July 2011 Transmutation News

If you ask any spiritual teacher or shaman for his or her assessment of what is going on today you will get the answer that human beings are so out of balance that everything around us is happening in extremes.

Getting back into balance is key to healing the planet and ourselves.

For years I have written that humans have become disconnected from nature causing emotional and physical illness as well as planetary problems.

We have become so dependent on science and technology that we have moved our energy into a mental/rational arena. We live in our thinking minds instead of in our bodies.

I have written about reconnecting once again with nature and the elements – earth, air, water, and fire all of which give us life. And together we have been working with connecting with the heart, wisdom, and light of the earth.

We are also the earth and all the elements. And it is time to stop trying to understand life. It is time to live life. We need to move away from being focused on concepts, theories, and the rational. For many of us have created too much separation between the mind and the body.

And many of us have separated our spiritual practices from our physical lives so that there is an imbalance in this area also. We meditate, do yoga, chi gung, journey into the invisible realms, etc. and then go about our day without connecting the spiritual power into our minute to minute lives.

It is time for us to fully embody earth wisdom. It is time to stop thinking about spiritual practices but live them. And to do this we must be embodied. We need to stop “going” to spiritual realities. Instead we need to experience our spirit in every cell of our being.

The term I want to focus on this month is embodiment. Allow yourself to feel spiritual energies in your body. Drink water, eat food, breathe air, absorb the sun – absorb nurturance and life into every cell of your body.

Feel your intuition and your light pulsing through your body and flowing through you.

If you work with helping guardian spirits feel their spiritual power within you.

A Hopi friend of mine shared with me once that when the Hopi journey they take their bodies with them. Shamanism is not an out of body practice. For shamanic practices have always taught how to live a harmonious life connected with nature. You must be embodied to do this.

Don’t just let your mind travel when you do spiritual work rather make it a full body experience.

The planet is reflecting back our extreme imbalance and states of separation in all areas of our lives.

You are body, mind, and spirit and it time to reconnect with yourself again. You cannot connect with the deep earth wisdom or with nature until you reconnect with your own body.

Reflect on how you have been separating what you learn conceptually with bringing the knowledge into your body awareness. Reflect on whether you connect or if you separate your spiritual life from your body and physical life.

Take time and reflect and ask yourself how can I embody all I have learned? How can I embody spirit so each of my cells pulses with the light and the vitality of my inner spirit? How do I connect my heartbeat with the heartbeat of the earth? How do I embody my spirit?

The next step is to embody the answers and live them. You already know how to do this.

In this way we breathe spirit and light through our presence with each step we take in the world.

We become sacred ourselves and all life reflects our sacredness. We bless ourselves and all of life. And all that we bless blesses us in return.

Of utmost importance this is not a time to let your light go out or dissipate. We must all ride the waves of change and transition right now. And it is important to ride the waves with grace by keeping your inner light burning bright and shining through you. We must become a stronger presence in the world.

This is a time to really focus on your transfiguration practice as I wrote about in Medicine for the Earth and How to Thrive in Changing Times. And make sure you are embodying your light!

As we continue to experience so much change to the earth due to climate changes it is important for us to shift our perspective about what is happening. We also continue to see much deterioration happening on political and economic levels.

Over the years I have been writing about the change in consciousness and evolution that humans are going through. And at the same time as we use the principle of oneness this means that all of life- all species and the earth herself are going through a change and a death. It is important to remember that death is not an end but rather a transition and a rite of passage into something new.

All of life is part of a collective dream. As spiritual practitioners we must acknowledge how the current dream is dissolving and something new will be reborn that is beyond what we can consciously imagine.

I have been teaching and writing that when a person is diagnosed with an illness it is important to perceive the person in his/her divine light. For we want to feed the energy of divine perfection that creates healing rather than feeding the power of the illness. For what we give energy to we give life to.

We also must focus on the light of the earth. We need to surrender to the changes that are happening for we don’t know what will be born.

Yet at the same time it is important to create a path that beauty can flow from by continuing to vision a dream for the earth and all of life that embraces love, light, balance, harmony, beauty, peace, equality, and abundance.

There is nowhere that we can escape to for safety and comfort except by resting in our spirit and the spiritual practices we engage in.

The landscape of the earth is evolving and changing just like it has done throughout time. Land masses have changed over time and will continue to do so.

The destruction that we experience is hard on the people and animals who suffer loss of home and lives.

And at the same time we must recognize that the earth is evolving and changing into new landscapes just like human consciousness is evolving into a new landscape.

The key is to continue to perceive the earth in her spiritual aspect and divine spiritual light.

The key is for all of us to continue to build a beautiful and strong spiritual field of light with all the spiritual work we do together.

The full moon is July 15. Let us continue weaving a human web of light by embodying this light and shining our light pulsing together as we connect with our global spiritual community. Let us do this throughout the day and start to move this from a monthly practice to a daily practice.

If you are new reader of the Transmutation News please visit Creating A Human Web of Light to read the instructions for our monthly ceremony.

In have given many practices to work with in the last few months. Make sure you are continuing the practices that call to you, that you feel passionate about. Make sure you are weaving the threads between the practices you continue to work with. We must strengthen our weaving through connecting all by living and embodying a spiritual life. In this way we embody a state of wholeness, power, balance, and light.

Announcements:

Last month I was a guest on some very interesting radio shows.

In June I was a guest on Wendy Strgar’s show on LA Talk Radio. Her show is called Lunch with the Loveologist.

Wendy has been journeying with my CD “Shamanic Meditations” and so we had a wonderful discussion on shamanism and some of the work I have been sharing with you on the Transmutation News. I really enjoyed our conversation and she is brilliant, clear, and practical interviewer. You can also learn more about Wendy and her show by visiting http://www.latalkradio.com/Wendy.php.

You can listen to our conversation together by clicking on the following link:

http://www.latalkradio.com/archives/Wendy-061511.mp3

Also in June I had the wonderful opportunity to be a guest on Robert Moss’s show “The Way of the Dreamer”. I have always been a great admirer of Robert Moss and his work with dreaming.

We had a lively discussion about dreams and I shared some of the dreams that led me to different directions with my work. Robert also is a great interviewer. He kept the interview moving and very relevant to listeners.

The show will actually air live on July 12. The link to the archive is:

http://www.healthylife.net/RadioShow/archiveWD.htm

Robert Moss is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of modern dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming and a lively online dream school. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His eight books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Three “Only” Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, and Active Dreaming. His website is www.mossdreams.com.

Kay Gillard also interviewed me in June. Her radio show had just been closed down and she was inspired to keep going with her work and I was the first guest on her new show.

Kay is a brilliant teacher of shamanism in the UK and I really enjoyed our interview. She brings a wonderful fresh perspective to the work and I appreciate her clarity and passion.

Here is the information about her new show:

The Shamanic Voice

The Shamanic Voice was founded by Kay Gillard – www.kaygillard.com – a shamanic practitioner, teacher, writer and broadcaster. When the radio show that hosted her show on shamanism was closed down, she was guided by Spider
to ‘build a new web’. The Shamanic Voice is a free online service providing a home to leading and emerging voices in shamanism today. Their aim to is to demystify shamanism, explaining modern day shamanic practice and its relevance to our lives today in a grounded and accessible way.

Kay is joined by 3 other presenters – Magin Rose, Ellie Douglas and Ali Arcehelizaga – all experienced shamanic teachers working in very different ways. They are looking forward to delivering a monthly schedule of podcasts, starting with Kay’s interview with me on 1 July 2011.

You can find Kay and her associates on www.theshamanicvoice.com where the interview we did together will go live on 1 July. You can also sign up for their newsletter for regular updates on their shows, or email them at theshamanicvoice@gmail.com.

For those of you who are local readers in the Santa Fe area I wanted to share with you that I will be presenting at a very interesting conference that will take place July 25-26.

The event is titled “Women Planting Seeds: Home, Horticulture, and Healing”. This event is being presented in conjunction with the New Mexico History Museum Exhibit on “Home Lands: How Women Made the West: Homemakers, Cowgirls, Artists, Doctors, and Politicians”.

For more information please visit:
http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/events.php?action=detail&eventID=438

I am excited about a new teaching opportunity to share my work with those of you in Calgary, Canada. On July 23 10 AM – 1 PM I will be teaching through a live teleconference “Healing Yourself, Healing the Planet: Simple Tools for Transformation” at the Self Connection Bookstore in Calgary.

