Ozma’s
Garden
of Healing Souls
The Beautiful
Place that Princess Ozma Found
Where Alquis and Ozonians Who Are Ill or in
Chronic Pain Are Comforted and Healed
And How They (and You) Can Enter There
3
Princess Ozma
Many
Alquis and Ozonians believe that Princess Ozma was the most beautiful woman
that ever lived in Oz. They are wrong. Princess Ozma was very, very ordinary.
If she had not been a True Princess, and had dressed in a burlap sack and had
smears of ashes on her face and in her hair and mud on her boots, most people
would have considered her quite plain, or even ugly. Yet if they had passed her
as she was herding her geese and singing a soft song to them, they might have
slowed down or gone so far as to stop to listen to her, and if they had stopped,
they might have seen something in her eyes that did not match her outward
appearance.
If they had looked
carefully they would have seen a Light, a Spirit, a je ne sais quoi (which means that the wizard doesn’t know
what it is either), and would have suddenly had their perception of her
transformed. They would have realized that the goose girl was gorgeous and
radiant, and forgotten about her dress sewn out of an old sack, and the ashes
smeared on her face and in her hair, and the mud on her boots, and even
forgotten that she was wearing
boots. None of that would have mattered.
You see, Dear Ones,
Princess Ozma found the gift of being a window that was never closed and always
open into a pure Inner Light, and that let The Light shine out onto all who met
her, and that meant that this made her beautiful, and everyone loved her, and
was glad she was the True Princess of Oz. Jealous women who were much more
attractive than she was did not think that they ought to be the One And Only
Princess, but loved her, too, and greeted her joyfully when they met her on the
road, even when they were out taking the cool evening air in the gloaming with
their arms possessively held around their husbands’ waists.
Some people make us feel
better just by crossing our paths, and Princess Ozma was one of them, and every
Alqui and Ozonian grieved when she quietly got into her Cloudy Carriage drawn
by pure white snowy egrets and led by a single whooping crane, and left Oz
because she had done all that she could do there. Princess Ozma left gifts for
the inhabitants of Oz. This tale tells you about her greatest gift of all: the
Garden of Healing Souls, with its Seven Jewels, Six Flowers, and One Wonderful
Secret!
Now, most Ozonians and
Alquis have never heard of her Garden, or know where it is to be found, and
those who find it usually run into it at midnight, and stand outside its wall,
rubbing their bruised noses and wiggling their stubbed toes, wondering what
they have bumped into. Very few people go looking for the Garden on purpose.
Let us see why.
Midnight outside the
garden of healing souls
When
Ozma was a little girl, no taller than a daisy and just as sunny, she wilted
one day and her father, Good King Zoma the XIV (which means the fourteenth king
of that name) found her laying on the ground outside the Crystal City of Oz,
with her toys and pet ferret and her Incredibly Tame Blue Butterflies all
around her, patiently waiting or crying or fluttering about, and when a ferret
cries it is a very sad sound. King Zoma picked up his plain daughter who, at
the moment, was not shining with an Inner Light, and shushed her pet ferret,
and shooed away the butterflies, and called for his courtiers to pick up
Ozma’s toys, which they usually never had to do, because Ozma was a Good
Girl and believed her Daddy when he told her that if she could not pick up her
own toys, then how could she ever take care of a wonderful but messy kingdom
like Oz?
So
she almost always picked up after herself, but wasn’t priggish about it.
But
after this Very Sad Day, she no longer took her toys out to play, but sat
inside on a chouch (that is a couch that is partly a chair), and let King Zoma
drape a warm woolen blanket over her lap, and stared at the wall, and grew
quieter and quieter, and grayer and grayer, and did not move from her chouch,
and did not laugh or sing or talk very much or play with her ferret, who was
used to amusing her by tracing arabesques on the wall with his tail. (He dipped
it in ink occasionally when he drew on the ceiling.)
Within
days the Royal Physician made a
chouch call at the Crystal City. He left the room looking Very Grave and
Serious and barely harrumphed on his way out because he did not want Princess
Ozma to hear him, and went straight to see her Daddy. He explained to the king
that his Darling Daughter had an incurable disease, and that it might get
better, and it might get worse, but it would always cause his Baby Girl pain,
and while the pain might some days be greater, and other days it might be less,
it would always be there. And King Zoma cried, for he believed that his Little
Daisy would never light up his life again, but become grayer and darker and
wilt away.
Months
went by, and events happened just as the Good King feared, and he grew grayer
himself, for there seemed to be nothing he could do. And there wasn’t,
which is the sort of thing that Breaks a Loving Father’s Heart.
But
early one summer morning, when the Scarlet Orioles were building their second
batch of bowers outside the palace, and carrying sticks to and fro, and melodiously
blaming each other for dropping them when the sticks were really too long to
fit into their nests, Princess Ozma skipped out of her room, with her ferret
sinuously snaking along behind, as ferrets do when they are joyful. Her Daddy
gave one undignified skip himself before he remembered that he was King Zoma
the XIV, and Strode Beaming Regally to pick up Princess Ozma and hug her to his
heart. What could have happened?
To
find out, the wizard will tell us part of his story.
Wizards
like to talk, you know.
a little light is shed on
the subject
One
day the wizard woke up in Oz, and had no explanation for how he had gotten
there. It was incomprehensible. Before he became a wizard, he had been a
scientist, and for a scientist everything can be explained, even abductions by aliens. During the first year
that the wizard lived in Oz, his body was weak as it grew accustomed to Ozonian
diet and exercise. So, when he took a hard fall one sunny morning while
exercising with his yo-yo, he thought that he might have broken a rib. However,
unknown to him, his physicians thought it might be pancreatic cancer instead,
but eventually diagnosed it as double walking pneumonia. During these eight
months the pain intensified and further weakened the wizard physically, and a
weak wizard is a grumpy old man indeed. His doctors were reluctant to treat the
pain with potentially addicting medications because anything wizards like, they
like more of, and the more of it they can get, the better.
However,
when the pain became chronic and intense, his medical team began a series of
procedures to identify its cause, and also the cautious use of both
over-the-counter and prescription pain relievers, and injections to block pain
at the spinal cord. This was not enough. At 3 am in the morning, wizards in pain have
been known to cry, and this wizard sobbed a lot—very quietly. But in
desperation he also began to pursue the practice of meditation, hoping that
something would work for him, and something did.
During this Year of
Terrible Pain, his practice of meditating and chanting had two effects, one
simple and gradual, the other amazing and immediate. The first was that private
meditation during the meetings of the Fellowship of People Learning How to
Become Human led to a useful visualization of his pain, and its temporary
relief. Continued meditation outside of his meetings also gave him relief, and
strengthened a growing belief that something was accessible to people, including wizards, that
was a healing power apparently unknown to science. It certainly was not the
wizard’s willpower. His willpower had had very little effect on pain, at
least in his experience.
