during my prep journeys, and during the lodge, that we are to honor ALL aspects of our selves. What we deem “dark” or “negative” about ourselves is to be embraced, not shunned like is our first instinct. These things are karmic and drive us to seek the light. They also help us balance on the cosmic circle. They feed the light in us and cause us to seek the help we need to heal. When we shun these parts, we induce soul loss, which furthers the pain and suffering. How we walk with both sides is the dance of life. So, at this time of solstice, buoyed by the darkness, we are greeted by the coming of light.

 They used a book of chapters of our lives as a metaphor for considering our healing. I had a client write to me about her story, and how broken she feels. We all have those chapters that we have written about the breaks, tears, mishaps, etc. The spirits have shown me frequently that our stories (the way we describe the world to ourselves, and what we have assimilated from “outside” of ourselves—society, PARENTS, friends, colleagues, etc.) keep us in a particular configuration, they have shown it as a network like the framework of the lodge. Our energy and focus on our stories (which contain both fact and fiction about what has happened to us in life, what we believe to be true, chapters on our wounds and mistakes) travel along this framework, feeding our perception of reality—including our state of wellness or lack thereof. Shamanism, and other energy work, gets in side the framework, seeking to shift and expand us. If we do not loosen the framework (the story, our beliefs, our narrative about the way the world is) we can not expand.

 So the spirits wanted us to feel empowered and poised to write a new chapter in the sacred book of our life. There are jewels in previous chapters that shine. And we have total creative license to write the most amazing story ever!

 We are creators, and so the lodge set into motion astonishing, surprising, empowering creations in our lives. (And of course, shit will happen along the way. It is what we make of it and tell ourselves about it that we have poetic license for! ) For creating wellness from circumstances that greet us.

 We were implored to remember the trigger we asked the grandmothers for, for noticing our intentions and prayers in motion. 

My trigger is my little 15-yr old kitty. I end and begin each day with her in my face, literally. She likes to smell my eyes…she is a great teacher.

 We are called by the spirits to invite our trigger to remind us to notice the evidence that our astonishing, surprising, empowering creation is unfolding!

When I was at Tom Kenyon’s sound healing workshop, we did a meditation to our bones. I learned so much about myself and my life, and continue to do this as a journey. Our bones hold the akashic records of the truth of who we are. The journey we did to our bones was to help us remember, to ask the bones to vibrate and release the truth. I had the experience of my truth burning like fire as it emerged out of my bones, filling the other layers of my body. And everything that was not consistent with the truth naturally got pushed out and went into the stones. The grandmothers with open arms so readily received this.

 During the last round, we did a power animal retrieval on ourselves! A power animal to help us with our ascension and our time with the ascension of Earth. And really, any thing you need help with in the coming year. Power animals in shamanism are like our best friends. We have pictures and figurines of them everywhere so we are reminded in the third dimension (ordinary reality) that they are with us in non-ordinary reality. Our power animals do amazing things, especially if we feed them with our conscious attention, intention, and awareness. We also put offerings out for them. They may even want us to eat certain things for them. Or do certain things for them. It is a sacred partnership. In shamanism, we journey to the animals to ask them things, and we notice for synchronicities and messages in our normal state of consciousness. We also meditate and listen for their guidance. Or simply stare at a picture or figurine of them. They will always find a way to make contact with us, if we say yes to listening. 

I pray that we have set things into motion for you in a good way!

Aho!

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To see my 2012 Sound healing course schedule, go to

http://hiddenlakeretreat.org/images/stories/shamanicsoundhealing2012.pdf

 I am pleased to offer personal shamanic healing sessions that invigorate the soul and replenish your energy–Soul Retrieval, Extraction, Sound Healing, Reiki 

Feel better!

For more about my healing practice go to

http://www.hiddenlakeretreat.org/healing-services/shamanism

 To see a live demonstration of the sound healing I do, go to:

http://newconnexion.net/watch/index.cfm/Lauri_Shainsky

Signs of excessive agitation and fear were most apparent to me in the two dogs that met me right away, as I entered M’s house. I could hear the 3^rd dog barking upstairs.

The process was completely spirit-guided, as I had never performed soul retrieval on animals before.

I performed the ceremony on one dog at a time. For the first two, I had M drum. I asked for dog treats and had them in my hand, along with my soul-catching crystal.

