Feathers as a Shaman’s Tool
Perhaps the most omnipresent animal symbol of all has been the eagle—adopted by both ancient and modern cultures around the world. This magnificent bird has been associated with the Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians, Hittites, and Romans, all of whom...
A Crystal as a Shaman’s Tool
The Shaman’s vogel, or double-terminated, crystal is a cathedral of light we use to extract energies and entities from our clients. We then call on the four directions and our lineage of healers to take these entities and energies home to where...
Spirit Water as a Shaman’s tool
Shaman’s use spirit water, agua de florida, made with vodka to preserve the elements and sweet herbs that give us the sense of our blessing and summon the archetypal energies in each direction to be with us and guide us in our tracking outside of...
The Mesa, Drum, and Rattle as Shaman’s Tools
The word mesa means table in Spanish, but it also means high plateau, the place where the shaman goes to meet the spirits. A shaman’s mesa is a portable altar (where he goes to meet the spirits) or medicine bundle used for healing, ceremony, prayer...
Called to Step into a New Destiny
You can grow a new body. You know you can, because you have already grown a body once before. Ten fingers, ten toes, all of the exquisite beauty of your physique grew from an egg and a sperm following careful instructions. And to grow a new body,...
Divine Synchronicity and the Feminine Life Force
As modern shamans, we know that if a person wants to be healed of disease and be truly free and enlightened, then it is essential to strengthen the feminine life force within. This requires fasting, prayer, and meditation, combined with the use of...
Space-Time and Overcoming the Past
Don Antonio Morales, who was on the faculty of the University of Cusco and was a full-blooded Inka, became my primary mentor. I walked with him through the high mountains of the Andes, meditating in sacred sites and ancient temples, I also studied...
A Spiritual Test – My Journey to the Himalayas
One of my early journeys was to the Himalayas. The Ganges bursts out from a glacial spring high in the Himalayas, two-thirds of the way up Mt. Shivling, at an icy outcropping known to the locals as Gaumukh, or “the mouth of the cow.” I had hiked...
Healing the Death Within Us
All of us have felt haunted by death at one time or another. Sometimes all we see before us, behind us, to one side and then the other is death. For the shaman this can be a calling to initiation, and we are fortunate when we can have such an...
The Journey Beyond Death
The shaman learns to assist a loved one on the greatest journey of all, the journey beyond death. And in the same way that there are midwives and doctors to receive us when we are born, there are spiritual midwives, relatives, and luminous ones...