The Power Behind The Story

We all have stories. We all learned how to use language to deliver the message of our view, our story. Some of us have been told stories that we allow to be incorporated into our personal story, sometimes without knowing whether it is true or not. As humans we are born with the power of creation. We have beautiful creative energies that flow through us. We use them to create life, music, art, love, and sometimes we use them to create messes, mistakes, wounds, or hardship. We also use them to create our stories. What is important to see here is the value of being mindful of how we use these energies.

With our stories, our word needs to be flawless. We have so much knowledge about ourselves, the world, the past and we want to bring that into our future. But we have to be particularly careful that we do not distort this knowledge and that we remain impeccable with it and the energy it exists in.

The real authentic you is beyond anyone you could ever imagine you to be! That is how powerful the energies are that are within you. Your truth is real, your body is real, but the beliefs you hold about yourself are not always real. Sometimes they are distorted as well. Sometimes they are not our own beliefs, they are part of that story we allowed to become part of ours, whether it was true or not. The shaman helps bring the pieces back together that have been pulled from the story. Acting as a bridge to the soul's truth and the distorted or broken story of one's life, they can help support the union the energies of the story.

So, we go back to the need to be impeccable with our words. If our words have the ability to create our story, then should we be sure we speak only the truest words. And in the process of that creation, we should speak of what we really are and really want to breathe life into.

Knowing this, our self-talk then begins to change. We have the power and the knowledge and the creative ability to make a story of truth for ourselves to exist in. No more room for talk that is self-deprecating. No more lies. No more using the power of our words to create a story that works against us.

The shaman knows the power of story. The shaman is the storyteller. The shaman knows that every word creates a symbol, holds magic and is all-powerful. When the story wounds or dis-empowers, the shaman often is called upon to help heal the soul whose creative force has been depleted, blocked or wounded. It is often in the healing of the story and the reintegration of the truth that one returns to their power.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

The Power of Dreams

Dreams are not only entertaining they are powerful as well. A Carl Jung quote that I am particularly fond of is, “The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach.” Amazingly powerful! Dreams can show us what our hearts long for. They transcend our partial understanding of ourselves and bring to us what our soul’s intention is in this lifetime. In Robert Moss’s book Dreaming True he tells of the North American Huron people's use of the word “ondinnonk” to describe dreaming by their interpretation, “secret wish of the soul” and their belief that this is what is revealed within our dream-time.

When we dream and put our intention and our energies into the messages of the dream we connect our soul to our daily life. We bring its essence to the table. Doing this allows us to become whole and well. Dreams can help us with getting back on track.

From a shamanic perspective, soul loss is the cause of much of our illness and negative affliction in our lives. Soul loss occurs often when there is great trauma, grief, abuse or heartbreak among other things. When we experience these situations in our lives, vital energies of our soul go away. The soul care practitioner or shaman can aid in this soul retrieval. And sometimes we are given this insight through our dreams.

Dreams may offer us clues to when our soul loss occurred. Dreams can help create a bridge for us to cross over to connect with our Higher Self and often with our larger purpose in life. Working with our dreams creates a space for us to work with energy. The more we explore our dreams the more we bring our vital energy from a deeper reality into our daytime world.

There are many wonderful resources to tap into to learn about the power of dreams along with equally as many interpretation. Wherever our path leads, know that our dreams are powerful, they help connect us to Source and when they are better understood, they can become powerful tools of intention and forward movement as we journey through our days and nights.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

The Lens of Possibilities

I have spent the last several days stretching the perception of what I have thought myself to be, of who I thought I was and of how I would bring myself into the future. I have been given opportunity to be lovingly supported and challenged in this stretching. I have been called to task, given pause to reflect, ritual to honor, guidance to lean into and sistership to celebrate. And things have changed. I arrived at this moment, hungry and aware that I needed to be fed. I arrived at this place on the path with hopes and awareness. I did not take this opportunity for granted or lightly. I was ready for what Spirit was bringing to the table.

It has taken many years and much growth to even be able to get here. It has taken so much release of the shoulds, the stories, the pain, the expectations and the fear. I have had to experience what wasn’t in order to embrace what was. I have been asked to take things within my life, assess them, to look at them from a distance and then to focus on them with a lens of intense focus. I have had to make difficult choices.

Life is not what we always expect it to be, nor is it always what others tell us it should be. BUT it is always what it is supposed to be. Living in this place of conscious awareness has now brought me to today, to a place of stretching and of reaching the widest of expanse of possibilities. I think it is something I have grown to be comfortable in. It is not always enjoyable, it is not always easy, and it is definitely not always clear. But living this way, slowly flowing into each of these transitions within my days, I don’t miss the lessons as often. I more often am aware of the moments of insight and wonder.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

A Sacred Clearing

Don’t you feel wonderful when you have taken a cluttered table or corner in your home and sorted through it and cleaned it up? Humans have sought cleanliness of their living space, both physically and energetically, throughout time. The word hygiene comes from Hygeia, the Greek goddess of health and cleanliness. Throughout history, we have had a longstanding relationship with our land and the life that evolved there. Even today we appreciate having harmony with our land and seek to manifest peace within our home. There is an ancient tradition of house clearing that evolved in Ireland and Britain and it holds, even today, strong spiritual traditions. This “clearing” actually is a shamanic practice of bringing balance, respect and communication with the spirit realm. The shaman listens to what the message is from the spirits of the land and/or the home.

Looking to shamanic practice, how does one clear their land or home? The first and most important step is to listen; listen and bear witness to the land’s story, the story of the ancestors who sat upon this land before us, and as we listen we sit without judgment and only bring awareness to whatever message we receive. We pay close attention to what we feel, see and know. Pay attention to waterways around the land. These were once believed to be the nervous system of Earth as they allow for energetic communication throughout the body of Earth.

Sometimes we may feel we are communicating with spirits of the land or of the home itself. Offering respect to these spirits as well as honoring what they bring to the land is important. Sometimes a Shaman is needed to come to the property to act as a practitioner to the clearing process. It is through their role that a healing can occur and a honoring and respect of the connection to all those who live or have lived on this land being a part of the whole with the land.

The land, its ancestors, the spirits who hold it energetically to them and those who now wish to reside there can all coexist in harmony and in respect. The honoring of the union of all this, the healing or release of whatever is cluttering the path of this alignment, the remembrance of the history and the celebration of the life unfolding creates a balance and a blessed space for one to live in and create a homestead upon.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade