Shaman Portal Quarterly Review ISSUE 6 - March 2023
S ha m a n P or t a l Q u a r t e r ly R e v ie w
A Note from the Publisher
TAB L E OF CO NT E N T ISSUE #6 MARCH 2023
Gabriela Jurosz-Landa The Meaning of Animal Energies in Maya Spirituality
Greetings. I am delighted to welcome you to our sixth issue of SPQR. I hope you will apply the wisdom of the many shamans’ traditions we gathered
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Evelyn C. Rysdyk Page 9 Shamanic Creativity: Free the Imagination with Rituals, Energy Work, and Spirit Journeying Imelda Almqvist North Sea Water in my Veins: The Frisian Runes
on these pages. As the world is changing all around us at an accelerated speed, I feel we must commit to returning to the ways of survival indigenous people of the Earth practiced from the beginning of time. otherwise, we will sure vanish from the face of the Earth.
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Olga Stanton Page 16 Pysanka – a Magical Egg of Ukrainians Howard G Charing The Amazonian Angel Oracle
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Christian Thurow Working with Symbols
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In Tungus, the language from which the word shaman began, the proper meaning of Saman is “Keeper of the Fire.” The person who keeps the embers in a dying fire alive. The keeper of their community’s mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. The keeper of their stories, songs, lore, history, and medicinal ways for survival. SPQR magazine, Shaman Portal website, social media, and all other projects we are working on are part of my efforts to keep my promise to the spirit I met many years ago in the Amazon. I am thrilled to share it with you, our growing global community members.
Art by Faith Nolton
(See artist’s information on page 30)
Copyright. All rights reserved by each of the authors. No part of this publication or photographs therein may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
Shungo - From my heart to yours.
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A Note from the Editor
Facebook Group cracked the 100k member threshold in 2002 and with currently more than 104.5k members and over 150 posts and 3,500 comments per month has become the largest Facebook community with a shared interest in Shamanism. Given that none of the people behind Shaman Portal are doing this fulltime you can easily see why publication schedules are more aspirational than hard coded deadlines. But we’re getting there.
Dear Reader, Welcome to our sixth issue of the ShamanPortal Quarterly Review. It has been a while since the publication of our last issue but time is relative and there is so much going on at ShamanPortal right now. Beside the SPQR we’re busy in bringing authentic Shamanic Wisdom right into your living room through our ShamanPortal Wisdom Webinar series.
I hope you enjoy this new issue of the SPQR which again brings you beautiful information on indigenous and western Shamanic practices. A big thank you to all the authored who contributed to this issue and their patience with us during the prolonged editing process. And also a massive thank you to Faith Nolton for sharing some of her beautiful artwork with us.
In 2022 we had 17 webinars (some of them over multiple weeks) with renowned indigenous and Western teachers like Mallku Aribalo, Mama Susana Tapia Leon, Don Manuel Calazacon, Linda Star Wolf, Leo Rutherford and many more.
Blessings Christian Thurow Editor
For those of you who are more adventurous and would like to experience Shamanic Traditions on the ground, our founder Itzhak Beery organised tours to the Andes and the rainforest of Ecuador. And last but not least we worked on our new website which went live in February 2023 – https://shamanportal.org . There is still work to do on the website but at least it’s out now. Meanwhile our ShamanPortal
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The Meaning of Animal Energies in Maya Spirituality By Gabriela Jurosz-Landa In all religions and traditions, animals are thought to
extremely attuned to sensing danger.
possess the power of being carriers of spirituality.
One might suggest that some animals are also more beautiful than people. Beauty in many traditions and religions stands for divinity, and thus suggests animals are carriers of the divine.
Hinduism is filled with meaningful allegorical animal figures. In Christianity a lamb symbolizes Jesus, a lion the evangelist Matthew, to name only two examples. Additionally, Western worldview recognizes animals forming stellar constellations in astronomy. Astrology which studies the influences and meanings of such heavenly bodies and animal constellations is less widely accepted as a science.
Both living entities, animals and people share physical and behavioral characteristics. Even Darwin put them into an evolutionary relation to each other. Albeit, the ideology of Darwin’s evolutionist theory succeeded to wipe out many pagan ideas and links between animal forms and humans, as did the Inquisition starting in the 12th century and established juridically in 1478. After this cleansing and even more so the spiritual restructuring during the Enlightenment, people more or less forgot about the spiritual linking of animals and humans. Now considered “pagan”, this co-existence
Animals are in many ways superior to human beings. Their life force is in large part more potent than ours; many those creatures easily orient to their environment; others can fly or run faster than humans; some have excellent vision and hearing which enables them to hunt at night; many live under water; some are
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was to the Greeks—the forefathers of the European worldview—common knowledge. They considered it wisdom to be aware of a connection between the animal realm and that of people. Animals were peoples’ symbolic representation and spiritual guides. Transformation of Energy Ancient Greek spiritual understanding recognized this connection, and many non-Western belief systems still celebrate spirited phenomena and the transformational ability from animals to human and vice versa. People cultured in scientism often reject transubstantiation – the substantial quality of all numinous existence. The thought of things changing is thus far an uncomfortable one and does not fit Darwin’s philosophy of evolution pondered into school children. According to Darwin, the human is supposed to be the rational ruler of the world.
Maya spirit animals, the so-called nahuales, are principally vital cosmic energies. Pure energy can manifest into different appearances--the form of people, animals, medicinal plants, or places, such as mountains or rivers--doing so at will. That recognition is often ignored. Pure energy, let’s call it God, wants humans to also act at will. Existing in different societies and observing the educational politics, energy must deem that individual will is given little attention and room to be developed. With issues such as gender questions, national borders, and vaccine decisions, one’s will and its relation to the will of the other is featured daily in the media and is a constant battle in personal life. Will is the key to mastering transformation. The animal form is the closest representation of pure energy that humans can perceive with its similarity to our own condition. Therefore, energy often appears to the Maya people in animal form. However, there are different levels in traditional native worldviews, such as the Maya.
Everything she does not dominate feels threatening to the controller’s mind. Numinous beings are powers that exist in a certain environment and in certain timely conditions, partly shared with the human, yet invisible to most. They are simultaneously individual and universal, material in some form, and symbolic in another. The understanding of the possibility of such a multiple existence is entrenched in non-separation. While Western science divides the spiritual from the material body, many non-Western systems of thought do not.
Trained as an anthropologist, I read anthropological literature to see what scientists know about the Maya spirituality. I found that Mercedes De La Garza, for example, well-explains this system of multi-vocal and multi-valued levels of symbolization of Maya animal representation. De la Garza explains that vital energies enter the material world where they materialize in an element, like water. That is its first representation. The second representation is, in the case of water, an animal of the water, such as the water serpent. This second representation is the second step of materialization in a more complex matter in relation to the element water.
The Maya, whose culture and spirituality I am most familiar with among the different cultural traditions, do not live by a matrix of division. To them everything is alive and interconnected. The human is considered a true part of nature in its totality. As they see God in his oneness, they see people in the same way. Despite that unity of their being, God, numinous entities, and people all may take on different appearances and functions which may manifest in different personal preferences, abilities and professions. Taking on a manifold existence is comparable to traveling. Changing one place for another does not force the moving subject to disintegrate.
The “real” visible water serpent is a carrier of the vital energy incarnated in water. The third representation then occurs when the energy is then pictured, as an “imago” – a sculpture, picture, architecture, or in oral narrative and writing. In that form the energy appearance may be altered – reduced or complicated. The mentioned serpent can appear with feathers and dragon-like wings, for example. The visual or vocal alteration does not change the energy’s essence, however. A fourth level of symbolization occurs when the vital energy is formalized or schematized to become a symbolical abstraction; such is the case in Maya or Egyptian glyphs. To explain their relation to each other and their ability to change form, De
Similarly, dressing in different clothes does not per se change a person’s core. Many people in industrialized societies have lost the ability to distinguish between primary matter and its representation. The Maya are very aware of the many relations between non-material realms and their material forming.
