"Drum Sounds and Their Meanings"

Mickey Hart

Mickey Hart is an American Grammy winning percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. In 2014 Mickey wrote an excellent article for Smithsonian Folkways titled "Drum Sounds and Their Meanings." This article focuses on how drums are used in many cultures to communicate, play, work, as well as express cultural connections to death, war, and spirituality.

The drum plays a role of great importance in many cultures for its rhythm develops a oneness of feeling and purpose with the rhythms of life. According to Mickey: "There are three fundamental rhythms that each of us experiences: the personal rhythm of the human body, the larger social rhythm of the family, tribe or nation, and the enveloping cosmic rhythms of the planets and the universe." Mickey outlines the ingenious ways that we use drums and percussion of all kinds to manipulate and experience these rhythms. He also shares his favorite drum tracks, while explaining their meaning in our lives and culture. Read more.

Shamanism Without Beliefs

Shamanism is the spiritual practice of ecstasy. Ecstasy is defined as a mystic, prophetic, or poetic trance. Practitioners focus on voluntarily entering altered states of consciousness in which they access personal revelation and spiritual experience. The aim of shamanism is to connect with your essence. Like Buddhism and Taoism, shamanism is about remembering, exploring, and developing the true self. Shamanism places emphasis on the individual, of breaking free and discovering one's own uniqueness in order to bring something new back to the group.

When a practitioner has rigid beliefs about shamanism, they aren't practicing shamanism. The rigidity of beliefs (dogmatism) moves a belief system into the realm of a religion, but shamanism is not a religion. Religion is any cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, world views, texts, sanctified places, ethics, or organizations that relate humanity to the supernatural or transcendental. The cultural imprinting of a religion leaves the individual outside the realm of personal spiritual experience.

Shamanism has no hierarchy, no prophets, no temples, no scriptures, and no dogma. There is no dogmatic creed because but shamanic practice demands your active participation in creating an organic, evolving vision of the world. Shamanism requires no faith in anything but your own experience of it. Rigid thinking will only keep you stuck in a narrow perspective, distorting your perceptions of reality. Rigidity is resistance, and resistance will shut you down, block your connection with inner truth, and prevent you from seeing the true nature of the universe.

So if you want to have beliefs about shamanism, that's fine, but you need to set them aside when you practice shamanic trance. The shamanic state of consciousness (SSC) disengages you from the rigid patterns that suppress the manifestations of individualism. Ecstatic trance enables you to participate directly in the work of encountering and transforming your inner structure, which mirrors your culture. Structure determines how energy will flow, where it will be directed, and what new forms and structures will be created. Through the transformation of your inner landscapes, you transform the external landscapes. You create new forms, new structures that are not based on hierarchy, estrangement, and exploitation. You renew the sacred hoop of harmony and balance. This is the work of the shaman.

10 Effective Energy Clearing Techniques

Energy clearing is a term used to describe specific techniques that people ought to adopt in order to keep their aura, or energy field, clean from the negative thoughts and emotions of others. Our auras interact continuously with the energy of others. Whether we realize it or not, we are attracting harmful energetic vibrations from our environment. Picking up negative energy that is not ours can make our energy field less balanced, and can cause blockages to the natural flow of energy in our body. We may feel tired, unbalanced, anxious, depressed, or even sick. We can clear our fields through various cleansing techniques, leaving us feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. Energy clearing also releases negative, limiting, or otherwise outmoded patterns of belief that aren't serving us anymore. Here are 10 effective energy clearing techniques:

1. Create Your Own Sacred Space

Sacred space is that territory that we enter for spiritual and inner work. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, having a special place in your home reserved for quiet introspection, reflection and spiritual connection can nourish your soul. A sacred space can be any location in your home where you can be by yourself and find a place to be fully self-expressed. Be creative with this, but find a special place for you to go at least once a day. Whether you practice meditation or prayer, you are clearing out old energy and filling your space with the good vibrations.

