Day 76 Above and Below Exercise

I have something that might work for you. Try this little exercise

 and then write your answers to the questions in your email reply to shaman@shamanelder.com.

 Diagnosis One. Above and Below

1.  Sit down. Find room enough to draw a circle around yourself out

 the length of your arms. So you are probably sitting on the ground.

2. Take a deep breath. Take several. Calm yourself and balance yourself.

 3. Think of one color. Quick! Put that color inside your circle. What

 color is it?

4. Think of one bird that most represents you. The bird you most like or

 identify with. Imagine that bird flying around your head in this circle.

 What bird is it?

 5. Imagine one animal you have always identified with. Imagine him

 standing beside you. What animal is it?

 6. Imagine one plant that you have always liked. See a whole field of

 this plant growing all around you. You are sitting in a field of your

 favorite flowers. What flowers are these?

 How do you feel right now? Breathe. Just take this in and breathe.

 Center yourself.

 OK now look again at the bird flying around over your head. Invite this bird into your heart. Does it come in easily or does it hesitate? Is it happy  or sad? What emotion does the bird have?

 Now look at the animal standing beside you. Invite this animal into your heart. Does it come in with joy, anger, does it hesitate, does it refuse? What emotion does it have?

 Is it happy or sad or angry? Does it say anything to you?

 Now look at the field of flowers. Are they well and growing great? Just

 budding? Withering? How do they feel emotionally?  Look at their roots?

 Are they long and strong or weak?

Now lie back in the field of flowers. Actually lie down for this moment

 on the place you have been sitting. Just stretch out for a moment and

 visualize that field of flowers all around you. No matter whether they

 look good or bad, thriving or wilting. Just be with them for a minute.

 How do they make you feel?

 When you are ready, this exercise is done. Please send me your answers to shaman@shamanelder.com and I will tell you about your spiritual health. 

To become a student of Traditional Shamanism with Shaman Elder Maggie just go to http://www.shamanelder.com and begin today!

To get a copy of Shaman Elder Maggie’s new book The Shaman Speaks go here http://www.shamanspeaks.com

To contact Shaman Elder Maggie, Email: shaman@shamanelder.com)

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[All work by Shaman Elder Maggie is copyright protected. If you would like to use this article, please contact  shaman@shamanelder.com for permission.]

Day 71 A Healing Release Visualization For You to Try

It is a holy time in your life today. Let’s take the time to relish in this holiness right now for a few minutes. Just imagine that you are going to visit a huge cathedral, a place of holiness. Picture yourself walking into the big darkened cathedral when no one else is there. The doors are huge and solid and move slowly like old men, You peer into the darkness and first are greeted by the stained glass windows shining a rainbow of color on the darkened pews. You peer into the distance and see the white cloth on the alter and the white lilies in vases gracing the altar behind. You move up the huge empty aisle and find a place to sit in one of the massive wooden ornately carved pews.

It smells like a heavy incense, perhaps frankincense, left over from a ceremony earlier in the day. The sun is bright outside but the cathedral is dark except for the windows brightly shining down from above. There are 10 windows on each side of the church along the pews working back from the altar. You take the time to look at the windows, to make out the scenes and the people represented there. What do you see?

The organist has arrived in the loft and begins to practice the music for next Sunday. She plays in soft notes and obviously knows the music well enough to not need a practice. Perhaps she is playing just for you. Can you hear the music? Can you make out the hymn she is playing?

Again you smell the incense and wish that there were more. You would like someone to light some more as it barely touches your nose but smells so sweet!

You look again at the altar, white linen and white lilies all around in beautiful golden urns. There is a cross there but without a figure of Christ on it. It is a symbol of the resurrection rather than of the crucifixion. A symbol of hope and peace and you remember the story of Christ’s resurrection and the women who were shocked when his body was not found. Was it true? Was it a story?

You look up above the altar and see a beautiful large round stained glass window with a picture of a descending dove on it! It is gorgeous and the dove fills this 12 foot in diameter stained glass artwork with colors of white and blue and gold. The white and blue shower down on the altar and now you see the myriad of colors present on the white linen tablecloth.

I invite you now to release something in your life; something that may have been hanging over you, dragging you down; something you are still holding on to and really don't know why; something from your past that you can't seem to forge; some responsibility that you should not be yours but that you have accepted for too long now; even a negative judgment that you know is not true.

Find that paper lying on the pew next to you. It is an offering envelope and there is a pencil there by it. It says "Make an offering. $1.00, $5.00, $10.00. Other"

Under “other” write your intention, write what you want to release. Take just a moment and write that down now. Read that intention back to yourself out loud.

Now get up from the pew and walk all the way down the huge long aisle to the altar. As you walk, it reminds you a wedding, a bride walking towards her groom. What an awesome church to have a wedding in! Very impressive indeed! There is no one watching you, no one around, just you and the organist practicing, unaware of your presence.

Walk up the three steps to the altar table and lay your offering envelope down there. Stop for a moment to think about what you are doing. Ask Spirit to take this offering, to release this issue, give it to God, to Spirit, to the Universe, to the One, to the I Am That I AM. Give it away.

Feel the release. See the lilies there in the golden vase right beside you on either side of the altar? Take a lily. Pick one out of the vase and fell the long green stem and the smooth whiteness and put it to your nose and breath in the smell of Easter, the smell of spring, the smell of release and newness. Take it with you as you return to your seat.

