Speaking with Shamans

In March of 2008 Sylvia went to the Yucatan and video taped interviews with a family of Mayans Shamans who live in the jungle there.

What is Shamanism?

All over the world there are cultures of people who practice shamanism. The  word shaman originates from the Tungus people of Siberia. Even though there are many different shamanic traditions in the world with different ceremonies, they share many similar beliefs about the nature of reality. Shamanism has become a word commonly used to describe spiritual belief systems in which the practitioner believes that all things of nature have life and consciousness.

We took some very interesting pictures at The Tantric Shamanism Institute a while back.  It happened during a class that helped people to make connection with their spirit guides, allies, and angels. After performing several meditations and journeys to make personal contact, a woman in our class snapped a few photos of people. Before taking the pictures, we asked the spirits that worked with us to show up in the photos. She only took a couple of shots, but each and every one had some very interesting visual phenomena in them, which you can see below.

Sanctifying, Clearing and
Anchoring  Sacred Space
through Smudging

In many spiritual traditions, different herbs or resins are burned during ceremony to clear negative energies away, draw positive energy in, sanctify space, as well as prepare oneself for entering sacred space.

When smudge or incense is used during spiritual practice, it can act as an anchor into spiritual reality, especially when it is used regularly by the individual for that purpose.. As soon as that familiar smell reaches your nose, your psyche is triggered into dropping down into spiritual awareness and relaxation through that recognition.

Wild Woman Interview

Here are some pithy excerpts from an interview with Sylvia Brallier about the wild woman archetype.

What are your experiences with wildness and being a wild woman?

Life is very precious. You only have a limited amount of time here, so you might as well be doing what really matters to you. It will serve you best to be focused on what your truth is. A major part of what defines my truth is my passion, and one of my passions is my creative process. That process has many avenues that it takes, but the goal for me is to be fully involved in what I am doing and what it is that I am feeling without a lot of editing going on.

Healing and Transformation- 
Through the Shadows
and to the Light

"For me, the path of transformation means not only going for the feelings of bliss, joy, and all those other fun emotions, but the willingness to dive into all aspects of myself, even the places within myself I have consciously or unconsciously disowned because they seem unacceptable to me or I fear they are unacceptable to those around me.

These shadow places with the psyche contain vast amounts of energy that is bound up by our inner editor, the part of our self that sanitizes our behavior and the expression of our emotions in order to attempt to gain control of reality by controlling our selves.