All posts by tasara

Remembering, Seasons of Healing, Spiritual Guides and How To's

After a Soul Retrieval

7 Comments

IMG_6596

After a soul retrieval, a person can feel elated, buzzing with energy, emotional, having a sense of ‘being in their body’, a shift in physical sensations, a wonderful sense of groundedness. Of coming home. Home to self. It is beautiful beyond words.

Directly after a soul retrieval, a person can also feel nothing at all. Feeling nothing at all means..pretty much nothing. It can take over a month to really feel the settling happen in order to notice any kind of shift. That is what is was like for me after my first soul retrieval. After a month, I realized, holy moly, that hole in me is gone and I am no longer going to need to fill it. I lost a bunch of friends that were not serving me and the direction of my life changed course.

In the time that ensues over the several months, there can be epiphanies, increase in energy, restoration of qualities particular to that person, such as artistic expression, ability to communicate clearly, to be organized, to complete projects, to be filled with a bursting need to sing, to cook, to love.. you name it.

There can also be grieving, if the event that caused the soul loss was never grieved. This is something that people often have fear about before going into a soul retrieval ceremony, but it really isn’t that common. If it does happen, know that the emotions are not about rehashing; they are truly about release. What a blessing to be able to give honor to something that happened by being present enough to honestly grieve it, rather than trying to live around it, pushed down somewhere in our psyche for the rest of our lives. Grieving is not fun, but grieving is beautiful, like a river that cannot be stopped or hurried up. It just is, and it will continue and it will end.

This all takes time. Healing is a process. Soul retrieval can take over a year to fully come into.

Bottom line is, when we are finally returned to our bodies, we are home. We are able to make better decisions in our lives. Soul retrieval can be viewed as the first step of a long journey because now that we are home, we might not like the way the furniture has been arranged or think that there is a bit of cleaning up to do. For instance, a job or living situation may need to end. Boundaries in relationships may shift. Certain dynamics may immediately become unacceptable. There may be an ability to change emotional habits that one has been warring with for years.

There may be a new ability to be more open and loving, now that we know that we cannot be hurt anymore. Because we are finally present to take care of ourselves.

If I am confusing you with the variety of reactions, it is because we are all on our individual path and the event of coming home will be received uniquely for all of us.

There can be a feeling of finally getting traction in life. A newly returned power that is up to us to decided how to shape into the world. This is a glorious, glorious event in life, for some very dramatic, for others, subtle yet sure. Something worth sharing tears of joy over.

Blessed Be.

by Tasara

Spiritual Guides and How To's

The Power of Words – The Advanced Course and the Firing of the Word Police

2 Comments

We cast spells with every word we speak. The words around us can wrap us, bind us, free us.

15534_190141024002_5509551_n

Word, words, words. Words have power.

The words we surround ourselves with, the words that come out of our mouths, our computers, our songs, our media, they shape us, they weave us, they form our world both inside and out.

Words are power. Their sounds, their meaning, their iteration and the intention of the speaker all packaged together become a force of creation as their meaning takes the ethereal and transforms it into a thing that can be grasped. This thing becomes, and then has it’s own power. It’s being ripples out to the world and at the same time, it’s being makes itself known to other beings, that can now manipulate it, as there is an ‘is-ness’ from which to react, to deflect, to attack.

Getting deep pretty fast? The simplest guidelines when utilizing the Power of Words are “Speak only in the positive.” And “Cease all negative talk.” But this truly is simplified, as this power we are talking about is multi-dimensional and needs to be understood with more depth.

There are some realities though.

“I am ____” statements have huge powers of manifestation, not only in the words themselves but in our own belief system about ourselves.. as well as other people’s who hear us talking. The belief system causes us to react as if what was said is so, reinforcing the concretness of a negative form that did not have to be formed in the first place.

So, saying negative things about oneself is exactly the same thing as cursing oneself. It is serious business. It is something that at some point in our lives, we all must just stop or we can’t continue further. How can we go further when we are moving up hill against the wind with a shock of darts coming our way that we ourselves set off?

Let’s look at the statement. “I don’t have my act together.” When we say that, we have locked ourselves into a definition. Failure. Don’t. Feel the energy signature of that. It is complete. Final. No way out. Saying such a thing is a death sentence. It is also giving up. It is saying, “I don’t want to put energy into living.” It is suicide.

What if instead of saying something like, “I don’t have my act together.” we said, “I would really like to ____.” and focused on our dreams? Created a tunnel for which that passion to come out? How would that feel?

But really, what if someone cried “I am a failure!” as an expression of self-amused exasperation? It may feel like a relief to get that feeling out and say it with vigor! Imagine, “I am a failure!” loudly said with laughter afterwards. Which had more power, the words or the intention? Our feeling in our bodies when we hear and say the words gives us the truth of the direction of the words, so… when we listen to ourselve and others, we need to listen to more than the words.

When we call oneself or another person a name, it’s the same way. We are freezing that person into a shape, not allowing them to change and grow, to be inconsistent, to wonder, to be wonder, to be unpredictable. If we paint a picture of someone in our heads of being a certain way, then we will always react to them as if they are, reinforcing that behavior and disallowing them to just be.

On the other hand, if we have a friend who is caught in unconscious self-cursing and we start reflecting back to them the beauty that we truly do see, their self-image weakens. See the light pour in. See the laughter.

Pretty different from making your friends feel bad for making themselves feel bad. That kind of compounds things.

Saying positive things creates a positive field. It shifts the dimensions of reality so that the possibilities of the future are expanded.  People, connections, physical objects and opportunities are drawn towards the projected field like a magnet. Words are an amazing force of manifestation, they really are. When we tell everyone we know about the dreams we are moving towards, those dream magnets become magnified as they pass through all those other people’s awareness, as they hold you in the same light you are projecting. That’s not even talking about all the stuff that comes from practical human networking.

Getting into the practice of saying positive things isn’t about candy-coating harsh realities. It is about looking at reality with a broader scope and pulling out the things we like about it and making them bigger. It can help break old habits of focusing on the pain and teach us to tend a garden of joy, the seeds of which were always here. It is a beautiful thing. But…. no rules. We love our dark sides as much as the shiny stuff too.

