When Arizona sculptor and artist Lauren Raines was going through a divorce, she heard about a shamanic practitioner in Crownsville, Maryland, who had studied with Sandra Ingerman and was also an energy healer and herbalist. She was at a point in her life when she was “very open to anything,” and went to him for a soul retrieval.
This shamanic practice helps regain a soul that has become trapped, disconnected, or lost through some sort of trauma. Depending on the circumstances, a divorce can certainly qualify as a trauma.
“He was very business-like, and without knowing anything about me, put on his drums tape and headset, had me lie down next to him, and we tranced together. At the end of the session he blew soul fragments back into my body, and we talked about what he ‘saw.’ We talked about cutting the cords from my ex-husband and my former community (I had moved away). He concluded the session by telling me: You’ll know it’s all over when you see a magenta flower that looks like a cosmos, and a terra cotta angel.
Eight months later, Lauren crossed the country with her cat and all her possessions loaded into her van. She was determined to move back to Berkeley, California, and start a new life. She had decided she would sleep in her van if necessary until she found somewhere to live. “I began my adventure as soon as I arrived with a visit to a coffee house I last visited 20 years earlier. Almost immediately I was greeted by a long ago friend, Joji Yokoi, who recognized me, and bought me a cup of coffee, and offered me a place to stay. I didn’t have to spend a single night in my van. When I walked into his living room, there was a huge photograph of a magenta cosmos flower hanging above his fireplace!”
A few months after that, Lauren answered an ad for a roommate. “I walked into a house with an altar – and in the center was a terra cotta angel. Judy Foster was one of the founding members of Reclaiming and a colleague of my heroine, Starhawk, whose writings were the foundation of my MFA thesis more than a decade earlier. Needless to say, just like that, my new life began and I ended up working with the very people I most wanted to work with, never having had to even try! The shaman was right in his prediction.”
The shaman gave Lauren two very specific bits of information about markers that would signal her transition period was finished – the magenta cosmos flower and the terra cotta angel. How was he able to see something so precise, for a woman he had just met?
“Shamans are inspired visionaries who are able to access information through their invisible allies for the benefit of themselves, their families, and their communities. This process is known as divination, and it is usually accomplished through ceremony and ritual,” wrote Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman in Awakening to the Spirit World. “Through their relationship with these transpersonal forces, shamans are able to retrieve lost power and restore it to its original owners…”
So through the trance state that the shaman and Lauren entered together, he was able to retrieve power that Lauren had lost and was allowed to see the most probable path her future would take.
Thanks for telling my story – I’m on the road right now, and sorry that I couldn’t respond earlier. With your permission, I’d like to re-print in on my own blog.
I don’t know what to “believe” anymore, I guess I just have a kind of faith. To me, synchronicities are like touchstones, they point the way in the forest, usually indicating that I’m on the right path. I’ve never “followed” a synchronicity and ended up bored or in unfortunate circumstances. Instead they seem to reveal or emphasize what is most beautiful, meaningful, or helpful.
I’m amazed at Adeles story – shamanism is a highly creative process, and I very much recommend taking a course. I believe Michael Harner is in Marin county, not far from Sausalito? Thanks again………best wishes to all from the road!
I was a tad freaked out by your post which I just saw, late in the day for me. Freaked, not in a bad way. It set me to thinking again about synchronicity connections. I seem to be tuned in to what you two write about very frequently. I am usually either too busy to mention when this happens, or then think it may sound silly to discuss. They are little synchros, but syncronicities just the same. In this case I will.
I very recently moved from Princeton, New Jersey, back to Connecticut. I have family here but with all my moves – living in California for so long, etc. etc., it makes having in-person friends almost impossible. I moved here to be near my daughter and 3 of my granddaughters. I’ve been thinking, when I’m not passing out from fatigue, that I have to get out into the world more, into my present environment – that I need more face-to-face time and not just email, Internet and blog connections. And people other than family some times. All yhose connections are great and I could not survive without them – still . . .
Yesterday I received the local Adult Education flyer in the mail for the fall season. I usually throw those things out. While I have always loved taking courses of all kinds, the adult education stuff does not appeal to me. But this time I read through the catalog as I ate lunch, thinking, maybe I should take a course just to get myself out into a new place and see who is out there for the sociability of it.
