What Tools Do Shamans Use?

Question:  What are the tools Shaman's use?  I heard they use drugs to induce their spirit walks.

Answer:  Allow me to first state that what I share is simply my perspective and what works for me personally.  I believe that every soul is different and thus their tools will be reflected as such.

Let me start with the second question first.  While I know that many do use various herbs to help induce shamanic trance, I will share as I was taught.  If you can not journey without the external, you will never find the internal.  For me, I have never used herbal supplements to aid in learning trance state or journey's.  Though, it could be argued that even sage is a herbal supplement (which I often will burn in my fires), I believe your question was to other types of psychedelic drugs and ayahuasca tea.

Even with tools, I was taught that when doing work one should learn to depend upon the internal to step into the flow of the external.  Meaning if I can not do my "work" without the paraphernalia I am using my own energy rather than being a conduit for Universal energy.  Do I own some of these "tools"?  Yes.  Most of which have been gifted to me over the years.

Divining :  Do I have some sort of cards?  Yes.  Do I use them in readings?  Rarely, but does at times use them for picture screens.  Most of the time I use a set of stones.  My original set we will call them "misplaced" had many symbols that a teacher taught me.  The new set that I have created have my symbols on them.  For the most part, these are what I use in doing any type of 'reading' or divining.

Pendulum:  Do I have one?  Yes, several actually.  Again they were gifted to me.  However, I had a teacher that taught me to become the pendulum.  Using your whole body or a simple finger in order to receive yes or no answers has it's advantages.  Can honestly say the teenagers were not really excited that I learned this skill.  I do use the pendulum when teaching in order that the results are seen by the one I am teaching.

Crystals:  Do I have any?  Yes, several.  I love crystals, stones, rocks, branches, shells, and just about anything that comes from the nature.  Do I do healing with them?  Not really.  There are some favorite stones that I recommend to people as they can be of great benefit.  I do have to say that I use two particular stones more frequently than others.  Selenite to clear the energy (especially at the dinning room table) and moldavite (a high vibration frequency meteorite ).  The benefit of stones and crystals is that they can be programmed with energy to amplify intentions for those who are not comfortable with tapping into Universal energy themselves.  One thing I do wish to add here, be mindful of where you get your stones and crystals.  Many of the mining of these precious stones is not in accordance with the laws of nature or some may have programming from others.  Be sure to thank the stone/crystal for coming to you and leaving its natural habitat to assist you, be sure to clear or cleanse the stone (my favorite two ways are to bury them back into the ground or burying them in a large bowl of sea salt), and be sure to treat your stones/crystals for the gift that they are.

My Bodhran

Drums:  Do I have one?  Yes, several actually ranging in size and style that were all gifted to me.  The beat of the drum is a wonderful experience that can shift the vibration of a room or even yourself.  I was taught to learn the beat of my internal first, the beat of your own heart.  It is then that you are never without your drum.

My personal tools:

Diet, exercise, and rest.  They are vital for anyone doing spiritual work, physical work, or work.
Breath work or breath control is one of the greatest tools that can develop awareness and assist anyone working with energy of any type.

Fire.  My fires are my meditation, journey, and divining tool.  They speak to me.

Hope this answers your question about tools and the work of Shamans.  As I said, there are many tools such as the medicine bundle, the sacred pipes, feathers, and the list goes on that are used.  Many that each of us hold as sacred, but not necessarily vital in doing our work.  Just sacred and special to aid in work.

Fire In The Soul

In The Soul
Introduction To Fire Shamanism and the Application of Ancient Traditions 
An 8-week Online Course

Discover the ancient teachings of Shamanism and how they can be put into application in today’s society.  Learn to journey into other worlds to meet your guides, your power animal, and discover the Cauldron of Your Soul.  Engage in translating Spiritual Vibrations and symbols to uncover your messages.  Ignite the spark of the Eternal Flame within.  Purifying and cleansing through the fire of your energetic centers, create your personal fire rituals and ceremonies for releasing and healing, and discover the medicine of the flames.  Walk the inner and outer spokes of the medicine wheel to strengthen your connection with the Divine Spirit.

Includes private Facebook group For Discussions, Fire Healing Ceremonies, Drumming journeys and Soul Meditations.

A written and audio/video lesson will be posted weekly. In addition, there will be a weekly group journey with discussion including drumming audio and beginning your meditative journey to your Inner Cauldron of the Soul; along with supporting video’s for informational purposes. Weekly live chats will be hosted for group discussions.

Join us and begin to gather your tribe, learn the ways of the elders, and how to apply them in today’s world.

To join us on this adventure, email shamancarla@verizon.net for further details. Class size is limited and will begin September 5th and run for 8 weeks. The cost of the class is $160.00 for the 8 weeks.

How Do I Meet My Spirit Animal Guide

Question:  How do I meet my spirit animal guides?

Answer:   There are many beliefs and practices around animal guides.  It has been shared with me that each of us has an animal totem to guide our lives; while others have shared with me that they believe we each have hundreds of animal guides.  I asked my teacher about this along time ago, I remember his reply vividly.  “Each soul is related to each animal.  They come when you need the most protection.  The most medicine. “.  It has been my personal experience that I have animal guides that seem to reoccur in my journey, while others share medicine when it is most needed.  Every animal is related and thus they can be called up one for guidance.

