Shamanic Ritual and Practice
Shamanic practices you may have heard of, such as retrieving a power animal or returning a soul part, are complex mixtures of ability, technique, perhaps ritual, and certainly a strong relationship with one's spirit helpers. On the other hand, Calling in the Directions or cleansing others or personal cleansing,are more specifically about ritual, such as to prepare the practitioner for shamanic work, or to encourage his or her relationship with their spirit helpers.
A shamanic practitioner is engaged in returning him or herself and their clients back to a natural human fullness. Ritual is an extraordinary way to orient and prepare oneself for practices that strongly rely on the practitioner maintainance of a balanced and sensitive consciousness. With a broadly shamanic aim of rediscovering, gathering and encouraging back the innate template of human fullness, shamanism has a 'toolbox' of very powerful ritual means to prepare for and encourage this.
Shamanic rituals you should learn include a personal, kneeling style cleansing. Or if you are practicing with another, learn the standing style cleansing of someone with sage. These are grounding, clarifying, and focusing practices that have the potential to deepen and strengthen whatever work or experiences follow.
The simplest way of taking in all of shamanic practice including that of ritual, is to recognize that it is all simply about the wholeness of the human being. Having a 'full self' is particularly important in shamanic understanding and the loss of parts of oneself a primary cause of unwellness: a situation understood very different from a contemporary medical model.
You may be called upon to open a circle of others who wish to celebrate life, or perhaps practice shamanism. For this, I will provide you with a complete template for ritually opening circle, known as Calling in the Directions. You can use this for your own private work, or in serving a community in a wonderful, heartening way.
I look forward to hearing from you should you desire to pursue this education and receive shamanic training. In the meanwhile, I encourage you to explore more shamanism information provided throughout this site and learn about the shaman's spirits and worlds!