Earlier in my life journey, I briefly worked with a therapist who introduced me to the world of holistic spiritual healing.  She wasn’t the right therapist for me, but I am grateful for her pointing me in the direction I needed to go in life, and working with her helped me to end up with the right therapist in the long run. Anyway, this short term therapist wanted me to do a soul retrieval ceremony with a shaman.  When she made that suggestion to me, I had no idea what she was talking about, and I had a bit of an internal freak out.  The visions going through my head were similar to the beautiful photos in this article. (Trigger warning: There is an animal slaughter included in the pictures.)  To put it simply, that was just not my thing, and it was too radical of a concept for me to handle at that point.

So what is a shaman?  Simply put, a shaman is a traditional healer who likely works with herbs, spiritual guidance, music, trances, and other natural means.  All shamans work with greater powers beyond themselves.  Some might refer to a shaman as a medicine man or woman.  Shamans work with ways of accessing healing energy that are far outside our ideas of mainstream healing in modern America. 

There is no one exact way to be a shaman:  The roles and rituals of shamans vary greatly across cultures.  Their methods may seem primitive or they may seem incredibly advanced and gifted depending on one’s individual perspective.  Being a shaman runs in families, but it’s a vocation, not a hereditary position in most cultures.  You don’t choose shamanism.  It chooses you.  There is usually extensive training and initiation within each culture in order to become a shaman.

I consider myself to be a modern day shamanic practitioner, and if I’m forced to put down a category for my religious preference, I indicate shamanism.  Shamanism is actually a broad term that includes many different practices just as Christianity encompasses many different beliefs and variations.  Shamanism also falls under the even broader category of paganism.

Contrary to what Barbara Tedlock, Ph.D, describes of other cultures in The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine, most healthy shamans in modern America do not use trickery.  Drugs, mushrooms, or other hallucinogenic substances are also not required:  Those substances are rarely if ever needed though that is not a belief held in other many cultures.  Shamanism in America today is about availing oneself of the assistance of higher powers, about pursuing natural healing, about working with the mind-body-spirit connection, and about bringing humans into alignment with themselves, their culture, and their planet.

I don’t own a fancy headdress.  I definitely don’t slaughter animals or don’t make sacrifices on altars. I don’t even paint my face with everyday makeup.  In many ways, I look like an average American woman.  Yet I consider myself blessed to be a shamanic practitioner and to be able to help others with healing using the mind-body-spirit connection, the assistance of higher powers, and the resources of Mother Earth.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance, LLC 

There’s a saying about how all people put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us.  It’s a reminder that those in positions of power or fame aren’t really superbeings.  They are human, too.  One of my pet peeves is when people put priests, nuns, religious brothers, ministers, gurus and other church officials onto pedestals.  Based on my previous experiences in life, I believe that is a mistake.  Many of the shepherds are no more holy than the rest of us sheep.  They just happen to be our religious leaders.

During graduate school, I lived with nuns and brothers and other lay people in a large Victorian house.  There also were other priests and nuns who resided in the neighboring houses which were also owned by the department.  As most of us know from roommate and partner experiences, living with someone is the quickest way to learn about their faults and flaws.   After living with members of religious communities who were on sabbatical and working on advanced degrees, I was 100% certain they were human.  Many of them were wonderful people, but they were far from perfect and certainly did not deserve to be viewed as “better” than average person.  The shared bathroom issues with one of my housemate nuns were enough to clarify that point rather quickly! 

Later in my life, I worked as the office person for a liberal church. The senior minister was definitely a flawed human being and a rather unpleasant colleague.  I suspect he was having an extramarital affair without his wife’s knowledge or consent.  He was also accused by some of the members of the board of allegedly committing acts that if they’d pursued would have been felonies.  The assistant minister also was a challenging co-worker.  She seemed to believe that laws and rules were things that were only meant to be followed when they were convenient for her.  Her narcissism was difficult to work with, especially since she was in a role which was based on helping others.  Needless to say, I found that environment hard to work in.

In the same way, non-denominational spiritual leaders and gurus are very much human.  I've seen many spiritual leaders who lead highly toxic lives, some allegedly even committing crimes, yet they feel free to dispense advice to others on how to live.  They are not perfect, and just like the rest of us, they are struggling to learn sometimes difficult lessons in their lives.  Assuming that they are holy and trustworthy simply because of their job or vocation can be a major mistake.

Before you put anyone on a pedestal, nonetheless a religious or spiritual leader, remember that they are human, too.  They are just as likely to err as the rest of us.  Recognizing that religious leaders are no different than any other humans will help correct some of the imbalanced social privileges afforded to these religious leaders.  It can also help individuals to think on their own rather than blindly following religious and spiritual leaders who may not always be speaking from a place of divine truth.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

Recently, my kids and I were watching Sister Act for their first time.  While my kids are all baptized Catholic, we have not raised them as Catholics as my ex-husband and I both grew away from the Catholic religion.  As a result, our kids aren’t very educated about Catholicism.  They know some of the basics, but they don’t have the benefits of the cultural education I gained from growing up Catholic.

At one point, Mother Superior (Maggie Smith) shows Dolores/Sister Mary Clarence (Whoopi Goldberg) her “cell,” a.k.a. her room.  Dolores begins complaining violently about how sparse the room is.  I told my kids that the room was pretty accurate for a convent.  My kids just looked at me like I was nuts.  They asked how I would know, and I told them I had spent the night in a convent.  This caused the movie to get paused as my one son asked, “What? Was this some kind of field trip?”  I explained that there was a convent attached to the Catholic school where I went and that I ended up spending a night there. 

The longer story is that when I was in high school, there was a campus ministry sponsored “fastathon” in my freshman and sophomore years during Lent.  The goal was to bring about awareness of global hunger and to raise funds for a food related charity by getting sponsors.  It was basically a 36-48 hour juice fast.  My freshman year, there was a group of about five of us who participated (out of about 225 students total in the high school).  We spent the night at the school, and after dark, we went running shoeless through the unlit hallways.  It was exhilarating event and a priceless memory. :)

My sophomore year, I was the only one who elected to stay at the school while others participated from home due to other social activities.  Since it was just me, I ended up spending the night in the convent with the nun who was sponsoring the activity.  I got to follow the nuns about for their daily activities on the weekend including attending the various matins, vespers, etc.  I also got to see parts of the building that most students never got to see in all their years at the school.  It was an interesting experience, but not one that gave me any desire to join a convent for life, especially since I was already dating my future husband at that point.

I also took a nun with me when I went shopping for my honeymoon lingerie, but as they say, that is another story!

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance