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Paul Francis on Therapeutic Shamanism - a podcast

A fascinating and instructive interview with Therapeutic Shamanism's Paul Francis, with whom I have studied many wonderful courses.

https://shrinkrapradio.com/902-uk-shaman-paul-francis-shares-his-story/

Happy Spring Equinox!

Happy Spring Equinox!

 

In Winter and Imbolc, the focus is on letting things go. Having done that, Spring brings a breath of new air. The Spring Equinox is symbolizing a fresh start and is a great opportunity to think about where we want to be in the future and what we need to do to get there.

 

Spring Equinox is the time to:

• Connect to Spring

• Embrace change - where do we get stuck?

• Set some goals

 

Read more about Spring Equinox and the shamanic approach to goal setting:

https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/news/spring-equinox/

 

 

 

All reactions:

44

 

 

 

Shamanic Lower World Adventure - free e-book

:: link

CONTENT

1 FINDING THE LOWER-WORLD

What the Lower-World is, how to recognize it, and why the distinction between the three realms more relevant than ever

4 LOWER-WORLD PRACTICES

Axis Mundi & Hollowing-Out
Power Animal Retrieval
Meet your Human Guide (and Tribe!)
The People - Animal, Plant, Standing and Stone Working with Environments
Working with Air, Fire, Water & Earth Healing Power-Loss
Finding Your Soul

5 FIRST-STEPS COURSE

Start your shamanic journey

***

1: FINDING THE LOWER-WORLD

Shamanism tells us that there is another, deeper reality behind this day-to-day, physical one. The physical, everyday reality that we inhabit is made from information that comes from a deeper, shamanic reality that lies behind this surface one.

Whilst shamanic people live with the sense of both ordinary reality and shamanic reality being side-by- side, there are times when they choose to deliberately and temporarily immerse themselves more fully in shamanic reality; to enter one of the shamanic realms and go on a shamanic “journey”.

:: continue reading here

Becoming a 'hollow bone'

Therapeutic Shamanism - the understanding is ...

WHY IS BECOMING A HOLLOW BONE SO IMPORTANT?

We need to hollow out, or our journeys will be coloured, driven and distorted by our ego.

 

WE ARE A COLLECTION OF STORIES

Remember, the ego is a collection of stories. Almost everything about who we think we are, about how we define ourselves, are just stories. Personal stories, family stories, ancestral stories, societal stories – all stories. These stories are what make our middle-world sense of self as an individual – our ego. This is what the ego is.

 

EGO IS A MADE-UP THING

The more we hold onto the stories, the more tightly we identify ourselves with our middle-world ego construct. It becomes a habit, our default position.

 

We reinforce it by going over-and-over the stories in our minds, by telling them over-and-over again to other people, and by rejecting and denying anything that does not fit them, or that challenges the stories.

We think, ‘This is who I am’ and consequently we experience this as being who we are. This is what shamans mean when they say that ‘things are as they are because of the stories they are telling themselves.’

 

WE START TO BELIEVE STORIES ARE ALL THERE IS

The middle-world self is a mask. It is what the psychotherapist Carl Jung called the ‘persona’ (from the Latin for ‘mask’). It is the face we present to the world. The problem is that we come to think that the mask is who we actually are. To wake up to our real-self involves realising that this persona is, in fact, just a mask that a deeper self is wearing.

 

𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐-𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎:

https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/blog/hollow-bone/

Hollowing out is a meditation practice

The practice and process of hollowing out are common to many spiritual paths and traditions, including shamanism (with meditation probably being the most ‘famous’ one).

 

The aim is to disentangle from what, in shamanism, we would call the ‘middle-world self’ — the incessant flow of thoughts, judgements, opinions and middle-world issues that concern us in ordinary reality — and become instead the ‘witness’, the ‘Aware-Self’ who can watch the flow of thoughts whilst not being entangled in them. This enables us to watch the thoughts (the stories) instead, and not be entangled in them.

 

We become aware that there is another ‘I’ who is able to watch the stories. Doing this helps us realise that we are not the stories but something else entirely.

