Day 64 The Four Enemies of a Shaman Part Two: Clarity

2. Clarity:

 How many times have you heard someone say, “O yes I know that!” This very attitude keeps that person from ever learning anything new, from ever getting a new perspective or changing an idea or an old worn out belief. I have had people tell me that I needed a microwave to make tea! Do you see how we put ourselves into a terrible prison by thinking we are clear on something? The truth is we have not yet perceived much more than 10 % of all that is. How can we ever say we have clarity on anything? And isn’t the fun of this life experience in the exploration itself? Assuming we have clarity cuts off our very creativity, our ingenuity, our problem solving skills or innovative ideas. It also makes us burdens on those around us as we try to force others to see things only as we see them. It violates the free will choice of others to impose our supposed clarity on others. So to battle this enemy we need to have an attitude of humility, “Ok I don’t know everything. In fact, I don’t really know much about anything”. We need to have the intent to honor, to honor the Self and to honor others and not put ourselves higher or grander or more important than anything else, even a rock.

So we overcome clarity with an attitude of humility and an intent to honor Self and others.

Aho ( I speak my truth)

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 63 The Four Enemies of a Shaman Part one: Fear

1. Fear:

Fear is what we might feel when we approach the unknown. It is said that if you feel fear then do your best to gain all the information you can about the thing that frightens you. But since we have so far perceived so very little of this universe, both manifest and non manifest, there are going to be things that are unknown to us. Fear is not something we can entirely banish from our lives unless we go live in a prison cell and sit there doing nothing, not gaining any new experiences or perceptions at all. But that would not be the life of a shaman warrior.

Whenever we face the unknown we find our own identities, our own concepts and beliefs and reality being confronted. For some people, this is an attack on what they are comfortable with, the rut they live in, the suffering they have grown accustomed to and they do not want to be confronted with anything that is unknown. For the shaman warrior, there is no way to gain a new perception without confronting the unknown! So we go in even though we feel this fear. We work through this fear, we go in spite of fear and we walk into the unknown with a spirit of humility. We take authority for what we do know, we take responsibility for the fact that we do not know very much at all and we step into the unknown like the Star Trek Enterprise speeding off to new galaxies, to go where no man has gone before! LOL!

 Our new dimension is this now moment. This moment is the only one we are responsible for. The only one we have any control over, the only one that matters. This now moment is a chance to gain a new perception, to widen our view, to see new heights, to add a beam to our boat, to create.

To vanquish Fear: Take responsibility for your harmony. Align yourself in balance with everything around you. Be at peace with what is in this very moment now. Are you OK now in this moment right here? And in this moment? And in this moment now? And now? And then have an attitude of humility; you do not know everything and you never will know everything so let the world be a mystery and enjoy exploring it and gaining new perceptions 100 times each day as a child would explore his back yard or as Captain Kirk would explore a new galaxy.

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 62 Giving Back

Giving back has to be part of the Shaman path. My Shaman Grandmother was the biggest giver in the whole world! She gave to everyone in her house, everyone in her family, everyone in her community and every charity that ever asked her for a dollar. We can take a lesson from her generosity and realize that being the giver of that overflow of Creator’s love and light that just fills your bubble of protection to overflowing is just one opportunity  you have to give to others. What about the fact that in 1908 in the middle of a country  wide political genocide, my grandmother’s parents sold their last cows and chickens, their last piece of food to get the money to buy their daughter a ticket on the immigrant ship to America to save her life in the only way that they could? Is that the heart of giving? They gave their lives so she could live and so that we could learn these ancient teachings today. We have a responsibility to give in equal return to those who give to us. When you give me $200 I have a responsibility to give you back $200 even if I can only do that through my teaching or my counseling or my healing work or my prayers. But the shaman pays back what she is given. There is always an equal value exchange with a true shaman and it includes generosity and blessings.

If anyone looks at my life they would see that I give everything I have away to people that I hope do benefit from it. I give my time, my effort, my education, my expertise, my clothes, my food, my bedroom, my blankets and pillows, my toilet to all who can benefit from it. There is no way to separate giving from the path of Traditional Shamanism. So this practice of giving needs to be plainly taught in the 101 course.  

Just the spiritual side of this issue, its not about the money, its about the people. Its always about the people. 

What do you think of this idea? Let me know at shaman@shamanelder.com

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 61 What causes my suffering

It is those non benefitting beliefs, those untrue beliefs that we were given by outside sources that make us struggle and suffer . The fact that they are not true makes it impossible to live under those beliefs comfortably or easily. Its like trying to get your foot into a size 4 shoe because someone told you had to! By choosing to believe that there is some fate, some kind of destiny you cannot control, your whole life has turned upside down and you are powerless at this point. However, at this point in your life, you are all grown up now. What other people have told you to believe, for the most part, were neither correct or completely true or beneficial to you at all. So now, as an adult, its time to review what you were told to believe and determine for yourself which of those childhood beliefs still benefit you today and which ones are hogwash and you wish to replace. Then choose beliefs that do benefit your life today. I can help you do this if you like. When you have beliefs that do benefit your life today you will find that you no longer suffer or struggle at all and your life becomes a beautiful thing indeed! Just like Mine!