I will lecture and answer questions. And Jan Gale a wonderful teacher in Calgary will lead some journeys we have planned for the group.

During this three hour video event via Skype I will talk about some of the work I wrote about in Medicine for the Earth, How to Heal Toxic Thoughts, and How to Thrive in Changing Times.

The theme of our time together will be exploring and learning simple and effective tools to transform wellness within you and the planet.

For further information, contact Jan Gale at 403-932-6687 or email Jan at: jan@sulishealing.com.

You can register online at: www.selfconnection.ca or call 403-284-1486.

Transmutation News April 2011

Transmutation News April 2011

The day that the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan was also the day the planet Uranus moved into Aries. Uranus began a transit that marks a new cycle which will effect us for 84 years.

The planet Uranus in astrology is the planet of sudden and unexpected change. Also this transit creates a strong desire for freedom.

I did send a broadcast email mid March speaking directly to how we can direct our spiritual work in behalf of Japan. And I hope you had a chance to read the email and reflect on and work with the material within the email.

I started to write this column weeks before the earthquake in Japan occurred. And I found that what I had already written is still relevant. For events are intensifying for all of us on a personal and global level.  We are continuing to experience the song of  dissolution, discreaton, and dismemberment throughout the globe through environmental, political, and economic challenges.

If you are new to reading The Transmutation News you might wish to read the issues I wrote starting from the fall of 2010 and continuing into this year. For I have been writing about how death is part of all transitions and how to surrender to what life is bringing for us as we move together towards a new evolution of consciousness. I also wrote about expanding our auras and becoming one with a spiritual pulsation and frequency that continues to shift the collective energy.

Our work is to really stay focused on being able to surrender to our deep spiritual wisdom and to be the dreamers to help birth a new vision of a healthy and harmonious life. We need to learn together the new songs of creation waiting to be sung.

And for those of us who do stay tuned to the news it can be hard to watch the destruction and the suffering for there are so many losses on all levels that we are witnessing.

During the winter I read different interviews with spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Father Bede. When they were asked how they deal with watching so much suffering they all answered that they pray for hours a day and throughout the day.

I also read research that has been done on people who pray and meditate for hours a day versus minutes a day. And what has been found is that for those people who do pray for hours a day their brains produce hormones that create a state of sustained inner peace and joy.

Shamans, from indigenous cultures have said that we are dreaming the wrong dream. Other religious and spiritual teachings share that this world is an illusion and we must learn to see beyond the illusion of egoic separation to tap into a state of light and connection in order to heal the suffering of the world.

My way of working to heal states of separation and to dream a new dream has been to practice the Medicine for the Earth work and to teach the work to others through my writing, lectures, and workshops. I share a wealth of spiritual practices and tools that create personal and global healing in Medicine for the Earth, How to Heal Toxic Thoughts, and How to Thrive in Changing Times.

The core of the teachings has been how to travel within to find our spiritual light and to see ourselves beyond a state of separation. Once we know the truth of who we truly are, which is divine spiritual light, we can radiate our brilliance into the world. And as we did come here to learn how to manifest spirit into form we must concentrate and focus our thoughts and words on creating a beautiful world for all of life.

It takes practice to focus on the beauty and not to react to the suffering around us. We do have to find ways to pray and to keep our prayers going all day. For me this has to do with giving thanks for the help we are receiving from God, the goddess, the helping spirits, the power of the universe. We all have to find the term for the numinous that relates to our beliefs.

We need to learn how to take the time to be able to travel within and tap into a spiritual state of consciousness so that we pray for and dream a new world into being by transcending our egoic desires and creating from a place of deep spiritual wisdom.

There has been an amazing shift of consciousness that we are witnessing throughout the planet. And we need to focus this shift in consciousness to be able to birth forth a more balanced and harmonious way of life versus giving into our egoic desires.

When we feel we have lost our way and we are reacting to so much change we must continue to surrender to our spiritual light to guide us through the dark times.

All minds and all life is connected. Even if we can experience for brief seconds our radiance this shift in consciousness does ripple throughout the entire web of life creating transformation. For all that goes on in the spiritual world is outside of time. One second of revelation creates healing and transformation that our minds simply cannot grasp.

If you feel your passion and spirit is calling you to help to midwife a new consciousness into being then you must find ways to pray and project visions of health, beauty, and harmony into the world as much as possible throughout the day. You must keep your words and train of thought focused toward the desired outcome. You must engage your imagination in a more focused way.

Although a second can create change think of what continued prayer and projecting positive visions can accomplish. This is what we can do to be part of a global shift. The work is anonymous and involves dynamic change through a state of being. This teaching is core to the spiritual work that has been handed down to us throughout the ages. We change the world by who we become and by radiating light and love and projecting positive visions from a divine state of consciousness.

Keep working with prayers for assistance to become a true channel of love as I wrote about last month.

Surrender to the collective pulsation of love and light and allow that frequency to move through you if even for seconds at a time.

In 2010 there were also some challenging events that created heart opening feelings for many people around the globe. At different times of the year I summarized the Medicine for the Earth work in some of the monthly columns. And in June of 2010 I wrote a summary of the Medicine for the Earth describing how the work addresses body, mind, and spirit.

Whether you are a new reader of the Transmutation News or someone who has been reading the column over time, I suggest that  you visit the archives of this site and read The June 2010 Transmutation News or click on the link. It will help you to refocus your spiritual practice on how you can be in service.

In How to Heal Toxic Thoughts I share the story of Two Wolves that comes from indigenous traditions.

A grandfather was talking to his grandson about many things.

He said, “I feel as if two wolves are fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, angry, violent, and the other is loving, compassionate, and strong.”

The grandson asked the grandfather, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?”

The grandfather replied, “The one I feed”.

The point of this teaching story was to say that we must learn to transmute and transform the energies behind our emotions so that we are feeding the collective with loving energies.

And I also want to encourage you to use this teaching story as a reminder to use the gift of your imagination to project positive visions and dreams into the world.

It is our perception that creates our reality. Remember your wonderful memories and dreams for your life and for the life of the planet. Project beauty into the collective. Plant seeds of love and beauty and inspiration in your inner garden so that they grow, blossom, and bear fruit here in our earth garden.

When you get caught up in the pain and suffering that you are seeing acknowledge how you are feeling. Allow your heart to open and expand and embrace all you are experiencing. And then refocus your energies to transmute the energy to love and refocus your imagination, thoughts, and words to create a new vision of a world filled with love.

In the bible there is a teaching that says, without a vision the people will die. The paradox we continue to dance is how to keep projecting a good and healthy vision for all of life while surrendering the outcome at the same time. We must continue to vision a new dream as the collective dream continues to dissolve.

It is so easy to stay asleep and get lost in the dense state of the collective. Focus on the vastness of your inner universe. Raise your frequency by experiencing your transcendent light. Pulsate love, divine light, joy into the web of life and the web of light.

You cannot perceive a higher frequency of the planet without raising up to a higher frequency yourself. There is a dimension of magnificence and radiance that we can all tap into. But first you have to become that higher frequency yourself. And as more and more of us can tap into this higher vibration of a dimension of reality filled with radiant light the more we project that dimension into the collective.

Let’s together set an intention to wake up. Take some walks in nature and feel the vibrancy of the natural world around you. Experience the hidden world that is part of nature. Wake up to the magic, vibrancy, and magnificence of life and project that with each breath and step you take in the world.

Here is a very inspirational experience that Karen Furr in Arizona shared with me. Karen leads a weekly transfiguration group in her community.

“I facilitate a monthly transfiguration group here in Kingman and thought you would like to hear a ‘report’…

This is from one of the participants:

Hi Karen,
Last month you requested that we each bring some earth from home to the Transfiguration ceremony. I went out and dug a small baggie full of sand from my rose bed.

After Transfiguration I dumped it in a pot in my bathroom. I had previously (two years ago) buried a couple of avocado seeds
that never grew. I figured they would just be compost for the soil. Anything I’ve planted in that pot has not grown.

A few days ago I noticed that I had stems and leaves. I’ve done nothing differently such as watering, light, heat etc. with that pot and now have two avocado plants growing! And growing quickly! This month I took a larger bag of earth and will amend the various plants in my home with it.

I believe this is proof that what happens in Transfiguration is powerful energy. If it can happen to soil, what is it doing to our human condition and the intentions we put into the circle? Thank you for being the guide for this powerful spiritual experience.”

