Shamanic Journeys

Awesome and amazing experience today. I signed up last month to do a shamanic workshop with Kelley Harrell who is just outside of Raleigh. It was a 4 hour workshop. I have worked with one other shaman prior to this and enjoyed it, and I was moved at the time I saw this posted to check it out again, and so at 7 am this morning, I got myself up and readied to journey out, not sure what I would find, as some of my other trips to work in some of the groups in Raleigh have not been so hot, but I was ready and open to whatever I might discover.

Just like with most intense paths we go down leading inside ourselves, this too requires some sitting time. By this I mean that when I first was finished up and heading to my car.. sitting in there sharing with Eric, when he asked how it went, I said.. it was okay.. it was good, I enjoyed learning the new things, meeting new people and working with them, but beyond that, I didnt have much to say about it. Which is not a bad thing.. its one of those things that sinks in, and as the rest of the afternoon and evening start to unfold, so did more perspective of my journeys.

We talked about different things shamans did, very interesting. We talked about the difference between shamanic thinking and other types of psychic work and schools of thought. I love the idea that we are all connected and all equal, which is a big precept of shamanic work. Love that.

Then we did some journeying. Shamanic journeys are similar to pathworking except that instead of pathworking through a card, we journeyed through the veil, then through to speak to our guides and ask for guidance on an issue of on our hearts, and then we had a partner and journeyed for them.

In shamanic work you work with the tree (i dont remember what the tree is officially called), the lower world is in the roots, the middle in the trunk of the tree, and the upper world in the leaves and branches. So we were going to be working in the upper world with our guides, and she wanted us to get to the upper world by going up through the veil, which is through the cloudy area. We were to bring ourselves up through the tree through this cloudy area that was to be wet and moist and humid and cloudy, up through there and above this. This was our first journey.

I have previously gone through the trunk of the tree up to meet my guide, in fact, that was the first time I met her was going up through the trunk as if in an elevator, though I do not recall going through a veil. I remember going up and going into a leafy, beautiful area where she was waiting for me. It was an awesome thing - another blog for another time.

So I started going up the trunk, I saw a staircase and I would go about halfway and then the picture would stop, I could not get to the veil that way. I just kind of stood there, and then all of a sudden, my third eye would start to open where I would see the blue and purple start and then that became cloudy for me, never quite getting to what I would think should have been a white cloudy place, but it did become a cloudy place. I would have thought prior that the cloudy place would have been thin.. but this was thicker and took a bit to get through. On getting through, before doing this I would have thought I would then have come to a very bright, clear and kind of white/light blue sky area, but instead it was more colored like a sunset.

We had talked earlier about how we know if what we are doing is real versus whether it is something we are making up. One of the ways I have learned for me that my guides make things real for me is to change things up so they appear as they are described as they should be, but with a twist in order for me to confirm that I did not make it up. For instance, if this would have been pictured as I imagined it would have prior to starting, then I would have wondered if I had not made it up. But because it came in slightly different colored in a way I would not have thought, it validated for me that I did not make it up, as had I done so, it would have looked a bit different.

That was all we were to do with the first visualization, and I then returned the way I came, as instructed, back through the veil, then i saw my chakra colors.. and then I felt for my surroundings and opened my eyes.

The second journey was to do the same thing only meet whatever guides were to assist us with this journey. I was still in a pretty trancy state, so getting up there again was much easier, and I went pretty much in the same way. This time I see this tiny guy who looked a bit like Max Headrom.. in this very metalic shirt with a black vest, face kind of whitish, white and blank hair spiked out.. and he was dancing to the beat of the drum Kelley was using to put us into the trance. I had never seen him before. He was having a great time.. but the minute I realized that I was in the trance seeing him, or anything during this journey, my mind would snap out of the trance. Then it would go back in.. id see something and recognize i was seeing something, then it would snap out of it again. Then I was back in and the little guy turned into a man's face.. an older man, probably about late 40s or 50s, bald like Mr. Clean, but with these bright, bright blue eyes. At seeing him, of course I snapped out it, went back and saw him again, then snapped out of it, and then i started getting mad at the whole thing, and had to come out totally.

The frustration of seeing myself popping in and out of the trance made it tougher to do the next journey, where we were to go up and talk to our guides and get clarity on what is most weighing on our hearts. I got nowhere - which just figures - Im telling you.. the minute it comes time to getting some really useful information or the minute it seems like I might, something will happen where it is either not for real, like when I went to find out my sacred contract which turned out to be .. whatever.. or like now where i frustrated myself to the point where I could not access that place again. LOL - i know the message in that, its just one of those things that I dont want to hear. I want to be able to easily access those places where all the answers are, and the message to me, I feel, is that it just is not that easy and life just does not work that way - and consciously and subconsciously, even, I know this, I understnad this, I understand the wisdom and the necessity of this. But I dont like it. =)

The last journey we did was for a partner. I was at first concerned because I did not want to try to do this for a partner and have difficulty getting in and not be able to offer anything to her, it had me a bit anxious. It had her anxious too, and she told me she couldnt do this, to which I said, dont say that! Otherwise it will be a self-fulfilling thing.. and the only thing worse than me not getitng information would be if someone else could not..LOL. I was not just speaking to her, I was also speaking to me. So I put out a positive affirmation that we can do anything we wish and we have all the tools we need to do so, and I did the first journey for her.

Way kewl thing happened. I was totally open psychically, so when she asked her questions, I was able to answer them without having to journey, per se, I definitely was seeing information without having to go into a trance to help her, which I did share. So my purpose in journeying was getting validation of this, i think, and also to add more detail. Very kewl thing happened when i was journeying - I literally was able to observe her in her life.. as I saw her writing or sitting at her computer. I asked different questions to see if I could give her more information that what I had already seen, I got some in the details of watching her that was helpful to her.. but it was interesting, it was like being a fly on a wall in a room. Kelley said it would be easier to do this for another person than for ourselves, and she was absolutely right, this was much easier because I was not so dependent on what I found. I didnt have the same need.

My partner had an amazing vision for me. I just explained how my life is in total transition with the end of Blysse's junior year and all the stress that came with that and her now being away.. and the whole summer ahead of me.. and how uncomfortable I have been feeling, which I know is about growing and things changing, and what did I need to know about my discomfort.

She told me she saw Blysse and in front of her was her father, who was bigger and very solid in his stance, subborn, and he was standing in front of Blysse so that I could not see her, though she was behind her dad, but no matter how I moved, I was not able to see her. I was sitting on a big turtle. She said that all of a sudden Blysse's father became invisible and I was able to see her and she was waving to me and saying hi very excitedly, and there was a beautiful gold cord that formed attaching she and i at our umbilicus and it was glowing and glittery and vibrant. The turtle was trying to move, but everytime he did, i would pull at him, trying to pull him the other way, and as I did so, the cord between Blysse and I would pull and get tight. Eventually both Blysse and her dad disspearing and it was just me struggling with this turtle, trying to control him and move him the other way. And she said I was pretty frustrated and upset at not being able to get the turtle to go in the direction I wanted him to. Finally, I threw up my hands and gave it up.. and the turtle took me to a beach. She said it was a beautiful beach where dolphins were swimming and jumping and the turtle took me into the water where we swam. She said I was really, really happy there.

LOVE IT!!

Interestingly my goal this summer is to work on RELEASE, so I found this vision soooo helpful and enlightening.

So these were my journeys - I will put my thoughts on this in my next post!