2. Deep Breathing Exercises

The simple act of breathing deeply and slowly for a couple of minutes is an essential tool for clearing energy. Deep breathing increases blood flow, reduces stress and blood pressure, and releases toxins from the body. Simply close your eyes and focus on the breath as it enters the nose and fills your lungs, then gently exhale any tension you might feel. As you inhale, feel the air revitalizing your body and energy field. As you exhale, feel your body and field being cleared of negative thoughts and emotions, or anything that no longer serves you. Allow it to drift off on the air of the wind, on the breath of life. Continue breathing with a series of even inhalations and exhalations until you are calm and relaxed.

3. White Light Cleansing

Light--imagined or real--is a powerful aura cleanser. White light can be called upon by anyone for cleansing, healing and protection from negative energies. Lie or sit comfortably. Do some deep breathing to calm and focus your mind. Visualize a sphere of white light emanating from your heart. Just allow it to expand outward until it completely fills and surrounds you. Envision the white light purifying and restoring your body, and displacing any negative or foreign energy. Really focus on seeing it clearly in your mind, and keep building it up so it's brilliant and glowing. You can keep expanding the light, sending peace and love out into infinity.

4. Cleanse Yourself and Your Home of Negative Energy Daily

Smudge yourself and your home each day. Smudging is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to dispel negative energy and open the energy channels of your body. Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging. Light the herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle and then blow out the flames. Then use a feather or your hands to fan the smoke around your body and home. I recommend cracking a window or door for ventilation and for releasing unwanted energies.

5. Use Holy Water

Learn how to make your own consecrated, or holy water, and use it for cleansing, protection, and blessing. Pour some holy water into a spray bottle. For an aura cleansing, spray it toward yourself from arms length (avoiding your eyes, of course). To bless and protect your home, spray holy water around the perimeter of your dwelling and yard. Many people will dismiss the power of holy water based on its association with the church. This is not about religion; this is about a pragmatic solution to an age-old problem. The fact of the matter is that holy water is your best protection against negative and dark energies.

6. Connect To Nature

Get outside and spend time in nature alone at least once a day to recharge. Sunlight is a natural energy purifier. Try walking, gardening, or just sitting under a tree. Touching a tree can help you ground and discharge negative energy from your body. Physically touching or sitting on the earth will have a calming and grounding effect. Take in the beauty of nature with all of your senses. Breathe in the colors, shapes, and textures. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds and smells. Allow the natural world to ground you in the present moment.

7. Use Protection Stones

Protection stones can help dispel negative energies and shield you from psychic, emotional and physical attack. Black tourmaline repels lower, harmful frequencies and is good for general all-round protection. Black obsidian is a good grounding stone to wear in your aura each day, shielding you from negativity, sorcery and spirit attachments. Jet helps clear internalized emotional energy. Apache tears transmute negative energy. These crystals can be obtained as small tumbled stones which can easily be carried in your pocket every day. To protect your entire home, place black tourmaline or black obsidian in the four main corners of your house. Cleanse your stones frequently with holy water.

8. Sea Salt Baths

Sea salt has remarkable cleansing abilities. Having a soothing bath containing sea salt when you feel energetically overwhelmed can really make a huge difference in the way you feel. Just a handful of sea salt dissolved in a hot bath is a reliable remedy for clearing and recharging the energy field. You can use regular sea salt, Himalayan salt, Epsom salt, or other. Preferably, soak for at least 30 minutes, and say a quick blessing over the water before you get in. Keep a generous supply of drinking water on hand as well, and bless that too!

9. Raise Your Vibration
Drumming, chanting and prayer raise your vibration, open the heart and connect you with a power greater than yourself. Chanting has no limitations of time and space and can be done anytime or anywhere. Chants move us to a level of awareness beyond form, a place where we discover our own divinity. Regular prayer is a cornerstone of spiritual practice. Praying brings us Divine help, reduces our ego, grants us forgiveness of mistakes, and more. Repetitive drumming, chanting and prayer cleanse the aura, boost the immune system and produce feelings of well-being, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self.

10. Establish Clear Personal Boundaries 

Establishing clear personal boundaries is the key to ensuring relationships are mutually respectful, supportive and caring. Boundaries are a measure of self-esteem. They set the limits for acceptable behavior from those around you. Clearly define what your physical, emotional and spiritual boundaries are with friends, family, co-workers and strangers. Identify your core values, belief system, and outlook on life so you have a clear picture of who you are and how you want to live. When linked to your core values, boundaries help you align your daily activities and behaviors with your life's purpose. The passionate expression of our soul's purpose is precisely the medicine the earth needs at this time.