I emailed Karen about this wonderful report and she let me know that after one week the avocado plants were 7 inches tall.

This is such a great story reminding us of the power and potential of our spiritual work.  I hope you will be inspired to bring water and soil into your transfiguration work.

Years ago I coordinated global ceremonies on the Transmutation News where I would ask people to transfigure with water present on their altar and then to bring the water to larger bodies of water where they lived.

This is work we can keep up in our personal practices or with the groups we work with. Bringing blessed water to larger bodies of water is a way to bring healing and love to the waters of the world. Bringing soil filled with love and brilliant light is a way to honor and respect our earth garden. It is time to deeply honor and respect the elements which give us life. As we continue to do this as a global community the elements will reflect honor and respect back to us.

Sometimes I get an email or letter from someone who is asking that we direct light to a particular place on the planet. Diana, a dear friend of mine wrote me last month. For 9 years she has been very involved in working with courageous Afghan women leaders, helping them to provide healthcare, education and legal aid, so that they can improve quality of life for all Afghans.

The Taliban extremists are increasing violent attacks targeting Afghan women leaders involved in education, legal work, journalism, any of the professions. And they target those who support them.  In a sad irony, the Afghan government itself is trying to undermine the little protection Afghan women have against violence, most recently by trying to seize control of all shelters which had been set up to protect battered and abused women.  International outcry forced president Karzai and his government to backtrack on that issue, but the extremist element continues.

To quote Diana:

“I will be joining farflung moon-sisters on the full moon – asking the Great Mother to send down healing, love, light, peace to ‘All Beings Without Exception’ in the Buddhist phrase – to Afghan women, children and men suffering in the ongoing violence and destruction and even, or especially to the Taliban and Al Queda and extremist elements in the government bent on their destructive mission.  We also ask the Goddess to extend her love, compassion, and light to all foreign military factions on Afghan soil. (And elsewhere, all over the world.)

We pray, at this full moon, that She will heal us of our fear and quicken all hearts toward the impossible, the necessary realization that we are all one Being–and what happens to the ‘least’ of us, happens to us all.  We pray that the Great Mother help all without exception awaken to the joy of this truth and begin to live it from the very depth of our souls.”

If you feel so called to be part of this healing collective we can join  Diana during this full moon.

Remember that the media moves on after covering environmental, political, and economic events. People and all of life are still suffering the effects of the earthquake in Haiti and in New Zealand, the oil spill in the Gulf, the floods in Australia, the extreme weather in the U.S., Europe, and in South America – these are just to name a few. People in the Middle East are still fighting for freedom and thousands are being killed and tortured in their quest. And the list goes on.

All of life needs us to be a channel of light and love right now. We are not separate cultures or separate countries. We are all going through an initiation together. We are all connected to one web of life.

The full moon is April 17. Let us take the day to focus together on expanding our auras and connect together as one beaming pulsation of light as we continue to weave the web of light. Let us beam light and love to Japan and to all places and beings in the world facing challenges right now. Let us weave love and light throughout the earth so that the web of life holds us in love and with honor and respect.

For those of you new to the Transmutation News please read Creating A Human Web of Light on the homepage of this site.

Annnouncements:

I am delighted to announce that Dorota Goczal has volunteered to translate the Transmutation News into Polish. As a community we send you many thanks and blessings!

The Transmutation News is now being translated into 10 languages. This is such a gift to be able to include more communities into our potent and vital work together.

Knowing how to connect with compassionate spirits through shamanic journeying is such a powerful and helpful tool to have. For the helping spirits can see all that is happening in our personal lives, in our communities, and on the planet from a different perspective than we can. They can offer guidance, insight, and healing help.

I am teaching a beginning workshop on shamanic journeying and healing in Boulder, Colorado April 23-24. To make the workshop more financially accessible Sounds True, who is the workshop sponsor, is offering a discount coupon through April 22, 2011. To obtain this discount, click on the link below to register for the course and at checkout, enter the promotional code SINGERMAN.

This workshop will help so many people around the world as the teachings in this training will be offered as a future online course.

For more information or to register, click on the link below:
http://www.soundstrue.com/ingerman-boulder?utm_source=Sandra-Ingerman&utm__medium=partner-email&utm_campaign=SINGERMAN

THE 2011 Shamanism Without Borders CONFERENCE
May 19-22
Sunrise Springs Resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico

We will gather together Thursday night to arrive and create sacred space.

On Friday Sandra Ingerman and ecstatic dance teacher Michael Stone will lead experiences to help us work with shadow states and heal the old wounds that prevent us from being a healthy member of a community.

On Saturday Jose Lucero, an elder from the Santa Clara pueblo, will meet us on the Rio Grande to share with us how the
indigenous people lived in harmony on the Rio Grande and the problems with the river now.  Then we will do spiritual work in behalf of the river.

In the afternoon some people will travel to Tsankawi where Sandra Ingerman will lead a journey to the Anasazi Indians
to ask them for inspiration for shifting our consciousness to embrace a new and higher way of life.

A second group of people who love to hike will spend the day with Jim Cutropia on a six-mile hike to a mesa deep in Bandelier that has views of the Rio Grande and the area that cannot be matched. There is a medicine wheel at this mesa and it is a perfect place to do spiritual work.

Jim will share his knowledge about the Rio Grande and then he will  lead a healing ceremony for the river as well as lead the journey to the Anasazi from this spot.

Those who can’t hike easily, will go to the Visitors Center at Bandelier National Park after being with Jose Lucero on the Rio Grande and work from there.

Saturday night will be a time for sharing as well as Carol Proudfoot Edgar will lead some ceremonial work.

Sunday morning we will end by talking about and journeying on how to take what we have learned back to our communities.

Please visit www.shamansociety.org for more information and to register.

My dear friend Bhola Nath Banstola is returning to the United States to teach workshops on Nepalese shamanism and to perform private healings.
To see his schedule of his tour in the United States please visit: www.nepalese.it.

I wanted to announce a new book that Stefania Montagna has written. For now it is only out in Italian.

HO’OPONOPONO: Il fiore della vita (the life’s flower) by Stefania Montagna published by Cerchio della Luna ( February 2011 ).

Here is Stefania’s description of her new book:

“What surrounds us is the materialization of our own thoughts. Everything that we see “out there” is really “in here”, completely  and fully within us, and it is only within ourselves that we can cleanse these thoughts, through constant contact with the Divine, which is Love.

The Divine invoked, performs the process of transmutation, the thoughts that cause problems are neutralized and then released leaving Void, which is infused by Love Darkness is then replaced by Light.”

A Message from Sandra Ingerman regarding World Events

Our hearts expand as we embrace the enormity of all the pain being suffered by the people and all living beings in Japan who have been impacted by the earthquake and the tsunami.

When we feel that our hearts are breaking as we watch levels of suffering. In actuality, our hearts are expanding allowing us to be stronger and deeper channels of love and light.

Let us journey deep within ourselves transcending our egos and experience the vastness of our spiritual light and love. In this way we become beacons of light and love for all of life in Japan.  Let us expand our individual aura and become one with a spiritual pulsation and frequency to transform the radiation that is moving into the atmosphere.

Move out of a place of pity for the suffering you see and focus on the strong spirit of the people, all of life, and the land itself. In this way you project strength which leads to a foundation of support for all in need.

Let us sing songs of love and healing to the earth, the waters of the world, the air, and to the element of fire. Go outside and sing!

There is an extreme level of panic that is being “blasted” into the collective over the fear of radiation moving through our atmosphere.

Of course there are precautions we all must take on a physical level. But it is also important to remember that it is our egos that are moving into panic.

It is crucial right now that you do the spiritual work you have been practicing over the years. Take the time to find your center. Go out and spend lots of time in nature to center and refocus. Breathe deeply and remember that you are spiritual light and have all the tools and internal spiritual wisdom to guide you during this time.

As a global community we do have great power as we work together spiritually. Let us project a vision of healing and peace. Project a vision of cooling for the nuclear reactors and further disaster being avoided.

Do your transfiguration practice daily and throughout the day and experience yourself as divine light. Divine light has the power to transmute and transform all energies into healing energies. For thousands of years mystics and spiritual healers throughout the world have been using this way of working to transmute toxins and illness. Let us carry on the work that has shown itself to have so much potential for healing.

We must strengthen our spiritual connections so that we can always be open to receive spiritual information when we need it.

