As an elder, shamanic practitioner or an experienced walker on the path; what teachings would you have liked to receive in the beginning stages of your journey?

As an elder shamanic practitioner, I wish my early mentors had provided more information and practices about spiritual cleansing, both personal and for spaces. Simply using burning sage is not enough and it took many years of experiential learning to recognize how important this practice is and how to clear myself and spaces completely. In my classes I include the use of powerful medicinal herbs for clearing a space, for steaming and bathing as well as practices for setting clear boundaries and standing in one’s sovereingty. Spiritual hygiene is an essential and often overlooked component of any healer’s practice. ~ Gretchen Crilly McKay

I was taught so much in the early days- by two wonderful and humble teachers. There is very little I wish was different, but maybe there are two perspectives I may have found helpful in those early days.

I was warned about letting my ego take credit for the outcome of my work…and some of it was spectacular! But my teachers were right. I was very impressed with myself and what spirit could do.

So, there are two insights about traveling in the spirit world I would have welcomed in the early days: first, strategies to soothe my ego into stepping out of the picture…..and strengthen my relationship with my spirit guides; secondly, receive encouragement to explore increasingly greater areas of the spirit world. I have found that the more places I visit, with my power animal, the more expansive my learning and my ability to help others.

That you can negotiate with your spirit helpers on the ‘how’, on the ‘material form’ of the homework they give you.

I knew that shamans in my tradition went through a terrible and very literal death-and-rebirth, because I came to the tradition after that had happened. I didn’t know that there wasn’t going to be just one but multiple times, as the Gods and spirits keep refining us. (Don’t know whether any other tradition has this issue, but mine did, and you asked what I would most have wanted to know.)

Also, I didn’t know that the Gods and spirits would continually throw me into the deep end, setting me up in circumstances I hadn’t been trained to handle, but They felt that I could figure it out, and just said, “You know what to do, even if you don’t know you know it. Stop fussing and listen.” I managed, but it was sometimes scary.

I didn’t know that I would get clients from many other traditions, including indigenous traditions, and end up having to make offerings and communicate with Gods and spirits from all sorts of ancestral traditions in order to broker deals, even if I’d never met them and had no idea Who they were. “Uh .. there’s a Mexican goddess talking to me right now … she’s sort of red and green…”

In general, I could have used more information about the Gods and spirits of my tradition, and the difficult things They may ask of us. That’s why I will never leave an apprentice without this information.