We are approaching a special moment of the year. We are transitioning once more. In the Northern Hemisphere, the warmth, peace and stillness of Summer is about to infuse everything and everyone with Solar energies. In the Southern Hemisphere instead, Winter is bringing a more introspective time, of mystery and inner retreat.

These important seasonal changes may be experienced differently by different people. All that matters is that you actually experience them, connect with them and work with them. This is how our 'inner compass' does not get overwhelmed. Follow each earthly cycle, and you shall be in harmony with yourself and the world!

Some news from our little community, ever growing and expanding!

More teachers have joined the Teacher Training Program, and we certainly wish to welcome them aboard, for, each of them will bring their unique gifts and talents, granting wisdom and insights to our school! Welcome aboard Teachers!

Debbie is now taking care of our Shamanic Store and is presenting us many unique items that can support your journey with creativity and originality. Each purchase helps the School as well! If you haven't had a look yet, please follow the link below to be carried away for a little while!

The notion of 'time' in shamanism

 

In the practice of shamanism we are called to experience its many facets through our work. As shamanic practitioners we flow through life, while reaching a state of blissful union that encompasses everything and everyone. As time passes, we become more and more attuned to something that is powerful, liberating and creative. As time passes, we are given a chance to be more.

However, from a shamanic perspective, there isn't really a notion of time and space. Everything is seen through different eyes and in a sense, time is irrelevant and space is indefinite. In the spiritual realms time and space are malleable and change as the practitioner's experience unfolds.

Even in our 'ordinary' life, when we look at our past, we are still able to feel what we have left behind. For many this can even be a source of pain. And this is done outside of time and space, in what we perceive to be the now. We can still feel the energetic pull of past events, whether joyful, or sad.

 

The interconnectedness of things and the power of focused intention

 

We have to understand that when 'those who came before us' practiced a certain ritual, or performed a particular ceremony, it had a strong and focused intention.

Basically, they knew what they were aiming for and they were very solid in their approach, belief and the results they wanted to achieve.

Let's consider the art of honouring the ancestors. For someone who does not practice shamanism, or who has little or no spiritual background, this will simply look as a way to pray, however, we have to remind ourselves that what we see as mere observers, might not represent the full picture of something that is far more complex than we can even imagine.

To understand more, we have to experience it.

In shamanism we come to realize that everything is interconnected. And if that is the case, that also means that what came before us is still connected to what has today already come into being.

We are all connected through an invisible thread that keeps the universe in place, again, outside of time and space, which are somehow limiting paradigms that we, as humans, have embraced to bring some organized order in our lives.

Being in the now though, does not necessarily mean that we find ourselves in a zone of absolute disconnection, or safety, unrelated to past events. The past cannot be erased; somehow, it is still connected to the present, and more importantly, the future.

 

Modern psychotherapy and the art of honouring the ancestors

 

It has come to my attention that modern psychotherapy, as well as psychological studies, have demonstrated very accurately that the traumas of our ancestors may manifest again in future generations. 
We are not talking merely of diseases that can be passed onto future generations through the DNA.

We are talking of traumas that may manifest, on a more subtle level, in many of the future generations, within the same family, outside of physicality, of time and space, and more importantly rationality, over many centuries.

For instance, some researchers have been able to study the genealogy of a number of families going back to the middle age: from the 13th century up to present day.

They have discovered instances, where, the ancestry who were executed at the guillotine in the middle ages, have involuntarily left a heritage to many of their future generations, which manifested as serious illnesses in their throats (the point where the blade of the guillotine hits the human body).

Now, while this may sound quite horrifying for some, we have to remember, especially from a shamanic perspective, that we cannot just pretend that all of that just did not happen.

 

Why we honor the ancestors in shamanism

 

What it is that when practicing their shamanism, our ancestors were trying to do with the art of honouring the past generations?

Is this the art of keeping a discordant voice of pain at peace so that the new generations do not get ill?

As we honour the ancestors, we are calming down a collective voice that over time, in order to go through the many lessons that life has to offer, went through pain and suffered.

We honour the ancestors to actually tell them that we remember, that we have not forgotten them and that we honour them because everything they did, in good or bad, allowed us to be here now.

We give thanks to the ancestors for their presence in spirit. Now free of any physicality, they still remain a valuable source of power and wisdom.

We pray to them, to bring peace to many of the old 'stories' that have left a mark, in some way, within the web of life, in which we all are.

It may be just a few words, chanted in soft whispers of appreciation and love that bring all generations as one, finally at peace, allowing any painful vibration to be once more set at rest.

