S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 96

Teen Spirit Wise Voice: Beyond Soul Flight – The Path Of Modern Shamanism

I recently had the honor of writing for TarotWikipedia, on life as a modern shaman.

To many who find the modern shamanic path, the summation of that work is learning to journey. Sometimes called skywalking, starwalking, or soul flight, journeying is the term most often applied to ecstatic trance. It is the cognisant dreaming state of willing an aspect of the soul to travel out of the body, into a destination in the spirit realm, for benefit of self, other, or community. That’s a mouthful, yes, and it’s intense travel.

Many learn to journey by taking classes taught by someone who has mastered the technique. It’s actually not hard to find classes on ecstatic trance all over the world now, often flavored with many cultural influences. Certainly many books and websites outline various approaches to spirit travel. This jaunt into the unseen is not just an exercise in experiencing the self out of form, but an opportunity to map the Dreaming, to greet spirit guides and totems, to heal, to bless. The act of shamanic journeying, itself, becomes a relationship one has with All Things.

I teach ecstatic journeying, and have since 2000. I’ve mastered the technique of journeying, despite that it dips and dodges, shows me new faces and territories, then swings out and loops back to familiar climes and allies. The thing that I work on to this day is rooting into everyday life what my shamanic journeys teach me. This is the part that can’t be taught in a weekend class, or perhaps even through years of classes. This grounding is the part that can only be learned by doing it, everyday, all day, through every aspect of life.

To be honest, it’s challenging. If shamanism was merely venturing into the unformed to gain insight, to learn, to expand, that would be awesome. Everyone would do it. But everyone doesn’t do it, and that’s not all it is. In reality, treating it as merely an escapist distraction or personal exercise can stir deep crisis. Going through the paces of a journey is only half the story. Slicing through to the meaning of that story, and applying its healing and wisdom to the rest of everyday life is another thing, entirely. The meaning of that story can only emerge in the mundane, and it isn’t terribly likely that richness is going to be fully evident right away. The experience of journeying evolves over time, not with the mastery of a technique, or becoming adept at following an etheric protocol. The whole experience evolves by growing with it, and it only evolves by going forward and living it.

Learning to journey isn’t a technique, it’s a lifestyle change. I tell this to students who take my classes; I’ve said it repeatedly in the many articles and essays I’ve written on modern shamanism. Ecstatic journeying changes our lives. It rearranges our synapses and priorities, and allows us direct contact with the spiritual manifestation of all that our imaginations can perceive. When we journey, we return changed in ways that can’t be planned for, and most certainly can’t be ignored. That attention must be given in sharing, doing, being, creating the world of imagination–where we live.

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Originally published at TarotWikipedia.

 

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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 that my new book, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism, sold out of its first three printings. Thank you!

I’m thankful for a quiet week, on all fronts.

I’m thankful to have a couple of big events coming up.

I’m grateful for craft time with my kids.

I’m happy to celebrate the first birthday of Tribe of the Modern Mystic.

I’m grateful for the people who come into my life.

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.

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Teen Spirit Wise Voice – Jules – From Ministry to Mystery

Back in the 1970s, I was a teenager and the world was a different place than the one we know today. I lived in a relatively remote, valley up on the Pennines in the North West of the UK, which was behind the times in many ways (we still had an outside WC!). This farming community was strongly Methodist and any kind of belief outside the mainstream Christian ideology was treated with harsh criticism. The Internet as such didn’t exist, and with only limited access to (censored list) books from a mobile library van, it was almost impossible to perceive any kind of spiritual belief outside Christianity. So, of course, I followed the only path available, training as a Methodist lay minister until I could no longer reconcile Christian teachings with my visions and inner experiences. There was nobody there to offer any alternative explanation or teachings that could have unveiled my experiences and put them in perspective, so it was a very confusing and painful time to realise that my integrity would force me to step away from the only spiritual path I had ever known.

It would be decades later, in my late thirties, before a spiritual and health (shamanic) crisis forced me to reconsider my beliefs and ask the fundamental question, “Who am I”? This time the Spirits brought a teacher into my life who could give me pointers to find out the answers to the many questions I had. She wasn’t part of any mainstream religion, in fact, she seemed to be the kind of person that mainstream religions warned against–an independent, powerful woman who is in tune with the natural world and so much more. Her encouragement, stories, teachings and above all, observational common sense, allowed me to make sense of things I was experiencing, the Spirits I was meeting, and the changes I was going through. So, in the timeless tradition of our Ancestors and Spirits, I now try to pass that gift on to others so that more people can cut through their confusion to find their own answers and healing.

It doesn’t mean that only my belief is right and mainstream religions are wrong, quite the opposite. It means that each person has free will to follow what proves to be true, and so your own free will is a necessary part of being who you are.

