When looking up the words ‘Rite’ and’ Ritual’, religion is often spoken of. However in today’s time Rites and Rituals are not necessarily based on religious doctrine or one needing to be religious to practice or create rites and rituals that suit the individual and their personal cultural preferences.

Rites are created to mark the pathways and doorways of natural change. Celebrating rites of passage is revering the most important stages of life and these rites often include particular rituals.

A number of indigenous or traditional cultural rites have in my personal opinion barbaric rituals as involving a great deal of physical pain. This is not something that we in these contemporary times need to follow.

The rites and rituals most familiar to the western-minded public are religious ceremonies of christenings, marriages, birth and death. These rites have become steeped in a sense of worth and peer acceptance, which is not unlike the indigenous rites spoken of previously. If you don’t get married (especially as a woman), it is assumed that something is wrong with you and you are not as acceptable as others who are  ‘Oh poor Megan she never seemed to find the right man. Or not having a child will imply that you are not really a woman of any worth. Women are targeted a great deal in this regard.

If only few attend your funeral it is assumed that you are not of any worth

‘Oh did you here that hardly anyone attended bob funeral? How sad. ‘

There is great social importance in the rites of passage in todays times as it has been in more traditional cultures. It’s a sense of belonging to the community of ones peers. The pressure to adhere to those rites and rituals in an acceptable way, are ingrained deeply due to the culture one has been brought up in.  E.g. a gay Muslim man is just not acceptable socially on any terms. The rite of passage of marriage and having children is what he needs to commit too to be accepted within the community, regardless of his personal preferences. I know of a young man who has strong Jewish lineage and his grandfather wanted to pay him a huge some of money to get him circumcised as his mother refused and being a more modern woman wanted him to have choice. He chose to keep his foreskin. If his parents were far more traditional in their values, he would not have had a choice at all as this is the traditional rite of passage for a Jewish male. It is steeped in traditional practices.

 Rites and rituals in some cultures are done to keep women controlled and suppressed e.g. female mutilation that is done brutally to a girl around the age of three. And to make men harder, male mutilation where the male child is close to becoming a man and it is done quite violently with a little care of the pain. Both ceremonies are done with no anesthetic and many especially the young girls have died from it.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that today’s western religions are far superior.  Horrific continual abuse and molestation within religious orders have shown themselves to be widespread.  The pain from those experiences leave long-term mental, physical, spiritual emotional and physical scars. A so-called rite of passage of sexual abuse into adulthood is horrific and this is often what the abuser has seen as justified, as does the mutilation of children in certain cultures. Abusers within the church have often told children that this ritual that they have with them will bring them closer to god.

However there are also rites and rituals of beauty, connection and honor.

Birth blessings with pregnant women for example, where time is spent honoring and nurturing the belly and blessing the mother and child as they walk into one of the most important rite of passages known to humankind.

Midwives, Doula’s and Spiritual Midwives can assist in making the rite of birth a memorable, deeply moving and honoring experience for both the mother and the father of the child to come.  There is a beautiful African tradition that speaks of the ‘song of the child’. When they couple consummate the child they find between them a song to sing that belongs to the spirit of the soul to come and as they make love sing this song to invite the soul to incarnate. They sing this song to the fetus whilst it develops. When being born the child hears their song calling and greeting them, as they grow up during times of sadness or misuse of power the tribe will sing their song to remind the child of their authentic self and through the rest of their lives through all rites of passage through into death. This is a beautiful ritual that honors each soul upon the earth with their own individual song.

I find it quite sad that many of the modern women of today are booking into a hospital deliberately to have a cesarean rather that walk through the most special rite of passage with their child. They are controlling the time the child enters this world rather than the child choosing its own time of passage to enter. As many women share, giving birth is one of the biggest rites of passage she is able to experience. As a woman myself who was unable to carry in the womb I have found that my books are much like my own rite of birthing, but I know I have walked through this rite of passage many times in other lives.

Today more groups are being led for young women to honor their moon blood time. Mothers share their love and guidance and the young women are honored by all around them and specially gifted with direction as they walk the moon path. There is a flourish of ‘Red Tent’ groups in the world now and they are bringing back the sacredness of the bleeding times for women. I hope in time there will be an increase in groups for woman for the rite of walking to the end of the moon bleeding time (maga towards crone) as this rite of passage is very special and profound, but needs great support from others to traverse the emotional challenges. Much like the young woman who is just entering into it.

More too is happening for young men and support groups are being led for them and their fathers or male kin to walk. ‘The Path of Manhood’ and what being a man of authenticity entails. One of the most common rites and rituals of the past era for men was becoming a Freemason. This was a rite of passage into the boys club and the rituals were very secretive but being in that club got you a place in the community where you would be favored and given special concessions. This is not a favored example, but it’s what men have created for themselves.

Also there are the scout groups that would teach skills in survival and they are still relevant today but little acknowledgement of rite of passage is included in those outdoor adventure activities.

Many current rites of passage seem to deal with getting drunk and making a spectacle of yourself. E.g. Schoolies. I like many others feel there should be much more fanfare and honoring for those who finish school. Schools are not meeting the needs of this generation and need to rethink how they honor their students not just scholastically, but by making the ceremony of accomplishment of all those years of endurance a profoundly special one rather than a lame end of year dance which there parents have to pay through the nose for and a week of getting out of it, possibly getting arrested and losing a friend to accidental death due to drug overdose.

One of the American Indian rites of passage is a ‘Vision Quest’. This is often done when the young man is moving into manhood and needs to seek a vision in nature to find his path. The passage was one of self-confrontation, fasting and endurance.  A rite of passage to enhance and make the spirit strong. This type of rite and The Healing Quest for women (more one of internal nurturing) would be wonderful for those finishing school to seek and find inner self direction as would the sweat lodge to cleanse that which is no longer needed and connect to the earth and respect of the mother. These rites of passage would be wonderful for both indigenous and non-indigenous people.

 There are now changes in the rite of passage of death in the western world. Many do not want to die in hospital, do not want to be buried in a non-degradable box, do not want to live beyond suffering. Many more want to die as consciously as possible and there are people advocating for great change in this regard. If this interests you, you might research Natural Death Centre (Zenith Virago) as this profound rite of passage is changing from the formal funeral tradition with traditional burial and keeping the emotions suppressed and in check to a more eco friendly ceremonies and open eco coffins or shrouds with loved ones bringing their children, openly crying and sharing, planting trees instead of headstones etc.

Many are looking to bring back the understanding of the the nature of death and its connection to life rather than its disconnection from it. One man that is changing the view of death and the meaning of it is Grief Walker, Stephen Jenkins.

Rites of passage are important and we as a global community need to honor these stages of life and find ways to walk through them in a way that feels personally comfortable.  Rituals can be done with ease by lighting a candle, brushing your teeth, saying prayers, offering gratitude etc. Rites however have lost meaning in these modern times but they are vitally important to assist in moving from one stage to the next.

During my training many years ago, I shared with my teacher that I did not really feel the power of the rite of passage of my moontime. So with guidance I went on a journey and found myself moving throughout many different cultures and being blessed by the women of different tribes in different ways.  From having mud roughly rubbed into my body by Australian aboriginals, to dancing and bleeding on the earth in Africa, to the deserts of the middle eastern red tents and having my feet massaged with oil. It was profoundly moving.

