Why Shamanism Now - A Practical Path to Authenticity

How do we know that the messages we receive are true? With the direct revelation offered us through a broad range of shamanic altered states it is important to be able to discern truth. “Truth is perhaps more accurately felt, than known,” suggests host and shaman Christina Pratt. “Indigenous shamans the world over explain that you feel the truth of what you “see” in your journeys, and in this way sense the difference between a snake that is a power animal and a snake that is the manifestation of an illness.” Beginning journeyers worry for the wrong reasons about truth, using their uncertainty about whether or not they are “making it up” as the excuse to stop the journey. In this way they delay developing a trusting relationship with Spirit. Advanced journeyers trust spirit but do not worry enough about truth, forgetting that their connection with helping spirits is not absolute truth, but only the highest version of truth they are ready to hear. Join us this week as we explore the necessary steps for cultivating your own Truth Cord to sense the truth like the shamans of ancient times.

Witches, vampires, werewolves, and the living dead appear in our dreams, nightmares, and fairy tales. They also appear in our journeys and as manifestations of illness in shamanic healing. Are they real or are they our imagination? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores humanity’s timeless bad guys and the slippery terrain of those things that are not physically manifest, yet are present and profoundly affect our physical well-being when come into our world. It is important that we understand why and how these characters exist in the first place. And what calls them to us and how do we protect ourselves. As with all encounters with shadowy figures, whether in our dreams or journeys, we must have the courage to look within. When we find that figure within ourselves we must also have the heart to engage it. For in that ancient bad guy is the medicine for our own healing and the revelation of our True Self.

Indigenous people have been tracking a psychic virus for many centuries called “wetiko” in Cree and similar names in other languages. A wetiko is a diabolically wicked person or spirit who terrorizes and cannibalizes others by means of evil acts. Wetiko is a true illness of soul or spirit and is at the root of humanity’s inhumanity to itself. And there is no possibility of awakening from this collective nightmare without out awakening first to what is keeping us asleep. Join us this week as author, Paul Levy, and host, Christina Pratt explore a new way of understanding evil from Paul’s new book, Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil. What does Wetiko tell us about the true nature of evil? And more importantly what does understanding evil differently allow us to do differently to transform it? Paul is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How are we meeting this extraordinary need today?

Direct revelation from spirit is a human birthright, but what do we actually do with those messages from spirit? Whether our answers come to us through dreams, meditations, or shamanic journeys we must address how we systematically learn to take action based on this information? “First we must remember that the messages from Spirit are just information, not edicts or commands,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. “We are at our best when our actions are informed by the wisdom of spirit and the wisdoms of the heart, body, and mind.” Second, we must remember that often the action needed is simply to get out of our own way. Ultimately, we must learn how to act where we have power and to trust that we need only act in ways that are ours to do. And we must learn to do all of this the while leaving room for the Unknown to enter, recognizing when the game has just been changed, and moving in new ways without fear to make life better than you ever imagined. Join us this week as we continue to explore the common mistakes, misconceptions, and false assumptions made by shamanic journeyers and the remedies to correct them. This show is the final episode of our series called Mastering the Art of Shamanic Journeying.

What is the relationship between our internal richness and monetary wealth? Money gives us a place to project all of our unresolved issues about our own rank, privilege, and power. And money is a power object imbued with power by its user to make change in the world. How does spirit view money? “Money is not the root of all evil,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “People are.” Money is a cultural agreement that we can use to help or to harm each other. Seen in this way money is another expression of our energy in the world. Shamanic wisdom from around the globe tells us that money, like all energy, must move to be well. And in that movement we must stay out of the stagnation of greed and scarcity or the agitation of spending more than we have for reasons that do not matter. To remain in right relationship with money we must choose to be accountable for the flow of energy in the interchange of love, knowledge, and work in the physical and nonphysical world with gratitude, responsibility, and reciprocity. In this way we cultivate the internal richness needed to sustain the true power of action in our own lives.

The ancient stories of myth and religion speak of a time on earth when the land, the plants, animals, birds, bugs, and humans all communicated together, clearly and simply. Then the humans did something—something that is no longer quite clear—and we lost our ability to communicate directly. We wandered off, distracted by sparkly things, instant gratification, and grew addicted to the stimulus of life disconnected from all that we were originally one with. Humans forgot the paths to return home. What if we could remember the path back to the forest? Join us this week and host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores the possibility of returning home to the forest with Rev. shaman John-Luke Edwards of the Wolven Path Tradition, a shamanic tradition rebirthed from nomadic shamanic traditions of northern Europe. With our reconnection to “The Forest” we can reconnect with our knowing that all life communicates. And together with all life humans can innovate and successfully navigate a sustainable path forward that reconciles the dynamics of our shared global crisis. Return to the Forest this May at the 5th Residential BC Shamanic Conference Gathering for all who want to create a way to live in Oneness with all living things.

