Stones Reflecting on Water

The Shadow Yin...

Seeing Light in Shadow

Shamanic Concepts: Soul Loss

Here, Rev. Criss Ittermann, L.F. describes the concept of soul loss. It is part of my obligation as a co-healer in your embodiment of wholeness that I offer help in soul retrieval services. I myself have been affected by soul loss, and believe it is directly related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD):

"Soul retrieval" is a concept brought by Sandra Ingerman to Core Shamanism as taught by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, founded by Michael Harner. For more information, please consult The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner, Soul Retrieval by Sandra Ingerman and The Foundation for Shamanic Studies.
The modern concept of soul retrieval is based on parallels from various shamanic cultures that relate to their concepts of soul essence and soul loss. Like many concepts from other cultures, one must set aside one's cultural beliefs long enough to grasp the different paradigms. Soul, in this case, is the way those cultures define it. The term "soul" is the closest English approximation of what they conceptualize. This is not the Christian concept of soul (a subtle body part which belongs solely to you and which will pass on into another life), although it has similarities.
Your soul, here, is your essence, a bundle of your spiritual energies. It's how the "molecules" of your immortal spirit connect to your conscious and physical forms. That connection can be lost. Essence can be lost. Generally it's lost through anything traumatic. This essence is conscious, and it also can choose to vacate due to difficult situations. This is the concept referred to as "soul loss".
Repeated oppressions, abuses, brainwashing, and so forth will often result in soul loss. Soul loss often occurs through abuse to a child, for instance, or by abuse from loved ones later in life. Sometimes essence can be frightened out of you for a time by a jolt, a loud sound, an accident, etc. A portion of soul is lost when there is a trauma to the body. When a dearly loved person dies, sometimes a part of your essence tries to follow them.
When soul loss occurs, the essence generally goes out of body and finds a place and/or time in the otherworld(s) where it feels safe. Occasionally it torments itself by finding a place in the otherworld to get stuck in the very situation which made it abandon the body. It can't get out of this time-loop, and needs help to realize that the situation is ended/over and it is safe to come home. Rarely, it tries to follow someone else around, either on this world, or into the afterlife.
If you lose all of this essence, it is thought that you die. Your immortal spirit is no longer connected to your physical form. There is no more essence of life in your body. Loss of much of your essence can lead to disease and disability (and thus possibly eventually death anyways), or to feeling like you're not whole, like there's a part of you that is missing and that there is something or someone out there that can fulfill you. Sometimes soul loss contributes to psychological illnesses. Often we seek out other people to fill this empty space, but sometimes it's our own essence that was lost and is missed.
In our culture, soul loss is occurring to various people all the time. Thankfully, sometimes the parts return spontaneously after time (after illness, grief, periods of withdrawal, etc.). However, most people are walking around missing portions (sometimes very generous portions) of their essence, partially because there is a lack of persons trained to note when loss has occurred and return the essence to the body.
Shamans whose cultures use this paradigm generally recognize the symptoms, or know the events in the lives of tribemates. They know when there is a portion of essence that must be returned to the body lest illness should result. A soul retrieval in a case where loss is known to have occurred generally takes place within 3 days of the loss, to prevent development of weakness and illness due to the loss of essence.
In the Core Shamanic teachings, soul retrieval is done during a shamanic journey to the otherworlds. The shaman enters a trance state and goes out of body to hunt down portions of your essence. If you've experienced multiple soul losses in your life (most of us have), then the shaman may bring back more than one piece of soul. Sometimes additional soul retrieval journeys must be performed several weeks later, after the new pieces are settled in.
People who are new to this paradigm may be helped by having the entire physical process explained to them, along with the subjective experiences of the shaman during the soul retrieval.
The shaman enters the trance state using whatever method works best for them: singing, movement and dance, calling on their spirit helpers, chanting, playing drums or rattles, using a journeying tape, etc. By the time the shaman lays down next to you, generally touching at arms and legs, they are in a nonordinary state of consciousness.
In the otherworld, while the shaman's body lays still beside you, the shaman requests the presence of a trusted guide for the journey. They ask the guide to take them to a portion of your soul which is ready to come home. "Ready" is relative to both you in the body and the soul part lost; if you or it are not ready to be reunited, that part will not be retrieved. On some occasions, the spirit guide may say "not right now, this person isn't ready".
The guide brings the shaman to the area, or gives directions or hints to find the piece. Sometimes the shaman must put their own essence at risk for you; it's their job, and the lost soul part realizes how important coming home is, if someone is willing to be hurt to get them. Sometimes it takes some convincing to get the soul part to come home. Whatever the shaman can do, they will, on your behalf. It's part of their calling as a shaman and a healer. Every soul retrieval is unique.
The retrieval itself probably takes about thirty minutes or so. All you must do is lay still, be present in your body, and truly welcome back the lost parts. It helps a lot to be ready for the unexpected.
The shaman will return your essence to your body, usually by blowing it into your heart chakra, then guiding you to sit up and blow it into your crown chakra. They will perhaps shake a rattle around you or dance around you to seal the essence in your body so that it does not get lost before it is integrated. They may hand you a crystal that they kept with them on the journey to help your returned soul essence to feel at home. They may sing to you or tell you a story afterwards, while the shaman is still in the trance state. Then the retrieval is technically over, and the shaman may come out of nonordinary reality to speak with you.
Generally the shaman will tell you some portion of their journey, asking if anything is relevant. Sometimes they see the events that lost that portion of spiritual essence. Sometimes they don't. Whatever you are told, it's your job to listen at that point, and to come away feeling love for the hurt part of you that tried to run away to protect itself. Generally it needs tender loving care, nurturing, and acceptance.
As your life situation improves (whether through soul retrievals or just your own work on your life, in spite of having not had soul retrievals), it might become more common for soul parts to return spontaneously as portions of your essence are convinced that your life has improved, and that they're honestly wanted back. Some pieces still might be stuck and blind to your current circumstances, and the shaman becomes the intermediary to explain to them that it's time to come home. Often you can't do this for yourself, as you yourself are sometimes part of what scares the soul part.
Having friends and family around who honestly want you to be and feel more whole, who honestly love you (all of you, even parts that aren't home right now), can be extremely helpful in a soul retrieval.