Spend a lot of time in nature connecting with the elements and the heartbeat of the earth. Reflect on how you can live a way of life that embraces beauty, harmony, honor and respect for all of life. When we as a collective start to live a harmonious way of life we will see the elements around us reflect back a state of harmony.

Learn to read the omens that nature will continue to show to help guide you.

We must learn to honor the rite of passage and initiation that humankind is going through. We are experiencing levels of death on many levels. Death is not an end but rather is a transition.

In the bible it says that without a vision the people will perish. We are the dreamers of our world. Part of living a spiritual way of life is to be able to surrender to our deep spiritual wisdom and be the dreamers to help birth a new vision of a healthy way of life. We need to be able to hold a vision that the collective can move towards as the old is dismembered. Reflect on the vision you want to be projecting into the world right now and make changes to your vision to lead to a desired outcome. Engage your imagination in a more focused way. Project the best for all of life.

Build up your spiritual muscles!

Let us together hold the planet in love.

Remember that the media moves on after covering environmental, political, and economic events. People and all of life are still suffering the effects of the earthquake in Haiti and in New Zealand, the oil spill in the Gulf, the floods in Australia, the extreme weather in the U.S. – these are just to name a few. People in the Middle East are still fighting for freedom.

All of life needs us to be a channel of light, love, and spiritual healing. We are one collective. We are not separate cultures, separate countries. We are going through an initiation together. Let us do our work and live our lives in a good way. That is how we can be in service to the whole.

During the full moon let us transfigure and experience our divine nature as we beam light and love throughout this great earth.

During the equinox remember the wonderful memories and dreams for your life and for the life of the planet. Project beauty into the collective. Plant seeds of love and beauty and inspiration in your inner garden so that they grow, blossom, and bear fruit here in our earth garden.

Most of all be a channel of love and light in behalf of all of life!

— Sandra Ingerman

Photo by Giovanni Spina used under its Creative Commons license.

Transmutation News January 2011

Transmutation News January 2011

Choosing Joy!

I invite you to take a minute to close your eyes and take some deep breaths. Put your hands on your heart and feel yourself breathing through your heart. Think about how much you love the earth and how grateful you are for your life. And now let us wish everyone in our global community a blessed New Year!

In the last few months I have been writing quite a bit about death, letting go and surrendering.  For with every change and transition there is a death. But we also have to keep in mind that death is not an end. You cannot destroy energy – energy transforms. Fear keeps us in a contracted state and when we can finally surrender and let go we experience an expanded state of awareness.

At some point you have to decide for yourself when it is time to start to re-imagine and rebuild a new path that leads to a new life. At some point we have to choose to branch out or spiral out from a path of pain and suffering and start to take all that energy that is available that has been let go of to recreate something new.

You will know inside yourself when the time has come to say okay I have died to what needs to be let of go of for now and it is time to focus on the rebirth. You will know when it is time to experience the phoenix rising up anew out of the flames.

The information I have received on this from my own helping spirits has given me a way to begin and once again feel tremendous hope. I am a person who gets overwhelmed when a clear path is not shown to me.

For myself I can’t just go from death of old beliefs and an old way of life to a whole new life created instantaneously. I need baby steps of where to put my foot next.

I was shown that it is time to start to recultivate my inner garden. I have been writing about that everything is born from within us. Like plants and trees growing strong roots into the earth a plant grows from the seeds that we plant. If we plant seeds of fear, sadness, hopelessness that is what will grow in both our inner and outer garden. For as above, so below, as within, so without.

I was given an exercise to start to slowly replant my garden so that I do not overwhelmed. I was told to start with just a very small circle in my garden – maybe the size of a small to medium sized pot that I would grow a plant in. I was told to imagine this small plot of land in my inner garden. And with this very small area in my garden I was told to imagine myself pouring in love and nurturance to fertilize the soil. Then using the principles of creating new neural pathways to start to imagine a simple happy memory feeding my garden.

Last month to end the year I asked us all to focus on a simple good memory to end the year with. Examples might be eating a favorite food, focusing on a beautiful image from nature, a favorite scent, a great feeling, or hearing a wonderful sound such as birds singing, water flowing, the sound of gentle breezes.

If everyday and throughout the day you can take a simple joyful memory and plant it in your small plot in your inner garden this joyful memory can take root. This will impact the new rebirth and a spring filled with hope and possibilities. This allows for a rebirth of life that spirals away from the suffering of what you have let go of.

But you need to create a partnership with your brain to do this. As we birth the new into the world spiritually with the thoughts and words we use we must also team up with up with our brain and activate new neural pathways that will help lead us to our desired outcome.

As you work with your brain by creating new neural pathways this  helps to rebuild your inner beliefs and thoughts leading to a new joyful way of life.

Throughout life we will continue to spiral through cycles of death and rebirth. It is important to remember the rebirth part of the cycle. And as we birth a new personal and collective world we must plant the seeds, be an architect and imagine the new plan, and sculpt a new world. At some point as the old fabric of reality dissolves and the choice of what you wish to create is in your hands.

For me slow and steady is helpful instead of creating too big of a vision that I don’t know how to manifest. Starting with planting joyful memories that can grow into joyful plants and a joyful way of life is a good start.

For this month of January as we begin a New Year I ask you to join me in finding a small plot in your inner garden and start fertilizing it with love and light and fill it with happy memories. Death will continue throughout the collective of old ways that no longer serve life. Some of us have to be willing to plant the new seeds of a harmonious and joyful way of life.

I also received a very important message from my helping spirits about the power of pride. Many of us in the spiritual community get nervous when we talk about pride as often we associate being proud or too filled with pride with being too egotistical.

My helping spirits gave me a different perspective on pride (in the most positive sense of the word) that I had not considered. As I have written over the years love is an important energy that fuels the power of our creation. Having passion for what we are doing also fuels what we can manifest in the world.

My spirits shared with me that having pride in our work is powerful fuel that also adds to the success of our work and also creates a larger field of energy around what we are manifesting. This larger field of energy attracts success.

As we feed our garden with happy memories I also invite all of you to take some time to feel pride for all the work you have been doing in service to all of life on the planet. Infuse your creation work with pride. This is another step in empowering our ability to manifest the world we wish to live in. And let’s give thanks to each other for the work we continue to do. I ask each of you to receive the thanks from our global community with pride!

And let’s keep us the work of expanding into one field of energy that pulses in oneness, unity, love and light creating the transformation needed to manifest harmony and peace on this great earth. Remember that your words and thoughts continue to be transmitted into the field of energy of the planet. Be conscious of what you are transmitting.

Let us join our hearts together in one pulsation as we continue to weave a brilliant web of light throughout and within our planet on the full moon which is January 19. Feel the radiance and love infusing the web of life.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please click on “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the Transmutation News page for the instructions for our full moon ceremony.

I woke up one morning with this wonderful inspiration coming through:

Sail away from the past
And sail towards the brightness and vast possibilities of a new future!!

Announcements:

My 2011 calendar is now up on www.sandraingerman.com. As the Transmutation News appears on both www.sandraingerman.com and www.shamanicvisions.com I need to write out which website the calendar is now available on.

I am still waiting for one date before my calendar is completed. Once it is completed the calendar will be posted on both sites.

For now please visit The Trainings and Announcement section of www.sandraingerman.com to see all the courses and conferences I have scheduled at this point. And I also have some on going on line courses you might be interested in.

I taught a very popular and well received webinar produced by Sounds True in August of 2010. The title is 21st Century Shamanism and it is now available to purchase on line.

For more information you can go to:
http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/21st-Century-Shamanism/2901.productdetails;jsessionid=dSx6DFBNZJGHk3NOcmdK.38

Please join me in giving thanks to Irina Osechinskaya for taking over the Russian translation of the Transmutation News!!

We now have the Transmutation News translated into 9 languages which is such a great gift allowing us to truly connect with our global community.

And we are still looking for a volunteer to help with the Portuguese translation. If you are interested in being in service in this way please send an email to: info@sandraingerman.com.

In November of 2010 I did a wonderful interview with Greg Voisen from Inside Personal Growth on my book Awakening to the Spirit World. We talked about how the practice of shamanism can be of great help during these times. Greg is a deep thinker and a great interviewer.