Then a second event
occurred while the wizard was waiting on a gurney for an endoscopic procedure,
where one tube would be inserted into his esophagus and a second into a rather
private place that he had been unwilling to let anyone see until he hurt very
badly. So he made the best of it, having been told that he would be conscious,
but sedated with an amnesia-inducing drug, and would remember nothing of the
procedure at all after it began. However, before the procedure began, a beautiful young woman
walked by, and he was told that she was a medical student who would see him
naked and very likely hear him crying or pleading for the procedure to end, and
the wizard’s fear swelled and became overpowering. In desperation he
began to chant a mantra called the Serenity Prayer over and over to himself. And
something happened.
A profound feeling of
calm and peace suddenly fell on the wizard, accompanied by childlike trust and
honesty. (Most wizards are suspicious and often lie as a matter of course
because it sounds better.) As the nurses walked by he would smile and say,
“You’re the nice one,” or “You’re the pretty
one,” or “You’re the funny one.” The nurses, on the
other hand, thought that one of them had started the drip of the amnesiac drug
and that the wizard was higher than a kite. They had not, and he was not. He
had been “struck serene.” The fear had been removed from him in an
instant. For the second time since the wizard woke up and found himself in Oz,
he was faced with an event in his life for which he saw no obvious scientific
explanation.
It was the dawn of a new
understanding for the wizard, and you know (although he did not) that he had
run head-on into the wall that Ozma found, and that Princess Ozma must have run
into it first, and could not remove it, although she tried.
But she did do something
very special to change the wall.
That is the Wonderful
Secret, which is being saved until the end of this story.
ozma’s key
So
the wizard bumped his nose and stubbed his toes, but he did not know that there
was a wall, nor did he know about Princess Ozma, nor did he know about the
Garden of Healing Souls. He only knew that he felt better, and later, learning that he had double walking
pneumonia instead of pancreatic cancer, he felt extremely grateful, because
most people with pancreatic cancer—about 99.5% of them—die within a
year. Pneumonia looked like a really great bargain, even if he was so weak that
he had to hold his chalk in his fist to write on the blackboard (instead of
with two fingers, like a pencil), and his doctor was willing to prescribe him a
chouch to put in the classroom where he teaches. He could not stand throughout
an entire 75-minute lecture.
But
while the wizard was recuperating, he began to wonder about the many events
that had happened to him, and wonder whether he had been in Oz much earlier
than he had supposed, and whether there were things that existed that Modern
Science Could Not Explain. The wizard had studied the famous Incompleteness
Theorem of Kurt Göedel, which in layperson’s language says that if
you can do arithmetic, then there are things that are true which you cannot
prove, and things that you can prove to be false—but are true! Logic, and
anything based upon it, has limitations. That is why it is incomplete.
Had
he run into a limitation to the scientific world, and crossed beyond it? Had he
really had pancreatic cancer,
but prayed it into pneumonia? What had caused the remarkable and instantaneous
emotional change from abject fear to childlike serenity? And how had he arrived
in Oz, anyway, leaving a world where he was miserable and in despair, and could
not see any way to get out of it? If his mind or his spirit or his soul or something had been released to work for him when he had
given up hope, could it be released again? And if so, what would happen?
What
about all those strange experiences he had had since childhood, seeing things
that other people did not, or blinking his eyes until the world turned blue one
day and he had walked home from school becoming increasingly afraid that it
would stay blue forever until he shouted, “Stop it!” and the Blue
World disappeared, or the Dark Night on Umtanum Ridge in Yakima Firing Center
when he met a really big dog,
as tall as he was when it was sitting on its haunches, and no one had such a
dog and he was sober and talked to the Big Dog, and it listened to him and then
walked away so he could go about his duties as a lieutenant. There were other
things like this, but the wizard did not like to think about them because they
were messy and uncontrollable and they made him afraid of Things That Go Bump
In The Night because sometimes they do, and who knows what is out there? The
wizard had heard a lot of scary campfire stories!
But
this was different. This was something good. If it was incomprehensible, at least it did not
seem to be part of some vast trap set by the universe to catch him and hurt
him. So the wizard began to look around, and even he cannot tell you how it
happened, but one day in his mail a catalog of courses from the Foundation for
Shamanic Studies turned up, and he decided to take the basic course and see
what happened.
He
found Ozma’s key.
the door in the wall
There
is something, a spiritual
practice that complements prayer and meditation. It predates all known
religions, yet works in our technological society. Native practitioners still
use it in the rain forests of Brazil. Educated people utilize it in some
hospitals and HMOs in North America and Europe.
The practice is journeying, a spiritual tool that allows us to seek wisdom
and healing from something that attends to us personally. The wizard’s
first teacher called that something “The Spirits,” which made him
very uneasy. That sounded like some kind of séance where fake ectoplasm
would be made out of gauze cloth, and real trumpets would sound, and tables
would be moved secretly, and ghostly voices would ask for money for the medium.
But the wizard remembered a teenaged girlfriend who had scared the bejeezus out
of herself and her friends on a sleepover when four young girls levitated a
fifth, or at least had raised the girl in the middle using only their eight
index fingers. He had stopped seeing that girl. She scared him, or rather, he
was scared that what she and her friends had done was real and was coming to
get him.
Journeying is nothing
like that. It is a friendly technique for spiritual growth that has been known
for millennia. It is like fire. Fire has been known for millennia, but if it is
used carelessly it will burn your fingers, or maybe even burn your house down.
But treated with care, and used respectfully, fire can also cook food, warm our
houses, and make dark nights camping out fun. Journeying is the first of many
techniques taught by the faculty of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. In the
course of learning and practicing journeying, the wizard has helped others and
developed his own spirituality.
If you are willing, we
will examine how journeying can bring ancient techniques of healing into your
daily life, augmenting modern medical practice. We will attempt to find a
balanced approach to healing that draws on science and spirituality. You will
be introduced to a healer, most likely the person who gave you this story. You
will be given enough information to decide whether or not you would like their
assistance.
If you do, they will
start you on a path toward healing yourself by performing a healing journey for
you. In the case of the wizard, this is done free of charge. If you decide that
the results benefited you, you can learn a simple method of journeying. You may
use it anywhere you can listen to a compact disc or tape. With practice you may
be able to alleviate your chronic pain and improve your body’s capacity
to heal.
This is the key that
Princess Ozma found and left lying in front of the wall. When you stub your
toes and bend down, there it is, waiting for you! And next you will find that
it opens a door into the Garden of Healing Souls. After Princess Ozma found the
key she opened the door to the Garden and cherished her soul and lived well,
even though she was always in pain to some degree. She wanted us to cherish our
souls as well as our bodies, and knew the many ways we do that. Some people run
and lift weights, some take walks in the woods, some sing or play music, and
others go to religious services. If you have been taking physical action to heal and maintain your spiritual condition, you may be ready to try spiritual action to do the same for your physical condition. We can learn how if we walk through
the door and enter into the Garden.
there is a garden
It is no coincidence that
so many people who have abused drugs and alcohol find it natural to open the
door to other realities by journeying. In the chapter on mysticism in The
Varieties of Religious Experience,
William James presents a view of alcoholism as a pathological type of altered
state of consciousness:
“I
refer to the consciousness produced by intoxicants and anæsthetics,
especially by alcohol. …it is part of the deeper mystery and tragedy of
life that whiffs and gleams of something that we immediately recognize as
excellent should be vouchsafed to so many of us only in the fleeting earlier
phases of what in its totality is so degrading a poisoning.”