Make sense? Send me an email at shaman@shamanelder.com and tell me you are reading my 100 day blog.

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 60 Boundaries

Boundaries tell you what you will and will not do. What you are willing to partake in and what you are not willing to partake in for yourself. They are not leashes you can put on other people and make them do things or not do things, at all. They are to protect you and keep you safe. One of my boundaries is that I will not go down a dark alley at night! That boundary I have created for myself is to keep me safe and I don't care who tells me its ok to walk down that dark alley I will not go there because I have already set up this boundary that I refuse to cross.

I have a boundary that I will not let just anyone come and move into my house with me. This is a boundary for me. It keeps me safe and out of trouble. I set this boundary up now ahead of time and so if someone calls me up and says, Hey Shaman Maggie I need to come live with you and get my head on straight, I say no. I have this boundary and I will not go beyond it. I have another boundary that says I will not let someone disrespect me. I set it up beforehand that if someone is being rude or abusive to me I will leave that environment, I will walk way. And that is what I do. It keeps me safe and protected. Boundaries are things we set up for our own selves that delineate what we will and will not do. Then, when that situation comes up that tries to push us beyond our boundaries, we will not go there.

Boundaries are not meant to control other people. You cannot control what other people do or say or think. They have free will and we should respect their free will choice no matter what. ( if we violate the free will of others , we will have our own free will violated too. What goes around comes around)But we have to respect our own free will too and setting up these boundaries that create a safety net for us to stay within is a good thing to do.

So send me a list of your boundaries to shaman@shamanelder.com. We should know what our boundaries are and be very aware of them at all times. By making me a list, you will become area of what boundaries you choose to create for yourself and that is a very good thing to do!

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 59 The Inevitable Storms of Life

When its the middle of the night , and the wind is screaming through the rigging at 45 knots, and the boat is heeled 30 degrees, and the seas are running high against you, and water is breaking on deck, and you are all alone... and there is white water and black death on the lee shore... and everything is confusion, and noise, and icy fear that approaches absolute terror... and you feel that the possibility of death is no longer remote, but very real...., and very near....

Then, you had best to know what you are doing,

Hope, will not take you off that boat.

For more information www.shamanelder.com

To read more teachings from Shaman Maggie’s own lineage visit www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 58 Choosing to be a Victim

All people have free will choice. It is the greatest gift we are given in this life experience. We are accountable for our choices. No one is a victim here. We create our own victimhood by how we react to the things that happen around us and also by the choices we make for ourselves.

A person might decide that they choose to have blackberries. That is what they want to eat. But they don't think about the fact that they then have to go out and find a field of blackberries and crawl through the thorny bushes and pick them and wash them in order to have them. People only see the end result and forget about all the in between parts. So this person who wants blackberries does do the work to go out and find a blackberry patch. That was hard work. Then he sees that the bushes have thorns. Well he wants the blackberries so he starts to pick them and every time he gets a few he gets pricked again. At this point most people give up. It was too hard or too uncomfortable to get what he wanted. And he knows there was still more work. He changed his mind here and chose not to have blackberries because it is too much work.

So he goes home all frustrated and angry. He is angry at the blackberries for being so hard to find and pick. But did the blackberries do anything to anger him? No. They were just being their happy natural selves. He is angry that he got pricked by the thorns. Did anyone force him to get pricked? No he did that himself. He is angry at the thorns. But they were just being themselves, carrying on with their natural state of being. He is angry that he wasted gas in his car to go find the blackberry patch. But did the car make him go there? No, he chose to do this. He is angry that he wasted his time. But it was his choice to want this. So at first he had this marvelous picture of a pile of fresh blackberries to eat and in the end he was injured and angry and had spent time and gas for nothing.

Is this what you are feeling?

It is really good to see all the steps you will have to take to accomplish the choice you are choosing before you ever set out to accomplish it. When we choose something we are choosing all those steps too.  But if you really want something, if you have passion about what you want, you are willing to accept the steps necessary to achieve it. So this man did not have that kind of passion. He obviously didn't want the blackberries that much! Tell me more about what it was you were choosing and how it did not work out for you at shaman@shamanelder.com.

Or sign up today for my email course at www.shamanelder.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 57 Betrayal

In every person’s life as a child, there comes  a day when we discover that our parents lied to us. It is usually not a very big lie, but these parents who we trusted completely and believed every single thing they said and did and we even attempted to imitate them thinking that they knew what they were doing and were experts on how to live life in the best possible way, we catch them in a lie. It might be simply that there is no Santa Claus, it might be that we see them doing some act of selfishness at our expense. It might be one of those do as I say not as I do events. It might be overhearing our parents talking trash about us in the heat of an argument saying things they don’t really mean. But in every child’s life there comes a moment when that child realizes that her parents have lied to her. And this feels like the ultimate betrayal. It is usually the first time we are betrayed by anyone we truly loved. 