“In indigenous cultures, shamans heal because they are in a personal and mutual relationship with the healing spirits,” explains our guest, Stephan Beyer, professor, peacemaker, and author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon. “In this view, the sacred plants are autonomous others who are not means to our ends, but rather ends in themselves.” Join us this week as we welcome Stephan back and explore the reciprocal obligation inherent in a working relationship with plant spirits, the current tends in medicalization of the sacred plants, the decontextualization of ceremony, the dismissal of the healer's personal relationship with the plants, and the potential for trading a repressive political regime for a repressive medical one. Stephan joins us for the next show in the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How are we to meet this extraordinary need in the New World?

How do we cultivate the internal richness needed to sustain the true power of action? Where do we find the integrity to face our darkest fears and the impeccability to see them for the illusions they are, binding our hearts in mental unwellness, anxiety, and depression? When will we be accountable to the vulnerable steps required for the consistent self-care at the root of right action? “We are here now at the beginning of a new world,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “and we are charged with the responsibility to make the new world better than before.” Join us this week as we explore how we can change the old ways that drive us to false expressions of our true nature. It is not necessary that we live in perpetual exhaustion and deep dissatisfaction with life. With shamanic skills we can transform anxiety into alignment with purpose, inadequacy into interconnection with all things, and depression into the resources to restore and rejuvenate our sense of self.

We have lost the true power of action in the habits, expectations, and excess fire of the Old World and its story. The Warrior warns that the spiritual ambition, economic aggression, and arrogance of the full range of positional people have stripped us of the understanding of what an expression of true yang energy looks and feels like. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the true power of action and how we can transform the aggression and control of our false self into the precision with which we chart the course to live our soul’s true purpose. We can transform our ambition to be good girls and boys and get it right into devotion to the ever-unfolding process of living honestly and authentically. And we must transform the arrogance that arises from our identification has the healers, light workers, and good-guys into the excellence that flows with ease and joy and laughter from giving our gifts to the world.

The spirits teach us about love, one way or another, in each and every contact with them in journeys and out in nature, in dreams and meditations, in ritual and ceremony. So why do humans struggle so to find love? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores finding true love in the New World. The Old World Story told us that love was scarce and we had to go out and find it. The deeper truth about love it that is exists within all things and our task is simply to cultivate the love innate within us. That doesn’t sound very sexy or dramatic, but the pull of attraction doesn’t have anything to do with love. Attraction is orchestrated by our Shadow and the aspects of our self not yet held in love, so following our attraction is our second mistake. The journey to find true love is the journey of becoming the person that you see in that vision and letting life take care of the rest. Join us in the New World where the messages of true love are all around us and love is abundant.

What steps must you take to live in harmony with nature, culture, community, and the path of your heart? What overlooked assumptions about space and energy keep us from engaging in the awakening energy of our time? This week Alex Stark offers practical, effective, and do-able steps from his practice of the shamanism of space (feng shui and geomancy) and good common sense to help you move from wherever you are into a life of sustainable choices and right relationship with life around you. Join Alex and host, Christina Pratt, as they explore practices to heal land that has been traumatized or neglected; rituals for groundbreaking, clearing, and dedication; and ceremonies to bless, consecrate, or bring prosperity, and much mores. For those of you interested in bringing shamanism into the professional and corporate world, Alex does that every day. He is an internationally recognized consultant, advisor, and teacher who advises on issues of design, placement, and issues of transformation for residential, commercial, institutional, industrial facilities, urban settlements, and health-care facilities. Alex is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series, in which we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of this profoundly changing time.

How do we walk the line between the Old Story Rules and the New System we are creating? Once you have found the path to your soul’s purpose, how do you stay the course? Our lives are often a great web of responsibilities, expectations, addictions, and distractions that create conflict in our hearts and rob the clarity in our minds. In that tension between who you have been and who you are becoming one hesitates to act and loses confidence that there was ever true guidance at all. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she answers listeners’ questions about the day-to-day effort and art of living your soul’s purpose. The secret is remembering that we have only one true responsibility, which is to live our soul’s purpose. And no matter the situation that arises on that journey, we have the most power to create change on ourselves in the moment.

The shamanism of today must continue to evolve if we are to respond to the times we have chosen to live in. Our contemporary shamanic practices have not been immune to the influence of the Old Story. Now is the time of the New Story of the People in the beginning of a New World. This week we explore how the lie of separation, so foundational to the Old Story, undermines the personal message of love and self worth from our helping spirits. And, more importantly how that lie keeps us engaged in the age-old religious battle between good and evil, instead of using our understanding that Everything Is One to return even evil to it’s origins. Fear of the Shadow also drives the Old Story effectively keeping us from facing our fears and experiencing meaningful individuation and initiations. But with our helping spirits we have an avenue into the Shadow that allows not just understanding, but the rescue, transformation, and integration of the original ally form. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week and she unpacks the Old Story in our shamanic practices and challenges us to write the New Story with our shamanic work in the world.

