S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 88

The Weekly Rune – Nauthiz

Nauthiz – Need –  Considering that the southeast has skipped early winter and plunged right into winter storm, it’s fitting that this middle stave of the second ǽtt’s winter trio shows up now to offer insight.

Situated between Hagalaz (harsh external change) and Isa (processing outcomes),  Nauthiz forces us to confront our limitations and what we’re getting out of them. By that I mean, it highlights the things we say we don’t want, yet hold fastest to. This stave is the niggling feeling that all is not well, without knowing what needs attention.  However, often just honoring that something isn’t right is enough to bring mild reprieve, perhaps even movement toward resolution.

In order to meet a need, we have to be able to recognize it when it comes on the scene, then choose to either fulfill or reject it. Either way, something has to give. We choose to preserve self and make a call on that need, or we stay locked in this karmic purgatory stewing in our own fears.

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?  Nauthiz is the tension of not knowing what we need, balancing our wants, and determining which is most important.

The full Weekly Rune, and other goodies, are available at Patreon.

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Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Julie Gibbons

Blessing for those not here

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When Creepy Gets Creepier — Hotel Phillips

If you haven’t read the story I wrote some years back about my hair-raising experience at Hotel Phillips in Kansas City, MO, you’ll want to check that out before you go further with the following tidbit.

Since I first published the account of my stay at Hotel Phillips, it has been the most-read post on Intentional Insights. It amuses me, but baffles me, even more, that of all the posts I’ve written, of all the personal things I’ve shared, this encounter gets the most traction. It happened years ago, I’ve not said anything else about it, and the story is in my book, Real Wyrd. As far as I’ve ever known, it’s just another weird story in the life of me.

Except that apparently it’s more than that.

Back in 2012, the hotel Corporate Sales Manager wrote me, to learn if I’d written more about my experiences there. His note read more like damage control on the hotel than actual interest in anything I’ve done. I responded pleasantly that, no, I hadn’t written anything more, and thought nothing more of the exchange.

See, I don’t really enjoy this kind of punch-through-paranormal experience. In fact, I set boundaries, especially in public places like hotels and hospitals, for this sort of exchange not to happen. Sometimes it does, despite my best efforts, and that’s just the life of a shaman. Regardless of whether I enjoy it, sometimes help must be given.

I also will freely admit that I’m the one most shocked when I learn validating details of a paranormal encounter. It isn’t that I doubt my own experiences. Rather, I don’t get absorbed by it. I engage in spiritual interactions every day and intuit details of the past, maybe a future. I don’t dwell in them. So when I learn about the history of my paranormal experiences or other grounding details around them (like this one, this one, and anything on my site tagged Samhain), it’s always a little freaky.

In March of this year, I was contacted by a woman I will identify as “M.” M informed me that she had read my story, and that her great uncle was a man named Frank Bohatch. She told me that Frank had killed a woman in the Phillips Hotel sometime in the early 1930’s, then killed himself, and that she wanted to know more about my experience there.

After digging around, sure enough, I found Frank:

Frank Bohatch Murder

H& R  Revolver

G28146

Frank Bohatch used this gun to kill Mrs. Ina May Stube in a hotel room in the Phillips Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. It is alleged that Mrs. Stube was a prostitute who worked in the Kansas City area. Mr. Bohatch committed suicide with same gun after the killing in the same hotel. This gun was gifted to ballistics expert Merle Gill by the detective who investigated the murder , suicide. [1]

Along with his death record. [2]

That was plenty to freak me out.  My skin was already crawling by that point. However, as it always does, the creep factor only continued to spiral. I began to find newspaper clippings indicating Bohatch made a murder-suicide pact with Iva Mae Stull, who was survived by her ten-year-old daughter, Catherine, who slept in an adjoining room. Newspapers ranging from the Iola Register [3], The Emporia Gazette [4], and The Joplin Globe [5], and many others reported the story.

The press photo that circulated of young Catherine is shown below.

I did reply to M and told her my more personal account of what happened, which doesn’t at all match the tone of what the news articles say happened. Yes, there was a murder, but the woman who came to me was terrified of the man who killed her, and had been long before her murder. Also, the man who visited me wasn’t just some guy down on his luck who got mistakenly fired from his job when his woman did something wrong. He was deeply involved in the criminal element, and she wasn’t his first or only victim.

Maybe it wasn’t Frank and Iva Mae that I encountered. I have no idea, though my intuitive feeling is they were the spirits in my room at Hotel Phillips. Regardless, the knowledge that there are real people attached to the wild encounters that I have with souls of the deceased, remains humbling and centering. It reminds me that sooner or later we all become a story in someone’s memory.

Write your story well.

 

[1] https://www.gun-data.com/historicarmsfbohatch3_arms.html

[2] http://www.death-record.com/l/205502380/Frank-Bohatch

[3] http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/4847799/

[4] http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/10227333/

[5] http://newspaperarchive.com/us/missouri/joplin/joplin-globe/1935/07-31/page-10

 

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The Weekly Rune – Kenaz Merkstave

Kenaz – Torch – As we emerge from Mercury retrograde, Kenaz merkstave arrives in time to put things into perspective. Usually regarded as meaning a spark of hope or enlightenment out of the blue, the emphasis of this stave is awareness emerging from pitch black. Note that Kenaz is brightstave in the photo.