So, as we see, every force has a balance point. An imbalanced use of naming, as we have discussed, can create malforms, but there is another phenomena that can happen, too. This is the lack of naming energy forms that are already wreaking havoc. If something is around that is taking a lot of space and energy and it is not life-giving, it will continue to do so until it is named. Naming something brings it out of the dark. It allows us to understand it, form opinions, have relationship with it, lose our fear of it, love it and allow it to transform.

Imagine how the world changed when we came up with names like “alcholism” and “domestic abuse” instead of “That’s just the way men are.”? Will it really be useful to recite positive affirmations in the middle of a PTSD episode if the emotions coming up are new and have never been processed?

We all know that if something weird is going on with a friend that to name it and bring it out sometimes helps whatever it was go away. Sometimes it’s better to let such things lie, though. Some things that are uncomfortable are only passing and to bring them out would only make them bigger than they need to be. Delicate, that power of naming.

There is a big difference between someone saying, “I am a failure.” And someone saying, “I feel like a failure.”

Even bigger difference between someone hearing the first sentence and replying with the scold, “You shouldn’t say that about yourself!” Or someone replying with compassion, “I hear that you feel that way but do you really believe it? I see something totally different. I see something magnificent!”

Despite all of this, Intention is everything and though Words have Power, Intention Trumps All. Words are a strong contender and can put its teeth in a strong intention but the force of Intention will always come through a little stronger.

Sometime people say awful things because it’s fun. Because it is satire. Because they grew up in a culture where such phrases are commonplace and don’t hold so much power. “Fuck you!” with a big smile can mean “I love you, you rascal.” “Shut up!” screamed with a feminine lilt, “No way!” meaning “I  like it!”…. see. Words have power but what the f*** are people really trying to say?

So, that said, “I love ya, fuck y’all now and good night.”

by Tasara

…. (it could be a draft. it could be a rant. it could be what it is. don’t know. haven’t figured it out.)

Spiritual Guides and How To's, Spiritual Sociology

Community Building in Neo-Shamanic Subcultures

Leave a comment

There is something wonderful going on in the Neo-Shamanic subcultures that I have noticed.  It is a repeating medicine story that goes something like this:

Somebody falls into a pocket of beauty. It changes their life in profound healing ways-so profound that they feel compelled to share the beauty they found. They start up a class. The medicine is transmitted and many benefits come out of this. People from all over the world get to meet each other and exchange ideas. Powerful containers are created for deep, transformative experiences. Most importantly, love is modeled in a larger theater, where the imprint of it can affect people’s lives and the lives that they touch in a good way forever.

However, in terms of community, there is an aspect to this story that rarely gets talked about. It goes something like this:

People go to workshops, get intensive downloads of spiritual information. When they go home, it is often to some sort of isolation, as they are not connected to other people in their area who are doing the work.  There is a reintegration period to the everyday life, which can be difficult and then a process of distilling the lessons that were learned at the workshop.

After a while a longing grows, for more information and also community. So, it becomes time to sign up for another workshop. Sometimes people go to workshops soley because they are yearning community. There they find connection again-not sustained but well needed.  The struggle with isolation goes on. Some people stay committed to their path, follow their calling and then start up a personal practice. They start to teach workshops filled with the wonderful medicine they have found. People from all over the world come to receive this medicine…and the paradigm continues.

 My Dad’s view on community is this, “No one has to build community. If you have the right people together with the right circumstances, it happens all by itself.” He grew up in the farmlands of Southern Minnesota in the 50’s and to me, his logic still makes a whole lot of sense.

Community is relationships.  Relationships are organic. They grow over time. However in today’s modern society, we do not stay still long enough to be in the same place with the same people long enough to get to know who they are. Plus, as we know, shamanism is not something everyone does. The time of the town square, where everybody comes to hang out, is over. Heck, in Seattle the time of the sidewalk bench is over, since the businesses got all concerned about not giving homeless people a place to sit.

You can hold a class but a class is not a community. You can set up a Yahoo group and even recruit 200 members but if nobody talks to each other, that’s not community either. In order to have community we have to create the circumstances that allow people to have sustained face time with each other so that relationships can build naturally. Fertile soil. The spinning sound of Spiderwoman’s web.

This is what I believe.  People need each other. Students need fellow students to be scholarly with. Students need teachers.  Teachers need students to follow their calling and to grow with. Teachers need teachers to help each other become better at what they do. The same goes for Practitioners. The community needs all of them, in good balance with each other in order to be healthy and well.


This is my vision of a thriving shamanic community.

Filling the need for community should be free. I see different kinds of open circles for folks to journey together, to drum, to make sacred music and to play. There are public ceremonies to benefit individuals and community needs. There are potlucks, storytelling sessions and sharing of shamanic poetry and art. Deep relationships that grow around these frequent gatherings support us through life’s challenges and spiritual awakenings.

There is supervision and support for teachers and practitioners. Psychologist and therapists have built in requirements in their profession for both supervision and continuing training. We don’t have that, so knowledge about key areas can be hard to get: boundary issues, projection and transference between clients and caregivers, power and ego issues, money issues. Because of confidentiality, classes and community gatherings are not the place for these people to get what they need. Being isolated as a teacher or practitioner is not only difficult but dangerous for everyone involved if they only have themselves to rely on when the going gets complicated. It is too easy for shame and blame to enter the picture when things go wrong and without a network, someone in trouble is liable to try to work it out on their own. So, we need peer circles and peer emergency healing networks for the times when we get whomped in session. We need open dialog between teachers comparing class structures and typical workshop issues.

The benefits of this vision of community are vast. There is support in the fiber of our everyday lives as shamanic people. There is more opportunity for learning, growing and applying what we learn from our teachers. There is an arena where people who are not trained can participate, have powerful experiences and find their way to teachers and healers.

 Barriers to Coming into True Community

Knowing what the barriers are to true community will help us work around them. Here are some that I see.

Scarcity perspectives around money:  What would happen if I was living paycheck to paycheck as a teacher? I may be afraid to encourage community activity because I think that it may steer ‘business’ away from me. I might not be willing to refer someone to a teacher that is more appropriate for that student than I am. The truth is that rich communities will create a nurturing flow to and from the teachers. There is enough for everyone. The more practitioners and teachers support each other rather than compete, the better exposure the whole network gets to the public. It is also an option for practitioners to hold part time or full time job.

