learning from the earth
My spiritual counseling work is grounded in my relationship with the Earth. I believe that each of us has the potential, if not the responsibility, to learn from the Earth, and to use that learning to support healing – for ourselves, for each other, and for the planet herself.
So, what does this have to do with Shamanism?
And what does Shamanism have to do with Depth Hypnosis?
Well, a little background…
The word “Shaman” comes from the Mongolian language of Tongas, and means “he or she who knows.”
What a shaman knows is there is more to this world that what we can see – and that unseen forces, contained within the forms of nature, affect the world we see around us, (and vice versa.)
A shaman is a person who has cultivated the ability to navigate both the seen and the unseen aspects of the world, and who can use that learning to address imbalance and help support healing, both individually and collectively. In traditional societies, the Shaman plays a role of vital importance – to help maintain right relationship between human beings and the more than human world.
Shamanic practice has roots in diverse cultures around the globe. It is woven into the ancient roots of nearly every civilization, from the First peoples of the Americas, to Africa, to Siberia, Mongolia, and beyond.
In my own Celtic lineage, Shamanic practice has echoes in the Welsh Mabinogion, in the Irish Fionn cycle and the archetype of the bean feasa, or “wise woman” who brought back the wisdom of the Otherworld to serve her people.
In different cultural contexts, people have used different types of specific practices to connect with the wisdom of the unseen world. These practices may include song, chant, drumming, rattling, or even ingesting a particular sacred food or drink.
Specific practices vary by culture, but in every context in which Shamanic practitioners are working within the light, a basic energetic pattern is recognizable:
Shamanic practice works with the forces of nature to help human beings find right alignment – both within themselves and between themselves and the more than human world.
On LAND and Lineage
My spiritual counseling work is grounded, first and foremost, in my relationship with nature and, more specifically, in my relationship with the land where I live, on the coast of Northern California.
This is Ohlone Ramaytush land. The land carries, along with stories told by crow and coyote, the human heartache of people forced off this land and onto missions.
I honor the Ramaytush Ohlone elders, past, present and future as the first and forever tenders of this land where I live, work and learn.
My teacher in Shamanic practice is Dr. Isa Gucciardi, with whom I have been studying for five years.
As a light skinned person, I am sensitive to the harm caused by cultural appropriation, and am very intentional about working out of my own lineage, which stretches back to England, Wales, and the Jews of the Ukraine.
IN DEPTH HYPNOSIS
Shamanic practice plays a role in Depth Hypnosis as a support to help you to reclaim lost power and heal from trauma.
What is different about this approach from traditional Shamanism is this:
In traditional Shamanism, the Shaman is a healer who works with the powers of nature to help heal a person as a third party, working from without.
In Depth Hypnosis, by contrast, Shamanic practice is used alongside guided self-inquiry to involve you actively and continuously in your healing process.