Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. ~Anais Nin

In the first dream I decided to call someone I’ve been out of contact with, by choice, for years. My heart was light, giddy even, and I found that the words I needed came without effort. When he answered, I told him who I was and asked if we could talk. He greeted me, then replied clearly, though firmly that he was busy and couldn’t talk. I knew immediately that he wasn’t busy at all, but that he didn’t want to talk with me. From the point of deciding to call him I knew that he may not be responsive, and that was OK. I told him that was fine, wished him well, and hung up. For whatever reason his sister was suddenly beside me, and she told me that he had a lot of disdain for me and didn’t want anything to do with me. My dreaming mind instantly recognized her as the “wet blanket person,” the voice always willing to tear down a good situation. She said several derogatory things that weren’t true about me, though it didn’t matter. I was really happy to have made contact with him, no matter how it went, and I fully respected his right not to interact.

My Life, The Stage

The second dream found me standing at a port waiting to board an ocean liner, at the start of my high school reunion trip. Everyone was formally dressed, with all of the women wearing cranberry-colored dresses and the men in black tuxes. I was very excited about the trip and about seeing everyone again. It was also fun to be dressed up, and I doted on my hair. Everyone greeted each other happily and posed for pictures. Frequently, I peered anxiously at the enormous vessel waiting to carry us all toward some great destination. I couldn’t wait to go! Our luggage was already on the ship, and we waited to board. I slipped into the restroom briefly, and when I came back out everyone was gone. Only one other girl remained, and a helicopter was arriving momentarily to take her to the ship to meet the others. I ran around furiously telling the port attendants that I was supposed to be on the ship, as well, that my luggage was already there. They didn’t seem to believe me at first, then once they did, they insisted there was no way they could get me there. The dream faded with me standing at the port, realizing that I wouldn’t be going on my grand trip.

Before I was even fully awake, I realized that both dreams were about not getting desired outcomes. What I couldn’t understand was why the dreams were so different. In the first one, the conversation didn’t go as I’d wanted, but I walked away from it feeling good, confident, grateful. It was an event that I initiated, and with the exception of its cool reception, had full control over. There was no indication that there would ever be another conversation, no eventual happy ending. There was no analysis of who said what and what it really meant. Even when the sister attempted to mar the moment, I still saw the exchange for the great thing that it was. I felt good for having had the interaction, regardless. The second dream was something else, entirely. I felt terrible when I realized I wasn’t going on the trip. Moreover, the logistics of my luggage taking the trip without me–hence, every possession I held dear and may never see again–was very distressing. I was excited, had gotten my hair done, gotten a brand new dress… This was an event that I was not in charge of. I wasn’t responsible for it playing out. All I had to do was pay my way and get myself to the right place at the right time, which I did precisely. At no point in my preparation for the event did it occur to me that the event would fall through or that I wouldn’t be able to go. Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

Why was it OK not to receive a desired outcome in one dream but not the other? What was the reason that I was so distressed about things not working out the way I’d planned in the second dream? What made it OK that the interaction didn’t go the way I’d wanted in the first dream? I walked around for the next day in a fog, using every approach I could think of to wrap my mind around the dreams. It wasn’t until I lay down to sleep the next night and gotten into a reasonably peaceful hypnagogic state that it hit me. I had been looking at the outcome of the dreams as the indicator for my state of being–grateful or upset. I wasn’t looking at my state of being before the events in the dreams as a determining factor in their outcomes. Because I had no attachment to the outcome in the first dream, it didn’t matter what the outcome was. I was going to feel good after, no matter what happened, because I accepted ahead of time that it would not affect how I felt. There was no emotional attachment involved. It could be exactly the balanced exchange that I wanted, the exchange could have been hurtful, or there could be no exchange at all. My wellbeing was not reliant on the outcome.

The second dream was another story. I had invested in the cruise. I paid money, I took time off work, I purchased items to ensure my great time on the trip. Even though the cruise wasn’t my original idea, I was emotionally invested in it coming to pass. I couldn’t conceive of the cruise not happening. Because I couldn’t conceive of it not happening, I was entirely attached to it happening. I was emotionally reliant on one outcome.

So what’s the moral of the archetypal story? Seek balance in all things. If I’m balanced, I can be well with any outcome. Does that mean I shouldn’t put effort into outcomes, or be excited about potential outcomes? Not at all. In fact, excitement and passion are what drive outcomes into being. The trick is not to get all of my hopes and aspirations tied to a specific outcome. I understand the message from my unconscious mind, and I feel its truth. Now to practice hopeful detachment.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. Submit questions regarding a brief Soul Reading, spiritual healing, paranormal experiences, or shamanism, to Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Find my current class schedule at Soul Intent Arts.