But then, if in truth time and space do not exist, what it is that we are doing when we honour the ancestors? Could it be that we are sending love to them in their present time, helping them to live their lives and often tragic circumstances, as we support them, perhaps unconsciously, outside of any temporal restriction, so that we actually keep a living thread of connection preserved with the intention of also preserving ourselves?

Wouldn't this be a way to confirm that in truth we are all one, and that any other limitation is just an illusion of something that we have created in our minds?

Nevertheless, and beyond any of these theories, honouring the ancestors is a compassionate act of remembering our origins, of appreciation for what these were, and for what they are now, as well as what they are to be in the so called future.

It is an act of power as we bring forth the tremendous energy of unity in a drop of eternity, as we savour, with conscious awareness, a renewed sense of belonging.  

 

A word of caution if you are new to shamanism

 

Such practices, such as honouring the ancestors, hide in themselves untapped potential and unseen facets of the very same gem. The practice is one, the ways and applications are many.

We should keep in mind, that some of our ancestry may have already moved onto a higher state of existence. They might be already outside of personality and persona, and moved beyond any suffering. This is the ancestry that, in a sense, is already back 'home'. Especially if you are new to shamanism, we highly recommend that you focus your intention towards these ancestors, when you wish to honor them. These are now compassionate and wise spirits. If you call upon them, you are calling upon a universal expression of Love.

Some ancestors, on the other hand, may still be trapped in the illusion of pain and separation. They are not back home; they are still transitioning in what is known as the Middle World. This kind of work requires expertise. It requires the knowledge resulting from experience and a deep understanding of subtle realities. Perhaps, if you have just started your shamanic journey of discovery, hold on for a while, before you embark on such work. Safety is important in our work, for it affects us all.

"There seem to be good reasons for a practitioner's awareness of a client's ordinary reality life, as well as good reasons for a practitioner's lack of awareness about precisely the same thing".

What Do I Need to Know?

The Teachers at Shamanism 101

 

Here is a question for you: what does a shamanic practitioner need to know about a potential client and their life, and why?

 

Hmmm. We started thinking about this at Shamanism 101, and it wasn't as easy a question to answer as we thought. It was a question that we could neither answer sufficiently easily, nor allow ourselves to let go. So, with a kind of a "well, I guess we have to..." our little circle of teachers put our heads together and pooled our experience and thoughts about It. It was actually a thorn in our side until we realized that far from being alone with this question, we were confronting an issue that practitioners everywhere throughout the world necessarily face and come to some position about, or else blindly overlook, whether they are conscious of this or not.

 

It is quite likely that we are all pretty familiar with the dreaded 'intake form' that seems to be the necessary bureaucratic bane of visits to many of today's professional human services. From healthcare to home care, the seemingly endless barrage of 'client intake forms' greats us with all of the joylessness of a stone-faced bureaucrat, to which we realize we must respond, or else turn and walk away. However, there are reasons for such a document, and whether we like it or not, many of these actually make sense if we can get past the seeming disconnected indifference of it all.

 

Every practitioner carries questions about their potential client, either written or never composed as such, yet exist as things we might look for or wonder about when meeting or arranging to meet a new shamanic client for the first time. Whether we have come to the point of gathering a list of things we would want to know or not, to some degree and even if unwritten, we make a conscious or unconscious assessment about our client. What mood are they in? Do they know anything about shamanism? How is our relationship with each other going to unfold if we are working together? These are natural questions, even if unrealized, that are present somewhere, even if unspoken.

 

Not all practitioners in human service professions, whether shamanic or not, use forms when interviewing clients. Actually, given the idiosyncratic (if not culturally rebellious!) nature of many shamanic practitioners, a lot opt for a far less formal approach. Furthermore, there is the justifiable rationale for what might be thought of as 'enlightened ignorance,' where a practitioner converses only minimally with their client in order to not to run the risk of subjectively and inadvertently interfering with the nonordinary information gathered through divination or journeying. (Hopefully) practitioners are generally familiar with the toxic impact personal ideas can have on the ability to slip into a strong and clear shamanic state of consciousness. It is well understood, though imperfectly to be sure, that a practitioner's ordinary reality bias, ideas, and likes and dislikes can completely upset the possibility of clear, informed, nonordinary information and visioning.

 

So, we are caught in a necessary dilemma. There seem to be good reasons for a practitioner's awareness of a client's ordinary reality life, as well as good reasons for a practitioner's lack of awareness about precisely the same thing. At Shamanism 101 as we explored this, our dialogue at times became quite intense as we strove to find our own ways of determining where we stood as individual practitioners. We were simply 'cases in point' where for all sorts of reasons, the information that practitioners choose to gather as they enter into their work with clients ranges from zero to extensive and everything in between.

