Shamanism 101.
How do we awaken our inner power and stand in that power as a Shaman does?
Shamanism, according to Liz Seidel (Kelly Morris’ Shaman), is an ancient healing tradition that has been lost, forgotten or discarded. A Shaman is a person of knowledge that travels into an extraordinary state of consciousness to bring healing.
Seidel admonishes us to “travel outside of time into an altered reality without drugs or other reality game changers.” That would be great if I only had an extra ten minutes in my day for sober time travel. I don’t mean to make light of the subject, but to the average westerner this seems almost impossible and a little kooky. So what exactly is she talking about?
After attentively listening to this podcast, a few things stood out that I could relate to. First, she speaks of directing your own energy, and that in Shamanistic healing there is no Dogma, and no hierarchy; I like that. The Patriarchy has taken control of the masses by taking away our personal power within and appointing middlemen. We are given a middleman to follow whether it be a priest, rabbi, guru so on and so forth when, as Seidel said, “We should be following the path not the person.”
She also says, that the select few that are in power, “are vagina free!” (my favorite quote of the interview by the way). This makes the inequality between men and women even more prevalent. Many believe that the masculine and feminine need to be equal, and not in the feminist angry about repression way, but in a way that is earth and spirit driven wholeness.
It’s true that the masculine and the feminine are not equal but through Shamanism we can help create a balance by connecting with the feminine which is the creation the energy and the sacred fullness.
What should we take from this interview? I will be taking the bits that resonate with my organic truth. I will take the beliefs that ring true to me just as I do from any other religion or philosophy. My mother is Christian, my grandmother a Catholic and I have an array of very dear friends that range from Atheist to Jewish and Yogis galore whom explore religion and philosophy with a gentle mind and an open heart. I will try to gain knowledge into how I can help myself and help the world heal from chaos, and I hope that Where Is My Guru listeners and readers do the same.
West coast native turned southern sweet heart, Nicole Larossi has been practicing yoga since 2002. She found yoga when she was pregnant with her first child and has loved it every day since. Several years later after moving to the south she decided to follow true path, and take her yoga practice to the next level by becoming a teacher. Nicole is passionate about healthy living, yoga and uniting her community and thrives to inspire other to do the same, recently taking on the position at Where Is My Guru as Special Projects Coordinator. You can find Nicole on Facebook, Twitter and the web.
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Editor: Kate Bartolotta
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Where Is My Guru, a social media hub spreading the light of yoga and cultivating leadership and service in communities via an online weekly radio show airing live every Friday, 11 am EST on Blog Talk Radio. WIMG is committed to bringing mindful media to the masses and advancing the melioration of individuals, communities and the environment through the power of our collective voices. #WIMG is the ultimate cross-over social media medium delivering vibrant live discussions on air generating one-of-a-kind written interviews, and connecting individuals and the causes they support with over 50% of programming dedicated toward providing service organizations and projects a platform to spread their cause. Emulating our heroes NPR, PBS, Arjuna and the Muppet Show, we keep it thoughtful, informative, and often warm and fuzzy. “Leading you back to you,” #WIMG is dedicated to harnessing the power of social media to be the change we wish to see in the world.
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Just intro'd on FB to: I'm Not Spiritual & Yoga.
~Mamaste
Hi Nicole,
Interesting questions you raise. Totally get that it does seem a bit "extra-terrestrial," time, and even cost-prohibitive ( in terms of smoking magic plant-based elixirs) to get to this state of consciousness. I think of it more like shedding layers of ourselves to discover the shaman that is already there within. To me, it is sort of like when things happen to us in our lives that break us open, things like loss, heartbreak, disaster, betrayal, sadness, and our own anxiety and fear around the unexpected events in life, we can learn to see these things as deepening our souls. These are opportunities to love ourselves through the despair, and know that to feel in life is a gift. In so doing, and with a sprinkle of awareness, we can learn how to transform our "wounds" into our strengths. We get to know ourselves more deeply for having gone through our own troubles and natural disasters, and we can relate, understand, and empathize with others more deeply when we have compassion for their similar struggles. This, to me, is Shaman-hood. Devoid of religion, vaginas, penis, or higher powers. It is uniting with our own essence as both unique humans and inter-connected spiritual beings. And the potential for this lives inside all of us.
and ps-i don't mean to sound like I've mastered this in life, by any means. It is our lives clay we are all constantly molding. In the words of my favorite tagline, I believe this sums it up best "I'm not only the hair-club for men president. I'm also a long-time client." <3
I love the definition of Shamanism given here. TY for a lovely interview.
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