Living The Shamanic way - Every Day

I recently caught myself thinking that I live the shamanic way every day. And I paused there and I asked myself, so what does that mean? To me, it is centered in walking two worlds simultaneously. I’ve always got one foot in this world, this very physical "real" world. And I have another foot in the spirit realm in the world of potential and of complete connection and oneness with all things. So I started to explore what that means and how I might possibly explain that to people. I recognized that I am often hiding that part of me, afraid people will think I'm crazy.

​I don’t want people to know how unusual my perspective is on all things. I don’t want people to see all of the ways I see, feel and experience things because truthfully, they might think I'm crazy. But I’m not crazy, I’m very sane, I'm even logical. This is just how the world has always been for me. Somehow as an adult, as a parent, a business owner, as a grown woman, I have this ridiculous idea that I need to be respectable. I have to do things certain ways and that doesn't include walking two worlds at the same time.

Luckily, in the last few years and particularly the last few months, I’ve realized, that maybe I don’t have to be that boring, maybe I can go back to my childlike self and allow the real me to come out. So in the spirit of showing up authentically,  I am sharing with you how I see the world and how I live contemporary shamanism.

To me living the shamanic way every day means things are more alive and I feel connected and able to communicate with all things. I pay attention when a power animal or spirit guide shows up in physical form. When I’m driving around in the morning and I see a red-tailed hawk, I know here’s a message in that. Perhaps I need to pay attention today, there is something coming in. Perhaps hawk is just reassuring me that he is there. Then if I see another, I know hawk is trying to tell me something and then I see a third one and  I know there is a very clear message being delivered. I tune in and usually get a hit on it right away. So that’s it, I’m driving to the bank or to the grocery store or wherever, but if I start to see certain birds flying in the sky, I recognize that my spirit guides are talking to me.

My husband and I raise most of our own meat, and a lot of vegetables and eggs and things like that. Even the simple act of eating dinner is a sacred act to me. When I'm eating food from this land, it’s not just food. I put it in my mouth and I realize I am eating a chain of taking care of people, and moments of service, and the sacrifice that we all have to make for someone else’s well-being and health. And I recognize that I am taking in the spirit of the four-legged or the green-leafy-rooted one. And that is how I eat. I don’t just eat a vegetable. I eat the spirit of a vegetable and the plant kingdom. I don’t just eat meat, I eat the spirit of the four-legged and I take that into me. And I ask to take on some of their qualities. And all of this happens in the blink of an eye, in a split second, all of it happens so naturally that I’m most often not consciously aware of it. It’s just thoughts running through my head--"dear lamb, chicken egg, lettuce leaf, thank you so much. I am so blessed."

You may think now that I am crazy. I’m not. I am highly educated, completely sane, totally in control of my faculties. It’s just that I live in a way that is connected to spirit and nature beings. And therefore, my every action, every thought, every deed is twofold. It’s of this world and it’s of another place as well. Stay tuned for more blog posts on how I live the shamanic way every day, how I live the Sacred Ordinary.