Why Shamanism Now? A Practical Path to Authenticity
By Christina L. Pratt
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Podcast Description
Why Shamanism Now is a weekly live Internet radio show hosted by Christina Pratt and featuring guest interviews and live email and phone questions and answers. The show airs every Tuesday morning at 11:00 am PST on Co-Creator Network. To participate in the live call, go to http://www.co-creatornetwork.com/hosts/shamanism/host_bio.htm . Christina is an authentic, non-traditional contemporary shaman. In practice since 1990, she specializes in mending the soul and transforming the parts of life that feel impossible. She is the director of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing in Portland, OR.
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Soul’s Purpose: The Core of Well-Being | One of the highest values held in shamanic cultures is the fact that each individual brings to this world a unique soul’s purpose. The gift of that soul’s purpose has never been seen before and will never be seen again if you do not live it. This isn’t karma and there are no second chances. This is the one moment to live that unique genius. This value was held in various ways by pre-contact shamanic peoples around the world. To live one’s purpose was believed to be at the core of one’s well-being. “I see this, or more precisely the lack of it, to be true today,” says host and shaman, Christina Pratt. “When we are living far from our right work, spending 8-10 hours a day in a job that is not meaningful to us, ignoring the body’s cries for balance, and making sure that our sleep is so short or shallow that we never touch into the call of the soul then it’s no wonder we are unwell.” Join us this week as we explore how to catch the scent of your soul’s purpose and bring your life back on track with your passion. By changing this one thing— your relationship with your unique purpose—you can restore well-being in all aspects of your life. | 6/1/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Transforming Pain | Join us this week as we explore the application of shamanic skills to transform pain, whether it is physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. “In the late 1980’s Rusty Berkus said that all earthly pain is our inability to let go of something what wants to be set free. Since I was in a great deal of pain at that time,” says host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “I paid attention to these words. Working with them, I learned to unravel mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional pain. I really didn’t understand this fully until Shamanism showed me that even with the pains a person truly doesn’t seem to be holding onto, energetically somewhere something is being held onto, even if it is held by the unresolved energies of the ancestors.” Often this is exactly why we need a shaman to go journey for us and find the holding that is in another realm and find the means for release. In the end after the release there is a gift. In all of our suffering, not only is there the thing to be set free, but in that freedom is a gift. And that gift is most often your self. | 5/25/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Working Effectively with Spirit (II) | This week host and shaman, Christina Pratt, answers listener’s questions about working effectively with spirit. The skills of the shaman, like journeying, that are used to connect more clearly with our helping spirits, are designed to enhance our natural human intuitive skills. While the techniques of shamanic skills are fairly easy to learn, mastery is a life long endeavor. At the core of shamanism is the individual’s direct relationship with his or her own helping spirits. What this relationship offers that meditation and messages from the Higher Self do not is the ability to ask, “where am I lying to myself?” and “how do I get out of my own way?” Christina explores how we might navigate the interface between traditional practices and our contemporary lives, whether or not we need engage in a battle between dark and light, and the critical importance of working with the spirits of the land where ever we are. In all that we explore this week, the right use of shamanic skills keeps coming back to humility and power. Cultivation of humility and power in equal parts is the hallmark of a mature shamanic practitioner. | 5/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Recovery from Addiction | Addiction touches every one of us, particularly in America. If you aren’t an addict yourself you love someone who is. Addictions come in all shapes and sizes from the drama of substance abuse to neatly packaged, socially accepted addictions like coffee and sugar. We craft addictions to emotional states, creating the same scenarios in life again and again fueled by the emotion of choice, like anger, adrenaline, or falling in love, to name the more popular today. We can become addicted to any state of being and we do. And they all rob us of our capacity to choose. This limits our creativity and hobbles the experience of true joy. Shamanism with its unique perspective and relationship with the helping spirits allows us to see that our patterns are not us. Join us this week with host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the power in shamanic process to change the unchangeable. With the helping spirits supporting our Authentic Self, we are able to identify what we are truly after in the heart of the addiction, release the old patterns around that heart, and retrieve what is deeply meaningful to us. With shamanic skills we can free our selves to experience our true unique genius. | 5/11/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and PTSD Recovery | Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the aftermath of a healthy, normal response to threatening, unpredictable, out of control situations. Within the complex inner world of someone suffering from PTSD lies multiple events of soul loss along with other psychoemotional and psychospiritual dynamics. Shamanism, with its expertise in soul retrieval and unraveling the wounds of the soul, is a critical part of the recovery process for PTSD. PTSD is debilitating, leaving people with nightmares and pervasive fear, deep scars and emotional numbness, and often uncontrollable flashbacks to the event. It can be caused by any overwhelming, violent event, whether large scale like war or personal scale like rape. PTSD can affect not only those who experience the traumatic event, but those who witness it, who offer care, who pick up the pieces after, and those who live with a loved one who is experiencing PTSD. We can all look around us and see that we have largely failed to bring healing to those with PTSD in spite of our medical system’s best efforts. This week, shaman and host, Christina Pratt explores what PTSD is from a shamanic perspective and what we need to do as care providers and community to heal it. From this unique perspective we can bring not only healing to those with PTSD, but heart, meaning, and hope to this ever growing problem in America. | 5/4/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Plant Medicines | Author, professor, and peacemaker, Stephan Beyer, joins us this week to discuss his new book, "Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon." Stephan explains, “Singing to the Plants seeks to understand one form of shamanism, its relationship to other shamanisms, and its survival in the new global economy, through anthropology, ethnobotany, cognitive psychology, legal history, and my own experiences with two master healers of the Amazon.” Join us as we discuss the use of plant medicines (plant hallucinogens or entheogens) in shamanism in the Upper Amazon and its relevance—should we or shouldn’t we—in shamanic practices outside of these traditions. We will reach into the depths of Stephan’s personal experience to discuss the healing potential of shamanism as well as the potential to do harm through attack sorcery. Ultimately we will explore the idea that shamanism is “irreducibly social” such that all shamanic healing as well as harming takes place within a cultural context where shared values like trust, reciprocity, or generosity are at the root of personal illness and suffering. | 4/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Tom Cowan and Shamanism Without Borders | Tom Cowan, a shamanic practitioner of Celtic visionary and healing techniques, joins us this week to discuss “Self in Service,” the Society of Shamanic Practitioners (SSP) 7th annual conference. Tom is a much loved teacher and an internationally respected author, lecturer, and tour leader. He is also a founding board member of the SSP. This year’s conference is the first exploration as a community into of one aspect of the SSP’s mission: learning to practice shamanism without borders and to respond to the voices of the wounded within the Land. These will be intense days of experiential shamanism. This year the conference format is radically changed to allow for large and small groups to focus healing responses to places and beings that have suffered traumatic experiences. This new structure is designed so that all the steps involved in responding to trauma from natural disasters are activities attendees shall undertake and do together, including learning how to tend and grow themselves. Fundamental to Shamanism Without Borders is the belief that as people practicing this medicine, it is incumbent to learn what the disasters teach us individually while protecting ourselves from being part of the disaster. | 4/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Two Paths of True Transformation | True Transformation delivers us to a new state of being from which there is no going back. “Today most people are aware of transformation through Death and Rebirth,” says host and shaman Christina Pratt. “They may not like it, but they understand intuitively that a death is required for the rebirth that allows true transformation to run its course.” The American weakness here is