The Shaman Within!
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“Let us all put theory aside and connect to the pool of wisdom that we are all connected to”.
With this line, Dr. Med Klaus Dieter Platsch started his workshop at a congress of Chinese Medicine in Graz - the Tao Congress - quite some years ago.
This sentence fascinated me and has been on my mind ever since. This was a medical doctor, at a congress for Chinese medicine, organized by the Austrian Medical Acupuncture Association, who had asked at least 60 people to put aside theory and connect to their wisdom.
I liked him right away. His workshop was incredibly inspiring and got right under my skin. What he taught was spiritual and this was something that I could completely relate to.
I was here as a student of Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Academy of Chinese Healing Art in Winterthur (Hamid Montakab) - a school that right from the beginning taught us about spirits and the Heart that houses the Shen! Further to this, as we all know about the field of Chinese Medicine, we have the Hun, Po, Yi and Zhi spirits and also the Ling which is by definition:
“Líng 靈Spirit, soul, spiritual world -
Ling conveys the idea of the spirit that is apprehended by its effects on the mundane. Yin in relation to Shen” lines from the classics.
“What does this mean and what is a spirit? how could it help me become a better practitioner with even better results or to get a better understanding of our medicine?”. These were the questions that came to my mind as a practitioner of TCM.
I remember hearing Lillian Pearl Bridges talking about the Ling at a lecture and saying: ”The Ling spirit is the sound of snow falling from heaven”.
Feel free to take a minute to remember the sound of snow falling ( I am sure you have heard the sound too!). Walking in a most beautiful place where the snow silently falls all around you. Now that is a connection to Heaven, to the Divine!
But it was still somewhat confusing to me and therefore, in my search for understanding, of after almost 10 years of practicing Chinese medicine, I was led to Daniela Rupp, a Shaman, in the Swiss Alps in Davos.
Looking back to 2014, I can see that what I needed was to experience all this myself i.e. the contact or connection with the spirit world, to BE the Shaman and dream-travel to the spirit world!
In the Chinese tradition, the shamans were called the Wu 巫 and are dated back to the Shang Dynasty (around 1600-1046 BC). Both male & female Shamans, they were spirit mediums who practiced divination, prayer, sacrifice, rainmaking, and healing.
So can we be Shamans today as practitioners of Chinese medicine?
This quote from Jeffrey Yuen, Daoist priest, was imprinted in my mind, while also seeking information, inspiration, and the path of the Shaman:
“First we are the student, then the practitioner, later on, the teacher and at the end, we can become the shaman.”
With this statement, Jeffrey made me listen even more attentively at a lecture he gives every year here in Switzerland. We can become Shamans in the end!
What does it take to get there, and which teachings or cultivations do we need? Can we even think of ourselves as Shamans or Shamanic practitioners? If we are not born into a special religion, living in countries where it is still used today, and if it is not handed down from a family member that was a Shaman before us?
The teachings that Hamid Montakab handed to us were aspects of the tradition influenced by Chinese medicine as it was carried out in France. I asked myself “if the path of the shaman is my path would it not have been better to have been taught the principals of Classic Chinese Medicine?”
This brings me to a statement by Heiner Fruehauf in which he compares Classic Chinese Medicine to Traditional Chinese Medicine:
“CCM - The physician is intermediary to the sacred, cultivating the dual roles of the shaman (master of intuited knowledge) and the sage (master of scholarly knowledge), connecting above and below, inside and outside, energy and matter.
TCM - The physician is a skilled technician who rectifies imbalances between bodily humor and calibrates the structural composition of the body.”
Also, quoting the first line of Chapter 8 of the Ling Shu, Ben Shen “Rooted in the Spirit”:
Ben Shen - The Spirit as the Basis of needling:
“The laws of needling dictate that needling should be, first and foremost, based on the spirit”.
This line emphasizes the importance of the spirit when working with needles and we understand this as the spirit of both the practitioner and the patient.
So is the door open to everyone to become a Shaman, whether you are a CCM or TCM practitioner, and is it, in fact, more to do with your own desire and your own belief system?
Could it be part of your blueprint that you are on the path of the shaman, the mandate from heaven?
Maybe we must not even make a distinction between treating a virus and getting rid of a Gui ghost. Again, it comes down to your belief system and what you are attracted to.
Do you believe that we are all connected to Divine wisdom and that we all carry that wisdom within us and therefore we all have the possibility to become a shaman if we should so desire?
I can truly state that my personal journey stepping onto the path of the Shaman, the teachings and the cultivation, have lead me to a deeper understanding of the spirits, the spirit world, and the Divine. I was initiated into this ancient, powerful, and healing method by my Shaman Daniela in Davos who had and still has an enormous and enchanting effect on both my professional work and personal journey.
The path of the Shaman, a very natural thing is related to the gift of our intuition!
I am on my journey as the Shamanic Healer, the Shaman, the keeper of the Fire and the difference in both my personal life and my life as a practitioner/healer is remarkable. Every step of this journey is an inspiration and a pleasure, and I look so much forward to seeing where the path will lead me.
Right now I am running my very first online course "Your Heart Healing Journey" and as a tool for transformation and deep healing, I support the soulful women participating with Shamanic Journeying which truly is leading them to an Empowering Shift both personal and professional.
You can get more information on my website and even join the waiting list for when the doors open up again for this most transforming journey linked to the very powerful force of Shamanic Healings.
Your Heart Healing Journey Online Course for Soulful Women, ready for an Empowering Shift from fear to freedom, trust your inner voice and shine like the diamond that you really are. As past hurts heal - a journey out of your Head and into your Heart:
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Love
Marian
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