silenceseeker

Hi Sofia, You do not come off as a righteous bore, so no worries. We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Lorrie

Hi Sandstorm, The way you are describing yourself sounds like an empath. If you are not familiar with the term, empaths take on other people's emotions, feeling them as if they were their own. Solitude for empaths is often the only way to disconnect from the world and reconnect with their own feelings. If you can learn to be detached when around people and not take things on, being an empath can actually be a wonderful gift. The key to being able to detach is to know what's yours and what's not. There is not a simple fix for this, it requires self-healing, such as the Recapitulation exercise here: http://www.shamanscave.com/self-healing/the-recapitulation Once you have healed and recovered energy from your own emotional connections that you've created throughout your life, you will be better able to remain detached from those in the world around you. You will see them for what they are in their own context and be free to choose whether to act on them or not. I know other practices advise putting up bubbles of protection or energetic shields but to me, these methods don't really do anything to address the core of the problem. Lorrie

Specific years or dates mean very little to shamans energetically because they are artificial constructs as is the linear nature of time. There are earth cycles that occur over decades that could affect human energy on that level globally. But it's most likely the power of cultural agreement in a certain belief that then creates it as reality. So it may have started as the result of an earth cycle or combination of other natural cycles that people noticed and then fed with their fear in an attempt to have control over it. Lorrie

Hi Sandstorm, Like Mandy, I don't know much about the Firehorse but I think you are referring to this? http://www.tofugu.com/2012/04/11/the-curse-of-the-fire-horse-japans-ultimate-form-of-contraception/ One of the reasons that we don't know about it is that here we focus on energy directly, so we look at energy below the level of where a Firehorse is formed but that does not mean that it doesn't exist or have impact. My response would be that 'it's complicated.' There are earth cycles, cultural agreements, elemental energies and even geographically specific energy patterns that could influence the development of children and even more so girls within those cycles. I don't believe that they come into this world this way though (although possible on some levels), it's what affects their energy as they develop that would most likely create this pattern. Lorrie

Hello Sandstorm, Welcome to Shamanscave. Scrying is a very old practice and can be a very powerful tool. We work with energy directly mostly here and so even though we do scry and use some tools, it's not the main focus. That being said, scrying and other tools can be very valuable in helping you to train your seeing as well as be used as doorways for various purposes. There is an article about it on the site you can read if you like: http://www.shamanscave.com/practices/mirror-scrying and try out for yourself with one of your many mirrors. However, if you use a mirror you have, it's best if you 'retire' it from its place on the wall and keep it safe somewhere just for your scrying purposes so I wouldn't use one that you want to keep out. Regarding this site and money, etc: Yes, you won't find any flakiness or fluff here. This site is not about making itself a commodity or trying to establish itself as the source for shamanic teaching. This is a site that teaches the Maker tradition, it's the real deal and you will learn a genuine, unbroken shamanic tradition of western European origin if you go through the training. There is an energy here that some people feel a resonance with - almost a sense of 'home.' These are the ones that generally stay for the duration. For others, people that are seeing self-healing, they will usually take several classes and heal to the point that they feel okay with themselves and then move on. 'Money,' itself is not the problem, it's the emotional attachments that we humans put on it that create problems. There's nothing wrong with having money As you said, it's necessary to survive and there's nothing wrong with being comfortable. So, it's not so much about treating "money carefully in this type of thinking," as gaining detachment from your emotional connections with money. When you get to a place where you are acting from your core, who you really are, your life will be driven by your own personal intent. Once you gain that, it really doesn't matter how much or how little money you have. Thanks for the compliments on the site, Lorrie

Hi Heather, I would like to welcome you as well. Please do ask questions, it's the first place to start to find out if you are in the right place. Lorrie

We are now on FaceBook. Please Like us. We will be posting class announcements, new articles and other items of interest soon. https://www.facebook.com/shamanscave Lorrie

Hi Lexi, Well, we don't think you're crazy here. I think the saying goes here "normal is just a setting on your washing machine" As far as tips, You probably have been called and thinking 'now what?' All shamanic training really needs to start with healing the self You need to be able to understand your own energy and how it uniquely connects to the world for you. You also need to gain detachment. You might want to start working with the Recap exercise found here: http://www.shamanscave.com/self-healing/the-recapitulation It's only a start but a very important and powerful one. It's the best thing I can think of right now. Please feel free to ask more questions if you want. I wish you the best, Lorrie