our cultural fear of death, which leads to our refusal to let go of anything, even those things we dearly long to be rid of, and our inability to surrender control. Shamanism offers us not only a remedy for our fear of death, but a second path to true transformation—Transformation of the Enemy to Ally, or Transformation through Love. While love sounds like a respite from death and fear, it is the more challenging path. Transformation through love requires that we truly see the enemy within ourselves and love it. For most, the prospects of loving the enemy within makes embracing death, fear, and surrender look like fun on a great date night out. | 4/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why We Work with the Elements | The Elements—Earth, Air, Fire and Water—are true nourishment for our spirit. This is equally true for three-element and five-element systems also found in shamanic cultures around the globe. When we open up to a relationship with the elements that nourishes our spirit, spirit grows strong within us. The “voice” of a strong spirit can actually be heard over all of the noise in the cacophonous conversation of life. As essence energies, the elements offer gifts we can access through relationship with them. Right relationship with the elements allows their energy to flow into our lives, creating balance by smoothing out our own excesses and scarcities. We gain courage and flow, the ability to change as needed without losing our true self, and presence and breath, the reminder that it is always possible to release and begin anew. Join us this week as host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores the value of working with the elements in our daily life and creative ways to do that effectively. | 4/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Becoming a Person of Power | A person of power is effective, joyful, and creative in life, regardless of the circumstances, while enjoying radiant health and well-being. Anyone can become a person of power in any sphere of life. It is a matter of choice and awareness, plus discipline and imagination. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the strange disconnect between the mystery schools and mystical traditions of the past and our contemporary desire to change our lives without changing. “Humans are uniquely designed to innovate and create, but mostly we create messes because we are unconscious of the demands of being an energy being in an energy body,” says Pratt. “It’s not enough to just live well. We must learn to take life as a Teacher and surrender to the transformations ahead” This week she shares the essential steps for engaging ancient practices of energy and spirit connection to empower you to become that person you glimpse in your dreams and long for with your heart and soul. | 3/31/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Your Shadow Self and the Divine | Your Shadow Self is an important aspect of who you are. Engage it well and it will show you your greatest assets and deepest passions. However, if left unexplored the Shadow Self can generate physical, mental and emotional unwellness, leaving life flat, disappointing, and depressing. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week as she explores shamanic ways to engage your Shadow Self effectively. Shadow work is messy and it defies all logic— emotional, mental, and physical logic. Anything goes in the Shadow realms, which frightens and challenges the orderly, loving beings that we are. However, by engaging our direct relationship with spirit through shamanic skills we can learn to follow the crazy logic of the Shadow realm. We can meet the juicy, but frustrated parts of our self we have stuffed in the Shadow Closet and negotiate their return. In this way we reengage with our passion, sensuality, creativity, sexuality, sense of humor, and overall joy for life. | 3/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Authentic Shamanism | What makes shamanism authentic? Tradition? Certification? Or direct access to Spirit? Today literally thousands of people all over the world have learned to journey. This is a good thing. It is important that adults have spiritual input into their challenging daily decisions. With all of these people journeying, what makes someone a shaman? With people participating in monthly journeying circles, a type of “social shamanism” has emerged where people gather around this common interest, journey together, do a little ceremony, and share their experiences. While this is a valuable activity, it barely taps the potential of authentic shamanism. Yet people see this as contemporary shamanism. Where do the ethics lie for teachers of shamanism in showing people the range from their personal journeys to shamanic healing to powerful community rituals and ceremonies guided by truly initiated shamans? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores authenticity and ethics in shamanism. | 3/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Is Shamanism a Path to Enlightenment? | "The shamanic path is not a path traditionally intended to achieve enlightenment,” explains Michael Harner of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. “It has been a path followed because people…wanted to help (others) through healing and alleviating their suffering. In following that path, gifts were then given them that were totally unexpected…This then changes them, and they are never the same again; they are indeed enlightened. But that was not the intention; it was just a result.” Shamanism is and isn’t a path of transformation and enlightenment. Host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores this interesting state of affairs. Shamanic trance states are task oriented. They are not focused on gaining enlightenment. However, an ongoing working relationship with Spirit is one of the most efficient and effective paths of transformation, waking up, and growing up for shamans and for lay people. Join us and discover all the side benefits, like enlightenment, of becoming a spiritual adult. | 3/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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True Transformation vs. Remodeling the Self | What does “transformation” really mean and why should we bother? “In the simplest sense true transformation is an internal change,” explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt, “that occurs on a foundational level such that there is no going back. We are not just remodeling the self.” There are three dynamics of internal movement, that when taken together result in true transformation. Change in any one or two of these; however, leaves us, as Ken Wilbur says, “refining our status quo.” Why should you bother to transform anyway? A refined status quo is still status quo and will result in a new version of exactly the same life. We choose to truly transform because it is the only path to why we are here. We are all an expressions of the One, but the One shows up uniquely in every sentient being. That uniqueness—to find and express that unique manifestation of the One—is why you are here. All true transformation matters because it serves the full expression of your Unique Self. | 3/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Protection: How to with Betsy Bergstrom | How do you protect yourself, even on your really bad days? How do you protect the energy of your life, so that it is not drained or used by others? How do you protect the energy of your dreams? Energetic Protection remains one of our most popular topics. This week, shaman and teacher, Betsy Bergstrom returns to explore “how to” protect your self. Bergstrom is a master of the Middleworld, the realm filled with energies that aren’t helpful for our health or life expression. She specializes in unraveling thought forms and curses, the removal of unwanted energies, and heart-centered shamanic healing. She passionately and clearly discusses the shamanic concepts related to protection, like mediumship, compassionate beings, and attuning to energies in the earlier show “Your Most Powerful Ally.” This week we continue that conversation exploring how to protect yourself in a variety of situations, with and without shamanic skills and all from a light and heart-centered perspective. | 2/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Tom Pinkson: Medicine Teachings for Modern Times | The practices of the Huichol of the Sierra Madre in Mexico focus on living life in harmony with all living things. Their traditional ways of living include the ceremonial use of the sacred peyote plant and offer a path to a truly sustainable future. This week author and shaman, Tom Pinkson, PhD., joins us to discuss his new edition of "The Flowers of Wiricuta, The Shamanic Wisdom of the Huichol: Medicine Teachings for Modern Times" and to explore that possible future. In the book Pinkson shares his 11-year apprenticeship in the medicine teachings of the Huichol. Pinkson has successfully infused these sacred teachings into his work as a contemporary psychologist. He is uniquely positioned; having walked this path of integration for decades to look at the many challenges we face together, culturally, socially, and environmentally. Pinkson believes that the wisdom of the Huichol offers us a path to live spiritually grounded lives in intimate relationship with nature and each other. | 2/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Listening to Voices: Part Two | We all listen to voices, but for many the voice of Spirit gets lost in the distractions, seductions, and the cacophony of voices in the head. Nonetheless the most essential gift shamanism offers each of us is direct revelation, which comes as visions, voices, or experiences with our own helping spirits. How do we cultivate that personal, direct relationship? Join shaman and host, Christina Pratt, as she answers the questions received from the first show and shares ideas for teaching children to cultivate truth cords and inner alignment so that they never lose the ability to know how to listen. We will explore