Ingrained Hierarchy in our dominant culture. Unfortunately, as much as we may believe hierarchy is not the best model, it is still ingrained in us. We still look to authority figures to do what needs to be done and sometimes do not support non-authority people in their efforts to bring us together! Unfortunately, teachers and practitioners are busy holding space for people so they are not the ones to rely on to build our webs and till the soil in the P-patch!

Unless a teacher is consciously creating circles in order to encourage them to co-create or fly the nest, using words like community in class can create power and boundary confusions. For example: If this is a community can I disagree with my teacher in circle? Can I make contributions and/or suggestions? Communities do arise around teachers, though and there is nothing wrong with that but they are not independent. The teacher becomes the lynch pin of the community. Whether they want the power or not, they steer and shape the container just by being who they are. And if the teacher leaves, community falls apart.

 Fear around empowerment

Lots of people prefer to follow than to lead. We want things to be set up for us so we can walk in and participate when we have the time but not be expected to be anywhere consistently. This can happen for a few different reasons. Consumerism has certainly crept into our attitudes about most things that happen outside the house. But also, a lot of people just do not know what to do. Often we do not feel capable or empowered to contribute to community. We become afraid that contributing to community will become an all-consuming activity.  Lots of fears come up. I believe that in our society, choosing to be part of community is as challenging as going on a vision quest is to someone who comes from a culture where one’s identity is tied to place in community.

A solution to these things could be to verbally encourage students to create shamanic activities outside of paid events. Even allow a brainstorming session about it during class. I’ve seen this work. Sometimes people think of starting a study group or circle but don’t because they are shy and need a little boost. There might also be unfounded fear of walking on a teacher’s turf. Openly speaking to these things can bring down barriers to community.

What we need to do is teach others how to be leaders, to empower and then slowly step away. This is a process which includes instruction on how to hold a circle, group facilitation, and the skills we used to put on a public event. It is as crucial as teaching healers to do soul retreival. Granted, it is not easy to find willing students but stubborness around expecting people to shine really pays off.

Community-building needs to be a shared value.

A few motivated people cannot do this work alone. That is why unions pay their organizers. Because of this, I try to instill the big difference that small things make. Cooking for events warms the whole dynamic. Offering one’s living room for a circle can be a goddess-send to the organizer who lives in a studio apartment.  Once a structure is set up, people can come and go but the container will still be there for people to flow through. The trick, I tell people, is to only do as much as you can. Small things make a big difference.

Here is a list of suggestions that might help you jump in. You can post it on your website, send to your email list or put on your refrigerator.

  • Offer something for free. A healing drum event, a public ceremony in a public park…give a reason for people to come together.
  • Be brave, have a potluck for a bunch of shamanic people you don’t know.
  • Start a website like Spiderlinks.net so local subcultures and teachers can get connected and find circles to practice in.
  • Start a circle.
  • Go to a circle, just to explore, even if you don’t know if you will go again. You are sure to run into those people again.
  • Sample a local teacher you don’t know much about.
  • Be generous.
  • Give people in your community compliments on their work. Tell them how much you appreciate what they do.
  • Gift someone something without them expecting it.
  • Let someone know that you are here for them, to do journeys or healing if they ever need you.
  • Take around flyers for the teachers that you love.
  • Send referrals to healers that you really trust.
  • Honor everyone no matter how bumpy we all may get on this wild path of introspection and healing.
  • Be brave. Reach out and make a new friend with someone you met at a circle or class.
  • Ask for help. Sharing and love is as much about receiving as it is about giving.
  • Get some training/Give some training in community organizing.
  • If you are a teacher, give your students assignments that engage them in community
    • To try out local circles
    • To practice your teachings with colleagues outside of class
    • To partner up and do something together for the broader community
    • Be clear in our classes where people can help
      • Holding and creating space
      • Seeing each other in light
    • Go out for tea with all the other practitioners in your area
      • You don’t have to be friends, you are in community. Think of the village square. You don’t pick who lives in your village – but you know them.
    • Encourage your students to hold practice circles. Give them some pointers on how to structure a circle.

Speaking of circles, there’s a lot to know about starting one so here is a little guide to help you out. It should also help members of existing circles be more present to circle dynamics.

https://ravenspeaks.littlelight.info/2011/09/01/creating-a-stable-spiritual-circle/

Well, have fun and don’t forget that the land, sky, water and moon are part of your community, too. They long for us as much as we long for them.

Much love,
Tasara

http://www.littlelight.info

Spiritual Guides and How To's

Creating a Stable Spiritual Circle

4 Comments

We need more gatherings of people in spirit. Our planet needs it, too. If you have wanted to start one but don’t know the first thing about it, maybe I can help you out. I’ve made this little guide here to help you out. This should also help members of existing circles be more present to circle dynamics and possibly solve some ongoing issues.

So let’s dive in, eh?

What is a circle?

A spiritual circle is a place for people to come together in spirit. The purpose and structure of the circle can be one or many of the following:

  • A study group: to further research common interests.
  • A supportive group: to talk about each other’s lives.
  • A practice group: to practice spiritual methods everyone has learned.
  • A transformational place between time and space create for healing works.
  • A place to take turns teaching.
  • A place for community and friendship.

A circle is not a class.

It’s important to not confuse a class with a circle, or vice-versa. A class is when people come to learn another person’s Way. There is typically no discussion on agenda or content. A circle may have agreed upon sessions where one person is teaching but overall decisions are usually made by more than one person.

Structure of a Circle

This section is about things that need to be decided before the circle ever meets – at least temporarily. It can be done in discussion in the first meeting or the organizers can decide ahead of time based on what they want to offer.

In my experience, it is the political groups that are hungry and willing to talk about power dynamics and group structure for hours on end. In spiritual circles, I have noticed that many people don’t want to bother with the logistics of setting up and maintaining a circle. They lead busy lives and consider it a big deal to just be able to attend in order to get the soul food they need.

So someone has to figure this stuff out.