Now in the 21st Century, there are few who do not have access to the Internet and the wide range of writings on every different belief systems on the planet. Choice, information, and knowledge are abundant in a way they have never been before; however, so are misinformation and falsehood. Learning about each different belief system allows us to discern the foundational truths behind such beliefs, so as to share common ground with others.

Being brought up in that pragmatic farming community imparted some benefits, though: closeness to nature, being able to sense and read the seasons, the weather and other signs of change. It also taught me the necessity of being self-reliant, hard-working and practical, qualities I try to live by and encourage in others. It’s all well and good to be able to journey, have otherworld visions ,and even teach those basics. We live in a material world, and often it is practical actions that are required on an intimate level, such as helping a friend, volunteering with a charity, growing your own food, driving a neighbour to a clinic or generally taking your time to do something of benefit to someone else.

Learn more about Jules and her work on her blog, www.worldtree.org.

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Available worldwide, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism.

The post Teen Spirit Wise Voice – Jules – From Ministry to Mystery appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Rehan Shaikh

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Teen Spirit Wise Voice – Peggy Payne

I’ve known Peggy Payne for years, now, and I’m thrilled to have her on my blog. A brilliant writer and fabulous editor, she shares with us today the moment she realized “It’s all true,”  and offers a giveaway of her ebook, ‘At Sea With My Writing’, to those who opt into her mailing list. Comment here with your email to subscribe.

A “Small” Spiritual Experience Can Change Your Life

Summers during college I worked as a reporter for my local newspaper.  Not long after I finished school, I was thrilled to get an assignment to write an article on extra-sensory perception for a teen girls’ magazine.

I was conveniently located for that job because I live close to what was probably the major research center for parapsychology in the country.  Dr. J.B. Rhine, who had headed a department on the subject at Duke, had left the university and with his wife Louisa established what was called the Foundation for the Research into the Nature of Man.

I’d just been to this center in a big old house on a deeply shaded street, met the Rhines, pored over case studies of psychic experiences.  And then I was driving home when a burst of something like emotion flooded me.

With that feeling came the resounding thought: “It’s all true.”  I stopped the car, too exhilarated and joyous to drive.

The thoughts that then rushed in around that three-word announcement were these: the ESP is real, the Methodist God I grew up with is real, the God/Goddess/ gods of every religion are real, the realms we rarely catch a glimpse of are real.

I’d always had an idea that all this was so.  And in the more than forty years since, I’ve carried with me varying degrees of skepticism as well.

Nevertheless, that moment has shaped my life.  My three novels are all about spiritual awakening — in people who are also wide awake to sex, ambition, to-do lists, fear, routine duties and every kind of passion.

I never meant to write novels or even books; I’d always intended to write articles. I’d never meant to write about spirituality, though ESP and the paranormal did interest me.

It was years later when my first novel started to emerge.  I was reading a novel set in Israel about a couple getting a divorce.  Israel made me think of Sunday school.  Next thought:  what if a liberal intellectual worldly preacher hears the voice of God and it isn’t at all what he expected?  Instead, the experience disrupts his career, threatens his marriage, etc.  That became Revelation.

The next was about an American girl in a terrible situation at home who runs away to India to a Hindu holy city.  What could be safer and more serene than a holy city, right? That story became Sister India.

And then came Cobalt Blue, about an artist living in a small conservative town suddenly overwhelmed by an emotional and physical experience that feels both erotic and tinged with the divine: a tale of kundalini rising.

Right now, I’m working on a novel about a 15 year-old girl who conjures a boy from another realm, a wild and mysterious creature who is completely naive about our ways of life.  Working title: “Darcy of the Astral Light.”

That long-ago moment riding back from the interview didn’t seem at the time like the most dramatic event. No visions, no thunderous voices, or levitation, or miracle powers. Not only that, the magazine that gave me the assignment folded just about the time I finished the ESP article.   And yet…turns out it was a very big deal in my life.

I’m so glad that Kelley Harrell has written her Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism, a guide to ecstatic spiritual experience for people like the one I was back then and still am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Available worldwide, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism.

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The Weekly Rune – Isa

Isa – ice- The last of the winter Runes visits us this week with a message of rest. Be comfortable, because we’re not going anywhere. I generally welcome any message that says I can relax; however, there’s a little more to it than that. This stave doesn’t bring the ‘take a load off’ sort of rest. Rather, it’s an externally imposed examination of limitations.  We all have our limits, through which we cannot pass until we find the momentum to do so from our deepest reserves. Isa comes when it is time to examine those depths.

It’s perhaps more relatable to think of Isa as indicating that to get where we want to go, we first have to realize where we are. Whatever is occurring at this time must be dealt with, not just for the pragmatic benefits of doing so, but because what comes after cannot manifest until present enlightenment is found. “Enlightenment” sounds dramatic, but that’s exactly what is being called for.

