The Ritual of Healing in Our Modern Age

Tags

change, healing, psychology, ritual healing, shamanism

I would pose civilisations have survived ritualistically because they have associated a part of their spiritual health with the objects of their faith. Over the years peoples such as the Australian Aborigine, the North American Natives have had their spiritual icons or symbols stolen or better yet sold to the highest bidder. The loss of these artefacts and symbols leads civilisation to an impoverished end because symbols are owned and not felt. Rituals associate emotions and life with their ritual object. Each feather is a bird, each rattle a spiritual messenger, each crystal is a being. Our society is coming to an impoverished end in part due to the fact that the symbols of our spiritual culture are owned as opposed to felt.

One of the important aspects of ritual is that it brings us back to who we are or what we believe in, our perceptions of reality. Today in our society our perception of reality is created by things of the exterior as opposed to things of the interior. Rituals and symbols are an aspect of our culture, a residue of our culture investing our life with meaning.

Rituals and symbols can provide a structure which yield new meaning, as well as provide the context for milestone events such as the onset of menses or womanhood, a vision quest for the onset of manhood or marking solstice or equinox. Ritual and symbols are important as an identification of ourselves and how we are going to transform ourselves. Ritual allows us to separate our ordinary selves from our sacred selves. It provides a possibility to create the sacred time necessary to address important questions with the attention they deserve. Removing your shoes before entering sacred space is an act which allows you to see the space from another perspective; you step out of the ordinary (your shoes) and look again (barefoot… or with socks if you have to wear those silly things).

Rituals in groups can have the most meaning and the most power because they reinforce the unity of the community we need to sustain ourselves. Individuals develop personal rituals to signify their truth or what becomes their truth, but we restore our community by celebrating, honouring and ritualizing together.

Healing rituals ask that you take the journey towards your own transformation. We recognize our need for healing by our symptoms. Symptoms are a way of expressing something we are unable to say any other way. The soul speaks through the body in a language that most people can understand, pain… whether physical, spiritual or emotional. Instead of looking for the truth that it represents we almost always focus on the symptom itself.

Pain is an acknowledgment of something not right. Pain generally has a location, the location is a memory or a sense… our emotions, our experiences are energy stored in our body. The body responds in pain as an acknowledgment that you are either pushing away from the experience, burdened by the experience or holding onto the experience, or lastly it could be another experience coming in. The Elders of the Daagara peoples of West Africa believe that pain is two memories fighting, when the pain leaves it is because one of the body memories has lost and must leave. My training with a Sangoma from West Africa encouraged me to allow the thought that perhaps pain is the Universe telling me that I have to go inside and speak to my body to find out what is going on. To tell you that I have had 100% success with pain, would be untrue. I have however had very good success with myself and with my patients when I attempt to understand

In my role as a healer if someone comes to me for assistance due to some type of symptomatic condition, correcting the symptom will not solve the problem. I am sure we all know this. However, if I doctor the person for the condition which is causing the symptoms, then I will have truly assisted the person.

As an example a man came to me a few months ago for doctoring for depression. In
determining what needed to be done to be of most assistance to the man, I doctored him in such a way as to make his spirit able to be heard more powerfully. You see, he was working in an office type job, yet his spirit intended that he work in a job that was outdoors–or that he at least spent much more time in the wilderness. He has a choice: either follow his spirit or feel even worse. He won’t be able to hide from his spirit’s intent nearly as easily as it continually yells at him to get out of the office into the outdoors.

It is not enough to talk about our issues, it is not enough to confront our truths in private to rid ourselves of old dysfunctional learning you have to slay your dragons publicly. You cannot fulfill your dreams until you actually acknowledge them for others to see. Otherwise it is only your head doing your talking and your body doing the walking. Nothing is so absolute that it cannot be seen again from another perspective.

During ritual we are a projection of the Spirit World, the microcosm (us) and the macrocosm (the universe). It is in the process of the ritual we assign/attach/become one with the Spirits and the Ancestors developing a communal relationship between the ritualizers and the spirits with whom we are attempting to allay ourselves with. So the use of ritual not only gratifies and allows the inner spirit and the inner person to grow the use of ritual also moves us to a point of understanding and recognition of where we came from and what our future is. In other words, we attempt to recapture the initial event causing the wounding allowing us to move forward into our transformative healing experience. Ritual has the ability to slow us down physically, mentally and emotionally creating an opportunity to see and feel the anger, sadness, desolation and abandonment that created our initial wounding.

