Spiritual Hygiene and Clearing Collective Pollution: Understanding Our Own Role
In foundational shamanic teachings, it is said that in there are three shamanic worlds: the Lower World, the Upper World and the Middle World, which is the spiritual aspect of the world in which we live. When I teach Intro to Shamanism and the Shamanic Journey workshops, I guide students to closely bond with their own helping spirits in order to traverse these worlds. In shamanism, a practitioner doesn't travel through the shamanic worlds without his or her helping spirits, and this is particularly true when traversing the spiritual aspect of this world.
The Lower World and Upper World are transcendental realms filled with divine beings who have volunteered to assist us and grow in ways that are for our Highest Good. These beings are overflowing with compassion, love and wisdom.
Additionally, the Middle World is filled with many spirits such as tree spirits, cloud spirits, the spirit of the sky, the spirit of the Earth, bird spirits, animal spirits as well as the powerful elements of Water, Earth, Fire and Air. One cannot deny the response from the Air Spirits when rattling and honoring the wind. It is in the Middle World where much of the practitioner's work is done, in order to commune with the plants, the water, the aspects of the weather, the moon and the Earth and to divine information and healing to humans and to other sentient beings.
The Middle World, however, is not a transcendental realm - it is vulnerable to chaotic energies. Although humans are only a part of the network of beings in this world, we do unfortunately create a majority of the chaotic energies found in this world. One phenomena that humans participate is in consciously and unconsciously sending intrusions. In shamanism, intrusions are unconscious energies that can land on others (human and non-human alike) that don't serve anyone. Akin to a poisonous dart, people may say unkind words, behave in unkind ways and send thoughts and emotions to others that can add to collective sickness. This is the true issue of collective pollution.
In addition, intrusions can be self-created. When we as individuals do not consciously process our own thoughts and emotions we can instead repress them, which causes our own intrusions. Intrusions, whether repressed or projected, unconsciously or consciously to others or created by oneself, can be at the root of localized pain, dysfunction of organs, gastrointestinal issues, anxiety, depression and generally feeling "unwell." It can also cause a ripple-effect of collective suffering.
In order to ascertain whether someone has incurred intrusions, a well-trained shamanic practitioner would need to perform a Diagnostic Journey to ask his or her helping spirits what is at the root of the issue that has manifested. Thankfully, there is a highly effective ceremony called Extraction Ceremony in which the intrusions are removed, neutralized and taken to another dimension by the practitioner's helping spirits so they cannot return in the harmful form in which they were created.
In some shamanic societies, sending "darts" is a commonplace occurrence. In my own training, the health of the collective is of foremost importance - so if one sends out "darts" to harm another, that only pollutes the collective "soup" in which we live. The logic is: if I live in that same collective "soup" aren't I then sending a dart to myself, indirectly? In the years of shamanic work I have been doing with my helping spirits, the answer is: Yes, we are all interconnected.
But how do we prevent this phenomenon in the first place? First one must understand that it is a practice and responsibility to take care of one's own suffering. It is important to be responsible for one's own thoughts and emotions. It is important to especially become highly aware of what one sends out, and how one speaks to others, and how one behaves toward others in his or her community of friends and family members. This practice includes not participating in what I call "drive by shootings" on social media when people choose to say things to others that they would never dare blurt to someone in person.
In these challenging times, it is of utmost importance to keep "clean" in one's spiritual hygiene. In the chaotic energies of divisiveness and fear, it is true that intrusions are flying around uncontrollably - most of them sent by those who do not have an understanding of what is occurring energetically. It is not just humans who are suffering from these human behaviors, but other sentient beings who reside in this world alongside us and share this world with us. But we can change this occurrence.
Spiritual hygiene is a practice that truly begins with Self. It begins with speaking and behaving kindly to oneself. It begins with not repressing thoughts or emotions that come up, but instead "making friends" with them, tending to the practice of holding all emotions and thoughts with compassion. When the practice of spiritual hygiene is done with self-love, it is in the spirit of honoring your boundaries and what feels "right" for you, and having the courage to speak up when it does not. In this act of self-love, you are able to acknowledge who in your life is feeding you or is sucking you dry and then making decisions regarding how your inner garden can best grow, coming from the place of honoring the sacred within, which is the only place to begin from.
At the heart of holding others with compassion and kindness is the action of doing just that with Self first. With this practice, the calm and centered energy that ripples out from that place can keep anyone standing firmly amidst the current of chaotic times and can deeply and authentically change the collective climate in which we live. It begins with you.