questions like, “If my mind is a sneaky weasel, how can I trust what I am hearing? This all seems smoke and mirrors. Help!” and “Aren’t I just making up these voices in the first place?” “The answer is simple,” says Christina, “It comes from the heart and begins with our willingness to feel.” But how do we do that, was the resounding response from listeners. Let’s find out. | 2/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Thrive in Changing Times with Sandra Ingerman | In her latest work, "How to Thrive in Changing Times: Simple Tools to Create True Health, Wealth, Peace and Joy for Yourself and the Earth", therapist and author, Sandra Ingerman provides many valuable insights into unlocking our creativity to deal with our challenging and turbulent times. With her usual clarity and open heart, she offers a fresh perspective on transforming your own inner pollution for outer benefit. Join us as we explore how Ingerman’s new book points us toward a new way of being in the world and offers the practices needed to support that change. This is book is a call to action! Ingerman believes that the work begins by learning how to shift our daily thoughts and words. She encourages people to think of themselves as members of a growing global community of conscious change agents, who together, can shift the challenges on the planet today. Working as a global community we can bring forth the invisible energies and manifest a world we truly wish to live in. | 2/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Listening to Voices | We all listen to voices in our heads. Some voices offer wise counsel or gut knowing while others are just an inner critic or frightened child. How do you learn which voices to listen to and which ones to ignore? How do you sort the voices after a spiritual awakening? For many the voice of spirit help is lost in the cacophony of voices in the head. The most essential gift shamanism offers each of us is direct revelation, which comes as visions, voices or experiences with our own helping spirits. While the shaman is a specialist in working with these spirits, everyone has spirit help and everyone can learn to communicate effectively with that help. How do you know you are listening to your helping spirits and not just making it up? What if you can’t hear anything at all and feel stuck or lost and alone. What if you have the opposite problem? You hear too many voices and don’t know who to listen to. The answer is simple. It comes from the heart and begins with our willingness to feel. | 1/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Autism | "The Horse Boy" is both a book and a movie about Rupert, Kristin, and Rowan Isaacson's ride across Mongolia in search of traditional shamanic healing for Rowan and his autism. The story is exquisite and heart-breakingly beautiful. Rupert explains, “As a family we did something crazy. We ended up going half way across the world in search of a miracle.” And they found one. Rowan is still autistic and he did get healed of three of the worst presentations of his symptoms. This week, shaman and host, Christina Pratt, draws on her experience with autistic children and Rowan’s story to explore what this tells us about the relationship between shamanism and autism. It does not tell us that horses and Mongolian shamans cure autism. But it does show us that a true relationship between a child and his/her personal power animal, the parent’s willingness to heal themselves, and aspects of shamanic healing together can give parents real hope and new options for healing. | 1/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Power of Dance | “The difficulties we face can motivate our greatest growth and healing,” says our guest Marsha Scarbrough, author of Medicine Dance: One woman's healing journey into the world of Native American sweatlodges, drumming meditations and dance fasts. “But you have to follow whatever healing path inspires you, no matter how crazy!” This week Marsha will share what she has learned about the power of dance to heal from her work with Native American teacher, Beautiful Painted Arrow/Joseph Rael and Ayo Adeyemi Nigerian master drummer/ Yoruba ceremonial leader. In indigenous cultures, dance is not a performance. It's a meditation for the dancer. The movement itself is prayer. Dance and rhythm are the means by which shamans can repaired or restored vibration. Because we are actually composed of vibrating energy, it makes sense that rhythm, dance, and ritual can be used to heal us. The possibilities to create global and personal healing are endless when you have a group trance with positive intention, rhythm, and the power of dance. | 1/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Power of Blessing | “Blessings strengthen us, subtly or powerfully depending on the person giving the blessing and the strength of the blessing itself,” explains our host and shaman, Christina Pratt. “What is important to notice is that the act of Blessing another strengthens both the one receiving the blessing and the one offering it.” Blessings can empower us, bring us back into right relationship with ourselves, or protect us. What is a blessing and what makes it strong? Blessings can be a formal, complex ritual process or a simple act of love, like calling on the spirits of the family totem to protect a child as she leaves for school. Blessings call on energies of the invisible world, like elementals, nature spirits, and angels, and ask for their participation in our lives in specific ways. Whether simple or grand, our blessings are most powerful when they are an expression of a deep relationship we have already cultivated with spirit. Join us this week as we explore the lost art of Blessings. | 12/30/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Stripping Away the Old: A “how to” Show | “How do I let go?” is the most frequently asked question of host, Christina Pratt, when she facilitates clients in the release of the old self and the awakening of the new. Winter is the time of stripping away the old and resting in the long, dark nights. This fall we discussed moving beyond good and evil, looking past sin to focus on destiny, and the Essence energies of Gratitude, Faith, and the Return—all to stir up the comfortable patterns of the self—so now what? Now we need to strip away all we have found within our selves that no longer serves us and surrender that energy to the winter fire. But, how? This week we will discuss how we can allow these little deaths, and with the gifts of self revealed within, to lay the path to rejuvenating an authentic life. In this way we can find the pleasure in our imperfect lives, the lost gifts of self that awaken the heart, and joy in the cultivation of a deepening relationship with our self. | 12/23/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Winter: The Season of Return | How do you fill the well of your well being, especially when you feel tired, cold and exhausted? As adults we struggle in a dynamic between feeling the desire for experience and the need to return to touch the root of our essence, to replenish and restore. Culturally, the desire for experience wins most of the time. We tend not to take the time to reach the Source unless we are forced to by illness, exhaustion, or breakdown. Even then, we rarely spend enough time there to fill the well and remember why we are here. Winter is the season of return. It is the time to rest and slow down. For most just slowing down is the challenge. We think all we need is to catch up on some sleep or restart our daily meditation practice. But we miss the point. These are not the return. They only hold the space for it. To return and replenish we must touch the Void and go into the source of our deepest dreaming. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as we explore how to restore your link to life. | 12/16/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Importance of Essence | If you say, “I love that show” and “I love my car”, what does it mean when you say, “I love my child” or “I love my wife?” The essence of love is weakened by casual or careless usage. Why does it matter to some that others take the Lord’s name in vain? Because casual and careless usage weakens the essence of The Creator. Don’t think this matters? Well, how do you feel when you pour your soul into a project and it is treated in a casual, ordinary, and careless way? We strengthen or weaken the essence energies through the quality of our attention to them. Essence energies are “essential” because they are the energies that nourish the soul. Shamanism gives us the skills and awareness to call on the essence energies, to tend them and to create a relationship of gratitude and reciprocity with them. Then they are there for the soul to grow strong and flourish. Join shaman and host, Christina Pratt, as she explores the essence energies of life and why your relationship to them matters. | 12/9/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Power of Faith | “Faith is freefall. It is the liquid state of grace in which all change is possible,” explains shaman and host, Christina Pratt. “Without faith we are unable to cross that gap between what was and what needs to be.” It really doesn’t matter whether that gap is the size of a whole life that you are being asked to leave behind or the microscopic gap between two neurons in your brain as you desperately try to think a new thought, with out faith we cannot cross that Void. The most interesting thing about faith, given humanity’s history of killing each other over it, is that it doesn’t really matter what you have faith in. In terms of transformation and enlightenment it only matters that you are capable of that state of grace; that you can surrender all that you are and know to simply be in a state of faith. Join us this week as we explore the power of faith. When is faith the excuse for delusion and fantasy thinking and when is it the power needed to dance with the Unknown? | 12/2/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Power of Gratitude | “Gratitude as a function in