The Call of the Guides

My practice of shamanism is not traditional, but it is authentic and these times call for that authenticity. As a white woman, it is a dangerous and daring thing to call oneself a shaman. Therefore, perhaps the term shamanic practitioner is more appropriate.

I don’t want to diminish the traditional ways of shamanism and animism that colonizers have destroyed across the planet. The traditions must be kept alive by those who have the integrity and permission to preserve those traditional ways. I thank my earthly teachers and the Twisted Hair Tribes of Turtle Island for giving me the 20 Count Wheel. They instructed me that if I were to teach this wheel, I must understand it and the teachers that come with it. I practiced five years plus before presenting it to a group of eight women five years ago. That was the first women’s wisdom circle of the Awareness School.

Those who have studied this with me know that it is in good faith and good conscience that I share the teaching. 

My shamanic teachers who have come to me in the Spirit World work with me and the medicine wheel to this day. They inform my actions and have introduced themselves to many of my students. I know some may say that it is inauthentic, appropriated, or even “plastic,” but I assure you that I must follow my conscience on this one. Those etheric teachers came with the initiation into this wheel nine years ago, slowly dripping information as I consumed the energies and various aspects of the wheel.

The 20 Count Medicine Wheel is the Song of the Universe, the Child’s Count, that creates a matrix of support. It is the vehicle for whatever medicine we need. We, as humans, are not the first, the second, the third or the fourth, but fifth in the schematic when calling in the directions.

The enormous shift in my guidance in the Awareness School appeared with the evolution of my understanding of the wheel as a result of my own practice, and subsequently, my discovery of the sound bowls. The bowls have become my drum beat, my rattle, and my tool for creating theta states quite quickly and easily. There are things happening not just because of the bowls or my use of binaural beats.

Sound is a healing modality unto itself. It has the power to dismantle blocks from the physical to the 12th etheric body. With the proper understanding and use of binaural beats, a sound practitioner can “realign” the chakra systems, clean the human electro-magnetic field, regenerate homeostasis on all levels, and create the perfect environment for shamanic journey!

(for more detailed information on the effective use of binaural beats, entrainment, and sound healing, read my Sound Healing Wisdom Collection.

My professional music career, the practice and teaching of meditation, the 20 Count Medicine Wheel and the sound bowls have created a perfect storm. 

Journeying as an addition to all of the meditation and presence techniques taught in the Awareness School has become a welcome balance. All aspects of Nature, archetypes, guides, and the power of surrender and trust have offered a refreshing receptive force. It is easing the push of many students’ tendency to depend solely on their own efforts. When the aspect of reception and trust are introduced in the form of connection to our very intrinsic relationship with Nature and Spirit, we can become whole again even if we have been trying to surrender to God for a long time. In many ways, this is bringing the Divine Feminine into our patriarchal understanding of God as wholly above and beyond. 

With the surrender to Nature and its teachings, we become closer to the Divinity within us and around us. 

I have done many journeys with my power guides and spirit guides to understand the transformative elements they deliver. These journeys have served the purpose of finding my power helpers, whether that be from the mineral, the plant or the animal realm, or to surrender and trust the Etheric Teachers who have appeared throughout my life.

If you consider the Three Realms of Shamanism, the Lower World of Earth and The Ancient Ones is a most beneficial realm for us to remember ourselves as part of the fundamental whole. The Middle Realm concerns present day life with all of the human made elements, our current collective psyche, past lives, and the archetypes defining our history. It is a very complicated realm to maneuver where there are negative forces with which to contend. The Upper Realm, Sky Father, has everything to do with Ascended Masters, the Full Measure of Intellect, elevated Spirit Guides, Wisdom of the Stars and the Akashic Records. 

One can do journeys in any of these realms and also specify realms within which to work. Starting with the Lower Realm, which by no means refers to Hell or evil or that with which we associate with “less than” is the best place to start. Traditional religions have kept us associating upper with heaven and lower with hell. We have to get back to reaching the earth elements and creatures and ancient ancient cultures here that revered the power the minerals, plants and animals hold. 

The traits, tendencies, and energy of the Lower Realm are medicine for regaining our power and retrieving our Soul.

If we can connect to the Nagual world of the Lower Realm, we directly receive the energetic teachings of these aspects of Nature. We can take cues from these journeys to actually interact with elements in both the nagual and the tonal world. We can have them around us in our regular life, even if they are pictures to remind us of their nagual energy. They are transmitting their specific qualities and healing aspects for the maintenance and balance of the planet.

They can help bring us to wholeness.

I have had experiences with apophyllite on my journeys where I took in the very energetic signature of this crystal. I understood its qualities and its effect on me. I understood the prismatic importance of its relationship with fractals and light and how it is related to water and sound. I acquiesced all of this, and then went and looked it up as confirmation. What I experienced with them is beyond words or feelings, but a pure interaction with the energy of that crystal like a Vulcan mind meld but more. What I read about it after the fact, confirmed some of the things I have experienced. It is everywhere in my studio. To this day, it serves as a cleansing process before I embark on a journey. Apophyllite is one of my teachers and helps me hold power.

My guides have now given me permission to assist others in more specific ways. I have already been doing something of the sort with the bowls, but now it is clear that I have been given the go ahead to work with specific types of journeys. It is not me who does these journeys but my Guides who are now established for specific purposes. Many of you in the school have encountered your power animal on our journeys where you have specifically asked for their assistance. They are the guides who you learn to trust implicitly. You hold them in your heart as you walk the tonal world of your life.

I will write more about what I have experienced of the different types of journeys in future articles. In the meantime, I look forward to working with you all in the Nagual World.