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La Garza compares the world of the Mayan “gods” to a kaleidoscope. Each one stands in relation with the other, and all of them are in continuous motion producing a diversity of images with their different ability of power, to that extent, that in one space a “god” can symbolize one thing, and in the next something else, even something contrary.” (De La Garza 1998:88, 89.).
animal forms are day entities. Twenty different socalled “nahuales” circle thirteen times and mark the 260-day calendar. This spiritual “Cholq’ij” calendar is the core of Maya shamanic work, exercised rigidly and daily to maintain this relationship and keep the cosmic time entities moving forward. Therefore, we are called the “day keepers.” I will explore more on this subject below.
Ancient Maya archaeological representations portraying animal beings in the many reliefs, wall paintings, pottery, and glyphs have caused much confusion among Western scholars who believe they see in these expressions that the Maya pray to animal gods. To Westerners these expressions may seem bizarre, since foreign traditions such as those of the Ancient Maya, have their own way of expressing truth, unfamiliar to us or as mentioned above, historically and ideologically pushed into oblivion. However, it is of great importance that we distinguish that the Maya do not exercise zoolatry nor totemism.
Serpent Transformation Let me step away from theory and illustrate two examples of transformation through an animal as I experienced them in my spiritual life. In Maya cosmology, as in many other traditions, the serpent is co-creator of the world. She is the generator of life, and therefore equally possesses the power to bring death, and possibly invigorate new life. With her extraordinary ability of survival and to skin shedding, she is the ultimate representation of life transformer, and therefore associated with pharmacies in the West, and healing in the Mayan world. As climate and environmental conditions, different from today, the Boa constrictor then lived in the land of the Maya. The largest Maya ethnie, the Quiché, called her “Kan”, while to the lowland Maya she was the “ochcan.” In the shamanic initiation process the numinous snake engages by swallowing the disciple before spitting her out, transformed into a shaman.
Some scholars including anthropologists, still call the Maya’s relation to nature and the animal energies “superstition.” Most possibly, these scholars do not spend enough time and focus on experiencing numinous phenomena and tying them to their former existence in Western culture before the Inquisition. The Maya animal appearances are not “gods”. Rather, they are entities symbolizing forms of pure energy. Over millennia, the Maya studied and organized them into a calendric system which allows them to call on them and with their help get in touch with the spiritually higher realm. The sequences in every calendar are of course measured by time. The Maya
My personal initiation happened several years before moving to Guatemala and years before the formal initiation process which I underwent there in 2015.
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This story is interesting, because it differs from the stereotypical idea of a shamanic initiation. In 1989, the Berlin Wall that separated my communist home of Czechoslovakia from Germany, the place where I grew up after my family’s escape when I was two years old—that wall came to fall. Now, for the first time since leaving Czechoslovakia, I could visit my birth town. There, while attending a movie at the famed Karlovy Vary Film Festival, my own “film” ran before my eyes.
importance of being present or frequently connected to one’s birth place. This experience also taught me the significance of the umbilical cord as represented by the serpent and the reason why Native Americans burry it in the child’s birthplace. One other serpent experience occurred shortly before my initiation to becoming a Maya day keeper. During my training with my mentor in the Western highlands of Guatemala, I participated in an ongoing healing process of an eight-year-old boy who had developed a sudden tumor in his head. My mentors then attempted to heal him in various forms which in this case, at the end of a long process interrupted by the boy’s parents, turned out to be unsuccessful. Yet, in one fire ceremony, my spirit transformed into a serpent and flew to the hospital where the boy lay in his bed.
In brief, a large snake came from the sky and choked me. Died and transformed into a cartoon girl, I sat on the snake’s back and traveled to the moon. There, I saw my future partner who was in Guatemala. Three years after this event, now a student at Vienna University, I sat in the tram and among the Austrian passengers and “saw” this man as if real. I later painted an oil painting of a tropical forest and, as from the people on the tram, now from the trees a dark-skinned male face emerged, only that it displayed blue eyes.
The snake examined his body by moving all over him, then came back to me revealing soon after that the boy will not be saved. During this transformation, my body remained at the fire. I do not know for how long I was away, yet I know that traveling to the hospital in my physical body would have taken hours, leave alone getting to him without the family’s approval. Even with all that, I would hardly have had the serpent’s insight into the health state of the boy. The nahual’s overall power is beyond that of the human, yet we have the ability to connect and get assistance by transformation into a spirit animal. The path to that may or may not require much training; the openness to the possibility of energy transformation is the first step. For me, training in keeping the Maya calendar by counting its animal day representation numbers, was the second.
I met my love partner a year later in Guatemala.
Identification with one’s Maya Spirit Animal Photo: Gabriela Landa
The nahuales of the Maya Cholq’ij calendar have their place in the symbolic world. One nahual may symbolize a seed, another is fire, and yet another an altar or a human being. A Maya shaman can transform into her birth or any other of the twenty nahual she has been initiated with. That way she can take on the animal’s capabilities.
The blue-eyed face of the painting was probably me, transformed or reincarnated into a Mayan person. The serpent in the Czech experience had transported me through time and space from my birth place to my place of future destiny. As I believe, this had to happen in the place I was born. After this and other occurrences, I cannot emphasize enough the
Being able to fly as a bird, the human can reach places, she could not in his human form. Maya day counters frequently use this transformation to run their task, to achieve some knowledge for example to heal someone, or to connect with another person.
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To the Maya, finding her spirit animal is not a matter of chance or intuition only. Every Maya newborn is born on a Cholq’ij calendar day with its particular energy. Not all Maya know the calendar by heart and so it is one the Maya day keeper’s task to reveal the child’s energy sign to her parents. For example, someone born on the last day of this calendar is “T’zi’,” the dog. This energy stands for justice and so the day keeper tells the parents that this child might become a lawyer or other authority having to do with justice. Thus, many Maya identify with their birthday energy throughout their lives.
It is for this practice that the Maya shamans do not call themselves “shamans” but “day-counters,” or “day keepers”, and in the language of the Quiché Maya ajq’ijab. The task of these day keepers is to keep the relation to these telluric energies alive by addressing them through counting through the 260-day calendar while sacrificing pleasant ingredients into the fire during the daily ceremony. The task of counting time may need to be fulfilled various times each day and is an arduous but crucial one. The Maya believe that without the work of the day keepers, the calendar energies might weaken, leave the world and people and without people would be left powerless.
Their certain nahual has the strongest alignment to that person born on the calendric day with that specific nahual’s energy. The nahual becomes her alter ego and spiritual guide. It sits in one’s forehead from where it guides. At a person’s rear end, the coccyx, sit the ancestors, the past wisdom which is always equally with us. The ancestral energy is the other quintessential force in Maya consciousness. To them, the coccyx is the nucleus where time ends and begins anew. It is the human body’s equivalent to cosmic time cycles.
The Maya have always observed the occurrences of time and space. They conceive of time as above all cyclical or circular, returning perpetually upon itself. As events move in cycles, they tend to reoccur. Looking at time events as in a line, they do not reoccur predictably. The cycles being self-enclosed, the Maya day keepers can count back to a certain time and its energy and trace back to the past, because time cycles back to the present.
Nahuales as Carriers of Time
History does repeat itself and this process is observable. That way, this system also allows it to predict the future. Traditional Maya believe therefore, if people keep things as unchanged as possible, the cycles will bring back the same events again which makes future prediction possible. Therefore, the attempt to keep their society homogenous, is why they tend to do things exactly as their forefathers did. European ancestors may once have used the Maya’s words: “He who knows his past, also knows his future.”
