Insights for Growing a Shamanic Business Each one of us has an Inner Shaman or True Self that carries unique medicine and great potential to bring love and healing to the world. The trick is that our ego, the very thing that gives us the capacity to express our...
Articles
Perceiving Covid 19 As An Ally
In the shamanic perspective each person accumulates allies along the path of their life. Some of these allies are other human beings that show up throughout your life to help you in times of need. Some of them offer limited help like giving you directions when you are...
It’s WAR!!! (Or is it?)
Reporters covering the coronavirus keep referring to this as a war. So too do health-care personnel, politicians, and commentators. Certainly there are enough aspects of this pandemic to warrant the war analogy. We hear about the president's War Powers Act, wartime...
Taking care of ourselves serves humanity
As shamanic energy medicine practitioners, we are called to serve. We are stewards of the earth, bringing beauty and healing to all life. We serve as a bridge between the visible world of form and the invisible world of energy and spirits. Particularly during this...
BEYOND SURVIVAL: Managing Fear and Anxiety with the Invisible Predator
“The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.” —Max Lucado As this crisis continues to unfold it becomes increasingly challenging to know how to deal with what it triggers for the...
Feeling Small
As the coronavirus spreads around the earth, we may teeter on the brink of despair. Despair that there’s nothing we can do, or despair that things are not going to get better, or despair that the good things may be gone forever. I’d like to wallow in this despair for...
Walking the Edge of Cultural Appropriation
The young man was goth-like, pale and pimply, dressed in a long black coat and lecturing to a circle of listeners at an Earth First! gathering in the western wilderness. The subject of his talk was the cultural appropriation of earth-based spiritual traditions. He had...
The Corona Virus: The Bigger Picture
By this time you probably have had your fill of reading about the corona virus, to wash your hands and keep them away from your face, where it is striking in the world and how many people have contracted it. Since many people have requested it, here I will try to...
Interview with GOGO EKHAYA ESIMA
SSP Board President Jaime Meyer interviews 2019 Eagle Feather Award recipient Gogo Ekhaya Esima, a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in the mental health field, a trauma survivor, a Spiritual Coach, and initiated healer in the South African Sangoma tradition. SSP’s...
Re-imagining Imbolc
Astronomically, February 1 is the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox. In the Celtic shamanic tradition, this is an important day dedicated to the Goddess Brigid. SSP offers you this overview of the Celtic Goddess of new life, of new fire, Brigid,...
WHAT DOES ACTING HAVE TO DO WITH SHAMANISM?
Several years ago during a shamanic training I had with Michael Harner, he said something that stayed with me for a long time. He commented in an off-handed manner, “Some of the best shamanic practitioners are actors.” I puzzled for some time as to what he meant by...
The Journey of Rewilding
This year I returned to beekeeping and bought a package of honeybees for the first time. I’ve avoided packaged bees and prefer to catch swarms because in the process of swarming the bees have proven their vigor. I wanted a sure thing, though, so I shelled out $180 for...
Advice from Elders
The Society for Shamanic Practice asked a few "Shamanic Elders”—those who have walked the path for some time—to share their thoughts on things they wished they had learned earlier on the path. In no particular order, here is some "advice from elders." Laurie Schmidt:...
Book Review of The Energetic Dimension by Ann M. Drake
As I begin to write this review of Ann Drake's excellent new book The Energetic Dimension, Americans are trying to make sense of the two most recent shootings over the weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which together left 31 people dead and many more...
Interrelationship As the Foundation for Shamanism and Life
Much is written about the mystical and spiritual dimensions of shamanism, including how to work with the Elements, the nature of shamanic journeying, and the ins and outs of soul-level healing. However, what can get lost in the mix is the perspective underpinning all...
Authentic Self, Authentic Shaman
We live in a time when authentic shamanic work is deeply needed. But "authenticity" has been so grossly overused, it doesn’t mean much anymore. You do not search for authenticity. Rather, your life is meant to be an expression of your authentic self. The first work...
Rumi’s Field
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.” —Rumi We've described the United States and other nations as polarized for so long now it seems this condition is normal. Government, societies, churches, schools, towns, families,...