To listen to the podcast of an interview I did with Greg Voisen here are the links:

Links:
Podcast:
http://www.insidepersonalgrowth.com/2010/11/podcasts/podcast-246-awakening-to-the-spirit-world-with-sandra-ingerman/
Author Profile:
http://www.insidepersonalgrowth.com/2010/11/authors/sandra-ingerman/

I also did a wonderful interview with Stephanie Miller who writes a blog on livelighter.org. This is a written interview on my work that I wrote about in How to Thrive in Changing Times. Stephanie did a great job with this interview and you can read it at:

http://livelighter.org/transform-2012-doom-gloom-interview-with-sandra-ingerman/

Stephanie wrote out some a summary of some of the daily practices I recommend to keep focused on the spiritual work we can all engage in to create the world we wish to live in.

Janice Kyd gifted me with a set of her Spirit Doorways cards. When I opened up the package of cards I was struck by the energy of love in the cards. They are truly alive. The cards come with a book that explains the images. I would encourage you to visit Janice’s website as she has quite an inspirational story of personal healing.

Here is what Janice writes about the images:
The Spirit Doorways images arose from my body’s own inner wisdom while I was in a deeply peaceful, relaxed state. They reflect many archetypal, mythical and spiritual themes such as the return of the Divine Feminine, Beauty, Compassion, Love and Oneness. You can use the images to access deeper insight and awareness and to inspire you to open your heart to the love, light and beauty within you.

The complete set of images can be purchased as a deck of cards or individually as fine art prints. For more information go to my website www.spiritdoorways.com.

Many blessings to you for a glorious New Year!!

Transmutation News December 2010

Transmutation News December 2010
from Sandra Ingerman

We are coming to the end of a pretty wild year. As I have been teaching a lot and in communication with teachers, practitioners, and students I am aware that it is almost like an endless string of challenges have been presenting themselves.

I myself continue to be presented with people and situations that reflect the shadow aspects of life. And dealing with daily issues that arise I find myself being asked to stay very present and just rise to the occasion with each situation. It has been a time for me to stand up and speak my truth. And I also have been surrendering to all that life is bringing to me right now and willing to experience the teaching that comes with each new challenge. I find that as I can experience the teachings that life brings I can make new choices that lead to a healthier way of being in the world. And I believe this holds true for all of us.

For I believe that for all of us who are walking a spiritual path we are also on a continued path of initiation. These initiatory experiences create a shift in consciousness. And in going through the rite of passages we are being faced with letting go of relationships and ways of life that are not healthy and harmonious.

There really isn’t a choice about going through an initiation. A metaphor would be saying that you want to get off an airplane while flying at 30,000-40,000 feet. The journey is in motion and can’t be stopped. The more you stop resisting what life brings to you the easier it is to reach within yourself and allow your spirit to guide you step by step through the dark places in your life.

Life is change. And life and change are in movement. There is a flow to life. Life is never stagnant. As we learn how to “go with the flow” instead of resisting the flow of energy we suffer less. Some people are trying to hold on to an old way of life and some have let go and are now grieving the loss as old ways of life that no longer serve dissolve away.

When we are guided by our egos we are truly misguided. When we are guided by our spirit and divine knowing we move from denser states of consciousness. But as we move from denser states of consciousness, what we need to say good bye to what will be presented to us.

It is important to remember the practices that can be supportive to you during these changing times. Watch your train of thought and where your thought process is leading you to. Be observant to the words that you use to describe your life and the world. Be diligent in staying true to the power of the spiritual work you engage in for that will determine the outcome of where you move to during this initiatory phase of life.

Read books and listen to lectures that inspire you. For it is so easy in the midst of life challenges to forget what you have learned. And you might need the words of another to help you remember to stay true to your spiritual path.

This is a time on the planet where we must gather our spiritual strength and stay focused and centered. Do what you need to do to get the support you need right now to remember the truth of who you are. You are divine light and you are one with the creative force of the universe. You are loved and you came here to love as well as shine your spiritual light. Your ego is being carved away so that you can be a beacon of light. As you surrender to life’s initiations the path inward to your inner light, knowing, and love will be obvious to you. It is in the resistance that the path becomes cloudy. It is in the resistance that we experience fear and pain. Surrender brings peace.

Last month I wrote about the evolution to become one pulsation of loving light. As you do this you will notice that your frequency starts to change. And as I wrote above denser states of consciousness that prevent you from vibrating at a higher level will show themselves to be worked through and healed.

As you experience this pulsation you will notice that you are actually being led to becoming a conscious transmitter. Over the years I have been writing about radiating light. Another level or quality of this radiation is transmission. We have a lot in common with crystals and as humans we transmit frequencies just as crystals do. Typically we transmit all kinds of energies into the world without awareness to what we send.

We have a real opportunity right now as we shift our frequency and fine tune to purer energies to transmit these beautiful and harmonious energies out to the world.

And if we see ourselves as transmitters of energies we can become more aware of what we are transmitting. We can use discipline to transmit love, light, peace, and harmony. Think of radio waves that go out as concentric circles of energy riding through the airwaves. As you start with focus and discipline this will become more of a flow as it becomes part of how you breathe and walk in the world.

Those of you experiencing challenges might feel that it is hard to focus on transmitting the positive into the world. You might have felt that you have lost your way and your vision. Remember that each path is walked step by step. Find a very small step you can take to return to the divine within. Find a very small step to take to begin to transmit divine light into the world.

I have written about the science of neuroplasticity. The scientific community now understands that the brain is flexible and that we can heal ourselves by creating new neural pathways. And one way new neural pathways are created is by changing your thought patterns leading you away from your thoughts of despair and defeat to thoughts that will lead you to success.

A very simple way to begin this process is to think of good memories like the first time you ate ice cream, saw snow, saw a butterfly, saw a beautiful sunrise or sunset, smelled a beautiful flower or scent, heard birds singing, etc.

This month let us join together to think about some good memories about this past year. Instead of focusing on what did not work for you think about at least one good thing that did happen for you. Think about something beautiful you saw, felt, heard, smelled, and tasted.

Let us start to create new neural pathways of the collective conscious and begin to move forward in our energetic pulsation to experience a transformation into living a consciousness of love, harmony, peace, and honor and respect in the coming year.

We can make it happen as we expand our energy field to become one with the energy of each other and pulsate to create transformation. And this means that there are deaths we will experience as a collective. But with all death comes a rebirth like the phoenix that rises out of the fire into a new life.

December 21 is both the full moon and the winter solstice. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere you are celebrating the beginning of summer.

Here is what I was guided to share with you to celebrate the winter solstice or the summer solstice.

Think about a public figure who is very successful in putting change into motion. This figure could be one who you like or dislike. The changes they are making might be in alignment with creating harmony on the planet. Or you might choose a person whose decisions, principles, policies are actually destructive to the planet. Basically you are looking for a person who is exhibiting great power.

Study their energy. Really sink in to how they operate energetically. You will notice they are filled with a passionate fire. They might be using it to create peace or harmony or they might be using it for personal gain. What you want to experience is how strong their inner fire or their inner sun is.

Learn from them. And then during the solstice start to set an intention to stoke the inner fire within you. For as a spiritual community we must move into a place where we are passionate about making transformative changes in the world. We must be people of power.

As we stoke our inner fire, our inner sun, we fuel our creative power in the world. And then let’s join our fires together as we continue to use our imagination to use our senses to draw down, to create, to manifest a world filled with harmony as if it is here right now. We have to be passionate and filled with love to fuel the power of creation.

And then the pulsation of energy we can create together becomes strong enough to move through the world in a transformative way.

As we stoke our inner fire, our inner sun let us join together on December 21 as a pulsation of light that strengthens the web of light we have been weaving together as a global community for over 10 years now.

Let us transmit light and love into our global community continuing to project good health and success into our circle empowering all of us to continue to flow with the new opportunities that are being presented to all of us as we flow into the change of season and the New Year.

Let us join our hearts together in love to acknowledge, honor, and give great gratitude for those who help to donate time and energy to make the Transmutation News available to readers around the world.

Let’s thank and send the best of wishes to Bob Edgar who is the webmaster of www.shamanicvisions.com and Sylvia Edwards the webmaster of www.sandraingerman.com.

Many blessings to:

• Eva Ruprechtsberger for coordinating all our translators.
• Waltraud Hofer-Pichler who installed the foreign links.
• Lena Anderheim for the translation of The Transmutation News into Swedish.
• Nello Ceccon for the translation into Italian.
• Ines Fermosa for the translation into Spanish.
• Zora Fresnova for the translation into Slovakian.
• Annie Idrissi for the translation into French.
• Aurel Mocanu for the translation into Romanian.
• Eva Ruprechtsberger for the translation into German.