Time-space and the influencing forces within it are the structures that human life and actions depend on and are moved by. To the Maya the universe is a system of systems in which diverse and autonomous units are articulated. As the days pass by, time travels. Hence, the nahual day energies are carriers of time. Each day has a specific characteristic, function and meaning, its individual energy. Each day, its energy creates matter. Consequently, matter, including human beings, is made of time.
Gabriela Jurosz-Landa - A cultural anthropologist, art anthropologist, awardwinning writer/poet, and artist, Gabriela was initiated into Maya shamanism, called “day keeping”, by her Mayan mentor in Guatemala. She lived in Guatemala the Maya way to also live within nature and the cosmos. This knowledge she shares in her book Transcendent Wisdom of the Maya: The Ceremonies and Symbolism of a Living Tradition, together with her journey to becoming a shaman-priestess, Maya culture and consciousness, and her experiences with the Maya authorities who still live by the knowledge of their ancestors, the Ancient Maya.
The Maya use in particular many calendars to register time and to capture different time cycles. The Cholq’ij calendar is dedicated to these nahual energies. The contemporary Maya people still live by this calendar, and their shamans work by it. During ceremonies they count the twenty nahuales which each characterize a certain day energy. Therefore, we speak of energies instead of one energy. These 20 days x 13 frequencies form the 260 days of this specific calendar. These 260 days count for the period of human gestation, the time an embryo develops in the womb. Counting the spiritual calendar days is a very specific Maya spiritual practice not found in other spiritual traditions in the world.
https://gabriela-jurosz-landa.jimdofree.com
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Excerpt:
SHAMANIC CREATIVITY
Free the Imagination with Rituals, Energy Work, and Spirit Journeying By Evelyn C. Rysdyk The Subconscious Mind: Your Creative Co-conspirator tireless co-conspirator.”1 It is also why I suggested
clearing it of unbeneficial beliefs: that old clutter just takes up space that you want for your creative energy to flow.
You can also program your subconscious before you go to sleep, asking it to provide creative solutions through dreams. The subconscious can be creative when you are sleeping, and that is why you have started work repatterning its beliefs. You have been clearing the way for it to do its most amazing work. The prolific inventor Thomas Edison never even napped without programming his sleep time. He is famously quoted as saying, “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” As I stated earlier, your brain naturally flows through a series of brain states when falling asleep, from active beta, to relaxed alpha, and into theta before entering into the delta sleep wave. Once asleep, your subconscious mind is able to solve problems and be creative, especially when you are deeply in the delta wave state. It can accomplish this because the linear mind is completely off-line during that period.
…take time before going to bed to think about what you want to accomplish or what problem you want to solve. Look at it from as many angles are you can and develop a request(s) about it for your subconscious mind. Keep your requests simply worded, and make them clear. Finally, write them down, and then get into bed. As you are falling into sleep, visualize and feel what it is you want the subconscious to work on as if it is already accomplished, and then use your voice to say, “I am grateful to my mind for providing me input about [insert request here].” The ideas, concepts, and solutions the subconscious develops during this time can be harvested in the morning if you preserve the time your mind begins to wake up for that purpose. This means allowing yourself
In this way, your subconscious becomes what professor and neurobiologist Stuart Thompson describes as “your
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to linger in that hypnagogic state before the linear mind fully goes back online for your day. If I wake up in the night, I allow the nonlinear mind free rein again. If I get a wonderful idea at that time, I don’t engage the linear mind with writing as it can keep me from returning to sleep. Instead, I ask my mind to remember it for the morning. Having practiced this for years, the idea that came to me in the night will surface again in my morning time. Make sure you use your sketch/ notebook to capture the ideas that bubble forth when you are fully awake.
remember. Do this with all of your dreams and resultant felt experiences. Keep track of all new realizations or changes of awareness you have as the year progresses. Process Questions 1. What did it feel like to think about shaping your dreams?
A wonderful step toward this is to begin intentionally shaping and recalling your dreams. I have already shared how giving messages to the subconscious during the time just before sleep, when your brain is producing theta waves, can be incredibly useful in altering internal limitations.This time period can also turn your dream time into creative time by using similar methods. Shaping and Remembering Your Dreams For this you will need your sketch/notebook to capture dream imagery that may have arisen while you were dreaming. Place that and a small flashlight directly next to your bed so that it is easily accessible in the night. 1. Create an intention that you want your dreams to address. This is called shaping your dreamscape. In essence, you are giving a problem to solve to the subconscious mind to play with while you are sleeping.
2. How many details of your dreams did you remember? How do you think you might remember even more? 3. Pay attention to any patterns you begin to notice as you continue this process. As you practice this, don’t worry if other dream material arises, as this may be something your subconscious is asking your conscious mind to address. This is a fertile opportunity for the waking and subconscious minds to enter into a dialogue. If that happens, remember that given the opportunity, our dreams will lead us to and through the transformation of unwanted experiences. Our self longs for wholeness. Also, if you awaken without a dream, just repeat the steps and go back to sleep. With practice this can be a powerful tool. Keep repeating this process until you have the answers you need. To give you some encouragement, I’ll share a little story of just how effective this process is in getting things done. Over twenty-five years ago, my partner and I were about to teach our first graduate-level training in advanced shamanism and shamanic healing. We had accumulated a great group of people who had already taken our apprenticeship program and wanted to study further. Using our own ideas, we put together a rough framework for the two-year-long program. Using the resource of shamanic journeying described, we expected to get clarity about what specific exercises would be best for each session.
2. Write that intent on a fresh page in your sketch/ notebook. 3. Climb into bed, and get comfortable. 4. Allow yourself to breathe deeply and restfully. 5. Repeat the intention you have written down as a quiet mantra until youfall asleep. 6. When you are aware you have had a dream, stay in the same position with your eyes closed and recall the dream in as much detail as you are able.
No matter how much we tried, we were stonewalled. I finally asked the spirit of my great-great-grandmother, who is my primary tutelary resource, why this was happening. She told me this was to be a new “trust walk” in my process and that each session would be given to me in dreams just prior to the session. Needless to say, this freaked my partner and me out!
