S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 117
December 31, 2012
Weekly Rune – Gebo
Gebo – gift- What a great day to start the year–with a gift! I always love seeing Gebo come up in a spread, partly because it’s such a strings-free joy, but also because it indicates the point at which giving has formed a bond.
Nearing the end of the first aett, Gebo finds us still in that amorphous space in which we are finding our way, not quite in form, not quite in the present. Then it happens–we find friends. Through our ability to give to others, and possibly receive from them, we create our web–the network of support closest to us, which helps us stay actively involved with All Things. In the Jungian hero’s journey, this stage is the acquisition of allies, those in form, in spirit, and within.
However we approach the New Year, know that we are in the process of drawing to us those who can truly move us along our paths. Celtic traditions have the concept of anam cara, or soul friend. I’ve written before on this special bond, what it is, and how we interpret it. Anam cara has most often been misinterpreted as ‘soul mate,’ as in a romantic partner. In reality anam cara speaks to a much higher bond that always urges each other toward growth, which could be found in a lover, an animal familiar, a place, a child. As we all know, sometimes growth means periods of discomfort, and all soul relationships aren’t necessarily cheerful.
The bottom line with Gebo at this time is someone is coming or will soon come who can help us reach the next significant place of growth. Perhaps both individuals are helped in the joining, perhaps not. The emphasis is recognizing that a bond has been made, and a new level of self has been attained, as a result.
Celebrate the bond. Be as fully present in it as possible, and know that we’re in this together.
Books by Kelley
Gift of the Dreamtime – Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma. Revised second edition, with a foreward by shaman, Christina Pratt.
Gift of the Dreamtime Reader’s Companion
Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World, true paranormal experiences from a lifelong intuitive.
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December 17, 2012
Weekly Rune – Mannaz
Mannaz – human- Last week we were asked to draw on our wisdom (Othala). This week we are encouraged to connect with people, to examine mortality–the experience of being human. Having remained open to our wisdom, we can rest confidently in our choices of who we surround ourselves with, and how we perceive ourselves in form.
Often we take every measure possible to avoid engaging other people, whether from shame, anxiety, fear, or fierce independence. Reaching out is key right now, not just to soothe some personal need, but to have made the gesture , for the sake of interpersonal unity. Often we fight connecting with people because we don’t have clarity on our needs. It is perhaps this function of reaching out that is most enlightening: we will learn what we really want, with clarity. Bringing a result that gains personal benefit is only part of the process. This time, connecting with others is about the act, itself.
This week, it isn’t about the help we may receive or give, but about the unity the concept and process of helping inspires.
Books by Kelley
Gift of the Dreamtime Reader’s Companion
Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World, true paranormal experiences from a lifelong intuitive.
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December 12, 2012
Gift of the Dreamtime Reader’s Companion
Thank you for taking this journey with me, through the Reader’s Companion for the second, revised edition of Gift of the Dreamtime. I created this Companion to discuss what changes were made to the original text, detail peripheral events and processes brought up in the book, and to respond to reactions I received when Gift of the Dreamtime first came out in 2004.
This Companion is available in ebook format on Amazon. You can also access each chapter online, and participate in discussions for each chapter.
The book was first published by Spilled Candy Enterprises. I’d spent a year to the date shopping the manuscript when publisher, Lorna Tedder, acquired it. I was thrilled to work with Spilled Candy and remain ever grateful for the experience.
At the time that I wrote this book, the publishing industry didn’t allow much expansion on the understanding of shamanism beyond academic and anthropological assessments. In short, they only understood, thus published, what I call “rearview shamanism,” a perspective that accepts shamanism as a thing of the past and not a thriving spiritual practice of the present. Books that had managed to be published extolling modern shamanism generally fit the formula of self-help books. They followed the formula of introspective memoir, followed by interpretation of shamanic events in mundane life, then closed with insights to engage the reader’s personal reaction to the text. None of them shared their shamanic narrative. None of them offered a glimpse into the other world experiences that brought healing.
I chose to write Gift of the Dreamtime from within that journey space so that reader’s could understand how shamanic healing really works, and Spilled Candy understood that purpose when other publishers didn’t. I remain grateful for Lorna’s insight and professionalism.
Thank you for taking that first formed trek with me into the Dreamtime. Thank you for returning.
For those of you new to the journey into The Dreamtime, welcome and blessings along your way.
I’m very excited to present this new edition, along with this Reader’s Companion. First off, if you haven’t met Christina Pratt, who wrote the foreward for the second edition, you need to. She’s author of An Encyclopedia of Shamanism, and the founder of The Last Mask Center. She’s an amazing shaman and wonderful person. Know her. Listen to her radio show, Why Shamanism Now, and you will find great support on your path, as well as direction.
If you’ve read the first edition, you will notice subtle changes to the text. The most evident change is the removal of the introduction to ecstatic journeying at the end. I chose not to include this section, as to really do justice on soul travel requires an entirely other book, which no doubt, others have already written more eloquently than my hurried end notes. Instead, for this edition I chose to stick more closely to my original intention for the text, which was to provide grounded insight into my process in creating initiations into shamanhood, thus leaving some sort of map for readers to do the same. The book now closes on an introduction to the role of the shaman in a community.
