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38 A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 SPRINGSUMMER 2015 THE CO-CREATION HANDBOOK by Alida Burch The Co-Creation Handbook A Shaman- ic Guide to Manifesting a Better World and a More Joyful Life lays out a thorough plan for deepening shamanic practice and applying new personal insights in concrete ways to ones everyday life. Alida Birch carefully presents guiding principles behind the way we envision our lives perceive our current selves and launch resolutions for enriching our lives and the world around us. Birch draws on insights from sound psychology and life-coaching practices to ground her techniques. The steps for co-creation are structured in an eight-week format so readers can pace themselves and make sure they have covered all the aspects. Some of the concepts Birch works with are stress and creative tension the role of the subconscious the value of making personal statements the law of synchronicity per- sonal relationships balancing personal life and work and the power of blessing. Accompanying this book is a three-disc audio recording made by Birch incorporat- ing visualizations that she gently leads with pauses to allow for personal reflection. The visualization sessions are accompanied by light shamanic drumming. These CDs structure the manifestation work over eight weeks and each weeks material is divided into a morning and evening session. A committed reader could complete the entire program in two months time. Each of the eight chapters corresponding to the eight- week program includes a list of action steps with practical activities to put the information of each chapter into a working mode. Many of the action steps draw on shamanic practices and principles. Birchs co-creation process will make an excellent program for shamanic counselors to use when working with clients who are new to shamanism or know nothing about it. By going through the program a client will learn how to slip into non-ordinary re- ality and discover information and practical wisdom as well as meet helpful spirit guides. Seasoned practitioners can use the program as a means to extend and broaden their shamanic lives. TC UP A TREE by Jane Burns Jane Burnss Up a Tree A Novel and Shamanic Handbook tells the story of Clare a recently widowed mother coping with her personal problems as well as those of her two teen- age children. As a shamanic practitioner Clare draws on her journeys to help her process her own grief that of her children and the knowledge that her late husband was having an affair. Her life becomes ever more complicated when her own mother enters the picture and when Clare meets an artist named Dill who works in a studio next to her own. The story is very believable and Burns has a remarkable gift of catching dialogue and allowing each character to present him or her self through conversations. The twelve chapters each named after a tree bring in important tree-lore as Clare discovers the spiritual strength of trees in her shamanic work. In each chapter Clare journeys at some point to find the strength to go on with her life and finds wisdom and insight to her problems from various trees. As Burns writes in her Authors Note I wanted to convey how the shamanic way of life is not an esoteric practice that lies peripheral to reality. It is a way for ordinary people to live their ordinary lives in an extraordinary way a way of living more wholly and deeply more peaceably and compassionately. In- deed Clares story is gripping in that she is an ordinary woman confronting ordinary but difficult challenges to carry on with her life. The final section of the book is a shamanic handbook consisting of twelve chapters that correspond to the novels chapters. Burns begins by explaining the shamanic journey and then continues to present shamanic journey ideas with tips and suggestions so that readers discover as Clare does how living shamanically can enrich ones life. Burns tells the readers up front that they can become the heroes of their own lives. But as Burns acknowledges It is shamanism that is the hero shamanism that saves the day and leads by example. And Up a Tree is a wonderful and compelling example of that. TC www.journeystothesoul.com. S H O R T R E V I E W