So it depends on how that child handles that betrayal that can color their whole life experience. Most of us suddenly realize that our parents are not gods. We may realize that our parents are struggling and suffering and not having a very good time here after all. We may realize that our parents do not know everything after all and so we change how we see them and they become human beings instead of gods and we learn to rely on our own selves from that point on. This is that moment in a young teen’s life when she stops confiding in her parents, when she starts making her own decisions, when she would rather choose for herself than rely on her now human parents to make choices for her anymore. This is normal and healthy. 

But there are some kids who are so traumatized by the idea that their parents would actually lie to them,  that they never got over it. They feel such a sense of betrayal that they cannot forgive their parents for being human. It becomes blown out of proportion in the child’s mind and there is no one around to seek counseling from, to explain this betrayal is just a human being- being human. 

And, instead of going through what most of us go through and learning at this time of childhood that it is better to make our own way than to rely on other humans to do it for us, this person has not recovered from this natural point in every child’s life when they catch the ones they trust doing untrustworthy things. She did not reach that decision to create her own life the best she could and instead just rejected her parents as defective and she is still thinking that there are gods in the world who can run her life for her and not betray her. So time and time again she trusts in someone and makes them the parent god for her life and tine and time again they betray her. It is a broken record. 

What she needs to do is take responsibility for her own life, just like that teenage girl who decided it is better to make her own decisions for her own life, no matter how bad or mistaken they may be, rather than to let any other human being run her life for her. We learn by experience how to make better and better choices as we go along. But this person has not even picked up the baton and tried to make her own choices. She has spent her life looking for someone else to make her choices for her. I would encourage her to stand in her power now and begin to create her own life for herself rather than looking for another parent figure god. There are no gods in this world. There is no one else here who would know how to live her life in the best way. Only she can determine that and create that for herself.

For FREE counseling just visit www.shamanelder.com

Day 56 Choosing Your Beliefs

You are accountable ultimately for your beliefs so it is important to know what you believe and why. And if you have some belief that doesn't work for you, that may have been given to you by someone else, especially childhood beliefs, this course is a good time to get rid of what doesn't work and get something that makes you feel whole, that is yours, that you do really believe in. This is the process of becoming an authentic person. This is what I offer you in this course at www.shamanelder.com.  A Shaman is authentic with him or herself first and foremost. In 50 years of examining my belief system, believe me, I know where my human frailties lie, I know my strengths and weaknesses, I know which beliefs are authentic to me and which ones are still held over from other people's belief systems that I still have to come to grips with. It is a process. And I accept myself as fully human, fully alive. I love life! I love being human! I have found the joy and happiness, the peace by creating a more authentic life for myself by examining my belief system and making it my own!

But with each belief you examine, whether you choose to keep it or replace it with something that does work for you, you will feel this coming home to yourself, this growing in your own self, this sense of freedom to be who you really are.

Its up to you!

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

To learn more visit www.shamanelder.com

To read Shaman Maggie’s new book visit www.shamanspeaks.com

Special Post for Japan Victims - A Prayer

A Prayer for Japan

By Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls

Creator, Father, Mother, Source, Grandmother, Grandfather, Elders and ancestors of the ancient land of Japan, Mother Earth and all her children;

We lift up the people and all sentient beings of Japan to your loving arms.

You know what is needed in this place; You know what is in each heart and soul there.

We ask you to do your will and shower yourself down to bring your peace and calm to those minds and hearts;

To bring solace to so many who have lost a loved one.

To all those that have been destroyed,

To all the people who have lost everything they own and will not be able ever to go home again,

Bring your light and love to your people, Father.

Bring solutions to those in power;

Bring food and water to those in need;

Bring your healing in every way to our brothers and sisters in that ancient land.

We lift them up to you and know that You will do everything for them.

Inspire us to do our part—

To donate what we can and to hold them in our hearts.

Father, we leave these brothers and sisters in your capable hands

And ask your blessings on all of them and on ourselves and our families, too.  AMEN.

Day 56 Choosing Your Beliefs

You are accountable ultimately for your beliefs so it is important to know what you believe and why. And if you have some belief that doesn't work for you, that may have been given to you by someone else, especially childhood beliefs, this course is a good time to get rid of what doesn't work and get something that makes you feel whole, that is yours, that you do really believe in. This is the process of becoming an authentic person. This is what I offer you in this course at www.shamanelder.com.  A Shaman is authentic with him or herself first and foremost. In 50 years of examining my belief system, believe me, I know where my human frailties lie, I know my strengths and weaknesses, I know which beliefs are authentic to me and which ones are still held over from other people's belief systems that I still have to come to grips with. It is a process. And I accept myself as fully human, fully alive. I love life! I love being human! I have found the joy and happiness, the peace by creating a more authentic life for myself by examining my belief system and making it my own!

But with each belief you examine, whether you choose to keep it or replace it with something that does work for you, you will feel this coming home to yourself, this growing in your own self, this sense of freedom to be who you really are.

Its up to you!