Hi Sacred Spirit, The site has a lot of information but it's just a fraction of what you learn in the classes. Why pay for the classes? If you take a class here, for seven weeks, you have a dedicated class for 90 minutes where you will be given exercises to work on during the coming week. You can ask questions on what you are learning, if you are having difficulties with it. you will receive personal guidance. As much as we would love to teach anyone that wants to learn the tradition for free, it does cost money to run this site and the supporting software. There are a lot of people that have and do pay for classes here and honestly, once people have taken a class here, I don't think we've ever had anyone complain that it wasn't worth the the $65 or $75 they had to pay. Also, as Beth said, it would be irresponsible to just put the information out there without providing a way to support people who are attempting the practices. If there is anything else you would like to know about the classes, please feel free to ask. Lorrie

I am glad you have chosen to follow your own path Michelle. That's not something that can be said for the majority of people. They fear the unknown of following a path that requires such personal responsibility. I agree with you about how the individual will determine their own path in shamanism in modern times. Where we no longer have shamanism as part of our cultural identity yet, it is as you say, part of the DNA of being human, different ways of being called are being found.

I just wanted to comment on a couple things: The great thing about the internet is you find whatever you are looking for. The bad thing about the internet is you can find whatever you are looking for - and usually 100 different viewpoints on it! And I would like to add that there is also a perception that everything that exists can be found on the internet. But I know for a fact that there are whole systems of knowledge that exist that are not written down or can't be found even as a mention in a Google search. These are oral systems, highly sophisticated and detailed, as much as anything written, they just were never recorded in written word. I think it's a mistake for people to think they can find out anything about anything through searching online. I think there definitely has to be some kind of fascination or interest, otherwise what's the point? The shamanic path generally is no picnic in the path. I have experienced deep depression and even reached a point of being ready to end my own life as part of this journey. Yet here I am, still answering the call. Still wanting to know and go further. And I also think it's something that you feel as if you have no choice but to do, although you do. As for cleverness behind the words, I don't know. It has to have a feeling of authenticness behind it. It has to feel like it's right, deep in my bones. A kind of recognition of, I have no idea what. Just a feeling like it fits. That is very important, it has to feel like 'home.' I will be going to a drum making workshop. Not necessarily by a shaman, most likely be a new-age "shar-man", "Shar-man," eh? What will they think of next? Lorrie

I agree with you on this Michelle, although from the Maker view, it's a slightly different take on it. The mind often uses our dreaming side as sort of a dumping ground for all the emotions, experiences, trauma that it doesn't know how to or can't deal with. We may forget them or they may fade but they don't just go away. They become fodder for dreaming energy, which doesn't really understand them and so they may get expressed in dreams in odd ways. Lorrie

I agree with you Michelle, energy is energy, especially when it comes to healing. It's really more of a question of how powerfully you can move it. I know there are quite a few really good natural healers out there who just have the gift. A lot don't really understand exactly how they do it, they just know what they need to do to see the issue and heal it. I think shamanic healing work has the potential to be a very powerful method if the healer has gone through the necessary self-healing to become detached. The detachment brings a lot of clarity on seeing the source of the illness and what is needed to bring the body back into balance. Also, thanks for mentioning Pellowah, I have not heard of it before, so it's something new for me to learn about. Lorrie

Hi Michelle, It looks like our site administrator is looking into it. The email address at PayPal that the shopping carts link to is: niteshad@windstream.net (name should be Gary Mills). If you could just let me know when you complete that, either here or send a message to: admin@shamanscave.com, I'd appreciate it. Although it's the same account, I don't get instant notifications when sent directly. Thank you for your patience, Lorrie

Hi Michelle, Sorry for the inconvenience. I know we just did some upgrades to the site that made some of the links not work properly. If you click on the Recap in the Current Classes menu on the left on the home page, it should work. Also, you can try this direct link to the shopping cart page: http://www.shamanscave.com/classes/online-classes Please let me know if this doesn't work. Thank you for your interest in classes, Lorrie