James then continues with
a discussion of ether and nitrous oxide as stimulators of “the mystical
consciousness.” Shamans over the millennia, for example the Jivaro
referred to by Michael Harner in The Way of the Shaman, have used intoxicants to enter another form of
reality. James accepted the power of these states and recognized that they
formed a part of reality, but did not know about core shamanism. Still, he came
very, very close to realizing the shamanic experience:
“…Our
normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one
special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the
filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.
We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the
requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness,
definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of
application, and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be
final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to
regard them is the question—for they are so discontinuous with ordinary
consciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish
formulas, and open a region though they fail to give a map. At any rate, they
forbid a premature closing of our accounts with reality.”
Repetitive drumbeats
“apply the requisite stimulus” that “open a region” of
non-ordinary reality for your healer. Alcohol and drugs are not needed. Your healer was trained in a useful
“field of application” that includes “formulas” for
healing passed down from ancient times to the present day. Applying a
“type of mentality” that is “discontinuous with ordinary
consciousness,” your healer uses an “adaptation” of shamanic
experience to “furnish formulas” to repair your hurt spirit, and
then provide the channel through which it is returned to you. You can do this
yourself, too.
Almost 100 years after
James wrote, Tom Cowan described journeying this way:
“…you
are making up (that is, creating) the formula that you use to initiate the
journey…your intention determines much that occurs on the journey. But
because you have entered another reality, the spirit world, you are not totally
in control and cannot determine everything that occurs. The spirits are
autonomous; the non-ordinary places and events of the shamanic journey exist in
a dimension where we are only visitors, not rulers.”
James did not see how mystical
experiences could provide a map of the other regions of reality. Shamanic
journeyers do not have a map, either, but rely on the “map” their
autonomous spirit helpers or power animals possess. We can visit this reality,
too. Personalized aspects of the Universe will lead us to sources of strength
to live healthier lives—if we are willing.
The healing offered by a
shamanic practitioner begins when they journey to non-ordinary reality to help
you. After they have journeyed for you, you can learn the fundamentals of
journeying from this article to continue healing yourself. More advanced
techniques can be found in a growing number of books[1]
or from classes offered around the world by the Foundation for Shamanic
Studies.
Physical
healings can be done on any part of your body as long as you do not feel that
the affected part is “inappropriate.” If you feel uncomfortable
having the healer work around any part of your body, ask another person to perform the healing.
Although the healer does not need to touch you, the technique of
“blowing” the missing spirit part back means that the healer may
place their cupped hands near your body. Only you can give permission for this,
and you always
have the right to say no.
You can stop
the healing at any
time. It is your choice. An ethical healer will not pressure you to continue.
Remember, without trust, or in the presence of fear, your healing will be
limited in effectiveness.
Typically
your healer will fully explain what the two of you will do before you start. You will help devise your
healing procedure. The healer will reach an agreement with you about the steps
to perform during the healing. They will help you find a way to conduct the
healing so that you will be comfortable with it. You and your healer (if it is
the wizard) must agree about how your healing will be performed.
Your healer may also
offer classes or hold sessions to let you practice your journeying skills and
ask questions about your experiences. It helps to have a teacher or a good
friend who has been where you will go to help you before and after you get
there. While you are in this mystic state, that something that attends to you personally will help you and
keep you safe. Eventually the time will come when your teachers will be your
helping spirits and power animals. A shamanic practitioner does not want to be your guru. He or she wants you to help
yourself to the greatest extent possible. Your teachers will often tell you to
“journey on it” instead of giving you a direct answer. Why?
Because wisdom is free.
It is inexhaustible. Wisdom is a loving gift to you from the Universe. It
cannot hurt you. This is how the wizard describes it:
The
voice of the universe is so gentle that not even a child can be afraid.[2]
Let us listen.
The
first jewel: The powerlessness of fear
A
shamanic healing may relieve some kinds of pain and chronic conditions, such as
immune system problems, only temporarily. This is not surprising. Alcoholism is
not cured. Recovering people get a daily remission based on the maintenance of
their spiritual condition. For long-term benefits it may be necessary for you
to maintain your health by balancing physical and spiritual treatment.
Shamanic healing is being
used in balanced treatment programs such as the one now being pioneered by the
Chronic Pain and Addictions Group at Kaiser Permanente HMO in Portland, Oregon.
There, a team of doctors and healers evaluates patients in recovery. They use a
spectrum of treatment that runs from journeying and guided meditation to
minimal doses of long acting opiates for indefinite periods of time. By
blending the physical with the spiritual, the patients’ pain is relieved,
and nearly all remain sober. They do not relapse by abusing their prescribed
medication or by drinking.[3]
While this program is not
yet widely available, you can participate in your treatment by working with
your doctor to develop an illness or pain management regimen, and supplementing
it with journeys to maintain your health.
Fear and spiritual healing
After Sandra explained to
our class how retrieving the lost part of the body’s animating spirit
could heal a physical problem, she immediately sent us to “journey on
it.” This was helpful because we were given no time to doubt that it
would work! However, the wizard had just enough time to find three fundamental
reasons to fear this kind of shamanic practice. His healing, performed by
another student, worked, but these fears reduced its effectiveness:
1.
Fear of the unknown
If one has never had a
physical illness—or a part of one’s body!—healed spiritually,
and if the consequences of the healing might leave one in worse shape than
before if it goes wrong, and if one has a growing but still imperfect trust in
the healer who will perform it, then this mish-mash congeals into a fear of the
unknown. The trust that developed between the students in Sandra’s
workshop, strengthened by the successful soul retrievals earlier in the week,
allowed the wizard to release this fear. However, a second fear quickly took
its place.
2.
Fear of failure
As the wizard began to
get excited about having his vision restored, the fear that the healing might
fail grew. Visions of clear vision lit his imagination, and were followed by
despair when he thought that the healing might not work, or might work imperfectly. The idea of even
limited improvement after years of seeing with a blind spot in his eye was not
enough! Success was defined in terms of perfect eyesight, rather than improved eyesight, and failure was defined as anything not
perfect. However, membership in a
Twelve Step program had taught him to accept progress, not perfection. Previous
practice let him put this fear to rest. And that opened the door to the
nastiest fear of all.
3.
Fear of success
The wizard had become
used to being partially blind in one eye, and using that as a reason to be a
victim when he wanted a little self-pity. Also, when another person shared in a
meeting about some physical condition that was painful or difficult for them,
he could “trump” their trouble with his eye. This was neither sober
nor compassionate behavior, but he had not seen it for what it was until the
impending healing promised to remove the excuse for his actions. He chose to
face the fear of successful healing, and let go of his self-pity—partly.
The result of fear
It seemed to take a very
long time to work through these fears, lying on the floor while his partner was
journeying. He realized that if anything kept this healing from working, it
would be his character defects. And when the healing was over, his vision had
been restored—partly.
Even a partial healing
was amazing enough. The blind patch in his right eye, due to a tiny transient
ischemic attack (stroke) in the retina, was reduced to 60% of its original
size. A fluorescein angiogram later showed that the affected area had been
reduced in size. Certainly this could have happened slowly during the period
between examinations, but the wizard saw the result immediately “from the
inside.” Before, there was a big patch; afterwards, a smaller patch.