The most effective way to answer these questions -and the way that takes the most time- is to poll everyone individually to get a feel for what the community needs. This not only helps create a group people want to invest in, but the polling process makes people feel important – and builds relationships. When you poll a community, have a list of questions. Believe me, if they are open ended questions, give example of the kinds of answers you are looking for or no one will respond at all:

–       How often will it meet, where and for how long?

–       Is the group led or facilitated by one person or is that task shared?

–       Who decides what the activities will be? Can they be vetoed?

–       Is there a fee? Where does the money go? This needs to be transparent.

–       Who is responsible for sending out reminders and keep a list of members?

–       Does the group have a prerequisite? Will it assist people to meet that pre-requisite?

–       Does this group require a certain level of commitment?

–       Is it ok to come late or leave early?

–       Is it a closed group or open group? (Closed groups tend to go deeper and have a higher level of expected commitment.)

–       How deep will the work go? Are the people involved ready for deep work? (You do not want to lose people by pushing them outside their comfort zone.)

What makes a spiritual circle work

Here are some crucial elements that are needed to make a spiritual circle work.

Clarity on what the circle’s purpose and method is.

This might seem obvious but no one wants to carve out their valuable time after work to drive across town for a journey session and find that their shamanic circle is hosting a presentation on druidic practices. What if that journey was really needed?

Integrity in using the structure that was set up for the group

A clear power structure is clear flow of power in the group. It creates a safe place for people to work on themselves, share and take risks. They can engage and so will more likely get behind it. A clear power structure makes the circle strong. It prevents miscommunication, unnecessary conflicts or just bad feelings over power and communication. People go and people come.  The structure stays the same. Formal power structures that are designed to promote power-sharing will prevent informal misuse of power.

Changing the structure together if it is impeding what the group wants to do.

It’s not uncommon to spend a bunch of time coming up with the perfect structure and then trying it out to find that emotional or spiritual forces keep bending the group in another direction. Honor this and follow the heart and spirit of the group.

Awareness and honoring of the group as its own spiritual/emotional entity

Every circle has it’s own spirit, whether its members tap into it or not.  It can be a beautiful guiding force and a temperature taker when issues start bubbling up from the sacred shadows. Sometimes, conflict can be avoided by taking a wider perspective, including this over-arching presence.

Tending to the group’s health.

Letting issues slide again and again only builds up frustration and sometimes resentment. As a leader, when you are able to address uncomfortable energies that no one else is talking about in a calm and strong, loving way, you are giving people permission to speak. You are also modeling healthy behavior for those that have no idea how to act.

Universal dichotomies in circles

There are certain areas of tension that come up in all community groups, whether they are spiritual, political or any kind of group that tries to accomplish things together. Knowing what they are enables us to not be surprised, to not be emotional when they pop up and to troubleshoot around them.

Spiritual activity vs. Social time

It is natural for people to crave community. So if there is not a space designed to meet this need, there will likely be times when the spiritual work is not getting done. One solution can be an optional early time before circle when people can hang out and catch up. Another idea is to have regular social get-togethers outside of sacred time.

Spiritual activity vs. circle business

The business of running a circle can be handled by a few people, done in email discussion or in the circle itself. If there is not a place for it, the business will find it’s way into an activity unplanned. This can be difficult for those that are badly needing spiritual work, so it is good to figure out how to handle this.

Personal sharing vs. Energetic workings

If the group has agreed upon longer check-ins, then that is healthy for the group. If the group is supposed to be about spiritual work, then long stories tend to drag the energy out. Each circle has it’s own needs so it is good to make a decision together and stick to it, unless it seems that decision does not reflect the desire of most people in the group.

Mundane conversation vs. Reverence in sacred space

When doing things like raising energy, sending blessings, doing shamanic journey there are a few different philosophies out there on how to maintain sacred space. If this is not agreed upon there may be times when someone is upset. More serious magical practitioners desire perfect focus and minimum energy leaks. Native cultures honor community as sacred in their circles so there might be food passed around, children running in circles and even gossip shared as the spiritual work blends together with all.

Structure vs. Mystery

Structure is good for safety, common expectation and mutual intention but there will always be circumstances where the best thing to do is to throw out the structure and punt. Thoughtful flexibility in this area can be very helpful. When this is done, make it clear to everyone what is going on so there are no surprises.

 Inclusiveness

I’m sorry but all-inclusiveness is just too idealistic. I went through the 90’s during the Gulf War I protest and tried complete consensus with all-inclusiveness and I tell ya, some people are not ready for group work. It does not mean that they are bad people. It only means that the level of problems some people are dealing with makes them unable to focus on others. We cannot function as a group if we are consistently working on or fielding one person’s issues. There is a time for circle and there is a time for private therapy.

If a group’s energies are drained by people too needy to function collectively, they will not find the group a healing environment, nor will anyone else.  – Starhawk

Being in Circle: Staying present to power flow

What is Power? Power is a word that can be as scary as money or love to some people. Power is the ability to make change, to move energy, to influence people, to create, to destroy, to heal, to impact. Some power is not ours or something that we  should try to hold on to. It is something that moves through us. It is something we borrow and then return to the earth with respect.

We also have personal power, some more than others. It is important to never forget that a lot of power is still parceled out by societal factors like gender, race, education or financial status. There are also people with high levels of charisma. Access to information is power.

Power is not bad. It is just power, the ability to make change. In order for it to be useful it’s flow needs to be clear and balanced, so we need to learn to watch power move in a circle. A good way to do this is to consider the group itself as an entity with a soul that can be tended to. When you are listening to one person speak, try to develop and ear to the entire group, even though only one person is speaking. There is a whole world of information there.

 What are some power structures?

As Starhawk teaches us, there is power-over, power-within and power-with. The first power we work towards is power-within. This makes our power-with in circle so exciting! Vibrant! Creative! Power-over might work in a class where one person has agreed to maintain structure. There is also a style where there is one decision-maker but decisions are based on input from everyone in the circle. This might work well for circle that meets on a frequent basis and include members that are too busy to take part in the business of running it.