Who will guide us as we stand together with new allies: The Unknown, The Wild Heart, and The Tao, at the dawning of the New World crafting the new Story of the People? What lights the way? “In the end the light of the Old World was the harsh light of judgment, the blinding light of righteousness, and the relentless light of monotheistic separation that drives us from all that naturally nourishes and replenishes the body and soul,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. “We must now find our way in the darkness to rediscover True Light, the Light that dances in ecstatic reciprocity with Darkness and gives life.” Join us this week as we explore ways to use shamanic skills to enter the Shadow and gain access to transform the roots of the habits, additions, and unconscious patterning that limit our self-expression. These skills allow us to enter the darkest fears human experience offers and to see through the illusions that bind our hearts in mental unwellness, confusion, and depression. Finally Darkness is the path to the deep actions of self-care and self-love necessary to cultivate the internal richness needed to bring up True Light and the courage to express that light with creativity and humility in the world.

If the New World is to be different than the one before then we must learn to ally our minds with paradox. We must see the deeper truth that the nature of our world—and our selves included— is the living expression of complementary dualism in which two opposites co-exist in harmonic wholeness. And as they transmute each other we experience true renewal or passionate expression. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the essence energies we must ally with on our journey to change our thinking and behavior and align with the necessary Dreaming of the New World. One of the many great gifts of a regular shamanic journeying practice is that the journeyer is immersed in the logic of the Tao. In our journeys and our interactions with helping spirits we are constantly asked to see—or tricked into seeing—the reciprocal exchange of energies that is the heart of complementary dualism. When we finally understand that all energies within our selves are opposites of another energy, also present though often denied within our selves, we will begin to be able to show up as co-creators of the New Story the Earth is singing.

Vietnamese shaman, Nguyen Ngoc Hoai, speaks to the souls of the dead in her country. In this way she and a Society of Shamans have located the remains of 10,000 soldiers, allowing the families of the dead to lay these wandering souls to rest. Join our guest Dr. Edward Tick, host, Christina Pratt, and her Vietnamese guests. Dr. Tick, the author of War and The Soul, rediscovered the archetypal path necessary to heal the unique wounding of war by working effectively and deeply with traditional shamanic practices in the indigenous cultures of Greece, Native North America and Vietnam. Through his non-profit organization, Soldier’s Heart, Dr. Tick uses psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war. He and his guests from Vietnam join us for the next Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. How are these shamans meeting this extraordinary need today?

There has been a great domestication of the heart in America, numbing and dumbing down the voice that should guide us. It is the rare individual today who knows the path of his or her heart, who is fearless in feeling the passionate emotions of a spiritual adult, and who finds the courage of heart, discipline and devotion, day in and day out, to get off the couch, out of the office, or unplug from the Internet and take the steps to make their soul’s purpose happen. Loving openly is considered foolish and following the heart considered weak or weak minded. However, if the Story of the People is to change and support us in creating a qualitatively different world, then we must ally ourselves once again with our Wild Hearts. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt as she explores what we must do in our own lives to subvert the need to control that runs throughout the Old Story enforcing separation and attend skillfully to the Shadow energies that are actually the very path back to our Wild Hearts. The Wild Heart ally brings us to the intimacy necessary for true nourishment, sustaining pleasure in our connections, and a primary relationship with our True Self.

We stand at the dawning of the New World envisioning the journey ahead, the co-creation of a world different than before. Who are our allies on this quest of creation? The first and unexpected ally is The Unknown. “If we cannot change our cultural story about the Unknown as the enemy that must be defeated,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “we will never see through the blindness and hear the whispers through the deafness of the Old World’s Story.” The Unknown as ally is a place of peace, of not needing to know. This opens us to wisdom, especially the wisdom that lives outside of the cultural story, the wisdom we do not yet know. Opening our experience to unknown wisdom engages the journey to the Great Mystery. Contact with the Great Mystery renews our wonder in All That Is and our belief that a new story is possible. Join us this week as we begin to gather our allies here in the heart of winter and listen for the new story the earth is singing.

The Visionary asks us, “What does it take to envision a truly new future? How do you open to possibilities that have not yet existed for you?” The Visionary cautions us that our personal past, family of origin past, and our ancestors’ unresolved issues can only hinder us. We must take what we have learned from the past and courageously leave the rest behind as we step into the New World. The Visionary councils us to speak the truth, listen closely to the truth of others, human and more-than-human, and never let go of the thread that is the energy of our soul’s purpose that goes among changes without changing itself. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she shares the Visionary’s wisdom and encouragement to notice the abuse of the Visionary power in visions without the means to make them real. We must remember the Visionary doesn’t manifest anything. It is the warriorship of holding that vision daily that makes things manifest. It is the warriorship of tending what you believe in the face of self-doubt and fear of change that makes things manifest. And always remember that what you believe gains power, so tend your beliefs well.

How can we focus our spirit work to support the necessary shift during these times of great global transformation? What assumptions about the Sacred must we change? How are we being asked to adapt our selves and our practices to assist in the birth of the New World? How can we repair our Ancestral lines in ways that free the descendants from living the same patterns? How do we make amends that recover our heartfelt working relationship with the spirits of the land on which we live? Join our guest, Daniel Foor, Ph.D., MFT, and host, Christina Pratt, as they explore often overlooked assumptions about life and spirit work that work contrary our awakening. Daniel draws on his experience hosting over 30 indigenous elders in recent years and shares the common threads in their approach to ancestral and earth healing. Daniel, the founder of the Earth Medicine Alliance and shamanic healer in the San Francisco Bay area, is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series, in which we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of this profoundly changing time.

