My First Shamanistic Journey Experience Pt 1

"Hippie."
"Tree Hugger."
"Nature Boy."

Take your pick. At any point in my life, any of the above words would have been adequate to describe my personality.
You can blame my mother and you can bet she would be proud of the accusation.
My first conscious memory involves running around on the green grass in our front yard, picking dandelions and laughing wildly. I was five- perhaps younger. After that it would be the "nature walks" that my mother and I would go on. For some reason I want to say that we did it every sunday, but that could be me romanticizing.
The point is, my most important memories- the ones I am most fond of- involve me being immersed in nature.
A healthy love of the planet and all of its beauty was one of the most relevant and valuable things that I took with me from my childhood. My mother had always felt that way and she passed it on to me. Little did she know that I would take it so much further.
After rejecting christianity in my teenage years, I turned, as so many teens do, to Wicca. Looking back,  I realize now that it was more about me giving all the people whom I perceived as oppressing me a great big middle finger. I played with love spells and bindings with deadly accuracy and spent many years floundering through a series of terrible, short lived relationships as a result. I kept doing it because I could feel the power in the spellcasting and I kept getting what I was asking for. It took me some time to realize that while I was getting what I was asking for, it never took the form in which I envisioned. There was always something a little bit off.
I eventually stopped practicing in the first years of college because I got bored with it and the people I had called into my life weren't into it.

Fast forward from 2001 to 2009.
I had never lost my feel for nature and the beautiful things that the planet provides for us, or the feeling of that indefinable connection. After I got my degree in December of 2008, I felt a void. All the time that I had spent concentrating on my art projects was all the sudden free time. Eloy, my partner (of 7.5 years at the time of this article) had been spending a lot of time out of town for work and I needed something keep me busy.

So, as they say- Ask and you have already received it.
I was walking through a bookstore with a friend in early 2010. She had expressed a passing interest in Wicca. I thought- well, I have that experience so I can pass on some info to her. It will be fun. We went to the Metaphysical section in Half Price Books. I was planning on getting her "To Ride a Silver Broomstick" By Silver RavenWolf. It had been my favorite book when I had gone through "Phase One" as I have come to call it.
Little did I know that in the ten years that had passed, Ms Ravenwolf  had become quite the author. I found her book on Hedgewitchery and after reading the first few chapters that introduced me to quantum thinking- my life has never been the same.
I saw the book there on the shelf and in my memory now, the book stands out like it was glowing. I was drawn straight to it and I sincerely believe that it was Spirit telling me "YOU ARE HERE" as if I was looking at a map in a shopping mall.
It started me on a path that would take me from that book to studying Green Level Witchcraft (aoumiel is a wonderful source of information if you ever want to read her books) to Tarot, Reiki/Theta/Galactic Healing, Crystal therapy and beyond.

Studying all of these things I have always moved through them, searching for a common thread. A feeling of connection was definitely there but I could never find the concept that acted as the glue. A deeper sense of levity in all of these modalities was somehow alluding me and it was that lack of cohesiveness that didn't allow me to study any one to its full extent.
Past Lives, witchcraft, crystals, herbs, voodoo, Gaia Theory, Basic Metaphysics, Reiki, Healing, Divination, Tarot- I knew somehow that it was all connected, yet every time I reached for the idea, it would skirt just out of my reach and seemingly sit in front of me and taunt me.

Throughout my Master/Teacher Reiki training and working at psyschic fairs as a Tarot reader, I have met many people from many different walks of life. I was introduced recently to the practice of Shamanism, which is apparently the mother of all the practices that have lent themselves to witchcraft.
To put it in general terms, it is simply getting back in touch with the natural order of things and being aware of your connection to the universe through metaphysical dealings with nature.

I went to a Shamanistic Journey Meditation tonight.

To put it in not so general terms- Shamanism is my gamechanger.

Serendipitous Synchronicity

The definition of Serendipity is finding something you didn't expect to find or a "happy accident." The term Synchronicity means two or more things that develop seemingly unrelated to each other, and are unlikely to occur by chance, yet are observed to interact with each other in a meaningfully related way. Synchronicity was coined in the 1920's by Carl Gustav Jung, whom I need to look up because i keep seeing his name and hearing his quotes EVERWHERE. Which is exactly the phenomenon which brings me to write this blog post.