The lesson to be learned
from this is that there are many fears that affect a spiritual healing. The
healer must be able to establish trust with the person they want to heal, and
help them remove their obvious fears. But the healer must also be willing to go
further, and determine if the person wants to be healed. Having faced his dark side, the wizard is now able to
help others look inward and prepare them for a return to full or partial
health, and its consequences.
These
steps may be completed in 30 minutes or less. If only a few of the steps are
used, they may take as little as two minutes. However, every shamanic
practitioner is shown the specific needs for each healing by their helping
spirits or power animals. Your healing will be unique. These steps are intended
to help you become comfortable with the healing process in advance. Nothing
“creepy” happens. You
are always in control.
The wizard
now offers to retrieve your animating spirit using a tiny crystal point about 3/4” long. The missing part of your animating spirit is carried
back in it. Then you make the choice to return your spirit part yourself,
“inspiriting” it by inhaling through your cupped hands that hold
the “crystal carrier.” The crystal is cleansed in advance, wrapped
in a small square of cloth, tied with "six-directions" string[4]
and carried in a small medicine pouch for immediate use. You might ask if your
healer uses something similar.
You are strongly encouraged to continue therapy or
treatment after you accept a spiritual healing. While some people may, with the
care and supervision of a medical professional, be able to discontinue
treatment, your healer ought not to make such a suggestion—unless he or she is your doctor! Otherwise such a
suggestion is unethical and does not agree with the statement that “No
A.A. Member Plays Doctor” in the Alcoholics Anonymous conference-approved
pamphlet P-11, the AA member–Medications and other Drugs. Other Twelve Step programs have
similar guidelines for their members.
The
second jewel: The six flowers of Ozma
Tom Brown Jr. knew about
five of the six flowers Ozma left in the garden that are used for healing . He
wrote about them in his in his book, Awakening Spirits. There is a sixth flower that the wizard found.
You will be shown all of them.
We can pick Ozma’s
flowers, but we can never claim we grew them. Tom Brown Jr. explained with a
precaution given to him by his mentor, Grandfather Stalking Wolf:
“We
are not the power, nor is it we who create the miracles. It is the power of
Creation, the spirit world, and the Creator working through us. We are but a
bridge for that power, as is anyone who knows the simple truth. We must never
take credit for what we have helped to do, but hide the fact that we are the
bridge. Self-glorification is the lust of the physical mind. To know the truth
is to know that we have done nothing but be used by the forces outside
ourselves. We are nothing more than a hollow vessel.”
Members of Twelve Step
programs will find many familiar reminders in this caution. They are true, but
they are difficult to practice if one follows a healing pathway. The ego is so persistent! One reason the wizard performs his
healing work side-by-side with his program of recovery is to continue to learn
humility. Every healing he has been permitted to accomplish could have been
performed with more humility. During every healing the ego says at least once
before or afterwards, “Look at me! Aren’t I great?” Sometimes
it says this a lot!
Then the wizard’s
heart mind answers with a prayer of thanks that he was used by his Higher
Power. This reminds the ego that although this body is a channel for the
healing power, it is not the source of the healing power, nor does the ego
control it. We offer to help, we cleanse ourselves to be able to help, we
journey, we request a healing—the difference between a request and a
demand must be clear to us—and then we are shown how to help. How does it
work?
Grandfather and Tom
Brown, Jr. tell us that five elements are needed for a spiritual healing. They
are:
1. Pure intent
Our intention to heal
must be clear. Often that means it must be simple. Our intention must also be
free of self, and expectations of reward, praise, or payment. A clean channel
is needed to carry the grace for a healing. The wizard has sometimes found it
necessary to pray for days to be relieved of lust when a beautiful woman
requests a healing. And pride, that stubborn, narcissistic lust of the ego for
itself, must be cleared out, too. There can be no stones in a hollow bone. When these things are done we next ask ourselves
if we believe we can heal, or be healed.
2. Faith
If humility opens the
channel of healing, faith connects it to the source of power. Faith as big as a
grain of mustard seed is sufficient to heal another or ourselves. Doubt as
small as a speck of dust will limit it. When we have faith and doubt—and
character defects!—they restrict our ability to be a channel of healing.
We can only make
progress. We are not perfect. In Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power, Chief Frank Fools Crow restates
Grandfather’s caution, and expands it with one of the most beautiful
messages of hope the wizard has ever found:
“We
can never heal a person and say, “I did that, and you can thank me for
it.” It is the Higher Powers and their Helpers who do this in and through
us. We are helpers too, but only as hollow bones they work through. …the
greatest and the only lasting privilege we have is that in spite of some of the
things we think, say and do, the Powers and their Helpers are still willing to
work through us.”
Doubt and character
defects will not prevent healing as long as faith and humility exist in us.
3. Sacred silence
In the sacred silence we
quiet our minds and listen to the voice of our Higher Power. As shamanic
practitioners, we let go of our will, and let our helping spirits or power
animals direct us to the place in non-ordinary reality where we will find what
we seek. We may not find it where we expected, but it will be what we need to
heal another or ourselves. This is the knowledge of what our Higher Power’s will is for us. We still
may not know how to carry it
out.
4. Envisioning
During their journeys,
some people see images of the healing actions their helping spirits or power
animals direct them to perform. These images may be very vivid. Other people
may have a specific sequence of actions whispered to them, a ceremony perhaps,
or a simple task to help someone heal. Another group of people may be taught a
song to sing, or a dance to perform. Still other people may find themselves
just “knowing” what is needed. No images are seen; no voices are
heard. But within their heart mind, which is joyfully active during the
journey, knowledge is acquired. This is envisioning. As Tom Brown Jr. says, “…our envisioning [must]
be so pure and powerful that we are actually part of what we envision.”
We will be there, living in
two worlds as so many shamans have done in the past, and as so many shamanic
practitioners do today.
5. The Power
The Eleventh Step, found
in Alcoholics Anonymous on
page 59, tells us to pray “…only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.” The first two elements of healing
prepare us to ask for the knowledge. The second two answer our request. The
fifth element recognizes that it is only by the power of our Creator, which our
Higher Power permits to flow through us, that the healing will be accomplished.
We are not in control of this process. We may not even be allowed to heal
another or ourselves. Grandfather tells us:
“You
may not be called to use the Power while a peer is strongly called, and at
another time you may be called while he is not. So then who is the stronger? No
one and everyone.”
This has been the
experience of the wizard. It is humbling. But there are many channels of
healing, and many windows into the Light. The world is so big that it would be
a very dark place without all of them. Our task is to heal others so they may
become channels and windows, too. We will leave the world a brighter place than
we found it.
6. The Need
The Eleventh Step, found
in Alcoholics Anonymous on
page 59, tells us to pray “…only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.” The first two elements of healing
prepare us to ask for the knowledge. The second two answer our request. The
fifth element recognizes that it is only by the power of our Creator, which our
Higher Power permits to flow through us, that the healing will be accomplished.