7. Summarize the dream in as few words as possible into your sketch/notebook, and go back to sleep. 8. In the morning, expound on your brief notes by writing down the dream in as much detail as you can
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We had a good group of people registered, and we certainly didn’t want to disappoint them. However, I trusted this spirit implicitly, and so I bravely proceeded to the facility we had rented for the program with only the barest threads of a curriculum. At night, I asked for what we were to do the next morning. Each day, I napped after lunch to get the details about the afternoon session and took another short nap after supper to receive the evening session’s material. Believe it or not, the program was amazing. My creative subconscious mind worked in concert with the spiritual guidance I received to make a truly transformative program, but more important, I had learned to trust my own process to a much deeper degree. Nothing like a trial by fire to give you a sense of accomplishment. I had the incredible realization that my creative energy was connected to the ultimate creative energy of the cosmos and so was actually unlimited. It’s also why I feel it is so important to stimulate your creativity. You have those same connections: no one is separate from the larger cosmos. You and I and everything we know were born from it and meant to express its creative energy. Busy Brain as a Creative Playground Great ideas can also strike when you are fully involved in another task. The nonlinear creative mind steps forward when your linear mind is either so engaged it doesn’t have any circuits left to suppress the nonlinear mind or too bored by whatever you’re doing that it powers down a bit. Either situation can be fertile ground for sprouting ideas. When an idea strikes, stop what you are doing as soon as you are able and write down whatever arose from your creative mind. Even rough scraps of ideas must not be lost by being too busy. Think of your ideas like produce: they are best when you get them fresh. Keep working with your sketch/notebook to capture ideas, concepts, and thoughts as they arise. Discipline yourself to carry it everywhere and use it often. Ceremonial Openings Along with doing exercises such as writing morning pages and allowing the nonlinear mind to speak on either side of sleep, I find setting an intentional opening for my day to be equally important. While I liken it to having a daily road map, it isn’t about choosing a
fixed emotional, mental, or physical destination but instead using the time to choose a “road” that you want to travel. This is a variation on the mystery road trips I’d take with my paternal grandfather. He was great for taking a road he’d never driven on before just to see where it went. To this day, I like to follow this idea when making long drives. Without consulting any guidance from phone apps or GPS, I take an exit and go wandering. Using this method, I have stumbled on great restaurants with home-cooked food and curious roadside attractions and have had many memorable adventures. Choosing a metaphoric path to travel each day can set a tone that is conducive to experiencing life in a vital, enhancing way. Now you could use this exercise for a specific project, but it is a lot more fun to use it to break out of your comfort zone and go off the map. Below are suggested off-the-map journeys. • Choose to be open to signs from the universe for a day. • Ask a stranger to tell you something that he or she always wanted to share. • Use your camera to photograph only things or people with names that begin with a specific letter. • Blow bubbles with the neighborhood kids. • Spend the entire day without using any of your gadgets. • Write “You are a miracle!” on fifty sticky notes and then surreptitiously post them all around your town without getting caught. • Pack a picnic to have with a friend in the moonlight and choose foods that fit the occasion (moonpies, anyone?). • Set up a mystery date with a friend that involves dressing in disguise. • Decide to engage in something that gets you out of your comfort zone. Use your evening subconscious programming to request what physically safe but comfort-zone-busting activity you can do the next day. Once you have heard from your subconscious in the morning, write it down before your party-pooper linear mind chimes in. After you’ve captured the idea on paper, follow through with what you received. Don’t let yourself weasel out of rattling your own cage. As the ad says, just do it! The Grateful Heart As a part of setting my path every morning, I engage
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in a gratitude fest. I do this after I’ve sat with my postsleep liminal state and written down in my sketch/ notebook whatever fresh goodies my subconscious and nonlinear thoughts have delivered to me. I may even wait to do the fest until after I’m dressed and downstairs—as then I can step outside to do this ceremony. But I always refrain from thinking about the day’s to-do list until after I’ve finished with my gratitude ceremony. For my gratitude fest, I find it really important to speak aloud. That way, my subconscious as well as my conscious mind can hear me. I start with something like, “I feel grateful for this new day.” Then I often follow with gratitude for my senses. Next might be gratitude for my health and that of my partner. As I go along, I offer gratitude for our cat, my ancestors (I name their names and specific traits I inherited from them), my family and friends (again using their names), and our clients and my students. How the gratitude flows is never exactly the same, as I allow it to be both heartfelt and spontaneous. However, I do make the ending exactly the same each day. When I’ve exhausted my gratitude, I always end with the phrase: “And thank you for the miracles I experience today!” Just saying that phrase programs me to recognize and consciously honor every gift I receive each day. The gift might be a new bird at the feeder, a call from a friend I haven’t heard from in a while, or an unexpected check arriving in the mail—but calling these gifts miracles unlocks a door in me that then provides the universe a way in to deliver new delights. Morning Gratitude Bath Ceremony For this you’ll need: • Your sketch/notebook and a pen • A small bit of birdseed or cornmeal (if you are doing this outdoors). Read through the instructions before performing the ceremony. 1. Close your eyes and breathe a few times with a focus on your heart. 2. Remember a time in the past when you felt grateful. 3. Allow yourself to fill with feelings of gratitude again for that experience. 4. When you are truly feeling gratitude, offer thanks aloud for this day and its many possibilities. 5. Express out loud your gratitude for being alive. 6. Continue expressing your gratitude aloud for all that
you are truly grateful for. 7. When you feel you’ve exhausted your reasons for being grateful, say: “And thank you for the miracles I experience today!” 8. If you are outdoors, leave a bit of birdseed or cornmeal as a concrete offering to seal the ceremony and as a gift to the beings of nature around your home. 9. Take a few moments to write whatever came up during this process in your sketch/notebook. 10. Now go about your day! Process Questions 1. What did it feel like to take a gratitude bath? 2. What occurred during the days that you started with gratitude? 3. Pay attention to any patterns you begin to notice as you continue this process. Practicing this can really change how you experience life and contribute to the generous flowing of your creativity. A grateful heart opens up your full capacities, and when you are running on full power, your creative energy can flow like a river after the snow melts. Evelyn C. Rysdyk is an internationally recognized shamanic practitioner and bestselling author. Along with her writings, Evelyn is an impassioned teacher and a featured presenter for global online programs and intensive courses. For well over 30 years, Evelyn has delighted in supporting people to remember their sacred place in All That Is. Whether through face-to-face contact with individual clients, her students from around the world, or through the printed word; Evelyn uses her loving humor, storytelling and passion to open people’s hearts and inspire them to live more joyful, fulfilling, and purposeful lives. She acknowledges that as people awaken their full selves, they are much more likely and able to make their unique contributions toward transforming our world. www.spiritpassages.com
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North Sea Water in my Veins The Frisian Runes
By Imelda Almqvist shaped by human beings. A considerable portion of land has been reclaimed from water. This has an impact on the collective psyche! If we were to allocate my country of birth a ‘national rune’, it could only be Rune Lagu!
About sixty-five to seventy percent of our human body
consists of water (depending on your age, gender and shape) and about seventy percent of Earth is water too. It is no coincidence that those percentages correspond. This is the realm of Rune Lagu (the Water Rune). In The Netherlands everything has been created or
Frisia (Friesland in Dutch and Fryslân in Frisian) is a province in the north of the Netherlands. The Frisians were sea farers and they had close trading connections with the Old Norse peoples. They all sailed up and down the coasts bordering the North Sea. At that time runic writing was used along that stretch of coast. The Frisian King Radboud famously came close to being baptised (with Holy Water) but refused when he was told that his ‘heathen ancestors would not be waiting for him in Heaven’. His reply was that he strongly preferred spending eternity in Hell to hanging out in Heaven with his enemies! Most of what we know today, about the order of both the Anglo-Saxon and Frisian rune rows comes to us
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from the Thames River Knife (which is also known as the Thames scramasax)*. An additional source of quality information is the Vienna Codex. This manuscript, dating from the early 9th century, gives as a complete version of the Anglo-Saxon rune row. This article focuses on the Frisian Runes. The Frisian Rune Row is younger (meaning that it appeared on the scene later) than the Elder Futhark. Did the Elder Futhark (mostly used in Scandinavia) ever reach the Low Countries? Yes it did! We have evidence in the form of the Bergakker Inscription. This inscription was carved on the scabbard of a 5th-century sword. The language used is Old Dutch. Runologists have worked hard to arrive at a transliteration of the inscription:
• A character or letter which has mysterious magical properties attributed to it. • A Finnish poem, or division of a poem, especially one of the separate songs of the national epic called the Kalevala There is even an Old English word ‘run’ (not be confused with the contemporary verb for moving at great speed) but our contemporary words rune and runic date from the 17th century. They are derived from Late Latin (runa and runicus) and were probably reinforced by their Scandinavian equivalent.* An Introduction to English Runes, R.I. Page, The Boydell Press, 1999, p. 1-2 We need to make another important distinction: • Runosophy is the esoteric study of runes, where metaphysical (some prefer the word occult) properties are attributed to runes and worked with in magical ways (by people calling themselves rune magicians). • Runology is the study of Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. There is nothing metaphysical about it. This field is a specialized subsection of German linguistics.