Formal Power and Informal Power

Often there are people in the group who are natural leaders, who people respect and listen to. These people may or may not have official positions. This is totally natural, however we try to keep the informal and formal power structures to match as closely as possible. We don’t want someone to single-handedly sway a group even though it is formally supposed to be using a process that invites all opinions. We also don’t want to shut down a natural leader or someone with a lot of wisdom just because what they have to offer is very strong. Some very wise people may not want a position of leadership but they still should be able to contribute, even if their views are consistently popular.

Conflict and Tension

Oh wow, I get all excited when conflict starts to arise in a circle! Conflict is a sign of a healthy community. Conflict is natural. Conflict is going to happen if people are being real with each other.

Tension is a good thing. It means something is coming. It means there is something we are not looking at. There is an opportunity to growth, which is going to bring the whole circle to a new place.

As M. Scott Peck says, there are 4 Stages of Community: Pseudo-community, Chaos, Silence, Community.  First everyone gets together and they are all excited. It’s a honeymoon. A dream come true! Then, if people stick around long enough, chaos comes rolling in and everyone gets blown out and challenged. After this, silence. People are thinking, ‘What the heck?” If the individuals are brave enough to come back and be honest about what happened, they reunite in a new way, working through and learning from their problems. This last stage is community.

Oh boy. We are human. I guess we haven’t worked it all out yet.

Facilitator Tips

OK, now that you know what you need to know about circle dynamics, let focus on you as a leader. Your role is unique. Your actions are being watched by everyone and your love is contagious.

Be extremely aware of your own power as a facilitator. We live in a hierarchical culture where people give leaders power and hang off of their every word. Just by unconscious habit. Especially if you are a white man, so be careful. The words of a person in a position of leadership carry more weight than anyone else, even if that is not their intention or desire. It can be too easy to crack a joke and hurt someone’s feelings. Do not take this on as a weight to be a perfect person. Just be aware. Sometimes it is a relief to everyone else if you insist on being yourself. It give them permission to be imperfect too. So.. be imperfect in a healthy way. 😉

Sometimes being a good leader means to be silent in order to give room for others to express themselves. Staring at the floor can be helpful when circle members forget to address the entire group when they speak. You will find yourself having to be insistent on not receiving everyone’s attention. When planning spiritual ceremony, I have been successful at getting all the ideas on the floor but when it comes time to weave them together, sometimes I have to leave the room. I say, “I’ll be over in the kitchen. Someone come get me when you have a plan. Then I will contribute my part.” The moment I leave the room, they are rockin’ and having a good time. Or they are struggling, in which case I keep walking and let them struggle. I cannot help another person find their strength by telling them to find their strength.


Here are things that a facilitator can do to support the health of a circle

  • Keeping track of where you are in the conversation or in the energy work.
  • Providing and asking for clarity when it is needed.
  • Model the behavior that you are looking for. Everyone learns through example. We are not all perfect but try.
  • Defend the health of the group over the needs of one individual. Clearly there are exceptions but overall, if someone cannot include the groups’ needs along with their own, the circle may not be the place for them. If there is a conflict between two people, the easiest way to diffuse it is to refuse to deal with personal issues and to ask how the issue at hand fits into the work of the circle. If it does not, then those people need to take it outside.
  • If the energy feels dead or tense, address it. You might not want to be the one to name the issue but you can ask “how does it feel in here right now?” and encourage others to speak up. This is a great teaching opportunity, allowing others to find their way.
  • Outside the Circle – Be All Ears: Ask people how it went. If you want an honest answer, don’t give your views before you hear a reply. Outside the circle you may hear things that people don’t feel comfortable saying in a group. Heck, your opinion may not matter at all because as an organizer, your opinion is highly shaped by listening to the experiences around you. You are listening for what is needed to serve your community best.
  • Thank and Compliment People on their Contributions: Everyone wants to feel appreciated, even if they are volunteering for the hundredth time. Some people have gifts they are not aware of so a simple compliment can not only make someone’s day but affirm their sense of self. Do not forget this, ever. Not being thanked can feel pretty yucky, especially if the event was stressful.

OK, you got it? Go out, make circles happen and have fun! Don’t be surprised if you don’t get a lot of help right away but over time as people get to know each other, things may change. There is great joy and great reward in serving your community in this way. Let me know how it goes and write in if you run into any trouble.

Much love,

Tasara

http://www.littlelight.info

Spiritual Guides and How To's

What is Prayer? The Shamanic Sense.

1 Comment

What is prayer?

 For some of us, the word prayer invokes feelings of power-under, being small while making entreaties to a god that is big and far, far away. Some of us might associate prayer with guilt, as in “I don’t pray enough” or more likely, “I am _(lazy, unenlightened, lame, etc)_ because I have not kept up with my spiritual practice.”

But there is no shame or blame in the spirit world that we choose to engage with in shamanism. There is only love.

Shamanism in all things is about relationship. Relationships with the awesome, embracing, guiding spirits, relationship with the self ­— and just as profoundly, relationship with the land. This relationship with the land is where prayer comes in.

Prayer, meditation, yoga, martial arts practices all talk about Being. As a shamanic person, this means being myself as the magnificent carnal creature of the earth that I am. As I go deeper into my meditation, I am more and more awakened to my fibers, to the breathe of the trees, to the birds, to the concrete and cars passing by. I am awakened, once again, to the passages that connect it all together. The connection, all around like crazy and wrapping back to me, is relationship. It is highly intimate if I open my heart to it.

This work, this gentle finding of our way back into relationship with the Mother Earth is prayer.

The experience is more like Ahhhh… There you are! Ahhh… There I am! And Ohhhh, it’s so nice to be back.  It’s a home-coming. It is unique to all of us and unique each time we practice. We practice and practice with no goal, really, because we reverently know that there is always more to find. This practice of finding, communing and balancing is all there is. It is what it is. It just is. Delicious.

In this conversation with her, some of us may find peace, some may find revelation, in some, a long awaited release of emotion. After we have been able to clear the private rivers of mind and emotion, there is, waiting for us, joy. This being in relationship, being in balance, is intrinsically, joy.

As a shamanic person, I do not find that I teach or hold ceremony out of an altruistic desire to help, nor from a feeling of obligation. Rather, I do it because it is my function in this vast web of beings to bring things back into balance. Myself, the land, the humans I walk with and between the earth and sky energies. I do what I do because it is who I am, so I don’t need any reasons. It makes things less complicated. I am a love-earth creature and my job is to bring balance. It is my place.