We are not in control of this process. We may not even be allowed to heal
another or ourselves. Grandfather tells us:
The third jewel: Your
journey to the garden
Your first journey is an
adventure! Many adventures take us where we have never been before. Everyone,
including the wizard, has a fear of the unknown. Sobriety is an example of such
an adventure. We asked questions before we got sober. We asked questions after we got sober! What happened to me? How does it
work? Am I like other people?
Everyone the wizard has
met asked questions about how to get sober. He did, too. Naturally, they also
ask questions about journeying. So did he.
The wizard now believes
that we have two minds, one in our head, and one in our heart:
Our
head mind—our logical
mind—is the source of logic, analysis and judgment, and
Our heart mind—our
emotional mind—is the source of feeling, intuition and acceptance.
Both are necessary. The
mind in your head will draw connections between the things you see on journeys,
and the healings you seek. With practice, your head mind will analyze what you
experienced during your journey without trying to understand how the heart mind
acquired the information. As with prayer and meditation, before you act on what
you have learned, check it with someone you trust, such as your partner, your
sponsor or your spiritual advisor.
Before you make your
first journey, if you do it “solo” and not with a teacher, you may
need to obtain several of these things:
1. Either a drum, a rattle or a compact disc (CD)
of shamanic drumming (and a compact disc player and headphones if you do not
have them),
2. A bandanna or blindfold,
3. The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner (optional; you need it if you
will meet your power animal for the first time, but do not know what it is
because you have not yet been “introduced” to it by a healer or
teacher), and
4. A small, clear quartz crystal (optional).
For example, you may buy
a shamanic drumming CD and quartz crystal, and make a blindfold. You may also
get some white sage, a candle and holder, a picture of the power animal or
spirit helper you want to meet, and other aids to your spiritual intent,
especially if they make you feel comfortable and at ease. But you do not need
them.
The wizard made his first
shamanic journey using a pair of Latin Percussion rattles and the
half-journeying, half-dancing technique described by Michael Harner in The
Way of the Shaman. Other books
describe similar techniques.
If you choose to use a rattle, you do not need to buy an expensive one. A half
full box of Tic-Tac mints will work! At the five-day soul retrieval workshop,
the wizard used a Tic-Tac box partly filled with small quartz pebbles, each
about the size of a BB. It was convenient to carry around in his
pocket…and it worked![5]
If you use a shamanic
drumming CD, you may wish to use a quartz crystal as an “envisioning
amplifier.” Shamans from many cultures use quartz crystals for various
reasons. A crystal—the clearer the better—makes it easier to enter
non-ordinary reality, and once there, to use all of your senses during the journey very vividly. The wizard believes that quartz crystals
do this because they have the same form in non-ordinary reality that they do in
ordinary reality. Their structure is independent of either reality. A crystal is the soul’s
doorway into non-ordinary reality.
If you place the crystal
over your sixth chakra (the “third eye” chakra), your journeys may
be full of multi-sensory imagery. You can bind the crystal in a blindfold made
from a five or six foot length of black cotton muslin (do not use synthetics).
Wrap the crystal lengthwise in a section of the cloth. The crystal should point
to the right from base to tip as you wear the blindfold. Used this way, a
crystal will carry back information and other gifts from your power animal.
The procedure for finding
your power animal is not repeated here. Instead, this article assumes that you
have accepted a healing and been introduced to your power animal by your
healer. In this journey you will ask it to teach you about itself. As it does
so, your spirit helper or power animal may help you learn something about your
own life. The wizard suggests that you begin by using a shamanic drumming CD.
It is easier to learn to journey with a regular, monotonous beat. The
Foundation for Shamanic Studies sells a shamanic double drumming CD with
journeys of various lengths that end with a “callback” signal. The
wizard has often used it successfully.
The following twelve
questions are commonly asked about journeying. Read them now to prepare for
your first journey. All of these questions come from your logical mind. It is a
paradox: your logical mind has
brought you to a place where the logical mind cannot go.
Now let go with your head mind, and permit your heart mind to seek healing in
another reality.
Questions people ask before their
journey
1.
Do I physically go somewhere?
No. Your body stays here,
in ordinary reality. A small part of your personality, your core essence—your soul—enters non-ordinary reality
with the assistance of your helping spirits or power animals, even if you
haven’t met them yet.
2.
How will I get back?
Your “head
mind” will work with your “heart mind” to bring you back.
Drumming tapes and compact discs used for journeying have a
“callback” signal that your head mind will be listening for. The
head mind is strong! It does not
want to let you stay in non-ordinary reality. If you should fall asleep
listening to a drumming tape on your own, you will wake up normally, as if you
had taken a nap. You cannot “get lost” in non-ordinary reality.
3.
Is there anything “out there” that can hurt me?
No. Those parts of your
Higher Power that have attended to you personally since your birth will watch
over you and keep you safe, even if you have not met them yet. If you do see anything that makes you
uncomfortable, you will wake up on your own—which means that they have
brought you back, even if the drumming tape or compact disc is still playing.
Traditional shamans avoid spiders, insects, and fish and snakes with fangs. Yet
many people have snakes as power animals, and the wizard has a mated pair of
beautiful moths that help him. Be guided by your intuition and sense of
“rightness.” You will intuitively know how to handle situations
that used to baffle you!
Questions people ask after their
journey
4.
Am I making this up?
It does not matter. Over
time, your experiences will demonstrate to you that knowledge you had no way of
knowing in advance was presented to you during journeys. The mind in your head
will try to explain it away, and it will go to great lengths to do so. The mind
in your heart simply accepts that it knows. Your imagination will help you
journey. Enjoy it!
5.
What if I did not find a way to enter non-ordinary reality?
You may not have
recognized the doorway. Classical shamans enter non-ordinary reality through a
hole in the ground, such as a tunnel, a cave or a hollow tree stump. Modern
journeyers may enter through similar places, or a more familiar doorway, such
as a lake, a wooded glade, a long hallway, a subway, or a road. Some people
just switch into non-ordinary
reality. The wizard is one of these people, and has done this since he was a
very young child. If you ever “lost yourself” daydreaming, or had
invisible pets or playmates, or went to special places of magical significance,
you may have a natural ability to journey. Either way, do not force it. Let go,
let your imagination roam, and see where it takes you. Your Higher Power is
always in control.
6.
What if non-ordinary reality looked, well, ordinary?
Some parts of
non-ordinary reality do look
like ordinary reality. They make up what shamans call the Middle World. But even there you may travel discontinuously, as
if you were in a dream, but guided by your pure intent. There are other parts
of non-ordinary reality that may also look ordinary—but they are not.
Your helping spirits or power animals inhabit these parts. Called the Lower
World, animals and plants may
talk, you may find a special place from your childhood intact, even though
apartments and shopping malls have since covered it, or you may travel in time.
Finally, the Upper World is
beautiful, ethereal, and full of light. There some people meet their Higher
Power, as they understand it. They return filled with love and joy. Try not to
push for such a journey too soon. It will happen when you are ready.
7.
What if my images were not as vivid as other people say their images are?