The Teacher asks, “can you be passionately committed to the process without attachment to the outcome?” Can you step through the door and into the New World with precise and passionate commitment to your purpose and an open heart to all that is Unknown and will change— thatwill have to change if this New World will be different than the one before? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she continues this four part series sharing wisdom from the Four Great Teachers about the coming New World. The Teacher speaks to us of leadership, sovereignty, and mastery, as these are the places from which we truly teach. Are you willing to lead simply because the moment calls for a leader and you are there? Are you willing to govern your life and shape your choices based on the innate value in each living thing, including yourself? Are you ready and able to bring only your mastery through the gate with you, reconciling all else and then leaving it behind? The Teacher asks what have you learned that enables you to bring your leadership, sovereignty, and mastery to bear in the New World. Whatever that is, now is the time to live it.

The Warrior calls us out to do what must be done for what we love in the world. What would you do today if you knew you would die tomorrow? What would you give the rest of your life for to be sure it was here for our descendants in the New World? In this time of ending and new beginnings, you must be able to discern what you want to bring into the New World and what you must do to make that happen? The Warrior is not so much about battle in the world, but about the battle for authenticity with the False Self. Warriorship is about facing your fears in a way that allows you to see them for what they are, expectations from the past that you project and attachments to a future you imagine. The warriorship is stepping into our personal practice daily and clearing the energies we hold that keep us out of the moment. Warriorship is risking what is safe and known for what could be and needs to be. Warriorship is the countless moments of discernment through which you decide that this actions is worthy of your resources because it has purpose and meaning in your heart and this one is not. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week as she explores the wisdom of the Warrior in these changing times.

The Healer speaks to us of death and rebirth and asks, “What needs to die?” In this time of ending and new beginnings, you must be able to fit through the doors of opportunity that will open for you if you are to find your true place in the New World. Your False Self is just baggage and it’s in your way. Our ability to intentionally kill off aspects of our familiar self—to release, surrender, and grow simple—so that we are able to fit through the openings we encounter and plunge ahead in a new way is mastery of The Healer. We must know what to kill off and how. We must allow our faith in the status quo to be broken so that we strengthen our faith that which has heart and meaning and power in an interconnected world. And we must ask for help skillfully, knowing who to go to and how so that we are not consulting the unresolved dead or our own frightened ego. Our ability to move with intention through December 21, 2012 and birth a world truly different than this one depends on the Wisdom of the Healer. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week as she explores how to engage the wisdom on the Healer in these changing times.

We must engage intimately with our wild heart to participate in shaping a new direction for humanity on Earth. Only through an intimate relationship with nature can we come to know our own true wild-hearted nature. Renowned author and leading edge thinker, Will Taegel, calls us to open our wild hearts and take the next step, to establish a new relationship with the Earth and our local environments. In his new book, The Mother Tongue: Intimacy in the Eco-field, Taegel lays out the necessary path of return to the Earth’s primordial wisdom. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she encourages Taegel to challenge us to enter into deep reflection and question our current beliefs. He shows us how today’s science shows that all life communicates and that our intimate relationship with nature can guide us through these turbulent times. Taegel shares tools to communicate with and learn from the more-than-human world so that we are able to step up t and participate in the fullness of our role in the manifestation of a new era: The Era of Natural Birth. Join us this week as we explore the Mother Tongue Hypothesis and Taegel’s intimate path for successfully navigating our shared global crisis.

Traditional cultures have systems or cosmologies that explain the universe. These shamanic cosmologies explain for the people where the world came from, what we are, how we got here, and most importantly why we are here. These cultures also sanction divination systems or tools that the people use within these cosmologies to interpret their dreams, journeys, and visions. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she continues with part two of Learning to Interpret Your Symbolic Language from the Mastering the Art of the Shamanic Journey Series. This week she explores how your symbolic language came into being and why it continues to transform with you. Why you must deepen and stop limiting yourself if you are to deepen and stop limiting your interpretation of your symbolic. Join us this week and learn why a consistent and effective clearing practice is essential if you are to accurately interpret the messages from your guides and create the life you have come here to live for yourself and for the next seven generations

The invisible world speaks to each of us through our own unique symbolic language. Learning to accurately interpret that language is essential to understanding your journeys, dreams, and inspirations. “The art of interpreting messages and visions is based entirely on how your see yourself in the Universe,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “and how you understand the true nature of your soul.” Accuracy in interpretation is important, especially when we being to allow our information from our helping spirits and guides to inform our actions in everyday life. While the messages from spirit resonate with our soul, they are all filtered through our consciousness. Thus our accuracy in interpretation is limited by our accuracy in how we see our selves and the world around us. Consistent and effective clearing practices are essential if we are to interpret the messages from our guides accurately and use them to co-create lives of beauty, joy and purpose.

