What is a shaman? [Forum - Conversations] - Oneness

So mysterious...such whispers murmured when the word even comes up.

Shamans, shamanic practitioners, healers, divination, drumming, rattling, dancing, death and dying, house blessings, extraction, interpretation, self discovery, and recharge of the spirit and soul through retreat and solitude.

Elemental connections, working with the natural elements, dismemberments, soul retrievals, social issues locally, globally, exploration further into the upper worlds, the middle worlds, and the lower worlds too often misunderstood, often left unexplored at all.

Power animals, animal spirits, tree spirits, nature spirits, spirit guides, and the list my friends is endless.

There are maps for questing for the serious minded shaman. The same maps used across the world successfully. Amazing actually to know someone else has really been there and could even be right next to you in a journey.

I've seen them have you?

As you describe it in vivid, beautiful detail someone else may be pointing to it on a map. Maps are beyond my level of skill. I can not even read a local street map, so I just smile. I go with the flow and remember my way back. Once off concrete and busy city streets, I never seem to get lost. I just skip the map classes. Although for some of you here, it is right up your alley! WINK! They are interesting to look at and I have recognized places I have been.

The shamans journey is purely experiential. I will leave it at that. If you have no desire to understand more than stop reading HERE...

For no words I write to you will ever convey what a class or worshop facilitated by a well trained and experienced practitioner, a full shaman can and will if you open your mind and heart to it.

Be not afraid. Why even my youngest children beginning at age 6 and 7 began journeys to seek out their first power animals with a well trained shaman. They loved it. Much like their mother it was not new to them, for you see as I suspected like me, this indigo daughter and crystal son, both were born already knowing of such things. It needed only a name and a rememberance at first. Then they were off! Sam continues his training with his shaman.

I remember crying tears of joy during my first journey. When my first Shaman asked why I sobbed so, I could only reply at age 26, I did not know "it" had a name. I held it secret for so long. Felt so separate and isolated from those around me, not those who were in worlds I could reach, that seemed more real to me. I had been taught as a child to hide in shame and keep quiet.

The journey experience was real! A real place and I couldn't be happier knowing this. Meeting others who knew it too. I made certain my children did not have to wait so long for such validation, as I did.

Most beginners are amazed at their first journey some even their tenth. They wonder if they are just imagining it all. I needed no convincing. I was not afterall new to this experience. In fact I was quite advanced. I was indeed born this way and nurtured the skill more so in the woods near the river banks not far from my home, where I found serenity and inner peace. Where I found God within my heart and soul. For you see I had already recognized God in everything, seen the spirit alive, felt presence of oneness in all creation within self. I had discovered early ONENESS!

Does it amaze you to know we stand shoulder to shoulder among you. For the shaman and the shamanic practitioner of today are as likely to be driving car pools, as shopping for treats for a school activity in the local grocery store or market. They are probably sitting on the bleachers next to you at a soccer game, and hiking in the woods a few feet away.

How would you know us? Many of you ask nothing about us for in many hearts I still feel and sense fear, which separates us. This must change. Yet, what you may find interesting is that we do recognize one another, even when from another tribe, as private solitary practitioners, or even when from different cultures.

Why is this? We are sensitive, paying attention and alive! We seek out more in this life and do so by journeys to "invisible worlds". We are guided, renewed, empowered, uplifted, and share many commonalities...one mind and one heart often times. We use divination and healing as tools for self and other selves. We do not judge why others do not choose to do what we do, for we are sure we are merely dancing to the beat of a different drummer at the moment.

We can hear the rhythm emanating from our family, our tribe as it may be, we feel the consciousness of the earth and the air as we breath. As the drumming and rattling continues and the music picks up intensity we expand to take in the earth, the universe, all that is.

Changing chords, finding one heartbeat...deeply connected to all the musical shifts, sometimes slow and melodic and then raging as a river or pounding out vigorously a new beat. The breath quickens and the soul reaches new heights and the journey takes you to yet farther reaches than ever before if you merely follow the beat of the drummer. Now this is very advanced, often even in the heart and mind of the beholder.

In a beginners journey the drum beat when used stays consistant like the beat of a heart. Some drum leaders choose to go slower, while others pick up the groups intensity and drum faster, yet it stays consistant throughout the journey. It is all about energies and how we interrelate.