These rites that you may have missed out on can be reclaimed with inner journeywork if you seek them out, both for men and for women.

If you are a parent or gardian look to childrens rites of passage and see what you can do to assist in making that jump more meaningful. If you feel inclined contemplate your own rites of passage and what rituals you may like to include. There is still time.

Blessings

Odette

By definition a cult is:


A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a

Particular figure or object.

A group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or as imposing excessive control over members.

A misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing.

“The cult of the pursuit of money as an end in itself”.

Obsession with, fixation on, mania for, passion for worship of, veneration of,

A person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or  section of society

We live in a world built on cults. The word is often used to target groups such as Scientology, The Moonies, The Manson family, Children of god, The family, Hillsong Church, Satanists, Raelians, Sanyasins etc.

What is not made clear is that all the well-known prominent religions in the world are by definition….CULTS.

The three monotheist religions (Christian, Muslim, Jewish) fit into the category with ease.

*   *    *    *

I tend to chuckle when I hear religious people calling out other paths as cults. A bit like the pot calling the kettle black!

This is ‘romantic love’ with all the projections included. What you are often seeing is the energetic glamour coat that the leader wears. Many people have been physically, psychologically and psychically abused at this point. The seeker literally hands over their power (thinking they had none to begin with) to the leader willingly. This can often be the beginning of madness and fragmentation for some.  I have seen too many clients with this story. Not all teachers actually know what harm they are doing. They are so locked into their own perspective of reality that they actually think they are doing good.

There are today new age groups that fall into this category of misguided cultish behavior. There is a pseudo religious format to the recipe of belonging. In order to belong you must be a willing sheep. If you walk the path of the wolf you may well be chased out, ostracized, coolly dismissed, turned on or just never asked to an event again.  You must adhere to the cults customs, dress codes, path, food, attitude and credo. Walking your own path is being a wolf amongst the sheep and its dangerous for the sheep to be around you, as they might tend to start thinking their wolves. Many of these groups do not like to talk about anything but ‘the light’. They avoid deeper, more shadow stuff (that we all have), like an allergy.

We are fully immersed in the Aquarian age now.  The politics of religion and guru’s are NOT for these times. This is not about changing your faith or your beliefs in any way. If you feel a connection to Jesus, Mohammed, Yahweh or whatever suits you…that’s your personal choice but the path of the ‘cult’ is now obsolete

Teachers and guides will always be important both in ordinary reality and in non-ordinary reality. But the teachers need to be balanced enough to be more of service and empowerment than their own profit or ego gratification fest.

 When someone writes that they have been gifted great powers and they can heal you of anything, be aware!! Very few people here on earth are true healers in that respect. The ones that often are true healers are not bragging about themselves all over town. They are not shining the light of ‘look at me’ all over them. Indeed those true healers will say that you are part of that healing process and you have to want to heal and take responsibility for your own healing path as well.  Many of those are found through word of mouth or by synchronicity rather than the biggest ego ad in the paper or most expensive New Age magazine.

 Not all cults are all bad. Like not all people are all bad, but its important to go into these newer pseudo religious movements with your eyes wide open rather than closed.

 If you are looking for guidance in this respect you might like to call on the coyote or the dragonfly. Both totems assist in revealing the truth behind the illusion. Also you might call on the wisdom of the owl or a big cat to assist you see through the darkness.

Whatever path you take, just be mindful of not romancing it all into an illusion of your inner cravings. There are teachings on every path one takes but the path should be one of empowerment, safety and connection. This path should be given and shared freely without mind manipulation or you having to give up your values, beliefs and your own personal spiritual relationship with Great Mystery.

 Keep your third eye wide open, take time out if you are not sure and trust your gut instinct.

Blessings

Odette.

Its that time of year again when many wrestle with the dynamics of Christmas. You have heard of the ‘Black sheep of the family’ that stands out from everyone else, here I am referring to another sort of black sheep. The sensitive black sheep who may appear like they fit in but on the inside its a whole other story….

There are are various types of sensitive black sheep.

• The Pleaser: Wanting and needing to be loved to the point of going over the top with emotional buying and gestures of love but feeling rejected a unappriecated whatever is done.
• The Absorber: The one that absorbs everything that the family is in denial of.
• The Protector: The one fighting in everyone’s corner when someone says something nasty or unkind.  And feels the fire burn within when someone makes fun of them in an insensitive manner or takes them for granted.
• The Counsellor:  the one everyone comes and tells all their troubles to about the other relative. Doesn’t really want to deal with it, but wants you to hear about it anyway

Of course there is the good old atheist Scrooge archetype bellowing the ba humbug at the commercial crap and the waste of THEIR money and the tree loving pagan wishing that people would follow the real history rather than changing it to suit the Roman Calendar.

In this blog post I am referring to

The Pleaser

The Absorber

The Protector

The Counsellor

All four archetypes within can feel very emotional and rejected during xmas time. Xmas has a similar dynamic to birthdays in that it can bring up old family hurts, rejections, and expectations.  The challenging thing about Xmas is that it is a celebration that ‘socieity and the church’ created. It actually has no signifigance unless you are a devotee of Mithraism (the persian war god who was born on the day). It was not the day jesus was born. FACT. If ever their was a pisces it was jesus, just look at the way he died, so picean in his sacrifice for the good of all…..

So Xmas is a collective celebration that has been created by brilliant marketing, but we all get pulled in to some degree even if that’s being a Scrooge, the Scrooge is reacting to getting pulled in.

For many of us it’s the one time of year when we see members of the family we may not otherwise encounter. It’s an opportunity to spend time, lie around and eat good food with relatives. It has within it memories from childhood laced within the decorations, the music that no-one can escape and all the expectations wrapped up in Xmas paper.

The four archetypal characters all have the inner child within them.

• The pleaser is wanting to be loved  and is scared of rejection so it pleases as much as it can to the point of losing itself in other people’s ajenda’s. One slight insult can set them crumbling into the hurt child and go into flight mode and want out really bad.

• The absorber is like a giant sponge soaking up the wet and soggy emotions and feels tired and overwhelmed from it. They may find themselves feeling too much to the point of not being able to enjoy anything.  There is then a tendency to get confused at what one is really feeling and highly sensitive to noises and certain tones of voice in others.

• The protector is so busy trying to look after everyone and especially protect the self from any snide attack from any angle.  The protector finds it difficult to relax and is on fight mode when needed. This can turn into tantrums, huffs, back stabbing and wanting to win and make the final point.

• The counselor is listening to everyone’s stories, but may find that as the listener no-one is really interested in them or asking anything about them. They may feel like a depository for everyone else’s wounds and feeling rejected at the same time.

You may find that you relate to all of these archetypes, feeling like the black sheep of the family watching everyone get on with it while you struggle to cope

At the base of all of these characters within you is the INNER CHILD. There are reasons that you feel so much during this time of year. It may be you are grieving people that you have lost, it may be that you can never remember a xmas without a fight, or the family dynamics are just so strong that it triggers your old stuff over and over again.

Regardless, there is something you can do for yourself at this time of year.

Tips:

Space: be the one to offer to go and get something, take time out and slow your breath down, esp on the exhale.

