Walking the shamanic path gave me support and tools to meet everyday challenges with ease and grace.
It liberated me from conventional thinking and elevated me to an endless-multiverse-level of wisdom. It gave me resources beyond what society, my family, even higher education had given me. It freed me up to live more authentically my soul’s purpose, less focused on the smaller purpose of this single lifetime and cultural expectations that go along with who I am in this life. 

I’m far more interested in your soul purpose than I am in your life purpose. Knowing your soul purpose is much bigger than how you express that in this one lifetime. ​

I was the corporate 60-hour a week, no vacation, always on call, financial analyst in NYC. Before that, I worked in law in a major bank. I understand that life. 

I was also the busy mom with a hundred things happening and a partner who traveled all the time. So, while I wasn’t a single-parent, I was doing the hands-on alone. I understand that life too.

I remember when the kids were little, we had moved out to the country by then—which had its own isolation issues—but I remember wanting to find a place of my own, just a room to meditate in for 10 minutes a day. Back then I thought my spiritual practices had to be something set outside of my ordinary activities. Something special and separate. 

I can't tell you how many times I say this to myself and my community! That and "hands at your back" are my support mantras.
 
“You got this.”
“I believe in you.”
“I know you can do everything you’re dreaming of, and probably a whole lot more!”
 
It just feels right to wholly believe that the people in my tribe got it. Whatever it is they are thinking about, working on, creating. They got this.
 
“Hands at your back.”
“I’m right here.”
“I will support you, encourage you, assist you, whatever you need.”
 
THIS is the community I want to live in. This is the only circle, tribe, network I am interested in engaging with.
 
2020 has taught me so much about priorities, purpose, self-worth and risk taking. 

We have encounters with unseen energies around us all the time. Too often we doubt them. We might even think we are a little crazy. It’s okay to ask if you are crazy. I get that, I’ve been there. I remember sitting with a shaman teacher one afternoon and hearing her say that even she sometimes wonders if she is a bit crazy. 

What we don’t have is a place to talk about these encounters. A tribe of people or a learned elder who can guide us in understanding what we’re encountering. That’s why we doubt.

Our culture is set up to foster only what science can validate and what the five physical senses can perceive. Intuition and hunches, the foundation of the unseen energies, are not spoken of outside of “new age” communities. But that is changing.

​Today I'm going to ask you to wrap your brain around two big concepts. Two very large spiritual concepts. The first is that all things are simply energy. The second is that all energy comes from Creator, from Source, from God and therefore all energy is divine. Coming from the higher place, there is no good nor evil. Vibration and energy are neither good nor bad. It is all just energy.
 
Now let me give you an example.

In shamanism there is an understanding that at times, usually times of trauma, a piece of our soul may be fragmented, it seems to go into hiding. It does this to protect us. In the shamanic community we call this “soul loss.” Now we know that the soul piece doesn't actually leave the soul. The soul stays intact -- however, it very much feels like a piece of you is missing. It’s as if the soul piece goes into hiding and is lost to you. You feel incomplete as if something was taken from you. You might feel broken or damaged.
 
What type of trauma can cause a soul loss or soul fragmentation?

Since mid-March, when we all began spinning our cocoons, I’ve had to reconcile the woman I became in the last few years with the woman I used to be when my family was home more. I needed to readjust to an earlier version of myself just when I was really happy with who I had become. I struggled with boundaries and resentments, with hurt and fear, and yet, I loved being together and the light and joy that returned to our home. I struggled with equitable work distribution and the desire to nurture. I struggled with loneliness and togetherness all at the same time. I have had to reconcile life without friends, then life with friends (virtually), then the realization that it’s all really the same.
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It’s been difficult and I haven’t done the best job of it. I want to find the meaning in it all. I want to do the deep inner work and discover new truths about myself and my life. And yet...I don’t. I’m exhausted and empty most of the time. I’m uncomfortable in my own skin (the 9 extra pounds don’t help). I’m doing my best and some part of me keeps saying it’s not enough. 

Tarot has a way of getting under your skin. It feels mysterious and magical. There is something about tarot that speaks to an older version of ourselves. It evokes a memory of a time when you could climb up into the intricately carved vardo wagon of the local traveling fortune-teller. There might be a crystal ball on a velvet cloth-covered table and a deck of tarot cards waiting for you to ask your questions. By the time you left her, you knew if it was time to walk away from something or someone; or if it was all going to work out for you.

If you are thinking about learning tarot, you will step into that magical world and your life will be changed. Here are 7 ways that learning tarot will change your life.
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My thoughts re: the shamanic three worlds and Dr. Sue's take on there is only one world.

In an October workshop workshop with Dr. Sue Morter, author of The Energy Codes, she talked about how there are no other worlds. We are all here at the same time. Light and physical being all part of a continuum, a spectrum on the same plane. This idea is very much how I see the traditional three worlds of the shaman. Understanding that there is only one world and relating to it from the shamanic perspective only requires the ability to slide your perspective. It is how I have come to know the shamanic practice of having one foot in both worlds.

​When you travel to one of the traditional shamanic three worlds, you are not going anywhere. You are simply moving into a lighter consciousness perspective. This helps you to go there at any time. Just move the meter to the lighter vibration. Move your awareness away from your physical plane toward your energetic plane. You are both at the same time.

For me, the shamanic perspective is one of sliding the ruler in order to bring healing, wisdom, clarity, all manner of things, from the light into the physical. The earthiness of shamanic tools and their deep connection to nature, ground the wisdom from the light plane into our physical plane. When I work with flowers, drums or rattles, I am allowing the energetic qualities of nature and the physical world to ground the healing into this plane. It is both at the same time. The physicality of the drum (sound vibration hitting my ears, the skin of the animal and the tree from which it was formed) can be used as a way to slide the perspective to the lighter plane while staying in the physical plane. You are in both at the same time.

We humans have been trained and we've become accustomed to perceive our physical being mostly, but our light being is here too. You can slide your awareness, back and forth between the physical and the light. Sometimes it's beneficial to be more in the physical plane - having sex, driving the car. Sometimes it's beneficial be more in the light plane - searching for truth, making life decisions. Sometimes you want to be in the middle of both - making love, parenting, healing with your hands. Neither is better or worse and it isn't an either-or proposition. The path of the Sacred Ordinary is about living with a sliding perspective. 

An interesting related take-away from that workshop offers a perspective slide regrading the things you have been told are not real, e.g. fairies, Lemuria, giants, etc. Dr. Sue said, "What if you could allow both to be present?" I like that. What if there were two or more perspectives? What if your perspective was broader than where you are right now? It's about being able to slide your perspective. Sometimes from the physical to the light and sometimes from the fixed and known to the wider field of allowing and not knowing. Sometimes the slide isn't left or right as much as it is both--opening you to a broader perspective.