The Wisdom of Hurricanes
I've written this many times before, but I’ll write it once more: in shamanism, everything is a spirit. This isn’t just a belief, but a result of direct revelation that shamanic practices provide. This is an undeniable experience for myself and anyone who learns to commune with the spirits. It is also one of the cornerstones of shamanism that truly blows any newcomer’s mind.
When we work in the Shamanic Worlds, we are constantly communing with a myriad of spirits who have intelligence, sentience, and consciousness. The spirit of a cloud can impart a type of wisdom to us that is different from the wisdom that a sapling may impart. However, because both spirits never forget how interconnected they are with the cosmos, the texture of the wisdom draws similarities no matter what spirit of nature you commune with. There is also an utter state of non-attachment that is quite challenging to duplicate within our own human perceptions. But in the eyes of Spirit, nothing is truly good nor bad - it just is.
On our podcast, Shamans After Dark, my good friend and colleague, Bri Andreoni and I discuss the weather spirits in Episode 42, The Secret Lives of Weather Spirits and Our Connection to Them. Bri and I talk about how these spirits are working deeply with the spirit of Mother Earth in order to keep Her balanced. From our human perceptions, storms can be concerning, damaging, and downright fatal. We see the after-effects and the devastation that can be caused by them. However, all weather spirits have a “job” that they are fulfilling and storms like hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms are no exception. The East Coast of the US experienced very exciting weather patterns in September, with the visitations of two tropical storms, Lee and Ophelia. When I performed journeys to these spirits on separate occasions, I was surprised to be given very similar messages.
As I traveled through the Middle World with my helping spirits to approach the spirit of Hurricane Lee, its form changed to a more human-like one to communicate with me. The spirit turned to me and our eyes locked. Suddenly, I felt myself being sucked into his eye, at which point the form changed from a human eye back to the form of a hurricane. I found myself in the eye of the hurricane, where there was a complete absence of wind. I was shown that there wasn’t peace in the center because it was separate from the chaos surrounding it, rather there was peace in the center due to the force of chaos around it. In other words, this wise weather spirit was showing me the interrelationship between order and chaos. It also showed me within its eye that although chaos exists externally, there was no need to react to the chaos but instead respond with the state of being of a witness.
The spirit of tropical storm Ophelia also showed me something interesting. When I journeyed to the Middle World to this weather spirit, it showed me its center which was formed like a whirlwind tunnel moving upward. This tunnel formed the neck of a goose. Ophelia then spoke the words, “Be grace.” When I asked more regarding what that meant, I was shown the grace of its center.
As I drew more information about what I was being shown, my helping spirits helped me metabolize this teaching in a more concise way so that I might translate it.
They said,
There is a lesson of balance and centering when chaos is our external experience. It is imperative that humans find their sovereign center during chaos rather than being reactive. Humans who are not conscious of their inner world tend to bounce their reactivity from person to person rather than searching for their own power and then responding from an empowered place within. Finding order within is the center; it is grace.
As some of you may know, the latter part of September brought the recent strain of Covid to me. With a fever averaging 101-102°, I was shown that there is grace to be found even when one’s inner world is hurling into what seems like chaos, dizziness, and distortion of thought, as Covid can do so well.
Indeed, there is a frequency available to all of us that is undeterred and unaffected by chaos. Within each of us lies this place of utter calm. Once you find this state, hold on to it. The beauty of finding this within oneself reveals this same tranquility reflected back in everything.
