SHAMANISM
What is Shamanism?
Shamanism is an ancient healing tradition and a way of life. The teachings of shamanism focus on our connection to nature and promote the well-being of all creation. Essential aspects of shamanic life include journeying, ceremony, sacred dance and pilgrimages to places of power in nature. Through these techniques the shamanic circle embraces us, unifying our lives with strength, healing and love.
A shaman is an intermediary between this world and the spirit world. They act on behalf of the community conducting ceremonial rituals, healing the people, and helping to guide others on the shamanic path. A shaman’s life belongs to the village and it is their responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of the family, the community and all of creation.
In this way the shaman helps to maintain balance and harmony on both a personal and planetary level.
How Can Shamanism Benefit Your Health and Wellbeing?
Individuals may seek shamanic healing for many different maladies. If they are living within a shamanic culture, shamanic healing is typically part of a multidisciplinary approach used for any disease or imbalance, in partnership with physical healers, botanical medicines, changes in diet, and other therapies.
In contemporary western society, shamanic healing is unfamiliar to most non-indigenous individuals. Despite that, people are finding their way to contemporary shamans for all types of health challenges, but especially when they are not making satisfactory improvements with conventional approaches.
Shamanic healing work requires two distinct phases:
The accurate diagnosis of the seen and unseen energies at the root of the problem.
Carrying out the specific choreography of energies needed to resolve the problem.
The shaman may serve by removing energies that are inappropriately present, or by returning energies that have been lost. This includes soul recovery to accomplish healing via the return of lost parts of the soul.
When an individual is living within a community that supports such work, there is time and support for the integration and processing that an individual must do to complete most healing processes. In contemporary society, the shaman and the client must create the resources and structure for the individual to adjust to the shift in internal energies.
Shamans direct and move energy to restore the harmony within the individual, between the individual and the community, and between the community and the spirit world.
Via EARL E. BAKKENCENTER FOR SPIRITUALITY & HEALING
