Here is a way of testing to make sure that the being you are talking to is who they claim they are. Let’s say there is a spirit claiming to be Archangel Michael. This particular archangel protects us from evil as one of his primary duties. Be wary if there is a being that presents itself as the Archangel Michael and promises you power with the ability to heal—it is not the archangel but a type of spirit called a Deceiver.
I would like to take a little time to describe the difference between a Deceiver and a Trickster Spirit. A Deceiver is a type of evil spirit that likes to masquerade as a good spirit. It comes from the Gray Region, which I will talk about later in this book. The more powerful the Deceiver, the higher type of sacred being it can pretend to be. A weak Deceiver might only be able to disguise itself as a Power Animal. A much stronger Deceiver would be able to put on the guise of a Sky Teacher. The real goal of a Deceiver is to ensnare a person so as to drain their energy, disrupt their life, and throw the targeted individual off their spiritual path. They feed on toxic emotions and the Power they steal. The more they take, the stronger they become. On the other hand, Trickster Spirits can be a difficult to work with, yet they are benign teachers. Old Man Coyote, who is known to many North American tribes, is said to be one of these teachers. A Trickster Spirit is sent by Creator to guide us when we are stuck or too stubborn to change. A Trickster’s strategy would be to persuade or push us to see and do things in new ways during unexpected circumstances. A Trickster Being always promotes growth and serves the Great Mystery.
A sacred being is only able to offer protections, blessings, and wisdom within its jurisdiction! At this early stage, a Sky Being would be satisfied with the exchange if you contemplated the knowledge that was shared with you and, if applicable, properly used it. This is similar to when someone asks you for help or information, and you don’t mind if you know that it will be put to good use. So it is with these beautiful sacred spirits.
Build a stronger bond with your Sky Teacher by learning more about this sacred being’s preferences. By doing this, you are not worshiping them! The reason I mention this is because it is considered to be a polite courtesy to offer a gift in exchange for wisdom. You are merely offering them a gift in gratitude, much like you would for someone in this world who has helped you. It is no different from offering a friend food and drink in exchange for them helping you paint your house or move. Remember never take more than you can give on this path. Begin to participate in the sacred exchange by doing things to honor them. Some of them may ask for acts of kindness, others may request pleasant music, and others yet find smoke or incense pleasing.
Journey to Seek Higher Counsel
This exercise is to help you to understand how the Sky Realm facilitates seeing things from more of a karmic perspective. Review the journey to the Middle Kingdom, in which you connected with the past life that most impacts this incarnation. Think about another aspect of that lifetime that you would like to understand better. A good question would be what karmic lessons need to be completed and how they impact this lifetime. Since the Sky Kingdom sees things from a greater perspective, you will be able to observe not only your own personal interaction with particular individuals but also the roles they played and why. You will begin to understand how they and the environment plus time period affected your Dreamweave. All these elements have shaped you into who you are today in this incarnation.
Make the usual preparations and bless off. If possible, sit facing north. With a grateful attitude, open your mind and open your Heart, and feel your Waterfall coursing through you. Connect deeply with our Earth Mother. There is an old teaching that says a tree should only grow as high as its roots go deep. Concentrate on deepening the feeling of oneness with the strength of the earth and of your Waterfall. Focus this energy to the Fire in Your Heart. Let this Sacred Fire fill you. Call your Guardians to you. As you journey through the Sacred Fire, you will emerge at a place that is open to the sky. Begin to connect with the sky. Allow yourself to be lifted and those who Walk with you will be your escort.
Call out to the Sky Teacher that offered to be your guide and mentor. Let yourself be drawn to where that sacred being lives. Once you arrive bow in gratitude and begin to express your question not only with words but include your impressions, feelings, and the images in regard to that past life. Be silent and be still. Allow for the Sky Teacher to respond and explain how that past life relates to this one. You will find in the Sky Realm that communication is more than just thoughts and words that are being transmitted to you. It is standard for the energy and knowledge of higher spirits to require a little bit of time for the conscious mind to digest. If there is something that you do not understand, do not hesitate to ask for clarification, as divine beings are patient. If you are ready, this Sky Being of Light and Love will be more than happy to try to give you more profound insights in a way that you can comprehend.
You might find that you are called back by your Guardians before you feel that you are ready or before you have finished a conversation. This is normal. As I mentioned before, these journeys to the Sky Kingdom take a lot of energy since the vibrational rate is so much different from ours.
Come floating back to the ground and return through the Fire of Your Heart and back into your body. Record what you have experienced. One thing that I must warn you is that time is not linear! You might find it takes a little bit of time to completely grasp what you have been given because events need to unfold before you have the context of the answer that was given you.
As is customary, give thanks and begin to contemplate what you have received.
