Day 16: Detours

I have had my share of detours.

Sometimes we get "tested". We get asked by Spirit to make a choice. We find ourselves in a very uncomfortable place we do not like and we have to make some choice. Often we do not even know what the choices are! But I have learned that when you commit yourself to a certain path, every now and then along the way you meet a path crossing yours, a detour, a sidetrack, a u turn, and we all reach these places. If you are not committed fully to your path, then you run into conflict when you encounter these places. You start to feel unwell, dragged down, unsure, restless, unhappy because you are being asked to once again confirm your commitment. You may have already found your path as a healer. You understand the power and the holiness of this path. And then you met a crossroads and you faltered, you hesitated, but now you have chosen your path as a healer once again and are practicing and the crossroads is over and you can continue to walk stronger than before!

It is painful only when we do hesitate, only when we are not sure about what we believe. One's own unsureness about one's healing path caused this offer of a crossroads. We actually place these u turns in front of our own selves. So by believing strongly in whatever you believe and being committed to whatever you believe you will not see too many u turns or sidetracks in your life. And when you do see them you will recognize them as sidetracks and u turns and just ignore them or better yet realize that you are trying to fool yourself. How do we fool ourselves? We say we do not have time for our healing gifts. We say they don't really work. We say we can't do it. We say we are too lazy to do it. But the truth is your healing gifts do work and you know it. Everyone has healing gifts and skills. You do have time for your healing path every day all day long, It does not interfere with time for other things. You will have to judge yourself to see if other reasons have come up and if they are true or not. It is all about being true to yourself, being authentic.

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

Shaman Elder Maggie

www.shamanelder.com to read more.

Day 14 My Shaman Grandmother

I come from a long lineage in this lifetime as my grandmother immigrated to America from her Ukrainian clan to evade persecution as a young girl. Imagine her mother and father trying to scrape up the money needed to buy her a ticket on an ocean liner ( in the lowest part of the boat) so they could send her away to a place they had never been and never see her again. That is how much they loved their daughter. That is how badly my people were being persecuted. Imagine this young girl spending 4 weeks huddled with sick strangers going somewhere she knew nothing about. She clung to her knowledge and heritage of traditional Shamanism. It became hugely important to her life and to her well being. Even there on the ship she used her skills to bring healing to the other passengers who spoke many foreign languages and came from many other countries.

I watched my Grandmother practice traditional shamanism all my life. I heard the knock on the door from those who needed her help and the freshly prepared meal that would come with it. My grandmother always gave her healing away. She never charged anyone and would only graciously accept whatever offerings grateful patients would donate. She was not rich but she was never left in need.

She always was laughing. Everything was such a joy to her and her grandchildren were her precious jewels. She would spend hours twirling my long hair into beautiful curls. As she twined her hands through my locks she would tell me the stories, the metaphors that were the key to understanding the ways of the Shaman. She taught me traditional Shamanism as I practice it and teach it today.

Later she would let me observe her work with her clients and help her in preparation. I watched her keen sense of observation as she would look at a person not just with physical eyes but with her "other" eyes that could see beyond the words being spoken into the heart of the truth. I remember listening to the plights of her patients and watching my grandmother take a totally different kind of healing path that seemed unrelated to what the patient said. My grandmother explained to me that what we think we want on the outside may be a long way from what our spirit needs.

Later as I studied with my friends who are Native Americans I learned that the totem animals of the medicine wheel also show a hidden spiritual quest behind the conscious wish. In my studies I found many things that my grandmother taught me were actually identical to the Shamanic practices of other cultures throughout time. The Celtic Shaman, The Native American Medicine, the Gypsy Shaman, the Inuit Shaman, the Japanese Shaman, the Incan Shaman all have the same core truths! I find that amazing considering the separation of time and distance.

My grandmother put my feet firmly on the path of Traditional Shamanism and I have spent the last 50 plus years studying and teaching this path. I have travelled around the world and sat at the feet of some of the most important Shamanic healers of our day. I have learned that nothing is ours without knowledge, intent and emotional control. This is what I teach. This is what my Shaman Grandmother taught me. She was a wise and incredibly loving woman. And I think the most precious thing she taught me was where love fits into Shamanism. Love is the key to Shamanic healing in any culture.

You are welcome to take the online course that I offer.

 Just go to www.shamanelder.com  to read about it and to start today.

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 12: Gaining Confidence

Obviously your spiritual self, your soul, your spirit has more confidence in you than you do consciously! Isn't that something to think about! That there is a part of you, that eternal part of you that knows you can accomplish what you were sent here to do! And if that is true, is not that path worth finding and nurturing? Would you not like to walk the path that you chose for yourself, that you know you can walk, that is unique to you and that will heal and bless the world? I found a lot of encouragement in this awareness. To know that there is a part of me that knows I can do this! That wants me to do this, for the benefit of myself and the entire world.

Think about that. You are connected to this part of yourself. Give this greater part of yourself a welcome and let him or her walk with you. You do not have to do this alone. That greater part of you knows where to go and how to get there. He or She is represented by your totem animals, your guides and elders, teachers, Spirit. Welcome this Higher Self in all its many faces and let it guide you safely every step of the way.

Shaman Elder Maggie

Ask me anything by sending an email to shaman@shamanelder.com

Find more at www.shamanelder.com

Day 10: Negative thoughts

A student recently asked me

“I have noticed that I work at trying to be positive everyday, telling myself I can do this and I will accomplish that.  I also repeat positive affirmations during my drive to a job location.  The negative or opposite is always trying to get its way.  To do nothing.  To just don't reply.  Often times the negative voice(s) in my head or whispers in my mind's ear speak to me about a confusing better way to complete a task, just to keep me from the direction I was heading and should have finished.  How do I sort this out? What is going on here?”

In Traditional Shamanism we know that all good is from Creator. Everything Creator creates is wholly good. So all those positive thoughts and energies you feel and encounter are from God. Only man can create negative things. So all the influences and thoughts you encounter that are negative are man made.

Yes we have both around us all the time. Sometimes as men we even create negative things for ourselves. But the shaman sees all those thoughts both good and bad as entities or beings. A thought is a creation. If backed by feeling its like a car that is given gas and becomes a creation, a being, a thought form. It moves along energy lines like comets traveling in space and affects everything it passes near. So not only your own self created negative thought forms but those of everyone else are out here traveling like comets streaking by our consciousness. And we can become magnets through our own energies and attract thought forms to us, both positive and negative.

What feeds a thought form being? Our own energy, our own emotional energy in particular. Emotion is like gasoline to these thought forms. Negative beings feed on negative energy, fear, frustration, feelings of lack. Positive thought forms feed on positive energy, love, joy. So if we are feeling frustrated not only are we feeding our own negative beings but we are attracting the negative beings of other thought forms around us, out here in the limitless energetic world. They are attracted to us like magnets as we feel frustration and they are attracted to that gas we are offering to power them and keep them alive.

Can a thought form run out of gas and cease to exist? Yes. And that is our choice. Nobody can make us feel happy or sad or angry or jealous. We choose to feel those ways ourselves. We are in control of our own lives.

Great Question! Ask me anything at shaman@shamanelder.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

For more words of wisdom see www.shamanelder.com
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