Recapitulation is going back in time to recover energy that has been lost.  We are going to go back in time and reclaim lost energy and give back energy that is not yours.

It is obvious why we have to get back lost energy, but maybe not so obvious why we have to give back energy that is not ours. It is a shamanic law that energy can only be used by the person who originally owned it. If energy is given to us, or we inadvertently take energy from another person or even if we try to steal energy from someone else, we cannot use it if it is not ours. If we cannot use it what use is it to us? It has no use at all except to become a burden to carry around. Anything that has no use becomes a burden in time, and burdens drain energy, make us tired and weaken us physically. The reason we are doing this shamanic work is to find out what is really ours, and if something belongs to someone else we need to either give it back or simply let it go and hopefully it will find its way back to where it belongs.

Recapitulation can be an enormous task that takes years for the ‘serious shaman’ or it can be an activity that is done everyday in just a few minutes. We will start off by explaining the easy way first.

Daily Recapitulation

At some time during the day, possibly before you go to bed at night, take some quite time and go over the events of the day. Maybe you would like to write a list in your journal of everyone you had contact with on this day. Then start at the top of the list and focus you mind on all of the interactions you had with this person. Remember with as much detail as you can: the situation; what happened with this person; how you felt at this time and any thought or decisions you made about yourself or that person or life itself.

The interaction doesn’t have to be unpleasant for you to lose energy. A caring and loving friend may give you their energy and call it compassion or healing, but remember you can’t use other people’s energy and no matter how well meaning they are you need to give it back. You can even pick up energy from people in the street who you are not even aware of.

There are very fine filaments between you and a person and a situation you were in together, like cords only much more subtle. The process of remembering strengthens these filaments and allows you to take back any energy you have lost. Also it enables you to give back through the same filaments any negative energy that came to you during that time. For example: eating at a busy restaurant. There are lots of energies of different people who possibly have never been cleared from the space. That’s not to say its negative or bad is just wasn’t cleared, and that’s the energy you may walk away with.

How much energy do you pick up in a normal day? How much energy do you lose in a normal day? It’s a wonder we have any usable energy at all with this mixing and mingling so it’s very important to sort out and recapitulate to recover that which is ours and to clear out that which does not belong to us.

The Keys Of Recapitulation

• Remember the situation with the person in your mind make it as real as you possibly can, with feeling, images and thoughts and keeping this in focus….
• Start with you head turned fully to the left, turn you head as slowly as you can all the way to the right, breathing IN, breathing your energy back from the situation with the person.
• Then turn you head slowly, back to the left, breathing OUT all the way, breathing out any energy that is not yours.
• Continue these head turns, breathing as slowly as you can, IN from left to right and breathing OUT just as slowly, turning you head from right to the left.
• Notice your breath, don’t force it, just notice if you are breathing more on the IN breath or more on the OUT breath. Are you taking more energy in or giving more energy back? It is not important which of the breaths is the stronger, it is just energy and there is no right or wrong about the situation.
• Keep turning you head and breathing this way until your breath is mild and gentle and equal in both directions. Then turn you head from LEFT to RIGHT to LEFT with no breath at all, this acknowledges completion of RECAPITULATION with the person. Cut cords with the person and all of the feelings and thought from that time

If you had contact with many people in your day this individual recapitulation may only take a couple of head turns with people who were not so important.

copyright: Odette Nightsky 2011 (please ask permission to copy this for internet or study use)

This is an excerpt from The Workbook. The Guide to Contemporary shamanism in your home. By Odette Nightsky. Available @ www.contemporaryshaman.net