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

To learn more visit www.shamanelder.com

To read Shaman Maggie’s new book visit www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 55 Sleuthing Out Your Beliefs

It is those beliefs that we are not consciously aware of that create suffering in our lives. We do things because we believe things and we are not even aware that we are believing those things. So those are the beliefs I want you to become aware of so that you can choose whether you wish to have them in your life or not. They are mostly the ones we believe unconsciously, we were trained to believe, we live them without really paying any attention to them. And the way to find them is to observe your thoughts words and actions and ask yourself repeatedly, now why did I choose to do that? Why did I choose to say that? Why did I choose to think that? Find that underlying belief that made you make that choice and write it down and share it with me.  We can work to find good benefitting beliefs for you for FREE. shaman@shamanelder.com

Or visit www.shamanelder.com

Aho ( Yaqui language for “ I speak my truth”)

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 54 Dealing with Beliefs Given to us in Fear

When I was in first grade my first experience in school, We didn’t even have to go to any kindergarten or preschool then, my teacher was a nun dressed in black and white  habit who stood 6 foot 11 and wore size 16 men’s basketball sneakers, the only shoes that would fit her. Imagine this teeny little 6 year old girl sitting in an oversized desk looking at those gigantic shoes that could just stomp her out. I would look up to the top of the world and see that mean face wrapped in that nun outfit glaring down at me. I would feel the sting of her ruler on my back if I didn’t’ sit up straight enough. Yes I was definitely afraid of her.

When children are afraid of the parental authority like I was of this nun, and she tells me that girls are dumber than boys, I don’t need any facts or logic to believe what she is telling me. I believe simply because she said so! And I will believe it with all my heart and soul rather than have her come down on me and hit me or stomp on me. Anything she told me- I took for the whole truth.

As we grow up, even though that adult is no longer present in our lives. The feelings of fear that pushed non benefitting beliefs into our minds and souls is still there. Those beliefs are held in our psyche by a lock of fear. We still subconsciously fear the authority that taught us that belief. So even into my adulthood I still believed that men were smarter than women. There is certainly no data to back that up. No proof of that, in fact just about everybody would tell you it is not true, but because that belief was given to me as a result of a fear based authority figure telling me what to believe, I am going to believe that belief and not be able to change that belief. I will even make up my own reasons why that belief is true and I might even refuse to hear any one try to tell me it is not true. I clutch that belief because I am afraid to let go of it because I still have a child’s fear of that nun inside me, what might happen if I let go of her belief, how will I be punished, what terrible thing will happen to me if I doubt that belief. I subconsciously feel safe by continuing to believe this non benefitting belief. To change it would make me feel unsafe as though I was violating something and would get hurt. It is this feeling of safety I get from believing this belief that makes me keep it no matter how disabling it might be to me.

So with beliefs like these we have to see WHO taught us these non benefitting beliefs and are we still afraid of those authority figures? Do they still hold power over us? Until we can face the authority who taught us these non benefitting belief, face to face, adult to adult, until we can remove the fear that they had over us consciously, we cannot remove these beliefs.  We must realize that it is no longer dangerous to disagree with that authority figure who told us to believe in these beliefs and we can now update our beliefs based on the current reality of things in our lives today. I think we all have been given beliefs like these. I think it is worth it to find them and deal with them. What do you think?

Email me at shaman@shamanelder.com and we can work through such a  non-benefitting beliefs of yours for free! Or visit http://www.shamanelder.com/

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 53 Create your own Reality

Aho! I am using an analogy this morning to explain this teaching to you. We are walking through a forest. We created this forest with our beliefs. It is unique to us and not like anyone else's forest. No one else can walk in our own forest, only us.  Everything that is beautiful here we created with our beliefs and perceptions and past experiences. And everything dark and scary here we also created with our beliefs, perceptions and traumas and experiences.

With each step we take we can perceive something new. We can become the observer and see the glistening of the leaf or hear the whippoorwill if we can just observe. WE can see things that we could not see yesterday because we are doing the work to open our selves up to perceiving new things, the point of lesson one. There are said to be 1.5 billion possible perceptions in a life time and the normal human perceives only 1,500 ways. So awareness and letting things show YOU what they are, learning to use your inner senses so that you can perceive more, is all part of sensing this forest and knowing where it is you are walking!

Up ahead off in the distance is a meadow, also of your own creation. You know you want to get to that meadow. You know it exists but you have not been there yet. This path will lead you there. You cannot just teleport yourself there, you cannot wait sitting down on your path for some eagle to pick you up and fly you there. You have to walk step by step along your path.

If you just sit down there, you will get no where and will be stuck in the same place looking at the same old things forever. No changes, just the same old problems and circumstances. But if you walk you take a journey and see new things and have new experiences and create new things with each thought. If you run into a tree you can step back, rub your booboo and see the Light coming from the meadow off in the distance. Let that Light remind you  what your goal is and dust yourself off and keep walking. You created this forest and you can make it even more beautiful by thinking positive thoughts and feeling gratitude and loving all the things in the forest you created. You can choose more benefiting beliefs and walk with those to create even more beautiful trees and let your life experience be more full and beautiful as you walk by choosing these new beliefs. You can eliminate the dark shadows by letting go of old memories you no longer need, old worries, old non benefiting beliefs. Trimming the trees as you go to let more sunshine in!

