WHAT IS SOUL RETRIEVAL?

Hello and blessings, my friends!

Today, I wanted to share with you a bit about essential shamanism.

Essential shamanism is the inner human journey, the journey of the soul.

Each culture forms their own relationship with the inner world, their own way of structuring our interactions with our inner space.

One thing shared by all of these cultural perspectives is the holistic view, the perception that all parts of the human experience come together to form the healthy human experience.

In essential shamanism, we explore the energetic template of health and support outer health through inner work.

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From a medical perspective, there are many causes of disease.

From a shamanic perspective, there are only a few.

The shamanic perspective is more holistic in nature.

It views the human body as the densest part of the being, a kernel of matter at the heart of a field of energy.

This field of subtle energy informs the body how to grow.

And, when this field of energy is imbalanced, when there are gaps or misaligned frequencies, these things inform the body to grow in less-than-optimal ways.

And, in extreme cases, in ways that lead to disease.

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And this field of subtle energy influences far more than the growth of the physical body.

It also creates an almost magnetic attraction of certain types of outer experience, those which resonate with the frequencies in our field.

The outer world reflects the inner, and the field of subtle energy around us is, at any moment, like a portrait of the inner world at that moment.

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Now, there are times when we go through something, and it’s really challenging.

It might be too much for us to handle at that moment, so we shut it down.

We suppress the emotion evoked by the experience, wall it off, and build a maze of stories around it.

Eventually, we can forget that we are holding on to this old feeling. It can get buried so deep that we don’t even know it’s there.

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Whenever we do this, we lock a portion of our psychic energy into a fixed configuration.

We lock it away into the unconscious, and no longer have conscious access to it.

But these repressed parts of our psyche still affect us.

This emotional core and the stories linked to it still influence our lives.

They call the shots from behind the curtain, coloring our perception and causing us to position ourselves in the world so it lines up with these past experiences.

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In shamanic terms, this is called soul loss.

A portion of our psychic energy has been locked away in that previous experience.

In order to reclaim that psychic energy, we have to reconnect with that emotion and allow ourselves to process it.

This is called soul retrieval.

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So, to recap, soul loss is a term which describes a portion of our psychic energy locked away from our conscious access.

And this can be intense.

The human mind is incredibly powerful, and aspects of ourselves that have split off for some time can seem to take on a life of their own, operating as independent entities.

It’s a bit like the same computer is running two programs at once, and these programs are competing for processing power.

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Talk therapy is often aimed at bringing suppressed things (lost bits of soul) back into conscious awareness.

The next key is processing the emotions that come up as soon as the issue enters our awareness once more.

Shamanic soul retrieval can be incredibly powerful, and in much the same way.

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At the level of the subtle energy, each person heals themselves. Nobody else can tell your energy what to do.

We can offer and inspire. But each person is, at an unconscious level, in control of their energy field.

So, all energetic healing is a communication of frequencies, a partnership between the energies of the healer and the recipient.

The healer offers. And, if the recipient is aligned with what is offered, then they receive a new frequency.

Their own energetic field receives new guidance, new direction.

And their own energy informs their own body to grow in a new and ideally healthier way.

This is healing at the level of the energetic template.

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With shamanic healing, we bring in the element of the journey.

All of the world beyond the bubble of our physical experience is preserved in the form of stories.

When we journey inwardly, we can review our personal history, process old bits of charge stuck along the line, and realign all of our old stories with our current level of understanding.

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From this perspective, a shaman facilitates an inner journey for the recipient.

This journey may be played out in dream symbols, colorful inner visions that must later be unpacked to see how they fit with our lived experience.

But often these dreamlike inner visions have deep wisdom in their design, a little hint of our inner genius showing through.

Also, when we guide ourselves through interaction with these old cores of emotion on a symbolic level, we communicate the change of intention to the subconscious.

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The subconscious speaks in its own logic, in symbols and myths and associations.

When we inwardly journey through an experience, we bring the conscious and subconscious together, allowing us to connect with aspects of ourselves that are out of normal conscious access.

We each have the capacity to journey inward and tune in to the tension we carry in our body, the stuck emotions we carry in our emotional space.

We can do this on our own, without assistance, and in any way we like. As in, there are no special ways to do it, no “right rituals” for inner journeying and healthy processing.

There is only what works.

What we get with both talk therapy and shamanic journeying is a clear structure and framework to meet and process these experiences healthily.

And just to be clear, we can do this without plant medicines or specific rituals, just by getting still, relaxing, and listening inward.

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We can all do this, just as we can all use breath and attention to shift our consciousness at will.

We just have to learn how, whether we learn from inner experimentation or through the guidance of those who have explored this in their own journey.

If you would like to explore this for yourself, you can do so in the context of your daily life.

All of our life challenges, illnesses, chronic issues, etc., are fixed in place by an emotional core.

The key to transcending these challenges is to process this emotional core.

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So, the next time you get triggered, take time to process it.

And the process is pretty simple…

(Not easy, but simple.)

When you notice that you get triggered:

1. Lean in (instead of away)

2. Relax (instead of tensing up)

3. Hold space for yourself (Breathe it through and let it take its own time, allow the intensity to ebb, 15 minutes, start to feel some space around the feeling)

4. Reflect upon what’s come up. And, if necessary, listen to how best to respond to what’s come up.

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When you find something deep, take a bit of extra time with it.

Make some space where you can go a bit deeper.

Play the triggering experience through again, slowly, making sure to feel each bit. Savoring.

And, if the emotions lead to another and earlier memory, let yourself go there.

At each step of the way, breathe, hold space, and let the waves of emotion work through the body.

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If you can manage to do this each time you get triggered, if you can make a lifestyle out of showing up for your emotions when you become aware of them…

Then you have transformed your life into a living practice.

A little bit of soul retrieval each day.

A bit more personal power reclaimed.

A bit more free will actualized.

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So I wanted to share this to bridge the gap a bit.

We may hear a term like soul retrieval and think that it sounds mystical and otherworldly.

And it is! Life is really big, and it’s linked together in unexpected ways.

But this is also really practical, really natural.

This should be basic education for all human beings: the nuances of working with our own conscious experience.

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So, if you want to know more, reach out!

This is the kind of thing that I teach.

Because every single human being has amazing potential.

Because we can all work with different states of consciousness naturally, and experience more robust health, a freer, more authentic emotional space, and incredible clarity.

Blessings to you, Being of Infinite Potential!