 

This takes practice, and it is never an endpoint that you ‘arrive at’, but something that you continue to get better at the more you do it. It is a process, not a destination.

 

𝚆𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢?

Join Therapeutic Shamanism - the Three Ravens College - for the Next Steps 1 course. This link gives further details:

https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/lower-world/

Soul Loss

:: link

SOUL LOSS – 18 SIGNS A PART OF YOUR SOUL IS LOST & HOW TO GET IT BACK

WHAT IS SOUL LOSS?

Soul loss can manifest in many ways. How do you know if you need soul retrieval?

Maybe you are struggling to get over a relationship breakup or know someone who is struggling with this? Or the problem is bereavement? Loss of a home or a job? Are you still affected by the wounds and effects of a difficult childhood or another traumatic experience, such as bullying at school or at work? Do you feel like you haven’t been the same after a serious illness or accident? Hold feelings that do not obviously stem from a particular event; apathy maybe; a lack of focus and enthusiasm; depression; addictive behaviours; low self-esteem?

In that case, a skilled shamanic practitioner can journey to find the missing parts and persuade them to come back, a process known as soul-retrieval. More on that later. Let’s first look at the sympthoms of soul loss.

Shamans understand that parts of our soul can leave our bodies. If, however, those parts do not return, the result is a sense of emptiness and a feeling that something is missing.

 

SIGNS YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM SOUL LOSS

They are many and can include a sense or feeling of:

• somehow being incomplete; that something is ‘missing’
• numbness or flatness; of just going through the motions
• hopelessness, apathy and indifference; like a spark is missing
• being disconnected from life or what is around you; as if you are living in a dream
• depression, ranging from mild, to moderate, through to severe
• feeling lost, indecisive and aimless
• procrastination; time-wasting; or finding it hard to sustain focus or effort
• a lack of confidence and self-belief
• having a strong inner critic who puts you down and is always on your back
• phobias and anxieties; fearfulness
• missing memories (where have the memories gone, and why did they go?)
• addictions or other compulsive behaviours and/or thought patterns
• never having really recovered from a past event
• repeatedly returning to a person, location or behaviour that is unhealthy for you
• inability to move on from an issue or event, despite efforts to do so
• finding it hard to (re)invest in the future with enthusiasm and optimism
• grief, fear, anger or rage that you cannot seem to shake off

spiritual bypassing ~ therapeutic shamanism

 

SPIRITUAL BYPASSING means using spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with painful feelings and unresolved psychological wounds. The reason people engage in it is simple.

 

𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻, 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘁.

 

On top of this, the parts of us that we are avoiding are also parts that we fear and which we have disowned and see as ‘monsters’ - all the more reason to avoid them.

And so, when in pain, rather than dealing with the pain, we reach for ‘pain-killers’ instead. So, when a spiritual teacher or religion tells us that we do not need to feel our pain at all but that we can just ‘transcend’ it, then we jump at it.

 

𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲. 𝗦𝗼, 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻-𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱.

 

The problem is that, like all pain-killers, the numbing that spiritual bypassing brings comes with a cost.

 

*****

Are you brave enough to make the darkness conscious? The Inner Tribe Course begins next summer.

More info:

 

:: Inner Tribe Work: Shamanism, Soul Retrieval, and Parts-Of-Self Therapy

Shamanism understands that we are not a single "I” but are instead made up of different "parts-of-self" – an “inner tribe”. As with any tribe, for it to be healthy, each of its members needs to be honoured and understood, and brought into healthy relationship, and much of shamanic practice is about doing this. As well as honouring the middle-world self and its different sub-parts, this includes honouring Body, Soul and Spirit. It also includes the ancient shamanic practice of soul retrieval – finding lost soul parts, bringing them back, and helping them to integrate again.

Many modern psychotherapies have also come to understand that we are made up of parts-of-self such as Internal Family Systems Therapy, Voice Dialogue Work, Transactional Analysis, and various other psychotherapies that work with the idea of “sub-personalities”. In these therapies, it is understood that the issues people present with are often due to the various parts-of-self being in an unhealthy relationship with each other, with some having too much power and others being marginalised or even excluded altogether.