Transliteration: haleþewas:ann:kesjam:logens: Translation: possession of H. [Haleþewas = Spearwarrior], he grants the sword-fighters swords (Looijenga, 1999) The British Museum in (my home city) London actually has a significant Frisian object in its collection: the (so called) Skanomodu Coin, which carries an early runic inscription, written in the Anglo-Frisian runes: You can see it in the Enlightenment Gallery (dedicated to Ancient Scripts), just off the Great Court in the middle of the museum on the Ground Floor. Its provenance is not known. Once upon a time it was part of the private collection of King George III. The entire collection was donated to the British Museum in 1825. The word rune is still in use in the Frisian language: reauntjse. Until today it carries the core meaning of the word rune: a whispering or soft rustling (say of the wind in the reeds). Meanings of the word Rune • A letter or character of the earliest Teutonic alphabet, used by Scandinavians and Anglo Saxons
Runologists have about the same opinion about rune magicians as astronomers about astrologers (not good)! It has been claimed that we teach what we most need to learn. Once I had formed a strong relationship with the extra runes of the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (in comparison with the Elder Futhark) I felt compelled to teach a series of rune classes dedicated to them. The students themselves also put these classes at the top of their wish list. Those classes were moderated by Christian Thurow, the editor of SPQR. Students always want to have exact information, presented in a simple and clear way. The problem is that the material itself is neither simple nor straightforward. Runes often have major variants, their meanings shift over time and some runes even turn upside down or shapeshift in other ways. Frisia plays a surprisingly important role in the field of runology. For instance, the rune Hagal (phonetic value H) in the Elder Futhark has just one crossbar but on the continent a form with two cross staves occurs, which then becomes the dominant form in AngloSaxon inscriptions from the seventh century onwards.
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In Frisia we see the double-barred form appear for the first time on a coin or pendant from Harlingen, dated around 600 CE. The H Rune (called Haegl in the
and AU. There are even some consisting of three letters: AAI, OOI, OEI and perhaps the most diabolical ones of all: IEUW and EEUW! (And no, I have not even bothered to provide a voice recording!) In terms of runic scripts England closer ties with Frisia than with the rest of the Continent.
Frisian Rune Row) is used there to spell the personal name HADA. Another example is rune KEN. I will show the progression in a drawing just below. In the Nordic region the first form (a V turned 90 degrees counter clockwise) shapeshifts into the second form in Scandinavia. However, in England another variant, the third form shown below, becomes the norm. Confusing? Yes, a bit!
This sequence also tells us something about how the runes moved across Europe and evolved over time: they came to England from Scandinavia, developing local variants along the way and they were then exported to other lands on the Continent where West-Germanic inscriptions occur. Another thing we need to point out is that language itself evolves over time in all it aspects: pronunciation, semantics and syntax. New vowel sounds also occur. The Dutch language is very rich in diphthongs. The single vowels are a – e - i – o and u but diphthongs are sounds formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another. Some examples in English are: OU in “ouch!”, OI (in coin), AI in “cry”, AW in “straw”. Some examples in Dutch (and Frisian) are IJ and EI [pronounced the same way] OE, UI, EU, EI, UW, OU
Germanic peoples used runes from the third century (CE) onward. In Scandinavia, especially Sweden, we find many large stones with runic inscriptions. The same thing is not true for Frisia. The Netherlands is a country of canals and fields, not big rocks and boulders. The boulders dropped by the glaciers were assembled into Hunebedden (passage graves) a very long time ago (in the Mesolithic period)! In Frisia runes were generally carved on smaller objects, such as combs, coins and amulets. The Frisian rune row is essentially identical to the Anglosaxon rune row, minus one letter (Gar, the spear). In my illustration I have put red brackets around Rune GAR. It can be surprisingly hard to define such rune rows because some runes appear only in one or two rare inscriptions. Scholars have debates: do we
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have enough reason to include one elusive rune in an established rune row? Did some rune master, many centuries ago, invent a fancy rune or did they decide to add an individual touch to an inscription?
pagan/heathen) material from The Netherlands, Belgium and just across the border in Germany. At its core is a search for a native ancestral spirituality. (This search belongs to the domain of Rune Madr: Rune of human beings and the Ancestors). I have included a summary of the Frisian runes and their meanings, deliberately set in a Dutch historical context.
Another odd fact about runes (though it should not surprise us as some things never change) is that runologists also study the phenomenon of Runic Grafitti. In the Medieval period we find names carved And now I will go and drink a large glass of water to into the stonework in churches and cathedrals. They are honour my origins: Rune Lagu! supposed to be a legacy from people who travelled from abroad (presumably pilgrims) and on arrival in
Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe).
the Holy Land (or Holy City) carved their name on historic monuments. It really is not different from doors in public restrooms today: “I WAS HERE!” or X [name) was here! I have lived away from my country of birth for more than half of my life. I once had a powerful dream where I tried to swim across a canal (in a typically Dutch landscape) to ‘go home’ but it was not possible. I was forced to return to the shore I started from. I did the math and realized that this dream marked the exact point where I had lived abroad for as many years as I had lived in the Netherlands. It told me that I would never live there again. So I wrote a love letter to my country of birth, in book format.
So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) published in June 2022.
My new book aims to reconstruct the spiritual heritage of the Low Countries and covers pre-Christian (or
www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/
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Pysanka – a Magical Egg of Ukrainians By Olga Stanton In Ukraine, inscribing pysanki is a very ancient Pagan
custom that survived through the centuries and has been practiced almost everywhere on the territory of Ukraine and adjacent to Ukraine regions of Poland, Czechia, Romania, Slovakia, and Russia. Pysanka and malevanka
Pysanka (literal translation is “written egg”) is a raw fertilized egg (traditionally perfect eggs for a pysanka would be taken from a young hen that laid eggs for the first time on the first New Moon of spring – a lot of “firsts” to notice, as spring is time for regeneration and renewal) inscribed with magical symbols that were traditionally inscribed on eggs for generations. Egg inscribed with any other “non-traditional” symbols is called “malevanka” (“painted egg”) and does not bear
the same magical and ritual importance. Traditional colors for pysanka are white, yellow, red, and black, although in different regions of Ukraine orange, green and blue are also used. The symbols are inscribed (“written”) on the egg with a special tool named “kistka” or “pysachok” which technically is a small funnel attached to a stick. Back in the days kistki were made out of animal bones or chicken feathers. Pysankarka magical work Pysankarka–a woman who specializes in making pysanki–starts preparing to her magical work in advance. First, she collects the water for the dyes. Water for the dyes has to be taken from 7 or 9 different wells and springs or at a junction of 3 streams early in the morning (3 – 4 am). While she carries the water back to her house, she has to remain silent and never look
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back. The water collected in such a way is called “mute” and doesn’t carry any energetic trace. They also say that water molten from March snow has almost the same powers, so it is very lucky to collect snow in March. Once at home, pysankarka prepares the dyes by steeping roots, herbs, and bark in water.
an egg could cause catastrophe as it was believed to alter the world as a whole. White color on pysanka is used to write respects to the gods, yellow color is for the people and material riches, red represents Life and is used for protection and wellbeing, and black is the color of Mother-Moist-Earth herself. Usually, pysanki intended for children had green or red (but not black) background, as children were believed to be too young to handle black color and its symbolism, while pysanki left at the cemeteries for the dead or spirits had no red on them as they were not for the living.