Hi Michelle, Welcome! My answer is going to be a bit different than what you might expect coming from a shaman. The Maker tradition is unique in that we don't work with power animals per se. What we strive to do is break everything down into its most elemental energetic form. So how that would work with your vision is first, I have to push it back on to you for the meaning. How I would approach it is that I would take the vision and try to break it down into an energetic construct and read the energy of that. So first of all, I would look at the setting and circumstances in which I met Crow and ask what significance do they have to me personally? I would do the same with Crow. You do probably have a symbolic meaning attached to Crow but you also need to look at your own experience with crows. How do they strike you emotionally? Where do you feel a connection to them - look for something like a gut feeling, where it resonates with you most strongly. The reason for this is that your own energy is involved very much in this exchange. It interwoven into it and so you need to understand where you personally connect to it through your own personal history. If I were to look at the scene as you described with Crow passing a pebble and then feeding it to you, I would say that Crow is trying to pass on its knowledge to you, for you to inherit that. But perhaps there is an experience in your life where a pebble or something being passed through someone or something has meant something to you in your past. If so, then this experience could definitely mean something else. So I'm sorry if it seems like I'm not really answering your question but if you can find the answer yourself, which is contained within your own personal history, then it will give you more power because you will own this experience yourself on your own terms. Hope this helps and thanks for posting, Lorrie

Hello Tama, I have to admit, although I know how to shapeshift, it's not something I practice regularly or have accomplished in a really complete way. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to do but the knowledge you gain is very valuable. Portals, I'm not quite sure what you are referring to. If you mean moving to different times and worlds, well, linear time is just an illusion anyway so if you can experience time and space as all at once, it's kind of one big portal. Sorry for the vagueness, these are big subjects so I'm not too sure where you are focusing with your question. Lorrie

Hi Tama, I guess I'll work backwards with your questions. It is possible to work with an ancestor guide. We do work with what we call the "Old Makers" in this way and receive training and guidance from them. I feel that the process of learning the path is what chooses the person in this tradition, the way it is taught here, which is different than how it was before. In the past it has typically been passed down strictly through family members. The people that come to learn here are not chosen by anyone. Many people come to learn but very few finish. No one kicks them out, it's they who end up taking themselves out of the process at various points along the way. I think you could say that the path itself is self-determining in this way. It's a tough path to follow. One of the reasons it's hard is because one of the things that makes a Maker is their individuality. Makers are not taught a predetermined method,or told what to experience, only guided to find their own definitions. They are given the tools and then they have to find their own way of working with the tradition. So if six Makers answer this post, you will probably get six very individual answers. That being said, you will probably notice an underlying consistency running through them which is because we all share the same cosmology. Lorrie

Great question Tama, I will jump in with a brief explanation of how I personally see it I've learned both Reiki and the Maker (shamanic) healing method. What I tell people when I work on them is that Reiki is channeling healing energy from 'out there.' There is a collective pool of healing energy in the universe that you can tap into. Think of all the prayers that have been said for people to heal through the years, they can collect within the collective human energy. I believe it's what is accessed with 'laying on of hands.' With Reiki, I am channeling that energy and it goes wherever it needs to, I guide as I move through the healing but it flows from'outside' of me through me to the area needed. With shamanism, I look at the person and 'see' where they have blocked energy, where it is flowing where it is out of balance and I do this with all their energy bodies, as we call them here, there are five primary ones in this tradition. I then proceed to move the person's own energy to remove the blockages and bring everything back into balance. In energy work, balance is considered healing and being healthy is having your energy in balance. It is all the same in the sense that it is all energy and the healer is moving it back into a state of balance. They are different ways of getting to that balance. I would say that shamanism has more focus and direction in a healing while Reiki tends to be more of a 'shot gun' approach for lack of a better word. It guides you while you guide the energy with Maker shamanic healing. I'm sure others here have different opinions on this subject. Lorrie

Welcome Tama! Yes, I feel like people need to know that we are here and real and practicing. It seems like more and more people are deciding that shamanism is only about traditional methods and best taught by indigenous people. The truth is that there are and always have been shamans or similar types in every culture, including modern, western civilization. We are modern but we are not new, we've been around a long time. I hope you find things that you connect with here. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Lorrie

Thanks Beth. I've been looking around at other shamanism sites and there seems to be a lot of misinformation out there. There seems to be a general consensus that all shamanism involves, ritual, power objects, power animals/guides, drumming and soul retrieval and it's just not true. There are genuine shamanic traditions besides the Makers that don't use any of those methods. I can imagine how confusing it is for people trying to get a better understanding of what is shamanism in general. Lorrie