From the Native American perspective, life lessons—or karma, as they are called in mainstream culture—are not about dealing with punishment for misdeeds or things overlooked. They are about the Balance of things you have done and what you have yet to learn. For us, karma does not have a connotation of reward or punishment. It really demonstrates how much the soul has mastered and what abilities it has been allowed to carry through to this life. Depending on how much karma has been resolved, some of the souls who agreed to participate in the initial lesson may reincarnate again and again within your soul collective to rejoin you upon your life journeys. Use this knowledge to enrich your understanding and to help you make better choices. Travel to the Sky Realm frequently as your stamina builds to be able to gain a deeper understanding of why things happened and when. The more you journey with humility and respect in this upper world, the stronger your bond with and ability to communicate with these divine beings. Your abilities will become greater because you will become more attuned to these higher vibrations.
When You’re Unsure Where to Journey
Especially in the beginning, it is a little confusing when trying to decide which Kingdom you should go to. This is perfectly normal. I encourage you to explore each of the realms frequently so you become more familiar with their unique energies, what you can find there, and who resides there. If you are completely unsure of where you should go, then you can journey into the Fire of Your Heart since this is the place of the Great Spirit within you. Make sure that you have channeled sacred energy from your Waterfall into the Fire Within so that it becomes strong and bright. You can then ask your Guardian to take you to the Kingdom that would help you with the questions that you are working on. However, I do not want this to become a crutch! It is not right to give your Guardians and your guides more work by forcing them to perform an unnecessary task. Here is what you can do to gain confidence: Please write down or at the very least mentally decide which of the spirit worlds that you believe that you should go to. Jot down the reasons you chose it. After that you may go to the Fire of Your Heart and then see if you are right.
As you become more experienced, you will find that this is unnecessary. Going to the Fire of Your Heart is like going to the center of the Medicine Wheel. You have the ability to “see all around you.” This is very useful when you are trying to gauge the ele
ments and evaluate which ones are in harmony and which ones are not. This is the perfect place for you to learn how to be still and journey more deeply so that you can commune with the Creator and feel inner peace.
The good news is that there is a failsafe. If you are attempting to go to a realm that would not be appropriate or that you should not be visiting at that time, then your Guardian will make sure to redirect you to where you need to be. It is always a good idea to ask your Guardian why you were redirected so that you may learn to read see the signs for yourself the next time.
The Gray Zone: The Place Outside the Realms
The final realm that I shall mention here is a place that is not a place. It is called the Gray Zone or Gray Region. I only mention this region for the sake of being complete in my duties and responsibilities as a teacher. We do not have a concept of hell, but it is said that the Gray Zone is a place where the Breath of the Great Spirit is not. It is a place that is outside of the Medicine Wheel of Life. It is like a limbo of sorts, a place of lost souls, where evil spirits dwell. It is the location where souls are kept if there has been some major transgression and they need to understand what they have done. Beyond that is the Abyss, from which there is no return.
The good news is your chances of ending up in the Gray Zone are very, very slim. I mention this place only because it is important to learn to recognize it in the very unlikely case you should stumble into it. You will know it because it will be as if you are enclosed by a cold, life-sucking gray fog full of dread. You should call upon your Guardian Spirits to retrieve you immediately and pull you back to safety. There is no reason for a shaman to journey into the Gray Zone.
Throughout this book, when I have said spirit side, I am referring to the worlds collectively minus the Gray Zone.
How Good Medicine Can Turn Bad
Since I am on the topic of Deceivers and toxic energy, I would like to touch on how Medicine can go bad. As I had mentioned earlier, Power can be used for good or for evil. There are a few things that you need to be aware of so that you may avoid this happening to you. Be careful not to expose yourself to the sickness of another. The result of trying to heal someone without knowing what you are doing is absorbing their sickness both in physical form and spiritual form into yourself. Unfortunately, over the years I have met several kind healers who gave too much of their own life force and others whose protections were not strong enough for what they took on, and they had literally developed the cancers and diseases of the people whom they cured. If you choose to become a healer of this type, make sure that you go to a master shaman who knows how you may fortify your immunity and properly treat those you are trying to help.
Another common issue can result when trying to take away the toxic energy of another person. If you do not know how to properly handle these poisons, it can create blockages and shut you down spiritually. The bad, chaotic energy can create health issues, mental unrest, and serious instability in all areas of your life.
This next form of Medicine turning on you is, thankfully, exceedingly rare. This is the consequence when someone is trying to cleanse or exorcise a Deceiver or evil spirit that is stronger than they are. With “weaker” evil spirits, the results include being temporarily sick spiritually and physically, increasing to the point of seeing your life and relationships coming undone before your eyes. Very powerful evil spirits, like demons, can possess you.
