S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 103

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

 My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful to write with the great folks at Candid Slice.

I’m grateful for my wonderful lover.

I’m happy to take downtime when I need it.

I’m thankful for focus and new starts.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Thursday Betwixt – The Dream Team

In the Betwixt series focusing on mundane support for skywalking seekers, we’ve talked about reciprocity with guides, taking the baton from guides, and finding etheric support in the life force around us. What about that of our immediate formed community, as in the people around us? How do they fit into our spiritual, if not animistic, Dream Team? How do we decide who should be on our Team?

Most new to the path of actively connecting with aliveliness   rely heavily on spiritual benefactors, as in guides, spirit allies, engaging totems in trance or alone in Nature. However profoundly those relationships impact our lives, we can’t substitute them for human connection.

Of course, we can, but should we? Is it healthy to? Is it complete? I’m open to arguments that we aren’t all wired for the same kind of interpersonal connection.  To clarify, I’m not talking about introversion versus extroversion. Rather, my emphasis is on deep, honest assessment about where humans fit into our animistic path. I meet so many animists who are deeply connected to, tend, and are tended by Nature, but care fuck-all about humanity. They want to save dolphins, though aren’t motivated to meet their neighbors. Such a visceral disjunct in one area affects how we relate to every species.

I freely admit, in the past I’ve dissed Camp Humanity, and since have realized what a self-defeatist victim stance such is. An assault on all is an assault on me. As a result, I was  faced with the limitations of my personal power from not being better connected to humanity, and the truth that my skills in deepening any relationship rely entirely on my intentional engagement in every relationship–animal, plant, element, human, discarnate…  Of course, as we must become intimately aware of where we stand with humanity, we need to be vividly clear on what people we appeal to for help, and frankly, those whom we do not.

How do we connect with people as spiritual allies? When in distress or need, most of us look to our partners or other loved ones for total support, only to wonder why the relationship implodes. First, one person can’t hold everything, especially if it’s expression around a deeply personal or traumatic event. Even if it’s just sharing of an experience outside that person’s belief system or experience, such a departure can create dissonance in the relationship. Second, just because our loved ones adore us and want to be supportive doesn’t mean they’re equipped to provide the depth of witnessing or assistance that we need, that which an objective, trained professional can provide.

And what if we don’t find that trained professional? Many on the animistic path are dubious of working with caregivers in traditional modalities. We fear judgement, we fear change as much as anyone, and we often don’t know who or what to look for, particularly in times of distress. Along with those is inability to find the best-suited modality to meet our needs. Some of us of are land-locked, socially isolated, and limited in available resources. Further, sometimes it isn’t personal help that we need, but education, information. Sometimes we just need to connect with someone who knows what we do not.

The people on your Team don’t have to be professionals. They can be listeners. Sometimes all we need is someone to witness our vision, our experience, our plans. We don’t necessarily need feedback, reframing, or a nod, just a caring person. I’ve witnessed many seekers abandon a budding path because they didn’t have anyone to talk to about their experiences. They didn’t have a human community with whom they could share, seek guidance, find encouragement, sit in the woods, or overcome challenges. For such people, that lack of support eventually generates more stress in their lives than the experience that drove them out of the frame to begin with.

Like it or not, most of us need people as part of our spiritual path. We need the intimacy of sharing and creating space, exchanging experiences. Even the animal instincts to smell, feel, and hear the presence of others alters how we tread our soul travels. We also can’t ignore each other as facets of our own healing,  as mirrors and/or projections. We can’t ignore where we as individuals become a collective.

Explore what interpersonal connectivity you need. What skills and personalities do you need in the people around you? What ones can you do without? It’s just as important to be clear in what you don’t need, not because you’re afraid to reach out or try something new, but because your truth says to move on, because mindlessly filling with relationships you don’t need distracts you from connecting with those you do.

To get a feel for who should be on your Dream Team, look at the people in your life.  Do they fill you? Do they drain you? What does each individual bring, that none other offers? How do you bless them? How do you affirm them? How do you let go of relationships you don’t need? Where do you excel in human interconnection? In what areas could you use some work?

In examining the people in your life, look at modalities of healing and learning. Challenge yourself to consider your concept of healing and healer, of learning and teaching. What modalities do you implement regularly? Do they fill your needs? What modalities do you avoid? What ones would you like to try? How do you best learn? What approaches do not serve you?

Consider the following roles in examining human relationships and your spiritual path:

Medical Doctor
Acupuncturist
Naturopath/Nutritionist
Clergy
Massage Therapist/Structural Integration Therapist
Cognitive/Behavioral Therapist
Witness/Listener
Personal Trainer
Legal Advisor
Financial Advisor
Teacher
Shaman
Energy Healer
Horticulturist
Artist
People Like You
People Different From You
Friend
Family
Lover

These are but a few possibilities. Even if you don’t make humans a core facet of your animistic path, acknowledge that they are in some way significant to it. Challenge yourself. Amongst those fetishes for animals and plants on your altar, insinuate some praise for your people–those you know, those you will never know, those you have let go. Honor the Dream Team, and it will find its way in blessing you.