Exploring the Shamanic Landscape
What should I journey about? It can be one of the most common questions a shamanic practitioner faces as they sit down with their drum. The fact that the landscape of the spirit world is truly limitless only serves to complicate the issue. There are many reasons to...
An Extraordinary House Clearing in New Mexico
In January there was a tragic incident that took place in a rural house outside of New Mexico. A husband who I will call Fred and his wife were involved in a custody battle over their three-year-old son. The mother had moved out and the boy was staying with his father...
Running for Macha – Championing the Goddess, the Earth and Lady Sovereignty
Dark eyes, the color of rich, loamy soil, hold my gaze. “Would you run for me?” The woman’s voice spills across my shoulders and down my back before drifting upon the breeze. The green grass of a running field stretches to my left. Out of view, horses chuff and stamp...
Witnessing Tree Spirits In Ordinary Reality
Our property on the Bay of Quinte is home to several species of native trees. In one area we call the glen, we’ve been witnessing an ongoing onslaught by invasive insects. Over a period of three to four years we watched helplessly as a group of ash trees slowly lost...
Tying Knots of Wind
When the first wind breathed life upon planet earth, no one was there to listen. As the planet evolved, people settled in places where the wind already lived. Wind was here before any of us, and informed all of life with the sublime wisdom of the ages. Wind is the...
The Legacy of Michael Harner: A Tribute from the SSP Board of Directors
MICHAEL HARNER 1929-2018 Michael Harner began his personal journey into shamanism in 1956-57 working as an anthropologist among the Shuar (Jívaro) and Conibo peoples of the Amazon. In time he became recognized as a shaman by many indigenous people in North and South...
Healing the Vibration of Trauma in the Land
For twenty-two years I studied with a gifted shamanic healer in Malaysian Borneo. Each time I went to apprentice with the late Ismail Daim, I felt the surge of the spirits of the land rush out to meet me as I stepped off the plane. The spiritual aspect of one’s...
The Peaceful Passing of Elsa Malpas
The local community here in Glastonbury was saddened to hear of the death of Elsa Malpas, who passed peacefully into spirit on the 18th November 2018. Elsa, along with her partner Howard, contributed significantly to the shamanic community in the UK, and particularly...
What Shall We Do About Sedna?—A Feminine Possibility.
“If we allow a story to enter into us, we also enter the psychic ground held in that tale. A story reads us as much as we read it. As the Aboriginal hunters of Australia say, “You can’t hunt in the tribal lands until the country knows you!” By entering the symbolic...
What You Should Know About Taking Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca: A Brief Helpful Manual Currently tens of thousands of people are exploring the visionary medicine known as ayahuasca, huasca, yaje, (and many other names) both in South America and around the world. Many seek the experience out of curiosity and sometimes...
Follow Your Name
“I received a letter containing an account of a recent suicide: ‘My friend jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge two months ago. She had been terribly depressed for years. There was no help for her. None that she could find that was sufficient. She was trying to get from...
On the journey of Bonnie Horrigan…
In Loving Memory Bonnie became SSP's first executive director when the organization was founded as the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. If not for her organizational skills and passion, we as a society would not exist. We are sad to announce that Bonnie Horrigan...
RHYTHM, DRUMMING, AND SHAMANISM
In the Beginning, There Was the Beat When you came into this life, your first felt experience was the sensation of rhythm. Not the sound, but the sensation of rhythm. Before you could hear, see, or think, you were unadulterated physicality—pure instinctual and primal...
Our Legacy to Our Children: A Shamanic Parenting Story
With so much focus today on consumerism, materialism, and corruption of power in the world, we have to wonder what is happening to our children. We live in a society that rewards people for overproduction, consumption, and mindlessly following what we are told. These...
Why Poetry?
Like shamans, poets have visionary experiences which they share with others through their poetry. If a poem is mystical, or even semi-mystical, it resonates with something deep within us. We feel that our souls understand the poet's vision. Aristotle said that image...
Western Fire Season 2018
As the fires rage in California and throughout the west, I have been prodded to respond by those who know me as a shamanic practitioner whose specialized work is with earth healing, nature spirits, and elementals. I feel and sense the frantic plea for help: “Stop the...
