In the day to day existence we struggle through, sometimes it feels as if we get no where. We try so hard just to stay afloat in this sea of hunger, panic, need and competition. It is an amazingly hard thing to keep one’s sanity and some sense of calm and peace when we are swirling around in other people’s demands and expectations.
As I celebrate my 55th year as a Traditional Shaman, I have surely seen much and experienced for myself this sense of trying to have a life that seemed to never be allowed in peace. I have worked with all kinds of people and have brought what help I could to each and every person who asked for healing. I have taught people the ways of healing in many forms, the way each person could most resonate to their own gifts for healing others. But I tell you, I have the feeling that I am trying to do heart surgery on a kitchen table.
Sometimes we throw our hands up and say, “I just can’t do it anymore!”, but no one hears us, the wind does not die down, we continue being buffeted, pushed this way and that. No matter how we try, how we manipulate, direct, avoid, manhandle, negotiate, cry, scream, or medicate, it does not stop. Is this all that life is?
Now is the time to step right into the middle of this hurricane. Get out of the howling wind and walk into the eye. Stop trying to do surgery on the kitchen table. Stop struggling to do the impossible. Walk into the most fearsome place of the hurricane, right into the eye and stand still there for a minute. The wind has stopped. There is no noise, no person, no conflict, no positive, no negative, no goals, no rewards, no expectations. Stand there for a minute. This place is even more scary than your overwhelming life. You can feel the fear in your chest here, you can feel it in your head and spine, you can feel fear physically here and can hardly bear to be here for one second. The quiet is deafening. The lack of movement is unbearable. But stay here as long as you can. Stay here for a few more moments. Listen.
Try to hear the ocean waves as they reach the shore. Are they crashing in or gently lapping the beach? Can you hear seagulls calling from the sky? Is it day or night? Become aware of what is here in this quiet place. You have come full circle back to nature. Nature who bore you in the beginning, who carries you through life although you are barely aware of her and nature who takes you back when your overwhelming life is through. Is it any wonder that all the mystical, magical practices of healers and Shamans throughout history are connected to nature. Be with the seashore and seagulls for a moment. They demand nothing of you. They are you.
Who are you here? Do you feel little and insignificant? You cannot do heart surgery with a butter knife. You feel you cannot do anything. You are so helpless really. And all that you do is just a terrible effort with so little benefit. You are tired. You want to let go. And in this place, the center of the eye of your life, right here, right now, in this most scary place, let go. Just be here. Watch the winds howling around you. Flying people and chairs and buildings and expectations and responsibilities can be seen whirling around you. But you stand in the eye where the wind is still and you are untouched by those things for just a moment. Let the fear subside. You are still.This is the place where healing begins. This is the place I teach about. It is different for each one of us but we all have this place. As we get over being scared of it, of being in the eye of the storm we can find our true self here. But most people are too scared to stand here for any length of time at all. For most, it is easier to be swallowed up in the storm than it is to step out of the storm and see your own smallness, your own insignificance. But in this very place, this insignificance, lies your peace and your ability to heal.
Some people call this place, this eye of the storm where you are small and little, God, Allah, Spirit, At-One-Ment. And because they believe it is the place of God they find the courage to stand here and not be too, too scared. And if we stand here long enough to get comfortable with this trueness of ourselves we can find the peace and love that is here, has always been here waiting to love us and heal us and give us peace. In fact, if we can spend more of each minute in this place, more of each hour, more of each day, we find that we too can find a way to heal ourselves and to heal others. We find the power of the Spirit is here, in this hurricane’s eye and this power has always been here with us; the power to heal, to love, to be happy, to be at peace. It is not of this earthly world. It is inside the center of each of us.
This is what I teach. Each of us is unique and each person that I teach to heal learns in a unique way. But I am here to help you draw back the curtain and expose the truth about your own self. You are powerful. You are the most powerful person on earth. You have the power to be happy, to let go, to be at peace right now within you. And you have the power to heal.
Fifty five years of my life have been dedicated to Traditional Shamanism and teaching healing. I have studied all over the world with teachers and healers from so many walks of life. And every one of those wise masters will tell you about the place in the center of the storm we must learn to find and stand in to realize those most precious gifts we are all given. It is from this place that much more than heart surgery can be done on much less than a kitchen table. If you are ready to find your gifts and share with them with those you love, those you care about, those who need you, I am honored to show you how. For 55 years of service to you my brothers and sisters I am truly grateful! I honor you for showing me the way.
[All work by Shaman Elder Maggie is copyright protected. If you would like to use this article, please contact shaman@shamanelder.com for permission.]