This is a path and the only way to walk it is to experience it. It is not a mental game. It is a 4 body experience. I want to help you walk your forest in joy and peace and light and to really have this full experience because we only get to walk through this forest one time. I want to help you find your way to the meadow beyond.

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Take the email course on Traditional Shamanism with Shaman Maggie. Start Today,  www.shamanelder.com

Day 52 Bad Karma is a Cause of Disease

The most dangerous being in all the world is the human being. It is the only being that will deliberately violate your free will choice. So this is the being we need to protect ourselves from. All the other beings can do nothing without your permission or willingness. They are nothing compared to the human being who will violate you and rip your life apart and hurt you or imprison you or kill you.  These are the beings we must learn to deal with yes. Some ways my family taught me to deal with people is to respect that they too have free will choice. There is no reason for me to violate the free will choice of any created thing. I learned to respect the free will of people and of trees and of mountains and of spoons. I will not violate their free will as they too are sentient beings having a life experience here just as I am. But I also respect my own free will and I take responsibility for what I create on this planet too. WE get into trouble when we start trying to push our views, our beliefs onto other beings. When we forget that the spoon is sentient and just throw it in the sink as though it is nothing, that creates bad karma for us. And that karma amasses until nothing is going right for us at all. I was taught at age three how to respect my toys so that I did not create negative karma. I have spent my whole life respecting the free will of everything around me and perhaps it is because I have not created the decades of bad karma by ignoring the free will of everything that I have such joy and peace and abundance in my life. If I can give you one gift from this course , this would be it.

There is an old lama from Tibet. His name is Tsongkhapa. He lived about 1200 AD and is still very famous for his words of wisdom today. And he said, “if the maturation of a karma is in progress, it cannot be altered, even by Buddha. There are many different causes of insanity: intense fear, a chemical imbalance, an imbalance in the body’s elements, deep sorrow, intense greed, and so on. Some become mentally ill simply because of the natural progression of their karma. In this latter case, no ordinary treatment can help. If mental or physical illness is brought about from the maturation of a karma, then the best treatment is the collection of merit and the purification of negativities”.

My Shaman Grandmother knew about the devastating effects of accumulating negative karma in this lifetime. And so she taught me when I was a wee little kid with no more understanding about life than how to play with dollies that I needed to respect  the free will of every sentient being, every creation and offer random acts of kindness anonymously to create good karma in my life.

To read more of what my Shaman grandmother taught to me just go to www.shamanspeaks.com

To take my online email course just go to www.shamanelder.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 51 A Practice to Remove Anxiety

Sit quietly where you will not be disturbed for five minutes. Breath in and raise your arms so that your hands are in front of your chest palms pointed downward fingers almost touching. Put your tongue against your bottom teeth and exhale while toning the sound keeeee as in "key" like a car key or house key. Tone keee as you exhale and push your hands down to the level of your abdomen. As you inhale circle your arms out and around back together at chest level and repeat the toning and exhale. You will probably notice a vibration in your chest as you do this. That is good! Do this 18 times and then shake out your hands well and resume your daily activities. I would say morning and night would be good times to do this exercise. Let me know what improvements you find as you go!

Aho ( Yaqui language means “ I speak MY truth”)

Shaman Elder Maggie

Learn more about Traditional Shamanism by taking this online course www.shamanelder.com

Read more teachings like this one at www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 50 My After Death Experience

I was pronounced dead on a Sunday night in a little country hospital that could not do what was needed to save me. When I died  I was suddenly aware of everything that I had done in this world. Every person I had interacted with, what I said, what they said to me and more importantly the reason why things were the way they were. I saw the reason for my mother being angry at me when I was six and didn't understand her. I saw the reason why I had become what I had become and why things had happened to me that at the time made no sense at all. It was not heaven or hell. It was instant knowing. It was the big AAAHHH! Now I understand! I also saw all those people whom I had hurt by my own misunderstanding or impatience. Not as a judgment upon me but just to show me where I went wrong and why.

I teach this now to hospice patients. And I teach them that if they have an issue that is not settled, that they should put it to rest. So many things happen to us that we do not really understand at the time. it is better to let go of those things. You will understand them someday.

I think this is a good thing to know. That when people pass on they become enlightened as to the events of their life and their affect on your life. It is a good thing for those who have led good lives. It is yucky for those who have led bad lives.

And you can live your life knowing that someday you will see exactly what went on and you will be responsible for everything you say to others and feel good about all the times you helped someone or brightened someone's day or made a difference or did your best.  What do you think? Leave a comment!

Learn more about traditional shamanism and Shaman Elder Maggie here www.shamanelder.com

Read more teachings like this one in her new book The Shaman Speaks www.shamanspeaks.com only $13.95, free shipping.