On Being Trojaned

http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm

Don't Eat My Cookies!

System here is loaded with them. I'll post more when things are running less slowly down home here at the pc.

Rose Essence

For the unfolding of passions....choose different variations of rose flower essences. Check in with me.

http://vimeo.com/3773035

Strong Communication with the Spirit World, Weak Human Understanding

Spirit speaks to us very directly, but it is through our conscious screening process that we filter out its meanings. We try to understand things through words and symbols, but any language (and mental programming) we use to describe what we hear, see, and especially, feel comes up short. It is no wonder, then, that spirituality as a practice often comes with the necessary component of prayer.

Just how many times have we made the wrong decisions, based on advice from the spirit world, because we are misinterpreting what the spirits were saying? It seems that the information collected by the subconscious is interfered with by the minds' own garbage and turns quality information into a garble.

As one of Catholic roots, may I boldly state that it is the intention of the Holy Spirit to help us discern God-given information to keep us on track on the journey, at least while we are flesh and blood beings on the planet. I feel Holy Spirit is the mediator between self and God, and personally advises me of the power of truth in a reading through a really strong, tingling sensation that goes up and down my spinal column and on the back of my head and neck. Also, because of the intensity of love that come through, I often experience tears of joy (or sadness). Unfortunately, demonic energies can communicate in a similar way, but the usually the above energies are accompanied by an uncomfortable burning sensation that can be differentiated fairly easily with practice. I also experience a lot of nausea from darker energies.

This being said, please spend at least a few moments in prayer or meditation before making any major decisions based on intuition, or based on that of a reader's. It's an extra safety net that works.

Asleep No Longer

http://www.u2tube.org/video.php?title=Acrobat&album=Achtung%20Baby

Messages Unread

After dawn, I drove past an automobile accident following a hoary frost. The car was flipped upside down, across the street from Wawayanda State Park. As I inched past the wreckage and the police cars, I shuttered and squirmed from the prospect at what had happened to the poor driver. There was no sign of her.