Prayer is the first step to coming back into relationship with my home, Mother Earth. It is the prerequisite to doing any other work. She is always there, waiting. Or not waiting. Just being. But she is always there, willing to connect. All the good stuff.

Shamanism. Relationship. Balance.

by Tasara

Spiritual Guides and How To's, Spiritual Sociology

Respecting and honoring your spirit teachers, yourself and the spirits

1 Comment

I try to teach good boundaries. I try to hold good boundaries as well. I expect students to be aware that they are coming to participate in an event which is interdependant. Even if you go through an entire course without getting to know your colleagues, your actions and presence have great effect on everyone else. Please consider the following before attending a Littlelight Ceremony or course.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shamanism is about relationship. A spiritual class is an offering of time, space and love, crafted by someone with a deep well of life and spiritual experience they are eager to share with you. Your payment is an exchange of effort and commitment back to this person who is thinking of you in every step of their workshop preparation. If you commit, you are commiting to being in relationship with everyone who attends in some way.

How you approach the class makes an impact on everyone else. Please be aware of how your approach towards your spiritual training affects your teacher and your fellow students. Please do not treat the class like a commodity that you can take or leave.

Sign Up On Time
Please make your decision about a class as timely as you can, so you can sign up. When you wait to sign up until last minute, you are putting stress on the teacher and other students who may be turned down if the class does not fill. Spaces that are rented have cancellation policies which require 2 weeks to a month notice.

Informally telling the teacher you are coming is not signing up. By paying a nonrefundable deposit you are putting an investment in that shows strong intention of your attendance and some compensation towards running the class for other people if you drop out.

Show Up On Time
Spiritual classes are pockets of sacred energy built up for transformational work. They are spaces out of time and place where people hold trust together so that they can do personal work in a public venue. Every person contributes vital energy to the nature of this container when sacred space is created together. Missing this opening alters this energetic pocket. Habitual lateness is disrespectful to everyone, including yourself. It is not being aware of your own value and how you are important to the medicine of the circle.

Teachers will treat those who are late with love and understanding, but no matter what the reason, your lateness has affected the circle.

Show up Prepared
Shamanic classes and circles are strong when we are all focused. You are expected to complete any homework so that we can progress as a circle to the next material. Please bring something to contribute to the altar. This can represent a power animal, a prayer or an offering. When we all add to the altar, the circle is strong. Consider your commute to class as the beginning of circle for you. Perhaps, play music that contributes to a grounded state of mind and consider what your intentions are for the coming session.

Be Present to Sacred Space
Apply your full heart and effort into the calling of the spirits as if you were home doing it alone. Shamanic teachers always create a container for you but you want to be strong with your own spirits when you do your practice. We also want to earnestly call to the spirits for assistance in supporting the work of our colleagues.

Try to notice the things that contain or deplete the potency of the container and support the container. Your awareness will grow, as well as your skill. Keep mundane conversation to a minimum when in the altar room.

Honoring Other’s Boundaries
Spirit speaks to people in their own language, so there is no way any one person can interpret another person’s shamanic journey. We hold space for each other and encourage our colleagues to hear their own wisdom, celebrate with them when the road becomes clear.

Journeying for others without prior and explicit permission is not acceptable in our circles. On rare occasions, we are given information in our journeys that we did not ask for about someone else, but we do not seek it out. Even in this case, we can ask our helping spirits, “Why am I being shown this?” or “What does this have to do with my journey question?”. To deliver messages about others without permission can make people feel violated and unsafe in our circle.

If you are learning great lessons from our journey, please be mindful and speak in the first person, rather than hiding behind “you” language, which feels and sounds preachy to the listeners. Telling others ‘how it is’ creates barriers, whereas sharing our own path creates intimacy, the basic ingredient for deep work, deep love, deep transformation.

We try not to ‘take care’ of each other, but rather support each other in finding our own divine widsom and light. If someone in circle is going through difficulty, we may ask that person what we can do to help. We perhaps may offer ideas but with always with respect for the boundaries of that person, the circle and ourselves.

Do Your Homework
When we are given big messages or blessings in shamanic time, a crucial part of the practice is to bring the medicine home. This means carrying out the message of the journey in our lives. How this manifests depends upon the circumstance and journey. When this work is done between circle meeting times, our spiritual lives become a constant flow. We become practitioners rather than students. When we return to circle after having done this work, we come bearing new wisdom and stronger presence to the circle. In this way by giving to ourselves, we inherently give to our spiritual support network as well.

These are staples of being a spiritual adult.
Being accountable, being prepared, being present, serving our community with care and doing our homework. Honoring ourselves in our path with commitment and in turn, honoring our teachers and community. Thank you for being awake. Thank you for being alive. Thank you for being part of this powerful, powerful web of healing and light.

Tasara

4 Litha: Ecstasy and Devotion

And when

Leave a comment

And when the barriers fall
my love,
my folded heart breathes
my inner winds blows
and my limbs pick themselves up

my body flies from to to fro
the joy inside such light to throw
and I think,

This is what dancing is.

Where have I been? Why was it so hard?
But then the joy sweeps across
with the wind
and I don’t care ’cause I am free.

I don’t care about what happened and how it hurt
or where I lost things
or all the lost time.

I can do this and that is freedom.
My mother fought for what my grandmother could not
and I have found joy
in my body.

by Tasara

4 Litha: Ecstasy and Devotion, Spirit Journeys

After the Flying Drum Ceremony – The Divine Below

Leave a comment

She is the golden diamond,
drunk from the cool, cool springs within
she is the sweet, sweet nectar which the bear so cherishes
she is wholesome and olden
and fresh with bounty from the sun’s new kisses
the divine within
the divine mother earth
the rivers rush diamond, cleansing us
the pungent peat of life
receiver of all fallen
she who knows the steps of every creature who breathes
her delicious breathe
she is the giver
she is the responder
she
divine
from below
mother earth

by Tasara

Spiritual Guides and How To's

How to Make a Talisman or Sacred Power Object

27 Comments

First of all, what is a talisman or power object? It can be a power necklace,  amulet, a sacred flute, a medicine bundle or a healing drum. It can be a healer’s tool to use in helping others. I can be a protection or a portal to clearing energies.

