Day 37 The Raven from My Shaman Grandmother’s Perspective.

The Raven from My Shaman Grandmother’s Perspective.

In my Shaman Grandmother’s tradition the Raven was not a welcome being. The raven was a carrier of death and bad news, a feeder on carrion and feces and so weak that even a mouse coud defeat it. My ancestors felt it was brought here by Creator to be a disrupter, a bringer of chaos, to keep us on our toes and to teach us awareness and make us take our guard. In Siberia there is a place where it is said that the Great Raven, his wife Miti and his family lived and you can see black rocks on the cliffs called the house and pots and pans.

If you think about the raven in the forests of Siberia, my people would take the reindeer into the forests in the winter time to stay out of the cold winds and to hide the reindeer from predators like wolves and hunters. But those pesky ravens might come and alert the wolves to the presence of the reindeer and the  people in the forest. It is not a far leap to then understand why the ancient peoples felt the raven was not a friendly thing. In my grandmothers traditions everything is sentient, living, thinking, feeling and not necessarily only what it looks like on the outside. So every time a raven appeared by the herd of reindeer, so too did the wolf show up and the hunters showed up and all hell broke loose. There was a saying that if a raven flew into your yurt, you might as well just slaughter your whole herd! 

My point is that when we look at ancient legends or superstitions or beliefs we have to try to place our feet into their circumstances, into their way of life and see why they might have believed that to be true. I think if you had grown up as a reindeer herder and spent the winter huddled in a Siberian forest with reindeer as your only means of warmth or food or clothing you might not like the raven so much either! 

The Shaman would sometimes go far away from the tribe and leave prayers and offerings of grain after building a wooden kind of scarecrow man hoping to relegate the raven to that area away from the tribe. So actions were taken by the Shaman to keep the raven from visiting the tribe. I wonder if that is where we got the idea of a scarecrow for keeping the birds away from our fields!

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Learn more and sign up today to take Shaman Maggie’s correspondence course.

www.shamanelder.com

Day 35 What about Ouija Boards

 What about Ouija Boards

An Excerpt from “The Shaman Speaks” by Shaman Elder Maggie

All that we see here is only 5% of the total energies around us; the slowest vibrating energies are the ones we can see with our eyes. These beings live in the other 95% we aren't normally aware of. And that 95% is the part that you are contacting with a Ouija Board.

I think it is important to be aware of this scientific fact, to use your own abilities to become aware of all the energies around you and to know that there are high vibration energetic beings who wish to help you and lower vibration energetic beings who care nothing about you, and even lower vibration energetic beings who wish to deplete your energy. This 95% is very much unknown to us in general and needs to be recognized, studied and respected just as we recognize, study and respect those things we see in our physical world. How very limiting of us to assume that what we see is all there is!

We have so much science now to back this up. We know how the moon affects even our emotions! We can't "see" that energy but we all agree it is there. What else is out there affecting us? From a Shaman's point of view, there is so much more here than just what I see with my eyes. Be aware of it, learn about it safely and carefully. I teach about it so people don't go running in headlong like a lemming leaping off a cliff. It is a fascinating study, not taught in too many places yet, but needs to be approached with awareness of the inherent dangers as there are inherent dangers in this physical world all around us. A Ouija Board is an open invitation to the astral world. I don’t recommend their use whatsoever. There are better, safer ways to travel the astral world.

Shaman Elder Maggie

www.shamanelder.com

Day 35 The Purpose of Emotions

When we are in an emotionally heightened state, we are not in connection with our spiritual self. We let go, we stop being in control of our spiritual self. We cannot achieve a balance when we are emotionally upset. And that is the problem we all have in our daily lives and why I say not to run your life based on your emotions. So many people do just that. Everything they do, every decision the average person makes is based on this question, "how does this make me feel?"

Yikes! What a terrible way to live! Emotions are sensory tools. That's all! Like ears and eyes and noses. Your nose shows you how something smells. Your emotions show you how something feels. Boy if I could just teach this one thing, the world would be better off! I know I digress here but this is so important! I love my emotions. I express them freely. I laugh I cry I experience life and what the world sends me each day but I do not make my decisions based on what I see or smell or feel. I take in all the sensory information and process it together to decide the best course of action for me.