“We only use a fraction of our brain’s true potential. Now in a dream, our mind can do almost anything.”

Dom Cobb's Fetish

“Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” Dom Cobb

Don’t worry. No spoilers here. I will leave it to the many wowed by the dazzling spectacle of Nolan’s Inception to review the film’s theatrical successes. My fascination with it lay on an entirely different level than most film buffs will relate, and that is the very thoughtful depiction of the power of the unconscious mind. I was a little annoyed that they kept saying “subconscious,” a term that is not used in mind sciences but in the modern lay depiction of them, instead of “unconscious,” the stream of information that is dormant in the mind until specific provocation activates it in consciousness. I won’t even dwell on its reliance on one of my most grating pet peeves, which is a concept that is perfectly viable in Mind-Body-Soul alignment requires an external technological catalyst in order for the viewing audience to accept it. With regard to dreams, it is not only possible to control dreams and knowingly enter into the dream of another being, it’s a finely honed technique many refer to as dreamwalking. I have been aware of dreamwalking lifelong, and am aware that the unconscious mind conveys itself vividly through dream symbols, although the ability to forge a mindful connection between the unconscious and the conscious isn’t as quickly done as the film’s technique implies. Maybe I should get one of those machines.

The Dream Walking, artist unknown

Inception presents the dream world as it truly is: a reflection of the self. The Dreaming is the collection of symbols unique and wholly meaningful to an individual as presented by that individual unconscious. Rarely is an element of a dream truly interjected by another force, and when it is, the individual’s unconscious allowed it to be. Consider that everything greeting you in dreams is some facet of yourself–the beauty, the scenery, the horror, the relatives, the peace. All are components of you projected onto the screen of your mind for you and you alone to receive, process and use as agents of change in your life.

So maybe Hollywood still needs a mechanism to propel self-awareness. Fine. I’ll give it that. But the fact that it opened its audience to truths in controlling dreams, that it presented the potential to use dreams as catharsis for the self, and that it nailed the underlying mechanics of the dreaming human consciousness is a strategic and welcomed leap forward in mainstream entertainment.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. Submit questions regarding a brief Soul Reading, spiritual healing, paranormal experiences, or shamanism, to Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Find my current class schedule at Soul Intent Arts.

Since childhood, three things have been consistent of my dream life: lucid dreaming, continuously dreaming of structures invisible to others, and dreaming of reuniting with specific loved ones. As I’ve literally moved through life, the hidden structures of my dreamscape are reflected in the geographies that have left the deepest impressions on me–some formed places, and some I’ve experienced only in other planes. Most of those spaces have hosted reunions with loved ones. For years I dreamt of rejoining with friends from grade school, clearly an era etched into my mind, though we had all aged through college and beyond. Now I dream mostly of heartfelt gatherings with family and specific lifelong friends, as well as the international convening of my Live Journal Friends List to stage a world intervention.

Stained Glass from ABC's Lost: The End

So while everyone (except the cool people on SoulPancake) is commiserating about purgatory and why Krishna was on the wall of the church, why the final scene was in a church at all, and was Ji Yeon a candidate… I feel affirmed in the ability of my unconscious to show me through my dreamstate the souls who have moved me most, and through a television series that has reiterated a shadow truth we all carry: the one thing we take with us are our connections to each other.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. Submit questions regarding a brief Soul Reading, spiritual healing, paranormal experiences, or shamanism, to Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Find my current class schedule at Soul Intent Arts.

Extraordinary Everyday
~Kelley Harrell

For intuitives and sensitives, Paranormal Day is everyday. The thing is, we don’t often get to talk about this way of being, so the fact that real people are out there having extraordinary experiences round the clock is unmeted. Maybe fear is part of that omission. Understanding that some people are visited by spirits, that some really do converse with animals, perform miraculous healing, or inherently have access to other dimensions can be challenging. Maybe it’s cultural skepticism, the fail-safe imperative to back away from what isn’t readily understood, or to grab it up in hopes of unraveling its science. Maybe such sentience is far more common than we think, but the sheer mind-blowing truth of what is too big to process, too challenging to revere, languishes as coincidence, chance.

