Our Planet

What is Shamanism?
Throughout human history, various forms of Shamanism have been present in every culture, with each form having their own definition and understanding of it.  At its fundamental core, Shamanism is Awareness.  It takes ever increasing levels of awareness, both of self and the environment to change and grow.  The physical body is a patterned assembly of molecules and energy which houses the soul.  In its hunger, the soul yearns to learn from all levels of experience in physical reality in order to evolve on a sacred journey to the light.  It takes awareness to learn to identify how little attention is given to the present and how much attention is given to the past.  A shaman is aware that there is more power in the present and that experiencing new and challenging things, is what leads to the growth of the soul.  The 3 key elements to heightening and expanding one’s awareness are forgiveness, presence and self trust.

Before embarking on a path of Shamanism, I felt like my life was a constant reliving of the pains and sorrows of my past with no hope of resolution or change in sight.  The demons of regret, insecurity, doubt, depression and fear were constant companions.  I felt victimized by life and a prisoner to my own life situation.  The future was dim and obscured with the belief that I was destined to continue repeating my failures and reliving my shortcomings.  As a young teenager I thought to myself that there had to be more to life than this, but had no clue how to change any part of it.  It was through Shamanism that change began to happen.  It taught me that for any change to occur, I had to look for the cause of what was keeping things the same or stuck in a repeating pattern.  Therefore the task was to navigate beyond my perspective and understanding of the story and see it from other angles.  First, was to find the courage to acknowledge other points of view and second was to let go of blaming others.  I had to learn to forgive myself and accept responsibility for my role in the story.  This brought a clearer understanding of the story without the need for blaming and grieving.  The gain from doing this was wisdom.

The second element of presence can be seen as both a by-product and ingredient to the process of forgiveness.  For any forgiving to even happen I had to be present with what I was feeling and experiencing in any given moment, especially when I felt like a victim and was despairing about life.  I had to stay present with whatever emotions I was feeling.  If I wanted to change, I couldn’t run away from or numb out any uncomfortable feelings.  I had to let the feelings run their course and move through me and then dissolve.  As a by product, it becomes easier and more attractive to stay present in any given circumstance.  Being triggered, losing perspective and going into emotional reaction weren’t showing up as much when life got challenging or didn’t go as expected.  In fact, staying present made it easier to learn from the experience without repeating old mistakes or habits.  This made each day begin to feel fuller and more gratifying instead of a day of drudgery, boredom and repetitiveness.

Similarly, self trust has two components.  It took self trust to even begin the process of healing and releasing the past.  I had to start listening to and acting upon that faint and often unheard voice inside that knew the truth.  There needed to be a change in the old habit of ignoring and distrusting the guidance and wisdom of this voice.  I had to begin to trust that this voice was capable of guiding me in making good choices and decisions.  This resulted in there being less need to be right, to prove myself to the world and to seek approval from others.  I gained more comfort in knowing that I could trust the choices and decisions I was making with less concern about the opinions of others.  I discovered that it was more fun and desirable to be in the driver’s seat than being the passenger in my own car.

It is important to keep in mind that this is a lifelong process.  Nature teaches that it takes time and patience for the acorn to become a mature oak tree.  The acorn must first go into the darkness of the earth before it can re-emerge and grow towards the light.  Even as it grows, its roots stay firmly planted in that darkness.  The darkness of the past provides the support and wisdom to make the choices that lead to the light.  Regardless of its circumstance or given environmental situation, the oak tree focuses its awareness on its unrelenting growth to the light.  Questioning our existence and thinking there has to be more than this, is the souls voice, inspiring us to continue seeking until the answers are discovered.  We must be patient as we learn to breathe in life more fully and take more risks.  If a slip up happens and an old behaviour pops up, just bring it into awareness and reengage with the process of letting it go.  When the unknown, the new and the mysterious become the focus, the child within emerges and embraces the joy of life.  Life will begin to feel more effortless with greater synchronicity.  There is more passion for life with a stronger emphasis on how it is lived.  Life becomes a pleasure to live and there is a sense of feeling comfortable in one’s own skin.  The purpose to life may not be fully clear but there is a greater sense of purpose to what we are doing in our lives.  The path of the Shaman is to walk through life as the warrior and the healer, determined to become the sacred human.
By Chellie de Jager

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Dear Friends
This is a summary of what the pod of 55 whales conveyed to me after I connected with the group:

The majority of the whales were sick and dying… as a result of swimming in some sort of chemical effluent in the ocean, to the northwest of Cape waters. This invisible toxic stream affected them internally in such a way as to cause slow die-off. With that their immune systems also crashed, making them very susceptible to and ill from parasitic infections. A few of them were physically fine, having withstood this - but they weren’t going to leave their family members. So they swam ashore with the dying ones. One for all.

They beached because they wanted to die.

They chose the Cape beach so as not to have to navigate the stormy, rough seas around Cape Point in their weakened state, and because they want humans to witness (the) whales’ dying. On the bigger/planetary level too. They said “the Mother” (the ocean) is being poisoned, and so are they. It’s time humans woke up to this and witnessed the effects.

They predicted that there will be more strandings in the next moon cycle (which I found interesting given that the International Whaling Commission sits again in the last week of June apparently.)

The whales appreciate the compassion and care that people showed in trying to return them to the water, but would have wished to be given the choice, i.e. pointed out to sea/re-floated once, and then left to die in peace if and when they returned.

Humans holding vigil for them with understanding would have been far better than the forceful, violent means ultimately used.

Inbetween the above thought forms are the emotions and soulfulness of their consciousness that cannot be expressed in words by this mere human…

With honour and reverence for all whales,

Anna Breytenbach This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it