The Sacred Path

When I realized that my life path was to include the study of Shamanism, there were a number of things that had been hanging open in my life that fell into place and connected. Everything started to make sense. Looking back on it I realized that everything I had been doing to expand my consciousness, the many programs I attended at The Monroe Institute, were all leading me to the study of Shamanism.

With Shamanism, at least when studying with Hank Wesselman and Jill Kuykendall, you are exposed to and learn all aspects of this ancient practice. You may end up specializing in one aspect such as healing, or soul retrieval, or exploring the spiritual worlds, but as my cosmic committee explained to me, you have to know how to do it all well.

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You might want to go to the bathroom and perhaps get a snack and/or a beverage as this post is quite a bit longer than normal for me.

Some fifteen years ago, or so, I had a very vivid dream in which I was shown a tapestry and told that this visually represented the complete record of my current life, and that everything I thought, said, and did was recorded or woven into that tapestry. The “Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Other dreams and experiences followed and each added additional detail and expanded the analogy of our life as a tapestry.

This photo is of a painting done by my friend Frank DeMarco in 2004, which came out of one of his sessions with The Guys Upstairs (TGU), where TGU were asked how they perceived us “downstairs” from “upstairs.” The idea was that they see us as nodes on connecting cords or threads, which reinforced the vision I received during the Exploration 27 program at The Monroe Institute back in 1997. As I remember, when Frank began this painting, he connected with TGU and more or less allowed them to paint it. At Exploration 27 I was shown the framework or grid that life is constructed on – the Matrix if you will – and that vision hung around and visually overlaid my physical life for over a month after the program. In my vision at Exploration 27, we are at nodes, or intersections of groups of threads.

The other night, during a journey to my Sacred Garden, one of my guides showed up and took me much deeper into the concept of our life as a tapestry. This rugged yet gentle ancestor shows up quite often when I am performing healing ceremonies and has a very strong, no-nonsense way about him.

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These past several weeks I’ve been cranky. Not cranky with other people or cranky with myself about anything in particular, just cranky. According to friends, there is some stuff happening astrologically with an energy shift – Washington DC is in retrograde or something like that. I don’t follow astrology too closely, but whenever I notice energy shifts or something, astrology typically says something is going on.

In times like this, my journeys become quiet and I end up spending time just hanging out in my garden mostly. Even after all these years experiencing these cycles, I still find myself asking if I have “lost” the connection. It always comes back.

One thing I’ve started doing is drumming for 5 to 15 minutes a day. It’s always been difficult for me to drum and journey at the same time. The saying about not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time would apply. What I noticed the other day though, is that I had entered a light trance while drumming and that led me to the realization that I had been doing it, without knowing it for a while. It just takes practice I guess (Duh!).

I have a drumming CD that came with Hank Wesselman’s book, Journey to the Sacred Garden , and I use it from time to time, but I miss the vibration I can feel with live drumming; it penetrates and awakens me down to a cellular level. What’s even more magical is experiencing a large group drumming. Many times at the Shamanic workshops I’ve attended, after five minutes or so, I feel indigenous spirits moving in and around the group and I begin to hear their singing and chanting. The first time that happened, I opened my eyes and looked around the circle to see who in our group was singing. No one was.

My next workshop is in May, and I can hardly wait.