Water: In the shower or in the bathroom recapitulate your energy back and blow out others you have taken on. Grab some salt and give your body a good energy scrub esp at the base of back of your neck. If there is a pool (or bath)go and float in it at a time others are busy and put your ears under the water, be mindful of your breath going in and out slowly.

Walks and Play: Take every opportunity you can to go for a walk, take a dog with you as a reason if you need it.  Call your spirit back into your body as you are walking. Stop and really look at a flower, a tree, a leaf, stop and pull yourself into the present and observe. You might also like to play with the kids rather than the older bunch as the children can help your inner child to let go and have some fun.

Meditate: If you are able find even a few minutes (as much as you can get) to sit and drop in and watch the mind and all the thoughts fly by like the breeze, breathe in the energy of the mother earth up into your base chakra and then resting sitting comfortably in your belly. Expand and see yourself as more than just your mind. You are a spiritual being in a human body. You are NOT your mind. You are far more than what you think. Choose to receive and let energy flow into you.

Journal: Write all your reactionary feelings in the journal. Take it to the toilet with you if you have to. Don’t be nice about it, just get the shadow feelings out. Let the inner child or protector speak its upset through writing (remember to store it away well so another wont open it. Then recapitulate soon after in the water)

Finally, take a moment sit down (before bed if you can at no other time) and remember that YOU are the parent to your inner child. Speak to your inner child how you would like to be spoken to at xmas time or at such a time. Tell the child how valued and loved they are. You may feel rejected from others which makes the protector very angry but as the parent of your inner child you can say ‘well the buck stops here’  and give he/she the love and gentleness they deserve.  Be the parent to yourself you always wanted.  You might like to go to your sanctuary and call them and tell them how much you love them, you might be happily surprised at the response.

Be kind and gentle to yourself at this time of year.  You may well take things personally and that’s ok, just remember that its up to you to help your inner child to feel loved, heard and cared for. No one knows them like you do.

Blessings

Odette

Recently quite a few people have ask me if I believe in curses or do I think they are cursed? So I am taking this opportunity to write and share my views on curses and their power. I will share my own view, so please just take what resonates with you and leave the rest behind. One could easily write a book on it! So please excuse the length but I think each aspect is relevant.

  Curse:

 A solemn utterance intended to invoke a supernatural power to

inflict harm or punishment on someone or something.

 Miasma:

A contagious power that has an independent life of its own.

Otherwise known as a curse.

The First Time I Heard The Word Curse.

 The first time I actually heard the word ‘ curse’ was when my mother shared the different names used for when a woman has her moon time (menstruation). In my mothers time they said ‘Harry had come to visit’ but in my grandmothers time and before it was referred to as ‘The Curse’. I wondered why such a name was given as I was a very late bloomer and was so grateful to be a woman, but as there was no shame around my bleeding time I thought little of the deeper meaning.

As time went on I was often told and still am that I have a look in my eye that makes people very scared when I am angry. This I have heard mostly from men. I guess I have that don’t mess with me vibe. Little kids have always referred to me as a witch and even asked me to do spells for them. My wild curly hair and ice blue eyes probably don’t help to squash that theory.  I have been known to be so angry at injustice that what comes out of my mouth is total curse worthy.

However I do have a strong knowing and always have had since I was little, that I am not allowed to do that kind of deliberate cursing, I have been held back gently by spirit and I’m glad of it. I have seen my potential in this regard, especially if I add ritual to the curse.  I know without doubt, I have done it before.

History of Cursing

The most well known curses are those from gods or goddesses. A well known depicted curse from a messenger of god, is the one Moses put on the Pharaoh of Egypt. (They even have an animated film for children of it)

In the depiction Moses says if you don’t let my people go, you and your country are damned and here is how the curse will unfold…

Your water will turn to blood, frogs will take over the place, you will be infested by lice and flies, your livestock will be full of disease, you will be covered in boils, locusts will eat everything in sight, darkness will take over all the land and all firstborn will die. (Whew!) Now that is one heck of a curse!!

I don’t disagree that those or any slaves for that matter should be free but killing and torturing other innocents in revenge is not much better is it?

 That old fire and brimstone god we have heard about has sealed his reputation as having a cruel and ruthless form of justice. However the female goddess was seen as the most dangerous of all, the most formidable and most powerful in regards to sending curses. The fear of the feminine was extreme and to a point still is. The ill treatment of women throughout the world shows that.

When human sacrifices were made during the time of superstition, they almost always chose young girls at pre moon time. Virgins. Why? Women have the power of life and death within their bodies.

The moon time blood represents life, but also the bringer of death.

Blood is so very potent. So very powerful.

This blood of life was referred to as “ The Curse” and women were and are the only ones who carried this life giving force. Every man is incased within the woman’s blood, as he grows in utero. Every man was born from this life giving power that is unique to a woman.

This was something that ‘terrified’ men and maybe on a deeper unconscious level today it still does for many men. There is a memory in the collective of both women and men that is still in a cursing battle. Many couples find this playing out within the dynamics of a relationship, even for those who are very aware. The collective history rises to the surface.  Eve took the apple, Adam didn’t. That collective archetypal story is still playing out in many relationships today

Throughout history the most intimidating of women were called ‘Witches’.

Elder women or single mothers (often through death or illness of their husband) were often seen as a threat especially if they did not conform and play the role that was ordered for women by the church or the man lead village.

Not being married was not a good sign; even a widow was looked on as an easy target for the devil to play with. Independence in a woman was not respected. That was not her acceptable role in society. Even today single women are still seen as a threat to others. They often hear the questions: ‘Are you married?’ ‘Do you have any children?’ this is still seen as what a woman ‘should’ do in many social circles today.

If someone insulted a woman who was strong in her life force she may turn and say words or throw glances that were heavy with dread and that would be enough to unnerve a man or a man ruled woman.

A woman in her own right walking alone was seen as trouble, meddlesome and dangerous… and rather intriguing.

Priests believed that the Christian faith was strong enough to overcome a

‘Mothers curse’, the most powerful curse known to man.

Many mothers might well agree.

A mother’s wrath when someone has harmed their child is like no other.

Eastern sages also feared the power of woman and her ability to curse but they thought it best to honor the feminine as best they could and treat them well so they would not be cursed.

This was manifested in the worship of the goddess Kali. Her role was to cut though all the debris and remove the darkness and evil forces. She is like the angry mother who will kill to protect her child and leave nothing in her wake.

Methinks Kali would be rightfully pissed at all those Hindu women who are born into situations where they are deemed ‘untouchable’ and are damned into poverty. This is now outlawed in India officially but all these old ways still exists, as does the belief that bleeding is dirty and a woman cannot go to sacred places because she is ‘dirty’.  Sexual Mutilation is also a way of shaming a woman and her innate power. Honor killings are another example. Even if the woman is raped she is the one to be killed.

Women are not to attend Church, Temple or Mosque when bleeding.

It’s a said to be a dirty curse!

In a world still mostly run by masculine based religions women are seen as dirty and men simply hungry and easily bewitched. This is subliminally taught in schools, on television, and in the home.

There is still collective thinking that it is right to be wary and mistrustful of the power of woman. The power of ‘The Curse.’

Maybe that’s the real reason women are being prevented from being allowed any high position in the monotheist faiths. Can you imagine the outcry of the church that was founded by the word of man being handed over to a female Pope?

