Sky Yeager
Shamanic Practitioner - Usui Reiki Master - MariEL Reiki Medicine
You can now listen to a podcast recording of my latest article below And find more episodes on Spotify |
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You can now listen to a podcast recording of my latest article below And find more episodes on Spotify |
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Human beings are naturally connected with the Spirit in all things. This was our collective way of life for thousands of years. We felt and knew the kinship that existed between ourselves and everything in our world. We have defined this in our modern view as Animism, which in its most basic definition is the recognition of the Spirit in all things. Reclaiming our animistic foundation is key to creating a healthy life for ourselves and the planet.
Our modern society begins to indoctrinate us into a version of Newtonian materialism at an early age. As soon as we begin school we start getting taught there is a separation of living beings and non living things. If it grows like a plant or breathes like an animal or reproduces on a cellular level we are taught that it is alive. If it does not fit that criteria then we are told that it is not alive and only an object. Then we are also given hierarchies influenced by materialism and dogma that bases itself in science and religion. Those structures have put forth various opinions over centuries that separate us from nature. Like trees are alive, but they are not sentient. Animals are alive but don’t have souls. There is life all over a mountain but the mountain is not itself alive. This is the thinking that has destroyed much of the forests, waters and land of our planet, and decimated an important facet of humans' innate connection to the Divine and Spirit realms. It’s easier to cut down a forest if we don’t think trees are beings. It’s easier to dam a river if we don’t recognize it is alive. Changing the way we teach our children about this will be the way we save our lives on earth. Some of these human-centric and extractive ways of thinking are changing as there has been a shift from materialism to a quantum way of looking at the world. Science in the quantum realm recognizes that particles are connected and affect each other even when separated by huge distances. It has shown that the observer and what is observed are connected. And it has re-discovered that trees are sentient and talk to one another. But it is still a long way to go from those quantum forays by a few into a sea change of how billions of humans and the collective structures of societies relate to nature and nature spirits. But we can look to the indigenous peoples around the world to show us the way. They still know how the spirit of everything is connected. Thanks to them and fellow conservation and social justice legal advocates who work tirelessly to protect nature from exploitation, some interesting and crucial pivotable events have happened. In 2017 the Whanganui river in the Māori ancestral lands of New Zealand was granted the rights of personhood, and in 2019 the Klamath River in my home state of Oregon was also granted legal personhood by the Yurok tribal government. In 2022 the Magpie River, sacred to the Innu First Nation, who call it Mutushekau Shipu, was the first river in Canada to be granted legal personhood. In each of these cases, it means that they have rights and legal standing in a court of law, the same as a person or a corporation does. And in these cases, indigenous and conservationist caretakers of the rivers have been designated to represent them. This has stopped the further building of dams on these rivers, and in the case of Klamath River, has even started the process of removing them. Other places around the world have made forays into this same way of thinking, albeit with mixed results. In 2008 an article was added to Ecuador’s constitution that Nature “has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes”. Bolivia then did something similar, however both countries are still dependent on extractive economies that continue to expand into indigenous lands leaving destruction and violence in their wake. It remains to be seen if the courts and laws can shift power from the corporations back to the people as representatives for Nature. Earth needs good lawyers. But she also needs us. We can shift the collective view if there are enough of us that relate to her, and all that is her, as our kin and alive. We can do this by thinking of rivers, trees and stones as alive and referring to them as she/he/they instead of it, and by acknowledging the Spirit within them that makes them unique beings. Speaking to nature as a being and to the Spirits that reside within them instead of about nature as an object is also a key shift. We can also continue to deepen our own relationships with the spaces we inhabit and visit. We can strive to be conscious of how our thoughts and actions connect with those whose spaces we share whether they be forests, rivers, dandelions, drainage ditches or garbage dumps. We can make a stand as activists and support the people, indigenous tribes and organizations who are leading us back to our original way of relating to and with Nature and Nature Beings. And we can create and offer ceremonies that honor the Spirit in all things, and that expand our viewpoints and our hearts to see that as we are part of Spirit, we are all related.