As the journey for the first soul retrieval began, a fox joined me as the power animal to both help me with the retrieval and to be the dog’s helper. The fox switched back and forth from red to white, showing me its other-worldiness. I was so happy to have the fox there. She immediately began telepathically communicating the experience of being a canine, so I was perceiving the journey from a dog’s perspective–this dog’s perspective, and her past. In the journey, it was a cacophonous, strange, scary city that the dog was lost in. Almost getting hit by cars that honked at her, she was running in a terror; she was hungry and did not know where to find food. She was assaulted by the sounds and energy and movement of strange menacing things. She was in PANIC.

The fox showed me that soul loss was happening in pulses, and that she was losing clouds of soul particles in pulses. Unlike the humans I work with, where I travel long distances to find large distinct lost soul parts, the soul parts were hovering very near the body of the dog, like a cloud of dust. This seemed very cool, and right, since my impression of dogs is that they do not mentally masticate their issues like we do, but hold them in their body with emotional consciousness.

I was wondering before I began the journey how I was going to be able to blow the soul parts back into the dog. For humans, we get close to their hearts and heads, and blow the soul parts from the crystal into their crown and heart chakras. For dogs, it was apparent that that was going to be a challenge, and a personal hazard when working with some dogs. The all-knowing fox showed me how to solve this problem. After we collected the soul dust into the crystal, we came back to ordinary reality and blew the soul parts and power animal into the dog treats, and then fed them to the dog. The fox was brilliant! It worked wonderfully!

When the ceremony was done, this dog laid down on the couch and went to sleep. She seemed a little more calm.

As the next soul retrieval journey began for the second dog, a black wolf appeared. She showed me that this dog also had pulses of soul loss, but his was turned down a few notches, and was at the emotional level of  WORRY. In the past, he had gone through a period where he did not know, nor could he rely on, an expected pattern of  his days. His world was unpredictable and unsettled and it worried him. When he would eat, go out, be pet or paid attention to–this pattern of his day was not well established and he was suspended in a state of worry. He, too, had clouds of soul particles very near his body. We collected them (and the wolf) in the crystal, blew them into the treats. He accepted the soul pieces and the wolf in the treats readily. He showed an immediate response of relaxation. He appeared to move around the house with more emotional ease. It was very touching to see.

For the third dog’s ceremony, M held him in her lap and I drummed. My old friend Watney, the Rottweiler, showed up to help. He took me to an image where this dog was high up on a tall building, looking down over the edge. He was afraid of stepping forward; his footing was uncertain and this made him nervous. We retrieved his soul cloud and Watney jumped into the crystal to help. This third dog happily ate his soul pieces and the Rottweiler that went with them. When I finished he did not bark at me anymore, and seemed more at peace.

I was very moved by this experience. I had never done a soul retrieval on a dog before. I look forward to doing more of them!

* Soul retrieval is a sacred ceremony done by well-trained shamanic practitioners. We believe that one of its origins was ancient Egypt, and can be seen clearly in the story of Isis and Osiris. The ceremonial practice seeks to bring back parts of our soul that get separated from the core of our soul during trauma. We feel more whole and illuminated, more alive and healthy, as a result of this ceremony. This ceremony is an integral part of my work with my human clients. I look forward to expanding my work to include pets!

So I breathe and go down into the cave of my heart. I close my eyes, and with my awareness, journey down to my heart. Within my heart is a cozy cave where there is a warm fire glowing. Images and information flash on the walls of the cave, illuminated by the flames. My power animals and teaching spirits are there. I feel safe and whole there. And I can go out from there in this time of cultural incongruence with peace and tranquility, and hope that the sale at Macy’s lasts another day.

Thank you,  Dee, for the previous Carnival of Healing, which provides a cornucopia of health-related tips and solutions that help us on our path.

This month’s Carnival of Healing entry addresses the spiritual aspects of our  walk on this earth. My most heart-felt intention is to provide some insight into the nature of shamanic, intentional living, as well as to provide some resources if you wish to become more  facile in the art of shamanic, intentional living.