 

Do we ask questions? Or do we stand back in 'enlightened ignorance'? Do we use some kind of template to guide and then express such questions, or do we just ask things in the moment as they appear significant? It is true that forms are often used these days in the helping professions when meeting a new client, and some encourage their use as a vehicle for valuable information. Those who spoke from this side of the 'dialogue' were of a mind that however seemingly distant and unemotional, by sharing this information, intake forms (or their questions, written down or not) provided a wonderful way to bridge the initial communication between client and practitioner. However, and as one of us expressed it quite well, "I'd...like to make it clear to the client that answering the questions is at their discretion - it's a healing session not an Inquisition!"

 

So: do we, or do we not, ask questions about a client's life before we start to work with them? We at Shamanism 101 are not going to try to definitively answer that. Instead, we are going to pass the question on to you and simply raise it as not just one question, but actually a whole spectrum of many questions worth considering, and ask that you wonder about these for awhile on your own, just as we have been. What we are giving you are only possible questions and areas of discernment about which one might - just might - want to know.

 

Or not! We can't say here, now and forever if knowing these things is important or even advisable. We are not going to take a stand on this either way. Though we can see the point in knowing about some of the things asked below, we can also see the point in remaining, as shamanic practitioners, free to simply let our shamanic practice guide us to the visions and healing for which our clients have come to us.

 

What we have gathered is the result of passing back and forth individual lists of areas about a client or their life that each of the Shamanism 101 teachers felt might be important to know. It was as if the six of us were sitting around in a circle, each of us blurting out every once in awhile something like "oh, and another thing that might be helpful to know could be..." Follow this up with some warm-hearted challenges, criticism and debate, and then you probably have a pretty fair idea of how we arrived at what we did. If some on our list seemed to be a different way of saying what another of us said, we pulled these together and combined them into a single question.

 

Let the following then, be an assuredly overzealous attempt to provide what might be the most insanely comprehensive initial assessment form in the history of shamanism. We provide this to you - not entirely tongue in cheek - so that each of you can then take up the harder work of paring these questions down for yourself. It is up to you to take up the task of rewriting it - or not - so it makes the most practical and ethical sense to you.

Moreover, though it comes from us, none of us at Shamanism 101 would use such a form. Good Lord!

 

Moreover, some of us don't use a form at all. Sure, we wrote it, but we also refuse to take any responsibility for it. This is not because of any rebellious streak in us but rather because it is not us who will be meeting your clients. We couldn't begin to make your mind up for you about what is important for you to know, and how much would verbalizing such questions affect your practice enough so as to veer your work away from a strong shamanic state of consciousness, one that would interfere with the clarity and purity of your visions.

 

In fact, we are not going to try to convince you of what, if any, of the following is important for you. As an ethical and aware human services professional working with others on intimate and crucial life issues, we do recognize that it is incumbent on us as practitioners to at least step up to a level of professional awareness in our caregiving, which is what this is all about. Whether it be from conscious and 'enlightened avoidance' of information about our client, or sadly, if it is what may be more frequent as the simple ignorance of the issues and ramifications of the intimate work we are engaged in, we must at least pull our head up and face squarely and honestly what choices we are making about how we do our practice.

 

And as you are pondering 'What do I need to know about a client or their life, if anything, when they comes to me for help, and why?", you might start making some notes to yourself on what comes up. If thinking these things through gets you inspired to write a short article in answer to this question, then we invite you to send it in to us in an email to editor@shamanism101.com along with your permission to let us republish a part or the whole of what you send, in our next newsletter. Because of the number of expected emails, we can't promise you it will be published, though a portion may be. What we can promise you is that you will be brought into a necessary dialogue about something that might not be talked about among practitioners as much as it could, or should!

 

Intake Form:

 

Date______________________

Name_____________________

Date of Birth_______________

Address___________________

Phone numbers_____________

Home ____________________

Cell______________________

Work_____________________

 

• May I leave a message? _______ On which phone? _______________________________________________

• Email or other contact information (may not be confidential) ________________________

• Who can I contact in an emergency?___________________________________________

Name______________________

Phone number_______________

Other contact information______

 

Emergency information for psychologist, psychiatrist or other consultants and physicians.

 

Name_____________________________

Phone number______________________

Other contact information______________

 

The information you provide below helps us understand you and your needs. 