The area of parts-of-self work is one area where shamanism and psychotherapy overlap. As well as the similarities though, the different approaches, knowledge and insights that shamanism and psychotherapy have in this area means that they also have much they can contribute, and much they can learn from each other too. This 10-meeting course will explore this in depth, covering soul-loss and soul retrieval (both traditional and modern), how to identify parts-of-self, and different ways to work with them.

The course is suitable for anyone who is interested in not just the spiritual aspect of shamanism in their own practice and development, but in its more psychotherapeutic aspects too. It will also be of use to counsellors, psychotherapists and other psychological therapists, who wish to bring a more shamanic aspect to their work. This includes any practitioners (such as Internal Family Systems Therapists etc) who already work with parts-of-self, but who wish to explore incorporating a more Soul-centred, Nature-based, and other-than-human approach into their practice. The course is also essential for anyone who wishes to explore becoming a Therapeutic Shamanic Practitioner.

FIND OUT MORE

the axis mundi - therapeutic shamanism

therapeutic_shamanism 

'AXIS MUNDI' is a place where we usually start a shamanic journey.

‘Axis’ means centre, and ‘mundi’ means ‘world’. So, the ‘world’s centre’. Or more accurately, a place where the different worlds come together.

The axis mundi is a place in this reality where the veil that separates this world and the shamanic worlds is thin, and so it is a place where it is easy to step between the worlds.

You may be surprised to know that axis mundii are in fact very common. They are all over the place. You will have already noticed them yourself, probably without realising or knowing that is what they are.

If you would like some company in exploring shamanism and finding your axis mundi, the next intro course in therapeutic shamanism, starts in September :: link

Why shamans use drumming

To do a shamanic journey, we need to venture into a trance state. We can do that by dancing or other repetitive rhythmic movements such as shaking or swaying, singing and chanting, fasting, and the use of hallucinogenic plants. Most common, though, is the use of the drum and the rattle.⁠
⁠
𝗙𝗲𝘄 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀⁠
There are few shamanic cultures that do not extensively⁠
use the drum or some other form of rhythmic instrument. The Kahuna shamans of Hawaii are a notable exception. Other cultures where the drum is not much used are those cultures where it is very difficult to keep a drum-skin taut and protect it from rotting due to the high humidity in the environment, such as in tropical rainforests. These cultures tend to rely more on the use of hallucinogens.⁠
⁠
𝟮𝟬𝟬-𝟮𝟰𝟬 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲⁠
For shamanic journeying, the drum is used in a very particular way. It is usually played at somewhere between 200 to 240 beats a minute - so around 4 beats per second or slightly slower. I once read that this rhythm has a particular effect on the human brain, in that ten minutes⁠
of shamanic drumming can produce the same level of theta brainwaves as two hours of transcendental meditation. ⁠
⁠
𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁⁠
As well as the effect on the brain of playing the drum at that particular speed, the drums are also usually tuned to produce a lot of overtones and undertones. The human brain has trouble processing this and tends to start ‘making things up’. When listening to a shamanic drum, it is common to start hearing not just the drum, but chanting, pan-pipes, whistling, singing, bird-calls, other drummers, and all sorts of other sounds after a while. ⁠
⁠
In addition to this, overtones and undertones tend to produce 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗮, which is where the senses become crossed over. So, the drum sounds start to be perceived as colours and visual images, sensations, smells, and even tastes. This further aids the shamanic journey in making it a rich multisensory experience. In this way, the shamanic drums are a beautifully crafted piece of technology, perfected over thousands of years and used worldwide to enter a rich meditative state.

What is your favourite drumming track?
On  :: Therapeutic Shamanism courses, we usually use Carol Waver's

an introduction to therapeutic shamanism

An introduction by :: Paul Francis, of the Three Ravens College - shamanic training in Therapeutic Shamanism :: link