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In the last two articles we’ve looked at creating and participating in ceremony in our personal practice and in our community. We’ve seen how that weaves together to both anchor our intentions and radiate them into the collective energy field. We can also create these ceremonies in partnership with the spirits of the land. It is also a community ceremony but this focuses on co-creating with the nature spirits and devas. The first thing to do in planning this kind of ceremony is to get permission from the land, the genius loci, which can be thought of as the Spirit of the land and all the spirits and beings who live there. We can receive this with our intuitive knowing senses, or we can use divining methods like shamanic journey, or using our pendulum or muscle testing to get yes or no answers. If we get a no, we must respect that. Perhaps the timing is not right or maybe nature has something else in mind. Once we get permission, we also need to think about the purpose. Ceremonies for gratitude and love for the earth and nature spirits are usually always welcomed. Balancing or tending ceremonies may be called for in an area that has been stressed by human causes as in logging, mining, industrial agriculture, or even forest fires. For areas that have been polluted by toxins or that feel heavy from invasive energies we may want to focus on clearing and tending ceremonies. Things to keep in mind when we co-create in nature are choosing materials that are easily compostable and that also will not introduce invasive species in wild areas. If we want to bring rose petals and herbs from our garden to use in the ceremony, remove any seeds and seed pods that could introduce non native species to the area. Also we will want to cook those on a shallow baking tray at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. This will kill any insect eggs or fungus that may be beneficial in our garden space, but could upset an ecosystem balance in wild areas. When possible, creating with materials that we find already in the area is ideal, and becomes part of the ceremony itself. Again find a way to receive permission from them and to thank them because that is also part of the ceremony. Stones and shells who want to take part in mandalas or cairns may be in your path or seem to catch your eye with a glow or sparkle. Sometimes we can feel the willingness of every being in an area to participate. Living only an hour away from the coast now, I often feel called to create ceremonies there to honor and bless the ocean and all the beings in that region. Sometimes it’s small and personal where I stand in the tide and offer prayers of gratitude and love with a bit of sacred tobacco or flower petals. Sometimes a group of us are called together to drum and sing and offer tending for the renewed health and vitality of the ocean and the beaches. Occasionally my ceremonialist friends Gayle and Roger and I get a call to create a mandala at certain beaches. These are so much fun and usually done with materials found right there. It is a good exercise in being open to the feelings and energies of the nature beings in the area to tune into what they want. Much of the focus is on Mama Ocean, but each stone, shell, kelp frond and feather have their own energy, and there are a myriad of fae and elemental beings in the area to consider and include. Afterwards, we love that the tide rises over it and takes the energy and prayers and distributes them to exactly where they need to go. Most of us have probably come across cairns in our travels hiking. These are stones that are stacked one upon another to create a small tower or mound. I remember first seeing these on a family vacation hiking a mountain in Vermont. My brother and I were very young and we delighted in adding stones to them and creating new ones. I’m sure I asked my parents about them but my memory from so long ago is hazy, they might have told us that some were trail markers. Maybe some are, but much of the time they feel like sacred play to me. The stone and nature beings call to us to interact and create with them, and whether done with a light childlike joy or a purposeful intention, the result is creation of partnership and alignment. An important thing to keep in mind is that many of our interactions with nature can be done ceremonially with our intentions. Collecting wild herbs, firewood, stones or shells can be done ceremonially with respect and gratitude and reciprocated by a gift of a song or strand of our hair. Even when we are out hiking and we need to go off trail to share our urine, we ask the earth to receive our water as a blessing. Where there is reverence, there is ceremony. Whatever the intention of our ceremony was, afterwards we may get a feeling of peace that settles over us and the area. But sometimes we may also get a larger sign that our ceremony or blessing was accepted, like an eagle flying overhead or a butterfly landing in the area. If we don’t receive any feelings or signs, that is okay too. We do these ceremonies as much for ourselves as for the nature spirits. And who knows what wonderful things nature does with the energy that we create together? Mandala on Oregon coast for Mama Ocean and all the coastal nature beings
