Beginning the Shamanic journey

My travels in 2010 in the landscape of my ancestors, experiencing the connection between blood and place, and the shifts within myself of how I interacted and worked with such energies led me to further studies. I had began with books; my literary studies had commenced several years before my travels and had in some ways inspired them. But my journey also fed the direction that my studies would take after my return. One of the main reasons for this was a fellow traveler, Gede Parma.

He was the spiritual adviser on a tour of the Pagan sites of West County England and Ireland held by Dragon Eye Tours in 2010, and the author of the book ‘Spirited: Taking paganism beyond the circle’ which I had read shortly before signing up for the tour. My first group pagan ceremonies were held on this tour, many led by Gede, and after my return we kept in touch. A short time later I commenced a two year apprenticeship in Shamanic Practice, led by Gede, which helped me to learn a series of techniques and practices to expand my awareness of the possibilities and how I interconnected and worked with them. My focus was on expanding my understanding of connections and embracing my nature using the cauldron of land, sky and sea. Through this I learned grounding and foundation practices, divination and spirit working practices, and practices related to the underworld and ancestors. Whilst not a tradition in and of itself, the Shamanic Apprenticeship is fed by various traditions and we were encouraged as students to adjust the teachings to our own ways of working.

The Shamanic Apprenticeship provided me with the groundwork I needed to understand my earlier experiences and encouraged me to explore connections with the landscape in which I live, which is not that of my ancestors. I will explore this in more detail in future posts.

For those who are interested, much of the techniques and practices from the Shamanic Apprenticeship are captured in two other books by Gede Parma: ‘By Land, By Sky, By Sea: Three Realms of Shamanic Witchcraft’ and Ecstatic Witchcraft: Magick, Philosophy and Trance in the Shamanic Craft’. All three books are published by Llewellyn Worldwide Publications http://www.llewellyn.com/

More information on Dragon Eye Tours can be found here: http://www.dragonseyetours.com/