There has been one Pope in history but she disguised herself as a man till the day she bled in giving birth and then she was killed for being a woman. Pope Joan (not Joan of Arc) has not been remembered in church records because of one main fact. She was a woman. A powerful woman. The only women well remembered with respect are those of subservient nature or are written as such. Or like Joan of Arc, they condemned her, tortured her, were so threatened by her power and her innate intuitive gifts and then burnt her to death – only later by public pressure made her a saint ….bit late fella’s.

The power of the woman is either to be used or abused.

Tribal Curses

If we look back into indigenous cultures curses were often sent due to conflict between tribes and very often it would occur from a member of one tribe falling in love with a member of another tribe but neither tribe is happy. Shamans were often called in to send curses to other tribal members. The other tribe would know of the curse via dead animals hanging or bones placed ritualistically near the village. If this medicine were known as truth as in those days it often was, the receiver of the curse would become ill.

This would also occur if one tribe stole from the other.

Believing in the curse adds to it power.

Belief Is A Curse In Itself

My brother is a travel photographer. In the early days of his career he told me about an experience he had in Haiti. I think it’s worth sharing.

He is not one to be hoodwinked easily and was invited to observe and shoot a trance based animal sacrifice (again the potency of blood being so revered) the shaman went into trance and came to my brother marking his forehead with blood. The shaman didn’t look a cheery chap and my brother was the only white fella, so he thought to himself, shit maybe he cursed me.

He tried to get it out of his mind but could hardly sleep all night, he felt sick to his stomach and his guide would not be back till later the next day. All day as he tried to shoot photos he felt shocking with fever, chills and blinding headache.  His thoughts became more fearful. When his guide finally returned he told him about the experience. The guide burst out laughing and said ‘He blessed you!!’

All the symptoms disappeared within a very short time.

Keeping The Curse Alive

I have created a curse in my life due to a huge learning within my family lineage. I had no idea what I was doing and I took little responsibility for my actions.

I paid a huge price. I did finally take responsibility and apologized. But only years later did I realize that in not really forgiving myself for the ancestral pattern I was carrying, I could not be released from the curse. I would not let myself be released. Forgiveness is a very challenging lesson for us all.

Cursing And The Bottom Line

In looking at the curses in history whether they are on a grand or small scale, within the nature of the cursing itself one word comes up every single time

 Dis-respect.

And I do think that is the bottom line.

•  When you harm an elderly wise woman or mother or harm those she cares for (witch) –you are disrespecting her. If she curses you for your abuse and your ill manner, then you should apologies and do all you can to make emends via good deeds returned.
• If you dig into a tomb or the place of the undead without respect or regard for their relations or ancestors… for the purpose of fame, gain and power – you are disrespecting the dead. If something happens to you then maybe that’s what you get from being disrespectful.
•  If you walk across a sacred site that is especially for a particular and do not ask permission from the elder spirits before you enter you may well feel somewhat sick, due to being disrespectful.
• If you invade a country and rape its woman and steal its resources then maybe you will carry such trauma from your actions that you will not recover.
• Women who cruelly slander other women and run them down as a way of making themselves feel better. If you are doing this to the sisterhood then you are disrespecting the power that has been given you. You are worse than any man!

Where Do All The Records Of These Curses Reside?

Within the multidimensional universe there is a place in time called

‘The Akashic Records’. This is the great astral library of the universal mind that contains all the knowledge of every individual human experience. This can be visited through contemporary shamanic journeywork. My own experience of visiting this place showed me what type of service I have been doing her through many lifetimes. Regardless of curses, it’s a fascinating place to visit for all sorts of information.

Clearing Curses: How?

Only when you forgive both the curser and the curse can the door be opened to freedom.

Ancestral Curses

Going to the location (best if in ordinary reality if possible) where they lived and calling them up in spirit. Making amends with any descendants by apologizing in the name of your ancestors for any harm they may have been involved in.

If this cannot be done physically then one can do it in non-ordinary reality as best they can in full respect of all ancestors. Sometimes all you need do is go to the land or area of the conflict stand on the earth and give your apologies with strong intent. I have done this with my ancestors in Scotland at Glencoe and Culloden where bloody battles were fought. It was powerful. I still feel it to this day.

When dealing with curses that involve indigenous cultures e.g.: Aboriginal. You might like to seek out and elder and ask them what is the most appropriate way to be respectful to that tribe in clearing in the name of your ancestors.

Psychic Attack Curses

This can be done in shamanic journeywork and going back to the origins of the family curse or what curses the ancestors may have carried. If you are dealing with someone you know who is cursing you e.g. a past lover etc. The most powerful medicine is first recognizing that you are receiving the energy of the curse then dealing with it like any entity energy through

1. Recognizing it

2. What the lesson is for you.

3. Offering the best medicine. Unconditional love.

4. Thank it for the teaching and then will full heart move it to into the source

5. Forgive yourself.

6. Give thanks.

This has a way of penetrating and protecting you better than any counter curse.  You can do your own little ritual, write a letter in acknowledgement of the upset, take responsibility for the part you played in enabling the story to occur and then burn the note and send them love not so much from yourself as that may be challenging but from Great Mystery, Great Spirit, Great Mother…. so they are forgiven and you no longer have to carry it.

Curse of Humanity.

The greatest self – created curse is that of greed and neglect of what is important upon this earth. As a planet those in authority are cursing humanity via their destruction of the earth, its animals and its original people. That is the greatest of all curses and everyone pays a price. Mother earth (The Great Mother) will transform herself, lets hope humanity, and those that survive will seek to learn that ‘Respect’ is needed to heal.

Curse or Karma?

Karma and Curses are a little like twin siblings who hang out. There are consequences in all actions we take and at some point these actions need to be balanced out. You can say the reasons for some things are because you are cursed or because that’s your karma. -What you are here to balance out. Either way how you respond or react to the situation that is brought before you is what matters.

We must remember regardless of our gender or our ancestry to do as much as we can to take responsibility for our actions, do what we can to make amends and know that we have the power to change how we respond to this concept of being cursed.

• Make amends as best you can
• Forgive the curser as best you can
• Forgive yourself as best you can
• Speak with intent

Ho’oponopono mantra (Hawaiian)

I love you

I am sorry

Please forgive me

Thank you

There are also Utubes and books on ‘Akashic Record Clearing’.

You might like to browse them and find the language that suits you best.

I hope this helps some in coming to understand the origins of the action of cursing and what we today can do to balance said actions out.

Blessings on your journey within and without.

And remember, don’t disrespect your mother! 🙂

Odette

I begin this post with an excerpt from my book

“The Bridge Between Two Worlds. A Shamans View Of Schizophrenia and Acute Sensitivity. 

Befriending the Dark.

From earliest times people have believed that the dead can return from the grave to visit their loved ones. Certainly an evil criminal or someone, who has been the victim of such a one, can return after death as a ghost. These tormented souls can haunt the world of the living until someone helps them to find peace.

 

                        Molly Perham (ghouls & monsters)

 

As children, we often remember our elders telling us that there was no such thing as a ghost, and the thing hiding under our bed scaring us silly is simply not real.  Our parents would tuck us in and reassure us that we were completely safe, we felt protected from the bogeyman (momentarily).