I’m a lifelong intuitive who really does see dead people, hears the voices of Nature, and connects with the etheric field of All Things. As a neoshaman writing for years in my column Intention Insights: Q&A From Within, about personal experiences of the wyrd to help others find meaning in theirs, I can indeed attest that the ecstatic, the mystifying, and the creepy thrive. Beholding such isn’t miles beyond comprehension. In fact, it’s a stone’s throw away. The only difference between those who perceive the subtle world and those who don’t is willingness. To have the will to perceive what lies outside accepted awareness requires confidence. Cultivating the confidence to become more aware is comprised of learning that all sentient data is information, and instilling the habit not to judge that information. The latter of these two is what trips most people. Should you glance up and see that the sky is magnificently teal with purple polka dots, instead of instantly telling yourself that you must be crazy or ill, accept for that second, for a thin slice of being, the formed world presented a sky that was teal with purple polka dots. Perhaps the very next second, the sky is cerulean blue dotted with wispy clouds. This subsequent observation doesn’t negate the initial one, or vice versa. Both stand as valid, equal data. They are, perhaps, different kinds of input sourcing from divergent levels, but both are valid and equal. While this seems like a silly, frivolous example, the ability to see beyond the veil is cultivated in the banal. Frequently, moments of interconnected realities are expected to be grand AHA! affairs, and there are certainly those. Most common, instead of recognizing the etheric in mundane observation, we deem unusual perceptions irrelevant when they don’t fit an expected context. The unseen is everywhere, coursing through the things we see and encounter everyday. The connection to All Things is intact, even if we are not aware of it. The task is raising that awareness.

So the next time you see something that isn’t really there, or you know something you can’t possibly… understand that it’s all real. Allay the question of its existence and of your own perception. You cannot perceive what is not real. Your mind won’t allow it. Relax into knowing that you are part of All Things, and that connection offers you certain insight. Within that insight is no fear. As your fear of the unknown dissipates, so does the veil.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelley is an author and neoshaman in North Carolina. She is author of Gift of the Dreamtime: Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma, and has been published in many journals and anthologies. Her column, “Intentional Insights: Q&A From Within,” conveys contemporary applications of animism and shamanism through addressing concerns in her readers’ lives. Kelley’s shamanic practice is Soul Intent Arts, and she is vigorously involved with the worlds in and around her.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. Submit questions regarding a brief Soul Reading, spiritual healing, paranormal experiences, or shamanism, to Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Find my current class schedule at Soul Intent Arts.

A growing pain in the maturation of neoshamanism is the instinct to heal everything, that where there is energy imbalance it must balanced. Imbalance can occur in a person, a place, an animal, or an era. The inclination to heal at all cost can be viewed as a proactive model of health and wellbeing, no doubt the mindset many modern shamans bring to soul work. To indigenous healers, the ‘must heal’ mindset is very modern, and it embodies fear, isolation, even aggression. Because of its emphasis on the healer, the instinct carries with it arrogance, presumption, and idealism; thus is incomplete. It perpetuates the notion that imbalance is something to be viewed as broken, something unnatural, ideas that disregard the constantly changing state of Earth consciousness and experience. We are always in flux, and most of us realize profound growth not from balance or being out of balance, but in the process between the two. A task of the modern shaman is to embrace the full circle of Life, and in doing so, to impart that while perhaps uncomfortable, no facet of it is unnatural.

The starry promise of restoring full functionality throughout daily life omits Shadow. Shadow is no one thing. We tend to think of it as bad and what should be avoided, as western culture has demonized anything that doesn’t dazzle with quick results. In fact, Shadow is usually the thing we most need to address in order to progress in the creation of ourselves. In the case of the ‘go-fix-resolve’ mentality, Shadow is forgetting to allow. Allow what? Whatever. No object is needed, when we are open to whatever is needed most. In that passive receptiveness the seed for healing blossoms into its unique destiny. We often forget how challenging it is to be passive, and those who practice it in meditation understand that to be passive doesn’t mean to do nothing. It means to allow, not to stand in the way of. The full spectrum of everything must be honored, and frequently the best way to honor it is to stop naming specific outcomes. When the emphasis becomes a specified outcome, the focus is on the healer, not on the highest outcome for the client. The ego pursuit of assuming that something needs to be done usurps the passive healing power gifted us by the Multiverse. The notion that everything broken must be fixed separates us from our connection with All, implying not only that we can control everything and should attempt to, but that undesired outcomes of our actions are failures, mistakes, or weakness. In some cases, the best prescription to resolve symptoms, release pain, or balance the etheric field is death. Yet many modern shamans still view death as the result of healing methods not working. In many modern practitioners, the natural healing properties of death are considered failure.