 

(We have put together a number of questions that may be worth to be asked when working with a Client, depending on your experience as a practitioner and the way you work. Some of them may be irrelevant to you, while some may be more helpful. These can be either 'spiritually oriented questions' that will help you to understand how to work with your Client from a shamanic standpoint of view; or inquiry about the mental, physical and emotional state of the Client so that you are aware of any serious condition and will be able to take action accordingly).

• What brings you here today?

• What kind of help are you looking for and what is your desired outcome for our session?

• What are some important things you want me to know about your life journey?

 

Spiritually oriented questions:

 

• What is your religious and/or spiritual background? Do you have a spiritual practice?  If so, what is it?

• Have you received shamanic healing before?

• If you did, what was your experience?

• Did you find it effective? If either yes or no, why?

• What is your understanding of shamanism, and do you have any concerns about it?

• Are there any other healing methods - considered spiritual or otherwise - that have worked for you?

• Healing is a process and may happen today or over time.  What are your thoughts on this?

•  Healing happens through you. Any retrieval of wisdom or healing on your behalf will require your participation in the process today and into the application of it to your everyday life.  Are you willing to apply it?

•  Before each session, I may be providing information and preparation for the work ahead.

•  It sometimes happens that we need to postpone your healing session if I find that either you or I are not spiritually ready.  How do you feel about waiting until the right time comes?

•  Your spiritual understandings are important and valuable and shamanism is effective no matter what understandings we have, so long as we can set these to the side and receive the shamanic healing that can come through our work together.

•  It makes no difference how we understand shamanic practices, yet accessing information and healing framed traditionally uses the conceptualization of 'helping spirits'. Are you comfortable with this?

•  Healing sessions can bring forth a great deal of information.  Do you want to know everything I'm given or just what is pertinent to the issue you come in with?

•  Can I proceed with any shamanic work that comes up as helpful during our session, or do you want to limit our work strictly to the issue you have come in for?

•  There are no guarantees regarding the success of our work: this is up to the helping spirits and what they see as important and needing our attention.

•  Shamanism as traditionally understood is not physical, mental or emotional practice. Our focus when working together is on spiritual healing, which are of a different conceptual understanding and may or may not be in any way related to issues understood in today's modern conceptions of wellness or un-wellness.  Are there any questions or concerns you have about this?

 

Mental, Physical and Health related questions:

 

• Do you have any particular mental or physical condition that can help me understand you?

• Are you experiencing grief, anger or sorrow?

• If you are, what is your general attitude towards life in general?

• If you are having challenges, are you talking about these with others?

• Are you currently experiencing a depressed mood?

• Have you experienced any significant life changes or stressful events recently or from the past that are affecting you today?

• Do you have any past or current mental health issues?

• Are you currently under the care of counselor, physician or psychiatrist?

• Are you currently prescribed psychiatric medications?

• Are you taking any other medications or supplements at this time?

• Do you have a history of drug or alcohol use?  When was the last time you used them?

• How would you rate your current physical health(please circle) 

Poor     Unsatisfactory   Satisfactory     Good     Very Good   Excellent

• Please list any specific health problems you are currently experiencing:

• Are there any medical issues that I need to be aware of?

• Are you currently experiencing any chronic pain?

• How would you rate your current sleeping habits (please circle)

Poor     Unsatisfactory   Satisfactory     Good     Very Good   Excellent

• How many times per week do you get outside for enjoyment or exercise?

• What types of regular exercise do you engage in?

• Please describe your eating habits

• Is there anything else that you want to share or want me to know?

• How comfortable or uncomfortable are you with touch, and if necessary, do I have your permission to touch you during the session if it is required. I will fully explain the limits regarding touch that I have or that you express and guarantee that these limits are adhered to.

• If feelings of self-harm come to you, do you agree to seek professional help?

   

Declaration of responsibility and legal liability:

 

I __________________________ (print your name) am over 18 years of age and have come to this shamanic session completely on my own volition and hold myself fully responsible for engaging in this shamanic session.

 

I agree that shamanic practice is strictly a spiritual practice and further agree to not hold ___________________________ (fill in the name of the practitioner), the organization(s) they work with or for, or anyone else related to such organizations responsible in any way for anything that I or others believe is a physical, psychological, psychiatric or any other concern that is in any way felt to be related to the work we do in our session, either now or at any point in the future.  

 

(Note to anyone building a personal set of questions for your use, or using any of this in your practice: what we have pulled together here is not a release that has been reviewed by an attorney. You are advised to seek consult in your own state, country, or governmental region to determine how best to frame your legal protection.)

 

_________________________________ (signature of client)

 

_________________________________ (printed name of client)

 

_________________________________ (today's date)