life that makes things work out,” says our host, Christina Pratt. When we are without gratitude we are without perspective. The visionary capacity of the heart slips into doubt and we fixate on what is not working. Living from a stance of gratitude is a choice that allows you to shift into the realm of energies where the coincidences of things come together for you. Join us as we discuss the power of gratitude to bring the blessings of life to you. For the Qechua, an ancient Peruvian shamanic people, gratitude is not only something that we needed to feel. Gratitude must take form; it must be part of the labor, love and wisdom of a society. It is not enough to say, “thank you”; gratitude must be made concrete through action and intent. The power engages when you show gratitude at all times, make every gesture of your life a labor of love and retribution for the gifts you receive and will receive. Give thanks for all of it; it is the miracle of life. | 11/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sin and Your Destiny | Your destiny is already present. It is here with you from the moment of your birth, and yet you are unclear. What you miss is that Life is constantly showing you the steps, but you don’t know how to hear, read the signs or follow the steps. In this behavior you commit the one True Sin, you stand in the way of your own destiny. With shamanic skills we can engage with all of our life—even our sins and those committed against us—and see them for what that they are—the path to our destiny. Join host Christina Pratt as we discuss “sin” in shamanism and it’s relationship with your destiny. Explaining sin as a “moral evil” is a challenge in a shamanic world where everything is connected and all are One. The threat of sin only really works in non-shamanic systems that profess a fundamental separation from God. However if everything is a gift, then what is sin? Even sin can be a gift, a stone to be turned that, in the turning, moves us a little further along the path to our destiny. | 11/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Beyond Good and Evil | "Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating." With this inspiration from Simone Weil we will explore how to engage with life beyond the concepts of good and evil. The first step is to relearn to trust our intuition and see the power moving directly or as power over. Ideas of good and evil and the fear that they generate distract us from watching the real energy and tracking power accurately. Fear based thinking is the fertile soil nourishing the roots of the current paradigm and our inability to heal, transform, or to simply ask for help. This thinking keeps us locked in the problems of our ancestors and in their way of thinking about solutions. Join host, Christina Pratt, as we explore shamanic ways to see through the hackneyed concepts of good and evil and to move us body and soul into the next paradigm of the right use of power, creativity, and connection. | 11/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Sexual Healing | "...one of the most sensual, deep, and delightful experiences I've ever had. I realized I'm not alone in believing that sex can be both sacred and fun." These are the words of a participant in the groundbreaking, healing work of our guest, Gina Ogden, PhD. Ogden is an author, licensed marriage and family therapist, diplomate in sex therapy, and practitioner of ceremonial shamanism. She joins us this week to discuss how shamanism offers us the critical element in finding the path through our wounds to the robust, sacred and fun sexuality our shamanic ancestors enjoyed. Through shamanic ritual, individuals at any age can find the sexual healing necessary to enjoy a pleasurable, passionate sex life. Gina will share ISIS, her study on integrating sexuality and spirituality and her breakthrough idea to use shamanic cosmology to organize her findings, thus becoming the first to effectively broaden the understanding of sexual experience beyond limiting notions of function and dysfunction. | 11/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Transforming Depression | Persistent depression, a disease of the heart and soul, is one of the most common problems motivating people to seek help. And shamanism is an effective approach to healing depression, especially for people who are willing to forge a direct relationship with spirit. While the idea of taking a pill to make the pain go away is initially a relief (and often necessary for the individual to continue to act on their own behalf), the result grows unsatisfying over time. Medication does help people to cope, but coping isn’t enough. This week we explore the many ways shamanic practices are used to transform depression from “the problem” to the path to a life of meaning. Shamanism gives us the unique ability to directly repair soul loss healing feelings of soullessness. It offers direct reconnection with spirit allowing the experience of universal love, protection, and guidance. Ultimately shamanic practices allow the individual to reignite their passion for life and capacity for joy. | 10/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Transforming Mental Illness | In shamanic cultures mental illness is a community illness that is caused when the community’s many shadow projections overwhelm the collective benevolent intent. When we don’t withdraw our projections, we wear down the boundaries of the most sensitive, including children. The sensitives become vulnerable to the intrusion and influence of malevolent energies, wandering dead, and the unacknowledged secrets, betrayals, and transgressions of the community. Traditionally, the shaman diagnoses the community’s imbalance whether with the local land spirits, ancestors, the spirit world in general or the morals and ethics of good relationship with each other. The healing is then communal, requiring everyone’s participation, restoring balance and right relationship, and freeing the individual from the burden of acting out the community’s illness. This week we explore mental illness, old and new causes, and shamanism as the path forward to sanity and well-being even for our “Prozac Nation.” | 10/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Transforming Addiction | Addictions abound in our lives. Whether persistent, problematic substance abuse patterns, the simple inability to wind down after along day without a glass of wine, or the addictions to food, sex, or adrenaline that fill our social calendars, addiction lives large in our lives and defies our best efforts. “When we ‘work on’ our addictions directly,” says host Christina Pratt, “we are developing an even more complex relationship with them.” Shamanism offers an indirect and effective approach. Every addiction began as a diversion from something our soul really needed that we weren’t allowed to have. The line between what we wanted and the addiction is rarely straight or logical. Shamanic skills allow us to access both the original soul need and the crazy logic transformation necessary to meet that need and become the person you were meant to be. Then, for those who want freedom, laying the addiction down becomes a matter of detoxification of the mind and body and living freely. | 10/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Toltec I Ching | The Toltec I Ching: 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications. It recasts the I Ching of ancient China in the symbology of ancient, native Mexico and focuses us on an ethics, desperately needed today, of cooperation in the emerging world culture. William Horden will be our guest this week to discuss “The Oracle” and why we should bother with a new divination tool at this time. Divination tools can guide us into our own spiritual warriorship and its expression in our daily actions. In this tool, Ramirez-Oropeza’s stunning artwork illuminates the wisdom of the ancients while Horden’s lucid text unlocks the divinatory power of these two world traditions. The Toltec I Ching “inspires us to see more clearly, live more creatively, and love more fully.” Join us as we ask The Oracle, “What do people need to know today to transform from wherever they are into people of courageous hearts? | 10/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Gender Transformation in Shamanism | What would it be like to live in a culture with 8 genders or 64? In shamanic cultures your biology, gender, and sexual preference are not necessarily linked. They can be, but its not a given. They are all variables that are experienced as an expression of Spirit moving through the individual. They are not only varied in shamanic cultures, but they may change over a lifetime. Join shaman and host Christina Pratt as she explores gender variance and transformation in shamanism. Important in shamanism is the transformed shaman. These are often considered the most powerful shamans. These are men in a variety of shamanic cultures around the world including Siberia, Africa, and North America, who have become women to follow their call from spirit. These changes are culturally sanctioned and expected. They begin the transformation very young and progress into functioning as a shaman and a woman after initiation. The bigger mystery: why women don’t have to become men to be shamans? | 9/30/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Soul Retrieval and Its Place in Modern Healing | In 1991 Sandra Ingerman published Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self. In this beautiful, easy to read book she rebirthed the shamanic art of soul retrieval in contemporary times. After training with Sandy, your host Christina Pratt, began as a practicing shaman performing hundreds of soul retrievals a year. Now, after nearly two decades there are many tales to tell not only of the power of soul retrieval healing, but of the joys and the challenges that come after. The first challenge is how to reintegrate with parts of yourself who have been gone decades or who see the world as a child. The lasting challenge is how do you live in our world, that asks you to be small and fit in, when you are filled with emotions, passions, and well-being that are your birthright. Christina will bust some myths about soul retrieval, answer the FAQS, and share how soul retrieval fits into the modern understanding of illness and healing. Join us to delve deeply into these healing waters. | 9/23/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Basics of Living Well: Boundaries & Protection | Conserving and protecting your energy resources are essential for you to Live Well regardless of the path you are on. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, for Part 3 of The Basics of Living Well and learn the hows and whys of boundaries and protection. Whether you are engaged in religion, spirituality, shamanism or just living life, you are still an energy being living in an energy world. It takes energy and resources to live our soul’s purpose. Energy flows downhill. That means that your energy will flow away into everything around you that has less quantity, quality, refinement, or consciousness of energy. Unless you have boundaries and protection you will constantly lose energy and experience miscommunication and dissatisfaction in relationships. Shamanic peoples understand this simple fact of energy and engaged the natural protection of the spirit world to reinforce their boundaries. Healthy boundaries allow focus and resources to flow into you and your soul’s purpose. | 9/16/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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War and the Soul: Mature Warriors | There is a journey warriors must walk to heal and truly return to themselves, to their families and to the larger community. Those who complete this journey of release and healing become Mature Warriors, bringing gifts of leadership, reduced violence, and the ability to make peace to the community. Our guest, Dr. Edward Tick, rediscovered the archetypal path necessary to heal the unique wounding of war by working effectively and deeply with traditional shamanic practices in the indigenous cultures of Greece, Native North America and Viet Nam. Dr. Tick, author of War and The Soul, specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war. This week we complete our four-part series exploring war and shamanic healing. Please forward this message to anyone touched by war. Together we can bring healing to the soul and find the gifts of the Mature Warrior. | 9/9/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanic Advances in Mental Health in England | "We know we have a Warrior in our Heart when we start to seek for the truth and desire to open our hearts to ourselves and others." These are the words of our guests, Howard and Elsa Malpas, from Gastonbury, England. Today we open a window on shamanic work in England and explore the Malpas' work as healers and teachers. Their Warrior in The Heart Workshops, offered since 1994, are self-awareness and self-empowerment trainings. Drawing from many ancient cultures, the Malpas assist students in finding their true nature and purpose in life. They also work as therapists and healers. Since July 2008, they have been taking drums into the hospital where they work and offering an evening of shamanic journeying to patients in a psychiatric ward. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and in some cases profound. Another healing passion is their work with Soul Regeneration, which they evolved as a different way of working in particular with patients with mental health problems. | 9/2/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Basics of Living Well: Energy Cultivation | Energy Cultivation is essential to Living Well regardless of the path you are on. Whether you are engaged in religion, spirituality, shamanism or just living life you are still an energy being living in an energy world. It all looks physical and solid, but in reality it’s all energy and it’s all connected. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, for Part Two of The Basics of Living Well. A human is an “energy bucket”. To have the energy to live authentically we need to live in ways that fill the bucket. Chi gong, time in nature, and naps can fill the bucket, while a day that requires you ignore your body, work more than anything else, and drink caffeine to complete it usually empties the bucket. If balancing your day between actions of expression and cultivation weren’t challenging enough, remember that the bucket is also made of energy. Energy cultivation requires that we look to the quality of the bucket itself, repairing all leaks and cracks while we keep the bucket full. | 8/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Basics of Living Well: Grounding | There are a few basic practices that are essential to Living Well regardless of the path you are on. Whether you are engaged in religion, spirituality, shamanism or just living life, you are still an energy being living in an energy world. It all looks physical and solid, but in reality it’s all energy and it’s all connected. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, for Part One of a three part series: The Basics of Living Well. To live well in your human body, you must think of it as an energy body. Energy body maintenance requires plugging it in, moving the energy, and containing or cultivating the energy. This week we learn how and why to “plug in” or ground the energy body. Grounding is a choice. It isn’t something you heal, its something you do. Good healthy, daily grounding can cure both stagnant, depression energies as well as scattered, fragmented energies in the body. To ground is to show up and be present, which is the first step to everything else that really matters. | 8/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Critical Acts of Celebration | The point of our practice, whether spiritual or shamanic, is the Celebration of Life. What is a shamanic view of life if it is not about the interconnectedness of all life and the celebration of the sacredness and beauty in that energetic reality? Whether it is an ancient hunting practice that celebrates the power and attributes of the bear after the kill or a contemporary Hmong shaman in Minneapolis celebrating the passing of a soul from the realm of the living, celebration is used to communicate with the spirit realm. It is the means by which we communicate completion or reconnection. Celebration is also used to mark, ground, and integrate a significant life transition or initiation. Without celebration of “the journey”, it is as if the story never happened and we cannot harvest the gifts gained; or the story never ended and we cannot move onto the next great adventure. Celebration is critical in the dialogue between humans and spirit that honors the sacred miracle of all life. | 8/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Your Most Powerful Ally and Protection | This week shaman Betsy Bergstrom returns to continue our discussion of shamanism and Heart Centered Shamanic Depossession. Bergstrom specializes in unraveling thoughtforms and curses to draw the energy and power from things that have previously bound us and to utilize that energy to revitalize our choices. With the help of compassionate beings, our inner Ally can find a framework and sense of continuity to feel safer and to function well within our world. Effective protection keeps us from scattered and ungrounded energy, fragmentation, and from allowing our energy to be used by others. Heart-centered protection enables you to focus your energy and resources toward living your authentic life and bringing your unique gifts to the world. Join us this week and explore protection from a light and heart-centered perspective. Bergstrom will share how to compassionately clear what isn’t ours, allowing us to come out from under the shadows and connect with our most powerful Ally—ourselves. | 8/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Shortest Path—Crazy Logic | Shamanism offers us a direct relationship with spirit, and through that ongoing relationship, guidance and direction. With the help of spirit, every individual can find his or her path of integrity and authenticity. But sometimes that straight and narrow path looks really long and time feels very short. Have you ever just wanted a short cut? The Trickster, found cross-culturally in shamanism, brings us direct relationship with the “Crazy Logic” Teachers of our world: Death, The Unknown, Chaos, and Darkness. These characters always know the shortest path to where we need to go. Like any shortcut, it’s filled with brambles, steep climbs, and leaps of faith; but it always gets us there. These teachers offer excellent guidance in dealing with addictions, chronic fears, frustration and exhaustion. Work with them always builds character, but it also cultivates the internal richness necessary to bring up our light, and the courage to express that light with truth and humility in the world. | 7/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Healing— Alternative Ideas from Shamanism | Healing is transformation. Shamans don’t see healing as fixing what broke, eradicating a bug, or going back to a state of health before the illness. From a shamanic perspective healing is letting go of what was so that a higher state of health can emerge. A human is a relatively stable energy pattern, manifesting physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. When that pattern no longer supports the soul and it’s purpose in the world, energy stagnates and the pattern must transform. This is why we need rest to heal. The whole body must engage in transformation and reorganization for a new pattern to emerge and stabilize. It takes loads of energy to heal. And the body does know how to do it. The shaman assists by retrieving needed energy or removing old energies that are using the energy the person needs to heal. We often “get sick” when we are really healthy, because the body finally has what it needs to move the pattern to a higher state of health and well-being. | 7/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Life Is