I sincerely believe that when you are on the path that you are supposed to be on, your "souls journey" if you will, everything falls into place like puzzle pieces clicking together. One thing leads you to another and you can use these things like sign posts along the way.
For instance, one of my "signposts" is the number 44.
Fours in general appeal to me simply because they seem to me to be a number that lends itself to equality. I don't know why I think that but I always have. 2+2=4 seems very soothing to me. Call me weird, you won't be the first, trust me....
So obviously the number 44 is twice the fun. I first noticed them in middle school when a friend pointed out that they were everywhere.
I started seeing them in license plates, street signs, advertisements, street addresses, phone numbers even odometers when I started driving.
44 started to become a familiar friend and the more I paid attention, the more I realized that good things seemed to happen to me when 44 was around.
I started using it as a guide. All of my good jobs have had a 44 in their address, phone number or company store number.
I had a job once as an ad/signage guy for world market and there were no 44s present. I really didn't like the job and I was beginning to question whether I should be there or not. Then I got promoted to Supervisor and I had a 44 in my alarm code. My job got better.

My point with all this talk is simply to say that Spirit is guiding us even today in this scientific, technological age.
We just have to be open to the guidance. By training our minds to take time out of the crazy hustle and bustle of each day we can get back to what really matters.
Take a walk in nature, sit and meditate for a while or just take some time out for YOU. Listen closely and see what happens.
It just might be a miracle.

Journal- This has been a wonderful weekend.

I am laying in bed with my laptop. I am so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open and everything is funny. Eloy is next to me playing with his Ipad. Snapshot is frantically going around in circles on her bed before she lasys down with a huge sigh. Flapjack is long since snoozing in his basket in the laundry room.
And all I can think is that this has been a really great weekend.
I had Friday off and I got a lot of stuff done including, but not limited to- my last edits for the upcoming Photo Show at VAL- Through the Looking glass, I got my prints made and they are wonderful, I went to the Wellness doctor (where I won the gift certificate) and they told me what is wrong with my back and how to fix it (more about that in a later post) and then I went to Hobby Lobby and got all the matboard that I will need to frame all five of my pieces. Then we went to Denton to this club named Haileys. Carrie has always been trying to get me to go there- literally, for years and I refused- lol. I finally broke down and went because RaMbLeR RoSe was playing. This is a very cool band that my friend Christina and her husband Tom started a few years back. I had never gotten to see them perform because they live in Austin. Since they were playing a denton show, we went and had a good time.
I took a lot of cool pictures and the whole time she was on the stage all I could think was that if someone had told me ten years ago that we would be in the positions that we are in now, I would have laughed.
If someone had told us that quiet, shy Christina would be in denton with a band that she and her husband had started in Austin where they had moved after getting married a few years ago, and that I would be working a Psychic Fair and hanging a photo show that I effectively curated for the Visual Arts League of Lewisville, we would have laughed them out the door.

We were so young.
It was really great to see her. Her mother was there as well and I have always enjoyed her company.
I got pretty hardcore buzzed off of four beers. It was nice because I was happy and relaxed and that is proof of my much improved diet. lol

Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast at this place called the Snooty Pig, which was a little wierd, but the company was good. We went with another gay couple who is involved with Stonewall Denton and Denton PFLAG. So that was nice.
Then I went to the psychic fair and had a blast.
I love Miracles of Joy. There are so many people there who I connect with and I absolutely feel at home. I met more people this time, and I had AMAZING PEOPLE sitting across from me.
I got a HUGE HUG from Joy as soon as I saw her, so that was really very nice. She has a really great energy that I thoroughly enjoy.
I met this guy named Matt who teaches some of the Channeling Classes at the store and we had a really great conversation about his approach and journey into Channeling and where I am at. He was a nice guy.

I had such amazing people sit for readings. I got all of their emails and I will be contacting them in the future for readings. I met a lady named Lin and I am pretty sure that we have had past lives together. The energy play between us was pretty intense and she was REALLY easy to talk to. She does spiritual clearings as well and we had a lot to discuss. She said that as soon as she walked into the store, she latched on to me and couldn't see anyone else. She said that the reader she was going to go to was busy so she just walked over to me and started talking. She owns a natural pesticide company and we bonded over the fact that Doritos are totally unnatural and probably not a great thing to put in your body. I know that sounds trite, but trust me- it is a big deal. We talked about pesticides and all that stuff causing cancer- especially in our pets. In short, she was amazing and we talked for a while after her reading.
But then I did that with all of them that day. It was beautiful. I met an art professor who was the president of TVAA for a few years. Crazy stuff was going down. The last two readings I did I felt myself slipping far far away, as if I were down a long hall and I heard my voice saying things I didn't know where they were coming from. I was coming out of my head, but I really felt like something was talking through me and It was EXHILARATING. I think it was a definite step closer to channeling. I talked to Joy about it and she seemed to agree. I told her thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this and she said that a voice told her my name and she didn't ask questions. She just knew that I was supposed to be there.
It was a really great  fair and I would do it for free because I learn, but it is also nice that for the seven readings I did, I got 115 dollars for it. And VALIDATION from each client. I would feel like I was floundering for meaning and would falter because their face would look so blank, but then I would see it break and they would either shrug or look amazing and then they would tell me that I was dead on. The last lady and her son said I was even using expressions that they would use. I was picking up a lot of energy. It was crazy. And I love that I am getting used to it.