Finally, dressed in everything new and clean, after taking a purifying bath, she lights a candle, scoops some beeswax into the funnel on her kistka, and warms the funnel on the candle-flame until the wax melts. After this, she starts inscribing with hot wax magical symbols that she learned from her ancestors on the pure white surface of the egg. Once she covered all the surfaces on the egg that she wishes to remain white with wax, she dips the egg in the lightest dye she has (usually, it’s yellow). While the egg is in the dye, pysankarka reads a special prayer or a spell during which she invokes the deities that are to help her in her magical working (usually those are female deities such as Lada, Mokosh, or Bogoroditsa–Virgin Mary, if pysankarka is a devoted Christian, and states the purpose of her work. Sometimes she may also invoke the deities or spirits, whose symbols she inscribed on the egg.
The symbols on pysanki vary from area to area, but all bear very deep meaning. Also, pysanka is believed to contain the power of the Elements, as all of them are used while creating it: the “mute water” infused with herbs, candle-flame and honey-smelling beeswax. Pysanki are usually given as gifts and never sold. Refusal to take a pysanka from a friend or a relative used to be an insult back in the days. A girl would give a pysanka to show the boy she liked him or to accept his attention. Depending on its symbolism and magical purpose, this special egg may be buried in the fields for good harvest, placed under a beehive so that the bees would thrive in it, or kept in the house on a windowsill or in the “red corner” (a Slavic household altar) for good luck and protection.
After the egg is colored yellow, she covers with beeswax the areas she wishes to remain yellow, and dips the egg in a darker dye – traditionally, red. After a prayer or an incantation, she removes the now red egg from the dye, and repeats her process with the hot wax to cover the areas to remain red on the egg.
The decorated egg elemental symbolism
Pysanka inscribed with special “water” symbols was believed to protect the house from fire, and if the fire still erupted, a master would carry the pysanka around the flames to stop the fire from spreading. Broken pysanka was an omen of coming draught. If the egg exploded (this happens if it has a small crack in it), it means that pysanka had served its purpose and protected the house from something bad. Now, they say that first pysanki were written on eggs of ducks and other water birds, as (due to their constant contact with the water element) they symbolize purity; however, chicken eggs became more popular as they last a lot longer than eggs from any other birds.
The magical importance of an egg decorated in such a way is immense. First of all, it combines the triple symbolism of the egg itself, the colors it was dyed with, and the symbols inscribed on it. The egg in this instance represents the newly born world bearing good (and only good) wishes of pysankarka on it – ill-wishing on
Pysanki are not just written to celebrate Spring – they may be written on the Light Half of the Year when the days get longer and nights shorter, for such important occasions as childbirth, wedding, or death. Special pysanki with stars are also made on Christmas/Winter Solstice.
Finally, the egg is being dipped in the darkest dye – black, which serves as a background. After removing the egg from the dye, she places it in a warm oven or carefully holds it over a candle-flame until the wax melts; then she wipes it away with a napkin. This last step finally reveals the brilliant colors on pysanka, and now the egg may be covered in oil or grease to keep it shiny.
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whether people still follow their traditions and culture (“celebrate weddings the old way”), and finally, whether they still make and exchange pysanki.
Pysanka and Krashanka It is important to understand the difference between a pysanka and a traditional Easter egg that is called “krashanka” in Ukraine and is usually colored in a single color – red to represent the strengthening Sun. Krashanka is a hard-boiled egg and by eating it people “connect” with the Sun deity–Slavic Dazhbog.
As he hears that people keep on doing all those things, he growls and roars, as his chains hold him stronger. The amount of pysanki made on a particular year is proportional to the strengthening of the demon’s chains. Ukrainians also say that love exists in the world while people still make and give each other pysanki, which totally corresponds to the aforementioned legend.
Krashanki of different colors were made on other holidays of Spring-Summer cycle: green for Trinity Day (Whitsuntide – end of spring) and yellow for Ivan Kupala’s Day (Summer Solstice) all the way until early XX century. Pysanka, on the other side, is being under patronage of female Mother deities and represents a new world born from an egg. The story of creation of the world from an egg seems to be consistent in many European cultures. Prav, Yav and Nav Slavic lore suggests that world consists of three subworlds: Prav (this name is modern) – the world of the gods, the Heavens where the Sun dwells is represented by the top (narrow) segment of the egg (a more ancient belief placed this World on the bottom, over the horizon); Yav – the world of people – is in the central part of the egg; Nav – the Underworld, the realm where spirits dwell ruled by the Moon is located on the bottom (wide) part of the egg (although in a more ancient belief Nav used to be located on top, in the skies or even stars). Some eggs portray the structure of the Heavens with clouds on the bottom, Sun in the middle, and “heavenly solids” – a mythical place where all of the rainwater is stored before descending in the form of the clouds. This arrangement applies only to the ornament inscribed upon the egg’s shell - the egg itself is said to represent the concept of the three Worlds but somewhat differently.
Olga Stanton, also known as MagPie’s Corner on Facebook, is an expert in East Slavic rituals, witchcraft, and culture. She has authored several books and articles on the subject, providing valuable insights into the magical practices of her Ukrainian ancestors. Stanton’s work has helped many people reconnect with their cultural heritage and spiritual practices. She is a highly respected and influential figure in the world of East Slavic rituals, witchcraft, and culture. Olga is originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine and has been studying world cultures and occultism for over 20 years and Slavic folk traditions - 12 years. You can follow her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/slavicmagpie
The Demon of Apocalypse In conclusion, I want to remember an ancient Ukrainian legend, according to which a powerful demon of Apocalypse is chained deep underground. Every year in spring, his chains become weaker, and he sends out his twelve helpers to find out how the world has changed over a year. He is interested in three things: whether the youth is still respectful of the elders,
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The Amazonian Angel Oracle By Howard G Charing
When he passed away in 2009, the world-renowned
world of the Amazonian peoples but also contained a powerful ecological and spiritual message.
visionary artist Pablo Amaringo left behind countless unfinished drawings and sketches as well as hundreds of pages of writings on his in-depth knowledge of the vibrant mundo amazonica, the spiritual world of the Amazon. Working with these unfinished materials as well as the support and permission of Pablo Amaringo’s family, and being a long-time friend and student of Amaringo, I was able to create an oracle deck and guidebook inspired by Pablo’s visionary art and spiritual wisdom.
Pablo Amaringo perceived Angels as part of a hierarchy of cosmic beings emanating from the ultimate divinity and immanent in the fabric of consciousness of the natural world and our souls’ evolution. In this perception Angels are the personifications of the natural forces that imbue the cosmos with life and sentience. In our personal lives, they guide, nurture our spiritual evolution, and connection with the divine. Where there is life, there are angels. This is the very perspective from which I created the Oracle.