In my last article I talked about co-creating ceremonial grids and altars as containers for intentions and prayers. After being inspired by a despacho ceremony from a Peruvian paqo and elder Wilbert Salas Atasi, my spirit team came to me and nudged me to make these ceremonial offerings regularly as part of my personal practice. Bringing these ceremonies into my personal practice has been life changing. And I feel the energy in turns anchoring what it needs to anchor and also rippling out to where it needs to flow. But like the despacho ceremony Wilbert created, when we come together in a group with focused intention, its effect is felt far and wide. It makes an impact on the collective energy of the world. I felt the energy of our ceremony that day wrap around the earth like a beautiful ribbon. In some ceremonies we may be called to attend and be an active participant. That is when we may be speaking intentions and prayers, sharing in singing songs of power, holding objects and energy. My dear friends Gayle Mair and Roger Wheelock are ceremonialists, and I have been fortunate to be part of many of their ceremonies. I recorded an interview with them about what they do which you can find on Spotify here. As well as despacho, they have been creating crystal grid ceremonies for community. Their ceremonies always invite participation. Before attending they ask that we bring a personal intention that we can align with the overarching intention and theme of the ceremony. Then they provide the time and space for us to speak and share what we are bringing. In the crystal grid ceremonies we each take turns choosing crystals and items which we place on the altar space where we feel called. Roger then listens to the stone beings and spirit helpers and moves key anchoring crystals around accordingly to focus and attune the energy patterns we create as they build and blend. I feel the energies flowing like an energetic tapestry we have woven together, wrapping around each of us as participants, and also flowing into the collective energy of the community and the environment. The active co-creation that Gayle and Roger facilitate in groups is purposeful and powerful. But we don’t even have to take involved roles in the ceremony for our participation to be meaningful. Many times our presence is enough. We bring with us our unique energy and soul’s purpose, as well as all of our energetic and Spirit connections. Chingiz Kam, a shaman from the republic of Tuva in Siberia came to Corvallis recently to perform ceremony and songs from his tradition. It was held at the museum and open to anyone, and at least fifty people attended, a big turnout for a weeknight in a small college city. My ancestors nudged me to go as soon as my friend told me about the event. My ancestors told me then that the shaman would sing a song for them. It would seal all the tending I had done for them over the past year and enliven the lineage moving forward. Sitting there in the crowd, as a passive observer, I could feel that the room was full of ancestors that each one of us had brought with us. And I realized that was our part of the ceremony. His songs and drumming, his Spirit allies and ancestors wove a tapestry of alignment, healing and blessing into the strands of all of our lineages. All of us were called by our ancestors and Spirit guides to have our presence there to be part of the ceremony. I sometimes see each one of us as crystals on a collective grid, sacred objects on the altar of our planet, Mother Earth. Where each place we are called to live, work or visit creates an energetic thread in the ceremony of everything. Our intentions always flowing, creating, interweaving with all the other beings to co-create our lives, our timelines in the multiverse. What if every breath, every thought became a strand of fiber in those energetic threads. Would we know what kind of world ceremony we are creating as we go about living our lives? Crystal grid for Resilience created by Gayle and Roger and their community in Asheville, NC
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MissionTo help you tend to soul issues that may manifest in physical, emotional, mental or spiritual aspects of your life, and to give you tools to empower your path to harmony and well-being. Categories
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Links-There are so many kindred spirits doing the work out there. I include these links to help our community connect with one another.
FAIRY CONGRESS - Offers a summer weekend gathering in person with workshops, circles and of course faeries and nature beings! They also offer a winter virtual weekend with amazing guest speakers like Orion Foxwood, David Spangler and R.J. Stewart. I highly recommend joining the online network to participate in monthly workshops, circles, and book clubs. https://fairycongress.com/ SACRED HOOP Magazine Guide to Shamanism Compilation- http://www.sacredhoop.org/Pages/FreeGuide.html Owner Valeria Pearson lovingly created SOLE TO SOUL YOGA studio with a community focus. There are classes for all levels and events that lift the spirit. I am grateful to be able to hold circles and events in her studio. https://www.soletosoulyogaoregon.com/ My friend and herbalist mentor, LAWRENCE BIRCH is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, plant whisperer and shamanic practitioner. If you need custom tincture blends or are interested in a wildcrafting apprenticeship, he is the teacher extraordinaire: http://givingtreefarm.com/ ROGER WHEELOCK and GAYLE RUTH are shamanic practitioners and teachers in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition. https://www.rainmother.com/ I am grateful to be able to take part in ceremony with them, and to support their love for the Peruvian people through the World Ayni Association. Roger has a practice in Asheville, NC https://www.communityshaman.com/ NEW WORLD KIRTAN = Kitzie's podcasts include interviews with artists and kirtan music. I love attending her weekly Satsang group and the New World Kirtan Band concerts - newworldkirtan.com/ |
Want to keep in touch? Every month I send an email with my latest article. I also have updates about workshop offerings and community events. I never sell or share your information and I will never abuse the privilege of being allowed into your mailbox.
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