Look again at the altar in the distance; in the darkness; in the light of the stained glass picture of the dove descending. You can't see your paper on the altar from here. It is gone.

Feel the release. Feel the lightness of being that surrounds you. A smile creeps over your lips. You don't know why you are smiling but you are. You can't help it. Say goodbye to the descending dove. Walk out through the big heavy wooden doors.

At first it is hard to see due to the strong sunshine of the day. But then you can see the steps leading down into the street and the people walking by on their way to work or school or home. Go join them in your day, your life.

All Blessings are yours!

To become a student of Traditional Shamanism with Shaman Elder Maggie just go to http://www.shamanelder.com and begin today!

To get a copy of Shaman Elder Maggie’s new book The Shaman Speaks go here http://www.shamanspeaks.com

To contact Shaman Elder Maggie, Email: shaman@shamanelder.com)

[All work by Shaman Elder Maggie is copyright protected. If you would like to use this article, please contact  shaman@shamanelder.com for permission.]

Day 65 The Four Enemies of the Shaman Part 3 Power

When one is overtaken by the enemy of clarity one can become a petty tyrant, telling people what is good for them, what to do , what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. The power here is that of the petty tyrant who thinks he or she has clarity and now knows what is best and demands that everyone else heed that knowledge. This power stuffs up our pride and makes us puffed up with self importance and shuts off our ears and stops up our eyes so that we do not go any farther to gain any more new perceptions, to seek out new arenas or to learn anything at all new. This power makes us sit on our thrones and feel like we can command the world. But it also prevents us from ever being able to change or grow again. Why? Its because those very people that we take command over now expect us to live up to this role as commander. We are stuck now holding the bag and we will have to work very, very hard to keep up the façade of the “one who knows all.” Life becomes very hard indeed for the one who succumbs to power.

Having the ability to laugh at our mistakes and learn to grow from them is the discipline of humor. Did you use it in lesson two as a material you have to build your boat? Do you also find the intent to honor as a useful material with which to build your boat? I find that the intent to honor myself and everyone around me provides buoyancy for my boat even when the seas are rough and people are angry and shouting and afraid of capsizing. I built my boat using the intent of honor as waterproofing. With the intent to honor ourselves and others we empower everyone.

We can overcome power with an intention to honor ourselves and others as well as the discipline of humor.

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

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

Check out this new music CD! http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/billyknight

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 39 How Can I Manifest More Quickly?

Can I tell you the difference between slowly and quickly?

There are actually two things that determine the rate of manifestation. One is whether you have any unconscious blocks holding back what you want to manifest. They are usually non benefitting beliefs that you have ahd for a long time and aren't even aware that they are there anymore. so if you can find them and replace them with benefitting beliefs, things will be able to manifest more quickly.

Second is impeccability. The more impeccable you are with yourself, the faster things manifest. Impeccability means doing your very best each day, each hour, each minute. It does not mean being perfect. No human being is perfect. But getting straight with your life, doing what you need to do as best you can all the time, not being lazy, not procrastinating, being honest with yourself and others.

So keep walking and working with beliefs. Some of my students are now finding that they are manifesting their wishes almost instantly and to their dismay if their wish is for something bad, it manifests just as quickly as a wish for something good. Energy is energy and cares not what you decide to manifest. So the old slogan, be careful what you wish for, you just may get it, is so very true.

Watch your thoughts. Think deliberately. What you think is what will manifest quicker and quicker as you go along in the course I teach at www.shamanelder.com

Aho!

Shaman Elder Maggie

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 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 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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Day 7: Shamanic Ceremony

Subconscious and super consciousness: the Shaman of old knew nothing about these psychological terms. And that is why he used ceremony so devoutly. Bathing in rivers, painting of faces, making of voodoo dolls, dressing as animals dancing around fires. All these are ways of connecting to the subconscious and the super conscious. I find in my opinion that ceremonies do more to heal people than all the psychological counseling out there. People can relate to ceremony. They can be a part of a ceremony and through that they can touch the subconscious and superconscious and receive a healing.
 I am all for simplicity. I am not into paying thousands of dollars to some would be therapist to be only hurt more by that therapist's misconceptions and mucked up personal reality! Give me a good old fashioned medicine wheel or vision quest.
I prefer to do shamanic healing in person. That physical connection with the eyes of the client is more healing than anything I know. Sucking illness out of a client's body and spitting it into a body of water is so completely confirming to the client. Seeing is believing. And it is all about what the client believes, isn't it. What easier way is there to change a belief, to realize a healing?
Now the other side of the coin is to fake a healing and try to fool the person by putting on a great ceremony. That is a sham, a ruse, a fakir and there are Shamans who do this, too. Does it work? Sometimes. We have seen it work for Christian faith healers and others. But is it the work of a Shaman? Not this one!
If I cannot actually bring healing to someone, then I don't pretend I can. No one human can do everything. That's why there is more than one of us! LOL! And when I bring healing to someone I  am the first one on my knees giving thanks to the God force where that healing comes from.
So be careful! Never offer healing or ceremony for healing unless you believe in your own ability to do so.
Aho
Shaman Elder Maggie
http://www.shamanelder.com/
http://www.shamanspeaks.com/