The most life-altering belief or awareness that I came to have was that I had a troop of loving spirits that were out on my path orchestrating my life. This is the fundamental understanding of shamanism—the knowningness of the presence of compassionate, benevolent spirits that work through us to bring love and healing to everyday (ordinary) reality. With this understanding, I have become aware of the grace and perfection of how everything in my life unfolds—especially circumstances that at first seem disappointing, and then turn out to have the greatest good at their very core. I walk in the world knowing that my helpers are out ahead of me on my path orchestrating and collaborating with my true self to manifest my life.

You do not need to be a shaman to live shamanically. Many of you probably are already living a shamanic life and perhaps not aware of it. Dee from the previous Carnival of Healing certainly is, as she recounts the grace she received from her “guides” as she was preparing her entry for last month. Midnight Shaman provides musings and insight on shamanic life, spirituality and healing, as does ShamanElizabeth.

Living intentionally—with focus, prayer, clarity about what we seek to manifest in our lives—is magnified a million-fold through our working with our beloved spirits. It is as if our prayers are magnified and sent out into the universe with a jet pack. We wake up in the morning, we pray and meditate in the presence of our spirits, in which we are in communion, and intentions for the day, week, life are set into motion. Dr. Joe Dispenza’s discussion from “What the Bleep”,  I create my day, is a beautifully written description of the process of intentionally living and being the creator of your life. Add the awareness of help from the spirit world, and Wah Lah! WOW! BAM!

As revealed quite beautifully by Firechild’s blog, living shamanically engages us completely in watching the flows of different energies and power, noticing how the divine plan is unfolding, and listening and watching for messages. Taz provides an elegant mix of “thoughts and musings on shamanism, medicine crafts, meditations and personal development”.

Living shamanically, teaching shamanism, holding ceremony and being a leader in the shamanic world is beautiful and also has its dilemnas. Scarlett Kinney, in her blog Feminine Shamanic Consciousness is good reminder of this and discusses a sometimes touchy subject inherent in walking this walk.

I enjoyed exploring numerous blogs by people living a shamanic way of life. Spirit Muse’s Blog I found and enjoyed for  it’s discussion of  practical and philosophical shamanic topics. Living a Heart-centered life is critical to shamanic living, and is exemplified in the writings at the Path of the Clear Heart: My Walk with Lujan Mutas.

Bjezierski  beautifully illuminates the philosophy of most of us living a shamanic lifestyle…”Have drum,  will travel”, and provides deep, rich insights into the very real experiences in the life of a man living a contemporary shamanic life.

One of my favorite blogs on shamanic living is Shamanic Living Today. “This is an ongoing US and global project to help enthusiasts, scholars, practitioners, and curious parties learn more about shamanic living in a contemporary culture. The space here is devoted to sharing info, experiences and opinions about all forms of shamanic expression covering shamanism’s multiple permutations. Among subjects explored are traditions, techniques, insights, definitions, events, artists, authors, and creativity. You are invited to draw from your own experiences and contribute.”  What a great invitation!

I also loved The Earth Caretakers blog, which  helps us “Find inspiration and tools for shifting your awareness in our monthly Shifting Consciousness News! We explore the healing modalities of the future: light, vibration, and vision. We write about direct revelation, intent, and self-empowerment. We’re passionate about weaving and growing the interconnections between social and spiritual change, and between what we “know” and what our hearts yearn to manifest! By releasing the heavy in our thoughts and beliefs, we each move into a lighter, more joyous way of being. We can renew and reweave our interconnections in our own bodies, souls, and spirits; with stars, trees, and stones; and with cross-cultural wisdom and prophesy.”

Living shamanically and intentionally takes practice, training, consciousness. My training came from several places. I began my training with Jan Engels-Smith of LightSong School of Shamanic Studies in 1998. This training is ideal in that not only did we learn technique, but experienced many many initiations and ceremonies, so necessary to shifting one’s consciousness and way of living. Many trainings exist where you learn how to do shamanic healings, but do not provide the tools for changing how you live. Lightsong and Jan provide both. Jan has written extensively on the topics near and dear to our hearts in shamanism, which you can find at http://www.janengelssmith.com/articles/shamanic-articles.htm and her blog http://lightsongblog.wordpress.com

Michael Harner’s Foundation of Shamanic Studies provides comprehensive coursework in core shamanism, where I learned techniques, as well as experiencing some critical and powerful initiations which expanded my consciousness of being. Tom Cowan provides poetic training in Celtic Shamanism, and his two year class provided me with amazing initiations and ceremonies which I continue to carry out to our community.

