SHAMANIC HEART HEALING
Our Heart manages several powers that shape our lives; its influence goes well beyond the sphere of emotions. In fact, the Heart manages of our physical territories; for instance it has power of conquest and expansion of a territory where to live and work, and the capacity to establish relationships. Also the power of courage and the capacity of fighting come from it.
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In many indigenous traditions the Heart is the reflection of the Cosmic Fire, the place in the universe where all what exists is continuously destroyed and regenerated. It is also the place where all the things are One. The heart connect us with the supreme love.
The Heart is, or it should be, the center of our being. If it is weak, all our body and the other souls will be weak. It warms up our life: through it we can perceive and feel in depth the Big Dream, which in the Shuar tradition is the maximum purpose of our live. He gave us power of discernment and the capacity to choose a path between others. I remember a story in one of the books of Carlos Castaneda. He was trying to understand how to identify the best possible path for himself. His master was instead teaching him that there is not the best path and he was showing to Carlos how what is really important is to choose a path with a heart, a path that follows something that we can love. This sentence can be misunderstood but it is the closest way to describe what I want to share. Our lives are like a wild jungle: when you start walking in it you can take infinite paths, sometime you are obligated to pass in determinated places, such as in a valley, to pass a river, a path the avoid the mug. But all over the rest of the journey we can take infinite paths. Some of them can be rich in fresh water, tasty fruits, smooth, other paths can be full of mud, with lack of resources and a lot of beasts that try to kill you. The Shamanic Way can help us to choose and follow paths, but the final responsibility is in our hands. A strong Heart is the basis to be able to feel and take, wih courage, these choices, even when they are the hardest.
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In the Shamanic tradition of the Lakota, there is an additional power that nourishes our heart and it is called Wind Horse. They say that when the Wind Horse is big, we are able to catch our dreams, to leave a track in this world. A Heart nourished by a big Wind Horse will be brave and magnanimous.
A story
I’m walking with all my Spirit Helpers: Pasuk, Animals of Powers, Stones, Crystals. The road is dark, full of mud. The forest that surrounds us is bleak and worrisome. The night is thick. We march like an army. We keep walking until we reach a valley, where there is a small house. We arrive closer and there is a young woman waiting outside, with a worried look. The light that comes from the window of the woody house is faint, but strong enough to see the beautiful features of the woman. We ask if we can enter in the house and she invites us in. Immediately after the entrance there is a cosy living room, with a colorful carpet in the center and a fireplace. We look the flames, they are not strong enough to keep the house warm. The wood is burning without oxygen, producing a lot of smoke. With the Pasuk, we work to make a better fire. We re-balance the flames, we add wood and we open the window in order to let some wind to come inside in order to vivify the flames.
The girl is waiting in a corner. She still looks worried. We ask what is the trouble and she says that dark birds, probably some crowns, always fly over her house frightening her. We look outside and these birds are really here. Me and my Pasuk start the hunt: before we ask the birds to leave but without success. Afterwards we attack them with aggressive Tsentsak that transform themselves in little, sharp and decorated arrows. We kill the birds around. We know that their power is strong also when they are dead and it is dangerous to leave them around the house. Therefore we start looking for a safe place. We walk few minutes in the forest when a little church appears in front of our eyes. There is an hole on the ground beside the church. There is a coffin in the hole. From the coffin comes out an aggressive green snake. Another battle starts and we kill it and then I ask the Pasuk of the Eagle to bring the snake far away. We put all the dead birds over the coffin. We close the hole and we return to the girl’s house. Now the sun is rising, the wind fresh and pleasurable. On the table outside the house there is a vase of flowers, it smells good. The girl thanks us. We say goodbye and that we may come back again. We take the road back to the forest from where we came.
Did you like the story? What you just read is a vision that I had during a Shamanic Heart Healing. The body can be seen in vision as a territory, this is a practical example. Every single element that appears in the vision has a meaning for the patient’s life. The capacity to interact and change the environment comes from a tough training with the Spirit Helpers. The changes made there will be reflected in the life of the patient, sometimes immediately, sometimes in few days or even few months. It happens to be in need of repeating the healing session and fix other elements. In order to translate the visions and understand their meaning, it is necessary to study and make a lot of experience. Some knowledge about the elements that you encounter in a vision and their meaning comes from the tradition, whilst those unknown must be understood true experience. As an example, the fire in the house is the core of our heart, in this case the heart of the girl. The weak flames was index of a lack of warmth, passion and strength in her heart. The night switching into day showed the passage from difficult conditions and fears to the chance of good possibilities (the rising sun).
The inability to love and to have satisfactory relations, the exaggerated individuality and the solitude of living alone, the extremely expanded ego are all related to a weak and sick heart. They are symptoms and causes at the same time. The spread of heart diseases between very young people within our Western society is a signal of these issues. The Shamanic Heart Healing can be of great support, not only as a cure for various diseases, but also to show how to act in order to keep the Heart stronger, vital and full of love.
Giuliano Rigotti
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