There are schools of thought that all energy or spiritual healing is good. While the argument is strong, it’s not that the work is good or bad. What is in question is the intent behind it. When we assume work should be done for a client based on intuitive observation–which for some shamans occurs instantly without journeying–lacking the consent of the client and/or impeccably clear direction from the client’s guides to do that work, we are operating outside the connection of All That Is. Outside that bond, nothing good can come. In some cases, if energy is shifted without examining the wider picture, more harm is caused than good. For instance, if a client has a terminal illness, just extracting the illness can make the “sick” cells more aggressive. The body, in this case, has forgotten how to function without the offending cells. Other supportive healing must be done first, and if it becomes possible, the imbalanced energy can be removed. Soul retrieval is another example. Returning soul aspects the individual is not ready for psychologically or emotionally can exacerbate the reasons the retrieval was done. In such situations, active intervention actually diminishes healing.

Some argue that the question of intent is, in part, why we have passive healing modalities such as Reiki, the Japanese healing art providing passive rejuvenation of life force, and hosts of spirit guides to call upon for aid. These are approaches to healing in which we express need to them then step aside, allowing their work to be done. They are an opportunity not to have to control everything, to honor the connection with All, and allow Multiversal support to work as it will.

Ultimately, healing isn’t about what symptoms go away, what miracles happen, or what death occurs. It’s about being connected to All Things and having a sense of peace that regardless of what occurs, we are well, we are in good company, and we are loved. As shamanic healers, we are often a final destination along a client’s path toward healing. Traditional modalities, even more accepted alternative ones have been tried with little or no results. It is sincerely challenging to look into the eyes of someone who has struggled to find healing and tell that person that all a shaman can do is facilitate allowing, between the client and All That Is. Yet that is our express obligation. We guarantee no specific outcomes, only that All listens and delivers. In the connection, we know when our influence is needed and when we should refrain from acting. The cradle of healing rests in that balance and that is the best comfort we give.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

I frequently hear people say that the Goddess is returning, to which I respond, “Where do you think She’s been?” I understand the crisis of the soul that feels forsaken by Deity. The ego that needs to see Divinity as having abandoned all of creation to explain its misfortunes perplexes me. In fact, the need to say the Feminine Divine is returning to modern culture from long enigmatic hiatus only perpetuates blame and doesn’t take responsibility for needing to perceive Her as missing to start with.

Pandoran Tree of Souls

Why we need to interpret Deity by gender, or how much fertile soul growth is denied by ignoring neutrality aside, I should just be grateful that She’s getting play at all. The real issue isn’t that She left. We left Her, and in doing so created an imbalance via patriarchy that gifted us sexism, racism, materialism, and militarism–all of which in Martin Luther King’s words, until we remember to be person-oriented are “incapable of being conquered.” As an animist, I say, we can’t overcome them until we become Life-oriented–that is, until we see All Things as equal and connected, until we realize that we are All One. This is the message I take from James Cameron’s Avatar. The connection to All Things is always there. We can never leave it, we can only drop it from our awareness, and when we do, we devalue ourselves and All Things.

Yes, I’m late to the discussion on Avatar. Despite that, I read a lot on the film’s archetypal philosophies before I knew their context. On the surface, it was easy to see how widely its symbolism and cultural dynamics could be interpreted. I was as skeptical of gurus spouting wisdom on its sincere depiction of returning Goddess culture as I was of yet another “white man learns a few magickal truths from Ethnics, then uses his new power to save them from his culture,” story. About twenty minutes into the film I realized the inherent egotism in those surface judgements, then relaxed and enjoyed the film.

I relaxed when Jake thanked Neytiri for saving him from a pack of night predators, and she replied, “You don’t thank for this! This is sad. Very sad, only.” Instantly, I realized what the film was attempting to accomplish, and subsequently, what it was up against. At that moment a muted recognition settled over the theatre. The audience seemed at peace with the knowledge that the killing was a somber survivalistic necessity, but a dimness obscured that Neytiri’s anguish wasn’t from having to kill. It was from having to kill needlessly. Jake had no respect for the terrain or animals he invaded. Cultural egocentricity and defensiveness severed his connection to All Things. Had he honored Universal life force, he would have never violated the space of the forest; there would have been no killing. The resounding philosophy of connection and honor is the core of balanced Divine Polarity. That message of the human patriarchy invading the thriving Feminine ecostytem trumped every mundane criticism I’d read about the film–military vs savages, technology vs Nature, culture vs culture, patriarchy vs coexistence… The singular reason those other conflicts existed was because of the loss of divine connection.
If viewers see this film and come away with only allegories of returning goddesses and trite interracial conflicts, they are missing the higher message appealing to the subtler mind, which is that we can’t expect the support of Divinity when we don’t cultivate interconnection between ourselves and with the life force of Nature. No, the film isn’t emotionally gripping or highly intellectual. Neither is it preachy or understated. If it was any of those things, its story could not speak directly to the spirit so effectively.