 

As adults many of us have grown out of being afraid of the dark. The fears of today are ones we all seem to have in common, war, abuse, bankruptcy, relationships breaking down, destruction of ecology, our children being abducted or disease and death of a loved one. In general humans fight what they fear. This may seem to work in the physical dimension. However as many sensitive people know, when you fight what you fear, you are doubling the chances of its manifestation. You are feeding your fear, instead of acknowledging and embracing it.

 

Do you remember the original Star Wars trilogy? While studying philosophy at university, we were given an example of the battle between good and evil. The darkness of Vader and the emperor against Luke Sky-Walker, the Jedi Knight. In the final confrontation the emperor encouraged Luke to hate him and feed his anger so that he would join them in the darkness. The Jedi replaced his hatred with compassion for his father. As the darkness was attempting to finally destroy what light was left, Darth Vader found a glimmer of light beneath the darkness that had consumed him and chose compassion as his friend once more…. Hence he was released from the torment of the darkness. There is an old saying, you can take a candle of light into the darkness, but you can’t take the darkness into the light.

 

I have realised that hating what is tormenting us leads to greater torment. We can choose to be a warrior of light as Luke did, but he only became a true Jedi when he acknowledged and accepted both qualities inside him…only then was he free. All of us are born with both the qualities of light and dark. Each person will experience his or her darkness in this lifetime. It is just dressed in many different clothes, but it comes down to the same thing. Feeling a separation from the source of love. A feeling of disconnection.

 

Tormented entities that dwell in the astral plane are like Darth Vader; they are simply lost in the world of the darkness, just as you may be. These energies are trapped in the darkness. However malevolent they seem, they only know the ways of imbalanced living. Having left this plane of consciousness, these beings and fragments are trapped in the world of the astral and have not moved on for various reasons. They have no idea how to free themselves and believe there is no escape. Entities can also form from a build up of negative thought forms over many years. Eg someone who is angry for many years may manifest a dark angry entity that shadows them wherever they go and feeds there negative feelings.

 

These entities become so used to the existence of imbalance that they appear to not want to be anywhere else but in the world of limbo. The Acute Sensitive needs to work on befriending these spirits/energies and setting them free everyday, until they are at a point of inner core strength where a simple clearing meditation can be a part of daily practice.

 

Embracing the darkness does not mean becoming the darkness yourself. It means loving it as Jesus, Buddha, the Divine Mother would a child that is lost in the forest of the dark. You are not without these qualities, no one is. If you feel you must fight the darkness with fear and anger, then you will be the one to lose, you will find yourself drained and exhausted by the battle. I suggest you see yourself as a warrior of love, fight with the sword of justice, compassion and light.

 

Let them know that you know who they are, and why they are here. Indirectly, they have come to you to be set free. Send them back to the source of light with compassion and love, they are here to teach you to be strong inside yourself.

 

One of the main challenges in relationship to the darkness is, when we are in the midst of it, we are certain it will never end. We think there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The more we believe that the darkness will continue, the more the darkness stays with us. When we can smile at the darkness and say, ‘ hello my friend what have you come to teach’ we will be on the road to freedom from suffering. The darkness will then become a signpost not a hole that we fall into all the time…

 

 

Over the years since I wrote this chapter of my book I have noticed that my particular recipe for dealing with many challenging feelings and experiences has come from somewhat detaching myself from the energy that I am confronted by and dealing with it and understanding it from the view of it being…..an entity.

 

I have overcome the invasion of voices and dark terrors in this way. Since that time I have confronted many challenges including massive psychic attack, possible breast cancer, malevolent energies attached to others that come and visit me in the night, left over energy of drugs that others have taken, lost souls that are stuck between worlds and need to move on,  house hauntings and more.

 

Most recently I have been looking at the state of Depression in people. I myself come from a melancholic disposition but have always been able to push through those times and come out much like the phoenix with a bit of a burnt tail. As spirit is guiding me I am coming to see the ‘Entity of Depression’ and how all-consuming it can be. Another analogy of that would be the death eaters in Harry Potter. As J .K Rowling stated they represented depression and how it completely sucked the joy out of life.

 

I woke very early one morning recently and spirit guided me to write and draw about the ‘Entity of Depression’ What I noticed in my writing and drawing was that it took form very easily. It was easy to draw. It had a funnel where it sucked the life out of people, much like the death eaters and all the life force that was taken was not used. It just drained out of the creature. It was an all consuming hungry ghost energy.

 

In traditional shamanism every illness or malady was seen as having an entity attachment. This is how I overcame so many challenges in my life, by treating what ever I was confronting as an entity that was here firstly to teach me something and secondly how to stop it from draining me. I can clearly see now that depression has its own entity as well.

 

There is a great deal of collective depression in the world and all these though forms can create entity like energies that feed off people. We are not helpless. We can work with this. There are tools. There are ways to bring in the witness to step out enough to be able to work with the darkness that depression can bring. Depression is a brother of the dark and both can be approached in the same way.

 

No matter how bleak it gets your soul is connected to Great Mystery, the source of all that is. Within you is a force that can match any shadow. It’s not a force forged on battle, it’s a force based on compassion, love, acceptance and healthy boundaries. Don’t give up on yourself, if you are reading this….you have what it takes.

 

For further info on books, tools and support please go to my website

www.contemporaryshaman.net

Blessings on your journey within and without.

Odette Nightsky

A wise man once said its all very well to sit on a hill and be a mediator but the true test of consciousness is how to retain that quality when in the market place of life. Meditation can be peaceful whilst sitting under a tree on a beautiful day with butterflies zooming around but then you have to get in your car or jump on the bus and deal with the petulant winging child who is screaming at their parent for ice-cream or the drunken boof head who has his iPod on so loud you’re getting polluted and invaded just by sitting near him and then you come to your door to find a bunch of bills that says that treat your were thinking of is blown as you wont have any electricity if you blow your last hundred, and on it goes….

You may choose to live in a monastery but these day you will have to pay your way. Monasteries are not an escape. There is hard work; discipline, practice and all those emotions that you may want to escape from will have to be dealt with.

If you have noticed monks do come into the market place as a part of their path to consciousness. Even they know that the true place of inner peace is in the midst of conflict.

A peaceful spiritual life may be wonderful if you have no responsibilities and can employ nannies, butlers, dietitians, driver’s…..and so on. I wont name certain celebrities that are flaunting their decadent lives in our faces but remember that in general these people are not looking to be conscious or be of service. They are hunting for materialistic food to feed their craving, starving egos.

It may be lovely to have all that they have, but there is a price to be paid. Some of the most fortunate in regard to finance and fame-based attention have chronic dysfunctions and many are not really living in the marketplace either. They are avoiding reality by wrapping themselves up in riches and keeping the truths a long long arms length away. Many have ended up in rehab, mental health clinics, on a multitude of prescription drugs and have no real sense of meaning. There is a long list of suicides to go with this kind of culture that they live in. There are exceptions to this and those are the ones doing as much as they can for those less fortunate in the world.

There are also the spiritually trendy orientated people who live off the most expensive mung beans, multiple shmick yoga retreats and meeting with the great wise ones with money being no object. What this culture could learn is how it can assist and serve those who have less rather than becoming precious and aloof with their spiritual perfecting lives. Being a wealthy spiritual yippy/yuppie doesn’t mean that your any further along than the man down the road who helps out the little old ladies in their gardens because he has a kind heart.

