We have entered the land of the She and the sun, she has slipped past, is making her way into the darkness. She is taking with her our dreams, our dead, our ideas of who we think we are, and what we think would have happened.
Now in the second harvest, we see the truth what we have gained what we have lost and what has never been all along, the illusions.
Mourn like the rain for those we have lost. Let it be easy, like the cool river as she flows in the darkness.
Let fly free with the crows your plans and visions which are not so.
There is much to do in the darkness and we must be prepared.
Empty yourself. There is time. Empty yourself. There is a shining within you. Empty yourself For the new dream that is coming.
Lately, I have taken to driving for hours in search of the right high mountain road, where I can return my crystals to the earth. I have been picking through my crystal beads, asking, This one? Yes. This one? Not yet., mixing the yeses together in a box, with salt for purification, in preparation for when they will be released to the waters. I am thinking ways to let them be wild, where no human will catch them.
Box of crystal beads, mixed with salt for purificaiton
I am not infusing them with prayers or directing their energy into any configuration. I am not even making proclamations. I am saying, Here. This is yours. Be at peace. Knit yourself back together, now.
This is my act of love. Mother Earth needs no more.
It all started with a group journey to the Spirits of Kindness. We were asked to go the ley lines of the Earth and ask if there was anything we could do to help. I saw them, so beautiful..
Immediately, a loud voice shouted, again and again, “STOP BUYING CRYSTALS”.
Now, I had done my stopping of buying crystals years ago, but I started up again recently. I already knew. In my journey, I saw images of the land being gouged by the mines. The destruction. The dissipation of the earth’s power centers.
I knew this was a message I need to listen to, and at the same time, I also was conflicted. I asked, What about the magnified power and healing we get from them, each in their own way? The answer was: If you have ever known a crystal, you can always tap into it again. It’s like knowing a mudra.
I asked: What about the ones I already own? In answer, I felt a deep desire from the crystals to go back into the earth. They can’t communicate, connect with all the others, be charged, do their thing when they are trapped in all these little boxes we call homes. I could see that if I had my own backyard, I could put them down and visit them there still. But I don’t have my own backyard. I was told to journey more about it and take my time learning how to transition out.
In the weeks after this journey, I have been slowly and silently guided by the Spirits of Kindness to find alternative magics. See, I use crystals a lot for protection and I need to be taught some other ways. I am in my home, often gazing at crystals, asking, You? Where How? Thank you.
I have found that different stones desire different things, so I listen, and listen. I am not getting rid of all my jewelry in a fell, unthinking swoop. I am listening. I am learning so many things. The stones that have been locked away say to me, See how well you have done without me!
I do not hope that my short post here compels you to purge every stone person in your house. I only hope that it reminds you to listen.
In case you haven’t heard, I have changed the name of a group I created and facilitate on Facebook from Pacific Northwest Shamanism to Pacific Northwest Spirit Walkers, to accurately describe the practices which were meant to be described in the forum. I would rather use a made-up title, than twist and turn an ancient word used for generations by an ancient people, whose land I have never visited, nor have I met the spirits who reside there.
A Spirit Walker is a person who, using repetitive rhythm, goes into an ecstatic, altered state for the purpose of meeting their guides in the other planes of existence in order to find healing and or information. The goal of the Spirit Walker is to bring the medicine from the other side back here, to our precious Earth, the home we have all chosen to reside for the extent of our lives. We strive to make a better world using these practices.
No one can take away another person’s relationship to the land and the spirits. We are the land and the land is us. The longer we live in one part of the land, the deeper that relationship grows.
At the same time, it is an offense to take on a sacred title from another culture, because you could not have possibly earned it in the way it was meant be earned, and to have this hard-earned vocational name watered down in order to use it is an offense. And further, to MAKE MONEY by drawing people to you with the title is unbelievably offensive.
In a recent rant, I asked,
“Should we all start calling ourselves Bishops? Should I say to people that I am a Pope and that it’s not a big deal because I can use the word Pope any way I want? Heck maybe I’ll use it as a verb because it is fun. I will be doing my poping work with you when you come to my sessions. Or what if I tell everyone that I am a Nun? Would that be fun? It certainly would create a rise in people. I’d get the attention I need to make a bit of money. Next week I am going to call myself a Buddhist Monk. Heck, who needs vows?