Mastering the art of shamanic journeying requires that you first learn to craft a good question that, like key in a lock, opens a realm of information you previously had no access to. A good question provokes an answer that addresses your problem effectively without creating new problems down the road. Central to this art is attitude. You have to care passionately without taking things personally. You have to patiently allow the uncertainty to unfold while being completely impatient with what you think you know. And you have to hold true to your discipline while simultaneously abandoning familiar assumptions and human comforts. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt as she continues with Part Two of Mastering the Art of Shamanic Journeying: Crafting Questions. You must learn to ask the question from the truth of where you are living in the moment, especially when you don’t like that truth. Always remember when we journey to spirit for answers we are seeking a deeper truth and that there will always be an even deeper truth out there.

“Any heartfelt practitioner of shamanism in the world today is deeply aware of the vital evolutionary role of this ancestral eco-spiritual tradition… Indigenous culture is based on the understanding that people are not moved through persuasion; rather, people are moved through being aligned in purpose,” explains our guest, Don Oscar Miro-Quesada, “…one’s experience of communion and reconnection with the living earth always arouses the desire to act on its behalf…(and when) you act on behalf of something greater than yourself, you begin to feel it acting through you with a power that is greater than your own”. Join host, Christina Pratt, and Don Oscar, originator of The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition (PMT), a five-part workshop apprenticeship series and tradition rooted in the Peruvian spiritual methods of sacred relationship with the Earth. Don Oscar is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How is this shaman meeting this extraordinary need today?

At the heart of shamanism is the pulse, the breath, the dance of complementary dualism, a Tao-like awareness of wholeness expressed in Nature and found in the sustainable, practical philosophies of shamanic peoples around the world. Our guest this week is psychological anthropologist and author, Hillary S Webb, PhD. She recounts her compelling scholarly and personal odyssey into the complementary worldview at the heart of contemporary Andean shamanism in her most recent book, Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World: Complementary Dualism in Modern Peru. With host and shaman, Christina Pratt, Hillary explores complementary dualism as a sophisticated and practical philosophical model for living a balanced life, for healing and for transformation. At its essence this philosophy offers respite from the lie of separation that overwhelms human consciousness today. It brings us experientially into the interdependent reality of the physical world and the possibility of peace in our hearts.

Shamanic journeying is an art that requires crafting good questions. A good question provokes an answer that addresses your problem effectively without creating new problems. Shamanic journeys are often confusing or lackluster because the practitioner began with a poorly crafted question. To be crisp, clear, and meaningful shamanic journey requires a focused question and free access to the imagination. The shamanic journey is purely question driven state and occurs within the dreamlike landscape of your own symbolic language. The practitioner must craft the question so that it acts as a key to open the answer, explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. And then the “answer” that may be as inscrutable as last night’s dream must be accurately interpreted. Here in lies the greatest challenge in developing a powerful, passionate, and effective journeying practice. Join us this week as we continue to explore the common mistakes, misconceptions, and false assumptions made by journeyers and remedies to correct them. This show is Part 1 in a series called Mastering the Art of Shamanic Journeying.

Not all shamans are great visionaries; not all understand the universe at the same depth. However, they all apply the knowledge they have and that knowledge is rooted in the experience of the Oneness-of-all-things. The more powerful the shaman, the greater his or her insight into this true nature of our physical universe, which is a Oneness composed of complementary and interdependent opposites. Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores the Oneness at the heart to of the shaman’s universe and why this way of viewing the world holds the answers to the challenges that face us today. It is the shaman’s capacity to function with intention within the trance state that determines the degree of power of the shaman. The shaman’s ability to act in the spirit world is bound by her capacity to reach beyond her own human fears, expectations, and limits and grasp the vast implications of the true nature of this universe, what the true source of the problem is, and how the prescribed actions will actually restore balance.

The wisdom in the Wild Feminine, by our guest and author Tami Kent, is the medicine we need to reclaim and embody the power and pleasure that is the birthright of every woman. Given that three out of four women in America have experienced some form of sexual trauma, it is long overdue time for women to activate the energy of their bodies, reclaim the wild at the core, and understand that the creative essence within your own actual center is the key for giving life to your dreams. Tami is a women’s health physical therapist and she joins host and shaman, Christina Pratt, to explain how attending to the physical and energetic alignment in the pelvic bowl, a woman can clarify and expand her creative potential so that this vibrant energy flows more freely in her body and all areas of her life. Tami is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenges of their world. Tami’s work offers work offers a complimentary path for deep clearing and reclamation following soul retrieval and other healing practices.

What can happen now? We can step into our power to create a Global Shift out of our current Global Crisis. To do this we must engage in conscious practices to find our real power in our integrity and open heart. What needs to happen is a shift of ethos and practice to one that is earth-honoring both locally and globally. Join host, Christina Pratt, and her guest, C. Michael Smith, PhD, (aka Mikkal) author of Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue as they discus a path forward. Mikkal shares how we can use shamanic skills and processes to truly empower ourselves to realize the potential in our current times and risk manifesting a future better than we imagined. Mikkal is director of Crows Nest International, Centers for shamanic Studies in USA, France, Belgium, and South Africa. He is a Jungian scholar, clinical psychologist, and international shamanic teacher. He is also trained in both North and South American shamanisms, undergoing a 14-year initiation and apprenticeship with Cherokee medicine woman Ai Gvhdi Way and an 8-year initiation with Iachak don Alverto Taxo. This is Part 2 of a series exploring how we transform a global crisis into a global shift.

