A nice couch and a good shower to prepare me for...a wine festival?!?
Well...I didn't partake. But I did enjoy walking about the busy streets watching all of the people. The festival ended at 6pm and my ceremony began at 6:30pm.
The room in Pure Prana yoga was very spacious and set up beautifully. Many of the people I talked to when I first arrived wanted to come. Since this is the tourist season, many were unable to come since they were working. So it was a very small group. Nonetheless it was a very beautiful ceremony. There was an interesting question raised that I would like to share and talk about, since it is a very common question coming from people who want to learn something about shamanic practice.
"Do I have a protector/guardian animal?"
Yes! Quite often, a person will not know who their protector is until they meet them (directly or through a medium.) My advice is, and will always be, do not let a person tell you who your protector is and what s/he is like! Find someone who will help you to meet them directly. This is your relationship to your protector. You wouldn't bring a friend on a date in order to be the medium between you and your date would you? Nah...
Most everyone I know already knows their protector. Rather, the protector shows up in many ways throughout your earlier life to let you know s/he is there. Let me give a personal example...
Many years ago I was going through a lot of turmoil in my life and sought solace in anything that could really take me out of my present situation and put me somewhere else. This ended up being a fantasy novel series of a dark elf character who escapes his treacherous homeland in the underworld and seeks to find himself in the lands on the surface. Dark elves live to be hundreds of years old, so he quite often spent a lot of time on his own. However, he carried with him a carved figurine of an animal. When he called the name of this figure, an animal would come to the material world from it's astral home and stay with him for certain periods of time. This series has, all in all, about...25-30 books. I read every...single...one of them...in rapid succession.
So what does this have to do with my protector? Well...first of all I could relate myself to the main character. I felt like I was leaving my homeland (present life circumstances) into the vast unknown that lied beyond. Except...I had no companion! So I became intensely interested in this characters astral companion, falling in love with the compassionate nature of the being.
Several years later, after I began training in shamanic journeying and healing practices through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, I came across my protector. To my astonishment...my protector was the same animal that I read about it so many of those books! Ok...not the same exact character...but the same animal and the same gender. The spirits always let you know that they are with you. So even when I felt completely alone I was always supported by the spirits.
I am not alone in this experience! If you ever decide to meet your protector, you may have a similar experience. My recommendation is this...don't let someone else tell you who your protector is. Find someone who will help you to meet your protector first hand! That way, you are also taught very important ways to interact with your protector whenever you want/need to. Developing deeper relationships with your spirit teachers is a vital aspect of growth in shamanic practice.
The ceremony lasted for about 2.5 hours and, afterwards, I was graciously offered a bed to sleep in for the night in Williamsburg.
Lately, I've been hanging around the library in Traverse City. I know, I know....it is a wonderful city and I should be out exploring! But the comfort of a good chair and a good book in a beautiful library is more appealing at the moment. So I've been spending my days inside, cooped up, devouring pages of books, organizing information for the future, and writing these blogs.
Tonight I am going to be heading out to a meditation/book study group in TC. This group is a part of my Buddhist community in Battle Creek (meaning we all have the same teacher.) I don't think I've met the majority of these folk, so I am pretty excited! For the longest time I did not have a community to learn, practice, and hang with in the Buddhist realms. Unfortunately, I think this is common for many people who identify with this religion at this point. It is beginning to change for many of us.
Stay tuned for my next post on Shamanism and religion!
Cheers!
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