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Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Damanhur Spiritual EcoCommunity

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Weekly Rune – Nauthiz

Nauthiz - Need -  That we’re standing in our own way is usually not welcome news. However, that slight clarification to what’s hindering the process helps immensely.  Look no further for the problem, or its solution.

Interesting that this second of three winter staves comes after much of North America was plunged into record-breaking low temperatures and precipitation. From this mid-point many of us have cabin fever just enough to be stir crazy, yet lack the motivation to be the catalyst for change. That uncomfortable space between is precisely the angst of Nauthiz.

Related to the youngest of the Norns, Skuld, who is the keeper of what “should” be, many assume Nauthiz points to the future. However, wordsmiths among us recognize ‘should’ as a modal auxiliary, indicating that outcomes manifest based on conditions met. In other words, we can set the dominoes up any way we like, and based on our knowledge, skill, and perhaps wisdom, they should fall the way we’ve planned. Yet there are always variables we can’t foresee. The dominoes will fall the way they fall, and we have only to react in the best way that we can.

Keep this relationship between need and fate in mind this week. So often what we think we need is connected to what we think should happen, what we should get. The appearance of Nauthiz isn’t suggesting that we will or won’t meet our need, but that we be positively certain we can handle what comes.  By that I mean, as this Rune carries the a red flag coloring our efforts, it also brings us the ability to find peace, regardless.

When we meet resistance in fulfilling our needs, do we respond compulsively just to make the tension stop? Do we buckle down and address the core issue?  Do we risk the reality of learning that our needs are really wants?  How we deal with this kind of stress is the heart of Nauthiz, as in learning to move through that stress, the need is either released or met.

Hold Self carefully this week. Test the confines in the places of strongest resistance and be honest about who’s really holding the reins.

–

Contact Kelley for a personalized Rune Reading.

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Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

 My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful for all the well-wishes on my forthcoming book.

I’m happy to have collected a truly great group of friends–or maybe they collected me?

I was happy to spend a Saturday teaching a great group of people about animistic dreamwork.

I’m happy to have started a new manuscript. Or two.

I’m happy to celebrate that fourteen years ago this week, my shamanic practice, Soul Intent Arts, was born!

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Sherry Ezhuthachan

The post Wordless Wednesday appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Weekly Rune – Fehu

Fehu – wealth - It’s truly amazing to see Fehu present as this week’s Rune, as the last time it visited was in August of 2012. Also, this is only the second time Fehu has been The Weekly Rune.

Fehu, the first stave of the Elder Futhark, is where it all begins. Some would argue otherwise, but that’s a discussion for another venue. Literally interpreted as “cattle,” this stave is generally regarded as meaning “wealth,” that which we must tend to keep assets bountiful and healthy. The ability to tend assets calls to mind foremost that there is something to tend; thus, it affirms the responsibility required to care for movable wealth.

If we reflect on the significance of cattle to Old Icelandic culture, it was to daily life as money is to ours. Cattle was the currency that made bonds, sustenance, shelter. It was the embodiment of energy exchange.

To consider it more deeply, cattle represented Audhumla, the primal cow, who was one of the first formed beings–a predecessor of humanity. What is significant to note about Audhumla, in a nutshell, is she brought herself into being, and she nurtured humanity into being.  Abundance created itself, and in doing so, created beyond itself.

In that light, Fehu isn’t just about the ability to have and maintain currency, but the ability to re-invent ourselves as needed, by tapping into our innate access to Source. It is the primal power that we all hold, and either consciously or unconsciously shape.

That Fehu presents itself to us at this time means pay attention to the mundane plight, secure assets. Before we can venture far and beyond into spiritual platitudes, we must be well-grounded into our everyday needs, desires, and opportunities. When we take care of our house, so to speak, from that firm foundation we have a strong opportunity to fulfill our heart’s desires.

That is a kind of banking none of us can afford not to do. Use this week to weed out what doesn’t support wellbeing–of you or your assets–and let it go. Then set your sights on skills, habits, and relationships that support your growth.

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Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Dave

The post Wordless Wednesday appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

 My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful for just shy of 22 years with my cat, Zu Zu’s Petals, who died last week.

I’m thankful for the support of my wonderful lover, Rob, and our very sweet children.

I’m grateful for the lovely cover art released last week for my next book, as well as its release date!

I’m grateful for date night.

I’m happy to have understanding friends and loved ones.

I’m thankful for longevity, and the ability to think anew.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Wordless Wednesday

Ceum na Cailleach

Photo by Chris McIntosh

The post Wordless Wednesday appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.