It’s time to push our internal boundaries, to go beyond what we think we are capable of, what is possible to expect from the world around us. Perhaps the need is to merely sit and reflect on what needs attention, or it’s to acknowledge something long-skirting the edge of awareness. Whatever it is, we all recognize that guttural gnawing sensation, telling us that what sustains us is no longer working, that we’re hungry for what authentically feeds.

This isn’t a time to try to push forward. Likewise, trying to go back won’t yield anything useful, either. Find a way to engage the stillness. What does it need to say? How can it help us be ready for what comes next?

This is the inner spotlight. This is a staycation of the soul.  Maybe a better wish for the week is: Be uncomfortable where we are, because discomfort motivates change.

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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 that my new book, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism, releases worldwide a week ago, and the ebook went to

#1 in Paganism & Neopaganism
#2 in Teen & YA Personal Health
#6 in Paganism

The paperback went to

#31 in Paganism
#57 in Shamanism

I’m grateful for the invitation to read Runes this week at the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship annual fundraiser. Awesome time, awesome people.

I’m thankful for my bicycle.

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.

Teen Spirit Wise Voice – Kate Richards – Following Your Heart

I’m so thrilled to share with you an interview I did with the gem named Kate Richards. She’s an author and editor, and a beautiful soul you want to know. Today she’s sharing her story of becoming a solitary witch, and in the spirit of literary empowerment, she’s offering a $20 Amazon gift card to a random commenter! Comment with your name, email, and praise for this lovely woman by Sunday 8 June to be entered!

How would you describe your work/path/art to a beginner?

I use the term witch now, but while I do own wands and have an athame, etc., I believe intent is the most important tool in my bag.

How did this work call you? At what life stage?

I attended 12 years of parochial school…but at thirteen years old I suddenly woke up to the possibilities of so much more. I believed in reincarnation, although I didn’t even know it existed, in the oneness of all, even though I wouldn’t have been able to explain it then. After that while I did go to religion classes, church, whatever, it lost meaning for me. But it was okay because I was so curious about everyone else’s reality.

Describe your experience of spirituality as a teen/young adult. Discuss your blessings and challenges of that era.

I just went with what my heart told me was true, and read anything I could get my hands on. Because I was that age pre-Internet, research wasn’t as easy to do. The local library didn’t have a lot of “occult” literature. And I was part of a Catholic family that, while I don’t think were all that pious, did go to church every Sunday and were a little appalled by my interests.

I ended up joining a New Age group at twenty-one and while I emerged with some very good experiences, a lot of damage was done to people there by those who took advantage of the their open hearts and minds. I learned what strength a group of people united in mind together could hold, but also not to trust anyone who said they had answers for me.

I experimented then with a number of different relationships, although I wouldn’t have called it experimentation at the time. But I can see now how the different people in my life affected my path in good and maybe not so good ways. And how important each one was.

Then one day someone said I was Wiccan…and because I had apparently not learned that people don’t have the answers, I went with that. And it was good…in a way. In learning about what Wicca was, I found that I liked some elements of it and added it to everything else I’d been picking up along the way, left the parts I didn’t like…and moved on.

I have to find my own and the best way for me is to listen to others, but follow my heart. I resent the statement that we need a set of rules like the 10 Commandments to know that we shouldn’t lie, murder, steal, and covet our neighbor’s ox and ass (or iTouch). We know these things, we don’t need the carrot and stick of heaven and hell to get there! Your ox is safe around me. I’ll watch it while you go to the rest room if you like.

How does that experience speak through your work, today?

I don’t know if I have anything I’d really call my work. I try to be a good person, open to everything the universe has to show me. I am a solitary practitioner/witch, believer in oneness…I don’t know. I try to offer support to others who are also searching and find the common thread that we all share, the light in each of us. I believe that we have specific lessons to learn in each life and in each moment and try to pick up on them before they have to actually slam me in the face (because that can hurt).

Kate Richards is the pen name of a solitary witch living in Southern California, with her husband and way too many rescued pets. She is a published author and editor and rejoices in the ups and downs of life that allowed her to land where she is at this time.

Facebook Fan Page http://on.fb.me/14Vqx48
Goodreads Page http://bit.ly/19yVcWh
Twitter http://bit.ly/17AeWeM
Blog: http://katerichards.wordpress.com

Don’t forget to comment to be entered for a chance to win Kate’s gift of a $20 Amazon gift card!

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Available worldwide, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism.

The post Teen Spirit Wise Voice – Kate Richards – Following Your Heart appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Morgan

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Teen Spirit Wise Voice – Queen Mama Donna Henes

I’ve known Mama Donna for several years. She’s an amazing woman, a dynamic spirit, and a powerful force to reckon with. She’s published several books, and you can find her personal essays and articles around the Internet. She’s big on moxy, and firm on the feminine. Her approach to her shamanic path is nothing if not fresh and inspiring. With us she’s sharing her ritual for safe travel, and a lovely giveaway.