So how do we build our inner medicine in this ordinary reality when we are constantly confronted by the density of extremes whist living and adjusting to the so-called norms of this world?

Like managing and office of workers or a family we can also learn to manage our needs and ourselves

When your life is full to overflowing it feels like ‘there is no time’. This is the most common phrase I hear in regard to self-nurturing and building inner medicine. You ability to see the bigger picture becomes clouded. Instead of the eagle you become the mouse scurringing around in the details and feeling stressed.

Time gets eaten away by life and all that it takes. Here are a few examples

•  Kids eat buckets of time from parents
• The Internet eats truckloads of time from everyone.
• The TV eats up vortexes of time.
• Nagging eats up case loads of time.
• Picking on your partners faults with no end.
• Waiting for someone else to take action eats up vessels of time.
• Worrying eats up caverns of time.
• Procrastinating eats up whirl-pools of time.

E.g. With your kids in bed (having good enough boundaries to say:

“This is my time now, if you wish to stay up you can do that quietly in your room.” (In this regard you are teaching your children how to self nourish as well as good energetic boundaries)

Give yourself a different night for a change. Turn off the TV (from the wall) put on a few candles and write in your journal, do some recapitulation, perhaps a small ceremony giving thanks to spirit, sit out on the verandah for an hour and breathe in the night and be the watcher of your thoughts, read a book of inspiration, not trash, play an instrument and be as present as you can with each movement, have a long soak in a tub and let go all your stress into the water and when you pull the plug stay in there and feel the water drain away from your and all the stress with it. Experiment and play. Fill your own cup!

Some days it’s all on and time and overwhelm has taken over, in this instance you can use your mindfulness/ your witness and practice being in the moment E.g. your kids are in the back of the car yelling, or your on your way to work, you are late and get stuck in a traffic jam…..

Slow down your breath, feel your grip on the steering wheel, be aware of you bottom on the seat and your feet at the brakes…..just breath and watch and take note of your senses.  What can you feel? what can you smell? what can you taste? what can you see?  what can you hear? This assists in bringing you into the moment. Do this also when you are doing the dishes. Fill yourself up with being the watcher. This builds more space within and decreases overwhelm.

Cut cords and recapitulate from your children and loved ones. Those close to you can be needy and you may well need to re-fill yourself at the end of each day or the beginning, whatever suits you more.

All these time munchers of energy like worry, procrastination, TV, waiting, nagging and the internet have an energy that goes with them. The energy is often a draining of life force. They are the addictions that are getting in the way of you filling up your own cup. Yes, addictions. As you well know addictions tend to drain you of your life force.

If you don’t know how to be the witness of your mind, you might like to practice some ‘Cognitive behavior therapy’ or some ‘Acceptance and Commitment therapy tools. They are simple and helpful in working with a mind that rules over you in the area of worry, procrastination, impatience and self criticism.

Tools for building life force:

Recapitulation

Cutting Cords

Building Star Manna From Within

Accepting Rather Than Fighting Your Intuitive Instincts

Clearing Energy Via Sage, And Dense Energy Breaking Tools

Drumming.

Quantum Dynamics

Spend Time In Your Sanctuary

Breathing In The Mother/ Feminine

Sensitive Mediation And Clearing Energy Attachments Even From Those Who You Love That You Have Absorbed.

Now is not the time to sit on the hill and detach from the market place. Sure if you can get time out for retreat all well and good, but when you come home the real practice is in every moment of every day as you swim through the channels and challenges of life.  When you stop seeking outside and begin to fill your inner cup,  you become the caretaker of your own inner world and this changes your relationship to the outer world. You can also access  a never-ending abundance of energy available from the universe….. Step out of your own way and become a vessel that can be filled with manna, rather than using your own energy to conquer the journey of ordinary reality.

Blessings

Odette

For Further guidance you may like to purchase my workbook @ www.contemporaryshaman.net

Including…..Plant medicine, workshops and chasing enlightenment.

Balance is a quality that many strive for but find it somewhat elusive especially when, chaos, drama, confusion and overwhelm takes center stage. Being out of balance can show itself via depression, anxiety, dizziness, immune deficiencies, chronic pain, mood swings, abuse, ground-hog day etc.

Part of the attraction to non-ordinary reality is to escape the ordinary mundane world.But be warned there is a danger in seeking that other dimension a little too much. This can be seen in the abuse of ethno botanicals (plant medicine).

Plant medicine is a rite of passage that many are interested in and it can be a wonderful and often challenging profound experience. However if they medicine is not grounded and integrated into ordinary reality then its purpose is wasted and the   mother disrespected.

Shamans did/do not use medicine to party and escape dealing with earths version of reality, they partook so they could bring the wisdom that they learnt back ‘to be of service’ to the earth community. That why they are/were refered to as ‘The Walkers Between The Worlds’

Travelling to other dimensions whether by plant, drum or conscious awareness can be incredibly beneficial but it’s just an escape hatch unless you are going to ground what has been experienced.  You need to be able to walk your talk. There are plenty of great talkers and visionaries but the proof is in the pudding as they say.

Many do not realize that when they cross over with plant medicine their aura expands to a massive degree, so that which was out of balance before is now pushed to the edge of the aura and it picks up any debris flying past. That could be an old wounded fragment or fear of theirs or another’s close by. Deep in the unconscious lies much that we are unable to see. These can take the form of astral entities/negative thought forms.

When one has returned to the body from the experience the aura and physical being need a few days to adjust and to be nurtured and fed. This can be a very delicate time and if the person is not fully conscious they may well be leaving all sorts of debris in their wake.

You may have seen people when they were in bliss and then a day or so later they look rather weary and shattered.  Integration is vital in working with the other worlds. You can have a brilliant vision but one must put the vision or realization into day-to-day practice.

One foot in non-ordinary reality and the other foot in ordinary reality, that is the ultimate balance. Then you get the benefits from both worlds without going off kilter.

Workshops are another area where imbalance can occur. You have heard of the ‘workshop junkie’ I am sure. The workshop junkie is much like an addict who gets a hit off the workshop itself but the buzz doesn’t last long enough so they get excited for the next hit. This pattern of addiction can lead to being unable to fully integrate anything that was learnt. The person may be able to talk about many modalities but they are still in the same ground-hog issue with no change or growth to be shown.

It’s important to take space between workshops and assimilate the information and the processes taken. It’s wonderful to be inspired and be in a group process, just make sure your not chasing them like an addict as this can lead one to being too open and spreading oneself too thin to the point of not knowing how to ground your inner and outer worlds at all. This is a vulnerable place to be and many have fallen into strong brain washing cult programs and groups in search for belonging.

So beware of workshop overkill.

Not unlike the addiction to the workshop model and the misuse of the plant medicine there is also underlying both of these the proverbial chase for the quick fix.

A couple goes to a workshop about how to improve relationships. They do really well whilst in the workshop but when they get home after a few days they both fall back into old patterns and accuse the other of not living up the what they promised in the workshop. They let the integration of what they learnt fall to the wayside and just hoped it would fix things.

Or the same can be said for a plant experience.  You can meld with the cosmos, connect to the earth, the fractals, the stars and your authentic self and then come home and just assume your uploaded with grace and even if your closest kin has got issues with your behavior of not stepping up, you brush it off and assume it’s not your problem or anything to do with you because you think you are above all that because you have contact with the divine.

