Today, practicing shamanism doesn’t mean you have to live in a rain forest or a desert. Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives, including: How the original practice of shamanism shaped the world’s spiritual traditions and why it is still relevant today. The art of the shamanic journey–a time-tested meditative method for experiencing important spiritual lessons and truths. Guidance for avoiding common pitfalls of shamanic practice. Instruction for working with your dreams, connecting to your spirit guides, healing yourself and your environment. The core of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation– to communicate firsthand with your spiritual allies and discover your own power. Awakening to the Spirit World takes you through each step of developing a personal connection with your helping spirits to receive wisdom, insight, and healing energy. From an overview of shamanism, to your first journeys and encounters with your power animals, to expanding your skills and insight through long-term practice, here is an in-depth resource for the shamanic arts that includes: Creating rituals and ceremonies for healing and transformationReconnecting with nature to heal ourselves and the planetWorking with your dreams, songs, and artistic vision to give a boost to your practiceTraditional wisdom for children– healthy rites of passage for each phase of a child’s journey to adulthoodHonoring the cycle of life and death– shamanic practices to prepare for and celebrate our final transition in this life Table of Contents What is Shamanism?The Shamanic JourneyReconnecting with NatureVisionary Work with Weather and Environmental ChangesThe Power of Ceremony and RitualDreamsCreative Art as a BridgeWorking with Sound and LightDeath As a Rite of PassageExperiential Work with Death and DyingAll Changes Involve DeathOur Children Are Our FutureWorking in CommunityThe Transformational CommunityThe Return of the ShamanExcerpt Shamanism is the most ancient spiritual practice known to humankind and is the ancestor of all our modern religions. As a method, it is a form of meditation combined with a focused intention to accomplish quite a lot of things, as well develop into apparent in this book. As a spiritual practice, shamanism can develop into an approach to life that may utterly turn into the one who practices it. The word shaman comes from the language of the Evenki peoples, a Tungusic tribe in Siberia. This is a word whose meaning has to do with esoteric knowledge and odd spiritual abilities and as such a shaman is frequently defined as an intermediary between the human and spirit worlds. In shamanic cultures, the word shaman has come to mean the one who sees at the hours of darkness or the one who knows. There are certain commonalities in a shaman s worldview and practice across the world that allow us to make certain broad generalizations about shamanism. In the majority of indigenous cultures, the universe is viewed as being made up of two distinct realms: a world of things seen and a world of things hidden, yet that these two worlds present themselves together as two halves of a whole. The shaman is the inspired visionary, a man or a woman who learns through practice how to enter into this world of things hidden, and once there, he or she typically encounters extra-mundane personalities or archetypal forces that the indigenous peoples refer to as spirits, ancestors, or even gods. Reviews “Awakening to the Spirit World” takes a deep look at tapping sources of invisible power in daily life. So much of what Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman write about is lost to modern medicine: listening to the weather and the elements, understanding death, and more. This is a courageous book that will appeal to all who long to explore the unseen world.” Judith Orloff, MD, writer of Emotional Freedom “In an era when chaos, confusion, and uncertainty take center stage, the ancestors, focused on balancing the energies of life, call forth calm, clarity, and pragmatic direction for accessing the medicine needed to heal the individual and collective psyche. In this moment in time, we are invited into “Awakening the Spirit World,” where we are reassured that we aren’t alone. We are in good company, indeed.” Malidoma Patrice Some, PhD, writer of “Of Water and the Spirit, The Healing Wisdom of Africa,” and “Ritual: Power, Healing, and Community.” “
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