Some people do have vivid images, and some people only say they do. It does not matter. How you remember
what you are shown is what is important. You may also find that your
recollection develops over a day or two. Knowledge will slowly
“seep” from your heart mind into your head mind as your head mind
becomes ready to accept it. The wizard calls this the Polaroid® effect.
8.
What if I only sensed or heard things and did not see them?
Some people who are very
visual in ordinary reality have different gifts in non-ordinary reality. While
it is frustrating to be a painter who hears music during journeys, it is
sometimes true that we are taught to use our full range of senses as we help
others and ourselves. Let go and enjoy it!
9.
What if I did not see a spirit helper or power animal?
It was there even if you
did not meet it. Perhaps it was hiding, or left tracks, or was singing or
making other sounds, or you simply did not recognize it. As your memories of
your journey develop, ask yourself if anything seemed important or persistent.
For example, your helping spirit or power animal may have been Mouse, and it
may have shown itself to you by skittering over rocks or through tall grass, or
you may have heard “mousy” noises. Mouse may have been difficult to
see, and that may have been the suggestion it had for you: be patient and watch
for little details in your life. You can journey again and ask it to help
you—and Mouse will answer.
10.
What if I did not meet the spirit helper or power animal that I wanted?
Most people have between
seven and nine helping spirits or power animals. Often they already have a
connection to them in ordinary reality. But, the one you want to meet right now may not be the one you need to meet right now. One person the wizard taught
to journey wanted to meet Elephant…and was disappointed to meet Bat. Yet
at the time of the journey they had just begun a new relationship, and were
living with their partner in a small apartment. The wizard suggested that
perhaps Bat could help them negotiate through the invisible trip wires of a new
relationship and place to live, while Elephant, big and used to going where it
pleased and stomping along its way to get there, might not be really helpful right now? They agreed, and later met
Elephant when life had settled down. Meeting your power animal is a chance to
practice the Third Step.
11.
What if my spirit helper or power animal said something that didn’t make
sense?
It may not make sense yet. Time and space as we experience it in ordinary
reality does not exist in non-ordinary reality. Your spirit helper or power
animal may have told you something that you will need to know in the future. This form of
precognition is unsettling the first time we experience it. The wizard suggests
that you keep a record of your journeys. Review it periodically. Over
time—ordinary reality’s time—you will see how the knowledge
you have been given fits into your life. Be patient. Remember, more will be
revealed!
12.
Should I keep trying?
Only
you can decide. When you graduated from a tricycle or big wheel to a bicycle,
did you fall? And did you want to learn to ride your bicycle badly enough that
you kept getting up and trying again until you could ride it? Journeying is like that. Unfortunately,
it is a skill that many of us have been trained not to use. We have been told not to daydream, or
trust our imagination, or people have made fun of us for believing in dreams
and coincidence. We have been taught that seeing is believing. For science that is true, but for spirituality
the opposite is true. Believing is seeing! While we are coming to believe, we can only see spiritual things
through a dim glass, darkly. Try, try and try again, and your journeys will
improve. You will learn how to let go. You will know when to let go, and when to
hold on. Your life will have become balanced.
What your journey might be like
Now, get comfortable,
cover your eyes, put on your headphones, start your drumming CD, and state your
intention:
Please, let me meet [ (my spirit
helper or power animal) ] so that I
can learn why [He or She] has come into my life now.
For example, you might
say, “Please, let me meet Swallow so that I can learn why She is in my
life today.” Notice that you can vary the intention, especially if it
makes it easier for you to use.
After stating your
intention forcefully but respectfully several times, let your heart mind roam,
and take you through an entrance into non-ordinary reality. Perhaps you will
climb a ladder in the barn on your uncle’s farm, then think about Capistrano,
then see a mission, then see flocks of swallows, then think, “One swallow
does not a summer make.” Suddenly you sense yourself riding on the back
of a swallow, flying out over the ocean, seeing a very vivid image of a sunset.
Your journey ends as you fly in and out of the barn loft on the back of this
friendly swallow. When the “callback” comes, you are disappointed.
Let it go, and write down your journey.
The next day, after
reflection, you realize that you have been trying to decide whether or not to
take a new job in a new, small high-tech business. There are only a few
businesses in the field. Swallow may be warning you that it is too risky, and
that this company will not succeed—it is facing the sunset of its life.
But Swallow may also be telling you that summer is coming. You decide to apply
at a different company in the same field and are hired. Two years later the
company relocates to Mission Viejo, acquires two competitors and renames itself
Swallow.com! San Juan Capistrano is 15 miles away. The sunsets are beautiful.
Coincidence? Not to a shaman.
Remember, your head mind
will try to discount what you learned (“You knew it all along”).
But it will do that for any
journey! Keep practicing. You will learn how to let your heart mind and your
Higher Power cooperate. Eventually your head mind will decide to join in the
fun!
Now let’s look at
some healing journeys.
The fourth jewel:
Healing yourself in the garden
Many of us have heard in
a Twelve Step program that it is easier to live ourselves into good thinking
than it is to think ourselves into good living. Yet when we journey to heal
ourselves it is the strength of our intention, our thinking, that allows a change in our life, our healing. When our habits of living straighten out, our
habits of thought follow. As we learn to use our minds, we find that our
thoughts become an alloy forged of logic and emotion, stronger than either
alone.
Our head mind, balanced
with our heart mind, inspires patience, tolerance, kindliness and love within
us. We become open to our Higher Power. Our new strength and openness, like
that found in the prosaic steel pipeline, permit us to be “little hollow
bones” to heal others and ourselves. When we journey to heal ourselves we
state an intention, a simple, pure, and good thought. Unfortunately, it is easier to create a bad intention. We self-sabotage ourselves by
thinking, “I really, really, REALLY don’t want to do that,” even though we should—and our car breaks down! It is
difficult to put the same force into a good intention. You can do it with practice.
Stating an intention for
a journey is simple. Holding
an intention for a journey may not be as easy. The mind likes to skip around
from one thing to another. Anyone who has begun the practice of meditation
knows this. That is why healing journeys take practice.
The wizard has found it
helpful to repeat the intention several times to a slow drumbeat before
beginning a journey. Once the intention is “fixed,” he starts the
fast drumbeat to enter non-ordinary reality. After meeting whichever power
animal arrives to direct him on the journey, the intention is stated verbally,
and then visualized, too.
For example, “hot,
dark pain” might be presented as charcoal briquettes, which his power
animal may find in the garden under a “foot bush”—or in a
tiny barbeque grill exactly one foot high! Metaphor abounds in non-ordinary
reality. Once found, the briquettes are cupped in his hands and squeezed into
brilliantly luminous diamonds! Their radiance is offered to the world as the
Light streams out between his clasped fingers, dimming until the last rays of
the Light are gone, and the diamonds have melted away. His pain has melted
away, too, or become bearable.
The hardest thing anyone
can do is hold an intention. Our minds, especially if it is like the
wizard’s, will wander. But even if you are just beginning to learn how to
hold an intention, you can still journey to request a healing for yourself.
Trust those aspects of the Spirit In All Things that attends to you personally.
It wants to help you. But you
must want to be helped. Chief
Frank Fools Crow says in Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power:
“Wakan-Tanka and the Helpers want people to badger them for
needs, not because the Higher Powers need to know the hearts of the people, but
because the people themselves have to know the measure of their commitment to
the task; do they want what they need badly enough to put some real effort into
obtaining it?”