 

Virtual Altar

By Mama Donna Henes, Urban Shaman

I fly, I soar, I zoom through the skies in my dreams and in my shamanic journeys, but I am not a great flyer on planes. So when I do venture onto an aircraft piloted by someone else, I have a whole series of little protective rituals to help get me from point A to point B in one piece.

Before I leave my house, I bless myself on the back of my neck, a point of great vulnerability. I also bless my home, my animals, and my altar to be safe in my absence. When I get to the airport, I bless myself with a swig of vodka that I carry with me in an antique flask. And upon entering the plane, I bless that, too, with protection oil.

But most critical of all is my travel altar, that is my amulet bag. This is a pink Chinese silk brocade purse filled to absolute capacity with the charms and totems that inspire, calm and empower me wherever I may be. Just feeling its considerable bursting-at-the-seams weight in my purse gives me confidence and a sense of security.

A few years ago, while waiting anxiously for a flight, I reached for my pocketbook altar bag only to discover to my absolute horror that I did not have it with me. Omigoddess! What to do? I was determined to reassemble my amulets and recreate my altar in my mind. That way, I might still connect with and concentrate on its power.

So I removed myself to the cocktail lounge where I sat at a table and summoned up the contents of my travel altar one by one, then listed them in my Guadalupe notebook, each with a little drawing:

A crow’s foot. The one I took from a road-kill crow. It represents my mature wisdom.
A little tin airplane with a black silk tassel. The one my five-year old niece told me was going to help me fly.
A gold pin that says ritual. A gift from my dear friend Tommy (R.I.P).
My gramma’s diamond ring that I always loved, but could never wear.
My Navaho ring. A gift from Kay that has all the symbols of Spider Woman, my vision quest deity.
A piece of polished moose horn. A Ojibway gift from my time in the north woods bush near Thunder Bay, Canada.
A city stone. An odd shaped double stone from my then young son Omar who gave it to me because I “like stuff like this.”
An Egyptian scarab. From my lover for long life and long love.
A lock of my canine companion Bud,’s hair. For love, loyalty, devotion and protection,
A crown feather from my fine-feathered cockatiel friend, Ola. A Queenly offering.
An amythyst pyramid to focus my intuitive senses.
A rainbow crystal to channel light.
A citrine crystal to mediate the dark.
A peonía seed for power.
A cowry shell for creation.
A blue ball for purity.
A worry doll to take away my troubles.
A Yoni Goddess for sexual healing.
A Tibetan skull carved from a skull to remind me of impermanence
A copper-lidded jar filled with healing soil from Chimayó, New Mexico.
And medals of Guadalupe, Mother Cabrini, an angel, and the Venus of Willendorf.

Ah. Putting them on paper made me feel much better. There they were, all present and accounted for. I turned the list over and Inscribed my affirmation on the other side:

“I am safe.

I am calm.

I am centered.”

I lit a bar match to ignite my intentions. And toasted them with another bit of vodka. Then I folded my list into my pocket and went to board my plane. I stepped into the skyway that afternoon with the same sacred calm and sense of cosmic rightness that I always feel after praying at my altar. I was connected and protected. And I actually enjoyed my flight.

About Mama Donna

Unofficial Commissioner of Public Spirit of NYC. – The New Yorker
For 35 years Ms. Henes has been putting city folk in touch with Mother Earth. – New York Times
Part performance artist, part witch, part social director for planet earth. – The Village Voice
A-List exorcist!” – NY Post
The Original crystal-packing mama. – NY Press

Donna Henes is an internationally renowned urban shaman, contemporary ceremonialist, spiritual teacher, award-winning author, popular speaker and workshop leader whose joyful celebrations of celestial events have introduced ancient traditional rituals and contemporary ceremonies to millions of people in more than 100 cities since 1972. She has published four books, a CD, an acclaimed Ezine and writes for The Huffington Post, Beliefnet and UPI Religion and Spirituality Forum. A noted ritual expert, she serves as a ritual consultant for the television and film industry. Mama Donna, as she is affectionately called, maintains a ceremonial center, spirit shop, ritual practice and consultancy in Exotic Brooklyn, NY where she  offers intuitive tarot readings, spiritual counseling and works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.


Read her on the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-henes/
Connect with her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MamaDonnaHenes
Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/queenmamadonna
Watch her videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/MamaDonnaHenes


Mama Donna’s Tea Garden & Healing Haven

PO Box 380403

Exotic Brooklyn, New York, NY 11238-0403

Phone: 718/857-1343

Email: CityShaman@aol.com

Mama Donna is pleased to offer you a special gift of her empowering affirmation, I AM A DIVINE AND BEAUTIFUL BEING.  This lovely inspiration is delightfully designed and suitable for framing.

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Available worldwide, Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism.

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