Sounds simple doesn’t it. Well it is and it is not. Ritual is a huge component of shamanism and shamanic work. Shamanism is a slow and steady path of healing supporting and moving with ritual allowing a person to connect to Spirit, an essential component to our health and peace. In order to make that connection the doctor and the patient have to slow down and look deep within his or herself to see what lies beneath the mask and the façade. It is a slow and at times arduous process to tear oneself down and open eyes fresh to see the truth behind the masks. I think that our modern attitude of do what feels right, although inviting and seductive in its simplicity and its immediacy is a lack of respect to the process and the pact that was before us. And what was before us is again inevitably ahead of us. We must have a path that grounds us, that keeps us solid, keeps us moving. That is not to say that spontaneous ritual does not provide that for the ritualizer however I question the ability of a spontaneous ritual to have the same effect, ie depth, that a learned ritual would have.

In order to remember things we have to slow down, in order to learn we need to slow down and remove the barriers, we have to face what is inside. It is the facing of ourselves that can be the most frightening.

 

 

Dreams: Shadows bring Shadows

Tags

dreams, psychology, soul

I really like night time dreams. Over the years, I have recorded many dreams in an attempt to understand the language of my personal psyche. Dream images are not always clear and concise. I interpret, for most dreams, each aspect of the dream is myself, an aspect of my psyche. The benefit of dreams, is that the parlance, between the conscious aspects of psyche, and the unconscious aspects, can be deeper, than in a simple waking conscious. Psyche will choose images and content I am familiar with, in order to get my attention. Dreams are important tools, allowing me another glimpse into my self, aiding in a deeper understanding.

On Dec 13 (yesterday) I wrote a bit about Shadow. I like talking about Shadow, my thoughts on it and the work I have done with it. Last night I had very interesting dreams. I had one, in particular, which dealt with shadows in the guise of shadowy figures, getting lost, seeing the “right road” just over “there”, without a way to get there. In one part of my dream, while searching for the right road, I chose to walk through alleys, and across a dark field. In the shadowy darkness were people, people who were “not good”. At one point in my dream, a younger woman comes from out the shadows and tells me “you shouldn’t talk to strangers” . During the dream I recall thinking I was not afraid of the people in the shadows. I had already spoken to some of them. and had not had any issues.

At the start of my dream I was travelling to a house, outside of my community, with an address that was unclear. Kind of like Millwoods, a suburb in Edmonton!! LOl I was able to get to the house, without a problem. When I was leaving, I started walking, instead of driving. This indicates to me that I wanted to explore my landscape slowly and on my own. I got turned around very quickly. I went down dark streets, through dark alleys and into dark fields, attempting to find the road I need to travel on, to get back home.

Writing about Shadow, spurred my psyche to send me dreams, to test the work I have done with shadow. Getting lost,can mean, I need to pay attention to what is around me. The dark alleys and field were ways for me to work into the scary places, and feel safe doing so. A warning sign, in the guise, of a human came through. Acting like that little voice “are you sure you are going to be okay”; as well as shadow saying “don’t talk to me I am not safe”. If I had not worked as hard as I had through the years, understanding, and making friends with shadow, I may have been afraid.

In a separate dream, later last night, I returned to my starting place, a house. Houses, in my dreams, can indicate my soul, or my core self. My boyfriend was there. I am a lesbian, I know, therefore, men in my dreams, or males in general, are my Animus (masculine) side working with me. We united in the dream and left the house. I realized upon exiting I had turned the wrong way on the sidewalk, leading to my initial confusion. Again we left my car behind. I do remember keeping track of where we walked, in order for me to return for my car. I think, that, is years of soul retrieval work, and training coming into play. Never leave a vital piece of myself behind!