You can tell a great deal about someone not so much by what they say but what they actually ‘do’ with the insights that they receive.

Both these examples show a predisposition to chasing enlightenment without the tools, work and the patience it takes to be in full awareness of self, that’s what enlightenment is, total self-realization.

Wise elders will tell you, that this can take lifetimes, so integrate what you learn and make it a part of your everyday life. Bring the benefits of the insights and teachings into the life you are living now.

If you go on an inner journey of any kind. Bring the insights back with you, integrate the information learnt and put it into practice.

Then the medicine will serve you well in the long-term.

Blessings

Odette

I lay down as my guide/teacher inducted me in to a deep state of awareness. She did not use the drum, she used her voice.

I travelled down the tree and further down the moss covered hallway to the door of my sanctuary where I felt safe and connected with my totem kin and my guides.

Soon I was flying back to where I had fragmented,  a part of my spirit/soul was lost since that particular trauma. Bear totem was right beside me and although I was somewhat nervous I felt contained via my teacher’s knowledge of what to do if I didn’t and reassured by the bear medicine that would protect me if I felt unsafe.

I found myself back in a place where trauma was clearly evident. I could feel my heart racing a little but also felt ready to deal with what arose. I found a fragment of my spirit hiding in a corner with my nightie pulled down hard over my inner childs knees. I asked her if she wanted to come home. She was a little hesitant so I asked Bear to go closer to her (I was into stuffed animals when little and Bears were paramount in my collection) as he did she quickly got up and Bear took her into his arms and held her close. I asked if she was ready to go home to a safe place with Bear. She quickly and willingly agreed. We all then travelled back to the sanctuary where she was fed, washed in a waterfall and nurtured by spirit kin that I trusted.

Soon came the challenging work of dealing with the person who caused the fragmentation. I was instructed to go to a safe and neutral place beyond the sanctuary with any totems or guides that I chose. As other guides and totems looked after my inner child, I called upon a primary guide, Bear and two black panthers who I was already familiar with to assist in dealing with the shadow worlds.

We travelled to a space where I saw a huge red leafed tree. I called upon the person in question and they appeared within a stone circle near me. I requested that they return anything that was taken from me, and indeed there were several qualities stolen which were returned.

I shared my feelings and stood my ground even though it was uncomfortable. I had always wanted to speak up and now I had the opportunity. It was emotionally challenging but liberating at the same time. I did not feel pushed in any way to resolve it if I felt it wasn’t time. My teacher was with me all the way encouraging, guiding and always checking on my sense of safety.

What I found interesting is that when I visualised the person as a child, the fear was greatly reduced. The power that they once had over me seemed to quickly diminish as my insight and awareness increased and they were easily guided back to their origins.

Soon after I travelled back to my sanctuary and there my fragmented inner child was waiting. I asked her if she was ready to come home to my heart and told her I would do all I could to make sure she is always safe and this sanctuary was now her home with all the love and kin that she would need. She was more than ready.

I visualized her becoming quite small and moving into my heart whilst I breathed very deeply to receive her.  Embracing her back into my being was so incredibly healing. We then worked on clearing any feelings in my body that had been stored from that time.

Later on when I came back to ordinary reality I felt a shift that I had never experienced before in any kind of healing work that I had done.  My soul was now IN my body.

I walked outside onto the  grounds and sat by the river. I cried for a long long time. It was a cry of total release and relief at my fragment coming home. I felt like I was in my body for the first time in this life. My body was finally a safe place to reside.

The emotions that one carries within the fragment has to be released so it will take a little time to clear depending on the individual, but it’s a release rather than stuck energy and that a good thing.

This was my initiation into Contemporary Shamanism. I have had traditional sessions with Shamans from different countries but nothing has compared to that session and the ones that came after in my training.

For many people going to a Shaman and allowing them to journey and find the fragment and bring it home is great, but for people like me, I need to be a conscious participant in my own healing.

I have learnt so much with this type of journeywork and its an absolute joy to journey with another as a shamanic guide and see their world, how they view their own inner stories and challenges.

The witness is alive in all aspects of this work and without the witness it can be like being on the ocean lost in a thick fog and hoping a ship will rescue you.

Soul Retrieval can also be used in clearing other lives, between life and birth…..and more.

I honour all the shamanic teachings and tools throughout the world but they must be used wisely. I am a huge advocate for finding the recipe that suits you. Each to their own medicine.

This contemporary shamanic medicine that I have been taught has been my staple food for over 15 years and although I have tried other recipes of wellness and added a few extra spices to my path of service I have always found that I come back to this original recipe when dealing with major challenges.

Soul retrieval is a staple in shamanic work whether that be traditional or contemporary. If you are seeking training in shamanism. Find a teacher that you can communicate well with and make sure whatever type of recipe you choose that it resonates with your own inner pathway. Then you are not just parroting but you are creating your own recipe of spiritual wellbeing.

Soul Retrieval, Recapitulation and building on your relationship with your inner Sanctuary and totems is a great recipe for wellness. These are tools that can assist you through the challenges that life brings.

May you all travel safely both within and without.

Blessings

In Heart.

For further information, International Skype consults, Shamanic Journey work, counselling, safe practices and books please go to www.contemporaryshaman.net

Before I found my feet on the contemporary shamans path I had what feels like another life. It was all about theatre, acting, performing, teaching etc. Between that life of theatre and the life of the shamans path I unraveled to a degree that I heard voices, felt incredibly ill, shaved my hair off, isolated to the point of deep depression and found myself looking deeply into the eye of madness. However underneath it all there was a message of guidance building but it was so deep in the subconscious I had no idea what was being called to be created.  This is what came from the rite of passage of madness that I walked through. This was the path to recovery.

 

Here is the introduction to the book and following is a forward from Anne Deveson

INTRODUCTION 

After twenty years in experimental theatre and seven years researching and working with emotionally & spiritually disturbed people, I came to the realisation that insanity is only one option in becoming aware of the abilities we have as sensitive souls. I too have been lost and on the edge of insanity but fortunately saw the wisdom behind the crisis which has directed my soul to write this book.

 

Everyone at one time or another has doubted his or her own sanity. That is not unusual. The difference is what we do when that happens. Some have been blessed by being able to push through and overcome it, some don’t. It’s heartbreaking to see a soul we dearly love dragged away into an ambulance and taken to a place where we feel they don’t belong. What other choices are there? I have heard so many people crying for another way.

 

I would like to share with you what I believe is the truth of people who are living another reality.

Throughout my research, counselling and personal involvement with ‘Acutely Sensitive’ people, I have found that the cause of schizophrenia seldom originates from a brain dysfunction. I believe they are deeply, spiritually wounded.

As mother earth becomes more dramatic in her healing changes many souls are losing their grip. This book is a guide for people who are sensitive by nature, whether schizophrenic or simply too vulnerable and are finding it hard to cope. It is also a handy manual for carers and therapists to understand the world of the Acute Sensitive from a more holistic perspective. Medical doctors are wonderful in their art and should not be condemned, as they are masters of their craft. However, they are not doctors of the soul. Religion may benefit those who follow, although that may not be everyone’s chosen path.

 

Here is another option

Another viewpoint

Another road

What I ask of the reader is to drop what you think you know about mental illness and see an empty canvas where new colours may be painted…. Then after the picture is finished, stand back and look at the whole painting. Not all artists suit all tastes, however, each painting tells a story, a view through the eyes of another which the observer may identify with…this may be one of those paintings for you.

