Day 20: Your Beliefs Are Not My Beliefs

I believe what I believe. I believe many things. These beliefs started when I was born. First, my parents gave me beliefs. Don't sleep in your clothes, stay clean, don't crawl out your bedroom window or we will kick your butt. And as I got a bit older they started using fear beliefs so they could control me. If I don't clean my room I will be punished. If I don't do my homework I will not be able to watch TV. So on. And then school gave me beliefs. You must go to school. You must go through 12 grades. And fear beliefs became more prevalent for me. I must get good grades or I will be held back. I must be quiet or I will be sent to the principal's office. I must not pass notes or I will get detention. By the time I finished school almost all my beliefs were given to me by parents, school and religion. Give your money to the church or go to hell. You are a sinful ingrate. But at the same time, we begin to wonder what we really believe. It’s a natural thing to challenge beliefs given to us by others. 

Then I got a job. And more beliefs were given to me, very much based on fear. I can't be late or I will lose my job. And culture and government and society gave me fear beliefs as well. Pay your taxes or you will go to jail. Get a car. Get insurance. Get more bills. Pay your bills or go to jail. Wow! Getting a bit overwhelming here! And now you have the picture of Joe America!A whole bunch of beliefs given by other people that are making Joe feel terrible and he isn't even taking the time to look at what he believes and to see if those beliefs are even working for him! 

Many sages throughout history have told us that what we believe creates our reality. If we believe that elevators are dangerous, we cannot ride in an elevator. If we believe that we are less than wonderful, then we are less than wonderful. If we believe that old religious belief that we are going to hell, then we are going to hell. We create our reality with what we believe. And if you look at how people live you can actually sometimes see what they believe. Take the homeless person on the street. Look at their reality. They may honestly believe they cannot have a home. And so they don't. You can stop here and think of other examples.

Now each person has their own set of beliefs. And they base their judgments on their beliefs. But that has nothing to do with your belief system. 

It is a little microcosm, a person’s beliefs create his or her reality, create his or her judgments, create his or her choices based on beliefs. 

Well, that homeless person may be convinced that he cannot have a home but I am not convinced of that. So his belief system does not work for me. And that's OK. That's called the right to choose, free will choice. Even if it is messed up, it is still his free will choice. But what if he told me that I cannot have a home because he believes he can't have a home so no one should have a home. How valid is that judgment for me? Not very valid at all. I don't believe what he believes. And how valid is any judgment he makes about me? Not very valid at all, as he is judging from his own belief system, not mine. And how valid is my judgment of him? Not very valid at all, because I would be judging him based on my beliefs which may or may not be his. So what is the point of judging someone else? There is none. And what is the point of being affected by someone else's judgment of you? None. It is not based on what you believe so it has little to no bearing on you. So relax! 

Understand that people walk around within their own microcosm; their own belief system, their own reality. We are like a million unique snowflakes. The good thing is that you can change your reality by changing what you believe.

I can help you eliminate negative beliefs and end the struggle in your life if you want.  I have been doing this work for over 40 years. Just email me at shaman@shamanelder.com

Shaman Elder Maggie

www.shamanelder.com to visit my site and read more wonderful articles and take the course I teach online.

Day 19: The Old Horse Doctor

Traditional Shamanism is a way of life, a way of living, a calling, an occupation much like a doctor. Remember the old horse doctor who had nothing more than his little black bag who went from house to house on the back of his horse 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 Traditional Shaman. The Traditional 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 in the heart and mind of the doctor.

Would you like to learn this kind of traditional Shamanic Medicine? The Shaman Apprenticeship 101 Course teaches 20 tools and skills you can use to heal yourself and others. You can start this course today at www.shamanelder.com

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 18: How to Use Emotional Energy

Fear is an emotion you know. Emotions are sensory devices to give us input about outside things, just like eyes give us input and ears and noses. We take in all this input and use it to gain knowledge and make good decisions. But we don't necessarily make decisions just based on one kind of sensory input. That would be like: oh, it is dark so I cannot see. But if you wait a moment you can see the stars that you would not have seen if you had just gone with your sensory input that it is dark. We use our sensory input along with our thoughts and memories and knowledge gained.

Our senses do not control us. They are just antennas, feelers. Fear should not control us. it is just a sensation. Weigh it out against other input you have, what you know, and use it as the antenna it is, not the final decision maker in your life!

Emotions do have another purpose. They are the gas behind our intentions. Let’s take an example. Let’s say a man wants to get a job that is being offered to manage a restaurant. He knows he is a good manager and has experience and can do this job. But there is another offer to drive a cab that he has been given. He knows he should manage the restaurant as that is his career. But driving the cab seems so easy.

