Food for Thought

This is a very different topic for me and generally I don't put thoughts like this together, so I'm sort of surprised that I came up with this.  Now I imagine that some sociologist would give this a title like Traditional Shamanic Imagery in the Media - An Overview or some other long winded and uninspired title.  But really, this is just food for thought.

This all came about yesterday I was busy knitting and got to thinking.  My son was watching the Simpsons Movie and I realised that there is more to this than meets eye.

Homer, while he plays the fool most of the time, has had some very enlightening experiences.  In the movie, his family leaves him and he's left with nothing.  He is then given guidance from a native elder and has what can only be described as a shamanic experience complete with a dismemberment and a coming back together.  The elder referred to it as an epiphany which could be taken as a matter of semantics.  Homer is torn apart by the trees until he realises that in order to save himself he has to save the town of Springfield. 

This isn't even the first journey he's taken.  In an episode of the show called The Mysterious Voyage of Homer, he eats some super hot chili and wanders in the desert where he see a butterfly and meets a coyote voiced by Johnny Cash.  Now it's been a long time since I've seen this and I can't recall exactly what it was that he learned on this journey. 

A common thread in Shakespeare's work, yes the Simpsons and Shakespeare do go together, is that of the fool.  The fool isn't as dumb as some may originally think.  The fool, usually appears in Shakespeare works as the speaker of the truth.  He or she points out the obvious while those around him/her who are "smarter" can't say it due to social constraints or because they really don't get it.

How else is Homer the "fool"?  He leads the life that many of us crave; he's been married to Marge for over 20 years despite his faults and short comings, has been employed by the same company for as many years, his kids love him even though his parenting skills are less than lacking at points, and he knows that there are lots of things he doesn't know and isn't embarrassed to admit it.  Sounds like he's not nearly as stupid as one may think.

Think that this just stops with a couple episodes of the Simpsons?  Not even close.  Yesterday was the most sacred of sporting holidays with the Super Bowl being shown to millions of people world wide.  Of course with that many viewers, advertising is especially important and pricey.  If you watched did you see this commercial Hyundai: Relax ?   Watch it to the very end.  Hhhhhmmmmmmm. Go find your spirit animal? 

There is certainly something in the air making this very accessible to the general public or is it a insult to traditional beliefs?  Is this good or bad? It isn't my place to judge.  It's just as I said at the beginning...Food for Thought.

A Very Busy Week

Now that the holidays have come and gone I've been re-bitten by my searching bug.  I've done a lot of research over the last seven days and have never felt better.  The more that I find out the more energized and happy I feel.  It really seems to be a great thing and that I'm at the start of my path.  I can even visualize myself on a path in the woods with one veering off to the left and one to the right.  With a big sigh and some trepidation I am taking my first step onto the path less chosen.

I will start at the beginning of last week.  Needing a bit of a mental break from children and hubby I decided to take some time for a little retail therapy..and buy groceries.  I always seem to be doing that but that's besides the point.

I decided to make an impromptu stop at the book store and like always found myself in front of the the "New Age" section.  I was looking for the book Forbidden Archaeology which wasn't there.  I then stumbled across the book Shamanism for Beginners by James Endredy.  I picked it up and thumbed through the table of contents.  I found the title Becoming a Shaman and instantly flipped to the corresponding page.  There it has a short list of how one may become a shaman.  None of them applied to me so I put it back on the shelf. 

I was happily browsing the rest of the books and selected another.  Then I decided that I was going to buy James' book after all.  I did, took it home and started to read the next day.

It has been one of the most helpful books I have read in an awfully long time.  Among the information he imparts, one of the sections gave me more than I could of hoped for.  My last entry to my blog consisted of my stones that I have had for ages.  Finally, someone who could help me with this.  He refers to them a tekas and gave a brief description of the various types that are out there.  He also referred to them as khuya.  Another great piece of information to part with.

This subsequently led to online searches where I actually found some information on khuya stones on the internet.  While none look quite like mine, I did learn that the majority of them come from Peru and are usually from sacred sites.  Some also consider the stones to be for healing (I kinda had a gut feeling about that) and that they resonate at a lower frequency and impart some sort of help or power to facilitate with this.  They can be held on parts of the body that need healing or used in the ritual somehow.  At least that is more help than I had for the last 20 years or so.

I've also been doing some other research online and have found some pretty good sites that others may find helpful.  In particular I found another apprentice shaman and her blog http://becomingshaman.wordpress.com/.  Her story is very inspiring and while I haven't gone through the entire thing yet, what I have had time to read has been wonderful.

Another site that I've found, and probably most other healers have found, is the http://shamanportal.org/forum/.  People are very forthcoming with what they share.  There is everything from personal accounts, to shamans helping shamans, to people looking for help from shamans and more.  It's one of the most active forums out there in regards to the whole shamanic process.

What I have come to realise, and knew from years ago when I first started looking online for this, is that the internet is NOT where the shamanic world likes to be.  This may be a good place to glean a small amount of information and to begin to get in touch with others, but generally speaking it's still done in a very traditional way.  It's in person and up close.  Of course, there are those out there who seem to be in it for the money.  I still feel healing needs to be a pay-it-forward sort of deal.  One of the best things I ran across was someone who said I'll help you and my fee is $25 but you have to give it to someone who needs it.  I LOVE that!  After all, no one payed to get their inherent talents so you shouldn't "charge" to share them with someone else.

So the search continues.  I'm filled with even more questions than when I started and still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.  Maybe the shaman thing isn't the way to go, but it's the closest thing I have to "feeling" right that I have come across.  I imagine there will be more to come.

