Foundation Practices of Practical Shamanism

Foundation Practices of

Practical Shamanism

              

Let’s Begin!!!   Steps for your PRACTICE

 In Native America we call “making Medicine” as anything we can do to help or to heal.  Before we “make Medicine” as practitioners of Practical Shamanism, we follow time proven steps for our own safety, for a more effective practice and to maintain harmony and balance in nature.  These steps are:

1.    Release ego, become a hollow bone, a clear channel

2.    Power Up

3.    Cleanse and protect your practice space

4.    Align yourself with your Personal God Source

5.    Make your “Medicine” for helping or healing

6.    Release negativity.  Clear yourself and your space

7.    Recharge, Give Thanks and Know that all is in Divine Order

 We can talk about releasing ego and becoming a hollow bone, but talk is cheap.  This work is not an intellectual pursuit, but a fairly gut retching painful job in the real world.  The Shaman’s doorway is the heart.  The step of releasing ego and becoming a hollow bone is often the result of a Shaman’s death experience.  Near Death Experiences, loss of personal possessions and other tragedies finally bring us to the point of Letting Go and Letting God.  In traditional shamanic cultures, vision quests, prayer vigils on mountain tops and other strenuous rites of passage in non-ordinary reality moved the process along. 

 
Right now, I find that the biggest block to our becoming hollow bones is lack of forgiveness by us to others.  Therefore, we will focus on forgiveness processes and other ancient and modern ways to release painful memories, core trauma and emotional blockages as we move further along in the practice and in the path to becoming hollow bones.

As a matter of practicality we will begin the study with the basics of powering up with circular breath.  Then balancing and building clarity with triangular smudging will be studied.  Also, the practice of clearing and cleansing your energy body (aura) and your living space is very important to beginners and advance students.  After all, you brush your teeth each morning to avoid tooth decay.  Equally important, is to avoid your own energy decay and that of others while you are on a fast track of shamanic learning.  To pray, heal, meditate, gain dreamtime knowledge, vision and live in balance, these practices are most valuable because the higher frequency energy required in these practices begins with clarity in mind, body and environment.

 Circular Transformative Breath and Triangular Smudging

The First Few Steps Through the Shaman’s Doorway

 Several years ago, during a shamanic journey, I was flown on White Eagle’s back to a large nest overlooking the world.  White Eagle is a Spirit Doctor, an ancient master shaman who vowed to stay close to Earth after his death in order to help and heal.  He is the superintendent of the White Eagle School of Shamanic Healing Arts. His special gift to my students is as a matchmaker between master healers in the spirit world and healers working in our reality so that these “spirit doctors” can continue to work through us.  When he finds a frequency match, an alliance begins.  In this way we can reclaim “lost knowledge” and invent creative answers to new health challenges with the help of masters who have gone before.

 I was told by White Eagle to brief you on two basic disciplines for building power and awareness and for building clarity in your dreams and visions.  These disciplines are the first steps Through the Shaman’s Doorway.  These disciplines are those on which all future knowledge is built and help in the process of gaining and cementing ties to your Spirit Doctors, animal, plant and stone allies.  These disciplines are circular transformative breathing and triangular smudging. 

 I first became aware of circular transformative breathing through reading an interview with Dhyani Ywahoo, a Cherokee medicine woman, founder of the Sunray Meditation Society, Chief of the Green Mountain Cherokee, and author of Voices of Our Ancestors – Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire.  When she said that one way Cherokee people stay young looking is the use of this discipline, I said, “That’s for me!”.  My vanity led me to take a step which would forever change my life for the better.  As my own practice of circular breath grew, I increased my ability to stay clear, focused and strong in shamanic journey, meditation, dreamwork and in my healing practice.  The practice has also helped me to stay young looking and acting.  I’ve since found this same discipline in use by many other shamanic cultures.  It closely resembles practices taught by monks from Tibet who practice ancient Atlantean knowledge.

 Truth is Truth anywhere!  Real truth is usually simple.  It abides by the Universal Laws of Nature and is available to all who can tune into their celestial and DNA broadcasting stations!  Complicated teachings are man’s ego making simple natural laws difficult.  This simple technique can help you stay stable while the rest of the world is shaken up by earthquake energy, electromagnetic field shifts, and other natural and manmade disasters.  Think about it.  Where on a globe is the most stable point?  The center is, of course.  So, if you have an energy axis anchored to the core of the Earth and one to the Sun or Grandmother Moon, wouldn’t you be more stable in turbulent times?