A power object is where the metaphysical meets the physical, where it is bound, met, married, sealed or kissed together in a form that allows for the metaphysical to be rooted in the solid. It emanates the energies drawn forth upon its making and the intentions of its maker. Depending upon how it is made and how it is treated, it can have a limited lifespan or it can have a life of it’s own, taking on rhythms of sleep and waking states.

There are two ways to make a talisman. One is to play the role of the magician where you are like a cook, gathering the right ingredients, mixing them with elemental energies in the time with the seasons or moon or sun cycle and being very, very careful to hone one’s intentions clearly, fueling such item with emotion or other such source. This is how most beginners work and the results can be perfectly fine as long as the cook can keep a good focus and put disclaimers on your work such as “I invoke this amulet with ____ intention for the good of all and according to free will.”

The other way is to do it in partnership with the helping spirits. Co-creation. In this case, the initiation of the entire endeavor is often a calling, the forming of it is more like sculpting, being a process of listening, revealing what is already there. It is a specific vibration being asked to be brought forth into the physical so that it can manifest it’s signature here This way is more advanced because you have to have some skill in communicating with the spirits and most importantly, you have to know who your spirit helpers are. Having tried and true, benevolent spirit guides allows us to really open and trust. This level of trust invokes deep intention from ourselves and with that, more fuel.

Let me talk about spirit guides for a minute here. Power animals, totems, guides, spiritual teachers have our best interest in mind. Their total purpose in their relationship with us is to help us be better, more healthy, more loving people. They don’t have moods, don’t play tricks, they don’t get sick or busy or lost and don’t throw our lives into chaos. You can choose guides like that, but really, there’s no point. Isn’t life hard enough already? Even if you are aligned with a Goddess of the dark mysteries like Hecate or Kali, you can choose to only work with the benevolent aspect of that goddess.

Ok, back to co-creation. The entire purpose of being on the spiritual path is love and love works better when we do things in partnership. One helping another, two in tandem, sparking the creative together. The spirits actually get really excited and put way more oomph into something if you are doing it for someone else than if you are doing it just for yourself. They love that love stuff. The spirit guides can help us hone our true intention ,too. It is not simple as pie to invoke a true intention into an item without help. With our wonderfully messy human emotions and fears and pride and hopes, it can take a tremendous amount of mental discipline to infuse an amulet with purely creative and loving intentions without a shadow of a doubt. When we allow our benevolent guides to enter into this making, we can trust that they will fill our sacred creation with pure love and intention – for it ‘our’ sacred creation, not yours or mine. This sacred item is shared with spirit. After it is made, it contains mystery, continues to teach us and changes and deepens as we grow with it, as we tend to it well.

Let’s dive in.

The first thing to do is to spend a lot of time mulling on the what’s and why’s of making the sacred creation. Are you making this item because you want to bring healing and love into the world, are you working for protection, for help in a clear mind, closer connection to your helping spirits? Or is this sacred item being made for your helping spirits as an offering to them?

As in all things metaphysical, we stay within the bounds of free will and privacy. That means stay away from healing for people, human or otherwise with out permission and avoid scrying into other people’s lives. Sometimes we think we know what is best for someone but ultimately, we really don’t. It would be awful someone did a healing for someone else and averted them from a disaster that was about to change their entire life for the better. If you are making a spiritual gift for someone and you want it to be a surprise, go ahead and make it. They have the choice to receive the gift or not. There is more on that at the end of this article.

If your true intention is to gain more spiritual power the rest of this article might not make any sense to you. When we are yearning for power, we are really yearning for healing. True personal power just emanates when we have found our way to wholeness. Power from other sources (helping spirits, elements) is to be used for healing for self and others. Focusing on love creates more love.

So, here we are, mulling on intention. Driving around, picking up the kids, mulling, mulling in the back of our minds. Is this for my own healing? Is it for clarity? For a new drum? What is the drum for? Intention is everything in any kind of manifestation magic. It is what guides all the decisions around materials, shape and song. This is why you need to have intention as figured out as you can before beginning. It doesn’t have to be complete; the stuff you can’t figure out, Spirit will help you with along the way.

By the way, this intention-setting is exactly the same that a designer goes through before making a TV ad, except that person is manifesting energies of need and desire so you open your wallet instead of manifesting energies of love and healing.

In this conversation, you want to also feel around to discover ‘who’ is asking for this talisman to be made. Is it your guide for personal healing? Are the ancient trees asking you to bring their energies into the world? Are you crafting a salve for medicinal purposes or a healing amulet for a friend? If you know who or what wants to come through, then you can direct your questions that way when you are working. You can send your love and appreciation that way, too.

Next, think about materials. What carries the energies that need to be embodied? Are they gleaned or made in a way that has minimal impact on mother earth? Do you support the industries that made it? Do you require the skill to make this item or do you need to hire someone to make part or all of it? Does that person carry energy that you like? You don’t have to include the craftsperson in your process but you do want to be fond of what is coming from their heart. When I make sacred items, I will have most of my materials gathered and then do a sort of ‘whatever I have in the house will fit in’ game. If you are working with crystals, ask the crystal what its nature is and whether it wants to take part in this venture. Crystal are beings and some crystals already have a set energy signature. It isn’t going to be an effective component if it’s job doesn’t harmonize with our intention.

We are in relationship with mother earth and every manifestation of her, rock, bone, clothe, song. We are not guardians, tenders, rulers or rapers. We are as of the earth as any of these things and beings. We are in sync, in balance, in relationships. We are in love.

Clear the materials in the many, many ways there are to clear materials: water, fire, earth, salt, sage, moonlight…once again, it’s all about intention. There are hundreds of book on how to do this so I won’t spend time here laying those ways out. But don’t use a recipe from a book unless it is perfect. Ask your helping spirit to help you figure out what seems right. You might want to find out if any animals involved had a good death and ask what you can do for them if they didn’t. Think of the people who made the parts, whose lives touched them. Realize the vast resources already in play just to create the materials and get them to your town. Take the time to be in a space where you are profoundly in tune with this and how this yet-to-be-made sacred creation already is a gift from many parts of the earth. Awesome!!