Do We See the World as it Truly Is?

Human Brain Image

When we open our eyes, do we see the world as it really is? Do we see reality? The answer is that we don't see reality, according to new neuroscience research. In Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently, neuroscientist Beau Lotto tells us it is the human mind that imposes meaning on our perceptions. He thinks our perceptions terminate at the boundaries of our brain. According to Lotto, we function with versions of reality that have nothing to do with what is actually out there -- what exists in the real world.

Neuroscience studies show that perception is not what our eyes and ears tell us; it is what our brain makes us see and hear. Your personal reality isn't the perception of what is "out there," but an observation of what is going on inside your head. The senses are similar to the keyboard of a computer: they provide access, but the real job is done in the brain. Your brain takes in the information from your senses, but your reality isn't made up of the atoms of the "real world." It's made up of the atoms of your brain. Perception is just an illusory product of our mind. The world we see around us is ultimately no more real than a hologram.

New research demonstrates that we do not see the real world; we only see what helped us to survive in the past. As Lotto puts it, "We don't see reality -- we only see what was useful to see in the past." Much like a road map, our perceptual brain doesn't offer an accurate spatial representation; rather, it helps us to navigate in a safe and efficient way. The world revealed by our senses is not the real world, but an imperfect copy of it. In our conscious mind we see the world through a distorted perception system. The world we live in does not exist in the way we perceive it. Because of this flawed information collection system we can never see the world as it truly is. Lotto astutely observes that, "Our species has been so successful not in spite of our inability to see reality but because of it."

Perception underpins everything we think, know, and believe. Yet if our perception is a manifestation of our past, how is it ever possible to step outside the past in order to live and create differently in the future? Lotto believes that deviating from the way we currently perceive will lead to future innovations in thought and behavior in all aspects of our lives. This is why the book is called Deviate. Lotto argues that perception includes a lot of assumptions which contribute to preconceived ideas that keep us stuck in a narrow perspective on our personal and social reality. By revealing the startling truths about the brain and its perceptions, Beau Lotto shows that the next big innovation is not a new technology: it is a new way of seeing. Look inside Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently (paid link)

Thanksgiving in all Things

Celebrating a bountiful harvest once a year is a wonderful tradition. But giving thanks should be more than just a yearly event. Rather, the expression of gratitude ought to be a daily practice. Giving thanks and being in a state of gratitude opens our heart, allowing our indwelling presence of being, our Spirit, to rise forth unimpeded. Gratitude, like any other spiritual practice, is something we do, not just something we feel. And it's something we need to practice.

Try to cultivate a spirit of gratitude in all things. Even in situations that seem difficult to give thanks for, just remember that you are on the Earth to experience, learn and grow. An "attitude of gratitude" in all things helps connect us to our core values and purpose for being here. Foster a reciprocal relationship of meaning to the Earth. Take time to honor and respect the reciprocal cycle of give and take, for Mother Earth provides everything we need to live and flourish. Express your gratitude through prayer and offerings. Give thanks also for the things you are praying for. Giving thanks before needs are met is a way of making space to receive them. Expressing gratitude for something before it actually appears in your life develops trust and confidence in your ability to create. In this season of gathering in, let us bring forth the spiritual fruit of thanksgiving in all things.

Drumming the Tree of Life

My Rolling Thunder Drum

In the shaman's world, the drum is a most sacred instrument. The double-headed drum is believed to embody the sacred forces of the cosmos through its sounds, structural features, contents, and connection to shamanic trance. The various parts of the drum also symbolize the structures of the world. Cosmologically, the drum depicts a microcosm of the universe with its three zones -- the Upper (sky), Middle (human or social realm), and Lower Worlds (earth). The two drumheads symbolize the Upper and Lower Worlds.

The rim of the drum symbolizes the Middle World and is connected to the Tree of Life (World Tree) through the wood of the frame and its association through all trees back to the First Tree. Like the Tree of Life, which links the earth and sky, the rim links the two sides of the drum -- the yin and the yang. A double-headed drum unites the sacred feminine and masculine aspects of the universe within itself. It restores the balance of these polar, yet co-creative elements.