 

Circular Transformative Breathing

The first step in circular breathing is to sit erect in a straight back chair with legs uncrossed or sit on the ground.  Imagine all the tensions of the day draining from the top of your head down through your body and exiting in a spiral from your root chakra and feet into the molten core/center of the Earth to be transmuted.  Second, on the in-breath, actively draw energy from the Earth’s center, spiraling through the many layers of rock, dirt, underground water, through the floor to the root, up your back, through the spine to the top of your head.  This energy trail is the River of Life.  Third, on the out-breath, allow in a passive receptive state, the energy from Father Sky, the Sun, Moon and Celestials to flow down the front River of Life of your body from head to root.  Begin again the in-breath up your back.  When you have the visualization down, begin to breathe to the count of 7 up, hold 4, 7 down, hold 4, etc.  Also breathe in your nose and out of your mouth.

 It is very important to keep the tip of your tongue right behind your teeth at the roof of your mouth so as to make a complete circuit of energy on the front of your circle.  It is helpful to see and feel the circle as bright neon and make the pathway of energy easier to follow.  In class I will trace this circle with my intent, visualization and rattle or drum to build a stronger path for you to follow.  As in everything, practice makes perfect.  Do this for ten minutes each day and you’ll be refreshed, energized and glow like a light bulb!

 Since the illusion of disease comes from a disharmony in the natural pattern of our perfection, and manifests in a lack or trauma of our energy field, building and reinforcing our River of Life with Circular Breathing can go a long way in helping a body correct its own imbalances.  Because we engage in an active pulling up on the in-breath from the core of the Earth and a passive flowing down of energy from a celestial on the out-breath, we also balance our male/female energies in this practice.  So I think you can see why this is such a good place to start your experience of Practical Shamanism.

Triangular Smudging

The next process that White Eagle wishes to impress on you is the discipline of smudging.  Smudging is the ritual purification of a person, place, or thing using the burning of sacred herbs such a cedar, sage, sweet grass, lavender, copal, or pine.  In class we use a mixture of cedar for purification and protection, sage for clearing negativity and lavender for bringing the essence of love and increased ability to journey.  I use sweet grass after sage for bringing balance, and the sweet spirits.  You can use a seashell, turtle shell, or a pottery dish for a smudge container.  Light the smudge and use a feather to fan the smoke over your body.

One student at my Nashville White Eagle School found smudging nearly saved her sanity and health.  She was a social worker calling on some of the most angry, depressing places in the city.  She keeps smudge in her car and uses it between calls to clear the negativity that cleans to her energy field like de-energizing psychic lint.  Just a tiny leaf of California White Sage stuck on a safety pin to burn in the ashtray of her car was a life saver.  Thus she could offer a clear, helpful and healing attitude to all her clients.  Try it!  For interstate and big city driving this safety pin trick is a must!  I certainly could have never brought the XAT Native American Medicine Society’s Ceremonial Drum into the exercise yard of Tennessee’s Death Row and held a ceremony with the Native American Circle there without a whole lot of sage smudging during and afterward!

A few years ago, the ancestors and the Little People gave the late Dorrine Running Deer, a fellow shamanic practitioner, a special triangular smudging practice for clarity and balance.  It goes far beyond to traditional practice of smudging.  Like the circular breathing, this practice helps to balance us between Earth and Sky.

Too many students of metaphysics get so involved with the top three gateways (chakras) that they forget the root, navel and solar plexus.  The top gateways of crown, throat and heart bring energy down from Father Sky.  The lower gateways of root, navel and solar plexus draw energy from the Earth into our energy body so that we can function in the here and now and manifest our good intent.  The heart draws energy from the Middle World in which we live and is the Shaman’s Doorway.  Too much attention to the top chakras makes for a real spacey person who may have good ideas but just can’t make it happen.

We were born to be in balance.  If we spend time in close communion with Mother Earth and Father Sky we are naturally balanced by their energies.  However, our dependence on false sources of energy, far away from the original source such as computers, television, video games, cell phones, etc.  weakens us and warps our natural energy balance.  Remember, simple is better!  So, you see, a triangular healing form to balance, add clarity and to help cement our Mother Earth – Father Sky connection is very important!

The first step in triangular smudging is to power up with circular breathing and affirmation.  See the affirmations on the following pages and choose one.  Or use a Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer or other such positive, God centered power building statements.  Light your smudge.  Set you intention for healing, balance and clarity.  Feel these qualities in yourself.  Open up to be a hollow bone for Spirit to work through.  Then blow the smudge smoke through the heart of the friend you are working on with the intention of healing balance and clarity.  See and feel the smoke clearing away any darkness from the heart. 