I know why Goddess “went missing.” We didn’t ditch Her because we found a shinier, more flattering deity. We stripped Her from our consciousness because that way of honoring All That Is was under siege, systematically being whittled away until our spirits were defeated, separated. We abandoned Her in order to survive in a brutal climate riddled with fear and defensiveness. These projections of separation we have carried into our present. The differences of culture and tribe, of gender and alignment are part of formed reality. We have to face them. They can’t be evaded in our experience of Earth any more than they could on Pandora. Acknowledging a feminine aspect to Deity is frightening and threatening to many. If we can collectively imagine Woman empowered, there would be no need for any group to remain oppressed, because we would have to face that we are all inherently the same. There would be no more power struggle, no disconnect.

The collective need to experience Life without Her has coincided with the optimal time to remember that each of us is Divine, and in doing so, we are all All. In that single memory our future thrives. Honor Goddess. Until we do, we cannot truly bless Her God.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

In the year and a half that I’ve been on Facebook, several people have remarked that the utility unexpectedly reopened old wounds, and in some cases, caused new ones. Presented as a simple Internet networking tool that does all the work for you, Facebook is and has been the hottest social media networking strategy to date. The Internet, in and of itself, has done an amazing job creating of the world a neighborhood pub, uniting old friends, passionate crocheters, Dolphins fans, and sellers with bidders. Some modern sages argue that the Internet is a digital manifestation of the collective conscious, a vessel we all contribute to, a result of our cultural foci and intellectual and spiritual development. As on no other networking site, users swarm to friend each other through Facebook, due to its suggestive relational viral connectivity via alma maters, places of employment, geographies, cousins. Unsuspecting users enter personal landmarks and interests, frequently not realizing that unless secure privacy is enabled, that information is used to match them with every other compatible user and to suggest them as possible friends. Adding one person you knew when is a singular connection spiraling out, not just to every person you know, but to every person that person knows, and so on. It is possible to be deluged with friend requests in mere hours, even with partial security enabled. The volume of the past surging into the present overwhelms those who aren’t ready, and it would seem, a lot of users aren’t.

Certainly I’ve known many people who reconnected fabulously with old friends. I count myself fortunate to have found people on Facebook that years of Internet searching didn’t deliver. However, for many, the wonder years aspect of Facebook is a reminder of a horrible time. The sticking point doesn’t seem to be that it merely reopens old wounds or brings up painful memories. Slogging through old hurts is one thing, but Facebook elicits a communal shadow reaction that many don’t foresee. A hyper-distilled family reunion, digital social display leaves many users feeling forced to confront old demons, not just face the demon, but do so with the demon’s posse looking on. Also, where many have enjoyed the anonymity of a raucous Internet social life, for Facebook to work as intended, you have to be honest in the personal data you feed it. To that end, some have pioneered into lifestyles and experiences that are upsetting to those still at the old stomping grounds, or to employers or potential clients. And then there’s the base embarrassment in friending Aunt Bee, who’s scanned your adorable fifth grade yearbook picture for the world to see…

Who sees what of you is one thing. What you see of others is another. The foremost insight Facebook gives into others is through status updates. Some use this blurb as an opportunity to keep others abreast of their morning coffee selection, what film they saw, or how they feel about sitting on the front porch. Some users are decidedly candid, sharing intensely personal insights. All of these are perfectly fine, though I often wonder if people considered that every status update they enter alters the collective consciousness of the planet, if they would say something more authentic? Because it does. If more people observed such, perhaps their updates would more their soul’s words rather than their ego’s. No contention, mind you. I like to know if my savvy friends think a film sucks, or they posted some gem about our healthcare system. But if the Internet is a manifestation of the collective conscious, and Facebook is its most prolific platform, could we improve how we thrive here if we chose to make social networking a more spiritual experience?