Here's a great description of the common aspects of all shamanism Copied from: http://www.shamanscave.com/contemporary-shamanism/facets-of-shamanism Lorrie Facets of Shamanism Shamanism is a dance across the unknown, a journey to test the limits of the human heart. Shamanism devolves you, rebuilding you on a different model of what a human can be. Whether good or bad, it is certainly different. Shamanism is: * Learning that time is not only not linear, but mostly irrelevant * Learning that clarity involves more than just understanding concepts * Learning that balance is an ongoing process of self adjustment and determination * Learning that seeing anything, is only one way to see among thousands of ways which are available to human beings * Learning that the paradoxes in shamanism (and most metaphysics) are not the end, they are only the means to create an opening through which one's consciousness can pass into a different realm of understanding * Learning that healing is a process of self determination for human beings and that sometimes you really can't help * Learning that stopping the world can happen in an instant, and in that instant, anything is possible * Learning that truth and experience is often in the movement of your energy and not in the final destination * Learning that being truly human is so much more than what we imagine and more than we choose to face * Learning that fear is real and that it holds your life hostage in ways people can never comprehend who seek to hide their fear * Learning that your own death is your true and only ally, that it puts all things in perspective and delivers you to clarity * Learning that perception is only a tool which man has chosen to use in very limited ways for very selfish ends * Learning that having compassion isn't the same as pity, even for yourself * Learning that you can do very little for your fellow man, but what you can do is important and almost always goes unnoticed * Learning to cry at your victories because you see the cost and laugh at your defeats for the same reason

We get a lot of questions and confusion about what the Maker tradition is and how it fits in the grand scheme of shamanic traditions. I thought I would post a list of a few things of what it is and isn't that comes up a lot. This is not a criticism of other traditions/methods. We value and respect other methods but I would like to clarify some common misconceptions about the Makers.. It is considered contemporary shamanism, however: It is NOT Neoshamanism - this is not an invented tradition, it's been around a very long time It is NOT Core shamanism or anything related to Michael Harner's work It does NOT use power animals - there are other methods used for the same purpose but they involve working with energy directly It is NOT contemporary in the sense that is is new. It is very old but it did not stay stuck in one particular point of time/tradition. A lot of contemporary shamanism is really traditional shamanism at its roots.- it's really the same traditional practices with just a new new look/ use of materials to fit better with modern culture. It IS contemporary in that it has evolved alongside western culture as the culture evolved. Since it has its roots in Western European culture, it has evolved along with western culture to fit the needs through different periods of time. This means that the practices are about working with the time and culture we currently live in and reflect that in the techniques. It IS about working with energy in its most elemental state, which also sets it apart from other traditions. I hope this helps clarify some things. All questions or comments are welcome. Lorrie

Even how to become a shaman. http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Shamanism I like the warning at the end: "In most societies, shamans are not figures of authority. Do not expect to gain personal status or fame." Lorrie

Hi Bill, I'm just going to add to Karl's response. I found the scrying mirror I use most of the time in my grandparent's barn. It has a homemade frame and looks like it was used possibly as a medicine cabinet or kitchen cupboard door. It's not pretty, it was painted with the same paint they painted the cabinets with and is dingy with age now but it's really solidly built and there was something about it I just liked. The first time I used it, instead of seeing images, I heard sounds. They were the sound of dishes clinking and supper conversation, just day to day type stuff, probably my grandparents from many years ago. This is the difference between using a real mirror over a virtual one. It has a history, it has absorbed the energy of its surroundings and the people that used the mirror over time. You can connect with that energy and re-live the past or learn things about it. The energy that it accumulates becomes a doorway into the past and other places not from this reality as well. The virtual mirror does not have this physical connection. i tried out the mirror that you gave the link to. It works. I'm pretty impressed with how it does work without the physical aspect but in this case you are not really connecting to anything in its history, except maybe the intent of the person who created the virtual scrying tool. So it works and it actually shows that you moved pretty well because I think it would be harder to move this way. If you want to continue to use it, I would suggest setting a strong intention of what you want to see or know before using it and it should help with results. So you see, what mirror you use does make a difference. If the black mirror you have was bought new, it doesn't have much history to it yet. All the years of people looking into mirrors adds to the energy of it as an object so the high use ones as Karl pointed out are usually best because they have 'lived' through so much. Below is a link to a mirror scrying article on this site that goes into more detail. I'm not sure if you've seen it yet or not? http://www.shamanscave.com/practices/mirror-scrying Lorrie