The Signature of the Psychopomp
With the day of Samhain here, it might seem timely for me to write about disembodied spirits, but this subject is always timely for my particular line of work. And with global unrest and local violence having been experienced here in the state of Maine, I find it even more timely to write about spirits who have lost their way.
Some people find that they are not comfortable with learning the shamanic techniques in approaching those who have passed and are lost, understandably. Approximately only 20% of those who are trained in shamanic techniques to assist the dead and dying will feel called to work with this particular demographic of spirits. There’s no judgement. One either feels called to it or they don’t. The work can be tricky and one must approach it powered up with sovereignty, firm boundaries, and loads of empathy. It really isn’t for everyone. For my colleagues and myself who do feel called to this work, there is a consensus of feeling the closure, joy, and peace that comes with taking part in alleviating a spirit’s suffering when they allow us to assist them into the light of the Otherworlds.
There are certain people who have a psychopomp signature to their energy. Psychopomp is a Greek word that translates as “guider of souls.” Those with a psychopomp signature are people who have spent their lives being exposed to the paranormal and sensing lost spirits. It’s not a very comfortable way of being, especially when there is no formal understanding in our culture about the Spirit World. Over the years in my practice, I have been shown that the psychopomp signature is a specific make-up of one’s energy body that has been encoded by one’s Creator Beings.
But just because we are born with a psychopomp signature doesn’t mean that we are born embodied with sufficient tools to help us negotiate with and assist with the dead and dying. I tend to think of this type of shamanic training as a recollection of one’s calling as well as truly understanding this nuanced piece of work. It’s true that the first step of psychopomp work is to lean back on the power and wisdom of one’s helping spirits, but even then, being human means we are still vulnerable to intrusions as well as “hitchhikers” or what I call suffering beings. Spiritual hygiene is an absolute must when approaching disembodied spirits. All shamanism is mediumship, but what makes shamanism different from other modalities is that the practitioner only works with particular helping spirits who reside in the transcendental realms in which the practitioner travels to. The practitioner knows what the energies of their helping spirits feel like, sound like, look like - and even smell like in some cases. This needs to happen so that disembodied spirits (those who were human as well as spirits that have never been embodied) cannot trick the psychopomp.
Like some of you reading this, I have lived in homes and have worked in places where spirits have been stuck. As a teenager, I experienced some very bizarre occurrences in my home in central Massachusetts that I still reflect on from time to time to make meaning out of. As a young person, I didn’t understand why I was experiencing what I did, but as I later learned what the role of psychopomp entailed, it all began to click into place.
At the age of 12, I awoke at 2 or 3am hearing a rustling in the chimney down the hallway from my bedroom. We would get the occasional raccoon family in our chimney, but whatever tumbled out into the living room that evening slapped its large-sounding feet on the hardwood floor… which became louder as the sound stopped on the other side of my closed bedroom door. The moonlight flowed in from my bedroom window, illuminating my cat and dog’s forms on my bed, who were both awake with ears perked, watching the door with me. Together, the three of us sat breathless.
The illuminated doorknob sounded as if fingers with sticky skin were attempting to open the door, and I could see the metal moving counterclockwise in the light. A paralyzing fear enveloped my body that I had never experienced before, nor after. My system was so frozen that I couldn’t even vocalize words to get help from my mother sleeping in the bedroom across the hall.
Suddenly, I heard the word, Pray whispered in my ear. Looking back, I can only assume it was one of my helping spirits whom I had yet to formally meet. And so, I began to pray relentlessly. My motionless dog and cat continued to watch. And I prayed. I don’t know how much time passed, but the sense came over me that whatever was on the other side of the door was disinvited and could notenter. The doorknob suddenly stopped moving and the large slapping footsteps retreated down the hallway. In the silence, I heard Lucy, my beagle, swallow. I heard my cat, Tiger, exhaling quietly. It was then that I noticed that was covered in cold sweat. When I mentioned it to my parents the next day, no one else experienced anything but deep sleep. If it weren’t for my dog and cat, I would have wondered if it was just a bad dream.
My grandparents’ home on the coast of Maine was also a place where I had some intense experiences, but it was the first time I experienced others sensing what I did as well. Every evening at 7pm during the winter months, my family would hear someone walking in the master bedroom upstairs, while all family members were accounted for in the living room beneath it. Interestingly, this event seemed to fade in the summer months, but would recommence every winter. After completing my two year shamanic apprenticeship, I was ready to put my psychopomp training to good use with this long-standing issue! With the help of several others who finished the program with me, we assisted those lost spirits from my grandparents’ house back to the Otherworlds. It’s important to note here that when assisting large groups of spirits who have died that one has a team of colleagues who have been trained in psychopomp work. Due to the lost spirits’ level of potential trauma and confusion, it is dangerous for even a seasoned practitioner to cross more than two spirits over by oneself as one’s spiritual hygiene may become compromised.
Restoring one’s spiritual health is an important part of self-care as a practitioner of any modality. In shamanism, those who are embodied are seen as divine. We practice seeing imbalance or illness peeled away and the divine light of the embodied spirit as a luminous light body. Shamanic practitioners often say that they are holding a person, a group of people, a child, an animal, a body of water, a parcel of land, a state, or a country in Light. We don’t dismiss what is causing the imbalance, but we practice seeing the spirit in its divinity. We also do not send healing but instead see beings in their wholeness and radiance. That is how we return to our miraculous state, and that is how miracles occur. It is the basis of alchemy and Healing with Spiritual Light.
Whenever I teach Death and Dying to students, we focus on our Light, our sovereignty, and the power given to us by our Creator Beings and our helping spirits. Overall, when we have solid faith and trust in something bigger than ourselves with whom we are confident have our back, we become a force to be reckoned with. We become powerful, luminous beings.
I am holding the land of Maine in Light, including all beings living here whether they have been affected directly or indirectly by the recent acts of violence. I am also holding the entire Middle East and all its people, children, animals, plants, and land in Light. Looking through the eyes of the helping spirits, no one is forgotten and no being is less or more deserving to be seen and held this way.
Will you join me in holding other sentient beings in Light?
