Shamanic healing can mean many different things to different people. Shamanic healer and Reiki practitioner Marilyn Schwader has a great, concise explanation, from her article, “Understanding Shamanism”, which is excerpted below.
The word Shaman came from Siberia in northern Russia, describing indigenous healers who worked with nature and spirits. There is much discussion of the differences between modern-day shamanic practitioners and classic shamanism. The following describe basic shamanic techniques that are similar to both traditions. Shamanic healers:
- Have gone through an initiation period, learning from elders who are also
shamans. - Know the power of sacred places and plants, acting on the principle that humans are part of nature, related to all forms, and not superior to them.
- See into time, past or future, and are visionary.
- Have the ability to use sound and vibration to alter consciousness, entering a trance state to visit non-ordinary worlds for messages and guidance from power animals and spirit guides for help in healing and divination.
- Have the ability to connect with spirits to channel their messages and healing energy.
- Are able to access the death realm in everyday terms at will.
Depending on the needs of the client, there are several techniques that the shamanic practitioner can use for healing. At the base of all of these methods is the shamanic journey, a kind of mental or astral passage to find answers to a specific question or intention. With all senses alert, the shamanic practitioner is provided answers to the question by power animals and spirit guides. The answers appear in the form of metaphors, symbols, archetypes, and other messages that reveal answers to the question.
One technique commonly used in shamanism is soul retrieval, the recovery of parts of the soul that have been lost or left somewhere, often due to physical, mental, or emotional trauma. A traumatic incident might have forced the person to fragment, keeping him or her from being whole again. The objective of soul retrieval is to make the person complete and present.
Symptoms of soul loss are often found in a person’s language: “I lost my innocence. He stole my heart. I left a part of me with my old company. My strength is gone.” If you scan through your life, note major turning points. What qualities did you have that you no longer feel are in your life?
Once it’s determined that part of you is missing, the shamanic practitioner uses ritual and ceremony, along with journeying to find and reclaim those soul parts. When the soul essence returns, the knowledge of qualities or aspects of life such as purpose, trust, and self-love will also return.
Related to soul loss, a person may also find that they have become host to lower frequency vibrations or suffering beings or entities. In the former, an extraction of that energy is necessary prior to the soul pieces being returned.
In the latter, a suffering being or entity may live off a person’s energy and cause illness, depression, addictions, suicidal thoughts, emotional problems, or other issues. The beings are often souls of people whose own death experience was distorted or compromised, and they did not successfully journey to the light. In this case, the shamanic practitioner would use an approach called compassionate depossession, a way of clearing the energy by guiding the suffering being to cross into the light.
In all of the methods described above, benevolent spirits protect both the practitioner and client, while spirit guides lead the practitioner in the best approach for the particular problem.
The results of these methods are truly amazing, revealing the true self and helping clients see the world from a different lens, one of true expression and light.
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