Access Your Enchanted Life through Ritual and Ceremony

Are you hearing a persistent inner calling to wake up and remember who you really are? Do you have a compelling soul urge to return to ancient wisdom and the deep shamanic medicine within? Are you ready to be reborn into shamanic consciousness and awaken as an elemental being fully connected to life and nature? We would like to introduce you to a guidebook to walking the spiral path of transformation by shamanic teacher Linda Star Wolf.

Let Linda take you on a Journey to Meet a Spirit Animal Guide

“For this practice, settle into a comfortable seated or reclined position. Shamanic drumming can profoundly enhance the experience. With a wealth of shamanic drumming available online, you can take time to explore and select a rhythm that resonates with you. Typically, I opt for a drumming session that lasts around thirty minutes. The session usually starts with a heartbeat-like rhythm, signalling the commencement of your journey. The tempo accelerates, guiding you through the exploration, and as the journey concludes, the beat decelerates to a normal heartbeat pace, cueing you to collect the insights received and gently return to your physical awareness.

Begin in your sacred space, at your altar. Consider drawing a card or placing a rune as you did during the altar’s creation to discern any guidance for your journey. Connect with the energies of your altar, close your eyes, and with a heartfelt intention or prayer, invite support from all who love you, expressing gratitude for any presence that heeds your call. Lighting a candle and using incense, herbs, or wood to perform smudging can beautifully purify the space for your spiritual voyage.

After selecting your drumming track, settle onto a mat or blanket near your altar, prepared especially for this journey. Close your eyes and take several deep, cleansing breaths. As you exhale fully, release tension from your body and let go of to-do lists or other distracting thoughts in your mind. Then, as you inhale deeply, breathe in life and vitality. With every inhale, imagine the breath is taking your consciousness down into your heart, and feel how this shift in consciousness allows for deeper relaxation. From your prepared position, set the intention to meet your spirit animal on this journey, then activate the chosen drumming track to guide you.

As the drumming commences, imagine a place in nature that feels comfortable, inviting, or even familiar. It could be a meadow, a mountaintop, or a tree or large rock that speaks to you. You might find yourself lying by a lake or river, or you may be drawn upward into the sky. Wherever you find yourself, imagine this place contains a portal through which you enter to begin your journey. Perhaps the portal hides beneath a large rock, or is activated as you dive into the waters, or by entering a cloud in the sky. As you crawl, swim, or fly through this portal, let it take you on your journey-deep into the ground or waters or high into the skies. Become aware of any other presence you feel alongside you. Your animal spirit guide may connect with you early on, but if not, remind your inner shaman of the intention of this journey by asking it to reveal your spirit animal. You may encounter several different animals on this journey, but there will be one you feel especially called to, which you might begin to follow. This may be your animal totem. When you meet this animal spirit guide, remember to thank them for showing up. Request from your spirit guide any insights you need regarding your current life situation, or ask a question you seek guidance on. Then ease into the journey, allowing your animal spirit guide to lead as revelations naturally emerge.

As the drumbeat slows, it’s time to collect the impactful messages and visions from your spiritual travels. Express gratitude to your animal guide with an imagined offering—a morsel, a sacred item, a strand of hair, or a flower or seed. This exchange fosters a balanced relationship of mutual support, symbolising that you and your guide are in this together, on a united path of shared appreciation. When you emerge from your journey, allow yourself to rest in contemplation and integration. It can be valuable, once you feel ready, to journal or create artwork to bring the messages you received more fully into physical reality through words, painted or coloured images, or clay-sculpted shapes and symbols.

Regular journeying will enhance your connection with your spirit guide, facilitating quicker and easier encounters, even outside of meditation. As you nurture this relationship over time, guidance and support may come to you in everyday life. Like a muscle strengthened by exercise, your intuition can grow through consistent practice, making you more receptive to guidance at all times, whether during routine tasks or moments of contemplation. The shamanic consciousness thus becomes part of your day-to-day existence, so you will no longer experience such encounters as mysterious or outside the norm, but rather as comfortable and familiar.”

Excerpt published with the express permission of the publisher: Inner Traditions Bear & Co.
Buy this publication here: https://books.innertraditions.com/the-aquarian-shaman/

About Linda Star Wolf, Ph.D., D.Min., she has been a visionary shamanic guide for more than thirty-five years. The founder of Venus Rising Association for Transformation and president of Venus Rising University for Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies, she is the creator of the Shamanic Breathwork Process, the Shamanic Ministers Global Network, and the Wise Wolf Council. She lives with her beloved husband, wolf dogs, chickens, and community at Venus Rising’s Elemental Temples near Asheville, North Carolina. www.shamanicbreathwork.org