The Spiritual Significance of the Number 4

The number 4 has long been considered a sacred number in shamanism and Native American spirituality. All events and actions are based on this number, because everything was created in fours. The Great Mystery reveals itself as the powers of the four directions and these four powers provide the organizing principle for everything that exists in the world. There are four winds, four seasons, four elements, four phases of the moon, four stages to humanity’s spiritual evolution, and so on.

For instance, the Native American sweat lodge ceremony (Inipi) is usually carried out in four rounds. The whole process is modeled after the Medicine Wheel, which is a universal symbol that can be found in many indigenous cultures around the world. The Medicine Wheel represents the natural cycles of life and the basic way in which the natural world moves and evolves. The Medicine Wheel represents the archetypal journey each of us takes in life. This journey has four stages or rounds, each associated with a cardinal direction. Four rounds signify completion, wholeness or fullness.

Osprey Medicine

Osprey is a messenger, guide, psychopomp, fearless protector of its young, and guardian of both the air (consciousness) and the water (the unconscious) it dives into for fish. Like the shaman, Osprey moves between the seen and unseen realms joining both worlds together. Osprey is a master shapeshifter who merges light and darkness, seeing both inner and outer reality. Invoke Osprey to help you integrate conscious and unconscious awareness, thereby renewing the flow of intuitive mind. Intuition reveals appropriate action in the moment for a given set of circumstances. Synchronous activity appears within consciousness as the most natural thing to do. One can readily perceive what aims are in accord with the cosmos and not waste energy on discordant pursuits. So long as one follows one's intuitive sense, one's actions will be in sync with the true self and ultimately the cosmos. Listen to my song "Osprey Guardian" on Spotify.

Drumming Out Drugs

Daniel Smith is the program director of the Herman Area District Hospital Alcohol and Drug Unit in St. Louis, Missouri. After years of use of shamanic drumming techniques and training by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Smith introduced drumming into his work as a licensed clinical social worker in a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Using a shamanic approach, he introduced the shamanic techniques of journeying, divination, power animal retrieval, soul retrieval, extraction and shapeshifting as an alternative and complementary therapy for addiction. Shamanic techniques are reinforced through rituals with symbols of flight (e.g., birds and feathers) that help evoke visionary experiences reflecting common themes in recovery--symbolically rising from the depths of despair and soaring through the sky.

In a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Smith states that "drumming and shamanic activities address addiction through reintegrating aspects of the self in rituals for soul retrieval and power animal retrieval. Through these activities, people gain access to traumatic assaults that have driven their abusive relations with drugs. Spirit world journeys provide direct access to these early experiences in a context that reduces barriers to awareness. Ancestor spirits or other helpful spirit guides and allies encountered in rituals and journeys facilitate the resolution of trauma. These experiences are healing, bringing the restorative powers of nature to clinical settings. Shamanic activities bring people efficiently and directly into immediate encounters with spiritual forces, focusing the client on the whole body and integrating healing at physical and spiritual levels." Read more.