Upon reflection of my dream, I had to ask myself if I felt I had left myself vulnerable by discussing my own healing journey. I also reflect, I am constantly changing and growing. All of me is open to review. I also asked myself, if I wrote deeply enough about shadow. My dreams last night leave me feeling pretty peaceful regarding the deep work I have done. I realize, even with everything I have done, there will always be shadows. There will always be opportunity to explore the alleys and fields, and I can do that without fear. I am comfortable with my shadows, I can make friends with my shadows. I had rich dreams, rife with symbols, and images meaningful to me.

So… now what dreams may come??

SHAMANISM AND THE SHADOW

Tags

psychology, shamanic healing; rattle; extraction; soul retrieval

Over the years Shamanism has helped me to explore my psyche. The definition of Psyche for me, is, all the psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious. Journey work, ceremonies, rituals and many hours devoted to healing ceremonies, have all shaped me. I have been able, to integrate conflicting aspects of myself. My passion for the shamanic journey has helped me to connect with the Cosmic Psyche. Mixing and Mingling my unique, as indeed we are all unique, psyche with the Cosmic Psyche has created an opportunity to develop the power, and self-knowledge, for me to dive into some of the areas of my Darkest Self, My Shadows.

My ongoing apprenticeship, while on the Shamanic path, has led me to recognize, reckon with, and even battle the forces of the Shadow. Shamanic healing causes me to truly see the nature of some illnesses, while seeking a cure for my patients. (I wish to specify I use the word “patient”, in it’s true etymology as “one who suffers”) I have walked right up the gates of my own Underworld, Lowerworld, Personal Hell, and knocked (three times ;)) before walking in. I have to, and continue to, confront and conquer my own shadows. They appear in guises such as; fear, loneliness, abandonment, self-importance, addiction, unlovable, to name a very few. I have had to unflinchingly confront my own Shadow. This has given me the eyes to see the evil of others, the shadows of others, to successfully deal with forces of Darkness.

Shamanism, has taught me, a language apart from my work colleagues & even some of my friends. I have another post referring to Compassionate Depossession. In Edmonton depossession is not a word commonly spoken. I know, because, I have brought it up in casual (and spiritual) conversations. Not for shock value (alone), but to bring awareness to a very real aspect, of spiritual, and physical, reality. We simply, do not believe, that the dead, can actually inhabit our bodies. We have been given, the dramatic story telling version of possession in popular movies and books. Possession does not look like a body floating up out of a chair, twisting in the air, and puking black goo on the floor. I do not deny, that this manifestation of possession can happen, it has just never happened to me. I have experienced profound shifts, in my self, after being the patient in a Compassionate Depossession. It was a challenge, first to admit possession just might be real, and, then, to release enough self control, to allow another Being the space to speak, and leave my body. It had, and still has, a profound affect on me. My patients often come to me with symptoms ranging from new addictions, to negative thought patterns, to physical behaviour, that just does not feel like their own. Possessions can be very subtle, to quite overt. Shadow can have a voice, it may not always be yours however.

We also don’t speak the language of curses. Curses are a misunderstood concept, and often applied to actions that simply have little, or no, affect on us. A curse manifested for me in the physical by continuously, painfully, and badly, spraining my ankles. Shamanic journeys can take you back in time. I went back in time, to another life, where I had my feet shattered for running away. Using techniques, I had acquired over the years, I was able to rectify the body memory of the event, healing my ankles. I have not sprained my ankles since February 2011. This is the longest I have had healthy legs since I was 13, I am 48.

Through dealing with my own Shadow, and coming to terms with that Shadow self, I have gained peace of mind and balance. Shamanism, is a path, which requires the walker, to deal with personal fears, and inner demons. I could not help anyone, if I recommend a healing journey, I had not taken, and had great success with. Sounds easy, right? Just knock on the door to your personal hell (I suggest three knocks), walk in, face yourself, and voila – chango presto “New Self”!! Sigh. Not quite. Once you have decided to work with your shadows, they seem to increase. Once we have removed one layer, low and behold, there seems to be another. Shamanism does not allow the seeker to wear a mask. I often tell my students, “in shamanism, there is no such thing as a lie”. This is not a path one chooses lights. If, indeed, one even has a choice. I used to quote the Bible in reference to my Shamanic path “Many are called, few are chosen”.

