Remembering- Spirit and Form

In this blog and sharing, we hear from Catherine Center, one of our teachers and practitioners at Shaman College as she shares with Kimba of her recent work and beautiful realisations.  Catherine's shamanic work has been deep in embodiment of the connections of spirit to form and the expression of the creative energy of the Whole moving through us, as us, and through the whole Universe.  She shares that this is a deep part of our re-membering and the healing of our bodies and our lives.

Kimba

Hello, everyone. I'm here with sitting with Catherine and we're sharing and especially Catherine is sharing with me the what she's been working on, what has been a part of her own shamanic practice.

And when ever we get an opportunity, to really hear from each other and receive from each other what we're doing, how the shamanism is moving through us, we all get an opportunity to receive a healing, even if it didn't come directly to us.

And that is one of the reasons why I so much love these meetings when I get to meet with my colleagues and students as well. So I'm gonna hand it over now to Catherine and let her share with us.

Catherine

Thanks Kimba, for the opportunity to get together. I just want to say, first of all, thank you for your blog's. They're just absolutely delightful. And I love hearing how your shamanic practice is coming through you and I agree that it would be lovely to hear from other people. How reality in the shamanic way is is being made manifest in people's own lives. And I appreciate you giving me some space... I'm just compelled to talk to you.

And as I was writing notes from some of my most recent experiences, you were very much to my mind.  So whatever comes of this comes of it, if anything, yes.

So can I just read for you the part that I was writing that, where you were very much on my mind? It just kept going. "Kimba. Kimba. Kimba"

Kimba
Please. I would love that. I'm gonna sit here. Really listen.

Catherine

I'm just gonna actually back up a little bit because I really have been embodying and integrating the concepts of form being formed as a means of spirit coming into the world, coming into the planet.

So a plant isn't just form. There's the spirit of the plant or what we would say is maybe to my thinking anyway, more clearly - it is spirit of the One Whole of all, that is coming to life as this plant so there's a certain expression of spirit that is in the form of this plant.

So other forms might carry just slightly different essences of that One Spirit. And it's been known as Father Sky and form is through Mother Earth or God and the Goddess, father and mother.

So there's always the balance between spirit and form until it's time for that form to dissolve. And then spirit leaves it. However it works.

Kimba
I love that so much and especially what you're mentioning about how it is like- the form is one of the spirits expressions, in a way... is that what you're saying?

Spirit comes in and the form is created. So it's even maybe more intimate than the sky and earth because it's almost like I feel like what you're saying... Is that this this continuum really... yes?

Catherine

And, I think it's becoming more vivid to me because of where I am, which is in the Negev Desert in Israel. And so there is no... where I have been hiking, there hasn't been any plant life or or virtually very little.

And where it comes home to me the most is I did a hike up. I guess you could call it a small mountain or a big hill. That was just as barren as anything. There wasn't a single thing growing on it, and I walked along the top of this for quite a ways. There was a path and I could feel the unity. The wholeness and I could feel the love and the joy between the form and the spirit.

In my mind, at that time it was translating as father and mother, but that's not even accurate anymore because it's just...  it's a sense of One coming into form, and the interplay was so filled with joy and love such a deep love.

And I think this is what is behind our own forms. That we are seeking through so many various ways to discover is our own true spirit coming through the form that has been created or that we've created.

And I think this is where you started to come into my mind. We were hiking, I was with my husband and we were hiking and it was just there,- and I I could feel my cells widening and expanding and sinking into the earth until the Earth and I were one. And there was just a joyful reunion on both sides. Then I sat and took a break, and I could feel this sense of creation, a very deep feeling of wholeness. It's really hard to describe, but it 'm just going to... give me one second here. This is where you really started to come into my mind.

I was remembering a Spirit creating. I was holding my fingers and breathing not with my physical breath but breathing life into form. The form expressed a plant. So well, we have probably have all heard about that... that we create our own worlds and we can recreate by being in the moment and connected to the whole. 

And that union is recreating the cells of our body, giving us back the proteins that is changing the DNA, or at least if not changing it, waking it up,and waking up the healthy DNA and healthy cells and putting to sleep the ones that are giving us our ill health. And this was a new experience of that of creating unity expressed as a plant.

But in this human form- remembering creation, remembering, creating a stunningly beautiful planet, a place of rest, of love, a place of peace, and learning and of original intent. Well, a place for beings to come and rest and rejuvenate and learn. Because life was also being created as a library an alive library of information through the dimensions that we are accessible to.

(In a recent blog)  You were talking about the dimension of the animal and plant world. So all of these dimensions, I think we've had a hand in creating in bringing and creating form.

I'm sorry I'm away...I'm probably losing you!

Kimba

You're not loosing me!  I'm wondering too... I'm being taken to the - maybe it's the sameness of the creative energy that we are able to tap into or to be a part of (which is here) is the same as the creative energy that created the Earth.