Have your friend hold their arms out to the side.  Next, in a clockwise manner, fan the smoke from the heart (to your left) to the tip of their finger.  Then fan the smoke in a triangle to the top of the head and back down (to your right) to the other fingertip.  Then fan the smoke fingertip to fingertip across the body to complete the bottom of the first triangle.

From there, fan the smoke diagonally down to the Earth at the toes, and then diagonally back up to the fingertip and across the heart to complete the bottom triangle.  You are moving in a figure eight direction except the pattern you are drawing is triangles.  Make your triangles nice and crisp because the sacred geometry is much of the “Medicine” here.  I also go up to the head and smudge of the top of the head at this point.

Now turn your friend around and do the same thing in the back.  You’ll make a figure eight movement as you draw two triangles joined at the base.  This geometric form works with the way energy comes into your body from Mother Earth, Father Sky, and environment is processed into vital life force.

The Triangular Smudge Ceremony is a great gift for a friend who is spacey, out of balance, needs to get a grip on reality, or has experienced trauma.  Later on we’ll learn how to use this pattern and add two other geometric planes to make a tetrahedron – which is the ultimate balancing form in Nature.  This Triangular and Tetrahedronal healing form can be followed with your own breath or by drawing the energy form with rattles, drums, feather wands or crystal healing wands.

Use these two simple disciplines of Practical Shamanism and you’ll find your first steps Through the Shaman’s Doorway very gratifying!

More about Smudging!

We will discuss smudging which is a form of ritual cleansing using a variety of herbs and/or incense in more detail because it is so important to your healing practice.  Coming from a Native American background myself and because these herbs are so available locally in Nature, I suggest you use a mixture of sage, cedar, and lavender. ( I make this and sell it. it's called Dreamtime Smudge) There are other herbs which do the same thing in other cultures, and if those are your culturally accepted herbs, then use them.  However, a basic natural law of Herb Medicine is to use herbs from your own Medicine Wheel, which is a fifty mile radius of you home.  This is because the Earth energy of the plants is the same as you and your home and will be more in harmony with you.

I use the sage, cedar, lavender mixture because it works on several levels for shamanic healing and purification.  Sage Cleanses and purifies any negative energy.  Cedar purifies and offers a protective shield. Lavender is also a powerful antimicrobial, it kills germs.  It has also been noted that the lavender essence attracts the Mother Mary/White Buffalo Calf Woman energies and releases stress!  All are very beneficial to our practice.

Put your smudge mixture in a large shell, a pottery dish, or a turtle shell.  If you use a turtle shell, line the bottom with a small pot pie tin so you won’t burn the bottom.  I use a turtle shell because it is taught that herbs mixed or otherwise used from a turtle shell are more powerful.  Many traditional American Indians teach that the smudge mixture is not to be blown on just to be fanned with a feather.  If this is your philosophy, follow it.  However the cedar, sage, lavender mixture is sometimes hard to start.  So, if you use your breath to start the fire, set you intention first for cleansing, protection, peace and love.  The breath is a powerful tool for shamanic healing.  Do not use it carelessly.

As you noticed from the preceding page, we discussed Circular Transformative Breathing.  This practice is the foundation of all others.  First the circular transformative breath work helps you stay in balance with the energy of the Earth and Sky thus avoiding much of the chaotic energy prevalent during these Earth Changes.  Second, circular transformative breath work helps you “power up” so that following the breath work, you can do more advanced practices.  How can you get to the top of the mountain with now gas?  Third, by visualizing the circle of energy around your body and letting your breath and vital life force energy around your body flow, you build a River of Life that eventually opens up your higher consciousness and improves your gifts of vision and healing.  As you are conducting your smudging activity, use the circular breathing technique.

Pause now to practice your circular breathing and then proceed!

Now that you have powered up, let’s work on the practice of cleansing your bedroom or other sacred space where you do meditation or healing.

 Smudging your Sacred Space to the 7 Directions

First, you power up using circular breath and affirmation.  For this technique I power up using the affirmation “I invoke the light of the Christ within.  I am a clear and pure channel.  Light is my guide”.  The more you say this, the more you open up to be a hollow bone for Spirit’s power to work through you.  Lighting your smudge bowl of cedar, sage and lavender, you fan the fire and release a good smoke.  Then, starting at any corner of the room, you go around the room clockwise, corner to corner making a wall of smoke to clear the room of any negative energy or entity.  As you offer the smoke to each corner you say, “Any energy or entity which is not for the highest good, be gone and go to the light!”