The two drumheads also symbolize the two states of existence -- unmanifest and manifest. When a double-headed drum is vibrated, it produces dissimilar sounds which are fused together by resonance to create one sound. The drumbeat is the tuner sound, the sound that fuses the unmanifest and manifest aspects of vibration into one resonance. The sound thus produced symbolizes Nada, the cosmic sound of AUM, which can be heard during deep meditation. 

From a shamanic perspective, caretaking the drum and playing it properly during ritual fulfills the destiny of the human spirit -- to sustain the order of existence. In the rapture of ritual drumming, the shaman brings the Tree of Life into existence, opening a path of communication with the world above and the world below. Materialized in the drum, the trunk of the tree goes through the Middle World; its roots plunge to the nadir in the Lower World, and its branches soar to the zenith in the highest layer of the Upper World. The drum becomes the axis mundi or central axis through which the shaman maintains the world's equilibrium. To learn more look inside my book The Shamanic Drum.

Drumming for Mindfulness and Healing

Chöd Practitioners

A significant number of research studies have documented both drumming and mindfulness meditation as effective therapy for everything from stress to depression to supportive cancer treatment. This is not new science. Since the time of Buddha (about 2,600 years ago), we have known about the stress-reducing benefits of both drumming and mindfulness meditation, which focuses on nonjudgmental awareness of sensations, feelings, and state of mind. Combining these two ancient practices -- drumming and mindfulness -- can be life-altering. Even one session of meditation, focused on a drum's beat demonstrates how powerful this meditation method can be in our stressful modern lives. The powerful and compelling rhythm of drums can still and focus the mind -- the quick path to mindfulness and well-being! Read more.

Buffalo/Bison Medicine

Buffalo/Bison symbolizes prayer, manifestation, and abundance. Buffalo's medicine includes creativity, feminine courage, abundance, knowledge, generosity, hospitality, sharing work, protection, strength, challenge, survival, and giving for the greater good. In Lakota Native American spirituality, Tatanka, the Buffalo, is seen as a living prayer and manifestation of the wisdom and generosity of Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery). Buffalo shows us the importance of prayer and gratitude for all we have. An "attitude of gratitude" in all things opens our heart and helps connect us to our core values and purpose for being here.

Buffalo teaches us to foster a reciprocal relationship of meaning to the Earth. Take time to honor and respect the reciprocal cycle of give and take, for Mother Earth provides everything we need to live and flourish. Express your gratitude through prayer and offerings. Give thanks also for the things you are praying for. Giving thanks before needs are met is a way of making space to receive them. Expressing gratitude for something before it actually appears in your life develops trust and confidence in your ability to create. To manifest abundance through prayer, you must eliminate all doubt, detach yourself from the outcome, and trust in the creative power of the universe to provide what is needed. To connect with Buffalo, listen to my recording of the "Buffalo Chant."

Dignity of Earth and Sky

She casts her peaceful gaze across the waters of the Missouri River. During the day, the South Dakota wind brushes the diamonds in her star quilt, causing blue shades to twinkle in the sunlight. At night, she stands illuminated and strong. She is Dignity. Dignity (a.k.a. Dignity of Earth & Sky) is a sculpture on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River near Chamberlain, South Dakota. The 50-foot high stainless steel statue, by South Dakota artist laureate Dale Lamphere, depicts an Indigenous woman in Plains-style dress. She holds outstretched a quilt featuring 128 stainless steel blue diamond shapes designed to flutter in the wind. According to Lamphere, "Dignity represents the courage, perseverance and wisdom of the Lakota and Dakota cultures in South Dakota. My intent is to have the sculpture stand as an enduring symbol of our shared belief that all here are sacred, and in a sacred place. My hope is that the sculpture might serve as a symbol of respect and promise for the future."

What is Shamanism?

 Oroqen Shaman

According to the Encyclopedia of Shamanism, a shaman is a practitioner who has developed the mastery of "accessing altered states of consciousness" and "mediating between the needs of the spirit world and those of the physical world in a way that can be understood by the community ...." Shamanism is the intentional effort to acquire and nurture ongoing relationships with personal helping spirits by journeying into realms where the spirits dwell. The reason for developing personal relationships with spirit helpers is to gain wisdom, healing techniques, and other vital information that can benefit the community. It is this intimate relationship with spirit and the use of trance states that distinguishes the shaman from other practitioners.

