Shamanism

It's taken many ups and downs to get me to this point in my life but isn't that what life is all about?

Last year I took a workshop in Shamanism through The Foundation for Shamanic Studies in my hometown that was facilitated by a spiritual mentor of mine. I wasn't even in the best place in my life and slowly drifting away from my spiritual side and being sucked into the lower frequency 9-5 lifestyle of being burnt out and surrounded by the financial issues and mass media distractions that are swarming around our heads each day and stinging us constantly. I must say though, once you recognize your spiritual side it always remains with you even though it sometimes takes a traumatic event or major failure to make us remember it. These traumas and life-changing events come often to some and few and far between for others. A job lay-off, a nasty break-up, a sick family member or anything for that matter can spring up at anytime and although there may be no light at the end of the tunnel for the time being, these are all learning experiences and ultimately blessings in disguise.

"Life is only 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it."

To put things into perspective, almost 4 ago when I started to get into any sort of spirituality or had any type of awakening, I was jobless and freeloading in my sister's basement. Broke and depressed, I was using drugs and alcohol to escape reality and really had no purpose or reason to even exist anymore. I viewed the world as a negative place because that's all I seemed to experience. I had attracted nothing but negative people around me, a negative mindset and a negative outlook on the world around me.

Thankfully, my sister was kind enough to put up with me for about 6 months during the time I had no job or income and literally dedicated my life to researching "how the world works" on the Internet by myself. This was the period in which I started this blog as a way to keep all of my resources and links and thoughts in one place for myself and also in case anyone else was interested in this journey as well. This was the most educational experience I've ever had since I wasn't learning based on some necessary government curriculum. A part of me wanted to abandon all my material posessions and become some travelling hobo hopping freight trains and encountering shady characters along the way, but there was also a part of me that realized I didn't necessarily want to give up on society, but merely filter out the bullshit and refine it so that the world around me was perfect. I saw that I had more gifts and potential than some people that weren't as fortunate. People that were forced into lives of addictions and depression, financial burdens and hardships, lack of love and support and ultimately the lack of motivation to even want to better themselves. On some level, I believe that this describes a majority of the people in the world. People that are just comfortable barely making ends meet and being stuck in an endless rut of a negative cycle. I was there and still struggle with it to this day.

I must say though the road has been difficult and without focussing on too many details of my own life, I went through still a series of traumatic exeperiences that were ultimately caused by my use of drugs and alcohol that seemed to creep back into my life after being under control. I was working full-time, had my own vehicle and a girlfriend who I cared about to spend my time with. Soon, though I started taking these things for granted and it wasn't until they were gone that I realized that I should have appreciated them more. This is probably the #1 spiritual lesson I've learned: It's all about GRATITUDE. If you want your life to be better, be grateful for everything around you. Truly learn to appreciate everything you have and watch the world completely change around you. I've practiced this and it's difficult to put into words how much it actually works.

Although it is easy to lose sight of this gratitude, it is so important to keep in mind everything that is going right in your life and look at the flaws as ways to improve it. I felt like although I was grateful for having a good job and good people around me that I was still getting bored and felt like I was beginning to fall into a rut again. So, I stopped and listened to my heart for a second and it immediately told me I needed to take that Shamanism workshop that was coming up in the near future. I went as far as to borrow money to take it and it was unlike anything I could have expected as far as enlightening changes in my life go.

There was no handouts or information pages associated with the course but what I learned will forever be with me. It wasn't so much learning as it was getting in touch with things I already knew in a way. It ultimately taught me how to connect with different spirit guides and ascended masters that can perform healing and guide us from the other side. What I discovered on my own is that I can journey into other realms to visit my realitives that have passed on. There was absolutely no fear involved with this experience at all. In fact, fear is what drives away passed loved ones from coming to you because they don't intend to scare you at all. The difference about this and seeing a ghost of a loved one is that you are venturing into their realm and not the other way around. Spirits will come into this realm if you invite them and from what I understand they enjoy it when we venture into theirs. Keeping in mind there are many dark and dangerous spirits that can do harm in this realm, we must keep our intent pure and based on love and respect for them. There are definitely rules to venturing into the 3 different levels of the spirit world. Essentially it takes a deep meditation and a specific physical place on this planet that you've been to where you can venture to in a sort of out-of-body experience while someone stays in this realm to drum for you and guide you with different beat patterns and tempos (it can actually be done alone by use of audio recordings). You then state your intent of which level of the spirit world you intend to travel to.

Before I continue I must say that although Shamanic Journeying can be self-taught and experimented with, that I definitely would have been left confused and frustrated with it had I not taken some kind of formal training from an experienced professional. There is always someone that is more spiritually advanced than you on this planet to learn from and it's a far greater advantage to learn in person than it is to simply watch inspiring videos or read information in books or on the internet sometimes although that can be an excellent resource to connect you with different ways to better yourself and the world around you. Ultimately this is all just for greater wisdom, peace of mind and inner-happiness which in turn generates abundance and prosperity, independence and creativity. I can safely say that I've made dramatic improvements in my life and I simply wish the same for other people that don't know where to turn like I have so many times. In times where we need guidance and some sort of clarity, I found personally that it was greater forces than exist in this realm that were able to help me. The signs and oppurtunities are all around us, it's just a matter of recognizing them and embracing changes out of love instead of avoiding them out of fear.

My first journey was into the Lower world of the spirit realm to meet my power animal. This was my experience: 
 Journey to the Lower World

My second journey was into the Upper world and was a very personal experience of healing from spirit guides with infinite love and wisdom. It involved a lot of white light and intense comforting feeling along with a surge of knowledge and wisdom that I had been lacking in my life. It was something I feel I cannot describe in words or even art or music for that matter. I would simply invite others to feel it for themselves.

My third journey was into the Middle world  and this was the first I had ever attempted to journey on my own. The workshop notes I did take were on the middle-world being full of spirits who have passed on but are still attached somehow with their ego if they suffered a traumatic death or had unfinished business here. Death itself crosses one's soul into non-ordinary reality, but their soul may get stuck in the middle-world unless they can let go of their ego/physical attachments and transcend into the upper-world. Sometimes it may even take help from us to help them cross over. Excessive grieving for example can hold a soul in a lower state which is exactly what I experienced here:
 Journey to the Middle World

This journey was ultimately life-changing for me in recognizing things from outside perspectives and helping loved ones cross over. Like I said earlier, there was no fear involved with encountering these spirits, it was based all on love and was absolutely comforting and beautiful.

I found that once I had the proper guidance to journey on my own that it started coming more naturally to me although I've only attempted it a few times. I was even shown how to retrieve other people's lost power animals or spirit guides and taught a few things about spirits that may occupy homes and ways to release and protect against them. These were very vivid and real experiences for me and were definitely healing and changed my life for the better. This probably isn't for everyone although personally I think that anyone should keep an open mind towards things and experience it for themselves.

Here is a link to the workshop's website and information page:
http://www.shamanism.org/workshops/calendar.php?Wkshp_ID=10