We live shamanically through rigorous training, personal and community initiations and ceremony, falling down and ascending, singing, crying, praying. I will continue to write about such things on my blog here, and am committed to providing  opportunities to people who seek to strengthen their shamanic way of being through my healing practice, sound healing trainings, and the work I do at Hidden Lake Retreat. Please stay tuned or check out our calendar!

Thank you for going along for a little tour through shamanic living. If you are interested in shamanism, I recommend checking out our school, Lightsong School of Shamanic Studies. Also check out the Shaman’s portal as a great resource for shamanism. Teachers, information, trainings and events are posted there, along with many many blogs.

Visit the Carnival of Healing page by going to http://healing.about.com/od/community/a/carnival.htm

May Sweet Shamanic Journeys be upon you!

I discovered the Cave of the Heart when I was in the process of being initiated to pour water (facilitate sweat lodge ceremonies). As part of our initiation, each of us was to have poured for us a purge lodge—this lodge was a very hot lodge with upwards of 60 stones. During the purge lodge poured for me, as I was contemplating my discomfort–which rose to a hot throttle– the spirits rushed in and saved me.

They saved me by driving my awareness down from my head into my heart, where I discovered a cave with a brilliant fire burning. Like the hot molten center of the Earth, this was the center of me. I was safe there; my helping spirits lived there, or came to and went from there. In fact, they were dancing around the fire upon my arrival. Images with information were projected onto the walls of the cave, flickering in the shadows and light of the fire. Here I received messages.

This place correlates with the understanding in shamanism that the portal through which the spirits come and go in our work is our open heart. For me, one of the ways this manifests is the cave of the heart. Very distinctive spirits of my lineage live there, and participate in the ushering of others.

I have been aimless of late and allowing myself to be consumed by all things unspiritual. On my walk today, the spirits called me back down into the cave of my heart for a talking to. It was amazing how my energy shifted, and I received clear guidance about my upliftment.

I highly recommend exploring this for yourself. you will journey home to yourself and rediscover you.

So I am calling all excellent spiritual bloggers. shamanic bloggers…to present your wonderful work that assists us in raising our vibration, living more intentionally. more in alignment with spirit.

The spirits (the “they” I refer to in the text below) gave me a ceremony for imbuing our land with the energy and spirit of this year’s sundance.

First, they gave me a symbol that conveyed the power of the ceremony (link: sundanceemblem1_Layout 1). They directed me to make certain parts of the symbol certain colors (I have the paint so far…). I am to paint this on 9 stones, each stone to be placed around the perimeter of the land and one in the center. I am to sing while placing these stones so that the stones and trees can relearn the songs, which will carry in the wind and across the land.

Next they told me to make robes (large bundles of tobacco with prayers placed in them). Each robe, for each of the colors for the 6 directions, is to have specific prayers about what I learned and what was conveyed to me by the tree, the songs, the people of the dance. (I have made most of the robes as well as taking notes on what the prayers are that have been made).These robes are to be placed around the perimeter at the appropriate directional boundary.

Each of these things will encourage the spirits to perpetuate the learnings and experiences prayed into the robes, and share them with the people who come to Hidden Lake for healing, reflection, relaxation, and rejuvenation.

I believe this to be good template for other ceremonies besides the Sundance. (Try it yourself and let me know what you notice.)

sundanceemblem1_Layout 1

In the tradition of the extended Lakota family I am part of, the vision quest is done for several reasons. And has some traditional history.

In the traditional history as I know it, the  ceremony was such that  the person would be sent off to be closer to Spirit and to receive a vision for solving some kind of issue—sometimes it was for the people. Sometimes it was for themselves personally. (Did you ever see the movie Billy Jack? He went on a vision quest.) Jesus went on a vision quest wandering in the desert. The aboriginals in Australia do walk-abouts, the truest walk-about is a moving vision quest.

In my Lakota family, people do a vision quest for that same reason. They go on the hill to receive information to address some need. As a way of preparing for the sundance ceremony, the dancers will go on the hill to receive information about their upcoming dance. My teacher Jan went on the hill (she is part of this family) to expand her capacity to teach and heal. She brought back an amazing learning about choosing joy in the face of adversity.