Catherine

Yes. And I feel as though those of us that are  here doing this work. We're all part of that. We were part of creating this place of indescribable beauty. Yes, and of light. So there is a time now to remember to recreate, to love with the love of the Whole to bring beauty back to our beloved home - that we created, that was home, a place for us to come and rest.

The present moment contains all.  Let the heart be connected with the love, joy, peace,  power, strength, that is here now.  This is the power of creation. It is literally the power of One Whole, one power. This also recreates the physical body as the spirit of one's true self.

And that's what I had. And then the moment of writing seemed to be done. And I carried on,  had my little snack date -  a local date!  Oh, but you were so on my mind with that.

Kimba
Wow. Thank you so much. It's like, yeah!  To be with that energy is to really, as you were saying, allows us to really help to recreate. To 'remember' what was created.

Catherine

I remember,  I recall on of Steve's writings. I don't know if he's still got it in there. But at some point he was talking about  remembering with our soul retrievals. And what we do is re-membering our our bodies and infusing them with our whole complete itself.

And this whole complete self, I've realised, is formless. Only a teeny little bit of this whole complete self is the form and that we really are part of the whole. We are universal. We are running through this whole solar system. We are one with the sun. We are one with all  - and that sense of that essence moving through our bodies is what I think can bring the healing.  Others have spoken about it not necessarily in shamanic terms, but I think in a shamanic way, when we touch into that in our shamanic trance or the shamanic way of seeing or the shamanic way of being, however, we want to phrase it that is ultimately healing. I think is is bringing us back together.

Kimba
Completely! And there's a real sense to me to that. And maybe it's with this present moment that as much as shamanism is ancient, it's the first. It's the medicine that...  it's not 'old' medicine. It's not 'new' medicine. It's not 'future' medicine. It's just is so. Sometimes we say it is the most ancient-  well, it is. But it's not any more - It's also new. It's also alive today. It's part of you know - oh what's happening today, and in this moment. 

Catherine

I have been wondering. We tend to journey. So in my own experience, at least there's been the experience of going somewhere to experience or do work or whatever we're doing. We're going somewhere to connect with spirit helpers and and our compassionate helpers.

I'm starting to...  there was a time, probably a year or two ago where I couldn't journey. I just couldn't. Every time I went, my spirit helpers would bring me back. I then began to understand that somehow I had to do this work in the present moment, and it's been a process of learning since then, but I'm thinking now-  wondering if if we're not necessarily meant to. But if one of the things we can learn is to be here in the present moment and call to us what it is we are working on.

So at some points in the course, you you become aware of calling to you your spirit helpers while you're here. And this could be the same for the plant you wanted to talk to. Yes, instead of sort of reaching out with our own power to the plant, what would happen? I wonder if we stayed here and invited plant to come into our love. I still get the message, as I have for years that the Earth, the plants, they want our love and they want us to be here in love. And every time I do that, I open my heart in love. I'm not sending it. You're just tuning in to love and I hear "thank you, Catherine" all around me.

Kimba
Oh, so beautiful. Such a beautiful. 

Catherine
I don't know if that's a change, a different approach or if you have to be at a certain point along the path? Maybe after you learn how to journey? But then wondering if it is the next step

Kimba
I think that journeying is actually a teaching. So it teaches us- our pathways and our portals and all of that process. That's why the famous unit four in our self-healing course... it's quite an initiation and can take people quite a while to get through.

The journeying is teaching us about taking out that ego and becoming more of a hollow bone. And so then, after one journeys quite a lot and has a practice and is doing a lot of that work. I still use it during lot in my practice. But,  I can also do many other things that don't require journey in working with healing.  So journey is not required... so I do expect that some people may be able to get to a place where they don't have to.

Catherine
I agree. It's a process you have. You sort of have to learn the first steps first.

Kimba
Funny, isn't it? I'm having a little giggle. I'm having a giggle because a lot of times people think, "Oh, I want a journey. I want a journey. I want a journey".

It's like, as if that's the end place. And now, it is like that helps you come back to where you are - right now!

Catherine
That's funny. That's good.

Kimba
Catherine, I am so happy that you are sharing this with us. And I have a feeling that this is going to be something that we hear more from you about and our discussion continues.

But thank you so much. And I don't know if you have any other pieces that you wanted to say here.

Catherine
I'm just very grateful that we have this medium and that you're doing the work that you are. You're opening the doors. You're opening the way for when we have experiences like this that that we are called to share, that you're here to share.

And If it doesn't leave the room, it's going out between you and I. There's the power that's being created just here and it is not separate from the Whole.  It's coming in and adding to the whole. So thank you very much for that.

Kimba
Oh, gosh, You're so welcome. I'm just sensing that what you just said, because it is true. Thank you.