A Living Practice

Shamanism is alive today... and in each moment revealing itself to us. This week, Kimba shares an insight into this living practice we call shamanism and how it can be both ancient and also living... like an ancient tree with roots in the Earth but with fresh blossoms each Spring and new life receiving the wisdom for its own time.

Hello, this is Kimba. Welcome to our shaman college blog. And today I actually wanted to share with you something that I say a lot. And I seem to write it many times in email responses and mentoring of students here at Shaman College. And also when I speak about shamanism.

What it is, is that shamanism is a living practice. It's alive. Okay, so if you think about this a little bit...  if we set out to learn something, to study something, we are setting out to study, to practice, something that is always revealing itself. Always evolving, cycling, growing.

And so when you set out and when you give to this, you're not going in the way that you when you go to many things that we study. We often study things or think of learning things, to acquire skills, to maybe master them, to come to own them in a way.

But with shamanism, you never master it. You can't. You are always serving. You are always a student. You are always coming open, and the spirits and the wisdom of nature flows through you offering insight, offering guidance, pushing you, holding you back, turning you.

And this is how something so ancient, practiced across all cultures. This is how shamanism can still be alive today and wherever and in whatever culture you live. This is why, in certain cultures, practices are maintained and honoured and continued in their way. This is why in another culture the practices are grown, maintained, honoured in their way. This is why, in your way, why in my way this shamanism will be moving through you in its own authentic way. So because of this, it can't be owned. It can't be... "I got it". Once it's owned. Once it's 'got', it falls apart because by its very nature, it's evolving. It's the creative energy of the universe. So at best we keep coming clear. We keep coming humble. We keep coming fresh. We keep coming as a student, we keep opening to the guidance. How can we serve?

So when a client comes in for shamanic healing, or perhaps for a psychopomp. Or perhaps when you work with an animal, Or perhaps when you work with the tree -  when you're coming to help to offer healing, you always ask the spirits what is best needed for this individual or place at this time through this vessel and we become servants to this creative, informative, alive spirits.  This is why no session would ever look like another.

There are pathways, well-worn trails that many have walked. And these are what we teach, we share through our courses. But we would never ask you to take the exact footstep that someone else took.

And as you walk the path, something calls to you and you follow that and you open to that. And now this path has a whole other expression coming through. So just as we can't master these practices, we can't go seeking to find out everything.

So this is why I love our community of teachers and our community of practitioners in training and graduates, because what's coming through them when they share... say, when someone shares something with me, my eyes, my heart gets opened to so many more colours and perspectives that had to come through them.

And so I don't have to be the master of all knowledge!  I can be in a community of many, and when we share insights and perspectives, there becomes a collective healing.

I guess the last thing I would like to say is that the mystery stays alive as more we learn and the more that we do not know is revealed to us. The more we see, the more er know the vastness of the mystery.

Perhaps any mastery is a mastery of opening perceptions...  is a mastery of remaining open and clear...  is a mastery of expression, you know -  you allowing what's wanting to come through to be expressed. It's a follow-through because requests are made of us when we come as a sacred servant.  A delicacy is needed too - having two feet in two worlds- in this kind of day today, cultural reality and in the kind of universal mystery of interconnections. So there's a delicacy there.  An understanding of boundary for our own health and safety. So a self listening, really important to have self care.

The last piece that I'd like to share is a support I guess I could say, for all of you.  There's no hurry. There's no rush. Okay?

In this living practice, all will be revealed.  (laughing... ) Actually all will not be revealed. All will not be revealed! 

But what will be revealed,  when it is revealed will be what is needed. When you come with this heart.

Thank you. And please stay in touch with us.

We have our foundation course coming up soon. The next one is the 15th of May. And then after that it's the 15th of September.

So if you'd like to work with a mentor and go really deeply into these practices, that is the course for you.