The thing about Facebook is that for it to be a social networking success, it demands radical honesty, as does spiritual growth. Indeed, that honesty can be selectively doled, based on privacy settings, interests entered, and the choice not to friend. Even in that closed scenario, I’ve known people whose pasts were still skillfully unearthed from the bowels of Facebook by some haunt, throwing them into a moment of panic. I think it is in that moment that the real life of Facebook thrives, not in the choice to friend or ignore, the celebrity who friends you, or the smackdown you give your old boyfriend. Certainly those things can be empowering and bring closure to karmic patterns. I think the real power of Facebook is that it’s a cutting edge, worldwide awareness, within which the Universe holds up a mirror, as we all know it does from time to time, making sure we really do know where we stand on the trials, paths, and joys of our lives. We can look into the bytes of our past and make an empowered choice based on the free will of our soulful present.

[1] Facebook Is Increasingly Cited in Divorce Cases

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Bless your heart. It’s a Southern staple, old and rife with colorful implications. Although commonly heard, it’s an expression that I never found authenticity in; thus, I forewent using. Last year I had an experience that solidified my thoughts of it, and of the necessity of differentiating between judging people and their behaviour, and honoring shadow truth. With thoughts of word choice and how we use them at the fore, this feature isn’t intended for young readers.

I never liked the expression. It was too Southern, too religious, too… pitifully cloying, disempowering. In reality, I’ve rarely heard it used with sincerity. Most often it’s insinuated into an off-color remark, such as, “She shouldn’t be wearing those pants, bless her heart,” or “Bless his heart, I can’t believe he spent money on that.” An expression of righteous indignation, the judgemental piety somehow transmutes the fact that its heart is an insult. Ever the wordsmith, that twisted intent never set well with me.

As I began my own lessons in speaking and discerning truth, and learning not to judge, I re-examined the phrase. While not necessarily religious, it should be uplifting. It should be kind and inspiring. It should be a reminder that ‘they’ are no different from ‘us,’ such that the speaker and recipient walk away from the exchange better than they entered. As it stood, the expression was a dead metaphor; no one seemed to remember its original reverence.

My cause to avenge clearly laid out, I began voicing the affirmation. I specifically used it in situations that challenged my truth, such that I genuinely intended a wish of Universal improvement to the situation, the person, the ailment. Then I made a disturbing observation. Whenever I said, “Bless his heart,” the response of those around me was to snipe about the person/situation, or to chastise me for speaking ill. I discovered that the phrase was so badly misused and misunderstood, that even when used with high intent it was poorly perceived. Because the words had long been so carelessly bandied about, no one recognized my heart-centered use. It was perceived as just more glib gab. The reaction of my “community” left me wondering if I perhaps I didn’t understand that the phrase was meant to be double entendre, and that any commentary on ill-behaviour or situation is judgemental regardless of honorable intent. I thought my cause was lost.

A year ago I was working with a longterm client, a gifted Reiki Master who has observably immense compassion. We were engaged in a fairly deep conversation on his experience of recently being hurt by someone. His perspective toward the offending person was intensely stirring and radically calm, which is in keeping with his overall passionate but gentle disposition. In his closing assessment of the altercation, he held up his hand in the Reiki beaming position and said, “I just said, ‘Love and light, motherfucker. Love and Light.’”

My initial reaction was muted laughter. After working together for years, we’d spoken candidly, comfortably. Despite that, his northern need to romanticize my southern gentility most often pre-empted colorful interaction; read, he was more self-conscious than I was. Yet, when he said those words, I understood that was his “bless his heart.” My quest on speaking with intent clarified.

I realized that there is implied assessment in honoring someone after reproach, not for no reason. We must be able to distinguish behaviours that support our truth and those that do not. That distinction can be made without judgement. There is a huge difference between saying, “You hurt me and that was unacceptable,” and saying, “You hurt me and you’re a bad person.” Likewise, we must be able to express anger when our truth is not honored. For most of us that expression comes in the form of potent speech. However expression is manifest, remember that it’s needed. What is stuck creates imbalance inside and outside. Recall as well, that once voiced, words can’t be taken back. Speak truth.

We must be able to bless, without damning, what we don’t like. On some level we are all acting in our best capacity. That recognition doesn’t mean have no boundaries. It doesn’t mean be a doormat, and does not offer license to be mean to someone who has offended. It means cultivate the ability to send love and light to what angers or hurts us most. Don’t overlook its true nature, which may have no one’s best interest in mind at all. Be aware of it, step away from it, bless it, and don’t become it. The challenge is to find the means of interacting with shadow dynamics without falling prey to our own. This isn’t news. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “An it harm none, do what ye will.”