My shamanic community—guided by Jan at Lightsong School of Shamanic Studies and Energy Medicine—has held 27 vision quests (I have been a leader of support camp for many of them, and have done 3 vision quests with Jan, and one on my own in my little sweat lodge). People have different reasons for “going on the hill”. One year it was for my work in Africa, one year it was for my practice.

Through fasting and being alone, we are stripped of our masks—the programs of our personality that cover up the expression of our true self. We also reach a point of suffering where we are absolutely forced to ask for spirits help. Especially abandoning in many ways the whole reason we thought we went on the hill in the first place. Lots of unexpected things happen to us on the hill that aren’t part of our egoic strategy and plans and aspirations for getting there. the ego gets us there, and then Spirit happens, and it never looks like what we thought it was going be like. The answers to our prayers are always perfect, but seldom as our mind eye saw it to be.

So we ask about our masks here, as vision quest has a way of bringing them up. Example masks from my personality: The professor –knows everything; bad girl— likes to make mischief or get out of things by blaming her badness; class clown/look at me/over here mask—makes jokes and likes to be the center of attention; chef lauri—is proud of and talks about her food; these masks are all strategic costumes for coping with something. Many masks evolve early in life, and we hold on to them, even though they are obsolete. They are composed of: what we think, how we feel, what we do, and what we say, when we are wearing that mask/costume.

The truth of who I am is a radiant being that has been given an amazing place, community, partner, opportunity to channel light, love, wisdom and power to earth in partnership with the divine.

When you feel like you may be on a vision quest in your life, ask What masks or personality programs do you find coming up? What ones seem to be falling away? What is the truth of your being?

Ask Spirit to show you its purpose. Maybe it is making a shift. if you end up on your knees, whatever happens next is a gift. the spirits will always hear your call and give you what you need. sometimes it involve peering deeper into the truth to see what that is. Your true self will always be there glowing behind everything.

Cry for that vision and it will come. especially if you believe and are coming from your true self.

Soul retrieval is a beautiful shamanic healing ceremony whereby the shamanic practitioner and their spirit helpers journey through non-ordinary reality layers of the client’s life line/path to bring back lost soul essence. Soul essence can be lost during trauma, accidents, arguments, surgery, disturbing incidents; we can also leak soul essence slowly through self-recrimination and being in unhealthy relationships. This loss of soul essence can cause, or make more intense, physical, emotional, and mental ailments and issues because its absence keeps us from full vibrant living and decision-making.

So… are you—

• noticing that you do not feel all completely present—like there is some part of you missing?
• feeling tired and unable to recruit enough resources, energy, umf, to cope with life or pursue your dreams?
• caught in an unproductive loop—either mentally, physically, behaviorally—not able to move forward or break free?

If so, it is time for a soul retrieval. Actually, any time is good for a soul retrieval. I have had 2 very powerful ones; the second one was even better, because I had a greater critical mass of soul essence from the first one. Sequential soul retrievals tend to produce exponential increases in wellness. I do them on myself periodically. My spirits always find places in my life where soul essence was lost, and they restore it to me. I always feel better.

It is critical to find an outstanding practitioner that has had a lot of training. There are people who provide soul retrieval training, and people who do this training then go out and start doing soul retrievals. This is a little scary to me, because practitioners are inserting stuff into the soul! Tracking lost soul essence and understanding their qualities and meanings is not easy.

I was trained by Jan Engels-Smith at LightSong School of Shamanic Studies and Energy Medicine; she did not begin teaching us soul retrieval until we had 5 years of shamanic training, initiations, and ceremonies. This prepatory training, I believe, was essential in having us learn a lot about spirits, how the universe and energy works, and so many aspects of the soul. I also had the good fortune of some amazing deep learning about energy and universe by sitting with guides channeled by an amazing channeler, Lina Bertsen. All of this training helps me be in communion with the spirits, with accurate soul part tracking and interpretation of the other information conveyed to me about people’s soul-life by the spirits. The ceremonies and initiations are important for what I call “personality purification”– reducing our own egoic contribution to the journey and ceremony of filling with soul essence.

Email me for list of highly qualified shamanic practitioners who can perform soul retrieval. Or come see me!