After the Fair I went to the gallery to close up the intake for the show. I got a few pieces submitted. Then Eloy and I went to snuffers to have dinner and then I came home and spent the rest of the night framing and matting my pieces for the show. They turned out really great.
I woke up this morning after about five hours of sleep and got everything into the car and got to the gallery at about nine ten. Dan Flake was already there and it was a pleasant morning. We got lots of good artwork in and we ended up getting both the Photo Show and the Member Show hung. They look great and the only bad part was one of the volunteers that was helping us apparently suffers from a somewhat narrowminded view of the world and the confident assuredness that she is correct in it.
She is not. She was acting like I was worthy of her pity because I am in a good healthy relationship and cant go away for my masters. I called her on it. It was odd. A good healthy relationship is a lot harder to come by than a masters degree. I have a good thing going here and I do not want her pity or anyone elses. I am good.
She made several other comments through the day and I just came to the conclusion that she is one of the few people that I just do not and cannot like. I don't dislike her, but I was relieved when she left. It was awkward and it made me feel bad, but every time I tried to say something to make it better, she would put her foot in her mouth again and I would just stop talking. It really wasn't worth it.
She either has a lot of Karma to clear in this life or she is just starting out.
I don't know.

I am in bed and everyone just started snoring, so I am out of here for the night.

Image via WikipediaLast month I went to my first reiki share.
Having had the pleasure and luck to have obtained my reiki master/teacher Attunement from a friend by bartering my art services, I have enjoyed self treating and treating my plants and animals, but never have I experienced anything like this.
It was at a place in Grapevine TX called Moon Healing Arts. As soon as I found the building- a nice residential looking converted home with a wrap around porch and rocking chairs-I knew this was going to be a good experience. I was still nervous.
I parked in the back right in front of a little rock garden and there were a few people sitting on a swing drinking tea. I said hello as I walked by.
I went into the house through the back door and read the bulletin board by the door until the people in the main room were done talking. I went in and introduced myself. We made small talk and told each other a little bit about ourselves. I shared that I was an artist and we talked about our dogs.
Jana Moon is the lady who owns the venue. She is a slim red haired lady who had a really great energy when she walked into the room. There were six people in attendance. Two other guys and three women.
The first thing I noticed was an ablone shell with a sage smudge sitting in it. Jana came in and lit it and smudged us all. It really felt as if it cleared the room. I know this is what it is supposed to do but remember, I have never done things like this with other people and it really felt different.
We talked a bit about meditation and the state of the world and then we got started with the reiki.
We all went into the room and Jana and Mary (the other organizer) talked to their guides and decided who would go first.
It was a little odd at first and uncomfortable for me. One person would lay on the table and we would put our hands on them and give them Reiki energy.
Even though I am an attuned Reiki Master, sometimes I question the validity of the practice. I am aware that this is just my left brain not wanting to let my right brain do what I know it can. I know that all of these metaphysical practices are something that relates far back into our history as human beings and that it is just coming to be acceptable in the mainstream again. I am working on letting down my barriers and accepting it for what it is. I feel like this experience really helped me with that.
At some point in the reiki share, the energy in the room overwhelmed my left brain feelings and it was almost a palpable feeling of love in the room.
As I laid my hands on these strangers, I had the uncanny feeling of having done this previously and not just a little. I had the KNOWING that I had done this as a major part of my life at some point. I can only attribute this to a past life. It felt incredibly natural and by the end of the night I felt as if I had a bond with all of these people.
After my treatment I felt totally relaxed and at ease. It was a beautiful feeling.
I didn't want to leave.
When I finally did I was flying and the feeling lasted for days.