In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare wrote:

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

From the Shaman’s perspective this is completely false. The coward never really dies, because they never truly live; and the valiant die many times over, never afraid to let go of the many previous versions of themselves in order to embrace the new version.

Some of you, who have been around this blog since its inception have seen this in action. While the domain name has remained consistent, the name of the business and the name of the blog has changed over many times, reflective of my many incarnations on my way to being my most authentic version yet.

Here we are at yet another title for the blog on my website: Shaman’s Spirit.

Coming up with a title for a blog is both daunting and exciting. What is catchy enough to grab attention, yet also be descriptive to be relevant to the content?

I tried some blog name generators and found it not at all helpful. I landed on Shaman’s Spirit because that is what is flowing through my life right now and what I want to continue to flow out into the world.

I appreciate every previous version of this blog (and myself!) and am excited about shifting one more time (and I expect it won’t be my last shift).

I Have A Shaman’s Spirit

I was not born or raised in an indigenous community. I do not have indigenous blood running through my veins. I have not been directly appointed by any indigenous healer.

So what gives me the right to proclaim myself a Shaman?

Decades of denial.

For most of my life I have denied who I am. Mostly because I was codependent and afraid to draw attention to myself. Other reasons include not seeing myself as worthy, fear of being ‘too’ different, and not seeing myself as worthy (oh, did I say that already?)

I have always identified as just outside the boundary of societal acceptance. Different enough to be interesting, but not so different that I could be seen as a target.

I am entering my 6th decade of life now and I guess I’m finally over the hiding in plain site.

A few years ago, in the wake of the George Floyd murder, in a phone conference, a woman of color said ‘no middle aged white woman should be calling themselves a Shaman’. Her premise being that it was cultural appropriation. She said it was fine if I wanted to do that for myself, but not if I intended to take any money for it.

Those words stuck in my heart and psyche like gum on my shoe and it started three years of twisting myself into some sort of acceptable pretzel-package that allowed me to show up as a healer, yet not offend anyone. (Can you smell the codependency?)

It also started me on a three year path of research. What I found was this:

In one book written by an indigenous person, Rainbow Warriors were described as ‘red people born into white skin’, specifically.

Then, I found this quote delivered by the Dalai Lama during the Vancouver Peace Summit 2009:

“The world will be saved by the western woman”

Not the western woman of color. Not the indigenous western woman. Simply, the western woman.

Then I found authors like Jamie Sams and Alberto Villoldo whose messages include their elders teaching that it is time to share the medicine -with all the people – to heal the people.

It was like God was leading me with bread crumbs to the right mindset, so that when I was once again ruminating on those venomous words from the phone call, I could clearly hear Spirit say ‘does that sound like something Spirit would say?’

It did not sound at all like something Spirit would say. It was then that I decided to step confidently into the shoes of the Shaman and walk the path I was always meant to.

What Makes Me Think That

As a young child, I saw and felt things my friends did not. I learned very early on to keep these things to myself or to use the guise of my ‘imagination’ to explore them.

As that young child my focus was already to be a healer. I envisioned healing wild animals and “Born Free” was instantly my favorite movie, though I was only 1 when it first came out.

My first career aspiration was to be a nurse, then a veterinarian, then a writer, until I ended up as a social worker. As I began the path of being a social worker, I was also introduce to energy healing and was noticed for my natural abilities, sans any training.

For years I worked on my friends and family members before I considered opening myself up to working on co-workers, too. I did also use it on my hospice patients for the purpose of reducing pain, anxiety and terminal restlessness. For a long while I was fairly content to lead this double life as a social worker by day, and healer by night, so to speak.

It wasn’t until I went to a Shaman, decades later, that I was presented with an undeniable truth.

He asked me if anyone had ever physically healed from their ailment after I worked on them energetically.

“Oh, yeah,” I said.

“How many, would you say?” he asked.

And then I counted. In this context, I had only ever worked on family and friends so it was a small number. I counted 8 times that there was a significant positive physical outcome after I worked on someone.

He said it was very rare to ever have that kind of result.