I had no idea where my foray into shamanic healing would take me. As such, resources for mentorship were slim. Gift of the Dreamtime tells my personal story of soul healing. At the time that I wrote it, I didn’t realize that it also chronicled a collective tale of finding initiation along a broken path, as many modern shamans have done. I’ve written extensively about this cultural quest in my column on The Huffington Post and at my blog, Intentional Insights, and look hopefully toward the future of what modern shamans bring to The Dreaming.
Enjoy the ebook, available at SmashWords and for the Kindle. The print edition is available on Amazon, and can be ordered by any local book shop. If you would like a signed first edition, please contact me directly.
General Info
Gift of the Dreamtime spans about five years of my life. The point of the present in the book is the dream, which occurs at the end of Chapter 10. In truth, I hadn’t begun pulling journals of my shamanic education together into a book until after the dream. In fact, it had never occurred to me to do so.I’d always planned to write about the experience of my childhood in a mundane biographical style, despite that my several attempts to do so always fell flat. That voice just felt lacking. The dream was the catalyst that wove a thread of continuity through symbols and patterns that I hadn’t been able to connect prior. Even with my shamanic training up to that point, the spiritual emergency I experienced from the dream showed me that critical healing was still needed. Having those connections in place, I was able to look back over wounds I had lived out of since childhood and create a life beyond them. As I interpreted those connections, my unique story within the Dreamtime emerged. It was from within that narrative that I was led to write it.
An initial reaction that many readers had to Gift of the Dreamtimewas that I made it look easy. I’m still baffled as to how anyone read this book and thought any part of it was easy. True, my ability to go into trance is almost automatic, and the ease with which I flex my imagination is as relaxed. There are many ways to access the Dreamtime; this just happens to be mine. We all get there uniquely, and I can assure you that anyone who embarks on a path of shamanhood will find it to be many things, the least of which is easy.
Of the language in this new edition, I’ve taken care to correct only basic typos and phrasing, in support of keeping true to the spirit of the original text and that era of my life. I’m not in the place that I was then, on any level. To over-edit would change the narrative. Notations on in-depth changes are cited within each chapter guide. Grammatically, suffice it to say a few things were changed. I am an em-dash lover who cares deeply about the Oxford comma, and I’m loathe to relinquish an ellipsis…
Though this is my story, this Companion is intended to reveal the shamanic narrative alive in all things. When a shaman journeys to the spirit world to learn the soul source of a condition in the body, mind, emotions, family, or community, the symbols of that dynamic present themselves as a story, which speaks to the shaman. Relying on her relationship with her guides and higher wisdom, the shaman interprets that story for the receiver, so that the receiver can evoke the desired change. My hope for this text is as it originally was: that in understanding my spiritual narrative, readers will see into their own stories, to decode and bring balance to their relationships with their symbols, rendering an approach to recognizing and reading the shamanic narrative in All Things.
Access the online Reader’s Companion and discussion pages, or purchase it in ebook format on Amazon.
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Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World
Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World
Available on:
Amazon
Smashwords
For years, as we neared Samhain and The Dead Time I’ve shared my true encounters of the supernatural. Experiences from waking to deathwalks in the night to seeing apparitions in the middle of the day, you name it and I’ve brushed up against it, whether I meant to–or not so much.
In Real Wyrd – A Modern Shaman’s Roots in the Middle World I’ve compiled revised editions of all of the stories that appeared on my blog, along with never-before-published updates to those stories, and several recent encounters.
Not your usual bump-in-the-night true paranormal accounts, these trips into the Middle World aren’t always scary. Some are sweet, some are affirming. Regardless, some I’d like to never have again, yet all of them changed me in a way that I never looked at myself or Life the same, after.
As a lifelong intuitive and shaman by choice for two decades, not all of my experiences with the spirit world have had clear-cut direction, instruction, or even results. Every one of them, though, has had meaning. It’s not my way to just dabble in the supernatural for only the sake of stirring the mystical pot. Instead, I approach such as an opportunity to learn about life out of form, and be of some kind of service to spirits in need. Working with the other side of death equips me better this side of life. There are many spiritual books on working with the dead and discarnate, though most of them only extol the wonder and awe of that work. They don’t talk about the toll it takes on their personal lives, or of perils they faced learning to be healthy conduits for spirits. Indeed this work is wonderful and awesome, but it can also be scary, disorienting, and uprooting. I share these accounts of paranormal exploration as part investigation, part curiosity, and part luck of the draw of being a human equally aware of her soul.