There is so much work that goes into the translation of so many words. Thank you and may the blessings of your generosity be multiplied many times over to bring peace, love, joy, and abundance into all of your lives.

And many blessings to all of you in our global community who are working in behalf of all of life. We are truly unlimited in all we can accomplish together in love for the planet and for all of life.

Announcements:

I am continuing to work very slowly on my 2011 calendar as I consider carefully my teaching schedule for next year. As I continue to add new workshops Sylvia Edwards will list them under the Training and Announcement section of www.sandraingerman.com.

Once my calendar is complete it will appear on all of my websites.

Last month I polled our group to find out how many people are interested in a new One-Year Training in shamanic healing. There was a resounding yes that came from so many of you that I am working on scheduling a new training that will begin in 2011.

I did want to let everyone know I will be leading a one day workshop “Experiencing the Shamanic Journey: To Heal Ourselves and the Earth” in Sedona, Arizona on March 18. For further information you can contact Jonette Crowley at: info@jonettecrowley.com. This workshop is a preconference workshop that is part of The Gathering 2011. For more information on this conference please visit: www.TheGathering2011.com.

I am delighted to announce that “Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation” which I co-authored with Hank Wesselman is now out in German.

The title is: “Die Schamanische Erfahrung: Ein Weg in die Tiefe der Seele”. The publisher is Goldman Arkana. We had to work with the title a bit for it to make sense to the German public.

Hank and I are co-authors and also contributors along with Tom Cowan, Carol Proudfoot-Edgar, Jose Stevens, and Alberto Villoldo.

There is a new journey CD I made with some of my students in the back of the book. It has some other instrumental tracks besides drumming for shamanic journeying.

The book is selling incredibly well in the U.S. and has gotten wonderful press. It is a true comprehensive book on shamanism which includes different perspectives from some brilliant shamanic teachers.

I wish you all a joyous solstice!!! Blessings to you in your life and all that life brings to you!

Live, Online Program with Sandra Ingerman begins August 5, 2010

I am pleased to report that Sounds True will be hosting a series of live classes with Sandra Ingerman beginning August 5, 2010.

Sounds True is the publisher of Sandra Ingerman’s latest book, Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, and her latest audio CD set, Shamanic Meditations: Guided Journeys for Insight, Vision, and Healing. The two offerings are sold together as the Shamanic Explorations Collection at a substantial discount.

Sounds True is known for their exceptional production values. Listen to this amazingly crisp audio of Clarissa Pinkola Estés inviting readers to her live classes at Sounds True.

Sandra Ingerman’s live program at Sounds True is called “21st-Century Shamanism: Contemporary Practices for Direct Revelation.” The class runs three consecutive Thursday nights, August 5, 12, and 19. You can purchase each individual session for $20 or admission to all three for only $49. To register, please see the program page at Sounds True. Here’s some additional information from Sounds True about the program:

21st-Century Shamanism
Contemporary Practices for Direct Revelation
with Sandra Ingerman

Why are we seeing a modern renaissance of shamanism, the oldest form of spiritual practice? According to Sandra Ingerman, it is because it is a “path of direct revelation.” Shamanism provides powerful, effective tools to let you tap into the unseen world for insight and healing—requiring no outside authorities, intermediaries, or even beliefs. With 21st-Century Shamanism, this respected teacher presents three live learning sessions to introduce you to the modern evolution of this ancient practice. Using techniques drawn from indigenous practice and adapted for widespread use in today’s world, Sandra provides a hands-on introduction to:

• The shamanic journey—Sandra guides you in the experience of entering an altered state to access the world of spirit
• Deep listening—harmonizing yourself with the natural world for increased energy and health
• Dream work—guidelines for decoding the wisdom of the deeper self
• Ceremony—rituals for dissolving our limiting beliefs, opening the door to our true potential
• Blessing practices—how to become a positive force for change in the world

LIVE SESSION DATES:

Session One: What Is Shamanism, and How Can It Help Us Prepare for 2012?
LIVE session with Sandra Ingerman on Thursday, August 5, 8-9:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Session Two: Shamanic Methods for Creating the World in Which We Wish to Live
LIVE session with Sandra Ingerman on Thursday, August 12, 8-9:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Session Three: Working Together as a Global Community to Create Positive Change
LIVE session with Sandra Ingerman on Thursday, August 19, 8-9:30 p.m. Eastern Time

If you can’t attend a live session, audio from sessions will be available for download a few days after the session concludes. I hope you will join Sandra Ingerman for this new, live program.

“Three Tools of the Shaman,” an Excerpt from “Awakening to the Spirit World”

“Three Tools of the Shaman”

an excerpt from the new book

AWAKENING TO THE SPIRIT WORLD:
The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation

by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman
Published by Sounds True
Reprinted with Permission

INTRODUCTION

Below is an excerpt from the book, Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman. The excerpt is entitled Three Tools of the Shaman, and describes the essential tools in the shaman’s kit: gratitude, seeing and blessing. It concludes with a lovely blessing ceremony.

After the excerpt, you’ll find more information about co-authors Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman, the book Awakening to the Spirit World, and a spoken-word CD set, Shamanic Meditations, containing journeys led by Sandra Ingerman, all published by Sounds True. Blessings to you!

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“Three Tools of the Shaman”

by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman

~ Gratitude ~

The first shamanic tool in your toolbox is gratitude, an attitude and an orientation designed to open the heart. Gratitude is a high-level amplitude that is designed to open portals, windows, and doorways into the spirit world.

Shamanically speaking, in everyday reality (what a shaman considers a consensus dream), Spirit is not apparent to the naked eye. In fact this ordinary world of stone, flesh, and fiber is often quite depressing because it involves frustration, pain, and frightening circumstances and events. The pleasures are more often than not offset by the everyday survival and the constant mind chatter that is enough to drive even the most stable person crazy.

Yet a shaman knows that just behind the movie set that makes up the world, Spirit lies camouflaged, bursting with light and freedom, waiting to be recognized and resourced. Spirit has cleverly arranged portals in strategic places that if opened, lead directly past the everyday outer world into the power of the inner reality where all answers lie and where all problems are revealed to be the illusions that they are.

These portals are literally everywhere, but there are primary ones that are so close to us that they are practically impossible to miss. The one most accessible is the heart, which lies smack in the middle of your chest just below your chin, and it is so accessible that you can easily reach your heart with your hands. When you speak it vibrates, and when you breathe it is massaged all around. It is hard to comprehend how you would miss it, yet we do ignore it every day unless we should have the misfortune of a heart attack.

Shamans “see” through their hearts. Shamanic tribes like the Maori of New Zealand believe that the physical world we experience is actually a projection coming from each individual heart. The Mayans and the Q’ero tribe in the Peruvian Andes have their own versions of this basic understanding. Their shamans know that self-importance, created by the ego, is dedicated to keeping the powerful heart portal closed off enough to prevent Spirit from shining through.

The ego accomplishes this by shutting down the heart to the point where the portal remains closed to the spirit world. The portals pop open only when a certain amplitude is reached, so keeping it below a certain level prevents opening. What keeps amplitude low are all the familiar maladies: fear, hostility, self-importance, depression, self-doubt, cynicism, and frustration. Because of these, most people’s hearts are shut down most of the time, which feels bad in the chest and cuts off the main avenue of escape from pain and suffering — an open heart.

Gratitude counters these ploys by the parasitical false personality and raises the amplitude high enough to begin the heart-opening process.

~ Seeing ~

The second great shamanic tool in your toolbox is seeing. For a shaman, “to see” is to cut through the veils of ignorance, the false appearance of the world, in order to see clearly into the true nature of Spirit as it manifests through all of reality. In other traditions, it is known as forgiveness or compassion. Seeing is the post powerful method of releasing blame, guilt, and shame.

Seeing ends the war within us just as it resolves conflicts with externals and paves the way for our cooperation and extension. The false personality tries to convince you that forgiving or having compassion is a weakness, that you are setting yourself up to be taken advantage of again. It also tries to get you to believe that you and the others have no value and therefore deserve ill treatment or self-loathing. Seeing makes these terrible perceptions impossible. Seeing the truth provides relief from the terrible stress or guilt, and this results in shifting our energy in a way that allows us to open the heart and other portals to the world of spirit.

When shamans speak of “seeing,” they are actually talking about clearing away the projections and distorted thoughts of the conscious mind onto the world at large and all its forms.