Some days, life thows you some real loo-loos. When the message hits soft, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. But then it hits hard. Real hard. Driving past the accident scene reminded me of the qualities of the Death Knight, or aconite. Aconite, also known as Monkshood, or Purple Death, as I call him, is an extremely toxic herb. In Chinese Medicine "it is considered an effective stimulant for the spleen and kidneys, and is a favorite treatment for malaise, general weakness, poor circulation, cancer and heart disease." (http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-materia-medica/aconite/).

I channeled the herb with a classmate while attending Partner Earth Education Center's Herbal Apprentice Certification Program a number of years ago. That summer afternoon, we approached the flower bed in a rather haphazard way, because a puppy dog was romping around us playfully. He was keeping us from respectful focus. While we collected and meditated on the plant, the suns rays absorbed into the water and brought out the soul qualities of the plant. As we had been taught, we each took a sip of the "mother" which was left from each clear glass bowl of spring water after we collected it.

On the way to the store, we stopped to buy ice cream. It became clear to the two of us just how toxic this plant was. Our throats started to burn and close up, and eating the ice cream didn't help. The toxicity was so strong, that we experienced mild panic from this acrid, sandpaper-like tightening. It was as if the tissues had clamped together and were leaving no room for air or moisture. It took close to four hours for the raspy sensation to go away.

The message from the plant? When things are not resolved, Purple Death cuts to the chase. He approaches with such a ferocity, one had better be ready for the change that is about to take place.

Not so co-incidentally, that morning after the car accident, a co-worker standing next to me had accidentally knocked a glass gallon milk jug to the floor. It smashed into pieces behind me. I said, "You know what that means, Lis'." She asked, "No, what?...My response was, "One of two things--it could have been a different message for either of us...but I think it conveys shattered illusions." (I joked about what the other meaning could have been.)

She looked at me thoughtfully, and said, "Thank You." I just tried to laugh it off.

Back to the car accident. During those two days I had noticed a pattern. People I was interacting with were either having a really, really bad day or a very very smooth flowing day. It reminded me of the contrast between the speeding driver and the peacefulness of the state park. Had people made a choice that day in compliance with truth and fate, or were they in opposition to it? The destroyer sometimes takes us when she loses patience with us. In this case, the destroyer took on the much more masculine qualities of aconite with his dark horse, armour, and shield. But at his core, he has the female energy of Shiva. He carries a sword, and he comes very, very fast. He usually comes into your life when someone around you is out of patience and severes the ties. He is never gentle. He comes when an individual is putting off the unpleasant and needs to "face the music." So, I thanked my lucky stars that the day went fairly smooth for me and into the next 48 hours.

My friend Janet stated this morning, "The moon energy tends to bring accidents!" I silently thought, "No duh. Aren't you a little late?"

Vultures in the Tree

As if this stormy day wasn't weird enough...driving on the way home from work, I approached the very opposite of what one would conceive of as a Christmas Tree. A naked sycamore, filled with black birds, spread a dark message with its omenous undertones.

As an artist, I am fascinated with Goth and its expressiones. It came up in conversation again today with a customer that comes to the store and likes to dress that way--died black hair, pale white skin, dark makeup, black painted fingernails, black leather jacket, the inclination toward wicca and dark magic. So the theme seemed to continue...

On closer inspection, I saw that the birds were vultures, perhaps interspersed with large crows as well--lifting and airing out their wings. As one interested in animal medicine and tarot symbolism, I was drawn towards a deeper meaning. Why were they not quite spreading their wings, but lifting them? Why there-- above all the cars, why then? Were they trying to keep warm from the exhaust fumes of oncoming traffic beneath them? The tarot card must be swords. Yet, nothing in the scene conveyed something as dismal as the ten of words would in a reading. My gut feeling was that it was an Ace, the card that indicates the power to love strongly or to hate in its meaning. Perhaps people adored but hated the oncoming Christmas season.

But something else was going on. If the naked sycamore contrasted with the lively embellished Christmas pine, it might mean a rather desolate Christmas season indeed. Yet there was humor in it. Vultures and crows are usually funny animals. So what's the joke? To me personally, I think it meant that though my Christmas season might seem desolate, it will probably really be grand, 'cause I will be stretching and airing out my feathered wings with a few other weathered but humorous souls, in a playful, warm and humid environment. It will be Tim-Burton like, perhaps, but fun. Time will tell.