Shamanism represents a universal conceptual framework found among indigenous tribal humans. It includes the belief that the natural world has two aspects: ordinary everyday awareness, formed by our habitual behaviors, patterns of belief, social norms, and cultural conditioning, and a second non-ordinary awareness accessed through altered states, or trance, induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. This second-order awareness can be developed over time or appear all at once, but once it is discerned the world is never the same. According to shamanic theory, the ordinary and non-ordinary worlds interact continuously, and a shamanic practitioner can gain knowledge about how to alter ordinary reality by taking direct action in the non-ordinary aspect of the world.

Shamans employ methods for altering consciousness so that they can send their souls into the non-ordinary reality of the spirits who become their friends, guides, guardians, instructors, and allies. These helping spirits might be the spirits of nature, animals, plants, the elements, ancestors, gods, goddesses, or teachers from various religious traditions. The act of sending one's soul into the spirit world is called the soul flight or shamanic journey, and it allows the journeyer to view life and life's problems from a detached, spiritual perspective, not easily achieved in a state of ordinary consciousness.

The shaman's trance is an intentionally induced state of ecstasy. Shamanic trance is characterized by its flexibility, ranging from a light diagnostic state, to spirit flight, and to full embodiment by spirit. Shamans use intention and discipline to control the nature, depth, and qualities of their trance states. The shaman may progress through a range of trance states until they reach the level that is necessary for healing to occur.

The capacity to enter a range of trance states is a natural manifestation of human consciousness. The ability to enter trance states makes us a human - not a shaman. What makes shamans unique is their mastery over an otherwise normal human trait. It requires training, practice, and devotion to master any expressive art. Shamans master the art of ecstasy to see the true nature of the universe.

Raise Your Vibration Today

It isn't hard to see that even though we live on a planet that surrounds us with beauty, that there is a lot of darkness manifesting within humanity. Cruelty, violence and instability are on the rise. To raise the heavy vibration of fear that's enveloping the world, lift your own vibration. Do this with drumming, chanting and prayer. Drumming raises your vibration, opens the heart and connects you with a power greater than yourself. When we pray and drum with intent, the drum amplifies and carries our intentions to the Loom of Creation, thereby reweaving the pattern of existence in accordance with those prayers. Chanting has no limitations of time and space and can be done anytime or anywhere. Chants move us to a level of awareness beyond form, a place where we discover our own divinity. Regular prayer is a cornerstone of spiritual practice. Praying brings us Divine help, reduces our ego, grants us forgiveness of mistakes, and more. Repetitive drumming, chanting, and prayer will dissipate the veil of darkness that is enveloping our planet.

Plant Spirit Helpers

Aloe Vera

Plant spirits are one of the major allies of shamans for healing, seeing, dreaming, and empowerment. Shamans heal using their knowledge of plant spirits as well as the plant's medicinal properties. When the shaman does not know what plant medicine to use for a sick person, the spirit of the plant tells him. Plants, however, are more than their chemical components. They are intelligent beings that have the capacity to raise consciousness to a level where true healing can take place. Plants have always evolved before their animal counterparts and offer profound guidance regarding our own spiritual evolution.

In shamanic rituals, plants are commonly used in smudging. Smudging is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to purify a space in preparation for spiritual or inner work. The sacred smoke dispels any stagnant or unwanted energy and opens the energy channels of your body. Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging. Light the herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle and then blow out the flames. Then use a feather or your hands to fan the smoke around your body and home. I recommend cracking a window or door for ventilation and for releasing unwanted energies. Conclude the smudging by thanking the plant or tree spirit whose body made the cleansing possible.

For an in-depth look at the role of plant spirits in shamanic rituals, I highly recommend Plant Spirit Shamanism by Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing. From their years of extensive shamanic work in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, Heaven and Charing present the core methods of plant shamanism used in healing rituals the world over: soul retrieval, spirit extraction, and sin eating. They explain the techniques shamans use to establish connections to plant spirits and provide practical exercises as well as a directory of traditional Amazonian and Caribbean healing plants and their common North American equivalents so readers can explore the world of plant spirits and make allies of their own.

