Saturday, January 10, 2009

Animism: "IT'S ALIVE!"

A couple of years ago if someone told me that dirt was alive I would have thought they were crazy. However, since that time I have been introduced to shamanic practices and now I view the world from a different perspective. According to Native American tradition (as well as other indigenous cultures), everything in life is seen as a spiritual being. That means dirt, trees, rocks, the computer I am typing on, a blanket, everything. That may seem to be a mythological bunch of hooey to many. But I ask to keep an open mind.

Remember that quantum physics does really prove this ideology as true. As I have written on so many other occasions, quantum physics postulates that at the core, everything in the universe is made from the same stuff which is energy. This energy moves and fluctuates around and is not solid at all. From the stars in the sky to the plants here on good old planet Earth to YOU, we are all fundamentally the same stuff. So, even from a scientific approach everything indeed is alive.

From a shamanic approach, everything has a spirit and one can contact the spirit of anything during a shamanic journey. Do you want to talk to the spirit of the Grand Canyon? No problem! Just go take a spiritual journey to the Grand Canyon and ask it whatever you like. It will give you the answer you are looking for.

I have written about journeying in the past, but I will recap here. While there are some cultures that use narcotics to bring on a journey, what is a more popular method is to listen to the sound of a drum beat or rattle. While it is preferable to have someone beating the drum or using the rattle in person, you may not have that luxury and can certainly try using a recorded version. I do recommend using earphones if this is your option so that it sounds more real than it would if you were listening to it from the stereo speakers.

What does the drumbeat do? It helps to put you in a meditative state. You start to hear, know, see, feel sensations in your mind’s eye and get answers to your questions. It’s really quite extraordinary and I recommend anyone interested in learning more to check out your local shamanic group. Shamanism has been 'rediscovered' by the Western world and practioners are found everywhere.

If you are open to your intuitive side, you may already be aware that everything is alive. After my reiki master attunement, I was watering the plants and I could ‘hear’ that the dirt and rocks wanted to be watered, as well. What? The dirt and rocks wanted to be watered too?! It didn’t really make sense to me. I didn’t actually hear a rock saying, “Hey Lisa, how’s it going? I would like a bath too please. The water feels good on us rocks too you know!” No, that did not happen. How it works for me, is that I have a recurring thought in my head over and over and over again and it won't subside. It would have never occurred to me before to water the dirt or the rocks, but now when I do, the recurring thought goes away. So, I know they are happy. Ok, so rocks and dirt want to be watered too…got it!

What about animals? Yes, we all know they are truly alive in a traditional sense, but they are messengers for us too. I personally have several animal guides that deliver messages intuitively and/or during shamanic journeying, but in the real world I receive messages all the time from animals. They are our protectors.

When I was three years old, I stood in my side yard with my mother and I reached out my right arm straight in front of me. After doing this, a series of butterflies one after the other perched on my arm. They continued to do this until my small arm was covered. I don’t know how many could fill a three year old arm, but there may have been 20 or so sitting there. My mother was stunned at the display. I was giddy with delight. I reached out my left hand to touch one of their beautiful wings, but my mom warned me not to do so they would not be able to fly again. Lesson learned. The butterflies eventually went on their way, but that scene has lived with me for nearly 40 years and I am sure will for the rest of my life.

What does it mean? For me, the three year old, they were just beautiful creatures that I loved. For me the forty-two year old, on the other hand, I realize that the Butterfly had a message for me even then. It is my main power animal, the one that has been with me always. Butterfly symbolizes for me transformation. It starts out as a caterpillar; then becomes a larva in a cocoon; finally transforming into the beautiful butterfly it was meant to become.

This Butterfly Medicine is a powerful message to me. I started out as a party girl and went through my own version of a metamorphosis to leave the party life behind to become very aware and very accepting of my spiritual nature.

Other animals that aren’t a power animal of mine, still may have a message. In the last seven months I have seen several hundred, maybe even a thousand squirrels, including 3 that jumped out in front of my car on three separate occasions, on three different days in a row. Yesterday, while sharing a galette (which is a French kind of torte) to celebrate a holiday here in France called The Epiphany, I bit into a porcelain squirrel. It is tradition during this holiday to have some little bit like this in the torte and whoever bites into it is King/Queen for the day. Is that simply a coincidence that I continue to see these animals everywhere or do they perhaps have a message for me? Scientifically speaking it is pretty extraordinary to have so many instances of one animal show up. From my standpoint Squirrel definitely has a message for me.

Could it be about gathering/saving money; or gathering/saving information? A message came through to me after biting into the squirrel that squirrels gather so many nuts (abundance) and then forget where they put it and starve to death…Well, that happened to be a huge message for me. You see I have been feeling the abundance around me for quite some time, but I haven’t quite been able to tap into it yet, as though I have forgotten on a spiritual level where I put it. So that was Squirrel Medicine for me.

What about crystals? Over the last year or so, I have started collecting them for their beauty. As time went on and I read that they had healing qualities, I began to utilize them in my meditations or during my reiki sessions. It surprised me the first time I used one to find out how much energy generated from a rock. I felt the warm energy implicitly move through my body, just like in a reiki session.

I have been living out of a suitcase for the last 6 weeks and my crystals have been hidden in a bag. For the last week, I have been very sick with a cough from hell. I have been a healer my entire life and especially since I started practicing energy work, I have been able to be around sick people knowing full well I won’t get sick. On the few occasions I have gotten sick, I have been able to use one or many of the energetic healing techniques I use and the sickness runs its course very quickly. Last year, when everyone had the three-week hellish cold in January, I got it and it ran its course in two days. I have been able to heal broken bones within a few days without a cast.

I could do all this until this week. After a few days, I finally gave up with trying to heal myself. The Universe wants me sick and so be it. I guess I have been running around doing a million things and the Universe has wanted me to slow down. I haven’t listened, so it kicked me where the sun doesn’t shine until I had to rest. It has not been fun and I have not been a good patient, but in the last couple of days I have learned a lot and I am getting this article out because of it…a double whammy in the positive department.

Back to the crystals…last night at one in the morning I started my cough-hacking hellish routine. I took cough drops and honey which have helped in the past, but to no avail this time. I kept thinking about one of my crystals. It is a beautiful baby blue flat disc that has about a three inch radius. Over and over and over again this Calcite was calling to me. I genuinely didn’t feel like getting up to search through my bag of many crystals to find it. But my hacking continued and the thought of the calcite didn’t leave me either.

So, I got out of bed searched through all my little bags. I couldn’t find it at first and thought I might have lost it. Then I went through all the bags again and the very last one held my calcite.

I put it on my neck and had a turtleneck on so that it wouldn’t slide around while I slept. I felt the powerful energy flowing through my neck and throat chakra area. And a miracle happened, my cough subsided. The crystal stayed in place until the next morning and for the first time in a week, I actually slept at night. Hallelulia! Do I think this Calcite was calling me to tell me to use it so I would feel better? You betcha.

Even today during my meditation I placed it once again on my throat. After my session was over, I picked up the disc and it was hot. I mean it was HOT! Both sides of the disc were hot, not just the side that was resting next to my skin. Calcite is alive and it wanted to help me and boy do I appreciate it.

You don’t have to be an animist to appreciate the signs around you. Just pay attention. If something continues to replay in your mind over and over again or if you repeatedly see something over and over again, whether it’s an animal, a rock, a color, whatever, there is a message there. Just figure out what the message is for you. Pay attention to these powerful messengers and let them guide you. They are the messengers from the Universe and they are here to help. You simply have to honor them by paying attention.

Thank you for reading and Namaste! (The Light in me recognizes the Light in you!)

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