Powering Up
In turbulent times such as these, we can lose our inner power from stepping too heavily into fear, feeling small/invisible, or not using the power of our Goddess-given voice. In our world, the way that we can typically take back our power is by acknowledging that we have choice. It’s also knowing that we can weigh the outcome of our choices without being dominated by fear.
The shamanic way of empowering oneself is by working extensively with one’s helping spirits. When practitioners prepare for a healing session or for a challenging personal experience, we say we are “powering up.” This means we rattle, we drum and we dance our power animals and spirit teachers by allowing them access to our earthly skin while moving our bodies - much like the ancients did. In shamanism, we power up by merging with one or several of our helping spirits as we receive the power and strength of their formless energies that they loan to us. {And as I write this, there is a crow proudly cawing outside!}
What is a Helping Spirit?
Power animals are beings who volunteer themselves to serve as our guardians, protectors and etheric allies. These spirits are compassionate beings who reside in one of the Shamanic Realms, called the Lower World. Power animals take the form of an animal so we can understand in our hearts the kind of power they’re carrying. Most power animals take on the same form that they did when they were embodied on Earth, but some power animals can be magical creatures, such as unicorns and phoenixes. Whether or not they have walked the Earth in previous times, power animals all have a story to tell of their experiences, and it behooves us to honor them.
We can gain power and strength from spirit teachers as well. Spirit teachers reside in the Upper World and usually take on more human-like attributes. These spirit allies can be ancestors, Gods, Goddesses or angels and archangels. Our helping spirits can also be our non-human kin, such as the spirits of fire or water. Some helping spirits can traverse all Shamanic Realms, but usually the reside in one particular place where we can journey to find them.
The helping spirits comprise the power animals in the Lower World as well as the spirit teachers in the Upper World. We give them different names to help us understand the form in which they show themselves to us. Altogether, the helping spirits can form a strong energetic partnership when we live in reciprocity with them.
The Helping Spirits Choose
Helping spirits choose the person to which they give their power and wisdom. We do not choose them. For example, I have always been amazed by the appearance of red foxes, but sadly, the strikingly beautiful red fox is not one of my power animals. This spirit, for one reason or another, has not chosen me.
But that’s ok. Spirit knows what I need, and I have other helping spirits from which to draw wisdom and empowerment. One thing is for sure: just like people in our lives, power animals come for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
There are practitioners who have dozens of power animals, but it really depends on how much time and energy one can devote to them in a busy week in order to feed those relationships. The key here is quality, not quantity. A couple of strong relationships with a handful of helping spirits is really all one needs!
Relational Reciprocity
When you bond closely with a helping spirit, it is said in shamanism that you are “carrying” their power. The more bonding that is done with one’s helping spirits, the more effective a practitioner can be. Practitioners also aim to be in “right relationship” with all the beings around them. We want to be respectful not just with our helping spirits, but with the beings that share the land in which we live on, travel by and visit.
But we do want to pay particular attention to the reciprocity of the relationships with our helping spirits because they are such an important source of wisdom and empowerment for us. It behooves us to honor them with deep gratitude. If you haven’t spent time with a friend in a while, you wouldn’t expect them to show up for you in your time of need, right? The strength of the bond with the helping spirits is actually at the heart of a solid shamanic practice.
Again, They Choose Us
People can have an aversion to particular animals, such as snakes, monkeys, flies and millipedes. Years ago in one of my Intro to Shamanism workshops, I unintentionally overheard a student complain to another, “Ugh! My power animal is a bat! Gross - I hate bats!” I smiled to myself, and without calling her out in front of others, I used that opportunity to let my students know that when a power animal volunteers themselves to us and we have an aversion to their form, it’s usually to teach us a big lesson about ourselves. And? Your power animal can hear you! How would you respond if you volunteered to befriend someone and that someone recoiled?
I know of someone who is incredibly arachnophobic. If he journeyed to find a new power animal and a big, hairy spider came forward, I would imagine that he would need to do a lot of inner work to accept and honor this new spirit ally. He would also need to work with the being in order to overcome his fear. Spirit does challenge us where we need be challenged. The spirits know us better than we know ourselves. Sometimes it’s as obvious as working through a phobia and sometimes the reason they volunteer themselves for us is more mysterious and multifaceted. There is so much potential for beautiful reciprocity between ourselves and our helping spirits, if we’d only get out of our own way!