Deer Medicine

Deer symbolizes gentleness, alertness, speed, adaptability, and the healing power of love and generosity. Deer is a magical creature that leads us into the transcendent realm of the collective unconscious, the infinite creative matrix of all that we are and have ever been. Deer hoof rattles are associated with thunder and the antlers of the buck represent antenna, which attune us to the spirit world and awaken new psychic gifts. In the physical realm, Deer reminds us to be alert and pay attention before we leap into action. Deer medicine instills an understanding of what's truly necessary for survival and what to sacrifice for the higher good. Deer teaches us to find the gentleness of spirit that heals all wounds. We must be gentle with ourselves, in spite of our errors, and gentle with others who react from a place of fear or anger. Click here to view my video "Red Deer Shaman."

Dohee Lee: A Modern Day Performance Shaman

Dohee Lee

A composer and virtuoso performer trained at the master level in dance, drumming, singing, and shamanic music, Dohee Lee is forging a new performance form rooted in ancient Korean shamanic practices. Using the artistic tools of immersive post-modern multimedia performance - choreography, interactive electronic sound and installation and instrument design, elaborate costumes, live video manipulation and animation - she recognizes the medicinal power of personal stories and myth and makes rituals in the service of healing individuals and communities. Collaborating and improvising with musicians, spoken word and visual artists and working in site-specific and intricately designed performance spaces, Lee examines cultural memory, trauma, war, nature, human transformation, spiritual practice embedded in daily life. She creates rituals that change our perception of what performance can be.

Jaguar Medicine

Jaguar represents shamanic power, magic, shapeshifting, transformation, and the life-and-death principle. She embodies the wisdom of the underworld, the primal space of the unconscious deep within each of us. Jaguar's lesson is to move beyond your fear of the dark unknown. Jaguar is the epitome of a chaotic storm moving through your life, all the while demanding you to remain calm, centered, and grounded. This fierce animal is the gatekeeper to the unknowable. Jaguar medicine includes comprehending the patterns of chaos, walking without fear in the darkness, moving in unknown places, soul work, and reclaiming power. Invoke Jaguar to reclaim your true power. Click here to view my video "Jaguar Rising."

Mourning Dove Medicine

Photo by Dawn Huczek

Mourning Dove is maternal, gentle, serene, and embodies peace, love, and harmony. She is linked with dawn and dusk when the veil between the seen and unseen worlds is at its thinnest. Dove can help us connect with the spirit world at these times. The Mourning Dove's song speaks to our heart and stirs our emotions. Its mournful "coo" soothes our soul and calms our troubled thoughts, allowing us to find renewal in the silence of mind. Dove teaches us that, regardless of external circumstances, peace is always within us. We need only still the mind and go within. Click here to listen to my song "Mourning Dove Dawn" on SoundCloud.

The Way of the Shaman Documentary

Michael Harner

Michael Harner blazed the trail for the worldwide revival of shamanism and shamanic drumming with his 1980 seminal classic The Way of the Shaman (over 600,000 sold). Founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Michael Harner is widely acknowledged as the world's foremost authority on experiential and practical shamanism, and has had an enormous influence on both the academic and lay worlds. This documentary movie takes us through Michael's early expeditions as a young anthropologist in the jungles of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon and his life-altering insights into shamanic power. The film is an informative and inspiring look at the people behind the evolution of this groundbreaking spiritual healing methodology that honors and builds upon the ancient knowledge of the world's shamans. Movie available free online: https://vimeo.com/220889134

What is Soul Retrieval?

Shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice known to humankind. A shaman is as a practitioner who has developed the mastery of "accessing altered states of consciousness" and "mediating between the needs of the spirit world and those of the physical world in a way that can be understood by the community. Most shamanic cultures around the world believe that whenever we suffer an emotional or physical trauma a part of our soul flees the body in order to survive the experience. By soul I mean our spiritual essence, life force, the part of our vitality that keeps us alive and thriving. It has always been the role of the shaman to go into an altered state of consciousness and track down where the soul fled to in the alternate realities and restore it. In indigenous societies like those of the Pacific Northwest, soul retrieval specialists were often known as soul catchers.