Aho means I speak my truth
Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 49 Healed But Not Well

We create a defense system around us to block out or control the pain and struggle, the negative stuff, the disability, the demon possessing us whatever the issue is. But when we are healed through Shamanic means we still have that shield around us that prevents anything from changing in our mental emotional and physical bodies. That defense system, that "don't anything change" motion detector alarm system is still in place because you created it and intended it yourself. Until you can begin to turn off the motion alarm and allow the motion of the healing to be recognized, to be felt as a good motion, your alarm system will remain on because you trained yourself for years how to have this alarm system, this defense mechanism, and how to have it on all the time. How is the healing supposed to get through to where you can be aware of it when you have trained yourself into such a defensive posture?

It’s the guy who breaks his leg and gets a cast and has to limp to work every day for 6 weeks and when he gets the cast off he still limps to work every day for the rest of his life. Does he have to? No. Why does he? Because he has trained himself to limp. It is his free will choice. Can he decide not to limp anymore? Yes, will it take some conscious effort to remember not to limp for a while? Yes.

Aho

 Shaman Elder Maggie

Learn more about Traditional Shamanism by taking this online course www.shamanelder.com

Read more teachings like this one at www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 48 Skills of a Traditional Shaman

There are many skills a Traditional Shaman has. Some Shamans specialize in specific areas. I will list some of the areas or specialties here. They are like arms or leaves on a tree or better like different roots on one tree. You can work on each of them to develop them. And for each root that is strong and healthy, the tree is stronger and healthier too.

The skill of blessing

The skill of energizing power centers (natural vortices)

The skill of shifting to another level of awareness

The skill of channeling

The skill of storytelling

The skill of healing with dual focus (soul extraction)

The skill of empowerment

The skill of balancing/intergrating the body

The skill of tuning into past, present and future

The skill of energizing and healing energy fields

The skill of manifesting events and circumstances

The skill of shapeshifting

The skill of interpreting dreams

The skill of creative dreaming

The skill of shaman journeying

The skill of increasing personal energy

The skill of contemplative manifesting

The skill of focused movement

The skill of healing with symbols and omens.

The skill of ritual and ceremony

The skill of geomancy

The skill of time travel

The skill of magical flight

The skill of working with group energy.

So these are all a Shaman's roots. Some are strong and well developed naturally. Some are little and need cultivation. Imagine if you took the time to cultivate all these roots! What a tree you would be! And the opportunity is always there for you. Just looking at this list shows you what a Shaman is in truth and power. I too am stronger at some and weaker at others but each root is a path in itself.

I hope I have empowered you a bit here to think about your gifts, developed and undeveloped and to see your own power! If you want to work on developing these gifts I teach many of them in the Shaman Apprenticeship 101 course found here www.shamanelder.com. You can start today!  18 lessons only $135.

Aho!

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 47: What IS Prayer?

Here is what I have learned. Prayer is an act of connecting to the Essence of Creator within all of us. We are all created by Creator, from Creator and so we are all connected to Creator, actually a part of Creator as we are made from Creator. So everything is Creator as you know. Man creates his own separation from Creator. Creator is not separate from us. Creator is all good. Man decided to believe that Creator is not all good. Creator is all knowing. Man decided, in fact a small group of men made us believe, that Creator is not all knowing.

In praying you are connecting to the essence of Creator within yourself and within everyone. You are connecting to the healing power of Creator within yourself. In your prayers you ask for blessings for yourself. You are connecting to the Creator force and to your blessings. When you pray for healing, you are connecting to the healing power of Creator and asking Creator for healing.

Prayer is the cord to the power of Creator. In Hawaiian shamanism it is called getting into the sea of God, the current of God, Loa. In prayers we offer our intentions. We ask for what we want. And Creator makes this manifest for us, in us and in others.

The third part of prayer is gratitude. Thanking Creator for connecting with us at all times and in all ways. Again recognizing our connection to the Source, and giving thanks for it. I remember my grandmother once told me that if Creator stopped thinking of you, stopped cherishing you for even one second, stopped holding you in Creator’s own mind, you would just vanish in a puff of smoke and be no more. So we thank Creator for this Presence, for connecting with us and for helping us remember our connection to Creator so that these prayers, these intentions can be made manifest.

Praying for others,

As we are so completely connected to Creator, we are also all connected to each other. All of us make up Creator. But yet Creator is more than this. So when we connect to Creator we are also connecting to everyone else. So a prayer for some other person is easily given to that person. You and Creator connect to supply another person, group, city, culture or planet, the focus of Creators Love energy on that person, group,city, culture or planet. It is like a giant spider's web that connects us all. Can the other person refuse the healing Love from Creator? Sure! We all have a free will choice. That is a universal law that cannot be broken. So no healing can occur if the healee does not want healing.

Prayer is a very powerful gift we have, our connection with Creator, a golden cord of light that allows two way communications between us and Creator. Of course Creator is this close to us! In all ways and at all times! It is us who put separation between us and Creator so prayer reconnects us. I highly recommend prayer!