Exquisite in Its Generosity | Every day is filled with gifts. Yet people go through the day unknowingly judging and rejecting the continuous stream of gifts, never realizing that the salve for their deepest sorrow or the truth of their souls purpose is right at hand. Gifts abound but we miss them because not all gifts parade about in gaudy wrapping with bows and your name on the tag. Many gifts come in strange packages of ugliness, frustration, meanness, or heartbreak. They come at the “wrong time” or from the “wrong person.” Today we discuss how you notice the gifts that come in strange packages disguised as the hardships of life and then, how you open them. Not all gifts come addressed to your mind. Some must be opened and interpreted by the wisdom of the heart, some by the wisdom of the body, and some can only be understood by the wisdom of spirit. What we must learn to live fully is to open and receive the gifts life offers and then to live in gratitude. | 7/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanic Transformation: It’s not magic—it just seems that it is | “Shamanic Transformation is not magic—it just seems that it is,” reports a student of The Cycle of Transformation at Last Mask Center. “It restores me to personal responsibility for my spiritual life—I get what I have the courage to ask for.” This week our host Christina Pratt and her students discuss Shamanic Transformation for Contemporary times, focusing on what it is and why it offers a breadth and depth that other programs do not. Traditionally the path of the shaman requires both shamanic training and rigorous personal work—yes, that personal work that is never done because life is a path of mastery whenever we work in partnership with Spirit. We will hear from students sharing what the teachings brought into their lives, how they got connected to their authenticity and soul’s purpose and why this system works. “It is a 'get’er done, down and dirty, tell it like it is/was/or has been and let it go' system. It is a process of real change, real growth, and dynamic spiritual adulthood.” | 7/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Freedom—Use It or Lose It | In honor of Independence Day we will speak this week of FREEDOM, but all patriotism stops there. We are speaking of freedom because it is essential for love and love is essential for the power to act authentically. Doing what you have always done does not require authenticity, nor does it require much power (which is why it feels easy and comfortable). However your soul’s purpose lies out there, beyond comfort and easy, past authenticity and on into the realm of power and passion. Are you free to express your power? Do you claim the freedom to express your true self mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, professionally, and intimately? Whereever you are not fully, passionately and powerfully your true self, you are not free. The stories we carry of our past wounding, unmet childhood needs, and chronic fears are our own imprisonment. This week we discuss freedom and how you can cultivate inner authority, claim your freedom to love and live your true self. | 7/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and a Living Relationship with Christ | “It is not what we do that heals,” says Karen Furr, our guest this week, “but what we allow ourselves to become.” Karen, a former member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, explains, “Jesus taught that the realm of the Divine is within each of us and it is there that we can access the infinite compassion of Mystery.” It does not matter what tradition we are immersed in, but that we encounter that Mystery and Spirit within. As a former Catholic sister, Furr walks the path of the mystic and healer, seeking and facilitating healing for self, community, and the planet. Furr has devoted much of her life to working with those who have experienced economic poverty, as well as abuse, addictions, homelessness and trauma. Join us this week as we explore how Furr’s love of Spirit and devotion to the healing charisma of Jesus is infused in her shamanic healing and teaching. Experience the grace with which her religious life infuses her shamanic life, empowering this excellent healer. | 6/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why weekend workshops don't get us our Soul's Purpose | Why does the passion that lives so simply within each of use prove so elusive for so many people? You have read the books, listened to the psychics, and taken all of those weekend workshops. So, what's your purpose? We are like a ship at sea and our soul's purpose is the star by which we navigate. Life has tides, currents, storms and sea monsters. You must learn to right your ship and re-set your course. Is your ship even seaworthy? Do you know which star? Living your life as an expression of your soul's purpose requires a transformation from who you learned to be as a child to who you are called to be by your soul. You must learn to hear the voice of your soul and the discerning voice of your passion. You must gain the skills of transformation. You must step free of your life story, leaving the Wounded Child behind and choosing to grow up. You must risk. Join host and shaman Christina Pratt to learn why you can't get all of that in a weekend, but you can get that through shamanism. | 6/17/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Integrating the Fragmented Soul | We all experience soul loss throughout our lives. It is caused by physical or emotional trauma and it is a natural way for us to survive the pain of that trauma. In shamanic cultures when soul loss is recognized, the shaman is called on to enter the invisible world, find the lost soul parts and to retrieve them. Then what? Today, the integration of retrieved soul parts doesn't just happen by itself. Our guest, Martin Brennan, a shamanic practitioner, has integrated numerous soul parts retrieved by our host, shaman Christina Pratt over the past 10 years. The personal healing issues that these soul parts address range from attempted suicide, to chronic issues with intimacy, to a separation from God, and much more. How do you address issues today that amount to the most painful, frightening moments of your life? Why is it that addressing these moments brings you into Wholeness and Oneness-with-all-Things? Join us as we explore with humor and awe the healing work of soul integration. | 6/10/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Heart Centered Shamanic Healing | "Modern shamanism is alive and thriving," says shaman, Betsy Bergstrom, our guest this week. "There is a wonderful blending of ancestral and ancient knowledge with new experience." Bergstrom's practice of Heart Centered Shamanic Depossession defuses much of the fear that people feel around the shamanic work of clearing and depossession. Bergstrom specializes in "unraveling thoughtforms and curses," which is a way to draw the energy and power from things that have previously bound us and utilize that energy to revitalize our choices and our future. Clearing, extraction, and depossession comprise a sorely misunderstood aspect of shamanic healing. Bergstrom, a truly inspired and gifted healer in this area, will help us to understand how to compassionately clear what isn't ours, allowing us to come out from under the shadows and connect with our most powerful Ally-ourselves. Join me as this gifted shaman speaks of her path and the unique gifts she brings to her students and clients. | 6/3/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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War and the Soul: How the Warrior Heals from War | We continue in our four-part series exploring war and shamanic healing with our guest, Ed Tick, author of War and The Soul. Dr. Tick specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war. There is a journey warriors must walk to heal and truly return to themselves, to their families and to the larger community. Today our focus is on the lessons Dr. Tick learned from traditional warrior healing practices in the indigenous cultures of Greece, Native North America and Viet Nam. By working effectively and deeply with these traditional shamanic practices Dr. Tick has experienced a “rediscovery of the path of medicine healer of warriors.” This Memorial Day please forward this message to those you know who have been touched by war. Let us all come to understand the path of healing for warriors and our part as the community that welcomes them home. | 5/27/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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War and the Soul: Healing Grief and Loss | We continue in our four-part series exploring war, the soul and shamanic healing with our guest, Ed Tick, author of War and The Soul. Dr. Tick specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. (Part 1: Feb 25) This week Tick will share his inspired work in Viet Nam where indigenous shamans are using shamanic techniques to assist in the location of MIAs and creation of peace for the spirits of the dead. These indigenous practices also create a way for families to finally grieve and heal the loss of their MIA loved ones. Come join us in the discussion of what shamanism brings to the healing of people and the land where the bodies of the MIA of both sides lie hidden. Explore the challenges is this particularly frustrating wounding of war and the amazing ways closure, release and peace can be found with the aid of the shaman. | 5/20/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamans are Sent as an Answer to a Prayer | This week we explore the lifeway of a shaman and what that can still mean today in this world of advertising, misinformation, and workshops on every corner. “The shaman isn’t made. The shaman is sent as an answer to a prayer.” These are the teachings of our guest, Reverend Shaman John-Luke Edwards, MA, PhD. that prayer may speak the needs of a community, a place, a time, or perhaps even a person. The loss of ancestral wisdom as the shaman attempts to adapt to contemporary life may mean