Twelve
intentions for healing and spiritual growth
Here are twelve good
intentions for your journeys. Three are for healing. Nine more are offered for
spiritual growth. Each is a “formula” for healing and growth that
you may repeat whenever you need it, just as you are encouraged to take an
antibiotic until your illness is cured, a daily vitamin to supplement your
diet, or insulin to control your blood sugar if you are a diabetic.
It is not self-will run
riot that leads us to seek health and growth, but rather a desire to fit
ourselves to be of service to God and the people about us. When this is our
purpose, we are free to journey for ourselves. As our difficulties are removed,
our good health bears witness to others that something is at work in us. Later we may choose to learn
how to help others. Perhaps other people will be inspired to follow a spiritual
path of their own if they see us enjoying a sober life in the face of illness
and pain.
Three
healing journeys
1.
For injury: Retrieving a “soul droplet”
When we have suffered an
injury, the trauma may cause the part of our vital essence that animates our
injured body to flee. When it is gone, we may find that we do not heal easily,
or are in pain while it heals. When a shamanic practitioner journeys to heal an
injury, they may visualize the lost part of the animating spirit as a soul
droplet, a drop of spiritual dew
that has formed on a plant in the garden of healing souls. These plants often
look like the part of the body from which the soul part fled.
Fingers may hang like
bananas, shoulders may sprout like large Portobello mushrooms from torsos shaped
as logs, blood vessels may twine like gaudy vines around trellises of strong
white bones, eyes may hang in bunches like grapes, or in clusters like
cherries! Everywhere you look a myriad of soul droplets glitter. Your spirit
helpers or power animals will guide you to yours.
There are many ways to
help others and yourself with the plants in the garden of healing souls. Some
healers bring back the plant or fruit. The wizard has been taught by his Higher
Power to bring back drops of healing dew, cool, soothing, and pure, cherished
like a bright jewel in his heart until it is returned. You can ask your spirit
helpers or power animals to retrieve your vital essence as soul droplets,
healing plants, or spiritual fruit…and then let them choose!
Try this intention now.
Ask your helping spirits or power animals to do this:
Please, take me into the garden where the soul
droplet of my
[ (body part) ] is waiting, and help me bring it back
to heal myself.
Make this journey after
praying that the will of your Higher Power be done.
When you have found your
soul droplet, finish your journey by pursing you lips and gently blowing your
animating spirit back into your body. It will leave your heart and enter the
place from which it was lost. Give it love for a few days to welcome it home!
2.
For illness: Inspiriting the Light
It may be difficult to
journey when you are ill. Perhaps you have the flu. Your body’s energy is
low, your heart mind is depressed, and your head mind is not thinking
logically! Going to bed and sleeping sounds like a good idea. But you may have
to go to work or care for your children, and you need a connection to a power
greater than yourself. Or, perhaps you have a chronic illness, such as
arthritis or diabetic neuropathy. It flares up regularly. You know your illness
is active because you suddenly feel pain. The chronic pain increases from the
almost unnoticeable to become agonizing. What can we do about something like
this?
One practice the wizard
was taught by his journeying partner at the Santa Fe workshop was to let
healing Light flow into the area where the symptom of his disease was active.
He was told to do this for his feet. When careful control of his diabetes just
doesn’t work—and occasionally it does not—then a healing
journey not only diminishes the pain of neuropathy to the point that it can be
ignored, but also helps heal the broad area of his body that is afflicted.
Inspiriting the Light can
also help reduce the effects of illness. When the wizard caught the flu, a
healing journey permitted him to see his body from the perspective of the
virus, as a mammoth terrarium! He was able to respect the needs of the virus,
and negotiate with it. He got better in two days instead of the week or more
his friends and colleagues needed. Inspiriting the Light helped both the wizard
and the virus fulfill their
purpose in life.[6]
Here is an intention to
help you heal your illness by inspiriting the Light. It respects the other
forms of life which share the Earth with us, and that cause some of our illnesses.
Try it the next time you are sick. Ask your helping spirits or power animals to
do this:
Please, let me inspirit the Light to heal my [ (illness) ] so that
when we part we may each fulfill our purpose in life.
Make this journey after
praying for trust in your Higher Power.
3.
For chronic pain: Transforming darkness into Light
Pain spans cultures and
joins spiritual practices worldwide in a bond of humanity. Many people
“see” some forms of pain and illness as images that are fearful or
disgusting. This is natural. Sandra Ingerman, on page 200 in Soul
Retrieval—Mending the Fragmented Self, writes:
“All
illness has a spiritual identity. This means that when I journey into a
client’s body to look at illness, it will actually have an identity. It will
look like a fanged reptile, or an insect, or some dark, sludgy material. It
will show itself in a form repulsive to me.”
Sogyal Rinpoche, on page
209 of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (second edition), writes:
“[Imagine
that the pain and suffering] manifest together and gather into a great mass of
hot, black, grimy smoke.”
Pain manifests itself in
other images. The wizard saw the pain in his ribs as elemental, a force of
nature that only Nature could control. He envisioned the pain as a hot, brightly
burning wildfire on the slopes of a tropical island set in a clear
turquoise-blue sea. The rains would come and extinguish the fire, allowing his
pain to diminish until it rekindled from the embers. Today that island is
peaceful, calm, and quiet—and waiting for him to return if there is need.
It is easy to see pain as
dark, evil and hideous. We wish to fight it. Ancient shamans journeyed to
battle pain. Even today shamanic practitioners are taught to extract the pain,
a modest form of struggle. But Alcoholics Anonymous says on page 84, “And we have ceased
fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol.” The wizard gave up
fighting his pain—although he still cried while the flames were
hot—and let Nature heal Her own. He abandoned himself to a force of
Nature shown to him by his Higher Power. He passively let Nature heal him.
Today we can take action.
We can transform our pain to help other people.
The journey suggested
here draws on Tonglen, taught
by Sogyal Rinpoche and other followers of Tibetan Buddhism. To practice
Tonglen, you ask for compassion from your Higher Power, take the pain of others
into your heart, let it destroy your ego’s self-will, then use your
enlightened heart mind to transform the pain into brilliant healing Light, and
return this dazzling Light as peace, joy and love to remove their suffering.
If you are in pain, you
may be able to see it as a gift. You might embrace your pain, transform it into
Light for the Earth and Her children, and let it shine brightly until the pain
fades away or goes out. This journey to transform hot, dark pain into radiant
Light is surrendering to win. It is an opportunity to use pain as a touchstone
of progress for those who suffer, offering healing energy to all including
yourself. As the sun shines, so can you!
Try this intention now.
Ask your helping spirits or power animals to do this:
Please, take me into the garden where the hot,
dark pain of my
[ (body part) ] is waiting, and help me turn it into Light to
[heal or bless] all others in pain and myself.
Make this journey after
praying for love and compassion.
Of course, chronic pain may signal a
dangerous physical condition, so be alert to the need for balance in your
personal health! If new pain occurs or is felt in a different location, or your
pain increases, or there is a change in any condition associated with pain, see your
doctor.