Pablo Amaringo was celebrated for his intricate, colourful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience; where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens, and spacecraft all converge. Pablo’s rich paintings not only embodied the mythological
I have known Pablo since the 1990s, and we frequently met over the years, studying his art, and spiritual philosophy. A result of this longstanding relationship
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was the collaboration for the book ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo’. During the many years working with Pablo on this book, we went into great detail about his life, and particularly his eclectic spiritual wisdom. We also had many discussions over the years regarding the nature of angelic and celestial beings in which he shared the illustrations of his studies and preliminary paintings of them. Many of these beings appear in his main body of paintings not usually as the main subject but in the background as a supportive context and narrative texture. I agreed with Pablo’s family to develop an Angel Oracle project in 2015, but although I had a few preliminary sketches done and had written a narrative about each Angel, the project didn’t happen. I had other plans and lots of travelling, so the Angel project sat both physically and metaphorically gathering dust on a shelf. I was in Peru in March 2020 when the Covid pandemic began to bite, I knew that I had to get home quickly before the big shutdown, and after three additional flights I scraped through. During the mandatory 14 day quarantine period, I did a shamanic journey to get some insights into the duration and severity of the pandemic. I was shown that ‘everyday’ life would start resuming around October 2021, so possibly facing 18 months of downtime, I knew that I had to do something to keep my mind and spirit active, but I didn’t know what. That same night I had a dream in which an angelic being appeared and smiled at me, I knew in my gut that it was time for the Angel Oracle. For each Angel, I made a shamanic journey, and during this practice, I would see each Angel, their appearance, their attributes, and their message. It was both a personal healing journey and a voyage of discovery, as an example, when I started to write about the Angel of Peace, it was about war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and rivers of blood. The next morning, at my desk, to continue writing, it was “Okay, Howard, you got this off your chest, so now write about Peace”. Each time I had to go into the dark to be able to write about the light, as each of us has both attributes, and our spiritual work is to bring these polarities into balance. Oracles and divination practices are one of the paths to seeking knowledge. It is not ‘fortune telling’ by any means, it is a way to reveal our hidden patterns and paths and assist us in gaining an understanding of the purpose and meaning of our inner guiding energies,
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enabling each of us to bring them into awareness. In my view, the essential nature of Oracle cards is that they help you come into contact with your Higher Order consciousness, a level connected to the divine source. This Oracle card and book set contains thirty-three compositions of angels and celestial beings inspired by Pablo Amaringo’s visionary work. Accompanying the images are detailed narratives each with a dual reading. Many names of the angels have been sourced from Pablo’s notes and discussions with him. Although these images are not original Amaringo drawings, they are inspired by Pablo’s art and visionary palette. I was very fortunate that I found the right artists to illustrate my visions. Corina Dragan brilliantly drew the sketches following our talks in which I often mimed the Angels, the position of their arms, and what they held in their hands and so on. Then after any adjustments, Corina drew the sketch into a computerised format. This file then went to Alexandru
Cordos. We discussed the nature and qualities of the Angel, and then he went to work with forensic detail, digitally colouring the image. It was hugely gratifying to see how Corina and Alexandru got their heart and soul into their artwork as the project unfolded. Over the years, one of the most gratifying things was that I was able to document many of Pablo’s personal stories, experiences, and anecdotes. Some of which have directly shaped the meaning and narratives of the Angels, an illustration of this is the story of the old Renaco Tree. The Renaco has an intricate, extensive trunk, branch and a labyrinthine root system, and
Pablo once described an ayahuasca visionary experience from many years ago to me; in his vision an Angel appeared and asked him if he knew the difference between an old man and an old tree? Pablo remained silent, and the Angel told him, that when an old tree reaches its maximum growth, many animals have their home in the cavities in the trunk and roots, the snakes, ants, termites, frogs, and small mammals all live in peace (commensalism) with each other. Also, the trunk houses many other plants, various lianas, mosses, and lichens. In the branches are the air plants such as tamishi, huambé, boahuasca, and many more. The flowers and the plants growing on the tree also provide nectar for the bees and hummingbirds. Many birds make their nests in the branches and the tree canopy, and monkeys make their habitat in the tangled maze of lianas. The shamans and native healers come to the tree, to collect its resin, the leaves, the roots, the flowers, and the fruits to use as ingredients in traditional plant medicines. So, when an old tree dies, it is as if we humans have lost a grandfather who was wise, full of spiritual and medicinal wisdom, a living library of knowledge that gave life and sanctuary to humans, animals, insects, and plants. An old tree is just like a human elder, who has led a good life and has accumulated much wisdom, understanding, life experience, and deep insights, that if not taught to others all this he takes with him, and his knowledge is lost. It is essential to serve the community with your work, so when a person dies not only their body but also their spirit nurtures and fertilises the rainforest and the people. Pablo was shown in his vision the correspondence between plants and humans, and that plants and trees are older than humans by aeons of time, and have much to teach us if we can only learn. This vision profoundly affected Pablo, who dedicated his art to the spirit of the plants, and the natural world. I wove this beautiful story into the angel named A’tun Mauca Caspi (Great Ancient Tree in Quechua). To give you a better picture, here are some of the Angels with a (brief) summary narrative, in the Oracle set there are expanded narratives with dual readings (upright and reverse).
Pacha Kamaq • The Angel of the Three Worlds You see triple-faced Pacha Kamaq with his staff, and he wears the crown signifying his authority and the Three Worlds. The Upper World is a higher vibration representing our most ethical, moral attributes, and our higher spiritual aspirations. Some ancient teachings say that this realm has seven levels or heavens, and at the very highest is the Divine Creator. The other levels are the traditional dwelling places of Angelic Beings, evolved spiritual masters, and our ancestors, all who work ceaselessly to help humanity’s evolution into higher consciousness.
Pacha Kamaq Oracle Card
offers sanctuary to many types of animals, insects, and birds.
Darĭ • Deva of the Rainforest Darĭ is a Hada de la Selva (“forest deva”), one of the protectors of the forest, plants, and vegetation. In this picture, you see Darĭ emerging from the vines of ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is brewed with another plant known as chacruna and is drank in a ceremonial setting with an adept shaman. The indigenous peoples of the Amazon regard ayahuasca as a sacred plant medicine because it lifts the veil from the everyday world to the invisible or spirit world. In the background is a magnificent waterfall with an aguajal.
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Daēnā • The Angel of Death
DarĭOracle Card
Here is Daēnā. She stands before the Bridge of Amber, symbolic of the nexus between the two states of being: life on Earth and the great realm beyond, a domain of many names. The bridge leads to the magnificent golden temples and palaces, where the souls in transition are made welcome by the spirits and their loved ones who have already made their spiritual metamorphosis. In our ancestral spiritual wisdom, life is a continuum that does not end at the moment of death, and this wisdom is at the very heart of all religions.
Here is Radifél, Angelic muse of science and the arts. In his hand he holds the Book of Celestial Wisdom—a symbol of his office over the Sciences and the Arts. He stands at the exact junction of two rivers that are streaming down through the mountains. The river on the left is called The Sciences and the river on the right is called The Arts—you can see these two rivers are both tributaries of the river known as Endless Wisdom—and they merge to become one river.
Daēnā Oracle Card
Radifél • The Angel of Science and Art
Radifél Oracle Card
Ariadé • Element of Earth In this picture, Ariadé appears standing among magnificent snow-peaked mountains. In one hand she holds a golden sceptre crested with a glittering ruby, and in the other a golden orb that signifies her jurisdiction over what is called the “web of life.” She is at the Axis Mundi, the metaphysical centre of the world. Thus, her influence radiates out as a vast web that interconnects and touches all living things on Earth. To either side of her, you see shamans receiving wisdom and power to aid their work in maintaining the web of life.
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In this card you see Q’unan Pachaq, the celestial guardian of the Earth. She is of the Order of Cherubim, the second-highest order of the heavenly hierarchy. She is encircled by Avatar Angels who assist her in maintaining the transcendent nature of the gravitational forces that control the rotational, orbital, and swaying movements of the Earth. Since antiquity, indigenous peoples and ancient civilizations saw natural forces as having a spiritual or godlike personification. These divine forces hold the Earth within an electromagnetic field that manifests as a gravitational force. Many years ago, Pablo Amaringo told me that “you must always make the important decisions in your life from the heart and not from the mind. You should use the mind to implement or manifest the decisions that have come from the heart”.
Q’unan Pachaq Oracle Card
Ariadé Oracle Card
Q’unan Pachaq • Angelic Guardian of the Earth
Howard G Charing is a visionary artist, and holds workshops internationally on shamanism and shamanic healing. he is the autor of ‘The Amazonian Angel Oracle’; ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo’; ‘The Accidental Shaman’; and ‘Plant Spirit Shamanism’. His website www.hgcharing.com
I have never forgotten this teaching. My hope is that this Oracle deck in some small way helps you on your lifepath.
