The Shamanic Healing Journey

Gift of the Dreamtime - Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma by S. Kelley Harrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this book in one night. Easy to read and gripping narrative. Those who have survived abusive situations will find this book easy to relate to. I have not but still enjoyed reading it. The authoress herself has survived an incest encounter with an unnamed family member. She has had to deal with guilt, shame, hate and the fact that her family not only never helped her to heal but embraced the offending family member. I would have felt lots of anger if I were her.

The authoress begins her shamanic journey by traveling into the lower world. By accessing this place thorough a waterfall she finds herself meeting different animals and almost gets trampled by horses. It is in the lower world that she meets Allusius, an owl who acts as her spiritual guide. He is the one who teaches her about depression and how to get past it.

Other journeys take her to the realm of the stars where she meets angels, saints and more human like spirit guides. This is the domain of Simon her celestial spirit guide. He is somewhat the artist who is constantly creating and mostly painting with multi colored charcoal. He teaches her the mind body connection and the impact of hate. In order to heal the body one must heal hate.

The Cailleachs an old crone and hag from Irish legend appears in all three world. It is at once an older version of the authoress herself and a teacher who facilitates healing. The caileachs is an old warrior who does not heal but stands by while you heal yourself. Healing is a do it yourself kit.

In her mediations she learns that she is from a dark skinned tribe call the sun people who were scattered and reborn into many different tribes. She is to be there representative somehow. Books play a major role as she absorbs them into herself and sometimes at the expense at getting a headache.

The journeys help her get past her tragedy. She learns forgiveness, letting go and unconditional loving. While I tend to view what she did not so much as Shamanism, i tend to view it as a visualization process similar to what I have done. The book resonated with me and changed my consciousness. My mediation sequences were much like hers where the dialogue of the spiritual guides was simple and quite similiar.

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