A Moment With a Movie

Tags

dreams, movie, psychology, soul

 

 

The movie “The Boy In The Striped Pyjama’s” was a fascinating story regarding awakening, duty, innocence and loss. It was a movie regarding a journey with the tribe. Three aspects of tribe were represented by the family, the military and the country. The movie is based in Germany during the second world war.

The first chapter of the movie explored the safe tribe. It was artistically filmed in a beautiful big house with contrasting colors of rich deep wood, rich colors on the walls and in the carpets, deep laughter and genuine happiness. There was one dissenting voice; the grandmother’s voice, the Crone. I reflected on how many myths and stories I had read contained the warning, or shrewd, voice of the Crone. The Grandmother in the movie looked fondly upon her grandchildren. I interpreted her worry for the loss of her grandchildren’s innocence. As I look deeper into the film I see my own reflection of safety and comfort. Innocence lives in richness. It lives with alive colors. Our innocence rests in places nothing can touch. In each of us rests a Crone or The Sage, the wise old voice shouting at us something is wrong. Often, however, we are too young, or too innocent, or too naive or unwilling to hear the words of our Elders.

The mother was innocent and, I interpreted her, as unwilling to hear what is actually happening and what danger lies ahead of her. In stories she is often cast as the young woman constantly looking into the trees, or onto the horizon, with a niggling something bad is happening, but simultaneously distracted by the goodness of the life she has. She is the part of our psyche that paces our subconscious, knowing the Crone is calling, but not quite old enough, wise enough, or willing enough to listen.

The main character is a young boy who loves his life, but appears to be born with a strong intuition. He knew he was sad to leave, and, yet we are led to believe he sensed where he was going would not be to his liking. He was very aware of his surroundings and the moods of the adults in his world. The vigilant aspect of our psyche.

Our innocence is often our saving grace. We do not see the world beyond us. Innocence is not lost to the future, rather it is preserved in the present. The little boy is playing with his friends on his last morning in the warm, rich, safe house. We see wide hallways, where they are chasing one another. Wide hallways in stories are the easy paths. The paths where there is nothing lurking. Playing with his friends the morning he leaves, interprets as the rise of innocence. The prime time of the young; the morning, when, not yet anything has marred the day. I found it to be a very ominous scene, not unlike the ominous adventure that was awaiting him.

The move to the country side is beautifully filmed. The house they move into it concrete, harsh, contrasting colors, dark floor (watch the soil of evil under your feet), high windows (best not be to seen from), cold colors, cold senses. A stark contrast to the first place the psyche dwelt. I noted that each round window has bars on it, the detail followed to even the round lights on the walls had cages around them. How would you, dear reader, interpret the symbolism to that?

Houses in stories, in our dreams, often represent where we find our soul dwelling, where we find our comforts. The deeper the house goes, generally the deeper we are asked to look into ourselves. The higher the house goes, the loftier the ideas of ourselves go. Perhaps as well, our higher consciousness is being challenged and asked to join in our spiritual and intellectual conversation. The house artistically, flawlessly, portrayed the stark, rigid reality the boy and his family were moving into.

The father, the masculine aspect of the psyche, in our movie is a rigid man. He reminded me of Bluebeard. His innocent wife was told to keep the children out of the backyard. In fact, in the movie we see the backyard as being impenetrable. Un-breach-able. The father is the German military presence. Rules, warrior, controlling, an overseer. Much like Bluebeard, he gives his wife and children a big sprawling house, no connection to the outside world (unless escorted off the property by a driver), no connection to other children. Isolated.

In our own lives our psyche is often isolated from our more conscious actions. We often act behaviourally, from our unconscious selves. The aspects of our first through third chakras. The young boy acts from a place of innocence and guilelessness. He is dismayed to be trapped in the house, in the small yard. Much like the adventurer of our own soul, it is unhappy to be locked in small places, no matter how attractive they may be. The adventurer and innocent part of us is constantly seeking stimulation outside, it looks for ways to escape.

