2015: Shamanism

Shamanic Calling

I have known for many years I was drawn to this calling but I didn't have a name for it until a friend shared with me about shamanism five or so years ago.  Even then I saw it as something that only existed in indigenous cultures and many light years away from the type of modern life I lead.  Yet, the more I read the more I knew a great part of me had the giftings to be connected to the spirit world and nature around me in a very strong way.  If you were to look at me from a superficial description you would see a middle class, white, protestant European who hardly looks the part of a mystical and powerful shaman.  I can't change what I look like or where I come from and I am highly connected to the modern world and the luxuries I live with that help me to exist in this world as a productive and able bodied person. 

However, recently during an extended stay in Europe I was forced into looking at who I really am and what it is that makes me passionate.  Yes, there is no denying that I have a deep appreciation of the beauty displayed in the works of art and culture connected to my European heritage but when I was there in its midst for so many weeks my heart longed to connect to the earth around me at a much deeper level than just the aesthetics of its beauty.  I spent a couple of weeks on the river Ahr in Germany and the moments I remember with the greatest pleasure were the times I sat by the river connecting with the trees, the birds,  and the depth of the river's power.  I found it very sad that things seemed to operate around me on such a superficial level without recognizing the much more vibrant and powerful nature that existed.  I knew then and there that no matter how steeped I am in my own background I have a much deeper connection to the Earth and the Spirit Realm that gives to me in a way I can not find elsewhere.

This brings me to the awareness and recognition of the shamanic calling no matter who you are or where you come from.  Nature and the Great Spirit make no distinction between peoples and the need for shamans couldn't be greater.  There is a very strong calling going out throughout the Earth for people to bring healing to our Mother Earth, all the animals and the peoples who inhabit it.  I am willing to take up that calling and walk this path set before me.  Where it will take me I know not but I do know that it is greater than anything else I will ever do.  It is a journey of honor and responsibility that I take up with pride and humility.  Pride, because I am proud to walk amongst great teachers who have gone before me and who walk the path currently.  Humility, because I am fully aware that anything I do does not come from be but that I am merely a vessel of the One who called me; the Great Spirit who lives in all.