Shamanic Healing consists of a varied body of practices performed by the shaman or practitioner to help or heal another person. This is a fundamental principle of shamanism wherever it is practiced. The methods, tools, ‘symbology’, and medicines will vary from culture to culture and region to region but primarily the healing is a three‐way connection between the client, shaman and spirit.
The recapitulation of life force is the body of work, which restores or recapitulates lost life force. Soul Retrieval is one of the most well‐known and effective practices to this end. To understand how recapitulation practices work, we need to look at the multidimensional nature of reality and move away from a linear sequential perspective. From this expanded perspective, ‘anything which has ever happened to anybody, anywhere; it is still happening somewhere’. If a traumatic event occurred for a person ten, twenty and so on years ago, for that person it is still happening, and I would venture to state that it is also in some way still influencing the person’s life.
Shamanism does not dwell on past events; there is only this vast awesome evermoving great moment of now where there is no separate past, present, or future. It is possible for a practitioner to journey and move outside of linear time to go to the place where that energetic event is still occurring for that individual, find and bring back that person’s life force which is held in that energetic event, and when this has been carried out, then the therapeutic healing of the event and its consequences can truly begin.
The loss of life‐force is known as soul‐loss , and this can take place when we suffer a trauma, have an accident, experience strong emotional exchanges with a loved one, separation from a partner, death of a loved one, go through a pervasive period of difficult circumstances. When we undergo a severe trauma typically a part of our vital nature goes away, so that we can survive whatever is happening to us. It is a way for the body and consciousness to survive severe trauma. Problems develop when the soul part or fragment does not return. It may not want to come back, or may not be able to return due to the nature of the trauma.
The concept of Soul‐loss and the ceremonial retrieval of souls are found in many cultures. For example in the Tibetan Bon Shamanistic tradition, One of the most important practices performed by Tibetan shamans of the Sichen path is Soul Retrieval ‐ Lalu (literally redeeming, or buying back the soul), and chilu, (redeeming the lifeenergy). These practices are widespread in the Bon tradition and also in all Tibetan Buddhist schools.
Although the terminology is different, the concept of soul‐loss is a phenomenon well known to psychology. Jung ( C.G Jung, Mysterium coniunctionis), recounts in his memoirs a fantasy in which his soul flew away from him, that the libido withdrew into the unconscious and was carrying on a secret life there. The libido representing the life‐force, and the unconscious typically representing ‘the land of the dead’.
There are a number of symptoms of soul‐loss, for example, when people feel that they are observing life as an outsider, rather than engaging and being fully involved. Other common symptoms are when people feel that they are being ‘spaced’ out a lot of the time, not really here. Other symptoms that indicate possible soul loss are lifethemes such as a pervasive fear, inability to trust people. I have also found that a severe depression can also be a symptom of soul loss. Chronic illness may also be a symptom of soul loss. This directly relates to Power. In the shamanic worldview, power and maintaining health go hand in hand, if the body is power‐full, there is no room for illness or disease, which are often regarded as an invasive force.
In my practice I have worked with many people who had done considerable work on the original trauma, but in many ways were still experiencing or ‘stuck’ in it. One of the differences between Soul Retrieval and some modern Western psychological systems is that Soul Retrieval focuses on the return and integration of the lost lifeforce, rather than focus on the original trauma itself. In my view Soul Retrieval and therapy work very well together, the best combination being first the recapitulation of the lost life‐force, followed by a therapeutic approach to support the person through the process of working with released feelings and emotional energy which can be uncomfortable and even raw for the individual. This release and subsequent experiencing of the emotions is a fundamental part of the whole healing process. This healing process leads to what I call the union of the life force, when the person can then move forward in their life without being anchored to the past, and live a life of creativity and productivity.
When the soul‐fragments are returned, the memories and emotions associated with the departure of the soul fragment may also return. Although this may not always be a comfortable experience, it is a sign that healing is taking place. The experiencing of the emotions and feelings although they may have not been felt prior to the Soul Retrieval, the effects are still working, but at a deeply unconscious level i.e. a place of the not known. The person may have been experiencing a chronic and pervasive depression, yet not able to come to grips with this. Soul Retrieval works very well with other therapies. A therapist can only work with the parts of the person which are there, it is an encouraging development that people are now coming to Soul Retrieval sessions accompanied by their therapist.