Just as with any spirit guide, animal guides come when they are called upon and are needed.  It is my experience to simply call upon one for the mere sake of it, is asking for that lesson. 

I remember my first ‘lesson’.  I wanted my own animal guide.  I wanted something ‘cool’ like a lion, a jaguar or maybe even a dolphin.  So off I went to set my intention and journey to meet this fantastical animal guide.  I went out to my favorite meditation spot and began to breath.   I was only there for a few moments when it happened.  I got a bite.  I had not noticed in my impatience that I had plopped down in the middle of a red ant mound.  My upper leg covered with a stinging bite. 

I called my teacher to complain and whine about the bites, when he shared perhaps I may want to reconsider why I was calling out to an animal guide if I did not want the medicine they offered.  See the medicine of the ant is patience.  Have you ever watched an ant carry a piece of food larger than them across a path?  Powerful medicine in that example.  In my impatience, the animal guides gave me the medicine lesson I most needed.  Patience.

We may wish to seek out the wisdom and medicine of a particular animal guide, but what will show up is the one that has the important lesson and wisdom to impart to you.  This wisdom may be necessary to resolve the real question within before we can move on.  Remember, even the smallest of guides can share the most powerful of medicine.

I am sure that this does not bode well with those of you who are intent upon finding the power animal to declare as your own.  Be sure of your intent before you ask.  If you are ready, the animal guide will come to you.  Many times it may not be in the journey, but rather in the physical life.  Are you seeing spiders?  What about snakes?  Or hearing owls?  If you are, ask in meditative journey’s what the wisdom is of the animal and you may just be surprised at the answer.

Hearing the Beat of Your Own Drum

(Photographer Mark Cosslett)

Question:  I have a hard time with doing a journey; can you recommend a drumming cd?

Answer:  While I have a number of drumming cd’s that I absolutely love; I will share with you the gift an early teacher of mine shared with me.  He said “when you can hear the internal, you can appreciate the external”.  My first response was “huh”.  At the time, I was beginning the journey and did not understand how the simple beat of a drum was to take me on some path outside of me.  He went on to explain that when I could hear the beat of my own “drum” heartbeat, it was then that I would understand the magic of the drum beat.

In retrospect, it was one of the deepest gifts he shared with me.  You see, when you can silence the mind in order to hear the beat of your own heart it is then that you are releasing the external.  Releasing all that is external is the first step in any type of meditation or journey. 

Each one of us has a vibrational ‘beat’ that is our own.  We will always resonate with it.  It is always with us, regardless of external.  Many times we today look for an external answer, an external tool in order to experience the spiritual.  When we go internal, when we seek the experience of the spiritual within, it is then we can truly begin to experience the journey.  All the answers to all of our questions can be found within.  They already exist.

So how is it that you begin to silence enough to hear the drum beat of your own heart?  Lay down on the Earth, or on the floor if need be, and simply begin to breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth.  Lay your right hand over the cavity of your chest and simply be.  Don’t press the hand hard into the chest to attempt to force the feeling, simply rest it there.  As you breathe, focus on the sensation of your hand and the pulse that rises up to it.  Remember, it may take some practice in order to even feel the beat of your own heart.  It is worth it.  Once you begin to ‘feel’ the beat, focus on beginning to allow the sound to whisper in your mind.  Focus only on the beat.  When you can hear your own drum, it is then you will find that the drum of Mother Earth can be felt rising up within you.  And the journey begins.

How are we all connected?

The Burning Bush Tapestry

by E. Thor Carlson

Question:  Can you explain how we are all connected?

Answer:  There are so many levels upon which one may answer this question.  I will attempt to answer it in the simplest of terms possible as I see it.

We are all energetic beings that vibrate a set of frequencies.  Every species of the animal kingdom are energetic and also vibrate a set of frequencies.  This is true of the plant kingdom and our Mother Earth.  It is a law of nature.  Your personal energy is connected with the Universal energy; perhaps different frequencies but still they are connected. 

From an earlier age, we as humans are taught that we are self-contained shells (our bodies) and within that shell is health or disease, energy or fatigue, and so on.  In this way we are taught only one aspect of energetics.  We become bound in our thoughts that this is truth.  And, in fairness, it is truth – but it is only one aspect of truth. 

I like to describe Universal energy as a tapestry that is weaved and is infinite in its beauty.  Each thread is the base from which the tapestry is made. Our personal energy is only a small part of the tapestry.  In each aspect of frequency, a new thread is born to be woven into the tapestry.  Is the fringe of a tapestry less or more important than the thread colored in the center.  If it is infinite, do we really know where center is?  Each of the threads are entwined with one another in such a way that we can never see one without seeing another.  It is the same with the human energy.  A small thread in the midst of a beautiful canvas which tells a story of the Universe.