In the end it isn’t about judging the behaviour of others, but what we can honor within our own actions when we’ve been offended. It’s about our intentions, regardless of the words coming out of our mouths. I use the phrase copiously now, as a self-check when I’m really annoyed about something, with the hope that my intentions for “blessing” someone might help them in some way, and with the hope that I may be a trendsetter, yet.

Indeed, love and light. Bless your heart.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

There are all kinds of academic, even poetic explanations of what shamans are and what they do. In fact, a very detailed FAQ on shamanism can be found at various locations on the web. Detail or no, the questions from most people are, “What is a shaman? What can a shaman do for me?”

Siberian Shaman, Lake Baikal

A shaman can help you heal whatever you are open to healing. Shamans are intermediaries with the spirit world, not just links to the spirits but explorers of the spirit realm, itself. “Aren’t we all?” you ask. Yes, we all have the potential to be, though not all of us readily know how. We are not all active participants in the worlds within and around us, though we all have the ability to be.

Shamanism is not a religion; rather, it is a perspective entailing that everything is alive. A base shamanic view holds that everything, everything has a soul, and is connected to every creature and energy. Through that connection we are able to travel out of our bodies beyond our egos to communicate with souls of the dead, ourselves and other humans; plants, animals, Earth, the elements; even “higher” spirits, such as guides, helpers, our own High Selves, and our Higher Power. How shamans accomplish this act is perhaps most telling, and most individual.

There are some basic tenets of shamanism that pervade ancient, indigenous cultures, and neoshamanic practice such as we all have animal guides and spirit guides; the concept of soul retrieval; extracting an illness or entity from the body for physical, emotional, mental or spiritual healing; psychopomp work, or death walking–guiding the dead to Spirit; and divination. Beyond the basic functions a shaman performs the similarities across cultures largely stop there. Shamanic cultures are diverse, as every cultural history records a social role of a person performing some facet of the role of shaman. Called medicine men, wise women, skywalkers, nagual, and many more titles and roles, today the purpose of the shaman is no different. Neoshamanic work draws on these same primary tenets creating many outlets for learning indigenous and contemporary shamanic practices for daily life.

Given the range of techniques shamans use, it’s important to understand how these skills apply to everyday life. In the most broad perspective, shamans promote healing. Opening communication with the spirit realm can open you to your own healing ability, body, mind, soul, and emotion. Bear in mind that no shaman, doctor, surgery, or medication can heal you. You heal yourself. You make the conscious decision to allow whatever healing modality you receive to actually heal you. Healing is your personal agreement between yourself and Spirit. Know that when you interact in the journey state, which is the theta brain wave level of deep cognizant deep dreaming, you are in the space to directly access yourself at the central levels of being. You can reshape your physical and spiritual DNA, taking command of the creative ability with which Spirit blessed you. With shamanic healing you are an active participant in your wellbeing. Through understanding your ability to co-create your own life with Spirit, you not only improve your own quality of life, but that of All Life.

Smudging

Additional work could also help, such as a soul retrieval, in which spirit aspects that left due to trauma are returned and integrated, allowed to heal and age to your current maturity. In some cases soul aspects aren’t returned to the Earth consciousness but move on to Spirit. The effects of this technique usually include ending the pattern of chronic illness, depression, or other pattern that you have become locked into. In some cases, memories are returned, and certainly abilities that you may have missed as you have aged.

Another way to specifically address patterns, thoughts, or habits that have become harmful, such as addiction, obsessive behaviour, a disruptive relationship dynamic, or even chronic illness is life regression and progression. Often seeing the origin of these patterns helps one to clear them, as well as talking with a future self to see the healing as it has manifest and carried through one’s life.

In some cases, an extraction of an intruding entity is needed to release a pattern or offending condition. Some refer to this as depossession or exorcism, though it is rarely theatrical as it is depicted in fiction. It is, however, quite profound. In the most base terms such interferences are merely energy that is no longer functional in its current place. Symptoms of this may be physical issues, radical shifts in mood or temperament, an imbalance of power in a relationship. When the energy is removed and health flow to the etheric form restored the flow balance on all levels can be better maintained.

DIY Totemism

These are just a few of the techniques shamans use, and only a vague description of the reasons that you may feel led to a shaman. Wildspeak is a great resource of articles on shamanism, animism and a quite extensive animal totem dictionary. As well, for insight into working with helping spirits, Lupa’s DIY Totemism: Your Personal Guide to Animal Totems is brilliant.