Shamans and visionaries know that these projections are blinding and the source of endless misunderstandings and assumptions based on fear of the unknown.

Seeing means that we are perceiving the truth, and therefore there is no room for hostility, blame, fear, or set decrees. How does this take place? When we really see in the shamanic or visionary way, we know that we are Spirit and that we have simply become confused and are lost in appearances for awhile. The false personality is only a delusional construct created by the egoic self; in dealing with the world, it tends to create lies in which we and others take refuge.

Shamans say that when people learn to see they are able to access almost limitless power because they realize they are intimately connected to the vast web of life. For the shaman, seeing into the true nature of reality and the self is a great power; it is a required skill for self-realization and ultimately enlightenment.

~ Blessing ~

Now we come to the third great power tool in that shamanic toolbox that everyone has from birth — the ability to bless.

In general, people do not know their function as human beings, and it never occurs to them that their job is actually to bless the world. Many people have been taught to bless their food; they consider a blessing to be a few words mumbled over a meal that lacks heart and meaning. This is hardly what shamans mean by blessing.

Blessing is the act of recognizing that Spirit is coming through what we are witnessing or experiencing. It is recognizing and acknowledging the grand flow of Beingness that is present as what we eat or what we see as the landscape, through our bodies, through each moment of now and gives it indescribable vitality and life force. Yet the physical plane appears to most as a camouflage universe where Spirit does not appear to exist.

Shamanically speaking, many of us respond to the physical world by assuming a deep hypnosis, a deep sleep where we no longer recognize that Spirit is present. Not only do we go to sleep, but large parts of the world may temporarily go to sleep as well. So it is our job to wake up and to awaken all that is around us. This act of waking up could be called “blessing the world.”

Many of us have been taught to believe that only people who have gone to seminary or special training programs to become ministers, rabbis, priests, imams, or shamans have the right to bless. We invite the ordained individuals to come before us and bless ceremonies, fields, businesses, projects, meetings, and banquets, and we bow our heads while they talk to Spirit for us.

This is not a bad practice, but it is extraordinarily limiting. Many of those we invite to do the blessing for us are the most asleep of all, revealing that no one can do the work of blessing for us. Each human comes with that capacity, with that ability, and with the responsibility to bless.

So what happens when we bless, and how do we go about blessing in an effective way?

To bless means that you become conscious that you are alive and that Spirit is flowing through you. This realization allows you to see that Spirit is flowing all around and that what is coming through you is coming through everything and that it is all the same. When you see or feel this you merely say something like, “I am Spirit. Let us awake. Let us awake Spirit in everything I see.”

While saying this you can look around and bless with your hands and arms outstretched, waking everything up to the incredible power of Spirit that flows through everything with great passion and peace. In response, everything receives a boost, everything celebrates, everything is grateful, and everything forgives its slumber. There are few practices as powerful as this awakening. If you want to add a little something else to your blessing, you may bestow upon everything that you are experiencing or witnessing the gift of well-being from the bottom of your heart.

You might say, “I give you great happiness and love. May all who come here or pass this way be blessed with joy, abundance, and wellness.” What you give is what you get, so make sure you give the best you can imagine.

Blessing is incomprehensibly powerful and is perhaps the greatest tool of all because it is the pathway back to Spirit. Yet it is hard to bless if you have no gratitude and you have not seen the need to forgive. These three tools work together as a powerhouse trio. They are all important characteristics of the physical universe: Truth, Love, and Energy — or Yachay, Munay, and Llankay, the three Andean shamanic principles of living. Each tool works with all three components. Gratitude recognizes truth, transmits love, and enhances energy. Seeing tells the truth, radiates love, and release phenomenal energy.

Always remember that you have shamanic tools resting in your toolbox. They require deliberate use to become effective. These three tools, when used regularly, are all that is needed to become liberated and self-realized and to gain mastery over life. Why wait?

~ Exercise: For Blessing ~

First thing in the morning, go outside and practice blessing the sky, the Earth, the trees, or whatever elements are most visible. Then go on to bless your family, your colleagues, your students, your teachers, and all of their communities as well. Bless all their relations and on and on until everything and everyone has been included. Bless Spirit and don’t forget to bless yourself. Now experience how you feel. Do you feel more expansive, more powerful, more happy, more on the right path? This is the true shamanic way — and the way of the visionary.

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About the Authors

Hank Wesselman, Ph.D., is a paleoanthropologist and shamanic teacher who has worked with noted anthropologists investigating the mysteries of human origins in Africa. His books include “Visionseeker,” “Spiritwalker,” and “Journey to the Sacred Garden.” He lives in Hawaii. Visit his web site at http://sharedwisdom.com.

Sandra Ingerman, MA, is an author, teacher and shamanic researcher with a worldwide following. Sandra teaches workshops on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. She has trained and founded an international alliance of Medicine for the Earth Teachers and shamanic teachers. Sandra is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist and a professional Mental Health Counselor. She is also a board-certified expert on traumatic stress, and she is certified in acute traumatic stress management. Sandra Ingerman is the author of eight books and four spoken-word CD sets.

Sandra produces a free monthly newsletter, “Transmutation News,” which has information on spiritual practices that can be incorporated into your daily life to increase your own health and vitality as well as impact the health of our planet. We invite you to subscribe to the “Transmutation News” and to participate in our monthly Full Moon Meditation. You can find past issues and a subscribe button at

http://www.sandraingerman.com/transmutationnews.html

To find a local shamanic teacher or shamanic practitioner in your area, please visit http://www.shamanicteachers.com.

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About the Book

AWAKENING TO THE SPIRIT WORLD:
The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation
by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman
Published by Sounds True
(ISBN 978-1591797500, 360 pages, paperback and CD, $19.95)
Available through bookstores or directly from the author:
http://www.sandraingerman.com/booksaudiovideo.html

Today, practicing shamanism doesn’t mean you have to live in a rain forest or a desert. Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth.

With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives, including:

• How the original practice of shamanism shaped the world’s spiritual traditions and why it is still relevant today

• The art of the shamanic journey — a time-tested meditative method for experiencing important spiritual lessons and truths

• Guidance for avoiding common pitfalls of shamanic practice

• Instruction for working with your dreams, connecting to your spirit guides, healing yourself and your environment

• A CD of drumming to facilitate your shamanic journeys

Praise for Awakening to the Spirit World:

“The book is highly recommended, especially to newcomers, for its breadth of coverage of modern shamanism and the clarity of its practical usefulness.” — Richard D. Wright, Tranquil Things

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About the CD Set

SHAMANIC MEDITATIONS:
Guided Journeys for Insight, Vision, and Healing
by Sandra Ingerman
Published by Sounds True
(ISBN 978-1591797579, 2 CD Set, 135 minutes, $19.95)
Available through bookstores or directly from the author:
http://www.sandraingerman.com/booksaudiovideo.html

The first meditators in history were the shamans, whose practices for contemplation and connecting with the divine are echoed in virtually every spiritual tradition today. On Shamanic Meditations, Sandra Ingerman invites you to return to the source of human spirituality — and experience for yourself the enduring power of these ancient practices for healing, guidance, and awakening.

With seven guided meditations — called “journeys” in the shamanic tradition — from a renowned author and teacher, this two-hour program features an overview of shamanic principles, guided practices for finding your “spirit teachers” and “power animals,” the shamanic initiation into oneness, and more.

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Excerpted from the book Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation. Copyright (c) 2010 by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Sounds True. Please feel free to duplicate or distribute this file as long as the contents are not changed and this copyright notice is intact. Thank you.

Shamanism and the Art of Book Promotion

One of the things I learned playing piano in a bar: if you want to be heard above the noise, play softer.

I have been helping Sandra Ingerman promote her books for many years. I had the pleasure of interviewing her for an AuthorViews video years ago, and since then I have done online PR campaigns for six of her projects.

It struck me while doing Sandra’s most recent campaign that there is a controversy raging online about the proper way to promote new books. The Long Tail author and Wired magazine editor, Chris Anderson, added fire to the controversy by berating PR people for unsolicited pitches. He added irony when his own publisher used the same techniques to market Anderson’s books.

While these people noisily debate the merits of online PR, Sandra Ingerman’s team has quietly gone about providing a textbook example of how to be heard by playing softer. We sent a five-paragraph pitch to several hundred journalists who cover the same subjects as this blog. More than 50 journalists asked to see Awakening to the Spirit World — a stunning response. One complained and received an apology. Easy and civil.

