Shamanic Healing With Mary Stoffel

 Many people in our culture experience varying degrees of chronic depression and illness, addiction, dissociation, post-traumatic stress syndrome, or just plain chronic bad luck.  However, few of us would attribute these symptoms to spiritual imbalance or disharmony caused by traumatic or painful events.  Left unresolved, this wounding of our life-force or spirit may lead to mental, emotional, and/or physical illness.I know this from personal experience as my introduction to shamanic healing was literally a life-changing event.  As my wounded spirit became whole and vibrant my life reflected a sense of increased harmony and general well-being.  Life became worth living again – even better, it became fun and fulfilling, with a renewed sense of purpose and direction.

Shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice known to mankind, practiced worldwide for the last 30,000 to 40,000 years.  For many, the word “shaman” refers to a spiritual healer, medicine man or spirit doctor capable of accessing secret knowledge and healing powers.  Throughout history, shamans have divined information for their community, and served as storytellers, spiritual leaders, counselors and healers.  Those in the "shamanic state of consciousness" (SSC) are able to enter into and perceive "nonordinary reality" (NOR) by means of journeying.  An important aspect of shamanism is that it provides a very practical means of solving everyday problems.

Modern shamanic practice in our western culture co-exists peacefully with urban life, complex technology and mainstream religion.  Basic techniques for seeing and journeying into the spirit world have been quickly learned and adopted by contemporary men and women seeking ways to reconnect with personal helping spirits in the form of animal or human teachers.  These techniques illustrate that the core shamanic experience is really simple, timeless, and universal.
Shamanic practitioners address the spiritual aspects of illness on our behalf by working with compassionate, helping spirits to restore balance, harmony, and life-essence vitality.  It is their responsibility to alter their state of consciousness and perceive successfully what others do not.  One of the distinguishing characteristics of the shamanic practitioner is the ability to move back and forth at will between ordinary reality (OR) and non-ordinary reality (NOR) with discipline and purpose in order to heal and help others.  The shaman does a diagnostic journey to consult with the spirits to determine what type of healing is appropriate for the client.  It may be a soul retrieval, a soul remembering, a power animal retrieval, shamanic counseling or general spiritual healing.

Animals and people experience soul loss in many ways.  Each individual spirit has its own definition of ‘trauma’, but some of the common causes are near-death experiences, extreme illness or injury, surgery, loss of a loved one, war time stress, or any kind of abuse.  As a survival mechanism, parts of the soul may leave during the event, helping the psyche cope with the experience.  Some of the symptoms that may reflect this are extreme anxiety, chronic depression or fear, chronic illness, dissociation, aggression or just the feeling that one is scattered or ‘not playing with a full deck’.  A person might say, “I’ve never been the same since…”

Acting on the concept that you can’t heal what isn’t there, the shaman journeys to find and bring back those soul parts that are needed to make the person or animal  ‘whole’ again.  Thus we no longer need to look externally to fill those empty spaces inside ourselves. 

Often, the problem is more that we don’t know what we are supposed to be doing in this lifetime.  We have forgotten our purpose or life-mission and feel a need or intense desire to be doing something—we just don’t know what.  The healing procedure is very similar to the soul retrieval, except that the shaman journeys to divine the person’s true essence or spirit and brings back a symbol that the person can use to focus purpose, intentions and actions.

One cause of illness is personal power loss.  Each of us has a power animal or guardian spirit that protects us and assists us with gifts, talents and strengths.  Power animals will assist us with our life’s lessons but they may leave us for various reasons causing a loss of personal power.  Typical symptoms of power loss may be chronic depression, chronic illness, addiction or chronic misfortune.  The shaman journeys to look for a guardian spirit who is willing to come and give power to this person again restoring balance and harmony.

Traditionally, the shaman has worked in cooperation with the spirits on behalf of the client.  Shamanic counseling is a method that restores spiritual power and autonomy to the individual through direct access to the wisdom of their own helping, compassionate spirits.  Clients are trained to journey to get answers to personal questions and help with problems in their daily lives.  Shamanic counseling is a system of personal empowerment.  The shamanic practitioner acts as a facilitator, working one-to-one, to help clients establish their own relationships with their spirit guides.  The counselor-facilitator’s constant responsibility is to help clients acquire their own divination journeying skills and interpretations.  This method can be remarkably effective in helping people assume and employ their own personal power in solving problems and answering important questions in their lives.

Sometimes a person who has experienced soul loss or other traumas may find that they have become a host to suffering beings or entities who may live off of a person's energy and influence them in a variety of ways.  Heart-based clearing or depossession is a humane therapy that benefits both the client and the attached suffering being, even if that suffering being is reluctant to cross into the Light.  Curse unraveling frees the person from negative energy that has been directed to them by someone else, intentionally or not.

Learn how to enter non-ordinary reality for problem solving and healing.  Mary shares the core teachings of this transformative practice, including the original role of the shaman in indigenous societies, how to meet and work with your “power animal” and other spirit teachers, and the keys to successful journeying in our modern culture.

• What is a shaman?
• The upper and lower worlds of non-ordinary reality
• Communicate with your helping spirits
• How to use shamanic journeying for problem solving
• Drumming and guidance for your own shamanic journeys

This one-day class, based on the book Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide by Sandra Ingerman, will give you a solid foundation in the basics of shamanic journeying.  The book will be available for purchase at the class.

Space for this class is limited and must be reserved with a non-refundable registration payment of $40.00.  Balance is due at the time of the class.  For additional information contact Mary at 763-444-8146 or 612-859-5908.

When we suffer an emotional or physical trauma a piece of our soul may leave the body in order to survive the experience.  Although soul loss is a survival mechanism the problem from a shamanic point of view is that the soul part that left usually does not come back on its own. Common symptoms of soul loss include dissociation, addictions, chronic depression, suicidal tendencies, post traumatic stress syndrome, immune deficiency problems, and grief that just does not heal. Soul retrieval is a core shamanic healing method practiced all over the world for thousands of years.  In this class you will learn about:

• The causes of soul loss
  
• Soul theft
  
• How to safely return lost soul parts to a person or animal
  
• How to support the healing integration process
  
• Soul remembering

Space for this program is limited and registrations are accepted on a first come basis.  For additional information contact Mary at 763-444-8146 or 612-859-5908.