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I was talking with someone the other day about how shamanic journeying had assisted in transforming my inner and outer worlds – they asked me what I meant and could I give an example? For some reason I wasn’t excepting this question and I didn’t give a coherent response, I think that is because the answer is much bigger and more complex.
Shamanic journeying has allowed me to begin to explore the depths of soul and all the beauty, wonder, shadows and poetry that comes with it. It is one way to discover truth.
I started to practice Shamanic journeying in 2014, though I wasn’t aware that’s what I was doing at the time, I just thought it was a type of meditation and while there are some cross overs – Journeying for me is something quite different to visualizing whilst meditating. When I started journeying I did it every day for 2 years, which felt like an initiation of sorts. I still journey regularly and this practice has evolved as I have.
If you don’t know what Shamanic journeying is, the best way so far that I can describe it is that it’s like dreaming whiling you are awake, well kind of ... You have to try it really to know and like so many things the more you practice the deeper you go and the more vivid the experiences become. At first, I did it without the assistance of a drum. Though drums and rattles are commonly used to help propel you further into the journey, the sounds shift your state of awareness. Many indigenous cultures across the world use journeying in slightly different ways for healing, to remember wisdom, to connect with spirits of all kinds, ancestors, the land, animals and our soul essence.
Journeying has helped me to create more balance within myself and allowed me to access more love, sometimes it has been truly epic with mythical experiences, it is always rich and colourful. Sometimes it has also been exhausting and emotionally challenging particularly when I have brought back lost parts of myself and cleared space in my inner worlds, usually of energy that I no longer needed.
When I journey I am stepping into other planes of existence and I see, feel and experience them all through the filter of who I am. How I interpret these energetic and soul planes is unique like it is for anyone who enters and navigates these spaces and for me they are as real as this one just a different landscape with a different language.
The first journey I ever went on was profound, it took a few tries for me to be able to do it. I met a spirit alley and I asked him to hold my hands and show me how he felt about me. I wasn’t expecting to feel what I felt next which was overwhelming unconditional love for who I am in my entirety, something I had not felt in this world, at least not in the same way. As he held my hands I instantly wept as I was completely bowled over by this love for me, this unconditional love for exactly who I am for everything I have done in the past and anything I may do in the future, only love and complete acceptance. A book I read gave the suggestion to do this as a way to practice discernment and this is essential in all planes of existence, the spirit worlds and the physical.
This was a transformational experience for me, one I am still integrating today as I begin to accept myself fully for who I am. This is one of hundreds of transformational experiences within my journeys and I will be sharing more, well not everything because it needs to keep its magic and what my younger self was not aware of was that we don’t need to share all our experiences, it’s important to keep some just for us, to only share what we want.
If you would like to work with me, I offer shamanic healings and mentorship sessions.