Healing Trauma: A Shamanic Approach
Trauma can leave imprints in our energy body that influence our current life. These imprints cause us to attract people and experiences that recreate and repeat the traumatic stories. Both psychology and shamanism support this idea. Indeed, science is now able to show...
Medicine for the Soul in the Wake of Abuse
Sadly, traumatic events in the form of abuse, harassment, community violence and/or environmental degradation darken our news headlines nearly every day. Research documents a startling prevalence of one particular aspect of trauma - childhood abuse and neglect. The...
Shamanic Features of C.G. Jung’s Red Book Experience
A Braided Path My professional career began in 1973 as a school psychologist. I spent most of my time providing psycho-educational assessments and consultations to parents and teachers. Later in the 1970s, I trained in hypnotherapy and then a “de-hypnotic” method of...
Praying at the River
Unless they are flooded and overflowing their banks, rivers pretty much keep to themselves, flowing through channels cut into the land since ancient times. Although many rivers are powerful, even mighty, they can become somewhat helpless in the face of human abuse. ...
Being in Right Relationship with Our Indigenous Teachers
In this audio José Stevens explores cultural appropriation through the lens of being in 'Right Relationship' with our indigenous teachers....
Shamanism & Astrology
This is an interview with shamanic astrologer, Pat Liles and SSP board member Lena Stevens. In this interview Lena and Pat explore the shamanic roots of astrology and touch on some of the big shamanic themes in astrology that are relevant today. Pat shares how she...
In Memory of Claude Poncelet
June 20, 1937 – March 18, 2018 Obituary Written By: Jonathan Horwitz When a person’s soul leaves their body, it is common to say that person has “died.” Those of us who practice shamanism may say the person has “left the land of the living.” Many of us who practice...
Our Unspent Grief: The Lost Art of Keening
Perhaps no other story in Celtic mythology demonstrates more succinctly the unbearable weight of grief than that of the great hero, Cu Cuchlainn at the death of his son, Connla. The young warrior’s death comes tragically and unwittingly at Cu Cuchlainn’s own hand,...
An Interview with Nepalese Shaman, Bhola Banstola
This year’s winner of the SSP Eagle Feather Award is Bhola Banstola, a 27th generation medicine person from Nepal. For many years, Bhola has taught extensively throughout the world. Recently he has turned attention toward making ethnographic and shamanic healing...
THE LAND THAT KNOWS ME: MY SPARROW FRIENDS IN NEW YORK’S CENTRAL PARK
“Nearness to nature... keeps the spirit... in touch with the unseen powers.” ~ Charles Eastman, Ohiyesa It was after I became a Pipe carrier on the Red Road (Native American spirituality) a few years ago that I slowly began to understand that I must work with the...
Seeing the World as Magic
Becoming an astrologer was not part of my life plan. The shift came for me during a shamanic journey at a dream workshop, cues that my life plan, as such, had already taken some strange turns. In this journey, I met a being who introduced himself as Mercurius and said...
Facing the Archetypal Forest
Excerpted from Chapter One of Lessons in Astrology as Magic by Dana Gerhardt Shadows can erupt at the most inconvenient moments or sabotage us quietly over time. They might also bring great gifts. Living at the fringes of our nature, they break the rules, assault our...
Venus Alchemy: Shamanic Descent and Rebirth
Bright morning star's a-rising, Bright morning star's a-rising, Bright morning star's a-rising, Day is a-breaking in my soul. --American Folk Song, Author Unknown It was 5:30 am on a cold November morning in downtown Albuquerque. We were a circle of eight women...
Shamanic Wisdom of the Planets and the Sky
Based on the Teachings of The Shamanic Astrology Mystery School In May of 1990, Daniel Giamario, founder of the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm, invited me to attend a talk he was giving in Tucson, Arizona. Little did I know that event would forever change my life in ways...
Shamanism & Astrology: My Enchanted Cosmos
Please note that this is the 1st in a series of 4 articles from 4 different authors on the topic of Shamanism & Astrology. I spent much of my twenties sitting in Friday-night ceremonial circles with my mentor, author and ecofeminist Eileen “ike” West. We didn’t...