As we enter this final harvest week of the season, it’s appropriate that our thoughts be focused on what we have gleaned from it. In the pagan tradition that I resonate with, Samhain doesn’t mark the new year; rather, it only marks the end of the year. The new year doesn’t begin until several weeks later at Winter Solstice, leaving us outside regular time for a bit. To me, that makes this final harvest holy day the true giving of thanks, the season of mining from the last year how to move forward into the new one. Such is the inspiration of Kenaz. Such is its wisdom.

This week consider what has inspired you this year, and how you will use it to create your heart’s desire in the next.

Read the fully detailed Weekly Rune on Patreon.

 

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Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

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

I’m thankful for fevers passed.

I’m grateful to be on the up end of things.

I’m thankful for my family.

I’m grateful to herbal earl grey.

I’m thankful for solutions to tech problems.

I’m thankful for my Patreon peeps.

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

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.

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Wordless Wednesday

1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.

Photo by manhai

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The Weekly Rune – Hagalaz

Hagalaz – Hail – Blunt, external change is upon us this week. Whether it’s cooler weather settling into much of the northern hemisphere, a chill skating through life, or some other frozen state breaking wide open, the elements prod our wyrd bring a wake-up call.

When we talk about hail, it brings out strange reactions. It fascinates us, because it doesn’t happen often. Fear is part of our awareness of it, as it is a destructive force.  It disrupts our flow, and has radical potential to take away livelihood, mobility, sustenance, protection.  Hail can be a nasty force. Yet, while it holds aspects of frozen Nature, it’s also in motion, changing our landscape, possibly our lives. Find the full Weekly Rune on Patreon.

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Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

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

I’m thankful for a reprieve.

I’m grateful to feel better.

I’m thankful for the wonderful people I’ve met through Candid Slice.

I’m grateful to cooler weather.

I’m thankful for my childrens’ interests.

I’m thankful for my Patreon sponsors.

I’m thankful for Fire Gatherings.

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

15 October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

In Japan, jizo statues are dressed to honor miscarriages, still births, and abortions.

Photo by Stephanie Moussie

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Candor and Outreach

I’m always hesitant to write private things in my blog, not because I’m unwilling to share myself, but because I generally talk about these things in social media, and I’m hyper-sensitive to inundating followers with too much. Something happened about a month ago to change my mind on that front, which is why I’ve decided to take a different approach to facets of my writing, as well as my shamanic work.

Within the same month, a follower on Facebook said,”I didn’t know you were a modern shaman,” and another follower said, “I had no idea you’ve published books.” Within a few weeks, it happened on G+, too.

So, here I am, thinking I talk too much, only to realize a significant slice of what I do–TWO slices that happen to be my life’s work–are completely unknown to some followers.

Well. Talk about a shock to the system. I know that FB throttles post visibility, but this awareness was a raw lesson in the effects that suppression has on otherwise open dialogue. With that in mind, I decided to make a few changes to how I present my work, how I deliver it, and what I’m doing.

Foremost, in my shamanic work, I’ve observed in the last two years the key thing unaddressed in modern shamanism is community. Everyone learns how to journey. Everyone comes to some awareness about shamanic calling. Then they crash and can’t figure out why the malaise, after such an ecstatic blast into clarity. In short: community–you got none. One thing that sustains shamans in traditional cultures is the tribe, itself. In that setting, no one has to explain their ecstatic experience, because a common understanding of such already exists. Not only do we underestimate the wealth of that network, we often undermine it in our efforts to grow a practice before we’re mature as shamans.

Even in shamanism, people tend to have specialties. They focus on Soul Retrieval, or teaching ecstatic trance, or deathwork. I do all of those, and share personal a personal affinity to deathwalking. In terms of what I bring that is unique to the path of modern shamanism, I’ve realized, is that awareness of life outside trance. How do we bring it through? How do we live it through all of our lives, not just when we turn shamanism on? When do we realize it’s always on? How do we cope with that inter-reality?

To that end, I’ve made two core changes in how I present my shamanic work and teaching. My emphasis is on creating that animistic community in Tribe, and in beginning a two-year intensive shamanic training for those who explicitly want to work with others, starting at the first of the year (2015)–details forthcoming.  I will teach singular classes on demand, as I realize not everyone wants to take on the role of shaman. Not everyone wants to work with others. However, my passion at this time is creating the most well-rounded, personal, whole experience for those who do want to work with others, by giving them as many tools as I can.

Along that line, I’ve created an opportunity to engage in sustained work with me through Patreon. Patreon is a fund sourcing site that allows you to set your price for services you value. Many of you have seen that I recently began posting a condensed version of The Weekly Rune on Intentional Insights, with the detailed report on Patreon. There I’ve also created opportunities to pay a monthly fee for regular soul work with me, rather than singular Soul or Rune Readings.  With this arrangement, we stay in touch, and you stay supported through personal soul work and the sessions that we do. There is agreement between us by virtue of monthly transaction, that we are working together and are both building this space together. It’s your choice how involved you want to get, how deep you want to go, and within limits, how much you want to pay.

Yes, I write. Yes, I’m a modern shaman. Now that we’ve gotten that bit affirmed, let’s get some work done! =) If you have questions, or you’re interested in the two-year intensive, feel free to contact me

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