So he goes to the interview for the restaurant job. Then he goes to the interview for the cab driving job. He fails the restaurant interview and passes the cab driver interview and ends up with something that does not really work for him financially or career wise and that in the end was a poor decision on his part. But what happened?

At the restaurant job he was polite and knowledgeable, answered all their questions and was checking out the restaurant for cleanliness and asking about time off and hours. At the cab driver interview he was animated, excited, interested in this new field  of endeavor, absorbed in learning how to do this job. If he had shown as much enthusiasm at the restaurant interview he would have gotten that job. See how his emotions played for his intent. He had made up his mind that he wanted the cab job. He displayed emotionally his desire with enthusiasm and gusto at the interview and got the job.

It is OK to look at things like this. It is not about judgment but rather introspection, why did I do what I did. What was my motive, what was I intending, what do I want to intend, how do I feel about that intention, how can I express what I feel about my intention. Questions I ask myself all the time. This practice keeps me in tune with what I am trying to do and keeps me doing it the best way I can. Back to being impeccable: If you can't be impeccable with yourself, who can you be impeccable with.

Shaman Elder Maggie

Want more? Visit www.shamanelder.com

Day 17: The Hunter in the Forest

Here is a truth for you to consider. When you finally see your mission on this earth and you decide to stand up and do it, to shine your light, there will always be those who hate the Light and who will try to put it out. Guaranteed.

I teach you Traditional Shamanism using the allegory of the hunter in the forest. He knows his skills, he uses his power, his awareness, his balance, his good aim, his heightened senses, his patience, his knowledge of game, all his skills to achieve his mission which is to feed his people. And he knows that there is danger in the forest. He knows that if he does not remain aware and balanced he could fall out of the tree and be killed by a bear or moose. The danger is there for all of us. But it is not so dangerous that a skilled and practiced hunter should withhold food from his people because he is afraid of the bear!

The bear is as natural to the forest as the hunter. They both belong in the forest and they both are a danger to each other. Everything has danger. It is dangerous to breathe, all the pollution in the air but more dangerous not to breathe, methinks! LOL!

You saw your mission and agreed to it before you ever set foot on this planet. You saw that you would have all the abilities and tools and opportunities to accomplish this mission. In fact you saw that if you just be impeccable as a human being you have already accomplished this mission, fete accompli! So being born into this mission is like being put into a tree stand in the forest. Be impeccable and you will not fail. Do not fear.

Please ask me anything. I offer free counseling to anyone by email to shaman@shamanelder.com

Or take the course I offer at www.shamanelder.com You can start today!

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 15: Death

I have learned:

Impeccability means doing your best in every way and every day. Impeccability doesn’t mean being perfect, it means working to the best of your ability. An old Yaqui shaman who was my teacher in Mexico taught me that death walks on our left side all the time, close enough to reach out and touch us at any moment. He taught me this not to scare me, but to point out that we don't know how long we have here. We may not have years to find our mission and walk our path. We need to live each day as though it is our last. We need to hug our parents as though we may never hug them again. We need to leave our rooms as clean as we would want them if the mortician was the next one to come in to it. We want to smell the flowers like we may never smell them again. I want to leave my house clean each day in case I never come back here. I keep around me what I need. I don't keep a lot of stuff I don't need. I treat each person I encounter as though I am looking at their spirit and not their body. I salute and honor their higher self even if they are not. Everything I do this day is done with impeccability. I do my very best at mowing the lawn, taking the dog for a walk, grocery shopping, talking to people, studying my spiritual reading, even sleeping impeccably, in other words getting enough rest. I also play and laugh and express joy as though it is the last day I will get this chance to do so. My life is very much joy filled!

When you start living your life impeccably, the very best you can, and you realize that you have no time to waste, and you become aware and balanced so you can reach the higher state of the causal body, and you start dialoguing with your guides and teachers, then Wow! Life suddenly is not the thing you are living right now! Your path becomes known to you. Your purpose becomes clear, You start to walk your path and things just blossom along the way and gifts and real world opportunities are given to you and your efforts are rewarded one hundred fold and you know you have purpose and you receive thanks and money and joy and peace and that inner happiness. My goodness it is all worth it!

This is what I teach in my course, exactly. I teach this because no one else is. I teach this because it is the universal way of the Shaman. I teach these universal truths that all Shamans from all cultures and all times throughout history have known and have practiced in their own lives. This is not some secret recipe! It is just that humans concentrate on being a member of the status quo. And the status quo today is about getting a job, finding a mate and having babies. Not much of a mission is it! And it is indeed not a mission at all. Just the way the status quo live. It is a physical existence and that is all.

The traditional Shaman is all about living in the 100%. I can show you how.

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

www.shamanelder.com to find out more about the course I teach. You can  begin today!

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