Shaman Elder Maggie

http://www.shamanelder.com/

Day 46 Traditional Shamanism as a Career

To be a Shaman is to practice Shamanism 24/7. You cannot be called a Shaman unless you practice it 24/7. It is a way of life, a way of living, a calling, an occupation much like a doctor or priest or Buddhist monk. Remember the old horse doctor with his little black bag who went from house to house bringing healing to the community? He was on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. He was called upon to heal all kinds of things from chicken pox, to difficult childbirth to cancer to broken bones and everything he had to heal with was in that little black bag. This is the life of the Shaman.

The Shaman is available to everyone everywhere she goes, she is always healing, always counseling, living her life as an example to others to show the way to live in peace and health. She carries her medicine bag with a few leaves and stones and feathers and in that bag she has everything she needs to heal broken hearts, help cancer victims, heal chicken pox, whatever kind of healing she is called upon to bring. The healing is not in the black bag anyway is it! Those are just the tools. The healing is carried in the heart and mind of the doctor.

Shamanism is like becoming a doctor or a priest or a Buddhist monk. The ways of living and being are all conditioned by this career path and the true Shaman no longer lives like an ordinary man any more. Any true Shaman you encounter will definitely not be an ordinary man or woman and that will be apparent from the very first moment you meet them.  You will notice that he or she is light hearted, balanced, aware of everything you cannot even perceive, in good health and not physically mentally or emotionally ill at all. The true shaman is a person who has already done the work to heal themselves completely and now has become an example to the world of what true health and love look like by their own example living it. Its not common to meet a true Shaman. In fact it is said there are only about 50 true Shamans left in the world today.

Aho

 Shaman Elder Maggie

http://www.shamanelder.com/

Day 45 The Suffering of Not Spiritually Growing

There is a tempting force, a negative force in life that opposes Spirit. It is the force of non growth, standing still, immobility. Whatever ceases to change and transform itself decays and perishes. It is a Law of the Universe. This death in Life for human beings can be translated as spiritual sterility. A person who has let the roots of Life, in the deepest part of himself, perish, fall into the power of negating force. This crime against life, Goethe says, is a crime against salvation, your salvation.

This course is like a river. I give you an inner tube and you climb in and begin going down this new river and you see things on the shore that look like you and your life, and you see other people waving at you, they are your guides and teachers and they are glad to see you here! And you find fruit hanging off branches over your head as you glide by and eat plums and peaches on your ride, savor them. You are riding your own river and at the end in lesson 10 11 and 12 the river opens out on to a beautiful lake that you will call home. Now if you choose to, you can grab a branch and stop the ride or grab a rock and hang on or get out of the inner tube and stand on the bank. These are all your choices. But there is no need to. You are safe and you are seeing you and coming into your own power, the power of the river.

 I see you standing on the bank watching things floating by in your river, and saying yes, that is mine, and that is mine and that is mine, yep they are right there. But you are not in the river! Your life is going by while you stand on the river bank watching it go! This course invites you get in the river within the safety of your inner tube and actually be in the river, flowing along, observing you and learning your power and your skills and your abilities that are right in the inner tube right in your mind and heart now, and you might discover that some of the things that you saw in your river while standing on the river banks are just reflections of things that are on the riverbank.  Think about it. Things and experiences and people that you see as you pass along floating in the river of you!

Let yourself flow in the river created by this course. let yourself take what resonates, try the exercises, don't sweat anything, be still and calm and relax.

You have an inner tube you are floating on in the river. You are completely protected! From what? Protected from losing yourself in the hubbub of life, from not being yourself, from not being loved, from not getting where you are meant to go. Is that enough protection for you?

You can begin today with a check, or credit card by clicking on the paypal button at www.shamanelder.com Make a commitment to yourself to grow spiritually.

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 44 Finding One's Path

A call to Shamanism is a haunting thing. Some people who are called to Shamanism study actually suffer physical maladies which are words from Spirit to prod one to the path they belong on. The other side of the picture is a force that tries to prevent one from finding one's path. In everything there are two poles. It is a universal law. So you feel the tug to learn your path and also the tug to be too busy to learn.

I have found that for those students that try to maintain both things there is no peace. Being too busy indicates that you are hiding from your path. And the usual way we hide from our path is to be busy trying to help others on their paths. But living our lives for others does nothing for our own path. We can follow our husbands and children on their paths and we often do. But what of our own path, what of our purpose for being here? Was it really to follow our kids and mates around? Do you know that they will follow their paths with you or without you? Sure they appreciate you making it easier for them, but if it were not you, they could still manage or would find someone else to do it. And following your path is really something you do for yourself and you do alone. It is the path to home, to peace, to fulfillment. Many women seek fulfillment in helping their families but there is only a small amount of fulfillment there and as we get older and see our own path being neglected we become less and less fulfilled.