What is our part in the global crisis we find ourselves sharing in September of 2012? What is the nature of the challenge ahead of us? How can we use our shamanic skills and mature earth-honoring consciousness to actualize the shift All Life is asking of us? Join host, Christina Pratt, and her guest, C. Michael Smith, PhD, (aka Mikkal) author of Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue as they discus what the great and compassionate thinkers of our time are saying. In their own way each confirms the need for a heart-open and earth-honoring shift in the way we all live all parts of our lives. Mikkal is director of Crows Nest International, Centers for shamanic Studies in USA, France, Belgium, and South Africa. He is a Jungian scholar, clinical psychologist, and international shamanic teacher. He is also trained in both North and South American shamanisms, undergoing a 14-year initiation and apprenticeship with Cherokee medicine woman Ai Gvhdi Way and an 8-year initiation with Iachak don Alverto Taxo. This is Part 1 of a two-part series exploring how we transform a global crisis into a global shift.

The power of dance goes largely untapped in the contemporary world. When we dance we can access the power to reconcile inner conflict, to transform toxic stress into energy, and reshape the story that defines our path in the world. So why don’t we dance? Or why don’t we dance with the focus and intention required to enter sacred space and embody the Spirit of Dance? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores trance dance, ecstatic dance, and the ways we enter sacred space, the ways we try to, and why in some settings it just doesn’t come together. The movement itself is prayer. You don’t need to be a dancer or even enjoy dancing to access the power dance. You just need to get up in whatever way you can and move. Dance and rhythm are the means by which people across time and place have accessed shamanic alternate states and the healing relationship with spirit that awaits us there. The possibilities to create the personal healing needed for the global change ahead await us in movement. And together in movement, the possibilities to create the global change needed to thrive exist in the power of dance.

Where are you in your own Sacred Story? Your story can weave and hold you together or it can unravel your bearings in life and tear you from your true self. Stories have power; they can heal and they can harm. Stories, when be wielded with mastery by the Storyteller, can shape the hearts and souls of a people. “Shamans are and always have been the storytellers, the wisdom keepers,” explains our guest, Jeffery Stockton, winner of the prestigious international 2012 Storytelling World award. “It is essential to have stories in the medicine bag and to have relationships with them—the living experiences of stories of power.” Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, and she explores the power of stories to illuminate our deepest sense of self and to shape the narrative of our healing and transformation. Jeff is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenges of their world. In our world we are “the story species,” as Jeff says “All species have memory and insight and instinct and many have complex language, but as far as we know, we are the storytellers.

If we live in our comfort zone the “to do” list gets done, all the bills get paid on time, and you never have your driver’s license suspended because the speeding ticket you got from the traffic robot was sent to your old address so you never knew. And if we live in our comfort zone we are living where we are already dead. “Without discomfort there is no warriorship and without warriorship there is no life,” says host and shaman, Christina Pratt. “Life happens at the interface of our comfort and discomfort zones. It is that daily step into discomfort that takes us into where we are becoming, awakening, and aligning our life with a clearer consciousness of who self.” And into where we often make a mess because we are learning. The messiness of life is a great gift. It helps us to know where Life as the Teacher is schooling us, how to craft a powerful question for our journeys, and precisely how our heart spirit is calling us into deeper alignment with our True Self. Join us this week as we explore the many ways to use the mess you have made of your life and your shamanic skills to divine a clear and effective path forward for whole-hearted living and joyous well-being.

Assumptions blind us to the heart of the matter before us. The most common reason people cycle around and around working ineffectively on the same issue is their assumptions. The way we view the world creates assumptions, which influence the way we conceptualize our issues and keep us from diagnosing accurately. Without an accurate diagnosis our remedy will be ineffective, whether medical, spiritual or psycho-emotional. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores common contemporary assumptions that disempower our practices before we even start. The remedy? Cultivating a cross-cultural shamanic world-view can diminish our assumptions by simply drawing us back to the real energies that lie under the surface of what is apparent. From this place of deeper truth we can see what lies at the heart of the matter and apply our efforts there. If we are going to work to create change in our lives and our world, let’s be sure we are bringing actual remedies to places that truly need change.

For those of you interested in shamanism you can experience a shaman finding her shaman legs, reshaping the workings of her mind, and awakening her courageous heart in the re-release of Gift of the Dreamtime. For the rest of you this is a story of healing. It is an inspiration for those who have suffered great trauma, like incest, chronic violence, or the soul loss induced by the daily, normal horrors of war, and refuse to be hobbled or accept anything less than the life you came here to live. Join us this week as author and neoshaman, Kelley Harrell shares her experiences and insights with host, Christina Pratt. Kelley has served her local community in North Carolina and an international client base since 2000 through Soul Intent Arts. In her own words, “My path of shamanism is original and claims no culture other than the one of my creation. I do not seek to teach a branded path of shamanism, but to present the map for you to create your own. Through private sessions, classes, and Distance Mystery School, I'm here to create a new tribe of support for children and adults whose lives are blessed with an uncontainable inner knowing. This is The Tribe of the Modern Mystic.”