As a species, we tend to believe we are the top of the ‘food chain’ so to speak.  Yet, without the threads of the plant kingdom we may not have the color green or without the threads of the animal kingdom we may not have the color orange.  Would the tapestry reveal the same story without these colored threads?

Within the natural laws, we can begin to ‘see’ the tapestry within all aspects of energy rather than the single thread of human energetics.  Interestingly, as much as we have evolved since the first known man, the human energy system has not shifted significantly in all this time.  As human beings, our energy carries many of the same frequencies – fear, love, dreams, anger.  We perhaps may try to ‘dye’ the thread colors but the skies rain down upon us and reveal the true color beneath.  We can begin to see the connection between the threads is when we will even begin to ‘see’ more than a single aspect.

 

Let’s ask it even in simpler terms:  Image your life with no plant kingdom.  This one imagination not only removes some of the most beautiful aspects of the tapestry, it also removes the animal kingdom and the two legged kingdom.  No food to eat.  Do you see the interconnection now?

What is the difference between Shamanic Healing and Reiki?

Question:  Is the healing at your fires the same thing as Reiki?

Answer:  Reiki is a form of energetic healing that uses specific frequencies in healing.  These higher frequencies can have profound effects upon the energy of the human body (as well as all living things).  Most who seek out Reiki healing are also adding to the mix their own personal intention.  What that means is that a person is requesting the healing and is intending that it will be successful (helpful).  When the two are combined the healing of Reiki can be astounding in nature. 

Healing through the fire or Shamanic healing is different in that it is not using a specific set of frequencies.  

When working with a practiced Shamanic practitioner (and one does not need be a Shaman in order to be skilled at Shamanic practices) the difference is comparable to Reiki being a laser beam and Shamanic healing being a scalpel.  They work differently in that Reiki is pushed beam of energetic frequency towards the intended target of healing.  Shamanic healing will go in and work specifically on the core or root of what is causing the disease and remove it like a surgeon would remove a tumor. 

With Shamanic healing it is not necessary (but within my own constricts of ethic it is) to have neither permission nor the addition of intent of the one requesting to be successful.  In addition, without exception, any type of Shamanic healing will include a journey of some sort so that the Shaman or Shamanic practitioner can ‘see’ the state of energy.  

Within the parameters of Reiki, there is very little danger and possibilities of great benefits.  Within the parameters of Shamanic healing, there is always danger in obtaining results that were not necessarily accounted for.  Whenever you are dealing with energetics not only of this world but of every world, one must take under consideration whom it is that you are trusting.  Any Shaman or Shamanic practitioner that you determine to work with, ask them questions and trust your own instinct as to whether you wish them to ‘step into your energetics and change them’.  Remember, you are giving them permission to access your past, your present and your future.  Would you give them the keys to your home?  

Jealousy - What Does It Look Like Energetically?

Question:  You said that you ‘saw’ jealousy as the root cause of my energetic problem, can you explain what that looks and feels like energetically?

(Ebil Blis)

Answer:

Jealousy is one of those energies that can be easily confused as it is really made up by multiple areas of energy.  Think of jealousy as simply a shade of emotional energy.  What is jealousy?  Control or lack of?  Anger?  Grief?  Desire?  Lust?  It is really interesting as it one of those emotions that vary from person to person as to the root cause.  Even within the same person, it can vary from situation to situation.  It is dangerous in the sense the one it can block or consume is the one holding it, not the one it is directed at.  Thus, it is classified really as a form of self.  We all know that self in its hundred forms is the underlying cause of most destructive behavior and energetic blocks. 

Usually we can follow the threads of jealousy back into the root chakra.  The root chakra is formed and grounded in the first seven years of life.  Once that energetic frequency is embedded it is difficult to remove.  Most are taught the concepts of sharing and self-containment during these formative years which allows us to overcome jealousy.  When it is not energetically learned, it becomes embedded in the ego and can manifest into the extreme of suffering and denial leading to self-destruction on every level.

It is most often seen as a form of fear.  Fear of perceived / imagined injury by another, fear engrossed in lack (physical or emotional), and fear of the Universe/Great Spirit.

Finding the root cause of jealousy is truly the only way to cut the vine that strangles out emotional balance. 

If you are one that see’s the colors in the human auric field, it has been my experience that jealousy shows up as a dark, foggy, and dark greenish cloud area that can extend the entire length of the meridian.  Remember to that one form of jealousy’s roots can be inferiority complex.  This can equate to a low self-esteem which will result in the solar plexus energy to be spinning at a different frequency or vibrational rate.  If you are one that senses energy, the ‘sense’ of the energy will be a much slower circular rate over the energy centers – many times it is the root chakra, the front side of the sacral and both back and front of the solar plexus.  If it is rooted deeply, the diameters of the energy centers will be decreased and it can extend upward like a vine growing and sensed much like an internal energetic cord.

It can be difficult to determine what the root cause is simply by ‘sight’ or ‘sense’.  Many times it is perceived as self-preservation and denial is thick, if honest evaluation of self is looked at, it can be removed.  I have experienced in many, the first indication that jealousy exist is when self-evaluation causes shortness of breath or tightening in the chest. 

I hope this explains what jealousy looks and feels like energetically.