Gift of the Dreamtime

I wish you deep healing and prolific power!~*~*~*~
Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

I recently featured Chödrön’s quote as my Twitter update while I was penning a response to a client regarding soulmates. The two seemed so related that the quote is fitting to introduce this collective inquiry: What are soulmates and why do we seek them?

Most of us have been given some concept of soul connection by early childhood, a definition that sticks with us unless or until we explore the concept ourselves. When I first began working with others as a shaman a large number of my clients were dealing with some aspect of ‘soulmate,’ whether it was the search to find one or clarifying an existing relationship with a soul relation. The thing that I noticed most was how desperately many cling to the concept of ‘soulmate’ and to the people they believe to be such. I was curious about what led people to believe that soulmate = perfect union, that having a soul connection to someone would entail staying in a relationship that clearly did not meet needs. Equally, I was driven to understand the psychology that feels it’s useless unless it is in a recognizable soul union.

Examining how the concept of ‘soul relationship’ is put out there one quickly bumps into Edgar Cayce’s work around the topics of “soul twins” and “twin flames.” Having been widely interpreted, the perspective largely perpetuated through his readings is that there is one and only one perfect soul complement. In this view the soul is a dual-faceted entity that splits itself in two equal masculine and feminine life forces in order to bridge a wider terrain of experience and learning in the earth plane. These two come together in formed life to complete the Oversoul’s (or High Self’s) earthly work. I’m comfortable that Cayce knew things that I don’t, though within the framework of my experience is a truth that souls are limitless. Not only are they infinite, they are collectives spanning distance and time, perhaps even dimensions, doing acrobatic energetic feats, splitting into many manifestations and rejoining so cleverly we can’t begin to hold them in linear understanding. This is the beauty of our transpersonal. It isn’t just metaphor that we are all connected regardless of the era we were born, the location in which we reside, the biological sex we wear, or the species we inhabit. We are connected, period.

I’ve had many clients come to me who realized they were in a soul-connected relationship only to find that interpersonal issues weren’t resolved by virtue of this spirit union. Most couldn’t understand how a precious soulmate could inflict harm on its Other. The reality is being connected at very high levels to someone doesn’t automatically impart that the earth consciousness is well-adjusted. In fact, it doesn’t imply anything. Unfulfilled expectations are the result of earthly filters we have applied to a spiritual state of being. In that state several of my clients expressed that they felt they had been given a divine gift and to walk away from it would be a dismissal of their Higher Power. More harrowing for some was the idea that in leaving this soulmate they would karmically forfeit finding another. Changing this belief isn’t just leaving a lover or spouse but is a crisis of faith much the same as realizing one’s chosen religion no longer suffices. For many to turn away from a soulmate, even in extremely abusive situations it feels like going against Nature because we have been programmed to view soul connections through a limited earthly lens. In some cases we have been indoctrinated to put our interpretation of those filters above our own welfare and needs. That inclination is as harmful in unhealthy soulmate relationships as it is insidious in those who feel they have no self-worth without one.

In that light it isn’t the soul connection that is damaging; rather, the way we have been taught to perceive it is. Soul connection at its most basic isn’t about how many we have or how long they last. The soul doesn’t know male or female, or loving one versus loving five, or romantic versus platonic love. It doesn’t even differentiate cat from tree, or son from place. The soul does not know time. All it knows is fluid, expanding compassion and unconditional love for All Things. When we start applying linear constructs to soul connections and spiritual experiences, the experiences become stagnant. Any thriving wisdom they imparted ceases to evolve and grow.

The Celtic concept of “anam cara” is the most fluid understanding of soul bonding that I’ve learned, the “soul friend,” one who simply by being in form reminds us of infinite connection and moves us in the way of growth when we won’t move ourselves. For that reason soulful bonds often create more challenges for us, rather than less. What I see in that dynamic is our power to create ourselves exactly as we want to be in as many ways as we can comprehend. Within that open comprehension and bond with All That Is, would it not be possible to see anyone as a soulmate, if we allowed it?

We live at a time that the rules for how we come into this plane are changing, if they ever were truly static. Perhaps it is our ability to widen our comprehension of the rules that has changed. Years ago a friend said to me, “When you find truth, pick it up. Inspect it carefully, then put it down and walk away.” Truth, like souls, cannot be held. My outlook has been more fluid since I learned this. I have become my metaphor, and in doing so recognize you more freely.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!