Empowering Oneself
When I perform Power Animal Retrieval Ceremony for others, the newly retrieved power animal can ask the recipient for the completion of an assignment (or several of them) in which the new relationship can be created and solidified. It may be an offering to that power animal or a procurement of a figurine of the power animal or something along these lines. When that same person comes back for a second session, I usually follow up and ask whether or not the request was fulfilled. Not following through on these requests is a missed opportunity! If there is a new, magical being opening its heart to you, why wouldn’t we want to engage with this new source of empowerment? You may have heard me say this, but I’ll say it again: the more we feed our relationships with our helping spirits, the more they show up for us. Just last week, I passed a huge truck with one of my main power animals on the side of it. I grinned, drove past and said aloud, “Hello, my old friend! Thank you for showing up in this way today!”
Powering Up
Practitioners who walk with the helping spirits in this world will merge with them frequently in the shamanic journey experience. Not only is merging with our helping spirits an incredibly healing experience for us, but it is a way we can experience the world outside of our limited human point-of-view. Our helping spirits have so much wisdom to share and often that includes seeing the world through their wise, panoramic eyes. It is truly in this way that we can expand our power by extending our limited perceptions to those who see this world with different senses. For instance, can you imagine the information a whale could give you by the way they sense and hear sound through the depths of the ocean? When we are able to see beyond ourselves and with the wisdom of another type of being, we are humbled to realize just how interconnected we all truly are.
If you know how to perform a shamanic journey and you feel you are in need of acquiring more personal power, you will need to intentionally work with your power animal or spirit teacher before you venture into the merging practice. Make concerted overtures to your helping spirits to show them that you are sincere in your willingness to humbly gain wisdom from them and they will be more willing to open their sacred energies up to you, one by one.
In order to merge, we begin by journeying to our helping spirit, and asking, “Please drop your form.” If your helping spirit agrees, you will be able to see or sense the formlessness of their energy which may appear as certain colors, sounds or a kinesthetic feeling. Next ask, “May I step into your field of energy?” Boundaries must exist even with Spirit, so always ask respectfully. When you sense permission from your helping spirit, step into its energy field. Your state of being will be shifted in very positive ways almost immediately. As you move into the experience of merging, take note of how you are experiencing the world looking through your helping spirit’s wise experience. This state is what I’ve been referring to in my monthly newsletter subtitle, “Impressions through the Shamanic Lens.”
I recently had an interchange with someone who was adamant that her meditations were the same as a shamanic journey. These two practices do have some similarities, but they are predominantly quite different experiences. In order to perform a successful shamanic journey, one must hold a strong intention along with a well-formed question for the spirits. In addition, shamanic journeying changes the brainwaves to theta (just above sleep) and enables us to step outside our egoic experience. By egoic, I mean the mental construct that is shaped by a person's life experiences, beliefs and interpretations of the world through a limited lens. This perception can change with meditation, but we need the direct experience of the shamanic journey to pierce the illusion of our individual lens and completely "be” with the senses of our helping spirits. As with most shamanic teachings, the lessons are best learned by direct revelation. I could write a lot more about how meditation and journeying differ, but the actual experience of “powering up” speaks more boldly.
Carrying Power
During these turbulent times, it’s important to call on our inner powers. In shamanism, there is ample opportunity to strengthen and broaden one’s personal power simply by working closely with the helping spirits. This understanding is as old as the practice itself, which spans tens of thousands of years and across cultures from every continent. If you have experience journeying, please use these steps in one journey (not broken up) with a power animal with whom you’ve worked closely before. Notice everything that you see, hear and feel. Write down your observations in a special journal kept for just your journeys.
1) Journey to your power animal, ask if you may step into their field of energy.
2) Ask your power animal what kind of power they carry.
3) Ask your power animal if you have permission to carry their power.
4) Ask your power animal what it means to carry their power.
Yes! Everyone has Helping Spirits!
If you do not currently know how to perform a shamanic journey or you are curious about how to connect with your helping spirits in a deeper way, you are welcome to schedule a mentoring session with me. If you are interested in learning how to navigate the Shamanic Realms to meet and form bonds with your helping spirits, you are welcome to learn more about my Foundational Mentoring Program, which includes three 90-minute sessions with me. Lately, the spirits have shown me that now is the time to gather our inner power and profit from the ancient wisdom of the helping spirits and wise ancestors who have also navigated turbulent times.
In this world, our power comes from our ability to resiliently navigate through tough situations and to understand where our own responsibilities lie before us. Our power also comes from our ability to focus on and feed what we can control. We also have the power to create space in our lives for the full spectrum of our emotions while acknowledging that we have a choice in responding in empowered ways. Navigating turbulent times is also best done with rebellious moments of joy and laughter while we keep hope in our hearts and our eye on the prize.