There was one course, held for just one evening, called, Introduction to Shamanism. “Bring your own drums or we will supply,” the description read. I discussed it with my sister who lives in Manhattan and has available to her every kind event imaginable. Her advice was, “Do it.” I forgot about it – back to my moving in process arranging things. I went out to do errands this morning and just now reading your post on SHAMANISM – screaming at me.
But there’s more to make me think. Your posting talks about Starhawk. I can’t say that I know Starhawk, but she was in my place in Sausalito – late 70’s. At the time I was Vice President of a group called, The I Ching Sangha which was held in my house once a month. Timothy White, was the president of the group. He later left to become involved in Shamanism and I lost track of him. BUT before he left, he decided to get married and had Starhawk perform the wedding in MY house. I was living on the water. It was a wild night – by “normal” standards, anyway. Lots of red and white flowers and candles and the bride and groom ran naked into the water during the ceremony – in the moon light. Fortunately my neighbors in Sausalito were not the kind to object to such a thing. Starhawk didn’t talk to me but she did preside over the event.
So … does this mean I should take that one evening, Introduction to Shamanism class? Some how, reading your post is making me think that I have to. Any thoughts out there please.
Wow, I would sign up for that course immediately. And they provide the drums if you don’t have any. I’d say that’s a great deal.
Fascinating story about starhawk and your home in sausalito! Wild parties at adele’s place….
yes, My sister says I HAVE to take the course. It doesn’t happen for a while. Stay tuned.
Re:
“So … does this mean I should take that one evening, Introduction to Shamanism class? Some how, reading your post is making me think that I have to. Any thoughts out there please.”
I think you know in your own heart that you should.
But ultimately it’s up to you.
Although,from were I sit it looks like the universe is screaming it to you.
But,it may not be the shamanism subject itself that the universe is setting you up for,it may be a contact or new friendship that’s meant to be as well.
Shamanism is about the heart path,so decide with your heart and go with that,is my advice.
Darren, much thanks for your input. Yes, I too thought the universe was screaming to me to take the course when I saw the post here. Unavoidable, it seem to me. And it is the friendship in the heart path that I seek.
oh, wow, adele…your story sounds a lot like my own [in places] – “I moved here to be near my daughter and 3 of my granddaughters. I’ve been thinking, when I’m not passing out from fatigue, that I have to get out into the world more, into my present environment – that I need more face-to-face time and not just email, Internet and blog connections. And people other than family some times. All yhose connections are great and I could not survive without them – still . . .”
you literally took the words out of my own mouth! have to go now and rummage the mail to see what brochure i might find… 🙂
Double wow!
So now you’ll take the course and you’ll have to tell us about it!
I have Michael Newton’s books; purchased them when they were released. His first one made me weep because it depressed me. Most of his descriptions of the AfterLife didn’t “fit” the experiences I’ve had or the ideas that have been given to me from There, by Spirit. I don’t know what there was, exactly, about his stuff that I found depressing, but it really did. So I actually went back and read it thoroughly AGAIN, trying to comprehend my response of deep depression, but couldn’t define it, except that it just doesn’t align with my own ideas about our life post-death of our body. I thought his second one might be more enlightening, so purchased it, and only read the initial couple of chapters. I understand that he has thousands of fans. I’m not one of them, sorry to say.
I found the material too facile, frankly. But I enjoyed Flispide thoroughly!
This is a wonderful, uplifting story, Guys! I don’t think folks in general realize that fragments of ourselves are “lost” during periods of trauma, and other situations, including illnesses and the losses of loved ones. My dear friend Dr. Ron DeVasto in Orlando, although not a shaman, does soul retrievals. He has spent a great deal of time in Peru with shamans there, and has brought back tremendous methods for these processes. It’s magnificent work and the results are so helpful. I love it that Lauren’s path turned out so beautifully, and obviously according to her soul’s plan! Thank you for sharing it.
I love the specifics of this story.
That’s an impressive story, to say the least. So, we have free choice, but if we follow the right path, what has been pre-planned by who/whatever will come about. Interesting.
I don’t know who/what pre-plans stuff. In Flipside: a tourit’s guide on navigting the afterlife, the author draws heavily on michael newton’s work, which suggests that we plan our lives with help from guides etc. But who knows for sure?