What do we do when things stop flourishing? What do we do when houses don’t sell, businesses fail, and illness keeps cycling through the family? Where do we go when we sense that the very matrix of the energy that supports life is somehow torn or set asunder? This week guest, David Franklin Farkas, joins host, Christina Pratt to explore practical ways to clear and restore the energies in our physical world so that we are able to maintain good communication and reciprocity with the spirits of the land, the elementals, and the Earth herself. Years ago a moment of prayerful asking how to repair a profound distortion in our energy world David was shown the energetic geometry of the etheric matrix and instructed in how to repair it. Over the past two and a half decades David has developed this proprietary method he calls Quantum Grid Restructuring, which normalizes distortion in the energetic geometry of a buildings and space by clearing the human dramas, the emotional history of human events, and other traumas we inflict on the world around us. These practices support the reconciliation with underground water, ley lines and vortexes as well as offering a context for rescuing ghosts and banishing meaner entities. Join us this week as we explore how to effectively clean up the mess we have made and restore right relationship with our world.

Shamanism is the practice of direct communication with the Divine lifeforce present in all things. The purpose of this communication is to cultivate and maintain right relationship with all living things, human and non-human, seen and unseen, so that life flourishes. “To aim for flourishing gives humans a way cultivate a good life, without the errors of greed, excess, and selfishness,” says host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “which are each dead end streets. All human life as we know it exists purely and only because Nature exists. And Nature exists purely and only because the Earth exists.” Shamanic practices, geomancy, and feng shui each give humans practical ways to maintain good communication and reciprocity with the spirits of the land, the elementals, and the Earth herself. Anyone can begin to flourish from where ever they are with these practices. Flourishing begins by asking permission to do what we have come here to do. It is cultivated each day that we say “thank you” for all that comes into our lives—the food, air, water, and other gifts and resources that get us through the day. And finally to say, “I am sorry”, for all the ways my ancestors and I have trespassed in our arrogance and ignorance that all life is Divine and interdependent, especially our own.

Dr. Seth Farber is a writer, social critic, dissident psychologist, visionary, and activist on many fronts. He joins us this week to discuss his new book, The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride, available now from Inner Traditions. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, and her guest, Dr. Farber, as they explore the possibility that madness is a precious and dangerous gift. In his work Dr. Farber has seen repeatedly that many of those diagnosed as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other forms of “madness” are not ill but experiencing a spiritual awakening. He believes that that it is impossible for our society to awaken as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts for social change. At the same time those labeled “mad” must embrace their spiritual gifts and reclaim their role as cultural prophets to help the coming global spiritual transition. This week we discuss Dr. Farber’s passionate work, his new book, and the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement. He is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenges of their world.

The summer solstice is a time of fullness, expression, and manifestation in the physical world. And yet, in the frenzy of summer vacations, weekend get-aways, summer lovers, and the drug-infused blaze of Burning Man we forget entirely why we are here. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, and remember. It is our habit as contemporary people to go toward excess and indulgence: to spend too much, out reach our grasp, and start off where we have not yet begun. This is the misunderstanding of the great, warm wealth of summer, the waste of our true yang resources. We must learn to invest well in the seeds of our authentic true nature offered up by our Dreamer Manifestor and planted in the earth ritual at the spring equinox. Summer is the time of the Heart, of full sun, and of the god/goddess united at the Solstice. Before you light the traditional Solstice fire to dance, rejoice, and celebrate life with your community, consider the plants of purpose you are tending. What do you love enough to bring to life? It is time to nourish your destiny with the deep songs, longings, and visions of your heart and your own inner reflection of Divine Unity.

Loneliness and isolation have risen sharply in America over the past couple of decades, a trend exacerbated by the time and energy we spend cultivating our vast, but shallow social networks through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Loneliness is an internal psychological state that is not fundamentally changed by external conditions. “When loneliness rises to the surface of our awareness it is an internal voice calling us into solitude and honest self connection,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. “It means we are avoiding the very self we are looking for outside of ourselves liking on Facebook and following on Twitter.” When we have the courage of heart to turn inward, into the loneliness, solitude, and the inner self we have isolated, we can change the fundamental conditions of our psychological state. If we restore our intimate connection with that inner self, we restore our appetite for intimacy and authentic connection with others in the world. Shamanic healing, which bypasses the psychology and moves from the heart, allows us to find the stamina to move through our loneliness and to create the fruitful solitude necessary to develop soul satisfying connections in our inner and outer flesh and blood worlds.

