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There is more to the Altar than meets the eye. Many times, we take it for granted, or simply admire the decorative aspect of someone else’s creation—usually that of the shaman or teacher. The mesa, or altar, functions as the anchor and source of the shaman’s inner...
How do we explain Soul loss to clients? I hear shamanic practitioners speak of "lost parts" or "loss of essence," yet these terms bring up challenging questions: How does a Divine Soul become fragmented? If it is lost, is it completely gone or confused or lesser than?...
When you walk through a place, the land will reveal its secrets to you by actively engaging all your senses. In the high Andes of Peru, each step climbing Mount Salcantay felt like a conversation with the earth. The thin, frost-covered air challenged my lungs, until...
There is more to the Altar than meets the eye. Many times, we take it for granted, or simply admire the decorative aspect of someone else’s creation—usually that of the shaman or teacher. The mesa, or altar, functions as the anchor and source of the shaman’s inner...
How do we explain Soul loss to clients? I hear shamanic practitioners speak of "lost parts" or "loss of essence," yet these terms bring up challenging questions: How does a Divine Soul become fragmented? If it is lost, is it completely gone or confused or lesser than?...
When you walk through a place, the land will reveal its secrets to you by actively engaging all your senses. In the high Andes of Peru, each step climbing Mount Salcantay felt like a conversation with the earth. The thin, frost-covered air challenged my lungs, until...
A traditional role of shamans is to preside at or contribute to (bring the Spirits to) rituals that mark important transition in the lives of members of their communities. In shamanic cultures, the rites for honoring the death of a loved one have been practiced for...
Interesting take on soul loss.
However, Gg’s interpretation of “walk ins” is incorrect. The people I’ve known who are walk-ins and say that the original entire soul that was born to the body decided to die…and left. Then another soul, committed to help in the world, came into the body….and stayed. That new soul often has to take time to finish whatever mission the original soul left behind. It also has to get used to a different physical way of being. Finally, all of that change-over process is finished and the new soul can then commence on whatever life mission it came to do. See this book about Carol Parrish’s experience: “Messengers of Hope” published by New Age Press, Black Mountain, NC. ISBN: 0-87613-079-1 Carol was the founder of Sancta Sophia Seminary where I was ordained in 1987 after 3 years of intense metaphysical study. – Maryphyllis Horn
The article about soul is inspiring and helpful.
Upon reflection, I’m not sure that I agree with Gg’s analysis of soul loss (which is the traditional Mayan view, shared by my late teacher don Abel Yat). I’ve come to think that severe psychological trauma which deadens a person’s emotions is something that they gain, not lose: a cauterization of the ability to feel – like putting up a protective brick wall – which thenceforth prevents the person from feeling pain (or, anything).
The shamanic rituals to coax the lost soul back to the body are merely symbolic acts analogous to the practice of recapitulation, which serve as commands to defuse the emotional trauma from the memory and allow normal feeling to proceed unhampered.
Bob Makransky