When I stated that I had probably only worked on 13 people in this capacity (sometimes more than once), the number became even more significant. He was astounded, stating that some of the most well known healers feel lucky to effect two or three people in their lifetimes in this way.

That’s a 61% rate of affecting physical healing. That wasn’t including the emotional, mental, spiritual improvements that those people would also identify as healing.

In doing further research, I discovered Shamans existed in every hunter-gatherer society and went by many names including: witches, mediums, prophets, and medicine people. I also discovered that women were Shamans and recognized healers far more than we’d been led to believe.

(Read The Woman in the Shaman’s Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine
by Barbara Tedlock Ph.D.)

As our society moved to an agricultural model some Shamanic lineage did not survive. For instance, in my own heritage – English, Irish and German- shamanism was prevalent in the Irish and German cultures, but that is not widely known today.

So, who would I become if I continued to deny my ability? Why would I continue to waste such a precious gift by playing small and diminishing myself based on what others think? How would I justify continuing to tell Spirit ‘no’?

What An Insult

All this time I had thought it arrogant to consider myself a healer, much less a Shaman. It turns out saying no to your destiny is a far larger insult.

I said ‘no’ to Spirit, time and time again, while steeping in misery and wondering why I struggled with ‘manifesting’ abundance in my life. And why I constantly suffered with finances, love relationships and career.

Suddenly I realized I was my own impersonation of that man who drown after standing on a roof in a flood turning down the life preserver, rescue boat, and helicopter, claiming that God would save him. I was turning down Spirit’s will for me and imposing my own (more codependency).

What’s arrogant is denying your path. Denying WHO God made you to be. Something I had been doing throughout my life. What a different life I would’ve had, if I’d said ‘yes’ to Spirit the first time. Or even the second. Or even the 103rd time. When you say no to Spirit for one thing, you block all the blessings that come with it.

As I look back the signs were all there, I just didn’t recognize them…and the one’s I did recognize, I ignored because ‘who am I to be….?’

Well, as Marianne Williamson would ask, ‘who am I NOT to be…?’

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

It is time for me to be comfortable coming out of the shadows and stop playing small. It is time for me to ‘make manifest the glory of God’ that is within me!

And by doing so I will be giving other people permission to the same. Not just by being a living example, but also sharing my experience and wisdom through teaching, healing, holding space, and eventually establishing a brick and mortar healing center for all this to be more visible in the community.

Shamanism Belongs To Us All

“It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.” This is the truth I landed on. Despite what the uninformed might say, it IS within each of us, because we all descend from hunter gatherers…but more than that, because we are made in the image of God, the great creator.

So who are we to deny our creative abilities? Healing is creative energy! And dis-ease is actually a misuse of creative energy!

Those who say that a middle aged white woman calling herself a shaman is cultural appropriation are caught in the divisive paradigm created by the “have’s” because it serves their agenda. (BTW thanks for thinking I’m middle aged!)

It is in a government’s best interest to have the populous in opposition with itself. IMAGINE what a society could be like if every one of its members truly embraced the Truth that God is in each one of us (and not just give lip service to that)? If each member honored the God within them and recognized the God within others?

Not only would consumerism decrease, but crime rates would plummet. Big pharma would no longer control the medical community, because we could heal ourselves and each other. Addiction and homelessness could be eliminated. The mental health crisis would disappear. Our elders would not be cast aside and stored in warehouses. Suicide would be unheard of because natural supports would be systemic. And everyone would have abundance.

Everyone would be valued for their unique contribution to our society.

Imagine that.

That is the world I want to work towards. Perhaps it will not exist in my lifetime, but someone has to take the first step….if NOT me, then who?

And if me, then who ELSE?!

~Jade

The content on this site is for informational or educational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals.

If this article spoke to you, please share it on social media. If you are inspired to do so, leave a comment. If you’d like more information on Sacred Medicine, booking a session, or participating in a training please contact Jade at healingritesofpassage@gmail.com or by calling or texting us at 219-488-6176. Sessions are done locally in South East Michigan or remotely.