We have another side to our innocence. It was portrayed in this movie as the twelve year old sister. She is on the praecipe of innocence lost. She was trying to break out of her innocent self. She played the part of us that wants to go along with society, finding comfort in belonging – buying into the sold, or consensus reality. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a living aspect of our collective soul. She represents the part of the story that gives us, the viewer, the listener, comfort by demonstrating safety in belonging and conformity. Even when her belief of the consensus as the ‘only’ way to live is challenged, she would not let go. It is like the complacent sister, or young captive, in any story we are told. It is the part of our psyche giving us permission to belong and be completely okay with belonging. She wanted to mature and grow up to blend into the collective personality.

The innocent, adventurer finds a way to escape the enclosed world. He used a window high up on a wall, to escape. This, to me, is again, asking the higher self, the higher consciousness, to become involved with the adventure. At the age of eight he cannot yet comprehend the world around him. He is still cocooned in fun and adventure. He ventures out of his family compound to explore and finds a German concentration camp very close to his house, where he meets his mirror, his twin psyche, behind the electric fence wearing what he believes are pyjama’s. Between them they try to find a language to understand why there is a fence between them. The trapped innocence has no ability to explain it to him. He has already been broken without the ability to question. Question often leads to misery. Many aspects of ourselves can identify with this aspect of self. The part of us told no 100 times. The part of us shunned for asking questions. The part of ourselves hidden away, knowing how cruel the consensus, over-culture can be.

It is similar to the struggle we face when we come to a place or time in our life when we need to go deeper to understand something. We have, as of yet, no language to create a different understanding. It is difficult to comprehend what we have not yet learnt about. It is the joy, and the frustration of innocence. On our path to understand ourselves more deeply, we are often challenged by our shadow side, the darker side of ourselves. The captured innocence, the innocence we have starved, beaten and thrown away, for fear of looking too closely at ourselves.  The adventure of our growth is attempting to make friends with our shadow innocence. The innocence that has been lost to us, often times through trauma.

As the story progresses the innocent wife finds the truth behind the door her husband tells her never to open. Much like Bluebeard, giving his wife all the keys, but forbidding her to use “this one” and never unlock “that door”. What is behind that door is death, decay and the deepest shadows and ugliness. Upon discovering his innocent wife has seen his true nature, Bluebeard must then, in his evil mind, kill his wife. The wife in the movie finds her loud and dissenting voice, admonishing  the overseer masculine psyche. The Feminine is Awakening. Her first instinct is the revolt in horror. To argue the emotional illogical reasoning behind locking in and killing ‘the shadow side’ of society. The final wife in Bluebeard kills her husband, although is some lesser tales the brothers rescue the sisters. However, our older stories generally acknowledged the feminine was fine and able to rescue herself.

As the story reaches its climax a horrible rain storm comes. Storms do not require an explanation. We understand them as portents to great danger and great change. The adventurous boy wants to help his friend behind the electric fence. He vows to dig under the fence and aid his friend in finding his father. Adventurous parts of us take on outlandish and risky roles and actions. Actions such as these, the fully conscious, consensus bound, aspect of our selves could never do. A vow made is made from the second chakra, the place of tribe. It is a vow that should never be broken. Ultimately, innocence pays the final price when it pays with its very life.

The tale is incredibly tragic. Not only is it tragic, it is also a reflection of the journey of our own soul, as we move through phases of innocence, adventure, loss and rebirth. The loss of the son/brother in the story is the moral lesson to each of the individuals remaining. The dark masculine, father, could not, even with his soldiers and fine dogs, rescue his son in time. The awakening feminine mother sees the hole under the fence, knowing, intuitively her son has sacrificed his life. The sister truly loses her innocence through the awareness her belief structure helped to fracture her existence, the loss of a sibling. A younger aspect of her own innocence.

We are constantly changing and constantly growing. On my shamanic path, I see this as moving around and around the medicine wheel. Awaking and putting to death different aspects of ourselves. The movie is a heavy handed reminder of blind faith couched artistically and metaphorically in a beautiful symbolic package.

This movie gave me much to ponder regarding the journey of the soul. The aspects we throw away. The aspects which overcome. The aspects wishing to remain blind and silent. The beginning of our wounding. As difficult as it can be at times, it is vital to our selves, we never stop the journey. It is painful to wake up. Much of our innocence does die. However, the benefits of knowing and understanding ourselves more deeply ~ strongly compels us to move ahead.