Traditional native cultures viewed ceremony and ritual as part of their day to day life. they knew that their spiritual connection would be lost once they stopped honouring the world and beings around them.

Rites of passage into the next phase of life, hunting, cooking, birth, death, times of year, harvest and so on have all been marked by ceremony. Even in the western culture, fragments of ritual and ceremony remain. Weddings, harvest festivals, funerals all are mere tokens of what ceremony used to mean. A part of us knows the importance of cermeony and clings to these fragments: how cheated do we feel when we do not have a birthday cake with candles?

By marking important events in your life and even your journey to wholeness, you can powerfully reinforce your new way of being yourself. A simple ceremony such as lighting a candle in a sacred manner can be extremely effective. Rites of passage that we went through but were never honoured can be done now, to release a beneficial and beautiful healing. Ritual and Ceremony can be as complicated as you like, but the most moving ceremonies are usually the most simple, carried out directly from the heart, in your own words and in your own way. Ritual and ceremony honours and fills our lives with beauty, feeding and freeing our spirit.

Extraction Medicine

When we are not living in balance and wholeness, and especially when we have experienced soul loss, we are open to intrusions of energy. The intruding energy may be an illness or an energetic imprint of a traumatic event that has happened to us (often one that caused soul loss). Because there is no concept of time in the shamanic way, this traumatic event is still happening energetically to us. Soul Retrieval is one way of making it stop, but sometimes an extraction is needed to remove the residual energy.

An intrusion can cause us to feel unwell, lack vitality and can even cause pain and illness. We can feel tired and "grey" as if our energy is being drained - which is exactly what is happening.

An intrusion is often perceived by the practitioner as slime, smoke or as an insect or reptilian creature. It may have colour, smell and even weight. Sometimes the intrusion has to be hunted within the client's body and tricked out. The energy then has to be removed safely by using Power Animals, fire, water, smoke or earth.

An intrusion is not evil, just misplaced energy and it needs to be returned to its rightful place in the Universe. It can be thought of as a dandelion- in its own right an attractive plant and even a medicine, but in the rose garden it is unwelcome.

Intrusions can be "shot" into us by another person. Often, these days, because we are so disconnected and unaware of more subtle energies: it is rare for it to be done on purpose. These "darts" or "arrows" are shot into us when having an argument or dispute with another: just think of such sayings as "shot me a glance" and "if looks could kill". Tendrils can be entwined around a person by another who is clinging and posessive and this other person can drain energy. Very rarely, shots are taken at us purposefully with an amount of malice and contrivance.

Shamanic extraction is very gentle and is done using feathers, stones or other energy. There is often an awareness of pulling or a kind of "rumaging around" sensation in the client's body. Relief is often the first reaction, and the client feels as if they can breathe more fully. Other benefits may be felt over the coming days and weeks. Sometimes ceremony or ritual is used to further the healing and psychic protection is used.

Working with the Dead and Bereaved

When a person dies, they move into the Spirit World helped in their travels by their loved one's grief and the Spirits that have come to meet them. Sometimes, they may get lost or stuck or are reluctant to move on. Sometimes their loved ones may be holding them back, unwilling to let them go. Psychopomp is a way of enabling the lost Spirit to proceed to the Spirit World and is sometimes called the Conducting or Midwifing the Soul, or psychopomp.

When the Spirit has moved on to their place of rest and healing, this often has the additional effect of empowering the loved ones left behind to work through their grief more healthily and effectively.