Say this with power, focused intent and conviction.  You might see or feel a dark shadow in human or animal form or a dark blob of thought form energy.  If so, just help this energy to the light.  I imagine a doorway of bright light to the heavenly planes above my head and using my feather I help move the energy through the doorway.  This is not that big of a deal!  I’ve taught all kinds of beginners this and they all do well!  If you sense the entity is a ghost they will be released easier if you give them the opportunity to speak their peace.  Then imagine them shrinking to a size that fits your hand and send them through the Doorway of Light.  You may mention to them that friends and loved ones are waiting for them on the other side of the Doorway of Light. 

Now after you’ve cleared the room, walk to the center of the room, holding your smudge bowl up to the ceiling and say, “I honor Father Sky”, now to the floor, “I honor Mother Earth”, and finally to your heart, “I honor the Spirit Within”.  So with this completes the Smudging Room Clearing to the Seven Directions.  Now Practice.

Smokeless Smudging

Many of us work in situations where it is not possible to use smoke.  Many nurses, counselors and teachers may find these techniques useful.  Others may have allergic reactions to the smoke.  If you are allergic to sage try using just cedar.  Her are two methods for smokeless smudging of a space and one for smudging yourself.  I have found these to be very effective and relative easy to learn.

Cleansing with the Violet Flame

The violet flame has been used through time as cleansing and transformative energy discipline.  I recently bought a “weight loss” meditation tape, which used the violet flame.  Many people associate the violet flame meditations with Saint Germaine.  The color violet calls the energy of healing masters and transmutes negativity.  The real “Medicine” here is the cleansing power of the color combined with your intent.  When using the violet flame, choose a time at home or office when nobody else is about (early or late).  You might want to combine lavender or amethyst stones with your cleansing.  They carry the same frequency.

First, you must power up using the Light Invocation and Circular Breathing.  As you become more tuned into your breath, begin to visualize and feel a spiral of energy coming up from the molten core of the Earth.  Breathe through your nose on each in-breath bringing the Earth energy up your back.  On each out-breath through your mouth see and feel a spiral of energy coming down from the sky.  Keep your tongue at the top of your mouth.  Fill your body with energy.  Now send the extra energy out of your solar plexus or heart.  Let this energy begin to build in front of you as a large ball.  Now see and feel this energy turn into a violet flame that grows and grows to fill the room.  You can affirm, “Any energy or entity, which is not for the highest good, be gone and transformed in the violet light”.  Then say a prayer of blessing for your workplace and all your relations there.

 Rattle Cleansing Ceremony

The rattle is a medicine tool that is of great use to all healers and visionaries around the world.  The sound of the rattle brings in the energy of the wind and the sky.  Many people store all the information in their mind in an auditory databank.  Others are visual or kinesthetic (feeling) and they store information in visual or feeling databanks.  The rattle can work more effectively on those who are programmed to store information in the auditory mode than any visionary or touch/feeling based healing method.  The rattles I build are gourd rattles filled with tiny crystals or semi-precious stones.  They amplify your healing intent more than those filled with beans or corn.

When you use a rattle, first smudge it. With your breath you can program your rattle when you blow you intention into it.  In this case we will blow through the handle and on the shaker with the intention of cleansing and protection.
Walking in a clockwise manner around the room, shake the rattle.  Using the circular breathing draw the energy in from the center of the Earth and down from the Sun and fill your body with this energy.  Continue the energy channeling and begin sending energy through your arm and out through the rattle.  With your intent, visualization and your feelings, experience the room as clearing of negative energy.  You may say the Light Clearing Affirmation, “Any energy of Entity which is not for the highest good, be gone and go to the light”.  You may also sing a song full of light to fill the room with light and love after you have cleansed it, rattling these energies around.  Follow the same pattern honoring Father Sky, Mother Earth and Spirit Within as you’re closing your practice.

The Rainbow Garment Cleansing

Nurses, coaches, salespeople, teachers, counselors, social workers, healers and housewives have all requested a way to smudge themselves with the least possible hassle. What you will need is a place and time to yourself.  Use your intent, power up, visualize and feel this Rainbow Cleansing.

First, imagine yourself being covered with a rubber glove type substance.  On top of the rubber glove is the negative energy field made of your own negative energy from out processed stress and negative energy that you pick up from the environment.  This energy hangs like psychic lint on your aura.  Next, begin to peel the rubber glove from your head down.  Don’t forget your arms and hands!  When you have peeled down to the ground, put your hands on the floor and see the negative energy being sent down through the layers of ground to the molten core of the Earth to be transmuted.  Next see and feel a beautiful rainbow robe of iridescent colors spiraling up from the Earth and pull this up around your body.  Pat this down all over your body to make sure it is a good fit.  Congratulations!  You have your celestial robes!