that he or she cannot be the answer they have come to be. Dr. Luke is an ordained shaman of The Wolven Path, which is a rebirth of an ancient Celtic/Druidic form of shamanism. Shamanic Clergy illuminate the path for others by setting their own hearts and souls aflame; they share, teach, and proclaim the Shamanic way of living. We will discuss the uniqueness of this path, the power of ritual to transform, and the dangers of social niceties along the path of the contemporary shaman. | 5/13/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Initiation and Why We Need it Desperately | Initiation is the thing we most need from shamanism and are least willing to receive. Much has been written about initiation in psychology, shamanism, and the writings from men’s and women’s groups. Most of it misses the point. Initiation isn’t a form or an ancient ritual. Initiation is a function. It’s a transformation that requires context, fear, and surrender to be present in large amounts. Initiation can happen spontaneously or within a traditional practice, however it rarely happens on purpose. It is required to move a human from child to adult or an adult onto a path of mastery. Join host Christina Pratt and explore why life certainly teaches us, but rarely initiates us—(If the school of hard knocks could do that, the planet would be over run with wise, compassionate elders, passionate, joyful adults and children who are safe and free to truly be children.) Let’s discuss what we need to create and to over come to reintroduce initiation into contemporary American culture. | 5/6/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism and Medicine Today | Shamanism and medicine are blending in a variety of unexpected places across American. This week Alan Davis, MD, PhD, medical director for Quinney Rehabilitation Institute, discusses the merging of these medicines. Davis has been studying core shamanism for a decade. Join us as we discuss how this successful MD came to core shamanism and why he finds great joy and community in this part of his life. We will explore how these disciplines are blending and enriching each other. Davis is also the president of the Board of Directors of the Society of Shamanic Practitioners (SSP) here in the US. The SSP is "an alliance of people deeply committed to the re-emergence of shamanic practices that promote healthy individuals and viable communities." Their annual conference will be held June 18-21 at Menla Mountain Retreat in the Catskills Mountains. Alan will discus Bantu Medicine men, the "Temple of Spirit", a Corn Oracle and other adventures available at this year's SSP conference. | 4/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Healing the Hard Stuff | There are certain life experiences and traumas that contemporary medicine says people can't or won't heal from. Shamanism suggests that people can't heal from these events using only contemporary medicine. In other words some wounds are taken in at the soul level. It takes soul medicine to heal them and shamanism offers us this medicine. The hard stuff happens for several reasons: too deep, too pervasive, or too frightening. When events are so intense, fast, or life threatening they cause soul loss and we are left feeling a deep hole, a loss of self, or PTSD. When we weave a web of poor choices, addictions, and too much of the wrong kind of help the problem becomes too pervasive to transform by conventional means. When we must face the Unknown or our fear of Death to cross the gap between where we are and the healing that we need it can be too frightening. Join us as we discuss how shamanism uniquely transforms the hard stuff with ease into soulful healing and great gifts. | 4/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Sexual Shaman: Path of Wisdom, Energy, and Intent | "If we wish to understand shamanism, we most know energy. If we wish to understand orgasm, we must know energy. If we wish to understand God/Source/Goddess, we must know energy.” These are the wise words of our guest, Kenneth Ray Stubbs Ph.D. Stubbs creates a ceremonial path to energy, wisdom, and intent for students enrolled in his shamanic training and for his clients. His focus is true transformation, saying, “...not all change is transformation. Only when we change intrinsic structure of something do we literally have trans—formation.” To do this we must learn to access and use our transformative sexual energy or fire. Stubbs will discuss how this energy supports true transformation, the four elemental manifestations of sexual energy, and other adventures along the path of the Sexual Shaman. Stubbs is presenting the 4th Annual Conference on Shamanism and Sexuality on September 10-13. Listen and learn of the many paths of transformation the conference offers this fall. | 4/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism, Passion and Sex | Shamanism’s great gift to us today is divine inspiration with direct application. This paradox in particularly helpful when we finally commit to untangling our passion from all of the misinformation, confusion, and shame we have heaped on it. Our passion is a gift from the Divine given to guide us naturally to our soul’s purpose. This current time of collapse and chaos is an excellent opportunity to recreate your life based on what is essential, that which abides, and that which you have passion for. So the question is: “What is your True Passion?” In this program we will discuss using shamanic skills to live in a way that you can let love be love, sex be sex, and dreams be dreams, so that your passion is freed to do what it is designed to do, naturally guide you to the energy of your soul’s purpose by burning true as you move into it and leaving you cold as you move further from path. Join us as we explore shamanism, passion, and sex as expressions of our destiny. | 4/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sandra Ingerman on Where Shamanism is Today | Sandra Ingerman, our guest, is recognized internationally for addressing the needs of our times directly by bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture. She is the author of Soul Retrieval, Medicine for the Earth, and How to Heal Toxic Thoughts, among other fine books and she teaches workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra will discuss where shamanism is and where she would like to see it go in the future. We will explore the challenges contemporary shamans face, like surrender, freedom, and letting go and what it takes to transmute toxicity in the environment, both internal and external. We will discuss the untapped potential in shamanism and shamanic healing. What would this esteemed and experienced contemporary shaman like to see that isn’t happening yet? Come listen to Sandy's clarity about today and her vision for the future of shamanism and the planet. | 4/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Courageous Heart, Part 4: The Vision of the Seer | Courageous Heart Series—Part 4 of 4: The Vision of the Seer Shamanism as a spiritual practice allows us to gather and cultivate the powers of the heart: love, wisdom, power, and vision. Vision allows us to see through our lies and self-denial to see our True Nature. Our True Nature resonates with our calling and our soul’s longing express the unique energy of this lifetime. When we slip into fear and begin to doubt the vision we see only what is wrong and what is not working. We loose the resonance of our soul’s purpose and the larger vision that supports it. Shamanic skills allow us to reengage the clarity of the heart and it resonance with the truth. Truth telling brings us back to our True Nature. From our True Nature we can work with spirit to learn to craft the Big Dream from which reality is created. The challenge of the Seer’s heart is not “what is my purpose?” but “which of all of these wondrous visions is the one vision the sings with the greatest resonance in my heart?” | 3/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Courageous Heart, Part 3: The Power of the Teacher | Courageous Heart Series—Part 3 of 4: The Power of the Teacher You have the gathered the love of your path (Healer) and the wisdom to guide you along it (Warrior). But where is the power to make it real? The power comes from the Teacher’s ability to see through his/her own stories to the deeper truth to the soul and it’s longing. The shamanic skills of the Strong Heart are used to transform all aspects of self that have become righteous, positional, judgmental or controlling. Walking the path of your soul’s purpose demands passionate commitment to the process without attachment to the outcome. Teacher cultivates a robust relationship with the Unknown and the fundamental truth that All is One and there is no separation. Having exposed the lie of separation, the Teacher brings Balance, Wholeness, and Trust to the life expression of the Authentic Self. The strong heart of the Teacher gives us access to our power to step into our own self-mastery and sovereignty. | 3/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Courageous Heart, Part 2: The Wisdom of the Warrior | Courageous Heart Series—Part 2 of 4: The Wisdom of the Warrior So what does it take to live your life with a courageous heart? To choose to live fully and completely, to disconnect yourself from the seductions of the day, and to surrender to the call of your soul is nothing short of an act of spiritual warriorship. And not one act, but the ongoing actions of a person oriented in life to face his/her fears willingly and then do whatever it takes to walk the path. The path of the Spiritual Warrior moves in the Emotional Body and cultivates mastery of self through the willingness to look honestly at what lies in the Shadow. Shamanic skills allow us to transform the enemies we find there into an ally. These allies return to us bringing our humor, sensuality, innate gifts, sexuality, and other passionate aspect s of the self we have judged harshly. “What would you do today if you knew you would die tomorrow?” If the answer is “nothing,” your courageous heart awaits. | 