The most common immediate response after a Soul Retrieval is that the recipient feels that they are more ‘full’, that there is more of them. They may even experience the density of the body to have changed.
It is important to recognize, that each person is different and everybody will react differently after a Soul Retrieval. Some may feel heavier, bigger, happier, angry, sad, laughing or perhaps nothing for a few weeks. My observation is that most people will experience a change within a two week period, two weeks seems to be the magic number when the person really feels the effect. It is important to trust the persons psyche completely. The only role that the recipient has is to receive the healing. It is important that they keep open, and concentrate on staying open to receive this energy – that is their only task.
After Soul Retrieval, recipients should allow themselves space to be with the returned life‐force. For some it may be quiet reflection, others may want to be in nature, in the countryside, in the parks. Music is also important, beautiful sounds help to restore our dissonant energy fields. Nature is a wonderful healer, being in nature, enjoying the beauty of the outdoors, of the Earth, will help the soul‐parts to integrate with the recipient.
Soul Retrieval is one way to restore and maintain our life force and power. This is an act where we receive our own life‐force. Another way to maintain our life‐force is not to hold on to anybody else. In our lives, we take and sometimes hold onto the energy of others. This is known as Soul Entanglement, which I know for many may be an emotive word and concept, but this is something we all do. It is common and should be looked at in a non‐judgmental way. In some respects, it is the other side of Soul Retrieval. Soul‐Entanglement can be a learned generational behaviour and often occurs in relationships and within families. It is an unconscious act. In fact, if the person knew what they were doing, they may well be very upset.
There are a number of problems that soul‐entanglement causes:
There are many benefits to all parties and to all‐that‐there‐is when we return another person’s life‐force to them. This act can be most profound and healing and work on many levels. I get a lot of feedback from people who do this work, and many times I am told of relationships between partners, parents and children changing and improving. As a simple analogy, I see this as a tug‐of war where both parties are pulling on the rope. When one person returns the others lifeforce, they effectively let go of the rope. Then when the other person responds, there is no more rope to pull or exert pressure on.
Participants in workshops and clients often tell me that as soon as they did this work, they went home and cleared all the clutter and junk from their home. To me this is a way of making an immediate physical manifestation and grounding of the act of release. They are making space available for new things to come into their lives, which is exactly what happens in our own soul bodies: we make more space for our own life‐force, more space for our own power.
Even though we may know this and would like to reflect and where possible return the other person’s life‐force, it may be difficult to recall or remember people’s names or their faces because the act was carried out on an unconscious basis. This is the clear problem.
Working with the tools, methods and techniques of shamanism can be very supportive to us in this act of releasing. It is because the unconscious memories are difficult to access that contact with the Spirit people, Spirit animals, and teachers can be helpful. The Spirit teachers and animals know us perfectly: they know our personal history, our strengths, our qualities, our foibles, the symbols we work with, and they can help us in this.
Following a major accident (an elevator crash) – I have been healing since the late 1980’s internationally. I held the first Shamanic Healing Practitioner Training courses in Europe. The services I offer are:
Divination is not ‘fortune telling’, it is a pathway to a deeper understanding of events and influences surrounding a situation or person. Divination is as old as humanity, but unfortunately in mainstream Western society it has been regarded as something primitive, irrational, and pandering to superstition. Divination is simply a way of revealing the truth. The diviner reveals or uncovers to their client hidden truths about themselves or the circumstances surrounding them. In societies outside the West, divining continues to play an important role revealing that which is hidden, easing anxiety, and helping in coming to terms with challenging circumstances that may demand the implementation of difficult decisions.
In divination, the role of the shaman is to act as a neutral mediator. The practitioner, by exploring and providing the initial reading and interpretation, allows the seeker of this information to avoid projecting personal wants, desires, and wishes if the question or situation is emotionally charged.
I also carry out distant healing & Divination by arrangement. For this I would require a photograph or personal object of the client, however these days I tend to work interactively with the client via Skype or telephone on a worldwide basis.
Another part of my work is to pull or ‘draw in’ benign and supportive energies for the client and imbue a natural object, typically a rock with this quality. I then paint a unique design on the rock specially for the client as both an act of ‘attention’ to focus the specific healing qualities that the client needs and to ‘seal’ the energetic quality in the rock which holds this. This can be done by proxy for another person who the client would like to maybe give as a present to them. The costs for this vary depending on the work involved.
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