”People in Mongolia did not CHOOSE to have their sacred name traipsed all over the world by powerful white men making money off of their interpretation of their sacred, sacred, very sacred practices. Our use of the term did not come from the slow and comprehensive merging of cultures that happens with the mingling of peoples. Imagine growing up in a poor, rural area your entire life and then discovering that the oppressors of the world, the ones who colonize and start wars everywhere, the ones who are responsible for much of the poverty of the world are now the taking practices that shaped you as a child, that brought you into being an adult and are passing them around like candy, with no life-long relationship to the land they came from, with little understanding, and MAKING MONEY off of them? If that scenario does not bother you, I don’t know where your heart is.
”Practice your faith, your path, your sacred journey but don’t call it something that isn’t yours to call it. Us white people have lost our own culture and that is very, very sad but it doesn’t mean that we should take from others. We need to make our own. It would be FAR MORE POWERFUL to create our own culture than to try to fit into someone else’s shirt.”
Thank you for listening. As you can see, I feel the time has come for this change. Even if I have been carrying the word with the most utmost of respect, energetically it does not come from my home. It does not relate with my body or speak to the land here for me.
‘Spirit-Walker’ feels dynamic, creative, accurate and safely me. I am free. The burden is gone.
Notes: I had already made this change on my personal sites but I needed to take this further. I still do work with Shamanism Without Borders which is under the Society for Shamanic Practitioners’ title, because the work we do is unique and globally important – and it is not my call to rename the organization.
So far, my studies have not found the terms spiritwalker, spirit walker or spirit-walker to have originated from any one culture but I find they have, I will find another name.
This sabbat, this season is about the much lost energy of benevolent male sovereignty. This is the day of the power of the Emperor, the King (not the lord or the prince).
artist unknown
I intentionally use an image of a white man, because this is where we need these energies revival the most.
Men, when one has undergone the trials and tribulations of society pushing one into a role which you do not believe is true to your heart, after you learn how to fight – and win, because you were told to, once you have earned your throne and have had the responsibility of tending to others thrown upon you, then the unexpected. sheer weight of this responsibility should be awe-inspiring.
The true role of the Emperor, the King, is to not hold power, but rather to channel it to where it is needed, to keep the power flowing so it does not become stagnant. When one has faced one’s own suffering with an open heart, one is able to understand other’s suffering, to build bridges between peoples and to celebrate the gifts and talents of all members of our diverse country.
See the vulnerability in this King’s expression. This is how it should be. When we are too sure, we are not growing. We are not able to be responsive to what is before us. The agility of the warrior, later in life becomes alacrity of mind and heart.
This great power is not the same as the Goddess power. It is different, and they are both needed. Yes, it is crucial to continue to feed the resurgence of the feminine, but this is in order to restore balance, in our relationships and within ourselves. None of us can fully heal until there is balance.
Today, we focus on the archetype of the Great Father, Husband and Benevolent King.
So I send my prayers to the winds today, that our men become deep listeners, intense, unmired contemplators. That they do not throw down their weapons or their masculinity but they instead look to the wisdom inside themselves and around them to stand up in a new power, one which is generous and kind, and defends the rights of all people.
Blessed Be, and may the Strength of the Sun Shine in your life today.
Send me your rubber bullets and I will build an altar for us.
It will contain the power that struck the hammer, sending them, cutting through the air.
It will be packed with the force of cold, negligent denial of all wrongs done from slavery until now.
It will be charged with the emotions of our people on the streets, shouting until they can’t speak, marching until their bodies hurt, retreating through tear gas and chanting in unison,
of those tased in the car while police slash their tires, merely for being there.
It will hold the memories of those who held out their hands, those who risked their lives, those who crossed the lines, those who took a knee for peace.
It will be purified by the mere act of picking it off the street, turning it in one’s fingers, and taking it home to channel such into societal transformation.
Take your rubber bullets place them in a small dish. Surround all that passion and song and force and rage and grief and sweet bonding, with petals and nurturing sounds. Then, light a candle to hold witness to us all as you shine in your heart to envelop us with your sweetness.
Take your rubber bullet, pierce it with a hot needle. Pull a strong thread through the hole and make yourself a garland. Make yourself a thing of beauty, wrought from the forges of rebellion. Take it with you always, to fuel your revolution, which is our revolution, to crystallize your truth, which is our truth, to remind you, never, never to stop.
