Shamanic Healing & the Spiritual Causes of Illness
Have you ever felt like you lost a part of yourself somewhere along the way?
Do you suspect that there's a bigger story to your suffering, one that connects you to the world around you, and gives your life meaning?
Are you ready to dive deeply into your life and discover the treasures hidden there?
I invite you to come on a journey with me, a journey that will lead you directly to the source of your greatest strength and facilitate the healing of your deepest pain. A journey to collect the pieces of your own bright soul.
We do this through the use of a guided meditation called the shamanic journey, where we access non-ordinary reality for problem solving and healing. This is a realm that we typically enter only in myths and dreams, and when we access it consciously using the drum or rattle, remarkable healing can happen. Lost parts of ourselves are restored and energies that don't belong to us are released. We find allies and guides, we communicate with our ancestors and loved ones, and we find ourselves belonging to the earth in a whole new way. In the shamanic journey nature comes alive and we recognize ourselves as a part of the web of life. The gifts in our suffering are revealed, and our creative energy is given new life. When I enter into non-ordinary reality on behalf of another person, my intention is to bring light into the darkness, and lead them to the source of their personal power.
From a shamanic perspective, there are 3 main causes of illness: Soul Loss, Power Loss, and Energetic Intrusion.
The soul is defined as the life force or the essence, and it is believed that when we suffer physical or emotional trauma, a piece of our soul leaves the body in order to survive the experience. Shamanists call this soul loss, and in Western psychology we call this dissociation. It causes depression and mental illness, a lack of purpose in one’s life, and leads to energetic intrusion. Often people feel like they’ve lost parts of themselves, or that they’re not fully present in their lives. The role of the shamanic practitioner is to enter non-ordinary reality on behalf of another person, track down these lost soul parts and bring them home to the bodymind in the present reality.
A common belief among shamanic earth based cultures is that we are born with helping spirits or angels that watch over us and protect us throughout our lives. Power loss occurs when we lose our connection with these personal spirit guides or allies. It also involves a loss of connection with the more than human world. Arguably, our culture has experienced a profound loss of power, and it has left us bereft of the rich connections that are possible with the living world we inhabit. People who suffer from power loss tend to feel unprotected, suffer from depression and suicidality, and may be prone to accidents or feel unlucky. They may feel extreme loneliness and hopelessness. There are many ceremonies to correct this loss, and power retrieval is the reunion of the person with their guardian spirits, also known as power animals, angels, or helping spirits. The shamanic practitioner facilitates this reunion.
Energetic Intrusion is when negative thoughts or other energies get stuck in our system, even when they do not belong to us. This usually happens as a result of the energetic openings created by soul loss and power loss. This can be insults that have been given to you that never left and that you have taken on as your own belief about yourself. This can also be when other people pull on your energy and you feel exhausted, depleted, or sick. It can be anger directed at you, and chronic illness is often the result of energetic intrusion, combined with the loss of power and soul. The correction is energetic extraction which can be performed using various ceremonies and journeys.
When the bodymind is restored to wholeness, personal power is returned, and the energy field is cleared of intrusions, illnesses shift and release. Once you’ve collected the pieces of your own bright soul, it is time to engage in your life with the whole of yourself. and be part of creating the world we all want to live in.
With shamanic healing comes an opportunity for deep and lasting change, and it requires engagement to create a positive life for ourselves. Sometimes this work comes at the end of a long transformative journey, and sometimes it is the beginning of that journey. Either way, there is an opportunity to bring passion and meaning into our lives so that we can thrive instead of merely survive.
I have often seen treatments that previously didn’t help begin to take hold as the person finds the inner drive to create a vibrant life and express their own soul's gifts. In conjunction with other naturopathic modalities and gentle manual therapy, deep and lasting healing takes place when the spiritual imbalance is addressed.
