Shamanism and Energy Healing
My book, The Other Man in Me, tells of my discovery of another man living in my soul, a man connected to the archetype of the Green Man. For me the Green Man represents a divine intelligence in nature, a divine light as the wisdom and consciousness in matter that both protects and reveals its spirit. To accept the Green Man is to return to the awareness of a transrational and transpersonal intelligence, a divine reality in matter, whether that matter be a stone, a tree, an animal, an organ in the body, an object of my desire, or the earth herself. This spirit of the Green Man connected me to my inner shaman, the one who lives in sacred reciprocity with Nature and all that is and became the path for healing the split in me between the mind and the heart and matter and spirit.
Shamanism is an ancient spiritual practice that maintains there is a physical world of matter and a spiritual or unseen and invisible world of energy called non-ordinary reality. Shamanism teaches us that everything is alive, conscious, dynamic, connected and responsive. Just like quantum physics describes a field of energy that connects all of life, shamans speak of a web of life that connects everything.
The word “shaman” means one who sees in the dark. A shaman is a man or woman who travels into this invisible world and works directly with the spirits to gather information and guidance, to perform healing and restore balance and harmony. Shamans address the spiritual aspects of an illness or problem. They perform soul retrievals, remove spiritual blockages, and divine information for the community. Shamans act as healers, doctors, priests and priestesses, psychotherapists, mystics, and storytellers.
Prompted by my dreams, I entered formal training in shamanism and energy healing in 2009 at the Four Winds Healing the Light Body School. Having completed that program in 2013, I have continued to study and train with shamans and integrate shamanic healing into my practice as a social worker and psychotherapist.
Below is a link to an article I wrote on a shamanic approach to healing trauma. If you would like to read more on shamanism and shamanic and energy healing, sign up for the paid version of my substack. Each week I will post something on shamanism and energy healing. In the meantime, check out my article “Healing Trauma: A Shamanic Approach” at https://shamanicpractice.org/article/healing-trauma-a-shamanic-approach/