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What is a Shamanic
Practitioner?
In Service to their
Community"
by S.
Alexander Alich
Shamanic practitioner’s
work is based in
cultivating the human
spirit. Today’s shamanic
practitioners, much like
their predecessors,
develop their own
relationship to the
earth, elements, plants,
and animals, as well as
to their gifts and
spirit helpers. Their
biggest challenge is
finding a way to bring
their gifts into our
modern world.
Much like their
ancestors, today’s
practitioners have felt
called, usually from an
early age, to serve
something greater than
themselves. They have
also had a form of
crisis or spiritual
experience that has
opened them to a larger
perspective of the world
and an initiation to
working with spirit
helpers and guides.
Ideally, potential
practitioners might use
their experience and
greater viewpoint to
help their clients and
communities facilitate
healing and growth.
Myths and Misconceptions
The three most common
myths and misconceptions
I face as I educate
people about this work
are the following:
Shamanic practitioners
take drugs, fall into a
trance, and spirits take
over their bodies.
Although it is true
historically that some
practitioners have used
chemical means to go
into trance and thus
come into contact with
the spirit realms, there
are a variety of ways to
reach trance states.
Dancing, chanting,
drumming, and creating
artwork are a few ways
that a practitioner can
enter a trance state. In
my own work, and the
work that I teach, I
require that each
practitioner remain
awake and aware at all
times while facilitating
clients. If
practitioners lose their
memory while working, it
would be a clear danger
sign that something has
gone wrong.
The
second myth I encounter
is that shamanism is a
form of religion or
cult; it is not.
Shamanism by its nature
is spirituality and our
unique experience of
spirit or divinity.
Through its history it
has not been
institutionalized and
cannot be practiced the
same way by any two
people.
The
third is what I refer to
as feathers and beads.
There is a stereotype
that practitioners must
always appear in a
tribal or earth setting.
I think the most
important thing to know
here is that each
practitioner must serve
a community and be a
member of that
community. The people I
have worked with and
trained serve in a
variety of settings,
including hospitals,
schools, clinics,
churches, and corporate
business.
Today’s Shamanic
Practitioner follows
four principles:
1.
The first and probably
most important is to
listen to the client’s
spirit to guide them
through the healing
process. We must always
ask, what is the unique
journey of this person,
place, or animal? What
are they here to learn
and teach? This looks
different for each
situation and will guide
us to help them in the
way that they need to
learn. For some it may
look like a cure for
their illness and for
others it may mean
guiding them through the
process of dying. There
must be no judgment in
this, only allowing and
respecting each being's
journey.
2.
Find the origin point of
the imbalance causing
disease. We want to find
the place in the
person’s spirit and life
where the imbalance
began and correct it at
its source.
In
shamanism we see five
bodies or aspects of a
person–physical body,
mind, heart, spirit, and
soul. We view these
aspects in a circle,
with the soul sitting in
the middle and the other
four around it. The
wheel is in constant
movement and change.
Seen in this way, there
is not one aspect we
consider superior. What
we call illness begins
subtly in the spirit. If
the imbalance is not
corrected there, it will
move to the mind, heart,
and eventually the body,
where is becomes more
challenging to treat.
3.
Apply tools to restore
balance. All
practitioners come with
their own tool bag and
medicine. Our medicine
is the special gift or
talent that is unique to
each practitioner. We
must apply our own tools
to help our clients move
toward balance. The
practitioners must rely
on the relationships
they have developed in
their years of training
to do this. They must be
open to other
possibilities, even if
those possibilities mean
that they have to leave
what they are
comfortable with. They
must also be willing to
think outside the
established system and
create new paths for
others to follow. Being
invited into this role
by a community is a
serious commitment and
not one to enter
lightly. Practitioners
dedicate their lives to
serving something
greater than themselves
and must regularly empty
and purify themselves so
the information or
healing that a community
needs can come through
them.
4.
The last step is
offering education so
the client can obtain a
better quality of life.
After my first year in
practice, I learned that
the healing session or
table work was only the
initial step in the
healing process. The
rest of the work is what
the clients can live
with, develop, and
ultimately integrate
into their daily lives.
That is where the real
healing happens.
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intuitively listen
to the body as she
gently corrects
bio-energetic imbalances
and blockages on the
physical, emotional and
spiritual level. These
corrections enable the
body to strengthen and
regulate the internal
organs, the nervous and
immune systems.