Soul loss is unfortunately an everyday reality in America. While soul loss can be the result of abuse and trauma, it can also be caused by any unreconcilable situation in which the physical or spiritual life an individual feels threatened. With a little reverse engineering we can look at what causes soul loss today and extrapolate what we need to actually value in our lives if we are to protect the souls of our children. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she shares what she has learned from decades of soul retrieval work about what is really necessary to create a healthy environment in which to raise children. In pre-contact shamanic cultures two adults came together—sometimes a man and a woman, sometimes two men, sometimes two women—to create a stable economic unit in which to raise children. Much of the structure of these ancient unions was designed entirely for the support of the child and the preparation of that child to survive his or her initiation in to adulthood. The adults adjusted their lives and their desires because children were truly the most precious and valuable resource of the people. If we truly valued children we would honor the union of any two adults whose actions express love, open-minded intelligence, and an honoring of all life in all of its magnificent diversity.

In today’s vitriolic public discourse about marriage and family values the child is the banner held high and waved about. However, what we see from soul loss in contemporary life is that we no longer actually put what is best for the child first, but instead violently attack others for their differences or simply ignore the issue in our over-stimulated, virtually connected, self-absorbed lives. In precontact shamanic cultures two adults came together to create a stable economic unit in which to raise children. Much of the structure of these ancient unions was designed entirely for the support of the child and the preparation of that child to survive his or her initiation in to adulthood. The adults adjusted their lives and their desires because children were truly the most precious and valuable resource of the people. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she shares what she has learned from decades of soul retrieval work about what is really necessary to create a healthy environment in which to raise children. Fundamentalist thinking of any kind, divisive actions that separate us for each other and the environment, and the constant upheaval in the lives of adults without a practice of self-reflection cause soul loss in our children. If we truly valued children we would honor the union of any two adults whose actions express love, open-minded intelligence, and an honoring of all life in all of its magnificent diversity.

Now more than ever we must bridge the heart-centered, earth honoring, and interconnection-based practices of shamanism with the contemporary mind and depth psychologies—and we must do it globally. Our every decision must begin to intentionally and consciously shape a different world. Join host, Christina Pratt, and her guest, C. Michael Smith, PhD, (aka Mikkal) author of Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue as they discus ways of walking the path of the heart, in which the mind finds its proper relationship with the heart to serve, focus, and act to create the new vision. Mikkal is director of Crows Nest International, Centers for shamanic Studies in USA, France, Belgium, and South Africa. He is a Jungian scholar, clinical psychologist, and international shamanic teacher. He is also trained in both North and South American shamanisms, undergoing a 14-year initiation and apprenticeship with Cherokee medicine woman Ai Gvhdi Way and an 8-year initiation with Iachak don Alverto Taxo. He is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenges of their world.

When people call out to their ancestors, they call out to a diversity of energies. Some people call out by name to the men and women of their bloodline all the way back to the first man and first woman. Others call out to all of their relations; their request reaching out to all life through the interconnectedness of all living things. While others call out to their ancestors and visualize that request reaching from humankind to nature and on through their cosmology until they reach Grandfather Fire, Grandmother Water, and the Void from which the dream of life unfolds. Though we call out in different ways and mean slightly different things, traditionally “the ancestors” is a universally good thing. So what does it mean when we diagnose “the ancestors” as the cause of chronic disease, family patterns of addiction, or lose of hope and passion for life? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores why the dead aren’t becoming traditional helping spirits and why they remain stuck here hijacking the lives of the living. And more importantly she will share her non-traditional shamanic healing practices that effectively heal the energy stuck in the ancestral lines, which frees the living from the unresolved issues of the past and the dead take their place as helping spirits who offer us the rich legacy of all those who have gone before us.

We all have the ability to create art, make love, and offer healing. And some people have the gift. Part of the art of life is to find your gifts and infuse them with your passion so that you do what you have come here to do. How do you tell the difference between the feeling of “coming home” when you are introduced to shamanic practices and the actual call to give your life over to the work of being a shaman? How do you know that you have that gift? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt and she explores the confusing terrain of becoming a shaman in the contemporary world. The greatest challenge is truly understanding how deeply nourishing and healing it is to come into shamanism as a way of life. And to fully understand that the inner peace, blessings, and ecstasy that comes with this way of life is meant for everyone. This is how we are meant to live in the world; it isn’t the call. The call to a path is far more demanding. Once you surrender to that call you must resist the temptation to follow others on that path. For the new shaman trusting and following the path your helping spirits lay out for you is paramount. It is in the ever unfolding of that path that you find your confirmation.

Literally thousands of people around the world have been taught to use the shamanic journey practice to connect with their spirit help and guides since the 1960’s. And yet, even with the ease, direct access, and humor inherent in the technique few people are able to step from the basics into a more dynamic practice in which spiritual input becomes part of their everyday problem solving. How to you make that leap? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she shares some tricks of the trade when working with helping spirits. Balance is key as with all practices that engage power. We must balance the inspiration and practicality, the life plan with the unknown, and the hero’s journey that we didn’t even know we were on with the relationships we have chosen to show up for in our life. The next steps require learning to craft questions that truly work as keys to unlock the wisdom and inspiration of the spirit world. They require accessing your symbolic language without the distortion of knowledge, fear, and emptiness. And they require a willingness to risk who you are and what you know for who you could be if you were to trust the guidance of spirit in your life.