by Sandra Ingerman: We are all going through an initiation…

This initiation is not just about the changes and deaths we have to experience in order to evolve and weave a new fabric of reality into being. It is about diving deep into our own soul and cleansing what we need to let go of that binds us to our past. As I have written before initiations sculpt away our ego/personality so that we can step into living and working at higher frequencies.

The process of initiation can be quite challenging. It can challenge us physically and emotionally. It can place us into a place of despair and hopelessness as we see our lives being changed in ways we did not expect.

The despair and hopelessness takes us to a deeper place into our inner landscape where we are led to the personal healing work and shadow work we tend to avoid. The ego part of ourselves prefers to just go with the surface energies and react to what is happening to us personally and to the events in the world.

But in actuality the events in the outer world is not all that is calling us within. Our soul’s evolution is calling us within. We must choose whether to ride the surface waves and remain in a state of suffering or keep going deeper and deeper within where we have the opportunity to tap into how to love and forgive ourselves. Once you reach a deep level of unconditional love for yourself and unconditional forgiveness for your past actions you perceive the events in the outer world in a different way. And from this place you move from a place of reaction to responding in healthy ways.

Recently I was shown, by a helping spirit, how our past can actually create too much weight on our body to keep carrying around. And this extra weight we carry can create illnesses on different levels. We must honor our past, revel in the good memories, work through the challenging times in our past and then let go. Then we can move on to forge a new path in the present and future. When we keep “dying” to our past we move into a place of freedom. And I know feeling free is something we all desire.

This of course gives us a better opportunity to navigate the changes in the present and future. We can then be in deeper service to all of life and the Earth.

I think many of you were inspired last month by the healing story I shared about working with a Prayer Tree.

The practice of shamanism has so much to offer us. The case studies I receive are so hopeful.

Recently a peer, student, and one of my former clients died of a rare form of cancer. Years ago I did some healing sessions with her that may have helped to extend her life. Her blood tests would show positive changes after we would work together. And at some point it was time for her to do her own work. We stayed in contact from time to time, but in the last year I did not follow up with her to see how she was doing.

She had taken many shamanic workshops with me including a workshop on Death and Dying. And she also loved the transfiguration work.

Her partner called to tell me my former student and client had died. I asked how her death was. She responded by telling me that she kept repeating,” Sandy taught me so much about how to die I do not fear death.” And her death ended up being filled with peace and grace.

During the times we live in the practice of shamanism, which includes working with light, has so many wonderful tools to offer us. The practice teaches us how to live from a place of trust, feeling empowered, how to surrender to spirit, how to ride the waves of both the joy and suffering that life brings for us. The practice teaches us how to live, but also how to die during the initiatory deaths we all experience and the big death we face at the end of our lives.

It is important to remember that as shamanism is a path of direct revelation the helping spirits can teach you all you need to learn. Some people really want to be part of a community and seek out workshops. And some people like to work in solitude to perform their own journeys and meditations to receive the wealth of healings and information that is available to us from our helping spirits.

Keeping to a similar thread I was having a conversation with someone in a service profession. He asked me if I noticed that more people our age (we are both in our sixties) are suffering from more health problems and dying earlier than the current statistics predict. Well as you know people have always died earlier than expected.

But the rare and known illnesses that are impacting children, teens, and adults is very high. And we all know that this is due to the dietary issues and the environment we live in. In a previous monthly column I encouraged you to do your transmutation work as perceiving what you eat, drink, and how you perceive the environment, as light. We want to ingest and digest light. This is not a form of denial of the fact that as humans we have helped to create a planet that does not support our health. But there are practices we can do daily that help us.

As I shared in Medicine for the Earth there have always been shamans and mystics that survived experiences that most would not live through during initiations, including some who could transmute poisons that were ingested. If one person on the planet can transmute toxins that he or she ingests it means we all have this same power. We are born with the blue print of how to survive and thrive.

That is one reason I wrote about different nature beings last month and the energetic signature they share with the web of life. For using the principle of unity, we can also tap into the wealth of knowledge that different nature beings use to survive. For example, there are mushrooms that thrive and live on eating radiation. How do they do that? Well we can use our spiritual practices of journeying and meditation to learn from them. This is a time to reach out spiritually to those beings who can transmute and regenerate in ways we never imagined. There are ways to live and practices that can support our life as the Earth herself goes through many changes.

This is a time to connect with the amazing nature beings who can regenerate and transmute toxins and to ask for their help.

As I shared last month, there is a lot of support from the universe and the Earth to shift to a higher frequency. But there are ways of living in health that your own body can teach you if you ask it to share what is in your blue print and as you reach out to other species who can thrive in the environment we have created.

Take time each day out of your busy schedule to deepen your spiritual work. We must learn the lessons that come from the challenges we face on emotional and physical levels. But we also must learn how to create a more harmonious way of life integrating ancient spiritual practices throughout the day.

We have more abilities to thrive than we know. As you already know research shows we use so little of the capabilities of our brain. The time is now to wake up more parts of our brain so we can evolve and grow as I know each of you desire.

One of the issues I have been looking at that goes along with what I wrote is looking at the difference of how we “react” to daily events, people, and to life itself rather than “respond”. This is an interesting issue to journey on or meditate on this month.

I think that as we learn how to respond we can shift into a more harmonious and healthy way of life.

The full moon is on May 10.  Connect with yourself and open to the possibility that you have capabilities to thrive today with incorporating practices into your life that you might have not yet explored.  Feel excitement in the knowledge that there is so much to learn about your capability to heal yourself. Open to the power of being part of a loving and supportive community as we join our hearts together. People who read the Transmutation News live all over the world. Open your heart to our community. Open your spiritual awareness to connect with the nature beings who contribute great gifts to the web of life. Feel your heart expanding in love and compassion. As you do this travel within and experience your divine light radiating out embracing all of life. Be a light and radiate light. As you do this with love in your heart you do create positive change. Love and light are the greatest healing forces.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please read the instructions for our full moon ceremony in “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage of this site.

I wanted to say something about my announcements this month. For I realize that this is the longest Announcement Section I have written to date. Please do not feel you need to read them if you are not interested in more than reading what I wrote in this monthly column.

Due to the fact that I am not traveling to teach this year I have made a decision to be part of more summits, free events, online courses where I can share the beauty and power of shamanic work with a broad population. And part of my commitment in being part of these events is to share full write ups.

We can get so overwhelmed by digesting all the bad news that we hear. And a “cure” for this is to listen and watch events that share a deep wealth of information and inspiration. We can all use some inspiration right now.

I do not plan on continuing to present on many summits or free events. I am actually writing a new book for Sounds True that I will write about at the appropriate time.

For now, please read on to see what events are coming up that you might be interested in. Or stop reading at this point and enjoy your day or night.