Tatyana Meshcheryakova at SixEstate Communications then hand-pitched 60 bloggers, asking them to announce the book and offering an excerpt. Thirty of them asked to see the book. Rosemary Herbert and Lisa Trudeau at Weiser Books and Shelly Rosen at Sounds True provided review copies, press kits, and support. Shelly Rosen at Sounds True and Karen Furr at SpiritDrum also helped with Facebook, Twitter, and Sandra’s other sites. Sounds True purchased Google Adwords to reinforce the campaign.

While all this pitching was going on, Pat Hartman, myself, and the research/editing team at SixEstate were covering the news for Sandra Ingerman on this blog. She charged us to report on what others were doing, including her co-author, Hank Wesselman, contributing authors, and even “competing” authors. She asked us to locate and highlight examples of people putting into practice the principles in her books. We have steadily grown to 500 unique readers per week. Your news editor, Pat Hartman, has been nothing short of incredible leading this blog.

We have come to the end of this experiment in right marketing. Tomorrow we will suspend this newsblog and finish out with an excerpt from Awakening to the Spirit World that we hope you will enjoy. We would like to thank all those who have taken time to review the books, announce them on their blogs, or post excerpts. Below is the list so far — still growing. Please use the comments to add any links we missed.

With Thanks for Your Support,
STEVE O’KEEFE
News Director
Sandra Ingerman’s Blog

Thank You to These Sites:
New Age Retailer (Thrive review)
The BodyZone (Thrive review and excerpt)
Lifencompass (Thrive excerpt; Awakening review)
The Messenger (Thrive review)
Spirit Weavers (Thrive excerpt)
Self-Healing Expressions (Announcements and Link, Thrive and Awakening)
Enchanting the Day (Thrive excerpt)
Mind-Body-Spirit Works (Thrive review)
Evolving Beings (Thrive review)
Poet Kitty’s Shaman/Enlightenment Blog (Awakening & Meditations reviews)
BookWeaver (Awakening announcement)
Chet Day: Health & Beyond (Awakening excerpt)
Spirituality & Practice (Awakening review)
Shamanism Canada (Awakening announcement & link)

Source: “Sorry, PR people: you’re blocked,” The Long Tail/Wired, 10/29/07
Image by warrenski, used under its Creative Commons license.

More on Shamans of the World

Shamanism is unlike many other topics, in that you get your best information about it from blogs. Although shamanistic practice reaches out to all of Creation, it is also subjective and deeply personal. Scientific minds insist that almost all the “evidence” for the invisible world is “anecdotal.” In their view, nothing matters except lab results, and anything that an actual person says is not valid. What they need to understand is, shamanism is just another word for science they haven’t discovered yet. To the shaman the planet is the laboratory, and all the experiments share one clear intention: the preservation and healing of that planet and her creatures.

Shamanism is on the upswing in Korea and Mongolia, and among the Hmong people of Southeast Asia and China. One variety you don’t hear much about is the Jewish shaman. Aaron Askanase is an acupuncturist living in Israel, who studies Judaism and Jewish mysticism. He discusses the seeming conflict of interest, and concludes that there is none, really. He says,

Shaman has come to denote a type of person, not a set of beliefs… The only common belief among all shamans is that there is a physical world and there is a spirit world.

“Why Shaman? A definition and clarification” is such a well-knit, lucid piece of writing, that to summarize it would be almost disrespectful. It is highly recommended.

Short and Sweet

** One of those subjective, anecdotal accounts is “The Osprey, the Condor, and the Shaman” by Michael Watson on his Dreaming the Word blog.

** Sandra brings back Bhola Nath Banstola, the Nepalese shaman whose workshop she has hosted before. He also is a Doctor of Naturopathy and holds an MA in cultural anthropology. Bhola Banstola will be visiting again in June for an experiential, non-residential, two-day workshop. All the details are given in May’s Transmutation News newsletter.

** Have you seen a movie called The Secret Society? In Britain, a plump housewife named Daisy is drawn into an underground affinity group of heavy women who study sumo wrestling and use their weight as a means to empowerment and self-esteem. They wear traditional Japanese outfits and go out in nature for rituals. Daisy is, as the title implies, is sworn to secrecy, and her poor husband is baffled. Although this is basically a silly movie, the training, combat, and ceremonies are presented with dignity.

** Christopher Allan comments on the 2010 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art for The Australian:

Many of the artists involved have gone well past vague ideas of the spiritual and have launched out into the territory of magic, alchemy and shamanism. Mikala Dwyer, for example, apparently consulted a clairvoyant before making her piece…

** We will close with a poignant quote from Gary Moostoos, a spiritual and cultural advisor at the Boyle Street Community Services in Edmonton, Canada, who helps heal the impoverished community of the local indigenous people by smudging, and through healing circles and sweat-lodge ceremonies:

I will walk with you, but I can’t walk for you.

Source: “Why Shaman?,” Jewish Shaman, 02/25/10
Source: “The Osprey, the Condor, and the Shaman,” Dreaming the Word, 04/18/10
Source: “Transmutation News May 2010,” SandraIngerman.com, 05/2010
Source: “Heaven and Earth,” The Australian, 04/20/10
Source: “Spiritual advisor brings hope to the lost,” Edmonton Journal, 04/13/10
Image by alicepopkorn, used under its Creative Commons license.

Sacred Dance: Egypt, Alaska, St. Louis

Christian Science Monitor correspondent Laura Kasinof reports from Cairo, Egypt, that the art of zar has been reduced to only about 25 performers and one public venue, because the hardcore Islamists don’t like it. It’s perceived by them as a form of communion with evil spirits, but this is not so, as Kasinof tells us:

Zar, a song and dance ritual that historically has been used as a healing rite, is the only musical tradition from Egypt in which women hold the most important roles.

Participating in this form of dance is a stress-relieving act for women living in a conservative, oppressive society. Sadly, they are being pressured into abandoning it for more socially acceptable channels, like prescription pharmaceuticals.

On the bright side, in a village in Alaska, the ban on native dancing has been lifted, says Associated Press journalist Rachel D’Oro in her article for the Native American Times. Indigenous-style dance, although a religious rite to the native people, was considered evil by missionaries in the past, and was forbidden. The article contains a great thought from a pastor named Aurora Sampson:

… [W]e’re going to come to a place in the afterlife where we sing and dance to the Lord. While we are on this earth we might as well practice.

At 17, Alicia Graf moved to New York City by herself and became, as she puts it, “kind of an internationally acclaimed dancer.” After three great years, reactive arthritis in a knee and then an ankle had prevented her from dancing. She didn’t resort to any of the desperate things that people do when their dreams are shattered. Instead, she enrolled in college as a history major, gave her body a rest, had surgery, and eventually came back to join the Alvin Ailey troupe. Graf was a star again, but it didn’t last. When the medical problems returned, she had accepted a marriage proposal and became a dance teacher, who now inspires and motivates a new generation.

Graf came from the interestingly conceptualized planned community called Columbia, in Maryland, a home to about 95,000. Very many people chipped in to help with her early career. For instance, when a competition required six different costumes at a minimum of $1,000 each, they had raised the funds, we are told by Cathleen McGuigan on Smithsonian.com. “Giving back” is a very high priority for Graf, but she’s become a mentor from more than just a sense of obligation. Everything she does is for God. She is also involved in “praise dancing,” a kind of worship that accompanies gospel music. Graf says,

It sounds so cliché but dancing is life to me. It’s my way of praying, and it’s my way of talking to God… It’s my whole relationship to the spiritual world.

Tonight, don’t forget to salute the full moon, and maybe have a look at the blog post titled “Moon Diving; Returning to Self Under the Full Moon” by Sam Crespi on her blog, Women Who Dare, where these words appear:

I give thanks daily to all of those I meet along the way. Those who compel me to dive deeper into forgiveness and compassion and who rejoice with me as we look up and see the full moon has once again appeared.

Source: “Egyptian music: ‘Zar’ tradition…,” Christian Science Monitor, 03/26/10
Source: “Native dancing ban lifted in Alaska village,” Native American Times, 02/22/10
Source: “COCA Welcomes Alicia Graf,” YouTube
Source: “Moon Diving; Returning to Self Under the Full Moon,” WomenDare, 04/01/10
Source: “Show Stopper,” Smithsonian.com, 10/07
Image by Haags Uitburo, used under its Creative Commons license.