It is unfortunate that the next way Medicine becomes bad is extremely prevalent in our society. This happens when someone is corrupted by power. This comes when a person is willfully taking more than they should and gives very little in return. Choosing to drain others of time, energy, or resources is parasitic, when one should instead develop their own Power Within. Still others develop a lust for power and for wrongful power over others. This type of corruption is similar to that of someone in authority, such as a politician, whose selfish desires overpower their sense of ethics. Their greed for power and material wealth overshadows doing what is right.
Ultimately, bad Medicine thrown at good people will turn on the practitioner who cast it, destroying and consuming them. If their Heart becomes evil, then when they die, they may be banished to the Gray Region until their soul is cleansed and the Creator releases them.
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Interpreting the Journey
One of the most difficult things to do in addition to disciplining yourself to journey is interpreting what you have been given. It can be very difficult because at times the feelings, impressions, and thoughts may not seem to relate to anything obvious. Let me give you methods to help you in this process. When we communicate, whether we are conscious of it or not, we are agreeing upon the use of a language and idioms from a specific country and region in relation to the century from which they are used (e.g., twenty-first-century American English will differ from twentieth-century British English). When you are journeying as a shaman, keep in mind, as I mentioned before, that human beings are the only creatures that use language the way that we do. So that you may have more success, you need to ask your Guardian to work with you in order to create frames of reference. It is these points of reference that allow you to know which interpretations to use, in addition to the context, so you can properly grasp the message that others are trying to relay. Fortunately for you, at times you will also be running into beings of higher consciousness and intelligence on some journeys. These spirits will be able to communicate with you on your level of comprehension using terms you can understand. However, in the vast majority of cases, you are the one who will have to learn how to communicate.
Your Memories as Points of Reference
A point of reference that can be used is your own memories. Our lives are rich with stories from our life experiences that make us who we are. The stories of these recollections can be used as frames of reference that your Guardian can access to help interpret a message that an unfamiliar being may be trying to give you. Say, for example, that you are trying to figure out how to handle a difficult relationship. During your travel to Deeper Earth, a Deer calmly comes to you. The Deer looks at you gently and sends you feelings of warmth and of not being afraid. Although the message on the surface might be sufficient, you might be interested in going further to see what additional advice there might be. At that point, your Guardian will step in to act as an interpreter. In your mind’s eye, you get the flash of an image from one of your memories. It was when your best friend needed to be patient with you during a difficult point of your relationship with them. Observe how this friend responded to you and handled the situation that resolved the misunderstanding with the friendship intact. You may be asked to reflect on how the relationship was healed. Pay attention to the lessons and the steps you took to grow during this particular life story. This will help add depth to what the Deer was trying to say to you that your mind could not initially capture.
Use a Memory as a Reference
Here is an exercise that I would like for you to try so that you can become accustomed to your Guardian Spirit using your memories as references. Look back on the journeys that you have done previously. Choose one that you would like to be able to relate to on a personal level. It is important that you have a very clear recollection of this journey that you are asking your Guardian to comment on. When you are done reviewing the journey in detail, be still and allow your Guardian to select one of your memories. Study that memory and see what lessons you have learned from it. What feelings did you have at the time? What type of experience was it? What was the result? Reflect on how these insights from your personal life are parallel to what this journey was trying to have you understand. If your Guardian Spirit does not present a personal memory, then this means that none of your past experiences would be relevant here. You will find that relating the journey to a personal experience you have lived will give it a depth that you would not have noticed otherwise.
Symbols
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At times when you ask for clarification, it will not be your own memories that will be used. It could very well be images or symbols from another time and place. In this case it would be good for you to research not only what these symbols have meant historically but also what the norms for that particular time period were. What was considered “normal” two or three hundred years ago would certainly not be considered normal or perhaps even acceptable now. Strive always to understand the connotation of what you have been given in addition to the definition. Doing so guarantees that you will develop a broader vision by being able to accurately decipher information from the messages you receive. This will also give you an idea of how to apply them to your questions or a situation you are looking into.
Since you will be exposed to many different forms of communication, I would like you to do this exercise. Think of a concept and its symbol in your own culture. After that, I want you to research that same concept in different cultures and find the symbol from that culture. Read the history about why they chose that symbol.
Let us explore symbols for good luck. In the United States, one symbol for good luck is the horseshoe, with the points going upward in the shape of the letter U. In Germany, one symbol of good luck is the pig. They even have the expression Schwein gehabt which means “having a pig.” This expression may have come from the Middle Ages, when pigs represented prosperity and the promise that the family would not go hungry. Today, some Germans exchange marzipan pigs at New Year’s Eve for good fortune. So in addition to being a symbol of good luck, the pig embodies prosperity and plenty.
Journeying Between the Worlds Page 9