As long as many of us are sitting around at home these days, I want to bring up something that causes spiritual gunkiness. I do still work full time, but the free time I have is mysteriously vacuous. That is why I am able to write this.
There is a law of energy which states that while we are in our human bodies, there is a limited amount of attention we are able to give. It’s similar to the limited amount time we have per day, but balanced with our energy levels. No kidding, right? Pretty boring. Tell me something new.
Well, I won’t tell you anything new, but take a good look at your altar. Is it cluttered? Is there stuff there, that has blank or dead energy? Take it off, then, and see how your altar feels. Look at your medicine bundles, talismans and sacred items, on your shelves, in your drawers. Are you in the plenty with magical items?
Now ask yourself, “If I were going to give proper care to all of these amazing beings, do I have the time to do all that?”
Which items are not even energetically open to you, and which are sleeping, waiting for another chapter in your life? The ones that are not open to you simply do not belong in your house anymore. Heck, I know this. I kept a gorgeous crystal for ten years trying to like it, trying to connect with it, but it wasn’t until I gave it away that it came to life. Years later, it was returned to me and my relationship with this stone person was totally different.
There is a difference between hosting a family of helping spirits and collecting amazing items because they are beautiful. As practitioners, we are tenders and students of the talismans we keep. The stone people need conversation and clearing, or they will remain static. Talismans need recharging, animal totems need offerings and they all need love. Our relationships in our magical support team need to be constant, in and out of ceremony and developed over time. So, just as there can be too many cooks in the kitchen, too many lovers, there can be too many teachers, too many children, too much medicine.
I’m thinking, healers in subsistence living probably only have as many magical tools as they can carry in a satchel, or for community ceremonies, what their assistants can bring along with them. The core of a healer’s power is in a raw hunger for connection with the Spirits of Kindness, an inextricable relationship with the earth. The rest, though sometimes truly critical, is supportive.
Having all this stuff can create a heaviness in the air. They sit there and breath in and breathe out and don’t say very much. The crowd can cause us to have superficial relationships with many spirits, while our deeper relationships are neglected. This can make it difficult to enter clear, strong invocational spaces. We might feel a longing for the times when we felt the spirit running strongly in our bodies. It can be confusing when beginning ritual if we are not sure which items are needed. There can be an oppression of choice, instead of feeling our old friends leap off the altar.
If this hits home for you and you are thinking, “Yes! I need to gift my medicine items!”, keep reading.
There is a proper way to move magic. If you are moving stones, love them and and clear them. There might be energies in them that you don’t want to pass on to your friends – lingering emotions, stuff from old ceremonies. If you are parting with a talisman created for a specific reason, perhaps it serves no more purpose. Perhaps it needs to be dismantled, returning its energies to earth, air, water, fire. Put that time of your life to rest with gratitude and new understanding. Seashells might want to go back to the sea, stones back to the great outdoors. If it is a totem, sit quietly with it in sacred space and whisper to it your feelings. Ask it where it wants to go. Then when you gift it to someone, don’t expect them to keep it. Magical items are just that, magical. It might take a few passes for them to wind up where they need to go.
It’s a lot of work, right? Yeah, that’s what I am thinkin’, when I look around my sacred space at all the preciousness I have collected and feel stuffy. Too much work.
It’s time to lighten the load, keep the energy moving and open up our lives for new inspiration, new vision and a new sense of freedom.
She whispers,
Do you notice more, now?
Does the kitchen table have more substance? Do your books send magic off the shelves, into the living room air? Are your interests dwindling to just a few, laden with suggestion?
Sense the fresh in the quiet, she tells us. It could be ancient or new.
What do you truly need to survive? What clutter has been swept away? Do you want it back? Or do you feel free?
Has the voice from deep within you become more clear?
And when your loved ones speak, can you hear their depths?
Keep listening, friend. I have always been here. You have – we have always been here.
Shh, shh, shh, shhhh.. she says Go deeper. But, bu, bu, co, corona- She says go deeper, now. Breathe.
Earthen cool rain Quite flame What you left on the loom From the past, comes the pain Go deeper.
Who am I?, again. What have I done? Where was I headed before we let the rest of nature out of quarantine?
Making do Discoveries anew Can you hear the calling? Why do I not hear the calling?
Shh, shh, shh, shhhh.. she says Go deeper. But, bu, bu, co, corona- She says go deeper, now. Breathe.
May you break free from the patterns that bind you.