Emotions also have another use as a tool. They are the driving force behind our intentions. Ask me about that. Send me an email to shaman@shamanelder.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

www.shamanelder.com

Day 28 What A Hopi Healer Taught Me About Ceremony

I can tell you the true story a Hopi healer told me. He spent 7 days preparing for a ceremony. He fasted, he dried certain grasses and prepared certain potions. He made a special altar and really worked strenuously for 7 days to have everything perfect. On the morning of the 7th day he went out at sunrise and began his chanting and singing and prayers and doing all these actions and he went on and on for hours.

 

But he could not feel his connection with Creator! Here he had done all this work to please Creator and to call upon him and all the Spirits and he felt nothing. But he kept up with the ceremony for hours more and yet he could not feel that connection, that presence of the spirits.

It was getting dark now but he kept going, doing his ceremony over and over with great fervor but nothing.

Finally it was late at night. The whole thing had been a dismal failure. He felt like a failure as a healer. He put away his ceremonials and went to a tree in the forest. He sat down with his back against the tree in the moonlight and he wept bitterly for a long time and then he just cried out, "why didn't you listen to me?"

And he heard a voice say, "You were so full of yourself and your ceremony there was no room for ME to enter! Here by this tree you are doing the most beautiful ceremony and here I am!"

That is what I wish to teach you about ceremony. Ceremony is what you are doing in your heart. Any rituals or step by step instructions for this moon or that feast day or the other holiday might be just for show, not for Creator. The best ceremony is the one you make in your heart.

Aho!

Shaman Elder Maggie

For more go to www.shamanelder.com

Day 11: Impeccability

There is no one out there living your life. So there is no one out there that you should hold up as a measurement of how you are doing. You know in your heart of hearts if you are doing your best. And your best is all you can do each day.

Doing the best you can do each day in every way is impeccability. Am I saying to become a rocket scientist in order to be impeccable? No! We are human and we all have our foibles and faults. We are never going to be perfect so impeccability is not about being perfect. It is about doing the very best we can every minute of every day.

Do I still struggle with impeccability? I don't struggle with it but I am conscious of it. I know when I have been less than impeccable. I choose to be less than impeccable when I am feeling lazy or tired sometimes. Sure. I recognize it is a conscious decision to be impeccable or not. It is my choice and no one will judge me for it. I am the only one who will judge me for doing my best or less than my best. I don't fret over it but I do try to be impeccable as best I can. And as you become impeccable with the big things, you become aware of smaller places where you can be more impeccable, and smaller places and smaller places and you get down into your thoughts and feelings and you try to be impeccable there as well. And this is where impeccability can cause your thoughts of love to manifest immediately. This is where what you think has an impact on what you manifest almost instantly, be it good or bad. Energy doesn't know good or bad. That is a judgment you make. Whatever you think becomes reality, is made manifest. So, then I have to become impeccable with my thoughts.

 But it is not a struggle. It is more of an awareness. I give myself room to screw up because I know I am human. It is OK to screw up. But I am responsible for what I think and I will have the consequences of what I think, be it good or bad and probably have those consequences a bit faster than you will only because I have been aware of my own impeccability much longer than you have. So I am saying it is not a judgment game; it is an awareness. And the main cause of impeccability is knowing that what you do and say and think will manifest itself into your reality. If you want abundance, think abundance.

I want to manifest joy, and happiness, and abundance, and freedom and independence and healing into my life. These are my reasons for trying to be impeccable. It is not hard, but it is a minute to minute awareness. And for a healer, the more impeccable is the healer, the more complete is the healing. A healer is only as good as his own life. A drunk healer would not heal as well as a sober healer. A person who has studied herbs will heal with herbs better than a person who only read a book about herbs. So true!

Shaman Elder Maggie

I teach an online course in Traditional Shamanism here. www.shamanelder.com and youcan also find lots of free articles and gifts.