Lyn Spirit Eagle
“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about the two “hungers”. There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning… There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning. There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has for you meaning, it is irrelevant whether you’re happy or unhappy. You are content – you are not alone in your Spirit – you belong.” ~ Laurens van der Post
There are many kinds of shamans, medicine people and sangomas. Most have a specialty or talent that guides them into the kind of work they do, but all are dreamers and walkers of the other worlds. As with the rest of our globe, in Africa, the medicine people use circles for ceremony, divination and medicine wheels. It is within these circles that we call out to the connection with our creator, our ancestors. We clear out our own spiritual warehouses of what is not ours to carry, or make peace with what is. We make a space with our circle to get out of our own way, leave our egos outside, to contain the sacredness and focus our connection. With our prayers and offerings we make it into a powerful place so that we are heard and our energy carries forth. There are protocols within the transference of dimensions and not every portal gives permission to go through, so we need to be mindful of this. Always ask with honour and respect. If you receive a sense of do not go in, then do not go in. Wait until another time. Be present. Winter is the night of our seasons, a sacred natural pattern for inward rest, replenishment and to incubate magical thinking. Long ago, way up in the northern countries, people would go into the land and yoik to find out how the coming weather would affect their crops. Yoiking is the native Sami vocal expression of communication, deeply personal and spiritual in nature, it can be dedicated to an animal, a landscape or as a personal affirmation to a human being. The yoiker would capture the feeling of what Mother Nature shared to them and then resonate this with their own sound. On returning, the yoiker would share that sound with the villagers. Then they would know too. It is not a song. It is a vibration, an audio resonance from you.
Nowadays, we have pre-weather information from the net. How far removed are we from our real world?
Like the cyclic pattern of seasons, our resonance is not a straight line from our brains to our goals over there in the future summer; it is a kind of circle that emanates from our inner core. A circle has Euclidian symmetry but also a depth symmetry of electromagnetics that emanates all round and affects everything, like an expanding or contracting bubble. Let your resonance kiss Mom Earth. Our bodies are a place where heaven and earth meet.
Do not despair when your tidal thoughts fall into dark negative spaces, when the leaves have fallen and the earth is sleeping. Our natural rhythms are not static. Sometimes we are on the top part of the circle and sometimes at the bottom. Be patient with your unsolved complexities and struggling with your heart in this 3D world. We don’t have to have words to express the paradoxical. The languages of our feelings are many. We can be creative. It is not a prerequisite to believe you have talent. Find some colours, and let your brain flow with the shapes, your thinking mechanism will be very grateful to you for giving it space. Everyone has to go through something that destroys them, devastates them, so that they can meet their mettle and recognise their authentic selves. Our lives may be in chaos but we know that chaos, with its dynamical system, is interconnected and self-regulating. Often times when we feel most hopeless, seemingly random chaos removes that very thing that we think is what we need, most but often, in retrospect, it is that very thing that is removed that is the boulder in our way. It is removed so that we grow and energy for new can come in.
Let go of distractions. Stay out of fear. Be patient. Its easy to say this but the best way is to begin. Put music on and move. It helps our whole body, it is an alchemic way. Sing, dance, love, ground yourself.
Heavy energy gets stuck in our consciousness, looping in the background of our day and night and being creative helps let go of that loop. Medicine people also use herbs and plants for healing. Making gardens, even small ones inside, is an imperative these days. Observe your relationship with faithful companions like dandelions, the cooling mint family, the great aloe, Artemisia, which is wonderful with COPD and bronchial flu, the garlic family, lavender, make pine needle tea, and grow mushrooms. Bring Mother Earth into us, Her words are our healing, her flowers are her songs. If you are going to spend time on the net, then use it to learn about herbs and healing. Yoik with those flowers.
The year 2020 brought us the lockdown and gave many of us a chance to be more creative in finding ways to look after ourselves. It also brought fear and a masked viral world. A dark night of our souls.
One of the ways folk are seeking recovery from the anxiety, depression, stress and addictions that came to light in 2020, is through hallucinogenic natural world medicines. For example, Cannabis, with her sturdy green leaves and many facets, has been extensively explored and found to bring relief with – and without – hallucinogenic properties. Magic mushrooms (psilocybin) are not plants; they are a fungi family with a personality of their own. They are understood to create new neural pathways to assist the rising up from depression. Ibogaine is an indole alkaloid found in the root of a small tree called Tabermanthe iboga and has been shown to rewire areas of the brain so that it can restructure itself to conquer addictions. Deciding to do your healing with entheogens on your own is not a good idea. Not every person is a suitable candidate for hallucinogenic therapies. There are many vagaries when you come to this part of our plant world with respect to coming off anti-depression meds, or overcoming addictions. Do your researches first, find good people, complementary therapies and counselling to help you on your journey. There are medicine people who have been called to do this work for thousands of years. They know the spaces and do not view illness in the same way as the western world. They have no boxes or categories. You also need to be in a balanced and supportive environment. It is a Hero’s Journey. It can be done, I have seen it happen. Own your future. A calling is a strong inner urge to be willing to serve in a role that is intensely greater than one’s own identity. Be still, everything we do – and everything we have – is invested with utter faithfulness to train and receive the spiritual gift of being a messenger between worlds to assist the healing of our earth and every being that dwells here. There is a sincerity to be spiritually willing, though this is not to be confused with seriousness; there is a lot of inner and outer work to become strong enough to be clear and conscious in serving others and our Creator. Not everyone is called for this work and often it comes through a near loss of life or tragedy. But in the interconnectedness of all life, we all have a calling to be Earth Guardians.
Heal yourself of the hunger for meaning with the warmth of the winter sun; close your eyes and let the rays in, hear the natural sounds of Nature, bless our waters and walk out in the cold (I always tell myself that I am helping my vagus nerve). You are your own medicine. Breathe. With prayers and gratitude, this, on a most basic level, is our service to Mother Earth, without whom, we would not be here at all.
To contact Lyn: Lyn.spazaspace.com or email [email protected]