Healing Stones

At least that's what I think they are.  I have either found or was given these stones.  The reason why I'm putting them on here is in the hopes that someone will know more about them than I do and what sort of things I'm supposed to do with them.  I've done some searches over the past few years and have come up with nothing.  I'll say what I know about them and leave the rest for someone else to tell me.

Round Rocks
I found all of these.  I just like round rocks and for a time I found these in quick succession.  The three smaller ones are perfectly round.  The small one has a small chip.  The largest isn't a perfect round stone but it the most natural of the stones.

Petrified Wood:

Another found stone that I've had since I was a kid.  It used to be in my parents' garage window for years and then I put it in my room.  It is very heavy for it's size.

Rock with a Partial Hole:

This was also found, but I haven't had it for that long.  What I do know about rocks with holes is very limited.  What I can say I learned from that great guy I met in university.  He said that rocks with holes are used during healing ceremonies.  They are placed on the patient and the illness is sucked out of the person through the hole in the rock.  You'll get some foul tasting stuff in your mouth, usually yellow, which you spit out and the person may be very drained after the procedure. 

Part of becoming a healer involves new healers to go on a vision quest.  Women don't have to because we can naturally already create life which gives us a bit of a "gimme" when it comes to becoming a healer.  Anyways, part of the vision quest is to drill a hole into a stone with nothing but sand and a stick.  Of course, it's very time consuming but your vision quest is complete when the rock is done.  This is mine.

Buffalo Effigy:

This stone was given to me by a cousin that was very close to me when I was a child.  She actually had two of them and kept one for herself while generously giving me this one.  I was told by her aunt that these are actually vertebra from a dinosaur.  These were found by American Natives and worked into what looks more like a buffalo.  These were used by the medicine men to draw buffalo to the hunters to ensure successful hunts.  This one intrigues me because it so obviously has been shaped to form a head and it also must be very old.  I say this because there a concretions of small stones stuck to it.  It would be, what I believe, is the second most important stone for my healing.

Stone with a Hole:

Yes, I have one of these.  I found this one but I don't know when.  I already explained about holes in rocks so I'm not going to state it again.  This stone is definitely the most important one I own.  It's made of sandstone and I found it exactly how it appears in the photos.  I've never done anything with it other than scrub the dirt off.

That's what I got.  If you know any more about what I should do with these or what they mean, by all means, let me know!  I'm putting these on here specifically to get some guidance and every little bit helps.  Thanks!

The First Day

Okay, so I had no official takers yet and to be honest, I suppose that's for the best.  What I decided to do is to focus on my mother-in-law.  She suffers from terribly swollen ankles on a regular basis and since yesterday I've been focused on healing her.  Not that I focus on what's wrong, just the general area.  I feel I'm focusing my energy on the part that needs healing but not the illness.  It's easier to work with a positive energy that fight a negative.  We'll see how that goes.  I will at least know if it does something which is a good way to approach this.  She doesn't know it's happening and I won't let her know I'm doing it.  This should eliminate a placebo effect.

I was also thinking that this would be a great place to write about any other coincidences and other odd phenomenon that occurs.  Ironically enough, today when I went into town with my husband, we went to the casino.  I was sitting there playing my game and I saw a lady who was on oxygen and wearing a hat. I couldn't see any hair and I got the impression that she may have cancer.  I'm not sure but that's the feeling and I'm following my gut. 

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I didn't realize until it hit me upside the head...this is my first "patient".  Like I said, I don't know who she is and I will never know if it works, but what a great way to start!  I can see her and can picture her in my mind...later 50's, blue shirt, glasses, a little heavier set.  I can see her in my mind's eye and I think that's enough.

So now I'm going to still give intent to my mother-in-law but focus more strongly on this lady.  I hope for both that this turns out to be the way to do this.  All I can do is try.

The Start...

I have wanted to become a healer for a very long time.  Well since I was in my early 20's for sure.  I met a great Native Healer when I was attending university, though he never said he was, you just knew.  I always wanted to reconnect with him but somehow that never seemed to turn out.  I've also been blessed to meet a number of other Medicine Men throughout my life and was always given positive feedback and connections with these fellows, though nothing ever happened with that either.

My only other option that I can see is to try something through the internet.  I'm very comfortable working in this format and it feels right to me.  I'm not looking for fame or cash or anything else, I just want to see if I can heal anyone. 

I've been looking into a number of different ways to do it and I would like to do it through distance healing.  I was inspired to try with an article I read by Dr. William F. Bengston.  You can read about his experiment at this website http://www.scientificexploration.org/edgescience/edgescience_02.pdf  It's entitled "Breakthrough:Clues to Healing with Intention" and is on page 5.  You'll find it fascinating. 
 
I'm going to take this one step further and attempt to heal with the power of intent.  I'm only trying to heal physical illness right now.  There are lots of other prayer groups out there that will handle your financial situation, legal issues, love dilemmas, etc.  I'm not interested in that because sometimes the hardship you want to avoid is exactly what you need to go through on your spiritual path to get to the place you really need (not necessarily want) to be.
 
Also with this, please note that I am not a physician of any sort and am making no claim that this will work or that you should stop or change any advice you've received from your doctor.  Anything that is prescribed to you by a qualified medical professional should still be taken as ordered.
 
What I need from you to start this project is something to focus on.  I just feel that I need it.  I need to know your first name and initial (you can just give me your initials if you like), your gender, what is physically wrong with you and where it is on or in your body.  A photo of yourself may also help but isn't necessary.  Send it to my email address I have specifically set up for this at: janisheals@hotmail.ca.
 
Let the experiment begin!

And just so you know...I am neither a kook or a whack-job or some weirdo you would find on the street.  I'm just going to give this a try and if someone finds me in the plethora of stuff on the web then it means this is what I should pursue because it's my calling.

Feel free to leave comments but try to be polite.  Don't ruin this for me and others.