The loss of life force is known as soul loss. It is important to understand that soul loss is a natural thing that happens to us. It is how we survive pain. Our psyche cannot endure the kind of pain associated with a severe emotional or physical trauma. So our psyches have this self protect mechanism where a part of our essence or soul leaves the body so that we do not feel the full impact of a painful experience. In psychology we call this disassociation. The major characteristic of all dissociative phenomena involves a detachment from reality. It isn't hard to recognize that there is a lot of planetary soul loss today based on how we behave towards each other and the web of life. To learn more, look inside Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self  by Sandra Ingerman.

The Planetary Grid

Earth, human, and solar processes are interwoven through a vibrational resonant network around the planet. The lines and intersection points of this energy grid match most of the Earth's seismic fracture zones and ocean ridges, as well as worldwide atmospheric highs and lows, paths of migratory birds, gravitational anomalies, and the sites of ancient temples and megalithic structures. Early man discovered these planetary currents called ley lines. In China, they were known as dragon currents. The Aborigines of Australia know them as a line of songs. In England, the Druids referred to the old straight track. Native Americans regarded the energy channels as the serpent power or the great dragons. According to Cherokee mythology, the dragons once followed the will of the great shamans who would invoke them to protect the people and the land.

Through a type of dowsing called geomancy, the ley lines were located and marked. Roads and pathways were often constructed along the lines, such as those leading out of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, or the series of tracks emanating from the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco, Peru. In China, dragon currents marked all sacred paths and centers throughout the country. Visible lines tie together every major religious site in England. Early Christian churches were located along the currents, their steeples serving to unite heavenly and earthly energies.

At the intersection points of the planet's energy web exist holy places, power spots, or acupuncture points. According to the Hopi, the world would fall apart without these nodes of concentrated vitality. These sacred places are like nerve centers that distribute vital energy throughout the surrounding natural systems. Primal peoples around the world discovered these power places and their significance long ago. They made pilgrimages to the power points, often linking them together with a network of wide and defined trails, such as those leading into the great ceremonial complex in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. They interacted geomantically with grid nodes by building such landscape temples as Palenque, Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramid. They performed sacred rituals and ceremonies at these sites to maintain the harmonious flow of the planetary energy currents.

Earth and humans exist in a reciprocal bioresonant relationship. Through the planet's resonant web, we affect our environment; our environment, in turn, affects us. By interacting with sacred places, we are capable of generating a world of peace and harmony. Seek out power places. Your power spots can be identified by your desire to go to them. Their significance to you is always revealed by your planned or accidental presence at them. Every square inch of the Earth Mother is sacred and a potential connecting place for someone. You can create a powerful vortex of energy in your own home by making an altar or shrine where you may sit each day and offer prayers and incense. Like the ancient temples, such a sanctuary space serves as a drawing point for the healing energy needed by the planet.

Siberian Neoshaman Zarina Kopyrina

Zarina Kopyrina

Zarina Kopyrina is a Yakutian ethno singer from the Republic of Sakha, in northern Siberia. From her tiny village, she has traveled to several continents, absorbing new perspectives but ever guided by an unfailing passion for her ancestors' spiritual beliefs. Thus she has created a unique harmony between the old and the new, from the traditional deerskin tambourines and mouth harps to the latest in electronic drums. Drawing from her kaleidoscope of interactions, she blends those that speak to her to create a voice in the world that is truly her own.

Playing an instrument so closely tied to the powerful Shamans carries a daunting amount of responsibility. "At first I was scared to play," Zarina said. "It's really sacral. To be a shaman – it's not work; it's a way of living. It's a mission." A true shaman, in her view, is someone with a finger on the pulse of nature, living in the forest, possessing supernatural abilities such as hypnosis, healing and the ability to fall into trances. The title of shaman is not for her to claim, she said with assurance. Instead, she aligns herself with neoshamanism, a contemporary form of spirituality for people who live in cities, including musicians, painters, writers and more. These people don't have the full set of qualities of a shaman – yet they possess some of these aspects. "They get some signals from the universe, and they transfer information through themselves," she explained. Read more.