Dear Kin,

I hope to answer some of the most common questions I get asked about my services.

After spending more than 30 years working in the mental health industry and the alternative holist movement, I found, especially when working privately, that the clients I would attract had often never experienced feeling safe. Many had been abused be that in their childhoods and or by plastic shamans, brainwashing cults and shonky practitioners.

When I asked them what made them feel safe, unanimously the answer was either a blank look or describing something like, their partner, their bed, their dog, their home etc. When I asked what makes them feel safe within, many came up with the answer that they either didn’t or didn’t know. What I saw was a gap that wasn’t being filled. Many practitioners would be into all the love and light stuff but didn’t want to deal with the dark and the scary. Others projected their own unhealed traumas onto the client or left them so high via the light work that they were not able to stay grounded.

Many people are afraid to face their issues due to not having a strong sense of core safety or trust. Some critics believe that shamanism and safe practices cannot go together but I strongly disagree. Once you have a core sense of safety (which step by step I help you develop via shamanic medicine ways) you are able to take more risks, venture further and most importantly, not be re-traumatised.

A classic example would be: You don’t jump out of a plane without a parachute, yet with the parachute on there is still risk and great adventures ahead.

What do you mean by Contemporary Shamanism?

The majority of us live in the marketplace, the urban landscape or in a relationship with this current contemporary world in some way. Traditional shamanism fits into the old paradigm of when we were more community-orientated and more connected with indigenous lore.

In today’s time the traditional shamans of ethical lore are doing their best to spread the medicine and heal what they can, however, we need to step up and be able to adapt the medicine to assist us in our busy day-to-day lives. No longer are there local shamans to help us, we need to work on healing ourselves, and take responsibility for our own path and our own conscious development. Contemporary shamanic techniques are suited to the modern person with an old soul along with aligning with the respect and honour of the old traditional ways.

Why do you call yourself a Contemporary Shaman?

I was not born from a lineage of traditional shamanic ancestors. I was initiated by madness in the era of the modern world which took me beyond the dark night of the soul to a ego destroying shamanic death where my life previously became nothing more than a silhouette. There were no shamans of good repute or medicine men or women of honour to be found within my modern community. I was living in a contemporary modern landscape experiencing what felt like a soul-destroying breakdown that the mental health system would surely lock me up for.

I found my way back to sanity with spirits nudging across the seas, towards a path that has been my core strength ever since. Contemporary Shamanism.

My teacher, who lived near an ancient moor on the British Isles combined shamanic practices with contemporary psychological techniques that served the needs of the modern world. I lived there and studied a full apprenticeship of this medicine. When my teacher died, they handed me the teachings to carry on this path of medicine, knowing that I felt a strong desire to carry this mantle and make it my own in service of those who were highly sensitive and those who wanted to blend shamanism into their modern lives without diluting the medicine of the original teachings.

My bloodline is strongly Celtic, and I was born with what is termed ‘Fey’ (the sight) which is in my blood lineage. My DNA is a blend of Celtic, Viking. Asian, American Indian, and Spanish to name a few. I grew up in Asia and have deep connections to Celtic, Mongolian, American Indian and Tibetan medicine ways. I seek to translate traditional medicine into contemporary formats that are honourable, digestible and workable for this modern age.

Blessings

Odette Nightsky

(c) O. Nightsky 2023