A familiar beat and the call is sent to come back, instinctively, yet reluctantly you give gratitude and return just as that last beat hits home. Sometimes, I am wondering if it will be my feet or the drums that make the last sound in the last round.

CORRECTION: NOT ALL SHAMANS NOR PRACTIONERS use psychedlic plants to reach beyond ordinary time and space! I never have...perhaps my description of how the drum moves me explains it all. Certainly my children never have. Yet I too have witnessed miracles and places beyond worlds and words only my journal and a few other shamans I have shared with now behold.

I have been witness to hundreds of journeys, my teachers, thousands, even tens of thousands, and each of us would tell you we have yet to meet a soul who can not do a journey. Just breath with your heart open and allow your senses to come alive. Trust and let go of any idea that it is all in your mind. Be as a small child and go along for the ride. You will be taught how to protect yourself and how to go and return.

You will be watched over by a true shaman and their assistants. You will be instructed to set an intention and to stick to it. To seek out assistance from spirit helpers and animal guides and power animals along your first journey. In the beginning never practice alone. Don't get over confident, this is serious and it is real. Always seek guidance and protection of an advanced practitioner or shaman. Check out their credentials.

There are many things left unsaid for you to learn on your own at your own pace and comfort level. I always take a cover for my eyes and water to drink. A journal and a pen and a blanket to lay upon. In the cooler months another blanket to snuggle under. I also bring crystals and tools, offerings of sage, incense, tobbacco, cornmeal, flowers, a drum and my rattle. Yes I am well packed it seems.

Shamanism is an art that takes practice and dedication to master. It is not a religion. There are many varieties and cultures and many levels of practice. Choose wisely. Do some research first.

In the beginning I learned to journey with the beat of the drum, later it was a rattle and now it is merely a thought that takes me to where I need to be. A thought that brings me back. Yet, if I were to stop practicing, to give up the art, I would need to begin again at the beginning and that too is ok.

Taking the "time" to properly learn to journey with the guidance of true shamans was the best choice I ever made. My skills moved forward quickly and my faith exploaded.

I went on to practice advanced skills in the area of death and dying. I used this knowledge to assist those who were terminally ill. Not only was it a comfort for them it was a comfort to me, as well. I know looking back, I made the right choice. My training continues in a new direction this Spring.

The journey itself is a natural way of regaining harmony and balance within one's life. Our full potential awaits. Change will move each of us forward with the shift that is occuring both within and without.

I noticed an imporvement in my own health and an increase in vitality. I've never met a shaman who looks even close to his or her real earth age. Now that is inspiring in this egocentric age. More so, it tells me we do not have to age poorly or swiftly. The more I practice, the more luminosity I emit and the more I have to share with others. True of all practitioners and shamans. When my glass is full it only makes sense there is more to share, so I pass it around. Abundance is for everyone. Care to take a drink?

Metaphorically speaking, I keep a tool box. In it I hold all the lessons of a shamanic practitioner, a healer, an artist and creator. I love having a full toolbox, and I am sure one more thing will always fit! Having tools allows me to be the handy craftsman of my own life. I can handle many of my own problems, resolve many of my own issues instantly, overcome obstacles in the blink of an eye, after all they are all of my own making. I created them and now I will undo what was done. I love how I test myself. I love to test the other self too. I wonder when he will realize this and finally smile? Why? Practice, of course!

I was just sure I would only practice this art for self. Not because I was self centered or self focused. I was uncertain and rather insecure to be honest. Convinced I was of this solitary practice, I would proclaim it to my first shaman as she protested otherwise. She would simply smile knowing better all the while, then letting out the loudest of belly laughs just shake her head! I was resistant, no doubts about it.

Healing, personal growth and personal evolution all appealed to me then and more so now. What I did not realize is that life is guided and goes in a predestined path if it is allowed to. I would later go on to share this tool, this art and gift with thousands of others over time in a healing practice. Amazing, I could have never guessed so long ago, yet the shaman knew. Now I am the one who has to laugh so boldly! Nor would I yesterday have dreamed of the way I choose to practice on this day or the next. Yet I never stop being the healer, the shamananic practitioner, or a being in service and love seeking ONENESS in One True Faith.

Yet, I still wonder if many of you even care or suspect how I use these gifts with each of you now...

Love and Light,
suzyq