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Gift of the Dreamtime – Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma
In the 8th year of its journey, Gift of the Dreamtime is now available in its second edition, in several ebook formats. With a foreward by shaman and founder of The Last Mask Center, Christina Pratt, the second edition of this fantastical memoir chronicles a modern shamanic journey from pain, to healing and accepting a calling to work as a soul healer of others. Groundbreaking at the time of its first publication in 2004, still no other modern shamanic work shares an experience of soul healing told from within the shamanic narrative, bringing relatable and credible insight to contemporary shamanic healing. Through that rare glimpse into her experiences traversing the spirit world, Harrell’s story becomes the reader’s adventure. Not always easy to read, there are unflinching passages examining hurtful childhood memories, confrontations with overzealous spirit guides, and challenging personal obstacles she must overcome in order to heal. The book combines Harrell’s personal journey with instructions for creating similar soul journeys to help the injured child in all of us look at the hurt, understand it in a spiritual context, and forgive both ourselves and others. Enjoy Gift of the Dreamtime in print from Amazon, or order it from your local bookshop. eBook formats are available from:
SmashWords
Amazon
Signed first editions of Gift of the Dreamtime may be purchased directly from me for $21.95 (includes shipping to continental US. Kindly, inquire for overseas shipping rates before ordering). When placing an order, please include signing instructions regarding if you want the book dated or personalized in any way. Payment for ordered signed copies is via Paypal, only. Click the Add to Cart button to purchase your signed copy.
Read an excerpt and praise for Gift of the Dreamtime.
Thank you, and be well!
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The Uncount – The Unraveling of Life Purpose
Fehu
For those of you keeping score, I’m taking liberties with what many have interpreted as the end of the Long Count, the Mayan calendar that completes next week on Solstice. Mostly, I’m taking inventory of events in my life and coming to fierce conclusions about what they mean, or unmean, as the case may be.
Most of you know, particularly those whom I’ve known since childhood, that I’m a very driven person. Not so much a planner, though assuredly led by some deeper drive to accomplish a particular desire. I know how to bring things into being. I know how to manifest, even if I do it with a sledgehammer and crowbar. And those of you who know me really well know that drive has always revolved around empowering others. In fact, a lot of you who go way back probably knew that before I did. Imagine how fortified I felt to learn in my late twenties that my greatest spiritual goal, my life purpose, as it were, was just that. Specifically, I learned that I came into form to have as many diverse human experiences as possible, so that when I spoke to others about surviving and thriving, I wouldn’t just be talking out of my ass. I would know; I do know.
I designed many facets of my life by that purpose. Why wouldn’t I? I had the stamp of approval of the gods. That’s what ego does. Its job is to protect the form, which is accomplished through taking very esoteric concepts and making them formed, or at least tangible in some way. It takes classes. It tests principles. It jumps hoop after hoop until a concept is wisdom.
I’ve devoted all of my adult life to this process of centering my many experiences of human strength and frailty. Through my shamanic work I’ve even spent 15 years helping others discern their life purposes, so they could set themselves on the proper course of personal development, soul awareness. This year, though, something changed.
I’ve felt it coming for a while, acutely after the birth of our twins. I didn’t realize what it was until now. Some time in late spring, early summer, I began to feel keenly that I have no life purpose. My guides affirmed it. The Runes spelled it out. Everytime I came to them about this feeling, I drew Fehu, the soul coming into form, then Uruz, awakened personhood. The constantly shifting scapes in my dream state and spirit worlds supported it. I felt this truth through everything, yet in my experience of How Things Work, it just didn’t make sense. All of the conventional spiritual teachings (some of which are quite old) inform that we all have a purpose in coming into form. That purpose may not be vividly detailed and doesn’t preclude choice, yet an overarching mission of the soul drives how the self is created over the course of a life, possibly lifetimes. Did not feeling connected to a life purpose mean I was finished with human life? Was I about to be hit by a bus?
I don’t know if this insight is coming to me now because we are approaching this end to an ordering of time that, whether we have consciously subscribed to its truth or been delightfully oblivious to it until recent hype, has engraved its existence on the back of our cultural pocket watch. Maybe I would be arriving at this awareness had I reached this experience in any timeframe. I can’t overlook that regardless, I’m having it now, and given that synchronicity, I finally understand the time of untime.
There is no life purpose. For me, holding onto that singular principle around which I create myself is its own organized religion, a limiting structure that stopped working for me in my teens. Whatever task to widen my empathy came before, it’s gone now. I completed it, or at least completed it in that ordered, linear way. I can’t express how discombobulating and post-traumatic this insight has been, is still. Yet, it is what it is. I can only move forward in my truth as it is in this moment, and my truth is only this moment.
Living with no sense of life purpose means creating living vividly in the present. It means exquisitely connecting with All Things, not because I can, but because I am All Things and in that animistic realization lie my answers, my solitude, my truth. This is the life without a net. This is the leap. I don’t know what it means. I don’t know what I will create of myself from this point forward, because I’m creating her now. I do know that if you’re feeling similar distress, it’s okay. This kind of leap isn’t your undoing. It’s actually, perhaps, your very first actual doing.
Thank you for coming with me on this journey.
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December 11, 2012
Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism
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