About being a shaman
Passionate about working with energy medicine
Little did I understand how my life would change when Doug and I signed up for a week-long class in Death and Dying Consciously in 2011. We had always been interested in this topic so we eagerly took the time to attend. I was CEO at my company, Aqueous Process Simulations, and Doug was an actuary. The class was being held at the Kripalu Center, and as yogis who often went to Kripalu, we did not pause to consider what type of class this would be.
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The class was small, there were twelve of us. Doug and I were the only two non-medical participants. We spent a day and a half in a crash course on what we later learned were essential shaman skills, and then the 12 of us joined a class of 70, about-to-graduate shamans who were learning the skills for working with the death rites as taught by the Four Winds Light Body School. I was caught somewhere between awe and dismay. My only association with shamanism until then was rattles and feathers and this was not something that interested me. However, what followed was an intense and wonderful initiation into shamanism as taught by the Four Winds. By the end of the week, Doug and I knew we needed to also become shamans. I came to understand that we had been guided by Spirit into this "innocent-looking" introductory class!
I had always enjoyed an unusual relationship with death and those who had died. My grandmother, who died when i was eight and spoke no English (and I spoke virtually no Slovak) nonetheless was a regular visitor in my dreams and also occasionally in my life. I took her presence and others for granted. As people throughout my life became seriously ill, then passed away, I noticed that as they approached death they would often come into my field of energy. In fact, I remember telling my father-in-law that he should come find me in my heart - and he did. So finding a body of knowledge in the Four Winds Light Body School that could actually address and organize this type of Spirit World contact was a real blessing to me.
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The Four Winds Light Body School is based on the work of Dr. Alberto Villodo and his remarkable experiences of shamanism with the Q'ero Indians in Peru. As good a shaman as Alberto is - and he is a superlative shaman - his ability to translate a fragmented body of skills and knowledge into a school curriculum that Westerners could learn is simply genius. Along with the genius of Alberto, Doug and I had the compelling leadership of Linda Fitch, the Dean of the Light Body School at the time, along with many master shamans as instructors to bring this ancient tradition and skill of working with our luminous energy bodies to us.
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What do I mean "luminous energy bodies?" Each of us has a luminous energy field (LEF) surrounding our body. It is torus-shaped and extends beneath the ground as well as above our heads. Shamans understand that the LEF is the way that a person "creates and continues to mold the body, the brain, and the nervous system." (Please go to the four Winds Society website to read more)
As shamans, we have seen that working with luminous energy body, or light body, can have remarkable results in terms of shifting a person's energy towards wholeness and full potential. Shaman work can help a person become "unstuck" or move past a particular event or relationship. The light body becomes clouded, imprinted with heavy energy, sometime with energetic objects or entities. Rips or damage in the light body fabric can occur. Parts of the light body can become trapped away from a person's own energy and these trapped fragments can be restored. And, light bodies communicate and move more directly into the invisible spirit realms. A shaman can assist in this navigation on behalf of a client or a client's loved ones. When needed, a shaman can shepherds spirits to a safer place.
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Finally, as shamans, we practice "dreaming the world into being." We work with earth keepers and wisdom keepers on behalf of the planet. We honor Pachamama, mother Earth our home and we work on behalf of all her children. Amen!
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