Welcome, Spiritual Seekers!
TREE OF LIFE MUSINGS
In the year 2000, when I decided to hang out my shingle as a shamanic teacher, I needed a name for my practice.
So I took out my drum and journeyed with the INTENT to find a name. TREE OF LIFE was what I was told.
At the time, I didn’t know how ancient this name was.
I’ve been learning ever since: Do you know that we share 80% of our DNA with trees?
A Mother Tree holds space for all the smaller trees and all life around and under her.
Trees communicate with each other via the underground web of life.
Humans, as well as all life, are dependent on trees for oxygen, food, water, medicine soil, and shelter, as well as the more practical shade, shelter, protection, beauty, and transportation.
Odin hung from a tree until he reached enlightenment.
Ancient European Sacred Dances, as well as fabrics, were designed around the tree symbol.
I understand the form of the tree as similar to the human form. We are both channels for the light, collecting it in our branches and grounding it into the earth, our Mother. We have roots (the unconscious), trunks and branches (consciousness).
“Deeply I go down into myself. My god is Dark and like a webbing made of a hundred roots that drink in Silence” – Rainer Maria Rilke.
The word ‘shaman’ is a Tungas word meaning ‘hollow bone’, channel, healer. A shaman is a guide into the unseen realms. All humans have the ability to travel into these other realities for healing.
If this work calls to you, I urge you to investigate further. There are many shamanic callings, unique to each individual. Find yours!
How can I help?
Getting to Our Roots Workshop
Shamanic Journeying brings us into direct contact with our spirit allies, who include trees, flowers, animals, and the natural world around us, as well as our guides, angels, and ancestors from other realms.
We begin to build a relationship of trust with our guides and our self – our inner knowing.
Soul Retrieval
Private Sessions
Go on this journey full of healing and self-discovery with me where you’ll be able to open your eyes to new possibilities.
Get one-on-one access with me if you feel more comfortable journeying alone, with me as your guide.
Creating Ceremonies
“Creating Ceremony” is a series of online workshops to give you the tools and basic elements of the Ceremony in order to enable you to get creative with your own milestones.
In this series, I will guide you through traditional, shamanic/Wiccan elements of ceremony, including the most powerful times in the natural calendar, ritual tools, chanting and drumming in the creation of sacred space.
My Origin Story
I was so happy to finally be camped and fed. What a day on the river! We had been kayaking for a week and had just come to the Big rapids we had been contemplating on the map for months.
The water was high as we entered the top. Pretty easy, grade 2, then 3 rapids, but not many rocks above the water line.
I was looking down-river at what seemed to be a horizon line and a huge boulder mid-river and, as my attention was drawn ahead, my little Dancer slipped and I was underwater in a fully-laden boat, carousing upside down, attached and getting ready for the attempted flip back air-side.
It worked, and as I came up, there was the boulder right in front of me! I back-paddled like I’ve never done before, and my little blue Dancer flew over the waves to the right side of the river, where I went through the big standing waves, and pulled over in the next available eddy. WHEW!!!
I stumbled out of my spray-skirt and thanked the earth for being there. For having survived. For the courage and the quick reactions to save me. Help was hundreds of miles away and there were no cell phones. Only some flares in case a stray airplane was spotted overhead.
Thus began my acquaintance with Ceremony. Each time after that incident, as we got into our kayaks before rapids, I would take a drink from my cupped hand, and honour the goddess of the river and pray for safe conduct. Blessed Be!
This is not about me. This is about the River and how it flows, and what happens when we are not in harmony with flow. The Great Mother shakes us up.
Gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate, to re-adjust, to jump into action to save ourselves! It’s about an opportunity that comes with a crisis.
And what we do with that opportunity. If anything. It is definitely the universe offering us an upgrade. A chance to move beyond where we’ve been, to throw us into the soup – or the rapids.
There are two choices, as I used to tell my kids. We can run and hide and try to protect ourselves from ‘risk’, or complain, OR we can be GRATEFUL for the golden opportunities that are offered. We live, or we die.
What did these experiences give me? How have I utilized them in my life? They gave me an internal compass for life. I know that I can thrive in the wilderness.
I have an excellent sense of direction – physically in the here and now, mentally and spiritually. I can throw myself into new experiences, knowing that I’ll thrive. I trust my guidance on the shaman’s path.
Wilderness tripping for long periods of time brought me to a sense of belonging to Mother Earth. A very basic and beautiful existence in nature. Gratitude for life force and a sense of oneness.
It was the beginning of my shamanic sense of self – before I had experienced the journey in this lifetime. A roundedness and connection that was important for what was to come. A sense of TRUST, is one of the basic tenants of shamanism.
Here are some popular myths
about Shamanism...
and the truth behind each one!
🚩 MYTH: Only certain people can do shamanic work like journeying.
✅ TRUTH:
Everyone can journey and can meet their personal lifetime guides in the spiritual realm.
Shaman means ‘healer’ or ‘one who sees in the dark. Thousands of years ago, before established religions, people were naturally connected to all life.
If someone in the community was not well or needed some help, the community would journey together for help from the natural world.
Although unseen, they knew that spirit was all around them, available to help and guide us humans in our daily lives.
🚩 MYTH: Shamanism threatens my connection to God and my religion.
✅ TRUTH:
There are many names for God, including Spirit, Light, Life, Love, Truth, Goddess, Life Force, Universal Energy, and Manitou.
But spiritual truths are spiritual truths.
Shamanism, or paganism, or whatever you call Earth-based spirituality, is based on the same truths as those that make up the tenets of most religions:
◾ Live in Truth, Not in Fear;
◾ Do what you will and harm none;
◾ Judge not, Be Kind, Be considerate of others, and do what you can to lessen pain.
WE ARE ALL ONE!
Learn How To Answer any YES/NO question
without breaking a sweat!
Shamanism has two basic tenets – Trust and Intent. This technique addresses the first one: TRUST.
It will teach you to trust your own body. We think we make decisions with our mind, but the mind can be tricked. The body doesn’t lie.
This simple exercise will allow you to build trust in your own knowing, your own truth.
Copyright Cate Innish.
All Right Reserved 2023.