Create a sacred space to work in. Once again, there are many books on how to do this and be sure and do what is meaningful to you. Be mindful of what sort of music or media is on when you are working because all of this energy is going into your item. Well, not all of it but anything intense that happens, around you or inside of you.
Begin! Have fun! This is the dance between you, your hands, your heart and spirit. Listen, smile, cry, ask, learn. Stop working when you get tired or your concentration wanes. You want to be enthused and not lose perspective. But at the same time know that sometimes, work is just work and you cannot have precision focus all the time. If you wish to have a consistent flow of intention, make up a song or a mantra that supports your intentions and sing.

Be easy on yourself and keep listening. For example, I was working on a talisman once and I started thinking about how cool it was, how all my friends were going to be so impressed when they saw it. Then I immediately felt terrible because the last thing I want embedded in my medicine tools is pride. I thought I ruined it. I started beating up on myself. But then I felt a pulse come from the item I was working on. It was love. It was self-forgiveness – and I found that the element of self-forgiveness was being sewn into the power item as well as everything else. A gift from the heart of the item itself, which had already begun to bloom even though I was far from finished with the physical making of it.

Awwwww. This is the co-creation part.

The stopping for breaks is awesome. Once enough work has been done to warrant a break, the dream has been awakened and is more alive within us. It keeps growing even when we are not working on the physical item, so lingering questions get answered before we go back to work. The breaks also allow time for Spirit to work on the talisman without us. It is a beautiful process.

Sometimes we fall into trance and let Spirit take over our mind and body, doing much of the work for us. Don’t be afraid to cut away entire sections that you thought would be just right but no longer seem to have a purpose. Every single part of the sacred creation must have a purpose or it does not belong there. Often we have a knowing that something should be there and that the purpose will reveal itself to us at a later date.

This is a process, not a feat or a project to finish and cross off the ‘to do’ list. So relax. Make some good tea. It will be done when it is time to be done. Get excited. Be a kid about it. Listen. Feel the elements of color, form, line. If you find yourself going through a cathartic experience, keep working. All that pain coming up is held in love and your partnership with spirit is the true element in play.
When the sacred creation is finished, physically, spend some time meditating with it or journeying (this is a shamanic method) to find out it’s nature. Ask it to teach you about it’s medicine, how it is to be used. Ask it how it wants to be blessed. If the item really feels alive, ask it how it wants to be tended. Some items like cedar smudge where others like sage. Some want to sleep for periods of time and some like to be talked to. You will find out. Some want to be wrapped in a clothe and kept hidden when it is not being used. It’s all about relationship.

When this creation is spiritually fully blessed and birthed, find out from it how public it wants or need to be. Some items are entirely private. Though it is wonderful to share and rejoice with friends about these wonders, never boast. Boasting will diminish your relationship with it and hence, it’s effectiveness.

If you made it for a friend, when you present it to them, share everything about it, each part and what it means, all the energies running through it and what it told you about how it wants to be cared for. Tell your friend they have free will to accept or reject this gift and once you have given it, you have to let go of it. Let go of its meaning and purpose as well, for the gift may totally transform in the hands of the receiver into something else. Someone made me a gift once that turned out to have a very different purpose than what she had heard it was for. Who knows, maybe as I grow with it, it will include what she intended. It is very possible. These things are mysterious.

Allowing mystery is allowing growth, giving respect to the spirits and … is totally fun.

With deep gratitude and joy, be glad that you are having yet another experience into the deep learning about this ever-changing, ever-mysterious thing we call love.

by Tasara

Spiritual Guides and How To's

Tips in Finding a Spiritual Teacher or Healer

Leave a comment

Effective spiritual teachers are doors for us. They embody the personal work they have done and the intimacy of their relationship with their helping spirits. They create a safe place for us to do our work and manage group dynamics in a way that allows everyone to share freely.

Healing is an art form. Each healer’s techniques grow and flower over time as they are taught by their experiences, human teachers and spirit guides. Because of this, each healer may present their Way a little differently. Some specialize in Divination, some in beautiful co-created Ritual, some may have learned from Native American culture, some are rooted in Celtic Neo-Shamanism.

Finding a teacher or healer that is good for you may be a confusing process, so here are some tips that may help you along the way. In all cases, listen, listen, listen to your own sweet heart.

Boundaries: A good spiritual healer or teacher has excellent boundaries. This means that they will not ask you to do anything you are uncomfortable with. It also means that they will be very clear on what is expected of you in your role as a student or a client.

Accessibility: A good teacher is available to answer your questions during instruction. They do not try to make things sound more mysterious and powerful than they are. They are also comfortable with not knowing everything about how the universe works.

Deferring to the Spirits: A good healer or teacher will never tell you what they think is “wrong with you”, what they think you need for healing or interpret your journeys for you. They will honor your unique relationships with your power animals and guardians.

The first thing a neo-shamanic healer does when encountering a client is go on a diagnostic journey to find out what that person needs and how to go about helping. This is a safety precaution to take the healer’s ego out of the picture and enable them to be a good “hollow bone”, allowing Spirit to work through them for the benefit of others.

A good teacher knows that all they can do is show you the door through teaching  – that it is you who must walk through the door. They know that no one is going to find their own Way through imitating them. Expect to be encouraged but run from those that want you to put them on a pedestal.

Compassion: Love heals, not techniques. If you do not feel heard or cared for as a person, do not work with that healer or teacher.

Safety: What is most important is that you feel safe with the healer or teacher you have chosen. If you find yourself coming home from sessions feeling smaller and more insecure than when you came in, something is very, very wrong. If this is happening on a consistent basis, you do not need to have a reason to leave. All you have to do is listen to your gut and go. Figure it out later in the safety of your own home, with people that love you.

Sometimes our sacred yearning is so strong, that we rush to sign up for every workshop we see, forgetting that crucial steeping time between classes. It is good to stop the brain sometimes and ask the heart:
Is this what I yearn for? Or
Do I really yearn for a circle to practice what I have already learned? Or
Do I yearn for community? Or
Was there a different class that matches my spirit more closely? Or? Or?

Take your time. The real learning is happening inside of you, the real practice is today.
Blessings upon your path.

Tasara