Nine
journeys for spiritual growth
What happens after we are
healed? We grow. We stay sober, continue to practice the principles of our
Twelve Step program in daily living, pray, meditate—and journey. Here are
intentions for journeys that may help you grow as a spiritual being, and also
help you live as a human being. Some of them can be used to learn more about
healing. For example, you may choose to ask how to use plants to heal yourself
(be cautious about using what you learn for others). The wizard learned how to
make a bandage from a common plant that grows in his woods. The leaf both stops
bleeding and promotes healing for cuts and scrapes. It is a natural cellular
band-aid! He has since started reading about the use of healing plants by
Native Americans.[7]
After you use a few of
these intentions and become comfortable with them, you can refer to the five
elements of healing and use them to construct your own intentions. Need help
doing that? Journey on it! One
of the intentions lets you ask for new intentions! Cool, eh? Your helping
spirits or power animals will be glad to give you suggestions.
Journey with these
intentions after praying to be of use to your Higher Power and the people about
you. These intentions work—they really do!
Please, tell me what I am here on Earth to do.
Please, show me the good in [ (myself or
someone else)
]
that I do not see.
Please, show me the most important thing about
myself
that I do not see.
Please, show me “my part of it” in [ (whatever
happened) ].
Please, teach me how to help [ (myself or
someone else) ] now.
Please, teach me about the healing properties of [ (a plant) ].
Please, teach me a song to help me [ (do whatever is
necessary )
].
Please, teach me an intention to journey on for [
(something) ].
Please, show me the next question to ask about [
(something) ].
The fifth jewel: The
world beyond the garden
At the start of this
article the wizard told how meditation gave him relief from pain during a long
bout with pneumonia. When his illness was finally diagnosed, a ten-day course
of a powerful antibiotic cured the pneumonia. The assistance of the fine doctors
in his health care team, coupled with a strong will to live and continued
sobriety, helped restore him to health. In his mind there is no doubt that both
physical and spiritual healings took place. The book, Alcoholics Anonymous, implies that a combination of healing techniques is helpful:
“When
the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and
physically.” — page 64
“God
has abundantly supplied this world with many fine doctors, psychologists, and
practitioners of various kinds. Do not hesitate to take your health problems to
such persons.” — page 133
Chief
Frank Fools Crow said in Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power:
“Someday
though, everyone will realize that the best kind of treatment for everyone in
the world is to combine the center of what we do [spiritual healing] with what
the white doctors do. Then the cures will be truly great.”
Most
of us have been raised to have faith in “the white doctors,” but
little faith in other paths of healing. What this narrative suggests is that we
find a way to balance our healing paths. How?
We
may have begun to realize that something is out of balance. What could it be?
We’re
sober! What else is there?
The sixth jewel: The
vast realms
A healthy body is only a
beginning. Sobriety is not enough. The wizard came to believe that his
emotional unrest was a symptom that his soul had been damaged during his
illness and drinking, just as the eight months of physical pain was one symptom
of the damage his animating spirit suffered during his bout with pneumonia. He
felt that something was missing, that the “black hole” inside
needed a different kind of healing. The Twelve Steps opened the door to realize
his emptiness, and learn that sobriety alone was not filling it. The wizard has
since met many others like himself, some sober for over 25 years, who lived in
emotional pain even though they had done everything possible to follow the
suggested program of recovery. They had gone to any length to “get
it”—and something was missing.
That something was a part of their soul.
By a long series of
coincidences—and it is said that coincidence is simply another name for
Providence—the wizard learned of a workshop on soul retrieval. It was
taught by a remarkable woman, Sandra Ingerman. Although afraid of receiving a
soul retrieval, he went to the workshop anyway…and his Higher Power
worked through another human being to mend his broken soul.
That healing changed his
life.
His willingness to work
the Twelve Steps of his fellowship dried him up, opened the door to faith,
created an empty but cracked vessel out of a broken man, and showed him how to
become teachable. A path of small miracles—although all miracles are
really the same size!—led to a door, and on the other side of that door
was a garden. And beyond the garden?
Beyond the garden are
mysteries and wonders. The wizard has been permitted by his Higher Power to
explore vast, limitless expanses in another reality. Directed and assisted by
his Higher Power, God as he understands God, he is permitted to be a channel of healing for
others and, by doing it selflessly, to heal himself. He and others are given opportunities to do this
daily. Are you willing to offer them an opportunity? They will accept your
offer with gratitude and love.
The seventh jewel:
Living in the light
The wizard occasionally
feels doubt. He sometimes fears he is crazy. This is common among shamans in
many cultures. After fighting, denying and hiding his gifts since childhood, he
was finally diagnosed as an alcoholic with bipolar disorder. That fit society’s
view of what he is and what he does. But there was a way out. Now, as a
recovering alcoholic and a shamanic practitioner, he no longer drinks or needs
lithium. But…his gifts still make demands on him.
This article is a
reaction to such a demand. He was impelled to write about healing pathways
after a woman who received a healing refused to learn how to journey to treat
her chronic illness. She chose to use steroids alone for the pain caused by her
condition, even though their action was temporary, diminished with repeated
use, and had undesirable side effects.
This appendix was written
when the same woman later told the wizard that her healing had not helped her.
Instead, she explained, she had a stress-related syndrome. In her opinion,
attending the meeting of their Twelve Step program relieved her pain. The
wizard’s journey to help her had done nothing. It was only a coincidence.
While a tone of voice is not an explicit choice of words, hers suggested that
the wizard was playing a childish game, and deluding himself.
Her remarks triggered his
doubt, fear and anger. The wizard’s Twelve Step program provides the best
spiritual tool he has found to face these feelings, especially when journeying
itself is called into question. He worked the Tenth Step, specifically the
“searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves” implied
within it. At its end, and after talking with his sponsor, he reached these
conclusions, taken directly from the 3x5 cards he wrote them on:
• My actions to function in society (work, pay
bills, do service) are sane by society’s norms.
• Some of my beliefs (shamanic healing) are not
sane by society’s norms.
• Some of my actions (healings and soul retrievals)
that are inspired by my beliefs cause physical and mental effects that benefit
others. No harm comes to them by my actions.
• Other people may choose to disbelieve in
the cause of the healings, BUT…the woman was in pain after the meeting (so
the meeting alone did not heal her)…I journeyed for a
healing, was permitted to retrieve her animating spirit, and returned it to
her…and the pain was relieved instantaneously…and now she refuses
to admit that it happened!
• That is her choice.
This quote from Alcoholics
Anonymous may help you, the
reader, face doubt and continue your healing work when you encounter a person
who chooses to live in a different Light:
“If
he thinks he can do the job in some other way, or prefers some other spiritual
approach, encourage him to follow his own conscience. We have no monopoly on
God; we merely have an approach that worked with us.”— page 95
Whatever your choice, or
the choices of those to whom you offer help, may all of you discover a pathway
to the Light that heals you. It is enough. And that pathway may be far easier
to find than you believe. You see, Princess Ozma also left One Wonderful
Secret. It so simple a secret that your heart mind knows it already.
Now it is time to
convince your head!
