The spiritual practices of the world range from prayer to meditation to yoga. For the Shamans, the practice is journeying. Journeying is seen among tribes in every corner of the world, from the Shamans in Mexico to those in Peru and even Alaska. It's a way of transcending your consciousness into the quantum field to help heal past trauma or to look into the future to gather information that would support your highest destiny.
The Shamans believe that each time we experience trauma such as divorce, a car accident, or even the death of a loved one, a part of us flees our physical body because it is too painful to fully inhabit it after the event. When we journey, the intention is to find the original wound, not the most recent stressful event that you went through. When this original wound is healed, the belief is that it heals and clears away all other imprints of trauma after it. For example, if you had your heart broken at age seventeen and then again at 25 and then again at 42, the original wound to find healing around is your seventeen year old self.
The Shamans understand time to be able to turn, figure eight and loop back on itself to coax it back to this present moment. We see this belief around the separation of time all the way back to the Mayan civilization.
Shamans step into timelessness and can dream the world into being. They fix things before they are born by clearing out the wounds that are stuck in the energy field for, they know that once a wound has materialized into the physical form, it is very hard to change. We want to heal the energy field before it creates the ulcer or before kidney disease shows up in the body.
I can remember on my first trip to Peru when our tour guide and Shaman, Jamee, led us through a Journey when we were visiting Sacsayhuaman, the old ruins of an Incan fortress above Cusco. We all got comfortable on a little grassy area that was surrounded by a low sitting rock wall, she then proceeded to rattle and guide us through a deeply relaxing visualization where at one point I felt as though I was riding on the back of a large condor! The experience felt so real and the messages I received during that journey that were helpful and healing for me at that time in my life.
Through Journeying, we can step out of our physical bodies and into the quantum field that offers us that sense of unity and oneness. We are able to explore the field of universal consciousness, where the past and the future diverge into the now.
Journeying is stepping outside of time as we know it and clearing away that which does not serve us to allow for our growth and healing.
Susannah Beattie is a professional level Kripalu Yoga teacher, meditation teacher, Reiki Master, and artist.
She is devoted to living and sharing the tools of yoga, meditation and indigenous teachings that empower and allow individuals to intentionally engage with life.