Author: Charlotte Gush.
First a little bita history and an explanation as to how I’ve reached this conclusion.
Why Shamanism?
In my late teens, after a turbulent youth, I committed to ‘finding myself’ and during this quest I tried all manner of spiritual approaches before finding Shamanism.
The spiritual sweet shop offered Meditation, Tarot Cards, Reiki, Clairvoyant circle, hypnotherapy, regression, spiritualist church. I tried the fucking lot! Yet, for all my diligent attempts to clear negative thoughts, generate elaborate protections to leave the house, self-help books, spiritual study groups, just ‘letting it goooo’, my life was still shit.
I know now that life is a journey, a process of discernment, choice and boundaries but there was one thing that each of the aforementioned modalities had in common – they told me either explicitly or implicitly that I was broken, needed fixing!
The truth of the matter was that I had, have, a thirst for depth, real answers, teachings that I could embody and grow my life with, and a longing to access, what I now know to be, my innate power, without the need to trade my soul or hide parts of myself in the process. I didn’t need a guru or dogma, I needed to find comfort in my own skin, trust my body again, my intuition and not ‘find or fix myself’ but REMEMBER myself.
What is shamanism & a shaman anyway?
Defining the term.
Shamanism is a popularised, Western umbrella-term used, to describe Medicine men and women, the Paco, Sangoma, Machi, and more. The term loosely describes a set of beliefs, teachings, skills, and practices lived by individuals who connect the worlds of human and spirit-kind; acting as a conduit, sometimes termed, ‘the hollow bone’.
How? Via inherited practices, rituals or ceremonies and an internal energetic matrix, earned through diligence, commitment and person to person or spirit initiation.
The Shaman brings, in the simplest form, healing and peace to places, people and situations, soul healing, divination, we walk the dead home, clear energetic imprint from the land and people, there’s also extraction - now known as psychic surgery. There’s drumming, rattling & rituals of fire, water, earth, and air…all supported and guided by the energetic worlds, unseen to most. This isn’t an exhaustive description, but a tiny window into the multi-faceted, multi-dimensional world of the Shaman and this ancient work is still very much alive.
A path of self-discovery.
The Shamanic Path gives space to befriend all versions of ourselves in this life and others. We are each like the Russian Doll with the exterior, world facing big mama layer enveloping dozens of inner skins. Each a character with their own version of our stories, each with their own experience and perception of our lives and the world at large. We slowly uncouple each doll, moving deeper into ourselves, discovering and rediscovering who we are and who we are not. Each stage is an investigation, honouring, reimagining, and re-rolling these characters free of judgement and dogma. Among these layers, I’ve found self-acceptance, trust, sharp intuition, harsh truths, and many hidden gems. I’ve absorbed ancient teachings, refined my natural ability by doing ‘the work’, and yes, I’ve found comfort in my own skin.
"Shamanism is animism in action & practice"
Charlotte Gush
The shamanic way gave me a new cosmology inclusive of a co-creative consciousness seen and unseen; an animistic map to traverse this worldly terrain in a way that finally made sense. In my mind, Shamanism is Animism in action, woven with the healing legacy of a million ancestors, and as we transform our grief into gold, we too, are welcomed to blend our medicinal essence to this, the infinite energetic archive.
The healing benefits through generations.
In these tumultuous times it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture but it’s times just like these that we need to invest in the sacred nature of ourselves and re-remember what it means to be human!
In practical terms though what does this really mean?
We start simply and continue consistently. We thank the sun in the morning, take action when given a sign instead of reshuffling a tarot deck for a more favourable outcome! We get honest with ourselves; we address our role in familial and societal patterns and by doing so we save our future children & grandchildren the burden of carrying our wounds… and this is only the beginning!
Through learned skills, techniques applicable to all areas of life, informed by ancients maps we grow in confidence, knowing that we have agency, innate power, and a strong connection to the other worlds. We become initiated, empowered and bit by bit our lives grow into a thick, strongly rooted trees that we one day climb on our return to the realm of the ancestors.
You see we are not here begging for a ticket into heaven but relearning & reclaiming earthly medicine truths and establishing route-ways of ease, grace and sweetness for ourselves and others, in this life, and the next…
Why now? In the 21st century?
Because the materialist scientific view of our existence being simply a happy accident has enticed millions into a system devoid of meaning causing deep collective suffering.
We’ve existed in harmony with the planet for generations, it’s only in the last 200 years we’ve ‘trusted the science’ and this seems to run parallel to an incomprehensible level of consumption, competition, and disease. It’s time to change this trajectory and rekindle the genetic memory of living in balance with all life.
In these frighteningly technological and war-torn times, it could be easy to write off shamanism as a new age spiritual fad and use the term as a prefix to make your event sound exotic but – it is neither a fad or a prefix… shamanic healing, practice, and training, as apprentices and clients will attest, are real, raw & life affirming. It bloody well works and has done throughout it 40,000 years + traceable history…
The Shamanic Way is not only an antidote to our predicament but a key to our own liberation from a sick system. The teachings of the Q’ero tribe of Peru states that the new shaman will come from the West; we as the younger brothers and sisters of the planet are now tasked with carrying the torch and reacquainting ourselves with what it means to be Earth & Medicine Keepers & once again, recognising animism as normative consciousness.
"Respond to life through your spiritual practice rather than your emotional programming" Tiaucia Richardson
So, what do you think? Hell yea h!!?
Do you feel that you’d like to learn a little more about the Shamanic Way?
Find comfort in your own skin?
Become internally referenced; the conscious observer, trusting your intuition?
Contribute to the revealing of humanities true history & your innate abilities?
Relearn the art of ritual, ceremony bringing healing to yourself, your family and wider community?
Perhaps you’d choose the shamanic path as a means of personally & privately navigating this worldly terrain? This is a way of life; a set of tools and teachings that encompasses all areas of our being; boardroom to bus depot, birth till death and everything in between.
If you answered an internal 'yes' to any of the above, I’d love to speak with you.
My current offerings:
*All places are offered following an interview process and enrolment closes September 1st, 2024.