 

 

The Bridge Between Two Worlds

Offers tools which may help to

 bring balance to a state of

 spiritual imbalance.

 

FORWARD 

“Odette Nightsky has had the courage and sensitivity to present an alternative view of schizophrenia and of other psychotic illnesses. She believes that people with schizophrenia are deeply spiritually disturbed, and acutely sensitive to the world and the universe – around them. The healing pathway she suggests is one that helps people reclaim the ground of their being, and achieve harmony and balance within their lives. Illnesses like schizophrenia are mysterious – even for people like me who grew up wearing shoes of science and have since flown in all kinds of directions trying to understand what’s going on. What I like about Odette’s book, The Bridge Between Two Worlds, is that she isn’t proscriptive. She gently suggests how she sees psychotic experiences, and then allows the possibility of numbers of paths to healing, including the traditional ones of medication if that’s how people feel safest. Her approach is a responsible one”.

Anne Deveson is a writer, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker with a long involvement in human rights issues. She has worked as a journalist for the BBC and the London bureau of the New York Times. is internationally recognised for her work in the media and mental health for which she was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia. She has also received honorary doctorates by the University of New South Wales and the University of South Australia for services to the community.

 

 

Now Available As An Ebook

 

 

Writing this book sent me on the path that I still walk. I gave birth to something that was a huge catalyst in my own path to healing. As you will see at the latter chapters in the book I had been called to do this work through many lifetimes. It was an incredible gift in the midst of a powerful and challenging rite of passage. 

You can purchase The Bridge Between Two Worlds as an Ebook straight from my website. 

 

www.contemporaryshaman.net.

 

Blessings

InHeart

Odette

From time to time I am asked why I specifically mention safe practices in regard to my service and writings,  so I shall explain.

I have spent a great number of years adventuring through different therapies, modalities and practices with a few cults (churches are in that category) thrown in.

Many years ago I had a spirit guide drawing where someone draws either the spiritual version of you or someone close who is in your Auric field.  Instead of a groovy looking fairy or some such image the drawing was of a little bald-headed man in a dark Victorian suit with round glasses a pencil and a note pad. He was travelling with me taking notes and apparently had been with me for quite a while.

Over the years I have found that I have had a trainload of these types of beings around me both in human and E. T form for the majority of my life, curious beings who want to know more.

I am by nature somewhat of an interrogator (as I have aged it has gotten less like an impending wave of confrontation and more like a gentle river that curves around rocks). I always seem to ask the questions others forget to ask, mainly out of absolute curiosity in human behaviour rather than looking for faults.

Many of my adventures into alternative therapy have been with a detectives hat on. I was brought up on every Agatha Christie movie there was! And my favorite board game was Cluedo.  I loved looking deep inside the human psyche, shadow and all and still do.  I love researching and investigating different theories and philosophies that are not necessarily within the mainstream.

I happily dive in deeply without drowning and getting lost along someone else’s trail. Or if I do get a bit waterlogged I float up to the surface of my own path pretty fast.  I have always walked my own journey regardless of not belonging but that does not mean the door to learning has ever closed…nor will it ever. Still as curious as a cat and happily so! I have experienced wonderful moments of awareness and bliss as well as confronting moments of feeling horrid because the therapist or group leader did not know or was not aware of what they were doing.

People have been manipulated emotionally by therapists, flipped out from being brainwashed in a cult, been sexually abused by a so called shamans and healers who were unwell themselves, massaged inappropriately, given plant medicine in such a large group without making sure that the person could manage the impact, done healing that has left the person out-of-body, fragmented and not completed a session properly due to time and money. These are just some of the experiences of clients that have come to me with their stories.

So safe practices are paramount in my service. A woman recently wrote to say that by my ‘safe practices’ credo I was saying that other shamanic practices were not safe. Well, yes and no. There are practicing shamans and those that work in the field who I have great respect for and often refer people to them depending on where they are in the world. But being around the alternative scene for a very long time now I have seen a good wallop of shabby charlatans both indigenous and non indigenous using their glamour coats to manipulate and gain money whilst doing very little of authentic service to those in need.

So no, many practices are not safe both in the realm of shamanism and other alternative therapies ( often not intentionally , just not experienced enough). Anyone can be a so called ‘New Age Therapist’ now days as there is no reviewing of such practices.  Something that I would like to be a part of one day.

Some people have said to me that if a person goes to a bad or untrained therapist or they didn’t cope with what they took then that’s their choice, their lesson. Yes, true to a point. I myself have had my share of them but the problem is for many people it takes a lot to seek help, to open yourself up and share your wound and if you have a bad experience, or pay a fortune for what I call a ‘fluffy healing,’ you often become so disillusioned that you find it hard to trust anyone else. Trust is important for spiritual and emotional development.

Many people who have suffered from child abuse/trauma and or mental health issues are attracted to the alternative therapies and I am very pro active to advocate for safe practices so when someone is seeking guidance in the alternative field that they get the service they are looking for and with a practitioner that is grounded and knows how to ‘be of service’.

I have no trouble giving clients a number of someone who I feel may help in a certain area of their live’s as I cannot be all things to everyone. Being of service is not about the ego getting fed, it’s about assisting another on ‘their’ path to wellness.

Spiritual Emergence

The term spiritual emergence is defined as the movement of an individual to a more expanded way of being that involves enhanced emotional and psychosomatic health, greater freedom of personal choices, and a sense of deeper connection with other people, nature, and the cosmos.

 

When spiritual emergence is very rapid and dramatic this natural process can become a crisis, and spiritual emergence becomes spiritual emergency. This has also been called transpersonal crisis, acute psychosis with a positive outcome, positive disintegration and an extreme state. There is no sharp division between emergence and emergency. (Stanislav Grof)

This does tend to happen to quite a number of people when diving head first into alternative practices. The most common I have heard is from people doing too many hard yoga postures to the point that they awaken their Kundalini way too fast (the coiled energy/Serpent at the base of the spine) and cannot shut it down.

There is a lot of stimulation of the psyche on the path to consciousness, so for some, if not balanced and done slowly, one can arrive at a place of crisis, a place of spiritual emergency.

For most this experience will balance itself out in time (if not interfered with) and will be seen as a great spiritual awakening and a profound life experience, but for others it can lead to more unconscious shadow issues arising to the surface. This is when ‘safe practices’ are paramount as they can make the difference in assisting the person to adjust and bring a grounded balance to their state of awakening. Otherwise the person may unravel, have a breakdown, take hard drugs to block the feelings out or find themselves under the mental health model of care, suffering from continual psychosis and the medicated merry go round.

I am not saying all this to freak you out and put you off the wonderful adventures that you will have on the road to consciousness. I am saying it because I want you to enjoy it and do it with awareness and safety. I have gained untold riches through my experiences and as my practice and my writings often attract sensitive and acutely sensitive people, its important to me that safety in alternative practices becomes more widespread. If you yourself can learn how to discern if the person who is offering the session or workshop is a person of integrity, knows what they are doing and begin to trust your instincts in making the right choice for yourself to venture in that particular direction then you will be on a much safer pathway to consciousness.

Blessings

InHeart

Odette

For further information please go to the website.

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