3/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Courageous Heart, Part 1: The Love of the Healer | Courageous Heart Series—Part 1 of 4: The Love of the Healer So what does it take to truly and fully live a life of Authenticity and Purpose? It isn’t enough to start focusing your intention now and using your mind to make a new life happen. There is a place for the mind and its clarity. However the much more powerful organ of manifestation is the Heart. This week we begin a four part series exploring the four aspects of the self that must work together for you to discover your soul’s true purpose and life it. The heart offers powers to clear out of addictive patterns. This gives us access to shamanic skills to work with Life—Death—Rebirth intentionally to clear the way and create energy for the new. As we manifest the new, fear, resistance and Shadow always arise. We will explore the many ways that looking at fear and shadow from a shamanic, not a psychological perspective, can make the path through that scary place obvious, probably challenging, but ultimately joyful. | 3/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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War and the Soul: Healing the Warrior’s Wounds | War occurs in an altered state as does the wounding of body and soul. The experiences of war can only be understood from an altered state, and given this, their true healing comes through altered states. The medicinal use of altered states is the realm of the shaman. Our guest, Dr. Ed Tick specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. Join us as Dr Tick speaks from his award-winning book War And The Soul about his groundbreaking work in healing of veterans. “We can create reconciliation and restoration practices that directly redress the wounds against life that oppress the veteran…Then the spirits that were loosed during the war—whether of the survivor or the slain—may find peace, meaning, and lifelong alliance. Then the veteran may make the return journey home and the healer too will be transformed.” | 2/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanism for Activists: The Alchemy of Social Transformation | “Our times call for the transformation of rallies, protests, and marches into massive, intentional sacred healing rituals, in which we ally ourselves with all humans, the compassionate spirits, the ancestors, and the spirit of the earth and stars.” This is the vision of our guest, Lenore Norrgard, shamanic healer and social alchemist. Lenore will discuss her journey from revolutionary social activist to profound social healer and share her experiences leading social healing rituals from the White House to inner north Portland where she lives. For shamans ritual is not mindless habit or rote actions, but the means by which we engage the spirit world to assist us in changes we are unable to do alone. Lenore explains that, “Through ritual we remember our oneness with all things, even our opponents, and find our way past oppositional stances to a place where we create collective healing for all and profound social change.” | 2/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Healing our Ancestral Lines | “Throughout shamanic cultures worldwide there exists a deep respect and understanding of our connectedness and indebtedness to our Ancestors. It is the duty of the living to live in such a way that brings healing to our Ancestral lines.” These are the words of Martin Brennan, who joins us again this week as we explore Ancestral Helping Spirits. In shamanism it is the role of the Ancestors to remember the role of the living to heal and change, and where necessary, to live differently. In a healthy shamanic relationship the Ancestors are available to the living sharing not only what they learned from living, but their perspective on their choices now that they are part of the Great Oneness. We will explore the critical difference between an Ancestor and a ghost. Why funeral practices are critically important. Brennan, a contemporary American dislocated as many are from their roots, will share his expertise in finding and cultivating a powerful working relationship with his Ancestors. | 2/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Responding to The Call: The Trials and Tribulations of Following Spirit’s Guidance | “One of the most important and powerful skills an individual can become aware of, cultivate, and practice is the ability to hear and follow Spirit’s call.” These are the words of Martin Brennan, our guest for this week. Join host Christina Pratt in a lively discussion about receiving The Call from Spirit. Brennan is a student of life and believes everyone must be willing to experiment with his or her life. Furthermore, if you expect to listen to Spirit’s guidance then you must be open to the unexpected and the illogical. And you must be willing to be scared every day and do it anyway. Find out how Mr. Brennan got from divinity school to dancing on the bar in Las Vegas to training corporate leaders all as an expression of his shamanic practice. What do you do when the knowing in your body and your “truth cord” lead you far, far away from your comfort zone? | 2/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Shamanic Healing: What It Is and Why It Works | Shamans look at “health” as well-being and balance in the individual physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, communally, intimately, and personally. Shamanic healing works because the relationship between the shaman and the spirits enables the shaman to “see” the root of the dis-ease as it is manifest in the invisible world and attend to it there. In other words though your symptoms may be presenting physically your shamanic diagnosis is that you experienced soul loss at 7, which is the cause of lingering issues that block you from the community connections you need to truly live your soul’s purpose so you have settled for a job that allows you to avoid community, but lies far from your purpose. And that is making you sick. Shamanic remedies usually include the removal of energies or soul retrieval or other retrieval of energy. Ultimately shamanic healing is then performed through ritual (to create change) or ceremony (to realign with higher beliefs and values). | 1/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Oneness with all things—Now what do I do? | the heart. Everything is One. Everything affects everything. Everything is sacred. A listener asked, “if that is true then what is my accountability for everything?” That is the question we will explore this week. What is our responsibility to the sacredness in everything, especially those things that really don’t seem sacred at all? How can we live in a health way when we are connected to everything and there is a lot around us that doesn’t seem real healthy? How am I part of war, greed, and hatred? And most important, how am I part of the transformation of war, greed, and hatred into energies that support life on Earth? | 1/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Access your Birthright: a Direct (Working) Relationship with Spirit. | Authenticity emerges from our soul. But that soul message is not always as clear as we would like it to be. Explore the many ways shamanic skills enable us to augment both the clarity of our inner voice and our ability to hear that voice over the internal chatter and distraction of today. How do we reliably engage a little Divine help for these important life decisions? First we need to make sure we see reality accurately. We need to release the assumptions we are making that distort reality. Next we must get clear: what do we really want to know? The path to wealth or the path to true personal power? The path out of loneliness or the path into our true passion? Are you looking for short-term relief from fear or a leap along the path of your soul’s evolution? Once we have a message from the Divine we must ask, “What is spirit actually saying?” | 1/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why Shamanism Now? Answers for Challenging Times | What was shamanism and what is it today? Join host Christina Pratt in an exploration of what shamanism is and what it isn’t. What answers do the ancients offer us for these challenging times we live in? Pratt suggests that they don’t have the answers, but the means by which we could get answers that will—if acted on—change our lives. At the core of true, authentic shamanism is a live, direct, working relationship with spirit. This two-way communication characterizes a shamanic relationship with spirit and it is your birthright. You can draw comfort, guidance, clarity, inspiration, and healing directly from this relationship. And most importantly shamanism helps us to make better quality decisions—decisions that actually solve the problem at hand without creating three more, decisions that move beyond divisive politics and self-service, and finally decisions that will serve the next seven generations. | 1/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 73 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
An amazing resource
Christina Pratt's radio show/podcast is an amazing resource for anyone interested in shamanic practice. Articulate and practical, she demystifies the process of listening to spirit and learning to fulfill one's soul purpose. Her guests are diverse and interesting. I will be listening to some of these more than once!
Love it
I only started listening a couple of months back, have been going through the podcasts from the beginning - and love them. Christina is great and her talks here are just a treasure. A lot of them I'll be going back to again and again for repeat listenings.
practical, useful guide for enjoying the jouney of life
I am glad I found this even though I never knew anything about shamanism before, It has helped me learn a little about how to get a grip of my energy. I listen every week. Thank you for this podcast.
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- Category: Spirituality
- Language: English
- © 2009, Last Mask Center and Christina Pratt