So you have to decide for yourself if you are ready to walk your own path. And it doesn't mean not being there for your family but rather taking steps to walk your own path. This course will lead you to that path. And as you study and practice, your path will become lit and you will know it. If you are meant to be a healer you will see the the way to do that. If you are meant to practice Shamanism you will be led to do that. The purpose of your life will become clear and then it will be your decision to walk that path or slink back onto the path of someone else. Some students are not ready to walk their own path. But at least in this ongoing, online course I offer to anyone willing to look, they see their path clearly and can make that decision deliberately. Some students have never seen their path and when they find it they embrace it wholeheartedly and become healers, happy, whole and fulfilled.

To learn more or begin the course I teach today just go to www.shamanelder.com

To ask me any questions at all email me at shaman at shamanelder.com

To purchase a copy of my new paperback visit http://www.shamanspeaks.com/

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 43 How Can Someone Make Money Doing Healing Work

Student question: I want to work as a healer. I am not happy working in a non healing job and so I am quitting my current job and going with my heart that tells me I can work as  a healer and get paid for it if I put my trust in God to provide for me. What do you think?

My reply: Regarding finding the healing job, do you know that almost any ordinary job can become a healing job? I once worked as a stock boy for a store. My job was to unload the trucks bringing huge crates of merchandise, to unload the boxes, price the items and put them on the shelves. Doesn't sound like a healing job does it!

But I started out each day as the healer I am.  I brought blessings and healing down on the store before I even arrived. I blessed each employee. I blessed the truck drivers. I put Creator's Spirit of love and light  into each item I handled no matter what it was. I worked with awareness and balance and was committed to doing the best job I could as a healer. I didn't tell anyone there. I just did my healing work. God gave me boxes and shipments to work with and so I healed those. It was a healing job for me because I made it healing work. Do you see how any job can be healing work?

What happened in that store? Their sales went up by 250%! Their customer base increased 400%. I eventually wound up being the night manager of the store! Many people sought me out there and received personal healing. They would find me stocking shelves and pour out their problems to me and as I listened I did healing work silently. They would often hug me or kiss me good bye even though I had not said anything but just offered them love and kindness and this silent healing. They would come back week after week and bring me presents too!

This is what Creator calls a healing job!

It can be any job at all, pushing a broom, cleaning a toilet, flipping a burger. So don't sit there on your fanny waiting for a "healing job" to fall out of the tree on your head. Go do a healing job. Make any job a healing job.

To learn more about traditional shamanism and the e-course I teach visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback with free shipping for $13.95 visit www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 42 How Do I Know I am Seeing the Truth

A student asks: You have taught us about knowing ourselves fully in order to move forward and become fulfilled.  How do we actually know that what we perceive is what we really are?  I know that many people, myself included, have, on occasion, deluded my thinking of who I was.  Can we actually ever be sure that what we are taking to be us is not a layered effect of what others and sometimes we want ourselves to be?

Reply:  If you are correct, you have confirmation from more than just one source. Yes we can delude ourselves anytime we want, but there will nothing outside ourselves backing up our delusion. When we are true to ourselves and being who we truly are, there are many sources of confirmation from outside sources, including events in the physical world, interactions with people who are meant to confirm our truth for us, our path is bright and we are able to walk it easily, spirit guides and teachers come to us and we are able to receive their wisdom fully and easily. When we are fooling ourselves we get none of this.

I work with many people counseling them and this is a fact. It is those people who are deluding themselves who will tell you they cannot find their guides, that no one is teaching them, that they cannot connect to Source. These are deluded thoughts.

Let me show you how to connect with your guides, how you have teachers with you at all times and that Source is constantly trying to give you abundance beyond measure if you would only allow it.

Take the correspondence course that I offer at www.shamanelder.com

Or read the new paperback that I have written for you at www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 41 What Causes Addictions?

I will give you what I find the answer this through working with people with addictions. We choose addictions because we are being controlled by outside forces and feel that we are no longer fully within our power. We want to be in control of ourselves. When we fully feel we are within our own power, we can live without addictions. But when we feel controlled by someone else, be that a spouse, a boss, a life situation, a norm given to us by society, well, from any place, we choose to smoke or drink or some other behavior that we do control, or at least feel we control. It is a bad way for us to regain some control over our own lives. No one is going to tell you that you can't have some coffee. You have freedom in coffee, you use it whenever you decide to use it, you have freedom of control over your coffee use, it is something you decide to do for yourself.

This might be a hard concept to grasp because it is quite hidden and we don’t like to look at control issues at all. And it seems like an addiction is not something you are controlling, and certainly not a good way to regain control over your own life. But that is what an addiction is. Sometimes as with alcohol, it is to escape from that outside control, to take control of yourself by drinking and hiding out from the control of others. It does not matter if one is really under the control of some outside force or not. It only matters if one feels as though he or she is under the control of some outside force.

Some people willingly give control away. They are not troubled by it. But some people feel robbed of themselves when under the control of outside forces. Their attempt to regain some kind of control over their own lives is to begin a habit that they fully control, often an addictive habit.

So are these people just an addictive personality type? I don't think so. These people are just more sensitive to their own sense of freedom and choose not to be controlled by outside forces. Yet they are controlled. How to break the habit? Find out what is controlling you and get away from it.

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie www.shamanelder.com