Is the healer in you? This is an important question for some of you. Do you feel healing energy in your hands?
Do you feel called to be a healer?
Some further questions might clarify this for you:
Have you always felt keenly the suffering of others and the world? Do you consider yourself to be deeply empathic? Do you feel the presence of spirits? Do they sometimes seem to come to you for help or to give you guidance? Do friends, family and even strangers often ask for your advice, or launch into telling you their deepest secrets and darkest struggles? Do you sometimes seem to have a wisdom that is beyond your years or experience?
Are you sensitive to energy? Do you notice a kind of power within you that sometimes seems to impact events in the outer world around you? Can you see into the soul of others and sense the lifetimes they have lived? Does healing energy flow through your hands when you lay them on someone with caring intention?
How long have you noticed these capacities and gifts? Since childhood? Or more recently?
Have you been hit by lightning, had a near-death experience, or some other profound event which seemed to have opened up intuitive gifts and capacities?
Do you feel a strong calling to help others and the world?
Any one of these qualities might indicate that there is a healer in you.
In many cultures, both past and present, it has been recognized that some will be born with special gifts intended to assist others. The elders in the community would take the young person under their wing to be trained in the healing arts so as to be of service to their community. In other cases, a person might answer a powerful calling to actually leave their people to find a shaman known to live alone in the mountains, forests, or jungles. In other cases, the power to heal or to see the past or future or into the deep nature of a person were passed down in the family line. Or a radical event, such as a life-threatening physical or mental illness, or being hit by lightning or other kind of accident, would open up the visionary and healing capacities in a person. Or an individual might have a vision of or a visitation from a powerful spirit being who would call them into service.
No matter how it happened, from then on, their lives would be dedicated to a life of spirit and healing others.
In these less aware and open-minded times, many of us who have had such experiences or tendencies have had to flounder along thinking that we are strange or even crazy. Some religious traditions have also demonized some or all of these capacities.
Do not fear! What you have been experiencing is valid and real!
I am here to give you guidance as to how to harness these gifts so they serve your personal and spiritual growth even as you assist and support others to become all they can be.
It took me many years to understand and harness the healer within me. At first, I was called to do the work of healing myself. I had many challenges as a young adult. Growing up with a very difficult and likely mentally ill mother created in me intense inner conflict and challenges in relationships. Starting in my early 20s, I sought out various modalities in search of transformation and inner peace: at first, talk therapy of various kinds and Jungian psychoanalysis. In my 30s, I discovered energy medicine and, in my 40s, shamanic ceremony and practices. Each step along the way, I gained valuable knowledge and insight into myself. Gradually and inexorably, I changed my inner landscape.
As I healed the wounds deep within me, I gained greater mastery over my intense emotions and inner conflicts. My outer life became more fulfilling. I found like-minded friends. I was able to be a true friend to others.
And gradually, my gifts of intuition and empathy began to emerge more and more strongly.
At the age of 45, after an intense period of many visitations from spirits calling me to step up and do what I came into this life to accomplish, I finally acknowledged that I was a healer. I also stepped up to teach others the spiritual ways of the shamanic path which continue to nourish and support me today.
We are so lucky in these times to have access to so many paths for personal transformation and spiritual development. Over the years, I have noticed, as well, how many are being called to the path of service through healing.
At the same time, I also see how many people are seeking out shamanic energy medicine, as unconventional as it is compared to alternative modalities such EMDR, EFT, and even Reiki. People from all religious and political affiliations, socio-economic status, cultures, ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientation come to me. More and more people are awakening to the fact that they do not have to suffer needlessly from old pain. They are looking for approaches which include the dimension of soul and spirit in addition to or sometimes instead of more conventional routes. I myself support any and all combinations of approaches. There is no one size fits all solution to each person’s problems.
So, I am here to encourage you to step up and explore and deepen your gifts. As hatred and violence escalates in the U.S. and the world, more and more people are going to need and want healing.
Trust the calling you feel in your deepest self. Even though it may be leading you to what seems so “out there”–even to my doorway to learn shamanic energy medicine and the spiritual way of Mother Earth Mysticism–don’t hesitate!
Shamanic energy medicine is coming more and more into the mainstream, with newspapers like The Washington Post, among others, including articles on shamanism and related topics. Peer reviewed academic journals are also featuring articles on such topics as its effectiveness for treating tempo-mandibular joint pain (TMJ), addictions, and other mental health challenges.
I will leave you here with this beautiful image: human hands can be used to harm or to heal. Believe fully that your hands are the perfect vehicle to nurture and nourish the world. They transmit the healer within into the world so that we may all be well and at peace.
I teach a one-year, 4-course curriculum on Shamanic Energy Medicine for Treating Trauma. I hope you’ll look it up!
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