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Working with Symbols By Christian Thurow
Many esoteric and Shamanic traditions work with
symbols, often accompanied by a certain level of secretive mysticism. But symbols are also part of our daily life, like for example the “£” or “$” symbol. The following article will show what a symbol is, how it can be “activated” and used for healing and spiritual practices. According to dictionary a symbol is “a sign, shape, or object that is used to represent something else” or a “something that is used to represent a quality or idea 1”
Common symbols in daily life are company logos, currency symbols like £ and $ or religious symbols like the cross. A more recent add on to the field of symbols are emojis. Apart from written symbols, a symbolic characters can
also be found in gestures, rituals and even be associated with special places. Many pagan movements have the concept of the three gnosis – the unsubstantiated personal gnosis (UPG), the shared gnosis (SG) and the confirmed gnosis 2 . In analogy we can assume three levels of symbols. The three levels are: * Personal symbol * Shared symbol * Generally accepted symbol When working with a symbol it is important to understand on which level the symbol in use is in order to fully use its potential.
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Shared Symbol A shared symbol has all the qualities of a personal symbol but an understanding of its meaning is shared with a group of people. An example are the symbols used in Reiki. Everyone attuned into one of the different schools of Reiki has a shared understanding of the symbols used in that school. This common understanding forms a shared energy field. When using such a symbol, one is not only connecting with the energy represented by the symbol but also tapping into the collective energy field.
Personal Symbol A personal symbol is a symbol that only has a specific meaning to an individual person. It could be a symbol given by a spirit guide during a journey or an object that hold specific memories for that individual.
Shared symbols are also often used to define the membership to a certain esoteric school, shamanic tradition or group. The symbols are often kept secret within those traditions and only passed on in an initiation ceremony. As such, knowledge about a certain shared symbol becomes a defining criterion of being an insider or outsider. Used in this way, a symbol forms a connection to a specific tradition or school.
If for example the mother’s favourite flower was a daffodil and she was always surrounded by them or representations of it, placing daffodils on an altar or bringing them into a healing session can be a way to connecting with the ancestral energy of the mother. The symbolism here is personal, meaning that only the individual understands it. A random onlooker will only see a bunch of daffodils but not understand the association and connection with the ancestral energy of the mother. In a similar fashion, objects received from a teacher or found at special places can form a connection from which the practitioner can draw energy when working with it. A good example is a shaman’s altar which is often full of personal artefacts that represents different energies and spirits. It is important to stress that the symbol is only an enhancer, a tool. A symbol should never be treated as the only way to connect with those energies. Otherwise, there is a risk that one becomes “symbol-dependent”. Another way to work with a personal symbol is to use it as portal to other dimensions during meditation or journey work.
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Generally accepted symbol
to a shared symbol to a generally accepted symbol.
Generally accepted symbols are those who have a shared meaning for many, for whole cultures or societies like the symbols of the major religions or corporate logos. Often symbols have been used as a tool for identifying a movement like the swastika in Nazi Germany.
Example:
The tricky part is that although a symbol is generally accepted, there is still an individual interpretation of it. And those individual interpretations can differ quite widely. For some the “$” symbol might represent wealth while for others greed and American imperialism. When using a generally accepted symbol it is therefore recommended to ensure that there is a common understanding amongst the recipients. Stages of Symbols and broken symbols Often symbols are developing from a personal symbol
The founder of a new spiritual movement receives a symbol from her source (personal symbol). She shares this with her disciples and followers who use that symbol in their spiritual practice, thus making it a shared symbol. If the movement is gaining critical momentum, the symbol becomes a generally recognised representation of that movement (a generally accepted symbol). Symbols can also be broken. For millennia, many Indo-European cultures used the “sun-wheel” as a symbol for good fortune and prosperity. But after the misuse of this symbol – also known as swastika – in Third Reich Germany that symbol can now hardly be used in Western societies as a representation for good fortune. The perception and the generally accepted meaning of the symbol has changed.
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its own also doesn’t do the job. Only through intentional mixing of ingredients can the desired outcome be produced. And this requires a recipe and or experience. You can’t just mix a few things together and hope for getting a pizza dough. Similarly, just drawing a few symbols and hope for a specific outcome will hardly be sufficient – you need to know what you are doing. But what when you don’t need wheat flower for your recipe? Well, choose another symbol. Often when we learn something new, we get excited and want to apply our newly found knowledge in every situation. As a saying goes – “if you have a hammer in the hand, everything looks like a nail”. But some of those nails are actually screws and require a screwdriver. So make sure that your toolbox contain more than one symbol and learn the specific purposes of each symbol. 1. See “Cambridge Dictionary” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/symbol last visited 29/07/2021
Powers of symbols Do symbols have powers on their own? I would say yes and no. According to Nicola Tesla, everything is energy, frequency and vibration 3 . That is true for a symbol as well. It is a holder of a certain energy, frequency and vibration. But its real power is unlocked in the interaction with other energies, frequencies and vibrations, namely with our own. Our thoughts, memories, associations are all active vibrations that start to interact with the vibrations of the symbol. The aim of this interaction is to merge the vibrations in order to create exactly that vibrational frequency that is required in this moment in time, e.g. for a healing or ceremonial purpose.
2. See E.R. Laurie: Ogam – Weaving Word Wisdom, p. 35, 2007 3 Quote by Nikola Tesla: “If you want to find the secrets of the universe...” (goodreads.com)
Christian Thurow is a Shamanic Practitioner and Reiki Healer, based in London. He studies with leading shamanic teachers, and is the editor of ShamanPortal Quarterly Review as well as the organiser of the ShamanPortal Wisdom Webinar series. email- ct_reiki@icloud.com
The frequency of the symbol is a constant that is mixed with the more fluid personal frequencies to create a specific and intended outcome. Think of it this way – a symbol is like 200g of wheat flower. It is now on the baker to add additional ingredients to either create an apple pie, a pizza dough etc. The 200g wheat flower are a given constant. The baker can’t produce the desired outcome (the pie) without it, but the wheat flower on
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About our 6th SPQR Magazine featured artist: Faith Nolton was born in London, and trained in Fine Art and Sculpture at Liverpool College of Art and in art teaching at Liverpool John Moores University. Since then she has made a lifelong exploration of spiritual creativity, perception, healing, sacred and tribal art and shamanism. Personally Faith found a path with the Medicine Wheel traditions, with Leo Rutherford of Eagle’s Wing in the UK, and in shamanism with Jonathan Horwitz of the Scandinavian Centre of Shamanic Studies, in Sweden. Faith lives in West Wales, painting her soul travels and sharing shamanic/creative ways of living with individuals and small groups. She has been a shamanic healer, soul counselor and ‘gardener’, mother, illustrator, art teacher, editor and writer. She was illustrator for Link Up magazine and author/ illustrator of ‘Easy-to-Use Shamanism’. She founded and for many years was editor of Sacred Hoop Magazine.
and gives creative/spiritual guidance sessions and workshops using imagery and sacred art. Every so often she has a ‘giveaway’ of her work via her website, letting the paintings find the homes they wish to go to rather than taking the gallery sales path. https://www.faith-nolton.co.uk/
Faith has now come full circle to return to her painting
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S ha m a n P or t a l Q u a r t e r ly R e v ie w
PAST ISSUES OF SPQR MAGAZINE
The SPQR is an advertising free quarterly online publication of articles by leading Shamanic practitioners and teachers about Shamanism - Ceremonies, Rituals, Traditions, Techniques and more. Each issue contains 4-7 articles and featured art work. If you like to contribute your artical, artwork, photography, and poetry send Christian Thurow a request with samples. Email to: info@shamanportal.org
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